Here is the real, complete story on the voting machines that could be easily hacked by a "voter" inside a voting booth

From the Atlanta journal-Constitution, Jan 22, 2024 MERYL NASS JAN 30 Expert shows how to tamper with Georgia voting machine in security trial Election officials say vulnerabilities are merely speculative U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg listens as Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer science professor, shows how a voting machine could be hacked during a 2018 hearing. Halderman gave a similar demonstration Thursday in a trial before Totenberg to determine whether Georgia’s voting system is vulnerable to manipulation or programming errors. RICHARD MILLER / CONTRIBUTED By Mark Niesse https://web.archive.org/web/20240122135158/https://www.ajc.com/politics/witness-shows-how-to-tamper-with-georgia-elections-in-security-trial/WUVKCYNV3ZGOVNB6X6TDX2GEFQ/ Huddled around a voting machine in a federal courtroom, a small crowd watched as expert witness Alex Halderman demonstrated how someone could meddle with a Georgia election within seconds. Halderman, a University of Michigan computer scientist, changed results of a hypothetical referendum on Sunday alcohol sales. He flipped the winner in a theoretical election between President George Washington and Benedict Arnold, the Revolutionary War general who defected to the British. He rigged the machine to print out as many ballots as he wanted. All he needed was a pen to reach a button inside the touchscreen, a fake $10 voter card he had programmed, or a $100 USB device that he plugged into a cord connected to a printer, rewriting the touchscreen’s code. Halderman delivered his presentation during an election security trial evaluating whether Georgia’s voting system is vulnerable to manipulation or programming errors. All in-person voters in Georgia make their choices on touchscreens that print out paper ballots. Election officials countered Halderman’s testimony with assurances that real-world elections in Georgia have never been hacked and security precautions prevent the possibility of interference. “All of these things worry me — just how easy these machines would be to tamper with. It’s so far from a secure system,” Halderman testified Thursday. “There are all kinds of politically motivated actors that would be eager to affect results.” Under questioning from attorneys defending Georgia’s Dominion voting equipment, Halderman said there’s no evidence that the vulnerabilities he showed have ever been exploited in an actual election. Through eight days of the trial, attorneys for the liberal-leaning Georgia voters and activists who are plaintiffs in the case have tried to convince U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg that she should order the state to prohibit further use of the voting touchscreens as the 2024 elections approach. Voters would instead fill out paper ballots by hand. Testimony in the case included evidence about the January 2021 breach in Coffee County, when tech experts hired by supporters of Donald Trump copied Georgia’s election software, then distributed it to conspiracy theorists across the country. The plaintiffs have also sought to prove that the secretary of state’s office hasn’t done enough to protect election security and voters’ rights. But State Election Board member Matt Mashburn told the judge that hacking would be difficult to pull off during an election. Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com “There are serious potentialities. Now, how practical they are to put in place is a different question,” Mashburn said Wednesday, according to a court transcript. Flaws in voting machines would be difficult to exploit at more than one voting machine at a time, minimizing the potential danger, he said. “I just didn’t think it was realistic,” Mashburn said. “Is it something you’ve got to change the whole system for? ... I just don’t believe that is very likely. It is possible, but it is not very likely.” Halderman testified that he discovered vulnerabilities after he was given access to a Fulton County touchscreen, called a ballot-marking device, as an expert witness in the case. He reported his findings to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, which validated the technology weaknesses in June 2022. Election officials have said Georgia’s voting equipment is secured by locks and seals, poll workers overseeing precincts, preelection testing and audits of paper ballots. Halderman said a wrongdoer, hidden behind a privacy screen at a voting precinct, wouldn’t necessarily be caught by election workers. Changing a touchscreen’s programming would take seconds or minutes but potentially create “chaos” in a major election, when it would be difficult to determine which ballots were legitimate, he said. It isn’t necessary to open up a voting machine or remove security seals to gain “superuser” access to a touchscreen and change its programming, Halderman testified. Any voter could bring a forged voter card, pen or USB drive loaded with malicious code to a voting machine. In one of Halderman’s hacks, the text on the ballot would reflect the candidate the voter picked, but the computer QR code counted by a ballot scanner would count the opposite choice. Georgia lawmakers are considering legislation that would remove QR codes from ballots. The vulnerabilities Halderman showed in court would only affect one voting machine at a time, but he also testified that many more votes could be changed if someone gained access to election management servers overseen by state and county election officials. Attorneys for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the defendant in the case, contend that the mere possibility of election tinkering doesn’t amount to a violation of voting rights protected by the U.S. Constitution, such as free speech and equal protection rights. “Plaintiffs have failed to produce a single shred of evidence to substantiate the supposed ‘risks’ they fear,” a court filing by the defendants states. “There is no evidence that their ballots or any ballots cast using a BMD (ballot-marking device) were not accurately counted or that any vote has been changed. ... Weighing risk is a political and not judicial decision.” Witnesses for the defendants this week will attempt to dispute the plaintiffs’ allegations with testimony from Georgia election officials and cybersecurity experts. The case will be decided by Totenberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, in the weeks after the trial concludes. You're currently a free subscriber to Meryl’s COVID Newsletter. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. © 2024 Meryl Nass 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

Concentrated Focus and Repeat-Back Messages

When our focus is exceptionally concentrated and aimed exclusively on the task at hand, we can sometimes fail to hear what others are saying. In hyper-focus, people block out everything else around them and stay singularly centered on the undertaking, inadvertently ignoring commands, warnings, and pleas. The only downside of heightened concentration is a decrease in our ability to listen to and respond to others. High performers, highly productive and task-oriented team members, and those who excel at complex and intricate processes often suffer from missing messages and instructions. They become so fixated and focused on their performance that they fail to learn important changes in the job or mission. An intriguing example of this problem is illustrated by Operation RED FLAG, an intensely complicated US Air Force combat exercise that takes place in the skies above the vast Nevada desert. At RED FLAG, aircraft are tracked on a large digital map, with friendly aircraft depicted in blue and adversary aircraft displayed in red. Aircraft that are shot down become white dots; they are essentially ghosts. In the melee of the aerial dogfight, it can come to pass that a pilot who is euphemistically “dead” misses the radio call notifying them of this reality. So they remain engaged in the fight, oblivious to the fact they have been “destroyed” and received direction to return to base and regenerate. “Raging Ghosts,” as they are called by exercise controllers, unnecessarily expend valuable resources and time while unaware that they were downed long ago by an enemy fighter or surface-to-air missile. The focus on the mission and the desire to compete create such an intense focus for Air Force pilots during the exercises that they flat-out miss the message that tells them to disengage. This commonly happens with highly skilled team members in other organizations, as well. When high performers in any enterprise become hyper-focused on the task in front of them, they quickly resemble Raging Ghosts and miss many of the messages critical to high execution. Good leaders prize team members who can get into the zone of heightened concentration. However, effective leaders anticipate that those in the zone will likely block out any message or directive not smack in front of them. When they suspect a team member may fall prey to this focus trap, they ask them to repeat back any instruction, directive, or message. The failure to do so tells the leader instantaneously they must interrupt the performance and replay the message. The habit of asking others to verify that a message sent has been received through a repeat-back is popular in endeavors where the negative consequence of poor performance is severe, the required focus of performers is high, and changes in the environment can occur rapidly. We often think this process is the domain of military organizations and overlook the value of this practice in tasks such as mechanical repairs, kitchen prep and recipe execution, hospitality service, financial reporting and analysis, patient care, software testing, customer orders, and legal strategy, to name just a few. Good leaders introduce the process of repeat-back messaging in any area of an organization where concentrated focus can lead to disastrous outcomes when new instructions or messages are not incorporated into a given performance. What tasks and arenas in your organization would benefit from a repeat-back process? Twice a month, we take 30 minutes to connect leaders to our Admired Leadership content and coaches. These sessions are specifically tailored for leaders who are craving universal, simple and actionable leadership content. Participants will leave the session with an understanding of Admired Leadership’s behavioral approach as well as valuable insights to implement immediately. No slides, no frameworks, no psychometrics. This is a chance to sit in on a conversation with an expert in leadership and learn something that most people don’t know. For those brand new to Admired Leadership, as well as those who have connected with us previously… find an upcoming date to join us. © 2024 Admired Leadership Admired Leadership®, 7518 Elbow Bend Rd, Carefree, AZ 85377

The Old House PAUL WITTENBERGER JAN 22

In the wind the old house creaks its age, rafters sway, and a storm forces wood to turn out of a fear of tornadoes. Twice-struck by lightning, twice rebuilt, dry wood crumbles and falls earthward to mix with mortar that has drifted to the base of the foundation. Local children pick at the foundation itself, carrying off pieces to build small castles or for use as missiles in their latest wars. I do not stop them for fear one may be another Frank Lloyd Wright...for fear the wrong side may win. Thanks for reading Paul’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Paul’s Substack is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Paul’s Substack that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments. © 2024 Paul Wittenberger 205 S. Park Avenue, Fond du lac, WI 54935 Unsubscribe

Where is Taiwan's Cherbourg? not just any port in a war CDR SALAMANDER JAN 22

In all the stories and movies about the D-Day landings in WWII, one thing that simply is not covered all that much - and as such is mostly missing from the popular memory of that campaign - was the importance of the Cherbourg to the northwest of the beaches. The WWII museum puts the issue together clearly; The Utah Beach landings and accompanying parachute drops on June 6, 1944, by the 4th Infantry Division and the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions had one primary objective: to set the stage for the capture of the Cotentin Peninsula and, above all, the port city of Cherbourg. Capturing Cherbourg and its harbor installations was considered vital for the long-term viability of the Normandy landings, for no matter how many supplies were brought ashore on the artificial Mulberry harbors, they could not compete with the capacity of modern port facilities. Kicking in the door is one thing - being able to hold it and then expand out from there is a whole other problem. That story came to mind over the weekend when our friend Mark Vandroff asked a little question over on X about the usefulness of the below in logistical support of a Taiwan invasion. Yes, you read that correctly; 60. Six-Zero. That had me thinking a bit, and that is when Cherbourg came to mind. Amphibious landings are one if not the most difficult military operations of any era. It is not a “come as you are” party and unquestionably isn’t a figure it out when you get there thing. Likewise, from loading to unloading, to pulling up to the pier - modern auto carriers are not an easy ship to get around in. So, are these dual use ships? Tom Shugart has done some of the best thinking on the topic of dual use possiblities, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) seems to have a habit of thinking this way. Looking at the very civilian construction of these ships and all the limitations that come with that, let’s assume they could be useful in bringing vehicles ashore in a Taiwan invasion scenario - but how? If these were going to be used for a Taiwan invasion, again I’d bet it would be for a follow-on force unless they get real inventive. If they need a proper port - like the allies in WWII needed Cherbourg - the question is, where are Taiwan's Cherbourg's that they would use? If you know they would need one, where are they and how do you make sure Taiwan can hold them longer than the month it took the US to take Cherbourg? To narrow things down, of course the first thing to do; we look at the chart. I am sure there are may be other options, but the above seem to be the major west coast ferry terminals. Put the ones near Taipei aside for obvious reasons, and that leaves us with Budai, Anping, Yanpu, and Dongliu. For reference purposes the distances from Budai to Guangzhou's ferry terminal is ~120nm (NB: the distance from Portsmouth to the landing beaches in Normandy is ~85nm). One of those four ports it very urban environments will need to be taken intact & appropriate security inland achieved. Once you do that, then yes...I can see how useful those car ferries could be. Though you still need to get them across the Taiwan Strait intact. The long pole in the tent for the PRC is how they can ensure the sea lines of communication (SLOC) in that 120+nm route are secure. Taiwan’s job is to make that too hard. So, there is your challenge, what needs to be done to ensure that Taiwan and “friends" can keep those four, and other, ports out of PRC hands for the time it takes for reinforces to come from the east, south, and in a fun timeline the northeast. On the other side of the coin, what needs to be done to ensure blue-SLOC coming from those three directions remain open to make sure none of those critical ports they need to bring reinforcements ashore are degraded or in some way made unusable by the PRC? CDR Salamander is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell CDR Salamander that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments. © 2024 CDR Salamander 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XqmvGj8kSGw

This is how you address 'gun violence'

The push to combat so-called gun violence bugs me. It’s not that I think violent crime committed with a firearm is a good thing. It’s that it somehow pretends that being murdered with a knife is less bad than being shot and killed. As someone who has actually lost someone they cared about to a gunshot—in a mass shooting, as a matter of fact—I can assure you, I wouldn’t have felt better if she’d been beaten. And we also know that gun control doesn’t work, no matter how much people try to claim otherwise. Yet violence and actual violent crime can be dealt with... Keep reading with a 7-day free trial Tilting At Windmills © 2024 Tom Knighton 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

The Essential Nootropics Stack BEN BARTEE JAN 22

As tends to happen on a long enough timeline, I have discovered another cliché to embrace: the internet optimizer Reddit nootropic bro. I’ve got myself what they call a “stack.” My wife thinks it’s a problem. I hold that out as a possibility, because that’s how open-minded I am. But, I counter when she nags me about how much space they take up, all of these I’ve taken great pains to read about at length via research published at places like the National Center for Biotechnology Information. (Why the government allows the publication of literature expounding the benefits of non-pharmaceutical, mostly natural supplements like these, I have no idea — at any rate, that’s a problem the pharmaceutical lobby will likely soon remedy.) Here’s what’s, like, totally, in my stack, bro, in rough order from what I consider most fundamental to most dubious in terms of benefit: · Liquid cod liver oil · Creatine monohydrate · B-complex · Magnesium (as magnesium glycinate) · CoQ10 (as ubiquinol) · CBD oil · NAC · Niacin · Quercetin · Zinc · Turmeric extract (/w piperine for maximum bioavailability) · Vitamin K2 (as MK-7) · Lion’s Mane mushroom extract · Cordyceps mushroom extract · Piracetam · Glycine · Maca root extract · Citrulline · Nascent iodine I don’t include any vitamin D currently because I get a lot of sun, but if I didn’t it would definitely be at the top of the list. Also, although I don’t take it every day, I try to keep some evil ivermectin (aka horse paste) handy at all times, which you can buy over the counter in most places outside of the First World Nanny State. Related: COVID Propaganda Roundup: The Ivermectin War I have also dabbled with, but don’t regularly take: kratom, modafinil, ginseng, ashwagandha, and probably more stuff I can’t think of now. What do you all rely on? Is anything essential not on the list? Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs. Follow his stuff Substack. Also, keep tabs via Twitter. For hip Armageddon Prose t-shirts, hats, etc., peruse the merch store. Support always welcome via insta-tip jar. © 2024 Ben Bartee 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe

I don't know FRANCO AMATI JAN 22

Photo by Sonny Sixteen on Pexels the tantalizing tease of a second round appearance —  the hopes are flying high again let me go grab my landing shoes for when I meet the ground, so familiar how can we surrender to all the excitement? how do we build ourselves up over and over and manage to ever feel so strong? confident… I don’t know it’s enough to make sleep feel like a restless battle but just know it’s the being awake part that’s really what’s being fought over… dreams are still the gift aspirations make life sweet even with their sometimes (frequent) bitter notes your faith in me means everything and it’s glory to know I make you proud because pride is an enemy I struggle with, but not always in the here and now… mhm, the clouds look nice and fluffy today, the sun is out, and the trees haven’t even made a sound Garbage Notes: This one is about the fleeting and transitory bursts of confidence that we get as writers. Every time I sell a story or land some kind of accomplishment, it boosts me up for a little while. Then I puff myself up with confidence and that’s usually enough to push me forward for some time. I wrote this last year after having advanced to the second round at a major publication—one of my favorite magazines. If accepted it probably would have been a landmark achievement for me. Prior to that, I’d never even gotten pulled out of the slush pile at this particular venue. So I felt myself get filled up with hope. But ultimately I didn’t get accepted. And I came floating right back down to the ground. Being a writer means you’ll have a lot of these moments. The few wins you get are punctuated by countless almost-hits and could-have-beens. It’s a real test for your poise and your self-esteem. As I’ve matured as a person I’ve realized that confidence has to come from within. It’s a belief in what you can do. Writing is an act of consistency and it’s a labor of love. Yes, it’s nice to land the big ones. And every good creator deserves at least a few of these launching pads to success. These opportunities that will send us into the stratosphere—they’re out there, waiting for us. But to have the patience and steadfast work ethic is another thing. We have to do the work to get there. We have to withstand the “failures” in order to see progress. The poem implies that these types of close calls can lead to endless frustration and sleepless nights. Maybe this is only partly true. Sure, I’ve spent a good amount of time ruminating and grumbling about rejections. But I know it’s better to let these moments pass without much thought. Because there are countless reasons for countless outcomes. And very little of it has to actually do with you and your talents. It’s just a weird and complicated game. But we make it more complicated than it is. Pride is what gets in the way. While it’s good to make other people proud. We ultimately have to find pride in the work itself, not the outcome. The trick is in the approach. I always try to get back to the simplicity of it. Of just putting the words down. Of not thinking or expecting too much. Of letting the stories and the poems flow right out of me, regardless of where they land. The rest is for that other part of me. The critic. The stern editor. He’s useful when I let him out of his cage to do his thing. But the one in control—the one who gets to have the fun. The one who gets to play and go wild with imagination. That’s me—I give myself the spotlight every day, every night, when I gather what’s inside of me and speak in my own voice. Franco Amati 2024 If you enjoyed this piece, a paid subscription would be the best way to show your support. But if you aren’t ready for that sort of commitment yet, you can always send me a one-time donation on my Ko-fi page. Garbage Notes is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Invite your friends and earn rewards If you enjoy Garbage Notes, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. Invite Friends SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2024 Franco Amati 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104

Nick Wright and the Shameless Clown Industry

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 FREDDIE DEBOER JAN 22 looking like a nine-year-old dressing up in his dad’s work clothes as a gag Sports media is, famously, one of the deepest pits of hell, a cesspool of aimless shouting, pointless provocation, and artificial culture war. I always thought that 30 Rock’s “Sports Shouting” bit captured that whole world perfectly. And I can think of no figure in sports media who better emblemizes how sports media corrupts everything it touches than FS1’s Nick Wright, a particularly shameless clown in an industry of shameless clowns. And to show my cards, I’ll tell you upfront that the tragic part is that I frequently see a thoughtful adult hidden within the Nick Wright clown world persona, one that has been systematically beaten out of Nick Wright the person by the dictates of his profession. I mean, you can’t blame Skip Bayless for being Skip Bayless, a man who appears to occupy the mental state of a permanently-concussed 7th-grader. He’s all moron inside and out. Wright strikes me as a guy I would like very much if he wasn’t so consumed with the dirty business of being a sports shouter. And nowhere is that more evident than in his all-consuming, deeply personal hatred of Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen. Wright had a very good night last night, as his Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills, 27-24. (I say “his” because Wright is an inveterate Kansas City homer, who has the unfortunate quality of both making his rooting interests completely plain and yet never accepting that those interests completely distort his analysis.) The Bills have defeated the Chiefs in Kansas City in three straight regular season games, but have now lost three playoff games to them in a row, the last being an instant-classic 2021 game in Arrowhead that featured stunningly impeccable quarterback play from both players and which ended after the Bills defense coughed up a three-point lead with 13 seconds left to play. Allen never touched the ball in overtime. You’d think that would absolve him from criticism, right? Nope! Wright always finds a way to hang that loss on him anyway. No matter the topic of the day, he will always, always find a way to turn the conversation back to the Bills and how Josh Allen is supposedly not worthy of a roster spot in the NFL and blah blah blah, relentlessly, to the point of exhaustion. (The two teams the Chiefs have beaten this postseason, the Bills and the Miami Dolphins, have been absolutely ravaged by defensive injuries; by my count, of the 22 defensive starters the Chiefs might have faced in those two games, 13 were injured, which certainly undermines all the talk of a Chiefs offensive rebirth. But this is not a narrative the NFL media cares to explore, so.) Allen was excellent last night, hurt by several huge drops from his receivers and let down by a defense that was hopelessly hamstrung by missing stars. He moved the ball over and over again with his legs, tossed an absolutely insane touchdown pass to Khalil Shakir, and avoided the turnovers that (the media narrative goes) have always hurt his teams. (My friends, interceptions are objectively not as bad as people in football media think.) Despite months of talk of a lost season, Allen dragged his team to six consecutive wins, and now has rung up five consecutive years with 10 wins, five consecutive years with a playoff birth, five consecutive years with a playoff win, and four consecutive AFC East titles, after the Bills wandered in the desert for decades during the Tom Brady years. He followed that all up with a divisional round playoff game in which he did all that he could do. Has Wright found a way to slander Allen about it anyway? Of course he has! Of course he has. Because he’s completely obsessed. When Allen was selected to be on the cover of the Madden football game - an honor any player would take and one which comes with millions of dollars - Wright took the opportunity to relentlessly mock Bills fans for… being excited for their quarterback. That’s it. That was their crime. I think this is the ugliest dimension of this whole ugly business, that Wright thinks his role should be to mock and deride Buffalo Bills fans for being fans, for rooting for their team and its players. Look at Wright’s tweets from last night and you’ll notice two things. The first is that he’s much more negatively obsessed with the Bills and Allen than he is positively obsessed with the Chiefs and Mahomes. The second is that he’s simply a cruel, rude, shitty person. The Bills fanbase has endured a lifetime of gut-shot losses and hard times. They just had another one. And as a 40-year-old man, you take that opportunity to dance on their grave like a fucking teenager? What is wrong with you? Your team has done nothing but win! Why can’t you be gracious? If you need a lesson in that, here, here’s your team’s star tight end Travis Kelce, giving Allen credit, being gracious and kind. Because that’s what adults do. Be an adult. Grow up. You’re 40. Grow up. Just grow up! I’m not the only one who has noticed; Google around and you’ll find a lot of people reacting to Wright’s positively creepy level of obsession. Here’s a recent video titled “Why is Nick Wright so SALTY about Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills?” I think the answer to that is twofold. The first part is simply that the Bills have emerged as one of the few consistent challengers to the current run of dominance of the Chiefs, and Wright is the kind of homer who thinks that sports would be better if no other team ever emerged to challenge his. (Wright also constantly insists that Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow is the real challenger, based on the claim that Burrow has been better in the playoffs; go look at the playoff numbers for Allen and Burrow, please, go look, because Wright certainly isn’t going to.) This is stupid and pointless. The second reason is uglier: Wright is one of many, many people in the media who were relentlessly critical of Allen as a draft prospect, he has made all of them look foolish by becoming unquestionably one of the three or four most valuable players in football, and they’re mad about it. For whatever reason, the draftniks not only hated Allen as a prospect, their antipathy towards him again seemed both excessive and personal. He was treated as an archetype of everything wrong with NFL draft evaluation. How intense did this get? Observe! Victoria on X: "3 years ago today @OldTakesExposed "look at us.😏" – Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills https://t.co/Hvrp2Qc9vz" / X The entirety of math itself. That is, I would suggest, not a normal kind of a thing to write about the draft process, which is famously chancy and hard to assess. I messaged the guy who wrote that piece this past weekend, and he just sniffed about how Allen was that one-in-a-million outcome. But of course the whole point is that you shouldn’t ever express this much confidence about anything that happens in the draft, given the track record of draft projections. SBNation ran tons of these anti-Allen hit pieces, all of them seemingly motivated by anger that a prospect who didn’t look like the prototypical quality NFL starter would potentially be picked early. Pro Football Focus was relentlessly critical of the idea that Allen should be drafted in the first round, with writers like Steve Palazzolo and Sam Monson rejecting the notion that Allen could become a quality starter with confidence that simply shouldn’t be found in NFL draft analysis. Former NFL offensive lineman turned analyst Geoff Schwartz was equally dismissive. So were many others. (These people mostly just pretend that they never doubted him, now.) And Wright too was one of many who predicted that Allen would be out of the league in a few years. Then Allen transformed into a uniquely dangerous running-and-passing weapon, Wright looked dumb, he resents it, and that combined with his rampant homerism and, especially, the incentives of sports media careers led to this bizarre Guenter Parche situation with Allen. You may be surprised to hear that I’m actually a lifelong Bears fan, myself, not a Bills fan. So why does Wright’s obsessive mockery of Allen bother me so much? First, because of the criticism and dismissal he faced in the draft process that I mentioned above. It’s the same reason I always root for Trae Young in the NBA - because like Allen he went through months of people doubting him and saying he was no good, vociferously, in a way that clearly crossed over into the personal. Allen famously wasn’t recruited out of high school at all, had to go to junior college, then emailed 1,000 schools to see if he could play for them, finally getting an offer only from lowly Wyoming. Then he became one of the biggest piñatas in draft forecasting history, and proceeded to shove all that rejection up the ass of the sports establishment. I don’t know how you root against for that guy, I really don’t. And I don’t know how you don’t root for the poor Bills fans. That’s the other thing: as a lifelong Chiefs fan, Wright knows essentially nothing about sports misery. The Chiefs weren’t winning Super Bowls until Patrick Mahomes came along, but the Chiefs have been a good, winning team for almost Wright’s entire life. Since he was born in 1984, the Chiefs have averaged 9 wins a season; in the past ten years, they’ve averaged more than 11.5 wins. They’ve won two Super Bowls in four years. Yes, the Mahomes teams are championship teams, but the Alex Smith teams were mostly very good, the Priest Holmes/Larry Johnson teams had their moments, they made the playoffs every year for the first half of the 1990s…. This is a level of sports privilege that is truly rare. And if you have had such success, and a notoriously snake-bitten franchise like the Bills and their deeply passionate fans take another kick to the teeth, you can just be a fucking better person and express a little sympathy. The responsibility that comes with rooting for a consistent winner, if you’re a good person, is to be gracious in victory. The only consistent winning team I’ve had the privilege of following as a sports fan was the Bulls teams of the late 1990s that won Michael Jordan’s last three championships. I was an adolescent, and the internet wasn’t really a thing, and yet I knew enough to know that when you enjoy that sort of success as a fan, it’s your job to be kind to other fans. Wright is the opposite of kind. This is how you know Wright truly is a Kansas City Chiefs fan, his constant sense of grievance and feeling disrespected. It’s a fanbase that combines preening self-satisfaction and arrogance with a massive persecution complex. You know, the kind of persecution complex that comes from winning all the time and watching your players win awards and having Taylor Swift throw parties in your luxury box where half the attendees don't know there’s a football game going on. Chiefs fans combine the entitlement of Patriots fans with the sad-sack self-pity of Browns fans. It's incredible; all they do is win and watch their quarterback receive a career-long blowjob from the media, then call whatever wretched sports radio stations they have down there and complain about how “disrespected” they are. Why can you people not just fucking enjoy this?? Exactly how much team success, how many awards, how much consideration of whether Mahomes is already the greatest ever, and how much ball-fondling of Travis Kelce by the entire media is it going to take for Kansas City fans to drop this whole routine? “Oh boohoo wah wah wah no one respects us, that’s why Patrick Mahomes is the best player in football by wide affirmation and we get picked as Super Bowl favorites every year, pass me that deep-fried turkey leg so I can die of a massive coronary at 47?” What amount of respect would you require, exactly, if the past five years have not provided enough? Get fucked. My fanbase still calls Jim McMahon a legend, and his career quarterback rating was 78. DURING HIS CAREER BEST YEAR, HIS SUPER BOWL YEAR, HE THREW 15 TOUCHDOWNS. That is the Mount Rushmore QB of the Bears in my lifetime. Justin Fields finally looks like the real thing, but the economics of football dictate that we get rid of him and draft Caleb Williams, who I promise you will blow out both knees in the next three seasons. Kyle Orton genuinely stands as one of the best quarterbacks I’ve ever rooted for in my life. Do you know what it’s like trying to get excited for Jay Cutler, who genuinely, deeply disliked playing professional football and demonstrated all the motivation of a kid being forced to go to Grandma’s? And Kansas City fucking Chiefs fans complain every day about “disrespect”! Are you goddamn kidding me? It's no wonder the entire fanbase is made up of Republicans; both groups epitomize the rage of the overdog, people whose first response to good fortune and privilege is to say “hey, why don't I have more?!?” In this, Wright is the perfect avatar, the smirking, self-impressed bully who can’t enjoy winning unless it comes with a side of cruelty. It would go down a little easier if there was anyone in Wright’s orbit who actually stood up to him and called out his cruelty. Core to the business of yelling about sports, if you’re as ambitious as Wright, is setting yourself up against pliable enemies. This has in fact proven to be Bayless’s major problem in recent years, as his counterparts Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe both chafed against Bayless’s clear desire to play the role of wisdom-dispensing sage on his version of Sports Shouting. Wright has maneuvered delicately in this regard. Against him he has set Chris Broussard, a man misguided enough to use the word “retarded” as a pejorative on national television in 2023, and Kevin “I'm Just Happy to be Here” Wildes, who seems content in life to play the role of the Washington Generals and sigh off into the distance. Neither of these guys are stupid or unworthy of a platform, but they’re clearly set up primarily to let Nick Wright cook, by which I mean constantly slandering professional athletes for things they can’t control. Broussard is a certified Jesus freak, Wildes appears to be perpetually impatient for the show to end so that he can make his tee time, and both seem to know exactly what they were hired to do. Wright has gotten so fucking wild in his hatred of Allen, the Bills, and his other various targets in part because he has built the kind of career where he never encounters resistance. Who exactly is ever in a position to stand up to this guy? It all reminds me, incidentally, of Bill Simmons’s decade-long negative obsession with LaDainian Tomlinson. Simmons is usually fairly charming and self-aware about being a homer, but sometimes he lets it cloud his judgment, and nowhere was that more distasteful than with LT. The Patriots were the dominant franchise for two decades, and one of the only AFC teams that seemed to challenge them were Tomlinson’s Chargers teams. And Simmons just hated, hated, hated the idea of a team that had the temerity to compete with his team. It led him to become an obsessive critic of Tomlinson, in his columns and his podcasts, to the point where it genuinely creeped me out. Even regular podcast guest Cousin Sal called him out on it once or twice. I think I recall Simmons once finding a way to bash Tomlinson while having a podcast discussion about golf. (Golf!) And of course the cudgel that he beat LT with was the fact that those Chargers never won a championship. It’s asinine to act like the failure to win a ring lies on the shoulders of a quarterback, given how many other players contribute. But blaming a running back, a running back, for not winning a championship? Absurd, insane, unreal. Then when LT retired Simmons wrote this condescending appreciation of him. It makes Wright’s fixation feel very familiar. I’d ask Simmons about it but I think he’s busy producing another 17 podcasts run by guys he went to school with in 8th grade. For the record, this isn’t at all just a Josh Allen thing. You could watch this video of 49ers fans justly mocking Wright for shitting on Brock Purdy all game last Saturday only to turn around and start whining as soon as San Francisco won. But the real analog is Wright’s treatment of reigning NBA champion and NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic. As you can see in the video above, Wright spent years not just questioning Jokic’s play or expressing skepticism over his chances of winning a championship, but muttering darkly about Jokic’s character and suggesting that anyone who valued what he did on a basketball court was a fraud. The worst MVP in 30 years! He got personal in much the same way he does with Allen. And then last year, to my great delight, Jokic put his big Serbian balls directly on Wright’s face, winning the championship, collecting the Finals MVP, becoming the first NBA player in history to lead the playoffs in points, rebounds, and assists, and probably earning himself a spot among the ten best big men in NBA history. He has every chance to become a top-20 NBA player by the time his career is over. Has this humbled Wright, at all? No, obviously. He simply spent five minutes being vaguely embarrassed about it on his show, and now acts like he was never a Jokic doubter. Because, again, there’s no accountability in the industry. An important thing to consider about Wright is that his hatred doesn’t just lead him to make comically personal and unprofessional criticisms of the athletes he hates, it also turns him into a complete moron. Consider this conversation with Bomani Jones, in which Wright, trying once again to muster a narrative that the most celebrated football player of his generation is somehow disrespected, claims that Josh Allen is the “four-time media MVP”: Hey, Nick: it’s the media that votes for the actual MVP, you dork. Calling a player the “media MVP” is nonsensical; the media MVP is the fucking MVP! And Josh Allen’s never gotten one. What on earth could it mean to talk about a “media MVP” when the actual MVP is a media MVP? I have no idea. What I know for sure is that Wright’s been in this occupation for so long that it’s dropped his effective IQ by about 25 points. For the record Bomani Jones is nobody’s fool and could have pointed out that the concept of a media MVP is nonsensical, but one of the iron-clad rules of the shameless clown industry is that you always let a shameless clown cook. That’s how shameless clowns make their money. Wright, by the way, is ostensibly some sort of political progressive, but he constantly pals around with Colin Cowherd, which is strange. Cowherd is a guy who was forced out at ESPN after going hard with a “people from the Dominican Republic are dumb” take and who was one of the most gleeful of the many sports pundits who did a little grave dancing over the death of Sean Taylor, under the theory that he was a thug or whatever. (Only thugs ever get killed by burglars in home invasions gone bad, or something.) Cowherd also happens to be one of the most relentlessly, aggressively wrong pundits in sports media, an industry that pumps out acres of dumb takes every minute of every day. How does Wright justify cozying up to Cowherd in this way? I'm guessing it has something to do with the size of Cowherd’s audience. That's showbiz, baby! There's this whole code of omerta going on where even the thoughtful members of the shameless clown industry refuse to call out the worst offenders. They can’t afford to; this is a business where there’s always more people fighting over fewer and fewer seats. Everyone in media is scared to be unpopular with other people in media for fear of the professional consequences, and sports media is even more driven by personal relationships and patronage than media writ large. And this, finally, is the really important point: Nick Wright is a symptom, not the disease. I’m forever asking people to think structurally in politics and to focus less on individuals, and we can do the same here. I wasn’t blowing smoke at the beginning when I suggested that there’s a thoughtful guy hiding somewhere in Wright’s Michael-Douglas-in-Wall-Street suits and ridiculous oversized wristwatches. I genuinely think that there’s someone perceptive and even potentially humble in there. The trouble is that he has no incentive to be that guy and every incentive to continue acting like a petulant child. The term “crybully” always comes to mind when I watch him, the kind of person who simultaneously demonstrates his power over other people while he whines about being held down himself. But he also occasionally says something very probing and self-aware - most often on other people’s podcasts, when he’s not as committed to playing Mr. Contrarian Smartass Sports Man. But on his show, and on Twitter, and on his Instagram Live, he’s always fully in character, and that character is a complete asshole. Why has he lashed himself to the Bills fanbase in this awful negative feedback loop? Because he knows it drives engagement and that engagement makes careers. That’s why. And he’s been doing this long enough that you wonder whether the dull, nasty clod that he pretends to be has fully overtaken the thoughtful person that I suspect lies within. Ultimately, Wright is just one guy, one particularly malignant narcissist in an industry full of narcissists, just one random formerly-bullied kid turned petty bully himself, a red-headed stepchild who's been empowered to spread his ugly idiocy by an industry that absolutely will not stop rewarding preening overconfidence and cruel pomposity. I watch Stephen A. Smith and there are so many flashes of a perceptive, sharp, and reasonable person in there, and then the next minute he has to pay the bills and so he dives right back into useless shouting. There are a ton of people in sports media who are smart, passionate, and hardworking, who have the kind of perspective Wright so thoroughly lacks. But there are very few stars who embody those qualities. The thoughtful ones don’t get their own cable news shows. People like Bayless, Cowherd, and Wright do, and the more wrong they are, the more they’re celebrated by cynical executives, and the more deeply they crawl into the ugly little characters they’ve created. That is what the market will bear. We get more of what we reward, which is another way to say that we get what we deserve, and I’m very sorry to say that what we deserve looks like Nick Wright, off to kick another young Bills fan in the face for having the audacity to dream of his team finally winning. © 2024 Fredrik deBoer 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 Unsubscribe

Which way MAGA paleo-con or neo-con? MR. RAVEN JAN 22

Yes it’s bad AI “art,” may Jesus have mercy on my soul Authors note, I rarely write about horse race politics as I feel it is where real ideas go to die, but this subject is important enough that I am going to break that rule and perhaps even bump into a substantive idea or two along the way. I What is a paleo-con and why did I become one? In the late fall of 2011 when Occupy Wall St. ended I decided I had, had enough of the left, the local Occupy I had been a part of had infiltrated from the hard left by Trotskyite Communists and from the establishment by mainstream Democrats. Further what was then called political correctness was beginning to swamp a class analysis and anti-war activism on the left. Already there was something called “the progressive stack,” where women, what was then LGB people, and racial minorities got to jump the line when speaking to people. I was finding dealing with emotion driven left “activist,” politics to be draining and highly unsatisfying. Still I was opposed to Bush’s ongoing war in Iraq, and wanted some kind of worldview that accommodated being against the war. Fortunately I had an out, I was reading antiwar.com at that time a paleo-libertarian anti-war website, where I was able to delve into the history of the anti-war paleo-conservatives, and how the conservative movement was hijacked by the neo-cons in the early 80s. Considering the resurgence of neo-cons now with people like Victoria Nuland in the Biden administration those articles on antiwar.com are still relevant today. Sadly, then as now being anti-neo-con got you labeled an “anti-Semite,” everything old is new again. Anyway here are a couple of classic articles on antiwar.com to give you a feel for what I was reading then. I highly recommend reading them before proceeding if you are not familiar with the battle between neo-cons and plaeo-cons. https://www.antiwar.com/orig/lind1.html See also: “The idea that the major media have been taken over by neo-Nazis, and that the campaign to identify who and/or what got us involved in an unnecessary and ultimately futile war is all part of "the new anti-Semitism," is the rather implausible theme of the neocons' defense.” Sound familiar from today’s headlines? Guess what this was written in 2003, over 20 years ago! So all very well, perhaps you understand where I am coming from a little better in my essays now, but what relevance does this have to today? Well guess what the neo-cons are on the march again in the form of people like Victoria Nuland, Nikki Haley, and Elise Stefanik, and in AIPAC’s harassment of dubious free speech hero Elon Musk. II The establishment strikes back resurrecting neo-cons from the dead When it became obvious to everyone the Iraq and Afghanistan wars started by Bush and his gaggle of neo-cons were going south and were unwinnable around 2014 or so, the neo-cons slithered underground and kept a low profile, while also conspicuously not apologizing for the 200,000 to 1,000,0000 dead Iraqis, or the 1 in 4 American soldiers who participated in that war who were seriously injured, psychologically traumatized, or killed. Just because they weren’t writing op-eds doesn’t mean they weren’t doing damage though. Victoria Nuland the husband of Robert Kagan of PNAC fame and deputy foreign policy adviser to Dick Cheney was one of the major forces behind the 2014 coup in Ukraine in the Obama years, and she was caught on the phone picking the government of Ukraine after the coup. She is currently second in command at the state department and one of the major instigators for continued funding of the disastrous war in Ukraine and for supplying weapons and diplomatic cover for Israel. Neo-cons have no party loyalty as you can see from Nuland’s career, she is perfectly content to work for Republicans or Democrats as long as there are constant attacks on Russia and support for Israel’s repression of the Palestinians. Here are some links with background on all this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957 (Telephone transcript of Nuland’s participation in selecting Ukraine’s government after the coup) John Bolton another notorious neo-con manged to weasel his way into the Trump administration as National Security Adviser, but Trump also wound up firing him. Trump also ousted Victoria Nuland, who as I mentioned before was later picked up by Biden, and is a major player in Biden’s disastrous war mongering foreign policy. After the October 7th terror attacks on Israel, and Israel’s disproportionate response that has led to the bombing and compete destruction of dozens of hospitals and the deaths of thousands of women and children the neo-cons have been fully resurrected from the dead, and are on the march in full public view now. Currently the neo-cons are demanding broad censorship of any criticism of Israel’s conduct of their war and neo-con adjacent politician Elise Stefanak recently claimed the scalp of Harvard President Claudine Gay. While I do not have much pity for Claudine Gay as a plagiarist lazy “scholar” making a million dollars a year at Harvard, I am concerned that a portion of the right that was previously united against woke censorship is now all on board with censorship and cancellation of anyone who offends Zionists. As usual the neo-con clique is acting in an authoritarian fashion when it comes to protecting the interests of the foreign country of Israel, putting the feelings of Zionists and American Zionist sympathizers above the free speech rights of Americans who oppose Israel’s war. We can also add into this mix odious war profiteer Nikki Haley who has never seen a war she doesn’t love, and who has called for a ban on anonymous posting on the internet, which would destroy American political discourse. Fellow Substacker Lee Fang documents Haley’s rise being closely tied to defense contracting and advocacy for pro war Zionist policies. “Haley became wealthy in large part from her ties to a network of defense interests and hawkish advocacy organizations tied to U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials. In one of her first reported private sector jobs after leaving her last government post, Haley joined the board of Boeing, a defense contractor, a position that paid around $300,000 a year in cash and stock. Haley, according to disclosures, still owns up to $250,000 in Boeing stock.Haley’s primary income, aside from speaking engagements, is from United Against a Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group shrouded in secrecy.” Lee Fang Nikki Haley's Sudden Wealth Rooted in Weapons Industry, Pro-War Advocacy Network When should America deploy its armaments and forces to conflicts around the globe? And how much of the American military intervention abroad is shaped by genuine humanitarian and U.S. interests versus the tangled web of foreign alliances, special interest groups, and defense contractors… Read more 5 months ago · 412 likes · 62 comments · Lee Fang So Nikki Haley whether she directly identifies as a neo-con or not, is in essence a neo-con. And as I noted earlier Joe Biden’s foreign policy has been captured by neo-cons as well in the most obvious form of Dick Cheney protege Victoria Nuland, and also IMO in the form of the head of the State Department Antony Blinken. While this article labels him a neo-liberal and not a neo-con in foreign policy terms there is very little difference between neo-cons and neo-libs. Our only apparent hope of avoiding the neo-cons dreams of expanded war in the middle east, continuing the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and war against China i.e. in total WWIII seems to be Trump defeating Nikki Haley in the primaries, and Joe Biden in the general election. And yet... III Which way MAGA Paleo-con or neo-con? ...this is reliant on Trump being solidly America First and not caving to establishment demands he appoints neo-cons to his VP and other key cabinet positions like National Security adviser, Sec. of Defense, and Secretary of State. Can Trump be trusted to show good judgment on this crucial issue? Sadly I have my doubts considering in his first term he appointed John Bolton at least for a while as National Security Adviser, and he also appointed other people who sabotaged his policy agenda like Mike Pence. Further Trump seemed flummoxed when deep state stay behinds like Michael Hayden who signed the infamous letter claiming the Hunter Biden laptop was “misinformation,” and stay behind FBI head James Comey conspired against his agenda. Trump is extremely susceptible to flattery and will overlook almost anything his underlings do as long as he considers them to be loyal to him as an individual. Further lets not kid ourselves he is a womanizer and thus susceptible to a woman younger than himself whispering poison in his ear. Normally this is just gossip rag fodder but unfortunately in this case it has deadly serious policy implications. If Trump isn’t imprisoned by the deep state, and manages to have a fair primary where he defeats Nikki Haley, he will be under tremendous establishment donor class pressure to appoint Haley or Stefanik as his VP pick. His ring of hangers on will tell him having a woman and a “moderate” will “balance” the ticket and please the donor class and his media critics. Further running along side a younger woman would stroke his vanity. If this happens it will be an utter disaster, not only would a Haley, Stafanik or some similar person whisper terrible advice in his ear regarding a neo-con endless war based foreign policy, they would work behind the scenes with deep state stay behinds to sabotage any kind of America First freedom and paleo-con friendly policy agenda. Finally a Haley or Stefanik as VP would be the MAGA heir apparent for the 2028 election. This would make a mockery of MAGA and would simply mean a return to neo-con control of the state. OTH if Trump does the both ethical and smart thing and picks Tucker Carlson or Vivek as his running mate I believe we at least have a fighting chance at vanquishing the neo-cons and deep state stay behinds. God speed America, the bible says good wins in the end, let’s hope and pray that’s true. If you would like to help a poor wilderness paleo-con hermit keep the neo-cons at bay, you can support me with a direct subscription here, or 3 other ways. On Ko-Fi which is nice because they currently aren’t charging any fees At Buy Me A Coffee with an individual donation, or a 2 dollar a month membership. Buy Me A Coffee I also take PayPal raven200@gmail.com Whisper from the trees. © 2024 Mr. Raven 10531 Java Road, Irons Mi, 49644

On the 7th Anniversary of my Soul-Sister's Passing Missing Dede Miller Everyday.

Dede holding vigil with a picture of Casey Seven years ago at 2:38 in the morning, my dear sister, best-friend, comrade, and colleague passed away from a debilitating struggle against cancer and the Cancer-Industrial-Complex. Later that day, my oldest granddaughter (who was seven at the time) and I sat in Dede’s recliner, in the room she transitioned in watching coverage of the liberal-bougie Women’s March. It was two days after Trump’s inauguration and while the Pink Pussy-Hatted Adult-sized Toddler-looking Brigade freaked out over the fact their war criminal, Harpy Hillary didn’t win, my granddaughter looked up and me and said, “Gigi, don’t cry, Auntie is in the place where there is always peace and never any war.” For those of you who didn’t know Dede, she was what used to be called my “Irish Twin.” An Irish Twin is a sibling who is less than a year, younger and/or in the same grade at school, even though the sibs never shared a womb. Dede was a constant presence in my life. I was only 11-months old when she was born, so, of course, I cannot recall a time when she wasn’t there. Sometimes her presence was abrasive, but, most of the time, we were best-friends and partners in Peace Crime. I have thousands of stories about the adventures Dede and I shared in the short 58-years of her life: from harassing our younger brother; to playing endless games of Monopoly; to playing softball (she was better than was I); to her being by my side for all four births of her nephews and nieces; Dede was a supportive force, and even in our difficult times, I never doubted her loyalty, or, her commitment to our joint struggle for peace. When she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in mid-2015, without hesitation, I moved her from Bellflower into my place in Vacaville, Ca. In return for her loyalty and love, I drove her hours to Sebastopol twice a week to get vitamin c infusions; I fixed her healthy meals; even though I opposed her choice to receive chemo, I took her to every appointment and met with her oncologist dozens of times, and sat by her hospital bed the many times she was admitted (mostly to try and help the side-effects of the cancer “treatments.”) At the end of 2016, when her oncologist gave us the bad news that her breast cancer had spread all over her body, despite (because?) of all the chemo, radiation, and surgeries, Dede cried about the pain she was in and the fact that she had to conserve her pain meds because we were frequently denied refills, because: opioid addiction. Dede told the doctor, “no more treatment.” She just wanted to live the rest of her life in whatever peace she could find. She only lived about five-weeks more. In return for her decades of love and friendship, I granted her wish to not die in hospital, so our largest bedroom (with en suite bathroom) was turned into hospice. Getting pain medicine is no problem in hospice. A hospital bed was brought in for Dede, and I slept in her bed and became an assistant hospice nurse. We began our lives sharing a bedroom, lived for 20-years as roommates, and we ended her life as roommates again. So, at 2:38am on 22 Jan 2017, I held her as she transitioned. A few minutes before she drew her last breath she said, “Casey is here, he wants me to go with him.” I said, “You should go.” “I can’t walk” Dede cried. “You can fly, dear sister, fly with Casey,” I replied. And she did. Dede always knew how to make me laugh and we laughed at the most inappropriate times. I could really have used her humor over these years since covid, but the model and memory of her strength certainly have inspired me to never give up! I hope her story and life can be the inspiration for many. Now, I need to dry my eyes and get back to our work. Dede and Cindy somewhere in Missouri on Tour de Peace (three-month bike ride across the U.S.) Farewell Dede By John Kaniecki (Jan 2017) Farewell Dede You are now free The cage always opens It is destiny You were noble In the struggle and the fight You took on trouble To do what is right I pray for the peace You sought in this domain I am glad for the release From torment and pain We will weep We will cry But we have much to keep After goodbye Flap your wings Soar to the stars above Tomorrow always brings Endless Love Leave a comment Share Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox Newsletter It’s never too late to become a paid subscriber to support our work, or for a one time donation: We have different tiers of support: $5/month; $50/year, or $100 as a founding member. Upgrade to paid Checks/money/orders/cash/etc can be SNAIL-mailed to: Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox, LLC PO BOX 6264, VACAVILLE, CA 95696 PayPal: cindysheehanssoapbox@gmail.com Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox Newsletter. © 2024 Cindy Sheehan PO Box 6264, Vacaville, CA 95696

Being a Dad: Part 2 of 2 My experiences and lessons LOUIS A. DEVLUGT, SR. JAN 22

1. My first daughter, Nairobi At the age of 33, and after a brief separation, my first wife and I had our daughter Nairobi. I always get a verbal jab from my ex-wife for how I chose our daughter’s name. You see, as I mentioned, I’m an avid gamer. And, during the time that my ex-wife was pregnant with our first daughter, I was wholly engrossed in a video game called Supreme Ruler 2020, which is a “sophisticated strategic and tactical military command” game. In Supreme Ruler 2020, I often played as the president of Kenya. I thought its capital city, Nairobi, had such a beautiful name! And, after looking up its meaning—“cool water”—I found that it conveyed an image to me of abundance, harmony with nature, and sustenance of life. The name grew on me, and—despite her pokes at how I came up with it—my first wife agreed with my choice. So, our daughter was named Nairobi! And I was pleased! My daughter Nairobi is an excellent artist, does well in school, and has a wonderful personality. 2. The divorce Unfortunately, by the time I was 34 years old, my ex-wife and I were divorced. I must say that I take the blame for all of the pain and suffering we experienced throughout our marriage. I was a piece of work! And, I must admit that I often feel guilty about leaving when Nairobi was at such a young age. I was self-medicating heavily with alcohol at the time. And, when I try to think back, I’m stymied by a fog of repression that I still do inner work to clear. My inner pain, which still heavily resided in me from my childhood, would not allow me to have healthy relationships. As a result, my first marriage was a casualty of my horrible state at that time. 3. My second son, Lyric Fresh out of my divorce, I rented a room from a longtime friend as I got back on my feet. While living there, I would often spend time with my brother who lived in a neighboring town. One night, I went with him to the grocery store and met the woman who would become the mother of my two younger children. I had my second son, Lyric, when I was 35 years old. I was producing music heavily at this time, hence his name. It was a difficult pregnancy, and I can recall many trips to the hospital because of the various complications throughout. It was a very trying time for me, as I was still dealing with the depression and anger that stemmed from my divorce. In addition to my troubles, I had to be somewhat of a caretaker to his mother during this pregnancy because of its difficulty and the strain it placed on her body. Lyric is an excellent dancer and overall entertainer. 4. Leaving the state job This is about the time that I left my job at the State of New Jersey. There, I had been pigeonholed by my supervisor and her superior for not having a college degree. And, as if that weren’t enough, I was training a transplant worker to replace me who did have a college degree, the irony of which I could not endure. I shortly after lost all interest in continuing my career at the state and left abruptly. In hindsight, I often wish I’d devised a proper exit strategy. 5. My second daughter, Leilani Leilani was born when I was 37 years old. I had a hard time with my first wife because Leilani was a potential name for my first daughter Nairobi. But, how could I let such a pretty name be wasted? Its origin is Hawaiian, meaning “heavenly flower” or “royal child.” Maybe I chose this name for her because I saw her birth as a gift from heaven. After all, she is the culmination of my having children. Leilani is a very talented singer and outgoing little girl who says what she means and means what she says. I sometimes think she is the one who will keep me in check more than all the others! 6. Lessons learned While I have had an often tumultuous experience as a father, it has expanded my awareness of the meaning of my life and taught me many indispensable lessons that I carry with me daily. Courage A friend of mine who is a new father gave me some a lesson he’s learned concerning courage. When the mother is pregnant, fears and doubts may creep into the back of your mind concerning your role in everything. In particular, being responsible for a new life and the contemplation of having to take the “back burner.” This new reality of utter responsibility and no longer being able to focus only on yourself can be daunting. And the lesson learned here is one of courage and faith in oneself. Support The disregard with which I was treated as a child concerning what dreams I may have had taught me to listen to my children’s visions for themselves. And it taught me to support those visions with all of my might. Few things convey to children how much they’re loved than a parent wholeheartedly supporting their dreams. Protection The protection instinct I felt for the first time when Louis Junior was born taught me my role as a father in ensuring the safety of my family. I am where the buck stops when it comes to their security. Bonding One of my nephews mentioned a lesson he’s learned as a father, and I found that I’ve learned the same thing. It is the lesson of building a bond with your children. While we must set boundaries with our children, it’s also very important for them to feel comfortable and close enough to us as parents to communicate openly with us. Building a bond with our children not only lasts a lifetime and has many benefits, but quite importantly is good for our children’s mental health. In other words, I have an “open-door policy” with my children. Teach good values Another one from my nephew is the lesson of teaching our children good values. Things like treating all people respectfully, being kind, contributing to society, and so forth, are things that will stay with our children for their entire lives. And it may make a difference in the decisions they make as they grow up. One of the most important values you can teach your children is that life is priceless. That’s another one from my nephew. By showing them this, their perspective on themselves, the world, and money will be from a position of authority and conscientiousness; not from one of egoism, consumerism, or materialism. 7. My proudest accomplishments My proudest accomplishments in life are my children. Being a father has shown me that, even though I had no idea what I was doing—and still am learning—the miracle of life happened through me. It showed me the power of creation, and how thinking of someone other than myself has transformed my heart. Without having become a father, I would be a much less developed man. I would be more selfish, materialistic, and shallow. Looking back, I now know that having children was critical to my spiritual development. I am grateful for the experience and the opportunity to be a father to my children! 8. Conclusion If you’re a father or know someone who may benefit from this post—and you enjoyed this brief and limited autobiography—I encourage you to stay tuned to this newsletter. One of the most valuable resources you can garner as you fill your familial role, or support someone in theirs, is your connection with other fathers. Here at Living Your Purpose, I aim to build a community of people—fathers included—who can support and learn from each other. You all play a vital role in this LYP community and make it a space of empowerment for each of us. I encourage you to get involved! This concludes my “Being a Dad” post. If you haven’t read “Part 1,” check it out below! And thank you so much for committing to living your purpose! Being a Dad: Part 1 of 2 LOUIS A. DEVLUGT, SR. · JAN 15 Being a Dad: Part 1 of 2 1. My teenage view on having children I don’t recall ever thinking I’d have children when I was a teenager. My childhood was quite challenging, and now that I think about it, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to risk bringing anyone else into the world to suffer as I did. You see, I was not taught a very traditional worldview by my parents. They painted th… Living Your Purpose. © 2024 Louis A. DeVlugt, Sr. Living Your Purpose Newsletter, PO Box 56 Trenton, NJ 08601-0051

We have lift off! Introducing the Post it Notes Podcast. Episode #1: JACQUELINE RENDELL

Well, my friends….it’s here! I created the very first episode of the Post it Notes Podcast. I spent a lot -a LOOOOT- of time with myself yesterday getting to know myself better. I asked myself a bunch of questions and gave myself a lot of answers. Here’s hoping there is something of value in this prototype of an interview for you. Please feel comfortable leaving helpful feedback for me in the comments. It is a brand new baby of an idea that wants to be the best it can be, and grow into a mature sovereign adult idea that fully functions in society by contributing to the world around it. I am beyond grateful for how well so many of you received my idea for a podcast that showcases Stackers & their Stories. I am so excited to get to know you better. The world wants us to tell our unique stories. Needs us to. Doing this brings us together in ways that are obvious, yes. But I think there is a subtler, more important reason to share. During this time of heightened ‘divide and conquer’ agendas attempting to split us into teams and to separate us from each other by exploiting our deeply held fears and unhealed traumas, it is especially important that we debunk the nonsense that tells us we are on different sides. That we are somehow justified to harm the ‘other’ simply because they hold different views. Firstly, this is a distraction from doing your work on yourself, the work of tending to your own wounds and healing so that you can mature fully into a whole adult sovereign human man or woman. Secondly, we are being socially engineered to consistently put our focus on what we don’t want. If we stay stuck in a loop of reaction we lose our ability to create. When we reclaim our autonomy, our freedom of mind, of body, of spirit, we can then focus the power of our innate gift of attention towards what we want to see. Towards creating art, music, harmony. towards creating a sane and healthy world. We are powerful creators. Let’s tap into that and light it UP!!!! Leave a comment Post Post Modern is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrade to paid Thank you my lovelies, for your time and attention. I have a few more guests lined up….so please come back for more! The next one is gonna be a goody so be sure to tell all your friends. Share Post Post Modern Please do consider a paid subscription or perhaps a one-time donation that will buy me time to make more music and art. You can do that here: buy me time Have a super duper day out there doing what you love and not doing what you don’t love. be great, love Jacqueline xo Thank you for reading Post Post Modern. This post is public so feel free to share it. Share You're currently a free subscriber to Post Post Modern. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. Upgrade to paid SHARE LIKE COMMENT RESTACK © 2024 Jacqueline Rendell Burris St, Hamilton Ontario

Operation Green Flame The Secret Public-Private Alliance to End Inflation and Save the Biden Administration

One of the great mysteries of our time is the utter flameout of popular culture, particularly as epitomized by the failure of numerous high profile intellectual properties (IPs) to maintain audiences through their latest iterations. It seems like either idiocy or madness both to fans and critics alike; studios essentially handed money-printing machines with the blueprints in hand and failing to churn out one wet dollar. Great minds have struggled to make sense of it. How, after billions lost and goodwill wholly sacrificed, could they still not get it? Take, for example, The Marvels. It was to have been the high point of Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Released a few weeks before Thanksgiving of last year, the film cost nearly $300 million dollars to make, and with marketing and other costs factored in, would have needed to bring in nearly $700 million to turn a profit. Now, normally, there would have been no reason to think that was out of the bounds of possibility; after all, the first Captain Marvel movie made over a billion dollars. Unfortunately for Marvel Studios and Disney, however, The Marvels was a massive bomb, not even earning back its original budget before they gave up and stopped counting. Things did not turn out like they had hoped. Or did they… I want to introduce a thesis that some naysayers might call a conspiracy theory- but remember, that’s what they said about Covid and gay frogs and flat Earth too. No, I believe that the disinterested reader will come to the inescapable conclusion that the only thing that explains phenomena like The Marvels and the others I will mention is a secret understanding between Big Media, Big Tech, Big Finance, and the Biden Administration to siphon off huge sums of money from big projects and literally light the cash on fire in the interest of fighting inflation- yes, a dark undertaking so vast as to corrupt not only Hollywood, but Washington DC as well. I didn’t want to believe it myself; I’d previously attributed the whole thing to entitled arrogance, much like our foreign policy. But I’ve connected enough dots and performed enough esoteric interpretations to blow the very mind of my mind. When your shocked face relaxes, read on for the full exposé. To understand the story, we must all go back to the year 2016. In that Annus Mirabilus, the whole world rejoiced at the election of Republican candidate and possible Kwisatz Haderach Donald Trump as president of the United States. However, dark forces were stirring against him. Consider that on election night, none other that Paul Krugman- Princeton economist, Nobel Laureate, and graduate of MIT no less- dropped this warning to the Orange Euergetes: It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover? Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear. Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never. Yes, that’s a man whose brilliance and economic knowledge cannot be questioned telling the new president that every rich man in America is prepared to destroy the stock market forever rather than let him succeed. No matter how much they like money, they will forgo all of that and let another Great Depression ensue rather than accept him. Now, some skeptics might argue that the stock market did in fact recover and that Paul Krugman’s analysis was a hysterical and effeminate emotion-driven feels-dump rather than any kind of insightful reflection. But that’s what they want you to think. How do I know? Let’s connect some more dots. Right at the same time, the Propaganda Wing of the Democrat Party, the media, began to do some strange things. A movement called #metoo arose, coming out of seemingly nowhere to challenge Hollywood’s culture of sexual exploitation. Now, this was odd, as sexual exploitation is a beloved Hollywood tradition going back to the days of Fatty Arbuckle. Here, for example, is a highlight reel of celebrities joking about the rapey Harvey Weinstein with good nature and aplomb: Now, all of the sudden, Hillary Clinton just stops hanging out with him? Barack Obama’s oldest daughter isn’t going to intern for him anymore? [edit: she actually did end up interning for him, and he ripped her off- classic Harvey!] Again, some so-called skeptics will say that this was all some cynical bee-balling designed to create moral space to criticize Trump. For my part, I find that to be an incredibly implausible thing to even think about America’s Sweetheart and the Chocolate Messiah, to say nothing of the brave men and women of Hollywood who cured AIDS and colorblindness with their Red Ribbon campaign. No, something else was put into the works. At the time all of this was going on, Hollywood was experiencing a new golden age of the blockbuster. Superhero movies could do no wrong, and studios were raking in billions. There was nothing accidental about this; the films were assembly-line products designed to push the money-hurling button in the minds of teenage boys around the world. Critics derided the movies as “capesh!t,” but whatever they lacked in quality they certainly made up for in quality. Big name actors, big name directors, the best producers, editors, and CGI artists money could buy, all under the overall control of studios who had turned revenue-maximization into a glorious art. It all culminated near the end of the Trump administration, with the release of Avengers: Endgame, a movie that brought in more money that year than the GDP of the Central African Republic. In fairness, Wakanda did a bit better. And then, just as Phase Four of Marvel was set to begin, Phase One of Operation Orange Crush was initiated. All over America, astroturfed movements sprung up on behalf of dead criminals, violently asserting that the problem with America was all the laws and white people. Meanwhile, elements within the Trump administration began telling everyone that they had to stay in their homes for a year-long fifteen-day period, as China’s addiction to bat soup had resulted in a pandemic as deadly as the yearly flu. Vaccines were on the way, but even when vaccinated, one would still be in danger from unvaccinated people, the vaccine’s one weakness. The only sure places to avoid infection were parties with pre-screened Democrats, marijuana dispensaries, or those aforementioned race riots. Laws were quickly changed to accommodate the new reality, and Joe “Sundown” Biden was installed as president, much to his delightful and continuing surprise. Share Upgrade to paid The new “Biden” administration had a problem coming in, however. Trump had used his last days in office to issue emergency funds to all Americans and Biden’s handlers realized that they would have to match their foe to earn the nation’s goodwill; after all, the Democrat’s main constituencies- urban liberals working for the system, slum-dwellers, and connected foreign nationals, expected a payday in any case. They probably figured that Republicans would come behind them and clean up the mess such that serious inflation wouldn’t ensue. But Republicans, shamefully cowering away from their Leader’s mostly peaceful January 6th Election Justice Protest, refused to do even less than usual. So inflation came, and it was bad. Now “Biden” had a problem. Eggs were $10 a carton, not $0.23 like he last remembered, and people were angry. There was too much money in circulation. Some of it had to go. People weren’t going to accept new taxes and none of the rich and powerful were going to do anything so stupid as to invest in factories or pension plans for their workers. So what to do with all that surplus cash? Remember- Democrats and Hollywood and Big Finance are all buddies, just like Big Everything Else. Circulating among the Power Elite was a framework set up years before, one detailed in a film cleverly disguised as a comedy movie: The Producers. The Producers movie review & film summary (1968) | Roger Ebert This is from the Producers, but the footage was reused in “The Harvey Weinstein Story,” with Rose McGowan’s face shopped in over Gene Wilder. First released in 1967 and remade in 2005 (each time the country was mired in a controversial foreign war . . . hmmm), The Producers tells the very un-Hollywood story of a sleazy Jewish impresario who needs a financial scam to get out of trouble, who stumbles upon the answer with his equally Jewish and corrupt accountant, who tells him to simply attract as many investors as possible for a new film by promising each of them half the profits. When the film is so bad it makes no money, the two of them will be able to write off those obligations before anyone notices and walk away with the invested funds. But the script they choose for their Broadway play, Springtime for Hitler, turns out to be a surprise hit, and they receive their comeuppance in the end. But clearly the idea has been circulating for some time: big budget productions are a great hole into which to throw money that is not meant to be seen again. Cynics will again wonder why “they” would broadcast their plans for the world to see- probably for the same reasons rappers let everyone know they’re in the Illuminati; they just do, so move past it, ok! This should be blasting in your head the whole time you are reading this. By now you should be putting things together. The #metoo movement and the BLM pogroms in every major city became the pretext for a “re-imagining” of long-standing IPs, in a way that made no sense as business decisions, but were perfectly rational if the goal was, in fact, to make money disappear. Consider the two films featuring Captain Marvel as the lead. It was clear from the beginning that star Bree Larsen was an acquired taste on the level of those Jamoca blizzards from Dairy Queen that taste like someone put out a cigarette in each one. The first film was also somewhat experimental from the perspective of the studio, in that rather than feature a likeable hero overcoming the odds and his own personal flaws with courage and friendship, it instead showcased Ms. Larsen realizing for more than two hours that she was always awesome and that men just need to get out of her way. Yass Queen Slay! However, the film had a number of things going for it nonetheless. It featured experienced big names like Jude Law and fan favorites like Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, the studio made a huge financial investment, the CGI was good, and most importantly, they released the film in the best possible place, between Avengers: Infinity Wars and Avengers: Endgame. It made over a billion dollars on a $175 million budget. Bearing in mind that Marvel knew how to make money off the Captain Marvel IP, now look at the second film, The Marvels. The studio doubled down on everything that made the first film problematic- more feminism, more misandry, even less of a narrative arc, and even more Captain Marvel(s). The main villain’s superpower was being Tom Hiddleston’s wife. Samuel L. Jackson was there, playing a humiliated and confused old man wandering around in the belief he was Nick Fury. And consider the directors- the first movie was written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, a platonic couple known mostly for smaller, indie films, but here given the chance to helm a major studio release. One can imagine the tight grip Marvel had on them. For The Marvels, the studio selected Nia DeCosta, even more indie and even more diverse, checking every box including “first black woman to destroy a Marvel movie” (first woman in general went to Chloe Zhao and The Eternals). The CGI was terrible, the story incoherent, the leads lacked all chemistry, and the director, DEI though she may have been, was so hag-ridden by studio notes that she dipped out on the project before the wrap party even commenced. Yet it all cost nearly $300 million dollars before all the other expenses. Where did the money go? Share Upgrade to paid To get away from Marvel for a moment, consider the greatest destruction of a brand in modern times- Amazon Studios’ Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. If ever there was easy money to be made, here it was. Hire Peter Jackson, or one of his proteges. Hire someone to read all the books and supervise everything to be in full accordance with the lore that thousands of Quenya-fluent nerds know by heart. Assure the fanbase that all respect will be given to that source material, and do what the Game of Thrones TV producers were smart enough to do for six seasons- closely follow an established story by an acknowledged great writer whose fanbase you hope to appropriate. Then clear your calendars for all the lambo test drives you’ll be going on in the near future. Or at least that would have been the case if Amazon had not instead hired inexperienced and indifferent show runners, used a story and script that are widely believed to have been created by AI, deconstructed and defiled every element of Tolkien’s lore, and hired a lead actress to play a genocidal girlboss version of Galadriel who was so off-putting the studio had to hire an intimacy coordinator to convince the orcs to try to assault her (it didn’t work and the idea was dropped). The sets were Ren-Faire-esque, the armor was from the very forges of Mount Three-D-Printer, and the CGI was spotty at best. It purportedly cost nearly $60 million per episode. Those ten seconds of Galadriel’s grinning psychotic constipation you just watched cost approximately $100,000. To put that in perspective, The Matrix, a film that featured innovative filming techniques and groundbreaking CGI that still holds up today, cost $63 million dollars in 1999; that’s for a feature length film. Even adjusted for inflation, there is simply no way that much money was spent on any Rings of Power episode. None. Likewise, The Witcher and a bunch of other projects that have one thing in common. Hint, here’s every Hollywood showrunner: “Hey you know that guy Henry Cavill, the purest living example of a leading man, who everyone likes, who loves the lore of all the projects he works on and puts himself fully into every role, who just wants to make the fans happy- well, F*** HIM!!!” How much money was supposedly spent on that and related travesties? You probably forgot about the Wheel of Time. How about She Hulk… "Let’s start with a concept, a cult-tier comic book character known for sexy banter and breaking the fourth wall. We can throw in Daredevil!” “That actually sounds really promising. But how will we . . ?” “Ruin it? Easy, we just make her Captain Marvel and use the fourth wall breaking to roast the audience for being dumb enough to watch. And Daredevil, well, we’ve got plans for him…” “But people really like Daredevil, can we really destroy him that quick?” “If we don’t get him in She-Hulk, we’ll finish him off in this thing we’ve got coming up called Echo. He and Kingpin will get beaten up by a pudgy deaf woman with one leg and resting squaw face. There’s no coming back from that.” So clearly they have no intention to earn money and are in fact doing everything they possibly can to lose as much as possible as quickly as they can. Thus demonstrated, what is happening to the actual cash? While I do not have what most skeptics would regard as “evidence,” I do have plenty of hearsay and conjecture, which are kinds of evidence. Yes, this is where I got it. Consider the wildfires that California has been experiencing of late. Skeptics would chalk them up to endemic mismanagement on the part of a sclerotic and incompetent bureaucracy, which refuses to allow controlled burns due to the environmental harm those fires would cause, which inevitably leads to worse fires shortly thereafter. Perhaps… But what if instead movie studios are trucking pallets of cash into the Sierra Nevadas and igniting them under the cover of natural disasters? Sure, no one has seen this happening, but significantly, no one has denied seeing it happening. I took the trouble to call the California Department of Forest Management and asked the person who answered if the forest fires over the last few years were caused by Marvel burning hundreds of millions of dollars in cash. She hung up on me! If that doesn’t speak volumes, I don’t know what does. But why would studios, investors, etc., go along with a scheme that impoverishes them? There are measures of wealth other than dollars and cents. Remember that Big Media and Big Finance are allied with the Democrat Party and the managerial system more generally. Staying in their good graces is a prize in itself. Bob Iger at Disney wants to be president one day, and he can’t do so if people blame his party for $20 per pack hot dogs. Like the Kingpin, he plays the long game. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio need Josh Bernthal’s agent. Does it work? Every media outlet assures us that inflation is now under control and the economy is awesome now. The only challenge remaining is convincing people to ignore everything they experience in their daily lives. And remember, this is running parallel with Operation Slavstermination, the plan to save Ukraine by killing all of its young male inhabitants, which mostly involves pretending to buy weapons that the media pretends are making it to the front, other than once when someone didn’t get the memo. So, yes, yes it is working. If you doubt me, remember, I didn’t believe it at first either. Then I wrote most of it while suffering from a 101 degree fever, but when I came down, I realized that it still made sense! So much like the Ancient Persians, who made collective decisions while sober and then got drunk to test if they still thought it was a good idea, this passes the sane/ not-so-sane test. Call Mark Dice and get him on this if you haven’t already. But I know you have. Thank you for reading The Library of Celaeno. This post is public so feel free to share it. Share The Library of Celaeno The Library of Celaeno is a reader-supported publication. The Library of Celaeno. ... @ladyred👑 more_horiz @ladyred verified_user Smdh We need help from this craziness.