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sinrau · 4 years

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“So I ask you to do me a favor. Suburban women: will you please like me? Please. Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, OK? The other thing: I don’t have that much time to be that nice. You know, I can do it, but I gotta go quickly.” — President Donald J. Trump

Welcome to the Countdown Journal. There are 20 days until Election Day and then 78 until the Inauguration.

Let’s start with this: The president retweeted a story suggesting that Barack Obama had Seal Team 6 murdered. And it hardly made a ripple in the news cycle, three weeks before the election.

As Bill Kristol notes in this morning’s Bulwark, “Deviancy has been defined so far down that President Donald Trump’s retweet at mid-day Tuesday was barely noticed.”

After all, what’s new? And who cares?

So what if the president of the United States brought to prominence an insane conspiracy theory that his predecessor, Barack Obama, arranged for four Americans to be killed at Benghazi to cover up an even bigger intentional blood-sacrifice of Navy SEALs—which in turn covered up the fact that Osama Bin Laden was still alive. Since it was a body-double who was in fact killed in 2011.

Or at least I think that’s the story Trump was amplifying. You’ll forgive me if I got some twists in the plot wrong.

Anyway, what’s the big deal? It’s just Trump being Trump. The important things were happening elsewhere, in the back and forth between Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and various senators on Capitol Hill. That’s what serious conservatives were focused on. That’s what’s going to make a difference. If crazy tweets are the price we pay for an originalist justice, these people tell us, then it’s well worth it.

Speaking of crazy. Olivia Nuzzi reports that America’s Mayor “was in Philadelphia sounding like Livia Soprano.”

After claiming that Democrats used the pandemic to take away gun rights, which did not happen, he mentioned the McCloskeys, the couple who wielded guns on the porch of their St. Louis mansion in front of Black Lives Matter demonstrators who were passing by. Giuliani claimed, falsely, that the protesters had yelled, “ ’We want to rape your wife! We want to rape your wife! We want this for reparations! This is number one for reparations! Biggest house here! Reparations!’” He added, “Nobody knows this, but at the time, their daughter was upstairs under the bed because she was afraid they’re going to come in and they’re talking about rape and they’re going to rape the wife and they’re going to find the daughter.”

None of that was true.

And now we learn that Trump has chosen Rudy and Jay Sekulow to run his post-election operation. What could possibly go wrong?

How is Trump’s final act playing with women? Not well, apparently.

A reporter from the Economist who watched the focus group:

Easy questions. On balance, Amy Coney Barrett is doing as well as could be expected in the kabuki-theater hearings over her nomination. Senators bloviate and ask questions she won’t answer. She doesn’t use notes. We know how it ends.

But the thing about easy questions is that they are easy.

Questions like: Can the president unilaterally move the date of the election? The easy answer is no, he can’t. That requires an act of congress. It’s the law.

ACB’s answer:

“Well, Senator, if that question ever came before me, I’d need to hear arguments from the litigants and read briefs and consult with my law clerks and talk to my colleagues and go through the opinion-writing process,” she said. “So, you know, if I give off the cuff answers, then I would be basically a legal pundit, and I don’t think we want judges to be legal pundits. I think we want judges to approach cases thoughtfully and with an open mind.”

Here’s another one.

I’m not not a lawyer, but shouldn’t a constitutional “originalist” believe that the constitution requires a peaceful transfer of power? And that the founders kind of thought it was important? When did that become “political controversy”?

And, then there was this question about voter intimidation. “Sen. Amy Klobuchar brought up efforts by President Trump to get his supporters to the polls to observe voting activity and asked Judge Amy Coney Barrett if under federal law it is illegal to intimidate voters at the polls. “

“I can’t characterize the facts in a hypothetical situation, and I can’t apply the law to a hypothetical set of facts.”

She continued: “I can only decide cases as they come to me litigated by parties on a full record after fully engaging precedent, talking to colleagues, writing an opinion, and so I can’t answer questions like that.”

Easy answer: it is against the law to intimidate voters, and as a judge I believe in upholding the law.

Why is this so hard? (And, yes, that is a rhetorical question.)

Well, how about that. Biden says that he is “not a fan of court packing.”

“I’ve already spoken on — I’m not a fan of court packing, but I don’t want to get off on that whole issue. I want to keep focused,” the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee said in an interview with Cincinnati’s WKRC.

We are now free to get back to Hillary’s emails.

Not with a bang or even a whimper. “‘Unmasking’ probe commissioned by Barr concludes without charges or any public report.”

Or, as Tim Miller puts it in today’s Bulwark, “Another ‘Deep State’ non-scandal goes down the memory hole.”

Guess we can close the file on that one.

William Barr has quietly ended the probe into the supposed “unmasking” scandal which was only opened as fan service for Republican elected officials and conservative media in the first place. (Trump had suggested to Maria Bartiromo that the perpetrators be given 50 year sentences on Fox.)

I suspect that Barr had hoped that maybe, with a little luck, his investigation might snare somebody in some tangential wrongdoing. Or be able to do some strategic leaking. Or at least keep the issue open until after the election.

Alas, the president’s lawyer daddy struck out. Again. Thus bringing to a close a matter that—in a saner world—would have been the stupidest fake scandal in decade.

Romney sort of goes there. I blame myself a bit for this, because the other day I highlighted Keith Olbermann’s deranged rant. But I was just taking a cheap shot, not attempting to weigh the comparative insanity of the two sides of our political divide.

Which brings me to Romney, who put this out yesterday:

My thoughts on the current state of our politics:

This is good, sort of. This is the strongest denunciation of Trump’s toxic crackpottery from any Republican. (It may be the only one?) But what caught the most attention was Romney’s suggestions that there was some rough moral equivalency between comments by the president of the United States and a washed up sports guy on a YouTube video.

Both were bad. One has the nuclear codes.

So, unfortunately, this falls into the category of:Meant Well, But Actually Missed the Point.

Mitt Romney doesn’t want that to be his epitaph.

A final off-ramp for the GOP establishment?

As I mentioned on yesterday’s podcast, Politico’s Tim Alberta suggests that the GOP might still break with Trump… after the election. If the election is a blowout, he writes, “and Trump is flinging wild accusations about wide-scale fraud and deep-state conspiracies to take him down, Republicans will be forced to choose a side.

“They will either stand with a battered soon-to-be-former president whose days in office are numbered whether he likes it or not, or they will stand with the democratic norms that have guided the nation for 244 years.”

I suspect that he’s at least partly right. Some members of the GOP Old Guard might be willing to tell Trump to go. But Ted Cruz? Josh Hawley? Marco Rubio? Nikki Haley? Lindsey Graham? Forget about it.

Instead, backing Trump is more likely to become the new litmus test of tribal loyalty.

Foxconn turns out to be a massive boondoggle. Who knew?

Oh wait.

Something for the bedwetters. We’ve seen way too much hope and optimism lately, so I wanted to pass on this piece from Thomas Edsall, who warns that Biden is not yet out of the woods.

Here are some of the things causing anxiety among Democratic partisans, particularly political professionals.

One way to measure voter enthusiasm is to compare voter registration trends for each party. A Democratic strategist who closely follows the data on a day-to-day basis wrote in a privately circulated newsletter:

Since last week, the share of white non-college over 30 registrations in the battleground states has increased by 10 points compared to September 2016, and the Democratic margin dropped 10 points to just 6 points. And there are serious signs of political engagement by white non-college voters who had not cast ballots in previous elections.

But, but, but… Biden is now leading in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Arizona and the Economist Forecast gives him a 91 percent chance of winning the election. The FiveThirty Forecast has Biden at 87 percent.

The RealClearPolitics average now puts Biden’s lead at 10 points.

There are 20 days to go.

Quick Hits

Ok, sorry about the downer item above. As an antidote, make sure you read this piece by Mona Charen in today’s Bulwark.

We devote a lot of mental energy to things that are going wrong or could go wrong. It’s human nature. As the sociobiologists teach us, our ancestors were not the ones who heard a rustling in the grass and figured, “Eh, it’s probably nothing.” We are descended from the ones who said “ What the hell was that? Could be a cobra. Better run the other way.” Vigilance is our default mode.

But seven months after the start of this plague, we shouldn’t lose sight of the things that went more right than we expected for two reasons: 1) gratitude is good for the spirit and the soul, and 2) we must guard against catastrophizing.

Nicholas Grossman in today’s Bulwark:

Leaders, especially in law enforcement positions, can counter the president’s effort to stir up voter intimidation by making it clear they’ll prosecute election-related crimes, as Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford did after the debate.

Police should prepare for the possibility of armed intimidation at polling places. And concerned citizens should prepare for the unlikely, but not impossible, scenario in which some police are overwhelmed — or choose to look the other way — by being ready to calmly, peacefully escort any intimidated voters into polling places.

Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection recommends documenting what you see—if uniformed militia show up, photograph or take note of any insignias—and offers fact sheets on the relevant laws in 50 states, which you can find here.

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Deep Thoughts

Josh Kraushaar in the National Journal:

Republicans are now bracing for a punishing Election Night, resigned to losing the presidency, alarmed that Democrats will pad their House majority, and growing increasingly concerned that Chuck Schumer will be the next Senate majority leader. Most are hoping for a mere blue-wave election, rather than a potential tsunami that would wipe out some GOP members of Congress in reliably red states and districts. “He’s losing older Republicans over COVID,” said one alarmed senior Republican strategist. “They take their health seriously, and they see the nonsense out of the White House and it’s off-putting.”

So today’s column is something of a scorecard that will indicate just how bad the Election Night environment will be for Republicans. These are all races that, in normal times, should be fairly safe seats for the Republican Party. But they’re shaping up to be uncomfortably close. If Democrats win even one of these four races, it’s a sign of a big blue political wipeout.

A Tsunami of Trumpian Crazy

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youu-flower-youu-feast · 7 years

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Why Harry Styles Didn’t Get a Grammy Nomination.

Ok so most of us are not going to want to hear this but I’m going to say it anyway. We all know that Harry is more than deserving of not only a nomination but a Grammy itself. His album was amazing. It was different from the masses but also diverse within its own collection. Songs like ‘Meet Me in The Hallway’ and ‘Kiwi’ couldn’t be further apart sonically but fit perfectly within the collection. The production was out of this world and the lyrics were thoughtful and thought provoking. But, you all know this already. I’m seeing a lot of people extremely upset about the nominations and I’m here to slap some hard truths onto you.

Unfortunately in this world that we live in talent isn’t the only thing you need to win awards and accolades. Especially for a show like the Grammys. Remember last year when Rihanna’s ‘Anti’ didn’t win a single award even though she was nominated eight times. Keep that in mind, it’ll come up later. The reason people win Grammys these days is a combination of two things that should have nothing to do with each other. Talent and Hype. Harry’s one of the most talented artists out right now. Everyone agrees on this fact, music execs, album reviewers and fans alike. But there is little to no hype around him. He hasn’t really gained many new fans outside of the people who loved him from the beginning. This is reflected in his social media following. People follow you on social media because they’re intrigued by you and want to know you better. His numbers have stayed relatively the same for years. And I honestly think that it’s his fault.

Harry doesn’t post a tweet or on Facebook or Instagram unless it’s to promote himself or show some profound gratitude. And it’s fine, even respectable, that he values his privacy and anonymity so much but that’s not how our world works anymore. There’s absolutely zero interaction between him and his fans or the media. In real life he usually disappears for weeks or months on end lately. You hardly ever even see a paparazzi picture of him. So if you’re a new fan there’s nothing there to intrigue you except 10 songs. And while they’re 10 amazing songs, people usually come for the talent and stay for the person. But in Harry’s case there’s no reason to stay. My best friend called him boring a few months ago and I thought nothing of it. But for the people who aren’t hardcore friends that may be how he comes off, boring and aloof.

Grammy voters are regular people just like us. Usually they vote based on talent and hype, as in whether they like the person or not. It’s human nature. Take Taylor Swift for example. Taylor is a talented singer and songwriter. Not more or less than any of the other “pop princesses” in my opinion. So why was she such a Grammy darling and sold over a million albums with ‘Reputation’ but didn’t get a single nomination? Because of hype. Over the last few years you couldn’t open any social media platform or gossip mag without seeing her face. Her romances and friendships and fueds were front page everyday and her name was in peoples mouths all the time. For a voter, it’s easy to vote for her because you feel like you know her. You know who she’s dating, who her songs are about, who her “squad” is made up of, and who her arch nemesis is of the moment. With Harry, we don’t know anything about him. This year Taylor disappeared from the radar and in this fast paced world we live in, if we don’t see you, we forget about you. That’s the reason why she didn’t get any nominations for her entries. No one was talking much about her in the media. But then why did she sell so many albums? Because she still had hype with the people who ultimately matter, the fans, the consumer. She was on social media talking to them and connecting with them. She invited some of them to her house for God’s sake. As a fan, you see your fav making an effort and you reward them by supporting their efforts. Again, it’s human nature.

But once again, you have to have both talent and hype for things like the Grammys. Ed Sheeran was gone for a year as well and even tho he sold very well, he didn’t do promo like he usually does and that’s why he only garnered two nominations for an amazing album. Someone like Selena Gomez has more hype than she knows what to do with, but she’s lacking in the talent department. Selena is the most followed person on Instagram and even though she’s beautiful and some of her songs are catchy, that has little to do with it. People follow her because she’s surrounded by rumor and speculation regarding her love life. People are interested in things like that, and she gives the people what they want. Conversely, Demi Lovato has more talent than she knows what to do with. But she’s lacking in the hype department. Which is why she didn’t get any nominations either. Think about it. Everyone thought that Jay-Z’s ‘4:44’ was going to be a simple outlier this year, but it got me most nominations. He has name recognition and voters respect him and his talent. But the album was also hyped as a response to Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’. And even though Jay-Z has little to no presence on social media, his wife does, and they’re often seen out and about and people are talking about them and their kids constantly.

Now back to Rihanna. I personally believe that ‘Anti’ is her best effort to date and she deserved her eight nominations. But last year she was hardly on social media and there was no controversy surrounding her and it showed. It’s sad to think that something as trivial as social media and controversy and raising your fame level could have anything to do with the Grammy’s but it does and musicians have to take that into effect. One Direction deserved at least a nomination with their last album but the voters already put them in the category of “teen pop fluff”. And besides Zayn leaving, there wasn’t much talk surrounding them either. Their management always made sure they had squeaky clean images and that’s just not realistic. And even tho Zayn’s extremely talented, absolutely no one is talking about him if it doesn’t have to do with Gigi Hadid. Which is why ‘Mind of Mine’ flew under the radar.

This year Harry did SNL, X-Factor, and The Late Late Show and he was brilliant in all of them. People might have seen those performances and decided to follow him on social media to get to know him better, but when they do, there’s nothing there to discover. Even on his BBC Special, the most interesting thing we learned about him was that he didn’t like vinegar on his chips. True fans may be satisfied with this but new fans won’t be. I mean Beyoncé posts videos and selfies for her fans. And let’s me honest the hardcore fans became do because we were intrigued by the person in the early days. We came for the music and stayed for them because we felt like we knew them. I think Harry has a real chance of winning a Grammy in the future because his talent will not fade. However, he needs to do a lot more to gain new fans and actually make people interested in him. He needs to be more open and honest, more present. I hope he changes his ways and stops hiding his life so much as if people don’t deserve to know anything about him. And even though people are not entitled to know anything about your personal life, a selfie and a hello to your fans every once in a while is not too much to ask.

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sheilacwall · 5 years

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Jesus Walks… in Adidas

Jesus is King has finally dropped. This is Kanye West’s first Christian rap-gospel album since turning into a born-again Christian in April after the hedonistic indulgence of Coachella.

The Lucifer, Mercy and New God Flow producer has given up secular music and has now turned his career toward the servitude of God.

However, his return from hospital and new found faith will flow nicely into his plans to expand his fashion, music & entertainment empire as well as possibly delivering him the top spot in the White House. This is a man not to be underestimated.

Saint Pablo

‘Ye recently turned around a personal debt of $53 million into a nearly $50m profit. Back in 2016, ‘Ye went out cap in hand to Mark Zuckerberg for $1bn for his ideas, but was promptly ignored. Zuckerberg was raised in a Jewish household, although his wife is a Buddhist and he hasn’t publicly stated his faith. But, this wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by ‘Ye and may have pushed Kanye toward his born-again Christian position.

Soon after, the “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” star seemingly finally started listening to his wife.

“My wife said, I can’t say no to nobody, and at this rate we gon’ both die broke,” West raps on Saint Pablo. “Got friends that ask me for money knowin’ I’m in debt, and like my wife said, I still didn’t say no.”

Stronger

Whilst facing the cold shoulder from Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey – the Square & Paypal founder who was raised a Catholic, offered to invest in Kanye early on.

Jay-Z also kicked in a loan of $20m triggering tensions between the two ending in a public feud.

Here’s Jay-Z on “Kill Jay-Z”:

“You dropped outta school, you lost your principles / You gave him 20 million without thinkin’,” Jay-Z raps, seemingly confirming the rumor that he lent West money. “He gave you 20 minutes on stage, f–k was he thinkin’?”

Recently, Kanye has tried to dead the beef with the recent track “Brothers” with Charlie Wilson.

Power

‘Ye never got that billion from Zuckerberg, although they apparently became friends and even performed karaoke together, but it appears West has now healed his own financial woes: His apparel brand Yeezy is a billion-dollar empire, according to Forbes and over the past 12 months, Forbes estimates West has earned over $150 million before taxes. His wealth is due largely to Yeezy’s Adidas deal, a line that is expected to top $1.5 billion in sales in 2019.

The Jordan line does approximately $3 billion in annual sales, so the Yeezy line is catching up fast. If he can latch onto the Christian vote, sales could explode even more rapidly.

Touch the Sky

Christianity is the most adhered to religion in the United States, with 65% of polled American adults identifying themselves as Christian in 2019. This is down from 85% in 1990, 81.6% in 2001, and 12% lower than the 78% reported for 2012. About 62% of those polled claim to be members of a church congregation.

Kenneth Copeland is the number one pastor in the USA and his net worth is $300m. After the backlash for supporting Trump, the natural progression seems to be for Kanye to target the Trump supporters and Christians who make up the large majority of America with around another 20% of the population perhaps open to conversion back to Christianity. It is a huge target market… and that is just America.

Christianity is by far the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth in 2010.

Jesus is King

The new sound track has been carefully crafted to be sung by large audiences to worship god. With tracks such as “Follow God” and “Use This Gospel”, Kanye is on a mission to convert. He has brought the Church to the streets and into the hills… No Church in the Wild.

His carefully chosen purple hair and purple cloths are to portray himself as an Emperor, clergy-like figure, if not Jesus himself, I don’t think it will be long before Kanye professes himself as a Prophet of some sort.

Kanye pronounced himself “I am a God” back on Yeezus.

I just talked to Jesus He said, “What up, Yeezus?” I said, “Shit—I’m chillin’ Tryna stack these millions” I know he the most high But I am a close high Mi casa, su casa That’s our cosa nostra I am a god I am a god I am a god

Rappers as Jesus

This isn’t new in rap. Check out the images below from Kanye, Nas, Tupac, DMX and The Game.

Jeru the Damaja, who follows the Nation of Islam, like Wu-Tang, Rakim & Brand Nubian, famously wrote a song “Can’t Stop the Prophet”.

Rappers have always seen themselves as street prophets, telling war stories, from Rakim, Nas & KRS-One right back to Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five in The Message.

Purple Robes

Throughout history, purple robes were worn by royalty and people of authority or high rank. Many believe this to be true because the rare occurrence of purple in nature made it one of the most expensive color dyes to create.

Purple and violet represent the future, the imagination and dreams, while spiritually calming the emotions. They inspire and enhance psychic ability and spiritual enlightenment, while, at the same time, keeping us grounded.

At the time of Jesus, the dye used for making the colour purple, extracted from shell-fish and was one of the most expensive dyes. The colour-fast (non-fading) dye was an item of luxury trade, prized by Romans, who used it to colour ceremonial robes, usually worn by Emperors. The very fact that purple was an expensive color made it affordable only to the royals. That Jesus was made to put it on before his crucifixion, implies that the Romans were sending a strong signal to the Jews against any coup.

A.D.I.D.A.S.

ADIDAS was founded by German, Adi Dassler (Adolf Dassler). In fact, one of the founders, his brother Rudolf Dassler later went on to found Puma and started a bitter rivalry between the brothers. There is a popular myth among fans (not true) that Adidas stands for All Day I Dream About Sports, whilst in 2003, Killer Mike dropped a hip hop track called A.D.I.D.A.S. (All Day I Dream About Sex).

Like many of their fellow citizens, the brothers joined the Nazi party after Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933. Their shoe business remained modest until 1936. In that year, Germany hosted the Olympics.

In an ironic twist, the two party members got legendary African-American runner Jesse Owens to wear their running shoes while competing. Owens went on to win four gold medals during the games. The exposure of their product gave Dassler Shoes a huge boost in sales. You can read more in Sportsweek History.

It does seem ironic, given Kanye’s sex addiction that he would align himself with this particular shoe and his plans are to get the shoes made in America and give “second chances” to inmates.

But, he is going to run into problems with the media as the average wage of a prison inmate ranged between $0.23 and $1.15 an hour – According to the International Labor Organization, in 2000–2011 wages in American prisons

In Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, inmates aren’t paid at all for their labor.

The “New Slave” indeed. I initially thought another way to make money would be to make inexpensive Jesus style sandals and sure enough, I found that is exactly what ‘Ye is planning. They are called “slides” in America and Adidas will be making these from injection moulding and it hasn’t gone unnoticed from Twitter that they are basically prison shoes, but now they are being remarketed as a high fashion item for children of rich kids. That is marketing genius.

Why do the yeezy slides look like the slides worn in prison.. pic.twitter.com/LsR8dbFyqE

— Cyn ☕️ (@Kingxxcyn) October 17, 2019

ADIDAS YECHEIL

The first shoe in Ye’s collection is the Yecheil, which is a Hebrew masculine given name meaning “May God live” or “God shall live”. Several people in the Bible also have this name.

ADIDAS YEEZREEL

For the second shoe of ‘Ye’s collection, there is the“Yeezreel”. It has no exact translation but it seems he might’ve been inspired by the word “Jezreel” which was an ancient Israelite city and fortress originally within the boundaries of the Tribe of Issachar, and later within the northern Kingdom of Israel.

ADIDAS YESHAYA

The third shoe is called the “Yeshaya” which directly translates to “God Is Salvation”. The name Yeshaya (Yesha’yahu) translates from Hebrew to English as the name Isaiah, who was one of the four major prophets of the Old Testament, and the author of the Book of Isaiah. He was from Jerusalem and probably lived in the 8th century BC.

Many of these shoes use Adidas “Cloud” foam, so ‘Ye and his fans are figuratively walking on clouds.

Click the pic to get the best prices on Adidas below

Through the Wire – Prison Reform

Kim Kardashian announced her decision to study law back in April. Since then, she’s met with President Trump to discuss prison reform, teamed up with the 90 Days of Freedom campaign, and is producing a documentary on the subject.

CNN reported that Kim Kardashian West helped free 17 inmates in 90 days.

Kanye West has donated $1m to prison reform, but is now getting US prison workers to make his shoes at 25% of the cost of having his shoes made in China, unless somehow, he is quadrupling the prison wage.

There will be Church factions and sections of the media who will most likely attack Mr. West for essentially using slave labour in prisons to increase profit. Chinese factory workers are now getting paid more than ever: Average hourly wages hit $3.60 in 2017 compared to around $1 for an American prison worker.

Kanye West’s Interview with Zane Lowe

If you don’t want to watch the lengthy interview below, scroll down for a quick summary.

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In the interview Kanye talks about the following:

How billboards are guilty of sex trafficking

How he became a born-again Christian in April after Coachella

Why he wants to create jobs and bring jobs back to the USA

How he experimented with Domes & living in them then “the man” tore them down as a metaphor for tearing down his ego

How his farm will be growing cotton & wheat

He will employ prisoners to make his shoes as a “second chance”

His respect for founders, especially Warren Buffett, Amancio Ortego (Zara), Elon Musk, James Turell (artist concerned with light & space) and Jack Dorsey (Paypal)

He calls himself a Christian innovator

How his daughter North drives his passion for church

How Sunday Service may become a church and how he may become a Pastor

He is asking people to fast & not have premarital sex

How he had a porn addiction due to seeing Playboy at 5 years old & his sex addiction

People should pray together, fast together, stay together to increase power

Getting stumped by Zane Lowes question on whether he had to work for his 4th house

How white owners controls hip hop

How God is using Kanye to show off

Compares himself to Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, diagnosed of Bipolar disorder. This was also the ship in the film The Matrix which “woke” people up

According to the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar II was king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who reigned c. 605 BC – 562 BC and conquered Judah and Jerusalem and sent the Jews into exile.

How he will become the President of the United States, perhaps as early as 2024

How Facebook & social media is a disease

How porn is ruining marriages and brainwashing children

How to keep the eternal, imaginative 3 year old at all costs

How he’s undeniably the greatest artist of all time, no question!

How wearing the red cap was a joke on all the liberals as well as Drake living four blocks down from him was also a joke from God.

I guess him wearing blue fur whilst talking and making a blue record is also a joke on the liberals

How he will now rewrite and censor all his old songs for performances

How some of the merchandise money will go to the church

How the Louis Vuitton boss reneging on a handshake to make him the LV don and his wife getting robbed helped put him in a mental hospital

Jokes about being the pastor at Drake’s wedding

How he objects to the censorship of speech of the left

Jesus is King is out now on Spotify, mp3, vinyl & CD

Jesus is Born, another new album, is arriving on Christmas Day this year.

Kanye West’s Journey

There is a bigger story here. How hip hop can be cathartic. Hip hop is bashed left, right and centre in the mainstream media daily, mainly times rightly so, for enforcing stereotypes. But, real hip hop can be a spiritual journey.

Some artists have found solace and teachings much earlier on in their lives such as Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan, KRS-One & Jeru the Damaja. Other artists take longer to mature. It seems to me to be better rapping about street crime then taking part in it. This is something most non-hip hop heads seem to not understand. Hip hop is way out the streets, just like a sports contract.

Everyone has their own journey and Kanye’s has taken him into Christianity. If record sales pick up, it will turn into a bigger movement. Time will tell what happens if it “All Falls Down”, streams sour and Adidas sales start to Fade. In such a scenario, it may be very hard for Kanye to stay on the straight and narrow, but I wish him luck. Time will tell.

I’m looking forward to see how he reacts surrounded with Angels in future fashion shows singing his new songs.

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I’ll leave you with the last verse from Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s “The Message”, possibly still the greatest hip hop song ever written. The message is as relevant today as it was back in 1982.

A child is born, with no state of mind Blind to the ways of mankind God is smiling on you, but he’s frowning too Cause only God knows, what you go through You grow in the ghetto, living second rate And your eyes will sing a song of deep hate The place, that you play and where you stay Looks like one great big alley way You’ll admire all the number book takers Thugs, pimps and pushers and the big money makers Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens And you wanna grow up to be just like them Smugglers, scramblers, burglars, gamblers Pickpockets, peddlers and even pan-handlers You say I’m cool, I’m no fool But then you wind up dropping out of high school Now you’re unemployed, all null ‘n void Walking ’round like you’re pretty boy floyd Turned stickup kid, look what you done did Got send up for a eight year bid Now your manhood is took and you’re a may tag Spend the next two years as an undercover fag Being used and abused and served like hell Till one day you was found hung dead in a cell It was plain to see that your life was lost You was cold and your body swung back and forth But now your eyes sing the sad sad song Of how you lived so fast and died so young So, don’t push me cause I’m close to the edge I’m trying not to lose my head It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder How I keep from going under It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder How I keep from going under

Watch Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five – The Message

The post Jesus Walks… in Adidas appeared first on Hip Hop World Music.

from Hip Hop World Music https://hiphopworldmusic.com/jesus-walks-in-adidas/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=jesus-walks-in-adidas from Hip Hop World Music https://hiphopworldmusic.tumblr.com/post/188656152948

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torontotravelblog · 5 years

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Romantic Toronto

01 of 10 Explore Chinatown and Toronto's Ethnic Neighborhoods

Toronto is one of the world's most multi-cultural cities, and the Chinese comprise one of its largest ethnic groups.

The vast Chinatown area, centered at Spadina and Dundas Street West, radiates out and encompasses Vietnamese, Korean, and Thai restaurants and businesses in addition to the many eateries that tempt visitors with Szechuan, Hunan, Mandarin, and Cantonese fare.

Every few years, on the grounds of Ontario Place, Toronto's Chinese heritage is celebrated with the colorful Chinese Lantern Festival, a gorgeous display of colorful lanterns that honor China's past and future.

In addition to the Chinese, Toronto has significant populations from Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, India, Greece, and many other nations. Each has developed its own section within the polyglot city, where that country's fare is available and visitors can hear languages other than English spoken.

Toronto is also one of the world's safest big cities, so visitors who take normal precautions need not be wary about exploring its varied ethnic neighborhoods on their own.

02 of 10 Sip Afternoon Tea at the Fairmont Royal York

Toronto's landmark hotel located in the heart of downtown, the Fairmont Royal York offers an afternoon tea in its EPIC restaurant.

Comfortable banquettes, tables well spaced apart, accommodating waiters, and a selection of traditional finger sandwiches and pastries make this elegant and romantic ritual a sophisticated pleasure. Reservations are recommended.

03 of 10 Visit Castle Loma

Castle Loma, designed to resemble a medieval castle in residential Toronto, opened in 1914.

It was built by Canadian stockbroker and financier Sir Henry Pellatt at a cost of about $3.5 million. Containing just under 100 rooms, it was the largest private home in Canada at that time.

Like many grandiose structures, Castle Loma has stood through its share of triumph and tragedy. Sir Henry and his wife spent fewer than ten years living in Casa Loma before financial reverses forced them to abandon the property; the flamboyant Pellatt died virtually penniless.

For the past 70 years, Casa Loma has been open as a tourist attraction. They pay a fee to enter and can take a self-guided tour. Many simply explore the fragrant and colorful Casa Loma Gardens, in bloom from May through October.

Casa Loma can also be rented for weddings that range in size from 125 to 1,200 guests and it has an in-house caterer.

04 of 10 Browse Toronto's Markets

Toronto's markets are where visitors go to savor a true taste of the city.

The two major Toronto markets are St. Lawrence Market and Kensington Market, and each has a distinct personality.

St. Lawrence Market, established in 1803, is a must-see for foodies visiting Toronto. Its main floor is filled with cheese shops, meat sellers, a fishmonger, bakeries, and delicacy purveyors. A peameal Canadian bacon sandwich or truffled mozzarella from this market will introduce your palate to new flavor sensations.

The lower level offers some ready-to-eat items and unique edible gifts, such as New Zealand honey and unusual jam flavors. Visitors may also find themselves taking away irresistible non-comestibles, such as handmade jewelry and original photographs. Find out more: St. Lawrence Market.

Kensington Market wakes up and stays up late. Vintage clothing shops, used furniture stores, multiple places to eat, art galleries and other bohemian passions comprise this multi-cultural community, which became a National Historic Site in 2006.

Kensington Market is also home to the Hot Box, a cannabis café, which is a safe environment where customers can smoke their own marijuana (it is not sold on the premises) and dine on vegan, vegetarian, and meat items such as Brain Melt grilled sandwiches and Chronic Quesadillas.

05 of 10 Try on the Bata Shoe Museum for Size

One way to know it's really love is when you can convince your other half to visit a place that doesn't seem like something he or she would be interested in. If your other half agrees, you're well on the road to enduring love, since you already know how to compromise. And if your other half goes with an open mind and ultimately finds the attraction as interesting as you do, bingo! You've got a keeper.

The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto needs that kind of preface. It's not a typical museum. In fact, it may be the only shoe museum in the world. Three floors of shoes hold both the expected (Princess Diana's heels, Elvis' blue suede) as well as a truly fascinating array of footwear that dates back nearly as far as when man first stood upright and needed protection for his tender soles.

Wooden sandals from Egypt more than four centuries old... intricately beaded moccasins made by indigenous North American peoples... silver wedding sandals from India... reindeer-skin boots from Siberia... and embroidered silk shoes as tiny as baby booties worn by foot-bound Chinese women are all part of this fascinating collection.

If you love handicrafts and history, a visit to the fascinating Bata Shoe Museum will expose you to other cultures, countries, and times from the ground up.

06 of 10 Find Enlightenment at Toronto University

Founded in 1827 as King's College, the University of Toronto is a liberal arts school with more students, faculty, and courses than any other college in Canada.

Its venerable Gothic buildings and quads evoke the scholarly ambiance of the Cambridge and Oxford campuses in England.

Whether strolling the grounds or arranging to have a wedding ceremony in one of the public spaces, couples will find the parklike property a worthwhile place to pause on a Toronto itinerary.

07 of 10 Toast Your Romance at Toronto's Distillery District

Another one of Toronto's National Historic sites, the Distillery District is a pedestrians-only, cobblestone area along the wharf that was once home to mills and breweries.

Today the Distillery District houses shops, restaurants, an exceptional bakery, performance spaces, galleries and artists' studios, and even a day spa.

08 of 10 Sail to Toronto's Islands

A number of tour boats ply the Lake Ontario harbor, and both lunch and dinner cruises can be booked.

But the best deal in town is the Toronto Island Ferry, which offers frequent service to the Toronto Islands, a recreational greenbelt a fifteen-minute sail from the mainland.

09 of 10 Sunbathe Nude on Toronto's Center Island

Another reason to worship summer in Toronto: Nude sunbathing is allowed at Hanlan's Point Nude Beach. Take the Toronto Island Ferry over, and keep your clothes on till you hit the beach.

10 of 10 Discover More of the Romantic Side of Toronto

Romantic couples can find plenty more to see and do on a Toronto visit. Among the most popular:

Entertainment. Toronto is the entertainment capital of Canada, featuring Broadway-style musicals, renowned comedy and film festivals, and major concerts at the Molston Amphitheatre.

Shopping. With nearly 300 stores, the indoor Eaton Centre is Toronto's largest shopping mall. We're big fans of Fruit & Passions items for the body and bath, located near the entrance. For upscale brands, browse the Hudson Bay Company across the street. Holt Renfrew is another important name in Toronto retail. It has three locations in the city.

Dining. Sophisticated palates have a wide choice of fine and ethnic restaurants to choose from. Able to splurge? Make reservations at Senses in the Soho Metropolitan Hotel, the gourmet Susur Lee, the exotic Sultan's Tent, and La Maquette, voted Toronto's most romantic restaurant. For breakfast, no place beats Cora's on Blue Jay Way.

Spa and Scenic Views. Good reasons to visit the Park Hyatt: For the couples treatment in the massage suite for two at the Stillwater Spa and for drinks at the hotel's rooftop lounge.

If you want to feel on top of the world, the CN Tower provides the most panoramic vistas.

This post “Romantic Toronto” was originally seen on trisavvy by Susan Breslow Sardone

Dr. Amauri Caversan - Toronto Naturopathic Doctor

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surge42-blog · 7 years

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Do What Thou Wilt: A sermon by Ab-Soul

Ab-Soul's Do What Thou Wilt album is perhaps one of his most controversial offerings. Soul having called it a love story and female appreciation album, it baffles many listeners when they listen to the album because it seems as if Soulo is throwing too many concepts all over the place.....or is he? After a random listening of the album I picked up a something out of nowhere. EVANGELISM The album starts out aggressive as it kicks off with RAW(backwards). Soul starts out by evangelizing listeners as the Carson native raps "another Baptism by Pastor Black Lip". What is he evangelizing them from? Well it's answer in hook which goes "we don't wanna hear that whack shit no more",which could be directed towards his contemporaries who rap about money,hoes,clothes,drugs dealing, and glorifying the gang life. The "battlemongers"(haters) called him a reject as he puts considering how much negativity he's gained from his previous album "These Days...",but Soul doesn't allow this to deter him. Then comes the most notorious part of the sing,which is a jab at Jay Electronica who was featured with Kendrick over the controversial Control track. It should be noted that there has been tension between Kenny and Jay after the chain of events set off by Lamar's verse. Ab protests that "it hurts when an O.G who was supposed to be a G.O.D is standing next to King Kunta(Lamar) feeling like Tobi",he means that it saddens him to see a respected artist as Electronica shows signs of having an inferiority complex for a song verse that was not really supposed to have bothered him...or anyone for that matter. This song is called RAW(backwards) which is WAR,not physical but rather a war of words,Soul's preachings are a weapon to fight against the problem he is yet to elaborate on. "Cause we don't die, we just multiply,divide and conquer": Ab-Soul's fan base or rather converts keep growing despite any hindrances (These Days...). He warns listeners that "the truth is scary" and that they must brace themselves for his teachings and making the listener anxious. "Wicked as Aleister Crowley" is a line Soul has used time and time again...not to be misinterpreted by any means,he is comparing himself to Crowley because Soul has cult following of fans similar to how Crowley had a cult following of converts. The next song Braille comes in with a wonderful Bas feature. But why Braille? Braille is a writing system used by the blind in place of normal alphabets,it is an unusual alphabet system for the normal seeing person which makes sense as I continue to explain. The song begins with the hook "Try saying something new,ain't nothing new to say, everything been did each and every which way" in reference to the wack shit that Soul spoke of: the repetitive songs about money,fame,women etc. But he continues "you ain't never seen it done like this" meaning Soul is about to bring something new to the masses,something out of the ordinary kinda like making non-blind people read Braille..am I right? The song doesn't seem all that 'new' as you listening to it,Soul uses a generic flow,and raps about the same things he just called wack("we went from Pentos to Benzos" along with the braggadocio that ccomes with hip-hop), although he does keep his witty lines accompanied by Bas' killer verse. This song seems more like a parody of today's music really...until the end of course. The beat becomes distorted and Ab raps "What the tongue can't taste,what the eyes can't see,what the ears can't hear",it's about his subject matter of the album,stating to the evangelized listener that it makes no sense or better yet,it is unfathomable. Huey Knew THEN begins to play its sinister instrumental. This song is about the financial prosperity of the black man as Soul begins with a rendition of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air theme. Will Smith on the show portrays a young man from his low income lifestyle in Philadelphia moving to a neighborhood of wealth. Soul raps "I gotta shoot a fuckin' free throw to make my point". A longstanding stereotype about the black man is that the only way a black man can make it out of poverty is through basketball. Now onto Huey, the man who the song is named after. He was a civil rights activist fighting for the equality of the black man in order give him a chance to prosper but the system has been designed to keep the black man from achieving: the guns and drugs prevalent in black neighborhoods which lead to gang wars and the likes. Black out is used as a metaphor for death,black out being a minor sleeping state which is considered the cousin of Death which is in turn reaffirmed by the reference of the pale white horse. Telling white lies refers to the underhandedband shady dealings of gangbanging which also leads to the demise of the black man. "White lives matter when I black out" means white people become the topic of discussion in the death of a black man(such as the case of Trayvon Martin). Soul talks about "looking for shortcut to be an icon" but later says he's only doing it for the money,but not in a condescending way,he means he's doing it to make a living for himself as a black man with limited opportunity. And then the line "your 16 is pint sized to me" is referring to the rappers he addresses in RAW(backwards) and Braille meaning that their raps are meaningless to him,and furthermore lack true meaning to him. In the first three songs of the album Soul directs our attention away from these unnamed rappers and directs us towards him instead. This is the evangelism phase of the album. But wait...there's more. Huey was part of the Vanguard and it is a known fact that women were not allowed to join in. This sets the stage for the next song. THE SERMON Now that Ab-Soul has converted you and baptized you into his religion, he begins his sermon to the new and old converts(fans). He begins his song Threatening Nature with "this time around we're taking atheists to church,serving serpents with sermons with curse words". He talks to not only the nonbelievers of God but also the sinners using his profanity filled raps. Soul says his heart pumps the same blood as Jehovah's son or rather Joseph meaning Jesus. White people have long used religion to paint other races as inferior,but this statement by Soul challenges such a notion firstly because Jesus was a human like anyone else and on top of that he wasn't even white to begin with,this is continuing the theme of racial equality from the previous track. He challenges (threatens) the norm(nature) that he is white. Soul then switches the focus from race to something else...gender. He says "coming with lies to tell fairies(women) out of nowhere to help my selfish desires(sex)",Soul talks about how he deceived women into sleeping with him. "My life is about the vices(sin)" no explanation needed. Then he opens the first book of the bible and takes us to the garden if Eden. He talks about Adam,"If Eve never ate that apple he'd be mad sad",apple in this sense refers to Adam's sexual organs(the forbidden fruit),"and would've never pulled the leaves off of Eve and seen all that ass like a true man",Soul details how men use women as sex objects by using the example of himself and Adam and he says its "10 times harder fighting temptation". Men are tempted to feed their primal urges to have sex with women,but he is by no means defending men. Soul criticizes men by telling them that they bow down to pray to a man they don't understand (God) and get on one knee to propose to women(getting married without understanding the true meaning or purpose of marriage). Oh I love this part,"in grade school I learned about HIStory but what about HER story,did anybody ask?". In history women are not represented as much as they should and thus are overlooked in most cases. If it's not about the founding FATHERS,JFK,the first man on the moon, Martin Luther King,or Obama then it's rarely about women. "Tryna flower Queen Elizabeth",in a male run world it seems that in most cases the female power(Queen Elizabeth) is always shut down and dismantled(deflower). Soul says Genesis is the genealogy of Isis. With all that is going on around the world I can bet all my money that we all thought about the terrorist group ISIS...you know I'm right. But I think Soul is referring to the Egyptian goddess worshipped as the ideal MOTHER and WIFE. Isis is held in high regard and using her to symbolize Eve says a lot. "The chicken came before the egg"...uhm,hold that thought for now I'll explain that later. Soul goes back to HIStory when he talks about his ancestors picking cotton to their liberation from slavery today(Huey Knew) but we were so focussed on everything else that we forgot about speaking out on sexism because "the black man could vote before the women could". We sing hymns in church but what about the hers Soul asks with his witty wordplay. "Hilary Clinton tryna get ahead in the senate",Hilary was so close to making history as America's first female president the most powerful spot in the world,something that seemed like a dream at first but the fact that she didn't become president proves Soul's point even more on how the female power is always shut down. Soul says "getting head and I'm sinning"(female sex object theme). Men don't want to see a woman in power,they rather they cook,clean,pleasure them in bed...such a travesty don't you think? TESTIMONY OF THE PRIEST In mid-sermon, Ab-Soul takes a moment to talk about his sins as a man. The beginning of his testimony starts with Womanogany. In the song Soulo uses the imagery of Aphrodite (goddess of love,beauty,pleasure,and procreation) and her son Eros (god of desire,erotic love, attraction,and affection) and how they play tug of war with him. Aphrodite symbolizes genuine love while Eros symbolizes lust and thus Soul struggles between forming a genuine relationship with a woman and sleeping with a woman just for the sake of sleeping with her. This theme echoes throughout the hook that goes "I LIKE girls that's in LOVE with me". Soul manipulates women's attraction to him to please his sexual desires and confirms this when he says "gave her morning wood and rolled my wood in the morning" (one night stand). ScHoolboy Q's part on the hook "From the womb to the tomb nigga,keep that womb in that tomb nigga" is about some of the women aborting their babies(from the womb to the tomb) after Soul defiled them. A SINNER'S PRAYER The testimony continues as Soul details his calls for God's favor (an invocation) in the next song. Soul has been womanogamous(slept with so many women) and worries that his behavior might harm him as he symbolizes pussy as destructive and dangerous (Sexually Transmitted Infections). "That's why the wealthy need welfare",many affluent(wealthy) men have used their money for sexual favors and like Soul they fear for their health. In the hook Soul raps "He is I and I am Him" meaning he is a God...or rather God the Son(Jesus), symbolism he used heavily in "These Days...",and he also raps "I pray to Lord my soul's a G,if I O.D before I awake,I pray I ressurect on the third day". If you look closely at that line Ab is spelling out the word GOD,and also with the ressurection part he is praying it the Lord that he reaches a state of godliness and righteousness before he dies. Soul continues comparing himself to Jesus as people talk about him at barbershops and white kids wanting his autograph, his fame is spreading just like that of Christ, and like Christ he too is challenging the norms of his time. This prayer to God as I said is for Soul to be righteous and flee his sinful nature(sex). But like any recovering sinner he stumbles too as he says "Come suck Jesus'(Ab-Soul's) penis on Venus (desire)" going back to treating women as objects of sexual fulfilment. This is also relates to how women would want to satisfy Jesus in anyway they can(story of Mary Magdalene),the only difference her is that unlike Jesus who didn't seek sexual pleasure, Soul did. The Crowley and Jesus references go hand in hand because they also thought Jesus was spreading an evil doctrine although he was trying to enlighten people. Soul talks about "faith without the 'h' ",it is fait(fate) which is destiny...our destiny to go to "where the arc of the covenant is still" (Heaven). FELLOW SINNERS We move on from the struggling Ab-Soul and focus on his peers on Wifey vs. WiFi. This song is about Soul's friend,Riley. On verse 1 Riley gets arrested for possession of drugsdrugs and we hear the cell doors close on him. The hook is Riley reprimanding his girl(Wifey) for complain about missing her calls when he has to deal with matters of doing time in prison. In verse two Riley complains to Soul about his(Riley's) mother always arguing to him(most likely about his mistakes which lead him into prison), and calls her devil which Soul reacts to by telling Riley to "chill" and Riley continues to insult his mother(misogyny theme) by correlating the word "MOM" to it's corresponding numbers on the dial pad (666). Then we move on to Riley on the inside of prison,portrayed by BR3. This details Riley's survival on the inside of prison and somehow making many to send to his mother. He asks "why did I have to lose the case?" and continues "I feel like Biggie when he lost faith". Riley's life has been controlled by the system because of the life he chose(drug dealing,banging,etc). He has lost faith in having a better future and lost faith in God (although he reaped what he sowed). His life has spiraled and to top things off he suspects his girl is having sexual relations with other men. Riley chose the thug life which is about the masculinity that comes with street cred,and machismo which is evident in his disrespect of his mother and girlfriend. There's a Boondocks reference here. Huey the older brother is the activist fighting for civil rights of black men and Riley the younger brother is the one with an affinity for the thug life. But even with this difference they share one thing in common....they forget about the women. Riley aught to repent from his sinful ways like Soul but he doesn't. IT'S A SINNER'S WORLD Riley is saddened that he had to lose his case. But some sinners were luckier than Riley who are able to elude the clutches of prison. They are better off because they don't allow the system to send them off to every black man's perceived destiny (prison) so they beat the case like runaway slaves fleeing from their oppressors. But they're oblivious to the fact that their actions contribute to the control system. Straight Crooked sheds more light on the situation on people like Riley. "A prisoner's best asset is his liability (lie ability)",the criminals who beat their cases in the court room lied their way out of their situations and misleading the law enforcement (don't snitch). Ab calls the government a Muppet show or rather a joke of a system which is used to keep the black man from succeeding. Huey tries to break this system to give the black man equal opportunity to financially prosper but in failing to do so people like Riley resort to criminal activity to try and financial prosperity. All the efforts seem to be in vain. DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER Portishead In The Morning begins with Soul reviving his Jesus reference by calling himself a demigod (half human half god). Soul tells us he's "the brightest silver lining" and urges the converts at the service to not "make me take my light back". This sentence relates to one of Soul's lines "You can have all my shine I'll give you the light" as in the phrase "shed light"(knowledge/information). Like Jesus he tries to spread a message and urges listeners to withhold this knowledge which has been withheld from them by the system (forbidden knowledge). He asks congregants if they view him as man carrying a message(prophet) or think this is just Soul using a gimmick for financial gain(profit). They acknowledge his intellect but they tell him to dumb it down to gain greater appeal from the masses. Ab-Soul tests the male listeners in his sermon by asking a trick question: "Do you really wanna go to Heaven? Ain't no bitches mentioned". There are no female figures mentioned to be in heaven, all Angels that have been mentioned have been male, God is male,cherubs have various body parts with the head of a man. Soul paints a picture of divine sausage fest but the question is used to test the hearts of men, would they rather go to heaven or go to hell to fornicate as much as they want to. He references his song from Control System "Bohemian Grove" which is about the club of the same name which rejected women from joining, which it has been criticized for being misogynistic. In a way Soul's question is also sarcastic because he knows women are allowed in heaven(I ain't sexist,I'm inviting sisters too) so why doesn't the Grove do the same? Soul grabs the attention of atheists when he says the devil is a creation and not a creator and quotes the scientific law "energy is not created nor destroyed". God is energy because he is the uncreated creator. He uses science to prove the existence of God to the atheist converts. Describing the devil in an opposite way makes him less powerful and godlike and making him more inferior (Soul is not a satanist guys remember that). Soul ends with "God gotta be a thot". Let me explain, this song comes after two songs about sinners and criminals who have no problem in disrespecting women so this is where Soul addresses the misogynists in the room because God gave birth to Adam, thus making him a lifegiver meaning God is a female in that sense so by disrespecting the females you're nalso disrespecting God too. THOT is a term of disrespect for women so therefore if men call women thots(that.hoe.over.there) then you're pretty much calling God a that too....I hope you understood what I meant in that explanation. So when Soulo talks about the blood from your brain and beat rushing elsewhere (penis) and can't think and can't run(function) which is pretty much how men are when they are around these so called thots,they get horny and let their instincts drive them without thinking about what is it they are doing(which is defiling women),so this is Soul sort of asking you "you defile women,do you want to defile God too now?"(obviously the answer from the congregants at Soul's funeral should be no). Soul is teaching them a harsh lesson here to respect women. THE TRUTH IS SCARY Ab-Soul pretty much dropped a bombshell in the previous track which made way for the scary truth he spoke of earlier in the album which is God's A Girl...but it's more of a question from the congregants "Reverend are you really saying God's A Girl?". Some might think Soul contradicts himself,"you shit on us for calling women thots but you call them bitches",but Soul has stated in an interview with Soul that nowadays the term "bitch" is more of a term of endearment, kinda how men calk each other dawgs(dogs) so the female equivalent would be bitch. God's A Girl? is a second testimony by Soul. He starts by saying "you got me crying with a hard dick,I love you so much that I hate this shit",Ab trying to keep to his promise to refrain from his sexual urges says he cares about women that he hates the fact he has this urges in the first place, but then Soul reverts to sin when he says "come have sex with Jesus(Ab-Soul)" and "do your job" followed by a woman moaning during sex. He now uses women as sex objects again and being misogynistic again by telling the woman to do her job(sex). He thought he learned from his mistakes on Womanogamy but failed as he gives in to temptation. He shows the men he addressed in the previous song that "I too am not perfect so don't feel too ashamed when you also slip up". Soul raps "all I got is Goddess,I'm a heroine addict"......Soul becomes womanogamous again. The song pauses as Soul has a conversation and in the background we hear SZA's chorus on God's Reign...you do the math. In the second part of song,Soulo fell off way hard as he talks about going to rehab and the possibility that he might relapse(Soul's repentance and return to sin). He winds up acting like the rappers he addressed in RAW(backwards) as Soul raps about the "wack shit" too such as indulging in alcohol with peers,trying live recklessly like a rock star, getting fellatio in an expensive car and bragging about having more money than certain individuals. Towards the end Soulo contemplates his actions. "On the mountain top about to cry cause it gets so lonely up here",like any rise to fame it gets lonely at the top,he has the money but not the happiness. "Is anyone out there? Can anybody hear me?" is where he references his song from Longterm 2 of the same name where he raps about selling his soul and "Am I the next Shakur or an attention whore"...this is what Soul became,"I could save you with quotes"...this is what Soul needs to be again. This is the point of the song where he gets sense knocked into him and he realizes how much he's fallen and scrutinizes the world around him which is the "generation of complacency (self satisfaction)",the same world he became a part of for a moment. Soul vows to better himself to do the right thing when he puts his "right hand in the Bible with you". In his testimonies he has just revealed to us his demons and vows to try his best to change for the better and to leave his life of self satisfaction and misogyny. Now Jesus (Ab-Soul) goes back to his mission of trying to teach listeners. He raps "my ancestors came on a mother ship so I had to take it farther(father)". A child is born of the mother and lives under the rules and guidance of the father,Soul's ancestor(Adam) came on a mother ship(given birth by God) and lived under the rules of his father(also God). The song title is a question of whether God is a girl or not but the way Soulo puts it he is saying "Yes,God is a girl....but...he's also a man,so he's both" meaning God is equally male and female. This is a powerful revelation from Soul because what this teaches us is that even by divine law men and women are equal(the whole point of feminism). TAKE THE TRUTH AND EAT IT And Now You Know the scary truth Soul was hinting at in the beginning,the theory that the chicken(mother) came before the egg(child). At this point Soul knowing that this is a lot for you take in tells you to "try to relax". This track serves as a revision as Soul rreprises the line "I'm just a youngin' Del Amo"(Huey Knew),"cups with ices"(alcohol from God's A Girl?). Soul talks about being "miseducated, misled,misinterpreted, misunderstood, mistaken,misjudged" and a misfit causing mischieve. Majority of these words pretty much mean "I had things all wrong" and noting the "mis-" prefixes Soul is saying not only did he have women all wrong but also that he was doing them wrong. When he said "all you feminists should be on my dick for this shit" he meant they aught to be Stans (dickriders) for coming with a such a powerful and elaborate means of promoting feminism. Soul says he would change out the 'y' in mystery with an 'i' meaning that he is now figuring out women and what they want...which is to be treated as equals. He references the Bohemian Grove song intro. Thus reminding us of the objective of gender equality. Soul alludes to his conception in the womb as he talks about meiosis and mitosis (cell division) and floating through a body of water(sperm swimming in uterus) and says "And you know why I love my momma so much" is because his mother gave him life(God's A Girl) which hints the hook of the next song. At the end of the song Soul takes a misogynistic pledge which is basically a summary of his old self and also clarifying to the male listeners on what constitutes to misogyny. THE PAIN OF THE PRESENT D.R.U.G.S is a call for help from Soul. Soul talks about his personal and emotional issues and the pain he tries to take away with drugs. Mac sings "I can't help myself I think I need some help" but the only help present to Ab is his drugs which have become his crutches. Towards the end he says "Aderall Admiral give Danny credit",Aderall Admiral is a song by Danny Brown about the drug Aderall. It should be noted that at one point in time Danny went onto Twitter to vent about his internal pain telling people that he doesn't do drugs because it's cool,he does drugs becausenhe has problems in his life and Danny has hinted at suicidal tendencies on his song "30". Soul referencing Danny in such a way tells us that behind the calm shades lies a broken man as we see in the album cover. He openly asks us his "brethren" to alleviate his pain. Ab-Soul has been using the Jesus symbolism throughout the album,so this moment on D.R.U.G.S is reminiscent of Jesus crying during prayer asking God to free him from the suffering he'll endure during his trial and crucifixion. This is the moment in the Bible where Jesus shows that he too is human with fear and pain. Soul is human too with problems like anyone else even though he keeps his composure in the public eye. In the music video for this song Soul calls to check up on his mom(God) and says he'll be coming home soon. But in Soul's background we can see Jerusalem as he says he's coming home(Heaven). This means souls will be crucified for our sins(album art of These Days...) and ascend to heaven. Don't Ruin Us God Said is lyrical reference to Lupe Fiasco's song "They.Ressurect.Over.New" which Soul is featured on. This means Soul will die and rise again (his song Stigmata) into something new and transformed....or rather reincarnated(which is the theme of T.R.O.N) this could also be hinting at Andy Weir's short story called The Egg where God says we are all one entity living out different incarnations of ourselves also giving a secondary meaning to Ab-Soul's line "he is I and I am him,they ain't me and I ain't them" meaning we are all different incarnations but we are one. This theme of unity ties in with the feministic theme of the album of male and female equality or in spirit science terms: unity of male energy(logic and analytical thinking) and female energy (creativity and abstract thought),unity of yin and yang to find peace and thus reach nirvana, a place of no suffering. This is the penultimate conclusion of Tetsuo & Youth which life,death,reincarnation("proceed to the next level") and finally Nirvana. Tetsuo & Youth is the game and Do What Thou Wilt is our instruction manual to get us to nirvana. TRIBUTE TO THE DEAD Evil Genius is a memorial service of Alori Joh(Ab's deceased girlfriend). He gathers longtime Alori Joh collaborator and friend Javonté for the ceremony. Soul first talks about himself as the misunderstood "evil" genius although his motives are good and talks about how Alori would help Soul as a partner in crime and calls her an evil genius too because she understood Ab and his motives. In the hook Soul references the song "Let You Shine" by Alori which he referenced on "The Book Of Soul' too,plus he even samples the song on Evil Genius but the song is distorted and gives it a ghostly feel. The last time Alori was heard was on Section.80 and Control System and so this is like Alori's ghost ressurecting and Teedra Moses' voice which is eerily similar to Joh's indeed makes it seem like she is rising from the grave. On D.R.U.G.S,Soul has a void in his heart which only Joh would've been able to fill and thus Soul realizes even more how alone he is and starts to break down. A BISHOP'S TEARS On Lonely Soul reiterates how much he is misunderstood as he baffles people like the Baphomet. The Baphomet anatomy is all over the place and is confusing and misunderstood by onlookers but in the madness there is meaning,kinda like Soul's lyricism,but the only person who understood Soul is dead and gone and he feels out of place. He sulks in this song telling people to "Leave me (a)lone". He goes back to his crutch,drugs[lavender(purple kush) and pastel green(chronic)]. When he is asked "What happens after Control System?" he replies "the system controls me". The loss of Alori hit Soul so hard and it heavily accounts for his reckless nature in his testimonies stated above and how the depression he felt made him even more vulnerable to the system and sinning. He says "a coward killed my brother Georgiano and his momma"(the thug life/Riley). The loved ones around him are dying and adds on to his depression. The only person who could help was Alori. Soul is the male energy which is destructive in the absence of the female energy (Alori),emphasizing the importance of a woman in a man's life. Soul is the Black Lip Pastor and Alori was his priestess. Alori made "The Love Religion",an album full of live songs dedicated to Soul. In the absence of the priestess,The Black Lip Pastor now takes over The Love Religion and is about to minister to us what the law of this religion is....."Love is the law,love the only law" as SZA sings. Soul gains his composure at this point of the sermon. Ab revisits the past and in a way "The Law" can be seen as a bonus track for "The Love Religion". He talks about getting money to feed his female(Alori). "We are divided to restore the balance" and remember the song by Alori "Happy Medium ft. Ab-Soul" where the couple is engaged in argument(divided) and they make up after Soul says "You know I'm tryna make your family my in-laws". The song is nicely completed by Rhapsody as she says "we took him(men) to heaven where those golds and arcs are at" as a cherry on top to what Soul has been saying throughout the album in the importance of women in the lives of men and reaffirming that male energy cannot function without female energy. THE END OF THE SERMON YMF is Soul rapping up the sermon. The hook basically means that Soul is a sinner like everyone else and in a way states that we need love to get through life. Love for each other not only as blacks and whites,natives and foreigners, but also as men and women. "Another portions of the big picture that you'll leave out of the portrait that you will paint for me",Soul is the portrait,and the woman in his life is destined to finish the portrait and finally make Soul to be whole. God is love God is peace God is a man God is a girl Women are the missing piece of men needed to bring peace into their lives and as such should be treated with respect. Soul is a Young Mind Fuck who is misunderstood, waiting for a woman who'll understand him so Soul can be at peace in this lifetime and reach a state of Nirvana. At the end of the song God in His female personification brings light into this surround by darkness. I'm not sure if I'm 100% correct but one thing is for certain.... DWTW will go down in history as one of Soul's most powerful albums.

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mastcomm · 4 years

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The Super Bowl’s Real Winner Was … Bill Murray?

Who won the Super Bowl?

Technically, the Kansas City Chiefs. But to the brands that shelled out millions to place commercials on the broadcast, the big question is, which ad took the top spot?

Was it Bill Murray, playing a jovial version of his jaded TV weatherman character in a Jeep commercial that was a takeoff to the 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day”? Or was it Google, with its tear-jerking tale of an old-timer trying to recall his longtime love?

Maybe Hyundai’s Boston-besotted “Smaht Pahk” commercial hit home with viewers beyond the paht of the country where the “r” sound is often dropped? And what about the Western dance-off duel between Sam Elliott and Lil Nas X?

Take your pick.

More than a dozen rankings emerged after Pat Mahomes led the heartland team over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night. And each one claims to have identified the most successful ad that ran during the broadcast, which brought Fox an audience of 99.9 million.

The rankings help extend the promotional spectacle of the Super Bowl, which includes the fanfare around the halftime entertainment and the weekslong process of teasing game-time commercials.

Commercials from Jeep, Google, Hyundai and Doritos were the ones that popped up the most — but the lists did not agree on which of the four deserved the top spot.

Top picks, but no clear winner

Using an array of differing metrics, companies tried to judge a fundamentally subjective contest — finding the best ad among more than 80 big-budget commercials.

Ad Meter, which counts public votes from a website hosted by USA Today, gave the crown to the Jeep commercial with Mr. Murray. YouTube announced that the top ad, as measured by worldwide views through 10 p.m. eastern on Sunday, was the Amazon commercial featuring the ubiquitous pitchwoman Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, pondering what life was like in the time before Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant.

Twitter’s Brand Bowl measure concluded that Google was the fan favorite for driving “the highest overall positivity.”

Salesforce analyzed comments and images on social media and found that President Trump’s campaign ad about criminal justice reform generated the most mentions around the world, with 75.6 percent expressing positive sentiment (the same ad was ranked last by Ad Meter voters).

A Special Panel Convenes

At the New York office of the McCann agency, a panel of more than a dozen advertising executives gathered Monday morning to make their own determination.

Considering factors such as the creative bravery of the ads and the likely difficulty of production, the group deemed the winner of the sixth annual Super Clio award — an offshoot of the industry’s coveted Clio Awards — to be a Snickers commercial that showed a giant candy bar being dropped into a gaping hole as a crowd of people sang.

Let’s Talk About Feelings

Other companies tried to measure the emotional effect.

Ipsos, a research company, invited 40 people to a Super Bowl screening in New York and fitted their wrists and fingers with various gizmos to “passively capture galvanic skin response.” By this scheme, the Doritos commercial with Lil Nas X and Mr. Elliott was the best of the broadcast.

A similar measurement, by the video ad technology company Unruly, declared Google’s tear-jerker about loss the “most effective” commercial of the game. Among the factors the company considered was “emotional intensity.”

In the End … Who Knows?

“At best,” such rankings “tell only part of the story,” said Alixandra Barasch, an assistant marketing professor at the New York University Stern School of Business.

“Everyone wants certain answers about ad effectiveness, and almost no one has them,” she said in an email. “But with so little agreement over how to measure effectiveness and impact, everyone can find some way to claim success and advance their own interests.”

Long after the current crop of commercials has been forgotten, the companies that come up with the lists of top ads often use the rankings to promote their proprietary metrics. The rankings also give ad agencies and their clients bragging rights.

“The lack of true accountability presents a lot of opportunities,” Ms. Barasch said.

Companies spent an estimated $435 million on the 2020 Super Bowl ads, a record, according to the research firm Kantar. Anheuser Busch likely spent $41 million, while PepsiCo spent $31 million. Some companies invested as much as $5.6 million on 30 seconds of airtime, more than double the cost of an equivalent ad during the Oscars broadcast.

Researchers have waffled on whether the commercials are worth the cost. Jay Pattisall, a Forrester analyst, wrote in a recent blog post that the price of a Super Bowl ad was disproportionate to its returns.

The Harvard Business Review once claimed that a Super Bowl ad “is the equivalent of lighting money on fire.” Researchers from Google and Microsoft said in 2013 that companies would always struggle to justify an investment in a game-time ad, citing what they called the “Super Bowl Impossibility Theorem.”

And with so many ways to measure success, how can a company prove that an ad is serving its purpose?

“That may not be truly measurable for weeks or even months,” said Mark Taylor, the chief creative officer of the Mering ad agency in California.

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brido · 6 years

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Mike Bridenstine’s Fake 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas is fine. But it’s also time for me to argue with everyone about who should get into baseball Hall of Fame. I did this last year and two of my friends essentially called me a coward for avoiding the Barry Bonds/Roger Clemens issue altogether. Fine. I’m going to open with them this year. And you might not like what I say about it. This year, I went off of Jay Jaffe’s JAWS ranking. I also used Bill James’ ‘Keltner List’ as a guide, I referenced Jaffe’s Cooperstown Casebook because I am a fucking dork, and the stats come from Baseball Reference and FanGraphs. Actually, whenever I’m looking at Baseball Reference or Fan Graphs, my wife laughs at me and tells me I’m looking at porn. Like what you like, everyone. Oh, and I also skimmed everyone’s Wikipedia pages to see if I forgot anything. Okay. With that self-deprecation and basement-level nerdy-ness out of the way, let’s get started. I’ll follow the BBWAA rules and only pick 10.

Barry Bonds

I’m so sick of having this argument. Aren’t you? Barry Bonds might be the single greatest baseball player of all time. His 164.4 career WAR is second only to Babe Ruth, who played in a pre-integrated era when the pitchers were trolly hobos and nobody ever went west of St. Louis. Bonds’ (alleged, but let’s not kid ourselves) steroid era numbers would look like typos, even in a video game. Just for fun, look at his age 42 season in 2007. His OPS+ was 169, which is basically what Christian Yelich and JD Martinez did this year. Then nobody signed Bonds in 2008, even though he offered to play for the league minimum. Riiiiight.

Here’s another fun fact, if Bonds had retired after the 1998 season (before… you know) he’d still have 3 MVP awards, over 400 career home runs and a JAWS ranking (an average of career bWAR and a player’s 7 best WAR seasons) that would make him the 3rd-greatest left fielder of all-time after Ted Williams and Rickey Henderson. Sometimes steroids turned nobody’s into superstars. Sometimes the guy who was already the best player in baseball gets pissed about the attention those lesser players are getting, decides to take steroids himself to spite everyone and turns into an unstoppable monster person that makes a multi-billion dollar league have to (allegedly, but let’s not kid ourselves) collude so that he doesn’t Hulk-smash every hitting record in Major League history they’d ever come up with.

I guess I don’t understand who his election would be hurting - the fans for making us all look like idiots? We should be over that by now. And we’re probably better for it. Joe Morgan? Who gives a shit? Unless someone could give me indisputable proof that both Willie Mays and Hank Aaron were against Bonds’ induction, then I don’t want to hear it. And Mays just gave an endorsement speech at Bonds’ number retiring ceremony in San Francisco back in August, so that kind of settles that. If you’re bent out of shape about steroids, elect the skinny guy from the Pirates and the Candlestick Park Giants. Because that guy still deserves to get in. Pretend he’s the guy on the plaque. Put an asterisk on it. Put 762 asterisks on it. I don’t care. It’s 2018. Bonds’ lack of inclusion in Cooperstown draws more attention to the steroid era than anything else in the minds of fans. You should have spoken up in 1998 if you’re still gonna throw a shit-fit 20 years after the fact. And maybe that was the entirety of Bonds’ point the whole goddamn time. Free Barry Bonds.

YES (1/10)

Roger Clemens

Am I going to make the same argument for Clemens, who is the all-time leader in pitchers’ WAR? Yeah, but it’s honestly not as fun. He’s a pitcher. And I think about Bonds more than I think about Clemens because the Rocket didn’t break any sanctified records from the annals of baseball history. He didn’t win 512 games. He didn’t strike out 5,715 batters. He just won 7 Cy Young Awards, 7 ERA titles, 5 strikeout titles and won 354 career games. He gets lumped in with Bonds because they were both too good at taking steroids. I mean, there is the fact that Clemens has two 20 strikeout games. He also has the greatest postseason pitching performance of all time. Nobody really talks about that, but it’s true. Go look at Game 4 of the 2000 ALCS against the Seattle. 9 innings pitched. 1 hit. 2 walks. No runs. 15 K’s. 98 GameScore. With Alex Rodriguez, Edgar Martinez and John Olerud on those Mariners. But these are the type of things we can celebrate when we just get over ourselves. He was the greatest pitcher of all time. Free Roger Clemens.

YES (2/10)

Curt Schilling

Boy, these first three make this a lot less fun. To be completely honest, that’s a Cooperstown speech everyone can do without. Schilling is a fucking asshole. But he’s the 5th-best pitcher of his own era, behind Clemens, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. JAWS ranks him as the 27th-greatest pitcher of all-time. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is the best ever, except for Tommy Bond (who pitched from 1874-1884) and current stars like Chris Sale, Corey Kluber and Stephen Strasburg who haven’t pitched half as long. On top of that, Schilling and his bloody sock are the greatest postseason pitcher of his generation. If the sportswriters want to keep him out because of his disgusting anti-journalist, far right posts on social media, that’s their right. As a human being, he’s pure trash. As a player, he’s in.

YUCK. BUT YES (3/10)

Mike Mussina

Okay, our first good person. I think. What’s hurting Mussina’s candidacy is a lack of marquee accomplishments (Cy Youngs, 300 wins, World Series rings), but he did finish in the top 5 in Cy Young balloting six different times. And he absolutely should have won it in 2001. Mussina has similar career numbers to Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer and Carl Hubbell (as well as Curt Schilling). He’s the 28th-best pitcher of all time, according to JAWS (behind Roger Clemens, Jim McCormick and Schilling). And I’d say for his own playing era (1991-2008), he’s the 5th-best pitcher behind Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Clemens and Pedro Martinez. He even won seven Gold Gloves as a pitcher. Yes, his 3.68 ERA is a little high. But he played in the AL East during the steroid ERA (123 ERA+), so he actually had top 5 finishes 7 times and top 10 finishes 4 other seasons.

In Mussina’s final season in 2008, he won 20 games for the first time in his career. Three other pitchers have won 20 or more games in their final season. One was Sandy Koufax, whose arm fell off after 1966. The other two were on the Black Sox.

YES (4/10)

Larry Walker

Walker was the best right fielder in baseball during his career. He’s the 10th-best right fielder of all time, according to JAWS. And he’s the best right fielder still not in the Hall. During his own career, Walker is the 5th-highest in WAR after Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Jeff Bagwell and Alex Rodriguez. His career stats (383 HR. 2160 H. .313 AVG) are similar to Duke Snider, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize, Chuck Klein and Vladimir Guerrero. He won 3 batting titles. And he won the N.L. MVP in 1997.

The arguments against Walker are probably the home-road splits in the thin air of Denver (more on this later) and a relatively injury-shortened career. I guess the best answer to the Coors Field question is Walker’s 141 OPS+, which adjusts for ballpark and era, and that lands him as the 8th-best right fielder of all time. He was also a five-tool player with seven Gold Gloves and was also considered an exceptional baserunner. So he didn’t hit .381 with a 1.172 OPS on the road. If he did we wouldn’t even be having this debate, we’d be naming the fucking Hall of Fame after him.

YES (5/10)

Roy Halladay

I’m curious to see how Halladay’s recent death affects his vote in his first year of eligibility. Especially since I’d place him behind Clemens, Schilling and Mussina due to his JAWS ranking. But Halladay also might have the benefit of sticking out more in his own era, where he was the second-best pitcher over that time period (1998-2013) after Randy Johnson (who retired in 2009, Jesus Christ).

Halladay was the best pitcher on the Blue Jays in 2002 and 2003, as well as from 2006-2009. And he was the ace of the Phillies in 2010 and 2011. He was probably the 3rd-best American League pitcher (1998-2009) after Mussina and Pedro Martinez during his time there. But I’d give him the best overall AL pitcher in 2008. He was 5th overall in the National League from 2010-2013, although he was probably the best in the league in 2010 and 2011. And I’d say he was the best pitcher in baseball in 2011.

Halladay won Cy Young Awards in both leagues (2003 and 2010). Which also gives him an edge on Schilling and Mussina, who never won the award. His career stats (203 wins, 3.38 ERA, 131 ERA+) aren’t that comparable to other Hall of Fame pitchers, other than Dazzy Vance. But they do look a lot like those of Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke, who I think will get a lot of backing.

The thing that might put a semi-borderline career over the top is the fact that Halladay threw a no-hitter in the first postseason start of his career in 2010 (94 GameScore - tied for the 5th-greatest postseason game ever). It was the first postseason no-no Since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956 (which also had a 94 GameScore). And that was on top of a perfect game Halladay had thrown earlier in the season (98 GameScore, since we’re doing this). All of which made him the first pitcher since Nolan Ryan in 1973 to throw two no hitters in a season.

Halladay has a Hall of Fame peak. And since everyone seems to consider Clayton Kershaw to be a no-brainer 1st ballot Hall of Fame pitcher, I’d like to point out that Halladay’s WAR7 is slightly higher than Kershaw’s. And they almost have identical career WARs through Kershaw’s age-30 season. During his prime (2002-2011), Halladay was by far the best pitcher in baseball. And as the best pitcher of his generation, I think he should get in.

YES (6/10)

Scott Rolen

I had a real hard time with Rolen last year. The knock against him is that he was only the best player on his own team a few times, he was only the best third baseman a couple of times. His career offensive numbers are good, but not great. And he was never really an MVP candidate. He looks more like a Matt Holliday/Paul O’Neil type in the career numbers than he did the very best third basemen of his era, Alex Rodriguez and Chipper Jones.

On the flip side of that, Rolen is also one of the 3-5 best defensive third basemen of all time. So combined with his good offensive numbers, his career WAR and his peak WAR say he’s a Hall of Famer. JAWS ranks him as the 10th-greatest third baseman of all time, ahead of Edgar Martinez (who is majorly docked by WAR formulas because he DH’d). And his 56.9 JAWS puts him in the range of Jim Thome, Miguel Cabrera, Ryne Sandberg, Chase Utley, Jackie Robinson, Paul Molitor, Barry Larkin, Derek Jeter, Alan Trammell, Carlos Beltran and Shoeless Joe Jackson. It’s not sexy, but he deserves to get in.

YES (7/10)

Edgar Martinez

Don’t get me started about how fucking stupid it is that everyone considers Mariano Rivera a no-brainer, 1st ballot guy and then dismiss Edgar for 10 years because he was a DH. Even with Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez on his team, Martinez led the Mariners in WAR four different times. And I already told you he got docked by the WAR formula for not playing in the field. That’s nuts. He won two batting titles. I would have given him the AL MVP in 1995. Major League Baseball’s DH award is named after him. He’s above Hall of Fame standards for JAWS at third base. He has a higher OPS+ and JAWS number than David Ortiz, who everyone declared the greatest DH of all time a few seasons ago. Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson and (yes) Mariano Rivera have all said he was the toughest batter they ever faced. And his ALDS performance against the Yankees in 1995, including “The Double”- one of the most famous base hits of all time - was arguably the catalyst to funding Safeco Field and/or possibly saving baseball in the city of Seattle. And he did all that with some kind of crazy depth perception disorder and he didn’t even play his first full season until he was 27. He’ll probably get in this year, but I just wanted to shame the voters for making him wait this long.

YES (8/10)

Manny Ramirez

If you’re a stats-only voter, the answer is yes. He was an historically amazeballs hitter and he was pretty much horrible at everything else. I stop my consideration at the two PED suspensions. That’s enough for me to shuffle him to the bottom of the deck and see if there’s two more players who are worthy that didn’t get caught with female fertility drugs, or whatever.

Andruw Jones

He’s the greatest defensive center fielder of all time and has 10 consecutive Gold Gloves to show for it. While still managing to hit 434 career home runs, including a home run and RBI crown in 2005. During that long Braves run of postseasons, Andruw Jones actually edges out Chipper Jones in WAR while they were both on the roster (1996-2007). And JAWS ranks him as the 11th-greatest center fielder of all time, but three wins below Hall of Fame standards, although he did have a Hall of Fame peak. So why am I on the fence?

Jones was hitting home runs in the World Series at 19. He was considered fat, washed-up and lazy by the time he was 30. That’s not really helping his cause. And while 10 Gold Gloves is amazing, Keith Hernandez and Omar Vizquel both have 11 and they’re not in the Hall of Fame either. The .254 batting average and sub-2,000 hits (1,933) are probably hurting him more than anything. But all of that would be moot if he hadn’t pulled a Reverse Koufax and turned into a pumpkin after his 30th birthday.

When you add up the offensive numbers, the most similar players are Dale Murphy, Jose Canseco, Joe Carter and Jim Edmonds. That’s as iffy as it gets. But the JAWS total (54.7) puts him in the range of Pudge Rodriguez, Willie McCovey, Roberto Alomar, Tim Raines and Tony Gwynn. I’m gonna have to plug my ears, close my eyes and say, “10 Gold Gloves, 400 home runs, best position player on the Braves Dynasty,” and call it a day.

YES (9/10)

Todd Helton

No one who has ever played for the Rockies is in the Hall of Fame. None. Not Larry Walker. Not Andres Galarraga. Not Dante Bichette. Not Ellis Burks. Nobody. That’s weird, right? The franchise has been around for 25 years, but home/road splits and the city’s thin air means that the great American city of Denver is where Hall of Fame careers go to die.

Walker’s career splits (381/462/710 in Denver vs. 282/372/501 on the road) might be slightly more severe than Todd Helton’s (345/441/607 at home vs. 287/386/469 on the road), but Walker played the entirety of his 17-year career with the Rox. So nobody in the history of baseball has had better home conditions throughout their career than Helton. So when we look at Helton’s accomplishments, all of that has to be taken into heavy consideration.

Helton won 3 Gold Gloves, he won a batting title (and a slash line Triple Crown) in 2000. I actually think he should have on the N.L. MVP that year. He was the best player on the Rockies every year from 1998-2003. He’s also the best player in their franchise history. He was the best first baseman in baseball in 2000, 2001 and 2002. But for his career era, he falls to third behind Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera. Helton wasn’t a serious MVP candidate, other than 2000. He only played in two postseasons. And his 133 OPS+ would only rank him #50 all-time out of first basemen.

Let me pause here and say again just how weird it is that not one Hall of Fame player has ever played for the Rockies. Figuring that out bothered me so much that I decided to look to see where all the Hall of Famers who played between 1993 and 2012 (the first year of eligibility last year) played, and every single franchise except for the Rockies and the Pirates have had Hall of Famers grace their diamonds during that period. That’s not weird to you? Even the Rays had Wade Boggs. The Nationals had Pudge Rodriguez. The Royals had George Brett in his final season. The Giants had Randy Johnson in his final season… which combined with the Pirates omission should be another reason to induct Bonds. But obviously there are Pirates in the Hall of Fame. Fathers and grandfathers can bring their kids to Cooperstown and tell them stories about Willie Stargell or Roberto Clemente. Honus Wagner is displayed prominently as a member fo the First Class in 1936. People from Colorado have to go there, point to the plaques of Goose Gossage and probably Roy Halladay and say, “It’s a good thing they left town, son.”

Helton is the 15th-greatest 1st baseman of all time. His peak is 10th all-time, ahead of several Hall of Fame first basemen. His career stats are similar to Jeff Bagwell, Miguel Cabrera, Edgar Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero, Walker, Jim Rice and Fred McGriff. And if you don’t put Walker and/or Helton in, you’re either saying that no Rockies can ever be in the Hall of Fame, or you’re saying that you either want these guys to suck at home or be Babe Ruth/Ted Williams/Lou Gehrig/Barry Bonds/Jimmie Foxx on the road. Free the Rockies.

YES (10/10)

Well. That’s 10. My apologies to Manny Ramirez, Sammy Sosa, Gary Sheffield, Andy Pettitte, Lance Berkman, Jeff Kent, Roy Oswalt, Fred McGriff, Mariano Rivera, Miguel Tejada, Placido Polanco, Omar Vizquel, Kevin Youkilis, Derek Lowe, Freddy Garcia, Vernon Wells, Ted Lily, Travis Hafner, Jason Bay, Billy Wagner, Michael Young, Jon Garland, Darren Oliver, Juan Pierre and Rick Ankiel.

I’ve defended Sammy Sosa here. I’ve bashed Mariano Rivera here. I think the 10-maximum rule is stupid, since I would have voted for more than 10 players on this year’s ballot. Including Fred McGriff on his final ballot. But I had to prioritize somehow and I went with JAWS.

Okay. That’s my pretend ballot. Argue with me.

#cooperstown #hall of fame #bonds #clemens #roy halladay #mussina #walker #rockies #helton #rolen #edgar #andruw

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investmart007 · 6 years

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COOPERSTOWN, New York | The Latest: Trevor Hoffman inducted into Baseball HOF

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/HJvMLd

COOPERSTOWN, New York | The Latest: Trevor Hoffman inducted into Baseball HOF

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The Latest on the Baseball Hall of Fame inductions (all times local): ___ 3:45 p.m. Trevor Hoffman has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Just as he did in his unflappable role in the bullpen during his career as an ace reliever, Hoffman was flawless in delivering his speech, closing it by thanking his wife.

“You shared with me this amazing journey of ups and downs from the beginning, always never letting me get too high or get too low,” Hoffman said. “I love you.”

Hoffman, chosen in his third year on the ballot, played the bulk of his career with the San Diego Padres before finishing with the Milwaukee Brewers. After failing to impress the front office in three years as a shortstop, he switched to the bullpen and became a star. Using a stultifying changeup, Hoffman recorded 601 saves over 18 seasons, second all-time to former Yankees star Mariano Rivera’s 652. ___ 3:25 p.m. Vladimir Guerrero has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. In a speech that lasted just five minutes, Guerrero, whose speech was translated from Spanish, thanked his mother, who cooked dinners for him, and father, the fans and the people in his hometown of Dan Gregorio in the Dominican Republic.

Guerrero was elected on his second try, receiving 92.9 percent of the vote. The nine-time All-Star outfielder batted .318 with 449 homers and 1,496 RBIs and was a notorious bad-ball hitter, a skill he learned as a kid growing up in the Dominican Republic playing a game similar to cricket.

Guerrero, who spent eight years in Montreal, became the first player inducted wearing the cap of the Angels, the team where he enjoyed his greatest success. He helped lead the Angels to the postseason five times in six seasons, reaching career highs for runs (124), hits (206), and RBIs (126) in 2004 when he won AL MVP honors.

His son Vladimir Jr., the top prospect in the minor leagues with the Blue Jays, was in attendance. ___ 3:10 p.m. Alan Trammell has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The former Detroit shortstop was selected by a veterans committee in December along with former Tigers teammate Jack Morris. Trammell played shortstop for 20 seasons — all for the Tigers — and earned six All-Star Game selections, four Gold Glove Awards and three Silver Slugger Awards. His .977 fielding percentage ranks sixth among shortstops with at least 2,000 games played.

Trammell formed a stellar double play combination with Lou Whitaker, who was in the audience on a special day for Tigers fans. “For 19 years Lou Whitaker and I formed the longest running double play combination in the history of baseball,” Trammell said, recalling the two were called up to the Tigers on the same day. “Lou, it was an honor and a pleasure to have played alongside you all those years. I hope someday you’ll be up here, too.”

Trammell also thanked the late Sparky Anderson, who took over as manager of the Tigers in 1979 after leading the Cincinnati Reds to great success.

“Little did we know our lives were about to change,” Trammell said. “We thought we were good ballplayers, but we found out we didn’t know squat.” ___ 2:50 p.m. Chipper Jones has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pressure was an afterthought for Jones during his career, except perhaps at the beginning in 1990 when he struggled in Class A ball. He managed to keep his emotions in check on Sunday as he gazed down at his wife Taylor. She’s due to give birth to a son that will named Cooper and the due date is Monday.

“She changed my life forever,” Jones said as his wife brushed away tears. “It took me 40 years and some major imperfections in me along the way to find my true profession. Now we’ve taken our two families and blended them together. It has given me what I’ve been searching for my entire life — true happiness.”

Jones fought back his emotions in a speech that took the crowd through his entire career, starting in his rookie season when he helped lead the Atlanta Braves to the 1995 World Series title in his rookie season.

Jones was one of the greatest switch-hitters in baseball history, in the mold of his dad’s favorite player, Mickey Mantle. He finished with a .303 batting average and had 549 doubles, 468 home runs, and 1,623 RBIs, credentials that earned him election on the first try. Jones also heaped praise on his mom and dad.

“You’re the reason I’m on this stage,” Jones said. He ended his speech by thanking the Atlanta fans. “You stuck by me. You’re the reason I never want to play anywhere else. I love you guys. Thank you.” ___ 1:20 p.m. A crowd that’s estimated to number around 50,000 is gathering outside the Clark Sports Center in the village of Cooperstown for the annual Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Sluggers Chipper Jones and Jim Thome, first-ballot electees, headline a class that also includes Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman and former Detroit Tigers teammates Jack Morris and Alan Trammell. The ceremony begins at 1:30 p.m.

Jones is expected to speak first because his wife Taylor is due to give birth to a son on Monday or earlier. They’ve made plans to have the delivery at the local hospital if she goes into labor and have already selected the name Cooper in honor of the special day.

With the six new inductees, a record 57 living Hall of Famers will be on the stage. Among those who will be watching from in front is Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the top prospect of the Toronto Blue Jays. The family arranged for him to get the day off before the season. He’ll report to Triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday in a promotion that comes as no surprise. ___

By Associated Press

#COOPERSTOWN news #Dan Gregorio #Hall of Fame #HOF #Mariano Rivera #new york news #San Diego Padres #TodayNews #Trevor Hoffman #Vladimir Guerrero #Yankees star

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mystlnewsonline · 6 years

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New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/firm-convictions-uneasiness-churches-before-senate-race/50154/

Firm convictions, uneasiness at churches before Senate race

BIRMINGHAM, Ala./December 11, 2017 (AP)(STL.NEWS) —Alabama’s race for U.S. Senate settled into church for worship on Sunday, with the minister at a historic black congregation calling the race a life-or-death matter for equal rights, conservatives standing by Republican Roy Moore and others feeling unsettled in the middle.

Speaking at Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church, where four black girls died in a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1963, the Rev. Arthur Price evoked the civil rights era between hymns. Democratic nominee Doug Jones prosecuted the last two Klansmen convicted in the attack and has attended events at the church, a downtown landmark with twin domed towers.

“There’s too much at stake for us to stay home,” Price said of Tuesday’s election. He didn’t endorse Jones from the pulpit but in a later interview called the candidate “a hero” to the congregation and Birmingham.

Despite allegations of sexual misconduct involving teen girls decades ago, Moore isn’t being abandoned by worshippers at Montgomery’s Perry Hill Road Baptist Church, where Moore spoke at a “God and Country” rally in September before the accusations arose.

Leaving the red-brick building after a service that ended with a hymn and an altar call, Kevin Mims said he didn’t believe the claims against Moore. But even if true, he said, they occurred long ago, and Moore is a conservative who stands “on the word of God.”

“Everyone has to vote their convictions,” said Mims, holding a Bible. “My conviction is he’s the right man for the job.”

Lines aren’t so clearly defined elsewhere.

Interviews with a dozen parishioners at Mobile’s Ashland Place United Methodist Church, the home church of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, turned up neither any Moore defenders nor confirmed votes for Jones. The prevailing mood seemed to be one of frustration over having to choose between a Republican with Moore’s baggage and any Democrat.

“I will vote for Judge Moore,” said Bill Prine, of Mobile. “I’m not a fan of his, but I’ll have to stick with the Republicans.”

The candidates also spent time in church. Accompanied by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala), and others, Jones tweeted a photo from More Than Conquerors Faith Church, a large black congregation in Birmingham. Aides to Moore, who has been almost invisible on the campaign trail during the closing days of the race, didn’t disclose his whereabouts Sunday.

After church, Jones told supporters in a cramped campaign office that the results of Tuesday’s vote would send a message far beyond Alabama’s borders.

“This is an election to tell the whole world what we stand for,” he said, adding: “This campaign, ladies and gentlemen, is on the right side of history.”

President Donald Trump weighed in on the race with a phone message that state voters will receive beginning Monday urging them to vote for Moore.

“I’m going to make America safer and stronger and better than ever before. But we need that seat; we need Roy voting for us,” Trump said in audio of the call provided by the Moore campaign.

Polls show the race too close to call. While Moore had a clear path to victory in a state where no Democrat holds statewide office, the 70-year-old has been fighting for his political life since reports surfaced a month ago that he made sexual advances on teen girls when he was a deputy district attorney in his 30s.

Speaking on CNN on Sunday, GOP Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said allegations that Moore molested a 14-year-old were the “tipping point” in his decision to cast a write-in ballot for a “distinguished Republican” rather than to vote for Moore or Jones.

“There’s a lot of smoke,” Shelby said. “Got to be some fire somewhere.”

Roy Moore’s chief strategist, Dean Young, tried to tie Moore to the star of President Donald Trump, who remains popular among state Republicans despite low national approval ratings.

“If the people of Alabama vote for this liberal Democrat Doug Jones, they’re voting against the president, who they put in office at the highest level,” Young said on ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”

In a state considered part of the Bible Belt, the allegations transformed a race into an unexpected referendum on which is better: a man accused of child molestation claims he vehemently denies or a Democrat?

For many conservative Republicans, there’s really no choice.

“To me, there’s only one person in the race, and that’s Judge Moore,” said David Smith, leaving Perry Hill Baptist with his wife, Cecilia. The two have a recording of Moore’s speech earlier this year at their church and sometimes listen to it in the car for inspiration.

At 16th Street Baptist, Merion Turner recalled participating in civil rights marches and was in high school at the time of the bombing. Turner said she would vote for the Democrat on Tuesday, though her choice has little to do with the allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore.

“I just don’t like all the division in this country right now,” she said. “I think Doug Jones would help that.”

___

Chandler reported from Montgomery; Barrow reported from Mobile. Associated Press writer Jay Reeves contributed to this report from Birmingham.

By STEVE PEOPLES, KIM CHANDLER and BILL BARROW, By Associated Press, published on STL.NEWS by St. Louis Media, LLC (AS)

____

#Bible #Church #Democrat #Mobile #Senate

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celebrityresearch-blog · 7 years

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Stephen Colbert - November 6, 2017

I’d like to preface this entry by explaining the obvious; considering the great wealth of online clips of Stephen Colbert due to his position as host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and considering my lack of knowledge about the protocol for Conan interviewing other late-night hosts, what I have compiled is an abridged collection of Colbert’s recent interviews and performances as well as any upcoming events I believed may be significant for his appearance on Conan.

Stephen and Conan in NYC

Conan: November 4, 2011 (link) (During Conan’s week at the Beacon Theater)

In the middle of his monologue, Conan spots Jon Stewart in the audience. After Conan reminds Stewart he is missing the taping of The Daily Show, Stewart sprints out, Conan requests another ticket-holder is brought in from the lobby, and Colbert enters as the replacement for Stewart’s seat.

Colbert quips he found the ticket for the show on the ground outside.

After Conan reminds Colbert he has a show airing in 18 minutes, Colbert assures Conan that is plenty of time to write a show. When Conan updates the countdown to 17 minutes, Colbert frantically evacuates the theater.

The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour: June 2, 2010 (link)

During a performance in New York City, Colbert appears on stage, mentions Conan’s recent facial plastic surgery, and jokingly insults Conan for leaving NYC (following the ending of his Tonight Show stint).

Conan criticizes Colbert for claiming to be a true New Yorker, when in reality, he’s from New Jersey.

Colbert suggests a physical altercation with Conan, which turns into a dance-off.

After Colbert falls and injures himself while dancing, Jon Stewart storms the stage to prevent Colbert from surrendering to Conan. Stewart then starts an aggressive dance-off to the song Sandstorm by Darude, during which he too falls.

As Stewart lays injured and dying on the ground, Colbert hovers over him and requests that Stewart, as his dying offering, give Colbert the 11:00 pm slot.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: October 14, 2017 (Conan as guest)

David Letterman’s Horse (link)

(The last time Conan appeared on The Late Show, it was being hosted by David Letterman.)

Conan congratulates Colbert on his Late Show success.

After discussing their mutual respect for Letterman, Colbert mentions Conan’s piece written in honor of Letterman’s retirement, which was published in Entertainment Weekly.

Conan recounts a long tale, in which, because Letterman appreciated the EW piece, he sent Conan a horse, delivered by two cowboys, an hour before a taping of Conan.

The horse, named Dave, requires an immense amount of upkeep including room and board at an expensive facility.

Conan cannot ride the horse because it has bucked off the last two people who attempted to get on it, so in order to clear it for riding purposes, Conan would have had to hire an “expensive horse lawyer.”

After two years of rooming the horse, Conan’s wife sends the horse, named Dave, to an equine massage center, where students learning how to massage horses may practice massaging techniques on Dave all day.

Colbert is overwhelmed by the length of Conan’s story. (As was I.)

#PuberMe and Harvard (link)

Colbert mentions Conan’s submission for the #PuberMe challenge — a viral hashtag that prompted celebrities to Tweet pictures of themselves during puberty in efforts to aid relief for Puerto Rico.

Colbert mentions Conan’s Ivy League past at Harvard and inquires about his desires to become a serious writer.

They discuss their mutual love of Flannery O’Connor. Conan’s favorite of O’Connor’s work is A Good Man is Hard to Find, while Colbert’s is The Enduring Chill.

Conan was ashamed of his Harvard identity when he first took over for David Letterman.

Conan tells another (great, but equally long-winded) story about how his finger was jammed into his ring while playing basketball, and he had to visit a particularly rough hospital in East Los Angeles, where his ring dilemma was met by patients who had been shot in the face, attacked by pitbulls, and burned with acid.

Traveling for Conan (link)

Colbert praises Conan’s travels to seven countries in the past two years.

Cobert asks what Conan loved most about Israel, and praised Conan for nobly acting as a “common fool.”

Conan stressed the importance of demonstrating to other nations that Americans can laugh at themselves and can stand to be laughed at.

Conan explains how his travels have made him feel re-energized about his work at Conan, and he recounts his recent trip to the Holy Land, where his sound guy caused a scene by hitting an 800 year old lamp in the Church of Nativity, which caused hot oil to spew everywhere.

Other appearances:

Face the Nation: December 25, 2016 (link)

(This interview with John Dickerson came a year after Colbert’s popular Face the Nation interview at the end of 2015.)

Following the election, Colbert says the good news of 2016 lies in individual relationships, and not in the nation’s politics.

Makes a lengthy comment on political divisiveness, and explains that dividing into teams is only worthwhile if your team wins.

In preparation for his live coverage of the 2016 election, Colbert and his team prepared material for three out of four possible election outcomes, the fourth of which occurred: Trump was predicted to win with little uncertainty. He chose not to prepare material in event of this outcome because he knew if this occurred he would be performing for an audience of very depressed individuals.

Despite his own rant against political divisiveness, he admits it’s hard not to be divisive in his line of work because he tells jokes and every joke has a little knife in it.

Years ago, he coined the term “truthiness” to describe the tendency to believe what feels true rather than what is verified by facts. In light of Oxford Dictionary’s selection of “post-truth” (absence of facts) as word of the year, Colbert expresses his fear that if there are no facts, there is nothing to agree on.

Colbert urges his viewers to seek out other news sources besides him.

He highlights the benefits of humorously covering an election cycle; it’s one story and no one dies.

Colbert explains that writing jokes about trump isn’t as much about swinging at a ball as it is picking which ball to swing at.

The biggest lesson he learned about interviewing was not to hold a pen. During his time at The Colbert Report, he played a character that battled his guests in a debate style, but as a late-night host, putting down the pen allowed him to drop the caricature act and truly listen.

After all of his 2016 live specials, Colbert was reminded the beauty of writing material under pressure because some of his best shows that year were written in a matter of hours or even thirty minutes.

His happiest moments of 2016: Stevie Wonder singing him “Happy Birthday” on their mutual birthday, taking his son to college, his friend diagnosed with cancer learned her disease would be treatable.

Colbert recommends Trump should read The Constitution, Art of the Deal, and the phrase “The buck stops here” because a president must not blame others for his own actions.

After reading The Art of the Deal, Colbert learned that Trump will be friends with anyone.

Colbert would not turn down the chance to have any sitting president on his show (similar to Conan’s opinion) but he would like to find a way to respectfully challenge the POTUS.

When Trump came on his show during the 2016 election cycle, his liberal fans skewered him for being too lenient, but he greatly respects the presidency, so he finds it morally unsound to be disrespectful.

Looking ahead, he hoped to get more sleep in 2017.

Colbert’s talk show advice: listen, be up to date on the news, be able to read, know how to improvise, learn to be happy with failing, don’t blame anyone but yourself for the outcome of the joke.

SHOWTIME’s special Stephen Colbert’s Live Election Night - November 8, 2016 (Signing off) (link)

Shaken and awe-struck, Colbert says he cannot bear to sit down, and he somberly comments on the “exhausting” and “bruising” nature of the election.

Remarks that both parties believe the other political party is a threat to the nation and a cause for fear, and he compares bipartisan hate to ingesting poison.

Richard Nixon was his first president as a child, and he grew up during Watergate. He blames Watergate as the moment in American political history where we all stopped trusting each other, but he insists that even then young people did not discuss politics to this extent; dinner table conversations were geared towards religion and guessing which family members were gay, rather than political affiliations.

Comes from big Catholic family, including siblings James, Edward, Mary, William, Margo, Thomas, Jay, Elizabeth, Paul, and Peter. His mother was born two days before women could vote for the first time in a presidential election.

Before his mother died at the age of 92, she told Colbert she was finally ready to vote for Hillary. The only Democratic she ever voted for was Kennedy.

Colbert insists we are not meant to absorb this much election coverage, which is why so much exposure to/information surrounding it is so boring (i.e. electoral college, C-SPAN).

To end his live coverage, he rattles off national American truths such as the proper way to eat Kit Kats, the designated fate of YouTube pranksters, and a perpetual unknowing of the purpose behind the War of 1812.

Upcoming events

Homes for Our Troops (November 4-14, 2017)

Event hosted by Cher, George Clooney, Jake Tapper, and Ben Stiller, which aims to give mortgage-free, specially-designed homes to wounded veterans.

In order to raise money, items will be put up for auction on eBay, and all proceeds will go directly to the charity.

Both Conan and Colbert (as well as other late-night hosts) have offered up tickets for their shows and photo opportunities as an item for bid.

Night of Too Many Stars (November 18, 2017)

Hosted by Jon Stewart

Fundraises for Robert Smigel’s NEXT for autism charity, which supports autism schools, programs, and services

Celebrities listed to star alongside Stephen Colbert include Louis C.K., Olivia Munn, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and John Oliver.

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sheilacwall · 5 years

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Jesus Walks… in Adidas

Jesus is King has finally dropped. This is Kanye West’s first Christian rap-gospel album since turning into a born-again Christian in April after the hedonistic indulgence of Coachella.

The Lucifer, Mercy and New God Flow producer has given up secular music and has now turned his career toward the servitude of God.

Saint Pablo

Soon after, the “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” star seemingly finally started listening to his wife.

Stronger

Whilst facing the cold shoulder from Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey – the Square & Paypal founder who was raised a Catholic, offered to invest in Kanye early on.

Jay-Z also kicked in a loan of $20m triggering tensions between the two ending in a public feud.

Here’s Jay-Z on “Kill Jay-Z”:

Recently, Kanye has tried to dead the beef with the recent track “Brothers” with Charlie Wilson.

Power

The Jordan line does approximately $3 billion in annual sales, so the Yeezy line is catching up fast. If he can latch onto the Christian vote, sales could explode even more rapidly.

Touch the Sky

Christianity is by far the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31%) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth in 2010.

Jesus is King

Kanye pronounced himself “I am a God” back on Yeezus.

Rappers as Jesus

This isn’t new in rap. Check out the images below from Kanye, Nas, Tupac, DMX and The Game.

Jeru the Damaja, who follows the Nation of Islam, like Wu-Tang, Rakim & Brand Nubian, famously wrote a song “Can’t Stop the Prophet”.

Rappers have always seen themselves as street prophets, telling war stories, from Rakim, Nas & KRS-One right back to Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five in The Message.

Purple Robes

A.D.I.D.A.S.

It does seem ironic, given Kanye’s sex addiction that he would align himself with this particular shoe and his plans are to get the shoes made in America and give “second chances” to inmates.

In Texas, Georgia, and Arkansas, inmates aren’t paid at all for their labor.

Why do the yeezy slides look like the slides worn in prison.. pic.twitter.com/LsR8dbFyqE

— Cyn ☕️ (@Kingxxcyn) October 17, 2019

ADIDAS YECHEIL

The first shoe in Ye’s collection is the Yecheil, which is a Hebrew masculine given name meaning “May God live” or “God shall live”. Several people in the Bible also have this name.

ADIDAS YEEZREEL

ADIDAS YESHAYA

Many of these shoes use Adidas “Cloud” foam, so ‘Ye and his fans are figuratively walking on clouds.

Click the pic to get the best prices on Adidas below

Through the Wire – Prison Reform

CNN reported that Kim Kardashian West helped free 17 inmates in 90 days.

Kanye West’s Interview with Zane Lowe

If you don’t want to watch the lengthy interview below, scroll down for a quick summary.

youtube

In the interview Kanye talks about the following:

How billboards are guilty of sex trafficking

How he became a born-again Christian in April after Coachella

Why he wants to create jobs and bring jobs back to the USA

How he experimented with Domes & living in them then “the man” tore them down as a metaphor for tearing down his ego

How his farm will be growing cotton & wheat

He will employ prisoners to make his shoes as a “second chance”

His respect for founders, especially Warren Buffett, Amancio Ortego (Zara), Elon Musk, James Turell (artist concerned with light & space) and Jack Dorsey (Paypal)

He calls himself a Christian innovator

How his daughter North drives his passion for church

How Sunday Service may become a church and how he may become a Pastor

He is asking people to fast & not have premarital sex

How he had a porn addiction due to seeing Playboy at 5 years old & his sex addiction

People should pray together, fast together, stay together to increase power

Getting stumped by Zane Lowes question on whether he had to work for his 4th house

How white owners controls hip hop

How God is using Kanye to show off

Compares himself to Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, diagnosed of Bipolar disorder. This was also the ship in the film The Matrix which “woke” people up

According to the Bible, Nebuchadnezzar II was king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who reigned c. 605 BC – 562 BC and conquered Judah and Jerusalem and sent the Jews into exile.

How he will become the President of the United States, perhaps as early as 2024

How Facebook & social media is a disease

How porn is ruining marriages and brainwashing children

How to keep the eternal, imaginative 3 year old at all costs

How he’s undeniably the greatest artist of all time, no question!

How wearing the red cap was a joke on all the liberals as well as Drake living four blocks down from him was also a joke from God.

I guess him wearing blue fur whilst talking and making a blue record is also a joke on the liberals

How he will now rewrite and censor all his old songs for performances

How some of the merchandise money will go to the church

How the Louis Vuitton boss reneging on a handshake to make him the LV don and his wife getting robbed helped put him in a mental hospital

Jokes about being the pastor at Drake’s wedding

How he objects to the censorship of speech of the left

Jesus is King is out now on Spotify, mp3, vinyl & CD

Jesus is Born, another new album, is arriving on Christmas Day this year.

Kanye West’s Journey

I’m looking forward to see how he reacts surrounded with Angels in future fashion shows singing his new songs.

youtube

Watch Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five – The Message

The post Jesus Walks… in Adidas appeared first on Hip Hop World Music.

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reincarnatedasacupcake · 7 years

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Art by Sam Davies

Books will save the day... or is that love?

In this month of love, why can't it be both? Let's find books that do away with prejudices. Let's have interracial/inter-species love stories. Let's do away with old, poisonous, harmful tropes that reach out of the books we love and hurt people in real time.

Let books set an example. Let us do better.

Let books save the day

So, with that said, here is what I read this month:

Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1)

by Leigh Bardugo

385 Pages (8:55 Hours)

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

This is a prequel series to the Six of Crows books. I was so caught up in the World when I read them, I jumped on a chance to hear more about the World and understand more about the Grisha's and their powers. I wasn't disappointed. I loved everything about this book and can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Late Eclipses (October Daye #4)

by Seanan McGuire

372 Pages

October "Toby" Daye, changeling knight in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, finds the delicate balance of her life shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended. Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile.

Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher, for the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda. With everything on the line, Toby will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most—because if she can't find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she never thought she'd have to face again...

This book gave me more feelings about the characters than any of the other books combined. I was not expecting the twists and turns that were in this. More and more of Toby's missing past is revealed and the mystery behind it is slowing beginning to unravel. This is seriously the hardest book series to find. I'm having to order each book individually and then waiting patiently (or not so patiently) for it to arrive. Sadly, it's not something i can do very often, so I have to wait even longer than I want to. Oh well, at least it's very much worth the wait.

Rise of the Governor (The Walking Dead #1)

by Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga

308 Pages

In the Walking Dead universe, there is no greater villain than The Governor. The despot who runs the walled-off town of Woodbury, he has his own sick sense of justice: whether it’s forcing prisoners to battle zombies in an arena for the townspeople’s amusement, or chopping off the appendages of those who cross him. The Governor was voted “Villain of the Year” by Wizard magazine the year he debuted, and his story arc was the most controversial in the history of the Walking Dead comic book series. Now, for the first time, fans of The Walking Dead will discover how The Governor became the man he is, and what drove him to such extremes.

I found this whole series in a Little Free Library months ago, but the first one was missing! After searching everywhere for it, I found it in the same LFL (guess someone read it and returned it) Lucky for me, I was the one who found it. I love The Walking Dead and had been wishing for something else with that edge to it, so I happy lost myself in the first book. It was okay. Not great, just okay. Although the story had that grittiness to it, it had a few rape/torturous moments that seriously made me want to put down the book. Then they tried to justify them by making him feel bad. Not really helpful for those poor women. There were a few other things that bothered me about it as well; it was weirdly preachy, which the show has been good about not being. Also, they kept using the term zombie, which I know is a word that the show hasn't used on purpose, so that always broke me out of the story when I saw it. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to read the rest of them or put them back in the LFL when the person who took the first one can get to the rest.

Grimm's Fairy Tales

by Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm

518 Pages

The Brothers Grimm The Grimm brothers were early 19th century writers best known for their fairy tales coming from Scandinavian, Icelandic and Germanic origins. By 1807 there was a growing interest in German folk tales. The Grim brothers were academics who invited friends to their home and asked them to relate stories they had heard. They soon published their first collection of tales and from there several more volumes followed. Included in this collection are Hansel and Gretel, Briar Rose, The Fisherman and His Wife, Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltshin, Tom Thumb and many more. These stories are a delight to read and will rekindle up many childhood memories as they are reread.

I'll admit, reading Grimm is easier than reading Anderson, which I think is saying something when it comes to traditional fairy tales. The stories are a little more coherent is a weird way. I know these are all stories that have been passed down and then collected by the Brothers, but I find it interesting how much they overlap. So many have similar themes; You better know that if you're a King and set weird tasks for the hand of your daughter, that some fool you don't like is going to find a way to win her. Or if you're a good man and find yourself in a death-defying situation that isn't going your way, you can always trick some other poor fool to take your place (and ultimate death). The youngest son is always the purest and will do whatever he can to save the day and will be richly rewarded for it while elder brothers are always lazy thieves who usually die. Always be nice to fairies and dwarves, because they will repay you either way

Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2)

by Sarah J. Maas

418 Pages (12:01 Hours)

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

I really like this series, but I'm sad that they fridged one of my favorite characters half way through the story. Boo to this trope... boo I say. The rest of the story was great, and had some wonderful twists and turns, but that really put a damper on it for me. I still want to read the rest of the books and see what is to come for all the other characters that I still like.

Marked in Flesh (The Others #4)

by Anne Bishop

489 Pages

In the fourth in the "stunningly original" (Kirkus Reviews) New York Times bestselling series, the Others will need to decide how much humanity they're willing to tolerate--both within themselves and their community...

Since the Others allied themselves with the cassandra sangue, the fragile yet powerful human blood prophets who were being exploited by their own kind, the dynamic between humans and Others has changed. Some, such as Simon Wolfgard, wolf shifter and leader of the Lakeside Courtyard, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn see the closer companionship as beneficial.

But not everyone is convinced. A group of radical humans is seeking to usurp land through a series of violent attacks on the Others. What they don't realize is that there are older and more dangerous forces than shifters and vampires protecting the land--and those forces are willing to do whatever is necessary to safeguard what is theirs....

I have been waiting a year for this book to come out in paperback and I was there in the bookstore that day trying to get my hands on a copy. I din't even finish the other book that I was reading before getting into this one and my god, was it good. It was worth the wait of a year and I think the next one will be too, although I really want to read it NOW. Through the other books, there has been a tenuous line between the Others and the humans and you never know which way the line is going to go or if it's going to break completely. This book breaks that line and it is incredibly difficult to put down the book when it does. It's also amazing to read about during such I time of fear and hate in the real world. perhaps this should be a lesson to us all?

The Crown Conspiracy (The Riyria Revelations #1) by Michael J. Sullivan

296 Pages THEY KILLED THE KING. THEY PINNED IT ON TWO MEN. THEY CHOSE POORLY. The Crown Conspiracy is book one of the multi-book saga: The Riyria Revelations. The series is told through six novels conceived as a single epic tale. Across the entire chronicle, mysteries build, characters evolve, and plots thicken, but each is self-contained and can be read independent of one another. In the first episode, the reader is introduced to Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, who make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they become the unwitting scapegoats in the murder of the king. Sentenced to death, they have only one way out...and so begins this epic tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend. Theft of Swords was my RBA pick for this month. Little did I know when I picked up this 681 Page monstrosity, that it was actually a compilation and 2 books in one. Now I don't mind reading 2 books at all, but I hate that Goodreads will only count it as one. Sadness... Anyway, I decided to keep it on my RBA list as 1 book, but with each book under it. That way i still get to count is as 2 and will read the other one at another time. I first came across this series when Audible gave me some free short stories about the characters that I really enjoyed listening to. I put the actual series on my to-read list and later found out that Adam owned them. Awesome! They are fun and silly in an action movie sort of way, you know, without dimension and full of plot holes, but still super fun. Glass Sword (Red Queen #2) by Victoria Aveyard

448 Pages (14:39 Hours) If there's one thing Mare Barrow knows, it's that she's different. Mare Barrow's blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: She is not the only one of her kind. Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever? The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they've always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul. I'm also really enjoying this series and find it so interesting to see rebellion grow out of injustice. As in all these books the main character must become what she hates in their quest to free her people. I always enjoy the struggle of such a character as they have to decide what is too much before they too fall too far over the edge. Do you need to be a monster to stop a monster or can you save yourself before it's too late?

Books that I am currently reading

Vision of the Future (Star Wars: The Hand of Thrawn #2)

by Timothy Zahn

71 of 694 Pages

Bone Shop (Marla Mason #0.1)

by T.A. Pratt

115 of 244

Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow #2)

by Anthony Ryan

342 of 602 Pages (24:39 Hours) A Thousand Nights (A Thousand Nights #1) by E.K. Johnston217 of 352 Pages Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Extraordinary Voyages #6) by Jules Verne 50 of 394 Pages

#Talk Star Wars To Me #book #52 Books #brand new 52 #newfangled 52 #review #The Walking Dead

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