That was interesting. I started a Periscope talking about my own experience as a “crisis actor”, which is simply another way of saying “roleplayer in a training exercise”, and most of the people trying to watch it were blocked. I could see the number of people joining and then dropping out going up and down by scores before I shut it down.
It’s remarkable how desperate they are to stop “crisis actor” from becoming the “fake news” of 2018. Apparently these people are unfamiliar with the term “Streisand Effect”.
On Wednesday, one week after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Facebook and YouTube vowed to crack down on the trolls. Thousands of posts and videos had popped up on the sites, falsely claiming that survivors of the shooting were paid actors or part of various conspiracy theories. Facebook called the posts “abhorrent.” YouTube, which is owned by Google, said it needed to do better. Both promised to remove the content.
The companies have since aggressively pulled down many posts and videos and reduced the visibility of others. Yet on Friday, spot searches of the sites revealed that the noxious content was far from eradicated.
UPDATE: Definitely some sort of flag on the term. I did a second Periscope using the name “The Streisand Effect” and had no issues. This is actually an opportunity to redpill some people by showing them the strings; encourage them to put the term “crisis actor” in a YouTube, Facebook, or Periscope title and see what happens. It will definitely convince them that Big Social is suspiciously desperate to conceal specific forms of badthink.
What President Trump should do is call out “crisis actors undermining public confidence in the media,” both on Twitter and in a White House address. The response would make last year’s Fake News meltdown look downright sane and reserved in comparison.
The Parkland students/crisis actors speaking out for gun control are actors. Literal actors, as in, members of the school’s TV and drama clubs.
Here’s where it gets a little more intriguing. Note the two “Stop Joseph Kony” groups on the Facebook page of Alex Wind. That is quite odd because the Kony 2012 campaign was a US State Department misleading propaganda campaign (largely considered to be a psyop) used to expand the presence of AFRICOM in Africa…. Now guess who helped head up the Kony2012/Invisible Children campaign for the US State Department? None other than Brennan Gilmore who was the main media personality/witness for the Charlottesville car incident in summer 2017. Thus, it is quite an interesting coincidence that these Kony2012 groups are the only groups on the Facebook page of Alex Wind, student actor and one of the lead media promoted personalities for the Parkland shooting event…. So there you have it, they just happened to be running a bunch of active shooter drills that day and wearing lots of gory makeup and a crazy kid who looks comatose just happened to show up at the school and shoot a bunch of people for real and then they just happened to fortunately be a bunch of student actors that had well rehearsed lines about how angry they are about guns, except when they were caught smiling for the photo shoots, of course. As I said before, it’s all fake. Risibly so. As I have often said, the only thing you can be absolutely certain did not happen is the Official Story that is reported by the media.
InfoWars, a far-right media organization run by Alex Jones and known for peddling unfounded conspiracy theories, is on thin ice with YouTube after it posted a video that portrayed the survivors of the Parkland school shooting as actors.
The Alex Jones Channel, Infowar’s biggest YouTube account, received one strike for that video, a source with knowledge of the account told CNN. YouTube’s community guidelines say if an account receives three strikes in three months, the account is terminated.
That video focused on David Hogg, a strong voice among survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The attention has given him a powerful platform — but it has also made him the subject of demonstrably false conspiracy theories that claim he is so simply too skilled as public speakers not to be a paid actor.
On Wednesday, YouTube removed the video from InfoWars’ page for violating its policies on harassment and bullying. The video was titled, “David Hogg Can’t Remember His Lines In TV Interview.”
The fact that the mainstream media and Youtube are peddling pure propaganda is underlined by their over-the-top reaction to the accusations that people like David Hogg are crisis actors playing a role to create a false narrative for the public.
If it was actually a “demonstrably false” charge, they wouldn’t be threatened by it. If it were simply nonsense, they wouldn’t be so desperate to shut it down.
From the article: Conspiracy believers think false flags are government operations that seek to divert or steer public discussion and policy. From the online encyclopedia: The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that activities appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them. The conspiracy believers are correct. That’s exactly what false flags are, Operation Northwoods being but one of many historical examples.
Notice the ludicrously false claims in the linked piece. It’s rather shocking that they actually seem to expect people not to notice them. Their “debunking” is incoherent. Literally no one claims that David Hogg is “simply too skilled” as a public speaker to not be a paid actor. In fact, the headline quoted right in the linked piece points out the precise opposite! It points out that Hogg is such a bad actor that he can’t even remember his scripted lines. As I have repeatedly pointed out, it is very clear to any professional fiction editor that these actors are reciting lines from a script. A very bad and poorly written script that doesn’t sound even remotely like the way real people actually speak in high-pressure situations.
Q is right. These people are stupid. These people are government employees. This is what happens when people with an average IQ of 95 try to produce a live-action movie. And that is why the media has to try to shut down all dubious and skeptical voices, because the obvious questions that are naturally raised are so destructive of the Narrative that the mere asking of them is sufficient to destroy the Official Story that the media is trying, and failing, to uphold.
Who do you think is leaking the info? Take a wild guess. Analyze shooter (pawn). Voices in his head? We know. We are taking action behind the scenes. CNN was set up. STUPID.
All of these emotionally manipulative events, from Sandy Hook to Parkland, are fake. They’re not even remotely credible, and the more the media tries to clamp down on everyone who is simply asking obvious questions, the more obvious it is that they are in on it.
$45 million, in total, has flowed into Sandy Hook in the last two years.
This is why those who are committed to the truth must build our own platforms. And this is why the God-Emperor would be wise to put a special military commission together to investigate the Deep State’s corruption and control of the mainstream media.
UPDATE: This is the video of David Hogg flubbing his lines that the media doesn’t want you to see. Notice that he’s not breaking down, he’s just not remembering how to say them correctly. It’s also interesting to note that Reddit is now threatening to ban redditors who so much as mention his name.
BD reflects upon his professional observations concerning recent events.
I was a cop and investigator for around twenty years. Law enforcement goes back in my family for generations and one of my sons is a cop. I understand law and criminal justice better than most.
My grandfather told me three things that stuck with me. First, treat everyone with respect. He said, “You might be the only guy who calls the wino in the gutter, ‘Sir’ and mean it. You’ll be the only man to show him respect all day.” I’ll get to why that’s important in a second. Second, he said, “Walk your beat. Get to know the people. Know where the mean dogs are and where somebody has a clothesline in their back yard.” That advice served me very well over the years. Almost as much as the first thing. The third big thing he said was, “Be honest. Always tell the truth. Always keep a promise. Even little ones, if you tell a guy he can smoke a cigarette while you’re driving him to jail, give him a cigarette.” I don’t smoke but I always kept a pack and lighter in my car.
Showing respect is vital. People notice if you’re a dick. They’ll trust you more and respect you more if you treat them decently. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve arrested have come up spontaneously to apologize later for being stupid and making me use force and arrest them. I got pictures of their kids in my wallet almost twenty years after I’ve quit being a cop.
Getting to know your neighborhood is equally important. Once they get to know you they’ll stop to talk. Kids will want you to kick a ball around or shoot hoops for a minute. People will try and give you all the food and coffee you can hold. I know it goes against the rules of gratuities but don’t refuse coffee (use your judgement on food). Some places it’s an insult and nobody’s trying to bribe you with a cup of coffee. If somebody sells food then that’s different but don’t say no to grandma’s frybread or biscuits.
Be honest, always keep your word. You can use a little deception if you’re trying to get a guy out from under a car, “We’re sending in the dog!” (you don’t have a dog but the drunk has forgotten that). That kind of thing nobody resents later. But if someone asks you something be honest. Saying, “I can’t tell you that either way,” is being honest.
The reason I’m writing this is because I read about these places like Miami and don’t recognize what I used to do. My son works in a small county and the rot hasn’t reached here but when he worked for the state he quit because the prosecutor would simply let the guys he caught go. Or give them a deferred sentence for ‘drug treatment’. Virtually ninety percent of who you actually arrest has some drugs or alcohol problem. It’s why most thieves steal to support their habit or buy smokes or get gas money. Illegals just got deported regardless of the crime.
So he went back to the county and does honest cop work where the prosecutor gives jail time to felons instead of getting them off the books as fast as they can.
My son in law is thinking of becoming a cop. He would be a good one, he’s kind, honest and has integrity. He has the physical and mental abilities as well but they are not as important as character. You cannot teach those things in any classroom. That piece of shit that ran and hid from the gunfire makes me sick. If you’re not brave enough to run towards gunfire find something else to do. If you do the job right it can be as satisfying as any job in the world. But if you’re a corrupt piece of crap covering up crime, you’re a criminal with a badge.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to law enforcement in general but when or if we split into different nations, Calexit, Dixie States, Texas whatever, I predict we’ll see different kinds of cops on each side. The communities will pick the kinds of police they want.
“Crisis actor” is the most effective rhetoric to surface since “fake news”. The media is going completely berserk in their attempts to shut it down before it becomes an accepted part of the daily discourse.
“The Daily Show” on Thursday condemned Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren, calling her a “crisis actor,” in reference to conspiracy theories being pushed by conservatives about Florida school shooting survivors.
“Right now, a mainstream media organization is paying a young person to pose as a victim on TV,” a video shared by the show said. “In reality, this ‘victim’ is being coached to recite highly scripted talking points.” The video features a compilation of Lahren’s television appearances and calls on Twitter users to tweet at the Fox News account with the hashtag #TammyMustGo.
But they won’t be able to do so, because the term’s rhetorical effectiveness is intrinsically indicative of its general accuracy. From SJWs Always Lie:
It is not strictly true, in the dialectical sense, to assert that SJWs never tell the truth. To be dialectically sound, one should say, “SJWs frequently lie”, or better yet, “SJWs have often been observed to lie in situations when doing so will serve their immediate interests”. But as Aristotle tells us, the best rhetoric is rooted in truth, and the statement “SJWs always lie” rings emotionally true because SJWs lie so often, and so reliably, that it resonates with every individual who has been witness to their habitual dishonesty. That is why “SJWs always lie” is flawed dialectic, but accurate and effective rhetoric.
The reason “crisis actor” is such effective rhetoric, and the reason that it has the media in a tizzy, is because it is a concept that is rooted in truth, even though not every individual suspected of being a crisis actor is, in fact, a crisis actor.
Now the media is desperately trying to explain away the California video. He was just visiting friends and family! It was just a super interesting encounter, which is why it was covered by the local news in Los Angeles!
“I witnessed this event, why are you guys doing this to me? I’m trying to be as well spoken as possible because these politicians won’t,” he tells Fujii. “I hate that people think I’m an actor, but I don’t have time to care about that. I have to keep going.”
Hogg’s father is former FBI, but he claims that despite some speculation, his dad has nothing to do with his views.
“I am not fed any lines. My father is a retired FBI agent,” said Hogg. “I’m not working with him or anybody else on this. I’m speaking from my heart.”
It’s a philosophical conundrum. If the crisis actor denies he is a crisis actor, isn’t he, by the very act of his denial, confirming precisely what he denies being? The thing is, it’s quite easy to distinguish between scripted dialogue and normal human communication. There is a sort of aural uncanny valley that is hard for the average individual to articulate, but they pick it up nevertheless.
“I’m not working with him… I’m speaking from my heart.” Those are the sorts of phrases that simply screams SCRIPT. And why doesn’t he “have time”? He’s a high school kid! He has nothing but time!
Keep in mind that a false flag doesn’t mean that there were no real victims. When General L.L Lemnitzer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed off on Operation Northwoods on March 13, 1962, it was specifically planned for “the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or other U.S. government operatives” to “commit acts of terrorism against American civilians.”
Back then, the Deep State wanted to drum up support for a war with Cuba. Now, it wants to drum up public support for gun control. But it’s all fake and it has been for at least the last 56 years. Do you seriously want to argue that human nature has somehow evolved past that sort of thing in that time?
The ironic thing is that it never occurred to me to think that the high school kids might be plants until they started “speaking out”. But after hearing them talk, it never occurred to me for a second that they might be genuine. People being held hostage by ISIS have recorded more convincing speeches on camera with a knife held to their throat.
Not one but four sheriff’s deputies hid behind cars instead of storming Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS in Parkland, Fla., during Wednesday’s school shooting, police claimed Friday — as newly released records revealed the Broward County Sheriff’s Office had received at least 18 calls about the troubled teen over the past decade.
Were they cowards? Or were they ordered to stand down? We certainly can’t believe a single thing that the Broward County Sheriff’s Office says either.
Featuring a foreword by the brilliant Israeli military theorist Martin van Creveld, On War is a fascinating book that is a must-listen for every military professional, wargamer, and amateur student of the art of war.
On War is a seven-year collection of columns written by the father of 4th Generation War theory while observing the US invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. It is an intriguing account of a war in progress, as seen through the eyes of a military theorist able to anticipate events with an almost prophetic degree of accuracy. Throughout the book, 4GW theory is defined, described, and refined as events in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places demonstrate the theory’s utility in making sense of current events and predicting future ones. The inevitable failure of the New Iraqi Army and the US-installed al-Maliki government is explained years in advance, as is the rise of the Islamic State and other 4th Generation forces presently battling for power in post-occupation Iraq.
Lind also makes an ominous, but compelling case for the gradual spread of 4th Generation chaos and the decline of the state throughout the world, including in the United States of America. In one of the key passages of the book, Lind writes: “4th Generation war is the greatest change since the Peace of Westphalia, because it marks the end of the state’s monopoly on war. All over the world, state militaries are fighting non-state opponents, and almost always, the state is losing.”
William S. Lind is one of the most significant and influential military theorists on the planet. The author of the Maneuver Warfare Handbook and a founder of 4th Generation War theory, Mr. Lind is known and respected by military personnel around the world.
How NOT to Use Light Armored Vehicles August 13, 2003
One day in the late 1970’s, when I was a defense staffer for Senator Gary Hart, I got a call from an Armed Services Committee staffer asking if I knew anything about Light Armored Vehicles (LAVs), which are what we used to call armored cars. A bit, I replied. What did I think of them, he asked? I said I liked them for operational maneuver, because they are wheeled, and most operational (as opposed to tactical) movement is on roads.
That was the beginning of the Marine Corps’ LAV program. We soon roped in a one-star at Quantico named Al Gray, and within a few years the Corps had acquired some LAVs. The concept for which they were purchased was very clear: to form Soviet-style Operational Maneuver Groups for use against Third World countries. We all knew that LAVs are tactically fragile, and must be used in ways that avoid heavy combat. We also knew that the tank the U.S. armed forces were then buying, the M-1, was too heavy and used too much fuel to be able to maneuver rapidly over operational distances. The LAVs could fill the gap.
As one of the Ur-Vaters of the Marines’ LAV program, I was pleased to hear a couple years ago that the Army was now also planning to buy LAVs. Good, I thought; they too have recognized that the M-1 is more a Sturmgeschuetz or a Jagdpanzer than a real tank, and they need something else for operational maneuver. These are also known as “tank destroyers”, Jagdpanzer literally translates as “tank hunter”. I should have known better, given that we are talking about the U.S. Army. Nonetheless, it was with unbelief, then horror, that I learned what the Army was really buying Strykers for: urban combat. And now, the first Stryker units are to be sent to Iraq.
The magnitude of the idiocy involved in using Light Armored Vehicles in urban fighting, where they are grapes for RPGs, is so vast that analogies are difficult. Maybe one could compare it to planning a fireworks display on board the Hindenburg. Urban combat is extremely dangerous for any armored vehicle, including the heaviest tanks, as the Israelis can testify after losing several Merkavas in the Gaza strip to some very big mines. Why? Because for opposing fighters, regular infantry or guerillas, the old sequence from the German “men against tanks” is easy. The sequence is, “blind ’em, stop ’em, kill ’em.” Armored vehicles are already blind in cities because distances are short; the safest place near a hostile tank is as close to it as you can get since then it can’t see you. Stopping tanks is also easy, because streets are often narrow enough to prevent vehicles from turning around.
And with LAVs, once they are blinded and stopped, killing them is very easy because the armor is, well, light. That’s why they are called Light Armored Vehicles.
In the first phase of the war in Iraq, the jousting contest, the Marine Corps lost M-1 tanks and it lost Amtracks, its amphibious personnel carrier. But it lost no LAVs. That is a testament, not to the vehicles, but to how they were employed.
But in the second phase of the Iraq war, and in future phases as well, there will be no role for operational maneuver. And there will be no role for LAVs or Strykers. If the Army insists on sending them into Iraqi towns and cities, they should first equip them with coffin handles, because all they will be is coffins for their crews.
When I first came to Washington in 1973, I was quickly introduced to an old saying about the American armed forces: the Air Force is deceptive, the Navy is dishonest, and the Army is dumb. It seems some things never change.
Despite the media’s best efforts, President Trump is more popular than the sainted Obama was at this point in his presidency:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 50{220a6e635a8cea8828f626b668a05008bdf2fa6127b3db612f604ff4a9b5f0bd} of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-nine percent (49{220a6e635a8cea8828f626b668a05008bdf2fa6127b3db612f604ff4a9b5f0bd}) disapprove. This is the president’s highest job approval rating since mid-June of last year. President Obama earned 45{220a6e635a8cea8828f626b668a05008bdf2fa6127b3db612f604ff4a9b5f0bd} approval on this date in the second year of his presidency.
Just wait. Once the God-Emperor takes on the Deep State openly, his approval will rise above 65 percent.
At least part of the police cover-up of the recent school shooting at Douglas is related to the way in which the County Sheriff and School Superintendent are trying to hide their corrupt scheme to NOT enforce the law when faced with more criminal behavior by students than their monthly crime quota will permit. The Last Refuge explains:
I spent about 18 months in 2012, 2013 and 2014 investigating Broward and Miami-Dade school policies and how those policies transfer to law enforcement practices. My interest was initially accidental. I discovered an untold story of massive scale and consequence as a result of initial research into Trayvon Martin and his High School life.
What I stumbled upon was a Broward County law enforcement system in a state of conflict. The Broward County School Board and District Superintendent, entered into a political agreement with Broward County Law enforcement officials to stop arresting students for crimes. The motive was simple. The school system administrators wanted to “improve their statistics” and gain state and federal grant money for improvements therein. So police officials, the very highest officials of law enforcement (Sheriff and Police Chiefs), entered into a plan.
As soon as Miami-Dade began to receive the benefits (political and financial) from the scheme, Broward County joined on. The approach in Broward was identical as the approach in Miami-Dade. It’s important to remember, this was not an arbitrary change – this was a well-planned fundamental shift in the entire dynamic of how teenagers would be treated when they engaged in criminal conduct.
The primary problem was the policy conflicted with laws; and over time the policy began to create outcomes where illegal behavior by students was essentially unchecked by law enforcement. Initially the police were excusing misdemeanor behaviors. However, it didn’t take long until felonies, even violent felonies (armed robberies, assaults and worse) were being excused. The need to continue lowering the arrests year-over-year meant that increasingly more severe unlawful behavior had to be ignored. Over time even the most severe of unlawful conduct was being filtered by responding police.
We found out about it, when six cops blew the whistle on severe criminal conduct they were being instructed to hide. The sheriff and police Chiefs were telling street cops and school cops to ignore ever worsening criminal conduct. The police were in a bind. They were encountering evidence of criminal conduct and yet they had to hide the conduct. There were examples of burglary and robbery where the police had to hide the recovered evidence in order to let the kids get away without reports.
The police would take the stolen merchandise and intentionally falsify police records to record stolen merchandise *as if* they just found it on the side of the road. They put drugs and stolen merchandise in bags, and sent it to storage rooms in the police department. Never assigning the recovery to criminal conduct. Stolen merchandise was just sitting in storage rooms gathering dust.
They couldn’t get the stuff back to the victim because that would mean the police would have to explain how they took custody of it. So they just hid it. To prove this was happening one of the officers told me where to look, and who the victim was.
At first I didn’t believe them. However, after getting information from detectives, cross referencing police reports, and looking at the “found merchandise”, I realized they were telling the truth. A massive internal investigation took place and the results were buried. Participating in the cover-up were people in the media who were connected to the entire political apparatus. The sheriff and police chief could always deny the violent acts (assaults, rapes, beatings etc.) were being ignored; that’s why the good guys in the police dept gave the evidence of the stolen merchandise. That physical evidence couldn’t be ignored and proved the scheme.
From 2012 though 2018 it only got worse. In Broward and Miami-Dade it is almost impossible for a student to get arrested. The staff within the upper levels of LEO keep track of arrests and when a certain number is reached all else is excused.
Well it didn’t take long for criminal gangs in Broward and Miami-Dade to realize the benefit of using students for their criminal activities. After all, the kids would be let go… so organized crime became easier to get away with if they enlisted high-school kids. As criminals became more adept at the timing within the offices of the officials, they timed their biggest crimes to happen after the monthly maximum arrest quota was made.
The most serious of armed robberies etc. were timed for later in the month or quarter. The really serious crimes were timed in the latter phases of the data collection periods. This way the student criminals were almost guaranteed to get away with it. Now. You can see how that entire process gets worse over time. Present corruption (the need to hide the policy) expands in direct relationship to the corruption before it. This is where the School Police come into play.
Understanding the risk behind the scheme, it became increasingly important to put the best corrupt cops in the schools. *BEST* as in *SMARTEST*. Those SRO’s became the ones who were best at hiding the unlawful conduct. Again, over time, the most corrupt police officers within the system became the police inside the schools. These officers were those who are best skilled at identifying the political objectives and instructions.
Those “School Cops” also have special privileges. It’s a great gig. They get free “on campus” housing close to the schools they are assigned to etc. They’re crooked as hell and the criminal kids how just how to play them. It’s a game. Also an open secret. A lot of it came out during an earlier *internal affairs* investigation. Unfortunately the behavior never changed because the politics never changed. It’s still going on. For years this has been happening and no-one cared. Crimes happen; students excused; victims ignored; etc. The Broward County School and Law Enforcement system is designed to flow exactly this way. It’s politics.
Only then a Parkland school shooting happened. For Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel this had to be an “oh shit” moment; but not for the reasons the media initially thought. If people start digging, they’ll discover the shooter was one of those previously excused students. The same sentiment applies for Sheriff Scott’s partner, School Superintendent Robert Runcie (previously from Chicago)…. things are very risky if people start digging.
Forget the occasional school shooter. The much more serious danger is from the corrupt police and the criminals they enable. And you’re going to disarm yourself and count on those corrupt clowns to protect you? That would be absolutely insane!
UPDATE: The Broward County school shootings also look increasingly like another false flag. Quelle surprise.
Bleeding Cool reports that the USA’s foremost black intellectual, Ta-Nehisi Coates, will be writing Captain America for Marvel:
Last July, Bleeding Cool heard the word that Ta-Nehisi Coates would be the new writer on the Captain America ongoing comic book. Same with Nick Spencer on Amazing Spider-Man. Though we only learnt that Ryan Ottley would be joining him as an artist in January.
None of these stories have been confirmed. None of them were in the Marvel May solicits. And none were mentioned by Marvel at ComicsPRO today.
However, I get the nod that we might be hearing more about Coates writing Captain America next week…. An American author, journalist, comic book writer, and educator, Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic, where he writes about cultural, social and political issues, particularly regarding African Americans. It is likely this aspect that will inform much of the coverage when the news goes official.
For Coates, it might be just one more notch. He’s written for The Village Voice, Washington City Paper, and Time. He has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Washington Monthly, O, and other publications. In 2008 he published a memoir, The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and Unlikely Road to Manhood. His second book, Between the World and Me, was released in July 2015. It won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and was a nominee for the Phi Beta Kappa 2016 Book Awards. He was the recipient of a “Genius Grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2015. And he has been the writer of the Black Panther series for Marvel Comics drawn by Brian Stelfreeze for two years now.
But the man who wrote The Case for Reparations writing Captain America could make for a very interesting comic book indeed.
Very interesting is one way of putting it. Very converged is another. I, for one, very much look forward to learning more about Captain America’s self-flagellating voyage into the discovery of his own internalized racism and his eventual retirement in favor of a black man who, completely coincidentally, looks very much like an idealized Ta-Nehisi Coates.
I love the smell of my competitor’s convergence in the morning!