#I wish all these billionaires and capitalism would die

[imwritesometimes]

every weekend without fail the big depresh spiral cometh

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Canary, Part 6

First

Previous

Tim had been watching her out of the corner of his eyes for a long time. It wasn’t that he was trying to be creepy or anything, he just… didn’t know why she was there. It didn’t make sense. She was relatively low on funds according to what he and Oracle had dredged up, and even Tim in all his billionaire-ness recognized that this place was more expensive than average…

So, why had she come? It wasn’t even close to the motel she was staying at.

The vaguely paranoid -- cautious, he was cautious -- part of him worried that she had somehow known he was there, but there was no way she should have been able to know that. Hell, he hadn’t known he was going to this particular cafe until he’d gotten to work and realized that there were now cameras in the breakroom and his office to make sure he didn’t drink too much.

But, really, it seemed like she was just using the free wifi that the cafe provided to write up a resume.

He relaxed and sunk back in his chair with his laptop while he did his work.

… he didn’t get to work for long.

He picked up on the slight gravel of someone putting on a voice with ease. It was high and sweet, a voice he commonly heard from customer service workers. He chanced a look back at the barista and frowned when he saw her on her phone. Not her, then.

He looked around the tiny coffee shop and cringed a little when he realized what was going on. Shady guy approaches a woman who’s drinking coffee alone? Yeah, that’s never a good thing.

He pushed his laptop into his bag quickly, slung it over his shoulders, put the cap back on his coffee cup so the guy wouldn’t be able to tell that Tim had been there for a while, and rushed over.

He rested his hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Hey, bud, she said no.”

Tim watched both of them tense and their gazes were pulled to him in an instant.

Marinette glanced him up and down once. He watched her eyes lock onto his coffee cup for a second and he carefully turned his hand a little so she could see the name.

She smiled. “You’re late, Timmy. Don’t tell me you got caught up in another meeting?”

He shrugged innocently. “You know how it is.” Then, he split into a grin. “Maybe I should be the one that’s upset, though. Can’t believe you didn’t save me a spot.”

“I tried!” She whined. “He insisted!”

The man chuckled awkwardly. “I see. I’m sorry, I thought you were alone.”

She rolled her eyes. “I told you I wasn’t. Can you move, though?”

“Actually,” Tim said, because he didn’t want to sit in the window where Duke might happen to see him while on patrols. “There’s a free table back this way.”

Marinette tipped her head to the side a little before nodding. “Sure.”

She closed her laptop with a snap, gathered her things into her bag, and followed him back to his table.

That should have been the end of it. Unfortunately, the guy was still watching them. It looked like they weren’t going to be able to do work for a while if they wanted to keep up the pretense that they were friends.

She seemed to know it, too, because she sighed and rested her head on her hand with a small frown. “Guess we have to talk.”

He huffed. “Don’t have to sound so upset about it.”

“Alright. Fine.”

“Not sounding much more excited.”

She rolled her eyes and then brought a bright smile to her face. “Sure, Timmy, sounds great! Can’t wait to have a super fun conversation with you!”

“... nevermind. That’s weird. Why did that almost convince me? I knew it was fake.”

She let herself lean back in her chair, her face falling back to a slightly smug grin. “I’m Parisian,” she said simply.

Yeah. That made sense. Every Parisian Tim had had the (dis?)pleasure of meeting had had an almost unnerving amount of control over the way they presented their emotions.

He snickered. “Why the hell would you move here, then?”

She rolled her eyes. “Our psychopath was so boring. Like, dude, we get it, your wife died or whatever, that sounds like a you problem. Now, a guy deciding to become a jewel thief purely for the gimmick? Way more interesting.”

“Moral grayness is so twenty years ago,” Tim joked.

“Exactly! Give me dumbasses who are evil purely to be evil and good to be good!”

He grinned. “I can see why you like Harry Potter.”

She blinked.

He motioned to her cup. Scrawled across it in the barista’s messy handwriting was ‘He Who Must Not Be Named’.

She relaxed a little, grinning. “I just finished the books so I’m a bit obsessed. Also, every time I tell them that my name is Marinette they misspell it.”

“Don’t feel too bad, baristas are just like that. Heck, they’ve misspelled my name before.”

“... your name is Tim.”

“They spelled it with a y.”

“... why?”

“Yes. Exactly. A y.”

She giggled a little. “No, I mean why would they do that?”

“Oh. No clue. I hope they were just messing with me.”

~

The barista was wiping down the tables. It was nearing closing time and Marinette was feeling more and more sorry for the poor workers the longer they stayed. She knew that, when she had used to work at the bakery, she had always especially hated customers that were there around closing time.

Only two tables remained occupied.

She sighed when she glanced over and saw the guy was still there.

Oh well.

She looked over at Tim. “Care to walk me a few blocks in a random direction to see if we can get rid of him?”

“Certainly,” he said.

“‘Certainly’? I may not be super great with American customs yet but even I know that’s weird,” she teased.

He huffed a little. “Listen.”

“I’m listening.”

His nose scrunched. “No, wait, you weren’t supposed to call me out on the fact that I didn’t have an excuse.”

“Oh. Okay, we can try again.”

“Alright.” He cleared his throat. “Listen,” he said again, this time in a tone that mocked the one he’d said it in the first time.

Convenient. She was intent on mocking him, too: “I’m listening.”

“You’re the worst,” he complained.

She laughed. “I am so not. Joker exists.”

“You’re worse than him,” he said in his most serious voice.

She laughed harder. “No one is worse than him.”

He grinned. “I thought you liked people that were evil purely for being evil.”

“But he’s not,” she argued. “The man just decided one day that he liked the weird guy who dressed like a bat and figured that the best way to get that guy’s attention was to murder people.”

“Gotta admit, it works,” said Tim.

She shrugged, grinning. “Yeah, it does. Makes me wonder what would happen if the Big Bad Bat didn’t come, though.”

He tipped his head to the side slightly and then shrugged. “I don’t know, actually. He usually stops it in time.”

“I think he’d freak out.”

“Absolutely.”

She grinned and stretched lazily, head tipping back.

“He’s still following us, isn’t he?” Asked Tim.

“Yep,” she said, popping the ‘p’.

He groaned a little. “Great. Looks like we’re heading to the library.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You go to libraries? You could probably buy every ebook in existence and have a few billion left over.”

“One of my sisters works there, I can ask her to get rid of the guy,” he explained. “But I like libraries. There’s something quaint about them.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, it’s nice to see how the common folk live sometimes.”

He returned her eye roll. “Not like that. I spend a lot of time staring at screens, I have a special appreciation for regular old books.”

“That’s nice. I wish I had time to sit down with a physical copy like that.”

“You see, I have this genius strategy for making time: not taking care of myself.”

“Go on, this is intriguing.”

“Well, eating and sleeping, right? Everyone thinks they’re totally necessary things otherwise you’d die or whatever. But, listen, that’s just a hoax made up by the government to perpetuate capitalism.”

She nodded eagerly. “Totally totally totally. What’s your solution?”

“Coffee communism.”

“Yes, you should use your rich boy money to lobby Congress.”

He grinned. “I totally should. But I can’t run it by my family.”

“No way! You never know who's capitalist anymore, they could be plants placed by the sleep industry to ensure that you don’t go through with it.”

He gasped. “No! You think? My own family?!”

She nodded grimly. “It’s always the ones closest to you that betray you.”

And then he broke character, snickering behind his hand. She beamed.

They reached the library and he smiled as he held the door open for her. He asked her to wait while he talked to his sister and she waved him off casually, telling him to take his time.

She pulled out her phone and pressed her lips together thinly as she made a note to head over later that night to give the man -- Henry -- his money. She’d give him a little tip because, for a moment there, she’d almost forgotten that they were just acting. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to purposely trigger herself for the sake of believability but, hey, if she was going to try and dupe one of the smartest businessmen alive into talking to her, she needed to go all out.

Speaking of Tim, she updated the file of Tim’s favorite cafes plus the probabilities of him visiting each one. It was for his oldest brother, Richie Wayne. She didn’t know why Richie was the one to ask for it seeing as he spent most of his time in Bludhaven and therefore likely wouldn’t find much use in it, but no one ever really knew why Richie Wayne did anything. The man famously had almost as much cotton between his ears as his father.

But, Richie Wayne was also just as rich as his father, so… she’d give him his file later that night after checking her math with her favorite graphing calculator.

A redhead in a wheelchair rolled past Marinette and she absently held the door open for her, only to be surprised when she cursed out Henry.

She watched as Henry held his hands up and started backing away from the woman in the wheelchair, and then he ran down the nearest alley.

(… she’d give Henry a bigger tip. The man had just wanted a tiny side job to help pay for his wife and kids that wasn’t being a henchman, he didn’t deserve this.)

She opened the door for the woman on her way back inside and mumbled her thanks. The woman nodded once and continued on her way.

Marinette leaned back against the wall again and scrolled through Twitter as she waited for Tim to reappear. Apparently, Poison Ivy was already back in Arkham. Something about an intern at the botanical gardens watering plants wrong. Wild.

Marinette felt someone sidle up beside her and, after a quick glance confirmed that it was Tim, pocketed her phone.

He smiled at her, a tote bag over his shoulder.

“Did you go grocery shopping while I wasn’t looking, somehow?”

He hesitated before holding it out to her. “It’s the French dubs of the Harry Potter movies.”

She blinked as the bag was thrust into her hands and looked down at it. Yep, that was Harry Potter in French. She also, vaguely, noted the tiny slip of paper his phone number scrawled across it.

She slung the bag over her shoulder.

“I’m never going to return these. You’re going to rack up so much debt.”

~~~

NightwingsAss9384: does anyone know why nightwing and canary hate each other?

ScareCrane: She stabbed Batman once on accident and somehow got away with blaming it on him

Daylightwing: She refuses to let B adopt her.

RiddleMeThis: They think it’s funny when their stans fight.

SignalOfficial: They said ‘I’m the only flippy bitch allowed in New Jersey’ and have been fighting ever since

Yummmmmm: He has to or else Robin will get jealous because he’s the only stabby sibling allowed

Oracle: They’re fighting over who gets to change their name to ‘The Dodo’ first.

DeadHood: Nightwing is jealous that Canary was the first one of us to think to have a full-on bird mask.

TheBetterCanary: every time i go into the batfam tag to try and avoid them all i see is his fancams

SpoilerAlert: they’re both convinced that they’re the hottest bachelor/bachelorette in gotham

NightwingsAss9384: im beginning to think no ones going to tell me.

BlackBat: :)

~~~~~

Next

Perma taglist: @nathleigh @peachmuses

Canary taglist: @jayjayspixiepop @unoriginalmess @miraculousfanfic127 @probably-a-hologram @iloontjeboontje

[sineala]

Holy Crap!!! Asks are backkk ... best Christmas gift everrr. I wish you nothing but the best in this world!

I’ve got a question, I have read a few of iron man runs so my knowledge of the character is limited. I tried following the current run but almost every iron man blog I follow are hating it so much and I am scared to ask them why lol so I wanted to know what ur opinion and mainly what is Tonys character flaw? Cuz I don’t know why he is being called OOC in the current. I always thought his main flaw was indeed a huge ego and manipulative. I believe it aligns with his core character because he was a prodigy, smart, filthy rich and handsome. So why wouldn’t he be cocky? Also; I believe it is an insecurity/cover up. His dad paid no attention growing up which makes me believe it’s a habit of Tony to constantly act out to get attention elsewhere. Okay I’m rambling A LOT, my question is why is arrogant/cocky/insensitive Tony considered an OOC when I thought it was his major flaw?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Love to have you back! 💝

Merry Christmas to you too, anon! Oof. I guess we’re getting the salt out early tonight...

Okay, so. This is kind of complicated, but the thing about Tony is that the way his character has been written has changed over the years. He initially started out as... well, the best way I can describe him is as a fantasy of ethical capitalism. He was filthy rich but he was also A Very Good Person, very kind, very caring. He was generous. He knew his employees’ names. He believed in philanthropy, and as late as v3 he was going around doing things like funding programs for low-income kids and funding women’s shelters. Like, he was honestly a deeply, deeply good person who just wanted to help people. (I can pull panels to support this if you need them; I just figured it would be a lot faster not to.)

You’d think someone like that would be egotistical, but the thing is... he wasn’t. He absolutely wasn’t. I’m not saying that he didn’t believe he was right, because he was also generally very confident that he was right (I mean, he’s one of the smartest people on the planet, so he generally IS right) but he also had absolutely zero self-esteem. And so I would say that in order to get arrogance you need high self-confidence plus high self-esteem and Tony had a whole lot of one but none of the other. I mean, this is a guy who, when kidnapped by Skrulls, who then posed as Avengers, figured out that they were Skrulls because he sincerely believed there was no way the Avengers would care about him enough to come rescue him. He has, canonically, described himself as depressed. (I know, that was Fraction’s run, but still.)

There’s a really nice takedown somewhere near the end of the v3 arc in which he becomes the Secretary of Defense where a senator basically asks why he should get this job when he is so totally arrogant and Tony just says that he has done so many things to save people that no one has ever found out about, and he has never asked for credit, he has never wanted credit, he just wants to keep people safe, and that’s just... that’s just really Tony, to me. (And he does get the job, too.)

Hang on, I am doing a bad job paraphrasing, let me find it. IM v3 #76-78:

(As opposed to say, now, when he’s spending most of an issue complaining that no one thanks him.)

But starting with Fraction’s run, more or less, the portrayal of Tony started to shift from “a billionaire who is explicitly ethical and a Good Person” to “a billionaire who is kind of an arrogant jerk because that’s what billionaires are.” So it’s not, in a sense, out of character for the current run to take this tack with Tony’s character, because it’s a direction he’s been heading in for about a decade now -- but many people who are fans of 616 Tony as a character are fans of his earlier portrayal in the comics, in which he is absolutely not arrogant at all, and many of them (including me) aren’t really eager to read a run where it’s just assumed that he’s an asshole and he needs to be knocked down a peg. Why would I want to read a run about my fave where literally no one likes him and all the other characters tell him how terrible he is? Why would I want to read him, for example, making casually ableist remarks where he mocks the idea of learning sign language?

The current run also flat-out ignores a lot of past canon in a way that people who are fans of past Iron Man canon can find a lot to dislike about. There are a lot of guest villains from the Silver Age, that is true, but everything else... yeah, no.

I mean, okay. My absolute favorite IM run is Denny O’Neil’s run, specifically the second drinking arc. I know for a fact that the current IM writer has read it because he likes to post panels on Twitter. And I’m just not sure how anyone can read that run and come away with the impression that Tony is arrogant, and yet that seems to be what’s going on. The audience of the current run is clearly meant to agree with Patsy as she tells Tony to check his privilege -- and while, yes, he is a billionaire, he also spent about ten straight issues being broke and homeless and living in a cardboard box.  He may not know what it’s like, say, to be born into poverty, but he does, actually, know what it’s like to have nothing. He has been there.

And also, contrary to Patsy’s assertion, Tony does in fact know what it’s like to be suicidal, because he has literally tried to kill himself at least twice, and one of them was in the middle of the second drinking arc, and, again, I know the current IM writer has read it because he has been posting panels from that very issue. Tony sold his coat to buy one last bottle of booze, sat down outside in a blizzard, and waited to die. And there are a lot of fans who find Tony’s mental health issues relatable, find his triumphs inspiring, and so on -- and so it’s kind of frustrating to read a run where we are, essentially, told that Tony is An Out Of Touch Privileged Dude who could never understand anyone having problems like that, because one of the things fandom likes a lot about Tony is that he does actually have those problems himself.

I think the best thing I can say about the current run is that it is crafting an interesting narrative about a man who needs to learn humility; I just really wish that this man weren’t Tony Stark, because in the way he’s been canonically portrayed for decades, he’s already had that covered.

I will say that the art’s nice. I own all three variants of #1 with the tentacles and am still planning to frame them.

This is not to say that I think it is wrong to like the run. Hey, if you like the run, I am glad to hear it, because I am glad that someone is actually buying this comic every month who is enjoying reading it! And it is definitely in line with recent trends in Tony’s characterization. I just keep picking up Iron Man comics and hoping that this month the old Tony, the Tony that I started reading Iron Man comics because I wanted to see more of, will be back... and he’s not.

[mighettoraviart813]

Dr. Veena Dubal's White Paper

I've had the great pleasure of working with Dr. Veena Dubal over the past couple years since Prop 22 was announced. It was before we met that I first read her White Paper. It is her work that drew me to Rideshare Drivers United. When I met her a year later at Hastings College, she helped myself and about fifty other drivers embark on our Wage Claim Campaign. This eventually would result in over 5,000 drivers in California filing wage claims.

As we wait for the Labor Commission and now the Attorney General to resolve our case, Dr. Veena Dubal's White Paper is still as relevant as ever. Taxi drivers have been faced with bankruptcy and foreclosure without the safety nets described and no thanks to the global pandemic. Drivers still express concerns as to whether big unions can effectively represent and defend them. They wonder if their best interests will ever be negotiated. It seems that the companies, Uber and Lyft, have only been willing to negotiate a living wage for drivers if they agree to remain independent contractors indefinitely, as we've seen in Washington State.

Regardless, Uber and Lyft still control every aspect of the work. So-called independent contractors across these Technology Network Companies (TNCs) have little to no access to information about the 'contracts' they commit to. Drivers typically don't know where a ride will take them until the customer is sitting in their car. Should a driver wish to cancel based on undesirable terms, they're likely to suffer an awkward confrontation at the very least. Not only that, they face threats of deactivation if they don't achieve high 'acceptance rates'. So it seems Uber and Lyft drivers don't have much independence at all. They are forced to work during peak hours (late at night and during the wee hours of the morning) and during holidays for any chance at survival, given that there is no compensation for idle time.

Until the constitutionality of Prop 22 is determined at the state level, drivers continue to be faced with more and more pay cuts with no protections. Drivers continue to die at the wheel leaving families penniless without the benefit of Worker's Compensation. They are frivolously deactivated, often on the whim of a disgruntled passenger who may make false accusations when required to wear a mask. Drivers can't afford to properly maintain their vehicles saddled with fronting the expense of billionaires' fleet. Additionally, the state of California continues to be robbed of payroll taxes and unemployment insurance. Uber and Lyft continue to capitalize on the lack of regulation in TNCs, which continues to threaten the safety and livelihood of the general public.

[counterspellthisyoucasual]

Vaslak; A Comprehensive Guide

Vaslak is the universe in which my dnd campaign takes place that stems initially from a few one shots with different characters that ended up becoming interconnected.

Now, the storyline that our campaign follows is quite complicated because of the time bullshit, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who has it memorised because I’m the DM with an intense hyper fixation so of course I’ve got all those useless tidbits in here. Anyway, I won’t be diving into that here, I’ll probably do a few separate posts for that (probably focusing on a certain oneshot/session or character) but I am going to give you a basic rundown of the universe and how it came to be how it is.

Vaslak was, initially, finite. It consisted of about 1000 different planes following a nonlinear time-line. (Note I say planes, not worlds as it takes into account both celestial and infernal planes as well as the fact that the world is not made up of planets but instead flat planes.) The centre plane is known, now, as the Prime Material Plane. Or as some like to call it, The Wormhole, for its tendency to have the rest of the universe rotate and be sucked into the problems it causes. Above The Wormhole is another plane, slightly more populated with slightly more celestial beings and magic and below it is another plane populated with slightly more infernal beings and magic. To the sides of The Wormhole are planes that are practically identical to the Prime Material in the sense of magic balance and whatnot, however they have very slightly diverged from the timeline. The further out to the sides from The Wormhole in Vaslak a plane is, the more it diverges from the main or ‘True’ timeline and the further above or below a plane is, the more celestial or infernal it is. (This is then what results in different hells and heavens)

As I said before, Vaslak was finite with only about 1000 different planes, each diverging more and more from the initial model of The Wormhole. That was, until, the partnership of Ferrer Erasmus and Emperor Juniper Lazerith

Ferrer Erasmus is a human from Earth. Yes, Earth. In their universe they were hailed as a genius and, being the child of multi-billionaire Jeff Musk, were given access to all the resources they needed to invent whatever they wished. However, as Erasmus grew they discovered that the world was rotted by capitalism and the exploitation of minorities and so on and so forth. Instead of trying to fix it, Erasmus decided that humans had gone too far in their greed and so elected to destroy Earth with the help of 3 humans who were in touch with magic and 1 celestial being inhabiting one of the humans’ bodies.

Through this reckoning, Erasmus decimated the universe and ripped open a tear in space-time that lead the four of them to fall into a new world, the world known as Vaslak. They spent some time together exploring and realising their true potential with their abilities in this world that had much more magic to tap into, before going their separate ways. After a while, Erasmus found employment under Emperor Juniper Lazerith.

Emperor Juniper Lazerith was a racist, high-elf dictator with a special disliking for orcs and even moreso, half-orcs as they would be labelled as ‘half-breeds’ and so when he took power, he decimated every person of orcish blood in the land, including his own son and heir’s mother. He wanted to keep the status quo forever and, as such, realised he had made a lot of enemies and needed to find a way to become immortal. Being a sorcerer, he knew exactly what fate lied for those who became things such as Liches and so he took a different route, the technology route as he was inspired when he came across Ferrer Erasmus and their strange technologies from far off lands.

Erasmus came up with the idea of making a person’s soul infinite, by splitting it indefinitely. Thus if a person were to ever ‘die’ only part of them would die, a new piece of their soul taking reign over the body and allowing the person (Juniper) to live forever.

Of course Juniper was thrilled with the idea but also found it to be rather dangerous and so elected to let Erasmus use his son for the first trial of the machine they had built to split the soul. Ugor Lazerith was only 5 years of age when he was placed in the machine, unsure what was going to happen as his soul was agonisingly split into hundreds and then thousands and then millions and finally an infinite number of pieces. Unfortunately, no being could ever hold that many souls and so they tore out of him, scattering across the dimensions of Vaslak. Only one fragment of the soul could be on a plane at a time (unhoused in a body anyway) and so each fragment set off across Vaslak, finding a new plane to inhabit.

Due to the finite nature of Vaslak, however, these soul fragments ended up catalysing a replication of planes, worlds being created over and over until they too were infinite and an Ugor Lazerith existed on every plane. Neither Erasmus nor Juniper were aware of these results, although Erasmus had their suspicions and elected to keep an incredibly close eye on Ugor as he grew, even if Ferrer was fired days after due to their cataclysmic failure.

They were later offered a rehiring by Ugor (who went by Lazerith) a few years later after the timely murder of his father, however they rejected this as they had moved on to more interesting projects. Although, they did remain in close contact with Lazerith, slowly starting to see him more and more like their son, learning more about him and attempting to shape him as he was the ruler of the most powerful empire in the Prime Material, up until his first death.

I shall leave the description there as anymore would be going into the specifics of Lazerith and his abilities/personality which is a post of its own

[blergityblargh]

8) Communism killed 100 million people

From newspaper editorials, to internet message boards, the “100 million killed by communism” retort is the preferred way to derail discussion. “You are a socialist? 100 million dead”, “you want a higher minimum wage? 100 million dead”, “you want healthcare? 100 million dead” The right-wing deploy this all-purpose slander whenever they have run out of real arguments!

What is the reality? This claim is based on the Black Book of Communism authored by Stephane Courtois in 1998. It has been widely debunked as biased, using shoddy methodology and hypocritical criteria. Even some of its main contributors critiqued the book saying that Courtois was obsessed with reaching the number of 100 million by whatever means necessary and that this figure cannot be sustained.

Over 90 percent of the deaths in the Black Book are apportioned to Stalinist or Maoist regimes. We have already explained how Stalinism has nothing in common with genuine Marxism. We do not take any responsibility for the real crimes of these regimes, and we point out that the first victims of Stalinism were the Trotskyists, the genuine inheritors of Bolshevism. We find it abhorrent that the deaths of our comrades are used by reactionaries to stain the banner that they fought under.

Whose responsibility are the deaths during the Russian Civil War? Is the civil war the fault of the mass of workers and peasants, the majority of the population, who wanted an end to WWI, land to the peasants, self determination for oppressed nationalities, and socialism? Or is it the fault of the White generals, the landowners, the bosses, the monarchists, and the 21 foreign armies of intervention, that didn’t accept the wishes of the majority? It is akin to bandits attacking your home, resulting in deaths on both sides: whose fault is that? The reactionaries answer that the homeowners are at fault as nobody would have been hurt if they had just surrendered. One may as well blame Abraham Lincoln for all the deaths during the American Civil War that freed the slaves. Proportionately, per head of population, a similar number of people were killed.

Even the attacks on the Stalinists are hypocritical. For example, the book lays responsibility for 1.5 million deaths in Afghanistan, practically all of the deaths during the Soviet-friendly regime. But it forgets that the CIA armed and funded the Mujahedeen insurgency with rocket launchers and other advanced weaponry in a prolonged guerrilla war. It also forgets that this Mujahedeen included such ‘freedom fighters’ as Osama Bin Laden, and renamed itself the Taliban in the 1990s. So who was responsible for these deaths?

One event that is frequently associated with the 100 million dead is the Soviet famine of 1932-1933, the so-called Holodomor. The Black Book lists 4 million dead in Ukraine and 2 million elsewhere in the USSR. The right-wing nationalist Ukrainian regime categorizes this famine as a genocide, and it is often used for political purposes to bolster the nationalist cause.

Marxists are the last to excuse the Stalinists for this famine, which was the result of Stalin’s criminal policy of forced collectivisation. Trotsky analysed this in his anti-Stalinist masterpiece, Revolution Betrayed. However, neither do we accept the anti-communist victimhood of the Ukrainian nationalists. The truth is that in the 1920s Stalin leaned on the the kulak peasants enriched by the New Economic Policy to defeat Trotsky’s Left Opposition. The Left Opposition was calling for a policy of voluntary collectivisation of the land in order to educate the peasants on the advantages of socialism.

But once Trotsky’s proletarian tendency was defeated the kulaks threatened a return to capitalism, endangering the privileges of the bureaucracy. Stalin did a 180-degree somersault and turned on the kulaks. Instead of voluntary collectivisation he introduced forced collectivisation, with the aim to “liquidate the kulaks as a class”. This insane policy led to rich peasants consuming the seed and livestock, rather than cultivating them, resulting in a famine. Ukraine faced a more acute impact as it was the breadbasket of the Tsarist empire. However the famine also had a significant impact outside Ukraine. While the facts do not support the nationalist claim of genocide, it was the Trotskyists who fought against this famine from the start.

The hypocritical methodology of the Black Book would result in a figure numbering in the billions if it was applied consistently to capitalism. Noam Chomsky, no supporter of Stalinism or Maoism, did this analysis to compare India with China. Due to the lower inequality and better distribution of medical resources in the Chinese planned economy, the number of excess deaths in India alone had reached 100 million by 1979 (and counting!) What of the decimation of indigenous populations in North and South America? The capitalist slave trade in Africa? The impact of imperialism globally?

Winston Churchill himself bears a key responsibility for the Bengal famine of 1943, in which millions died. During the famine, British controlled India was actually exporting food and Churchill was quoted as saying, "I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion." This is not to mention the millions upon millions dying in wars for profit and imperialist strategic considerations. Over a million deaths in Iraq alone, plus the world wars and constant ‘minor’ wars.

In March of this year, UNICEF estimated that 600-million children face death, disease, and malnutrition by 2040 if current trends continue. In previous reports they have detailed how millions of children die every year by the same preventable causes while the top 8 billionaires own the same as the poorest half of humanity. By this measure capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism, have produced an entire library of “black books”. It is high time humanity turned the page on this social and economic system that is dripping with blood from every pore.

[netflixismysalvation]

I really wish I hadn’t went to the library that day. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe it wasn’t. But I’ll never know, because I did go to the library that day. I never knew my love of books would lead to so many deaths. I mean, sure, a death or two doesn’t seem too serious, but thousands? Way too many. Luckily, it can’t be traced back to me, so no prison for me. Yay! Oh, but as to how that happened... I was just looking around, trying to find books to read, as one does, and I found a journal. It looks brand new, still in the plastic wrap, no price tag. So, I took it, like a sane broke person who likes to write. I get my books, which were wonderful by the way, definitely read The Song of Achilles, The Girls I’ve Used to Be, Wild Women and the Blues, Because You Love to Hate Me, and We Were Liars, and I go to open the journal. I was excited because it had a little engraving in the front saying, “Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it.” I initially disregarded it, because everyone says that. Looking back on it, every time someone said something similar, it ends up being important. But anyways, I didn’t think that at the time. So, I was kinda just letting my mind wander and writing what I was thinking about. Now, this is where it gets interesting. I recalled a post on some social media and it was saying if we’re ok with people dying of the coronavirus because it’s for the economy or whatever, why can’t it be those rich old millionaires and billionaires. Less people would die, the economy would be better, it’s a win win. The person was making a point about capitalism and classism and all that, but I was thinking about the millionaire death part. I mean, that would be wonderful for the economy. Like an idiot, I wrote my thoughts about it down. I wrote these words exactly “I wonder what it would be like if all those old rich white (and racist, sexist, homophobic, and terrible) millionaires and billionaires were to die. What would the world be like?” Again, I was an idiot. I closed the journal and went to read my books then sleep. The next day, I get up, and everything’s normal. Then, a friend of mine calls me. “Bro, guess what?!” It’s too early for me to answer coherently, so I just grunt.He goes on “A whole lot of rich old white millionaires just died! And it what’s weird is that they all were shitty people and connected to each other in some way. How crazy!” I grunted again, it was still to early to have a conversation. Sensing I was not ready for social interaction of any kind, he said goodbye and hung up. Five minutes later, as I was getting dressed, I finally processed what he said. With my pants half on and my shirt tangled up in my arms, I ran to the journal. Unfamiliar hand writing appeared on the page. “So you know how the journal works now. You’re welcome :)” Naturally, I screamed, grabbed the closest weapon, which was a knife, and went marching around, seeing if someone was in the house, forgetting my half-dressed state. No one was there. So, I assumed the most logical thing. This was a joke that someone did with invisible ink. But, I had to see if the third most logical thing, which was that the book was magic and did anything I wished/wondered, was true. I wrote. “I wish I had a delicious red velvet cake with equally delicious cream cheese frosting that never runs out and never gets stale or moldy.” What? Red velvet cake is bomb. Anyways, a second later, someone rings the door. Luckily, I remembered to put on my clothes correctly, so I answered it. “Delivery for a Morgan Dixon” That’s me, so I took the box in her hands, signed for it, thanked her, and went back in the kitchen, where I was with my journal. Opened the package, I discovered a delicious, beautiful, mouthwatering, red velvet cake. Seeing if it actually never runs out, I ate as much of it as humanly possible, and it never did run out. I still eat it to this day. Oh, but it turns out my indirect wish helped a lot of people, though it changed my life totally. I guess it’s not so terrible after all.

I’m trying to do a prompt everyday to better my writing skills. I hope you like it!

prompt 1607

Complete the sentence “I really wish I hadn’t …” in a creative way, then write a piece about it. It doesn’t have to be true. In fact, the more untrue it is, the better.

[dailynewswebsite]

What Will the World Look Like in 30 Years? Sci-fi Author Kim Stanley Robinson Takes Us There

Who knew that on this darkish hour of the local weather disaster hope would arrive within the type of a 563-page novel by a sci-fi author greatest identified for a trilogy about establishing a human civilization on Mars? However alas, that’s what Kim Stanley Robinson – the creator of 20 books and one of the crucial revered science fiction writers working in the present day — has given us with The Ministry for the Future. It’s a visit by way of the carbon-fueled chaos of the approaching many years, with engineers working desperately to cease melting glaciers from sliding into the ocean, avenging eco-terrorists downing so many airliners that individuals are afraid to fly, and bankers re-inventing the economic system in actual time in a determined try to avert extinction.

Robinson has a geeky, exuberant creativeness and likes to select up items of the world and study them like a geologist examines rocks. Within the novel’s 106 chapters, he riffs on blockchain know-how, Jevon’s Paradox, carbon taxes, ice sheet dynamics, quantitative easing, amongst different issues. He pays a whole lot of consideration to how cash strikes round in a carbon-based economic system, and should perceive the monetary underpinnings of the local weather disaster higher than any author I’ve encountered. However he’s not afraid to get bizarre: He writes brief chapters from the standpoint of a carbon molecule, a photon, and a caribou.

Extra from Rolling Stone

He additionally has a compelling heroine in Mary Murphy, an Irish ex-diplomat who runs a Zurich-based UN company known as the Ministry for the Future (thus the title of the e book), who’s up towards corrupt politicians and petro-state billionaires. Within the aftermath of a horrific warmth wave that kills 20 million individuals in India – Robinson describes 1000’s being “poached” in a lake the place they fled to flee the warmth — the Ministry sponsors varied technological tips to attempt to sluggish the warming, together with dyeing the Arctic Ocean yellow so it stops absorbing daylight. However the true drama is Murphy’s confrontations with a handful of central bankers all over the world who assist break the petro-billionaires and shift the economic system away from fossil fuels. In the meantime, debt strikes by college students and uprisings by migratory staff ship tens of millions of individuals marching within the streets. All of it feels believable, in a holographic, sci-fi kinda method. In the long run, Robinson achieves one thing sudden: He transforms the existential disaster we face into a contemporary fairy story of resilience and redemption.

Story continues

Rolling Stone talked to Robinson concerning the function of science in a sci-fi novel, violence as a political device, and why he thinks it’s time to purchase out the oil firms.

This interview has been edited for size and readability.

What was in your head if you sat down to put in writing The Ministry for the Future? I had written about local weather earlier than, nevertheless it was all the time offset right into a future that was distant sufficient that there was a niche between at times. I didn’t need the hole this time. I wished it to begin from now, exit about 30 years, create a believable future historical past that was, to my mind-set, a best-case state of affairs. But in addition one you possibly can consider in. In order that was the objective getting in. And I did need to recommend that regardless of the intense hazard that we’re going through, world response may dodge the mass extinction occasion. My complete notion of utopia has come down to only survival of the numerous species which are in peril. If we dodge the mass extinction occasion, we will deal with every little thing else which may occur later.

This e book opens with a brutal warmth wave in India that kills tens of millions of individuals. What impressed you to begin with that? Nicely, I’m terrified that it’ll occur. And so it struck me {that a} slap to the face, a warning shot, is perhaps a great way to start. As a result of it’s only a studying expertise, and I’m a novelist. However as a citizen, wanting on the information about wet-bulb temperatures [a measure of heat plus humidity], I started to understand that the gang that advocates for adaptation and says, “Oh, nicely if we get a 3-degree Celsius rise, we’ll simply adapt to that. We are able to adapt to something,” they have been fallacious on that. We truly may shortly hit temperatures that can cook dinner individuals. Once I understood what a wet-bulb temperature may do and the way restricted our capacity is to adapt, and the way energy grids will fail, after which there can be mass loss of life, nicely, it struck me the hazard that we’re in wanted to be emphasised.

As a nonfiction author who writes about local weather change, I’m fascinated about how you concentrate on scientific accuracy in writing your novels. I imply, it’s a unique normal than if you’re writing about terraforming Mars, proper? With local weather, you’re writing about the true future that we’re inventing for ourselves right here. Yeah. I come at it as a novelist. I need, first, to put in writing novel. And so what my aesthetic says to me is {that a} good novel could be very engaged with the fact principal. I don’t consider in fantasy novels. The truth principal is that if you’re studying a novel and also you come to one thing you say, “Yeah, that’s proper. That’s the way in which life is.” That is what you learn novels for, is that vibe, that feeling. And I need that.

So I attempt to follow the sciences as carefully as I can, even in my Mars novels. I don’t break the legal guidelines of physics. I don’t like fantasy. And I do stay with a scientist. My spouse [Lisa Nowell, a chemist with the U.S. Geological Survey] is actually fairly robust on my manuscripts by way of accuracy and tone. And likewise, due to her I spend a life with scientists. I watch how they work. I watch how they assume. I’m entertained by them. They strike me as humorous individuals. And that’s good. I imply, fortunate for me, proper?

Within the e book, the warmth wave in India is what galvanizes political motion. It jogged my memory of a dialogue I had years in the past. I used to be out within the North Atlantic with some scientists and we have been speaking about what was going to wake individuals as much as the local weather disaster. And one stated, “Nicely, when a giant hurricane comes alongside and wipes out a serious American metropolis, then individuals are going to get up.” And that was proper earlier than Katrina. After which we had Sandy, and Harvey. And nothing actually modified. There was no nice political awakening. Nicely, in my novel, I make it very clear that these occasions occur, it galvanizes motion, after which no one modifications and no one does something. And I’m very on this cognitive error within the human mind that folks don’t consider it will possibly ever occur to them till they’re truly getting hammered personally. And even then, you examine these individuals dying of Covid who’re claiming it to be inconceivable as they die. Michael Lewis was writing concerning the federal authorities in his e book The Fifth Component, speaking a couple of city in Ohio that acquired worn out by a twister, and we went to the city 10 miles to the north and so they have been saying, “Nicely, it will possibly’t occur to us. They’re within the twister observe and we’re not.” As if there’s such a factor as a twister observe. It’s superb.

So I’d agree together with your remark that there’s nobody occasion. That’s one of many the explanation why I went to wet-bulb, the temperature deaths, the mass deaths which may occur. [That] may radicalize that one nation lengthy sufficient to wake individuals up. What I wished to point out was some locations would get higher, different locations wouldn’t care, and that it actually would take a full 30 years of concerted motion. And so I saved coming again to the worldwide businesses the place we coordinate worldwide diplomacy, and likewise the central banks. The concept if funding capital will solely go to the very best fee of return, then we’re really cooked. We’re doomed.

One of many putting issues about your work on local weather is that it’s so deeply meshed within the monetary system. There’s a notion amongst many individuals on the left that fixing the local weather disaster is incompatible with capitalism as we all know it in the present day. Do you share that concept? Nicely, I’m a leftist, an American leftist, and I’m saying simply as a practicality that overthrowing capitalism is simply too messy, an excessive amount of blowback, and too prolonged of a course of. We’ve acquired a nation-state system and a monetary order, and we’ve acquired a disaster that must be handled within the subsequent 10 to 20 years. So I’m wanting on the instruments at hand. Tax buildings, positive. And primarily, I’m speaking a couple of stepwise reform that after sufficient steps have been taken, you get to one thing that’s really post-capitalist which may take enormous parts from the usual socialist methods.

I imply, I’m a member of the DSA [Democratic Socialists of America]. I like the entire injection of progressive left into the Democratic Occasion. I cherished Bernie. I like Biden. I like something that appears to me prefer it’ll be quick and efficient. So quantitative easing. The quantitative easing of 2008 is actually suggestive. If that cash have been focused, not given to the banks to do their standard silly playing of going to the very best fee of return. None of those mitigation tasks are going to be the very best fee of return. They aren’t worthwhile as such. It’s simply that they save the world. So I’m arguing [for] the form of hyper-reformist platform. I take the instruments that we now have in hand, attempt to wield them from a leftist and an environmentalist perspective.

There’s a whole lot of eco-terrorism and eco-sabotage in Ministry. Because the urgency of the local weather disaster grows, this appears more likely to happen in the true world, too. What are your ideas about violence as a political device? As a middle-class American, a privileged white, American man, advocating violence is an irresponsibility, as a result of it’s different individuals which are going to get harm by that. And likewise, my feeling is that even the violence would solely be to attempt to jumpstart higher laws. With out higher legal guidelines, the violence would simply be pointless violence. And so once I wrote the e book, I used to be making an attempt to stroll a superb line and say to individuals, “This sort of step is more likely to occur.” As a result of there’s going to be individuals far angrier, who’re on the sharp finish of the stick, who’ve seen individuals die, who get radicalized and are going to do violent issues that is perhaps silly violent issues, or they is perhaps fairly good violent issues, relying on who’s doing it and what for.

And so to my thoughts, I believe sabotage, which might be destruction of property fairly than human beings, positive. However violence towards people? No. I’d fairly see the legal guidelines change quick, and do it by the use of logic and purpose. However we’re not very logical, individually or socially.

Is there a disconnect between the state of affairs that you just put ahead hopefully within the e book and the one in your coronary heart of hearts you assume goes to play out in the true world? Sure. However this [book] is a deliberate political act to proceed to insist that if the best-case state of affairs got here to cross, it wouldn’t be so unhealthy. We may truly create a affluent world of advocacy for everyone and hold all of the animals alive. It’s technically attainable, which is to say bodily attainable. So it’s a narrative that must be instructed.

After which my very own private opinions, they’re all around the map. They aren’t all the time very hopeful like that e book is. However they’re additionally irrelevant. I’m only a bourgeoisie suburban home husband. What I believe may occur is irrelevant to my political positions and my novels, as a result of you possibly can’t predict the longer term. I imply, I wrote a novel during which the Soviet Union was lasting for, I don’t know, it was set possibly a century or a half-century sooner or later. I printed that novel in 1988. And so my sense of what can actually be predicted could be very — I don’t even assume that’s what science-fiction novels try to do. We’re not making an attempt to foretell the longer term. We’re operating situations for his or her present political classes, if there are any.

The 2 facets of your e book that I discover directly inspiring and possibly slightly implausible are, first, the concept that the UN turns into a pressure for change. And second, you will have a line within the e book that claims, “Laws does it in the long run.” In different phrases, that we’ll cross legal guidelines and laws that can grapple with the local weather disaster in a significant method. Nicely, sure. However I’ll say this. Rule of legislation, as weak a reed as it’s, is all we acquired. If we don’t have rule of legislation, when you have been to say some virtuous eco-warriors have been one way or the other to grab energy and implement a virtuous motion. Nicely, no. That state of affairs doesn’t play. It received’t occur that method. So it’s rule of legislation or nothing.

the ministry for the longer term

You write loads about geoengineering in Ministry – pumping water onto glaciers to sluggish the soften, spraying particles within the sky to chill down the ambiance. A number of years in the past I wrote a e book about geoengineering known as Cool the Planet. I realized that the majority scientists talked about geoengineering the way in which they might speak about intercourse – it was not one thing they wished to debate publicly. That’s altering, slowly. It appears to me that, for higher or worse, it’s inevitable that we’re going to attempt a few of these massive technological interventions. And the extra open we’re about it, the higher we will perceive the dangers and science. Proper. I’m with you on that. I really feel like the extraordinary prejudice towards the concept of geoengineering coming principally from the progressive environmentalist left, the place I’m, is a class error and isn’t being attentive to the realities of the hazard that we’re in. And generally they’re false. This notion that no matter we will we’re going to get Snowpiercer or no matter, or it’s simply an excuse for wealthy individuals to proceed doing what they’re doing. Nicely a few of that’s fallacious, and you understand this. You place mud within the ambiance and 5 years later it’s gone. It’s an experiment that received’t go awry and kill the world. After which a few of it’s simply outdated. The scenario that we’re in now, niceties about defending the sentiments of the wealthy are going to be utterly irrelevant if we’re in determined want. So all of it must be on the desk, such as you stated. Overtly mentioned.

However it’s additionally true that geoengineering is fairly incompatible with Inexperienced New Deal-thinking. I really feel like my job as a science-fiction author is to press the purpose that making one thing politically incorrect if you’re in an emergency is a silly transfer and isn’t being attentive to actuality itself. And there’s a lot conformity, there’s a lot ideological conformity, but additionally conceptual ignorance. I like the Inexperienced New Deal. I like HR109 [the Green New Deal resolution introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]. That’s actually a wise doc. It’s not naïve. It’s not primitive. It’s a totally articulated plan that takes in a whole lot of social parts which are very well completed. So this isn’t a naïve crowd. There’s one thing hubristic concerning the phrase geoengineering, and it seems like a Silicon Valley techno silver-bullet repair that’s towards the grain of the overall program that the left is insisting on, which I completely agree with.

However alternatively, I’m in a pleasant place. Being a science-fiction author, I can say, “Wait. Let’s put every little thing again on the desk.” I’m keen to say, “Look, no one’s completed a correct evaluation of nuclear energy. Perhaps it’s a bridge know-how and possibly we want the U.S. Navy to construct our total electrical grid.” I imply, I put that in Ministry. “And go together with nuclear for an additional 100 years till we get the clear power laid out.” Now which may be fallacious. It could be that we bypass that second, and that clear power is so good, so low cost and so quantitative that there’s no have to mess with one thing as harmful as nuclear. However it all must be on the desk. There needs to be no pieties, no political truisms at this level.

With Biden about to change into president, the darkish days of the local weather motion in America could also be ending. How hopeful are you proper now concerning the path issues are going? Nicely, rather more than I’d’ve been if Biden hadn’t received. I’m hoping that there can be pressures and forces larger than Biden and his crew that can shove them in the suitable instructions. I met John Kerry in McMurdo Station in Antarctica. He was Secretary of State. He had a month to go. It was December of 2016. And he was nice. He gave an hour discuss improvised after staying awake about 24 hours. I used to be actually impressed at his grasp of the scenario and his capacity to synthesize and go to crucial factors. However once more, it’s not going to be a person sport, and the fossil gas industries and the opposite huge fossil gas nations, the petro states, they’re all essential too.

For this reason I hold coming again to quantitative easing. You’re going to must repay the oil firms. You’re going to must repay the petro states. They’ll want compensation, as a result of their fiduciary duties and their nationwide priorities for the ability of their very own nation states are intensely tied up with these fossil fuels. And so we’re going to must pay to maintain it within the floor. And so you possibly can regard that as blackmail or you possibly can regard that as simply enterprise as standard, as a stranded asset that also has a price to us by not being burned. I imply, it’s an actual monetary worth. Saving the world has a monetary worth that must be paid, and so we name it quantitative easing. So I’m hoping that the unusual mechanisms of the Democratic Occasion and the American authorities will mesh with the Paris Settlement.

You’ve religion that the Paris Settlement will reassert itself? Sure. That is one other leftist truism that isn’t true, that the Paris Settlement is irrelevant or meaningless or not adequate or no matter. It’s the framework by which we’re going to make all this occur. It’s a serious occasion in world historical past. It’s clearly toothless and it doesn’t name for sufficient and the voluntary commitments by the person nation states are solely about half of what’s vital. However it’s what we’ve acquired. And to dismiss it out of hand, after which what’s the substitute? Instantaneous world revolution? I imply, give me a break. It’s so crazily idealistic the place the right is being the enemy of the nice.

The toughest factor to know concerning the local weather disaster, and one thing that your e book does so nicely, is imagining the totality of the transformation that should occur right here. Typically I’m skeptical that we’ll ever be capable of bend our minds round it. Nicely, sure. However that is the place I’ve a whole lot of religion within the novel as a creative kind. It’s very capacious, it takes in a whole lot of junk, it’s not a slim or environment friendly artwork kind. It’s a saggy monster. And my novel is a saggy monster. However the novel is concerning the social totality. And what’s cool about being a science fiction author is the planet is a part of the social totality. It’s a citizen, it’s an actor within the actor community, it’s a part of our physique.

That is what I like concerning the responses to The Ministry to this point, is individuals desire a sense of their totality, which is clearly an imaginary act as a result of the totality’s too huge to be comprehended. However it may be imagined in novels. The novel is a 19th-century, quaint kind that’s been outdated by the flicks. Typically it seems like possibly its run its course like epic poetry, or performs in verse. However it’s probably not true. Individuals nonetheless learn novels. And in order a novelist, I like that. And if it helps the political scenario, then all the higher.

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from Growth News https://growthnews.in/what-will-the-world-look-like-in-30-years-sci-fi-author-kim-stanley-robinson-takes-us-there/ via https://growthnews.in

[cablecold1-blog]

Fashion mourns death of the Kaiser Karl Lagerfeld

Superstar designer Karl Lagerfeld died at the age of 85 on Tuesday, his fashion label Chanel confirmed. The announcement came just a month after the man known as the "Kaiser" for his dominance of the industry did not appear at his Paris haute couture week show for Chanel, which he led since 1983.

The prolific German had left many younger creators in the dust well into his 80s, turning out collections season after season for Fendi and his own label, as well as Chanel -- the world's richest brand.

But in recent years Lagerfeld had visibly weakened, even if his extraordinary creative stamina showed little sign of flagging on the catwalk. Friends had always said that the prolific creator would die with a pencil in his hand, and just last week his own fashion line Karl Lagerfeld was still announcing new design collaborations.

But speculation about his health spiralled last month after he missed the first show of his life, with Chanel executives saying that he "was tired this morning".

Italian designer Donatella Versace led the tributes as news of the Kaiser's death broke.

"Karl your genius touched the lives of so many, especially Gianni and I," she wrote on Instagram, referring to her murdered brother who founded her brand.

"We will never forget your incredible talent and endless inspiration. We were always learning from you."

Bernard Arnault, the most powerful man in fashion and owner of the luxury giant LVMH, said he was "infinitely saddened" by the loss of a "very dear friend" and a "creative genius".

"Fashion and culture have lost a major inspiration. He contributed to making Paris the fashion capital of the world and Fendi one of the most innovative of Italian brands," the billionaire said.

The singer and former French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who worked as a model for Lagerfeld, wrote a touching tribute to her former mentor on Instagram.

"Thank you for all the sparkles .... thank you for bringing beauty and lightness in our world, so much colour in the darkness, so much wit in our dull days. I think you wouldn't have wished for too many tears or too many flowers but you will be missed. The whole world and I will miss you."

With his powdered white pony tail, black sunglasses and starched high-collared white shirts, Lagerfeld was as instantly recognisable as his celebrity clients.

Pop star turned fashion designer Victoria Beckham said that "Karl was a genius".

He was "always so kind and generous to me both personally and professionally. RIP," the former Spice Girl added.

"It's a privilege to be able to say that you've worked with him, that you've listened to him speak, that you've talked with him, that you've been dressed by him," said the French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis on Instagram.

"Karl Lagerfeld is an immense personality, someone out of the ordinary," French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told RTL radio.(AFP)

Credit: Bertrand Guay / AFP

Source: https://fashionunited.com/news/people/fashion-mourns-death-of-the-kaiser-karl-lagerfeld/2019021926240

[jwhpage]

All the Rage in the Face of Covid-19

It’s not productive to be angry. Having a child makes this rage that much more of an obstacle. Destructive, even. Yet, it is there - swelling inside with each headline, meme and snarky Facebook post. I remind myself: #trumpisaweapon and #dontgetcaptured. 

Jokes abound, as does the all-of-a-sudden rage to remove our leaders from office. But I’m tired of the jokes. And I’m bored with the memes and Monday morning quarterbacking. It’s exhausting, holding my breath in the face of outright racist, sexist and classist behaviour and vitriol. It makes me want to scream.

Sometimes the rage is overwhelming. We knew this (or something like it) would happen. We elect and appoint smart people to look after us and inform us what’s coming. And there are systems in place to catch the most vulnerable in times of crisis. Except, white, male, supremacy. In which case, we end up being forced to suppress that rage. This was preventable had we just taken racism, sexism and classism seriously. We left politics to the political class and kept it moving. Trump, Brexit. And now, here we are. 

What is most enraging is that poor people and people of colour will take the brunt, suffer more, die in higher numbers. Women will die at the hands of domestic violence more than before. And the vulnerable will fall deeper between the cracks. And I don’t see that reflected in the remedy. I don’t see compassion from the political class. I don’t see solutions from the billionaires and the CEOs, many of whom are selling stocks, posting on social media, doing sing-alongs and making money off the crisis - carrying on as if their fate is the same as those groups mentioned above. This is as American as apple pie, lynching, cotton and Jim Crow. We know better. 

Adding insult to fuckery, huge swaths of Americans don’t think our history matters or those groups most affected matter. That all lives don’t in fact matter. That they are persecuted. And that our leadership coax that fire as their last resort to stay alive. Sure, most of the world knows that our current president is an insane, racist, narcissistic sexual predator. We knew this since the 80s. Yet, here we are. It’s insulting that there are people who profess to know and love me that also pledge allegiance to this man and the government he leads. And that insult will cause even more people of colour and poor people to die. It’s hard not to wish the worse upon them. To disregard them as unAmerican. To conclude that racism and classism are the sole causes of this pandemic. Both American and British leaders dropped the ball. And here we are. 

This is a rich, white man-made crisis. It comes from capitalism. It was there waiting. And the signs were there. The question now is, what do we do about it and those who refuse to acknowledge how we got here. Acknowledging the history is just as important as making moves forward. Besides, I hear that American stimulus check will just about cover the cost of a homemade guillotine. I remind everyone what we’ve known since before 2016: #trumpisaweapon and #dontgetcaptured. 

[waconda4]

Understanding the Importance of Residual Income

This article is aimed at explaining the importance of building residual income and to explain the need for individuals to leverage the network marketing business model if their dreams are to gain financial and time freedom. So, even if you presently work a job or business, it is needful that you pay attention to network marketing to develop residual or passive income over time. My goal for you is about understanding the importance of residual income.

Understanding the Importance of Residual Income

The common way that people define residual income is “income earned while sleeping”. Is it possible to earn income while you are asleep? This may sound strange to some people but, yes, it is possible.

Now the importance of residual income in a man’s life finds expression in the statement of the billionaire investor, Warren Buffet, “if you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work till you die”.

Residual income is a concept that many ignore without understanding that their future well-being is dependent on it. Which can consequently result in dire circumstances for your financial future.

In other words, by going to work every day, and receiving a salary at the end of the month, you’re simply exchanging time for money. Your salary is not residual, when your work stops, your income stops automatically. This is where the understanding of the importance of residual income kicks in.

Let me explain residual income with the following example.

Imagine two men in a village. By the same token, both must walk a mile every day to a river to get water for their families. After a month, one man starts working on building an underground pipeline to connect the river to his house. For an entire year, he expends extra energy working on his pipeline. When he finishes, he has the source of the water directly to his house, while the other person continues to visit the river.

Residual income is like building a pipeline to connect water from the source to your house so that you don’t always have to go to the river.

In that short example, you will notice that it took some time for the pipeline to be constructed. But having done that, the man continued to enjoy water supply effortlessly.

Residual Income Explained

However, the second man who failed to take the same initiative had to continue to visit the river for his water supply. What will happen if he becomes indisposed? He and his family will stay without water and suffer its consequences.

There exist many business initiatives that you can leverage in your effort to build residual income. But I do recommend network marketing, or MLM as some would like to call it since it doesn’t require a ton of investment capital to set up.

A lot has been said about network marketing by various network marketing professionals but many still feign ignorance about it. You have to have understanding of the importance of residual income.

The reasons people WON’T look at network marketing is NOT:

• because they don’t have the money.

• because the opportunity or business isn’t good.

• because they are worried about being scammed.

• because the profit margins aren’t high enough.

• because the demand for the product isn’t wide enough.

• because they need to ask their spouses first.

• because they need a night to sleep on it.

• because they need more time to research the company.

• because they need to get on the phone with you to join.

• because they must ask other people on Facebook to see if you’re a good sponsor.

• because they need to see your bank account to prove the results.

• because they don’t believe in it.

The real reason they don’t join network marketing business opportunites are:

hat they have been conditioned by society to be consumers of goods and not producers.

They have been conditioned to buy “education” but not to buy knowledge.

They have been conditioned to have a “job” but not to own a “business.”

They have been conditioned to be workers but not to be their own bosses.

They are non-thinkers instead of go-getters

They are intimidated by anything that challenges them.

That is what this is about. It’s about people who are so afraid of learning and stepping out of their comfort zones and being paralyzed by their fears.

It’s about being comfortable and caring what other people might think. It’s about their family thinking they are FAILURES if they do anything besides just having a JOB. Understanding the importance of residual income can help forestall some of your failures.

If you’re working presently, understand that you are only exchanging your time and effort for the pay cheque you receive at the end of the month. That’s okay though but by going to work every day, you are not building a residual income which is the pipeline that will enable you to get water supply without having to go to the river.

In view of what has been outlined above, what should you be thinking of doing now? Continue with your job but alongside your job, approach a network marketing professional to set up a network marketing business that you should be doing on a part-time basis. The little part-time effort you put into the business will, before long, yield a significant result.

Understanding the Importance of Residual Income

Long term ways to make money are all about real business. A solid business is not a job where you happen to be the boss of yourself–that can be as bad as working for other people. A good business allows you to eventually run the business itself rather than do all the work within the business. It is vital that you can be good at delegating and being able to outsource your business.

Living the elite lifestyle of having a digital business is that it can easily be upscaled and allows you the freedom and flexibility of working wherever, and whenever you wish. I have a plethora of elite products that I will like to share with you that covers all aspects of your life.

When you are ready to create the lifestyle of your dreams I have just the opportunity for you. All you must do is visit the site below and find out quickly and easily you will be on your way to creating all of your dreams: accelerated commission

The post Understanding the Importance of Residual Income appeared first on Elite Products.

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8 Wise Tips Famous CEOs like Warren Buffett Would Give Their Younger Selves

Every successful CEO has hit plenty of bumps on the road to the top. Despite the struggles, these top leaders have still managed to conquer challenges, shed their shortcomings, and grow both their skills and their net worth. They have made mistakes and learned from them.

See Also on Kiplinger: How Well Do You Really Know Warren Buffett?

We wondered what some of the wealthiest CEOs would tell their younger selves, and found eight gems worth passing on. (See also on WiseBread.com: 11 Finance Tips You Wish You Could Tell Your Younger Self)

1. Stay true to yourself

Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks, is working hard to grow the chain from 26,000 locations today to 37,000 by 2021, all while maintaining the brand’s unique appeal. He has some big shoes to fill, after taking over from Starbucks’ iconic leader Howard Schultz in April 2017. His guiding principle, as he told Business Insider: Be authentic. By acknowledging all aspects of your authentic self — shortcomings and counterproductive tendencies included — you allow yourself and the people around you to do their best work.

“It’s important to be comfortable being authentic,” Johnson said, adding, “Being authentic means you have to be vulnerable.”

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2. Find a job you love

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett — one of the world’s most successful investors with a net worth of $73 billion — puts it in layman’s terms: Take on a career that makes you excited to wake up in the morning.

See Also on Kiplinger: Frugal Habits of the Super Rich

“You follow your passions. You find something you love,” said Buffett at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in 2014. “The truth is, so few people really jump on their jobs, you really will stand out more than you think. You will get noticed if you really go for it.” (See also on WiseBread.com: The 5 Best Pieces of Financial Wisdom From Warren Buffett)

3. Exceed expectations

DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg’s path to success was made by following this tip: Always give your best performance. And, if you can, outperform other people’s expectations of your work.

“I don’t think it matters how small or how big the task is,” the Hollywood influencer, whose net worth is estimated at $750 million, famously said. “If you can do it just a little bit better than what is expected, you will be noticed and rewarded.”

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4. Embrace tough assignments

Don’t settle for easy work — that’s the advice of PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, who earned $29.8 million in 2016.

“Nobody notices when you do an easy job well,” she told Business Insider in 2014. “It’s far better to challenge yourself by raising your hand for the toughest assignments and work to solve problems that no one else has been able to solve. That’s how you truly become a trusted leader inside an organization.”

See Also on Kiplinger: Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Millionaire?

5. Pursue extracurricular interests

“My advice is to focus on becoming a complete person,” said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who grew up in a Brooklyn housing project and now has a net worth estimated at $1.1 billion. “Everyone should focus on the content of his or her job, of course. But work is not the end; it’s a means to an end. You owe it to yourself to open up to broader interests.”

So, pursue a hobby, travel, learn a new skill, read voraciously. Become that interesting person that makes great dinner conversation.

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6. Focus on developing your own unique talents

Former Birchbox co-CEO Hayley Barna knows a thing or two about developing personal strengths and talents. She helped launch the subscription beauty box company in 2010 before stepping down five years later to become First Round Capital’s first female partner.

Her best advice is to identify and strengthen your distinct set of skills, rather than trying to be good at things you struggle with. For example, if you’re a horrible writer but you’re mathematically gifted, focus on your talent with numbers rather than trying to develop a literary voice.

“Never compare your weaknesses to someone else’s strengths,” Barna has said. “While comparisons are tempting, especially for competitive, ambitious people, it’s always important to focus on your own special talents. That’s how you can make a real impact. And it’s the coordination of everyone’s unique skills that can make magic happen.”

7. Own up to your mistakes

Dave Finocchio, CEO of Bleacher Report, would tell his younger self to admit his faults, act swiftly to correct them, and learn from them.

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“I make mistakes all the time, and talk about them openly with people up and down our hierarchy,” the digital sports franchise leader told Forbes in 2016. “It fosters a culture where people should feel comfortable critiquing themselves honestly.”

8. Push yourself

Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, says she would counsel her younger self to get comfortable being uncomfortable. You’ll never get ahead without pushing yourself to do things you’ve never done, and that means embracing tasks that you think you might not be fully prepared for.

See Also on Kiplinger: 5 Stock Picks That Warren Buffett Has Blown

“I always did something I was a little not ready to do,” Mayer, whose net worth is $189 million, said in a 2015 speech. “I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of, ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.”

This article is from Brittany Lyte of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website.

More From Wise Bread

It’s the 21st Century — Why Is Your Money Stuck in the 20th?

4 Low-Cost Alternatives to a 4-Year Degree

How to Think Like a Billionaire When You’re Broke

5 Reasons Being a Millionaire Is Overrated

8 Quotes to Inspire Your Dream Career

This article is from Wise Bread, not the Kiplinger editorial staff.

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