Daily Archives: October 15, 2021

Tonights episode of Dateline delves into inner world of Amy Carlson, a woman who claimed to be God, and was mummified and adorned with glitter and Christmas lights by her cult followers after her death.

Amy Carlson told her followers that she was God incarnate on Earth, but she warned that soon she would ascend. During her last years alive Amy was often drunk and belligerent. She also turned a shade of blue/gray because of the colloidal silver she would ingest.

Her followers also sold colloidal silver, which they claimed cure a host of diseases, including COVID-19. A side effect is a permeant change of skin color. Amy was an alcoholic and also suffered from other disorders which may have included cancer. Her diagnoses are unknown because she did not receive medical help. At some point she asked her followers to take her to a hospital, but they refused because she preached against conventional medicine.

Amys cult, which was called Love Has Won gained members by broadcasting on Facebook and YouTube. Amy lived in several states during her time in the cult. She and a group of followers were kicked out of Hawaii, and she was staying in a houseboat on Lake Shasta soon before her death. Rural Colordao was a home-base for the group, and where her body was found.

After Amy died, her followers kept her body for months before it was discovered in April 2021 in a house outside Crestone, Colorado. They put glitter in her eye sockets and draped her body in electric lights. They believed that she had ascended to a new, Fifth, dimension.

Her cause of death is still unknown, but as of July 2021, the coroner was testing her body for heavy medals because of her use of colloidal silver. Her followers made money by selling colloidal silver and other supplements. In 2020, the groupd received a warning from the FDA for claiming that colloidal silver could cure COVID-19.

After her body was discovered by authorities, seven of the members were arrested for tampering with a corpse as and child abuse. The charges were dropped in September, 2021, with no reason given to the public.

Since her death, the group has failed to stick together and has broken off into at least two different factions.

Amy claimed she had been on Earth in many forms before, including Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana, but that this was her last time as a mortal.

People who knew Amy before when she was a mortal human mom, however, were shocked by her new role as a god on Earth. She had left everything behind, including her children, to embark on her self-destructive quest to be a spiritual leader.

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DATELINE: The Ascension of Mother God - How did Amy Carlson Die? * starcasm.net - Starcasm

Some healthcare workers at Ascension St. John said they're looking for new jobs after they said they were not allowed to opt out of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

In July, Ascension said it would require all employees get a vaccine by November or people would lose their jobs.

Many nurses and healthcare workers contacted News on 6, saying their exemption requests were denied and they feel they have no choice but to leave.

"I love helping people," said Rachael Parker. "I'm a people advocate."

That's why Parker went into nursing nearly 30 years ago. She was an ICU nurse for several years and most recently the stroke coordinator at Ascension Saint John.

"COVID is bad, I've been a patient myself," she said.

Ascension told all employees they must be fully vaccinated by November 12.

Parker said she has had two terrible reactions to vaccines in the past including kidney failure, so she requested a medical exemption.

"I have health issues that make me question taking the vaccine," she said. "I'm not negating it for anyone else."

Parker said it was denied, so she had no option but to quit.

"I had a lot of Ascension employees reach out to me," said Jeremy Strang.

Strang said he's also worked in healthcare for 30 years and helped many nurses request faith-based exemptions for the vaccine.

"I've done faith-based exceptions for 15 years from the flu vaccine," he said.

Several St. John nurses said their religious requests were denied and the company's response was they would cause "undue hardship to the organization" and "increased risk."

These nurses said it's a slap in the face after a year and a half on the frontlines and said patients are the ones who will truly suffer.

"This vaccine is never going to be a one size fits all," Parker said.

Ascension and Ascension St. John didn't respond to a media request before 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Oklahoma's Attorney General said Thursday there is no rule currently in place that requires employers to mandate the vaccine. He said if a federal rule does go into place, his office will ask for an injunction.

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Some Tulsa Healthcare Workers Quit Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate - News On 6

Filmed in 2019 before the onset of the pandemic, Ascension is a documentary by Chinese-American director Jessica Kingdon about social divisions and social climbing in contemporary China.

Shot in 51 locations across the country, the movieaccording to the production notesis observational and essayistic, impressionistic, examining, among other things, the juxtaposition of wealth and poverty and the often coercive relationships between the various levels of capitalist enterprise.

The film had its world premiere at New Yorks Tribeca Film Festival in June, where it won Best Documentary Feature. It has recently been released in the US by MTV Documentary Films.

My aim in Ascension, continues Kingdon, is to draw the viewers attention to the universal aspects of industrial creation and consumption, and pose questions about who benefits from industrial enterprise. In any nation, the benefits are rarely apparent at the bottom of the chain.

The filmmaker explains that she did not mean to single out China as the exemplar of capitalist indignity. Rather, she uses this factory of the world to illustrate the daily realities of industrial systems, both in one nation and around the world.

The movies title is drawn from a poem by the filmmakers great-grandfather written in 1912, just after the fall of the Qing empire.

Ascensions official description reads in part: The film ascends through the levels of the capitalist structure: workers running factory production, the middle class selling to aspirational consumers, and the elites reveling in a new level of hedonistic enjoyment. In traveling up the rungs of Chinas social ladder, the filmmakers show that the contemporary Chinese Dream remains an elusive fantasy for most.

This 97-minute snapshot of China is divided into three sections. The first is the strongest and most revealing. Recruiters for large foreign companies, shouting over loudspeakers like carnival barkers, attempt to entice the jobless: Rides free to the factory ... dorm and food provided ... no health test required20 yuan [$3.10 per hour] ... dorms four people per room (no more than eight!) ... includes air conditioning ... Its for the new Huawei phone ... Earn 220 yuan [a day] at Foxconn ... no criminal record no tattoos allowed ... be as non-tattooed as possible

The camera takes in billboards, with such messages as Work hard, and all wishes come true.

In Kingdons film, we see a number of different sections of the multimillion-strong Chinese working class, from miners digging up rare earths for powering batteries to employees in a fish processing facility, from workers in bottled water factories to those in plants making sex dolls and Ralph Lauren clothing.

The filmmaker took particular care to convey viscerally the sights and sounds of work. Kingdon comments: We lavd [placed a lavalier microphone on] people working in factories as much as we could in order to get first-person sound. One of my favorite sound moments is when the young woman on the water bottle assembly line pauses to take a sip from her portable thermos ... Then there is the moment of those ladies shoes pumping the pedals in the plastic bottle cap factory.

The logic of the global economy finds ironic expression in the fact that the anti-Chinese fanatic Trumps 2020 campaign had its Keep America Great merchandise produced in China, for obvious economic reasons!

According to Kingdon, the excesses of consumerism demand mostly useless objects as they move from the factory to the outside world, where they will live a short life before being turned into polluting waste. Along these lines, she includes scenes from the New South China Mall in Dongguan and the New Century Global Center in Chengdu.

Middle-class ambition is the focus of the second segment. Hopefuls attend workshops and seminars, like Star Boss Entrepreneurial Camp, a two-day workshop where the motto is Monetize Your Personal Brand. At the end, the participants announce their goals. One young man jarringly proclaims: After two days of training, I decided to work to death!

Lets bring the pride of Chinas 5,000-year history to show the world the prettiest smiles, says one motivational speaker. Apparently, self-help gurus are everywhere! There is the International Butler Academy in Chengdu, where drinking glasses are designed to accommodate larger European noses, and the Genghis Security Academy in Beijing for bodyguard training.

The section on the wealthy towards the end of the film is the briefest. In an upscale restaurant, a group of young men and women boast that China is a global player now. A maid prepares a room in a super-posh hotel.

Nathan Truesdells cinematography elegantly suggests the vastness and variations of the country, accentuated by Dan Deacons score. In any event, imagery and sound must count for a good deal in the narration-less documentary.

It is significant that Kingdon pays no attention to the propaganda about communist China. She makes no bones about the fact that China is a highly developed capitalist country with a pronounced and growing social divide. However, she equally makes clear that her film is not meant to be an indictment of that system, rather it is merely an exploration of the paradox of progress.

The result is an intriguing work, but a passive one. Understanding present-day China would involve seriously and painstakingly examining where the society came from. The country underwent convulsive events in the 20th century, above all, the 1949 Revolution. How is it possible that a country ruled by a Communist Party has been transformed into the dog-eat-dog capitalist society that Kingdon portrays? A host of historical questions arise. The directors instincts are generally healthy, but they only take her so far.

Impressionistically gazing on a social phenomenon as complex as China produces some riveting material. However, unless the filmmaker is equipped with a store of historical and social knowledge, her probing camera may generate striking images, but the most profound truths will remain hidden.

Nonetheless, Kingdons documentary accomplishes some of its aims. She asserts: The status anxiety and the alienation of modern capitalism which are apparent in the film are states of being which I found profoundly familiar from my life in the United States. These are ways of being that are increasingly the norm across cultures, and not just in China.

My hope, she continues, is that the familiarity of these anxieties will lead American viewers to question their own ideas about the differences and similarities between the two nations, and examine the unconscious biases they may hold about the superiority of their country. This is not an insignificant objective, particularly given the anti-Chinese propaganda barrage centered in the US.

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Ascension: Social division and social ambition in China - WSWS

Back in the 2019-2020 off-season when the Pittsburgh Pirates sent veteran outfielder Starling Marte to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a two-player package, many set their sights on Liover Peguero. Peguero at the time was considered a very high ceiling shortstop but would need to refine his skills to reach that ceiling.

Overall, he was considered a prospect to watch. One that could break out in the next few years. Fast forward to 2021 and hes become one of baseballs most notable shortstop prospects. FanGraphs currently ranks him #67 and MLB Pipeline has him at #85. Pretty good for a guy who started out both lists as a borderline top 100 prospect (#119 per FanGraphs and a Just Missed Out prospect by MLB Pipeline).

Peguero had a solid season at High-A Greensboro. Throughout 417 plate appearances, the shortstop batted .270/.332/.444 with 14 home runs, 19 doubles, a .338 wOBA, and 108 wRC+. While those werent close to the likes of his teammates such as Matthew Fraizer or Nick Gonzales, they were quite solid given more context.

Peguero was one of the youngest players at High-A Greensboro. He was about the age of the average Bradenton Marauders player and there were 8 different players who appeared in at least 12 games at the Florida Coast League of similar or older age to Peguero. Overall, Greensboro players were about two-and-a-half years older than the talented shortstop. The aforementioned Gonzales and Fraizer were both 2 and 3 years older than Liover by the end of the campaign. So while his bottom line numbers may not stand out among the crowd, being an above league average hitter while also being much younger than your competition is impressive.

Peguero is more of a hit-over-power kind of player. His hit tool projects at 60, which is reaching elite territory. But dont get hit-over-power confused with no power at all. Pegueros power has slowly been improving since his professional debut in 2018.

When the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Peguero, his power was only projected to be a 40, which isnt great by any means. But now he projects with 45-game power. Plus his raw power has always been projected at 50. He also had a single-season best ISO, posting a solid .174 mark this year.

His increased power potential is one of the major reasons he has climbed prospect rankings. Originally a wire-frame, slap hitter, Peguero now stands at a 61, 200-pound frame. Hes added 40 pounds since his first professional season in 2018 with his rookie weight coming in at just 160 pounds. That falls somewhere in the middle of Javier Baez (6-foot, 190 pounds) and Trevor Story (62, 213 pounds). However, the added bulk hasnt slowed him down yet. Hes still a projected plus runner and swiped 28 bases this year. He also projects as an above-average fielder with a strong enough arm to remain at shortstop long term.

The only knocks that can be made about Peguero so far is his plate discipline and batted ball rates. He only had a 7.9% walk rate and 25.2% strikeout rate. He also had a 49.8% ground ball rate and sub-20% line drive rate (18.6%). But the so-so plate discipline numbers arent uncommon for a young player. His batted ball numbers arent anything that cant be fixed with some fine tuning to his swing or approach at the plate.

Peguero has become not just one of baseballs higher-end prospects, but one of the better overall shortstop prospects. Hes increased his power potential to an average level, but his size suggests he could be better than what the grades project when it comes to slugging. Hes one of the most exciting players to watch in the system. Theres a good chance that Peguero takes yet another step forward and starts the 2022 season at Double-A. While hed be extremely young for the level, Peguero has proven that hes good enough to play with the older kids.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: The Ascension of Liover Peguero - Rum Bunter

GONZALES, La. (BRPROUD) United States Senator Bill Cassidy is going to be in Ascension Parish on Thursday morning.

Senator Cassidy is joining Ascension Parish President Clint Cointment and LSU Center for Energy Studies researcher Dr. Greg Upton at the Clarion Inn and Conference Center.

At 8:30 a.m., those three men are going to speak about the next generation of the chemical industry in Louisiana.

Along with Cassidy, Cointment and Upton, chemical plant managers and representatives from Louisiana energy companies are expected to attend this gathering.

Senator Cassidy is expected to elaborate on the SCALE Act.

According to Senator Cassidy, The SCALE Act would support long-term Louisiana production by developing carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) infrastructure to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The Clarion Inn and Conference Center is located at 1500 LA Hwy. 30 W.

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U.S. Senator, LSU researcher and Ascension Parish president delving into the next generation of the chemical industry in Louisiana - BRProud.com