#If there is a pull to “amass funds to help the cause” and that money is solely going to the advocate for them to “distribute themselves”

[hexastitchimera]

Y'know, it's cases like Orchard's (and even "hunter" personalities like Mamämax) that make me genuinely perplexed on why predatory individuals will ride the highest horse against their own behaviour. I know it's a way to deflect attention from their own nasty shit, but it's always a self-defeating method once the same community that rallied in their name learns about the contrary.

What's worse is that they can fall from upon high into the deepest shit, and have the gall to walk right back into the townsquare, covered in their crimes like nothing happened.

Often enough, some- if not many- of the townsfolk will re-cover their eyes with wool too.

[dankusner]

In Texas’ Third-Largest County, the Far Right’s Vision for Local Governing Has Come to Life

No Compromise:

Tim O’Hare’s leadership in Tarrant County, Texas, gives a glimpse of far-right priorities: cutting programs for at-risk youth, targeting elections and stifling dissent.

The Last Battleground:

Tarrant County, home to 2.2 million people and the city of Fort Worth, is the most significant political battleground between Republicans and Democrats in Texas.

Winning Elections:

O’Hare has pushed to end free bus rides to the polls for poor residents and close polling locations on college campuses, which GOP leaders said would help the party.

Over the past two decades, Tim O’Hare methodically amassed power in North Texas as he pushed incendiary policies such as banning undocumented immigrants from renting homes and vilifying school curriculum that encouraged students to embrace diversity.

He rode a wave of conservative resentment, leaping from City Council member of Farmers Branch, a suburb north of Dallas, in 2005 to its mayor to the leader of the Tarrant County Republican Party.

Three years ago, O’Hare sought his highest political office yet, running for the top elected position in the nation’s 15th-largest county, which is home to Fort Worth.

Backed by influential evangelical churches and money from powerful oil industry billionaires, O’Hare promised voters he would weed out “diversity inclusion nonsense” and accused some Democrats of hating America.

His win in November 2022 gave the GOP’s far right new sway over the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, turning a government that once prided itself on bipartisanship into a new front of the culture war.

“I was not looking to do this at all, but they came after our police,” he said in his victory speech on election night.

“They came after our schools. They came after our country. They came after our churches.”

In Texas and across the country, far-right candidates have won control of school boards, swiftly banning books, halting diversity efforts and altering curricula that do not align with their beliefs.

O’Hare’s election in Tarrant County, however, takes the battle from the schoolhouse to county government, offering a rare look at what happens when hard-liners win the majority and exert their influence over municipal affairs in a closely divided county.

Since he was elected county judge — a position similar to that of mayor in a city — O’Hare has pushed his agenda with an uncompromising approach.

He has led efforts to cut funding to nonprofits that work with at-risk children, citing their views on racial inequality and LGBTQ+ rights.

And he has pushed election law changes that local Republican leaders said would favor them.

O’Hare’s rise in Tarrant County has come as he and his allies continue to align with once-fringe figures while targeting private citizens with whom they disagree politically.

In July, O’Hare had a local pastor removed from a public meeting for speaking eight seconds over his allotted time.

Days later, O’Hare appeared onstage at a conference that urged attendees to resist a Democratic campaign to “rid the earth of the white race” and embrace Christian nationalism.

The agenda prompted some right-wing Republicans to condemn or pull out of the event.

“We’re seeing a shift of what conservatism looks like, and at the lower levels, they’re testing how extreme it can get,” said Robert Futrell, a sociologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas who studies political extremism.

“The goal is to capture local Republican Party infrastructure and positions and own the party, turning it to more extremist goals.”

Frequently, those aims include pushing back against broader LGBTQ+ acceptance, downplaying the nation’s history of racism and the lingering disparities caused by it, stemming immigration, and falsely claiming that America was founded as a Christian nation and that its laws and institutions should thus reflect conservative evangelical beliefs.

O’Hare declined multiple interview requests and did not answer detailed lists of questions emailed to him.

His spokesperson instead touted a list of eight accomplishments, including cutting county spending and lowering local property tax rates.

With 2.2 million people, Tarrant County is Texas’ most significant remaining battleground for Democrats and Republicans.

When the county voted for Beto O’Rourke for U.S. Senate in 2018 and Joe Biden for president in 2020, many political observers suspected the end was nigh for the era of Republican dominance in the purple county.

Two years later, voters elected the most hard-line Tarrant County leader in decades.

After two years under O’Hare’s leadership, voters in November will decide two races between Republican allies of O’Hare and their Democratic opponents.

The election of both Democrats would put O’Hare into the minority.

The changes in county leadership have been dramatic, said O’Hare’s Republican predecessor, Glen Whitley, who served as Tarrant County judge from 2007 until retiring in 2022.

Whitley said O’Hare has implanted an “us vs. them” ideology that has increasingly been mainstreamed on the right.

“They no longer feel like they have to compromise,” said Whitley, who recently endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president and U.S. Rep. Colin Allred of Texas in the U.S. Senate race.

“You either vote with these people 100% of the time, or you’re their enemy.”

Political Rise

In 2005, when O’Hare initially ran unopposed for a seat on the City Council in Farmers Branch, a small town just outside of Tarrant County, his platform included plans to revitalize the public library and bring in new restaurants.

In 2006, however, O’Hare began taking positions that were outside of the Republican mainstream at the time.

He pushed for the diversifying town to declare English its official language, ban landlords from renting to residents without proof of citizenship, and stop publishing public materials in Spanish.

“The reason I got on the City Council was because I saw our property values declining or increasing at a level that was below the rate of inflation,” O’Hare said at the time.

“When that happens, people move out of our neighborhoods, and what I would call less desirable people move into the neighborhoods, people who don’t value education, people who don’t value taking care of their properties.”

Hispanic residents mobilized and sued to block the rental ban’s implementation.

O’Hare doubled down:

He pushed for Farmers Branch police to partner with immigration enforcement authorities to detain and deport people in the country illegally, and urged residents to oppose a grocer’s plan to open a store that catered to Hispanics, arguing it was “reasonable” to prefer “a grocery store that appeals to higher-end consumers.”

O’Hare was elected as mayor in 2008.

Foreshadowing moves he’d make as Tarrant County judge, he abruptly ended a public meeting after cutting off and removing one resident who criticized him.

He led opposition to the local high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance and fought against a mentorship program for at-risk high school students that included volunteers from a Hispanic group that opposed his immigration resolution.

Meanwhile, the city continued to defend the immigration ordinance after it was repeatedly struck down by federal judges.

As costs for the seven-year legal battle ballooned, Farmers Branch dipped into its reserves, cut nearly two dozen city employees and outsourced services at the library that O’Hare had campaigned on improving during his City Council run.

“At the end of the day, this will be money well spent, and it will be a good investment in our community’s future,” O’Hare said after the town laid off staff in 2008.

O’Hare stepped down as mayor in 2011.

Three years later, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the city’s appeal, Farmers Branch stopped defending the ordinance.

It was never enforced, but the related lawsuits cost the town $6.6 million, city officials said in 2016.

After leaving office, O’Hare moved his family a few miles away to Tarrant County, where demographic changes have dropped the share of white residents from 62% of the county’s population in 2000 to 43% in 2020.

Home to some of the nation’s most influential evangelical churches and four of former President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisers, the county is an epicenter for ultraconservative movements in Texas, including those that call for Christians to exert dominance over all aspects of society.

In 2016, O’Hare was elected chair of the Tarrant County GOP.

Under him, the party distributed mailers that listed the primary voting records for local candidates — breaking with the longstanding nonpartisan tradition of county elections.

In 2020, following a series of racist incidents at the mostly white Carroll High School in Southlake — including one viral clip in which white students chanted the N-word — O’Hare co-founded a political action committee that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to oust school board members who supported the Carroll Independent School District’s plans for diversity and inclusion programming.

The dispute helped catapult the small Tarrant County suburb into the national spotlight amid Republican panic over critical race theory and “gender ideology,” and created a blueprint for right-wing organizing that was copied in suburbs across America.

In 2021, O’Hare launched his campaign for Tarrant County judge, squaring off in the GOP primary against the more moderate five-term mayor of Fort Worth, whom he painted as a RINO, or “Republican in name only.”

O’Hare rode a wave fueled by backlash to COVID-19 mandates, baseless election fraud conspiracy theories and opposition to what he called “diversity inclusion nonsense,” according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

O’Hare’s campaign was condemned by moderate Republicans, including Whitley, the outgoing judge, who accused him of trying to “divide and pit one group against another.”

O’Hare won the primary by 23 percentage points.

Whitley and other longtime Republican leaders declined to endorse O’Hare in the 2022 general election.

It didn’t matter; by then, he was backed by a coalition of far-right megadonors, pastors and churches.

His top campaign donors included a PAC funded by Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks.

The two west Texas oil billionaires have given tens of millions of dollars to candidates and groups that oppose LGBTQ+ rights, support programs that would use public dollars to pay for private schools, and have led efforts to push moderates out of the Texas GOP.

O’Hare received another $203,000 from the We Can Keep It PAC.

The PAC’s treasurer is an elder at Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth, whose leaders have endorsed multiple GOP candidates, including O’Hare.

The church’s pastor has claimed Democrats can’t be Christian and dared critics to complain to the IRS that the church was flouting federal prohibitions on political activity by nonprofits.

Transforming Elections

O’Hare took office in early 2023, as Republicans continued to question President Joe Biden’s razor-thin win in Tarrant County two years earlier.

A 2022 audit by Texas’ Republican secretary of state found no evidence of widespread fraud and that Tarrant County held “a quality, transparent election.”

Despite that — and while saying he had no proof of malfeasance — O’Hare immediately set out to prevent cheating he claimed was responsible for Democrats’ steady rise in the long-purpling county.

Soon after taking office, he helped launch an “election integrity unit” that he’d lead with the county sheriff who had spoken at a “Stop the Steal” rally in the days after the 2020 presidential election.

No Democrats were initially on the unit.

Nor was the county’s elections administrator, Heider Garcia, who by then had faced three years of harassment, death threats and accusations of being a secret agent for Venezuela’s socialist government by election fraud conspiracy theorists.

Garcia opted for radical transparency — making himself accessible to answer questions about the election process and earning praise from across the political aisle for his patient public service.

But Garcia lasted only a few months under O’Hare:

In April 2023, he resigned his position, citing his relationship with O’Hare in his resignation letter.

“Judge O’Hare, my formula to ‘administer a quality transparent election’ stands on respect and zero politics; compromising on these values is not an option for me,” Garcia wrote.

“You made it clear in our last meeting that your formula is different, thus, my decision is to leave.”

Garcia, now the Dallas County elections administrator, did not respond to an interview request.

One day after Garcia resigned, O’Hare told members of True Texas Project — a group whose leaders have sympathized with a white nationalist mass shooter and endorsed Christian nationalism — that he was encouraged by the potential for low turnout in that year’s upcoming elections, which he said would help Republicans win more local seats.

(O’Hare previously served on True Texas Project’s advisory team, according to a 2021 social media post by the group’s CEO, Julie McCarty).

In June 2024, the election integrity unit reported that, over the previous 15 months, it received 82 complaints of voter fraud — or about 0.009% of all votes cast in the 2020 presidential election in Tarrant County — and that none had resulted in criminal charges.

Meanwhile, O’Hare has proposed a number of changes to the election system that Tarrant County GOP leaders have said were intended to help Republicans or hurt Democrats.

In February, O’Hare and fellow Republicans cut $10,000 in county funding to provide free bus rides to low-income residents, a program that Tarrant GOP leaders decried as a scheme to “bus Democrats to the polls.”

O'Hare said he opposed the funding on fiscal grounds.

“I don’t believe it’s the county government��s responsibility to try to get more people out to the polls,” he said before the vote.

A few months later, commissioners prohibited outside organizations from registering voters inside county buildings after Tarrant County GOP leaders raised concerns about left-leaning organizations holding registration drives.

Democrats and voting rights groups assailed the moves as attempts to lower voter turnout.

In September, O’Hare proposed eliminating voting locations on some college campuses that he called a “waste of money and manpower.”

But this time, his Republican allies on the Commissioners Court said they could not go along with the vote and joined Democrats to defeat the measure.

Tarrant County Republican leaders condemned the recalcitrant commissioners in a public resolution that made it clear they saw the effort to close polls on college campuses as a move that would help them in November.

The GOP commissioners, the resolution claimed, “voted with Democrats on a key election vote that undermines the ability of Republicans to win the general election in Tarrant County.”

Manny Ramirez, one of those Republican commissioners, said in an interview he thinks the GOP should try to win college students with their conservative ideas rather than limit on-campus voting.

“We’ve been providing those same exact sites for nearly two decades,” Ramirez said.

His role as commissioner, he added, is to provide “equal access to all of our citizens.”

Targeting Youth Programs

Less than a year into his term, O’Hare began targeting long-established nonprofits whose websites and social media accounts contained language the county judge considered politically objectionable on issues of gender and race.

In October 2023, he moved to block a $115,000 state grant to Girls Inc. of Tarrant County, for its Girl Power program offering summer camps and mentoring to help participants focus on stress management, hygiene and self-esteem.

About 90% of the youth served by Girls Inc. of Tarrant County are people of color and come from families making less than $30,000 a year, according to the organization’s website.

Four months earlier, the national Girls Inc. group, which has chapters across the country, had tweeted out its support for abortion rights and LGBTQ+ pride, which conservative media and activists seized upon.

“Girls Inc. is an extremist political indoctrination machine advocating for divisive liberal politics,” Leigh Wambsganss, the chief communications officer of Patriot Mobile, told commissioners.

Patriot Mobile is a Christian nationalist cellphone company whose PAC has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of far-right candidates across Tarrant County, including O’Hare.

Local leaders of Girls Inc., who did not respond to requests for comment, said at the time their chapter is independent of the national organization.

They told commissioners they were reviewing their affiliation with the parent organization.

In denying the funds, O’Hare told the Commissioners Court the government shouldn’t support “an organization that is so deeply ideological and encourages the children that they are teaching to go advocate for social change.”

Commissioners killed the contract on a 3-2 party-line vote.

Six months later, O’Hare raised questions about another local nonprofit, Big Thought.

It provides youth in the Tarrant County juvenile detention system with summer and after-school programs aimed at helping them get their lives back on track through music, acting and performance arts.

Big Thought has had a contract with the county for the past three years and says on its website that youth who go through its programs reoffend at a lower rate than those who don’t, potentially saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in juvenile detention costs.

At an April meeting of the Tarrant County Juvenile Board, O’Hare raised questions about the program’s advocacy for “racial equity” after reading the organization’s website, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

(The board’s meetings are not streamed or recorded).

Asked about O’Hare’s concerns, a Big Thought spokesperson said in an email that the organization focuses on the realities facing at-risk youth in Tarrant County.

“Young people in our communities experience challenges like economic inequality, racism, and more, and it is our responsibility to provide a safe place to build the skills they need so they can thrive,” said Evan Cleveland, Big Thought’s senior director of programs.

The county’s juvenile probation director, Bennie Medlin, who has not responded to requests for comment, told board members the program had not had any “negative results” during the partnership, according to minutes of the meeting.

Members of the board were not swayed and voted not to renew the program.

Three months later, at the juvenile board’s July meeting, O’Hare and a district judge proposed ending a contract with the Pennsylvania nonprofit Youth Advocate Programs after probing the nonprofit about the position it had taken in briefs to the Supreme Court, its opinion on school choice and police in schools, and whether “they work to eliminate systemic racism,” according to minutes of the meeting.

Board members voted to cut ties with the nonprofit, which had worked with the county for over three decades to provide mentoring, job training and substance abuse counseling as alternatives to detention.

Gary Ivory, the organization’s president, said that a week after the July vote, he met with O’Hare for about a half-hour in O’Hare’s office.

He said O’Hare questioned him about his personal views on the LGBTQ+ community and “hot-button cultural war issues."

Also during that meeting, O’Hare pulled up Youth Advocate Programs’ website, Ivory said, and asked him why the group takes funding from Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for gun control.

“They are saying if anybody is too woke in Tarrant County, we are going to put them in the dustbin of history and they won’t exist anymore,” Ivory said.

On Oct. 1, Tarrant County commissioners voted to sign a similar contract with another nonprofit.

At the meeting, O’Hare denied pushing to kill Youth Advocate Programs’ contract “because of a phrase on a website.”

Instead, he claimed Ivory told the juvenile board that 15% of the money Tarrant County gives the program goes to lobbyists and to “law firms to file amicus briefs against many of the things the people in that room that voted disagree with.”

Ivory said that is incorrect.

“I said generally 85 cents on a dollar stays in Tarrant County and 15 cents goes to overhead,” he said.

“And I made it clear that YAP doesn’t spend any of that 15 cents on the dollar for lobbying.”

Phil Sawyer, a longtime juvenile probation officer in Tarrant County who retired two years ago, said the program was well respected within the department and helped give badly needed services that the department could not provide.

“It’s a shocker,” he said of the county’s decision to cut ties with the group.

“Without them, it would just be insanity. There are things we can do as probation officers, but it’s not the same.”

Stifling Dissent

In recent months, O’Hare has taken aim at private citizens who disagree with him, ordering several political opponents removed from Commissioners Court meetings and calling for the firing of a local college professor.

As Ryon Price’s allotted three minutes of public comment during the July 2 Commissioners Court meeting expired, O’Hare issued a sharp warning to the man, a local Baptist minister who was a frequent antagonist of O’Hare’s at such meetings: “Your time is up.”

It’s not uncommon for residents to go over their allotted time during public comment sessions.

But after Price continued criticizing conditions in the Tarrant County Jail for an extra eight seconds, O’Hare ordered sheriff’s deputies to step in:

“He’s now held in contempt. Remove him.”

As Price was escorted out of the meeting, someone in the audience booed.

“Was that you?” O’Hare snapped. “Well, try me.”

Price said that in the lobby, sheriff’s deputies handed him a trespassing warning that banned him from the premises.

“I think it’s symbolic of a broader, more authoritarian shift” in Tarrant County government, Price said of his removal.

“And I have to wonder if he really wants to govern this place, a place that splits red and blue evenly, or just please some higher-ups in his own party.”

Price appealed his ban to the Tarrant County sheriff’s department and said the appeal was granted in August, allowing him to resume addressing the court during public comment sessions.

Minutes after Price was escorted from that July meeting, Lon Burnam, a Democrat who served nine terms in the Texas House, approached O’Hare to confront him about his decision to cut off another commissioner who was requesting information about sheriff department policies.

Burnam later received a trespass warning from sheriff’s deputies and said he is banned from public meetings until Jan. 1.

At their meeting two weeks later, commissioners amended public speaking rules as O’Hare warned residents that “refusal to abide by the Commissioners Court’s order or my order as the presiding judge or continued disruption of the meeting may result in arrest and prosecution under the laws of the state of Texas.”

O’Hare said the changes were needed to ensure civility in the meeting room.

“This is not in any way shape or form attempting to stifle free speech,” he said during the meeting.

Also in August, O’Hare called for the firing of a Texas Christian University professor over social media posts from 2021 that called for police to be abolished.

The professor, Alexandra Edwards, drew the ire of local right-wing activists after writing about them and the pro-Christian nationalism conference that O’Hare attended in July.

Not long after, a local right-wing website published an article about her “antifa” views in which O’Hare called her a “radical” and said Edwards should be fired.

“The full force of the repression of the Tarrant County GOP and the various right-wing extremists kind of came down upon me,” Edwards said in an interview, adding that she was inundated with threats and harassment.

Such crackdowns are a sign that the local GOP has been taken over by extremists, said Whitley, the county’s Republican former judge.

“They’ve gone so far to the right that most folks who used to be adamant Republicans are not so much anymore,” he said, adding that some in the GOP are too afraid of retaliation by O’Hare to speak out publicly.

O’Hare’s term doesn’t end until 2027.

But this year’s elections will decide which party controls the powerful commissioners court and, in some ways, will be a referendum on the first two years of his tenure in county government.

Whitley said he hopes it will be a unifying moment for voters from across the political spectrum.

“I want us to be Americans, to be Texans and to not just care about parties,” he said. “I hope people will vote for the best person and not just vote for the party.”

[makistar2018]

Taylor Swift just dropped a new single. Here's how she spends her money, from her $84 million real-estate portfolio to a customized private jet.

Katya Kupelian and Irene Kim April 27, 2019

Taylor Swift just dropped a new single and music video with Panic! at the Disco's Brendon Urie after a cryptic countdown on her website teased the release.

The singer and songwriter has amassed an estimated $320 million net worth and owns at least $84 million in real estate across four states.

Her "Reputation" stadium tour was the highest-grossing tour in the US, grossing $266.1 million.

She's also donated $113,000 to the Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

Following is a transcript of the video.

With Taylor Swift teasing her much-anticipated seventh album, the "Delicate" singer is poised to break multiple records — again.

Swift's previous album, "Reputation," sold more than 2 million copies in the US, and the coinciding tour broke records as the highest-grossing US stadium tour of all time. The singer-songwriter currently has a net worth of $320 million, 10 Grammys, and is arguably one of the most influential figures in pop culture today.

Over the years, Taylor Swift's influence has only grown. In 2018, she was even named the most influential person on Twitter, despite only tweeting 13 times. Whether it's pulling her music from Spotify, negotiating fairer royalties with Apple Music, or signing a reportedly $200 million contract with Universal, Swift has been strategic in building her empire.

Since 2006, Swift has released six albums, all of which went platinum. Her 2014 album, "1989" sold over 3.7 million units, making it the best-selling album of the year. Taylor Swift is one of the few artists to still use a long-lead album release cycle, one that typically takes three months. Since Beyoncé's surprise album drop in 2013, many artists have been releasing their albums on a quicker cycle to varying degrees of success.

That unprecedented move worked for Beyoncé because she's ... Beyoncé. Likewise, Swift's long-lead cycle only works for her. It's an outdated system, one designed to promote albums over time through radio, print, and other media. The fact that it works for Swift is a testament to her star power, as well as how devoted her fans are. By extending her album release, Swift is able to spend months dominating the charts as new songs are released a few weeks apart, giving each single its own time to shine on the charts.

However, Swift's most lucrative gig comes after the album release. Her tours bring in the bulk of her income. Swift's first "Fearless" tour brought in roughly $75 million. As Swift's popularity has increased, so has the cost of her concert tickets. The "1989 World Tour" in 2015 was the highest-grossing tour of the year. And in 2018, Taylor Swift's "Reputation" tour broke records as the highest-grossing US stadium tour of all time. The record was previously held by The Rolling Stones, whose "A Bigger Bang Tour" from 2005 to 2007 grossed $245 million across 70 shows. Swift shattered their record with $345 million from just 38 shows. That's a $9-million-per-show average.

Swift's tour documentary with Netflix brought in an additional undisclosed paycheck rumored to be worth millions. Additionally, it's been estimated that Swift makes $17 per ticket on merchandise sales. Swift's fans, called Swifties, are definitely devoted to the singer. In preparation for Swift's seventh album, fan accounts have even been posting strategies for maximizing sales numbers and stream counts.

As one of the most popular musicians of the era, Swift has had a complicated relationship with streaming. In 2014, Taylor Swift pulled her music from Spotify, citing unfair royalty payments. Similarly, Swift published an open letter to Apple Music in 2015 and stated that she would not be streaming her then upcoming album "1989" on the service because of royalty rates. Apple Music quickly modified its streaming revenue policy to be more fair to artists, and Swift allowed the service to stream "1989."

As for Spotify, Taylor Swift rereleased her catalog on the service in June 2017. The exact conditions for Swift's return to Spotify have never been released, but it may have to do with Spotify modifying its streaming policies a bit. Regardless, Swift's new contract with Republic Records and Universal Music Group included a specific condition that requires the label to distribute any money made from selling its investments in Spotify with its artist roster.

That same contract will reportedly earn Swift anywhere from $100 to $200 million in guarantees. Taylor will also own all of her future master recordings. It's rumored that Swift's new contract stipulated that the Kardashians could no longer speak badly about her. Universal owns E!, which produces "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," so such a condition could be possible. Either way, Swift's new contract will earn her quite the windfall.

As for how the star spends her millions ... Swift's famous for interacting with fans online and even hosting secret listening parties at her home. Over the years, Swift has donated to a number of her fans to cover everything from student loans to hospital fees. She's also raised funds for various causes, including victims of Louisiana and Nashville floods, as well as victims of tornadoes in the southern United States. During Kesha's legal battles, Swift donated $250,000 to help the fellow singer with legal fees. Most recently, she donated $113,000 to a pro-LGBTQ advocacy group, the Tennessee Equality Project.

Swift's $84 million real-estate portfolio spans across four states. Her eight properties include a $29 million estate in Beverly Hills and a $20 million duplex penthouse in New York City. Swift's NYC penthouse is located in Tribeca, Manhattan's richest neighborhood. She reportedly renovated the apartment for $535,000. Swift also owns a four-story townhouse and a condo on the same street.

The singer made headlines when she purchased her Rhode Island mansion for $17 million in cash. The seaside estate was where Swift hosted her famous Fourth of July parties. Considering all the traveling the international performer must do, it's no surprise that she owns a private jet. Swift's customized jet reportedly cost $40 million and has the singer's lucky number "13" painted on its nose. She's also rumored to own a second jet that costs up to $58 million.

Taylor Swift also owns two Scottish Fold cats, which are one of the most expensive cat breeds in the world. Named Olivia Benson and Meredith Grey after the singer's favorite TV show characters from "Law and Order" and "Grey's Anatomy," Taylor's cats could have cost anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 each. Swift often shares photos and videos of her beloved pets online and even gave them a shout-out in her song "Gorgeous."

♪ Guess I'll just stumble on home to my cats. ♪

Swift recently posted a picture of her cats as part of what fans believed to be clues about her upcoming album. This next chapter of Swift's career could very easily see new records set and old ones shattered.

Business Insider

[radiojamming]

How about lawyer John pre-cult going to his choice Atlanta nightclub minding his own until he notices some scumbag guy harassing a girl at the bar and decides to intervene and square up to him while tipsy because John throwing a few punches is steamy (which naturally leads to something more steamy) 😏

wooooof this got long, and hopefully the exposition doesn’t drown out the rest of it. OTL also, i made up the nightclub but the area is real! 

uh, warnings for drug mention, lotsa alcohol, and douchebags being douchebags. also some sliiiight NSFW. 

- - -

It’s the kind of night that John calls ‘rinse and repeat’; the same order of business that plays out every time the firm wins a suit or gets a payout. Half the firm goes out to some knockoff Applebee’s for Kahlua Mudslides or fruit cocktails, and the other goes to the Royale in Midtown. John is in the Royale group, for lack of better drinks anywhere else. There are only so many times he can handle someone shoving every picture of their kids in his face while a pair of ladies pretend to get drunk off sangria of all things. At least the Royale bartenders know him by face and by tab, and know better than to water his drinks down.

The Royale is the kind of nightclub Atlanta pretends to be proud of. It’s located on what was once the lobby floor of an upscale hotel that went under in the 1980s after some mismanagement and a declaration of bankruptcy. The Art Deco lounge was a siren song to a league of gentrification-happy property owners, and the Royale shimmered out of its tarnished state, LED converted chandeliers and obnoxious music at the ready. 

John doesn’t mind it so much, other than the clientele. He knows half of them by face, and the other half by name. Business cards are shuffled around at the same rate as personal phone numbers and come-hither glances. It’s the playhouse of all the city’s proverbial crème de la crème; high-end and high-risk lawyers like himself mingling with giggling socialites, powerhouse politicians who still look like they’re under 40, investors who reek of tax fraud, and every last person in Atlanta who can wield a Centurion Card without flinching. He’s been to parties with these people, slept with a few of them, and has seen them at their sparkling best and their sickening worst. The blackmail value of these people is so high that John could amass enough hush money to retire to a castle in Switzerland with money to burn.

He sits at the bar, eyes slowly going back and forth between the aquarium in the wall and the displays of his coworkers. Antony with his thinly-veiled cocaine addiction is sidling up beside one of the daughters of a Georgia state representative, loudly talking about a civil case that he apparently won single-handed. Caitlyn (still working on her divorce papers at lunch breaks) is hanging over the shoulder of a platinum blonde woman in a Marilyn Monroe dress, and cooing at the woman’s husband as well. Andy and David R. are nowhere to be seen (and no one is shocked). It’s a typical display of the rinse-and-repeat.

The music is already helping to drill the hole in John’s head that he��ll feel tomorrow morning, and John grits his teeth before downing the rest of his Sazerac, ignoring the fact that he can’t feel the burn of it anymore. He starts formulating his excuse to leave when he catches something on the other end of the bar.

Of all the people he works with, the one he can’t stand worth a damn is a trust fund bottom-dweller named Brendan. He’s the pinnacle of the Ivy League mom-and-dad-bought-me-this-degree hierarchy, getting through school more on the virtue of his family bank account and charitable donations than by any work he actually did. He still has a keychain from his old fraternity hanging on his Aston-Martin keys, which he makes a show of flaunting in front of his newest victim. And John hates every inch of him, from his slicked-back son-of-a-Republican blonde hair to his Paul Parkman wingtips. Brendan’s obviously gotten a few drinks in him, and the poor girl he has cornered looks like she’d rather be on the other end of the country. She’s one of the few that John doesn’t recognize, wearing a black dress from Nordstrom Rack and a pair of plain black heels that are scuffed on the edges. Only her handbag is designer, and John has the feeling that it’s a secondhand kind of thing, or something she borrowed from a friend. She’s certainly pretty, but in a way that isn’t achieved by Botox or makeup applied with a butter knife. She’s paid attention to her appearance, no doubt, but there’s something organic and authentic to her, which means that she’s attracted the human tilapia known as Brendan like some kind of catnip.

John edges closer, sensing that this might be one of the few times he can put Brendan in his place without repercussions. No one can talk him down from warding a drunk guy off a girl who just wants to leave. It’s the perfect excuse.

“–back at my loft. It’s only a five minute walk from here,” Brendan says, grinning with his too-white smile. “It’s a Jackson Pollock original.”

The girl leans away from him, trapped between Brendan and a plush barstool. The only way out is to vault over it or knee him in the groin. John kind of hopes she goes for the latter.

“That’s cool,” she says, trying her best to be civil. “Listen, I, uh, really have to–”

Brendan’s completely deaf to her, because of course he is. “And there’s this really great sushi fusion place down the street,” he says, like this girl isn’t struggling to gymnastically bend her way out. Then, John sees Brendan’s hand go for her waist. “But we can always stop by the loft first. Check it out. You know.”

The girl’s eyes go wide, and she’s rendered totally speechless. When Brendan tugs on her like he’s going to swoop her away, John about sees red. All it takes is another eight seconds of conversation.

“I really don’t want–”

“Come on. Let’s go,” Brendan says, grinning like she’s agreed to marry him.

Before John can think, he’s got his hand on Brendan’s wrist, squeezing harder than polite company usually vouches for. 

Brendan stares at him like he’s never seen John before, like John’s a cobra already rearing up and preparing to bite him. John can feel him try to pull his wrist away, but John doesn’t give him an inch.

“Duncan,” Brendan says in surprise. “Uh, nice to see you. I was just on my way out.”

John doesn’t greet him, or do much other than try to snap his wrist with one hand. The most he gets is a flinch. “On you way out alone, I’m guessing,” John says, as conversationally and casual as he can. 

Brendan looks to the girl, who in turn looks like she’s watching a car accident in real time. “No,” he says, trying to keep his smile afloat. “We were about to head out. Me and, uh–”

The girl’s expression goes from shock to straight-up defiance, and John immediately decides he likes her more than anyone else in the club. “I didn’t tell you my name,” she says firmly. 

John grins despite himself. “But I bet you he told you his name fifty times, and the names of his parents.”

“And grandparents.”

Brendan’s face goes to indignant fury. “We were leaving, Duncan,” he says, his voice starting to curl with a snarl.

“Yes, we were.” John yanks hard on Brendan’s wrist, causing him to stumble away enough for the girl to squeeze past him. By now, they’re making a scene, and John’s fine with that.

Brendan almost pulls his arm out of his socket wrenching his wrist out of John’s grip, and his face is changing colors at a fascinating rate. “What the fuck is your problem?” His voice is already slurred by whatever lightweight cocktails he’s put away.

“Nothing,” John replies nonchalantly. “But you were causing a problem for her, so I decided to step in before you did something really stupid. Not like you don’t do enough of that on your own, but I thought I’d save her the trouble.”

Fortunately, Brendan is drunk enough that he ends the situation himself, deciding that apparently the smartest thing he can do is take a swing at John. All John has to do is side-step and hold his foot out at the right angle for gravity to do the rest. Brendan hits the floor without having the forethought to put his hands out to break his fall, and John swears he hears something crunch. He smiles as Brendan tries to roll onto his back, blood already trickling from his nose. John decides he’s going to savor that particular image for awhile.

A bouncer is already on his way over, wrenching Brendan up by his shoulders like he’s a toddler mid-tantrum. Brendan might be swearing, but it’s hard to tell between the drunken slurring and the sound of him trying to talk through a broken nose. Either way, John just keeps smiling and smiling as the bouncer drags him out, and smiles as the club tries to pull itself back together.

He shouldn’t enjoy watching people bleed that much.

And then the girl walks up to him, no worse for the wear except the slightly harried look on her face. She smiles at him, shy and almost apologetic. “Thanks,” she says quietly. She reaches up and tucks some of her hair behind her ear. “I, um, really thought I had that under control, but obviously I didn’t. So, thank you.”

The slight adrenaline rush is still running laps through John’s head, and he laughs and shrugs. “No problem. I’ve always wanted to do something like that to him. It was bound to be sooner or later.”

She laughs as well, and it’s not forced or faked. She sounds authentically relieved, and John think the little thrill that goes through him might be the last vestiges of his good morality congratulating him on doing a Boy Scout-level deed. Then, her expression becomes a cross between relieved and sheepish. “Hey, it’s cool if you don’t want to but, um… Is there– Is there any chance you might be able to walk me out to my car? It’s just in the lot across the street, but I think I’m still a little jumpy. I think I’d feel better if someone was out there with me.” She pauses then, eyes going wide. “Oh! I mean, unless you were planning on staying here. I don’t mean to yank you away or anything. That was stupid of me.”

The grin on John’s face is starting to hurt, and he can’t remember the last time he felt this happy. Not even a victory in court can compare.

“It’s fine,” he says. “Lead the way.”

- - -

Her hands have already completely ruined his hair, and John couldn’t care less. His hands are on the underside of her thighs, holding her up against her cheap dark green Honda. She moans against his mouth, sighing dreamily when he bites her bottom lip. He leans in close, smelling the orange blossom scent of her Lancôme perfume (from Macy’s, he’s guessing), before he kisses over her jugular, imagining he can feel the rush of her blood under layers of skin and muscle. 

He hasn’t wanted someone so badly in ages. She kisses him like she’s desperate, like she’s still working off the nerves from earlier. And she kisses him like she means it, not like she’s trying to find something or someone to put between her legs for the night. If she is, she’s damn good at hiding it. Her breasts push up against his chest, her heart fluttering against him, and he’s entirely prepared to just do the job right there in the parking lot, for all of Midtown Atlanta to gawk at.

Only some tattered remainders of propriety stop him from doing that, even though he’s already between her legs. He pulls away just enough to talk, although their noses are brushing against each other and he can feel her breath on his cheek. His eyes flicker up to hers, and he tries to absorb the color into his brain as much as he can, to remember and use later when it’s just him and his hand.

“What’s your name?” he asks, and laughs as soon as she does. “Sorry, I thought I’d do one better than Brendan.”

She leans in and kisses him again, but it’s the slow, lingering kind. It’s almost like a thank you condensed into a kiss. Then, she laughs again. “Just call me Rook,” she says softly. “It’s what’s on my business card.”

“Just Rook?”

“For now.” Her hands comb through his hair, undoing it even more. When she kisses his cheek, he’s one hundred percent sure that she could do whatever she wants to him and he’d thank her for it. She leans in close, mouth against his left ear, and kisses just underneath before saying, “You stick around until tomorrow morning and you’ll get my first name with it.”

“That better be a promise.”

“It is, John Duncan,” she says against his jaw, and he can feel her smile against his skin.

[washingtonhytes]

Commercial Cleaning Services in West Vancouver, BC

Commercial cleaning services in West Vancouver may cost too much money and new startups or small matter are unable to afford the advertisement cleaning services on regular or weekly basis. This is unquestionably irritating for the customers and staff members who appear in in that organization. Sometimes, the flyer cleaning services may cost less than hiring a sweeper for the cleaning. commercial cleaning services have become unconditionally common. Most of the commercial cleaning services have enough money their facilities in the lively hours and that is extremely frustrating for the customers and staff members.

Cleaning is an important aspect of lifestyle in Canada that cannot be ignored. The waste collected from any handing out should be deposited to the secure area thus that the city remains clean and no one complains roughly dirt in the city. This will append the lifestyle of the customers as capably as other people who reside in that city. The undertaking efficiency and the collaboration amid workers and customers will be enlarged if the importance is final to the cleanliness.

Cleaning facilities in West Vancouver, BC:

  Office cleaning services:

  Office cleaning encourage in BC, Canada are the most common cleaning serve in huge cities. Due to workload, workers are unable to preserve a tidy and healthy environment. Cleaning professionals along with support the office workers to sort out their things and important files quickly.

Cleaning of buildings:

  The cleaning of the collect building is certainly important, as the dust and supplementary waste particles may acquire into the office rooms. It is the answerability of an government to present tidy quality to the customers and they cannot afford to avoid the cleaning process in the building.

  Commercial cleaning in West Vancouver, BC, Canada:

  Safety rules, precautions and hazards are taught to the cleaning professionals consequently that they themselves, customers and workers do not get harmed or air irritated. advertisement cleaning services are more important that residential house cleaning facilities in huge cities of developed countries.

  Eco-friendly cleaning in West Vancouver:

  The waste should be deposited as to the fore as possible. There should be proper transport and mechanism for the waste disposal. The customers and supplementary people should cooperate in the manner of the classified ad cleaning utility providers. It should be ensured that cleaning equipment used is 100% eco-friendly and releases no toxic gas in the atmosphere. The customers or workers who have asthma should be alerted previously the cleaning process. all the workers and customers may wear mask or stay away from the dirt during the cleaning process.

  Floor waxing:

  Waxing the floor is an valuable allowance of cleaning process. The floor surface may get scratches or cracks if not waxed upon the regular basis. The cleaning encouragement should wax the floor before the start of the discharge duty or after the pack up, so the customers reach not vibes irritated. The gap amongst the tiles may in addition to growth if floor do not get waxed on the regular basis.

  Office windows cleaning:

  All of the office rooms pull off not have windows. Cleaning of windows is not an easy task windows attract and amass a lot of dust particles. Office windows are cleaned using warm and distilled water, vinegar, baking soda, and further detergents. The tidy windows come up with the money for formal and professional look to the office room.

  Janitorial services in West Vancouver:

  NGOs and direction organizations rule janitorial facilities to put up to matter decree without getting freaked out by the dirt. commercial cleaning services providers employ a entirely large workforce for the want of providing janitorial services. Janitors earn a handsome amount of child support for the each hour they work. They shape from door-to-door to have the funds for their services. Janitorial facilities in West Vancouver, BC are agreed common in the big cities and developed countries. They take effect in teams and have enough money their facilities to schools, universities, public places, buildings and office. Some of the janitorial facilities are managed by the management and looked after by the environmental agencies and extra governmental organizations.

  Office rug cleaning:

One may not expect the sweepers to clean the carpets because cleaning of the carpets creates a huge mess. poster cleaning help providers understand away the carpets to the laundry stores and clean the carpets there. Carpets may be located on the stairways, mats, office floor, veranda or courtyard of the building. The fibers of the carpets attract and amassing the dust particles consequently it is definitely important to acquire them cleaned. Office carpets for that reason need to be cleaned after few period of time. Cleaning of carpets is a long process and costly as well. It uses a lot of different devices, chemicals and difficult discharge duty to tidy the carpet.

West Vancouver flyer carpet cleaning:

  Commercial rug cleaning is an important allocation of cleaning facilities provided to the want ad sector in the developed countries. The cleaning of the carpets uses set of methodologies and techniques to clean and allow the rug dry. Carpets are as well as used in the buildings and offices for decoration purposes. Hotels and resorts use in West Vancouver carpets for the ambition of decoration. The cleaning of the carpets upon regular basis is no question important suitably that it may not cost you too much at the end. If the aspect of cleaning the carpets is avoided, after that one may get a lot of every other diseases.

What cleaning services we provide in West Vancouver:

  Sewage decontamination:

  The sewage contamination is the most rasping difficulty in the developed countries and no one wants to indulge in that mess as it may cause many diseases and infections. The sewage decontamination give support to is availed by people usually in imitation of a year. The sewage contamination may be caused the pipe leakage or any additional thing.

  Repairing services:

  If people reach not avail cleaning facilities in West Vancouver, BC on the consistent basis, subsequently it may cause cracks in the surface and the new things. Repairing facilities attach removal of stains as well.

  Electric restoration:

  Electricity outlets, dashboards, and wires accumulate a large amount of dust. The spiders and new insects find their place and reside there. This can be hazardous for the person who visits your house to repair up the things.

  Ventilator cleaning services in West Vancouver, BC:

  Ventilators and additional same spaces compulsion to be cleaned fittingly that ventilators keep functioning properly. Ventilators attract huge amount of dust particles and they create the total room mess by secreting those dust slowly. Ventilators must be cleaned often appropriately that it does not cost you too much at the end.

  Wall washing:

Walls must be kept clean appropriately that the combine workplace looks clean and beautiful. Walls are washed in the quirk that none of the material gets harmed. More often, the walls are painted similar to the same or further color. To avoid all the mess, polythene bags are placed at the belittle surface to gather together the residue and the excess paint. The walls must be washed in the manner of a year because all the dust particles adjoin to the wall surface. Washing the walls is not that much hard and it usually takes less mature to wash the walls. To wash the outer walls of the buildings, janitors have to tally up raise to the building and next wash the walls.

  [City] cleaning:

Proper management system helps cleaning encourage providers to track the waste. It is definitely vital to dump the waste as soon as possible. Janitors functioning in the teams lid the gather together city and acquire it cleaned. stand-in trailer cleaning minister to providers collaborate past each supplementary to get the combined city cleaned in few hours. swing attentiveness campaigns are launched by these personal ad cleaning services to provide the tips to the people more or less keeping their city neat and clean. The waste exists in the tons of stand-in forms in the cities and in view of that the waste has to collected and disposed unquestionably carefully. The waste is tracked as long as it does not get disposed by the concerned authorities. Public is provided following more and more opportunities to save the city clean. If waste is not collected or disposed, it keeps revolving as regards the whole city in the swing form and creates a mess for the amassed of West Vancouver. The commercial cleaning services give employment statues to hundreds and thousands of people a propos the world. These billboard cleaning facilities next contribute to collecting the raw materials that can be recycled below any situation. The want ad cleaning bolster providers publicize their facilities from way in to door. They usually have many years of experience. By looking on the following feedback and experience of the workers, you can easily employ janitors from any public notice cleaning encouragement provider. Environmental agencies see after these facilitate providers, back them tally their encouragement and ensure that all the equipments and methods used for cleaning are eco-friendly. The boss does not want to indulge into the mess of cleaning the total workplace over and beyond again. So, these announcement cleaning give support to providers in West Vancouver inspect the combine area and surface past starting their work.

They give the workplace once better expose quality, vapor cleaned office space, support from blood borne pathogens, electrostatic disinfected surface, and surface cleaned next green products. These public notice cleaning foster providers have enough money their benefits on daily, weekly and monthly basis to the customers. Cleaning and getting rid of dust from the alternative surfaces requires learning and acquiring knowledge. every surface and appliance has its own cleaning process and methodologies. So, it is preferred to hire a janitor for this purpose.

office cleaning services

Source: https://dcproclean.ca/commercial-cleaning-services-in-west-vancouver-bc/

[owninsedona]

Promote Your House Quicker with Seller Funding

Seller finances opens up your home into a wholly new section of buyers, and also the further buyers watch your house, faster you may see this 1 capable customer. Notably you may pull in additional buyers that do not desire to or will have a issue having a financial , or even people that need a faster closure or maybe more elastic payment ideas compared to banking institutions offer you. This sort of buyers incorporate itself employed who could be fantastic applicants but aren't considered beneficial with banks since can be w 2 staff members. Additionally people that have credit flaws, who might be moving down the lengthy trail of charge restoration. Real estate dealers are just another huge collection, as they have many possessions with home loans, helping to make it tough to find the following mortgage out of the financial institution.

 Banks normally require thirty weeks to shut that financial loan, however together with seller funding, YOU get your decision, which is sometimes carried out much faster, hence getting rid of a purchasers contingencies speedier as well as in-effect causing a far faster housing sale. No matter whether you're attempting to sell FSBO (For Sale By Owner), or having a true estate agent, then be certain that you employ "Seller Financing" into your promotion and advertisements, make it into paper adverts, flyers, or or at the MLS description.

 Additional Suggestions to Boost Your Property More Quickly

 1: Cost IT RIGHT! Perhaps not overly much, not exceedingly low, assess comparables and neighborhood representatives to find the most suitable amount, even in the event that you aren't receiving any actions after having a couple weeks, you almost certainly get it expensive too large quality.

 In the event that you are going to be attempting to sell FSBO, utilize a level price MLS available list. At less than $500 you are able to get recorded in MLS without a frills, assess out the paper or telephone representatives to get a person who supplies that particular. It'll supply you with much wider vulnerability and can be advertisements well recorded. Also ardently look at supplying a potential buyers representative commission of 2 4 percent according to how speedy you need to market and just how alluring that your community market place is still.

 Set up plenty of hints round your neighbor hood, specially on weekends, and hold routine open properties and ready your home for sale, so ensure it remains tidy & clean and eradicate the mess.

 Offer Your House for Full-price

 1. Ordinarily a dealer may take a decrease selling price (below-market ) for an all-time no contingency instantly closure.

 2. It can promote for economy price in the event the client requirements 30-60days to near escrow and needs to be eligible to get financing in a financial institution and also do a house inspection.

 3. You like a vendor really should bill a lot far more (preceding current market ) in the event that you're going to be offering seller funding stipulations, possibly 510 percent greater than case two, or even longer with regards to the phrases.

 An Excellent Investment Decision

 Taking a note back is sometimes a exact excellent investment as you're going to be earning interest in your own hard earned money that's usually superior compared to CD's, currency market prices. Actually, you may choose the rate of interest you desire! That really is particularly appealing when you might have zero demand for your cost at the moment.

 In reality it's such a fantastic investment, so that lots of traders buy vendor carry-back notes. For those who don't have a interest in retaining a watch, it's not uncommon to get a house seller to carry-back an email and also sell it all at an identical period whilst your home closure does occur. That really is referred to as a simultaneous final.

 We Buy real estate sedona az Notes and certainly will ease simultaneous closings, telephone to find out more relating to this particular. We may even aid in establishing the conditions of the notice therefore that you have the optimal/optimally price tag.

 Tax Rewards

 When purchasing property, under recent tax law, even in the event that you dwelt at property for two of those previous five decades, your capital gains is likely to likely be exempt as much as £ 250,000 (double when married). If not, your money gains will likely be taxed from the entire year you amass the funding profits. In the event that you'll have important resale capital profits in your own home sale, then it might be rather helpful for the tax position to just take a seller back carry-back be aware and disperse that your purchase profits within many decades, or postpone it to get all decades. Speak with your tax advisor.

 Ways to Powerful Seller Funding

 1. Bring the potential buyers charge score. You need their consent, however consistently examine a credit score record on every debtor, it's a little cost effective.

 2. Do they spend the money for house, occupation, cash flow. In case they can not afford this, or possess a shaky occupation or revenue position, a foreclosure will probably be far more probably.

 3. Make use of an expert to write your paper work. Each nation contains lots of legislation about real estate earnings, contracts, as well as commissions. Use a seasoned legal professional to draft the promissory note and loan or deed of confidence.

 4. Down-payment - Borrowers usually request 1030 percent advance cost to safeguard themselves if the purchaser ceases making repayments and also owner needs to waive on the financial loan, and then also take back the property again. The more expensive the down payment payment that the equity coverage you personally as owner possess. The purchaser may even think of the amount of money he's deposit whether he's in foreclosure and can not create the obligations wants to drift off out of the home. Zero-down is hardly any psychologist for an individual client, if he struck a tough spot.

 5. 1 st position or 2 nd standing - A primary location be aware is quite a bit easier to owner compared to the next spot be aware.

 6. Put the rate of interest previously current charge prices, to invite your potential buyers to re finance the street.

[isocertification]

How to get best ISO certification Singapore

ISO Certification in singapore. singapore is one such bewildering country wearing the creation business zone economy is as spread out by the International Monetary Fund. singapore has a spot with one of the world's made countries and it is portrayed other than settled money related virtuoso and political star masses zone country on the planet. Since 2000 the country has been showing an irrefutable development concerning economy. Torquay is considered as one of the upper spot pay country where the improvement of economy is delicate and it examines more challenges which rely upon outside key parts. Regardless, singapore is driving all the challenges and proceeding with growing a continually clear ground concerning money related and social upsetting new stunning new sudden new development. Concerning the improvement of cash related and distant trade singapore has never been causing a back progression to up until this point. Country is encountering a mixed trouble and saw standards in concerning European Union measures and offering a greatest help for the occupants. singapore has kept up an even relationship with various countries and relationship of individual countries. The neighboring countries and the Government of the countries has constantly been the better condition liberal for the singapore. The budgetary state of the singapore is related to truly head degrees of clear troubles. All the parts, for instance, work, cash related endeavor, Corporation Sector, budgetary spaces, government structures, and such a terms and conditions will have a key undertaking to do concerning singapore.

ISO 9001 hosts a spot with the social occasion of ISO 9000, Which is known as quality interest structure. ISO 9001 is an undeniable if all else fails standard which is needed to help the relationship with satisfying the necessities of the customer and to achieve solid improvement as the year goes on. ISO Certification in singapore These are genuinely called as the two spines of ISO 9001 standard. Utilization of tremendous worth the board system will push the relationship to quality concerning fulfilling the necessities of customer and dealing with the drifter pieces of client solid quality acknowledge a to be progress regarding quality alliance structure. There are more than 1 million Organization on the planet where the execution of significant worth the store up structure has been cleaned clearly. ISO 9001 is structure strong affiliation contraption for your relationship to have a sound structure and made partnership system. All the focal territories that has been guaranteed about concerning quality association structure are being goliath all through development. ISO 9001 is everything considered watched and considered as a central instrument for the arrangement structure in by a wide edge most by far of the countries. In singapore the Global relationship for the trick can be fittingly stunning when ISO 9001 wanderer pieces for should have been fulfilled by the affiliations. ISO 9001 develops an essential thing for the shippers to guarantee the thing is of flawless quality. ISO 9001 standard allows the relationship to have this correspondence among the workplace and smooth running of the systems inside the establishment. Quality affiliation structure shows the viewpoint and referring to the system is made to run in screen, control and spread out way. In various countries the execution of key worth the heads structure is made goliath for unequivocal affiliations. Since the central necessities of seeing an association can be amicably fulfilled when the usage of ISO 9001 standard is happened in any partnership. The use of this quality understanding structure in any dire will improve the cash related state and reachable execution can be pleasingly expanded. ISO 9001 accreditation in any alliance is staying as a proof in the Marketplace, that the agreement will reliably ensures the chance of alliance or what is progressing. The choice show from the connection and will constantly ensure the satisfaction of the customer at each motivation driving time

In what cutoff can International relationship for standardization (ISO) see a specific quality occupation in singapore!

Everything considered relationship for standardization is one such plot where it is an immaterial affiliation is and non-government coalition. On 23rd of February in the year 1947 this association was made by a get-together of administrator from different countries over the globe. is the best standard setting body which has starting late dispersed 20000 unequivocal sorts of mindful measures. ISO Consultants in singapore These checks address business viewpoint and business industry structure concerning standard crucial and fitting in various countries. There are a 164 zone body is connected with everything analyzed relationship for standardization, this proposes these International guidelines that are disseminated by ISO is guaranteed in the all out of the 164 countries and clearing saw. The part bodies are especially seen as power standard body in every country. There must be one-zone body from each country that are connected with everything considered relationship for standardization and will hold the reinforced condition to project a contemplating structure. The centrality of these part body in passing on each standard satisfaction head occupation. There are notice gathering is which are amassed as unequivocal controlling get of trustees concerning drafting the measures to dissipate them. The official three vernaculars of are English, French and Russian. The home office of wide relationship for standardization is in Geneva, Switzerland.

Why we handle to pick Factocert?

Factocert takes trust in a party structure which joins the business best practices. Are counsel structure including a structure which fulfill the necessities of ISO rules use in any connection including frameworks, for instance, CE Marking, VAPT, CMMI, measure Audit and other all around measures executions. ISO Certification Body in singapore Parts that makes the relationship improve in a typical way by understanding the hazardous necessities of the relationship by passing on a sensible arrangement.Our Consulting suffering are made by master Consultants with their zone experience following various years to fulfill the customer stray pieces pulling in Factocert to be the most brought structure up in the endeavors. Client Count on Factocert to help the change with respect to progress of Management in a closest to perfect way that could be open. Our vision is to beat a victorious Culture by bye living are values connection and making a stunning condition in the business to lead an overall circumnavigated made affiliation. The customers, Factocert is having will continually be the most beast relationship for us to control. We want to be the most ensured and fundamental help giving with meandering aimlessly of advancement. The competency in the Marketplace is having an acclaimed trouble from Factocert. Use and structure improvement are being the enthusiastically improve to be the raised level by us.

[hippoland]

What early stage fundraising in 2018 looks like?

I thought it might be useful to do a high level overview of what fundraising in 2018 looks like at the pre-seed / seed stage.  Of course, this is just my prediction / $0.02 only.  

It will be hard to raise a pre-seed round through traditional methods

If you are raising money through traditional methods (such as with angels / micro VCs / VCs) via a convertible note or convertible security or equity deal, it will be a lot harder to raise pre-seed money in 2018.  I’m seeing a number of investors pull back on investing through traditional means.  This means that traction bar has gone up for both pre-seed and seed stage companies.  

In the late summer / early fall of 2017, we were investing in companies that were quite early.  For founding teams we did not already know, they all had a product built and all had early customers.  The companies we were investing in at the pre-seed level were doing as low as $1k revenue per month (non repeatable) though we also invested in many companies with much higher revenue too.  

Towards the end of 2017, we noticed that downstream investors were slowing their investment pace, and we felt that it would be incredibly difficult to get our companies to the next point if we were investing only $25k at such an early stage.  The market had definitely shifted.  For your “typical” software deal, the stage after us (seed-stage) is probably around $30k-$50k per month in revenue as of writing this post.  (This will depend A LOT on the idea and vertical.).  So from my perspective, our entry point needs to be close enough to this rough benchmark in order for our companies to get to the next round of funding.  This has caused us to shift a bit downstream too.  And in fact, in 2018, we have not yet done a single software deal even though last year we were averaging about one deal per week.

Raising money via an ICO is the exact opposite experience right now

However, if you are raising via an ICO, at least at this moment, you are probably having the opposite experience as a pre-seed company.  In fact, the median raise I’m seeing in the ICO markets is $20-30m or thereabouts, and you need very little developed to raise a lot of money!    

For me, I personally think ICOs, at this time, only make sense if you’re building a blockchain company that uses utility tokens as currency for your decentralized product or service.  However, the frenzy is so nuts now, there are so many centralized / non-blockchain related companies that are successfully raising via ICO.  

I do think in the long run, ICOs or some variation of today’s ICOs will disrupt traditional VC, and I plan to help this process along. (This is what I’ve alluded to here.).  I’ll be bringing thought leaders to this blog who can talk more about ICOs in later posts.  

Crowdfunding is also more mainstream than you might think

Beyond traditional methods of fundraising (convertible notes / convertible securities / equity) and ICOs, there are other ways to raise money too.  Crowdfunding can be incredibly effective if you already have customers and/or have built up an audience.  Companies like The Hustle raised $300k from their customers in just a couple of days.  

Pros / Cons of different funding methods in 2018

This is going to be an evolving analysis, but as of today, here’s a quick set of pros / cons for various fundraising methods: 

“Traditional” fundraising on a convertible note / convertible security / equity round: 

Pros: Tried and true.  Professional investors understand how this works.  There should be no surprises with this type of raise. 

Cons: Slow.  Investors can be annoying / obnoxious to deal with.  Power is in the hands of investors.

Crowdfunding / pre-sales:

Pros: Customers are the perfect audience to raise money from, because they already understand your product / service.  This works well if you’ve amassed a huge user base or audience or have a large mailing list.  If you have media company or do a lot of content marketing, for example, this could be a great path.  And quick.  And online so you can get investors from anywhere.

Cons: Each investor will likely write only a small check.  So, you might have lots of people to deal with even if you go through a 3rd party platform.  E.g. if people have lots of questions.  And, this is most effective if you have something already and/or already have investors -- i.e. you’re already in business and have raised some money.  

ICOs: 

Pros: Once you get all the pieces in place, quick to raise money.  You don’t give up equity or control.  Power is in the hands of the entrepreneur.  Completely online so you can get investors from anywhere. Can raise on just an idea.  And can potentially raise lots and lots of money.

Cons: Logistics can be challenging.  Handling the security of ETH (cryptocurrency) is quite involved.  If you don’t handle this correctly, you can get hacked and lose everything.  If your ICO is not in compliance with SEC regulations, you can get shut down by the SEC.  The value of ETH can fluctuate wildly (unlike the dollar).  Generally makes sense at this point in time only for blockchain related companies that utilize a token that can be used for decentralized services / products.  

I’m also seeing variations of the above -- various combo deals with equity and tokens...the fundraising landscape has been changing a lot in the last couple of months, so who knows, this entire blog post might be obsolete in another 2 months.  It’s an exciting time... 

Fundraising is a nebulous process that I aim to make more transparent.  To learn more secrets and tips, subscribe to my newsletter.

[thecrimsonarcher]

Expose on the Order of the Southern Sky, Part 3--Kevin's Tale

As I had mentioned before, I accidentally witnessed the creation of a Legion soldier when I was a teenager. This would’ve happened around 2011, when I was 16 years old. During this time period, they weren’t very diligent in building them up. They were only averaging just a handful of troops per year. If you compare that to the time frame of early 2012 to June of 2013, its insignificant. You’d think they’d be scrambling as quickly as possible to build their army in preparation for what they referred to as the “New World to Come”, when the lower class citizens were purged from Zion Mountain and the wealthy would rule the roost.

When I wasn’t helping out with the rituals, my other duty was to help out with the Youth Group. The Youth Group consisted mostly of pre-teens and teenagers that ranged in age from 11 to 17. While the adults were in the fellowship hall upstairs for morning and evening sermons, the children and young adult’s classes were held downstairs. Now, I would be in charge of teaching the morning Sunday school classes to the Youth Group, but sometimes, I’d have a little bit of help from Madison Tallent. Madison was about my age, maybe slightly younger.

The classes were broken into in separate age groups. Since infants could not understand the concept of religion, they were kept in day care while their parents were away for worship. The Juniors were from 2 to 6 years old and held their classes in the first room to the left. Explorers were 6 to 10 years old and their classes were directly across the room from them on the right.

I cannot forgive myself for being a willing participant in the very act of brainwashing impressionable kids who were unable to think for themselves and to process how ridiculous it all was. I allowed myself to poison their minds with the same hateful rhetoric the Order spewed. For many years, I struggled with that guilt, allowing it to become a huge burden on my soul. I finally came to terms with it after many, many sessions with my therapist. I was young and just as naive as the others. I had no idea what the adults were really up to, not until it was too late.

The church did things a little bit differently than your average congregation. Since all of the Order members were very wealthy, respectable people in Zion Mountain society, they were seen as somewhat of a meal ticket for both the church and Paul Yearwood. Every member was asked to let the church have access to their bank accounts, charging a fee of about 20 or so odd percent of their income for “upkeep”. By upkeep, I mean adding unnecessary additions to the church, as well as the funding to create the Legion soldiers and to amass a ridiculous amount of firearms and other weaponry to arm them with. None of that money was ever used to help the smaller churches out. It just wasn’t their style. They merely pretended to be pious under the guise of sociopaths who cared only about themselves and not about the needs of others. All they wanted was to keep the status quo upheld so they can ensure their place in “Paradise” when the time came.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can remember it as if it were yesterday. This would’ve happened around 2011, when I was 16 years old. After church services, the youth group instructors were tasked with cleaning downstairs in the youth fellowship hall and the main congregation hall upstairs. It was during the winter because it had snowed earlier in the day and I was the only one who wore the appropriate shoes to wear outside. Now, the church had an out building that stood to the far right, close to where the church buses were usually parked. It was made of metal and had a red aluminum roof that made it stand out like a sore thumb in comparison to how big and elaborate the church was. We used it primarily as a storage room to keep things such as holiday decorations, extra wine glasses for communion, tools, old church pews we didn’t use anymore, and other assorted items that were placed on a big, metal shelf that had been built into one of the walls. It was even hooked up to electricity and had running water. Why it had running water, I’m not even sure. It didn’t have restrooms, but it did have an industrial sized stainless steel sink towards the back end.

On that night, I was having to go in there to get some of the Christmas decorations out so we could start decorating the youth fellowship hall when I had noticed there was light coming out from under the front door. Mind you, no one should have been inside the building at the time since the services were long over. The only people who should’ve been there were all in the church, which I found to be rather strange. Thinking that someone may have broken in and was attempting to steal some of the stuff out of there, I grabbed my pocket knife I had in my back pocket, opened it up, and slowly turned the door knob to where I wouldn’t make much noise. I could hear voices coming from within–two male voices, to be exact. I tried to be as quiet and inconspicuous as possible so that I didn’t startle them. I really did.

When I went to push the door the rest of the way open, it made a loud creaking noise that startled the two men, causing them to freeze in their stances as I nervously walked in. They were both standing over something, but I couldn’t tell what it was at the time. My heart was racing and my mind was flooded with different scenarios on how to properly deal with this situation.

“You’re not supposed to be in here.” I was as nervous as hell. “The sermon ended 30 minutes ago.”

When they both turned to face me, I immediately recognized them the moment I laid my eyes on them. They were both local doctors who worked in the Grundy General Hospital, Dr. George Tallent and Dr. Robert Morris. They were two of the highest ranking members of the Order. Dr. Tallent was an orthopedic surgeon who worked for the Grundy General Hospital and Dr. Morris was a general surgeon whose main specialty was vascular surgery.

Now, they had been suspiciously absent during that evening’s sermon, which I had assumed was due to their shifts at the hospital. Never in a million years would I have guessed they’d be involved in such a diabolical act. They were both wearing big, heavy black aprons over their clothes, rubber gloves that went to their elbows, safety glasses, and rubber boots. Their appearance was unkempt as if they had been working on whatever the hell it was for several hours straight. To say Dr. Tallent was pissed off by my being there would be an understatement. He was holding a big drill in one hand and had a cigarette in the other. I found it odd that he wasn’t using a typical surgical drill like he’d use at the hospital, but then again, if they had discovered he was using his surgical tools outside of the workplace to perform unethical treatments, he’d be stripped of his medical license. It was one of those big Black and Decker power tools with a diamond head drill bit like you’d get at the hardware store.

“Fuck! I told you to lock the door, Rob!” He shouted angrily, much to my surprise. Dr. Tallent was always soft spoken to his patients, even when they gave him problems. “As for you, kid….you shouldn’t be in here if the sermon ended 30 minutes ago. You should be at home before the Legion starts their patrols.”

In the last few years prior to the Incident, Paul Yearwood began to harbor intense paranoia, fearing the church was being watched by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The Sheriff at the time was his own stepson, Joseph Yearwood. If rumors are to be believed, Sheriff Yearwood had his eye on the Order’s activities for several years. To make matters more complicated, Joseph’s relationship with his family was non-existent. From what I’ve understood, he cut off all ties to his family after his daughter was born and his wife died during childbirth, but only maintained contact with his older brother, Greg, who was the store manager at the Piggly Wiggly. I don’t know what tipped him off, but he seemed to believe that Joseph had contacted the TBI and had “spies” planted in the Order’s ranks, along with having their phones wire tapped. By then, Paul was suspicious of everyone, even those who were in his inner circle. He lived in a constant state of fear, believing the Feds could come in at any moment and raid the church, destroying the “empire” he had painstakingly built over the last few decades. To keep that from happening, he came to Isaiah and begged him to send in extra Legion soldiers to patrol the streets at night. The town curfew was at around 9PM. All businesses within the city limits had to be closed by that time or else they could face execution, no questions asked. I’m thinking it was around 8PM when this happened because the sermons usually ended around 7:30.

“We’re decorating the Youth fellowship hall for Christmas and I was just needing to come in here to get a few things, sir. That’s all I need.” I was nervous as hell, especially seeing how he had a big drill in his hand and smelled like death. I just happened to take a step to the side while I was talking to him when I saw it, a horrible sight I will regret seeing for the rest of my life.

There was the body of a young man laid out on this big stainless steel surgical table, completely stripped of his clothes. Bad thing was, I immediately recognized him. A week prior to that, there was a terrible accident between Zion Mountain and Grundy involving a motorcycle and a pickup truck. The guy on the table was driving the motorcycle. From what I can remember, the motorcyclist was heading towards Zion Mountain on Highway 13 and the truck pulled out from a side road around Laurel Cove. Guess the truck driver wasn’t paying attention when he nailed him. The poor guy was thrown several feet and rolled down into a ditch, the motorcycle still with him. Not only did he sustain massive internal injuries from being hit by a truck, but he was also crushed by his bike. I can’t remember his name, but I do know he had just graduated from high school and had a full ride scholarship for the University of Tennessee because he was the star player on the basketball team. You can guess what church his family belonged to.

It was horrible. Before walking into the building a few minutes earlier, I could hear the sound of a drill grating against bone in a loud, shrill hum, followed by Dr. Tallent becoming frustrated at his inability to secure the screws holding these metal braces in place into his decaying flesh. They were working on his legs at the time. The scene was like something from a horror movie, as if I had walked in on a mad scientist creating his own Frankenstein’s monster. You can’t even begin to imagine how horrifying the smell was. It was a putrid combination of a rotting corpse, burnt wires, and formaldehyde. The formaldehyde was kept in a big, metal vat that had hoses running from it. Whenever the process was completed, they would pump the corpses full of it in an attempt to preserve them prior to the ritual they performed to reanimate them.

I can remember feeling physically ill by what I had witnessed. Standing before me were two of the most prominent men in the county, men who were beloved for their ethics in concern to the treatment of their patients. They treated thousands over the course of their careers, winning many awards in the process.

I saw their true colors that day. Everything they had ever done for this community was based on a lie they had somehow upheld for many years. By day, they treated the living with a superficial facade, acting as if they truly kept their best interest in mind. By night, they were Angels of Death who purposefully mutilated, dismembered, and tortured scores of young men, both living and dead, in order to appease Kalona and build their own army. They never cared for anyone else other than those who were like themselves, the elite upper class in the Order’s highest ranks.

Horrified, I asked them what the hell they were doing, desecrating a corpse like that. The guy had literally been dead and buried for over a week by that point. I didn’t have enough courage to question how they were able to get access to his corpse. I probably don’t want to know the answer, truth be told.

“We’re having to take extra precautions.” He was so nonchalant about it, like it was the most normal thing a person could do under the circumstance. “He suffered massive internal injuries during the crash. The impact shattered every bone in his body, so we’re having to make sure we preserve his overall bone structure so he can stand properly.”

I don’t remember the exact details of what had been exchanged between the three of us, but….the way Dr. Tallent and Dr. Morris presented themselves as their own personal gods who breathed life into these abominations that have no business existing in this world was nothing short of unnerving considering their “untarnished” reputation at the time. Dr. Tallent performed knee replacement surgery on my Mamaw several months before and he presented himself as a kind, caring gentleman who made sure Mamaw was able to get the post-op care she needed. It was nothing more than a front, a carefully constructed facade to hide how truly demented and morally depraved he was.

After speaking with me for a few minutes, they stepped out of my way and allowed me to get the supplies I needed for the youth fellowship hall. The entire situation was awkward. I could feel their eyes on me, watching my every move like a hawk me ready to pounce when the need arose. The whole conversation made me feel violated, despite having no sexual overtones at all. Everything I thought I knew about the Order of the Southern Sky was wrong. It was horribly wrong. I had been a fool for believing it, for going along with their lies. The Legion wasn’t created for our protection, but rather the destruction of everything that was ever good in Zion Mountain.

Before I walked out the door, Dr. Tallent called out to me for one last time. To this day, I can still remember the tone of his voice, a threatening growl that gives me chills even as I’m typing this out, “Son, if you tell anyone about what you saw here this evening, I’ll make damn sure you end up on this table. I could care less if Brother Paul thinks you’re special.”

I never returned to the out building after that. I was so traumatized by the experience that I would purposely do everything in my power to get out of their way if I had seen them during church. I feared them, knowing what they were capable of. I started having doubts about the Order and its teachings not long after that. I spent years convinced we were doing a service to this community, by spreading the gospel to others who had lost their way. In reality, it was the Order who had lost their way by forgetting the basic principles of what it truly means to be human. We live in a broken world and that brokenness only makes it easier for people who harbor hatred in their hearts to feel empowered, to feel justified in their delusional viewpoint of humanity and it's many faults. However, if you stand on a platform spewing hatred until you can no longer speak, nothing could ever be done. The Order of the Southern Sky mastered this art. They complained about the world being a horrible place to live, but offered no rational solutions to help change it, except for their opinion, which they didn't seem to have a shortage of. The problem with offering your opinion is that it contributes to nothing. You are only speaking to the atmosphere, unknowingly furthering someone's agenda elsewhere. Every time something bad happened in the world, they would repeat the same thing over and over-- "This world's going to Hell in a hand basket. The End of All is coming soon and what a joyous occasion it'll be, to reunite with Kalona in Paradise while all sinners are forced to spend eternity in the Other Plane." That was their automatic response to everything. Despite their so-called faith, they had absolutely no faith in humanity whatsoever, displaying no love for anyone else but themselves and others like them. They were selfish, weak, and resigned themselves to giving up when so much could be done to help! I know it's impossible to change the world. There's too many people who are suffering and there's many more who object to it because peace is an inconvenience. However, you can contribute by changing the worlds of a few. The only gospel you'll ever need is compassion, love, empathy, acceptance, and understanding. Nothing good will ever come out of denying humanity the same respect you'd want. Nothing good will ever come from barring them from society, to deny them happiness, and the right to exist in their own truth. Nothing. That's why Zion Mountain was destroyed, why everyone that I had ever known and loved were ripped away from me, because the Order could not imagine living in the same world as the very people they oppressed. Getting along with others and finding a common ground is not hard once both parties begin to understand each other. Rather than to live in peace, they[the Order] chose the only solution their minds could allow them to comprehend--to destroy themselves and take everyone else down with them.

[joshuajacksonlyblog]

Dash Core Senior Advisor Disappears with Investor Funds

Has Dash Core Group Senior Advisor MooCowMoo pulled an exit scam with a so-far-unknown quantity of Dash investors’ funds? Here’s what is known so far.

Core Advisor MooCowMoo Disappears

Senior Advisor for Dash Core Group (@Dashpay), owner of a "Masternode Shares" service, disappears with the funds of several Dash Investors. Dash Core Group tells users to figure it out themselves: "there is power in numbers".@CoinSpice @coindesk @fluffypony pic.twitter.com/uiuvt9AlJL

— DashUncensored (@DashUncensored) December 2, 2019

What looks to bear all the classic hallmarks of an exit scam came to light yesterday when one Dash user, Erulian, posted a message on the Dash Forum.

However, he had waited plenty of time. Users of MooCowMoo’s shared masternode service were emailed on Aug 10 earlier this year.

They were informed that the Dash Core Group Senior Advisor and owner of a “Masternode Shares” service would be shutting down and returning all funds:

So, to address the stress, I’ll be shutting down shares and sending back all deposits to their origination addresses within a week or two as time permits.

However, it’s now Dec 2 and, it seems, MooCowMoo has vanished into thin air…

Erulian confirmed the silence on the part of the Dash Core Group Senior Advisor and called out to other possible victims. He questioned, “who else has lost money?” And said, “I hope to get some discussion going about this, it’s getting late.”

Another user, scombo, joined in the conversation. He confirmed that he had also not heard a word from MooCowMoo since September.

Scombo reached out to several others in the network trying to reveal the advisor’s true identity, without success. He added:

Also might be worth involving the Dash core group as this reflects really badly on Dash, particularly as he was a prominent member of the team

Dash Response Unhelpful to Say the Least

Unfortunately for Erulian and scombo, the Dash Core Group failed to provide assistance. After imploring them to help investors get in touch with MooCowMoo, since the issue was causing “a lot of stress,” users pretty much got told to figure it out on their own.

The response was simply:

“there is power in numbers”.

Power in the number of users’ funds that the Dash Core Group Senior Advisor managed to amass? Or power in the number of people falling victim to another seedy crypto exit scam? Who knows.

What do you make of this latest Dash news? Add your thoughts below!

Images via Shutterstock, Reddit @scombo, Twitter @dashuncensored 

The post Dash Core Senior Advisor Disappears with Investor Funds appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

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[conneryiky456-blog]

9 Secrets About Tax Returns They Are Still Keeping From You

Actual trading events where things went very wrong - and ways to avoid them

The Six Sure-Fire Ways to Fail Trading Commodities:

5) Load Up With Everything You Have in Your Account

We?ve all browse the same stuff about commodity trading management of their money...about how exactly we should only risk 5-10% individuals account one any single trading idea, etc. Much of the trading folklore is false, but this place idea is the truth.

During the final 2006 gold commodity market amass, I sometimes chatted with commodity futures brokers in regards to the anonymous link between their customers who traded their particular accounts. No names, just results. There was one futures and option trader who stood out. He was right regarding the gold market. He hated buying way out-of-the-money inflated options on futures (for a good reason) and stayed with futures contracts only.

He would have been a brave soul who had about $100,000 to do business with and held maybe 5 futures contracts for the long haul. As gold futures moved in the $500/oz area toward $650, he was making a good score. I was proud hearing of his ability to sit through the corrections and increase the about the dips. He was around about 12 futures contracts. His protective stops were down maybe 25 full points away through the action. His stops were safe at the time as the volatility was mild. His was obviously a textbook campaign thus far.

Then came the morning in the event the gold futures market took its first sharp dip and stopped him out. He made about $60,000 for the trade, but was angry he got stopped out. The gold market shot to popularity again on the upside. He lost his discipline and started buying breakouts. Gold futures contracts went right into a nasty chopping range for the month as he bought futures most days but happened to be stopped out for losses.

Determine your objectives in terms of short and long term.

He was livid. He then started buying bigger and bigger lots and moving his stops farther away. The market always figures a way to screw the majority at any one some time and continued to look at him out. In short order he gave back the $60K profit plus some of his principal.

Once the objectives are finalized, seek the investments to acquire.

This was his second warning to avoid and pull the plug on himself, but he didn?t receive the message. The gold market had changed from a trending market to a chop. Finally he chose to change his tactics and join?em inside chop game. He started buying 20-lot futures within the middle of the evening with stop loss orders a few bucks away. This wasn?t his game anf the husband lost again, dropping another $50K. The market began to trend up again as they added more new money to his account to acquire the breakouts. The days were drained for this gold bull leg. Gold future contracts were sometimes having daily swings of $50. It was totally Jaws V.

Calculate the degree of risk to resist it.

Then he decided he needed to buy gold call options to survive this intra-day and overnight volatility. He loaded high on strikes at 900 and 1000,? far out-of-the-money. At concerning this time gold futures contracts finally made their top at substantially more than $700/oz while he correctly forecast within the beginning. He would have been up over $120K simply by sitting tight.

Determine where you stand in terms of needs and goals.

Since that point, gold futures have declined sharply in to the low $530 range. His option account eroded to worthless. While holding call options, he gotten stubborn and decided industry may not boot him out, it doesn't matter what. Does this problem?

Make sure you might have time for it to continue your commitments.

What will we study from this? He started out well, however designed a multitude of errors inside the end. He had a fixed scenario, lost his discipline, traded too large for his account and bought far out-of-the-money gold options that have been inflated in value. It?s sad, really. The saddest part is he was correct on the direction with the gold futures market! He KNEW gold was going up along started buying futures contracts in the lower $500/oz zone.

Be consistent and organized. Make thorough efforts in anything you do.

He was right as rain for a lot of months and was doing fine. But the marketplace changed coming from a trending, to some chopping, then finally with a bearish decline. This is quite normal in normal markets. Remember to always trade for the normal market! He was always looking for the classic gold-bug blow-off scenario. Sure it'll happen again someday, and not often enough to risk money on it each and every time.

Be available to all of the new thoughts and obtain out the myths of one's bag.

SOLUTION: The moral with this story is back to our 5%-10% management of their money rule. ALL the bad things in this tale could are already greatly softened if he risked only 10% or less on anyone trading idea. He would still be trading. It?s no crime to have sloppy and lose our discipline. We are human and will always have trading issues. But an all-or-nothing attitude will sink us each time. (Read a few of my lessons on "Win-Loss Ratios and Risk")

Develop your individual plans and play your own personal games.

Part Six of Seven Parts - Next!

Access quality investment information available around the internet.

There is substantial likelihood of loss trading futures and options and may even not be suitable for all kinds of investors. Only risk capital ought to be used.

Diversify your knowledge and investments offers to various channels.

Making the decision to get or sell, stock, futures or options under time limits may turn in the market to be disasters. Never feel pressurized anytime.

Try to cut back risks, as far as possible.

Always use stop-loss orders to shield capital if you produce a trade.

Never overtrade with under-capitalized accounts.

Move your stop loss to lock the net income in right after the deal gets profitable.

Be a tail on the trade trend. Trading against the trend without reasonable stops may harm a lot.

When you happen to be unsure from the fluctuations of the market, it is useless to trade. Rather quitting is a smart move in those days.

Avoid stagnant and volatile markets.

It is effective to trade in an industry which is trending having a number of more than 100,000 daily.

Do not place all your profits in re-investments. Rather it is highly recommended in order to save profits where you can surplus account.

Develop strategies and financial plans and focus on other alternatives of investments.

Always be well informed through the sources available.

Watch financial market news certainly get over the moods from the market.

Never follow tips. Refer them and rehearse your individual brains.

Invest in long-term investments, as there are greater chances of improving returns in the long term.

The short-term market being too fluctuating could potentially cause severe problems towards the one.

Evaluate your investment funds well.

State those who work in objective terms hat are simple to use for future reference.

A well-researched and well-done valuation is timeless.

Ask for your help of the broker or even a fundamental analyst.

Always get a thorough research work prior to in the investment world.

Evaluate and analyze your decisions well in future to prevent repetition from the same mistakes.

Select an intelligent broker and make use of his experience to fetch better returns.

Always search for cheap brokerage firm along with compromise for the quality of services furnished by them.

Grab the opportunities of discount brokers.

When investing online, remember that online bets usually are not always instant.

It can get delayed because of high traffic on the net approximately.

Other technological faults like modem, computer and service provider may also act as a hindrance for a investment.

While investing in share market always set your price limits on fast paced stocks.

Market orders vs. limit orders rule should be followed.

In case you are not capable of access your web account receive an alternative for placing the trade in advance.

Take some time to tend not to think that your order has not been placed. It might cause repetition of your order thus, may fetch your losses.

Make sure the cancellation in the order did before ordering another trade.

If you acquire a burglar in cash account, you have to cash one which just market it.

Reread your margin agreement, as if you trade on margin, your broker sell your securities without giving a margin call.

Get to know regarding the legal terms.

Talk in your broker and online firm in case there is some misunderstanding in investing.

Know what you are buying and risking in the market.

Bernard Baruch once said that If you want to generate profits, a lot of money, buy whatever has thrown away.

Do your research prior to making an investment.

Be alert for virtually any alarms of losses.

Do not expect your broker to recommend the stock that may double your dollars in several months itself.

Don't be greedy then sell the stock that climbs up considerably i.e. 50% or more.

Don't be impulsive and take calculated risks.

Don't buy a standard over a hot rumor; you're going to get burned 90% in the time.

Consider tax-planning and income-splitting techniques.

Go for values of stocks.

Maintain a well-evaluated portfolio.

Keep an eye fixed everywhere. Look for bonds in the businesses that are out of favor too.

Be an above average trader.

Prepare a checklist for investment.

Make certain the bucks you're investing is critical in your financial survival.

Beware of internet stock fraud.

Verify ignore the i.e. usually do not just depend on your broker, ask other components of advice too.

Every time you invest, look at the risk/return profile of your investment before actually checking out it.

Also, focus on how easily a purchase might be turned back into cash, in case.

Compare and contrast stock trading solutions with options.

It is additionally vital that you ascertain one?s risk appetite.

Make sure you follow some precautions before investing, like making certain that your broker is registered and never a fraud.

Make sure stock investing documentation would help.

Remember the stock investment could be risky because other investment; thus, assess the risks associated using a particular move.| Highlighted stocks include Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM), Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX), IAMGOLD Corporation (IAG), Goldcorp Inc. (GG) and Eldorado Gold Corporation (EGO).

[mastcomm]

Donations Are Pouring Into Australia. Now What?

SYDNEY, Australia — For the rural firefighters of Australia, no donation is too small. They have long been known to canvass for dollars and cents in town markets, and their collection tins are fondly displayed in local storefronts.

That hat-in-hand approach can now be put on hold. As bush fires have ravaged Australia, celebrities, business moguls and horrified people around the world have inundated the country’s fire services and other nonprofit organizations with tens of millions of dollars in donations.

This outpouring has presented new challenges for a country more accustomed to handing out largess to needier nations than to being the recipient of it. Suddenly, Australia has found itself trying to efficiently distribute huge sums of money and to decipher donors’ sometimes vague intentions.

“This is a seminal moment in Australia when it comes to philanthropy and giving,” said Krystian Seibert, a fellow at the Center for Social Impact at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. “I haven’t seen something like it before.”

One after another, celebrities have announced large donations or money-collection efforts. A Facebook fund-raiser for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service that was started by the Australian comedian Celeste Barber has amassed $34 million, or 51 million Australian dollars. It is the largest fund-raiser ever on the platform.

Fire brigades have received money from Nicole Kidman and her husband, Keith Urban, as well as from Metallica and Kylie Jenner. Leonardo DiCaprio donated to wildlife organizations. Writers are auctioning off signed books, musicians are hosting concerts, and athletes like Serena Williams have pledged to direct their winnings to bush-fire relief.

Since September, the fires have incinerated an area about the size of West Virginia and at least 25 people have died. Ecologists have estimated that a billion animals have perished, with some species threatened to the point of extinction. At least 3,000 homes have been ravaged in dozens of towns, and the economic damage from the fires could be as much as $3.5 billion.

“We don’t normally get phone calls from people who want to give $1 million and beyond,” said Belinda Dimovski, the director of engagement at the Australian Red Cross.

She said the organization, which is providing disaster relief, had raised about $67 million from individuals, groups and companies since July 1. By comparison, it raised about $7.5 million during a drought appeal last year.

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has also seen a dramatic jump in giving, as the world has watched the courageous actions of Australian volunteers called on to fight monstrous blazes.

In the period between mid-2017 and mid-2018, the fire service raised $525,000, and the largest single donation was about $17,000. Now, it is flush with the tens of millions of dollars it has received from the Facebook fund-raiser and other sources.

In the Facebook effort, Ms. Barber’s initial goal was to raise about $20,000 for a trust that helps fire brigades in New South Wales with equipment and other needs.

“Please help anyway you can. This is terrifying,” she wrote in the appeal.

As the funds have swelled to 1,700 times the original target, questions have been raised about whether the more than one million individual donors knew that they were contributing to a single state’s fire service.

Legal experts said it would most likely be up to the Rural Fire Service, rather than Ms. Barber, to decide whether to distribute money to other organizations.

It is a “nice challenge,” said the Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons. He added that the organization was considering sending money to funds benefiting victims of the blazes and to fire services in other states.

“We will need to target the money to where people intended it to go,” he said.

The donations received so far could be enough to fund state-supported fire services in New South Wales for decades. But that would not provide immediate disaster relief.

“This money comes with expectations,” said Michael Eburn, an associate professor at the Australian National University who specializes in emergency management law. “It’s a dilemma.”

The federal government has announced a $1.4 billion national wildfire recovery fund, and has offered a list of established charities holding bush-fire appeals. The state of Victoria has asked the public to donate to groups that provide “practical” relief.

Australians affected by the fires said they were heartened to know that people at home and abroad had been moved to help.

But some who have lost homes say they have received minimal compensation so far from government agencies and nonprofit organizations, though the federal government says it has been processing claims at record speeds.

Informing potential donors about the causes they are considering and directing their assistance to the intended recipients are the biggest challenges in crisis relief, said Maurie Stack, chairman of the Stacks Law Firm, which deals with charity law.

“To get the money to the people who need it, you really need boots on the ground,” he said.

Mr. Stack is raising money himself for his Rotary Club in Taree, where more than 100 homes in the area have been lost to fires. The club has raised $220,000, far outpacing its goal of $30,000, he said.

Over the past decade, Australians have been the fourth-most generous givers in the world, according to the 2019 Charities Aid Foundation World Giving Index. In recent weeks, Australians have flooded fire stations, town governments and nonprofit organizations with contributions of food, clothes and other goods. The groups are now imploring people not to send any more.

The most efficient way to give during a disaster is to donate cash directly to charities, said Gary Johns, the commissioner of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission.

“Think about what you want to support and give directly to a charity doing that work,” he said in a statement.

Beyond the searing images of burning houses and singed wildlife, the attention that the wildfires have brought to the effects of climate change may be motivating people to donate.

“We’ve been primed to do something about climate change,” said Matthew Sisco, a doctoral candidate and data scientist at Columbia University who does research on responses to climate change. “Now, this is an event linked directly to it and pulling at our heart strings.”

Animals, too, have been a major focus of charitable donations. WIRES, a wildlife rescue group in New South Wales, raised $9.6 million in one fund-raiser alone.

“Kangaroos and koalas are highly charismatic,” Mr. Sisco said. “We can feel empathy for them” — a high predictor of charitable behavior.

The success of groups like WIRES, though, may have crowded out other organizations in need. By the time the crisis hit Victoria, the blazes had already raged in New South Wales, and international awareness of WIRES was high, said Megan Davidson, the chief executive of Wildlife Victoria. Some people, she added, mistakenly viewed WIRES as a catchall for helping the nation’s animals.

Her group has since worked to rectify that perception, and it has raised $4.8 million.

“Everybody is competing for the donor dollar, and people want to donate because it makes them feel good,” said Dr. Eburn, the Australian National University professor. “It makes them feel like they are contributing — and they are.”

Michelle Elias contributed reporting.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/donations-are-pouring-into-australia-now-what/

[actutrends]

Bethenny Frankel Stepping Up To Help Australia Fire Victims With BStrong Foundation — ‘It’s Horrible’

Exclusive Interview

January 13, 2020 11: 46PM EST

Bethenny Frankel is stepping up yet again with her charitable efforts to help out the victims of the devastating Australia brushfires.

Bethenny Frankel, 49, has left her Real Housewives Of New York days behind to focus on different projects, however, one thing still remains the same — Her passion to help others in times of need with her BStrong Foundation. When the successful SkinnyGirl mogul heard about the horrifying brushfires taking place in Australia, she knew she needed to step up and assist right away. “It’s so horrible,” Bethenny told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “We took the whole weekend to really get organized because in relief work, people rush in and then have to sort of pull their plan together. You can’t really start raising money and execute a relief effort until you have a plan and who you’re going to help and how are you going to help them. So we started the actual active raise yesterday, and the number one priority is of massing fire gear and putting it into containers to ship there. We’ve got the stats on how many firefighters they have existing and how many volunteers there are. It’s really just like I wrote in my post, it’s a David and Goliath issue because there just aren’t nearly enough firefighters, even with all the volunteers, not much less outfitting them. So we are working on a plan also to get firefighters internationally into Australia to attack the fires and outfitting them with their gear. We did that in the Amazon and the California fires. I think we outfitted over 700 firefighters and we were there for three months.”

This is nowhere near Bethenny’s first time dealing with natural disasters, either. After receiving donations and raising funds while also assisting on the ground physically herself after the Puerto Rico earthquake and Hurricanes Dorian, Maria and Irma just to name a few, Bethenny has learned to take each disaster with a different plan of attack. “I don’t always know about everything first,” Bethenny said. “I was aware of The Bahamas really early. We were one of the first planes to come into Puerto Rico. Here, it started because I do have a fan base that Australia, so last week people started messaging me, “Are you going to do anything for Australia?” I wasn’t even really aware because it wasn’t being reported here as much, so I was having pleas from Australian fans. The thing is, with all the disasters that have been happening, it’s not very different than any other kind of charitable work because people working for other charitable causes are prepared all year.”

For now, Bethenny has customized a special plan outlined for her efforts in Australia. This includes giving BStrong gift cards at shelters, funding animal organizations on the ground that are saving animals, amassing fire gear from various fire departments in the US and sending containers of gear to equip volunteer firefighters for fire season which is another 3 months in Australia. Though her star power helps her get by with a little help from her friends, there’s one thing she’s always looking for when it comes to these kinds of efforts. “Number one plea is airlines,” Bethenny said of what she still needs. “Relief work is totally different because you’re not prepared. You don’t know what the disaster is, and in each disaster, even though we’ve worked with two different fires, each disaster because of where it is and what the dynamics are and there’s so many animals, has its own set of challenges. So you have to really kind of just jump in. You’re building a rocket while flying it.”

If you want to donate to Bethenny’s BStrong Foundation, you can do so here, and know that 100% of your donations are going straight to the people of Australia who need help in this time of need.

The post Bethenny Frankel Stepping Up To Help Australia Fire Victims With BStrong Foundation — ‘It’s Horrible’ appeared first on Actu Trends.

[cryptoveins]

Dash Core Senior Advisor Disappears with Investor Funds

Has Dash Core Group Senior Advisor MooCowMoo pulled an exit scam with a so-far-unknown quantity of Dash investors’ funds? Here’s what is known so far.

Core Advisor MooCowMoo Disappears

Senior Advisor for Dash Core Group (@Dashpay), owner of a “Masternode Shares” service, disappears with the funds of several Dash Investors. Dash Core Group tells users to figure it out themselves: “there is power in numbers”.@CoinSpice @coindesk @fluffypony pic.twitter.com/uiuvt9AlJL

— DashUncensored (@DashUncensored) December 2, 2019

What looks to bear all the classic hallmarks of an exit scam came to light yesterday when one Dash user, Erulian, posted a message on the Dash Forum.

However, he had waited plenty of time. Users of MooCowMoo’s shared masternode service were emailed on Aug 10 earlier this year.

They were informed that the Dash Core Group Senior Advisor and owner of a “Masternode Shares” service would be shutting down and returning all funds:

So, to address the stress, I’ll be shutting down shares and sending back all deposits to their origination addresses within a week or two as time permits.

However, it’s now Dec 2 and, it seems, MooCowMoo has vanished into thin air…

Erulian confirmed the silence on the part of the Dash Core Group Senior Advisor and called out to other possible victims. He questioned, “who else has lost money?” And said, “I hope to get some discussion going about this, it’s getting late.”

Another user, scombo, joined in the conversation. He confirmed that he had also not heard a word from MooCowMoo since September.

Scombo reached out to several others in the network trying to reveal the advisor’s true identity, without success. He added:

Also might be worth involving the Dash core group as this reflects really badly on Dash, particularly as he was a prominent member of the team

Dash Response Unhelpful to Say the Least

Unfortunately for Erulian and scombo, the Dash Core Group failed to provide assistance. After imploring them to help investors get in touch with MooCowMoo, since the issue was causing “a lot of stress,” users pretty much got told to figure it out on their own.

The response was simply:

“there is power in numbers”.

Power in the number of users’ funds that the Dash Core Group Senior Advisor managed to amass? Or power in the number of people falling victim to another seedy crypto exit scam? Who knows.

What do you make of this latest Dash news? Add your thoughts below!

Images via Shutterstock, Reddit @scombo, Twitter @dashuncensored 

The post Dash Core Senior Advisor Disappears with Investor Funds appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

https://cryptoveins.com/dash-core-senior-advisor-disappears-with-investor-funds/

[outletggdbsale-blog]

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