Monthly Archives: June 2022

Tradecraft /// Covert Operative Lifestyle + CIA Training Guide

Posted: June 11, 2022 at 1:23 am

Tradecraft /// Covert Operative Lifestyle + CIA Training Guide

A covert operative method of remembering new faces you come across and recognizing them in further encounters for the purposes of both casual and professional interactions.

A tradecraft method of instant decision-making to enact the best situational response during prespecified mission obstacle or otherwise critical scenarios.

Despite nearly all cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin) to not in fact be anonymous and very traceable, there is an asset and method of using it to operate as a de facto anonymous bank. Completely under your control and possession and with high liquidity and financial flexibility.

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by ALIAS X

by ALIAS X

TRADECRAFT ]

Covert Operative Guide CIA Training Method

A covert operative method of remembering new faces you come across and recognizing them in further encounters for the purposes of both casual and professional interactions.

The Tradecraft Guide

Skillset, lifestyle and professional tactics + concepts of the CIA, Mossad, MI6, VDR and US Special Operations Forces. The TRDCRFT site is focus on a more decisive state of mind and being. By the deliberate practice and strategic application of tacticalism, nomadism, minimalism, adventurism and urban survivalism to everyday life the directive covert agent lifestyle methodology. * Tradecraft is a dynamic guideline of techniques and proficiency measures as well as relevant equipment and human resources. Developed or adapted for use in the dexterity of intelligence operations and functionality. A tactician and strategist approach to planning, control, performance and execution. A mindset directive of operating just as effective when utilized in everyday life. Also known as the CIA training method. The operative lifestyle guide to operate deliberately with strategy and purpose, precision and preparedness, in a more engaged, optimized and adaptable way of life and professional direction with intelligence craft concepts, active urban survival guide directives and special forces military training.

// Tradecraft :: trd-kraft //Less formally referred to as spycraft, its the methodologies and philosophies of engaging in clandestine operations and general espionage.The skillsets, techniques, CIA training directives and mindsets associated with the trade are designed to optimize mission objective parameters, operational cohesion and personnel capability / viability. With strategic implementation, tradecraft can be applied to augment any other profession or standardized into everyday normal lifestyles. Incorporating the applicable ways of the covert agent to your own ways of operating. Effectively modernized urban survival tactics. This website does not pertain to how to become a covert operative, intelligence agent or clandestine operative including but not limited to engaging in espionage (spycraft) or any type of government sanctioned or sponsored covert operation. Instead using those skillsets and CIA training directives (tradecraft definition) to shape a more deliberate lifestyle with applied urban survival. By using the information and opinions provided by this site, you agree to use its content at your own risk. TRDCRFT assumes no responsibility or liability from any potential damages incurred legal or otherwise.

Tradecraft Assets | Self Sovereignty

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Tradecraft /// Covert Operative Lifestyle + CIA Training Guide

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Britney Spears: The Once and Future Versace Muse – The New York Times

Posted: at 1:23 am

The dress was long. It was white. It was Versace. And it wasnt just a wedding dress.

Well, it was, literally, a wedding dress the dress Britney Spears wore to marry Sam Asghari on June 9 in Los Angeles. But it was also a symbol of Ms. Spearss new era of independence, and a relatively restrained choice for a woman who has lived a lot of her pain, and her fame, in public. While it may be her third marriage, its the first since the end of the conservatorship that defined a large part of her adult life. So why not dress for it as if it is a fresh start?

Not so much a fairy tale ending as a beginning, in off-the-shoulder ivory silk cady with pearl buttons down the back, a high slit to free the leg, a nearly 15-foot flowing veil and a matching choker a nod of sorts to her own 1990s trendsetting self.

And for that, why not turn to a designer who knew her when? Enter Donatella Versace.

Back in March, Ms. Spears posted a picture of herself with Ms. Versace on Instagram, suggesting that the two of them were peas in a pod (in somewhat saltier language). Ms. Versace, in turn, told Variety later in the month that Ms. Spears was in an amazing state of mind.

I know its been such a long time, she said. Im very happy to see her like that.

Indeed, the wedding may have consecrated Ms. Spearss relationship with Mr. Asghari, but her relationship with Ms. Versace has been going on for decades. The two women have long had more in common than a poptastic aesthetic, a love of body-conscious clothing, bleach and a bit of a spray tan.

Ms. Versace, after all, went through her own public trial by fire when she was forced to assume the reins of the Versace brand after the murder of her brother Gianni. She endured substance abuse issues and family trauma to keep the business going no matter what. (Sound familiar?) She knows something about being stuck under the celebrity microscope.

Perhaps as a result, she and Ms. Spears have had each others backs and share of mind since at least 2001, when Ms. Spears chose a backless green chiffon minidress with black beading to perform with Michael Jackson at Madison Square Garden.

In 2002, Ms. Spears wore a long, rainbow-toned, flesh-flashing Versace gown to sit in the front row at the Versace show during Milan Fashion Week, and in 20008 she wore two different sparkling Versace minidresses to the MTV Video Music Awards.

Ms. Versace once even defined her clothes according to Ms. Spearss reputation. They are young and rock n roll, she said of the looks in her spring 2003 collection. Britney things.

After the nuptials, there were more Versace Britney things, including an assortment of minidresses in black and red that Ms. Spears wore to the reception and dance party.

And together the mini wedding wardrobe suggests there may be even more Britney-related inspiration come September and the next Versace runway. Its not hard to imagine that this could be the start of a whole new Spears-Versace era (not to mention ambassadorship), one that defines the look of a certain unapologetic and triumphant feminine survivalism.

If so, it would mark a fashion marriage of the most enduring, and authentic, kind.

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Britney Spears: The Once and Future Versace Muse - The New York Times

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World Environment Day: David Bowie and the birth of environmentalism – The Star Online

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Fifty years on, how Ziggy Stardust and the first UN climate summit changed our vision of the future.

DAVID Bowie released his seminal album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars 50 years ago, on June 16, 1972. It was an artsy and ambitious rock album which captured the times sense of being on the cusp of new technological and cultural frontiers.

In the early 1970s, the US Apollo programme was, briefly, making men visiting the moon seem like a routine event. The possibilities of computer power were beginning to unfold, and the countercultural youth revolt was challenging prevailing values and norms. Bowies fictional alter ego encapsulated all these groundbreaking developments: an androgynous rockstar from outer space with, in the words of the albums title song, a god-given a**. Bowie-Ziggy wore heavy makeup, dyed his hair red, and dressed in clothes inspired by Japanese kabuki theatre.

But coupled with its playful fascination for space technology, the Ziggy Stardust album also described a dread of the Pandoras box that might be opened as a result. Its opening track, Five Years, warned listeners that Earth was really dying. During the cold war, the prospect of man-made armageddon through nuclear war was never far away. And by the early 1970s, fears of an ecological crisis and overpopulation were starting to take on similar apocalyptic proportions.

Indeed, the day of Ziggy Stardusts release coincided with the final day of a landmark gathering in Sweden to discuss the future of the planet. The Stockholm Conference, which began on June 5, 1972, was the first United Nations conference on the human environment, and the starting point for global environmental governance.

Todays global climate summits, most recently COP 26 in Glasgow last November, are its direct descendants. And like Bowies album, the Stockholm Conference began amid conflicting emotions: hopes of a new dawn of environmental awareness and technological possibility set against fears of global conflict and planetary collapse.

Moonage daydream

Bowies obsession with outer space predated the creation of Ziggy Stardust. In June 1969, what would become his first major hit single, Space Oddity, was released. It told the story of an astronaut losing contact with Ground Control while gazing at the Earth from afar in his tin can. In July 1969, the BBC used the song in its broadcast of the first moon landing, apparently unaware of the tragic lyrics.

As Bowie clearly grasped, the Apollo space programme was central to the birth and early growth of the global environmental movement. It was during the manned moon expeditions that Earth was first photographed from space. The most iconic image, Earthrise taken over Christmas 1968 with a Hasselblad camera by the crew of Apollo 8 shows our planet rising over the lifeless landscape of the moon, like a sun at the horizon. It has become one of the most widely shared and reproduced photographs of all time.

The original Earthrise photograph taken from Apollo 8. Nasa, CC

Astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders had become the first humans to venture outside the Earths orbit. New satellite technology also made it possible for their space adventures to be followed via television broadcasts. On Christmas Eve, they read the opening verses of Genesis and sent festive greetings to an estimated one billion people watching around the world. Six months later, the first moon landing drew an even greater audience, offering those watching further spectacular views of the Earth.

Such images resonated among the new breed of environmentalists. In the words of historian Robert Poole, It gave people a picture to think with. Other scholars talked about the overview effect: by seeing the Earth from space, people became aware that life on their planet was interconnected, limited and vulnerable giving impetus to the emerging survivalism movement.

The opening track of Ziggy Stardust, Five Years, echoes some of the survivalist debates darker sentiments, with its weeping newsguy confirming the end of the world is nigh. Yet just five years earlier, during 1967s utopian summer of love, this message would hardly have resonated in popular culture.

In Swedish history, the pivotal moment for the awakening of environmental consciousness came in the autumn of 1967. At that time, a choir of prominent Swedish scientists publicly warned of an impending global environmental crisis. Foremost among them was the chemist Hans Palmstierna, whose book Plundering, Starvation, Poisoning became an instant bestseller. Palmstierna argued there was an urgent need to act before the hourglass expires for humanity. He linked environmental destruction to other global issues, including world poverty, war and overpopulation thereby emphasising that environmental hazards were just as severe a threat to humankind.

The impact of Palmstiernas and other scientists collective intervention was powerful. There was talk of a general environmental awakening in Sweden, as the national press, radio and television reported on mercury-poisoned fish, biocides and acid rain with unprecedented intensity.

In the words of the Swedish historian Lars J Lundgren, it was as if a new continent of problems had been discovered. Where previously, environmental hazards had been regarded as individual problems to be solved in isolation, more and more people were beginning to see them as connected and constituting a severe crisis.

Five years

From an international perspective, Swedens breakthrough of environmental concern occurred remarkably early. Intrinsic to this reorientation was the very concept of the environment (in Swedish, milj).

The word had not been used in the early 1960s for example, during the intense debate sparked by Rachel Carsons book Silent Spring, which awakened public understanding of the links between industrial pesticides and the die-out of insects and wildlife in the US. At that point, people discussed nature, conservation and the threat modern industrial civilisation posed to wild birds and animals. But the environmental debate which arose in Sweden in the late 1960s put the threat to humankind at the forefront.

The discovery of acid rain was of particular importance. The finding that it was being caused by sulphur dioxide emissions from across Europe was first reported in October 1967, in an article in Swedens largest morning paper, Dagens Nyheter, by the scientist Svante Odn. The story caused an immediate stir and frantic political action.

Inspired by the debate at home, Swedish diplomats suggested to the United Nations that a large environmental conference should be organised. Their initiative set the ball rolling towards what would eventually become the 1972 Stockholm Conference, the UNs first global Conference on the Human Environment.

Delegates gathering at the 1972 Stockholm Conference. UN.org

Over the intervening five years, the Swedish public became acutely aware of the Earths environmental crisis a chain of events I examine in my book, The Environmental Turn in Postwar Sweden: A New History of Knowledge. A key voice in this national debate was Gsta Ehrensvrd, professor of biochemistry at Lund University, who calculated that the depletion of the planets limited resources, combined with accelerating population growth, would lead to a global crisis in around 2050 followed by centuries of famine and anarchy.

Ehrensvrd was accused by his opponents of being a gloomy doomsday prophet. But he saw it differently: Planning to clean up the Earths affairs in the long term is realism, not pessimism. What was needed, he said, was to steer development in new directions, and to take precautions against overexploitation and natural destruction. This would require an array of technological expertise, wisdom, humanity and foresight and he hoped the Stockholm Conference would be a step in the right direction.

It aint easy

Half a century ago, in the summer of 1972, the future of humanity was looking increasingly precarious in many other ways, too. In the US, the racial divide and ongoing Vietnam war spurred civil unrest. On a global scale, in addition to the cold war, the process of decolonisation highlighted stark differences between the global north and south. Threats of overpopulation and dwindling natural resources were made real by catastrophic famines in India and Biafra.

Despite the Stockholm Conferences focus on humankinds shared destiny, it like the world was deeply polarised. With East Germany barred from participating because it was not a member of the UN, most of the Eastern Bloc announced they would boycott the event. (The only communist countries to attend were Yugoslavia, China and Romania.) The conference was also sharply criticised by emerging environmental movements who argued it was a top-down, inadequate and purely symbolic event. Parallel environmental conferences were organised in Stockholm, such as the radical left-wing Peoples Forum.

The main conferences inaugural speech by Swedens prime minister, Olof Palme, was also controversial. He highlighted the tremendous destruction caused by indiscriminate bombing and the large-scale use of bulldozers and herbicides. Although not stated explicitly, there was no doubt his remarks were aimed at US conduct in Vietnam, which included use of chemical herbicides and weather modification technologies that were elsewhere described as ecocide.

Palmes speech was not appreciated in Washington. A spokesperson for the US state department said that deep unease was felt over the way the prime minister of the host country had raised this issue, which (in US eyes, at least) had nothing to do with an environmental protection conference.

The discussions in Stockholm went on for two hot June weeks, based on a growing realisation that humans were on the verge of destroying their own living environment. While the assembled world leaders sought to instil hope and spark international commitments, some environmental activists objected that the conference was excluding the general public. It only existed, one wrote, so that the real decision-makers could meet and discuss the problems they themselves have caused. On a diplomatic level, however, there were reasons for optimism, with the Peoples Republic of China having been admitted to the UN in October 1971 making its first appearance on the global scene.

Two concrete results of the conference were the Stockholm Declaration, which laid the groundwork for international environmental jurisdiction, and the foundation of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Based in Kenyas capital, Nairobi, UNEP became responsible for coordinating international responses to environmental issues, and was the first UN body located in the developing world.

Much of the conferences focus ended up being on the global north-south divide. The western worlds efforts to deal with environmental degradation and overpopulation were pitted against developing countries desire for industrialisation and prosperity. Knowledge of an ongoing environmental crisis was circulating globally by now, but it was understood and handled in very different ways by the conferences various power blocs and countries.

To an observer in 2022, with last years COP26 still fresh in the memory, the dividing lines of Stockholm 1972 look eerily familiar. Then, as now, young environmental activists viewed the conference as a slow and insufficient way of dealing with urgent problems. Greta Thunbergs famous blah, blah, blah speech could have been spoken by protesters in 1972. Fifty years on, we have grown accustomed to recurring meetings, declarations, goals, bleak scenarios and calls from scientists and environmental activists to change the system. Much of this was present at the birth of global environmental politics.

Starman

Gran Bckstrand had not long been working at the Swedish foreign ministry when a telegram from the Swedish delegation to the United Nations landed on his desk. They had just put forward the idea of a UN-led conference focused on the environment. Over the next five years, Bckstrand was directly involved in the preparation and organisation of the 1972 Stockholm Conference.

Now in his mid-80s, Bckstrand remains a vigorous and politically engaged figure. Over the last five years, we have discussed environmental history and contemporary concerns both in-person and over the telephone. He is a joyous soul who does not seem to despair even though the road ahead has proven far longer and more complicated than we imagined in 1972.

My vocation for international relations got an essential new twist by being part of the Swedish team preparing the substantial scientific input for that conference, Bckstrand recently told me. At one point, Professor Bert Bolin [who later became the first chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)] presented a preliminary report to our minister for the environment. He asked Bolin if he was 100% sure about the predictions in the report. Bolin said no as there were too many variables to consider, and the minister remarked that he had always to be 100% convinced in proposing political action.

"To me, this illustrates why decisive political action on climate change has been neglected.

Looking back, Bckstrand thinks the most important result of the Stockholm Conference was helping to build a global environmental consciousness. It also created a framework for environmental governance at an international level, and indirectly led to the founding in most states of national environmental authorities.

On June 2-3, the 1972 event was commemorated in the Swedish capital during Stockholm+50, a UN conference jointly organised by Sweden and Kenya. Its organisers are seeking to highlight the importance of multilateralism in tackling what they call Earths triple planetary crisis: climate, nature and pollution. But just as collective action proved difficult at the original Stockholm Conference, is it possible for the nations of the world to act any more decisively now?

Bckstrands expectations are set low hardened by recurring experiences of gruelling international climate negotiations. Pondering the developments of the last 50 years, he told me: In 1972, there existed some kind of harmony between certain aspects of science and politics, and there was a mild confidence among the participating nations of the environmental crisis as a unifying mission.

Today, he says, the relationship between politics and science is much more problematic, and the environment has become polarising. There are two parallel processes of the last 50 years: the exploitation of natural resources has accelerated, and trust in the international system, and the constructive role of the UN, has gradually disintegrated.

Before our latest conversation ended, I had to ask one more question of this lifetime civil servant and globally minded environmentalist. Did you listen to the new Ziggy Stardust album when it came out that year? And did you feel any resonance with the messages you were discussing in Stockholm?

No, Bckstrand confessed. In fact, I have never heard of it until you told me about it now. But I am glad you have made the connection to music history. I think it is an important one.

The day of Ziggy Stardusts release coincided with the final day of a landmark gathering in Sweden to discuss the future of the planet, The Stockholm Conference. Agencies

Blackstar

The final day of the Stockholm Conference June 16, 1972 was the day that Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars was released to the world. Fifty years on, the hopes and fears evoked in this album, like the conference, still feel disturbingly relevant particularly amid the heightened nuclear tensions following Russias invasion of Ukraine.

So what would Bowie have made of the way things have turned out for the planet? He may have left some clues in his final album, Blackstar, released two days before his death in January 2016. The music videos for the title song and second single, Lazarus, were directed by another Swede, Johan Renck. At the centre of the Blackstar video is an empty space suit, blinking back to the Major Tom character in Space Oddity and Ashes to Ashes a distinctly gloomy echo of that groundbreaking time when men first walked on the moon.

Bowies death coincided with a renewed interest in outer space. In our time, however, it is not superpower states that are leading the way to the final frontier, but superwealthy individuals such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who have made their billions through the digital revolution of the 21st century and whose companies and personal fortunes arguably epitomise the staggering inequalities that new technologies emerging in the 1970s have enabled.

Environmentally, the picture feels similarly bleak. This Novembers COP 27 will return to Africa in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt. The continent, despite contributing a mere 4% to global emissions of greenhouse gases, is bearing the brunt of their impacts, with the combined effects of severe drought, flooding and pestilence along with conflict in Africa and Ukraine now threatening a full-scale catastrophe across East Africa.

The challenges facing those following in the footsteps of Bckstrand and his fellow attendees of the 1972 Stockholm Conference appear daunting, to say the least. The Conversation

David Larsson Heidenblad is Associate Professor of History at Lund University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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5 Chess Brilliancies That Stockfish Hates – Chess.com

Posted: at 1:22 am

Every player with internet access now has a 3500-rated-plus assistant for analysis. Switch on "Infinite Analysis," go to the kitchen, make yourself a cup of coffee, return, and voila: decades of analysis at your fingertips.

Games of the not-so-distant past did not have this luxury, and even today your average reader might find mistakes in older chess books. Some games have even gone down in history as masterpieces, only to be shredded to pieces by today's engines.

Despite the "objective" merits of the following games, they still deserve the reputations they earned for their creativity and, at times, audacity. I recommend readers first click through the game "cold" without looking at the analysis. Then, take a look at my notes to see a more truthful picture.

The first example, Yakov Estrin vs. Hans Berliner 1965, has been exalted as the greatest correspondence chess game ever. Played in the Fifth World Correspondence Chess Championship, the second player ultimately won.

Google the game and you can find many claiming it to be one of or the best game ever. Indeed, it is the first game in GM Andy Soltis' book The 100 Best Chess Games of the 20th Century. Severalpoints are praised by NM Sam Copeland in this blog post, although he acknowledges that there were some very real mistakes. While portions of the game are astounding after White gave Black a winning position after 15.Be2??, they would not have been possible without cooperation by the first player. The same line does not score so well for Black now despite this success in the pre-computer era.

The following game between GM Efim Geller and former world champion Max Euwe is taken from one of the strongest and most famous tournaments in history, Zurich 1953, largely popularized by GM David Bronstein and GM Miguel Najdorf's books on the event. The game, which first seems like a defensive masterpiece, has some flaws, and the flashy move 22...Rh8? (you can find "!!" attached to it in online forums) could have thrown the win away.

The following example, with the unforgettable 18.Qxg6!!, looks flat-out awesome when you click through it for the first time (please do). However, besides the fact that the flashy 17.Ndc4?? doesn't even work, there has been speculation as to whether A.W. Fox existed or whether this game was ever genuinely played.

Readers should certainly expect a game by former world champion Mikhail Tal to make it into this article. While his play was not sound in the scientific sense, the greatest players in the world succumbed to his daring, challenging, and hyper-aggressive style of play.

The following game immediately became one of my favorites once I read it in his book about the Tal-Botvinnik 1960 World Championship Match that he won. Likely the most famous move of the match, 21...Nf4 in game six is nothing short of legendary.

Unlike some of the other examples in this article, nobodyincluding Talpretended that this move is an irrefutable sacrifice, but I include it to expose more readers to this great game and add notes that are not in Tal's book, written many, many decades ago.

With the best play, White should achieve a much-better-to-winning position, but keep in mind that he was playing a person with feelings and fears, not a 3700-rated silicon monster.

The second world champion Emanuel Lasker called this game against Harry Pillsbury "the best I ever played" after he was "able to ward off a furious attack and then succeed in carrying my own counterattack through" (quoted here). He admitted to making some mistakes due to tiredness and time pressure.

Brilliant games are not produced without mistakes by the other side (as I write this, I think of Kasparov's immortal 24.Rxd4!!?? against Topalov in 1999), but this attack certainly needed a bit of help from Caissa to work at all and ultimately survive in the great book of time.

The last example is special and is, in many ways, the antithesis of this article's topic. But I wanted to use this opportunity to set the record straight about a widespread misconception.

World Champion Bobby Fischer's infamous 29...Bxh2!? against then-reigning World Champion Boris Spassky in game one of the 1972 World Championship Match was nota blunder. Although many people still reference this game when teaching beginners about piece-traps, or casually reference similar moves as "pulling a Bobby Fischer," the move in itself is not losing and could have led to a draw with the best play.

The real mistake occurred on 39...f5??, a detail that has been overlooked and not talked about as much, and I hope our dear readers may better appreciate the creativity behind Fischer's piece sacrifice after reading my notes.

I hope this article helps shed greater insight into some of the most exciting chess games out there. I also hope that the mistakes annotated above do not take away from the brilliance of these players and games because chess is played between two people on a board with a clock, and not in a laboratory.

Happy reading and please share any examples that are relevant to the topic in the comments below.

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Carlsen Wins, Leads, Hits A 2870 Live Rating – Chess.com

Posted: at 1:22 am

World Champion Magnus Carlsen on Monday picked up another one of those victories he has become famous for, squeezing blood from stones vs. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Carlsen now leads the 2022 Norway Chess in Stavanger alone after six rounds and got his live rating up to 2870, 19 points from his highest ever.

GMs Viswanathan Anand and Wesley So won armageddon games in their respective match-ups and are now in second and third place. Round seven will begin on Tuesday, June 7, at 8 a.m. PT / 17:00 Central Europe.

With the top games being decided in armageddon games, the results in games in round six only meant minor changes at the top of the tournament standings. The biggest movements happened among the lower-ranked where two wins in the classical games shifted things a bit around. More about those games below.

One of the indisputable strengths of Carlsen is the ability to pull himself together and carry on toward his goals after momentary or temporary setbacks. In round five of the tournament he got completely outplayed by Anand in the classical game but somehow managed to hang on to hold the draw. Then in the armageddon game, he held advantages of various sizes, yet he went on to lose in a painful fashion to the Indian "re-tigered" former teen prodigy and five-time world champion.

In round six, Carlsen had to play Mamedyarov against whom he had a memorable game back in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee earlier this year. This was the game that Mamedyarov at the closing ceremony said that it gave him hope for humanity's fight against the engines due to Carlsen's amazing precision and ingenuity.

In that game, as well as his two classical wins in this event, Carlsen had played the Catalan and therefore, for obvious reasons, Mamedyarov saw no point in walking into that kind of killing zone willingly. Instead, he chose a set-up that transposed into the super-solid symmetrical line of the Fianchetto Grunfeld.

Carlsen reacted by sacrificing a pawn and when Mamedyarov expertly navigated the complications and returned the pawn, Carlsen sacrificed another pawn. Yet Mamedyarov continued playing the defense incredibly accurately.

Despite the material gradually being reduced, the Norwegian kept pushing, shoving, and creating micro-problems for the Azeri grandmaster. Shortly after the time control when the commentators seemed ready to call the game as drawn and prepare for yet another armageddon game, Mamedyarov, who was down to playing on the increments, missed a draw and then ended up in a nasty pin.

While it was not lost, you don't want to play such a position against Carlsen with 30 seconds on the clock. Mamedyarov collapsed with a blunder on move 46, allowing Carlsen a simple combination to win a pawn and that sufficed to force resignation a mere 10 moves later.

A disappointing loss for Mamedyarov, but also an example of why Carlsen is so ridiculously difficult to deal with at the board: you play almost perfect chess for more than 40 moves and then you commit one mistake and the game is lost.

Perhaps inspired by Anand's comments in connection with his game against So earlier in the tournament about not having analyzed a certain line in the past five to six years, GM Anish Giri opted for the English Opening against the Indian veteran, but rather than repeating his play from the game against So, Anand went for 3...d5. This seemed to be a solid and reasonable choice as White never really had much of an advantage.

After having made some attempts at breaking through on the queenside, Giri invited to a repetition of moves which was dutifully accepted by Black.

In the armageddon game, Giri tried Danish GM Bent Larsen's 1.b3. Anand responded with a relatively rare line involving 3...a6 which stops White's ideas of playing Bb5(+). Giri played inaccurately, allowing Black to play ...d5-d4. Already after 10 moves, it was clear that White's opening had been a failure.

Things got gradually worse as Black was allowed to set up a bind on the dark squares on the queenside. Forced to avoid exchanges, Giri had to make several poor choices, and ultimately, Black was completely winning. But only needing a draw due to the draw odds in the armageddon, Anand steadfastly refused to make an attempt at winning the game, and instead demonstrated that White had zero chances of winning.

Another round, another worrisome effort from the participant in the upcoming Candidates tournament in Madrid. GM Teimour Radjabov earned his spot by qualifyingin the previous cycle through winning the 2019 World Cup and then not showing up for the 2020 Candidates tournament in Yekaterinburg, Russia due to his concerns about Covid-19. The other players showed up but then had to travel home amid the global chaos of canceled flights and many other complications and then return to Yekaterinburg nearly a year later to complete the event.

Since then, Radjabov has only participated in online events and while that kind of thing can be sufficient for some, it clearly has not been for Radjabov who has been struggling throughout the entire event, with some momentary reminders of what an amazing chess player he can be when things work out for him.

Former FIDE World Champion GM Veselin Topalov has also struggled a bit, but as a mostly self-imposed semi-retiree, that has been entirely understandable.

Their classical game had for unfamiliar eyes the appearance of an interesting battle where the players thought long and hard about the complications on the board that arose from a 4.Qc2 Nimzo-Indian, but for those of us in the know, it resembled a charade. Even I, who does not play this line with either color, knew that all of it had been played before. In fact, it had been played twice in Yu-Ding, FIDE World Cup (Khanty-Mansiysk 2019) and Yilmaz-Berkes, FIDE Grand Swiss (Isle of Man) 2019. All of it.

In the armageddon game, things somehow got even worse. Radjabov played a line he was unfamiliar with, the Anti-Moscow Gambit, where his knowledge seemed outdated by at least a decade. He did not respond accurately to Topalov's 10...Nh5, which is considered risky for Black. But after 12 moves, White was essentially a pawn down without compensation.

In the final position, where Topalov gave a perpetual check, as it would guarantee the armageddon bonus, Radjabov was down four pawns entirely without compensation.

One of the pleasant surprises of this year's Norway Chess has been the performance of last-minute replacement GM Aryan Tari, who has scored an impressive 50 percent in the classical games. His round-six opponent So has proven himself in excellent form this spring and demonstrated that he is near the peak of his powers at the moment.

In an Italian Game, Tari carefully defended against So's attempts at breaking through and afforded the American no serious chances of an advantage, in fact, at one point, Black even seemed to be marginally better.

It was not the most interesting game, but undoubtedly a very satisfactory for the young Norwegian player who celebrated his 23rd birthday a couple of days ago.

So has proven a bit of a beast in the armageddon games, and therefore it was not a surprise that Tari would attempt to rattle the American. The fact that he succeeded in that was surprising, the sad thing is that he let it slip out of his hands again.

After several mistakes, from inaccuracies to outright game-losing blunders by both players, Tari made the last crucial mistake and thus lost the game. A crazy game but once more, Tari demonstrated his potential.

The first game of the round to finish was the classical game in this match-up. GM Wang Hao allowed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave his first Najdorf Sicilian of the tournament. White opted for GM Bobby Fischer's 6.h3 which has been extremely popular for the last several years, but when encountered with a very rare idea, 8...b5, White went for an unambitious option that allowed Black to get a good game.

Shortly after, apparently satisfied with a draw, Vachier-Lagrave opened the door for a repetition of moves, and Wang jumped on that option faster than you could blink your eyes.

20 minutes later, the players got themselves going with the armageddon game. Here, Wang altered his approach, instead choosing the London System rather than allowing the Frenchman to play his Grunfeld Indian.

It quickly became clear that the Chinese player was not particularly familiar with the nuances of the London. Even after a missed opportunity by Vachier-Lagrave, White started to flounder, and even when given additional opportunities as a result of Black's aggressive game plan, he did not step up to the challenge. After a couple of mistakes by White, Vachier-Lagrave was allowed to deliver the killing 32...Re2!, forcing instant resignation.

Round 6 Standings

All Games Round 6

The 2022 Norway Chess runs May 31-June 10, 2022. The event consists of a 10-player single round-robin in a classical time control of 120 minutes for the game with a 10-second increment after move 40. The scoring system is three points for a win instead of the usual one. If the game is drawn, competitors play an armageddon game with the winner scoring 1.5 points and the loser 1 point. The prize fund is 2.5 million Norwegian kroner (NOK).

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21 things to do with kids in San Diego County in June – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Posted: at 1:22 am

When it comes to summer in San Diego, there are some obvious things to do with your kids.

The beaches are filled with sand castle creations. Summer sports leagues require practice and competition. Padres games are packed with glove-wearing kids, hoping to catch a foul ball.

Ideally, our local little ones are still taking a break from screen time and playing outside wherever and whenever they can. But some days and weekends call for a little extra inspiration to keep San Diegos youngest population entertained, informed and inspired.

Here are some ideas for things to do with kids in June of 2022.

Moonlight Amphitheatre in an outdoor venue for musical theater and live music and, throughout June, it will be showing the San Diego regional premiere production of Rodgers and Hammersteins Cinderella. You may have seen the movie version starring Whitney Houston and Brandy Norwood. Now you can see a production right here in San Diego County.

8 p.m. June 10 to June 25. Moonlight Amphitheatre, 1250 Vale Terrace Drive, Vista. Tickets range from $13 to $61. moonlightstage.com

Bring your friend or family member with autism to the Aqua Pros Swim School for a monthly family pool and pizza party on June 11 and again on July 9. All ages and all abilities are invited to swim in a heated indoor pool with free pizza and drinks. Lifeguards will be on site and anyone with dietary restrictions is welcomed to bring their own food.

2 p.m. to 4 p.m. June 11. Free admission with suggested $5 donation. autismsocietysandiego.org.

Siblings Max (left), 6, and Alexa, 7, Charalambous enjoy a display at the Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park.

(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Fleet Science Centers Sunday Science Club is open for students in grades 5-8 on June 12 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and then again on July 12 and Aug. 14 at the same times. The workshop offers hands-on activities and challenges from a range of fields including chemistry, robotics, environmental science and more. Register online to participate. This summer, Fleet Science Center also has an exhibit called Snow where kids can learn about climate adaptation and walk through a snowstorm.

1 p.m. to 2 p.m. June 12. Fleet Science Center, 1875 El Prado, Balboa Park. $13 for members; $15 for non-members.

The Baby Shark Dance video by Pinkfong has been viewed more than 10 billion times since hitting YouTube in 2016. Now, the Pinkfong and Baby Shark costumed-characters are visiting the San Diego Civic Theatre stage for one night in June. Baby Shark Live! is described as a one-of-a-kind immersive experience for fans of all ages with dancing in the aisles, hit songs and exploration of shapes, colors, numbers and more.

6 p.m. June 17. San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., San Diego. Tickets start at $33; free for children 2 and under. sandiegotheaters.org.

Common Ground Theatre and Community Actors Theatre are joining together to host a Juneteenth festival open to families and kids of all ages. There will be a puppet show, multiple musical performances, food trucks, a lesson on Juneteenth history and other family activities.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 18. Jacobs Center, 404 Euclid Ave., San Diego. Free. communityactorstheatre.com.

Amrynn Wade, 7, enjoys time with family and friends at Memorial Park at the Cooper Family Juneteenth Celebration, in this U-T file photo.

(Nancee E. Lewis/ 2021 Nancee Lewis / Nancee Le)

The Cooper Family Foundations Juneteenth event is a family and community tradition going back decades in San Diego. Organizers describe it as a community healing festival with a motto: Know the past, shape the future. This years gathering features a new event where kids can bring their bicycles and participate in a free bike rodeo with a bike raffle and helmet giveaway. The Juneteenth festival also includes a fun zone with performances and educational speakers, jumpers, story time, a history wall and other activities.

11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. June 18. Memorial Park, 2975 Oceanview Blvd., San Diego. Free. cfjuneteenth.com.

An interactive show at the Maritime Museum of San Diego returns this summer, bringing families up close and personal with a cast of pirates. Boarded! A New Pirate Adventure is a 90-minute show stages aboard the ship San Salvador that includes introductions to navigation, sword fighting and other pirate skills.

10 a.m. or 12:45 p.m. June 18. Maritime Museum of San Diego, 1492 North Harbor Drive, San Diego. $60 for adults; $25 for children 12 and under.

The Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum will host engine and tractor shows on back to back weekends in June. See vintage construction equipment, antique gas and steam engines, looms and spinning wheels, antique clocks and watches and more. There will also be demonstrations on blacksmithing, corn and wheat processing, milling, woodworking, and weaving.

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 18-19 and June 25-26. Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum, 2040 N. Santa Fe Ave., Vista. $8 for adults; $7 for seniors; $5 for kids ages 6-12; free for ages 6 and under and active duty military. agsem.com

The La Mesa Juneteenth and Friends celebration will bring local educators, writers, churches, city leaders and performers from the La Mesa and surrounding areas. It will include a performance by the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Choir, bounce houses, crafts and other family fun. Kids can participate in a scavenger hunt and work on Juneteenth-inspired crafts.

Noon until 4 p.m. June 19. MacArthur Park, 4975 Memorial Drive, La Mesa. lamesajuneteenthandfriends.com

Kids are invited to attend a free event with authors Pam Fong, Marcie Colleen and Carol Cujec and Peyton Goddard. Children of all abilities are invited for a book reading and a unique themed craft. Each child will receive one free book while supplies last.

10 a.m. to noon June 25. San Diego Central Library, 330 Park Blvd., San Diego. Free. Register by searching Ready 3x3" on eventbrite.com.

Swifty Swine Racing Pigs at the San Diego County Fair.at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar in this U-T file photo.

(San Diego Union-Tribune)

The colorful sights, sweet sounds and fun foods of the San Diego County Fair are all back in full force this summer after a scaled-down version in 2021 and complete cancellation in 2020 due to COVID-19. There will, of course, be rides and games for families to enjoy, but make sure to check out the daily calendar of events to find out when kids can see exhibits and other activities. The list includes pig races, a cow milking demonstration, livestock showmanship and Godfrey The Magician. The fair will also have a kids market place where they can learn about agricultural commodities grown in California.

11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays, Wednesday and Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Closed Monday and Tuesdays except July 4. Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Ticket prices vary by day from free to 20. sdfair.com.

Each Sunday in June (and two in July) you can find family fun activities during Summer Sundays events at Village Walk at EastLake at 5 p.m. Take the whole family to see live music and car exhibits, participate in weekly crafts and enjoy free face painting and free balloon sculptures. Did we mention its all free?

5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Every Sunday in June. Village Walk at EastLake. 884 Eastlake, Chula Vista. Free.

An egret sits on grass at Santee Lakes.

(Karen Pearlman / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

On a regular day at Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, you can go camping, boating, enjoy a playground, look for birds and grab lunch at Tin Fish. In June, there are a few unique events. On June 18, take your beach chairs and blankets for a free concert at the campground at 7 p.m. Special night fishing hours are available on June 23 for $4. Then, on June 25, the Santee Firefighters Fishing Derby will take place for kids ages 3 to 17 from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. with free permits, worms, raffles, hot dogs and door prizes. Register online at santeefirefighters.com or join in the day of the event.

Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, 9310 Fanita Parkway, Santee. santeelakes.com

The New Childrens Museum hosted imaginative storytelling workshops at community centers around San Diego in April, May and June and will celebrate the end of the series with Mass Creativity. The 10th annual event includes free admission to the museum, live music, food and family-friendly activities in the museum park. Families will also be able to see art from the different community centers woven together.

9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 25. The New Childrens Museum, 200 W. Island Ave., San Diego. Free museum admission during the event. thinkplaycreate.org.

Independence parades arent just the Fourth of July. Celebrate early with the 26th annual Oceanside Independence Parade. This years theme is honoring our hometown heroes and will include floats, bands, cool cars and other classic parade moments. The parade is expected to last about two hours. Bring your own folding chairs to watch.

10 a.m. June 25. Starting at the 101 Cafe, 631 S. Coast Highway, Oceanside. Parade route goes along Coast Highway from Wisconsin Avenue to Civic Center Drive. mainstreetoceanside.com/watch-the-parade.

An Oct. 6, 2020, file photo of Petco Park in San Diego.

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Petco Park offers several different tours that are led by a guide. The tours offer behind-the-scenes views of the ball park and information on the history of the facility and the San Diego Padres. Daily tours include stops at the field warning track and press box while pre-game tours include a viewing of batting practice for certain games.

Dates and times vary. Petco Park. Tours start at Western Metal Building ticket windows on Seventh Avenue/Tony Gwynn Boulevard at K. Street. $28 to $75. mlb.com/padres/ballpark/tours.

As part of a nationwide program providing access to bowling for kids during the summer time, Aztec Lanes will be offering free bowling for kids ages 12 and under. Each child can play two free games each day of the summer up until Aug. 21. Just sign up through the Kids Bowl Free website or app to participate.

Available every day of the week. Times vary. Aztec Lanes, Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union, 6075 Aztec Circle Drive, San Diego. Free azteclanes.sdsu.edu/kidsbowlfree.

Christine Lee (left) gets ready with her son Elijah, 13, to watch the movie Trolls at the South Bay Drive-In Theaters.

(Eduardo Contreras/Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Pile the family into a car and visit one of San Diego Countys drive-in movie theaters. The Santee Drive-In Theatre and South Bay Drive-In Theatres are both open seven nights a week, just check their showtimes for family-friendly films. Both venues offer snack bars and allow guests to watch from their vehicles or bring chairs to set up outside.

Santee Drive-In Theatre, 10990 N. Woodside Ave., Santee. $12 for adults; $5 for juniors; free for children 4 and under. santeedriveintheatre.comSouth Bay Drive-In Theatres, 2170 Coronado Ave., San Diego. $10 for adults; $1 for children 5-9. southbaydrivein.com

From Imperial Beach and San Ysidro to Oceanside and almost everywhere in between, you can find family-friendly movies being shown at local parks throughout the summer. Better yet? All these events are free for the public. Bring your own chairs and blankets and pack a picnic to enjoy your favorite foods and snacks. Some locations have food available.

For locations, movies and showtimes, go to summermoviesinthepark.com.

On almost any given day, somewhere in San Diego County, a library is hosting a family-friendly event and most of them are free. Thats especially true during the summer. Through Aug. 31, readers of all ages can join the San Diego Public Librarys summer reading program at sandiego.gov/summerreading and win prizes for meeting certain reading goals. The San Diego County Library system also has a summer learning challenge going through Aug. 31, which you can sign up for at sdcl.readsquared.com. For the rest of the summer, all kinds of events are taking place at local libraries including LEGO-building, pasta art, guitar lessons, pajama story time, chess clubs, comedy shows, gardening, video games and yoga for children.

To check out events at libraries in the San Diego Public Library system, go to sandiego.librarymarket.com.For San Diego County Library events, go to sdcl.org and click events.

The San Diego Botanic Garden offers a SAPLinGS (Science, Art and PLay in Garden Spaces) program for kids. They can help in the garden, learn about science, play in a treehouse and stream, make music and art and more. There are also model trains and plenty of ways to play and explore outside.

10 a.m. to noon. Wednesdays through Fridays. San Diego Botanic Garden. Quail Gardens Drive and Ecke Ranch Road, Encinitas. sdbgarden.org

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The Alt-Right Has Its Very Own TV Show On Adult Swim

Posted: at 1:21 am

Reached via phone, Hyde attributed all of the tweets and Reddit posts to "his assistant." Asked if he was a member of the alt-right, Hyde responded with a question: "Is that some sort of indie book store?"

Turner, which owns Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, responded to a request for comment by forwarding a written statement from an Adult Swim spokesperson:

"Adult Swims reputation and success with its audience has always been based on strong and unique comedic voices. Million Dollar Extremes comedy is known for being provocative with commentary on societal tropes, and though not a show for everyone, the company serves a multitude of audiences and supports the mission that is specific to Adult Swim and its fans."

For the Carnegie Mellon and RISDeducated Hyde, World Peace is the latest act in a years-long career of making people uncomfortable. Though MDE has been publishing videos since at least 2009 (an early one is titled "old faggot"), Hyde is probably most famous for a 2013 stunt in which he hijacked a TEDx symposium in Philadelphia and gave a nonsensical presentation called "2070 Paradigm Shift," to polite applause. More often and surely the major reason for his popularity among the alt-right he exploits, sometimes cruelly, cultural sensitivities around race, gender, and sexual orientation.

At a 2013 comedy event in Brooklyn, he performed a shocking set, a recording of which became a minor viral hit titled "Privileged White Male Triggers Oppressed Victims, Ban This Video Now and Block Him." Hyde began by mocking the "hipster faggot" audience at which point a few onlookers immediately left then removed a piece of paper from his back pocket and proceeded to read 15 minutes of anti-gay pseudo science ("homosexuality is the manifestation of intense perversion and antisocial attitudes") and outright hate speech ("next time you see a crazy gay person maybe it's not because they were bullied, maybe it's not because of homophobia ... maybe it's just because of their faggot brain that's all fucked up"). He concluded by blaming positive portrayals of gay people on television on the "ZOG (Zionist Occupation Government) media machine destroying the family." At the end of the set, he went outside to argue with some of the people who had left.

Last year, BuzzFeed News reported that a gun- and knife-brandishing internet personality named Jace Connors who became notorious for claiming to crash his car while en route to the home of Brianna Wu, one of the most public victims of Gamergate was actually the work of a member of MDE named Jan Rankowski, who created the Connors "character" with input from Hyde.

And last fall, Hyde and fellow MDE member Charls Carroll showed up near the Yale campus in New Haven bearing signs reading "All Lives Matter" and "No More Dead Black Children," then proceeded to film a highly uncomfortable 15-minute video called "Yale Lives Matter" in which Hyde, among other things, lectures a black Apple store security guard that he is "playing a part in an oppressive system," harangues the black employee of a preppy clothes store for selling "slave owner clothes," and asks two young white men if they "killed any minorities today."

This year, Hyde or his assistant seems to have decided to cast his lot in with the alt-right. Though Hyde has deleted all his tweets from before the new year, since then he's been remarkably consistent in engaging with the major concerns of and personalities in the movement.

The alt-right, which idealizes offensive speech as a principled transgression against a censorious liberal culture, is a natural fit for MDE's comedy, which combines nerdy references to anime and video games with the sinister goofiness of Tim and Eric, the anti-PC mean streak of pre-corporate Vice, and the terminal irony of meme culture. Indeed, MDE and Hyde specifically have been beloved on 4chan, one of the alt-right's incubators, for years.

If Hyde isn't quite of shitlord culture, he most certainly plays along. Earlier this year, Hyde became the possibly witting subject of a series of 4chan-perpetrated hoaxes that named him as the suspect in a series of mass shootings. A first cut of World Peace, aired online as part of an Adult Swim series called Development Meeting, featured a logo that fans quickly figured out was a copy of a symbol that Aurora shooter James Holmes scribbled in his notebooks. (It was cut from the actual broadcast.)

All of which raises the feeling that World Peace is one massive in-joke, designed to signify to a group of people online for whom the limits of irony have been misplaced and forgotten; identity content for the worst trolls in the world. After being revealed as the Jace Connors character, Jan Rankowski told BuzzFeed News that the videos had been a satire about "over-the-top, super-hyper-macho armed Gamergater."

It's a trap just to read Sam Hyde literally he's built a career out of making fun of people who take his speech too seriously. But that has not stopped Hyde's alt-right admirers from trying to divine his true politics, in the same way they scan his show for secret messages. The closest they've come is a post by Hyde or his assistant on the MDE subreddit from late last year in which he or his assistant describes himself as basically a libertarian who believes that "we're putting Western Civ on the alter [sic] as a sacrifice to white guilt because we're worried some frizzy-haired Afro transsexual will wag his finger at us" and that "whites need to regain some sort of cohesive tribal self-interest and identity right now just like everybody else has."

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Anecdotal Evidence and the Need for Trials of Psychedelics in Headache Disorders: Bryan Roth, MD, PhD – Neurology Live

Posted: at 1:21 am

WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

I would say were at the hypothesis testing phase. The clinical trials are going to get done, and we will ultimately have large, placebo-controlled phase 3 trials, probably for cluster headache, migraine headache, and other headache disorderstemporal neuralgia, that sort of thingand well know within a few years.

The keynote address for the 2022 American Headache Society (AHS) Annual Scientific Meeting, June 9-11, in Denver, Colorado, included a thorough review of the history and potential of psychedelic drugs as possible therapies for medical conditions. Specifically, Bryan Roth, MD, PhD, who delivered the address, touched on the available evidence in migraine and cluster headache.

Although these drugs have shown some potential to improve headache disordersamong other conditionsthere have been challenges in assessing these therapies. Namely in that the ability to properly blind clinical trial participants in placebo-controlled trials because of the psychedelic effects of these compounds. Additionally, much of the evidence that is available in favor these drugs as therapies is anecdotal, which presents challenges for researchers in determining their actual effectiveness.

Roth, who is the Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor and director of the NIMH psychoactive drug screening program at University of North Carolina School of Medicine, has been studying these agents for some time, thanks to federal funding in the form of an NIH grant. He explained in a conversation with NeurologyLive about this lack of robust evidence and the challenges in conducting clinical trials in migraine. He also spoke to the difficulty in informing patients about these drugs given their legality and access in certain states amid this lack of data.

To read more of Roths work into psychedelics, he and Tristan D. McClure-Begley, PhD, recently published on the topic in Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery, which you can read here: The promises and perils of psychedelic pharmacology for psychiatry.

Click here for more coverage of AHS 2022.

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The Nation: "The Libertarian Party Goes Alt-Right"

Posted: at 1:21 am

The reaction of the corporate media (and of progressive organizations in general) to the takeover of the Libertarian Party by the Mises Caucus is one of the more interesting metrics for determining the impact of the takeover's success.

It's been a week-and-a-half, and we've already had a hit piece from the SPLC and a neutral article from a Washington Post newsletter. Now The Nation joins in with another hit piece. (Apparently, you see, Mises folk are just a bunch of racist, Trump-humping, MAGA-drone fifth-columnists.) The truest measure of success, however, will come if and when the likes of the Washington Post proper, the New York Times, MSNBC, CNN, and the like start to pile on ...

Flak, meet target. Target, flak.

The Libertarian Party Goes Alt-RightBy embracing bigotry, Libertarians are poised to help reelect Trump.https://www.thenation.com/article/po...gop-alt-right/Jeet Heer (06 June 2022)

Third parties have a political impact far greater than their electoral successes. They are the research and development wing of the political system. Only once, during the exceptional rise of the Republican Party in the 1850s, has a third party gained enough support to actually contend for power, but there are plenty of cases where the two major parties have liberally borrowed issues and ideas from upstart rivals. Lincolns Republicans themselves took their stance against the expansion of slavery from the earlier Liberty Party and Free Soil Party. The Democrats under William Jennings Bryan filched (and watered down) the agenda of the Peoples Party. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was similarly light-fingered in borrowing ideas from the Socialist Party and other left formations. In a more sinister vein, Richard Nixons Southern strategy and dog whistles about law and order were motivated by a desire to steal the thunder of George Wallace, who ran in 1968 as the nominee of the American Independent Party.

The Libertarian Party can rightly claim to be heir to this tradition of being a seedbed for policy innovations taken over by both Democrats and Republicans. If the dominant ideology of American politics since the 1970s is neoliberalism, then the Libertarian Party has truly punched above its weight, influencing trends in both economics (the diminishment of the welfare state) and social policy (the Libertarian Party championed gay rights and drug decriminalization long before the Democrats).

In defiance of this history, the Libertarian Party now seems to have entered a topsy-turvy world where it has started mimicking the Republicans. Since Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign, the dominant political story on the right has been the GOPs becoming steadily Trumpizeda trend visible in both policy (more protectionist, more anti-immigrant, more unilateralist in foreign policy) and also cultural style (with Trumps insult-comedian routine now de rigueur among Republican candidates).

In 2016, Gary Johnson became the most successful Libertarian candidate in history, getting nearly 4.5 million votes (or 3.3 percent of the votes cast). This was three times more than any previous Libertarian presidential candidate, including Johnson in his earlier 2012 run. Johnson achieved this success by being closer to the kind of old-line establishment Republican that the GOP had just rejected: He was a soft-spoken, culturally moderate advocate of small government. As such, he seemed like an alternative to Trump for weary Republicans.

But despite Johnsons strong electoral showing, the Libertarian party was quickly wracked by its own internal strife thanks to a guerrilla faction that wanted to take up culture war politics.

In July 28, 2017, Jeff Deist, the president of the Mises Institute, named for libertarian economist Ludwig von Mises, published a blog post arguing that blood and soil and God and nation still matter to people. Libertarians ignore this at the risk of irrelevance. The phrase blood and soil already had an unmistakable fascist overtonebut it took on an even more gruesome connotation two weeks after the post during the infamous Charlottesville Unite the Right Rally of 2017, where an anti-racist protester was killed. The white supremacists who tried to dominate the streets of Charlottesville chanted blood and soil. Several of the organizers of the Charlottesville rally identified as libertarians. In the wake of that event, Nicholas Sarwark, chair of the Libertarian Party, signed an open letter warning of the dangers of fascism. Arvin Vohra, vice chair of the Libertarian Party, wrote a post arguing that the Mises Institute has been turned into a sales funnel for the White Nationalist branch of the Alt Right.

The ensuing arguments over blood and soil lead to the creation of a Mises Caucus, which aimed to overthrow the pragmatic Gary Johnson wing of the party and adopt the incendiary culture war politics of the hard right.

Writing in Reason, Brian Doherty, a distinguished historian of libertarianism, reports that foes say that too many Mises Caucus members and fans downplay libertarian positions that might offend the right, are intentionally obnoxious and bullying, and are often racist. Doherty cites a tweet posted by the New Hampshire Libertarian Party after it was taken over by the Mises Caucus: America isnt in debt to black people. If anything its the other way around. That tweet ran on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and was subsequently deleted after criticism. On March 7, 2021, Jeremy Kauffman, a prominent member of the Mises Caucus, tweeted: if 1,000 transpeople were murdered every year but there were no taxes, wed live in a substantially more moral world. [For] reference about 40transgender people are murdered in the US per year. That tweet was also later deleted.

In early 2021, the Mises Caucus in California invited an anti-Semitic provocateur named Bryan Sharpe (also known as Hotep Jesus) to speak at its state convention. Angela McArdle, a leading member of the Mises Caucus, defended the invitation, saying, I dont actually think that someone who is trying to be a truth-seeker and understand whats going onand asked the question about whether or not Jews run Hollywood is an antisemite.

On May 29, at the Libertarian Party Convention in Reno, McArdle won the title of chair of the partys national committee. This was a decisive victory for the Mises Caucus, which received the vote of 69 percent of delegates. The Mises Caucus is now the undisputed ruling faction of the party.

In a report for Hatewatch, a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Creede Newton assembled evidencecircumstantial but suggestivethat the Mises Caucus is aligned with Trumpist Republicans. David Valente, an active Libertarian Party member since 2012 who used to be an alternate member of the Libertarian National Committee, told Hatewatch, The purpose of what is going on with the MCis to sabotage the LP to sideline it over the next few years for Donald Trump. Ashley Shade, another disaffected Libertarian Party member and former chair of the Massachusetts Libertarian Party, also spoke with Hatewatch and characterized the Mises Caucus as a tool of the Republican Party.

Whether or not the Mises Caucus is deliberately planning this, the turmoil it has inflicted on the Libertarian Party is a boon to Republicans. Speaking on The Neoliberal Podcast, Andy Craig, a staff writer at the Cato Institute, predicted that the Libertarian Party is going to fade away very quickly. They are going to lose their ballot access. They basically already are bankrupt. All the donors [will] leave.

Brian Dohertys reporting in Reason supports this analysis:

Two former significant donors to the L.P., Kyle Varner and Michael Chastain, both with decades long history in the party, did say in phone interviews that the Mises turn, which they see as importing a level of racist edgelording they have no taste for, has made them stop funding L.P. candidates. Such defections are particularly relevant in this environment: The national L.P. has just had three months in a row of spending exceeding income, and the number of active donors has been falling for seven straight months.

Taking the Libertarian party out as a competitive force will help consolidate the right-wing vote around the Republican Party. Once the Libertarian Party becomes a husk of its former self, the alt-right faction will continue to assist a Trumpized GOP in a way that parallels groups like the Proud Boys. MAGA Libertarians will be a potent vector for spreading bigotry on social media. The Mises Caucus are the nominal winners in the internecine libertarian wars, but the ultimate beneficiary could be Donald Trump.

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Milwaukee business owners don’t all want the RNC – Wisconsin Examiner

Posted: at 1:21 am

In recent weeks, a number of community organizations including Voces de la Frontera, SEIU, and Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC) that have come out in opposition to the Republican National Committee choosing Milwaukee for its convention in 2024. The argument from many tourism, hospitality, and other industry groups has been that it will be an economic boon for the city and local businesses. As small business owners and active members of the Milwaukee community, we want to state unequivocally: We want nothing to do with the RNCs money.

We are parents to a trans son and a non binary child. Members of the RNC would like us charged with child abuse. They believe we should have all our children taken from our custody for supporting and loving our kids while they live their true identity. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stated There is no doubt that these procedures are abuse under Texas law, and thus must be halted. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has a responsibility to act accordingly. Robert Foster, a Mississippi state representative, went further and actually called for the death penalty for parents like us, tweeting: Some of yall still want to try and find political compromise with those that want to groom our school aged children and pretend men are women, etc. I think they need to be lined up against [a] wall before a firing squad to be sent to an early judgment.

Many of our friends, employees, and customers are members of the LGBT community. Members of the RNC claim this is the same as child sexual abuse. From the former Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Virginia, E.W. Jackson: I know their people say, well, Its unfair to associate homosexuality with pedophilia or some of these other perversions. But I believe that there is a direct connection, because what they really want is absolute sexual freedom. Floridas Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis spokeswoman parroted this ancient and false talking point after Floridas Dont Say Gay bill was signed into law earlier this spring, stating that the only people who would be opposed to the bill would be a groomer or at least [someone who doesnt] denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old.

For several years, we had a young man who come to the U.S. from Honduras living with us. He left Honduras because of gang violence and direct threats to his life, and applied for asylum at the U.S. border, as is his right under the Geneva Conventions. The last Republican president believed that he and other immigrants should be killed, tortured, or maimed while they tried to come to safety. Advisors told the New York Times: [President DonaldTrump] wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. Thats not allowed either, they told him. Latin American migrants werent the only targets of Trumps anti-immigration stance. He repeatedly referred to African countries as sh-thole nations and said that if we allowed in immigrants from Nigeria, they would never go back to their huts.

Many of our friends, employees, and a huge portion of the Milwaukee community are Black. Richard Spencer, the alt-right neo-Nazi who organized the Unite the Right marches in Charlottesville, Virginia that resulted in the murder of Heather Heyer and the injuries of countless others, bragged about Trump and the RNC, There is no question that Charlottesville wouldnt have occurred without Trump. It really was because of his campaign and this new potential for a nationalist candidate who was resonating with the public in a very intense way. The alt-right found something in Trump. He changed the paradigm and made this kind of public presence of the alt-right possible. While asserting that the men who chanted Jews will not replace us were very fine people, Trump called the simple assertion that Black Lives Matter a symbol of hate and made countless other disgusting statements about shooting racial justice protesters (again, like immigrants, just in the legs What a nice guy). He excitedly claimed When the looting starts, the shooting starts.

This is a small representative sampling, but we could go on. We can speak at length about Republicans crippling businesses like mine (or other Milwaukee treasures) by refusing to support federal relief for small businesses during the pandemic. We could talk about the desire to strip bodily autonomy from every person in this country with a uterus. We could explore the vicious attacks on parents whose children were murdered with AR-15s, called crisis actors, accused of politicizing their own babies murders. But discussing this further is a waste of our time.

We want no part of this grotesque groveling to the worst people in the country. We will not have our business reputation or money tied to people who would see our children, friends and neighbors subjugated or dead. We dont want our membership dues in Milwaukee business associations used to give credibility to these beliefs. Advocating for businesses is not the same as advocating for the most vulnerable members of the community. There is no amount of economic benefit to the community that could possibly make this worthwhile. Weve terminated our membership in an organization actively advocating for the RNC, and against our neighbors. Especially now, as Congress hears the horrifying testimony about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, sanctioned by Trump and defended a legitimate political discourse by the Republican Party, industry and tourism groups that support bringing the RNC to Milwaukee should stop and consider the price of doing business with this group to our community.

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Milwaukee business owners don't all want the RNC - Wisconsin Examiner

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