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UPDATE: The Theory Of 'Steroidal Puppeteers'
By 6:06 am Sep 14, 2009
EDITOR'S NOTE: On Feb. 11, we published our theory of "Steroidal Puppeteers" in the ASD case. One of the prongs of the the theory holds that people with criminal intelligence superior to ASD President Andy Bowdoin were smart enough to let him do their bidding or recognized him as the perfect stooge while they remained out of sight to accomplish their illicit goals. In some cases, the goals were not reached before the government ended the criminal feast. This is an update to the theory. Part of this column exists as a review. Under the "Case Within The Case" subhead, you'll find some information from a government document filed in December that may demonstrate the U.S. Secret Service was aware that some autosurf purveyors perhaps were inclined to cherrypick expert testimony from the ASD evidentiary hearing last fall to rationalize the birth of a new autosurf or autosurfs.
It's looking more and more as though the U.S. Secret Service recognized right away in July 2008 that AdSurfDaily was no ordinary autosurf, that there was a story within the story, a case within a case. Let's walk back the surface story, and then consider the case within the case.
Surface Story
Andy Bowdoin
UPDATED 1:15 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The surface story included assertions that ASD President Andy Bowdoin had received a "Medal of Distinction" for business achievement from the President of the United States. Those assertions were easy to refute and, in fact, had been refuted by hobbyist investigators on Internet message boards prior even to the entry of the Secret Service in the case.
Regardless, Bowdoin posed with the medal, even taking it on the road with him, while suggesting ASD had amassed a giant pot from which it would hire lawyers to make its critics pay for their lies. ASD members cheered Bowdoin's giant pot and informed critics on message boards that they would be sued, that ASD "legal" was aware of the smear campaign against the company, a smear campaign blamed on jealous MLMers.
And the advocates also traded on the medal. At the same time they were doing this, an Ohio drug addict also was trading on the same medal, which has no importance at all, does not signify business achievement and can be obtained by writing what amounts to a check for banquet tickets.
In the August forfeiture complaint, the Secret Service noted that ASD members were trumpeting the medal, using it as proof the ASD autosurf was unlike all the other surfs that had operated as Ponzi schemes. At the same time, members trumpeted Bowdoin's remarkable record of business success. These things clearly were GIGO; garbage came in, and garbage went out. Compellingly, the IRS entered the case right away. The entry by the IRS, alongside the Secret Service, now looks like the first signal of the case within the case.
ASD members' GIGO that followed later — through the fall and winter, and into the spring — is more explainable now, with the passage of time and the emergence of more facts. At first, however, it looked like unrestrained madness, a sort of viral delusion. Some of the early efforts of ASD supporters were just plain irrational:
The early spin efforts positioned the Aug. 1 seizure of ASD's money as a net plus, something that would give the surf the opportunity to demonstrate to a government that was merely confused by technology and the new way of advertising online that it had misread the ASD business model. Bowdoin was like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and Henry Ford, people who had changed the world. ASD would be back up and running quickly. Members would profit from Bowdoin's genius for years to come.
When the Secret Service arrived with search warrants a few days later and effectively announced that it was not confused at all, that Bowdoin had been convicted in a previous securities scheme and that Golden Panda President Clarence Busby had been implicated in a previous securities scheme, ASD's supporters became much more shrill. Bowdoin went on to compare the government's acts to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The government, which had been cast in the earliest hours as merely confused, then was cast as evil. The Secret Service and prosecutors were cast as a gang of Nazis, and the ASD case became Theatre of the Absurd.
Theatre of the Absurd also now looks like a signal of the case within the case. Explanations became so tortured that they took on an almost comical quality. It was argued — and is still being argued, for example — that Big Box retailers and car manufacturers provide rebates, therefore ASD's rebates were legal. (Rebates generally are not illegal; selling unregistered securities is. So is wire fraud. So is money-laundering. So is racketeering. So is mail fraud. So is operating a Ponzi scheme to fund the rebates. ASD supporters' arguments rarely addressed any of these things, deflecting to the general legality of rebates, which was never in question. What was in question was ASD's form of rebates and how they were funded.)
Some of the earliest efforts by ASD supporters to win the PR war were so bizarre they resulted in a PR backlash that kept ASD constantly in the news. There was an effort, for example, to discredit Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and suggestions he should be charged with Deceptive Trade Practices for daring to inform the public about a scam. Rarely does one see such a bizarre approach to influencing public opinion, especially from a company that purports to be a professional communications firm.
Some ASD advocates called for AARP, which advocates for senior citizens, to advocate on behalf of ASD, which was accused of fleecing senior citizens in a Pyramid and Ponzi scheme. (AARP later joined with McCollum in an effort to tighten Florida securities laws.)
The Surf's Up forum held a party online at the conclusion of the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 evidentiary hearing, complete with images of fireworks and champagne. Members were fed one-sided reports and persuaded that ASD had cleaned the government's clock at the hearing. The prosecutors were heckled, ridiculed and made the butt of jokes. Observers who place a high importance on objectivity were stunned. Objective observers knew that ASD's effort in the courtroom was a Hail Mary pass early in the legal game, not as time was expiring, not with the government's case on the line. Andy Bowdoin, the purported Presidential medal-winner, took the 5th on the advice of counsel. He'd already put himself in a box by requesting emergency release of funds by claiming ASD could not pay its bills, apparently forgetting to tell his lawyers that he'd already told prosecutors that ASD had $1 million offshore in Antigua in an account under a different name.
ASD said it would submit to court monitoring, which sounded good, but could not take prior crimes off the table. Bowdoin would become a sort of sacrificial lamb, taking himself out of the day-to-day operations of the company to appease the government, but there was no real way to divorce Bowdoin from what essentially was a wink-nod business to begin with.
There was no real way to tell immediately if ASD or individual members had hidden money to prevent its seizure. Some individual ASD members, for example, sold ad packs to downline members, deposited the money in their own bank accounts and shifted the value of the ad packs to the purchasers by using ASD's internal system. This easily can be construed as a form of tax avoidance, wire fraud and money-laundering. So, from the government's point of view, ASD was committing crimes on a grand scale, even as individual ASD members perhaps were committing crimes on a lesser scale and using their local banks to stockpile illegal gains.
The mere fact ASD provided this utility to sponsors destroyed any possibility that ASD's records were reliable. Members clearly were using ASD as a business within a business for illicit purposes. It was particularly odious because a Ponzi always is burdensome. ASD was a Ponzi that was not even collecting all of its own revenue, and individual members effectively were guaranteeing their own income by siphoning it off before it even reached ASD, thus placing an even greater strain on the Ponzi.
Case Within The Case
The reason we're updating the theory of Steroidal Puppeteers is that it was written before we had knowledge of the proffer letter Bowdoin had signed in the case and before he had embarked on his pro se litigation campaign.
Bowdoin's behavior has been mind-boggling, so much so that he appears to have placed members of his family and close business associates in grave legal danger — perhaps with their complicity. Some qualifiers — the word perhaps, for example — are necessary because it is not known publicly if other proffer letters exist in the case and the extent to which ASD insiders were cooperating with the government prior to the launch of the AdViewGlobal (AVG) autosurf, which has close ties to ASD.
It is possible that Bowdoin wrongly assumed he had the unquestioned loyalty of certain people in the organization, while failing to make the calculation that the government had tremendous leverage over certain individuals. It is equally possible that Bowdoin's behavior had become so extreme that he created "enemies" in his own camp because his seat-of-the pants management style and unpredictable behavior could implicate them.
At the same time, it is possible that certain loyalists peeled off to save themselves and joined the government camp, recognizing that the ASD enterprise was in an impossible box.
Along those lines, it also is possible that certain ASD members prevailed upon Bowdoin to ramp up the criminality. Some people within the enterprise have criminal records. Others have filed bankruptcies ranging from spectacular to garden-variety, including people Bowdoin knows well. Some people have been sued because of their business dealings. Like Bowdoin, some members have been associated with multiple businesses in multiple locations and organized company after company, a possible marker of money-laundering and racketeering.
What's not known is the degree to which Bowdoin recruited them or the degree to which they saw Bowdoin as a means to accomplish their own illicit agendas — or the degree to which they worked with Bowdoin in concert. Some people could view Bowdoin as a monumental fool who cost them lots of money.
It also is known that tax-deniers, tax-schemers, stock manipulators and people who associate themselves with sovereignty movements — however loosely connected — exist within the ASD organization. Underground credit-repair organizations, including individuals who take extreme approaches, also are a part of the enterprise.
Federal Reserve conspiracy theorists exist within the enterprise. Multiple individuals who have engaged banks in bizarre litigation have been identified, including individuals who purport to believe that banks do not lend "real" money and therefore should have no expectation that debts can be collected if a borrower defaults.
Moreover, at least one person with a tie to ASD has been implicated in a money-laundering case involving an international drug operation whose home base is Medellin, Colombia.
Others with ties to ASD have been implicated in other Ponzi schemes — including judicially declared or successfully prosecuted Ponzi schemes — recycler matrices, and scores of failed autosurfs, including an autosurf that had invested in at least 26 other autosurfs or HYIPs before the enterprise was smashed by the SEC.
The precise reason Bowdoin morphed into a pro se litigant after releasing his claims to tens of millions of dollars seized by the Secret Service — and, as a pro se litigant, tried to undo his decision to submit to the forfeiture — is not publicly known. The agenda, however, may not be uniquely Bowdoin's.
Perhaps the greatest mystery of all is why Bowdoin would acknowledge ASD was operating illegally and sign a proffer letter, which signals a willingness to cooperate in untangling the mess, perhaps for some consideration — and then reverse course. The proffer letter could have been signed on any date between Aug. 1, 2008, and Jan. 13, 2009.
If Bowdoin signed the proffer letter knowing full well that AdViewGlobal was on the drawing board, it could be viewed as a five-alarm deception. If he signed the proffer letter after the ruling on the evidentiary hearing went against him in November, he may be an unrepentant criminal. If he signed it prior to the ruling, he may be an unrepentant liar and largely responsible for yet another grand fraud.
Prosecutors perhaps filed the December forfeiture complaint — the second against assets tied to ASD — for an underlying reason not addressed in the August complaint . The reason may be that they already knew a background plot was under way, but did not know the precise details. Subsequent actions by AVG participants perhaps interfered with a government investigation in progress.
If Bowdoin or AVG participants use the opinion of ASD expert witness Gerald Nehra that ASD was not a Ponzi scheme as a presumptive ace-in-the-hole to justify the launch of AVG and claim ASD hadn't technically been ruled a Ponzi by a court, then Bowdoin and participants have demonstrated they have no respect for the judicial system.
Here is what federal prosecutors said in the December forfeiture complaint, which targeted other ASD assets, including the assets of AVG figures George and Judy Harris: (Emphasis added.)
"Mr. Nehra did not tell ASD that ASD was legal before ASD commenced, or ceased, its operation," prosecutors said.
"At no time during ASD's operations did Mr. Schwartz, or any attorney from [the Akerman Senterfitt law firm], tell ASD that it's operation was legal."
Bowdoin's various pro se motions, all of which read like political statements and not cogent legal arguments, are still pending because Bowdoin didn't follow up with them until ordered by a federal judge to state his intentions. The deadline for Bowdoin to state his intentions is today. The judge granted Bowdoin two delays totaling about five weeks, because Bowdoin's attorney announced that Bowdoin was negotiating with federal prosecutors.
The mystery of Bowdoin's earlier pro se strategy — before he was ordered to hire a new paid attorney, with his pro se motions still dangling — perhaps can be found in the "political" tone of the filings.
In a March 13 letter published on the Pro-ASD Surf's Up forum, Bowdoin said he was influenced by a "group" of members to proceed pro se and to reopen his claims to the money.
Some members of this group could be among a group of people associated with tax-denial/avoidance schemes and found themselves in the awkward position of losing money they had squirreled away in ASD because of Bowdoin's decision to submit to the forfeiture.
It might not be all members of the group — at least not all members of Bowdoin's blind constituency — because the truly blind lack even a basic understanding of the issues or recite falsities by rote.
But there is nothing subtle about Bowdoin's pro se filings. The filings themselves rewrite the nature of the civil case against money and property and try to turn it into a criminal prosecution of Bowdoin, painting the government as purveyors of fraud, trickery and deceit.
Bowdoin, though, signed the documents. His signature coincided with other developments, including reports that the Secret Service had seized individual bank accounts of some ASD members and a decision by AVG autosurf to morph into a "private association."
The situation is remarkable, bringing out a special brand of insanity. We doubt, however, that it is criminal insanity. Rather, it is the insanity of choosing to be blind when one has the clear option of choosing to see.
Categories: Ad Surf Daily, Alleged Ponzi Schemes, The Economy, Uncategorized
Tags: AdSurfDaily, AdViewGlobal, Andy Bowdoin, ASD, Steroidal puppeteers, Surfs Up
2 Responses to "UPDATE: The Theory Of 'Steroidal Puppeteers'"
alasycia
Sep 14, 2009 at 9:46 am	| Permalink
Congratulations on an excellent article. Hopefully, after the Judge has responded to Andy Bowdoin's filing, we will start to see the next stage – Judge Collyers final judgement to close the civil forfeiture case. It will hopefully be followed by some action in the criminal courts. Andy Bowdoin's new laywer is, I believe, a specialist in criminal, rather than civil law.
Maybe we will find out some of the answers about the involvement of Steroidal Pupeteers in ASD. Maybe we will also see some names missing from the Government's list too, which will offer us some clues as to WHO ELSE signed proffer letters.
alasycia(Quote)
Sep 14, 2009 at 10:06 am	| Permalink
Hi alasycia,
alasycia: Congratulations on an excellent article.
alasycia: Hopefully, after the Judge has responded to Andy Bowdoin's filing, we will start to see the next stage
The judge now has at least one more pro se filing to address. It was docketed today, and seems to have been received Friday.
admin(Quote)
« Surf's Up Mods Have High Positions In AdViewGlobal BULLETIN: Bowdoin Blames Lawyers, Continues To Fight »
Another Scam In Zeekland Region
SINISTER: TrafficPowerline, A Ponzi-Board 'Program,' Threatens BehindMLM
Effort To Raise Funds To Stone 'Goliath' With $50 'Rocks' In Federal Court Apparently Delayed Owing To Need To Perform More 'Testing'
BREAKING NEWS: Government Seeks Golden Panda Default
GLOBAL POST: Canadian Cops, Lawyers, Judges Named In Multimillion-Dollar 'Liens' Or 'Ecclesiastical Notices'
PRONOUN MYSTERY: 'We Plan To Go After Akerman [Senterfitt] Next,' AdSurfDaily Member Writes; No Immediate Comment From Law Firm That Represented Andy Bowdoin
BIZARRE: 'Program' Dubbed 'CashCropCycler' Has Ponzi-Board Presence And Zeek Pitchman While Touting Payouts Through PerfectMoney, SolidTrustPay And EgoPay — And Saying It Provides JSSTripler-Like Signup Bonus Of $10
BULLETIN: Trevor Cook Sentenced To 25 Years In Federal Prison; Victims Lost At Least $158 Million In International Forex Ponzi Scheme That Traded On Religion
BULLETIN: Stephen B. Darr Appointed TelexFree Trustee


text:
I Broke Up With TV Last Year and We're Not Getting Back Together
When I turned off the television I discovered six hours a day for having a life.
By Steve Eakin January 11, 2018
Last year was the year that I finally broke up with my TV.
Blend Images | Klaus Tiedge | Getty Images
It wasn't really intentional, just a gradual thing. I'm sorry TV, I've just changed. I've fallen out of love. It's not you -- it's me.
Ok, that's a lie. It's you. It's definitely you.
I don't know what the specific moment was that had me turn off the damn TV, but it happened.
I'm just sick of it. Sick of the time wasting. Sick of the horrible jokes. Sick of the sitcoms with weak male characters. Sick of the same tired format. Sick of how easy it can suck you in and eat an hour of your time just like that.
I'm over this addiction. We're still friends though. I still have my shows that I watch. I'll still watch football on Sunday. I'll still chill out with some stupid cartoons every week.
Related: Attention Binge-Watchers: Watching Too Much TV Could Potentially Kill You
Hell, I'll still watch some informative, how-to programming in bed at night to help put me to sleep. (Yes, I know it's better to not do that. But I like it, so I'm going to keep doing it.)
I still pay for every single channel offered simply because on the occasion that I want to sit and veg out for an hour, I can do it without a limited selection.
But putting it on for background noise? Using it to kill the time? Nope. Done with that.
That's time better spent by reading, writing, working out, being outside, having a hobby, working on one of my businesses or playing with my family.
Not a tough choice here: Improve my life or be a zombie? Strengthen family ties or watch the same jokes with different actors every night? Get a new side hustle going or start at a box with my eyes glazed over?
Related: Millennials Spend 18 Hours a Day Consuming Media -- And It's Mostly Content Created By Peers
Most people I know are watching more than four hours of this crap every day. They don't even realize it, then they complain about being in a dead-end job. They complain about not having enough time to read. They complain that there's nothing on TV.
But when asked about why don't they go do something else instead, the answer is always the same: No energy. If you're too drained after work to enjoy the rest of your day, maybe you're doing the wrong thing.
Related: 8 Time Wasters Stealing Your Productivity
If you don't have enough energy to live outside your 9-5, maybe you should spend more time doing what gives you energy instead of draining your energy.
Twentyfour hours is a lot of time.
Sleep for seven, you have 17 hours left.
Commute for two, 15 hours left.
Work for nine, six hours left.
Six hours to spend time with your family. Six hours to enrich your life. Six hours to build your business. Six hours to enjoy a hobby. Or, six hours that can be thrown away watching garbage programming.
I'm done with that addiction. I'll choose life.
Steve Eakin
Steve Eakin is a speaker, investor, startup advisor and the founder of Startup Black Belt, where he helps tech startups launch, grow and scale.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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And Sunday is winding down nicely, Alhamdulillah: ice water, RantBook(tm), David Alan Harvey's Cuba book. If not for this headache, it would be bliss.
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text:
Ringing Intensity
'Madama Butterfly' from San Diego Opera,
reviewed by MARIA NOCKIN
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was already a well-known composer when he started writing Madama Butterfly. He had risen to fame with La Bohème and continued in the spotlight with Tosca. In 1900, while he was in London supervising the première production of Tosca at Covent Garden, he saw a performance of David Belasco's play Madame Butterfly. Puccini knew little English, but he was fascinated by the Japanese ambiance and its contrast with the culture of B F Pinkerton, the American naval officer. He knew that this story could become the basis for an interesting opera. When the show was over, he also looked at the story by John Luther Long, after which Belasco had patterned his play.
Once he had secured the rights to Madame Butterfly, Puccini called in Luigi Illica (1857-1919) and Giuseppe Giacosa (1847-1906) who had completed the text for Manon Lescaut and written the librettos of La bohème and Tosca for him. Illica was a playwright who knew drama and the stage. He also wrote librettos for Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chenier and Siberia, as well as Alfredo Catalani's La Wally. Giacosa was a lawyer, poet and professor of literature who wrote a most successful one act comedy called Una partita a scacchi ('A game of Chess') and La Dame de Challant ('The Lady of Challant'), a vehicle for noted French actress Sarah Bernhardt.
Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San (left) and Suzanna Guzmán as Suzuki in San Diego Opera's production of 'Madama Butterfly'. Photo © 2009 Ken Howard
Illica planned out the opera, divided it into acts and scenes and drafted the dialogue. After that, when Puccini was satisfied with the outline of the piece, Giacosa transformed the unvarnished prose text into poetic verses. The première of Madama Butterfly took place at La Scala in Milan on 17 February 1904, but the opera was not a complete success in its original form. It was revised for performances in Brescia (1904), London (1905), and Washington DC (1906). Finally, at the very end of 1906, the composer and his librettists arrived at a more or less definitive version for performances at the Paris Opera Comique.
Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San and Joseph Hu as Goro in San Diego Opera's 'Madama Butterfly'. Photo © 2009 Ken Howard
San Diego Opera presented Madama Butterfly on 12 May 2009, as a revival of the 1998 production originally conceived by Francesca Zambello for Houston Grand Opera, the Dallas Opera and the Grand Théâtre de Genève. In San Diego, the stage direction was by Garnett Bruce who told the story in a generally understandable manner. The Zambello version presents many memorable images, but in some cases she has the chorus of American Consulate workers singing lines that were designed to be sung by Japanese characters.
Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San in 'Madama Butterfly'. Photo © 2009 Ken Howard
Cio-Cio-San is one of Patricia Racette's most appreciated roles. She has sung it in many of the great opera houses of the world and on this evening she was a most convincing heroine. In her entrance scene and in her aria, 'Un bel di', she regaled the audience with floods of well-supported golden tone. Although she no longer looks like a fifteen-year-old, she got her character across the footlights and there were few dry eyes at her final scene.
Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San and Carlo Ventre as B F Pinkerton. Photo © 2009 Ken Howard
Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton was sung by Uruguayan tenor Carlo Ventre who was Radames in last year's San Diego Aida. For most of his scenes he was a happy-go-lucky naval officer who did not expect the geisha to wait for his return, but his remorse was palpable when he realized his error. He sang the beautiful first act duet with soaring robust tones. In the third act aria, 'Addio, fiorito asil', he showed considerable vocal acumen and an ability to act with his voice.
Suzuki was to have been sung by Chinese-American mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao who, unfortunately, has been stricken with a serious illness and is currently undergoing treatment. Luckily for the San Diego company, Metropolitan Opera mezzo Suzanna Guzmán was between engagements. She was a wonderfully caring confidante who moved in a traditional Japanese manner and sang with cream-laden tonal beauty.
Carlo Ventre as B F Pinkerton. Photo © 2009 Ken Howard
Of all the robust and impressive voices in this performance, the most definitive was that of Sharpless, Malcolm Mackenzie. His sound seems to grow each time we hear him and, currently, his vocalism is a wave of ringing intensity. He made the Consul much more of a three dimensional character than usual. Smooth-sounding tenor Joseph Hu was a memorable Goro who would have been happy to help Butterfly out of her predicament if she had listened to him. The wealthy and good looking suitor he brought to meet her, Prince Yamadori, was sung with finesse by Jason Detwiler.
Joseph Hu as Goro in San Diego Opera's 'Madama Butterfly'. Photo © 2009 Ken Howard
Scott Sikon was a malevolent, evil sounding Bonze who made the audience realize that Butterfly's relatives would never dare contact her again. As the uncomprehending Mrs Kate Pinkerton, Crystal Jarrell was a charming new bride with a clear, sweet voice. Timothy Todd Simmons' chorus sang their beautiful Asian style harmonies with precision and added much to Puccini's musical tapestry. The orchestra played with romantic fervor for conductor Edoardo Müller and his well chosen tempi made the performance unfold smoothly.
Patricia Racette as Cio-Cio-San. Photo © 2009 Ken Howard
Sadly, this was the last of San Diego Opera's productions for this year. We have been used to their giving us five productions per season, but because of the current recession, we will get only four operas in 2010: La bohème, Nabucco, Romeo and Juliet and La traviata. The casting, however, is magnificent so we can expect fine performances once again from this excellent company.
Copyright © 25 May 2009 Maria Nockin,
Arizona USA
LUIGI ILLICA
SAN DIEGO OPERA
PATRICIA RACETTE
UN BEL DI
JOSEPH HU
SCOTT SIKON
TIMOTHY TODD SIMMONS
EDOARDO MUELLER
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Includes iPod only. No cables, AC adapters, or anything else included. Has many scratches/scuffs on the screen and housing. The edges are deeply nicked. Battery has some life but not as much as it used to. The LCD does not light up. Plays music, connects to iTunes, and clickwheel works normally.


I arranged carryon objects and took a picture of them. So far, I finally finished organizing my things and can now start packing.
I heard that there would be a limitation of 20 kg for check-in baggage before.
Well! I did not have to pay for overweight.
The folding bike in the box and some sundries weighed 19.4Kg, and they were not overweight.
the check-in staff still allowed Mr. Hus to get on the plane because this is not a big deal for the airline.
The plane landed on Kunming Wujiaba International Airport at ten thirty after flying for 4 hours.
which was formed by geologic changes and weather denudation about 300 million years ago.
The Sword Peak Pool in front of me was a place where I felt the most special in the Stone Forest Scenic Region.
and they looked like swords which were under the pool.
The stone forest here was different from previous ones where we were tired of, and it was elegant a lot. We felt novel here, and enjoyed it.
Guo Qiao rice noodles of the Jiang Hong Garden This was the first time I had such genuine Guo Qiao rice noodles (19 RMB).
and did not know that I had to put ingredients into soup for blanching instead of putting rice noodles first.
which made my tongue a little numbing instead of being spicy.
We still had time in the afternoon. Where should we hang out?
and there are the longest spring festival scrolls in the world, which are near the Dian Lake.
So we arrived at Grand View Pavilion at 5:30pm.
and the scenery was clearer than ordinary times after raining.
The longest spring festival scrolls in the world.
In order to catch the plane at 7:00am, we got up at 4:00am.
After one hour, the plane landed on Shangri-La Airport.
and I kept reminding me to move slowly.
Each of us paid 20 RMB for binding our bikes in the boxes on the top of the bus.
The bus traveled from Shangri-La, and kept going north along the National Road No.214.
The distance to Deqin was about 180km.
The road condition was worse than my imagination, and there were more than twenty road constructions along the way.
Was this not a national road?
Why the road condition was so poor which allowed me, an outlander, to be hard to imagine.
I paid a lot of attention to the surroundings along the road, and hoped that I could have a better understanding of it while riding back.
I heard that we would arrive in Deqin about four hours.
So we decided to have a simple lunch first (46 RMB for two people).
and we had been being on the way of the Baimang Snow Mountain whose height was more than 4000 to 5000 meters.
and I felt excited and my blood boiled when I thought that I would ride my bike on the Yunnan-Tibet highway tomorrow like them.
Finally, we arrived in Deqin at 3:40pm, and were scrambling to assemble our bikes.
We had a hard time inflating bikes' tires in such a high altitude.
I was so excited, and took pictures of it immediately.
I rode north about 12 km, and arrived at Feilai Temple scenic area where I planned to stay tonight.
so I took pictures of the holy mountain with bikes immediately while the sunshine was light.
We stayed at Meili Roadhouse next to La Song Supermarket, which provided Wi-Fi.
We got a double room and it cost 90 RMB per night.
We saw out of windows in the early morning and found it was foggy.
There was also cold drizzle often, and we were disappointed because we could not see Meili Snow Mountain.
Our first day for riding was bad weather, and we encouraged ourselves that the weather change was also a part of the travel.
There were some people turning prayer wheels outside the roadhouse.
The special blessing ceremony was novel for outlanders like us.
We also absolutely join them for praying a safe journey.
It was necessary to keep warm while cycling in the rain.
So I stumbled on the idea of wearing plastic bags on my feet to protect my feet from rain, and it kept warm.
It was 9:30am, and we planned to ride to Deqin from Flying Temple.
and then stayed at Benzilan (the total mileage is 110 km).
National Road No.214 is the famous Dian-Zang Highway.
The mileage on the stone tablet was the distance to Lhasa.
If it had not rained, the scenery in the mountains would have been magnificent!
We kept biking uphill for several hours, and did not get any supplies along the way.
Additionally, it kept raining causing a vast expanse of whiteness, and we hardly saw any scenery.
Besides these reasons, cycling with many belongings on the high altitude caused physical exhaustion.
Fortunately, Mr. Hua guided me along the way, and I tried my best to arrive in Baimang Snow Mountain in the end (4:30pm).
I had a hard time taking pictures due to the strong wind and rain here.
I thought we could ride downhill in the next journey; however, we unexpectedly faced an up-and-down road about 10 km!
and I probably got hypothermia if I kept cycling in this bad weather.
At this hopeless moment, thanks to God's blessing, Mr. Hua hitched a ride (6:10pm)!
We quickly put our bikes into the trunk like refugees, and thank God, our bikes were folding!
After that, we took a van driven by a Tibetan man on poor mountain roads for the last 40 km.
Finally, we arrived in Benzilan.
After arriving in Benzilan, we washed our bikes in front of the hotel where we would stay tonight.
We never forgot the joy, which we came through.
Benzilan in the early morning.
we had steamed stuffed buns and drank soymilk at a breakfast store on the street.
Additionally, we tasted buttered tea for the first time (as expected that we were not used to it).
We missed a famous sight spot, Moon Bay, because of hitching a ride yesterday afternoon.
we decided to ride back to see that famous sight where we had been desired.
The weather was good today instead of raining yesterday, so we felt intoxicated and effusive.
We liked this free feeling, and it was really what we expected.
Moon Bay is one of the forty famous sight spots in China.
The winding Jinsha River surrounds cone-shaped hills, and the other side of hills is Sichuan province.
We started to ride downhill in the direction of Benzilan.
It was 1:30pm. After having lunch, we decided to charter a bus (RMB$200) to Nixi in order not to delay today's schedule.
In this way, we did not have to ride the mountain road for 800m/48km, and could arrive in Zhongdian in the evening.
On the way to Nixi, the mountain scene was beautiful.
We arrived in Nixi at 3:30pm, and started to ride uphill for 600m/12km.
We had to ride over a hilltop (3585m) in order to arrive in Zhongdian.
We looked down the Tibetan settlement where we had seen while getting a ride from Zhongdian to Deqin.
Picturesque blue roofs were crisscross and they looked like fairy tale sceneries.
If we could ride around the lake, it must be romantic, so we decided to temporarily increase a journey which was to surround the lake.
We ran into several backpackers, who rode motorcycles, along the way.
we ran into one another on the Dian-Zang Highway temporarily to talk about our routes and motivations.
We rode around the Napa Lake for almost 20 km, and felt tired.
It was dark so we had to ride as soon as possible for the rest of the way.
We arrived in Shangri-La Town at 8:30 pm when the evening lights were lit.
We were pretty hungry, so went to a high-class restaurant to treat ourselves.
and I never forgot the fresh and sweet meat and abundant vegetables.


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Arturo Sandoval Live for Night Two of the Beirut Jazz Festival 2012
Featured, NightLife, Photo Gallery, Videos
5:37 PM September 29, 2012
Arturo Sandoval one of the most dynamic and vivacious live performers of our time, he has been seen by millions at the Oscars performing with Celine Dion, at the Grammy Awards with Justin Timberlake and as a leader, as well as on the Billboard Awards with Alicia Keys. Sandoval has been awarded 6 Grammy Awards, and nominated 12 times; he has also received 6 Billboard Awards and one Emmy Award, the latter for his composing work on the entire underscore of the HBO movie based on his life, "For Love or Country" starring Andy Garcia. His last album "Time for Love" had three Grammy nominations and won two for best album and best production. It was a an honor to have the talented Arturo Sandoval perform live at the Beirut Souks for the International Beirut Jazz Festival. Many attended to catch the wonderful live performance. Check out BeirutNightLife.com's photos from the concert…
Prince Live in Abu Dhabi
Best Bartenders in Lebanon Compete at Zaitunay Bay for Diageo World Class
Bobby Farrell ft. Boney M Live at Beiruf
One on One With Acrobatic Pizza Chef Pasqualino Barbasso
Newer Post Rina Chibany crowned Miss Lebanon 2012
Older PostIs Eminem coming to Lebanon?


Direct flights from North America, Austria's excellent rail network, and everything you need to know about driving in Austria.
Austria has nine provinces. To learn more about a region, click on the map below!


text:
The Highlands Current (https://highlandscurrent.org/2017/03/22/environmentalist-will-speak-garrison/)
Environmentalist Will Speak at Garrison
By Staff | March 22, 2017
"Hear and Now" series continues March 24
The Garrison School PTA will present the latest in its monthly series of "Hear and Now" talks for middle-school students, parents and community members at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 24, when John Cronin, senior fellow for environmental affairs at Pace University and co-founder of Riverkeeper, will speak in the library.
A $5 donation is suggested. Future speakers include chef and food stylist Nicki Sizemore on April 21, Jason Angell of Longhaul Farm CSA on May 19 and artist Melissa McGill on June 9.


What fun celebrating Cinco de Mayo with our favorite wedding planners and vendors! Engaging Affairs had the vision for a fiesta and lassoed an amazing team of talent to pull it off . Thanks to Abby Jiu Photography, Edge Florist and DC Rental for your wonderful work.
We practiced napkin folding, sampled a cocktail and food pairing, and posed with mustache pops made by our very own designer, Helen. Laura and her staff crafted adorable favors that sent our guests away with a smile – Ole'!


When traffic slows and horns honk on the many highways of the San Francisco Bay area, the confines of the city can feel extremely close at hand. Through the work of Save The Bay and thousands of hard-working volunteers, however, Bay Area residents have opportunities to step away from the bustle and noise and find isolation and quiet in the hundreds of miles of publicly accessible shoreline trails, kayak launch points, and bay wildlife viewing areas created in concert with restoration projects dating back to 1961.
Save The Bay is a nonprofit that seeks to increase access to the bay's shoreline while actively advocating for conservation and rehabilitation of surviving tidal marshlands and defunct salt ponds. In an unprecedented vote in June, a $12 parcel tax to fund San Francisco Bay restoration was passed by 70% of Bay Area voters. Known as Measure AA, the tax was championed by Save The Bay and enjoyed widespread bipartisan support from a broad array of stakeholders. Measure AA will generate $500 million for restoration of San Francisco Bay wetlands. The bay has only 44,000 acres of tidal wetlands currently, and a lack of funding has slowed progress on restoring more. The local funding will also help the region leverage additional state and federal funding necessary to restore an anticipated 100,000 acres.
The San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority (SBRA) will collect the money beginning in tax year 2017, and that money will reach projects in 2018. Save The Bay is looking forward to working with the SBRA to ensure that the funds are properly allocated and key restoration projects receive support. As projects slowly begin to receive this new financial boost, there will be additional opportunities for supporters of the measure to volunteer on the ground at restoration sites across the bay.
The San Francisco Bay did not always offer such an abundance of shoreline and wildlife habitat. In 1961, three East Bay women, Kay Kerr, Sylvia McLaughlin, and Esther Gulick, became concerned with the rampant filling of shallow areas and plans to fill 60 percent of the remaining waterway. The future of the bay looked bleak with projections of only a narrow channel for navigation left by 2020. At that time, the public had access to fewer than 6 miles of shoreline, and the bay was choked with raw sewage and industrial pollution. Through petitions, protests, and hard work, more than 30 city garbage dumps were closed along the shoreline, and the practice of dumping raw sewage into the bay was brought to a halt. That movement grew into Save The Bay, which now has more than 50,000 members and supporters.
Save The Bay plays an important part in restoring transition zone habitat as part of their partnership with the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. This work is being done in partnership with the largest wetland restoration project in the history of the bay. South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project and the Coastal Conservancy are responsible for working to restore over 15,000 acres of industrial salt ponds back into tidal wetlands and usable habitat. These lands were acquired from Cargill, Inc. in 2003 and are part of a larger campaign to restore 40,000 acres of lost tidal wetlands to San Francisco Bay. The public can see the results of these efforts by utilizing the nearly 4 miles of newly opened shoreline trails and new wildlife viewing platforms at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve in Hayward. Thanks to these advocates and volunteers, San Francisco Bay is cleaner and healthier than it has been in half a century.
In a far cry from those pitiful 6 miles, today more than half of the bay is ringed with shoreline parks and outdoor spaces linked through nearly 300 miles of Bay trail that is open to the public for walking, biking, and viewing wildlife. Large bay-fill projects have mostly been stopped, and several large-scale wetland restoration projects are underway.
As Save The Bay continues the challenging work of protecting the bay, they are planning for the future with an eye to the effects of climate change, increased development, and increased population. The region is expected to see a 30% increase in population by 2040, placing more strain on an area already brimming with people. A focus on upstream and upland influences means developing strategies for stormwater runoff, pollution runoff, and development regulations. Through the concept of Bay Smart Communities, Save The Bay is working to encourage city spaces that catch more rain, provide more shade, and emphasize green urban infrastructure.
The inaugural Bay Day on October 1 of this year is one example of community outreach to partners bay-wide. Save The Bay hopes this regional celebration of the bay will encourage everyone from cultural organizations and small businesses to city parks and neighborhood associations to celebrate the waterways and shorelines, bringing new attention to the recreation and volunteer opportunities available. Encouraging diverse community participation is a priority at Save The Bay.
Save The Bay's humble beginnings as three concerned women have grown into a transformative nonprofit that has brought restoration and recreation to the residents in the Bay Area. Join Save The Bay to celebrate Bay Day on October 1, volunteer at any of their numerous restoration projects, or just go for a stroll along the peaceful trails adjacent to the bay. No matter which you choose, you'll be helping support decades of conservation in the San Francisco Bay.
To find Bay Day celebrations happening near you October 1, visit www.BayDay.org. To volunteer on a Bay restoration project, visit http://www.savesfbay.org/volunteer. Follow Save The Bay on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or subscribe to their newsletter.


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digkabri2019
"come dig with us in 2019!"
Preliminary Application Form
Credit Course
Come dig with us at Tel Kabri during the summer of 2019! Help excavate a Canaanite palace more than 3,500 years old, with the oldest and largest wine cellar from the ancient Near East, and decorated with Minoan-style floor and wall paintings — which may be the earliest-known Western art yet found in the Eastern Mediterranean!
Located in a quiet rural setting within the western Galilee of Israel, the site of Tel Kabri is only a ten minute ride from the modern resort town of Nahariya, and a bit further from historical Acco, with its Medieval and Ottoman old city, fishing harbor, and traditional market. Today the Tel and its surroundings are an agricultural land, with lush plantations of bananas and avocados overlying the ancient remains.
Kabri represents one of the only possible opportunities available today in the Eastern Mediterranean to easily excavate a Middle Bronze Age Canaanite palace and to test some of the anthropological theories about the rise of archaic states and the nature of various political economies in the Aegean and the Near East. The ready-available palace and settlement, with minimal overburden and with limited previous excavations, allows us to use modern methods such as residue analysis, petrographic analysis, detailed zooarchaeological study, neutron activation analysis, stable isotope analysis, and petrography to gain insights into some of the most important topics relevant to the understanding of complex human societies.
During excavations conducted at the site from 1986-1993 by the late Professor Aharon Kempinski and Professor Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier, a floor and wall frescoes painted in an Aegean manner—probably by Cycladic or Minoan artists—were discovered within a building that they identified as a palace.
Our preliminary excavations in 2005 indicated that the palace, which dates to the Middle Bronze (MB) IIB period during the early second millennium BCE, is at least twice as large as previously thought, with much still remaining to be excavated.
During the 2008 season of excavations we were able to retrieve data from the entire history of the MB palace, from a pre-palatial period through to final destruction. We also found approximately 45 more fragments of wall plaster, at least some of which appear to be painted, and additional evidence for red paint on one of the plaster floors in the palace.
Our 2009 season saw the continued excavation of the palace, with the goal of investigating its life cycle, from humble beginnings to its destruction three centuries later. We were successful in doing so, and in the process found approximately 100 additional pieces of wall and floor plaster, including 60 which were painted.
Our 2011 season yielded more painted fresco fragments and a large building adjacent to the palace, perhaps a temple. In this building, the rooms were lined with carved orthostat blocks still in place, so we are calling it the "Orthostat Building."
And, in 2013-2017, we found the oldest and largest wine cellar in the ancient Near East, in the storage rooms of the palace:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/science/in-ruins-of-palace-a-wine-with-hints-of-cinnamon-and-top-notes-of-antiquity.html?_r=0
During the 2019 season, we will most likely be searching for the heart of the palace, as well as continuing work in the courtyard next to the wine storage rooms.
Tel Kabri short video
https://youtu.be/eTpcRY5WN-E
2017 Season photos
digkabri2019 Blog at WordPress.com.


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Q: Place Wordpress Footer At End Of Page I have a dilemma that appreciates and tries any suggestion put forward. I have a localhost running wordpress using the theme The Fox. I have everything running perfectly except for the footer.
I have some pages that the content does not extend a page, while others extend more than a page and the issue I have is that the footer starts exactly where the text ends and I dont want to add white space because of view port dissimilarities. As you can see below, I have a screenshot of a sample page with small content.

I hope you noticed the extra white space after the footer, which is also on the screen taking the footer to the center of the page.
I want the footer to extend to the end of the page no matter the length of the content or the size of the screen.
Inside the CSS, there is a footer section and it is here on Pastebin but I think the most important one is as below;

footer
{
bottom:0px;
right:0;
left:0;
overflow:auto;
padding:0px;
min-height:70px!important;
height:auto;
position: relative;
z-index: 9000;}

In the footer, I am using just a single column and I think this code handles that... also in pastebin.

 .footer_1_col .widget_wrap
   {
width:100%!important;
float:none!important;
margin-left:auto!important;
margin-right:auto!important;
padding-right:10px!important;
}

And on the footer type, I use type 8, which uses the code;

/**************************************************

   Footer Type 8

**************************************************/
   .footer_type_8 .widget_wrap {
    margin: 10px 0px 0px 0;
    }
    .footer_type_8 .widget {
    margin:0px 0px 0px 0;

}
.footer_type_8 .widget h2 {
font-size:10px;
text-transform:uppercase;
font-weight:900;
letter-spacing:normal;
line-height:14px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding-left:0px;
position: fixed;
}
.footer_type_8 .widget_line {
display:none;
}

Please what am I doing wrong and where do I need to make changes? If you need to see some other code, please let me know and I will post it on pastebin.
Thanks.

A: Special thanks to @Firasd for his comments that made this possible.
All I did was to look for the body element using the browser inspector, and then recalculate the size for that element using the already known static height of the header and footer.
This Was Added to the Page's CSS Section
html,body {height:100%;}#fw_c { min-height: calc(100vh - 162px);}

The theme uses Bakerly Visual Composer and I just had to add the above code to the page I want the changes.
Note that if you have a slider, you will need to put that in your calculation too except if your slider is in a row element.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Posted byroschristifulli	 April 8, 2019 April 8, 2019 Leave a comment on Why You Do Not Need To Know Facebook Ads And Funnels To Run An Agency!!
Posted byroschristifulli April 8, 2019 April 8, 2019 Posted inUncategorizedTags: Why You Do Not Need To Know Facebook Ads And Funnels To Run An Agency!!


text:
12 Comments on Alt-Right Drift Towards "Leftist" Policies
I've recently discussed the combination of Alt-Right and Alt-Left into an Alt-Center synthesis but it has been increasingly brought to my attention that elements of the alt-right already show support for issues such as single-payer healthcare. I was skeptical when commenter Nulle Terre Sans Seigneur told me that Spencer's group and Counter-currents embraced "leftist" policies. I figured it might just be a few outliers. Then Robert Stark of Stark Truth Radio brought it up as well, pointing me to certain links. It appears that actual leaders such as Richard Spencer endorse these issues.
That this is new to me suggests they may downplay their position on this issue relative to others, knowing well it is still unacceptable and equated with evil "socialism" on much of the right. Or, it could be I tend to exclude individual personalities as noise from much of my analysis, preferring to look at trends and incentives. I took a closer look and found Spencer wrote a piece on the issue back in March when Ryancare was the topic of discussion and sure enough, a good proportion of his commenters were skeptical at best about his proposal with libertarian types as usual insisting on a return to "the free market."
I can't honestly say how much influence Spencer or writers for Counter-Currents actually have over the larger dissident right but they have already understood in which direction the natural synthesis of ideas lies. It comes as no surprise to me that Spencer seems to come from an upper middle class or higher background, a demographic that more typically produces alt-leftists or neo-reactionaries. As a fashion-conscious, city-dwelling socialite, who speaks with a faint lisp it seems in retrospect less surprising that his political views might be hybridized in some ways very similar to what I have anticipated.
The alt-nationalists will ultimately go in this direction as a whole. As whites steadily slip from being an overwhelming majority, their politics will increasingly resemble minority politics. In other words, leaders will be expected to bring back pork barrel rewards for their people at the expense of the other tribes. Little do triumphalists or defeatists watching demographic trends realize that a 40% white country where all whites are forced to bloc vote to survive will be paradoxically more formidable in politics than a 65% white population that's deeply divided. As this shift occurs, single-payer healthcare will be tacitly understood as healthcare for whites first.
Just today, it has been decided a dismantling of Obamacare is finally to be discussed on the senate floor. Mainstream leftists are recoiling in horror that the party of rich corporate warhawks is taking away healthcare from ordinary people. It cannot even be explained to them within their egalitarian world view where the popular support for these measures derives. First universal systems of redistribution that are bleeding the remnants of the middle class dry have to be done away with so that wealth can be run through more protected channels. In countries where groups with 100 IQ or greater are in the minority, we see the emergence of parallel societies and institutions for emergent castes in the 3rd world style. The USA, unexceptional as ever, is in no way immune to the forces that affect everywhere else.
Abortion too is backed by Spencer and friends. This implacable rock on which culture warriors shattered themselves will be reinforced by the dissidents as tribes form, with the tacit understanding that its purpose is to restrict the fecundity of ethnic rivals and keep the dysgenic underclasses in check. The practical necessity of such measures as the struggle grows desperate will gradually discredit those misguided conservatives who still object.
The more intellectual alt-rightists are already thinking some years ahead. They are aware that a constituency with many ex-mainstream conservatives and libertarians isn't ready to accept alt-centrist views just yet and may be gradually testing the popular mood until the time is right to push the discourse of their blogs into popular rhetoric.
Tags abortion, alt center, alt right, alt-left, pro-abortion, richard b spencer, richard spencer, single payer
← Thoughts On Replacing Traditional Marriage In A Post-Scarcity Society → Korezaan, A Regular Commenter, Gets His Own Interview
12 replies on "Alt-Right Drift Towards "Leftist" Policies"
Hardcore, Gay, Racist, Hater - of the Gaysays:
The alt-right has no realistic conception of one of the most essential things that must come to pass for restoration to ensure: a drastic reduction of female participation in the workforce.
As long as women work the same jobs as men and get "equal pay" (by no means, however, do they do an equal work: in labor that is even moderately physical, for instance, the men and the women receive the same wages, even though men do all of the tasks done by women, but women don't do all of the men's tasks, as some of the men's tasks are too difficult for them to do; or simply put, men are required to work harder, but get paid the same), the fertility rate is necessarily low, family formation is difficult, resistance to Feminist social engineering is almost impossible, and there's a general sense of asphyxiation from all the metaphorical estrogen in the metaphorical water supply.
Since the alt-right doesn't generally address the fact that WE NEED TO FIRE THE VAST MAJORITY OF WOMEN FROM THEIR JOBS in order to safeguard civilization, it's just not all that very realistic about what it'd take to get a true revival going. Sperm count is at an all-time low for two reasons: one, exponentially increasing de-novo mutations; two, Feminism, which a hostile alien force occupying the brains of most Westerners. The latter problem can be solved swiftly, but the alt-right isn't willing to even propose the obvious solution.
Women going to work is *the* fundamental issue in this lesbian-dyke Feminist assault on civilization. No female jobs, no modern Feminism – end of story. So simple, yet nobody says it.
"…a drastic reduction of female participation in the workforce…"
That's not going to happen. No point on even wishing for it. Women like the independence.
jzsays:
I think the best solution to this problem is to implement segregation programs. Women can work, just shouldn't mix with male efforts. Of course feminists are 100% opposed to this idea as they are tacitly aware that women gain huge advantage by mixing(and manipulating) with men.
Dirtnapninjasays:
This isnt so much a a drift to the left as it is a reversion to pre-ww2, pre-libertarian/objectivist/neo-con conservatism.
August Hurtelsays:
They have one objective- white nationalism. They don't think anything else matters. If they can get some bernie supporters on board by accepting socialized health care, they will. They will look at places like Sweden before the Muslim invasion and say, well, it works in a white country. They want to get to a white country first, and talk about all this other stuff later.
Most of them are former libertarians.
A.B. Prospersays:
That's not correct.
What the .Alt Right is about is a classic western civilization and restoring it, one piece at a time. One of those pieces does include a White society but its deeper than that
The easy shorthand IMO is "Reactionary Paleo- Conservatives using Rules for Radicals." It also has a firm understanding of the Overton window and the fact is you can't eat an orange in one bite as it were.
However as its not a structured traditional movement and is leaderless there is going to be disagreement on some issues, who is .Alt Lite, .Alt Right or .Alt White for example
And while its not the only ideological base, Vox Day's 16 Points are probably the best overall outline
https://voxday.blogspot.com/2016/08/what-alt-right-is.html
Certainly Pro White and Pro White nations but not opposed to anyone else and almost isolationist in flavor.
Its also anti egalitarian and while its not opposed to restricting female suffrage first things first. The upcoming 50% Non White America and highly Liberal Europe flowing with Muslims and Africans can't make changes like that
Shore up the foundation of the house first
It is true specifically for the people Giovanni mentioned. Less true the farther out you go. I didn't create the labeling mess, but I did use it correctly. Spencer claims it, and Spencer is one of the participants in a conversation, which makes me believe as I do.
In my mind I am beginning to use a sci-fi analogy. The left are the aligned (worlds) and the right are non-aligned (worlds).
Spencer is credited with creating the term .Alt Right and fairly but he's not "the movement" an no matter what the Media opportunistically thinks, doesn't represent it.
Again in another way I suppose he suppose he does since the .Alt Right runs a bit on the "I am the leader of the .Alt Right and so can you." principle
That said thinking of it in term of a traditional movement is I think flawed. Its intentionally leaderless and non structured, In time it will have to take on that role but its not yet the time.
Also as noted in the 16 points, the .Alt Right is science based and as such willing to make policy calls on economics that further help survival even if they are associated with the Left .
What matters is "does it work?"
Its definitely White Nationalist in flavor and of course willing to tolerate them as fellow travelers
That Leftist way of doing things which has left a lot of NRX and the "Moral Reformer" types like Davis Aruini a little butt-hurt but like I said shore up the foundation.
And truth to tell the Scandinavian system minus immigrants works as well as the other does, Its total fertility rate is the same and its life expectancy is similar.
anyway the .Alt Right is far more an insurgency or a vague brand name than a party
This is a good thing . The .people these well aware of what happened to the Tea Party (subverted and ruined) and in a more visceral sense when ISIS tried to become a state
Regardless the BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) adopted from the Left is of course infuriating to some but given the Conservatives have lost every battle except US Federal gun rights and its a push there, it matters not.
When or the West dies and quibbling about female suffrage can wait.
meQtaHbogh qachDaq Suv qoH neH
(and yes its Klingon, only a fool fights in a burning house )
Oh and I do like you analogy though not all the Left is opposed
"…They have one objective- white nationalism. They don't think anything else matters…"
The reason being that without that you have no hope for the future of Western civilization. Forget Libertarianism or equal legal rights. All that will be gone and all that will remain will be a a race struggle between the various races gnawing on the carcass of the once USA.
I know I'm part of the leftist Alt-Right. I'm reality based but also believe in big government programs that spread risk and insure against the grievances of life's up and downs. If we're not going to have that then cut the government to the absolute bone and leave me alone. Kill off all the gimmedats. I do believe in paying for them though and not borrowing money to do so. Especially from central banks that are just ripping us off anyways.
It occurred to me the best answer to the larger question- can there ever be an alt-center- can be found with the alt-economist Steve Keen. Keen is a leftist but his economic model of the banking system explains a lot of things, and seems to be a genuine discovery of sorts, rather than an attempt to confirm biases. Private debt emerged as far more important than government debts. It's his stuff that made me realize the Austrian economist who thought fractional reserve banking ought to be outlawed were right.
The model also suggests there is some leeway for governments to spend without causing the economy too much trouble. Which sort of explains why it hasn't quite blown up the way I thought it would. His youtube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/user/ProfSteveKeen
I suspect his debt jubilee would be most welcomed by leftists. I found out about him from Vox Day, who probably reaches more people than Spencer does.
I haven't read Steve Keen. I'll have to look at it. The present banking system is a huge rip off to the average American. One group gets to create money from nothing and all the rest have to beg them for it. What if we turned it around. If banks couldn't create any money and the government created all money. Let's say we had a basic income plus government spending on infrastructure, pensions, etc. Then the banks would have to go to us to get money. It wouldn't cause inflation because the banks credit expansion would be extinguished. If you did allow some credit expansion by the banks most of the profits, from money creation, could go to the government.
Some would say this would be a disaster but since we're borrowing 40% or 50% of the budget now it wouldn't be much different.
One thing to keep in mind. ALL MONEY presently is created by debt. Never forget this. For every single penny you have in your pocket there's a bond, a loan, somewhere bearing interest. Now since only the central bankers can create this money and get interest from each and every penny created, they put up nothing to get this power, you can easily see that through compounding of interest they will eventually own everything. There's also NO WAY to pay down the debt because if we did…we would have no money. This system is obviously not stable in the long term. They are presently working to foist another fraudulent debt system on us, the SDR. My guess is there will be a mass economic panic then they will trot out the SDR to save us. It will of course be the same old shit but kicked upstairs where we have even less control.
What's infuriating is that I'm hardly some super genius financier and I can easily see the rottenness, corruption and stupidity of our present system.


text:
Q: Why is dummy node changing in this linked-list problem? (python3) I've read several explanations & watched 6 YouTube videos and still don't understand what's going on in the solution to this leetcode problem. Can someone explain the relationship between dummy and cur & also dummy and cur.next-- in the simplest terms possible? Specifically, I'm confused on the following:
This is the code I'm referring to (I included a bunch of print statements to try to understand what lines of code are causing dummy to change).
   cur = dummy = ListNode()
    iteration=1
    while list1 and list2:
        print("\n iteration=", iteration)
        print("list1.val & list2.val=",list1.val," & ",list2.val)
        print("****dummy=",dummy)

        if list1.val < list2.val:
            print("\n first block")
            cur.next = list1
            print("cur.next=",cur.next)
            print("****dummy=",dummy)
            list1, cur = list1.next, list1
            print("list1 & cur=",list1, " & \n", cur)
            print("****dummy=",dummy)
        else:
            print("\n second block")
            cur.next = list2 #cur.next=something --> dummy.next=something
            print("cur.next=", cur.next)
            print("****dummy=",dummy)
            list2, cur = list2.next, list2 #cur=something does not change dummy
            print("list2 & cur=",list2, " & \n ", cur)
            print("****dummy=",dummy)

        if list1 or list2:
            print("\n third block")
            cur.next = list1 if list1 else list2
            print("cur.next=",cur.next)
            print("****dummy=",dummy)

        iteration+=1
    print("\n cur=",cur)
    print("****dummy=",dummy)

    return dummy.next

This is the output for the first iteration:
iteration= 1
list1.val & list2.val= 1  &  1
****dummy= ListNode{val: 0, next: None}

 second block
cur.next= ListNode{val: 1, next: ListNode{val: 3, next: ListNode{val: 4, next: None}}}
****dummy= ListNode{val: 0, next: ListNode{val: 1, next: ListNode{val: 3, next: ListNode{val: 4, next: None}}}}
list2 & cur= ListNode{val: 3, next: ListNode{val: 4, next: None}}  &
  ListNode{val: 1, next: ListNode{val: 3, next: ListNode{val: 4, next: None}}}
****dummy= ListNode{val: 0, next: ListNode{val: 1, next: ListNode{val: 3, next: ListNode{val: 4, next: None}}}}

 third block
cur.next= ListNode{val: 1, next: ListNode{val: 2, next: ListNode{val: 4, next: None}}}
****dummy= ListNode{val: 0, next: ListNode{val: 1, next: ListNode{val: 1, next: ListNode{val: 2, next: ListNode{val: 4, next: None}}}}}

Okay, so what I noticed from above, in the second block: cur.next=something, sets dummy.next=something. But then, cur=something, does not set dummy=something. Why is this?
Then, in the third block, cur.next=something sets dummy.next.next =something (the something is linked to 0,1 instead of 0 as it was in the second block. Why is this?
Overall, I'm just pretty confused on the whole "pointer" thing and can't understand how cur & cur.next are related to dummy & dummy.next & dummy.next.next and so on.

A: The = operator between objects in Python results in both variable names referencing the same object in memory. Initially, cur and dummy refer to the same ListNode object, as opposed to cur being a different ListNode object with the same values. Therefore changes made to either will affect the other. Here explains assignment vs shallow copy vs deep copy in Python.
When you reassign cur to list1 the link between cur and dummy is gone.
EDITED: corrected mention of shallow copy for talking in terms of references, subject to comments.

A: curr and dummy are used to reference to same node (listNode), now curr is modified (ie a node from any of two linked list is referenced) and the node that it reference to is  referencing another node and so on . now the state of curr is different that what it used to be earlier at  creation (ie it reference to None as all merging is done) while dummy still referencing to first node only.
thus we can with the help of this dummy can get all the nodes these are referencing to , ie a merged linked list
dummy.next is used to get the first node of resultant linked list from the current linked list(having dummy as head node)

A: The idea for this problem is to create a "sentinel" node which corresponds to dummy. This will be a "dummy" node representing the head of a new linked list that will be the "resultant" linked list constructed after performing the merge.
# sentinel node
dummy = ListNode(-1)

# visual of `dummy` linked list
-1 -> None

The variable cur is simply a pointer to the "head" of the dummy linked list which we will use to insert new nodes while merging list1 and list2. Using cur.next = some_node represents inserting a new node after cur in the dummy linked list.
# sentinel node
dummy = ListNode(-1)

# pointer to head of "dummy" linked list
cur = dummy

# both dummy and cur are positioned at the "head" node with value -1
-1 -> None

# inserting a new node to the "dummy" list would look like
cur.next = ListNode(2)

# cur = dummy at this point so cur is still at the first node -1
# the linked list would have 2 nodes and cur.next equals node 2
dummy
cur
-1 -> 2 -> None

# since cur is still at the "dummy" node equaling -1, we want to move `cur`
# to the newly inserted node, this allows `cur` to be ready
# for another insertion at the correct position in the linked list
cur = cur.next

dummy  cur
-1   -> 2 -> None

# dummy.next would represent a linked list with a single node 2
2 -> None

Below is an iterative approach similar to your logic with comments to better illustrate how we insert nodes into the "dummy" linked list using cur and continue moving the list1 and list2 node pointers as we iterate the two linked lists:
# list1=[1,2,4]
# list2=[1,3,4]

# O(n+m) time and O(1) space
def mergeTwoLists(list1: Optional[ListNode], list2: Optional[ListNode]) -> Optional[ListNode]:
    # create a "dummy" node to represent
    # resultant merged linked list
    dummy = ListNode(-1)

    # place cur pointer at head of dummy linked list
    cur = dummy

    # iterate both linked lists
    while list1 and list2:

        if list1.val <= list2.val:
            # insert node into the dummy list by updating
            # the "next" reference of `cur` to equal list1 node
            cur.next = list1

            # continue moving the list1 node to the "next" node in list1
            list1 = list1.next
        else:
            # insert node into the dummy list by updating
            # the "next" reference of `cur` to equal list2 node
            cur.next = list2

            # continue moving the list2 node to the "next" node in list2
            list2 = list2.next

        # keep moving the cur pointer as we insert to the dummy list
        cur = cur.next

    # there can be one value left to merge from one of the
    # two lists so insert the final node to complete the merge
    cur.next = list1 or list2

    # return dummy.next which skips the `dummy` node -1 and
    # points to the new "head" of resultant merged list
    # -1 -> 1 -> 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 4
    return dummy.next


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