Monthly Archives: June 2020

Just because an application or game doesnt make the top 25 list doesnt make it a piece of junk. There are hidden gems all through the lists that are worth checking out. In true mining spirit here are a few uncovered rough stones that will become the prize jewels of any app collection. Being free doesnt hurt one bit either.

Waiting is never fun. Often when people wait for something they read, watch TV or even play a game. But what is to be done when the waiting is done in public with no books, televisions, game systems or casino bonus to be had? The answer lies within the IPhone/IPod Touch.

Wattpad is an amazing little app that allows the user to search through a large database of electronic books. Users can download the books they want to read to the library contained in the application. Then the next time a user has to wait in line, in traffic of even for dinner this nice, little, educational time-waster will be available to pass the hours away.

Probably the biggest time waster on the planet is television. It consumes free minutes like a fire consumes oxygen. Now users can reach that vegetative state in the comfort of, well, anywhere, provided you have an IPhone or an internet connection.

TVUPlayer gives users access to virtually 100s of channels, both foreign and local. Gone are the days of waiting for relax-time. It offers channels in practically every genre including horror, cartoons, nostalgic television and movies.

The only drawback is there isnt any way to find out what is currently playing. There is no channel guide or episode listing to label the program being streamed.

Capcom has made its presence known throughout the gaming community. They have also pushed onto the IPhone and IPod Touch with a classic title and a contemporary hit.

Mega Man II is available in both full version and as a free demo as is Resident Evil: Degeneration. Mega Man II is widely regarded as the best Mega Man title of all-time. Aging gamers and purists alike see the 80s smash hit as a landmark in console gaming. Resident Evil: Degeneration was developed for play in handheld gaming and represents the first RE title to venture onto the IPhone and IPod Touch.

Both are excellent time consuming applications for your pocket.

Whats the sense in trying to download books and stream TV without a strong enough internet connection? There isnt any. Now with Speedtest, a free app, users can test download and upload speeds for WiFi connections. This testing app is very useful when checking on a new WiFi connection you have joined.

Apples past couple of versions of the iPhone features advanced capabilities that are particularly well-suited to the apps now being developed by everyone from professional developers to your next-door neighbor. While many of the apps are usefulthings like restaurant finders, the weather channel and shopping list makerit seems the most popular of them are simply fun time-wasters.

The negative connotation of the word addiction disappears apparently when it comes to computer games and now apps. The more addicting an app is (hence, the more time wasted with it) the more it is downloaded from Apples App Store. Developers tout their own apps addictiveness as a selling point. Theres even a term for the addiction affliction: appiphilia.

The following are seven apps that at least one user finds inordinately habit-forming. Not all of them are gamesthe traditional culpriteither! Whether or not these fuel or quell users appiphilia, or simply fritter away some time on a much-deserved break from real life, is up to themhopefully. Proceed with caution.

A highly addictive musical agility game based somewhat on guitar hero, its free price will no doubt be offset by the tunes one ends up purchasing to keep playing. It has wonderful graphics.

Feeling voyeuristic? This app brings up 100s of live cams from around the world, by category. From landscapes to beaches, the Eiffel Tower to the Egyptian pyramids this app is an armchair international trek, and sneakily addictive.

It is about as politically incorrect as can be, but heck, theyre cartoon pygmiesthat the gamer (as God) gets to strike with lightning, feed to the sharks, and drop kick into the volcano while trying to keep his or her pygmies alive and well. Hmmstrangely amusing.

Remember the classic? Tilting the steel ball around the holes? Mastering your self control? This is it, with astounding movement thanks to iPhone technology and endless mazes to conquer thanks to user-added levels. Several hundred hours of concentrated effort, minimum.

At the more expensive end of the app budget, but worth it for those who watch the TV version (to which this is loyal, down to Merediths Lets play!) and think they know all the answers. Reach 250,000 just once and its impossible to stop til youve won.

Access to thousands of police band radios from around the U.S. may not sound intriguing to everyone, until theyve practically participated (albeit from a distance) in their first live armed robbery arrest.

Proof that the simplest things are often the most enjoyable, Doodle Jump features a goofy little dude jumping up platforms with the users aid. Childish graphics and some shooting round out a game that will astound in its silliness (and yesaddictiveness).

Continued here:
The Best Time-Wasting Applications Around - IMC Grupo

Activist and former model, Bethann Hardison, has been a longtime fighter for diversity in fashion and some have called her the industrys conscience. Shes spent countless hours on panels and doing behind-the-scenes work to improve our industry and country. As the Black Lives Matter Movement has grown in recent weeks, I was curious what Hardison had to say about everything going on so I called her earlier this month and again last week to talk about the issues facing our world today and what the industry can do.

I have such admiration for you as a leader and just wanted to talk to you for a couple of minutes and hear your perspective about everything going on and maybe some words of encouragement, how we can all do better. Im curious what your outlook is. Do you think things will be different after these couple of weeks?Do you want to know if I think this is going to be different? Immediately? I think things are already different. In my entire life, I have been someone who was a bit militant in my early years before you were born. I have gone down roads of demonstrating, rioting and marching and this is the first time, I have never experienced it close up even within the city and the swelling of it. [Hardison is currently residing in Upstate, New York] The rallying environment of it. I have never seen it like this. This is something completely different. This is not the way we the people riot. I believe that strongly and I dont care what anyone thinks. Somebody else came here and got involved and is utilizing it to do whatever their intent is. We dont riot like that, we dont go on tour. At first I was upset because its my city, but in the end it comes with the territory. One may be demonstrating peacefully, one may be destroying stores, one might be burning down buildings, whether its to my liking or not, its all part of the revolution. Its not like a question of What do you think will happen? Well, Im not sure. When everyone can watch and see an officer with his knee on someones neck while someone is asking for a breath to be taken because the oxygen is leaving him. Everyone saw that. So it has had an effect on everyone. With the unrest, that was something that helps to put the mayonnaise on the bread. The truth of it is that everybody is now having to feel the need, they maybe always had solidarity, but now they have to raise their hand and show that they are stepping up. They will now do something different in their company and be more conscious of certain things. Thats what is most important to me.Whats affected you the most?The racism started with COVID-19 when minorities were hit the hardest. Even before racial injustice that everyone is marching for. With COVID-19 making everybody be in place, sit in the seat, be quiet, dont go far, dont go out of the house, but many of us were not able to do that because they couldnt isolate. That gives you an opportunity to be aware. Then this thing happens. Mr. Floyd dying is one thing, the destruction of the stores and the cities is a whole other thing. It has an effect. For me, I am quite annoyed because I am a born and bred New Yorker and I dont like my city being destroyed because I dont blame or imply that, the fact Mr. Floyd lost his life is not greater but this is beyond that, this is some other stuff. We get angry, we stay in the neighborhood and we care for our own. We dont go far. We dont get that kind of energy. So will things be different? Yes in some conscious way it will be, everything maybe wont be so blatant. Maybe we cant make huge changes in everything but there will be people, there will be companies who dont want to be on the wrong side of it. Im saying to everybody that they have a voice to be heard. Be on the right side of history. Dont worry about what people on the Internet are going to say. Show up and do the right thing loud. Let people know that you care. The haters are still going to question you but you dont want that to stop you from actually standing up and saying the right thing. Its very difficult for white people to talk about racial issues and not everyone can do that. I understand that. It is a very difficult subject, you dont want to say the wrong thing, you dont want to be wrong, you dont want to not step up, you dont know what to say, but you just dont want to come off as politically incorrect. You have to have the courage and have people of wisdom around you. It just doesnt necessarily come with the territory. Not every human being is wise, no matter what color we are.What do you think of the recent initiatives from the CFDA to support black talent? Were you content with what they issued?It is a great initiative. Put the key in the car and the motor turns on. Anytime somebody gets that to happen its brilliant. We are seeing a mandate from an organization because sometimes it takes a moment, the right time to happen, for people to be able to find the right way to stand up. I think with these initiatives they stayed in their lane. I tell everybody please just stay in your lane, dont start going outside of trying to solve things that are beyond you. Stay where you can control and actually do it, dont bite off more than you can chew. Run your own race. I think they stayed right in their frame of where they could be effective. I am happy that the CFDA also chose the NAACP because thats old school establishment. The CFDA is not in charge of designers, they cant make designers do anything. All they are is a council, theyre an umbrella. Designers, brands, and retailers still have to do their own thing.What else do you think the fashion community can do right now?That is the kind of stuff I deal with every day. I like what the Gucci Changemakers are doing, of course, because Im a changemaker. They have been doing philanthropic work for some time. Nobody knows it because they just do it. The Gucci Changemakers have sponsored different organizations in the United States to help underserved communities and give 20 scholarships to students who are interested in the business of fashion or fashion design. Thats what brands can do when they can: give scholarships. Now, who does that? It is very important to stand very strong in a point of crisis. You have to be very heels in the sand. Dont waiver. Your language should be if they want to question you, they can. They can always talk back but the point is that you have to stand strong. It is a great moment for any brand to make improvements and do more.

Iman and Bethann Hardison (Getty Images)

Are you feeling optimistic about things?Somebody asked me that yesterday and I said I am feeling hopeful. Hope is not a word that I normally use. Ive never doubted in my mind the reason why I was so devastated in 2016 once I learned the results of the election of the President of the United States, I knew it was for 8 years. May I be wrong. Everyone said it wasnt possible but I never doubted two terms and I have never wavered from this thought. I can only think of plan B. What are you gonna do when this is the way you didnt want it to go down? I dont have the freedom or the good mind to be hopeful because I am just thinking about circumstances. I dont look at that like Oh my god, we are all going to die, Im moving! Im leaving America! I havent gotten that far. At the end of the day, I am a New York City kid who likes my country even though we have a really tough moment right now. Really tough. Everybody in the world can see why its tough. They see who is the lead horse. For me, I just think you have to be very strong, wise and prepared. Some people arent saying the most peaceful things but its not over just because it doesnt look so good for awhile. Its not the end. It might take a moment to get to the next light. We certainly dont want this administration and this gentleman. If its going to change surely we need to see a change in the White House. I would even take the Senate if I can get the Senate!Im hoping for both!I am so proud of my local government, my governor, my mayor, so many people have woken up and smelled the coffee. A lot of things will be done differently and its not just about race. Society is different than what it was a few months ago. I only hope people have taken advantage of the pause. Whether you were solo [during quarantine] or doing schooling with your kids, that has helped make things change. Things arent going to be exactly the same again. I dont know how many people are dying to hug other people and kiss other people, but I think things have changed. We have something to put our minds to with fixing basic education, racial injustice, and police brutality.Lots of work to be done!

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us onFacebookandInstagramto stay up to date on all the latest fashion news and juicy industry gossip.

Here is the original post:
A Conversation with Bethann Hardison - Daily Front Row

Once you have your product and your business model conceived in the legal cannabis industry, its time to brand your endeavor. Branding is what will differentiate your company from others in the same cannabis space. Its a reflection of what you value and why customers should care about your company.

When branding your cannabis business, the first place to start is defining your brand identity. Working off your original business plan, you need to determine what your company stands for and how this reflects the services or products you provide. Formalizing your brand will create a foundation for all of your marketing materials, collateral, imagery, packaging and design. This will allow you to better reach your target market and build customer loyalty in the competitive cannabis marketplace. Brand identity includes your companys voice, tone, visuals, values, and mission. These core components work together to demonstrate how customers perceive your brand. It can help to personify your brand and illustrate its personality.

From healthcare to leisure, there are many emerging markets within the cannabis industry. Its important to know the subtle differences between each type of cannabis business. Knowing your market will help define your identity.

Your business name is your first impression on customers. Landing on a memorable name that speaks to your customers is a crucial decision that affects your bottom line. Reports have demonstrated that a strong name performs up to 33 percent better on the stock market than weaker names. These marginal advantages cannot be ignored in an industry that continues to ramp up. Its important to select a name that will be both powerful and overcome any social stigma associated with the cannabis industry.The cannabis industry is fresh and innovative and so should your brand and name.

One of the first steps in this process is to review naming constructs. Most brands fit into one of five styles: classic, clever, pragmatic, emotional or modern. The style needs to reflect your brands tone and values. It should also appeal to your dedicated audience. Using what you produced about your cannabis companys identity, you should begin the brainstorming process. You can utilize online tools such as a brand name generator to spark the brainstorm. Squadhelps generator is powerful in that it analyzes the accessibility, depth and functionality of each name idea.

The cannabis industry is fresh and innovative and so should your brand and name. Creative names are what customers respond to. Its what will set you apart from the bland and sterile. Remember your name doesnt solely have to describe your product or service. Your brands name should, however, evoke genuine emotion.

According to Motley Fool, here is a list of the 10 largest cannabis stocks in 2020:

The majority of these names involve nomenclature and cannabis buzzwords. But they also include names completely unrelated to the industry, proving an original name can drive success.

Love at first name is real. Its easy to fall for a name relying heavily on personal preference. But thats why audience testing is so important. Through proper audience testing, you can gauge whether your favorite name resonates with your key demographic or if theres another name that better hits the mark. You may also discover that your name is actually offensive or politically incorrect, a fail you truly want to avoid in todays cancel culture.

One example of this was a startup called Bodega, a San Francisco company that specialized in tech-enabled vending machines. The founders believed the name was a nod to corner stores heavily established throughout New Yorks boroughs. Instead, the company received extreme backlash for exploitation and cultural appropriation of these beloved mom and pop stores. In 2017, The Verge said that Bodega is either the worst-named startup of the year, or the most devious. Tapping into diverse audience surveys and polls provides valuable feedback to avoid catastrophic launches such as this.

When you finally settle on a name you want to be sure that youve run through a final functionality checklist.

There are three main parts of functionality to review when naming your cannabis business:

A highly functional name are ones that are easily remembered and often referred to in conversations.

The industry as a whole can be a complicated space to understand. Creative branding is an opportunity to educate potential customers about this novel industry as well as debunk myths. After all, two in three Americans support the legalization of recreational cannabis, according to a 2018 Gallup poll. This illustrates that theres still a population that needs additional cultivation.

By following these steps, your impactful brand name will promote interest and stand out in an industry that shows no sign of slowing down.

Link:
How to Name and Brand Your Cannabis Business - Cannabis Industry Journal

For car lovers, nostalgia is a key part of the enthusiast experience. After all, how can one appreciate the automotive creations of the present without the context of the past?

And if you're craving a journey back in time, there is perhaps no better way to traverse the decades than via the audiovisual treasure trove that is vintage car commercials.

While today's car ads are typically elaborate, high-concept affairs dominated by sleek slogans, celebrity cameos and cinematic camera angles, the 1980s and 90s were a far simpler time.

Marrying the decades trademark excesses with the limited technical capabilities available retro car ads from this era were simultaneously cheesy and brilliant, with a healthy dose of hyperbole for good measure.

So cast your mind back to when motor shows dominated the calendar, sedans ruled the streets and Tesla was just the name of a Serbian-American inventor. Here then, are the 10 best TV car ads of the 80s and 90s, in no particular order.

"Designed to stir the soul and not much else," was the catchphrase for this brilliant commercial showcasing how smooth Lexus' flagship sedan was capable of hitting 145mph (233km/h) without so much as rattling a tower of champagne glasses.

The clever clip cemented the Japanese luxury brand's arrival in the US market and, to celebrate 30 years since its anniversary, Toyota president Akio Toyoda recreated the champagne clip in 2020 (you can watch the new version here).

You're unlikely to ever find something as quintessentially 80s as Datsun's 'Black Gold' tribute to its 10th anniversary edition 280ZX.

A moustache to rival Tom Selleck's, a woman who looks suspiciously like a young Debbie Harry, a synth-laden soundtrack and lashings of gold lighting were the perfect way to celebrate this extremely extra limited-edition sports car.

This ad is regularly touted as the greatest car commercial of all time. We're don't disagree.

Remember how we mentioned hyperbole? Well this is perhaps the best example of it: Land Rover showcasing its off-roading prowess by having a Defender scale the vertical wall of a dam.

"Next time you're late for work, it's worth remembering that nothing nothing gets in the way of a Land Rover," a movie-level voiceover declares over the commercial's epic soundtrack.

Back in the 80s and 90s, competition between car brands was less of an unspoken understanding and more of an overt challenge.

Take, for example, this 1987 American Volvo ad for the Swedish marque's turbo-powered 740 wagon, which literally pits it against a Porsche 944 in a drag race.

The kicker? The not-so-humble tagline: "To you they're completely different cars but to a radar gun, they look exactly alike."

These two ads for the BMW 325i Convertible look more like scenes from blockbuster Hollywood romance movies than car commercials, given how much attention is given to the antics of the good-looking lead actors.

Still, our personal favourite is the second clip, in which an unidentified woman covers herself in suntan lotion while sitting in the drop-top car, as a man's voice declares that the 325i is "the ultimate tanning machine". Because, priorities.

Towards the ends of the 90s, car commercials started becoming more elaborate, high-concept affairs.

Take, for example, this 1996 Nissan advertisement, which saw the Japanese carmaker win over a generation of American kids with its play on the classic Barbie and Ken romance.

Spoiler alert: Barbie ditches Ken in favour of GI Joe and his kick-ass red 300ZX. Can you blame her?

Talk about a big build-up. For "the most advanced production car on the planet", Chevrolet had to go big or go home.

Hence this Tron-inspired epic about the Corvette that came with its own custom theme song, plus one-and-a-half minutes of an extremely 80s voiceover listing off its many, many attributes.

Four speakers?! We're sold.

Because this list was sorely missing a local entrant, and because "must be stuck in third" remains eminently quotable to this day.

Simple, powerful and incredibly sassy, this Porsche entrant is a masterclass in advertising.

The ad opens on the title, "What to feed a Porsche 944 Turbo".

The answer? "For lunch, a Porsche 944 Turbo generally prefers Ferraris, although it has been known, occasionally, to snack on Corvettes." Boom.

It's teeters on being politically incorrect at points, but this ad was a hilarious way to communicate Volkswagen's reliability message.

It's best if you just watch it yourself and let the toffy British voiceover do the talking...

Which 80s and 90s car ads are we missing? Tell us in the comments!

See the original post:
The 10 best TV car ads of the 1980s and '90s - CarAdvice

Protesters in Brooklyn, June 12(Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)A look at woke religiosity

Cary, N.C., June 7. Amidst nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, a black man and woman are seated on a park bench while a white woman wearing a sweatshirt that reads LOVE takes to her megaphone. We repent on behalf of, uh, Caucasian people, she says. A small crowd of white people comes to kneel before the two seated black folks, who are co-pastors of a local church. Some of the kneelers wash the feet of the black people. A white man with an English accent solemnly intones, Its our honor to stand here on behalf of all white people, . . . repenting, Lord, for our aggression, Lord, repenting for our pride, for thinking that we are better, that we are above. Police officers join the ritual. Several people start audibly weeping, or keening, as the speaker continues. Roughly a rozen people join in the gesture and kneel before the black couple. We have put our necks, put our hands, our knees, upon the necks of our African-American brothers and sisters, people of color, indigenous people, says the English man. Lord, where we as a church, a white church, have used you as a persecution towards black people, Lord, as weve burnt crosses, as weve burnt churches, . . . weve used it as a weapon against people of color.

Its been coming for some time, this transmutation of white guilt into a cult, a religion that borrows from and intersects with Christianity but substitutes its own liturgy. In the Nineties, liberal white Hollywood filmmakers began to nourish a fantasy that black people were imbued with magical powers, and they built stories around angelic or Christlike black redeemers who stood apart from and above this fallen race we call humanity. Will Smith in The Legend of Bagger Vance, Cuba Gooding Jr. in What Dreams May Come, and Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile served as spiritual and/or actual caddies to troubled white men, guiding them toward salvation.

Today those magical negro films, as Spike Lee dubbed them, get ridiculed by the critical intelligentsia, but the same impulse is visible in different form. White people continue to have difficulty perceiving blacks as individual human beings, instead conferring on blackness a holy quality. Fallen white people can get closer to the divine by showing due deference in any way they can. Books that promise to assist white people with the project of metaphorically scourging themselves White Fragility, How to Be an Antiracist bounded up the best-seller lists. Black Americans report, with more annoyance than appreciation, that white friends are calling them nervously, seeking absolution.

The original sin in the White Guilt Cult, the New Church of Anti-Racism, is to be, uh, Caucasian people. Parker Gillian, a young black college graduate in Chicago who is in no need of financial support (she grew up in affluence, she told the Washington Post), says that someone from work texted out of nowhere to ask, Whats your cash app? and then pinged $20 into her account, unasked. It is so exhausting being everybodys one black friend right now, tweeted a comedian named Sarah Cooper. Black people observing such displays by their white acquaintances can be forgiven for wondering: Is it really a friendship if one party is groveling, throwing money, and begging to wash the other partys feet? If anything, the Great Awokenings response to the George Floyd killing seems to be bolstering racial barriers rather than eradicating them. By making a religion of anti-racism, white people carry on with the longstanding project of othering black folks.

Anti-racism is the most critical element of a broader new Woke Orthodoxy whose other elements include environmental apocalypticism, feminism, and a severing of sexual identity from genetic indicators. Settling on a term for the new religion will take some time. Wesley Yangs suggestion (seconded by Ross Douthat) of the Successor Ideology is clunky, anodyne, and a bit euphemistic given the righteous, roiling fervor and unnerving credulousness that define the cult. As Dmitri Solzhenitsyn writes in National Review Online, a YouTube prankster named Smooth Sanchez who walks the streets of New York demanding that white people kneel before him and declare their privilege receives surprising compliance, even as he signals his charlatanry by referring to George Floyd as George Foreman.

Ben Shapiro notes astutely that the new woke religion rushes in to fill a God-shaped hole in secular hearts. Devotees immerse themselves in the sacred texts of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ibram X. Kendi (n Ibram Henry Rogers of Queens), books designed to make white wokesters writhe with a kind of ecstatic anguish. Indoctrination in early childhood is taken up as a parental duty (Kendis new board book for toddlers, Antiracist Baby, is a hot seller), parishioners engage in ritualistic incantation of sacred phrases (Hands up, dont shoot, I cant breathe), and there are mass displays of penitential self-abasement. All over the country, guilty white crowds have gathered to reenact the circumstances of George Floyds horrifying death. Scores, even hundreds, of parishioners in the new faith prostrate themselves on the ground, hands behind their back, repeating Mama and I cant breathe. Sometimes police officers joined these displays, kneeling or prostrating themselves for the sanctified period of time: eight minutes, 46 seconds. Floyds death is a kind of new Crucifixion, his final words the new My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The new clergy consists of black thought leaders (Coates, Kendi, Stacey Abrams) and those white people who loudly proclaim themselves allies and proselytize for the organizing dogma, which is that everything is racist. Those who question orthodoxy are kept at bay, derided as conservatives who are arguing in bad faith if not actual racists. For example, one is not to ask Why are black people so upset about one white cop killing a black man when black men are at much more danger of being killed by one another? wrote John McWhorter in his 2015 essay Antiracism, Our Flawed New Religion. The answers are flabby but further questions are unwelcome, McWhorter added. The much-promised conversation on race consists of repeating points in the catechism to enhance their power phrases such as I must do better, white privilege, systemic racism, white supremacy, allyship.

There is more dogmatism in this ideology than in most of contemporary American Catholicism, writes the Catholic columnist Andrew Sullivan. And more intolerance. Question any significant part of this, and your moral integrity as a human being is called into question. As the fierceness of old religions fades, a corresponding desire for a new righteous fury rises. The fervor sweeping through the South (but not just the South) to pull down statues seen as blasphemous to the new faith loudly echoes the 16th-century rampage through the monasteries that burned icons and laid waste to stained glass. Each successive wave of iconoclasm will take more and more historical monuments until either the new Reformation ends or all blasphemous iconography has been destroyed, with the logical endpoint being Mount Rushmore, with its quintuple heresy: Washington and Jefferson held slaves, Teddy Roosevelt is damned as a racist, the land the monument sits on was seized from indigenous peoples, and the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was friendly with the Ku Klux Klan.

My friend Kevin D. Williamson writes that cancel culture is a game, the point of which is to impose unemployment on people as a form of recreation. The line is amusing but, I think, not quite right: The impulse is more religious than recreational. How satisfying it must be to understand that one can send out a tweet and within hours destroy someones life for losing her temper for a minute while walking a dog in Central Park (former New York financial analyst Amy Cooper), for having posed as a Puerto Rican for a Halloween party 16 years ago (ousted Bon Apptit editor Adam Rapoport), or for having tweeted Working out is so gay more than a decade ago (Cond Nasts no-longer head of lifestyle-video programming Matt Duckor). That last example recalls Sullivans remark that politically incorrect language has become the equivalent of old swear words, referring to formerly shocking words such as goddamn that have long since lost all potency. Take the principles of Woke in vain and you invite instantaneous ritual chastisement the most thrilling, ecstatic element of the woke religion. The techno-narcissistic innovation of the Wokesters is that they have made themselves, as a collective, their own godhead, equipped with the authority to wield and unleash the thunderbolt of righteousness on blasphemers here and now, on their own authority. There is no need to be anxious about whether the right decisions will be made by the Deity in the hereafter; the new Social-Justice God is merciless and swift. Every day ending in day is now Judgment Day.

So rigorous is the new religion that the unrighteous can be vaporized simply for not chanting the liturgy, or for not sounding off loudly enough. White silence equals violence is one new precept gaining currency. The president and the chairman of the Poetry Foundation were forced to resign for no other reason than that the nonprofit had published a disavowal of racism considered insufficiently robust. The two executives were denounced in an angry open letter as having been responsible for nothing but watery vagaries that added up to ultimately, a violence. How exciting it must be to upend the meanings of words in service of the greater cause of smiting ones perceived enemies, or even whatever suspected counterrevolutionaries there may be among ones sworn allies. No one dared to be the first to stop applauding a Stalin speech.

Sullivan holds that it is, in fact, impossible not to have a religion if you are a human being. Its in our genes and has expressed itself in every culture, in every age, including our own secularized husk of a society. The old liberal consensus built around prosaic proceduralism fairness, equal treatment, dependence on the slow and imperfect operation of the machinery of justice made for a frustratingly dull religion. All that stuff amounts to so many watery vagaries in the era of the Great Awokening. Declaiming, denouncing, and destroying that is where transcendence lies.

If you enjoyed this article, we have a proposition for you: Join NRPLUS. Members getallof our content (including the magazine), no paywalls or content meters, an advertising-minimal experience, and unique access to our writers and editors (conference calls, social-media groups, etc.). And importantly, NRPLUS members help keep NR going. Consider it?

If you enjoyed this article, and were stimulated by its contents, we have a proposition for you: Join NRPLUS.

See the original post here:
The White-Guilt Cult - National Review

So reports WBRZ. Columbus is too politically incorrect for the current crop of softheaded activists roaming our streets, you know

The Christopher Columbus statue on the corner where Government Street meets the river was donated by the Greater Baton Rouge American Italian Association in 1992 to then-Mayor Tom Ed McHugh.

Its stood there for nearly three decades, but it could soon come down.

The fate of the statue will be a topic of discussion for the mayor-presidents commission on race equity and inclusion, set to meet this month.

The commission will look into renaming or removing potentially offensive or oppressive government entities like street and building names or statues.

He introduced sickness to the land, genocide to the land, slavery, and he even raped and mutilated a lot of the people that were already here. And this statue here makes it seem as if we are complacent with slavery and racist antics that happened in the south, and we are not complacent with it at all, Breyonna Grant said.

In the meantime, Breyonna Grant and Camren Linson started a petition addressed to the city council and governor calling for the removal of the statue as soon as possible. It now has more than 1,200 signatures.

Were asking for 10,000 or 5,000, and after that, we will march to the state capitol to demand justice, Linson said.

Though the city-parish doesnt own the statue, the fountain it sits in is city property. So the statue could at least be moved elsewhere with a vote.

Grant and Linson say they are not interested in destroying the statue and would be happy if the city removed it from public view.

It is imperative that as the state of Louisiana we set an example and remove all monuments that represent racial inequality, injustice in America and also white supremacy, Linson said.

So who are Breyonna Grant and Camren Linson?

Heres Breyonna Grant, from her Facebook

And heres Camren Linson, also from her Facebook

If theres any significance to blue lipstick we dont know what it is.

Both of these ladies apparently graduated from Texas Southern. Grant lives in Atlanta now, while Linson lives in Baton Rouge.

The petition barely has more than 1,000 signatures so far, so its a long way from being particularly relevant. But with the local TV stations now giving it play its a matter of time before that number grows.

And with Baton Rouges mayor Sharon Weston Broome having set up that commission on equality and justice, it should be little surprise if someone takes this ball and runs with it.

We have a suggestion, which is that the folks in St. George ought to get with the Baton Rouge American Italian Association and pick a site at which to feature the Columbus statue. It needs to be on private land and a historical preservation foundation set up and funded for the upkeep of the monument so that if the protest mobsters want to attack the statue theyll be trespassing on private property and therefore subject to arrest.

Christopher Columbus isnt recognized because he enslaved or raped or mutilated people he came in contact with in the New World. Hes recognized because he did what previous explorers could not cross the Atlantic and spread Western civilization beyond Europe. Because of Columbus exploits the world became a far richer place.

The people denying this mans achievements are doing so for a very simple reason they hate America. They hate everything about our history, because theyve been poisoned into believing that this is a country founded on racism and violence.

And their arguments are so horrifically bad that anyone who disagrees with them is, in their view, then in turn branded as racist or violent.

All of human history is replete with racism and violence. Racism and violence are endemic to every society which has ever existed on Earth. No other country could measure up to the standards these people want to impose on America.

But since Baton Rouge is quickly devolving into a dead city the Grants and Linsons will have all to themselves if they want it, maybe theyre right. Maybe Christopher Columbus ought to be moved out of downtown. Lets find him a neighborhood in the suburbs where people proud of their national heritage will appreciate him more.

More:
Now They Want To Take Christopher Columbus Away From Downtown BR - The Hayride

MDC headquarters in Harare.

The recall was instituted by one of the warring Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions, which is arguing that both the appointment as vice president and the subsequent rise of Nelson Chamisa as president of the MDC-T party was illegal and unconstitutional.

CLOSE

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Commissioner Qubani Moyo told Daily Maverick:

It is not true that our recent review suspending any electoral activities is designed to aid one of the MDC formations. During this phase of national lockdown, all electoral activities that require any outreach programmes for our staff remain suspended indefinitely.

For the avoidance of doubt, ZEC has no side in their internal fights or any other political parties. Only those who try to find fault will create noise out of a purely administrative process, said Moyo.

The MDC-As newly appointed spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere told Daily Maverick:

We are concerned by ZECs unconstitutional decision to indefinitely suspend electoral activities because of Covid-19 without regard for the constitution and electoral laws.

ZEC acted unilaterally in deciding to issue an indefinite suspension of electoral activities without consulting political parties, civic society organisations and voters through public hearings, said Mahere.

The MDC formations are fighting it out in the courts, arguing that Nelson Chamisa, who represented a coalition of eight political parties under the banner of MDC-A during the 2018 harmonised elections to which the MDC-T was party to, is not a legitimate leader. The harmonised ballot was, however, characterised by post-election violence.

The MDC formation led by former deputy president Thokozani Khupe won a legal battle in which the Supreme Court ordered her reinstatement as acting president of the MDC-T, leading the partys secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora to recall four MDC-A members of parliament on the grounds that they had ceased representing the opposition MDC-T partys interests.

Mwonzora said: Honourable (Charlton) Hwende tweeted that he was no longer a member of the MDC-T. This is a statement we can never allow because it is both politically and factually incorrect.

In a show of short-lived solidarity, the remaining MPs loyal to Chamisa vowed to boycott parliament only to return in a few days to attend parliamentary business.

Independent election watchdog, Zimbabwe Electoral Supervisory Network (ZESN), issued a statement saying:

No consultations were done, so ZEC could have at least considered postponing, rather than suspending electoral activities. Engagement on whether or not to suspend electoral activities could have been done through virtual means, because the Covid-19 pandemic may be here to stay for much longer than we anticipate.

Zimbabwe is currently under an indefinite Level 2 lockdown only to be reviewed subject to circumstances. Parliament has, however, been allowed to conduct public hearings in the coming week on Constitutional Amendment bill No2

ZEC Chief Elections Officer Utoile Silaigwana said:

Our current position on the suspension of electoral activities was guided by his excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwas measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 and as such we will conduct activities that do not violate lockdown measures.

We will be looking at policy changes to accommodate post-filling just like what is done on proportional representations and senatorial positions, said Silaigwana.

The four legislators who were recalled include Charlton Hwende Kuwadzana (East Constituency), Prosper Mutseyami (Dangamvura Chikanga), Thabitha Khumalo (Proportional representative Bulawayo) and Senator Lillian Timveous (Midlands).

One of the recalled MPs, Charlton Hwende, told Daily Maverick:

I am the secretary-general of the MDC Alliance and never contested as MDC-T. I and others stand by President Nelson Chamisa. We will not be deterred by these antics by ZANU-PF to try and destroy the peoples party.

Sections 158 (3) and 121 (a) of the constitution of Zimbabwe provide that the ZEC should conduct polling in by-elections to fill vacancies in Parliament and local authorities, including fixing the polling dates for local authority by-elections within nine days after the vacancies occur. Further to that, Section 132 allows the ZEC to change without giving notice of its decision in the gazette and in the media beyond 90 days.

Speaker of Parliament, advocate Jacob Mudenda, said:

Parliament is obligated to play an oversight role in the circumstances and accordingly the Standing Rules and Orders Committee has exercised its rights regarding the arrangements that would make it possible for Parliament to function with minimum disruption.

The MDC has suffered countless splits since its formation and all splinters have claimed the brand name MDC so much so that voters are confused as to which MDC formation it is they want. Some of the formations include MDC-T, MDC-99, MDC, MDC-A and MDC-N.

Even more confusing to voters is that all the formations use the same symbols, sometimes with very little or no difference. DM

Please note you must be a Maverick Insider to comment. Sign up here or if you are already an Insider.

Go here to see the original:
Zimbabwe election suspended after recall of opposition MPs - Daily Maverick

Black Lives Matter is a Marxist scam. As with all totalitarian ploys, BLM uses your natural fear of social rejection to force conformity and compliance with its goals. If we buy into it, we have a lot to lose, including all individual libertiesfreedom of speech, of thought, and especially the right to a private life and private relationships.

The BLM goal should be obvious by now: conjure up enough blind conformity to create the illusion of unanimous support. Support for what? The uncontroversial slogan that black lives matter is just a tool to draw you in emotionally to its broader and more destructive agenda.

Read the BLM website and youll find lots of Marxist agendas like ending constitutional self-governance (under the guise of sustainable transformation) and taking over law enforcement to abolish the rule of law (defund the police). Its anti-Christian and anti-free markets. Its committed to disrupting the nuclear family and replacing it with collectivist forms of child-rearing. Its endgame is typical of Marxism: a power grab stoked by the illusion of mass approval through street theater.

When we get sucked in to the vortex of BLMs mass delusions, whether out of a sense of guilt or ignorance, the results are predictable. Forced confessions. Struggle sessions. The suppression of speech. Stoking of resentments. Accusations of thought crimes. Toppling historical monuments. Civilizational breakdown. Meddling in private life, especially family.

So, whats the secret of creating enough woke conformity to get to such an anti-thought point? How does a well-organized band of power-craving elitists get people to surrender the right to speak their own minds? To open the door to giving collectivist elites the raw power they crave?

Ill use the terms socialism and Marxism somewhat interchangeably. Marxists tend to refer to themselves as socialists, even if some socialists claim they arent Marxists. All are collectivists, though, with the same patterns and tendencies and agendas, some harder than others, depending on their state of evolution.

The threat of ostracism is a primal and universal human terror, and thus an extremely powerful weapon, especially when mobs enforce it. Tyrants have always been in the business of cultivating the terror of social rejection in order to control people and amass power. Sadly, most people are not consciously aware of these dynamics, and are therefore vulnerable to succumbing.

The terror of abandonment is built into our social DNA because human beings cannot survive in isolation. What we see today is a psychological operation that plays on that fear through identity politics, peer-modelling, and social contagion.

First, the propaganda media conjures up images of unanimity with a false BLM narrative. Then, anyone who doesnt buy in is smeared as a racist, at great risk of losing his or her job, status, livelihood, and now even family. Its designed to induce everyone to cave in to that primal fear of social isolation and submit to the power elites. Once society reaches a tipping point where everyone blindly succumbs, then the power grab begins, and game over.

Emotional blackmail seems to be an inherent tactic of Marxist activists as well as todays cult of wokeness. We can now see how BLM applies that tool to the daily lives of its allies.

The author of a recent New York Times op-ed writes that he fears for his life when he goes out because hes black. Hes irritated with texts of sympathy he receives from white allies because he finds their support for BLM inadequate.

The essay, titled I Dont Need Love Texts From My White Friends, offers a prescription for proving their love: threaten to ostracize any loved ones who dont get with the program. His exact words: Text: to your relatives and loved ones telling them you will not be visiting them or answering phone calls until they take significant action in supporting black lives either through protest or financial contributions.

Heres a key Twitter thread on it:

Cult experts have a term for this practice of meddling in relationships: predatory alienation. Its a form of relational aggression, straight out of Cults 101. BLM offers us other examples of mass compliance reminiscent of Jonestown.

A creepy Maoist-styled struggle session recently took place in the affluent suburb of Bethesda, Maryland where a large crowd theatrically recited a mass confession of collective white guilt. They also promised to proselytize (i.e., educate) others, leading likely to performing emotional blackmail when deemed necessary.

Weve also seen spectacles of police officers, and even uniformed military personnel, taking the knee in obedience to mobs. Corporate America from Amazon to Zoom has also drunk the Kool-Aid in fear. Even supposed Republicans like Mitt Romney and George W. Bush publicly support BLMs false claim that America is a systemically racist nation. Maybe you now have family and friends who harangue you, threateningovertly or tacitlyto shun you if you dont get with their program.

Americans should have enough sense to know that such shameful acts of submission to mobs are not about race, police brutality, or healing. They are about shifting power from the rule of law to a socialist elite who intend lawless dominion over everyone once in power. Their false narratives exploit George Floyds death as a trigger to stir up fear and loathing (in the name of love) in order to gain and consolidate power.

The emotional manipulation were seeing by Black Lives Matter reflects socialisms long pattern of isolating individuals and controlling their relationships. We can see it in socialisms history, in its policies, and especially in its tactics.

Abolishing family and religion are both old socialist rallying cries. A big part of socialisms history is its war on those primary institutions through which our most intimate relationships and our unique identities are formed. We become isolated and weakened, and more easily controlled, when separated from them. Thats the idea.

Socialist dictators like Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedog, Pol Pot, and Adolf Hitler were dedicated to the destruction of all private life, insisting that loyalty belonged only to them. Thats why the death toll of socialist systems is more than 100 million.

Whatever else socialists say they promoteequality, justice, free stuffthey have one goal: placing too much power in the hands of too few people. To undermine the power of individuals, they undermine their private relationships. Thats exactly what just about every socialist policy has done, including no-fault divorce, welfare dependency, and abortion, which wreak havoc on the family.

The victims of this brokenness naturally feel alienated. Yet they still have a need to belong to something. Socialists feed that appetite with pseudo-communities, such as contrived collectives, mobs, and, yes, its wokeness cult.

The mob mindset is a trap, a form of mental solitary confinement, an ironic form of mind rape. Why? Because mobs of wokeness do not allow for anyone to express an original thought to another human being without the risk of being smeared and isolated.

As people invest in groupthink to remain in the herd, they end up spiraling even deeper into the mental isolation, cutting off normal conversation. They soon become triggered by other points of view. BLM activists have not only taken full advantage of the fear of loneliness already inherent in our culture. They also seem intent in perpetuating the fear by stoking more divisions within private relationships.

Political correctness and identity politics have long been used as tools of agitation designed to instill groupthink and stir up that threat of loneliness. Political correctness works by inducing self-censorship, cutting off conversation and the exchange of ideas, which might lead to friendship.

People with politically incorrect ideas often confide they feel completely alone. Identity politics works by forcing people to focus only on a collective identity and collective guilt while erasing each of us as unique individuals. Both are alienating. Both empower bad actors.

Most of us have never had a chance to learn the history of how blind conformity breeds terror, and vice versa. Abject conformity led to the hellscapes of Stalins reign of terror, of Hitlers Germany. Those who submit to false confessions of white guilt can just as easily submit to such regimes because the psychological mechanism is the same: seeking the social approval they crave and avoiding the social rejection they fear.

In the end, weaponized loneliness is the fuel of socialism, as well as hardcore socialist organizations, including BLM. Recognizing and rejecting this scam is the only way to begin coming together as whole human beings.

Read more:
How Socialists Like Black Lives Matter Weaponize Fears Of Loneliness - The Federalist