"The basic myth that the noble North only went to war to end the curse of slavery, while those in the South rose up en masse to defend the evil institution has been repeated so often by so many historians, the media and self-serving politicians that it has now become accepted in toto by a majority of the public. Even the secondary myth that Lincoln’s proclamation of 1862 freed all of the slaves in America with the sweep of a pen has become historic dogma. This is in spite of the fact that a simple reading of the so-called emancipation document would reveal that Lincoln’s hundred-day order did not apply to any of the slave states still in the Union, namely Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri. Moreover, the proclamation specifically excluded both the areas of Louisiana and Virginia then under control of the Union Army, as well as all the Virginia counties that would later become the unconstitutionally-created State of West Virginia. In Lincoln’s own words, all the areas he so delineated were to be 'left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.'”
John Marquardt

If you were anything like me you starting producing in the DAW era whether that was Ableton, FL Studio, Pro Tools, Logic, Reason or one of the many other choices out there. Eventually after listening to your favorite producer's beats and being amazed by the sonics you decided to look up their equipment they used to gain some insight. You then stumble across hardware samplers and see everything ranging from Akai, Roland, Ensoniq, Kurzweil, Yamaha and every other major player around that time. Now you're thinking of taking the leap into vintage hardware samplers to catch some of that sonic magic to add to your own productions and you're friend Beatsheik is here to help.
This post in particular will focus on the Ensoniq line of samplers starting with the revolutionary Mirage to the last hurrah of the ASR-X (pro). Each one unique enough to stand on their own merits and fit a variety of musical styles. Below are my thoughts on each sampler with information and videos showcasing the total essence of what these beasts can do in the right hands.
Please be aware that these are comping from a hip hop producer standpoint first and an audiophile/gear nerd second since using the machines for creation is the most important view to me. Now let's begin.......
MIRAGE (1984)
Retail Price ($1695)
Resell Price ($300 - $500)
The Mirage is an 8-bit powerhouse that makes everything sound like lofi and gritty at any sample rate. It really sounds like what you expect true 8 bit to sound like and every emulation is a cheap imitation of that sound. Although with limited memory (128kb) it could be cumbersome for anyone to make anything more than a smaller looped production but thats where the hexidecimal creativity comes in. Sampling rates range from 8khz - 33khz.
Personally speaking unless you are just fond of the mirage or analog filters are a must then I would skip this one for hip hop production. However, if you are doing other genres that call for synth stabs or certain unique sonic touches then the Mirage is a winner. Also to note that it's the only ensoniq sampler with analog filters (low pass) so this can really help it shape sound in interesting ways.
Some notable songs made using the Mirage were Public Enemy's "Rebel Without A Pause" and Janet Jackson's Control & Rhythm Nation 1814 albums.
PROS: 1. Truly unique sound lofi quality. 2. Only sampler on the list with analog filters.
CONS: 1. Hexadecimal display is convoluted without menu handy. 2. Low memory even for vintage sampler standards. 3. No Sequencer, just a recorder so no quantization.
Mirage Video Examples:
https://youtu.be/tyMxRRdde-E
https://youtu.be/14PMQ0kH5hA
EPS CLASSIC (1988)
Retail Price ($1995 for keyboard, $1895 for rack)
Resell Price ($300 - $600)
This machine is a unique one as its the only 13 Bit sampler Ensoniq ever made. It is a slept on sampler for lofi production due to its various sample rates on input and adjustments of the anti aliasing filter can lead to some interesting sonic palettes. On input the sample rate can range from 6.25 khz to 52 khz and the sound of the eps to my ears are compressed, warm and gritty with a somewhat hollow punch to it. There is a certain authenticity to its lofi sound that just sounds right to my ears. That makes a huge difference when making samples for yourself later as this will alter future decisions mixing wise.
Notable songs made with the EPS are Shyheim's "Rugged Child" album, Das Efx's "Dead Serious" album and Silk Tymes Leather "It ain't where ya from...Its where ya at" album.
PROS: 1) Adjustable sample rate on input (6.25 khz - 52 khz), samples the lowest @ 6.25 khz. 2) Adjustable anti aliasing filter 3) 13 Bit (only sampler I believe to be 13 bit)
CONS: 1) Software can be buggy at times. 2) Limited overall memory without expander (480kb) 3) No effects
Eps Classic Video Examples:
https://youtu.be/7CoOtaoVFks
https://youtu.be/9H73qtB9Fdk
EPS 16+ (1990)
Retail ($2395 for stock ; $2495 for rack, $2995 for Turbo)
Resell Price ($500 - $1000)
This sampler literally is the exact middle of an ASR-10 and EPS Classic sonically and functionally. The sound is either lofi or hifi depending on your sample rate but retains the warmth and grit at the same time. Its sample rates on input range from 11khz to 46 khz and you can completely turn its anti aliasing filter off. This can lead to some strange tones and aliasing that DOES NOT sound like an sp 1200 but unlike anything else you'll find available. This machine is interesting from the others because it is the only unit that can install flash rom memory and not need a floppy or scsi device to boot up. Which means you won't have to worry about old drives or adding more cost to unit if you can find one fully loaded which I appreciate the most. Also I think because of this it operates the fastest.
Noteable songs made with the EPS 16+ are Mobb Deep's "The Infamous" album D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" album and Wu Tang Clan - C.R.E.A.M (along with a bunch of other songs on the 36 Chambers album)
PROS: 1) Sound quality is excellent with it being able to produce lofi or hifi tones.
2) The ONLY Ensoniq sampler where you can turn off the anti aliasing filter completely on input.
3) Flash Memory is amazing for not having to load os on floppy or sd.
CONS: 1) Only 2mb of memory stock.
2) Some units may overheat.
3) Being Mono only may be a turnoff for some.
EPS 16+ Video Examples:
https://youtu.be/tEW9_jMdCN4
https://youtu.be/zQPKJuaOuAk
ASR- 10 (1992)
Retail ($2695 for keyboard, $2895 for rack and $4495 for 88 key version)
Resell price ($700 - $1500)
This one is the best sampler Ensoniq made as far as functionality and sound come together in one innovative masterpiece. The warm sound of this sampler is on pabetter with any other sampler you will find. With the upgrades to all the samplers as time progressed this one was blessed with optional ram upgrades, more effects, ram tracks and other cool features. The sampling rates are either 29.5ish khz but they call it 30khz and 44khz (48khz if you use the digital card). You can however lower the sample rate as well as with the previous machines.
I really believe this machine is the peak of what Ensoniq offered before the company's demise due to being feature packed true sampler. That coupled with transwaves and looping features you can do whatever you want if you can think it out. Plus with the addons such as Digital I/O, Ram upgrade and SCSI2SD (or Zuluscsi, at the time of writing) you can have a sampler that stands the test of time.
Some notable albums made with the ASR-10 are Kanye West's "College Drop", Missy Elliott's "Supa Dupa Fly" and half Wu Tang Clan's "36 Chambers".
PROS: 1) Best sampler ensoniq ever made with more robust features and capabilities.
2) Better optional upgrades (Digital I/O board and ram)
3) Has the warmest sound and more FX
CONS: 1) Some people report more instability than previous EPS 16+
2) Slightly slower operations on later O.S. versions.
3) Because of its more complex insides it leaves more things to go wrong and fixing can be costly.
Video examples:
https://youtube.com/shorts/JUFPIKBEgs0?feature=share3
https://youtube.com/shorts/YXyhlCVIk9c?feature=share3
https://youtu.be/DUv7LO3kZvc
ASR X/PRO (1997/98)
This one is the weirdest one design wise and workflow wise. Alot more menu diving in a less optimized way. The OS is like the others that if your having familiarity with one then you can navigate the rest.
The sound of this unit though in my opinion is underrated. I'd say that it's so hifi and warm that it sounds way more expensive than it really is. I really can't stress the immense sound quality of this machine and to me thats the only reason I've kept it around. The effects are good but I prefer the ASR 10 effects more but I lean towards the X sonically for hifi and drums. If you can get one of these cheap to pair with something like an MPC or other modern sampler I think you'd be in for a treat. Using it as your only sampler should be a word of warning because it's not for beginners looking for their first sampler unless they are willing to master it.
Notable songs made using the ASR X are Young Jeezy's "Go Crazy" and Freeway's "Roc The Mic".
PROS: 1) Amazing sound! Even though it's different than it's older siblings its sound is hifi and expensive sounding.
2) Smaller than its predecessors and has more than double the tracks of the others (16 total).
3) Effects are excellent and resampling through the machine is a breeze.
4) Resonant Filters are came back
CONS: 1) It's basically unfinished due to Ensoniq being merged and never utilized its full potential.
2) The encoders can get wonky over time and the pads leave much to be desired. They honestly are my least favorite thing about the machine.
3) Way more menu diving since screen is smaller than previous models.
Video Examples:
https://youtu.be/ZofxeQMVZMM
https://youtu.be/Vko73zb6Nmc
FINAL THOUGHTS
If you're looking to add a vintage sampler into your setup in 2023 and already have something like a DAW or the MPC line of sequencers then an Ensoniq sampler can be a real gem in your studio. Be aware that they all have a learning curve so you will have to put some time in to get comfortable with the sampler. On top of that once you fully master the machine you'll see why these masterpieces are highly regarded. There are features still today that can't do what these beats can do i.e. insane looping and modulation features. Maybe even one day they might reach astronomical prices because people will soon realize their value. But as for right now you can still find great deals of you look hard enough.
Also remember these are samplers first so the added bonus is getting a cool sampling synthesizer to make really nice patches you can transfer to your DAW as well. The modulation on these things are abundant and very useful.
I hope this may help someone in the future who is looking to buy their first Ensoniq sampler. Create the music you love and share it with the world 🌎

(Apologies for the not screenshot, but here is the prompt:)
Me: tell me every US state that has a statue of George Washington.
GPT: Again, while I cannot guarantee that this list is exhaustive, here are the states that I am aware of that have a statue of George Washington:
​
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Note that some of these statues may be small or located in private collections, while others may be large and publicly displayed in prominent locations. Additionally, the design and material of the statues may vary widely.
​
(Also asked about Lincoln. 47/50 have statues of him.)

TLDR This is a crude and rough initial attempt to place many known events into a narrative order with some semblance of a time stamp to them. It concerns the time of 12:50 to aproximately 3pm? or later the day of the shootings.
lengthy intro, feel free to skip this part
You will see I don't get too far on the time stamp part, and I'm sure I'm leaving out known and likely vital events we know of, too. But the sources are scattered and their narratives jumbled as well. It does begin to sketch a picture though, to tell the story as best as I can from the top of my head. I'd like to make this a lot more factual and probably should make it a lot less "editorial," as well. But it is like the old joke, what do you call a thousand lawyers at the bottom of the lake? "A good start."
I'm POSITIVE some of this is wrong. But I wanted to start somewhere before it all gets turned to mush in my brain. I keep notes but later they don't always make perfect sense to me because all the information comes in from every angle and it's spinning like a top, usually as well. . I'm not a historian, or a true crime reporter. I'm an amateur on the internet in this regard, please forgive me and help me get it right where you can. I dont mean to offend anyone, either. Hopefully we are all in this together, to establish the truth here. How can we have any real opinions or accountability or make the best policy decisions moving forward, or honor the fallen, or sue the heck out of one another, for that matter, without first establishing the basic facts.
It's just what sloughed off my keyboard this morning as I woke and once again tried to make sense of what makes no sense. why, ten months on we have to peice this together from corporate news accounts' hastily assembled snippets of B-roll, local rumor, internet conjecture (mine and yours, dear readers), leaks and bodycams edited and truncated by a hired PR firm for the city of Uvalde, and other odd sources coming across the ether and "over the transom," meaning we don't know who told us this.
This will be a partial timeline from a shattered afternoon where almost everyone present was in some sort of a state of shock, yet waving cheap and crude videocameras of various sorts and disordered eventual custody around in back of a school no one paid much attention to before, and that will soon be razed to the ground. And about which NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE other than to board up the windows and wipe up the blood. One important source seems to be a "whistleblower" who may in fact be a "bad actor" working to just help spread out bad news as slowly and poorly as possible, selectively omitting the worst of the worst. Who can say?
It's a portrait of chaos, drawn from chaos. A vision of hell from someone who wasn't even there, but can't stop imagining it somehow. I have little idea why. Some of my friends' children were there, but they were not in the 4th grade. It's probably all none of my business, my only real connection is that my children go to public schools in Texas. And I helped pay for these public records that are so well hidden. That at least means something to me. The rest just seems to spring from common decency and having an empathetic heart. I couldn't rightly say why any of us are here almost a year later but we are. It all started with a bang. And it all ends in sin and tears, like my grandmother would say.
The TLDR is that 21 people were murdered and a bunch of people who were only attempted to be murdered were mishandled by idiot cowards and dragged hither and yon while parents were tackled, tased and traumatized. The rest is just the gory sad details.
Don't read it if you can can help it. Horesman, pass by. But if you must, know this: it isn't pretty and it likely won't fix much of anything. But maybe just maybe it's part of path towards eventual healing or as Senator Gutierrez says, looking forward someday to "a slightly duller ache of pain."
There is no good place to start this narrative, the story of the "Aftermath." This is the wrong place but it's where I began so here it is:
Draft Narrative:
If it was Noah and AJ who ended up in an ambulance with Mayah, it seems like one of them may have originally been on the bus but taken off fairly quickly. The narrative from the lawsuit by the bus driver seems to say a boy was put on her bus but quickly taken off because of the seriousness of his injuries, or perhaps like with Mrs Mireles, the frantic cops seemed to have tunnel vision and couldn't find the ambulances at first and when one was finally right in front of them, they stumbled towards it instead.
It's also related that a dead child was placed into one ambulance, and that's why there were three in the other. Extrapolating from there it's also possible Mrs Mireles was eventually taken off the sidewalk and put in the ambulance with the dead boy still inside, or maybe she was moved to an ambulance the finally arrived from Main Street holding area.
The WP/TT/PP story has an excellently detailed animation of where ambulances and school busses came and went, beginning with the initial two ambulances. But it doesn't say who was placed inside any of them. The lead bus leaves the line at the funeral home where at least two livestream cams had caught the frantic scramble of LEOs to march and carry kids from the school to the bus. I'm not sure how many kids were on the bus. I haven't even re-read the lawsuit account yet.
Finding a sync point in order to put time stamps to the animation and the citizen livestream recordings for us poor saps denied full versions of public records videos is difficult. It seems likely the bulk of vehicle movement animation is drawn from DPS helicopter video and of course the funeral home cameras. We don't have those, but we can see snippets of them her and there the DPS helicopter at least. It's the one with the rangefinder marking and what looks almost like a weapon system crosshairs superimposed on screen. The story itself mentions LEO bodycam as well. Don't forget Crimson Elizondo is said to have ridden the "BORTAC express" school bus and wore an operating bodycam.
But the buses began to move - then stalled - before 1:01. That seems to tell us a few things - the "triage" was perfunctory and swift in getting the kids who could walk - and some who were carried - from the school to the BORTAC Express. But it took more than just one or two minutes, it seesm like it took almost ten to get children onto the BORTAC Express, but less than ten probably. We know one child was so wounded he was taken off the bus and put into an ambulance. likely the one manned by the EMT who treated thee kids, Mayah, AJ and Noah. That's not certain tho.
Two busses in the lead turn left onto Geraldine. Others go right. Were some on a route to civic center? Or to hospital? I need to check routes.
In a sick, sad moment on the Adam Ladezma livestream, seemingly after 12:50 and before 1:01 a US Marshall threatens parents, telling them harshly to move behind the busses or else their kids won't be brought out, and that the present delay is their fault, for standing on the grass off the street north of the busses, blocking no one and nothing. It seems like the scrum of agents are waiting inside, calling and stalling for a path to be cleared for them, rather than trusting that the public wants the same thing they want - for medical aid to be swift.
Some 5-10 minutes earlier the news had spread by word of mouth that the shooter was "in custody" or dead, it seems. The crowd is indeed increasingly distraught, frantic and hostile to LEOs. Some had likely seen a stretcher come out of the school. possibly with the dead child who was locked into an ambulance. And then abandoned, visibly, to some who could see it just across the street, undoubtedly. An air of pandemonium was cresting. No doubt many heard the gunfire at 12:50 or at minimum saw the LEOs n the west doorway courtyard react, after more than an hour of standing around trying to look tough, or whatever.
Then, a gaggle of LEOs, possibly BORTAC and seemingly although not visibly, DPS Crimson Elizondo among them rushes the scrum of children to the first bus, number 17, as seen on a livestream video from the parking lot at a distance in a blurry video. All hell breaks loose. On the door side/ funeral home side, a livestream cam catches some of the chaos as a distraught father is tackled by LEOs who prevent him from reaching his son. The crowd screams in protest, and women begin to loudly and openly wail in abject agony. They've seen THEIR children are bleeding, wounded, in shock, or worse. and all they are told is to "stay back" by the same people who didn't go in an hour ago and get them out.
They should be livid and they should be cursing and shouting, IMO. In some regards, these cops are accessory to murder IMO. A judge will never likely assess that. But they've kidnappend the kids and held them in police custody, arguably but not prevented the shooter from killing them at will for 82 minutes. And they've physcialy blocked those who were willing to immediately intervene.
On the other side of the bus, citizen Adam Ladezma, whose nieces and nephews go to Robb "films" or livestream-captures a child who, on encouragement from his family crawls out the back window of bus 17, the "BORTAC Express" as I'm calling it and is helped down and spirited away from the custody of the lawmen. As you watch, it's likely you feel a sigh of relief. These are poor custodians of children, one is likely assured despite the breakdown order occurring. Anyone would want to get away from their custody and the child readily complies. "When you find yourself going thru hell, keep going."
So there are all these things happening and more, and I'm attempting to put them into a coherent timeline. This is a bad, preliminary attempt to do so but I think the clues exist to do a much better job of outlining the actions. Perhaps the first pass should just be to name all the things that we see or know happened, in whatever order we have. I'm sorta doing that here but not in bullet-outline form, pardon the very poor choice of words.
But as the busses soon get moving, we know the BORTAC Express driver has locked the back door and that she sees Eva Mireles "dead" on the sidewalk being given CPR or at least lying there bleeding. And we know a child is taken off the bus by who she says is BORTAC, I think. She's made her initial turn onto Geraldine and the bus behind her follows her. lead. Does it have kids on it, the #2 bus? Does it have a LEO on it, or instructions where to go? I don't think so. It's just going. There may be a picture of aaLEO on the street speaking to the driver, IIRC, Ill try to find it. The driver wants the heck out of there, who wouldn't? Maybe it hopes to pick up more students and wishes to be closer. Seemingly, no one is put on board as it waits on Gerldine that I can see evidenc of however. It follows the Express off the scene.
The busses move far enough that the #3 and 4, 5, busses can turn right. As they do so, they too seem to stall as a helicopter comes in to land. I think it is the DPS chopper but I cannot be certain. If so, it's potentially one of the things that has delayed the arrival of the medical Air Flite choppers, although that sounds like mainly an oversight or foible of the Medina Fire chief, too. One of the choppers has blood supplies. The end up not getting used at the scene. I'm not sure if they go to the Uvalde hospital, the blood supplies, or back to a Trauma 1 center in San Antonio.
Dust covers the sky and drifts eventually onto the wounded (Eva Mireles, probably, gets covered in it) and and the ambulances that are newly arriving. A famous long-lens photo shows what looks like a 9/11style ash blizzard or. snowstorm-from-hell on the scene looking down Geraldine from the front of the school to chaos, disorder. We move quickly from two ambulances, one locked with a dead child inside and the other overcrowded with kids bleeding on the captains chair, to six or eight ambulances.
As the DPS helicopter moves towards the playground, the camera swings back to the west entrance and the bus lane. A stretcher gurney seems to be going IN to a newly arrived ambulacne. (See the first video WP/TT/PP story) Another gurney seemingly is OUT of another folded low on the ground by the tail of a ambulace. The tail end of the #2 bus is still there but begins to leave.
DPS tactical from all the way up in Austin has arrived somehow at 12:58 (too late, they were always going to be too late for the kids) in the midst of the bungled evacuations. Somewhere before all this they sprint to the courtyard by the west door, choking the passage of anyone. News helicopter seems to capture some of it, as well as news cameras down at the front of the school, and still photogs, too. it looks to all of them like something important is happening. It isn't. Not there, and not with them.
Somewhere in here SWAT from San Antonio enters the mix. I'm very loose on that timing. They're hard to tell apart from DPS tactical or SRT or whatever they are called. Is it them that runs as a big squad? I'm unsure. Nor can I spot where BORTAC huddles up afterwards. I think they stay inside the building because we don't spot them outside, not at tthe west and not at the south. They didn't all stay on the bus they commandeered. DPS Crimson Elizondo did, but who else?
We know ambulances have crawled across peoples yards, criss-crossing like a post apocalypse freeway scene to get around abandoned cop cars blocking the roads. They start arriving all from one direction as the second bus behind BORTAC Express finally manages to scoot off from the front of the school.
There's some sort of "load and go, load and go" action here that we don't have much information about unless we extrapolate what child was wounded how and eliminate the trio of AJ, Noah and Mayah from them, possibly.
At least one medical helicopter manages to land, to no avail at some point. Everyone is racing somewhere in an ambulance. Xavier, to his demise somewhere west of Hondo. Mrs Mirales never leaves the ambulance at the curb, as she desperately attended to possibly at near-gunpoint after UPC cops and attending EMTs have seemingly furiously pumped what little blood she had left onto the sidewalk, because her heart stopped from the traumatic way she was dragged from the room, seemingly and of course her multiple gunshot wounds from an AR-15. The "load and go" kids must also include the teacher from 111, who has first been placed in a cop car, or attempted- he didnt fit - and then onto the tailgate/ lift gate of a fire department truck? Possibly the one in the funeral home lot, which must have freaked the crowd out to witness, then finally into one of the "maze runner" arriving ambulances.
Again, I refer us all to the WP/TT/PP animation for clues to that. Somehow, "load and go" period ends. When? When the ambulances stop moving, whenever that is.
And then, finally, Rangers lock the scene down, even closing the gate to the west door. It's now a crime scene and they are in charge of the investigation. The Justice of the Peace, acting as coroner is enroute to pronounce the less than 18? bodies as dead. Unsure on the math here. Three left the classroom with a pulse who died. 21 died. (plus the shooter, #22). One body was locked in an ambulance. How many left in the classrooms when the rangers lock it down? 22 minus three who died and one who was improperly removed and locked in a (much needed) ambulance. 18 bodies including the shooters, is that right?
Eventually each is designated a letter of the alphabet and DNA sampled on site so the pieces of children and teachers can be sorted and reassembled, or at least distributed to the funeral homes in the right batches. Several are said to be more or less headless. On one, a pair of Green converse with a little heart-shaped sharpie drawn on the toe, that aids in identifaction.
Parents have been told to go to the civic center. Many are going to race to every hospital they can think of, including San Antonio instead. Mothers, fathers and grandparent must all separate to cover more ground, adding to the panic and desperation. Some have been told to go to the high school, but the high school gets some sort of possible gun threat? Again, NO ONE IS IN CHARGE.
On the curb near the front of the school sits Lexi's Rubio's mother and deputy father, utterly bereft. He's been kept out of the classroom but seems to have been told the definite news their child is not coming out. Curious news crews videotape and photograph them in their grief, until the mother of one parent seemingly arrives to join them. Eventually, they thread their way onto the campus to get away from the news anchors assembled by the school sign in the same intersection where Officer Hill had parked to witness Coronado's "wild ride" at 11:31 or so. 82 minutes and then some have passed, as have at least 19 souls? by now, some still fighting for life, the shooter one among the many dead, yet separate in category only. The blood of all spreads to mingle in the footprints and pools of fluids on the floors the gruesome CSI process begins in earnest.
In the queue on the video projector's mechanism, "Lilo and Stitch" awaits the Disney happy ending. Elvis won't be singing the finale BURNING LOVE today. Elvis has left the building. Elvis is deader than Elvis. And the children are going to meet him in Heaven, if you believe what the King does and loved to sing about. "Farther along, we'll understand it./ Farther along, we'll understand why."

With full reservoirs, cyberattacks on dams worry lawmakers
A state Senate committee has advanced a measure to prepare critical infrastructure for cyberattacks. Sen. Melissa Hurtado of Bakersfield pointed out that previous attacks have attempted to release water from a dam in New York and successfully shut down meat processing plants.
One expert testifying in support warned the federal government would be overwhelmed if a mass cyberattack threatened food, water and power. Sen. Bob Archuleta of Pico Rivera feared an attack could release water from reservoirs during winter storms, leading to catastrophic flooding downstream.
Remember: Last year the state signed into law a separate bill from Hurtado on cybersecurity for water infrastructure. It tasked the state’s emergency services office with developing a strategic plan to assist the food, agriculture, water supply and wastewater sectors with protections.
Wine Country wants to improve weather forecasting
A new bill capitalizes on emerging forecasting technology to better prepare California for sudden droughts.
Forecast-informed reservoir operations, or FIRO, aims to retain as much water in reservoirs as possible ahead of storms and anticipated runoff while enabling better flood control as well. AB 30 would expand FIRO to more parts of the state. It gained unanimous support.
Why it matters: Mark Fenstermaker, a lobbyist for Sonoma Water, explained that 1960s-era federal rules led the district in 2013 to release 30,000 acre-feet of water from Lake Mendocino. It didn’t rain for another three years. In 2019 a minor rule change enabled the district to retain more in the reservoir.
Yet the lake all but dried up again in 2021, leading cities to cut water use in half and dairies and wineries to get creative in adapting to extreme scarcity.
Vilsack keynotes Agri-Pulse policy summit
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will headline the annual Agri-Pulse Ag and Food Policy Summit today in Washington.
This year’s conference will focus on issues critical to ensuring long-term agricultural sustainability and food security.
The summit will feature interviews with the leaders of the House and Senate Ag committees and discussions with a diverse array of experts and producers. They’ll debate a range of issues, including the challenges facing beginning and minority farmers as well as future needs for risk management, agricultural research and nutrition assistance.
Registration for the summit is still available today online, or in person at the National Press Club.
By the way: The Biden administration’s “waters of the U.S.” rule officially takes effect today, an issue almost certain to occupy time at a Senate hearing this week with EPA Administrator Michael Regan. A Senate vote to eliminate the rule also is nearing.
Read more about WOTUS in our Washington Week Ahead.
Senate bill would freeze Adverse Effect Wage Rate
A bipartisan Senate bill introduced by a couple of unlikely allies would freeze the Adverse Effect Wage Rate at last year’s level for the rest of 2023.
Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said farmers in their states who use the H-2A program are getting squeezed financially by increases in the AEWR. In Georgia, the rate went from $11.99 to $13.67 per hour this year, up 14% from 2022. The rate in North Carolina was set at $14.91 an hour, up 5%.
“I’m leading this bipartisan legislation to prevent damage to Georgia’s agricultural producers,” Ossoff said. Tillis said the wage rate “has long outpaced the rate of inflation and become unsustainable.”
Bipartisan, bicameral bill would expand AgARDA authorization
Ag groups and land-grant universities are backing a bill introduced by Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., to double the authorization of the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA) from $50 million to $100 million.
The bill, which is expected to be joined by a companion in the House from Reps. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., and Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, also would expand AgARDA’s scope to address animal and plant pathogens and pests.
The agency was authorized by the 2018 farm bill but has not been established yet because of limited funding.
More bills: Another bipartisan, bicameral bill would expand biochar research efforts. In the House, Iowa Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Democrats Kim Schrier of Washington and Chellie Pingree of Maine have introduced the Biochar Research Network Act. In the Senate, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Jon Tester, D-Mont., John Thune, R-S.D., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, reintroduced companion legislation earlier this month.
Meanwhile, bills dropped by Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota would require the FDA to regulate hemp-derived cannabidiol, or CBD, as a dietary supplement and food and beverage additive.
Warnock: Debt relief 'can't come fast enough' for underserved farmers
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. is urging USDA to act quickly on debt relief programs for economically challenged farmers who have historically been discriminated against.
“I will continue to hold USDA’s feet to the fire,” Warnock said on Agri-Pulse Newsmakers this week. “We passed the legislation, and now we’ve just got to make sure that we get people the resources they need.”
Relief "can't come fast enough" for farmers who experienced discrimination, he said.
The Inflation Reduction Act allocated $5.3 billion to farm debt relief in August 2022.
Read our full report at Agri-Pulse.com.
He said it:
“This is a self-inflicted crisis of epic proportions that is putting lives on the line.” — Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones of San Diego, responding to Gov. Newsom’s announcement on Saturday of a new effort to lower healthcare costs.
Philip Brasher, Jacqui Fatka and Bill Tomson contributed to this report.
https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/18484-agencies-directed-to-examine-national-security-threats-to-food-ag
https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/17521-legislature-has-water-board-in-the-crosshairs-over-drought-response-and-delta-delays
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB30
https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/16511-sonoma-vineyards-squeeze-through-drought-while-vegetable-growers-struggle
https://www.agri-pulse.com/2023-DC-Summit
https://morgangriffith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402806&utm_source=Agri-Pulse+Daybreak+WEST&utm_campaign=6ca6369497-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_03_19_08_46&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-6ca6369497-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB265&utm_source=Agri-Pulse+Daybreak+WEST&utm_campaign=6ca6369497-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_03_19_08_46&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-6ca6369497-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2023/03/21/norfolk-southern-ohio-dewine-rail-safety-legislation/stories/202303210129
WASHINGTON — The chief executive of Norfolk Southern and Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine plan to praise a bipartisan rail safety bill that’s run up against GOP resistance in Congress at a Senate hearing on Wednesday — a development the bill’s backers hope could provide for more momentum for the legislation.
Alan Shaw, chief executive of the railroad company that operated a train carrying toxic material that derailed near East Palestine, Ohio, last month, will say the Railway Safety Act includes “measures with the potential to enhance safety and improve outcomes for our industry, our customers, and the communities we serve,” according to his prepared remarks obtained by The Washington Post.
Mr. DeWine will say he agrees “with the changes in the law” proposed by the bill, according to his prepared remarks. Mr. DeWine also sent a letter to Mr. Shaw, saying he expects him to “deliver for the people of East Palestine by fully supporting these legislative efforts until they are enacted.”
The legislation, introduced by Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance and Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in the wake of the disaster, has run up against resistance from some Republicans in the Senate and House who say they are wary of pushing for new regulations before the federal government releases a comprehensive report outlining the causes of the accident, which could take a year or longer. House Republicans have introduced their own rail safety measure, which is similar to the Senate’s, and which Mr. DeWine also praised.
Mr. Vance and Mr. Brown are both set to speak at Wednesday’s Senate Commerce Committee hearing, as well to push for more support for their bill. The fact that even the chief executive of the rail company facing the most scrutiny for the disaster is not publicly objecting to the legislation may help convince more regulation-wary Republicans to sign on, the bill’s supporters hope.
“There is a strong consensus growing that Congress must take action to increase the safety of America’s railways,” said William Martin, a spokesman for Mr. Vance. “We look forward to tomorrow’s hearing.”
The National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report noted that an overheated wheel bearing was likely a factor in the accident, which the proposed legislation would address. The bill would also hike fines for safety violations, increase inspections and stiffen safety standards.
Mr. Shaw did not endorse the legislation outright in his prepared remarks, instead highlighting pieces of it he agreed with in “principle,” including “establishing performance standards, maintenance standards, and alert thresholds for safety sensors.” He did not endorse the increased fines for railroads laid out in the bill.

The NTSB and Federal Railroad Administration announced reviews of Norfolk Southern’s safety practices after one of its employees was killed in Cleveland and a train derailed in Springfield, Ohio. The Association of American Railroads said this month that it would voluntarily implement some new safety measures in the wake of the disaster, including expanding a network of sensors designed to catch overheating bearings. Its chief executive, Ian Jefferies, is also set to appear at Wednesday’s hearing.

First Published March 21, 2023, 6:35pm

Remember the year Sam Roman was here as chief of police? Leading the LPD to victory in a cook-off at the street festival that summer, and hosting a free dinner for the public in Richardson Park? He went back to Roanoke as chief of police there, and has just been named one of two assistant city managers. He was such a regular guy that he never even made his sterling credentials known, but here they are, from Cardinal News:
"Roman has earned certificates from the FBI National Academy, the Senior Management Institute for Police at Boston University, the Professional Executive Leadership School with the University of Richmond, the Executive Command College with the University of Virginia, and in Leadership and Collaboration in Government with Harvard University, according to the city release. He has served on boards including Total Action for Progress, the Community Services Board, Region 1, and the Roanoke Rescue Mission."

Kindly pm me for more instructions and details.
This program is to build a simplified Address Book application (console version). The Address Book will allow employees or contractors working for a company to search contact information of their peers. The program should allow users to:

• View all employees/contractors contact information
• Search by name
• Insert new contact

This program should cover:

• Linked List implementation
• Abstract classes with pure virtual functions
• Polymorphism and dynamic_cast
• Operator Overloading

Sample run of your program:
TP Communications Address Book Menu

1. View all contacts // polymorphism
   
2. Search by name // operator overloading
   
3. Search by department // employees only - dynamic_cast
   
4. Quit
   

Select an option (1-4): 1
// showing all contacts
// ..............................................
TP Communications Address Book Menu

1. View all contacts
   
2. Search by name
   
3. Search by department
   
4. Quit
   

Select an option (1-4): 2
Enter a contact name: Jane Doe
Sorry no match is found.
TP Communications Address Book Menu

1. View all contacts
   
2. Search by name
   
3. Search by department
   
4. Quit
   

Select an option (1-4): 2
Enter a contact first name: James
Enter a contact last name: West
// display James West contact information
// ..............................................
TP Communications Address Book Menu

1. View all contacts
   
2. Search by name
   
3. Search by department
   
4. Quit
   

Select an option (1-4): 3
Enter a department: Engineering
// display all employees in Engineering department

1. Quit

Select an option (1-4): 4
Thanks for using our AddressBook. See you again!
​
// main.cpp

#include  #include  using namespace std; class Name { private: string first_name_; string last_name_; public: // constructors Name(); Name(const string& first_name, const string& last_name); // getters string get_first_name() const; string get_last_name() const; // setters void set_first_name(const string& first_name); void set_last_name(const string& last_name); // overloaded operators bool operator==(const Name& other) const; // friend functions friend ostream& operator<<(ostream& os, const Name& name); }; class Contact { protected: Name name_; string business_phone_; string email_; int location_; Contact* next_; public: // constructors Contact(); Contact(const Name& name, const string& business_phone, const string& email, int location); // destructor virtual ~Contact() = default; // getters Name get_name() const; string get_business_phone() const; string get_email() const; int get_location() const; Contact* get_next() const; // setters void set_name(const Name& name); void set_business_phone(const string& business_phone); void set_email(const string& email); void set_location(int location); void set_next(Contact* next); // pure virtual function virtual void print() const = 0; }; class EmployeeContact : public Contact { private: string department_; public: // constructors EmployeeContact(); EmployeeContact(const Name& name, const string& business_phone, const string& email, int location, const string& department); // getters string get_department() const; // setters void set_department(const string& department); // overrides print method void print() const override; }; class ContractorContact : public Contact { private: string project_; public: // constructors ContractorContact(); ContractorContact(const Name& name, const string& business_phone, const string& email, int location, const string& project); // getters string get_project() const; // setters void set_project(const string& project); // overrides print method void print() const override; }; class ContactList { private: Contact* head_; public: // constructors ContactList(); ~ContactList(); // getters Contact* get_head() const; // insertions void insert_contact(Contact* contact); void insert_employee_contact(const Name& name, const string& business_phone, const string& email, int location, const string& department); void insert_contractor_contact(const Name& name, const string& business_phone, const string& email, int location, const string& project); // search methods Contact* search_contact(const Name& name) const; void search_employee_by_department(const string& department) const; // print methods void print_all() const; void print_employee_contacts() const; void print_contractor_contacts() const; }; class AddressBook { private: ContactList contact_list_; public: // constructor AddressBook(); // user interface methods void main_menu(); void view_all_contacts(); void search_contact_by_name(); void search_employee_by_department(); void insert_new_contact(); }; int main() { AddressBook address_book; address_book.main_menu(); return 0; } 

​

So you’re an eager AS200 ready for field training. You got your bag packed with your extra set of OCP boots, your FTM is all tabbed up, and you got 20 9-Line cards for the rest of your flight. You’re prepared, but you don’t know what to expect. You need advice, you want the POC to tell you how to prepare. Never fear, I will offer my genius insights on how to get the most out of field training. This advice might not be helpful, but hey, its coming from a POC.
· Sequencer: So there’s this off brand-Gatorade they put at every water cooler. It’s served through normal Gatorade dispensers and you drink it through these flimsy paper cups. It comes in five flavors: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, and Purple. First off, double up your cups. Those paper cups will decompose in seconds, use two or three to minimize leaks. Secondly, I would recommend staying away from the yellow and green flavors. They are not as good, are generally saltier, and the CTAs don’t know the right ratio for those two. Lastly, mix the flavors. Mixing Red and Purple yields this concoction so ungodly good you’ll wish you never had to drink anything else. Blue and Red is also okay. Using Red or blue with yellow is also a good way to boost the inferior flavors.
· DFAC: Don’t greet the staff table. You will have to eat at the DFAC a bunch, it is annoying, know the procedures. If you can ever volunteer to do something during lunch, do that. Not only will you get longer to eat, but you may get some neat opportunities. I met the first sergeant during my max and got to have a lunch with them because of it. You will be offered to take snacks as well. You may not be the type of person to take snacks. ALWAYS TAKE YOUR SNACKS. You may frequently have lunch of dinner super early and get hungry later, and if not I can guarantee you there are flight mates who would kill for your pop tart. Also, the wrappers for the granola bars when I went had coupon codes for free minecoins on them. Even at FT, the grind never stops. You will probably have water minimums every meal. You can drink for the rest of the day. Still drink your water (see below), but focus on your food. You only get ten minutes to eat (ask for time extensions if you need them!) so use the time for food.
· Drink water: Duh. But seriously. Don’t be that one weirdo that gets stripped naked by staff because you had a heat stroke. Water is amazing and I cannot emphasize how important it is. I drank almost 15 liters in one day once. Also it gives you an excuse to go to the bathroom frequently, which is really your only break in the first few days. Also, be sure to fill up your pack every chance you get. You never really can know how long you are going to go without having another chance.
· Sleep and Hygiene: It is hard to fall asleep at 2000, especially if you are coming from the west coast. The first few days will be annoying as well. After about two days you will fall asleep very quickly (I’ve never heard of even the roughest sleepers taking more than 15 minutes to fall asleep). The lights out hours are enforced, so be sure you are sleeping when you can. Your body will wake you up automatically five minutes before 0400 in a few days, so in the dark silently make your bed or brush your teeth if you didn’t have time last night. Oh yeah, brush your teeth, it may be hard to find the time but don’t get cavities from FT. I would suggest brushing teeth in the shower if you can’t find time. I know too many people who didn’t find time to brush their teeth.
· Gossip: yes, really, get to know each other, share what you know. Did you overhear and FTO say that Romeo flight was going to VW TD-7? Spread the word! Do not hold knowledge that can help your flight to yourself, because such behaviors really stand out and FTO’s will really ding your flight rankings. Lots of people go into FT trying to know everything and be the big up-front leader. People who step on toes get ranked much worse than those who repeatedly fail but demonstrate growth. Point is, you will hear things. Set up a recall roster in your flight. Also don’t be afraid to ask for things, such as allowances to break the flight path. Also, just share what you know. If you came with extra FDE cards for everyone, share! If you have feedback for an ORI, share! The flight halls should have public bulletin boards for MFRs, use those. Your evaluators will notice.
· Talk to the Chaplains! You might not be religious, that is totally cool, but the religious services were an outstanding spiritual experience and just asking to talk with the chaplains is a great way to get a quick break within bounds. Talking with them will not negatively impact your rankings in any way, and I cannot emphasize how amazing they are. Seriously, do not be afraid to put yellow or red for mental health in your journals. Lying about your issues does not make them go away. Talking to the chaplains just might. I got to go on some walks and have some nice drinks with them while talking about life. An excellent reprieve.
· Feet: oh yeah, this is a big one. There is a reason you put this on your weekly journal. You will not have an option to wash your shoes, so be sure you pack a burner pair. Maybe also get extra insoles. Air out your shoes every night if you can, maybe pack some Lysol. Wash your feet when you shower, sleep without socks on if you need, and watch your feet to treat any potential blisters immediately before they get to you.
· Actually go: this one is fun. Apparently, every year like half a dozen people just don’t show up to FT. When called, they’re just like “oh yeah I don’t wanna do ROTC anymore.” It is past that point, you have committed, so be sure you are fully present. Don’t not go, and don’t go and not be present. Actually be there, and care why you are. Don’t do an SIE or whatever the self elimination is called. You may want to, but talk with the chaplains first and realize, it’s only a few more days. Focus on one day at a time. VW is a blast and it gets a lot easier. The CTAs warm up. No one I know of did an SIE after TD-3, so just bear out the first few days, as rough as they are.
· Packing List: Take a pair of nail clippers, your own set of moleskin, and extra thing of wet wipes or Lysol, extra shoes and arguably more socks. Write your locker combo in your FTM (AND ALWAYS LEAVE YOUR SECURITY LOCKER LOCKED—most common form 17 and was responsible for one dismissal at my max.) Take an extra set of civilian clothes so once you are done you can change out of IUs for the ride home. Keep in mind you won’t hear music for two weeks, so think about what the last song you hear is going to be. Also you can take extra stuff as long as its not contraband (consumable, electronic, or a distraction) so take extra stuff. You will have a lot of fun time at VW and maybe even get some places where you want to kill time. There is no harm in taking extra things to help you prepare.
· Learn marching jodies: calling cadence for 15 minutes in the heat sucks.
I probably forgot a bunch of stuff so maybe I'll be back.

CARB rejects petition to ban fumigant
The Air Resources Board has denied a petition by environmental groups to phase out sulfuryl fluoride, a fumigant used in homes and food processing plants.
Californians for Pesticide Reform and the Center for Biological Diversity charged that the pesticide is a potent greenhouse gas. But CARB found the petition lacked data connecting the pesticide to a climate impact. The agency also worried about alternatives to the pesticide, potential economic impacts and a rise in termites in homes.
Rice commission seeks drought flexibility
State statute requires members of the California Rice Commission to be actively farming, even when half of the state’s rice fields go fallow. Now lawmakers are seeking more flexibility to ensure the commission represents all farmers.
The Assembly Ag Committee has approved a measure that would override the restriction during a drought emergency. Commission CEO Tim Johnson explained that the east side of the Sacramento Valley had a crop close to normal, while the west had almost no rice. Half of the valley now gets 80% of the votes, the rest only three seats.
Research could resolve tension in wine industry
A new bill is requesting $5 million to fund research into smoke taint in wine grapes.
The issue came to a head in 2020, when smoke taint led to $3.7 billion in losses. State, federal and private funding has since poured into research, but more is needed to identify the compounds and mitigate the impacts.
Tim Schmelzer, vice president of state relations at the Wine Institute, described it as a desperate need for research. He noted that smoke taint has created tension between growers and vintners due to testing constraints.
Jackson Gualco, a lobbyist for winegrape growers, warned that the issue could create a stigma that a prized California product has less than full integrity.
Feds award first of $1B in community wildfire grants
The Biden administration on Monday awarded $197 million in grants to help 22 states and seven tribes prepare for the coming wildfire season.
The funding will boost firefighter housing and pay, treat fuels on federal forest lands and help manage fires, with a focus on low-income communities and tribes. The grants are the first from a new $1 billion community protection program that stems from $7 billion in wildfire funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act.
The 100 projects in the initial round will also help high-risk communities, nonprofit organizations and state forestry agencies establish protection plans and educate homeowners on prevention practices like cleaning roof gutters and clearing vegetation.
Read our full report at Agri-Pulse.com.
WOTUS ruling sparks divided response
A decision from a federal judge in Texas halting the implementation of WOTUS in Texas and Idaho prompted diverse reactions, even within the ag community.
The American Farm Bureau Federation cheered the injunction, the only one to be issued among a handful of lawsuits challenging the Biden administration rule, which went into effect Monday. AFBF President Zippy Duvall said the judge’s ruling “undermines the [EPA and Army Corps of Engineers’] rationale for pushing through this new rule before the Supreme Court rules in Sackett v. EPA.”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, however, emphasized the fact that the rule would remain in effect in 48 states.
“While we appreciate the court’s injunction of the rule in Texas and Idaho, we are strongly disappointed in the decision to keep this WOTUS rule in place in 48 states,” said NCBA President Todd Wilkinson, a South Dakota cattle producer.
The National Wildlife Federation said the decision “sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the urgent restoration of federal clean water protections nationwide.”
The Supreme Court has yet to issue its Sackett decision, which could force EPA to take another look at the rule.
Read our full report at Agri-Pulse.com.
Food insecurity on the rise
As food prices increased over 10% from December 2021 until December 2022, the share of adults reporting food insecurity rose from 20% to 24.6%, according to a new report released by the Urban Institute.
Food insecurity hit Hispanic and Black adults at a higher level, nearly double the increase when compared to white adults.
“Households experiencing very low food security not only report reductions in dietary quality and variety but also experience reduced food intake and skipped meals, presenting a more severe indicator of household hunger,” the report states.
Food banks continued to report strong needs as federal support decreased and food costs increased. Nearly one in six adults (about 16%) reported their households received charitable food in 2022, down from 17.4% in 2021. That also was down from the height of usage in 2020 at 19.7%, but well above the pre-pandemic rate in 2019 of 12.7%.
Producers exercise caution as interest rates roil farm country
Federal Reserve action to curb inflation is also having an impact on the business decisions of American producers, according to a panel of ag economy experts speaking Monday at the Agri-Pulse Ag and Food Policy Summit.
Interest rates have ticked higher over the last year, and media reports indicate another quarter-point hike could take place this week. After years of robust commodity prices and a solid farm economy, many producers have cash on hand, and they’re using it to avoid relying on changes in the market for credit.
“The one place that the high interest rates are really bothering (farmers) is their operating notes,” Joe Outlaw, a professor and extension economist with Texas A&M, said during a panel discussion. “The cost of (planting) crops is so much more across the board; not just fertilizer went up, but everything went up.”
Read our full report at Agri-Pulse.com.
She said it:
“Imagine a world where your diagnosis is being treated by what’s on your plate, not what’s in a pill” – Cathy Burns, CEO of the International Fresh Produce Association, speaking on a panel about prescribing food as medicine at the Agri-Pulse Ag & Food Policy Summit.
Philip Brasher, Jacqui Fatka, Bill oms0n and Noah Wicks contributed to this report.
Biden WOTUS rule enjoined in Texas, Idaho
https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/19089-biden-wotus-rule-enjoined-in-texas-idaho
As Inflation Squeezed Family Budgets, Food Insecurity Increased between 2021 and 2022 Subtitle Findings from the Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey
https://www.urban.org/research/publication/inflation-squeezed-family-budgets-food-insecurity-increased-between-2021-and-2022?utm_source=Agri-Pulse+Daybreak+WEST&utm_campaign=ee4016ecb3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_03_21_02_44&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-ee4016ecb3-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

My name is Thomas Saul, I am a member of the Skatin Nations tribe in British Columbia, Canada. I am of Salish, and European descent. I began this project around May 2021 when news broke about the Kamloops residential school where the remains of 215 children were allegedly found. As a teenager I briefly Attended Norkam secondary in Kamloops, and have friends and family who still live in Kamloops, so this hit close to home. Upon my research into The origin of this residential school I found that Israel wood Powell, a Freemason, was the Indian Superintendent at the time it was built. Four generations of my family attended residential schools, some in Port Alberni and some Mission City, so naturally I wanted to know more. I have come to the conclusion that Colonisation, Freemasonry, and residential schools go hand in hand. Its a Fact, both the United States and Canada would not exist without Freemasonry, Therefore many Freemasons played a leading role in the genocide of Indigenous Americans. “Freemasonry, as it exists in various forms all over the world, has a membership estimated at around 6 million worldwide.”
Genocide: The UN definition, which is used in international law, states that genocide is: "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group," as such:(a) "Killing members of the group;"(b) "Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;"(c) "Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;"(d) "Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;"(e) "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
The supreme governor of the Church of England is the head of the Church of England, a position which is vested in the British monarch. The father of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 King George III was not a Freemason, George III had announced that the colonies would no longer seize Native lands or purchase them without treaties. Starting in 1763, no English settlers could legally travel through or acquire land west of the Appalachian Mountains. The proclamation specifically stated that Native Americans had been subject to “great Frauds and Abuses” and that their sovereignty should be protected. Freemason Thomas Jefferson in his list of 27 grievances accused the king saying “He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes, and Conditions.’’ Thomas Jefferson did this to build support for the revolutionary act that the Declaration of Independence would represent. It was suspected that the Freemasons were behind the Boston Tea Party, the American War of Independence, the french revolution, and Napoleonic France triggering British prime minister William Pitt’s, the Unlawful Societies Act of 1799 where he aimed to see Freemasonry abolished. Some Freemasons addressed Pitt explaining how vast their membership is and its connection to Royalty and As a result, Freemasons were excluded from the Act, but lodges were obliged to return a list of members to the local Clerk of the Peace every year, which are recorded in the Quarter Sessions.1. King George IV reigned from the death of George III until 1830, he was the first of many British Freemason kings and was the head of the Anglican church. William IV, Edward VII, Edward VIII, George VI were also masons. In the 209 years since the Union of the Premier and Ancient Grand Lodges to form the United Grand Lodge of England, a member of the Royal Family has been its Grand Master for more than 150.
A Freemason warrant of constitution is the Document which authorizes or gives a Warrant to certain persons therein named to organize and constitute a Lodge, Chapter, or other Masonic Body. The first Warrant for a military Lodge was issued by the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1732 to the First British Foot Regiment. Within a few years the Grand Lodge of Scotland and both the Grand Lodge of England, Modern and Ancient were issuing Warrants to military Lodges. In 1733, 18 men gathered at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern on King Street in Boston and organized the first Masonic Lodge in North America. The first record of a military Lodge Warrant being issued in the new world happened during the French and Indian Wars. It was issued by the then Provincial Grand Master at Boston to the 28th British Foot in an expedition against the French at Crown Point. Edward Cornwallis became founder in December 1748, of a military Lodge in his regiment, the 20th. Foot, No. 63, on the registry of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. The warrant was issued to Lord George Sackville, Lieut. Col. The Hon. Edward Cornwallis and Captain Milburne. When in 1759 this famous regiment gained new honors at the battle of Minden, that name was immediately adopted as the name of the lodge. Cornwallis’ second lodge was founded in Halifax early in 1750 or possibly earlier, under a “deputation” or dispensation from Major Erasmus James Philipps of the 40th. Regiment at Annapolis Royal, Provincial Grand Master for Nova Scotia under Henry Price of Boston. Of this lodge, known as the First Lodge, Cornwallis was the first Master. Cornwallis In October 1749, issued an order that came to be known as the Scalping Proclamation. His government would pay a bounty to anyone who killed a Mi’kmaq adult or child in a bid to drive them off mainland Nova Scotia.
Sir William Johnson, an agent for the British Indian Department met Joseph Brant, a 9-year-old Mohawk boy while doing a land deal with Joseph's father King Hendrick. Sir William eventually started a common-law relationship with Joseph's sister Molly giving him incredible power over her tribe. Johnson groomed young Joseph Brant to become a loyal warrior and eventually leader of the six nations tribe. At 13 years old Joseph accompanied Johnson on his first tour with the military. Missionary Samuel Occham, a student of Eleazar Wheelock (father of The Great Awakening) procured a 19-year-old Joseph Brant to attend Moore's Indian charity school in Lebanon Connecticut with the blessings and charity of William Johnson. Freemasons Benjamin Franklin and Benedict Arnold had also donated money to Wheelock’s cause. William was the British Crown's first superintendent of Indian Affairs for the colony in 1756 and Joseph Brant was appointed as a captain in the Indian Department. Many Freemason colonists were high-ranking military who waged many wars on the Indigenous American population, scientists say so many Indigenous people were killed as a result of colonization it caused a mini ice age. After the North American wars, many Freemasons took positions as Indian agents helping to remove and segregate the native population. Anyone who wanted access to the six nations had to go through Indian agent Sir William Johnson and his family which includes the Brant family and the Kerr family through various marriages. At one point Johnson proposed that the moor's Indian Charity School move from Lebanon, Connecticut, to Johnstown but it never happened. Eventually, Johnson withdrew the support for Wheelock. In a letter Wheelock had suggested to Lord Dartmouth "The Nations will not make war with us while their Children, and especially the Children of their chiefs are with us” Dartmouth college claims that In 1766, Johnson was invited to join the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG), the largest and most influential Anglican missionary society in the 18th-century British-Atlantic world. He began working to place Anglican missionaries like Freemason and bishop Charles Inglis, rather than Congregationalist and Presbyterian ones, among the Six Nations. I believe Moore's dubbed “the great design” was the original model for the Mohawk Institute and the Canadian residential school system.
On April 10, 1766 Sir William Johnson was raised to the position of Master Mason of St Patrick's Lodge No. 4 where many Freemason Indian agents like John Butler, Guy Johnson, Sir John Johnson, William Johnson Kerr, Christian Daniel Claus, Gilbert Tice, George Croghan and A protégé of Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, Rev. Samuel Kirkland attended. In 1770 Johnson's fellow St Patrick's lodge Freemason Rev. Samuel Kirkland coincidentally parted ways with Wheelock and Moors charity school. Eventually Kirkland founded the Hamilton-Oneida Academy as a boys' school in central New York. In 1776 Joseph Brant was initiated into the Freemason fraternity in London England where it is rumoured a benefactor of Moors charity school king George III gave Brant his masonic apron. When Brant returned to Canada he became affiliated with Lodge No. 11 at the Mohawk village on the Grand River, of which he was the first Worshipful Master, and later affiliated with Barton Lodge No. 10. Joseph Brant invited fellow Freemason and grandson of Eleazar Wheelock to be a minister to the Mohawk. To Joseph It was imperative that Freemason Rev. Davenport Phelps was made minister of the Mohawks, so he reminded the Bishop, through Sir John, of the pledge which the Archbishop of Canterbury had made to him in the presence of the King, that whenever the Indians, by the erection of a church, should be ready for religious instruction, he would do all in his power to supply their wants. A Freemason named Rev. Robert Addison helped make this happen. Mr Addison, a relative of William Johnson, had been minister to the Six Nations and Joseph Brant and Freemason John Norton were his translators. Freemason Reverend Davenport Phelps and Jarvis Wheelock, the brother of Eleazar, were invited to Canada and granted land by Freemason and founder of the family compact John Graves Simcoe, the man behind the Simcoe patent. Mrs Simcoe in her Diary says, “In April of the following year Mary Brant (sister of Freemason Joseph Brant and common-law wife of Freemason Indian agent Sir William Johnson) successfully prescribed a favourite Indian remedy, the root of sweet flag (acorus calamus), for Governor Simcoe, who had been extremely ill with a persistent cough. The medicine relieved his malady “in a very short time. This brought the Brant family and Simcoe family close together. Davenport Phelps became the Worshipful Master of The Barton Lodge under Freemason William Jarvis and he was the first chaplain at the Mohawk Chapel. Davenport was the leader of many Indian agents who were members of The Barton Lodge. I suspect Davenport's mission was to help with the so-called Indian problem.
Chief Joseph Brant has been accused on many occasions of selling off land for his own enrichment and in a lot of cases he sold land to Freemasons. He granted 999-year leases to many families, the Nelles, the Young’s, the families of Adam Young UE, his three sons, Lieutenant John Young (Indian department) UE, Sergeant Daniel Young UE, and Private Henry Young UE, along with Captain Henry William Nelles UE and his families (Rev. Abraham Nelles). Many of these Indian agents were members of The Barton Lodge. Both Captain Henry William Nelles UE and Adam Young UE, fourth great-grandfather of Robert Collins McBride UE, were also the first Freemasons to settle in Haldimand County. Freemasons Robert Kerr and Rev. Robert Addison, William Kennedy Smith, also had land there. "There were very few outright legal sales of our land; 90 per cent of the leased land has never been paid for or paid to Six Nations," according to a research document prepared by Six Nations. Many Freemasons were involved with the Simcoe patent and the Haldimand Proclamation. Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe stated that the Indians could not lease their land since British subjects could lease land only from British subjects. Freemason William Jarvis signed the Haldimand proclamation, Freemason Thomas Ridout surveyor-general was behind the Ridout survey, Freemason Sir Peregrine Maitland lieutenant governor informed them that they had no title to the northern part of the grant, Freemason John Butler acted as an agent of purchase on behalf of the government, Freemason chief John Brant) and Freemason Robert Johnson Kerr finally went to England to lobby on behalf of the Six Nations.
Freemasons King George IV, and King William IV, reigned from January 29 1820 to June 20 1837. The idea of residential school was brought forward by the Freemason Governor of Upper Canada, Sir Peregrine Maitland, within the context of a proposal he made in 1820 to the Colonial Office "for ameliorating the condition of the Indians in the neighbourhood of our settlements." Maitland's proposal contained most of the civilising concepts and techniques that would be adopted in the next three decades. The American Freemason, President Andrew Jackson succeeded in pushing the Indian Removal Act through the United States Congress in 1828 leading to the trail of tears. John Brant solicited help from the New England company to build the Mohawk institute, the first residential school in Canada. The mohawk institute operated from 1831 to June 27, 1970. John Brant appointed Rev. Abraham Nelles son of Freemason Robert Nelles as principal of the Mohawk Institute. Abraham after over 30 years was succeeded by Freemason Robert Ashton. Oronhyatekha aka Peter Martin was also a Freemason and played an important role in the development of the Mohawk Institute. The Arthur of the Historical sketch of the Barton Lodge, No. 6, G.R.C., A.F. and A.M., says “the name of Brother John Brant is connected with important events in the history of Canadian Masonry.” John Brant is responsible for the formation of at least 12 residential schools in Ontario, while Freemason Israel Powell the superintendent of Indian affairs in British Columbia Powell “was able to boast that the government had established seventeen Indian schools, one for each year in office.”. Powell sought to establish several boarding schools across the province and particularly pushed for creating a school in Kamloops to address communities in the province’s interior.The school opened in Kamloops in 1890 and became one of the largest residential schools operated by Indian Affairs. The Freemason Organisation is vicariously liable for all abuses in those residential schools.
In 1837 a Rebellion in Upper Canada was led by William Lyon Mackenzie, who was a fierce critic of Simcoe’s Family Compact, an elite clique of businessmen and many Freemasons. Mackenzie opposed a system of land grants that favored settlers from Britain. Many Freemasons such as William Botsford Jarvis and Sir Allen Napier Macnab who was Joint premier of the Province of Canada helped stop this rebellion. Sir Allen Macnab was succeeded by Freemason Sir John A. Macdonald as Joint Premier. This Rebellion of 1837, this triggered the 6th generation Freemason Lord Durham to write The Durham Report, he was appointed governor in chief of British North America. In his 1839 Report on the Affairs of British North America, he recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be united under a single Parliament, with responsible government. In 1863 a steamboat named the Brother Johnathan) carried smallpox from San Francisco to British Columbia killing 1/3rd of the Native population. Many Freemasons like Thomas Harris the first mayor of Victoria, Israel Wood Powell who served in the Victoria Rifle Volunteer Corps which was established to protect the colony from the indigenous population, Amor De Cosmos who was the extremely racist editor of The Daily British Colonist, and Ronald J. NcDonell clerk for magistrate Pemberton who forced The Nuu-chah-nulth to leave their camp, escorted by two gunboats. There are many many more who may have purposefully mishandled the smallpox epidemic of 1863. British freemason Edward Jenner created the life-saving smallpox vaccine but on the other hand Freemasons Jeffrey Amherst and Col Henry Bouquet have been accused of distributing smallpox contaminated blankets to their enemies.
As early as 1866 Israel W. Powell, with his colleague Amor De Cosmos, had proposed confederation with the Canadian colonies. Israel Wood Powell, Superintendent of Indian affairs also outlawed potlatching an indigenous ceremony In British Columbia. Following the Lord Durham’s report, Freemason Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon proposed The British North America Act, 1867 Under section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867, the federal government has exclusive legislative authority for "Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians." Of the 36 Fathers of the Canadian confederation, 11 were Freemasons. One being Freemason Sir John A. Macdonald, He was named by the United Grand Lodge of England as their Grand Representative near to the Grand Lodge of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald took a page from American Freemason Andrew Jackson's book by removing the Indigenous people from their land. He was proud that he was able to subdue the Indigenous people with less blood shed than his American brethren. One Of Macdonald's Legacies is the Canadian Pacific Railway which displaced many tribes across Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald's campaign promise in the 1870s was that he would have a railway built that would link the country from coast to coast. Freemasons Richard Marpole, Sir Sandford Fleming, Sir George J.A. Bury And the Chinese Freemasons of Vancouver and Alberta made Macdonald’s promise come true. As quickly as the railroad was laid Freemason lodges were erected. Louis Riel a Métis hero, led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its Freemason Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to defend Métis rights and identity. The Wolseley expedition was a military force authorized by Sir John A. Macdonald to confront Louis Riel and had been dispatched to Red River under Freemason Colonel Garnet Joseph Wolseley. Another of Mcdonald's legacies is the North West Mounted Police. Macdonald established the N.W.M.P in 1873 which boasted 750 Freemason members in its time. He claimed that “it was intended to have a body of mounted rifles to protect the people from the chance of an Indian war.’’ Meanwhile, The Pacific Scandal, the first major post-Confederation political scandal in Canada, Sir John Macdonald and senior members of his Conservative Cabinet were accused of accepting election funds for the contract to build the C.P rail.
The near completion of the railway allowed troops from eastern Canada to quickly arrive in the territory causing Riel to surrender to Canadian forces. The NWMP barracks was where Louis Riel was detained after his arrest in 1885 for leading the North-West Rebellion. Many Freemasons were involved in the defeat of Louis Riel. The RCMP museum had a display of the noose which hung Riel. Macdonald said this about Riel "He shall die though every dog in Quebec barks in his favor." John A. Macdonald is also one of the fathers of the Canadian Indian act First passed in 1876. In 1879 Freemason Nicholas Flood Davin wrote the Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds, otherwise known as The Davin Report. An amendment to the Indian Act in 1894 under Freemason Prime Minister Sir Mackenzie Bowell, made attendance at day schools, industrial schools, or residential schools compulsory for First Nations children, resulting in over 100000 Indigenous children being forcefully removed from their families by Indian agents and the RCMP. From 1740 to 1896 The Mexican government's response to the various uprisings of the Yaqui tribe have been likened to genocide particularly under Freemason Porfirio Diaz. Due to slavery and massacre, the population of the Yaqui tribe in Mexico was reduced from 30,000 to 7,000 under Diaz's rule. One source estimates at least 20,000 out of these Yaquis were victims of state murders in Sonora. It was during this period of the conflict that the United States Army fought the last battle of the American Indian Wars, the final battle being the Wounded Knee Massacre December 29, 1890, and in the subsequent Drexel Mission Fight the next day. In recent history the statues of Freemason John A. Macdonald, Freemason Edward Cornwallis, Freemason George Washington, Freemason Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Freemason Robert E. Lee and Andrew Jackson have all been vandalized but no mention of their affiliation to the Freemasons in the news. We can't point fingers at the church or government without first confirming whether or not the accused are Freemasons. The Order of the Eastern Star, Job's Daughters, and Rainbow Girls are masonic fraternities for women such as the daughter, widow, wife, sister, or mother of a Master Mason. All masons will cry out that Freemasonry has nothing to do with what an individual member has done, yet they all praise these men and prop them up as heroes. Freemasons claim to have superior morality compared to the average person, that they are the most honorable men on the planet, yet they refuse to acknowledge their members role in the genocide of the Indigenous Americans.
You may believe Freemasons are irrelevant nowadays but that is far from true. Winston Churchill is regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century. Churchill was initiated into Studholme Lodge No. 1591 on 24 May 1901. He said of the Pashtun people “all who resist will be killed without quarter,” Pashtun territory was occupied by the British in 1848 and divided into two areas. Winston Churchill's policies caused a famine that claimed more than 3 million Indian lives during the The Bengal famine of 1943. President Harry Truman, known as one of the most dedicated men to have joined Masonry on the morning of August 6, 1945, ordered an American B-29 bomber to drop two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians. John Edgar Hoover, more commonly referred to as J. Edgar Hoover, was an American attorney and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Hoover was raised on November 9th 1920 in Federal Lodge No. 1 in Washington D.C. In 1919 Hoover became the head of the Bureau of Investigation's (predecessor of the FBI) new General Intelligence Division. The division was also called the Radical Division because it was the task of the division to find radical elements in American society to monitor and disrupt their activities. The Duke of Kent was initiated as a Freemason in Royal Alpha Lodge No. 16 in London on 16 December 1963. The Duke of Kent, is now UGLE’s longest-serving Grand Master. The Duke’s brother, Prince Michael of Kent, is also a Freemason and is Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons, and Provincial Grand Master of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Middlesex. On 6 March 1953, HRH Prince Philip progressed to the Second Degree of Freemasonry, before advancing to the Third Degree on 4 May 1953.
I encourage those who have been affected by the actions of Freemasons to begin a class action lawsuit against this organization in what ever country, state or province you live in and hold Freemasonry accountable for genocide. The first thing a Freemason will say when presented with this evidence is you don't know how masonry operates, that the lodge is not responsible for individual members actions. That is exactly what the Catholic church said before the Canadian Court of Appeal on July 28, 2020 had found the Archdiocese vicariously liable for abuses committed by a civilian employee. I witnessed countless people stand up against the Catholic Church for what they have done and the Pope came to Canada and apologized. Now it's time to turn your sight toward Freemasonry. You must understand that all Freemasons on the American contenent have greatly benefited from the genocide of Indigenous Americans.
“ Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's acceptance of an inquiry's finding that Canada committed genocide against Indigenous people could have tremendous legal impact if a court ever weighs Ottawa's responsibility for crimes against humanity, experts say.”
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/trudeau-s-acknowledgment-of-indigenous-genocide-could-have-legal-impacts-experts-1.5457668
"I didn't use the word genocide because it didn't come to mind but I described genocide," Pope Francis told reporters on the papal flight from Iqaluit to Rome on Friday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/pope-francis-residential-schools-genocide-1.6537203
“The very word "secrecy" is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.”
― President John F. Kennedy
“President Kennedy issued an Executive Order prohibiting use of facilities on military bases by groups not integrated. The result was to bar Masonic lodges from using the bases.” Masonic Parallels with History - A Chronology of General and Masonic History by Alphonse Cerza. themasonictrowel
THE MILITARY AND FREEMASONRY
Freemasonry in Nova Scotia
Freemasonry at the Two Sieges of Louisbourg 1745 and 1758
Freemasonry in Quebec
Sir William Johnson, the Brant family, the Kerr family and the British Indian Department
MOOR’S INDIAN CHARITY SCHOOL
Mohawk Institute (Mush Hole)
The rebellion of 1837
Manitoba Freemasons
Saskatchewan Freemasons
North-West Rebellion
Provincial Premiers Alberta masons
The Canadian Pacific Railway
Smallpox epidemic of 1862
British Columbia Freemasons
Freemason Prime Ministers
American Freemasons and the genocide of the
Indigenous peoples.
Spanish Freemasons
Royal Freemasons
300 Years of Freemasonry Celebrated at Royal Albert Hall Global Event
Freemasonry according to Masons.
The Fourth Council of Toledo Canon 60 and Indian Residential Schools
Sources
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQ4QiANX3BnEdEwD94FXfh1Nkg_RJ-XN5UhN0_gLX10isR2i08xUziA9ZX7sErUMdp4PTKKPhP0P7F2/pub#h.fpjzhjnusgk1

这是我曾经向我的朋友倾吐我身上的灾难，发泄压力时所作的解释。老实讲，不熟悉英文的话，机翻就好，内容有些部分换成中文会难以启齿 The thing is about 2019, I have accumulated a little influence through activities in some of the larger online communities. but,I have not used that for my personal image. Since I certainly thought that the Internet in China could be intentionally controlled by the government (not just censorship), I analyzed the state of public opinion at the time and found the target of someone I thought was an official.
He pretends to be a sane populist ,and, while uninteresting, always conducts relatively influential online activities. I deliberately pretended to be close to the same point of view as him and then kept shifting our conversation in other direction, implying that I knew he is official, he finally admitted, the evidence is that after that I tried to do something that might normally would get hit by censorship in common, but unexpectedly didn't get any.
When I say officials here, I don't mean the very obvious kind of robot opinion-controller who serves an unintelligent public. He disguised himself as a sane person to engage in so-called opposition activities, and, most importantly, he had the power to cross the distance of social software through personal connections to keep me safe from the direct hit of censorship.
I kept in touch with him until June 2020. At that time, China's internet censorship became very strict and I thought it was time for me to do something else, so I alienated him. Looking forward to 2021, I think the opportunity is ripe. At the time, a group of what I thought was a government-manipulated opposition group developed, all operating outside of GFW, at the time - mostly reddit. I was there to help build that community, like I didn't know that the administrators of that community and the manipulators behind it were the government. I did a lot of activities pretending to be someone who happened to be very smart, undermining their control, including debating with all kinds of people, making predictions about what was to come (my predictions were accurate enough to prove that I was obvious genius). When the time was right and that group had grown very influential (although a lot of the opposition who held by GFW didn't look there at all, but there was a great reputation there, so... ), I disclosed the purpose of what I did , continuing to announce to everyone that this is a hoax. My approach works. since I started doing it, knowledgeable, creative users keep silently leaving there. I put out a lot of evidence of experimental action, and that community quickly became unsustainable. But these so-called opposition groups are people with no economic motivation and little ability to organize, so I don't intend to let things develop too much. I'm just here to bust the government's scam. I don't know how important my actions are, but after I've been doing it for a while, there are people who are suspected officials who start doing unusual things, and they go around saying don't overdo it.
Chinese people are very stupid, they see these unusual things, a small number of people know what's going on, they don't help me but leave on their own, most people pretend it's not under the control skills of social psychology occur,choosen ignore. That's when I realized that if I continued, I'd only be able to develop this into something that I couldn't go back to, and I'd hit the upper limit of tolerance they've been hiding for control. So I gradually moved away from the opinion where I expressed my surrender.
The end result was that I brought 4 months of chaos to that community, but the subsequent impact was not measurable. That group can no longer grow up now. Although many people are silent, occasionally someone suddenly remembers my prophecy and what I said. I'll make an example of how important that community is. I think that in the West, both racists and feminists are, to a certain extent, tools of the government to control public opinion, and they have both been for a long time. This practice is only going to get worse in China. The meaning of that community in China is the sum of racism + democracy + good populism, and the voices of rogue feminists can't be compared to them, and can't seem to be comparable to them when they are active. But after my campaign, their voices are very weak compared to feminists. (I don't think feminists = bad people, but they will never become a group with sincere intentions under the manipulation of the government... omit this part)
My living conditions were so bad that I had no way of getting a job under very strict censorship, after I suffered a lot from worrying about the future: I tentatively disclosed my previous activities to the official I knew before identity in. I can't be a part of the work they do, I just want to prove my abilities and try to be their advisor and find opportunities to immigrate (sounds like adventurers from the colonies). If they don't accept it, they may arrest me right away. But surprisingly they didn't, I was terrified at first, and then I waited for the opportunity with peace of mind. I've been waiting since January of this year, until May to test their receptivity, and even started to do something outrageous (usually at least result in my account being banned), but nothing happened. until June. Because I see that the government's lockdown policy due to the coronavirus is about to lead to famine. I thought that was bound to happen, so quickened the urging of their voices
After I've said the above, I need to briefly describe my story and what that means. (They are all successful examples, I have not made a prediction of failure since 2020)
Basically a very early prophecy: I told them a week before the war in Ukraine that war was coming.
I think the US will find various reasons to ease the blockade of China
I think Xinjiang is more likely to be the focus of attention than the human rights situation of Chinese nationals or Tibetan/Myanmar
i think switzerland will suddenly take a stand in the ukraine war
The predictions I have made so far include:
The United States will focus on many social problems to one-time solution, and in fact has always regarded China as the target of its actions
Putin had a back deal to start the war in Ukraine (I said it here too, and showed that the war would last a long time. Now I say if the US is ready to act against China, the war in Ukraine will end)
Enthusiasm for these actions which going to China in the United States will suddenly rise, and tech giants and social media giants are looking for opportunities to indulge public opinion
Europe will temporarily remember the justice of colonialism
Apart from international issues, my predictions on social issues require too much explanation to write here,so ,I will explain the impact I have made.
The current enthusiasm for constitutionalism and enlightenment in China is the result of my previous actions
The smooth progress of the current power struggle within the ccp is partly the result of my previous actions. Roughly speaking, I have spread that China is not an autocratic monarchy but an aristocratic republic.
The acceptance of elitism among Chinese people is improving, which is also the result of my previous actions.
As you might imagine, these influences were caused by my Voltaire-like "performance". . .
No one else is on the same path as me but me, so you can almost be sure that it's all my credit
The public opinion environment in China is a very bad place. People are so stupid and lack personal credibility that they are actually easily manipulated by the government, so you can also think that I influenced public opinion by influencing individual officials. A lot of the public have long forgotten me, just as they have forgotten many things, but the officials who manipulated them had remember
After I finished my previous actions, I chose a new place (an anonymous board) to negotiate with them anonymously (what happened here is not new to me). This is the third time I've been looking for them, I don't know who I'm treating/how much power he has, I don't know how widely my deeds have spread, but since June, all this has made me Crazy development.
At first I was just urging them normally that they should hire me as a consultant, then I found out that some kind of response to my words was going on for a long time and still happening now. When I say I'm short on money right now, another person complains "My girlfriend doesn't reply to me, just asks me for money". I did not ignore such replies this time. A big part of my mental illness is because I'm an mtf and it's impossible to disclose that identity in the environment I'm in. I haven't made it public, but if they were an officer with knowledge of psychology, they would probably guess. So I jokingly said, "I'm so ugly, I'm pessimistic because I can't dress as a woman," and they started responding with a lot of encouragement.
It was an open environment, so our conversation went on in a signal for a few days, and I kept making it clear that my attitude was that I wanted money. Here's the summary: There is one specific individual, as an official, who knows about a recent selfie on my phone (government and business unite, a commonly invasion of privacy), and wants to be in a relationship with me! ?
I don't know his gender, age, position, attitude towards what I've done, what he's been up to lately, but he encouraged me to say I'm not ugly and that he's okay with rough dress.
I'm pretty confident about my appearance as a man, but chronic stress has made my skin really bad. Because I'm an mtf, I've been giving up on my male appearance all the time, and there are even many small accidental wounds on my body (he doesn't know this). As a woman, my appearance can only be said to be more like a child, but I is taller.
I realized that even though we were not publicly identified, officials like each other would not be low-ranking officials. I politely declined, guessing that the other person might actually be a female (older), but that the other person indicated that he was male and would not mind some violence if I had been refusing.
It looked like a shit story.
and when it happened, it was really bad. I can't just say no outright, it's dangerous, and I really need the money to get away from China's impending disaster, so I can't provoke him.
From June 4th to June 8th (I said it here, and...I actually meant it), I negotiated quite a lot, and finally chose to accept his proposal, but kept my desire to emigrate (I hope He will give up when he sees me in person). The final answer to the matter was ,the limited frame he said yes is june 8. he refused , let the negotiation stand in the am 0.00, saying "I hope we can easily have sex with each other and not think about it in the first place. my identity". He said he wished he and I would start with some sex-related conversations, almost wishing me to flirt.
Here, I thought that he might just be dissatisfied with me because of my previous actions, and at the same time dare not really hurt me, so he used this method to insult me. So I have always refused, my negotiating condition is unless he can guarantee to let me immigrate.
Our "negotiations" have since broken down, and I've even begun to do something dangerous that would make me re-emerge as troublesome by the government that he was forced give me answer. He tolerated these, but made no statement. Knowing now, I still don't know what my future holds and how exactly this happened. I still haven't seen him in person, don't know his age or gender, and haven't been punished for what I did.

March 21, 2023
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Good morning,
The Daily Upside
Laxman Narasimhan, who was slated to take the reins as Starbucks' CEO on April 1st, is already in control of the global coffee giant, outgoing chief Howard Schultz told staffers in a surprise goodbye memo on Monday. While Schultz's two decades as the most caffeinated exec in America ended in a finely-ground fog of labor disputes that will put him before Congress in the coming weeks, Narasimhan apparently couldn't wait to get started, and must have been pounding ventis in the wings.
Morning Brief
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The banking crisis is crashing The Fed’s inflation fight.
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Microsoft keeps sweetening the antitrust pot.
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China gets creative trying to boost its birth rate.
Fiscal Policy
The Fed Weighs Inflation, Banking Crisis Ahead of Possible Rate Hike
Here we go again. The Federal Reserve will decide on Wednesday just how aggressively it wants to pursue its rate-hiking, inflation-fighting campaign, only this time it will do so against the backdrop of a roiling bank crisis.
Addressing one crisis may only exacerbate the other, and (surprise, surprise) pretty much all of Wall Street has an opinion on what Fed Chair Jerome Powell and his board should do.
Powell’s Sophie’s Choice
It’s less a question of what Powell will do than what will happen when he does it. The smart money is on yet another 25 basis point increase, an acknowledgment that inflation — as well as the high consumer spending and a strong labor market — remains persistent. A month ago, another small hike may have been met with optimistic predictions of a soft landing. But that crash-free fantasy has been harshed by the reality that many mid-tier, regional banks are at risk of becoming overleveraged if rates continue to increase, potentially sending them the way of Silicon Valley Bank.
The Fed is already at work mitigating the spread of SVB’s collapse, offering some banks one-year loans on more friendly terms than the current 4.75% interest rate, and sources told The Wall Street Journal that Fed officials could continue to utilize emergency lending tools if the banking sector continues to falter. But inflation is likely to persist whether or not banks are properly prepared for rate hikes. That leaves Powell fighting a war on two fronts, putting him in a position of potentially having to pick between his two mandates: maximum employment and price stability.
Suddenly everyone is turning to their personal crystal ball to see where the Fed falls:
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“I would advise them to go ahead with the 25,” Richard Clarida, Fed vice chair circa 2018 to 2022, told the WSJ. “If they pause, you can get into this ‘what do they know that we don’t know.’”
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Eric Rosengren, former Boston Fed president, offered a different perspective to the WSJ: “One 25-basis-point increase now will have a fairly modest effect on inflation, but it could have an amplified effect on financial conditions.”
Have Your Rate and Eat it Too: Some rate-hike doves have raised an alternative viewpoint: the prospect of becoming the next SVB may be scaring banks into self-consciously tightening their own lending policies — which is the intended effect of a rate hike anyways. “You would want to say, ‘This is doing some of our monetary policy job for us,’” former Fed Governor Jeremy Stein told the WSJ. “If you can communicate that well and effectively, the choice between 25 and 0 is less consequential than how you explain it.”
- Brian Boyle
Tech
Microsoft Says It Wants To Launch App Store Rival
(Photo Credit: Ed Hardie/Unsplash)
As if Microsoft weren’t already all up in Google’s grill with its gussied-up new Chat-GPT-powered Bing, now it wants to make an app store too.
Xbox head Phil Spencer told the Financial Times Microsoft plans to launch an app marketplace to compete with Apple and Google as soon as next year, so long as antitrust authorities wave through its proposed acquisition of game maker Activision Blizzard.
Press F To Persuade Regulators
Xbox’s owner announced its intention to buy Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in January 2022 and if it goes through it will be the biggest deal in video game history. But it’s faced some full-throated objections from Xbox’s rival PlayStation. The fear is that ownership of game titles means Microsoft could potentially make them Xbox exclusive, and execs at both companies have publicly bickered over whether Microsoft could seal PlayStation gamers off from wildly popular games like Call of Duty.
Microsoft has already run into some sticky patches with regulators. The UK Competition and Markets Authority said last month the deal raises concerns, and the company has been trying to convince the EU of the deal’s soundness by notching licensing deals with competitors (though not PlayStation).
Spencer’s comments about launching a Microsoft app store are not entirely out of the blue as the company started laying the groundwork in October, but the timing is important:
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The new EU Digital Markets Act is expected to come into force in March 2024, and may compel Apple and Google to allow access to each others’ app stores on their devices. For Apple especially, that’s a big hole being blown in the side of its walled garden.
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Regulators in the EU have previously targeted Apple and Google’s control of their app stores with antitrust investigations, so Spencer’s comments seem geared towards portraying Microsoft as a competitive force to challenge the Gapple duopoly.
Candy Crushing It: Microsoft opening up its own app store for mobile games would come with some distinct advantages. The Activision Blizzard deal would bring mobile game maker King, which makes the era-defining phone game Candy Crush, under Microsoft’s umbrella. Plus a bespoke app store would mean being able to side-step the in-app payment taxes both Apple and Google impose.
- Isobel Asher Hamilton
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Economics
Chinese City Launches State-Sponsored Dating App
What’s more romantic than a candle-lit dinner? A candle-lit dinner organized by your local city officials.
Guixi, a city in China with a population of around 640,000 inhabitants, has launched its own dating app with the aim of boosting the marriage rate in the region and, implicitly, the birth rate.
Baby Un-boom
Local Chinese authorities have ramped up their interest in boosting China’s birth rate since the nation’s population was found to have fallen in 2022 for the first time in 62 years. Declining birth rates have long spooked sovereign states, as they portend aging populations with more retirees and a proportionally smaller workforce to pay into state pension pots.
China has tried to clamp down on a tradition it views as partially responsible for young people’s reluctance to get married, where a prospective husband pays a sum to his bride-to-be’s family. In recent years, the prices have shot up:
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One local official told Bloomberg families charge suitors as much as $43,000 as a betrothal gift.
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China has added a raft of other policies to encourage marriage and kids such as promoting marriage leave, increasing subsidies for newborn babies, and making it easier for unmarried couples to register children.
China isn’t the only nation pulling the Tinder card. Japan has also used state-sponsored matchmaking services to combat a now three-decade-long decline in births. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in January the nation was "on the brink of not being able to maintain social functions." So, no pressure, kids.
The Wrong Approach? Pronatalist policies are not necessarily a good solution to declining birth rates. Prof. Feinian Chen, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University, told Bloomberg that the increasingly entrenched expectation that women will stay home and raise the children means “the opportunity costs of having more children or having children at all are simply too high.”
- Isobel Asher Hamilton
Extra Upside
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Not So Prime Time: Amazon is laying off another 9,000 employees.
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Eager for Beavers: London wants to introduce a beaver couple later this year.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/report-us-economy-grapples-nearly-133100437.html
As detailed in the report, widespread workforce shortages are playing a significant role in both elevating and perpetuating inflation. Across the country there are almost 11 million jobs waiting to be filled—a near-historic high. Even if all currently unemployed workers could fill those job openings, the nation would still have a shortfall of more than five million workers—a scenario that underscores why comprehensive immigration reform is imperative.
Left unaddressed, the current labor shortage problem risks jeopardizing long-term economic growth and prosperity. Making the challenge all the more difficult are troubling demographic trends: As the US population ages and birth rates decline, labor shortages will only intensify without immigration being part of the solution.
"Increasing the nation's quantity of labor will require a two-pillar approach. To preempt a shrinking workforce, expanding US labor force participation through steps including reskilling, diversifying talent pools, and supporting older workers and caretakers is a first-order priority," said Dr. Lori Esposito Murray, President of CED. "But, it is not the panacea. Also essential is comprehensive immigration reform that expands legal pathways and encourages immigrants' immediate contribution to the workforce. Further delays in reform will continue to put severe pressures on the US workforce, which will hinder overall innovation, productivity, and growth."
PR Newswire Tue, March 21, 2023 at 8:31 AM CDT·6 min read NEW YORK, March 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Committee for Economic Development, the public policy center of The Conference Board (CED), issued a new Solutions Brief, Immigration Reform: An Essential Key to Growth.
As detailed in the report, widespread workforce shortages are playing a significant role in both elevating and perpetuating inflation. Across the country there are almost 11 million jobs waiting to be filled—a near-historic high. Even if all currently unemployed workers could fill those job openings, the nation would still have a shortfall of more than five million workers—a scenario that underscores why comprehensive immigration reform is imperative.
Left unaddressed, the current labor shortage problem risks jeopardizing long-term economic growth and prosperity. Making the challenge all the more difficult are troubling demographic trends: As the US population ages and birth rates decline, labor shortages will only intensify without immigration being part of the solution.
"Increasing the nation's quantity of labor will require a two-pillar approach. To preempt a shrinking workforce, expanding US labor force participation through steps including reskilling, diversifying talent pools, and supporting older workers and caretakers is a first-order priority," said Dr. Lori Esposito Murray, President of CED. "But, it is not the panacea. Also essential is comprehensive immigration reform that expands legal pathways and encourages immigrants' immediate contribution to the workforce. Further delays in reform will continue to put severe pressures on the US workforce, which will hinder overall innovation, productivity, and growth."
The Solutions Brief—which can be accessed here and is the latest in CED's Sustaining Capitalism series—examines both the short- and long-term economic impacts of the nation's current workforce shortages. It also provides a series of recommendations, consisting of a two-pillar approach, for both policy and business leaders.
Key Recommendations from the Solutions Brief
Rebuilding the US labor force will require policy and business leaders to collaborate on a two-pillar approach: increasing American workers' participation rate and comprehensive immigration reform. CED recommendations include:
Increase and support American workers' participation rate
Increase public-private provision of training and incentivize upskilling. Together, private and public sector leaders should collaborate with employer-driven consortiums of colleges, broad-access institutions, and other trainers. They should work to link skillset development with job opportunities in apprenticeship and credentialing programs.
Support older workers who wish to remain working. Eliminate disincentives to employment by removing the Medicare benefits cliff, piloting repeal of the Social Security retirement earnings test, and implementing flexible work arrangements.
Expand and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Incentivize more people with low-income job prospects to enter the labor force by permanently expanding eligibility to adults without children.
Expand workplace flexibility for workers with dependent care responsibilities. In response to today's diverse workforce, business leaders should strive to provide workplace flexibility for employees to care for children or other dependents without impacting their careers. Public policy leaders should prioritize pre-K education opportunities for at-risk children.
Lower barriers to participation and mobility. Reduce geographical limitations and occupational barriers, diversify talent pools, and move towards competency-based hiring and promotion models.
Enact comprehensive immigration reform to support the US labor force
Secure the border to reduce illegal immigration. Responsible reform must begin by addressing the border with an influx of resources for asylum officers, judges, and facilities, while making investments in systems to boost processing capacity.
Broaden enforcement of US immigration laws through a mandatory E-Verify system. The E-Verify system would better ensure that jobs are filled by screened applicants. This serves the dual purpose of deterring unauthorized migration by nearly eliminating job opportunities they are able to fill, and by shrinking the potential pool of offenders who law enforcement authorities must identify.
For undocumented immigrants already residing in the US, develop a bipartisan plan for lawful pathways to permanent residence, predicated on extensive screening. Such a pathway would allow them to fully integrate into the workforce, the mainstream economy, and their communities.
Allow immigration to boost the labor force by opening additional pathways at all skill levels to work authorization and permanent residence as needed across the economy.
Improve processes and upgrade capacity for immigration application and approval. Resources to upgrade capacity and processing speed are necessary to make immigration more effective for immigrants and businesses, helping to compete with other countries to recruit workers.
Pilot programs to address labor gaps.
Establish a Workforce & Immigration Policy Advisory Board