#The Estate Campaign Record

[johnnytl]

The Estate Session 2

For this session Erin's player was sick so they couldn't attend. Their character was still around for these events but weren't actively doing anything.

So last time the group had to decide where to find the padlock and key. This session they'll decide on a place to search and go completely outside my expectations.

The group decided to ask one of Erin's contacts - a scavenger named Peanut Jammy - about the locations in the house. Peanut told them about the library, the bedroom, and the museum. The group knew the most about the museum as it is the location of Beldam and the wizard Murellet's tower. Peanut tells them that there are padlocks locking the exhibits there, but he doesn't know where the keys are kept. He describes the bedroom as hard to reach and dangerous as the only way in is through the second floor window and it is where the cat-witch Sabrina spends a lot of her time. He tells them that he saw a padlock and key on the "prison" in that room.

Talking about the library, he suddenly starts laughing. When questioned he says that the library caused him to no longer feel fear, because "it showed me how I'm going to die". He doesn't provide much clarification about what that means, just that he "saw it". He says there are piles of scrap on the ground that may have what they're looking for.

The group decides that the library is the safest place to explore. After grabbing a beetle from the stables, a blue-black beetle called Midnight.

Heading to the library they find that the floor is covered in scrap metal and broken clocks. The only noise is the ticking of the only working clock, the grandfather clock in the back of the room. Throughout this area I played this theme: X.

First Rock scouted the area by climbing a bookshelf. They see a swarm of "moving lightbulbs" and nothing else. Climbing down they approach the group and find that they aren't moving and the grandfather clock has stopped moving. They try slapping Pock, which does nothing, and look around for anything weird. They see a ball of shimmering light and sneak up on it, noticing a shining thread connecting the ball toward the face of the clocktower. Eventually, the ball sharpens into an orb covered in black dots, each of the black dots moving around frantically. Then it spots Rock and they hear a voice saying "No, this won't work" and the ticking resumes as the orb disappears.

Meanwhile the group notice Rock disappearing in an instant, they approach the group from behind and explains the phenomenon. They explore and find a padlock, but no key.

Moving toward the clocktower, they travel along a straight path hemmed by steep cliffs of broken clocks and scrap. Rock prys off an hour hand to use as a spear.

Moving toward the clocktower, they travel along a straight path hemmed by steep cliffs of broken clocks and scrap. Rock prys off an hour hand to use as a spear.

Moving toward the clocktower, they travel along a straight path hemmed by steep cliffs of broken clocks and scrap. Rock prys off an hour hand to use as a spear.

Moving toward the clocktower, Rock and Pock notice that something strange is happening. Mortimer, Odette, and Midnight continue on their path and cannot be stopped. Rock prys off an hour hand to use as a spear.

Exploring, they find that they can't move forward or backwards without looping. The other party members eventually break out of it. Rock notices that the hour hand is pointing to something. They follow the hand to a hatch under some scrap. Opening it they notice that the ball is there. Rock touches it and is knocked unconscious. In their mind, the orb identifies itself as the Queen and offers them the padlock if they come to the clocktower.

Meanwhile, Pock throws a torch through the ball. The orb sharpens and the black dots are all focused on him. A spell hits him and causes him to move slower than usual. This spell's clear condition is the next full moon... in real life. The orb disappears and the looping effect ends.

They find a broken automaton, one of the "moving lightbulbs" but decide to leave it. They then stumble upon a group of mice dismantling and sorting the pieces of a clock. They are being overseen by a large clockwork golem. The mice all have a blank look on their face. They decide to avoid this encounter. They find they take a rest and find the key. They decide to go to the clocktower.

Getting closer to the grandfather clock, they are all struck by a vision. Rock has a vision of Murellet. He is working on an obsidian spike, and is hiding something behind a door and keeps a key to it on his person.

Mortimer sees a vision of a tree burnt to a stump. Despite how burnt it already is, the fire is still burning.

Odette has a vision of her sister, Moth. Odette's family used to be mushroom farmers in Beldam but left after an increase in the wizards activity. Odette stayed in Brickport to become an adventurer but her family moved on. She sees her sister mining underground. There is a constant murmur that she is contributing to. The chant is "workers work, rulers rule". She sees that this location is north, across the stream that divides the estate.

Erin sees a vision of a lair with a dark cloaked figure commanding an army of skeletons.

Pock is in the void. A voice tells him to turn around. Doing so, he sees the orb, much bigger than before towering over him. He acts obsequiously towards the Queen, offering to help her. The Queen wants more test subjects for her experiments. She wants Pock to help gather them. They negotiate and come to a deal. Pock will offer up all of the group except one other person as test subjects. They'll be returned in working order, for a certain value of working. The Queen then reveals her true form. The eight dots on the orb split into groups and become the massive form of a spider.

The group stop in an alcove near the grandfather clock. Pock and Rock take the first watch. Pock is approached from above by a spider, Boless, while Rock is distracted. Boless offers some sleeping venom to be used on someone to get them to come quietly. Rock returns as Boless prepares to attack. Rock notices Boless as the spider descends on them.

We had to wrap up for the night there so we'll see what happens next week.

[neolithicsheep]

I've been meaning to write this down for some time because there are some fundamental errors that people keep making in crowdfunding/sales that shoot their campaigns in the foot. So here's a list of easy principles.

Who am I and why should you listen to me? I am a freelance chaos marketer who has raised well over $100,000 when totaling up various crowdfunding campaigns, mostly for aid to Afghanistan. In addition I've managed to successfully market everything from stuffed plush koalas to hydration salts. Why am I putting this out here for free? Because despite a years long track record of success in social media marketing no one will hire me because I don't have a college degree, so I might as well help people out who can't afford to hire full time marketing. 

If you'd like to hire me to help you evaluate your marketing and sales and teach you better skills on a 1 to 1 basis then hit me up, I am often willing to barter, esp with artists in a variety of mediums! 

Anyway on to HOW TO CONVINCE PEOPLE TO GIVE YOU MONEY:

TL;DR: use positive messaging that humanizes everyone involved and make it as easy as possible for people to give you money.

1. Shame and guilt are demotivators. They will not inspire people to give you money. “Why aren't people helping” “I guess people don't care” “This isn't getting enough shares/donations” etc etc. Online fundraising is often frustrating, heartbreaking, and will make you angry, especially when there's a humanitarian crisis involved. It is critical that if you are raising funds for someone else that you have a place to vent that is not the audience you would like to donate to the cause. 

2. Use motivating messages instead! “You can help!” “Even a small donation is important because it tells Recipient they're not alone, and people care” “We can't fix the whole world, but we can make this one thing right, and that means something”. Emphasize that this is a problem that the reader can help fix with even a small effort. With items for sale, tell a story. "I drew this thinking about how safe I always felt under a tree in my childhood backyard". "I chose the colors in this shawl to remind me of sagebrush and piñon pine in my favorite place."

3. Make it easy for people to give you money. Never talk about your product or cause without a link that leads directly to where people can give you money. They should be able to click one link on your post and land at the fundraiser or your shop. Every required click is going to lose people, so minimize the number of them required. This also means if you have a list of fundraisers for people to choose from the ones at the bottom will be neglected - people will hit the ones at the top. Be sure to take those off when they're met or periodically shuffle the list around to make sure everyone gets a chance to be in the first 5 spots. In online stores people will often only look at the first page or two of items so be sure to shuffle things around and remove out of stock items that are taking up prime real estate.

4. Humanize the recipient - this can be tricksy when raising charitable aid because you don't want to be exploitative. But to use my last Afghan campaign as an example, “We need to raise $500 for an Afghan family” is less effective than “This Afghan family's home was damaged in heavy rains that caused extensive flooding. They only need $500 to repair and rebuild so they can stay in their home and not become displaced.”  If possible, tell as much of the recipient's story as they consent to. Eg “Fred is seven and loves dinosaurs. His favorite is brontosaurus, and he carries a stuffed one with him everywhere. He wants to be a paleontologist when he grows up and discover a complete brontosaurus skeleton that he can give the same name as his stuffed friend. Unfortunately he's also a trans boy living in Texas and his family needs $1500 to rent a Uhaul and get to Colorado so he can grow up in safety and do that.”

5. If you're not the recipient, humanize yourself while you're at it! “I'd be really grateful if you all could share or donate” “This fundraiser really means a lot to me because…” “Thank you so much for any help, whether sharing or donating” 

6. Treat the audience like humans. Speak to them like they are people you're having a conversation with, not ATMs. This ultimately is the goal of not using shame/guilt and humanizing yourself and the recipient. 

7. Set low goals and bump them up when met. One of the weird things about people is they prefer to give to successful fundraisers. Yeah I don't know either. So you're more likely to get the full amount you need if you set a partial goal initially and then raise it when that's met. Raise it in small increments and raise it repeatedly as those goals are hit to keep momentum going. You can't always control this so if you're boosting someone else's fundraiser you can do it artificially via asks like “Hey y'all can we get together and put $500 on this?”

[reasonsforhope]

"Rewilding in Scotland has created a more than 400% increase in jobs, research has found amid calls for it to continue.

Research by Rewilding Britain shows 35 jobs have been created at one site alone in the Highlands since 2008.

The research found there has been a 412% increase in jobs at 13 major rewilding projects covering almost 60,000 hectares, including sites owned or managed by charities, communities, private landowners, and public bodies.

Full-time equivalent jobs across the sites increased from 24 before rewilding to 123, across sectors including hospitality, estate management, ecology, environmental monitoring, rewilding interventions, recreation, and education.

The largest recorded rise in jobs was at Trees for Life’s 4,000-hectare Dundreggan estate near Loch Ness in the Highlands, a former deer stalking estate.

Since 2008, some 35 jobs have been created in addition to the sole previous position, while volunteer numbers have risen from zero to 100.

A rewilding centre was opened at the site last year and an open invitation has been extended to Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio to visit it after he backed a campaign for Scotland to become the world’s first “rewilding nation”.

All the sites are more than 100 hectares in size and are part of the Rewilding Network managed by Rewilding Britain.

The research found combined volunteer numbers at the sites increased from zero to 435...

The Scottish Government has been urged to commit to nature recovery across 30% of land by restoring habitats including peatlands, native woodlands, wetlands, rivers and seas, with no loss of productive farmland.

Kevin Cumming, rewilding director at Rewilding Britain and deputy convener of the Scottish Rewilding Alliance, said: “These remarkable job creation figures show how rewilding can turbo-charge social and economic benefits, while offering hope for reversing biodiversity loss and tackling climate breakdown.

“This is yet another powerful illustration of why the Scottish Government should declare Scotland a rewilding nation.

“The opportunity is huge – for jobs and local economies, better health, food production, access to fresh water and clean air.”

The alliance’s Rewilding Nation Charter – including representations from more than 20 organisations – has been signed by thousands of people since it launched in the spring.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Restoring Scotland’s natural environment is a key way that we can help address the twin challenges of nature loss and climate change, including many of the interventions championed by the Scottish Rewilding Alliance.

“We welcome this evidence of employment in rural communities and will consider this research as we continue to work towards our commitment to protect and restore 30% of Scotland’s land and seas for nature.

“Our £65 million Nature Restoration Fund has committed nearly £40 million since 2021 to unlock the full potential that nature restoration projects can bring to communities.

“The fund has supported local businesses, helped landowners with pollinator projects to boost food production and supported improved access to green spaces throughout Scotland, alongside restoration of our marine environment.”

The charter can be viewed at www.rewild.scot/charter."

-via The Independent, June 19, 2024

[someone-will-remember-us]

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging his then wife, Gisèle, and inviting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the south of France over almost a decade.

The historic trial of 51 men was held in public after Gisèle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity so that ��shame could change sides”.

Alongside Dominique Pelicot, guilty verdicts were returned on Thursday for all the accused men including a nurse, a soldier, a journalist, a prison warden and delivery drivers, aged from 26 to 74. Forty-seven were convicted of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault.

Pelicot’s co-defendants received jail terms of between three and 15 years. Two of these men had their jail terms suspended.

Some of the sentences handed down by the panel of judges were lower than those that had been suggested by the state prosecutor. “Shame!” shouted one feminist campaigner outside the courthouse in Avignon.

Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old retired logistics manager, looked on with her sons and daughter as the men’s sentences were read out by the head judge. She has been hailed as a feminist hero worldwide for opening the doors to the trial, and members of the public outside the courts have cheered daily for the woman who said she was “determined that things change in this society”, in particular the “macho, patriarchal society that trivialises rape”.

Dominique Pelicot, 72, a retired electrician and former estate agent, was given the maximum sentence of 20 years for drugging and raping his then wife and inviting men to rape her which she was in a comatose state. The court heard that he crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her mashed potato, coffee or ice-cream and invited dozens of men to rape her over a nine-year period from 2011 in the village of Mazan, Provence, where the couple had retired.

After videos of the rapes by him and other men were found meticulously categorised on his computer hard drive in a file labelled “abuse”, Dominique Pelicot admitted the charges in court, telling judges: “I am a rapist.”

He was also convicted of placing hidden cameras in bathrooms and bedrooms in his own home and that of his family to make and distribute naked images of his adult daughter and the wives of his sons.

Fifty other men were on trial alongside Dominique Pelicot.

Charly Arbo, 30, a former vineyard worker who raped Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions, including on her 66th birthday when he was 24, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Video evidence showed he also proposed drugging and raping his own mother with Dominique Pelicot, but he said he did not go through with it.

Romain Vandevelde, 63, a former forklift driver who raped Gisèle Pelicot on six occasions over six months between 2019 and 2020, was sentenced to 15 years. He had known he was HIV positive at the time of the alleged rapes and had not worn a condom. His lawyer said that because he had been on HIV treatment since his diagnosis in 2004 he had an undetectable viral load and could not transmit the virus.

Cédric Grassot, a software technician who used to run a record shop in Avignon, was sentenced to 12 years for raping Gisèle Pelicot at her home in 2017. During the trial, he had turned to Gisèle Pelicot in court, and said: “I was your rapist. I was your torturer.”

Jean-Pierre Maréchal, 63, a former lorry driver, was sentenced to 12 years for using the same technique to drug and rape his own wife, and organising for Pelicot to rape her with him.

(archive)

[autumngracy]

"Trump is better for the economy, though!"

Aside from almost every major economist agreeing that Trump's economic plans would actually make things far worse than they are now, this man can't even manage his campaign's, his businesses', OR his personal finances.

Case in point, here a list from Public Opinion of his failed business endeavors:

"Trump's companies have filed for bankruptcy at least six times. This is no exaggeration. Digital World noted this in its SEC filings. This excludes additional business failures that might not have declared bankruptcy, but closed owing vendors, employees and others."

"For the record, here are some of Trump's noteworthy business failures."

Trump Airlines — Trump borrowed $245 million to purchase Eastern Air Shuttle. He branded it Trump Airlines. He added gold bathroom fixtures. Two years later Trump could not cover the interest payment on his loan and defaulted.

Trump Beverages — Although Trump touted his water as "one of the purest natural spring waters bottled in the world," it was simply bottled by a third party. Other beverages, including Trump Fire and Trump Power, seem not to have made it to market. And Trump's American Pale Ale died with a trademark withdrawal.

Trump Game — Milton Bradley tried to sell it. As did Hasbro. After investment, the game died and went out of circulation.

Trump Casinos — Trump filed for bankruptcy three times on his casinos, namely the Trump Taj Mahal, the Trump Marina and the Trump Plaza in New Jersey and the Trump Casino in Indiana. Trump avoided debt obligations of $3 billion the first time. Then $1.8 billion the second time. And then after reorganizing, shuffling money and assets, and waiting four years, Trump again declared bankruptcy after missing ongoing interest payments on multi-million dollar bonds. He was finally forced to step down as chairman.

Trump Magazine — Trump Style and Trump World were renamed Trump Magazine to reap advertising dollars from his name recognition. However, Trump Magazine also went out of business.

Trump Mortgage — Trump told CNBC in 2006 that "I think it's a great time to start a mortgage company. … The real-estate market is going to be very strong for a long time to come." Then the real estate market collapsed. Trump had hired E.J. Ridings as CEO of Trump Mortgage and boasted that Ridings had been a "top executive of one of Wall Street's most prestigious investment banks." Turned out Ridings had only six months of experience as a stockbroker. Trump Mortgage closed and never paid a $298,274 judgment it owed a former employee, nor the $3,555 it owed in unpaid taxes.

Trump Steaks — Trump closed Trump Steaks due to a lack of sales while owing Buckhead Beef $715,000.

Trump's Travel Site — GoTrump.com was in business for one year. Failed.

Trumpnet — A telephone communication company that abandoned its trademark.

Trump Tower Tampa — Trump sold his name to the developers and received $2 million. Then the project went belly-up with only $3,500 left in the company. Condo buyers sued Trump for allegedly misleading them. Trump settled and paid as little as $11,115 to buyers who had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Trump University or the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative — Trump staged wealth-building seminars costing up to $34,995 for mentorships that would offer students access to Trump's secrets of success. Instructors turned out to be motivational speakers sometimes with criminal records. Lawsuits and criminal investigations abound.

Trump Vodka — Business failed due to a lack of sales.

Trump Fragrances — Success by Trump, Empire by Trump, and Donald Trump: The Fragrances all failed due to being discontinued, perhaps as a result of few sales.

Trump Mattress — Serta stopped offering a Trump-branded mattress, again likely due to slacking sales.

Truth Social — This existing Trump business owes big money, and may well be breathing its last.

And then of course is his long history of stiffing contractors, restaurants, and even entire cities for their event venues he used for his rallies—as well as some of his own followers—

—such as the case where he promised a greiving hispanic American family that he would pay for the burial of their daughter, Vanessa Guillén, a servicewoman who had been brutally murdered by a fellow soldier at Fort Hood in 2020, but later told his chief of staff not to pay for it after learning it would cost $60,000, reportedly saying "It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!"

[vague-humanoid]

A far-right activist group that is doxxing college students who engage in pro-Palestinian protests revealed that it is funded by top Republican political donors and nonprofits backed by wealthy business leaders, a tax return reviewed by CNBC shows.

The group, Accuracy in Media, publicly disclosed on its federal tax return a list of donors who combined to contribute nearly $1.9 million to the tax-exempt nonprofit between May 2022 and April of last year.

The contributors listed on the tax return include billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, who Accuracy in Media said gave it $1 million.

The family foundation of shipping supply magnate Richard Uihlein is also identified on the tax return, which says the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation gave $10,000. The Milstein Family Foundation, which is run by real estate executive and Republican donor Adam Milstein, gave another $10,000, the group reported to the IRS.

According to its tax return, Accuracy in Media said it received $15,000 from the Coors brewing family’s charitable foundation. The Adolph Coors Foundation is chaired by former Molson Coors executive Peter H. Coors, according to the foundation’s latest tax records.

Yass, Uihlein, Milstein and Coors have all donated regularly to Republican campaigns over the past decade.

But Yass stands apart from the others. The co-founder of options trading powerhouse Susquehanna International Group and his wife Janine are the biggest political donors of the 2024 election. So far, Yass and his wife have contributed $70 million to dozens of Republican candidates and committees, according to the nonpartisan campaign finance database OpenSecrets.

Much of the cardboard and paper goods strewn about our homes — the mail-order boxes and grocery store bags — are sold by a single private company, with its name, Uline, stamped on the bottom. Few Americans know that a multibillion-dollar fortune made on those ubiquitous products is now fueling election deniers and other far-right candidates across the country.

Dick and Liz Uihlein of Illinois are the largest contributors to Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, who attended the Jan. 6 rally and was linked to a prominent antisemite, and have given to Jim Marchant, the Nevada Secretary of State nominee who says he opposed the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory in 2020. They are major funders to groups spreading election falsehoods, including Restoration of America, which, according to an internal document obtained by ProPublica, aims to “get on God’s side of the issues and stay there” and “punish leftists.”

[deadpresidents]

"Sometimes lost amid all the shouting of a high-octane campaign heading into its final couple of weeks is that simple if mind-bending fact. America for the first time in its history may send a criminal to the Oval Office and entrust him with the nuclear codes. What would once have been automatically disqualifying barely seems to slow Mr. Trump down in his comeback for a second term that he says will be devoted to "retribution."

In all the different ways that Mr. Trump has upended the traditional rules of American politics, that may be one of the most striking. He has survived more scandals than any major party Presidential candidate, much less President, in the life of the republic. Not only survived but thrived. He has turned them on their head, making allegations against him into an argument for him by casting himself as a serial victim rather than a serial violator.

His persecution defense, the notion that he gets in so much trouble only because everyone is out to get him, resonates at his rallies where he says "they're not coming after me, they're coming after you, and I'm just standing in the way." But that of course belies a record of scandal stretching across his 78 years starting long before politics. Whether in his personal life or his public life, he has been accused of so many acts of wrongdoing, investigated by so many prosecutors and agencies, sued by so many plaintiffs and claimants that it requires a scorecard just to remember them all.

His businesses went bankrupt repeatedly and multiple others failed. He was taken to court for stiffing his vendors, stiffing his bankers and even stiffing his own family. He avoided the draft during the Vietnam War and avoiding paying any income taxes for years. He was forced to shell out tens of millions of dollars to students who accused him of scamming them, found liable for wide-scale business fraud and had his real estate firm convicted in criminal court of tax crimes.

He has boasted of grabbing women by their private parts, been reported to have cheated on all three of his wives and been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women, including one whose account was validated by a jury that found him liable for sexual abuse after a civil trial.

He is the only President in American history impeached twice for high crimes and misdemeanors, the only President ever indicted on criminal charges and the only President to be convicted of a felony (34, in fact). He used the authority of his office to punish his adversaries and tried to hold onto power on the basis of a brazen lie.

Mr. Trump beat some of the investigations and lawsuits against him and some proved unfounded, but the sheer volume is remarkable. Any one of those scandals by itself would typically have been enough to derail another politician...Not Mr. Trump. He has moved from one furor to the next without any of them sinking into the body politic enough to end his career. The unrelenting pace of scandals may in its own way help him by keeping any single one of them from dominating the national conversation and eroding his standing with his base of supporters...And victory next month may yet help him escape the biggest threat of all -- potentially prison."

-- Peter Baker, laying out very plainly how insane it is that America could very well elect Donald Trump as President once again, in the New York Times. I really hope you'll take the time to read the whole article, which I am sharing gift links to in order to bypass the paywall, and remember just what is on the line on November 5th.

(Please feel free to copy and share this gift link to anyone and everyone that you think needs to read this immensely important article in the next two weeks.)

[thegeneticopera]

after seeing many misconceptions on the ages of the characters and also the general lack of knowledge on relevant key events, I thought I'd create a timeline!

A comprehensive breakdown of important dates in Repo! The Genetic Opera:

1993: Rotti Largo was born (July 14th)

2006: On April 5th, the first ever death for NOS (Neuro-Overstimulation Syndrome) was recorded. GeneCo was then founded later that month in Milan, Italy by Giuseppe Largo and Dr. Michael Whatley who eventually discovered a treatment using an experimental drug called Zydrate and genetic manipulation.

2011: Marni was born (No date)

2016: Nathan was born (No date)

2017: Blind Mag was born (July 5th)

2019: Luigi Largo was born (November 20th)

2024: Pavi Largo was born (September 29th)

2025: By this point, The Genetic Opera, an interactive TV show, was sponsored by GeneCo to promote designer organs and keep the public "status-conscious" in order to continue boosting profits.

2032: Carmela Largo/Amber Sweet was born (August 23rd)

2035: Graverobber was born (No date)

2036: Marni brings Mag to meet Rotti Largo

2039: Shilo Wallace was born (August 27th), Marni Wallace dies, Nathan becomes a repo man

2040: Mag's eye transplants (March 21st)

2048: Blind Mag's Corpus Crusade tour

2053: Tao of Mag, a charity concert event held for blindness

2056: Rotti signs his last will and testament, declaring Shilo as the sole heir of his estate (August 7th). The events of the film take place on November 7th - Nathan, Rotti, and Mag die. Shilo presumably goes missing. Amber takes over GeneCo at a later unspecified date.

Some common misconceptions cleared up by the timeline:

Mag did not receive her eyes at 19, the date listed on her repossession chart says otherwise

Marni and Mag have a relatively large age gap. At the time in which Marni brought Mag to meet Rotti, she was already 25, and Mag was only 19. I personally like to think that Marni was a singing mentor of some sort (since in Chase the Morning we see that Mag has a memory of Marni singing), and perhaps worked with disabled people and this is how they met!

The age difference between Shilo and Graves is only 4 years!

Mag and Luigi only have a two year age difference. Her being under GeneCo's thumb since she was 19 and Luigi was 17 is probably why they have a relationship.

On that topic, Nathan is only 3 years older than Luigi, there's no way him or Mag could have "baby sat" the Largos as children if they're all approximately the same age (excluding Amber, but considering Nathan had his own daughter to raise and was a repoman and Mag was a world class opera singer I still doubt that would be the case)

This one doesn't have a specific date, but I felt it should be added regardless: Pavi's face disfigurement seemingly happened very recent to events of Repo! We see several times within the film that there are posters and billboards of him with his original face, even in the pictures Rotti has he didn't have the scarring yet. The posters say that GeneCo offering face replacements will be happening in 2057. Pavi was the one in charge of that, and he was stealing faces prior to his scarring (as seen in the pictures). We also know from several sources, including Luigi himself, that Pavi's face happened because of a botched surgery. It's safe to assume this was because of the new face replacement campaign that was being offered, and it was within the last year or two before the events in the film.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 3, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Dec 04, 2024

For an astonishing six hours today, South Korea underwent an attempted self-coup by its unpopular president, Yoon Suk Yeol, only to see the South Korean people force him to back down as they reasserted the strength of their democracy.

In an emergency address at nearly 11:00 last night local time, Yoon announced that he was declaring martial law in South Korea for the first time since 1980, when special forces under a military dictatorship attacked pro-democracy activists in the city of Gwangju, leaving about 200 people dead or missing. South Koreans ended military rule in their country in 1987, writing a new constitution that made South Korea a republic.

Yoon claimed he had to declare martial law because his political opponents were sympathizing with communist North Korea. It was a thin pretext.

A member of the conservative People’s Party, Yoon was elected to a five-year presidential term in 2022 after a misogynistic campaign fueled by young men who saw equal rights for women— whose average monthly wage is 67.7% of that a man, according to the BBC’s Laura Bicker—as reverse discrimination that is taking away their own rights and opportunities.

Before his election, Yoon had no experience in the National Assembly, and once he was in office, his popularity slid to record lows. In legislative elections held last April, voters crushed Yoon’s party, giving opposition parties 192 of 300 seats in the National Assembly. The legislature fought with Yoon over his budget and launched a number of corruption investigations into Yoon’s allies as well as his wife.

And so, Yoon declared martial law, bringing the media under his control and banning political activities, “false propaganda,” “gatherings that incite social unrest,” and strikes. Police officers formed a blockade around the National Assembly, and helicopters landed on the roof to prevent lawmakers from getting inside to overturn Yoon’s declaration.

The South Korean people reacted immediately. Reporting from Seoul, John Yoon of the New York Times recounted the story of a real estate agent who watched President Yoon’s speech, got in his car, and drove for an hour to get to the National Assembly. The man told journalist Yoon, “I thought, ‘The end has come,’ so I came out. The president of a country has exerted his power by force, and its people have come out to protest that. We have to remove him from power from this point on. He’s in a position where he has to come down.”

Editor of The Verge Sarah Jeong, who works out of the U.S. and does not cover South Korean politics, happened to be working in Seoul this week and was on site after a night of drinking, giving an informed and honest account of what she was seeing. “[T]he crowd is a pretty even mix of young people and the older folks (mostly men) who would have been young during the dictatorship…. I heard tanks were here but I haven't seen one yet. [O]ld men swearing "how dare the military come here.”

Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Washington Post Tokyo/Seoul bureau chief, reported that the National Assembly managed to pull together a majority of its members—190 of 300—in about two and a half hours to participate in a unanimous vote to overturn Yoon’s emergency declaration of martial law. That vote included members of his own party.

Political commentator Adam Schwartz shared a video taken by the leader of South Korea's Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, as he climbed over the wall of the National Assembly to vote against Yoon’s martial law declaration. Other videos showed people in the streets boosting legislators over the walls for the vote.

Yet another video showed South Korean soldiers trying to get into the National Assembly during the voting thwarted by people wielding a fire extinguisher and flashes from cameras.

While the law said Yoon had to abide by the legislators’ vote, it was not clear whether Yoon would do as the law required. About six hours after he had declared martial law, Yoon bowed to the National Assembly and the popular will and lifted his declaration.

Yoon has been widely condemned, and South Koreans from all parties, including his own, are calling for his resignation or impeachment. Raphael Rashid of The Guardian reported today that on the morning after the attempted coup, South Koreans are bewildered and sad. “For the older generation who fought on the streets against military dictatorships, martial law equals dictatorship, not 21st century Korea. The younger generation is embarrassed that he has ruined their country’s reputation. People are baffled.”

For the rest of the world, though, South Koreans’ immediate and aggressive response to a man trying to take away their democratic rights is an inspiration. Among other things, it illustrates that for all the claims that autocracy can react to events more quickly than democracy can, in fact autocrats are brittle. It is democracy that is determined and resilient.

The events in Seoul also cemented the shift in social media from X to Bluesky, where news was breaking faster than anywhere else, in a way that echoed what Twitter used to be. Since Twitter was a key site of democratic organizing until Elon Musk bought it and renamed it X, that shift is significant.

And finally, the events in South Korea emphasize that for all people often look to larger-than-life figures to define our nations, our history is in fact made up of regular people doing the best they can. Journalist Sarah Jeong found herself entirely unexpectedly in the middle of a coup and, recognizing that she was in a historic moment, snapped to work to do all she could to keep the rest of us informed. “I’m f*cking blasted and hanging out in the weirdest scene because history happened at a deeply inconvenient hour,” she wrote on Bluesky. “[S]o it goes.”

When she finally went home, Jeong wrote: “I expensed my cab ride home. I’m tired so I put ‘korea coup’ down in the expense code field.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

Camille had his speech leading to the siege of the Bastille, Robespierre was in the estates general and a founder of the Jacobin Club and Marat had his newpaper.

I’m not entirely sure when/why Danton became so popular and influential?

TLDR: Danton gained his first notoriety through his position as president at the Cordelier district.

In Dévinir révolutionnaire dans Paris (2016) Haïm Burstin underlines that, indeed, ”Danton did not participate in the political campaign linked to the convening of the Estates General, nor in the drafting of the cahier of the third estate of his district, nor even in the first insurrectional exploits.” In Danton(1978) Norman Hampson similarily concludes that ”the record of [Danton’s] political activities in the first half of 1789 is a surprising blank.” In July 1789, things do however get going slightly. Both Burstin and Hampson cite the lawyer Christophe Lavaux who in his memoirs (1816) claimed to have seen Danton in the Cordelier District on July 13, basically being Desmoulins 2.0:

I saw my colleague, Danton, whom I had always known as a man of sound judgement, gentle character, modest and silent. What was my surprise at seeing him up on a table, declaiming wildly, calling the citizens to arms to repel 15,000 brigands gathered at Montmartre and an army of 30,000 poised to sack Paris and slaughter its inhabitants. Exhausted with fatigue, Danton calmed down and gave way to another fanatic I went up to him and asked what all the uproar was about; I spoke to him of the calm and security I had seen at Versailles. He replied that I had not understood anything, that the sovereign people had risen against despotism. ”Join us,” he said. “The throne is overturned and your old position is lost. Don’t forget that.”

Then in the night between July 15 and 16, two days after the storming of the Bastille, Danton famously led a company of National Guards from the Cordeliers to the Bastille, kidnapping Soulès, the new governor appointed by the Paris Commune, after he refused to let them in and taking him to the Cordeliers and the Hôtel de Ville where he was ordered released by Lafayette the following morning. Danton’s move was openly dismissed and disapproved of by the authorities but we might imagiene it still bought him some notority.

After this, Danton laid his focus on the Cordelier district of which he is elected president in September 1789, a post he kept up until January 1790. On December 11 1789 we find evidence of the notority he’s gained through this, as we on that day see the district offering a ”solemn testimonial to its beloved president in reply to those who dared to imagiene that he was touting for votes to prolong his presidency and had purchased the unanimous support of the district.” (cited in Hampson, page 36). The documentation of what exactly Danton said and did during this period is however still quite lacking. In his memoirs (1875), Antoine-Clair Thibaudeau claimed to in the evening of October 3 1789 have gone to the Cordelier district and seen Danton presiding ”with the decisiveness, agility and authority of a man who knows his power. He drove the assembly of the District towards his goal. It adopted a manifesto.” The manifesto in question was a fierce denunciation of the king’s decision to summon the Flanders Regiment to protect him at Versailles. In number 47 of Révolutions de France et de Brabant, Desmoulins claimed that Danton on the very same day ”sounded the tocsin at the Cordeliers. On Sunday (October 4) this immortal district posted its manifesto, and from that day on, formed the vanguard of the Parisian army, and would have marched to Versailles, if Mr. Crevecœur, its commander, had not slowed down this martial ardor.” (According to Hampson, the authors behind Révolutions de Paris wrote the same thing, but I can’t find the place he’s referring to).

After this, the Cordeliers concentrayed their fire on the municipal government in Paris, in particular Bailly and La Fayette. On December 26 1789 Danton led a deputation from the Cordeliers to the Commune to denounce Bailly for awarding commissions in the National Guard on his own authority and to allege that the commissions referred to Bailly as Monseigneur (My Lord) in letters. When Bailly showed him that these letters did in fact refer to him as Monsieur, Danton did however profess that he’d made a mistake. Then on January 22 and January 23 1790 he openly takes Marat under protection at the Cordeliers after La Fayette the same day had sent an army of 3000 men to arrest him, giving Marat time to escape. On March 17 an arrest warrant was issued against Danton himself for inciting the district to protect Marat in defiance of the law. In response, the next day 300 Cordeliers signed a petition on Danton’s behalf. The business was referred to the National Assembly that, in Hampson’s words, ”was at least becoming familiar with Danton’s name” and it ended up ruling in his favour.

Unfortunately for Danton, in May 1790 the districts were abolished and Paris divided into 48 sections instead, of which only active citizens could be apart of. The Cordelier district now reinvented itself as the Cordelier club, but it lacked any of the concreate political power the Cordelier district had had. As for Danton, according to L’école révolutionnaire des Cordeliers (2016) by Raymonde Monnier, ”if he has friends in Cordeliers and if they count him as one of their own, as Mathiez writes, his action at the club escapes examination.” Danton instead focused on trying to win municipal power, running for both mayor and procureur in 1790. In both instances be did however face massive losses. In September 1790 his section did however choose him as one of three representatives to serve on the new municipal council. All representatives did need to be endorsed by the sections as a whole, and there, Danton was the only one of 144 councillors to be rejected, by no less than 43 of 48 sections. Hampson writes the following about this, cementing that Danton at this point was somewhat famous:

This certainly indicated that he had acquired a Parisian reputation, but not one that looked like doing him any good. The election results showed that there was something special about Danton.

[johnnytl]

Mausritter The Estate: Session 1

I'm running a campaign of the Mausritter adventure The Estate so I thought I'd run through the events of each session here just so I can have a record of them.

There are five player characters in this campaign:

Pock Gnitnatter, Former noblemouse.

Poplockrockstop "Rock" Pipsqueakpippop. Ex-gang member.

Odette Halva, Farmer who desperately wants to be an adventurer.

Mortimer Grant, Bookish mouse who wants to see the outside world.

Erin Thorne, Daring trap thief.

The setting for this campaign is a sprawling countryside estate. Events take place in the buildings and surrounding nature of this estate.

Some relevant backstories here. Rock is an ex member of the Bone Gang, the local gang of rats around the estate. Having escaped a life of crime they've left behind a brother who has continued down that path. Louie Two-Knives is a member of the Bone Gang who has been seen around Brickport, the main settlement in the campaign. Two-Knives is a family name which comes from the heirloom knives they own, Louie has one and Rock has the other.

Pock used to be a noblemouse in the farming community of Brambletown but has since lost most of his money. Looking to reclaim his standing he has joined with this group. He has a particular son who has joined the following of one Reverend Goldenfur.

This group came together due to a series of increasingly desperate advertisements from Odette for a group to go adventuring with. Everyone else joined for their own reasons. Money, safety, or glory.

The town of Brickport lies underneath the main building of the estate, spanning the length of an underground stream. The group is talking with two guard, Nibby and Canon, who want them do do something under the condition that they keep anyone important from finding out. As it turns out, they've lost the key to the gate into Brickport. While the gate can still be opened and closed, the padlock that locks it is stuck shut until the key is found. They promise the group 300 pips for finding the key, 500 if they can do it without anyone important finding out. After some cajoling Canon also offers to throw in a magical(?) sword as well. The gate guards tell the group the route they took before realizing they had lost the key. They also mention they had walked by another guard on the bridge named Ol' Jim.

The group splits of to explore. Pock to the mayor's office, Odette and Erin to the Glow- the local marketplace, and Rock and Mortimer head to the bridge. Pock, Odette, and Erin walk past the chapel, formerly devoted to the Mother, it now hosts part of Reverend Goldenfur's following who are preparing their congregation for a pilgrimage to the Chapel, the followings centre.

Pock gets an appointment with the mayor, Audrey Pipp, an extremely stressed woman dealing with the fallout of many disasters. He discovers more about whats been happening in Brambletown. Queen Madriga has gone mad and locked herself away in her castle. Meanwhile, monsters are attacking the citizenry. He also immediately tells the mayor that he has heard rumours that the gate key has been lost. The mayor offers 100 pips for a report on the situation as well as mayoral writ for free lodgings and a beetle for agreeing to look into and resolve the situation in Brambletown.

Odette and Erin interrogate the people in the marketplace and eventually discover that the guards were seen with the key at the marketplace and it had not been lost there. Erin also discovers rumours of a Faerie Queen who has been messing with peoples sense of time within the building above.

Rock and Mortimer find Ol' Jim and ask him about the guards. He recalls that they walked past him on the day after a huge storm had swept over the estate. He recalls they had the key on them when they left. He also mentions that a lightning bolt hit a tree outside and he's heard that the tree is still smoking. Ol' Jim figures out that the key has been lost and offers to get some discreet help, for a couple of pips. Agreeing to that offer, he says that he'll get some guards together to sweep the residential area of Brickside. There have been reports of pickpocketing and break ins in that area. Given the key has a bounty on it if returned to the mayors office, Jim believes someone must have stolen it. He'll have some information ready in the morning.

Pock bargains the mayor's writ into a proper meal and bath at the local inn, the Tinbox, and the group meet Jim in the morning. Jim gives them an area that the thief likely operates in and Erin inquires about the rumours of the Faerie Queen. Jim's heard rumours of the strange time phenomena but also mentions that faeries tend to stay outside the buildings.

Investigating Brickside, Rock is grabbed from an alleyway by the thief. It's the thief, Louie Two-Knives, and he's after the other knife. The group manage to fight Louie to a surrender. He guides the group to his stash, but the key's not there. Laughing, he explains the key has already been sent away and is now in Goadholm. Goadholm is a seedy place southwest of Brickport where the Bone Gang's hideout is located. Rock forces Louie to give up the other knife and decides to let him go. There are still a lot of stolen goods left in the stash. The group decide to return the property to it's rightful owners, (except for a nice bit of cheese).

Pock exaggerates Louie's abilities in his report an the guards get off with a chewing out but nothing more. The guards, deciding it's best to get in good with the heroes of the hour, give the party the magic sword. The sword is indeed magic and it is given to Erin, allowing them to remove one condition whenever they deal critical damage.

The group now has to plan their next move. Go to Goadholm and find the key, or find a new padlock and key in the house above.

[umissquotedme]

.Everything stated here is 100% true. Look it up yourself. They’re counting on our ignorance, but we just can’t plead ignorance any longer.

Here you go:

“It’s all connected. It goes to principles and platforms, NOT personalities. Know who your voting for:

Part of the Democratic Swamp;

People should know who they're voting for with these facts. This is some pretty interesting stuff here.

YES, THE GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN USED TO WORK FOR GEORGE SOROS.

YES, CALIF GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM IS NANCY PELOSI'S NEPHEW

YES, ADAM SHIFF'S SISTER IS MARRIED TO ONE OF GEORGE SOROS’ SONS.

YES, JOHN KERRY'S DAUGHTER IS MARRIED TO A MULLAH'S SON IN IRAN.

YES, HILLARY'S DAUGHTER CHELSEA IS MARRIED TO GEORGE SOROS' NEPHEW.

YES, ABC NEWS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER IAN CAMERON IS MARRIED TO SUSAN RICE,

OBAMA'S FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER.

YES, CBS PRESIDENT DAVID RHODES IS THE BROTHER OF BEN RHODES, OBAMA'S DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS.

YES, ABC NEWS CORRESPONDENT CLAIRE SHIPMAN IS MARRIED TO JAY CARNEY, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY.

YES, ABC NEWS AND UNIVISION REPORTER MATTHEW JAFFE IS MARRIED TO KATIE HOGAN, OBAMA'S FORMER DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY

YES, ABC PRESIDENT BEN SHERWOOD IS THE BROTHER OF ELIZABETH SHERWOOD, OBAMA'S FORMER SPECIAL ADVISER.

YES, CNN VP VIRGINIA MOSELEY IS MARRIED TO TOM NIDES, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON'S DEPUTY SECRETARY.

THIS IS WHAT YOU CALL A "STACKED DECK". IF YOU HAD A HUNCH THE NEWS MEDIA WAS SOMEWHAT RIGGED AND YOU COULDN'T PUT YOUR FINGER ON IT, THIS MIGHT HELP YOU SOLVE THE PUZZLE.

Now you know why no one is investigated.They all have their hands in the cookie jar!

You might remember James Comey who investigated the Clinton email scandal and the Clinton Foundation, and made the final decision to not recommend prosecution by the DOJ.

It turns out that the Clinton Foundation was audited by the law firm DLA Piper. One of the executives there was in charge of the Clinton Foundation audit. Who was it? Peter Comey, James Comey’s brother.

Peter Comey held an executive position with the Washington law firm that did the audit of the Clinton foundation in 2015.

Peter Comey was officially DLA Piper “Senior Director of Real Estate Operations for the Americas,” in 2015 when the Clinton Foundation scandals first broke and Hillary was preparing her Presidential campaign.

Not only was DLA Piper, the firm where Comey’s brother worked involved in the audit of the Clinton Foundation, but according to the foundation’s donor records, DLA Piper has given between $50 - 100k to the Foundation.

It gets even cozier.

DLA Piper executive Douglas Emhoff is taking an extended leave of absence from the firm.

Who is Douglas Emhoff?

He is the husband of KAMALA HARRIS! Just a coincidence? Amazing if it is. You can't make this stuff up! And it only gets worse.

This "Family Tree" will make your head spin. THE SWAMP IS DEEP!!

Dominion (voting machine provider) serves 40% of the US market. It is in 30 states - -

The state of Texas rejected the machines.

Admiral Peter Neffenger is on Biden's transition team.

Neffenger was the President of the board of Smartmatic - Smartmatic (another voting machine supplier) entered into an agreement with Dominion in 2009 - Smartmatic counted votes in Venezuela - Smartmatic is connected to Philippine voter fraud. Smartmatic is run by Lord Mark Malloch Brown who works for George Soros (he and Brown are life-long friends). Brown chairs the Boards of a number of non-profit boards including the Open Society Foundation, Brown chairs the Centre for Global Development.

Open society of course is owned by George Soros. Smartmatic partnered with DLA Piper Global - Douglas C. Emhoff works at DLA Piper Global - Douglass C. Emhoff is Kamala Harris's husband

Guess who owns Dominion?

Blum Capital Partners, L.P.

Guess who is on the board for the company? Richard Blum.

Richard C. Blum is Dianne Feinstein's husband.

Nancy Pelosi's husband is also a major investor

An aide to Nancy Pelosi, Nadeam Elshami, was hired by Dominion Voting Systems. And it goes on.

Dominion Voting Systems is listed on the Clinton Foundation website.

Dominion Voting is listed as a $25,000 -$50,000 donor to the Clinton Foundation in 2014 by The Washington Post.

Georgia Governor Kemp used Dominion Voting after Texas and Florida rejected them.

Dominion has a lobbyist named Jared Thomas - Jared Thomas was Governor Brian Kemp’s chief of staff and press secretary from 2012 to 2015.

You must remember the Feinstein-Kavanaugh-Soros connections to understand this next information:

Debra Katz (Christine Ford's lawyer) worked for George-Soros at the Open Society Foundation. Debra Katz (Christine Ford's lawyer) also worked at Project on Government Oversight (POGO). - POGO is funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundation. POGO is the co-signer of the letter Diane Feinstein presented against Kavanaugh's nomination.

Kamala Harris did not prosecute OneWest Bank for their fraud when she had the authority.

Soros owned OneWest Bank.

Now you know why a woman who placed 7th in own her State when running for President is now VP! Oh what a tangled web of deceit and lies.”

Please share

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Although the pace of increase has come down ever so slightly, the price of rental accommodation in Canada continues to go up, with the average new tenant now being asked to pay $2,117 a month.

That's according to a new report from Rentals.ca and real estate consulting and data firm Urbanation, which tabulates the data every month from their database of the largest single group of rental listings across the country.

The $2,117 figure is an increase of 9.6 per cent from the average rent in August of last year. That's down from an all-time high of 12 per cent recorded from August 2021 until August 2022, but still the highest-ever figure in dollar terms.

The ongoing tumult in the housing market has garnered numerous headlines of late, as the Bank of Canada's campaign to tame inflation has caused mortgage rates to skyrocket.

That's spilling over into the rental market, as individual landlords are trying to pass those costs on to their tenants. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[myrebelancestorsdiedforme]

Life Spa Resort, under the inspired leadership of African American founders Allen and Melissa Brown, proudly announces the launch of a fundraising campaign to raise $12 million to open the Poconos' first Black-owned hotel spa resort. With a proven track record as successful entrepreneurs holding nearly $2 million in commercial real estate assets since 2021, the Browns are poised to transform the Poconos into a premier destination for health and relaxation.

Embarking on a Groundbreaking Journey

Allen and Melissa are currently in contract and looking to close the acquisition of the resort property by mid-September. Development will commence immediately thereafter, including the installation of state-of-the-art social wellness hydrotherapy pools that can accommodate 200-300 people at a time.

Transforming Wellness in the Poconos

The focus of Life Spa Resort is to establish a hydrotherapy and spa facility that is unparalleled in the region. Hydrotherapy, known for its significant health benefits, will be the cornerstone of their offerings. The resort will cater to up to 200 guests daily, providing treatments that promote relaxation, rejuvenation, and healing in a serene setting.

Support from Early Backers

Life Spa Resort invites early backers to join this transformative project by contributing as little as $10. Backers can gain lifetime memberships and enjoy benefits including spa treatments at discounts of up to 80%. This unique opportunity allows individuals to be part of a pioneering wellness community from the ground up. Moreover, lifetime early backers will be able to use their benefits at any and all locations that Life Spa Resort opens in the future, ensuring enduring value across a growing network of wellness destinations.

Investor Opportunity

Accredited investors are sought for this venture under Regulation D, Rule 506(c), which allows public solicitation of a private offering to those who meet the SEC's criteria for accreditation. The Private Placement Memorandum, available for detailed review on Life Spa Resort's website, presents a compelling investment opportunity. Investors can expect projected returns of 12-15% annually, emphasizing the robust financial model and growth potential of Life Spa Resort. The Memorandum includes clear investment terms and extensive plans for facilities such as hydrotherapy pools, specialized sauna rooms, and a comprehensive suite of wellness services.

About the Owners

Allen and Melissa Brown have been pivotal figures in the hospitality and real estate sectors since 2021, managing multiple successful properties and building a strong financial foundation. Their commitment to creating a legacy of health, relaxation, and financial prosperity through innovative projects like Life Spa Resort is poised to redefine industry standards. They have also maintained Airbnb Super-host status for three years, further highlighting their commitment to excellence in hospitality and guest services. Visit LifeSpaResort.com for more information.

Also, be sure to follow the resort on Facebook and Instagram.

[hale-nathan]

Trump Weird News - Trump: Lucky Loser

"Lucky Loser: "How Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success" Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig Random House, Sep 17, 2024 - Biography & Autobiography - 800 pages. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters behind the 2018 bombshell New York Times exposé of then-President Trump's finances, "… an explosive investigation into the history of Donald Trump's wealth, revealing how one of the country's biggest business failures lied his way into the White House."

Soon after announcing his first campaign for the US presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life "has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me." Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multi-billion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country. Except: None of it was true. Born to a rich father who made him the beneficiary of his own highly lucrative investments, Trump received the equivalent of more than $500 million today via means that required no business expertise whatsoever.

Drawing on over twenty years' worth of Trump's confidential tax information, including the tax returns he tried to conceal, alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump's financial rise and fall, and rise and fall again. For decades, he squanders his fortunes on money losing businesses, only to be saved yet again by financial serendipity. He tacks his name above the door of every building, while taking out huge loans he'll never repay. He obsesses over appearances, while ignoring threats to the bottom line and mounting costly lawsuits against city officials. He tarnishes the value of his name by allowing anyone with a big enough check to use it, and cheats the television producer who not only rescues him from bankruptcy but casts him as a business savant - the public image that will carry him to the White House.

A masterpiece of narrative reporting, Lucky Loser is a meticulous, nearly-century spanning narrative, filled with scoops from Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, Atlantic City, and the set of The Apprentice. At a moment when Trump's tether to success and power is more precarious than ever, here for the first time is the definitive true accounting of Trump and his money - what he had, what he lost, and what he has left - and the final word on the myth of Trump,[as falsely] the self-made billionaire."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Julianne McShane at Mother Jones:

On Monday morning, Donald Trump tried to do what he has done many times before: rewrite history in an attempt to make himself look like a man of moderation.

This time it concerned Trump’s treatment of the media, which has included a long history of threats and denigration. “In order to Make America Great Again, it is very important, if not vital, to have a free, fair and open media or press,” Trump told Fox News Digital. Those remarks, at least to anyone who has paid attention over the past decade, starkly diverged from his record of attacking American journalists, which just two weeks ago saw the president-elect saying that he wouldn’t mind if journalists were shot at. Trump also told the outlet that he feels “an obligation to the American public, and to our country itself, to be open and available to the press,” adding, “If not treated fairly, however, that will end. The media is very important to the long-term success of the United States of America.” These claims are confounding—in fact, rendered useless—when you consider the lengths the president-elect has gone to to attack journalists who produce coverage that is critical of him. On the weekend before Election Day, Trump told Fox News, “To make America great, you really do have to get the news shaped up,” and called reporters present at a rally later that day “monsters,” and “horrible, horrible, dishonest people,” as my colleague Dan Friedman reported at the time.

Between September and November, Trump insulted, attacked, or threatened the media more than 100 times, according to an analysis conducted by the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders. So what prompted Trump’s apparent about-face on the media? It comes on the heels of a meeting Trump reportedly had on Friday at his Mar-a-Lago estate with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the husband-and-wife hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe. For context, Trump and the hosts go way back; Scarborough, a former Florida congressman, reportedly gave Trump advice during his first presidential campaign, and the ex-president would call into the influential morning show to discuss politics and policy. But their relationship soured as Trump’s popularity grew, the hosts became more critical of his policies, and Trump launched a baseless personal attack against Brzezinski that earned him rebukes from even within his own party. But after Scarborough and Brzezinski on Monday announced that the trio had met for the first time in seven years, Trump appears to have softened his view on the media at large.

[...] It’s ultimately unclear if Trump’s sudden friendliness toward the media can be attributed to the MSNBC reunion at Mar-a-Lago. But one thing remains certain: You probably can’t trust this one, at all.

Today in absurdity: Donald Trump, a long-time enemy of the free press in America, laughably claims to stand up for a free press.

In reality, Trump’s hostility towards a free press will be much more present than his first term.

See Also:

Daily Kos: Trump attacks press—then claims to care about its freedom