tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77723533224070226992024-03-05T18:48:14.475-08:00Whiskey and the morning afterUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger294125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-20655364992330884792020-01-28T23:13:00.001-08:002020-02-02T00:28:42.664-08:00Goodbye, Louisiana<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OQT5pUVN3F4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLuqfDxGCKypdb_FAui47OdpY7dYCCY19G1EeABSEXm3_xTeB7j6KWmQnH2LCbghuG1FJgQsu40By6aVHSxbZer2I0AppGZbqRGzDzO6KTCcL3YRYnwDNbHijtc2YMs_lGYg4Qdkpcxgr2/s1600/13765929_10209239151108358_2434537355084296911_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLuqfDxGCKypdb_FAui47OdpY7dYCCY19G1EeABSEXm3_xTeB7j6KWmQnH2LCbghuG1FJgQsu40By6aVHSxbZer2I0AppGZbqRGzDzO6KTCcL3YRYnwDNbHijtc2YMs_lGYg4Qdkpcxgr2/s400/13765929_10209239151108358_2434537355084296911_o.jpg" width="400" height="400" data-original-width="960" data-original-height="960" /></a><br />
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The first time I visited Louisiana, it was for my sister's wedding in Saint Martinville. I got weird looks for bringing my dog into the church, but whatever.<br />
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At the wedding reception, I was asked how I liked Louisiana. I replied that it was a place that was fun to visit, but I would never want to live there. Ironically, if you can call it that, I ended up there not long after in my quest to support my children. <br />
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I waited tables at Landry's, got a job at <a href="https://whiskeyandthemorningafter.blogspot.com/2019/02/at-where-you-can-be-fired-for-using.html">AT&T</a>, bought a house, had the longest relationship of my life...only to nearly lose everything but the house and the kids who I now have full custody of.<br />
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I'm going back to Florida now. Make all the jokes you want, but Florida is so much better than Louisiana. I have my first love waiting for me, and we want to spend the rest of our lives together. This isn't a defeat, by any stretch of the imagination. I know some people are rejoicing at my departure. They think they won, but I'm the one getting out of here. Living in Louisiana for 10 years was never in the plans, and now it is time to move back to beaches that are clean and aren't polluted as hell.<br />
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I fought a lot of battles, often on the behalf of people who didn't have my back. I've learned that I'll be much better off in a place that doesn't have shitty roads and people who complain about infrastructure, but don't want to pay for it. I'll miss the food, but I've learned how to cook the best stuff.<br />
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I'll divulge a lot more about myself once I am safely out of the state where my congressman, Clay Higgins, doesn't hate my guts.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-42884295932801991932018-06-08T20:15:00.000-07:002018-06-10T22:21:19.669-07:00A Eulogy For Anthony Bourdain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqTYDOgOw2QWVejfw5vE0xfbeDlYxAjJZpbbUGe50iuP3UGnxPeZOHu1XtGPkKgf3wTvgdkAjQFt1YOdjPJ8ZJI_pBu2wnw5z1n9Za-f5dHz8cgYX4tz_2t4eHg36tzYsvQGinlkNhBa_B/s1600/anthony-bourdain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqTYDOgOw2QWVejfw5vE0xfbeDlYxAjJZpbbUGe50iuP3UGnxPeZOHu1XtGPkKgf3wTvgdkAjQFt1YOdjPJ8ZJI_pBu2wnw5z1n9Za-f5dHz8cgYX4tz_2t4eHg36tzYsvQGinlkNhBa_B/s400/anthony-bourdain.jpg" width="400" height="300" data-original-width="920" data-original-height="690" /></a></div><br />
From the time I was 16, into my early 30s, I worked off and on in the restaurant industry. These jobs included an original drive-in joint in Virginia, a Bulgarian 3-star place that attracted political celebrities trying to escape Washington, and a few national casual dining chains. <br />
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I loved working in the dish pit. It was fun in college to put my headphones on, listen to Rancid, and skitter back and forth from washing dishes to seating guests.<br />
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During this time, I've seen the best, and worst of humanity. In case you're wondering, Waffle House is usually safe to eat at, and if the cook appears to be stoned, chances are good your $5 meal after last call is going to be outstanding.<br />
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The service industry isn't for the faint of heart. Like it or not, drug abuse, sexual harassment, and all sorts of awful things go on behind that $25 plate of blackened shrimp Landry's is selling you that was farmed in Indonesia - despite the "Gulf Seafood" tag.<br />
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If you can work in the industry and come out with minimal damage, you did great. Most people don't.<br />
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I've seen people working off the clock due to management pressure. I've seen chefs violently drunk and high on pills, racism, sexual assault. What Bourdain described in "Kitchen Confidential" was just the tip of the industry iceberg.<br />
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<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/08/opinions/how-anthony-bourdain-changed-me-edward-lee-opinion/index.html?utm_content=2018-06-09T00%3A04%3A15&utm_term=link&utm_medium=social&utm_source=fbCNN">Anthony</a> Bourdain was the guy on TV who reminded us that we are more alike than the clickbait media wants you to believe, and that food brings us together. He was the counter to our <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/6/8/17442194/anthony-bourdain-ally-marginalized-voices">hyper-partisan political environment</a>, hanging out with Ted Nugent, and President Obama.<br />
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Tony came to Louisiana multiple times, and he loved it here. For all of our faults, he loved our cooking and the one remaining Popeye's buffet in the country. He wasn't an elitist chef, he was one of us.<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Anthony Bourdain loved and understood Louisiana better than anyone not from here possibly could. He got us. <br />
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Here he was in Mardi Gras in Mamou this year, where he dressed up in a costume to chase a chicken for a gumbo. And yes, this was all perfectly sensible. <a href="https://t.co/8MdBtyvKa6">pic.twitter.com/8MdBtyvKa6</a></p>— Lamar White, Jr. (@LamarWhiteJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/LamarWhiteJr/status/1005058301896331264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 8, 2018</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><br />
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He struggled with addiction and depression, and it finally became too much for him. I'm not going to judge him for his decision to end his life. Until you walk a mile in his kitchen clogs, you have no idea what that business will do to you.<br />
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His punk rock sneer and working-class mentality will live on. Tony ignored class systems, he stuck up for the little guy.<br />
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I hope he found his peace, and I have nothing but the utmost empathy for his family. I'll miss him more than he could have ever imagined. With his death, a part of me has died as well.<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-76326679126162793732017-07-23T21:57:00.000-07:002017-07-23T22:08:00.479-07:00Live Through This And You Won't Look Back<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsv9UovcrBUK0yxNXN-5H94rbJyTTxgTi-gBAMurqp9Vu-PB-2p1IJaKgjIk5NZPKaTyvcmhBiDwViK-EOu4D7wRXWJpQsdWWUswz4CdqGgZP4CLLGMtj5GITqO5bvdLPBKusrWCTJgk0o/s1600/B_OldCarInDesert50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsv9UovcrBUK0yxNXN-5H94rbJyTTxgTi-gBAMurqp9Vu-PB-2p1IJaKgjIk5NZPKaTyvcmhBiDwViK-EOu4D7wRXWJpQsdWWUswz4CdqGgZP4CLLGMtj5GITqO5bvdLPBKusrWCTJgk0o/s320/B_OldCarInDesert50.jpg" width="320" height="320" data-original-width="600" data-original-height="600" /></a></div>Nearly 7 years ago, I left Florida, the place of my dreams. I moved there because I was in love with sunrises over Sebastian Inlet, catching snook under the lights at nights, and the Orlando nightlife. I was very happy there, and I had no intention of ever leaving, but life decided otherwise.<br />
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In 2006, after a series of failed relationships, I met my ex-wife while working at Sprint in Orlando. It was a good job, not one that I was excited about, but it paid the bills. Very quickly, she moved in and promised me that she would be the best thing I would ever have. Within no time at all, thanks to her, I was in two car accidents in three days.<br />
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In a fog of pain pills, I agreed to marry her. I never planned on having kids, but she did, and made sure that she was pregnant before I slipped the ring on her finger, even though I didn't know. <br />
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It wasn't long before we hit financial issues. Once she realized that she couldn't stay unemployed, she took off and I didn't see my children for nearly a year after they were born. An old Navy girlfriend and I lived together for a couple more years in Florida, but I wasn't happy and decided to set off for greener pastures somewhere else. My job at Sprint had hit a dead end because I <a href="http://www.jta.org/2016/03/17/news-opinion/fbi-raids-ny-haredi-yeshivas-and-their-tech-vendors-in-fraud-probe">blew the whistle on fraud</a> after 4 years of service.<br />
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A family member told me they could help me start a new life in San Francisco. I didn't want to leave my kids behind and Florida was where I was happy. Unfortunately, due to the poor job prospects and the threat of Florida's government to throw me in jail for being in arrears on child support, which I was paying, I hopped on a plane to California.<br />
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That quickly fell apart. Within two weeks, I was on a bus to Lafayette, Louisiana with just enough money to hit the dollar menu at the various McDonald's the Greyhound bus stopped at. <script type="text/javascript">
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My luggage was stolen or lost in Houston. The only things I had left was a few t-shirts and some underwear when I was finally rescued by my mother in Lafayette. There was no money, no car, no job - but it was time to start all over again.<br />
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For the first few weeks, I had nothing. I picked pecans from the yard to buy some cheap beers from the store that was a mile away. I eventually landed a job back in the restaurant industry that I had hoped to never work in again. When I got my tax return the following spring, I was able to buy an old Honda and started looking for work elsewhere.<br />
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I finally found a niche job in the tech industry here and started rebuilding my credit. In 2014, I was in a horrific car accident where I was hit by a drunk driver, and the settlement allowed me to purchase a new vehicle and pay off some old debts. I then moved into an apartment, then purchased my own home. I've eaten some tremendous Cajun food and put on a few pounds, then trolled the ever-loving fuck out of our local bigots on our news channels.<br />
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Through all of this, I supported my kids. Not long after I moved here, I went on a blind date to a hockey game, and we've been together ever since. Her son is like my own. When we first got together, he associated my visits with a trip to the local crawfish joint, which is the cutest thing ever in my mind.<br />
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I purchased my home in the hopes that someday I would have custody of my children who were still in Florida. Their mother has an ongoing drug problem and had the kids removed from her custody multiple times before. Back in March, DCF finally stepped in again, and eventually released them into my custody on June 20th at the New Orleans airport.<br />
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My house is full now. We have three kids, two cats, and a dog who sleeps between us every night. We aren't rich financially, but we are comfortable in a house we own. We can afford the things we need and we have family that cares about us. I work for the local union and fight for worker's rights, writing some satire for The Red Shtick, along with running the website and the progressive Facebook pages I own. On days that I'm not at work, I whip up meals from my imagination and years of restaurant experience for my family - which gives me incredible joy.<br />
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All of those years ago, a friend introduced me to this song and said it would help me get through. He said that one day I would live through this, and I would look back one last time. How right he was.<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r5Or6-HOveg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-57221068688103364652017-04-14T18:35:00.000-07:002017-04-14T18:37:38.580-07:00My Five Favorite Cajun Dishes<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgCH0eLMFIn92LAmTM1iN1uGcrdoxFTKe3DMcvY8SQ9hgvtALNvU_z6Vt5vJj-dJE96hJqhqPSyZIyQM7V1e0BN-YkBjk2ksrtGaGMG62GIsq9PCkcZk8-q3VGeyjSrrLLyuAwzu09AWy5/s1600/hawks-crawfish-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgCH0eLMFIn92LAmTM1iN1uGcrdoxFTKe3DMcvY8SQ9hgvtALNvU_z6Vt5vJj-dJE96hJqhqPSyZIyQM7V1e0BN-YkBjk2ksrtGaGMG62GIsq9PCkcZk8-q3VGeyjSrrLLyuAwzu09AWy5/s320/hawks-crawfish-1.jpg" width="320" height="213" /></a>
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I know that most of the stuff I have posted over the years has been political in nature. That's not what I originally started out to do, but here we are. Since I have been living in Louisiana for over six years now, I have eaten a ton of Cajun food, and gained about 35 pounds to show for it.
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I certainly have my issues with Louisiana. Lousy infrastructure, anti-union politicians and assaults on reproductive rights. However, sometimes you just have to put the politics aside, and sit down for a meal with people you disagree with.
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If you haven't been to Louisiana, or if you've just visited New Orleans, there is a lot you're missing in the culinary scene. The northern part of the state has some Cajun-influenced food, but it is more of a Southern food scene that is as much Cajun as Trump is a legitimate president. The southern part of state from Alexandria on down to the Gulf is a region divided by Cajun and Creole styles of food.
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There is a difference between Cajun and Creole, even though there are similarities which aren't obvious to Louisiana food novices. New Orleans is predominately Creole, while Lafayette and areas west of the Mississippi are mostly Cajun. Creole is influenced by the Carribean, Africa, France, Spain, Italy and other places. Cajun is predominately...well...Cajun.
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New Orleans has seen wave after wave of various influences on the culinary scene over the centuries. Cajun food in the Acadiana region has some Spanish and Native American additions, and it is also divided into "prairie Cajun" versus "swamp Cajun" subsets, as I like to refer to them as. An example of this is gumbo. In areas in the northern region of Acadiana, gumbo is primarly chicken and sausage based. As you go further towards Houma and the Gulf of Mexico, seafood-based gumbo is more common due to the proximity to the ocean.
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It took me a little while to learn about these differences, and to choose which styles I liked the most. In case you're wondering, I settled on Creole, due to the fact they use more vegetables in their dishes, something Cajuns seem to be hesitant about.
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With that explanation of local foods out of the way, here are my five favorite foods in Louisiana, specifically in Cajun country.
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<b>5. Gumbo:</b> Gumbo is not an easy dish to make from scratch, and my years in the restaurant industry didn't prepare me for making the Louisiana version of roux. When I make it myself now, I make my own which requires constant stirring to keep it from burning. Many people here use roux out of a jar, or use vegetable oil and flour to make it, which isn't ideal to me. I use butter or bacon fat instead of oil, and my roux isn't the color of used motor oil either.
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I prefer seafood gumbo, but you can make a good sausage and chicken gumbo with andouille sausage, and a rotissere chicken from a deli if you want to cut corners. The best gumbo has shrimp, crab and oysters - and I think mixing sausage with seafood overpowers the delicate taste of the ocean.
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<b>4. Boudin:</b> There are many sources for boudin around Louisiana. My favorite comes from Charlie T's in Breaux Bridge, especially if they are served their smoked boudin. Some places load their boudin down with cayenne pepper and liver, which is just nasty in my opinion. On a cold winter morning, a link from your local gas station and a cup of coffee will make your day right.
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<b>3. Etouffee:</b> Crawfish etouffee is a Louisana staple. It is a tomato-based sauce usually with crawfish or shrimp, and I prefer mine spicy. I make a roux, add a can of Rotel, as well as some ghost pepper, and a little bit of fish sauce. That's my little Asian flair to the dish, and most people here love that version of it. I also add my favorite Cajun seasoning, <a href="http://beazells.com/">Beazell's</a>, which is lower in sodium and has spices other local seasonings do not.
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<b>2. Fried pork chops:</b> Pork chops are good, but have you ever eaten one fried and put on a sandwich? I don't eat this very often because of all the fat and cholesterol, but it is magically delicious. Take a pork chop, bread it and fry it, then remove the bone and put it on a sandwich bun with pickles, mustard and tomato slices. Eat one of these at breakfast and you won't be hungry until dinner.
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<b>1. Oyster Bar Trash:</b> This is a dish I encountered when I worked at Landry's. It's shrimp and lump crab meat blackened on a grill, then served over rice with lemon butter. I like to add mushrooms, and you can also add scallops if you're feeling fancy.
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These are just five of my favorite things to eat down here. There's is also fried alligator and crawfish boils, but you'll just have to come down here to try them for yourself. Bon appetit!Manny Schewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15402171800070419500noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-26325411118146537912017-04-12T20:08:00.000-07:002017-04-13T15:00:40.426-07:00Racism Isn't Just A Southern Thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIvmemsYyG90_7tQJ9pa243alE4-UEVVIJo1dDZmsOWWAQqe2-sFjGFa_qzJ8B2q1Y8fq1mVLU7TuK6jd0tlYGqHJuVfqRjEcYmTzLLjBrmVeMQ_tr3JcMtGZza07Wi6FaczddKyUvOHEz/s1600/251451_2180892394374_5210194_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIvmemsYyG90_7tQJ9pa243alE4-UEVVIJo1dDZmsOWWAQqe2-sFjGFa_qzJ8B2q1Y8fq1mVLU7TuK6jd0tlYGqHJuVfqRjEcYmTzLLjBrmVeMQ_tr3JcMtGZza07Wi6FaczddKyUvOHEz/s400/251451_2180892394374_5210194_n.jpg" width="400" height="239" /></a></div>The common stereotype of the South involves racism, the KKK, and segregation. It is a well-deserved piece of our history, and racism still exists across the South, including here in Louisiana. In the rural areas surrounding Lafayette, blacks and whites still go to separate churches, and willingly segregate themselves in various social settings.
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In a national restaurant chain I once worked for, managers often sent black customers to the back of the restaurant, and were flabbergasted when I pointed that out. They would sometimes assign black servers to those sections, along with white servers they thought they could punish by making them wait on black guests.
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That kind of prejudice is common across the South, but it isn't confined solely to the humid Bible Belt. I know that blue state liberals love to pretend the presumed progressive strongholds they live in are above that sort of thing, even though other forms of discrimination exist right in their backyards.
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Portland has gentrification that is driving <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/07/barbershop_gentrification_port.html">remaining black residents</a> out, to be replaced by hipsters. San Francisco is pricing poor people, especially minorities, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/23/is-san-francisco-losing-its-soul">out of the area</a> in favor of tech workers which tend to be white. New York has policing that <a href="http://www.essence.com/2016/07/08/nypd-officers-say-fellow-cops-go-hunting-citizens-color">unfairly targets minorities</a> to meet police quotas, and Boston is <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/03/28/yes-boston-you-are-racist/yMd7u1evwC5g6XhGAHMdyH/story.html">known for its racism</a>.
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Obviously, I am not trying to apologize for racism in the South. My family's history on my mother's side includes people who fought for the Confederacy, slave owners, and even slave traders. The Montgomery family fled to Texas with their slaves when Union forces closed in, and the men enlisted in the Texas divisions to fight for their "states' rights" to own slaves.
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Racism in many fashions continues to manifest itself across our country. We saw it with the hatred towards President Obama, and with the election of Donald Trump by voters in places like Ohio and Wisconsin.
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Yes, the South is the easy target for accusations of racism, and it is well deserved. But let's not pretend it is a problem solely confined to the South.
Manny Schewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15402171800070419500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-91216904318830503152017-04-06T19:47:00.001-07:002017-04-06T19:47:34.796-07:00A Virginian Ends Up In LouisianaMy adult life has been a long, strange trip. I was born in Virginia into a very conservative Catholic family, and ended up in Louisiana where I've been since 2010. Most of my new writing is now on Modern Liberals, but I wanted to put this here on the original blog where all of this began.
This is a brief overview of the past decade since I moved to Florida, and then to Louisiana from Florida. It has been an interesting few years, and I'm glad that so many people have supported my writing since I began ranting online to save money on therapy.
After getting divorced and wavering on the edge of bankruptcy nearly a decade ago, I've spent that time trying to rebuild everything I lost because of my ex-wife. Right now, I am better off financially than I have ever been, and I'm on the verge of getting full custody of my nine year old twins after years of fighting for them.
I thought Louisiana would be a short layover in life. I figured that I could go back to working in restaurants get caught up on my bills, and then I would move on to bigger and better things in another state that wasn't as backwards as Louisiana. Writing started as a way to get out to the world the corruption that went on during my years working at Sprint, and it snowballed from there into politics and taking down political candidates like David Vitter.
Obviously, the best-laid plans of mice and men don't always go the way we think they would. It wasn't long after I moved here that I found an unexpected love, and I'm not just talking about hockey or beer. Now we are on the verge of buying a house, combining our families, and I'm considering running for office as a progressive in an area that elected a wanna-be "street cop" to Congress last year.
I want to thank everyone who has supported me in a variety of ways ever since I ended up in the last place I expected to be. All of this wouldn't have happened without you.
There is no plan to quit political commentary or close any of my Facebook pages. I planned to take a break after the November elections, but Russian interference changed all of that. Maybe one day we will have a government that truly represents us, but until that time comes, I will be in the trenches.Manny Schewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15402171800070419500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-9412974488986285092016-09-28T10:35:00.000-07:002017-04-13T14:54:15.114-07:00The Problem Isn't The Media, It's The People Who Consume It<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioH2ZhMlcqDIh4xf3gsLMo0pcdzHNcXvWaKJteOQJv43Mvr_DKrqA0moeQBgKyvBOj_QIGm9JTJGNA4KRlzVfQrZ7P68XcNQDiKE0CarlmIGmb9yeKlB2lBGrsuSMdkW2YocH0h5sxlftA/s1600/facebook+media+clickbait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioH2ZhMlcqDIh4xf3gsLMo0pcdzHNcXvWaKJteOQJv43Mvr_DKrqA0moeQBgKyvBOj_QIGm9JTJGNA4KRlzVfQrZ7P68XcNQDiKE0CarlmIGmb9yeKlB2lBGrsuSMdkW2YocH0h5sxlftA/s320/facebook+media+clickbait.jpg" width="320" height="180" /></a></div>If you were to take Donald Trump at his word, the media is completely biased against him, and in the pocket of Hillary Clinton. Conservatives constantly complain that the media is biased against them, and Fox News claims to be "fair and balanced" which we know is a lie.
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Then you have the <a href="http://www.snopes.com/clinton-secret-earpiece-debate/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">far-right</a> and far-left which are convinced that the media are controlled by the elite and "Zionists" - a thinly veiled reference to a range of anti-Semitic conspiracy ideas. These individuals range from Alex Jones' <a href="http://modernliberals.com/has-the-left-embraced-the-insanity-of-alex-jones/" target="_blank">Infowars</a> and Natural News on the right, and a range of <a href="http://modernliberals.com/the-free-thought-project-claims-president-obama-is-ready-to-impose-martial-law/" target="_blank">wingnut sites</a> like <a href="http://modernliberals.com/yes-the-left-has-occupy-democrats-their-own-versions-of-fox-news/" target="_blank">The Anti-Media</a> on the left.
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Unless a website is funded by private or public groups like NPR is, that site's existence depends on traffic and ad revenue. Because of that, both traditional and new media sources tend to produce articles based on what people will click on.
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This is why the media runs stories on cute puppy videos lifted from Reddit, or the latest celebrity gossip - because that's what grabs people's attention and boosts their ratings. If ratings or web traffic are low, they can't make as much money.
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Most of these media outlets depend on advertising to stay afloat, and in the age of Facebook, anyone can create a website and claim that they're a reputable news source or even a health professional. Many also state that they will tell you the stories and truth the mainstream media won't, but they're selling a snake oil sideshow carnival act for the people who are convinced the main circus act is a scam.
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Upworthy or World Star Hip Hop-styled <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/09/18/please-stop-sharing-links-to-these-sites/" target="_blank">tabloid headlines</a> overwhelm quality content from NPR or the New York Times, and most people tend to gravitate to them, let alone want to pay a subscription for material that other sites will just lift and recycle with sensationalized titles like "Fox News Is SUICIDAL After THIS Happened!"
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As much as we may despise that practice of clickbait "journalism," in a time where anyone can pretend to be a media outlet, it's often easy money for individuals who can't or won't work a "real job." It's not hard to sit online scraping content from other places and passing it off as your own, and some individuals will <a href="http://whiskeyandthemorningafter.blogspot.com/2015/12/yes-virginia-there-are-liberal-bullies.html" target="_blank">stop at nothing</a> to keep that revenue flow alive.
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A common retort I hear from the left is that Fox News is the biggest cable news outlet, but younger people tend to get their information online, not from watching TV. We usually consume what appears on Twitter, Reddit or Facebook, and I can tell you that I really only watch MSNBC for Rachel Maddow.
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If you truly want quality media, you have to put your click where your mouth is. Learn what is a reputable news source, what is an opinion site like we are, and who is just trying to profit from your time online. If you find that a site is unreliable or secretly promoting an anti-government agenda like Cop Block, remove them from your news feed and move on.
Another example is Occupy Democrats which I have repeatedly spoken out against. Occupy Democrats posted an image that does little else other than slut-shame Melania Trump. 357,000 people have shared this image from their page, plus whatever other pages who have used it or made their own versions of it. That's a horrible example for liberals to make of themselves, and meanwhile, the owners of Occupy Democrats and their friends are laughing all the way to the bank.
If you search Opensecrets.org, there is not one single donation made to any political campaign by either owner of the website, or the Occupy Democrats organization which advertises itself as a political cause. Yes, this is nothing more than a for-profit organization trying to make a fortune off politics.
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Contribute money to your local NPR station or patronize local businesses that support them. Read websites that don't constantly fail <a href="http://www.politifact.com/personalities/occupy-democrats/" target="_blank">Politifact scrutiny</a>, and always, always be sure to fact check for yourself.Manny Schewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15402171800070419500noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-43990839368143716062016-05-20T20:05:00.001-07:002016-05-25T08:48:43.199-07:00Farewell To The Louisiana IceGators: A Eulogy On Losing A Hockey Team<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I moved to Louisiana in 2010. Prior to that, I had never been to a hockey game and shrugged off TV games as boring. I was a baseball fan first, and football fan second.<br />
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To me, hockey was a boring sport like soccer that I just could not find to be exciting in any way.
Hockey in the South is a very niche market. It is something that you don't grow up with in a culture that worships football, and even baseball comes a distant second to football-obsessed Dixie.<br />
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The popular kids in school often were members of the football team. Hockey was barely spoken of, and understandably so.
Ice is not easy to find, especially in the Deep South where you may encounter an occasional ice storm, but never a consistent playing surface. Saturdays in the fall were college football on TV, and Sundays would have the Cowboys or Washington on every screen in every home or bar you might visit. "Hockey? That's a Yankee sport!" people would mutter between sips of Budweiser.<br />
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Basketball was usually looked down on as a game for black people, because there were hardly any African-Americans where I grew up in staunchly white, Protestant Virginia.<br />
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Shortly after moving to Louisiana, I began dating again after a couple of failed relationships. On a first date with someone I had only talked to online, we decided to go to a hockey game at the Cajun Dome - because there was really nothing else going on that January night. I remember the date well, it was January 15th, 2011 and the <a href="http://www.icegators.com/home/">IceGators</a> were playing the Augusta RiverHawks if I recall correctly.
The game was electric. Suddenly, hockey didn't seem so boring after all. Despite not knowing much about the rules of the game, we both fell in love with hockey that night.<br />
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5 years later, Shannon and I are still together - and both of us still love the sound of the horn when a goal is scored.
Over the last 3 seasons, I did not miss a single home game. Sometimes I would arrive late from work, but never actually missed the whole contest in a streak that lasted close to 100 games.<br />
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While Shannon wasn't always able to go, she would be sure to urge me to go because the loudest section in the Cajun Dome needed my antics which included heckling the opposing team mercilessly.
During that time, we spent thousands of dollars on concessions, raffles, merchandise and even paid $300 for the uniform of the only Orthodox Jew playing in the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL).<br />
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We loved and lost different players due to trades, injuries and retirement. Through it all, we were devoted fans of an anomaly, a professional hockey franchise in Louisiana of all places.
In Louisiana, hockey isn't the most popular sport by any stretch of the imagination even though hockey once packed the approximately 10,000 seat Cajun Dome back in the 1990s.<br />
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Back then, hockey teams popped up all over the place, only to fold a few years later. Louisiana loves the Saints and LSU, and not much else when it comes to sports. When the IceGators resurfaced for the 2009-2010 season, their games were held in Blackham Coliseum, a ancient venue used primarily for rodeos and livestock shows. One of their first goalies went on to play for a number of other professional minor league teams before winning the Stanley Cup with the Chicago BlackHawks last year. His name is Scott Darling.<br />
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In 2010-2011, the IceGators started playing in the Cajun Dome. From the very beginning, they had to schedule their games around the venue's music and sports events which made for long absences during college basketball season. Sometimes you would have to go as long as 6 weeks without a hockey game as the hardwood floor for basketball replaced hockey's ice sheet. Yet, the team's management made it work despite brutal road trips that put tens of thousands of miles on a bus which liked to break down on the trips to Knoxville or Peoria.<br />
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Through good seasons and bad, a couple thousand people would turn out for IceGators hockey. Except in the worst weather, Saturdays would often find dozens of devoted fans gathered in the parking lot hours before the game to party. We would drink, grill and have a good old time hanging out. Sometimes fans of opposing teams would wander in and they would be greeted with some smack talk before being handed a plate of food and a beer. This was a gathering of people that transcended racial, political and cultural boundaries - and I loved every damn drunken moment of it.<br />
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When I walked out of the last home game when the IceGators lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Mississippi River Kings, I breathed in that cool, humid air that every hockey fan knows about. Somehow, I had the feeling that I would never see that again in the Cajun Dome.<br />
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The news came last Monday. Standing in a funeral home where I was saying goodbye to a friend, the news came that the IceGators were suspending operations for the 2016-2017 season due to renovations at the arena. Upon speaking with other people in the know, it turns out that IceGator hockey was likely done for good due to the local economy and mediocre attendance.<br />
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Our 9 year old kid doesn't know yet the IceGators aren't coming back next season. We don't have the heart to tell him just yet that he won't be able to pose for pictures with Gaston, the alligator mascot this fall. IceGator hockey was probably the only place in the world where you could catch a shrimp poboy shot out of a t-shirt gun, watch a game and a few fights, and party with some of the craziest fans you'll ever meet.<br />
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Whether or not the IceGators return for the 2017-2018 season, I will always be grateful to the owners, the staff, the players and the fans who helped me to experience a game I am now madly in love with.<br />
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Thank you for the pucks, the fights, and the thrills. Thank you for giving me something to look forward to on cold winter nights. Thank you for putting smiles on the faces of thousands of fans. And most importantly, thank you for the memories we will cherish for the rest of our lives.<br />
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P.S, Due to the overwhelming response to this article, I am hoping that the hockey gods will step in and save our team. Maybe a rain dance in my yard will do the trick.Manny Schewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15402171800070419500noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-27888036859390224392016-04-30T11:00:00.003-07:002016-05-03T15:33:00.007-07:00Why I Left Forward Progressives<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Over three years ago when I was writing solely on this blog and had just a few hundred followers, I was approached by the editor and web manager for what is now Forward Progressives. I was asked if I would like to be a "co-founder" of a website that would be the answer to the clickbait bullshit from sites like Addicting Info and others.<br />
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As an amateur writer, I was excited about this new opportunity, especially after running into a dead end and very brief unpaid stint at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/PoliticusUSA/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Politicususa</a>, which told me they were dumping all revenue into further building their site. At that time, my contact "Thomas Barr" and his business partners were running a number of pages like One Million Strong Against Mitt Romney in 2012, or unofficial fan pages for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/RachelMaddowFans/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Rachel Maddow</a>, Jon Stewart and others which they apparently used to post links for Politicususa for kickbacks.<br />
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This opportunity seemed like the great break I was hoping for. I was honestly honored that sources I naively bought into considered me to be qualified to graduate from a lowly blog site about punk rock, politics, fraud and whiskey to what I thought was the big time in liberal journalism.<br />
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One of the factors that I believe made me a candidate for their website was my utter distaste for Addicting Info and Being Liberal - as their owners and I had repeatedly clashed over reuse of my content without proper attribution. My friend John Henry was also offered a position writing for Forward Progressives, but only if he wrote under a pseudonym so as not draw unwanted attention to our website, which he declined to do.<br />
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At first, things went fairly smoothly and I was awestruck at the amount of traffic my articles were attracting. Before long, we had amassed a respectable squad of potential writers, and things were looking great. There were articles that went viral, our pages were booming, and we reached the front page of Reddit once. When I received my paycheck after the first month of writing that was enough to buy a new laptop, I really thought that this was amazing venture I could finally believe in.<br />
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Things started changing when we appeared on the radar of political blogging. While the website had a very large reach, priority was only given to "Allen Clifton" - and some of my articles while our other writers were put on the back burner, often for days. Even when their stories were finally published by "Thomas Barr," they were given little promotion and one by one, nearly every one of those writers quit in disgust.<br />
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Eventually, almost nobody wanted to write for us, and the few people I managed to recruit didn't last long. This venture was supposed to be a collaboration of writers that were the progressive answer to the clickbait headlines that littered Facebook, but we rapidly became everything that I hated. There was almost zero collaboration or discussion among writers, and "Allen Clifton" did very little to promote others on our team, myself included. Only Arik Bjorn and his delightfully esoteric Sunday column remained, much to the ire of "Allen Clifton" who had asked me to help him force Arik (and others) out.<br />
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Within the first couple of months of Forward Progressives, I had also been informed by the website manager, "Thomas Barr" that the site had come under attack from individuals he believed to be connected to our alleged competition, Addicting Info, among others. I was asked to do what I could to take them down, which I was more than happy to do.<br />
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At his instruction, I employed a number of techniques that he suggested, including reporting their racier articles to Google AdSense for any violation we could find. A couple of years ago, Addicting Info went silent for a couple of days with no new material as their founder flew from Santa Rosa, California to Chicago to apparently meet with a buyer.<br />
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I can only conclude that we reported the Addicting Info organization so hard that they lost all of their advertising revenue sources due to the complaints, and were bought out by a guy calling himself Icarus Verum, who has the real name of Daniel Gouldman. Daniel seems to also hold partial or complete control of a number of liberal websites like If You Only News, Winning Democrats, Reverb Press, Groopspeak and others.<br />
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After almost 3 years of battling this juggernaut and letting me take most of the heat, "Thomas Barr" claimed he didn't want to fight this battle anymore. While I was the one who had been relentlessly cyberstalked and reported into 30 day Facebook bans, he told me that people from the Addicting Info cabal had supposedly gotten too close to finding out things about him and his family in Minnesota - and that it was time to shut up.<br />
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Before my relationship with Forward Progressives ended with a group chat in January, the website had descended into clickbait stories, far away from the original mission I had signed up for. Articles I had written fell on the back burner, priority was given to Allen Clifton's latest recap of Sarah Palin's pleas for attention, and nobody else wanted to work with us.<br />
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What I found strange through this entire experience is that I was almost always the focus of the attacks by the Addicting Info army of trolls, and not Thomas Barr, Allen Clifton, or the site's owner, Logan. Things like my occasional donations to people in need were made the focus of Facebook pages like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Adventures-of-Beefaroni-Tits-1436458173240505/?fref=ts" target="_blank">The Adventures of Beefaroni Tits</a> or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Whiskey-Dick-The-Most-Ethical-Blog-441904105973554/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Whiskey Dick & The Most Ethical Blog</a>.<br />
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Imagine having a group of Facebook pages devoted to harassing you and your friends, or even making fun of your dog? Thomas Clay Jr who commented on that picture was one of the people that worked with Addicting Info and others to relentlessly bully or even attempt to extort individuals into cooperating with them. He is currently the owner of the website American News X, an organization that includes a former admin of my page, Steve Ahearn who was booted after continually begging for money and harassing people.<br />
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This is what I continually dealt with since confronting the owners of Addicting Info and Being Liberal back in 2012, although I have enjoyed a brief respite since ending my relationship with Forward Progressives. While "Matthew Desmond" has repeatedly told me that neither he, nor any of his associates have had anything to do with the harassment, the evidence I've seen shows that isn't true.<br />
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Anyhow, back to Forward Progressives. Despite the fact that we were supposed to be politically "objective," Allen Clifton insisted on writing one condescending article about Bernie Sanders after another. At the same time, he also created Facebook pages like "Being Progressive" which were intended as an outlet for other links that appeared to be supportive of Bernie. I was instructed, after Thomas Barr gained access to a large pro-Bernie Facebook page run by Annabel Park, to write links specifically tailored for that audience.<br />
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This is when I knew that Forward Progressives had jumped the shark. Despite being told I was joining a site that was going to be the answer to the clickbait bullshit that I hated, we had become just like the rest. Logan and the others even claimed that FP was based in San Francisco, CA despite being a registered LLC in Ohio. <br />
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When that day in January came that I began writing for my new website and the first article was published, I received a Facebook message from the others that I was being let go. In exchange, I would not talk about the operations of Forward Progressives, and I would continue to receive payments for the traffic that led to my articles, and the site overall.<br />
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Those promises were broken, and the sites I helped to build were taken away from me. I have repeatedly tried to rectify these issues, only to be ignored. So now I am releasing this story, and I have recorded all of the conversations with these individuals in case they want to state this story is false.<br />
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Let the chips fall where they may.Manny Schewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15402171800070419500noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-23182812985433427222016-04-20T21:00:00.001-07:002016-04-20T21:00:19.737-07:00My Love/Hate Relationship With Louisiana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I moved to Louisiana in the fall of 2010. I arrived here on a Greyhound bus in October, with just a few coins in my pocket, and no job prospects. At that point, I was at probably the lowest point in my life, and thankfully, I had family that would make sure I didn't starve, and that I had a place to sleep.<br />
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Within a month, I had a job waiting tables at a local restaurant. It took me another 5 months to save up the money to buy a used car, and it was nearly a year before I could find a job in my field. It was an unexpected journey from having nothing, to having a steady paycheck, a woman who loved me, and the peace of mind I had been seeking for years.<br />
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Louisiana is not where I ever saw myself ending up. A couple of years prior, I had visited with an ex-girlfriend to attend my sister's wedding, and I remarked that while I liked parts of Louisiana and its culture, it was a place that I could never see myself living in.<br />
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Yet, just a couple of years later, that's where I found myself. In time, I began to adjust and find my own niche in a culture that has a distrust of outsiders and a preference for their own ways, even those ways are decades behind the rest of the country.<br />
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What I love about Louisiana, at least the southern part of the state, is how friendly people can be. They want to know who you are, who you are related to, and many will buy you a beer during that conversation. You might even be invited to a crawfish boil where you don't know anyone else, and at the end of the night, you've made a bunch of new friends - if you don't talk about political or religious issues that might offend some folks.<br />
<br />
For the most part, most Cajuns I've met have embraced me to some degree. After 5 1/2 years, I know people of all political and religious persuasions who I can spend time with, and we get together over our love of food, sports and beer. This isn't the place I saw myself ending up in, but I've learned to make it work.<br />
<br />
The political ignorance and individuals fighting against their own self-interests does drive me crazy - as does the racial hatred which lingers just below the surface not only in Louisiana, but across the Southern states in which I have spent all of my life.<br />
One of these days, I may move back to Florida, or even the state where I was born, Virginia. Louisiana has so much promise if only it would turn its government around and elect officials who have the best interests of every citizen in mind, rather than the corporate interests who have run Louisiana into fiscal crisis.<br />
<br />
I would like to see Louisiana rise out of the bigotry and ignorance of the Bible Belt and join the rest of the United States in the 21st century sometime in the near future. But if they cannot do that, I will have to regrettably move on, Cajun recipe books in tow.Manny Schewitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15402171800070419500noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-62746711375768188492016-01-17T15:10:00.000-08:002016-01-17T15:10:11.104-08:00The Free Thought Project Is An Anti-Government Group Supporting The Bundy Militia<a href="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Oregon-militia-1-4-16.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Oregon militia free thought project cop block bundy" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-35000" src="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Oregon-militia-1-4-16-300x225.jpg" height="225" width="300" /></a>Last week, I revealed to readers how the organization <a href="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/cop-block-is-disgustingly-defending-the-oregon-militia/" target="_blank">Cop Block was defending</a> the Bundy militia members who have taken over a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon. Many liberals regularly read and follow Cop Block, along with other groups like The Free Thought Project which pose as advocacy groups, but are not-so-secretly anti-government activists.<br />
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On Wednesday, the fire chief of Harney County where the militia takeover has occurred resigned, claiming he didn't like the government's response to the occupation. The website Free Thought Project covered the story with the headline "Oregon Fire Chief Catches FBI Agents Posing as Militia – Quits His Job in Protest" - and claims that the FBI is trying to provoke an armed showdown with the militia members.<br />
<blockquote>Many activists and militia members are now suspecting that the undercover agents were planning to act as agent provocateurs and create trouble in order to frame the protesters for things that they did not do. This theory is supported by the fact these undercover agents were reportedly bothering locals and acting in a threatening manner.<br />
<br />
However, mainstream media has reported that militia members were harassing locals, but now that version of events is being brought into question considering the fact that undercover agents were posing as militia. The looming threat of agent provocateurs may be one of the reasons why the refuge occupiers are turning away help from outside militias who have attempted to join the occupation. (<a href="http://thefreethoughtproject.com/oregon-fire-marshall-resigns-exposing-undercover-fbi-agents-posing-militia/" target="_blank">Source</a>)</blockquote>What The Free Thought Project blogger John Vibes conveniently leaves out is that fire chief Chris Briles was sympathetic to the militia in the first place, and that he announced his resignation at a press conference where Ammon Bundy stood with him. This isn't an accidental oversight while blogging from hundreds or thousands of miles away from where the story is happening, it is a deliberate omission of key facts to promote an agenda supportive of the Bundys, and other anti-government groups like them.<br />
<br />
Chris Briles is hardly an impartial government official who uncovered some shocking plot against protesters, but a Bundy sympathizer who is promoting conspiracy stories to give credence to the claim that the Bundy militia is simply a group of peaceful occupiers fighting against government tyranny and overreach.<br />
<br />
Here's what the local TV station KATU had to say about Chris Briles:<br />
<blockquote>Briels is a member of the Community Committee for Public Safety, which is a local group that's expressed interest in taking over for the Bundy protesters to work to reclaim local rancher's land rights when and if they leave. (<a href="http://katu.com/news/local/harney-county-fire-chief-resigns-sides-with-armed-protesters" target="_blank">Source</a>)</blockquote>So why would The Free Thought Project leave out these important facts about Chris Briles and the Bundy Militia? If you dig around on their website, you'll find that they promote the same <a href="http://thefreethoughtproject.com/police-spokesman-cops-confiscate-firearms-illegal/" target="_blank">gun confiscation stories</a> that the NRA and gun fanatics regularly repeat, along with false articles about vaccines and other debunked conspiracy stories.<br />
<br />
As I've said before, underneath their smoke screen of being police accountability advocates, they're little more than anti-government activists that use well-meaning liberals to spread their message.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-35961794286657430202016-01-03T20:05:00.000-08:002016-01-03T20:05:18.130-08:00Q&A Session December 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIlTRh7eqCAZ5Is4vSA_RhaZ_xqvYTkQUpXSCIAF9qMvObUoIGsuWATN-LQu6mB9mYgmPH80aas2nvIZhPdCy8dt-gOWPV24u7RgYRieKz5naLtZSBXqb0lGs88Sqku0CefFKp7UhhzG2O/s1600/419039_607000502652683_1157103723_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIlTRh7eqCAZ5Is4vSA_RhaZ_xqvYTkQUpXSCIAF9qMvObUoIGsuWATN-LQu6mB9mYgmPH80aas2nvIZhPdCy8dt-gOWPV24u7RgYRieKz5naLtZSBXqb0lGs88Sqku0CefFKp7UhhzG2O/s320/419039_607000502652683_1157103723_n.jpg" /></a></div>Here are the results of my Q&A session.<br />
<br />
<b>Michael Pettersen:</b> Corned Beef or Pastrami on a Ruben? <br />
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Pastrami. I love both but pastrami is where it's at.<br />
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<b>Maryse Bonniwell:</b> Is there, really and honestly, a chance Bernie could win. He doesn't get the coverage the others do, he doesn't have the same machine behind him. I know many of us feel like he should, but, in the real world, the one we live in, with apathy as ramped as it is, and racism gaining ground every day with the help of you know who, does he really stand a chance?<br />
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Bernie Sanders can win, but I don't know that liberals are ready for him.<br />
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<b>Crystal Minarik:</b> What brought you to Louisiana?<br />
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A series of unfortunate events. A bad economy in Florida during the housing crisis and a nasty divorce. I lost everything, then eventually became more successful here in my career than I was there.<br />
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<b>Lance Burson:</b> What would have to happen for the American south (I live in suburban Atlanta) to become a stronghold for the Democrats?<br />
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For people to wake up and realize the GOP is not their friend.<br />
<b><br />
Pam Philpot:</b> Do you see a relationship between party affiliation and sharing of Facebook hoaxes?<br />
<br />
People are dumb on both sides of the aisle.<br />
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<b>Patti Casey:</b> Who does Peanut really love most---you or your wife?<br />
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Me. He tolerates her but loves me, except when there is food involved.<br />
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<b>Donna Schoetker Dunn:</b> What do you enjoy doing when you have some down time?<br />
<br />
Fishing or playing poker.<br />
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<b>Mack Kirk:</b> Growing up in the south was your political ideology different at one point? Ask for myself having gone through a Libertarian phase into my mid 20s.<br />
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I was once a conservative Republican. That has obviously changed. I have some beliefs that are mildly conservative or libertarian now, but I base those on facts instead of popular ideology on the left.<br />
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<b>Dan Whitaker:</b> Do you actually believe that if my neighbor plants his fields with GMO corn, and because of prevailing winds his crop cross pollinates my crop, Monsanto can sue me?<br />
<br />
No. They have been very careful on that issue.<br />
<b><br />
Leonard Gerber:</b> What is your real name and why pick such a ludicrous alias?<br />
<br />
I don't disclose my name to most people because of the fact that there are both liberals and conservatives who would love nothing more than to torment me and my family. The alias was given to me by a fellow Jewish coworker years ago, and I decided to start writing under this pseudonym as a joke, but now everyone knows by the name Manny Schewitz.<br />
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<b>David Matheny:</b> Do you suck the heads on Crawfish?<br />
<br />
Of course. That is where all the fat is and it is delicious.<br />
<br />
That's it for this Q&A session, I'll do it again soon.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-4980005267528661822015-12-23T21:13:00.001-08:002017-06-05T15:47:32.518-07:00Yes, Virginia, There Are Liberal BulliesOver the past few years, a number of people, especially my friend <a href="http://johnhenry.us/" target="_blank">John Henry</a>, have been singled out for harassment by a group of people who call themselves liberal page admins or liberal trolls. Other people like the owner of Americans Against The Tea Party were the targets of <a href="https://web.archive.org/save/http://aattp.org/the-real-story-of-who-owns-aattp/" target="_blank">extortion attempts</a> which tried to get them to turn over the access to their Facebook page.<br />
<br />
These attacks are nothing new, and have existed from the beginning of our page, but they have ramped up their efforts to include attempting to breach the website instead of simply being a nuisance and insulting myself and friends of mine.<br />
<br />
As one example, here is a recent screenshot of yet another Facebook page created solely to annoy John Henry, and nothing else.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Ge6i7IvAUubSIsFrMaXhwTDoa6sxmR5eyOaEuhXht7UbrLwOd22TyDWdFza64hOby-el6KZRKNDPoZvrEcTna1faQZmmd1LuDhVIsTbY4zTH7F3QxKaLzFWvI8E09HtxtyAg4cB74l1_/s1600/82915.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Ge6i7IvAUubSIsFrMaXhwTDoa6sxmR5eyOaEuhXht7UbrLwOd22TyDWdFza64hOby-el6KZRKNDPoZvrEcTna1faQZmmd1LuDhVIsTbY4zTH7F3QxKaLzFWvI8E09HtxtyAg4cB74l1_/s320/82915.PNG" width="277" /></a></div>
<br />
Why would they do that? Because these individuals are obsessed with harassing us and anyone who stands in their way. <br />
<br />
My friend Erin Nanasi has also been bullied by anonymous Facebook pages with names like "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006674389418&fref=ts&hc_location=ufi" target="_blank">Pot Meet Kettle</a>" (now offline) who have mocked her and her family - all in an attempt to force her and her blog off Facebook, even after she stopped writing for my former website, Forward Progressives.<br />
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Since that time when I first called out these "liberal" websites and others like them for being as unethical and slimy as the conservatives they blog about, I have had my personal Facebook suspended multiple times after waves of false reports, as has John Henry and other people in our circle of friends.<br />
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Why do people who call themselves liberals do such things and why would they perpetuate falsehoods, distort the truth, or be just as ugly as the right-wing Tea Party conservatives they claim to be better than? It's simple, it's all about profit, and not furthering the liberal cause.<br />
<br />
In the liberal blogosphere, it is a cutthroat game of tentative alliances between page owners who work together to maximize page traffic to their websites - or take payments from site owners to post their links. These are people who promote themselves as champions of the liberal cause against the right-wing, but care more about the money they can make from web traffic to their articles instead of publishing factual information that would further the left's agenda - the same thing <a href="http://observer.com/2015/07/is-gawker-destroying-itself-from-the-inside-lets-hope-so/" target="_blank">Gawker has done</a> with scandal stories for the past 12 years.<br />
<br />
Utilizing these sketchy SEO tactics isn't a unique thing, other liberal bloggers like <a href="http://whiskeyandthemorningafter.blogspot.com/2013/10/think-all-liberal-bloggers-are-great_6.html" target="_blank">Lou Colagiovanni</a>, Omar Rivero of Occupy Democrats and Samuel Warde (they all know each other) have all resorted to proxy alliances with a group of individuals that will harass and falsely report people who will not work with them, especially anyone who is critical of their brand of hyperbolic and false "liberal news."<br />
<br />
Around the same time we were hit with the cyberattacks on the website I formerly wrote for, we were also the subject of an article by a blogger we believe to be the leader of the group that was originally hired by the folks at Addicting Info to target my Facebook page for harassment. Thomas Clay, Jr of American News X wrote a blog which falsely accused Forward Progressives of being a Tea Party plant, and relied on falsely reported Zoominfo data to make their claim.<br />
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In fact, they even boasted about it on one of a number of pages that have been blocked from interacting with mine and Forward Progressives.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Kj3KaJzxPdo3QuCw9Fs1dvBvmqpBLadMHCnRQSZKZWY_quWHoOw0iBk_zjcR9vGtzVacj_vGe1q64KSxHAy62M_y4ji8EnOZDHfSNcywYMN4Pb6Sp4WQ0nCCNvjmpLv3D25YVB0tr82J/s1600/Capture1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Kj3KaJzxPdo3QuCw9Fs1dvBvmqpBLadMHCnRQSZKZWY_quWHoOw0iBk_zjcR9vGtzVacj_vGe1q64KSxHAy62M_y4ji8EnOZDHfSNcywYMN4Pb6Sp4WQ0nCCNvjmpLv3D25YVB0tr82J/s320/Capture1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYzLueusinS7b2DtDChxk_Zd2ZSRGETWvkiNEuAd0vMLISBhasVWwkeroDy022dlSsppAPGwItPXzs1k7bcJsa8yZTK085VcaSxTOnhC_GScD-E9VaFaCLOBJVFq-1iqRNlSuHiYQydCRM/s1600/Capture2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYzLueusinS7b2DtDChxk_Zd2ZSRGETWvkiNEuAd0vMLISBhasVWwkeroDy022dlSsppAPGwItPXzs1k7bcJsa8yZTK085VcaSxTOnhC_GScD-E9VaFaCLOBJVFq-1iqRNlSuHiYQydCRM/s320/Capture2.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Seriously, who sits around all day and makes up Bitstrips mocking people in hopes they can drive that person to the point of quitting political blogging? As I've said before, these aren't conservatives to the best of my knowledge, these are individuals who portray themselves as valiant liberal writers leading the charge against the Tea Party and the GOP. Except they aren't. They're really little more than political grifters hoping to make some easy cash off gullible liberals who will believe anything they see on social media.<br />
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In fact, one of the writers for American News X is one Steve Ahearn, the owner of a Facebook page called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/LiberalTruth78?fref=ts" target="_blank">Stop Telling Lies About Liberals And We'll Stop Telling The Truth About You</a>, and a former admin of my old Whiskey and the Morning After Blog page. He was finally removed from my page after he and others mentioned continually harassed an acquaintance of mine, David Haberman, over starting a GoFundMe account to be able to afford dental surgery. This is all while Steve Ahearn constantly begged for money over a period of years, claiming that his children were hungry, his car was out of gas, or that their power was about to be shut off. This is why he continually makes pages just troll mine, because former drug addicts who believe in conspiracy nonsense are so reputable, right?<br />
<br />
Mr. Ahearn, along with his friends who include Kevin Plamondon, Thomas Clay, Jr and Sean Conners of American News X have apparently been working together to harass anyone who will not work with them. They claim I am "jealous" of their "success" but these are people who gauge their accomplishments on the size of their pages, and the size of the ad revenue checks they receive each month.<br />
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It's a sad story for liberal politics when people are so driven by profit and notoriety that they resort to the attacks that I and other have dealt with for the last 3+ years. The problem is it isn't going to stop anytime soon, as you can see by the obsessed comments from Sean Conners below, which I am screen-capping in chase he decides to delete them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibZgs-NpazFdwkBIoFKuRLcUCGhA5FTJJy_UiFllsN9gWFoex3ks7IHgmxZSN9yQnyPjp3tAIqwO4on_yeZxS3TYdDqBZD9M7meOL1yBAYbvJNjoiGqiuY2FDtpnT8BKi7IOrsLvsaQ6dS/s1600/Capture+1716.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibZgs-NpazFdwkBIoFKuRLcUCGhA5FTJJy_UiFllsN9gWFoex3ks7IHgmxZSN9yQnyPjp3tAIqwO4on_yeZxS3TYdDqBZD9M7meOL1yBAYbvJNjoiGqiuY2FDtpnT8BKi7IOrsLvsaQ6dS/s320/Capture+1716.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bullies try to use back channels and they try to isolate people so that they can win. I have been the recipient of these attacks ever since I first started calling out Being Liberal and their friends back in 2012.<br />
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In case they want to continue their campaign of bullying and extortion attempts, I have many more screenshots of their antics that I will be more than happy to post as updates to this story.<br />
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I am never, ever going away. After 3+ years, I'd think you would have learned.
UPDATE 10/11/2016: My email account is being spammed for porn and other subscriptions by a Louisville, KY IP address. I have reached out to the IP provider.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/TWC_Help">@TWC_Help</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TWC">@TWC</a> the owner of IP address 74.141.223.101 is harrassing me and spamming me with porn subscriptions. Please address this. <a href="https://t.co/CDymYKSgo6">pic.twitter.com/CDymYKSgo6</a></p>— (((Manny Schewitz))) (@MannySchewitz) <a href="https://twitter.com/MannySchewitz/status/785888115697160192">October 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
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12/21/2016: I am now being slammed with trolls and writers from some of the same sites once again. One of them is Tiffany Willis of Liberal America who claims she never heard of Ed Brayton from Patheos who called out her site, yet here she is in the comments of <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2016/09/18/please-stop-sharing-links-to-these-sites/">that article</a>.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRecHv2vKKdObBPrFrrhUnuV4edK3W9N3XjZs_nhRYqyD0IIAONSAyj9a5yiDh0K_t6iFU_lrBmdQt1uJgtEbAHdy6Ww859EIsBT6QKfBJcVNmNSv8fSx857q1zjnIAXYErUqoa0CCZdk/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRecHv2vKKdObBPrFrrhUnuV4edK3W9N3XjZs_nhRYqyD0IIAONSAyj9a5yiDh0K_t6iFU_lrBmdQt1uJgtEbAHdy6Ww859EIsBT6QKfBJcVNmNSv8fSx857q1zjnIAXYErUqoa0CCZdk/s400/Capture.JPG" width="400" height="336" /></a></div>
Update: http://traffic.libsyn.com/podcastfakenews/Episode20420-206_3_172C209.2420AM.m4aUnknownnoreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-81107497189551834132015-12-20T18:41:00.002-08:002015-12-20T18:41:39.925-08:00The 2nd Amendment Isn't A Limitless Right<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixcYqp9dgPNS1mItW167viYmNye4pywZgTC228GsCugR5SKJkui8NivicLya1vVbytAKkluiDkJo3WSQdBRnHSMrg-H7-tkSd8bF4aBUPWK5_BgBdzJgllWV1inwVyHH0zqwaYfXiCNN7S/s1600/roflbot101315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixcYqp9dgPNS1mItW167viYmNye4pywZgTC228GsCugR5SKJkui8NivicLya1vVbytAKkluiDkJo3WSQdBRnHSMrg-H7-tkSd8bF4aBUPWK5_BgBdzJgllWV1inwVyHH0zqwaYfXiCNN7S/s320/roflbot101315.jpg" /></a></div>As I have repeatedly stated before, I am a gun owner. I use guns, I like guns, and I support the right for law-abiding citizens to own and carry the weapons of their choice. This includes concealed carry, and even the ability to own military grade assault weapons - so long as the individual is properly licensed and trained.<br />
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Many liberals give me grief for liking guns. In case you're new here, I grew up in rural Virginia, in a very conservative environment. I was given a .22 rifle for my 7th birthday, and I own a number of weapons today - including a handgun. Owning and using guns is part of living in rural America, and I make no apologies for that.<br />
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The problem is that the NRA wants any novice to be able to buy an assault rifle, with no training or background check. While they claim that every gun owner undergoes screening, that simply is not true.<br />
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When the 2nd Amendment was ratified, America was a country where muskets and cannons were the weapons of the time. Conservatives scream about protecting gun rights, but they are the worst spokesmen for gun rights. Rather than promoting the responsible and lawful ownership of firearms, they have made it possible for anyone who wants to get their hands on a gun, and we're seeing the tragic results of that over and over again in the daily news.<br />
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Gun ownership shouldn't a liberal or conservative thing, our nation has a long history with firearms - both good and bad. Unfortunately, our country has a serious issue with gun violence, and all the lobbying by the NRA is making it worse.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-25668383022481311222015-12-10T20:35:00.000-08:002016-04-22T21:16:07.826-07:00Once Again, I've Been Plagiarized By Fellow "Liberals"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnMAZEAIJbIOEQlw_sBEMXSojBsdNcAaLmTES0_CkJmmEB4x-cNhu48nXN7R5BZqapHX3ofCQ2ecNImRxb8mJ6DdFO8okh2OQJ0r_ajIY88Shyphenhyphenu1hyIgz1HR2kUCinU-y3RaP6f5xCCFFU/s1600/vge2x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnMAZEAIJbIOEQlw_sBEMXSojBsdNcAaLmTES0_CkJmmEB4x-cNhu48nXN7R5BZqapHX3ofCQ2ecNImRxb8mJ6DdFO8okh2OQJ0r_ajIY88Shyphenhyphenu1hyIgz1HR2kUCinU-y3RaP6f5xCCFFU/s320/vge2x.jpg" /></a></div>
I've been running this blog now for a little more than 5 years. Since October of 2010 when I ended up in Louisiana due to a series of events that included the economy, my rocky relationship with Sprint, and a bitter divorce - I've managed to crawl my way back to a position I never imagined possible when riding that Greyhound bus from San Francisco to Lafayette, Louisiana.<br />
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I ended up here with a quarter left in my pocket, and relied for almost a year on my conservative Republican mother who I love dearly, despite our disagreement on issues like abortion, or the fact that Bobby Jindal sucks. Since the day I stepped off that bus, only to find all of my luggage was stolen, I've worked my way back to a life better than the one I left behind in Florida.<br />
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In this time, I developed a following for my personal thoughts here on Whiskey and the Morning After, as well as my regular contributions on Forward Progessives which I have been doing for almost three years now. <br />
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When I first started, I was surprised that people beyond my small circle of friends which includes people of all political persuasions, wanted to hear what I had to say. Five years later, we've grown Forward Progressives to over 300,000 followers, my <a href="https://www.facebook.com/themannyschewitz/">public Facebook page</a> to over 30,000 - and have seen people from all around the world leave comments on my latest musings about science, religion, and whiskey.<br />
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It's also both flattering and maddening when other individuals with little or no creative abilities have decided to take my original content and pass it off as their own. As an example, today I found out that far-left/libertarian website Free Thought Project basically <a href="http://thefreethoughtproject.com/70000-muslim-clerics-issue-fatwa-condemning-terrorism/">plagiarized my story</a> about <a href="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/70000-muslim-clerics-issue-fatwa-condemning-terrorism/">Muslim clerics rejecting extremists</a>. Then another site that has previously plagiarized my material copied their story, and also passed it off as their own. <br />
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As a writer, I fully understand deadlines and presenting stories that your colleagues have missed, but representing someone else's story with little or no credit is plagiarism - especially when you take their story and just change a few words.<br />
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I've dealt with this for years, and my long beef with Being Liberal and their website Addicting Info goes back to 2012 when images I had made were being used to promote their page, with no credit to me. Since I've called out Addicting Info, Occupy Democrats and other people in their circle of friends for not properly crediting sources, or just for widely exaggerating stories for additional traffic to their websites - I have periodically been subjected to mass reports against my page and harassing emails. <br />
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These aren't angry conservatives who are upset about my ruthless fact-checking of their lies, these are people who call themselves liberals or progressives who want to easily profit off the hard work and creativity of others - without giving the original creator any credit.<br />
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These organizations do not care about advancing liberal causes as much as they care about putting money in their pocket monthly from ad revenue checks - and they don't mind ripping off original content creators to do so.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-20975439526131221642015-12-09T04:39:00.000-08:002015-12-09T04:39:13.426-08:00Donald Trump Perfectly Illustrates How Stupid Our Political System Has Become<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLr198dkxUZUkBtvUy4eVwnUWWnUoQuzVR3XAPFAxjGFekVDPrcSAzmrtx8Zpm-ZXd11yPiicx-WwRaErvk5dDQfxzZL30A9znfSR_Q-bknl6KCz3cDAVfw3VAzMAy1m0t5vCVnhB18COd/s1600/ben-don.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLr198dkxUZUkBtvUy4eVwnUWWnUoQuzVR3XAPFAxjGFekVDPrcSAzmrtx8Zpm-ZXd11yPiicx-WwRaErvk5dDQfxzZL30A9znfSR_Q-bknl6KCz3cDAVfw3VAzMAy1m0t5vCVnhB18COd/s320/ben-don.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Both Republicans and Democrats are absolutely horrified at the latest remarks from Donald Trump concerning <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/12/7/9868996/trump-islam-chart" target="_blank">banning Muslims</a> from the United States. Until this election cycle, anyone who proposed any of the things Trump has would have watched their campaign crash and burn. Party officials and political pundits alike would castigate them, but the reaction from the GOP leadership and conservative media <a href="http://www.wmur.com/politics/state-gop-chairwoman-says-trumps-call-to-ban-muslims-from-us-is-unamerican/36847434" target="_blank">has been cowardly</a> this time around.<br />
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Remember 2008 Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo? No? That's because he barely registered in the polls, thanks in part to his extreme views on race and immigration. In 2016, Tom Tancredo has told Donald Trump to <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/tom-tancredo-donald-trump-anti-immigrant-comments-tone-down-120044" target="_blank">tone down</a> his rhetoric, which illustrates just how far the GOP has slid to the fringe in the past 8 years. When the GOP's leading candidate is <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-neo-nazi-support_56660b92e4b079b2818fcd36" target="_blank">embraced by Neo-Nazis</a>, there's no further doubt that our national political dialogue is in complete shambles.<br />
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Donald Trump continues to remain popular, because he is appealing to the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/07/27/donald-trumps-surge-is-heavily-reliant-on-less-educated-americans-heres-why/" target="_blank">most ignorant people</a> in America. If I were to guess, I'd say that the average Trump voter barely understands how politics work, and really thinks if you type "Amen!" under a picture on Facebook, that little girl will be cured of cancer. These people are all around us, we all know at least one person who truly believes and shares stuff from conservative clickbait media sites that claim Michelle Obama is really a man - or that they have the exclusive scoop on President Obama's plan to confiscate guns.<br />
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Right-wing politics has always relied on the fear of foreigners, intellectuals, gays, etc. The <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/02/18/immigration_and_the_rise__fall_of_the_know-nothing_party_125649.html" target="_blank">Know Nothing Party</a> flourished on the hatred towards Irish immigrants and Catholics. The KKK has been reincarnated a number of time to oppose blacks, Jews, communists and immigrants. The <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2013/bringing-back-birch" target="_blank">John Birch Society</a> is still alive and well today, enjoying the support of Ron Paul devotees and Glenn Beck followers.<br />
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However, the internet and social media especially have made spreading hatred and misinformation easier - and <a href="http://whiskeyandthemorningafter.blogspot.com/2013/01/social-media-manipulation-rant.html" target="_blank">more profitable</a> than ever before. It used to be that the unhinged rants of conspiracy nuts were mostly confined to newsletters or low watt radio stations, but now all you have to do is tap your Facebook app and find that your gullible aunt is sharing stuff from <a href="http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/David_Icke" target="_blank">David Icke</a>, <a href="http://ascienceenthusiast.com/the-david-avocado-wolfe-effect/" target="_blank">David Avocado Wolfe</a> or websites claiming you <a href="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/march-against-monsanto-promotes-curing-autism-children-putting-bleach-where/" target="_blank">can cure autism</a> with bleach.<br />
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In other words, the crazy has gone mainstream. Bloggers have found that they can make <a href="http://whiskeyandthemorningafter.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-truth-about-matthew-desmond-and.html" target="_blank">a lot of money</a> with headlines along the lines of "Barack Obama DESTROYS Every GOP Talking Point In EPIC Smackdown!" or "The SHOCKING Truth About Guns Liberals Don't Want YOU To Know!" Too many people don't read beyond the headline, and pass an article along as being true, without fact-checking both the story and the source. <br />
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As much as liberals want to claim that they are smarter than conservatives, there are many folks on the left who believe that George W. Bush will be <a href="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/germany-filing-war-crimes-charges-george-bush-dick-cheney/" target="_blank">tried for war crimes</a> or that the FCC can pull <a href="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/change-org-petition-created-to-revoke-fox-news-broadcasting-license/" target="_blank">Fox News' broadcasting license</a> - simply because they saw it on a website that calls itself liberal.<br />
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The danger of Donald Trump being the Republican nominee or even being elected as our next president should not be laughed off. When you have people claiming to be Bernie Sanders supporters who have stated they <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/11/10/im_a_bernie_sanders_voter_who_will_not_support_hillary_clinton_here_are_10_reasons_why/" target="_blank">will not vote for Hillary Clinton</a>, or Clinton supporters saying they will not vote for Sanders, there is a very real possibility that Donald Trump or Ted Cruz could eek out a win in 2016.<br />
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Elections are not won based on viral videos or Moveon.org petitions, they are won by educating and motivating voters. Unfortunately, the American public has been dumbed down more than ever before over the last few years, thanks in part to social media. This is how Donald Trump has become as popular as he is, and this may be how the GOP hold on America becomes complete in 2016.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-76050792722282689072015-12-03T17:29:00.001-08:002015-12-03T17:29:54.898-08:00The NRA Is On The Side Of Terrorists, Not Responsible Gun Owners<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHW0PppWnE7IV_gf3nKNhu6CAchLQQ5j9oV5sQlb2AxM_DWo6nyjk19S4Bz8ldH_jtyjfyMHgiMfl5w-yPk0IkWizVc91TqkW1kk8mwcSHnGo4cIDMQwoxMpjUkM2iU3qMYsGMQfhfk597/s1600/roflbot102015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHW0PppWnE7IV_gf3nKNhu6CAchLQQ5j9oV5sQlb2AxM_DWo6nyjk19S4Bz8ldH_jtyjfyMHgiMfl5w-yPk0IkWizVc91TqkW1kk8mwcSHnGo4cIDMQwoxMpjUkM2iU3qMYsGMQfhfk597/s320/roflbot102015.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Once again, there has been another mass shooting here in the United States. According to Vox.com, more Americans have been killed in <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2015/12/3/9842346/guns-kill-more-than-war">the last fifty years</a> by gun violence than all the wars in our history. This should press lawmakers to do something to keep guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists and criminals, but the NRA has blocked nearly every gun law across America.<br />
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Just today, the Republican-controlled United States Senate <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/senate-votes-down-gun-curbs-in-wake-of-ca-attacks/2015/12/03/51b105da-9a0a-11e5-aca6-1ae3be6f06d2_story.html" target="_blank">voted to block</a> expanding background checks, which comes almost 24 hours after the massacre in San Bernardino which left 14 people dead and even more wounded. <br />
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Two police officers were also injured in the shootout with the two suspects who died in a furious battle with police. According to law enforcement, both suspects were armed with assault rifles, handguns, and had thousands of rounds of ammunition.<br />
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As bad as this attack was, it could have been even worse. Despite the fact that this is the worst attack on American soil since Sandy Hook, the NRA and their GOP puppets continue to advocate further loosening gun laws across the country.<br />
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The NRA does not represent gun owners like myself and the millions of other people who use responsibly use firearms for recreation or personal protection. The NRA does represent the gun lobby and the hucklefuck dumbassery of the most paranoid, delusional conservative base which laps up their constant propaganda about how President Obama and liberals want to take all of their guns.<br />
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As long as they continue to block sensible gun legislation which could reduce the number of incidents like San Bernardino, it's safe to say that the NRA is on the side of terrorists, not responsible gun owners.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-17971160656530494502015-12-01T22:10:00.000-08:002015-12-01T22:10:10.575-08:00It's Not Easy Being A Liberal In Louisiana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgY4Mk9FchhnBeIQv3sFL3lw5prthjjoWPuu-kBC4BUm7kdeAkGnR_rGM_Glhb8IU6Hrq91HkBlYgLGPKrcIepkPQ8A1MNa5rv2vAvqV0IZr92lveACkjNLjmdvDR8Q5mYsUGPDGTrDoJH/s1600/roflbot123014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgY4Mk9FchhnBeIQv3sFL3lw5prthjjoWPuu-kBC4BUm7kdeAkGnR_rGM_Glhb8IU6Hrq91HkBlYgLGPKrcIepkPQ8A1MNa5rv2vAvqV0IZr92lveACkjNLjmdvDR8Q5mYsUGPDGTrDoJH/s320/roflbot123014.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I wasn't always a liberal. Back in my early days, I was raised as right-wing conservative. I was taught that liberals rejoiced in abortions and that gay people wanted to recruit young people like me into their supposedly hedonistic and sinful lifestyle.<br />
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Life threw me a number of curveballs as an adult, and through a number of circumstances, I found myself living in extremely conservative Louisiana. After reversing a series of unfortunate choices and student debt, I became political again, especially in the wake of the Tea Party takeover of Congress in 2010.<br />
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It's been five years now since I moved to Louisiana, and I've moved ever further to the left in that time. Here, I am surrounded by people who despite being incredibly bigoted towards Hispanics and other non-whites, have a poor grasp of the English language.<br />
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Not only is their incorrect use of prepositions and possessives enough to give any English major fits, their understanding of the political process is staggering. This is the state that elected Bobby Jindal twice, and has finally elected a conservative Democrat to take his place rather than David Vitter who was crippled by his own past, along with his attacks on fellow Republican candidates.<br />
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In my time here, my newfound interest in politics has presented me the opportunities to make connections with people who love the state of Louisiana and want to reverse the failed conservative policies of politicians like Bobby Jindal and David Vitter. These outstanding individuals include <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SomethingLikeTheTruth/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Bob Mann</a> from LSU, Lamar White Jr from <a href="http://cenlamar.com/">Cenlamar.com</a>, and <a href="http://www.salon.com/writer/sean_illing/" target="_blank">Sean Illing</a> who now writes for Salon.<br />
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Turning Louisiana back to the center will not be an easy job. I have no illusions that there aren't massive corporate and political interests that will want to keep the state solidly conservative, and in the hands of the fossil fuel industry.<br />
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For better or worse, this is where I belong now. And I will do whatever I have to do to turn my adopted state around.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-90221226775841788552015-11-21T20:26:00.000-08:002015-11-21T20:26:08.573-08:00In A Stunning Victory, A Democrat Wins Louisiana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-xL0rUXnI9pIzQBT0v5Eg-10c7JxmkvEG9_qARTiCImvuvsVq5N5ehmW8q-sqeE7SieSirG4dLYpcUu7kTvK4YHRvrVaB0fuKxMfbhqI6Gcm7iPLE5iM8014iKBtdm93FZeUdvOWfP0PX/s1600/roflbot123014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-xL0rUXnI9pIzQBT0v5Eg-10c7JxmkvEG9_qARTiCImvuvsVq5N5ehmW8q-sqeE7SieSirG4dLYpcUu7kTvK4YHRvrVaB0fuKxMfbhqI6Gcm7iPLE5iM8014iKBtdm93FZeUdvOWfP0PX/s320/roflbot123014.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
David Vitter was the assumed choice to beat his opponents ahead of the primary elections. Instead, he faltered and demonized his fellow Republican contenders Jay Dardenne and Scott Angelle. Rather than rally their supporters after the primaries, he lost the endorsement of Jay Dardenne, the current lieutenant governor to Democrat John Bel Edwards,<br />
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I've been working tirelessly over the past year to take down David Vitter, as have a number of my friends. Today is vindication for all of our hard work.<br />
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With all of <a href="http://www.forwardprogressives.com/theres-brand-new-david-vitter-scandal-doesnt-involve-hookers/" target="_blank">the scandals</a> surrounding Vitter, it still seemed as if he would still pull off a victory in Louisiana, because he is a Republican.<br />
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With the coordinated effort of many liberal activists and writers like my friends Dayne Sherman, Bob Mann, Lamar White and Sean Illing - we managed to take down David Vitter who has also announced he will not run for Senate again.<br />
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When I came here five years ago, I didn't intend to stay long, or to involve myself in Louisiana politics. But after the Tea Party takeover in 2010, I was determined to do something.<br />
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Tonight is vindication, Tonight is the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people in Louisiana, and they should all be very proud to end the political career of David Vitter,Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-13969323994612020672015-11-17T18:24:00.000-08:002015-11-17T18:24:19.619-08:00Bobby Jindal Exits The Presidential Race, To Screw Over David Vitter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrwfIt6VEjdBd6FK2kpVj2pOI440l4yVdepVZvtOPDCg6tdzp8Gq5QClF1BMXKZEm8fFj3spU_2paQTcKq7ONIdNCIxOdPTo13w5SBSoT-X0UZ6NEzUGpOyQh2rRI-nv_wN5cbNDPDVXV/s1600/roflbot81914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizrwfIt6VEjdBd6FK2kpVj2pOI440l4yVdepVZvtOPDCg6tdzp8Gq5QClF1BMXKZEm8fFj3spU_2paQTcKq7ONIdNCIxOdPTo13w5SBSoT-X0UZ6NEzUGpOyQh2rRI-nv_wN5cbNDPDVXV/s320/roflbot81914.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
It's been a fun run mocking Bobby Jindal. As a resident of Louisiana since 2010, I've watched his mismanagement the state up close and personal, and it's no surprise that his failed brand of conservatism just wasn't going to attract big money donors like the Koch Brothers.<br />
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The clown show that is the Republican primary campaign will go on, but it will go on without Bobby Jindal, who suspended his bid for the White House today.<br />
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Honestly, I thought he would hold out until at least New Hampshire, but I was wrong. I'm also very disappointed because I had a lot of fun running the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Jinderp-650011115102887/" target="_blank">Bobby Jinderp Facebook page</a> with some friends - now who are we going to mock?<br />
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Bobby Jindal's exit from the race was inevitable, but as my friend Lamar White, Jr pointed out, it came just days before the election in which his fellow Republican David Vitter faces off with John Bel Edwards in the governor's election here in Louisiana.<br />
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It's no secret in Louisiana political circles that David Vitter and Bobby Jindal despise each other. Even though both are Republicans, Jindal has refused to endorse Vitter in his campaign to replace Jindal who is term-limited as governor.<br />
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Jindal is extremely unpopular here in Louisiana, and his legacy of Republican failure hangs over David Vitter who will have to clean up his mess if elected. The problem for Vitter is that he has been abandoned by other members of the GOP, and even Republican lieutenant governor <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/11/republican_jay_dardenne_endors.html" target="_blank">has endorsed </a>Democrat John Bel Edwards instead.<br />
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Bobby Jindal's exit from the race overshadows Vitter's campaign in the media, and it perfectly illustrates the failure of Republican politics in a state as red as Louisiana. Jindal could have held off on his relentless pandering to GOP voters until after Saturday's election, but he has done it now for no other reason to sink Vitter's ship - and Democrats should thank Jindal for this parting gift.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-7665298224482249202015-06-18T14:17:00.000-07:002016-07-06T15:22:02.705-07:00Websites we do and do NOT share fromWe were asked recently by some fans for a list of pages we do and do not endorse. So, here we go.<br />
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There's a number of pages that I call "The Axis of Ego". They are pages run by Samuel Warde, Lou Colagiovanni and Matthew Desmond - or their friends who are trying corner the market on liberal and progressive media on Facebook. There are other page admins who work closely with them and that collective group will often try to absorb smaller pages that produce good content or turn them into satellite pages for their network.<br />
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Why? They run websites that pose as "news" pages which are laden with advertising and they want to get as much traffic as they can, which translates into money. While there's nothing wrong with wanting to make money, the method by which they do it is shady, in my opinion. These methods include mass reporting pages that will not work with them, cyber-stalking individuals, etc.<br />
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As an example, here is a Facebook page dedicated solely to making fun of me, my old Facebook page, and my friend John Henry. This post is from one of the websites mentioned below, americannewsx.com which is owned by a Thomas Clay Jr from Kentucky and currently employs a former admin of the Whiskey page, Steve Ahearn of Arizona.<br />
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These individuals are/were friends with the owner of Addicting Info, and regularly harass people with multiple fake profiles and pages to circumvent Facebook's ban or block protocols. Ahearn and his acquaintances especially like to bully people who ask for financial assistance, even though he has been a professional internet beggar as long as I have known him.<br />
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The following are pages that we know of that are owned or are in the clutches of individuals like these. This is not an all-inclusive list but it is a good reminder of what pages and practices to avoid as well as a list of pages that aren't about putting profit first and the cause second - all while engaging in cyber harassment and bullying.<br />
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Websites to avoid:<br />
www.freakoutnation.com<br />
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www.groopspeak.com<br />
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www.liberalamerica.org <br />
<br />
www.beingliberal.org<br />
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www.americannewsx.com<br />
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www.addictinginfo.org<br />
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www.samuel-warde.com<br />
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www.redstatedems.com<br />
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www.glittersnipe.com<br />
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www.usuncut.com<br />
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www.theeverlastinggopstoppers.com<br />
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www.thebigslice.org<br />
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www.stoptellingliesblog.com<br />
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www.occupydemocrats.com<br />
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www.girldujour.com<br />
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www.winningdemocrats.com<br />
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Facebook pages that we DO NOT share from:<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/WinningDemocrats<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/OccupyDemocrats<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/LiberalsROCK<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/beingliberal.org<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/VeracityStew<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Peoples-Boycott<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/TheGopsWarOnReality<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/pages/Americans-Against-Bobby-Franklin-By-AddictingInfoORG<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/pages/Americans-Against-Martin-Harty-By-AddictingInfoOrg<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michele-Bachmann-Needs-To-Read-A-History-Book-By-AddictingInfoorg<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/AmericansAgainstMittRomney<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/pages/Proud-to-be-a-Filthy-Liberal-Scum<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/LiberalAndProudOfIt<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/PoliticsJandD<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Acknowledge-Class-Warfare-Exists<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/satire.with.samuel<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/PragProgPage<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/Glittersnipe<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/TheEverlastingGopStoppers<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/Liberals.Unite.today<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/WSBYSO<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/Blue.Proud.LiberalCorps<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/AynRandSS<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/LiberalsOnParade<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/republicansareidiots<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/RedStateDems<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/Republicansareidiots1<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/WSBYSO<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/anxfreedom<br />
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https://www.facebook.com/LiberalTruth78 <br />
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https://www.facebook.com/GirlDuJour<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-41071284362633449132014-12-03T14:51:00.001-08:002014-12-03T14:51:22.224-08:004 years in LouisianaI went to Starbucks today, the same Starbucks I sat in 4 years ago with a borrowed laptop filling out applications for anything and everything. 4 years ago, I had nothing but a part-time job waiting tables at night and on the weekends. After 5 years in Florida, a divorce, a bad economy and being blacklisted from ever working for Sprint again, I arrived on a Greyhound bus in Louisiana with a couple of quarters in my pocket and no other assets to my name.<br />
<br />
It was in those hours waiting for a ride to work that the urge to write again came back for the first time since my creative writing class in college when I was told by a professor that I would never be worth anything as a writer. Perhaps he was right, but people still read what I put together. Too bad I can't remember his name so I could send him a "how do you like me now?" email.<br />
<br />
I do miss Florida, especially in the spring and fall when the fish migrations happen. To watch a school of mullet get blown up by tarpon, jacks, snook and sharks in the waist deep water just off the beach is just one of the many wonderful memories I have of that state. Maybe I'll go back one day, perhaps once again I'll paddle my kayak into the sunset over Panama City Beach. One more cast, just one more fish.<br />
<br />
Maybe one day I'll win the lottery, or perhaps this writing thing will really take off. Maybe I can buy that house 4 blocks off the beach, just out of the Spring Break traffic and just 5 minutes from the pier. But for now, I'm here in Louisiana and the wanderlust has begun to stir again.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-89972539333607395872014-12-02T18:36:00.000-08:002014-12-02T18:39:07.648-08:00The writers who cried "wolf" and the race card<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPwW-ORGmW0f7K-XGy84_ZmlOyezF49THlSZmZCpvIDinsqiZJ0mAu5C4SNMkSXM-YtKDuy61lwCYe4UW9dc8Dp1UW36WOuhoNd8iPFU5AaPvnbAwHhKEVG5uKFBE5ZATNlkm8QjdOlci/s1600/86013948-c591-4b92-836a-9c36bb892d3d-620x372.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSPwW-ORGmW0f7K-XGy84_ZmlOyezF49THlSZmZCpvIDinsqiZJ0mAu5C4SNMkSXM-YtKDuy61lwCYe4UW9dc8Dp1UW36WOuhoNd8iPFU5AaPvnbAwHhKEVG5uKFBE5ZATNlkm8QjdOlci/s1600/86013948-c591-4b92-836a-9c36bb892d3d-620x372.jpeg" height="120" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lennon Lacy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the wake of the Ferguson grand jury's decision not to indict Ofc. Darren Wilson for shooting Michael Brown, the media has been scrambling to find a new story to tie into the problem America has with race. Not because they want to address race in America, but because they want it to be about race in America. Not because they want to fix the problem of race in America, but because they want to profit off of it.<br />
<br />
Some people in the media do a very good job of determining which stories are about racial politics, and which ones are not - and don't try to make a story into something more than what it is. The problem is, too many people do try to insert politics and race into sad stories such as that of Lennon Lacy. Most of us haven't heard of Lennon Lacy, and since most of the media decided that the story was tragic but not about race, you probably wouldn't have unless you happened to read some of the independent websites who have the journalistic standards of a weasel on speed.<br />
<br />
Case in point: <a href="http://www.donotlink.com/cr09" target="_blank">this article</a> from Daily Kos which went all out to the point where it seemed like they were totally disappointed that the death was ruled a suicide - and they weren't the only ones. A large portion of that blog was then copy and pasted into another one by Leslie Sazillo who writes for DailyKos as well as Liberals Unite, part of a network of pages and websites owned by or affiliated with a Samuel Warde. In <a href="http://www.donotlink.com/cr0b" target="_blank">her story</a>, despite that fact that death was ruled a suicide by the coroner, she basically laments the fact that it wasn't a lynching and instead a self-hanging by a young man who was likely depressed after the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/19/black-leaders-ask-federal-authorities-investigate-lennon-lacy-death" target="_blank">death of his uncle</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Lennon Lacy, and we
join them, and the NAACP, in demanding answers. This was clearly not a
suicide, and hopefully the story will be picked up by other media and
shared widely. More information will be revealed, and we will keep you
posted."</blockquote>
Sometimes bad, tragic events happen and they have nothing to do with racism. Yet, like the famous story of the little boy who cried "wolf" over and over again until nobody believed him, people in liberal media insist on jumping to the conclusion that racism was a factor before all the facts come out - or even after official reports. No wonder conservatives claim (with some validity) that liberals play the race card too much.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-48138378765397144382014-11-18T11:35:00.001-08:002016-04-22T21:16:36.154-07:00Addicting Info Caught In Yet Another LieOnce again, the folks over at Addicting Info have decided to play fast and loose with the truth, and want you to like and share the hastily slapped together nonsense they're trying to pass off as news.<br />
<br />
For those of you not familiar with the back story, these guys, and eventually others like them, first appeared on my radar back in 2010. In 2012, I confronted them on taking my creative content and passing it off as their own - and that's when the shit really hit the fan. You can <a href="http://whiskeyandthemorningafter.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-truth-about-matthew-desmond-and.html" target="_blank">read about it here</a>, but don't bother trying to post that one to Facebook since they went on an all-out campaign of reporting it to Facebook and you can't post it now without a spam warning and filling out captcha.<br />
<br />
Like myself, my friend John Henry has endured endless harassment from them - much worse than what I've dealt with actually. For what? For simply publicly fact-checking their blatantly false style of blogger journalism that they try to pass off as legitimate news through a number of Facebook pages, including the 1 million + likes Being Liberal.<br />
<br />
What did they do this time? Just make the completely false claim that Mitt Romney called President Obama "uppity" and ran with it, for web traffic. Here's <a href="http://lowgenius.net/2014/11/18/romney-didnt-call-obama-uppity/" target="_blank">the link</a> to the analysis and thorough debunking John Henry did of the false story.<br />
<br />
For Facebook pages and a website that mock Fox News and its' viewers, Addicting Info is cementing their role as the Fox News of the left.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"If you have to lie to make a point, <i>you are not qualified to make that point and you should shut up."</i></b></blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7772353322407022699.post-64868680780020710262014-11-06T10:15:00.001-08:002014-11-06T10:15:12.702-08:00Liberals Need To Stop Making Stupid Conservatives FamousThe provisional ballots haven't been counted yet, and I'm already seeing crap like "<a href="http://www.donotlink.com/cdzs" target="_blank">5 Things That Prove That Republicans Aren't The Winners</a>" and other feel-good nonsense designed to soothe people in the aftermath of the 2014 midterms. Whether it's sourcing crap from Examiner.com, doing math that Democrats are doing to feel better about themselves, or telling folks that it's going to be OK - the blogosphere on the left is in a spin cycle right now that the folks over at Fox News would be proud of.<br />
<br />
The plain and simple fact of the matter is that things aren't going to be OK. Sure, we might get Hillary Clinton to run in 2016 (something I am not overly thrilled about) and that will get some people out to the polls. But in the long run, if something isn't done soon, we're in for a repeat of 2010 and 2014 ad nauseam - and all of the whining about the Koch Brothers or how the GOP is racist isn't going to change that.<br />
<br />
Headlines about the latest "SHOCKING" statement from some idiot snake handler preacher who claims President Obama is the Anti-Christ or the most recent bout of verbal diarrhea from Nugent or some other conservative celebrity do nothing except put ad revenue in the pockets of the people that are making a living making stupid people famous. Yes, you heard that right, there's a lot of "independent liberal media" that does little more than make obscure right wing nut jobs famous and extend the 15 minutes of fame for grifters like the Quitta from Wasilla.<br />
<br />
As I have pointed out over and over again, scandalous news about Republican celebrities who don't even hold political office gets 10 or 20 times the amount of response from the left than things that actually matter. As much as we point to the now canceled Honey Boo Boo show as proof of the dumbing down of The Learning Channel, too much of the liberal media has turned into the TMZ of politics - because it sells.<br />
<br />
If we are going to turn the tide against voter apathy and the resulting Republican control of American politics, we are also going to have to turn the tide against tabloid political clickbait journalism as well. It doesn't help the cause, it only dumbs it down, and it has to stop. The problem is that many of the people who are profiting from this care more about the monthly ad revenue checks from Google than they do about stopping apathy and educating voters, and that's why we're doomed unless it changes.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0