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kinsbin · 3 years

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Miscommunication

Title: Miscommunication WC: 3760 Ship: Ghost Grinder [Papa Emeritus III/Self Insert]

Summary: A conversation overheard by Terzo results in a minor miscommunication between him and his assistant... And brings about a confession both needed to hear.

A/N: I WANTED TO WRITE THIS SO I INDULGED MYSELF TODAY I had a good time with it ;w; I love Ghost so much man. It’s just a very long fic about my first confession of love to Terzo okay.

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Secondo’s office was a comforting place. The tall, intense walls lined with books and baubles so neatly organized in their spaces surrounded Kai with a sense of comfort. The plush carpet was always soft under their feet and the scent of the constant burning incense, held in an old chinese holder decorated in macabre designs, only served to comfort them even more. It was a stark contrast to the two whenever they were required to commune together as they currently were: The desk before them being neatly stacked with papers that organized themselves alphabetically and by month as they poured over each one with a type of exhausted desperation that only those managing an entire church budget could seem to handle.

“I think that’s the last of it,” Kai finally spoke after what felt like hours of terse silence between the two of them, “The budget reports are - at least - organized enough to keep better track of for the time being in the files.”

“Yes,” The second Emeritus’ brother’s voice was a dull and disheartening void of disbelief to the other’s words, “Until my foolish brother decides to give half of it up for some sort of grandiose soiree.”

“We’ll be ready if he does and I will kindly remind him about these painstaking hours.” Kai returned curtly as they dropped the final reports before them in their designated pile. A deep and long sigh reached their throat as they crackled their fingers carefully. The noise echoed eerily from against the walls of the space around them. Secondo’s eyes trailed on them for what felt like longer than necessary, but they made no comment on it as they stood.

Brushing the edge of their black dress uniform off, they made to gather the rest of the papers in the stack that belonged to them, their minds already working through the carefully planned filing system they would put through in Terzo’s own office. If left alone, the man would have no clue where to file his own pieces. The knowledge of the intense cabinet system was left to Kai and Kai alone. At the very least they had that as leverage should Terzo ever threaten them with a vacation away from him.

(Which he would never do. He more often than not insisted they went on vacations together).

“Brother,” Secondo’s voice was lilted as he held a hand upwards to stop the other’s movements, “A moment of your personal time, per favore.”

Kai’s fingers stopped gathering the papers before them as they looked upwards into the other’s face. Their mouth curved down into a frown of concern as they tilted their head. The air was suddenly cold on the back of their neck as they slowly released the papers from the full grasp, making sure to keep them in their organized positions to prevent any mix ups for the second time they were meaning to reach for them.

“Is there something I forgot, Excellency?”

Rather than reply right away, Secondo stood up from his seat. Though his outfit was a casual thing (as casual as he could be in a fine Italian branded 3 piece suit) the skull paint lacing his features was as sharp as ever. It showed off the glowering edges of his cheekbones and seemed to exemplify the overarching intimidation of him as a whole being. If Kai had not been staring at it endlessly for the past several months as they helped to arrange the church budget per his request, they might have been intimidated by such a righteous façade. Instead they met his rising façade by straightening their own back, moving upright as he rounded the table to approach them.

“I’ve found myself - hm how you say - interested in something. A proposition I feel may interest you as well.”

Kai shifted in their spot, tilting their head as they rested some of their weight on the desk at their side. The wood dug into their hip, but they made no sign of discomfort as their brow furrowed in confusion.

Neither saw nor heard the form of Terzo as he shifted through the halls, a skip in his step as he chased after where he knew his favorite assistant to be at. He couldn’t imagine how boring a meeting with his elder brother had trapped them in. Surely they were already longing to break free and return back to the arms of their beloved Papa!

At least he really hoped they did.

Terzo was no fool, of course, and he never missed the calmness that followed after Kai when they returned from their brother’s office. Nor did he miss the smile that seemed to grace their lip when Secondo discussed in hushed whispers to them about an important document that needed reviewing and organization. Kai insisted on a multitude of occasions that it was simply a habit of theirs to find pleasantness in organization. To manage and to be in control was something of a sin they carried with them in one way or another, and Terzo had tried to understand many times.

Yet that feeling of dread often filled his heart when Secondo’s eyes lingered too long on their form. Or when they seemed to laugh a little too much at something he whispered into their ear as they left their private meetings. It made his heart clench enough to convince himself a visit was necessary. Just to check in. Just to find something of an excuse that would make his best confidant come to his side once more.

A ghoul had asked him why he wanted them so often by him. Terzo had no answer.

He arrived at the slightly ajar door to his brother’s office and scoffed at the heady scent of incense flowing from it. Surely they both must be suffocating in such an intense scent. He poked his head around the door, intent on knocking as he did so, but his hand fell as he watched the elder Emeritus walk towards Kai. As Kai tilted their head curiously. As they answered a question Terzo hadn’t caught fully from his brother’s lips. He could see their gaze raised curiously as they leaned on the desk before them.

“What proposition would that be, Sir?”

Secondo’s hand rose forward and out, brushing his fingers over the top of Kai’s and resting it against their own flesh with a surprisingly tender embrace. Kai’s body stiffened in surprise and - try as they might- they could not hide their gaze as it widened in shock. Secondo was now...very close to them. Close enough that they could smell the faint cologne and whiskey that lingered across his form at any given moment, and they were not sure if the smell was comforting or dangerous. His height made it so they had to bend their neck upwards to watch him, gaze furrowed as he tilted his head at them in return.

“You work for my brother,” Secondo began evenly, “But he does not deserve you, you know. Your skills would be much better served in my company, caro. We do much together already and it would be… interesting to see if we could do more.”

Kai’s eyes widened in surprise, their jaw momentarily going slack as Secondo kept his hand evenly on their own, squeezing now with purpose as the proposition fell from between his lips:

“Leave my brother and be mine. It sounds reasonable, yes? I will value you far more than he could ever imagine.”

Terzo exhaled furiously through his nose, not caring if the sound was heard or not, and his fingers clenched against one another in frustration. Of course his brother would pull this shit. Of course he would ask to take away something as precious - as important - as Kai was to him. His brow furrowed as he tried to hold back the short wave of emotions that pressed into his stomach as a result of the proposition spread before him.

The worst part was - with their interactions - he saw no reason for Kai to say no.

Hell. They would not.

Turning his back to the door, he moved with a purpose through the hallowed halls of the church around him. His shoes made a clattering noise as they pushed him forward with unnecessary frustration. Fine, then. If they wanted to be with his brother he would let them.

... He would…. Let them, he supposed.

The room swam in the silence for what felt like hours. Kai’s breath caught in their throat as a sense of panic rose against their chest. The last thing they had expected from the older brother’s lips had been… something like that, certainly. Opening up their mouth, the dryness of their throat caught the edge of their breath and a dry cough of surprise made its way through their lips, their free hand raising to cover their mouth as they moved their other from under the other’s grip. Secondo allowed it, watching their face with patience of his own.

“I… Am flattered, Sir, I am.” They finally managed out with a flush of surprise to their cheeks, “But I simply could not accept. M-My assigned duty is to-”

“Duties can be moved around and reordered,” Secondo insisted with a menial shrug, “Someone would replace you at my brother’s side and it would be no trouble. You need not worry about something like duty in this respect, si?”

“No-!” Kai’s voice dared raise up in surprise for a moment, the sound shocking them both as they stared down one another. A frown momentarily placed itself on Secondo’s lips as he looked over Kai, who shrunk under the gaze. Never had they raised their voice at anyone, much less someone as high in ranking as a former Papa certainly. Even now he had power within the church. Even now he was not to be trifled with in those respects.

“No, your Excellency,” Kai breathed out with a more even tone this time, “It’s… It’s something else, you see. Terzo… needs me.”

“He can need another.”

“No he can’t,” Kai insisted, leaning forward with an ache in their eyes, “He needs me. I know him. I know how he works and I’m the best - the only - one who can do what I do for him and… and…”

Their voice broke softly as they looked away, a breath of emotions flooding their eyes as Kai took a step backwards from the other to compose themselves. Wiping away the tears that dared touch the edges of their vision, they could not get out the words of what they wanted to say. They could not manage the terrifying phrase that pressed to the edge of their lips as they tried to hold it back in their throat, lest something go wrong as they attempted it.

They did not have to, though. Secondo’s eyes lit up with a familiar recognition within moments of their voice cracking under the strain of his proposal. It made sense after that.

“Ah, I see,” He mused quietly, “You love him.”

The phrase sent fire to Kai’s face. They looked up with a red blush that matched the strands of their hair. Their lips parted to defend themselves, to counteract the absurdity of the statement with one of their own, but… Nothing came forward from them. Nothing to deter the thought or push the other away from the idea itself. No… In reality, they really couldn’t.

It was the truth.

“... Yes,” They finally whispered out, eyes switching to the floor as they tried not to cry in front of one of the heads of the church, “Please don’t make me leave him.”

When Secondo reached outwards to touch them again, it was to give them an assuring (f not awkward) pat on their shoulder. Kai startled at the touch and looked up, surprised at the way the elder took the refusal. He was not smiling, but he did not look angry either. A mere gaze of understanding was swept across his facial features as he nodded to Kai. Kai’s shoulders relaxed under his touch. They breathed out a breath they were not aware that they were holding.

“It was bold of me to express such a thing,” Secondo spoke, the closest thing he might get to an apology, “Go to your Papa then, caro. And… if you ask me… I would say explaining those feelings to him may end better than you might think.”

Kai laughed weakly through the breath they exhaled, reaching down to shakily gather their papers from where they had been left, not forgotten by their ever detailed eyes. They tried to ignore the intensity with which their fingers were shaking, barely able to grab the papers without trembling and dislodging one in their grip. It made them curse despite themselves. The frustration of their own emotions were obvious in their voice as they finally pulled the papers close to their chest and gave one last look at the man before them, inhaling sharply as they did so.

“Th-Thank you for going over them with me, Sir.” They managed out in a shaking tone, waving in the wind of their own emotions.

“Si, si,” Secondo waved a hand outwards in a dismissive motion, “Go off now.”

They let one more thank-you slide from their mouth before scurrying out of the office, Secondo’s eyes following them the entirety of the way out.

“Oi. They have something bad for him.”

Kai rushed down the halls of the church with a speed they did not know that they had in their legs, as shaking and unstable as they might be. Each movement felt like they were a newborn fawn, striding and tripping over themselves as they tried their best to push forward into the halls around them. The stained glass was a blur against their vision as their narrowed watch focused only on the road before them. Of the direction before them and just who it would bring them to see. A smile parted on their nerve-wracked lips despite the situation, the knowledge that they were still with Terzo… That they were still HIS assistant blossomed with pride in their heart.

Pride and something more.

All of those feelings, of course, came to a stop when they pushed open the door to the Papa’s quarters and saw just what was going on.

Ghouls scrambled swiftly around the room, picking up bits of items that they were surely aware belonged to them. Each bauble of theirs was wrapped neatly in bubble wrap and folded into a suitcase, surrounded by their own casual and formal clothing as it was loaded into the sleek cases and bound with thin metal clasps against the edge. None of the helpers acknowledged their presence as they continued on in their work. Scurrying to and fro, Kai could only watch with a sense of abject anxiety as their items were stolen from the places they had always been. The places Terzo allowed them to keep things since - well - since they had been busy helping him.

All the while Terzo himself sat at the desk in his room, a rare sight considering he only really used it to sit on and embellish his words, his gaze hot over some of the papers Kai had laid out in the hopes that he would overview them and sign then. They hadn’t actually expected him to do such a thing, especially not when so many workers were busy packing their own stuff away.

“Papa,” Kai managed out as they hurried over to the desk, placing their own papers on its edge and leaning forward with wide eyes, “What is the meaning of all of-”

Terzo held his hand out, stopping their words mid sentence as he frowned. Kai tensed, the look on Terzo’s face unfamiliar territory as they tried to gouge the reasoning behind such a sour look. They didn’t have the chance to fully take it in, though, not as he finally began speaking. The long silence was only one sharp pain compared to his words.

“Do not worry,” He huffed with a dry tone to his voice, “I overheard your… conversation with my brother. How you say… You’ll be out of here - ah - lickety split. To move wherever it is he wants you.”

Kai paled at the thought of him overhearing. Just how much had he actually heard? How long had he hung around for? Was this… because he heard that they loved him and did not want them around him anymore? Were they being kicked out because they were being rejected? Terror rose in thier heart as they realized the full situation before them. Kai was speechless for a long time, unable to fully part their lips to make words come from them. In the meantime, Terzo stood to move away.

It was as he was walking that they sprung into action.

“Papa what are you saying!?”

“Do not think I’m an idiot!” He hissed with a near dangerous tone of his voice, “I see how he looked at you. I see how he touches you! If you are so dedicated to him, meeting every day and night, you might as well make it official. There is no reason for worry, caro, I promise, you will have everything organized with no huff and-”

“I don’t WANT to go with your brother!”

The admittance paused Terzo in his words, his tongue stumbling on his teeth as he turned to blink owlishly at his assistant. Kai’s face was bright red as they heaved their breath, the shout they had dared offer in the frontman’s direction was surprisingly loud for one who never raised their voice too much. Sure, it inclined with their special interests or built up power when they were excited, but this? It was a bellow out of their mouth. A dangerous yell that broke whatever frustrated facade Terzo dared carry around them.

“You… do not?”

“No!” Kai exhaled as they rubbed their temples for a moment, grounding themselves as they gestured forward, “No I… Whatever you saw… whatever your brother did to me… I refused it, Papa. I refused all of him because I wanted to stay here! I wanted to stay and be with YOU.”

“Me….” He trailed off, the word foreign on his tongue, “Why? When you enjoy his company so much.”

Kai felt frustration bubble up in their heart as they dragged a hand through their short cropping of hair and exhaled without thinking about it:

“Because I lo….” The stopped, the word faltering over their mouth, but the hopeful look on Terzo’s face showed that he had heard the start of their admittance. The warmth of their embarrassment flooded their tongue like a bitter medicine as they tried to hide their gaze by shifting it away to the floor. There was another long pause before they dared continue on, accepting the words that they had longed to say as they finally fell from their lips.

“It’s because…I love you.”

The silence was deafening now. The endless quiet between the both of them was suddenly and unbearable weight that pressed down into Kai’s shoulders as it hovered. It was a monster whose teeth was sinking into the back of their spine, making the bones ache with impatience and terror. All they could do was wait now. Wait to hear what Terzo had to say during the confession. To hear what they either did or did not want to hear leave his lips. The entirety of the thing was an anxiety inducing nightmare that sent goosebumps up Kai’s spine as their legs trembled beneath them out of pure adrenaline.

Terzo’s face morphed into a smile, soft and concerned, and Kai felt their tension melt away with a relieved sigh.

“Oh caro,” Terzo sighed as he approached them, “Why did you not tell me this thing before!”

It was all the warning they got before they were swept up in a pair of arms, twirled above the ground in a way that made them squeal in surprise. Once they were set back down, a single gloved hand reached out to take their chin between thumb and forefinger, dragging them up to stare into the mismatched eyes of the other. Terzo’s gaze glittered with amusement as he let his thumb rub across the bottom of their lip. His hold on their body was soft as he continued to stare down at them, as though they held all the secrets of the church itself. As though they were something he could breathe life into.

“Do you mean that? You love me… You mean it, yes?”

“I…” Kai swallowed and gave a shy smile back, “I do. I always did…”

The ghouls around them had stopped moving now, the change in situation so sudden that they were not aware of just what they were supposed to be doing now. Some set the items they were gathering back down and others simply stood with the items still in hand, their tails twitching as they watched the couple before them. Kai - suddenly aware of all of their stares - flushed in surprise, but had no chance to complain before those fingers holding their face brought themselves forward.

Soft, painted lips fell upon Kai’s own. The taste of champagne and setting spray overwhelming their mouth as Terzo kissed them. The shock of his sudden presence, of his brash audacity, overwhelmed them for only the briefest of moments before they melted into the kiss, limbs turning into jelly as they wrapped their arms around Terzo’s neck and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss longer as they shared it together.

By now the ghouls had slowly begun to unpack the things they had put away, unwrapping knick knacks and rearranging clothes carefully around the two as they read the room.

When they did pull away, Kai could taste the remnants of face paint on their lips, and they could not help but smile brightly at the sight of the man before them, grip tightening on his suit as he beamed down at them.

“I guess that is making it official then, hm?”

“Pft, making what official?”

“That you are mine.”

The honest words brought a blush to their face, but it was a pleasant feeling in the pit of their stomach that brought them to nod and laugh. Pressing their nose into his neck, they sighed deeply as they continued to hold him - and was held in return. Their confirming whisper sent stars in the back of Terzo’s vision as he memorized the breaths that were written along his neck:

“That I’m yours.”

#kinley writes #ghost grinder #selfship #self insert #i'm gay ok #oc x canon #si x canon #ghost

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

Text

Harris upstages Biden and Sanders with dominating performance

https://wapo.st/31XmcA7

Below is the exchange between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris about race and inequality along with Joe Biden history with segregationists. I don't think Joe Biden is a racist but we need to look at his history in regards to race and equality, especially with the rise of white supremacy, Charlottesville, police killings of black men and the myriad of issues facing people of color. We've come a long way but we are not over the finish line in regards to Martin Luther King Jr vision for our country. Lastly, I think Joe Biden needs to talk to the American people about his complicated past and his vision for the future in dealing with inequality and race.

Harris upstages Biden and Sanders with dominating performance

By Dan Balz | Published June 28 at 12:09 AM ET | Washington Post | Posted June 28, 2019 |

MIAMI — The second round of the first Democratic debate was set up to be an event dominated by the differences between former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) upstaged them both.

Harris delivered a dominating performance through much of the two hours, attacking Biden on civil rights, showing passion on race and other issues and silencing her fellow candidates when their crosstalk early in the debate threatened to show Democrats as a squabbling and disagreeable family.

It was when, as others talked about racial issues, that she broke in and changed the flow of the evening by reminding voters of the attributes that help define her candidacy. “As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak on the issue of race,” she declared.

Biden asserted that Harris’s criticisms on race were a “mischaracterization of my position across the board.” But her attacks, delivered at close range and with forcefulness and personal references, left a mark on the former vice president and established her as a candidate to be reckoned with.

Harris has often struggled to match the promise of her candidacy, but in her first opportunity arrayed as one of 10 candidates, she made the most of the opportunities she was given — and took some on her own to announce her arrival on the big stage.

Thursday’s debate may not change the polls much but it will probably reorder how Democrats begin to think about the choices before them.

The differences between Biden and Sanders, which are real and unresolved, proved to be only a subtext of the Thursday debate. Instead it was other candidates who helped drive the debate and shape the tone.

Sen. Michael F. Bennet (Colo.) came close to Harris at times, whether attacking Biden for cutting a deal that made permanent the tax cuts first passed during the presidency of George W. Bush or offering counterarguments to those candidates advocating a single-payer Medicare-for-all program that would eliminate private insurance.

Biden was the focus of a series of criticisms by his rivals, but it was Harris who braced him most directly when she challenged him for his recent comments about working with two segregationist senators decades ago and for opposing school busing, noting that she was a beneficiary of busing policies. She also pointed to her differences with the Obama-Biden administration on the deportation of undocumented immigrants.

Biden is an experienced debater and knew how and when to parry the attacks that kept coming at him. But Thursday’s debate underscored what many Democrats have said about this nominating contest, which is that, while Biden is the clear leader in the polls, he is not the kind of dominating candidate that others who have enjoyed the label of front-runner have proved to be.

Hours before the debate, Biden campaign advisers said he would use the evening to talk about “really transformational change” by stressing his belief that he can end this period of hyper-partisanship and return the country to civility and consensus. But he rarely got the opportunity to make that case. Instead he spent the evening on the defensive.

The bracing attack by Harris proved to be the most dramatic moment of either of the two nights of debating among the 20 candidates who qualified under Democratic National Committee rules to be on the stage in the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Her opening came after South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg was asked about the racial turmoil in his city stemming from the recent killing of a black man by a white police officer . Buttigieg delivered a heartfelt answer to a pointed question about why the force was barely integrated in a city that is a quarter African American.

“I could walk you through all of the things that we have done as a community, all of the steps that we took, from bias training to de-escalation, but it didn’t save the life of Eric Logan,” he said. “And when I look into his mother’s eyes, I have to face the fact that nothing that I say will bring him back.”

Buttigieg said the issue of racism and policing “threatens the well-being of every community” and vowed to continue to help find solutions locally and nationally. The discussion moved to other candidates until Harris broke in.

After words of introduction on the topic of race, she turned to Biden and the former prosecutor began to make her case. “I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground,” she said. “But I also believe, and it’s personal . . . it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.”

She continued: “And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”

Earlier in the debate, as the conversation was spiraling out of control and the moderators were struggling to maintain order, Harris shut them all down with a quip that, even if prepared in advance, accomplished her goal of putting the focus on her.

“Hey, guys, you know what? America does not want to witness a food fight,” she said. “They want to know how we are going to put food on their table.”

Harris staked out positions that put her clearly in the liberal wing of the party, particularly on health care, positions that Republicans believe would make her vulnerable. But her goal on Thursday was not to persuade Republicans but to awaken Democrats to her candidacy’s potential, and on that she succeeded.

Biden retains the goodwill of many Democrats, including African Americans, and continues to make the case that he is best positioned to defeat President Trump. But his performance probably will raise questions about his candidacy.

Sanders, who defended his label of democratic socialist with typical confidence, retains a loyal following and will remain a force in the months ahead.

But Bennet emerged as a voice prepared to challenge the progressive wing, in the way that Biden is expected to do. And Harris has put her stamp on her candidacy far more effectively than she had done before Thursday’s contest.

As on Wednesday, Thursday’s debate highlighted the ideological tensions within the Democratic coalition, fissures that will dominate the nomination contest well into next year. Those tensions will test the priorities and loyalties of Democratic voters as they select their challenger to go against Trump in the general election.

Some party strategists say their soundings so far this year suggest a streak of pragmatism among the Democratic electorate. They argue that many voters who would prefer a robustly liberal agenda are prepared to set aside some of those ambitions in favor of a candidate with whom they might disagree on some issues but believe has a better chance to deliver the White House in November 2020.

Biden on the one hand, and Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on the other, seemed to represent the two poles in that debate, until the Democrats came to Miami. Now the choices seem to have widened, with new and younger voices rising to make themselves heard.

The first round of debates is now in the archive. Some moments on the highlight reels from both nights will live through the weekend and into the next week but probably will have a limited shelf life. Few anticipated that the debates would significantly alter the shape of the race, and perhaps that is the case.

But Harris showed that things can change, and Democrats will leave Miami with a fresh sense of the possibilities before them.

*******

The full Kamala Harris-Joe Biden exchange over race and busing, annotated

By Natalie Jennings and Eugene Scott | Published June 28 at 12:01 AM ET |

Washington Post | Posted June 28 |

Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) created the standout moment of the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate when she confronted former vice president Joe Biden over his past stance on busing programs to desegregate schools. Below is the transcript of that exchange, with annotations (see the yellow highlights) by the Fix Team via Genius.

[Full transcript of Democratic debate night 2]

HARRIS: As the only black person on this stage, I would like to speak ...

NBC MODERATOR CHUCK TODD: I ...

HARRIS: ... on the issue of race.

(APPLAUSE)

NBC MODERATOR RACHEL MADDOW: Senator Harris ...

HARRIS: And so what I will say ...

MADDOW: If I could preface this, we will give you 30 seconds, because we're going to come back to you on this again in just a moment. But go for 30 seconds.

HARRIS: Okay. So on the issue of race, I couldn’t agree more that this is an issue that is still not being talked about truthfully and honestly. I — there is not a black man I know, be he a relative, a friend or a co-worker, who has not been the subject of some form of profiling or discrimination.

Growing up, my sister and I had to deal with the neighbor who told us her parents couldn't play with us because she — because we were black. And I will say also that — that, in this campaign, we have also heard — and I'm going to now direct this at Vice President Biden, I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground.

But I also believe, and it’s personal — and I was actually very — it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.

And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.

So I will tell you that, on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly. As attorney general of California, I was very proud to put in place a requirement that all my special agents would wear body cameras and keep those cameras on.

(APPLAUSE)

MADDOW: Senator Harris, thank you. Vice President Biden, you have been invoked. We're going to give you a chance to respond.

(APPLAUSE)

Vice President Biden?

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: It's a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true, number one. Number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I'm happy to do that.

I was a public defender. I didn’t become a prosecutor. I came out, and I left a good law firm to become a public defender, when, in fact — when, in fact . ..

(APPLAUSE)

. . . when, in fact, my city was in flames because of the assassination of Dr. King, number one.

Number two, as the U.S. — excuse me, as the vice president of the United States, I worked with a man who, in fact, we worked very hard to see to it we dealt with these issues in a major, major way.

The fact is that, in terms of busing, the busing, I never — you would have been able to go to school the same exact way because it was a local decision made by your city council. That’s fine. That’s one of the things I argued for, that we should not be — we should be breaking down these lines.

But so the bottom line here is, look, everything I have done in my career, I ran because of civil rights, I continue to think we have to make fundamental changes in civil rights, and those civil rights, by the way, include not just only African Americans, but the LGBT community.

(APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: But, Vice President Biden, do you agree today — do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America then? Do you agree?

BIDEN: I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That's what I opposed. I did not oppose . ..

HARRIS: Well, there was a failure of states to integrate public schools in America. I was part of the second class to integrate Berkeley, California, public schools almost two decades after Brown v. Board of Education.

BIDEN: Because your city council made that decision. It was a local decision.

HARRIS: So that's where the federal government must step in.

BIDEN: The federal government . ..

HARRIS: That's why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.

(APPLAUSE)

That's why we need to pass the Equality Act. That's why we need to pass the ERA, because there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.

BIDEN: I've supported the ERA from the very beginning when I ran for . ..

TODD: Vice President Biden, 30 seconds, because I want to bring other people into this.

BIDEN: I supported the ERA from the very beginning. I’m the guy that extended the Voting Rights Act for 25 years. We got to the place where we got 98 out of 98 votes in the United States Senate doing it. I’ve also argued very strongly that we, in fact, deal with the notion of denying people access to the ballot box. I agree that everybody, once they, in fact — anyway, my time is up. I’m sorry.

TODD: Thank you, Vice President.

******

In exchange with Harris, Biden’s controversial history on busing for school integration crashes to the forefront

By Eugene Scott | Published June 27 at 11:28 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted June 28, 2019 |

An exchange between Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D.-Calif.) and former vice president Joe Biden during the second night of the first Democratic primary debate encapsulated months of building tensions within the party over race and generational divisions, turning a spotlight onto Biden’s history on busing to integrate schools.

It was the first big face-to-face showdown of the primary over the role that the intersection of race and policy will play in the 2020 election.

Harris confronted Biden directly about his past stance on school busing. Biden was quick to defend himself. Here’s the exchange:

Harris: Vice President Biden, do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America then?

Biden: I did not oppose busing in America; what I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education.

Harris: Well, there was a failure of states to integrate public schools in America. I was part of the second class to integrate Berkeley, California, public schools almost two decades after Brown vs. Board of Education.

Biden: Because your city council made that decision. It was a local decision.

Harris: So that’s where the federal government must step in. That’s why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. That’s why we need to pass the Equality Act. That’s why we need to pass the ERA, because there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.

Harris pointed out that she was bused as child in the in Berkeley, Calif., school system.

The Washington Post’s Matt Viser wrote in March that when Biden was a freshman senator in the mid-1970s, he took a lead role in the fight about school busing, repeatedly speaking out against sending white children to predominantly black schools and black children to predominantly white schools.

Harris’s decision to directly confront Biden over busing, in personal terms, was notable and likely to garner a slew of headlines.

Given the how much you’re likely to hear about the exchange, it’s worth reading Viser’s whole piece on Biden, but here are a few key passages that illuminate the vulnerability Harris saw:

Biden took a lead role in the fight [over school busing in Delaware], speaking out repeatedly and forcefully against sending white children to majority-black schools and black children to majority-white schools. He played down the persistence of overt racism and suggested that the government should have a limited role in integration.

“I do not buy the concept, popular in the ’60s, which said, ‘We have suppressed the black man for 300 years and the white man is now far ahead in the race for everything our society offers. In order to even the score, we must now give the black man a head start, or even hold the white man back, to even the race,’ ” Biden told a Delaware-based weekly newspaper in 1975. “I don’t buy that.”

...

Although civil rights leaders may object to Biden’s past statements about busing, his decision to stand by his views on the issue illustrate what some of his supporters think would be his advantage in the 2020 field: his ability to appeal beyond the Democratic base to some working-class white voters who voted for Donald Trump in 2016.

*******

Biden’s tough talk on 1970s school desegregation plan could get new scrutiny in today’s Democratic Party

By Matt Viser | Published March 07 at 1:25 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted June 28 |

When Joe Biden was a freshman senator in the mid-1970s, his home state of Delaware, like other hotspots across the country, was engulfed in a bitter battle over school busing, debating whether children should be sent to schools in different neighborhoods to promote racial diversity.

Biden took a lead role in the fight, speaking out repeatedly and forcefully against sending white children to majority-black schools and black children to majority-white schools. He played down the persistence of overt racism and suggested that the government should have a limited role in integration.

In language that bears on today’s debate about whether descendants of slaves should be compensated, he added, “I don’t feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather. I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation. And I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.”

Biden’s statements 44 years ago represent one of the earliest chapters in his well-documented record on racial issues, during which he generally has worked alongside African American leaders and been embraced by them. He supported the extension of the Voting Rights Act, amendments to the Fair Housing Act, sanctions against apartheid South Africa and the creation of a holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. In 2010, he pushed to roll back sentencing that many believed exacerbated racial disparities.

But Biden and civil rights leaders also have occasionally parted ways, and his career probably would be viewed through a new lens if he decides to run for president in a Democratic Party that has moved to the left and grown more ethnically diverse, even in the years since he was elected vice president.

African American voters are expected to play a pivotal role in the party’s nomination in 2020, and groups such as Black Lives Matter are pressing candidates to confront difficult questions about race. Although many civil rights leaders agree that busing did not play out in an ideal way, they often say it was a necessary effort, given that white-run school districts were doing little to integrate even 20 years after the Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark desegregation ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.

Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, said in an interview that he has personal affection for Biden, but that he was taken aback upon being read portions of the 1975 interview.

“If you said something like that in 2019, there would be a response to that that would be pretty harsh,” said Brooks, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School. “Having served as vice president to the first African American president in U.S. history, and given all that he’s seen in the intervening years, I would be stunned if he would stand behind that.”

Biden, 76, declined to be interviewed for this article. But his spokesman, Bill Russo, said the former vice president still believes he was right to oppose busing.

“He never thought busing was the best way to integrate schools in Delaware — a position which most people now agree with,” Russo said. “As he said during those many years of debate, busing would not achieve equal opportunity. And it didn’t.”

Russo said Biden has a distinguished history of working for civil rights and against segregation. As a young man, Russo said, Biden fought to desegregate a movie theater in Delaware, and worked as the only white employee at a largely black swimming pool.

“Joe Biden is today — and has been for more than 40 years in public life — one of the strongest and most powerful voices for civil rights in America,” Russo said. “His long commitment to civil rights has repeatedly been recognized by many of the most important civil rights organizations in America.”

Biden’s office provided a statement from Ralph G. Neas, former executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, who said: “We disagreed on busing . . . but I always looked to Biden as a leader in the field of civil rights in other critical areas.”

Beyond particular policies, Biden’s supporters say he has established trust with civil rights leaders and earned considerable goodwill from serving as vice president to the nation’s first black president.

But the 1975 interview highlights how the landscape has shifted since Biden entered national politics, capturing a Senate seat in 1972 at age 29.

Biden in recent years has expressed regret for several episodes in his past, such as what many women’s rights advocates considered his weak efforts in 1991, as Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, to protect Anita Hill after she accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Biden also has voiced contrition for pushing a tough-on-crime bill in 1994 that many African Americans viewed as unfair and overly harsh.

Biden, after all, was a vocal opponent of busing as the issue was raging nationwide — including in his hometown.

He wrote columns for local newspapers and pushed legislation requiring courts to consider solutions besides busing, often siding with conservatives such as Sen. Jesse Helms (N.C.), who welcomed Biden “to the ranks of the enlightened.”

Biden’s 1975 interview, which covered a range of topics, was conducted by a publication based in Newark, Del., referred to as the People Paper. It was printed in the Congressional Record at the request of Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho), who praised Biden’s comments, and went largely unnoticed thereafter. A Democrat who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic pointed out the original interview to The Washington Post, citing a concern that Biden’s positions could be problematic for the party.

In the interview, Biden dismissed government efforts to impose diversity in schools. “We’ve lost our bearings since the 1954 Brown vs. School Board desegregation case,” he said. “To ‘desegregate’ is different than to ‘integrate.’ . . . I am philosophically opposed to quota systems. They insure mediocrity.”

If anything, he said, it was busing plans that were racist.

“The new integration plans being offered are really just quota systems to assure a certain number of blacks, Chicanos, or whatever in each school. That, to me, is the most racist concept you can come up with,” Biden said. “What it says is, ‘In order for your child with curly black hair, brown eyes, and dark skin to be able to learn anything, he needs to sit next to my blond-haired, blue-eyed son.’ That’s racist! Who the hell do we think we are, that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?”

Russo said Biden’s argument was that everyone deserves the same opportunity. “Regardless of what Zip code you’re born in, you should be entitled to a good education,” he said. “That’s the point he’s making here.”

Biden’s election to the Senate came eight years after the Civil Rights Act was passed, at a time when states and cities nationwide were wrestling with how to handle segregated schools. Although the Supreme Court had declared segregation unconstitutional in 1954, many schools remained divided because their surrounding neighborhoods were racially monolithic. And majority-black schools generally had far fewer resources.

Courts ordered some cities to bus children across town to create a more balanced education system. But what black families called “integration” many white families called “forced busing,” complaining of long bus rides that severed the link between kids and their local schools. Violence over the issue broke out in cities such as Boston.

Against that backdrop, Biden, a rising political star, took aim at a 1974 court order directing Delaware to submit plans for desegregating Wilmington-area schools — an edict that was highly unpopular with many of his constituents.

Ultimately, Wilmington schools in 1978 implemented a plan merging one urban district with 10 suburban ones, and busing students so that they spend nine consecutive years in what had been a historically white school and three years in what had been a historically black school. By 1995 a federal court determined the schools were no longer segregated.

“The courts have gone overboard in their interpretation of what is required to remedy unlawful segregation,” Biden said in the 1975 interview. “It is one thing to say that you cannot keep a black man from using this bathroom, and something quite different to say that one out of every five people who use this bathroom must be black.”

Biden’s stance put him at odds with Sen. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.), the chamber’s only African American, who called one of Biden’s amendments “the greatest symbolic defeat for civil rights since 1964.”

Jeffrey A. Raffel, who was executive director of the Delaware Committee on the School Decision in the 1970s, said it was hard for any political leader in the state to be pro-busing at the time, given the public passions against it.

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crystalracing · 5 years

Link

The Finn hesitated momentarily. Had he heard correctly? Best sit and wait. His co-driver repeated the instruction. And that's how a rally car ended up being driven straight through the middle of a traffic roundabout.

No sooner had the Opel bumped up the first kerb than the co-driver turned in amazement and asked what on earth was going on. The driver was equally baffled."You told me," he says. "You said: 'Go straight across the roundabout'. I went straight across."

The names don't matter, and the driver didn't suffer too much from this early communication hiccup. He went on to become a world champion. In a rally car, the driver drives and the co-driver does just about everything else.

Motorsport is packed with unsung heroes and co-drivers are right up there with the best of them. Regularly and ridiculously seen as frustrated drivers, the men and women who sit in the seat without a wheel are a breed apart; it takes a very special kind of character to become the best in the world at telling the person to the side of you where to go. And how quickly to get there.

If you want an insight into the character of a co-driver, take this simple test. Next time you're being driven, perhaps looking for a junction on an unfamiliar road, try reading a text message at the same time; write yourself a shopping list; change station on the radio; write a reply to that text message; and ask the person chauffeuring you to ask any number of inane questions to which you are expected to know the answer immediately.

The ability to multi-task is fundamental for co-drivers. If focusing solely on the task in hand is your forte, forget it. You'll be better as a driver.

Stripped back to the basics, there are two main elements to the co-driver's job: ensuring the car reaches the stages on time and then reading pacenotes on the stages themselves.

"That's the easy bit," says Paul Nagle, the man who has co-driven Kris Meeke to all five of their world rally wins. "The real work, the really important stuff is done before we even get to the start of the event."

It's called the recce. Depending on the length of the rally, two or three days before the start, the crew drives all the competitive sections twice at a maximum speed of 50mph to write the crucial pacenotes. The co-driver will read these back when they're in the rally car, often travelling at twice the speed they managed in the recce.

"If you make a mistake on the recce, you will be found out on the rally," says Nagle. "That's why it's so important to get the notes written first time through - then you've got that second pass on the recce to double check them and make changes if they're needed. Kris will make changes on that second pass if he feels he's noted a corner too slow or too quick - he'll do that when we're competing as well."

Listen carefully to the onboards and you'll sometimes hear the driver say: "Put a minus on that" or "stick a 'nips' on the end there". A minus would instruct the driver to lift slightly ahead of the apex, while 'nips' indicates a corner tightening slightly at the exit.

This is where multi-tasking comes in: you're reading the current note and looking along or down the page for the next one, readying yourself to deliver that, when a voice in your ear tells you to change the previous one. And this can be happening at 120mph when you're six feet in the air between the trees or being thoroughly shaken around as you rip through a super-quick section on asphalt.

"If it's a simple change I'll make it," says Nagle, "but if we're in the middle of a technical section then I'll put a mark by the note and double-check it with Kris as soon as we've finished the stage."

Changing the notes entirely is a reasonably rare occurrence at the highest level.

"We've got the recce down to a fairly fine art," says Meeke. "We have a routine that works for us. Obviously if we're going to a new rally - such as Turkey this year - then we're making notes from scratch and that's a slightly different process. In places like Mexico, the stages don't change much year-on-year, so at those events we're evolving the notes that we used the previous year."

Robert Reid won the 2001 world championship with Richard Burns and well remembers rewriting notes.

"There were some places that, looking at the map, you'd think hadn't changed at all," says Reid, "but then you get in to the recce and the road could be quite different. This would happen in some of the stages in south Wales, when Rally GB was based out of Cardiff.

"From one year to the next the logging trucks might need a road widening; so by the time we got there for the rally, what had been, say, a set of medium-speed corners might have been straightened out with a wider road. You'd rewrite all of that."

When you see co-drivers reading, writing or rewriting, it looks like they're using a regular spiral-bound notebook. Generally speaking, they're not. The professionals are pretty much all using books handmade on a farm in Lancashire by one-time BTRDA Gold Star Rally champion Martin Meadows and his wife Helen. Meadows' brother is John - former Mitsubishi works co-driver - and the Safari specialist was fundamental to what has become something of a cottage industry.

"I was with John after one rally and he was telling me how bad the pacenote books were," says Martin Meadows.

"We were talking to Ian Grindrod, who was co-driving Henri Toivonen at the time, and he agreed. I said to them, 'I'm a graphic designer, tell me what you want and I'll put it together'. It started from there. We made some, worked on them and improved them, but really the books haven't changed for the last 30 years."

Dan Barritt, the winning co-driver at last year's Wales Rally GB, wouldn't consider reading from or writing in anything other than one of Meadows' books.

"They're sort of the industry standard," he says. "I know a lot of co-drivers had input into making them what they are. To all intents and purposes, it's a notepad, but it just works and it feels normal when you're using them."

What is it that makes this book work? The paper, for a start, is just the right weight and shade.

"It's the paper HM Government and the banks use for their forms," explains Meadows.

The binding is the other key feature, with its rather tortuous-sounding 'twist and remove spine'.

"When you do the recce," says Meadows, "you don't necessarily do the stages in the order of the rally's actual itinerary; you don't always do stage two before stages three. Previously, you would make the notes and then copy them out to make sure they flowed in rally order. Co-drivers like to have the stages for a specific loop or day in one book - there's less chance of losing them.

"Copying notes can be fraught with risk. A co-driver is usually doing that job at the end of the day of recce, so they're quite tired and it's easy to get distracted and miss a note out.

"What John and Ian wanted was a ring binder-type set-up where you could slot pages in and out - that's where the removable spine came from; you can take the spine out and reorder the pages as you want. Another key is the strength of the spine. We've worked to find one that's really strong - it doesn't bend or deform, which means the pages will always turn.

"These might sound like really small things, but sport at world championship level is all about chasing tiny percentages and that's what this is about. We could make the whole thing a bit cheaper, but it would be noticed straight away - the consequences of not being able to turn a page cleanly when you're flat out could be pretty serious. That's why we've continued to make every book by hand. We know it's done properly."

In a discipline that's so driven by pushing technological boundaries, it's remarkable that such a key element of rallying - the business of delivering the vital route information between co-driver and driver - remains so basic.

Surely, in this modern era, with the continued advances in satellite navigation, it would be possible to find a solution that betters what's been around since the sport's very beginning?

Companies have tried sat-nav-based systems for delivering notes, but it just doesn't work. Co-driving is such a nuanced craft, even in an ever-changing environment, that it's almost impossible to see the pencil (which has to be 2B, since the lead offers a perfect range of shade) and paper being replaced.

"Writing pacenotes is still a very personal thing," says Meadows. "People have thought of trying to computerise the process or using an iPad, but it's just not quite the same. There's almost some emotion involved in the thing.

"For example, quite often a co-driver will use an exclamation mark to note caution, but if there's something really bad coming up, then each co-driver will have their own little way of making it clear, be that pushing harder on the pencil to darken an underline or something like that.

"You need to be in the moment and in the recce to let that emotion and feeling flow into the notes. You just wouldn't get the same from sitting at a laptop typing them out."

The non-competitive time-keeping side of the job - the getting of the cars to the stages on time - will change. Currently each crew is given a set of time cards complete with boxes to be filled in when the car is checked in to each control. The time to the next control is still totted up in the co-driver's head, to ensure they arrive on the allocated minute. Failure to do so will result in penalties added to their accumulated stage times.

For those who find keeping track of time a bit of a nightmare, salvation isn't far away. Numerous companies are working on systems that will work by tapping a card (think of a hotel keycard) at each control. This will beam the data to the organisers and to a control unit in the car.

A co-driver's reliance on advanced mathematics was lessened greatly by the introduction of Fastime Copilote Rally Watch. Developed - again with input from co-drivers - by former Subaru and Toyota sporting director George Donaldson and accountant and rally enthusiast Robert Thacker, the watch is another brilliant British contribution to the art of co-driving.

The co-driver loads road timing into the watch and is then given a countdown to the scheduled arrival time in the next control. Once there, the watch requests the next time and the process rolls on. The watch also stores stage times, compares them with the competition, and also tells the time.

When it comes to writing notes, there are two schools of thought in terms of putting the code on the page: horizontal or vertical. Reid started writing across the page, but ultimately followed the lead of Michele Mouton's co-driver Fabrizia Pons.

"If you write the notes horizontally then you could end up with four or five lines of notes," says the Scot, "whereas if you write vertically you get two columns. When you're calling notes, you want to make the process of reading them is as easy and straightforward as possible.

"For me, reading down two columns worked better than across five rows. It's also easier to move your thumb down each note as you read it - so if you happen to look up, when you look down you know exactly where you are."

Reid's left thumb came in even more useful on the 2001 Rally GB - the event where he and Burns were crowned champions.

Reid remembers: "Richard and I had just left service when I reached over my shoulder to turn on the map-reading light that should have been there. We were only allowed the map light in the car when we were going into night stages - such was designer Christian Loriaux's obsession with keeping the car's weight to an absolute minimum [when Loriaux moved to Ford, he took this a step further and only allowed co-drivers to carry one pencil in the car with them].

"Anyway, the light wasn't there and Richard and I were about to go into two stages in Brechfa in the dark. I always carried a Maglite in my bag, so I tie-wrapped that to my left thumb, turned it on and read the notes with that."

The ability to think clearly and remain calm under the ultimate pressure is vital. You've got to be ready for anything - as 2003 world champion Phil Mills testifies.

"Petter Solberg and I were competing in the Cyprus Rally one year," he says. "We were going through a stage and everything was fine, next minute there was a bit of a fuss in the car and a bird came in through the roof vent. In those kind of instances, your actions are really instinctive."

Without missing a beat, or a note, Mills grabbed the bird - which had already met its end after bumping into the Subaru - and dropped it into the footwell. But feeling the pace and direction of the car is what sets the good apart from the great.

"You get that feeling through the seat of your pants," says Colin McRae's co-driver Nicky Grist. "Without looking up, you know where you are from what the car is doing. It takes a while, but it becomes instinctive."

The one thing that upsets that rhythm in the car is fog. Scott Martin remembers some nervous moments guiding Craig Breen through an especially foggy Aberhirnant in Wales last year.

"You're totally focused on reading the notes," says Martin, "but you're subconsciously prepared for what the car's going to do. When you call a hairpin, you know when you're going to be pressed into the belts.

"But in the fog, it's so strange. I didn't even know we were into the fog and I'd called some quick corners when I felt Craig lifting and braking. You think: 'What's going on? Have I got it wrong? Where are we?' You look up and you just can't see a thing."

It's in the fog where the level of detail in notes really shows up. McRae, for example, used a gear-linked numeric system where a six right would mean a very fast sixth-gear right-hander. The 1995 world champion liked to keep things simple and so added in very little detail around those numbers.

Burns, by contrast, used a far more descriptive system and would regularly make three corners out of one.

"Richard liked a very accurate description of where the car had to be on the road," says Reid. "There was quite a lot to say in our notes - but it definitely helped in the fog."

Nowhere was this seen more obviously on the 1997 Rally GB, when Burns dominated a foggy Radnor stage, taking 1m33s out of McRae in 10 miles.

"Even in the fog, driving pretty much blind, Richard knew what was coming because of the detail in the notes," says Reid.

It's in those trying conditions that a good co-driver will know when to chivvy their partner. Not that this sort of advice is always welcome. Markko Martin was a driver who always struggled in the fog and didn't take co-driver Michael 'Beef' Park's advice particularly well.

"Beef told me I should get a move on," says the Estonian. "He said: 'Come on, you can see more than that...' I said something rude and said he could have a go if he wanted!"

Experienced co-driver Stuart Loudon found himself in the unusual position of guiding former England cricket captain Graeme Swann through Wales Rally GB in 2014.

"Graeme was doing the event as a guest driver," says Loudon. "He wasn't too bad at all, but we rolled on the first stage. We were on the roof, but the spectators soon had us back on the wheels. The car wasn't bad at all, but Graeme was starting to undo his belts. He thought we were going home. He asked what to do and looked a bit surprised when I told him to fire it up and crack on to the end of the stage!"

Swann's initial response was, of course, completely natural. He'd probably never been upside down in a car before.

"You know when the crash is coming," says Scott Martin. "And that's the time to make yourself as small as you can in the car. I pull my feet back from the footwell to avoid any impacts down there, fold my arms across my chest, and hang on to the pacenote book."

Hang on to the pacenote book.

Told you co-drivers were a different breed.

It's harder than it looks...

The last time I co-drove Kris Meeke, we were in Citroen's equivalent to a transit van at Silverstone rallyschool and Dungannon's finest was telling me what to do in the event of what felt like an almost inevitable accident.

This time it's a bit different: the Meeke company motor, a set of Paul Nagle's pacenotes and a half-decent stretch of gravel road.

Nagle seems to find it funny that I'm genuinely having a go at doing his job. He laughs less when I break down his working day into two key areas: sitting down and reading. Ultimately, one of us will be laughing the longest...

I've always quite fancied the idea of co-driving. I once navigated David Higgins into a huge lead on the Kent Forestry Stages, only for him to ruin my moment in the spotlight by dropping us in a ditch after a corner appeared unexpectedly. A corner I might have forgotten to mention.

Strapped into Nagle's seat, I wiped such negativity from my mind and focused on the job in hand. Having already had one go at the stage, Meeke had been given a brief insight into my incompetence.

"Don't just blabber the notes out," he offers helpfully. "Try to feel the car."

Right. Good advice.

Second time around, I'm much more relaxed and do actually manage to say the right thing at vaguely the right time. Or at least I thought I did. Kris snatching the book out of my hand and throwing it the footwell might indicate we weren't on the same page.

The inside of Citroen's C3 WRC was a claustrophobic and intimidating place for one so far from their comfort zone, but at the same time it was hugely exhilarating and a real insight into what Nagle does.

Between you and me, there's more to it than sitting down and reading.

#rally #co-driver #co driver

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starqueenadonis · 7 years

Text

Taurus Horoscope August 2017

My Royal Taurus,

Brace yourself as your home is swept up in a wave of transformation and improvements. A cluster of planets transit through your Palace of Home and reignites your passion for life through renewed roots. Venus, your ruling goddess uplifts your consciousness and re-awakens your eyes to a new field of study or work. She cares so much about her little bull, so trust in her work to re-focus your state of mind - more on that later. As you embrace yourself, Venus wants you to change, no matter how stubborn or fixed you are. She brings the focus to your home, specifically, in relation to a lover. Venus reigns over your love life and is presently she hopes to lighten up the mood at home. We are well into the year now and our homes can be very dusty and in deep need of the improvements we set out to do. Venus revives the to-do list with new home duties so you can create a space of genuine comfort for yourself and significant others. She joins her celestial lover, Mars, who has busily torn down walls which kept you bring creating the intimacy you desired in your domestic order. He looks at how you order your home life so that you are secured with all the creature comforts which for a tactile bull who loves aromas, textures, and tastes, you should be the last one in your life to whom these are denied. You can enjoy a very great space by making these upgrades yourself, or you may be ready to pursue a whole new home. The Sun nurtures the planting of new roots by nurturing the flame of love you feel for your family. Between July 23rd - Aug. 22nd, the giver of consciousness helps you see your life at home as a continuation of your life, as opposed to home life being a separate thing from your work life. The Sun urges you to shine brilliantly authentic as the person you are at home and at work, being one continuous person. The stellar Full Moon of Aug. 7th emphasizes the lessons of the Sun as she bears new and unforeseen career opportunities. Have your resumé polished, along with an impressive cover letter, and be prepared to answer questions at an interview. Life is calling and this Full Moon gives extra emphasis to your career prospects as it is also a lunar eclipse. A major milestone in your life will mark a breakthrough moment in your career trajectory. The Moon delivers again on the 2nd New Moon in a month in your Palace of Home. For some reason either, something ain’t right, or you are desperate for changes to happen at home. Furthermore, this is also a groundbreaking Solar Eclipse, which is sure to stir up a lot of emotion. Home is very dear to Taurus as you love the indulgences only a bed, a full refrigerator, a beautiful garden or plant life, and it is even better when there is someone with whom to share. Mercury will return to your Palace of Home during his retrograde when he recedes Sept. 1st - 9th. The choices you make will start to manifest and take place in a whirlwind around this time. Go with the flow Mercury is called to bring in order to respond to a sudden and improved condition at home. Mercury recedes from your Palace of Enjoyment, indicating a choice on true love will highly impact the home life. In fact, Mercury will be in retrograde, Aug. 13th - Sept. 5th, during the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse, so expect news to emerge in your love life which will impact the place you call home.

True joy in life is highlighted by the Sun, Aug. 23rd - Sept. 22nd, as he puts the spotlight upon your heart. The authentic nature of your heart is revealed and the Sun breathes new fire into your ardor for satisfaction, pleasure and fun. As mentioned, Mercury will go in retrograde, and he realizes there is something off in the true state of your heart’s affairs. He has to reorder your heart’s true passions in life so that you are pointed toward happiness. Venus will be a great agent in giving words to your true passions and goals for happiness. She is in your Palace of Knowledge and broadens your mindset from Aug. 1st - 26th. Mental stimulation is important and you gain a new setting in life either at home, love, or work, or all of them. Your words express you very authentic inner self and speak to new ways of thought which are coming to you.

Your self-awareness is a theme of transformation all month and emotionally touches your soul on Aug. 14th, the night of the Waning Crescent. She is an ego boost to your sense of self and encourages you to love totally yourself. The Waxing Crescent of Aug. 29th is a sexually charged moon that presses your rebirth button. She knows that you have been under some stress with all the change, so give into the satisfaction of your senses! Saturn has long strained your energy reserves, and even made you feel as though you were not enough, or wrong. However, with so much now learned about who you are in bed, what you can and are not willing to do, you are more confident and attractive. Saturn goes direct finally and relaxes his stronghold on your pleasure centers.

Love till the end of time,

xoxo, Star Queen Adonis

PS: I am so sorry that this horoscope is coming after the Lunar Eclipse. It is not how I want to set you up for success. I have no excuse because I knew what was coming - I am a double Taurus and Lunar Sagittarian. I knew my home was going to experience a shakeup, and my boyfriend kicked me out of our home. He and I talked through our problems, but after I followed through and he came to a home empty of me. He immediately regretted his words and I regretted my actions. We love each other so deeply and though I saw the eclipse coming, I had no idea it would impact my love life and my overall sense of security in the world. And Star Queen. However, we are all spiritual beings on a cosmic journey experiencing an human existence. Thus, I believe, one must stride with a moment to reflect followed by a moment to act and one can choose to base these thoughts and acts upon love or hate. Love opens the possibility for abundance, wholeness, and prosperity. May we choose to love till the end of time!

#taurus #horoscope #solar eclipse august 21

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Our presidential system creating disunity – CNPP scribe

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Our presidential system creating disunity – CNPP scribe

Chief Willy Ezugwu is the Secretary General of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP). In this interview with EMEKA NZE, Ezugwu, who is also the life Patron of the Coalition of Civil Society and Human Rights Activists, the Convener of Save Enugu Group (SEG), speaks on restructuring, presidential ambition of Atiku Abubakar, preparations ahead of the 2019 general elections and other national issues. One of the issues that will shape the 2019 political campaign is the restructuring debate. Recently, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which initially rejected restructuring eventually came up with their own version of restructuring. What do you have to say on this issue? It is quite interesting that the APC returned to restructuring, though the APC’s idea of restructuring is far from that of the rest of us, but it means that restructuring is the way to go to keep Nigeria united. At least, the grand advocate of restructuring in recent time, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will heave a sigh of relief. He was the one who brought back restructuring to the discussion table ahead of 2019 election. Without mincing words, Nigeria, as it is today, is not working and we can only get to work by going back to true federalism. The unitary presidential system we are running will continue to create distrust among Nigerians because of growing sense of injustice. Like Alhaji Atiku said at Nsukka in 2017, the rising tension and agitations in the country can only be checked with a restructured country that engages her people on productive activities, instead of all these killings going on in country. So, we need to restructure if we are serious about making progress as a country.

As a CNPP leader, whose membership cut across all political parties, how do assess the quality of candidates that have expressed interest to contest for president on PDP platform? Of course, as you clearly observed. I’m a member of the Board of Trustees of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and I can tell you that my party will do everything possible to field a credible presidential candidate in 2019. However, to answer your question, I can tell you that the PDP has only two presidential aspirants. They are Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and others (laughter). If you are talking of a candidate that is sellable across the country on the platform of the PDP, in the north and in south, Atiku Abubakar is the man. Nigeria needs successful business man to run it. We have tested military generals like Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari. We have tried politicians like late Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. It is time to try business men. Nigeria needs to be restructured and reorganised for greatness. Nigeria needs to achieve its full potentials and a business-minded person is needed at this time that our economy is at the lowest ebb.

It is believed in some quarters that Atiku is corrupt. His sources of income have been questioned. He has come out several times to challenge anyone that has evidence of corruption against him to come forward…? (Cuts in) Today, we have a man assumed to be Mr. Integrity as President. How has that brought about better life for the people? When some political cabals don’t like any one’s face, they will tag you as corrupt because they know that Nigerians are suffering and they will see anyone with the tag of corruption as an enemy of the people. Today, Nigerians are suffering. With 100 percent increment in the pump price of petroleum products, we still experience fuel scarcity. It means that there is more to it than shouting Mr. Integrity. What Nigeria needs at the moment is leadership. In the world today, business men are taking over political leadership in today’s world. American President, Donald Trump, is a businessman, and in Africa, we are following the trend. The new South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, is a business man. We cannot afford as a country to flow against the trend. If we are the giant of Africa, we must get our leadership right ahead of other African countries. From the little I know about Atiku Abubakar, all the negative allegations against Atiku are just from the imaginations of people who don’t wish Nigeria well. They are the same people who packaged a lie and sold it to us as change. I want to ask, has any government taken Atiku to court, let alone convict him? This means, all the allegations are made in order to make sure that Nigeria is denied good leaders. Because people have found that the only way to blackmail politicians effectively is to hang on their necks the necklace of corruption, they now tag anyone who has money as corrupt. How does your not knowing my source of income mean that I am corrupt? Now, let’s look at Atiku businesses: he started transport business in 1971; that is about 47 years ago. Many of those criticising his sources of income were not even born then. He has told his story how he went over to Lagos as a bachelor after his posting to Idi-Iroko border as a young customs officer and the sole distributor of Peugeot then, SCOA and succeeded in signing a hire-purchase agreement and bought four pick-ups Peugeot and gave them to four different drivers who made daily returns. As a true and sincere business man, he would go to SCOA monthly and pay them. So, he grew his businesses cutting across several sectors, including education, maritime, manufacturing among others. He has shown leadership in business and politics. He has remained the most outstanding Vice President Nigeria has ever had. According to research, one of the major problems of under-development in Africa is poor leadership and Nigeria has few good and selfless leaders. When we talk of leadership, we are talking of a call to service, a call to put others first in decision making. It will be an expensive mistake at this stage of our political life if we do not look for men of impeccable character, a strong will Nigerian who has succeeded in many sectors, who is also a nationalist that can unite Nigeria. Atiku Abubakar is a bridge builder who is at home in the six geographical zones of the country. Today, there is obvious leadership vacuum as a result of the lack of purposeful leadership by the President Buhari administration, with its fruitless policies. When you talk of corruption, we have never in the history of Nigeria witnessed the massive corruption being perpetrated under the very nose of President Buhari who has the fight against corruption as his major campaign slogan. Today, a whole N36 million will be swallowed by imaginary snake. Nigeria is not only becoming worse as a corrupt nation but incessant killings by herdsmen, sectionalism, nepotism, absence of rule of law, have become a very scary omen which have made the future blink. And the country has continued to go round a vicious cycle of stagnation, poverty and hopelessness. This is because of lack of leadership. There is corruption in other parts of the world, yet they are making progress. So, we need a leader who has succeeded in business like Atiku Abubakar has.

The National Assembly has adopted a reordering of general election in the country. What is your take on the matter? The truth of the 2019 general elections and other elections in Nigeria is that the presidential election should come last to save Nigeria’s democracy and the country from nose-diving into a one party state and if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should cooperate with the National Assembly because if the elections were not reordered, the party that wins the Presidential Election will sweep the polls at all level. This is dangerous for democracy. I have heard of a few civil society organizations (CSOs) who kick against the presidential election coming last and I will advise them to retrace their steps because they are unwittingly trying to aide a rigging formula that will turn the country into a one party state. So, if INEC wants to conduct free, fair and credible elections in the country devoid of rigging, the Commission should listen to the voice of the representatives of the Nigerian people, who are working hard to reduce bandwagon effects in voting. The members of the National Assembly should remain united in reordering the election as experienced politicians and major stakeholders in the outcome of elections. You don’t put in place an electoral process in place with one man in mind because if another person comes in, the process will be inherited by the person. The process should be to do the right thing and follow the path that can deepen democracy rather than a party that will ultimately destroy all democratic tenets we have all laboured to build. The reordered election is the best thing the current National Assembly has done for Nigeria and democracy in the country. And anyone against it is a hater of Nigerian democracy. We should not be deceived because the issue is not about President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid. It is about Nigeria after President Buhari. The INEC must do everything to ensure free, fair and very credible 2019 elections.

#national issues #restructuring debate

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