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sugarnospice · 3 years

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The semester that lasted a year..

Its final week and I feel like I’ve lived 9 different lives in the last 4 months.

This semester was unconventional to say the least and I feel like I’ve lived an entire year during it. This was my first full semester with all online classes. I tried to enroll in hybrid classes but soon after school started, the number of COVID-19 cases skyrocketed forcing everything to remain online for the rest semester. Of course this was not a surprise but nonetheless still disappointing. I missed the feeling of walking into a classroom on the first day and choosing my unassigned-assigned seat for the semester, usually an aisle seat within the first 3 rows. I also missed walking around my beautiful campus in between classes and catching up with people I know along the way. Most importantly I missed the atmosphere that surrounds the academic buildings and libraries during a normal semester. People hustling to get work done before the weekend hits, some girl on her 3rd espresso shot trying to finish a midterm paper, the frat boy that only came to socialize, the group that can't seem to agree on a business proposal…sigh, I never knew these would be the things I missed most.

I would say the most difficult thing this semester was getting myself to focus in my room. I have never been one to do homework in bed because my bed is for sleeping and comfort, not stress. I made my work desk to be as comfy as I could always making sure my shades were open to let natural light in. That's another thing, during a typical semester I never worried about being idle all day or not getting enough sunlight but with everything being done in my room I had to make an extra effort to keep myself in high spirits. The best thing I did for myself was create a routine. I knew each day of the week what subjects I would be working on, when I had to be at work, and when I had time to schedule a break or a workout. Soon after the semester kicked off my schedule became second nature.

Having an entirely online semester was not something I thought I would enjoy but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I did end up liking it. I got to do things on my own time and in my own environment. I have always struggled with sitting in classes and focusing on the professor and not the students around me who were shaking their legs or clicking their pens. I got to create my own school bubble and work through things the way I best knew how. I tend to need some kind of background noise when I take notes because it helps me remember content based on the song I was listening to when reviewing (sounds backwards I know, but it works for me). Finals are still winding down for me but I’m supposed to be ending my semester with a 4.0. Never have I ever gotten grades like this and I am so proud of myself for working through these past 15 weeks and staying on top of my school work.

Without even taking school into account, Fall semester 2020 has been my favorite semester of college. I started this semester out with the position of Rho Gamma for the panhellenic community here at JMU. This position entailed me being assigned 13 Potential New Members (PNM’s) who were rushing this fall. I got to work with so many other women in the Greek community here and got experience with leadership, conflict management, scheduling and networking. I was able to find 11 of my 13 girls homes and 1 even ended up in my own chapter. It was comforting to know that these girls trusted me with their opinions and they opened up to me alot during the 2 weeks we worked together.

I also moved into new housing this year and my roommates were everything and more for me. They worked hard and that motivated me to do my own work. The fact that they are all seniors and are graduating in the spring gave us all the more reason to try going out and doing things on the weekends together while we still can. Bethany is the best roommate to get my mind off of things with because she always has so much to share. I’m so excited to see how she excels at her job in the future and even more excited for her to progress in the new relationship she found recently. Sara, who is my floormate has been nothing but amazing in supporting me everytime I come home and have something I need to get out. She listened to my bad mornings after a night out and was there to give me a reality check when it was needed most. Natalie, who doubles as my roommate and big, has done so much this semester to move forward in her career and I'm inspired everyday by how hardworking and passionate she is about it. She supported me in the process of transitioning to Chapter President and was a great friend to lean on during wine nights.

Because of COVID-19, I wasn't sure how I was going to meet new people this year. My favorite thing has always been getting to know new people and figuring out how they influence my life. At the start of the semester it was difficult to do anything because we were constantly being hit with possible exposure. At one point JMU was 9th in the nation for leading cases of covid so you can imagine how scary it was at the start. Nevertheless after reflection I found that I created strong relationships with 10 new people this semester while cultivating my previous ones. My favorite friend has been my neighbor Adrian. He has been a driving force in most of the new friends I have found. I started out being very reluctant to be his friend but him being a pisces and all, I literally could not help myself. Adrian has been great at letting me break out of my shell and introducing me to new music, food, people and places and if there's one good thing 2020 has given me it was his friendship. He has introduced me to a whole world I didn't know existed at JMU. The latin community is a small one here but the culture is so strong. I finally feel like I have met people who are like me and I don't feel like I have to be more than who I am for them

This semester I was also elected Chapter President for Gamma Phi Beta at JMU. This was an intense honor and I am so excited to work along the other exec members in 2021. I often find myself lost in my feelings about being president. I have not had a leadership position this large since I was a senior in highschool and already it has shown to be a much larger role. Being in charge of 200+ girls is going to be a challenge but I thankfully have a large support system begging me, one I intend to use. While president I hope to be a role model for the younger members and leave a lasting legacy with my chapter. When I was first initiated into Gphi I knew one day this chapter would bring me to great things. The women I have been surrounded with these last 3.5 years have made me stronger, smarter and more kind. Giving back to the organization and the greek community is something I am so happy I had the opportunity to do.

To say the least, I'm excited for spring semester to begin and I'm hopeful for where it will lead me. Thank you fall 2020 for all of the laughs, the cries, the love and all of the opportunities under the sun!

Shi

#college writing

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orbemnews · 3 years

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Russian Campaign Promotes Homegrown Vaccine and Undercuts Rivals Russian news outlets connected to election disinformation campaigns in the United States have set their sites on a new target: convincing Spanish-speaking countries that the Russian coronavirus vaccine works better than its American competitors, according to researchers and State Department officials. The Russian campaign has focused on Latin American nations, including Mexico, which this week signed a deal to acquire millions of doses of the Russian vaccine, and Argentina, which last month began vaccinating its citizens with it. Conducted on Spanish-language social media and reinforced by the official Twitter account of the Russian embassy in Mexico City, the campaign signaled a new wrinkle in Russian influence operations, promoting Russian industry and scientific cachet over its competitors as governments around the world race to vaccinate their populations. The Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, was named after the first satellite to orbit the earth, which was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Sputnik V is considered less expensive and easier to transport than vaccines made by the American companies Pfizer and Moderna. But some researchers say the criticism in Russian outlets of the Western vaccines has been misleading. “Almost everything they are promoting about the vaccine is manipulated and put out without context,” said Bret Schafer, a fellow with the Alliance for Securing Democracy, an advocacy group that tracks Russian disinformation. “Every negative story or issue that has come out about a U.S.-made vaccine is amplified, while they flood the zone with any positive report about the Russian vaccine.” Media outlets backed by the Russian government posted to Facebook and Twitter hundreds of links to news stories that reported potential ties suggesting American vaccines may have had a role in deaths, the researchers said. The accounts left out follow-up reports that found the vaccines most likely played no role in the deaths. “This was a coordinated effort that was part P.R. campaign and part disinformation. It is one of the largest operations we’ve seen to promote a narrative around the vaccine in Latin America, and it appears to have had an effect,” said Jaime Longoria, a disinformation researcher at First Draft, a nonprofit that supports journalists and independent researchers. “Russia steadily seeded a narrative that has grown and been, to some degree, accepted.” Researchers have tracked similar Russian efforts in Eastern European countries that are still negotiating with Russia to buy the vaccine. Disinformation researchers have also monitored Russia spreading similar narratives in a half-dozen languages, targeting countries in central and Western Africa. China has also joined the fray, striking a similar anti-American vaccine tone aimed at a domestic audience, according to disinformation researchers. While Russia and China do not appear to be working together, their shared interests have led to a shared narrative. Last month, a Twitter account dedicated to Sputnik V included a Chinese report that falsely claimed the U.S. media had remained silent on deaths related to Pfizer’s vaccine. Intelligence officials in the United States noticed the first uptick in Russia targeting Spanish-speaking communities in August, when President Vladimir V. Putin announced that he had granted approval to Sputnik V. Since then, Russia’s campaign has intensified, said two intelligence officials who spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with reporters. The State Department officials described Russia’s influence campaign as a combination of Russia’s state-backed media outlets highlighting reports that warned about the dangers of the U.S. vaccines, while promoting any reports that were enthusiastic about the Russian-made vaccine. At the State Department, a report circulated last month outlining Russia’s efforts, according to the officials. A department spokeswoman said Russia has tried to promote its own vaccine while “seeking to sow distrust” in the United States about Western vaccines. Analyzing over 1,000 Russian-aligned Twitter accounts, the State Department’s Global Engagement Center found that Spanish-language accounts showed the greatest engagement. Russia’s campaign, the spokeswoman said, “undermines the collective global effort to end the global pandemic.” The influence campaign in Mexico has become the best understood of the efforts by the outlets with ties to the Kremlin. It was different from previous Russian disinformation campaigns, which leaned on posting false and misleading information online. As social media companies have become more aggressive in rooting out disinformation, Russian operations have focused on promoting selective news stories that skirt the truth, rather than reject it. The new approach was particularly effective because the Spanish-language Twitter and Facebook accounts of Russia Today and Sputnik, two state-controlled media outlets, regularly rank among the most influential in Latin America, said researchers at First Draft. Russia Today and Sputnik did not respond to a request for comment. “They have cultivated a large audience and regularly rank in the top 10 of the most-shared stories or links,” said Mr. Longoria. This week, Hugo López-Gatell, Mexico’s deputy health minister, said his government had signed a contract for the Russian vaccine, procuring 24 million doses that will cover 12 million people. The vaccine will be delivered in several stages through May. On Tuesday, the medical journal The Lancet published the results of an independent review of Sputnik V, showing that it had 91.6 percent efficacy and no serious side effects. The news was a boost to the Mexican government’s procurement efforts. In December, Facebook said it had removed a Russian disinformation campaign that posted information in French, English, Portuguese and Arabic about a number of topics, including in support of Russia’s vaccine. “We know influence operations come in different forms, including overt messages promoted through state-controlled media. We put clear labels on these publishers so people know who the information is coming from,” said Liz Bourgeois, a Facebook spokeswoman. She said Facebook had seen clandestine Russian operations mentioning Covid-19 in the past, but it had not found any current campaigns. Posts by the Russian news outlets would not have been considered clandestine and would not have been removed by Facebook. Covid-19 Vaccines › Answers to Your Vaccine Questions Am I eligible for the Covid vaccine in my state? Currently more than 150 million people — almost half the population — are eligible to be vaccinated. But each state makes the final decision about who goes first. The nation’s 21 million health care workers and three million residents of long-term care facilities were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal officials urged all states to open up eligibility to everyone 65 and older and to adults of any age with medical conditions that put them at high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. Adults in the general population are at the back of the line. If federal and state health officials can clear up bottlenecks in vaccine distribution, everyone 16 and older will become eligible as early as this spring or early summer. The vaccine hasn’t been approved in children, although studies are underway. It may be months before a vaccine is available for anyone under the age of 16. Go to your state health website for up-to-date information on vaccination policies in your area Is the vaccine free? You should not have to pay anything out of pocket to get the vaccine, although you will be asked for insurance information. If you don’t have insurance, you should still be given the vaccine at no charge. Congress passed legislation this spring that bars insurers from applying any cost sharing, such as a co-payment or deductible. It layered on additional protections barring pharmacies, doctors and hospitals from billing patients, including those who are uninsured. Even so, health experts do worry that patients might stumble into loopholes that leave them vulnerable to surprise bills. This could happen to those who are charged a doctor visit fee along with their vaccine, or Americans who have certain types of health coverage that do not fall under the new rules. If you get your vaccine from a doctor’s office or urgent care clinic, talk to them about potential hidden charges. To be sure you won’t get a surprise bill, the best bet is to get your vaccine at a health department vaccination site or a local pharmacy once the shots become more widely available. Can I choose which vaccine I get? How long will the vaccine last? Will I need another one next year? That is to be determined. It’s possible that Covid-19 vaccinations will become an annual event, just like the flu shot. Or it may be that the benefits of the vaccine last longer than a year. We have to wait to see how durable the protection from the vaccines is. To determine this, researchers are going to be tracking vaccinated people to look for “breakthrough cases” — those people who get sick with Covid-19 despite vaccination. That is a sign of weakening protection and will give researchers clues about how long the vaccine lasts. They will also be monitoring levels of antibodies and T cells in the blood of vaccinated people to determine whether and when a booster shot might be needed. It’s conceivable that people may need boosters every few months, once a year or only every few years. It’s just a matter of waiting for the data. Will my employer require vaccinations? Where can I find out more? Twitter declined to comment on any Russian operations targeting Spanish-speaking audiences, but said it was still investigating. The Russian campaign relied on cherry-picked news reports, researchers said. On Jan. 17, Russia Today Espanol tweeted that Norway was moving to investigate why 23 older people had died after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. Three weeks earlier, the same account tweeted multiple reports about six people who died during Pfizer’s vaccine trial. The reports did not include context from medical experts who said the deaths most likely had no connection to the vaccine. The accounts shared similar narratives on Facebook. On Jan. 5, Russia Today’s Spanish-language Facebook page shared a story with its 17 million followers claiming that a Portuguese nurse died two days after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. The story implied that the vaccine was responsible, despite doctors and an autopsy concluding the vaccine probably played no role in her death. Russia’s diplomatic corps also used their social media accounts to promote an image that the Russian vaccine was being subjected to unfair scrutiny. The volume of posts was notable, said Mr. Longoria and others who study Russian influence operations. On CrowdTangle, the Facebook-owned tool that analyzes interactions on the site, they found that Russia Today and Sputnik pages targeting Spanish-speaking audiences generated more than 1,000 posts with over six million interactions over the last year with the word “vacuna,” Spanish for vaccine. Researchers said Russia’s earlier efforts focused on other targets, like the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. A Russian effort to undermine confidence in that vaccine — including memes and posts on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere depicting it as dangerous — peaked over the summer and early fall, according to researchers. The campaign included suggestions that the vaccine would turn people into monkeys because it was developed using a chimpanzee virus. It largely targeted countries that were debating purchases of the British or Russian vaccines, according to a previous report in The Times of London. That campaign abruptly stopped in mid-December, after the drugmakers announced that Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had reached a deal to test a combination of their vaccines together. “You can see a distinct tipping point, where suddenly the stories about AstraZeneca go from being wholly negative to being wholly positive,” said Mr. Longoria. “It is very stark, and very clear that when the business interests changed, so did the objectives of their influence operation.” Oscar Lopez contributed reporting. Source link Orbem News #campaign #Homegrown #Promotes #Rivals #Russian #Undercuts #Vaccine

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forsetti · 7 years

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On My Night With Ta-Nehisi Coates: A Sword Of Truth and Justice

Last night, I was fortunate to be able to hear Ta-Nehisi Coates give a talk for Michigan State University's World Lecture Series. It was everything I expected it to be and more. He was knowledgeable, funny, humble, brutally honest... all the things I have come to expect from the person I consider to be one of the best writers in America.

My own personal history with Ta-Nehisi Coates' writings goes back to 2009 when I read his piece in the Atlantic, “This is Who We Lost To The White Man: The Audacity of Bill Cosby's Black Conservatism.” As a middle-aged white man who grew up in ultra-white America, my knowledge of subtle, covert, systemic racism had been severely limited. It didn't matter how much or how hard I tried to be “woke” about race in America, I was hindered by both a lack of information and direction of focus. Ta-Nehisi Coates completely changed this for me. He was the impetus behind a paradigm shift in how I think about race in America.

This paradigm shift about race in America has been a double-edged sword for me. On one side of the blade is the better understanding of just how pervasive and nefarious racism has been and continues to be in America. On the other side of the blade is the better understanding of just how pervasive and nefarious racism has been and continues to be in America. The one side is the knowledge side. The other side is the ethical side. It is one thing to have a better knowledge of something. It is another to feel the moral ramifications of the knowledge. Ta-Nehisi Coates not only provided me the blade, his continued work has honed both sides to an edge that would rival the finest Damascus steel or Japanese katana.

TNC's writes hardly just about race. He is someone who gets interested in a topic and then follows the hell out of it. He has gone through different writing phases where his main focus has shifted from race to the Civil War to Jane Austen to Thomas Hobbes' Social Contract to learning French while living France to writing for the comic book “Black Panther.” I admire his willingness to follow his passions wherever they take him, even if they take him to places that don't really interest me. Even in these areas, I find his writings completely engaging and informative.

The thing I quickly noticed about TNC was he can pack more truth in a couple of sentences than most people can put into a complete page. There have been so many times I've been reading one of his articles and had to stop, go back and reread the previous sentence or two only to be floored with how much information and brutal honestly was contained therein. I don't know of anyone writing today who does this as consistently as TNC does. If I ever even had the passing thought I was a decent writer, it would be taken out back and Old Yellered by my respect and knowledge of TNC's writings. I view and treat TNC the way I did Michael Jordan when I used to play basketball-I admire the hell out of what they do, the mastery of their craft but have no illusions I could ever do what they do. I'm certainly envious of their abilities but know these are not in my wheelhouse.

I certainly don't try and compete with or gauge myself against someone like TNC but it would be a lie to say he has not heavily influenced not only how I view the world but what I write about. I didn't really grasp this until last night when he started his talk addressing a recent article from Nicholas Kristof in the New York Time, “In Trump Country, Shock at Trump Budget Cuts, but Still Loyalty.” It is an article I read the day it came out and criticized online for the same general reasons and in many of the same ways TNC did in his talk. Five years ago, this would not have been true. I may have been critical of the article but the angle would have been very different. TNC honed my sword so it cuts his way. Kristof's article spends a lot of time talking about Trump voters, their feelings, their fears, their worries... but completely skips over the reasons behind it all. Racism and bigotry are never discussed even though their ghosts permeate and hover over the entire piece.

Kristof's article and the hundreds of others that have been written about Trump voters before and after the election all intentionally omit any discussion of the role racism and bigotry played/plays with a significant portion of white America. For reasons very few people want to address, white America doesn't want to fully admit to and address the sins of racism in our country. This denial is sometimes out of denial but most often it is out of guilt. Every single white person in America has benefited greatly from racism and racist policies. Some certainly have benefited more than others, but none come off not morally sullied. The people who own private prisons certainly benefit greatly from racism and racist polices but so too do people with no direct ties. A larger than normal African American prison population means there is less competition for jobs, for loans, for services... for white Americans. It also means a lot of jobs in the prison system for many white Americans. No one comes off untouched, not tainted by our continued history of racism.

The one thing TNC said last night that really hit me hard was, “Slavery was not a bump in the road. It was the road.” America was not the economic power it was and is without slavery. Our wealth, our status in the world would not be what it currently is without slavery. The wealth and status of many of our most wealthy would not be what they are without racist policies like redlining, mass incarceration, drug policies... Many of our politicians (Trump) would not be in positions of power without pushing and pandering to racist ideas and polices. As pervasive as racism is in America, it is easy to forget or underestimate just how much it is. Another thing he brought up that struck a chord with me is how people and the government used debt to keep African Americans enslaved to whites long after the Civil War was over. This wasn't a unique strategy. Thomas Jefferson did the same when dealing with Native Americans. If you can get people indebted to you enough, you can extract from them whatever you want. In both cases, it was white America placing unbearable debt on and extracting from non-whites.

He also talked about phenomena like White Flight as not being something that occurred naturally but was the result of intentional, specific attitudes and polices. When you redline a block because a single black family lives in it and this redlining results in the home prices, insurance rates going up for all their white neighbors, you should not expect anything other than White Flight. The cause of White Flight was not minorities, it was the government and private sector policies that put financial burdens on whites BECAUSE they lived around minorities.

The most striking thing he said last night and the thing that is the hardest to come to moral terms with is, “Plunder is the defining feature of the relationship between blacks and whites.” Minorities have been robbed of their labors, their lives, their culture, their ability to be integrated into society, their rights... and the people who have benefited from this are white Americans. This is a brutally honest accusation. It is an accusation I wish wasn't true. However, it is truth to the nth power. This truth doesn't just apply to blacks but to Native Americans, Latinos, women... White, male America has benefited greatly from plundering from non-whites and women. We would not be in our lofty position in the social pyramid without it. This truth applies to the redneck, meth addict in West Virginia as much as it does the hedge fund manager on Wall St. The difference is only in matters of degrees.

If you want to know why I have such a problem with many so-called “progressives,” why I cannot tolerate any political strategy that caters to the “white working class” (*you know who you are, Bernie) it is largely because of the sword of racism and honing of the edge Ta-Nehisi Coates has put into my hands. As long as I live, I will wield this sword with every ounce of energy I can muster. I feel I have been fortunate enough to be handed an incredible weapon, crafted by a master like Ta-Nehisi Coates, a weapon I need to wield was justly and precisely as I can. In my head, I imagine him telling me the same thing Hattori Hanzo told The Bride in Kill Bill II when he handed her his most prized creation-”I've created, "something that kills people." And in that purpose, I was a success. I've done this because, philosophically, I am sympathetic to your aim. I can tell you with no ego, this is my finest sword. If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut.” I hope to cut and cut deeply anyone who denies or ignores the path of equality and justice starts with and goes through those who have suffered the most and the longest from the plundering of white America. I may be only one person, but I will gladly and willingly take on anyone who crosses my path. I do so because I feel I've been given an incredible gift, a gift of knowledge from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

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whittlebaggett8 · 5 years

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When a China Propaganda Campaign Infiltrated the United States

The scenario of a professional-Nationalist propaganda community in the United States in the 1930s reinforces the fact that foreign interference in U.S. politics is much from new.

It is no mystery that the United States has lengthy carried out intense ways to control the politics of other nations around the world, even these with democratic governments. Till 2016, many Us residents lived below the illusion that overseas international locations do not return the favor, but, of system, quite a few nations above the many years have tried to intervene in the performing of the American political process.

Kristopher Erskine (reviewed listed here by T.J. Park, associate professor of History at West Virginia College and historian of the China Foyer) has undertaken a examine of the establishment and procedure of a professional-Nationalist propaganda community in the United States in the late 1930s. Although former operate experienced demonstrated the existence, and to some extent the efficiency, of these networks within the United States, Erskine tends to make very clear that they were set up as section of KMT coverage. Erskine discusses thorough plan steering from Chiang Kai-shek in 1938 to the American Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression (ACNPJA), a lobbying team in the United States.

This propaganda operation labored by means of pre-existing networks of American missionary teams, who remained fixated on the assure of Chiang Kai-shek as a Christian chief, and deeply concerned about the two Communist and Japanese enlargement. American commercial teams also took element. The ACNPJA took steps to obscure the function of the Chinese governing administration, running with an all-American board of administrators and failing to sign up as a foreign lobbying organization.

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As always, it is challenging to ferret out the specific impact of a propaganda campaign. Erskine implies that, at a greatest, the campaign might have helped form U.S. community feeling such that important financial sanctions towards Japan grew to become doable. Park argues that it is extremely hard to know how significantly the ACNPJA shaped US attitudes, and that to some extent it crafted on pre-current sympathies for China that would have inclined the United States toward sanctions versus Japan anyway. To be positive, networks of anti-isolationist groups have been lively in the United States at the time, despite the fact that even these experienced very little affinity for Japan.

A various way of approaching this challenge is to talk to: “What is the distinction amongst Us residents advocating for China, and Us citizens advocating for China at the immediate behest of the Chinese authorities?” That the ACNPJA evidently took concerted steps to glimpse like the previous alternatively than the latter implies that the variance is consequential. Failing to sign-up as a overseas lobbying agent is, of study course, relatively different than conducting espionage and a significant-profile media marketing campaign in opposition to a distinct candidate. We can file ACNPJA things to do under a thing like a spectrum in between “influence” and “interference.” Investigating Chinese impact prior to the war helps explain how we imagine about “foreign influence” in the politics of the United States. It also looks value noting that the U.S. political procedure reacted poorly to the thought that the People’s Republic of China experienced supported the re-election marketing campaign of President Bill Clinton in 1996.

The very last 4 decades have been enlightening with respect to how American politics reacts to intervention by foreign actors, which has been widespread for a lot of the historical past of the Republic, but which has taken on a new character considering the fact that 2016. A current study posted by Michael Tomz and Jessica Weeks (summarized in the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage) investigated U.S. attitudes towards overseas interference. It observed that Us residents were being sensitive to overseas affect over elections, particularly as the amount of influence and interference escalated, but that voters ended up especially angered by intervention of a partisan character. As the internet renders finance and media more permeable than ever in advance of, we will without doubt see further, far more complex, initiatives on the section of overseas actors to handle American politics.

The post When a China Propaganda Campaign Infiltrated the United States appeared first on Defence Online.

from WordPress https://defenceonline.com/2019/06/25/when-a-china-propaganda-campaign-infiltrated-the-united-states/

#Chiang Kai-shek #China interference #Flashpoints #foreign interference #Influence operations #KMT #N

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newsintodays-blog · 6 years

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Russian trolls fan flames in U.S. vaccine debate

New Post has been published on http://newsintoday.info/2018/08/31/russian-trolls-fan-flames-in-u-s-vaccine-debate/

Russian trolls fan flames in U.S. vaccine debate

Some of the same Twitter accounts that tried to influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election have sent messages to amplify strong views – both pro and con – about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, a U.S. study suggests.

FILE PHOTO: A doctor prepares a syringe in a municipal vaccination centre in Nice, southeastern France, September 9, 2009. Four vaccination centres will be opened by Nice’s municipality in case of H1N1 influenza virus contagion. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

The biggest problem with this is that there shouldn’t be a debate at all, said lead study author David Broniatowski, a professor of engineering management and systems engineering at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

“There is widespread consensus in favor of vaccines, yet that is not the impression you would get from looking at Twitter,” Broniatowski said by email.

“Exposure to the ‘vaccine debate’ erodes public trust in healthcare providers and leads people to delay vaccination, exposing us to the risk of epidemics,” Broniatowski added. “Just ‘amplifying’ debate can therefore have real consequences.”

In the study, researchers compared how much average users tweeted about vaccines compared to the volume of posts by bots and trolls from July 2014 to September 2017. They estimated the likelihood that users were bots and compared the proportions of polarizing and anti-vaccine content across user types.

Ordinary twitter users posted much less often about vaccines, and tended to have much less inflammatory #vaccinateUS messages to share than automated bots and Russian trolls, researchers report in the American Journal of Public Health.

The bots and trolls were much busier, and shared more extreme views.

In the antivaccine camp, there were #vaccinateUS tweets like this one: “Dont get #vaccines. Illuminati are behind it.”

And, like this: “At first our government creates diseases then it creates #vaccines. what’s next?!”

Or this one designed to target socioeconomic tensions: “Apparently only the elite get ‘clean’ #vaccines. And what do we, normal ppl get?!”

Pro-vaccine tweets were also extreme, like this example: “#vaccines are a parents choice. Choice of a color of a little coffin.”

Or this one: “Do you still treat your kids with leaves? No? And why don’t you #vaccinate them? It’s medicine!”

Russian trolls appeared to promote discord rather than favor one side of the vaccine debate, while bots that spread malware appeared to be more solidly anti-vaccine, the study found.

Researchers have real reason to be concerned about any social media activity that intensifies debate about vaccines because any resulting decline in vaccination rates may mean children’s’ lives are at stake, said Dr. Matthew Davis of the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.

“As a primary care physician, I know that social media, on many platforms, affects how many parents think about vaccinating their children,” Davis, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

“The deliberate attempts of bots and trolls to misinform, mislead, and otherwise discourage parents from vaccinating their children are undermining one of the strongest, most positive medical and public health tools that parents and healthcare providers can use to protect children,” Davis added.

A growing number of U.S. children are missing out on recommended vaccinations in states that permit parents to skip inoculations due to their personal beliefs even when there’s no medical reason their child can’t be vaccinated, previous research has found.

Waning vaccine use has contributed to measles outbreaks in several U.S. communities in recent years, including a 2015 outbreak in California that began at Disneyland.

Messages on twitter, other social media platforms and the internet may have played a role, said Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

“The antivaccine lobby has made effective use of the internet and social media in amplifying their messages,” Hotez, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “Twitter is certainly one of their vehicles but there are others.”

SOURCE: bit.ly/2NgRvhE American Journal of Public Health, online August 23, 2018.

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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chicagopdlover · 6 years

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Actor Atuanya Chigozie warns people that attacked him in his dream

Actor Atuanya Chigozie warns people that attacked him in his dream Published Tweet Atuanya Chigozie, who woke up with a red eye after an attack in his dream last night, has sent out a warning to the ‘people’ who attacked him. The Nollywood actor who stated that he killed the people that attacked him last night in a short video he shared on Instagram, further told them to stay away from him and his family because he is a covenant child. The video Atuanya Chigozie shared came with the caption; Happy sunday my people.Do you believe in dreams….? Thank you Lord Few months ago, there was also a report of a woman in need of prayers having dreamt of being pierced in her right eye with a needle. Sale Alecheni Alex , who is believed to be her brother requested for a joint appeal to God, from members of a Facebook discussion platform, Prayer Fire Network . The victim had reportedly gone to bed but woke up with one blind eye. The affected organ being one that was attacked in a scary dream. “Pls brethren in house my sister here need ur prayer seriously to get well again. “She just dreams that someone used niddle on her eyes and when she woke up in the next day she can’t see with the eye again,” writes Alex. A disturbing picture of the lady showed a cyst-like eye which appeared to contain a lot of fluid. There was also a story of a young man, who disclosed he was lucky to be alive after allegedly surviving a poison attack. He revealed how he was ‘spiritually’ attacked in his dream. According to the young man identified as Ukolo Way, the poison was sent to him while he was sleeping in his house as he had to use traditional means to remove the poison which was in form of an insect. He revealed that this is the second time he’s surviving poison attack which nearly killed him. Related Topics: JoelsBlog is a Nigerian News and Gossip Blog for the Latest News in Nigeria and diaspora, a one stop bustop for all your Nigerian News Advertisement Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment Photos:- Redwine Eccentric spotted at an Event in Port Harcourt Published JoelsBlog Nigerian singer, Redwine Eccentric was spotted at an Event in Port Harcourt yesterday, the port Harcourt singer/Activist took over the red carpet in style, download his single, Soot City . I’m looking for pregnancy – Bobrisky Published JoelsBlog Contorversial Nigerian cross dresser, Idris Okuneye, popularly known as Bobrisky has said he is looking for pregnancy. The cross dresser took to his Snap chat to post that he looking for pregnancy, though he didn’t state if he was the one trying to get pregnant. Bobrisky wrote that he has been having sex daily of recent, all in his quest for pregnancy. He wrote; “Have been have sex everyday lately because I’m looking for pregnancy” See post below; Kirk Franklin’s estranged son accuses Kirk of trying to kill him Published JoelsBlog Award-winning American gospel singer, Kirk Franklin, 48, has been called out by his eldest son, who claims he has been trying to kill him. Kerrion Franklin, 30, who has not had a good relationship with his dad for many years, made the shocking allegation in a now deleted Instagram post. Kirk and his wife Tammy have two children together – daughter Kennedy (born in 1997) and a son named Caziah (born in 2000). When they wed, they each had one child from previous relationships: Kirk’s son Kerrion, born in 1988, and Tammy’s daughter Carrington (whom he legally adopted), born in 1989. His eldest son Kerrion has been estranged from the family for many years. Well, he has popped online to make some shocking allegations against his own father. According to Kerrion, he believes that Kirk is trying to have him killed. He wrote; ‘My own father is trying to kill me. If anything happens to me its@kirkfranklin sneaky ass. A lot of funny shit been happening and hes in LA right now hiding from me and ii havent heard from him. So I’m just leaving this here for safety purposes. I cant deal with this f**k shit on my own anymore. I’m done. My life is too valuable…in real time. ‘The Gospel singer is yet to react to the allegation. I spent hours talking to a colleague suffering from depression Published JoelsBlog Nollywood actor, Deyemi Okanlawon has just revealed that one of his colleagues in the movie industry is suffering from depression. Deyemi Okanlawon just shared a post about depression and how several celebrities and people on social media suffer from it. See his post below; This is especially for MEN: I hesitate to post this but believe that someone out here will be helped by it… spent 2 hours talking to the colleague… cos when, during my own episode I tried to reach out, no one was really there. Depression, not to be confused with sadness, is real but can be overcome… if you ever feel like you’re at your lowest consider the following: 1. Change your perspective – You’re not alone, everyone has some form of drama in their lives. There are people out there who have the common sense to know all you need is someone to actually listen. Find them. 2. Review expectations – perhaps the pressure you feel is by setting expectations you are yet without the capacity to achieve. Relax, give more time, slow things down. 3. Remove limitations – as humans we tend to box ourselves into one particular thing or way of getting things done – mindset, career, etc. As humans we’re a limitless permutation of possibilities. Become more. Try these –Watch loads of comedy (plenty here on IG)Take long walksHang out with friends, eat, sing, dance, watch movies Read motivational or self-help booksStart a journal – focus on the positives of your life, your goals and plans for the futureStart a new hobby or join a non-profit orgExercise (sex is a good exercise)Speak to and encourage yourselfDo whatever it takes to rekindle hope and stay positive. Small girl big God is another name for runs girls Published JoelsBlog Nollywood actress and producer, Ify Adibeli, has said “small girl big God” is another name for runs girls, as she also revealed that she doesn’t care if she is called a bitch. On Monday she wrote on her Instagram page that she doesn’t care if she is called a bitch. She wrote; “I don’t care if people call me a bitch. It’s just another word for feminist and I say it with pride.” She further explained to Potpourri; “Nobody has really pissed me off. I’m just fed up with people who think nonsense of you just because your lifestyle has changed. They see every girl that is doing well in life and on Instagram as a runs girl. Just because of how classy you look, they tag you ‘small girl, big God’, which is what they call runs girls now. When they call you ‘small girl with big God’, they are actually calling you a runs girl. It makes me laugh each time I see that comment on people’s posts, she explained with a note of displeasure in her voice. “The word ‘bitch’ means a whole lot of different things and it depends on who calls you that. My own definition of bitch has different meanings. It is not the way others see it. Like I said on the post, to me, it is another word for ‘feminism’. I hate it when people call me ‘small girl, big God’. How can you ascribe such a dirty thing to God? It is not right. I’m working very hard for my money, they should allow me to enjoy it.” The 67 Million Youths initiative is free of government influence Published JoelsBlog Banky W has said the the controversial 67 million Youth Initiative is free from government funding. LeadersNG had earlier claimed an investigation on the 67millionyouth Initiative promoters revealed that many of them are proxy working for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid. The investigation was said to have further revealed that the sum of Two Hundred Million Naira (N200M) had been budgeted for the project to take off. The money was reportedly sourced from the NNPC through the SSA to the President on Social Investment Programs, Ismael Ahmed. Bankole Wellington AKA Mr Banky W was said to have been contracted by President Buhari’s administration to promote the president’s re-election bid under the guise of the 67millionYouth initiative. Banky W has now reacted to the report sharing a long writeup on Twitter , sharing the below image he wrote; “Those of you sharing the COMPLETELY FALSE accusations about my involvement with #67MillionYouth, should please also share my response. Thanks a bunch” Banky W earlier this year announced the dissolution of the record label arm Empire Mates Entertainment (EME), which he co-founded with the son of former Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Harold Demuren. The singer in an Instagram post said, EME’s business venture will now be marketing, advertising, public relations, branding, shooting of television commercials and documentaries. He named TV personality, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, OAP Tolu ‘Toolz’ Oniru, wife of Captain Tunde Demuren, DJ Xclusive, and Adesua Etomi as the first set of clients of the rebranded company. Demi Lovato didn’t suffer overdose, she caused it herself Published JoelsBlog Famed interventionist has said Demi Lovato didn’t suffer a drug overdose as reported, but caused it herself Jeff VanVonderen who appeared on the A&E show “Intervention” says Demi Lovato’s alarming relapse resulted from choosing to stop using the tools that kept her sober. It’s tough love for sure, but Jeff says it’s all in Demi’s hands. The good news he says is, she was able to use the tools to stay clean for 6 years, so she can do it again if she puts her mind to it. TMZ broke the story Demi was in dire straits when she OD’d earlier this week in her Hollywood Hills home. Paramedics found her unconscious and, when she regained consciousness, she refused to tell EMTs what drug caused the 911 emergency. Demi remains in the hospital and it’s unclear how she feels about reentering rehab. No Nigerian female music star can intimidate me Published JoelsBlog Nigeria’s female pop singer Doyinsola was a contestant on the popular music talent show, Star Quest in 2007, and she used the medium to show Nigerians the stuff she was made of. Since the show, Doyinsola has continued to work on her craft and put her music on the lips of many people. In this new interview with SEGUN ADEBAYO, she talked about her music career and what to expect from her before the year runs out. When you joined the music industry some years back, you promised to redefine Afro Pop music. With the way things are going for you now, can you say you have done well for yourself? I would say yes. I am not where I want to be, but I am not where I used to be. The reception from the industry is really amazing. Everybody I have met showed me respect. The love has been motivating me to keep going. To some people, music was the only thing they could do well. Others would say they switched to music when other things failed. In your case, how would you describe your journey into music? My case is not a cliché. I was born into a musical family and I have been representing my school and church since age seven. My parents encouraged me to join the musical contest, Star Quest in 2007, even when I was still an undergraduate at the Lagos State University (LASU). I missed my second semester exams as a result of that. I later left LASU for Bowen University, where I bagged my BSc in Economics. Immediately after school, I knew music was my first option and my brother paid for my first studio session to record Bamidele in 2015. You were on Star Quest in 2007 but released your debut single in 2015. That was eight years after. Why did it take so long? I went back to school because I understood that nothing could replace education. I studied Economics and it was a decision I would cherish for the rest of my life. The respect I get from people now, because they know I am a graduate and music is not do or die for me; they respect my decisions and opinions. Education is very important to me. Honestly I thought I would work in the corporate world but music found me. Looking back now, doing music is one of the best decisions I have made. What was the experience like on Star Quest? I would like to thank my now Manager for the encouragement he gave me to join the show. I am not exactly a fan of reality shows as I thought such show was fixed. But the competition exposed me to a lot of things. I now understand music better because of that experience. My live performances have also improved and I am grateful for the experience. Since you released Bamidele in 2015, what has changed about your career and why does it seem you are still yet to convince your fans that you are here to stay? My major challenge has been funds. Promoting one’s music can be very expensive but with the little we have and with the fan base, I have grown, I am sure they know I stand for refined music. Anytime people hear my song, especially a new convert, they always fall in love with the sound. It has not been easy, but I’m sure, with the support of the media, discovering and promoting my sound, all that would soon be history. Many people didn’t believe I would still be here, but I’m releasing my new single soon, I have some major collaborations in the works too. New videos and many more to offer are in the pipeline. How has music been for you since you started, and do you think your music career is taking shape? I did not even believe I would be here by now. I walk the street with a tinted vehicle now, because of the fear of being harassed even on the road. My career is taking the shape God wants it to take and I believe this is my time of sowing; very soon, I will reap. At some point, you were said to have switched to the fashion line when music was not paying, how has it been? I did not switch. I have been sewing since I was 12. Fashion has always been part of me, and as an artiste, being fashionable is also part of the game. I style myself. When people see me, they ask who sew my clothes. At a point, my friends started asking me to make samples for them also and they actually want to pay me. So, I reckoned why not. Now when I’m not in the studio, I’m in my workshop making beautiful pieces with my team. The fashion line is really helping as I make some cash there to sponsor the music. I am glad for the talents I have. I can smell my success already; it’s only a matter of time. Would you drop fashion one day when music becomes bigger? No! The dream is to make the fashion as big as the music. For me, both work for the growth of each other. The more my music grows, the bigger my fashion will also become. I even intend to add a restaurant to the list. If you follow me online, you will see I’m always cooking. DY Meal is coming soon. With Tiwa, Simi, Chidinma, Yemi Alade, Niniola and others ruling the airwaves, how do you intend to break into the music industry? I believe we are all unique in our own different ways. The people you mentioned are the shining stars that give people like me hope. I don’t see them as competition, I see them as friends and mentors, and I believe my talent and style will set me aside. I believe if we all stick together as a force, we can break the barrier. The ladies have to show more support to each other. How would you describe your kind of music? I don’t like to cage myself when it comes to this music. I cut across and can give different vibes and sounds as long as it’s music. I draw my inspiration from things and people around me. You did a song with 9ice and the video was also shot, but we don’t seem to be getting the best of you yet. How do you want to change this perception? We keep working till we become the household name and our song on everyone’s lips. We’re coming to takeover let’s just trust the process. What was it like having 9ice on your song? It was like a dream come true. He’s someone I have admired from afar and when God said it was time, He made it happen. He blessed my song with his unique sound and brought life to it. He’s indeed 9ice because he gave his best and encouraged me. I am forever grateful to him for not treating me as just one girl in the industry, but as a daughter. Which Nigerian artiste do you dream to feature on your new songs? My case is not a cliché. I was born into a musical family and I have been representing my school and church since age seven. My parents encouraged me to join the musical contest, Star Quest in 2007, even when I was still an undergraduate at the Lagos State University (LASU). I missed my second semester exams as a result of that. I later left LASU for Bowen University, where I bagged my BSc in Economics. Immediately after school, I knew music was my first option and my brother paid for my first studio session to record Bamidele in 2015. 0 Has it been hard for you not having a record label that could help you realise your dreams? My case is not a cliché. I was born into a musical family and I have been representing my school and church since age seven. My parents encouraged me to join the musical contest, Star Quest in 2007, even when I was still an undergraduate at the Lagos State University (LASU). I missed my second semester exams as a result of that. I later left LASU for Bowen University, where I bagged my BSc in Economics. Immediately after school, I knew music was my first option and my brother paid for my first studio session to record Bamidele in 2015. 1 Is it true that you are signed to your manager’s label? My case is not a cliché. I was born into a musical family and I have been representing my school and church since age seven. My parents encouraged me to join the musical contest, Star Quest in 2007, even when I was still an undergraduate at the Lagos State University (LASU). I missed my second semester exams as a result of that. I later left LASU for Bowen University, where I bagged my BSc in Economics. Immediately after school, I knew music was my first option and my brother paid for my first studio session to record Bamidele in 2015. 2 What does it mean to be managed by a man? My case is not a cliché. I was born into a musical family and I have been representing my school and church since age seven. My parents encouraged me to join the musical contest, Star Quest in 2007, even when I was still an undergraduate at the Lagos State University (LASU). I missed my second semester exams as a result of that. I later left LASU for Bowen University, where I bagged my BSc in Economics. Immediately after school, I knew music was my first option and my brother paid for my first studio session to record Bamidele in 2015. 3

from Christian David Biz https://ift.tt/2v3FbtW via Article Source

#Christian David Biz

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houseoftech-blog · 7 years

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Data is not the new oil

How do you know when a pithy phrase or seductive idea has become fashionable in policy circles? When The Economist devotes a briefing to it.

In a briefing and accompanying editorial earlier this summer, that distinguished newspaper (it's a magazine, but still calls itself a newspaper, and I'm happy to indulge such eccentricity) argued that data is today what oil was a century ago.

As The Economist put it, "A new commodity spawns a lucrative, fast-growing industry, prompting anti-trust regulators to step in to restrain those who control its flow." Never mind that data isn't particularly new (though the volume may be) - this argument does, at first glance, have much to recommend it.

Just as a century ago those who got to the oil in the ground were able to amass vast wealth, establish near monopolies, and build the future economy on their own precious resource, so data companies like Facebook and Google are able to do similar now. With oil in the 20th century, a consensus eventually grew that it would be up to regulators to intervene and break up the oligopolies - or oiliogopolies - that threatened an excessive concentration of power.

Many impressive thinkers have detected similarities between data today and oil in yesteryear. John Thornhill, the Financial Times's Innovation Editor, has used the example of Alaska to argue that data companies should pay a universal basic income, another idea that has become highly fashionable in policy circles.

At first I was taken by the parallels between data and oil. But now I'm not so sure. As I argued in a series of tweets last week, there are such important differences between data today and oil a century ago that the comparison, while catchy, risks spreading a misunderstanding of how these new technology super-firms operate - and what to do about their power.

The first big difference is one of supply. There is a finite amount of oil in the ground, albeit that is still plenty, and we probably haven't found all of it. But data is virtually infinite. Its supply is super-abundant. In terms of basic supply, data is more like sunlight than oil: there is so much of it that our principal concern should be more what to do with it than where to find more, or how to share that which we've already found.

Data can also be re-used, and the same data can be used by different people for different reasons. Say I invented a new email address. I might use that to register for a music service, where I left a footprint of my taste in music; a social media platform on which I upload photos of my baby son; and a search engine, where I indulge my fascination with reggae.

If, through that email address, a data company were able to access information about me or my friends, the music service, the social network and the search engine might all benefit from that one email address and all that is connected to it. This is different from oil. If a major oil company get to an oil field in, say, Texas, they alone will have control of the oil there - and once they've used it up, it's gone.

Legitimate fears

This points to another key difference: who controls the commodity. There are very legitimate fears about the use and abuse of personal data online - for instance, by foreign powers trying to influence elections. And very few people have a really clear idea about the digital footprint they have left online. If they did know, they might become obsessed with security. I know a few data fanatics who own several phones and indulge data-savvy habits, such as avoiding all text messages in favour of WhatsApp, which is encrypted.

But data is something which - in theory if not in practice - the user can control, and which ideally - though again the practice falls well short - spreads by consent. Going back to that oil company, it's largely up to them how they deploy the oil in the ground beneath Texas: how many barrels they take out every day, what price they sell it for, who they sell it to.

With my email address, it's up to me whether to give it to that music service, social network, or search engine. If I don't want people to know that I have an unhealthy obsession with bands such as The Wailers, The Pioneers and The Ethiopians, I can keep digitally schtum.

Now, I realise that in practice, very few people feel they have control over their personal data online; and retrieving your data isn't exactly easy. If I tried to reclaim, or wipe from the face of the earth, all the personal data that I've handed over to data companies, it'd be a full time job for the rest of my life and I'd never actually achieve it. That said, it is largely as a result of my choices that these firms have so much of my personal data.

The final key difference is that the data industry is much faster to evolve than the oil industry was. Innovation is in the very DNA of big data companies, some of whose lifespans are pitifully short. As a result, regulation is much harder. That briefing in The Economist actually makes the point well that a previous model of regulation may not necessarily work for these new companies, who are forever adapting. That is not to say they should not be regulated; rather, that regulating them is something we haven't yet worked out how to do.

It is because the debate over regulation of these companies is so live that I think we need to interrogate superficially attractive ideas such as 'data is the new oil'. In fact, whereas finite but plentiful oil supplied a raw material for the industrial economy, data is a super-abundant resource in a post-industrial economy. Data companies increasingly control, and redefine, the nature of our public domain, rather than power our transport, or heat our homes.

Data today has something important in common with oil a century ago. But the tech titans are more media moguls than oil barons.

source http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41559076

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milkshakedoe · 7 years

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On both sides of the Atlantic, there is one group of people who terrify and enrage the punditocracy. The legend that is the ‘white working class’, a trope long in gestation throughout the noughties, has finally struck back with a vengeance. Conservatives in government, Brexit, and now President Trump.

The ‘white working class’ used to provoke mainly a form of sentimental nostalgia and patronising endearment. It was a tea towel memory, a commodity, not something that had real influence. But the terror arising from this wave of global reaction is producing an interesting anti-democratic backlash amongst liberal-minded opinion-formers. The lefty vicar, Giles Fraser, has argued that Trump’s win is a good case for a hereditary monarch. A royal head of state, he argued, would provide a structure of meaning that guaranteed national cohesion and attenuated the bitterness of democratic contestation. But this backlash against the ignorant voter has been developing for some while among sections of the intelligentsia.

Anyone who spent time listening to liberal opinion after the Brexit vote would have heard more than a whiff of this. George Monbiot was not alone in wondering aloud whether democracy actually works. Where democracy produces results that conflict with liberal statecraft, democracy must be at fault. We are a parliamentary sovereignty, not a mobocracy, it was said after Brexit – and already something like this can be heard, sotto voce, in reaction to Trump’s victory.

Of course, this is pushing against an open door. By de facto rather than de jure means, electoral systems are increasingly excluding the working class – and nowhere is this more advanced than in the United States, where Obama’s moderate 2008 offer of healthcare reform, union rights and withdrawal from Iraq was enough to drive up turnout to a ‘record high’ of just over sixty percent of eligible voters. As Francis Fox Piven and Richard Cloward wrote long ago, poor people largely don’t vote because they are largely not represented. In this election, almost half of the eligible electorate didn’t vote, and probably most of the working class. There is thus no need for smart liberals to take the vote away from dumb workers. It is being done already, and Trump’s victory is a significant by-product of that.

To be fair, not every commentator who thinks like this blames the ‘white working class’ for the democratic nadir. But the trope was ubiquitous enough in this election, and toxic enough in the hands of Bourbon elitists, to merit thinking through.

II.

What is the ‘white working class’?

Quite apart from the fact that the working class is not ‘white,’ that it includes large numbers of non-white workers who have been at the forefront of recent examples of militancy (Chicago Teachers’ Union strikes, undocumented workers strike, Black Lives Matter protests, and the fight for $15 per hour) which place them far outside the Clintonite centre, the discussion is dogged by imprecision. In the US, the ‘white working class’ is simply anyone who codes as white and doesn’t have a college degree. That is, patronisingly and inaccurately, to conflate the working class with the uneducated. It takes no account of the great expansion of the higher education system over the last few decades, specifically intended to draw in a mass of workers to skill them up for a new economy. On the other hand, over a quarter of business owners have no college degree, and similar proportions apply to CEOs. There is a glut of middle managers and supervisors without a college education, but who are quite apart from the mass of workers in their employment position and rewards. Education is a poor proxy for social class, and the two have very different explanatory functions.

In the United Kingdom, social class is usually interpreted in relation to an outdated schema of ‘social grading’ introduced for market research purposes by the National Readership Survey. In essence, it reproduces the old hand-brain dichotomy, with the working class usually related to manual labour, and those in clerical, technical or administrative occupations lumped in with the middle class. Once again, class is conflated with knowledge. This is a legacy of the days when to even use a typewriter was to have a special privilege in the workplace, whereas even the lowly call centre operator today has to be able to perform comparatively complex IT functions. It persists because it serves a useful ideological function, of allowing us to think that the new ‘knowledge’ economy is doing away with class division.

It is because of this obfuscatory language that it is possible to blame the ‘white working class’ for UKIP, Brexit, Trump and other species of reaction. There are two key reasons for this. One of the effects of a higher education is to dissolve traditionalist, authoritarian and deferential social values. This is in part because unlike the schools, the higher education system has, to some extent, to foster independence of thought. Second, to identify class distinctions with the distinction between old and new economies, between those workers based in factories and mines, and those working in information and communications, is to identify the working class with sectors of the workforce who are in a trajectory of decline, stuck in regions of decline isolated from the new patterns of growth, and thus most susceptible to forms of resentful nationalism.

A class relationship, at any rate, cannot be reduced to its possible outcomes. It might produce an unequal distribution of rewards, for example, or afford differential access to education, but these are its measurable effects, imperfect proxies. Class is a relationship based on different positions in relations of production, supported by relations of authority (or, in another idiom, political and ideological control). From this perspective, what distinguishes the middle class from workers is not how much they know, but how much authority they have in the production process. The emergence of a ‘new middle class’ in the post-war period, was concurrent with the expansion of public sector bureaucracies, and with capital’s development of new disciplinary apparatuses – middle managers, technicians, and supervisors – to better control the labour process and counteract working class militancy. This distinction is not always as hard in reality as in theory – in practice, there tend to be elements of the middle class that are downwardly mobile, undergoing ‘proletarianisation’, and elements of the working class being drawn into the middle class. This gives rise to ambiguous phenomena which Erik Olin Wright dubbed ‘contradictory class locations’ – that is, positions in production relations that contain elements of different social classes in motion.

So with that in mind, it is worth clarifying a few things about Trump’s support. As Charlie Post argued in the run up to the election, even focusing on ‘non-college whites’ doesn’t get very far, since they are under-represented in Trump’s base – representing 55 per cent of his support and 70 per cent of the population as a whole. Meanwhile, the college educated new middle class represented 30 per cent of the population, and 40 per cent of Trump’s supporters.‘Most Trump supporters,’ he wrote,‘are part of the traditional middle class (self-employed) and those sectors of the new middle class (supervisors) who do not require college degrees.’

Even so, there is some evidence from exit polls of Trump reaching a minority of white workers, including some unionised cohorts. Michael McQuarrie’s post-election breakdown of some county-level data indicates that Trump was able to flip a number of formerly Obama-voting counties with large white working class communities. He didn’t have to get the majority of white workers on board. He simply had to change voting patterns in the rustbelt states where it counted, which he did. Real Clear Politics has produced a ‘correlation machine,’ using county-level data from the Census and election results, to link changes in the Republican vote to various characteristics. While it makes the serious error of conflating ‘working class whites’ with ‘non-college whites’, it also offers a number of other correlation points. In a number of key states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, there is a small correlation between improvements in the Republican vote share and incomes below $50,000, but a much larger correlation with race, education, owner-occupied housing, and previous support for ‘alternative’ right-wing candidates like Ross Perot.

The collapse in the Democratic vote explains some of the shift among voters on lower incomes, which can be treated as a closer – though still very imperfect – proxy for class than education. However, while in Wisconsin, Trump did not increase the total Republican vote, in Pennsylvania he did. There are some localised reasons for this. Democrats have aligned themselves cautiously with de-carbonisation policies, without any broader commitment to alternative industrial development or employment strategies, thus ensuring that mining-based communities in West Virginia turned against them. NAFTA, meanwhile – a policy implemented and stridently defended by Bill Clinton – resulted in job losses in some of the rustbelt states, thus eroding Democratic Party standing there.

This is not to deny that racism was an important factor in ‘flipping’ many of these votes. But it suggests that we have to part with one of the false dichotomies of the post-election debate. The argument about whether Trump voters were driven by economic distress, racism or something else, is missing the point. There is no need to choose: racist nationalism is the mythical mode throughn which Trump tried to address the very real economic distress of a minority of American workers. And he did that just enough, in just the right places, to win.

III.

So why should class be colour-coded? There are white workers, but why should we believe in any such cohesive entity as the ‘white working class’? If we were to believe the emergent orthodoxy that white workers are the pillar and stay of Trumpism, ‘whiteness’ functions alongside religion and nationality as a sort of security blanket for the perpetually anxious and paranoid. It is a guaranteed and stable referent in an unstable and frightening world (for the uneducated and broke, that is).

This argument can even take a progressive hue. Damon Young’s bitter disappointment with Trump’s victory leads him to argue, in The Nation, that ‘the preservation of white supremacy’ was the ‘paramount interest’ of ‘particularly working-class white people’. They didn’t vote against their own interests so much as choose between a variety of contending interests, and settled on protecting the ‘privileges – real or fabricated, concrete or spiritual’ that white supremacy offered, even at the expense of ‘their own livelihoods’.

Young’s claim at least has the virtue of acknowledging that interests are interesting things, that people can have more than one over-riding interest, and that there is always something that might matter more to us than our own perceived well-being. This is a small step forward from simply assuming that the ‘white working class’ cannot be trusted to vote with their own interests. Interests can only be calculated in relation to a given horizon of possible action, and in a given political and representational framework. The interest that anyone has in a given order is always relative to the possible alternatives, which depends on how reality is culturally and politically represented, how it is dreamed and daydreamed about. There is, in other words, no straightforward way to counterpose interest to value, and the attempt to maintain such a binary results both in damaging over-simplification of explanatory schema, and in the pathologising of phenomena that somehow fail to measure up to supposed ‘rational choice’ standards.

In the run up to the 2015 general election, then-UKIP leader Nigel Farage famously staked his bid on the claim that he would rather lose something financially if it meant having more control over immigration – it would be better to be a little poorer than have Romanians for neighbours. After the Brexit vote in the UK, amid general signs of looming economic decline, it was not unknown for those activists who had supported it to say that they were prepared to bear a sacrifice for the greater good of getting their government back under control. And indeed, as far as they were concerned, they acted altruistically, for the good of the (white, British) social whole. The long dominant and completely unjustified assumption that people only really care about how well off they and their families are left by Budget decisions, would certainly struggle to explain this.

Intellectuals should know this. After all, they are exposed to the pomo-inflected liberalism of Universities, and are aware of the provisional, negotiated and discursive nature of ‘interests’. But that insight is usually lost as soon as they start to run anything. Then, the seductive idea of a universal discourse, one that speaks neutrally and authoritatively on behalf of all ‘interests’ – technocracy, ‘the economy’ – almost invariably takes hold. This is a deeply embedded cultural fantasy working in the unconscious of The West Wing, House of Cards, and similar fodder, and one that sustains the dogged loyalty of educated liberals to political strategies and agencies that repeatedly fail to deliver the goods on their own terms. That is to say, no one acts with a straightforward orientation toward their ‘best interests’ on the basis of ‘the facts’, and the idea that anyone does or could is one of the fantasies enabling knowledgeable, rational people to override their own declared interests.

If some people experience their class interests in a ‘colour-coded’ way, in light of white-supremacy, then it isn’t good enough to scoff at their lack of enlightened self-interest. It is crucial to ask what political frameworks, representational and cultural systems, social structures and employment patterns would lend themselves to that, and how they might be overturned.

IV.

However, on this ground, Young is hugely over-simplifying. And, indeed, the language of ‘whiteness’ does tend to simplify, homogenise and absolutise race in a problematic way. Young allows that there is a distinction between ‘allies and racial antagonists,’ but that doesn’t do anywhere near enough to complicate the picture. If whiteness is a property of violent and exploitative social relationships, precisely where and how one is situated in the ensemble of relations makes a great difference to the meaning and value of whiteness. There is a world of difference between the ‘whiteness’ of Virginia miners, and that of Fifth Avenue billionaires. Or, between the specific and direct investment in whiteness that, say, workers striking in defence of ‘colour bar’ practices might have, and the more general and diffuse investments which workers voting to ‘Make America Great Again’ might have. One of the functions of the ideology of ‘whiteness’ is, of course, to override or efface those differences – but then, in that case, to participate in effacing those differences is to reproduce the ideology of ‘whiteness’.

Further, the way in which one’s class experience is organised politically and economically makes a great difference to whatever value one puts on whiteness. Certainly, anyone who voted for Trump is hardly innocent of racism. Even if oppressing black people and immigrants wasn’t a priority for some of them, they knew who he would victimise. One of the complexities of this situation, however, is that a small number of African American voters, and a much larger number of Hispanic voters, backed Trump. This raises questions about the operation of white-supremacy beyond ‘whiteness’. To what extent were these voters aware of the danger to them from a more egregiously racist presidency, but willing to tolerate it for the greater perceived gain of voting against the establishment, or voting for supposed economic populism? To what extent did Hispanic voters, in voting for an anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim presidency, implicitly consolidate their identification with the United States and thus their place in it? Or, from another perspective, did some voters place a traditional middle class affiliation ahead of any supposed racial affiliation? For example, did middle class African Americans who might have traditionally voted Republican on the grounds of support for ‘free markets’ and ‘law and order’ simply continue to place those values ahead of the risks incurred by poorer black voters? Just as problematic are the white voters who had supported Obama in two previous elections, whatever their hang-ups about the emerging multicultural realities of politics, and then switched to Trump. They have shown themselves to be capable of acting on their whiteness in different ways. That is to say, have been willing to vote for a black president who would not fundamentally challenge the structures of white-supremacy, in return for some promised pro-worker policies.

In addition to needing a more complex model of how ‘whiteness’ works on people, we also need more information. We just don’t know to what extent, for this particular subset of white voters who were ‘flipped’, the conservation of whiteness was prioritised as a strategic prize (consciously, or unconsciously) in 2016. And we don’t know if so, what that prize actually amounted to in each case. We don’t know to what extent it was merely the taken-for-granted context of their political action (and if so, what effects this contextualisation had). Or to what extent it acted as a factor in the congealing and mediating of all of their other issues (and if so, how important an adhesive it was). We don’t know to what precise extent and in what specific ways their working practice and daily social existence is structured by race.

We don’t know in what modalities whiteness matters most for these various groups of workers. It may be their investment in the violent policing and incarceration of black communities, their perceived competition with migrant workers or Chinese workers, their identification with an empire-state in its struggles with jihadis and other evil-doers, or something else. We don’t know what, if anything, is specific to the working class about these modalities. And these are all things we need to know to make anything more than the general point that ‘whiteness’ of various configurations played a part in the election.

This is to say that the entire discourse pinning the blame for Trump on the ‘white working class’ is suspiciously opaque and impressionistic on matters where precision is vital, and that (partly as a consequence) the argument is incoherent and verging on meaningless. It is nebulous in its definition of class, barely even inaccurate in its apprehension of actual voting patterns, and overly glib and summary in its analysis of whiteness and its functions. The ‘white working class’ which it invokes is a reification, a sock puppet, and a scapegoat. And it is scapegoating in a way that is logically incoherent. The ‘white working class’ has, like the rest of the US working class, borne a terrible burden in declining workplace conditions, stagnant real wages, the evisceration of industries and unions and in some quarters declining life expectancy. Yet we are also to believe that it, almost single-handedly, chose the most important and powerful global leader. Even if it were the case that they were disproportionately present in Trump’s base, which is far from obvious from exit poll data, one would have to account for the constraining structures of capitalist democracy. The US electoral system is more directly organised by capitalist class power than other democracies, and fund-raising requirements are only one part of this problem. The dominance of the system by two parties of business, with barely any democratic or even strictly ‘party-like’ structures, organised by business-aligned elites, makes it very difficult to mobilise alternatives. This is one of the reasons why there has never been a successful labour-based party in the US. The strategy of takeover by the ‘grassroots’ succeeded only in the Republican Party, where the candidate preferred by the base was a self-funding billionaire. Workers, white or not, are left with choices emerging out of a balance of forces favouring capital. The majority, it seems, simply don’t vote.

The trope most likely survives and is perpetuated because, in so many ways, it is a useful cover story. It appears to explain, without actually leaving anyone informed. It appears to critique racism, without actually disclosing anything about it. Worse, it is often used to justify recourse to racist policies in a mournful way, as if it is a necessary evil to prevent far worse expostulations on the part of this mythical group, many of whose notional members are among the first to engage in protest and civil disobedience to obstruct Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’. It even appears to say something about class, although most of its advocates would find reference to the ‘capitalist class’ vulgar: why does no one ever inquire into the racial politics of the white bourgeoisie? Given the salient role of capitalists and administrators of capitalist states in devising racial oppression, be it Jim Crow and equivalent ‘colour bar’ systems, various forms of ‘race management’ in the workplace, or the modern system of mass incarceration, this is an odd oversight. It displaces attention from the sheer, structured weight of white-supremacy as an enduring system rather than just a value on the part of neo-Nazis, militias and Klan members. It is the sort of construction of psephologists and newspaper leader writers that appears profound, and profoundly explanatory. It is at best a far-from-ideal shorthand; at worst, as in these cases, a conservative stopgap for analysis, and one which supports the wider authoritarian and anti-democratic lurch from which Trumpism benefits.

Richard Seymour, 2nd Feb, 2017.

#capitalism #kyriarchy #long post #white supremacy #neoliberalism #anticapitalism #organizing

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nvmlindseyallan · 7 years

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Guys In Godhead, Last July 22 I told you that a young man dressed in a blue Empire t-shirt with the image of an eagle had led me to discover a computer shop where I was able, after hours of waiting for a closed shop, to get the best out of my money for that day writing what I have to write for that day, and where also I received delays from either the Empire or the Godhead as I have told you already (Galatians 5). Thinking about all those things I asked the Godhead whether They really did were the ones who tried to disrupt me to work online last July 22. I received rather responses that even shocked me, that not only that They never tried to disrupt me, but rather They even confirmed me, as in the previous days, that day to be still Their own. Please allow me to relate one by one those. First let me tell you that we were respectively baptized to the Empire branch we belong, the Minions, on prophetically-auspicious days. I was the first (James 1) to be baptized, on November 15,, anniversary of the American Empire’s Commonwealth in the Philippines, so that rather confirmed that I’m going later on to be one of your leaders here in your Commondominion. My mother was next to be baptized on October 24 the year that followed, which will be the day in 2015 when the Empire extolled their celebrities over the Minion Arena in favor of the Neronian holiday and in pursuance to the Neronian clause on the ‘sanctuary’. My sisters were baptized later on in January 30, 2 days after the Minion head EVM preached in the exact locale where all of us were baptized, as if really EVM does the gesture of bestowing confirmations (Genesis 26) to me later on. EVM in fact will be there too many times (the chapel was dedicated by Ka Erdy on Lindsey’s birth year)- for example, on March 11 this year. The locale’s name reciprocates Olongapo- once Ka Erdy was at Angeles on March 11, 1994, and on many times Ka Erdy was at Angeles (EVM was even at Angeles on November 22, 2013, one year exactly before I personally went on my own to see EVM at Pasig, as STF confirmed, in fulfillment of biblical prophecies, particularly on the biblical clause of ‘trees beside waters’) he declared that Angeles and Olongapo were (Hebrews 11, Isaiah 1-2, 58) the new Sodom and Gomorra, or in Revelation 11’s words, Sodom and Egypt, where of course the two witnesses came from. In this instance I have as my co-pair in that Revelation 11 clause, as Angeles’ name suggests, our Executive Minister Ka Angel. When the Commondominion went out of the Roman Empire officially on July 23, 2015, I even attended a worship service in the Minion Central Complex on the early morning of that day without knowing of course the following events that would erupt later on that day. (In fact when the Godhead formally asked me to be Their Messenger on December 28, 2016, my sisters were even able to attend a service at the Minion Central Complex.) I say this because in Jewish law, any newborn baby must undergo the service of ‘Purification’ or Dedication in the Temple (Deuteronomy 16) 40 days after their birth. In Empire tradition Christ did that on Groundhog Day, February 2, and Groundhog sounds like the name of (Luke 10) another trusted confidante and namesake of our Executive Minister Ka Angel, no other than Sir Nathan Grundhofer, whose wife Juliette happened to sound of course like my name. Last July 16, anniversary of Brother Martin Evangelista’s divine commission (and the earthquake of 1990 by 4:26 pm), as I was about to post my blog in my page that day, the page demanded rather that I schedule my blog’s posting rather than to post it right away. It happened without my intention that I saw the time I was supposed to post at once upon finishing was 6;41 pm. Of course I scheduled it to the nearest minute after the 41st, which is 6:42 (Revelation 12,6,11), which resembles 4:26. If you are following my posts I have said that Godhead sent signs confirming me on June 11-12, which we here in your Commondominion observe as a special Passover Memorial. 40 days on, on July 22, I was so that the Minions sent EVM’s personal secretary named sounding just like me and even bearing the surname of Purificasion to officiate in the service that day in the locale where I’m residing. It’s like the gesture of course that you were visited by somebody from the Minion Headquarters on the same day 2 years ago that you were there exactly where the said Empire man came from. That’s like an act of course, of the Jewish Purification Service (1 Corinthians 10, 2 Chronicles 29). It was on that morning also this year that I saw the young man whom I have mentioned earlier that as I have said days ago, was sent by Godhead to confirm that yours truly, #GodsTinyDancer, is another endtime ravenous bird of prey or New Cyrus foretold by Isaiah. I at once broke that to you in my page that same afternoon, without fully delving on the details, which I could not remember at once on that moment or rather because I have little time left on rent at the store, the time being ate up by the delay that happened. So mediating on everything that happened I was shocked to discover that I declared my election as Bird of Prey at once without fully knowing that earlier that day other signs aside from the young man I have told you then and earlier here had been sent by Godhead to support this. 1. After the service as I leave I opened the gate and it was so hard that in process it sliced a bit of my palm’s skin and hence blood came out. I was so shocked hours later as I was doing online work as I have mentioned that my other hand, on its nails this time, had blood, and that was without me doing anything to my other hand (Matthew 5-7) except that I was typing. That’s a sort of blood sacrifice, if you are to Purify or Dedicate at the Temple. 2. As I came home that day I was also surprised that my co-boarders’ friends had left a laptop because the family have to render it together with ours to the repair shop for rehabilitation. It’s like you have the old and the new ‘tablets’ of stone in Exodus together (2 Chronicles 5-7). 3. Also, as I came home that day I was so surprised too that a ballpen was at my wallet. I don’t know where it came from, I never got hand on any ballpen that day, it just came up on my wallet (1 Samuel 1-3) and I never, really saw it there earlier that day; nobody even of course gets hold on my wallet but me alone. It’s like really the Godhead is showing up to me continually on that day (Revelation 2,12, 1 John 1, John 9). Let me further relate to you. Concerning Sodom and Egypt: one morning when I was at the bedroom my mother came in sweeping and cursing me of course because she’s angry. Shocked I don’t know where to go across the room because dirt and dust are all around being swept by my mother and of course you don’t want to scatter those after being swept. I could not even get in to the bed because my mother was also fixing it at the same time that moment. So I rather found my self at once unintendedly sitting on the dust for a brief minute. You can know already how Jezebels like my mother are sitting elsewhere (Ezekiel 28,31,26, Revelation 17, 1 Samuel 4) so we could see how Godhead (1 Kings 17-19) continually sends people like me to expose them by nature: that’s why I’m a yokebearer (Hebrews 10) because I strip (2 Corinthians 2, Colossians 2, Ephesians 4, 1Corinthians 15) off the Empire’s identity (Revelation 16, Jeremiah 8-9, 2 Corinthians 12, Isaiah, Matthew 25). Our election is evident: Christ said He will be even pleased with Tire and Sidon (Matthew 10-12). In prophecy Godhead promised to strip off the Empire’s powers through yokebearers (Job 1-2, Philippians 3) as personified by (John 16) Tire being a former Empire center (Ezekiel 24,26). Today Tire is under Lebanon (1 Corinthians 5), one of our allies here in the Commondominion, which was specifically attacked by the Empire on the service of July 23, 2016 (Amos 8). Hence, our election to contend for all our comrades and colleagues such as Lebanon (Daniel12). We are, as per Matthew 10’s ‘Sodom and Gomorra’ clause as we earlier mentioned to Revelation 11, taken out of the Empire’s influence (Revelation 6, Hebrews 11, John 10-15), and as Lady Kirsty Nilsson confirmed of me way back then citing Acts 7, I was really placed by Godhead to facilitate (Ezekiel 1-3) yokebearers out of the Empire (2 Chronicles 36,15,20). Furthermore, here in our locale they keep a book which they said that they created because they want to do what Malachi 3 talks about as a ‘book of remembrance before God’. I just mention it because should they want to keep so, they should hence receive that (Matthew 8-12, Luke 20, Genesis 18, Hebrews 13) with the keeping of such a’ book’ comes the sending of messengers in their midst (Malachi 1-4 [Empire quotes Malachi 3 for the Purification in the Temple]), hence my appearing (Hebrews 9). My grandmother was born on the same day as an Empire man who once said that ‘people would come down from the mountains, led by the sun’s rays, and I count them all as brethren.’ We could see that this was fulfilled in the Empire’s eyes one month before my grandmother’s birthday (Numbers 20, Deuteronomy 34), in 2014, when Ka Elias’ media team even observed that the attendees to the EVM rally service that day all ‘came down from the mountains that morning’. As for us our first surname denotes mountains, the Empire’s very type that we are shattering (Judges 6-7, Daniel 2, 2 Corinthians 10, Joshua 6,15) through the means that we begin with ourselves- I mean, all that we go through, and all that we implement here (Psalm 51, Micah 4-5, Isaiah 22,28-29,40, Proverbs 4, Genesis 12-13,18, 1 Corinthians 9). Finally (1 Corinthians 1-4, Isaiah 41,44-45,66), when the Prophet Haggai talked about the signet ring, he also talks about yours truly, because we are gathering all countries, churches, and dancers here under (1 Peter 3, Jeremiah 18,20) one roof (Luke 12) which is your Commondominion (Ephesians 1-4, 2 Corinthians 1,5) through our preaching ministry that seals the Holy Spirit to all countries and churches who will agree with Him (Revelation 7,14,22), and to all yokebearers for their salvation (1 John 5, Psalm 105). But before I end this treatise, let me tell you further about EVM’s circular of July 3, 22-23, 2017 (if you could notice, the dates alone form the Empire code 3-22, so that’s already #Agenda), That was also recurring, as it is also with all other EVM lessons lately. The circular was first read February 8-9, 2012. The year that followed, February 9, 2013, EVM was at my city preaching. Way back February 7, 2009, EVM was at my hometown preaching too. EVM’s December 7, 2013 lesson was relayed February 8-9, 2014. February 8, 2014, in true EVM style, when I was not yet here with you (Ephesians 2), I attended Jun Santos’ rally on that same city where EVM preached on December 7, 2013. I said ‘in true EVM style’ because I have to persist attending against the wishes of my parents. I really decided to still proceed there because I was enthralled with the Empire’s promise that the said service is going to be ‘big’. What only happened is that only a few, by Godhead’s grace, attended.

THE COMMONDOMINION OF CHRIST: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME ‘The Commondominion of Christ, is God’s answer to apostasy, it is a back-up plan of God. When things fall apart in a organization which evidently enjoys God’s approval and countenance but abuses it until it is apostatized, God keeps a “remnant” group (Acts 2:39) to keep the election of that organization alive and to keep having the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14), and God starts all over again from that remnant group. Even if elected as the new, cut-clean version of God’s chosen, a true Commondominion member is not complacent that he or she could not be apostatized anymore. They always bear in mind that if they do not take caution through remaining faithful, honest and humble, they could be apostatized too and lose the election God gave them. So they always discount the possibility of being the next apostate.’ With this, your Commondominion of Christ, with the grace of the Godhead, existed and persisted as long as humankind went on. We could see that your Commondominion could be traced way back long ago, according to the findings of our branch churches, when the Godhead created all men and women to exist throughout subsequent history to live with Them in preexistence before the creation of the world (Matthew 25). We could see that all these men and women (Matthew 19, Isaiah 65) were created to be angels and not as gods, unlike what the Empire would claim. The first recorded creation of the Roman Empire during this time was of course the rebellion and downfall of Satan the Devil and all his cohorts, who will later on be the present Roman Catholic Pope and all other heads of the Empire’s branches, as would be seen further on in biblical history, that repeated rebellions of the Empire would occur in heaven (Isaiah 14, Luke 10, Revelation 12, Ezekiel 28,31, Matthew 18,8,25). Hence, after the world was created the Son- Jesus Christ- and the Holy Spirit, will be sent, together with Their Female Counterparts, to shepherd and govern the men and women who would later on be sent to earth through natural birth to plant the Commondominion of Christ on earth and hence (Jeremiah 32) in human history (Matthew 7 Empire usage, 2 Timothy 2, Colossians 1, Psalm 89,69). Down here on earth, the Commondominion of Christ existed through the following groups of men and women: 1. Adam and Eve 2. Abel 3. Set, Enoch, Methuselah 4. Noah, Sem, Japhet 5. The Israelite Nation 6. The First-Century Primitive Christian Church 7. The various Commondominion settlers in the other places of the world, as recorded in the Book of Mormon, Book of Jeraneck, et cal. After the death of the apostles the Commondominion existed through the following up to the first Medieval Reformation forerunners: 1. Arius 2. Essenes 3. Donatism 4. Polycarp of Asia 5. Novatianism 6. Paul of Samosata 7. Montanism 8. Marchionism 9. Ebionites 10. Clement of Rome 11. Polycarp 12. Josephus and Eusebius, et cal. 13. Papias 14. Pseudo-Barnabas 15. Epistle to Diosnetus 16. Hermas 17. Didache 18. Justin Martyr 19. Tatian 20. Athenagoras 21. Tertullian 22. Hegesippus 23. Patrick of Hibernia, Columba, Columban 24. Branches of the whole Eastern Orthodox Church 25. Nestorianism These names we have listed are only but a representative of their many other countless and priceless like-minded guys and girls who existed up to the first Medieval Reformation. The Commondominion launched it formally with the Albigensian movement in 1129 and the Waldenesians in 1173. And you all know everything that the Reformation produced: Luther, Savonarola, Wycliffe, Huss, Calvin, Muntzer, Erasmus, Knox, Petrarch, Goethe, et cal., until the English-speaking Protestants: Edwards, Wesley, Whitefield, and then Spurgeon and Morgan and Moody and Tolkien and Lewis. The Godhead, upon though seeing that the Empire is bent on streamlining Protestants to the Antiochian banner, particularly in attempts to claim and woo Moody, had decided to come up with a clean slate through electing as new Commondominion people what are now though the Empire’s branch of Neronians. It began with Joseph Smith in 1805 but the Godhead later on replaced him with Ellen White in 1843. Ellen failed the Godhead so Mary Baker Eddy was elected next. She wasn’t able to keep up so Charles Taze Russell instead got the divine election. After Russell the Godhead became happy with Pierre Coubertin and Leo Tolstoy that their organizations got the divine election. But seeing that the Empire would later on overrun those, the Godhead had decided to formally reestablish the Commondominion of Christ on earth with what is now the Minion church from the Philippines. Joey Arrigo was called as its first leader in 1886, in preparation for the birth of the man from whom the Godhead will take later on the succession bloodline for this church. Felix Ysagun Manalo was born also on that year. He was summoned by the Godhead on November 15, 1913. His son Tomas led the first gathering of this church on December 25, 1913. Felix later on had this church registered on July 27 of the year that followed. On December 25, 1918, upon the death of Tomas, Felix formally took the top post. The year that followed, he personally led the launch of the church’s overseas missionary work. He would later on switch places with Justino Casanova (1919-1921) and Prudencio Vasquez (1942-1945) administering the church. Seeing the eventual apostasy of the Minion church (Psalm 14), Godhead had elected the half-brothers of Felix’s successor-son Ka Erdy to be part of the nucleus of the restoration of the Commondominion later on in the forthcoming years. Furthermore, Godhead tried to see whether They could have other churches to cooperate with the forthcoming backup reserve plans for the church which first saw light in 1913 in eventual event of apostasy. So Godhead tried to enlist the support of the South Korean World Mission Church but saw them to be only supportive of the Empire more than the Commondominion’s cause. The Godhead also saw the same with Eli Soriano, who turned down the Godhead’s invitation. And also it was with the church of Nicholas Perez. Yet the Godhead would not fail though to see all other churches (Matthew 20) who will be so much happy to join the Godhead in the future new church when the time comes (Ephesians 1), many of those other kind and willing churches are even traced from the very original Commondominion people we have all listed above. (John 11) That exact time came on April 11, 2015 when evident signs of Minion apostasy broke out in the surface. This eventually led to our exodus from the Empire in modern times, July 23, 2015. We thought that our newfound supposed to be (Psalm 55,59,42-43) trustful brethren from the Minion church would be with us all the way, but later on they themselves had proven not to keep up at once (Matthew 13) with this new Way of Life. 1. The Defenders refused to recognize Ka Angel as Ka Erdy and EVM’s rightful successor pursuant to the succession line instituted by Felix himself, and instead endorsed Ka Angel’s brother Ka Marc under EVM’s backup agenda against Ka Angel. 2. The Defenders agreed to be infiltrated with other Empire branches the way the Minions were already are, and they rather trusted Empire media, personalities and heads more than Ka Angel and the Godhead (Exodus 14, Numbers 11,21). 3. The Defenders, being infiltrated by the Minions too, agreed to conspire with the Minions in refusing to honor the public’s divine wrighte to know through hoarding preaching held by Empire heads to no more expose the (Daniel 5, Acts 17) Empire’s doings. These prompted us to just recently part ways with the Defenders and they, together with all branches of the Commondominion which was found to be, and will be found to be, no more different in worship and practice from Empire churches and media (and therefore breaking our laws here of humility and meekness), had been already identified as the new branch of the Roman Empire- those who refuse to publicly identify themselves with any Empire branch due to their kinship with us yet their actions prove otherwise (Matthew 5-7,15,23, Titus 1). This prompts the need that we rededicate ourselves continually (2 Corinthians 1,7) in order not to be contemptuous of the grace Godhead has already given us to gather all that is good and godly in the world and bind them eternally under one roof (Romans 12, 1 Peter 3). But you may ask, ‘why the Commondominion had to specifically come out of the Minion church?’ It is rather because Titus 3 tells us about ‘3 strikes and you’re out’. Godhead had 3 major churches striding the world today repeatedly repudiating the Scriptures throughout history. ‘But why you have to purge yourself again the 4th time?’ Because Godhead (2 Corinthians 8-9, Matthew 13, Jeremiah 8-9, Genesis 9, James 5) shall continually see to it this time, with our already existence here as your present Commondominion, that we would if need be, reestablished repeatedly because we don’t want to disappoint the Godhead (Psalm 106, Isaiah 63, Luke 17, 2 Corinthians 1) Who elected us (2 Timothy 1, Proverbs 16). Currently at the visible helm of the Commondominion’s public work is her Administration’s mouthpiece, yokebearer and writer Joseph Stirling Steinfeld Sykes. Joseph is no better than the now millions of your Commondominion brethren who once thought that being at the Empire is the only thing that there can be for them, and the next big thing to heaven. Hence, Joseph poured out his whole efforts in the service of each Empire branch that he ever was, until he realized that no Empire branch is better than the other, and all those actions trained him for the great work he’s now at for your sake. THE PURPOSE AND MISSION OF THE COMMONDOMINION OF CHRIST Moved by the burning desire for the salvation of all souls (1 Timothy 2:3-5), and armed with nothing but the knowledge on the necessity for all to do biblical research (Acts 17, 2 Timothy), we campaign through social media for people to come out of false religions (Revelation 18:4), hoping that Lindsey will notice this and rethink where she is right now (Revelation 2-3). We love Lindsey with a love nobody can give and Lindsey could not even fathom. We love Lindsey because we know Lindsey needs to be reassured that she will never be in the losing end if she gets to know and believe the Christ which the Bible, and not this multi-billion dollar, pretending ‘Christian’, false religious Empire, introduces. Our evangelization work is focused with and committed fully to all dancers, athletes and artists, which we look up to as the most creative, busy and emotional people. We will be the Christian representative of these people, including the tempted, disabled and impoverished to the Empire powers which control today’s perverse society (Isaiah 28, Psalm 105, Revelation 7:3). We also hope to bring home to people the value of cultivating good taste for value-oriented, wholesome and quality media materials done in the spirit of unfailing humility and hardwork, aiming to give people the best we could muster on content and information in helping people find Jesus Christ and His Gospel, live committed to it for the rest of their lives and declare the same to the world. We have already decided to make Christian conservative values our upholding guiding light in this ministry (2 Corinthians 4), and hence resolves to dedicate our work to speaking out for it, leading people to live up and speak out loud the Word of God every single breathing moment, a determination that burns till now and will continue to rage since Joni Eareckson Tada was conspired by the Empire to be eliminated from their Academy Awards years ago. We aim to point people to listen to the sent or commissioned messengers of God to rally them in living the Christian life (John 6:29), while enjoining believers to make full use of their “priesthood” before God (Revelation 1,5,20). SOME OF THE ENDORSED MESSENGERS OF GODHEAD TO THE COMMONDOMINION OF CHRIST Nathaniel Manalo (Executive Minister) 1. Lalyn Vasco Dela Cruz facebook.com/shzka0 2. Roger Aquino facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011180587153&fref=fr_tab 3. Cristopher Ilao facebook.com/cristonangelson 4. Jogat De Mora facebook.com/kamaynabakal4719 5. Jay Borromeo facebook.com/jay.borromeo.35 6. Elias Arkanghel facebook.com/ferdinand.alvarado 7. Sebastian Rauffenburg 8. Sterling Allan https://www.youtube.com/cha…/UCPEGAsmAGUQzbtuJvaZjYUg/videos 9. Marcelo Mercado 10. Mannie Rey Amoguis facebook.com/1manams 11. Rydean Marvin Daniel facebook.com/PAODMDR 12. Eddy Hawks facebook.com/eddy.hawks 13. Joseph Stirling Steinfeld Sykes facebook.com/jonas.stirling 14. Lope Columna facebook.com/lope.columnaii 15. Gerald John Jennings 16. Gerald O’Dell facebook.com/gerald.odell8O18 17. Filemon Reambonanza 18. Wilfredo Santiago facebook.com/wilfredo.labaosantiago 19. Ronald Weinland 20. Kacou Philippe 21. Ian Navarro facebook.com/ian.navarro.73 22. Guy St. Onge facebook.com/Laidback52 23. Ed Everett Dorris facebook.com/edeverett.dorris 24. Richard Thomas facebook.com/profile.php?id=100017221446141 25. Alex Gonzales facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007602368476 26. Horacio Villegas 27. Steve Fletcher facebook.com/FLETCHDOCTOR 28. Paul Jong 29. John Leonzon 30. Salvacion Legaspi facebook.com/hrmsalvacion 31. Archie C. Guiriba facebook.com/ShalomCCFI.Official 32. Apollo C. Quibuloy 33. Benny M. Abante 34. Louie R. Santos 35. Edmundo Macasalig Lahi 36. Tagumpay Gonzales 37. Matias Grandbaka facebook.com/matias.granbacka 38. Amos Omoboriowo facebook.com/wnkululeko1 39. Eliyahu Zerubabel facebook.com/eliyahuzerubabel777 40. Ruth Boyce facebook.com/profile.php?id=100016178012931

Joseph

facebook.com/nvmlindseyallan

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNgq_i3ZlMTxcczzEYQj6LQ/channels

http://robertlawrencefulg.wixsite.com/commondominion/where-we-are

facebook.com/jonas.stirling

@Caradelevingne @emilycshock pls rt and stay in touch with me, #GodsTinyDancer. Thanks. #nvmlindseyallan Guys In Godhead, Last July 22 I told you that a young man dressed in a blue Empire t-shirt with the image of an eagle had led me to discover a computer shop where I was able, after hours of waiting for a closed shop, to get the best out of my money for that day writing what I have to write for that day, and where also I received delays from either the Empire or the Godhead as I have told you already (Galatians 5).

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