Tales from the American DMZ: It’s (Almost) All Economics

Editor’s Note: warning; this is going to be a long, rambling discussion and at the end of it, you may well be inclined to question my sanity; I’m not sure I’ve ever written a “thinkpiece” before and I’m only doing so now because of the tremendous weight on my conscience not discussing these issues has created. 

I have never had any desire to be perceived as any sort of “pinko Alex Jones” style conspiracy theorist and I have no intention of doing so today; this article will be sourced quite heavily and I strongly encourage you to at least skim the links I’ve provided to back up what will no doubt appear to preposterous claims if you haven’t been following the news intently for several years.

This is new ground for me and frankly, I’m not really sure where the editor’s note ends and the article begins this time – so I ask that you bear with me while I try to get a handle on just what it is we’re doing here.

Surrendering My Silence

For several months now I’ve found myself disappointed by my own inability to make the necessary time to discuss two seemingly dissimilar but ultimately, intricately related issues; the rise of the American police state as well as what I believe will be a massive social re-ordering of the western world dictated by looming economic realities and the seemingly intractable behavior of wealthy western or globalist elites – yeah, that’s quite the mouthful.

If the truth be known, I’ve avoided these topics for a number of reasons that are probably still valid today; not the least of which is that some parts of the story aren’t really mine to tell. This is in part a discussion about economics and I am not an economist; it’s also in part a discussion about systemic racism that signals who in our society the police are allowed to abuse for profit (and why) – as a white (albeit post-op trans) woman living abroad; there’s a legitimate question in my mind whether what I have to say on this subject would be, or even should be taken seriously.

Finally, I’ve avoided these discussions because quite frankly they are just so damn big and so damn heavy, it is utterly terrifying to imagine even starting such a conversation. A whole bunch of the things I want to say to you guys are going to sound too evil to even contemplate believing if you haven’t done the research; even discussing what it all means involves, by necessity, projecting into our collective future. I’m a smart girl, I can make educated guesses but I’m by no means exaggerating even slightly when I say we live in *the* most corrupt time in our nation’s (if not global) history and the problems we’re about to face simply have no direct historical reference; although there are similarities that we can and will examine over time.

So, I have continued on with my safe facts, catching easy lies and focusing on the utter farce that is the American political class; keeping my head down and actively avoiding the role of unwanted doomsayer. Yet continually over time, the truth has picked away at the corners of my consciousness as I read more about unpunished violations, the (perceived) stability of our economic systems and the dark history of policing in America.

Yesterday I finally hit my breaking point as I realized that I could no longer escape the simple reality I’d been too afraid to write down until this moment; although the rise of the American police state (and similar systems throughout the western world) is typically portrayed in the news as either an unfortunate consequence of “rising” crime, or the misguided behavior of “a few rotten apples” – there truthfully exists a great deal of evidence that violent, militarized police forces who don’t give a flying fuck about civil liberties are in fact a purposeful outcome of the modern corporate-capitalist state; hey, I warned you this was going to get heavy, didn’t I?

The truth is, I don’t rightly know where to start and the sheer size of what we’re talking about probably means I’ll never finish; but I do know that I can no longer remain silent as the world around me turns into a real time, live-action production of V for Vendetta right in front of my eyes. Therefore, because I don’t even know where the beginning of this discussion lies, I’ll start with a very simple question that we can hopefully build some future discussions on – “considering the obvious political consequences and blatant social negatives; why would anyone (even corrupt government officials and their greedy corporate masters) want to create and empower a police state in the western world?”

read the rest of this article on ninaillingworth.com now...

Info-Meme of the Week: Clinton’s Dirty Dozen

Editor’s Note: after a long and frustrating weekend, we’re back on the 2016 Election beat this morning with another edition of our Info-Meme of the Week; a (semi) new weekly feature where we a look at one issue or scandal largely being misreported in the media in the form of a single, easy-to-share meme that’s backed up by a few verifiable sources underneath the photo. No rants, speeches or explanations required — just the facts, in one quick snapshot you can show your barely-literate roommates to force them to stop repeating mainstream media deceptions

.

This week’s Info-Meme is a special look at the rogue’s gallery of neocon think-tank weasels, conservative warmonger douchebags and unrepentant, criminal human rights violators that have officially endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential Election so far; please be mindful that this list is by no means complete, you can find sources for all the information presented in this meme below and if you’re having trouble reading the image, left click on it and select “view image” to pop out a larger version — let’s meme:

Check out the meme & all our sources on ninaillingworth.com now…

Frontrunning with Extra Vigorish: Week 3 NFL Picks

Editor’s note: well, we’re late again; despite giving myself two whole extra days to get this week’s picks column ready — here I am on Saturday afternoon typing away furiously with the clock ticking and the tiny fascist editor inside my head screaming bloody murder.

Unfortunately, this once again means no introductory story but I have been assured by numerous readers that roughly four thousand words worth of humors NFL picks are good enough for the weeks where that’s all I have time for. I thank you for your patience and I’d like to inform concerned readers that my cat Ginger has actually turned a few small corners and miraculously is in notably better shape than when I first brought her up here on this website. We’re not out of the woods yet, but we have a vet appointment on Monday and it seems like all the extra love and attention might’ve worked a minor miracle for my beloved kitty; it’s been a good week in my family and truthfully my difficulty finishing this column was more about a nagging case of writer’s block than anything else.

At this point, I’ll refrain from making any promises about the return of the Gambler and our intro stories; on weeks where I have time and inspiration I’ll write one, on weeks where I don’t, I’ll focus on making a few more picks to compensate — despite all outward appearances, I’ve learned that writing fiction under a deadline is actually quite hard sometimes.

As always picks are made against the Pinnacle line at the time I write the column, our choice to win is listed first and home teams are printed in all caps. Please be reminded this website is not responsible in any way if you take gambling advice from a deranged madwoman who still hasn’t managed to break .500 on a week this season; at this point we’re subsidizing Vegas with “the vig” each week — or we would be, if we were actually gambling officer.

PATRIOTS (-1) over Texans:

During last week’s column, I blithely suggested that “New England could promise to hold a bloody punt, pass and kick contest at halftime to see who gets to play quarterback for the rest of the game and I’d still be picking them” — which as it turns out, is precisely what happened last Sunday when the Patriot’s latest attempt at cloning Tom Brady was slammed hard into the dirt and Jimmy “I’m still looking this shit up every time I have to spell it” Garoppolo went down with a fucked up shoulder.

Reports indicate that Garoppolo is technically dressing for this game as the backup QB but that’s pretty much entirely because Bill Belichick is a stone cold mutherfucker with a long, long memory and Jimmy is hoping to someday succeed Tom Brady in New England; he absolutely cannot fucking play after folding his goddamn throwing wing up like that just four days ago and everyone (including the Texans) knows it. Dutifully, I have spent parts of the past three days watching all nine (yes, nine) passes something or someone called Jacoby Brissett threw against Miami last week on loop like every other deranged gambling addict in the country and I can say with some certainty that Brissett is basically terrible; at least for the moment.

This is a problem, because the Patriots are facing off against a devastating pass rush from a Texans front seven that can be best described as a “pack of psycho, fucked-up butchers” who just happen to play football; Brissett’s family should probably consider taking out a goddamn life insurance policy under an assumed name at this point because the rookie is going to get hit hard and often by a defense that knows New England doesn’t have another “real” quarterback available for this game. Don’t expect the run game to help out much either; the Texans defense is vulnerable to speed when they over-pursue but they eat lard-ass power backs like Legarrette Blount for fucking breakfast on the regular — New England is going to have to win this game in the air, with a rookie 3rd-round QB throwing at least twenty-five passes.

The Texans have prepared all summer for this game; they dropped $72M on a goddamn Ent who plays quarterback just because he beat the Patriots in Denver last year, they’ve known for months they wouldn’t have to face Tom Brady and just about everyone on the fucking planet is assuming they’ll get the job done against a team that might seriously be starting Julian Edelman at QB by the fourth quarter.

This is of course, exactly why the Patriots are going to win this game outright on Thursday Night Football after Bill Belichick drags their asses to a “ho-hum” victory through a combination of dark magic, the ritual sacrifice of a practice squad punter and sheer, unbridled assholery.

I told you folks last week, I’m done losing money because I forgot about Dre.

DOLPHINS (+10) over Browns:

Look, I really don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about this game because objectively, it’s going to be a goddamn crime against football and if you’re the type of person who can actually sit through a contest this fucking terrible from start to completion — you’ve got way damn bigger problems than a ten point Dolphins spread.

I’d merely like to point out that this game represents a reasoned violation of one of our “mostly immutable” rules of wagering; Miami has in no way shape or goddamn form proven that they’re capable of covering a ten point spread and under normal circumstances I’d slam Cleveland so hard here, I’d end up in traction — which is basically where most of the Browns best players are right now and therein lies the problem.

Over the past two seasons we’ve been rewarded by picking Cleveland to cover when shockingly competent Browns QB Josh McCown is playing but he apparently snapped his collarbone like a deep-fried chicken wing (again) last week and the Browns are starting a rookie QB (Cody Kessler) that even management admits is nowhere near ready to play at the bloody NFL level. The Browns are now so desperate at the most important position in football that they actually signed the quarterback-like substance and accomplished clipboard warrior Charlie fucking Whitehurst to back up Kessler; despite the former having proven conclusively over his eleven year career that having Chuck Whitehurst at quarterback is pretty much exactly the same goddamn thing as having no quarterback at all.

The Dolphins don’t really deserve our faith this Sunday, but I’m not even sure the Browns can actually score on offense at this point and Cleveland is already staring at a long, painful year of absolutely fucking brutal tanking; in week three of the 2016 season.

Read the rest of the article on ninaillingworth.com now…

New “Deluxe” Wall of Shame Update: Jonathan Capehart Edition

Editor’s note: well, we’re finally here – after several months and literally dozens of requests, the “illustrious” Jonathan Capehart has finally joined our other “distinguished’ honorees on the Wall of Shame. 

Initially, I’d resisted adding Capehart to the wall because while there is no question whatsoever that he’s an insipid, partisan shill who openly spreads disinformation for the Democratic Party at virtually every possible opportunity; his method of doing so is so staggeringly banal, robotic and soulless to the point of being literally “un-funny.” To paraphrase a much better writer than myself, Jonathan Capehart is how “the whole hep world would use Twitter if the fascists on Madison Avenue ever completely won the war for our hearts and minds;” the guy is a walking, talking, bullshiting infomercial for the Democratic Party – certainly worthy of scorn, but not really “Wall of Shame” material in the classical sense. 

Imaging my surprise then when I typed Jonathan’s name up in the ol’ Google search machine and the magic of the internet spit back clear evidence that Capehart had spent the better part of February  falsely smearing Bernie Sanders for the Democratic Party and then actually fucking married into it when he tied the knot with longtime boyfriend Nick Schmit (Assistant Chief of Protocol at the State Department) in May. It would seem that there’s a calculating political operative somewhere behind Capehart’s dull, vacant eyes; which is a problem when you’re supposed to be a fucking journalist and you write for something called the “PostPartisan Blog.” 

Of course, the problem of Capehart’s insipid and quite frankly boring, advertisement quality tweets still remains, but I’ve tried to address this by presenting a larger number of Jonathan’s tweets to highlight the sheer volume of mindlessly stupid shilling for Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party that he engages in:

Read the rest of the article on ninaillingworth.com today...

Joy-Ann Reid & the Return of McCarthyism

Editor’s note: typically when I write a Take Down piece for this website, it will revolve around a largely unknown, but laughably mendacious neoliberal Twitter user in the middle of some deplorably disingenuous meltdown or tirade of some kind; the highest profile “honoree” to show up in these take downs was author and noted Twitter meltdown artist Sady Doyle – and even then, only because she spent a half hour trying to harass me before publicly denying she’d been using bigoted attacks.

Today however, we’re going to make an exception on behalf of recently-enshrined but long-reviled Wall of Shamer, Joy-Ann Reid; who spent the better part of Friday, September 9th unsuccessfully trying to pass off the plot of a rejected Tom Clancy novel as factual news on her Twitter feed. As a result of Reid’s high profile role in the American news media and the disturbing propagation of what can only be called cold war era scaremongering in the modern, neoliberal media – this piece is really as much an examination of false media narratives as it is a savage indictment of Reid’s blatant dishonesty and arrogance.

First, we’ll talk a little bit about Reid’s meltdown, then we’ll take a look at how it fits into the larger, anti-Russian media narrative being sold to the American people on the regular these days. 

As always please be reminded that although you should have no trouble understanding what I’m saying without clicking on the links I’ve provided throughout the article; your comprehension and enjoyment of the piece will almost certainly be improved by at least skimming the source material I’ve limked to. Please don’t yell at me about “sources” on social media if you can’t be bothered to click the links. 

Hot to Trot-sky: Reid’s McCarthy Redux Moment

Now, before we get started I would like to take a moment to point out that Joy-Ann Reid is a rising star in the world of political television media who also happens to be a vocal, successful and highly-educated (more on this later) African American woman. This, undeniably makes her a lightning-rod of ignorant, bigoted criticism from the disturbingly large segment of “white America” that believes ending slavery was a bad thing; as well as men (and Anne Coulter) who feel awarding women the right to vote has directly lead to the decline of the American family.

Please allow me to assure you that I’m not here to discuss anything “those people” would find interesting. I’m not going to tell you that Joy-Ann is too loud, too female, too black or too aggressive to be on network television and if the truth be told; I really want to like Reid in my heart because the person she pretends to be when she’s not shoveling corporatist, pro-Democratic Party bullshit would be an important voice in our media.

Unfortunately, this is impossible because Joy-Ann Reid is a lying, embarrassingly partisan, centrist propagandist who is also either mindbogglingly fucking stupid or, more likely, believes that you are. Please take a moment to examine the Twitter screenshots I’ve compiled bellow and as you do so; keep in mind that all of these tweets come from a single, twenty-four hour period on Reid’s Twitter feed. As always I have not edited these tweets in any way, although they may appear slightly out of order for the purposes of proper presentation – I left the time stamps on most of them so you can easily reconstruct the chronological order of Joy-Ann’s tweets on your own if that matters to you for some reason:

Read the rest of this article now on ninaillingworth.com... 

Info-Meme of the Week: El Sid’s Birther Gambit

Editor’s Note: despite the world having gone objectively crazy in the past few days (again) I’ve been battling to catch up on what is now becoming a staggering backlog of topics in a variety of forms. I can’t exactly say I’m winning, but progress is being made; albeit slowly and at the cost of great energy. In the meantime, I’ve decided to take a break and drop today’s Info Meme of the Week a little earlier than I expected to.


What’s the “Info meme of the Week?” Each week, we take a look at one issue or scandal largely being misreported in the media in the form of a single, easy-to-share meme that’s backed up by a few verifiable sources underneath the photo. No fuss, no pontificating pinko blogger telling you what this might all mean – just the facts, in one quick snapshot you can show your barely-literate roommates to force them to stop repeating mainstream media deceptions. 

Today’s IMotW is a two-for-one special including one older meme and one newer meme designed to tell a connected story; we’ve got longtime intelligence trading, rumor-mongering Clinton “ghoul” Sid Blumenthal in our sights as dirt from eight years ago finally spills out and potentially answers an old question – “why did Obama absolutely refuse to let Sid Blumenthal work in Clinton’s State Department?”

Check out the rest of the article today on ninaillingworth.com... 

Deadpan Wonderland: Week 2 NFL Picks

Editor’s note: unfortunately, a minor medical emergency in my household last evening threw me off schedule and as a result, I wasn’t able to finish this week’s NFL picks article until late Thursday evening; just before the Jets-Bills game started. Sadly, I was also unable to write a proper introduction for this week’s column as well and I’m not entirely sure this is going to be the funniest picks article I’ve ever written – for reasons I’ll explain below

As those of you who read this website are no doubt already aware, I am currently caring for my best friend in the entire world; who just happens to be a sick, nearly twenty year old cat who means more to me than air. She’s currently doing alright, but the prognosis isn’t good and I’m just trying to spend as much quality time with her as I can, while I can; if you understand my meaning. At some point yesterday, the stress apparently just became a little too much for me and I passed out, somewhat involuntarily and for about ten hours.

I’m awake and feeling markedly better now, but the part of me that writes funny jokes appears to be just beyond my ability to summon at the moment. In light of this, I’ve written up this week’s picks with a bit of a heavy heart and ask that you excuse me if it all comes off just a little bit too much like a normal sports article; I’m doing the best I can with the tools I’ve got to work with right now.  Assuming there are no other setbacks in the immediate future, the adventures of “the Gambler” and our regular NFL picks column should return next Wednesday at the normal time and normal length – thank you in advance for your understanding.

* * * * *

Jets (-1) over BILLS:

Week two opens with the accursed, game-like substance known as Thursday Night Football in an AFC East divisional match-up that features two teams who are not the Patriots and are therefore completely irrelevant to anyone outside of their own, immediate families. This game is also the NFL’s first “Color Rush” contest of the 2016 Season, which means at least one squad will be wearing hideous, gimmick uniforms designed expressly for the purpose of selling fans more useless shit; in last year’s Jets/Bills “Color Rush” game the teams wore monochrome red & green uniforms that made it impossible for colorblind people to watch the game on TV – which considering the general quality of your average AFC East divisional match-up, may have been a mercy.

After a frustrating one point loss to Bengals last week, Jets fans have to come away from week one with one utterly terrifying question: is the warden of Revis Island done as a shutdown corner in the NFL or is AJ Green just that fucking good that he can embarrass Darrelle Revis all goddamn afternoon like that? Saying that Revis was repeatedly burnt like fucking toast in his match-up with Green last week would be a mild understatement and while it’s true that Revis was dueling with one of the top WR in the NFL all day; that’s not supposed to be a problem for a corner of number twenty-four’s stature. Revis is a little banged-up at the moment but if he’s truly done as an elite corner, then the possibility of an elite Jet’s defense is probably done with him – although they should remain very good and welcome back noted child-care specialist Sheldon Richardson to an already savage defensive line this game.

Virtually everyone in sports media seems to be picking the Bills in this match-up based on some bizarre trust in “Rex Ryan voodoo against his old team” theories and because the Bills have won six out of the last seven contests between the two; which is a fine enough idea unless you saw how incredibly fucking putrid the Bill’s offense was last week against the Ravens. Buffalo got absolutely goddamn mauled up front by a Raven’s front seven that isn’t anywhere near as good as the Jets are; causing last-season’s breakout Bills QB Tyrod Taylor to look so confused and utterly ordinary that Buffalo’s season might legitimately be in jeopardy already after one fucking game. Star WR/dreadlocked warrior-king Sammy Watkins is still limping around on a fucked up foot that is at this point, beginning to call into question whether allowing one of the most gifted receivers of his generation to continually play on the harrowing, crappy turf at New Era Field represents a legitimate crime against humanity. He’s questionable for the game but if past history has taught us anything it’s that Watkins will play even on a smashed-up drumstick b/c the rest of the Bill’s offense is so fucking terrible, even half of Sammy Watkins represents a massive improvement.

When in doubt, always take the team capable of keeping it’s QB alive for four quarters; right now, there’s no evidence the Bills can do that against a NY Jet’s front seven that’s so aggressively violent they should be hooking up with Mobb Deep for a reunion tour.

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A Brief Note About Hillary Clinton’s Medical “Incident” on 9/11 2016

Editor’s note: naturally, it’s always at the precise moment you start to fall behind a little bit that the news insists of feeding you more “have to discuss” stories one after another. I am currently hard at work on a piece about Joy-Ann Reid and the new McCarthyism; as well as a discussion of protest in America as it relates to Colin Kaepernick and the Standing Rock anti-pipeline protests. Unfortunately, the shocking events at yesterday’s 9/11 memorial in NYC and the flagrant, unbearably offensive behavior of the pro-Clinton, neoliberal media at large in response to those events are going to force me to have this discussion here and now before I can get back to writing about those other things. 

This is primarily going to be an op-ed and since I really don’t want to waste more time than necessary on this, I’ll be scattering my sources throughout the article with a little less set up than normal; please, I’m begging you – don’t angrily ask me for “sources” if you’re not going to click on the links in this article that provide them.


First of all, let me start off by confessing that until this precise moment I have largely ignored the Hillary Clinton “Health Scandal” for two reasons that perhaps in retrospect haven’t worked out all that well for me:

• When the story first broke, it was primarily championed by the absolutely dregs of Right Wing Nutjob media; places like the Drudge Report and journalists who’s methods I personally consider less than reputable, to put it politely. Furthermore the news pretty much revolved around people who’d never examined Hillary Clinton in a clinical setting commenting on news clips and blown up still frames that objectively didn’t prove a whole lot and in some cases were obvious smear jobs. Ethical doctors are not prone to diagnosing patients they’ve never met (from eighteen seconds of Youtube footage) and distinguished luminaries such as Doctor Drew aside; the vast majority of the people discussing the issue were simply not very credible.

• The simple truth is, I didn’t think it would matter in the goddamn slightest. Despite years and years of campaign rhetoric about the importance of energy and vigor in a President; it doesn’t matter one iota to a candidate’s qualifications for the job if he or she is too ill to complete a season of American Ninja Warrior. Numerous past Presidents have suffered from significant, even serious physical ailments and while these illnesses were invariably the subject of great secrecy and speculation – as long as the politician in question didn’t actually fucking die, the American public generally seems comfortable putting on it’s blinders and ignoring a President’s physical (and even mental) infirmities.

Late yesterday morning (and only after watching multiple video clips that I will share below) I came to the sudden and yes, shocking realization that I’d been as they say in the business “completely fucking wrong” about both the severity and potential importance of the Hillary Clinton heath scandal. Of course, my first clue probably should have been when major media outlets began firing employees for merely discussing Clinton’s health “issues” in a manner that in no way, shape or form appeared to be ethically “out of bounds” by any objective measure of the things in the media that do get published without anyone being fired.

Please understand that I use the expression “health scandal” both because I’m not particularly qualified to diagnose exactly what is wrong with Clinton, but also because even in the seemingly unlikely event that Clinton’s ailment really is pneumonia; the lies, attacks and distortions used by both the Clinton campaign and surrogates/supporters in pro-Clinton media do now represent a “scandal” in their own right. Let’s take a look at a rough timeline of how this whole thing shook out first and afterwards, I’ll explain why I suspect Hillary is still lying about her health and why it really doesn’t matter anyway because the damage has already been done.

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Third Party Purgatory: Election 2016 Meme Collection

Editor’s note: so, after three consecutive days of insomnia finally caught up with me; I passed out roughly ten minutes after the football game ended on Thursday night and into a nine hour coma. I’m currently working on another couple of essays for release in the comings weeks – but after cranking out over 10K words in the last seven or so days, I’m feeling a little sluggish. 

In the meantime, here’s a small meme collection focused on third party candidates that I threw together after Gary Johnson’s now-infamous “what’s Aleppo” comment on MSNBC’s typically dreadful Morning Joe show. While the moment was amusing, I should like to note that the greater tragedy in all of this is that the American people as a whole have no goddamn clue “what Aleppo is” either because the news media is largely disinterested in reporting the horrific consequences of supporting “anyone who hates Assad” in Syria. Even the New York Times is clueless; they were forced to issue two separate corrections in a journalistic shitshow that actively demonstrates the America media’s total lack of fucking interest in reporting on the devastating war being waged in Syria right now.

As with all the comedy meme collections on this site; the primary goal here was humor, but each of these memes is based loosely on some incident in the news – if you click on the image, you’ll be taken to a story that inspired the meme in some way.

Read the rest of the article on ninaillingworth.com now... 

- Nina

Info-Meme of the Week: No Record, No Crime

Editor’s Note: after days and days on end of typing essays, I decided to take a short break and throw together another Info-Meme of the Week to help the mainstream media do the job they clearly lost interest in years ago.

The plan here is to take a look at one issue or scandal largely being misreported in the media in the form of a single, easy-to-share meme that’s backed up by a few verifiable sources underneath the photo. No fuss, no pontificating pinko blogger telling you what this might all mean – just the facts, in one quick snapshot you can show your barely-literate roommates to force them to stop repeating mainstream media deceptions. Today’s topic is the curious case of a corrupt candidate who keeps accidentally destroying federal records over and over again throughout her staggeringly long career:

Read the rest of the article on ninaillingworth.com now...

Stalag 2016: Week 1 NFL Picks

“Good god man, of fucking course not – you know full damn well that my idea of fantasy football is fifteen minutes alone in a locked, windowless room with the Ford Family and a goddamn chainsaw” I replied, slamming the car door shut and moving towards the store.

“And just what in the name of fucking christ is a harambe by the way?”

* * * * *

Panthers (-3) over BRONCOS:

Look, let’s just get one goddamn thing absolutely fucking clear before we talk about this game; Thursday Night Football is an abomination against all that is right, pure and true in this exulted national pastime that also happens to slowly turn grown men’s brains into a scarred mass of dysfunctional, bleeding hamburger. The games are notoriously lousy, having to start the NFL schedule in the middle of the week plays absolute hell with bookies and the only reason the league insists on trotting out an inferior product every Thursday night is because advertisers are preternaturally attracted to prime-time, pro football; no matter how shitty the games are.

With all of that having been noted however, this match-up is probably about as good as it gets on Thursday Night Football as it features a rematch of last year’s Superbowl and arguably the best defense in each respective conference. The Broncos won that game 24-10 but unfortunately for them, they’re replacing a future Hall of Famer at the most important position in professional football with a guy who may well be asking you if you want fries with your Big Mac in three years.

Frankly, I have no fucking idea how good Trevor Siemian is, you have no fucking idea how good Trevor Siemian is – hell, Trevor’s own damn mother probably has no fucking idea how good he is either. What I do know is that the last time a seventh round draft pick with a grand fucking total of one season and one snap under his belt successfully replaced a two-time Superbowl winning, Hall of Fame quarterback was – well, probably fucking never; I’m certainly not looking that shit up. Both teams have lost high performance, mutant freak athletes on the defensive side of the ball this offseason but only one of these squads has a 6’5, 230lb quarterback who single-handedly declared America “beyond” racism this summer in an interview with GQ magazine. Thanks Cam; that should totally solve everything buddy.

For those of you keeping score at home – this week’s official “White America Cam Newton Approval Rating” is “Doug Williams” with a side of “not Colin Kaepernick.”

Read the rest of the article here on ninaillingworth.com...

- Nina Illingworth 

C.R.E.A.M Part Three: A Study & Review of Clinton Cash (Documentary)

Hello and welcome back to our third and final installment of our study and review of the shocking, controversial documentary – Clinton Cash.

All the way back in part one of C.R.E.A.M., we talked briefly about author and Clinton Cash narrator Peter Schweizer’s unfortunate affliction with hardcore Republicanism; that peculiar, withering disease that repeatedly prevents conservatives from accepting a free, political “layup” when dealing with the Clintons, in favor of attempting to land a 360 degree, tomahawk jam for the knockout blow. As I pointed out then, Schweizer was guilty (at times) of drawing wildly incriminating conclusions from evidence that certainly did warrant further scrutiny and definitely seemed to suggest the Clinton Foundation was the center of a massive, global influence trading scam – but didn’t actually definitively prove what the narrator claimed it had.

In part two of C.R.E.A.M. this was far less of an issue as Schweizer largely stuck to the facts and encouraged the audience to draw their own conclusions; like any responsible journalist or documentary filmmaker is supposed to do. I will honestly confess that the author’s ability to “pitch a clean game” in this portion of the program actually surprised me a little bit; particularly when Schweizer started to unravel Hillary Clinton’s apparent hypocrisy on climate catastrophe in light of speeches commissioned by banks invested in the Keystone XL pipeline. As a result, I genuinely feel that Clinton Cash’s investigations into the debacle of rebuilding Haiti and the role Bill Clinton’s speaking fees may have played in Hillary’s State Department acting in Swedish telecom corporation Ericsson’s favor – represent must-see viewing for people looking to untangle the web of bribery, deception and “charitable” donations involved here.

Unfortunately, in the closing thirty minutes of the film however; Schweizer once again takes the bait and on several occasions he does everything in his power to ruin a perfectly good argument by suggesting that the Clintons are obviously guilty of serious crimes without effectively sealing the deal. Naturally, a number of these “overreach” incidents have been seized upon by “media” loyal to the Clintons in a widespread effort to discredit what is otherwise the most fundamentally damning documentary (and book) about Hillary Clinton in existence.

read the rest of the story on ninaillingworth.com…

Info-Meme of the Week: When Pena Met Donald

Info-Meme of the Week: When Pena Met Donald

 

I’d like to introduce you today to a new, (hopefully) regular feature here on ninaillingworth.com; the Info-Meme of the Week. The idea here is to present one issue or scandal largely being misreported in the media in the form of a single, easy-to-share meme that’s backed up by a few verifiable sources underneath the photo. No fuss, no pontificating pinko blogger telling you what this might all mean – just the facts, in one quick snapshot you can show your mouthbreathing friends at work to force them to stop repeating media lies.

 

Our first Info Meme of the Week takes a look at the recent visit by GOP Presidential Candidate and noted flaming goddamn trash-pile of wildly gesticulating failure Donald Trump; with corrupt, brutal murderer and current President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto:

Read the rest of the article on ninaillingworth.com today...  

New “Deluxe” Wall of Shame Updates: August 27th

New “Deluxe” Wall of Shame Updates: August 27th

Editor’s note: it has been said, by minds perhaps greater than my own, that “all work and no play make Homer something, something.” While I’m still not entirely sure what that means, I thought it might be nice to shift gears today and revisit one of my favorite hobbies – exposing sniveling, mark-assed, shill propagandists masquerading as the ostensibly “liberal” media. Yes my friends, it’s time for a new Wall of Shame update and today we’ll be looking at two folks who’ve probably deserved this “honor” for quite some time: Matty Yglesias and Joy-Ann Reid.

In the interests of full disclosure* I should mention that both of these upstanding, impartial media professionals have me blocked on Twitter for reasons that escape my memory but will undoubtedly become crystal clear by the time we’re finished this post. All information presented is publicly available and indeed, proudly touted by both Yglesias and Reid as part of their work in “journalism.” Additionally, none of these tweets have been edited in any way; although, they may not appear in chronological order as they are often grouped by topic – space permitting, I tried to leave the dates and time-stamps on the individual tweets wherever possible.

Finally, and I really do believe this should go without saying but here goes anyways; the purpose of these posts and indeed the Wall of Shame in general is to point out the obvious, mainstream media bias towards “the status quo” and certain politicians by grouping screenshots of the things they say on social media into one reference guide. We’re also looking to have a little fun here, so there are some jokes – this is not however an open call to harass anyone online for fuck’s sake:

Read the rest of the article on ninaillingworth.com today... 

- Nina Illingworth

Observations from Outside the Death Star: August

Observations from Outside the Death Star: August

 

 

“If you ever had an idea that people were really terrible, you could watch the news and know that you’re right” – Frank Zappa

1. Feeding the Machine: Audit Blues at the DoD & the Social Cost of Imperialism

The next time someone tells you that there’s not enough money in the budget for single-payer healthcare in the United States; you should smack them directly in the mouth and remind them that the Pentagon has either lost, or spent without properly accounting for between 6.5 and 8.5 trillion dollars since 1996. Due to incompetence, mismanagement or purposeful obfuscation, the Department of Defense simply cannot (and likely never will be able to) account for enough money to fund every “pie in the sky” pinko/left dreamboat social program you can imagine; including single payer healthcare – possibly for decades!

This is of course simply part and parcel for an imperial war machine that spends roughly $600 billion (recorded) dollars a year on its military – more than the next seven or eight nations combined and more than enough to defeat virtually any military threat the United States could possibly face from anyone else on planet earth. I’ve got a “radical” idea – how about we bomb a few less hospitals abroad and pay for a few more hospital visits back home in America?

Projecting imperial power is abso-fucking-lutely not in the best interest of the average American citizen but ensuring that everyone, regardless of personal wealth has access to adequate medical care most certainly is. The problem isn’t a lack of funds but rather a lack of political will and virtually fucking everyone knows it.

Read the rest of the article on ninaillingworth.com today...

- Nina Illingworth

Onward to September: Site Updates, Scheduling Notes & Social Media

Editor's note: this article is reprinted (with minor edits) from ninaillingworth.com and is primarily posted here to introduce new readers to me, my writing and my website. You'll be able to find previews and links to my website here but you'll have to visit the site itself to read the full stories in the future - NI  

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

 

"Who am I? You sure you wanna know?" - Peter Parker

Hello, my name is Nina Illingworth and to start things off I'd like to explain what the hell we're doing here if that's alright with you:

I am an independent writer and currently the primary force behind the website ninaillingworth.com; I write the articles, I do about 75% of the editing and I handle almost all of the advertising or promoting of the site that gets done. I would describe the vast majority of the things I write as op-ed pieces because I typically rely on drawing opinions or larger conclusions from the work of journalists, reporters and news anchors; you can learn slightly more about me by reading this Contact Page I threw together in a few minutes while drunk because the site had to have one.

If you're interested in taking a quick look at the kind of work I do, I've included a small sampling of some of my favorite pieces spread across a number of genres:
  

The Biggest Lie: Clinton, Comey & Intent as it Pertains to the Espionage Act

Observations from Outside the Death Star: August

The Wall of Shame

Wicked Game: the Clandestine Murder of Democracy in America pt 1 – 2016 Dem Primary

Darth Snarth and the Gator Good

Time and Pressure: the Excruciating Patience of Rafael Edward Cruz

One Seven Six

The Clinton Scandal Meme Project Part Six: Madam Secretary

 

“Life is what happens to us while we’re making other plans” – Allen Saunders

Back at the end of March when I started this website, I really wasn’t sure what sort of direction it would end up taking. All I really knew is that I was frustrated with what passes for mainstream media in our society, I felt I was capable of exposing some of the open corruption they were refusing to report on and I needed someplace to gather up all of my (at times) absurdly dissimilar writings in one place.

Today, five month later and through the lens of hindsight I’ve come to realize a little more about what readers want as well as what I’m capable of and will enjoy delivering; with a lot of trial and error along the way. Unfortunately, there’s also a goddamn massive list of what a more self-aware person might call regrets; stories I never found time to write, issues I wish I’d written more about and ideas I never quite found time to implement here on the website.

In light of both what I've learned and what I still hope ninaillingworth.com will become; I've thrown together a rough monthly (and tentative) schedule of posts you can hopefully expect to see on this website. Admittedly, it's an ambitious schedule based on my previous five months worth of output - but if I want the website to grow with the audience, I'd like to keep adding new things to the experience as often as I possibly can:

2-4 "deep dive" op-ed essays - these are the bread and butter of this website and without a doubt my favorite type of article to write. Whether we're talking about Hillary Clinton's long history of openly breaking the law, why Trump should have lost the GOP nomination back in March or toxic corruption in the US Justice Department; these essays are where you'll find heavily-sourced, verifiable information about horrifying evil and corruption in the United States and abroad. From time to time I'll also include in-depth film studies and reviews that try to go beyond just the production on screen and dig deeper into the background sources touched on during the film or documentary.  

4x Info Meme of the Week posts - this is a new feature on the site; I actually just posted our first info meme earlier today, "When Pena Met Trump." The idea here is to present one issue or scandal largely being misreported in the media in the form of a single, easy-to-share meme that’s backed up by a few verifiable sources underneath the photo. These memes are designed to be informative rather than funny, but represent an ideal way to learn about the news quickly and efficiently - without being exposed to bullshit corporate lies.  

1x Observations from Outside the Death Star post - when I originally started this website, it had always been my intention to write about the catastrophic damage caused by American imperialism, US foreign policy and the nation's military doctrine on a fairly regular basis. Unfortunately, the most terrifying and simultaneously maddening election in US history seems to have gotten in the way and I've only just recently posted our first OODS article. This is an unforgivable oversight on my part and I've decided to strongly recommit to examining the evil the US government condones, supports and commits abroad more regularly.

 1x Tales from the American DMZ post - any serious study of lies, evil and corruption in America must by it's nature include continued examination of the injustice, violence and open violation of civil liberties inflicted by various state-backed authorities on the US populace and in particular, vulnerable minorities within that populace. Until now, I have been largely derelict in that duty with the exception of a single post on the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando that touched on overvaluing gun rights and two paragraphs about police violence against and summary executions of black men in a news summary post. By scheduling a monthly post, I hope to correctly this problem definitively.  

1x Wall of Shame Update - one of the most popular features on ninaillingworth.com is the beloved Wall of Shame; a stunning collection of mendacious media morons openly lying, shilling and shitposting on behalf of their favorite political parties on social media. In the past, I've released Wall of Shame updates haphazardly and with more than one new "honoree" each time and many people have told me this leaves them wanting more frequent updates. From now on, I'll commit to at least one new addition to the glorious Wall each month and since I've hardly even touched on the notably dishonest neocon and objectively fucking insane alt-right media - I should be in no danger of running out of targets anytime soon.

1x Fantastic Lies post - the final truly "new" section I'd like to introduce on the site is an ongoing criticism of the lies politicians, the media and powerful corporations tell regular people in order to cover up corruption or openly influence our thoughts and behaviors. While the Wall of Shame is great for showing the sheer volume of bullshit media personalities are prepared to spew in pursuit of their political causes; sometimes it's necessary to break the specific lies elites tell us down more thoroughly and I think the Fantastic Lies section will allow me to do that better from here on out.

1x Rant, Takedown or Comedy Meme Collection - although it was never really my intention to have ninaillingworth.com become well-known for savage takedowns of frothing neoliberals and highly controversial rants; these types of posts have been wildly popular here on the site and I'm legitimately far too shitty of a person to not enjoy creating them. Although there is an inherent sort of randomness involved in cataloguing social media meltdowns and ideas so infuriatingly wrongheaded they required a written trip behind the woodshed for a savage beating; so far I've had no trouble averaging at least one such post a month. If all else fails and nothing worthwhile comes up; I'll just throw together a comedy meme collection for that month - it's never a good idea to schedule your "fun" too rigidly my friends.

4x NFL Picks Columns (football season only) - while it may be hard for some of you to believe; prior to setting up this website, I was working on a now-defunct, Detroit-focused, sports comedy page called SportsballChic. Unfortunately however, a serious long-term illness last fall forced me to abandon the site and by the time I'd recovered enough to write again, American politics had gone so completely bloody insane that it just didn't seem all that worthwhile to write about sports for people slightly right of Vladimir Putin on the political spectrum. Although I am still extremely proud of some of the work I did writing about sports; I'm also aware that my writing career has largely moved past that point and on to more important subjects like Nate Silver diss-rap filks. I have however been asked repeatedly over the summer by a number of my old readers to once again undertake a weekly NFL picks column and I've agreed to do so because I find them somewhat therapeutic. Although I'm aware that many regular readers of this site likely hate sports, please allow me to assure you these posts will only come out once a week for roughly twenty two weeks and I've established a scaled back outline for each column that will ensure they don't take much time away from my regular writing. Besides, you might actually enjoy them; each column begins with a (fictional) interconnected story about the depraved adventures of a Hunter S Thompson-esque gambling junkie who (theoretically) "writes" the picks article each week - last year, a few people who don't care about sports at all told me they read the articles just for the little story at the beginning of each one.

1x Fiction - in what may perhaps be another surprise to regular readers of this website, I also enjoy writing fiction; primarily short stories and confusing, highly-personal poetry, but I've also got a few good ideas for a novel or two kicking around in my head - and a plan to release them chapter by chapter on ninaillingworth.com, if time ever permits. Although I have no intention to prioritize writing fiction in the near future, I would very much like to write more fiction than I am writing at the moment. For the time being, these pieces will almost certainly be single scenes, extremely short stories and poems -  although I have begun scrawling out pages for a novel-length story intermittently and with a little luck, I might even publish a chapter in a few months; once I adapt to the heavier workload this entire schedule provides.

Overall, each of the items on this new schedule are prioritized roughly in the same order of this list and while I concede that it's a heavy workload; I can always skip posts closer to the bottom if illness, burnout or outside/personal problems interfere with my work. This epic schedule update isn't cast in stone; it's more an attempt to firmly define what this website is about, what I'm trying to accomplish here and provide the best possible experience for readers - both new and old alike.
  

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell

As I previously mentioned elsewhere on this site; a recent and indeed, openly terrifying incident of blatant Twitter censorship has made me slightly paranoid about being able to properly share my work with a larger audience on social media. Up until now, I've primarily relied on Twitter or simple word of mouth to advertise ninaillingworth.com and my recent shadowbanning scare has naturally made me question the wisdom of this strategy.

After talking the matter over for some time with a friend and follower on social media, I've decided to open a bunch of new accounts on different services to both promote this website and to help ensure that my voice isn't silenced unfairly; either by error or by corporate, media and governmental powers that be. So far it's been slow going; I only have an account on Twitter, GooglePlus, Medium and Blogger but as more are added, they'll be posted up on the Contact page of this website.

Please be advised that many of these social media accounts will contain very little content native only to that site; there is after all only one of me and I'm already quite busy producing content for a website and my Twitter account. Primarily, posts on these other sites will consist of an image, a brief preview and a link back towards an article on this site; the purpose here is to allow people to get updates on new content from more than one source and give me a platform to speak with readers if Twitter decides to fiddle around with my account settings again.

Alternately, regular readers can sign up to automatically receive email updates using the bar on the right side of the screen at ninaillingworth.com; under the paypal donation button.

Finally, as a further protection; please allow me to implore all of you who enjoy the content here on this site to retweet and share links to articles on this site liberally in your own social media circles. You can find tips for how to help me reach more readers by checking out the Spread the Word Page here, but the basic idea is to help by sharing my work with people on other social media sites like Facebook and popular forums you might visit. As an independent writer operating a small website like this by myself; I am utterly dependent on and eternally grateful towards those kind souls who share my articles with a larger audience - frankly, I am by no means joking when I say I need your links more than I need your donations at this point in my "career" folks.
  

“I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me.” - H. Thompson

Jokes aside, ninaillingworth.com is a completely free-to-read website with no paywall that will never feature outside advertisements of any kind, or even monthly charity drives because I hate these things with the passion of a thousand dying suns; just like you do. The website and my labor are funded entirely by reader donations through Paypal, Patreon or even bitcoins; you can read more about how to donate to the cause on the Tip Jar page here or simply use the helpful donation buttons provided at the bottom of every article on ninaillingworth.com.

With that having been noted however, the work I do here represents my only source of income and as a result I ask that if you can afford to and feel inspired to donated to keeping this website up and running, I would be extremely grateful if you did so. By that same measure, if you cannot afford to donate; please don't feel guilty about reading my work without contributing - the monetization of truth and knowledge actually represents one of the more sinister forces I'm trying to fight by writing here.

Well friends, there you have it; the long version of who I am, how my website works and what sort of articles you can expect to find there each month. Thank you for bearing with me through such dry material and hopefully I'll see you on ninaillingworth.com this September and beyond. Until then; keep your eyes open and share the truth with anyone who'll listen. Thanks and goodnight.

 

• Nina Illingworth