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One Greater Than Ahikam (Jer. 26:16-20, 24)
In Jeremiah
We have a rare occasion here in Jeremiah 26. No, not Jeremiah being persecuted by the people of Judah. That has become standard fare. And no, it's not the fact that Jeremiah was preaching a sermon in temple courts – we saw that in Jeremiah 7 (and this may be an amplified narrative of that event). Here we have an exceptional occurrence where the people and princes of Judah 'go to bat' on behalf of God's prophet. In Israel's history you can say that times like this came around 'once in a blue moon,' i.e. very rarely. Let's create some context and then jump into our text.
After the people, priests, and prophets heard Jeremiah's temple sermon they were, shall we say, less-than-pleased. In fact, they were infuriated and they seized him saying, "You shall surely die" (Jer. 26:8)! It was not only an overreaction, it was a thoroughly wrong reaction. But Jeremiah words hit a national sore spot – the temple. And to compare their present-day temple to the possibility of becoming like Shiloh (vs.9) was, to them, a mix of blasphemy and treason. They apparently sought Jeremiah's imminent death – their words certainly gave that impression, but thankfully, by God's providence, "the princes of Judah heard these things" (vs.10a) and a judicial process ensued. And with that we have an illustration how having a government and a nation of laws trumps anarchy and the inevitable tendencies of 'mob rule.'
Well, the prosecution, comprised of the priests and the prophets, said that Jeremiah had essentially committed a seditious act against the nation – "This man deserves to die! For He has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears" (vs.11). Jeremiah's defense was a relatively simple one: he said the LORD sent him (vs.12); he called the people to repent so that God's judgment would relent (vs.13); he vocalized his submission to the decision of the authorities over him (vs.14); and he warned them that if they put him to death, they would bring innocent blood on themselves, the city, and its inhabitants (vs.15a).
That brings us to the verdict. Verse 16 reads,
16 So the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, "This man does not deserve to die. For he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God."
The first level of their rationale had a solid Biblical basis. Jeremiah did not come preaching in the name of Baal, Ashtoreth, or some other 'make believe god;' he preached in the name of the LORD. He was not enticing the people away from Yahweh; he was calling them to pursue fidelity towards Yahweh. Not to mention, by Old Covenant standards, his prediction would have to be watched and tested to see if it came to pass. But as far the princes and priests were concerned, the verdict was clear: "This man does not deserve to die."
Now, I know this is hyperbole but it seems almost inevitable that the follower of Jesus who is acquainted with the Gospel accounts would have their mind drawn to the words of Pontius Pilate: "I have found no reason for death in Him" (Lk. 23:22b). Both Jeremiah and Jesus were found to be without guilt before their accusers, but one would be set free while the other would be sent to death. Ironically, neither Jeremiah, nor us, could have ever been truly set free if Jesus had been set free.
After that opening statement of acquittal, we're told that, "certain of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people" (vs.17). There was more to be said concerning the appropriateness of Jeremiah's exoneration. There was, if you will, a legal precedent. They said,
18 "Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts:
"Zion shall be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And the mountain of the temple
Like the bare hills of the forest."'
19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and seek the Lord's favor? And the Lord relented concerning the doom which He had pronounced against them. But we are doing great evil against ourselves."
This is a history lesson that every New Testament Christian needs to hear. It could revitalize or revolutionize prayer lives. The elders wisely appealed to recent history and inspired Scripture (Mic. 3:12) – the latter illustrates the importance of knowing the Word of God does it not? Micah had essentially prophesied the same thing as Jeremiah – Jerusalem was going to be judged and destroyed because of its sin (Mic. 3:12). And when Sennacherib, the King of Assyria came to make war against Jerusalem it looked like the prophecy of Micah was going to come to pass. But what did Hezekiah do in response to Micah's preaching? Did he become fatalistic? Did he arrest Micah? No, he sought the LORD's favor. He brought about a great reformation and when the Assyrians sent their army, Hezekiah and Isaiah sought the LORD in prayer. In fact, in 2 Kings 19:20, after we see Hezekiah's prayer in verses 14 through 19, the prophet Isaiah sent a message to Hezekiah saying, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.' (2 Ki 19:20b)," and as a result, according to 2 Kings 19:35, one angel dispatched by God killed 185,000 Assyrian warriors and the fall of Jerusalem was put off until 586 B.C. The lesson that the New Testament Christian needs to see: the sovereign LORD sovereignly uses prayer to alter the course of history.
Back to the text…
Jeremiah was actually to go free, unlike Urijah, the prophet who preached according to the words of Jeremiah but was caught and executed by Jehoiakim despite attempting to flee from Egypt (Jer. 26:20-23). What you wouldn't know unless you read through the entire chapter is the pivotal role that one man played in Jeremiah's deliverance:
24 Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.
Talk about an unsung hero in redemptive history – Ahikam. We are not told of his specific position in this text. We do know that, in times past, king Josiah sent he and four others to consult Huldah the prophetess in conjunction with finding the book of the Law (2 Ki. 22:12-14; 2 Chr. 34:20), and we do know that he was the father of Gedaliah, the governor of Judea after the Babylonian conquest (Jer. 40:5); but whatever position he had at this point in time he leveraged it for Jeremiah's deliverance. He was, if you will, Jeremiah's advocate. And while both Jesus and Jeremiah had governing officials stating that they were undeserving of death, only Jeremiah had someone like Ahikam. Jesus did not. But here's the amazing thing about that – there is one greater than Ahikam whose hands, are not only with us, but pierced for us, so that we should not be given into the hands of divine judgment! Yes, Jeremiah had an advocate that secured his deliverance – Ahikam, the son of Shaphan. But thanks be to God that we have an Advocate that secures ours – Jesus Christ the righteous one (1 Jn. 2:1b).
HistoryJeremiahPersecutionProphecyprovidenceRedemption
Take This Cup? (Jeremiah 25:15-28)
A Lesson in Sovereignty and Opportunity (Jer. 27:1-8)


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Q: How to re-use some cells from UITableVIewController storyboarding mode Static Cells I have this UITableViewController which i made a Static Cells using Interface Builder and three added different kind of cells.
The first cell is some kind of details, the last cell allows user input which in-turn gets show the center cell.

I want to reuse the center cell and add new ones as the user enters in the last comment box.
My problem is that, since it's static cells, I can't reuse the center cell alone I think. How can I solve it?

A: don't use static cells. Static cells are not meant to be reused. With static cells you create a table solely in the xib.
Create three different prototype cells and give them a different reuse identifier and use them like regular cells.
Since your table is divided into sections just use the section information of the indexPath to return the correct cell.
Something like this should work:
- (NSInteger)numberOfSectionsInTableView:(UITableView *)tableView
{
    return 3;
}

- (NSInteger)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView numberOfRowsInSection:(NSInteger)section
{
    if (section == 1) {
        return _objects.count;
    }
    return 1;
}

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    UITableViewCell *cell = nil;
    if (indexPath.section == 1) {
        cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"SecondCell"];
        // configure the mid cells
        NSDate *object = [_objects objectAtIndex:indexPath.row];
        cell.textLabel.text = [object description];
    }
    if (indexPath.section == 0) {
        cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"FirstCell"];
        // configure first cell
    }
    else if (indexPath.section == 2) {
        cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:@"ThirdCell"];
        // configure last cell
    }
    return cell;
}

have a look at the tableFooterView and tableHeaderView property too. Maybe you don't need cells for the first and last item at all.

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stephenm | July 17, 2019 | Leave a Comment
What was the inspiration for "My Ghost Will Know the Way," or what prompted you to write it?
I was reading Ursula K. Le Guin's poetry. She had such a gift for bringing together memory and emotion and the natural world. I couldn't help but be inspired, and I looked back on my own life for elements to draw upon. The words flowed from there.
Was this poem personal to you in any way? If so, how?
The end result was quite personal, yes! I regard the poem as a fictionalized autobiography. It describes the very sort of thing I did as a child, and the facts align with my own life, down to the cats and my current distance to my hometown. The matter of magic and ghosts is the fictional element–presumably.
Do you find that writing poetry influences your work in prose? How is writing a poem different or similar to writing a short story?
Poetry has taught me a great deal about storytelling in concise form. In theory, writers know that every word counts, but it's easy to be lazy about those extra words when writing in long form. In a poem that's maybe some thirty lines long, you can't get away with superfluous words.
I tend to write the majority of my poems during April and November (I usually choose one month each year) when Writer's Digest's Poetic Asides Blog does its Poem-A-Day prompts. I also have a few bonus times a year when moods strike and I churn out several poems in the course of a day. That's how "My Ghost Will Know the Way" came about. I read Le Guin, and then had three poems pour out of me in the next few hours. It's marvelous when the Muse cooperates. That's not often the case. Usually I need to bait a trap for it so I can make my monthly short story goal.
I've been working on two big projects and I continue to develop short stories and poems. I need to keep busy! I also bake a lot and share recipes on my Bready or Not food blog. If people are ever in need of a good cookie or bar recipe, I can hook them up at BethCato.com.
"My Ghost Will Know the Way" appears in the July/August 2019 issue of F&SF.
stephenm | July 9, 2019 | Leave a Comment
Tell us a bit about "The Everlasting Humming of the Earth."
Joyce is a woman who has an unusual *gift*: She can feel a tremor in her body when a major earthquake is about to happen somewhere in the world—but she cannot know where in the world the quake will strike. This means, even if she could persuade everyone that she's not a crackpot or a nut, she's helpless to give any sort of useful warning—what good is it to have advance warning of a quake if you can't say where it will strike? It's a story about dealing with the burden of helpless knowledge; and also a story about a middle-aged woman dealing with loss and grief, and finding community.
I live in Oregon, close to the Pacific Subduction Zone, where it's generally thought that The Big One is already overdue. So earthquakes were on my mind even before I began reading about the continuous sound the Earth makes, a kind of humming, below the level humans can hear but picked up on scientific listening devices; and reading theories that this might be the sound of the globe turning, or the continuous swish and sway of the world's oceans. And that the sound changes during and after an earthquake, as if the whole Earth is reverberating like a struck bell. I began to wonder, what if a human could hear the humming of the earth, and the reverberations of an earthquake? Then what? And how would that person deal with the knowledge?
Was "The Everlasting Humming of the Earth" personal to you in any way? If so, how?
The horse who appears late in the story represents my own experience of horses acting as empathetic listeners to one's troubles…does that count as "personal"? And there's the Pacific Subduction thing—I travel with a fully-stocked preparedness kit in my car and another in my house, enough to survive without outside help for up to three weeks. Oh, I'm ready!
Was there any aspect of this story that you found difficult to write?
From a writerly standpoint, do you mean? I struggled, a bit, figuring out where the pieces of Joyce's backstory ought to go. I tried scattering them throughout the story at first, and then decided to front-load most of it. But I held back one piece—the scene in which her husband learns the source of her tremors—until very late, when the memory is triggered by something Raylene says. Finding just the right place for it was like turning a particular piece of a jigsaw puzzle, trying and trying until your eye lights on a subtle variation of color and shape, and suddenly you can see where it needs to go.
Ha ha! I imagine almost everyone has the same answer to this question. I write because I can't NOT write. Oh, and of course I write to be read. There is a kind of magic in storytelling, no? Immaterial words creating worlds that do not exist in our ordinary reality, people and sometimes places that are alive only in story. And we write to share those worlds, the worlds of our imagination, beaming them, in a way, from the mind of the writer to the mind of the reader. Magic. That's why I write.
Perhaps you won't be surprised to hear me say Ursula K. Le Guin has always been a model for me, especially in science fiction, and especially for showing me that the science in science fiction need not always be physics or chemistry but could be centered in biology, or in the human sciences—sociology, psychology, anthropology. But of course there are many other writers who've influenced my writing—too many to name; I'll just call out Willa Cather and A.B. Guthrie, Jr., for showing me what Western writing could aspire to be.
You've been a published writer for more than thirty years: how have you noticed the industry change, and how has it had an impact on your work?
The publishing world has changed dramatically since I began writing seriously in the 1980s. In those days (and when did I get old enough to use the phrase "in those days…"?) much more of the marketing and publicity effort for a book was done by the publisher; now the burden is largely on the writer. I'd never heard "platform," or "brand" mentioned in connection with writing until a few years ago; and now a writer's social media presence is the primary focus of marketing. And of course there are many fewer newspapers reviewing books now, reviews having become primarily the province of GoodReads and book bloggers and readers commenting on Amazon. But there have been some very good changes as well—lots of thriving magazines, both print and on-line, especially in the science fiction and fantasy realm—and many of them are still reviewing books (F&SF!). And with social media there's more direct communication (if you wish it) between writers and readers, and which I do love. None of this has had an impact on what I write, I have always just written the stories that I wanted to read. But I do feel a bit at sea when it comes to the marketing piece of the puzzle. I'm comfortable tweeting good news, announcing an upcoming publication, and so forth, but beyond that I'm not very savvy about strategies that might draw in more readers. One thing that hasn't changed: the joy of seeing my work in print! Magic!
"The Everlasting Humming of the Earth" appears in the July/August 2019 issue of F&SF.
Molly Gloss has three reprint novels out from Saga Press in 2019: OUTSIDE THE GATES, WILD LIFE, and THE DAZZLE OF DAY, as well as a new collection of short stories, UNFORESEEN.
Visit the author's website at https://www.mollygloss.com/
C.C. Finlay | July 1, 2019 | 1 Comment
Summer is here (or Winter, for our readers in the southern hemisphere) and so is the July/August issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction!
Many of our electronic and paper subscribers have already received their issues, but if you're looking for a copy you can find us in most Barnes & Noble stores, as well as many local independent booksellers. You can also order a single copy from our website or buy an electronic edition from Amazon, AmazonUK, and — now, available worldwide and in every electronic format — through Weightless Books.
Mondolithic Studio's cover illustrates the inevitable robot apocalypse.
ROBOTS INVADE!
This month, humanity's doom comes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Cassandra Khaw, who first appeared as the co-author of "Shooting Iron" in our Sept/Oct issue last year, returns with a story set in London in the aftermath of the great robot war to remind us that "Mighty Are the Meek and the Myriad."
And across the Atlantic, in the ruins of robot-ravaged New York, F&SF regular Alex Irvine relates "The Legend of Wolfgang Robotkiller."
FANTASY, SCIENCE FICTION,
AND THE DIFFICULT TO CATEGORIZE
Our other science fiction for this issue includes the F&SF debut of Theodore McCombs, who takes us to a near future where computer-aided memory enhancement leads us to "Lacuna Heights." Dominica Phetteplace returns with another story of the near future at the intersection of social media and private healthcare with "Nice for What." And another debut author, Eliza Rose, takes us on a colony ship to deep space for a visit to "Planet Doykeit."
What robot-filled summer issue would be complete without some dragons for balance? On the fantasy side, Deborah Coates gives us an intimate look at the dragon invasion of South Dakota and introduces us to some "Girls Who Never Stood a Chance." G. V. Anderson takes us to Yorkshire for a gothic tale of haunting and asylums seen in "A Strange Uncertain Light." And Albert E. Cowdrey returns with another story of William Warlock, a New Orleans lawyer with supernatural abilities and a client who receives "The Legacy."
And some stories are just too hard to categorize but that's part of what makes them so interesting. In this issue, we have "The Slave" by Andrej Kokoulin, translated from the Russian by Alex Shvartsman. In 2017, "The Slave" won the FantLab Award and immediately prompted a lengthy debate about whether or not the story is speculative. We'll let you decide what you think. We also have "The Everlasting Humming of the Earth" by Molly Gloss, whose fiction constantly invites you to forget about categories and consider the human experience instead.
You'll also find two new poems slipped into pages between the stories. Mary Soon Lee has a message directed "To Skeptics" and Beth Cato makes her first appearance in F&SF with the assurance that "My Ghost Will Know the Way."
OUR OTHER COLUMNS AND FEATURES
Looking for summer reading? Charles de Lint recommends some Books to Look For, by Sarah Pinsker, Kim Beall, John R. Little, Melissa F. Olson, and Philip K. Dick: A Comics Biography by Laurent Queyssi and Mauro Marchesi. Meanwhile, Michelle West is Musing on Books by Tim Maughan, Max Gladstone, K Chess, and Cate Glass. And for our monthly Curiosities column, rediscovering lost writers and books, David Langford reviews Charles Eric Maine's The Mind of Mr Soames, a 1961 novel about science and the social contract.
In our latest film column, David J. Skal shares his delight in the new Mary Poppins movie. Jerry Oltion's science column explains "How Vaccines Work." And Paul Di Filippo has plucked another feather of the Plumage from Pegasus to tickle your fancy. The print version of the magazine also offers up new cartoons by Nick Downes and Arthur Masear.
We hope you'll share your thoughts about the issue with us. We can be found on:
Twitter: @fandsf
Facebook: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Goodreads: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jul/Aug 2019
F&SF Forums: Jul-Aug 2019 issue
C.C. Finlay, Editor
fandsf.com | @fandsf
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stephenm | June 26, 2019 | Leave a Comment
Tell us a bit about "Second Skin."
Second Skin is a story about Saskia, a mute daughter of a wealthy family, and her evolving relationship with a local farmer. We follow Saskia via the patchworked memories of our narrator, the farmer, as she tries to cling onto her world, even though it doesn't seem to want her.
Over one of our typically eclectic lab coffee hours, a colleague told me about the trick to encourage a ewe to bond with a different lamb after her own lamb died. It was a gorgeous little factoid and went straight into my steadily expanding list of story ideas. I don't know how my colleague feels about being the inspiration for Saskia's final act…
Was "Second Skin" personal to you in any way? If so, how?
Thankfully, most aspects of this story came from my imagination rather than personal experience. I'm lucky enough to come from a family where arguments never escalated to the point of skin removal (although they came close once or twice). However, this is the second story I have published in F&SF that centres on a character who doesn't fit into the world that was built around them. Although the resolutions are very different, it's a theme that's close to my heart and one I revisit often in my fiction.
Can you tell us about any of the research you may have done for this story?
Shamefully little! I probably should have researched more about farms and farming, but I tend not to worry about that those details too much. Or to put it another way, if a reader is worried about those details, then maybe I didn't make the core story interesting enough. On the other hand, I did research the tanning of leather for probably too long, trying to make sure the relative timings worked out. It led me onto some rather strange websites…
The most difficult aspect was trying to develop the central characters and their relationship using the narrative lens of an introverted farmer interacting with a girl who can't speak to him. Thanks to some great feedback from my writing group, I'm happy with the way it works in the final version. The most fun aspect was definitely the ending. I knew how the story would end before I started it—I usually do—and the imagery in this piece was particularly fun to play with.
I have several short stories in the works that I'm passionate about, so I'll be trying to finish those and send them out later this year. The ideas piled up while I was writing a novella last year, and I'm enjoying returning to a shorter medium for now.
"Second Skin" appears in the May/June 2019 issue of F&SF.
Click on Pip Coen's photo to visit his website.
Tell us a bit about "Breath."
Thanks to a family that lived by one ocean or another my entire childhood, I grew up in the biological sciences and marine sciences, have always loved animals and the sea (our father was a career Navy officer and oceanographer, to use the civilian term), and for fifty years now have been writing and publishing about animals and the sea. My first published short story, as a teenager, was about a telepathic merboy whom invading aliens couldn't defeat; my first published novel (the "Ace Special" HUMANITY PRIME—which wouldn't have seen print without the editorial midwifery of Terry Carr), which came from that story, was a far-future stream-of-consciousness ode to the merpeople human beings would become on a distant planet; and in the late 80's and early 90's I published a series of stories about endangered species and how we might try to save them, resurrect them or modify them as they began to die in our world. More recently (with two stories in F&SF—"Dreampet" and "Breath"), I find myself writing about the near-future genetic engineering of pets and other creatures and the dark side of corporate profits and fickle human nature even if love, like life itself, somehow manages to find a way.
I fished a lot as a kid when our father was stationed in San Diego. These were my late elementary and middle school years (my brother Jack is four years younger), and they were wonderful years on a great bay and peninsula, Point Loma, with its tide pools, bat rays, bait barges, schools of mackerel and thirty-pound halibut, and sharks often much bigger than they should be where swimmers swim. A couple of years ago, not having fished in decades, I bought a rod and reel and tackle and went out on a half day charter fishing boat from Newport Harbor to try to capture those old feelings. It wasn't the best season for fishing, and the handful of people on the boat were catching only "rock fish," no yellowtail, nothing very big or glorious. That was fine with me; but, when I pulled up what was on my line, I saw the most beautiful creature I'd seen in my life from California waters, felt feelings I hadn't felt as a kid, and knew I wouldn't be fishing anymore. I don't say this with any judgment of others; it's simply that the conflicts were too much for me personally at that point in my life, one where the joys of hunting and capturing (of owning what filled me with wonder) were suddenly messy–compromised by compassion, beauty and a desire to see beauty live on. Those feelings of course gave rise too "Breath."
Was there any aspect of "Breath" you found difficult to write?
No. It's a very short story; and as many writers will tell you, one kind of love or other—even if it takes the form of righteous indignation or rage or sadness and loss and longing or conflicting mixes of all of these—is how we get into a story; and I had the feelings I needed to launch and finish a very short story.
Like many writers, I can't really answer that question except to say that I go a little (or a lot) crazy if I don't. Sometimes I think I order the universe for myself by writing, and by ordering it I give it meaning for myself. Sometimes I think I write in order to memorialize the events and feelings that have been most important to me, that they not be lost (as the replicant Roy in BLADERUNNER would put it) to time. (Much of my SFF is autobiographical, especially in these later years.) Often I just don't know the answer, but I do have to write—even if there are periods when I don't write enough. (Yes, even writers who've been doing it for five decades can have their blocks.)
A long list of SFF writers, other "genre" writers and "literary fiction" writers. We find in the published work of others—friends, colleagues, mentors, strangers living and dead—what we must to teach us the craft we need to make our own fictive magic and to affirm the spirit of what we feel compelled to write as a bridge between us and the world. But a partial list would include Par Lagerkvist, William Styron, Ursula Le Guin, William Golding, Robert Ludlum, James Lee Burke, Lee Child, Harry Harrison, Fred Pohl, Barry Malzberg, A. E. van Vogt, William Gibson, and Cordwainer Smith.
Other stories in the "Dreampet" world, a novel expansion of my 2006 Hugo-nominee short story "Kin," a novel based on the "Emilio" stories set in a dreamy Italian Renaissance, and other stories set in that northern Italian fishing village where, thanks to our father I spent a magical two years as a young teenager becoming addicted to SFF for the first time—a village I've written about a lot over the past fifteen years. One always returns-or at least a writer like myself does—to what one loves.
"Breath" appears in the May/June 2019 issue of F&SF.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Plumas County Democratic Central Committee
Serving Democrats in Plumas County, California
About PCDCC
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Democracy Matters
Democracy Matters – Your Vote Matters
Our country was founded on the principles of a Representative Democracy where the citizens eligible to vote would get together from time to time to elect the Representatives who would then go to a certain place to form a congress and conduct the business of the government for the people. The framers wrote into our Constitution certain provisions designed to protect certain rights reserved to the people and certain rights reserved to the states ALL of which was designed to restrict and limit the ruling power, authority and ability of the Federal Government. This was and remains a grand idea which was designed to prevent an authoritarian type of government which was the primary type of government existing during the time that our government was formed in the late 1700's. This type of government was called DEMOCRACY and relied on an INFORMED ELECTORATE to vote for their INDIVIDUAL VESTED INTERESTS thereby providing the final balance between the people and the rulers.
The Democratic system ONLY works well when (more…)
Daily Kos Campaign
Posted on April 23, 2017 February 4, 2018
From Daily Kos, the nation's largest progressive community.
Action You Can Take Now
Sign the petition: Elect the president by national popular vote
Sign the petition: No more preemptive war
Sign if you agree: Allow Syrian refugees into the United States
Sign the petition: Don't mess with Social Security!
Sign if you stand with Sanctuary cities and campuses
Sign the petition: I am not a reporter, and I want to see Donald Trump's tax returns
Hold Congress Accountable for the Trump regime: Attend a Town Hall near you
Political Action Posts
Take Political Action: Contact LaMalfa, Feinstein, Harris
Make 6 contacts to legislators a day!
LaMalfa
Oppose HR 861, which terminates the EPA. The EPA is essential to protecting our health. No corporation should be allowed to make a profit at the expense of the American public. Medical and environmental problems resulting from industrial pollution of our water, air, and soil and destruction of our natural resources are not acceptable.
Oppose HR 226, the African Elephant Conservation and Legal Ivory Act. This law applies to ivory obtained before 2014. It opens the floodgates to the sale and trade of illegal ivory and the continued slaughter of this incredible animal. American citizens are one of the worlds biggest consumers of elephant ivory. We are fueling the African elephant extinction (more…)
Trump's First 100 days: Lies, Falsehoods, and Assault on American Progressive Ideals
Posted on April 9, 2017 September 12, 2017
A Partial Record of Trump's Executive Orders & Directives
Weekly entries are posted in descending order.
Fourteenth Week of the Trump Presidency
Trump has only introduced 1 out of the 10 major pieces of legislation for whose passage he vowed to fight in the first 100 days of his administration.
Trump's new tax plan overwhelmingly favors the rich. It cuts corporate taxes to 15%, repeals the inheritance tax, and cuts the capital gains tax which funds the ACA. Cost analysis projects that trillions of dollars will be added to the national debt.
Trump is hoping to give a 4 billion dollar tax cut to his kids as he takes away health care from millions of Americans. Many are cautiously optimistic that Trumpcare 2 will fail to get to a floor vote due to bipartisan opposition.
Trump said he is considering proposals to dissolve the 9th circuit court for blocking his executive orders. The court contends they are unconstitutional.
Trump wants to completely defund the state department's Office for International Women's Empowerment.
Trump threatened Canadians that he would pull the U.S. out of NAFTA over milk and softwoods, but then said that instead of abandoning NAFTA, he may renegotiate it.
Trump signed an executive order instructing the Department of the Interior to review all national monuments created through the "Antiquities Act" since (more…)
Resistance Resources
How to Get Out of the Cycle of Outrage in a Trump World
The following is an excerpt from The Huffington Post
If we live in a perpetual state of outrage, Trump wins.
So whatever you do, don't just let yourself get stuck in the outrage storm — that particular weather pattern is likely to be here for a long time. Remember, you have the power to step out of the storm, think carefully about how best to channel your valuable energy, and then take action. And there are so many ways to do that.
Laura Moser is a freelance writer and mother in Washington, D.C. After the election, she found she couldn't disengage. So to channel her energy, and that of others as well, she created Daily Action, a daily text people can sign up for that gives them one concrete and specific action to take. In just a matter of weeks, she's amassed over 100,000 subscribers. One is Aaron Becker, an author from Massachusetts. "People are feeling fatigue," he told the Washington Post. "We are not really designed as human beings to take on the responsibility of everything at once." But since channeling his energy in a specific way, he's gotten a measure of control back in his life. "Now I feel like I can turn off my browser window and do some work," he said.
And there are plenty of other groups doing a similar thing — making it easy to channel that outrage in productive ways that can change outcomes.
Read the whole article on HuffPost here.
The Indivisible Guide bills itself as a "practical guide to resisting the Trump agenda," and also shows you how to get involved with one of the over 4,500 local indivisible groups that have already been started.
5 Calls gives you five calls that you can make in five minutes.
The Resistance Manual is an open source guide to taking action on a range of issues.
#ResistTrumpTuesday is a way to do more than call! Show up at their offices on Tuesdays!
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Anurag Thakur, A Self Made Political Icon
Anurag Thakur, The winning streak of the BJP is hailed by Masses in Himachal Pradesh; this metaphor of BJP is visualized as the embodiment of victorious politics who is capable of luring voters to the ballot in party's favor.
At present when lotus flag is marching on the Modi wave, of course, young leader would like to return in Vidhansabha through 'Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections 2017' with same landslide win as they did in UP and Uttrakhand.
Anyway, it is not about Modi wave only, indeed, Anurag Thakur is applauded by cool and intelligent voters of Himachal Pradesh as: he enjoyed prestige and ascendancy but also walked on footprints of Prem Kumar Dhumal and emerged as a Self Made Political Icon, he is known to be an active sportsman but meanwhile respected for- harnessing vast political knowledge and experience to drive fear into opponents, his idea of social work mimicked that of the Vivekananda,
He is well acquainted with political background of Himachal Pradesh, known for clean politics and is regarded as a patriot, fired by tremendous love for the "motherland".
Himachal Pradesh- Cool Terrains with Cool Voters
When we talk about Himachal Pradesh, then the image that floats in our minds is of high mountains, snow-covered peaks, deep valleys, and great temples but very few know that it is one of the most geographically diverse lands in whole India.
Height from sea level varies between 350 meters to 6965 meters and the whole state is divided into twelve districts (Bilaspur, Chamba, Hamirpur, Kangra, Kinnaur, Kullu, Lahaul and Spiti, Mandi, Shimla, Sirmaur, Solan, and Una) which cover 55,673 km² Area and each district represents unique form of topography.
The Himalayan range runs along many boundaries and contributes to various latitudes like Shivalik Range, Dhauladhar Range, Pir pandal Range, Rohtang pass, Zaskar Range and lead cold weather in upper areas and pleasant weather in low altitude areas like Hamirpur and Una.
Literacy rate in Himachal Pradesh is 83.78% (Males 90.83% and Females 76.60%) which is undoubtedly far better than other states and determines the tendencies of voters who analyze on performance grounds. Temperament of voters is cool but is the main basis of the comparatively clean political system in Himalayan State.
Also Read: 1. Transforming Indian Politics: Exterminating Religious and Caste Based Ugliness
2. Politics in India: This is How one can become a Most Influencing Political Leader in India
Political Background Of Himachal Pradesh
According to 2011 Census, the total population of Himachal Pradesh is 68,64,602 persons, the strength of the Vidhan Sabha is 68 and it's contribution to Loksabha is 4 seats. At present state is the battlefield of two largest parties- Congress and BJP.
However, it took many decades for BJP to secure an esteemed place in Himachal Politics; it was not able to challenge Congress hegemony till the defining win of 1990, and if we look at the 65 years history since the foundation of Himachal Pradesh then Congress has ruled during most of the period.
In 1990, saffron party was not bestowed with handsome win and fallen apart in just two years, but it impacts on common minds was long lasting, this is why in 1998 public mandate was big and decisive, now it's rooted were fully established in rich soil and in total, it has ruled thrice so far.
Anurag Thakur- Synopsis of Biography
Profile Of Anurag Thakur Include Following Points:
1 Name Anurag Singh Thakur
2 Date of Birth 24 October 1974
3 Spouse and Children Wife-Shefali Thakur, has two sons (Udayveer Thakur and Jaiaditya Thakur)
4 Parents Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal & Smt. Sheela Devi
5 Brother's Name Arun Singh
6 Home Address Vill. & P.O. Samirpur, Distt. Hamirpur,Himachal Pradesh
7 Schooling His schooling was done at Jalandhar in Dayanand Model School and he completed his BA from Doaba College, Jalandhar (Punjab).
8 Profession aside from Politics Agriculturist, Ex-Cricketer and Industrialist
9 Member of Parliament since May 2008
10 Follow up on Twitter #Anurag Thakur on Twitter
11 Facebook Account @Anurag Thakur on Facebook
Anurag Thakur Walks On The Footprints Of Prem Kumar Dhumal
Prem Kumar Dhumal has excelled in all walks of life- may it be educations (MA, LLB) or family life, may it be social work or politics with principles; even his opponents recognise the hardship and honesty of this veteran Politician.
He held the position of vice-president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha in 1982, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Himachal Pradesh from 1993, Leader of the Opposition in 2003 and served as chief minister of Himachal Pradesh two times.
As a chief minister he had worked with the mantra "sincere, serious and clear", and took many initiatives such as: reforming the system of potable drinking water and connecting it to remote villages, enforcing good law and order, Strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions, Women empowerment, helping farmers to increase apple yield to record points, endorsing corruption free environment to promote industrial investment, Concept of 'Eco Tourism', Anti-pollution measures etc.
Prem Kumar Dhumal has emerged as a national figure who has managed to do something about corruption with his economically beneficial and popular moves and has evidently, it has paid off as the voters have firmly supported him election after election and being a sincere boy of this formidable leader, Anurag Thakur followed him like a shadow.
Today, Anurag Thakur easily connects with the band width of commoners is because he has well received the development agenda of Prem Kumar Dhumal. His down to earth and man to man contact; are the indications of his following footprints of his dad and political father.
Also Read: 1. Why Nehru Chose the Minority and Caste Based Politics
2. Donald Trump, Mind-Blowing Journey to the Political Apex & Super-Interesting Life-Facts
Political Background Of Anurag Thakur
Anurag Thakur is the popular voice of his Bamsan constituency in Hamirpur District as he remains vociferously vocal for development at all platforms; Though Hamirpur is the smallest district of Himachal with the population of 3,69,128 still comes in the elite category and hold top ranks on many parameters.
The region is mainly BJP dominating and of course, maximum credit goes to Prem Kumar Dhumal for remaining on a meridian for many decades. At present Anurag Thakur is a 3rd time elected member of Loksabha and is one of the youngest Parliamentarians in our country.
Because of his distinctive, straight and growth-oriented approach, he received the Best Young Parliamentarian Award in 2011 and has been recognized as "Young Global Leader 2014" by the World Economic Forum.
Every time he fought election from Hamirpur Constituency, his wave has surged beyond all imaginations and he has won with great margins while sweeping others:
Member of Parliament (M.P) – 14th LokSabha
This Is How Anurag Thakur Has Built Persona Of A Clean Politician
Being a sitting MP from Hamirpur constituency, Anurag Thakur has taken some very good steps like:
He is the pet choice of BJP workers not only in Bamsan or Hamirpur Constituency but in the whole country as he remained President of All India Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha for conjunctive three terms.
He has effectively raised the voice for the introduction of new trains and extension of rail links to Himachal Pradesh.
Himachal Pradesh is the homeland of great martyrs and soldiers and he had strongly advocated the One Rank One Pension for ex-servicemen as well other issues related to our great army men.
Anurag Thakur has become the first serving BJP MP to join Territorial Army as a Lieutenant.
Focus on Extension/maintenance of national highways.
He has been the instrument of constructing community centers, empowering rural areas and villages through Mahila Mandal bhavans, yuvak Mandal Bhawan, shamshan ghats, path/link roads, solar lighting, and playgrounds throughout the length and breadth of his constituency.
He has been able to secure his honest image by redressing grievances with impartial aids, discouraging appeasement politics and following uniformity in the allocation of MPLADS funds.
He has taken concrete steps to empower women through his Honour Our Women (HOW) Foundation.
Also Read: 1. Nathuram Godse: Reasons behind Mahatma Gandhi's assassination and links to RSS
2. This is how RSS has been Misrepresented for political scores
Anurag Thakur- Fine Sportsman
He is known for his highly interactive and multidimensional traits which he exhibits time to time.
He was the Captain of the Punjab U-19 cricket team and North Zone U-19 team that won the All India Championship, being a sports enthusiasts not only he remained active player (still active in many) but also Incharge/ 2nd In charge of many sports bodies like BCCI, Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association, Himachal Pradesh Olympic Association, Indian Olympic Association, Asian Cricket Council and Hockey India etc.
Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections 2017
According to Anurag Thakur, landslide wins in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand dictates that BJP and Narendra Modi have been able to sing in people's mind and same will continue in Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections 2017.
Anurag Thakur has asserted: Victories in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Assembly polls are special as the BJP has got 3/4th majority. Similar trend will continue in Himachal Pradesh where BJP will win 60 seats. Bhoranj bypoll will be the beginning of a Congress-free Himachal Pradesh.
To elect the 68 members of the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly elections are being held in late 2017.
Anurag Thakur BJP Himachal Pradesh Narendra Modi InDetail Biography
|Published on March 15, 2017
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Was in NYC (again) this past weekend and back (again) at my favorite place for live music, Le Poisson Rouge in the West Village. The reason why? To catch Katie Crutchfield's lo-fi folk/rock music project, better known as Waxahatchee. I first stumbled upon Waxahatchee (named after a creek in Crutchfield's homestate of Alabama) after her second album "Cerulean Salt" made #22 on Pitchfork magazine's "Best Albums of 2013" list. Gave it a listen on Spotify and I was hooked.
Waxahatchee has since released "Ivy Tripp" (2015) and "Out in the Storm" (2017) to critical acclaim and her latest stripped-down acoustic EP "Great Thunder" which revisits six tracks she recorded in 2012 as a short-lived member of Great Thunder, a band she formed with bassist Keith Spencer. It's this very stripped-down sound that Crutchfield brought to Le Poisson Rouge this past Monday evening. It was one of the best live shows I've ever attended - even Mrs. Perez was smiling ear to ear after the show. Waxahatchee is currently on tour at a city near you - check her out (you can thank me afterwards).
Le Poisson Rouge is one of a few live music venues that can put on shown "in the round", where the band is surrounded on all sides by the crowd. That they also have one of the best sound systems of any live music venue in NYC as well as a truly eclectic offering of music and art, makes a visit to the former home of the historic Village Gate a must for any music lover in NYC. Nuff said.


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Galloway v. United States case brief
Galloway v. United States case brief summary
Seeking benefits for total and permanent disability under a contract of war risk insurance, petitioner appealed a judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the trial court's decision to grant a directed verdict in favor of respondent United States.
Petitioner sued respondent to recover benefits for total and permanent disability by reason of insanity. Specifically, he claimed that the strain of active military service abroad brought on an immediate change, which was the beginning of a mental breakdown that eventually became a total and permanent disability. The trial court held that petitioner's evidence was legally insufficient to sustain a verdict in his favor; it therefore granted respondent's motion for a directed verdict. The lower court affirmed.
The United States Supreme Court reviewed the evidence and concluded that petitioner had not met his burden of showing continuous disability. In particular, it pointed to the fact that he had not submitted evidence relating to a five-year period.
Concluding that the evidence of insanity was merely speculative, the Court affirmed the judgment of the lower court.
The Court affirmed, holding that the trial court was entitled to grant respondent's motion for a directed verdict in light of petitioner's failure to show his whereabouts, activities, or condition for five years of the time period that he claimed to have suffered continuing and total disability.
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BUSHIRI'S FREEDOM – MBORO'S VICTORY
They both claim to serve God and bring peace in the lives of thousands of people.
But, for some time now the supporters of both pastors have watched their leaders going at each other's throats.
And now the battle has gone spiritual, with Mboro claiming that his prayers have given Bushiri his freedom.
This comes after the leader of Incredible Happenings church pastor Paseka "Mboro" Motsoeneng attacked Bushiri with claims accusing Pastor Shepherd Bushiri of the Enlightened Christian Gathering church of scamming people.
Mboro claims he has left all the differences behind and he knelt and prayed for Bushiri's release.
And on Wednesday, Prophet Bushiri and his wife Mary were released on R200, 000 bail.
Speaking to Scrolla.Africa on Wednesday, Mboro said he dreamed about Bushiri's freedom.
"I prayed to God for his freedom. I asked God to give him another chance to fix things with people who were crying," he said.
"And exactly the way I prayed, things have happened that way. Bushiri is not sleeping in jail today."
Before Bushiri's arrest last month, Mboro claimed that he prayed for Bushiri's arrest. But on Wednesday, he came out to the court saying that he prayed for Bushiri's freedom.
"I knew that Bushiri was going to be released today. I prayed for him. God always answers my prayers," he said.
Bushiri and his wife Mary were arrested last month on charges of money laundering, theft and fraud by the Hawks.
Each time Bushiri appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court, hundreds of supporters gathered outside the court to support their spiritual leaders.
When the judge announced their bail, which came with strict conditions, hundreds of supporters outside the court celebrated.
The followers of the Enlightened Christian Gathering have been claiming that Bushiri is innocent and they wanted him out of custody where he has been kept for about two weeks.
One of the Bushiri's bail conditions is that he is not allowed to travel anywhere except in Gauteng and the North West Province.


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So as you know, I've been back from Burning Man for nearly a week, but my travel schedule during that time got so hectic I had to stop blogging. I came home to a broken air conditioner, miscellaneous plumbing crises, and a catering event, so I'm JUST now starting to come up for air and get the rest of the journey chronicled. Because…what a journey it was!
We leave the wonders of the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff for Vegas. Normally I do everything in my power to avoid Las Vegas in my travels, but we need a cheap hotel room where we can dye our hair, and Ross has never seen Vegas before, and I always take a bit of perverse pleasure in seeing a rational human encounter this city that represents the worst of our culture.
One of these days, Gordon, I will eat at one of your restaurants! I'm actually VERY eager to eat at a Ramsay location. I don't get upset about dramatically overpriced food if the quality of the ingredients is excellent and the execution and service are flawless. I am potently eager to have the GR dining experience to see if it lives up to the hype! Maybe next time, Gordon.
After a whirlwind tour of the strip, so Ross can gawk at the stunning architecture and witness the stupendous excess of this city that has no right to exist in the desert, sucking up precious water and electricity so that people can empty their pockets into slot machines and watch over-priced shows, we head back to the hotel room for a Burning Man ritual…the hair dye.
Those little symbols represent "The Man," which is symbol of the whole event. And in the week or so before Burning Man takes place, you start seeing this on cars, moving vans, 18-wheelers, RVs, campers, bicycles, and backpacks all across the country…on interstates and backroads…as 65,000 people begin their journey "home." After you've been to the event a time or two, you actually do start thinking of it as home. You have a family there…maybe it's a family you only see once a year, but they are like family to you. It's the place where society functions as it's SUPPOSED to. With everyone sharing selflessly, loving and accepting everyone for exactly who they are. No one is naive enough to think that Burning Man could exist all year. But one week of Utopia is better than what most folks get in a year. So people come to think of Burning Man as home, and as I start seeing the symbol on vehicles on the road around me and at gas stations, I start to get misty eyed. Another great thing is that you can walk up to ANYONE with this symbol on their car, give them a huge hug, and they are instantly a friend. Eager to help with whatever you need. Even though you've never met them.
Northwesterly we drive, into the bleak, barren deserts of Nevada. We pass the site where the country was going to store its nuclear waste…way out in the middle of nowhere on Yucca Mountain. We pass a rock on which is painted, "Shady Lady brothel – 23 miles." Prostitution is legal and regulated in a few counties in Nevada, but it's still very bizarre to see this sign…way out in the middle of nowhere.
A monsoon storm is sweeping the edge of the White Mountains where they descend to the Mojave desert, kicking up a vast dust storm and bathing each mountain in a different light. We pull over and stare, mouths open. Ross climbs a nearby hill and begins photographing next to a Joshua tree. The entire scene changes, moment by moment. Thunder echoes off the distant peaks and rumbles across the valley, and I can feel it in my chest when it hits. We watch the storm for nearly an hour…it's more captivating than any movie. Then we drive up into those mountains. And I do mean UP. Up, up, up, up, towing a heavy trailer behind us. My little car tugs like a champ, but eventually we have to leave the trailer on the side of the road because the grades are getting steeper and the curves sharper. Until we top out above 10,000 feet in the Inyo National Forest, which protects the oldest trees on earth.
The bristlecone pine trees grow only in the American Southwest at elevations above 10,000 feet…far higher than any other tree grows. They only grow on desert mountains that lie in the rain shadow of other mountain ranges, so these trees sip a mere 3 or 4 inches of rain each year. They grow slowly. Their wood is hard, and gets blasted by howling winds, eroding it into fantastic shapes. We've arrived at the Methuselah grove, in which are the 2 oldest trees on planet earth…over 5,000 years old.
Looks like rain tonight! Only a hot spring can soak away the aches and grumbles of a damp night in a tent during the rain, so after a quick bite at a diner in Lone Pine, we head to the Keough hot ditch. Not a very appealing name, huh? In fact, the name alone kept me away from this hot spring for years, even though it's less than a mile off Highway 395, which I drive every year to Burning Man. But a "hot ditch" just didn't sound appealing to me. Still, I'm pulling a trailer this year, so I'm sort of relegated to the hot springs close to the highway, so we give Keough hot ditch a try.
W-O-W!!! A river of crystal clear, naturally hot water dances out of the Sierras and cascades through pool after pool on its way down into the desert. This is no ditch…it's paradise! Room for HUNDREDS of people to soak, should the hot spring ever be so unfortunate as to attract that many.
We set up the tent well away from the hot river, so we don't get disturbed by late night partiers, and spend an hour or two soaking our cares away as the moon rises over the distant White Mountains. We think about those amazing trees hiding up there, silently witnessing the march of human civilization. The partiers inevitably arrive, so we hit the sack, preferring to soak in the solitary hours of the early morning.
After a quick morning soak, we head into Bishop, CA for breakfast. I LOVE Bishop. Actually, I love all the little historic frontier towns on the eastern slope of the Sierras. I could live there. In Bishop we stop at the Petite Pantry, a bizarrely named Sonoran restaurant serving up the best breakfast in the valley. Jay, the owner, welcomes us and our weirdly-colored hair.
Jay, it turns out, is not only the owner…he is the server…and the chef. He brings us an extensive menu of Sonoran classics as well as American classics. And I get adventurous.
Jay looks at me a little weird. Which isn't weird, because I have pink hair.
That's a LOT of food. Some of the regulars wander over to see what it looks like…or what the person who ordered it looks like. I dive in. And it.is.d.i.v.i.n.e.
But it's a lot. And there's no way I can eat it all. Jay is busy taking orders and cooking, so I figure I'll save him some effort and dart into the kitchen for a to-go box, so I can wrap up my food. He slaps my hand just as I'm reaching for the box.
He spreads out the two biggest flour tortillas I've seen in my entire life and invites me to scrape my plate clean onto the tortillas.
…and then he sends us on our way.
This is a great story, of course, but it really is a distillation of what food means to me. Jay isn't a trained chef. He's making the foods his mother and grandmother made. But he is the master of his domain. He greets each guest the same way, whether they've been eating at his restaurant for 20 years, or whether they're a weird pink-haired gringo wandering in from the desert hot springs. He COMMUNES with his guests, even from the kitchen window when he's back there cooking up their order. Jay has found a way to do what I imagined I could never do, if I became the chef-owner of my own restaurant. I had nightmares of being stuck back in a kitchen, churning out the same food each night, never even able to see the faces of the people I was cooking for. Jay, you have a magical place there in Bishop. You're a lucky man. I know exactly how hard you work. And the smile on your face reveals exactly how much you love every minute of it. Dining at the Petite Pantry was a highlight of my entire 3 weeks. If you find yourself on Highway 395 east of the Sierras, DO NOT PASS UP Petite Pantry in Bishop.
This lovely soaking pool is right on Highway 395, though most people drive right past it and have no idea it's there. It's the perfect place to rinse off after a Mono Lake swim.
Tomorrow, all this stuff will be carted into the vast Black Rock desert and assembled into a home for 30 people. Camp Potluck. But now…sleep.
Hello! It's Michael Chen again. After talking to Ben, he told me that he would not be watching the last few episodes of MasterChef, so I took it upon my weary shoulders fingers to finish this season out for those of you that can't live without the recaps. Expect a post from him in the somewhat near future about why he (and I most likely) will never watch MasterChef ever again.
Quick recap to cover last week's episode of MasterChef. I'll try not to go too much into the drama, because that takes up too much of my time and I'm really over it at this point. I've had enough, am sick and tired of it, and probably won't ever watch MasterChef again after this season unless I'm extremely drunk or bored.
So we start off with another mystery box, and more sensationalist stuff about the prizes and how important they are. I wonder if the money that they display is actually real money, or "monopoly money".
The challenge is to recreate their initial audition dish that won them the apron in the first place. Natasha made Hanger steak with chimichurri and empanadas. Luca has his broccoli rabe ravioli with parmigiano-reggiano sauce, and Jessie made the sea bass en croute. It seems like an odd challenge to me that has more of a novelty factor than anything else. If the initial dishes were already so good and "masterchef quality", how much can they do to really make it better?
As always, please let me know what you think in the comments down below. One more to go!
So we're back up to 7 contestants, now that Bri is back. And it's time for a mystery box. Krissi tells us, "I need to step up my game to a whole nother level." I just HAVE to pause here to correct what is probably the most rampant abuse of the English language in modern American culture. And, yes, Krissi…I'm guilty of using it, too. There's no such word as "nother." That word doesn't exist. Yet, I've even seen "a whole nother" on a bulletin board on I-35 near downtown Dallas. I'm not sure who the first person was who uttered "a whole nother," but if I met him, I'd strangle him with my bare hands. Or at least give him a tongue lashing.
Beneath the mystery box is one of my favorite steaks…a T-bone. This lovely steak is actually 2 steaks in one…a New York strip and a tenderloin, separated by the T-shaped bone which is part of the lumbar vertebrae in the cow's spinal column. The T-bone steak and the Porterhouse steak are actually practically the same steak…but the T-bone is cut from the loin closer to the front of the cow, and the Porterhouse is cut closer to the rear. So Porterhouse steaks contain a larger ratio of tenderloin to strip, while T-bones contain a smaller tenderloin. The unfortunate consequence of this is that the tenderloin part of the T-bone tends to overcook, because it's a smaller muscle. Porterhouses tend to have a better balance between the meat on both sides, so they're easier to cook.
Since we can already predict this episode is gonna be more about drama than cooking, let's pause for a sec and discuss beef. There are 2 kinds of beef cuts…tender cuts and tough cuts. The tender cuts are equivalent to the white meat on a chicken: muscles that rarely get used, so they tend to be tender. On a cow, these are the muscles along the spine (or loin) that flank each side of the spinal column and never actually do much work. These cuts are renowned for tenderness…but not really much flavor. So the flavor comes from how you cook it.
The tough cuts on a cow, however, are the muscles that get the actual work…the front and back legs and the abdomen. Equivalent to the dark meat on a chicken, these cuts are the ones that actually TASTE good…but because the muscles get a lot of exercise, they tend to be tougher. This is why a perfect burger will taste better than any prime tenderloin ever can…because it tastes like BEEF. Tenderloin tastes like whatever you season it with, and melts in your mouth like the butter you slather on top of it because it has very little flavor of its own. So in the quest for the perfect steak, if your primary concern is tenderness, then the T-bone is a fabulous choice…but if your primary concern is good, beefy flavor, you need to look to the tough cuts like skirt steak, flank steak, brisket, chuck roast, and round roast. These cuts need to be either barely cooked and sliced across the grain to keep them tender, or they need to be braised or smoked low and slow for an eternity to break down all the collagen and connective tissues, so they melt in your mouth.
Walmart is back in the house, and you can tell how excited Joe is to be the first to talk about it. I've ranted enough about the Walmart-MasterChef relationship in previous blogs, so I'll spare you. (Just be it known that I DO shop at Walmart…at least twice month. I don't ever buy beef there. Actually, I very rarely buy beef. What I buy at Walmart are their organic products like milk and eggs…well, before I had chickens in my backyard.) I absolutely LOVE how "enthusiastic" Joe is as he reads off the cue card "Walmart sells the highest quality choice beef which is inspected by the USDA for quality." Poor Joe, I know exactly how pissed off he was to have to say that. And, for the record, EVERY piece of beef you buy in the grocery store in this country is inspected by the USDA for quality. Again, Gordon is remarkably silent when it comes to discussing Walmart. He never says it once.
Gordon says, "T-bone steak, a chef's dream. But tonight, we wanna see this T-bone steak elevated, we do not wanna see just meat and potatoes." When he asks Graham what he would make, Graham replies, "A simple rub, not too spicy…grill it, and with it: a potato salad." I chuckled at that one. Exactly what Gordon said not to make. Though, honestly…if you mess with a steak too much, you detract from its beauty. Simplicity and perfection is key to presenting a great steak.
Time is up, and it's time to taste the 3 best dishes. Jordan is first, and he's never won a mystery box challenge. Jordan has decided to separate the NY Strip and the tenderloin from the bone. (Luca also did this, but he served both steaks, Jordan only serves the Strip.) This is a puzzling choice. It certainly gives the chef better control over each piece of meat…meaning you can cook each one to perfection, which is something you CANNOT do when it's on the bone. However, when you separate those two cuts of meat, they simply become two separate steaks. And that bone is the key to incredible flavor and juiciness. I almost never buy a roast or steak that is boneless. Wanna impress the MasterChef judges? Separate those steaks and cook each one perfectly. Wanna BLOW AWAY the MasterChef judges? Present them with a bone-in T-bone steak cooked beautifully. Because THAT is hard to do. Jordan's steak is served with a celery root puree. If you've never tasted celery root…also called celeriac…you need to. It's pretty miraculous. Like a cross between a rutabaga or turnip and celery. Bold, earthy, nutty flavor…it's downright divine. Jordan has also made a compound butter with which to top his steak, consisting of parsley, bleu cheese, and lemon zest. (yum) He's also got caramelized onions and fried squash breaded in parmesan cheese.
The judges are very impressed with Jordan's plate.
Luca is next, and like Jordan, he has removed the bone from his steaks. But he is serving both of them. He grilled the filet and served it with haricot verts (French green beans), and roasted potatoes with Parmesan cream sauce. The NY Strip he pan seared and served with caramelized onions and a pan sauce. The judges are very impressed.
The final dish comes as a surprise to some of the contestants…it's Krissi. And boy, did she take her cooking to a whole nother level! Krissi had the balls to leave the T-bone whole. (Good girl!) She cooked it on cast iron, which she said is the way her grandfather used to cook steak. And I can't agree with them more. There is NO better cooking method for steak than a cast iron skillet. Certainly not a grill pan, which many contestants used. (That only gives you sear on the lines where the grill pan meets the steak. That may look pretty, but you've only got a tenth of the flavorful crust you'd get if the whole surface of the steak was in contact with the iron.) Sometimes I'll go for a steak grilled on charcoal, because you get some smoke in the flavor, but typically I save that for BBQ. And don't ever EVER cook a steak on a propane grill. In fact, throw away your propane grill…it has no purpose. If you're going to grill, you'd better do it over charcoal. Grilling on the stove is downright silly. Grilling over a propane fire is the same this as broiling, it's just upside down. I laugh until I'm hyperventilating when I see how proud some guys are of their propane grilling skills. The propane grill is the biggest culinary scam ever inflicted upon mankind. Sell it on Craigslist. Spend 1/8 what you paid for it on a charcoal grill with cast iron grates. Your taste buds will thank you.
On top of Krissi's steak she's got a compound butter, and she's serving it with a crispy potato galette that she's calling "pommes de Krissi." I love that. A "galette" is a French style, crusty, round cake that can be either savory or sweet. "Pomme" is the French word for potato, and Krissi's potato cake is really stunning. While the potato may be the humblest of all ingredients, cooking masterfully with it takes knowledge and incredible skill. Because starches are far more finicky than proteins. They turn to sugar at certain temperatures, and then they quickly burn. Alongside her "pommes de Krissi" she's got a caramelized onion and Brussels sprout salad. What a dish! I would eat the heck out of that. The judges can't praise her enough.
In fact, Krissi wins the whole challenge, and while there were probably some VERY stellar dishes we never even got to see, I'd have to agree with the judges on this one, at least with reference to the other 2 plates. Krissi's plate showed some really sophisticated technique. And while the term "sophisticated technique" tends to give me a rash, and I'm not often DYING to taste something prepared with sophisticated technique, I'd have scarfed down every morsel on that plate because it was still familiar and authentic…two adjectives sorely missing from a lot of "sophisticated" food.
Back in the pantry, there are 6 massive burlap-covered boxes filled with "fresh food," according to Joe. One by one, the burlap is lifted, revealing a variety of live birds that we use for food. The first is a quail…near and dear to the heart of every real Texan. Our very favorite game bird.
Next is a pigeon, which we've already seen this season. Called "squab" in fancy restaurants, pigeons are basically the same thing as doves, which are also much beloved by game hunters.
Graham next reveals a pheasant, which is the ultimate prize for many game bird hunters. I've had the pleasure of cooking wild pheasant several times…the meat is dark purple, lean, and incredibly delicious. Graham says, "If you don't know what you're doing with this bird, it's impossible to nail it." The trick to pheasant…and ALL game birds, really, is brining. They have so little fat that you need to get all the moisture you can into the meat before you cook it, to prevent it from drying out.
Next is, of course, a chicken. That's a Buff Orphington, by the way. I have one in my backyard. They are among the largest breeds of chicken, and just about the friendliest. They love to be held and petted, they'll respond to their name, and they make a far better pet than a cat, in my most-humble opinion.
Gordon pulls up his burlap to reveal a duck. A White Pekin, to be precise. This breed of duck is native to China, and for almost a century, virtually every domesticated duck eaten in the US was a direct descendent of the 9 Pekin ducks brought to New York from China in the 1800s.
Ducks are one of my favorite animals…I can't help but laugh when I see them. I had pet ducks when I was a kid, and I've rescued and raised MANY orphaned ducklings over the years. One year, I rescued an entire nest of ducklings whose mother had been killed by a dog. The sweltering summer heat continued to incubate the eggs and they began to hatch, but without the moisture from mama duck's feathers, the inner membrane of the eggs had become too tough for the babies to peck through. After it became apparent that the babies would die in their shells, I reluctantly helped them hatch. We saved 4 out of the 7 quackers, and I raised them until they were fully feathered. A few trips to a local park to teach them to swim were fascinating…the ducks thought they were people and followed me around the park, terrified of the other ducks. Eventually I returned them to the pond where their mother had lived, and it was heart-wrenching to see how scared they were of the other ducks. But I had to leave them to figure it out on their own. A week later I came back to check on them, and all 4 recognized me and jumped out of the water and rushed up to me, quacking like crazy, jumping up and wanting to be held. You should have seen the look on the other ducks' faces when those 4 were jumping up and down, wanting me to pick them up.
I continued to visit them each week until the entire flock flew south for the winter. When they returned the next spring, they had their adult feathers, and I couldn't recognize which ones were "mine." And they didn't recognize me, either. So my job was done, after shedding a few bittersweet tears.
Krissi's job is to assign one bird to each contestant. They head back to the kitchen for their surprise, and each bird is wearing a medallion with an image of the contestant that will have to cook it. Luca is adorably skittish of the birds, and tries to tempt his turkey with a big piece of lettuce.
When Natasha picks up her pheasant, you can see a fishing line attached to it's leg…I suppose to keep it from flying up and roosting in the ceiling of the warehouse where MasterChef is filmed.
But think about it…you make tough choices in your life right now based on things you believe are right, and they make your life harder. Right? Some of you go to church on Sunday. That's not easy. But you believe it's right. Some of you are extremely involved with your children's education…you personally know their teachers, you get involved with PTA. That's not easy. Nor is it free. But you do it, because you believe it's important. Say photography is a serious hobby of yours. Are you gonna buy the cheapest point-and-shoot that Konica makes? Of course not.
So why would you always stoop to the cheapest food you can find to sustain your very life, and the lives of the people who are most important to you? Don't you wanna know where that sh-t comes from?!? In our country we've been spoiled and placated into a place of blissful ignorance about how our food ends up on our table. And that's not only gravely dangerous…it's criminally neglectful when it comes to your kids and the people who trust you to care for them. Start thinking about where your food comes from. It is literally the MOST important decision you make on a daily basis. Yet so many of us make it so flippantly.
Jessie is up first for tasting. She presents pan seared chicken breast with roasted garlic sauce, mashed potatoes, and summer veggie succotash. Joe chastises her for being too "homey" and not gourmet enough…but with all the components on her plate, it's as sophisticated as anything anyone has cooked on this episode. He's just sticking up his nose at Southern cuisine for being too primitive. Her chicken breast, however, is too dry. (Fancy that…a dry chicken breast! If you're a regular reader, you know what I have to say about chicken breast. The ONLY time to eat chicken breast is when you roast a whole chicken. If you're buying parts and you buy boneless skinless breast, I don't know who you are. You are dead to me. At the very least, buy bone-in, skin-on breast. It's cheaper, too.) Graham messes with her mashed potatoes, which have gone gluey. (To be fair to Jessie, they've probably been sitting on the plate for a couple of hours before she finally gets judged.) However, she did make mashed potatoes from red-skin potatoes, which are "waxy" potatoes and DO NOT lend themselves to a good texture when mashed. You want starchy potatoes for that, like russets, if you want them to be fluffy. The judges are not kind. And Jessie earns some Brownie points in my book for fessing up, rather than making excuses. "There's only 6 of us cooking and you can't get away with simple. I have no excuse." I've said it before…I think we'll be seeing Jessie on Food Network soon. She is supremely likeable.
James is next, and he has duck breast rubbed with togarashi…a Japanese chili powder. He serves it with some "quick kimchee" which probably means he simmered the cabbage briefly in vinegar, rather than allowing it to ferment in a salt water brine. He's also got ginger scallion rice and oyster mushrooms cooked in duck fat. Sounds divine, and the judges agree.
Luca presents his prosciutto-wrapped turkey breast with braised Swiss chard, sweet potato puree, sauteed mushrooms, and a red wine cranberry sauce. (For the most amazing cranberry sauce recipe, click here. You'll never go back to the can.) Joe loves it.
Jordan is next, and his pan seared quail is served stew-style with root vegetables. His quail is almost raw, but he's not familiar with cooking it. The judges are very upset. And thank you, dear Gordon Ramsay, for suggesting that he should have brined it!
The top 2 dishes of the night are Bri, who celebrates with the line "Winner, winner, pigeon dinner!" *cackle* Against her as the second team captain in the next challenge will be, of course, Natasha.
The edit brings us back to the first time we met Jordan during his signature dish round, where we learned that his mom had recently passed away and he's giving it his all in her memory. Jordan is, in a sense, a perfect MasterChef contestant. He knows a lot and has incredible skill and knowledge. He is confident…but rarely cocky. I predict that Jordan will do exactly what he wants to do with his life: open a dive bar that has 5-star food. Follow Jordan on Facebook and Twitter. And comment below about what you thought of this episode, particularly if you have a fond relationship with one of the game birds that were featured!
And, lucky readers, this is the LAST MasterChef blog I will write. (Perhaps ever?!?) I leave Saturday for my annual pilgrimage "home" to Burning Man, and a subsequent road trip across Idaho and Wyoming and back across the Southwest. I won't lay eyes upon a television screen for a blessed month, and it can't come quickly enough. Good luck to whoever wins MasterChef (I know you who are!!!), and I'll touch base with you all on the final results in late September, but you WILL get plenty of updates from me on Facebook, and more rarely on my blog, during my great adventure to one of the most extraordinary things that happens on planet Earth.


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Alexandrova vs Svitolina: will Ekaterina be able to beat Elina?
Germany. WTA Berlin
Odds: 2.1
Ekaterina Alexandrova
Throughout the season, Ekaterina Aleksandrova does not have a stable game. The Russian tennis player performed best at the beginning of the year, when she played in the semifinals of the tournament in Melbourne and also made her way to the third round of Australian Open.
On June 14th, Alexandrova successfully started on the grass in Berlin. Ekaterina left no chances for her compatriot Anna Kalinskaya (6-3, 6-2), for which we made a prediction.
The upcoming fight against Svitolina will be fundamental for the Russian woman. Elina won against Ekaterina three times in her career. Moreover, two victories in persistent and equal matches were recorded this year at tournaments in Abu Dhabi and Miami.
Elina Svitolina once again failed to successfully perform at the Grand Slam tournament. In Paris the Ukrainian tennis player stopped in the third round this time, losing to the future champion Barbora Kreichikova (3-6, 2-6).
Ahead is the start on the grass. In Berlin Svitolina will play right from the second round. She has no playing practice on the grass this year. In general, in her career it cannot be said that the Ukrainian tennis player feels confident on the grass, having 17 victories and the same number of defeats. More tennis correct score predictions can be obtained from the link provided.
In the upcoming match, Aleksandrova has a good chance to finally win against Svitolina. The Russian tennis player has already successfully adapted on the grass, while Elina will play only the first match on this surface and in general, in her career, she does not play very confidently on the grass. We offer a prediction with a high coefficient for the victory of the Russian woman.
Our prediction is Alexandrova's victory for 2.10 odds in BC 1xBet.
In each of the three personal meetings, tennis players scored at least 22 games. All the fights turned out to be stubborn. It is unlikely that anything will change in Berlin.
Second bet is for a total over 21 games in 1.85.
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