#I will probably do more detailed write-ups in the future on their 'playbooks'

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Valicer In The Dark (the Blades In The Dark AU)

Yes, finally, actually doing a PROPER POST on this AU that I’ve mentioned in passing a couple of times! How it came about is like this:

1. I’m a fan of Outside XBox, Outside Xtra, and their DnD stuff, Oxventure

2. While perusing the Funny Moments section of Oxventure on TV Tropes one day last year, I found that they had a side series where they play “Blades In The Dark” (where you and your friends play a daring criminal gang in a world that used to be a fun fantasy setting, but then the apocalypse happened, the sun exploded, most of the continents got sunk/flooded, the seas are now like liquid space full of whale-demons, there are ghosts everywhere because something happened to the afterlife, and they hunt the whale demons because you can make electricity out of their blood).

3. Intrigued, I read the TV Tropes page on BitD, then went over to the official website, and eventually got so into it I ordered a PDF of the book so I could get to know the setting and the mechanics properly and do what I always do in these situations -- stat up Victor and Alice, and in this case Smiler (as I was getting into that around the same time as the Valicer stuff took off in my brain)!

And yeah, this has been a little side project I’ve poked at from time to time ever since! It’s a fun little AU, and I’ve been enjoying adapting the trio to the setting of the RPG. Here’s the basics of what I’ve come up with so far:

Alice was the daughter of Dean Arthur Liddell of the prestigious Doskvol Academy (located in Whitecrown, THE fancy bit of Duskwall, the central city of the setting -- the Lord Governor lives there, away from the riffraff) and his wife Lorina, and the younger sister of Lizzie. The family had a happy life living in Brightstone (the next-fanciest district) -- up until one Angus Bumby entered Doskvol Academy and became obsessed with Lizzie. When she rebuffed his advances, he broke into the house, had his way with her, and set the place on fire to both cover his crime and try to destroy the bodies so they couldn’t let out ghosts. Alice was the sole survivor, and after a year in hospital spent convalescing from her burns, got sent to Rutledge Asylum, here situated right next to Duskwall’s freaking PRISON. This Alice is probably the only one who had a WORSE time in there than in canon, as psychiatry is basically an unknown art in Duskwall, and I imagine a lot of lunatics are just locked up to rot or have their souls ripped out so they can become slave labor -- a fate Alice avoided solely due to being a minor. She still had her Wonderland in this world, though, and was able to use it to lever herself out of her catatonia and eventually deal with her grief enough to join the waking world. . .and promptly ended up sent to the Hounsditch Home in Charhollow (one of the “poor but honest” districts), where she was to help the owner, Dr. Bumby, as general dogsbody. As per A:MR, after about a year here, Wonderland kicked her in the pants and helped her realize Bumby was the one that killed her family -- but unlike canon, by the time of the main action of the AU, she has NOT pushed him onto any train tracks. Mostly because that would likely result in him leaving a ghost, and a spectral Bumby is the LAST thing she wants to deal with. Her playbook is the Cutter, the fighters and heavy hitters, and she starts with the Not To Be Trifled With special ability, which allows her to push herself to perform superhuman feats of strength and fighting prowess (including taking up to six people at once!).

Victor is the son of William and Nell Van Dort, fish merchants living in Nightmarket (one of the main shopping districts, and where the “new money” tends to live). William invented canned fish when Victor was young, which the public pounced on, and his canneries easily made the Van Dorts the wealthiest family in Nightmarket. Nell wanted to eventually make the transition to Brightstone, though, and thus when Victor came of age, she started trying to arrange a marriage with one of the noble families living there. She got lucky shortly before the beginning of the AU, as the Everglots (an old noble family whose fortunes were on the downswing -- noble families control the ships that hunt the whale-demon “leviathans” in this world, and their ship was coming back dry more often than not, meaning their power, prestige, and most importantly coin was running out) consented to let Victor marry their daughter Victoria in exchange for some of that sweet sweet Van Dort fortune. As per canon, Victor and Victoria met right before the wedding rehearsal, and while they liked each other, it wasn’t enough to calm Victor’s nerves. Three hours of failed practice, one dropped ring, and one burn on Maudeline Everglot’s dress from a forgotten candle later, and Victor was banished into the streets to learn his lines. He wandered around for a while, trying to get them straight in his head, and eventually got them right down an old forgotten alley. . .only for the wandering ghost of a bride, Emily, to hear them and think they were meant for her. Victor was promptly dragged into the “ghost field,” the spectral echo of the city where ghosts live, and held captive by Emily (whom he did feel sorry for, but ghosts are bad news in Duskwall -- they tend to lose their minds quickly due to not being able to pass on, and Emily was showing a few signs of “going feral,” as it were). The main AU is actually kicked off by him finally escaping her and finding his way back to the material plane by falling out of a wall in front of Alice and Smiler. . . His playbook is the Whisper, the arcane and magical ones, and he starts with the Ghost Sense special ability, which allows him to sense the presence of all supernatural things in his area and have an easier time getting information on them.

Smiler was the “son” of one Dr. Kellard Kelman, owner of The Sanctuary, a refuge for people who have “lost their smile” -- in actuality, a horrible hellhole of a “mental hospital” where Dr. Kelman conducted experiments on the patients and threw failures in the basement. Smiler and their father clashed about a lot of things (including Kelman’s brutal methods for ensuring “social compliance” and his refusal to accept Smiler as nonbinary), and eventually Smiler just ran away at about twelve years old, rather than be a part of Kelman’s nonsense any further. They ended up in Silkshore (the “red light” district), where they encountered Carol and Matthew Alton, members of the Advocates cult, who worship Mar-Mal, the Unending Smile. Matt and Carol took in the young Smiler and told them what the cult was all about (basically, maximizing happiness however possible, from genuine kind acts to straight-up selling drugs and hypnotizing people) -- Smiler thought it all sounded better than Kelman’s deal and joined up, changing their name from Marmaduke Kelman to Smiler Alton. They proved to be a very eager little cultist, developing a knack for hypnosis and -- as they got older -- a talent with chemical concoctions, eventually making a drug that induced a heavy state of bliss that they called Joy Serum. The invention of this drug caused Mar-Mal to mark them with its favor, turning their previously green eyes a glowing yellow (Matt and Carol were so proud!). At the start of the main AU, they spend most of their time brewing up and selling Joy Serum in Silkshore -- not far from The Mangled Mermaid where Alice’s old nanny now plies her trade as a prostitute, meaning Smiler and Alice are at least somewhat acquainted just from her visits to see Nan there. Their playbook is -- well, it’s mostly the Leech, the tinkerers and chemists, but they also share some stuff with the Slide playbook, the smooth-talkers and manipulators. They start with the Alchemist special ability, which gives them bonuses to any alchemical concoctions they craft and a free recipe (like their Joy Serum).

How they meet -- Well, as indicated, Smiler and Alice were already acquainted from Alice’s trips to see Nan in Silkshore, with Smiler being a friendly presence who’d helped Alice out a couple of times in the past (spotting her money for meals and suchlike). As a result, when Alice fled the Houndsditch Home looking for help with her Bumby problem (either a way to bring evidence to the Inspectors, the only members of the police force known to be incorruptible, or at least not subject to bribes, or a way to kill him and make sure he didn’t come back as a ghost), her first instinct was to go to Nanny, and along the way she encountered Smiler. Her attempt to tell them what was going on was interrupted by Victor’s attempted escape from Emily, however, and the two ended up helping him over to the Mangled Mermaid to just get some food and water in him and help him calm down after his experience. Unfortunately, Emily managed to follow them there and got rather annoyed at finding her husband in a brothel -- fortunately, before she could do any damage, Smiler managed to talk her down (mainly by reminding her that humans gotta eat). Victor took the opportunity to finally explain to her what he’d been doing and that he was already engaged --

But when he mentioned Victoria’s name, Nanny commented that she’d heard that she’d already gotten married that day, to someone named “Lord Barkis.” And Emily recognized the “Barkis” name, as that was the name of the man who killed her. She and Victor agreed they had to go see Victoria for her own good, just in case she’d gotten married to a murderer, and Smiler and Alice chose to come along as back-up. The three took a gondola over to Brightstone (as Duskwall is part Venice as well as being part Victorian London, and is cut all over the place by canals) and crashed the Everglot-Barkis wedding reception, where Emily did indeed identify Barkis as her murderer. Barkis attempted to take Victoria hostage as the guests fled, but the group was able to free her -- Victor sending her away to get help or at least find a safe place to hide -- and Emily ended up destroying herself to possess Barkis and kill him, thanking Victor for at least helping her get revenge on her killer. The local police, the Bluecoats, finally arrived once the deed was done, and searched the corpse while the trio tried to explain what happened --

And then one of the Bluecoats found a fancy brass mask on Barkis. Marking him as one of the Spirit Wardens, the group that goes around collecting corpses and burning them in electroplasm to make sure that the city isn’t entirely overrun by ghosts. A group of people bankrolled by the Immortal Emperor himself.

Yeah, that’s not good. The Bluecoats, already not really believing the gang’s story, decided they’d murdered Barkis (or, at least Alice and Smiler had -- Victor got added to the list when he refused to just run off back home or bribe them) and were prepared to take them in, but Alice managed to hold off the entire gang with a butcher’s knife just long enough for them to start running. Through various means (like Smiler just straight-up injecting a purser with joy serum and using a homemade flash bomb, and Victor managing to accidentally lead a couple more into a very angry, very electric ghost by using his new Ghost Sense to help his new friends avoid it), the trio was able to escape into Six Towers, a previously rich neighborhood fallen to ruin and squatters in recent years. They found shelter in an abandoned building, which proved to be the old home of one Elder Gutknecht, a former Whisper who had managed to keep his senses after death and become a genuinely friendly ghost. The three began wondering what to do next, and Alice finally told Victor and Smiler the full story about Bumby. . .

And either Victor or Smiler was like, “Well, we’re already accused of murder. . .”

And so the group became a crew, with their first scores being to take care of Bumby and to get Victor’s stuff back from his family house! I picture them as a group of Shadows, spies, thieves, and saboteurs, though there’s a bit of a Hawker element because Smiler is of course still selling Joy Serum (and is working on an inhaled drug called Giggler Gas). And even though they are criminals, they’re trying to help where they can -- Victor, after figuring out how to infuse insects with ghost stuff to make glowing moths and stuff to help plants grow, wants to make a community greenhouse for people; Alice still looks after the kids at Houndsditch as best she can from afar, and is only too happy to kill other people hurting children for free; and Smiler of course does want to spread happiness, even if it’s in a bit of a bizarre way sometimes. They’re my chaos crime morally gray group and I love them. :p Hopefully I’ll be able to flesh them out even more for you in the future!

[hackedmotionsensors]

Hey I feel like you’ve already answered this but what are some of your favorite iron man or Captain America comics and why? What story lines would you recommend? I’m curious about the more modern stuff. What’s some of your fav comic artists when it comes to marvel?

OKAY SO. 

holy shit this got long so UNDER THE READ MORE WE GO

This is always kind of a hard question to answer because I personally have not read everything in regards to either Iron man or Captain America. I’ve read the Tales of Suspense stories a lot because I keep trying to start over from the very beginning. And that’s not always helpful if you just wanna dip your toes or give Iron Man/Cap a go.

So what I CAN tell you is here’s what I did when I was first getting into comics around 2012.

I went to Borders/Barnes and Noble and a I read a bunch of the compilations they had in the store. Someone has already done the work FOR you so its really easy to just pick up a book and read from there. 

I started out with Invincible Iron Man  (I’m gonna link to Amazon but I suggest not buying from them because Bezos is a demon [comixology is owned by amazon as well but it is a convenient app]) 

Marvel has its own comics app but if you also read and pay for other comics its not ideal. There are places to “read comic books online” and for older stuff I definitely do this now but for newer comics I’ll try to pay for them especially if its indie. Support indie comics!!! 

Anyway. Invincible Iron Man. A polarizing story in terms of Iron Man lore. But its definitely an easy one to get into and read especially if you’re coming in from MCU and are just testing things. You don’t necessarily need to know all of his history but it covers the basics. 

Next I’d try Demon in a Bottle It’s the original alcoholism arc. A must read for general Tony’s lore. This isn’t the one where he ends up a hobo on the street where Cap helps him escape from a burning building. But this is where he goes off the rails the first time. Bethany Cabe is his current girlfriend and tries to help him. And he kind of recovers. I’m not sure this is exactly a FAVORITE but it has a lot of the important shit for Tony. His temper is something that doesn’t get talked a lot about I think but he DEFINITELY has one. The art is very..........lol its not BAD per say but its also not like wow what gorgeous art. 

Another important Tony lore is Armor Wars So you wanna read the first few times Tony and Steve fight about REAL SHIT. This is it. This is the classic story where he realizes his tech is being used by bad guys and HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN STOP THEM NO CAP NOT EVEN YOU BECAUSE YOU’RE A GOOD GUY AND I MIGHT HAVE TO GET DIRTY. It has the classic Steve sitting in a dark room waiting for Tony to come back with his date and then throwing his shield at Tony going “I don’t want your trash”

It also has a lot of good Tony being in a morally grey area. *chef’s kiss* 

And then basically read all the fun stuff with Kurt Busiek in Vol 3 (This isn’t an amazon link but the marvel database so you know roughly where to start) 

VOLUME THREE HAS SUCH HITS LIKE

The Sentient Armor: Tony accidentally kills Whiplash in a lightning storm. The Armor comes to life. The armor falls in love with Tony and WANTS TO BECOME ONE WITH TONY. Tony does not want this. Tony is beat up and kidnapped and taken by the armor to a deserted island. The Armor is like Tony I love you so much GET IN ME NOW. Tony is about to die from a heart attack. The armor RIPS ITS HEART OUT AND SHOVES IT INTO TONY. Bye Tony I love you now we’re one forever. RIP

Tiberius Stone’s 2 arcs (they’re not in consecutive order but they’re both hella gay): Tony’s old boarding school friend shows up again and is a TV mogul and is DEFINITELY NOT Slandering Tony in the press or blowing up his buildings or framing him for MURDER oh my god Tiberius is a pain in the ass and we definitely boned down as teenagers but he would never frame me for MURDER but his TV devices that seep into your brain like the boob tube thing from Batman Forever are pretty suspicious. Oh no Tiberius IS a bad guy and he got me naked (why?) and hooked the both of us up to the TV machine and now we’re trapped in his horny tv dream why am I dressed like Alice in Wonderland???  ALSO HE SLEPT WITH MY GIRLFRIEND!!!!??

(This is why I will FOREVER get upset that Killian in Iron Man 3 isn’t Tiberius Stone. He IS LITERALLY FOLLOWING THE TIBERIUS STONE PLAYBOOK INCLUDING THE PHYSICAL LOOK WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE FEIGE YOU OWE ME MONEY!!!!)

Also at the beginning of Vol 3. Tony gets the absolute holy hell bejesus shit beat out of him. And that lasts for a WHILE and seeps into the Avengers Vol 3 (which you should also read its fun and I like that George Perez actually tries to make people look ethnically diverse but also you can tell Clint from Cap)

There’s also a part in vol 3 where Monica from FRIENDS shows up at a party and that’s a wild thing that happened.

But basically I think you can start just about anywhere with Iron Man and have a good time if you’re a deep Tony fan. He has a lot of great stories and its why he’s my favorite. Even this last run with Slott I still KIND OF LIKE ANYWAY??? bc its Tony. Its not always written to what a lot of long standing Iron Man fans would say is canon but I mean.....he’s got 57 years worth of comics behind him so he’s bound to change here and there. He was once a super villain, died, brought over as a teenager from an alternate timeline, and then merged with another Tony I forget the details but its silly lol

Side universe reading Iron Man Noir, Ultimates (Hickman’s run is very fun but also Ultimates 1 and 2. DO NOT READ ULTIMATUM IT IS GROSS, I HAVE READ IT FOR YOU ALMOST EVERYONE DIES ITS GROSS.

Ultimates is literally half of the basis for the MCU. Don’t read Ultimates Iron Man tho. Not only is it written by a creep its also extremely stupid and doesn’t even really make sense in terms of what happens later in Ultimates. It basically gets RetConned immediately.

Also Ultimates universe has Gregory Stark. Tony’s fun evil twin brother who for some reason is blonde. I can’t really give you a specific story to read with Ultimates because its the most god awful confusing universe to try and find stories from so I literally don’t even remember. I’d check an Ultimates fan blog for that.

AS FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA.

I love Steve Rogers. I really do. I think he’s a fun character. B U T. His comics for me can be very boring. He has some great arcs as someone who is supposed to be a representation of what a GOOD AMERICA can aspire to or whatever. But America often times SUCKS A LOT (our current times being very obvious). Cap definitely fights for what he believes and so that’s why he often takes off the garb of Captain America and runs around in a slutty v neck and a cape as Nomad. Or when he comes back from the dead and his BFF is the new Cap (WITHA  KNIFE) and wears the sexy Secret Avengers uniform. Very sexy. We stan the Colonel Rogers uniform very much. But his early comics are a lot of “OH MY GOD I KILLED BUCKY ITS ALL MY FAULT BUCKY!!!!! RICK JONES PUT ON BUCKYS CLOTHES THIS ISNT CREEPY I PROMISE”

A GREAT run in Avengers is the Cap’s Kooky Quartet or as I call Cap Joins the Baby Sitters Club. This goes WAYYYYYY back to Avengers 17 

It runs for a very good while before Giant-man and Wasp come back because Giant Man can’t shrink back down lmfao idiot. But its a lot of fun and establishes Cap as being a really good leader even tho he’s thrown into the hot seat because he was out on a mission and everyone else was like “We’re taking a vacay bye Cap. Good luck with the kids��� *John Mulaney doing Andy Cohen impression* HUH WHAT WHY

I have no idea what to Rec really lol I know @sineala is part of a SteveTony 616 discord and they do readings every month(?) of either very SteveTony based arcs or specifically Steve or Tony arcs. But I think they have a better grasp of Steve stories than I do.

I would say most recently the run with Mark Waid and Chris Samnee as the artist is a VERY good read. The story is pretty nice and dry lol but the art. Holy shit.

I know there are a bunch of artists that really REALLY get Cap but Chris Samnee is probably my number one favorite Cap artist. Even his sort of retro style works with Cap SO WELL. And I like Mark Waid’s writing. Or at least I don’t think I’ve ever been really mad at it like with Dan Slott or Gillen (We will never forgive for what he did to Tony’s backstory and taking Maria from him) lol

Uh...but as far as I could tell the entire run where Bernie is his girlfriend is VERY good. She first shows up in Captain America 247 . Cap is an illustrator on the side (or as his main job) and man what a dope. His art habits are worse than mine like get a desk Steve. But this arc through Bernie goes through a lot of Steve being kind of stuck in the past and not knowing how to embrace the modern or future and Bernie is there being the coolest fucking chick in the world who’s studying to be a lawyer, watches Wrestling, listens to Bruce Springsteen (I think lol I forget), dunks on Cap for being a weirdo old dude. Very put together woman of the 80s. She proposes to Cap and because I think the writers changed he’s like I HAVE TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY BYE. 

This isn’t on any of the main timelines but its a good read Captain America Man Out Of Time. Basically Cap coming to grips with the future and realizing the past sucked ew. lol Also he listens to Radiohead which Tony gives him a personal concert for because of course he does.

And then of course there’s this fucking TOME of a story Captain America: The Winter Soldier .

Im gonna sound a little negative but I don’t mean it against anyone’s favorite but I have the most exhausting time trying to read this story. I’ve tried at least three times lol. I think maybe Brubaker’s weird obsession with the Cold War (Remember when he called people who were yelling at Slott for being a creep a ‘Bunch of Commies’) is just so fucking heavy handed that I can’t personally get through it. I would much rather watch the movie.

HOWEVER. There’s good old Bucky coming back from the dead. Natasha. Sam Wilson. Sharon Carter. All big players in this story. So uh lol good luck with this one. If you’re also a Bucky fan this is a must read but as I only peripherally like Bucky I don’t care to read this one. 

So I’d check out this arc.

Also a personal fave of mine is 

It starts here on Captain America 402 . Its the best story IN THE WORLD. ITS SO ICONIC. NOTHING CAN COMPETE. I LOVE CAPWOLF SO MUCH lol

[ten-ten31]

Dear Yuletide Writer

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you so much for writing for me! :) I can't tell you just how excited I am. This is my first Yuletide and I guess I'm super nervous, but also looking forward to it. :)

Please feel free to browse my ao3 (KitKaos) and/or tumblr to get an idea of what I stan, like, read or write. I hope I can give you some broad ideas and inspirations in this letter to help you plan. Do feel free to fall back on my general likes if the prompts don't do anything for you. Or just use the prompts, whatever works best for you. Oh, and should you, dear Yuletide Santa, want to write in German and not in English, then I'm definitely okay with that. I'm fluent in both, so whichever you feel more comfortable with. If there's something missing or if you have a question, you can reach out to me via the mods.

General likes: I'm a sucker for the old friends-to-lovers or even enemies-to-lovers (with all the drama of grudginly admitting that the other party maybe isn't all that terrible and all). Things I'll never get tired of include coffeeshop AUs, spy AUs, musical AUs, found families, fake dating, pining, crossdressing, drunken shenanigans, fish-out-of-water situations, pop culture references, etc. Just about any kind of scene you can sneak in there about cooking or eating food (also characters being picky about certains foods and other characters going to some lengths to accommodate that) will make me happy, too. I do have a thing for descriptions of food and expecially impressions of taste - and if you want to make it kinky: food play. ;) I also have a bit of a hand fetish - so descriptions of hands are always welcome. If you want to do it, I probably also won't say no to someone breaking the Fourth Wall, any kind of alternate history AU, crossovers of my fandoms, or even some lovely steampunk aesthetics.

Do Not Want: rape/dubcon/noncon, watersports, scat, humiliation, A/B/O, soulmates AU, vampire/werewolf AU, second-person pov, character bashing of any kind.

*

Fandoms

Just two more thing before I go into detail: 1. The prompts below are nothing more than ideas - feel free to ignore them if you have a better one. :) 2. Not all of the characters need to be used in every prompt; pick and choose as desired.

*

Dial H for Hero (DC Comics)

- Summer Pickens, Miguel Montez

The 2019 12-issue run is just pure love! There is worldbuilding galore, relatable characters, a wonderful coming-of-age and initiation plot, interdimensional shenanigans, the question how Joe Average could get addicted to sudden superpowers, and so much fun with the concept of Superhero Secret Origins. Summer is a wonderfully strong and caring female lead and Miguel is a self-conscious little oddball.

As for prompts: Seeing more of their Metropolis adventures or Red/Yellow/Blue/Black Dial transformations would definitely be a lot of fun. Also, there's this cute boy Miguel asks out in the comics and I would love to see that first date. And what about Summer? She definitely won't be reduced to sidekick!

Feel free to include any other ((teenage) superhero) cameos you feel like. Please do not pair up Summer and Miguel romantically - although I don't have any problems with a fake relationship fic for them. ;)

Where to find it: Your trusted comicbook supplier.

Masks: A New Generation (Roleplaying Game)

- any / worldbuilding

I only just disovered Masks as an RPG, and ever since I started playing, it's probably the most fun rping I've had in a long time. I love that playbooks are not by the type of power but the type of problem each teenager faces personally. Like, how do you juggle school, first love, being different in a way no one should know about, being different maybe in a way people will immediately see, adults telling you who to be, chores, and being part of a young superhero team that wants to make a name for themselves? It's hard. And the best sessions alternate between deep emotional connections, hilarious teenage drama and great action scenes.

As for prompts: I would love me some good worldbuilding - so maybe there is a reason the Scarlet Songbird is still around? What was Halcyon City like back in the days of the Golden-Age heroes? What has changed since then? How do especially the older generations view the naming conventions going around for new heroes? Is there a code to follow? Who in Halcyon City pays for all the damage to buildings and infrastructure caused by superhero-supervillain fights? What was it like back in the olden days for the Golden Age heroes as opposed to now?  Are there cultural exchange programs with any of the alien races visiting from time to time? Give me a day in the life of an average Halcyon City citizen - they don't even have to be all that close to an epic fight or something. Just their way of coping with the daily madness of a huge city housing most of the world's superheroes. If you like something a little more character-specific: The one actual-play podcast that does it best in my opinion are the Theatre of the Mind Players with their "Future Shock" and "Past Tense" seasons of Masks. And I would love to read more about these characters. Have Sparrow and Figment finally get together. Give me a glimpse of how Horizon assembled his ersatz mom. What will Helix and Remix get up to?

Where to find it: The core rulebook is available from Magpie Games. The Theatre of the Mind Players’ Masks sessions can be found on Youtube.

Super Sons (Comics)

- Jonathan Samuel Kent, Damian Wayne

Super Sons is how I finally came to like and care for Damian Wayne - which, if you know me, is a major achievement! He is still a huge brat, don't get me wrong, but Jon's influence on him and the way he is confronted with certain issues he has... it's magical! It's wholesome! It's healing! They are both so fiercely protective of each other, and they both grow as characters from their experiences with each other.

As for prompts: So, dear Yuletide Santa, give me character growth and banter and friendship galore. I can see slumber parties at Wayne Manor or at the Kent farm. I can see them getting lost in space and time. I can see more adventures once they're at the same school. I can see a canon-divergence AU where Jon is finally admitted into the the Teen Titans at age 13 - how would that go? Or how about an Interrail Buddies AU?

If you want to write slashfic for them, I will not say no but would probably prefer to age them up a bit. I also most definitely don't mind any background appearances of any of their families.

Where to find it: Your trusted comicbook supplier.

Superman Returns (2006)

- any (Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Richard White)

I still love this movie a lot - not because it's particularly spectacular, but it treats the characters with love, it treats the legacy of the Reeve movies with love and it leaves SO MANY questions for fanfiction authors to answer. ;) I mean, I've been a Superman fan for a long time and I've discovered that I'm most comfortable with a Clark who wears a mask both as Clark Kent and as Superman, who isn't either of those two (and who is fallible). And whenever someone learns of his secret identity, they will see that he's so much more than either Clark or Superman. I know Lois is a fairly underdeveloped character in this movie, so I would love for her to be treated not just as a prize, especially since there were those years of her having to put her life back together after Supes just up and left.

As for prompts, I've always wondered about the different coping mechanisms (Lois turning bitter, Jimmy starting up daydrinking - WTF?!) and just how their day-to-day business changed without Clark and Supes there. Give me the Planet staff banding together to rescue Lois when she remembers just that second too late that there will be no superhero to save them (I also wouldn't mind any of the Bats helping out secretly, if that's up your alley). Give me Jimmy trying not to think too much and instead getting on Lois' nerves until he's rescued by Richard intervening. I am also an absolute sucker for continuation fics, so how do things settle down after what happens in the movie? I would love for some real Clark and Jimmy bonding moments, maybe even Jimmy finding out or having known all along and covered for Clark. I would love for some truce and real friendship blossoming between Clark and Richard, as they are both intelligent, compassionate, insightful men. If you want to include Jason anywhere, feel free to do that, as he makes for such a wonderful catalyst for disaster. Feel free to write gen or any canon pairings - I'm also okay with non-canon het/slash pairs (or threesomes) as long as they make sense in-universe. ;)

Where to find it: Sadly, the movie doesn’t seem to be streaming anywhere, but since it’s 14 years old now, you can buy it relatively cheap.

Young Justice (Comics)

- Tim Drake (but do feel free to have any of the other characters in the story, too)

No matter if you're into the old 1990s YJ comics, the companion comics to the cartoon show, or the new 2019/20 version of the comics - I love all of them! So much I don't even know where to begin... The snark! The lovable teenage stupidity! The friendship that goes above and beyond! My definite favourite is Tim, because he is such a bright, snarky, secretive, repressed little bird (the moment he takes off his domino mask to reveal a second one underneath? priceless)! I also love his deep friendship with the others because that's his found family. Yes, Batman is his mentor (even though Tim might understand B better than the other way round sometimes) and Dick is his older brother and idol (hero worship, anyone?), but Young Justice is where he wants to be himself and all of it.

As for prompts: Even though I did not put either Cassie or Cissie in my request as I want something Tim-centric, the dynamic with those two strong-willed girls is definitely something I would love to see explored more. Also how the dynamic with the bats is so very different than the Young Just Us dynamic. What's it like being the one without powers in a group of hormonal teenage superheroes? I also just realized that I would love to see more of Mister Sarcastic trolling the rest of the gang. Or how about: What if Tim had powers for one day? If you're into the 2019 comics, how about a 5+1 of Why Drake May Or May Not Be A Good Superhero Alias. If you want to include the rest of the gang, you're definitely more than welcome to. Tim and Kon's bickering and outright arguments in the beginning turning into such a solid friendship (or more) is something I can read about time and time again. Pretty much the same goes for Tim and Bart. Or how about some Wendy the Werewolf Stalker shenanigans? Why is having girls in your group a bad/good idea? How did Cassie's becoming the team's leader affect Tim's sense of self? Heck, if you feel like it, open up the love triangle Tim-Cassie-Kon since there's like a ton of history there. Oh, and anyway, why is Stephanie Brown never part of any of Tim's teams? Dear Yuletide Santa, do also feel free to include any of the other teens (I have a soft spot for Li'l Lobo/Slobo).

Where to find it: Your trusted comicbook supplier.

Overall, I’m sure I’ll love what you have for me, and I'm looking forward to reading it! <3

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #62: They’re *Really* Back (9/14/18)

We knew going into this week that there was a real storm coming, and that was an understatement. Though the complete Trench album is still waiting to be released, it really feels like the band is back more than ever. 

This update is a novel-sized doozy. Grab your new merch, and let’s dive into it.

This Week’s TØPics:

A Complete Diversion in London Brings Trench (and a Flaming Car) to the Stage

The Boys Speak to the Press: Rock Sound and Alt Press Announce Special TØP Issues, and the Boys Hop Back Onto Radio

First Details Emerge About “Neon Gravestones”, “Pet Cheetah”, Clancy, Nico, and More As the Press Hear the Album for the First Time

Major News and Announcements:

The big one finally hit: after over a year, Twenty One Pilots returned to their home on the stage. They started making flex moves before the show even started. They arrived in London two days in advance, rehearsing and playing soundchecks into the night that die-hard campers could hear from outside the venue. They arranged for folks in Bandito uniforms to dispense 150 tickets to those that showed up at the box office.  The venue delivered food to the queue, and the Clique in turn donated their blankets and duvets to a local soup kitchen. Pretty darn sweet.

The real event was even sweeter. 

Twenty One Pilots did not quite pull out all of the stops for their first performance in over a year. The set was just over an hour, did not debut any never-before-heard songs, did not include any special guests, and mainly stuck to the skeleton of the Blurryface Era setlist. And you know what? There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. If anything, Tyler and Josh keeping things focused on dusting off the old gears and introducing a few new elements for the Trench era resulted in a tight and emotional return for today’s greatest band. (Shout out to Ohio Clique for editing fifteen different Periscope and Instagram Live streams together to make a cohesive concert movie.)

Highlights of the show include:

There were no screens present in the smaller venue, but the production crew did make sure to bust out a ton of other great production elements, including tons of lights and, most notably, the car from the  “Heavydirtysoul” video that bursts into flames at key points during certain songs- including, at one point, when Tyler was standing on it.

The Clique brought the production value in the crowd, too: beyond all the folks dressed up as Banditos and Bishops, you also had plenty of people bring in yellow screens for their flashlights and yellow flowers and petals to offer Tyler.

The setlist was pretty sensible, with the four new Trench singles plus all of the songs that you would have expected them to play at an old festival show (minus “Guns for Hands” and “Tear In My Heart”, no I’m not sweating, why?). It is interesting that “WDBWOTV” and “The Judge” were played, but I suspect that it was mainly to justify bringing out the ukulele for “Nico”; if there are more uke tracks on Trench, I would not be surprised to see one or both of these songs dip out of the regular rotation.

Tyler had to stop the show twice to help people out of the pit- it was that kind of show.

The show opened with Josh coming out on stage in full Bandito regalia, torch in hand, looking like a badass. After sitting down at the drums and playing a few simple sequences, a masked man with a bass guitar walked out on the stage, started playing “Jumpsuit”’s gnarly riff, and yelled for the crowd to “GET UP!” Awesome. Twenty One Pilots is back, mate.

Tyler stumbled over a few lyrics in “Jumpsuit” and “Levitate”, but he successfully played it off- only the most diehard fans would have caught that he wasn’t just pausing for breath or to hear the crowd.

Tyler actually yelled “Why’d you come, you know you should have stayed?” at the end of “Heathens”, and it sounded damn good. Hope it sticks for future shows.

Tyler’s “WDBWOTV” pre-speech was a pretty good inaugural address for the Trench Era. He let the rabid audience know that he had been watching them since before the concert (both literally and metaphorically), joked about needing to get back in “show shape”, and thanked London for being a home away from home for them. In gratitude for hosting them, Tyler even announced that they were adding a third arena show at Wembley and joked that Mark should tweet it or something (he did).

Prior to playing “Nico”, Tyler adorned a bright yellow jacket over his usual uke kimono; Josh helpfully banged the drums dramatically for every successful button.

Tyler and Josh did the handshake during “Nico”, because of course they did.

For “My Blood”, Tyler drew from the old playbook and attempted to direct the two halves of the audience to sing harmonies. It worked even better than it used to with “Doubt”, much to Tyler’s evident glee- his smile and little dance to everyone singing his new song back at him was probably the best moment of the whole show.

The Trees Speech was short and sweet, with Tyler promising that he’s written “pages and pages” of things he wants to say, but for now all he can say is that they’ll be coming back on the new tour with “things we’ve never seen before” and that the fans look so good.

#YellowConfettiConfirmed

In the last bit of major news: new merch (that Josh stitched himself, be nice) and a new yellow Trench vinyl that I’m sure won’t immediately sell out. Have fun spending your life savings, kids!

Other Shenanigans:

The band was active in other spaces this week, of course. After Zane Lowe broke open the floodgates last week, both Rock Sound and Alternative Press announced that they would release some exclusive Trench Era Content (tm). Rock Sound’s came in the form of a thirty-page mag featuring a lengthy 22-page feature comprised of the first interview the two bands gave together since before the hiatus, Tyler and Josh’s first full photoshoot in over a year, and tons of awesome posters and Clique art. It definitely is not available in any form on the Internet that I’m afraid to link to lest I get pegged for copyright and sent to jail. Highlights of this interview that I certainly haven’t read include:

Lots of typical Rock Sound purple prose, in which the writer goes off on more tangential metaphors than even Tyler Robert Joseph.

The reporter describes Tyler’s house as “quite stunning” (yeah, with that Blurryface money combined with Columbus real estate values, I should hope so).

Josh laughs at the memory of some of their old costumes. “Those suits were so hot,” he says, as if those heavy coats aren’t a billion degrees inside.

Tyler: “There’s something healthy about realizing that the world keeps turning. Sometimes it can feel like the whole world is revolving around you- I think we all selfishly get to that point. When you have those moments, when you stop and realize that even if you weren’t there those other people would be, it lifts a weight that can feel very heavy. It motivates you to want to come up with a reason why you’re here.”

Tyler says they cut out social media during the hiatus in part because “removing the ability to run straight to it was important. For me, writing music is the thing I want to run to when I feel compelled or inspired. Whether it’s frustration or anger or compassion, whatever it is that I wanted to express, I wanted it to live somewhere new. I didn’t want one drop of meaningful expression to live anywhere else.” Additionally, they did want to test whether the Clique would stick around, and even kinda hint that they wanted to shrink how crowded some of the rooms they entered were becoming.

We are assured, however, that the next “hiatus” will not be the exact same as this. Tyler: “Going away broke my heart. It hurt that we weren’t able to tell people why we had gone, but I’m an advocate of showing people what I’ve been working on rather than telling them how hard I’m working. [...] That said, though we don’t know what the timeframe will be or if we’ll take another break, the manner in which we left... we’ll never do that again.”

I’m just gonna leave this here: “He tells us also of the beautiful relationship he has with his wife, Jenna, and the role that she played in helping him unlock the words and the sounds that would form the basis of this new chapter; of the times he would hand her the phone while behind the wheel of his car to allow her to record anything from melodies to simple poems.” Yeah, will someone sweep up all the pieces of my heart that are just lying on the floor, that’d be great.

Tyler has long had the idea to tell a geographic story, much longer than since the end of the last cycle, and he didn’t always intend to tell it through music. “I feel like in our mind there are places we learn we shouldn’t go.”

Tyler says that there are lots of songs that he writes that never see the light of day because he has moved past the season he wrote them in by the time it comes to record them.

Rock Sound is positively glowing in its brief advance review of the album, saying it is undoubtedly the best project of 2018, “a labor of love”, “a varied, often spectacular collection” with some of the band’s all-time greatest moments. It will be even more sonically diverse than we’ve come to expect: “Morph” is described as “old-school R&B”, “The Hype” “anthemic indie-rock”, “Pet Cheetah” has “stomping beats and a fiery rap verse.” The highlight, though, is apparently “Neon Gravestones”, “a piano-laden spoken word masterpiece” with lyrical content that “will save at least one person’s life”. Damn.

Alt Press will also be releasing a 24-page cover feature on the band and were even nice enough to include a fun video ad from the boys. They’re so cute, and I’ve missed them so much. (Also, Tyler’s checkered pants are a quality meme.)

After the Complete Diversion, Tyler and Josh performed a mini-press tour. First, they gave five-minute interview with Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1 and an Instagram Stories AMA on the station’s account. Highlights of this quickie include:

Josh and Tyler joke that specifying the exact number of months they’ve been away sounds like a mother saying their kid is “14 months” instead of a year old.

Tyler notes that this was the first performance in a long time that they’ve felt truly nervous, as they could no longer rely on muscle memory to carry them through after the long break, particularly with the new songs.

Annie references her last interview with Josh, where he confessed to be nervous about whether the fans would return. When asked if the first show helped them overcome those nerves, Tyler replied honestly, “To an extent, yes.” They chuckle about it, but the implication remains thick: the dedicated fanbase certainly turned up, but there is no assurance that they’ll have long-term mainstream success in the future. They seem cool with that.

Tyler states that they chose London specifically to make their return because, besides Columbus, it’s the only city where they have played in every size of venue, from the Barfly club to the Ally Pally and everything in-between over the course of fifteen shows. That type of home atmosphere made it feel right to start the new era there.

Josh says they played a bowling alley in London once. He did not wear bowling shoes in the set nor when he bowled afterward, which, as Tyler points out, is very punk rock.

Tyler reflects on how this show represents years of preparation and practice teaching them how to “trim the fat” and master the tempo and flow of the concert to appear as confident as possible and bring the audience along for a well-planned journey.

“My Blood” is one of the most challenging songs for both artists to play, particularly Tyler, as he has to balance the difficult falsetto with keeping that bassline groovy and consistent.

The IG answers were mostly just the dudes trying and failing to answer basic questions like “Are you happy to be back?” and “What’s it like to be famous?” in as few words as possible without giggling, hugging, and tickling each other. Best Q/A: Why did they watch the Grammys in their underwear? “We didn’t have air-conditioning.”

South African DJ Rob Forbes from Radio 5FM also conducted a truly fascinating interview with the band, the first that dives into the lore and one that gives us even more of a glimpse into some of the future songs. Additionally, Mr. Forbes briefly posted the tracklist w/ time-codes, revealing that both “Chlorine” and “Bandito” go over five minutes- get hyped, kids. Highlights from this interview include:

When asked about Clancy, Tyler responds with a pregnant silence before asking how the the interviewer knew about him. DJ Forbes stutters an answer about having listened to the record, but Tyler replies that Clancy’s not on the record. All he does say about Clancy is “I’ve heard about him, and I know we’re from the same place.” What is up with your cryptic nonsense, Tyler Robert Joseph?

The band intentionally left the Trench Trilogy open-ended to be able to continue it in the future. Tyler did not mean to make the timeline confusing, but did note that its cyclical nature left it open for the Clique to pursue that interpretation.

Tyler is careful with choosing his words to describe Nico. He admits the whole thing is pretty confusing (his grandma asked him once, “What’s a Nico?”), but that was his intention: he wanted to give the Clique a lot to think about and discuss as a reward for waiting so long. He does seem to confirm that Nico is Blurryface, or at least an aspect of him that represents how much more familiar Tyler has become with the nature of his own insecurities as he writes about it.

Tyler denies that the final verse of “Neon Gravestones” has a specifically political bend and actually sounds a little offended that something so important to him could be cast in that light. No idea what that means, I need to hear this song.

The interviewer says that Tyler calls his “Pet Cheetah” “Jason Statham” within the song itself in a fun rap verse. Tyler laughs and says that came from an inside joke between him and Josh that he was excited to bring to life. I am SO confused, you have no idea.

Tyler says that they had plans at one point to come to South Africa for a show that fell through at the last second, but that they’re still interested in going at some point in the future.

Additionally, the music production interest site Mix did a small spotlight on the producers behind Trench. We already knew that Paul Meany was handling main production duty; Darrell Thorpe, whose credits include Radiohead, OutKast, Paul McCartney, and Foster the People, joined him as an engineer while the band captured the album’s drum tracks at United Recording Studios in LA, the only studio they used outside of the one in Tyler’s home. It’s always cool to see the dudes who bring the band’s music to life, but, to be honest, the best part of this short little article is Tyler’s dad socks in the photo.

Oh, and music video director Andrew Donoho told Billboard that he can’t spoil the album or Tyler will burn down his house. So... yeah, okay, moving on.

Chart Performance:

After its first full week of sales and streaming, “My Blood” secured a debut at #16 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart ranking the songs that have yet to reach the Hot 100. The song gains at all metrics, and according to some industry sources like Headline Planet, it is receiving a concentrated marketing push to pop and adult contemporary markets that its predecessors have not. “Jumpsuit” continues to fade, but its run was respectable, and I remain optimistic about Trench’s commercial prospects going forward, especially in the midst of this hype wave.

Whew. That was a long run. Congrats to everyone who made it all the way to the end. We’re so close to Trench, you guys. Keep powering through. Stay alive. And power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[surly01]

A Journal of the Plague

Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on April 5, 2020

"The taverns are fair full of gadabouts making merry this eve. Though I may press my face against the window like an urchin at a confectioner’s, I am tempted not by the sweetmeats within. A dram in exchange for the pox is an ill bargain indeed."

— Samuel Pepys, 1665

Watching Covid-19 unfold is like watching the approach of a slow motion catastrophe. We cannot run, nor hide. We can only wait. The math is immutable, and inexorable. The confirmed infection counts and death tolls double every three days. Tick-tock.

We are told to practice "social distancing," to wear masks, to wash our hands continuously, to not touch our faces, and most of all to #Staythefuckhome. Most do. Some, including notorious ignorami, assorted MAGATs, and fundamentalist preachers whose addiction to positive cash flow depends on filling their megachurches, do not. These people should be treated as if they want you dead, judging from their actions, they do.

On a warm spring day last weekend they could be found packing cars going God-knows-where, on sidewalks with kids in tow, even going house-to-house to talk to neighbors! Amidst all the people on their bikes taking advantage of a sweet spring day to go out and provide disease vectors for the unsuspecting, I noted that a friend posted on Facebook that the parking lots down at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront  were absolutely packed. Leaving the cynical person to wonder, "what the hell is wrong with people?"

We are linear thinkers; we do not do the exponential function very well. (Part of the reason Einstein, when asked to identify the most powerful force he had seen in a lifetime of discovery, replied, “Compound interest.")

The very next day, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam issued a stay-at-home order for Virginia in an effort to further stop the spread of the coronavirus. Better late than never.

Being first to lock the state down seems to have worked for California. I saw a clip by Gavin Newsom on TV saying as much, that the lockdown flattened the impact. He/they just had the good sense to employ the only weapon available. California bought themselves time, and kept the outbreak from swamping their health system. The less the infection penetrates the population in advance of a vaccine, the better.

My inner hunchback is waiting for karma to arrive in Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, and the other states that insist on staying "open for bidness" in the face of the trump Plague. I wish I were a better person. I am not.

In a recent book review, Charles Baxter observes,

Mania rules in many American classics. Like it or not, in what has been taken to be our national literature, the notable white male characters are often in the grip of obsession. From Captain Ahab, to Frank Norris’s McTeague, Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, Faulkner’s Thomas Sutpen, Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert, Philip Roth’s Portnoy, and James McBride’s John Brown, we are in the presence of men who want only one thing and have sold their souls to get it.

We are all maniacs now: maniacs to stay alive, to remain beyond the reach of a silent killer with near universal reach, and whose lethality will disproportionately affect the elderly and the infirm. And while we may not sell our souls, we have certainly turned our vigilance up to "10."

Samuel Pepys (pronounced: "Peeps"), a capable administrator of British naval affairs and Member of Parliament in the seventeenth century, kept a diary as a young man. He recorded his daily life for almost ten years, and his record is often regarded as Britain’s most celebrated diary.

Historians have for years been mining Pepys' insights about details of everyday life during the seventeenth century, as he documented the coronation of King Charles II and the Restoration, the Anglo-Dutch war, the Great Plague, and the Great Fire of London.  It is his descriptions of the London plague years of 1655-66 that we care about here.

The Great Plague of London killed between 75,000-100,000, roughly 20 per cent of the population. Pepys' diary is filled wth what might today be called, "hot takes:"

On hearing ill rumour that Londoners may soon be urged into their lodgings by Her Majesty’s men, I looked upon the street to see a gaggle of striplings making fair merry, and no doubt spreading the plague well about. Not a care had these rogues for the health of their elders!

As noted above, on a clear weekend day I noted cars filled with people leaving the neighborhood… going where, exactly?  And beheld the sight of a neighbor working out on another neighbor who had the good sense to hide behind a storm door while the sputum-deliverer held forth. I swear, had he crossed the street I'd have used a rake to oblige him to keep his distance.

Great fears of the Sickenesses here in the City, it being said that two or three houses are already shut up. God preserve us all.

We are all shut up in our houses now. Aside, that is, from a few states in the south and west who wish themselves part of the Neo-confederacy. Persuading an entire country to voluntarily stay at home is not easy, and without clear direction from an unwilling White House, mayors, governors, and business owners have rolled their own.

Thus this month ends, with great sadness upon the public through the greateness of the plague, everywhere through the Kingdom almost. Every day sadder and sadder news of its increase. In the City died this week 7496; and all of them, 6102 of the plague. But it is feared that the true number of the dead this week is near 10000 – partly from the poor that cannot be taken notice of through the greatness of the number, and partly from the Quakers and others that will not have any bell ring for them. As to myself, I am very well; only, in fear of the plague, and as much of an Ague, by being forced to go early and late to Woolwich, and my family to lie there continually.

The death toll in the US as of this writing is over 9100. The number of US confirmed cases is over 321,000. Look for these rates to double every three days until the disease peaks. Soon, most everyone in the US will know someone who has been infected. Like 9/11, the pandemic has already imprinted itself upon our psyche as a defining moment.

The pandemic has shattered the myth of American "greatness." As the first among equals of rich, strong, developed nations, the supremacy of American health care is held as an article of faith. That illusion has been shattered. In spite of months of advance warning as the virus tore through other countries, when America was finally tested by COVID-19, it failed.

Countries like South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong followed the playbook: develop a test, use it to identify the infected, isolate them, and trace those they’ve had contact with. Wash, rinse, repeat. As Alexis Madrigal and Robinson Meyer reported, the CDC developed and distributed a faulty test in February. No one could have imagined that as the American caseload shot into the tens of thousands, only hundreds of people would be tested. This created an epidemiological hole from which we have never emerged. Lack of a reliable test deployed early enough is the single point of failure that undermined every other countermeasure, and that has led to the immutable, exponential math.

Bet your mortgage that the impacts on economic, social and political aspects of our lives from coronavirus will be long lasting. And   compounded, given the chaos, corruption, and cronyism that heralded our blundered entry into this crisis. Few have ever seen anything like this, and only a few cranks and miscreants (aside from professional planners) have even bothered to contemplate it.

The London plague continued into 1666.

Thanks be to God, the plague is, as I hear, encreased but two this week; but in the country in several places it rages mightily, and particularly in Colchester, where it hath long been, and is believed will quite depopulate the place.

Italy and Spain offer grim warnings about an American future. Hospitals are rapidly running out of room, supplies, and staff. Health-care workers are already seeing dwindling equipment, growing waves of patients, with doctors and nurses themselves becoming ill. And they are operating without a gaunt, shiny-faced, porcelain-doll wannabe-Dauphin to bollix up supplies of medical equipment, and to MBAsplain coronavirus to the nation's Governors. Trump and Bolton terminated the Pandemic staff and have given the portfolio to Richie Rich for on-the-job training. God help us all.

By 1667 Pepys' plague had burnt out, but still lived in recent memory:

    One at the table told an odd passage in this late plague: that at Petersfield, I think, he said, one side of the street had every house almost infected through the town, and the other, not one shut up.

During a time of "social distancing," we are reduced to staring off the porch or out the window. Like the denizens of Plato's cave, we watch the electronic shadows dance off the wall, while we attempt to make sense of them. Even more difficult is imagining how we might begin to recover from a virtual shutdown of economic life. As we try to restart an all-but-stopped economy dependent upon an engine of ceaseless consumption, we run the risk of renewed disease flareups as seen in China, Singapore, and other Asian countries that briefly seemed to have the virus under control. All it takes is one case to reignite fresh infections.

My best guess is that until a vaccine can be produced (probably 18 months), we'll continue to play a protracted game of whack-a-mole with the virus, stamping out outbreaks as they occur.

The slow response to the virus by some Trumpophile governors will be telling. Virus hot spots in are South poised for disproportionate suffering. With many Southern states only recently implementing stay-at-home orders, there is a chance that a later wave of infection could swamp local facilities. Even sparsely populated counties could soon have more cases than their health care systems can handle.

“There is no city anywhere in the world that can withstand the outbreak that would occur if there isn’t rigorous social distancing,” said Tom Frieden, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director.

In Virginia, the governor is both a Democrat and a physician, so he imposed social distancing earlier than some. But some children of privilege and exception haven't taken it seriously.

The Columbia University model also identified the area around Hampton Roads and Newport News, Va., at risk of having its health infrastructure swamped. Though the number of cases in those counties is currently low, Virginia is not expected to experience peak conditions until late May, and has so far received just a tiny fraction of the medical equipment requested from the federal government.

On Friday, state leaders confirmed that the tidewater region has some of the highest community spread in the state, and that it would be one of three areas designated for a field hospital to take pressure off the local medical system. The “alternate care” site in the Hampton Roads Convention Center will be able to hold up to 360 acute care beds or 580 non-acute beds, Gov. Ralph Northam said.

This Week in Doom:

Like the pandemic itself, the economic effects are just getting started. Strap in. Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman sees unemployment soaring to 20% in a matter of weeks.

WE'RE NUMBER ONE!  The US just recorded the highest single-day death toll in the world

Just when you thought it might be safe to peek out off your bunker… this asshole, again. Robertson Blames Coronavirus On Oral Sex, ‘Lady Chemicals’

Amid reports that the federal stockpile of medical supplies is “nearly exhausted” and production of new equipment is unlikely to come soon enough, it now appears that the Trump administration may be playing favorites, distributing supplies to political allies and states important for the president’s reelection campaign. How bad will the fallout be? Frank Rich: Trump’s Potemkin Recovery

Karma Comes to Cousinfuck Country. Mississippi Now Has the Highest Rate of Coronavirus Hospitalizations in the United States

Are there no lampposts? No nylon rope? New disclosure reveals Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her husband dumped retail stock and bought shares in a company that manufacturers medical supplies. Loeffler and her husband dumped hundreds of thousands in stocks before the market dropped over the coronavirus outbreak.

Trump's budget director stands by plan to cut CDC budget by 15 percent during the coronavirus pandemic  The acting director of the OMB seemed unperturbed when asked about if it was wise to cut the CDC during a pandemic.

Karma, your table is ready. Liberty University Brings Back Its Students, and Coronavirus Fears, Too

Americans are doing what they do best: buying guns

For unbiased information, Just found this. No interpretations, no politics. Just data, visualized: https://covid19.healthdata.org

Stay informed and protect your own.

Surly1 was an administrator and contributing author to Doomstead Diner. He is the author of numerous rants, screeds and spittle-flecked invective here and elsewhere. He lives a quiet domestic existence in Southeastern Virginia with his wife Contrary. Descended from a long line of people to whom one could never tell anything, all opinions are his and his alone, because he paid full retail for everything he has managed to learn.

[stoweboyd]

Jeff Bezos is staving off Amazon’s ‘day 2′ when it no longer operates as a nimble upstart:

Embrace External Trends 

The outside world can push you into Day 2 if you won’t or can’t embrace powerful trends quickly. If you fight them, you’re probably fighting the future. Embrace them and you have a tailwind.

Perhaps the most compelling part of Bezo’s letter to the shareholders is about decision-making:

High-Velocity Decision Making

Day 2 companies make high-quality decisions, but they make high-quality decisions slowly. To keep the energy and dynamism of Day 1, you have to somehow make high-quality, high-velocity decisions. Easy for start-ups and very challenging for large organizations. The senior team at Amazon is determined to keep our decision-making velocity high. Speed matters in business – plus a high-velocity decision making environment is more fun too. We don’t know all the answers, but here are some thoughts.

First, never use a one-size-fits-all decision-making process. Many decisions are reversible, two-way doors. Those decisions can use a light-weight process. For those, so what if you’re wrong? I wrote about this in more detail in last year’s letter.

Second, most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow. Plus, either way, you need to be good at quickly recognizing and correcting bad decisions. If you’re good at course correcting, being wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going to be expensive for sure.

Third, use the phrase “disagree and commit.” This phrase will save a lot of time. If you have conviction on a particular direction even though there’s no consensus, it’s helpful to say, “Look, I know we disagree on this but will you gamble with me on it? Disagree and commit?” By the time you’re at this point, no one can know the answer for sure, and you’ll probably get a quick yes.

This isn’t one way. If you’re the boss, you should do this too. I disagree and commit all the time. We recently greenlit a particular Amazon Studios original. I told the team my view: debatable whether it would be interesting enough, complicated to produce, the business terms aren’t that good, and we have lots of other opportunities. They had a completely different opinion and wanted to go ahead. I wrote back right away with “I disagree and commit and hope it becomes the most watched thing we’ve ever made.” Consider how much slower this decision cycle would have been if the team had actually had to convince me rather than simply get my commitment.

Note what this example is not: it’s not me thinking to myself “well, these guys are wrong and missing the point, but this isn’t worth me chasing.” It’s a genuine disagreement of opinion, a candid expression of my view, a chance for the team to weigh my view, and a quick, sincere commitment to go their way. And given that this team has already brought home 11 Emmys, 6 Golden Globes, and 3 Oscars, I’m just glad they let me in the room at all!

Fourth, recognize true misalignment issues early and escalate them immediately. Sometimes teams have different objectives and fundamentally different views. They are not aligned. No amount of discussion, no number of meetings will resolve that deep misalignment. Without escalation, the default dispute resolution mechanism for this scenario is exhaustion. Whoever has more stamina carries the decision.

I’ve seen many examples of sincere misalignment at Amazon over the years. When we decided to invite third party sellers to compete directly against us on our own product detail pages – that was a big one. Many smart, well-intentioned Amazonians were simply not at all aligned with the direction. The big decision set up hundreds of smaller decisions, many of which needed to be escalated to the senior team.

“You’ve worn me down” is an awful decision-making process. It’s slow and de-energizing. Go for quick escalation instead – it’s better.

So, have you settled only for decision quality, or are you mindful of decision velocity too? Are the world’s trends tailwinds for you? Are you falling prey to proxies, or do they serve you? And most important of all, are you delighting customers? We can have the scope and capabilities of a large company and the spirit and heart of a small one. But we have to choose it.

Ka-boom.

I will write something longer on this soon.

[mensusaonlinestore1]

HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR NETWORK MARKETING, FIND OUT IN ROBS BLOG

Network marketing is the most important thing that is to happen in today’s business. Lot of businesses today are now, focus on getting customers through call. The network marketing business is increases day by day and don’t even miss a chance on it.

My life towards this network marketing was not easy, I tried a lot. But failed. Initially, I was gone to do some charity work in Argentina. I disliked form the 1st day. Since I reached into some place which I don’t like  and where don’t speak my language so I don’t like it. Here was my 1st turning point. I ultimately could not cope the thing because, I did not like it. Things you have to do in life which you like only. Doing the thing you don’t like will only harm you, cannot bring success for you. Nothing else. Then I am back in my own country, where I can express myself. I started working for a company here and there I learned network marketing. I learned how to write and make your own script and I knew how to call people. Now, I know what to say how to make your lists, I know how you use white pages, yellow pages for your network marketing business. I have learned how to make return on investment. I now know how to a successful on network marketing podcast stuffs.

Rob Sperry being more than a decade of network marketing business, teaching people so that they could have lot of   business. All you have to following things before you go to perfect package, here are the detail –

1.      3 DAY LINKEDIN WORKSHOP - The $47 course will teach you the LinkedIn details. LinkedIn is often considered as tiger of professional markets in the world, people meet here mostly for professional relationships nothing else. With this course you will understand how to do list building with your LinkedIn, how to use it for better business outreach as well. I will tell how to make connections - about 100 connections a day. Powerful LinkedIn program will obviously help you in network marketing.

 2.      HOW TO SIGN UP 10 CUSTOMERS IN 10 DAYS - $37 will teach you how to attract people to join in your team and your network. Try this, try script.

 3.      HOW TO GENERATE A FLOOD OF LASER TARGETED LEADS FOR YOUR BUSINESS - The leads are the most important thing today. You need to learn, how to use your technique to generate leads and flood of business. I will teach you this technique for just $97. I will tell you how do you generate targeted leads? I will tell you how do you attract leads? I will discover you a new daily method of operation with you.

 4.      HOW TO RECRUIT PEOPLE - Recruiting people is the most important thing to see today. All you just have to spend $97 and give it to recruitment people. There is another $37 advance mini course is designed to help you as well. I will help you to overcome your fears to make new contracts and to earn confidence as well. In this network marketing training, one needs to make sure he is not pussy. I will teach you without being pussy how to add people.

 5.      MILLION DOLLAR MASTERCLASS - There are always fear among the network marketers, you know. I will teach you how to overcome that fear. The million dollar master class will teach you, how you do exactly helps us through growing network marketing things. You know there is saying he is died who feared. So, always never ever get feared. Have courage in yourself and indentify or investigate your mistake and what you actually lack and focus on them. This "million dollar master class" is just cost $97 and I will give you the strategy that my 30 million dollar taught me.

 6.      THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYBOOK FOR NETWORK MARKETERS - The $210 course, which is famous for social media playbooks and social media coverage for network marketing. I can give you a grantee that this course will fulfill all your social media skills and needs that you need to be a network marketer. There are 14 different modules in this course. If you buy this $210 course probably you don’t need to buy any other course in future. This course will fulfill all your social media needs.

 7.      HOW TO TRANSIT LIKES & COMMENTS INTO MONEY - This course is just cost $47 and divided into modules. In module 1, you will learn how not to run out of content ever. In Module 2, you will learn how much valuable the 1st impressions are and in I will teach you how to be positive always and how to last impressions. In Module 3(It is actually addition module) you will actually how to make the transition from likes to money.

 8.      THE 10X LEGEND COURSE - The $397 10x legend course is just huge. Here you will learn a lot of things. Here you will learn how to do recruiting techniques and how to recruit people good way. I will also telling you the top perspectives that you will know how this will change you. You will know the style, personality, strategy, techniques, tip or story that will be changing everything for you. This course is called 10x challenge fact due to this thing that. In this 10 day, I will tell you the bulk kicking as well.

 9.      NICHES TO RICHES COURSE – This is a $147 course, which will ask you – how do you create your brand and identify your niche to generate profits.

 10.  THE 5 DAY CHALLENGE - The $297 5 day challenge course will tell you the following things - my top 12 face book live headlines to 10x your engagement, Creation of and convert those into profits, network marketing social media portal like face book live contents that attracts leads and increases your followers, identifying your brand and giving you a clarity on FB live will help you create your niche, how do you use your face book 5 day challenge as well.  

 11.  ATTRACTION MARKETING - Attraction marketing is from a combined 22 training from a 11 different top earners. I will teach you the entire process of attraction marketing and you will know how to international all your social media content to attract rights prospects. It is cost $397.

 12.  TRANSITION FROM CUSTOMERS INTO BUSINESS BUILDERS - A small course just for $19, which will teach you unique strategies for you to transition customers into business builders.

 If you are looking to change your luck, come on and join us.  I will help you to become the world’s best network marketing expert. I will always fulfill your dream and let you know the tactics.

 Due to my huge learning I was awarded for the best network marketing expert in 2017.

If you have any regarding our services, kindly email me at roblsperry@gmail.com or contact portal.

[cecillewhite]

Best Customer Education Blogs: 25 Must-Reads for Learning Professionals

Which blogs offer the best advice about customer education practices, strategies and technologies? Great question. But with such phenomenal recent growth in the customer experience market, there is no obvious answer.

That’s not just a gut reaction – it’s a business reality. One glance at the data and you’ll see what I mean. The sheer volume of solutions that define the broader marketing technology landscape has ballooned from only 150 in 2011 to nearly 7000 this year, according to Scott Brinker at ChiefMartec.com. What’s more, consolidation is nowhere in sight.

The thirst for tools that drive profitable customer relationships seems unquenchable. And education is only one tiny piece in that massive puzzle. (In fact, most learning-related solutions are tucked into the gold column under “Customer Experience, Service and Success.” Interestingly, some customer-oriented LMS vendors aren’t even on ChiefMartec’s radar yet!)

Nevertheless, education is a critical factor in the customer experience equation, and marketers are eager to learn how to leverage customer education for better business results. That’s why martech vendors of all stripes are responding with topical thought leadership. And that’s where our quest to find the best blog content begins.

So Many Possibilities, So Little Time

If you close your eyes and toss a dart anywhere at this martech vendor map, chances are you’ll find a site brimming with information about the role of onboarding and ongoing training in the customer lifecycle. But only a few of these resources actually focus exclusively on customer education. Even fewer are backed by firsthand experience that makes their observations credible and useful. So it’s important to choose wisely.

Of course, technology vendors aren’t the only source of customer education guidance. For example, as an independent extended enterprise learning analyst, I’ve been writing for nearly 5 years about the explosive growth in customer training and the learning innovators who are defining this space.

REPLAY THE WEBINAR NOW!

And I’m not the only one who’s passionate about this topic. Useful insights come from every corner of the customer experience ecosystem. That’s why our choice of must-reads draws from a variety of sources – other analysts and consultants, customer education leaders, professional association executives and learning systems vendors, as well as marketing technology providers.

While not exhaustive, the following list also showcases multiple topics, including slice-of-life cases that demonstrate lessons learned from companies with customer training programs.

Although this represents only a fraction of the shareworthy insights and advice we’ve uncovered in our travels, we hope this gives you a taste of what’s available from the brightest strategists and practitioners who are shaping the future of the customer experience discipline. Enjoy!

  25 Must-Read Customer Education Blogs

CONNECTING TRAINING AND CUSTOMER SUCCESS

What is Customer Training? By Eoghan Quigley, Product Marketing Manager LearnUpon Many learning professionals still focus exclusively on employee training and development. If you’re in this camp, customer education concepts are probably new to you. For those who need an overview, this post covers the basics.

7 Ways Education Services Fit Into Customer Success By Maria Manning-Chapman, VP Research, Educational Services Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) Customer success is mission-critical for all kinds of companies – especially subscription-based software providers. Yet this relatively new term is often misunderstood. What exactly is customer success and how can specialized training support these objectives? Here’s a helpful introduction from TSIA, an organization at the heart of the SaaS industry.

Does Customer Success Mean Anything Outside of SaaS? (Published on the Amity blog) By Lindsay Smith, Director of Customer Success BestCompaniezAZ If you think that customer-centered strategies apply only to SaaS products, think again. Drawing upon her experience in multiple industries, this brand evangelist explains why smart businesses everywhere should make customer success a core competency.

The 80/20 Rule of Customer Education By Donna Weber, Customer Onboarding and Engagement Consultant Springboard Solutions This marketing-savvy customer success expert explains why it’s important to consider the Pareto Principle when developing customer training. In other words, focus on 20% of your product that 80% of your customers actually use. Donna also outlines 5 ways that customer education leaders can apply this principle for best results.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER ONBOARDING

The Secret to Successful Customer Onboarding By Lincoln Murphy, Customer Success Consultant Sixteen Ventures Onboarding is widely accepted as a key to product adoption and ultimately, customer success. Yet oddly, there is still no universally accepted definition for this critical term. Customer training and onboarding are closely connected, but they aren’t interchangeable concepts. If you need clarity from a no-nonsense source, check this post by one of the most articulate independent thought leaders in the customer success sphere.

Why Smooth Onboarding is the Key to Customer Success By Joshua Thayer, Sr. Inbound Marketing Manager Thought Industries In every customer journey, there are pivotal moments that determine the likelihood of customer success. In these moments, learning experiences can drive customer engagement and momentum. This post takes a closer look at why and how to make it work.

The Ultimate Guide to Customer Onboarding By Christina Perricone, Content Strategist Hubspot If you’re looking for step-by-step guidelines to develop a case for customer onboarding, this long-form post provides all the details you need to create a compelling game plan. It begins with a simple definition of customer onboarding and statistical evidence of its business value. Other sections are devoted to onboarding best practices, how-to tips, metrics and real-world examples, as well as advice about how to avoid common missteps. A great resource to keep handy as a quick reference in the future.

The Delightful Secret of Successful User Onboarding By Pulkit Agrawal, CEO Chameleon An acceptable annual churn rate is 5-7%, yet more than 30% of SaaS companies face churn rates of 10% or more. That’s simply not sufficient to grow a sustainable business. So, what can companies do to turn new users into lasting customers? This post uses real-world examples to illustrate precisely how “aha” moments in onboarding make all the difference in customer adoption, retention and lifetime value.

Customer Education is Your Onboarding Scale Engine By Adam Avramescu, Head of Customer Education & Training Checkr Research reveals that weak onboarding is the biggest cause of customer churn in the SaaS industry, representing 23% of attrition – more than poor relationship management, product deficiencies and other common issues. What is a “mature” onboarding strategy and how can it help you avoid this fate? And how can you bring together multiple learning elements to create an effective onboarding mix? Adam offers valuable food for thought.

76 Tips to Optimize User Onboarding By Ty Magnin, Director of Marketing AppCues Don’t let the length of this embedded Slideshare deck intimidate you. This chunky compilation of best practices reflects in-depth analysis of 400 real-world onboarding experiences and it’s worth reading from front to back. Why? Because onboarding is 2.6x more important for retention than any other customer journey metric. Plus, strong onboarding drives 74% more bottom-line revenue than later stages in the customer lifecycle. Fortunately, these tips are straightforward, so you can easily imagine how to apply them in your own environment.

PRODUCT TRAINING STRATEGIES AND TECHNOLOGIES

How Much Education Does Your Marketing Require? by Jeannie Walters, CEO, 360Connext (Published on the Litmos blog) We know that integrating education with marketing increases conversion rates, but what does that mean for ongoing business? Continuously sharing product-related tips, reference tools and other information helps keep customers engaged and up-to-date, while also helping them discover other products they might value.

Why In-App Onboarding Deserves a Spot On Your Product Roadmap By Shaun Juncal, Sr. Product Marketing Manager Product Plan Have you considered using in-app tools to support customer onboarding? If so, you may wonder if they’ll compete for precious development resources with must-have features on your product roadmap. Fortunately, new code-free onboarding tools are putting these worries to rest. Learn what to consider from a product manager’s perspective.

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Creating Customer Learning Paths That Scale (Published on  TrainingIndustry.com) By Linda Schwaber-Cohen, Senior Manager, Training Skilljar In today’s complex customer technology stacks, educational content is often distributed across multiple systems – each with unique owners and processes for development, maintenance and expansion. In this kind of environment, how can you address customer needs as your company grows?

The Missing Piece of the Software Adoption Puzzle by Kevin Hanegan, VP Knowledge and Learning Qlik Organizations everywhere are discovering the benefits of moving from traditional software ownership to cloud-based subscription models. They’re also facing significant user adoption challenges as users struggle to keep up with continuous software improvements. To stay ahead of the curve, organizations must rethink learning strategies.

Finding the Right Mix of Application and Context Training for Customer Success By Barry Kelly, CEO and Co-Founder Thought Industries As training becomes a more integral part of the software customer success playbook, two distinct learning delivery mechanisms are emerging: contextual learning and application learning. What’s the difference and how can you make them work for your customers?

How to Price Customer Education When Customers Expect It to Be Free by Bill Cushard, Director of Marketing ServiceRocket Should you charge customers outright for training, or should that cost be built into the cost of your product? The answer to this question is tricky and often highly strategic. This article looks closely at the pros and cons of treating training as a direct source of revenue, versus a path to customer adoption, renewal and growth.

Why Connected Experiences Are So Critical – And So Difficult By Peter Gaylord, Senior Director, Product Marketing Salesforce.com Today’s customers have remarkably high standards for engagement. For example, 70% of survey respondents said that connected experiences are “very important” in winning their business. That’s a tall order in today’s multi-channel digital environment. This article offers insight into just how big the challenge is.

8 Ways Training Automation Helps Attract, Onboard and Retain Customers By Peter Schroeder, Head of Marketing Northpass How can training automation help your organization more effectively attract new customers, facilitate onboarding and every other step in the customer lifecycle? Using real-world stories as examples, this article explores 8 ways that customer training technology can lead to significant business benefits.

Why Software Companies Should Develop a Certification Program by Julia Borgini, Content Marketer and Copywriter Learndot Professional certifications are growing in popularity among associations and other continuing education providers. But how exactly do certification programs enhance customer education and add business value? This post looks at 8 reasons why product certifications can be a smart strategy.

Customer Education and Your Customer Health Score By Linda Schwaber-Cohen, Senior Manager, Training Skilljar The correlation between customer education and lifetime value is compelling. For example, trained customers use SaaS products 135% more, on average, than those who aren’t trained. Training is also linked to longer and more profitable customer relationships. So how can you take this data one step further, as an indicator of customer health? Interesting.

  LESSONS DIRECTLY FROM THE CUSTOMER TRAINING FRONT LINES

How Fender Guitars Is Solving a Product Adoption Problem By Bill Cushard, Director of Marketing ServiceRocket Your company doesn’t have to be in the technology industry to benefit from customer education. Fender is a perfect example. Electric guitar sales are fading fast. And 90% of new players quit within the first year of buying a guitar. This case offers specific recommendations for any organization facing similar obstacles.

12 Brands That Nail Customer Education With Video By Wyzowl What does great customer education actually look like? Check these onboarding videos from some of the brightest minds in customer success. From consumer product companies like Oral-B and Ikea to B2B brands like Slack and Canva, you’re bound to find inspiration somewhere in this collection.

How Gainsight Built Customer Success Into The Onboarding Process By Kendra McClanahan, Customer Success Solutions Architect Gainsight Gainsight is a leader in the customer success space. So what does this company do during the onboarding phase to facilitate customer success with its own product? The strategy emphasizes sales-to-service knowledge transfer, a “success for all” philosophy, in-person kickstart training and a mix of high-touch and low-touch methods.

How Product Education Plays a Critical Role in the Customer Journey at Intercom By Ashley Minogue, Director of Growth OpenView Venture Partners These notes from an interview with the head of product education at messaging software company Intercom reveal multiple factors that contribute to customer success. In particular, this focuses on 5 steps to a winning product education strategy. Key takeaway: If you’re serious about increasing product adoption, create cross-functional teams that focus on relevant activation metrics.

My Growth Story: Building HubSpot Academy By Mark Kilens, Leader of Hubspot Academy Hubspot How does the leader in inbound marketing software educate its own customers? This is the story of why an early brand advocate decided to join the Hubspot team and how he created a compelling learning experience that empowers other marketing professionals to succeed. This isn’t just a nostalgic nod to a successful program. It’s an epic saga with lessons for learning, marketing and customer experience professionals everywhere.

Conclusion

Wow. If you made it through this entire reading list, you’re definitely ready to master customer education! Did you find these resources as interesting and helpful as we did? What other resources would you recommend? If you have helpful customer education advice or a case study you’d like to share, feel free to send us a link. We always appreciate hearing ideas from other customer training enthusiasts.

Thanks for reading!

Want more insights? Watch our on-demand webinar:

The Competitive Advantage of an Externally Facing LMS

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There is tremendous diversity among the nearly 700 learning management systems available today. And when customer education is a top priority, it pays for organizations to choose an LMS designed specifically for that purpose.

What exactly are the business benefits of choosing a specialized learning management system (rather than an employee-oriented LMS) to support customer learning initiatives?

Join John Leh, Talented Learning lead analyst and CEO, and Terry Lydon, VP of Training Operations Projects at Litmos, as they explain the value of choosing an externally focused LMS. Specifically, they discuss: You’ll learn: 

How to quantify the benefits of customer learning

Which factors set a customer LMS apart from employee-focused platforms

What case studies reveal about the value of customer learning technology

How to find the best LMS for your customers’ needs, and

5 areas of innovation unique to customer LMS solutions

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Best Customer Education Blogs: 25 Must-Reads for Learning Professionals original post at Talented Learning

[studioashobby]

The Trolls are Alright

I started the first class by handing out surveys for the students to fill out, asking for their favorite TV show or movies so that I could provide relatable examples of good framing and composition.  As I took attendance, one kid blurted out, “Can I just write in New York Times?” I looked up from the attendance sheet, totally caught off guard. With all of my mental capacity, I responded:

“What?”

“I don’t watch TV. Or movies. Can I just write the New York Times?”

“…Do you read the New York Times?”

“No…I’m just going to write that in.”

He knew the game I was playing. He wasn’t going to give me personal information, as if I was going to use it against him later.

This was the first time I ever taught photography to middle school students. This was also the first time I tried out a class involving smartphones only. The focus of the class was less on creating highly technical shots (high speed, long distance zoom, etc.) and more on general composition (oh and #nofilter). I originally planned out a detailed curriculum where I present key concepts, take students to a different location, and hold group discussions afterwards. When I was done writing my lesson plans, I had something resembling a college syllabus. It felt a bit silly, even a little foreboding, for something that described kids’ summer camp activities to sound so academic and serious. But I also couldn’t see myself teaching any other way.

By the end of the first class, I had unsuccessfully gone through what I originally thought would be two classes’ worth of activities. I dismissed the students and “New York Times” kid ran out of the room, two arms extended straight behind him, exactly like ninjas from Naruto. Yeah, he definitely watches TV…

I left the school, got on the subway, and just sat there, totally drained. It was clear that most of my lesson plans had to be thrown out. Discussions weren’t going to work if the students were going to actively refuse to open up. One question kept gnawing at my mind:

“How can I trick these kids into learning photography?”

I struggled with the fact that the students weren’t in my class to develop something they already had an interest in, like people in a photography class typically are. It was summer camp. They just wanted to play. To teach them concepts of composition would have been like trying to teach physics to skateboarders. My students didn’t see a point in getting focused and self-aware. In their minds, taking photos is as natural as breathing. What was there to talk about? To think about? To improve?

I thought back to when I was in middle school. I was lucky enough to take a photography class in eighth grade, where I learned to use a black and white film SLR camera and develop photos in a dark room. I remembered how awesome it felt in the darkroom seeing the photos emerge out of paper as they sat in the chemical wash. I also remember failing a quiz on shutter speed and aperture, barely passing the class. When I started out in photography, I mostly learned from doing photography. Actively thinking about technique and craft came much later, after I was open to asking myself questions about how to improve. Thinking back to those beginnings, I re-focused my classes less on presentations and more on activities, partly in hopes that those activities would raise similar questions in the kids’ minds on how to get better.

But sometimes skateboarders just want to skate. My role as a teacher was more about creating different skating environments than about teaching them “the right way” to skate. One of the class organizers referred me to this amazing book called The Photographer’s Playbook.  Each page was a different person’s idea of an activity or a story about their most memorable lesson in photography. If you’ve ever seen Avatar: The Last Airbender television series, the experience of reading this book was similar to how the main character could recall the spirits of all of his past lives for their advice in times of crisis. I never really followed the photo activities in the book to the letter but they spurred activity ideas of my own, much more readily than when I read conventional books that break down photography into parts: rule of thirds, aperture and depth of field, etc. I had to break out of the “learning first, doing later” approach and the Playbook demonstrated ways that learning could be embedded in doing.

The only principle I emphasized to the students was FART, an acronym I learned from renowned camera reviewer, Ken Rockwell. FART stands for Feel, Ask, Refine, and Take. Most people take photos impulsively. FART reminds photographers to become more aware of those impulses and refine the photos accordingly, usually by standing in a different nearby location to get a better angle. I felt like this was the most important thing they should take away from the class: there’s no wrong or right way to envision a photograph, but there’s still better and worse ways to capture it. The acronym fit perfectly within the adolescent minds I was trying to teach. Every class would begin with the word FART on a projector screen.

Slowly I grew comfortable giving the students ideas of what to do while still giving them some freedom in how to do it. Sometimes it became impossible for them to take a bad photo. The troublemakers (or as education professionals now call them, “nonconformists”) occasionally ended up with more interesting photos than the ones who just played along. In one activity, I had the students take a photo every few steps on our way walking to a nearby park. What I intended was for the kids to notice multiple scenes in their usual surroundings. Here’s what “New York Times” kid took:

In spite of trolling the activity, he still managed to take an interesting series of photographs. You first laugh at his consistent facial expression, and then you start to notice what’s different in his surroundings in each frame. This is who he is. This is where he is. This is him. After we came back from the park, I asked the students to turn three photos into black and white cropped squares and modify them however they like. Here are his three photos:

Again, the results were not what I intended. Nevertheless, he ended up making three genuine and unique photographs. I can’t say for sure if he was “getting better” at photography or if he was just fooling around. Probably the latter. But every time the New York Times kid did his own thing, I just had to laugh, both at myself and at what they made. Here I was, trying so hard to get the students to learn something, when maybe I had to let go a little and just appreciate their photos in a different light.

For the next class, I had the students first take photos of the same object in their own angles. They would then display a different photo of the same object and place their phones on the floor, forming a “digital collage”:

When I told them to take photos of an umbrella, one student opened it and threw it in the air for another student to take a photo of it in “mid-float.” I could have easily said “Hey! Stop messing around!” but I recognized that it could lead to something interesting. When it came time to make the umbrella collage with their phones, the two students realized they could make it look like a person was throwing an umbrella from one phone screen to another.

For another collage, one student started stacking the phones like a house of cards. The result was a 3D collage sculpture of a wrench:

It was moments like these that left me to wonder. I knew I had a hand in what they made. I did lay the ground rules for these activities. But it still felt like the students were doing this all on their own. Was I really teaching them anything then? Perhaps I left this whole experience more changed than the students. It was only during this activity that I realized I had neglected to really consider how the smartphone could enable activities that wouldn’t make sense for regular cameras. During the collage activity, the students instinctively “cropped” their photos by zooming in and out on the display. My last class tried to make a “photo in a photo” class portrait:

Again, they tried to troll the exercise by covering their faces, but if you didn’t know that, you might see the photo as social commentary on identity in the age of smart devices. Every time the kids disrupted the activity, my attempts seemed to fail fantastically. On the one hand, the students didn’t end up making what I intended them to make. On the other hand, I had to recognize they still made something brilliant and the whole effort wasn’t for nothing.

Before this all happened, the only way I imagined I could teach people anything was through breaking things down into key concepts and then actively critiquing a person’s output. Sitting in lectures in college and going to meetings for my day job got me accustomed to this standard way of communicating and learning. Teaching middle school kids reminded me that sometimes it can be more natural and fun to just do an activity and have principles be internalized through experience. I’m still not sure how much of an impression I really made on these kids’ creative confidence. But perhaps I shouldn’t view teaching that way. Perhaps I was at my best when I was teaching for the moment, rather than for some hypothetical future where one of these kids becomes a world famous photographer. The students took photos. They shared them. They laughed. And then they took them home. Maybe that’s all I need to do.

For the last class, the students had to fill out another survey form, this time required by the Fun Fun Saturday program. The “New York Times” kid wrote one word responses to each survey question, forming the sentence, “I-learned-absolutely-nothing-from-this-class.” I asked him to take it a bit more seriously. He filled out the form again. For the question “What did you learn in this class?” he wrote:

“I learned to FART.”

 I guess that’s something right?

[luxus4me]

Design your way http://j.mp/2zJuSPi

It’s a damn mess and I have some theories on why.

I’ve been doing design work in the finance space for a long time. This wasn’t something I set out to do, it just kind of happened. My first finance gig was for firstUSA–I made banner ads. Not a glamorous job, but occasionally we got a fun one. I did get to make banner ads for the Austin Powers VISA card.

“Grandma needs another credit card” – evil Art Director

  I can’t find the banner ads to prove it, but here’s an image of one of the card designs. Insanity: it was the 90s. After this trial by fire, I worked for other financial institutions: CapitalOne, MBNA, Bank of America and maybe a few more. I lost track and thank goodness this wasn’t the only type of work I did.

Over the last few years, I’ve been on the brand side and e-commerce is a big part of a brand’s survival in this new age of Amazon. To try and keep pace there are many ways to collect funds. Credit cards are the standard, but there’s PayPal, VISA Checkout, AMEX Express Checkout, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin, Venmo, Alipay, Android Pay and and six new methods have probably been launched since I started writing this. They all have a similar goal: to get the user’s funds in exchange for goods or services. Each has benefits and a downside and most have horrible (UI) buttons that are mandated by the payment issuers.

If you design a checkout screen the way the payment issuers request you end up with something like this on the left. It’s not the most cohesive look and each payment option is competing for attention, including the (green) ‘Buy Now’ button. How does the user decide which is best for them?

Some of these are worse than others and one or two aren’t horrible, just awkward. So, let’s break it down…

Credit Cards

The old standard. All credit cards have what are known as ‘acceptance marks’. These are what you see on the sticker on the door of your favorite business in the real physical world. These little gems have been transformed into little buttons for e-commerce and because the old credit card companies were slow to react to this new world, they never really mandated any rules on these marks for digital. You’ll see all kinds around the web and there are often stylized versions. I’m sure this kills the brand folks at VISA, Mastercard, American Express and Discover but they were too late to the game.

Here are some examples from Amazon, Zappos, Rakuten, Simplify Commerce and Apple. Each one has the basics, but the style, shape, and size are different. The design teams have customized these to their site’s needs.

PayPal

I was a huge fan of PayPal early on. They were renegades before they got bought by eBay. They were the first widely used digital payment option and then they got stale and slow.

The buttons for PayPal are a damn mess–there’s no way around it. There are three distinct sets of official PayPal buttons at this time.

The old standard (still official) → options here

    The new standard (I think, also official) → options here

    and the even newer responsive option → details here

    The good news is that it looks like PayPal is finally updating their un-responsive buttons with this last option. The problem is that this recent version has many limitations, the biggest of which is that bottom tagline under the button. It’s not something you can turn off (easily). If, and this is a big IF, PayPal improves on this recent responsive button tool and gives designers more flexibility then maybe we can use this in the future.

VISA Checkout

VISA has spent a ton of money marketing their digital product and the experience isn’t awful but it’s not any better than PayPal really. It still takes you outside the store and then drops you back in. The bigger issue with VISA Checkout is that the (UI) buttons are clearly designed by someone who has never worked on a checkout flow. Branding and visibility are the most important elements–everything else be damned. This double button shape doesn’t align easily with other elements on a page and it’s huge as well. When you stack it vertically with other buttons you end up with strange vertical spacing. Forget trying to use this one in a row.

The acceptance marks are actually pretty decent and have many options to choose from. These are at least workable.

My guess is that VISA paid a big agency a ton of money to work on that goofy button. They’ve now invested who knows how much in it, so it’s here to stay. That is, until a new Chief Design Officer comes in and changes the executive’s minds with their new vision. The documentation is → here if you care to learn more.

Apple Pay

Apple, running the usual Apple playbook, wasn’t the first to the party of digital payments. But, once again, they slide in and do an amazing job hitting all of the notes the other players miss. The Apple Pay (two words) buttons are fully responsive and come in three simple styles. The acceptance mark is clean and small. Apple has two major advantages. First, iPhone penetration is huge and it’s an economically strong audience. Second, the UX of Apple Pay is amazing. You click Apple Pay, the payment sheet pops up and you confirm with a finger print. Done. No leaving the site, no distractions, just pay and move on with life.

Apple Pay buttons also come in white and white with a border

Full Apple interface guidelines are → here

Masterpass

Masterpass is very similar to VISA Checkout. They are kind of a mess and your first clue is that the UI guidelines are a PDF and not a code tool. Again, I think a big agency sold them on this and now they are stuck. It’s not as ugly as VISA’s but it’s no beauty either. It’s a standard shape at least.

the masterpass button

AMEX Express Checkout

Once again we have a half-assed attempt at UI. AMEX won’t even let you see their UI guide without an account. I’ve been unable to secure one despite multiple attempts. You can try and learn more → here. The button is a monstrosity with a faux shadow and no responsive features. Is it a button, inside of a button, inside of a street sign? Is this the UI version of inception?

Amazon Pay

Amazon is running the e-commerce world ragged with their constant evolution. With 43% of all online sales, they have the process of collecting money down to a science. The look and feel of Amazon Pay is evolving and the documentation already looks out of date. What’s odd is that these new ones are not responsive. It almost seems like they wanted what VISA and masterpass have–ugly buttons with big branding. Gradients are hot, right?

recent Amazon Pay buttons look like this (also in gold and dark grey)

I still see these older Amazon pay buttons around as well

Android Pay

Google tends to do things right and Android Pay is no different. They’ve crafted a clean set of buttons that fall in line with their material design philosophy. Of course, these are responsive. You can check out the documentation → here.

Android Pay button, also available in white and white with a border

How did we get here and what’s coming

This mess was created by designers who were given bad direction from brands who are ignoring the end user. There are a lot of conflicting priorities, investments and bad design that have hamstrung designers trying to build a decent experience for checkout.

Bitcoin and other new payment forms are coming online all the time. I can’t predict which ones will get traction and which won’t. The users will determine what they want and we’ll deal.

How to make it better

Before you run into a dark corner and cry about how these buttons will never work in your beautiful design, take a deep breath. You don’t have to use what the payment brands provide. All of them (even Apple) will grant you some flexibility with how these buttons appear. If you need capsules that all look the same, try it.

Keep in mind, you will need approval from all issuers before you go live: they’ll review your designs, but don’t be afraid of trying something non-standard. Trust your gut and design what’s right for your audience.

Do bear in mind that there is a large amount of cash being spent to make these recognizable. I’m not suggesting you ignore the branding entirely: balance is the key, as usual, in good design.

adidas (mobile) • • • work in progress (mobile)

Two examples. First is Adidas, they’ve got custom PayPal and Apple Pay buttons. These are not what either issuer suggests, but they’ve respectfully modified the buttons to match their UI and it all looks great. The other image is something I’m working on, where we’ve modified PayPal and Visa Checkout to match the Apple Pay button shape. This was done to create consistency among these ‘acceptance marks’ and minimize the chaos. This design was also approved by the payment issuers (but isn’t live yet). It can be done.

Let me know what you think in the comments, or if there’s a payment button I’ve missed!

In my efforts to make my job easier, I’ve developed a lot of assets for this work and if you need these check out my E-Commerce Payment Button Vector Set for $10. It’s got AI, EPS and Sketch formats for all of these payments and more. I’ll add new ones as I find them or as they evolve.

The post The Sad State of Payment Buttons appeared first on Design your way.

http://j.mp/2A6pLJG via Design your way URL : http://j.mp/2arS45r

[jamiekturner]

The Sad State of Payment Buttons

It’s a damn mess and I have some theories on why.

I’ve been doing design work in the finance space for a long time. This wasn’t something I set out to do, it just kind of happened. My first finance gig was for firstUSA–I made banner ads. Not a glamorous job, but occasionally we got a fun one. I did get to make banner ads for the Austin Powers VISA card.

“Grandma needs another credit card” – evil Art Director

  I can’t find the banner ads to prove it, but here’s an image of one of the card designs. Insanity: it was the 90s. After this trial by fire, I worked for other financial institutions: CapitalOne, MBNA, Bank of America and maybe a few more. I lost track and thank goodness this wasn’t the only type of work I did.

Over the last few years, I’ve been on the brand side and e-commerce is a big part of a brand’s survival in this new age of Amazon. To try and keep pace there are many ways to collect funds. Credit cards are the standard, but there’s PayPal, VISA Checkout, AMEX Express Checkout, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin, Venmo, Alipay, Android Pay and and six new methods have probably been launched since I started writing this. They all have a similar goal: to get the user’s funds in exchange for goods or services. Each has benefits and a downside and most have��horrible (UI) buttons that are mandated by the payment issuers.

If you design a checkout screen the way the payment issuers request you end up with something like this on the left. It’s not the most cohesive look and each payment option is competing for attention, including the (green) ‘Buy Now’ button. How does the user decide which is best for them?

Some of these are worse than others and one or two aren’t horrible, just awkward. So, let’s break it down…

Credit Cards

The old standard. All credit cards have what are known as ‘acceptance marks’. These are what you see on the sticker on the door of your favorite business in the real physical world. These little gems have been transformed into little buttons for e-commerce and because the old credit card companies were slow to react to this new world, they never really mandated any rules on these marks for digital. You’ll see all kinds around the web and there are often stylized versions. I’m sure this kills the brand folks at VISA, Mastercard, American Express and Discover but they were too late to the game.

Here are some examples from Amazon, Zappos, Rakuten, Simplify Commerce and Apple. Each one has the basics, but the style, shape, and size are different. The design teams have customized these to their site’s needs.

PayPal

I was a huge fan of PayPal early on. They were renegades before they got bought by eBay. They were the first widely used digital payment option and then they got stale and slow.

The buttons for PayPal are a damn mess–there’s no way around it. There are three distinct sets of official PayPal buttons at this time.

The old standard (still official) → options here

    The new standard (I think, also official) → options here

    and the even newer responsive option → details here

    The good news is that it looks like PayPal is finally updating their un-responsive buttons with this last option. The problem is that this recent version has many limitations, the biggest of which is that bottom tagline under the button. It’s not something you can turn off (easily). If, and this is a big IF, PayPal improves on this recent responsive button tool and gives designers more flexibility then maybe we can use this in the future.

VISA Checkout

VISA has spent a ton of money marketing their digital product and the experience isn’t awful but it’s not any better than PayPal really. It still takes you outside the store and then drops you back in. The bigger issue with VISA Checkout is that the (UI) buttons are clearly designed by someone who has never worked on a checkout flow. Branding and visibility are the most important elements–everything else be damned. This double button shape doesn’t align easily with other elements on a page and it’s huge as well. When you stack it vertically with other buttons you end up with strange vertical spacing. Forget trying to use this one in a row.

The acceptance marks are actually pretty decent and have many options to choose from. These are at least workable.

My guess is that VISA paid a big agency a ton of money to work on that goofy button. They’ve now invested who knows how much in it, so it’s here to stay. That is, until a new Chief Design Officer comes in and changes the executive’s minds with their new vision. The documentation is → here if you care to learn more.

Apple Pay

Apple, running the usual Apple playbook, wasn’t the first to the party of digital payments. But, once again, they slide in and do an amazing job hitting all of the notes the other players miss. The Apple Pay (two words) buttons are fully responsive and come in three simple styles. The acceptance mark is clean and small. Apple has two major advantages. First, iPhone penetration is huge and it’s an economically strong audience. Second, the UX of Apple Pay is amazing. You click Apple Pay, the payment sheet pops up and you confirm with a finger print. Done. No leaving the site, no distractions, just pay and move on with life.

Apple Pay buttons also come in white and white with a border

Full Apple interface guidelines are → here

Masterpass

Masterpass is very similar to VISA Checkout. They are kind of a mess and your first clue is that the UI guidelines are a PDF and not a code tool. Again, I think a big agency sold them on this and now they are stuck. It’s not as ugly as VISA’s but it’s no beauty either. It’s a standard shape at least.

the masterpass button

AMEX Express Checkout

Once again we have a half-assed attempt at UI. AMEX won’t even let you see their UI guide without an account. I’ve been unable to secure one despite multiple attempts. You can try and learn more → here. The button is a monstrosity with a faux shadow and no responsive features. Is it a button, inside of a button, inside of a street sign? Is this the UI version of inception?

Amazon Pay

Amazon is running the e-commerce world ragged with their constant evolution. With 43% of all online sales, they have the process of collecting money down to a science. The look and feel of Amazon Pay is evolving and the documentation already looks out of date. What’s odd is that these new ones are not responsive. It almost seems like they wanted what VISA and masterpass have–ugly buttons with big branding. Gradients are hot, right?

recent Amazon Pay buttons look like this (also in gold and dark grey)

I still see these older Amazon pay buttons around as well

Android Pay

Google tends to do things right and Android Pay is no different. They’ve crafted a clean set of buttons that fall in line with their material design philosophy. Of course, these are responsive. You can check out the documentation → here.

Android Pay button, also available in white and white with a border

How did we get here and what’s coming

This mess was created by designers who were given bad direction from brands who are ignoring the end user. There are a lot of conflicting priorities, investments and bad design that have hamstrung designers trying to build a decent experience for checkout.

Bitcoin and other new payment forms are coming online all the time. I can’t predict which ones will get traction and which won’t. The users will determine what they want and we’ll deal.

How to make it better

Before you run into a dark corner and cry about how these buttons will never work in your beautiful design, take a deep breath. You don’t have to use what the payment brands provide. All of them (even Apple) will grant you some flexibility with how these buttons appear. If you need capsules that all look the same, try it.

Keep in mind, you will need approval from all issuers before you go live: they’ll review your designs, but don’t be afraid of trying something non-standard. Trust your gut and design what’s right for your audience.

Do bear in mind that there is a large amount of cash being spent to make these recognizable. I’m not suggesting you ignore the branding entirely: balance is the key, as usual, in good design.

adidas (mobile) • • • work in progress (mobile)

Two examples. First is Adidas, they’ve got custom PayPal and Apple Pay buttons. These are not what either issuer suggests, but they’ve respectfully modified the buttons to match their UI and it all looks great. The other image is something I’m working on, where we’ve modified PayPal and Visa Checkout to match the Apple Pay button shape. This was done to create consistency among these ‘acceptance marks’ and minimize the chaos. This design was also approved by the payment issuers (but isn’t live yet). It can be done.

Let me know what you think in the comments, or if there’s a payment button I’ve missed!

In my efforts to make my job easier, I’ve developed a lot of assets for this work and if you need these check out my E-Commerce Payment Button Vector Set for $10. It’s got AI, EPS and Sketch formats for all of these payments and more. I’ll add new ones as I find them or as they evolve.

The post The Sad State of Payment Buttons appeared first on Design your way.

from Web Development & Designing http://www.designyourway.net/blog/design/sad-state-payment-buttons/

[everettwilkinson]

What ending DACA will mean — CONGRESS already eyeing immigration reform, OBAMA to speak out — AP: N. KOREA likely ‘readying launch of a ballistic missile,’ maybe ICBM — B’DAY: Blake Hounshell

Good Monday morning and happy Labor Day! LONDON CALLING — You may already have seen it, but the first edition of London Playbook went out early this morning. Our new London-based reporter Jack Blanchard is at the helm. London Playbook will bring you up to speed on the day ahead in Westminster. The launch edition featured a scoop on the progress of the Brexit talks, plus an interview with U.K. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox. Sign up for free http://politi.co/2txnK5S … The first edition http://politi.co/2gEkK2p

BUZZ — IF TRUMP ENDS DACA, which it seems like he will in some form, Republicans on Capitol Hill are already considering a push for immigration reform, according to people we’ve spoken to in recent hours. There is no finalized plan yet about what the GOP will do, but there are already quiet conversations in Republican ranks. There will be tremendous pressure from companies and outside groups to prevent the full repeal of DACA. Congress already has a full plate, and this is just another issue they’ll have to confront.

Story Continued Below

TOP STORY — “Trump has decided to end DACA, with 6-month delay,” by Eliana Johnson: “Senior White House aides huddled Sunday afternoon to discuss the rollout of a decision likely to ignite a political firestorm — and fulfill one of the president’s core campaign promises. The administration’s deliberations on the issue have been fluid and fast moving, and the president has faced strong warnings from members of his own party not to scrap the program. … [C]onversations with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who argued that Congress — rather than the executive branch — is responsible for writing immigration law, helped persuade the president to terminate the program and kick the issue to Congress, the two sources said.

“In a nod to reservations held by many lawmakers, the White House plans to delay the enforcement of the president’s decision for six months, giving Congress a window to act, according to one White House official. But a senior White House aide said that chief of staff John Kelly, who has been running the West Wing policy process on the issue, ‘thinks Congress should’ve gotten its act together a lot longer ago.’ White House aides caution that — as with everything in the Trump White House — nothing is set in stone until an official announcement has been made.” http://politi.co/2examFe

— NYT’s Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush: “[S]ome key details had not yet been resolved. Among them: whether beneficiaries of the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, would be allowed to renew their protected status during the six-month period. … The temporary solution has been the subject of quiet negotiations between Mr. Trump’s legislative staff and members of Mr. Ryan’s staff, according to an administration official familiar with the talks. … The president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who are both advisers to the president, back extending the DACA protections.” http://nyti.ms/2xIuPPZ

SCOOP — “Obama to speak out if Trump ends DACA,” by Michael Grunwald: “Obama used executive actions to launch the program in June 2012, providing assurances before his re-election that he would protect the so-called ‘Dreamers.’ Trump had suggested in the past that he didn’t want to deport Dreamers, saying in April that they should ‘rest easy,’ but the immigration hawks in his administration have argued that DACA is an illegal program. Obama’s current plan is to post a statement on Facebook and link to it on Twitter, where the former president has more than 94 million followers.” http://politi.co/2wxBjCx

— BuzzFeed’s Zoe Tillman and Adrian Carrasquillo: “There have been some efforts from within Trump’s White House to save DACA in recent days, but there has been limited support for keeping the Obama program among senior staff. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway recruited Hispanic Trump supporters to reach out to the president in a behind-the-scenes bid to get him to keep the program, according to a source. As it became clearer that Trump is leaning towards ending it, a source said Conway supports ‘POTUS outcomes on this. Period.’” http://bzfd.it/2gDuY36

THE TWO ENDS OF THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE — FLORIDA REP. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN (@RosLehtinen), who’s retiring after this term: “After teasing #Dreamers for months with talk of his ‘great heart,’ @POTUS slams door on them. Some ‘heart’…” … IOWA REP. STEVE KING (@SteveKingIA): “Ending DACA now gives chance 2 restore Rule of Law. Delaying so R Leadership can push Amnesty is Republican suicide.”

PIC DU JOUR — NPR’s @adrianflorido: “I just spotted @CBP immigration agents outside the main flood shelter in downtown Houston. This is why immigrants don’t want to come.” http://bit.ly/2eUkYi6

HOUSTON CHRONICLE’s SUSAN CARROLL and LOMI KRIEL: “Nearly four days after Harvey’s record flooding slammed a rescue boat into an Interstate 45 frontage road bridge, family members of the final, missing volunteer pulled his body from Cypress Creek in Spring. Alonso Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey from Lufkin … was a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program … His father is a lawful permanent, but his mother is still in the application process for legal status.

“Reached at her home in Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, Rita Ruiz de Guillen, 62, said … she hoped U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would take pity and grant her a humanitarian visa so that she could come to Houston and bury her son, but she was turned back at the border. ‘When we are with God, there are no borders,’ she said. ‘Man made borders on this earth.’” http://bit.ly/2exrrPe

TRUMP’S LABOR DAY MESSAGE — His op-ed for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “We must fix our self-destructive tax code” http://bit.ly/2gyIcKJ

****** A message from Hewlett Packard Enterprise: How are Hewlett Packard Enterprise‘s supercomputers helping create the future in science, medicine and national security? Learn more: hpe.com/supercomputing ******

BULLETIN at 2:17 a.m. — “SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – S. Korea media: Seoul military says N. Korea appears to be readying launch of a ballistic missile, possibly an ICBM.”

WHAT THIS MEANS — “North Korea defies predictions — again — with early grasp of weapons milestone,” by WaPo’s Joby Warrick: “The device that shook the mountains over the Punggye-ri test site on Sunday represented a quantum leap for North Korea’s nuclear capability, producing an explosion at least five times greater than the country’s previous tests and easily powerful enough to devastate a large city. And if studies confirm that the bomb was a thermonuclear weapon — as North Korea claims — it would be a triumph of a different scale: a major technical milestone reached well ahead of predictions, putting the world’s most destructive force in the hands of the country’s 33-year-old autocrat.

“The feat instantly erased lingering skepticism about Pyongyang’s technical capabilities and brought the prospect of nuclear-tipped North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles a step closer to reality, U.S. analysts and weapons experts said. Many predicted that a miniaturized version of the presumed thermonuclear bomb would soon be in North Korea’s grasp, and that it probably already exists.” http://wapo.st/2iVBkvt

— “South Korea simulates attack on North’s nuke site after test,” by AP’s Foster Klug and Youkyung Lee in Seoul: “Following U.S. warnings to North Korea of a ‘massive military response,’ South Korea on Monday fired missiles into the sea to simulate an attack on the North’s main nuclear test site a day after Pyongyang detonated its largest ever nuclear test explosion. South Korea’s Defense Ministry also said Monday that North Korea appeared to be planning a future missile launch, possibly of an ICBM, to show off its claimed ability to target the United States with nuclear weapons, though it was unclear when this might happen.” http://bit.ly/2gxs38r

— “Seoul tries to ignore Trump’s criticism: ‘They worry he’s kind of nuts,’ one observer says,” by WaPo’s Anna Fifield in Tokyo: “Moon Jae-in’s office said that his government would continue to work towards peaceful denuclearization after tweets and actions from Trump that have left South Koreans scratching their heads at why the American president is attacking an ally at such a sensitive time. …

“‘It’s strange to see Trump going after South Korea more aggressively than he’s going after China, especially since China also thinks that dialogue is central to solving this problem,’ said John Delury, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul.” http://wapo.st/2eCOpsh

— “Mattis warns of ‘massive military response’ to NK nuclear threat,” by CNN’s Angela Dewan, Taehoon Lee and Eli Watkins: http://cnn.it/2eBJFD2

TRANSLATING TRUMP — “Trump Can’t Stop Trade With North Korea. But He Does Have Options,” by NYT’s Paul Mozur in Shanghai: “President Trump said on Sunday that the United States could consider stopping all trade with countries doing business in North Korea, in a move that could spell economic catastrophe for the pugnacious country. One problem: It would mean economic disaster for the United States as well. Despite years of economic sanctions and international condemnation, North Korea still conducts modest trade with a host of United States allies, including Brazil, Germany and Mexico.

“But the North’s biggest partner by far is China, which accounts for about four-fifths of its trade and helps the country with its fuel, food and machinery needs. China is also the largest trading partner of the United States, in a relationship worth nearly $650 billion a year in goods and services covering a range of items, like auto parts, apple juice and Apple’s widely anticipated new iPhone. …

“The United States has limited options. It could more broadly target Chinese companies that do business in North Korea. But that could prove ineffective against a Chinese government that worries that trade limits could worsen conditions in the North, making the situation there even more unpredictable.” http://nyti.ms/2vYQYHE

FOR YOUR RADAR — REUTERS/Xiamen, China — “Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday that Washington’s actions towards Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States could be described as ‘state hooliganism’. ‘I am inclined to call what is happening state hooliganism,’ he told reporters at a BRICS summit in China.”

— SPEAKING OF “STATE HOOLIGANISM” — WaPo’s Josh Rogin last year: “In a series of secret memos sent back to Washington … diplomats reported that Russian intruders had broken into their homes late at night, only to rearrange the furniture or turn on all the lights and televisions, and then leave. One diplomat reported that an intruder had defecated on his living room carpet. … [I]n the first term of the Obama administration, Russian intelligence personnel broke into the house of the U.S. defense attache in Moscow and killed his dog.” http://wapo.st/2931Wof

ABC’S MARY BRUCE speaks to MATT MIKA — Mika, a lobbyist for Tyson Foods, was shot during the congressional baseball practice in June. MIKA: “We all yelled gun. I don’t know who yelled it first and we started running. That’s when I turned like this and ran that way. That might have been when I got hit or when I was over there.” BRUCE: “You still don’t know when you got hit?” MIKA: “All I know is when I got around to the gate I had blood all over my chest, on my pants.” http://abcn.ws/2gEgNdY

COMING ATTRACTIONS — “Russia probes kick into high gear,” by Austin Wright and Ali Watkins: “The congressional Russia investigations are entering a new and more serious phase as lawmakers return from the August recess amid fresh revelations about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. In the coming weeks, both intelligence committees are expected to conduct closed-door interviews with high-ranking members of the Trump campaign, and potential witnesses could include Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr. The two panels are also looking at possibly holding public hearings this fall. In addition, Trump Jr. is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is conducting its own parallel investigation into President Donald Trump and his associates’ alleged ties to Moscow.” http://politi.co/2eCOVpS

JOIN US! — We are heading to Georgetown University for our next “Playbook University” Thursday at 4:15 p.m. Jake and Anna, a spring 2017 fellow, will head to the Institute of Politics and Public Service at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy to talk news of the day and introduce GU Politics’ newly-minted fellows class to Georgetown Hoyas at their annual open house. The fellows http://bit.ly/2v384IE … Event details http://bit.ly/2g6HHel

DAILY MAIL – “A new royal baby is on the way as thrilled Kate and William announce she is expecting their third child — but she is suffering from severe morning sickness again” http://dailym.ai/2eUmH74

HMM — “The Same Agency That Runs Obamacare Is Using Taxpayer Money to Undermine It,” by NYT’s Audrey Carlsen and Haeyoun Park: “Instead of using its outreach budget to promote the Affordable Care Act, the department made videos critical of the law. In June, the health department posted 23 video testimonials on YouTube from people who said they had been ‘burdened by Obamacare,’ including families, health care professionals and small business owners. … While it’s not certain where the money for the videos came from, several former health officials who worked in the Obama administration said that they suspect it came from the budget meant to promote Affordable Care Act. …

“In addition to the YouTube videos, the department has used Twitter and news releases to try to discredit the health law. Since being sworn in as health secretary on February 10, Tom Price has posted on Twitter 48 infographics advocating against Obamacare, all of which bear the health department’s logo.” http://nyti.ms/2vYe2pZ

SUSAN GLASSER in the latest “Global POLITICO” podcast interviews former DHS SECRETARY JEH JOHNSON: “[M]ore than a month after naming John Kelly … Trump has yet to name a replacement as secretary of Homeland Security. Not only that, he appears nowhere close to doing so and has not even interviewed any candidates for the job. Big mistake, argues Jeh Johnson, who served as the Obama administration’s DHS chief until Trump’s inauguration in January.

“[J]ohnson says, ‘We need to have a Senate-confirmed secretary of Homeland Security; we need to have somebody occupying that office full time, 24/7, to keep his or her eye on aviation security, border security, cybersecurity, maritime security, FEMA, the Secret Service, and all the other things that DHS covers.’ In particular, he cited the Secret Service’s empty coffers and Trump’s failure to address America’s vulnerable election infrastructure a full year after the Russian tampering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election as crises where having a permanent secretary in place really matters.” http://politi.co/2eCJCah … Listen to the full podcast http://apple.co/2kAoZfH

SPEAKING OF ELECTIONS — “Cash-strapped states brace for Russian hacking fight,” by Cory Bennett, Eric Geller, Martin Matishak, and Tim Starks: “The U.S. needs hundreds of millions of dollars to protect future elections from hackers — but neither the states nor Congress is rushing to fill the gap. Instead, a nation still squabbling over the role Russian cyberattacks played in the 2016 presidential campaign is fractured about how to pay for the steps needed to prevent repeats in 2018 and 2020, according to interviews with dozens of state election officials, federal lawmakers, current and former [DHS] staffers and leading election security experts.

“These people agree that digital meddlers threaten the public’s confidence in America’s democratic process. And nearly everyone believes that the danger calls for collective action — from replacing the voting equipment at tens of thousands of polling places to strengthening state voter databases, training election workers and systematically conducting post-election audits. But those steps would require major spending, and only a handful of states’ legislatures are boosting their election security budgets, according to a POLITICO survey of state election agencies.

“And leaders in Congress are showing no eagerness to help them out. ‘States ought to get their own money up,’ said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, which oversees federal elections. ‘We’re borrowing money. We got a big debt limit coming up.’” http://politi.co/2eUQJHE

BUSINESS BURST — “Investors Hedge Their Bets Entering Choppiest Season for Markets,” by WSJ’s Gunjan Banerji: “U.S. stock investors have been unfazed this year by everything from North Korean missile launches to the congressional debt ceiling deadline. Now, as the most turbulent season for equities looms, hedging activity and money flows indicate that investors are starting to doubt that markets can only climb higher.” http://on.wsj.com/2wxZyQV

WEST COAST WATCH — “After Bay Area violence, California debates classifying ‘antifa’ as a street gang,” by L.A. Times’ James Queally, Ben Oreskes and Richard Winton: “As forces on the extremes of the nation’s ever-widening political divide continue to battle with fists and weapons on the streets of California, law enforcement officials and politicians have started debating whether these extremist groups should be classified as street gangs. Such a designation could give law enforcement new tools to combat the groups. Numerous laws on the books give authorities the power to restrict the movements of gang members and enhance criminal charges against them. But such a move raises legal issues because unlike with traditional street gangs, the underlying motive of these extremist groups is political expression rather than criminal enterprise.” http://lat.ms/2gxLwFU

CLICKER – MATT WUERKER’s cartoons in August – 8 keepers http://politi.co/2gxZyr7

****** A message from Hewlett Packard Enterprise: A nation‘s strength is increasingly measured by its technical prowess. As the designer and builder of more supercomputers than any other company in the world, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is proud to lead the way in one of the future‘s most important technologies. Visit hpe.com/supercomputing to learn more about how Hewlett Packard Enterprise‘s supercomputers are helping create the future in science, medicine and national security. ******

MEDIAWATCH – “Trump’s EPA attacks AP reporter in personal terms,” by Matt Nussbaum: “President Donald Trump’s habit of singling out reporters for attacks is being adopted by his federal agencies, with the [EPA] excoriating an Associated Press reporter in unusually personal terms on Sunday after the reporter wrote a story that cast the agency in an unfavorable light. … ‘[T]he Associated Press’ Michael Biesecker wrote an incredibly misleading story about toxic land sites that are under water,’ the statement began. ‘Despite reporting from the comfort of Washington, Biesecker had the audacity to imply that agencies aren’t being responsive to the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey.’ … It then continued the attacks on Biesecker, saying he ‘has a history of not letting the facts get in the way of his story’ and noting that a July story he wrote inaccurately characterized an interaction between EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris.” http://politi.co/2eUXNUI … The original AP story http://bit.ly/2eD7tGx

— AP RESPONDS http://bit.ly/2gET9Ow

BONUS GREAT HOLIDAY WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Great Barrington, Mass.:

–“The Exile,” by Khaled Almilaji in Toronto Life: “I worked as a doctor during the Syrian Civil War, treating wounded protesters and vaccinating children. When I moved to the U.S. to get my master’s, my future seemed clear. Then Trump’s travel ban left me stranded in Turkey, 5,000 miles away from my pregnant wife.” http://bit.ly/2wYu4VR (h/t Longreads.com)

–“Snow Fall: The Plane Went Down With His Wife, His Kid… and a Secret,” by Andrew Dubbins in The Daily Beast: “Tony Mink was an experienced pilot, but as he flew his family to a Rocky Mountain Christmas vacation, he may have cut one corner too many. And then the blizzard hit.” http://thebea.st/2vETTd3 (h/t Matt Brooks)

–“Dick Jokes, Drunk Takes, and Best Friends: How ‘Superbad’ Was Born,” by Andrew Gruttadaro in The Ringer: “The 2007 teen comedy still resonates. Ten years later, the cast and crew explain how it all came together.” http://bit.ly/2gzdEvY … The original trailer http://bit.ly/2iVmMMm

–“The Once and Future Liberalism,” by Walter Russell Mead in the Jan. 2012 edition of the American Interest: “The core institutions, ideas and expectations that shaped American life for the sixty years after the New Deal don’t work anymore. The gaps between the social system we inhabit and the one we now need are becoming so wide that we can no longer paper over them. But even as the failures of the old system become more inescapable and more damaging, our national discourse remains stuck in a bygone age.” http://bit.ly/2wvTSaW

–“The Search For Aaron Rodgers,” by Mina Kimes in ESPN the Magazine: “Winning isn’t everything. After Super Bowl XLV, Green Bay’s hero QB has been on a journey to find out what is.” http://es.pn/2gpE9QI (h/t Longform.org)

SPOTTED: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Sunday night performance of “A Little Night Music” at the Signature Theatre … Eric Schultz at the U.S. Open on Saturday where he saw CoCo Vandeweghe and then Rafael Nadal play

WEEKEND WEDDINGS – OBAMA ALUMNI — Matt Lehrich and Stephanie Beechem “were married at sunset yesterday in Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park, five years after meeting while working together in the Obama White House as members of the WH communications and research operations. Matt’s brother Jesse officiated and the crowd danced into the night. The couple is now based in San Francisco, where the groom is a communications consultant and the bride works for the University of California.” Pic http://politi.co/2wBl71A

SPOTTED: David Axelrod, Dan and Howli Pfeiffer, Amy Brundage, Rachel Racusen and Max Gleischman, Cody Keenan, Kristen Bartoloni, Bobby Whithorne, Ellen Canale, Sean Smith, Pat Cunnane, Hannah Hankins, Lauren Thorbjornsen, Marie Aberger, Andrew Nesi, Lauren Hickey, Kyle O’Connor, Tim Skoczek, Allison Kelly, Peter Velz, Ezra Mechaber, Jess Allen, Bart Jackson, Emily Cain.

— Sameer Punyani, an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton and a former Obama appointee at the Pentagon and White House and a 2008 OFA campaign alum, and Bhavna Changrani, a DOJ trial attorney, were married on Sunday evening by the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Friends and family came from as far as London, India, and Australia to celebrate with the DC couple. The couple met through a dating app in December 2015. They had their first date in mid-January 2016 right before the ‘Snowpocalypse’ snowstorm. The couple went on five separate dates during the storm and the rest was history.” Pics http://politi.co/2wApytB … http://politi.co/2eUBiPU

–SPOTTED: Rohit Punyani and Dipali Amin, Nick Lombardo and Rachel Goodman, Andrew and Alexandra Dawson, Dan Austell and Lynn Langton Austell, Vinisha Patel, Dan Kastner, Mike Abbate and Erica Woodward, Ursula Zeydler.

–Zach Cikanek, managing director at FP1 Strategies, and Jolyn Lorenzetti, government relations and PAC manager at Genworth Financial and an alum of Jeb 2016 and Romney 2012, got married on Saturday at St. Isaac Jogues in Hinsdale, Illinois, with an evening reception at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. The couple met while working for former Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.). Their honeymoon is an 11-night south Caribbean cruise. Pics http://politi.co/2gy76tN … http://politi.co/2iWhOPf SPOTTED: Charlie and Lisa Spies, Dave Kochel, Marisa Tank, Duane and Caroline Duncan, Keith Gardner and Jennifer Bogart-Gardner, Brian and Sarah Colgan, James and Iris Miller, James and Katie Christophersen, Uriel and Maya Dabby, Erin Kelly.

— Caitlin Poling, national security adviser to Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Andrew McLennand, who works at the State Department, got married on Saturday with a ceremony and reception at the Arts Club of Washington, the former home of President James Monroe. Pic http://politi.co/2exKWHB

TRANSITIONS — MICHAEL SHORT, who formerly worked in communications for the Trump White House, is now at the National Association of Manufacturing. … KAIVAN SHROFF has joined the Institute for Education as COO and director of strategy. He most recently was a civic tech fellow at Microsoft in New York City.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Anu Rangappa, principal at Kolar Strategy Group and a DNC alum. How the Trump presidency is going: “Dishearteningly. I am a Democrat, but my patriotism far outweighs any sense of partisanship. My dad was the only of his siblings to learn to read and would cry himself to sleep from hunger as a child growing up in India. Within one generation, he became a celebrated professor in botany with a daughter who has flown aboard Air Force One. That kind of potential for a meteoric life-trajectory does not exist – so consistently for millions of people – anywhere else in the world. The President’s chaotic messaging and inconsistent, short-sighted policy prescriptions have dampened hopes that many more Americans, potential immigrants and citizens around the world can achieve such an unimaginable quality-of-life like the one my family has worked to have.” Read her Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2wy6duG

BIRTHDAYS: Blake Hounshell, Politico magazine editor-in-chief (@blakehounshell) (hat tip: Ben Chang) … Jared Weinstein, a partner at Thrive Capital and a Bush W.H. alum … Harold Ickes … Anthony Weiner … Uber’s Keith Hensley, a Bush WH and Robert Gates alum … Jocelyn Pickford … William Hildebrandt Surgner … Wash Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio … Sophie VandeHei is 15 (h/t Autumn) … Brian Schweitzer, former Montana governor … Jared Allen, senior director for media relations at the National Automobile Dealers Association … Bernard Kerik … Michael McAuliff … The Economist’s Alex Travelli … Lynn Stinson … Bob Kenney … Politico’s Jeffrey Ahn … Laura Schlapp of Sen. Roberts’ office … Tom McInerney … Al Fish …

… Bernard Coleman III, global head of diversity and inclusion at Uber … Shira Kramer … Sean O’Hollaren, SVP of gov’t and public affairs at Nike and a Bush WH alum … Devin McBrayer … Estephania Gongora … Matthew Groves … Victoria Cram … Dana Gartzke … Glynnis MacNicol … Hannah Lerner … Kali Murphy … Brock McCleary … Chad Horrell, director at DCI Group … Chase Clymer … Graham Weinschenk … Matt Modell … Ashley Harvard … Jamie Moore … Jordan Fischer … Bernie Bennett … Jerry Huang … Daniel Pablo Pinto … Tyler Jones … Bailey Cultice … World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson … Beyonce Knowles (h/ts AP)

****** A message from Hewlett Packard Enterprise: To super compete, America must super compute. Supercomputing is key to future breakthroughs in medicine, science and manufacturing. As the designer and builder of more supercomputers than any other company in the world, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is helping America increase its competitive edge in not only today‘s economy, but tomorrow’s. Visit hpe.com/supercomputing to learn more about how HPE supercomputers help America compete. ******

SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook http://politi.co/2lQswbh… New York Playbook http://politi.co/1ON8bqW … Florida Playbook http://politi.co/1OypFe9 … New Jersey Playbook http://politi.co/1HLKltF …Massachusetts Playbook http://politi.co/1Nhtq5v … Illinois Playbook http://politi.co/1N7u5sb … California Playbook http://politi.co/2bLvcPl … Brussels Playbook http://politi.co/1FZeLcw … London Playbook http://politi.co/2xfDPuK …All our political and policy tipsheets http://politi.co/1M75UbX

Original Source link

from CapitalistHQ.com https://capitalisthq.com/what-ending-daca-will-mean-congress-already-eyeing-immigration-reform-obama-to-speak-out-ap-n-korea-likely-readying-launch-of-a-ballistic-missile-maybe-icbm-bda/

[melindarowens]

What ending DACA will mean — CONGRESS already eyeing immigration reform, OBAMA to speak out — AP: N. KOREA likely ‘readying launch of a ballistic missile,’ maybe ICBM — B’DAY: Blake Hounshell

Good Monday morning and happy Labor Day! LONDON CALLING — You may already have seen it, but the first edition of London Playbook went out early this morning. Our new London-based reporter Jack Blanchard is at the helm. London Playbook will bring you up to speed on the day ahead in Westminster. The launch edition featured a scoop on the progress of the Brexit talks, plus an interview with U.K. International Trade Secretary Liam Fox. Sign up for free http://politi.co/2txnK5S … The first edition http://politi.co/2gEkK2p

BUZZ — IF TRUMP ENDS DACA, which it seems like he will in some form, Republicans on Capitol Hill are already considering a push for immigration reform, according to people we’ve spoken to in recent hours. There is no finalized plan yet about what the GOP will do, but there are already quiet conversations in Republican ranks. There will be tremendous pressure from companies and outside groups to prevent the full repeal of DACA. Congress already has a full plate, and this is just another issue they’ll have to confront.

Story Continued Below

TOP STORY — “Trump has decided to end DACA, with 6-month delay,” by Eliana Johnson: “Senior White House aides huddled Sunday afternoon to discuss the rollout of a decision likely to ignite a political firestorm — and fulfill one of the president’s core campaign promises. The administration’s deliberations on the issue have been fluid and fast moving, and the president has faced strong warnings from members of his own party not to scrap the program. … [C]onversations with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who argued that Congress — rather than the executive branch — is responsible for writing immigration law, helped persuade the president to terminate the program and kick the issue to Congress, the two sources said.

“In a nod to reservations held by many lawmakers, the White House plans to delay the enforcement of the president’s decision for six months, giving Congress a window to act, according to one White House official. But a senior White House aide said that chief of staff John Kelly, who has been running the West Wing policy process on the issue, ‘thinks Congress should’ve gotten its act together a lot longer ago.’ White House aides caution that — as with everything in the Trump White House — nothing is set in stone until an official announcement has been made.” http://politi.co/2examFe

— NYT’s Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush: “[S]ome key details had not yet been resolved. Among them: whether beneficiaries of the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, would be allowed to renew their protected status during the six-month period. … The temporary solution has been the subject of quiet negotiations between Mr. Trump’s legislative staff and members of Mr. Ryan’s staff, according to an administration official familiar with the talks. … The president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who are both advisers to the president, back extending the DACA protections.” http://nyti.ms/2xIuPPZ

SCOOP — “Obama to speak out if Trump ends DACA,” by Michael Grunwald: “Obama used executive actions to launch the program in June 2012, providing assurances before his re-election that he would protect the so-called ‘Dreamers.’ Trump had suggested in the past that he didn’t want to deport Dreamers, saying in April that they should ‘rest easy,’ but the immigration hawks in his administration have argued that DACA is an illegal program. Obama’s current plan is to post a statement on Facebook and link to it on Twitter, where the former president has more than 94 million followers.” http://politi.co/2wxBjCx

— BuzzFeed’s Zoe Tillman and Adrian Carrasquillo: “There have been some efforts from within Trump’s White House to save DACA in recent days, but there has been limited support for keeping the Obama program among senior staff. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway recruited Hispanic Trump supporters to reach out to the president in a behind-the-scenes bid to get him to keep the program, according to a source. As it became clearer that Trump is leaning towards ending it, a source said Conway supports ‘POTUS outcomes on this. Period.’” http://bzfd.it/2gDuY36

THE TWO ENDS OF THE HOUSE REPUBLICAN CONFERENCE — FLORIDA REP. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN (@RosLehtinen), who’s retiring after this term: “After teasing #Dreamers for months with talk of his ‘great heart,’ @POTUS slams door on them. Some ‘heart’…” … IOWA REP. STEVE KING (@SteveKingIA): “Ending DACA now gives chance 2 restore Rule of Law. Delaying so R Leadership can push Amnesty is Republican suicide.”

PIC DU JOUR — NPR’s @adrianflorido: “I just spotted @CBP immigration agents outside the main flood shelter in downtown Houston. This is why immigrants don’t want to come.” http://bit.ly/2eUkYi6

HOUSTON CHRONICLE’s SUSAN CARROLL and LOMI KRIEL: “Nearly four days after Harvey’s record flooding slammed a rescue boat into an Interstate 45 frontage road bridge, family members of the final, missing volunteer pulled his body from Cypress Creek in Spring. Alonso Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey from Lufkin … was a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program … His father is a lawful permanent, but his mother is still in the application process for legal status.

“Reached at her home in Piedras Negras, Mexico, across the border from Eagle Pass, Rita Ruiz de Guillen, 62, said … she hoped U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would take pity and grant her a humanitarian visa so that she could come to Houston and bury her son, but she was turned back at the border. ‘When we are with God, there are no borders,’ she said. ‘Man made borders on this earth.’” http://bit.ly/2exrrPe

TRUMP’S LABOR DAY MESSAGE — His op-ed for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “We must fix our self-destructive tax code” http://bit.ly/2gyIcKJ

****** A message from Hewlett Packard Enterprise: How are Hewlett Packard Enterprise‘s supercomputers helping create the future in science, medicine and national security? Learn more: hpe.com/supercomputing ******

BULLETIN at 2:17 a.m. — “SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – S. Korea media: Seoul military says N. Korea appears to be readying launch of a ballistic missile, possibly an ICBM.”

WHAT THIS MEANS — “North Korea defies predictions — again — with early grasp of weapons milestone,” by WaPo’s Joby Warrick: “The device that shook the mountains over the Punggye-ri test site on Sunday represented a quantum leap for North Korea’s nuclear capability, producing an explosion at least five times greater than the country’s previous tests and easily powerful enough to devastate a large city. And if studies confirm that the bomb was a thermonuclear weapon — as North Korea claims — it would be a triumph of a different scale: a major technical milestone reached well ahead of predictions, putting the world’s most destructive force in the hands of the country’s 33-year-old autocrat.

“The feat instantly erased lingering skepticism about Pyongyang’s technical capabilities and brought the prospect of nuclear-tipped North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles a step closer to reality, U.S. analysts and weapons experts said. Many predicted that a miniaturized version of the presumed thermonuclear bomb would soon be in North Korea’s grasp, and that it probably already exists.” http://wapo.st/2iVBkvt

— “South Korea simulates attack on North’s nuke site after test,” by AP’s Foster Klug and Youkyung Lee in Seoul: “Following U.S. warnings to North Korea of a ‘massive military response,’ South Korea on Monday fired missiles into the sea to simulate an attack on the North’s main nuclear test site a day after Pyongyang detonated its largest ever nuclear test explosion. South Korea’s Defense Ministry also said Monday that North Korea appeared to be planning a future missile launch, possibly of an ICBM, to show off its claimed ability to target the United States with nuclear weapons, though it was unclear when this might happen.” http://bit.ly/2gxs38r

— “Seoul tries to ignore Trump’s criticism: ‘They worry he’s kind of nuts,’ one observer says,” by WaPo’s Anna Fifield in Tokyo: “Moon Jae-in’s office said that his government would continue to work towards peaceful denuclearization after tweets and actions from Trump that have left South Koreans scratching their heads at why the American president is attacking an ally at such a sensitive time. …

“‘It’s strange to see Trump going after South Korea more aggressively than he’s going after China, especially since China also thinks that dialogue is central to solving this problem,’ said John Delury, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul.” http://wapo.st/2eCOpsh

— “Mattis warns of ‘massive military response’ to NK nuclear threat,” by CNN’s Angela Dewan, Taehoon Lee and Eli Watkins: http://cnn.it/2eBJFD2

TRANSLATING TRUMP — “Trump Can’t Stop Trade With North Korea. But He Does Have Options,” by NYT’s Paul Mozur in Shanghai: “President Trump said on Sunday that the United States could consider stopping all trade with countries doing business in North Korea, in a move that could spell economic catastrophe for the pugnacious country. One problem: It would mean economic disaster for the United States as well. Despite years of economic sanctions and international condemnation, North Korea still conducts modest trade with a host of United States allies, including Brazil, Germany and Mexico.

“But the North’s biggest partner by far is China, which accounts for about four-fifths of its trade and helps the country with its fuel, food and machinery needs. China is also the largest trading partner of the United States, in a relationship worth nearly $650 billion a year in goods and services covering a range of items, like auto parts, apple juice and Apple’s widely anticipated new iPhone. …

“The United States has limited options. It could more broadly target Chinese companies that do business in North Korea. But that could prove ineffective against a Chinese government that worries that trade limits could worsen conditions in the North, making the situation there even more unpredictable.” http://nyti.ms/2vYQYHE

FOR YOUR RADAR — REUTERS/Xiamen, China — “Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday that Washington’s actions towards Russian diplomatic facilities in the United States could be described as ‘state hooliganism’. ‘I am inclined to call what is happening state hooliganism,’ he told reporters at a BRICS summit in China.”

— SPEAKING OF “STATE HOOLIGANISM” — WaPo’s Josh Rogin last year: “In a series of secret memos sent back to Washington … diplomats reported that Russian intruders had broken into their homes late at night, only to rearrange the furniture or turn on all the lights and televisions, and then leave. One diplomat reported that an intruder had defecated on his living room carpet. … [I]n the first term of the Obama administration, Russian intelligence personnel broke into the house of the U.S. defense attache in Moscow and killed his dog.” http://wapo.st/2931Wof

ABC’S MARY BRUCE speaks to MATT MIKA — Mika, a lobbyist for Tyson Foods, was shot during the congressional baseball practice in June. MIKA: “We all yelled gun. I don’t know who yelled it first and we started running. That’s when I turned like this and ran that way. That might have been when I got hit or when I was over there.” BRUCE: “You still don’t know when you got hit?” MIKA: “All I know is when I got around to the gate I had blood all over my chest, on my pants.” http://abcn.ws/2gEgNdY

COMING ATTRACTIONS — “Russia probes kick into high gear,” by Austin Wright and Ali Watkins: “The congressional Russia investigations are entering a new and more serious phase as lawmakers return from the August recess amid fresh revelations about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. In the coming weeks, both intelligence committees are expected to conduct closed-door interviews with high-ranking members of the Trump campaign, and potential witnesses could include Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr. The two panels are also looking at possibly holding public hearings this fall. In addition, Trump Jr. is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is conducting its own parallel investigation into President Donald Trump and his associates’ alleged ties to Moscow.” http://politi.co/2eCOVpS

JOIN US! — We are heading to Georgetown University for our next “Playbook University” Thursday at 4:15 p.m. Jake and Anna, a spring 2017 fellow, will head to the Institute of Politics and Public Service at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy to talk news of the day and introduce GU Politics’ newly-minted fellows class to Georgetown Hoyas at their annual open house. The fellows http://bit.ly/2v384IE … Event details http://bit.ly/2g6HHel

DAILY MAIL – “A new royal baby is on the way as thrilled Kate and William announce she is expecting their third child — but she is suffering from severe morning sickness again” http://dailym.ai/2eUmH74

HMM — “The Same Agency That Runs Obamacare Is Using Taxpayer Money to Undermine It,” by NYT’s Audrey Carlsen and Haeyoun Park: “Instead of using its outreach budget to promote the Affordable Care Act, the department made videos critical of the law. In June, the health department posted 23 video testimonials on YouTube from people who said they had been ‘burdened by Obamacare,’ including families, health care professionals and small business owners. … While it’s not certain where the money for the videos came from, several former health officials who worked in the Obama administration said that they suspect it came from the budget meant to promote Affordable Care Act. …

“In addition to the YouTube videos, the department has used Twitter and news releases to try to discredit the health law. Since being sworn in as health secretary on February 10, Tom Price has posted on Twitter 48 infographics advocating against Obamacare, all of which bear the health department’s logo.” http://nyti.ms/2vYe2pZ

SUSAN GLASSER in the latest “Global POLITICO” podcast interviews former DHS SECRETARY JEH JOHNSON: “[M]ore than a month after naming John Kelly … Trump has yet to name a replacement as secretary of Homeland Security. Not only that, he appears nowhere close to doing so and has not even interviewed any candidates for the job. Big mistake, argues Jeh Johnson, who served as the Obama administration’s DHS chief until Trump’s inauguration in January.

“[J]ohnson says, ‘We need to have a Senate-confirmed secretary of Homeland Security; we need to have somebody occupying that office full time, 24/7, to keep his or her eye on aviation security, border security, cybersecurity, maritime security, FEMA, the Secret Service, and all the other things that DHS covers.’ In particular, he cited the Secret Service’s empty coffers and Trump’s failure to address America’s vulnerable election infrastructure a full year after the Russian tampering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election as crises where having a permanent secretary in place really matters.” http://politi.co/2eCJCah … Listen to the full podcast http://apple.co/2kAoZfH

SPEAKING OF ELECTIONS — “Cash-strapped states brace for Russian hacking fight,” by Cory Bennett, Eric Geller, Martin Matishak, and Tim Starks: “The U.S. needs hundreds of millions of dollars to protect future elections from hackers — but neither the states nor Congress is rushing to fill the gap. Instead, a nation still squabbling over the role Russian cyberattacks played in the 2016 presidential campaign is fractured about how to pay for the steps needed to prevent repeats in 2018 and 2020, according to interviews with dozens of state election officials, federal lawmakers, current and former [DHS] staffers and leading election security experts.

“These people agree that digital meddlers threaten the public’s confidence in America’s democratic process. And nearly everyone believes that the danger calls for collective action — from replacing the voting equipment at tens of thousands of polling places to strengthening state voter databases, training election workers and systematically conducting post-election audits. But those steps would require major spending, and only a handful of states’ legislatures are boosting their election security budgets, according to a POLITICO survey of state election agencies.

“And leaders in Congress are showing no eagerness to help them out. ‘States ought to get their own money up,’ said Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who chairs the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, which oversees federal elections. ‘We’re borrowing money. We got a big debt limit coming up.’” http://politi.co/2eUQJHE

BUSINESS BURST — “Investors Hedge Their Bets Entering Choppiest Season for Markets,” by WSJ’s Gunjan Banerji: “U.S. stock investors have been unfazed this year by everything from North Korean missile launches to the congressional debt ceiling deadline. Now, as the most turbulent season for equities looms, hedging activity and money flows indicate that investors are starting to doubt that markets can only climb higher.” http://on.wsj.com/2wxZyQV

WEST COAST WATCH — “After Bay Area violence, California debates classifying ‘antifa’ as a street gang,” by L.A. Times’ James Queally, Ben Oreskes and Richard Winton: “As forces on the extremes of the nation’s ever-widening political divide continue to battle with fists and weapons on the streets of California, law enforcement officials and politicians have started debating whether these extremist groups should be classified as street gangs. Such a designation could give law enforcement new tools to combat the groups. Numerous laws on the books give authorities the power to restrict the movements of gang members and enhance criminal charges against them. But such a move raises legal issues because unlike with traditional street gangs, the underlying motive of these extremist groups is political expression rather than criminal enterprise.” http://lat.ms/2gxLwFU

CLICKER – MATT WUERKER’s cartoons in August – 8 keepers http://politi.co/2gxZyr7

****** A message from Hewlett Packard Enterprise: A nation‘s strength is increasingly measured by its technical prowess. As the designer and builder of more supercomputers than any other company in the world, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is proud to lead the way in one of the future‘s most important technologies. Visit hpe.com/supercomputing to learn more about how Hewlett Packard Enterprise‘s supercomputers are helping create the future in science, medicine and national security. ******

MEDIAWATCH – “Trump’s EPA attacks AP reporter in personal terms,” by Matt Nussbaum: “President Donald Trump’s habit of singling out reporters for attacks is being adopted by his federal agencies, with the [EPA] excoriating an Associated Press reporter in unusually personal terms on Sunday after the reporter wrote a story that cast the agency in an unfavorable light. … ‘[T]he Associated Press’ Michael Biesecker wrote an incredibly misleading story about toxic land sites that are under water,’ the statement began. ‘Despite reporting from the comfort of Washington, Biesecker had the audacity to imply that agencies aren’t being responsive to the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey.’ … It then continued the attacks on Biesecker, saying he ‘has a history of not letting the facts get in the way of his story’ and noting that a July story he wrote inaccurately characterized an interaction between EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris.” http://politi.co/2eUXNUI … The original AP story http://bit.ly/2eD7tGx

— AP RESPONDS http://bit.ly/2gET9Ow

BONUS GREAT HOLIDAY WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Great Barrington, Mass.:

–“The Exile,” by Khaled Almilaji in Toronto Life: “I worked as a doctor during the Syrian Civil War, treating wounded protesters and vaccinating children. When I moved to the U.S. to get my master’s, my future seemed clear. Then Trump’s travel ban left me stranded in Turkey, 5,000 miles away from my pregnant wife.” http://bit.ly/2wYu4VR (h/t Longreads.com)

–“Snow Fall: The Plane Went Down With His Wife, His Kid… and a Secret,” by Andrew Dubbins in The Daily Beast: “Tony Mink was an experienced pilot, but as he flew his family to a Rocky Mountain Christmas vacation, he may have cut one corner too many. And then the blizzard hit.” http://thebea.st/2vETTd3 (h/t Matt Brooks)

–“Dick Jokes, Drunk Takes, and Best Friends: How ‘Superbad’ Was Born,” by Andrew Gruttadaro in The Ringer: “The 2007 teen comedy still resonates. Ten years later, the cast and crew explain how it all came together.” http://bit.ly/2gzdEvY … The original trailer http://bit.ly/2iVmMMm

–“The Once and Future Liberalism,” by Walter Russell Mead in the Jan. 2012 edition of the American Interest: “The core institutions, ideas and expectations that shaped American life for the sixty years after the New Deal don’t work anymore. The gaps between the social system we inhabit and the one we now need are becoming so wide that we can no longer paper over them. But even as the failures of the old system become more inescapable and more damaging, our national discourse remains stuck in a bygone age.” http://bit.ly/2wvTSaW

–“The Search For Aaron Rodgers,” by Mina Kimes in ESPN the Magazine: “Winning isn’t everything. After Super Bowl XLV, Green Bay’s hero QB has been on a journey to find out what is.” http://es.pn/2gpE9QI (h/t Longform.org)

SPOTTED: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Sunday night performance of “A Little Night Music” at the Signature Theatre … Eric Schultz at the U.S. Open on Saturday where he saw CoCo Vandeweghe and then Rafael Nadal play

WEEKEND WEDDINGS – OBAMA ALUMNI — Matt Lehrich and Stephanie Beechem “were married at sunset yesterday in Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park, five years after meeting while working together in the Obama White House as members of the WH communications and research operations. Matt’s brother Jesse officiated and the crowd danced into the night. The couple is now based in San Francisco, where the groom is a communications consultant and the bride works for the University of California.” Pic http://politi.co/2wBl71A

SPOTTED: David Axelrod, Dan and Howli Pfeiffer, Amy Brundage, Rachel Racusen and Max Gleischman, Cody Keenan, Kristen Bartoloni, Bobby Whithorne, Ellen Canale, Sean Smith, Pat Cunnane, Hannah Hankins, Lauren Thorbjornsen, Marie Aberger, Andrew Nesi, Lauren Hickey, Kyle O’Connor, Tim Skoczek, Allison Kelly, Peter Velz, Ezra Mechaber, Jess Allen, Bart Jackson, Emily Cain.

— Sameer Punyani, an associate at Booz Allen Hamilton and a former Obama appointee at the Pentagon and White House and a 2008 OFA campaign alum, and Bhavna Changrani, a DOJ trial attorney, were married on Sunday evening by the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Friends and family came from as far as London, India, and Australia to celebrate with the DC couple. The couple met through a dating app in December 2015. They had their first date in mid-January 2016 right before the ‘Snowpocalypse’ snowstorm. The couple went on five separate dates during the storm and the rest was history.” Pics http://politi.co/2wApytB … http://politi.co/2eUBiPU

–SPOTTED: Rohit Punyani and Dipali Amin, Nick Lombardo and Rachel Goodman, Andrew and Alexandra Dawson, Dan Austell and Lynn Langton Austell, Vinisha Patel, Dan Kastner, Mike Abbate and Erica Woodward, Ursula Zeydler.

–Zach Cikanek, managing director at FP1 Strategies, and Jolyn Lorenzetti, government relations and PAC manager at Genworth Financial and an alum of Jeb 2016 and Romney 2012, got married on Saturday at St. Isaac Jogues in Hinsdale, Illinois, with an evening reception at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. The couple met while working for former Rep. Judy Biggert (R-Ill.). Their honeymoon is an 11-night south Caribbean cruise. Pics http://politi.co/2gy76tN … http://politi.co/2iWhOPf SPOTTED: Charlie and Lisa Spies, Dave Kochel, Marisa Tank, Duane and Caroline Duncan, Keith Gardner and Jennifer Bogart-Gardner, Brian and Sarah Colgan, James and Iris Miller, James and Katie Christophersen, Uriel and Maya Dabby, Erin Kelly.

— Caitlin Poling, national security adviser to Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Andrew McLennand, who works at the State Department, got married on Saturday with a ceremony and reception at the Arts Club of Washington, the former home of President James Monroe. Pic http://politi.co/2exKWHB

TRANSITIONS — MICHAEL SHORT, who formerly worked in communications for the Trump White House, is now at the National Association of Manufacturing. … KAIVAN SHROFF has joined the Institute for Education as COO and director of strategy. He most recently was a civic tech fellow at Microsoft in New York City.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Anu Rangappa, principal at Kolar Strategy Group and a DNC alum. How the Trump presidency is going: “Dishearteningly. I am a Democrat, but my patriotism far outweighs any sense of partisanship. My dad was the only of his siblings to learn to read and would cry himself to sleep from hunger as a child growing up in India. Within one generation, he became a celebrated professor in botany with a daughter who has flown aboard Air Force One. That kind of potential for a meteoric life-trajectory does not exist – so consistently for millions of people – anywhere else in the world. The President’s chaotic messaging and inconsistent, short-sighted policy prescriptions have dampened hopes that many more Americans, potential immigrants and citizens around the world can achieve such an unimaginable quality-of-life like the one my family has worked to have.” Read her Playbook Plus Q&A: http://politi.co/2wy6duG

BIRTHDAYS: Blake Hounshell, Politico magazine editor-in-chief (@blakehounshell) (hat tip: Ben Chang) … Jared Weinstein, a partner at Thrive Capital and a Bush W.H. alum … Harold Ickes … Anthony Weiner … Uber’s Keith Hensley, a Bush WH and Robert Gates alum … Jocelyn Pickford … William Hildebrandt Surgner … Wash Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio … Sophie VandeHei is 15 (h/t Autumn) … Brian Schweitzer, former Montana governor … Jared Allen, senior director for media relations at the National Automobile Dealers Association … Bernard Kerik … Michael McAuliff … The Economist’s Alex Travelli … Lynn Stinson … Bob Kenney … Politico’s Jeffrey Ahn … Laura Schlapp of Sen. Roberts’ office … Tom McInerney … Al Fish …

… Bernard Coleman III, global head of diversity and inclusion at Uber … Shira Kramer … Sean O’Hollaren, SVP of gov’t and public affairs at Nike and a Bush WH alum … Devin McBrayer … Estephania Gongora … Matthew Groves … Victoria Cram … Dana Gartzke … Glynnis MacNicol … Hannah Lerner … Kali Murphy … Brock McCleary … Chad Horrell, director at DCI Group … Chase Clymer … Graham Weinschenk … Matt Modell … Ashley Harvard … Jamie Moore … Jordan Fischer … Bernie Bennett … Jerry Huang … Daniel Pablo Pinto … Tyler Jones … Bailey Cultice … World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Watson … Beyonce Knowles (h/ts AP)

****** A message from Hewlett Packard Enterprise: To super compete, America must super compute. Supercomputing is key to future breakthroughs in medicine, science and manufacturing. As the designer and builder of more supercomputers than any other company in the world, Hewlett Packard Enterprise is helping America increase its competitive edge in not only today‘s economy, but tomorrow’s. Visit hpe.com/supercomputing to learn more about how HPE supercomputers help America compete. ******

SUBSCRIBE to the Playbook family: POLITICO Playbook http://politi.co/2lQswbh… New York Playbook http://politi.co/1ON8bqW … Florida Playbook http://politi.co/1OypFe9 … New Jersey Playbook http://politi.co/1HLKltF …Massachusetts Playbook http://politi.co/1Nhtq5v … Illinois Playbook http://politi.co/1N7u5sb … California Playbook http://politi.co/2bLvcPl … Brussels Playbook http://politi.co/1FZeLcw … London Playbook http://politi.co/2xfDPuK …All our political and policy tipsheets http://politi.co/1M75UbX

Original Source link

source https://capitalisthq.com/what-ending-daca-will-mean-congress-already-eyeing-immigration-reform-obama-to-speak-out-ap-n-korea-likely-readying-launch-of-a-ballistic-missile-maybe-icbm-bda/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/09/what-ending-daca-will-mean-congress.html

[joshuazev]

On an interview with Kevin Hart:

JCY:  Kevin Hart.

KH:  Wassup, Josh!  How do you say your last name?

JCY:  Chess-in, yu-din.

KH:  Oh shit!

JCY:  Shout out to the hyphenated names one time.

KH:  That’s the type of name that just looks difficult.  Probably in class and the teacher taking attendance and you yell out “here!” just to save em the trouble.  

JCY:  Tell me about it.

KH:  Well what you got for me, man?  It’s a nice day outside and I’m here.  I could be in the gym, could be with my wife and kids, could be shooting a movie, but I’m here with you.  Ok?  So, let’s make this shit good.

JCY:  Kev you are doing shows nowadays that comedians could never dream of doing.  Arenas, stadiums.  It’s getting out of hand.  Did you ever envision yourself being this successful.

KH:  Goddamn right I did, man.  You got to always see a bigger future than other people can see for you and even when I was a young boy I could see myself being a comedian because that’s what I wanted to be.  I had goals.  I accomplished them.  I said if I wanna do this comedy club then that’s what I’m gonna do.  And as the time went on I kept checking things off the list.  Open for this person.  Check.  Have my own special.  Check.  Headline.  And the list is never-ending.  I can never be satisfied.  

JCY:  My introduction to you was through your bit role in “40 Year Old Virgin” when you had that scene with Romany Malco.  I had never seen you before, but I thought that scene was hilarious.  From there it was your specials “Grown Little Man” , “Seriously Funny”, “Laugh At My Pain”, etc.  I thought your specials seemed to get better and better.  How were you able to keep building on your progress and keep going further and further and bigger and bigger.

KH:  My success never satisfied me, Josh.  I’m a greedy man.  Comedy, telling jokes, it never gets old to me.  I thought I was doing well, but I was still hearing the stuff about me not being one of the great ones.  Me not being Eddie.  Me not being Chris.  Not Martin.  Not being Chapelle.  I couldn’t take that.  I had to be as good as them and I told myself I had to be better.      

JCY:  I saw “Let Me Explain” and “What Now?” in Seattle and they were two of the best comedy shows I’d ever seen.  They were huge though and it’s amazing to think that you went from The Paramount to Key Arena.  Those are two unbelievably big stages.  

KH:  Never settle, Josh.  Never get complacent.  There are more things to do.  I want to be a legend, man.  I want to be the very best ever to do it.  That’s what drives me.  That’s what inspires me to work harder every single day.  

JCY:  Do you think there is ever a level you can get to where you risk not being funny anymore?  Is it inevitable for the high to come down?  I just say that because it seems impossible to continue to outdo yourself.  Almost as if staying in the spotlight too long is gonna burn you out and make people sick of you.  

KH:  I don’t believe in that.  Right now I am reaching millions of people daily and I have thousands upon thousands of people seeing my show.  If there is a chatter from a few people or even a couple hundred am I supposed to stop making the other million people laugh?  You can’t make everyone happy, but that’s the sacrifice you make when you get to this level.  

JCY:  It’s interesting that you bring up sacrifice because, you’re right, at your level you there is a lot you have to sacrifice.  Now, I’m no comedy connoisseur, but I do have opinions on what makes a good stand up show.  To me, it’s the feeling of being in an audience who is hearing a joke for the first time and obviously the jokes have to be fresh, innovative, and thought provoking.  As I’ve witnessed you grow I feel that less and less at your performances because they are so grand in scale and you’re doing it for more people than ever that it feels more like spectacle instead of an intimate show, you know?  There were moments during “What Now?” where it felt like you were telling jokes that would be great clips to run for the trailers when your specials were on their way to the theaters.  It just felt a little rehearsed.  It feels a lot like you’re putting on a performance.

KH:  That’s an interesting take.  Josh, I’m doing shows for 20,000 people.  30,000 people.  In Philly 40,000 people and up.  My jokes are still my jokes, but the presentation has to be different.  I’ve come a long way from the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still go back there to work on my material to remind myself where I started and how quickly things can change and I have to go back there to start again.  I have brand now that I have to protect and build on.  Right now my brand requires me to do these big shows because I want to reach more people than any other comic has ever reached.  

JCY:  But in doing that are you sacrificing authenticity?  How bout this.  Why do you think people still revere specials like “Raw” and “Delirious” and “Killin ‘Em Softly”, but don’t necessarily mention “Laugh At My Pain”?  

KH:  If they don’t now, they will later.  It takes time.  

JCY:  You’re also dealing with a petty generation that can turn on you at the drop of the hat.  Do you think that that’s a bit of a gift and a curse?

KH:  Of course, but that’s why I’m expanding my brand to stuff beyond my stand-up.  I’m doing movies, TV shows, cover shoots, events, etc.  I’m trying to be more than a comic.  

JCY:  You are absolutely right.  It seems like you’re involved with everything nowadays.  Do you ever think you run a risk of oversaturating your persona and image?  

KH:  Nope.  I don’t think of it like that at all.  I think of how I grew up hearing from my mother and seeing in my neighborhood and from the people before me that you gotta get while the getting is good.  Eddie peaked and came down.  Martin peaked and came down.  I have opportunity right now that could be gone tomorrow.  I don’t want to see the peak, I want to find a taller mountain.  Why should I stop?

JCY:  I can understand that.  I also think that where I stand, it’s a little easier to criticize as opposed to someone who has been in your shoes and seen what that side looks like.

KH:  You know what’s crazy, Josh?  I’m doing all that I can and I’m opening doors that weren’t opened until I tried to break them down.  The crazy thing is there are still so many closed doors to me that will stay closed no matter how successful I become.  I’ve been trying to change the game for myself and for everyone else after me because that’s my responsibility, to leave this industry more open and accessible to all the people that are like me and want to do what I want to do.  

JCY:  Is it cause of the fact that you’re a comedian or because you’re race?  Or because you’re 5’3’’?

KH:  5’4’’.

JCY:  Really?  

KH:  Don’t disrespect me like that.

JCY:  OK OK.  My bad.  But in all seriousness, those doors are still closed?

KH:  I’m grateful for every opportunity I’ve ever had, but I’m still driven by the fact that there are opportunities still hidden from me.  I want to be a better actor.  I want to be in different movies than the ones I’ve been in.  I want to show people I can act, too.  You see the movie—what was it?—the one with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence?  

JCY:  Silver Linings Playbook?

KH:  Yeah, Chris Tucker finally had a non Chris Tucker role in that movie.  Every comedic actor has had that opportunity.  I’ve been looking for it, trying to create it for myself, tried to find an offer, but it’s not there.  I don’t want it to come after my peak like it has for a lot of others.  I want to show people now because then I could change the game in a different way.  

JCY:  That would be fresh.  I guess for the moment you’re stuck with remaking classics.  I’m pretty bitter about that, to be honest.

KH:  It’s whats on the table.          

JCY:  I don’t want to piss you off, but you’re remaking “Jumanji” and “The Intouchables”, two movies that have no business being remade.

KH:  Hollywood gonna Hollywood.

JCY:  Apparently.  Does it offend you that you’ve been accused of stealing people’s jokes and not writing your own?

KH:  You’ve been watching a lot of Aries Spears, Mike Epps, and Katt Williams interviews?

JCY:  How’d you know?

KH:  Because that’s all anyone wants to talk about when I’m being interviewed.  I thought you were different Josh.  

JCY:  I wasn’t going to go into too much detail.  I just wanted to ask you how you felt.

KH:  I don’t pay attention to it.  I love those guys.  I love each and every one of them.  I love their comedy.  Beyond that there isn’t much for me to say other than that I laugh my ass off when I watch their work.

JCY:  Is it as simple as they want to take shots at the king or is it jealousy or do they just want attention?

KH:  Sometimes the most comfort I get Josh is knowing deep down that I know the truth.  I know the work I’ve put in.  My closest friends know it.  Other comics know it.  I can’t make everyone happy.

JCY:  Who is your favorite stand-up comedian?

KH:  Chapelle.

JCY:  Why?

KH:  Cause it’s non-disputable.

JCY:  Where do you go from here?

KH:  I’m here to make sure that my kids have the best life possible.  I have a beautiful wife who I love very much.  And those doors…I gotta break them open.  I can’t stop until they are.  And if it takes for me to keep expanding my brand, keep pushing the envelope, then that’s what it’s gonna take Mr. Chess-in Yudin.

JCY:  Thank Kev, it was a pleasure.

KH:  The guy who showed me in said that you said you’d whoop my ass in basketball.  

JCY:  He wasn’t supposed to say that, but it’s true.

KH:  Come to the gym so I can whoop your little ass.  

JCY:  I only play for money.

KH:  50,000 a game.

JCY:  I gotta save up.

KH:  Talk to me when you got enough to play against the big boys.

JCY:  I got you.

[type2diabetestreatments-blog]

Just in Time for Halloween, The Ask D'Mine FEAR Edition!

New Post has been published on http://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/just-in-time-for-halloween-the-ask-dmine-fear-edition/

Just in Time for Halloween, The Ask D'Mine FEAR Edition!

OK, we've been doing fear all month... but this week's edition of our diabetes advice column, Ask D'Mine, is especially scary! Chills-down-the-back scary! I promise. Have you met its host, type 1 PWD, diabetes author and community educator Wil Dubois?

Don't let him scare you off entirely this week 😉

Need help navigating life with diabetes? Email us at AskDMine@diabetesmine.com

Lisa from Florida, type 3, writes:I'm a mother of a 14-year old girl with type 1 diabetes. Our healthcare system is truly unraveling because of Big Pharma and insurance companies. I fear for my daughter's future because of it (and remain pessimistic that a cure will ever come because of the huge profits that come with diabetes treatment). So why can't we at least lobby for generic insulin that would be affordable to all? With numbers of diabetes growing so big, we would be a mighty force to reckon with!

Wil@Ask D'Mine answers: Well, as to the cure, let me tell you my favorite scary Halloween story: The cure for diabetes probably has been found, no less than 13 times, even... So why on earth haven't we heard about it? Why the @#$%& are we all still shooting up insulin?

I can just picture the scene: John Q. Researcher, PhD, has just finished writing up his diabetes cure results and has emailed them to the New England Journal of Medicine. He has a good heart, but visions of glory and fame dance across the insides of his eyelids when closes his eyes. Then the phone rings. The Nobel Prize Committee would like to talk to him about his findings.

He can't believe his good luck as a jet-black stretch limo pulls up outside his ivory tower. The driver, in a black trench coat and mirrored sunglasses, holds the door open for him. In the back, an open bottle of champagne awaits. Oh, along with some... you know... overly-large-breasted party favors.

But after the limo whisks Dr. Researcher out of the city, something seems amiss. The airport is the other way. What's going on? The city falls behind as the limo roars out into the empty countryside. Dr. R is starting to get a little antsy, a little sweaty, but the bimbos pour him another glass of bubbly...

And suddenly the limo pulls sharply off the main highway and barrels down a dirt road. The sky is darkening now. A flash of lighting streaks across the horizon. The wind picks up and dry leaves blow and scatter in the wake of the limo.

Something is definitely wrong. Dr. R reaches for the door handle and finds it's been removed. He can't get out of the limo. There's no escape. He's trapped.

Dr. R has a date with the grim pharma reaper.

Yes, 13 times diabetes has been cured. And 13 times the researchers have been driven out and "deposited" into a corn field, and their research burned.

BOO!!!

OK, so I don't really believe that, but there're probably people who do. The real fact is that it's damn hard to come up with a cure for a disease when you can't even figure out what causes the frickin' disease in the first place. And thus far, the cause of your daughter's diabetes is rather ghost-like. Sometimes, during a full moon, researchers think they can see it... but then...

Money aside, trust me, a lot of good-hearted people are hard at work on a cure. Even so, I'm pessimistic that it will come soon, too. I don't blame greed for the lack of progress. I just think the obstacles are too large to overcome anytime soon.

I also think pessimism can be good medicine for our diabetes. If we live our lives like there will be a cure tomorrow, we'll be careless with our health, and pay a very high price indeed. If we live our lives like there will never be a cure, the worst that can happen is we'll be pleasantly surprised. And on that day I'll meet you and your daughter, along with the rest of the gang, down at the Krispy Kreme. Oh, and then I'll need to look for a new job. (I kinda think that under the circumstances, I'll have a hard time getting too upset about that.)

But you're right, there's a lot of money to be made on diabetes, and thank God for that. I bet you think I hit the bottle early today, huh? Nope. Here's how I run the math. Think how much more money Big Pharma can make if they can extend my life just one year. In just one year, think how many more test strips, how much more insulin, how many more CGM sensors, and how many more infusion sets I'll use. Oh, and it gets better. Just think how much more money they'll make if they can extend my life by five years? Or by a decade?

I'm a frickin' gold mine.

But guess what? While they're mining all that gold, I'm alive for my son. So you gotta keep these things in perspective.

As to lobbying for generic insulin... well, more on lobbying in a minute, but let me talk about insulin first. When a medicine goes generic, the formula becomes public knowledge. Yep, it would be just like if you could look up the Colonel's secret recipe on the internet. But making insulin is a lot harder than making fried chicken. Now I don't know exactly how much it costs to build an insulin manufacturing plant, but I'm pretty sure it's a long number with a lot of commas and zeros in it. Frankly, anyone who built an insulin plant to sell generic insulin would never recoup their investment. And actually, we kinda sorta have generic insulin already. The Wal-Mart ReliOn insulins are out-of-patent formulations that sell for about a quarter of the cost of the fancy-pants stuff we all prefer. (btw, it's made by Eli Lilly.)

Now, I loved your image of people with diabetes as a mighty force to reckon with. Let's think about that for a minute. The United Auto Workers have around a million members and have been known to make a few congressmen tremble in their boots (disclaimer: I'm a card-carrying member of the National Writers Union, which is actually part of the UAW). What're some other influential groups in our county? Oh, the National Rifle Association comes to mind, they have a little bit of political clout with around four million members.

But the official number of persons with diabetes this year is 25.8 million. If we voted with one voice we'd be second only to AARP (with their 40 million members) when it comes to political power and clout. A million-man march would look like a Sunday picnic compared to a 25-million diabetic march, don't you think?

And if we actually organized, and spoke, and voted, with one voice, we could practically be the only game in town—for two reasons. First, in 2010 around 90 million Americans turned out to the polls to vote. So, in theory, we could be about a quarter of the voting population. Oh, and if our loved ones also came to the polls with us, we could command half the vote. Or more.

And second, our cause, if narrowly focused on a limited number of diabetes-specific issues, is non-partisan. That's how Prohibition got passed in the

'20s. It was some groups that wanted the election focused on Prohibition and Prohibition alone. They supported politicians of both parties who favored the issue and they voted out anyone of either party who got in their way. I hate to compare the diabetes cause to anything as crazy as Prohibition, but if a freedom-loving country like ours was once taken over by a small group of highly focused fanatic people in this way, we could take a page from their playbook.

Maybe this Halloween, it's time to transfer some fear: from us to the people in Washington, D.C.

This is not a medical advice column. We are PWDs freely and openly sharing the wisdom of our collected experiences — our been-there-done-that knowledge from the trenches. But we are not MDs, RNs, NPs, PAs, CDEs, or partridges in pear trees. Bottom line: we are only a small part of your total prescription. You still need the professional advice, treatment, and care of a licensed medical professional.

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

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