Canadian Gambling Laws - How Canada Regulates Gambling

The cannabis market right now is so similar to the start of the green energy market.. its nowhere near done being bullish. Save for some small dips, there will very likely be a huge bullish trend for 2021. EVEN NASDAQ AGREES. I’ve posted my positions a few times, and I’ll continue to do so. But this is my reasoning for investing in cannabis stocks in general for 2021.

I've been a bull on cannabis since the democrats had a strong pro-cannabis platform. But what made me go balls deep into the market was that the UN changed its classification of cannabis. Countries follow the UN closely for guidance on their own classification of controlled substances. Congress has repeatedly cited the UN’s classification as one of the reasons for not changing it. Several countries immediately changed their stance on cannabis in response to this, including Israel, which In November 2020, announced that it was moving forward with a plan to legalize recreational cannabis nationally. “The country is aiming to implement recreational legalization within nine months, and even if there are delays, that means mid-to-late 2021.” (This is my reason for investing in Canadian cannabis companies, because they are already poised to expand internationally since its legal there nationwide)

THE SENATE IS NOW BLUE! The Georgia runoffs were won by Democrats, and they can now swing the vote left with VP Harris. She promised it as part of her platform, so we know it will be prioritized. CHUCK SHUMER SPONSORED THE MORE ACT. HE WILL BE SENATE MAJORITY LEADER. IT WILL 100% BE PRIORITIZED BETWEEN HIM AND VP HARRIS.

EVERYONE predicted beforehand that the republicans would win Georgia... everyone talked down decriminalization passing the house because of they believed it would NEVER pass the republican majority senate. But the left spent more than any senate race in history to encourage voters to go out and vote. Only once the race started did it become clear that the left had a chance. Then some gains from the surprise that they won. However the gains from 1/5 onwards definitely hasn’t been priced in for all the future legislation, because some of it will be completely new legislation that wasn’t possible to consider before without a blue senate. THIS HASN'T BEEN PRICED INTO THE MARKET YET.

The SAFE BANKING ACT has bipartisan support, and is likely to pass BEFORE decriminalization because it is tied into some stimulus bills.

The government is broke post-COVID. There is a terrible image of the police. They don’t want to waste more resources on cannabis related crimes that would be fixed under decriminalization. And the tax revenue from decriminalization would be significant. Decriminalization (THE MORE ACT) opens up the borders to interstate-commerce and international import/export. This would all trickle down into Uncle Sam’s empty pockets.

New York Governor Cuomo announced on Jan 6 his plan to legalize marijuana for adult use (right after New Jersey vote, as I anticipated in my last post) as part of his State of the State agenda. The next step is a ripple out on the North East. NY didn’t want to miss out on tax revenue, neither will any of the other states in the northeast within driving distance of NJ and NY. This is Cuomo’s third attempt in three years to legalize adult-use cannabis in the state; last year, Cuomo included a legalization proposal in his state budget, but the plan was ultimately cut in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other ongoing state legislature:

Rhode Island: Regulators have received 45 applications for six new medical cannabis dispensary licenses in the state. If all applicants meet the requirements for a license, six will randomly be selected in a lottery to operate retail locations in different regions across the state. Read more
Missouri: Rep. Shamed Dogan has filed legislation that would place an adult-use cannabis legalization measure on the state’s 2022 ballot. Meanwhile, Missourians for a New Approach has announced plans for a separate 2022 ballot initiative after an unsuccessful signature campaign to get the issue before voters in 2020. Read more
Alabama: Sen. Tim Melson plans to reintroduce a medical cannabis legalization bill this year. Medical cannabis legislation passed the Alabama Senate during the 2020 session, but failed to clear the House. Read more
Illinois: Illinois lawmakers have proposed the creation of 75 new cannabis retail licenses to give disadvantaged and minority applicants a second chance at licensing following the controversial licensing lottery to issue an initial 75 dispensary licenses. A work group made up of lawmakers and members of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration met this week to finalize details of the bill, which will be introduced in a lame-duck session that starts Jan. 8, before new lawmakers are sworn in Jan. 13. Read more
Minnesota: House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler is again renewing his push to legalize adult-use cannabis in the state, announcing plans to reintroduce a legalization bill this year. Winkler told WCCO that he sees “Senate leadership as being the number one obstacle,” but said that if lawmakers agreed to place an adult-use legalization initiative on Minnesota’s 2022 ballot, “it would pass overwhelmingly.” Read more
Virginia: Del. Steve Heretick has reintroduced a bill to legalize adult-use cannabis. Heretick has proposed legislation related to decriminalization and legalization in the past, and this year’s bill would legalize the cultivation, sale and consumption of cannabis in the state. Read more
Connecticut: Gov. Ned Lamont renewed his push for adult-use legalization during his State of the State address Jan. 6, announcing that it is a priority for the new legislative session. Connecticut’s 2021 legislative session opened Jan. 6, and Lamont, a Democrat, kicks off the session with increased majorities in the House and Senate, which could increase his chances of passing an adult-use legalization bill. Read more

Now that you understand why I’m going green, here’s my reasoning for my positions.
TLRY (Tilray)

largest cannabis company in the world by revenue post merger. Will run out of Seattle and New York City. New York Legalization on top of senate turning blue is a big catalyst for TLRY.
Merger hasn’t completed yet, and the merger happened before the senate went blue.. that was the gamble APHA was making, and they won. The sky is the limit now. When they merge, they will reduce expenses and be much more likely to post profitable quarters. (This is why mergers have so much hype; the sum is > than their parts because they can reduce operating expenses while maintaining revenue from the two companies)
Tilray CEO Brendan Kennedy: “I think medical cannabis will be legal at the federal level, which means medical cannabis can cross state lines and be imported into the U.S., like we export cannabis from Canada and Portugal to about 15 countries now,” Kennedy said. “Anyone who thinks there’s a state-specific medical market is wrong.” As for the recreational market, Kennedy says the state-specific markets, with interstate trade banned, “are not going to last long.” Kennedy believes that cannabis will be distributed like alcohol and tobacco within two years’ time. That would require significant overhaul of US federal drug laws—and would significantly disrupt all US cannabis companies’ existing business models. Brendan Kennedy, the cannabis billionaire will step down as Tilray's chairman and CEO. Irwin D. Simon, Aphria's current chairman and CEO will take Kennedy's place.
[On December 18, 2020, just three days after the U.S. Senate adopted the Cannabidiol and Marihuana Research Expansion Act (CMREA or the Act) (more on this below), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA or the Administration) published in the Federal Register a final rule, “Controls To Enhance the Cultivation of Marihuana for Research in the United States” (Rule), which finally paves the way for DEA to issue additional licenses to grow “marihuana” (i.e., cannabis) for research purposes.](https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/on-heels-of-senate-s-adoption-of-36129/)

GNLN (Greenlane Holdings)

One of the largest global sellers of premium cannabis accessories. Pax/JUUL/Volcano products. I’ve had Pax products, and although I prefer Arizer because of the affordability, I can’t deny Pax has quality products and is like the “iPhone” of vaporizers. I like their products, I like their branding. There’s lots of hype and loyalty, especially with their Volcano desktop vaporizer.
Strong US brands.
The main reason they did poorly was bad timing. They IPO’d during the year that JUULs started being banned. They’re actually at all those levels again. Theres a ton of upside potential.
Market cap is ridiculously low for some really renown brands all because of the JUUL flavor pod ban. Everyone knows Pax, Volcano, and JUUL. But no one knows Greenlane because of the bad timing of their IPO and the subsequent JUUL flavor ban. It’s crazy. They’ve already broke all time high for the year. But I’m holding until they break 1B market cap.
Recently became the exclusive distributor for the world's first gravity powered contactless water hookah.
Overall i think too many people count it out just because of their IPO and subsequent decline in JUUL sales from the JUUL flavored pods ban. They definitely have the potential because of their strong branding and quality products. I’m betting on them having more high quality products in the future with equally loyal customers.

SNDL (Sundial Growers)

SNDL must close above $1 per share for 10 consecutive sessions by June 26, 2021 or it will be delisted from NASDAQ. People see this as a fear factor, I see this as “they will do anything necessary to reach $1 for a week so they won’t be delisted”.. IMHO reverse splitter probably isn’t on the table since they could have done that in 2020, but instead applied for a 6 month extension after announcing “alternative strategic investments”. We can already see this by their predatory loan SPAC spinoff.
Rumors of a merger with CGC; SNDL also purchased a SPAC recently and entered an agreement with Zenabis, immediately claiming they defaulted. Turning that SPAC into predatory loan/debt repurchasing company. Imo if they want to complete a merger, it would be easy to sell ownership through that SPAC to the buyer.
THEY RECENTLY WENT DEBT FREE by selling off unprofitable assets in the business. This means we are much more likely to see earnings in future quarters, and they are much more attractive for mergers.
Because they are indoor growers, they are more likely to be bought up by a company in the consolidating Canadian cannabis market than fail all together. The amount of space licensed to grow cannabis in Canada is now heavily skewed toward outdoor cultivation instead of indoor for the first time, according to new data from Health Canada. A growing population of licenses for outdoor growers means that there aren’t as many indoor licenses being given out... If a company ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD wants to quickly expand into indoor growing OR into the west, they would have to purchase an existing company that has the license to quickly do so. This is WAY faster, and a guaranteed way to obtain a license rather than applying for one and waiting x amount of months and be rejected for some requirement that wasn’t met.
From my own experience, outdoor cannabis is subpar quality to indoor grown cannabis. So a growing market for outdoor cannabis doesn’t necessarily mean its better... it is likely just cheaper. I would imagine a high quality “craft cannabis” company would want to purchase SNDL, or an existing outdoor growing company that wants to quickly expand to indoor grown cannabis. With this being a Canadian company, there’s a chance a company in another country like Israel would be interested in purchasing it in the near future.

PLNHF (Planet 13 Holdings)

Biggest tourist trap in Las Vegas if you’re a stoner, casual smoker, or just wanting to try it. From my own experience, I think they will continue to be successful. If I went around the US trying other brands I’d probably be more confident in putting 5-10% of my portfolio into those picks or choosing to not include them lol. Like for example, I used to have Curaleaf. But there's tons of bad feedback on Curaleaf, a friend has tried it said the nug is really subpar quality and if I tried their nug I’d probably confirm that I wouldn’t want to invest in them. With PLNHF, i’ve seen the ambience and tried the product myself. It’s definitely a lot of hype price wise, but still quality. This is my own bias showing, but I still think they’ve got solid fundamentals and excellent location/strong US branding.

I’m well aware of other good stocks like GTBIF, CRLBF, SSPK, TCNNF, GRWG.. but these stocks haven’t been swinging as hard in response to pro-cannabis news. E.g. TLRY, SNDL, GNLN swung more than 20% some days from pro-cannabis news...I will likely reduce my current positions shortly after inauguration, after some news about the timeline for cannabis legislation, and diversify my positions more between these other good picks.

2021 is the year of cannabis boys

How is SCR’s price justified? Aren’t there a lot of question marks?

FansUnite (OTC: FUNFF, TSX: FANS)

SCR.TO - Bill reading today - Gambling Stock

[Initial Impressions] Meermin Wholecut Chelsea - Dark Brown Calf

Bragg Gaming $BRAG.TO/$BRGGF (My DD inside) A guide to corruption/privilege in the Government

Bill C-13, Gaming, and /r/gamblingstocks

/gamblingstocks has just turned 3 days old. Congratulations and thank you all for joining our fledging community. In recognition of this milestone, I want to lay out how we got here, what my intentions are, and discuss what you would like to see from this subreddit moving forward.
skip this part if you only care about gamblingstocks: It starts with a brief background on me . I got inspired by the idea to invest in weedstocks when I was younger because I thought Trudeau would legalize it when he ran for Prime Minister. I knew nothing about stocks or the market or $ for that matter but I did and still have a big nerd interest in politics. I knew that the BC Young Liberals had already put forward in their platform the idea to legalize weed. I also knew that for the first time ever Liberals went from being 1 or 2 party in power to being relegated to the 3rd Party Position behind Michael Ignatieff. (Hard for ppl without reference, this was the most embarassing thing to happen to the Liberal's in Canada's history. Furthermore, the perfect storm was created because the Conservatives had already been in power for 10 years under Stephen Harper and no one has ever won more than 3 elections in a row) Even better, a smokeshow young Justin Trudeau was the new leader of the Liberals and rode the last name of the most famous Prime Minister in history before him (his father Pierre Trudeau). The final thing that made me sure, the obvious fact that Colorado legalized and the US Federal government didn't shut that shit down immediately - that was the writing on the wall. So anyways, I somehow googled and found some random medical marijuana stocks online that had just started trading. With no experience, I walked into a bank with 3k cash and asked to buy Tweed (what CGC was first) they told me that it wasn't a safe investment and I was young. I left and opened up an online account that week. My second investment in Aurora dropped 50% in 1 week and stayed that way for 5 months. I thought I was the biggest moron in the world. 2 Years later, and I was sitting on an insane growth. I remember joining the fucking tweed subreddit and the CGC sub. I remember lurking /weedstocks when it was less than 500 subscribers... I remember thinking that was a fucking genius idea. That sub has close to 200,000 subscribers at present point in time and I bought CGC when its market cap was 200 million Canadian. Now, this is hard for me to admit, but I was young, had no exit plan, got greedy, had no idea what I was trying to do and thought I was a trader savant, God's gift to the world, and I ultimately lost a substantial amount of my money. Mind you, it was all profit to begin with but that didn't make it hurt less and it would have significantly changed my life but its important to learn from our past successes and our past mistakes. It honestly was a hard thing to move on from specifically because I believe it was such a unique phenomenon.
Anyways I have continued to watch ppl try to replicate something close to what we saw with the "weedstocks" phenomenon (which is still happening mind you years later) and I had truly thought that it was a once in a lifetime play. It is of course a separate play but the similarities between weedstocks and gamblingstocks is obvious. In fact, it is my opinion that ppl are so hungry for another weedstocks play that they are turning to things like GME and DOGE coin (something completely unrelated) and /shroomstocks (very much so related). Shroomstocks is fast approaching 30,000 subscribers for investors of magic mushrooms stocks in the hopes that drug policy/laws will change to their benefit. With all do respect, as I hope the best for those investors, is this not the clearly better play? we have an 1) actual clear path to legalization 2) support across political parties 3) Real, established companies with actual business people 4) A pandemic which creates the perfect pressure for change! The gambling companies don't have to build warehouses to grow the product, spend money on heating and electricity, pesticides, storage, shipping and receiving? What about the 'product' in this industry? What is the comparative upkeep in that? So you can imagine how I felt when I stumbled across $SCR and Bill C-13 earlier this week. I have had this feeling exactly twice in my life before, with weedstocks and with crypto in 2017. I might be going crazy but I am seeing the exact same comments as plays as early weed. Ppl questioning if it will continue to go up after such a large run are missing the point. The Score was one of the most active traded stocks on the entire TSE yesterday. It was the same for weedstocks back in the day, it is not in the Canada's best interest to stop a homegrown company from doing well and becoming an international player. Trudeau and Company have all the reasons in the world for wanting to see this through. Why the fuck would you smack down a domestic company during a pandemic? Ultimately it is a gamble which is why there is such huge potential for us, but I would trust literally the same man who has already proven he can do something so different like legalize weed (because it may seem like long ago but it really was a debate in the recent past). And it really is his show at this point, because unless he does something really bad the other 2 have no chance in hell of beating him in an election any time soon. So with all that said, and with my previous history, I immediately checked reddit to see if I could find a community of likeminded ppl who were early on in this area. I have never done it but I thought there was a need to create a group and coalesce around a catchy name, so i decided on /gamblingstocks.
the same day that I started to begin to create and edit the subreddit, I noticed something strange. Ppl were immediately beginning to join and subscribe to the sub and we hadn't even started. Ppl of course already had the same idea I had, some turned out had it months ago! That motivated me to put just a bit of effort into the layout, and I tried to promote the sub to other areas of reddit with varying success. I continued to try and promote/shill this sub instead of allow for growth organically because of 2 ideas: 1)how would anyone even know we exist and find this place to start and 2)While it will happen regardless, the premise is that this subreddit could serve as a catalyst point for the upcoming gamblingstock wave in the current market we now find ourselves.
In other words, this ain't your daddy's stockmarket no more. Social media infects everything, and I believe that the pace will only continue to increase in the immediate future. Whether its picking US Presidents and World Leaders or manipulating the stock market (See GME) the era of social media investing has arrived. Our new gamblingstocks industry coupled with the new realities of social media are why I made this group. Fundamentals don't matter any more, nothing matters anymore. Values are detached from reality, look at housing prices in certain spots around the world. I was told Tesla is a joke and would never amount to anything because of something called finding value with P/E ratio? /s what a joke. Shouldn't have listened to that age old wisdom, if you have been living under a rock Tesla is now the most valuable car company in the world. Elon added Billions of Dollars in value to an internet coin named after a dog just by sending a joke tweet. (doge coin) We live in a world where if Elon Musk tweets $SCR the price will go to $50 in 1 hour. Heck it doesn't even have to be Elon at this point. That is the reality that we face today. And with that new reality, comes new problems and opportunities. I hope to ride those opportunities with every one of you in the coming year. I fully expect to see stock market only social media stars and celebrities. The lines are quickly becoming blurred. Its not Warren Buffet anymore, its kids dancing stock tips to their follower on Tik Tok videos.
And the best part. We are not shilling something fake or bullshit! We have a PROVEN product as old as time itself with a tested, real market. We have actual legalization change and public opinion change and the conversations on the matter are frankly already over in the public discourse. So with all of that together I truly believe that at some point what we have already found out will hit "the singularity" and then it will go viral. I don't know when that will happen. We don't even need it to happen. But I believe it will. So I will use the power of the internet to see if I can make this come to fruition faster, to see if I am completely full of shit, and to bring regular ppl together to see if we can make some $$$ in the interim. Because after all, that is the power (good or bad) of social media!
Now, I am just one simple person, and I literally have learned about the stocks and done all of this since Friday. So far, I have tried throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall, and see what sticks. However, as time goes on I want to make sure that I conduct myself in a manner that is open, transparent, and is a good reflection of this subreddit. So I finish by asking you for your help, advice, criticisms, and suggestions. Anything and everything is on the table. If you have seen me spreading the word about this subreddit in other subs, should I stop or keep going? Should I put any focus on promoting/marketing the sub, or just leave it alone? What do you think about the amount of posts that I am making, both personal and news articles? Would you like to see a daily discussion thread? Am I completely off my rocker and should I STFU? What's next for the sub?
Thank you and goodnight, I look forward to the shit show tomorrow.

Canadian Single-Game Betting Legalization

Why this Canadian penny stock is up 100% in the last week and will continue to fly

Jordan Peterson: Free Speech Warrior or Status Quo Warrior?

In the public sphere, Jordan Peterson is first and foremost a religious traditionalist. Next a clinical psychologist. This is how he presented himself when he first tarted making appearances on Canadian television. It wasn't til much later that he invented the "rational", "free speech warrior" persona and i'll give you a couple examples why.
First.. for someone who holds their religiosity close to their heart there was a period in the 2000s where it started to feel difficult to express your views on atheism and religion. Evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion had practically shifted the entire zeitgeist to accepting atheism. Or at least speaking openly about it. With rational, science minded people like Dawkins and brilliant thinkers / orators like Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris (among others). People who argued for religion started to realize that they just couldn't argue from the standpoint of faith vs. science anymore. Nor from an overly emotional standpoint. Logic was wining out. Science was winning out. It's just hard to argue against incontrovertibly true statements revealed through science and technology. Free speech and science almost looked like they were being weaponized against religious traditionalism.
Here is Peterson showing his disdain towards atheists and the newborn mild cultural acceptance of atheism... and in doing so making a sarcastic but still telling suggestion that maybe Richard Dawkins shouldn't have his free speech. Ask yourself with free speech being important to you... would you even be capable of making such a "joke"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SNCrNqxPNM
So how does a religious traditionalist fight against rationality and free speech being used against their ideology? Well, with rationality and free speech, of course.
When Jordan Peterson confronted a bill that was designed to simply add transgender people as a protected class here in Canada, the same way women and gay people are protected. Peterson decided to paint this as a free speech issue.. and though he'd never admit it I think it's obvious the core of his issue with this Bill is it's affront to normalized traditionalist views. Peterson did this to uphold traditionalist views. Sure there was some mild possibility of the bill being taken too far just as there is with any legislature. He started claiming you could be jailed for misgendering someone. People went wild. But he was even corrected and assured in written form by the Canadian bar Association. Here is a small excerpt from it but you can look it up.
"C-16 Will Not Impede Freedom of Expression Recently, the debate has turned to whether the amendments will force individuals to embrace concepts, even use pronouns, which they find objectionable. This is a misunderstanding of human rights and hate crimes legislation. Hate Crimes and Freedom of Expression For hate crimes, Bill C-16 adds ǲgender identity or expressionǳ to the identifiable groups protected from those who advocate genocide, publicly incite hatred likely to lead to a breach of the peace or wilfully promote hatred against them. The Supreme Court of Canada found subsection 319(2) (wilful promotion of hatred) to be "
He couldn't just let this slide. 4 years later guess how many people have been jailed for misgendering anyone? Zero. ZERO.
He started building a name for himself as some brave professor fighting against his college willing to stand up for free speech. Of course many people supporting this rise are likely just extreme conservatives who hate "fags" and anything deviating from the norm. Still there are surely people involved with a genuine interest in free speech. At which ratio and how many shades of gray in between is difficult to say but you can be sure the majority of people in the former camp wouldn't admit it.
At one point he was trying to create an internet database of "marxist professors" to expose them... a sort of smear campaign. At another point he wanted to sue someone I believe for calling him a nazi. Did I mention he once said "Nazism is an atheistic doctrine"? Despite the fact that every nazi wore a belt buckle that said "Got Mitt Uns" "God Be With Us".
Peterson started attacking atheism again not long after... but just as he didn't want to admit he was conservative, or right wing... he had a difficult time even admitting he was Christian. Presumably to distance himself from the more easily disputable claims made in the Bible or within the doctrine. Because remember... now he is selling himself as a rational, critical thinking person. It's as if he decided the best way to support the ideas he holds... is to attack the ideas he despises from a seemingly (but not really) neutral position. Doing so masks his bias. He started using this idea of "metaphorical truth" and how religion was "more true than true". Which is quite interesting because this is a core facet of the postmodernism he so wildly and constantly attacks... that people can make their own truths (switch genders for example).
"Postmodernist philosophers in general argue that truth is always contingent on historical and social context rather than being absolute and universal and that truth is always partial and "at issue" rather than being complete and certain. "
He went on Sam Harris' podcast which was a total shitshow. Sam didn't hold his feet to the fire on this nearly enough. Same with when I attended their debate. Sam did have a couple great responses though.
Jordan Peterson likes to dance around subjects and go on long diatribes arguably in the service of giving proper respect to the subject matter. When Sam asked him "What do you mean by God" Jordan grabbed his laptop and started reading this:
" God is “how we imaginatively and collectively represent the existence and action of consciousness across time.” God is “that which eternally dies and is reborn in the pursuit of higher being and truth.” God is “the highest value in the hierarchy of values.” God is the “voice of conscience.” God is the “source of judgment and mercy and guilt.” God is the “future to which we make sacrifices and something akin to the transcendental repository of reputation.” God is “that which selects among men in the eternal hierarchy of men.” It went on and on like this... on and on and on... Harris responded: “That’s not how most people most of the time are using the word, and there’s something misleading about that.”
The ways Peterson is unclear and dances around subjects seems contradictory to his constantly talking about speaking clearly to be understood and telling the truth.... (what is true?) as said in 12 Rules for Life:
" Telling the truth is a gamble on the benevolence of being. So the idea is you tell the truth, you don’t manipulate the world to make it give you what you want, you try to articulate yourself—and articulate the manner of your being, as clearly and as comprehensively as possible—and then you see what happens. And you decide—this is the act of faith—you decide that no matter what happens, if you tell the truth, that that’s the best possible outcome. (As cited by Lovins, 2018)"
Humans in general are walking contradictions but he's a special case for some reason. He's known for speaking in Deepak Chopraesque word salad. I know the best and most common response to that would be... "well you just don't understand what he's saying.. I do". But are you sure I don't understand what he's saying when he does this?
He also has a peculiar relationship with science. Selling himself as a supporter of science and reason yet... repeatedly dismissing climate change and engaging in and even implicitly teaching his students pseduoscience. In a since deleted tweet he once called someone a "biology denier" I believe in regards to a transgender person. He a couple years later tweeted:
"He's casually called a "climate change denier," for example, which is an appallingly treacherous term of criticism, used to denigrate someone personally by associating them with Holocaust deniers. The ethics of anyone who employs it should be instantly questioned. -Jordan Peterson"
My problem with him is not that he challenges certain norms. It's what he is trying to do in doing so. Something he would never admit but to me and many others its quite obvious. I'm an atheist, a transhumanist, a techno-optimist and someone who genuinely believes humans have the capacity to create an unfathomably wonderful future if we tackle our grand challenges with science, technology and ridding ourselves of ignorance to the greatest extent possible. What Peterson is trying to do is the exact opposite of that. I could go on and on. Obviously. I don't believe much of what he says although he has said something that are true... you have to do that if you want to be heard at all. You have to play the game so to speak.
But in my view he' not selling free speech.. he's selling religious conservatism and all the personal responsibility that comes along with that. He's a status quo warrior disguised as a freedom of speech warrior. Charlatan. Sophist, pseudo intellect.
Peterson is the FOX news academic. You see often conservatives don't have academics side with them. Intellectuals tend to have a liberal bias. FOX news likes to bring on black people who are willing to disparage black issues. Gay people who are willing to disparage gay issues. Atheists who are willing to disparage atheist issues. Women who are willing... you get the idea. Peterson is the academic willing to disparage academics.

John Dunsworth aka "Jim Lahey" appreciation thread.

SCR.CA over 100% upside, 4 million Canadian app users, tomorrow Canadian Parliament to speak on 1 game sports betting, unknown to mass media yet.

Happy Trans Awareness Week! Here's a life update with some celebrations, concerns & questions! It's a terrible pun coming up, but if I'm trans, and this is Winnipeg, I'm pretty sure we know you might need some "energy" to read the rest of this post, wouldn't you agree? Any advice means lots! Thanks!

Hi everyone! With it being Trans Awareness Week I feel it's a great time to share a life update! I came out pretty abruptly this summer and things got exceptionally cranked up in August when my parents reacted exactly as I expected. It really lit a fire under me. I couldn't file for a legal name change fast enough and I feel I have absolutely stripped off the shackles that kept me as a fraction of myself for my entire life. I have since been working incredibly hard at advocating for trans rights in quite a few situations and so far I am pretty proud about myself. I've found most of my time over the past few months on Twitter. I don't have Facebook or Instagram accounts for example and I ended up in the middle of a ... rather serious project.
Ultimately, I've got three goals I'd like to accomplish as part of my journey. My first goal is based on my belief that we are long overdue for visible trans inclusivity in sports, and by that I mean have dialogue present regarding rules, policies, divisions, insurance and so on explaining that divisions are based on gender identity & expression, not biological sex. That said, I am aware of the fluidity of that statement and understand there are times where in the interest of competitiveness or player safety physiological factors need to be considered, especially at elite-level play or in sports where weight classes matter. Overall though, there is no reason otherwise why trans athletes should be prevented from or discriminated against competing in a division that is in line with their preferred gender identity and/or expression.
I've got a thread that I'm using to keep some awareness up particularly relating to Sport Manitoba (while it also was a retweet throwing a bit of shade to a local radio station hiring a known transphobic radio host who has been endorsed by a member of our queer community and insists they will continue to be one of the strongest media allies to the LGBTQ community in Winnipeg. *sorrywhat.gif*
I'll get back to the radio station in a bit. That thread also dropped a note to Slo-Pitch National regarding their rules and of where trans athletes are to fall in with their verbiage. I'm happy to report that unlike the bureaucratic approach I feel I received from Sport Manitoba, Slo-Pitch National was almost immediately engaged after a few tweet attempts went their way. I had an absolutely wonderful conversation with Trish and I strongly believe we will be having more follow-up conversations about how to implement things effectively, assertively, competitively and in a way that prevents abuse.
If I can help encourage programs to start having more visible acknowledgement of trans athletes and having inclusive dialogue and programming in their systems, that will do nothing but benefit one of the core obstacles about trans people in general: awareness. That verbiage can introduce conversations earlier, end controversies sooner, offer courage and support to trans people from children to adults that they have a welcoming place to belong, provide an improved fundamental understanding that people are different and to open minds and hearts about it, and even to improve demographics so that better social, medical, educational, and mentalhealth services can become available.
My second goal, as a matter of fact, is to at least be put in consideration for the Order of Manitoba. I never thought about it before but I remember coming across it at some point and thought, "Screw this. I'm earning it." The Order of Manitoba was established to recognize individuals who have demonstrated excellence and achievement in any field of endeavour benefiting in an outstanding manner the social, cultural or economic well-being of Manitoba and its residents. I feel that if I continue to work as hard as I can to break barriers, raise awareness and continue to denounce injustice against not only transgender Manitobans but transgender people as a whole, the least I could hope for is to be thought of when it's time to think of who helps make Manitoba be a better place. Personally, I've suffered a walled-up life for pretty much 39 years and if I can do my part to ensure that no person has to feel like they need to be anyone but their authentic and best selves, I will pull out every stop that I am able to because unless you're trans, you simply don't get what it's like.
A rather surreal experience that reminded me that I'm on course to my goal lately was having conversation with the national director of the Run for Women! It started after I pinned a note on my Twitter profile which eventually led to an amazing response and a subsequent Zoom session with Ted and Stephanie. Hearing the interest, recognition, and commitment to make the Run for Women a more welcoming and inclusive event for all women was exciting, and being asked to be kept in touch with during the progress has felt immensely meaningful.
I feel I have really taken advocacy for trans rights seriously ever since I came out and that leads to my third goal that I currently have. I feel I am on a path of creating a legacy and I can only hope that one day people will hear my name and immediately recognize my effort to raise awareness and help normalize the belonging of trans people in a predominantly cisnormative world. Sometimes it feels petty but I would absolutely love to get verified by Twitter at some point because of that. As much as blue isn't my favourite colour, I feel it would look great beside my name. I feel it's a great way to suggest that I know what I'm doing and I'm not taking any of this lightly at all.
When I came out as abruptly as I did, it was with the full intention to raise awareness and educate, especially using the element of shock to prompt reflections into the minds of others. I came out right after George Floyd was murdered because our planet was reeling on yet another example that if you're not White and Right, you're fighting for a place to coexist. Minority groups all over the planet, and obviously the Black community at large, were screaming for reforms to improve diversity, equity and Inclusion. To eliminate racism. To eliminate discrimination. I felt there was no better time to capture that momentum. After I came out, I lost track of the amount of times someone would say that they had no idea, and rightfully so. I began to come out socially on my 39th birthday so for all intents and purposes the only person most people ever knew or recognized was a white, athletic, 39-year-old Canadian male. I was as close to the top of the food chain that someone could really get. I bled privilege that I didn't even want because it was nothing but imbued irony because it would almost all be erased if I allowed myself to be vulnerable and authentic.
Becoming vulnerable and authentic is exactly what I chose to do. I didn't do that necessarily because I wanted to, and it certainly wasn't because I was ready to, but I had no choice except that I HAD to. As a person, I am far too strong, far too vocal, far too educated and far too articulated to stay quiet any longer. I know I've got the skillset and resilience to help make the world a better place and if anything I feel guilty for not allowing myself to start working on it years earlier. Even as I write about this life update, I think about a blog post that was written about me and to this day am so humbled about it. More than ever have I felt like I'm making a difference instead of being a burden and it inspires me to keep pushing forward.
I've alluded to it a couple times already and one of the biggest missions I have been on lately is advocating on the absolute faux pas of a local radio station hiring someone who has said dehumanizing things about transgender people, has not shown public atonement for it, and then being protected by the radio station while they affirm to be LGBTQ+ allies. One of the biggest reasons I am invested in this is because of the message that is being sent to minority communities across the board: If you are privileged, you are protected. The message that forgiveness is to be expected of the victims instead of earned by the offenders really sums up segregation, discrimination and overall mental unwellness in a nutshell.
Personally, I felt my drive for this situation to really light up after Energy 106 FM posted their "Official Statement," which for the record was Friday, August 28, at 9:00 PM. Only until recently in a meeting I had with Adam West, their Program Director, that they had intention of posting that late largely due to Facebook algorithms. All I really had to reply on that was considering the amount of controversy regarding the release of the message, they could have at least addressed the concern with an explanation instead of perpetually ignoring the call-outs. Another interesting take in that same meeting was that they were waiting for that memo to be vetted by one transgender person, which I learned after asking who the "numerous meaningful and significant conversations" involved because I can't imagine a single resource centre in Winnipeg that would have given this hire a green light. Regardless, I had no problem expressing my thoughts about the situation and since made a decision to keep my eye on it.
One of the reasons why I struggled to feel comfortable coming out was because I wasn't ready to be as loud as I knew I was capable of being. For at least half my life I've felt that people like me needed a warrior to be there for them. I wanted to be that warrior but I simply did not feel like I was capable of the fight. As much as I knew I already was being suffocated, I needed to know I could be there for others. It took me a long time but when I finally found it in me I have never been more proud to be myself and to fight for my community. Allyship isn't a part-time job. It is like being that warrior I mentioned. It doesn't necessarily mean you're looking for a fight, but you must be ready to go to battle when the time comes. I wasn't ready to fight for myself before. Today, I fight for change.
Twitter certainly was a hotbed after Energy decided to release their "Official Statement" affirming their belief that their hire was the right decision. There were links and stories and updates and advocates and affirmations from all angles, even on the other side of the ocean. After realizing how many stories and concerns there were, I decided to make my path of advocacy easier to follow, literally, and I did that by creating a thread on Twitter that sourced everything to follow in one place.
One of the biggest obstacles with advocacy is it often means you're fighting from a weaker position, as in, it's not uncommon for change to be made because of necessity instead of morality. When it comes to advocating against corporate boondoggling often change would only ultimately be recognized after corporate partners disagree with the decision and decide to withdraw, and that's where the adventure really began.
It was fantastic and encouraging to see many corporate allies of the LGBTQ+ community to stand in Solidarity with us and denounce the decision made by Energy 106 FM, or more specifically, the Evanov Radio Group. During the unrest it was uncovered that Dave Wheeler was hired with approval of Paul Evanov himself, which he shared during one of his podcast episodes of Wheeler After Dark.
I still have conflicted feelings about that. How does Paul Evanov, who's father Bill developed the world's first 100% LGBT front-to-back radio station, who passed away on February 28, 2020, personally approve this hire, affirm support by a PR firm (of which I have solid hunches about but am still piecing it together), and be OK with this? Why does Wheeler say in that soundbite that "they're ready" now? I can't imagine what the delay would have been, unless we think of crazy supervillain vibes where Paul was waiting for all the legal stuff about Bill to be finished. Dave was unemployed for two years. Was Adam asking Paul to ask Bill to give Dave a job for two years, and now that Daddy's out of the picture Paul can finally be the one to say yes? How does any leadership in an organization that has a globally-accessible LGBT-focused radio station that is one of their jewels completely overlook the responsibility of public atonement at a value greater than public shaming, or more accurately disregard its importance? It's completely baffling but truly represents again what life is like with privilege.
I completely understand that Wheeler's termination from his last station wasn't without controversy, but what feels like something completely overlooked is that his language was spoken with fluidity. He utilized an opportunity to share unfiltered thoughts AND get paid for it. That's privilege. The idea of being able to speak your beliefs for personal gain with no disregard for hurt or harm: that's privilege.
To get the opportunity to have a public voice again, especially now targeted TOWARDS the demographic who have been harmed by the hateful and dehumanizing speech without any sign of public grief or atonement: that's privilege. To expect forgiveness and acceptance instead of earning forgiveness and trust: that's privilege.
That's why I advocate. The message that your privilege will protect you and anyone lesser has to fight for equality continues to be too strong, too frequent, and too deadly.
What had me so confused, if not frustrated at the situation, was how the hire didn't raise concerns of transphobia but other forms of discrimination such as racism and sexism as well. One of the most ... eye opening ... experiences was Adam's response to me in one of our meetings where he didn't believe "Black Olives Matter" (Starting at ~16:44) was racism. Adam's argument to me was that Dave is a comedian and as such this should be considered a parody. I am not a person of colour by any stretch to know what racism feels like directly, but for him to flatly reject the message that has been spoken LOUDLY by our BIPOC community showed, again, privilege and another reason why I have to keep fighting. What's baffling is that podcast episode with the "parody" was uploaded on August 14, 2020 ... only TWO WEEKS prior to Energy's release of their "Official Statement" defending their hire. Further examples of racism were brought up by other members of our community, such as a podcast episode validating Blackface (starting at ~35:20, released on May 27, 2020, two days after George Floyd was murdered, and with no hesitation to shame the "woke" generation), an anti-Indigenous parody of the Wet'suwet'en protests on February 21, 2020 (plus referencing to the protest as looking like an anus), and validating police brutality to the death of Eishia Hudson (the 16-year-old Indigenous teen who was shot dead on April 16, 2020). He's stated and has been defended that he "has done a lot of work" since getting fired, but I'm struggling to see where it has even started. I am at an absolute loss when it comes to seeing how this history is even close to being welcome at a self-professed LGBTQ+-friendly station, especially considering they fired a woman who was an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community to make space for him and another woman. His personal Wheeler After Dark! podcast explicitly describes the episodes as "not intended for those that are easily offended by adult themes, spicy language, satire, dark humour, etc, etc, etc... If you're a kid... You likely shouldn't be listening to this, but you should tell your parents to, they'd find it hilarious!"
Being an ally doesn't have on-and-off "modes." You can't be a representative of allyship when you're under someone else's watch and especially while under someone else's salary. Allyship is an authentic effort from the heart. It isn't always flawless and it isn't always life-possessing but the motivation has to come from within yourself and it absolutely must represent your honest values. It absolutely stuns me about how Energy 106 FM, and more specifically the Evanov Radio Group, is completely dense to the insensitivity caused by their hire and exceptionally so by standing behind it. The responsibility of being an ally is not to be taken lightly, otherwise the actions will be exposed and shown to be performative activism for personal gain. As such, I continued (and continue) to advocate. Our minority communities have been run over far too frequently to stand aside to reckless privilege.
A few weeks after it was clear that Energy was firm in their decision, I decided it was time to get even more involved. I was right on the cusp of socially-transitioning to full-time and used that moment as a chapter in my life to show I'm taking advocating for what's right seriously and have been on it since. One of my most important processes was identifying business affiliates with the radio group. While it started with raising awareness to direct advertisers and implore them to assess their values, see if they are in line with the decisions at Energy, and withdraw their advertising if they don't support it. Many advertisers pulled which was wonderful to see as support, but I personally had a fire ignited after I came across a video from Wheeler in the Morning parodying transgender people.
The video has since been set to private and in a meeting I had with Tyler he explained the video was set to private after I called it out because of the aforementioned legal dispute. Regardless, I advised that setting it to private doesn't address the video existing. The message of setting it to private is "Oh, this is worth keeping, you're not supposed to see it though." I advised him to have someone on Energy's Twitter account acknowledge my post with that exact remark about legal, to do something that represents anything close to allyship instead of continuing to be deflective and secretive.
Regardless, when I saw that video for the first time, the comments had a description that lit me up more than ever. "Superheroes... Every last one of 'em."
A superhero possesses abilities beyond those of ordinary people, who typically uses their powers to help the world become a better place, or is dedicated to protecting the public, and stopping evil.
I'm transgender & I am god damned proud of it. I did NOT abruptly become socially & publicly visible to my workplace, sports leagues & peers immediately after the Floyd murder to have Energy's clown car run over MY goal of raising awareness about diversity, inclusion and equality.
Between my parents responding exactly as I expected (who I still have not heard from them to this day, and we're going on about 3m1w at the time of this post), plus Energy and Evanov clearly embracing their decision, my fire has been lit more than ever. This world has never seen as strong as a version of me, and I have barely even teased my potential. I decided that Energy is not enough. If Paul Evanov decided to sign off on it, Tyler picks up an additional role in the Evanov Radio Group with a segment on the aforementioned radio station PROUD FM, and zero suggestion they are reconsidering their decisions, I decided the right way to gain awareness was to expand deeper into the radio group. I decided that it was time to address not only advertisers but any visible business associate with Energy 106 FM, Hot 100.5 FM, CKJS 810 AM, and PROUD FM.
Ever since I started to advocate on this project, I was close to certain that Energy 106 muted me. If they blocked me I would have seen it, but if they muted me I would have had no idea. However, I realized eventually that Energy did in fact have the ability to see my mentions and replies the whole time. I blocked out what Matt mentioned as sensitivity to his message but it seems he chose to engage it further. He chose to react on a post on Energy's account regarding a pizza promotion, and a picture he used on the post was one of him and his child. It was Energy's account and I had a question to their promotion sponsor, but what ultimately transpired was Matt's wife deciding to ... well, here.
That's not to say that Energy or any accomplices hasn't been aware of my advocacy otherwise. From Day 1 (or as close to it that I can imagine), AJ blocked me for whatever reason but had no problem following a conversation I had involving a business partner to PROUD FM and throwing likes to the counterpoints of mine. Of course, sometimes the main account will make accidents too but I had no problem capturing it. Why would they continue to be silent when they insist to be "allies?"
I am DONE with this world running on hate & dollars instead of heartbeats & common sense. I did NOT abruptly put MY health, MY safety & MY neck on the line inspire change to have Paul Evanov, the Evanov Radio Group, Adam West and Energy 106 FM suggest that being queer isn't profitable enough & try to prove it during a GLOBAL SOCIAL CRISIS.
I feel I have shown with more than enough character and conviction that I know what I'm doing, I know what I'm talking about, and I'm fighting so that we don't need to keep fighting in the future. I advocate strongly for mental health awareness and do my best to engage as much as possible with patience and objective reasoning. I have had people ask if it's OK to come out to me in private messages because they felt there was a safe space. I have had businesses reach out to me about various topics up to and including what could be an appropriate course of action with some of their decisions so that they continue to represent themselves as strong corporate allies. I have lost track of the amount of praise, gratitude and encouragement from so many people in our community. I have had mindful conversations with people immensely frustrated with racism and white supremacy. I have had compassionate conversations with people who want to be allies and are unsure what to do. I have had educational conversations with people about what a trans experience may be like, and I have had many wonderful conversations with trans people of a variety of backgrounds and experiences and shared stories about our journeys. I have had conversations with people who have felt inspired from me, I have had conversations with people who were feeling unwell, and I have had conversations to the point of committing time and awareness with people who were feeling suicidal so that we could get through the moment and work on recovery strategies.
That's not to say that it hasn't been without it's challenges, but has led to some awareness as well! After about a month of constant backlash since sticking to their hire, Energy posted a podcast episode Tyler did with a local podcast group, Winnipeg's Finest, which would to me suggest that Energy shares the perspective and sentiments he shared. I felt it was a good opportunity to express frustration about not being given the opportunity to discuss these changes after being force-told to forgive a transphobic, sexist, racist bigot. The podcast inspired me to respond with a video of my own, as a matter of fact. After listening to the podcast a couple of times I decided to record a YouTube video of my own, completely unfiltered and unedited, pausing at every talking point that contradicted an experience, questioning bias, and so on. The video took me hours! 5 hours, actually! It was my very first time on YouTube too! I felt I had no time to waste and took a huge gamble on how it came out but I feel really proud of myself for what I did! I made sure to include chapter markers of every talking point as well and ... gosh, there are lots.
Like I said, it hasn't been without its challenges, that's for sure. Cranking up the advocacy absolutely raised the eyebrows of many for both good and, let's call it "uneducated", reasons. I'm very grateful to be part of a community who helps support each other especially when there is a serious social concern in the works. I feel especially grateful to be a recognizable and trusted person during this entire adventure and I truly would never wish to have taken a different path. Even though I believe that Adam and Tyler only agreed to speak with me out of obligation to a CBSC "Complaint re ENERGY 106 CHWE-FM Broadcast" (even though it was never addressed as a reason but the timing to start talking and the dis-interest of engaging in Zoom conversations when COVID19 restrictions ramped up feel incredibly coincidental), I did do my best to be a helpful liaison between the radio station and our LGBTQ+ community. I continued to be engaged and offered awareness, consultation, advice and concerns via email. I started and maintained a thread about what allyship looks like to people and what it would take for them to see Energy 106 FM as an ally again. For that project alone, I went as far back into relevant time as I could and tried to connect with nearly every user I could find that reacted to Energy 106 FM hiring Dave Wheeler. Loose math from my notes suggests I have tried to connect with about 1600 people. I have personally DM'd about 750 people and every last piece of feedback has been included in the thread. In my last meeting that I had at Energy, Megan told me that she has been following the entire thread so I at least had an affirmation that the effort has been acknowledged.
Unfortunately, that's also about where it ended. While the start of my emails and correspondence was pleasant and positive communication, it didn't take too long to redirect the focus to some rather important pieces of discussion. It's very clear that since hiring Dave and promoting Wheeler In The Morning as their new morning show, they have enabled a safe space for an extremely far-right culture including white supremacy, transphobia, racism, and a general disrespect for human decency. There has been stalking, doxxing, libel, cyberbullying and an absolute maelstrom of right-wing chaos and panic.
What has been incredibly baffling is how Adam and Energy were literally offered an example of a script to use to stay engaged, not overpromise their direction while denouncing all the values that authentic allies fight against, they decided to ignore all that and ask for everyone to "be kind." If that doesn't have "stand back and standby" written all over it, I don't know what does.
So, this is the part where I ask for feedback! I have a few considerations in my mind so far but am curious about where the next part of my journey should go. I know I'm going to continue to raise awareness of the situation to any visible business affiliates, and likely I will up the ante now to all Evanov Radio Group stations from coast to coast. As a matter of fact, I will be including affiliates to the Winnipeg Goldeyes as well because they censored me when I asked them about their values compared to their affiliation with Energy 106 FM. As a trans athlete, the simple concept of our local AAbaseballteam promoting Diversity Day in the past but censoring me about their values towards diversity, inclusion and equity disgusted me and prompted me to immediately throw my jersey in the garbage. I will never wear a Goldeyes jersey again, especially so long as they don't respond to my questions.
See, I know what I'm doing is powerful, successful and fearful. Why else would the Wheeler-in-the-Morning-fanclub cry to Twitter to suspend my account? That is arguably one of the most flattering things to come my way, to know that I am the haunting reason for people who are so insecure with themselves they have become possessed and obsessed with my existence, and know they are utterly desperate to silence me during my advocacy about trans rights and fundamentally basic humanrights means WHAT I AM DOING IS WORKING AND I WILL NOT QUIT. I must express reservations about Twitter's judgement, however. Oh well. I will earn the blue star, I will be verified, and I WILL bring our trans community to a safer, healthier place.
This cycles back to seeing what feedback is available. I firmly believe these accounts are affiliated to Energy 106 FM or the Evanov Radio Group as a whole. The biggest reason why it comes to mind are based on three things: 1) One of the main antagonists has an account that opened in September 2020, shortly after Dave Wheeler deleted his own account, and targeted a tweet I commented on. 2) After my last meeting at Energy, Adam affirmed to me that "he'll take care of them" when I told him that the little band waving Energy's flag is doing nothing but making his brand look worse, because they are absolutely not doing anything to me. I noticed a near-immediate decline in activity from the fun-club for a small period of time and struggle to believe that wasn't as per Adam's memo. Add the fact that Tyler affirmed to me that he would publicly denounce their behaviour and that has not happened either. So, Energy, Adam, and Tyler have all the means to blatantly denounce white supremacy, harassment, racism, transphobia, doxxing, stalking, libel, defamation, and so on ... yet completely refuse to. What other option can it be? 3) This is a little too coincidental, and if it was done "in satire because Dave is a comedian" (as per Adam) then it shows they are aware of the situation and continue to refuse to address it.
I find it interesting that these accounts have a massive obsession about broadcasting far-right political beliefs and stalking me. Feel free to see for yourself about the obsession since the end of September for all these folks:
BigFonker21%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live), Brittany Anne%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live), Nicholas1226%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live), a%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live), Hanz Rules!%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live) and an obsessive amount of boosting from Boo. I'm sure there are more but if I really wanted to look for Cancer I'd rather go stargazing. And frankly, these are simply about things I see directly. I have been told my more than enough peers that this crowd stalks them as well, but peculiarly block those peers if this fun-club doesn't get the reaction they want.
What's especially curious about the situation is that while these users are beyond obsessed with me an have lept over so many lines, I still have no reason to believe that it's not within the Evanov Radio Group and of all things they even have my home address which I needed to include when I wrote my concern to CBSC, so at what point am I to not feel as if Adam or Dave would not use it out of vengeance against me by the time I am done advocating against Evanov Radio Group and their perpetual injustices? People may ask why I shared my address, and the answer is to continue to be open, transparent, and show validity that Energy is a local radio station that is poisoning my local community. People ask why don't I block the aforementioned users, and the answer is because they are not hurting me. Everything that they are doing does nothing but make Energy look worse, make Evanov look like an even more pathetic radio group, and every last itch and twitch they do to try to upset me does nothing but empower me, inspire me, and give me more to work with. Our community has far too many people suffering from discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, bullying, cyberbullying, transphobia, racism, stalking and so much more. I have the means and the mental health strength to absorb all of their hatred and ignorance and show it to people who are in positions to make change that it is happening, it is dangerous and it is deadly. I can not and will not be broken, and that is why I allow these users to continue to try to break me, because all they are doing is making this fire inside of me brighter, stronger, more fierce and ultimately more beautiful. I will not quit.
So, as I've mentioned, I would love to hear your feedback about what you think appropriate courses of action would be!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Happy Trans Awareness Week!
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John Glenn: A Presidential Retrospective

I finished a successful Glenn playthrough last night and afterwards I was thinking about just how bonkers his achievements were and how he would be regarded by history. So, I wrote this, exploring just that kind of thing! Spoilers for the President Glenn path obviously, and I fudged the fact that content ends and leaves things dangling as him winning a third term in office.
Coming into office off the back of the most disruptive decade in American politics since the Civil War, inheriting the legacy of the astonishingly unpopular and constitutionally questionable policies of Strom Thurmond, the expectation was that the incumbent President would be one who would have to devote all their efforts to simply stabilizing the situation and beginning to restore some measure of trust and confidence in US politics. A competent, cautious man might have attempted just that. John Herschel Glenn Jr. was not that man - Glenn was rather a man of vaulting ambitions and boundless optimism, who believed that the only way for trust and confidence to be restored was with the boldest vision he could imagine.
Glenn’s rise to the Presidency was almost as meteoric as the event which made him a household name; the veteran of the Second World War who went on to become a test pilot and thereafter the first man in space recalls he had no political ambitions before President Nixon’s decision to defund NASA in the wake of the Reich’s arrival on the moon in 1962. Glenn was, to be sure, distraught by losing this milestone achievement to the Germans, but he was far more upset by what he regarded as Nixon’s total capitulation on all matters of space which stemmed from Kollner’s historic steps on our lunar neighbor. Even after this his political ambitions were not about election but in his attempt to make enough of a fuss to see NASA’s budget and remit protected, but it was soon clear to him that he could not achieve that in his existing capacities no matter how hard he tried. Here we see the twin, seemingly opposed character traits that would define Glenn’s presidency; he came to the conclusion that he could only make the changes he thought necessary in elected office, preferably at a very high level, in the course of an afternoon, but once the decision was made he drew plans that spanned decades and exhibited the utmost patience in pursuing them.
Glenn knew he would struggle to reach the Presidency from a standing start, and he further believed that even if he made it his lack of political experience would mean he would use the office inefficiently and be vulnerable to political manipulation by more experienced actors. So, he set his sights at a lower level, and announced his campaign for the governorship of Ohio in mid-1962. Ohio’s favorite son would immediately attract criticism for what was regarded by many as a vanity project, but Glenn had prepared for this possibility - he had spent weeks working with friends, his wife Annie, and a small cadre of political advisors to draw up a suite of plans that he could pursue as governor, plans which were the kind of effective low-level policies that would help the average Ohioan in their day to day life. Storming out of the gates with a primary campaign to highlight these ideas, he rapidly quelled enough of the criticism to be seen as a legitimate and credible candidate, and that was all he needed. Though joining the Republican Party he was able to win over enough of the Democrat wing of the RDs to become the candidate for Governor, usurping presumptive candidate Jim Rhodes, and took up the race against the NPP. It was a close race - by the time November rolled around, the Nixon government had got its first taste of scandal and controversy, and it dented RD prospects nationwide. By less than a single percentage point, John Glenn won the race and had taken his first small step on his long plan.
As it happened, the events of the 60s would prove so disruptive that Glenn’s timetable could be rapidly accelerated. Conversations with his early allies have told us he originally intended on pursuing the Presidency in 1972 or 76, depending on the political landscape at the time — he intended to secure his base of support, make the political contacts needed, and gain extensive experience. That America would enter the costly war in South Africa and the less costly, but still unpopular, war in Indonesia was unknown at this point, but it was only the tip of the iceberg of what would occur in that tumultuous decade. Barely a year and three months into his Governorship, the Presidency would be rocked as Nixon resigned before he could be impeached, and worse, his Vice President John Fitzgerald Kennedy would be assassinated just weeks later by a disgruntled Guyenese nationalist. JFK’s death would put the Presidency in the hands of John McCormack, who had never had ambitions on the office and saw his role purely as one of salving the country’s hurt and trying to bind the Republican-Democrats back together going into the November elections of 1964. He failed dreadfully on both counts; his pardon of Nixon was widely derided, and JFK’s brother Robert Francis Kennedy would defect to the NPP over Nixon’s vetoing of the Civil Rights Act — RFK had been JFK’s Chief of Staff and closest friend, and he was strongly motivated to see through his beloved brother’s vision. The NPP had struggled to find the kind of charismatic leader they would need, and Bobby Kennedy was the perfect choice. The race was hard fought but RFK became President with over 360 EC votes, a healthy margin, and the political landscape was drastically shaken up.
Though not nearly as shaken up as it would be a few years later. Bobby Kennedy’s policies were inherited in part from his brother, and he had a core of rage that held the Nixon Administration responsible for Jack’s death. This anger drove him to being a devoted progressive, spurred by the NPP-C wing of the party, and he enacted policy after policy to drive through a comprehensive Civil Rights Act in 1967, an act Glenn voiced support for and said “If I were in the Senate, I’d be voting for this. Bobby Kennedy might be from a different party from me but he’s a good man with some good ideas.” And a few weeks later, RFK would meet the same fate as his brother, gunned down by a fanatic segregationist as he exited a hotel with his own Vice President, Hubert Humphrey.
The country was stunned. Just as sunlight had seemed to break through the clouds, and the Kennedy administration was working to fully implement his Civil Rights policies while also continuing some economic reforms, another President, another Kennedy, had been killed in America’s streets. Not only that but the VP was dead too, leaving the succession to someone who was never on a Presidential ticket for the second time in four years. Strangely, the next in line declined the role, refusing to elaborate on his reasons, meaning it fell another rank to the South Georgia Senator Strom Thurmond. (It would not be until 1987 that the explanation for this and Thurmond’s blackmail efforts would come to light — his already disgraced name falling even further, especially in an era of rapidly increasing acceptance of gay rights. It would also spark countless conspiracy theories that Thurmond had arranged the assassinations himself, though there has never been any corroborating evidence to that effect.)
President Thurmond had one mission and one mission only - to roll back the Civil Rights Act and all associated policies. He would ensure that he restored and reinforced segregation, Jim Crow, and all the other racist policies that RFK had almost killed, and he had no care for what the cost to the law or Constitution might be. Though initially popular and viewed with cautious optimism for his tender eulogy of Bobby Kennedy and hints that he considered himself a caretaker president akin to McCormack, he moved rapidly behind the scenes to secure his power and enact every policy and pass every bill he could in pursuit of his goals. The Congress, shellshocked by the last few years, seemed to have given him a more-or-less free hand as he appealed to the need for leadership and to show a united American government to the people in order to restore faith. He was also completely unafraid to use Executive Orders in whatever capacity he thought he might benefit from. By the end of Thurmond’s presidency barely a year after he took the office, the Constitutional order had been upturned. Maps were redistricted with offensive transparency. Those Thurmond considered politically opposed to him - minorities of all kinds as well as Republican and NPP-C voters - were disenfranchised to the best of his ability. Most infamously of all, and the policy which pushed America from protests to riots in all 49 states, he used an Executive Order to stack the Supreme Court with four additional Judges, all of them arch-conservatives who would reliably rule in favor of the segregationist, anti-black cause.
Amidst all this, Glenn’s opportunity had come early and he seized it with both hands. Painting himself as a moderate who disdained most political labels in favor of effective policies regardless of their origins, he was quickly adopted as the exact kind of all-American guy needed by the Republican-Democrats. He had been a competent and well-liked Governor that had pushed Ohio’s quality of life up, poverty rates down, and enticed lucrative aerospace and other high-tech industries to the state. He was an American war hero, and an American hero generally, his name still carrying plenty of currency from the old feats in NASA. In short he ticked all the boxes — Existing fame, proven record (if shorter than some would like), mass appeal, visionary even as he was a level-headed straight talker. Exactly what the country needed, or so the RDs gambled.
Meanwhile the NPP was riven between the Centrists and Far Right, the latter eventually claiming ascendancy as their ranks were filled by defecting Democrats who were now looking to the best place to secure what Thurmond had set in motion. Glenn would thus go up against the Far Right’s Margaret Chase Smith. Much has been made about to what extent Smith’s sex factored into her defeat, and certainly scholarship has demonstrated it played a role, but the scope of Glenn’s victory on Election Day was tremendous and far more than could be accounted for by sexism alone. Winning over 400 EC votes, Glenn came into office with one of the strongest mandates in American history, and he wasted no time.
Though restoring NASA had always been John Glenn’s dearest purpose, and his earliest moves were centered around setting that institution back into motion, he had no shortage of other challenges and ideas to meet them. Indeed, while NASA busied itself with actually using its new influx of cash to rebuild, rehire or hire new staff, and overhaul its facilities, Glenn pursued something that made a far greater difference to the man and woman in the street, a project Glenn termed “Closing the empathy deficit”. Long argued about by American administrations and their Congresses, Glenn had seen how harmful the absence of a solid safety net was to Ohioans, and Ohio was one of the union’s richer states at the time.
Though in regular contact with NASA’s director and personal friend James Webb, Glenn had no distractions on the legislative front. He pursued reform with a zeal, and within mere months had secured the passage of the most comprehensive reform to American benefits in history. Pensions were increased and protected, and poor Americans would still be able to claim pension sufficient for a dignified retirement even if they had not been able to pay in whilst younger. Medicare was a transformative healthcare coverage policy that provided coverage to all Americans over the age of 65 and all Americans with disabilities, and implemented controls on insurance companies outside of that to help insulate people from predation or excessive prices. The Americans with Disabilities Act (1969) was also implemented as part of this legislative fusillade, which Glenn insisted must include those who acquired disabilities during their lives as well as those who were disabled from birth, as some in Congress had argued against. Glenn’s wife, Annie, had grown up with an extreme stutter that left her preferring to communicate without speaking, and the President’s disability policy is widely acknowledged to have been at the least inspired by her, and perhaps to some extent guided by her advice and experiences.
By the summer of 1969, then, Glenn had already implemented large changes to America, and his popularity steadily rose. In Congress, he was usually disliked by the NPP-FR and struggled to attract votes from Democrats even though they were notionally a part of his party, but he had massive support from the Republicans and found a common cause with the NPP-C. The rising Social Democratic movement of America was represented by this wing of the NPP and were more than happy to support Glenn’s reforms, even as many of them wished he’d go further. Joyfully, the President was able to return his attentions to the institution he most loved, NASA. After months of work the institution was ready to go, and Glenn authorized the commencement of America’s return to space with the Minerva Program. The unmanned Miverva I was prepared, launched, and America once again broke the bonds of Earth and had a presence in space. It was well understood that even going so far as to get a man back in orbit would be a serious undertaking and NASA would need, in essence, practice before it could attempt that. Minerva was only the first step in this long road, but it was one that boosted NASA’s profile and popularity. Soon new missions were planned, and before long there seemed to be a launch almost daily. His duties precluded Glenn from viewing them all personally, but there was almost always a TV showing the latest launch in the White House.
Satisfied with the ongoing progress Glenn turned back to Earthly concerns, this time looking at matters relating to nuclear power and weaponry. The destruction of Oahu had made Americans deeply leery of anything with the word “nuclear” in its name, but President Glenn had been convinced of the merits of nuclear power and worked hard to bring that word to the public. Here, he struggled, even after recruiting the Disney Corporation to produce educational propaganda — tedious in the extreme in the eyes of kids, but lauded by parents for being a balanced, unsensational, and honest look at the topic. He faced significant opposition from mining and power concerns, however, and though successful in the abstract, nuclear power never really took off under the Glenn presidency the way he had hoped. Militarily, he authorized a significant increase to America’s stockpiles, expensive but hardly something that most would argue against, given the ongoing threats of the Nazi Reich and the Empire of Japan. That he had a greater plan in mind was known only to himself and a couple of closest aides.
It was at this point that almost everything was derailed. In the Middle East, decades of Italian rule and control came to a violent and sudden end as revolutions and civil wars ripped through the entire Arab world, and then beyond. Violence occurred in Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the Gulf States, Iraq, and Iran, all of it amid and exacerbating a tremendous spike in the prices of crude oil. The Oil Crisis had numerous causes and many dimensions, but the effect for John Glenn was that it put everything else on the back burner. None of his ambitions or plans mattered a whit if the country ground to a halt, and that’s exactly what it was doing, as people couldn’t fill their cars and industries couldn’t keep the lights on. Emergency measures were implemented, including price controls, then rationing, massive investment in the Texan oil fields, and similarly massive investments into synthetic oil production. It was a chaotic period lasting months, but in time the situation stabilized and the domestic oil situation became a tolerable one. Belts were tightened countrywide, and smaller cars rapidly became the vogue for new buyers while existing plans for gas-guzzlers were scrapped by companies like Ford, but the worst of the crisis had been kept from America’s shores.
And then, Americans were back in space. Only in orbit at first under the Daedalus Program, but then the Diana Program aimed for the moon, taking up where the Apollo Project had been looking just before Nixon aborted it. Americans could not be first to the moon, but they could reach it, and that was almost as important. Regrettably, the first great tragedy struck the space program during this period - Diana II, intended to perform a lunar flyby and return to Earth, exploded in flight 194 seconds after liftoff. The three astronauts aboard died, and immediately the political and media classes pounced on Glenn. Support for NASA drained precipitously, and questions about why money and lives were being spent in this way were widespread. The President managed to divert the issue somewhat by lionizing the deceased, and when one of the widows spoke up in favor of continuing the project and how her husband would have wanted to carry on, the furor abated somewhat. NASA was now on notice, but it was not doomed.
If there were fears Diana II would hurt Glenn’s re-election chances, they were swept away in a tidal wave of support for the man himself. A growing number of people supported the President primarily for his space program, referred to as the ‘geeks’, but the great majority regarded it more ambivalently. To some it was a positive thing but not the priority, whilst to others it was the President’s pet project that could be tolerated as long as he didn’t get lost in the clouds. But the first Glenn term had shown he had no such shortcomings. SSA, Medicare, and the ADA had transformed the lives of millions of Americans. He had not yet fully reckoned with the legacy of Thurmond, but things were certainly better for black Americans than they had been four years earlier, and Glenn was clearly no committed segregationist or racist - thus he carried the vote across the entire country, with the sole exception of California, who were strong supporters of the NPP and their hardline goal of reclaiming the Treaty Ports and revenging America against Japan. That was the sole state that went for Jeane Kirkpatrick, resulting in an EC vote of 494 for Glenn and 40 for Kirkpatrick.
Just months later Diana IV would vindicate the President, the space program, and NASA. Buzz Aldrin was not the first man on the moon, but he and Michael Collins were the first Americans, and when they planted the flag on February 13th 1973 it established that the United States was not only back in action, but a serious contender for space. It was smiles all round as the men returned to parades and dinners and events the likes of which Americans hadn’t seen in decades, and John Glenn’s boyish glee was visible to all. But it was a real achievement, one that seemed to restore a sense of confidence to the American people, and more people moved from simply letting the President have his toys to support, and more moved from casual support to strong support, and more and more young people proudly proclaimed themselves geeks while speaking of internships at NASA, JPL, and the other centers of American aerospace.
Glenn’s second term saw a new wave of domestic legislation, for despite the continuing claims of opponents he had no desire to see things on the ground slide backwards. First he looked to ongoing problems in healthcare; whilst Medicare was largely working well and its initial problems had been ironed out, there were lingering difficulties. Foremost among these was in drug pricing. Seeking to gain ever more profits, Big Pharma had begun jacking up prices at an unsustainable rate, leaving more and more Americans unable to pay for their medication and taking bigger chunks out of Medicare into the bargain. John Glenn was incensed by this and it has been argued since that this was the real moment of his ‘radicalization’, which drove him from a reformist to someone more aligned with the NPP-C than his own party. As the pharma companies began funding anyone opposed to Glenn and the RDs, speaking out on the disastrous consequences they foresaw, and accused him of fascistic overreach, he deployed everything he had to crush Big Pharma’s opposition, and when they began to fear he was winning and offered a compromise that would cover price controls on prescription medication but not others, he rejected it out of hand where once, it is believed, he would have taken the deal readily. Major price controls were introduced despite the howls of protest from big business. But Glenn was not done.
Now that he had experienced first-hand the full fury of American business he had lost any love for them, and grown significantly more aligned with criticisms of business practice stemming from the left. In characteristic John Glenn fashion he did not rest after his victory, nor did he even take aim at a small target, but rather he went right for the jugular. He would destroy Right to Work. Right to Work was so named because it was claimed to give Americans the right to work without being forced to join a union to do so, as had been the case in several industries before such legislation was entered. In practice, it was a lynchpin of American business’s strategy of crushing unions altogether, and keeping them weak and ineffective where they could not be eradicated. Glenn was no hardline Bukharinist, but the experiences with the drug price fight had convinced him that big business had too much power and the American worker had too little, and he sought to redress this.
Surprisingly this passed with little trouble. Reeling from the previous fight with the President, big business seemed caught on the back foot, and he had huge popular support. In Congress he was able to count on the full support of the 18 NPP-Cs, one of the two NPP-FRs who was in the body at the time, and 43 of the 45 Republicans. Altogether, with some Democrats also convinced to come over, the vote passed by 68-30, and Right to Work was dead. His subsequent efforts on Social Security were even more intense and more dramatically successful, and there was a massive “Glennite” or “Glennist” tide across the country where, quite aside from questions of nuclear power or space exploration, the President’s domestic proposals found huge support and popularity. Social Security was a tremendous undertaking that far outmatched the scope of his first term reforms, though it was informed by them and incorporated them into a larger structure. Unemployment benefits would rise, healthcare coverage would continue to expand (The first ‘public option’ arose here, with a special insurance provider available to any employee of the Federal Government), and most dramatically, it featured the introduction of a six-hour workday. This last reinvigorated the strength of big business, who threatened opposition and promised doom, but Glenn was never a man to do things by halves and his will was unbreakable, and he had experienced those howls before only to find them impotent in the face of public support. Though initially a step too far for some in his own party, the President appealed directly to the public to write to their Congresspersons and Senators in support of the policy, and the Glennite tide became one of mail that inundated the country’s leadership, convincing them that it was not going to be electoral suicide to support it.
Less noticed, and more of interest to the accountants and lawyers of the country, were efforts to rationalize and better codify the tax system. Though few actual tax rises took place (hence the lack of public interest), the closing of loopholes, simplification of the code, and increasing the ability of Americans to either easily do their own taxes or to allow the government to do it for them helped bring in greater revenues. More importantly was the general state of the economy - after years of work and investment, and a whole host of new measures to help the poorest Americans, the introduction of Social Security was followed just months later by a glowing report on the state of American poverty. Where the poverty rate had peaked as high as 45%, and was in the high 30s when Glenn first took office, it had now dropped to below 25%, a milestone that widely reassured the public of Glenn’s projects and plans while taking the legs out from criticisms of how much was being spent. After all, a richer society means a higher tax take, but you have to invest to get to that society - so the argument went, and so America in the 1970s seemed to prove. Even those who remained in poverty were seeing increases in their quality of life, and abject penury had been cut significantly even where it had not been replaced by affluence.
Meanwhile, the frontier of space was looking to its greatest challenge yet, and NASA had spent its time marshalling resources, conducting the needed research, and experimenting with any number of plans and components and mission profiles. Dianas V and VI had taken Americans to the moon and conducted vital experiments, but Glenn, James Webb, NASA as a whole, and now most of the country, wanted to see America not just take second place or catch up with the Nazis, but to fling themselves into first place. The German Reich had emerged from their bloody Civil War almost a decade ago but the orthodox Fuhrer Bormann had no seeming interest in returning to space, and the collapse of the Reich into the German Civil War of 1963-65 had done major harm to their economic and industrial base, meaning it would have been domestically unpopular to spend money on a race deemed long since won rather than on the ongoing project of rebuilding cities from Hamburg to Munich. Thus, without any real rivals at the time, NASA turned their eyes to the great prize, Mars. The Ares Project began.
Still proceeding at a breakneck pace, Ares was intended to get a human to Mars in just four missions. This has since come in for much criticism, and labeled as a desire to get it done while Glenn was still in office rather than to do it with maximum safety. In the event, however, NASA was either competent enough, lucky enough, or both, to avoid any major disasters like Diana II in the Ares Project. The four missions were to proceed as follows;
Ares I - An unmanned probe designed to both test mission parameters and part performance, whilst also taking the best possible orbital pictures of Mars to examine potential landing sites. Ares II - An unmanned probe which would attempt a landing near a selected landing site, equipped with a rover for scientific work. Ares III - An unmanned package which contained the bulk of materials and supplies needed to establish Hellas I, the prospective Mars base where the astronauts would dwell and work during their time there (The realities of orbital mechanics meant it was far less efficient to try and return immediately than to remain on Mars for a time and return at a later point where planetary alignments were better) Ares IV - The lander unit, return rocket, and the three astronauts would be aboard.
Every mission went perfectly. Every step seemed to fall into place. NASA had attracted the best and brightest by this point, and it paid them well, but they were motivated by more than financial reward now and devoted themselves utterly to the task. Even so, James Webb later said “I don’t want to downplay the extraordinary efforts that everyone at NASA made to achieve this incomparable milestone, but it did feel at times that we were proceeding with the blessing of our great almighty God.” Whether by grace or effort or pure luck, the Ares missions succeeded and even as Glenn was embroiled in scandal back home, the stars continued to inch closer.
That scandal was Glenn’s major defeat that stemmed from his efforts to nationalize the entire country’s uranium mines. His longtime nuclear weapons plan had been proceeding somewhat in the background, seen as simply an unpleasant reality that had to be done by most of the public, who would rather not think about such things when life elsewhere was continuing to improve. The project, even after purchasing Canadian, Australian, and South African uranium in bulk, was facing ongoing shortages of the material. Glenn was pushing for increased production from domestic mines, and seemed to be succeeding, until he got the bill. Rates were double the existing costs, and the mining concerns were quite happy to demand this price from the government under the guise of needing to undertake expansions in pursuit of Glenn’s production demands. Had the price hike been more reasonable, or had the mining concerns come to Glenn to explain and negotiate on such lines, it seems certain the President would have acquiesced. To be slapped with something so extortionate without warning, however, provoked his ire. Normally a man with a strong handle on his emotions, aides would later describe Glenn as “stormy” and “voluminous” over the matter.
By now used to bold moves and cutting Gordian knots, Glenn believed he saw an obvious, if drastic solution. The nation’s defense hinged on the nuclear stockpile. The nuclear stockpile hinged on the production of uranium. Ergo, the production of uranium was a matter of national defense, and the President had the authority to nationalize the industry if it was required for that end. The uproar was immediate and massive, but Glenn persisted, and when no offer at compromise was forthcoming he pushed through with the policy. The mining bosses had a powerful route that other big businesses who had faced Glenn’s policies lacked, however, in the form of legal argument. Given the seriousness of the matter and the importance of national defense it rushed through the courts with incredible speed, before finding itself before the Supreme Court, a place still filled with the packed Judges of Strom Thurmond.
It was not known beforehand which way they would break. On the one hand they were seen as steadfast allies of the NPP, meaning overwhelmingly concerned with matters of defense - but on the other, they were seen as friends of big business as well as leery of the President’s progressive bent. In the end, the 8-5 ruling went for the mining companies thanks to arguments that, as there was no ongoing conflict that directly involved the USA, the President’s attempts to invoke the country’s security could not apply.
Before the day was out, a new offer had landed on the President’s desk, not double but triple the original prices.
It was a massive defeat for the President and one which shook him deeply. He had been America’s golden boy until that moment, a unifier, a man of vision and drive, a man who was trying his best to make life better for ordinary people. He now learned that his ambitions could be checked, and that said roadblocks could be insurmountable. But John Glenn was no Strom Thurmond. Despite his anger, he accepted the ruling and paid the mining companies, and if he was to exact a revenge it would be both done legally and done for the good of the country, not to settle a personal grudge.
This drama was not the best base from which to break with centuries of American tradition and announce his bid for a third term as President, but that is just what President Glenn did to party leaders in early 1976 as they were discussing who would attempt to succeed him to the White House. This caused more hubbub and dissent, but there was never any law against it, and Glenn argued that in the absence of any obvious candidate who could succeed him they may as well stick with the man who was still polling pretty well. The Democrats were incensed by this and driven still further from the Republicans, but the Republican segment of the RDs agreed with his suggestion, on condition that he renounce any possibility of pursuing a fourth term.
The political and media elites had a similar reaction, ranging from outrage to mere grumbling that Glenn would dare attempt something George Washington had made verboten at the country’s founding. But there was still no law against it, and the administration argued that John Glenn came into office with a number of promises, promises he was keeping, but which required one more term to see through to fruition. The NPP opposition decried this as a dangerous overreach, whilst those less opposed to Glenn himself voiced worries that it set an ill precedent and questioned the man’s humility. The NPP would this time abandon the Far Right after two consecutive losses to Glenn, and instead put forward Michael Harrington, who had unsuccessfully pursued their nomination in 1968. This made for an unusually civil and friendly Presidential campaign — Glenn did not go so far as Harrington wanted on most issues, but by this point there was no great gulf ideologically between Glennite Republicanism and the Social Democrats of the NPP-C. After their first debate the viewing figures tanked as the men got dragged into details on broader topics they more or less agreed on, and neither seemed inclined to attempt any serious attacks on the others, though Harrington did try to needle the President over his pursuit of a third term somewhat. Only in foreign affairs did they different significantly, with Harrington making some gains by proposing a nuclear drawdown while pressing Japan conventionally over the Treaty Ports while Glenn maintained his hardline pro-nuclear stance.
The consequence of this was not just a calm election, but one with much lower turnout than any election for decades by percentage. The more radical right stayed home as they saw no candidate for them, as did the harder edge of the Democrats, while the apparently lower stakes than usual meant an awful lot of people decided to enjoy election day with other matters. For the first time Glenn did not achieve a total blowout victory, winning 345 EC votes, but this still gave him a strong mandate to finish his work.
Glenn’s third term would be his most dramatic, and most tense, and would culminate in what has since been argued to be the greatest diplomatic achievement of any American President even as he oversaw America’s greatest scientific achievement. His first task, he decided, was to finish the work of building up American nuclear stocks. He now had an endgame in sight, and was gradually bringing more people into the high-stakes game he intended to play as he moved the pieces into place. A secretive incursion into the remnants of Nazi Africa secured a major uranium mine that helped bolster American production, and it soon became obvious that the US nuclear triad was no longer merely overwhelming, but had become outright apocalyptic. Even if no other powers fired back, the American stockpile alone would be sufficient to end human life on Earth, and most other forms as well. So armed, Glenn began to put out feelers and turned his attention to domestic matters while the diplomats began their work.
Domestically, the legacy of Thurmond had faded over the eight years of Glenn’s presidency. Tactics such as redistricting must be updated as populations move around, and a great many legal challenges had succeeded in weakening all of Thurmond’s projects at local and state levels. His tangle with the Supreme Court had brought the whole affair directly into Glenn’s sights, and he resolved that when he left Washington four years hence, he would leave behind a transparent, honest, and scrupulously clean capital. He had never been a corrupt man himself, and having brought in a fresh staff for almost every role in the White House in 1969 had helped sweep some of the corruption out by itself, but there was still work to do. Investigations were begun, houses were cleaned, and the Senate Ethics Committee was refreshed and newly empowered. A long-term project to review constitutional matters with a goal to preventing excesses like President Thurmond’s or corruption like Nixon’s was established. And in his last major effort against corruption, Glenn banned outright the practice of lobbying, a move which massively diminished the power of corporations or similar actors to unduly influence elected officials where the common American could not. America, finally, emerged from most of the shadows cast by the 1960s and entered a new era of clean and honest politics, one where districts would be drawn to maximize democratic representation rather than suppress it and where the size of the purse had much less influence on the size of the voice.
The Supreme Court provided a major stumbling block, however, and Glenn and his administration were never able to navigate a satisfactory course through that particular issue. If it was allowed to stand, what was to prevent a future President from stacking the court further, even to farcical levels? But there was no apparent way to reduce the size of the Court as it stood, not when doing so would involve the removal of sitting Justices. This was a matter left to a future administration, in the end.
(Continued in comments)

Happy Trans Awareness Week! Here's a life update with some celebrations, concerns & questions!

Hi everyone! I fell off Reddit for a bit ... I'm sorry! With it being Trans Awareness Week I feel it's a great time to share a life update! I came out pretty abruptly this summer and things got exceptionally cranked up in August when my parents reacted exactly as I expected. It really lit a fire under me. I couldn't file for a legal name change fast enough and I feel I have absolutely stripped off the shackles that kept me as a fraction of myself for my entire life. I have since been working incredibly hard at advocating for trans rights in quite a few situations and so far I am pretty proud about myself. I've found most of my time over the past few months on Twitter. I don't have Facebook or Instagram accounts for example and I ended up in the middle of a ... rather serious project.
Ultimately, I've got three goals I'd like to accomplish as part of my journey. My first goal is based on my belief that we are long overdue for visible trans inclusivity in sports, and by that I mean have dialogue present regarding rules, policies, divisions, insurance and so on explaining that divisions are based on gender identity & expression, not biological sex. That said, I am aware of the fluidity of that statement and understand there are times where in the interest of competitiveness or player safety physiological factors need to be considered, especially at elite-level play or in sports where weight classes matter. Overall though, there is no reason otherwise why trans athletes should be prevented from or discriminated against competing in a division that is in line with their preferred gender identity and/or expression.
I've got a thread that I'm using to keep some awareness up particularly relating to Sport Manitoba (while it also was a retweet throwing a bit of shade to a local radio station hiring a known transphobic radio host who has been endorsed by a member of our queer community and insists they will continue to be one of the strongest media allies to the LGBTQ community in Winnipeg. *sorrywhat.gif*
I'll get back to the radio station in a bit. That thread also dropped a note to Slo-Pitch National regarding their rules and of where trans athletes are to fall in with their verbiage. I'm happy to report that unlike the bureaucratic approach I feel I received from Sport Manitoba, Slo-Pitch National was almost immediately engaged after a few tweet attempts went their way. I had an absolutely wonderful conversation with Trish and I strongly believe we will be having more follow-up conversations about how to implement things effectively, assertively, competitively and in a way that prevents abuse.
If I can help encourage programs to start having more visible acknowledgement of trans athletes and having inclusive dialogue and programming in their systems, that will do nothing but benefit one of the core obstacles about trans people in general: awareness. That verbiage can introduce conversations earlier, end controversies sooner, offer courage and support to trans people from children to adults that they have a welcoming place to belong, provide an improved fundamental understanding that people are different and to open minds and hearts about it, and even to improve demographics so that better social, medical, educational, and mentalhealth services can become available.
My second goal, as a matter of fact, is to at least be put in consideration for the Order of Manitoba. I never thought about it before but I remember coming across it at some point and thought, "Screw this. I'm earning it." The Order of Manitoba was established to recognize individuals who have demonstrated excellence and achievement in any field of endeavour benefiting in an outstanding manner the social, cultural or economic well-being of Manitoba and its residents. I feel that if I continue to work as hard as I can to break barriers, raise awareness and continue to denounce injustice against not only transgender Manitobans but transgender people as a whole, the least I could hope for is to be thought of when it's time to think of who helps make Manitoba be a better place. Personally, I've suffered a walled-up life for pretty much 39 years and if I can do my part to ensure that no person has to feel like they need to be anyone but their authentic and best selves, I will pull out every stop that I am able to because unless you're trans, you simply don't get what it's like.
A rather surreal experience that reminded me that I'm on course to my goal lately was having conversation with the national director of the Run for Women! It started after I pinned a note on my Twitter profile which eventually led to an amazing response and a subsequent Zoom session with Ted and Stephanie. Hearing the interest, recognition, and commitment to make the Run for Women a more welcoming and inclusive event for all women was exciting, and being asked to be kept in touch with during the progress has felt immensely meaningful.
I feel I have really taken advocacy for trans rights seriously ever since I came out and that leads to my third goal that I currently have. I feel I am on a path of creating a legacy and I can only hope that one day people will hear my name and immediately recognize my effort to raise awareness and help normalize the belonging of trans people in a predominantly cisnormative world. Sometimes it feels petty but I would absolutely love to get verified by Twitter at some point because of that. As much as blue isn't my favourite colour, I feel it would look great beside my name. I feel it's a great way to suggest that I know what I'm doing and I'm not taking any of this lightly at all.
When I came out as abruptly as I did, it was with the full intention to raise awareness and educate, especially using the element of shock to prompt reflections into the minds of others. I came out right after George Floyd was murdered because our planet was reeling on yet another example that if you're not White and Right, you're fighting for a place to coexist. Minority groups all over the planet, and obviously the Black community at large, were screaming for reforms to improve diversity, Equity and Inclusion. To eliminate racism. To eliminate discrimination. I felt there was no better time to capture that momentum. After I came out, I lost track of the amount of times someone would say that they had no idea, and rightfully so. I began to come out socially on my 39th birthday so for all intents and purposes the only person most people ever knew or recognized was a white, athletic, 39-year-old Canadian male. I was as close to the top of the food chain that someone could really get. I bled privilege that I didn't even want because it was nothing but imbued irony because it would almost all be erased if I allowed myself to be vulnerable and authentic.
Becoming vulnerable and authentic is exactly what I chose to do. I didn't do that necessarily because I wanted to, and it certainly wasn't because I was ready to, but I had no choice except that I HAD to. As a person, I am far too strong, far too vocal, far too educated and far too articulated to stay quiet any longer. I know I've got the skillset and resilience to help make the world a better place and if anything I feel guilty for not allowing myself to start working on it years earlier. Even as I write about this life update, I think about a blog post that was written about me and to this day am so humbled about it. More than ever have I felt like I'm making a difference instead of being a burden and it inspires me to keep pushing forward.
I've alluded to it a couple times already and one of the biggest missions I have been on lately is advocating on the absolute faux pas of a local radio station hiring someone who has said dehumanizing things about transgender people, has not shown public atonement for it, and then being protected by the radio station while they affirm to be LGBTQ+ allies. One of the biggest reasons I am invested in this is because of the message that is being sent to minority communities across the board: If you are privileged, you are protected. The message that forgiveness is to be expected of the victims instead of earned by the offenders really sums up segregation, discrimination and overall mental unwellness in a nutshell.
Personally, I felt my drive for this situation to really light up after Energy 106 FM posted their "Official Statement," which for the record was Friday, August 28, at 9:00 PM. Only until recently in a meeting I had with Adam West, their Program Director, that they had intention of posting that late largely due to Facebook algorithms. All I really had to reply on that was considering the amount of controversy regarding the release of the message, they could have at least addressed the concern with an explanation instead of perpetually ignoring the call-outs. Another interesting take in that same meeting was that they were waiting for that memo to be vetted by one transgender person, which I learned after asking who the "numerous meaningful and significant conversations" involved because I can't imagine a single resource centre in Winnipeg that would have given this hire a green light. Regardless, I had no problem expressing my thoughts about the situation and since made a decision to keep my eye on it.
One of the reasons why I struggled to feel comfortable coming out was because I wasn't ready to be as loud as I knew I was capable of being. For at least half my life I've felt that people like me needed a warrior to be there for them. I wanted to be that warrior but I simply did not feel like I was capable of the fight. As much as I knew I already was being suffocated, I needed to know I could be there for others. It took me a long time but when I finally found it in me I have never been more proud to be myself and to fight for my community. Allyship isn't a part-time job. It is like being that warrior I mentioned. It doesn't necessarily mean you're looking for a fight, but you must be ready to go to battle when the time comes. I wasn't ready to fight for myself before. Today, I fight for change.
Twitter certainly was a hotbed after Energy decided to release their "Official Statement" affirming their belief that their hire was the right decision. There were links and stories and updates and advocates and affirmations from all angles, even on the other side of the ocean. After realizing how many stories and concerns there were, I decided to make my path of advocacy easier to follow, literally, and I did that by creating a thread on Twitter that sourced everything to follow in one place.
One of the biggest obstacles with advocacy is it often means you're fighting from a weaker position, as in, it's not uncommon for change to be made because of necessity instead of morality. When it comes to advocating against corporate boondoggling often change would only ultimately be recognized after corporate partners disagree with the decision and decide to withdraw, and that's where the adventure really began.
It was fantastic and encouraging to see many corporate allies of the LGBTQ+ community to stand in Solidarity with us and denounce the decision made by Energy 106 FM, or more specifically, the Evanov Radio Group. During the unrest it was uncovered that Dave Wheeler was hired with approval of Paul Evanov himself, which he shared during one of his podcast episodes of Wheeler After Dark.
I still have conflicted feelings about that. How does Paul Evanov, who's father Bill developed the world's first 100% LGBT front-to-back radio station, who passed away on February 28, 2020, personally approve this hire, affirm support by a PR firm (of which I have solid hunches about but am still piecing it together), and be OK with this? Why does Wheeler say in that soundbite that "they're ready" now? I can't imagine what the delay would have been, unless we think of crazy supervillain vibes where Paul was waiting for all the legal stuff about Bill to be finished. Dave was unemployed for two years. Was Adam asking Paul to ask Bill to give Dave a job for two years, and now that Daddy's out of the picture Paul can finally be the one to say yes? How does any leadership in an organization that has a globally-accessible LGBT-focused radio station that is one of their jewels completely overlook the responsibility of public atonement at a value greater than public shaming, or more accurately disregard its importance? It's completely baffling but truly represents again what life is like with privilege.
I completely understand that Wheeler's termination from his last station wasn't without controversy, but what feels like something completely overlooked is that his language was spoken with fluidity. He utilized an opportunity to share unfiltered thoughts AND get paid for it. That's privilege. The idea of being able to speak your beliefs for personal gain with no disregard for hurt or harm: that's privilege.
To get the opportunity to have a public voice again, especially now targeted TOWARDS the demographic who have been harmed by the hateful and dehumanizing speech without any sign of public grief or atonement: that's privilege. To expect forgiveness and acceptance instead of earning forgiveness and trust: that's privilege.
That's why I advocate. The message that your privilege will protect you and anyone lesser has to fight for equality continues to be too strong, too frequent, and too deadly.
What had me so confused, if not frustrated at the situation, was how the hire didn't raise concerns of transphobia but other forms of discrimination such as racism and sexism as well. One of the most ... eye opening ... experiences was Adam's response to me in one of our meetings where he didn't believe "Black Olives Matter" (Starting at ~16:44) was racism. Adam's argument to me was that Dave is a comedian and as such this should be considered a parody. I am not a person of colour by any stretch to know what racism feels like directly, but for him to flatly reject the message that has been spoken LOUDLY by our BIPOC community showed, again, privilege and another reason why I have to keep fighting. What's baffling is that podcast episode with the "parody" was uploaded on August 14, 2020 ... only TWO WEEKS prior to Energy's release of their "Official Statement" defending their hire. Further examples of racism were brought up by other members of our community, such as a podcast episode validating Blackface (starting at ~35:20, released on May 27, 2020, two days after George Floyd was murdered, and with no hesitation to shame the "woke" generation), an anti-Indigenous parody of the Wet'suwet'en protests on February 21, 2020 (plus referencing to the protest as looking like an anus), and validating police brutality to the death of Eishia Hudson (the 16-year-old Indigenous teen who was shot dead on April 16, 2020). He's stated and has been defended that he "has done a lot of work" since getting fired, but I'm struggling to see where it has even started. I am at an absolute loss when it comes to seeing how this history is even close to being welcome at a self-professed LGBTQ+-friendly station, especially considering they fired a woman who was an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community to make space for him and another woman. His personal Wheeler After Dark! podcast explicitly describes the episodes as "not intended for those that are easily offended by adult themes, spicy language, satire, dark humour, etc, etc, etc... If you're a kid... You likely shouldn't be listening to this, but you should tell your parents to, they'd find it hilarious!"
Being an ally doesn't have on-and-off "modes." You can't be a representative of allyship when you're under someone else's watch and especially while under someone else's salary. Allyship is an authentic effort from the heart. It isn't always flawless and it isn't always life-possessing but the motivation has to come from within yourself and it absolutely must represent your honest values. It absolutely stuns me about how Energy 106 FM, and more specifically the Evanov Radio Group, is completely dense to the insensitivity caused by their hire and exceptionally so by standing behind it. The responsibility of being an ally is not to be taken lightly, otherwise the actions will be exposed and shown to be performative activism for personal gain. As such, I continued (and continue) to advocate. Our minority communities have been run over far too frequently to stand aside to reckless privilege.
A few weeks after it was clear that Energy was firm in their decision, I decided it was time to get even more involved. I was right on the cusp of socially-transitioning to full-time and used that moment as a chapter in my life to show I'm taking advocating for what's right seriously and have been on it since. One of my most important processes was identifying business affiliates with the radio group. While it started with raising awareness to direct advertisers and implore them to assess their values, see if they are in line with the decisions at Energy, and withdraw their advertising if they don't support it. Many advertisers pulled which was wonderful to see as support, but I personally had a fire ignited after I came across a video from Wheeler in the Morning parodying transgender people.
The video has since been set to private and in a meeting I had with Tyler he explained the video was set to private after I called it out because of the aforementioned legal dispute. Regardless, I advised that setting it to private doesn't address the video existing. The message of setting it to private is "Oh, this is worth keeping, you're not supposed to see it though." I advised him to have someone on Energy's Twitter account acknowledge my post with that exact remark about legal, to do something that represents anything close to allyship instead of continuing to be deflective and secretive.
Regardless, when I saw that video for the first time, the comments had a description that lit me up more than ever. "Superheroes... Every last one of 'em."
A superhero possesses abilities beyond those of ordinary people, who typically uses their powers to help the world become a better place, or is dedicated to protecting the public, and stopping evil.
I'm transgender & I am god damned proud of it. I did NOT abruptly become socially & publicly visible to my workplace, sports leagues & peers immediately after the Floyd murder to have Energy's clown car run over MY goal of raising awareness about diversity, inclusion and equality.
Between my parents responding exactly as I expected (who I still have not heard from them to this day, and we're going on about 3m1w at the time of this post), plus Energy and Evanov clearly embracing their decision, my fire has been lit more than ever. This world has never seen as strong as a version of me, and I have barely even teased my potential. I decided that Energy is not enough. If Paul Evanov decided to sign off on it, Tyler picks up an additional role in the Evanov Radio Group with a segment on the aforementioned radio station PROUD FM, and zero suggestion they are reconsidering their decisions, I decided the right way to gain awareness was to expand deeper into the radio group. I decided that it was time to address not only advertisers but any visible business associate with Energy 106 FM, Hot 100.5 FM, CKJS 810 AM, and PROUD FM.
Ever since I started to advocate on this project, I was close to certain that Energy 106 muted me. If they blocked me I would have seen it, but if they muted me I would have had no idea. However, I realized eventually that Energy did in fact have the ability to see my mentions and replies the whole time. I blocked out what Matt mentioned as sensitivity to his message but it seems he chose to engage it further. He chose to react on a post on Energy's account regarding a pizza promotion, and a picture he used on the post was one of him and his child. It was Energy's account and I had a question to their promotion sponsor, but what ultimately transpired was Matt's wife deciding to ... well, here.
That's not to say that Energy or any accomplices hasn't been aware of my advocacy otherwise. From Day 1 (or as close to it that I can imagine), AJ blocked me for whatever reason but had no problem following a conversation I had involving a business partner to PROUD FM and throwing likes to the counterpoints of mine. Of course, sometimes the main account will make accidents too but I had no problem capturing it. Why would they continue to be silent when they insist to be "allies?"
I am DONE with this world running on hate & dollars instead of heartbeats & common sense. I did NOT abruptly put MY health, MY safety & MY neck on the line inspire change to have Paul Evanov, the Evanov Radio Group, Adam West and Energy 106 FM suggest that being queer isn't profitable enough & try to prove it during a GLOBAL SOCIAL CRISIS.
I feel I have shown with more than enough character and conviction that I know what I'm doing, I know what I'm talking about, and I'm fighting so that we don't need to keep fighting in the future. I advocate strongly for mental health awareness and do my best to engage as much as possible with patience and objective reasoning. I have had people ask if it's OK to come out to me in private messages because they felt there was a safe space. I have had businesses reach out to me about various topics up to and including what could be an appropriate course of action with some of their decisions so that they continue to represent themselves as strong corporate allies. I have lost track of the amount of praise, gratitude and encouragement from so many people in our community. I have had mindful conversations with people immensely frustrated with racism and white supremacy. I have had compassionate conversations with people who want to be allies and are unsure what to do. I have had educational conversations with people about what a trans experience may be like, and I have had many wonderful conversations with trans people of a variety of backgrounds and experiences and shared stories about our journeys. I have had conversations with people who have felt inspired from me, I have had conversations with people who were feeling unwell, and I have had conversations to the point of committing time and awareness with people who were feeling suicidal so that we could get through the moment and work on recovery strategies.
That's not to say that it hasn't been without it's challenges, but has led to some awareness as well! After about a month of constant backlash since sticking to their hire, Energy posted a podcast episode Tyler did with a local podcast group, Winnipeg's Finest, which would to me suggest that Energy shares the perspective and sentiments he shared. I felt it was a good opportunity to express frustration about not being given the opportunity to discuss these changes after being force-told to forgive a transphobic, sexist, racist bigot. The podcast inspired me to respond with a video of my own, as a matter of fact. After listening to the podcast a couple of times I decided to record a YouTube video of my own, completely unfiltered and unedited, pausing at every talking point that contradicted an experience, questioning bias, and so on. The video took me hours! 5 hours, actually! It was my very first time on YouTube too! I felt I had no time to waste and took a huge gamble on how it came out but I feel really proud of myself for what I did! I made sure to include chapter markers of every talking point as well and ... gosh, there are lots.
Like I said, it hasn't been without its challenges, that's for sure. Cranking up the advocacy absolutely raised the eyebrows of many for both good and, let's call it "uneducated", reasons. I'm very grateful to be part of a community who helps support each other especially when there is a serious social concern in the works. I feel especially grateful to be a recognizable and trusted person during this entire adventure and I truly would never wish to have taken a different path. Even though I believe that Adam and Tyler only agreed to speak with me out of obligation to a CBSC "Complaint re ENERGY 106 CHWE-FM Broadcast" (even though it was never addressed as a reason but the timing to start talking and the dis-interest of engaging in Zoom conversations when COVID19 restrictions ramped up feel incredibly coincidental), I did do my best to be a helpful liaison between the radio station and our LGBTQ+ community. I continued to be engaged and offered awareness, consultation, advice and concerns via email. I started and maintained a thread about what allyship looks like to people and what it would take for them to see Energy 106 FM as an ally again. For that project alone, I went as far back into relevant time as I could and tried to connect with nearly every user I could find that reacted to Energy 106 FM hiring Dave Wheeler. Loose math from my notes suggests I have tried to connect with about 1600 people. I have personally DM'd about 750 people and every last piece of feedback has been included in the thread. In my last meeting that I had at Energy, Megan told me that she has been following the entire thread so I at least had an affirmation that the effort has been acknowledged.
Unfortunately, that's also about where it ended. While the start of my emails and correspondence was pleasant and positive communication, it didn't take too long to redirect the focus to some rather important pieces of discussion. It's very clear that since hiring Dave and promoting Wheeler In The Morning as their new morning show, they have enabled a safe space for an extremely far-right culture including white supremacy, transphobia, racism, and a general disrespect for human decency. There has been stalking, doxxing, libel, cyberbullying and an absolute maelstrom of right-wing chaos and panic.
What has been incredibly baffling is how Adam and Energy were literally offered an example of a script to use to stay engaged, not overpromise their direction while denouncing all the values that authentic allies fight against, they decided to ignore all that and ask for everyone to "be kind." If that doesn't have "stand back and standby" written all over it, I don't know what does.
So, this is the part where I ask for feedback! I have a few considerations in my mind so far but am curious about where the next part of my journey should go. I know I'm going to continue to raise awareness of the situation to any visible business affiliates, and likely I will up the ante now to all Evanov Radio Group stations from coast to coast. As a matter of fact, I will be including affiliates to the Winnipeg Goldeyes as well because they censored me when I asked them about their values compared to their affiliation with Energy 106 FM. As a trans athlete, the simple concept of our local AAbaseballteam promoting Diversity Day in the past but censoring me about their values towards diversity, inclusion and equity disgusted me and prompted me to immediately throw my jersey in the garbage. I will never wear a Goldeyes jersey again, especially so long as they don't respond to my questions.
See, I know what I'm doing is powerful, successful and fearful. Why else would the Wheeler-in-the-Morning-fanclub cry to Twitter to suspend my account? That is arguably one of the most flattering things to come my way, to know that I am the haunting reason for people who are so insecure with themselves they have become possessed and obsessed with my existence, and know they are utterly desperate to silence me during my advocacy about trans rights and fundamentally basic humanrights means WHAT I AM DOING IS WORKING AND I WILL NOT QUIT. I must express reservations about Twitter's judgement, however. Oh well. I will earn the blue star, I will be verified, and I WILL bring our trans community to a safer, healthier place.
This cycles back to seeing what feedback is available. I firmly believe these accounts are affiliated to Energy 106 FM or the Evanov Radio Group as a whole. The biggest reason why it comes to mind are based on three things: 1) One of the main antagonists has an account that opened in September 2020, shortly after Dave Wheeler deleted his own account, and targeted a tweet I commented on. 2) After my last meeting at Energy, Adam affirmed to me that "he'll take care of them" when I told him that the little band waving Energy's flag is doing nothing but making his brand look worse, because they are absolutely not doing anything to me. I noticed a near-immediate decline in activity from the fun-club for a small period of time and struggle to believe that wasn't as per Adam's memo. Add the fact that Tyler affirmed to me that he would publicly denounce their behaviour and that has not happened either. So, Energy, Adam, and Tyler have all the means to blatantly denounce white supremacy, harassment, racism, transphobia, doxxing, stalking, libel, defamation, and so on ... yet completely refuse to. What other option can it be? 3) This is a little too coincidental, and if it was done "in satire because Dave is a comedian" (as per Adam) then it shows they are aware of the situation and continue to refuse to address it.
I find it interesting that these accounts have a massive obsession about broadcasting far-right political beliefs and stalking me. Feel free to see for yourself about the obsession since the end of September for all these folks:
BigFonker21%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live), Brittany Anne%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live), Nicholas1226%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live), a%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live), Hanz Rules!%20(to%3ATaylorLakhryst)%20since%3A2020-09-25&src=typed_query&f=live) and an obsessive amount of boosting from Boo. I'm sure there are more but if I really wanted to look for Cancer I'd rather go stargazing. And frankly, these are simply about things I see directly. I have been told my more than enough peers that this crowd stalks them as well, but peculiarly block those peers if this fun-club doesn't get the reaction they want.
What's especially curious about the situation is that while these users are beyond obsessed with me an have lept over so many lines, I still have no reason to believe that it's not within the Evanov Radio Group and of all things they even have my home address which I needed to include when I wrote my concern to CBSC, so at what point am I to not feel as if Adam or Dave would not use it out of vengeance against me by the time I am done advocating against Evanov Radio Group and their perpetual injustices? People may ask why I shared my address, and the answer is to continue to be open, transparent, and show validity that Energy is a local radio station that is poisoning my local community. People ask why don't I block the aforementioned users, and the answer is because they are not hurting me. Everything that they are doing does nothing but make Energy look worse, make Evanov look like an even more pathetic radio group, and every last itch and twitch they do to try to upset me does nothing but empower me, inspire me, and give me more to work with. Our community has far too many people suffering from discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, bullying, cyberbullying, transphobia, racism, stalking and so much more. I have the means and the mental health strength to absorb all of their hatred and ignorance and show it to people who are in positions to make change that it is happening, it is dangerous and it is deadly. I can not and will not be broken, and that is why I allow these users to continue to try to break me, because all they are doing is making this fire inside of me brighter, stronger, more fierce and ultimately more beautiful. I will not quit.
So, as I've mentioned, I would love to hear your feedback about what you think appropriate courses of action would be! Remember that I'm from Canada, from Manitoba to be more specific, so if you have any feedback that is jurisdiction-specific that may be relevant to your consideration!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Happy Trans Awareness Week!
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he new single-game betting bill tabled by Conservative MP Kevin Waugh will have its second reading in the Canadian parliament Tuesday.. Windsor West MP Brian Masse has been the main advocate of single-game sports betting since he took over the file from former MP New Democrat, Joe Comartin. Since then, Masse has been pushing the government to amend the criminal code. Federal Justice Minister David Lametti will soon introduce legislation to legalize single-event sports betting in Canada — ending a decades-old prohibition on gambling that experts say has Canadian New Gambling Bill to Legalize Single Game Sports Betting It will have a profound impact on the gambling industry in Canada if the bill is passed, as it will finally give the bookmakers in the Great White the opportunity to compete with the offshore sites. Top Bonuses . Important Canadian National Gambling Laws. Bill C290 – Bill C290 was intended to amend the Criminal Code to allow single sport game bets. The way it stands now is that Canadians may place parlay bets on sporting events through local sportsbooks. The bill is expected to be tabled Thursday by Federal Justice Minister David Lametti, and it would amend a line in the Criminal Code that prohibits wagering on a single sports event. MP Kevin Waugh said he won't withdraw his private member's bill just yet to ensure the government proceeds with the amendment, which would enable provinces to allow the vertical. Canada: Gambling Laws and Regulations 2021. ICLG - Gambling Laws and Regulations - Canada covers common issues in gambling laws and regulations – including relevant authorities and legislation, application for a licence, licence restrictions, digital media, enforcement and liability – in 37 jurisdictions. While Canadian gaming advocates have been pleased with the rapid developments in legislation on single-event sports betting in recent weeks, supporters of a closely watched bill will have to wait until after Christmas for political leaders to complete a key procedural step.. On Friday, members of the House of Commons of Canada adjourned for the Christmas break without hearing debate on single Canadian Bill C-290. Bill C-290 was a proposed bill that did not become a law. It was first introduced in the 41 st Parliament. This enactment was shooting to replace 207(4)(b) of the Canadian Criminal Code and make it lawful for a person or entity licensed by a province to conduct and manage a lottery scheme that involves betting on a single sporting event or athlete. The bill would allow Canadian provinces to decide if they want to allow single-game sports betting. Currenty, only parlay bets are legal.

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