#and they arent representative of a larger problem

[tsuyu-chan-kun]

every day i am haunted by that one post that said bakugou doesn’t need his gauntlets because he can control his sweat production. like ???? it’s made p clear that his ability to force himself to sweat is limited. and even if it wasn’t it’s still... a liquid??? so he really wouldn’t be able to make blasts on the same scale as his gauntlets without some kind of container???

[burr-ell]

Honestly, imodna would be a good ship if the shippers/stans weren’t so damn insufferable. I also hate how they act like they are already canon and you can’t ship Imogen or Laudna with anyone else in the group. People got so mad when the conversation in the dust storm happened with Ashton and Laudna because people thought they were flirting. Or when on the first episode of 4 sided dive Marisha asked Robbie if Dorian’s crush was on Imogen, people got so mad at that! I also hate that they call them lesbians when THEY HAVE BOTH EXPRESSED HAVING FEELINGS FOR BOYS! Why can’t they be bi? Or Pan? I also hate how people read into Laura’s micro expressions/ movements, like last episode with the whole leaning shit “oh what was that lean Laura?!! Imogen wanted to kiss Laudna because look at Laura’s lean!” I dread the day that Imogen or Laudna fall in love with someone that’s not each other(especially if that person is a man.) because Marisha and Laura will harassed and hated because they didn’t give the people what they wanted.

oof. that's some frustration you really needed to vent, nonnie, and honestly i get it. full disclosure—my mutuals who are into imo/dna are all lovely, and none of them engage in this behavior. if imo/dna becomes canon, i'll be happy for (and potentially even happy with) fans like that. but enough shippers are doing things like this that it's becoming more and more of a source of frustration and friction as the campaign goes on.

i think a lot of fandom—in general, not just cr—still doesn't want to acknowledge that at the end of the day, they are looking at things like shippers, with a particular kind of confirmation bias. it doesn't make them necessarily wrong or right, but as easy as it can be to get swept up in it, i think it's important to take a step back every once in awhile and re-evaluate.

now admittedly, generally speaking, it takes a lot for me to get really invested in a ship; i usually only have one or two per fandom, even fandoms with tons of characters. i'm generally pretty passive about most ships if it's not the otp; like, vax/leth and pike/lan, for example, didn't need to be romantic endgame for me to enjoy CR1 (and honestly might have been more interesting to me if they hadn't), but perc/ahlia absolutely made the show for me and i honestly think them being together actively strengthens the narrative as a whole.

i say all that to say that for the most part, i very much consider myself to be along for the ride with respect to most relationships in most fandoms. if such-and-such pairing happens, great; if they don't, okay. and with CR in particular, it's such a long-form medium that i know going in that any romance is going to take a while, and most of them probably won't just reach out and grab me.

and as such, it absolutely baffles me to have seen shippers insisting, from the moment the characters first appeared in episode 1, that not only are imogen and laudna canon endgame, they're basically already together and just haven't admitted it yet. i feel this way about dor/ym and callow/moore as well—i saw a post making the rounds that claimed that all three of those ships are "not canon YET but let's be real" and like...why would you set yourself up for disappointment like that? because yeah! all three of those ships could be endgame! but they could also not be endgame. we're less than 40 episodes into a campaign that'll probably run well into the 100s.

i also fully agree with you re: the microexpressions and the cherrypicking, and i feel like a microcosm of this issue can be found in a conversation imogen has with orym early on—shippers latched onto the fact that imogen compares laudna's thoughts to music, something that finally brought her peace after the chaos of the world around her, and completely ignored the part immediately after where imogen says that the rest of the party also feels like that to her. i didn't even know that imogen said that about the whole party until i watched the episode, and to me it's an example of how shippers tend to warp canon interactions to suit a particular narrative in such a way that they become almost entirely divorced from their context.

and from the outside looking in, what confuses me about this sort of thing is like...didn't y'all already go through this? because if my understanding is correct, c2 ship discourse was full to the brim with beau/jes and wido/jest fans dissecting "laura's microexpressions" to prove that jester was for sure in love with our fave, really you guys we swear...and then not only was that not true, but jester also didn't even know about beau or caleb's feelings to acknowledge them at all, and from the actual words that came out of laura's mouth in various OOC moments like on TM, laura just...really really wanted to romance her husband's character in her dnd game and like, that's it. there was never going to be another romantic option for jester as long as fjord was on the table, and that was something that shippers always should have been taking into account.

laudna and imogen are canonically deeply important to each other. they love and appreciate each other very much. that love and appreciation could turn into a lovely romance with a great dynamic, and i certainly don't blame people for being invested in it. but it also could not be romantic endgame, and they remain friends or even get with other people. and as you said, fandom can and will turn nasty about their ships being sunk; we've already seen it happen. there's a certain smug, entitled undercurrent from that particular corner that i have very little patience with, and while i think there's something to be said for deciding to enjoy things in spite of the fandom and just be a cranky old curmudgeon shooing the wank out with a broom, i also understand the response of just "...aight, imma head out".

[la5t-res0rt]

this was written several weeks ago in response to asks i was receiving i am posting it now it is very long the longest i have ever made and it is not very well edited but here it is in this final essay i talk about how shitty rae is about black people in her writing as well as just me talking about how her writing sucks in general lets begin

hello everyone 

as you may know i have received a lot of anons in the last week or so about issues of racism in the beetlejuice community both just generally speaking and also within specific spaces 

i was very frustrated to not be getting the answers i wanted because i typically do not talk about what i do not see but in an effort to be better about discourse i went looking through discourse from before my time in the fandom and i also received some receipts and information from my followers and from some friends

keep in mind that the voices and thoughts of bipoc are not only incredibly important at all times but in this circumstance it is important that if a bipoc has something to add you listen and learn and be better

i admit that when this happened i wasnt aware of the extent of what occurred and im angry at myself for not doing more at that time and i want to work harder to make sure something like this doesnt go unnoticed again

im a hesitant to talk about months old discourse because i have been criticized for bringing up quote old new unquote but this is very important and i am willing to face whatever comes from to me

lets talk about this

content from our local racist idiot that may be months old but its important

putting my thoughts under a cut to spare the dash but before i begin obviously this is awful

lets fucking unpack this folks

right out the gate op states that she supports artistic freedom but then within a couple words she goes against that statement

being entirely canon compliant isnt artistic freedom and even so if this person has so much respect for canon they wouldnt be out here erasing lydias obvious disgust for beetlejuice in the movie or ignoring lydias age for the sake of shipping that shit isnt canon either 

also we love the quick jab at the musical there hilarious we love it dont we because god forbid a licensed and successful branch on a media have any standing in this conversation but whatever

now lets scroll down and talk about the term racebending

the term racebending was coined around 2009 in response to the avatar the last airbender movie a film in which the east asian races of the characters were erased by casting white actors in the three leading roles of aang sokka and katara 

whenever the term racebending is used in a negative light it is almost always a case of whitewashing like casting scarlett johansen in ghost in the shell or the casting of white actors of the prince of persia sands of time instead of iranian ones

this kind of racebending erases minorities from beeing seen in media and is wrong

all that being said however racebending has also been noted to have very positive after effects like the 1997 adaptation of cinderella or casting samuel jackson as nick fury in the marvel movies nick fury was originally a white guy can you even imagine

i read this piece from an academic that said quote writers can change the race and cultural specificity of central characters or pull a secondary character of color from the margins transforming them into the central protagonist unquote

racebending like the kind that rae is so heated about is the kind of creative freedom that leads to more representation of bipoc in media which will never be a bad thing ever no matter how pissy you get about it

designing a version of a character as a poc isnt serving to make them necessarily better it serves to give new perspective and perhaps the opportunity to connect even more deeply with a character it doesnt marginalize or erase white people it can uplift poc and if you think uplifting poc is wrong because it tears down white people or whatever youre a fucking moron and you need to get out of your podunk white folk town and see the real world

the numbers of times a bipoc particularly a bipoc that is also lgbt+ has been represented in media are dwarfed by what i as a white dude have seen myself represented in media is and that isnt okay that isnt equality and its something that should change not only in mainstream media but in fandom spaces as well

lets move down a bit further to the part about bullying straight people which is hilarious and lets also talk about the term fetishistic as well lets start with that

this person literally writes explicit pornography of a minor and an adult are we really going to let someone like that dictate what is and what isnt fetishistic

similarly to doing a positive racebend situation people may project lgbt+ headcanons on a character because its part of who they are and it helps them feel closer to the character and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that

depicting lgbt+ subject matter on existing characters isnt an inherently fetishistic action generally things only really become fetishistic when the media is being crafted and hyped by people who are outside of lgbt+ community for example how young teens used to flip a tit about yaoi or how chasers fetishize trans people

but drawing a character with top surgery scars or headcanoning them as trans is harmless and its just another way to interpret a character literally anone could be trans unless if their character bio says theyre cis and most of them dont go that deep so it really is open to interpretation and on the whole most creators encourage this sort of exploration because it is a good thing to get healthy representation out in the world

as for it being used to bully straights thats just funny i dont have anything else on that like if youre straight and you feel threatened and bullied because of someone headcanoning someone as anything that isnt cishet youre a fucking idiot and a weak baby idiot at that like the real world must fucking suck for you because lgbt+ people are everywhere and statistically a big chunk of your favorite characters arent cishet sorry be mad about it

lets roll down a bit further about the big meat of the issue which was when several artists were drawing interpretations of lydia as a black girl which i loved but clearly this person didnt love it because they have a very narrow and very racist and problematic view of what it means to be a black person

and before i move forward i must reiderate that i am a white person and you should listen to the thoughts of poc people like @fright-of-their-lives​ or @gender-chaotic it is not my place to explain what the black experience is like and it certainly isnt this persons either

implying that the story of a black person isnt worth telling unless if the character faces struggles like racism and prejudice is downright moronic 

why use the word kissable to describe a black persons lips now thats what i call fetishistic and its to another extreme if youre talking about a black version of lydia on top of that

the author of this post says herself that shes white so clearly shes the person whos an authority on the black experience and what it means to be a black person right am i reading that right or am i having a fucking conniption

how about allowing black characters to exist without having to struggle why cant a black version of lydia just be a goth teenager with a ghost problem who likes photography and is also black like she doesnt have to move to a hick town and get abused by racist folks she doesnt have to go through any more shit than she already goes through and if you honestly think thats the only way to tell a black persons story you need to get your brain cleaned

you know nothing about the complexities about being a black person and i dont either but you know wh odo black people who are doing black versions of canon characters they fucking know 

lets squiggle down just a bit further 

so the writer has issues with giving characters traits like a broad nose or larger lips if theyre a woman but if theyre a man suddenly its totally okay to go all ryan murphy ahs coven papa legba appropriation when approaching character design like are you fucking stupid do you hear yourself is that really how you see black men like what the fuck is wrong with you

none of the shit youre spewing takes bravery it takes ignorance and supreme levels of stupidity

do you really think you with your fic where a black lgbt+ woman is tortured and abused where you use the n word with a hard r to refer to her like that shits not okay its fucking depraved and yeah we know you love being shitty but like christ on a bike thats so much 

can we also talk about this

what the fuck is this fetishistic bull roar garbage calling this black character beyonce dressing her up in quote fuck me heels unquote are you are you seriously gonna write this and say its a shining example of how to write a black character youre basically saying ope here she is shes a sex icon haha im so progressive and i clealry understand the black experience hahahaha fuck you oh my god

on top of that theres a point where this character is only referred to as curly hair or the fact that the n word is used in the fic with the hard r like thats hands down not okay for you to use especially not in a manner like this jesus christ

oop heres a little more a sampling for you of the hell i am enduring in reading this drivel

oh boy lets put a leash on the angry black woman character lets put her in a leash and have the man imply hes a master like are you kidding me are you for real and what the fuck is with calling her shit like j lo and beyonce do you actually think thats clever at all are you just thinking of any poc that comes into your head for this 

also lydia fucking tells this girl that she shouldnt have lost her temper like she got fucking leashed im so tired why is this writing so problematic and also so bad

hold up before i lose my head lets look at some of her own comments on the matter of this character and what happens to her

hi hello youre just casually tossing the word lynch out there in the wide open world as if thats not a problem that is still real like are you fucking unhinged there have been multiple cases of this exact thing happening in our firepit of a country in the last five months alone like how can you still have shit like this up for people to read how can you be proud of work like this in this climate

and also what the fuck is that last bit 

what the actual fuck

i dont speak for black people as a white person but you do!? im sorry i had to get my punctuation out for that because wow thats fucking asinine just because one black person read your fic and didnt find the torture and abuse of your one black character abhorrant doesnt mean that the vast majority of people not only in the fandom but in the human population with decency are going to think its okay because its not 

i started this post hoping to be level headed and professional but jesus fucking christ this woman is something else white nationalism is alive and well folks and its name is rae

if you defend this woman you defend some truly abhorrant raecism

editors notes 

in order to get some perspective on these issues more fully some of the writing by the author was examined and on the whole it was pretty unreadable but i want to just call back to the very beginning of this essay where the person in question talked about holding canon in high regard but then in their writing they just go around giving people magic and shit and ignoring the end of the movie entirely like are you canon compliant or nah 

the writing doesnt even read like beetlejuice fanfic it reads as self indulgent fiction you could easily change the names and its just a bad fanfic from 2007

also can we talk about writing the lesbian character as an angry man hater like its 2020 dude and als olets touch on that girl on girl pandering while beetlejuice is just there like here we go fetishizing again wee

i cant find a way to work this into this already massive post but

im going to throw up

okay so thats a lot we have covered a lot today and im sure my ask box will regret it but this definitely should have been more picked apart when it happened

please feel free to add more to this i would love more perspectives than just my own.

[i-am-the-entertainer]

RevieWBY: Volume 6

This has been stated so many times, but Volume 5 was bad. Okay, it wasn’t terrible, like I don’t feel offended by it being bad (unlike certain folks), but looking back on it I don’t have anything to say to really defend it as something Rooster Teeth should have talked up as much as they did at the time. It had some good things going for it, but the amount of problems it had in terms of animation and writing really put a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. So for Volume 6 to deal with all that fallout, it was going to have to do a lot. And to their credit, CRWBY accepted the criticism in stride, and actively worked to make Volume 6 something that people who despised Volume 5 might enjoy.

Still, one had to go into this season with the understanding that some people were never going to be completely satisfied with whatever CRWBY did. Because at the end of the day, the RWBY that Rooster Teeth currently makes is not Monty Oum’s show anymore. No, this isn’t saying CRWBY is in any way disrespecting his legacy, it’s just Monty Oum had a certain method to running the show that only he could really get away with: epic fight scenes, suddenly throwing giant curveballs into the series’ mythology, taking vital time away from storytelling so the fights looked cool. I mean, there are people who criticize the show for doing that now when they didn’t give two shits when Monty did it, because Monty did it in a manner that somehow worked. I don’t know how he did it, but he did, and, well, he’s not here to do it, and there’s no way even a huge animation team can collectively do things like him. And they shouldn’t: if they can use a better industry standard animation engine than Poser, than the fact that Monty Oum didn’t like animating with Maya shouldn’t stop them.

Blah blah blah...this is all about FNDM reception. What did I think of Volume 6?

Well...

Focus

In my mid-volume review I cited this as Volume 6′s strongest aspect, and as far as I can tell this remains the case. By focusing our hero storyline on one group and for the most part the villain storylines on only a few characters who were paired off, Volume 6 effectively told a story that didn’t force the viewers to juggle multiple things and find some semblance of a continuing story. Everything happened linearly and the whole thing made for a more enjoyable watch overall.

Tone

Building off of that renewed focus, this volume felt like it had more of a consistent tone that lasted from beginning to end. RWBY markets itself as an anime show and uses a lot of that anime-style of humor (slapstick and comedically exaggerated emotions), but honestly it’s always played fast and loose with using that humor in a way that doesn’t feel out of place. In this volume it was more consistently used, and that’s largely thanks to the nailed down focus that allowed character interactions to utilize the humor in a natural way. Ruby and Maria Calavera were especially good sources for humor.

Now, things did get a little more screwball when Cordovin came into the mix, but it was interesting seeing CRWBY take that humor to a logical extreme for the first time in a while (not since the Beacon years). It interrupted the tone for a bit, but not in a manner that overall changed the genre this show is going for.

Animation

Beautiful. The improved production pipeline that we’ve heard about really came through. These episodes were the best they’ve ever looked, minus a few errors here and there, showing just how amazing RWBY can look when you give the animators time to add their own touches. There was some really great fight animation to boot: none of the fights this volume felt awkward, and you could tell the animators had a lot of fun.

Worldbuilding/Storytelling

It feels weird saying that Volume 6 did a better job with worldbuilding than Volume 4, which took place on four different continents and traveled across one, and Volume 5, which took place on two different continents and featured the second major skirmish between the villains and the heroes. I think this has to do with just how well it was integrated into the story: insight into the world came at points where the story needed it and when the viewers wanted it. Nothing ever felt like a massive info dump better suited World of Remnant; where there was just too much information delivered that wasn’t relevant to what was happening in the show. Volumes 4 and 5 had this same problem with establishing the world, often telling us too much in a way that just didn’t feel natural to the story. With Volume 6, almost every chapter up until the final Argus arc included some form of that insight:

Chapter 1 showed us how ordinary civilians deal with traveling through Grimm territory––the steps they take to protect themselves

Chapter 2 showed us some aspects of the Mistral criminal underground, not telling us too much about it but suggesting it was much larger than what Cinder encountered.

Chapter 3 showed us...so many things.

Chapter 4 offered a sense of the stakes RWBY faced in relation to all of Remnant.

Chapter 5 and 6 gave us a glimpse at another form of non-city life in Remnant.

Chapter 7 introduced us to Argus, my favorite of all the Remnant cities we’ve seen; plus a glimpse into the life of the silver-eyed warriors; and a more representative depiction of what domestic life is like in Remnant

Chapter 8 told us what Atlas personnel who aren’t Ironwood or Winter are like, plus the long-awaited insight into how the silver eyes work.

Chapter 9 shows something of the effect the Battle of Beacon, and by extension Pyrrha’s death, had outside of our core group.

Things kind of teeter off with the finale arc, but that’s because worldbuilding became a little less important to what was going on. This is kind of a stretch, but the mech fight and the arrival of the Grimm in Argus give us an idea of how large non-capital cities defend themselves without just spelling everything out.

All in all, this volume delivered on some impressive worldbuilding, probably the best the series has had in a while. It wasn’t massive info dumps unless it needed to be (e.g. Chapter 3), and it offered just enough for other important things like the storytelling and the action to still be in the forefront.

Characters

Volume 5, despite the fact it involved the major reunion of Team RWBY after two volumes, felt like it was simply putting the main characters through situations without those situations really doing anything to develop them or define them as anything beyond what we already knew. Some characters fared better on the development front, namely Yang, but others, especially Ruby, just seemed to be along for the ride without us getting any insight into them. This is where the writing issue that came from separating everyone starting with Volume 4 really came to a head: too many different characters with their own story to cover, and sometimes those stories just didn’t do much for the character beyond existing as a situation they were in.

Volume 6 feels like the refutal of that, and that mostly has to do with the fact that we’re not juggling so many storylines anymore. When a major event happens to the heroes, everyone gets affected at the same time. The train crashes? DEVELOPMENT! Jinn’s story? DEVELOPMENT AND INSIGHT! Snowstorm? INSIGHT! The Apathy? DEVELOPMENT! Telling team JNR about Jinn’s story? DEVELOPMENT! Adam ambushes Blake and Yang for the first time since Volume 3? DEVELOPMENT! WITH A HEALTHY DOSAGE OF ANGST!

Surprisingly, the same thing is happening to two of our favorite villains, Mercury and Emerald: even though they only really appeared in three chapters this Volume, we actually got a surprising chance to see how their defeat at the Battle of Haven affected them, and their increasingly strong misgivings about working for Salem. We get more of an idea of them as people rather than Cinder’s blind followers, understanding why they stuck with such an evil person for so long. It’s the most we’ve learned about them since Volume 3, and we didn’t even need lengthy flashbacks.

Even Adam got some more insight. RWBY has been following the path that Adam was an abusive ex-boyfriend for quite a while now, but there was always this underlying thought that he got into the White Fang business for a seemingly noble cause. The problem was the show hadn’t depicted how he got from Point A to Point B. The Adam Character Short offered us some of that much needed insight, putting some of his actions up to this point in a new context, even if it was set-up for clearing up some things so they could get rid of him.

Of course, there are still exceptions to characters getting character development, and honestly they’re kind of glaring ones. Oscar’s development arc, where he came to accept he was his own person, completely happened offscreen (for reasons that I’ve brought up before and will reiterate in the final section), robbing us of really witnessing his growth as a person. I enjoyed some of the stuff Cinder did this volume, especially her escape from the vault and her fight with Neo. But honestly she continues to be a pretty bland villain with little hints at her motivations for being such a terrible person: the Battle of Haven was such an utter defeat for her there needed to be some form of consequence that would’ve affected her character while also telling us more about her. Maybe it would’ve been her strategizing her revenge, which would’ve gotten more insight into how she thinks as a master planner. Instead, we get her leaving the vault, more or less going back to what she used to do but in a more low-key setting, fighting with Neo, plotting with Neo, and leaving with Neo. It felt more like “Hey, she’s alive, and here’s what she’s doing,” which while I appreciate it feels kind of a waste of time if you’re not doing anything with her beyond that. Honestly, a post-credits reveal that she was alive and then a pre-Volume 7 character short detailing how she made it to Atlas that covered her and Neo’s entire storyline this volume would’ve been more helpful.

Before I go on to my most major critique of this volume, I need to address the two Goliaths in the room.

Adam

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: they needed to get rid of Adam. The way things have been going, there was only so much more you could do with his character before he became a nuisance that was overstaying his welcome. I understand people wanted some deeper insight into him, but the fact was he was never introduced to be a major villain to anyone beyond Blake and later Yang. They could’ve had him have a thing against Weiss, but they didn’t, they focused the time that would’ve made him a major villain for everyone else on making people like Roman and Cinder and Salem the big villains. They decided on the path of abusive ex-boyfriend a very long time ago, and if you hadn’t figured that out after the Adam Character Short I honestly think you were being willfully ignorant to what’s been building up.

The best I can say is that Adam and his history is a missed opportunity for some pretty interesting storytelling and worldbuilding, but the fact remains: it is not his story that they want to tell, it is not his show. It may make something interesting to think about, but Adam’s story is supplementary, and works better in supplementary material, a la character shorts and maybe mangas.

Jaune

Y’all need to quit it with the “Hrrr drr Jaune took up time again moan moan Miles Luna is self indulgent” talk, he barely did anything this volume beyond Chapter 9 and having a sister that the whole fandom loved.

Pacing

This...this is where Volume 6 ran into trouble.

Overall, from the season premiere to the finale arc, this was probably the best-paced season of RWBY we’ve ever had. Major story events happened right when we needed them, and for the most part they didn’t drag out story arcs for any longer than they needed to be.

Well...until they reached Argus, that is.

At face value, a lot happened in the final couple of chapters. Chapter 8 gave us Maria explaining the silver eyes, Chapter 9 had the scene with Pyrrha’s statue and the mysterious Red-Haired Woman (I’ll headcanon whatever I want about who she is, Jen Brown) Chapter 10 started the Cordovin fight, Chapter 11 reinforced Blake and Yang’s partnership, Chapter 12 killed Adam, and Chapter 13 had Ruby finally use her silver eye powers to defeat a Grimm and they made it to Atlas. Yeah, it was a pretty eventful set of episodes.

So then why did it feel like it dragged? Here are a couple reasons that I’ve identified.

1. The Cordovin Battle sidelined story arcs for too long

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: the finale arc should not have been split up like that over so many episodes. It afforded us some pretty well-animated fights, some of the best the series has ever had, but the volume hadn’t been relying on that action to keep up the forward momentum, but on actually telling the stories of these characters. I get the need for CRWBY to prove that they can do well-animated fights, but as I’ve come to accept action should never take precedence over storytelling (I know, that’s hard to swallow when parts of the fndm spends hours complaining about how Monty’s not animating the fights anymore). And it’s clear to me in this final arc put emphasis on the action over the momentum of the story, bringing the actually pretty good storytelling the volume had had up to that point to a grinding halt.

Now, historically RWBY fights have delayed telling stories, but it’s never been for too long, at most maybe two chapters? But if you spend three chapters on a single fight, thereby devoting three weeks of your viewers’ time to high-octane action, people are gonna notice that the story is basically going nowhere.

What could’ve made this less of a problem? Well, perhaps establishing Cordovin earlier and making her less of a buffoon would’ve eased my hatred of this arc. Volume 6 lacks a clear antagonist for the story, but the way Cordovin was treated as a big deal in this final battle made it seem like she was taking up that role, except we didn’t even see her until the final half of the volume, and in her debut we couldn’t take her seriously as a villain, much less an antagonist, because of the pure comedy they used in her intro. There needed to be something about her at least a few episodes early––take this with a grain of salt because I think following JNR in Argus would’ve killed the balanced pacing of the first half of the volume (and just made the Jaune haters apoplectic), but maybe a few quick scenes of JNR arriving in Argus and getting rejected by her would’ve been helpful. Or honestly easing off on the comedy of her intro. Such a one-note character who we are primed to not take seriously isn’t interesting as a major force, so identifying her as a more threatening roadblock for the heroes would’ve made the stakes of the final fight a little more...present.

2. Important storylines got trimmed for time’s sake and weren’t addressed properly.

@hypeathon (whose excellent production analyses for this Volume are well worth a read) identified a tweet Miles made back in October, prior to the premiere and most likely when they were finishing storyboards, about “killing your darlings.” For those unaware and who may have severely misinterpreted that comment, “killing your darlings” is when writers have to sacrifice something they love or want to do so that the story works better. The timeliness of this tweet (after they would’ve finished the script but before they’d wrapped on storyboards and voice acting for the final episodes) suggests the writers’ room had to cut a lot of material from Volume 6 (what Miles called a massacre of darlings), most likely due to production limits or not having enough time to cover them.

Think about it: the story from Chapters 1-7 was really good: everything was properly spaced out, the scripts felt polished, there was a balance of action and comedy and legit storytelling, the good pacing lasted longer than it ever has within a single volume.

Then we hit Chapter 8 and suddenly it all changes: storylines don’t get the proper time devoted to them, arcs come to a screeching halt due to the big fight. Unlike previous volumes, where the imbalance was pretty much the entire volume, there’s actually a clear point right in the middle of this volume where things suddenly took a turn for the worse. And the fact is, some of the problems with the story in the final arc suddenly make more sense if you accept that time that would’ve been devoted to it got sidelined in this “purge”: Qrow’s alcoholism suddenly getting brushed aside after Chapter 9 hopefully to be addressed next volume, Oscar disappearing and all his development happening offscreen, Adam’s completely unsubtle return after only a vague hint in Chapter 1 that would’ve been stronger if he’d kept popping up in Argus. I’d even go so far to say the odd pacing of the final few chapters could easily have been the result of the writing team not being able to devote a single chapter to such a grand fight, so they needed to stretch it out so CRWBY could actually animate it within reasonable deadlines, which meant sacrificing time for those arcs that so desperately needed development.

So what overall is gonna fix RWBY’s pacing in the future? Well, I think at the moment the show is too ambitious. If it wants to keep to a reasonable production schedule, they need to control the scale of their finales so that it can be completed without needing to sacrifice other storylines. If it wants to hold onto that ambition and make the finales as grand as they want it to be to do their boy Monty proud, then they absolutely need to delay the actual release of the volume so they can put in the proper amount of time to both the story and animation. And I don’t think anyone would mind waiting a little longer for Volume 7 if it meant this show got the care and attention it needs to tell the story it clearly wants to tell.

Conclusions

Evaluating Volume 6 is impossible without evaluating what came before it. RWBY was never a perfect show, but when you lose someone who was responsible for the show’s popularity in the first place and have to change how it’s made to make up for his absence, there’s going to be backlash. Backlash from the fans, and, uh, backlash from inside the company. The fact is, people are never going to be satisfied with the RWBY that Rooster Teeth makes today, and Rooster Teeth is never going to push out a RWBY that will make everyone happy. All they can really do is keep moving forward.

And move forward they did. Despite my problems with the finale, Volume 6 was good. I’ve always been sort of ambivalent about the show (I was drawn to it by my brother shortly before Monty’s death and have been watching it out of respect for him and the company as creative artists), and even if I thought some of RWBY’s critics were being too harsh (or seriously needed to find something better to do), I didn’t find Volumes 4 and 5 enjoyable enough that I felt like defending them. But guys, Volume 6 did something amazing: it made RWBY fun to watch again. Focused, consistent, and compelling storytelling plus gradually eased-in worldbuilding made for a story that I could follow along without having to juggle so many different plots. Improvements in the overall animation made things nice to look at and when fights happened they were always entertaining, never making me cringe or grimace, always making me think “Hell yeah, beat the shit out of them!” Just like I felt back in the old days of the show.

I feel as though what’s holding RWBY back at this point, however, is adhering to the production schedule that its old vision called for in making its current vision. And it honestly cannot keep doing that. RWBY is a show trying to reach grand heights, and its rushed production timelines and lost story arcs are keeping it tethered to the ground. Yet I can’t help but say: Volume 6 is RWBY at its finest so far. It can’t fix the problems that previous volumes have had, but it builds on the void those problems left to build a story that makes this show feel like something worth following once more.

So, I can safely say I’ll be following along when RWBY returns for Volume 7...hopefully later rather than sooner (again, it needs a better production schedule).

[daniloqp]

The $ 1 trillion infrastructure bill is a small step toward the network we need in the US

The $ 1 trillion infrastructure bill is a small step toward the network we need in the US

https://theministerofcapitalism.com/blog/the-1-trillion-infrastructure-bill-is-a-small-step-toward-the-network-we-need-in-the-us/

Any effective plan to deal with climate change depends on a basic technology: long cables threaded through tall towers.

The United States must add hundreds of thousands of miles of transmission lines in the coming decades to weave fragmented regional power systems into an interconnected grid capable of supporting a massive flow of renewable energy.

A national network of short drive lines and long-distance high-voltage cables would provide wind, solar and hydroelectric power wherever it is needed when available nationwide. It could help provide reliable security energy when heat waves or winter storms cause regional energy shortages, and keep up with growing demands as households and businesses become increasingly dependent on the country. electricity to power vehicles, heat and more.

It’s a great vision with some serious flaws: to begin with, it could cost hundreds of billions of dollars to build the necessary power lines in just this decade. One directed by Princeton to study found that the United States will take an additional $ 350 billion to develop the necessary transmission capacity over the next nine years. This is in a scenario where wind and solar energy provide half of the country’s electricity by 2030, positioning the nation towards reducing emissions by the middle of the century.

Even if the government and businesses release the necessary funds, there is an even more complicated challenge: states, counties, cities, and towns across the nation would have to quickly sign a multitude of new transmission lines. And the United States has become terrible at allowing these multistate projects.

A series of efforts deliver cheap and clean hydroelectric power of canada, wind from the Great Plains and a mix of renewables from the southwest they have been embroiled in legal battles for years, or rejected, often because a single region faced the cables running through its land. Even those big network projects that are being built can take a decade to work through the approval process.

There may finally be help. The approximately $ 1 trillion infrastructure package advancing to the Senate, which has bipartisan support, provides billions of dollars for transmission lines. It also includes some provisions that could prove even more important than money, improving and clarifying federal competencies on project approvals.

However, the package would represent only a small down payment on investments and would allow for the changes that will be needed.

“Retardant”

The US does not have a single grid. It has three aging, disconnected systems, built largely in the middle of the last century, with limited capacities to exchange electricity between larger states and regions. This is a problem because power plants can be found hundreds of miles from major cities where electricity demand is greatest.

Isolated grids mean that electricity from fluctuating sources, such as solar and wind, can only be sent so far, wasting part of production and lowering prices when generation exceeds regional demands during particularly windy and sunny periods. (which is occurring more and more the proportion of these sources grows). For example, California cannot send excess solar power to the Midwest during the middle of a summer day, nor harness the constant wind power, for example, of Oklahoma when the sun begins to submerge in the west coast.

But operators of an integrated grid could take advantage of the low-cost electricity available in a much larger area and deliver it to high-demand locations, says Doug Arent, executive director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This includes where renewable sources extract electricity at that time, either wind in Wyoming the lot to Florida.

Long-distance, high-voltage transmission lines also allow for greater development of solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal plants in regions blessed with climate, geology, or waterways to supply them, guaranteeing developers larger customer bases. in cities that may be a moment zone or two away.

A recent one Presentation of the laboratory of Lawrence Berkeley He noted that there are already more than 750 gigawatts of queuing power generation proposals in five U.S. regions, waiting for transmission connections that can deliver electricity to customers. The vast majority are solar and wind projects. (By way of comparison, the The entire US fleet of large-scale plants can generate just over 1,100 gigawatts.)

Other countries are advancing in the field. China has arisen as a world leader in high-voltage transmissions, building tens of thousands of miles of these lines to connect its power plants with cities across the vast nation. But while China developed 260 gigawatts of transmission capacity between 2014 and 2021, all of North America added only seven. a survey directed by Iowa State University.

“The United States is lagging behind, but they have every reason to catch up,” said James McCalley, a professor of power systems engineering at Iowa State University and co-author of a national grid study published late last year, it said in a statement.

A fraction of what is needed

So how could the US begin to close that gap?

First, you will need more money. While the Biden administration has boasted that the infrastructure package provides $ 73 billion for “clean energy transmission,” these funds are spread across a wide range of clean energy efforts, including research and development and demonstration projects in areas such as carbon capture and clean hydrogen.

The current version of the infrastructure package only spends between $ 10,000 and $ 12 billion specifically to erect transmission towers and cables, says Rob Gramlich, president of energy consultancy Grid Strategies.

That’s a fraction of the amount the Princeton study found the U.S. should launch in the next nine years. While federal spending is designed to unlock private capital, the United States would still have to invest tens of billions more to reach the necessary scales this decade, says Jesse Jenkins, co-author of the Princeton study and assistant professor. to the University.

It also establishes a $ 2.5 billion revolving loan program for projects, making the Department of Energy the initial customer for the new transportation lines. This federal funding could help set up transmission projects that require a lot of time, but before the developer has aligned customers. This could alleviate the perpetual problem of eggs and chickens between building more electricity generation and building the lines needed to transport it, observers say.

Finally, the federal government can sell these rights to clean up power plants that need access to the lines, as they are put online.

It’s a promising policy tool that “just needs another zero on this budget line,” Jenkins says.

Permits permits

Although it has little money, the proposed infrastructure bill faces approval logjams.

A long-term challenge in many parts of the U.S. is that electricity generation capacity and energy demands grow faster than the transmission systems needed to support them. People and businesses want cheap and reliable electricity, but few adopt the necessary towers and transmission cables, especially if they seem to supply mostly electricity and economic benefits to remote areas. There are often aesthetics, environmental, social justice and critiques of business competence as well.

“If we meet our climate goals, we need to figure out ways to approve these big transmission projects, and historically we’ve had a hard time doing that,” said Lindsey Walter, deputy director of Third Way’s climate and energy program, a center-left reflection center in Washington, DC, in an email.

An energy law in 2005 attempted to resolve these tensions, granting the Federal Commission for Energy Regulation (FERC) the ability to intervene and sign projects that can alleviate transmission limitations in certain decreed areas such as the so-called national electric transmission corridors. But so far, the Department of Energy has only designated two such zones, in the mid-Atlantic and southern California.

In addition, a federal court of appeal ultimately, it limited the authority of FERC, finding it only had the right to close projects if states or other jurisdictions suspended an application for more than a year. The court ruled that it did not have the capacity to overturn state rejections of applications under the law.

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[dailynewswebsite]

Americans aren’t getting enough to eat during the coronavirus pandemic – here’s what’s happening in Los Angeles County

Folks in Los Angeles picked up packing containers containing nutritious meals in April 2020 as meals insecurity surged. AP Photograph/Mark J. Terrill

The variety of Individuals who can’t get sufficient meals is rising from already troubling ranges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. About 1 in 10 Individuals mentioned in November 2020 that their family typically or usually didn’t have sufficient to eat within the earlier week, the U.S. Census Bureau discovered.

Meals insecurity – what occurs when somebody doesn’t manage to pay for for meals – is simply as dangerous in Los Angeles County, house to one-quarter of California residents. These roughly 10 million folks dwell primarily in city areas just like the cities of Los Angeles, Malibu, Hollywood and Compton.

The Los Angeles disaster surged essentially the most in April, when 26% of all households – and 39% of low-income households – skilled meals insecurity that month. By October, the state of affairs had improved considerably, with 11% of the county’s households and 17% of low-income households remaining food-insecure. The vast majority of these individuals are girls, Latino, low-income and fogeys.

Even the decrease fee in October was greater than triple the norm earlier than the pandemic: Some 5% of low-income households had been more likely to have skilled meals insecurity in any given month of 2018, the latest comparable knowledge accessible.

Monitoring meals insecurity in Los Angeles County

Meals insecurity has lengthy been a problem for Angelenos, particularly folks with low incomes, folks of coloration and people dwelling in neighborhoods that don’t have sufficient inexpensive wholesome meals.

So when the coronavirus pandemic started, I teamed up with different consultants to trace how this emergency would have an effect on meals safety on this area. Our staff contains students of public well being, psychology, well being coverage, geography and knowledge science. We met each week with the native authorities representatives main efforts to handle this situation and coordinated with a number of nonprofits that join folks with meals and monetary help.

Since April, we’ve surveyed 1,800 adults, who’re consultant of households within the county, to trace their experiences.

We additionally partnered with Yelp, the native search and assessment web site, which shared details about eating places and grocery shops throughout the county, together with which of them have closed or stayed open or added supply providers. This knowledge helps us perceive how simple or onerous it’s for folks to get meals in their very own neighborhoods.

The causes of meals insecurity

Meals insecurity is most frequently introduced on by poverty, job loss or a well being disaster. It’s no shock that it might spike throughout a pandemic that’s precipitated a lot unemployment and sickness.

We’ve discovered that the most important danger elements for meals insecurity throughout the COVID-19 pandemic had been having a low family revenue, being unemployed and being a younger grownup. Folks between the ages of 18 and 30 had been most in danger, whereas these 65 or older had been the least.

We additionally decided that being a single mum or dad elevated the chance of experiencing meals insecurity.

On prime of financial challenges, the pandemic is disrupting farming and the manufacturing and distribution of meals. Grocery costs have gone up no less than 3.4% for the reason that begin of 2020, far exceeding the two% annual common progress of grocery costs over the previous 20 years.

At instances, eating places, supermarkets and smaller meals shops have curtailed their hours. Our group companions are involved that will probably be onerous for unbiased eating places and groceries to maintain their doorways open.

Well being penalties

Not having sufficient to eat is a significant public well being concern, not solely as a result of it causes starvation and misery, but in addition as a result of it’s linked to poor diet and unstable weight loss program patterns.

For instance, a household with out sufficient cash for meals on the finish of the month, when payments are due, might eat little or no. That household may, once they have cash, then refill on cheaper meals which have a number of energy and can final a very long time. These buying journeys are unlikely to incorporate many costly vegatables and fruits.

This sample helps clarify why meals insecurity will increase dangers for diet-related illnesses, like diabetes and coronary heart illness.

Perishable meals tends to be larger in vitamins however tougher for a lot of low-income folks to get. martin-dm/E+ by way of Getty Photographs

Weaker ties make it worse

The coronavirus pandemic has made it clearer than ever that the folks in your life and the place you reside have an effect on your well being.

Keep-at-home orders are designed to restrict the contact we’ve with household, associates and different acquaintances. These restrictions additionally make it tougher for folks to assist and help each other throughout a disaster.

We discovered that individuals with fewer relations and associates had been extra more likely to expertise meals insecurity at first of the pandemic.

And we’re listening to that accessing meals has been even tougher than common for individuals who depend on public transportation, with them having the additional danger of being uncovered to the coronavirus.

The pandemic has additionally made it onerous to attach with organizations that present help. With the closure of many college buildings and group facilities in Los Angeles County, native authorities employees and organizations have been working onerous in order that low-income children and different residents can nonetheless get free or low-cost meals.

On prime of all of this, the pandemic is inflicting big challenges for emergency meals donation applications. The Los Angeles Regional Meals Financial institution has greater than doubled the quantity of meals it provides away throughout the pandemic. Meals pantries can’t all the time get sufficient meals or volunteers to serve the entire individuals who present up.

On a current name with a meals pantry, I heard about how they went from serving 300 households every week earlier than the pandemic to 4,000 every week now – and the way onerous it’s been to get sufficient meals to distribute to everybody who traces up.

These emergency meals applications simply weren’t designed to deal with a disaster at such an enormous scale, or one which lasts for thus lengthy.

To higher perceive the panorama of meals help in Los Angeles, we’re getting complete details about these applications by Aunt Bertha, a nationwide social care search-and-referral platform the place folks can seek for many sorts of meals help, from authorities applications just like the Supplemental Diet Help Program, or SNAP, to native meals pantries and group gardens.

Extra Angelenos are getting SNAP advantages

We’re seeing proof that meals support and authorities advantages might make an enormous distinction. For instance, the variety of Los Angeles households getting SNAP advantages rose by 20%, from 686,378 in March to 822,356 in July. Among the folks we’re monitoring managed to turn out to be food-secure after getting authorities meals and monetary assist.

Extra Angelenos have additionally been getting different types of governmental monetary help, equivalent to unemployment advantages, and acquiring support from meals pantries and the like.

Nationally, there has additionally been an uptick in using group and authorities help applications and indicators that authorities support helps households turn out to be food-secure.

[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]

Nevertheless, many individuals nonetheless do not need sufficient meals, together with some who acquire meals and monetary assist.

Our findings additionally level to different alternatives that governments and group organizations have to assist folks get the meals they want. For instance, they can assist small grocers in neighborhoods that don’t have many meals shops keep open and supply backed meals supply to low-income folks with out automobiles.

We hope our examine will assist Los Angeles and different cities discover alternatives to assist everybody get sufficient to eat throughout the pandemic.

Kayla de la Haye's analysis for this venture by the College of Southern California (USC) Dornsife’s Public Change was supported by the USC Dornsife Emergency Fund and by the Keck College of Drugs of USC COVID-19 Analysis Fund by a beneficiant present from the W. M. Keck Basis. The work was accomplished in coordination with the Los Angeles County Emergency Meals Safety Department.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/americans-arent-getting-enough-to-eat-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-heres-whats-happening-in-los-angeles-county/ via https://growthnews.in

[d-dumais-blog]

The Problem With Netflix & Anime Strike

There’s been a lot of talk lately within the anime fandom about various streaming services.  Newcomer Hidive is jumping in, while Daisuki is jumping out permanently, RIP.  Funimation will presumably change significantly after the purchase by Sony is complete.  Netflix and Amazon are upsetting people left and right by doing the unforgivable sin of offering shows that people want to watch.  And industry darling Crunchyroll is jumping into the con business with yet unseen success.  Everyone has been asserting their own thoughts on how to improve Netflix and Amazon and I’d rather not sit here and describe at length the same points everyone else has brought up.  I’ll instead focus on what I think is the biggest problem with these two sites, and what I think helps Crunchyroll succeed.

The anime industry is less of an industry and more of a niche community.  It thrives on a select few willing to spend lots of money while the larger majority prefers to consume content through illicit means.  This is no surprise because of how anime was originally popularized.  Anime was originally very difficult to get over here in the West, and lots of things weren’t legally available.  As a result communities formed up to share anime.  Most longtime fans were once a part of an anime club at some point.  These clubs helped to form anime fandom and lived because the heads of the club would bring shows for the community to watch.  Tape trading of the 90s gave way to the torrents of the 20000s and finally into the streaming sites that dominate the internet today.  Fans of anime are used to someone telling them what to watch and then jumping directly into it.  The industry stays afloat because of people that are willing to buy figures and blurays and such.  It’s the same group that used to import laser discs and like having a collection of sorts.  For the record, I’m in that group.  I buy a large amount of blurays every month and enjoy having friends over to watch them like an adult’s anime club.

Crunchyroll succeeds largely because it is essentially an online anime club with a cover charge.  It succeeds because of the sense of community Crunchyroll provides.  It has done an incredible job of building a community, and engaging with the fandom at large.  The social media team over at Crunchyroll is excellent; kudos to Victoria Holden and Miles Thomas who helm the team.  The entire company is extremely active on social media, in particular twitter where they’re regularly talking about the shows on their site as fans rather than as a product.  They’ve also ventured into other social media sites like their live stream of Kanna eating on repeat which literally had thousands of people watching along.  Crunchyroll feels like part of the community more than it feels like a multimillion dollar business and that helps them greatly.  I genuinely think Crunchyroll could charge more per month for its service and no one would care.  Those willing to pay for Crunchyroll don’t do it because it’s worth the money; they do it because it’s something they want to support.  There are certainly those that pay for it out of convenience, but these are the more casual fans and not the bread and butter of the industry.  These fans arent’ the long time fans, they sign up to watch on their game console because Attack on Titan is airing.  They typically don’t stay active for long.  Those of us who have been fans for years and years are willing to obtain the anime we want by any means necessary and pay for Crunchyroll more because we like Crunchyroll.

And here in lies the biggest difference; people don’t like Netflix and Anime Strike (Amazon).  Neither site has any social media presence, and they feel so distant from the community.  The common complaints about these sites seem so obvious to those within the fandom, but totally alien to an outsider.  Take Netflix for example: Netflix is condemned for not simulcasting their anime.  Netflix prefers to share only polished products.  All of their anime are released at one point in time with dubs in five different languages.  This helps shows appeal to a more mainstream audience, but it hurts its appeal to the hardcore anime fandom.  Anime fans are used to unpolished messes.  Ping Pong launched without a real opening, Dragon Ball Super has some of the lowest quality animation Toei has ever aired (and that’s saying something we’re talking about Toei), and My Hero Academia got significant touch ups for the bluray release over its initial TV airing.  We as anime fans are used to this low quality and production value; hell I remember watching anime online ten years back in 240 quality because that’s what was available.  If Netflix had anyone working there that could represent and speak for the community it would go a long way.  Netflix does not have any community manager specifically for its anime content.  This is clearly a problem and a void because a fan page on twitter, @NetflixAnime, has to regularly inform people that the page is not official and suggesting anime on the page won’t help Netflix see it.

Anime Strike has its own twitter page but it is incredibly weak.  It only tweets out some of its shows episode releases, with minimal fanfare.  They don’t even do it for every show.  The page is inactive for days at a time and rarely has more than one tweet a day.  Crunchyroll is more active every hour than Amazon is active in a week’s time.  It would go a long way if it felt like anyone working there was actually watching these shows.  Amazon continually locks down some of the best shows of each season, and these shows are hurt because no one in the community is championing them.  If Scum’s Wish was on Crunchyroll it would have been the talk of the town; Welcome to the Ballroom should be blowing up online, but people only talk about the giraffe necks.  A cursory search online informs me there is currently no community manager for Anime Strike and it doesn’t look like Amazon isn’t hiring for one either.  Because there’s no one working to engage the community the burden is left on fans to communicate far too much.  Quick example, no it’s not $15 a month for Anime Strike, it’s $13 a month because you don’t need to sign up for full prime there is just prime video.  It’s not my job to correct people though, and this message isn’t being communicated by anyone.  This doesn’t necessarily fix the price issue people have, but it certainly helps.  The point being, there’s a lot of misinformation about Anime Strike and no one there is helping to fix it.  

It may seem like a simple thing, but I really think fixing the social media plans of these two services would work wonders to improve their standing in the community.  Anime fans remember these things.  Hell I’ll never forget Funimation’s awful tweet about Erased in which they liken a starving girl to college struggles.  I like anime and I spend a lot of money on it, both on various streaming services and on blurays.  I want to see these companies succeed.  I’d love for Anime Strike to be a good service I’m paying for it.  I’d love to legally watch Violet Evergarden as it airs.  Hopefully if enough of us keep telling them what we want they’ll finally listen.  

[tissipropaganda]

Black developers say partnerships aren’t always equal

Developers of color say the problem of larger builders using them as tokens has not been solved — even on private projects, where no government mandate for minority participation is involved. Minority and female-led contractors say that more established developers commonly enlist firms like theirs as “marketing representatives” in gentrifying areas and give them a miniscule slice of the profits. When Kenneth Morrison was just starting out as a developer at his Harlem-based firm Lemor

Source: https://therealdeal.com/2019/11/12/black-developers-say-partnerships-arent-always-equal/

[writingguide003-blog]

Looming TV writers strike could help Trump

New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/looming-tv-writers-strike-could-help-trump/

Looming TV writers strike could help Trump

LOS ANGELES –  If there is one person who is looking forward to a writers strike, it would be President Donald Trump.

The Writers Guild of America is threatening to strike if they cant cut a deal with some of the biggest studios in the business. And if that happens, popular late-night programming like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and weekly shows like Saturday Night Live could be the first ones to go dark.

These shows have been fixated on lampooning the president poking fun at him night after night and, in the case of Saturday Night Live, centering its shows around a public takedown of President Trump.

But those shows could go on hiatus a deal isnt reached soon.

HOLLYWOOD BRACES FOR ANOTHER WRITERS STRIKE

If there is a strike what viewers would see is a ripple effect, said Johnathan Handel, an entertainment lawyer and contributing editor for the Hollywood Reporter. The late night shows which are scripted on a day-to-day basiswould immediately go to an improv kind of a situation and a sort of an awkwardness. Then, youre talking about the weekly shows Saturday Night Live, for example, which could go dark or into re-runs.

That would be a boon for Trump, who has repeatedly lashed out at SNL for making fun of him and members of his administration.  

.@NBCNews is bad but Saturday Night Live is the worst of NBC. Not funny, cast is terrible, always a complete hit job. Really bad television!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2017

Just tried watching Saturday Night Live – unwatchable! Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016

The union threatening to strike represents television and movie writers that have contracts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers a group that represents Hollywood powerhouse production studios including Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures and 20th Century FOX.

The Writers Guild of America voted on Monday to move forward with a strike if it doesnt get what it wants out of negotiations with the AMPTP. The two parties returned to the table on Tuesday and they have a week to figure out a compromise and sign a new contract before the writers go on strike.

Handel said its difficult to tell whether a deal can be reached next week.

ALEC BALDWIN REVEALS HE’S ‘STUNNED’ BY CONTINUED POPULARITY OF TRUMP IMPRESSION FOR ‘SNL’

Two weeks ago, there was a 3 to 1 ratio between what the writers wanted and what the studios were willing to give. There was a $350 million gap, he said. Where we are now in terms of a hard dollar figure is very hard to know which is part of what makes it hard to know if were going down the path to a strike or to a deal.

The number of TV shows out there is at an all-time high, but writers arent happy because their wages have dropped by over 20 percent. Members of the WGA say they are making less money because studios are producing fewer episodes per season which is a problem for writers that get paid per episode. 

Most writers have exclusivity contracts that prevent them from picking up extra work and writing for other shows which means they cant make up the difference.

There is an irony to the so-called Peak TV. The face that the number of scripted TV shows has basically doubled in the last year or so, Handel said. Its a disconnect in two ways: One is writers get paid for writing fewer episodes. The other is that even on these shorter series they get held on exclusivity. They get put on ice, not working for the entirety of the rest of the year.

Overall the Guild says its demands would cost the entire industry about $178 million dollars.

But if writers go on strike the cost could be much more for writers and studios.

Scripted shows scheduled to premiere this fall could see their debuts delayed and fans of The Walking Dead and American Horror Story might get fewer episodes because of the strike.

Summer TV would look a lot more familiar with airtime being filled with more re-runs and reality shows until writers and studios are able to work things out.

Overall a strike is bad news for production studios, writers, and viewers. But its great news for network TVs biggest rivals Netflix and Hulu.

Streaming services could see a big boost in traffic as people switch to streaming new shows online instead of sitting through re-runs.

The last writers strike was a decade ago, in 2007, and lasted 14 weeks. 

But Handel said studios wont be entirely crippled by a potential strike.

The studios have a lot of ability to make lemonade out of lemons in this situation, Handel said. Most of them are units of much larger companies so a strike doesnt necessarily move the needle materially in terms of what the investment community looks at.

Hillary Vaughn is a graduate of the Junior Reporter program at Fox News. She is now a multi-platform journalist and occasional general assignment news reporter. Follow her on Twitter: @vaughnFNC

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/

[chocolate-brownies]

The first time I went to a Kundalini yoga class, I was the only fat person in the room. I noted it and moved on; at a size 20, I am often the largest woman in the room. I’m a bit fearless when it comes to trying new things, so it never phased me to feel odd as I stumbled and tripped over myself, finding modifications for Frog Pose where my stomach wouldn’t get in the way.

But I know, unlike me, that over 55 percent of women in the U.S. have admitted to having “abusive thoughts” about their size; as a plus-size influencer, I can’t tell you amount of times I have heard women tell me that being self-conscious about their weight stops them from trying new things, taking classes, going places, and experiencing moments in life that many people take for granted.

I also noticed I was one of the older people in the room at classes—which struck me odd, since the average age in the U.S. is 38, and just over 50 percent of people are over 35.

I’d love to say these observations were anomalies… they weren’t.  The more time I spent immersing myself in holistic wellness, the more I noticed a discouraging lack of body diversity participating in practices. We’re a country with a sea of colors, ages, sizes, and shapes—and yet, at most place I’d go, I’d be the lone larger body in a sea of slender, athletic, and disproportionately youthful women.

I am a 40-year-old plus size woman who works in self-love and wellness. I’m a Kundalini yoga teacher, a public speaker, a writer, and event creator. I’ve worked on social media serving size-inclusive groups of women with self-love and body positivity for over nine years. The number one comment I hear time and time again? “It’s so great to see someone who looks like me doing things.”

My Personal Journey

In 2015, I was around 360 lbs; this number may not be fathomable to you, so let me put it in perspective by saying my body was regularly in so much pain that I was unable to walk a single NYC block without stopping.  But the bigger problem, was that emotionally I felt like everyone was living, and I was just watching things pass me by in the fast lane. I needed more, but I was super scared to change.

I started looking around online, in classes, or in the media; there was nobody I could identify with to show me it was possible to create change from the inside out without buying into diet culture. I needed to identify with someone that could make it safe for me to try new things. So I’ve became the person I needed to see.

The number one comment I hear time and time again? “It’s so great to see someone who looks like me doing things.”

For the last three years, I’ve shared my spiritual, fitness, and personal growth journey online, the highs and the lows. In the process, I have become someone who runs the only truly size-inclusive personal growth event in the market today. Because I know the truth: Body diversity and representation matters.

Sarah teaching her Body Love Workshop. Photo courtesy of the author.

To be blunt: This matters even if you aren’t fat.

Here’s why.

If we are alive on this planet, we’re going to age.

Chronic illness affects more than 40 percent of the population.

Over 19 percent of people in the U.S. live with a disability.

Deaf and hard of hearing people are often “left out” of traditional wellness spaces.

68 percent of women in the U.S. wear a size 16 and above.

Nearly 40 percent of Americans are obese.

Slender, young, seemingly “healthy” people are not the average in this country. And yet the wellness space can hardly be considered a welcoming or “safe” space for marginalized bodies. Even if you aren’t plus size, there’s a good chance you’ll fall into one of those categories as you get older—which means unless things change, consider yourself left out too. We’re all in this together!

Wellness is for every body.

Understand that when I say wellness, I don’t mean ads hocking weight loss products—that’s not wellness, that’s Diet Culture. There’s a difference between the two, and the industry needs to evolve beyond the idea that “thinner equals healthier.” Wellness is about creating wholeness in many areas of your life—your body, your spiritual life, your personal life, physical life, occupational life, and more.

Let me be clear—I do not have a problem with weight loss, and I am not, what some call, a Fat Activist. What I am is a person who believes that all bodies deserve access to tools and practices to help foster self-love and create change if they seek it.

I know the more we represent marginalized bodies engaging in wellness practices, the more we make it safer and accessible for more bodies to self-improve… And isn’t that what wellness is all about in the first place? All bodies deserve representation in the wellness space. As a plus size woman, I personally advocate for making wellness size-friendly.

⇢ What can we do to change the landscape? ⇠

If you are a teacher…

Learn modifications to help students of size or limited mobility. Introduce the modifications in your class without fanfare.

If you don’t know modifications, ASK for help. There are influencers and teachers who specialize in serving marginalized bodies; there’s no shame in being unaware. These voices have yet to be amplified in the wellness space, but they are there! Do the work and find them. (When I did my teacher training at Wanderlust Hollywood, I was the only person of size in the room; I continually used my presence to raise questions and share how my mobility impacted my practice.)

Don’t assume that every person of size who walks in the door will need special assistance! Simply make yourself accessible for questions if they are presented.

Encourage your studios to use a variety of bodies in their marketing and social media.

Once well-versed in accessibility techniques, offer to teach a class for serving different populations if none are available in your area. Enlist the support and advice of leaders who represent these communities with sincerity.

LISTEN to marginalized bodies; don’t talk over people. Be open and willing to hear, and be educated without ego. Remember, this is not about you.

If you are a student…

Treat everyone in your class the same way. Seriously.

Don’t “position police” your neighbors of size in class. Trust us, that person is aware of their body limitations; they don’t need you to chime in.

61 percent of people think it’s OK to make disparaging remarks about other people’s weight—don’t be one of them.

Be an ally to your friends of size and consider being a little more “size-friendly” in your life in general.

If you organize festivals or events…

Actively seek diverse bodies with subject authority to speak and present. We’re out here, trust me.

Use marginalized bodies in your advertisements and on social media. Treat these bodies exactly the same as you would any other model or representative.

Make sure your programming doesn’t innately fall into the “diet culture” of wellness; be aware of the messages you are sending by choosing which subjects to create space for.

Vary. Your. Programming. Be willing to have the hard conversations and be willing to create a safe space for all bodies to come to the table and participate.

Partner with influencers who represent marginalized communities. (They may have smaller followings… Do it anyway.)

It’s time we start acknowledging that all bodies are not thin. All bodies are not young. Some bodies are more able, and some bodies are less able. But ALL bodies are worth the journey of discovering what wellness means to them.

If you have serious thoughts to add to this conversation and would like to contribute to The Wanderlust Journal, please email editorial@wanderlust.com. Let’s change the wellness world. Together. 

—

Sarah Sapora loves meditation and cowboy boots, and lives guided by the idea that every day we wake up (at any age or weight) is a chance to transform our life from a place of self-love. She’s a Kundalini yoga teacher who believes that strength training and deep soul-work are equally important in creating a happier and healthier life from the inside out. Sarah’s biggest passion is making holistic wellness accessible to bodies of size. She is a speaker, writer, social influencer, creator of the Body + Love Workshop, a totally size-inclusive personal growth event, and of LifeLove, an app launching in 2019. Sarah uses her voice to cultivate a community of self-love and self-improvement free of diet culture. You can find Sarah online on Instagram or on her website, www.sarahsapora.com.

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The post I’m Fat and a Wellness Influencer. Here’s Why It Matters For You appeared first on Wanderlust.

[love-transparentstudentarca-blog]

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How and what is cheap auto insurance?

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full coverage auto insurance quotes

full coverage auto insurance quotes

No Insurance means i cant get temporary plates? MTO !!?

i recently recived a car, so i went to switch over the ownership and get temporary plates apparently i need to have insurance to get temp plates, but i do not plan on driving the car, i just need the plates to park it underground...without plates the car will get towed! i called to get an insurance quote..and theyre charging me 600 a month just to leave the car parked up. i only have my g1 so i dont know why theyre assuming i need to drive it...what do i do now. i dont know anyone who will get plates in their name for me !! i dont want all my money to be wasted""

I'm gonna be late on my State Farm car Insurance?

I have to pay the 6 month one and I'm late on it, I was supposed to pay for it today and it was my fault because I won't be having my paycheck til next week, on Friday. Do you think they will let me have an extension for the payment and if so, Do you think they will let me have the extension for 9 days? Please lmk, thanks.""

Breach Car Loan Insurance?

The bank that finances my car requires me to hold 1000 deductible. I currently dont have insurance because the lowest rate i can get is 650 . Thats half of what I make a month . What should I do . Has anyone ever been in this situation ?

""Both Canidates say they will make insurance affordable, no #'s are given - what is affordable?""

Both Canidates say they will make insurance affordable, no #'s are given - what is affordable? Some people cant afford $2.00 a week or a month...they are living on nothing. My ...show more""

How can I drive my new car home without insurance?

I am buying a car and will need one-day insurance to get it back home, however I am 20 years old and no-one will cover me. How do I get the car home without trying to find someone over 20 to drive it for me?!""

Insurance companies scoop on value of totaled car?

If the market in your area is much higher then what nada is, the insurance is going to do a market analysis. How far can they legally go out. Meaning how many miles. If I am in ...show more""

What are the other things do I have to pay for besides the car and insurance?

Okay my budget for my first car will be 1000 pounds insurance will be about 4000 or even more...whats MOT and Tax? what about breakdown cover? I'm thinking about getting breakdown cover because I dont really have anyone to call if i'm in trouble...it would save me the embarassment...

""If the mandate to buy health insurance wont stand the supreme court review, why am I forced to buy...?

car insurance in the state of California?

Health insurance......?

Im applying for the health connect in missouri and they asked me to call two different insurance company for quotes. My coworker said to call like prudential and allstate but i thought they only sale care,home,life insurance. do they sell health insurance too? i called but they dont work on saturdays so i just wanna know if they do or what other places i can call.""

Whats the cheapest 4x4 to insure at 18?

i'm 18, just passed my test, live with my parents in a small town and work full time at the supermarket, won't be driving it much, i just want a 4x4!""

Need help with a question about car insurance quotes.?

Is it legal for someone else to get an insurance quote for you without your permission? The person called and told the insurance company they were cars he was thinking of buying. Neither car is in his name and neither owner gave express permission for him to ask for this information.

Can fleet insurance be cheaper than insuring 2 vehicles?

My boyfriend and I got in a debate about this. I will be graduating college in a few months and told him that I wanted to purchase a pickup sometime within the year, but wanted to ...show more""

How much will i pay per year in motorcycle insurance?

20 years old. No car drivers license, first time rider. planning to take the motorcycle safety foundation 3 day basic rider course. Live in new york city. Looking at a pre 2007 used honda rebel. not looking for an exact quote, just ballpark what i should be expecting.""

Young Drivers Car Insurance!!!?

I've been shopping around for car insurance and for a car on my own I cant get it below 4,000 so to get this lower I was going to add my dad as the main driver and put me as an additional driver which got it down to 1,600, that was the plan until my mum told me it was illegal and called 'fronting' so that's out the window but then I was told when I buy my car to get my dad to buy it in his name, and then do the whole main driver and additional driver thing and it should be okay, is this true? If not can someone please give me some advice on how to get cheap car insurance, I'm going to be 18, it will be my first car and anything below a 1.4 engine size. Thanks""

Insurance on a Subaru Impreza WRX Wagon.?

Would someone like please tell me how much insurance would run me on 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX wagon? I know that its not cheap, which I'm ok with. I just figured that it would be a little cheaper being that its a wagon, and I would also like to get a heads up b4 I talk to the insurance company P.S. If you have just an RS Impreza or a normal WRX you can also let me know how much that runs too. Either one is fine.. Thanks guys!""

""Car insurance for 2 people, is it cheaper to insure 2 seperate cars or 1 ?""

So 1 car each, or one between 2 people..... which one would generally be cheaper ?""

In the state of california is it illegal to drive a car with out auto insurance?

In the state of california is it illegal to drive a car with out auto insurance?

Help with car insurance claim process?

A few days ago I scraped a co-worker's vehicle in our work parking lot. She wasn't in a proper parking space, but whatever, it was clearly my fault. I am paying for repairs to her car. I have pictures of my vehicle after the accident, but not of hers, because she left for the day while I was trying to find out who I had hit and find her in the building. I haven't brought this up with my insurance company yet. I initially thought I was going to be paying for scuffs to be buffed out of her back bumper, which wouldn't be cheap to fix but I figured it'd be inexpensive enough that I wouldn't involve my insurance. Today she handed me an estimate for $600+ for bumper replacement and paint work, etc. Fine. It was my fault. I'll eat it. But if I now want to involve my insurance, what do I do? Do I need her insurance info to file a claim? If I call up my insurance, does her insurance have to also become involved? I'm not even fixing my car - the fender's messed up but it's an old car and cosmetic damage doesn't bother me. I don't know what my insurance deductible is...if it's $500+ then I guess I won't bother and will just pay up in cash.""

""What happens if you have health insurance through your job, then have to get new health insurance?""

If you have health insurance with your employer then quit, how can you get new health insurance with your new employer because aren't they going to see all your pre-existing history from your old insurance company?""

Got a fine for no car insurance.?

I got a fine for no car insurance in nj, but I do have insurance i just left it at home what will possibly happen to me? do you know how much is gonna cost me""

I'd like a bigger bike but what will the insurance cost me?

I'm looking to trade in my 125cc for a bigger bike, most likely a 600cc, but I'm wondering what the insurance will be considering I have 3 points on my license for speeding. I'm looking to get it for my 18th, and it will be restricted to 33bhp. Can anyone give me a ballpark figure of what the insurance will be? And what bike should I get?""

Driving family car with no insurance?

I Drive my sister's car around a bit because i couldn't afford my insurance. Since I don't have insurance but my sister does on her car, would I get a ticket or get car towed if I drive it around without insurance? or would my sister's insurance cover it too? Thanks""

Does anyone know of a great affordable insurance plan with maternity coverage?

I already know about maternity card (no good).

Where can I get a good deal on my car insurance?

I passed my driving test about 4 days ago now and sooo badly want to get a car. I am looking at a ford fiesta 1.25 zetec which I have seen but have done some insurance quotes and its sooo expensive. Where and how can I find cheap car insurance. I am doing my pass plus next week and I am now 18. I have a mum and dad i could put on the insurance but they do not have any no claims as they drive a company car. So is there anyway I can get a good deal and where? HELP!!!!

What is an average 16 year old car insurance bill?

Im am 16 years old bought a car sunday its a 96 240sx 2 door, and my mom is wondering how much my insurance would cost. And we are with allstate if that helps you guys.""

full coverage auto insurance quotes

full coverage auto insurance quotes

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/i-need-address-website-aaa-insurance-corporate-adam-morgan/"

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has moved into the top tier of the Democratic primary field in national polls, joining former Vice President Joe Biden. Further, she leads in Iowa and New Hampshire and raised more than anyone except Sen. Bernie Sanders from July through September.

And yet, according to our endorsement tracker, Warren isn’t getting much support from Democratic Party elites, such as elected officials and members of the Democratic National Committee. In fact, she doesn’t just trail Biden in endorsement “points” by our metrics, but also Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, who are both well behind her in polling and fundraising. Warren is fifth in endorsements from Democratic state legislators (behind Biden, Booker, Harris and Sanders), according to research by Boris Shor, a political scientist at the University of Houston. And it’s not just that Warren is getting stiffed by more centrist Democrats who might disagree with her on the issues: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota endorsed Sanders last week.

So what gives?

No one is getting many endorsements

This is probably the simplest and best explanation. The clear leader in endorsements is really not Biden, but “undecided.”

By this point in the 2016 Democratic primary, in contrast, a huge bloc Democratic governors, senators and representatives had chosen a candidate, Hillary Clinton. But this cycle, the overwhelming majority of congressional Democrats and Democratic governors are still on the sidelines.1 Indeed, the 2020 Democratic primary looks more like the 2016 Republican primary, when most GOP officials held their fire until deep into the race, than that year’s Democratic race.

So a big part of the story here may be less about Warren and more about the large Democratic field and the lack of a clear front-runner, just as it was with Republicans in 2016. The big field, in particular, creates incentives for elected officials to remain neutral for as long as possible.

“For the faction of elected Democrats who want the party to move to the left, the fact that both Warren and Sanders are in the race and polling in the double digits makes it tough — and somewhat politically risky — to publicly choose between them at this point in the process,” David Hopkins, a political scientist at Boston College and co-author of “Asymmetric Politics,” said.

Or take members of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “At this stage,” Hopkins said, “with Harris, Booker, and [Julián] Castro in the race and many of their constituents backing Biden, these members have other considerations besides candidate ideology — both in terms of their own personal objectives and their political incentives. Again, a wait-and-see strategy seems much safer.”

Democrats may also be gun-shy after the outcome of the 2016 election. Hans Noel, a scholar at Georgetown University and co-author of “The Party Decides,” said of party elites: “They controlled the process, and they lost.”

“They were also criticized for favoring Clinton,” he added. “I don’t think that Clinton’s losing means they made a mistake in favoring her, but I think most party activists aren’t so comfortable with that interpretation.”

The party elites are wary of Warren

Warren has two obvious problems with party elites. First, there is the perception among some of them that her left-wing stands, such as Medicare for All, are too risky for the general election and decrease the party’s chances of defeating President Trump. For example, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not outright endorsed Biden or specifically declared that she does not support Warren, but Pelosi has argued that the party needs to have a big, sweeping electoral victory in 2020, and that such a win requires more moderate policies, like focusing on improving Obamacare instead of pursuing Medicare for All. Those are sentiments decidedly on the side of Biden and Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg and against Warren and Sanders.

Secondly, electoral considerations aside, there is a center-left wing of the Democratic Party that fundamentally disagrees with Warren’s more leftward positions. It’s hard to imagine some of these figures endorsing Warren before she has effectively already won the nomination. (That fits with Shor’s findings — Warren’s endorsers at the state legislative level are more liberal than the endorsers of any of the other candidates.)

These problems are not unique to Warren. Sanders was perceived as too far to the left by many Democratic elites in 2016; he got very few endorsements back then and is not getting many this cycle, either. (Sen. Amy Klobuchar actually leads Sanders in endorsement points.)

Warren also has a third challenge with party elites that is less obvious. The Massachusetts senator clashed with senior aides to President Obama for much of his tenure in the White House. She, like Sanders, isn’t quite in line with the party’s establishment. A Warren administration would probably be less likely to hire former Clinton (Bill and Hillary) and Obama aides in key posts than, say, a Biden, Booker or Harris one. So people connected with the party establishment (like many DNC members) may be fine with Warren but prefer other candidates for more self-interested reasons.

The endorsements we’re focused on miss some of Warren’s support

For a variety of reasons, we opted not to track endorsements from groups (as opposed to individuals). So that leaves out, for example, Warren winning the backing of the Working Families Party, a liberal activist group that has chapters in 15 states and is influential in places like New York. Several of the other candidates, including Sanders, pushed hard for that endorsement, and it may be more valuable than the backing of a handful of members of Congress.

A strict count of formal endorsements also leaves out less official institutional support. The liberal activist groups under the broader “Indivisible” umbrella, MSNBC (particularly its more left-leaning hosts like Rachel Maddow) and Pod Save America aren’t likely to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary. But the general ethos of those organizations is closer to “Republicans are morally bankrupt and must be confronted aggressively,” than “Democrats can work with Mitch McConnell.” (Biden hints at the latter, Warren the former.)

Lara Putnam, a historian at the University of Pittsburgh who has studied Democratic activist groups like Indivisible that have emerged after the 2016 campaign, says that many individual Indivisible chapters don’t want to formally endorse a candidate in the primary. They fear endorsements would create divides and make it harder for those groups to unify for the general election. But Putnam also says that many of the activists involved in post-2016 anti-Trump organizing are backing Warren. And they are acting on that support through, say, Facebook groups that are separate from the respective larger anti-Trump groups these activists are also affiliated with. (An informal August poll done of its members by national Indivisible also showed Warren as the activists’ favorite.)

“Warren has a large number of potentially very influential supporters in the local grassroots space, and they are also the people most opposed to using public endorsements as a means of pressure to shape [the] primary contest,” said Putnam.

Similarly, we are tracking the designated Democratic leader in state legislatures around the country, so we counted Georgia House Minority Leader Robert Trammell’s endorsement of Harris, for example. But the endorsement of Warren by Lorena Gonzalez, a rising star in the state House in California, a hugely important primary state, isn’t captured in the FiveThirtyEight tracker, even though Gonzalez’s backing may be more significant than Trammell’s. Molly Kelly, who was the Democratic nominee for governor in 2018 in New Hampshire, is also backing Warren; that’s another fairly high-profile endorsement that doesn’t fit our metrics. Warren has the most endorsements from state legislators in Iowa, which might be more significant than federal legislators or state legislative leaders.

Does Warren’s lack of endorsements matter?

Trump won in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada in 2016 and was well on his way to the GOP nomination before even a single Republican in Congress endorsed him. So in the anti-elite, anti-Washington, anti-establishment environment we are in right now, Warren might be better-off without a lot of endorsements. Another part of the story could be that the Warren campaign isn’t pushing particularly hard — or at least not as hard as other campaigns — to get endorsements from officials outside of the early primary states.

“She has little public support from party leaders, yet she’s in an increasingly strong position with liberal activists and the party grassroots and is pushing into a national lead among Democratic primary voters,” said Hopkins. “That in itself suggests that endorsements have limited value for candidates, perhaps especially for candidates like her who are presenting themselves as populists.”

He added: “We’re in an age when traditional party networks matter less in nominations and media presence matters more, so it just may not make much difference to voters who their member of Congress or state legislator tells them to vote for.”

Maybe. But we haven’t yet had a recent Democratic presidential primary with a nominee strongly opposed by the party elite. In fact, you could imagine a nightmare scenario for Warren, because of this lack of elite support. Let’s say she wins in Iowa and New Hampshire. Black and Latino members of Congress, still wary of her, downplay those wins by arguing that both came in heavily white states that are unrepresentative of the broader Democratic electorate. Someone like Obama, Pelosi or one of the Clintons says publicly, “A second term of Trump would be an existential crisis for America, and I’m worried that a candidate supporting fairly controversial policies like Medicare for All makes that more possible.” And in that scenario, maybe key figures in the party like David Plouffe, the manager of Obama’s campaign, endorse whichever more moderate candidate seems most viable at that point (likely Biden, Buttigieg or Harris.)

The potential danger for the Massachusetts senator is that “party elites lukewarm about Warren” turns into “party elites organize to stop Warren.” And perhaps Democratic voters care more about the views of their party’s elites than Republican voters did in 2016.

Even if that does turn out to be the case, however, Warren, well, seems to have a plan for that. The Massachusetts senator is reportedly privately talking to party elites, emphasizing that she is a team player and will take into account what’s good for the overall party if she is the Democratic nominee. That outreach, according to NBC News, includes regular contact with Hillary Clinton. That sounds like exactly what a candidate who wants to be accepted by the party establishment down the line, even if that establishment won’t embrace and endorse her right now.

[reviewandbonuss]

How to Use CallRail to Attribute Phone Calls Back to Your Landing Pages

Getting a new client always starts innocently enough. Initial talks go well. Everyone’s on board. But then you get full account access and start digging deeper…

True story: I once worked with a client who was spending tens of thousands each month on PPC. Yet they had zero conversion tracking.

The phone rang, sure. But no one knew why. Everyone just assumed it was… ? Billboards? (Let’s not be ridiculous, here.)

Image via Shutterstock.

“But I have an AdWords call extension,” you claim. “I AM tracking phone calls with events,” you say.

That’s great. A good start. But not nearly enough. Here’s why.

Problem #1: How often do you call a new company directly from an AdWords ad?

Or do you act like a rational human being and click through the ad to the website or landing page to check them out first? That way, you can see if they’re legit or not before picking up the phone to dial. But what happens with your AdWords call extension in this case?

That’s right. You get nothing.

Problem #2: Last touch attribution bias.

AdWords drove the call, but you have no idea which steps before helped to “assist” the conversion. You can’t measure the proper attribution.

Problem #3: You’re only able to see aggregate data.

Let’s suspend disbelief for a second and say someone called you without ever leaving the SERPs, deciding to hand over their credit card to a complete stranger because you just sounded so nice on the phone…

You can still only see aggregate data.

Calls aren’t customers. They’re just calls.

Maybe the prospect’s lost and needs directions. Maybe they want the hours of your location. Maybe the stars aligned and they did become a lead.

Now, all hope is not lost. There is a solution. A way out of this mess. You just need the right tool for the right job.

Enter CallRail.

How to reclaim the phone calls you so rightfully deserve

CallRail can do a few awesome things that will make many of the aforementioned problems go away.

The gold lies in their dynamic keywords pool feature.

Let’s replay the scenario from earlier to see how it works. Someone Googles you, clicks through to a landing page, and possibly might even bounce back to your homepage to find out more about you first.

In the old days, you’d be SOL.

With CallRail’s number insertion, though, your tracking phone number will follow that person from page to page throughout their sessions.

Once someone does call in, you get a wealth of data including the pages they visited during this session, their physical location, and of course, the specific ad or keyword they clicked on in the first place.

The insight will be neatly compiled inside a dashboard for that individual call:

And you know what’s even more glorious?

You can automagically pass this data back to your CRM to track subsequent calls and/or real, honest-to-goodness conversions. (Assuming, of course, that you’re not using a precious “industry specialized” piece of software that doesn’t allow you to do anything with anything.)

Call data now gets passed back and forth. You can even merge it with existing lead data. So you’re not just tracking phone leads anymore, but real dolla dolla billz y’all. #closedloopforthewin

Sounds great, right?

Here’s how to set it up on your campaigns.

Step 1: Start by creating a dynamic keyword pool in CallRail

Log into the CallRail dashboard and head to the Numbers section (denoted with a pound sign):

Next, look for the little button that says, “+ Add a Phone Number”:

After clicking, you’ll get the option to use it online or off (so you can track calls from account-based marketing campaigns for example):

Next, you’ll want to add it to your website.

And then track each individual visitor (as opposed to the campaign).

This way you’ll set up a “pool” of phone numbers that will automatically tie and rotate for each individual website visitor (as opposed to tracking by page).

So let’s now set up that pool.

Go ahead and name the pool whatever you’d like.

The “Destination Number” is the business line your company uses that you want to ultimately ring. We can also edit this later with a “Swap Target.”

Your pool size should depend on how much real-time traffic you get to your site. Generally speaking, you’ll need smaller pool sizes on low traffic sites and larger pool sizes on higher traffic sites.

I believe CallRail’s recommendation is (or was) to look at the number of real-time visitors you’re getting to your site at its peak to gauge the ultimate pool number you might need at any one time.

Next, select which traffic sources you’d like this number pool to track (just default to “All”).

Then you can select a specific area code (toll-free vs. local) you want to use on your website.

Finally, select whether you want to record calls and add a “whisper message.”

The whisper message is exactly what it sounds like.

When someone calls from your landing page, the person answering the phone at your business will hear a soft whisper message before the call connects. For example, you can set it to say “holiday sale promotion” to alert the person answering the phone to the source of the call.

This can be very helpful to know exactly how to service the customer without asking how they got to you.

(Recording calls is also free FYI.)

Easy enough, right?!

Perfect. Now let’s move on to the next step.

Step 2: Set up your landing page

We created our first dynamic keyword pool in the last step. Now we want to install the script onto our Unbounce landing pages and set up your phone number swap targets.

There are two ways to do it, so let’s start with the lazy easy solution of pointing and clicking with the official integration.

Go into Unbounce and find the company you’d like to integrate with CallRail.

Image source.

Next, click on the “Settings” gear icon:

Image source.

Now select the “Integrations” tab inside CallRail (under “Settings”).

Image source.

And click “Activate” on the Unbounce option.

Image source.

You’ll then be whisked away to Unbounce to Authorize the connection.

Image source.

You can also install the tracking script manually on each landing page if you’d rather not connect at the company level.

First, head over to the “Settings” gear icon and click on “Integrations” to find “Dynamic Number Insertion.”

Then scroll down and you’ll find the tracking JavaScript:

All you’ll need to do is copy and paste this before the closing body tag (</body>) on the pages containing your phone number.

Look for “JavaScripts” down at the bottom of your landing page builder inside Unbounce:

Then paste in your code and select the correct placement (“Before Body End Tag”).

Obviously, save your work — and you’re done. Easy peasy.

Now let’s go update any swap target details on these landing pages.

Head back into CallRail and go to the “Numbers” section again.

Now, select the number pool you just created in the last step by clicking on the little edit pencil icon:

Then, scroll down to point three (“Dynamic Number Insertion”) to add the Swap Target and edit the Pool Size (if needed).

The Swap Target is the phone number you want CallRail to look for on your website and dynamically change it with ones from your keyword pool.

So if you have 123-456-7899 as your company number, you would place that as the swap target so that CallRail can populate new tracking numbers for each visitor.

(You can also add a secondary Swap Target if you have multiple different phone numbers on the page.)

Missing out on precious phone call lead data? CallRail integrates seamlessly with Unbounce landing pages. See other industry leading tools you can connect with your landing pages.

Step 3: Integrate CallRail with AdWords

You’ve already done a lot of work. Nice job! Any calls from “organic” sources of traffic should now be tracked inside CallRail.

However, the entire point of this exercise was to demystify your PPC traffic, so let’s connect CallRail with your AdWords account.

Inside CallRail, go to “Settings,” “Integrations,” and then click on “Google AdWords.”

Once there, click the “Authorize” button at the bottom of the page.

Now “Allow” with your Google account.

Then choose the company you want to integrate with CallRail.

Hit “Activate” and you should be good to go.

Before moving on, though, let’s add keyword-level tracking.

Adding keyword-level tracking

Adding the ?keyword={keyword} parameter to your URLs in AdWords is the last recommended step. Adding this parameter to your ad URLs will make sure individual keyword data displays on your call log and in caller’s timelines (inside CallRail).

Head to your “Shared Library” at the bottom of your AdWords account.

Then head over to the URL options in the bottom right-hand corner.

Here, you have two options:

You can add a tracking template, and

You can set up auto tracking

Here’s how to manually add the tracking data.

Type “{lpurl}” and add the keyword parameter. In this case, {lpurl} represents your final URL, so you won’t have to manually enter your ad URLs.

If your tracking template does not contain a “?” append: “?keyword={keyword}” like so:

Then, hit test and wait for the green light.

Once you’re done, you will start to see keyword data from AdWords inside CallRail.

Hooray!

Step 4: Add call goals to Google Analytics

If we’re being prudent, there should also be a conversion goal inside Google Analytics.

Your data will never truly be 100%, 100% of the time. There will be flaws. There will be gaps. There will be misalignment.

Triangulating data points from several different sources helps you handicap this risk.

That means we also want to integrate CallRail with Google Analytics while we’re at it. To do so, head to “Settings,” “Integrations,” and “Google Analytics.”

When there, drop in your Google Analytics ID and hit “Update.”

Next, head to Google Analytics to create a new call goal.

Go to “Admin” (the gear icon in the lower left-hand corner), then “View” and finally “Goals” in the upper-right corner:

Click for larger image.

Now select the bright red “+ New Goal” button.

Once inside, click on “Custom” down below because we’re about to get a little fancy.

Enter the name and select event.

Now we need to customize the event conditions to make sure your data will be labelled properly.

So drop “Phone” into the Category option.

And “Save” the new goal!

Step 5: Integrate CallRail with your CRM (like HubSpot) for full-funnel Attribution

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could now see which phone calls resulted in closed deals paying you the big bucks?

After all, you should be making strategic PPC decisions based on meaningful data (revenue, Cost Per Lead, etc.) and not just vanity metrics (new leads, Cost Per Click, etc.).

The good news is that you can with CallRail.

Head back into “Settings” and “Integrations”, then look for your favorite CRM.

We’ll use “HubSpot” in this example to show you how these integrations work.

Scroll down to HubSpot and hit the “Activate” button.

Then you’ll need to grab your HubSpot ID to finalize this integration.

So head to HubSpot, log in, and grab the “Hub ID” in the top right-hand corner of your screen.

Simply copy that number and head back to the CallRail HubSpot Integration screen, paste it in, and hit “Authorize.”

You can also select to create a new lead inside HubSpot each time someone calls. You won’t have their name and email at this point necessarily, but you can merge it on subsequent calls.

Next, HubSpot will ask you to select the account to link CallRail with and then “Grant access.”

And that’s it! Now, your calls will create new leads in HubSpot and integrate the data.

Step 6: Measuring campaign performance back to ad spend

Now you’ve completed all the hard work.

The only thing that’s left is to actually use the data once it starts rolling in.

When you log into CallRail, the dashboard right in front of you will list out some of the most recent activity.

Click for larger image.

Let’s break down this down (by number):

This is your Keyword Pool name for each call

The campaign keywords from that drove each click and then call (if there’s nothing showing up, it’s most likely organic as opposed to a PPC call)

The specific campaigns (pulling in PPC data) that drove each click and call

Your landing page where the call initiated

And finally the Lead Status for each (so you can record the number of good, quality leads vs. the junk)

Why is this useful?

Now this data will help you figure out:

Which keywords are performing well and driving calls.

Which campaigns are performing well and driving calls.

Which landing pages are performing well and driving calls.

And where the F*@#$%$ your customers are actually coming from!!!

You can now also view some of this data inside AdWords, too.

Go under “Tools” and look for “Conversions.”

Then you can now see AdWords phone calls ready to track through the CallRail integration we set up earlier.

And because we dot all i’s and cross all t’s, you can see this data inside Google Analytics now, too.

Log in and head over to “Behavior,” then “Events,” and finally “Top Events.”

Here you will see the phone call goal you created earlier in this article. If you click on that phone text link, you can see even deeper data:

Click for larger image.

The reporting format varies based on whether the call was received via a source tracking number or a keyword tracking number with the following attributes:

Source Tracker: Incoming call via [tracking number] – [source name]

Keyword Tracker: Incoming call via Keyword Tracker

Next, in the event action table, you can click on each action for more details.

Like the phone number that just called you.

And that’s it!

Phew, we made it.

Thanks for sticking around to the end. I think you deserve the rest of the day off.

Before I say goodbye…

Phone calls produce the best conversion rates of any sales channel. They eclipse lead gen data from your standard website form fill.

Phone calls from AdWords are especially lucrative because these people are often already at the bottom of the funnel; they’re ready to take action and sign up or get started immediately.

But if you’re not tracking any of them, you can’t determine which campaigns, individual landing pages, or keywords are driving the best ROI (and not just lead counts).

Thankfully, there’s CallRail + Unbounce. A match made in PPC heaven.

You can run through the steps listed in this article, finally close the phone call loop, and reclaim those conversions that are so rightfully yours — because you can’t take credit for conversions if you don’t know where they came from.

http://unbounce.com/ppc/call-rail-and-landing-pages/

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20 Diversion Tactics Highly Manipulative Narcissists, Sociopaths And Psychopaths Use To Silence You

Danielle Drislane

Toxic people such as malignant narcissists, psychopaths and those with antisocial traits engage in maladaptive behaviors in relationships that ultimately exploit, demean and hurt their intimate partners, family members and friends. They use a plethora of diversionary tactics that distort the reality of their victims and deflect responsibility. Although those who are not narcissistic can employ these tactics as well, abusive narcissists use these to an excessive extent in an effort to escape accountability for their actions.

Here are the 20 diversionary tactics toxic people use to silence and degrade you.

1. Gaslighting.

Gaslighting is a manipulative tactic that can be described in different variations of three words: That didnt happen, You imagined it, and Are you crazy? Gaslighting is perhaps one of the most insidious manipulative tactics out there because it works to distort and erode your sense of reality; it eats away at your ability to trust yourself and inevitably disables you from feeling justified in calling out abuse and mistreatment.

When a narcissist, sociopath or psychopath gaslights you, you may be prone to gaslighting yourself as a way to reconcile the cognitive dissonance that might arise. Two conflicting beliefs battle it out: is this person right or can I trust what I experienced? A manipulative person will convince you that the former is an inevitable truth while the latter is a sign of dysfunction on your end.

In order to resist gaslighting, its important to ground yourself in your own reality sometimes writing things down as they happened, telling a friend or reiterating your experience to a support network can help to counteract the gaslighting effect. The power of having a validating community is that it can redirect you from the distorted reality of a malignant person and back to your own inner guidance.

2. Projection.

One sure sign of toxicity is when a person is chronically unwilling to see his or her own shortcomings and uses everything in their power to avoid being held accountable for them. This is known as projection. Projection is a defense mechanism used to displace responsibility of ones negative behavior and traits by attributing them to someone else. It ultimately acts as a digression that avoids ownership and accountability.

While we all engage in projection to some extent, according to Narcissistic Personality clinical expert Dr. Martinez-Lewi, the projections of a narcissist are often psychologically abusive. Rather than acknowledge their own flaws, imperfections and wrongdoings, malignant narcissists and sociopaths opt to dump their own traits on their unsuspecting suspects in a way that is painful and excessively cruel. Instead of admitting that self-improvement may be in order, they would prefer that their victims take responsibility for their behavior and feel ashamed of themselves. This is a way for a narcissist to project any toxic shame they have about themselves onto another.

For example, a person who engages in pathological lying may accuse their partner of fibbing; a needy spouse may call their husband clingy in an attempt to depict them as the one who is dependent; a rude employee may call their boss ineffective in an effort to escape the truth about their own productivity.

Narcissistic abusers love to play the blameshifting game. Objectives of the game: they win, you lose, and you or the world at large is blamed for everything thats wrong with . This way, you get to babysit their fragile ego while youre thrust into a sea of self-doubt. Fun, right?

Solution? Dont project your own sense of compassion or empathy onto a toxic person and dont own any of the toxic persons projections either. As manipulation expert and author Dr. George Simon (2010) notes in his book , projecting our own conscience and value system onto others has the potential consequence of being met with further exploitation.

Narcissists on the extreme end of the spectrum usually have no interest in self-insight or change. Its important to cut ties and end interactions with toxic people as soon as possible so you can get centered in your own reality and validate your own identity. You dont have to live in someone elses cesspool of dysfunction.

3. Nonsensical conversations from hell.

If you think youre going to have a thoughtful discussion with someone who is toxic, be prepared for epic mindfuckery rather than conversational mindfulness.

Malignant narcissists and sociopaths use word salad, circular conversations, ad hominem arguments, projection and gaslighting to disorient you and get you off track should you ever disagree with them or challenge them in any way. They do this in order to discredit, confuse and frustrate you, distract you from the main problem and make you feel guilty for being a human being with actual thoughts and feelings that might differ from their own. In their eyes, are the problem if you happen to exist.

Spend even ten minutes arguing with a toxic narcissist and youll find yourself wondering how the argument even began at all. You simply disagreed with them about their absurd claim that the sky is red and now your entire childhood, family, friends, career and lifestyle choices have come under attack. That is because your disagreement picked at their false belief that they are omnipotent and omniscient, resulting in a narcissistic injury.

Remember: toxic people dont argue with you, they essentially argue with themselves and you become privy to their long, draining monologues. They thrive off the drama and they live for it. Each and every time you attempt to provide a point that counters their ridiculous assertions, you feed them supply. Dont feed the narcissists supply rather, supply yourself with the confirmation that their abusive behavior is the problem, not you. Cut the interaction short as soon as you anticipate it escalating and use your energy on some decadent self-care instead.

4. Blanket statements and generalizations.

Malignant narcissists arent always intellectual masterminds many of them are intellectually lazy. Rather than taking the time to carefully consider a different perspective, they generalize anything and everything you say, making blanket statements that dont acknowledge the nuances in your argument or take into account the multiple perspectives youve paid homage to. Better yet, why not put a label on you that dismisses your perspective altogether?

On a larger scale, generalizations and blanket statements invalidate experiences that dont fit in the unsupported assumptions, schemas and stereotypes of society; they are also used to maintain the status quo. This form of digression exaggerates one perspective to the point where a social justice issue can become completely obscured. For example, rape accusations against well-liked figures are often met with the reminder that there are false reports of rape that occur. While those do occur, they are rare, and in this case, the actions of one become labeled the behavior of the majority while the specific report itself remains unaddressed.

These everyday microaggressions also happen in toxic relationships. If you bring up to a narcissistic abuser that their behavior is unacceptable for example, they will often make blanket generalizations about your hypersensitivity or make a generalization such as, You are satisfied, or Youre too sensitive rather than addressing the real issues at hand. Its possible that you are oversensitive at times, but it is also possible that the abuser is also insensitive and cruel the majority of the time.

Hold onto your truth and resist generalizing statements by realizing that they are in fact forms of black and white illogical thinking. Toxic people wielding blanket statements do not represent the full richness of experience they represent the limited one of their singular experience and overinflated sense of self.

5. Deliberately misrepresenting your thoughts and feelings to the point of absurdity.

In the hands of a malignant narcissist or sociopath, your differing opinions, legitimate emotions and lived experiences get translated into character flaws and evidence of your irrationality.

Narcissists weave tall tales to reframe what youre actually saying as a way to make your opinions look absurd or heinous. Lets say you bring up the fact that youre unhappy with the way a toxic friend is speaking to you. In response, he or she may put words in your mouth, saying, Oh, so now perfect? or So I am a bad person, huh? when youve done nothing but express your feelings. This enables them to invalidate your right to have thoughts and emotions about their inappropriate behavior and instills in you a sense of guilt when you attempt to establish boundaries.

This is also a popular form of diversion and cognitive distortion that is known as mind reading. Toxic people often presume they know what youre thinking and feeling. They chronically jump to conclusions based on their own triggers rather than stepping back to evaluate the situation mindfully. They act accordingly based on their own delusions and fallacies and make no apologies for the harm they cause as a result. Notorious for putting words in your mouth, they depict you as having an intention or outlandish viewpoint you didnt possess. They accuse you of thinking of them as toxic even before youve gotten the chance to call them out on their behavior and this also serves as a form of preemptive defense.

Simply stating, I never said that, and walking away should the person continue to accuse you of doing or saying something you didnt can help to set a firm boundary in this type of interaction. So long as the toxic person can blameshift and digress from their own behavior, they have succeeded in convincing you that you should be shamed for giving them any sort of realistic feedback.

6. Nitpicking and moving the goal posts.

The difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism is the presence of a personal attack and impossible standards. These so-called “critics” often don’t want to help you improve, they just want to nitpick, pull you down and scapegoat you in any way they can. Abusive narcissists and sociopaths employ a logical fallacy known as moving the goalposts in order to ensure that they have every reason to be perpetually dissatisfied with you. This is when, even after youve provided all the evidence in the world to validate your argument or taken an action to meet their request, they set up another expectation of you or demand more proof.

Do you have a successful career? The narcissist will then start to pick on why you arent a multi-millionaire yet. Did you already fulfill their need to be excessively catered to? Now its time to prove that you can also remain independent. The goal posts will perpetually change and may not even be related to each other; they dont have any other point besides making you vie for the narcissists approval and validation.

By raising the expectations higher and higher each time or switching them completely, highly manipulative and toxic people are able to instill in you a pervasive sense of unworthiness and of never feeling quite enough. By pointing out one irrelevant fact or one thing you did wrong and developing a hyperfocus on it, narcissists get to divert from your strengths and pull you into obsessing over any flaws or weaknesses instead. They get you thinking about the next expectation of theirs youre going to have to meet until eventually youve bent over backwards trying to fulfill their every need only to realize it didnt change the horrific way they treated you.

Dont get sucked into nitpicking and changing goal posts if someone chooses to rehash an irrelevant point over and over again to the point where they arent acknowledging the work youve done to validate your point or satisfy them, their motive isnt to better understand. Its to further provoke you into feeling as if you have to constantly prove yourself. Validate and approve of yourself. Know that you are enough and you dont have to be made to feel constantly deficient or unworthy in some way.

7. Changing the subject to evade accountability.

This type of tactic is what I like to call the What about me? syndrome. It is a literal digression from the actual topic that works to redirect attention to a different issue altogether. Narcissists dont want you to be on the topic of holding them accountable for anything, so they will reroute discussions to benefit them. Complaining about their neglectful parenting? Theyll point out a mistake you committed seven years ago. This type of diversion has no limits in terms of time or subject content, and often begins with a sentence like What about the time when

On a macrolevel, these diversions work to derail discussions that challenge the status quo. A discussion about gay rights, for example, may be derailed quickly by someone who brings in another social justice issue just to distract people from the main argument.

As Tara Moss, author of , notes, specificity is needed in order to resolve and address issues appropriately that doesnt mean that the issues that are being brought up dont matter, it just means that the specific time and place may not be the best context to discuss them.

Dont be derailed if someone pulls a switcheroo on you, you can exercise what I call the broken record method and continue stating the facts without giving in to their distractions. Redirect their redirection by saying, Thats not what I am talking about. Lets stay focused on the real issue. If theyre not interested, disengage and spend your energy on something more constructive – like not having a debate with someone who has the mental age of a toddler.

8. Covert and overt threats.

Narcissistic abusers and otherwise toxic people feel very threatened when their excessive sense of entitlement, false sense of superiority and grandiose sense of self are challenged in any way. They are prone to making unreasonable demands on others while punishing you for not living up to their impossible to reach expectations.

Rather than tackle disagreements or compromises maturely, they set out to divert you from your right to have your own identity and perspective by attempting to instill fear in you about the consequences of disagreeing or complying with their demands. To them, any challenge results in an ultimatum and do this or Ill do that becomes their daily mantra.

If someones reaction to you setting boundaries or having a differing opinion from your own is to threaten you into submission, whether its a thinly veiled threat or an overt admission of what they plan to do, this is a red flag of someone who has a high degree of entitlement and has no plans of compromising. Take threats seriously and show the narcissist you mean business; document threats and report them whenever possible and legally feasible.

9. Name-calling.

Narcissists preemptively blow anything they perceive as a threat to their superiority out of proportion. In their world, only they can ever be right and anyone who dares to say otherwise creates a narcissistic injury that results in narcissistic rage. As Mark Goulston, M.D. asserts, narcissistic rage does not result from low self-esteem but rather a high sense of entitlement and false sense of superiority.

The lowest of the low resort to narcissistic rage in the form of name-calling when they cant think of a better way to manipulate your opinion or micromanage your emotions. Name-calling is a quick and easy way to put you down, degrade you and insult your intelligence, appearance or behavior while invalidating your right to be a separate person with a right to his or her perspective.

Name-calling can also be used to criticize your beliefs, opinions and insights. A well-researched perspective or informed opinion suddenly becomes silly or idiotic in the hands of a malignant narcissist or sociopath who feels threatened by it and cannot make a respectful, convincing rebuttal. Rather than target your argument, they target you as a person and seek to undermine your credibility and intelligence in any way they possibly can. Its important to end any interaction that consists of name-calling and communicate that you wont tolerate it. Dont internalize it: realize that they are resorting to name-calling because they are deficient in higher level methods.

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10. Destructive conditioning.

Toxic people condition you to associate your strengths, talents, and happy memories with abuse, frustration and disrespect. They do this by sneaking in covert and overt put-downs about the qualities and traits they once idealized as well as sabotaging your goals, ruining celebrations, vacations and holidays. They may even isolate you from your friends and family and make you financially dependent upon them. Like Pavlovs dogs, youre essentially trained over time to become afraid of doing the very things that once made your life fulfilling.

Narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths and otherwise toxic people do this because they wish to divert attention back to themselves and how youre going to please them. If there is anything outside of them that may threaten their control over your life, they seek to destroy it. They need to be the center of attention at all times. In the idealization phase, you were once the center of a narcissists world now the narcissist becomes the center of yours.

Narcissists are also naturally pathologically envious and dont want anything to come in between them and their influence over you. Your happiness represents everything they feel they cannot have in their emotionally shallow lives. After all, if you learn that you can get validation, respect and love from other sources besides the toxic person, whats to keep you from leaving them? To toxic people, a little conditioning can go a long way to keep you walking on eggshells and falling just short of your big dreams.

11. Smear campaigns and stalking.

When toxic types cant control the way you see yourself, they start to control how others see you; they play the martyr while youre labeled the toxic one. A smear campaign is a preemptive strike to sabotage your reputation and slander your name so that you wont have a support network to fall back on lest you decide to detach and cut ties with this toxic person. They may even stalk and harass you or the people you know as a way to supposedly expose the truth about you; this exposure acts as a way to hide their own abusive behavior while projecting it onto you.

Some smear campaigns can even work to pit two people or two groups against each other. A victim in an abusive relationship with a narcissist often doesnt know whats being said about them during the relationship, but they eventually find out the falsehoods shortly after theyve been discarded.

Toxic people will gossip behind your back (and in front of your face), slander you to your loved ones or their loved ones, create stories that depict you as the aggressor while they play the victim, and claim that you engaged in the same behaviors that they are afraid you will accuse them of engaging in. They will also methodically, covertly and deliberately abuse you so they can use your reactions as a way to prove that they are the so-called victims of your abuse.

The best way to handle a smear campaign is to stay mindful of your reactions and stick to the facts. This is especially pertinent for high-conflict divorces with narcissists who may use your reactions to their provocations against you. Document any form of harassment, cyberbullying or stalking incidents and always speak to your narcissist through a lawyer whenever possible. You may wish to take legal action if you feel the stalking and harassment is getting out of control; finding a lawyer who is well-versed in Narcissistic Personality Disorder is crucial if thats the case. Your character and integrity will speak for itself when the narcissists false mask begins to slip.

12. Love-bombing and devaluation.

Toxic people put you through an idealization phase until youre sufficiently hooked and invested in beginning a friendship or relationship with you. Then, they begin to devalue you while insulting the very things they admired in the first place. Another variation of this is when a toxic individual puts you on a pedestal while aggressively devaluing and attacking someone else who threatens their sense of superiority.

Narcissistic abusers do this all the time they devalue their exes to their new partners, and eventually the new partner starts to receive the same sort of mistreatment as the narcissists ex-partner. Ultimately what will happen is that you will also be on the receiving end of the same abuse. You will one day be the ex-partner they degrade to their new source of supply. You just dont know it yet. Thats why its important to stay mindful of the love-bombing technique whenever you witness behavior that doesnt align with the saccharine sweetness a narcissist subjects you to.

As life coach Wendy Powell suggests, slowing things down with people you suspect may be toxic is an important way of combating the love-bombing technique. Be wary of the fact that how a person treats or speaks about someone else could potentially translate into the way they will treat you in the future.

13. Preemptive defense.

When someone stresses the fact that they are a nice guy or girl, that you should trust them right away or emphasizes their credibility without any provocation from you whatsoever, be wary.

Toxic and abusive people overstate their ability to be kind and compassionate. They often tell you that you should trust them without first building a solid foundation of trust. They may perform a high level of sympathy and empathy at the beginning of your relationship to dupe you, only to unveil their false mask later on. When you see their false mask begins to slip periodically during the devaluation phase of the abuse cycle, the true self is revealed to be terrifyingly cold, callous and contemptuous.

Genuinely nice people rarely have to persistently show off their positive qualities they exude their warmth more than they talk about it and they know that actions speak volumes more than mere words. They know that trust and respect is a two-way street that requires reciprocity, not repetition.

To counter a preemptive defense, reevaluate why a person may be emphasizing their good qualities. Is it because they think you dont trust them, or because they know you shouldnt? Trust actions more than empty words and see how someones actions communicate who they are, not who they say they are.

14. Triangulation.

Bringing in the opinion, perspective or suggested threat of another person into the dynamic of an interaction is known as triangulation. Often used to validate the toxic persons abuse while invalidating the victims reactions to abuse, triangulation can also work to manufacture love triangles that leave you feeling unhinged and insecure.

Malignant narcissists love to triangulate their significant other with strangers, co-workers, ex-partners, friends and even family members in order to evoke jealousy and uncertainty in you. They also use the opinions of others to validate their point of view.

This is a diversionary tactic meant to pull your attention away from their abusive behavior and into a false image of them as a desirable, sought after person. It also leaves you questioning yourself if Mary did agree with Tom, doesnt that mean that you must be wrong? The truth is, narcissists love to report back falsehoods about others say about you, when in fact, they are the ones smearing you.

To resist triangulation tactics, realize that whoever the narcissist is triangulating with is also being triangulated by your relationship with the narcissist as well. Everyone is essentially being played by this one person. Reverse triangulate the narcissist by gaining support from a third party that is not under the narcissists influence and also by seeking your own validation.

15. Bait and feign innocence.

Toxic individuals lure you into a false sense of security simply to have a platform to showcase their cruelty. Baiting you into a mindless, chaotic argument can escalate into a showdown rather quickly with someone who doesnt know the meaning of respect. A simple disagreement may bait you into responding politely initially, until it becomes clear that the person has a malicious motive of tearing you down.

By baiting you with a seemingly innocuous comment disguised as a rational one, they can then begin to play with you. Remember: narcissistic abusers have learned about your insecurities, the unsettling catchphrases that interrupt your confidence, and the disturbing topics that reenact your wounds and they use this knowledge maliciously to provoke you. After youve fallen for it, hook line and sinker, theyll stand back and innocently ask whether youre okay and talk about how they didnt mean to agitate you. This faux innocence works to catch you off guard and make you believe that they truly didnt intend to hurt you, until it happens so often you cant deny the reality of their malice any longer.

It helps to realize when youre being baited so you can avoid engaging altogether. Provocative statements, name-calling, hurtful accusations or unsupported generalizations, for example, are common baiting tactics. Your gut instinct can also tell you when youre being baited if you feel off about a certain comment and continue to feel this way even after it has been expanded on, thats a sign you may need to take some space to reevaluate the situation before choosing to respond.

16. Boundary testing and hoovering.

Narcissists, sociopaths and otherwise toxic people continually try and test your boundaries to see which ones they can trespass. The more violations theyre able to commit without consequences, the more theyll push the envelope. Thats why survivors of emotional as well as physical abuse often experience even more severe incidents of abuse each and every time they go back to their abusers.

Abusers tend to hoover their victims back in with sweet promises, fake remorse and empty words of how they are going to change, only to abuse their victims even more horrifically. In the abusers sick mind, this boundary testing serves as a punishment for standing up to the abuse and also for being going back to it. When narcissists try to press the emotional reset button, reinforce your boundaries even more strongly rather than backtracking on them.

17. Aggressive jabs disguised as jokes.

Covert narcissists enjoy making malicious remarks at your expense. These are usually dressed up as just jokes so that they can get away with saying appalling things while still maintaining an innocent, cool demeanor. Yet any time you are outraged at an insensitive, harsh remark, you are accused of having no sense of humor. This is a tactic frequently used in verbal abuse.

The contemptuous smirk and sadistic gleam in their eyes gives it away, however like a predator that plays with its food, a toxic person gains pleasure from hurting you and being able to get away with it. After all, its just a joke, right? Wrong. Its a way to gaslight you into thinking their abuse is a joke a way to divert from their cruelty and onto your perceived sensitivity. It is important that when this happens, you stand up for yourself and make it clear that you wont tolerate this type of behavior.

Calling out manipulative people on their covert put-downs may result in further gaslighting from the abuser but maintain your stance that their behavior is not okay and end the interaction immediately if you have to.

18. Condescending sarcasm and patronizing tone.

Belittling and degrading a person is a toxic persons forte and their tone of voice is only one tool in their toolbox. Sarcasm can be a fun mode of communication when both parties are engaged, but narcissists use it chronically as a way to manipulate you and degrade you. If you in any way react to it, you must be too sensitive.

Forget that the toxic person constantly has temper tantrums every time their big bad ego is faced with realistic feedback the victim is the hypersensitive one, apparently. So long as youre treated like a child and constantly challenged for expressing yourself, youll start to develop a sense of hypervigilance about voicing your thoughts and opinions without reprimand. This self-censorship enables the abuser to put in less work in silencing you, because you begin to silence yourself.

Whenever you are met with a condescending demeanor or tone, call it out firmly and assertively. You dont deserve to be spoken down to like a child nor should you ever silence yourself to meet the expectation of someone elses superiority complex.

19. Shaming.

You should be ashamed of yourself is a favorite saying of toxic people. Though it can be used by someone who is non-toxic, in the realm of the narcissist or sociopath, shaming is an effective method that targets any behavior or belief that might challenge a toxic persons power. It can also be used to destroy and whittle away at a victims self-esteem: if a victim dares to be proud of something, shaming the victim for that specific trait, quality or accomplishment can serve to diminish their sense of self and stifle any pride they may have.

Malignant narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths enjoy using your own wounds against you so they will even shame you about any abuse or injustice youve suffered in your lifetime as a way to retraumatize you. Were you a childhood abuse survivor? A malignant narcissist or sociopath will claim that you mustve done something to deserve it, or brag about their own happy childhood as a way to make you feel deficient and unworthy. What better way to injure you, after all, than to pick at the original wound? As surgeons of madness, they seek to exacerbate wounds, not help heal them.

If you suspect youre dealing with a toxic person, avoid revealing any of your vulnerabilities or past traumas. Until theyve proven their character to you, there is no point disclosing information that could be potentially used against you.

20. Control.

Most importantly, toxic abusers love to maintain control in whatever way they can. They isolate you, maintain control over your finances and social networks, and micromanage every facet of your life. Yet the most powerful mechanism they have for control is toying with your emotions.

Thats why abusive narcissists and sociopaths manufacture situations of conflict out of thin air to keep you feeling off center and off balanced. Thats why they chronically engage in disagreements about irrelevant things and rage over perceived slights. Thats why they emotionally withdraw, only to re-idealize you once they start to lose control. Thats why they vacillate between their false self and their true self, so you never get a sense of psychological safety or certainty about who your partner truly is.

The more power they have over your emotions, the less likely you’ll trust your own reality and the truth about the abuse you’re enduring. Knowing the manipulative tactics and how they work to erode your sense of self can arm you with the knowledge of what youre facing and at the very least, develop a plan to regain control over your own life and away from toxic people.

Shahida Arabi is the author of the book , available here.

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Lethbridge Debt Consultant-Darrell Pauls

http://theexperts.ca/blog/2017/05/23/lethbridge-debt-consultant-darrell-pauls-5/

What is the best debt help option to reduce your debt in Lethbridge?

If you have been struggling with your debt and would like to reduce your debt but arent sure what your options are, then keep reading. Today I would like to go over some of the more popular ways of gaining control of your debt and give you some options for debt help in Lethbridge.

Debt Consolidation - Debt consolidation is grouping your individual debts into one lump sum by taking out a larger loan and using it to pay off your smaller debts leaving you with one payment. In a lot of cases a consolidation loan from a bank or financial institution is a wise choice to relieve your debt problem. You wont necessarily pay off your debt quicker, but grouping your payments into one payment each month is a simple way to make sure that each of your debts is being paid. If your current debts are on high interest credit cards or payday loans, then you will most likely be able to save some money by switching to a lower interest consolidation loan. If you have good credit and enough income, then a consolidation loan may be the best option for you.

Spend less and make more money - It seems like an easy task to just find a way to make more money and spend less to free up some cash to pay down your debt, but in real life it is a lot of sacrifice and hard work. If you are willing to put in the extra time to clip coupons, look for sales and make sacrifices like eating at home instead of in restaurants, then you can often free up more than you realize. If you can take on extra work such as delivering pizzas in the evenings or on the weekend, you can quickly and easily make more money to pay down that debt quicker. Take a look around your home to see if there are items that are valuable that you can sell. This will free up space, clear up clutter in your home and you can use the extra cash to pay off some debt. Try using a budgeting tool so that you know where every dollar is going. When you see it all in front of you it is easier to find extra money. There is a great budgeting tool at

everydollar.com that is free to use. If you have a manageable amount of debt and you are able to use self-control and be disciplined with your finances, then this option may be all that you need to get yourself out of debt.

Debt Restructuring/Consumer Proposals

Restructuring your debt using a consumer proposal is very beneficial when you have a lot of unsecured debt and you dont have the means to repay what you owe. A consumer proposal is basically making an offer to pay less than you currently owe to your unsecured creditors via a trustee. If you have exhausted all of your options and do not want to claim bankruptcy, then filing a consumer proposal may be the best option for you. When filing a consumer proposal it is important to have someone you trust to look out for your best interests representing you through the process.

1274 3 Ave S | (403) 332-7361

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The problem with Magic: the Gathering no one is talking about | The Daily Dot

Two weekends ago, Magic: the Gatherings Pro Tour, the seasonal capstone of its organized-play system, kicked off in Madrid. The decks were creative and diverse, the matches were strategically interesting, and the new cards were sweetat least to people that already really, really like Magic cards. When the climactic last round before the playoffs went down, only 27,000 people were watching, andfull disclosureI wasnt one of them, despite being a hardcore Magic player in the past.

On the same Sunday the most recent Pro Tour wrapped up, Wizards of the Coast, the Hasbro subsidiary that makes Magic, announced itd be cutting benefits to Magics top competitive players by some $11,000 per player per year. By Monday, a backlash had begun among some of the biggest voices within Magic, and the following Tuesday, Wizards relented, pledging to restore the funding for next year.

Behind the numbers and the news, however, theres an even bigger problem that no one is addressing: Magic is a bad spectator game, and to truly save the Pro Tour, Hasbro might have to kill it first.

Magic: the Gathering is an enormous commercial success; its annual revenue, upwards of $300 million, is greater than Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 combined. However, Magic is a game from a different era, and nowhere is this more evident than its system of organized play.

Theres an even bigger problem that no one is addressing:Magicis a bad spectator game.

The Magic Pro Tour, which has existed since 1996, has been overshadowed by esports, whose prize pools regularly exceed the Pro Tours modest $250,000 purse. Magic is somewhere around the 30th-most popular offering on Twitch.tv, and it is hemorrhaging market share to Hearthstone, whose revenue roughly matches Magics $300 million a year and whose rank on Twitch is usually number two.

The Magic Pro Tour, saddled with small prize pools, low production values, weak commentary, illegible cards, and a game thats difficult to follow, appeals only to a narrow audience. If its top-tier tournaments appealed to a broader audience, Magic could be much, much bigger. To do so, Magic will have to implement some drastic changes.

Over the last few months, these changes have been set in motion. Though Magic has been growing by some 30 percent a year for the last six years, Hasbro announced in April that Wizards was switching CEOs, from Greg Leeds, an international marketing executive, to Chris Cocks, a sales guy from Microsoft. That followed another announcement from the head of all Hasbro, Brian Goldner, extolling the digital ecosystem, branding through storytelling, and a product called Magic Digital Next, to be released in the next few years. On top of that, at Hasbros 2016 investor day, the company called Magic a top 5 esports brand.

The last announcement was surprising for two reasons: Its untrue, and Hasbro has, since around 2007, been loath to spend any money on promoting competitive Magic. Magic pays its pros very little to do something very hard, and in this context, taking away $11,000 from Magics top players looks like yet more shortsighted cost-cutting. This is the prevailing interpretation among Magic players, who are right when they add that Hasbro would benefit hugely from professional Magic being a real thing. The problem is that Hasbro and Magic players have completely different ideas about what the competitive future of the game actually looks like.

Wizards original pay-cut announcement explained itself like so: The appearance fees we awarded for Platinum pros were meant to assist in maintaining the professional Magic players lifestyle; upon scrupulous evaluation, we believe that the program is not succeeding at this goal. Well, who would disagree with that? Magic doesnt grant its pros a living wage. The recent Magic documentary Enter the Battlefield stars two top players who live with their parentsnot a great incentive for players aspiring to be the best in the world.

Magicpros are, with a few exceptions, not the people Hasbro wants representing its brand.

This is crazy, because Magic makes its owners a ton of money, and there have been calls for a steep raise for the pros for over a decade. Indeed, later in the pay-cut announcement, Wizards revealed the Magic World Championship purse would increase from $150,000 last year to $250,000 this year, then $500,000 in 2017. Hasbro has a lot of cash to throw around, and creating a real professional class, via larger prizes and appearance fees, wouldnt cost much more in the grand scheme of things. So why not do it now?

Its simple: That wouldnt address the real issue. Very few people watch Magic. More than million tuned in for Dota 2 during the International, by contrast, and roughly 100,000 tune in regularly to watch Hearthstone on Twitch. And judging by its continuous attempts to defund the Pro Tour and marginalize the pros, Hasbro must think part of the problem is the current cohort of Magic pros. In Hasbros eyes, the current Magic pros have demonstrated a willingness to work for little money and few professional prospects, and they lead a lifestyle few would envy. If your final goal with organized play is to attract stars and engage a broader audience, then youre acknowledging the current crop of pros youve hired and retained, at a lower rate, is part of the problem.

Its true that a steep raise today would help legitimize Magic and improve the lives of the pros, who deserve it. But it wouldnt change the fact that Magic pros are, with a few exceptions, not the people Hasbro wants representing its brand. Under Leeds and Goldner, Magic achieved its high growth rate by moving its branding towards storytelling and resonance, and away from the pros. To casual players, the faces of the game arent Owen Turtenwald and Gerry Thompson; theyre the in-game characters Jace and Chandra.

For the most part, the pros are hardcore gamers, a holdover from a previous, less populist era of gaming. Comparing Magic pros social-media followings, streaming incomes, and cross-brand appeal with top esports competitors, its clear almost all of them struggle to attract mainstream viewers. Magics Pro Tour, which puts its competitors through a grueling schedule, doesnt even cater lunch, and draws an audience of hardcore Magic gamers only, faces the same problem.

Greg Leeds once tried to eliminate the Pro Tour entirely, but he was rebuffed by Magic R&D. Im guessing Chris Cocks will be more persistentand Magic R&D, already subordinate to Magic branding, will be brought further under control.

To call Magic a bad spectator game isnt a knock on the design. Even though I dont play much anymore, its still my favorite game, ever. Plus, it came out in 1993, and no one knew itd be important to appeal to huge digital audiences decades down the line. But Magic also has a bunch of weird timing rules that are delightful to junkies like me and baffling to the casual viewers Hasbro wants. Magic has over 13,000 unique cards; Hearthstone has under 1,000. To succeed as an esport, Magic will have to be radically simplified.

This sounds more difficult than it really is, and Magic Digital Nextwhich Goldner described as a new digital experience leveraging contemporary technology to create a seamless digital experience that meets all the players needs from new players to pro playersis likely to be Hasbros first attempt at making a modernized, simplified Magic.

To succeed as an esport,Magicwill have to be radically simplified.

The digital platform can not only give the brand a distinct identity from paper cardsit also has many advantages over them. With Magic Digital Next, Wizards could stop worrying about card stores, gambling laws, and a secondary market thats profitable for barely anyone. Paper cards are expensive: With a digitized Magic, casual players could be engaged and retained without having to spend fabulous sums just to play. The whole catalog of old, archaic, or confusing cards could be cut at once. Game-design mistakes could be retracted or revised. Cheating could be contained. Short animations could tell the story of the game to a casual audience.

And almost anything would be a better story than whats currently being told by the Pro Tour, which draws a tiny audience, or the small-print cards and buggy interface of Magic Online streams.

No one knows how the story of Magics overhaul ends. My best guess is that the game will exist both as a simplified Magic Digital Next and as a traditional paper product. Though the paper product will still be supported, allowing collections to retain value and addicts to justify spending the huge per-capita sums that make Magic so profitable, the digital will quickly outgrow the paper.

A big part of this will be competitive play, which will be conducted over Magic Digital Nexts pleasing new client. This will let streamers make a living catering to mainstream audiences. Hasbro will then increase spending on premier Magic events from $500,000 to $1 million and beyond, since doing so will actually attract a larger viewership, as well as premier gaming talent. And Magic will at last grow beyond a niche audience and afford its representatives a decent living, which will grow the audience, which will increase the prizes, which will grow the audience. And so on.

Of course, the plan could fail. It necessitates drastic changes in gameplay and personnel, which will take time and money. But Magic, which has been drifting towards making these moves for the last six years, isnt that far behind: Its prizes and revenue are on par with Hearthstones. And, though Hearthstone is a formidable competitor, with big events and stars of its own, all the pieces are in place for Magic. Its already a great game, with many skilled designers, a long history of profitability and innovation, and a handful of players whose cross-cultural appeal would be right at home in the esports world.

The exciting thing is that Magics barely begun to tap its potential. If Magics revenue can exceed $300 million with peak viewerships of 27,000, how big will it be when it monetizes digital platforms like Clash Royale, harnesses elegant watchability like Hearthstone, and draws real esports audiences?

In the words of Wizards founder, Peter Adkison, the Magic Pro Tour was created 20 years ago as a lifestyle opportunity for a young generation of Magic players to be professionals. This vision has been lost. But if Magic becomes an esport, it could once again be realized.

CML, a freelancer in Seattle, has written for Gawker, the Seattle Weekly, and several other publications. He maintains a website at cmlwrites.com and a Twitter at @CMLisawesome.

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