#Money Exchange in Vancouver

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Antitrust is a labor issue

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SATURDAY (Apr 27) in MARIN COUNTY, then Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

This is huge: yesterday, the FTC finalized a rule banning noncompete agreements for every American worker. That means that the person working the register at a Wendy's can switch to the fry-trap at McD's for an extra $0.25/hour, without their boss suing them:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes

The median worker laboring under a noncompete is a fast-food worker making close to minimum wage. You know who doesn't have to worry about noncompetes? High tech workers in Silicon Valley, because California already banned noncompetes, as did Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington.

The fact that the country's largest economies, encompassing the most "knowledge-intensive" industries, could operate without shitty bosses being able to shackle their best workers to their stupid workplaces for years after those workers told them to shove it shows you what a goddamned lie noncompetes are based on. The idea that companies can't raise capital or thrive if their know-how can walk out the door, secreted away in the skulls of their ungrateful workers, is bullshit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#neofeudal

Remember when OpenAI's board briefly fired founder Sam Altman and Microsoft offered to hire him and 700 of his techies? If "noncompetes block investments" was true, you'd think they'd have a hard time raising money, but no, they're still pulling in billions in investor capital (primarily from Microsoft itself!). This is likewise true of Anthropic, the company's major rival, which was founded by (wait for it), two former OpenAI employees.

Indeed, Silicon Valley couldn't have come into existence without California's ban on noncompetes – the first silicon company, Shockley Semiconductors, was founded by a malignant, delusional eugenicist who also couldn't manage a lemonade stand. His eight most senior employees (the "Traitorous Eight") quit his shitty company to found Fairchild Semiconductor, a rather successful chip shop – but not nearly so successful as the company that two of Fairchild's top employees founded after they quit: Intel:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/24/the-traitorous-eight-and-the-battle-of-germanium-valley/

Likewise a lie: the tale that noncompetes raise wages. This theory – beloved of people whose skulls are so filled with Efficient Market Hypothesis Brain-Worms that they've got worms dangling out of their nostrils and eye-sockets – holds that the right to sign a noncompete is an asset that workers can trade to their employers in exchange for better pay. This is absolutely true, provided you ignore reality.

Remember: the median noncompete-bound worker is a fast food employee making near minimum wage. The major application of noncompetes is preventing that worker from getting a raise from a rival fast-food franchisee. Those workers are losing wages due to noncompetes. Meanwhile, the highest paid workers in the country are all clustered in a a couple of cities in northern California, pulling down sky-high salaries in a state where noncompetes have been illegal since the gold rush.

If a capitalist wants to retain their workers, they can compete. Offer your workers get better treatment and better wages. That's how capitalism's alchemy is supposed to work: competition transmogrifies the base metal of a capitalist's greed into the noble gold of public benefit by making success contingent on offering better products to your customers than your rivals – and better jobs to your workers than those rivals are willing to pay. However, capitalists hate capitalism:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-extremis-veritas/#the-winnah

Capitalists hate capitalism so much that they're suing the FTC, in MAGA's beloved Fifth Circuit, before a Trump-appointed judge. The case was brought by Trump's financial advisors, Ryan LLC, who are using it to drum up business from corporations that hate Biden's new taxes on the wealthy and stepped up IRS enforcement on rich tax-cheats.

Will they win? It's hard to say. Despite what you may have heard, the case against the FTC order is very weak, as Matt Stoller explains here:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/ftc-enrages-corporate-america-by

The FTC's statutory authority to block noncompetes comes from Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bans "unfair methods of competition" (hard to imagine a less fair method than indenturing your workers). Section 6(g) of the Act lets the FTC make rules to enforce Section 5's ban on unfairness. Both are good law – 6(g) has been used many times (26 times in the five years from 1968-73 alone!).

The DC Circuit court upheld the FTC's right to "promulgate rules defining the meaning of the statutory standards of the illegality the Commission is empowered to prevent" in 1973, and in 1974, Congress changed the FTC Act, but left this rulemaking power intact.

The lawyer suing the FTC – Anton Scalia's larvum, a pismire named Eugene Scalia – has some wild theories as to why none of this matters. He says that because the law hasn't been enforced since the ancient days of the (checks notes) 1970s, it no longer applies. He says that the mountain of precedent supporting the FTC's authority "hasn't aged well." He says that other antitrust statutes don't work the same as the FTC Act. Finally, he says that this rule is a big economic move and that it should be up to Congress to make it.

Stoller makes short work of these arguments. The thing that tells you whether a law is good is its text and precedent, "not whether a lawyer thinks a precedent is old and bad." Likewise, the fact that other antitrust laws is irrelevant "because, well, they are other antitrust laws, not this antitrust law." And as to whether this is Congress's job because it's economically significant, "so what?" Congress gave the FTC this power.

Now, none of this matters if the Supreme Court strikes down the rule, and what's more, if they do, they might also neuter the FTC's rulemaking power in the bargain. But again: so what? How is it better for the FTC to do nothing, and preserve a power that it never uses, than it is for the Commission to free the 35-40 million American workers whose bosses get to use the US court system to force them to do a job they hate?

The FTC's rule doesn't just ban noncompetes – it also bans TRAPs ("training repayment agreement provisions"), which require employees to pay their bosses thousands of dollars if they quit, get laid off, or are fired:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

The FTC's job is to protect Americans from businesses that cheat. This is them, doing their job. If the Supreme Court strikes this down, it further delegitimizes the court, and spells out exactly who the GOP works for.

This is part of the long history of antitrust and labor. From its earliest days, antitrust law was "aimed at dollars, not men" – in other words, antitrust law was always designed to smash corporate power in order to protect workers. But over and over again, the courts refused to believe that Congress truly wanted American workers to get legal protection from the wealthy predators who had fastened their mouth-parts on those workers' throats. So over and over – and over and over – Congress passed new antitrust laws that clarified the purpose of antitrust, using words so small that even federal judges could understand them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

After decades of comatose inaction, Biden's FTC has restored its role as a protector of labor, explicitly tackling competition through a worker protection lens. This week, the Commission blocked the merger of Capri Holdings and Tapestry Inc, a pair of giant conglomerates that have, between them, bought up nearly every "affordable luxury" brand (Versace, Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Coach, Stuart Weitzman, etc).

You may not care about "affordable luxury" handbags, but you should care about the basis on which the FTC blocked this merger. As David Dayen explains for The American Prospect: 33,000 workers employed by these two companies would lose the wage-competition that drives them to pay skilled sales-clerks more to cross the mall floor and switch stores:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-04-24-challenge-fashion-merger-new-antitrust-philosophy/

In other words, the FTC is blocking a $8.5b merger that would turn an oligopoly into a monopoly explicitly to protect workers from the power of bosses to suppress their wages. What's more, the vote was unanimous, include the Commission's freshly appointed (and frankly, pretty terrible) Republican commissioners:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-moves-block-tapestrys-acquisition-capri

A lot of people are (understandably) worried that if Biden doesn't survive the coming election that the raft of excellent rules enacted by his agencies will die along with his presidency. Here we have evidence that the Biden administration's anti-corporate agenda has become institutionalized, acquiring a bipartisan durability.

And while there hasn't been a lot of press about that anti-corporate agenda, it's pretty goddamned huge. Back in 2021, Tim Wu (then working in the White wrote an executive order on competition that identified 72 actions the agencies could take to blunt the power of corporations to harm everyday Americans:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

Biden's agency heads took that plan and ran with it, demonstrating the revolutionary power of technical administrative competence and proving that being good at your job is praxis:

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

In just the past week, there's been a storm of astoundingly good new rules finalized by the agencies:

A minimum staffing ratio for nursing homes;

The founding of the American Climate Corps;

A guarantee of overtime benefits;

A ban on financial advisors cheating retirement savers;

Medical privacy rules that protect out-of-state abortions;

A ban on junk fees in mortgage servicing;

Conservation for 13m Arctic acres in Alaska;

Classifying "forever chemicals" as hazardous substances;

A requirement for federal agencies to buy sustainable products;

Closing the gun-show loophole.

That's just a partial list, and it's only Thursday.

Why the rush? As Gerard Edic writes for The American Prospect, finalizing these rules now protects them from the Congressional Review Act, a gimmick created by Newt Gingrich in 1996 that lets the next Senate wipe out administrative rules created in the months before a federal election:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-23-biden-administration-regulations-congressional-review-act/

In other words, this is more dazzling administrative competence from the technically brilliant agencies that have labored quietly and effectively since 2020. Even laggards like Pete Buttigieg have gotten in on the act, despite a very poor showing in the early years of the Biden administration:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/dinah-wont-you-blow/#ecp

Despite those unpromising beginnings, the DOT has gotten onboard the trains it regulates, and passed a great rule that forces airlines to refund your money if they charge you for services they don't deliver:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/24/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-rules-to-deliver-automatic-refunds-and-protect-consumers-from-surprise-junk-fees-in-air-travel/

The rule also bans junk fees and forces airlines to compensate you for late flights, finally giving American travelers the same rights their European cousins have enjoyed for two decades.

It's the latest in a string of muscular actions taken by the DOT, a period that coincides with the transfer of Jen Howard from her role as chief of staff to FTC chair Lina Khan to a new gig as the DOT's chief of competition enforcement:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-04-25-transportation-departments-new-path/

Under Howard's stewardship, the DOT blocked the merger of Spirit and Jetblue, and presided over the lowest flight cancellation rate in more than decade:

https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/2023-numbers-more-flights-fewer-cancellations-more-consumer-protections

All that, along with a suite of protections for fliers, mark a huge turning point in the US aviation industry's long and worsening abusive relationship with the American public. There's more in the offing, too including a ban on charging families extra for adjacent seats, rules to make flying with wheelchairs easier, and a ban on airlines selling passenger's private information to data brokers.

There's plenty going on in the world – and in the Biden administration – that you have every right to be furious and/or depressed about. But these expert agencies, staffed by experts, have brought on a tsunami of rules that will make every working American better off in a myriad of ways. Those material improvements in our lives will, in turn, free us up to fight the bigger, existential fights for a livable planet, free from genocide.

It may not be a good time to be alive, but it's a much better time than it was just last week.

And it's only Thursday.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/capri-v-tapestry/#aiming-at-dollars-not-men

[starry-hughes]

present exchange (jack hughes)

day 8 of star’s ficmas event

single dad!jack au (jack hughes x reader)

You had saved all the money you had earned from nannying before you asked Jack to stop paying you when you started dating him officially. Christmas was draining your savings account though. Jack spoiled you, always buying you gifts, handing over his credit card the very moment you needed something. You once ran out of toothpaste and before you could even say you needed more, Jack was placing the order for it. 

Jack had agreed to exchange one gift. You both had spent a majority of the gift budget on his daughter, Paisley. But Jack and you agreed on one gift each for each other. When you asked for a budget, Jack said no, that he didn’t care how much the gift was, and that was code for “I’m probably spending an amount of money you will be upset at.” 

Paisley was asleep, it was Christmas Eve. She was upstairs in Jack’s childhood bedroom, asleep in the pack-and-play. You had traveled with Jack, Paisley, and Luke to Michigan for Christmas. Quinn had flown in from Vancouver and Ellen and Jim were happy to have a full house. 

You carefully taped down the wrapping paper as you finished wrapping last minute gifts. Ellen and Jim had gone up to bed and the other Hughes boys were down in the basement playing video games. Jack creaked down the stairs after he had gone up to Paisley who was stirring in her sleep without her pacifier. “She’s knocked out, I think the snow tired her out.” 

A smile broke out onto your face as you remembered playing in the snow earlier in the day, going out to the outdoor rink and watching the boys skate around for a while. Jack joined you on the floor before reaching over to the presents under the Christmas tree. It was a small, flat box, wrapped by someone else (you were guessing his mom). “Merry Christmas,” he smiled. You looked at him and back at the present. “It’s only Christmas Eve.” 

He sighed, “Yeah but I would rather you open this gift here, just with me and you here. I don’t need my brothers calling me soft.” You scowled at him as you put down the wrapping paper and scissors, deciding to finish wrapping Paisley’s gift in a second. You carefully unwrapped the box and took the lid off. A silver bracelet shined on its pillow of cotton. A charm, a small letter ‘P’ was attached to the bracelet. “I have a matching necklace.” 

Jack yanked his chain out from under his sweater, revealing that he did indeed have a matching charm on his silve chain. “You took Paisley in as your own basically, she’s your daughter as much as she is mine,” Jack said gently as he clasped the bracelet around your wrist. You sniffled, laughing away the tear as you got emotional about his words. “Wait, you should open your gift too,” you scramled to grab the wrapped gift from under the tree. 

Jack nestled you between his legs as he opened his gift. It was an even smaller box. “It’s a keychain!” you told him, “Probably not as good or whatever as what you got me.” You turned red and went to get up before Jack was tugging you back into him. “Is this Paisley’s thumbprint?” he examined the gift. It was a silver pendant with Paisley’s thumbprint on one side.

You nodded before carefully flipping it over, revealing your own thumbprint. “You said you broke your other keychain.” Jack was quick to grab your face and kiss you deeply. “I love it,” Jack said against your lips. 

[bitchinbarzal]

Last Christmas | M.Barzal

this is my entry for @antoineroussel christmas fic exchange!

this is for you, @lhugh! happy holidays annie 🎄���

this fic does use they/them pronouns as they are annie’s pronouns! 🫶🏼

word count: 2,461 words

-

Last Christmas, you walked into December planning every festive activity possible; the Rockefeller Christmas tree, Nutcracker at New York City ballet, Radio City Rockettes even letting Mat show you up at skating.

That was until Mat dropped the break up bomb on you. You couldn’t really comprehend it all, too confused and hurt at once.

You were supposed to spend Christmas with Mat and the team at the Martin’s. You never answered Sydney’s texts after the breakup.

You spent Christmas alone.

You were thankful the islanders tanked their 21/22 season. It meant that they all left to go home as soon as possible.

That meant no islanders, no jerseys, no chants on the train home from work.

No Mat.

He went home to Coquitlam two days after the islanders lost to Tampa.

Mat spent his first summer in seven years bouncing around from place to place. He was out on the lake with Tyson for a few weeks and he visited Anthony and Emma when they bought their new home in Quebec.

He wasn’t home long with his family until he got a call, from Brock. His dad had died.

He asked if you and Mat could attend the funeral, his father really adored you both in the time he’d met you and he knew Mat well. Mathew agreed to attend, claiming you were busy but sent your well wishes.

He flew into Minnesota the day prior, dropping off flowers to Brock’s mom and she welcomed him into her home giving him a drink and thanking him for coming.

“He always liked watching you play, unless you played against Vancouver of course” she laughed, Mat gave her a smile “It’s a shame y/n couldn’t come”

“Yeah, it’s a shame” he mumbled.

Next he saw her was at the funeral, listening while she stood talking about her husband, the love she had for him, how much she missed him already.

All Mat could think about when he heard her words were you.

You were his best friend.

You were the person who knew him best.

You were supposed to be around forever.

When Mat got home after that trip he didn’t do much, he was no longer in the mood to go out partying, celebrating with friends.

Mat returned to Long Island in the end of August.

He frequented the coffee shop you guys often did and he even walked the route in the morning you did. He didn’t see you.

It wasn’t until week 3 of attending the same coffee shop that the barista, Logan said to him

“Mat, they don’t come in here anymore I’m sorry. Said they needed a fresh start after the breakup”

He silently nodded to the girl, hoping she hadn’t caught his face falling. He simply took his flat white from the counter and exited to building.

Contract talks started in mid-september.

The organization called in May to the office to discuss; throwing around money and perks.

He took the time to digest the information. He called him mom and dad to see what their opinions were on the whole thing, called his financial advisor and even called Anders but the number he kept hovering over belonged to you.

Everyone’s advice was along the lines of “you need to see yourself settling down in Long Island with a contract term like that” and he did, with you.

The deal was signed on October 4th.

@ny_islanders: “I love It here” says Mathew Barzal, after signing his 8 year extension to stay here in Long Island 💙🤍🧡

You read the tweet, saw the posts and the stories from your mutual friends. You wanted to text him — tell him congratulations, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it.

So instead, you simply put an orange heart emoji under the islanders post about his extension and scrolled on.

Mat saw it. His heart soared at the simplicity of it but yet the fact he knew you were still thinking of him, that you in some way still cared.

Late October, the leaves were starting to fall and hockey was beginning again. Mat wasn’t playing his best — missing goals, easy passes and a lot of falling over.

People started doubting him; calling him a fake, a money grabber and claiming they wished Lou hadn’t even drafted his extension papers.

Mat started to doubt himself too.

was he good enough?

should he have signed the papers?

was he worth the money?

was Long Island better off without him? were you?

There is was! The real problem.

Ever since that last December his mind had been stuck on you and really it shouldn’t have because it was his fault, he broke up with you.

If anyone asked Mat why you broke up he would say “We just wanted different things”

If Mat was honest with himself he would say “I was scared I wasn’t enough for them”

The first few months of hockey came and passed with not a single goal from Mat.

Lambert pulled him aside one morning at practice to tell him “You better get your head out of your ass son because one more game the way you’ve been going and you’ll be benched for the rest of this year”

The last game in November, against Philadelphia Mat was a healthy scratch.

His punishment was over by the next game but Lane told him in no specific terms he had to step up. Mat just groaned and mumbled a “Yeah, I’m fucking trying” before leaving the office.

It was harder now that it was December.

In summer he could just pretend things weren’t different.

You weren’t at his families house? You had to be with your mom.

He was alone at the casino event? You had work.

But Christmas, that was different. Christmas wasn’t something he could sweep under the rug and pretend you were busy.

You’d spent every Christmas together since Mat was eighteen years old. Your first Christmas in New York was an overwhelming experience and Mat thought it adorable at how excited you were about everything.

He bought you a necklace that year. It had his number on it, the gold chain necklace held the number thirteen on your chest and you never took it off.

It was a staple piece in your collection, whenever someone at one of your fancy work dinners or meetings would ask

“Hey why does your necklace have the thirteen on it?”

You would smile so bright, in such adoration and reply “My boyfriend, mat. He plays hockey for the New York Islanders and he’s number thirteen! but always number one to me” and everyone would laugh and call you cute.

You’d left that necklace behind the night you’d packed your stuff up to leave. Mat found it when he returned home from Boston on an away game to find you’d obviously been in and cleared out your belongings too while he was gone.

He took the necklace and posted it to your mom’s house, the only address connected to you he knew. He never knew if you’d gotten it back, not that it mattered much anyway because why would you want to wear it after you’d broken up?

Mat’s no goal streak continued up to the last game before Christmas, December 23rd and he was goal-less.

He was so frustrated at everything he couldn’t think straight about getting this goal. He was spending Christmas alone for the second year in a row — alone, without you.

He couldn’t stop thinking about you no matter how hard he tried. How you’d been here tonight wearing a silly Christmas jumper and cheering about the last game before Christmas.

They tanked the first period, Tkachuk got away with the puck leaving them up one by the end of the first. There were so many penalties, stupid penalties. It was a mess.

Second period, they equalised in the first few minutes with a goal from Beau before Brock got them up another which was matched not long after by Florida.

When the third period hit it was like something went off in Mat, that he had a surge of energy.

He got a goal, his first season goal! Then another and another with only a few seconds left on the clock.

Hat-trick. He got a hatty.

He’d done it. He finally scored a goal this season, they won the game and he got a hat-trick!

So why didn’t he feel like it was enough?

When he got back to the locker room, Mat pulled his phone out of his bag and looked at his notifications; texts from friends and family congratulating him on the goals, random emails but it was as though he was searching for something.

He clicked through the phone until he landed on what he wanted and pressed it before holding the phone up to his ear.

It rang twice before it connected

“Hello?”

“Um, hey! This is weird and I’m not sure why I’m doing this but I felt like I had to because, well because I scored my first goal of the season tonight. I scored my first season goal and I got a hatty too which I mean is a lot but I don’t feel like it’s enough”

Mat sighed, completely blocking out his team-mates listening to this conversation and looking on with sympathy

“It’s not enough because I know you’re not here-“

“-Mat-“

“No, please let me finish it’s taken me long enough to get the courage to call you. I was stupid for what I did last Christmas and I will wholeheartedly tell you that this year has been the worst year of my life and maybe you call that karma, I call it a wake up call that you… you’re the love of my life and that I want to be with you, I was scared and stupid but I’m better I will be better for you! I’m ready to be the man you need”

After his spiel, Mat took a deep breath awaiting your answer but instead was met with a dead line.

You hung up on him.

Mat looked dejectedly at him phone in hand before he got up to get dressed as he was very spitefully aware of the media and press awaiting him outside the door.

He breezed through media by giving them one word answers and a bored look, they usually let him away early when he did that.

Collecting his bag from the now empty locker room and sulking down the hallway towards the car park.

He wasn’t even looking up, instead opted for the wonderful view of his scuffed shoes. Paying so little attention he didn’t even see you standing at the end of the hallway.

“Nice shot!” His head whipped up, locking eyes with you almost immediately.

You watched his face go through a multitude of emotions before it softened and he muttered “What-“

“I was here Mat” is what you said, gesturing to the stairs you’d descended from your seat “I was sat up there and I watched it, I was cheering you on”

Mat was speechless, fumbling over his words and his eyes flickered across your body, trying to drink you in while you were stood in front of him before his eyes landed on your neck.

Lay on your black shirt was a necklace, the necklace.

The number thirteen lay to elegantly on your chest “You got it”

You looked down and smiled “Oh yeah, my mom sent it to my apartment” playing with it between your thumb and pointer finger.

A soft silence settled between you both, it wasn’t weird or awkward — it could never be awkward between you and Mat.

Until Mat broke the silence by asking

“Why are you here?”

You smiled gently “The islanders last game before Christmas has always been my tradition since I moved to New York you know that and so I never changed it this year, despite the circumstances” the last bit was a little snappy and he knew that.

“I meant what i said on that call by the way” you nodded curtly as a reply before holding out your hand for him to take

“How about you drive us around that neighbourhood with the good Christmas lights and we can talk, in the car eh?”

The Christmas lights, another tradition between you both.

Mat reached out, clasping his hand in yours and nodding “Yeah, let’s do that”

The lights on peoples home’s had somehow gotten better this year and you admired them all in a childlike fashion from the passenger seat of Mathew’s Range Rover.

“This is one of my favourite traditions we started” you say, still looking out the window. Your hand rested now on the console in the middle of the car.

Mat slipped his hand into yours, taking a leap of faith which paid off when you clasped it in yours and squeezed it.

“Yeah, i love it” he muttered, pulling the car into the side of the road now you’d reached the end of the street.

You turned to him now, waiting for him to say something.

“Listen, this is all really weird and I wish I was better with words because I would like to be able to tell you the million and one ways in which I absolutely adore you and regret what I did last Christmas every single day. However, what I can do is promise you, I promise you that I will work everyday to prove to you how much I love you and how sorry I am — I ruined Christmas and I think that’s what hurts the most is that I tainted something you love so much-“

You cut him off then, your hands resting on his cheeks; forcing him to look at you and you said “Christmas is not ruined, Christmas has brought me back to the boy I love with my whole heart and being. Don’t you ever think that you ruined Christmas because sure it wasn’t fun last year but we will have a million more Christmas’ to make up for it”

He nodded, head moving slightly so he could press a kiss onto your palm “I’ll make every Christmas the most special just for you”

“As long as I’ve got you, baby any Christmas is special”

On Christmas, when Mat arrived late to the Lee’s for Christmas with the team he walked in smiling

“Sorry, sorry I’m late I had to pick something up!”

“Dude it’s Christmas Day where could you possibly have gone to pick-“ Anthony cut himself off when he saw you enter the house, gifts stacked up in your arms that you placed on the table next to the door before grabbing Mat’s outreached hand.

“Oh my god, it’s a Christmas miracle!”

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 39 – Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World

This is one of those books I’d heard mentioned in a dozen different places before I finally decided to read it. I think it was the review in Thing of Things that finally pushed me over the edge and convinced me to read it myself? Very happy I did, even if I had a severe case of deja vu reading a few particular passages (and even if it does suffer from a few of the usual pop nonfiction issues at times).

The title gets across the substance of the book clearly enough; this is, to paraphrase the author, a work of counter-economics. That is, an attempt to illuminate the workings of an advanced capitalist economy by showcasing the sorts of crimes that take advantage of its complexity and parsitize it. It’s nowhere near as dry or academic as all that, of course (Davies keeps up a chatty, conversational sort of tone throughout, and takes every chance to dunk on academic economics as a discipline that presents itself); most of the meat of the book is case studies and anecdotes of particularly famous or illuminating frauds, which are all great reading. Honestly reading about con artists is so fun I should really feel guiltier about how hypocritical my disdain for more traditional true crime is.

The books, if not central thesis, then definitely on of the main things it keeps coming back to, is that the optimal level of fraud in an economy is higher than zero. Fraud is fundamentally an abuse of trust, after all, and if no one’s trust is getting abused, then that probably means that an unjustifiable amount of resources are being spent checking up on every possible thing, and a great deal of productive work isn’t getting done because people are too paranoid to work with each other.

The term Davies uses is the Canadian Paradox. Which is the fact (anecdote, popular wisdom, whatever) that Canada, with its mostly trustworthy institutions and rule of law and developed financial system, has vastly more fraud than, say, Greek shipping (I don’t know why specifically Greek and specifically shipping. Specifically Canada because in the ‘90s the Vancouver Stock Exchange was apparently the most full of scams and fakes in the world). The reason for this being that Canadian investors more or less assume that anyone with a stock listing is probably on the level, because they’re usually right; Greek shipowners, by contrast, absolutely expect to get screwed over if they leave themselves vulnerable, and so do business exclusively with people who they have strong relationships and embedded social ties with. The overwhelmingly intended takeaway being that the Canadian equilibrium is the one to aspire to.

The book’s organized around Davies’ own taxonomy of fraud – he divides the broader category into four distinct (if overlapping) types based on the trust they abuse and so (in a broad sense) are crimes against. Those types being: 1) the Long Firm (neither of the words mean what you think they do here), which is just lying and defrauding someone, buying on credit, reselling and skipping town before the first bill comes due, etc 2) Counterfeiting, of currency yes, but also legal documentation, audited account books, hell even mining samples, providing forged documentation that people trust so they accept your lies 3) Control Frauds, when employees or trustees take advantage of their control over assets to juice the books and manipulate returns in ways that maximize ‘legitimate’ profits for themselves (distinct from embezzlement, which is just taking advantage of control over assets to, well, take them) and 4) Market Crimes, which intuitively might not seem like crimes at all, at least in a moral sense, but are regulated or criminalized or made taboo because people engaging in them damages the wider structure society or the market or capitalism or whatever relies upon.

The types of fraud, you’ll notice, get steadily more abstract and conceptual as you go on – the only thing that distinguishes most control fraud from managerial incompetence and over-optimism is a paper trail showing they knew what they were doing. The only thing that distinguishes a market crime form just, being good at business, is the opinion of whatever jurisdiction your in’s regulatory authorities. One gets the sense that these sorts of tricky conceptual crimes interest Davies more than more straightforward sorts of fraud, and his discussions of them certainly get more philosophical than the mostly technical descriptions of long firms and counterfeiting.

Of course, you don’t really read a book like this for the theorizing – I mean, I didn’t, anyway – but for the interesting and absurd case studies of historical frauds. Of which the book delivers in spades; everything from the ‘salad oil king’ of New Jersey with with his vats of water with a layer of oil floating on top, to Ponzi and his original scheme, to the counterfeiter who destabilized the Portuguese economy sufficiently to pave the way for a reactionary military coup, to the first actually comprehensible explanation of the whole Savings&Loans crisis in ‘80s America that I’ve ever read to, of course, the 2008 Mortgage Crisis.

One trait of historical frauds that gets more salient the more of them you read is that, because many of them involve taking advantage of some since-patched loophole in law or regulation, in retrospect it seems positively absurd that they could ever have worked. The book cautions against this point of view – given how bewilderingly complex the modern economy is, there are doubtless more absurd loopholes and abuses of what people will take on trust now than there have ever been. People just haven't written books about them yet.

Anyways, speaking of 2008 - the financial crisis was a generation-defining event for the people who got fucked over by it, but it clearly did a number on the paradigms of guys like Davies too. It gets a chapter to itself as an ‘innocent’ control fraud. That is, an institutional setup and incentive set that inevitably causes massive amounts of crime even though the people at the top actually profiting from it all are, technically speaking, innocent (and most of the low-level employees doing the crimes are mostly just trying to meet aggressive sales targets and keep their jobs. Which, hardly justifies a lot of the conduct, but they weren't profiting from the enterprise like the managers and executives.) The term Davies uses is ‘crimogenic’ – as in, an environment that incentivizes and will almost inevitably lead to the commission of crimes.

A note on the author – Davies was a regulator and then a market analyst in the UK for much of the early 21st century, and whatever the specifics is clearly someone with an insider’s view of financial markets and investment banking. Not really an apologist – or I mean, he is, to the extent that he clearly considers them useful institutions that do more good than harm for the world at large, and considers the present regulatory setup governing the markets if not just, then at least pragmatically useful. But about the culture and foibles of the financial services industry itself he’s pretty cynical. In any event, as the book goes on he starts peppering in personal anecdotes about how he was personally involved with some event on the periphery of the frauds he’s discussing or saw them happen live, which I mostly found charming but I can see how it would grate.

In any event, it’s a very chatty, casually written book, by a centre-left pro-regulation but incredibly finance-brained guy. So, you know, caveat lector if you’re going to find that totally insufferable. For myself I found it a fun, casual read, and a more educational one that I really expected.

[conradscrime]

Nick & Lisa Masee

June 27, 2024

Nick and Lisa met in 1984. Lisa was a 29 year old hairdresser at Yakoi Hair Design in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Nick was 45-46 year old accountant director at the Bank of Montreal, and was one of Lisa's clients. The pair got married, both having been previously married before, and lived in North Vancouver.

In January 1994, Nick retired at the age of 55, after working in the field for 35 years. He was also a director of a company that traded on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Nick's daughter later said that her father often shared details of his life and work with others.

Nick and Lisa travelled often, visiting places such as Hawaii, the Cayman Islands and the Netherlands. Nick made about $85,000 a year, which was good money. He had savings and both him and Lisa had passports from different countries.

In 1994 however, Nick and Lisa began acting strange to those around them. The two went on a trip to the Cayman Islands and in April with no warning, the two set up a bank account with $50,000 worth of stock, also drawing up wills.

Nick made a call to his daughter, who was living in Holland at the time, telling her that he wouldn't be able to call her on her birthday. Nick did not tell her where he was or really provide any explanation.

On August 10, 1994, Nick and Lisa told multiple people they were going to Trader Vic's, a popular restaurant at the Bayshore Inn in Coal Harbour. Nick was apparently going to discuss a $10 million business deal with an investor whose name and identity remains unknown to this day.

Supposedly, Nick told his business associates that this investor was sending a limo to pick up him and Lisa at their home. No one else had any information about the meeting.

However, what's strange is that no one showed up to the restaurant or cancelled. It was weird for Nick to not call and cancel if he was not planning to show. A witness came forward and in 1995 it was revealed that Nick and Lisa had been seen next door, at the Westin Bayshore's Garden Lounge, from 6:30-10:30 pm that day. Nick was reportedly wearing a jogging suit and the two were splitting a bottle of wine.

On August 11, 1994, Lisa's 39th birthday - Lisa made two calls from Nick's cell. She called her boss, and one of Nick's associates. She said they would be out of town for a couple of days. No one has ever heard from them again.

Within a week, Lisa's sister decided to go to the Masee's house and found Nick's car in the driveway. The front door was closed but unlocked. The alarm system was disabled, which Lisa's sister said was strange and not like them. The Masee's cat was inside the home, and their passports. Two zip ties were found at the entrance.

RCMP believed that Nick and Lisa were either victims of foul play, or they had orchestrated their own disappearance.

There is no evidence that supports either theory. In July 2019, Nick's children and the RCMP held a press conference asking for any information about the couple's disappearance to be brought forth. There was a reward for $50,000. Investigators believe Nick and Lisa were killed for unknown reasons.

Anyone with information is urged to contact North Vancouver RCMP investigators at 604-985-1311.

Lisa Mo Masee was born on August 11, 1955. She is 5'6 in height and weighed 130 lbs. She is Asian with black hair and brown eyes. Her maiden name is Mo Yin HO. She speaks both English and Mandarin.

Nicholas Gerard Jacques Masee was born on January 12, 1939. He was 5'7 in height and weighed 160 lbs. He is a white male with greying blonde hair at the time of his disappearance and blue eyes. He speaks English and Dutch.

If Nick is still alive today he would be 85 years old. If Lisa is still alive today she would be turning 69 years old.

Source: Canada Unsolved

[blogger360ncislarules]

At the Tracker panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, star Justin Hartley may not have been able to offer reward money to fans, but he did reward them with some secrets from season 2 of the CBS hit.

The series, which is also executive produced by Hartley, follows a man named Colter Shaw who helps track down missing people (and sometimes animals) in exchange for the reward money. But he also has some mysteries in his past, including the unexpected death of his father.

In season 1, viewers were also introduced to Colton's younger sister Darby, played by Melissa Roxburgh, and his estranged older brother Russell, played by Jensen Ackles.

Hartley confirmed earlier this month that both would be back for season 2 — and during his Comic-Con panel, he revealed that Ackles would be filming with him this week in Vancouver. He'll appear in the second episode of the season.

Also revealed during the panel: a time jump.

The season 1 finale saw Colter learn a few things about his father — and his siblings. And the new season will pick up a few months later.

In March, only a few episodes into season 1, Tracker was renewed for a second season after its instant popularity. Not only was it CBS’s most-watched show since Young Sheldon’s 2017 premiere, but according to Nielsen, Tracker was also the No. 1 show on cable since it premiered as well.

Hartley talked to PEOPLE earlier this year about some of his favorite aspects of Colter's personality.

“The fact that Colter doesn't have a girlfriend, I think that's one of the things I wanted to sort of keep,” Hartley, 47, said. “I feel like if he has a wife and a girlfriend and a family, and he continues to do all these dangerous things, that's kind of selfish.”

Asked at Comic-Con how Colter really feels about his friend Reenie (Fiona Rene), Hartley clearly still feels this way.

"I think all of the things about him that are heroic and brave become reckless and selfish," he says. "It's like, I'm going to leave my house and go through all this stuff and put myself in danger and you're back here worried about me. I just don't think that's a good look."

He also explained that Tracker has been a “labor of love” for him on Live with Kelly and Mark in April 2024.

“When This Is Us ended, our directing producer, Ken Olin, came to me and said, ‘I’d really like to keep working with you,’ and I said, ‘Likewise,’" he explained.

Hartley continued, “So we found this book, The Never Game, written by Jeffery Deaver and took the character Colter Shaw and developed it for TV.”

[alphaman99]

Virgil Alexander posted:

Forwarded to me by an executive accountant friend: WHO AND WHAT IS—BLACK LIVES MATTER?

Black Lives Matter might be viewed as a grassroots movement of concerned people gathering together. It is much more.

Black Lives Matter is a corporation whose real name is Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF). (Yep, it's one of those capitalistic corporations they profess to hate.)

The following information is on their web site. It's a nationwide corporation! BLMGNF has chapters in Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Lansing, Long Beach, Memphis, Nashville, New York City, Philadelphia, South Bend and in Canada in Toronto, Vancouver, and Waterloo. (If you were impressed by how all those recent riots erupted simultaneously from a grassroots movement--well, maybe it's not so grassroots.)

BLMGNF is a not-for-profit corporation--but it's not tax exempt, so donations are not tax deductible. Except if you go to its website and want to donate, you're transferred to 'ActBlue Charities' which will take your donation, give you a tax deduction, and then distribute the money you gave to BLMGNF. Sort of . . .

What is ActBlue?

The following is taken directly from ActBlue’s web page: “Our platform is available to Democratic candidates and committees, progressive organizations, and nonprofits that share our values for no cost besides a 3.95% processing fee on donations. And we operate as a conduit, which means donations made through ActBlue to a campaign or organization are considered individual donations.”

ActBlue consists of three parts: ActBlue Charities facilitates donations to left-of-center 501(c)(3) nonprofits; Act Blue Civics is its 501(c)(4) affiliate; ActBlue is a 527 Political Action Committee. These three have raised over $5 billion in the sixteen years since it started. If it's 3.95% transaction fee has indeed been applied to all donations, that equates to over $197 million!

ActBlue is thus a Democratic Party front affiliated with BLMGNF. If only it was that simple and stopped there.

Per Business Insider Australia: “ActBlue . . . distributes the money raised to Thousand Currents, which is then granted to Black Lives Matter.”

So, what, you ask, is Thousand Currents (formerly the International Development Exchange)?

Again, per Business insider Australia: “Thousand Currents is a 501(3)(c) non-profit that provides grants to organizations that are . . . developing alternative economic models." (Is anarchy now an alternative economic model?)

"Thousand Currents essentially acts as a quasi-manager for Black Lives Matter: ‘It provides administrative and back office support, including finance, accounting, grants management, insurance, human resources, legal and compliance,’ (Executive Director Solome) Lemma said.” (Finance, insurance, human resources, legal and compliance? It sounds like General Motors!)

What is the significance of the above?

Black Lives Matter is not some fly-by-night fad that is going to loot and destroy and then disappear into the ash heap of history. It's a multi-corporation, big business that is heavily associated with and supports the Democratic Party--and it's here to stay. Arguing whether Black Lives or All Lives Matter is meaningless and distracts from what it's trying to achieve. It's a left-wing political movement that will have a significant impact on Democratic Party programs for the foreseeable future.

Socialism and Communism are intimately linked to these efforts. The U.S. Constitution and especially the Bill of Rights have no place in their plans. Patrisse Cullors,one of Black Lives Matter’s cofounders is widely quoted as saying, “We are trained Marxists.”

The president of Greater New York Black Lives Matter said that if the movement fails to achieve meaningful change during nationwide protests, they will “burn down this system.” Not the peaceful change we celebrate under our Constitution but violent change. For those of us who like our Constitution, this is a challenge thrown directly in our faces.

If you've been wondering why politicians have danced around criticizing Black Lives Matter, now you know.

[eg-writtenthoughts]

'Scarred' Book Review & Thoughts

Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, The Cult that Bound My Life

Sarah Edmonton (with Kristine Gasbarre); 2019

This is my first post, and what better book to start off with than Scarred by Sarah Edmonson? In 2017, Sarah was an integral part of the NXIVM whistleblowers. If you don’t recognize the name, NXIVM was a cult masquerading as a self-help company since the early 2000s. ‘Scarred’ solely focuses on Sarah’s story of being promoted through NXIVM and its Stripe Path while working on her “personal growth”. 

HBO’s ‘The Vow’ was my first real introduction to NXIVM. After bingeing the first season on my (ex)boyfriend’s couch, my interest had peeked. The directors perfectly set the stage by the end of the first episode, to make the audience, myself included, think ‘oh, it doesn’t sound that bad. I get why people tried it.’

‘Scarred’ is written to make the reader feel like Sarah is writing her story to you, a personal friend. The first chapter is when the reader is given a dose of discomfort. It tells of the day Sarah was branded under the watchful eye of her best friend, Lauren. This was filmed on Lauren’s phone and sent to Keith Raniere, the leader of NXIVM. It feels like Sarah is saying “this is the worst that happened. Here it is. Everything else you’ll read just leads up to my worst moment.” The chapter itself has the feeling you get when watching a horror movie, knowing the girl checking the empty bedroom where she heard the mysterious sounds coming from, is going to die. 

But then, as you’re about to be transported back to 2005 to start Sarah’s story, an image flashed through my mind. The moment in a movie where the crazy opening scene happens and the screen freezes on the main character’s warped face as the voice over says, “Hi there. Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here.”

‘Scarred’ has a cathartic feeling. As a reader, you understand that you’re reading a part of Sarah’s healing process. Some of her experiences are shared on camera in ‘The Vow’, but in ‘Scarred’, she lays it all out. You understand her thought process as to why she joined, allowed herself to spend the money/do a work exchange to learn more, and the decade of her life to be promoted up the Stripe Path (NXIVM’s company hierarchy) before opening her own education centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

While reading, I’d have loved more details. What sash did Nippy have when Sarah met him? Was Nancy’s home the one that every other senior leader copied? How long was David a member of NXIVM?  Did Sarah collect Air Miles? Did Sarah and Bonnie have a friendship? (Do any of these questions make sense if you haven’t read the book? No, which is why you should read it) It often felt like she gave the bare minimum of what happened in any situation. But I still read it, all 222 pages. If I didn’t make any notes while I read, it would’ve taken me two days to finish. 

The want for more information is a ‘me thing’. I always want to know more of somebody’s story if it’s out there. At the end of the day, I understand that Sarah (and her co-writer Kristine Gasbarre) could only share what’s important to her story. 

And if you’re wondering, NXIVM had its notes of wisdom. People wouldn’t have joined if it didn’t. Sarah was able to share those tidbits throughout her book. It’s how she could rationalise the strange things and behaviours she witnessed over twelve years within the company. Genuinely, they had sentences in their curriculum that could be applied to someone’s life to make them feel just a little lighter. And yes, I said sentences. Anything more, Raniere went WILD with confusing sentences. 

But of course, we know who created that curriculum. Every time I saw a sliver of sense, I thought “if it wasn’t NXIVM, this could be beneficial.”

Before I wrap up, I’d like to add that Sarah Edmonson is an absolute badass. I know she didn’t write this book to brag but holy crap, this woman has a work ethic and determination that I envy. The dedication she put into ESP (the company under the umbrella corporation NXIVM), to growing the first Canadian centre for ESP that she opened, to enrolling as many people as she could and helping them to expand their own personal growth, is admirable. I think she could run her own non-culty company any day.

But overall, this is a story Sarah could’ve kept in her drawer with her diary or in her therapist’s notebook. Her willingness to share her vulnerability with the anonymous audience is touching and admirable. In lamest terms, she’s warning everyone not to join a cult.

Do I think ‘Scarred’ is a good way to introduce people to the NXIVM story and crimes? As good as Sarah’s book is, no I don’t. I think if you want to know all of the details about NXIVM and the timeline leading up to the 2019 trial, you should watch ‘The Vow’ for that. 

Through HBO, ‘The Vow’, a docu-series was released in 2019. Sarah, her husband Anthony “Nippy” Ames, and other whistleblowers, Mark Vicente (who can be thanked for most of the in-the-moment NXIVM footage), Bonnie Piesse, and Catherine Oxobrough appear heavily in the first season. The second season focuses heavily on the trial of Keith Reniere, NXIVM’s creator and “Vanguard”. (I’d like to personally add that I cannot see the word vanguard now without being a little creeped out.)

After you watch the documentary series and pick your jaw off the ground, listen to ‘A Little Bit Culty’, Sarah’s and Nippy’s podcast (which I avidly listen to) and read ‘Scarred’. You read with Sarah’s empathy and wholesomeness in your head to know that she wasn’t your stereotypical person to fall for a cult. She was able to rationalise it and other than a few times, I don’t want to rip my hair out at just how obviously manipulative the people around her were.

My final note… ‘Coercive control’ is a term that’s becoming more familiar to the American legal system thanks to the NXIVM case. The United States Assistant Attorneys were able to show the 2019 jury that the women charged along with Raniere weren’t doing the horrible acts they committed because it’s what they wanted. They were manipulated (brainwashed, if you will), by Raniere, something he was highly talented at. Some of these women were under his influence for 20 years! Coercive control was recently mentioned in another high profile case; this time in Hollywood. Danny Masterson, of That 70s Show fame, was charged with the SA of three women. Masterson has been convicted at the time of writing this blog post.

[verdart]

When I was a kid (12y/o) i went to Canada for summer camp, and i stumbled upon a book store there i found all 12 installments of the how to train your dragon series, it was almost as expensive as all my remaining pocket money in dollars (i had more that i haven’t yet exchanged for dollars) so i decided to not buy it but i got the book of dragons. Later that week i lost almost all my money so i think the fate was trying to say something. I will forever wish i had gotten them when i had the chance :´)

One good thing was tho i had the chance to read the first book in the Vancouver library so that was cool.

[theultrablog]

Pulp Storytime #49: Who could stand Unawed?

And I smoke my pipe and I meditate in the light of the Midnight Sun, And sometimes I wonder if they was, the awful things I done. I started the session like this:

"Canadian Thanksgiving. The second Monday of October, at the Hotel Vancouver in the town of the same name. A seemingly endless procession of local delicacies have been brought into the penthouse dining room. Out the window, snow drifts over Coal Harbor. At the head of the table is honored guest Robert W. Service, the bard of British Columbia. Taped to the wall is a map of the Yukon, where a special little girl has a goldmine. What’s everyone wearing, and who is sitting next to who?"

I would recommend, in modern games, always asking the players what they’re wearing. Florence had a smart red suit with a tiny white hat. (Devika later copied the look.) Connie showed up with slacks and a stained sweater. Simon was dressed elegantly, in a coat with lots of hidden pockets. Yoriko “Zelda” Saeki and her best friend Penny An’te were both bundled up, even inside. Early warning that Canada wouldn’t agree with them.

The group was told, after dessert, that Devika’s gold mine was no longer paying up. It wasn’t a banking issue, but lately the profits weren’t making it downriver. Anyone up for a journey into rural BC?

The players’ adventure prep was hilarious, because no one wanted to spend their own money. Penny’s attempts at gambling were utter failures; miscounting cards and misidentifying fake bettors. Despite initial attempts to dissuade Zelda (“These aren't blueprints, they’re… a really boring board game you wouldn’t like. We don’t even know why we’re playing it”,) Flo and Simon had a perfect heist. The only thing they were unsure of was if the forgery replacement was any good. A problem for another time!

The trip out of civilization went swimmingly… until the aerial tram ride down and over Devil’s Gate River. Red Jasmine cultists attempted to kidnap Devika by stopping the tram and attempting to kill everyone else. The group’s chaotic response involved a lot of gunfire. The would-be kidnappers at the ride's bottom tried to destroy the mechanism, so Connie clambered on top of the tram car and swung down the wire using her bat like a zip line.

Lord Simon found the e-brake in time to prevent a catastrophic crash, and Zelda splattered a Jasminite who had managed to get the drop on Connie. It was a gory finish, observed by the woman waiting to rent the group sled dogs.

Normally, Lala or Aldous take over driving duties. With neither of them around, leading the expedition fell to Penny. Given the short straw, she bonded with the dogs, but had absolutely no sense for outdoor winter survival. The group (minus Connie Johnson, hearty pro athlete) was shivering and ill by the time they made it to town. To get the idea across, I made the players (minus Connie) read this selection of Robert W. Service’s The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill.

The player stopped in the town of Minarette because it was the closest thing to civilization, a pause point for couriers. Someone here had to know where the gold profits went. In Minarette, players investigated the scant locations: the sawmill, the general store/bar, and the logging camp. Leighton Lee, the Metís owner/operator, convinced Zelda that the payments had probably been stolen by Paul “the Blackheart” Patnaude.

The players were frightened to learn that Patnaude was a bear trainer and a cuss. He had lost an eyeball to the creatures but still trained them and owned a great stretch of land outside of town.

More pressing than this was the sleeping situation. After days of unpleasant camping, no one wanted to rough it, but the “hotel” was a single bed in the back of the general store. Devika claimed the room immediately for her and Lord Simon. Florence used her charm on a little old lady, staying in the guest room in exchange for a lot of prayer. The rest of the group headed to the logging camp. After very forcefully setting the terms of the visit (“not prostitutes!”), they were goaded into gambling. But the lumberjacks didn’t like cards as much as they did log rolling. This competition quickly led to Penny and Zelda taking a dunk in the ice-cold river, and Connie defeating all comers. Athletics was athletics, whether it was batting, fielding, or running in place on a log.

The next morning, Connie asked the loggers how to contact the Blackheart. A carrier pigeon was dispatched, and a few hours later, the outdoorsman arrived in a sled pulled by two black bears. He was ornery, but Connie was charming. She leveraged her newfound popularity into a deep conversation and potentially a romance. It turns out that Patnaude hadn’t killed any gold mine courier; that was a lie by the rat bastard Leighton! The bastard probably meant for the group to trespass on Blackheart’s land and get slaughtered.

Simon and Zelda, the sneakiest members of the group, infiltrated the mill. His lordship found evidence that the sawmill was mostly made to inconvenience the gold mine, on behalf of Doc Midas’s New York company. Zelda noticed that some of the machinery was too clean… but was conked on the back of the head, and woke up tied to a log! Lord Simon rushed to stop the whirring factory and this might’ve been the unluckiest roll of the year+ long campaign. The players had to reroll twice and spend another fate point just to get to adequate… Zelda barely survived, with her beloved bowler hat being mulched, and her hair winding once around the sawblade before the power got cut. The group jumped into search for the owner, barely avoiding more death traps. They were in the control room when they heard the whistles and horns of the RCMP… the Mounties were here, to investigate “trespassing!” Florence called upon her charm and status as a commonwealth citizen to calm them down. Wouldn’t they like to see evidence of criminal behavior? Leighton, furious that he was outargued by “imbecilic outsiders”, grabbed a Mountie’s pistol and shot Saeki. She flinched, and it pierced her shoulder. She responded with one shot between the legs and another through the forehead. Gasping, she explained: “Officers, if you come this way, we have some evidence in the office…” Of course, the group would need another way home. The air tram was closed for repairs. This is when Florence's player pointed out that the mystery's solution was obvious. “The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill was about someone getting sawn up.

Detective Zelda:

[goldstockcanada0]

Why Vancouver Bullion is Your Best Bet for Gold Investment

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vancouver bullion

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"VICTORIA MAN GUILTY OF TRYING TO BRIBE SAANICH COUNCILLOR," Vancouver Sun. November 1, 1913. Page 1. --- Represented Canadian Mineral Rubber Company and Offered Mr. Quick Five Thousand Dollars. ---- WANTED HIM TO VOTE FOR PAVING CONTRACT ---- Appeal Will Be Heard at Vancouver Court on Tuesday - Sentence Is Postponed. ---- VICTORIA, Oct. 31. - This afternoon Herbert P. Winsby was found guilty by a jury of having attempted to bribe Councillor F. G. Quick, of the Saanich municipal council, în connection with a paving contract.

The $400,000 paving project which the council undertook early this year occasioned a great deal of feeling in the community and on the other hand rival paving concerns made a great fight for the contract.

Flood of Rumors Winsby is a real estate man, who is a native of Victoria, and his services were enlisted by the Canadian Mineral Rubber Company, which had a large contract in the city. In the state of public feeling at the time, there was a flood of rumors of bribery, but in this one case, at any rate, there was given ground for the popular belief.

Winsby approached Quick with the suggestion that if he would vote for a certain change in specifications there would be $5,000 in it for him, and he added that "they had all got their little bit," and Quick might as well have his. Quick repelled him indignantly, but Winsby persisted, and fol- lowing up the first conversation, called on Quick at his house.

Trap Is Then Set. It was then that the councillor decided that he would lead Winsby on to commit himself, and in this he succeeded. Two days after the first visit Winsby kept an appointment in the same place, not knowing that the chief of police was in an adjoining room. He wrote out a ninety-day note for $5,000 and before he signed it, wrote out an undertaking setting out what Quick was to do in consideration for the money.

These papers were then signed and they were in the act of exchanging them when Quick gave a signal and the chief of police entered and arrested Winsby with the undertaking in his hand.

To Court of Appeal. With such a clear case as the documents established, there was no defense possible, but Mr. H. A. MacLean, K. C., did what he could for his client. He was granted a reserved case on the point as to whether the indictment disclosed an offense, and this will be argued before the court of appeal when it opens in Vancouver next Tuesday.

Mr. Justice Gregory charged strongly against the prisoner and called upon the jury to vindicate the honor of the city and province by a conviction. The jury was out only nine minutes.

Sentence was postponed until the court of appeals decides the point.

[aireenergy]

Welcome to your comprehensive guide on Furnace Repair Costs in Vancouver. As Vancouver residents brace for the cold, ensuring your furnace is in top-notch condition is crucial. This guide is crafted to empower you with knowledge about furnace repair costs, helping you make informed decisions without compromising on warmth and comfort. Whether you're facing a minor fix or a major overhaul, understanding the cost dynamics can save you from unexpected expenses and ensure your home remains a cozy haven during chilly days.

Understanding Furnace Repair in Vancouver

What Influences Furnace Repair Costs in Vancouver?

Furnace repair costs can vary widely, influenced by several key factors unique to your situation. Here's what can affect the price you pay:

Type of Furnace: The specifics of your furnace—be it a standard gas furnace, an electric model, or a high-efficiency unit—play a significant role in determining repair costs. Newer, more complex systems might cost more to fix due to their advanced technology.

Extent of Damage: A simple filter change is much cheaper than a blower motor repair. The severity and nature of the issue significantly impact your repair bill.

Labor Costs: In Vancouver, the expertise of the technician and the company's pricing structure will influence the cost. Expect to pay more for seasoned professionals or emergency services.

Regional Factors: Local demand for furnace repairs, especially during peak winter months, can affect prices. Additionally, Vancouver's specific building codes and standards might necessitate certain procedures or parts, influencing the overall cost.

Average Furnace Repair Costs in Vancouver

To help you budget effectively, here's an average cost range for common furnace repairs in the Greater Vancouver Area:

Minor Repairs: Tasks like replacing air filters or repairing minor electrical issues might cost between $80 to $200.

Moderate Repairs: Fixing components like the blower motor or ignitor typically ranges from $250 to $600.

Major Repairs: More extensive repairs, such as fixing the heat exchanger or a complete motor replacement, can set you back $600 to over $1,200.

Keep in mind that these are average figures; the actual cost can vary based on the specifics of your repair job and the service provider you choose.

How to Identify Common Furnace Problems

Early detection of furnace issues can lead to quicker, more cost-effective solutions. Look out for these warning signs:

Unusual Noises: Clanking, banging, or whining noises could indicate loose or worn-out parts.

Increased Energy Bills: A sudden spike in your energy costs might mean your furnace is losing efficiency.

Uneven Heating: If some rooms are warmer than others, it could suggest a problem with your furnace's distribution system.

Cost Breakdown

Cost Analysis of Furnace Repairs

Let's dive deeper into the specifics of what you might pay for furnace repairs in Vancouver.

Filter Replacement

Cost: $20 - $80

Details: Regular filter changes can improve air quality and furnace efficiency.

Frequency: Recommended every 3-6 months, depending on usage and filter type.

Thermostat Issues

Cost: $100 - $500

Details: Problems can range from simple battery replacements to new installations.

Ignitor Repair/Replacement

Cost: $150 - $400

Details: Essential for starting the furnace; issues here can prevent your furnace from operating.

Blower Motor Repair

Cost: $400 - $1,500

Details: A crucial component that circulates air throughout your home.

Heat Exchanger Repair

Cost: $500 - $1,200

Details: Cracks or issues with the heat exchanger can be serious and may require significant repair or replacement.

Comparison Between DIY and Professional Repairs

Understanding when to DIY and when to call in the pros can save you money and ensure your furnace operates safely and efficiently.

DIY Repairs:

Suitable for minor issues like filter changes or thermostat battery replacements.

Cost: Usually just the price of parts, potentially saving labor fees.

Professional Repairs:

Necessary for complex issues like motor or heat exchanger problems.

Cost: Includes both parts and labor, ensuring the job is done safely and correctly.

Comparison of DIY vs. Professional Repairs

Repair TypeDIY FeasibilityAverage DIY CostAverage Professional CostFilter ReplacementHigh$20 - $80$80 - $150Thermostat IssuesMedium$50 - $200$100 - $500Ignitor ReplacementLowNot recommended$150 - $400Blower Motor RepairLowNot recommended$400 - $1,500Heat Exchanger RepairLowNot recommended$500 - $1,200

Saving on Furnace Repairs

Tips for Reducing Furnace Repair Costs

Smart strategies can help you minimize repair expenses while maintaining your furnace's efficiency and longevity.

Regular Maintenance: Annual check-ups can identify and fix small issues before they escalate into costly repairs.

Prompt Repairs: Addressing problems immediately can prevent more significant, expensive issues down the line.

Energy Efficiency: Upgrading to energy-efficient parts can save money on both repairs and utility bills.

Importance of Regular Maintenance and Inspections

Routine maintenance isn't just about preventing breakdowns; it's also about optimizing performance and extending the life of your furnace.

What It Involves: Cleaning, inspecting, and replacing worn-out parts before they fail.

Benefits: Improved efficiency, lower energy costs, and reduced risk of unexpected breakdowns.

Key Maintenance Tasks

Replace the air filter every 3-6 months.

Schedule annual professional inspections.

Keep the furnace area clean and unobstructed.

Monitor furnace performance and address any changes promptly.

Choosing A Furnace Repair Service in Vancouver

How to Choose A Reliable Furnace Repair Service

Selecting the right service provider is crucial for efficient and effective furnace repairs. Here's what to consider:

Licenses and Certifications: Ensure the service provider is licensed to operate in Vancouver and has certified technicians.

Experience and Reputation: Look for a company with a solid track record and positive customer reviews.

Estimates and Transparent Pricing: Choose a provider that offers clear, upfront pricing and detailed estimates.

Warranty and Support: Check if they offer a warranty on repairs and if they provide after-service support.

Questions to Ask A Potential Furnace Repair Service

When contacting a furnace repair service, ask these questions to gauge their suitability:

What experience do you have with my specific furnace model?

Can you provide a detailed estimate before starting the repairs?

What warranties or guarantees do you offer on your work?

How do you handle unexpected issues or additional costs during repairs?

Criteria for Selecting A Furnace Repair Service

CriteriaWhy It MattersLicenses and CertificationsEnsures the company is legally authorized and technicians are skilled.Experience and ReputationIndicates reliability and quality of service based on past performance.Transparent PricingPrevents surprise costs and allows for better budgeting.Warranty and SupportProvides assurance of quality work and ongoing assistance.

Legal and Safety Considerations

Permits and Regulations in Vancouver

Understand the local regulations and permit requirements to ensure your furnace repair or replacement complies with Vancouver's building codes.

Permits: Some repairs might require a permit, especially if they involve structural changes or significant electrical work.

Regulations: Familiarize yourself with local safety standards and environmental regulations affecting furnace repairs.

Safety Tips During Furnace Repair

Safety is paramount when dealing with furnace repairs, whether you're attempting a DIY fix or overseeing professional work.

Turn off the power supply before starting any repair work.

Use appropriate safety gear, like gloves and eyewear, during DIY repairs.

Ensure proper ventilation and avoid using the furnace until it's fully repaired and inspected.

Safety Precautions

Always turn off the furnace and disconnect the power before starting repairs.

Do not attempt complex repairs if you lack the necessary skills and tools.

Regularly test carbon monoxide detectors and smoke alarms in your home.

Preparing for Furnace Repair

How to Prepare Your Home for a Repair Visit

Make the repair process smoother and more efficient by preparing your home for the technician's visit:

Clear Access: Ensure the technician has clear access to the furnace and any related components.

Secure Pets: Keep pets in a separate area to avoid distractions or safety concerns.

Provide Information: Be ready to explain the issue and any troubleshooting you've attempted.

What to Expect During A Furnace Repair

Knowing what to expect during the repair process can help you plan and ensure everything goes smoothly.

Diagnosis: The technician will assess your furnace to identify the problem and determine the necessary repairs.

Repair: They'll perform the needed repairs, which may involve replacing parts or adjusting the system.

Testing: After the repair, the technician will test the furnace to ensure it's operating correctly and safely.

Final Thoughts

Navigating the intricacies of furnace repair costs in Vancouver doesn't have to be a daunting task. Armed with this guide, you're now equipped with the knowledge to make informed decisions, ensuring your furnace is repaired efficiently and cost-effectively. Remember, regular maintenance is key to extending the lifespan of your furnace, minimizing repair costs, and keeping your home warm and cozy throughout the colder months. When repairs are necessary, choosing a reputable, experienced service provider will ensure that your furnace is in good hands, safeguarding your investment and your comfort.

FAQ

Q1: How often should I service my furnace to avoid costly repairs?

A: It's recommended to have your furnace inspected and serviced annually, ideally before the heating season begins.

Q2: Can I perform any furnace maintenance tasks myself?

A: Yes, homeowners can perform basic maintenance tasks such as changing the air filter regularly, ensuring vents are unblocked, and keeping the furnace area clean.

Q3: What's the best way to find a reliable furnace repair service in Vancouver?

A: Look for services with good reviews, proper certifications, and transparent pricing. Recommendations from friends or family can also be valuable.

Q4: How can I ensure my furnace repair is done safely?

A: Always use a certified technician for repairs, follow all safety guidelines, and ensure the furnace is tested thoroughly after the repair.

Q5: Will upgrading my furnace save me money in the long run?

A: Upgrading to a more energy-efficient furnace can reduce your energy bills and decrease the likelihood of costly repairs, potentially saving you money over time.

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The Benefits of Learning Mandarin

It's crucial to see the various sorts of Mandarin Language Programs in Vancouver that are accessible. Programs for learning Mandarin can take many forms, from online courses and immersive learning to standard classroom environments. Every program has its benefits and accommodates various learning preferences and designs.

Different Types of Mandarin Programs Available

Conventional Mandarin language programs taught in classrooms offer structured instruction with a teacher supervising the scholars. These courses provide chances for face-to-face communication, fast feedback, and a nurturing classroom setting. These programs provide convenience and adaptability, letting students study independently and at their own speed. By surrounding students with local speakers and cultural events, immersive programs offer a comprehensive language experience that improves language acquisition.

How to Choose the Proper Mandarin Program for You?

Consider your learning style, timetable, money, and learning goals while selecting the simplest Mandarin Programs in Vancouver. Examine each program's curriculum, instructional strategies, class size, and available resources. Assess the program's efficacy by reading evaluations and testimonies from previous participants. Choose a Mandarin language program that matches your goals and offers a helpful, encouraging environment to review the language.

Tips for fulfilment in Mandarin learning

It's crucial to completely immerse oneself in resources to improve the training process when starting the Mandarin Programs in Vancouver BC. Online resources like Rosetta Stone and Duolingo provide interactive lessons suited to varying degrees of ability. Podcasts like "ChinesePod" can offer cultural insights and beneficial listening exercises. Speaking with native speakers through using Mandarin language exchange applications like Tandem or HelloTalk can also help with speaking improvement.

Using traditional resources, like textbooks and worksheets, is often helpful in acquiring Mandarin. Textbooks with systematic courses including grammar, vocabulary, and cultural nuances include "Integrated Chinese" and "New Practical Chinese Reader". Workbooks that include exercises and activities can help with retention by reinforcing linguistic skills. Flashcards and apps for language studies, like Pleco or Anki, can help with character memorization and vocabulary growth.

Using real materials like Chinese music, TV series, and films can enhance Mandarin learning by giving students a useful opportunity to place their language skills to use. Reading Chinese news articles, taking note of Mandarin music, and watching Chinese dramas with subtitles can all help to enhance understanding and reinforce the utilization of the language in everyday situations. Additionally, there are chances to practice Mandarin with native speakers and learn more about Chinese culture by participating in language exchange groups or cultural activities.

Conclusion

Mandarin programs in Vancouver BC is often a rewarding experience; with the proper program and resources, you'll achieve fluency and proficiency.

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