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disneyat34 · 4 years

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Saludos Amigos at 34

A review by Adam D. Jaspering

In 1941, World War II was raging. A number of Latin American countries were beginning to sympathize with the Axis Powers. The Roosevelt administration did not want fascist ideology creeping into the western hemisphere. The State Department needed an ambassador to steer South America towards US interests. They needed Walt Disney.

Walt Disney Animation Studios was in a precarious situation in 1941. For starters, Disney Studios made an irreversible pivot towards feature filmmaking. After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the company expanded. The Hyperion Disney Studio had been abandoned for the larger, more lavish, and pricier Burbank Studio. It was a great cost, but one Disney hoped to offset with his next few pictures.

Disney expected up to 75% of his gross revenue to be earned internationally. Because of the war, the European film market had dried up. As a direct result, Pinocchio and Fantasia were financial losses. Disney had spent too much money and was not earning it back.

These financial struggles culminated in the most infamous labor dispute in the company’s history. Layoffs were imminent, and Disney could only promise security to a small fraction of his 1200 employees. This was the tipping point for the Disney Studio staff.

While Disney proved his mettle as a cartoonist and filmmaker, his business savvy was underdeveloped. Disney was running his big company like a little company, not delegating tasks or departmentalizing. There were wild discrepancies in employee pay and benefits. Animators earned anywhere from $12-$300 a week for the same output of work. Disney, unsympathetic to his employee’s complaints, refused to amend his practices. The ensuing Disney Animator’s Strike lasted from May 29 to September 14th, 1941.

As a result of downsizing and retaliatory firings, Disney Studios exited the strike with only 694 employees. A majority of them, rather incensed by the ordeal. Disney needed three things to keep his company afloat. First, enough money to keep production financially stable. Second, a new market to sell his films until Europe became viable again. Third, he needed to recuse himself from duty until animosity subsided. The US Department of State could provide all three.

The deal was simple. Disney would embark on a 10-week goodwill tour to South America, financed by the United States Government. He would visit Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Peru. Disney would convince the populace, media, and politicians that The United States was an ally worth keeping. For his cooperation, Disney was given federal loan guarantees, staving off bankruptcy.

Disney brought sixteen faithful employees along on the journey. They were a combination of animators, writers, and composers. They were tasked with soaking up the culture, atmosphere, and influence. Disney Studios would use these inspirations to create two films especially for Latin American audiences: Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944).

Saludos Amigos is comprised of four independent segments, each one centered on a different area of South America: The Peruvian highlands, the Chilean Andes, the Argentinian Pampas, and Rio de Janeiro. Between these segments is video footage of Disney and his crew touring the continent. Perhaps to bookend the segments. Perhaps to ground the cartoons in a sense of reality. Perhaps to pad the runtime; Saludos Amigos is only 42 minutes long!

The first segment is titled Lake Titicaca, taking place at the namesake body of water, resting on the Peruvian and Bolivian border. The short features Donald Duck on vacation.

Donald Duck is one of the most popular characters in the Disney pantheon, and this is his feature film debut. He is appearing in a short within a movie, but it still counts as a feature film debut. Donald is a very static character. You know exactly who he is, what he is capable of, and what sort of situations he will find himself in. Some misfortune will befall him, he’ll overreact, and his anger will exacerbate the situation.

How he behaves in Lake Titicaca is exactly how he behaves in every short. Donald plays a tourist vacationing in Peru. He gets altitude sickness. He upsets a llama. His boat sinks and he’s plunged into the lake. The rope bridge he’s walking across falls apart, sending him careening down a gorge. It’s funny, the slapstick is well done, and it is paced well. It is a very typical Donald Duck cartoon.

It is so representative of Donald Duck, it could easily serve as a stand-alone short. It didn’t need to be part of a movie at all. There’s no massive increase in artistic style. No daring adventure in animation techniques. No groundbreaking backgrounds or design. Disney raised the bar for five consecutive films. Now he was lowering it.

In fairness, the artists did depict the Peruvian environment in a vivid manner. It’s a travel advertisement that doesn’t feel like one. The native craftwork, clothing, and culture are on full display, just as intended.

For the first half of the short, anyway. Partway, the focus drifts away from Donald Duck visiting Peru to Donald Duck’s wacky hijinks with a llama. In short, Lake Titicaca does a decent job of portraying Peru. However, the focus is on Donald Duck first. Peru is simply the backdrop.

The second featurette is Pedro. Pedro is a personified airplane, the baby in a family of personified airplanes. Pedro’s father’s job is carrying the mail between Chile and Argentina. Every day, he flies over the treacherous Andes. One day, Pedro must fill-in for his father. It’s a parable about growing up and accepting responsibility.

The task and the journey is formidable. It’s made all the more complicated by Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America. More than an obstacle, Aconcagua is also personified. He is an angry and territorial mountain, with the ability to control the weather. Whenever planes bother him, he creates storms. It makes little sense. Personified airplanes also make little sense. Clearly, we can accept a large quantity of silliness.

Much like Lake Titicaca, Pedro is enjoyable, but offers little in terms of cinematic grandeur. It’s easy to understand why. Disney and his group returned from South America in October, 1941. Saludos Amigos debuted in August, 1942. Cinematic grandeur was not the goal. A finished product was the goal.

Throughout the rest of the 1940s, Disney would be releasing a series of package films. Shorts, cobbled together without much rhyme or reason, released as a feature. The combination of Disney’s financial woes and reduced staff forced him to dial his filmic aspirations back. For the foreseeable future, his productions needed to be fast, cheap, and accessible. Saludos Amigos was the forefather of these films.

While the cartoon is underwhelming, it’s not necessarily bad. The major problem is, Pedro offers a very poor representation of Chile. Lake Titicaca offered Peru and its environments as a backdrop. Pedro seems determined to ignore its setting. If young Pedro was carrying mail from Denver to Sacramento, and a personified Pike’s Peak was giving him grief, very little would be changed. There is no Chile in this cartoon dedicated to Chile.

Chileans themselves were well aware of this slight. Chilean cartoonist René Ríos “Pepo” Boettiger was especially frustrated. After seeing Saludos Amigos, Pepo created a truly Chilean cartoon character. Condorito, an animated condor, debuted in 1949. Beginning as a simple comic strip, Condorito has been syndicated internationally, featured in his own comic books, been adapted to TV, film, and a webseries. He remains popular in Chile and throughout Latin America. It’s easy to get inspired by art you like. You can also be inspired by art you don’t like.

Next in the program is El Gaucho Goofy. Here, Disney staple Goofy makes his feature film debut. By 1941, Goofy’s schtick was drifting away from narrative-driven comic shorts and towards a parody of instructional videos. Already, he had “instructed” on baseball, skiing, swimming, fishing, and martial arts. These themed shorts would continue all the way to the 1960s.

El Gaucho Goofy aims to teach the differences between an American cowboy and a South American gaucho. Both have the same job, tending to cattle on the open prairie. The short highlights the regional and cultural differences.

A defining aspect of these satirical Goofy shorts, Goofy is at constant odds with an omniscient narrator. Goofy either tries and fails to follow the provided instructions, or follows the instructions too closely, resulting in disaster. The slapstick is one mere aspect of the humor. The remainder is a dissonance between what the narrator deadpans, and what Goofy actually delivers.

El Gaucho Goofy is funny in its own right. What’s more, Goofy is truly representing the life of a gaucho on the Argentinian Pampas. The short is basic, but entertaining, informative and detailed. Another strike against Pedro, outclassed in dignity and competency by Goofy.

The final segment of the film is Aquarela do Brasil (Watercolor of Brazil). Here, Donald Duck is employed once again. Not simply a sightseer in a foreign land, Donald is paired with Jose Carioca, a parrot and enthusiastic Brazilian patriot. Donald’s fiery temper and bad luck are sidelined for a whirlwind travelogue of Rio de Janeiro.

At the time of filming, Rio was the third most populous city in the western hemisphere (it’s currently fifth). It was the clear intention of the filmmakers to highlight the urban metropolis in all its modern glory. A deliberate rebranding of South America as not just farmers and rural villages. South America also houses centers of industry, culture and commerce, on par with New York.

But when featuring Brazil, one has an obligation to depict the country as a whole. The urban splendor must be paired with the natural beauty. The Amazon river basin and the Pantanal are magnificent natural wonders. Their unique ecosystems and indigenous life contribute to Brazil’s evolution as an empire. Even miles outside the city, there are sights to behold.

The Disney animators depict the natural landscapes well. They create a beautiful watercolor wonderland. A disembodied paintbrush swoops in from offscreen, creating the world in real time. We are given a contrast of deep greens, vivid fluorescents, and rich pastels. It’s very post-impressionistic in style and saturation.

When the short introduces Jose, it shifts into an exploration of Rio de Janeiro’s cityscape. Jose shows off trademark Brazilian interests, including nightclubs and a cachaça bar. Here, Donald partakes of his first glass of cachaça (a Brazilian spirit distilled from sugarcane, quite similar to rum).

Saludos Amigos, not fully intended for children, has no shame depicting Donald Duck drinking hard liquor. For what it’s worth, he doesn’t seem to enjoy it. Not that the drink tastes bad, Donald can’t stomach alcohol at all. It’s a strange thing to both feature alcohol as a cultural highlight to be respected, but also outwardly discouraging the beverage to a percentage of the viewing audience. Such is the problem of using a children’s cartoon character as a cultural ambassador.

The character of Jose Carioca has a lot of personality. Even more when compared to an oddly subdued Donald, serving as an everyman and American analog. Jose is a passionate, excitable motormouth who launches into long monologues in his native Portuguese. He is often oblivious to Donald not understanding. He has much love for his native Brazil, and is quick to share it with everyone. He especially loves music and dance.

So much so, the movie has no choice but to end on a samba number. Like Fantasia before it, Saludos Amigos has no coda, no outro, and no farewell. Just a title card reading “The End.” Combined with its 42-minute runtime, I can imagine many audience members sitting confused in the theater, waiting for the movie to continue.

Saludos Amigos was never intended to be a masterpiece. It was a piece of propaganda and a tax write-off cobbled together in less than nine months. There are individual elements of the movie to be enjoyed, but nothing especially noteworthy. Had it been made by any studio besides Disney, it would be relegated to obscurity. Not that Saludos Amigos is a celebrated entry in the Disney canon.

The story behind the film’s production is more interesting than the movie itself. Walt & El Grupo, a 2008 documentary, fully detailed Disney and his South American tour. It’s clear that The Walt Disney Company, owner of the archival footage and distributor of the final work, had creative control. Details of Disney’s interoffice troubles and financial debts are briefly mentioned, but the film focuses instead on a recreation of his South American tour. The end result is a very dry, unengaging film.

Despite every problem with Saludos Amigos, it did improve American/South American relations during WWII. The Axis powers had tried to influence South America, but by 1944, Latin America fully embargoed both Germany and Italy. Saludos Amigos didn’t achieve much, but it helped stop fascism from conquering the world. How many movies can make that claim?

Fantasia Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Pinocchio Bambi Dumbo Saludos Amigos

#Saludos Amigos #Walt Disney #Walt Disney Animation Studios #Disney #disney studios #Film Criticism #film analysis #review #Disney Canon

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reggae-ton · 3 years

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Thank you

Lastly, in 2019, during protests on the archipelago and in the diaspora calling for then-Governor Ricardo Rosselló to resign, Puerto Ricans expressed their anger and frustrations by coming together and doing what they have been doing for decades: “They expressed themselves through music” (Henríquez, New York Times). These protests were undeniably strenuous and emotional for many Puerto Ricans and today, we still see that they are using reggaeton and its cultural manifestations as a tool and as a means of expression: “Protestors have vogued in a square in Old San Juan, and there were calls for a big gathering in front of the governor’s mansion for perreo, a reggaeton dance style” (Henríquez).

This exhibit, Soy, Soy Lo Que Dejaron [I am, I am what they left] got its name from Calle 13′s, “Latinoamérica.” As the curator, I chose this lyric for the name of the exhibit because it encapsulates the socio-political positioning of Puerto Rican youth in the 1990s. They are what the government left behind, and yet, while contending with negligence and violence, they turned to underground, which soon emerged to be the reggaeton we know today. They were left behind, but that did not negate their humanity nor deprive them of their potential and capacity for creating. And they created an entire culture. This is why a Museum of the American Latino cannot exist without an exhibit on reggaeton. Reggaeton, in all its influences and disseminations, covers multiple geographies, and like Professor Rivera-Rideau states, reggaeton as a music arose from Black, working-class communities, whether in Jamaica, Panamá, New York, or Puerto Rico. It is a culture that emerged from peoples who were genuinely suffering at the hands of their governments, and it exploded into the massive cultural phenomenon that it is today. A Black genre of music and a Black culture traveled throughout the Caribbean and the Americas and now, in 2020, it has dominated the mainstream.

Moreover, it is important to note that the genre and culture are being appropriated in many places, including in Latin America and by non-Caribbean Latines. That is one of the limitations of this proposal, among others. Firstly, while curating this project, after having read my resources, I came to terms with the fact that the history of reggaeton is far too rich and far too intricate for one exhibit. Given its histories, its multiple facets (i.e. music, dance, fashion, culture), and and its socio-political contexts, reggaeton could make up an entire museum alone. There are so many crucial components to reggaeton and this exhibit proposal simply could not cover it all.

Furthermore, were this exhibit proposal to be approved, I would want to conduct interviews, like Reggaeton Con La Gata’s, with those who lived during the birth of underground. I would ask them what it felt like to be young and dealing with mano dura, how it felt to find the underground community, and if they ever expected underground to be the reggaeton it is today. Additionally, I would want to secure funding for people who contributed to and experienced the birth and emergence of reggaeton, to write about their experiences for this exhibit and help curate it. Ultimately, this is their story and they know how to best tell it.

Thank you for visiting Soy, Soy Lo Que Dejaron. I hope you have enjoyed the exhibit and learned about reggaeton as a genre, tool, and culture. Always remember that reggaeton is a Black legacy and a Black present and it belongs in the Museum of the American Latino.

#Reggaeton belongs in the Museum of the American Latino

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mothman-clarice-2 · 4 years

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The oc asks: 5, 12 & 18? Btw hope you’re doing well!!

First of all, oh my effing God THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS AHHHH! I always love talking about my OCs but I never get the chance to bUT NOW YOU GAVE ME THAT CHANCE AND I’M OVER THE MOON RN!!!! I have about 16 OCs but because I don’t wanna spam my followers, I tried to narrow it down to some of my favorites to talk about. I’ll include some doodles of them so you have faces to assign their names to.

What are their favorite songs?

Spectra- Your Soul by Forrest. It's just so funky and catchy and he can't help but dance when it plays :)

Autumn- La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf. Given Autumn is French but lives in America, she likes indulging in a bit of her own culture. This song was her favorite as a child and it's become a comforting and nostalgic song for her.

Lucas- The Only Thing They Fear is You by Mick Gordon (from the Doom Eternal soundtrack). Lucas is a heavy metal musician so obviously, his favorite song is gonna be metal. He loves listening to this especially when exercising because of the immense feeling of power it gives him.

Iris- Resonance by Home. Iris's favorite genre (second only to heavy metal considering she is bandmates with Lucas) is vaporwave so naturally, her favorite song would be the one that started it all.

Icarus- STFU by Pink Guy. Icarus is a comedian whose style was heavily influenced by the style of Pink Guy. He loves making fun of the overly edgy and obnoxiously offensive “humor” used by most teenagers trying to be cool and edgy. He loves the aggressiveness of this song and often listens to it to vent his frustration at people who really get on his nerves.

Doré- Derniere Danse by Indila. Doré being born and raised in France loves indulging in her culture through French music. This song just has this enchanting beauty that makes her want to get up and dance.

Lorenzo- Nocturnes Op. 9 by Chopin. Lorenzo has a taste for the finer things in life and loves classical music with culture and history behind them. He also quite enjoys Gymnopedie No. 1 by Erik Satie as it was one of the first songs he learned to play on the piano.

What is something they carry with them always or never leave the house without?

Spectra- Spectra is a mega softie especially for his girlfriend Autumn and his brother Neon who disappeared years ago. (There's a whole plot behind Neon’s disappearance. I’ll summarize it at the bottom*) Spectra likes to keep the cork from the wine bottle he and Autumn opened on their first date. He also likes to keep a bandana that Neon had before he disappeared. Spectra found it while he was searching for Neon and kept it as a motivator to keep up the search.

Autumn- Autumn has had some seriously traumatic stuff happen to her. I won’t say it here because it could be triggering to someone so I’ll put it in the hashtags if you wanna know. She has gained a strong passion for protecting children as a result of her trauma to the point where it’s become her life’s mission. She keeps a picture of herself as a child before the traumatic event happened to her as a reminder to never let what happened to her happen to anyone else.

Lucas- Despite Lucas’s intimidating appearance, he is a massive softie off-stage and is very sentimental. To make a long story short, he had a freak accident when he was young that left him severely disfigured and scarred. He felt really self-conscious about this until he discovered the heavy metal community. He quickly gained fame because his appearance fit the heavy metal aesthetic really well and he made good music. He used his fame to promote body positivity and has helped a lot of people with scars and disfigurements accept them and learn to love themselves. Lucas likes visiting children’s hospitals and has kept a few mementos from some of the kids he’s met. Most of these include drawings and cards kids made for him.

Iris- Iris loves living the aesthetic lifestyle and tries to make everything she owns fit her aesthetics. Lucas being her boyfriend knows this and gave her a gift of a keychain with a bunch of vaporwave and retro futurism-themed pendants. She cherishes it and keeps it with her everywhere she goes.

Icarus- Icarus is not really one for being sentimental but he secretly keeps a bottle cap his dad gave him. He has a strong bond with his family (though he never shows it to other people) so he treasures that bottle cap as a piece of his family.

Doré- Doré is a transgender woman and likes keeping pride memorabilia on her as she goes about her daily life. Her husband Lorenzo (although he is cis and straight) is incredibly supportive of her and likes giving her pride related gifts, one of which is a little heart-shaped crystal pendant of the trans flag with a pure gold rim. She keeps it as a bit of trans pride and a symbol of her and Lorenzo’s love.

Lorenzo- Lorenzo is incredibly romantic and deeply in love with Doré so naturally, he would like to keep a (kinda literal) piece of her with him. Doré is a golden orb weaver spider that gets its name from its golden-colored silk. She is a luxury fashion designer and she uses her silk in many of her products (which is why they’re considered luxury). She made a little handkerchief for Lorenzo made purely out of her own silk that he cherishes as if it were his firstborn child.

Do they love getting hugs or giving hugs?

Spectra- Spectra is a giver of cuddles through and through

Autumn- Autumn doesn’t like touching people but she likes getting hugs from Spectra

Lucas- He likes to give and receive.

Iris- She likes giving

Icarus- He’s not a hugger

Doré- She likes getting hugs, primarily from Lorenzo

Lorenzo- He’s a giver

*About Neon’s disappearance: To make a long story short, Neon and Spectra are the sons of the two main Gods in this universe and Neon was fascinated by Earth so he traveled to it and became mortal. He stayed too long, forgot he was a divine being, joined a gang, betrayed that gang, and is now constantly on the run from the authorities and the gang he betrayed. Spectra has dedicated himself to find Neon and bring him back home.

#oc stuff #ocs #original character #original characters #furry #fursona #arachnophobia tw #tw just in case #as for what happened to autumn she got r4ped as a child by a stranger

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ali-115944 · 4 years

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Assignment 2

ID: 115944

Date: May 31, 2020

Number of words: 1397

Course name: Issues in Mass Communication.

Course code: MASS2620

Introduction

Today, the media has become one of the most important means used to communicate with individuals, governments, and all classes of society alike, which contributes to communicating social issues to the world, as the media is an important source of awareness and building community thought, and it has a major impact in the process of forming public opinion, Besides influencing the formation of their intellectual and political interests and orientations, and developing their intellectual, academic and social levels, therefore it is necessary to study the media and understand the ways and methods that follow in influencing the world and think critically, in this task there are many topics and issues discussed in the course, the most prominent of which is Media disinformation , Hate Speech.

The Method

During the course, several media issues were discussed in the Tumblr program and the classroom.

topics:

1. Media disinformation.

2. cognitive strategies in the media.

3. communications used in World War I and II, the Cold War, and America's war on Iraq.

4. How media outside Oman present race, gender (Male, Female, third gender) and class.

5. Selfie and narcissism - fame online copy.

6. Hate Speech.

7. The role of the media in health education.

8. Comics in the time of covid-19.

9. Discussing two hypotheses.

- Hypothesis 1 - Citizens have the right to know.

- Hypothesis 2 - Citizens do NOT need to know everything.

10. perspective about media ethic challenges.

The topics were linked by finding a common idea about the media issues discussed in the classroom and the Tumblr program, by linking the idea of the topics together, and reached five common ideas.

The Analyses

1. Communication strategies

Effect on the subject of:

a) Media disinformation.

b) perspective about media ethic challenges.

c) The role of the media in health education.

d) cognitive strategies in the media.

e) communications used in World War I and II, the Cold War, and America's war on Iraq.

- The strategies of communication are represented in (publicity) that can mobilize public opinion on a specific issue by exaggerating, misleading and lying in the manner of presenting the issue in order to gain support and support, and whoever presents the negative image of the enemy confirms this by showing everything that highlights the positive image of himself through an attempt to mobilize support And nurture the belief that what he intends to do is in the interest and well-being of all human beings.

- The media face many challenges, and there must be strategies that organize the communication process between the media and the target audience, for example, the truth and the public interest. The media has become more restrictive because the truth will sometimes not be in the interest of the public.

- Media can affect people through communication strategies because it can reach a large number of people. Many health issues have proven that the media can show people in an easy way how to avoid a specific disease and what they should do to resolve any crises.

2. Literacy

Effect on the subject of:

a) Discussing two hypotheses.

b) Comics in the time of covid-19.

c) How media outside Oman present race, gender (Male, Female, third gender) and class.

- The individual's exposure to the media continuously represents a challenge for the individual in critical thinking to know and separate the truth from opinion and the individual's dealing with the means of communication.

- The ability of any individual to analyze and evaluate media content negatively or positively, along with arming the basics of making media content for personal purposes to protect oneself from legal prosecution and proper handling of information.

3. Psychological

a) cognitive strategies in the media.

b) Selfie and narcissism - fame online copy.

c) Media disinformation.

d) How media outside Oman present race, gender (Male, Female, third gender) and class.

- The media often plays a fundamental role in deepening feelings of frustration and depression in humans because of the dark information transmitted to the viewer or listener. It is not enough that these reports convey information about these events, but rather provide the viewer with audio and video of the developments taking place.

- Staying at home, frequent rumors, news and developments about the Coronavirus are all causes that negatively affect the mental health of all family members.

- The media affects people's mental health through the use of discrimination based on gender, race, or skin color

4. The long term effects

Effect on the subject of:

a) The role of the media in health education.

b) Comics in the time of covid-19.

c) perspective about media ethic challenges.

d) Media disinformation.

- Disinformation in the media and manipulation of minds deprives the ability of the individual to analyze and think, so that the individual becomes dependent on the media, which negatively affects the individual on the long level.

- The media plays a long-term role in changing the basic identity of an individual by introducing identities from different cultures to the public through the media.

- Media may affect positively in the long run by educating and sensitizing society.

5. Representation

Effect on the subject of:

a) Hate Speech

b) How media outside Oman present race, gender (Male, Female, third gender) and class.

c) Media disinformation

d) cognitive strategies in the media.

- Establishing stereotypes in society serves the interests of the media, governments, and capital owners, where the negative stereotype plays a great role in justifying war, colonialism, and violence because wars begin in the minds of people before they are applied on the ground.

- The harm caused by a discourse of discrimination or a discourse that incites hatred in the media not only harms the feelings of the individuals or groups targeted by these speeches, but also contributes to the commission of many crimes because of what this speech fueled. In the hearts of certain segments of society.

Discussion

· The continuous exposure of the population to a massive infusion of information, news and opinions is an enormous educational challenge in the electronic and digital age and assessing the sources of information requires critical thinking skills, skills that can be taught and much less sophisticated than the materials taught by students in schools. The most important of these skills:

- Separate the truth from the opinion.

- - Text and image evaluation to reveal bias.

- Building and dismantling the text based on the principles of logic.

· Discussing issues in various media outlets and trying to understand them and knowing the strategies necessary to deal with them.

· Discussing media issues through the media may have a negative or positive effect on society.

· - The diversity of the sources of searching for information and making sure that it is correct is better than relying on one source of information, and the information may be incorrect.

· We always have to think critically and look at the content differently than usual

Conclusion

Today, people live in an environment saturated with media materials, characterized by tremendous multiplicity, and great diversity, in the various media. We obtain vast quantities of information through the media, whether we want it or not, regardless of its importance or value, where it is found. Many media outlets are not responsible, they do not adhere to any moral, cultural or social values and standards, as these media outlets have not left a field in which they were not included. Media affects us, either negatively or positively, whether we feel it or not, no one is immune from the influence of the media, even a person who is not exposed to the media is affected to some degree, through his colleagues, peers and the social milieu in which he lives.

Media has many benefits for the individual and society when he understands in a correct way by knowing the strategies that the media uses to influence society, but it may be dangerous for some because the media does not recognize the professionalism and speaks out to mislead and distort, which does not stop working around the clock and targets many of the masses that live within Large societies in flaming oceans, which results in a lot of researchers and intellectuals who are aware of this phenomenon, a great responsibility in warning individuals and societies of their danger and directing them towards the optimal ways to receive the correct information.

#mass2620_20 #SQURT

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terrablaze514 · 5 years

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If I'm Invisible (Part 2)

**This is still a test.**

A preview of Marooned, prior to the events of the island. Currently on Earth, Preventers take on a dire mission to combat America's "Pedowood Agenda", which was sanctioned by a Democratic representative. Complications arise when Heero loses track of his teammates... This is also influenced by recent events, and online and offline aspects of life. I do not own these characters nor promote violence. Tags are not working properly, so you've been warned.

Rated M for mature subject matter. Trigger warnings are mentions of pedophile culture, kidnappings, corruption of power and threats of violence.

Heero had lost his mind over the massive brick door. Three of his comrades, followed by twelve students, were trapped on the other side.

Desperate, he activated his earphones.

"Duo? Wufei? Quatre? Do you read me?"

"It's the fucked up American Justice System!" Came the angered, hasty response from Duo's comm. "They've locked us in here due to Democracy!"

Heero's eyes perked. What was really going on in there?

"This is what making underage people vote does," came Quatre's curt response, albeit nonchalant.

"We should've stopped fighting for Earth when we had the chance," Wufei's voice echoed, "but that's impossible. Our hearts are incapable of achieving that level of resentment."

"I still have some serious questions about why the Democrats permitted pedophiles to buy children from their respective parents-"

"If their credit score is horrible." Quatre ended the sentence. "I understand your frustration Duo, being an American and all. But we need to stay focused. We'll deal with the president's son soon enough."

"Let's focus on how to destroy this steel door and bring these displaced students back to their respective families," Wufei said. "Let Trowa and Heero kill the evil president, and rescue Relena and Hilde from the prison located under the White House. I know they'll get the job done."

Duo heaved a nonchalant, yet desperate sigh. "So be it, then. They better act fast, so we can kill the pedophiles and habophiles who have taken the rest prisoner."

Quatre's voice spoke. "I cannot open links to Heero nor Trowa. We still need to pinpoint Mariemaia's current location. Last time she was headed for Nevada - turns out she wasn't here."

"I hope the gods have enabled high accuracy GPS to work. They're no longer driving a hybrid, hence our current predicament."

The Japanese twenty-year-old shook his head. He could only listen to them, but cannot open the link to communicate. Stretching his arms, he took mental notes of this black, pebbled building (save the yellow bricked door). His eyes shifted to the sounds of distraught cries.

His feet took off, adrenaline pumping, synchronized with his heartbeat. The voices grew louder now; he knew he was getting close.

He'd promised to never kill again, but Earthlings were so idiotic. It made all the more sense why Duo Maxwell couldn't contain his anger, upon Commander Une's announcement of a debased, defunct United States of America.

Made to attack families.

And force children and youth to grow up faster than necessary.

Let alone compromise marriage laws.

Heero wouldn't stand for it.

The following scene that greeted him was a woman, protectively holding her son and daughter back from a grown man and two grown women.

"Your son is ours for the taking, since you cannot pay your utility bills on time."

#gundam wing #tb514fanfics #marooned #heero yuy #tags not working #tags not showing up #duo maxwell #wufei chang #quatre winner #trowa barton #thisweekingundamwing

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theliberaltony · 5 years

Link

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

In the calm before 2020, FiveThirtyEight is taking a look at the ideas and people who are nudging the country’s rapidly changing political conversation in one direction or the other. We’re calling these people and ideas “nudgers.” (Creative, we know.) Our second nudger? Michelle Obama.

“If you make me miss Michelle, that’s grounds for breaking up,” a young woman said into her phone Wednesday night in Brooklyn. She was crossing the street to get to the Barclays Center, where former first lady Michelle Obama was speaking. While most authors struggle to corral their mother’s friends into a bookstore, Obama is a month into a six-month-long worldwide stadium book tour. The events are political rallies masquerading as pop culture phenomena. The talk brought out vendors selling bootlegged T-shirts with her face on them and “Black Is Beautiful” pins. Women, many of them dressed to the nines, some still in workwear, streamed into the stadium.

To these attendees, Obama’s life story and public image have merited all that enthusiasm, and they aren’t alone in thinking so. Her memoir, “Becoming,” is massively successful, having already sold 3 million copies. It has also provided Obama with a vehicle for her Trump-era cause: appealing to the better angels of the Democratic base. The book itself, meanwhile, digs into her life pre-politics with surprising candor and introspection.

“When they go low, we go high,” Obama said at the 2016 Democratic National Convention during former President Barack Obama’s last year in office. It’s a speech and phrase that have been invoked many times by Democrats during the Trump presidency, sometimes to refute the premise of the quote. Earlier this year, Eric Holder, who served as her husband’s first attorney general, memorably said, “When they go low, we kick them. That’s what this new Democratic Party is about.” Hillary Clinton said of Republicans, “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for.”

Michelle Obama is not beyond a Trump dig, of course. (“Bye, Felicia” is what she says she was thinking when she was waving goodbye at the end of President Trump’s inauguration day.) But the former first lady wants things to be more civil from the Democratic side. “We call it empathy — being able to step into someone else’s shoes,” Obama told the Brooklyn crowd, urging them to keep an open mind in the current political climate.

Obama herself embodies a refutation of Trump’s America — she is one of the world’s most famous women, and she is black. She has been savvily using that to her advantage. Her talk in Brooklyn was backlit by photos of her from her time in the White House, in which she hugged children, military veterans and her husband. She spoke about her rise from the black middle class of Chicago to Princeton and Harvard. She talked about empathy and open-mindedness, but also about how “hope is not a passive word — it doesn’t just happen, you have to actively work for hope.” The Brooklyn crowd, many of whom were black women, could hardly miss Obama’s point. Especially when she added that “the people who want something else are going to the polls too.”

One can easily imagine Michelle Obama as a star surrogate for a 2020 presidential candidate (though she likely won’t be a candidate herself). The book talk, moderated by a breathless Sarah Jessica Parker, felt like a stump speech in places, as Obama emphasized her work with military families and her accomplishments in bolstering nutrition awareness in schools. She was funny in person, even while telling jokes I’d seen before in news clips, and it struck me that the tour was a canny way for Obama to continue to demonstrate her influence — and her husband’s influence — on not just the Democratic Party, but on American culture.

If the book tour is unabashedly aimed at empowering women (who are, not coincidentally, the driving force of the Democratic Party base), the book itself is a more nuanced rumination on life than you’d expect given the breathless “girl power” tone that some internet coverage of Obama adopts.

When I sat down to read “Becoming,” I, like so many, already knew the top takeaways: Obama had a miscarriage, used IVF to conceive her daughters, smoked pot in high school and said she would “never forgive” Trump for promoting the conspiracy theory that her husband was born in Kenya.

But the achievement of the first half of the book is her unerring ability to spell out the sacrifices of ego and time she made when she chose to spend her life with “a guy whose forceful intellect and ambition could possibly end up swallowing” hers. (In the second half of the book, Obama’s prose is almost imperceptibly smoothed out by the political realities of needing to not to spill too much tea on her White House years.) She’s an acute social observer, particularly when it comes to her husband: “In my experience, you put a suit on any half-intelligent black man and white people tended to go bonkers. I was doubtful he’d earned the hype.” And she is honest about what marital compromise actually looks like: “Our decision to let Barack’s career proceed as it had — to give him the freedom to shape and pursue his dreams — led me to tamp down my own efforts at work.”

While the circumstances of her compromise might be extraordinary — doing it for a man who would become president — the dynamic is familiar to millions of American women. It resonates with the mommy-tracked and the deferred dreamers, the ones who enthusiastically “like” articles about how Grandma Moses didn’t become a famous artist until her late 70s.

Yet compared to the first half of her book, Obama has been curiously flattened in her public image. She remains all smiles, perfectly toned arms and confident red lipstick in our popular imagination. Not much of the frustration and disappointment she so honestly articulates in her book take center stage.

And perhaps that flattening has something to do with her devotion to her overarching political cause — because Michelle Obama, whether she likes it or not, is a figure of great political import. She knows some Americans are craving a figure of inspiration and positivity in a time of national divisiveness (the irony being that there are probably very few Republicans attending her stadium tour). For so long, Obama was, as she put it, “a missus defined by her mister.” In a Democratic Party that is looking for lodestars to guide its way, Obama’s power is both dynastic and iconoclastic — a reminder of the romanticized past administration and a politician who claims she isn’t one. She knows the potency of that paradox: People trust you more when you don’t seem thirsty for the glory.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Clare Malone

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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Do Republicans Or Democrats Give More To Charity

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/do-republicans-or-democrats-give-more-to-charity/

Do Republicans Or Democrats Give More To Charity

The Relationship Between Generosity And Political Affiliation And Gender

Who LIES More- Republicans or Democrats?

Most people tip their hair stylists, while only 27% tip their hotel housekeeper.

+1.63%

Tipping can be a social and cultural maelstrom. And social media doesnt always help.

A National Basketball Association player who has a $30 million contract drew internet ire last week after leaving a $13.97 tip on a $487.13 bill. Andre Roberson of the Oklahoma City Thunder made headlines for the paltry tip, and the strong reaction shows just how emotional the question of tipping can be.

But it wasnt quite as clear-cut as it seemed. Roberson released a statement on Twitter TWTR, +1.63% saying he was misrepresented, saying he bought one bottle of liquor for $487 at a bar, around five times the retail price and rounded it out to $500. Roberson said he also had a $100 tab on shots for which he left a $200 tip. I thought hed be grateful for the $200 tip, he wrote of the barman who served him.

Meanwhile, some restaurants have banned tipping while Uber is finally encouraging riders to open their wallets to drivers who go the extra mile.

See more:Meet the most generous tipper in America

Some of the findings seemed to play out in real life when three supporters of President Donald Trump left a $450 tip for a Washington, D.C. waitress in January, though they were from Texas, not the relatively more generous northeast.

Dont miss:How much to tip everyone

Also read: Is this the worst tipper in America?

Statistics On Us Generosity

In this section youll find charts and graphs laying out the most important numbers in American philanthropy. They document how much we give, how that has changed over time, what areas we give to, and what mechanisms we use to donate. There are figures here on where charities get their money, how many people offer volunteer labor, the demographic factors that influence generosity , and how various states and cities differ. The top foundations and donor-advised funds are ranked by their giving. We present surprising information on overseas aid, and statistics on how the U.S. compares to other countries when it comes to donating to charity.

Beto Orourke Other Democrats See The Downside Of Releasing Tax Returns

CHARLOTTESVILLE About 24 hours after presidential hopeful Beto ORourke released his tax returns from the past decade, a University of Virginia student asked him why he didnt donate more money to charities.

ORourke, a former congressman from El Paso, and his wife reported in their 2017 tax return that they donated $1,166 which was one-third of 1 percent of their $370,412 of income that year. ORourke told reporters on Wednesday that, over the years, he and his wife have donated thousands of dollars more that they did not itemize because it wasnt important for us to take the deduction. The campaign has yet to provide updated numbers.

Ive served in public office since 2005. I do my best to contribute to the success of my community, of my state and, now, of my country, ORourke said in responding to the student on Tuesday night. Im doing everything that I can right now, spending this time with you not with our kiddos, not back home in El Paso because I want to sacrifice everything to make sure that we meet this moment of truth with everything that weve got.

ORourke is not the only Democratic candidate who has had personal finances questioned at a time when many voters are frustrated by the ever-growing economic divide in the country. One by one, Democratic candidates have released their tax returns something that President Trump has refused to do in an attempt at transparency.

Also Check: How Many Presidents Have The Republicans Tried To Impeach

Charitable Giving By State: Are Republicans More Generous Than Democrats Or Just More Religious

It turns out that the old Bushism about compassionate conservatism may not be a myth after all. In a new analysis of Internal Revenue Service tax records, the Chronicle of Philanthropy on Monday ranked U.S. cities and states by how much money their residents give to charity. The bottom line? People in red states are more generous with their green.

The study, which compared IRS data from 2012 with data from 2006, showed that the 17 most generous states — as measured by the percentage of their income they donated to charity — voted for Mitt Romney in the last presidential election. The seven states at the bottom of the list, meanwhile, voted for Barack Obama.

Exactly why is a bit of a mystery. Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, said the data only showed how much money people gave away, not which types of organizations they gave to. But generally speaking, she said its fair to assume that political ideology aligns to some extent with ideas about charitable giving.

Not to be too simplistic about it, but if you believe that government should take care of basic social services, then youre going to go that way, Palmer told International Business Times. If you think charities should take care of things, and not government, then youre probably going to give more generously to charity.

Got a news tip? . Follow me on Twitter .

Volunteering In The Us

This data comes from detailed time logs that statisticians ask householders to keep. In less strict definitions like phone surveys, more like 45 percent of the U.S. population say they volunteered some time to a charitable cause within the last year.

Current estimates of the dollar value of volunteered time range from $179 billion per year to more than twice that, depending on how you count.Volunteering is closely associated with donating cash as well. One Harris study showed that Americans who volunteered gave 11 times as much money to charity in a year as those who did not volunteer.

An interesting pattern emerges if one studies giving by income level. As incomes rise, more and more of the people in that bracket make gifts to charity. The sizes of their gifts tend to rise as well. However: if you look at average donations as a fraction of funds available, they tend to level off at around 2-3 percent of income.

Religious faith is a central influence on giving. Religious people are much more likely than the non-religious to donate to charitable causesincluding secular causesand they give much more.

Among Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike, almost exactly half of the group averaged $100-$999 in annual charitable donations at the time of this 2005 poll. There was virtually no difference among the parties in the size of that moderate-giving group, so those results were not included in the graph to the left.

Also Check: What Did Republicans Gain From The Compromise Of 1877

How Political Ideology Influences Charitable Giving

Many issues seem to divide Democrats and Republicans, and new research has found one more: philanthropy.

Red counties, which are overwhelmingly Republican, tend to report higher charitable contributions than Democratic-dominated blue counties, according to a new study on giving, although giving in blue counties is often bolstered by a combination of charitable donations and higher taxes.

But as red or blue counties become more politically competitive, charitable giving tends to fall.

Theres something about the like-mindedness where perhaps the comfort level rises, said one of the authors of the study, Robert K. Christensen, associate professor at the George W. Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics at Brigham Young University. They feel safe redistributing their wealth voluntarily. It also matters for compulsory giving.

The study was conducted by four research professors who set out to explore how political differences affect charitable giving. It was published on Oct. 20 in the academic journal Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. The other authors were Laurie E. Paarlberg of Indiana UniversityPurdue University Indianapolis, Rebecca Nesbit of the University of Georgia and Richard M. Clerkin of North Carolina State University.

Dr. Christensen said the team had analyzed more than 3,000 counties, but it did not reveal the county-by-county breakdowns. Its hard to pull those counties out because of the control variables, he said.

Charitable Giving Does Not Match Government Aid

Those in favor of lower taxes have argued that individuals are more capable than the government of allocating money to important causes, including people in need of assistance. But the study found that was not true. Donations do not match government assistance, and without tax money, social services are not funded as robustly.

The evidence shows that private philanthropy cant compensate for the loss of government provision, Dr. Nesbit said. Its not equal. What government can put into these things is so much more than what we see through private philanthropy.

On the other hand, private philanthropy can do many things better than government aid, as in being responsive to a need and willing to fail without political fallout.

The studys authors make the case for a combination approach.

Theyre complementary means of redistribution of wealth rather than substitutions for each other, Dr. Christensen said. We cant put all of our eggs in one basket.

You May Like: Who Are The Republicans On The Ballot

Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals

Second, a much larger body of research has long demonstrated that, all things being equal, conservatives tend to be happier overall than their liberal neighbors are. This is truer for social conservatives than for fiscal conservatives, and the more conservative a conservative is, the happier he or she seems to be. Thats not nothing.

A massive study published earlier this year, involving five different data samples from 16 Western countries spanning more than four decades, adds more meat to this topic. These scholars from the University of Southern California found, as they put it, In sum, conservatives reported greater meaning in life and greater life satisfaction than liberals.

Of course, both qualities are much deeper and richer than happiness itself. This was the robust and consistent finding in the 16 distinct countries examined. It was generally truer for social conservatives than their fiscal brethren, and the greater-meaning-in-life slope spiked upward among individuals who were very conservative.

These scholars explain in their academic parlance that this was true for conservatives at all reporting periods . This is a significant finding. Conservatives experience greater meaning in life across their lives generally, but also daily and at most given moments throughout the day. The researchers conclude these findings are robust and that there is some unique aspect of political conservativism that provides people with meaning and purpose in life.

Conservatives Are Satisfied With Their Family Lives

Do NFL Teams Give More to Republicans or Democrats?

New research released by the Institute for Family Studies demonstrates that conservatives tend to be much more completely satisfied with their family lives compared to their liberal friends and neighbors. Forty-one percent of both liberals and moderates report being completely satisfied with their family lives, while 52 percent of conservatives do.

Conservatives are also vastly more likely than liberals to believe marriage is essential in creating and maintaining strong families. They are also much more likely to actually be married, 62 versus 39 percent, thus benefiting from all the ways marriage improves overall well-being and contentment, personal happiness, economic security, long-term employment, longevity, better physical and mental health, and more.

These scholars explain that regardless of other basic life characteristics such as family income, marital status, age, educational attainment, race/ethnicity, and church attendance, being a conservative increases the odds of being completely satisfied with family life by 23 percent, a considerable positive impact given the centrality of these other life factors. Married men and women who believe marriage is needed to create strong families have 67 percent greater odds of being completely content with their own family life than married couples who do not believe this.

You May Like: Who Are The 10 Republicans Who Voted For Impeachment

Poorer Conservatives More Generous Than Wealthy Liberals New Study

Respected non-government sector newspaper The Philanthropy Chronicle collated the itemized charity deductions on the tax returns of hundreds of millions of Americans between 2006 and 2012, the latest year available. While only about a third of all givers write off their charity expenses, the sums included about 80 percent of all donations in the country.

The Extreme Views Of The Donor Class

The main finding of the research is that the policy views of elite donors are more extreme than the views of partisan voters at large. They also vary widely by party.

If you look at Republican donors, explains Malhotra, they have much more extreme views than ordinary Republicans on economic issues, such as taxation, the redistribution of wealth, and spending on social programs. For example, a good number of Republican voters want universal health care, but very few Republican donors want that. On the other hand, Republican donors and voters have very similar views on social issues, such as abortion and gay marriage. They are not out of line in that arena.

Malhotra and Broockman found a similar pattern among Democratic donors and partisans, but in a mirror image. Democratic donors are, if anything, a little more liberal on economic issues than Democratic partisans, says Malhotra. But their social views are much more liberal than partisans, especially when you look at issues like the death penalty.

Don’t Miss: Who Won More Democrats Or Republicans

Who Gives More To Charity Democrats Or Republicans

About Patt Morrison

Patt Morrison

The ongoing calls for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to issue additional years of his tax returns havent ceased.

Romney has faced criticism for his reasoning that doing so would violate his religious freedom because it would reveal exactly how much money he has tithed to his Mormon church. Democrats continue to press the issue, but should they be so vocal about taking a look at charitable contributions?

According to philanthropy.com, a website that tracks charitable giving state-by-state, Utah tops the list of giving, with residents donating 10.2 percent of their discretionary income to charities. Utah is a solidly red state and went for John McCain 62 percent to 24 percent in 2008 and it has a large Mormon contingent.

Blue state New Hampshire is bringing up the rear with residents of the The Granite State donating only 2.5 percent of their discretionary income to philanthropic organizations. But if you tweak the numbers to remove donations to religious charities the giving evens out some.

Republican Donate More To Charity Than Democrats

8 comments:

Anonymoussaid…

Just this weekend, in an ongoing election year discussion with my sister, I stated my experience is and has been when Democrats see others money or wealth, they want it and/or want to tell them what to do with it… I was also informed that others are not like me. Yours being the very first site I checked regarding this subject, I would like to thank you for the confirmation that this happens elsewhere, just not in my “little” world. Bellyburke

Anonymoussaid…

Thanks, I try to leave informative bits of information that are skipped over in the drive by soundbites and stereotype attacks that are out there. Sorry I have’t posted more lately.To go beyond that, I think that Republicans- particularly religious republicans give a lot more than Democrats because we beleive we have a moral duty to give to charity. Democrats seem to want to government to control the “giving” even though that actually corrupts the ‘charity’ aspects of the gift when you ‘have to do it’ or the IRS will come knocking.

Read Also: Who Controls The Senate Republicans Or Democrats

Giving Under Different Governments

A change in government didnt seem to change peoples donations of money to charities, but there did seem to be an increase in time given to volunteering when the Coalition and Conservative governments were in power.

The exception to this came from the Greens. When Labour were in power from 1997-2010, Green Party supporters gave 182% more of their income to charity than Labour supporters did although this fell to 85% under the Coalition, and fell again when the Conservatives went into government on their own in 2015.

In terms of volunteering, under a Labour government, Green supporters gave no more of their time than did Labour supporters. After 2015, Greens increased their volunteering time by 56%.

Do Your Political Views Make You Charitable

24 Jul, 2019

Professor Sarah Brown,Professor Karl Taylor

A new working paper asks whether people on the left or right give more to charity

Student volunteers at the University of Essex

In 2017, people in the UK gave over £10 billion to charity, and ONS figures suggest that unpaid labour in the form of volunteering is worth over £20 billion.

But what motivates us to give our money or time? Theres existing research which shows that we give in order to feel good, or to look good to others, but we wanted to look at another motivation: our political leanings.

Also Check: Should Republicans Vote In Democratic Primary

Data Sources: Irs Forms 990

The Form 990 is a document that nonprofit organizations file with the IRS annually. We leverage finance and accountability data from it to form Encompass ratings. .

Impact & Results

This score estimates the actual impact a nonprofit has on the lives of those it serves, and determines whether it is making good use of donor resources to achieve that impact.

Impact & Results Score

Leftist Media And Academia Tell The Public The Opposite

12/29/10 – Stossel, Republicans donate much more than Democrats

Some liberals might argue that religious, conservative republicans are happier simply because they are mentally ill; they are disassociated with reality and just dont know any better. They claim this is even demonstrated in scientific research. In fact, one articles first line in reporting this research was quite blunt: Anyone whos wanted to dismiss Republican politics as straightforwardly mean now has some data to back them up. Lands sakes.

Some research did appear to show this, and it got a great deal of press. Retraction Watch, however, tells us it had some serious mistakes in its calculations, and an erratum was published by the American Journal of Political Science. In fact, Retraction Watch reports, The descriptive and preliminary analyses portion of the manuscript was exactly reversed. The data shows a strong correlation between liberalism and psychoticism, not conservatism. This correction was not widely reported for some curious reason.

Finally, if you had to guess who are more generous with their money and volunteering their time to help those in need, would you guess Democrats or Republicans? Of course, its Democrats. Republicans only care for themselves and their own pocketbook. In fact, dont they want to actually punish the poor for not working hard enough? Well, you would be right if stereotypes were the arbiter of truth. But what does objective research tell us?

Recommended Reading: What News Channel Do Republicans Watch

Percentage Of Us Donations Going Tovarious Causes

Nonprofits have grown faster than government and faster than the business sector over the last generation, even during boom periods.

The figures charted here actually underestimate the fraction of American manpower that goes into charitable workbecause they show only paid employment, while volunteers carry out a large share of the labor poured into these groups. Various calculations of the cash value of donated labor suggest that at least an additional 50 percent of output by charities takes place invisibly because it is produced by volunteers. Youll find more statistics on American volunteering in Graphs 8 and 9.

Charitable activity is becoming a bigger and bigger part of Americas total economy. For perspective, consider that annual U.S. defense spending totals 4.5 percent of GDP. The nonprofit sector surpassed the vaunted military-industrial complex in economic scope way back in 1993.

Real Rise In Us Giving

After adjusting for inflation, charitable giving by Americans was close to seven times as big in 2016 as it was 62 years earlier.

Of course, one reason total giving went up is because the U.S. population almost doubled. But if we recalculate inflation-adjusted charitable giving on a per capita basis, we see that has also soared: by 3½ times. Charitable causes are very lucky to have a remarkably expansive American economy behind them, and a standard of living that refuses to stagnate.

What if we calculate charitable giving as a proportion of all national production ? The math reveals that over the last 60 years, donations as a proportion of our total annual output increasedbut only very slightly. For most of the last lifetime, giving has hovered right around 2 percent of our total national treasure.

Two percent of GDP is a huge sum, particularly in comparison to other countries . But it’s interesting that even as we have become a much wealthier people in the post-WWII era, the fraction we give away hasn’t risen. There seems to be something stubborn about that 2 percent rate.

Keep in mind too that religious charities tend to have less access to supplemental funds than other nonprofits. Hospitals and colleges charge users fees to supplement their donated income; other nonprofits sell goods; many museums charge admission; some charities receive government grants. Churches and religious charities, however, operate mostly on their donated funds depicted in this graph.

Recommended Reading: What Cities Are Run By Republicans

What Elite Donors Want

Big-money donors, both Democrat and Republican, not only have more political influence than the average voter, they also have more extreme beliefs.

The outsize political influence of elite donors, whose views tend to be more extreme than that of mainstream voters, partly explains why political polarization is on the rise. | Illustration by Alvaro Dominguez

In November 2012, newly elected Democratic members of the United States Congress got about a week to savor their victories. Then, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee advised them to start hitting the phones for 3-4 hours per day. Who were they supposed to be calling? Mainly, elite donors the fewer than 1% of Americans who give candidates more than $200 in any given election cycle.

It isnt news that politicians court elite donors or that elite donors have greater political access and influence than the typical voter. But, as Stanford Graduate School of Business political economist Neil Malhotra points out in an article recently published in Public Opinion Quarterly, we know remarkably little about what they actually want from government.

This is a particularly relevant issue during the current, seemingly endless, election cycle, in which the battle for control of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government is unusually contentious and fraught with implications for the future of the nation.

Do Democrats Hate Charity

Another round of COVID-19 relief from Congress is on life support but not dead, as centrist Democrats have begun to pressure Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi toward compromise. That would mean finding some middle ground between the $3 trillion House HEROES Act, with its bailout for profligate blue-state governments, and the Republican $500 billion skinny bill. If serious negotiations do ensue, there is one provision on which Senate Republicans should not budge: a strong new form of tax relief for individual charitable giving. Its a provision both important in its own right and revealing of a larger philosophical difference between the parties when it comes to charity.

The latest skinny Senate bill would specifically have expanded the so-called above-the-line tax deduction included in the original CARES Act, which authorized a $300 deduction even for those who do not itemize their tax returns. The Senate bill proposed to double that amount for 2020 taxpayers, to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for those filing a joint return. The House bill included no such provision, or even an extension of a less-generous version included in the first COVID-19 relief bill.

The above-the-line deduction proposed by Republicans provides an incentive for all taxpayers, not just the wealthy, to give to charity.

This piece originally appeared at the Washington Examiner

______________________

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans Are In The Us House

0 notes

statetalks · 3 years

Text

Do Republicans Or Democrats Give More To Charity

The Relationship Between Generosity And Political Affiliation And Gender

Who LIES More- Republicans or Democrats?

Most people tip their hair stylists, while only 27% tip their hotel housekeeper.

+1.63%

Tipping can be a social and cultural maelstrom. And social media doesnt always help.

Meanwhile, some restaurants have banned tipping while Uber is finally encouraging riders to open their wallets to drivers who go the extra mile.

See more:Meet the most generous tipper in America

Dont miss:How much to tip everyone

Also read: Is this the worst tipper in America?

Statistics On Us Generosity

Beto Orourke Other Democrats See The Downside Of Releasing Tax Returns

Also Check: How Many Presidents Have The Republicans Tried To Impeach

Charitable Giving By State: Are Republicans More Generous Than Democrats Or Just More Religious

Got a news tip? . Follow me on Twitter .

Volunteering In The Us

Religious faith is a central influence on giving. Religious people are much more likely than the non-religious to donate to charitable causesincluding secular causesand they give much more.

Also Check: What Did Republicans Gain From The Compromise Of 1877

How Political Ideology Influences Charitable Giving

Many issues seem to divide Democrats and Republicans, and new research has found one more: philanthropy.

But as red or blue counties become more politically competitive, charitable giving tends to fall.

Charitable Giving Does Not Match Government Aid

On the other hand, private philanthropy can do many things better than government aid, as in being responsive to a need and willing to fail without political fallout.

The studys authors make the case for a combination approach.

Theyre complementary means of redistribution of wealth rather than substitutions for each other, Dr. Christensen said. We cant put all of our eggs in one basket.

You May Like: Who Are The Republicans On The Ballot

Conservatives Are Happier Than Liberals

Conservatives Are Satisfied With Their Family Lives

Do NFL Teams Give More to Republicans or Democrats?

You May Like: Who Are The 10 Republicans Who Voted For Impeachment

Poorer Conservatives More Generous Than Wealthy Liberals New Study

The Extreme Views Of The Donor Class

The main finding of the research is that the policy views of elite donors are more extreme than the views of partisan voters at large. They also vary widely by party.

Don’t Miss: Who Won More Democrats Or Republicans

Who Gives More To Charity Democrats Or Republicans

About Patt Morrison

Patt Morrison

The ongoing calls for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to issue additional years of his tax returns havent ceased.

Republican Donate More To Charity Than Democrats

8 comments:

Anonymoussaid…

Read Also: Who Controls The Senate Republicans Or Democrats

Giving Under Different Governments

In terms of volunteering, under a Labour government, Green supporters gave no more of their time than did Labour supporters. After 2015, Greens increased their volunteering time by 56%.

Do Your Political Views Make You Charitable

24 Jul, 2019

Professor Sarah Brown,Professor Karl Taylor

A new working paper asks whether people on the left or right give more to charity

Student volunteers at the University of Essex

In 2017, people in the UK gave over £10 billion to charity, and ONS figures suggest that unpaid labour in the form of volunteering is worth over £20 billion.

Also Check: Should Republicans Vote In Democratic Primary

Data Sources: Irs Forms 990

The Form 990 is a document that nonprofit organizations file with the IRS annually. We leverage finance and accountability data from it to form Encompass ratings. .

Impact & Results

This score estimates the actual impact a nonprofit has on the lives of those it serves, and determines whether it is making good use of donor resources to achieve that impact.

Impact & Results Score

Leftist Media And Academia Tell The Public The Opposite

12/29/10 – Stossel, Republicans donate much more than Democrats

Recommended Reading: What News Channel Do Republicans Watch

Percentage Of Us Donations Going Tovarious Causes

Nonprofits have grown faster than government and faster than the business sector over the last generation, even during boom periods.

Real Rise In Us Giving

After adjusting for inflation, charitable giving by Americans was close to seven times as big in 2016 as it was 62 years earlier.

Recommended Reading: What Cities Are Run By Republicans

What Elite Donors Want

Big-money donors, both Democrat and Republican, not only have more political influence than the average voter, they also have more extreme beliefs.

Do Democrats Hate Charity

The above-the-line deduction proposed by Republicans provides an incentive for all taxpayers, not just the wealthy, to give to charity.

This piece originally appeared at the Washington Examiner

______________________

Recommended Reading: How Many Republicans Are In The Us House

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/do-republicans-or-democrats-give-more-to-charity/

0 notes

treywrites117 · 4 years

Text

Three Dimensional Characters (more detailed)

Physiology:

Sex: The gender of your character means a lot and it’s not just “male” and “female”. There are people who identify as trans, non-binary, intersex, pangender, androgynous, agender, hijra, and much more. Different cultures have different names and relationships with different genders and that can affect your character.

Age: While this may just seem like a number, people lie about their age all the time to seem more experienced when interviewing for a job or to seem younger when trying to get a date. The importance of age also varies between cultures and generations which can affect your character. Do they lie about their age? Is it important that they see themselves as five and a half instead of just five?

Height and Weight: There are Napoleon complexes and there are people who are tired of being asked if they play basketball. There are also average height people who are affected by that in ways they may not even notice. Weight can define a character more because while height is usually genetic, weight is something a character’s choices and society affect. Are they skinny because they have a great metabolism or is it because they want to look like that celebrity?

Color of Hair, Eyes, and Skin: I saw a great play called The Bluest Eye (adapted from Toni Morrison’s book) about a young black girl who wanted to be fair-skinned, fair-haired, and have blue eyes so people would like her and she could be like all the popular girls, who were all white. Her appearance was greatly affected by the lack of representation of black girls on TV and in their selections of toys. The appearance of your character and their actions can be influenced by society and the culture around them.

Posture: How your character carries themselves can represent different parts of their characters. I know a lot of friends who have been drawing a lot since they were kids and they have a slouch to their shoulders from leaning over their sketchbooks. Strict posture could mean a strict family background.

Appearance: While a lot of the categories have already gone into appearance (Eye color, hair color, skin color, height, and weight…), whether their style is tidy or simple or explicit can really help define the character. Without going into detail about their fashion style, you can easily describe a character in your screenplay with “eye-catching outfits meant to grab attention” better than specific details of their wardrobe and still do justice to their character.

Defects: Clearly having something that can set your character apart from the average person can lead to a different experience in social aspects. If they have a deformity, abnormality, birthmark, or disease, it can change how people act around them or treat your character. What they take away from those encounters can mold their characteristics and choices.

Heredity: What has your character gained from their parents? Enviable red hair? A weak constitution? These traits are more genetic than they are learned from constant parental influence.

Sociology:

Class: What class your character comes from can influence how other characters interact with them. Class played an enormous role in the plot in My Fair Lady. Professor Higgins wanted to see if changing the language of a poor cockney woman, Eliza, could affect the way upper-class socialites interacted with her. Of course, her physical appearance was changed, but she was, under the surface, still a woman from the streets who lived her life off the pittance she got from selling flowers.

Occupations: An occupation that a character has can tell us more about their monetary situations which is a good way to understand character motivations. Are they in a dead end job they hate just to put food on the table? Do they have multiple jobs? What did they want to be vs. what job they do have? Have they had many jobs due to failure or boredom? In America, careers define people more than they should.

Education: Getting an education is not always enough, it has to be a certain type. A college education is great, but society places a greater influence on an Ivy League degree. Was your character homeschooled? Did they attend college at an early age? How well did they perform in high school? What subjects did they do best in? How people interact in the influential high school years very much affects who they are. If they had to drop out of school to get a full-time job to keep their family afloat, it can affect their socialization since they don’t see their friends and “drop-out” carries a negative connotation that can keep them from getting a career they want.

Home life: Everything from parents being alive to their own marital status is under this category. The relationship the character has with those they are living with can influence many of their choices. If they live with their parents, that can mean massive social difference between a fourteen-year-old and someone who is thirty. What about childhood home life? If they were raised in a violent atmosphere, they might be a shy, tentative person or quick-tempered.

Religion: Depending on what religion your character has, they might have some strict rules or beliefs that they adhere to. Those who observe Hinduism do not eat beef, which could cause conflict if they room with someone who does not share that belief and loves making hamburgers. Pagan beliefs vary and require a lot of different rituals and is usually associated with a negative stigma. A pagan believer might seem different than a Quaker, but depending on the faction of Quaker, they may not be so different after all.

Race, Nationality: It goes without saying that in this modern day, race has a large influence on how people treat each other. A character is defined just as much by how they respond and act toward others from a different race as they are growing up as the race that they are.

Place in Community: Are they a leader? Are they involved in clubs or societies that may affect who they are to certain people? They could also be someone in the community that is shunned or perhaps they were removed from the community for some kind of unforgivable infraction.

Amusements, Hobbies: How someone spends their free time can tell you a lot about them. Do they read? What genre? Do they like to tinker or build things? Sometimes what someone’s hobby is, could be what they wanted to do with their life if they didn’t have four children they needed to feed and had to get a better paying job for the price of their soul.

Psychology:

Sex Life, Moral Standards: These could be two different things. A character could preach certain moral standards perhaps that reflect the standards of their religion, but have a contradictory sex life. Maybe they are doing it to keep their sex life secret to not be removed from the religious community or because they want to stay in their conservative family member’s will. Sometimes people will boast about sex lives they do not have to boost their self-esteem or to impress others.

Personal Premise, Ambition: What is the goal of your character’s life? This is probably where the story and the character connect. This ambition drives a character’s more “big picture” actions and could be what lands them in the conflict of the story in the first place.

Frustrations, Chief Disappointments: Frustrations can be triggers for some people that lead to problematic actions. These frustrations can be born of past mistakes and disappointments that haunt the characters.

Temperament: This could be seen as where your character falls on the Friedman and Rosenman A/B Personality spectrum. Are they a very structured and high-strung person (A) or an easy-going and relaxed person (B)? Of course, this category covers other types of temperament, like optimism, skepticism, etc.

Attitude Toward Life: Does your character feel cheated? Are they cynical or defeated? They could also live every day like their last or have a goal to help anyone they can. The way they look at life and their own outcome can affect how they approach problems like the conflict of your story.

Complexes: Characters can have obsessions, superstitions, and fears that not only color their personalities but affect their actions. If someone has an Oedipus complex and only dated people that looked like their mother, it could influence how they interact with others and how others perceive them.

Extrovert, Introvert, Ambivert: A crash course in this is: extroverts gain energy from and enjoy long social interactions while introverts spend energy and can be exhausted by social interactions. Ambiverts are usually a happy middle.

Abilities: A multilingual character could be a very openly accepting person to others from different cultures. Does your character play a musical instrument? Do they play it well? Do they use their talents or repress them? Are they proud of what they can do?

I.Q.: What is there intelligence level? Are they ashamed or proud? Do they even care? Characters with different intelligence levels may have difficulties with conversation. It also affects how characters treat each other. Sometimes intelligent characters lord their brilliance over everyone else while some lower intelligent characters might feel shame.

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worldpolitics2017-blog · 7 years

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Chile’s Post-Colonial Development: A Power Tactic for the Elite

What is Development?

Each country houses a unique level of development which can be affected economically, socially, or technically. The primary ways of measuring development are economic development and social development.

Economic development measures a country’s wealth and the way in which it is generated using indicators such as GDP, GNP per capita, inflation, unemployment, and inequality of wealth. While, social development measures the access the population has to education, health, safety, wealth, and freedom with the distinction of standard of living versus quality of life. Social development indicators include life expectancy, poverty, access to healthcare, a risk of disease, and government spending priorities.

Though comparing development can be complex and often misleading, it is important to consider more than economic prosperity. The United Nations accepts development as both economically and socially determined.

Is economic development aiding the powerful?

While development benefits a country’s population, in theory, it only effectively benefits its external influences and internal elite. By measuring economic development as wealth generated and how it’s generated, it places a division between developed and developing nations. For instance, agricultural farming is considered less developed than banking. In order for the agricultural country to ever be considered as developed as the banking country, it would first need to reach certain industrial standards that are commonly exhibited in Western economies.

According to Robert MacNamara, there is a Development-Security Nexus believing that development will bring security, and increased wealth will reduce disorder and violence. Certainly, this would benefit a nation and its external influences. However, by accepting this idea there joins the idea that increased wealth is benefiting all members of the country evenly and not simply enhancing wealth inequalities. In addition, the idea makes a large assumption that economic development will lead to development for all social classes.

But even if all social classes develop evenly, power and wealth shifts may lead to disorder and violence from a new source of conflict as Samuel Huntington believed. External influences are gaining power whether security increases alongside economic and social inequality, or as internal disorder follows development inequalities.

Chile: A Case Study

One can look at the specific case study of the economic and political relations between Chile, considered a developing country, and the United States. This infamous relationship peaks with the U.S. involvement in Augusto Pinochet’s military coup that overthrew democratically elected, socialist President Salvador Allende. Prior to Allende winning the election in 1970, the Kennedy administration during the 1960’s provided Chile with over $1.7 billion in aid. The motive behind this was to economically progress Chile, hoping this would discourage the spread of communism, like it had done so in Cuba. Regardless, the exploitation of cheap labor and copper from American companies frustrated many Chileans, giving a platform for Allende to win the presidency.

Allende’s biggest agenda was to expropriate Chile’s most lucrative commodity: Copper. Many American corporations were included in the expropriation, leaving the American government displeased. The CIA and President Nixon were considering military intervention, and did so by funding the Chilean military. In addition, Nixon notoriously said he would make "the economy scream." Not only did the US help install Pinochet’s dictatorship, it intentionally manipulated the Chilean economy, when years prior they were supposedly aiding Chile.

Is Chile on its way to becoming the first “developed” country in Latin America?

The South American country leads all of Latin America in income per capita, globalization, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. Despite the leading numbers, “Chile is still defined by extraordinarily high levels of inequality and in recent years has been rocked by a number of massive and sometimes violent protests.” Copper continues to be the backbone for Chile’s economy. It accounts for almost half of its exports, China being its largest customer. While Copper is large part of the growing economy, the industry continues to negatively affect local, rural indigenous communities. Copper mining is constantly met with social and environmental conflicts such as, labor unrest and the criminalization of those protesting natural resource exploitation.

Source: GeoCurrents Map

Although Chile’s economy has been growing, it has one of the highest Gini Coefficient in the world. To combat inequality, the government has pushed initiatives to alleviate extreme poverty. The Chilean government has given impoverished families money transfers in exchange for their achievements “such as health-clinic check-ups for children, school attendance, graduation from high school for adults, and formalization of employment.” On the other side of the income spectrum, more Chileans are enrolling in university and employed in well paying jobs. Chile’s elite are reaping the benefits of free trade agreements, including TPP, so it raises the notion that “development” has primarily been for the Chilean elite.

The Geographic Divide of Development

Countries are often divided into two categories: Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) and More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs).

As the map below shows, countries in the northern hemisphere are considered more developed while most of the southern hemisphere, including Chile, is less developed. While geography and climate may factor into hemispherical dominance, so does colonialism. As the New World was discovered, European empires forcibly assimilated natives into European culture and values. While colonization in the Southern Hemisphere has since been reduced, the degrading of the region’s cultures and values left the Southern Hemisphere with limited hope and a globally ingrained hierarchy in which the Northern Hemisphere dictates what is considered developed and why; and continues to benefit from the slow development of LEDCs.

Source: BBC.co.uk

Why do the US and UN fail to consider Chile as a developed nation?

Chile is no exception to the geographic divide as it continues to prevail as a strong Latin American economy but fails to earn its recognition. Its outside influences, such as China and the US, continue to benefit from the prosperous business partner. But, with existing expectations that quality of life and technological advances are whatever the “Western Powerhouses” embody, developing nations will continue to strive to be developed in a system created to maintain power over developing nations.

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markgottliebliteraryagent · 4 years

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Journalist, Editor & Author of Historical Fiction James Wade

James Wade is a seasoned journalist, editor and the author of the novel All Things Left Wild. Set during the turn of the 20th century, when a botched robbery leaves a young boy dead and sets two men on conflicting journeys across untamed landscape—All Things Left Wide is a coming of age for one, a mid-life odyssey for the other, and an illustration of the violence and corruption prevalent in our fast-expanding country. All Things Left Wild is forthcoming from Blackstone Publishing.

Your novel, All Things Left Wild, is set during the turn of the 20th century in the American southwest. What is it about that particular time period and place that fascinates you?

Folks tend to consider America as settled and civilized by that time, but much of the Southwest was still divided into territories rather than states, and the lack of transportation infrastructure coupled with the rugged landscape served to essentially cut these people off from the rest of the country. Small-time criminals found it easier to thrive, while many a shady “businessman” found fortune in these areas by simply bullying their competition into submission.

The country was only one generation removed from the Civil War, and yet it was also at the beginning of what would be the most remarkable century of progress in human history. We were essentially trying to find our footing as a nation, while also seeing the world around us modernize at an unprecedented pace. That’s something we’ve dealt with ever since, and are still dealing with today.

I’m also drawn to the Southwest, no matter the time period, because of its remarkably diverse landscape and population. The blending of cultures has created such unique traditions, food, music, and literature.

Do you feel that the type of violence and corruption that was prevalent in our fast-expanding country of that day and age is somewhat present today but in other forms?

Absolutely. Any time there is expansion, something growing more quickly than the regulations surrounding it, then it becomes an attractive breeding ground for greed and corruption. Any new industry gaining momentum, or disruptive technology we see come to market, creates uncertainty. The corrupt thrive on that uncertainty, using it to their advantage however they can. In 1910 it was swindling settlers out of land rights or mineral claims. Today it’s fraudulent investing or predatory lending or even the spread of misinformation on social media. There’s always someone willing to excuse morals in favor of money or power.

Also, the disconnect between rich and poor was growing rapidly during this time, much like it has in recent years. From the post-Civil War 1870s through the Great Depression, the country saw a massive income inequality, and you began to have similar economic anxieties to what we’re seeing now.

“...at some point you just have to pull yourself back from that fascination or you risk losing the pace of the story.”

What is the research process like for you when constructing the backdrop for a historical novel? Did you uncover any hidden gems along the way?

The fun part is getting to read about history, watch Ken Burns documentaries, and travel to these awe-inspiring landscapes, all while calling it "work." My wife and spent more than a year traveling the country in a small trailer, and it was seeing these places in person that really helped me understand the history.

The process could also be frustrating, primarily because you uncover so many hidden gems and you want to work them all into the novel, which is usually impossible. For example, there’s a small town called Mesilla near Las Cruces, New Mexico. It’s only a few blocks, mainly geared toward tourists, but it’s so rich in history. In the early 1900s it was the hub for stagecoaches, travelers, vendors, merchants, parties, you name it. It played such a central role in shaping that part of the world. After we visited the area, I knew I needed to include this town in the novel; but the more I read about it, and talked to the locals who’d been there for generations, the more space I wanted to give to Mesilla. But that wasn’t really conducive to the narrative, so at some point you just have to pull yourself back from that fascination or you risk losing the pace of the story.

“In drawing that human connection to the past, it brings historical events to life.”

Does writing historical fiction present its own set of challenges and limitations, or do you find writing historical fiction to be liberating?

There are certainly challenges, like wanting to do justice to the people and places of the time. But even though All Things Left Wild has historical elements, it’s a work of fiction first and foremost. I wouldn’t want anyone reading this as a history lesson, so I tried not to put any limitations on where the story might go. There are real names and events which are mentioned, but all of the characters and situations are entirely created.

There is a certain liberation in writing a character who is from our past, yet has the same motivations, same internal struggles, etc. as we deal with today. In the novel, we see characters who are conflicted about their family, their faith, their own measure of “goodness.” Those are things a lot of us have questioned in our own lives. In drawing that human connection to the past, you can help bring it to life.

Are there any authors or books that were of influence to your writing, or those you might enjoy reading for pleasure? For instance, Cormac McCarthy seems to come to mind...

Yes, I am a Cormac McCarthy fanatic. I consider his Border Trilogy the finest collection of prose I’ve ever read. I would hope just by having read books that well-written I could somehow draw inspiration. McCarthy was a close study of Faulkner and I think it shows immensely in his writing.

Yes, certainly McCarthy is a huge influence. In my humble opinion he is the best living writer in the world, and his prose is both inspiring and motivating.

Flannery O’Connor is another author who I continually turn to for motivation, along with John Irving. I find O’Connor is best for voice, Irving for pacing. I also can’t stop re-reading Larry McMurtry’s Horseman, Pass By. It’s his debut novel (I believe he was 25 when he wrote it), and it’s far too good for anyone’s first try.

I read a lot of non-fiction, be it history or philosophy or outdoor guidebooks. I read political biographies, sports writing, and anything my wife tells me is good (most recently it was Dispatches from Pluto by Richard Grant). I just finished The Liberal Redneck Manifesto, a political comedy book by Trae Crowder, Drew Morgan, and Corey Ryan Forrester. It was a wonderfully honest take on Southern politics and culture.

For fiction I tend to read mostly older novels, only because there are so many I haven’t read yet. But there are supremely talented writers who are in their prime right now, and I try to support them as much as I can. Sometimes I’ll buy a book by an author I like, knowing I won’t be able to read it for another several months. Authors who have impressed me in the past few years include: Sarah Bird, Colson Whitehead, May Cobb, Owen Egerton, David Joy, Joe Lansdale, Ta-Nahisi Coates, and Benjamin Saenz, just to name a few. I may be biased, but I truly believe we are coming into a special era of American literature, with so many talented writers young and old.

How did you find your literary agent and go on to get published? What was that moment like when you heard that your major debut novel would be published?

I first heard you (the incomparable Mark Gottlieb) speak on a panel in 2016 at the Writers’ League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference just down the street from my home in Austin, Texas. I was struck by your professionalism, and your sincerity when speaking about your clients. You were the first person I queried when I finished the manuscript. So, naturally, when you approached me to talk about representation I was completely on-board. I remember being camped in the Black Hills in South Dakota and not having enough cell signal to call you, so I hiked up to the top of a ridgeline holding my phone up like one of those cell service commercials.

The pedigree spoke for itself, but it was your passion for the work that stuck out to me. You were able to have an in-depth conversation about the manuscript just a few days after I sent it to you. I always try to find the smartest person in the room and learn from them, and you fit that bill perfectly. You made the “finding an agent” part so seamless and stress-free, I assumed finding a publisher would be when the real panic set in. But I think within eight days of agreeing to work together, you sent me our first offer.

“Trident Media Group is essentially the movie-version of what an author dreams their literary agency will look like.”

What was it like coming to New York City to see the Trident Media Group offices in-person...did things start to feel more real then?

Let’s state the obvious, first: New York is the publishing kingdom and the Trident Media Group has as impressive a castle as you’ll find. The location across from Madison Square Park, the towering building, the immaculate views—Trident Media Group is essentially the movie-version of what an author dreams their literary agency will look like. Then, you see the actual books from Trident Media Group clients: best-selling fiction, award-winning non-fiction, critically acclaimed authors, celebrity biographies. For a new writer, it was overwhelming in the best way.

For myself, as well as other authors I’ve spoken with, things may never feel entirely "real." There’s a certain imposter syndrome that permeates the creative community. It reminds you that no matter how many short stories you publish, you’ve never written a novel. Or no matter how many novels you publish, you haven’t sold X number, or appeared on X list. I asked Owen Egerton, who won the 2018 PEN Southwest Award, if he felt that recognition made him a "real" writer. His answer? “I just started thinking, well, it’s not a Pulitzer.”

I think that sort of doubt is actually great for writers. It pushes us to keep improving our craft. All that being said, did touring the best literary agency in the world cause me to feel somewhat legitimized as an author? Hell yes, it did.

Does the prospect of working with Blackstone Publishing excite you? They are very nimble and are also a leading publisher of audiobooks. I'm betting the audio version of All Things Left Wild will have amazing production value.

I think it’s always exciting to work with someone who wants to work with you. It’s also humbling, to have such a well-respected publisher be willing to make you an offer. Not to mention, the trust Blackstone has shown in me as a debut author.

I love the idea that Blackstone is a well-entrenched publisher of audiobooks, while also being a relatively new print publisher. It provides the stability of experience, but also gives us a chance to grow together. And make no mistake, Blackstone is growing like crazy.

Under the leadership of Josh Stanton, Rick Bleiweiss, and the entire team in both New York and Oregon, Blackstone is emerging as a powerhouse in the publishing world. They’re signing big name authors from other major houses, while still focusing on the promotion of new writers and new ideas.

Not to mention, the folks who make up the Blackstone Publishing family are as good a group as I could have hoped to work with. Jeff Yamaguchi, Megan Wahrenbrock, Greg Boguslawski, and Mandy Earles have really nailed the independent bookstore market, which I believe is the lifeblood of the modern publishing industry. Lauren Maturo was just named a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree for her exceptional publicity work at Blackstone. And I can’t imagine anyone in the business has someone as sharp as Blackstone’s Josie Woodbridge captaining the day-to-day.

As for the audio version of the novel, I mean, what better position could we be in? Blackstone created an audiobook empire known for its professionalism and production value. I can’t imagine how cool it will be to have them putting together All Things Left Wild.

“Literary agents...are not out to get you. They want to help. In reality, they don’t get paid until you do, so they have a vested interest in your career.”

Any advice for struggling writers desperate to become published authors?

Oh, man, I don’t know. Just write. Write every damn day. Write when you don’t feel like it. Especially when you don’t feel like it. There will be inspired times, no doubt. But the difference between a writer and "someone who writes" is forcing yourself to sit down and face the story even when you’d rather do almost anything else.

Read everything, and read it often.

Learn to write a decent query letter. Make sure you put your best foot forward when seeking literary agents. And once you find an agent, listen to him/her. Literary agents, for the most part, are not out to get you. They want to help. In reality, they don’t get paid until you do, so they have a vested interest in your career.

Also, don’t get discouraged. I know it’s easy to do. I let my shoulders slump a good deal more than I’d care to admit. For me, it takes hiking, or a cold beer(s), or a pep-talk from my brilliant wife, before I can get back in the saddle. You have to find what works for you.

Most importantly, cut yourself some slack. Do you know how hard writing is? It’s hard, folks. You’re writing something, creating something from scratch that belongs solely to you, and you’re doing it while knowing it will be rejected. Whether it’s by a magazine, an agent, a publisher, a critic, a one-star review on Amazon or Goodreads, etc., your work is going to be rejected at some point by someone. And yet, you have to be excited enough and motivated enough to continue on despite that fact.

What can we expect next from the writings of James Wade?

I’m excited and anxious about All Things Left Wild making its debut. It will be my first time going through the process of releasing a novel, so there are a lot of unknowns there. But continuing to write has kept me grounded. While the first novel was in post-production, I was able to write a second manuscript, which was also accepted by Blackstone. That novel, River, Sing Out, is set in modern day East Texas, and deals with the vicious cycle of poverty and drug abuse in rural areas.

I’m currently working on a third manuscript which flips back to Southwest Texas and follows the son of a ranchhand during World War II. I don’t know how any of this will turn out, but I do know I’ll keep writing. And at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. If you enjoy the process, everything else is just a bonus.

#jameswade #allthingsleftwide #blackstonepublishing #rickbleiwiess #blackstoneaudio #cormacmccarthy #markgottliebagent #tridentmediagroup

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rjhamster · 5 years

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Unmasking My Christian “Agenda”

August 21

by Dave Burchett The title “Evangelical Christian” seems to have become a pejorative to many in the media and culture. I understand the frustration (I have written about it a lot) when very vocal or celebrity Christian leaders fail spectacularly. I share your anger when a religious person espouses hateful or judgmental comments. I grieve when an institution or leader fails to protect the innocent. Critics say that Christians have an agenda and dangerous desire to control other people’s lives. I confess that has been true for some religious types. But the followers of Jesus that I have gotten to know over many decades don’t resemble that stereotype at all. Perhaps that is why Jesus warned so plainly about the dangers of power. The selfless, giving, and caring believers get little notice in this world but I believe they are quietly and faithfully making a difference. I thought about what my answer would be if I was asked to outline my agenda. I certainly don’t speak for all Evangelical Christians but I think I just might represent a number of them as I share my “agenda”. Let me start by telling you what this particular Evangelical Christian does not believe… I do not believe you have to be Republican to be a Christian. During the rapture Jesus will not appear first on Fox News. Like it or not, heaven will be bipartisan and I am totally fine that there will not be “sides” of the Golden Aisle. I do not believe that God is “judging” America for any particular sin. But if He is judging this country I would suspect it is for the massive squandering of wealth and resources that we have been blessed with while giving back an average of less than 2 percent. I do not believe in ranking sins for their offensiveness to a Holy God. Some things are individually more offensive to some of us but all sin is equally intolerable to a Holy God. We are either perfect or in need of a Savior. I am the latter. I do not believe that censorship, boycotts, or politics will redeem this culture…only a spiritual renewal of caring love and grace can accomplish such redemption. I do not believe that it is my place to relish or desire eternal punishment for others. I am willing to leave that to a righteous and just God who sees the real heart and motives for each one of us and Who will judge justly. Here is my agenda. * To try and see everyone through the eyes of Jesus because my eyes are prejudiced and prideful. * To try and love them like Jesus because my love is selfish. * To try and see that no one misses out on the message of grace, identity, acceptance and one-way love that is offered as a free gift of grace by the finished work of Jesus on the Cross. * To let them others know that my relationship with Jesus and His grace has changed my life, given my life purpose, given me strength to endure tragedy, and real hope for the future. * To authentically relate how this personal relationship with the living God saved my marriage and made me a better father to my sons. * To be gentle in relating the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to people in every situation. My goal is to introduce people to Jesus. If they are living in a way that is not biblical I will let them work it out in God’s timing while walking with them in grace and love. * To exhibit grace and forgiveness to those who attack me for not sharing their world views. * To freely dispense the grace of the living Christ to everyone I come in contact so that I can be salt and light to my little circle of influence. * To be a advocate for those wounded by the church and other Christians. Our lack of unity must grieve the Lord who prayed for unity of the body during His final agonizing hours before His betrayal, mock trial, and crucifixion. * To try to never be surprised or repulsed by the actions of those who do not have a relationship with Jesus. The Lord Himself was always gentle with sinners and always tough on religious hypocrites. We have reversed his example far too often. We are too tough on sinners and too gentle with the hypocrites in our midst. * To try and give generously of my time and treasure to those who have not been as materially blessed in my neighborhood, my country, and around the world. * To let people know that I love Jesus and I am not at all ashamed of that fact. It is easy to dismiss the hypocrite. No problem to ignore the angry and judgmental religious types. But before I came to faith I was troubled when I saw some Christians who displayed something different in their lives. I could not dismiss so readily the joy, peace, strength, courage, and love they modeled. They were “troublesome” Christians to me. I could not ignore them because their lives were authentic and different (different good, not weird). I want to be that kind of Christian. I take these words of Jesus seriously. “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” That was not a helpful suggestion. Jesus made that command the cornerstone of following Him. So that is my agenda. To love others as I have been loved and be a “troublesome” Christian to some.

Make a difference today, Love Clint Philippians 3:12

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worldfootprints · 5 years

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Used by Indigenous tribes in the Amazon for medicinal purposes for centuries, it’s only in the last 50 years or so that Westerners have come to learn about ayahuasca. La medicina, as it’s often known, is part of a multimillion dollar industry taking hold in South and Central America: plant medicine tourism.

Ayahuasca, Quechua for “spirit vine,” is an entheogenic brew derived from two Amazonian plants: the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and a shrub called Psychotria viridis, known in Peru as chacruna. The two work together to allow the user to experience the hallucinogenic effects of the medicine. And while it may sound like a fun trip, ayahuasca is anything but a party drug — or any other type of drug, for that matter.

Back in January 2018, I got ready for my own ayahuasca experience in Costa Rica. In the days leading up to the first ceremony, I cut out excessively salty, sugary, oily, and spicy foods from my diet, underwent three colon hydrotherapy sessions (the medicine is known to be purgative from both ends), and engaged in breathwork — all to cleanse my body and prepare to receive the messages of Mama Ayahuasca. And receive her messages I did. It was a challenging journey, but after one week consisting of four ceremonies, I felt great. I’d been able to work through some personal issues that were holding me back and established some beautiful friendships along the way.

In the months that followed, though, I couldn’t help but wonder about the authenticity of what I experienced. Every aspect of it was incredible, but the retreat center — a resort, really — was owned by an American and marketed to high-earning foreigners, and the ceremonies had nearly 80 people in them. Surely that wasn’t the way Indigenous curanderos (healers) intended it to be.

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The rise of ayahuasca tourism

As the Western world learns more about the potential benefits of ayahuasca, more and more tourists are making the journey to South and Central America to sip the medicine themselves. Some come to heal from illnesses or past traumas, others to deepen their spiritual connection to the universe, and still others to simply see what all the fuss is about. Whatever the reason, they number in the thousands — perhaps even tens of thousands — and they’re willing to pay upwards of $3,000 USD for the experience.

Retreats have popped up across the region, but Iquitos, the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon, has become a mecca of ayahuasca tourism. Whether this is a good thing or not depends on who you ask.

Proponents suggest that this sort of tourism is renewing interest in age-old traditions and sparking an interest in plant medicine among Indigenous young people. They also point out that it’s bringing in much-needed tourist dollars that boost local economies. Carlos Suárez Álvarez, author of Ayahuasca, Iquitos, and Monster Vorax, notes that the ten biggest ayahuasca retreats in Iquitos bring in about $6.5 million USD ($8.7 million CAD) each year by hosting foreigners. It’s big money.

Ayahuasca brewing photo by Apollo is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Tourism changing Indigenous societies

But plant medicine tourism and the influx of money that comes with it is changing the fabric of Indigenous societies. Historically in many of these communities, the possession of goods was more highly valued than the accumulation of wealth. This sudden burst of tourism has created an economic shift, and with it, new hierarchies of power and wealth and divisions among community members.

The promise of higher earnings from serving tourists means that locals — people who have always relied on the knowledge of curanderos — may be priced out of the market. Financially, it simply doesn’t make sense to provide services to community members for next to nothing when you can charge foreigners hundreds of dollars.

And that’s if a curandero stays in his or her community. As more retreat centers and lodges look to hire Indigenous healers (particularly Peruvian Shipibo ones), curanderos are moving away from rural areas and into tourist centers in the hopes of securing a position and gaining material wealth. This creates massive gaps in the traditional healthcare networks of Amazonian communities, particularly ones without any other health practitioners.

And then there’s the issue of neo-colonialism. These new ayahuasca ceremonies are very much geared towards what Westerners expect and are looking for, even if it isn’t authentic to the Indigenous culture. It raises the question of whether tourists are experiencing true ayahuasca ceremonies, or whitewashed versions of them.

Traditionally, only the curandero drinks the ayahuasca brew. It allows him to connect to the natural or spiritual world and understand the patients’ illnesses, then determine which plants may be used to cure them. But few tourists would be willing to pay for a second-hand experience like this, and so the practice has changed to meet the demand. At just about every retreat center, it’s now the tourists who sip the ayahuasca and then lay back, waiting for the visions to come.

Francisco Montes Shuna, who runs Sachamama Lodge in Peru, is just one of the many curanderos who is frustrated by this growing foreign influence. “It’s our culture — the Amazon’s culture,” he says in an interview with The Guardian. “[These foreigners] are coming here and stealing our knowledge.” It’s an opinion that is likely shared by many others.

Sustained high demand could create plant shortages

The increase in tourism also means heavy demand on the ayahuasca vine. Once grown and harvested only from the jungle, the vine has tripled in value over the last six years and is now being commercially grown.

Unlike chacruna leaves, which are fairly easy to cultivate and harvest, B. caapi takes 2-3 years to mature. Curanderos emphasize the importance of age and thickness, favoring vines that are at least six years old. But between improper harvesting techniques used by people looking to make a quick profit and the need for commercial growing operations, these are now more difficult to find. Whether there is sufficient supply to continue to meet the Western demand remains to be seen.

Ayahuasca vine photo taken by Apollo and licensed under Creative Commons

Sharing traditions in a responsible way

This is not to say that Western interest in ayahuasca is bad. However, the sharing of these Indigenous traditions must be done in a way that respects and honors them.

I don’t regret my ayahuasca experience. But I believe that if you know better, you must do better — and that means I won’t support foreign-owned retreat centers that exploit Indigenous culture, knowledge, and traditions for financial gain.

Experiencing plant medicine in a responsible, ethical way means doing your research. Find locally owned and operated retreats and ask about the history. Who is the curandero, where does he or she come from, and what kind of training did he or she receive? How many people will be in the ceremonies? How does the retreat benefit the local community and economy, and does it support the sustainable growth of the ayahuasca vine?

There is a fine line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation. And while we’re tending towards the latter right now, it doesn’t have to be that way.

“Ayahuasca altar” by Apollo is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Ayahuasca Tourism: The Commercialization of Culture Used by Indigenous tribes in the Amazon for medicinal purposes for centuries, it’s only in the last 50 years or so that Westerners have come to learn about ayahuasca.

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mrmichaelchadler · 5 years

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Stan Lee: 1922-2018

It is impossible to fully grasp the influence Stan Lee had over the world of popular culture since he first achieved fame in the Sixties. As a writer, editor and publisher of comic books, he, along with an extraordinary group of collaborators, revolutionized and expanded what could be said and done in that particular art form in ways that reverberate to this day. Later on, after years of tirelessly expanding his small publishing company into a multimedia corporation, the very same creations that helped change the world of comics forever—characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man, Black Panther, the Fantastic Four and the proverbial many, many more—would finally hit Hollywood and spawn a number of astonishingly lucrative and ambitious film and television franchises to boot. Even those who didn’t much follow the world of comic books or superhero films still knew who Lee was, thanks to his tireless promotion of his creations and of the comic book industry in general. His passing today at the age of 95 truly marks the end of an era, although the creations he helped shepherd during that era show no signs of fading away anytime soon.

He was born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922 in Manhattan and later moved with his family into an apartment in the Bronx. An aspiring writer, Lee graduated early from high school in 1939 and joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project before an uncle helped to get him a job as an assistant at the then-new Timely Comics publishing company. Although his initial duties were humdrum—filling inkwells and such—he soon made his debut as a writer by penning a short piece that appeared in “Captain America Comics #3” in 1941, utilizing Stan Lee as a pen name for the first time. He soon moved from writing filler to full stories and in 1941, he debuted his first superhero co-creation, The Destroyer, in “Mystic Comics #6.” Later that year, after a management shake-up, the then-19-year-old Lee was installed as interim editor and showed a flair for the job that would find him remaining in the position of editor-in-chief until 1972, during which time Timely would evolve into Marvel Comics.

After serving in World War II as a member of the Signal Corps, Lee returned to Timely in 1945 and over the next decade or so, during which time the company became known as Atlas Comics, he worked on stories in a variety of genres and even co-produced a syndicated comic strip based on the popular radio show “My Friend Irma.” None of these efforts were particularly notable and an increasingly frustrated Lee considered leaving the industry for good until his publisher, Martin Goodman, made a request—since chief competitor DC Comics had just found success with its superhero team the Justice League of America, could Lee come up with a series based around a team concept as well? With nothing left to lose, Lee rose to the occasion but instead of following the DC model in which superheroes like Superman were square-jawed paragons of virtue devoid of even the tiniest of flaws, his heroes would have any number of imperfections—ranging from emotions like jealousy, anger, vanity and depression to basic matters like paying bills, getting ahead in school or trying to get up the nerve to ask someone on a date—that he felt would strike a chord with younger readers who were themselves going through many of those problems and sensations themselves.

The group that he and artist Jack Kirby devised utilizing this approach, the Fantastic Four, proved to be an instant success when it debuted in 1961—the time when the company finally changed its name to Marvel. Over the next few years, Lee helped usher in an astonishing array of characters in stories that deftly juggled the fantastic with real-world concerns. With Kirby, he co-created the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and X-Men, devised Daredevil with Bill Everett and joined forces with Steve Ditko to bring about Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, the latter proving to be Marvel’s most popular creation. In what would prove to be a genius move, all of these characters, and many more to come, would all exist within one shared conceptual universe and some of these characters would band together into a new team known as The Avengers. The fact that you almost certainly did not require any sort of explanation or description of the characters that I have cited in this paragraph should give some indication as to just how popular they would become over the years.

The Marvel comics stood out from the competition as they strived to truly resonate with readers. By introducing stories with more serious themes and increasingly complex characters than one normally found in comic books, they not only changed what could be done in the format but also helped to vastly expand their readership by telling stories that kept readers interested even as they grew older while attracting new ones as well. Marvel also helped to pioneer the notion of forging a connection between the people who created the comics and those who consumed them. Under Lee, Marvel would introduce such innovations as explicitly crediting those responsible for the creation of the various comics, including inkers and letterers. He also included such creations as a letters page, “Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletin,” a section talking about members of Marvel’s staff and what was in the hopper and the monthly column entitled “Stan’s Soapbox.” These behind-the-scenes glimpses afforded to readers made them feel as if they were truly a part of something special and they pretty much helped to lay the groundwork for the vast world of contemporary fandom—what is ComicCon, after all, but a “Bullpen Bulletin” writ extra-large.

During the Sixties, Lee worked as a writer, art director and editor for most of Marvel’s series and continued to help expand on the kinds of stories that a comic book could tell. “Spider-Man,” for example, would deal with such hot topics as politics, drugs, student protests and the war in Vietnam. He would help break the racial barrier by introducing the African-American character Robbie Robertson in a supporting role in “Spider-Man” and, with Kirby, would co-create the first major black superhero character, Black Panther. Social commentary would also crop up in his “Stan’s Soapbox” columns and he would also prove to be influential in the eventual easing of the once-powerful Comics Code, which had been introduced by the comics industry in 1954 to govern what could and could not be shown in order to avoid official government regulation. In 1972, he stepped down as editor-in-chief at Marvel and assumed the role of publisher.

Although his later years would find him involved with any number of ventures—some more successful than others—his chief role would be to serve as the sort of friendly uncle figurehead for the entire comics industry thanks to his countless appearances at conventions, college lectures, signings and anyplace else that he could use to help further the reach of his creations. In 1981, he moved to California in an effort to help develop Marvel’s numerous properties into films and television series in the wake of the success of the 1978 blockbuster “Superman,” and while there were shows and TV movies based on “Spider-Man” and “The Hulk,” the movies did not quite work out—there were always announcements of future films but they would always fall apart.

Eventually, Hollywood began bringing Marvel’s creations to the big screen and inspired massively successful franchises based on “Spider-Man,” “X-Men” and “The Fantastic Four.” This led to the development of what would become known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a concept inspired by the shared universe notion of the comics in which the different movies would overlap and characters from one series might turn up in another. One element that practically all of these films had in common—whether part of the MCU or not—was the presence of Lee himself, who would turn up in cameos (often of a cheerfully self-referential nature) that fans would gleefully search for in the way that cineastes once kept an eye out for when Alfred Hitchcock would turn up in his films.

From a financial standpoint, the influence that Lee and his work would have on Hollywood is undeniable—the three phases of the MCU (which has expanded to include television shows, comics and digital series) has generated billions of dollars and transformed the industry into one more focused on ever on creating ready-made blockbusters that can earn tons of money throughout the world. From an artistic standpoint, one could argue that there have been so many superhero movies in recent years that have tried so hard to top each other in terms of sheer spectacle that a certain degree of fatigue has set in. But as it turns out, the best Marvel films have been the ones that have taken Lee’s example to heart and have taken risks that may have seemed incredibly chancy at first but which proved to pay off beautifully in the end: The notion of putting a performer as off-beat as Robert Downey Jr. into the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man, a merging of actor and role that made “Iron Man” (2008) such an influential hit; The decision to allow Ang Lee to transform “Hulk” (2008) from a superhero saga into something resembling an actual art film. (This did not endear it with most moviegoers but the resulting film is a genuinely great example of cinematic pop art that deserves a reappraisal); The increasing narrative ambitions of the “Captain America” films leading to the wonderful and provocative “Captain America: Civil War” (2016); The willingness to take a chance on a offbeat indie filmmaker like Taika Waititi and allow him to take arguably the dullest of the Marvel movie stable, Thor, and liven it up with goofball humor in the throughly engaging “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017). And, of course, “Black Panther” (2018), a film which thoroughly upended most notions of what a superhero movie needed to succeed and ended up becoming the most financially successful film featuring a solo superhero as well as the first film of the genre with a more-than-legitimate shot at a Best Picture nomination.

Although Lee, as I mentioned, did make appearances in pretty much all of the movies inspired by his comic book creations, his most notable screen appearance would be in a film set far outside the universe he created. This would be in “Mallrats,” the 1995 comedy that Kevin Smith made in the wake of the success of his controversial debut “Clerks.” While the film would prove to be a flop at the box-office that Smith and others would use as a sort of punchline for years, it is actually a much better film than its reputation would suggest and one of the best things about it is Lee’s appearance. Playing himself, he is at the mall where the film is almost entirely set for a signing and winds up encountering Brody (Jason Lee), the vulgar and obnoxious comic book obsessive who has just broken up with his girlfriend as the story begins. Upon meeting his hero, Brody begins hammering his hero with the kind of questions that Lee was no doubt inundated with throughout his life (along with some involving superhero genitalia best left untouched here). Instead of just brushing him off, Lee begins to genuinely converse with Brody about life and love in ways that cut through the kid’s bombast and braggadocio in order to get in touch with his real emotions.

Yes, the scene is very funny but in just a few short minutes, it essentially sums up what made Lee such an important and necessary figure in the lives of so many people—he used his talents to create work that reached out to fans and meant something to them in ways that other forms of disposable popular culture simply didn’t. It’s what separated him from the rest, and why his name and work will continue to last long after his passing.

‘Nuff said.

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