#the 60s he's protesting vietnam and she's a journalist

[jonathanbyersphd]

JANCY FIC IDEA!! In the song Timeless by Taylor Swift, she mentions different time lines that she and her lover would still end up together in. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I definitely see Jancy falling in love in any timeline. And it would give you different opportunities to write aus in times you might not usually choose.

Oh this would so cute, so very soulmates.

[coffeebooksorme]

THE VINYL UNDERGROUND eARC REVIEW

GOODREAD’S SYNOPSIS:  Dig it. During the tumultuous year of 1968, four teens are drawn together: Ronnie Bingham, who is grieving his brother’s death in Vietnam; Milo, Ronnie’s bookish best friend; “Ramrod,” a star athlete who is secretly avoiding the draft; and Hana, the new girl, a half-Japanese badass rock-n-roller whose presence doesn’t sit well with their segregated high school. The four outcasts find sanctuary in “The Vinyl Underground,” a record club where they spin music, joke, debate, and escape the stifling norms of their small southern town. But Ronnie’s eighteenth birthday is looming. Together, they hatch a plan to keep Ronnie from being drafted. But when a horrific act of racial-charged violence rocks the gang to their core, they decide it’s time for an epic act of rebellion.

A huge thanks to NetGalley for providing me this ARC in exchange for a honest review!

Ya girl has issues with requesting arcs and TOTALLY forgetting the premise of them by the time approval sets in cause I remember this was centered around music but not Vietnam 😂😂 I started to read this and was instantly turned off, DESPITE REQUESTING, and almost put it down because I’m not one for historical fiction centered around a war. Instead, I pushed on and I am so glad that I did because this book was absolutely phenomenal!

Like I said, I’m not one for historical fiction centered around a war but this one took an anti-Vietnam stance so I was super intrigued when that sentiment became the forefront of the book. I really enjoyed that it not only took that stand but it did so without shaming the soldiers who were forced to go over there and serve, which if you know anything about the Vietnam War, was a huge thing that happened back in the day. Soldiers who came back traumatized were further traumatized by anti-war protesters despite some not even wanting to go in the first place. 

The characters themselves were super fun to read about. Each one had their own distinct personality, voice, and taste in music. Here lately I’ve been reading a lot of books where the MC is well fleshed out but the side characters really aren’t and that isn’t the case with this novel at all. We get a bit of each characters backstory as well as plans for the future once the book starts coming to the end. I really loved that aspect of the book and though Rob did an excellent job with it.

There is a lot of racism discussion and honestly, I was very apprehensive about this considering it is a book set in the ‘60s and those times were not at all friendly to anyone not white or American or, quite frankly, male. Again, Rob did a good job handling it! The MC was called out on his shitty behavior when it happened, he learned, he grew. A lot of 2019 woke-ness makes appearances in the book but it’s done in such a way that I really enjoyed. I mean, obviously not every white person in the ‘60′s was bigoted and racist so it’s plausible that some actually stood up and fought back, but I had never encountered that in a novel so I was extremely happy to see that aspect in a ‘60′s based story.

As a matter of fact, besides the anti-Vietnam War theme, racism and bigotry is talked about a lot. The only female, Hana, in the group is half-Japanese, a badass, and has NO QUALMS with calling her friends out on their shitty behavior. Not only that but she isn’t hypersexualized as a lot of novels tend to do for Asian women. Hana’s this super smart, aspiring journalist with excellent taste in fashion and music. She isn’t just there to teach them not to be bigots. She’s got her own distinct point in the book.This is what I’m saying when I say the side characters are well fleshed out! 

There was once instance that was extremely hard to read so trigger warning for that because it involves racist induced violence and it really turned my stomach to read on the page. I’m not saying anything else because of spoilers but be mindful it’s there.

There is also a teeny tiny hint of romance to the novel. It’s really more of a blink and you miss it kind of thing. Honestly, I could’ve done without it. The book stood up very well on it’s own without having to add it in at the end. All in all, I really enjoyed the book and will be purchasing my own copy when it comes out. 

Expected Publication: March 3, 2020

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[back-and-totheleft]

Rider on the storm

“Get out there! Take a chance! That’s what the ‘60s were--the cutting edge! Ride the snake! Now! Now ! Remember that? Go to the limits! Challenge authority! Challenge your parents! See for yourself! Get in touch with your senses!”

That fusillade is being delivered by arguably Hollywood’s most successful protester. Yale dropout, drug-taking, decorated Vietnam vet turned auteur, Stone has delivered take after take on the ‘60s and their children--"Salvador,” “Platoon,” “Wall Street,” “Talk Radio,” “Born on the Fourth of July"--coming at his theme every which way. Drugs! War! Money! Politics! Stone has made movies to exorcise his and his generation’s demons, annoying the industry with his excesses, filmic and personal, earning a round of grudging respect for ballyhooing a 20-year-old Zeitgeist all the way to the bank. He is even a producer these days, taking home a nice percentage of the gross. The Outsider has become Establishment. Hey, Oliver, what’s that sound, everything going round and round? [...]

“Success?” asks the director, slightly startled. “That didn’t become popular as a concept until the ‘70s. Yeah, I have much more freedom to make the subjects that I want, but I don’t see myself as Darryl Zanuck. I would feel bad if I got indulgent. All good films come from people with an independent spirit, those who push. But the power of perception in the world is such that fringe ideas, when they are accepted, become mainstream--that because of their success they become a cliche.

“ ‘Platoon’ was a major innovation in our perception of what that war was. I thought ‘Born’ was a fairly radical statement; it took 10 years to make that picture--everybody passed on it. Once it was made and got eight Oscar nominations, it became a successful Hollywood movie. If it had not been successful, it would have been considered an outlaw film. Now, with the Kennedy film--why haven’t they made that already? Because people were fearful that it was uncommercial. I hope I was destined to make that picture.” [...]

As is well known, Stone made his mark as a movie maker five years ago when he turned his own life into film--"Platoon,” the 1986 Oscar-winning Vietnam War film that chronicled the director’s 1967-68 tour of duty. The movie won Best Picture and Best Director and grossed more than $160 million. Stone has made similar connections in his other less overtly biographical films. James Woods in “Salvador,” Charlie Sheen in “Wall Street,” Eric Bogosian in “Talk Radio,” Tom Cruise in “Born on the Fourth of July,” all played characters close to the director’s “male, Type-A personality,” says Bogosian. “Oliver makes movies about men under pressure.” [...]

It is a marriage of opposites that also fits Stone, who is described by those who know him as intense, passionate and smart, a prodigious director and writer whose early reputation for womanizing and drug taking never hindered an equally relentless work ethic. “He has the curiosity of a child and an incredible drive,” says Kenneth Lipper, an investment banker, author and consultant on “Wall Street.” “Oliver uses his films as an excuse to search out the facts--the truth--of a situation.”

Others who have worked for him say Stone is a masterful taskmaster who will manipulate, taunt and pressure cast and crew into sharing his commitment to the subject at hand. “He likes to do a lot of sparring to challenge you,” says actor Willem Dafoe, who starred in “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July.” Adds Bogosian: “He expects you to be a self-starter and thick-skinned when it comes to criticism. And if he senses you can’t take it, he will move away from you fast. Being on a set with him can be very punishing. But at the end of the day, everyone wants to be around him.” Kyle MacLachlan, an actor best known as FBI man Dale Cooper in television’s “Twin Peaks,” who co-stars in “The Doors,” says simply, “I miss working with Oliver.” [...]

Shying away from risks is the ultimate sin with Stone, the only child of a privileged Manhattan couple, a stockbroker father and socialite mother. Stone wore a coat and tie every day to prep school, wrote weekly essays for his father--who paid him 25 cents each--and embarked on his well-documented fall from grace as soon as he was able. Says one old friend: “Oliver grew up with a lot of contradictions in his life--Jewish father, French Roman Catholic mother who was this semi-Regine-type character. Oliver led this sort of Eurotrash jet-setter’s life--even after his parents were divorced--where nothing was normal.”

“My mother was never in bed before 3 in the morning,” Stone recalls. “She used to take me to France in the summers, and she was a great fan of movies, took me out of school to go to double and triple features. She was this kind of Auntie Mame person. ‘Evita’ would have been my homage to her.”

His parents’ divorce when he was 16 years old, Stone says, “was like parting the curtains of a stage play and seeing what was really there. I found out about a whole lot of things--affairs--I had been blind to. After that, I felt I was really on my own.”

The divorce also coincided with a larger rupture--Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, the de facto starting gun of the ‘60s. “I had no faith in my parents’ generation after that,” Stone says. “By 1965, I was in Vietnam"--first as a teacher and a merchant marine, later as an Army enlistee.

He briefly attended Yale University, his father’s alma mater, which he says he “hated, especially since it was before women were admitted.” Stone dropped out and headed for Vietnam.

He was wounded twice and earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart in a tour of duty that was later chronicled in “Platoon.” “He was never a regular GI Joe,” recalls Crutcher Patterson, a former member of Stone’s platoon. “He was pretty green, a loner and moody, always writing things. Whenever we got a break, he would stop and write a little descriptive story about it.” [...]

Stone hasn’t lost his concern for current events: “I’m praying for our soldiers, who are making the ultimate sacrifice in the Gulf War, but I don’t think Bush ever intended to negotiate. There was a military-industrial complex that pushed us into this.” Friends add that the director’s only real interest these days, in addition to making films, “is trying to set up other films.”

Have Stone’s demons finally gone AWOL? “I didn’t say I didn’t miss my old life,” he says with a half-smile. “I love the concept of suburbia, but I also love going to New York and Europe and Asia, meeting new people. My wife and I are different that way. I have a restlessness that never stops.” [...]

Stone does seem to be a man with his eye fixed perpetually over his shoulder, one who keeps a daily diary and who describes the art of filmmaking as giving vent to “that other person that is in you. The shadow self, the one that is always walking behind you. The real you, the deeper you.

“I’m not going to say I’m a lone soul here, wandering through my own soundtrack,” he says. “I enjoy the community of people who love movies. And I like using the power that I have to make things happen. But will I be doing this forever? Maybe I’ll be working in Eritrea or the Sudan, or maybe I’ll become a journalist for Rolling Stone.”

Stone has spent several hours over lunch, repeatedly waving off his crew, but now his impatience is tangible. “I still don’t like the answer I gave you about the ‘60s, how this film relates to this current generation. I felt stupid. I was doing a lot of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs,’ ” he says, suddenly obsessed with his image.

“I don’t want to believe in generation conflict, but it’s there. I feel distant from my own generation, out of step with the people my age who went to college. I always identified more with the Charlie Sheen generation, that younger group who came up, because it gave me new life. I was able to act out my own history through them, skip a generation and go back to it again. Believe me, that’s exciting, and I’m grateful for that chance because our tribal rituals are the same. It doesn’t have to be Jim Morrison or Vietnam; it’s about going out there and finding yourself.”

-Hilary De Vries, “RIDER ON THE STORM : With ‘The Doors,’ Director Oliver Stone Exhumes the ‘60s in All Their Lurid Excess,” Los Angeles Times, Feb 24 1991 [x]

[duncandriver]

John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Art and Populism

​​I. ‘Are you advertising peace or John Lennon?’

 On Thursday December 4, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono were officially ‘home to all callers’ in their London office. A BBC camera crew were documenting their comings and goings for a program entitled 24 Hours in the World of John and Yoko, and they captured a heated argument between Lennon and Gloria Emerson, a correspondent for the New York Times who had formerly been posted to Saigon. Emerson had published an article the previous week outlining Lennon’s return of his award of Member of the Order of the British Empire (M.B.E.) ‘as a protest against Britain’s role in the Nigerian civil war and the British political support of the United States in Vietnam’. She drew attention to a ‘flippant note’ attached to the award and the fact that Lennon did not make his protest in person, choosing instead to ‘sen[d] his chauffer in a white Mercedes [to Buckingham palace] to return the medal’. The critical tone of these comments became incendiary as Emerson confronted Lennon in person, attacking his ‘very big advertising campaign for peace’ and accusing him of naiveté, dilettantism and self-importance. She spoke in exasperated and frustrated tones throughout, like an adult coping with an ignorant child. Her last salvo was particularly stinging: ‘I can’t think of anyone who seems more remote from the ugliness that’s happening than you … If you were interested and committed and not too cowardly you might conceivably make a difference’. Ono attempted to persuade Emerson that what may have seemed flippant in Lennon’s actions was in fact a calculated attempt to defuse violence with humour, but the journalist remained censorious, leaving with the parting shot, ‘Mrs. Lennon, we’re boring each other, so I’ll go away’.

The scene above opens this consideration of Lennon and Ono’s art and activisim because it exemplifies the provocative and contradictory qualities of their ‘happenings’ (a popular term within the lexicon of the ‘60s avant-garde) from the early years of their marriage (c. 1969-1971). It also serves to illustrate the ways in which their art from this period both courted and resisted populism, a contentious term which is understood here in two senses: first, as an attempt to engage and unify ‘the people’ against a corrupt and self-serving elite; second, as a force that appeals to popular tastes through accessible art/entertainment that may be set against the demands of more exclusive or elite art forms.

As he argued with Emerson, Lennon asserted his commitment to the peace movement by attacking the alienating elitism of her ‘middle-class gestures for peace and intellectual manifestos’ and arguing for the gimmicks of his and Ono’s ‘advertising campaign’ as a more effective means of galvanising the people into action. His argument is persuasive, particularly when set against Emerson’s condescending tone (Lennon calls her a ‘snob’). If populism courts ‘the people’ with art that is easy to enjoy, then Lennon’s and Ono’s effort to package aspects of performance and political protest as a marketable product – peace – would indeed appear intentionally populist just as Lennon’s returning of his M.B.E. implied a public rejection of the elite (represented here by Buckingham Palace as a metonym for the British ruling class).

The scene that plays out is more complicated than this, however. If, for example, an elitist art is one that defamiliarises, frustrates or alienates its audience, then Emerson’s bemused response to Lennon and Ono’s efforts may be seen to complicate their claim to populism. Her adverse reaction was not untypical of the way audiences responded to the demands of Lennon’s and Ono’s work, moreover, and much to their chagrin. Emerson’s accusation of self-aggrandising inauthenticity may have been warranted: ‘Are you advertising peace or John Lennon?’, she asks, and the question remains unanswered by Lennon, echoing in the large London office and resonating through this investigation’s three parts. The question prompts a compelling case for Lennon and Ono themselves as elitist manipulators of ‘the people’ more than their representatives. It is such complications that will be examined, first by recognising Lennon and Ono’s achievements and stated intentions  (Part II) and then by acknowledging some of the effects of their actions (Part III).

[newstfionline]

The civil rights and Vietnam protests changed America. Today, they might be illegal.

By Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post, September 24, 2017

What’s the state of free speech in America?

Sanford Ungar, who teaches about it at Harvard and Georgetown, has a simple, depressing answer. “It’s a mess,” he says.

It’s not just the problems on college campuses where high-profile speakers haven’t been allowed to talk. It’s not just what happened in Charlottesville, where a counterprotester was run over and killed. It’s not just President Trump’s insistent call for the firings or suspensions of NFL players who take a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence.

An insidious problem also is developing in dozens of states where legislatures are considering--and sometimes approving--new laws that restrict free speech.

“They are criminalizing things that are pretty routine,” Ungar told me. “Much of the activism of the Vietnam and civil rights era would be completely illegal” under the new laws.

The lunch-counter sit-ins that were a staple of civil rights protests in the ‘60s would, under some new legislation, be punishable because they “disrupt commerce.” And the demonstrations that brought thousands into the streets of major cities to protest the Vietnam War would be a crime because they blocked traffic.

Twenty-seven states have considered such legislation, he said. Twelve bills have become law, and many others remain under consideration.

Some of the bills sound perfectly acceptable at first because their purported aim is tranquility.

But here’s the problem: Meaningful protest isn’t always as mild as milk. The new laws have little tolerance for the tumultuous reality of dissent.

In Iowa, for example, the legislature considered a bill to punish protesters who block highway traffic with up to five years in prison.

In North Dakota, the governor signed a bill that would punish masked individuals in any public forum who are trying to conceal their identity.

In Arizona, the state Senate approved a bill that would add “rioting” to organized crime statutes, making participation in a protest that turns into a riot a possible criminal racketeering offense.

Florida even considered a bill that, in some cases, would exempt drivers from liability if they struck a protester.

Traci Yoder, National Lawyers Guild director of research and education, predicts that whether this wave of bills ends up passing or not, the effect may be the same--to tamp down dissent.

“Few people would be as willing to protest if they thought they could easily be arrested, fined, imprisoned or even killed,” Yoder wrote. And most regular citizens aren’t keeping track of the details, she said, but may know that the penalties have been vastly toughened.

It amounts to a nationwide movement to chill speech.

And while it might be convenient to blame it on Trump’s hard-line views on law enforcement, much of this movement predates the Trump administration. A substantial amount of the proposed legislation stems from protests over the Dakota Access pipeline and from the Black Lives Matter movement.

While countering this trend won’t be easy, Ungar is making a start with the Free Speech Project, based at Georgetown, with funding from the university and the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. (The former president of Goucher College in Baltimore, Ungar is a journalist, a former host of “All Things Considered,” and the author of an acclaimed book on the Pentagon Papers.)

One element is a Free Speech Tracker, which has more than 50 entries for troubling incidents or legislation around the country. That’s likely to grow dramatically over the next few months, he said.

Protecting this basic American right sounds like it should be simple enough, but it’s often a minefield. (Or, at the moment, a football field.)

“Everybody believes in free speech,” Ungar notes, “until you get to the topic on which they don’t.”

[aion-rsa]

Helter Skelter: An American Myth Director Deflates the Legend of Charles Manson

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Charles Manson was five foot, two inches tall. He would claim to be five foot six, and some papers list him as 5’4″, but he was much smaller than how he has been presented. He is certainly not as physically imposing as the stature of his lore. Helter Skelter: An American Myth in one of the most comprehensive examinations of Charles Manson found in one title. The six episodes of the documentary series delve deep into the childhood of the man who would start the Family that committed the Crime of the Century.

Directed and executive produced by Lesley Chilcott, who produced An Inconvenient Truth, Helter Skelter: An American Myth doesn’t depict Manson as the mystical mastermind who infested a nation’s nightmares. Using interviews with former family members, journalists and archival footage, the documentary hopes to look past the legends to determine what makes a career criminal.

Manson is probably the most infamous convicted killer of all time. He was also one of the most institutionalized, having spent most of his life in prisons. After a lengthy and very public trial he was sentenced to death along with four of his disciples, but it was changed to serving life in prison after California did away with the death penalty. Manson, who died in November 2017, led a group of young followers to commit a series of 7 murders, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski. As the story goes, Manson believed the crimes would be blamed on African Americans and national unrest would follow.

Charlie Manson was the original prepper. He believed people were born with a natural instinct to be selfish, and prison taught him he would do anything to survive. Media interpretations say Manson headed to the desert to wait out a race war where he would wind up in charge as the last white guy standing. The documentary makes the case that was an exaggerated claim. He was a racist and a reactionary in an insulated world of liberal freethinkers, the Hippie nirvana of California. Quentin Tarantino attempted to take back the magic of the period Manson desecrated with his film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Lesley Chilcott, who also directed the feature documentaries Watson, CodeGirl, A Small Section of the World, and produced Waiting For “Superman,”spoke with Den of Geek about Helter Skelter: An American Myth and what she hopes to dispel about the legend of Charles Manson.   

Den of Geek: What is the biggest misconception about the Manson murders?

Lesley Chilcott: I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that he was this master strategist and a brilliant bearded Svengali, someone called him at the time, and that he had a real authentic plan to ignite a race war. It just isn’t true. He was a small time con artist that committed one paranoid blunder after the next. And while he had a certain amount of charisma and he did have these people that were simultaneously fearful and enthralled with him, he was not going to bring around a race war. It was a very easy construct.

It was the late ’60s, there were a lot of racial tensions, there were race riots happening in every major city across America and he glommed on to that and he explained these terrible things that were happening in society. And he would retreat into philosophical abstractions and say to his family, that’s why they needed to believe in him and that he was the only one with the answers. They would go out there to the desert because he liked the desert. And if the language about waiting out a race war was convincing, then he used it.

Most of your work has been for good, it’s been uplifting. An Inconvenient Truth, the film about Captain Paul Watson. What drew you to this story?

Me not understanding it. And what I mean by that is I don’t understand the obsession with Charles Manson and the crimes. People all over the world have heard about them and I find it very interesting because to me there’s so many more important issues and things that we could be talking about. And so I wanted to look at it, what is it? Is it because you can’t write this stuff because it’s more horrifying than fiction? Is it because it’s a time capsule for a certain time period in the late ’60s? So I just said, I want to find out if this killer was born or made. I want to do an anthropological dig and a social history of the late ’60s and of Los Angeles in the late ’60s and how there were all these simultaneously exciting freedoms happening. Yet on the other side, you had the Vietnam war, an unpopular president, political strife. And I wanted to do a cultural dive in and see why Charles Manson kept interrupting, if you will.

Waiting For “Superman” and CodeGirl, both dealt with education and economics. Is Helter Skelter the flip side of that?

That’s a good question. I think, in a way, that could be right. I think that because there were all… I’m trying to answer this in a short way rather than give you a long winded answer. But I think that we didn’t know all the ingredients that went into guru making and cult making and the late ’60s. Initially, the girls and some of the boys, and I say girls and boys because they were in their teens and early twenties, that were attracted to Charlie Manson thought, “Why not live on the fringes of society? The 50s wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, my home life is not so good. So why not use less resources and live out here on the edge or move to the desert?”

What Charlie did is he took that and he took the clocks and the watches and television and radio away and the only news the family got was through him. Most everybody got a new name. He gave each person a ton of attention and then would later abuse them. This is all classic cult behavior. And then he had a few good lines that he just kept repeating over and over again, what they were calling at the time acid rap, like LSD infused insights.

I think that it was a really unique time and without access to outside education, some people fell for this. But you also have to remember, for as many people that did fall for Charlie Manson, there are a dozen who didn’t.

I think there’s intentional myth creation. There were a lot of tabloid-esque reports in the paper at the time, the press was very competitive. On the flip side, how do you explain a crime that has no motive? And so there was uneducated myth creation about what happened, but that doesn’t take away the fact that some very, very horrific and unforgettable, unforgivable crimes were committed.

The original air date was pulled because of the protests and his connection with the race war. Do you think this is a necessary discussion for right now?

I do think it is. There were a couple of reasons that went into pushing it. Part of it was leaving space for some very important conversations that were happening. Part of it was because of the stay at home orders, we weren’t done with the episodes. So we were trying to get our stock footage and all of those things in. But I think there are some common factors about societal upheaval and inequalities and unpopular foreign wars and government officials and a lot of that stuff is happening now. So I think it’s an important conversation.

I think it’s easy to look at family members and be like, “I would never fall for a cult leader. I would never be in a cult. I would never do those things.” Yet we have cults today. People do fall for charismatic leaders. And I think it’s a good time to have these underlying conversations.

Charlie was a racist. There’s no doubt about that. And racism was a curse throughout the nation then, and it is now.

How did the ex- family members go on to have a normal life? Besides being accessories after the fact, how do they reintegrate themselves? Did they reintegrate themselves?

I think there are two categories there. I think there’s the category of the family members that did commit crimes, of which all of them except one are still in prison. They have not been able to reintegrate. Then there are the family members that weren’t involved in the murders and found out about them after the fact and went through years of therapy or rehab and years of study. And a lot of those people are in this series and were willing to sit for longer interviews because they want their tale to be a cautionary tale. They also want to attempt to explain how something like this could happen.

But Dianne Lake was 14. Her parents were on a different commune. Her parents knew she was with Charlie. Of course, Charlie wasn’t the Charlie he later became. But she’s doing a lot of acid, having sex with someone who’s two decades older than her. And you look at her and you think, “I don’t know that she really had a chance.” Yet she has recovered and finally, about 12 years ago, wrote a book and is willing to sit for these interviews, I think, because she wants people to know what happened and she wants it to be a cautionary tale.

There’s a part where Roman Polanski says the police and the media were blaming the victims. What does he mean by that?

After the crimes at the Tate house and the LaBianca house happened, the police initially didn’t make the connection between the two crimes. There was a third crime that predated that, the killing of Gary Hinman in Topanga a few weeks, or a couple of weeks earlier. Those three separate crimes, nobody was making that connection, even though there was blood written on the wall or refrigerator or something at all three locations. I think we have all these forensics now that we didn’t have then and they were all in different parts of the city and different people were investigating.

So when you look at these crimes that seemingly had no motive, the press started guessing. The police weren’t making the connection, so the press was making the connections and then they would talk to people that would say certain crazy things and then there’s no answer. We still don’t know why the crimes were committed. So they start saying, “They all must have been drug users,” and to a certain extent it’s late ’60s, a lot of people were using drugs. But they started saying it must be something because Roman Polanski made these films. It must have to do with him. Or it must have been that the victims must have attracted this violence in some way by something they were doing. And it’s completely wrong and unfair. They were total victims that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Did you actually encounter any of the other conspiracy theories, which surround the Manson case? The CIA, the Process Church, things like that?

I did, and we started looking into a lot of those initially. In fact, there is another cult flash commune down the road from Spahn Ranch that is still there now. We started going in that direction and there are million rabbit holes that you can go down.

But I think it’s a natural response to think the puzzle pieces don’t fit. These crimes didn’t have motives. It doesn’t make any sense so therefore there must be some grand conspiracy. There were places that Charlie Manson lived that people who later had something to do with MKUltra lived, so therefore they must be in cahoots together. I think it’s really easy to be like, “I hate the color blue, you hate the color blue, therefore we’re the same person and we must be connected.” It’s just not that simple.

New information will always spill out about the family because there were so many family members and each person was involved in their own thing as well as being in the family. But I think people really want to find some connections that aren’t necessarily there.

The big connection that I saw from yours was his learning of Dale Carnegie and Scientology and putting it together with LSD for the perfect compound for a new church.

That’s a great way of saying it. Charlie was very careful about implying that he was Jesus and that he had some sort of spiritual connection. He would sign things and say, “I am Christ, God, Charles Manson,” those types of things. So that’s absolutely right. On some level, maybe he wanted to believe he had some sort of spiritual connectedness that nobody else had.

I mean, LSD was being used for the first time in the ’60s and there weren’t many books about it. There weren’t many studies yet. In fact, there was studies going on at that time and people thought they saw God. And Charlie would step in, play records, he had a real gift for lyrics. Would recite them over and over, recite Bible passages over and over. You feed anybody the amount of LSD that he was feeding people and people get confused.

It’s also important to remember that the Charlie Manson who kept himself in the press, when he would go on Geraldo, when he would go on all these shows or when he would do outrageous things from prison, he was playing us. We’re puppets, too. He found a way to keep us talking about him and we’re still talking about him because the crimes are so inexplicable. So what we tried to do with the series is bring a bit of moral seriousness, to talk about the moral seriousness, if you will, that’s underneath the spectacle that became the Manson family.

If Manson was trying to incite a race war, which would be blamed on Blacks, what did he quote a white band, The Beatles?

I don’t think he was trying to incite a race war. I think that is the acid rap that he skewed to everybody. Some family members thought he was trying to do this, and some thought it was campfire talk, but they were all afraid of him. I think he was just taking convenient things. There were over 200 race riots in the late ’60s, so it wasn’t hard for him to point to racial unrest because it was real. Racism is a curse that was everywhere in the late ’60s and it’s everywhere now. So it wasn’t hard for him to do this. But to tell the family members that The Beatles were speaking to them through song, even that wasn’t original. Everybody in the late ‘’60s thought they were hearing messages in lyrics and in records.

One of the original investigators says that anyone that thinks this is about Helter Skelter and the race war is wrong. Do you think he’s talking about a different alternative?

Yeah, that’s his opinion, but I found that that was many people’s opinion, that this race war made for really good conversation. LA had the biggest race riots of all in ‘65. Charlie gets out of prison in ‘67, he was in Long Beach, he goes to Northern California. He comes back to LA, there are all sorts of racial tensions. He was a racist. He thinks we’re sort of separated into racial groups in the prison system that he grew up with.

But I think saying that it was about orchestrating a race war is giving Charlie way too much credit. When the houses that they chose to commit murders at random happened to contain movie stars, heiresses, famous hairstylists, a couple people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you have all the makings of what you would want for a fiction story. Only in this case, it was real. And I think people can’t let it go.

And then Charlie becomes this counter-culture hero for a very small group of people who feel that he was railroaded and then you have a whole other spin on it. But I think it’s time for us to stop being puppets and move on.

Why do you think Manson was getting proposals and propositions throughout his entire stay in prison?

I think he orchestrated those. He managed to record some music in prison and the biggest surprise for me in this is finding out that he actually was a decent musician. He wrote some very decent lyrics. And you imagine this girl that’s run away from home and then Charlie sings a song to her called “Look At Your Game Girl,” and tells them exactly what they want to hear and they start to believe it as gospel. I think he had a way of taking something in each era. He was going to parole hearings up until the ‘90s and then I think he gave up, realizing it was never getting out and he would do something outrageous and newsworthy. He would say things to provoke people just to keep himself in the news. He was very clever that way and everyone kept falling for the story over and over again. When you look behind the curtain, it turns out there’s not a lot there.

But he continued to get fan mail and romance propositions.

Yeah, and he would write people and he would farm out writing people to other fellow inmates. He didn’t have the greatest of education and I don’t know how… I’ve seen his penmanship last year when we were doing our research. It had been 50 years since the crimes and there were these events and people would bring their letters from Charlie Manson and you would see his crazy writing and he would create art that he would smuggle out. He still tried to grow this group from within prison.

Steve Grogan is left out of most of the coverage that we’ve seen with the Manson family trials. Why is his name not as recognizable as Watkins, Atkinson, Squeaky? She wasn’t even part of the killings.

Steve Clem Grogan was involved in the murder of Shorty Shea. Shorty Shea happened after the Tate and the LaBianca murders and it’s a murder that people don’t talk about a lot. People often say, “He wasn’t involved in any crimes.” That’s not true. He was involved in the killing of Gary Hinman. He was at that house, he sliced Gary Hinman on the ear and then he left. He helped kill Shorty Shea, so he committed that murder. So, that’s another myth about how Charlie never committed the crimes.

Steve Clem Grogan was also involved in the murder of Shorty Shea. Incidentally, he is the only murderer that is out of prison and has not committed those types of crimes since then. He was younger, I think he was 15 or 16 when he was first at Spahn Ranch. We did try to interview him, people have tried to interview them over the years, but he has tried to leave that time behind him

The documentary itself had a lot more information about the life of young Charles Manson than any I’ve ever seen.

Yeah. We went to West Virginia and we actually shot in Moundsville Prison. When Charlie was four and a half, his mother was sent to prison and he would go and visit her in this horrific prison. If it’s not bad enough visiting someone in prison, this was this dirty, gothic, cold, wet, old prison with 11 foot thick walls designed to intimidate. He would go and visit his mother and he couldn’t touch her, she was behind this glass. And he was living with an aunt and uncle who were trying to take care of him, but he was a handful and he didn’t have a good childhood. He really did have a bad childhood.

I think when people are weighing nature versus nurture or are killers born or made and they’re weighing that question in their mind and you wonder that a lot about someone like Charles Manson, he definitely had the ingredients growing up that were not good, that could turn you into something. But I think the question, whether he was born or made, I think the viewers are going to come to their own conclusion by the end.

Was Terry Melcher right about his assessment of Manson as a musician?

Music is a matter of opinion. I don’t think he was a brilliant musician by any means, but I was relieved to hear that he was a good lyricist and he had a nice voice. And so when you’re saying, “Oh my God, this is a horrible story. I would never be in that position, I would never fall for him,” and then you hear a song that actually sounds kind of nice and insightful, you think, “Okay. Maybe had things gone a little differently he could have had a music career,” and we would hope that things would have turned out differently.

Helter Skelter: An American Myth, episode 1, premieres Sunday, July 26 at 10 p.m. on Epix.

The post Helter Skelter: An American Myth Director Deflates the Legend of Charles Manson appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Hong Kong reports 1st coronavirus death amid hospital strike

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/hong-kong-reports-1st-coronavirus-death-amid-hospital-strike/

Hong Kong reports 1st coronavirus death amid hospital strike

Hong Kong hospitals cut services as medical workers were striking for a second day Tuesday to demand the border with mainland China be shut completely to ward off a virus that caused its first death in the semi-autonomous territory and that authorities fear could be spreading locally.

All but two of Hong Kong’s land and sea crossings with the mainland were closed at midnight after more than 2,000 hospital workers went on strike Monday. But on Tuesday, health authorities reported two additional patients without any known travel to the virus epicenter, bringing the number of locally-transmitted cases up to four.

Chuang Shuk-kwan, who heads the communicable disease branch at the Center for Health Protection, said the growing caseload “indicates significant risk of community transmission” and could portend a “large-scale” outbreak.

READ MORE: Canadians with coronavirus symptoms won’t be allowed onto evacuation flight from China: officials

According to the Hospital Authority Employees’ Alliance, the strike organizer, more than 7,000 members joined the strike today to demand closure of the border across which tens of thousands of people continue to travel daily.

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Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority said it was cutting back services because “a large number of staff members are absent from duty” and “emergency services in public hospitals have been affected.”

Hong Kong was hit hard by SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, in 2002-03, an illness from the same virus family as the current outbreak. Trust in Chinese authorities has plummeted following months of anti-government protests in the Asian financial hub.

The territory’s beleaguered leader, Carrie Lam, criticized the strike action and said the government was doing all it could to limit the flow of people across the border.

2:45 Calgary family prepares for long trip back from Wuhan

Calgary family prepares for long trip back from Wuhan

“Important services, critical operations have been affected,” including cancer treatments and care for newborns, Lam told reporters. “So I’m appealing to those who are taking part in this action that let’s put the interests of the patients and the entire public health system above all other things.”

Also Tuesday, the leader of the nearby gambling enclave of Macao asked the city’s casino bosses to suspend operations to prevent further infections after a worker at one of the resorts tested positive for the virus. Macao has recorded 10 cases in all.

READ MORE: Canadians with coronavirus symptoms won’t be allowed onto evacuation flight from China: officials

The mainland’s latest figures of 425 deaths and 20,438 confirmed infections of the new coronavirus were up from 361 deaths and 17,205 cases the previous day. Outside mainland China, at least 180 cases have been confirmed, including two fatalities, one in Hong Kong and the other in the Philippines.

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The patient who died in Hong Kong was a 39-year-old man who had traveled to Wuhan, the mainland city that has been the epicenter of the outbreak, before being hospitalized. The Hospital Authority said Tuesday he had existing health conditions but did not give details. Hong Kong later reported two other people were confirmed to have the virus, with countries from Belgium to Vietnam also reporting new cases. A growing list of countries from the U.S. to Iran have arranged flights to return their citizens home from China.

1:50 Government would help repatriate Canadians in China if assistance requested: Champagne

Government would help repatriate Canadians in China if assistance requested: Champagne

Most cases of the illness have been mild, and many who died have been older people with other ailments such as diabetes or heart disease.

China has struggled to maintain supplies of masks to filter out the virus, along with protective suits and other key articles, as it seeks to enforce temperature checks at homes, offices, shops and restaurants, require masks be worn in public and keep more than 50 million people from leaving home in Wuhan and neighboring cities.

READ MORE: Could the new coronavirus go from epidemic to pandemic? Here’s what that means

To help meet demand, the European Union office in Beijing said member states have shipped 12 tons of protective equipment to China, with more on the way.

Late Monday, China’s President Xi Jinping presided over a special meeting of the top Communist Party body for the second time since the crisis started, saying “we have launched a people’s war of prevention of the epidemic.”

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Other countries are continuing evacuations and restricting the entry of Chinese or people who have recently traveled in the country.

2:24 China races to contain cornonavirus amid economic impact

China races to contain cornonavirus amid economic impact

Germany’s Lufthansa became the latest international airline to suspend flights to China, and several countries are barring Chinese travelers or people who passed through China recently. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways also said they were suspending or cutting back on flights from Japan to several Chinese cities from mid-February to late March.

In Wuhan, patients were being transferred to a new 1,000-bed hospital that officials hope will improve isolation to stem the virus’s spread. It was built in just 10 days, its prefabricated wards equipped with state-of-the-art medical equipment and ventilation systems. A 1,500-bed hospital also specially built for patients infected with the new virus is due to open within days.

Elsewhere in Wuhan, authorities were converting a gymnasium, exhibition hall and cultural center into hospitals with a total of 3,400 beds to treat patients with mild symptoms of the virus. Television footage of those facilities showed beds placed in tight rows in large rooms without dividers or any barriers to keep patients isolated.

READ MORE: Hong Kong reports its first coronavirus death as cases top 20K worldwide

Authorities hope that will help relieve what is being described as an overwhelmed public health system in Wuhan and surrounding areas.

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One man, Fang Bin, said he saw wards so crowded during a visit to the city’s No. 5 Hospital on Saturday that some patients were forced to sit on the ground for lack of seating.

“There are too many patients, it’s overcrowded,” Fang told The Associated Press. He said he was taken from his home and questioned by police after he posted a video of what he’d seen online, a reflection of the communist government’s instinctive impulse to control all information about politics and public emergencies.

“There aren’t enough beds at all these hospitals,” Fang said.

2:21 CFB Trenton preparing for Canadian evacuees from China

CFB Trenton preparing for Canadian evacuees from China

Such scenes have revived memories of the 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS that began in China and spread worldwide. The new virus is believed to be much less virulent, however, with experts putting the mortality rate of those catch it at about 2 percent. Most victims were over 60 years and many had pre-existing medical problems.

With no end to the outbreak in sight, authorities in Hubei and elsewhere extended the Lunar New Year holiday break, due to end this week, well into February to try to keep people at home and reduce the spread of the virus. All Hubei schools are postponing the start of the new semester until further notice, as a many in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere.

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Chinese scientists said they have more evidence the virus originated in bats. In a study published in the journal Nature, Shi Zhen-Li and colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology reported that genome sequences from seven patients were 96% identical to a bat coronavirus.

READ MORE: Built in just 10 days, coronavirus hospital in China accepts first patients

On Tuesday, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a 42-year-old South Korean woman tested positive for the virus, days after she returned from a trip to Thailand with chills and other symptoms.

It is South Korea’s 16th case. Thailand has confirmed 19 cases, mostly Chinese tourists but also in a Thai taxi driver.

A passenger on a Japanese-operated cruise ship tested positive after leaving the vessel while it was in Hong Kong, and Japanese officials were conducting medical checks on the more than 3,000 people on board Tuesday.

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Afternoon MAGAthread: YOUR WEEKLY PRESIDENTIAL RECAP!

HAPPY SATURDAY PATRIOTS!

This is u/Ivaginaryfriend here and I'm back with all things spicy and dank from the past week! For those that missed any past recaps you can check those out here!

Sunday, January 27th:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

58,000 non-citizens voted in Texas, with 95,000 non-citizens registered to vote. These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. All over the country, especially in California, voter fraud is rampant. Must be stopped. Strong voter ID! @foxandfriends

We are not even into February and the cost of illegal immigration so far this year is $18,959,495,168. Cost Friday was $603,331,392. There are at least 25,772,342 illegal aliens, not the 11,000,000 that have been reported for years, in our Country. So ridiculous! DHS

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, just stated that because of me NATO has been able to raise far more money than ever before from its members after many years of decline. It’s called burden sharing. Also, more united. Dems & Fake News like to portray the opposite!

(Retweeting ChatByCC) Strong people stand up for themselves—but stronger people stand up for others. Thank you President @realDonaldTrump for standing up for America.

Thank you to Brit. This is a very big deal in Europe. Fake News is the Enemy of the People!

(Retweeting Ken Paxton) VOTER FRAUD ALERT: The @TXsecofstate discovered approx 95,000 individuals identified by DPS as non-U.S. citizens have a matching voter registration record in TX, approx 58,000 of whom have voted in TX elections. Any illegal vote deprives Americans of their voice.

(Retweeting The GOP) “300 people are dying from heroin overdoses a week in this country, 90% of it is coming over the southern border… We’ve got to stop it.”—@KellyannePolls

#HolocaustMemorialDay

BUILD A WALL & CRIME WILL FALL!

Never thought I’d say this but I think @johnrobertsFox and @GillianHTurner @FoxNews have even less understanding of the Wall negotiations than the folks at FAKE NEWS CNN & NBC! Look to final results! Don’t know how my poll numbers are so good, especially up 19% with Hispanics?

After all that I have done for the Military, our great Veterans, Judges (99), Justices (2), Tax & Regulation Cuts, the Economy, Energy, Trade & MUCH MORE, does anybody really think I won’t build the WALL? Done more in first two years than any President! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Aaaaahaha, Wikileaks putting NYT in their place.

r/politics is propaganda. Their target is us.

Kamala Harris literally prostituted her body to obtain positions of power within the United States government. Then she joined the #MeToo movement and accused Kavanaugh of being a rapist. Now she’s running for President

This is an actual tweet by an actual congressman.... Mark Dice throwing a little shade

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

In Their Heads. 24/7. Rent Free.

Leftist Are Trash.

Interesting

saw this on the pole of a stoplight down the street from my house, right in front of the elementary school

Monday, January 28th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

Executive Order on Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Venezuela

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Tariffs on the “dumping” of Steel in the United States have totally revived our Steel Industry. New and expanded plants are happening all over the U.S. We have not only saved this important industry, but created many jobs. Also, billions paid to our treasury. A BIG WIN FOR U.S.

Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible. Starting to make a turn back? Great!

Howard Schultz doesn’t have the “guts” to run for President! Watched him on @60Minutes last night and I agree with him that he is not the “smartest person.” Besides, America already has that! I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!

“In the Media’s effort to destroy the President, they are actually destroying themselves. Given all of the tremendous headwinds this President has faced, it’s amazing he has accomplished so much.” DEROY MURDOCK @foxandfriends I agree!

In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!

How does Da Nang Dick (Blumenthal) serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee when he defrauded the American people about his so called War Hero status in Vietnam, only to later admit, with tears pouring down his face, that he was never in Vietnam. An embarrassment to our Country!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

'We don't want open borders': Hispanic pastors back President Trump on immigration

NATO increases spending by $100B due to Trump calling them delinquents

'They Treated Me Like El Chapo': Roger Stone Recounts 'Over-the-Top' Arrest | This arrest is such an outrage... Mueller must go!!!

BOOM!!!!! Federal Panel Of Judges Dismisses All 83 Ethics Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh!

State of the Union address rescheduled for February 5

Border Patrol Wife Invites Speaker Pelosi to See Why Walls Are Needed

PRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:

Press Beating

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Just a reminder that Reddit intentionally silences the political speech of 700,000 supporters of the President of the United States

Has anyone seen Ruth?

Accurate as hell

This is why I like a small federal government.

Tuesday, January 29th:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

A low level staffer that I hardly knew named Cliff Sims wrote yet another boring book based on made up stories and fiction. He pretended to be an insider when in fact he was nothing more than a gofer. He signed a non-disclosure agreement. He is a mess!

“Our economy, right now, is the Gold Standard throughout the World.” @IngrahamAngle So true, and not even close!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

GOOSEBUMPS

Soon to be Fired Johns Hopkins Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry: Transgenderism is a “mental disorder”, that sex change is “biologically impossible,” and that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder.

Tucker Carlson: Roger Stone raid shows that CNN is no longer covering Robert Mueller. They're working with him

Twitter Says Advising Fired Journalists to 'Learn to Code' Is Hate Speech. But when reporters were mocking out of work coal miners and manufacturing workers the same way it was okay

LMAO - Nancy and Cryin' Chuck's choice for the Dems' SOTU response is a tax delinquent with nearly $200k in unpaid college debt.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Al Gore's 10 year Climate Change Challenge

WHERE'S RUTH?

Total disaster

Yikes

Where in the World, is Ruth Bader Ginsberg?

Wednesday, January 30th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

Two Nominations Sent to the Senate

President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Judicial Nominees

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Maduro willing to negotiate with opposition in Venezuela following U.S. sanctions and the cutting off of oil revenues. Guaido is being targeted by Venezuelan Supreme Court. Massive protest expected today. Americans should not travel to Venezuela until further notice.

When I became President, ISIS was out of control in Syria & running rampant. Since then tremendous progress made, especially over last 5 weeks. Caliphate will soon be destroyed, unthinkable two years ago. Negotiating are proceeding well in Afghanistan after 18 years of fighting.. ... ....Fighting continues but the people of Afghanistan want peace in this never ending war. We will soon see if talks will be successful? North Korea relationship is best it has ever been with U.S. No testing, getting remains, hostages returned. Decent chance of Denuclearization... ... ...Time will tell what will happen with North Korea, but at the end of the previous administration, relationship was horrendous and very bad things were about to happen. Now a whole different story. I look forward to seeing Kim Jong Un shortly. Progress being made-big difference!

If the committee of Republicans and Democrats now meeting on Border Security is not discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!

“Three separate caravans marching to our Border. The numbers are tremendous.” @foxandfriends

The Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong! When I became President Iran was making trouble all over the Middle East, and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are MUCH different, but.... ... ....a source of potential danger and conflict. They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge. There economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!

Dow just broke 25,000. Tremendous news!

Spoke today with Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido to congratulate him on his historic assumption of the presidency and reinforced strong United States support for Venezuela’s fight to regain its democracy.... ... ....Large protests all across Venezuela today against Maduro. The fight for freedom has begun!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

JUST IN: Woman who sexually assaulted Infowars reporter has been arrested.

Brad Parscale on Twitter: "Where it counts @realDonaldTrump is stronger than 2016. The fake news establishment media is not fooling these voters."

NO SHIT SHERLOCK ...

This is insanity. Seems like advocating for Post Term Abortion AKA MURDER by any standard I’m aware of. The only thing worse than what the Democrat Governor of VA said was the fact that there’s zero pushback from the host.

Trump slams Virginia Democrats over 'terrible' abortion stance

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Book burnings don't always look like this...

Lion King (NY Progressive Remaster, 2019)

I'm afraid that 2019 is the year that the Supreme Court is going to be RUTHLESS

Judge Orders Release Of Sealed Records From BuzzFeed’s Dossier Lawsuit

Anytime some media company tries to run some sensational headline about MAGA being violent..new rule..always wait 3 days to get the real story.

Thursday, January 31st:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Donald J. Trump Announces Appointments for the Executive Office of the President

Executive Order on Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects

President Trump's Message on Securing our Border

President Trump Meets with American Manufacturers and Signs an Executive Order

President Trump Meets with the Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

So great to watch & listen to all these people who write books & talk about my presidential campaign and so many others things related to winning, and how I should be doing “IT.” As I take it all in, I then sit back, look around, & say “gee, I’m in the White House, & they’re not!

Large sections of WALL have already been built with much more either under construction or ready to go. Renovation of existing WALLS is also a very big part of the plan to finally, after many decades, properly Secure Our Border. The Wall is getting done one way or the other!

Lets just call them WALLS from now on and stop playing political games! A WALL is a WALL!

With Murders up 33% in Mexico, a record, why wouldn’t any sane person want to build a Wall! Construction has started and will not stop until it is finished. @LouDobbs @foxandfriends

China’s top trade negotiators are in the U.S. meeting with our representatives. Meetings are going well with good intent and spirit on both sides. China does not want an increase in Tariffs and feels they will do much better if they make a deal. They are correct. I will be...... ... ....meeting with their top leaders and representatives today in the Oval Office. No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi, and I, meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points. Very comprehensive transaction.... ... ....China’s representatives and I are trying to do a complete deal, leaving NOTHING unresolved on the table. All of the many problems are being discussed and will be hopefully resolved. Tariffs on China increase to 25% on March 1st, so all working hard to complete by that date!

Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee are wasting their time. Democrats, despite all of the evidence, proof and Caravans coming, are not going to give money to build the DESPERATELY needed WALL. I’ve got you covered. Wall is already being built, I don’t expect much help!

Democrats are becoming the Party of late term abortion, high taxes, Open Borders and Crime!

More troops being sent to the Southern Border to stop the attempted Invasion of Illegals, through large Caravans, into our Country. We have stopped the previous Caravans, and we will stop these also. With a Wall it would be soooo much easier and less expensive. Being Built!

Looking for China to open their Markets not only to Financial Services, which they are now doing, but also to our Manufacturing, Farmers and other U.S. businesses and industries. Without this a deal would be unacceptable!

Schumer and the Democrats are big fans of being weak and passive with Iran. They have no clue as to the danger they would be inflicting on our Country. Iran is in financial chaos now because of the sanctions and Iran Deal termination. Dems put us in a bad place - but now good!

Very sadly, Murder cases in Mexico in 2018 rose 33% from 2017, to 33,341. This is a big contributor to the Humanitarian Crisis taking place on our Southern Border and then spreading throughout our Country. Worse even than Afghanistan. Much caused by DRUGS. Wall is being built!

(Video)

Just concluded a great meeting with my Intel team in the Oval Office who told me that what they said on Tuesday at the Senate Hearing was mischaracterized by the media - and we are very much in agreement on Iran, ISIS, North Korea, etc. Their testimony was distorted press.... ... ....I would suggest you read the COMPLETE testimony from Tuesday. A false narrative is so bad for our Country. I value our intelligence community. Happily, we had a very good meeting, and we are all on the same page!

Our great U.S. Border Patrol Agents made the biggest Fentanyl bust in our Country’s history. Thanks, as always, for a job well done!

Just out: The big deal, very mysterious Don jr telephone calls, after the innocent Trump Tower meeting, that the media & Dems said were made to his father (me), were just conclusively found NOT to be made to me. They were made to friends & business associates of Don. Really sad!

Nellie Ohr, the wife of DOJ official Bruce Ohr, was long ago investigating for pay (GPS Fusion) members of my family, feeding it to her husband who was then giving it to the FBI, even though it was created by ousted & discredited Christopher Steele. Illegal! WITCH HUNT

This Witch Hunt must end!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

President Trump warned us 2 years ago that the Democrat party would push for late term abortion.. watch Clinton accuse him of using "scare tactics"

"nO vOters, wE wOuLD NEVER dO tHAT" - 2 YEARS LATER ...

And they wonder why we call them NPC. Behold, the womanoid robot.

House Dems Reject GOP Proposal to Block Raises for Federal Employees Guilty of Sexual Misconduct. Vote was chaired by Democrat Tony Cardenas, who is accused of drugging teenage girl

Graham: We’re Getting Trump’s Ninth Circuit Nominees Confirmed

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Press that button!! You know you want to!

Roger Stone Explains How to Dress for Court

Ohio Passes Heartbeat Bill Which Bans Abortions After 6 Weeks

White people in Chicago at 2AM...

Friday, February 1st:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration Posts

President Trump Meets to Discuss Fighting Human Trafficking on the Southern Border

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

I inherited a total mess in Syria and Afghanistan, the “Endless Wars” of unlimited spending and death. During my campaign I said, very strongly, that these wars must finally end. We spend $50 Billion a year in Afghanistan and have hit them so hard that we are now talking peace... ... ....after 18 long years. Syria was loaded with ISIS until I came along. We will soon have destroyed 100% of the Caliphate, but will be watching them closely. It is now time to start coming home and, after many years, spending our money wisely. Certain people must get smart!

Best January for the DOW in over 30 years. We have, by far, the strongest economy in the world!

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!

Great news on Foxconn in Wisconsin after my conversation with Terry Gou!

(Retweeting The White House) "We added 304,000 jobs, which was a shocker to a lot of people. It wasn't a shocker to me."

Thank you to Senator Rob Portman and Senator Cory Gardner for the early and warm endorsement. We will ALL WIN in 2020 together!

National African American History Month is an occasion to rediscover the enduring stories of African Americans and the gifts of freedom, purpose, and opportunity they have bestowed on future generations..

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Governor Who Endorsed Infanticide Received $2 Million From Planned Parenthood

EMBARRASSING - Elizabeth Warren apologizes to Cherokee Nation over taking DNA test to prove Native American roots

Virginia Governor on Blast!!! @GovernorVA Are you the one in blackface or the one in the KKK hood?

Very Fake News CNN falsely labels Northam a Republican.

REMINDER: Cory Booker Groped Someone In High School and Wrote an Op-Ed About It. Then Tried to Destroy Kavanaugh's Life. Fuck Him.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

If Fake News Journalists need help coding, I know a guy.

YUGE difference between President Trump and Ralph Northam!

u/Daniel_Wat posted this in r/dankmemes

Northamsgone

New Planned Parenthood Ad Campaign is looking lit 🔥👽

Saturday, February 2nd:

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

(D)Ralph Northam now claims he is neither the blackface or KKK person in his yearbook photo...ok...so why was his nickname “Coonman”?

Planned Parenthood receives about $500,000,000 a year in taxpayer funds. In the most recent election, Planned Parenthood helped contribute $30,000,000 to Democrat’s campaigns. Democrat politicians are buying campaign contributions with your hard-earned money. It’s a corrupt money laundering cycle.

The greatest jobs President America has ever seen! MAGAnomics – January Jobs Report, Massive Wage Growth, Manufacturing Report and Overall Economic Numbers Stun Financial Media…

Don Jr. is a certified spice dealer

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

The two parties in a nutshell.

Quick Shills are up early. Post pics that make them realize they have no charisma or class

“And I would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling Republicans!”

Definitely not the most convincing apology I have ever seen.

WHAT A SPICY WEEK!

Of course no recap is complete without some tunes for your jamming pleasures:

I'll Keep You Safe

World On Fire

One Dance

It's Strange

Right To It

Imagine

MAGA ON PATRIOTS!

submitted by /u/Ivaginaryfriend [link] [comments]

[robgrayofficial]

HAPPY SATURDAY PATRIOTS!This is u/Ivaginaryfriend here and I'm back with all things spicy and dank from the past week! For those that missed any past recaps you can check those out here!Sunday, January 27th:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:58,000 non-citizens voted in Texas, with 95,000 non-citizens registered to vote. These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. All over the country, especially in California, voter fraud is rampant. Must be stopped. Strong voter ID! @foxandfriendsWe are not even into February and the cost of illegal immigration so far this year is $18,959,495,168. Cost Friday was $603,331,392. There are at least 25,772,342 illegal aliens, not the 11,000,000 that have been reported for years, in our Country. So ridiculous! DHSJens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, just stated that because of me NATO has been able to raise far more money than ever before from its members after many years of decline. It’s called burden sharing. Also, more united. Dems & Fake News like to portray the opposite!(Retweeting ChatByCC) Strong people stand up for themselves—but stronger people stand up for others. Thank you President @realDonaldTrump for standing up for America.Thank you to Brit. This is a very big deal in Europe. Fake News is the Enemy of the People!(Retweeting Ken Paxton) VOTER FRAUD ALERT: The @TXsecofstate discovered approx 95,000 individuals identified by DPS as non-U.S. citizens have a matching voter registration record in TX, approx 58,000 of whom have voted in TX elections. Any illegal vote deprives Americans of their voice.(Retweeting The GOP) “300 people are dying from heroin overdoses a week in this country, 90% of it is coming over the southern border… We’ve got to stop it.”—@KellyannePolls#HolocaustMemorialDayBUILD A WALL & CRIME WILL FALL!Never thought I’d say this but I think @johnrobertsFox and @GillianHTurner @FoxNews have even less understanding of the Wall negotiations than the folks at FAKE NEWS CNN & NBC! Look to final results! Don’t know how my poll numbers are so good, especially up 19% with Hispanics?After all that I have done for the Military, our great Veterans, Judges (99), Justices (2), Tax & Regulation Cuts, the Economy, Energy, Trade & MUCH MORE, does anybody really think I won’t build the WALL? Done more in first two years than any President! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Aaaaahaha, Wikileaks putting NYT in their place.r/politics is propaganda. Their target is us.Kamala Harris literally prostituted her body to obtain positions of power within the United States government. Then she joined the #MeToo movement and accused Kavanaugh of being a rapist. Now she’s running for PresidentThis is an actual tweet by an actual congressman.... Mark Dice throwing a little shade🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:In Their Heads. 24/7. Rent Free.Leftist Are Trash.Interestingsaw this on the pole of a stoplight down the street from my house, right in front of the elementary schoolMonday, January 28th:TODAY'S ACTION:Executive Order on Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency with Respect to Venezuela🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Tariffs on the “dumping” of Steel in the United States have totally revived our Steel Industry. New and expanded plants are happening all over the U.S. We have not only saved this important industry, but created many jobs. Also, billions paid to our treasury. A BIG WIN FOR U.S.Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible. Starting to make a turn back? Great!Howard Schultz doesn’t have the “guts” to run for President! Watched him on @60Minutes last night and I agree with him that he is not the “smartest person.” Besides, America already has that! I only hope that Starbucks is still paying me their rent in Trump Tower!“In the Media’s effort to destroy the President, they are actually destroying themselves. Given all of the tremendous headwinds this President has faced, it’s amazing he has accomplished so much.” DEROY MURDOCK @foxandfriends I agree!In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!How does Da Nang Dick (Blumenthal) serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee when he defrauded the American people about his so called War Hero status in Vietnam, only to later admit, with tears pouring down his face, that he was never in Vietnam. An embarrassment to our Country!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:'We don't want open borders': Hispanic pastors back President Trump on immigrationNATO increases spending by $100B due to Trump calling them delinquents'They Treated Me Like El Chapo': Roger Stone Recounts 'Over-the-Top' Arrest | This arrest is such an outrage... Mueller must go!!!BOOM!!!!! Federal Panel Of Judges Dismisses All 83 Ethics Complaints Against Brett Kavanaugh!State of the Union address rescheduled for February 5Border Patrol Wife Invites Speaker Pelosi to See Why Walls Are NeededPRESS BRIEFINGS, INTERVIEWS, RALLIES:Press Beating🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Just a reminder that Reddit intentionally silences the political speech of 700,000 supporters of the President of the United StatesHas anyone seen Ruth?Accurate as hellThis is why I like a small federal government.Tuesday, January 29th:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:A low level staffer that I hardly knew named Cliff Sims wrote yet another boring book based on made up stories and fiction. He pretended to be an insider when in fact he was nothing more than a gofer. He signed a non-disclosure agreement. He is a mess!“Our economy, right now, is the Gold Standard throughout the World.” @IngrahamAngle So true, and not even close!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:GOOSEBUMPSSoon to be Fired Johns Hopkins Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry: Transgenderism is a “mental disorder”, that sex change is “biologically impossible,” and that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder.Tucker Carlson: Roger Stone raid shows that CNN is no longer covering Robert Mueller. They're working with himTwitter Says Advising Fired Journalists to 'Learn to Code' Is Hate Speech. But when reporters were mocking out of work coal miners and manufacturing workers the same way it was okayLMAO - Nancy and Cryin' Chuck's choice for the Dems' SOTU response is a tax delinquent with nearly $200k in unpaid college debt.🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Al Gore's 10 year Climate Change ChallengeWHERE'S RUTH?Total disasterYikesWhere in the World, is Ruth Bader Ginsberg?Wednesday, January 30th:TODAY'S ACTION:Two Nominations Sent to the SenatePresident Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Judicial Nominees🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Maduro willing to negotiate with opposition in Venezuela following U.S. sanctions and the cutting off of oil revenues. Guaido is being targeted by Venezuelan Supreme Court. Massive protest expected today. Americans should not travel to Venezuela until further notice.When I became President, ISIS was out of control in Syria & running rampant. Since then tremendous progress made, especially over last 5 weeks. Caliphate will soon be destroyed, unthinkable two years ago. Negotiating are proceeding well in Afghanistan after 18 years of fighting.. ... ....Fighting continues but the people of Afghanistan want peace in this never ending war. We will soon see if talks will be successful? North Korea relationship is best it has ever been with U.S. No testing, getting remains, hostages returned. Decent chance of Denuclearization... ... ...Time will tell what will happen with North Korea, but at the end of the previous administration, relationship was horrendous and very bad things were about to happen. Now a whole different story. I look forward to seeing Kim Jong Un shortly. Progress being made-big difference!If the committee of Republicans and Democrats now meeting on Border Security is not discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!“Three separate caravans marching to our Border. The numbers are tremendous.” @foxandfriendsThe Intelligence people seem to be extremely passive and naive when it comes to the dangers of Iran. They are wrong! When I became President Iran was making trouble all over the Middle East, and beyond. Since ending the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal, they are MUCH different, but.... ... ....a source of potential danger and conflict. They are testing Rockets (last week) and more, and are coming very close to the edge. There economy is now crashing, which is the only thing holding them back. Be careful of Iran. Perhaps Intelligence should go back to school!Dow just broke 25,000. Tremendous news!Spoke today with Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido to congratulate him on his historic assumption of the presidency and reinforced strong United States support for Venezuela’s fight to regain its democracy.... ... ....Large protests all across Venezuela today against Maduro. The fight for freedom has begun!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:JUST IN: Woman who sexually assaulted Infowars reporter has been arrested.Brad Parscale on Twitter: "Where it counts @realDonaldTrump is stronger than 2016. The fake news establishment media is not fooling these voters."NO SHIT SHERLOCK ...This is insanity. Seems like advocating for Post Term Abortion AKA MURDER by any standard I’m aware of. The only thing worse than what the Democrat Governor of VA said was the fact that there’s zero pushback from the host.Trump slams Virginia Democrats over 'terrible' abortion stance🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Book burnings don't always look like this...Lion King (NY Progressive Remaster, 2019)I'm afraid that 2019 is the year that the Supreme Court is going to be RUTHLESSJudge Orders Release Of Sealed Records From BuzzFeed’s Dossier LawsuitAnytime some media company tries to run some sensational headline about MAGA being violent..new rule..always wait 3 days to get the real story.Thursday, January 31st:TODAY'S ACTION:President Donald J. Trump Announces Appointments for the Executive Office of the PresidentExecutive Order on Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure ProjectsPresident Trump's Message on Securing our BorderPresident Trump Meets with American Manufacturers and Signs an Executive OrderPresident Trump Meets with the Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:So great to watch & listen to all these people who write books & talk about my presidential campaign and so many others things related to winning, and how I should be doing “IT.” As I take it all in, I then sit back, look around, & say “gee, I’m in the White House, & they’re not!Large sections of WALL have already been built with much more either under construction or ready to go. Renovation of existing WALLS is also a very big part of the plan to finally, after many decades, properly Secure Our Border. The Wall is getting done one way or the other!Lets just call them WALLS from now on and stop playing political games! A WALL is a WALL!With Murders up 33% in Mexico, a record, why wouldn’t any sane person want to build a Wall! Construction has started and will not stop until it is finished. @LouDobbs @foxandfriendsChina’s top trade negotiators are in the U.S. meeting with our representatives. Meetings are going well with good intent and spirit on both sides. China does not want an increase in Tariffs and feels they will do much better if they make a deal. They are correct. I will be...... ... ....meeting with their top leaders and representatives today in the Oval Office. No final deal will be made until my friend President Xi, and I, meet in the near future to discuss and agree on some of the long standing and more difficult points. Very comprehensive transaction.... ... ....China’s representatives and I are trying to do a complete deal, leaving NOTHING unresolved on the table. All of the many problems are being discussed and will be hopefully resolved. Tariffs on China increase to 25% on March 1st, so all working hard to complete by that date!Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee are wasting their time. Democrats, despite all of the evidence, proof and Caravans coming, are not going to give money to build the DESPERATELY needed WALL. I’ve got you covered. Wall is already being built, I don’t expect much help!Democrats are becoming the Party of late term abortion, high taxes, Open Borders and Crime!More troops being sent to the Southern Border to stop the attempted Invasion of Illegals, through large Caravans, into our Country. We have stopped the previous Caravans, and we will stop these also. With a Wall it would be soooo much easier and less expensive. Being Built!Looking for China to open their Markets not only to Financial Services, which they are now doing, but also to our Manufacturing, Farmers and other U.S. businesses and industries. Without this a deal would be unacceptable!Schumer and the Democrats are big fans of being weak and passive with Iran. They have no clue as to the danger they would be inflicting on our Country. Iran is in financial chaos now because of the sanctions and Iran Deal termination. Dems put us in a bad place - but now good!Very sadly, Murder cases in Mexico in 2018 rose 33% from 2017, to 33,341. This is a big contributor to the Humanitarian Crisis taking place on our Southern Border and then spreading throughout our Country. Worse even than Afghanistan. Much caused by DRUGS. Wall is being built!(Video)Just concluded a great meeting with my Intel team in the Oval Office who told me that what they said on Tuesday at the Senate Hearing was mischaracterized by the media - and we are very much in agreement on Iran, ISIS, North Korea, etc. Their testimony was distorted press.... ... ....I would suggest you read the COMPLETE testimony from Tuesday. A false narrative is so bad for our Country. I value our intelligence community. Happily, we had a very good meeting, and we are all on the same page!Our great U.S. Border Patrol Agents made the biggest Fentanyl bust in our Country’s history. Thanks, as always, for a job well done!Just out: The big deal, very mysterious Don jr telephone calls, after the innocent Trump Tower meeting, that the media & Dems said were made to his father (me), were just conclusively found NOT to be made to me. They were made to friends & business associates of Don. Really sad!Nellie Ohr, the wife of DOJ official Bruce Ohr, was long ago investigating for pay (GPS Fusion) members of my family, feeding it to her husband who was then giving it to the FBI, even though it was created by ousted & discredited Christopher Steele. Illegal! WITCH HUNTThis Witch Hunt must end!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:President Trump warned us 2 years ago that the Democrat party would push for late term abortion.. watch Clinton accuse him of using "scare tactics""nO vOters, wE wOuLD NEVER dO tHAT" - 2 YEARS LATER ...And they wonder why we call them NPC. Behold, the womanoid robot.House Dems Reject GOP Proposal to Block Raises for Federal Employees Guilty of Sexual Misconduct. Vote was chaired by Democrat Tony Cardenas, who is accused of drugging teenage girlGraham: We’re Getting Trump’s Ninth Circuit Nominees Confirmed🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Press that button!! You know you want to!Roger Stone Explains How to Dress for CourtOhio Passes Heartbeat Bill Which Bans Abortions After 6 WeeksWhite people in Chicago at 2AM...Friday, February 1st:TODAY'S ACTION:President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Personnel to Key Administration PostsPresident Trump Meets to Discuss Fighting Human Trafficking on the Southern Border🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:I inherited a total mess in Syria and Afghanistan, the “Endless Wars” of unlimited spending and death. During my campaign I said, very strongly, that these wars must finally end. We spend $50 Billion a year in Afghanistan and have hit them so hard that we are now talking peace... ... ....after 18 long years. Syria was loaded with ISIS until I came along. We will soon have destroyed 100% of the Caliphate, but will be watching them closely. It is now time to start coming home and, after many years, spending our money wisely. Certain people must get smart!Best January for the DOW in over 30 years. We have, by far, the strongest economy in the world!JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!Great news on Foxconn in Wisconsin after my conversation with Terry Gou!(Retweeting The White House) "We added 304,000 jobs, which was a shocker to a lot of people. It wasn't a shocker to me."Thank you to Senator Rob Portman and Senator Cory Gardner for the early and warm endorsement. We will ALL WIN in 2020 together!National African American History Month is an occasion to rediscover the enduring stories of African Americans and the gifts of freedom, purpose, and opportunity they have bestowed on future generations..SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Governor Who Endorsed Infanticide Received $2 Million From Planned ParenthoodEMBARRASSING - Elizabeth Warren apologizes to Cherokee Nation over taking DNA test to prove Native American rootsVirginia Governor on Blast!!! @GovernorVA Are you the one in blackface or the one in the KKK hood?Very Fake News CNN falsely labels Northam a Republican.REMINDER: Cory Booker Groped Someone In High School and Wrote an Op-Ed About It. Then Tried to Destroy Kavanaugh's Life. Fuck Him.🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:If Fake News Journalists need help coding, I know a guy.YUGE difference between President Trump and Ralph Northam!u/Daniel_Wat posted this in r/dankmemesNorthamsgoneNew Planned Parenthood Ad Campaign is looking lit 🔥👽Saturday, February 2nd:SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:(D)Ralph Northam now claims he is neither the blackface or KKK person in his yearbook photo...ok...so why was his nickname “Coonman”?Planned Parenthood receives about $500,000,000 a year in taxpayer funds. In the most recent election, Planned Parenthood helped contribute $30,000,000 to Democrat’s campaigns. Democrat politicians are buying campaign contributions with your hard-earned money. It’s a corrupt money laundering cycle.The greatest jobs President America has ever seen! MAGAnomics – January Jobs Report, Massive Wage Growth, Manufacturing Report and Overall Economic Numbers Stun Financial Media…Don Jr. is a certified spice dealer🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:The two parties in a nutshell.Quick Shills are up early. Post pics that make them realize they have no charisma or class“And I would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling Republicans!”Definitely not the most convincing apology I have ever seen.WHAT A SPICY WEEK!Of course no recap is complete without some tunes for your jamming pleasures:I'll Keep You SafeWorld On FireOne DanceIt's StrangeRight To ItImagineMAGA ON PATRIOTS! #robgray

[kacydeneen]

Sen. McCain Leaves Complicated Political Legacy

U.S. Sen. John McCain said last year that he wanted to be remembered for his service to his country and that is how nearly every lawmaker and many of the journalists who covered him have paid tribute to him after his death.

But there is another reaction playing out over McCain's legacy as well, less mentioned in the running cable news commentary but present in comment threads on Facebook and Twitter.

Some on both sides of the political spectrum are refusing to join in the tributes to a man who styled himself as a maverick determined to go his own way and who left behind a complicated legacy over his more than 60 years of service.

McCain, 81, famously voted against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, but then eliminated the the individual mandate on which it depended when he supported the Republican tax bill. There was that time he shared a mean spirited, homophobic joke about then 18-year-old Chelsea Clinton in 2008, telling a fundraising dinner, “Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father.”

McCain worked across the aisle with Democrats such as Sen. Ted Kennedy, with whom he proposed an immigration reform bill, and with fellow veteran former Sen. John Kerry on reconciling with Hanoi. But in 2000, he refused to apologize for using a racial slur against his North Vietnamese prison guards, a stand that earned him quick censure.

“I hate the gooks,” he told reporters while campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination. “I will hate them as long as I live.”

Politicians who tried to breach the partisan divide found themselves facing accusations of betraying their beliefs. A tweet from New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive candidate for the House, in which she said McCain’s “legacy represents an unparalleled example of human decency and American service,” elicited attacks on the senator and frustration toward her. “No, no, no Alexandria. He was a war criminal, hands down. You are young, please reconsider your opinion,” wrote one follower.

And when civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, tweeted that McCain was “a warrior for peace,” one reader asked of Lewis, “Weren’t you protesting during the civil rights movement? Do you think he would have supported you, as you were getting sprayed with fire hoses and beaten with batons? He would have defended the police.”

McCain himself left a letter to his country in which he appealed to his fellow Americans to love the United States the way he did, and appeared to criticize Trump without naming the president.

“We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence i all the corners of the globe,” he wrote. “We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than true them to be the great force for change they have always been.”

He wrote that although Americans sometimes vilify each other in public debates, they have so much more in common than in disagreement.

“If only we remember that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our country we will get through these challenging times,” he wrote. “We will come through them stronger than before. We always do.”

But is that still true or is the country so fractured, so angry, so polarized that Americans can no longer see anything in common with their political opponents?

On the left, detractors do not forgive McCain’s selection of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate during the 2008 presidential race and his hawkish stances on Iraq and Iran. He joked about bombing Iran during a campaign appearance when he sang a snatch of the Beach Boys’ classic “Barbara Ann” substituting the words: “Bomb, bomb, bomb.”

During that race, he deferred to South Carolina over whether the Confederate battle flag should be removed from the Statehouse instead of calling for it to be taken down, a decision he later apologized for. And in a new book and documentary he expressed regret about choosing Palin over former Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat who became an independent — though without criticizing Palin’s performance, which some people say opened the door for President Donald Trump’s populism and celebrity culture.

On the right, McCain was lambasted as a RINO, or Republican in name only, who defied Trump and his party on Obamacare, and was accused of being part of the so-called “deep state” — permanent government officials, who were working to oust Trump. 

Trump was angry that after the 2016 election, McCain had given the FBI a copy of a dossier detailing unsubstatiated salacious allegations against the president. McCain had learned of the dossier from a retired British diplomat while at a security forum in Canada, and later passed a copy to the FBI. The 35 pages of research memos written by Christopher Steele, a retired British spy, allege a conspiracy between Trump's campaign and the Russian government to help Trump win the election and include unsubstantiated reports of Trump meeting with Russian prostitutes.

“Upon examination of the contents, and unable to make a judgment about their accuracy, I delivered the information to the director of the FBI. That has been the extent of my contact with the FBI or any other government agency regarding this issue,” McCain said in a statement.

He disagreed with hard-line immigration policies emerging under Trump, who in an op-ed published in USA Today in 2015 accused McCain of pushing “amnesty” during his time as a senator.

McCain in his last book, “The Restless Wave,” countered that some politicians were racists. 

“Whatever their reasons, the cynical and the ignorant promotion of false information and unnecessary fear have the same outcome,” he wrote with his co-author, Mark Salter. “Decent, hardworking people who mean no harm are blamed for crime, unemployment, failing schools, and various other ills, and become in the eyes of many the objects of hate and fear.”

His Vietnam record was mocked by some — Trump famously said that because McCain was captured, he was not a hero -- and though he supported wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he fought back against interrogation methods he called torture.

When Democrats released a report on the harsh methods in 2014, and most Republicans were muted in their response, McCain was not. He said he knew from his own experience that the abuse of prisoners produced more bad intelligence than good.

“Our enemies act without conscience,” he said. “We must not.”

The rancor between McCain and the president was on full display in the year after McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer and he became known as one Republican unafraid to stand up to Trump.

McCain called Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin “a tragic mistake” and accused Trump of failing to defend America as “a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad.” The antipathy continued to spill out after McCain’s death when Trump initially declined to release a statement honoring the senator and raised the U.S. flag over the White House on Monday while Congressional flags remained lowered to half staff. By the end of the day the White House flag had been lowered again.

McCain’s circle meanwhile announced the president would not attend his funeral.

His willingness to take on Trump might have contributed to the fact that more Democrats than Republicans had a positive view of McCain. Before the 2008 election, 15 percent of Democrats had a positive view of McCain, compared to 91 percent of Republicans. But last year, an NBC/WSJ poll found that 52 percent of Democrats and only 35 percent of Republicans had a positive view.

That personal dislike aside, McCain voted in line with Trump’s position 83 percent of the time, according to an analysis done by FiveThirtyEight. Whether that showed independence or a lockstep loyalty to his party despite disagreements is part of the debate.

His fellow politicians offered their own contrasting views of McCain.

“John puts things in terms of black and white, right and wrong,” then-Sen. Tim Hutchinson, a Republican from Arkansas, told The Washington Post in 2000. “If you disagree with him, you’re wrong. He doesn’t see that there could be legitimate differences of opinion that deserve respect.”

But former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, wrote in The New York Times: 

“The fact is, as passionate as John was about his positions, he truly valued hearing all sides and was a good listener.” 

Sen. McCain Leaves Complicated Political Legacy published first on Miami News

[topmixtrends]

IN RETROSPECT, it seems clear that Norman Mailer, the author, director, columnist, TV personality, war veteran, and wild-eyed raconteur, developed a sense of himself over his varied career as playing the part of a character in a novel. As he wrote of himself in his enduring record of the 1960s war protest movement, The Armies of the Night: “His consolation in those hours when he was most uncharitable to himself is that taken at his very worst he was at least still worthy of being a character in a novel by Balzac, win one day, lose the next, and do it with boom! and baroque in the style.”

At several decades’ remove, Alex Gilvarry has taken Mailer up on his daydream (with apologies to Balzac), starting out with Norman Mailer and transmuting his essence into his own Alan Eastman. Eastman Was Here, premised on a trip to report the Vietnam War for the New York Herald that Mailer never in fact made, follows a once-celebrated author in the aftermath of his wife leaving him. To win her back, Eastman decides to venture out into harm’s way — or in the general direction of harm, where menace might be lurking in the streets outside his hotel in Saigon — and there encounters a talented, young journalist named Anne Channing. Not so much a story of the Vietnam War, Eastman Was Here explores the absurd excesses and shameful depredations of the masculine ego, somewhat in the manner that Jonathan Franzen renders his Lambert family patriarch vulnerable in The Corrections.

“Women commanded their own destiny,” thinks Alan Eastman, “unlike in his mother’s time. In fact, this is what he most admired about the women in his life. All of his past lovers had some big, commanding presence, an outward destiny, that made him feel the need to attach himself, for maybe that’s what made him happy.”

Well, at least Eastman’s heart is in the right place.

I set out to speak with Gilvarry, a friend, by first attending his book release party at McNally Jackson where he spoke with Saïd Sayrafiezadeh; then in Brooklyn at Greenlight Bookstore, where he was in conversation with his wife, Alexandra Kleeman. I wanted to hear what was said so that I didn’t ask the same questions when I got my chance. In the end, we discussed Eastman and Mailer, the place of the “macho male chauvinist” and obscenity in contemporary fiction, finding sympathy in satire, and the concept of authorial humility.

¤

J. T. PRICE: Eastman Was Here, like your first novel, From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant, pivots between two seemingly incongruous “worlds”: in the case of the earlier book, fashion in New York City and captivity in Guantanamo Bay, and now in the current, high-wire literary salons and high-tension Saigon during the Vietnam War. What is it about spanning incongruous social spheres that attracts you as an author?

ALEX GILVARRY: I want a book to bring me into a world I’ve never been to before. That’s an amazing feeling when it happens, when as a reader you’re fully immersed. Many of the locations I write about attract me with their problems, their people, or through nostalgia. Like the literary world of the past. I’m not really nostalgic for the martini lunches and all that. But in the book there’s a point where Eastman takes a walk down old Book Row in New York and remembers his life and career in the ’50s. Those are the moments I’m looking for.

Was there a particular scene that served as the genesis of this book? That walk down old Book Row, now gone, is a vivid one for those of us who love old books.

Not really. I started at the beginning, in chapter one. An aging journalist in his house who has just been left by his wife of 10 years. It all started from there.

Satire often registers as unkind to its subjects. Several riotous set pieces aside, Eastman Was Here does not feel purely satirical. How did you find your right balance between satire and sympathy in writing Eastman?

I think because in my mind I wasn’t writing a satire. I was writing a roman à clef, like The Moon and Sixpence or something. All I was thinking about was the character and taking his story as seriously as possible, and maybe that’s where the sympathy comes from. It turns out this can be read as a satire, for sure. But I wrote it as a story based on real life.

Your character, Anne Channing, an intrepid photographer and war reporter, stands as a foil to Eastman’s washed-up celeb status. All the same, in the story, she confesses to feeling drawn to him. Stepping from the novel’s “reality” to our own real lives, what is appealing about Norman Mailer as a writer, in the books of his that you see as his best?

Anne Channing is attracted to Eastman in the way that we are sometimes attracted to people who aren’t good for us. I think we can all relate to that, at some point in our lives.

Mailer was first appealing to me as a controversial figure. I knew his reputation as a rabble-rouser and someone who would knock your teeth out before I had read any of his books. And then when I was in college I remember watching a screening of Town Bloody Hall in a literature class, and from that film, I found his reputation to be quite true. He talked very fast and sometimes didn’t make any sense to me …

Then when I went to the Mailer Writers Colony in Provincetown, I was forced to look at Mailer as a writer. To be honest, before this, I had no desire to read him. But there I discovered some good things and some you might expect. The contempt for feminism, the willingness to pounce on anyone who offended him. Though some of the books hold up. Like Advertisements for Myself — which shows the male mind and ego of a writer in the ’50s. And The Armies of the Night, which is a great snapshot of literary life and politics during the ’60s. Armies is probably the most relevant book to read today, as it shows a country divided and the meaning of protest and the doubts protesters may feel.

Yes, The Armies of the Night is terrific and relevant.

Isn’t it? That’s Mailer’s sweet spot. He’s learned humility. Arguably, not always present in his other work.

Also, The Executioner’s Song is really good for true-crime heads. So for anyone interested in those subjects, please, read him. His thoughts on ancient Egypt and good and evil and God I’m not so crazy about.

You and I have had beers before. Let’s pretend for a moment we’re having beers now. Norman Mailer, circa the late ’50s, walks into the bar and shouts out your name. “Gilvarry,” he says, approaching, “I’ll have you know that I read what you may call ‘a novel’ but I call…” and here he unleashes a string of choice obscenities while waving his arms around in aggravated ape fashion. How do you respond? (I’ve ducked bravely beneath a nearby table.)

[Laughs.] You see, writers like us today are not good at handling confrontation. So my initial instinct would be to duck under the table with you. But I suppose since there’s no way out, I’d tell him I read his last hand job of a novel, too, and found it as exciting as watching paint dry.

And things would only escalate from there.

Mailer, from what I learned from his friends and family, liked to spar a bit. You have to hit these guys back or they won’t respect you.

Once almost baited Sonny Liston into a fight, or so he claimed.

He also claimed that he was five foot ten. He liked to exaggerate.

Much fun is had in Eastman Was Here at the expense of Eastman’s Mailer-like ego, which made me think of the sensibility of the novel as somehow deeply informed by its opposite: authorial humility. How would you describe that quality, i.e., what does it mean to you? Say, within the context of, let’s call it, contemporary letters — our present-day book publishing scene?

That’s a very good read. You have to combat your ego with humility I think. It takes an ego to think anyone would want to read what you write. But I realize that it’s only a book, a novel, a fiction that I’ve written. In the scheme of things — considering all of media and entertainment today — it’s a very small spec.

I’ve heard you tell of the research you did for this novel, traveling to the Harry Ransom Center in Texas. What was it like studying the life and letters of a writer who moved during most of his career under the hot lights of literary celebrity and then to find that now, among the younger generation, he goes relatively unread?

You see, Mailer was important in his day and people treated him with importance. He was a literary celebrity, and he could do anything he wanted artistically or in journalism. (With the exception of writing in The New Yorker, I don’t think he had an easy time over there.)

Ah, The New Yorker. Holding the line, then and now.

Going into anyone’s personal and professional archive is a thrill. You get to know what they were really thinking about so and so. You get to see them at their most vulnerable and at their most proud. It’s an incredible adventure. But the best letters were not those regarding celebrity or literary fights. The best letters were those he might have sent to his first wife while he was stationed in the Philippines. You discover love and passion, and then you fast-forward and they broke up. This stuff can be heartbreaking. What a debt I owe to the Ransom Center.

Indeed. Beautiful, unexpected little recorded moments of consciousness. And reconciling that, as you read, with both his outsized reputation then and where he stands with the readers of today.

Yes, that’s pretty much what you begin to feel. But I was writing a novel so I was looking for ways into a very hardened, unlikable character. So I’m not saying, “Hey, let’s give these old dead white guys a chance!” For my purposes, in crafting a fiction, I found a way into a character. Reconciling with the way readers feel about Mailer today is hard to change. He wrote what he wrote, said what he said, hurt some people along the way. A reputation is not yours to control.

Is Eastman Was Here a feminist novel? I think it’s compelling, how even as an exploration of the grandiosity and excesses of male ego, the cover shows us a ghostly vision of a woman … as if that is what most constitutes, or haunts, Eastman’s interiority. (And in the story you write, yes, it is.)

Yes. It didn’t set out to be. But the women in this novel are feminists or embody feminist ideas because I believe in them too.

Nowhere in our contemporary lit landscape do we find a presence like Mailer — at least one as outwardly outrageous as he was. We might even say that the qualities of personality Mailer performed have been “repressed” within our contemporary scene. Meanwhile, the man sitting in the Oval Office has reared up in our collective consciousness like some sort of monstrous Mailer-esque id: an outer-borough born creature of tabloid celebrity, ego-driven, quick to hold grudges and pick senseless fights, scornful of “P.C.” culture, self-destructive, vain … yet also — decidedly unlike Mailer! — completely ignorant of contemporary literature. Maybe I’m getting a little vainglorious here, but in some sense, was Mailer as literary celebrity a sort of three-headed dog that kept darker forces of raging male id somehow at bay?

It’s a good thing that the qualities that Mailer exhibited, the macho male chauvinist, have been repressed. Not repressed, but cast out of literature, exiled altogether. A year ago I would have said that this had no place in politics either. My god, how wrong we were. Trump, by acting like an imbecile and a chauvinist, has signaled that hateful rhetoric and behavior is now okay. But this is beyond a culture war. Real policies are at stake in all aspects of American life and that’s what I want to concentrate my energy on now.

Here’s a passage from The Armies of the Night that I take to be Mailer giving a summation of his work:

He was off into obscenity. It gave a heartiness like the blood of beef tea to his associations. There was no villainy in obscenity for him, just — paradoxically, characteristically — his love for America. […] What none of the editorial writers ever mentioned was that that noble common man was obscene as an old goat, and his obscenity was what saved him. The sanity of said common democratic man was in his humor, his humor was in his obscenity.

On an immediate level, Mailer’s talking about himself. But is it true about America at large, do you think? By “casting out” that rollicking obscenity that Mailer sees as endemic to the sanity of common democratic man, does literature lose something?

When thinking of Donald Trump and the shameful America he envisions, there might be a bit of truth to this saying. But god, the “heartiness like the blood of beef tea,” what a terrible turn of phrase. So Mailer. Each book had some of his best stuff and some of his worst.

Beef tea. I’m going to have that taste in my mouth for the rest of the day. Eck.

¤

J. T. Price’s fiction has appeared in or is forthcoming from The New England Review, Post Road Magazine, Joyland, The Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere.

The post “A Reputation Is Not Yours to Control”: A Conversation with Alex Gilvarry, Author of “Eastman Was Here” appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books http://ift.tt/2iHTmhh

[clubofinfo]

Expert: This week, the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which promoted giving Palestine to the Jewish people, will be celebrated in London. Around the world, there will be protests against it calling for Britain to apologize for the damage it inflicted. Students from the West Bank and Gaza will send letters to the British government describing the negative impacts that the Balfour Declaration, and the Nakba in 1948, continue to have on their lives today. As Dan Freeman-Maloy describes, the Balfour Declaration is also relevant today because of the propaganda co-existing with it that justified white supremacy, racism and empire. British imperialists believed that democracy only applied to “civilized and conquering peoples,” and that “Africans, Asians, Indigenous peoples the world over – all were … ‘subject races,’ unfit for self-government.” That same racism was directed at Jewish people as well. Lord Balfour preferred to have Jewish people living in Palestine, away from Britain, where they might serve as useful British allies. In the same time period, Bill Moyers reminds us in his interview with author James Whitman, the  laws in the United States were viewed as “a model for everybody in the early 20th century who was interested in creating a race-based order or race state. America was the leader in a whole variety of realms in racist law in the first part of that century.” This includes immigration laws designed to keep “undesirables” out of the US, laws creating second class citizenship for African-Americans and other people and bans on interracial marriage. Whitman has a new book documenting how Hitler used US laws as a basis for the Nazi state. Injustice is legal The US government and its laws continue to perpetuate injustice today. For example, contractors who apply for state funds to repair damage from Hurricane Harvey in Dickinson, Texas, are required to declare that they do not participate in the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) movement. And Maryland Governor Hogan signed an executive order this week banning any state contractors from participating in the BDS movement, after local activists defeated similar legislation for the past three years. Participation in boycotts should be protected under the First Amendment, as the right to protest Israeli apartheid should be. But, that right may also be taken away. This week, Kenneth Marcus was made the top civil rights enforcer at the Department of Education. He runs a group called the Brandeis Center for Human Rights, which actually works to attack individuals and groups that organize against Israeli apartheid on campuses. Nora Barrows-Friedman writes that Marcus, who has been filing complaints against pro-Palestinian student groups, will now be in charge of investigating those cases. Dima Khalidi, the head of Palestinian Legal, which works to protect pro-Palestinian activists, explains that in the United States, “talking about Palestinian rights, and challenging Israel’s actions and narrative, [open] people up to a huge amount of risk, attacks, and harassment – much of it legal in nature, or with legal implications.” These attacks are happening because the BDS movement is having an impact. This is just one obvious area of injustice. Of course, there are others such as immigration policies and travel bans. And there are racist systems in the United States that are not based in law, but are enshrined in practices such as racially biased policing, slave-wage employment of prisoners and the placement of toxic industries in minority communities. The Marshall Project has a new report on racial bias in plea bargains. In considering why “the public is quiet” about the United States’ unending wars, the New York Times (10/23/17) fails to examine the failure of leading media outlets to actually oppose these wars. War propaganda The media, as it did in the early twentieth century, continues to manipulate public opinion to support military aggression. The NY Times and other mass, corporate media have promoted wars throughout the history of US empire. From the ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ in Iraq to the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam and all the way back to ‘Remember the Maine’ in the Spanish-American War, which began the modern US Empire, the corporate media have always played a large role in leading the US into war. Adam Johnson of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) writes about a recent New York Times Op Ed: “Corporate media have a long history of lamenting wars they themselves helped sell the American public, but it’s rare so many wars and so much hypocrisy are distilled into one editorial.” Johnson points out that the New York Times never questions whether wars are right or wrong, just whether they have Congressional support or not. And it promotes the “no boots on the ground” view that it is fine to bomb other countries as long as US troops are not harmed. FAIR also points out the media’s false accusation that Iran has a nuclear weapons program. Meanwhile there is silence about the secret Israeli nuclear weapons program. Iran has been compliant with the International Atomic Energy Agency, while Israel has refused inspections. Eric Margolis raises the critical question of whether the Trump administration put the interests of Israel, which opposes Iran, before the interests of the US when he refused to certify the nuclear agreement with Iran. North Korea is a country that is heavily propagandized in the US media. Eva Bartlett, a journalist who has traveled to and reported extensively about Syria, recently visited North Korea. She presents a view of the people and photographs that won’t be found in commercial media, which give a more positive perspective on the country. Sadly, North Korea is considered to be a critical factor in the US effort to prevent China from becoming the dominant world power. Ramzy Baroud writes about the importance of a diplomatic solution to the conflict between the US and North Korea because otherwise it will be a long and bloody war. Baroud states that the US would quickly run out of missiles and then use “crude gravity bombs,” killing millions. The recent re-election of Shinzo Abe heightens conflict in that region. Abe wants to build up Japan’s small military and alter its current pacifist Constitution so that Japan can attack other countries. No doubt, the Asian Pivot and concerns about tension between the US and other countries are fueling support for Abe and more militarization in Japan. US aggression in Africa The US military presence in Africa came into the spotlight this week with the death of US soldiers in Niger. Although it was heartless, perhaps we can be grateful that Trump’s gaffe with the newly-widowed Myeshia Johnson at least had the impact of raising national awareness about this secretive mission creep. We can thank outlets such as Black Agenda Report that have been reporting regularly on AFRICOM, the US Africa Command. It was a surprise to many people, including members of Congress, that the US has 6,000 troops scattered in 53 out of 54 African countries. US involvement in Africa has existed since World War II, largely for oil, gas, minerals, land and labor. When Gaddafi, in Libya, interfered with the US’ ability to dominate African countries by providing oil money to them, thereby freeing them from the need to be indebted to the US, and led the effort to unite African countries, he was murdered and Libya was destroyed. China also plays a role in competing with the US for African investment, doing so through economic investment rather than militarization. No longer able to control Africa economically, the US turned to greater militarization. AFRICOM was launched under President George W. Bush, who appointed a black general to lead AFRICOM, but it was President Obama who succeeded in growing the US military presence. Under Obama, the drone program grew in Africa. There are more than 60 drone bases that are used for missions in African countries such as Somalia. The US base in Dijbouti is used for bombing missions in Yemen and Syria. US military contractors are also raking in huge profits in Africa. Nick Turse reports that US military conduct an average of ten operations in Africa daily. He describes how US weapons and military training have upset the balance of power in African countries, leading to coup attempts and the rise of terrorist groups. In this interview, Abayomi Azikiwe, the editor of the Pan-African News Wire, speaks about the long and brutal US history in Africa. He concludes: Washington must close down its bases, drone stations, airstrips, joint military operations, consulting projects and training programs with all African Union member-states. None of these efforts have brought peace and stability to the continent. What has happened is quite the opposite. Since the advent of AFRICOM, the situation has been far more unstable in the region. Building a global peace movement The insatiable war machine has infiltrated all aspects of our lives. Militarism is a prominent part of US culture. It is a large part of the US economy. It cannot be stopped unless we work together to stop it. And, while we in the US, as the largest empire in the history of the world, have a major responsibility to act against war, we will be most effective if we can connect with people and organizations in other countries to hear their stories, support their work and learn about their visions for a peaceful world. Fortunately, there are many efforts to revive the anti-war movement in the United States, and many of the groups have international ties. The United National Anti-War Coalition, World Beyond War, the Black Alliance for Peace and the Coalition Against US Foreign Military Bases are groups launched in the past seven years. There are also opportunities for action. Veterans for Peace is organizing peace actions on November 11, Armistice Day. CODEPINK recently began the Divest From the War Machine Campaign targeting the five top weapons-makers in the US. Listen to our interview with lead organizer Haley Pederson on Clearing the FOG. And there will be a conference on closing foreign military bases this January in Baltimore. Let’s recognize that just as wars are waged in order to dominate regions for their resources so that a few may profit, they are also rooted in white supremacist and racist ideology that believes only certain people deserve to control their destinies. By linking hands with our brothers and sisters around the planet and working for peace, we can bring about a multi-polar world in which all people have peace, self-determination and live in dignity. http://clubof.info/

[nicholemhearn]

The Problem of Inconvenient Expertise I. Facts, Truth, and Populism

Consensus perceptions of truth rely on trust—in expertise and in the institutions that create knowledge (such as universities). But these forms of trust are diminishing. So are the perceived realities that we share.  

Donald Trump did not create the problem of polarized fact perceptions, which preceded his campaign and no doubt will be with us long after he is gone. But he made the problem worse by speeding up the decline in trust and the fracturing of consensus over facts. A populism that rejects expertise as elitist and distrusts conventional sources of authority can reject inconvenient expertise across the board.

Paradoxically, though, the problem of inconvenient expertise—the testimony of experts, scientists, or professors whom we would like to dismiss—is even more of a problem for anti-populists than for Trump supporters. In principle, anti-populists could embrace all epistemic authorities uncritically, and that’s a nightmare fully the equal of the populist’s blanket rejection of expertise.

Between these two poles are most of us, who walk through the cafeteria of expertise and select only what is appealing. The desire to uphold authoritative knowledge some but not all of the time, picking and choosing in the contemporary way, poses the challenge of dealing with the corrosive interconnections of truth, trust, and Trump.

“Truth” vs. “Fact”

We often use these two words interchangeably, but they’re dramatically distinct.

Truth refers to what really exists, the actual state of things. We’d all like to know the truth, but philosophy and science both start from the recognition that misperception and error are rampant. Philosophers and scientists use logic and evidence to try to correct illusions, but the task is never ending.

In the meantime we have facts: fallible, socially determined approximations of truth. Facts are usually accepted as such because of their endorsement by institutions that are seen as authoritative: governments, universities, scientific societies, professional associations, respected media outlets. Sometimes those institutions are in accord and sometimes—as is often the case in our polarized polity—they endorse competing facts.

Facts are as close as we can get to the truth, but they may not be that close. Accepted “facts” may be somewhat incomplete or fully wrong. They may some day be shown to be false and replaced by other facts. So no reasonable person believes that all of the “known facts” of the current moment are truths and that none will be withdrawn (like the “fact” that eggs are bad for you).

Trusting the Experts

One can pretend that this difficult problem is easily solved: just trust the experts. As Jimmy Kimmel said to Sean Spicer in disbelief: “Can we though disagree with the facts?” By which he might have meant, Can we dispute the truth? The answer is that we can if we aren’t sure what the truth is.

I believe that Kimmel was really asking, “Can we dispute the experts?” The answer of course is Yes, if we don’t trust those experts. Trust is the foundation of our confidence in what we know. (Ironically, Kimmel has recently become a vehicle for “facts” about health-care proposals, although he is in no sense an expert on them.)

In a fascinating book on the origins of contemporary claims to expertise (A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England), Steven Shapin argues that trust is at the heart of science. The goal of the book is “to draw attention to how much of our empirical knowledge is held solely on the basis of what trustworthy sources tell us” (21). “What we know of comets, icebergs, and neutrinos irreducibly contains what we know of those people who speak for and about these things” (xxvi). Our search for “a world-known-in-common” (36) reduces, in effect, to the search for “a reliable spokesman for reality” (xxvii).  

Who can be trusted to tell the truth about reality? Children (as in the Emperor’s New Clothes)? Political leaders (of our party)? Religious leaders? Shapin’s argument is that in the early modern period, the answer was the gentleman, who was thought to be so independent, both financially and morally, that he had no incentive to lie. His statements—absent proof that the public could understand—would be believed. This made gentlemen the perfect scientists. Eventually trust was transferred to scientists in general, who are the modern-day gentlemen who do not lie.

However, the era of trust seems to be coming to an end.

The question of the tree falling in a lonely forest applies here, but in reverse. The usual framing of the question assumes that we know a tree has fallen. But if I don’t know one way or the other, and someone tells me she heard it fall while another insists that the noise was caused by something else entirely, whom do I believe? Should I believe a tree fell if the ear-witnesses in favor outnumber those opposed by a small margin? What if there is an overwhelming consensus, but a seemingly trustworthy dissenter? What if the dissenter is a friend of mine? 

Consider the infamous journalism scandal revolving around George W. Bush’s National Guard service, which ended Dan Rather’s long career in journalism. The truth of the situation—whether Bush did or did not use family influence to gain a National Guard spot to keep him out of Vietnam; and whether he did or did not complete his flight training—will always be the same. While the truth is stable, however, the “known facts” have changed. Until 60 Minutes aired the accusations, the known facts were that Bush served honorably, if not in combat. But then a trusted institution, CBS News, reported a different set of known facts. Soon after, CBS retracted the accusations and fired several influential reporters and editors, changing the known facts again.

A 2015 film about the saga, entitled “Truth,” insists that the 60 Minutes story really was true, even if its sources were false. Rather agrees. His position is that even though the story cannot be documented, and even though the evidence may have been falsified, the story painted an essentially true picture of what happened. So to summarize, CBS initially said that its sources provided facts that delivered a new truth; CBS later said the sources are not facts, so the story cannot be said to be the truth; Rather says the story may not have reported facts, but the story is nonetheless true.

In such cases, which seem to be increasingly common, trust loses its purchase. Rather recently told Variety magazine: “Don’t take my word for what it is; don’t take CBS’s word for what it is; go see it”—that is, “Truth,” the documentary—“and make up your own mind.” How, though, can we do that with any hope of accuracy when the only basis for making up their own minds is the match between what the documentary says and our prior beliefs? At that point we have reached the post-truth era.  

Truth and Populism

Trust in media “expertise” as a means to solve the post-truth dilemma is at a low ebb. Here are data from Gallup:

Source: “Americans’ Trust in Mass Media Sinks to New Low”

If the news media are no longer considered trustworthy sources of knowledge, what replaces them?

American populism has always been difficult to define. My own definition, at least of the current manifestation of populism, is epistemological: it’s the view that the beliefs and perceptions of normal citizens tend to be correct. What non-“elite” Americans think is good and true is what is really good and true.

Populism equates the facts perceived by ordinary people with the truth. It disparages as “fake” facts those that are perceived by extraordinary people. Populism, then, blocks the flow of trust from the bottom up. When the top is no longer trusted, the bottom is left to its own epistemic devices.

In electoral terms, the epistemic us-versus-them turns into more recognizable demographic categories. If Republicans have catered in the past to Americans who perceive themselves as wealthy (or aspire to be so), and Democrats to Americans who perceive themselves as downtrodden, populism caters to Americans who perceive themselves as normal people who can no longer trust either party. It’s not money that American populists dislike (Trump’s wealth makes that clear). It’s elitism.

Elitism comes in many flavors. The more familiar variety is perceived snottiness, putting on airs, looking down on the practices of ordinary people. Trump certainly doesn’t do that. He eats fast food often and publicly. But his ingeniously post-modern variant of anti-elitism relates to his presentation of facts as ordinary (popular) perceptions rather than as perceptions vetted by elites.

The Death of Expertise

If the perceptions of normal folk are correct, then those of the hyper-educated are suspect.

Highly credentialed scholars and journalists both claim to be arbiters of the truth. Both strongly believe that normal Americans should respect this authority. Trumpist populism openly disparages it. Do populists distrust epistemic elites because of their leafy academic pedigrees, or have these pedigrees lost their luster because their bearers no longer seem to be speaking the truth?

Trump’s answer comes to us in a Wall Street Journal op-ed under his byline: “On every major issue affecting this country, the people are right and the elites are wrong. The elites are wrong on taxes, on the size of government, on trade, on immigration, on foreign policy. Why should we trust the people who have made every wrong decision?”

In The Death of Expertise, Tom Nichols presents what seems, at first glance, to be a protest against the notion that experts deserve the loss of people’s trust. “We live in a society that works because of a division of labor,” he writes, “a system designed to relieve each of us from having to know about everything. Pilots fly airplanes, lawyers file lawsuits, doctors prescribe medication,” and scholars of national security (of which Nichols is one) write books about it. Why, then, are ordinary citizens losing faith in experts?

At first, Nichols seems to be chiding the citizenry for disrespecting the division of epistemic labor, but then he reveals that the true culprits are higher education, the Internet, and journalists. In two out of the three cases, the death of trust in expertise is due to the failings of these experts: those in the universities and those in the media. Bad universities are dumbing down their training and bad journalists are claiming expertise they do not have. Only in the case of the Internet is the cause an outside force (really a replacement for expertise, one that’s embraced because of experts’ failings).  

In the final chapter, Nichols says what he really thinks: that experts have brought this on themselves. He describes some of the prominent cases of failed expertise, such as the consensus misprediction by foreign policy experts of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the consensus misprediction by pollsters of the 2016 election outcome, and the consensus non-prediction of the financial crisis. He also describes some of the recent events that have brought social science into disrepute, including:

A falsified study of vaccines and autism, which deeply influenced the anti-vaccination movement after being published in The Lancet.

 A falsified study on attitudes toward gay rights, published in the prestigious journal Science and later withdrawn.

 A falsified study of gun ownership in the colonial era, awarded the Bancroft Prize in history before being withdrawn.

Yet it doesn’t seem probable that generally low-information populist voters were aware of such missteps. So my next post will discuss a different view of the origins of the decline of faith in experts.

The post The Problem of Inconvenient Expertise I. Facts, Truth, and Populism appeared first on Niskanen Center.

from nicholemhearn digest https://niskanencenter.org/blog/problem-inconvenient-expertise-facts-truth-populism/

[trendingnewsb]

This is what protest sounds like

(CNN)Black Lives Matter activist Zellie Imani remembers the moment civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson came to Ferguson, Missouri, in the wake of Michael Brown’s 2014 death.

Crowds had gathered to protest the fatal shooting of unarmed, 18-year-old Brown by a white police officer, and Imani remembers Jackson joining the demonstrators as they marched toward a church.

But Jackson, it seems, had missed a crucial memo.

“I think he tried to have us sing ‘We Shall Overcome,'” Imani recalls in the CNN original series “Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History,” referring to the popular hymn that has been sung as a protest anthem around the world. The song has its roots in an African-American spiritual from the early 1900s, and became a call for resistance and freedom during the African-American struggle for civil rights.

“(But) the song doesn’t tell us when we shall overcome,” Imani continues. “It is saying that we will overcome someday — and what we in the streets wanted, we wanted justice now.”

Wanting justice now doesn’t mean the newest generation of protesters failed to see the value in having some sort of battle cry; a song that could unify their movement, express their yearnings and provide a balm all at the same time.

At this protest, Imani says, “people started to chant Kendrick Lamar’s ‘(We Gon’ Be) Alright.'”

This shift from church-ready protest anthems to something less gentle and more explicit has rubbed at least one civil rights activist the wrong way.

But it also shows that the long-held American tradition of protest music didn’t fade away with the social revolutions of the 1960s and ’70s. Artists using songs as resistance, or protesters adopting their work as de facto anthems, never went away — with each generation, and with each protest, there’s been a new voice.

Scroll through the guide below to hear the evolution of American protest anthems:

The year: 1930s – 1950s

The protest: Lynchings of African-Americans

The anthem: “Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday

According to the Equal Justice Initiative, more than 4,000 African-Americans were lynched across 12 Southern states between 1877 and 1950. An image of one of these public lynchings so haunted Abel Meeropol, a Jewish teacher living in the Bronx, that he wrote the protest poem that eventually became Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.”

Using the popular jazz of the era, Holiday bore witness to the atrocities happening in the American South and turned protesting into art.

The year: 1940

The protest: Economic opportunity

The anthem: “This Land is Your Land,” Woody Guthrie

Today a favorite in kindergarten classrooms, “This Land is Your Land” started out as an annoyed response to the blinding optimism of late ’30s hit “God Bless America.”

American folk legend Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land” in 1940 as an alternative, standing in opposition of “Depression-enhanced economic disparity” and the “greed he witnessed in so many pockets of the country,” says American Songwriter.

The year: 1962

The protest: Civil rights

The anthem: “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round”

There’s no way to separate the US civil rights movement from its music. The song was so integral to its existence and purpose that in 1962 it spawned the Freedom Singers, a quartet that sang songs steeped in African-American gospel traditions.

“We sang everywhere. We sang at house parties, at Carnegie Hall — to take the message of this movement to the North,” Freedom Singer Charles Neblett recalls in CNN’s “Soundtracks.” “Mass meetings, picket lines, in jails — music was the glue that held everything together.”

Songs like “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round” may sound like another performance of a traditional spiritual, but listen closely and you’ll hear lyrics that spoke to the time: “Ain’t gonna let no jailhouse turn me round. Keep on a-walkin’, keep on a-talkin’, marching up to freedom land.”

The year: 1963

The protest: The March on Washington

The anthem: “If I Had a Hammer,” Peter, Paul and Mary

Originally written by socially conscious folk icon Pete Seeger, it’s the Peter, Paul and Mary recording of “If I Had a Hammer” that took off in the early ’60s.

It was popular folk music, but it also keenly reflected the times as an anthem of resistance and fighting for justice: Peter, Paul and Mary sang “Hammer” at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington to “express in song what (the) great meeting is all about.”

The year: 1968

The protest: Black Power movement

The anthem: “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud),” James Brown

The assassination of MLK in 1968 not only altered the African-American fight for equal rights — it altered the music about the struggle, as well.

Before MLK’s death, “you had the hymns of unity and change,” music and culture journalist Richard Goldstein explains. But with the rise of the Black Power Movement in the aftermath of King’s death, “the hymns fade and are replaced by much more militant sentiments in the music.”

The year: 1970s

The protest: Women’s rights

The anthem: “I Am Woman,” Helen Reddy

Australian artist Helen Reddy didn’t set out to become the voice of the women’s liberation movement, but that’s what she became with this 1972 women’s empowerment single.

“I was looking for songs that reflected the positive sense of self that I felt I’d gained from the women’s movement,” she told Billboard magazine, “[but] I couldn’t find any. I realized that the song I was looking for didn’t exist, and I was going to have to write it myself.” The song went all the way to No. 1, making Reddy the first Australian solo artist to accomplish that feat in the US.

The year: 1970

The protest: Anti-Vietnam War

The anthem: “Ohio,” Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Between the civil rights movement and outrage over the Vietnam War, there were more than enough social issues happening in the ’60s and ’70s to create a new standard for protest music.

One of the songs that emerged was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s response to the police-led shootings during an anti-war protest at Kent State University in 1970.

The Guardian, which calls “Ohio” the “greatest protest record” ever, notes that the song was born out of the now iconic images of what happened at Kent State. “Neil Young was hanging out … when his bandmate, David Crosby, handed him the latest issue of Life magazine,” the Guardian recalled. “It contained a vivid account and shocking photographs of the killing of four students by the Ohio national guard during a demonstration against the Vietnam war. … Young took a guitar proffered by Crosby and, in short order, wrote a song about the killings.”

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The year: Late ’80s – Early ’90s

The protest: Systemic racism

The anthems: “Fight the Power,” “F*** tha Police”

The progress of the ’60s civil rights movement could be found in the law, but not necessarily in American communities. Racism and its impact was still plainly seen in large and small cities across the United States, as well as, protesters would argue, within those cities’ police forces.

This frustration was funneled into louder, angrier and more direct anthems like N.W.A.’s controversial 1988 track “F*** Tha Police” and Public Enemy’s 1989 anthem “Fight the Power.”

The year: 2010s

The protest: Marriage equality

The anthem: “Born This Way,” Lady Gaga; “Same Love,” Macklemore

The marriage equality movement hit its stride in 2015 as the US Supreme Court heard a case that would decide whether same-sex marriage would be legalized across the country.

In the buildup to this moment, popular culture played a role in pushing back against hurtful stereotypes and championing equality regardless of sexuality. It’s no surprise that Lady Gaga’s self-acceptance anthem, 2011’s “Born This Way,” and Macklemore’s “Same Love,” were both securely in the US’s Top 40 songs in the five years leading up to the Supreme Court’s historic decision in favor of marriage equality.

The year: 2010s

The protest: Black Lives Matter

The anthem: “Alright,” Kendrick Lamar

Along with the rise of Black Lives Matter, a social justice movement that began with a hashtag in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012, has been the rise of a new era of protest music.

From J. Cole (“Be Free”) to Beyonce (“Formation”) to Kendrick Lamar (“Alright”), these artists aren’t making songs tailor-made to be sung while marching, but they are overtly political music in an era of increasing outcry at the deaths of black men and women by police.

Like “We Shall Overcome” did more than 50 years ago, Lamar’s “Alright” has become an almost unofficial anthem for those protesting injustice. “There are multiple messages,” says Salamishah Tillet, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “One, you’re going to be alright because we’re going to get through this day and we’re going to be able to be here tomorrow; we’re going to fight to save this nation and fight to save ourselves.”

“But,” she continues, “it’s also like, ‘We’re right’ — this is a morally righteous cause.”

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ARCHITECT AS PROPHET: CURRENT PHASES OF ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM IN JAPAN

Architectural criticism is not an established journalistic field in Japan. While there is regular criticism of literature, cinema, art, music, etc. very little is published on architecture. We can easily judge that ordinary people has no concern with architecture in daily life. It is not even perceived as a cultural genre, but rather as a result of administrative power or economic activity. Consequently, the architectural critic does not exist as independent profession, and architectural criticism is itself not expected. Architectural criticism, therefore, has a character of a strategic text for a reserve army to be architects than of a general culture for people, where matters of concern are messages not from the life environmental or appreciative point of view but from the field of design. A critical eye is a necessity for an architect. In a society which has no interest in criticism, those who have a good eye for architecture have no option other than to become architects themselves. Critical discourse is primarily aimed at practitioners and students of architecture. They wait and watch all the more for architects’ discourse which may announce the forth coming architecture. Architects are expected to be prophets. In general Japanese criticism does not face the past or the present, but shows a tendency to propose the future vision. There is a saying in Japan “let the past flow away with water” (let bygones be bygones). Basically it may be a virtue, but it may also be justification for inconsistency. It implies the attitude that all you need is the future and let you wink at the past and the present. This attitude has been enforced since the defeat in the World War 2, when everything was reduced to ashes and the sense of value was completely upset. There is another reason why people do not talk about the present condition of city and architecture. In Japan, city planning is a matter for bureaucrats, not architects. Urban conditions today are always seen as something to be denied. Architects are expected only to propose projects for the future that are at best innovative and at worst unrealistic. The absence of critic and the prophetic discourse: this is the current phase of architectural criticism in Japan. THE YEAR 1970: A HISTORICAL TURNING POINT Japan reached its peak of postwar economic growth in 1970 at the OSAKA EXPO '70. Its theme was ‘Progress and Harmony’ and the moon rock was exhibited in American pavilion. After the EXPO’70, the economic growth began to slow down definitely at the Middle East oil crisis in autumn 1973 called OIL SHOCK in Japan. Kenzo Tange shifted his main field from Japan to Middle East after the OSAKA EXPO’70 where he took the leadership. 1970 was a turning point for postwar Japan. The New Year Day1970 newspapers were filled with naively optimistic images of the future. After the EXPO, however, the real future resulted in feelings of disappointment and disenchantment in the public memory. That very autumn, Yukio Mishima killed himself. With the shocking anachronism of his harakiri (disembowelment), Mishima expressed his objection to the oblivion of Japan’s history and the domination of American culture. It was generally felt that he addressed the problematic of Japanese identity, which had been consciously or unconsciously ignored. Radical protests by international students movement and their subsequent failure left society in an introspective mood around 1970. The Japanese student movements were on a quest for Japanese identity (albeit in the opposite direction to Mishima’s, i.e. socialist rather than nationalist), targeting American Imperialism. The most symbolic event in Japan was the Asama Villa Battle in February 1972, where the Rengo Sekigun (United Red Army) took hostages and battled with the riot police. But the most desperate fact was that they had killed their colleagues one by one during their march to the Asama Villa. In May of the same year, there was random gunfire in Tel Aviv Airport by the Nihon Sekigun (Japan Red Army). Society lost all sympathy for student movements. Politically, with the agreement of Okinawa Reversion (1971) and the restoration of diplomatic relations between Japan and China (1972), postwar Japan entered a new phase. Japanese people had been prohibited to cherish the memory of their own past The Return of Okinawa, a place of the fiercest battle and the symbol of Japan’s traumatic defeat, was a reminder of the absence of identity, and of the fact that subjection continued: there remained, and still does, the American bases on Okinawa --- from which airplane left for Vietnam. As to the restoration of diplomatic relations with China, Japan just followed the case of the United States. Economic condition also changed drastically. The fixed exchange rate between Yen and Dollar (1 Dollar = 360 Yen) was changed to a floating exchange rate in August 1971, and Yen has continued rising. (1 Dollar = 116 Yen, on Feb. 9, 1999)  Increasing labor costs pushed Japan to a new level of international competence. And the OIL SHOCK came in autumn of 1973. Crisis of oil-supply from Middle East caused huge inflation and a panicked hoarding of daily necessities. People realized that they were unavoidably standing at a historical turning point of history. Thrown into the stormy sea of international society, they felt that they could never live with an identity reflected in the American mirror. After World War 2, Japan's guiding principle had been ‘America’ --- yesterday’s enemy is today’s hero. The past flowed away with water. Japan's own past was denied and sealed; identity was to be found in the future. This may explain the absence of critical discussion of the past and the present in Japan. From the absent-mindedness after defeat to the self-consciousness as a member of the international society; the fantasy of infallible protection from America also passed in 1970. Reaction against Americanization was a tendency of the 1970s. A simple and easy aspect of Americanization was democracy and electrical appliances. The ideal America had been a distant goal, but as technology began to catch up with, public taste changed --- as in, for example, a preference for European cars over American. Nevertheless, Japan's dilemma was an inability to confess her insincerity to America or to herself. She is obliged to hold a subordinate position as far as security concerns. Japan is prohibited from holding armed forces by the constitution. (1) Though the majority accept this rule, it is difficult to go unarmed in today’s hazardous world conditions. During the Gulf War, irritation at this dilemma reached its peak. Although unable to participate in the operation, Japan contributed over 10 billion dollars, but gratitude could not be bought. A sense of incongruity is growing since 1970, the end of the Japanese postwar period. We can call post-postwar the period since 1970. We should never make it prewar again. POST-1970: DESTRUCTION/NEGATION/INTROSPECTION After Kenzo Tange’s retirement from the field of Japanese architectural discourse and the post-1970 economic recession, three architects took leading positions; Arata Isozaki, Hiroshi Hara and Kazuo Shinohara. ARATA ISOZAKI Arata Isozaki critically prevailed over the Kenzo Tange-led Modernism. He is in fact a disciple of Kenzo Tange, and played an important part in OSAKA EXPO '70 where he was in charge of designing the main plaza Omatsuri Hiroba (festival plaza) which was a symbol of the EXPO’70. He summed up his 60s in his book "Kukan-e (Towards Space)" and characterized his own feeling of alienation from EXPO’70 as ‘mentally dropped-out’. His passages in this book like ‘only “notions” from his inmost thought are required for architect’ or ‘notions can exist only from traces of architect's hand in designing process’ swept away all prior architects' discourses that were based on a pretence of social correctness. He declared a move towards a period of personal introspection, demonstrating both a critical irony and a keen understanding of the time. In 1975, coinciding with the ending of the Vietnam War, Isozaki released "Kenchiku no Kaitai (The Destruction of Architecture)". This book was not only a brilliant collection of contemporary architectural thought based upon his own strategies; it soon became a Bible for the new generation. This ‘Acts of the Apostles’ discussed architects such as Hollein, Archigram, Moore, Price, Alexander, Venturi, and Superstudio/Archizoom. In retrospect, we can describe it as the New Testament of Postmodernism which replaced the Old Testament of Modernism: Giedion’s "Space, Time and Architecture". Isozaki did not used the term ‘Postmodern’ anywhere in this book, but he quickly became the leader of Japanese Postmodernism, navigating with an acute sense for global trends. Criticism of Modernism in Japan was decisively determined by this book, and Isozaki has become a focus of post-1970 Japanese architectural discourse. HIROSHI HARA Hiroshi Hara, born in 1936 (five years younger than 1931 born Isozaki), released ‘Kinshitsu Kukan Ron (Essay on Homogeneous Space)’ in the magazine of "Shiso (Thought)" in 1976, a year after Isozaki's "Kenchiku no Kaitai". This was a fundamental criticism of Modernism from a cultural point of view. Hara ascertained the ultimate goal of Modernism in the architecture of Mies van der Rohe: Modernism, the search for a universal applicable to the entire human race, was concluded when Mies imagined and realized his glass box. According to Hara, Mies proposed a coordinate axis which may contain any type of function (in the mathematical sense). Hara called this spatial system Homogeneous Space, and criticized harshly. The paradox of Homogeneous Space is its character of control, despite its intention of freedom. Spatial assignments is determined not by the user but by the controller. All the world’s city centers are occupied by Homogeneous Space, which can be regarded as the dominant spatial concept of our civilization. It not only represents Modernism but revealed its limits, in its reduction of individuals to numbers and signs. Nevertheless we do not have any spatial to supersede it. This is Hara's recognition. Unusually for architectural criticism, due to its long historical prospect and its publication by the Iwanami Bookshop, a figurehead of Japanese cultural elite, this essay was well-received by the wider intelligentsia. Hara took a critical stance toward EXPO'70, preferring to travel to traditional villages of the world throughout the 70s, refining his thoughts from the margins. We may assign Hara the Anti-Modern position, proposing a theoretical criticism to Modernism. KAZUO SHINOHARA Kazuo Shinohara, born in 1925 and six years older than Isozaki, turned his back on both economic growth of the 60s and EXPO’70, focusing instead on the artistic design of houses. He once said: ‘I never imagined an urbanism of huge concrete infrastructure prevailing in Japan n the 60s. Rather than the optimistic technological rationalism which peaked at OSAKA EXPO’70, “the space of meaning” enclosed in Japanese tradition as “the irrational” attracted me far more.’  (2) For Shinohara, architecture is not committed to society, economy or politics, but is an art concerning man's inner world. His consistently subjective approach came into its own during the period of introspection which emerged after 1970. Though many Japanese architects regarded the theme of the postwar period as a separation from Japanese tradition and the pursuit of Japanese Modernism, Shinohara proposed a type of creation drew on Japanese tradition. Japanese Modernists of the time avoided both traditional forms and any association with the Imperial dynasty --- which was vehemently denied after the war defeat. They picked up pre-historic period such as Jomon (more than 15,000 to 2,800 years ago) and Yayoi (2,800 to 1,800 years ago) as alternatives. That was, so called, the Dento Ronso (Traditional Dispute) in postwar Japan. Shinohara instead confessed his admiration of Toshodai-ji (founded in 759 AD), a representative temple of the Tenpyo period during which the Imperial dynasty was at its height. It might be a period which architects were prohibited to look back upon in the postwar situation. He has always been independent from the trends of the times, an attitude that is his strength and strategy. The historical turning points every decade or two were predicted by Shinohara’s discourse ex post facto. Shinohara is neither Post- nor Anti-Modern, but SHINOHARA. He eventually named his own stance ‘Modern-Next’ in 1988. Shinohara’s personal style attracted many young architects in the period of introspection form 70s to 85. Those young architects who felt great sympathy with Shinohara’s attitude were called the members of the Shinohara School, which included future generations such as Toyo Ito, Itsuko Hasegawa, Kazunari Sakamoto and so on. 1985: FORM/AFFIRMATION/INTENSITY The Japanese economy began to grow up again and entered so called Bubble Economy from 1985, supported by Regan-Nakasone's politics for the expansion of domestic demand. In the same year, the Tsukuba EXPO entitled ‘Science and Technology’ was held. The ‘Period of Introspection’ or ‘Period of Destruction and Negation’ was over. Symptoms of this shift had been visible in Paris in the early 80s. Kazuo Shinohara held a one-man show in Paris from the end of 1979 to the beginning of 1980. He proposed the concept of ‘Progressive Anarchy’, with Tokyo as its model, again forecasting the impending transformation of Tokyo in the Bubble Period. In 1982, Isozaki was a jury member for the La Villette Competition. While Bernard Tschumi and Rem Koolhaas competed for first prize, Hiroshi Hara received an honorable mention. His project corresponded with Koolhaas's in its organization of space. Hara named his concept ‘Multi-Layered Structure’, which would lead him to the concept of ‘Modal Space of Consciousness’. Isozaki responded positively to such methods, and he began to frequently use terms such as ‘Collision’ or ‘Disjunction’ in his discourse. This was not an aesthetic of simplicity but of the co-existence of differences. Although he had already referred to William Empson's "Seven Types of Ambiguity" through the analysis of Venturi's discourse in “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture” (1966) in "Kenchiku no Kaitai", La Villette Competition showed us an advanced possibility of new configuration of ambiguity not with physical subjects design but with transparent manipulation of relations. This interest in ambiguous relationships or atmosphere is the aesthetic of the Japanese tradition, where only relations or atmosphere were paid attention. Images of Tokyo in latter half of 80's were ambiguous, filled with collisions, random, chaotic, intense and uncanny. It was not the design of elements but rather phenomena appearing and vanishing like constellation of stars: the resonance of absence. Tokyo may be said to have been revitalized via echoes from Paris. Isozaki, Hara and Shinohara had strong affirmation for their discourse and methodology corresponding to the period. Their discourse shifted from destruction, negation and introspection to form, affirmation and intensity. They completed several important works backing up the keynotes of their discourse: Isozaki's Tsukuba Center Building (1983), Hara's Yamato International (1986) and Shinohara's Tokyo Institute of Technology Centennial Hall (1987). Each prophet has his own shooting range of the history. Isozaki’s discourse had played an important part to lead the 70s and 80s with short-term prophecies. Shinohara uttered prophetic phrases, predicting phenomena one or two decades in advance. His discourse is prophetic because of his intense and poetic terminology. Hara has been consciously writing like a prophet. His historical range is 50 years, 100 years or more. For example, in the book "Kukan: Kino kara Yoso e (Space: from Function to Modality)" of 1987 is filled expressions such as: ‘Architecture is philosophy of aphasia. Here I can prophesy without any doubt that in 21st century art, including architecture, will replace philosophy. For today and the next century is “Period of Space”’. TRIANGLE: LIBERATION/FREEZE/DESTROY As is apparent from the title of "Kenchiku no Kaitai (The Destruction of Architecture)", Isozaki tried to destroy the paradigm of Modernism, but in wider sense it refers the destruction of the notion of architecture itself. Finally he picked up a notion never to be destroyed. That was ‘architecture with initial A’. According to him, it is the transcendental concept emerging after the collapse of Classicism language at the middle of 18th century. (3) Isozaki extracted this ‘meta-concept’ from the history of architecture, as an expansion of the Classicism principle of architecture. In 1990, during a year, he published a series of articles titled "[Kenchiku] toiu Keishiki ([Architecture] as Form)" on “Shinkenchiku” magazines. He explains here [Architecture] means ‘architecture with initial A’; needless to say he shows Lacanian disposition. Isozaki applied the word of Form to describe ‘architecture with initial A’, so we can substitute Form for Architecture. This was what he confronted as the indestructible essence of architecture at the end of his ‘destruction of architecture’. Finally Isozaki realized that Japanese architectural thinking is lacking this notion of FORM. FORM is nothing else but Architecture. Noticing lack of this meta-concept in Japan, he realized his mission to enlighten Japanese architectural thought and to restructure it. Hara is distant from this kind of thinking. He has been catching the world from marginal fields. To his eyes, all architecture---Western Classicism, Islamic architecture, Berber villages, circle houses in Africa--- are the same. He seizes the brilliance of architectural history in both its peaks and valleys. It is like wide-angle lens through which he can see a ‘Prospect of the World’. Once Isozaki mentioned that Hara has never encountered Architecture. Judging from Isozaki's standard-angle lens focused only on ‘architecture with initial A’, Isozaki seems inpatient with Hara's soft focused scenery. Shinohara's lens is very narrow-angled. He sees only objects within his personal concerns. Selection is done through intuition capturing the next. Isozaki finally sees the “Absence” of “Ruin” through FORM. Hara tries mapping from ‘Conditions of Consciousness’ to ‘Semiotic Field’, imagining ‘Prospect of the World’. Shinohara tried to express ‘Force’ with words like, for example ‘Zero Degree Machine’. If architecture is finally proof of vitality for mortal man, and a device which turns Eros --- desire to retain individual life --- to Thanatos --- desire to dissolve individual life into a universal “flow of life” ---, tracing the discourse of three architects shows us a corresponding relationship with Freud's “Three Forms of Death Instinct”. Freud tried to understand death in three phases: Liberation of Consciousness, Freezing of Time and Destruction of Body. Liberation leads to Nirvana, Freezing leads to Monument and Destruction leads to Ruins, or Absence/Utopia (No Place). This corresponds to each discourse of Hara, Shinohara and Isozaki. Hara sees Nirvana in ‘Prospect of the World’, Shinohara sees eternal Monument in ‘Transparent Geometry of Force’ and Isozaki sees Absent Utopia in ‘Ruins’. Nirvana is ‘Condition’, Monument is ‘Force’ and Utopia is ‘Form’. The discourses of three architects are prophecies forming death triangle. AFTER 1990: ATTITUDE TOWARDS HISTORY or KANREKI After the world war 2, Japan lost its identity and ideals; people lost faith in the community and never trusted the common discourse. In the postwar period, they have been searching for a trustworthy individual’s discourse. Architect may sometimes be such a privileged individual. 1989:Berlin Wall collapses. 1990: Bubble Economy collapses. 1991: Gulf War breaks out. 1991: Soviet Union collapses. 1995: Kobe Earthquake and Subway Sarin Gas Event by Aum cult. 1997: Junior high school boy in Kobe kills and decapitates elementary school boy and leaves his head at the school gate. Japan is shrouded by uneasiness and instability. The ostentatious so-called Postmodern style disappeared with the collapse of the Bubble economy. The so-called Deconstructivist style was mocked by the buildings destroyed in the Kobe Earthquake. Japan, once a representative of postmodern society supporting lives of cynical consumption, has now lost even a power to evoke the desire for consumption. While Isozaki once accelerated Bubble Japan from 1985 to 1990 with joy of difference, Hara escaped from it for seeking similarity in difference through the world village research, and Shinohara criticized it with words of intensity deviated from context, since 1990 Isozaki turned it to specific place, Hara reversed it to common consciousness, and Shinohara froze it to symbolic shape. In Japan we have a custom of revitalization at the age of 60, called Kanreki that means a circle of time and a resetting of calendar. Shinohara in 1985, Isozaki in 1991, and Hara in 1996, met Kanreki in their lives. Their Kanreki of about every five years passed Japan’s epoch from 1985 to 1990, the Bubble period, which was the most prosperous days Japan had never experienced in its history. Meeting their Kanreki, Shinohara designed Tokyo Institute of Technology Centennial Hall, Isozaki started his world tour exhibition from MOCA and Any-Conference on his initiative, and Hara finished two big projects of Osaka Twin Tower and Kyoto Station. As far as architects must take the role of prophets, they are required to have a historical vision. If a comparison of the attitude towards history of those three architects were permitted, we can say that Isozaki’s view is based on situation. Hara’s view is based on civilization and Shinohara’s view is based on the individual. That is why Isozaki talks at short range, Hara talks at long range and Shinohara talks at medium range. Asking help from mathematical metaphors, Isozaki’s view acts as ‘differential’, and Hara’s as ‘integral’, and Shinohara’s as ‘modular function’. Isozaki always wishes to be the other, Shinohara remains within himself, and Hara wishes to be a prophet invited with others. Isozaki wishes to be the world, Shinohara construct the world in himself, and Hara, as he says, wants to be spirit seduced by the world. Nevertheless, we are prohibited to have an embracing image of the world in Japan, because the discussions on history are limited, because we know the horrific history of the pursuit of racial identity, and because we already experienced the ultimate destruction of nuclear weapons. With all our lack of ideal, with all our lack of vision, still we search for the support for a basis for architectural discourse, in order to live, and walk into the future cheerfully and carefully. It is a mission we inherit from three prophets. Footnote (1)  "THE CONSTITUTION OF JAPAN" Chapter 2 RENUNCIATION OF WAR Article 9 Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized. (2) Kazuo Shinohara, "KAZUO SHINOHARA: tomei na chikara no kikagaku (Transparent Geometry of Force)", TOTO Shuppan, 1996, p.10. (3)  Arata Isozaki, ‘[Kenchiku] toiu Keishiki-1’, Shinkenchiku (January 1990), p271.

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This is what protest sounds like

(CNN)Black Lives Matter activist Zellie Imani remembers the moment civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson came to Ferguson, Missouri, in the wake of Michael Brown’s 2014 death.

Crowds had gathered to protest the fatal shooting of unarmed, 18-year-old Brown by a white police officer, and Imani remembers Jackson joining the demonstrators as they marched toward a church.

But Jackson, it seems, had missed a crucial memo.

“I think he tried to have us sing ‘We Shall Overcome,'” Imani recalls in the CNN original series “Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History,” referring to the popular hymn that has been sung as a protest anthem around the world. The song has its roots in an African-American spiritual from the early 1900s, and became a call for resistance and freedom during the African-American struggle for civil rights.

“(But) the song doesn’t tell us when we shall overcome,” Imani continues. “It is saying that we will overcome someday — and what we in the streets wanted, we wanted justice now.”

Wanting justice now doesn’t mean the newest generation of protesters failed to see the value in having some sort of battle cry; a song that could unify their movement, express their yearnings and provide a balm all at the same time.

At this protest, Imani says, “people started to chant Kendrick Lamar’s ‘(We Gon’ Be) Alright.'”

This shift from church-ready protest anthems to something less gentle and more explicit has rubbed at least one civil rights activist the wrong way.

But it also shows that the long-held American tradition of protest music didn’t fade away with the social revolutions of the 1960s and ’70s. Artists using songs as resistance, or protesters adopting their work as de facto anthems, never went away — with each generation, and with each protest, there’s been a new voice.

Scroll through the guide below to hear the evolution of American protest anthems:

The year: 1930s – 1950s

The protest: Lynchings of African-Americans

The anthem: “Strange Fruit,” Billie Holiday

According to the Equal Justice Initiative, more than 4,000 African-Americans were lynched across 12 Southern states between 1877 and 1950. An image of one of these public lynchings so haunted Abel Meeropol, a Jewish teacher living in the Bronx, that he wrote the protest poem that eventually became Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.”

Using the popular jazz of the era, Holiday bore witness to the atrocities happening in the American South and turned protesting into art.

The year: 1940

The protest: Economic opportunity

The anthem: “This Land is Your Land,” Woody Guthrie

Today a favorite in kindergarten classrooms, “This Land is Your Land” started out as an annoyed response to the blinding optimism of late ’30s hit “God Bless America.”

American folk legend Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land” in 1940 as an alternative, standing in opposition of “Depression-enhanced economic disparity” and the “greed he witnessed in so many pockets of the country,” says American Songwriter.

The year: 1962

The protest: Civil rights

The anthem: “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round”

There’s no way to separate the US civil rights movement from its music. The song was so integral to its existence and purpose that in 1962 it spawned the Freedom Singers, a quartet that sang songs steeped in African-American gospel traditions.

“We sang everywhere. We sang at house parties, at Carnegie Hall — to take the message of this movement to the North,” Freedom Singer Charles Neblett recalls in CNN’s “Soundtracks.” “Mass meetings, picket lines, in jails — music was the glue that held everything together.”

Songs like “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round” may sound like another performance of a traditional spiritual, but listen closely and you’ll hear lyrics that spoke to the time: “Ain’t gonna let no jailhouse turn me round. Keep on a-walkin’, keep on a-talkin’, marching up to freedom land.”

The year: 1963

The protest: The March on Washington

The anthem: “If I Had a Hammer,” Peter, Paul and Mary

Originally written by socially conscious folk icon Pete Seeger, it’s the Peter, Paul and Mary recording of “If I Had a Hammer” that took off in the early ’60s.

It was popular folk music, but it also keenly reflected the times as an anthem of resistance and fighting for justice: Peter, Paul and Mary sang “Hammer” at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington to “express in song what (the) great meeting is all about.”

The year: 1968

The protest: Black Power movement

The anthem: “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud),” James Brown

The assassination of MLK in 1968 not only altered the African-American fight for equal rights — it altered the music about the struggle, as well.

Before MLK’s death, “you had the hymns of unity and change,” music and culture journalist Richard Goldstein explains. But with the rise of the Black Power Movement in the aftermath of King’s death, “the hymns fade and are replaced by much more militant sentiments in the music.”

The year: 1970s

The protest: Women’s rights

The anthem: “I Am Woman,” Helen Reddy

Australian artist Helen Reddy didn’t set out to become the voice of the women’s liberation movement, but that’s what she became with this 1972 women’s empowerment single.

“I was looking for songs that reflected the positive sense of self that I felt I’d gained from the women’s movement,” she told Billboard magazine, “[but] I couldn’t find any. I realized that the song I was looking for didn’t exist, and I was going to have to write it myself.” The song went all the way to No. 1, making Reddy the first Australian solo artist to accomplish that feat in the US.

The year: 1970

The protest: Anti-Vietnam War

The anthem: “Ohio,” Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Between the civil rights movement and outrage over the Vietnam War, there were more than enough social issues happening in the ’60s and ’70s to create a new standard for protest music.

One of the songs that emerged was Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s response to the police-led shootings during an anti-war protest at Kent State University in 1970.

The Guardian, which calls “Ohio” the “greatest protest record” ever, notes that the song was born out of the now iconic images of what happened at Kent State. “Neil Young was hanging out … when his bandmate, David Crosby, handed him the latest issue of Life magazine,” the Guardian recalled. “It contained a vivid account and shocking photographs of the killing of four students by the Ohio national guard during a demonstration against the Vietnam war. … Young took a guitar proffered by Crosby and, in short order, wrote a song about the killings.”

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The year: Late ’80s – Early ’90s

The protest: Systemic racism

The anthems: “Fight the Power,” “F*** tha Police”

The progress of the ’60s civil rights movement could be found in the law, but not necessarily in American communities. Racism and its impact was still plainly seen in large and small cities across the United States, as well as, protesters would argue, within those cities’ police forces.

This frustration was funneled into louder, angrier and more direct anthems like N.W.A.’s controversial 1988 track “F*** Tha Police” and Public Enemy’s 1989 anthem “Fight the Power.”

The year: 2010s

The protest: Marriage equality

The anthem: “Born This Way,” Lady Gaga; “Same Love,” Macklemore

The marriage equality movement hit its stride in 2015 as the US Supreme Court heard a case that would decide whether same-sex marriage would be legalized across the country.

In the buildup to this moment, popular culture played a role in pushing back against hurtful stereotypes and championing equality regardless of sexuality. It’s no surprise that Lady Gaga’s self-acceptance anthem, 2011’s “Born This Way,” and Macklemore’s “Same Love,” were both securely in the US’s Top 40 songs in the five years leading up to the Supreme Court’s historic decision in favor of marriage equality.

The year: 2010s

The protest: Black Lives Matter

The anthem: “Alright,” Kendrick Lamar

Along with the rise of Black Lives Matter, a social justice movement that began with a hashtag in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s death in 2012, has been the rise of a new era of protest music.

From J. Cole (“Be Free”) to Beyonce (“Formation”) to Kendrick Lamar (“Alright”), these artists aren’t making songs tailor-made to be sung while marching, but they are overtly political music in an era of increasing outcry at the deaths of black men and women by police.

Like “We Shall Overcome” did more than 50 years ago, Lamar’s “Alright” has become an almost unofficial anthem for those protesting injustice. “There are multiple messages,” says Salamishah Tillet, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “One, you’re going to be alright because we’re going to get through this day and we’re going to be able to be here tomorrow; we’re going to fight to save this nation and fight to save ourselves.”

“But,” she continues, “it’s also like, ‘We’re right’ — this is a morally righteous cause.”

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