G'day G'day from Burlington Iowa. Picking up some tires here today that are going back to Saskatchewan or Saskatchewan as it's better known. Got to deliver those into Langbank on Monday. It is Friday today when I'm filming this. Let's get these tires put on my trailer, get them tied down and get on the road because I'm stopping by at home on the way. So we'll be home tomorrow. In 300 meters turn left onto North Roosevelt Avenue. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. What? Before we get started here today's shout out goes to our friends at Bullsnaught. All of the cleaning products you need to keep your truck shining. Go down below to my description where you can find a link to their website. BrownOx.com for the US and Bullsnaught Canada. We're up here in Canada. Go check them out if you like a clean rig. Let's get on with the video. So I'm ready to rock and roll. It's all tied down as tight as I possibly can. You can hit a blue beacon on the way home. Let's go. Home is at the end of this trip or on the way technically the end of this trip. Home is tomorrow on the way and then I go home. Then I am about a week off going to Louisville for a day and I'm flying back after my son's birthday and then we have a doctor's appointment and then I'm back at work. All of that's going to take up the next week so I'm excited. Let's get going. Jersey Street and then turn right in 40 meters. Can I still turn left? Yes, everyone else is doing it so I'm going to do it too. Follow the crowd. US 34. That's what I was looking for. Can't believe I missed my turn. It was right there. I was staring straight at it. Like no, no, that's no idea. I'm looking for the on ramp. That's a side street. I drive past it. No, that's not a side street. That's the on ramp. Celsius outside. And what is 17 Celsius in Fahrenheit? 15 degrees Celsius is 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit. What? 1,373 kilometers is equivalent to 853.143 miles which will turn north. That'll take us up to Minneapolis in Minnesota. That would onto I-94 westbound from Minnesota. We'll turn north up there and that'll take us up to Canada to get today. You know, feel like it's still close to the border. I don't know if we'll actually make it but we'll get pretty close to the border. It would it would be awesome if I could make it just across the border into Canada. Check my luck quite a bit. Absolute perfect day. Anywhere. Not even in Minneapolis. I have to sort of say goodbye to fuel economy for a while. I could very very go anyway because I can't get home in the middle of the night. Almost one. He's turning one on March 22nd by the time you watch this you may already be one year old. I'll say our one year old. He gets woken up and if he gets woken up in the middle of the night guess who's staying up to put him back to bed that would be me. And when I get home in the middle of the night I'd like to just go to bed and now I just rather not wake up the whole house in the middle of the night. I'll go sleep somewhere and I'll go home in the morning. He's usually up at 7 30 a.m. every day anyway so it's shining here but unfortunately back at home they're having an ice rain storm right now. The weather isn't as nice as it is here. I hope that weather doesn't slow me down too much. Make this Iowa weather home. I strapped as much of it down as I could along with the tires. I'm taking as much as I can home. I don't know if it's going to be enough to make a difference though. We made it to the I-29. As I was approaching this interchange I was like oh look there's the 29. No no no no this is the I-35. We still got a long way to go. We're getting close to the southern border of Minnesota so we'll be in Minnesota soon. Then we got to go around Minneapolis yet then down to 94. Then we'll be at the 29. A long way to go. Got myself excited there for a second. Oh making pretty good time. Look at this route to 29. No Josh. No. Don't be silly. We are making good time but not that to get ourselves onto the 35. This road for 186 kilometers. In about two hours. That'll be six seven eight o'clock so rush hours should be over by then. Pull out buzz right through. Straight through the city. Nation on the left side in 100 meters. We're in St. Cloud Minnesota. My Wex app that's connected to my fuel card isn't working right now. It isn't telling me it's not telling me the prices of fuel around here. So I'm just going to St. Cloud because I know they're usually around the cheapest but I don't know. Yesterday quick trip was cheaper. I don't know what happened to this app. Maybe it's down for maintenance or something. The app itself opens up but it's not telling me any fuel prices anywhere. You have arrived at your destination on the left side. Plan the travel center. See if it works in the morning and if not I'll have to make some phone calls or send off some emails or something. I need to know where the fuel prices are the cheapest. I need to know how am I supposed to save a penny if I don't know where I can save a penny. Bus weekly after all expenses without owning equipment. There's going to be a big catch on that one. There's going to be a big catch on that one. You can take ten thousand dollars home every month as a company driver. Making a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year. Take home after all expenses.  Some places they'll tell you anything to get you in the door and sitting in one of their seats. I'm glad that we're not like that. We are honest. We'll tell you like it is. Won't sugar coat things. You know it's tough being out here. Like bringing home ten thousand dollars a month as a company driver. I mean if that's true. What kind of stuff are you hauling solid gold?  I have no idea what the price is for me here. I know what the posted price is. That's not my price. I get a special plate because I get discounts. Because we have a fleet card. We share whatever. You know how it works. Our company. All the trucks. All of our guys. We all run off the same fuel cards. Not the same card. We have our own cards but it's the same company. And the more fuel we buy at certain places the cheaper we get. The more discounts we get right. That's how we get discounts. And I have this app that's called Wex Card Control and it's supposed to tell me what all the fuel prices are. My price. Not the posted price. My price. And it's not working today. This is a crisis. I don't know what I'm paying for fuel here. So I can see my transactions here in the app. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to fuel it up and look at my transaction and find out my price that way. But by that point the fuel is already in my tanks. And the opportunity for me to choose was stolen from me. You know. What if it was cheaper a quick trip again today? Because yesterday it was 11 cents more per gallon here at Pilot in St. Cloud than a quick trip in Clearwater. 11 cents cheaper over there. And usually it's the other way around right. Usually this place is way cheaper. So when in doubt. I mean I'll just go with what's safe. St. Cloud usually has cheap fuel. I don't even know if I'll need this. I broke out the old hat earlier today in Iowa. It was warm. Let's see. Oh it's definitely chillier here now. For real this time. Here and I was going to tell them. For real this time. Merging on to I-29 North. Have to pull in somewhere for the night. Very soon. Running out of hours. I got 43 minutes left and loves our behind us now to the south of this intersection. I'm going to go up to uh with the stay mark on the north end of town here. You can find me a spot calling a night road for 247 kilometers. I wouldn't be able to make it to the border tonight. We got here into North Dakota. We did pretty good. Find a spot here. I don't have too much time to play with. Oh yeah it looks like there's plenty of parking. Looks like it. Looks can be deceiving. Let's get in here and find out. Spots here. Oh yeah. Fantastic. Find ourselves a. Oh these are all reserved. Since when do you have reserved spots? That's why they're all open. How about that one over there? This one reserved over here too? One more of these truck stops. I think it's not reserved. Okay good. Oh wait. Yes it is reserved. These are all paid parking now? Are you kidding me? That's why half the truck stop is empty. Come on stay mark. That's disappointing. Let's go and do another loop. See what else we can find back here. Like I understand you're trying to make extra money. You're taking advantage of it but I'm adamant I'm not paying to park. I've been working a long day. I can't afford to pay every night. I can't believe this whole truck stop. Look it's half empty. That's just infuriating. Infuriating? You can tell I'm tired. Infuriating. And they got all these drop trailers in the free spots. Oh come on end of my day don't do this to me. Look it's all this empty space off on the right. Who's in the store. This place used to always be packed. Now nobody parks here. Half their lot's empty which means they have half the customers coming into their store. See a spot right here. I just got to turn around and come back. A few spots here that are open. Good. A couple spots here yet too. Okay we'll be okay. I just got to go turn around and get a face the other way. We found a spot in the back there. It was all right. Now it was just crumpy. It was the end of the day. I was just really paid for. I don't want to pay but seriously it is a little bit overkill. But I realized why they started doing this. I'm like wow. They sort of like paint the lines just like Pilot Flying J. They sort of look like they had that little reserve sign painted on the ground in front of the spots over there. Wow. Went inside. It is a Pilot Flying J now. Stay Mart was bought out by what is that called? One call. One nine fuels. Is that what it's called? It's all owned by the same people. So those same people that own Pilot Flying J now own Stay Marts here. And they put in paid parking. Josh if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. I do have nice things to say. I like Pilot Flying J. It's my favorite place to stop. It really is. I like it that it's on both sides of the border. I like their point system their showers. You guys know me though. I mean maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm okay with that. I don't like paid parking. I know in Europe it's a big thing. I don't want that to become a big thing here. I can't afford to pay to park everything. That's a lot of money. Every single night. Every single night. That's groceries and bills are already so high. Everything keeps going up, up, up, up, up. And now it's sort of, to me it sort of seems like insult to injury. We're already hurting. And then they'll be like you know what you were able to park here for free before. Well not for free. They expect you to go inside and support them inside then right. That's what I always did. If I park somewhere I always go inside. I spend money inside to support them. As a thank you for letting me park here. I appreciate that. But now it's like oh when we're changing that we know you're suffering. We're going to slap you with an extra charge. And that's their right to do. I understand. That's their right to do that. I get it. Maybe if I was in their position maybe I would do the same thing. I would hope I wouldn't. Being a trucker now I don't think I would. I really don't think I would because I've been one of the most outspoken people against paid parking. I understand when there's like 10 spots reserved it's nice that when you're coming in late especially guys who deliver like reefer loads and stuff they come in late to a truck stop. They want to make sure they get a spot. And I think that is perfectly fair to allow there to be a certain amount of paid parking like reserved parking so that you can show up at three in the morning and be guaranteed a spot if you pay right. So there's that part of it. That makes sense to me. So it's not that. Maybe it's not that bad. Maybe I maybe it's not that big of a deal. What do you guys think you know that's a conversation that we can have together. What do you guys think of this reserve paid parking. I've sort of shown you the the positives of it when you come in at 3am if you paid for a spot you'll have a spot. But also if you can't afford to pay for a spot or if you know things are tight and the whole parking lot is paid spots like like dozens and dozens of paid spots. How do you feel about that. You see my thing is that I have to stop. I would have gone home last night. I had lots of energy. I could have kept going but federal regulations say that I had to stop. So I have to stop. I only had what half an hour left by the time I got in here and everything. I had to stop not by choice because I had to. So shouldn't the people that are making us stop be responsible for providing us with a place to stop. If they're in charge and they make all the rules and they have the fines that if you if you break those fines you can get in trouble. Big trouble. Big fines. Those people want us to stop. Okay. Shouldn't they make sure that there is a good safe place for us to stop. Deep conversations right at the end of the vlog. I know. I know.  Go down there and let me know what you think of this whole issue. I'm excited to hear all sides of this. See you tomorrow everybody. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. Go down below to the description. Click on my links and find my social media there. I'll see you guys tomorrow.


What is going on guys welcome back to the channel and I appreciate you being here today. I am back with another Destiny 2 video and today I'm going to hopefully help you choose the right faction for this next week when the first of three faction rally events of season three starts. But before we go any further and get into the video guys if you do enjoy the video and would like to support the channel hitting that like button truly helps me and the channel out and I do appreciate that support. Okay so faction rallies this time around is way different than what we have experienced in the past not only are the rules different but the loot we can earn is so much better and at a much higher standard the problem now is you can only choose one faction across your entire account of three characters so if you have one warlock one titan and one hunter like most people you can only pledge to one said faction across all three characters. Me personally I think this is how it should have been from the get go I mean it's kind of pointless allowing us to pledge to each it means that end result for everyone will be the same and a winning faction which offers their winning weapon which costs one fires in glimmer to those who pledged that faction and 50 fires in glimmer who didn't pledge to the faction is completely irrelevant this way allowing us to choose one faction makes this much more of a war of factions for sure so which one should you choose well firstly it's important to note each faction offers different specific class exotic ornaments now this is where it gets pretty tricky for someone like me and I'll explain in a second new monarchy will offer the crest of alpha loopy ornament for the titan dead orbit will offer the eye of another world ornament for the warlock and future war cut will offer the knucklehead radar ornament for the hunter this alone for some people is enough to allow them to make an easy choice but it gets a little more difficult for the likes of me and I again will explain in a second each of these factions also offer a certain exotic weapon catalyst new monarchy offer the sweet business catalyst dead orbit offer the gravitan lance catalyst and future war cut offer the sun shot catalyst after these catalysts are completed the master work versions of these exotics get the following buffs sweet business gets an additional perk called serious business when this weapon is fully spun up flinch from incoming damage is greatly reduced the gravitan lance receives hidden hand which gives the plus 15 aim assist and a plus 20 range stat boost and the sun shot receives a plus 30 range stat boost and a plus 20 stability stat boost now to me there's one clear winner here and that's dead orbit when it comes to the catalysts and the master work versions the catalyst for the gravity and lance for 95 percent of the community is the most enticing it is for me too the weapon is a beast in pvp and it will only get better here is the issue I have I'm main a hunter I do have a titan but I do not have a warlock the knucklehead radar is one of my favorite pvp exotics in the game but then again the gravitan lance and being able to make it a master work version is just well it's unmissable it's something I believe most people would want and wouldn't want to miss out on the weapon is great for pve and it's insane for pvp it's the best of both worlds so what does a hunter like me do do I go future war cut or do I go dead orbit and waste an exotic armor ornament the choice is hard people but there's much more than just catalysts these factions offer firstly let's check out the new armor ornaments now these armor ornaments will apply to existing faction ready armors there's no new armor to chase just the ornaments and to be honest without actually in game images of these it's hard to make out which one is most appealing I also guess it depends on your current armor stats too I mean you can lock the dog's bollocks but when it actually comes down to it it's the stats that really matter here personally me design wise from what I can see I'd probably choose new money here definitely in my opinion the ones that stand out the most I can just imagine somebody's armors dressed in them crazy shaders we can apply so this choice going by the ornaments is a pretty tough one now these ornaments are unlocked via ranking up your factions don't forget every package you open is a single rank so 10 packages is 10 ranks the cloak is unlocked at five ranks the legs are unlocked at 10 ranks the gauntlets are unlocked at 15 ranks the chest is unlocked at 25 ranks and the helmet was unlocked at 35 ranks now upon getting to the ranks these ornaments are applied to I guess there will be challenges to complete too to get these I mean you won't just get them at the rank they are assigned to probably the class item you will what others I doubt it so let's move on to other loot they offer well there are weapons ships and spirals too so let's check them out and let's start with new monarchy and for reaching a rank 10 that's opening 10 packages with new monarchy you get the first of two weapons available with this faction this event an smg called the biden hander now thanks to destiny tracker we can see a little more info on this weapon you can see the stats of the weapon and its perks on stream now sites it has sc hollow and sd thermal we then have extended mag high caliber rounds and ambitious assassin now me personally I hate smgs so I won't be chasing this next up we have a pusher I've recalled you on seven now this is unlocked a rank 30 and on stream now we can see stats and perks now with the current meta this should be a decent weapon for sure it has sr o 41 ocular s l o post and sr o 52 ocular it has ricochet rounds appended mag and zen moment so this indeed could be a decent weapon for sure guys at a rank 20 new monarchy offer a ship called the tri rank tux now no images available for this at the moment moving on to dead orbit and at a rank 10 you are rewarded a sniper called the aniela I believe that's how it's pronounced stats and perks are on stream now sculpts it has zoom 30 focus and zoom 10 point it then has accurate rounds and fled magwell with opening shot again snipers ain't my thing in destiny too I mean does anyone even use them nowadays at a rank 30 you get a hand cannon called the argomood stats and perks are on stream now it has steady hand he s truss fire he s and hit mark he s it then has ally magazine and armor piercing rounds with rampage hand cannons in the opinions of many just ain't in the right place right now if they were this could be a quite decent weapon for sure for a rank 30 dead orbit you are rewarded the rotaro 33 ship again no images can be found at the moment moving on to future war cults and a rank 10 you are rewarded the magnum shepherd push rifle stats and perks are on stream now it has a range lens rr5 and red dot moa it has extended mag and ally magazine with high impact rounds this again guys could be a great pvp weapon at rank 30 you are rewarded the pit launcher rocket launcher stats and perks are on stream now it has hard launch counter mass and quick launch it has high explosive ordnance high velocity rounds and snapshot sights at rank 30 you are rewarded this g008 zip hopper which is a sparrow and it looks great so guys a few decent looking weapons of the grabs but in my opinion nothing that looks spectacular but there is even more incentive to play and win each faction will have a winner's weapon so over the course of the week this event is live the faction which has opened the moors packages across all the people who have pledged will win the faction will then offer a winner's weapon people who pledged to the faction can buy that weapon for 1,000 glimmer people who didn't pledged that faction can pay 50,000 glimmer now it's important to state these rules are old but because they've mentioned the update on them i'm guessing they still are polite so what winning weapons are there the new monarchy the winning weapon is a rocket launcher called the broad sword stats and perks are on stream now it has counter mass volatile launch and smart drift control it has implosion rounds high velocity rounds and auto loading holster i mean it looks okay but there are plenty of better rocket launches in the game at the moment for dead orbit the winner's weapon is a shotgun called the basilisk perks and stats are on stream now it has smoothbore rifle barrel and fluted barrel it has extended mag accurate rounds and auto loading holster again looks good but shotguns in my opinion are weird i've seen crappy ones which are actually pretty good then i've seen great looking ones which suck balls so with this we're just gonna have to wait and try and for future war cult we have a sidearm called division perks and stats are on stream now it has target sas short spec sas and farpoint sas it then has accurate rounds and a painted mag with kill clips so out of three weapons this in my opinion looks the most interesting for sure is it enough to make me choose this faction though i don't know people the choice between the three is seriously hard but in my opinion there's only one winner here for me and that's dead orbit dead orbit offer the best reward and that is the graviton lance catalyst going with dead orbit for me is against what i stand for i normally choose these guys last as i normally hate them the most but let's say for the first faction rallies i just want to get them out of the way so i can concentrate on other factions i actually want to be pledged to so that's my choice what will be yours future war cult with the magnum shepherd the people launcher the zip hopper the local head raider ornament the sunshot catalyst and the vision sidearm new monarchy with the biden hander the juan seven the tux the crust of alpine loopy ornament now your sweet business catalyst or the broadsword launcher or will it be dead orbit with the aniela the argument the rotario threat through a ship that i have another word ornament the graviton lance catalyst and the basilisk shotgun the choice is hard people but let me know which you will choose down below within that comments section guys we have come to the end of the video thanks as always for stopping by i hope you enjoyed if you did leaving a like truly does help me and my channel out again thanks for stopping by people i hope this video helps you out and hopefully i will see you on that next one


All right guys so I'm here at the track getting ready to do a speed session. If you're familiar with Jack Daniels training style I'm doing a repetition training. So I'm gonna just do some fast repetitions on the track, work on that speed, work on that economy, strength training for runners really that's what it is you know working on that form, working on that efficiency and getting more economical at higher speeds. So as what we're doing today putting on my in-jinji toe socks of course I use in-jinji toe socks to have my toes be able to wiggle naturally and do what they're supposed to do when I'm running of course inside I wear them inside my Ultra the 1 2.5 I made a review of it in the past I'll link to it here and so they're good it's a nice day it's been hot lately really really hot so every run has been like a torture session in a way but now today it's actually just 15 degrees celsius so it's nice and cool so I thought I'd show you today you know a little bit from my session what I'm doing how I'm doing it and so let's do it all right so we're rolling we're just starting the warm-up let's talk a little bit about the session that I'm about to do first I'm just doing a 4k warm-up so I'll just be running in the outer lane just to make the track as long as possible I'm just gonna run easy for like you know 20 minutes or so all right so warm-up is done and finished off with a couple of strides just like accelerating for like 30 meters max speed almost for like 30 meters and then just decelerating for another 30 minutes 30 meters and so that's just to activate those fast switch motion fibers a little bit and get them ready for what's to come now which is the speed session anyway and I'm ready to start the workout today we're doing three times 200 meter repetition pace so that's that's kind of like mile race pace probably fast running for 200 meters and I'm gonna walk for 200 meters as a recovery another 200 meters walk another 200 meters so three times 200 meters followed by two times 400 meters at the same pace so that's going to be a little tougher longer repetition but the same pace and then we're going to finish off with three times 200 meters on the end and of course bear in mind that this is my second ever workout like this so I'm keeping it on the conservative side in terms of volume but still you know working pretty hard so let's look at the paces I'm going to work on at so you know somewhere between 43 and 44 seconds per 200 meter that's probably what I'm going to aim for and it's really about working on form and increasing that running economy through strength training which is essentially what is stiffening up some of the tendons and and sort of making all the other paces feel easier I don't know if it's because of the temperature today it's cooler or because of the gains that I've had from last week's sessions but my warm-up now my heart rate was much lower relative to pace than it usually is so certainly something is going on I'll probably gain a little bit from the workouts as well as of course the fact that it's cooler today and I've been heat acclimatizing for three weeks now all right anyway I'm gonna get to it I'm gonna sort of I have a tripod here and I'm gonna sort of do things during the workout just to show you guys and what I'm up to and how it looks but I'm gonna focus mostly on the workout and then we're gonna talk afterwards all right let's do it I definitely went out a little bit too fast on the first one and the second one typical I'm gonna really back a little bit when it comes to the recovery you know it's these repetition sessions it's really like I said strength training so it's pretty hard work and focused on the muscles really not the cardiovascular system so you want to have pretty long breaks long recovery periods about you know two to three times as long as the the work about so I'm working for 44 seconds then I'm taking about 90 seconds or a little more walking resting talking to you guys and then it's time to get back for another repetition let's do it all right it's time for a 400 meter now let's put the camera here so you guys can see me coming in way too fast oh my god I really have to work on pacing I mean it's difficult for me I'm not used to these fast paces so I end up running a bit too fast I did the I did the 400 meter rep in 114 so that's definitely my first that's my fastest 4 meter ever I think pretty fast I should be moving not talking to you guys so I'll be moving and then I'll do another 400 meter rep 125 that's more like it but holy fuck it's tough all right it's time to go back to the 200 meters we're doing the last 300 meter reps that's the that's the that's the last of the workout today I'm gonna do them the other way around that's it that's the workout feels so good to run hard I love it I mean I've been running slow and steady for a few years now not doing much fast running like this and just feels good to feel those limits you know to feel myself pushing really hard and to see the results you know that's also nice I think the workout went pretty good I consistently ran too fast though a few seconds too fast whether that's because that's actually my appropriate pace you know maybe it's maybe I'm fitter than I think I am and I should be running at that pace or maybe I'm just running too fast you know faster than I really need to which it's not a good idea so probably a little bit too eager since I had the camera with me and stuff that's a very typical scenario for me but I'm happy about the workout it was a nice nice workout feels good I'm tired now now I'm gonna do a cool down just like two kilometer super easy jog around the track just clearing you know helping to clear some of that lactate through the muscles some of that adrenaline etc and just uh yeah start a recovery process really I have a lot of water in my bag I'm gonna drink some of that and then I'm gonna head to the car and get my bananas of course now I'm gonna sit down and eat bananas and I have a strength training workout later today so this is a hard day but I like to make my hard days hard and my easy days easy so today's a hard day so it's Friday's but the rest of the week I'm running pretty easy and of course on Sundays I'm doing a long run which is easy but hard because of the volume of course all right here we are back at the bag the water hey thanks for watching thanks for joining me if you have some thoughts about my workout some and anything you want to say comment down below let me hear it I'm looking forward to the coming weeks doing more track sessions like this I'll take you with me again and again for sure on the whole journey all right guys thanks for watching make sure you subscribe to this channel if you haven't done so already if you have done it already if you have subscribed already you can click the little bell button next to subscribe button and that way you'll be notified each time I upload a video so go ahead and do that if you're already subscribed all right have a good day hope you're running is going well see you around


A new book that takes us on a tour around the country looking at follies that are dotted all over the place that we, in many cases, are not aware of because they're hidden away and others are there in full view and we might have passed them and gone, what's that? What's that all about? It's a beautiful photographic tour because the imagery is absolutely stunning and the follies themselves, well, they're eccentric by nature I suppose and usually beautiful, sometimes bizarre and usually eye-catching. The man behind the book now joins me on the line and we're streaming as well so that means that you can view this back or listen back on our socials or on our YouTube channel. George Monday, good afternoon. Good afternoon. First of all George, it's a beautiful looking book and I suppose the first question is how did it come about? Why did you decide to put a book together about follies? Okay, I did some assignment photography, photography was the moment and it was entirely based on gardens and when I was walking and driving and looking around the gardens I found quite a few follies but they didn't really kind of resonate at that point and then I moved from County Meade where I lived down to County Waterford and I visited Lismore Castle one day and saw a signpost for Bally Sagittmore Gates and I thought wonder what that place is, where to look? So I went down and I found this amazing place with kind of gothic gate house, nobody living there, not quite ruined but not too good a condition and then I carried on down the track and I found a bridge basically which was like a huge gothic castle and I thought this is amazing. So I then went back to my house and did a bit of research and found in fact that the house had been built just after the Napoleonic Wars by a guy named, what was his name now? It'll come to me. Anyway, this guy had inherited some lands from his father and then found that in fact his brother was building a house and his wife was a kind of jealous kind of person I gathered and she said, oh, we'll have to build a house. So he then started work on the house but before he started the house he built the driveway with these two buildings I've just mentioned and then shortly after that the great Irish famine occurred. He didn't get any rent coming in from his tenants. He kicked them all out, the family is the whole lot and the story then goes a little bit dark because having kicked out all these tenants, a lot of the locals got upset. Somebody sat there with a gun on the driveway and tried to assassinate him as he came home one day. They never found the person who did it but in fact they sent seven, I think it was seven people to transportation to Tasmania. So the story had all these things happening, I thought, wow, that's amazing. So then I started looking at the bodies I'd also photographed for Tourism Island and found equally intriguing stories. Yeah, I'm looking at a picture. That's how it all happened. Well, I'm looking at a picture of Bali, Sagartmoor Towers that you chat about there and it's amazing and it doesn't look like it's lived in right and off. The man's name I think is Arthur Kiley. That's right. But it's spectacular and there's a lot of equally spectacular buildings and there's all sorts. There's obliques and castles and towers and walls and the great thing, I mean they're beautifully photographed but the great thing is there's a story behind them all. Yes, yes. And the story is very immensely. I mean there's, I don't think it's any of the places there. No, no, but in Northern Ireland there's a place called, near Hollywood called Helen's Tower and that one like many of the other follies was built during the famine because the richer families had money to spare but they didn't like giving it away. Right. And people will eat the people is a bad idea. So we'll get them to build something no matter how useless and then we'll pay them for the labors. Yeah. So that was one aspect. And then there's of course the envy side like Bali, Sagartmoor Towers and then there's just people who are kind of slightly eccentric and think, oh, wouldn't it be nice to have a nice view at the end of my garden. Yeah, yeah. And there was different reasons as well. Wasn't there somebody who built a wall to block a brother's view? Oh, yeah. The jealous wall. Yeah. The jealous wall. That's an equally intriguing story. That's not too different from the Bali Sagartmoor Towers. It's envy. It was, sorry, getting older, can't remember things. But the guy who built this, his brother, he lets his wife have an affair with a near neighbor, possibly his brother. Then another brother builds another house after he built his nice mansion. And he strongly objected. So he had this kind of folly Abbey wall built, which you can see in the picture obviously to block his view. Yeah, well, I'd say it was successful and that was so big. But you obviously came to Donegal. And there's a few places that are pictured in Donegal, including one down in my home parish in Brookless. And it's a church tower. And I wasn't wondering about the church tower because it doesn't really fit in with the chapel there. And I'm thinking, what's that about? And it says here, built around 1860 and in the form of an early medieval round tower. Yeah, that's right. I was actually on my way to Carrigan Head. I was driving over in the evening and I saw it and I thought, well, that looks amazing. That looks like it might be a folly. Didn't look, didn't kind of look ancient and old as the usual round towers built in the 10th century-ish. So I just stopped the car and I got out and took that picture, you can see. Yeah, well, it stood the test of time well. Well, it's weathered the time and conditions well. And then you went on down, as you said, to Carrigan Head. And something else that's caught my eye and that you feature in here. And it's the lookout. Well, it's the lookout to towers kind of square in form. But built to keep an eye on Napoleon's troops. That's right. Possible invasion from sea. And there was a number of lookout posts dotted around the coast. Oh, absolutely. They stretched from, I think they stretched from certainly up on the North Donegal coast, all the way down the west coast around the corner and continue as far as Waterford. And most of them were incited at each other. So if one saw something happening, they could light the beacon. And people would then know that there's enemies afoot in the army. There's no texting back in the m days. And you also visited Oakfield Park and picture a couple of beautiful sites there, which is great. Castle Folly and how's that pronounced? I don't know. I was hoping you might know. Yeah, something like that. It looks beautiful. And all the photographs look beautiful. I mean, some of these are old and they're just ruined. Others are still lived in. And some of them are, like you mentioned earlier, obelisks and bridges and so on. Yeah. But for the most part, they're... Well, Follies, someone described Follies as monuments to a mood. Yeah. And I don't know if that's true in all the cases, but there's definitely elements of that, women's ease and moods. That's right. And I saw that comment. It was by Arthur Clark, who was an art historian. And he did a long program on BBC one about art years ago. And it was him who came out with that comment. And so I took it at a literal value, really. And I thought to myself, well, there's a lot of places around where they can fulfill all the functions of a folly. They don't have any functions. They're just pretty. They look good. And they're kind of whimsical. And there were some buildings that had been left and no longer used. I was just trying to have a... I think a good one would be the one at the beginning of the book, which is the copper mines at Alaiz. They no longer fill a function, but they're kept because people love them. They add beautifully to the landscape.  They add beautifully to the landscape. And so I thought I would just add a few of those, not too many. Yeah. Because they don't build follies... They don't build many follies, I should say, in the 21st century. So I thought it would be a nice addition to the book. And expand this a little. I think you might have mentioned it there. In many cases, these were built by people who had a lot of money, people who had too much money and too much time in their hands. But the interesting thing is, if you look at the map at the back, the general map of the island of Ireland, you can see that they all kind of move over to the east coast, not beyond the west coast. And as I said in one of the stories, one of Thomas generals said nobody would go a different conduct, basically. And I think that was the attitude of the Anglo-Irish stay away from the west coast. And it was really kind of barren as well. That might explain the concentration over towards the east and the southeast. Yeah. Well, George, it's a beautiful book. It's out now by O'Brien Press. It's called Irish Follies. Just to look up there for those who will be watching to have a look at Irish Follies and Whimsical Architecture, all beautifully photographed. George, congratulations on the book. Thank you so much. Lovely to talk to you.


Hey, this is Brett, and this 2010 Dodge Challenger RT is stock number 13006Z. I am here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, your new and used Dodge Challenger and sports car headquarters. This 2010 Dodge Challenger has the 5.7-liter V8 Hemi engine, puts out 372 horsepower. This car has been fully-safetyed and inspected by our service shop per the state of Wisconsin inspection process. It has a fresh oil and filter change, all the fluids have been checked and topped off, and this car is 100% ready to go. I'm going to go all the way around in this video, inside, start it up, take a look under the hood, take a look inside the trunk. Stone white clear coat is the color, and I shoot all my videos in 4K, so if you have HD capabilities, I highly recommend turning them on right now because it is your best way to check out the quality, condition, options, and cleanliness of the vehicle before seeing it in person. And if you like the video and how I do things here at Summit Automotive, consider clicking the subscribe button to my YouTube channel in the lower right-hand part of the screen and then click the bell notifications and you'll get updates every time I do videos here at Summit Auto, as well as access to one of the largest catalog of vehicle videos on YouTube. Comes with the painted alloy rims, these are 18-inch rims, and it has Goodyear Assurance 235 55 R18 tires on here. These tires have, I would say, probably 80% of the tread left on them, so a lot of tread left on those front tires. The front fender is in fantastic condition. I didn't see any major dents or dings on there. Looks really good. The headlight lenses are crystal clear, and it does come with the factory fog lights. The front bumper has never been drilled into, and looks like it's in really nice shape as does the lower valence. The grille is in nice condition too, and the hood is in very nice shape as well. The only thing I saw is maybe two little tiny dings in the hood, but other than that, nothing too bad. Passenger side front fender looks really good as well. And the passenger side front rim, no major scuffs or scrapes on there. Now, as you go down this side of this 2010 Dodge Challenger RT, take note of how clean that body is, how reflective and mirror-like that paint is. I take these HD videos, so if you are far away, or even if you're close by and you just cannot make the trip down, but you're still interested in purchasing the car, you can see the car, hear the car, and have confidence in the vehicle that you're looking at before you even get here. So when you do get here, there's absolutely no surprises, and you can make a smart and informed buying decision from wherever you're at. And if this video helps you make that decision, let your salesman know that you saw the video, that it was helpful, and that Brett sent you. The back rim is in fantastic shape as well, and the back tires have just as much tread as those front tires. And if you like the video, once again, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel, the upper right hand part of the screen. Coming around to the back of the vehicle, the rear bumper is in great shape. It does come with the chrome-tipped dual rear exhaust, and we'll start it up here in just a minute. Trunk lid is in nice shape, and the back trunk area is very nice and clean. Now this one is going to come with a spare tire, and you can see you get your battery back here as well. And those seats fold down for extra storage. You can see that the shocks are doing a very nice job holding that trunk lid up. Something you always have to check on these older cars is the shocks for the trunk and the hood. Make sure that they're still working properly. Coming around the driver's side, just as clean as that passenger's side, no dents or dings on that rear quarter. And for full disclosure, this back rim is in fantastic condition as well. Down the rest of the side of the car looks really good. I didn't see any major dents or dings on the doors. You do get power mirrors inside the RT package. It gives you the black cloth interior, no rips or tears on the seats. They're in very nice, clean condition. Our driver's seat comes with a set of weather tech floor mats. The carpeting is nice and clean underneath there. You get the bright pedals, auto headlamps, power windows, power locks, and power mirrors. Behind the back seats, the second row is very nice and clean as well. You do get the latch child safety system for any child car seats you may have. And those seats are in very nice, clean condition. We'll hop inside and check out the miles, the radio, and everything that this car has to offer on the interior. So you can see that this one has 18,322 miles. You do get the white-faced instrument cluster. Comes with the leather-wrapped steering wheel, cruise controls right there. It does have the AM FM radio, CD player, and it does have an aux jack. And controls right there. You get your six-speed manual transmission. And the passenger side floor mat and seat are in fantastic condition as well. No rips or tears on there. Smells very clean inside this car. I don't think it's ever been smoked in. And this one does come with the power sunroof. You do get map lights up there and sunroof controls. We'll start it up. Take a look under the hood. Starts right up. Back engine lights or anything of that nature. I would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today. And hopefully from this HD video, you've been able to verify the quality and condition of this car all the way around, inside and out. Very nice for being a 2010, I think this thing's 12 years old already. Under the hood, we have the 5.7-liter V8 Hemi engine. Engine base very clean, runs very smooth. Once again, this car has been fully safety to and inspected by our service shop. As a fresh oil and filter change, all the fluids have been checked and topped off, as you can see. And this car is 100% ready to go. There is your emission sticker. So this one doesn't have any shocks for the hood, so can't show you that. But anyway, it's really clean under here. Whole car is very, very clean. Other than those two little dings on the hood, I really can't see anything wrong with this car. And to see more pictures of this car, one of Brother 450 new and used cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, Wranglers, Challengers, Chargers, Mustangs, Corvettes, Camaros, you name it, we have it. Go to that website right there, www.SummitAuto.com, full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle from two locations, all at SummitAuto.com. And if you'd like to check out more HD videos, you can go to YouTube.com slash SummitAuto. Remember to like, subscribe and share on this video and all the videos that you see there. Click the bell notifications. You'll get updates on the videos I do each and every day here at Summit Automotive. In fact, in a second, you will see a link to subscribe to my YouTube channel in the upper left. A link to more Challenger videos like this one in the upper right, a link to this vehicle on our website in the lower left, and a link to one of our latest YouTube videos in the lower right. Click those, check us out. And we're super excited to help you with this Ultra Clean 2010 Dodge Challenger RT in stone white clear coat. Thanks again for checking out the video. I highly recommend this car and I know you'll be happy with it. Thanks again for checking out the video.


Dear girls, let's talk about pornography. Maybe it began with an accidental google search that peaked your curiosity. You went back week after week, you liked it, but with it brought a deep sense of shame and guilt as you watched. The pastor mentioned pornography a couple times, but he always directed it at the men. He never even looked in your direction. Growing up in the church, purity culture taught us that girls aren't visually stimulated, so pornography is only a guy's issue. We've designed dozens of video series and programs all designed for men to break free from pornography, and all the while we've neglected to mention that women struggle too. I've contributed to that. Since all the attention is on guys and their struggle, girls feel left behind and isolated. Girls start asking themselves are they just so messed up and perverted that they're tempted by the thing that only guys are supposed to be tempted by. No you're not. Millions of women struggle with this. They're just too scared to verbalize it because it's been painted as only a men's issue. I think that's one of Satan's tactics. You can see what pornography is doing to you. It's filling you with anxiety and depression. It's filling you with guilt and shame. Satan wants to keep you isolated and filled with shame, but God doesn't want you there.  In James 4 it says submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. If you want to begin your journey of breaking free from pornography, I want you to head on over to my YouTube channel Daily Disciple where there's plenty of resources that will help you. My ministry is supported by each one of you on Patreon, so thank you.


Okay. Okay, so we're live on Facebook now as well. So good afternoon, everyone. This is what the F is going on in Latin America. Code pinks. 20 minutes of hot news out of Latin America and the Caribbean airing every Wednesday, 12pm Eastern. And we stream live on Facebook. We will also be recording this and posting on our YouTube channel that we're building. So today I am really honored to introduce to all of you and have a conversation with Leonie. I mean, did I say that correctly. Yeah. Okay. I'm still getting my Spanish accent correct so now you're. And now I have to learn a little French and a little Creole. So, I'm really honored to have Leonie here with us because I had a chance to meet her yesterday at a hearing regarding Haiti. It was US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs and the hearing was entitled Haiti on the brink assessing US policy towards a country in crisis. And I'll attach the link on our Facebook as well. So all of you can, if you're interested, you can listen to the full I think it was almost two hours of testimony. It was quite profound. And Leonie was one of the witnesses yesterday afternoon she is Haitian. Let me tell you a little bit about her. You were born in Haiti, raised in New York City, and she spent 20 years of grassroots community building in Miami's Haitian community. But she has a very impressive resume that I want to share with you briefly before we start talking about yesterday's hearing and the historical events that led up to many of the issues brought up yesterday. And she, I'll just go through this really quickly and you can jump in and add details as you like. You're so visiting professor at FIU School of Architecture, Executive Executive Director of Haitian America Foundation, Director of Research and Strategic Planning at Santhla where you are back at Santhla now. I'm going to turn to Haiti as Director of Lambie Fund of Haiti, which focuses on Haitians, Haiti's rural poor, and is a community led fund. You also have your own consulting firm. You're very impressive. And what have I forgotten? You have your own? Well, nothing, but really everything that I've done has been focused on Haiti and the Haitian community and really strengthening our capacity both here and in Haiti to improve our lives. I've been very fortunate that I've had the opportunity to do that for most of my professional life. It's a profound body of work and let's talk a little bit about your heritage as a Haitian. One of the things that yesterday's hearing, I have to tell all of you in the audience. I was sharing this with Leonie before we went live that we've covered the last several weeks with our webinars, the uprising in Ecuador, in Chile, and now Bolivia. And really, quite frankly, we would have been most correct to have started a year ago in the streets of Haiti.  The longest in this past year, but I would argue the longest in the in the history of America is defined by the United States 300 years starting with the French. So let's talk a little bit about yesterday's hearing in Congress. It was titled Haiti on the Brink, Assessing US Policy Toward a Country in Crisis. Why you were invited as a witness and what your takeaway of the hearing yesterday was. I was invited by Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who is from South Florida, because Congresswoman, you know, South Florida has the largest Haitian population in the United States in terms of the diaspora. There are over 200,000 Haitian Americans living in South Florida, and she understands very well that Haiti and Haiti's development, Haiti is linked to the diaspora for multiple reasons. First of all, you know, most of many of us are from Haiti, and we, you know, when Haiti, as they say, when Haiti coughs with sneeze, and we provide in terms of remittances over 30% of the GDP. Last year alone, we set over $3 billion in remittances to Haiti. So we know that for emotional and economic reasons, we're tied to Haiti, and yet we're never invited around the table when it comes to discussing solutions for Haiti. Those of you in the diaspora are not included. Yeah. So, so Haitians, Haiti's own people are included. And American citizens. And American citizens. Let me add that we're American citizens. Funding the projects. Funding. With our tax dollars. And, you know, investing heavily in Haiti, and yet we, you know, with 3 billion, I guess I would say that we are the largest investors in Haiti. We have no international organization, no international donor that can match our contribution. And yet our, our vision, our perspective, the creativity of our solutions are never, never addressed by the by the United States or the international So, let's talk about some of the, some of the deeply rooted issues that that that you and your people want to address. One of the things that I shared with you before we went live was that I think it was, I think April of 16 I had mentioned that I was in Haiti and I had a chance to visit the US embassy, and we got a nice little PowerPoint presentation showing how much US tax dollar investment there has been made in Haiti. And the gentleman during the presentation said, Oh, you know, XYZ amount for these projects and he said I have to be very handed the return on investment has been very poor and of course that was just an appalling thing for us to hear on you know what that inferred on many levels. And so you and I were saying that the solutions keep coming from the same institutions and the same people. Right. And without consultation with really the people of Haiti I mean I remember once post earthquake I was staying at a hotel and I was sitting next to this woman who was asking the questions and I sort of programmed her and said what are you doing and she was working for USAID or one of those organizations doing judicial reform, working on judicial reform in Haiti. And so I kept asking her have you and she's writing a report, and there's another gentleman an academic from the US University, and they were both talking about, you know, the program and so I kept asking did you talk to so and so did you talk to so and so, and they didn't even know who the local players were so of course their projects are going to fail, because again, there is no real investment in understanding what the realities on the ground. So the realities on the ground are your specialty, your, your life's work. Can you share with us some of the community projects funds that you've been involved with on the ground in Haiti. I've worked, I've been very fortunate to work with great organizations underground. One of them was the Lambi Fund of Haiti, which is an organization that supports grassroots initiatives, not in the traditional, I'm going to tell you what you need kind of way but in the manner of, we will support your own initiatives and so we would go to, we go to world communities and are approached by community based organizations, real local stakeholders who tell us that they need to in order to become sustainable farmers, they need an investment, you know, for example, in a grain meal and an irrigation system. And so the Lambi Fund provides the fund with the provider that the organization itself manages the fund so what we used to do does is to offer training to the farmers so that they can manage the fund, they can execute the project. That was, that was one of the most profound, most educational experiences in my life as a Haitian, because I got to travel throughout the country and really meet the people of Haiti. Recently I've worked in a, with a small network of schools, again all Haitian-led, focusing on education as the passport out of poverty, but also as a means to build civic leaders. And so I work with ProDev, an educational organization in Haiti and that was, that also was very rewarding to be in an institution where children were treated with respect, teachers were treated with respect and the schools, the ProDev schools provided all children, especially living in challenging conditions, the opportunity to be in an enriching environment where they were treated as human beings worthy of receiving quality education. So these, gosh, these are really, we could spend all day talking about these projects and how profound they are to, to creating a nation of people, your own nation of people. Yeah, from the ground up, not from investment top down. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, there's another great foundation in Haiti called Folk Out that I've worked with. And they, I mean, they have created this urban part in, in the heart of one of the most dangerous gang, quote, unquote, infested neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince-en-Mar-de-Saint. And that is also one of the proudest experiences of my life is to see the interaction between the park and the people of this neighborhood who basically been forsaken because of the fear generated by gang activity. So it's, I've really been very lucky in terms of Haiti and even in my work here in Miami's Haitian community. Let me, let me ask you, there was a couple of things, oh gosh, I'm thinking like five things all at once to ask you here. The gang related activity that is due to what in many places throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, we see it as a result lack of economic development. Yeah, lack of lack of hope. You know, clearly when you have a population where over 50% of the current population is under the age of 25. This is what you sort of call a bonus, a demographic bonuses in most countries because having such a young population allows you to education and training to envision what you want to be in the future and really build that country's capacity to its youth. But you have a country where there is any, you know, to call it inadequate is is is a gross misstatement where you have a very dysfunctional educational system, very class driven, you know, because if you have money you get some education and if you don't, you're doomed to not be educated and so and you have that population, that useful population having access to the internet, having access to social media and having the ability to project themselves into societies that are much more affluent and much more respectful of their citizens. That generates anger that is also fueled by politicians, a lot of politicians are arming their own gangs in the absence of you know, a police force of 9000 for countries of 11 million, you understand that protection is not always guaranteed and so you have a lot of politicians who are arming their own gangs for their own purposes, businessmen arming gangs for protection, and so people taking them on to their own hands and the free flow and the free flow of arms and guns and ammunition from the United States doesn't help either. And so you have young, you have 15 years walking around with the latest piece of automatic, you know, rifles automatic guns so it's very distressing to see the waste of a young generation. This is, you know, this is something that me personally, we see in my travels at my work in Mexico and Honduras as well as arming of gangs of unemployed, particularly of the young people. This is something that came up. We touched that was touched on a little bit in yesterday's hearing and specifically the National Police Force there were some comments yesterday that the current president wanted to build a military in Haiti, the US obviously as opposed to that that that was mentioned several times quite overtly today, but there was conversation about developing, expanding the National Police Force. And this is this body of 9,000 that you meant just mentioned. 9 or 15,000 but very small, very small. But you know, as Pierre Esperance said, it's a group that has become much more professional. And so the violence that has been perpetrated in massacres for example in neighborhoods like in, is not necessarily attributed to the police, but to the emerging paramilitary forces that are doing elected officials bidding by trying to silence some of the most vocal opposition. Let's talk about last saline and what happened there and how that has been some of a lightning rod for some of the protesting going on. This saline is a neighborhood. One of those neighborhoods that we have a high concentration of poverty of unemployment of uninhabitable dwellings you know you have when you go there. You want to compare to the favelas in Brazil but it's really not even close to comparable you have 10 you have shacks basically people living in shacks, really horrible conditions, but a very high concentration as people left the countryside and move to the city you know Port-au-Prince was built for a population of 500,000. I think that right now and it's a very it's, it's, there is not much room for for expansion, because it's surrounded by mountains. So, the high concentration of poverty, the high concentration of population as I said people have left the countryside in droves and have moved to Port-au-Prince and so they leave in what people called ghettos and last saline, just like city so they is one of those neighborhoods and again, well you have a lot of gangs and a lot of political, the hotbed of political dissent.  The problem is that there is still no investigation. Those who have perpetrated these crimes are known, but yet the justice system has yet to act on the accusations and the evidence presented and so it's another continuing sign of impunity. And that's, you know, protesters are always clamoring for you know they want justice they want the rule of law and las saline is an absolute wonderful example not wonderful but an important example of what happens in the country where there is no rule of law. So this is a country with no rule of law being heavily funded by the United States and various aid organizations. And maybe we should talk about why that's so I think in the opening statements yesterday. There was a comment made that Haiti basically summed up the geopolitical role of Haiti and why the United States basically tolerates funding. A government that operates with impunity, not unlike funding Honduras. And that statement was that Haiti, the current government of Haiti recognizes the quote unquote interim government of Venezuela under Juan Guaido, and that also Haiti is a trading partner with Taiwan, as opposed to mainland China. And also taking a position in Nicaragua that is aligned with the United States vision. So, yes, there was a statement that for geopolitical reasons. Haiti was not, well, the president of Haiti, the current President Moises administration was considered an ally, an important ally. And so in that regard, there's almost, there's, I'm not sure how to correctly say this without being offensive to some people in the audience that the funding from the US and related aid organizations continues to come regardless of the cry from the people on the streets for a more humane and just society. Yeah, I mean, I think that I think with the exception of President Harry Street, if I recall, money has always flowed into Haiti. The question is, how is it invested, whether it's come in or not, what difference has it made. And that was that was part of my opening statement. And when I said that, well, you know, the protest had been clamoring for accountability in Haiti, or, you know, how the Petro-Caribbean funds were spent or not spent. Talking about corruption and how many politicians siphoned a lot of these funds out of the country, our concerns as the diaspora was about how the USAID invested the funds. What were the returns of investment. And, you know, we still don't understand there's very little transparency as to how these funds actually benefited Haiti to look at 30 years of investments. We're talking about buildings and in Petro-Caribbean three billion. I dread to know what the actual numbers are in terms of US investment in Haiti. And as we say, we don't, as taxpayers, we have not yet been given a full picture as to what the returns on our investments are and why we keep investing in bad policy and bad strategy or ineffectual strategies. Because we don't step out of the box, as you and I were saying earlier, that we keep referring issues to the same institutions and the same people. The question is, do we want to step out of the box? Exactly. I think that these are very smart people who understand that if a strategy doesn't work, something else should be tried. And I know that there have been multiple parties, either diaspora concerns, who have presented them with alternatives. And so, you know, you begin to, it's interesting to note that, regardless of the political party, there's been this reluctance to change strategies to think outside the box. And most likely for geopolitical reasons. And self enrichment and all those other financial ties to corruption, etc. One of, now, there was a potential for elections in Haiti in January. Is that my understanding? Possibly, but doubtful. And what would elections accomplish, if anything? I know there was going to happen is that by law, the members of parliament are going to be out. There should have been elections in, there should have been elections this fall to replace members of parliament who are term limited. Because there were no elections, the parliament is going to be, there will be no form, there will be, there will not be enough members present to make any decisions. And so the president is going to be ruling by decree, unless something miraculous happens between now and mid January. There will be no, they're probably not going to be election and the president will by decree. So the country's, I mean, a sole leader, is that what, is that what that means? Accountability, if we talk about lack of accountability, it's going to be exponentially greater now that, as per the constitution, when there is no quorum, the president will rule by decree. So, yeah, wow, it's a dictator, basically. I'll say it. You don't have to. But it's kind of, you know, yeah, it's like, wow, so that the, yeah, the government lies in the hands of one of one person. Let me ask you about elections in Haiti, because this did come up yesterday as well. And there that there would be potentially be a call for elections, and that that isn't necessary. There were some comments that that wasn't necessarily what was needed that. And I think you and I had said that, you know, equating elections with democracy is is a fallacy. Yes, and it's, and it's sort of intentional because the parties know that the system as it is, and as it is supported by and let's just say that it is a system that is supported by by the international community. In order to encourage elections, free and fair elections, the international community has provided financial support to parties involved in the election, so that anyone who can bring together a group of people, create a platform and have a name can have a party which is which gets a nominal support I think something I don't remember the numbers, but between 15 to $20,000 of financial support. That's not enough to unreal elections, but for for folks who just want to make some money. That's a great opportunity and so at around election time, you have a whole cottage industry of parties that emerge and of course disappear after the elections. During the last presidential elections, we had something like 75 parties just emerge. There are about two or three or four parties that have a history of members activities or platforms, but for the, the most part, these new parties just come up. They just pop-up parties pop-up party like pop-up party. Yes. And so, and so the international community loves to point to this thing as you see, you know, there is all this civic engagement citizens engagement. There's an exchange of ideas, but that's not the case. The case. It's a money-making game. It's an absolute tragedy. Wow. And for the last elections, President Moise won by 500,000 votes, votes in a country where there are about 5 million registered voters. Wow. Wow. So the people in the streets demanding a change in government, I think it's, you know, it's, you've given us a much clearer picture as to why. I, when I entered, when I introduced this conversation today, I mentioned that, you know, we've been, we've started with the people rising in Ecuador, Chile and now Bolivia. But Haitians have been in the streets for the last 18 months, but also for the last couple centuries. I mean, the Haitian is, so let's talk a little bit briefly in the few minutes we have left, if you can give us a brief history of Haiti and, and you're such the beacon of example for fighting for national sovereignty and national identity. And so maybe you can, can you share some of that history with us just so our viewers can have a better understanding.  Haiti, so Haiti was colonized by the French and the Americans by the Spaniards. Haiti was the, the reason why it's called the pearl of the Antilles actually it's because it was the richest possession of the French Empire in terms of because of its sugar production. And you know that when you're talking about sugar you're talking about labor slave labor at the time. And so in Haiti was this huge plantation system that produced sugar which enriched many of the emerging bourgeoisie French bourgeois and led to the overthrow the French Revolution actually. And so it was this unheard of event that enslaved people have enslaved Africans. Recognize their own rights to human hood and to liberty and, and basically arm themselves organize themselves into indigenous armies and over through the French government. Napoleon's first defeat was not in Waterloo, but it was definitely in Haiti, in Saint-Omega at the time. And so we were the first to defeat Napoleon, we were the first to create our own independent nation, a nation that was truly founded on the notion that all people were had the right to their humanity and to their freedom. And we even supported other efforts throughout Latin America, namely Bolivar in Greater Colombia, which is now Venezuela. Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador to become independent. And that has you know, labeled us we were considered the cancer of the Americas because we were not only independent black, independent black nation, but we believe in exporting that notion I mean, when we invaded the Dominican Republic, the first thing that we did was to free the slaves and so we were targeted by multiple initiatives for failure, first by the French who crippled our economy, you know, the international community, we were, we were quarantined, we were embargoed, and so we're not able to trade with anyone. And so the French demanded that we pay quote unquote reparations for the loss of the sugar, for the loss of the sugar, the plantation and the slaves. They were property, yeah. And so Haiti was forced to not only pay the debt, but also sign an agreement with the Vatican. Which imposed religious education in most of our elite, educated in schools run by the Catholic Church. And so in addition to having to pay a debt, we were also forced to bring the colonizers back to educate our children. And that is followed, of course, by multiple attempts at occupation, not just from the, you know, from the Germans. And then in the early 1900s we were in there was an American occupation with lasted about 30 years where again there was a major effort to suppress indigenous forces of resistance, not just in terms of armed resistance but cultural resistance as well. And you will see increased attacks on our religion, a religion that has been the foundation of our spirit of independence, freedom, and that's for do. And during the American occupation, I have to say that the Marines who landed were all from the deep South, they were Jim Crow products of the Jim Crow system. And so the ferocity, their attacks on people on our culture was an incredible effort to take away from us this spirit of liberty. And so because of Haiti's position as a geopolitical position, you know, moving forward in terms of Cuba, the dictatorship that emerged in the late 50s, early 60s was viewed as an ally, because, again, it was sort of the polar opposite of Fidel Castro in a way. And so, well, ideologically opposite to Fidel Castro. So American intervention has continued throughout that time whether it be through financial support, technical support and you know it's just too much for me to encompass in one conversation. I have to say that American intervention, American assistance has been with us forever and one of the other interesting thing that they brought in the with the last occupation was also the missionaries. The missionaries have also had a very negative impact on Haiti. So you know what, what you're describing to us is, I just want to say first is just, it's so significant that the Haitian people were the first to throw off the, the yoke of slavery, and free yourself from the French Empire, This is something most mainland US citizens do not understand and it's a profound lesson to learn from the Haitian people and to understand, but so much of what you've just described to us. We see right now, well, I would argue I would argue since November 10, playing out in Bolivia, that this persecution of the indigenous people getting rid of their culture their their religious practices. The relationship to the land and their, their self reliance on the land, all of that is is in full vision. Right now, it's the same is the same historical playbook that we continue to see throughout this hemisphere. And I wonder if there's in just in closing this conversation, possibly only I could talk with you all afternoon. It's just, it's just fascinating to be with you. Is there one or two books that you could recommend to our viewers to give them, you know, Okay. Well, one, one recent book that I usually recommend is Bob McGuire's Who Owns Haiti. There's so many books that I can't anything by Wolf's Trio. Patrick Belgard Smith. But, but who owns Haiti. Bob McGuire is a really good, it's not too voluminous it's not a lot of reading it's a reader that different perspectives, but it's really it's a very good book to get an understanding of what's the current Haiti's current landscape. Okay, terrific. I will put that in the comments on our Facebook live video and I'm also going to share with the audience. The link to yesterday's hearing. We had some really significant comments from witnesses and also was really interesting relief to me to hear so many comments on the panel from the Congressional members. Yes, you on the Republicans as well, really, against us interventionism in multiple forms it was it we've never heard so many in one hearing, the show against us foreign policy out in a nation and that that was, that was a it was a relief to hear. Yes. Yeah, now we just have to do something with those opinions. So, okay everyone I'm going to let Leonie go now thank you so much you gave me much more time than I had asked you for and I'm so appreciate of it. And I look forward to further conversation with you. And we'll be back next week for the audience will be code pink will be in Cuba, and we will be airing what the F is going on in Latin America 12pm Eastern live from Havana next week. So, another Caribbean island with a profound history. Okay, we only thank you so much. Thank you very much.


Hi everybody it's Sam at Mixed Up Craft, thank you for watching my tutorial today. I've got this really cute gift box which is a kind of newer version of my Oriental gift box that I made last year and those are inspired by fruit boxes in China where I live. So this I'm going to call my fruit box and it's really is very very simple to make but it really does I think stand out from the rest it's just got a really nice look about it and I think it looks very elegant now I've gone quite different in terms of style I've gone very muted I've gone tone on tone I've gone pastel so yeah very different but you know still gorgeous. So this one I'm holding like this because I haven't stuck it down because I want to fold this keep it stored flat for the time being so you just open up the Velcro and then inside you'll see there you've got a really nice roomy gift bag but it just means now that I can just pop out all of this until I need it and I can just store it flat there I'll have to kind of have it sticking out the top of the rest of them but at least I can still keep it flat or I could even put that on you know if you do want to store them just keep put a paper clip with that next to it and stick that on right on the you know the kind of time when you need it. Anyway it's really is straightforward to make and I've used a fancy die for the decoration on the top there I just fold all that back in again like so and I just really love look at all that detail on there now I did fussy cut around the outside I'm going to show you and talk you all through it because you know there may be a few of you that have got lots of different kind of of these edge dies that you want to use so yeah let's get into it really really lovely and the size is six by three so again lots of room in that one it's my squeaky chair I've got to get it sorted okay so you don't need a calculator that's just fallen on top let's get rid of that so for today you are going to need two pieces pop that to one side okay so you're going to need two pieces of nine and a half by 12 okay now the length may vary depending on what you want to do with it okay so you may well be able to use nine and a half by 11 or even a four length 11 and three quarters okay so just watch the tutorial and then you can kind of decide you know what it is you want to do now I'm aware looking at this that the score lines unless I hold them up you're not actually going to see me score them but I'll still talk you through and then I'll hold it up so along the nine and a half inch side you want to score a six and nine and a half okay really easy so there's the six and the nine and a half so you have this half inch tab okay then rotate it so that half inch tab is towards the bottom and you want to score it three seven and a half and nine so again if I just hold that up there's my three there's my seven and a half and there's my nine then flip it over so that half inch tab is now facing the top and you want to square it five and a half pass that first half inch score line and down to the second score line just hold that up there so you can see I've just gone past that half inch one and just down to the second one okay so that's all the scoring now you want to do that on two you'll have two pieces of this you want to do exactly that again on the other piece and then with my ruler what you want to do is you will have your half inch tab on this right hand side and then you'll have your nine and a half um seven and a half inch sorry six inch score line okay so this is along that nine and a half inch side so this is the six inch score line and this is that nine inch score line it was right now I've moved my yeah okay so you want to basically god it is I'm struggling here with you guys let me I'm going to draw a pencil a very light pencil mark on this and then you will be able to see where I'm talking and what I'll do is I'll put a um template in the in my blog I'm not going to put pencil everywhere because I want to rub this out but very lightly so there is your nine um sorry there's your six and your nine okay then you've got two going across this way and you've then got that little five and was it five and a half I'll do very well yeah and then you've got that five and a half inch score line that you just scored to this six inch score line okay it's on that line there that we're going to be doing this next lot of scoring okay so this is that score line that just goes to this six inch score line here it's within that area that you're going to do your next lot of scoring so what you want to do is with your ruler because now you can see where I'm working so tab on your right hand side you've got this square rectangle rectangle the third area so this rectangle here is what we're working in just above this score line that just goes to this six inch one okay so not on that score line but the one above the one that does go right across you want to pop your ruler and you want to do a little marker at three quarters of an inch just do a little indent in your card from this bit here in three quarters of an inch then again from the tab from the half inch kind of score line again you want to come in at three quarters of an inch and do a little marker then from that marker you're going to score from there down to the bottom left or right hand corner of that rectangle so I've just drawn a pencil so that's going to be a score line for you and then again from that other three quarter of an inch down to that corner okay so then you will have this all right if I just hold that there so you can see where you are tabs on the right and then just work your way down that way and each of these are coming in three quarters of an inch but you will score all this obviously not pencil it now you want to do that on both pieces okay now I'm going to leave the pencil marks on here while I cut into this one because I think it'll be easier so next you want to start doing some cutting so keeping it like this along the bottom here this is our base so you just want to cut up these two score lines okay so this one I would say burnish it now as well actually before you cut but I just don't want to but I don't want to make that pencil kind of set too much in the card so I'm not going to for the minute but burnish or cut is entirely up to you so you just cut these three pieces this one here is going to be your tab your side tabs for your base so you just want to take a little wedge off both of those sides like so and then this piece just along the score line there just remove completely okay then turn it so now it's on this side and you're going to cut right the way down this one so I'm actually going to remove that pencil so it's one less thing for me to rub out okay and then rotate again and then you're going to miss that score line because we're just going to cut this whole piece out now but really neatly because all of this is going to be exposed and depending on what dye you're going to put on it you may well have that all as your flap to close it okay so now that is what you should have now you want to do that on both pieces okay so I'm just going to get this all rubbed out okay so you will now have two pieces that look like this I've left the pencil on there because this one I'm going to cut into again two pieces so now just carefully if you've cut into it already like me just go and burnish all of those score lines okay and then these ones here you just turn it on its side and kind of lift it up just so you're kind of pinching that there and again on that side just lift it up and then that one you just want to just pinch in okay so you can kind of now see that's going to be the side so if you just put that one down and that one down that's how that's going to be basically that width there is the same width when it's closed in as that kind of piece here which is going to flap over okay so there's my two so now this is when you want to kind of die cut your fancy edge okay now this edge that I've got here is six inches now this was given to me by my mum but I think it's craft as companion because most of my ones are from there and it's very similar so I believe it's from there but I'll double check with her and I will share links in my blog now basically what you're going to do is we're going to be running my one is going to go perfectly along here I have to cut in a little bit but it will sit within there okay just now you can either cut direct into this right and run it through your die machine and the way you do that is just fold it under like so and then you will put just that bit through your plates so this is your plates you go with that score line there I'm going to put it right up to the edge of my plate and then put my die on there then put my top plate on again just up to the edge obviously put some tape on that and run that through and basically it won't damage any more any of this and it will just cut that piece through and then just roll it reverse it back through again okay now I'm going to actually I done that and then I put another piece of cardstock behind it and fussy cut around it and that's how I got that there so I cut that that's attached the detail is attached to this like I just showed you there and then the back piece I done separately and you can see it's stuck here this is a separate piece now that worked fine but I think it's going to be easier to keep this all together and die cut this separately okay so what I've got here is a piece of card and I've put some double-sided tape on the back and the tape I use or sheets even are these the A4 double-sided tape sheets by stick to anything it's www.stick2.co.uk and I've used these for quite a while now and they're really really good you get five A4 sheets so what I've gone and done is just peeled off the backing of one side and stuck it onto the back of my cardstock now I'm going to pop that on there sandwich it between my plates now because it's got that double-sided tape it will take a few kind of passes through your machine to cut so I'm just gonna put this through maybe three or four times okay so I've just run that through maybe about four times just pop that out the way and now hopefully this will have cut through and you're usually so yeah you can see now don't worry if you know if it's not gone through both if don't worry if it's not gone through the very back piece of backing because that actually is the bit you're peeling off anyway okay so if I just take this off it should start to come out which it is now this is very detailed so I just want to be quite careful it's already taking out the pieces that are because obviously they're stuck in which is fine very carefully there we go and I don't want to take my backing off yet but I can poke the rest of them out in a minute now I'm just going to because obviously this is for the side of like a gatefold card this particular kind of die or for lids flaps like we're doing so I'm just going to just tidy up and straighten off the edges there I'll be trimming that off again in a minute take all of that out later okay so now what I've got is this so I just need to usually this die the pieces just fall out but because we've got that double sided tape in I do need to kind of just help it along because it is kind of sticking I guess to the sides now on the back here you can see there's my backing okay which I don't want to pull off yet I just want to go along and get all these pieces so I'm just going to do that okay so now that's everything taken out there's a bit of the white in the middle there but that doesn't matter so now what I'm going to do is just grab my trimmer and I just want to tidy off that edge okay so now I've just got a nice piece there so it's very delicate like I said you know depending on what you've got I will show you what to do if you don't have this so don't worry so now I'm going to grab decide what piece you want to be your front and back so now I'm just going to remove all of this backing and now you have a perfect intricate die that's full of adhesive okay again if you don't have the backing sheets all I would say now is put the glue on the back of your hand which I like to do and dab your die over that so now I'm going to stick actually I've just realized I've still got my no because I'm going to use that one sorry because that was the one I'm going to cut that's going to be my back sorry I still had the pencil on it okay so this area here is all going to be your flap so I'm just going to very very carefully sorry I'm just going to take out a shot a minute just so I can make sure I'm getting it in the sensor do it that way actually just want to make sure I get an even amount there we go so I'm just following that school line and then just bring that down again you can use any colors any theme I'm just going for this real nice understated effect now that looks like it is a part of that card because it's right on that join it just gives a really really nice effect again it's one of those things it's so much nicer in person um but again I think it still looks really nice so now I'm going to fussy cut I'm just going to very carefully just go around obviously if you've got any digital um machines you'd be able to get it to do this for you but I'm now just going to go around just like I did with this one here and just get that nice effect okay so there go that took me literally not even five minutes so now I have this really lovely closure this front flap to my gift box and I absolutely love it it's going to look so nice when it's all obviously hanging over so that's my from this piece here which was exactly the same all you want to do now is take this piece off so actually what I can tell you is you don't need two pieces of the same size to start with do you really just thinking about it because you've actually removed all of that which is actually a good size piece of card so I will um put a little note on my blog that's why I always say watch my tutorials you know um first so that um then obviously now I can say that actually you only need a piece of card stock which will be so one will be that size but this piece only needs to be um nine and a half by nine okay so yeah right next we need to stick them together so this one it's going to go on there like so so I'm just going to grab some of my wet glue and you're going to pop it onto the back of your tab here also what I didn't do there is just take a little wedge off of these it'll just stop you getting any overhang and then flip it over and just you're sticking it from the school line that's your top so you're sticking it from this is your baseline and then that first school line there so just line it up with the side like so just fold it over and then you can just burn a shit you just want to make sure it's nice and flush with that piece okay so that's that one then with this one here fold this one in and again some glue on there and then this piece can fold straight over keeping it all nice and flat and it should just perfectly line up and that that you know is an indication that you've done all your school lines correct and your cuttings all been nice and lined up and again I'm just using my bone folder there just to make sure that's all nice okay so I would say at this point now if you want to so I'm putting my handle on the top on the top I put my handle on the top here so it looks like a handbag but if you want to add ribbon and have hole punches I would say pop them on this side piece here okay because it won't interfere the lid so maybe if you're going to put something really heavy in it you might want to have your handle coming from the side and not the hat not the flap because obviously if this is too heavy I mean it shouldn't do but that could obviously open whereas if you attach it here then that won't happen so it's entirely up to you but at this point here now I would say pop your hole punches in there while it's easy to do next you want to then bring in your back then your sides and this piece and stick it all down okay and then you just squeeze in the sides there because we've already burnished these score lines just squeeze them in pop that flap down and then this one should perfectly line up giving you that gorgeous gift bag isn't that lovely so now I'm going to add my velcro dot you could use a magnet if you want you could hole punch there and there and put some ribbon through you know there's so many lovely ways to fasten it so again don't worry if don't always have all these pieces because there's so many nice ways and also that fastening that I done on my multi loop gift bag is it the multi loop I can't remember which one it was where I had it so that it just kind of slid inside that's another nice way okay now I've just realized I didn't show you what to do if you don't have the dies but it's fine I can talk you through that so I'm just bringing that down I've stuck my velcro there just going to open up the base and just put some pressure on there so where it was originally this shape all you need to do is I'd say come in a centimeter come in an inch on both sides of that flap and then cut from that one inch up to the corner here and it will just give you that kind of effect okay or you might have an edge punch some of the longer ones you could go along and punch that and just have a nice kind of just trim or any other border dies you might have they might not be full ones like this they might just be the ones that go along the straight line you could use that but yours will be coming down like this obviously where it was before I done all that so like I said you could come in half an inch you could do a triangle cut and if you want to you could grab any circle dies or a plate draw around it and you could have a nice curved effect as well so there's loads of different ways that you can obviously decorate that okay so pop all that back in again now you can keep it like that you might not even want to add handles you might want to keep it more of a gift box style but to make the handle you just need a piece of nine by one inch okay so I've got the same color here nine by one inch and you want to score it one and eight inches so there's my one inch score line and my eight inch score line and then basically just fold it up I guess or down it doesn't really matter because what you're going to do now is in between those score lines just with your bone folder this evening I've lost the will to be able to talk there we go and then those bits are going to stick out like so and that now will sit lovely on the top there okay so I'm going to get that stuck down now I haven't cut any circle little dies it was just for detail really um show you here so I just die cut some of my smallest circle dies there and just die cut three on each side led them on top of each other you see they've got a bit of dimension there it was just literally just for decorative reasons so I'm going to do that off camera but then all you need to do is where did I put my I've got my embellishments here so in the middle of this there was just this nice kind of area and I thought it was perfect for a little flat back gem so I'm just going to grab one there I always like to put a little bit of glue just to keep it nice and secure you can obviously move them around a little bit as well and there you have it obviously yours will be stuck down but mine is going to be stored flat for the time being but there you have it isn't that gorgeous absolutely stunning really like these would definitely be making more of them and I think it's just a slightly easier version of the oriental box that I've done and this is trying to just evolve from that but yeah this is my fruit box so I hope you've liked these I think they are so cute if you have please give me a thumbs up as always and subscribe to my channel to see more thanks for watching bye


Hello, what's poppin? We are on twitch. We are live about a time you see this We won't be so just leave a like comment subscribe turn on your post notification bells Let's continue to grow the family from Chicago to the UK Spotify playlist behind me. We do a music reaction. You got to be a seven or better to be considered for this Links down in the description. This is just me and chat's opinion You know Talk to me country dons sofa surfing Wait, I haven't heard country dons in over almost 11 months maybe a year It was dingers on a strip knock. I'm check the drum. It's a crazy video I miss him I see niggas double my ace. I can round in the rain. I was young. They used to cost me now I come in a range of strange, but real funny how these times have changed I don't want him what they think I'm watching my face. It's done it bait on the man's there's no bus in that case I hope you get this money, but he's stuck in his ways to go home I went back in car. I ain't saying names last a gamble out front. I don't think you're late What do you stay coffee tower bridge? I'm cheating my babe. No, it's that girl barbelly. I've got town for my main You was under the shot on my dog. I'm out in the rain. It's a different kind of struggle when your hunger's a pain One thing's for sure two things for certain if my line stops winging and I'm all tea lurking Oh, he knows the neighbors never spot. I've got clothes to cut me my young and in a band. I'll have him soul for So for surfing I'll have him so for the hook is too long.  They say the trap. Yeah, they ever seen a hundred K Cut as crazy bitches thinking that they're Molly made these women take me out for food nigga I don't pay gone police at my door should have seen my mother's face in and out of court since the age of 11 We keep the trap open all day like a 7-11 the AP looking real nice, but you ain't copped any weapons I'm a tutor in the game. I can teach you some lessons a mirror on the stitch and I look fly Anywhere always covered in diamonds cuz I've been through the pressure always kept it 100 since it's a day that I'm Met up for this model team. She told me don't miss business with pleasure. What one thing's for sure They're gonna be a hook again. I'm not doing it. We're not doing it. That's hook again. All right My god It's gonna what a tear I'm skipping this. Let's start off with it one to ten one. I'm not one one being Stop rapping ten being Best thing I've ever heard five being average. I give this about a five on the dot I said I haven't heard them in like a year. That's cool. We can go another year We can go another year If this is what it is, we can go another year I've got one simple as that