August 24, 2020

Full Committee Hearing Video "Protecting the Timely Delivery of Mail, Medicine, & Mail-in Ballots"

Gym 'The Paedo Whisperer' Jordan is just fully off the rails batshit crazy and viscous

August 24, 2020

Iconic bread factory gutted in devastating fire in northern Sweden

Polarbröd (our favourite everyday bread here)

The factory of one of Sweden's most well-known bread producers burned to the ground in the early hours of Monday.

https://www.thelocal.se/20200824/iconic-bread-factory-gutted-in-devastating-fire-in-northern-sweden



Residents in Älvsbyn west of Luleå in northern Sweden were told to stay indoors and close doors, windows and ventilation due to a risk of poisonous gas rising from the burned-out factory. "There's a cooling system (in the factory) that runs on ammonia gas, it's a poisonous gas which is harmful to breathe," Daniel Granberg, fire and rescue control room officer, told the TT news agency.



Firefighters were called to the blaze at the Polarbröd factory at around 11.30pm on Sunday and spent the night fighting the flames. The flames had more or less been extinguished by Monday morning and no one was injured, but the factory was completely destroyed in the inferno.



The fire is said to have started on a conveyor belt, after a lump of bread caught fire in an oven. "We tried to put it out by hand but it was impossible. Eventually it wasn't possible to stay, so all we could do was go outside and wait for the fire services," an employee told the NSD newspaper. All roads to Älvsbyn were closed on Monday morning to all but emergency transports, and trains between Jörn and Boden were halted. Schools were closed, and the municipality called to a crisis meeting.

August 24, 2020

A 'CATALYTIC MOMENT' for ART AND CULTURE

In murals, theater, photography and music, the Chicano Moratorium influenced art of its time and our time too.



https://www.latimes.com/projects/chicano-moratorium/chicano-moratorium-catalytic-moment-la-art/







“First Supper (After A Major Riot),” 1974. (Harry Gamboa Jr.)

snip

August 21, 2020

I Lost My Wife to a Cult

Christian fundamentalists turned Nathan's wife into a haunted stranger. Now he's fighting to protect others from a similar fate.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3azyav/i-lost-my-wife-to-a-cult



"I will kill when instructed. I am Satan's little whore,” reads a diary note dated June 6, 2009—five months and two days since Nathan’s wife Kylie borrowed the family station wagon, drove to Bible study and never returned. He can see that it is her handwriting: a familiar, neat scrawl, like a lot of the confessional letters that came into his possession 12 months after his presumed soulmate walked out on him and his son. “If I disobey I die,” reads another. "I am a bad girl and I deserve this… I'm ugly, I am nothing. I only matter to the cult."

Nathan remembers the afternoon vividly. Kylie, who had struck up a friendship with a small group of fellow Christians in the lower Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, was preparing to head off to one of her increasingly regular women’s Bible study sessions. He was happy for her. Having suffered several brief but severe bouts of postnatal depression following the birth of their then six-year-old son, Liam, it was a relief to see her socialising with what appeared to be a generous and like-minded group of people. She said she’d be home for dinner.

Other notes in Nathan’s collection are written in a hand he doesn’t recognise—most likely scribbled down by various members of the group, he suggests, or possibly one of Kylie’s multiple personalities, of which there are now allegedly hundreds. Some of the missives appear to have been jotted down during the “counselling sessions” that started taking place at the meetups in the weeks leading up to Kylie's disappearance. Many look as if they’ve been scribbled down by a child—an infantile version of Kylie’s handwriting—and describe hyperviolent scenes of torture and abuse: dogs hanging from trees; babies being decapitated; men having their tongues cut out and their mouths stapled shut and their eyes burned out with flaming sticks.

All of these letters were passed on to Nathan 10 years ago by another man, Wayne, who lost his wife to the same group. “These were lying about the house before my wife left, and I collected them,” Wayne told him at the time. “I can't believe it, but they kept notes on everything.” The notes Wayne gathered read like dispatches from another realm: a world of angels and demons and Christian mythology, all allegedly operating right under Nathan’s nose, in the leafy suburbs of the lower Mountains. They are a case history of a woman who fell prey to a fanatical religious sect, and a rare window into how good people get sucked into bad cults. More than that, they are handwritten testimony to a series of events so surreal that, for years, Nathan’s constant refrain was “this is the kind of thing that happens to other people, or in movies, or on television”. He’s long since come to terms with the fact that it was real, and it happened to him.

snip




now, up the scale to millions of technologically, scientifically brainwashed dupes, many of them with ultra racist, misogynist, violent tendencies, embedded in a self-reinforcing negative feedback loop, and, as a collective, armed with tens of millions of firearms

and you get

August 20, 2020

"I know a predator when I see one."

August 20, 2020

oh the humanity!

August 19, 2020

Anonymouse strikes again.

Ricotta Records: Tiny record store by Anonymouse pops up in Sweden

The artists' collective has unveiled its latest miniature installation

https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/art/ricotta-records-tiny-record-store-by-anonymouse-pops-up-in-sweden-1.1059889



An art installation made by the collective Anonymouse is seen in Nygatan street in Lund, Sweden on August 5, 2020. AFP



The incognito Swedish artists' collective is known for building mouse-themed miniatures and displaying them along the walls of public streets. Their latest work is a mini record store called Ricotta Records on Nygatan Street in Lund, Sweden. Destiny's Cheese and Minor Enemy are some of the records on view from the store window, while an Instagram upload offers a closer look at the posters that line the walls inside, depicting artists such as Dolly Parsley, Rats Against the Machine and Johnny Cashew.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDg4XqoHqAR/?utm_source=ig_embed

“Hello music lovers! We continue our stay in Lund by opening a record store. Swing by and listen to some sweet jazz, pre-order Lady Gouda's latest or buy yourself a mini disc,” Anonymouse added on Instagram.

“We would also like to thank the municipality of Lund for inviting us and encouraging really small business owners.”

In July, Anonymouse returned to work after a six-month absence with a tiny Cicada Pharmacy in the city.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CC6sVIYn0kZ/?utm_source=ig_embed

“Anonymouse is doing a bit of staycation and checking out the neighbouring mousipality, we stumbled over the classic pharmacy 'the cicada'," an Instagram post unveiling the work added. "Swing by ... but remember to keep a tail's length between you!”

The works of Anonymouse first appeared in 2016 in the Swedish city of Malmo, with a tiny French shop and equally small Italian restaurant next to it. Both were filled with mouse-related themes including a menu of cheese and crackers and posters outside advertising local rodent-related events, such as a horror film called Night of the Were-rat. Other projects in the past include an amusement park at Sodra Forstadsgatan and two shops and a gas station in Boras.















Tjoffsans Tivoli (Amousement park) in Malmö. Courtesy Anonymouse MMX



A mini restaurant and deli shop for mice is seen in central Malmo, Sweden, on December 9, 2016. AFP





A miniature bookshop by Anonymouse. Courtesy Anonymouse MMX





A detailed view of the miniature pharmacy by Anonymouse. Courtesy Anonymouse MMX

August 19, 2020

Don't normally do this, but damn, I'm sick of post-Mo Joe MSNBC pushing the 'Dems in disarray' tosh

The oh-so-tiresome 'radical, wild-eyed far lefties versus milquetoast, uninspiring centrists' angst-ridden dialectical pablum. It is straight up RW framing. FUCK them!

August 19, 2020

The Women Making Conspiracy Theories Beautiful

How the domestic aesthetics of Instagram repackage QAnon for the masses

This article is part of “Shadowland,” a project about conspiracy thinking in America.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/08/how-instagram-aesthetics-repackage-qanon/615364/



A blush-colored square filled with the all-caps advice show up every day for something you believe in belongs to one of the least remarkable categories of Instagram content: visually unchallenging, impossible to disagree with, pink. Even if people do not exactly know how to show up every day for something they believe in—particularly during a pandemic—the basic spirit of the message is blandly uplifting for a millisecond during a bleary-eyed morning scroll through the feed: Today, I will, in some way, demonstrate that I believe in something, somehow! Hardly anything about it would dissuade the casual follower from double-tapping her appreciation before moving on. But this particular image, posted in March by the Utah-based fashion, beauty, and parenting influencer Jalynn Schroeder to more than 50,000 followers, is accompanied by a series of hashtags that includes the initialism WWG1WGA—“Where we go one, we go all”—a motto used by adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory. QAnon is flexible and convoluted, but generally posits that President Donald Trump is locked in a battle with the “deep state,” and is attempting to bring down a ring of pedophiles and child traffickers that counts various high-profile politicians and celebrities as co-conspirators. Most famously, it’s the evolution of Pizzagate, the conspiracy theory that motivated a man to storm into a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant with an AR-15 in December 2016, bent on exposing a supposed pedophilia ring in its basement, which did not exist.

When Schroeder’s feed nods to Q, it does so subtly, mostly in her stories and captions. On the grid, she posts photos of her manicures, her graphic tees, her favorite gummy vitamins, and the mommy-and-me sundresses she and her young daughter wear. She is also candid about mental health and the effects that giving birth can have on the body; recently, her followers have watched her prepare for and undergo surgery to correct an abdominal separation. Schroeder initially responded to a request for an interview, but did not respond to further emails about scheduling it. I learned about her conversion to the QAnon cause via a 14-minute video she posted in March. It begins with the Maya Angelou quote “We are only as blind as we want to be,” written in funky orange and teal fonts. Wearing her curly purple hair in a cheetah-print headband, eyes made wider with electric-blue makeup, she then recounts watching an Instagram video sent to her by a friend, which she initially dismissed as “crazy”—but something was bothering her, and as the weeks went on, she decided to start her own research into QAnon and the global child-trafficking ring it seeks to expose. “I’m a mama of two, I have a lot of mamas following me, and this stuff has been very, very, very hard for me to digest,” she says. But she’s grateful she’s been led to the truth. “I’ve never felt more peace.”

The comments on this video are strikingly similar to those that appear on her regular posts: “So true,” with three heart emoji; “Proud of you for using your platform,” with three sets of clapping hands. In the caption, she links to a tutorial for mimicking her makeup. In June, my colleague Adrienne LaFrance published a cover story on the rise of QAnon, writing that it had “made its way onto every major social and commercial platform and any number of fringe sites.” Instagram, famous for aspiration and tranquil luxury, has become a home for paranoid thinking just like everywhere else online: Influencers are mixing virulent distrust of the media and religious gratitude toward QAnon with sponsored posts for cool-girl clothing brands and beauty products. Many seem to be drawn in at first by concerns about child trafficking—a real and fairly noncontroversial problem that looks much different in practice than in the Q imagination, which has weaponized it. In July, a wild claim—that the furniture-retail site Wayfair was serving as a middleman for the child-trafficking ring that captivates QAnon devotees—took off, in particular among Instagram influencers whose accounts trade in the domestic and in the joys of consumer culture.

The anonymous Instagram account @little.miss.patriot shared its first post on June 29—about the supposed references to QAnon in the music video for Justin Bieber’s song “Yummy”—and went from 50,000 followers in early July to 266,000 by the time of this writing. Each of the posts from the self-proclaimed “truth seeker” and “digital soldier” uses a pastel-and-mustard color palette drawn from the past five years of Millennial-oriented direct-to-consumer beauty-brand marketing, sometimes accented with glitter or watercolor flourishes. The text on these backgrounds unfurls complicated conspiracy theories about Chrissy Teigen, Tom Hanks, Taylor Swift, and John F. Kennedy. “The deep state is evil and Satanic,” read white letters on soft pink and teal. “They are the ones controlling the media. it involves celebrities, too. the deep state is responsible for the trafficking of children & putting them into sex slavery. they torture these children & use their blood for a drug they all feast on, called adrenochrome. LOOK IT UP IF YOU DON’T KNOW.” In the comments, an influencer who designs children’s birthday parties shouts, “AMEN SIS.” Her grid is full of peach-tinted family photos and remodeled bedrooms, and Story Highlights are labeled “pregnancy,” “play,” “design,” “playroom,” and then “woke”—pink slides dotted with stars, detailing the way the media have ignored a “global elite pedophile ring” in favor of covering the pandemic. Instagram has long been a place where what you see might be smoke and mirrors—a home for the best and most beautiful version of everyday life, put on display for consumption and then expensive imitation. What is startling about QAnon’s new presence there is the way it slips in: easily, and with little visible pushback from the influencers’ communities or from the platform that hosts them. We’re used to conspiracy theories appearing on the internet’s strange and ugly spaces, laid out with blurry photos and eyesore annotations. But those visual cues are missing this time. There’s no warning—just a warm, glamorous facade, and then the rabbit hole.



snip

August 19, 2020

Two Conventions, Two Americas, And The Beginning Of A New War

When Trump goes, everyone who resonated with one of the grim aspects of his psyche will be looking for a new demagogue to fawn over.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/two-conventions-two-americas-and



Watching the opening night of the Democratic Convention last night was a reminder of what America could be. Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders and John Kasich delivered powerful speeches appealing to common decency, sanity, and compassion. Biden spoke to a multi-ethnic, diverse group of Americans who have experienced tremendous suffering in recent times and offered empathy and promises to address their pain. While slightly bizarre watching a political convention conducted virtually, what we saw revealed an America that still exists — a stark contrast to the hateful place Donald Trump has created over the past three and a half years. We don’t know much about what the Republican Convention will look like next week, but given the couple who brandished guns at a Black Lives Matter protest in St. Louis have been invited to “appear on behalf of the president,” one can assume a horror show of gargantuan proportions. The conventions of each respective party reflects the dynamics of modern day America: a nation at war with itself at a terrifying crossroad in history. There is still hope that this terrible mess can be turned around, that the nation is capable of healing and addressing the systemic issues that created this monstrous political movement. The Democratic Convention is an attempt to remind Americans of this, and the Republican Convention will be an attempt to drag the country deeper into anger and dysfunction. But regardless of who wins in November, one thing is abundantly clear. There is a deep, deep rot in America that will not disappear when (and if) Trump leaves office.

Trump could still get elected

As it stands today, Donald Trump is unlikely to get re-elected in November. He is too far behind in too many swing states, the economy is teetering on the edge of catastrophe, and the Coronavirus pandemic is set to get much, much worse as we move towards November. That being said, the election is still far, far too close for liberals’ (and sane conservatives’) liking. Trump can still eke out a victory in the Electoral College given his popularity in swing states and loyal support in other red states. Even if he loses, the difference will likely be under 5/6 million votes (Hillary Clinton beat Trump by 2.87 million votes in 2016). What does this say about the current state of America? Nothin good. The fact that Trump is competitive at all in this election is a testament to the festering hatred in American society and the corrupt, dysfunctional political system that has been brutally exposed by Trump’s presidency and the pandemic. Trump is the symptom of this corruption, not the cause, and America will still have to contend with the deep fractures in its society after he leaves office. The Red Hats will still be here, the repellent right wing media complex that peddles hate and disinformation to angry white Americans will still have its business model, and corporations will still largely control the government for their own rapacious purposes. In a sane, compassionate society, Donald Trump could never get into office. But America is not a sane, compassionate society and with Trump gone, we can fully expect the raging culture wars to continue unabated.

You can still blame Trump. Partially.

None of this should be seen as an excuse for Trump’s presidency and the catastrophic damage he has caused. Under different leadership, the Coronavirus pandemic could have been an incredible catalyst for cooperation, compassion, and systemic change in America. Under Trump and his gang of shameless opportunists and criminals, the country has been ripped to pieces. Instead of urging Americans to care for one another by social distancing and wearing masks, Trump has encouraged threats of violence against state Governors, turned not wearing a mask into a new, darker chapter of the country’s culture wars, and urged the public to disregard advice from scientists and medical professionals. At every step of the way, Trump has sought to sow division and hatred at a time when the country least needed it. After the brutal murder of George Floyd, Trump then used the country’s painful racial history to solidify support from his racist bed by ordering more violence against protesting communities. There is no way out of this cesspool of hatred and division with Trump in office. With Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, there is a chance to repair some of the damage and set a new course for the country. But there is a limit to what they can achieve. As President Obama found out when he took over from George W. Bush, America has never fully come to terms with its violent, racist history, and it continues to re-live the cultural and racial wars from its past.

Trump supporters are a reflection of him

Author and psychotherapist Jeff Brown wrote recently that “we shouldn’t get too excited when he [Trump] loses in November”. Why? Because Trump is a reflection of those who voted for him, and they will still be here when he’s gone. He writes:



And on, and on, and on. When Trump goes, everyone who resonated with one of the grim aspects of his psyche will be looking for a replacement. If they cannot find one, the right wing media will continue throwing them red meat, feeding their insecurities and fears until someone else comes along who represents their psychopathological dysfunctions. Trump may just be a preview of what it to come next — a potentially far more dangerous, more damaged demagogue who would take what Trump started and end democracy in America for good. Democracy and the rule of law are collective ideas we all buy into. They are not laws of physics. They can be dismantled if enough people stop believing in them, and Trump has shown unequivocally that enough Americans are willing to submit to much, much darker ideologies.

Win the battle, but prepare for war

We have survived almost four years of total insanity because of Trump’s gross incompetence. Had he been more disciplined and more cunning, there would likely be no election in November. Trump is too lazy and too childish to plan more than a few days ahead, and that has allowed the system of checks and balances in America to retain somewhat intact. A skilled operator could take the weaknesses in the system that Trump has exposed and manipulate in a far more effective way. This is the scenario Democrats must prepare for when Trump leaves office, and they must do everything in their power to eradicate the conditions that allowed the current president to rise to power. No one should expect the GOP to have a moment of reckoning or great moral awakening after Trump gets voted out — there are too few good characters left in the party. If you want evidence of this, tune into the GOP Convention next week. Republican voters will not be looking for a Larry Hogan or John Kasich for rehabilitation and a new, kinder conservatism when Trump is gone. They will be looking for another nihilistic monster to terrorize minorities and humiliate liberals. In the short term, all efforts must be made to destroy this movement. Everyone complicit in Trump’s presidency must face public investigation and potential prison time for the crimes they have committed while in office. Government agencies should be razed of Trump appointees and their records scrutinized in microscopic detail. Every act of corruption must be made public. Americans must be made painfully aware of what transpired under Trump’s presidency so that they might have a chance of rebuilding what has been destroyed.

After that, the real war for the nation’s soul begins.