#Deals November 2018

[reasoningdaily]

My former U.S. Track and Field teammate Tori Bowie, who was found dead in her home in Florida on May 2, of complications related to childbirth at 8 months pregnant, was a beautiful runner. She was effortless. At the Rio Olympics, I ran the second leg of the 4 x 100 relay. Tori was the anchor. When she got the baton, I remember thinking, “it’s over.” She just accelerated. When she crossed the finish line, I couldn’t wait to run over to her to celebrate. It was her first, and only, Olympic gold medal.

She also picked up a silver (in the 100-m) and bronze (200-m) in Brazil. The next year, at the 2017 World Championships in London, Tori won the 100-m title, earning the title of “world’s fastest woman.” Tori started out as a long jumper. So seeing her thrive as a sprinter was a huge deal. She was just such a bright light, and people were getting to see that.

Tori grew up in Mississippi and had this huge Southern accent. She didn’t take herself too seriously. You felt this sense of ease when you were around her. I last saw her in early 2021, in San Diego, where she was training. She gave me the biggest hug; something about her spirit was just very, very sweet. I felt her sweetness come over me that day.

Tori was 32 when she died. According to the autopsy, possible complications contributing to Bowie’s death included respiratory distress and eclampsia—seizures brought on by preeclampsia, a high blood pressure disorder that can occur during pregnancy. I developed preeclampsia during my pregnancy with my daughter Camryn, who was born in November 2018. The doctors sent me to the hospital, where I would deliver Camryn during an emergency C-section, at 32 weeks. I was unsure if I was going to make it. If I was ever going to hold my precious daughter.

Like so many Black women, I was unaware of the risks I faced while pregnant. According to the CDC, in 2021 the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 2.6 times the rate for white women. About five days before I gave birth to Camryn, I was having Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I mentioned that my feet were swollen. As we went around the table, the women shared their experiences during pregnancy. My cousin said she also had swollen feet. My mom didn’t. Not once did someone say, ‘oh, well, that’s one of the indicators of preeclampsia.’ None of us knew. When I became pregnant, my doctor didn’t sit me down and tell me, ‘these are things that you should look for in your pregnancy, because you are at a greater risk to experience these complications.’

That needs to change, now, especially in light of Tori’s tragic passing. Awareness is huge. Serena Williams had near-death complications during her pregnancy. Beyoncé developed preeclampsia. I hate that it takes Tori’s situation to put this back on the map and to get people to pay attention to it. But oftentimes, we need that wake-up call.

The medical community must do its part. There are so many stories of women dying who haven’t been heard. Doctors really need to hear the pain of Black women.

Luckily, there’s hope on several fronts. Congress has introduced the Momnibus Act, a package of 13 bills crafted to eliminate racial disparities in maternal health and improve outcomes across the board. California passed Momnibus legislation back in 2021. These laws make critical investments in areas like housing, nutrition, and transportation for underserved communities. Further, several pharmaceutical companies are making advances on early detection and treatment of preeclampsia.

Three gold medalists from that 4 x 100 relay team in Rio set out to become mothers. All three of us—all Black women—had serious complications. Tianna Madison has shared that she went into labor at 26 weeks and entered the hospital “with my medical advance directive AND my will.” Tori passed away. We’re dealing with a Black Maternal Health crisis. Here you have three Olympic champions, and we’re still at risk.

I would love to have another child. That’s something that I know for sure. But will I be here to raise that child? That’s a very real concern. And that’s a terrifying thing. This is America, in 2023, and Black women are dying while giving birth. It’s absurd.

I’m hopeful that things can get better. I’m hopeful that Tori, who stood on the podium at Rio, gold around her neck and sweetness in her soul, won’t die in vain.

—as told to Sean Gregory

[reasonsforhope]

"In a 4-3 decision released on Friday afternoon December 22, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that Wisconsin’s voting maps as currently drawn violate the state constitution and must be redrawn in time for the 2024 election.

Under the Wisconsin Constitution, state legislative districts must consist of “contiguous territory.” [Meaning: continuous] Yet, the majority opinion states, “the number of state legislative districts containing territory completely disconnected from the rest of the district is striking.”

“At least fifty of ninety-nine assembly districts and at least twenty of thirty-three senate districts include separate, detached territory,” states the majority opinion, written by Justice Jill Karofsky.

Contiguous districts are a safeguard against gerrymandering and help keep together groups of voters who live in the same areas and have the same interests, explains the decision, which includes maps highlighting the islands of noncontiguous voting areas in the state’s current districts.

The voters who brought the lawsuit, Clarke v. Wisconsin Elections Commission, argued that the current districts violate the constitution and asked the court to  order the adoption of remedial maps. They also asked the court to declare the November 2022 state senate elections unlawful, and to order special elections for state senate seats that would otherwise not be on the ballot until November 2026.

The court’s ruling agrees with the petitioners that “Wisconsin’s state legislative districts must be composed of physically adjoining territory,” and enjoins the Wisconsin Elections Commission from using the current legislative maps in future elections. But it declined to invalidate the results of the 2022 state senate elections.

Acknowledging that it is the legislature’s role to draw voting maps, the majority opinion urges the legislature to draw new maps that comport with the constitution. However, it also states, since the legislature might not draw such maps or the governor might veto them, the court will plan to adopt remedial maps that can be used in time for the 2024 elections and unless and until new, constitutional maps are enacted through the legislative process...

Wisconsin’s voting maps are widely considered among the most politically gerrymandered in the country. This was reflected in 2018 when Democrats swept every statewide election and earned 53 percent of assembly votes cast statewide but only 36 percent of Assembly seats went to Democrats. Voters in Wisconsin are evenly split along partisan lines, and statewide races are often decided by slim margins. Currently, however, Republicans hold a 22-11 supermajority in the state senate and a 64-35 near-supermajority in the state assembly."

-via The Progressive Magazine

Note: Article is a bit wordy but this is a Big Deal. We're going to get fair election maps in an important swing state. The maps thrown out by this decision were deliberately designed to give Republicans a massive advantage in the election.

This WILL make a huge difference in who's elected in 2024.

[slutforpringles]

Ricciardo is speaking to me from Baku (where he sensationally won from P17 in 2017), a week before what will be remembered as one of the most arcane and unceremonious dismissals in the history of the sport. And while it couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke, the repercussions of the decision - specifically, the way it was executed - affects the team,the sponsors, the fans, and F1 in its entirety. Somehow, Ricciardo gritted his teeth and smiled throughout the train wreck, departing with dignity, and in doing so left a legacy that will go unrivalled by drivers more accomplished in the sport - both past and present. You only have to go through the tribute posts from current and former F1 drivers, teams, commentators, celebrities, specialist media, and fans to see what sort of an impact he had, and what size pothole his lack of presence will leave on the grid. Ricciardo's eight grand prix wins ranks him equal 37th on the list of the most successful F1 drivers of all time, and redemption at Monaco in 2018 - after Red Bull fumbled his certain win in 2016 - will likely rank as his (and his fans') most satisfying victory. To put his career in perspective, only 15 per cent of all drivers who've competed in F1 have won a race. Of those, only five per cent have won eight or more races. It's fair to say, the Honey Badger is one of the best to ever do it, and he deserved a send off that reflected his success. For brands like Tudor, who organised my interview, they've lost a valuable asset. They may have even lost the very reason they committed to sponsoring the team in the first place - an affable, approachable, and highly respected marketing machine. An ambassador that everyone, including myself, is dying to meet. It's the reason every brand in Australia wants a piece of Ricciardo; he's impossible to dislike. After an enthusiastic discussion about Tudor's involvement with Visa Cash App RB, we move onto the Black Bay Ceramic "Blue" on his wrist. "They even did this custom flame strap for me," he beams as he lifts it up to the camera. It's greyish white and embossed with flames, like his headphones - and if it's a piece unique from Tudor, which one would assume it is, then it's going to be highly collectible. I ask questions about his McLaren exit and return to F1, the competitor in him, how he deals with pressure and maintaining mental clarity as a driver, but in hindsight, none of it matters anymore. Not until we arrive at life after Formula One.

The most obvious and undeniable proof we've had yet of just how last-minute and haphazard the decision was to replace Daniel after the Singapore GP. The team's big sponsors had no idea, Daniel had no idea, clearly even VCarb's team principals had no idea .... an absolute shitshow that resulted in Daniel being subjected to some of the most cruel and unfair treatment by the media and resulted in an exit completely unbefitting of his contributions and achievements over his career in Formula One.

Daniel Ricciardo: The Last Laugh | BH Magazine Volume Two (November 2024) | James Want (**if used please credit**)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The FTC has Big Pharma’s number

On November 27, I'm appearing at the Toronto Metro Reference Library with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

On November 29, I'm at NYC's Strand Books with my novel The Lost Cause, a solarpunk tale of hope and danger that Rebecca Solnit called "completely delightful."

The most consistent bright spot in the dark swirl of US politics is the competence of the Biden Administration's progressive enforcers: people like Rohit Chopra, Jonathan Kanter and Lina Khan, who keep demonstrating just how far a good administrator can go. Anyone can have a vision, but knowing how to execute is the difference between hot air and real change:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/23/getting-stuff-done/#praxis

Take a minute to contrast Biden's administrators with Trump's: Trump's administrators had an ideological vision just as surely as Biden's do, and Trump himself had a much more pronounced and explicit ideology than Biden, whose governance style is much more about balancing the Democratic Party's blocs than bringing about a specific set of policies:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/06/personnel-are-policy/#janice-eberly

But whatever clarity of vision the Trump administration brought to DC was completely undermined by its incompetence (thankfully!). Apart from one gigantic tax break, Trump couldn't get stuff done. He couldn't deliver, because he'd lose his temper or speak out of turn:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/14/when-youve-lost-the-fedsoc/#anti-buster-buster

And his administrators followed his lead. Scott Pruitt was appointed to run the EPA after a career spent suing the agency. It could have been the realization of his life's dream to dismantle environmental law in America and open the floodgates for unlimited, wildly profitable corporate pollution and pillaging. But the dream died because he kept getting embroiled in absurd scandals – like the time he sent his staffers out to drive around all night looking for a good deal on a used mattress:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/epa-s-pruitt-told-aide-obtain-old-mattress-trump-hotel-n879836

Or his insistence on installing a CIA-style "Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility" (SCIF) so he could play super-spy while reading memos:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/26/politics/epa-administrator-scott-pruitt-sound-proof-booth-scif/index.html

Or the time he sent his security detail to the Ritz-Carlton to demand that they supply him lots of little bottles of his favorite hand-cream:

https://www.vox.com/2018/6/7/17439044/scott-pruitt-ritz-carlton-moisturizing-lotion

There were other examples in the Trump administration, but Priutt is such a good case-study. He's like a guy who spent his whole life training to compete in the Olympics, and finally got a shot, only to be disqualified for ordering too much room-service in the Olympic Village. Priutt was wildly ambitious, but he was profoundly undisciplined – and wildly incompetent.

Compare that with Biden's progressive enforcers and agency heads, who showed up on the first day of work with an encyclopedic knowledge of their administrative powers, and detailed plans for using them to transform the lives of the American people for the better:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

The Biden administration's competence translates into action, getting stuff done. Maybe that shouldn't surprise us, given the difference between the stories that reactionaries and progressives tell about where change comes from.

In reactionary science fiction, we enter the realm of the "Competent Man" story. Think of a Heinlein hero, who is "able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly."

In Competent Man stories, a unitary hero steps into the breach and solves the problem – if not single-handedly, then as the leader of others, whose lesser competence is a base metal that the Competent Man hammers into a tempered blade:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/RobertAHeinlein

Contrast this with a progressive tale, like, say, Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry For the Future, where the Competent Man is replaced by the Competent Administration, in which people of goodwill and technical competence figure out how to join forces to create population-scale architectures of participation that allow every person to contribute their skills and perspective:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/03/ministry-for-the-future/#ksr

The right's whole ideology insists that the world can only be saved by Competent Men. As Corey Robin writes in The Reactionary Mind, the unifying factor that binds together conservative factions from monarchists to racists to Christian Dominionists is the belief that a few of us are born to rule, and the rest to be ruled over:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/25/mafia-logic/#mafia-logic

The Reaganite insistence that governments are, by their very nature, incompetent and malign ("The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I’m from the government, and I’m here to help'"), means that conservatives deny the possibility of a Competent Administration.

When conservatives take office and proceed to bungle the most basic elements of administration, they're fulfilling their own campaign narrative, which starts with "We must dismantle the government because it is bad at everything." Conservatives who govern badly prove their own point, which explains a lot about the UK Tory Party's long run of governmental failure and electoral success:

https://apnews.com/article/uk-suella-braverman-fired-cabinet-shuffle-7ea6c89306a427cc70fba75bc386be79

There's a small mercy in the fact that so many of the most ideologically odious and extreme conservative governments are so technically incompetent in governing, and thus accomplish so little of their agendas.

But the inverse – the incredible competence of the best progressive administrators – is nothing short of a delight to witness. Here's the latest example to cross my path: the FTC has intervened in a lawsuit over generic insulin pricing, on an issue that is incredibly technically specific and also fantastically important:

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/ftc-blasts-pharmas-abuse-fda-patent-system-sanofi-mylans-insulin-monopoly-lawsuit

The underlying case is before the FDA, and it concerns the dirty tricks that pharma giant Sanofi used to keep Mylan from making a generic version of Mylan's Lantus insulin after its patent expired.

There's an explicit bargain in patents: inventors can enlist the government to punish their rivals for copying their ideas, but in exchange, the government demands that the inventor has to describe how the invention works in a detailed patent filing, and when the patent expires, 20 years later, rivals can use the patent application as instructions for freely copying and selling the invention. In other words: you get 20 years of exclusive rights in return for facilitating your competitors' copying and selling your invention when the 20 years are up.

Pharma doesn't like this, naturally: not content with 20 years of exclusivity, they want the government to step in and punish their competitors forever. In service to that end, pharma companies have perfected a process called evergreening, where they dribble out ancillary patents after their initial filing, covering minor reformulations, delivery systems, or new uses.

Evergreening got a moment in the public eye earlier this year, with John Green's viral campaign to shame Johnson & Johnson out of using evergreening to restrict poor countries' access to TB medication:

https://armandalegshow.com/episode/john-green-part-1/

The story of pharma is that it commands gigantic profits, but it invests those profits into medicines that save our lives. The reality is that most of the key underlying pharma research is publicly funded (by Competent Administrators who apportion funding to promising scientific inquiry). Pharma companies' most inventive genius is devoted to inventing new evergreening tactics:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/19/solid-tumors/#t-cell-receptors

That's where the FTC comes in, in this Sanofi-Mylan case. To facilitate the production of generic, off-patent drugs, the FDA maintains a database called the "Orange Book," where pharma companies are asked to enumerate all the ancillary patents associated with a product whose patent is expiring. That way, generics manufacturers who make their own version of these public domain drugs and therapeutics don't accidentally stumble over one of those later patents – say, by replicating a delivery system or special coating that is still in patent.

This is where the endless, satanic inventiveness of the pharma sector comes in. You see, US law provides for triple damages for "willful patent infringement." If you are a generics manufacturer eyeing up a drug whose patent is about to expire and you are notified that some other patents might be implicated in your plans, you must ensure that you don't accidentally infringe one of those patents, or face business-destroying statutory damages.

So pharma companies stuff the Orange Book full of irrelevant patent claims they say may be implicated in a generic manufacture program. Each of these claims has to be carefully evaluated, both by a scientific team and a legal team, because patents are deliberately obfuscated in the hopes of tricking an inattentive patent examiner into granting patents for unpatentable "inventions":

https://blueironip.com/patents-that-hide-the-ball/

What's more, when a pharma giant notifies the FDA that it has ancillary patents that are relevant to the Orange Book, this triggers a 30-month delay before a generic can be marketed – adding 2.5 years to the 20 year patent term. That delay is sometimes enough to cause a manufacturer to abandon plans to market a generic drug – so the delay isn't 2.5 years, it's infinite.

This is a highly technical, highly consequential form of evergreening. It's obscure as hell, and requires a deep understanding of patent obfuscation, ancillary patent filings, generic pharma industry practice, and the FDA's administrative procedures.

Sanofi's Orange Book entry for Lantus insulin listed 50 related patent claims. Of these, 48 were invalidated through "inter partes" review (basically the Patent Office decided they shouldn't have allowed these claims to be included on a patent). Neither of the remaining two claims were found to be relevant to the manufacture of generic Lantus.

This is where the FTC's filing comes in: their amicus brief doesn't take a position whether Sanofi's Orange Book entries were fraudulent, but they do ask the FDA to intervene to prevent Orange Book stuffing because "improper listings can cause significant harm to competition and consumers."

This is the kind of boring, technical, important stuff that excellent administrators can do. The FTC's brief is notice to the FDA that it should amend its procedures to ban (and punish) Orange Book abuse. That will make it possible for you, a person who needs medicine, to get that medicine more cheaply and quickly. In America's pay-for-use privatized healthcare hellscape, this could be a life-or-death matter.

There's plenty of things the Biden administration is getting very, very badly wrong, but we shouldn't lose sight of how its progressive wing is making real, lasting change for the better. Competent Administrations are the true peoples' champions. They beat Competent Men every time.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/23/everorangeing/#taste-the-rainbow

[ingek73]

…

About 150 people carrying St George’s Cross flags, shouting “you’re not English any more” and “paedo Muslims off our street”, were greatly outnumbered in Leeds by hundreds of counter-protesters shouting “Nazi scum off our streets”. Skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and punks – in town for a festival – in Blackpool, with bottles and chairs thrown.

In Bristol, police kept protesters and counter protesters apart before a group headed to a hotel used to house asylum seekers.

The need for urgent political intervention was stressed by the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, Lord Walney, who told the Observer that new emergency powers may be needed. “The system isn’t set up to deal with this rolling rabble-rousing being fuelled by far-right actors,” he said.

“I think home office ministers may want to look urgently at a new emergency framework – perhaps temporary in nature – that enables police to use the full powers of arrest to prevent people gathering where there is clear intent to fuel violent disorder.”

Keir Starmer held a meeting of senior ministers on Saturday in which he said police had been given full support to tackle extremists who were attempting “to sow hate by intimidating communities”. He made clear that the right to freedom of expression and the violent scenes over recent days were “two very different things”.

Last week’s riots followed the killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on Monday. Axel Rudakubana, 17, from Lancashire, is accused of the attack, but false claims were spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat. In the wake of these messages, far-right protesters – guided by social media – gathered in cities across the country.

A key factor in this spread of online disinformation involved Elon Musk’s decision to allow rightwing activists such as Tommy Robinson back onto his social media platform X, said Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope not Hate, the anti-fascism organisation. “The initial disinformation and anger was being perpetrated by individuals on Twitter, for example, that have been previously deplatformed,” he said. “And now they’ve been replatformed.”

Robinson was permanently banned from the platform (then called Twitter) in March 2018, then reinstated in November last year, after Musk bought it. “We hadn’t seen any significant numbers at any demonstrations since 2018,” Mulhall added.

An example of the danger posed by the misuse of social media was revealed in Stoke-on-Trent, where police were forced to deny there had been a stabbing, countering claims made on social media. “There is growing speculation that a stabbing has taken place as a result of the disorder today. We can confirm this information is false and no stabbings have been reported to police or emergency responders, despite videos fuelling speculation on social media,” police said.

The danger of such intervention was stressed by Ben-Julian “BJ” Harrington, the National Police Chiefs Council lead for public order, who condemned social media disinformation as a cause of last week’s disorder.

He said: “We had reports today that two people had been stabbed by Muslims in Stoke – it’s just not true. There’s people out there, not even in this country, circulating and stoking up hatred, division and concerns in communities that they don’t care about, don’t know and don’t understand.”

[ninjagood4]

Exactly 3 years of self-study! 😃🙌

This WildBrain-like style I've been developing since 2022, but thought I'd better compare it to the earliest artwork. I keep forgetting that I actually drew the very first costume concept for Future of the Past back in 2021 💀

I didn't take up humanization for a very long time, and the reasons are clear 🙂 It was only because I learned how to sketch in 2024 (because I finally bought a stylus) that I decided to venture out again and try it. I had a hard time visualizing the characters in people form, but after a bunch of trial and mistakes, it worked!!!

Also repainted favorite old work in a new technique I've started developing recently lol :) I have some drawings from 2018-2019 and I'd like to do the same thing again! ✨🐉

There have been a lot of issues this year, from family issues to trauma to depression, leading to burnout. Now I'm feeling better and also trying to put all my efforts into content to fulfill my dream of turning drawing into a profession! I even managed to open commissions last November, which helps a lot to live up to this day. But because of all the routine, I felt too withdrawn, and didn't even notice the successes in my work, which turned out to be not few (holy cow when I saw and thought about all progress, it was like I got a year-end gift) khvjtcjthjvutcjvh

The most important achievements for this year are not only in the improvement of skills. Now I have a professional device, can compose digital music (I was able to do it before, but didn't have a chance to show you), I started humanization, advanced in FotP, learned how to sketch, opened commissions, started a YouTube channel, animation, and even learned how to draw in 2D! That's a big deal to me, as well as the rest of the accomplishments. Hopefully 2025 will bring something to help me get even closer to my goal (and lastly I noticed a lot of mistakes both in the works and in myself that I'm already working on) 🫠

There were moments when I was about to give up my favorite thing - creativity, and thanks to all your support I am still here, for which I am weightlessly grateful! No one said that this path would be easy, and you taught me that after a fall, you need to get up :’3 ��

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #17

May 3-10 2024

Vice President Harris announced 5.5 billion dollars to build affordable housing and address homelessness. The grants will go to 1,200 communities across all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico. 1.3 billion will go to HUD's HOME program which builds, buys, and rehabs affordable housing for rent or ownership. 3.3 billion is headed to Community Development Block Grants which supports housing as well as homeless services, and expanding economic opportunities. Remaining funds focus on building housing for extremely low- and very low-income households, Housing for people struggling with HIV/AIDS, transitional housing for those with substance-use disorder, and money to support homeless shelters and homeless prevention programs.

At the 3rd meeting of the Los Angeles Declaration group in Guatemala Security of State Blinken announced $578 million in new US aid to Latin America. The Los Angeles Declaration is a partnership between the US and 20 other nations in the Americas to address immigration, combat human trafficking, and support economic development and improved quality of life for people in poor nations in the Americas. The bulk of the aid, over $400 million will go to humanitarian assistance to the Venezuelan people. Inside of Venezuela over 7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance due to decades of political and economic instability. Over 7 million more have been forced to flee the country and live in poverty across the Americas. The aid will help Venezuelans both inside and outside of Venezuela.

The Department of Energy lead an effort to get the G7 to agree to phase out coal by the early 2030s. The G7 is a collection of the 7 largest Industrial economies on Earth, the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy. To avoid catastrophic climate change the International Energy Agency believes coal needs to be phased out by 2035. However this has been a sticking point with the G7 since 1/3rd of Japan and 1/4th of Germany's energy comes from Coal. This agreement to phase out represents a major breakthrough and the US plans to press for even wider agreement on the issue at the G20 meeting in November.

President Biden announced a major investment deal in Racine, Wisconsin, site of the failed Trump Foxconn deal. In 2018 then President Trump visited Racine and declared the planned Foxconn plant "the eighth wonder of the world.". However the promised 13,000 jobs never materialized and the Taiwan based Foxconn after bulldozing 100s of homes and farms decided not to build. President Biden inked a deal with Microsoft for the land formally given to Foxconn which will bring 2,000 new jobs to Racine to help replace the 1,000 job losses during Trump's Presidency in the community.

200 tribal governments and the US territories of American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, published climate action plans. The plans were paid for by the Biden Administration as part of a 5 billion dollar Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program. The federal government is supporting all 50 states, territories, DC, and tribal governments to draft climate action plans, which will be used to apply for more than 4 billion dollars in grants to help turn plans into reality

As part of marking Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), the Biden Administration announced a number of action aimed at combating antisemitism and supporting the Jewish Community. This included $400 million in new funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. The Program has supported Synagogues and Jewish Community Centers with security improvements like bullet proof windows and trainings for staff in how to handle active shooter and hostage situations. The Department of Education issued guidance to all schools districts and federally funded colleges stressing that antisemitism is banned under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These actions come as part of the Biden Administration's National Strategy To Counter Antisemitism, the first ever national strategy addressing the issue by any Administration.

USAID announced $220 million in additional humanitarian aid to Yemen. This new funding will bring US aid to Yemen over the last 10 years to nearly $6 billion. Currently 18 million Yemenis are estimated as needing humanitarian assistance, 9 million of them children, and the UN believes nearly 14 million face imminent risk of famine. The US remains the single largest donor nation to humanitarian relief in Yemen.

The Department of Interior announced nearly $150 million to help communities fight drought. The funds will support 42 projects across 10 western states. This is part of the President's $8.3 billion dollar investment in the nations water infrastructure over the next 5 five years.

[thelibraryghost]

A Young Person's Guide to 18th-Century Western Fashion

unabridged version at blogspot

General info Cox, Abby. "I Wore 18th-Century Clothing *Every Day for 5 YEARS & This Is What I Learned (Corsets Aren't Bad!)." YouTube. May 10, 2020. Cullen, Oriole. “Eighteenth-Century European Dress.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. Glasscock, Jessica. "Eighteenth-Century Silhouette and Support." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. Accessories Banner, Bernadette. "Women's Pockets Weren't Always a Complete Disgrace | A Brief History: England, 15th c - 21st c." YouTube. April 10, 2021. Colonial Williamsburg. "#TradesTuesday: Men's Accessories." YouTube. June 13, 2021. Murden, Sarah. "The Georgian era fashion for straw hats." All Things Georgian. December 6, 2018. Cosmetics & hygiene Cox, Abby. "I Followed an 18th-Century Moisturizer & Sunscreen Recipe & it kinda worked??." YouTube. February 21, 2021. Cox, Abby. "We tried making *5* different 250 year old rouge (blush) recipes || [real] regencycore makeup." YouTube. August 29, 2021. JYF Museums. "Hygiene in the 18th Century | From the Farm to the Army." YouTube. August 21, 2021. Décor Heckscher, Morrison H. “American Rococo.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003. Munger, Jeffrey. “French Porcelain in the Eighteenth Century.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003. Formal wear SnappyDragon. "This dressing gown changed fashion forever : the feminist history of going out in loungewear." YouTube. April 15, 2022. Stowell, Lauren. "The Many Types of 18th Century Gowns." American Duchess. March 15, 2013. Zebrowska, Karolina. "Cottagecore Style Is Much Older Than You Think." YouTube. June 30, 2021. Hair care Cox, Abby. "I made 250-year-old Hair Products Using Original Recipes (and animal fat...)." YouTube. November 7, 2021. Cox, Abby. "I tried a 300-year-old hair care routine for a year & this is what I learned (it's awesome!)." YouTube. January 23, 2022. Cox, Abby. "What's the Deal with 18th Century Wigs? (and why Bridgerton really messed this up)." YouTube. June 1, 2023. Laundry Cox, Abby. "Making 300 Year Old SLIME for Laundry Day." YouTube. June 15, 2023. Townsends. "Historical Laundry Part 2: No Washing Machine, No Dryer, Hit It With A Stick?" YouTube. June 3, 2019. Outer- & working-wear JYF Museum. "Getting Dressed | Clothing for an 18th Century Middling Woman." YouTube. March 18, 2021. Major, Joanne. "The practicalities of wearing riding habits, and riding ‘en cavalier’." All Things Georgian. March 12, 2019. Rudolph, Nicole. "What did Pirates ACTUALLY Wear? Fashion at Sea in the 18th c & Our Flag Means Death Costumes." YouTube. May 8, 2022. Shoes Chin, Cynthia E. "Martha Washington's Shoes." George Washington's Mount Vernon. No date. Murden, Sarah. "18th-century shoes." All Things Georgian. December 15, 2015. Rudolph, Nicole. "Real 18th century Shoes? Historical Shoemaker Examines an Antique." YouTube. December 13, 2020. Textiles Cox, Abby. "18th Century Printed Cotton Do's & Don't's." American Duchess. December 23, 2019. Stowell, Lauren. "Fabrics for the 18th Century and Beyond." American Duchess. June 14, 2021. Townsends. "Oil Cloth - Waterproof Coverings for Your Campsite." YouTube. July 30, 2018. Undergarments Major, Joanne. "Quilted Petticoats: worn by all women and useful in more ways than one." All Things Georgian. November 20, 2018. Rudolph, Nicole. "Making 18th century Stays for the Ideal Body Shape : Historical Undergarments." YouTube. August 12, 2023. SnappyDragon. "RUMP ROAST : Ranking historical fashion's wildest fake butt pads." YouTube. October 27, 2023. Townsends. "Sewing Histories' Most Popular Garment - The Fabric Of History - Townsends." YouTube. September 3, 2022.

[clubwnderland]

[BREAKING] Famous Ex-Idol Caught Flirting With Fan On Social Media

4 hours ago September 14 2024 Reported by Kim Eunha

Stray Kids BangChan at MBC Plus x Genie Music Awards on November 7th 2018 [photo taken by Hwang Youngjin]

Former idol, Bang Chan, leader of Stray Kids, has been caught flirting with an alleged fan on social media earlier this evening.

As shown, screenshots of the conversation between former Stray Kids leader, BangChan, and alleged fan [taken from Twitter]

On September 14, 6:28 PM KST, former Stray Kids leader, BangChan, was caught flirting with an alleged fan on the social media platform, Twitter.

The conversation was initiated when the alleged fan, Jangmi, had posted explicit pictures of herself in two outfits with the caption:

Which one would be best for date night tonight @/cb97_

The conversation that had ensued indicated that BangChan and Jangmi had been seeing each other for a while. The intimate conversation has sparked interest from Stray Kids fans online, many unaware their former idol turned producer was dating anyone as BangChan seemed to keep their relationship quiet and out of the spotlight.

One fan, @/bangchans_toe, had taken photos from the former idol's girlfriend's personal Instagram and posted it with the caption:

This girlie really had ALL THESE on her ig? Bold

While another fan, @/ryuzzin, had shared more pictures from the alleged girlfriend's Instagram with the caption:

OMG CHAN HAS A GF??? I LOOKRD HER UP ON IG??? HELLO????

It seems the alleged girlfriend's posts have gotten quite a bit of attention as @/lovejoy01 tweeted:

Okay but??? HE TOOK HER ON A YACHT??? For VALENTINES??? If they are dating, I SUPPORT cos 😭😭😭 wtf that's cute!!! Get it GURRLLLLL

BangChan had gone from being in the idol group, Stray Kids, to being a producer. He's known to have worked with various famous artists and still creates his own music from time to time. While the former leader is no longer an active idol, it seems he still holds a loyal fanbase who openly engage with his work even after the band stopped their activity.

Jangmi works at the famous nightclub, Wonderland, as a stage performer and also teaches contemporary dance at the upcoming dance studio, Dark Moon Dance.

According to a source, the duo had met through friends late 2022 when they were both dealing with hardship and had slowly begun their relationship February 2024 when BangChan had taken his alleged girlfriend away for Valentine's Day.

We have reached out to both parties for their statements on these rumours. We have yet to get a confirmation from either side.

[reality-detective]

Your thoughts on this folks?

Americans have been watching a massive, controlled Military Operation who strategically and critically planned and successfully trapped the Washington Establishment… Made them all confess their crimes and play a role in this operation piece by piece… as Americans have had to visually see and witness a ‘Continuation of Government’ in the form of a “Presidential Administration” where these corrupt and evil people will, have, and will continue to destroy their system from within, spend all of their dirty money doing so, until it’s time for the Military to visually step in.

The timelines all add up and prove the Military Operation and Occupancy:

1.     Snake Poem read by candidate Donald Trump – January 2016

2.     2016 Presidential Election – November 2016

3.     President Elect Trump and Putin on Fox News = “ready for ‘reset’… I will work with Trump” – November 9, 2016

4.     Law of War Manual (Military Occupancy and Negotiations etc.) – December 2016

5.     Military Justice Act (Supreme Court clarifying Military Law is separate than Civil Law; heavy emphasis on Military Tribunal terms) – 2016

6.     Military stands behind CIC Trump (Military Intelligence and JAG head bands; Optics) at Inauguration – January 2017

7.     Saudi Arabia crowns Trump King – May 2017

8.     Declares Jerusalem Capitol of Israel – December 2017

9.     Executive Order 13818 – Declares National Emergency to deal with Human Rights Abuse – December 2017

10. CIC Trump walks in front of Queen – July 14, 2018

11. Putin hands CIC Trump soccer ball (“the ball is in your court”; did not participate in 2022 World Cup) – July 16, 2018

12. Executive Order 13848 – September 2018

13. CIC Trump makes history; walks into North Korea – June 2019  

14. National Quantum Initiative – Executive Order 13885 – August 2019

15. Space Force established as Military Branch – December 2019

16. Corona Sars Virus first mentioned to American Public as a Threat from China – February 2020

17. Two more National Emergencies Declared – March 13 and 27, 2020

18. Executive Order 13912 Federalizing 1,000,000 National Guard to Active-Duty Status – March 27, 2020

19. CIC Trump quote on attack worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined – May 2020

20. National Guard Troops place fence around Capitol Building (47 US Code 606) – January 2021

21. CIC Trump receives full grade Constitutional by Law and Military Grade Inauguration ceremony – January 20, 2021

22. “Joe Biden” breaks 20th Amendment amongst many other violations – January 20, 2021

23. Aircrafts constantly over and through 33 mile no fly zone radius D.C. – January 2021 to present day

24. “Biden” extends Executive Order 13848 (first time) – September 2021

25. Quantum.gov launched – September 2021

26. New York Times reports Military Tribunals coming mid-2023 – December 2021

27. Army and branches transfer all communications to Space Force under ONE command (Biden’s never mentioned the Space Force not once; zero News Articles with his name tied to Space Force) – August 2022

28. Major Optics and Comms in CIC Trump speech – November 15 2022

29. More News Articles establishing Space Force Command Centers with zero mention of Biden – December 2022

Those few timelines and timestamps do nothing but prove a Military Operation and Occupancy along with many more Laws, Codes, Orders, Statutes, Acts, Optics,

The National Guard has been out of their state militia status and operating as Active-Duty Status every day since they were Federalized in March 2020.

There’s MORE than enough documentation and ‘proof’ to show not only the National Guard, but also thousands of World Alliance Aircrafts in and out of the United States and National Guard bases.

There’s United States Coast Guards with United States Navy at their stations. USCG is Department of Homeland Security during Peacetime and transferred to the Department of the Navy during Wartime.

The Brunson vs. Adams case simply states the obvious… Congress violated the Constitution.

- Benjamin Fulford

I will add; everyone thinks they know what's going on but very few have done any research on Trump's executive orders. Everyone has discarded Q because they have seen dates come and go without seeing any results. Fact is they weren't dates but rather chapters and paragraphs from the law of war manual.

We're going by the Book. Why? Because it has to be done by the rule of law, if not, it's just more crimes being committed.

Sun Tzu - The Art of War... Know your enemy, löök weak when you're strong, infiltrate and use disinformation to confuse the enemy. 🤔

[truth4ourfreedom]

OPERATION HAMMER: THE END MAY BE NEAR FOR THE PEDOPHILES AND THE CORRUPT LEFT!!!!

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is publishing information that we freedom loving Americans must repost and share! Here is one of his latest:

------------------------------------------

Operation Hammer

In a world shadowed by secrecy, where power struggles and hidden agendas shape our reality, the storm is finally upon us. Operation Hammer, an unprecedented global initiative, has brought to light the underbelly of corruption, foreign interference, and crimes against humanity. With 450,000 sealed indictments leading to thousands of JAG tribunals, the stage is set for a seismic shift in the fight for justice and transparency.

The critical executive orders—13818, 13848, and 13959—are the backbone of this monumental operation, targeting human rights violators, foreign election meddling, and Chinese military companies. This is not just a battle; it is a war for the soul of humanity.

The Unfolding of Operation Hammer. Operation Hammer is a codename that has sent shockwaves through the corridors of power worldwide. This initiative, spearheaded by the White Hats military, is a coordinated effort to dismantle deeply entrenched networks of corruption and criminality. The sheer scale of this operation is staggering: 450,000 sealed indictments, thousands of JAG (Judge Advocate General) tribunals, and a litany of trials, sentencings, and, in some cases, executions. This is not merely a legal battle; it is a global reckoning.

The Genesis of Operation Hammer. The genesis of Operation Hammer can be traced back to the alarming rise of crimes against humanity and foreign election interference. As global citizens, we have witnessed the erosion of democratic principles, the manipulation of electoral processes, and the gross violation of human rights. The executive orders 13818, 13848, and 13959 are not just legal instruments; they are the swords of justice designed to cut through the web of deceit and bring the perpetrators to account.

Executive Order 13818: Targeting Human Rights Abusers Executive Order 13818, signed on December 20, 2017, is a powerful weapon in the fight against human rights abuses. This order enables the U.S. government to impose sanctions on individuals and entities involved in serious human rights abuses and corruption. The global reach of this order means that no tyrant or corrupt official is beyond the grasp of justice.

Executive Order 13848: Combating Foreign Election Interference Foreign election interference is a dagger aimed at the heart of democracy. Executive Order 13848, signed on September 12, 2018, addresses this critical threat. This order declares a national emergency to deal with the threat of foreign interference in U.S. elections. It allows for the imposition of sanctions on individuals and entities that have engaged in or assisted foreign interference in elections, ensuring the sanctity of the democratic process.

Executive Order 13959: Restricting Chinese Military Companies The global influence of Chinese military companies has raised alarms about national security and economic stability. Executive Order 13959, signed on November 12, 2020, seeks to address this issue by prohibiting U.S. investments in Chinese companies that support the Chinese military. This order is a decisive step in curbing the expansion of China’s military-industrial complex and protecting American interests.

The Mechanics of Operation Hammer. The execution of Operation Hammer is a meticulous and coordinated effort involving various branches of the military and intelligence agencies. The sealed indictments are a testament to the thorough investigations and the gathering of irrefutable evidence against the accused. These indictments cover a wide range of crimes, including human trafficking, corruption, election fraud, and more.

The JAG tribunals are at the heart of this operation. These military courts are tasked with ensuring that justice is served swiftly and fairly. The trials are conducted with the utmost transparency, providing the world with a front-row seat to the administration of justice. The sentences handed down by these tribunals range from imprisonment to execution, depending on the severity of the crimes committed.

Join and share my channel immediately: https://t.me/JulianAssangeWiki

PLEASE REBLOG AND SHARE!! MAY GOD BLESS OPERATION HAMMER!!

[strangeshadowdreamer]

"Venom 3" is in November 2020; Venom & Eddie knew each other only 3 months

and other stuff that refers to "Venom" movies timeline and was horribly messed up in the 3rd part

This is an answer to the post (https://www.tumblr.com/purplegazania/766419426998452224?source=share )

@purplegazania Hi! It's great that you pay attention to such details! But I’m afraid the events of "Venom 3" take place in 2020. But maybe «September 20» didn’t happen in their universe

And is definitely not June at all

In "Venom 2" we [film viewers] were shown that Eddie writes an article about Cletus Kasady. At the top of the app he is writing in a date was written. It is fuzzy, but recognizable: 10.29.20. You may need to search for high-definition video to see it yourself. I am not sure if tumblr compresses pictures in posts. It is a US style of date, so it stands for 29 th of October 2020. This is an exact date officially stated in the movie.

And we can also see that Eddie is also about to miss his deadline —  30th of October 2020. So the date was mentioned in two different places.

Probably, it’s one of the reasons why he was so irritated about Venom distracting him – Eddie had little time to finish his article.

It is the night when they come to Mrs. Chen for chocolate, deal with that bag robber and receive a phone call from Ann. They arrange to meet with Annie «Tomorrow night», which is 30th of October night. And at the night after this one they have a fight and Venom runs away. It is the 31st of October night. It is substantiated by the fact that Venom turns up at a costume party, which actually is Halloween. (I noted that in my post earlier https://www.tumblr.com/strangeshadowdreamer/701134805977432064/venom-at-halloween-party?source=share )

Here is the timeline for «Venom 2»

And then things start to happen really fast. Frances Barrison and Cletus unite, kidnap Ann and the whole scene at the Grace Cathedral happens. Pretty long night, huh

So back to the question about Christmas in June

Events in "Venom" (2018) take place in early autumn or late summer, judging by the leaves on trees (but definitely really late summer as weather is a bit chilly - Eddie wears a coat, and I think it's not that chilly in California in the middle of summer, so I believe it to be early autumn).

And now when I put together the early autumn at the end of «Venom» (2018) and 29-31 of October events of «Venom 2» it seems like a month period. And it fits. This time period is just perfect length.

This time period is short enough to explain why Venom and Eddie’s relationship is so raw (because they spent like a month together only)

And this time period is also short enough to explain why with such different attitudes towards life (I mean quiet journalism and «Living in peace» VS «fighting bad guys and eating them») haven’t let to a major quarrel before the events of «Venom 2» - because it was like a month long and they were just patient and accumulated the irritation

And this period is long enough to explain Ann’s phrase about her being sorry for not returning Eddie’s calls because she needed some time after «Alien biting a guy’s head off thing». I think that judging from Ann’s character a month is just long enough time for her to recover from what happened

Events in "Venom 2" take place around Halloween (I have already explained that above). And it seems to me that Eddie and Venom fled from San Francisco within a few days after the fight in Grace Cathedral. That is because if police blame Eddie for that, Venom and Eddie wouldn't have stayed in San Francisco significantly longer in order not to get caught. Plus, police call a helicopter, so they consider stuff happening in the Cathedral really serious and will waste no time looking for Eddie. So, between Grace cathedral scene and the beach scene, barely a few days passed.

And again, it feels like only a few days passed between the the beach scene and that scene where they were watching a tv show and teleportations started. So «Venom» (2018) and «Venom 2» are fully time-coordinated.  But let’s put a bookmark here🔖

It seems to me that 0 days passed since that first teleportation of theirs until the events of "Venom 3". And the events of «Venom 3» happen within just a few days.

It all happened pretty soon after 31 st of October, therefore, in November (which is pretty warm in Mexico). I mean, I talk about a period measured in DAYS between «Venom 2» Cathedral scene and «Venom 3» events. So, between that Halloween party in "Venom 2" and events of "Venom 3" about a few days passed. Let’s say a week. -> 31st of October + week = beginning of November. And that makes it a perfect time to wear a Christmas tree pin (Christmas is on 25th of December), but makes all the characters’ phrases about time nonsensical.

Lets return to the bookmark. 🔖 Basically, time between the beach scene and tv watching scene is the only gap where a few additional six (6!) months can theoretically be pushed into. But do you really think that Eddie and Venom spent a part of November, a whole December, January, February, March, April, May and some part of June in Mexico between the beach scene and that scene where they were watching a tv show and teleportations started? This is too much of a stretch to me, because:

Their relationship didn’t change at all, just as they didn’t communicate all the suggested half a year in Mexico. But if they did spend half a year in Mexico, I believe that they would have improved their relationship, and this would have been visible, especially after the progress they’ve made in «Venom 2»

They stayed in a small, quiet place in Mexico (for the obvious reason of (a) hiding from police and (b) finding a place with not many people so that Venom could show himself outside without causing panic or attracting unwanted attention). Venom would have gotten bored there really quickly.

2.1) Venom spent like a month (between Drake’s rocket explosion and «Venom 2» [early autumn] and fight at the apartment [31st of October]) in busy San Francisco with all kinds of entertainment (playing video games (see https://www.tumblr.com/wonderingaroundsworld/704834634551328769/venom-and-eddie-have-gamepads-to-play-together?source=share ), adoring his chickens Sonny and Cher in their own small house (see https://www.tumblr.com/wonderingaroundsworld/704459258987757568?source=share ), helping Eddie with his job, visiting bowling multiple times (Venom while holding that bag robber said that he can use the robber’s head for bowling and asked Eddie to name the one that they like. Eddie replied: «Lucky strike») and lots of other stuff). I can’t imagine him being fine with sitting at the same spot for more than half a year. He would have quickly talked Eddie into going somewhere. For example, to New York. And this is exactly what he did in «Venom 3».

2.2) And Venom never complained that he had to do nothing and be stuck in the same place for half a year. He didn’t say anything like «We have been sitting here for more than half a year. Let’s go at least somewhere» when he suggested going to New York. I think that if Venom had to spend nearly ~6,5 months in a boring place, he would have used it as an argument to persuade Eddie to leave the place.

This is why ~6,5 additional months don’t fit anywhere at all.

Here are approximate calculations

So

«Venom» (2018) takes place in early autumn, «Venom 2» on 29-31 of October, post credits scenes occur within a week starting from 31st of October, «Venom 3» events take a few days, therefore are approximately in November.

«Venom 3» can’t be taking place in June

Eddie and Venom have known each other for like three months

[theflowergothic]

Kelly Piquet Master Timeline - Amendment 1 (Some things I missed the first time around)

(Masterlist)

Hey y'all! Welcome to the first amendment for the Kelly timeline! In these amendments, I will be adding things that happened during already-published parts of the timeline, but did not add before for a variety of reasons (not knowing about it, not having proof for it before, etc).

Sorry this took a bit to release. I've been dealing with a bit of irl stuff this past week that took my attention away from working on Max/Kelly things aside from updates to the timeline. In fact, you might have seen me crack on Twitter over it! Yay!

By the way, you may notice some repeats from the official timeline. Those are events that I did cover in the original, but with new information/context that I initially missed.

Let's go!

As always, you can find the full timeline here.

A new person has entered the grid!

Christiano “Tuka” Rocha: A former Brazilian race car driver Kelly considers her first love. The two would remain in touch until his tragic death in a plane crash in 2019.

1999

March-October, 1999: The 1999 F1 season. Jos serves as a test driver for the Honda Formula 1 Project.

2000

Unknown dates, 2000:

Kelly and Tuka meet. She is most likely 11 and he is most likely 18.

2002

Unknown dates, 2002:

Tuka visits Kelly and her family while she is visiting France. She is most likely 13 and he is most likely 20. (Archive)

2004

May, 2004: The Jordan racing team considers Jos as a replacement driver for an underperforming Giorgio Pantano. But, a test drive is canceled after he discovers he is too big to fit in the car.

2012

November 10-11, 2012: Max has a series of flirty/amorous exchanges with former world karting champion Laura Tillett on Twitter. She is 21 and he is 15. (Archive) 

December 7-10, 2012: Max has more flirty exchanges with Laura Tillett on Twitter. She is still 21 and he is still 15.

2015

September 30, 2015: Max turns 18. He spends the day obtaining his road driving license. He would move to Monaco shortly afterwards. (Archive 1, 2)

Mikaela also posts on Twitter to celebrate Max’s birthday, calling him her “love”. (Archive)

2016

December, 2016: Kelly leaves her job at Formula E. Officially, she claims she resigned because of burnout, mentioning she “was literally on a plane every week” to a new destination. But, unconfirmed rumors claim she was fired for sleeping with a married man. (Archive)

2018

September 14, 2018:  Kelly likes an Instagram post by Victoria. This would be her first of many likes on Victoria’s Instagram.

September 23, 2018: Victoria likes an Instagram post by Kelly. This would be her first of many likes on Kelly’s Instagram.

September 30, 2018: Max turns 21. Lando makes an Instagram post wishing him a happy birthday. It is not liked by Max, but it is liked by Kelly.

October, 2018: Kelly likes several more of Lando’s Instagram posts.

Late October-Early November, 2018: Kelly and Daniil’s daughter is conceived.

November 13, 2018: Lando makes an Instagram post celebrating his 19th birthday. It would be liked by Kelly.

2019

January 8, 2019: Lando likes an Instagram post by Kelly. This would turn out to be one of several posts he would like on her account throughout 2019 and 2020, including a post about breastfeeding.

March 17, 2019: Lando makes his F1 debut at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, driving for McLaren. He would finish in 12th place. At this point, he is 19 years old. (Archive)

On the same day, Victoria likes a post by Kelly. She would proceed to like several more posts on Kelly’s account throughout her pregnancy, with Sophie doing the same on some of the same posts.

November 14, 2019: Tuka is seriously injured in an airplane crash near Bahia, Brazil. (Archive)

November 17, 2019: Tuka succumbs to his injuries sustained in the plane crash at the age of 36. He is memorialized as a hero for trying to save the lives of others  in the same crash. (Archive)

November 19, 2019: Kelly makes a memorial post for Tuka on Instagram, calling him her “first love” and mentioning he made her “feel like the most special girl in the world” and “feel very special feelings”. (Archive)

December 4, 2019:  Daniil makes an Instagram post about the end of the F1 season. Kelly likes the post. It would turn out to be her last like on his account.

December 6, 2019 (Most likely): Kelly and Daniil end their relationship. While Kelly makes a since-deleted Instagram post implying she broke up with Daniil, varioussources claim it was Daniil who broke up with Kelly for a variety of reasons.

2020

Unknown dates, 2020:

Max and Dilara break up. Despite that, Victoria, Sophie, and Jos continue to follow her on Instagram. Daniil would also follow her at a later date.

January 31, 2020: Kelly likes another Instagram post by Max. This would turn out to be one of several posts she would like on his account throughout 2020.

2021

July 16-18, 2021: The 2021 British Grand Prix. During the first lap, Lewis attempts to overtake Max, resulting in the latter retiring and going to the hospital after a collision. Max would be released that same day.. Lewis receives a 10-second penalty, but ultimately wins the race. (Archive)

Initial reports would say Max was unharmed in the collision. But, in subsequent interviews, Max would admit he felt the after-effects of it in races, including blurred vision. (Archive 1, 2)

September 3-5, 2021: The 2021 Dutch Grand Prix. Max achieves poll position and finishes first, starting a three-year winning streak at the race. (Archive)

Kelly leaves the race altogether after qualifying, and Max spends a night at his motorhome on the track. According to speculation, Kelly and Jos had a fight over her sharing photos in his residence. Jos unfollows Kelly on Instagram.

2023

Unknown dates, 2023:

An anonymous Tumblr user makes a summary of the rumors and scandals surrounding Kelly to that point. (Archive)

2024

June 21-23, 2024: The 2023 Spanish Grand Prix. Max starts in P2 and finishes first. This would turn out to be his last Grand Prix victory until November. (Archive)

June 28-30, 2024: The 2024 Austrian Grand Prix. Max finishes first in the Saturday sprint race. This would turn out to be his last victory in general until October. (Archive)

During the second half of the main race,  Lando makes multiple attempts to overtake Max. This culminates in a collision when the latter tries to block him. Lando would retire from the damage, and Max would place fifth. (Archive 1, 2) 

Of note is that while Kelly posted about Max’s pole positions and sprint win, she would not say anything about the results of the main race.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Biden wants to ban ripoff “financial advisors”

I'll be at the Studio City branch of the LA Public Library on Monday, November 13 at 1830hPT to launch my new novel, The Lost Cause. There'll be a reading, a talk, a surprise guest (!!) and a signing, with books on sale. Tell your friends! Come on down!

Once, American workers had "defined benefits pensions," where their employers promised to pay them a certain amount every year from their retirement to their death. Jimmy Carter swapped that out for 401(k)s, "market" pensions where you have to guess which stocks will be valuable or starve in your old age:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/25/derechos-humanos/#are-there-no-poorhouses

The initial 401(k) rollout had all kinds of pot-sweeteners that made them seem like a good deal, like heavy employer matching that doubled or even tripled the value of every dollar you put into the market for your retirement. But over the years, as Reaganomics took hold and workers' power ebbed away, all these goodies were clawed back. In the end, the market-based pension makes you the sucker at the poker table, flushing your savings into a rigged casino that is firmly tilted in favor of finance barons and other eminently guillotineable plutocrats.

Neoliberalism is many things, but most of all it is a cult of individualism. The fact that three generations of workers are nows facing down retirement without pensions that will provide them with secure housing and food – let alone money to see the odd movie, buy birthday gifts for their grandkids, or enjoy a meal out now and then – is framed as millions of individual failures, not a systemic one.

In other words, if you are facing food insecurity and homelessness after a lifetime of hard work, it's because you saved wrong. Perhaps you didn't save enough (through a 40-year run of wage stagnation and skyrocketing housing, health and education costs). Or perhaps you saved wrong, making the wrong bets on the stock market. If you can't afford to run your air conditioner during a heat dome, that's on you: you should have been better at stocks.

Apologists for this system will say that you don't have to be good at stocks – you just have to pay an Independent Financial Advisor to pick the stocks for you and you'll be fine. But IFAs don't work for free! What if you can't afford one?

Enter "predatory inclusion" – the practice of offering scammy, overpriced and substandard products to poor people and declaring it to be a good deed, because otherwise, those poor people would have to do without. The crypto bubble relied heavily on this: think of Spike Lee and others shilling for pump-and-dump scams as a way of "building Black wealth":

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/07/business/media/cryptocurrency-seeks-the-spotlight-with-spike-lees-help.html

More recently, Intuit and other scammy tax-prep services have argued against the IRS's plan to offer free tax preparation as bad for Black and brown people, because it will deny them the chance to be deceived and ripped off with TurboTax:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/27/predatory-inclusion/#equal-opportunity-scammers

Back in 2018, Trump won the predatory inclusion Olympics, when his Department of Labor let the Fifth Circuit abolish the "Fiduciary Rule" for Independent Financial Advisors:

https://www.investopedia.com/updates/dol-fiduciary-rule/

What was the Fiduciary Rule? It said that your IFN had to put your interests ahead of their own. Like, if there were two different funds you could bet on, and one would pay your IFN a big commission, while the other would be a better bet for you, the IFN couldn't put your retirement savings into the fund that offered them a bribe.

When Trump killed the Fiduciary Rule, he proclaimed it a victory for poor people, especially Black and brown people. After all, if IFNs weren't allowed to accept bribes for giving you bad financial advice, then they would have to make up the difference by charging you for good advice. If you couldn't afford that advice, well, you'd have to make bad retirement investments on your own, without the benefit of their sleazy self-dealing.

The Biden Administration wants to change that. Biden's Acting Labor Secretary is Julie Su, and she's very good at her job. Last spring, she forced west coast dockworkers' bosses to cough up the contract they'd stalled on for a year, with 8-10% raises for every worker, owed retroactively:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/16/that-boy-aint-right/#dinos-rinos-and-dunnos

Su has proposed a way to reinstate the Fiduciary Rule, as part of the Biden Administration's war on junk fees, estimating that this will increase retirees' net savings by 20%:

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-11-07-julie-su-labor-retirement-savers/

The new rule will force advisors who cheat their clients to pay restitution, and will require them to deliver all their advice in writing so that this cheating can be detected and punished.

The industry is furious, of course. They claim that "The Market (TM)" will solve this: if you get bad retirement savings advice and end up homeless and starving, then you will choose a different advisor in your next life, after you are reincarnated (I guess?).

And of course, they're also claiming that forcing IFNs to stop cheating their clients will deny poor people access to expert (bad) advice. As the Financial Services Institute's Dale Brown says, this will have a "negative impact on Main Street Americans’ access to financial advice":

https://www.fa-mag.com/news/legal-challenge-predicted-for-new-dol-fiduciary-proposal-75257.html

Here's that rule – read it for yourself, then submit a comment expressing your views on it. The government wants to hear from you, and administrative law requires them to act on the comments they receive:

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/11/03/2023-23782/proposed-amendment-to-prohibited-transaction-exemptions-75-1-77-4-80-83-83-1-and-86-128

Su is part of a wave of progressive, technically skilled regulators in the Biden administration that resulted from a horse-trading exercise called the Unity Task Force, which divvied up access to top appointments among the progressive wing and the finance wing of the Democratic Party. The progressive appointments are nothing short of incredible – the most competent and principled agency leaders America has seen in half a century:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/23/getting-stuff-done/#praxis

But then there's the finance wing's appointments, like Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, who ruled against Lina Khan's attempt to block the rotten Microsoft/Activision merger (don't worry, Khan's appealing):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

Perhaps the worst, though, is Biden's Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, a private equity ghoul who did a stint for the notorious wreckers Bain Capital before founding her own firm. Raimondo has stuffed her department full of Goldman Sachs alums, and has sidelined labor and civil society groups as she sets out to administer everything from the CHIPS Act to regulating ChatGPT.

As Henry Burke writes for the Revolving Door Project and The American Prospect, Raimondo's history as a corporate raider, her deference to the finance sector, and she and her husband's conflicts of interest from their massive stakes in companies she's regulating all serve to undermine Biden's agenda:

https://prospect.org/economy/2023-11-08-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-undercutting-bidenomics/

When the administration inevitably complains that its popular economic programs aren’t breaking through the media coverage, they’ll have no one to blame but themselves.

The Unity Task Force gave us generationally important policymakers, but ultimately, it's a classic "pizzaburger." If half your family wants pizza, and the other half wants burgers, and you serve them something halfway in between that makes none of them happy, you haven't made a wise compromise – you've just made an inedible mess:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/17/pizzaburgers/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/08/fiduciaries/#but-muh-freedumbs

[marimayscarlett]

From an interview with Kaaos TV in November 2018 regarding the upcoming stadium tour and Richard's nervousness about it:

"I know we set out to perform on a very high level... and we just realised, in a stadium, it’s different. Everything is different — you have to think different; you have to deal with daylight. Just all those things you have to consider. And it’s not that easy. My brain is running in circles thinking about what you can do and what you can’t do. And hopefully we are coming up with something good. [...] It’s gonna be interesting. At this point, I’m very, very happy there’s five other guys that have to bear their burden as well. I mean, just to think about you’re gonna be by yourself with that kind of decision, so I really feel comfortable having another five guys to worry about that."

Six years later and it's safe to say that this tour and its several tour legs were more than successful, due to everyone working hard and sticking together. And Richard did seem to enjoy the tour. And for Richard, there seemed to be numerous moments on the tour that he wholeheartedly enjoyed. 🤍

📷: Paul Harries; 2nd of June, 2023, Odense Denmark

[mariacallous]

Oulu is five hours north from Helsinki by train and a good deal colder and darker each winter than the Finnish capital. From November to March its 220,000 residents are lucky to see daylight for a couple of hours a day and temperatures can reach the minus 30s. However, this is not the reason I sense a darkening of the Finnish dream that brought me here six years ago.

In 2018, moving to Finland seemed like a no-brainer. One year earlier I had met my Finnish partner while working away in Oulu. My adopted home of Italy, where I had lived for 10 years, had recently elected a coalition government with the far-right Matteo Salvini as interior minister, while my native UK had voted for Brexit. Given Finland’s status as a beacon of progressive values, I boarded a plane, leaving my lecturing job and friends behind.

Things have gone well. My partner and I both have stable teaching contracts, me at a university where my mostly Finnish colleagues are on the whole friendlier than the taciturn cliche that persists of Finns (and which stands in puzzling contradiction to their status as the world’s happiest people).

Notwithstanding this, I feel a sense of unease as Finland’s prime minister Petteri Orpo’s rightwing coalition government has set about slashing welfare and capping public sector pay. Even on two teachers’ salaries my partner and I have felt the sting of inflation as goods have increased by 20% in three years. With beer now costing €8 or more in a city centre pub, going out becomes an ever rarer expense.

Those worse off than us face food scarcity. A survey conducted by the National Institute for Health and Welfare found 25% of students struggling to afford food, while reductions in housing benefit mean tenants are being forced to move or absorb the shortfall in rent payments. There are concerns that many unemployed young people could become homeless.

Healthcare is faring little better. Finland’s two-tier system means that while civil servants and local government employees (including teachers) paradoxically enjoy private health cover, many other people face long waiting lists. Not having dental cover on my university’s plan, I called for a public dental appointment in April. I was put on callback and received a text message stating I’d be contacted when the waiting list reopened. Six months later, I am still waiting. A few years ago I could expect to wait two months at most.

The current government, formed by Orpo’s National Coalition party (NCP) last year in coalition with the far-right Finns party, the Swedish People’s party of Finland and the Christian Democrats, has been described as “the most rightwing” Finland has ever seen – a position it appears to relish.

Deputy prime minister and finance minister Riikka Purra – the Finns’ party leader – has been linked to racist and sometimes violent comments made online back in 2008. The party’s xenophobia is clearly influencing policymaking and affecting migrants. As a foreigner, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to feeling a certain chill as anti-immigrant rhetoric ramps up.

A survey by the organisation Specialists in Finland last year found that most highly qualified workers would consider leaving Finland if the government’s planned tightening of visa requirements went ahead (that proposal, which extended residence time required for Finnish citizenship from four to as many as eight years has now become law). Luckily, I am a permanent resident under the Brexit agreement.

With the coalition intent on ending Finland’s long history of welfarism in just one term, there is a risk (and hope among progressives) that it may go too far, inviting a backlash. We arguably saw signs of this in the European election in the summer, when Li Andersson won the highest number of votes for an EU election candidate in Finland. Andersson, who was education minister in Sanna Marin’s former centre-left coalition government (which lost to the NCP in April 2023), ran on a progressive red-green ticket of increased wealth equality and measures to tackle the climate crisis. She has also been critical of emergency laws blocking asylum seekers from crossing Finland’s eastern border, arguing that it contravenes human rights obligations.

Andersson’s party, the Left Alliance, chose a new leader this month, the charismatic feminist author Minja Koskela, who was elected to Helsinki’s council in 2021 after a period as secretary of the Feminist party, and as a member of parliament in 2023. Koskela argues: “People are widely frustrated with the government’s discriminatory policy and cuts to culture, social and health services, education and people’s livelihood. It is possible to turn this frustration into action.” (Full disclosure: I’m a member of the party and have helped coordinate its local approach to immigrants.)

It remains to be seen if she can build on Andersson’s EU success. Although the popular media-savvy figure appears to relish the challenge of turning the party into an election winner, Koskela faces a huge challenge. The party struggles to poll at more than 10% nationally, aside from a brief high of 11% in July. A place in government is nonetheless possible. But Marin’s Social Democratic party (SDP) of Finland (now led by Antti Lindtman), has topped the national opinion polls 12 out of 14 times since April 2023.

Meanwhile, the Finns party is polling at 16%, down from the 20.1% vote they gained in the election. These figures point to one thing: another possible SDP-led coalition government in the next parliament by the summer of 2027. This would probably include the Left Alliance and the Green League, among others. And such a coalition would aim to undo a lot of the damage done by the right.

But until then, there will be more damage to come. So while there is clearly hope for an end in sight to the country’s political darkness three years hence, this will bring little solace now to poor people, migrants, and the squeezed middle class as the long Finnish winter closes in.