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geek-patient-zero · 5 years

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Part 1, Chapter 5

Or: Flavia Becomes an Actual Character

Blood War: Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy Volume 1

Back in St. Louis, Dire McCann’s back in his office by 3 AM.

It had been a long, brutal evening. One filled with more surprises than he imagined possible. Both during the reign of the Red Death... and after.

As he kicks back in his armchair, feet on his desk, the story immediately flashes back to the Club Diabolique. McCann had spent an hour or so in a relatable work predicament: being trapped in a room with your boss while he’s having a temper tantrum.

The room cleared of his brood, Vargoss had spent more than an hour raging to McCann about his progeny’s cowardice. The detective and the Dark Angels had been the only ones who had attempted to save the Prince from the Final Death. Vargoss made it quite clear that in nights to come, the regulars of the Club would pay for their weakness.

“I’m charging everyone extra for drinks! And- And you know what? No more casual Fridays! You come here dressed to the nines or you stay downstairs with the pale human children! Oh, and those jazz men! They didn’t help me either! No more jazz for the rest of the year! Until then it’s 50′s high school prom music, played by the whitest people I can find!”

“But sir, what will you listen to?”

“I’m the Prince of St. Louis, Dire McCann! I obviously have a Walkman.”

Although the Prince didn’t address the issue, there was no question that the Red Death’s attack had frightened him badly. Vargoss had exerted the full power of his will against the monster, without success. The vampire knew he had escaped the Final Death by luck alone. And there was no certainty that the Red Death would not return.

Once the old man finally tuckers himself out, he commands McCann to come back next evening and bids him goodnight, retreating through a secret passage to his inner sanctum in the subbasement.

McCann suspected the vampire planned phoning the other Ventrue elders throughout the United States to warn them of the attack.

Either that or take a post-rage nap.

His exit left McCann alone with Flavia.

“Sir, I’m not good with sexy grieving women. Sir, Prince Vargoss, don’t leave me alone with- Ah shit...”

The other vampires and ghouls in the Club were already long gone by this point.

Tonight, none of them evidenced any desire to wear the Prince’s crown. The Red Death served as a grim reminder of the perils of leadership.

But then maybe there was another reason none of them tried to save Vargoss... Nah, they were just terrified. That’s the thing about this setting. Characters are always plotting against you and each other and having ulterior motives so during those rare moments where someone’s being sincere it’s still easy to be paranoid. Most of the time, you’d be right to be so.

Back to poor Flavia. The whole time during what McCann’s POV describes as “Vargoss’ tiresome outburst” she sat on the floor, holding the burnt remains of her sister’s jumpsuit, unmoving, devastated. McCann, the big softie, feels compelled to say something. They’ve never really communicated before, beyond her and her sister making suggestive facial expressions at him and him trying to ignore them, so he goes with a safe Klingon approach.

“She died fighting,” he declared softly, stepping within a few feet of Flavia. Sympathy was fine, but not stupidity. If the Dark Angel took offense at his words, the detective wanted enough room to defend himself. “It was an honorable death.”

“She died horribly, in pain and screaming, and would have pissed herself if that were a thing vampires could still do, but she died the right way according to your strange and self-destructive warrior culture. W-What are you doi-GAAAAAAH!”

In reality, he’d said just the right thing. She looks at him, her cheeks stained crimson, the narration reminding us that vampires cry blood instead of tears, and speaks to him for the first time ever.

“Your concern for my feelings is appreciated, McCann,” she said, in a mellow, low voice, with a surprising trace of a British accent. [...] She cast a quick glance in the direction of the secret stairs leading to Vargoss’ hideaway. “Sympathy is often in short supply among the Kindred.”

There’s another employer getting a bad Glassdoor review.

“The Prince always lavishly praised the services provided by you and your sister,” said the detective, nervously. The last thing he wanted to do was stir up trouble between Vargoss and the remaining Dark Angel. “He treated you with respect.”

“He even showed you respect when he left the room without looking at you. They say that a real man shows his emotions with his back. I believe that’s a Japanese saying. Maybe Korean? Someone somewhere in the world says that... Please don’t kill our boss.”

Then the narration gets pervy for a paragraph.

In a smooth, catlike motion, Flavia rose to her feet. She was, without question, one of the most beautiful women McCann had ever seen.

Down boy. There’s a time and a place.

She had platinum blonde hair, high cheekbones, and wide, sensuous lips.

I’m aware. Those exact features were described back in Chapter One.

Her white leather jumpsuit accented her full breasts, narrow waist, and long, long legs.

Yeah yeah, I get it, she’s hella fine.

Sex might no longer hold any pleasure for the Dark Angel, but her body defined seduction.

Oh for God’s sake, she was just kneeling in her sister ashes! She’s been crying for the past hour and she still hasn’t wiped the bloody tears off her face! Now’s not an appropriate time!

Flavia laughed bitterly. “Respect? Vargoss never truly cared about us. We were his servants. He enjoyed bragging about our skills because it reflected onto himself.”

She smiled sardonically at the detective. “You understand, don’t you, McCann. He does the same with you.”

Without thinking, McCann nodded in agreement. The Prince liked showing off. And he treated his associates as prized possessions to be displayed whenever possible.

Pros for Alexander Vargoss:

Not above entering dirty alleyways when the situation calls for it

Huge balls (metaphorical)

Confidence in his employees’ abilities

Owns a sweet nightclub

Casual Fridays

Cons:

Brags about how he’ll outlive you

Old man opinions about rock music

Likes Stalin

Hour long rants

Unsympathetic toward his employees’ personal problems

Treats his employees like possessions

Tacky fashion sense

As fun as talking shit about the boss is, Flavia without warning changes the subject to her backstory. She and her sister were born Sarah and Eleanor James (she doesn’t say which was which, but next book we're told she's Sarah) in 19th century England. They were traveling around Europe for their fifteenth birthday when a Kindred kidnapped them.

“Our blonde good looks, lightning-fast reactions, and notorious taste for cruel delights caught the attention of a traveling Assamite assassin. He arranged our abduction and had us brought to Alamut.”

I don’t know what to focus on here: that only one of those qualities has anything to do with being an assassin, that the two sexual ones are being used to describe fifteen-year-olds, or how racially charged this whole scenario is with the presumably Middle Eastern man kidnapping two white girls.

“A taste for cruel delights?” repeated McCann.

“What, did you torture small animals to death or something?”

“Did we- No!”

“Oh I know. You’d befriend other rich girls, than systematically ruined their lives by spreading rumors and framing them for major scandals.”

“No! Why are you assuming these horrible things about us!?”

“You’d make your guards beat up random peasants-”

“It’s a sex thing, you wanker!”

“Fawn and I dallied in what now has become commonly known as bondage and S&M,” said Flavia, chuckling. Her long tongue circled her wide lips. “As sisters, we often shared our lovers. Even after we were embraced.”

“...Not at the same time, right?”

“What do you me- Ew! No! Separately!”

“‘Cause I know a lot of men have twin fantasies, but when you really think about it...”

“Well don’t, because that’s not what happened!”

...Wait, what was that about having lovers after they were embraced? I thought Kindred had no interest in sex.

“Despite what you think, McCann, vampires can still enjoy sex. Especially if the stimulation is mental as well as physical.”

The detective took a step back. He definitely did not like the Dark Angel’s tone of voice. Or the hint of an implied invitation.

Hey, you’re the one who wanted clarification on “cruel delights.” Ask a horny question, get a horny answer, Dire.

At Alamut, the twins trained for ten years at a mountain fortress, presumably Alamut Castle. I like to think that after executing the weird pedophile that kidnapped them, the Assamite elders figured “Ah screw it, these girls are already here, let’s teach them to fight.”

“The Assamite elders marveled at our skills. We fought well separately. However, as a team, we were unmatched. It was there that we earned the title The Dark Angels.”

“Unlike some people, we actually earned our nicknames instead of giving ourselves one.”

“For the last time, my name really is Dire.”

They were Embraced at age twenty-five and served the clan for over a century. They worked for many masters all over the world and stayed together the whole time.

“Thirty years ago, we performed several minor executions for Vargoss. Impressed, I suspect, more by our appearance than our skills, he agreed to a long-term contract with the Assamite elders. In three decades, we never failed in our duties to our lord. Until tonight.”

“And that one incident with the True Mime, but that doesn’t count. You can’t kill a True Mime.”

“I doubt stopping the Red Death constitutes a failure on your part,” replied McCann. “I don’t think a Kindred in existence could have dealt with that monster.”

Flavia nodded. “Perhaps. I hope to meet the Red Death for a second encounter.” She paused, her expression turning grim. “Fawn’s Death will be avenged. I swear it.”

Sensing that Flavia’s done with her backstory dump, McCann does his private eye thing and, playing dumb, asks her if she knew what discipline the Red Death was using.

“I’ve never heard of a Kindred who could control fire.”

“Nor I,” said Flavia. “I suspect he travels on the Path of Evil Revelation.”

Paths of Enlightenment are what the Sabbat and other not-very-nice vampires use to control their Beast. If they stuck to the Humanity scale like the Camarilla do, then all their mass murder and mustache-twirling villainy would degenerate them into barely sentient blood-crazed monsters in no time. Instead they use Paths, many of whose morality could be, at best, described as “alien”, and at worst, “It is Right and Good to wear a cloak made from the hide of virgins, for it is in the nature of vampires to do so.”

I suspect a Path follower would be the source of the most obnoxious “We are The Dead, we are Monsters, we are Fueled by Blood and must Accept it” speeches one could imagine in the World of Darkness.

The Path of Evil Revelations is an actual thing in the lore. If you don’t want to click the link, the story sums it up:

The Path of Evil Revelation was a secret discipline practiced by many members of the Sabbat. It taught that evil was good and that vampires were the agents of corruption. Followers of the path routinely dealt with demonic forces.

Though it’s less “dealt with demonic forces” and more “pledge servitude to the Lords of Hell.” To sum it up even more: You’re Evil, Obey Demons.

McCann then says that he once heard of a forbidden rite called the Body of Fire (presumably from a friend of a friend, right McCann?) and asks if she’d ever heard of it. She hasn’t, but- Oh goddamn it, more things I have to define. She says she only knows of Fires of Inferno, which she says is one of the “Paths of Dark Thaumaturgy” practiced by the Corrupters (a name for followers of the PoER).

Despite Flavia using the word “Path”, Dark Thaumatergy isn’t a Path of Enlightenment. It’s blood magic learned from demons, unlike regular Thaumatergy, which the Tremere learned by doing mad scientist shit to other vampires. Honestly, origin-wise, I’m not convinced Dark Thaumatergy is the eviler of the two.

Fires of (the) Inferno is the Dark Thaumatergy version of regular Thaumatergy’s Lure of Fire, which allows a vampire to summon “unnatural fire” thought to be from Hell itself. Fires of the Inferno is green, definitely from Hell, and according to the wiki “has only one use: destruction,” meaning you shouldn’t make a campfire using it.

What we get from this is that while some vampires can summon a magic otherworldly fire, they can’t control it and use it as some kind of death aura like the Red Death can. And, y’know, considering that the guy’s not calling himself the Green Death, he likely isn’t using Fires of the Inferno itself. Whatever the case, Flavia says she intends to find out more.

She stepped closer to McCann. “You are an unusual human,” she declared. “Even for a mage, you are aware of too many of the darkest secrets of the Children of Caine.”

Uh oh! The Master Schemer isn’t as good at playing dumb as he thought!

Without warning, Flavia’s right hand lashed out at McCann, second and third fingers stiff and aimed directly at his eyes.

Ah yes, the Moe Howard Strike.

Luckily, our would-be Curly saves himself from a humiliating death by grabbing her wrist using super fast reflexes equal to her own. Wait, using...

Dire McCann, you dumbass.

Flavia laughed, a wild, untamed sound. “No ordinary man could move that swiftly, McCann. Nor stop me from making contact.”

McCann fell for the old “attack the hero in a way that reveals their powers” trick. He tries to backpedal by being all, “Well yeah, I’m not ordinary, I’m a mage!” while mentally cursing himself and realizing that Flavia’s more cunning than he assumed. Flavia’s not having any of his excuses. She got him.

Flavia shook her head, grinning. “No Kine could have halted that lunge. Nor any mage. Don’t worry. I won’t betray you to Vargoss. He pays for my fighting skills, not my thoughts.”

“What are you babbling about?” asked McCann, fearing the worst.

“The hell’s going on? The fanservice bodyguard isn’t suppose to be smart!”

The narration’s been coy so far about what exactly McCann really is. Now, Flavia tells him her theory.

“There are rumors,” said Flavia, “of certain fourth-generation Kindred with incredible powers of domination. They are called Masqueraders. Their minds are so strong that while they lie in torpor, they can reach out and overwhelm a mortal’s personality. They literally possess their victim, body and soul. In this manner, these Methuselahs again experience true life. Puppet masters, they masquerade in mortal form--eating, drinking, sleeping, making love. For safety, they endow their marionette with some of their powers. Enough perhaps for the person to claim to be a ghoul—or a mage.”

“So no, your name really isn’t fucking ‘Dire’.”

...Huh. That’s a doozy. Not what I would guessed, and not a concept I’ve seen in recent V:TM media.

McCann laughed, trying to appear amused. “What utter nonsense.”

Flavia smiled. “Protest all you wish, Dire McCann,” she said. “If you didn’t, I might be worried.”

Then, because this is a nerd book written by a guy, she french kisses him.

Slowly, seductively, she leaned forward and pressed cold lips to his. Her tongue, a sliver of ice, darted for an instant into his mouth.

Despite her movements being deliberately slower than her attempted eye poke, and her now being well into murder-you-with-my-hands range, something tells me McCann didn’t try very hard to avoid her kiss here.

Also, McCann’s 6′4. Either she’s also really tall or she’s standing on the pile of ashes that were once Fawn to reach his lips.

“I would be very grateful for the patronage of a Methuselah.” Her lush body pressed against him, her taut nipples hard against his chest. “Extremely grateful.”

Hang on. He can feel her nipples through a leather jumpsuit and his own clothes? Can vampire nipples even get hard? Is it a discipline?

McCann forced himself to remain quiet. He had said too much already.

Since McCann’s shutting the fuck up for his own good, Flavia decides now’s the time to say goodnight. She says that she has to go see Vargoss before he notices she’s not around and gets pissed at that too.

“Do not expect me to address you aloud unless we are alone.” She chuckled. “Vargoss prefers his bodyguards never speak. He enjoys the air of mystery it creates.”

“Although now that I think about it, since he hired us mainly for our looks and doesn’t want us to speak, I’m starting to think he’s just a pig.”

With that, the flashback ends and we’re back in McCann’s office. You forgot that most of this chapter’s technically a flashback, didn’t you?

McCann, sitting behind the desk in his office an hour later, furiously masturbated banged his head against it repeatedly yelling “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” vowed never to show sympathy to anyone ever again sighed heavily. The detective folded his arms across his chest. For all her grief, the Dark Angel had not stayed in mourning very long. He trusted Flavia not to reveal her suspicions to the Prince for as long as it suited her purposes, and not a second more. If not handles properly, the Dark Angel could prove to be as dangerous to him as the Red Death.

McCann’s POV doesn’t out and out say that Flavia’s right, but it doesn’t deny it either.

McCann finally shakes the Flavia incident out of his head and gets to work on finding out more about the Red Death, starting by making some calls. We also get this gem:

A careful man reacted immediately to any threat. And McCann liked to think of himself as very wise.

...No comment.

McCann moves some money around and issues instructions, and when he’s done he’s got teams of researchers studying both the Path of Evil Revelations and whether there are any Nictuku that match the Red Death’s description. Not much is said about these researchers, but hopefully they’re vampires or ghouls, or backed by such, or else McCann’s committing a serious Masquerade breach.

He believes that the Nictuku rising and the Red Death’s arrival are connected, and he opens his desk drawer to get the letters he read back in Chapter 2.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand they’re gone. Someone broke into his office while he was away and stole his letters.

McCann cursed, steadily, in seven languages, including two that had not been spoken on Earth for over three thousand years, until he was out of breath. Angrily, he slammed a fist into the side of the desk. Wood splintered, delivering a small amount of satisfaction along with a strong recognition that he was acting foolishly.

Careful and wise? Maybe. Mature? Eh, that’s up in the air.

He swears not to make the mistake of underestimating his unknown adversary, or adversaries, again. Chapter 5 ends with one last reveal:

It was then that he noticed, resting on the edge of his desk, almost like a calling card, a bright green sequin.

You think Rachel Young carries a jar of those around, or does she just tear them off her dress?

#vampire the masquerade #vampire: the masquerade #vtm #vtmb #world of darkness #blood war

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stone-man-warrior · 3 years

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December 22, 2020: 3:37 pm:

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Thunderbird’s Episode 6: Day of Disaster

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youtube

This one is an extension of the previous plan devised to take over the Capitol Records Building from previous episode “Edge of Impact” explained here on this account yesterday.

The plan is portrayed at the beginning and throughout with coded ideas about use of a restroom, some coffee, a swallowed microphone transmitter, some water, some blockage, things that float, could make a mess, might get some on your hands... all presented with a rocket that breaks a bridge and a rescue effort, which in the real world, these small details in code were used as a means to take over Hollywood, at Capitol Records.

The plan includes that there is diversion/distraction, presented by Penelope and Parker blowing up a abandon research center, in reality could have been a traffic jam accident on the 405 Freeway, and/or other such places where Los Angeles area emergency and police (many of them were operatives at the time) would be busy nearby the Capitol Records Building at the time of the attack there. Those places where the distraction emergencies were done, then, became a sort of mobile command and resource center for use by those who actually went into the Capital Records Building. Terror operative police and equipment all would have been nearby, for use as nitrous gas fogging of the area, and for use as backup for the actual attack party, and for use as clean-up/OxCart services for hauling victims away.

The attack seems to consist of focus on top-floor executives, who were poisoned with something that will cause them to need to use a restroom fast. That was done by Brains, who is portraying a salesman who is at Capitol Records to sell some high tech recording equipment to them at Capitol, and has some new products from the manufacturer he works for, is the plan.

Brains, the salesman, has to only be there, sound as if he knows what he talking about, make some timing happen by putting some poison into the coffee of the executives, while selling whiz-bang tech, the result is another whiz-bang in the restroom. That’s all he needs to do.

The poison thins out the people at the top floor, they get spread out into various restrooms all suffering from a belly ache, as Brains is dealing with the purchasing agent at Capitol Records, and has the attention from the top executives because the tech he says he has is awesome tech. That is the timing component he needs to do. Once the executives are isolated, they can be taken by special operatives from the emergency staged nearby on the Freeway. Meanwhile, there is some hint of the introduction of some women to come to to Capitol Records Building to do nitrous gas fogging while also serving as powerful distractive measures at the attack zone.

The goal is the top of the Capitol Records Building.

Basically, that’s the plan.

Some women, and some poison to make the executives need to use a restroom, as small sales team goes there for a planned meeting for discussion about new, high tech recording gear to sell to Capitol Records. With support outside at a fake car wreck on the freeway, nearby, to assist in whatever way is necessary, and also to divert traffic away from the Capitol Records Building attack zone. Some girls show up, maybe a British Rock Band members are there to do recording work, and all of the people at Capitol Records would have been fully distracted, each in their own special way, while the executives are hauled away and replaced with impostors, or some other way to proceed after the executives were removed.

At the end of the Thunderbird’s rescue, the mission is a success, as the Capsule with the astronauts is hoisted away. Those are executives at Capitol Records Building being hauled away in a Oxcart.

Maybe next episode we find out what the plan is for proceeding after the executives at Capitol Records, are taken.

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Meanwhile, at Thunderbird Volcano Island Command Global Field Offices, operatives are struggling to make sure that Lyndon B. Johnson is re-elected for a second time, which would have given a 10 year term of office had that part worked. That would have provided maximum power duration at the place of maximum global power.

========================

Abstract thought:

Think of US Democracy. The nation is like a game sort of, there are no opponents, but there are many challenges that must be overcome as time progresses.

Think of The White House, as the place where the Democracy Challenges is dealt with as they present themselves, Congress is part of the White House for this thought, so the President is the player of the Democracy Game against Challenges.

now, think of a Chess Board. The White Team is the White House. The Black Team is the Challenges, not an opponent. Most of the pieces are on the board, the game has been progressing for awhile, all pieces are very strategically located, neither team has advantage at that moment on the Democracy Chess Board. Delicate Balance exists there.

With all of the parts in their places, some asshole playing Risk shows up. He has some Chess parts from broken games in his game closet, and paints a new King.., the asshole had a green vs blue weird chess set, so, he paints the green on White. He sneaks over to the Democracy game, steals the real White King, puts the painted green one turned white on the board where the real one was at.

now, the Democracy Game still looks exactly the same way it did when the delicate balance between Democracy and Challenges existed.

The asshole is not interested in Democracy. He plays Risk.

The whole object of maintaining balance changes instantly, the Challenges are not met, they are helped to advance towards the White House Green King Painted White. Everything in between is wiped off of the Democracy Chess Board of Balance.

They have a new name, new packaging, new playing board, new object, new rules, all new... by Ron Popeil... as seen on TV.

no more Hasbro.

no more Milton Bradley

no more Mattel

no more Aurora Slot Cars....

now, all of the individual black & white tile squares become evident that they always have been far more important than we previously had thought about. We realize that the Knight, Bishop, Rook, King, Queen, and all of the Pawns all needed a place to stand on in order to play the game in the first place. We only have been thinking about the moving parts, not the foundation on which they stand.

only new Green/White Chess is available after that.

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5:27 pm:

Some connection to the Thunderbird’s Day of Disaster:

See that when Grandma comes in to Father’s office, looking for something, it’s easy to see “Granny” from Beverly Hillbillies, which first aired in 1962, the year before Jacqueline Onassis shot John Kennedy on a live parade, which is why LBJ became US President, which is why Jacquie shot John.... (this keeps going for ever with another shooter that shot the shooter that John, who Jacquie shot, and onward into the Russian Mother of all Hoaxes)

The Beverly Hillbillies will be shown to be the executives of Movie Studios and Television Studios of Hollywood, who were somehow roped in to present TV programs and movie screenplays that actually contain the very instructions of how those people who decided to produce and air such productions, will be hijacked, killed, replaced, later on, at some point after the Christian terror army watches TV and goes to the movie theater to see what their instructions are to take out the Beverly Hillbillies.

Clampet = C Lamp Pet = Holy See Lamp Pets = Holy See TV Pets = Christian terror family cells watching TV and Movies to get marching orders.

So, the targets expressed in Thunderbird’s episodes, are Whales of Hollywood, executive producers of entertainment... I think the White House and US Government is thought of by British Leadership and Royals, as Producers of Entertainment, so, the congressional members and virtually all of the US Elected Officials are seen as Entertainers, because of the way democracy is done by Popular Vote, which makes the elected officials, technically, famous celebrities, same as TV and Movie stars, and are popular that way. That idea seems to be a globally applied idea, where there has always been very little differentiating qualities between entertainers, and politicians, in the eyes of the British.

(do you agree that the term “Star” is a bit over the top, pompous, self indulging to use a job title?)

“Thunderbird’s Grandma” is “Granny from Beverly Hillbillies”,at least in Day of Disaster episode. There could be more to see in that idea if you look there.

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This next connecting dot is more difficult to explain:

There is continuous theme presented in Thunderbird’s episodes, one that includes Chinese Artwork (ancient Chinese Secret... is not from China).

Look at the Psychiatrist Office Background information, there is a lot to see there, one thing is “Enormous Chinese Statue Man” there. “Big Statutory Power” is expressed with “Enormous Chinese Statue Man” at the psychiatrist office.

That is because he is not a psychiatrist, that is the Police Station, Rampart Division, the District Attorney’s Office perhaps. There, Brains (the salesman of Whiz-Bang Hi Tech [Hi-Fidelity Stereo]) is a witness to what went down at Capitol Records Building, is questioned by investigative persons associated with Rampart Division (the makers of the “fake Freeway crash distraction emergency road closure detour and Oxcart service” at the 405 San Diego Fwy out front of Capitol Records Building). The inclusion of “Ancient Chinese Secret” in the episodes seems to show associated Russian Mother Hoax of Lies Membership and is a place where “Airplane Vodka” (see explanation from last week here on this account, information about Airplane Vodka is difficult to obtain, so, learning is still in development about that) is available to club members (I think Airplane Vodka is almost the same as “Olive the Above”, is a snack at the bottom of the Queen‘s Martini, is a “Workable Bullshit Story”. So, “Airplane Vodka” from a place that serves “Ancient Chinese Secret” is also another lie that gets recorded into the “Master Russian Mother Hoax Library” [Google] for reference to it later on, so that the ongoing Bullshit can all be kept in a line that is easy to follow, with ingredients that are agreed upon by all “Russian Mother Hoax Club Members” [House of Lords].)

Ok, so Brains at the psychiatrist is really a witness, who is really an accomplice is at the District Attorney or equivalent, to help to come up with, or be advised of, the agreed upon “Bullshit Story” (refer to Twitter Verified Accounts for examples of “Bullshit Story”) so that everyone involved will have similar “Bullshit Story” that all matches, is the approved story after that, is mainstream.

The places in Thunderbird’s Episodes where “Enormous Chinese Statue Man“ can be seen, will show, after decode, where the “Fake Law Operatives of Global Terror” are at.

I am convinced that “Ancient Chinese Secret” has a large size representation at “Amp Guru”, and “Amp Guru” is the Music Industry as a whole.

now, back to Father’s Office. It’s determined after much argument that Father is the one who swallowed Grandma’s Microphone Transmitter. That’s when Female Variety Tin-Tin Kyrono comes in with “remedy” (Pepto-Bismal). Father says: “Ok... I’ll go quietly”. That part, is a place where you need a “Fast-Forward Button“ to push, in order to get from there, to Brains at the Psych Doctor. Father becomes Brains. That is part of “Ancient Chinese Secret”, characters are able to reincarnate in many mysterious ways because of “Ancient Chinese Secret Sauce” that exists in a “Fast Forward Button“ at “Amp Guru”.

Tin-Tin is some time Kyrano, and Kyrano is sometimes Tin-Tin, both are Chinese, used to work at Chinese Laundry, but were hijacked years ago, were tortured, are Unisex now, and they were forced to tell about “Ancient Chinese Secret” when the “One Hour Martinizing Crew” attacked them at Chinese Laundry.... it’s “One Hour Martinizing” now.

I think “One Hour Martinizing” is the same as Amp Guru, except is Movie Entertainment and TV Broadcast Network Version. So, that makes Kyrano the Movie Industry, and Tin-Tin is that hot chick at the Record Studio.

End complicated connectivity report: 6:42 pm.

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One more thing: 6:45 pm:

All of this explanation is because of 1964 British Invasion with Meet the Beatles.

Is more than a Rock Show.

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7:01 pm:

I have some speculation that fouls up much of my previous conclusions about Donald Trump, speculation based only on this Thunderbird’s Day of Disaster episode, and too much thinking about stuff I have no control over anyway, so, here you go:

Previous notion before ten minutes ago:

Donald Trump was pre-planned to work two terms, was found to be in secret alignment with German parts of Vatican, Pope Benedict remnants there, and in secret opposition with The Bergoglio, Pope Francis, and has been undermining the efforts of The Bergoglio (Google) Vatican.

now, maybe, it could be that he is #45 for a specific reason, a “One-Hit Wonder”, a “Hit Single”, there to do “Wolf Blitzer style Color Announcer at the Baseball Game, as the wire guided missal is directed into the window of the Baby Milk Factory by High Power Jet Airplane”. A “Surgical Strike, looks sloppy, is effective, comes with a B-Side, one that is not as popular as the Hit Single on the A side.

I have no further information to support that newly spotted possibility.

I am still at “Trump was spotted as a Benedict at the Vatican doing undermining work and was cut short of his second term”

However, there are some indicators of such a back up kind of plan idea present in the Day of Impact Thunderbird’s Episode, so, I wrote it down so I won’t forget.

This is a good place for a reminder that all of the Democrat Presidential Debates we saw presented in 2020 and 2019 were all presented in their exact same form in around 2008 on Beta Twitter. Same candidates, same videos, exactly the same with exception of the original air date having been 12 years earlier.

Time Warp Terror is almost impossible to see, when we all trust the date we are presented with, and discount our own memories of events.

It makes a person second guess what they already know is true, and I just second guessed what I already determined about Donald Trump’s second term that did not happen. All of what we are seeing is a slippery slope of strategically placed British oil.

Olive Oil: Virgin < Extra Virgin < Extra, Extra Virgin... Olive Oil.

By the time the Olives become Virgin, there is no oil left to squeeze from them.

Crewed Oil.

There is a Trump Card somewhere in this idea about the Olive Oil and Crewed Oil.

Like I said, it fouls up what I was thinking about to begin with about Donald Trump, so, tread lightly there.

====

Maybe there is a difference between Thunderbird’s episodes presented on YouTube by bobbj77 and VintageTV accounts. The two accounts are presenting the same episodes, with the titles written the same identical way, as if it’s the same persons playing two hands.... maybe they have some Special Ethel edited in there, when I want some 106 Octane Airplane Fuel.

Have to start over....

================

Google is like the “Big Fog Horn in the Sky”, it can hone in on any one particular IP Address, and make customized directional suggestions when you do a search at any of the Google Products, and the one at Twitter does not work at all...only brings up non-verified accounts for search of mainstream news headlines.

When I do YouTube search for Thunderbird’s episodes, it mostly directs me to bobbj77, only few VintageTV and there are some random results also, but those two seem to have posted many, maybe all of the series, have to have a closer look at the source of what I am decoding here.

I really don‘t see advantage to choosing VintageTV over bobbj77 or vice-verse, seems the same result to me judging by the name.

Also, the results for search are out of numeric order, I find that a little odd because of Google is sooooooo very advanced in their algorithms they would seem to know how to count by now, considering that when you write a email with Google G-Mail, the thing can almost write what you want to say all by itself, can conjugate a verb on the fly, and make contextual suggestions, but Google can‘t count on YouTube Search, how come? Why does Google YouTube Search direct me to bobbj77 way more than to VintageTV as a source for Thunderbird’s episodes?

Google does Custom Tailored Fog Horn Service on the High See’s for directing traffic at the Port.

===============

8:08 pm:

I suggest to persons who may want to research some of these ideas about Amp Guru and One Hour Martinizing to make a list of “What can be said about (each one)” in real life.

I am not going to do that here.

I’ll get you started:

One Hour Martinizing is out front, somewhere you can see it.

Amp Guru is in a industrial complex, or back room at music store.

You bring clothes to the Martinizer, who has some way of cleaning them without water.

You bring your electronic music gear to Amp Guru, he can do magic for Bias Adjustment, knows everything there is to know about electronic power circuits.

That is a start.

===========

8:39 pm:

Local Update:

Walk to the mailbox adventure. Is about 800 feet walk each way, depending on route I take.

I spoiled assassination attempt at the mailbox. There was bait there in the form of my mailbox was open a little, part way, nothing in there, and I closed it tight last night when I encountered assassin there last night, one I have not mentioned yet, could have been Clyde Baum of 333 Jackpine.

I spoiled the hit because tonight I brought wiz-bang high tech flashlight, is very bright, so, on approach to the mail box, I used that, and some noises in the woods could be heard there by the mailbox. I assume the terror bastard just was ducking for some cover is the sound I heard.

It’s very cold out there, thermometer says 27 degrees, feels colder.

There was the sound of Distant Emergency Vehicle Siren to the south, lasted two minutes, very faint and distant sound of siren on the move. “Trouble on Pleasant Valley Road” is the way that is interpreted.

Some other very brief use of flashlights happened on Russell road on my return walk, those are there at Sunflower terror cell to fool someone else, who will read this and think that was me over there on Russell.

I only used my flashight for one quick look around then put it away, to keep my hands free for fighting. I almost never use a flashlight, is very dangerous to use unless you are a terror soldier with a lot of terror cell members nearby. If you use the flashlight, they know exactly where you are at, and your hands are not available for fighting back when they come out of the shadows.

I stay in the middle of the country gravel roadway and driveway mostly. I don‘t want to, but I have to so that the local authority set-up won’t work when the say I was the one in the shadows.

There is still no visible activity or signs of life at Bell terror cell at 445 Jackpine.

Monroe Offensive Surveillance Travel Trailer is still the same condition as last night with a bright light inside and drapes open at the window above the trailer hitch, other lights are all off.

The Monroe’s are showing different habits, their usual things they do with a variety of special lights inside of chicken coups they have there is not happening as it has for that past year or so. There is big chicken coup, roosters and hens in there, the coup has many different kinds of lights on, switched off, changed as I walk by, various color, light intensity, many lights inside of a chicken coup, where they are used at night to light up chicken activities.... but are for some other thing that I don‘t know, it’s weird.

Other smaller chicken coup there is where the electronic surveillance equipment and recording devices can be seen in use by the Monroe’s and others from time to time when they huddle around there to listen to recordings of attack that took place at my house a few moments before I see them there gathered around the chicken coup. So, those things with the coups are not happening since the day I encountered the people putting a net at the end of my driveway, and had that sword fight there, last week some time.

That’s it, I did not pay attention to communication lights at Chartrand’s, was concerned about flashlights on Russell road instead.

===

9:29 pm:

Another quick look outside shows Chartrand’s conditions are the same as they were last night, some red Christmas lights on the front house, and two porch lights on the rear house are on as was last night.

I was wrong about the Russell Road flashlights, they were at Strong’s SAG House at 3747 Russell Road, there is vehicle activity there now, doing maneuver in the yard there as they do most times I go outside at night, some vehicle begins to drive around in the yard, then a shark comes down Jackpine is the way it usually is done, the Strong car is there to do back-up for the Shark car, which usually comes from where they wait out front of 315 Jackpine to run me over.

There is a newly installed yard light on a pole over on Russell road somewhere, looks to be just north of 3747 Russell Road, maybe it’s not new, but is not used often.

All of these small details are communication from one terror cell to another over a distance, been going on for twenty years.

9:42 pm:

Freeberg lighting communication is different tonight from last night.

Christmas lights that go around and on the ridge, and edges of the building make nice looking outline of the house at night, and that was sort of the vibe at Freeberg’s last night, Tonight, those kinds of perimeter lights are still there and are on, but has strange look, as if there are holes in the outline, parts of the perimeter outline are not there as they were last night, Considering that Freeberg is terror AirForce General, that is always some important communication no matter how they say it. One big helicopter did a low fly over today above my house at about 3:00 pm, and there were at least three other low and slow fly overs by fixed wing aircraft starting at about 2:30 pm. Freeberg’s are looking for the assassin that was at the mailbox last night. That one is dead. Might have been Clyde Baum, that would be good news if so.

10:05 pm:

Janice “Jay-Bob” Feeberg uses a special costume for terror attack, same as all of the local terror soldiers have special terror costume identity, each one is somehow unique, most use animal persona traits, Clyde Baum uses a Owl persona, and is also a Grizzly bear persona.

Janice Freeberg uses Grim Reaper persona costume, is the “Grim Freeberg” when she goes on terror attack in residential areas along with others such as Clyde in a Bear suit. They also have those Pixel Suits for more advanced attacking.

She looks just like that in her Grm Freeberg attack outfit. The only difference is that her sickle is home made with use of modified carpenters hand saw blade cut to shape and sharpened, attached to stick handle. Typically the attack she does is that she stands in the path where someone wants to walk, she slams the handle of the sickle into the ground while saying “Thou shall not pass”... hundred times at least she has done that to me on my driveway, on the road, in my woods, is there to say “Thou shall not pass” then swings that sickle. It’s sharper than you might think it is.

So, for reports of person wearing a robe with a long stick and has a triangle shaped thing on it (looks just like a baseball pennant shape), then, that is Janice “Jay-Bob” Freeberg. She does not work alone, if she is there, so are others in attack costume, and, she always has air support with airplanes and helicopters.

Real terror is not reported on the news. That is real terror. Been going on for twenty years here like that.

That is the only photo I have been able to get of Janice “Jay-Bob” Freeberg, terror Airforce General. Those are the mailboxes I talk about so often.

===============================

11:49 pm:

Take a ride in the Russian Mother of all Hoaxes for a minute, I have my Cracker Jack’s Decoder Ring, Way-Back Machine Attachment, and a Fractal Viewer here, not busy, it’s quiet... so... throw a dart into a history book, and viola! Starting place for Russian Hoax Maneuvers.

I am stuck at “ ... another shooter, that shot the shooter, that shot John, who was shot by Jacquie...”

So, from there...

There is a grassy knoll, a parade is going on, it’s all live on TV, there is a warehouse, and that is where I want to go... into that warehouse to see where that goes. It’s a book warehouse. There are books and a shooter there, parade is outside... now what...

Lots of people, the President is there, it’s America... on TV, and watching TV...

Amazon shows up on Decoder Ring Radar... they started out as a bookstore.

Amazon is also a jungle, a River, lots of diversity is there...

They have piranhas there. Pyramids shows up on Decoder Ring RADAR.

Stay with Amazon... they said they were going to buy 100,000 Renault delivery vans. That’s a lot of vans, never heard of so many vans being ordered before, is new.... Renew-zit shows up on Decoder Ring RADAR. So. that is already what I was thinking they were for anyway, to refill gas warrior gas tanks. I also have advantage here because I know that Clyde Baum has Renew-zit air fresheners at his house, are filled with nitrous gas, and are motion sensor operated from Renew-zit factory, sprays nitrous oxide at someone who walks by at Clyde Baum’s house.

Amazon, Renault, Renew-zit.... nitrous... parade (walk by is parade w/gas motion sensor activation)

Maybe the Amazon Renault Renew-zit vans are dual purpose, can be used for refill of gas warriors at nbc Universal Demonstration for Twitter news event terror taking, and, if just parked somewhere could release gas as people parade by, like at Clyde Baum’s house.

Jack-in-the-Box shows up on Decoder Ring RADAR.

British Canadian Terror ninja’s come out of the parked van that releases gas as people are walking by... parade. The shooter that shot the shooter has a sword now... takes the victims into the parked Amazon Van Mobile Renew-zit weapon.

It’s a COVID Test....

This is not going in a direction that is suitable to pursue further online.

I was expecting to arrive at the Queen‘s television, a black & white old one, with contrast knob cranked over to full contrast from the book warehouse, that did not happen... that other thing happened, and I don’t want to go there, so. that’s it for this adventure in Russian Mother of all Hoaxes.

==============

There has to be some reason that Amazon needs so many vans. and that the story about what the manufacturer of choice was had changed from Renault to some other unknown maker of Vans. Google it.

Amazon could be Russian Fractal Iteration of the Book Warehouse. If so, there will be other connecting dots in the Mother Hoax.

Don’t forget: Amazon was made into what it became by virtue of it’s connections to Google, when people searched Google for the products that wanted to buy, Amazon was there, in the search results, to say they offer the same thing you want for $5 less than any other retailer was selling the items. Then, when you ordered from Amazon, the product was sent from a competing retailer, but the billing was done by Amazon, who collected all of the money, and left out the retailer that sent the items.

I remember ordering from Amazon, and then getting phone call from the retailer who sent the items, to see what I had to say about the delivery, ask if I did receive what I ordered, and explained that they did not get paid for the items purchased, which when you really think about being in such a position on that phone call from the retailers perspective, that is not a productive approach, because essentially, they are sort of implying that the customer did not pay for what they were delivered, when all they really wanted was some information, anything that would help them figure out why the orders were going out, while all of the customers were insisting that they made the purchase from Amazon, and paid Amazon. I remember that happened, when the phone call came, and I knew that the shipping information indicated that the persons on the call had shipped the products, but the billing had already been done online, paid to Amazon, who provided the online ordering.

Confusion City is there in that Amazon billing, w/other competing retailer shipping, for takeover of US and other global retailers, by virtue of Google Magic Hokus Pokus.

“The shooter that shot the shooter that shot John”, is in that situation, except US retailers are John F. Kennedy on parade, and Amazon is the invisible shooter that shot him, while the magic bullet, is Google. That makes Jacquie Onassis, the Russian Hoax Hijack, the foundation on which the parade is riding, in that part of the Russian Mother of all Hoaxes Fractal View, it all does another iteration of that parade, sort of, with some adjustments made to the Russian Fractal Equation.

Can anyone else see what I see?

Google is the best of the best there could be for making such Fractal Iteration math work. They must have kidnapped all of the Rocket Scientists that were at nasa, rocketdyne, Kennedy Space Center... places where math is life or death math.

Google has to be taken offline, but we can‘t live without it.... “Too Big To Fail” shows up on Decoder Ring RADAR...

Have to start over...

================

12-23-2020: 1:07 am:

Back to Thunderbird’s Day of Disaster:

There is a place in the episode where Virgil carries a bunch of wreckage from the depths beneath the Holland Bridge, which collapsed from the concentrated weight of a great big rocket that was driving over it, slow.

There at that spot where the dumping happened, is a field with some rocks and grassy knolls.

I told you about Hope Town yesterday, I need to add the the place where Hope Town is at, is called “Simi Knolls” (Google Map might show it still, hurry before Mandela shows up). I think there might be other clues in Day of Disaster to make connection to Hope Town, and/or Simi Knolls. There was a store there called Village Market at the bottom of Santa Suzanna Pass, and a place where I used to get some ice cream was there right at the entrance to Hope Town, which was a motorcycle race track at the time. The Ice Cream store was also a hamburger stand, very small place, had a pointy roof, A-Frame cabin sort of building, blue & white stripes on it, so, those kinds of details might be in Day of Disaster, or other episodes.

A kids TV program from 1960′s called “Winchell Mahony Time” featured a barn, with puppets, the barn the show was modeled from was at the top of Kuener Drive, a real barn there about one mile and a half from Hope Town, and the Winchell’s Donuts I think is based in that part of Russian Hoax Fractal, and I already explained what is important to know about Winchell’s Donuts, designed as a place where Los Angeles Police could go, use a restroom, and the girls there were so friendly, Canadian Pope style. I watched the 118 Freeway as it was built from my front porch, the barn was there before, and after the freeway went in. There could be reference to “Tarantula Hill” in the Thunderbird’s episodes, that was right there too.

So, now, imagine that all of that junk Virgil put there (could have just moved it over and dumped it closer by, save time) in that field with grassy knolls and rocks (reminds me of Hope Town area) is all construction materials put there, for use at some other time in the future, to build something later (is symbolic building materials), means: “we looked at the real-estate, we like this place here, Simi Knolls, has a nice ring to it, JFK style ring” as orders to obtain the property that was Hope Town, “close to Rocketdyne, not too far from Hollywood, we can build a Freeway through there later on, call it the 118 Ronald Reagan Freeway, just add one more minute, and it’s 119 Freeway, all going in reverse direction”

(one more minute = one more generation)

(seconds = tiny revolution)

(minutes = small size revolution)

(hours = medium size revolution)

(days = normal, customary regular size crusade revolution)

Pirates say Aarrggghhh, so, R + Evolution = Pirate Evolution

(one more minute = one more generation)

(118 Freeway + one more generation = Freedom in emergency reverse = 119)

Terror math is not rocket science. It’s terror math.

I think that place is Hope Town. Hope is what remains when everything else is gone.

Trust me, you don‘t want any hope. They will give it to you for free... a bad trade. There are people who line up to by Hope.... fools.

To bob, is to cut off.

Bob Hope, is what happens when you are all loaded up with truckloads... boatloads of nothing but Hope... then, they cut you off, take the hope from you, that is what Bob Hope is for.

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hollywoodjuliorivas · 5 years

Text

How to make your firm more diverse and inclusive

Tips for chief executives

Print edition | Business

Nov 7th 2019

To: ceo

cc: pa

Subject: A hard-headed guide to corporate diversity

Dear David,

You face pressure to “do something” about diversity in your company—not only from your wife and woke children. Corporate clients increasingly demand it in your supply chain. Regulators, who use a “stable” or “inclusive” culture as a proxy for low risk, are breathing down your neck. Governments like Britain’s, which now mandates pay-gap reporting, insist on making more of your sensitive data public. And employees, including former ones, can air their complaints on social media.

Small wonder that 87% of your fellow bosses told consultants at pwc that diversity is a business priority. I’m sure you did, too. After all, you recently posted a job opening for a diversity manager. You were not alone; the number of such offers in Britain has doubled in the past year, say analysts at Glassdoor, a recruitment website. Since June 2017 more than 800 American ceos have signed a pledge to “advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace”.

That is where we are: lots of talk, plenty of initiatives, little change on the ground. Between 2015 and 2018 the share of female executives at large (mostly) American and British firms went from 12% to 14%; for ethnic minorities it moved from 12% to 13%. The ftse 100 has fewer female ceos (six) than it does bosses who share your name (seven). In American companies with over 100 employees, the share of black men in management was 3.4% in 2017, half their share in the population as a whole—and virtually unchanged from 3% in 1985. White women make up 25% of executives and senior managers, compared with 60% for white men. Something is clearly amiss.

In the past this letter would have gone straight to your legal department. Since the term “diversity” entered the corporate lexicon in the 1960s it has been code for avoiding lawsuits—especially in America, where companies have coughed up billions in fines for discrimination over the years. The financial sector still treats it mostly as a compliance issue.

Now you are no doubt tempted to forward it to someone in hr, almost certainly a woman with an arts degree, a sound moral compass and too little power. Don’t. This is your problem. Without your leadership it is unlikely to be solved soon.

Keep reading

Deep inside, you may be wondering if anything really needs solving. The short answer is: it does. With that in mind, you should ask yourself three things.

First, why does diversity matter to your firm? Is your reputation in trouble, as it was for Uber, Nike, Lloyd’s of London and others scarred by #MeToo? Do you, like consumer giants such as p&g, hope that more diversity makes for better products? Are you concerned about attracting and retaining bright sparks? You would be in good company: 97% of executives fret about increased competition for talent (according to Mercer’s hr consultants).

Or are you hoping that diversity will boost the bottom line? To be perfectly honest, I have no idea if it does. It is hard to tell if diversity helps firms do well, or if successful firms are also more enlightened on other matters. But variety has been linked to innovation, productivity and, for example in diverse teams of surgeons, fewer mistakes. Lack of it breeds groupthink—which in turn can lead to disasters. The Bay of Pigs invasion and the Lehman Brothers collapse stemmed from narrow-mindedness. And employees who believe their firm cares about gender diversity are 40% more likely to be satisfied at work—and possibly more productive as a result.

Once you have sorted out the why, consider where you want to get to. Some firms, like Facebook, Nike or p&g, say they wish to mirror their customer base. Others are keen not to recruit from an artificially thin talent pool. Goldman Sachs claims its new entry-level recruitment targets—50% female and, in America, 14% Hispanic and 11% black—are based on things like graduation rates. Clear goals make it easier to assess if you are on track. But make them attainable. Qantas’s goal of 40% of its pilot intake to be female by 2028 is as admirable as it looks unrealistic: today just one in 20 pilots worldwide is a woman.

The third question concerns barriers that stop diverse talent from flourishing at your firm. Mapping how it flows through your organisation and where the blockages and leaks happen is a start. A McKinsey study of more than 300 companies identified the second step of the career ladder, from entry level to manager, as the “broken rung”: for every 100 men only 72 women (and just 68 Hispanic and 58 black ones) earned that critical early promotion. When Google was losing women in disproportionate numbers it homed in on maternity as the principal cause; the technology giant increased maternity leave and support for mothers returning to work.

Staff surveys can help, provided they are large and comprehensive enough. After its #MeToo moment, Lloyd’s, an insurance market, found that 45% of staff felt unable to raise concerns about improper conduct. Employees are now encouraged to speak up, including through a bullying-and-harassment helpline. A “culture dashboard” tracking progress on survey metrics will be published with the Lloyd’s annual report.

Now you’ve got your diversity-and-inclusion priorities straight and diagnosed what needs fixing. Good. Before you order a rainbow float for a Pride parade and send staff on a micro-aggression avoidance course, here is what not to do.

American firms spend billions a year on training. Half of large ones have unconscious-bias seminars. Most of these “d&i” programmes are a waste. Or worse: recent research from America shows that diversity statements can put off minorities, possibly because they perceive them as tokenism. Often, firms do d but forget i, which is about ensuring that the workforce is not just diverse, but thriving. Too many try to fix people instead of procedures. Training women to be more assertive in asking for a promotion or pay rise is pointless; they are just as likely to ask for these but also likelier to be seen as pushy when they do. Ushering your managers onto the “Check Your Blind Spots bus”, currently touring America as part of the ceos’ drive, is unlikely to do much. “Days of understanding”, popular in American offices, risk causing “diversity fatigue”. It is hard to beat bias out of individuals—easier to root it out of systems.

The don’ts

Take Silicon Valley. Big Tech has splurged on d&i to little effect. Representation of blacks and Hispanics has been flat (see chart). Girls Who Code, an industry-sponsored ngo, found that a quarter of young women who applied for internships at tech firms said they were asked inappropriate or biased questions. Others reported being flirted with or demeaned. It’s no use hiring diverse coders if the message then is: wear a hoodie and pretend to be a guy, or this is no place for you. They will underperform—or flee, leaving you as undiverse as before. Firms that do not change their ways beyond recruitment see high attrition rates of diverse talent. A lack of diversity is a symptom of deeper problems that a few diversity hires won’t mend.

At this point the how should be relatively clear. In a nutshell, it is all about creating a level playing field. When recruiting, software can mute biases by concealing giveaways to a candidate’s gender or ethnic identity. These include names but also less obvious hints like the sports they play. If only the usual suspects apply, look harder. Specialised recruitment drives, such as visiting “black” colleges or advertising in women’s forums, appear to work. The Bank of England no longer visits the Russell group of top universities, whose graduates apply in spades anyway, and focuses instead on less elite schools. bhp, an Anglo-Australian mining giant, broadened its search for female miners by recruiting from professions, such as nursing, with some similar skills.

In an effort to find trainees from different backgrounds, British law firms are trying “contextual recruitment”. An applicant with Bs from a school where everyone got Cs may be more impressive than one with As from a place full of A* pupils. Rare, a recruitment firm, has developed software which screens candidates for disadvantage and gauges their outperformance against the average for their school.

Once in the workplace, the clearer your criteria for professional advancement, the better. Informality is the enemy of women and minorities. It perpetuates bias. Surveys of American engineers and lawyers found that female workers were nearly twice as likely as their male peers to be saddled with “office housework”, like setting up meetings and conference calls. White men were likelier to be given careerenhancing tasks such as client meetings.

Sponsorship schemes are an effective way to ensure traditionally sidelined groups get a fair shot. PayScale, a pay-comparison site, found that employees with a sponsor made 11.6% more than those without. The Bank of England has offered most of its sponsorship places to ethnic-minority women. Staff surveys, if bite-sized but regular, can bring clarity to fuzzy inclusion metrics. “Psychological safety”, lingo for an environment where people feel free to speak their mind, can be tracked with questions like “are your ideas regularly attributed to someone else?” or “are you regularly interrupted in meetings?” Rotating who chairs a meeting, or a firm word with loudmouths who dominate it, can help.

Many employers—yourself included—would be horrified to learn that they implicitly require employees who want to be considered leadership material to adjust their behaviour. Women shouldn’t need to “act like a man”, gay employees to “act straight” or people with frizzy hair to treat it to “look professional” (ie, white). Let grievances fester and your workers will lose motivation or simply leave.

That is a lot to take in. But unless you do, your most valuable resource—workers—will not be as good as it could be. Best to get ahead of the problem. It isn’t that hard. And it can pay off mightily.

Yours,

Shareholder■

0 notes

phroyd · 7 years

Link

This week’s theme was undoubtedly the continued taint of the Trump regime for their ties to Russia. For the first time since Election Day, Trump seems unable to drive the media storylines.

Trump announced he would not attend the White House Correspondent’s Association dinner, amid growing tension with the media.

Further to the stories on Priebus in Week 15 reaching out to the FBI, reports cited that Spicer made calls to the CIA, and Republican leaders Nunes and Burr, asking they discredit the NYT story about Russian ties.

Before the investigation even begins, Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee chair, said he hasn’t found evidence of the Trump team’s ties to Russia.

CREW filed under the FOIA to see communications between Priebus and the FBI.

Trump accused Obama of being behind the town hall protests: “I think [Obama] is behind it. I also think it’s politics.”

Early in the week, Trump pronounced, “I haven’t called Russia in 10 years,” a statement then thoroughly discredited by video clips of his numerous statements otherwise.

In a NBC interview, former President George W. Bush said “we need answers” on Trump ties to Russia.

Another Trump cabinet pick, Wilbur Ross, has deep ties to Russia, including investing more than $1 billion in the Bank of Cyprus, and becoming a vice chairman of the bank. Putin appointed the other vice chairman.

Rachel Maddow reported the Bank of Cyprus also has ties to a Russian oligarch who helped Trump make a $60 million profit flipping a home in Florida he owned for just two years.

As Trump continued his attacks on Sweden, O’Reilly booked a supposed Swedish ‘national security advisor’ for his Fox News show. After Swedish officials indicated this expert was not known, O’Reilly was forced to issue a watered-down apology. Since, Trump has stopped attacking Sweden.

A massive wave of anti-Semitism continued, including two more cemeteries desecrated, and 31 threats against JCC’s in one day alone. The ADL has said anti-Semitism in the US is the worst since the 1930s.

Seeming to follow David Duke’s lead, Trump said it could be Jews behind the rash of anti-Semitic attacks.

Another mosque was burned down — the fourth in seven weeks.

WAPO reported the FBI had once planned to pay the British spy behind the dossier, lending credibility to the contents.

The Senate Intelligence Committee may call the British spy who gathered the information for the infamous dossier, to testify. If they can find him (he’s in hiding).

The father of the SEAL killed in the failed Yemen raid told the Miami Herald he wants answers.

Trump sought to blame the generals for the SEAL’s death.

Trump also tried to blame Obama, saying he finished what Obama had started. This was refuted by a former aid, who said Obama had never approved the raid.

NBC reported that despite Trump claims to the contrary, senior US officials said there was no significant intel yielded from the Yemen raid.

Feinstein and other Dem senators demanded more information from the State Dept on China’s sudden decision to grant a trademark to the Trump organization. As noted in Week 14’s list, this occurred shortly after Trump declared his support of “One China” policy.

Trump WH let Conway off the hook on an ethics investigation, saying she acted “inadvertently” in promoting Ivanka’s brand — despite recommendations by the OCE for discipline.

Amid protests and ethics concerns, Donald Jr and Eric Trump cut the ribbon on a new hotel in Vancouver, built and financed by one of Malaysia’s richest families.

A businesswoman who touts access to China, purchased a $16 million penthouse at Trump Park Avenue. Trump retains an economic interest in the property.

Although an order to stay Trump’s Muslim Ban is in place, problems continued including Muhammad Ali Jr. being detained in a Florida airport, and French historian and expert on the Holocaust, Henry Russo, who was threatened with deportation while traveling to a discussion at Texas A&M.

Stories continue to describe the State Department’s diminishing role. State Dept staff are being excluded from meeting with foreign leaders, leadership posts are going unfilled, and many employees are quitting. Trump also had threatened to slash the budget by one-third.

The State Department has not held a single daily briefing under Tillerson. Daily briefings had been the norm since the 1950s. Limited daily briefings are set to begin next week.

The State Department tweeted, then deleted, a congratulatory message to an Iranian director for winning an Oscar.

Trump escalated his war on the media, telling Breitbart the NYT’s “intent is so evil and bad,” and that “they write lies.”

Trump delivered a de facto SOTU speech, read from a teleprompter. Although his manner was mild, the content continued to be nationalistic and negative. The Center for American Progress said that of Trump 61 statements, 51 were false.

Also refuting Trump’s SOTU, The Brennan Center for Justice noted, “Nationally, crime remains at the bottom of a 25-year downtrend, half of what it was at its peak in 1991. Last year, rates of overall crime fell for the 14th year in a row.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not attend Trump’s SOTU, nor did Maxine Waters.

The Democratic women of the House wore the white of the Suffragists at Trump’s SOTU to show support of women’s rights.

Trump officials fed news outlets misinformation on a shift in Trump’s immigration plans — hinting the time might be right for an immigration bill — ahead of the SOTU. CNN reported Trump misled reporters to get positive coverage.

The NYT reported that the Obama administration had rushed to preserve information on the Trump team’s ties to Russia, spreading it to government agencies.

Also reported by the NYT: American allies, including the British and the Dutch, provided the Obama administration with information on meetings between Russian officials and the Trump regime in European cities.

A bombshell story by WAPO reported that Sessions met with Russian ambassador twice, but did not disclose those meetings when asked during this Senate confirmation hearing.

Sessions first spoke with Kislyak in Cleveland on July 18 — the same day the Trump campaign gutted the GOP’s platform of its anti-Russia stance on Ukraine. On July 23, WikiLeaks released stolen emails from the DNC.

The WSJ reported that Sessions used campaign funds to pay for his trip to the RNC Convention, where he met the Russian ambassador.

At a next day press conference, Sessions recused himself from Trump investigations, but during the campaign only.

As the controversy continued, Sessions said he would submit an amended testimony to address Democratic senators’ questions.

POLITICO reported that Trump adviser Carter Page also met with Kislyak at the RNC Convention. While in office, Harry Reid had asked Comey to investigate Carter, saying he was also meeting with “high ranking sanctioned individuals” in Moscow.

Carter told MSNBC he had met with Kislyak, then seemed to backtrack on CNN to say he never spoke with him for more than 10 seconds.

Kushner and Flynn also met with Kislyak at the Trump Tower in December. Of note, given the venue and people involved, this points to Trump having direct knowledge of the meeting.

CNN reported that US Intelligence considers Kislyak to be one of Russia’s top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington.

Kislyak did not attend the DNC Convention.

Trump team forced Nikki Haley to fire career staffers who she had asked for advice on how to talk tough with Russia.

A front page story in USA Today reported that emails released under a FOIA request to The Indianapolis Star, show Pence used personal email for state business while governor, including for sensitive matters and homeland security issues, and that his personal AOL account was hacked.

The next day, Pence turned over 13 boxes of state-related emails to the Indiana statehouse — a step required by law.

Trump’s transition team canceled planned training on ethics for his staff, appointees and Cabinet members.

Rachel Maddow reported on a leaked DHS assessment document which indicates most US-based extremists radicalized years after entry into the US. These findings negate the main argument made by the Trump regime for their Muslim Ban, and may explain why they have yet to release the new version frequently promised to be coming soon.

Inhumane round-ups by ICE continued, including a father of four US-born children who has lived here for 20 years, while dropping his kids off at school.

A 22 year-old immigrant was detained by ICE moments after a press conference. She was 7 when her family moved to the US from Argentina, placing her under DACA immigration policy.

Spicer was reported to be checking his staff phones for leaks.

Reuters reported on stepped up efforts by the Trump regime to plug leaks, including Mnuchin using his first senior staff meeting to inform his aides that he would not tolerate leaks.

Top talent continues to leave the already thinly staffed executive branch over poor morale and fear of Trump.

FP reported that the Trump WH is considering using high-end security software for WH networks in an effort to stop leaks.

Schwarzenegger quit The Celebrity Apprentice, citing too much “baggage” — a clear shot at Trump. Trump continues his role as Executive Producer of the show (which we’ve normalized!).

Trump fired back via Twitter this next day claiming Schwarzenegger was fired because of low ratings. Schwarzenegger told him to hire a fact checker.

As stories continued all week about Trump and his team’s ties to Russia, offering no proof, Trump accused Obama of wiretapping phones in Trump Tower, tweeting, “This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!”

As the week closed out, Trump yet again headed to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend, after leaving the WH at 3 p.m. on Friday. Trump has yet to visit Camp David.

Some Things We’ve Already Normalized:

Trump’s sons are continuing to conduct business from which Trump has a direct economic benefit.

Our executive branch is vastly understaffed, and Trump and his regime seem to make little effort at hiring (consolidation of power).

Our media (some) continue to push the notion of a Trump “reset,” and seek to normalize Trump and his regime.

Comey continues to NOT cooperate with Congress in hearings. We also do not know the status of the DOJ inquiry into Comey and the FBI, and whether this has been allowed to continue under Sessions.

Click Here to see all of the past week’s changes which point to a more authoritarian path in The Administrative Arm of our government.

Phroyd

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cringeynews · 7 years

Text

New Post has been published on

New Post has been published on http://cringeynews.com/featured/trump-may-have-just-thrown-decades-of-us-china-relations-into-disarray-2/

Trump may have just thrown decades of US-China relations into disarray

Donald Trump has been ruffling diplomatic feathers since he was elected by casually talking to world leaders without first getting guidance from the State Department. He’s already angered close allies like Britain and India, but his latest phone call threatens to do far more damage.

That’s because of whom it was with: President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan.

This isn’t just some charming diplomatic faux pas by Trump — this was a blunder of potentially historic proportions. Trump’s call is believed to be the first between a US president-elect and a leader of Taiwan since diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed in 1979.

Trump’s transition team may have made matters even worse with its formal statement about the call, which referred to Tsai as the “President of Taiwan” — a title no American leader has used to refer to the head of Taiwan in decades. The word choice is certain to rankle China, which doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of Tsai or any of her predecessors:

President-elect Trump spoke with President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan, who offered her congratulations. During the discussion, they noted the close economic, political, and security ties exists between Taiwan and the United States. President-elect Trump also congratulated President Tsai on becoming President of Taiwan earlier this year.

Shortly after the transition team issued that statement, Trump took to Twitter and essentially doubled-down, once again referring to Tsai as the “President of Taiwan”:

The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016

With this phone call, and the follow-up tweets, Trump is risking fundamentally upending decades of US policy toward Taiwan and enraging China, the world’s only other superpower. China sees Taiwan not as an independent country, but rather as part of China.

The dispute between China and Taiwan goes back to 1949 and the end of the Chinese Civil War, when the defeated Nationalists fled to the island of Taiwan, leaving the communists in power in mainland China. The two territories have been governed separately ever since, with both governments claiming to be the legitimate representative of “One China” — that is, China and Taiwan.

Most countries, including the US, only have formal diplomatic relations with mainland China and don’t officially recognize the government in Taiwan — which is why Trump’s casual chat with the president of Taiwan, and his seemingly cavalier choice of words when describing Tsai, is so surprising, and so risky.

China could theoretically choose not to give too much weight to Trump’s actions, deciding that the president-elect doesn’t know what he’s doing — and isn’t signaling a fundamental shift in US policy. Diplomats from other countries privately say their governments aren’t currently taking Trump’s pronouncements seriously because they attribute them to ignorance, rather than a change of direction.

China is a savvy observer of American politics, and is virtually sure to recognize this as a gaffe. Indeed, a few hours after the incident occurred, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking at a conference, called the move a “petty act” by Taiwan and said it wouldn’t change the US’s longstanding “One China” policy.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t do damage.

Trump spent the campaign accusing China of manipulating its currency and taking advantage of American businesses, and threatened to take a harder line toward Beijing’s aggressive actions in the East and South China Seas. Trump may not realize it, but the US desperately needs Chinese diplomatic support at the United Nations and in reining in nuclear-armed North Korea. Any decision by Beijing to begin selling off its vast holdings of American debt, meanwhile, could throw the US economy into recession.

That means that it doesn’t matter whether Trump meant to change US policy or not; Beijing may file away the call as it decides how to calibrate its relationship with the new administration — and whether to see Trump as a potentially ally or a potential adversary. Regardless of whether he “meant it” or not, China could take actions or make decisions based on those assumptions that could lead to insecurity and potentially even conflict.

“The Chinese leadership will see this as a highly provocative action, of historic proportions,” Evan Medeiros, former Asia director at the White House National Security Council, told the Financial Times.

“Regardless if it was deliberate or accidental, this phone call will fundamentally change China’s perceptions of Trump’s strategic intentions for the negative. With this kind of move, Trump is setting a foundation of enduring mistrust and strategic competition for US-China relations.”

This is at least the third time that a Trump phone call has triggered controversy. He told British Prime Minister Theresa May, “If you travel to the US you should let me know” — as if sitting heads of state just pop into other countries unannounced.

He also managed to anger India by lavishing praise on Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and promising to visit Pakistan — something President Obama pointedly avoided doing during his two terms because of the two countries’ complicated relationship.

With this latest call, the president-elect hasn’t just caused a headache that Obama will have to deal with during his last weeks in office; he’s also given a worrying hint of the kind of diplomatic crises that may erupt once he moves into the White House.

Via

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whenthatchermeetsbowie-blog · 7 years

Photo

MARGARET THATCHER’S TIMELINE

1925 - October 13: Margaret Hilda Roberts is born in Grantham, Lincolnshire

1943: Begins her degree in chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford.

1946- October: Elected as the first female president of the Oxford University Conservative Association.

1951- December 13: Marries divorced entrepreneur Denis Thatcher, becomes Mrs Margaret Thatcher. Her wedding dress is made of royal blue velvet.

1953- August 15: Twins Carol and Mark Thatcher are born.

1958- July 31: Selected as the Conservative candidate for Finchley.

1959- October 8: Elected as MP for Finchley.

1966- March 31: Labour win the general election. Thatcher moves to the shadow Treasury team under Iain Mcleod. Macleod

1967- October 10: Appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as shadow Fuel and Power spokesman.

1968: Votes to decriminalise homosexuality and legalize abortion.

1972- January: Unemployment passes 1 million and British troops kill 13 people in the ‘Bloody Sunday’ riots.

1975- February 11: Thatcher is elected as the Conservative leader on the second ballot and appoints her main contender, Willie Whitelaw, as her deputy. It is during this period that she begins to be influenced by economists such as Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman, whose ideas would ultimately shape her monetary and industrial policies when in power.

1976 – January: In response to a withering attack on the Soviet Union she gave in a speech, the newspaper of the Russian defence ministry dubs her the “Iron Lady”. The name sticks.

1979- May 4: Thatcher becomes the country’s first ever female Prime Minister after winning the general election with a slim majority of 44 seats.

1989- April 1: The deeply unpopular poll tax is introduced in Scotland before the rest of the country.

1990- November 28: Thatcher resigns as prime minister and is replaced by Major.

1992- June 30: Thatcher enters the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher.

1997: Thatcher backs William Hague who wins the Conservative party leadership. Labour goes on to win in a landslide election.

2012- January 6: Film ‘The Iron Lady’, starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher is released to mixed reviews.

Margareth Tatcher | The Iron Lady

· British Politician, longest of the 20th century. First woman.

· Responsible for economical en social policy ‘ tatcherism ‘.

· Died of a stroke

· “Thatcher is dood. Nu nog het Thatcherisme, maar dat is nog iets heel anders. Want het door haar staalharde opgedrongen neoliberalisme van deregulering, privatisering, afbouw van sociale voorzieningen en openbare diensten, van desindustrializering heeft niet alleen een materiële erfenis nagelaten, maar ook een maatschappelijke. De neoliberale redenering dat mensen zelf verantwoordelijk zijn voor hun situatie, is diep doorgedrongen ten koste van begrippen als solidariteit en streven naar meer gelijkheid.”

Personality

· Perseverance against all odds

· Aspire for academic brillianc

· Dream big. You only get one life

· Live up to your words

· Don’t get intimidated

· Conservative

· Dominant

Margaret Thatcher Fashion

The Hair : While running for election in 1979, Thatcher's hair had some semblance of life – at times, it even looked as though it moved. That all changed once she reached in power. Post-1979, the hair – like her – stayed fixed in place. Thatcher underwent a subtle, but noticeable, makeover. Gone were the brightly coloured shiftdresses of the late 70s as Thatcher gravitated towards suits. A year before the power-dressing 80s, she predated, and possibly contributed to, that fashion trend. Her hair did too. Swept back from her face, it was like a helmet – held together by several cans of hairspray that, one imagines, could stand the force of one of those famous four-hour snoozes or any fight with Arthur Scargill. A visit onboard the Falklands-bound HMS Hermes, however, proved too much. Pictured in 1982, her hair was, for once, less than helmet-like. This was a one-time-only occurrence. She made sure it didn't happen again.

The Pearl : Few things survived from Thatcher's pre-prime-ministerial wardrobe but pearls were an exception. Photographs from the 50s onwards show her wearing them – necklace and earrings – as the picture-perfect housewife. She even wore them for her wedding day in 1951, and apparently didn't take them off again. Recent pictures showed them still firmly in place, more than 60 years later. They make sense, of course. A twinset and pearls is the epitome of traditionalism – Thatcher may have dispensed with the knitwear (far too domestic, one suspects) but the pearls do their job handsomely. Expensive but not frivolous or decadent like diamonds (far too Elizabeth Taylor), they spoke of reliability. Seen as classic without being blingy, they fit into a look that wants to spell out reliability and no-nonsense conservatism. To put it another way, they're "this lady's not for turning" in a necklace.

The suit : Thatcher's style wasn't subtle – see her colour scheme. The Duchess of Cambridge wore a tennis outfit to watch Wimbledon (geddit?), and Thatcher could be accused of matching her for literalness long ago. For her first day as prime minister, she sartorially demonstrated that the Conservatives were back in the most obvious way; she wore Tory blue from head to toe, with a boxy jacket and matching skirt. A somewhat clumsy symbol, but it was one she liked. She was back in blue recently, meeting David Cameron in a shiny knee-length coatdress for their dinner at the Goring Hotel in 2011. Notably, Thatcher's allegiance to the colour wavered for her resignation speech in 1990. Foreshadowing Labour's dominance under Tony Blair seven years later, and perhaps hinting at her feelings about the events that took her out of office, her suit and lipstick were both blood-red.

The pussybow blouse: If the hair and suit represented the hard side of Thatcher – a woman-of-steel armour in a world of men's suits – her advisers were savvy enough to know there had to be something that played up her femininity. Rarely, if ever, seen in trousers, the skirt suit could only go so far, especially with those shoulderpads. Enter the pussybow blouse, a sloaney staple in the early 80s – Princess Diana was also partial. Printed, possibly polyester and with that rather silly floppy bow at the neck, the idea was to soften her look and even, dare I say, add an element of fashion into a practical, power-centric wardrobe. She certainly thought the pussybow was a fashion statement. While hosting a famous dinner for fashion designers including Zandra Rhodes and Katherine Hamnett at Downing Street in 1983 – when Hamnett used the opportunity, and her T-shirt, to protest against Pershing – Thatcher wore a theatrical velvet number topped by, you guessed it, a pussybow blouse.

The handbag and the pearl : It may just seem like a mere receptacle but fashion knows the handbag is so much more – especially for power players. While Anna Wintour famously never carries one – all the better to demonstrate she is transported by car everywhere she goes – Thatcher's was a different kind of power. Hers gained a life of its own – or certainly a word: "handbagging". Used by her ministers in the 80s to describe a dressing-down by Thatcher, it was prompted by the prime minister's everpresent handbag. Square and black, it hung from her often-gloved arm (in a rather old-fashioned move, Thatcher wore ladylike gloves – even with eveningwear – well into the 80s). It was there for her first day in Downing Street for both her first and third term, on a golf cart with Ronald Reagan and accessorised with a hardhat on visits to building sites. Although what it contained remained a mystery – this was before mobile phones – she certainly got her use out of it. Auctioned by Christie's in 2011, the Asprey style bag she owned for 30 years was sold for £25,000.

IMAGE PERSONALITY

The Iron Lady Friendly Intellectual

Neat Concentrated Open Interested

Efficient Organised Friendly Sensitive

Sharp Feminine Sympathetic Easygoing

Fierce Driven Sincere Reliable

The Economy Boom

In the 1980s, fashion was influenced by the western economic boom. Youth culture stopped hogging the scene as the teenage market lost impetus. The dominant market was getting older and was also financially secure. Demographics changed the face of society. People were living longer and seemed to act younger at the same time. Old industries died, while new technologies developed and boomed.

In Britain Thatcherism promoted privatization and the idea that greed was good was given credence. Temples to modern living, shopping malls sprang up throughout Britain. Western society consumed and consumed.

FASHION

Margaret Thatcher Styles

Pre-Prime Minister Time

Before the Notorious Iron Lady did become the first female Prime Minister of the Great Britain, she was a Master of Science and researcher at BX Plastics and a lawyer before her membership at the Lower House and her time as Minister of Education and Science. This is the time where Margaret Roberts turned to Margaret Thatcher and evolved a style she would keep for the rest of her life. While her clothing was at first comfortable, loose hanging and made of cheaper fabrics and easy on the eye. When Thatcher became Member of the Lower House and later on Minister of Education and Science she felt the need to be representable at all times, with all accessories. The Blue/White striped hat is the only ‘mistake’ she made according to her believes, since it was to joyful and did not represent the heart of the concern which she was obliged to speech about.

Easy Comfortable Superficial Free

Skirts Wool & Cotton Simple Loose

Prime Minister Time

When Thatcher became Prime Minister she was dressed in a navy suit with padded shoulders, wearing a pearl necklace, her husband Dennis Thatcher gave her, having black court shoes on her feet and an Asprey bag which even became synonymous with her conservative but feminine style. Having suits ranging mostly from the shaded of royal blue to navy blue, mostly in combination with pussybow blouses. The Iron Lady’s style is powerful, classic, static and elegant at the same time. By never wearing trousers, but shaping up with the padded shoulders she becomes gracious and emancipated. Her opinion on trousers was that they rob a woman of authority. During the period of being PM of the UK she once said the following about her own clothing style: ‘Never flashy, just appropriate’.

Static Power clothing Emancipation Heavy-Weight Suits Buttons

‘Never flashy, just appropriate’ Representable Ruches Navy Handbag

Conscious Colourful Authority Old-Fashioned Conservative

Post Minister Time

When Thatcher was relieved of her duties as being Prime Minister her style did not change anymore. The pearls would she wear until the very end; ‘…because Dennis gave them to me.’. In a time where people would wear less colour than before, Thatcher did not follow the trend, but kept on wearing the colours that were most true to her.

Timeless Navy Handbagging Elegant Omnipresent Conservative

Margaret King (The stylist)

I first met Margaret Thatcher about six days after she had become Prime Minister. She came into Aquascutum to buy a new coat; she already had one but it was quite old – she was very careful with her clothes. She also wanted a dress, but the one she liked was made in Italy and she insisted that she only wore British. She was very attuned to our country. I rushed into Liberty, bought some silk, and we made her a dress in three days, copying the Italian design. On the Monday morning it was perfect. I sent it up to Downing Street and she left for France on her first foreign visit as PM. In the evening, I saw her on television wearing that dress.

I didn’t do anything else for her – she had her own dressmaker – until 1987, when she was due to go to Russia to meet President Gorbachev. She needed a coat, but I wanted to do more. As our leader, I felt she should look absolutely devastating.

We made up four coats for each day of her visit. I then phoned up the milliner, Philip Somerville, and asked for this great big fox-fur hat, and also found her a statement brooch.

Margaret Thatcher’s arrival was dramatic and the press was glowing. The Americans were mad about her, saying how she truly looked the part of a prime minister. Everyone was very excited. The French, for instance, originally disregarded her and thought she looked rather frumpy. After the Russia trip, however, they were all over her; they couldn’t stop talking about her. The Italians were the same. That was the turning point for her and her style.

Our relationship grew from there. Women need to have an image. On one of my early visits to Downing Street, I persuaded her to put on smoke-coloured stockings and black shoes, close her eyes, put on a coat and hat, and turn around to look in the mirror. She just knew she looked good. Margaret had wonderful posture, too. A person who holds herself well gets away with a lot.

Our Aquascutum factory started to make all of her clothes, but I also worked on her whole image. The press referred to her “bagging” everyone, so

I persuaded her to stop carrying a handbag and start carrying a clutch. The pussycat bow – I got rid of that, too. Women often try to look feminine by putting a bow around their neck, but it can make the neck appear very short. She was also very conscious of saving money so the same items were worn again and again.

Her mother was a dressmaker, so Margaret knew about cloth and finish. She really cared about clothes; she loved it when people like President Reagan admired how she looked. She was very conscious when she sat down not to show a lot of leg – although she was blessed with lovely pins.

I was conscious about her upper half. When women sit, their shirt starts riding up, so I created these pop-in bibs that were attached to the top of each of Margaret’s jackets with press studs. I inserted a little V-cut into each of her suits, and would pop the bib into the suit. It stayed neatly static when she sat or moved around. In the Commons, she would have a plain one, and if she was going out, I’d have one with beads on it to give her a different look.

When she packed for trips abroad, Margaret would take a special book detailing each outfit for each day and occasion. It was all minutely planned; she was very organised. When the trip was anything to do with business, she wore more sober colours. But when she was representing the country abroad, or standing in a photograph with men in black and grey suits, she would wear colour; I particularly remember a deep coral outfit she wore to the Rocky Mountains in 1990. Pink was very good on her. I didn’t want to put her in too much Conservative blue. She was careful to preserve her British image, so she would never have gone to India and worn an adapted sari, for instance.

If Margaret trusted you to do something, that was it – she trusted you. I felt very close to her, and working with her was an amazing chapter in my life.

Movies, Books, Music, Quotes

MOVIES

The Iron Lady (2011)

Tracking down Maggie (1994)

This is England (2006)

DOCUMENTS

Death of Revolutionary (2013)

Fashion as a political tool (2016)

+ multiple short youtube documentaries

POP MUSIC

David Bowie - 87 and cry

QUOTES

In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.

— Margaret Thatcher

People don’t think anymore, they feel. One of the great problems of our age, is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings rather than thoughts and ideas.

— Margaret Thatcher

It used to be about trying to do something. Now it’s about trying to be someone.

— Margaret Thatcher

I wouldn’t be worth my salt if i weren’t attracting some controversy and criticism.

-Margaret Thatcher

Three and a half million of us, who can't find fucking work.

And that Thatcher sits there in her f****** ivory tower and sends us on a fucking phoney war!

-This is England movie

A woman leader was revolutionary. A woman leader with Margaret thatcher’s background was unheard of.

- Death of revolutionary document

There were lots of people from middle class that had marvelous taste. She wasn’t one of them. - Mary Warnock reacting to Margaret Thatcher shopping in Marks and Spencer

Working class boys started to earn money, buy suits, cars, drink wine, going on holidays abroad

- this was the age of yuppie (a fashionable young middle-class person with a well-paid job.

"stereotypical 1980s yuppies obsessed with material objects and financial success”)

Death of revolutionary document

Report on the movie “The iron lady”

Comes from a family that owned its own shop. As a child she always worked there.

Here she learned that you have to work hard in life.

Studied at Oxford.

“get up and do something.

Thatcher acts against terrorism.

“it used to be about trying to do something, now its about trying to be someone.

“once life must matter, beside the cooking and the cleaning. Once live must be more then that.

“I will not be a woman that stands silence and beautiful next to her man.”

She had a high voice, therefor she wasn’t taken serious and called a screaming housewife.

When it became clear she was going to run for prime minister her team told her a lot needed to be changed. She had to work on her voice and clothing style, which made her look like a conservative housewife.

Her pearl necklace staid, she called it the ‘twins’, because it was her present from her husband when she had given birth to her twins.

Thatcher strongly supports small business and believes people should take risks and work hard if the want to achieve something.

Its time to put the ‘great’ back in Great Britain.

She describes her ruling/vision as: unity, strength and courage.

When British islands were conquered by the Argentine government, she stood up and fought for her country. After many dead’s Britain recaptured their islands.

“take pride of being British”. Thatcher herself is a proud Brit.

While she ruled people within her party resigned, because they couldn’t work with her any longer.

Highlights of speeches Margaret Thatcher

She ensures that Brits became proud again to be British.

Thatcher had a good relationship with the President of the unite states, Donald Regan. They shared the same visions.

Thatcher provided military bases for Regan when the VS was planning an attack on Kaddafi, while no one else in Europe would.

“there are a lot of weak people within Europe, weak, weak, weak.

Describes herself as: clear, decisive and purposeful.

“you can’t spend what u haven’t earned.

Its not the governments task to create jobs it’s the businesses.

“strong defence, stand up for your country”

she knew like only a shop owner daughter could know how much pride the people would get out off earning their own home

“we offer them a place that they own”

the people themselves must be the owners over property, not the government.

stood up against Soviet Union with Regan.

Margaret introduces the free market economics.

Analyse of Margaret’s speeches

Always wears suits/mantelpakjes(?)

Her pearl necklace is standards and sometimes her neck gets decorated with a bow.

Blow out big hair

Wears shiny jewellery like brooches and earrings.

wears a lot of blue

a few to none hand gestures.

She kind of has a swish (I think because of her teeth)

Voice became lower from the moment she started running for prime minister.

#research

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thisdaynews · 4 years

Text

Behind Trump’s secret war-zone trip: A Mar-a-Lago escape, a twin Air Force One and a Twitter plan

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/behind-trumps-secret-war-zone-trip-a-mar-a-lago-escape-a-twin-air-force-one-and-a-twitter-plan/

Behind Trump’s secret war-zone trip: A Mar-a-Lago escape, a twin Air Force One and a Twitter plan

For a president who at times seems to be at war with his own military leaders, it was a celebration of America’s troops that a small circle of aides planned carefully for weeks to prevent leaks that could scuttle the dangerous trip.

“It’s a long flight,” Trump joked after serving turkey in a cafeteria here on Thanksgiving night. “But we love it.”

Trump’s surprise three-and-a-half-hour stop marked his second visit to a combat zone and his first trip to Afghanistan, dropping into a region that cultivated the leaders of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Last year, after facing criticism for being in office nearly two years without visiting troops overseas, Trump had hinted for weeks that he would take a trip soon — “I’m going to a war zone,” he bristled when asked whether he was afraid to visit. No one was particularly surprised when an amateur British aircraft watcher tracked a Boeing VC-25A, one of the modified Boeing 747s that typically serves as Air Force One, flying over Europe.

This year, Trump said nothing publicly before leaving his family, including First Lady Melania Trump, at Mar-a-Lago for his secret visit to Afghanistan.

Cell phones, hotspots and any other devices emitting a signal were confiscated from everyone traveling on Air Force One — yes, even the president himself. But his staff ensured tweets would be sent from Trump’s Twitter account so Trump-watchers wouldn’t get suspicious that the normally Twitter-obsessed president wasn’t tweeting — like they did last year.

And this time, 12 of the 13 journalists who traveled with Trump — representing news wires, print and broadcast outlets — were picked up on the roof of a public parking garage near Joint Base Andrews just outside Washington and not even told where they were traveling until just before they arrived in Afghanistan.

Trump secretly slipped out of Mar-a-Lago earlier that evening and departed from an undisclosed airport on a flight a little after 7 p.m. Wednesday. The 13th journalist on the Afghanistan trip — a television correspondent — was aboard that flight and described it in a pool report as “bare-bones, except for four blue leather chairs and a moderately fancy port-a-potty that had been brought in for the occasion.”

Trump greeted the crew of that plane and even stayed in the cockpit for takeoff, the pool report said.

The presidential aircraft that Trump had flown to Florida a day earlier remained parked at Palm Beach International Airport, allowing travelers to see the modified blue-and-white 747 aircraft known around the globe as Air Force One.

That was a decoy. Secretly, a twin plane also used as Air Force One was hidden inside a cavernous hangar at Joint Base Andrews — instead of being lit up on the tarmac as usual — allowing the president to clandestinely hop on a flight without the public catching on. He departed just after 10 p.m. for the nonstop flight to Bagram Air Field, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan.

Reporters traveling with the president learned their destination from White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham two hours before their arrival. A digital clock in Air Force One’s press cabin usually shows times in Washington, the plane’s location at the moment and its destination. The time for the destination was left blank until landing in Afghanistan.

“It’s a dangerous area and he wants to support the troops,” Grisham said of the president. “He and Mrs. Trump recognize that there’s a lot of people far away from their families during the holidays and we thought it’d be a nice surprise.”

Asked how the president was feeling, Grisham responded: “He’s good. He’s excited.”

Air Force One landed in the dark at 8:33 p.m. local time Thursday with the shades drawn and interior lights off for security reasons — just as it had taken off from the Washington area.

Two surveillance blimps could be seen overhead. It was quiet and dark except for a smattering of lights. The base smelled of burning wood and trash.

The president moved through the sprawling base in a 15-vehicle motorcade that included tan Toyotas with soldiers standing in the truck beds holding combat rifles. Trump was followed into each location by teams of heavily armed combat troops in fatigues, helmets and night-vision goggles.

Journalists were barred from reporting on the trip until just before their departure from Afghanistan, after briefly getting internet access on the base to file. For three hours, they watched the president — in a blue suit with a red striped tie — dish out turkey in a cafeteria, where troops were watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on television, pose for photos and deliver remarks in a hangar to 1,500 military personnel.

For once, Trump made no mention of the troubles he’s facing at home. He didn’t discuss House Democrats pushing to impeach him in the coming weeks for pressuring Ukraine to opening politically advantageous investigations against a potential 2020 opponent. He also didn’t mention his rift with military leaders, including a new one just days before this trip.

He entered to the song that greets Trump at every rally — “God Bless the USA” — and was greeted with loud cheers and chants of, “USA! USA!” About 50 troops in fatigues stood behind him on a makeshift stage with a helicopter parked stage left.

Trump heaped praise on the troops and bragged about his accomplishments, specifically praising the work to destroy the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

And he had a supporting actor on hand to praise the president as well — Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, who met with Trump on the base earlier as the president announced the resumption of peace negotiations with the Taliban.

Ghani, before a sea of troops, complimented the president for taking out leadership of the region’s major terrorist groups. “President Trump, people talked a lot about [Osama] bin Laden — but what you did to eliminate [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi who was an organizer and not a talker — is a much greater accomplishment,” he said.

“Please thank your families for agreeing to miss you at this special occasion and for being here defending United States security and our freedom,” said the Afghan president, who learned of Trump’s trip just hours before his arrival. “Together, we will succeed. We will never forget what 9/11 brought us and we will never permit the repetition of 9/11 again.”

Trump told the troops stationed at Bagram that the war in Afghanistan “will not be decided on the battlefield” but by the people of the region with a political solution.

“And we will continue to work tirelessly for the day when we can bring each and every one of you home and safe to your family. And that day is coming…very soon,” Trump said.

After a 13-hour journey, and a brief period on the ground, Trump also wistfully told the troops that his Thanksgiving meal had been cut short. “I sat down, I had a gorgeous piece of turkey and I was all set to go…I had a bite of mashed potatoes, and I never got to the turkey, because Gen. [Mark] Milley said come on over, sir, let’s take some pictures. I never got to my turkey. It’s the first time at Thanksgiving that I’ve never had anything called turkey.“

Around midnight on Thanksgiving, Trump once again boarded Air Force One ready to head back to Florida. He landed briefly at an Air Force base in Germany, where the plane often refuels. But this time, instead of spending two hours refueling, the identical Air Force One — the decoy that had been parked at Palm Beach International Airport — was flown in to take Trump immediately home.

The president was back at Mar-a-Lago by 7:30 a.m. Friday, and within hours he headed out for a round of golf.

#escape #force #Foreign #Politics

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universeinform-blog · 7 years

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Obama to try and reassure Europe's leaders on his last foreign tour

New Post has been published on https://universeinform.com/2017/03/30/obama-to-try-and-reassure-europes-leaders-on-his-last-foreign-tour/

Obama to try and reassure Europe's leaders on his last foreign tour

Barack Obama will are seeking for to reassure European leaders panicked with the aid of the Yankee presidential election all through a farewell tour marking the end of his time in the White House and preserve his legacy earlier than Donald Trump begins to tear it up.

Mr. Obama will on Monday fly to Greece, earlier than meeting with the British High Minister and different Eu allies in Germany in a trip designed to strengthen his foreign coverage ahead of the Republican presidency of Donald Trump.

The European portion of the experience will “sign our team spirit with our closest allies inside the international,” said Ben Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s national safety adviser stated.

“And support our support for the approaches that have been taken during the last eight years to attempt to promote financial boom, financial safety, and global cooperation on an entire range of problems.”

Ecu leaders and senior former military officers called on Mr. Trump this week to make clear his function on Nato after he, again and again, called the body “pricey and obsolete” and stated its individuals were too reliant on America to fund their defense.

But Mr. Obama will counter Mr. Trump’s grievance by means of implying that he could be unable to undo an alliance that has “continued for many years” via several administrations and that his White House has taken steps to “beef up”.

Making his first forestall in Greece, his first authentic go to to the united states, Mr. Obama will supply a speech at the financial system and trade geared toward finding common ground between his positions and those of the president-elect.

Mr. Trump has blamed the decline of business America unfastened trade agreements and coffee tariffs that have led American businesses to flee to cheaper labor markets overseas.

In his speech Mr. Obama will “understand the challenges that are provided through globalization” Mr. Rhodes stated, even as on the identical time touting the merits of “open markets.”

Within the election campaign, Mr. Trump challenged pillars of American democracy, suggesting that the election turned into “rigged”.

In what may be perceived as a much less than diffused dig on the Republican president-pick, Mr. Obama will on Wednesday go to the Parthenon to “experience the records in Athens this is at the foundation of so among the democratic values”.

The president will then journey to Germany in which he will meet with Angela Merkel, the chancellor, whom the White House described as “his closest partner” throughout the complete presidency.

I Want My Husband To Reassure Me While We’re Separated But He Won’t

I once in a while hear from other halves who have been hoping that their trial separation changed into going to head an entire lot extra easily than it has. Regularly, the husband assures the wife that they’ll speak frequently or even “date” one another even as they are aside. However lamentably on occasion, this is the promise in place of the reality. Needless to mention, some wives worry about this situation and directly ask for some reassurance. And some do now not get the form of reassurance that they had was hoping for.

I heard from a wife who said: “I need to make it clear that I never wanted the separation. My husband wouldn’t take no for an answer, though. He stored repeating the same vintage chorus that he wished time to sort himself out. It became quite clear that I truly didn’t have tons of a preference However to provide him his time. However, I made it very clear that this became all towards my higher judgment

He reassured me that it’s handiest be temporary and that we would probably see each other often. He stated that he would no longer be surprised if we failed to miss one another and in reality join at some stage in the separation. this is what I was hoping for. But it isn’t the truth of the state of affairs. Any time I talk to my separated husband, I should be only to call him. Anytime we see one another, I’ve initiated it and he acts placed out by means of the entire whole time. He’s now not performing loving or romantic with me. He is not even patient with me. The other night, reassure thesaurus

I told him that this complete situation was scaring me. He responded that we had been separated and he wasn’t sure what I was looking forward to. I informed him that I used to be hoping that the situation might be better. I instructed him that I basically needed a few reassurance from him that things have been going to be Good enough between us and that we’d turn out to be collective. essentially his reaction was to tell me that neither of us can see into the future and that we need to just keep to do what we are already doing and wish for the high-quality. I’m so upset that that is all he can offer me. Because I experience as if it is simplest a remember of time before my marriage is over. If he cannot even reassure me, how will he ever recommit to me?” I will attempt to deal with these concerns inside the following article.

Leadership Background: Resolute Leaders

Conflicts, resolutions, and progress are the most salient elements of a credible organization, organization or company. A corporation which does not signify or take place them isn’t a terrific corporation in any respect, or we might also refer it as a stagnant organization. A dynamic agency is sort of a flowing river, whereas a stagnated employer is sort of a stinking pond with complete of microscopic animals.top 100 leaders in history

Conflicts are symptoms of alternate but if they’re simplest dealt with nicely. Some human beings especially leaders might imagine that conflicts are terrible, and accordingly they have to be avoided at any value. Proper leaders, however, consider that conflicts have an inherent electricity to push an organization beyond mundane limitations. It’s so,

Due to the fact conflicts venture complacency, and in effect engender solutions, and answers in return beautify progress. The overall process ends in an organizational sustainability.

Sustainability, but, is predicated closely on resolute minds. Resolute leaders in no way vacillate between mind; it’s miles because they’re aplomb and visionary philosophers. You may ponder approximately the deep chasm between leaders and politicians.

As many pundits expound, leaders are the byproduct in their own hunches, intuitions, visions, reviews or practical knowledge, whereas politicians are siding impact of a horrific management exercise and negative social environments.

You continually understand that to be a frontrunner fees not anything except the conclusion of human cause. There is no such issue as being a frontrunner in a single time and a baby-kisser in another time. a leader lives as a pacesetter and dies as a pacesetter. What if I put it this manner: a frontrunner is like a thermometer who reads the hotness and coldness of organizational

Contexts, whereas a politician is a temperature of capricious social surroundings. In other words, a pacesetter can read politicians, but politicians can not study a leader. For a higher understanding of this idea, I invite you to study approximately natural or servant leaders. There are masses of books approximately it.

Legal Protection for Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in Nigeria

For healthful and continuous in waft of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to Nigeria, the USA has over time put in place pleasant prison framework for Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) protection.

On this Foreign Investors’ Hints for Doing Commercial enterprise in Nigeria Collection, we shall be inspecting the legal mechanisms installed place for the purpose of encouraging an increasing FDIs inflow and ensuring Overseas Buyers’ self-belief inside u. S . A ..

We shall be discussing Foreign Buyers’ protections starting from the certainty of arbitral complaints and other dispute decision mechanisms in u. S ..

The fact with modern monetary systems is that no use may be an island economically;

Overseas Direct Investment (FDI) protection could be very essential to the hit attainment of Foreign Buyers’ Commercial enterprise goal(s) and economic development of any economy.foreign words and phrases

There are steps that host nations can lawfully take within the workout in their sovereignty and energy can result in depriving Overseas Traders of reaping the culmination in their investments.

Host government movements that can affect Overseas Investment adversely consists of nationalization; the act of a government taking control of a non-public employer and converting it to the kingdom or public ownership.

Expropriation; the act of a central authority taking possession of or otherwise meddling with privately held property or belongings for the use and gain of the general public, or inside the public hobby.

The legislative and administrative acts of the authorities as authorities action also can have negative effects on Foreign Traders’ companies in Nigeria.

That is the indirect or creeping form of expropriation. The only difference is that, it mode of operation shifted interest from the bodily and actual taking-over of an investor’s property to the legislative and administrative acts of the government.

At the same time as not depriving a Overseas investor of the possession of an asset In this type of authorities manipulate, it’s far able to significantly lowering the cost of houses and investments of the Foreign owner.

Overseas Buyers don’t like making an investment in u. S .’s with threat inclusive of arbitrary revocation of a license; allow or a concession after the investor has made the needful investments.

The advancement and expansion of international Enterprise relationships and the importance of Overseas direct Funding to the economic improvement of Nigeria have made u . S . to put in location a few Foreign Enterprise protection laws for the purpose of encouraging Foreign Investors.

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cringeynews · 7 years

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New Post has been published on

New Post has been published on http://cringeynews.com/featured/trump-may-have-just-thrown-decades-of-us-china-relations-into-disarray/

Trump may have just thrown decades of US-China relations into disarray

That’s because of whom it was with: President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan.

Shortly after the transition team issued that statement, Trump took to Twitter and essentially doubled-down, once again referring to Tsai as the “President of Taiwan”:

The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016

With this phone call, and the follow-up tweet, Trump is risking fundamentally upending decades of US policy toward Taiwan and enraging China, the world’s only other superpower. China sees Taiwan not as an independent country, but rather as part of China.

Trump, responding to the immediate groundswell of criticism after the phone call, fired back on Twitter:

Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016

His point is valid — the US does sell Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment. But it betrays a clear lack of understanding of both US policy toward China and of how diplomacy works.

Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the US has pledged to “make available” to Taiwan various weapons and other military supplies “as may be necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability.” It’s not a defense treaty, but rather a statement of policy that the US will help Taiwan maintain a defense against China.

Yet it also makes clear that the US does not formally recognize the government of Taiwan. It’s a policy known as “strategic ambiguity,” in which the US essentially tries to walk a very fine diplomatic line between supporting its friend Taiwan without upsetting the status quo or angering China.

Of course, China could theoretically choose not to give too much weight to Trump’s actions, deciding that the president-elect doesn’t know what he’s doing — and isn’t signaling a fundamental shift in US policy. Diplomats from other countries privately say their governments aren’t currently taking Trump’s pronouncements seriously because they attribute them to ignorance, rather than a change of direction.

But that doesn’t mean it won’t do damage.

On Saturday, China’s Foreign Ministry reportedly said it had lodged “stern representations” with what it called the “relevant U.S. side,” urging the careful handling of the Taiwan issue to avoid any unnecessary disturbances in ties.

Via

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thisdaynews · 5 years

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The Real Reason Obama Didn’t Pass Gun Control

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-real-reason-obama-didnt-pass-gun-control/

The Real Reason Obama Didn’t Pass Gun Control

After every mass shooting, there’s a new ritual: sharing an old Twitter post from a British columnist that says: “In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the US gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.”

But “America” decided no such thing after the December 2012 elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. Poll after poll in early 2013 showed a near-unanimous consensus of Americans supporting legislation to close all loopholes in the background check system, and smaller majorities backing bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. A bipartisan background check bill, drafted by Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey, won the support of a Senate majority. It was defeated, four months after the tragedy, by a filibustering Senate minority.

Story Continued Below

America’s gun control majority hasn’t decided that the murder of children is a “bearable” cost for preserving our constitutional freedoms. It simply hasn’t figured out how to overcome the intense opposition from the gun rights minority, in a system of government designed to give disproportionate power to lightly populated rural areas, where love of gun rights runs deep, and intense minority opposition, a category that includes gun owners. Figuring it out is crucial for gun control advocates, and it requires a better understanding of why the gun control push failed after Sandy Hook.

One easy culprit is the Senate’s filibuster rule. A background-check bill like Manchin-Toomey would likely pass without a filibuster—even red state Democrats like Manchin and Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama support universal background checks. But everyone knows that a background check bill isn’t a panacea; several of the most recent mass shooters were young men without criminal records who legally obtained their weapons.

More ambitious gun legislation remains a harder sell. Democrats put an assault weapons ban on the Senate floor in 2013, and it received only 40 votes, with several swing state Democrats who are still in the Senate—Colorado’s Michael Bennet, New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, Maine’s Angus King (a nominal independent), Montana’s Jon Tester and Virginia’s Mark Warner—voting against it.

The main problem gun control advocates had in 2013 was not the rules but the lack of a mandate, the product of Democratic squeamishness about gun control going back several years.

Many Democrats had been uncomfortable with gun control since the moment President Bill Clinton enacted the assault weapons ban in 1994, over the private opposition of the House Democratic leadership. When Democrats were decimated in the 1994 midterm elections, including Speaker Tom Foley, gun control was blamed. (In his autobiography, Clinton wrote that the National Rifle Association “could rightly claim to have made [Newt] Gingrich the House speaker.”)

Then the 1999 Columbine school shooting rekindled Democratic interest in gun control, and Vice President Al Gore cast a tie-breaking Senate vote to pass a measure requiring background checks for purchases at gun shows. But the Republican-led House teamed up with conservative Democrats, still scarred by the 1994 backlash, to squelch it.

The gun issue then dogged Gore’s 2000 presidential bid. Under pressure from his lone primary rival Sen. Bill Bradley, Gore endorsed a ban on cheap handguns, along with a photo-license requirement for purchasing other handguns. Gore futilely tried to downplay that stance during the general election, and some Democrats attributed his defeat to it. Shortly before Election Day 2004, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry awkwardly tried to leaven his support for renewing the assault weapons ban, which Republicans had just let expire, by going goose hunting.

And so Barack Obama released an approving statement during the 2008 presidential campaign when the Supreme Court declared that the Second Amendment enshrines an individual right to bear arms, and proceeded to flip several states with significant gun-owning constituencies. In his first term, Obama did not push for gun control measures after the fatal mass shootings at Fort Hood, Texas; an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater; and the Tucson, Arizona supermarket that cut short Rep. Gabby Giffords’ congressional career. He continued to keep quiet on gun control in the 2012 presidential campaign as well.

The Sandy Hook massacre, which took place one month after the 2012 election, upended Obama’s second-term legislative agenda. The national trauma resulting from the murders of 20 small children was so profound that Obama reasonably concluded this was not a time for caution and calculation. In January 2013, Obama proposed a long list of measures, including bans on assault weapons ban and armor-piercing bullets and a limit on the size of magazines.

And yet he began his gun control push from a position of political weakness. He had not campaigned on gun control, let alone a specific set of gun control proposals. He couldn’t influence lawmakers with clear evidence of red- and purple-state voters who were dedicated to his proposals. No broad-based gun control movement was in place to apply grassroots pressure (despite the efforts of billionaire Michael Bloomberg to build one with his Everytown for Gun Safety organization).

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association had cultivated for decades a movement of single-issue voters, fostering a cultural identity around gun ownership that fortifies its legal and constitutional arguments. We now know that the NRA leadership was internally conflicted about how to respond to the unique horror that was Sandy Hook, but the ultimate decision to continue its unwavering defiance against any gun restrictions worked perfectly, and kept most Republicans (and a few Democrats) in line.

Today, gun control advocates are more optimistic because support in polls for their ideas is strong, the NRA has been distracted by internal strife, and President Donald Trump has hinted that he could push for a background-check bill or a red-flag bill. If Trump shocks us all by challenging the NRA and breaking its back, he will have done the Democrats’ job for them. But it remains very hard to fathom that Trump, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, would get behind any bill that draws the NRA’s vehement opposition. And any bill that had the NRA’s blessing would not be much of a bill.

The next serious opening for gun control legislation, then, will most likely be when Democrats get control of the White House and the Senate, however narrowly. But to be better positioned than Obama was in 2013, Democrats have to run on gun control now and run on it hard.

Some gun control advocates argue that Democrats have been running on the issue, noting that in the 2018 midterms, most of the candidates endorsed by Everytown and Giffords’ pro-gun control political action committee won, and that 15 House Republicans with “A” ratings from the NRA were replaced by Democrats with “F” ratings.

However, it’s all too easy for winning candidates to wrongly assume that nominally running on an issue means you have won the public’s commitment on it. In George W. Bush’s victory lap after his 2004 reelection, he declared, “I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it [on] Social Security and tax reform.” And it’s true that he had campaigned in part on a plan to partially privatize Social Security. But he learned the hard way that just because he said something on occasion on the campaign trail, that didn’t mean the voters were paying close attention.

Once Bush began his second term with a concerted push for Social Security reform, Democrats mercilessly hammered the plan. Public polling for it was limp. After months of flailing and frittering away all that political capital, Bush shelved the plan.

The lesson is that Democrats have to not just run on gun control, but also make it central to the 2020 election. That means campaigning on gun control not only in the immediate aftermath of traumatic mass shootings, but on all the other days when gun violence is still happening off our TV screens.

Most of the approximately 36,000 annual gun deaths are not from mass shootings and not from assault-style weapons. About 22,000, slightly less than two-thirds, are suicides. Others result from domestic violence, routine crimes and accidents. Of the homicides, nearly two-thirds are from handguns, not military-style assault rifles. These quieter deaths, unlike domestic terror incidents with high body counts and flamboyant weaponry, happen every day. They must be talked about every day if a movement fueled by a strong sense of urgency is to be built. Presidential candidates could begin every stump speech with a recounting of the gun deaths that happened in the past week, to drive home the point that every day without action is a day when someone needlessly dies.

Such a strategy is not without significant political risk. There is a reason why Obama did not try to build a robust gun control mandate in 2008 and 2012: He probably would have lost critical swing states like Ohio, Iowa and Colorado.

And it’s one thing to run on universal background checks, which have almost universal political appeal but limited policy impact. It’s another to run on more aggressive yet more controversial proposals like federal licensing, mandatory buybacks and ammunition limits. The co-chair of Iowa’s Des Moines County Democrats recently told POLITICO that some of those proposals, which have been embraced by several candidates in the current presidential field, amounted to “crazy talk” since “there’s a pretty heavy gun culture out here in Iowa, even among Democrats.”

But if Democrats are serious about enacting gun control, then they will have to show that seriousness now. Otherwise, this time won’t be different, and the next time won’t be different, and gun control debate really will be over.

#control #Foreign #Obama #Politics

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