#asset based lending

[ennovance]

The private-credit craze is spreading to asset-based lending … the global economy’s biggest prize: the U.S. consumer

Banks are less willing to hold these assets, and a handful of funds will become big scale players to fill those gaps

https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/private-equity-wants-your-credit-card-debt-and-car-loan-and-mortgage-49be8938?st=csl8xdn1flwaabs via @WSJ #banks #loan #car #mortgage #creditecard #autoloan #investments

[shinycolortragedy]

Boost Your Cash Flow: How Factoring Companies in Colorado Can Help

Struggling with slow-paying customers? Receivables factoring can provide immediate cash for your business without adding debt. Learn how partnering with a Colorado factoring company like State Financial can keep your business moving by covering essential costs and fueling growth.

Read more - https://statefinancial.com/receivables-factoring-companies-in-colorado/

[bullventurecapital]

Financing Real Estate Rental Loans California: What Is It?

Whether experienced or a first-time investor, getting the right kind of finance for an investment can spell a whole world of success. The tailor-made real estate investment loans for rental properties help offer the much-needed capital for the acquisition and management of such an asset; this provides numerous advantages that cater to the needs of real estate investors. The importance of financing real estate rental loans California is huge.

Investors can make the most of the type of financing available regarding real estate investments, which is customarily based on the acquisition and holding of rental property. There is an appreciation involving the particular demand in real estate investments, and the lending facilities are well suited for the investor. This can be performed by the provision of flexible loan terms, making it possible to pay interest only, among other things; these facilities are not available with traditional home mortgages.

Loan terms that work for the investor should, therefore, improve an investor's cash flow. Interest-only loans or loans with a longer amortization period could reduce the monthly payment obligation, making cash available for managing the property or even maintaining it, let alone other investment opportunities that could arise. More cash in-flows at this point mean increased chances or rather opportunity capitalization on maintaining and escalating rental property portfolios.

Look for loan specialists in investment lending within the real estate market. One will get a loan, ready to work for you in the rental property market. This approach could include both conventional bank options and private money sources in capturing low rates and favorable terms.

Prepare Solid Financials

They will put your financial stability and the history of your credit under scrutiny, as well as the rental income that this property may produce. Therefore, make sure that you are in sound financial shape with good credit scores, low debt-to-income ratios, and properly documented sources of income and assets. Having a really sound business plan for the property to be rented is also a favorable factor when applying for a loan.

Real estate investment loans in California become one of the most important avenues by which investors finance their rental property. They have financial solutions tailored according to the requirement, competitive interest rates, and the best utilization of the invested capital. Therefore, if this type of financing offers the best advantages and at the same time executes the best practice of obtaining financing, an investor is positioned to take advantage of the most rewarding investing opportunities in the California rental property marketplace.

[ennovance]

The private-credit craze is spreading to asset-based lending … the global economy’s biggest prize: the U.S. consumer

Banks are less willing to hold these assets, and a handful of funds will become big scale players to fill those gaps

https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/private-equity-wants-your-credit-card-debt-and-car-loan-and-mortgage-49be8938?st=csl8xdn1flwaabs via @WSJ #banks #loan #car #mortgage #creditecard #autoloan #investments

[shinycolortragedy]

Asset-based lending (ABL) is a financing solution where a company uses its assets (such as inventory, accounts receivable, or equipment) as collateral to secure a loan. It’s like unlocking hidden value within your business. Read more- https://statefinancial.com/advantages-of-asset-based-lending-for-small-businesses-in-arizona/

[vivacapital28]

What Is Asset-based Lending

Even when you have a previous relationship with a specific lender, it’s price exploring the marketplace for various options. Asset-based lending is a flexible method to financing a business’s current operations and wishes for future progress. It could present extra favorable financing than conventional loans, likely with sooner processing times and extra competitive pricing and terms asset based loan. Even although a enterprise generates important belongings it might nonetheless expertise money shortages. It might grow so rapidly that the company’s money move just isn't aligned with conventional borrowing requirements. Or the enterprise could have already got a line of credit score from a financial institution but is unable to secure additional funds from them.

Traditional lending fashions would possibly require the owner to sell assets or put money equity into the business in some form to scale back leverage and debt. Another massive distinction is that asset-based lending groups are more snug with leverage. They aren't as leverage-focused as the standard cash flow structure whenever you get above three times the ratio of debt to EBITDA. Asset-based groups don’t focus on this leverage ratio as a end result of they are snug inside the property. ABL groups are collateral centered, not leverage centered.

For businesses susceptible to gaining or dropping capital in waves, factoring could lend stability. Unlike a loan, factoring is a cash advance by yourself cash. The views expressed in this material are the views of the authors and are subject to alter with out discover at any time based on market and other components. All information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy is not guaranteed.

An example of asset-based loan usage was when the worldwide securitization market shrank to an all-time low after the collapse of funding financial institution Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc in 2008. Within Europe in 2008, over 710 billion euros value of bonds have been issued, backed largely by asset-based loans, similar to residence and auto loans. Asset-based lending commonly references the loan-to-value ratio. Asset-based finance is a loan made to a company that's secured with one of asset based lending the company's belongings, corresponding to gear, machinery, or stock. Asset-based lending is commonly used by small to mid-sized companies to find a way to cover short-term cash circulate calls for. Nothing on this website should be thought-about personalised monetary, funding, authorized, tax or different recommendation.

With the staff we have assembled, you are assured the best perspective into the world during which you do enterprise. Throughout our history, SMBC Group has been a responsible corporate citizen. As a monetary what is asset based lending institution, we’ve all the time understood the position we play in building and sustaining a safer and higher world. Our analysts, economists, and strategists create timely, in-depth analyses of firms, industries, markets and economies.

[cavenasset]

If you looking for the financial institution and you if you fell like truest which one because they cannot do something wrong in the paperwork so if you looking for someone who guide you so cavendish capital provide you the asset based finance & business finance lending & cavendish is institute who guide people about the services & help them borrow the money on assets

[bullventurecapital]

A Guide to know about Asset-based lending

Asset-based lending and investment property financing have transformed into leading tools to redesign the complexion of real estate investment. Let's see how these can be combined to create growth opportunities and expand one's portfolio.

One of the more advanced ways in acquiring available capital is by way of asset-based lending where advance comes with a collateral-the kind of collateral is often on real estate, equipment, or even other valuable assets. Lending models are perfect especially for investors who will never qualify for traditional loans coming from a bank but have big-time assets to back up loaning needs. The beauty about ABL is that they focus on the value of the asset, rather than the history of the borrower's credit or cash flow.

The other advantages of asset-based lending for investment property financing include, for instance, an investor discovering a potential commercial property and needing to obtain capital promptly. The normal process might take months to complete; therefore, this would allow the investor to miss an opportunity. However, asset-based lending might provide faster approval and easier terms due to the evaluation of property value and the income that can be generated from the said property.

Another compelling reason to package ABL with investment property financing is that it can be used to expand a portfolio. In one sense, an investor is using existing real estate to collateralize their newer acquisitions; the snowball effect takes over from there. This well-planned strategy will, in fact, see the building of a robust real estate portfolio with manageable levels of debt.

However, it's more important to know what such a thing costs and the weight it carries. Asset-based loans carry a higher interest than a traditional mortgage due to the increased risk of having a lender take. An astute investor looks for how much it will cost for what potential returns they can derive out of their investment properties to make it work for their business model.

The future of real estate investment is progressively more flexible and innovative financing solutions. As the markets evolve, stringent standards for traditional lending criteria would leave the ambitious investor a viable path forward in the building and expansion of real estate portfolios through asset-based lending combined with investment property financing.

Strategic asset-based lending is the powerful tool that the modern investor needs in his or her arsenal. The understanding and proper use of these financing methods can unlock new opportunities and effectively manage risk in this competitive real estate market today.

[usbridgeloans]

Introducing the “BREFI”, A New Loan Programme by GMG

Over the past 12 months, the most common funding problem is the lack of financing options at the early stages of a real estate project: land acquisition, initial development, real estate purchase before the renovation, equity cash out towards new development, etc.

GMG receives high-value financing requests in almost all major countries, and it’s been very clear that traditional banks are less willing to take on the risk of financing the early stages of a real estate development or project. There has never been a greater need for non-bank alternatives than now.

Many of our high-net-worth clients have relied on the ‘long relationship’ with their banks (Implicit Put option) to be their lender of last resort, and when they are not, there is a scramble for financing options in a short period of time, which we see now. A separate issue is that banks, in general, may require recapitalization from losses due to Covid-19 and are looking to preserve capital.

Bridge Lending (the B part of BREFI).

As many of you know, one of the advantages of bridge loans is that they allow the borrower to secure opportunities that you would otherwise miss. Another advantage is bridge loans allow for flexible payment terms depending on the loan agreements. You can choose to start paying off the loan before or after securing long-term financing.

Also, qualifying and getting approved for a bridge loan takes less time than a traditional loan, giving the borrower the convenience of quickly owning the asset and begin getting the project off the ground with the intention of replacing the bridge loan with a more permanent construction loan, as an example.

GMG BREFI (short for Bridge + Refi).

We created the BREFI to combine 2 types of mortgage origination effort into one single offering to help clients with their initial bridge and onto the next stage of funding, usually a construction or development loan.

For example, in some cases, the initial bridge loan is used to purchase the property or land and prepare it to be “Shovel-ready.” That is land or structure that has plans, zoning, and issued permits in place. Having these ready allows for construction to begin immediately after closing.

A major difference between these two is that new construction loans fund the construction of a new structure, whereas bridge loans allow investors to purchase land or property but typically do not fund any construction costs. A GMG BREFI combines them both into one service offering.

Investors who obtain a bridge loan will usually begin construction after they have refinanced out into their long-term loan.

Typical Bridge Loan

Used to purchase “shovel-ready” land or land with an existing structure for a quick flip

Used to pay off the existing loan by refinancing into another loan

Not normally used to fund construction

Typical Construction Loan

Used purchase “shovel-ready” land or land with an existing structure to tear down and rebuild

Used to pay off the loan upon selling the property

Always used to fund construction

Our team uses GMG BREFI by finding lenders that will take both portions of the funding stack, Bridge + Construction.

Some common uses of GMG BREFI

Purchasing a plot of land to build a new development

Investors looking to purchase a plot of “shovel-ready” land would normally use a construction loan which is not available in this market environment. A BREFI will allow you to acquire the desired land and finance the new development on the property.

Purchasing an existing property (IE en bloc in Singapore) to tear down and build a new one

For clients planning to tear down and rebuild a structure on a piece of land, a BREFI can be used as a financing option.

Financing required to purchase land and begin construction immediately

Property developers who have the required documentation to begin construction on a piece of land can use the BREFI, where typical construction loans are not available with traditional banks. The hardest part of any new construction is getting the needed permits; once this is done, our lenders can disperse the funds in “construction draws” to start building.

For more information about Home Loan In US, Visit the website.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Everyday homeowners are human shields for Wall Street’s Internet of Shit slumlords

The American Dream, such as it is, used to be two dreams, one based on work and solidarity, the other on asset appreciation and disconnected individualism. We killed the first one.

As the New Deal gave way to the post-war social safety net, Americans discovered two paths to social mobility: they could join a union, and they could buy a home. Joining a union meant that your wages would rise with productivity, and that the democratic ideal that you were meant to approach once every two years at the ballot-box could follow you into the building you spent more waking hours in than any other: your jobsite.

Labor unions used their political power to win labor rights, so that even workers who weren't a union couldn't be arbitrarily fired, or maimed on the job with impunity, or harassed or abused. And while the labor movement was mired in the same racist legacy that every American institution brought forward out of genocide and slavery, where racialized people started unions of their own or demanded representation from the unions who nominally represented them, they thrived.

Then there were houses. On the one hand, owning your home insulated you from the petty tyranny of the landlord, the threat of eviction, rent hikes, indifferent or dangerous building maintenance, and all the other miseries that arise when you think of a building as your home and someone else thinks of it as an asset, and the board is tilted so that they win every argument.

But homeownership wasn't just sold as a way to get out from under scumbag landlords: it was primarily sold as a way to build intergenerational wealth. Your house wasn't just a place to live: it was an asset, and it appreciated.

And if the dividends of labor protection were unevenly distributed between white people and racial minorities, the dividends of home ownership were almost entirely hoarded by white families. Federal policies – redlining – combined with racist lending at the local level, meant that Black families and other racialized groups were stuck in tenancy, while white families build wealth thanks to federal subsidies:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170220005558/https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Asset%20Value%20of%20Whiteness.pdf

Those were the two American dreams: a good job and your own home. We killed the first one, and the second one devoured us whole.

Without a strong labor movement, wages stagnated. Corporate power waxed, and with it, the power to pollute, to poison, to maim and to defraud. The labor movement wasn't strong enough to stop Reagan from killing free UC tuition when he was governor of California. It wasn't strong enough to hold back spiraling health care prices. It wasn't strong enough to block the business lobby from neutering antitrust and ushering in four decades of market concentration, market capture and corruption. Workers couldn't save their defined benefits pension and were railroaded into market-based 401(k)s, forcing them to play the stock casino against their bosses, ever the sucker at the poker table.

With stagnant wages and out of control medical, educational and end-of-life bills, homeownership – the thing you do as an individual, where your gain is someone else's loss – became the American secular religion. Your house wasn't just a place to sleep and keep your photo albums: if it appreciated enough, you might be able to liquidate it on your deathbed and pay off your eldercare, your healthcare, your kids' college debt, and leave enough left over for your kids' downpayments.

And so every American who had a home became the enemy of every American who didn't – including one another's children. Every home built threatened your own property values. The racist, batshit American school funding formula, which sees schools funded out of property taxes, meaning the richest kids get the best schools, turned out to be a great way to increase your property values.

Protections for tenants, meanwhile, threatened the entire American way of life – the American dream itself. Every protection a tenant got – protection from eviction or rent hikes, the legal right to a safe and well-maintained home – reduced the value of every home in town.

After all, the better a landlord has to treat their tenants, the less money a landlord can make from a rental property. The less money a landlord can make from a rental property, the less they'd bid on a house like yours if it went up for sale.

And since anyone planning to buy your house to live in it has to outbid a landlord who might want to rent it out, giving tenants any protection threatened everything – the one asset you owned, which was your plan a, b and c for paying off all that health, education, and assisted living debt:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/06/the-rents-too-damned-high/

Today, the house-as-asset scam is breathing its last. There are millions more people who need homes than there are homes available. Sure, homelessness is a fantastically complex problem, but you could address every aspect of it – addiction, mental illness, joblessness – and millions of people would still be homeless, because there aren't enough homes for them to live in:

https://headgum.com/factually-with-adam-conover/myths-about-homeless-people-with-dr-margot-kushel

70% of all inflation in 2024 came from the cost of housing; a quarter of that came from illegal collusive behavior by landlords to hike rents:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/up-to-a-quarter-of-rental-inflation

Wall Street landlords have raised gigantic war-chests and are buying up homes at a rate never before seen, converting every available single-family home in many cities from an owner-occupied home to a rental. Private equity and hedge fund landlords have elevated charging junk fees to an absurdist theater project: you pay a "convenience" charge for paying your rent in cash. But also for paying your rent by direct transfer. Oh, and also for paying in cash. When Wall Street is your landlord, your home is a slum, dangerously undermaintained, sometimes lethally so:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/08/wall-street-landlords/#the-new-slumlords

Capitalists hate capitalism. The best thing to sell is something your customer can't live without, and that no one else has for sale. That's why "the market" loves private prisons so much:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/02/captive-customers/#guillotine-watch

The vast sums Wall Street is putting into buying up all of America's available housing stock is a bet that they can establish regional monopolies over having a home, and charge all the market can bear.

That's the plan at Invitation Homes, a company that was just targeted by the FTC for a slate of eye-watering crimes against the tenants in the 80,000 single-family homes they've acquired:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/09/ftc-takes-action-against-invitation-homes-deceiving-renters-charging-junk-fees-withholding-security

Invitation Homes purchases homes as they come on the market, and they're also a leading customer of the "build-to-rent" housing industry, a fast-growing segment of new housing starts.

Writing about the FTC's enforcement action against Invitation Homes, Matt Soller brings in Starwood Capital Group, who manage Invitation Homes properties, and own 14,000 more homes in the sunbelt. Invitation and Starwood hate the anti-monopoly movement, and Barry Sternlicht, Starwood's billionaire CEO, really hates FTC Chair Lina Khan:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/monopoly-round-up-corporate-slumlords

The FTC complaint lays out a suite of just comically sleazy things ways that Invitation abuses its tenants, starting with false advertising. The company lists its houses at relatively low rents, then charges a large fee to apply to live there. When you pass the application process, you're told the rent is actually much higher, and if you walk away from the deal, you forfeit your application fee. That scam's netted Invitation $18m since 2019.

Stoller really hates junk fees, calling them "convenience fees without any convenience, service charges without any service performed." He lays out Invitation's long list of junk fees, which honestly sound like a list that Chatgpt would spit out if you prompted it for fifty junk fees that wouldn't pass the giggle-test: "utility management fees" "Lease Easy bundle fees," "air filter delivery fee," "smart home technology fees," etc etc.

"Smart home technology fee?" Yeah, Invitation's gone in hard for Internet of Shit smart home tech. The SVP who oversees Invitation's smart home fee program was ordered to "juice this hog" (you guys, juice doesn't come from hogs).

After decades of recruiting everyday American homeowners to demand anti-tenant policies that benefit giant corporations, American tenants have few rights on paper and even fewer in practice. That's left the door wide open for Invitation to abuse their tenants in a myriad of dismal and unimaginative ways: stealing their deposits, trashing their credit reports to retaliate against complaints, illegal evictions, busted appliances, mold, vermin, insects – the whole slumlord playbook.

As Stoller writes, there's a twist: "this landlord isn’t just a random slumlord, it’s one of the biggest Wall Street players in housing."

There are vast fortunes to be made in converting the human right to housing into an asset class, but those fortunes end up in the hands of a very small number of billionaires. On their own, they wouldn't have the political power to dismantle protections for tenants.

Realistically speaking, most kids who grew up in their parents' owner-occupied homes are going to end up tenants, thanks to undersupply and housing inflation. But those kids' parents have spent decades demanding policies to make their homes as valuable as possible – including mortgage tax breaks (but not rent tax breaks!), looser eviction laws, and less enforcement of what few protections tenants have.

Middle class homeowners are the useful idiots and human shields of the billionaires who are determined to force every American under 40 raise their kids in a rented slum full of spiders, ratshit and black mold, which will still cost 60% of their take-home salary.

That's why the FTC's action against Invitation Homes is such a big deal. And as Stoller points out, Chair Khan is really just implementing Kamala Harris's campaign promise to get Wall Street out of the landlord business.

Wall Street's raid on your bedroom and kitchen has inspired a generation of "finfluencer" copycats who buy and flip apartment buildings, sucking ever-larger amounts of cash out of them until they're unfit for human habitation, with mountains of rat-infested garbage ringing their crumbling walls:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/22/koteswar-jay-gajavelli/#if-you-ever-go-to-houston

Any future worth living in is going to get housing right. We need to stop thinking of housing as an asset and realize that it is, first and foremost, a human right. That's the premise of my 2023 solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which just came out in paperback:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865946/thelostcause

You can't protect yourself from rising seas or rising healthcare bills through individual home-ownership. Solidarity – the kind of solidarity that once powered the union movement, and that is powering it again – is the only way to defeat the housing profiteers. The New Deal wasn't perfect, which is why whatever we do next has to be bigger, further reaching, and more inclusive than what FDR did almost a century ago.

The only minority that should be excluded from the next New Deal is billionaires.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/01/housing-is-a-human-right/#rentier-tech

Image: Sam Valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/

Carlos Delgado (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wall_Street_-_New_York_Stock_Exchange.jpg

CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[shinycolortragedy]

Facing financial hurdles? Discover how accounts receivable factoring can be your lifeline, offering flexible funding options to overcome cash flow challenges and propel your business forward.

[asset-based-finance]

Asset-based loans are based on assets, generally accounts receivable and inventory, that are used as collateral. We’ll go into all the ins and outs of asset-based lending to help you determine whether this financing solution is a good fit for your small business.

[pricegouge]

got absolutely clobbered over the head with a pretty fucked up idea so now it's your problem. 1k

cw: poisoning! bit of a sick fic, but nothing gratuitous. munchausen by proxy, but make it (mostly) consensual.

He knows it's coming when Simon's hands shake, a near-imperceptible tremble only brought to John's attention by the way Simon's tea spills over the lip of his takeaway cup, stains the bone design printed on his fingers. Simon puts the cup on the counter, takes a half second too long to get the lid to catch on the rim properly.

"Best see to that," John warns him, already making contingency plans for their next potential mission, calculating where best his over-sized liability could fit. God forbid the man bench himself, though John's not one to talk.

Ghost just nods, the issue already taken care of. "Yes, sir."

Price figures he can get another month or so out of him, but circumstance makes liars of them both. A bad job gone worse, much of that expected month spent in the field. They're all just lucky it comes to a head while on base, some no-name sergeant the unsuspecting barometer for Simon's impending breakdown instead of a misplaced bullet.

The boy's come back from worse.

The first time - it had landed in his lap, honestly, a stomach bug that had torn the whole base apart, left grown, hardened men wilting into sick bowls and shaking in their sheets. The lieutenant had been stoic as ever, but John could see the glassiness of his eyes, the way his clothes had hung from him for weeks after. Docile, too. Or near enough. Too tired to be ornery, at least.

Put out of his mind for months, he let Ghost rebuild himself, pulling his pieces into place like armor. His intensity returned, a blessing just as much as a curse as John was generally the one left to handle all the formal complaints. It was easy enough, each log finding the bottom of the bin the moment the plaintiff left his office. Still, waste of time having to sit in on each meeting; to lend his ear to every up-and-coming private who was too dull to recognize where on the ladder of irreplaceable assets themselves and the lieutenant lie. Nearing the end of his rope, he made some glib comment about wishing the man would feel worse again soon and balked a bit when Simon just blinked at him, agreed it's always a good reset, being forced to take leave.

From anyone else's mouth, he'd have assumed the man was asking for time off, a pampered little vacation taken with the captain's approval. Guiltless, thoughts unassailed by the realities of international collusions. But Ghost submitted no reqs, just carried on steady as always.

Until he hadn't, a rookie mistake John prides himself on catching before it could make it too far.

"Need to be able to depend on ya, Simon," he'd chastised, his own frustrations bubbling over, anger unchecked because he knew Ghost could handle it, wouldn't shrink from him like so many others. "Should be able to trust ya with paperwork, at least!"

And Ghost didn't shrink. Swelled up instead, took on more roles, ran himself ragged.

"You're grounded," John had told him, let the double meaning sink in, embarrass the lad.

"Good luck with that, sir," the lieutenant had countered, shouldered his way onto the hele and tucked himself in between the sergeants just to spite him.

So he remembers. Tired and docile. Level headed after days of R & R.

He treats it like a mission, same as everything else. They're sick in the same way, like that. It gets easier with time, both of them settling into their roles. John's done it many ways, used backdoors he'd never realized he'd had access to in order to avoid Kate's persistent gaze as he researched, bought household cleaners he learned how to disguise the taste of. Simon had never been picky, could probably be served squirrel jerky without much complaint. But wariness is something else, stems from survival, and Price himself had helped to hone that instinct, made it iron-clad.

Simon noticed the fourth time. John's own fault, having him around for dinner. Too obvious about having cooked specially for him. Simon's dark eyes had settled on the plate for so long the meal had gone cold, vague chemical scent becoming more obvious by the second.

John never flinched. Not even when Simon's gaze flicked to him, a silent challenge.

"You need to rest, boy."

Entranced, he watched as something flicked across Simon's brow. Comprehension. Acceptance, maybe. The balaclava was rolled up, tucked over the ruined bridge of his nose, and Simon bore crooked, rotting teeth to tuck in, ate the whole plate in less than four bites.

They hardly bother with the pretenses anymore, not when John's just as tired as him. Not when they can't keep replaying the same game, the reputation of John's cooking at stake. It's better this way, the small vial he keeps in his desk providing a much more consistent outcome anyway. And he won't deny he enjoys the power Simon gives him, either: maw agape, tongue extended. He doesn't flinch when the syrup coats his tongue, although John knows how rotten it tastes - tried it himself just to be certain he could safely navigate Simon's limits, because he knows what Simon can take, even if the boy doesn't.

It starts with Simon on his knees, usually. A stream of apologies flooding from his mouth alongside the excess drool that puddles on Price's thigh. John shushes him with thick fingers, likes to feel the building convulsions in his throat from within.

He likes it best after Simon's worn himself out, lays sweat-stained and panting on his cot, mask long forgotten. Too tired to care. John keeps him hydrated, trickles water into his mouth from his finger tips, letting it pour over his palm. Simon takes whatever he gives - more syrup, even, if John deems it's needed. Trusts his judgment, trusts his captain to make him whole again.

They treat it like a mission, both sick like that. Know sometimes you have to go further than expected to get the results you want.

[olekciy]

    A short reminder that Russia is imperialist, has been imperialist for a long time, and there's no way around that fact.

Sections of the Western left have developed a narrative according to which Russia has been gradually surrounded by NATO and that supposedly "provoked" Putin. It's increasingly difficult to sustain the notion that Russia is simply "defending itself" after 24 February 2022, but the thing is - the invasion did not come out of the blue. One needs a different narrative to understand what Russia actually is: an aggressive imperialist power alongside other imperialisms.

So, a different narrative:

- 1994: Russia, with US support, acquires Ukrainian nuclear arsenal in exchange for the assurances to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity

- 1997: Russia acquires the Sevastopol naval base and almost all of the ships (82%, to be exact)... in exchange for the assurances to respect Ukraine's territorial integrity!

- 2004: Russia meddles in Ukrainian presidential elections, fighting hard to force an undemocratic fraudulent outcome, but fails

- Mid-to-late 2000s: As punishment for Ukraine electing Yushchenko, Russia uses energy blackmail, a form of economic coercion not very different from the IMF and World Bank lending and conditionality

- 2008: NATO refuses to adopt a roadmap towards Ukraine's membership and in effect postpones the decision indefinitely. Ukraine's security is in no way guaranteed, while Russia has already demonstrated the propensity to use coercion to force Ukraine to do its bidding

- 2009: Dmitry Medvedev, then president, writes to Yushchenko that "Russia does not pose and cannot pose any kind of threat to Ukraine", so seeking NATO membership is stupid. Yea, sure

- 2014: Russia, which "does not pose and cannot pose a threat to Ukraine"... annexes Crimea. Really, Dima?? I thought you were for real??

Of course, by annexing Crimea Russia not only makes all the previous statements that it "can never pose a threat to Ukraine" a ridiculous lie, but also breaks the 1994 memorandum and 1997 treaty. "We are the Kremlin. Our word is worth nothing"

- Crimea's annexation provokes armed separatism in Donbas that Russia supports and coordinates, including direct military command and control, and then completely subordinates Donbas "authorities", in effect occupying the region

- Ukraine's still not in NATO, its security is still in no way guaranteed, and the supplies of US weapons only begin in 2018. They are kept to a minimum... out of fear of provoking Russia!

- Nevertheless, on 24 February 2022 Russia launches a full-scale invasion to establish 100% control over all of Ukraine in one way or another. There is literally no military development on the ground that could have provoked the invasion. On Russia's part, it's a war of choice in exactly the same way the invasion of Iraq was a war of choice for the US in 2003.

Now, this is only the general outline. One should add Russia's drowning of Ukraine with spies and agents of influence, money to corrupt Ukrainian politicians and massive acquisition of Ukrainian assets to impose economic and political dependency.

These are well-known facts, but so many on the left refuse to see the story behind them. It's a story of decades of imperialist aggression, culminating in a war that cost 150,000 lives in 2022 alone. Any discussion of left-wing internationalism should begin with recognizing the reality of what Russia is and what it did.

[thesiltverses]

Hi! So, in the most recent episode, Brand says at about the 40:15 mark that “the superstructure swallowed up the base,” and this has left me with a question. Was this a reference to the Marxist idea of the base and superstructure? If so, referring directly to Marx like this is so cool! I’ve always enjoyed the anti-capitalism of The Silt Verses, and I love how that’s really come to the forefront this season (not that it was all that hidden before) and how well the show lends itself to Marxist analysis. Thanks for making such a complex, interesting, and anti-capitalist show!

Hi and thank you so much!

Yeah, it definitely is, although I think I'm stealing Marx' terminology for our own ends rather than meaningfully engaging with it - the whole ep is in many ways a series of digs at UK politics right now, and the sense of both nations as a place that will willingly undermine its own actual assets and prospects in order to preserve the idea of itself and the ideological apparatus that's grown around it is something I was trying to get across there.

[scoobydoodean]

Everyone (besides the Braedens) is so annoying about Dean in 6.01. In a way, he's almost treated like some sort of exotic animal by other hunters—"the hunter who got out" is considered an impossibility in the hunting world—both from a moral perspective, and from a trauma perspective.

Bobby keeps repeating "You were out" when Dean gets mad at him and Sam for keeping Sam's resurrection a secret, and while there is obviously a loving angle in Bobby wanting Dean (someone he views as a son) to live a long life, the secret is so unapologetically cruel in the face of Dean's grief that Bobby's actions also suggest more personal motivations. This, along with Dean's demand "Good for who?" when Bobby insists he made the good choice, almost lends itself to the idea that this wasn't just about Dean. It was about something Dean symbolized for Bobby. Dean was living proof that hunters could get out, and have families, and live long lives, and this probably soothes something in Bobby as someone who lost his wife tragically right after an emotional betrayal. In "Death's Door", Bobby is implied to have had a vasectomy he never told Karen about. He was the child who ruined everything he touched according to his abusive father, and decided never to have children because of it. Bobby still grieves losing Karen, and he grieves what could have been if he hadn't let his dad get in his head. Like Bobby, Dean is also a person accused of having a corrupting touch, and Bobby is very aware of Dean's self-worth issues (2.22) and I think sees a lot of his own emotional hangups in Dean. So I think it's possible that for Bobby, seeing Dean get to be happy is something Bobby needs... for himself in a sense? While being something he wants for someone he loves, it also just... soothes something inside him, symbolically and personally.

Other characters don't react so positively to Dean as a symbol representing hunters being able to get out and overcome the tragedies that generally bring them into the life to begin with. The Campbells immediately look down on Dean for not being a hunter anymore, treating him as a greenhorn, suggesting he was never meant for the work they do (his features are too "delicate"), poking around his house like it's a zoo exhibit. Sam also joins in, mocking Dean for having golf clubs.

Samuel feigns sympathy, saying he "gets it" because Mary wanted out of the life too, but it's just a little carefully placed pathos before he launches into giving Dean the same speech Mary was likely subjected to repeatedly, telling Dean they need all hands on deck, that he has a responsibility but would rather "play golf" (which is really what shows most that Samuel has zero understanding of why Dean or his own daughter wanted normal lives).

Sam also completely switches up on Dean by the end of the episode, going from justifying keeping his resurrection a secret because Dean was happy, to saying that Dean can't be normal and should return to hunting because he's putting Lisa and Ben in danger by being with them. Of course, soulless Sam flip flops because he doesn't actually care about whether or not Dean is happy. He was going through the motions of wanting Dean to be happy because he thought it was what he should want based on his memories, and he didn't have any emotional need for his brother and therefore no reason to bother him or care that he was grieving someone who was alive. But the moment he saw Dean display the heart of a hero, rushing to try and save his neighbors when all hope was lost, he saw something that he thought would be useful—someone with a heart who might make the "rules" of how to conduct himself more clear. Dean then seemed like a useful asset.