It is with
the heaviest of hearts that we address what is certainly the darkest and
saddest chapter for ModState to date.
Yesterday, managing editor J. DeViney and associate editor (and podcast host)
Nate S. Wellein learned of the indictment of our former copy editor, Albin
Eldeen, by The State of Texas on charges of child sexual assault. His apparent
arrest in November 2018 and subsequent indictment in February 2019 (both
occurring in San Antonio, Texas) was information that was made available to Mr.
DeViney (The GNO /New Orleans metro) and Mr. Wellein (Denver metro) yesterday
evening.
With that,
we dually thank Mr. Eldeen for his efforts as copy editor to ensure exacting
editorial standards were met and to provide “Layman’s Terms” assessments of the
Bill of Rights. However, the decision within both houses (editorial and
multimedia) of ModState Magazine was
unanimous in removing all content authored by Mr. Eldeen that was ever posted
to the editorial site, and furthermore to dismiss him from his advisory role
permanently.
While we
also feel it is important that justice be carried out before denouncing anyone
in the court of public opinion, regardless of the charges leveled against them,
we also feel very strongly that, even should a legal outcome favorable to Mr.
Eldeen occur, any future efforts by his person should be expended in the best
interests of his immediate and extended family units. Therefore, while Albin
Eldeen served honorably as a NCO (non-commissioned officer) in the United
States Army (including nearly two years of which was spent alongside fellow
Army veteran Nate S. Wellein and Navy veteran J. DeViney at Walter Reed in
Bethesda, Maryland), he is barred from any subsequent participation in our
operations in any capacity, regardless of future legal outcomes.
By direction: DeViney-Wellein, Ltd., legal agent of ModState, ModState.com & ModState
Magazine, and accountable officer Jonathan D. DeViney
“If being crazy means living life as if it matters, then I don’t mind being completely insane.” – Kate Winslet
There’s a fundamental breakdown that, for whatever the reason may be, is completely disregarded by many modern Americans. While there are so many behaviors that can be clarified on a psychological standpoint, this one isn’t presenting itself quite as easily as some other predominate issues. Fifty years ago, mental health wasn’t a recognized issue. There was no reasoning or justification for people suffering with such, only that they were traditionally characterized as a bad person. We come from a civilization that, 50-100 years ago, men would institutionalize their so-called weaker parts for some of the most mundane reasons; superstition, novel reading, tobacco use, masturbation, etc. Thank God that doesn’t happen anymore, right?
Consequently, the ship turned, starting on the daybreak of the 21st century, to a focus on mental health. We have the Boomer generation that started to classify themselves as damaged and recognized there was a problem. The Boomers came from parents who were the product of the Great Depression and World War 2 which, from the psychological viewpoint, we can take a look at the time and infer that while they were traveling into adulthood, the focus was more on a Country as opposed to the needs of an individual. This outlook coupled with extreme PTSD from the lack of basic needs and war time elements brought to life the behaviors of “sweeping it under the rug.” We then had the Boomers raise the generation coming into adulthood now who are focused on mental health. “Focused.” At least mental health matters when it fits and supports an agenda. Before we go further, I am not and will not relate politics to mental health. In this context, they are in no way or form related. There are snowflakes everywhere people; stay woke.
I will be the first person to say that I absolutely love the fact people are more focused on mental health. I truly do not know how I would react in a culture that didn’t and there still are countries where that is not highly recognized. For anyone that has/does suffer with anything in the mental health category, it’s an extremely comforting to know there is some safe space and people that do understand its real and it’s not going away. Adhering to this train of thought, there is a big difference between needing a safe space because you are trying to work through an issue and because you refuse to admit that it’s ok for people to disagree with you. They are not the same thing and never will be.
Let’s talk about this disparity. In the grand scheme of things, we are not special, our feelings only matter to ourselves, and if we don’t do something, America is going to be governed by a bunch of oversensitive, ill-informed, entitled children; this doesn’t sound very promising to me. However, I’ve been wrong before.
“If you’re going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you’re going to be locked up.” – Hunter S. Thompson
If you made it thus far, you’re thinking, “What’s the point here Brittany? What are you getting at?” When is the last time that you have seen a peaceful protest? When is the last time you have seen multiple groups of the modern Americans that differ on views come together and either achieve the agenda or at least agreed to disagree, and didn’t end up looking like a bunch of snotty nosed, bratty children fighting over the last cookie? It’s cool, I’ll wait. When did we lose the social capability to have the basic respect for other people regardless of political stance, race, economic status or literally any other way you want to group people? When did we have to start grouping people anyway and then treating them differently just because of such? When did we forget that the Constitution protects freedom of speech? PSA, the Constitution also protects ideals we may not agree with.
Looking at current events, we have a group of people aware of mental health but refuse to accept that people differ in their views and when that difference does come about, we then choose verbally and/or physically attack those that do not agree. For what? We are mentally aware enough to know that abuse in any form causes trauma, trauma then has the potential to create mental health issues, however, in that same sentence we will condemn any person to just that, solely because they do not agree with our ideals. Anyone else confused?
The late, great Dr. Seuss wrote, “A person is a person, no matter how small.” How and when did we forget this? How do we now have people that have been friends for years removing each other from their lives just because of who they voted for during the last election? How do we say we care about each other in such a primal way as mental health and with the same tongue cause the trauma we were still healing from? Most importantly, why? Why are we so stuck on being right as opposed to just agree to disagree?
On this, the third anniversary of the founding of the (multi)
media beast that has become ModState,
let’s take a quick look back at what we’ve accomplished this year, and what has
kicked our collective asses. This being the “leather” anniversary (or crystal
if you follow “The Chicago Guide for
Style and Asinineness”, but we’ll forget that), Political Beast
would like to point out the tough (and not-so) commentaries and
informationalities offered by the crew aboard the good ship. Leather in the
minds of Political Beast has always conjured up images of John Wayne astride a
horse, hat always seeming to be just about to blow away as he leads his men (or
just himself) up a hill or down into some dangerous valley; always the hero,
always sure of himself, always a winner, even when he’s down. Our personal
favorite of his films is the one he shares with Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, Vera
Miles (hottie!) and a host of others at the top of their game. We guess
competition for screen time sometimes brings out the best in you. “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”
suffers for being black-and-white, but you can still almost smell the boots and
saddles. Not quite sure what ModState
would smell like if you got us all together, but after banging this out over
the last few days, Political Beast needs a bath. In this political climate,
seems we all do…constantly. But, leather-faced and determined, ModState continues to dive down into the
belly of the cavernous animal that is reality and tries to stay in the saddle.
If a much greater man than any member of Political Beast could describe the
year in review, he might do it thusly:
We’d tilt our gaze downward, too. The Internet is forever.
“It is not the critical education Theresa Leary attempted to give us in her American Scandal Primer, or the fact that she forgot to capitalize “Deep Throat” that counts. Nor is it in the way DeViney points out how the Steele Dossier, or GamePartisan or Harvey Weinstein (no affiliation) stumbles, or where Apologetics articles could’ve done things better. Like not making a description of ModState’s history look like a Trump circle-jerk cabinet meeting. The credit belongs to the guys who are actually arguing (sometimes redundantly) in the Podcast, whose faces are marred by dusty facts and changing priorities, and sweat and lack of sleep, and blood from the veins popping out of DeViney’s neck whenever he has to admit Hillary is still relevant; who strives valiantly as Leary does to convince us that she is a mom; who errs in saying “We are all the descendants of rebels” (sorry Al Sharpton), who comes up WAY too wordy again and again, because there is no effort—especially by Political Beast’s recent writing team—without error in Wellein’s shifting definitions of socialism, and shortcoming in DeViney’s confusion over how “universal” universal healthcare should be; but who does, like Geoff Sheppard, actually strive to do the deeds of giving us an accurate portrayal of Katharine Graham’s role at The Post and setting the record straight; who knows the thinly-veiled enthusiasms of seeing the Mueller report exonerate Trump (DeViney), the great continuing devotions to the legacies of Kennedy (Wellein) and Nixon (I’ll ignore the obvious); who spends himself in a worthy cause, bringing the seedy-stream media to its knees (ok, they’re kinda doing that to themselves) who best knows in the end the “zero-tolerance, zero-humanity” (of getting) high on achievement, and who at the worst, if she fails at explaining why kids are still getting separated at the border, at least fails while daring us to take her seriously, so that none of these media warriors’ place will ever be with those cold, right-wing stooges or timid left-wing loons, who never accept Trump’s victory, Hillary’s defeat, or realize the exultation of the exit song on celluloid as the leather-bound hero rides off into the sunset.”
And somewhere, weeping in the still of the night, came bleating The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun”
The following contains references to articles published by ModState over the past two years. If you don’t get it, then you didn’t read it. Tradition tells us this is our “cotton” anniversary, so if something sounds offensive, or racist, or derisive of a contributor, you’re a moron with cotton brains. Or you didn’t read the article(s) referenced. If you still don’t like what you hear, stick cotton in your ears.
And enjoy.
Quite less than a score* and a few months or so ago (30 April, 2016), our ModState fathers, DeViney and “staff” [creative name for more DeViney] brought forth on the World Wide Web a new concept, conceived in the rights of “these United States” (Dude, the Civil War is over. It’s “The United States.” Sheesh!) and dedicated to NeoSpeak (“Newspeak”), the hypocrisy of boycotts, and the belief that all versions of Trump’s Wall are created equal to the task of pissing off law enforcement in Arizona.
Now we are engaged in a great Civil War. A war over documents, a war over election interference. A war testing what the hell Devin Nunes (R-CA) was thinking getting into that limo to begin with. A war testing whether Lily Eldeen can single-handedly change the voting age, and whether Political Beast is named as a rip-off of the Daily Beast, or simply a mistype of “political beat” that no one ever thought to correct. Whatever. We are met on this, the “cotton” anniversary of ModState, on what is seen as a great battlefield of fake news vs. bold truth. We are come, fully-clothed in cotton polos, to dedicate a large portion of this site as the final repository of the ideas and inspirations of the contributors and columnists with whom ModState works. It is altogether irritating and frustrating to our editors to have to fix these articles before publication, but hey, shit happens.
“Nobody wails more sincerely than me, I can tell you that. Many, many people tell me this. Believe me.”
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground, not with all the cotton seed in the world. Not this, or the ground in Flint, Michigan Teresa Leary wept for in her 2017 article. Or the rainbow-colored ground of American diversity described by Anny Hughes. The brave men like Al Eldeen, risking insanity slogging through an exhaustive examination of our Constitution’s amendments, or DeViney and Wellein producing studio-quality podcasts, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say in this anniversary piece, but they will never forget the restraint we all showed in not saying what the Hell we really thought in the midst of this fiasco some dare label an administration.
They tried telling DeViney back in 2009 he wasn’t present for the aftermath of Watergate. He didn’t believe the blonde, and he doesn’t believe us. C’est la vie.
It is rather for us, the moderately sane, cotton-loving “staff” of ModState to be here dedicated to the unfinished work of finding sources like the eminent Mitch Tyner and the great Geoff Shepard to open to the people the truth about the causes and catastrophes men like this have witnessed in the struggles they so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. It is rather for us that in these articles we gain a real sense of devotion in DeViney’s play-by-play of Trump’s inevitable debate against Biden or Sanders in 2020, of interest in whom Gabe Coker will suggest as a laughable third option the night before the election; and of inquiry, as we wonder when Wellein is going to finally convince DeViney that our managing editor didn’t actually live through the Watergate break-in. And all that aside, that we here highly resolve that these articles should not have been written, edited, and published in vain. That this current events site, under brash, unapologetic and disrespectful leadership, shall have a new birth of offensive bravery. More Vietnam, more Nixon v. Kennedy, more stuff apparently fabricated somewhere in Babylon. That this magazine of the truth, by the truth, and for the truth, shall not perish from the Earth without cotton…the fabric of our lives.
* = Upon receipt, DeViney asked, “Score? Who’s scoring here? What and when do they score? Nobody tells me anything.”
