#us nationals 2020

[rabidline]

ALL JAPAN FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS (2014 - 2022) 全日本フィギュアスケート選手権 SHOMA UNO // 宇野昌磨 5-TIME SENIOR NATIONAL CHAMPION CONSECUTIVE SENIOR NATIONAL MEDALIST FOR 9 YEARS

[figureskatingcostumes]

Oona Brown and Gage Brown skating their Junior rhythm dance (to music from The Boy from Oz) at the 2021 US Nationals, and skating their free dance (to Bloodstream by Tokio Myers and Air by J.S. Bach) at the 2020 Junior Worlds.

(Sources: 1 and 2)

[a-jar-of-jelly]

Nov 5, 2020

[crunchycrystals]

god i fucking hate the united states of america

[toshootforthestars]

I predicted, in June of [2020], mere weeks after the murder, that all of the alleged “solidarity” from corporate or political “allies” was white bullshit. I explained that white folks understand (either consciously or not) that the police are there to protect them, their privilege, and their power. I said that white folks are fundamentally willing to sacrifice innocent Black people to the murderous clutches of the police if it ensures their continued supremacy. I wrote: The system of white supremacy enforced and protected by the American police was not built in a day, and it will not be dismantled in a day. What will people be prepared to do two weeks from now to make the world safer for black people than it was two weeks ago? What will they be prepared to do in two months? In two years?… Already, the infrastructure is in place for this country to ignore police brutality the moment everybody stops shouting about it. It was an easy prediction to make if you understand the way the white world works. The white public support for the protests dissipated before the summer was even over. The inclusion and diversity programs erected in response to the protests are being torn down with glee by the defenders of white supremacy. Meaningful police reform died in statehouses around the country, in Congress, and on Senator Joe Manchin’s desk. And the news media and Hollywood resumed its regularly scheduled programing of copaganda. And so, three-and-a-half years after the summer of “no justice, no peace,” we are back to the quiet acceptance of systemic injustice. A new report from the nonprofit organization Mapping Police Violence shows that 2023 was the police’s most homicidal year on record. The police killed at least 1,232 people last year, the most since the organization began tracking police murders in 2013. In 98 percent of those cases, the officers faced no charges. It should come as little surprise that Black people faced the greatest danger from these murderous officers. Black people accounted for 26 percent of the deaths, despite the fact that we are only 14 percent of the population. Indeed, the statistics showed that Black people were 2.6 times more likely to be killed by the police than white people. But, hey, former Harvard University president Claudine Gay improperly cited some of her sources, so really her appointment was the biggest racial injustice story of the year. Not Tyre Nichols, who was lynched by a group of Memphis cops. Not Niani Finlayson, who was fatally shot by a Los Angeles police officer mere seconds after he arrived on the scene to respond to a domestic violence call she made. Not Leonard Allan Cure, who spent 16 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, was exonerated, and was shot to death by police during a traffic stop.

* * * * *

This is the police force white America wants: violent and unaccountable. We cannot even muster enough sustained attention to the problem of police brutality, much less the sustained political pressure to try to fix it. Whatever else happens in 2024, one thing is certain: The police will kill more people, those people will be disproportionately Black, and nobody will stop them.

Elie Mystal, "The Cops Killed More People in 2023 Than They Had in Years"

The Nation | 11 Jan 2024

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Federal prosecutors are investigating conservative-backed efforts in Wyoming to infiltrate the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the matter.

Prosecutors have subpoenaed Richard Seddon, a former British intelligence official, and Susan Gore, a Republican donor and heiress to the Gore-Tex fortune, as part of the investigation, the people said.

The investigation appears to stem from a 2021 New York Times article that, citing interviews and documents, detailed “an undercover operation by conservatives to infiltrate progressive groups, political campaigns, and the offices of Democratic as well as moderate Republican elected officials during the 2020 election cycle.”

One of the subpoenas, which was sent in the past two weeks, seeks documents and communications from January 2018 through the present involving numerous limited liability companies and individuals, including Gore; Seddon; Erik Prince, the security contractor and brother to former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos; and James O’Keefe, the former head of Project Veritas.

The people familiar with the investigation said prosecutors are looking into whether any campaign finance laws were violated. No one has been accused of any wrongdoing.

The investigation is being handled by the public corruption unit of the US attorney’s office in Washington, DC. A spokeswoman for the office said that it does not confirm or deny investigations.

Gore recently retained Nicholas Gravante Jr., a New York defense attorney who previously represented Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. Weisselberg cut a deal with prosecutors and testified at the tax fraud trial of the Trump Organization entities resulting in their conviction.

Gravante confirmed he represents Gore and declined further comment.

Seddon has retained Robert Driscoll, a well-connected Washington, DC, attorney who has represented numerous high-profile clients. Driscoll declined to comment.

Matthew Schwartz, a lawyer for Prince, said, “As far as we know, there are no federal criminal investigations involving my client whatsoever.”

An attorney for Project Veritas and O’Keefe referred CNN to the company. Project Veritas and O’Keefe could not immediately be reached.

According to the Times, Seddon, working with Prince, secured funding from Gore by the end of 2018 to train activists to infiltrate political groups. Seddon, according to the Times, recruited former operatives from Project Veritas, where he previously worked.

The Times reported that two operatives trained by Seddon pledged sizable political donations ranging from $1,250 to $10,000 to Democratic organizations and candidates. Some of the donations gained the operatives, a couple, entry to fundraisers and even a Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas.

It is not clear where the couple got the money to make the donations. It is illegal to use another person’s name to make political donations and prosecutors have brought numerous so-called straw donor prosecutions in recent years.

One of the subpoenas also seeks any communications involving the couple as well as the individuals and organizations that received the donations, a source said.

[deus-ex-mona]

[wartakes]

The Obligatory Election Essay (OLD ESSAY)

The following essay was originally posted on November 8th, 2020 (shortly after the 2020 Presidential Election was held). This one honestly didn't have much to do with any of my usual topics but was me being somewhat tipsy and waxing philosophic about politics. Not my best one. But here you go. (Full essay below the cut).

This is probably going to be shorter than most of the pieces I plan to write for here. I wasn’t actually going to have this be my second essay for the site. I hadn’t actually written anything for the 2020 election. I think that was partially because I had no idea how it was going to go, the thought of it stressed me out, and I also didn’t want to jinx anything or tempt hubris by making predictions. I’ve been focused on just surviving the election itself before doing anything else, stocking up on food and alcohol and waiting out the storm in my room the last few days.

Now it appears Joe Biden will in fact be the next President of the United States. There are still ways Trump and his supporters could try and rat-fuck this situation, so we’ll see if he goes out with a bang or a whimper in terms of his reaction to all this – and if the chuds and the fashies limp away for now or cause trouble. But currently, it appears that Biden has solidly won.

I won’t get into my personal feelings on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Democratic Party as a whole in this piece. Needless to say, my feelings are a mixed bag and predominately negative. That being said, I still think beating Trump is a good thing and anyone who somehow thinks this is a loss for leftism and that a Biden Presidency is just as bad as a Trump one really needs to log off for a bit and take a breather and reassess things. Yes, we still have a lot of work to do. Yes, we need to keep organizing. Yes, it will be a hard and long process. But for now, I’ll take this victory – and it is in fact a victory. It shows that things are not destined to always get worse.

Sure, this election has its discouraging parts. Like the fact that, even though Biden still won by a healthy margin, over 70 million people – more than who voted for Barrack Obama in his landslide 2008 victory against John McCain – still voted for Trump despite everything he’s done in the last four years. Or the fact there are now QAnon believers who will be sitting in Congress.

But there were good things for the left as well. Out of the 29 candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America this election cycle, 21 won their races – including two sitting Members of Congress and two new candidates. A number of progressive ballot measures also passed, such as the $15 minimum wage in Florida.  This all happened despite a Democratic party who consistently wishes to write off the left wing – and that looks like it won’t be changing any time soon. While there is good reason to be discouraged about certain outcomes, we also have a lot to be happy about, celebrate, and motivate us to further action going forward.

All that being said, this is supposed to be a blog about foreign policy and national security so now I should actually get to that part instead of still rambling about domestic politics.

As Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had said before the results of the election were finally called, no matter what the outcome was we were going to need to keep organizing and making our voices heard and power known – not just for future elections, but for other important causes and struggles. This is all very true, and to that I’m taking the chance to tack on my rallying cry of  “please don’t forget to work on foreign policy and national security too!”

I wasn’t actually expecting to harp on this point again so soon after my initial essay setting the stage for this blog, so I apologize if this sounds repetitive. But, this is going to be a repetitive point anyway throughout all my writing here, and I felt I was squandering an opportunity if I didn’t make the most of these events while they were still fresh in people’s minds.

Leftists are already thinking about the future and what we’ll need to do to strengthen the movement and make this country and the world a better place. That inclusion of “the world” is not just a throwaway line. If this election made one thing obvious, it’s that the rest of the world was hanging on it even more than they usually do during a U.S. Presidential race. There was and still is real fear about what comes next here in America and how it may affect people where they live too. Both for good and for ill, we’ve seen how events in the United States can ripple around the world. For ill, in how an off the cuff Trump tweet or comment can cause crises, and for good when we saw how movements like Black Lives Matter spread across the globe.

As leftists continue to fight for real change for the better in this country, they need to learn more about the rest of the world and how our actions impact it. This will need to go beyond the ways those who do think about this conceptualize it – usually along the lines of solidarity with movements and activists in other countries. Leftists will also need to learn about and better understand diplomacy, statecraft, intelligence, and even war – all things that we will still need to deal with if we ever really hope to govern someday, as they’re not going away.

National security and war subjects in particular leftists will need to need to become more knowledgeable on going forward. These have been realms that have typically been dominated by groups such as tankies, campists, and disarmament proponents – which I’ve already ranted about before so I’ll leave alone for now. I understand why many leftists either lack knowledge in this area, are uncomfortable with it, or both. But that has to change. When I spoke of the people around the world, worried about the outcome of the election, I wasn’t speaking just about those who were afraid of what might happen to them, but what may not happen. There are also marginalized groups fighting against oppression, or smaller states at risk from larger, aggressive, authoritarian neighbors. If we are going to be good leftists in a situation where we can actually govern, we will need to know how to wield all the levers of power and that will include war.

Likewise, leftists need to better understand the military and its service members. Like with war in general, I understand why many leftists often take a hostile attitude towards the military and its personnel, given some of the actions of the military in the past. But leftists need to understand how important it is to bring servicemen and women into the fold as they have done with other groups. We need to understand the challenges and struggles that military personnel face, like how they are recruited to begin with and how they are treated. We need to understand how valuable their perspectives and skills are, and how important engaging with them will be for reshaping and rebuilding both the country and the military to be better and more just in the future. Keep in mind, many more servicemen and women are sympathetic to the causes we fight for than you think. After all, Bernie Sanders beat every other candidate for President – including Donald Trump – in political donations from active duty troops during the primaries. The military is something we will still need if ever elect our theoretical President Leftist. We need to put in the work now to understand it and its service members and start to change it for the better.

Alright, its late on Saturday night, I’ve had a bit to drink, and I’m tired, so I’m gonna cut things off here. I promise the next one of these will be a more in-depth analysis of something different, but I just wanted to get these thoughts off my chest while everything was still fresh. Aside from posting this essay, I’m spending the rest of the weekend tuning out from politics and giving myself time and space to be happy. I highly suggest the rest of you do the same thing.

[figureskatingcostumes]

Audrey Lu and Misha Mitrofanov skating to Notre-Dame de Paris for their free program at the 2020 US Nationals and 2019 US International Classic.

(Sources: Skates U.S. and FSO)

[kittyhazelnut]

had a nice long cry over the fact that the tour I've been waiting to go to with my best swiftie friend for four years is no longer selling any tickets. almost puked a few times in the process. now I'm gonna spend the money I would've spent on concert tickets ordering delivery for chicken tenders instead.

[emilnikos]

most normal guy in the earth

[butchvamp]

one of my friends is back in town and i want to reach out to them so bad but also i’d rather fucking die than him see me like this lol

[orcelito]

to explain the utter ridiculousness of the situation. i have struggled to write for MONTHS, barely scraping together 12k words for all my efforts.

and then i get hit with a stray hyperfixation beam. and write 3k words in 3 hours. 

what the fuck is wrong with my brain lmao

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

More than 18 months after the rioting at the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, an estimated 13 million U.S. adults, or 5% of the adult population, agree that force would be justified to restore former President Donald Trump to the White House and an estimated 15 million Americans believe force would be justified to prevent Trump from being prosecuted, should he be indicted for mishandling classified documents, according to a new study from the University of Chicago.

"We have not just a political threat to our democracy, we have a violent threat to our democracy," Dr. Robert Pape, the director of the University of Chicago's Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) told "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan on Sept. 18. "Today, there are millions of individuals who don't just think the election was stolen in 2020; they support violence to restore Donald Trump to the White House."

The 13 million estimated in the early September survey represents a reduction since June 2021, when an estimated 23 million Americans had insurrectionist sentiment. CPOST researchers extrapolated data from over 3,000 nationally representative survey participants who responded to surveys in June and September of 2021, and April and September of 2022, to reach their conclusions in the study.

Pape and his research team found that the willingness to use violence to put Trump back in the White House was largely driven by unfounded and racist fears about a "Great Replacement" of White people by immigrants and about QAnon, a set of conspiracy theories involving sex trafficking by Democrats and liberal elites and corruption. According to the study, 61% of those who favored insurrection were fueled by fears of a Great Replacement, and 48% of those surveyed believed in QAnon.

The "Great Replacement" conspiracy is built around the belief that the Democratic Party is replacing the voting electorate with a more diverse voter base to undermine or replace political power held by White people.

"[Great Replacement] is a conspiracy theory, but it's not just on fringe social media like Parler or Gab, 4chan or 8chan" Pape said. "This is every day on Fox News, it's on Newsmax, it's on One America, it's on talk radio."

It was a motivating factor behind the "Unite the Right" Charlottesville rally, and in recent mass shootings in Pittsburgh, Penn., Christchurch, New Zealand; El Paso, Texas, and most recently, Buffalo, N.Y.

"If you marry those together, you have a dangerous cocktail. You have the fear of this Great Replacement happening by a Democratic Party, and then you have the fear of corruption and immorality, and that's that dangerous combination that's leading to violent support against our democracy," Pape said.

The CPOST study also found that Jan. 6 defendants were more likely to come from urban than rural areas of the country, and that insurrectionists mostly descended upon the Capitol from counties that have diversified the most quickly in the last ten years.

Pape's research suggests that "naming and shaming" those who participated in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6 2021 has caused a decline in the number of Americans who would use force to reinstall former President Trump, likely due to this summer's hearings by the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol attack, as well as the continued prosecutions of Jan. 6 defendants and President Biden's speeches focused on that day.

Pape also spoke of Trump's association with QAnon, noting that the former President recently played a QAnon theme song at one of his rallies, and he reposted a video filled with references to the conspiracy. A central tenant of QAnon belief is that Trump is one of few politicians capable of bringing down a cabal of sex trafficking politicians and political elite.

"The former President is willing to court not just supporters of his, but those who support violence for his goals, number one of which is being restored to the White House," Pape said. "He is deliberately stoking not just the fires of anger getting him political support, but the fires that are leading to that violent 13 [million]."

Voicing his concerns about the upcoming midterm elections, Pape said, "If it's just a political threat, well, then we can have elections. Once it's not just denying an election, but using violence as the response to an election denial, now we're in a new game."

[mg549]

isn't it weird how it would take almost 30 years of minimum wage work to buy an average priced house assuming you never miss a day never buy anything and never get taxed? just thought this was interesting.