Benefits Of Legalized Gambling - The Economic To The Social
Benefits Of Legalized Gambling - The Economic To The Social
Why Gambling Should Be Legalized - Reasons to Allow Gambling
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The History of Gaming in Nevada - Nevada Resorts
When was gambling legalized in Nevada? - Answers
When was gambling legalized in Nevada (U.S.) ? | Yahoo Answers
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why was gambling legalized in nevada - win
DKNG - Fundamental DD Inside - DKNG
This is an example of fundamental DD that takes place at ‘smart’ money institutions based on my professional experience in IBD, Private Equity & most recently at a HF (mods can message me for proof). Not thoroughly fleshed out b/c you autists have limited attention spans, but a summary. Figured I’d take the time to give back to this community that has provided many lolz, & should be a good measuring stick when evaluating other forms of fundamental DD posted here. NFA. DKNG - DraftKings, Inc.: vertically integrated US mobile betting operator that also provides retail sports betting & back-end betting solutions through SBTech. Think of SBTech as the tech ‘market-maker’ for traditional sports betting, they do all the funny math to set the betting odds & seem to be working on back-end solutions for DKNG Casino The Big Picture
Total annual US Gambling Revenue: ~$90Bn [1]
Casinos: ~$75Bn
Illegal Sports Betting: ~$13Bn
Horse Racing: ~$0.8Bn
Daily Fantasy Sports: ~$0.4Bn
Only ~2% of the ~$90Bn gambling revenues were placed online which is the lowest in the world where betting online is legal. For example, in other countries online gaming activity represents ~6% - ~52% of total gambling revenues, with ~12% being the average. Wall Street expects online gaming revenue to be $20Bn-$40Bn within the next 10 years. For this to be achieved, the online gambling market will have to achieve a ~30% penetration rate on total country gaming revenues. There is an expectation that this is could be easily achievable given penetration trends overseas - see page 11 of this: https://s1.rationalcdn.com/vendors/stars-group/documents/presentations/TSG-Investor-Day_March-27-2019.pdf Other catalysts include increasing adaptation of sports betting in more states. States that have both legal sports betting + online sports betting permitted: NV, NJ, WV, PA, IA. Sports betting permitted but no online: DE, MS, RI, MO, AR. Prior to COVID there was ongoing discussions across many States, especially ones with growing deficits to explore how permitting sports betting could create a fresh avenue of tax dollars. Post COVID there is an expectation that these discussions will be given extra focus as many States will be hungry for incremental tax dollars. Important to note that currently 43/50 States allow DFS, but given the small share DFS has on total Gaming Revenues, it increasingly looks like DKNG is banking on traditional sports betting for a variety of reasons, more later. There are entire articles on Google arguing this catalyst so I’ll end this here. Digging Deeper DKNG’s main offerings are Daily Fantasy Sports (“DFS”) products & traditional sports book products to its clients. Long story short, a metric to look for in my opinion (that is curiously not reported by management or remarked on) is the hold % in traditional gaming sector parlance or the ‘rake’ & compare it to the ‘traditional’ gaming products like sports betting & Blackjack. For DFS: DKNG takes ~15% of the prize pool (note: used to be ~6-11% [2]). Curiously, their main competitor FanDuel also has moved up to a ~15% rake recently. Google searches show the smaller competitors have a rake in the ~13% range. This ‘rake’ has grown ~2x in 6 years, but it has been a delicate move on behalf of management. Why? B/c the more ‘sophisticated’ DFS players (equal to autistic day traders on Robinhood) have noted this increase & based on some Googling, some have moved down market to the smaller players. As a side note, many live casino games have their rules altered to grow the Hold %. For example, Blackjack games with 6:5 payouts on 21 have materially higher Hold % than the traditional BJ rules that pay out 3:2. Given the findings so far, DKNG may not have much room to materially increase its hold % in DFS games in the near-term from current of 15%. More on this later. Now why the fuck is this important? This is important b/c the typical sports book (ex-Parlays) have a ~5% hold %/rake. Parlays have up to a ~30% hold (which is why it’s commonly known as the sucker’s bet), & just for reference, the average Blackjack table clocks in 14.5%. What this means: Every dollar put into these games, the “House” or DKNG, will take 15% of your money for DFS games, for sports bets they will be pocketing ~5%, up to ~30% if you’re into parlays, & we’ll just use the standard 14.5% BJ hold for the DraftKings Casino platform. So why the acquisition of SBTech & a foray into the traditional sports gambling market? As you can see previously, the illegal sports betting market is >30x the size of the current daily fantasy sports market. So it’s clear that the DFS providers including DKNG are foraying into the space to capture this user base & hopefully convert them into games that have a higher hold %, such as DFS/DKNG Casino. As of May 2020, DKNG has achieved a 30% penetration rate on its ~4mm ‘monetized’ DFS clientele to its Online Sports Book (OSB), from the OSB+DFS clientele, DKNG has converted 50% into its DraftKings Casino platform. Including non-monetized users, user base totals at 12mm. Based on these unit economics: every 1mm of additional users -> 333k monetized users for DFS -> 100k users for OSB -> 50k users for DraftKings Casino. Some Numbers – Italicized/Bolded the important
In total, DKNG has DFS paying clientele of ~4mm, the metric management focuses on is “Monthly Unique Payers (MUP)” which spans across DFS & online sports betting***. As of Q1’20 they reported 720,000*** MUPs, representing +16% YoY growth [3]
Average revenue per monthly user (ARPU) of ~$41, +11% YoY
Based on previous observation of Hold %, looks like ARPU growth will be limited
Since ’17, MUP has grown at a ~11% CAGR & ARPU has grown at a ~19% CAGR
As a side note: the ~4mm monetized user base was acquired at ~$122/user over 3 years. Total users cost them $41/user over the last 3 years [3].
They are currently EBITDA negative & Wall St expects them to be positive by 2023
I took a dive into the math driving this, here is a summary:
Based on their current cost structure they will need to have ~1.7mm MUPs at an ARPU of ~$46 to break-even. This implies total monetized users of ~10mm from ~4mm currently
Numbers that represent Risks to Long Thesis
DKNG’s user base of ~12mm is on the low end of the sector vs. its ‘brick & mortar’ competitor's user bases (online betting platforms with physical casino presence)
CZR with 55mm, MGM with 33mm, ERI with 10mm (in pending merger with CZR, could have a lot of overlap), FanDuel with 8.5mm
Is there a concern for increased marketing costs to increase user base? Let’s look at a case study of NJ, the first state to open both mobile & retail sports betting:
FanDuel + DraftKings have held 80%+ of the OSB market share since 12/2018 which is estimated to be driven by the conversion opportunity from DFS that is unique to both companies [4]
On the flipside, a case study to examine going forward is how DKNG can get OSB customers in a State that does not allow DFS. Nevada. Home to Las fucking Vegas. Prior to NV pushing FanDuel/DKNG out (highly likely due to casino lobbying), NV was a top-15 State in terms of revenue for them. NV is home to the fattest sports book in the US, & recently the gaming commission started to parse the data on sportsbook wagers done online vs. in-person, & it came out to roughly 50/50. It will be interesting to see how they try to capture market share in a state with no DFS
Long-term EBITDA margin target of 35% requires huge growth in MUPs
Based on their estimated '22 cost structure: Holding ARPU of ~$46, MUPs will have to be ~5.2mm, a 7x increase from current to achieve a EBITDA margin of 35%
A focus on future earnings will be management's ability to shift to a more fixed-cost structure which would effectively lower the MUP requirement for profitability
Things to look for when going Long - Progress of additional States legalizing sports betting – specifically, States with DFS already legalized - Cost structure evolving to a more fixed mix vs. the mostly variable mix currently as this will be the forward figure that determines profitability - Increasing User Base (Curr.: 12mm) -> Monetized Base (Curr.: 4mm) -> MUP (1Q’20: 0.7mm)
Management seems to be focused more on the first step, but one thing to note is that the 33% monetization rate is very high when compared to something like League of Legends which isn’t entirely comparable but in 2013 had a ~4% monetization rate [5]. This, combined with the below implies that this conversion rate may be the ceiling for now
As a side note, ~6 years ago FanDuel had ~300k monetized on an ~800k user base for a monetization rate of ~37% [6]
Share Price Target Given the cost structure of the company, I’m going to base the price targets around Enterprise Value / Revenues (driven by MUPs & ARPUs).
MUP sensitivity of 5mm - 6mm
ARPU sensitivity from $41 - $47 for an average of $44, just a $3 increase from current of $41.
Share Price targets based on 2.0x - 4.5x EV / Sales.
Note: Flutter Entertainment (FanDuel ParentCo) trades at ~3.6x EV/Sales
Bear Case MUP: 5mm -> $20.32 - $45.73 Base Case MUP: 5.5mm -> $22.27 - $50.10 Bull Case MUP: 6mm -> $24.21 - $54.47 These MUPs imply a monetized customer base of 28mm – 33mm. At the high-end, this implies that DKNG monetized customer base will equal MGM’s current total user base. At yesterday’s close of $43.70, DKNG is trading at 3.5x – 4.5x forward Revenues on an expected >5,000 MUPs. Share Price drivers / considerations: - Continued multiple expansion
Consideration: A 1x premium to FanDuel's 3.6x, implies a ~15% upside to current. They're bigger than FanDuel, do they deserve the premium?
- MUP Growth exceeding beyond targets
Consideration: Stock currently implies that they should on average be growing at 40% QoQ – during 2018 they had on average +30% growth QoQ in MUPs, marking their best year
Management Team Jason Robins, 39 – Co-Founder & CEO. Duke BA, started DraftKings from day 1 in 2011. The 2 other buddies he started the Company with are still at DKNG. Dude navigated the Company through the scandal that rocked them in ’15 & ’16, and was the trailblazer in getting DFS labeled as a non-gambling product that enabled it to open in States without a gaming designation. This shit is the stuff that gets people in history books. His accomplishments make him seem like a very competent guy. Has 3 kids now, and only ~3% economic ownership in DKNG but has 90% of the voting power through his Class B share ownership. Also he actively participates in venture investments, sitting on 10 boards. His comp plan performance bonus target is pretty murky, but main drivers are EPS growth, revenue growth, then a bunch of margin & return metrics, along with share price returns. Overall, very open-ended & it’s safe to say as long as shit doesn’t hit the fan, he will be eligible for his max payouts year over year. I’m assuming the lawyers tried to encompass everything possible for maximum flexibility to justify him earning his max comp as long as DKNG is still around. Since he’s got voting control of 90%, I’ll end the specific-person overview here, but want to note that they have a very bloated C-suite. 12 folks at DKNG, 8 folks at SBTech, all with C-suite designations. Whereas their main competitor FanDuel, has 3 guys with a C-suite designations & 1 EVP, but is a sub under a larger ParentCo that has its own management team of ~5 guys. Looking through glassdoor you can see the biggest complaint among employees giving bad reviews is based on management, all of the specific issues they point out IMO are a result of a top-heavy company. Seems like a good starting point to optimize their cost structure, but given Robins' history of sticking this entire thing through with his co-founders since '11 stuff like this doesn't seem to be a part of his playbook. They’re a public company now though, so it’s going to be interesting to see going forward. TL;DR: If I were to initiate a position in DKNG, the stock would have to fall to the $35-$37 range for me to be a buyer of the stock, and based on this rough intro analysis I'll be considering Put options if it breaches $50. I would not touch Calls at this level. [1] Wall Street Research - 6/27/19 [2] https://rotogrinders.com/articles/bang-for-your-buck-a-look-at-dfs-industry-rake-153302 [3] https://draftkings.gcs-web.com/static-files/8f3a5c5a-7228-45bf-aab2-63604111c48d [4] Wall Street Research - 5/19/20 [5]https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/223071/Dont_monetize_like_League_of_Legends_consultant_says.php [6] https://rotogrinders.com/threads/how-many-people-actually-play-dfs-regularly-252044
I went on a bit of a rant after skimming some senate bills. Feel free to use this to email your reps.
I look up bills in my state every once in a while for things I am interested in just to stay informed. After seeing poker lumped in as a "games of chance" like bingo and slot machines I wrote a bit of a rant to my representatives. Thought I would share what I wrote incase anyone here wanted to use it. I know it's COVID and there are bigger issues. But even more the reason to allow online play. You might want to remove my reference to the Washington States Senate bill, but I'm sure something similar exists for you. For the most part, these emails are actually read. So it's not a waste of time to change what I have a little email it to a few people. ------------- Find your reps: https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/add ------------- Hello, my name is [Name] and I live in [State] District [your disctrict number]. I am writing to you to voice my support for online poker and explain why it should be legalized. I was prompted to write this email after skimming a few senate bills, one of which (S-1558.1) read this: "An affirmative vote of sixty percent of both houses of the legislature is required before offering any game allowing or requiring a player to become eligible for a prize or to otherwise play any portion of the game by interacting with any device or terminal involving digital, video, or other electronic representations of any game of chance, including scratch tickets, pull-tabs, bingo, poker or other cards, dice, roulette, keno, or slot machines. Approval of the legislature shall be required before entering any agreement with other state lotteries to conduct shared games;" The part of this bill that is particularly inaccurate is classifying poker as a "game of chance". A game of chance would imply a fixed probability of a person winning or losing. Rolling dice has a 1:5 chance of hitting the number you want, Slot Machines are a programmed payout %, and all other games listed here fit in that category. But Poker does not. But the defining characteristic I think you should pay attention to here is that in the world of gambling the house has this fixed edge using probabilities. So no matter what a person does the house will always have a 3-20% edge. For example, if you are playing roulette, no matter what you do you have a ~47% chance of winning. Meaning the house has a 6% edge. Yes, there are scenarios in poker where you can get lucky, but that is with any game or sport. The chance of it raining, the chance of twisting your ankle, the chance of sneezing. But aside from that, Poker it is far from a game of chance. This is most easily proven by the mere existence of professional poker players. People who are skilled at poker, win way more often than they lose on average. The house has no edge in poker, individuals have an edge, but only based on their skill level. Skills include, but are not limited to:
Knowing the value of your hand compared to the possible value of your opponents hands given the cards on the board.
Knowing the probability of improving of your hand (If I need a heart, there is a 25% chance of that coming. If I need a King after the flop I have ~16% chance of winning)
Knowing how to bet (and how much to bet), or call, or fold based on the value of your hand and the odds of it improving.
These are all skills that a person can possess to have an edge over other people. However, there is no edge for the house. This dynamic exists in many games, there is no difference in playing poker for money than there is in entering a singing contest for money. They both mostly involve the skill of the person vs their opponents, the only difference is that odds of getting a heart on the next card or getting a King after the flop are perfectly predictable opportunities of chance in poker, therefore more noticeable. But the luck involved in singing like humidity that day, technical issues, or getting sick are much hard to measure, therefore less noticeable. Finally, I want to compare poker to something that is legal, truly a game of chance, and damaging to low income populations–the lottery. Online poker can easily be regulated and will mostly be played by higher income earners. Yes, it is possible for people to be addicted, but people can be addicted to anything. Being online vs in person does not make a difference as to how an addict will behave. However, the lottery is more addictive and specifically targets low income areas. The fact that the lottery is legal and people can pay $10 - $100 a week on a game that they have a near 0 chance of "winning", but cannot play online poker with that same money and improve their chances overtime just does not make any logical sense. If someone is addicted to poker, they will play poker. The only difference is that you are forcing them into playing in person where the cheapest game is $300 to buy in. But the advantage of online poker is, those same people can get their fix buying in for $10. By making online poker illegal, you are hurting the very people you say you are protecting even worse. Poker was made famous in America with online poker, now we are the one of the only countries beside Iran and North Korea where it is illegal. If [State] truly is a progressing place, you will reconsider your stance in online poker and make it legal and regulated the same way New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Delaware have. Thank you for taking the time to read my position.
Not Financial Advice (NFA) Warning: Wall of Text. If you hate reading just skim through the bolded/italicized Ever since I publicized my findings on DKNG, the stock has underperformed & probably has fucked a lot of people here, especially given the overly bullish stance back in June. Unless you took my advice & got into Puts then, congrats, welcome to tendie town. For the ADHD retards, here’s what the next wall of text is going to summarize: I believe at the current price of ~$30, the stock is oversold. A tech-focused, high-growth Company that has made sports betting easy to understand with an aesthetically pleasing interface similar to how Robinhood has neatly laid out stock market gimmicks so even high-schoolers can make sense of it I believe, is underpriced at these levels. Let’s get into some details as to why the stock has underperformed: First off, the news slate revolving sports with the rumored delay/cancellation of the MLB season & the NFL watching from the sidelines is in my view, just a part of why the stock has underperformed. We’ll revisit this later in this post, but I want to focus on the drivers of the stock’s recent underperformance, & why these factors are now in the rearview mirror. Part I – The Past Has Passed – SPAC-related Equity Dilution History lesson first: DKNG went public via a SPAC merger, which has exploded in popularity recently. Anyone serious about analyzing stocks going forward needs to do their homework on this, Google is your friend. A feature of most SPAC merger to public listings that creates a headwind to near-term share prices are embedded equity dilution events, usually in the form of earn-outs (stock bonuses to execs, the SPAC sponsor) & conversion of Warrants. On 5/24, the earn-outs were triggered, adding 6m shares to the share count. On 6/26, 16.3m warrants converted to DKNG, netting them ~$188m of cash. Stepping back a little, in addition to the above, on 6/18 DKNG launched a follow-on equity offering of 16M shares @ $40/Share [1], receiving $621M in proceeds. The last part is tricky to understand from a dilution perspective. To simplify, historically it’s almost a coin toss whether a Company’s shares outperform on the onset of an equity offering. While issuing shares does dilute the existing shareholder base, it theoretically shouldn’t, if the proceeds from the offering are earmarked for investments/projects that yield outsized returns. This is the reality for the long term, theory for the short-term. For the short-term, the ‘reality’ isn’t that the proceeds will be used for investments/projects that yield outsized returns, it is more about how convincing management is to investors that the investments they intend to pursue with the proceeds will outweigh the dilutive effects of issuing incremental shares. That’s a mouthful, but hopefully you get what I’m trying to convey. All of this stuff put together – the Company has increased its share count by ~39M, but now has a whopping ~$1.4Bn of cash [2]. More on this in the next section. Part II – MLB News Should Not Fucking Matter & DKNG Is Positioned As the Leading Online/Mobile Sports Platform DKNG should not be so tied to MLB news or any of this shit as the ongoing success of the NBA/NHL season + Soccer in Europe has effectively created a blueprint on how to regulate player behavior so that they maintain professionalism amidst the pandemic. I’m going out on a whim here, but I truly think the MLB threatening a cancellation of the season is pure posturing to get these fuckers to behave appropriately. Maybe a ‘bubble’ is what it takes to get these players to focus on their jobs instead of going out & contracting COVID, but I argue that isn’t necessarily required given Soccer in Europe. So there’s already a proven path here without the need for a bubble in Soccer, so MLB/NFL should be fine, and execs need to study how they got it done in Europe. Okay, back to some facts. Anecdotally, I’ve kept in touch with a handful of sports bookies from California to New York & even internationally about what they’re seeing – all of them say that since the NBA season started on 7/30 & since Soccer (especially the Premier League) resumed in June, along with other leagues like La Liga & Serie A, they’ve seen massive increases in betting. These numbers are also showing up in the official data [3]:
Average % increase in sports betting handle from April 2020 to June 2020 (handle is the total $ wagered in sports bets) from the states that reported up to June 2020 (NJ, PA, MS, RI, WV, IA, IN, NH) of +258%!
Note: NV is left out due to the site I sourced showing a weirdly negative number – so I dug into the official filings & show specifically, Sports Mobile betting growth from June since April has growing by at least +73% [4]
REMEMBER: This is for June only! No NBA, No NHL, No MLB, just Soccer, Golf, NASCAR & UFC. The data clearly shows that there was a ton of pent-up sports betting demand, which leads one Wall St. analyst to think that betting on the NBA/NHL could ABSORB the MLB’s sports betting handle (handle = total $ size of sports bet) [5]. Remember, the MLB season is still ongoing, with games being played. The entire focus is on the Miami Marlins & St. Louis Cardinals. Fucking retards. Additionally, I want to remind everyone that DraftKings.com is the #1 Fantasy sports website in the U.S. [6]. Also, since April 2020 site visitations are up +86% [7] & Google Search Trends for “Draft Kings” is up ~3xcompared to PRE-COVID levels [8]. What does this mean? They are piquing more people’s curiosity than prior to COVID/ongoing slate of sports. This is important because remember that ~$1.4Bn chest full of cash I mentioned DKNG had assembled earlier? Well, that money is being put to work & results are already coming in, which is exactly what DKNG intended to do with it. Part III – Legalization of Sports Betting in the U.S. I could write a fucking bible on this topic alone, but for now we’ll stick to some basics. Due to COVID, it’s easy to understand that each State’s financial situation is clearly in shit. Because of this, you better believe that these guys are going to start taking a hard look at how they can extract additional tax revenues, & what’s one of the easiest ways to do this? Legalization & taxation of gambling. The big players: CA, TX, FL & NY. First, CA pushing its legislation out to 2023 was fucked up, but here’s a twist I want to add to this: Anything that has to do with gambling in CA you better believe is lobbied against by not just the Tribal casino owners in CA, but by the deep pockets of Las Vegas money. Similar thing can be said for FL, but let’s take a look at some actions by LV/nationwide gambling companies that are starting to align financial incentives with guys like DKNG.
MGM / GVC Holdings JV in BetMGM - $450m total invested
PENN invests $163m into BS Sports
Caesars has a 20% stake in William Hill plus partnership deals with The Stars Group (TSG) & our winner DKNG for operating its sports books
So it’s safe to say going forward, nationwide legalization of sports betting will reap rewards for everyone involved, & no longer be something LV money is completely focused on safeguarding. Let’s also not forget that DKNG didn’t become the Company they are today because of their fancy app, but because their management team has a HISTORY of navigating the U.S.’s legal framework to get what they want out of it.
The Crown Jewel – The Internet Gambling Prohibition & Enforcement Act: I said it in a previous post, but I want to emphasize that them getting Fantasy Sports to be labeled a ‘game of skill’ by FEDERAL Law as opposed to gambling is just something for the history books. Fucking genius shit. When this happened I bet every casino from LV to every Indian Tribe that has one was against it, yet DKNG & other DFS providers won.
There’s more, but more recently: Getting into IL:
In IL, there’s an 18-month ‘penalty box’ for Companies that offer DFS to offer sports betting. Our guys at DKNG created a workaround to this situation with their partnership with Casino Queen [9]. DKNG being savvy again.
Hi Boo_Dough, you're not shadowbanned, but 151 of your most recent 200 comments/submissions were removed (either automatically or by human moderators).
Can you explain? I thought the house was majority democrat.
gbfgrtd in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (1pts):
Thats what 2A is for
gbfbhek in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (15pts):
Realistically whats Trump chances of winning this legal battle? They are oddly silent and just boasting so far. I imagine they have something planned right??
gbfb5bh in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (7pts):
I wasn't even alive lmao
gbfb3jr in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (11pts):
He said something like the story was clear he was on a path to victory and they already started making plans for when he's president.
gbfa4cp in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (2pts):
Meanwhile im in the third world state of Nevada
gbf62sh in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (1pts):
He declared victory
gbf4jwg in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (4pts):
If I buy a MAGA hat does it go to his defense fund? I want to contribute to that too but I don't want to spill all my money and I really want the hat. Im not sure if laws prevent something like that.
gbf4bvs in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (21pts):
All we wanted was jobs not mobs. We are the working class. MAGA
gbf3wq0 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (1pts):
His rallies probrably weren't connecting for gen z. I barely find his rallies entertaining but I am a geniune Trump supporter. But I do not dispute what you are saying, but I wouldn't blame anyone...
gbf36t4 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (2pts):
Im highly doubtful of that. Even then I would still like to own a piece of history. This hat will be the most remembered clothing item of American history. They will probrably sell out soon.
gbf2y81 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (3pts):
I rather it just be an organization. If it becomes a political party the roots of the message will be tainted.
gbf2kqm in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (51pts):
I might buy a MAGA hat. I truly hope this becomes more than a political slogan for Trump. I hope it becomes the motto for the working class.
gbf2dzr in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (48pts):
The only way we keep stay strong it to turn MAGA into a movement. Turn it into an organization. We need this movement to continue for decades.
gbex7w4 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (18pts):
Is there real proof of lobbying connections with Nancy Pelosi and Dominion?
gbex1bx in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (7pts):
Im too lazy to look it up but I was told for Nevada if that happens they pick a card for each side and the one with the higher number card wins the state. Not sure if its true to be honest.
gberaxk in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (24pts):
Not going to lie the longer this is prolonged and witnessing these articles about patents and election fraud organizations the more im feeling like Trump has some cards under his sleeve.
gbeqyze in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (21pts):
The Russians were better at secretly rigging elections than Democrats. You would think after 4 years of complaining about it they would learned a thing or two.
gbenjy8 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (16pts):
Check out Tim Pools tweets we might be heading into a national recount
gbejn1s in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (17pts):
Biden is just Carter 2.0. He won't drive the country downwards. But Harris will.
gbeja26 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (6pts):
I ask conservatives to do one thing if Biden wins. Don't do the "not my president" bull crap.
Do you guys think the MAGA movement will break off from the GOP?
gbdqd10 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (8pts):
Whats he saying
gbdpkvq in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (1pts):
Matthew 5:44
gbdo3e4 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (17pts):
So who did gen z vote for?
gbdncma in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (46pts):
I still love my country if Biden is president
gbd8bc8 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (-1pts):
Its not i saw other videos like this. Supposedly its legal.
gbd6qnd in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (12pts):
Is Crowder streaming today?
gbd4n1y in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (22pts):
How long will this court case be? When does it start?
gbd4ccj in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (5pts):
Honestly I prefer her over Biden
gbbtx6b in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (2pts):
true true thats what I should of worded it as lol
gbbtoxq in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (16pts):
lf this shit really is what it is. Trump will have pulled off the heist of the century against the Democrats
gbbt9ao in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (9pts):
Not so sure about Trump. His speech was a dumpster fire and he looked worn out.
gbbsbav in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (10pts):
Abraham Lincolns part in the reconstruction process of the South is pretty remarkable now that we see ourselves more divided than ever.
gbbrov7 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (20pts):
The whole patent thing on the ballots is such a stretch. Im doubtful thats whats occuring. If that was Trumps plan then he was really taking a gamble. edit: at the very least it was his backup...
gbbr6nf in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (12pts):
I fucking hope, Trump will have such a amazing legacy if that comes to fruition. But if this is true, Trump took a huge gamble because this only would come to fruition if he did have a higher margin...
gbbr120 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (1pts):
Interesting, where can I find something like this for WI and MI
gbbqx49 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (2pts):
I did too but the result was astonishing. Plus the early red mirage of wisconsin and michigan really felt like a landslide
gbbql30 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (11pts):
What website is most update with election results?
gbbqipm in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (10pts):
Unlikely, Nevada is blue all around
gbbqffx in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (34pts):
Damn I miss that feeling of that Florida win
gbbprjr in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (4pts):
How many ballots left in GA?
gbblz36 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (4pts):
Military ballots?
gbbhxcj in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (10pts):
I might be wrong but I think Biden just extended his AZ lead by 3000 votes. The CNN number looks a bit updated to what I remember when it was called earlier.
What are the chances of a Biden impeachment attempt if Biden is inaugurated?? For the Ukraine deals, the election fraud, etc.
gbbbjrt in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (17pts):
How far divided can we go? What will the results be?
gbbb9mf in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (4pts):
Will Republicans surpass Donald Trumps popular vote in 2024?
gbbau8r in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (14pts):
Im pretty down about all this but I hope this Greg Gutfeld clip can give everyone the optimism that Trump will overcome this. https://youtu.be/CTfPsjstxrg
gbb8zue in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (1pts):
Not true, look closely shes making huge ass marks. They were not their before
gbb8uny in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (45pts):
We have picture and video evidence of voter fraud. Trump better fucking pull through.
gbb7ydm in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (11pts):
Doesn't matter now because of GA and PA
gbb7u2q in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (34pts):
Democrats were framing the Russians the entire time. The Democrats are the Russians.
gbb76iy in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (-5pts):
If Biden hits 270 what does this mean for Trump the moment its 270 to inauguration day?
gbb5iqf in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (14pts):
Is it in Trumps favor the longer these states take to call a result?
gbb57z1 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (40pts):
America is a 3rd world country. African countries and Venezuela is sympathizing with us.
gbb4ltg in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (24pts):
So is it projected for Trump to lose PA? The gap is above 20k right now and Trumps campaign estimated a 40k gap win.
gbb2vh8 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (1pts):
How did I see the list of names then??
gbb2ppv in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (44pts):
MODS WHY DID YOU DELETE A COMMENT LINKING TO A TWEET WITH PROOF 14K VOTES CAME FROM DEAD PEOPLE im not yelling, just typing in caps for awareness edit: supposedly guy wasn't flaired here's the...
gbb2gkr in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (1pts):
WAIT WHY DID THE MODERATOR REMOVE IT
gbb1wrs in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (21pts):
Why am I getting a message from reddit asking if im mentally okay?
Hi Boo_Dough, you're not shadowbanned, but 154 of your most recent 200 comments/submissions were removed (either automatically or by human moderators).
Can you explain? I thought the house was majority democrat.
gbfgrtd in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (1pts):
Thats what 2A is for
gbfbhek in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (16pts):
Realistically whats Trump chances of winning this legal battle? They are oddly silent and just boasting so far. I imagine they have something planned right??
gbfb5bh in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (4pts):
I wasn't even alive lmao
gbfb3jr in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (11pts):
He said something like the story was clear he was on a path to victory and they already started making plans for when he's president.
gbfa4cp in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (2pts):
Meanwhile im in the third world state of Nevada
gbf62sh in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (1pts):
He declared victory
gbf4jwg in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (5pts):
If I buy a MAGA hat does it go to his defense fund? I want to contribute to that too but I don't want to spill all my money and I really want the hat. Im not sure if laws prevent something like that.
gbf4bvs in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (22pts):
All we wanted was jobs not mobs. We are the working class. MAGA
gbf3wq0 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (1pts):
His rallies probrably weren't connecting for gen z. I barely find his rallies entertaining but I am a geniune Trump supporter. But I do not dispute what you are saying, but I wouldn't blame anyone...
gbf36t4 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (4pts):
Im highly doubtful of that. Even then I would still like to own a piece of history. This hat will be the most remembered clothing item of American history. They will probrably sell out soon.
gbf2y81 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (3pts):
I rather it just be an organization. If it becomes a political party the roots of the message will be tainted.
gbf2kqm in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (47pts):
I might buy a MAGA hat. I truly hope this becomes more than a political slogan for Trump. I hope it becomes the motto for the working class.
gbf2dzr in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (46pts):
The only way we keep stay strong it to turn MAGA into a movement. Turn it into an organization. We need this movement to continue for decades.
gbex7w4 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (18pts):
Is there real proof of lobbying connections with Nancy Pelosi and Dominion?
gbex1bx in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (7pts):
Im too lazy to look it up but I was told for Nevada if that happens they pick a card for each side and the one with the higher number card wins the state. Not sure if its true to be honest.
gberaxk in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (25pts):
Not going to lie the longer this is prolonged and witnessing these articles about patents and election fraud organizations the more im feeling like Trump has some cards under his sleeve.
gbeqyze in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (21pts):
The Russians were better at secretly rigging elections than Democrats. You would think after 4 years of complaining about it they would learned a thing or two.
gbenjy8 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (13pts):
Check out Tim Pools tweets we might be heading into a national recount
gbejn1s in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (18pts):
Biden is just Carter 2.0. He won't drive the country downwards. But Harris will.
gbeja26 in Conservative on 07 Nov 20 (4pts):
I ask conservatives to do one thing if Biden wins. Don't do the "not my president" bull crap.
Do you guys think the MAGA movement will break off from the GOP?
gbdqd10 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (6pts):
Whats he saying
gbdpkvq in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (1pts):
Matthew 5:44
gbdo3e4 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (18pts):
So who did gen z vote for?
gbdncma in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (48pts):
I still love my country if Biden is president
gbd8bc8 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (-1pts):
Its not i saw other videos like this. Supposedly its legal.
gbd6qnd in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (15pts):
Is Crowder streaming today?
gbd4n1y in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (22pts):
How long will this court case be? When does it start?
gbd4ccj in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (3pts):
Honestly I prefer her over Biden
gbbtx6b in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (2pts):
true true thats what I should of worded it as lol
gbbtoxq in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (19pts):
lf this shit really is what it is. Trump will have pulled off the heist of the century against the Democrats
gbbt9ao in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (8pts):
Not so sure about Trump. His speech was a dumpster fire and he looked worn out.
gbbsbav in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (11pts):
Abraham Lincolns part in the reconstruction process of the South is pretty remarkable now that we see ourselves more divided than ever.
gbbrov7 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (20pts):
The whole patent thing on the ballots is such a stretch. Im doubtful thats whats occuring. If that was Trumps plan then he was really taking a gamble. edit: at the very least it was his backup...
gbbr6nf in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (11pts):
I fucking hope, Trump will have such a amazing legacy if that comes to fruition. But if this is true, Trump took a huge gamble because this only would come to fruition if he did have a higher margin...
gbbr120 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (1pts):
Interesting, where can I find something like this for WI and MI
gbbqx49 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (2pts):
I did too but the result was astonishing. Plus the early red mirage of wisconsin and michigan really felt like a landslide
gbbql30 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (11pts):
What website is most update with election results?
gbbqipm in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (12pts):
Unlikely, Nevada is blue all around
gbbqffx in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (36pts):
Damn I miss that feeling of that Florida win
gbbprjr in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (4pts):
How many ballots left in GA?
gbblz36 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (4pts):
Military ballots?
gbbhxcj in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (12pts):
I might be wrong but I think Biden just extended his AZ lead by 3000 votes. The CNN number looks a bit updated to what I remember when it was called earlier.
What are the chances of a Biden impeachment attempt if Biden is inaugurated?? For the Ukraine deals, the election fraud, etc.
gbbbjrt in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (18pts):
How far divided can we go? What will the results be?
gbbb9mf in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (5pts):
Will Republicans surpass Donald Trumps popular vote in 2024?
gbbau8r in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (14pts):
Im pretty down about all this but I hope this Greg Gutfeld clip can give everyone the optimism that Trump will overcome this. https://youtu.be/CTfPsjstxrg
gbb8zue in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (3pts):
Not true, look closely shes making huge ass marks. They were not their before
gbb8uny in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (46pts):
We have picture and video evidence of voter fraud. Trump better fucking pull through.
gbb7ydm in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (10pts):
Doesn't matter now because of GA and PA
gbb7u2q in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (36pts):
Democrats were framing the Russians the entire time. The Democrats are the Russians.
gbb76iy in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (-5pts):
If Biden hits 270 what does this mean for Trump the moment its 270 to inauguration day?
gbb5iqf in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (15pts):
Is it in Trumps favor the longer these states take to call a result?
gbb57z1 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (43pts):
America is a 3rd world country. African countries and Venezuela is sympathizing with us.
gbb4ltg in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (21pts):
So is it projected for Trump to lose PA? The gap is above 20k right now and Trumps campaign estimated a 40k gap win.
gbb2vh8 in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (1pts):
How did I see the list of names then??
gbb2ppv in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (44pts):
MODS WHY DID YOU DELETE A COMMENT LINKING TO A TWEET WITH PROOF 14K VOTES CAME FROM DEAD PEOPLE im not yelling, just typing in caps for awareness edit: supposedly guy wasn't flaired here's the...
gbb2gkr in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (1pts):
WAIT WHY DID THE MODERATOR REMOVE IT
gbb1wrs in Conservative on 06 Nov 20 (20pts):
Why am I getting a message from reddit asking if im mentally okay?
Getting Andrew Yang to the White House Part 5: The Yang Gang’s Last Stand
I’ve been seeing a lot of negativity around here recently, and rightfully so. We lost Iowa. I know that’s not an easy fact to take in given the amount of time and effort put into the state from the campaign, staff, and volunteers, but we have to face the truth. We got out-organized. So what do we do about it? I’m the author of these previous 4 posts if you have the time to read them. If not, its ok. This post is very much a standalone post. And probably my most important post thus far: Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/YangForPresidentHQ/comments/b17slb/ive_worked_on_multiple_campaigns_and_managed_a/ Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/YangForPresidentHQ/comments/b9yyyh/getting_andrew_yang_to_the_white_house_step_2/ Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/YangForPresidentHQ/comments/c1h0lj/getting_andrew_yang_to_the_white_house_part_3_at/ Part 4: https://www.reddit.com/YangForPresidentHQ/comments/ds6rh0/getting_andrew_to_the_white_house_part_4/ In this post, I will detail our best path forward. Our best path to shock the political world and get the American people and the media to take us seriously. And it’s not what you think. Andrew has been campaigning tirelessly in IA and NH, but his best chances are not there. Our entire campaign, our entire country’s future rests on us winning Nevada. There is no other state more prime for our message and our vision than Nevada. I’ve been canvassing in Nevada since November of 2019. I have knocked on hundreds of doors and spoken to hundreds, maybe thousands of Nevadans. We have a chance to take top 3 in Nevada. When textbankers told me to go to IA, I chose to travel to Nevada. And I’m glad I did. The political environment and campaign infrastructure are much better in Nevada. Nevada (and more specifically one city in NV) is a state full of Yang Gang, they just don’t know it yet. Nevada has early voting which has already begun, but their caucus is on Feb 22nd. Nevada is our last stand. And I will detail in this post exactly why we can and should win Nevada. If we don’t, that could very well be the end of this campaign. So buckle up, this is important. Nevada is the third state to vote. In addition, like Iowa they are also a caucus state. No one was expecting us to win Iowa. Heck, it’s probably a good thing we didn’t win Iowa. With the debacle going on there, our win would have been overshadowed by the IA Democratic Party screwup anyways. That being said, no one is expecting us to win NH either. (If you want to go to NH, please still go. But from this time of posting, we have 5 days to convince NH, we have two weeks to convince NV – do the math). If we lose Nevada however, that is three in a row. More than enough reason for the media to write us off for the rest of the primary cycle. We need to prove them all wrong. We SHALL NOT let the Bernie Bros pass! We can do this because Nevada has favorable Demographics, the Issues/Politics resonate with its voters, and the Nevada Staff/Campaign are the best I’ve seen. Demographics: To win Nevada, we only need to focus on one location. Unlike Iowa and New Hampshire where the population is spread out (there are 99 counties throughout the state of IA), Nevada only has 16 counties and most of them are very sparsely populated. The most important county is Clark County, and the most important city in that county is…..you guessed it, LAS VEGAS. The Las Vegas metropolitan area includes Boulder City, Enterprise, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Summerlin, Winchester, Paradise…etc. The Las Vegas Metro area has 2.2 Million people living in it. The entire state of Nevada has a population of ~ 3 Million people. The Las Vegas metro area comprises of more than 70% of the entire population of Nevada. If we win Las Vegas, we win Nevada. Its that simple. In addition, you know what Las Vegas has that IA and NH did not? A group of people whom tend to like Yang automatically: MINORITIES!! Las Vegas has a huge Chinatown and we have a Yang office there! Las Vegas had a Chinese New Year’s parade two weeks ago! Did NH or IA have a Luna New Year Parade? FUCK NO! Yang Gang was there and walked in it! We got cheers from the audience! Yang Gang has ran ads in Chinese media for Yang. There are at least several precincts that are majority Asian people! That better be automatic delegate pickups for us. We just need to turn them out! Las Vegas, unlike Iowa or NH, is very compact. You can finish canvassing 50 doors easily because the houses are close to each other. If you’re really hitting it, you can easily do 100 doors a day. You dont need to hit a few, then drive several blocks. You can simply drive to a neighborhood and bang out door to door very efficiently. Also, unlike IA and NH, it’s a sunny/cool 60-70 degrees in Las Vegas. So people are actually out doing stuff. The Issues/Politics: There is no other city where the narrative and issues Andrew Yang champions appear more salient than in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is at the center of the automation revolution, and you can look no further than the famous Las Vegas strip. If you have the money (seriously, it can get pricey) stay on the strip and talk to every bartender, waitress, blackjack dealer, housekeeper, bellman, etc you can. In Las Vegas, the service employees win the elections. This New York Times article details it very well. (If you cant read it due to paywall, don’t worry, I’ll explain) (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/us/politics/nevada-caucus-2020-culinary-union.html) The most important special interest groups in Las Vegas are the culinary workers union, Local 226, and the bartenders union, Local 165. These unions see automation in front of them every day. MGM recently automated most of their backhouse bartenders. Servers now pick up drinks from a robot and deliver them to customers. I spoke with a bar manager in the Bellagio and he said that in their contracts, there are clauses that dictate they can be automated away by a machine anytime. And they have to be ok with that. So Andrew Yang's message of the Freedom Dividend resonates. In addition, there is one issue the unions care about more than anything else and that is Healthcare. However, this is the best part: they HATE Medicare for All. Not one union worker I spoke with wanted Medicare for All. Why? Because their unions have negotiated for them stellar healthcare for years and years. They love their healthcare. And they don’t want the government coming in and taking away all the hard work their union has done for them. If you bring up Yang to your housekeeper, your waiter, your bartender, I guarantee you their first question to you will be: “What will happen to my healthcare?”. And unlike Bernie, we can say “You can keep it”. (Note: Biden also said that when he visited the unions). If Andrew Yang can win the endorsements of the Local 226 and Local 165, we win Las Vegas/NV. It was these unions whom delivered Hillary Clinton her victory in 2016. Now Andrew has not met with the unions and their leaders yet, and I hope that the campaign is reaching out to them. But until that happens, it us up to US to talk to as many union members as possible. (Note also: Nevadans have a bad taste in their mouth for Bernie, especially after how the Bernie people acted in the NV State convention in 2016. Maybe using death threats was not the best look for the Bernie campaign. Just sayin: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/us/politics/bernie-sanders-supporters-nevada.html) If you stay on the strip, talk to every employee you can. You can change minds. I Yanged an entire bar by myself when I spoke with the Bar Manager about the Freedom Dividend, automation, and that Yang wont take away his Healthcare. He then bought me a free drink, gave me his card, and committed to taking all his employees to the caucus. Imagine if the Yang Gang descended onto Vegas and did this at every restaurant, every bar, every hotel, and every venue. We would win Las Vegas, and get free shots too. After speaking to many Las Vegas voters, I’ve come to believe that they don’t like politicians. There’s a reason why Tom Steyer has blanketed the state with his ads. Because Nevadans don’t trust politicians. Thus, Yang is a natural alternative to the rest of the field. Steyer may have some traction, but almost everyone I spoke with didn’t like the fact that Steyer was trying to buy the election. Everyone from Uber drivers to strippers (seriously) found Steyer annoying. Something unique to Vegas that you don’t see anywhere else is the way wealth inequality unravels itself. Las Vegas is the place where the rich and famous come to party and blow their money away. Yet the residents here don’t scorn or hate them. Bernie and Warren’s rhetoric of the “greed and the corruption” fall on deaf ears here because in Las Vegas, the rich treat service employees well. Talk to any bartendeserver long enough and they’ll tell you about that one time when Rihanna came in and left a $10K tip on her tab. The rich come here to live out their vices, yet they are gracious and generous to the people who serve them. You can spend upwards of $5000 at a nightclub and $20 for a drink on the strip, but once you leave the strip prices drop by at least 75%. So residents don’t feel the price inflation. Don’t want to spend money? Party in downtown Vegas, where a drink is only $3- $4. The residents of Las Vegas don’t hate the rich, and they don’t want a “revolution”. They just want to make enough money so that sometimes they can sit down and enjoy a football game with the high rollers. The Freedom Dividend is the ticket to that life. The Staff Last, but not least, is the staff. Speaking from meeting as many of them as I have, the Las Vegas campaign staff are absolutely phenomenal. Mark Peckham, the NV state director did a great job picking his team and it shows. Reading through the threads I see talk about the Iowa staff being unprofessional and not ready for the caucus. I see talk about IA not training their precinct captains correctly, and offices hiring people with no experience. I can tell you, that is certainly NOT the case in Las Vegas. Almost every staff member I spoke with was professional and experienced. I consider myself pretty experienced in politics. There was not one staff member I met who didn’t know their shit. Precinct captain training? The NV staff has been doing that on a WEEKLY basis since November! Sign up for canvassing and are late 30 mins, you bet your ass a staffer will call you up and find out where you are. I remembered when I was considering going to IA and I wanted to know if the IA campaign needed a data analytics guy (my specialty). I asked several staff and never got an answer back. I asked the same question to Las Vegas staff and I got an answer back in seconds. The Las Vegas staff know their shit and they’re here to win. Even their volunteer coordinators are dedicated and knowledgeable. They have daily tables at UNLV, and weekly well attended Yang Hangs. Their offices are clean and open on time. Yang Gangs have houses you can stay in free of charge, and volunteers happily drive you around in a Tesla to get you to your canvassing locations. They’re that fucking good. Convinced yet? Here are the contacts you should add/follow on facebook: Eileen Patterson, Las Vegas Volunteer Director Gavin Williams, Field Organizer Alex Pitarro, Field Organizer Alyssa Monet Manson, Yang Gang House Leader Nick Joke (not his real name, but his name on facebook), Volunteer organizer (these are not all the staff, just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. There are several others, almost all are sharp). Join the Vegas Yang Gang Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vegasyanggang/ The Las Vegas Yang Gang has a website: https://vegasyanggang.com/ The following are their active offices and hours: Addresses: Chinatown Office 4276 Spring Mountain Rd Suite 203 Las Vegas, NV 89102 Henderson Office 580 E. Windmill Lane Suite 130 Las Vegas, NV 89123 North Las Vegas Office 2815 W Lake Mead Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89106 Hours Monday—Saturday: 10:00AM–8:00PM Sunday: 12:00PM–8:00PM (Note: I emphasize Vegas because it is the population center of Nevada. However, if you would like to help win other parts of Nevada, Reno is worthy of helping too. I’ve met several Reno organizers and they are all very capable people.) Lastly, Las Vegas is truly an amazing city. Nothing beats canvassing 50 doors a day and then settling down to a workout, a spa, and a buffet. Want to Yang marijuana aficionados because Yang has the best drug policy? Great, its legal to buy weed in NV. Go to one of the hundreds of dispensaries in Vegas. Want to Yang sex workers and strippers because Yang wants to decriminalize sex work? Great, Vegas has the best strip clubs in the world. Want to party hard and work hard? Great, Vegas has the best nightclubs and bars you could ever dream of. Want to Yang sports gamblers because Yang wants to legalize online gambling, you can do that too! So lets leave all our chips on the table Yang Gang. There is no other city more prepared to be won than Las Vegas. Lets lay it all out on the floor and say we did our best. Make Las Vegas our Last Stand. And if we win, if we do, that will be more than enough momentum to carry us to victory on Super Tuesday. Nevada/Las Vegas is better representative of America than any other state/city so far, and America will recognize that. If we win Vegas, we carry enough momentum to finish well in Super Tuesday, guaranteeing our bargaining power in a brokered convention in July. I hope this is not the last time I write these posts. And I hope you all can join me. What are you waiting for? Buy your ticket. We’re going to Vegas baby. thank u, next. Note: last but not least, if you can donate, please donate to the Ken Jeong fundraiser this coming 2/13, will help us hit NV campaigning strong!: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ay-events-lv-1215 Edit: Thank you so much for everyone giving me awards! I just want Yang to win and I firmly believe this is our last stand. We’re in the Endgame now....
Part 6: Amazing In Depth Essay About Sopranos Symbolism and Subtext (credit: FlyOnMelfisWall source: thechaselounge.net)
Kennedy and Heidi: Vicarious Patricide as Tony’s Decompensation
At the risk of needless redundancy, I think it’s helpful to summarize Tony’s state of mind going into the episode Kennedy and Heidi. His consciousness is teeming with ancient but recently-agitated memories showcasing his father’s violence and toxic influence, like Johnny shooting a hole through Livia’s hairdo and baptizing him in the act of murder. He’s unable to shake stories of parental neglect leading to tragic outcomes for children. He’s painfully aware of Christopher’s hatred of him and desire for murderous revenge, feelings ultimately rooted in the fact that Tony guided him into the same corrupt existence into which he himself had been led by Johnny, Junior, and company, suggesting a reciprocal, if unconscious, rage by Tony towards those men. His subconscious mind is under constant assault from hats and movie posters and coffee mugs bearing the image of a bloody meat cleaver, an emblem of his own lost childhood innocence and inculcation by his father into his brutal, ugly vocation. He is racked with acute but intense guilt over the role he thinks his life’s example has played in shaping his son’s values and poor sense of self-worth. And he is still repressing a mountain of hurt over the fact that his uncle and second father tried not once but twice to kill him, a repression Melfi warned would someday result in a total collapse of his defense mechanisms, that is, a collapse of his paternal hero-worship and related quest for the macho validation that has prevented him from critically examining his father, uncle, and the men upon whom he modeled his life. Now consider the circumstances immediately before the crash. Tony and Chris are on a routine drive back from business in Christopher’s new black Cadillac SUV (the first Cadillac Chris has ever owned, incidentally.) The conversation turns to life priorities. Chris, conspicuously clad in a Cleaver hat, specifically mentions how Kaitlyn has changed his priorities, and Tony mentions the “shit with Junior”. So the context is immediately pregnant with the fact that Junior shot and nearly killed Tony within the past year and with the fact that Chris is in a new place of responsibility, a position where he is, for the first time, truly the custodian and trustee for another life. In a perfectly-timed illustration of just how ill-equipped Chris is to live up to those responsibilities, he nervously and repeatedly fiddles with the car stereo, fidgets, and widens his eyes, telegraphing to Tony that he is high as a kite on drugs. “Comfortably Numb” swells on the sound system as Tony stares at him, the lyrics underscoring that, in that moment, he does not see Chris as a youngster, as the “adorable kid” he once road around in the basket of his bicycle, but as a grown man: When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpseOut of the corner of my eyeI turned to look but it was goneI cannot put my finger on it nowThe child is grown, the dream is gone Chris swerves, and the crash happens seconds later.
Tony as the Child in the Carseat
It’s critical to note that Tony initially manifests every intention of helping Chris, even as he’s fighting his own injuries. “I’m comin’,” he says as Chris asks for help. His expression and demeanor only change when he realizes what Chris means by “help”. “I’ll never pass a drug test,” Chris moans. “What?” Tony asks incredulously as Chris is inhaling his own blood. Almost simultaneously, Tony turns towards the back and sees that a tree limb has penetrated the passenger compartment, lodging in Kaitlyn’s car seat like a spear. While Tony would somewhat exaggerate the size of the branch in later narrations of the event, there’s no question that it was large enough to have impaled or seriously injured an infant. Even after this warning shot over the bow, Tony apparently intends to help Chris, coming over to the driver’s side and breaking the window when he couldn’t get the door open. He draws his cell phone to call for help but stops when Chris again mentions being doped up, which suggests that Chris is more concerned about the legal consequences of his intoxication than about the fact that he is drowning in his own blood, completely belying his claim to a life newly ordered around the lofty priority of fatherhood. That’s the moment when Tony forms a genuine murderous intent, an intent that has little to do with Christopher’s animosity towards him or the danger that he might flip. Those are conscious, background motives that help Tony rationalize and make sense of his actions later. But the factor impelling him to end Christopher’s life is his own, fundamental identification with the child who might just as easily have been killed or seriously harmed in that carseat. To objectify this point, there is a slow pan of the limb sticking through the seat as Tony performs the suffocation, clearly not a shot representing Tony’s vision or gaze at that moment but objectively corroborating the earlier angle when Tony glances back and we see the seat from his point of view. The juxtaposition of these shots – subjective and objective – tells me the carseat is not just a convenient excuse for Tony. This is what he’s really feeling. In this moment, he is the phantom child in that carseat, a child whose safety and well-being come second to his father’s corrupt values and reckless self-indulgence, a child whose soul and humanity are metaphorically impaled by riding in and being taught to drive his father’s black Cadillac. The exclamation point on the symbolism is provided by Christopher’s hat. Incredibly, it remains on his head throughout the crash and suffocation, its bloody cleaver logo pointing towards Tony when the car comes to rest. As Tony acts consciously on behalf of an innocent child, the symbol of his own lost childhood innocence is directly before him. And, for good measure, the cap and logo stare back at him in the hospital from the gurney laden with Christopher’s bloody clothing and the black bag containing his dead body. (The logo antagonizes Tony a final time from his coffee mug the next morning before he angrily tosses the mug into his backyard woods.) Several points about the suffocation itself are remarkable. First was the look of absolute depravity on Tony’s face as he watched Christopher struggle to breathe. This look was unlike any ever seen on Tony’s face at any other moment in the series. Even when committing other personal and deadly acts of violence, his face and demeanor had always betrayed a commensurate level of animus, an active, passionate intent. In contrast, he reached through the window and pinched Christopher’s nose – and maintained that hold – with remarkable calm. His face and eyes throughout the suffocation were paradoxically both incredibly intense and completely devoid of human emotion, a look far more disturbing than any look of mere rage he’d ever worn before. Second, although this act was, in my judgment, clearly about the release of Tony’s pent up rage towards his father figures, the method of killing evokes Livia. Besides her conspiracy with Junior to kill Tony (which she rationalized was for his own good) and general obsession with stories of child deaths, she had once threatened to “smother [her children] with a pillow” to save them from a fate she deemed even worse. Tony grabbed a pillow intending to smother her in the season one finale before nursing home personnel intervened. In Members Only, Tony spoke of being smothered with a pillow as a suitable form of euthanasia. Its functional equivalent at the scene of the crash had a definite vibe of putting Chris out of his own – and everyone’s – misery. So, in killing his “father”, Tony was also paradoxically suffocating his “son”, thereby channeling Livia’s filicidal urges and concept of mercy killing. The most spine-tingling resonance with the scene comes from two season four episodes where Tony’s deep identification with “innocents” – be they children or animals – once again comes to the fore, as does his appreciation for the consequences of Chris continuing to use drugs. In Whoever Did This, Tony warns Christopher that he “can’t be high on heroine and raise kids.” And in The Strong, Silent Type, after learning that a doped-up Chris accidentally smothered and suffocated Adriana’s dog, Tony ominously snaps, “You suffocated little Cossette? I oughta suffocate you, you prick!” It’s such perfect foreshadowing that the earlier episodes seem to have been written with the outcome of Kennedy and Heidi in mind.
Righteous Retribution as the Explanation for Tony’s Lack of Sorrow
As previously noted, the most troubling aspect of the episode from the standpoint of character consistency and plausibility was not the fact that Tony murdered Chris. It was his vacuous expression during the killing and the fact that he never betrayed a moment’s genuine sorrow or regret afterwards. He remained, in fact, defiantly happy and unconflicted about it, especially to Melfi, and was sincerely troubled that neither she nor anyone else could see how Christopher’s death rescued Kaitlyn from a lifetime of risks and harm that she would naturally suffer as the daughter of a drug addict (and mob captain). In his therapy scenes with Melfi, real and dream, Tony even makes the very contrast I raise, noting that he’s never felt this way after murdering any other person close to him. He alludes to his sorrow over Pussy and specifically allows that murdering Tony B left him “prostate [sic] with grief.” In effect, Tony himself is revealing that this killing feels righteous and justified to him on an instinctive level and is therefore not one about which he can feel guilt or sorrow. That sentiment makes no sense if his dominant motives were those he talked about in therapy: Christopher’s animosity and resentment towards him after the Adriana hit and his drug-use and consequent risk to flip. Whatever weight those factors carry in justifying murder in the corrupt “ethics” of the mob (which, in any case, is less than the weight of the transgressions by Pussy and Tony B), they carry absolutely no legitimate moral weight outside it and could not sustain in Tony the sense of just triumph that he felt in response to Christopher’s death. What could inspire that sense of triumph is the perceived liberation of a child from a dangerous and toxic father, experienced subconsciously as vicarious retribution for the abuse and harm he himself suffered at the hands of his own father and uncle.
Significance of the Names “Kennedy” and “Heidi”
“Kennedy” and “Heidi” are the names of the young passenger and driver, respectively, in the car that sideswipes Christopher’s SUV before the fateful crash. The girls are barely onscreen a few seconds, just long enough to (somewhat artificially) learn their names in the following exchange: Kennedy: Maybe we should go back, Heidi! Heidi: Kennedy, I’m on my learner’s permit after dark! Much forum debate after the first airing of the episode centered around the significance, if any, of these names. I propose a related but even more basic question: why are the girls present in the scene at all? Tony’s windfall opportunity to murder Chris and pass it off as death from accidental injury was entirely dependent upon being unobserved by others after the crash. Given Christopher’s intoxicated state and inattention to the curvy road while he fiddled with radio controls, a mere swerve and over-correction or swerve to avoid an animal (Tony’s crash with Adriana, anyone?) would have easily sufficed to trigger the accident but without the problematic involvement of another car, the driver of which would have to be made to flee the scene illegally and in contravention of the ethics and instincts of at least 95% of the motorists on the road. So the very fact that another car is involved, complicating both the story and the filming, suggests some symbolic or subtextual design to the involvement related specifically to the momentous event occurring right after the crash. One aspect of that design is revealed and amplified when a grieving Kelly shows up at Christopher’s wake with dark hair framing her face and large, dark sunglasses covering her eyes. A member of the crew remarks, “Look at her. Like a movie star.” An odd look immediately crosses Tony’s face as he spontaneously responds, “Jackie Kennedy”, noting Kelly’s resemblance to the widow of John F. Kennedy. In my mind, this striking moment in the episode can have only one purpose, and that’s to evoke Johnny Boy in relation to Christopher via a kind of symbolic math. If Kelly = Jackie Kennedy, then Chris = JFK = Johnny Boy since JFK was the explicit parallel figure for Johnny in In Camelot, the first episode of the series depicting cracks in the foundation of Tony’s paternal hero worship. When that foundation completely crumbles inside Tony’s subconscious a season and a half later, it’s entirely fitting that the JFK/Johnny parallel is renewed. As for the name “Heidi”, most folks around these parts felt it was meant to evoke the idea of “orphan” because of the famous Swiss orphan tale of the same name and because Kaitlyn (and Paulie) both lost parents in the episode. That’s an entirely plausible analysis that requires no expansion, although I’m inclined to think there’s more to it than that, starting with the analogy of Tony himself to “Heidi”. No, Tony was never technically orphaned, though he arguably suffered more as the son of Johnny and Livia than if he had been. He was certainly deprived of real parental love and guidance, on both sides, and that roughly equates to the definition of “orphan”. Before discussing this episode for the first time, I never knew that Heidi was the story of an orphan, only that it was some kind of tale for children. And I knew that only because of the epic 1968 football game between Joe Namath’s Jets and the Oakland Raiders, the climactic ending of which (an improbable comeback by the Raiders) was cut off abruptly for television viewers at the end of its scheduled broadcast slot so that a movie version of Heidi could begin airing on time. I was only four at the time of this debacle but recall my parents talking about it – and the considerable chaos it caused at NBC and at telephone switchboards around the country – for years afterwards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Game It wouldn’t become clear until the end of Made In America, but there’s an obvious parallel to the Heidi phenomenon in the wind-up of The Sopranos. Consider that, like the Heidi Game broadcast, Made in America featured an abrupt, unexpected termination of excruciatingly tense action at a penultimate moment, pre-empting audience experience of what appeared to be an imminent and momentous climax. The Sopranos ending may not have disabled an entire telephone network, but it certainly generated an enormous amount of controversy that, for better or worse, persists to this day. Beyond that, there were enough other football references in the final Sopranos episodes, and especially Jets references, to warrant further consideration of this football connotation for “Heidi”. In Remember When, Tony’s betting losses on Jets football games prompt his call to Hesh for a bridge loan. Later that same episode, Paulie annoys Tony and company with yet another old tale, this one relating how, after witnessing Joe Namath stagger drunk into a bar the night before a game, he bet a load of cash the following day on the Jets’ opponent. In Chasing It, Tony gets inside information on a Jets football game and is irate when Carmela refuses to bet money on it. The episode features a closeup of a large newspaper headline, “Jets Bomb Chargers”. In Blue Comet, then-current coach of the Jets, Eric Mangini, makes a cameo appearance in Vesuvio, with Artie informing a suitably-impressed Tony so the two can go over and shake hands. News articles at the time clarified that the cameo wasn’t Mangini’s idea but the idea of Sopranos producers, who contacted him months in advance and made accommodations in the shooting schedule around his availability. So this seemed more than a casual desire to have some generic celebrity show up. That especially seems true considering Mangini was given no dialog and that his meeting with Tony and Artie was only depicted in the silent background of a conversation between Charmaine and Carmela. Mangini’s only purpose on set was apparently to show his face briefly and to have the fact of his identity (Tony has to tell a bewildered Carm that Mangini is the head coach of the Jets) permeate the minds of the audience and the subtext of the scene, which is ultimately about chickens coming home to roost on Tony and Carmela because of the lives they chose. As alter egos for Tony and Carmela throughout the series, folks who took the proverbial “other path” in life, Artie and (especially) Charmaine engage in subtle gloating in the scene. Football coaching was firmly established as Tony’s “road not taken” in Test Dream, so having an actual football coach present in the episode where the unsavory and downright deadly consequences of his chosen vocation are crashing in all around him provides dramatic ballast. All the better to have the coach in the scene be the coach of the team involved in the Heidi game in view of the ending planned for the following episode. And speaking again of that ending, the wall behind Tony in Holsten’s is consumed with four large murals specifically brought in by the production crew for the shoot. The largest and most centered depicts a huge, light-colored building with lots of windows, somewhat reminiscent of the Inn at the Oaks in Tony’s coma dream. It’s apparently a high school, however, as it is flanked on either side by images of football players in full uniform with what appear to be names and year of graduation engraved at the bottom. To the side and extreme left is a mural of a tiger and the caption “Class of 1973” at the bottom. The tiger is presumably the mascot for the team and school represented in the other murals. So there is a strong symbolic presence of “football” in the last scene of the series, particularly of high school football from roughly the era when Tony would have entered high school. Finally, though it may be completely insignificant, when Tony tells Carm about the accident from his hospital stretcher in Kennedy and Heidi, he mentions that he re-injured his knee, “the one from high school.” That certainly sounds like a reference to an old high school football injury. If these loose strands from multiple episodes are indeed intended to connote football in relation to the name “Heidi”, what does that actually mean in the context of the episode Kennedy and Heidi? What does football have to do with Tony killing Chris or, more precisely, with him killing his father in the guise of Chris? The linchpin in that symbolism, it seems to me, is Tony’s old high school football coach, the guy who would have been his coach when he originally injured his knee, the guy Tony dreamt repeatedly of trying to silence or kill, the guy whose puzzling duality in Test Dream suddenly makes sense when he’s viewed as a classic, Freudian composite of opposites, specifically a composite of Tony’s opposing father figures with Johnny dressed in the physiognomy of Coach Molinaro by Tony’s subconscious in order to render acceptable imagery of his latent, patricidal feelings. If you further allow, as I do, that the Johnny look-alike shooting at Tony with a scoped rifle (ala Oswald/”Kennedy”) in that same dream is yet another Freudian “reversal into the opposite” by Tony’s subconscious to disguise his repressed paternal rage, then the Kennedy/Heidi connection is pretty clear. The names are presented proximate to the crash to connote that, in killing Chris, Tony has finally acted out the Test Dream imagery that haunted him for years: he has (symbolically) killed his father, the “Kennedy” and “Heidi” of his dream.
“He’s Dead”
In my judgment, this explains Tony’s otherwise puzzling, peyote-induced insight when he proclaims, “He’s dead,” after winning at roulette on 3 successive spins, prompting him to fall to the floor in spectacular and uncontrollable laughter. What other, real death could have inspired such a euphoric and epiphanic reaction? What real death could Tony only have appreciated while in a drug-induced, altered state of consciousness? Many felt the line referred to Christopher because he’d just died, obviously, and because Tony’s gambling luck suddenly changed afterward. That analysis never made sense to me. First, Tony plays roulette at the casino while sober when he first arrives in Vegas and loses every round. Chris was already dead at that time, as Tony well knew and accepted. Indeed, Tony was never in any state of denial about Christopher’s death (or about having killed him.) He embraced it, both consciously and in his dream therapy session with Melfi after the crash. The “he’s dead” insight occurs only after Tony takes peyote and notices a sudden and complete about-face in gambling luck. Why would he need psychedelic drugs to suddenly realize what he already knew and accepted about Chris? And why would Christopher’s death be tied in his mind to his own gambling luck anyway? No prior connection between those two things had ever been suggested. On the other hand, Tony’s sudden escalation in gambling, which coincided with the agitation and intensification of his latent rage towards his father(s), could easily be seen as a subconscious rebellion against the stern, anti-gambling lecture Johnny imparted the night Tony witnessed the cleaver incident. To the extent that the rebellion results in huge financial losses and self destruction, it obviously fails. His father retains ultimate power and authority. To the extent the rebellion results in huge winnings, it succeeds, and Tony vanquishes his father. That conquest was the ineffable and elusive “high” that Tony was subconsciously pursuing in Chasing It but which he could not articulate to Melfi. Thus the sudden change in gambling fortune on his Vegas trip is easily tied in Tony’s drug-altered psyche to a euphoric realization that he has conquered or symbolically killed his father, none of which Tony could appreciate without a vastly altered state of consciousness. And that leads to why he went to Vegas in the first place. He asks that question out loud to the Vegas prostitute, Sonia, immediately before admitting that Christopher once mentioned taking peyote with her. Tony then confesses to having always wanted to try the drug. Clearly, then, he didn’t just happen to pick Vegas and didn’t just happen to make contact with this girl. His subconscious was pushing him to that venue because he craved the enlightenment of a peyote experience. So while Tony’s real motives for the murder, and for his otherwise inexplicable jubilance afterward, were completely closed off to his conscious mind, somehow he sensed their existence and yearned to unlock and understand them. However his peyote revelations didn’t stop with simply understanding why he killed Chris.
“I Get It. I Get It!”
Tony’s desert epiphany is a bookend to his near-death coma experience and, I believe, can only be fully understood in relation to it. Yet exploring that relationship is a journey all unto itself, calling not only for consideration of the coma episodes and Kennedy and Heidi but the meaning of the cut to black that ends the series. While exploring the religious and spiritual underpinnings of those episodes is of even more weight and interest to me personally than the issue of Tony’s motives in killing Christopher, it deserves and demands its own, dedicated discussion. For now, I’d simply like to posit what I strongly believe Tony’s epiphany to have been with only minimal argumentation as to why I hold that belief. The epiphany is presaged when Tony enters the casino on his peyote trip and notes that the roulette wheel is built on the same principle as the solar system. The ball spins round and round the center or “sun” of the wheel because of two delicately-balanced but largely opposing phenomena: the momentum of the ball (which, without the wheel, would carry the ball away in a straight line) and the centripetal force of the wheel (applied by the rim, which continuously pulls the ball towards the center even as the ball’s momentum continuously pulls it on a path perpendicular to the centripetal force.) The antagonism (or cooperation, if you prefer) of the forces gives rise to a unified system: an orbit. If this sounds a bit like the Bell Labs scientist’s explanation of how two tornadoes are in fact just facets of one, unified system of wind, it’s likely no mere coincidence. As Hal Holbrook’s character argued, separateness is a mirage. The universe, and everything in it, is one big soup of molecules interacting in cause/effect fashion according to laws, making it one whole, not a bunch of discrete parts. “Everything is everything,” as the black rapper reduced it. That was the philosophy that really made an impression on Tony in the days and weeks following his coma. The principles of quantum physics articulated by Holbrook’s character are likely as close as you can get to a scientific codification of Bhuddism and therefore reinforced much of what the Bhuddist monks conveyed to Tony in his coma. The monks laughed when Tony claimed he wasn’t Finnerty and explained that there really is no “you” and “me, that death would bring an obliteration of individuality. Separate consciousness – and the consciousness of separateness – is an illusion of the living. So all this laid the philosophical groundwork for Tony’s Las Vegas trip. In that trip, Tony seeks out a girl with whom Chris had slept, then sleeps with her himself. He mentions having refrained from a longstanding desire to try peyote because he always felt the weight of his responsibilities, an implied contrast to Christopher, who always indulged in drugs despite his responsibilities. The idea that Tony was seeking to almost live life in Christopher’s skin in the Las Vegas portion of the episode was something several posters mentioned in first discussions after Kennedy and Heidi aired. Even the girl, Sonia, remarks how similar Tony and Chris are, a somewhat dubious observation that somehow offends Tony but which also helps define his impending epiphany. That epiphany is spurred when the rising sun flares at him over the desert mountain vista. This recalls Tony’s earlier comparison of the roulette wheel to the solar system. It also resonates completely with the fact that Kevin Finnerty was a solar heating salesman from Kingman, Arizona, a town which, not coincidentally, lies 95 miles southeast of Las Vegas and shares the same desert landscape. Also not coincidental, IMO, is the fact that in the prior episode, Christopher spoke of the perks of joining witness protection and of “living large” in Arizona. So I believe that, in that desert sunrise on the cusp of Arizona, in fulfillment of his identity as Kevin Finnerty, solar heating salesman, Tony saw his “son” – Christopher – “rise” and realized that, in murdering him days before, he (Tony) was really “rising” as a “son” against Johnny Boy. And in that linkage, he suddenly realized that “everything is [indeed] everything.” He is both Chris and Johnny Boy, both abused and misguided son and abusing, misguiding father. He is murdering uncle and would-be murdered nephew. He is both the mother that sees suffocation as mercy killing and the son who is suffocated. Christopher is both his son and his father. Johnny Boy is Coach Molinaro. “Kennedy” is “Heidi”. Opposites are really two sides of the same coin. In that fleeting moment of insight, Tony was truly feeling “one” with the universe.
The Second Coming
The episode following Kennedy and Heidi is titled The Second Coming after the Yeats poem that grips AJ in the English lit class he’s auditing. While the poem speaks to the bleakness of his depression and outlook on life at that particular time, there’s little doubt that – like everything of substantial weight in the Sopranos universe – it ultimately relates, first and foremost, to Tony. First referenced in the Cold Cuts therapy session dealing with pent-up rage where Tony’s deep shame from the cleaver incident is finally revealed, the poem seems the veritable inspiration for the storyline (as interpreted in this article) that culminates in Christopher’s murder: The Second ComingBy William Butler Yeats Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand;Surely the Second Coming is at hand.The Second Coming! Hardly are those words outWhen a vast image out of Spiritus MundiTroubles my sight; somewhere in sands of the desertA shape with lion body and the head of a man,A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,Is moving its slow thighs, while all about itReel shadows of indignant desert birds.The darkness drops again; but now I knowThat twenty centuries of stony sleepWere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? The widening gyre, the orbit that breaks down when the center can no longer hold, is clearly a parallel to the decompensation of which Melfi warned, the point at which Tony’s defenses after Junior’s second murder attempt could no longer hold and the underlying pathological rage at his fathers would take over. True to the poem, a “blood-dimmed tide was loosed”, inspired by a perverse compassion for the “innocent”. While “the best” all mourned Christopher and thought his death a tragedy, Tony, “the worst”, was full of passionate intensity and could not understand why no one else saw the greater good in Christopher’s death. The “revelation” occurs in a “waste of desert sand”, imagery easily compatible with Tony’s “I get it” moment in the Nevada/Arizona desert. The uniquely depraved look on his face as he suffocated Christopher is evoked by the line describing a “gaze as blank and pitiless as the sun”. “Twenty years of stony sleep” refers to the decades of denial Tony maintained, the defense mechanisms that kept him all his life from confronting and admitting that, in some very real ways, he hated his father. It’s a figurative sleep that was suggested literally in the noted fact that so many episodes in season 6B started with Tony in a deep sleep. Somnolence was suggested even in the choice of the song “Comfortably Numb” as soundtrack in the moments immediately preceding the crash, the moments right before the hour of the “rough beast” finally arrived. Even the incidentals are perfect allusions, as with the image of “stony sleep” being turned into a nightmare by a “rocking cradle”, or, in this case, by a car seat with a branch sticking through it. I’m intrigued by the line describing the emerging beast as having “lion body”. It may mean absolutely nothing. But among the story points worth considering in relation to it are the tiger on the wall in Holsten’s and the enigmatic cat in Made In America. More obscure is the fact that in Remember When, the single episode most explicitly dealing with the violent release of stifled paternal rage, Carter Chong described his grandfather as a “lion” and noted that his father owned “Grumman” stock. (Grumman manufactured a number of high-profile fighter military aircraft, most of them named for some kind of cat, e.g., Panther, Jaguar, Tomcat, Tigercat.) Carter was reviewing these facts to himself in the scene immediately preceding his vicious attack on Junior, suggesting that, in acting out on his stifled paternal hatred, he was adopting the predatory, aggressive characteristics of a wild cat. Notably, when Junior, the paternal surrogate who modeled this kind of aggressive behavior to Carter, was seen at the end of that episode bruised and literally defanged, his sunken mouth void of false teeth, he was stroking a harmless little housecat on his lap. Once a lion, the former mob boss was a lion no more.
Asbestos Dumping as a Metaphor for Tony’s Toxic Spill of Rage
Kennedy and Heidi opens with a controversy between Tony and Phil Leotardo over asbestos disposal. One of Tony’s contractors was removing asbestos from old buildings, while following none of the strict (and expensive) asbestos-handling laws regulating worker and public safety, and was seeking to dump completely uncontained truck-fulls at waste stations controlled by Phil. Phil’s guys were denying the trucks the right to dump. As a consequence, huge, openly-smoking asbestos mounds were building up at job sites. After Christopher’s death, Tony was doing little to find a solution, skipping town to gamble, get laid, and get high and leaving the contractor high and dry. Finally, near the very end of the episode, the contractor dumps heaps of asbestos at dawn in an open marsh area resembling the New Jersey Meadowlands. Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that gained widespread use in the 19th and 20th centuries as an ingredient in various building industry materials – including wall compounds, insulation, and roofing materials – primarily because of its extreme insulative properties and resistance to heat and fire. In the last 40 years, it’s become better-known for its cancer-causing and toxic effects on those mining and working with it in manufacturing, demolition/remodeling, or other “raw” environments. Both the heat resistance and toxicity of asbestos make the shoddy removal/dumping storyline a compelling metaphor for Tony’s equally shoddy “dumping” in Kennedy and Heidi. The smoldering heat and flames from his hatred towards his father and uncle were contained beneath his consciousness by an insulating firewall of denial and repression. In essence, this denial and repression was Tony’s psychological asbestos, and it (more or less) contained the heat and fire within him for 47 years. But it finally broke down, allowing the flames to rage and do damage and necessitating a messy disposal. Unfortunately the breakdown didn’t happen where it should have, in his therapist’s office as the result of honest introspection and dialog about little things like his uncle trying to kill him twice and his father indoctrinating him to murder at 22. That would have been the equivalent of careful, legally-compliant asbestos removal. Instead the breakdown occurred in a roadside ravine and the resulting “waste [in the] desert sand” was every bit as toxic as the smoking piles illegally dumped in the Meadowlands immediately before the desert epiphany and which we saw reprised in the very first shot of the following episode. Think about that for a moment. Tony’s “I get it” moment was literally sandwiched between shots of noxious mounds of asbestos blowing in the New Jersey wind, a significant clue that some other kind of perversely cathartic disposal was in the middle of that sandwich.
The Orbit of the ‘Blue Comet’: Long Journey to Nowhere
It’s fair to ask: if the broad strokes of my interpretation are valid, what impact did the epiphany have on Tony going forward? After the drugs wore off, did he actually retain any specific understanding of his subconscious motives for killing Chris? Was he left only with the impression that he had enjoyed a very brief moment of enlightenment but without intellectual distillation of the enlightenment itself? Because the insight was founded upon the secret that he had murdered Chris, even if Tony had retained it, he couldn’t overtly share it with anyone. Still, I lean toward the interpretation that the specifics (at least the ones I proffered) were lost to him when the altered state of consciousness ceased. When he tried to describe the magic of what he experienced in the desert to his crew, he could only come up with the most mundane, inadequate words: “The sun . . . came up.” They all looked at him like he was half retarded. He was slightly more specific with Melfi, offering that he saw “for pretty certain” that this reality is not all there is. He couldn’t define the alternative but was still convinced there was “something else”. He did speak in therapy of appreciating a balance and unity in opposites that he hadn’t appreciated before, a “ying” [sic] and “yang”. And he offered that “mothers are like buses . . . the vehicle that gets us here,” but that, once here, we are all on our own, individual journeys (mothers included.) So, to the extent his epiphany comported with what he revealed in therapy, it seems to have had little to do with fathers and with Christopher’s murder and more to do with letting go (finally) of some of his issues with his mother. But perhaps the best clue to his residual state of understanding came when he indicated that some of what he thought he had grasped in the desert now eluded him. “You think you know, you think you learn something . . . like when I got shot,” he begins. Then, speaking specifically about the peyote experience, he reports that the insight gained is “kinda hard to describe. . . . You know, you have these thoughts, and you almost grab it . . . and then . . . ftt.” He flicks his fingers away from his chin as if to indicate “nothing”. So, to paraphrase Edna St. Vincent Millay, a fragment of what he knew remains, but, apparently, the best is lost. It wouldn’t take long for all of it to be lost. By the time Tony sits with AJ’s female therapist in Made In America, “going about in pity” for himself because of who his mother was, he has come full circle, essentially back to where he was to start the series. Like a “blue comet”, his orbit was highly elliptical, if not erratic, and carried with it the potential of veering off into deep space or crashing into the sun. But despite killing his own nephew, having a near-death experience himself, and saving his son from an act of suicide, the orbit held. The sober breakthrough never came. The repudiation of his father and of his way of life never took hold in his consciousness. And so, by series’ end, we, like Tony, were exhausted from a long journey that ultimately took us nowhere. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Hello, This is a very important public service announcement concerning our future well being. I found this information very interesting and should be read by everyone. Please take the time to read it over: We are approaching a future in which they will mandate us to have an RFID microchip implanted in our body. This microchip will contain all our personal information, and we will lose much more of our privacy because of the tracking capabilities. Did you know this microchip matches perfectly with prophecy in the Bible? Please read on! "He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666" (Revelation 13:16-18 NKJV). Referring to the last days, this could only be speaking of a cashless money society, which we have yet to see, but are heading towards. Otherwise we could still buy or sell without the mark among others if physical money was still currency. This mark could not be spiritual, because the word references two different physical locations. If it was spiritual, it would just say in the forehead. We can see throughout the history of society how we are being conditioned through the process of convenience. More specifically with how we make payments. We went from physical currency to credit and debit cards containing digital currency, to these cards having a microchip in them, to now being able to place your card near a device that will read its data. As well as self check-out lines in our market places and the cryptocurrency industry making a rapid climb in such form as bitcoin. These are all stepping stones for the powers that run this world to bring about their ultimate goal, that is to place a microchip in each and every one of us. RFID microchip implant technology is on the rise and will be the future of a one world cashless money society. Continue reading to see how it perfectly matches up with Biblical prophecy! From a YouTube video titled, "Warning From Man Who Designed RFID Microchip" Here are some notes from the video: "Carl Sanders sat in seventeen New World Order meetings with heads-of-state officials such as Henry Kissinger and Bob Gates of the C.I.A. to discuss plans on how to bring about this one-world system. The government commissioned Carl Sanders to design a microchip for identifying and controlling the peoples of the world—a microchip that could be inserted under the skin with a hypodermic needle(a quick, convenient method that would be gradually accepted by society). Carl Sanders, with a team of engineers behind him, with U.S. grant monies supplied by tax dollars, took on this project and designed a microchip that is powered by a lithium battery, rechargeable through the temperature changes in our skin. Without the knowledge of the Bible(Brother Sanders was not a Christian at the time), these engineers spent one-and-a-half-million dollars doing research on the best and most convenient place to have the microchip inserted. Guess what? These researchers found that the forehead and the back of the hand(the two places Revelation says the mark will go) are not just the most convenient places, but are also the only viable places for rapid, consistent temperature changes in the skin to recharge the lithium battery. The microchip is approximately seven millimeters in length, .75 millimeters in diameter, about the size of a grain of rice. It is capable of storing pages upon pages of information about you. All your general history, work history, crime record, health history, and financial data can be stored on this chip. Brother Sanders believes that this microchip, which he regretfully helped design, is the “mark” spoken about in Revelation 13:16–18. The original Greek word for “mark” is “charagma,” which means a “scratch or etching.” It is also interesting to note that the number 666 is actually a word in the original Greek. The word is “chi xi stigma,” with the last part, “stigma,” also meaning “to stick or prick.”" Mr. Sanders asked a doctor what would happen if the lithium contained within the RFID microchip leaked into the body. The doctor replied by saying a terrible sore would appear in that spot. This is what the book of Revelation says: "And the first(Angel) went, and poured out his vial on the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore on the men which had the mark of the beast, and on them which worshipped his image" (Revelation 16:2). WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE BEAST, THE NUMBER OF ITS NAME? THE MYSTERY OF THE NUMBER 666 REVEALED? What I first want to mention, before I share my thoughts on the number of the beast, is that God confirms in threes. We can see this throughout scripture: "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one" (1 John 5:7 NKJV). "and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:4 NKJV). "...Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" (Revelation 4:8 NKJV). There are many more examples, but I thought I would just share three of them to make the point. Examining Revelation 13:16-18, the first group of three I would like to point out is that the mark of the beast is described in three separate verses, 16, 17 and 18. The next three I see is in verse 16, "He causes all..." is followed by three contrasting categories of people, "both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave...". Then unto verse 17, it opens with, "and that no one may buy or sell except one who has...", followed by three explanations of what one must have to buy or sell, "...the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name". Then in verse 18, we read "Let him who has understanding calculate...", which is followed by, "the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666". The last three I see is the number 6 being used three times in a row. The reason I'm making this point is because of the number 666, as you will read below. "17: even that not any could buy or sell, except the one having the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of its name" (Literal Greek Translation). Here we see the mark being identified as having the name of the beast, and that name being identified as being a number. We can know that these attributes being described in verse 17 are all in one thing because the Bible warns of us about receiving the mark, singular. It is clear in verse 17 that we cannot buy or sell without the mark(being previously identified as a microchip), but why cant we buy or sell without the name of the beast, or the number of its name? What does that have to do with us buying or selling if the number of the beast only applies to identifying the Antichrist, as the common thought has been? So we need the number of the beast to buy or sell. What does this mean? "here the wisdom is, the one having the mind let him calculate the number of the wild beast, number for of human it is, and the number of it 666" (Revelation 13:8 Greek Translation). "Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast: for the number of man; and its number is six hundred sixty-six" (Jubilee Bible 2000 translation). "In this situation wisdom is needed. Let the person who has insight figure out the number of the beast, because it is a human number. The beast's number is 666" (GOD'S WORD translation). The Greek word "anthrōpos" being used in verse 18 where it says "of human" is the Greek strongs concordance G444. The first two definitions of the word are "a human being, whether male or female", and, "generically, to include all human individuals". Could the number of the beast apply to all mankind? In the Greek, and other translations, you will notice the beast is described as an "it", instead of "him". The reason I'm making this point is because when a translation says "His number is 666", this would imply a singular person, the Antichrist. But by saying "the number of it 666", implies that it is of the beast system as a whole. Throughout the years there have been people trying to calculate numbers based on titles and names that come up to the number 666 to identify one person. But from verse 18, I do not see where God is telling us to count up to 666, but rather to count the number of the beast. This number is identified as 666. So the verse is telling us to count the number 666. What does it mean to count? It means to add up. So how could we add up 666? Remember my previous point about God confirming in threes. So logically, what would be the best way to count the number 666? To count it equally in threes based off the number. We cannot count it equally as 600+60+6, this would also bring us back to the start. We cannot count it as 600+600+600, or 60+60+60, because there are no zeroes in between or at the end of 666. The only option is 6+6+6=18. What is interesting is that the verse that reveals for us to count the number itself is verse 18, being the third verse out of three verses that describe the mark of the beast. What is 18 divided by 3? 6. So 3x6=18, or 6+6+6=18. Another interesting point is the only two other combinations(making a total of three possible combinations) for placing a "+" symbol in between the 6's are 66+6=72, and 6+66=72. Adding 7+2 and 7+2 equals 18. Add both 72's together and you get 144. Why the number 144 is interesting is because the verse following Revelation 13:18 is the first time in the Bible where the 144,000 are being described in detail: "Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads..." (Revelation 14:1). Now if you add up all three numbers by counting 666 by moving the "+" symbol around, it would be 72+72+18=162. What is interesting about the number 162, is, if you divide 144,000 by 162, you get 888. The name of Jesus in Greek gematria adds up to 888. Revelation 14:1 not only mentions the 144,000, but also the Lamb who is Jesus. Applying the same format that I used with calculating the number 666, in which I got the numbers 144 and 162, they also bring interesting results bringing us to the number 18: • 14+4=18* • 16+2=18* • 1+4+4=(9), 1+6+2=(9), (9+9)=18* • 1+44=(45), 1+62=(63), (4+5)=9, (6+3)=9, 9+9=18* | (45+63)=108, 10+8=18* • 14+4=(18), 1+44=(45), (1+8)=9, (4+5)=9, 9+9=18* | (18+45)=[63] | 16+2=(18), 1+62=(63), (1+8)=9, (6+3)=9, 9+9=18* | (18+63)=[81] | [6+3]=9, [8+1]=9, 9+9=18* | [63+81]=144 • 1+4+4=(9), 14+4=(18), 1+44=(45), (9+18+45)=[72] (any two combinations of (9, 18, 45, and 72 will add to 18) | 1+6+2=(9), 16+2=(18), 1+62=(63), 9+18+63=[90] (any two combinations of (9, 18, 63, and 90 will get you 18*) | [7+2]=9, [9+0]=9, 9+9=18 | [72+90]=162 Now what is interesting about the number for Jesus, 888, is that if you apply this same formula, you get 8+8+8=24. Why the number 24? Revelation chapter 4 tells us there are 24 elders seated around the throne of God. This is the same throne where Jesus sits. Now if you take 8+8+8=24, and 8+88=96, and 88+8=96, you get 24+96+96=216. Take 144,000 divided by 216 and you get 666. Remember that this was the same exact formula to get the number 162 out of counting 666 that brought about the number 888 when dividing 144,000 by 162. It is perpetual. With using the same formula of counting by adding the "+" symbol in between the numbers, why do all these numbers relate in such a way? Another interesting point to note is that if you add up all the numbers from 1 to 36, it totals 666. The number 36, as in three sixes? Could this be a hint that we should add up three sixes instead of perceiving the number as six-hundred sixty six? So what could this mean? Well we know in this world we are identified by numbers in various forms. From our birth certificate to social security, as well as our drivers license, being identified based on a system of rulership. So it is possible that this RFID microchip will contain a new identification that has a total of 18 characters. Could this be the name of the beast, the number of its name? The beast system that is identified by 18 characters? This would fit scripture that speaks of a mark that we must have to buy or sell in our right hand or forehead, and that it also contains the number of the beast, during a future cashless money society. Revelation 13:11-15 tells us that a false prophet will rise up deceiving many to take the mark of the beast because of the miracles he does before men. At all costs do not take it! "Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name" (Revelation 14:9-11). Did you hear about the lady from a major media outlet who reported a major event occurring approximately 20 minutes before it actually happened? It's time we know the truth. A reporter from BBC reported the collapse of World Trade Center 7 on September 11th 2001 approximately 20 minutes before it actually fell! Remember, WTC 7 did not get hit by anything, so there would be no reason to assume it would collapse. But she didn't report on assumption, but that it already did collapse! What could this mean? The only logical explanation is that the power that orchestrated 9/11 is the same power that controls the major media outlets! Don't believe me? Watch the broadcast yourself uploaded on YouTube titled: "BBC Reports 911, WTC 7 Collapse BEFORE it Happens" It gets even worse... Did you know there is other footage they don't want us to see twice? I'm speaking of footage on the day of September 11th 2001 during the time the planes hit both Trade Towers. Eye witness reports say the following concerning the planes: • "No, it wasn't a commercial airliner" • "...but it didn't have any markings on it that I saw" • "no emblems, no logos" • "It definitely did not look like a commercial plane" • "I did not see any windows on the sides" • "It was a black plane, it looked like a fighter jet" • "It was black, it looks like a military plane" • "It was a military plane" This video also shares testimonies from firefighters who share their experience being in the world trade towers as bombs were exploding(to weaken the structure of the buildings to cause the free fall collapse). As a terrorist, how could you smuggle bombs into the trade towers with all of its security systems which includes bomb sniffing dogs? Also, if terrorists did plant the bombs, then why weren't we told about the bombs?! You can watch a video of this on YouTube by titled: "9/11 - THE FOOTAGE THEY DIDN'T LET YOU SEE TWICE (9/11 2001 Documentary)" What about the attack on the Pentagon? Was it really a plane that hit it, or something else, maybe a missle? Why did the FBI go around and confiscate camera footage from the surrounding buildings not releasing them to the public when they clearly showed us the planes that hit the world trade towers? Why was the only footage released to the public from one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the world low quality footage showing only five frames at about one frame per second? The U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted the day before the attack that the Pentagon was missing 2.3 trillion dollars. Could this attack on the Pentagon have anything to do with covering up that information? So where am I going with all of this? What's the purpose of this major event that occurred on September 11th 2001? Why did we go to war with Afghanistan and Iraq? David Rockefeller is quoted to be saying: "Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure--one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” ― David Rockefeller, Memoirs Another video to watch is an infamous interview done with movie producer Aaron Russo titled, "Aaron Russo RFID Human Implant Chip" Aaron Russo produced such movies as Mad as Hell, Trading Places, and America: Freedom to Fascism. He gained the attention of a man named Nick Rockefeller who saw the movie Made as Hell and knew Aaron was running for governor of Nevada. Knowing the impact Aaron was having on society, who being a freedom fighter standing for the constitution of the United States, Nick sought to befriend him to subtly recruit him into his secret society. Aaron shares what Nick had told him: "He's the one who told me 11 months before 9/11 ever happened that there was going to be an event. He never told me what the event was going to be...and out of that event we were going to invade Afghanistan to run pipelines from the Caspian Sea. We are going to invade Iraq to take over the oil fields to establish a base in the middle east, and make it all part of the New World Order..." "I remember he was telling me how he was going to see soldiers looking in caves for people in Afghanistan and Pakistan and all these places. And there was going to be this war on terror, where this is no real enemy, and the whole thing is a giant hoax. But it is a way for the government to take over the American people..." Aaron asked Nick, "What's the end goal? And he said the end goal is to get everyone chipped to control the whole society. To have the bankers, the elite people controlling the world..." Visit https://www.biblefreedom.com to see all the proof! It is at the point where it takes more faith not to believe that the Bible truly is the word of God! You will see proof for Noah's Ark, the Red Sea Crossing, Sodom and Gromorrah, scientific evidence the Bible is inspired by God, testimonies from all walks of life concerning Jesus, and much more! "EITHER HUMAN INTELLIGENCE ULTIMATELY OWES ITS ORIGIN TO MINDLESS MATTER OR THERE IS A CREATOR..." - JOHN LENNOX "We all know God exists. Why? Because without Him, we couldn't prove anything at all. Do we live our lives as if we cannot know anything? No. So why is God necessary? In order to know anything for certain, you would have to know everything, or have revelation from somebody who does. Who is capable of knowing everything? God. So to know anything, you would have to be God, or know God." It has been calculated by Roger Penrose that the odds of the initial conditions for the big bang to produce the universe that we see to be a number so big that we could put a zero on every particle in the universe, and even that would not be enough to use every zero. What are the odds that God created the universe? Odds are no such thing. Who of you would gamble your life on one coin flip? Earth resides in the darkest location within our galaxy and our galaxy within the darkest location in our universe making intelligent life possible. This allows us to observe all of the universe, from the cosmic beginning, all the way through. We are able to confirm that the Bible got it right from the start by saying, "In the beginning God created the heaven and earth..." (Genesis 1:1), and says our universe is expanding thousands of years before we discovered these things. In fact, the Bible makes 10 times more creation claims than all other major "holy" books combined with no contradictions, while these other books have errors in them. Astronomer(PhD) Hugh Ross, a best selling author, has lead many scientists to faith in Jesus showing how the book of nature and the Bible are allies rather than enemies. 1959, in Turkey was found a man-made ship buried and preserved underneath volcanic ash at the elevation of 6,500 feet. The Bible says Noah's Ark rested on the Mountains of Ararat after the flood waters receded. Not only was this ship found on the Mountains of Ararat, it is also the exact same length God told Noah to build the Ark; that is, 515 feet and 7 inches. Ron Wyatt, along with a team of scientists, lead the research of this artifact. Thousands of archaeological discoveries throughout the years have confirmed the Bible to be true. From major events such as artifacts found across the bottom of the Red Sea confirming the Exodus account, to 98% pure sulfur balls rained down on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, unlike any sulfur found on the earth; to further findings confirming the history of people, places and other events that occurred in the Bible. If the miracles in the Bible seem too farfetched, remember, the greatest miracle has already occured, the creation of the universe. Without God, miracles are absurd, "...but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). Jesus fulfilled more than 300 Messianic prophecies concerning His birth place, details of His life, His mission, His nature, His death, and His resurrection. He came to pay a debt that we could not, to be our legal justifier to reconcile us back to a Holy God; only if we are willing to receive Him: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten son, so that whoever believes in Him, through faith, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Jesus says if we wish to enter into life to keep the commands! The two greatest commands are to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind; and your neighbor as yourself. All the law hang on these commands. We must be born of and lead by the Holy Spirit, to be called children of God, to inherit the kingdom. If we are willing to humble ourselves in prayer to Jesus, to confess and forsake our sins, He is willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who keep asking of Him; giving us a new heart, leading us into all truth! Jesus came to free us from the bondage of sin. The everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels due to disobedience to God's law. If we do the same, what makes us any different than the devil? Jesus says unless we repent, we shall perish. We must walk in the Spirit, producing fruits of love and forgiveness, so we may not fulfill the lusts of the flesh being hatred, fornication, drunkenness and the like. Whoever practices such things will not inherit the kingdom (Galatians 5:16-26). If we sin, we may come before Jesus to ask for forgiveness (1 John 2:1-2). Evil thoughts are not sins, but rather temptations. It is not until these thoughts conceive and give birth by our hearts desire that they become sin (James 1:12-15). When we sin, we become in the likeness of the devil's image, for he who sins is of the devil (1 John 3:8); but if we obey Jesus, in the image of God. For without holiness, we shall not see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). The oldest religion in the world is holiness (James 1:27). What religion did Adam and Eve follow before the fall? Jesus, Who became the last Adam, what religion does He follow? Is He not holy? He never told us to follow any man made religion, but to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him (Luke 9:23). There are many false doctrines being taught leading people astray. This is why we need the Holy Spirit for discernment. Unlike religion, holiness cannot be created. It is the eternal Spirit of God given to us from above. Jesus is more than a religion; He is about having a personal relationship with the Father. Start by reading the Gospel of Matthew, to hear the words of God, to know His character and commandments. Follow and obey Jesus, for He is the way, the truth, and the life! (John 14:6)
Nevada legalizes gambling - HISTORY. In an attempt to lift the state out of the hard times of the Great Depression, the Nevada state legislature votes to legalize gambling. Located in the Great. If you are an Aussie visitor, you have come to the right Gambling Legalized In Nevada place. We strive to provide the best resources to all our visitors. There is reason behind our shortlist and Australian online casino reviews, so read on to find out why these are the best casino sites accepting Aussie players. Nevada criminalizes gaming and the operation of all games of chance, effective the following year; 1930. Nevada's total population: 89,168; 1931. Wide-open gaming is legalized in Nevada by the Nevada State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Fred Balzar; the bill is introduced by State Assemblyman Phil Tobin of Humboldt County (March 19) When was gambling legalized in Nevada (U.S.) ? Gambling today in states where it’s legal is absolutely safe, fun, and of a high quality. The legality of it protects everyone and keeps the criminals occupied somewhere else. Conclusion. I’ll admit that there could be a number of other reasons why gambling should be legal, but I think these are 2 of the best. Nevada Gambling History; Year Event; 1931: Gambling is legalized in Nevada, making it the first in the nation to permit and promote organized betting. 1949: Horseracing and sports betting are legalized. 1955: The Nevada Gaming Control Board is established. 2013: Online poker is formally legalized in Nevada. 2016 What Are The Benefits Of Legalized Gambling? By Brooke Keaton November 25, 2020. 5 minute read in 2018 in the state of Nevada, the gambling industry provided employment to 166,741 people. That's why our experts have found the best online casinos players Gambling Was Legalized In Nevada During The can trust, along with the top casino games and bonuses available. Use our recommendations below to find new online gambling sites to play your favorite casino games, or discover exciting new titles to Gambling Was Legalized In Nevada During The play. In an effort to revamp the economy in Nevada, it became the gambling capitol of the world in 1905. Online gambling was legalized in 2013. Gambling in Nevada legalized 87 years ago. The Nevada Legislature approved gambling on March 19, 1931, 87 years ago Monday. The move was made in an attempt to help the state struggling with the
Gambling in Nevada legalized 87 years ago - YouTube
In 1928, the Nevada Supreme Court faced a novel legal question arising out of a familiar human weakness. In the McGill case, Gladys Anderson asked the high C... HBO and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Joe House as they recount their recent trip to Las Vegas, how Vegas has changed over the years, and why gambli... WENDOVER, NEVADA AT NIGHT - Duration: 3:46. Traveling Man 792 views. 3:46. World's Tallest Cowboy - Wendover Will - Duration: 4:48. JP1970 194 views. 4:48. GOLD WHEEL SPIN! - $40 Slot Challenge #5 ... Nevada Council on Problem Gambling 160 views 0:31 Life As a VIP High Roller At the Casino: What It's Like, Why I Gave It All Up and Gambling Addiction - Duration: 16:22. The Nevada Legislature approved gambling for good on March 19, 1931. Before Las Vegas was famous for gambling and casinos and mafia, there was divorce. Divorce tourism was once big business for the state of Nevada. It all bega... See what's going on in the world's capital of gambling: Las Vegas or Sin City. The city that never sleeps with it's hot, sexy girls who will entertain you night and day. Come, gambling in one of ... Woody Paige and Les Shapiro give their picks for why sports gambling should be legalized on The Sports Show on April 21, 2015. in this video i will tell you about Why gambling is being legalized in india? -----... Check out the full episode 034 on our YouTube channel! Or subscribe to the Curiosityness podcast! Available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever ...
