#budget for non-profit events

[rviner]

OUTREACH OFFICES - EQUINOX

Outreach is a nonprofit organization committed to improving the quality of life for residents on The Station, particularly those from The Wards and Equinox. The organization provides a wide range of support services to help individuals overcome social, economic, and health-related challenges, aiming to create a more equitable environment on The Station.

Employment Assistance:

Job Training Programs: Outreach offers hands-on vocational training, from technical skills needed in Silo maintenance to administrative roles on Equinox. These programs aim to equip residents with the skills to find stable employment.

Resume Building & Interview Prep: Career advisors provide one-on-one guidance to improve resumes and interview techniques, giving residents the tools they need to secure jobs in the competitive markets of Equinox and beyond.

Debt Management & Financial Guidance:

Debt Counseling: Many lower-level residents are trapped in cycles of debt. Outreach provides financial counseling to help manage and reduce debt through budgeting and repayment plans.

Credit Repair Programs: Working with Vertex Capital Systems (VCS), Outreach offers workshops on credit improvement and financial literacy, giving residents the knowledge to navigate the station’s financial systems.

Legal Assistance:

Document Support: Residents often struggle to obtain legal documents for housing, employment, or medical needs. Outreach assists individuals with navigating the bureaucratic process to acquire or renew legal documentation.

Legal Advocacy: With connections to law firms, Outreach helps residents with labor disputes, unfair housing practices, and securing basic rights, empowering them against systemic inequalities.

Health and Wellness Services:

Healthcare Access: Outreach works with healthcare providers to help lower-level residents access essential health services, including vaccinations, primary care, and specialist treatments that are often harder to obtain in The Wards.

Health Resources Distribution: Through partnerships with medical suppliers, Outreach distributes essential medical supplies like clean air filters, water purifiers, and basic medications to families in need.

Mental Health Support: Outreach provides access to therapy and counseling services, offering mental health care to those who are struggling with the stresses of life in the lower levels.

Resource Distribution:

Food and Essentials Aid: Outreach runs food distribution programs, providing nutrient-rich meals to struggling families. They also distribute essential goods like hygiene products, clothing, and shelter assistance for those in dire need.

Energy and Water Assistance: Outreach helps residents maintain access to basic utilities by providing support with paying bills or advocating for more affordable rates for those living in The Wards, where resource scarcity is more common.

Community Empowerment & Social Advocacy:

Workshops and Events: Outreach hosts educational workshops on topics like workers’ rights, financial literacy, and community organizing, empowering residents to advocate for themselves.

Civic Engagement: Outreach encourages political involvement, supporting efforts to push for reforms that improve living conditions in The Wards and other lower levels.

However, due to being a non profit and facing many barriers during the two years since starting, Outreach has a limited number of spaces and resources. Waiting lists are long and often times they have to turn people away, meaning there's some mixed reviews floating about how good Outreach even is.

[twtd11]

And now for an actual Hallmark Christmas movie about lesbians.

Friends and Family Christmas:

Spoilers below the cut:

Compared to the Tello Films versions of Christmas-y romcoms, this movie has the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster. Also, there are no horse farms to be seen.

For this movie, we have our two protagonists:

Daniella and Amelia.

Daniella is half Hispanic (ikr?) and she’s moved to New York to follow her photography dreams. Her mom is a super famous author and her dad is a mathematician. Daniella has always come home for Christmas, but she’s in charge of a series of big events for the Brooklyn Art Something or Other (I don’t remember the exact name. It was some sort of non-profit incubator for artists).

Amelia is a high powered lawyer who’s about to be named as a partner at her dad’s big corporate law firm. She actually has a good relationship with her father. He’s supportive of her desire to be a partner and concerned that she’s working too much, so he forces her to come to the firm’s Christmas party. Clearly, she’s going to need a plus one.

Turns out Amelia’s dad and Daniella’s dad were college roommates. Obvious the solution to these two workaholics working too much is to set them up with each other. Amelia, of course, is still getting over her ex even though they broke up a year ago.

So Amelia and Daniella have coffee and they vaguely hit it off but they’re never going to see each other again. They’re both too busy and Amelia is still wounded.

Then surprise! Daneilla’s parents have decided to come visit her for Christmas!

Now, Amelia accidentally took Daniella’s gloves when they had their first coffee, so they meet to exchange gloves. Aaaaannnnnd Daniella’s parents crash their coffee. This leads to the movie’s driving trope: fake dating. After all, what’s the best way to get your parents off your back about your lack of social life? That’s right, invent one!

Fake dating shenanigans ensue. I won’t tell you about them because you should go watch the movie. The movie is adorable. Also, Daniella’s mom apologizes for not respecting her boundaries, which might have been the most surprising part of the whole movie. Also, no one moves home to the Christmas tree farm. Everyone who started the movie living in New York ends the movie living in New York. And everybody keeps their careers. And the main characters support each other in their ambitions without anyone really sacrificing anything.

It’s almost like they took all of those criticisms of Hallmark movies and tried to fix them. Or some of them. I mean, it’s still a Hallmark movie.

Anyway, bottom line: I enjoyed it and if you like cute little movies about people falling in love, you should go watch it.

[eggtrolls]

park stuff calendar:

March 9th: cancel pine bark order from Home Depot ASAP

March 10th - CANCELLED: weekly maintenance at horribly degraded wetland (HDW); bring sharps container for needles

March 11th - email boat club people about boat-based trash removal in the future and logistics for non-members

March 12th - 9:30 meeting with J.S.#3 about seed project and possible mugwort eradication March 12th - get 2023 budget from C.W. March 12th - community board parks subcommittee meeting at 6, take notes; follow-up item: confirm the deadline for bringing up Earth Day Festival as item at April meeting (3rd Thursday of every month) March 14th - HDW clean up with J.S.#3 and his dyke assistant March 14th - remove the wineberry in daffodil patch by the stairs March 14th - Earth Day Festival committee meeting at 6:30

March 15th - text JLS about adding earth day event to Parks calendar (confirm with Fucking Chris about when this should happen) March 15th - PFP GRANT IS DUE March 15th - unpack Home Depot deliveries and repot AWC cohort 1 seedlings

March 16th - riverside clean-up with boat club people March 16th - walk-through with J.S.#2 at the restoration creek project March 16th - remove Atlantic white cedar seeds from fridge and plant (3:2:1.5 peat:vermiculite:perlite with the slow-release fertilizer (it's in the foyer closet on the shelf and smells weird) + transplant cohort 1 (measure and record heights), same mix [source, Derby et al. (2004)]

March 17th - weekly maintenance at HDW

March 18th - text J.L.S. about getting parks committee chair email; soft pitch my concerns about park land use to her + include Patch article from 2021 March 18th - ask J.S.#2 about Army Corp of Engineers survey results (from 2023?)

March 20th - Riverkeeper orientation at 5:30 March 20th - deadline to email chair of community board parks committee to add what I think is illegal land use to the next board meeting agenda (incorporate lack of public feedback & Army Corps of Engineers report on sea level rise)

[March 21-March 26 - vacation; no weekly maintenance at HDW; morning pruning of wineberry at Shittier Park (bring bags for removal and double-glove) or follow-up on mulberry tree pruning

March 22nd: pick up seed mix from Autistic Seth or designate one of the SC to do it]

March 27th - watch Riverkeeper Sweep orientation recording on zoom & email Frances March 27th - repot Ursa Major & Ursa Minor March 27th - bother Dan (ICC) about boat plantings; bother Jana about beach plum locations March 27th - email Compost Lady from RSC March 28th - call with JS#1 at 9 am about wetland meeting; discuss the seed-sowing project for EDF March 28th - email JS#1 the seed invoice and species list from Autistic Seth March 28th - steering committee meeting at 6:30

March 29th - call with Rachel from comedically evil non-profit at 5:30 March 29th - return of J.S.#3 and his dyke assistant Paloma to HDW

March 30th - weekly maintenance at HDW

March 31st - community gardening day with the slightly cult-y Orthodox Jewish community group (to do: reach out to other group members to see if anyone wants to join in; double check that email didn't bounce back or if there's a better email)

April 7th - weekly maintenance in park

April 9th - community board meeting at 6:30 April 9th - email Bennett Park people

April 11th - sculpture reception, 9 am April 11th - private call with commissioners 1&2, 2pm April 11th - email CB committee head April 11th - email state senator's office

April 14th - weekly maintenance at HDW

April 15th - call with CB committee head, 6pm RESCHEDULED

April 18th - update on AWC cohort status April 18th - call with CB committee head and Evil Ryan, 3 pm RESCHEDULED

April 19th - pick up giant map from Staples

April 20th (ugh) - Earth Day Festival (HAT AND SUNSCREEN AND WATER BOTTLE) + make @roycohn attend under pain of death; wake up 7 am

April 21st - weekly maintenance at HDW or help B.S. with her site plantings in Bronx

April 22nd - actually Earth Day. also Pesach April 22nd - email compost lady

April 25th - steering committee meeting and EDF post-mortem

April 27th - tentative date for visiting compost site at RPC

April 28th - monthly check for cohort 1 heights

May 4th - Riversweep with boat club people

May 25th - clean up in Rockaway

general to-do list w/o fixed date:

talk to Unfriendly Caitlin or B.S. about the Japanese pagoda trees in Shittier Park and a possible transplant

ask Beth about making flyer for EDF (English and Spanish)

ask Unfriendly Caitlin about info on native bees that hibernate in grasses during the winter; ask Fucking C for the marsh groundskeeper guy's contact info to discuss future grass clearing and ideally make them stop it.

talk to bagel place guy and trump supporter Tom about donations and whatnot

email J.S.#2 about setting up private event for plant dividing in April (post-EDF)

email A (she/they) at RPC about compost visit on 4/27

email J.S#1 about plans for mugwort removal on Earth Day, signage, using the seed mix as cover crop, and beyond

email NutraSweet about discussion of mugwort with J.S.#3

email New York Metropolitan Flora survey about incidence of river cane

urban ecologist program at NYBG

get actual sharps containers for EDF clean-up at work (possibly boat club people have extras we can use either way I'm not paying for this shit)

ask super for my spare hand pruners back

place order from Prairie Moon once AWC cohort 2 starts sprouting

email A.R. (nursery) about group volunteering in exchange for a bunch of plants (deadline [self-imposed] is March 15th)

email J.S.#1 about wetland management goals based on call with S.H.

email J.S.#1 about DEC tidal wetlands permit

follow-up email to J.S.#3 about seed project + email fucking Seth if he doesn't get back to me about the mix

identify actual trail edges that can be cleared and planted + look up if hand rake would be useful

email N.H. at BRA about testing soil samples and if there's a cost/limit (update: NONE; ask NutraSweet to drop off in her car);- discuss results with J.S.#2 and how to incorporate into wetland management plan with J.S.#1

follow up with J.S.#2 about clearing the canal, which I hate

ask M.S. or R.K. about landscape architect stuff re: boardwalk design for wetland management plan

text B.S. about tree delivery from JBHS nursery

start looking for other grants once PFP is submitted

look into seed collection techniques and seed-sharing resources in mid-Atlantic/New England

--- Cohort 1 notes: on 3/15/24, 4 of the Cohort 1 AWC seedlings were planted in 3 pots: Gemini (two together), Atlas, and Pipsqueak in the Derby (2004) medium with a sprinkle of Osmocote + original medium from cones. Heights were 14.5 cm & 6 cm (Gemini), 12 cm (Atlas), and 10 cm (Pipsqueak). Pending them not dying immediately and/or showing signs of significant growth, the remaining seedlings will be repotted. Target height prior to planting is 36 cm. Repotting showed a shallower root system than expected, needs a wider container than cone or should be replanted sooner.

3/17/24 update: might be a coincidence but Pipsqueak and Atlas are already showing new growth (crown and branches, respectively). no changes from Gemini. among the un-repotted, Ursa Minor has some browning at the crown - might need to transplant soon than later, or perhaps burning from too much sun? will rotate and see if this improves. unsure how I will separate Gemini/Ursa Major and Minor when the time comes :/

3/20/24 - separated Gemini into two pots due to lack of immediate growth/improvement shown in Atlas and Pipsqueak. Concern about browning on Ursa Minor, may attempt to divide soon. Potted Hajime and Tagalong to use up the extra medium.

3/28/24 - Potted Ursa Minor and Ursa Major (without Osmocote). Atlas and Pipsqueak continue to show the most improvement. Tagalong has started to show some new growth; less from Hajime. Gemini 1 has started showing new radial growth with a hint of crown growth from Gemini 2. Added layer of compost to all C1 after morning watering

Heights updates:

Pipsqueak - 12.5 cm

Atlas - 13.0 cm

Gemini 1 - 14.5 cm

Gemini 2 - ~6 cm (note: crown is bent)

Hajime - 13.8 cm

Tagalong - 11.0 cm

Ursa Minor - 6.7 cm (note: browning on crown might affect future vertical growth)

Ursa Major - 18.3 cm

4/9/24 - noticed some burning on Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, likely due to the shitty addition of Osmocote. stirred soil and repotted. likely that Ursa Minor is not going to make it.

Cohort 2 notes: on 3/17/24, 105 seeds were planted for Cohort 2 in the Derby (2004) medium with the Osmocote. seeds were floated (77 floated, 28 didn't float) and grouped by float status, divided into 28 cones (on average 4 seeds to each cone), planted, and additional medium spread on top ~1/4 cm. some of the original medium from Cohort 1 was used in cones where Derby medium was insufficient. all cones were watered at approximately 12:00 with 2 tsp of distilled water.

3/20/24 - no growth so far. continuing with 2 tsp water daily (morning). May try dividing into 1 tsp morning, 1 tsp evening.

3/28/24 - no growth so far. continuing with 2 tsp water daily (morning). will switch to divided watering for a sample after 30 days.

4/11/24 - FIRST SEEDLING OF COHORT 2 UP

4/18/24 - cohort 2 notes: one seedling still in cap, one with two leaves out and third budding (both in row 4FR). I didn't record the time for the first seedlings of cohort 1 to come up so this is a total craps shoot. switched back to 1 tsp of water (mornings) because of concerns of overwatering leading to bugs.

[eaglesnick]

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”

Malcolm X

I’m no fan of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves but the deliberate lies and distortions concerning her budget both before and after the event are derisible. For a society to flourish successfully the media must adhere to a certain degree of honesty. Different opinions, backed up by evidence and logical argument, are fine, indeed, welcomed, but the continual peddling of untruths and half-truths by the media is an existential threat to the very democracy many of these media outlets pretend they are defending.

Before the budget the Financial Times, one of the most respected mainstream economic newspapers in the UK had this headline:

“Bankers fear Rachel Reeves is preparing UK Budget tax raid on sector” (11/09/24)

 On the day after the budget we have this headline:

“Reeves spares banks from tax raid after lobbying”  (City AM: 30/10/24)

This glaring headline from the Express is another example of our dishonest media:

“Labour blasted as 'anti-motorist' as Rachel Reeves ‘set to raise fuel duty in budget." (18/10/24)

After the budget we get the true story.

“Rachel Reeves announces fuel duty freeze as motorists spared from Budget tax rises."  (Independent: 30/10/24)

The Financial Times spoke of the “fear” our honest bankers felt concerning Reeves pending budget. Quite why bankers were “afraid” is unclear, especially as Reeves had already promised:

“Banker’ bonuses: No cap under Labour. Says Reeves." (BBC: 31/01/24)

After the budget, when it was clear there would be no tax raid on bankers, it was because she had “spared" them. Spared them from what? She had already promised there was to be no cap on their bonuses. Despite record profits at the six largest British banks (£48bn) Reeves decided not to increase the bank levy introduced by the Coalition government in 2011, or the corporation tax surcharge imposed by a Conservative government in 2016. In short, the banking sector has been left untouched by Reeves budget and this whole notion of “fear" and bankers being “spared" is a non-story.

The same non-story concerning her "anti-motorist" policies was also described as the motorist being "spared" when the prediction she would raise fuel duty just didn’t materialise.

Since the budget Reeves has come under repeated attack for raising taxes. Her budget will result in less wage growth, fewer jobs, an exodus of businesses abroad, the closure of care homes and doctors surgeries, higher mortgages and rents, the collapse of British farming, etc, etc.

The sad fact is we all know our public services are on their knees, homelessness is endemic, child poverty is rising, the NHS is on the brink of collapse, and our children’s schools and some of our hospitals are quite literally falling down around us. UK absolute poverty has hit an all-time high, life-expectancy is actually falling and the nation is suffering a mental health crisis.

While her British critics continue to rant against Reeves budget it is  worthwhile, even enlightening, to see how other countries view her plans for the Britain.

“Britain targets the wealthy as it hikes taxes by $52 billion.” (CNN Business: 30/10/24)

And

“Britain’s Reeves targets wealthy and foreign income with big tax rises” Reuters: 31/10/24)

The question British media outlets have to answer is what do they think should happen to our failing public services and the continuing economic plight of so many working people?  Should we continue as we were under the Tories and just let a huge sector of our society  go to the wall as happens in America? Or should we, as a nation, try and repair the damage done to our public services thereby improving the lives of many ordinary citizens?

If the latter answer is the way forward then who is going to pay for the repairs that are so desperately needed to mend our broken society?  The fair and moral answer is, of course, those who can afford to pay a little extra in tax – the already wealthy.

This is what Reeves is attempting to do and this is what is recognised by foreign observers. We can argue who among the already wealthy should be paying the most in additional taxes but it is the rich who have to pay. After all, Statistica inform us “the UK’s rich are getting richer” (23/05/22) so it is only morally right they should pay a little extra towards the welfare of those less well off than themselves.

The blind loathing that the vast majority of the British media display towards the Labour party is truly worrying. Their genuine fear when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader is understandable as his policies were truly transformative in nature. But social democrat Reeves budget is a far cry from the socialist plans of the Labour left. Yet the British media has this negative knee jerk reaction to all things Labour. The danger is that the day-after-day invention of “problems” that don’t exist will , over time, have a drip, drip affect on our perceptions, whereby we all buy into the lies being peddled.

[beatricmalfoy]

About Pond

Trust or leave

Normally I just ignore all the drama and comments but I feel so angry about those “fans” who attack Pond right now, honestly in his place I would just shut down whole company, took Mile and Apo and moved to New York to live his best rich life. I may not agree with his every decision and I am not always agree with him, but how all those “fans” don’t understand that without him, Kinnporsche wouldn’t have existed, BOC wouldn’t have existed, and all the pairings and soundtracks, too. It’s all his that you love so dearly. Jeff wouldn’t be so popular, Barcode wouldn’t be even casted and Apo would be in NY bartending in some bar. He believed Mile, believed Apo and took on production, you can see in every bts video, he was non stop on set, even as CEO he doesn’t have to. All the sponsorships come through his connections, all magazines and everything, they are mostly people he knew. Even this evening, everyone thinks that they have a vacation and tour around the Tokyo, but he is having the diner with few influential people, which potentially will be, or already are sponsors of actors. I am not fan of his interactions on instagram with fans, it’s totally useless to speak to those crazy people, but overall he seem to do a good job with BOC and company. Everyone hates him because he’s not doing what they want, being it with projects, pairing, actors and everything else but guess what, if the companies or bands would be ruled by fans, they wouldn’t survive a month. And don’t even get me started on the whole bankruptcy things, he never said that actors where hungry or he did not have any money left, he said that even though the tours are not very profitable, guys still wants to do that, and that because everyone wanted to have more dishes, the budget on FOOD went in red. And about the whole “BOC protect your artist”, like, protect from what? Guilty or not, because of him there’s big shadow over the whole cast and their reputation, maybe even they would have to go to court, can you imagine what it will be like for Bible, Barcode? And how much money did the company already lost, including sponsorship, missed events, harm on reputation and Pond, who had to leave his home on Chinese New Year’s Eve and fly to Build to talk to him and to deal with the problems that he cased, because he can’t quietly break up with one of his many girlfriends. What I want to say, If you don’t like his company, if you don’t like what he’s doing, just get out and don’t whine on social media about it, don’t spread more hate there. I hate when I go to comments and apparently everyone are financial and pr specialist, marketing professionals and lawyers. Just let him do his job, if you liked KinnPorsche, if you liked what he did, don’t attack him, don’t criticize him. If he fucked up, the biggest lose will be for him, you will just move on with you business. Just trust or leave.

P.S After Build will leave company I hope all his fans will leave with him, it’s unbearable to even read what they are saying.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The "small nonprofit school" saved in the SVB bailout charges more than Harvard

There are no libertarians in a bank run. No sooner had venture capitalists whipped each other into a terrified Twitter frenzy at the imminent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank — a collapse caused by that selfsame frenzy — than the Ayn Rand-poisoned elite of Sand Hill Road started begging for Uncle Sucker to open the sluicegates:

https://twitter.com/EricNewcomer/status/1634300928621793283

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/2023/03/23/small-nonprofit-school/#north-country-school

Now, on the one hand, it’s easy to dismiss these guys as very, very, very stupid. After all, they played a game of prisoner’s dilemma in which they were allowed to talk to each other as much as they wanted — and they still sold each other out:

https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/the-venture-capitalists-dilemma

But they still have the commonsense to realize that an America where $10k in student debt cancellation, school lunches for hungry children, and library budgets are out of reach, handing billions to a bank rescue a balance sheet overwhelmingly made up the investments of “high net worth” investors wouldn’t be popular.

After all, these guys have been crying about incipient guillotinism for years:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-08/billionaire-cartier-owner-sees-wealth-gap-fueling-social-unrest

Sure, they don’t compare small rises in the top marginal tax-rate to Kristallnacht anymore:

https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2014/01/26/266685819/billionaire-compares-outrage-over-rich-in-s-f-to-kristallnacht

But they are locked and loaded for The Event, feathering elaborate subterranean, antipodean nests in the most luxurious bunkers New Zealand has to offer, against the day that the poors come to eat them:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/business/bunkers-new-zealand-intl-hnk/index.html

So amid the clamor for socialism-for-the-rich, these billionaires went on the hunt for average joes who could serve as the face of the bailout. Like the “Ohio mom with 4 kids and a husband who works in manufacturing, who owns a small business:”

https://www.businessinsider.com/mother-small-startup-ceo-fall-svb-not-1-problem-2023-3

She’s ex-McKinsey and raised $4m in VC for a $600/month life-planning app; her husband, another McKinsey alum, is a senior manager at a steel company (that is, he “works in manufacturing”).

Clearly, the ex-libertarian 0.01 percenters begging for relief needed to find someone else. Enter David Sacks, a billionaire Paypal mafiosi who waded into the debate with screenshots of an email from a “small, non-profit school” that would miss payroll if the bailout was not forthcoming:

https://twitter.com/DavidSacks/status/1636054055121453057

Sacks held this up as evidence that SVB’s depositors were “more diversified than the media narrative has allowed.” Sacks went on to claim that the bailout saved “innocent bystanders” like “teachers” from being “laid off.”

What is this small, nonprofit school? Writing in The American Prospect, Luke Goldstein sleuths it out: the “small, nonprofit school” is North Country School, an upstate New York boarding school where tuition runs $62k/year — more than Harvard or Yale:

https://prospect.org/economy/2023-03-22-david-sacks-bank-bailout/

North Country sounds like a great place to get an education. It’s got its own private ski-slope. The local city raised a $7m municipal bond on its behalf. There’s a rock-climbing range and horseback riding. The school emphasizes unstructured, outdoor education, with “farming, wilderness trips…even maple sugaring”:

https://northcountryschool.org/

Let’s be honest, this is the kind of education a lot of us dream of our kids having. No wonder that the alumna include numerous Rockefellers, and a scion of the Aga Khan family — claimed lineal descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.

As illustrious as the student body is, the trustees are even more gilt-edged. There’s a former Jpmorgan managing director, a former Google exec, Austrian nobility, the Welch’s grape heir and even JD Salinger’s kid. The chair ran a booze delivery company that sold to Uber. Together, they manage $30m in assets and raise $3m/year in donations, on top of $9m/year in revenues.

As Goldstein points out, it might be a lot to ask of the median small, nonprofit school trustee to investigate the soundness of the school’s bank. But these aren’t the median trustees of the median school. They’re raising millions from Vanguard and Fidelity and the JM Kaplan Fund. Perhaps it’s not asking too much that high-flying financiers craft a risk management plan for their deposits — or, you know, just have the nous not to stash all their money in a single bank account, diversifying their risk the way that any financial planner would tell them to do.

According to Sacks, if the FDIC had frozen SVB withdrawals, or imposed a 10 percent haircut on depositors with more than $250k in the bank, the “modestly paid workers who tend not to have a lot of savings to fall back on” who worked at the school would have been out in the cold. But with donors on tap who give $50,000 at a pop, it seems likely that the trustees could have tapped someone for a bridge loan.

It’s doubtless true that there are low-waged, precarious workers who would have been out in the cold if the FDIC hadn’t stepped in, but the wealthy “investors” who clamored for the bailout spent the last several years consistently, brutally, loudly calling for an end to covid relief, no student debt cancellation, and cuts to public services. The idea that they were worried about saving the janitors and receptionists of Silicon Valley strains credulity:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/18/2-billion-here-2-billion-there/#socialism-for-the-rich

You can’t be on record calling for tech billionaires to “Sharpen your blades boys 🔪” ahead of mass layoffs and also claim to be a champion of the middle-class:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/21/tech-workers/#sharpen-your-blades-boys

As Goldstein writes, “David Sacks couldn’t find a mom-and-pop institution to justify his cockeyed version of reality without turning to a VC colleague’s ultra-rich boarding school.” There might be mom-and-pop institutions on the SVB balance-sheet, but David Sacks evidently doesn’t know any of them.

New York State is a good place to be a Silicon Valley banker. For one thing, the Southern District of New York is an exceptionally nice place to be a bankrupt billionaire, which is why SVB’s investors now claim that their headquarters are at 387 Park Ave, 2,951 miles from the Santa Clara HQ the company listed on all its filings:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/18/2-billion-here-2-billion-there/#socialism-for-the-rich

In New York, elite boarding schools get federal rescues, so long as they can claim some nexus with SVB. But, as Goldstein writes, NY city and state schools are in outright financial crisis, with no aid in sight. The State University of New York system is drowning in debt. NYC schools are about to bring down massive layoffs, having lost $469m out of their budgets:

https://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/testimony-of-new-york-city-comptroller-brad-lander-to-the-new-york-city-council-committee-on-education-on-resolution-283-2022-to-immediately-reverse-doe-reductions-to-school-budgets-for-fy-2023/

The FDIC stepped in to rescue SVB, claiming that it wouldn’t cost the public anything — instead, the money would come from increases in the entire bank system’s insurance premiums. But as Adam Levitin writes for Credit Slips, banks “will pass those premiums through to customers because the market for banking services is less competitive than the market for capital…higher costs for increased insurance premiums are likely to flow to the least price-sensitive and most ‘sticky’ customers: less wealthy individuals”

“So average Joes are going to be facing things like higher account fees or lower APYs, without gaining any benefit. Instead, the benefit of removing the cap would flow entirely to wealthy individuals and businesses. This is one massive, regressive cross-subsidy.”

https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2023/03/the-regressive-cross-subsidy-of-uncapping-deposit-insurance.html

Nothing about this bailout intrinsically protects anyone’s job. Yes, if the companies that banked with SVB went under, they’d have fired everyone. But tech companies are firing everyone anyway, 280,000 and counting, in profitable companies where they do stock-buybacks big enough to pay every worker’s salary for the next quarter-century:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/21/tech-workers/#sharpen-your-blades-boys

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon’s Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they’re DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible

[Image ID: A vast castle surrounded by a stately brick wall bearing an ornate gilt-framed sign reading 'Small, non-profit school,' in gothic lettering. Atop the wall is a caricature of Humpty Dumpty, looking distressed. He has a SVB logo over his chest. He is being restrained by tiny, top-hatted bankers.]

[p5x-theories]

So, if Minami is a "non-limited" character...

That sort of implies that there are plans for limited characters in the future.

On one hand this makes sense.  A great way to make people pull in the gacha is to give them a Fear Of Missing Out.  You want this character?  Well you’ll have to pull now, because after the banner ends they’ll be gone for good!

But on the other hand, developing a brand new character costs a not-insignificant chunk of change, given that you have create a new design, model, animations, hire voice actors, etc.  Would it be worth it to do all that and only profit off the character for a limited amount of time?

Maybe the plans for limited characters will change depending on how popular that game is?  Like if the game is a smash hit they’ll have the budget to keep pumping out new characters, but if it’s only a modest success they’ll be more conservative with their resources.

Or maybe limited characters will be variants of existing popular characters?  Like if Nurse becomes a popular character they’ll release a Super Nurse limited unit that has enough new bells and whistles to get fans to buy her again, but can recycle enough elements of the existing unit that they’ll be able to keep dev costs down.

Have you heard anything else about limited and non-limited characters?

I would argue it might not strictly imply the existence of “limited” characters in this game, though you’re definitely right that it implies the general existence of them. Considering that was added in what seemed like an almost obligatory “here’s the conditions of the event” paragraph, in front of both the section about Bui getting re-added and then again at the start of Nurse’s section, I sort of took it as a “don’t worry, she won’t be unobtainable forever after this, it’s just much easier to get her right now”. But maybe you’re right, and I’m the one thinking too optimistically, heh!

I would expect, at least, if there are limited characters eventually, that they would just be variants/maybe alternate outfits or something of preexisting ones, because you’re absolutely correct that it’d be a lot more work for a very limited window of profit if they limited an entire character completely. Either versions that are actually stronger, like you suggested, or maybe even just special outfits, like you (and others) have suggested in the past. 

I’d be genuinely surprised if they limited an entire character they had made solely for the gacha, hah, unless maybe they periodically had events where you could get that character again (maybe a Halloween-specific event character, for instance, or one that’s available every other month or something)?

[damiankoh]

Finance 101 for marketers

In the world of business, it is common for specialized departments to operate in their silos. One notable example is the marketing team, which often focuses on brand building, creative and customer engagement, sometimes at the expense of a deeper understanding of the broader business and commercial workings of the company. This gap can lead to misaligned strategies and lost opportunities.

These are some of the common terms that I have come across over the past decade that every marketer should have a basic understanding.

GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume): This is the total sales value of merchandise sold through a particular marketplace over a specific time period. It measures the size of a marketplace or business, but not the company's actual revenue since it doesn't account for discounts, returns, etc.

Revenue: This is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods or services related to the company's primary operations.

COGS (Cost of Goods Sold): This refers to the direct costs attributable to the production of the goods sold. This amount includes the cost of the materials and labor directly used to create the product.

Gross Margin: A financial metric indicating the financial health of a company. It's calculated as the revenue minus the cost of goods sold (COGS), divided by the revenue. This percentage shows how much the company retains on each dollar of sales to cover its other costs.

Operating Income: This is the profit realized from a business's core operations. It is calculated by subtracting operating expenses (like wages, depreciation, and cost of goods sold) from the company’s gross income.

Ordinary Income: This typically refers to income earned from regular business operations, excluding extraordinary income which might come from non-recurring events like asset sales or investments.

Net Profit: Also known as net income or net earnings, it's the amount of income that remains after all operating expenses, taxes, interest, and preferred stock dividends have been deducted from a company's total revenue.

PPWF (Price Pocket Waterfall): This term is used to describe the breakdown of the list price of a product or service down to the net price, showing all the factors that contribute to the price erosion. The "waterfall" metaphorically illustrates how the price "falls" or reduces step by step due to various deductions like discounts, rebates, allowances, and other incentives given to customers. This analysis is important for businesses to understand their actual pricing dynamics and profitability. It helps in identifying opportunities for price optimization and controlling unnecessary discounts or allowances that erode the final price received by the company.

Net Present Value (NPV): A method used in capital budgeting and investment planning to evaluate the profitability of an investment or project. It represents the difference between the present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows over a period of time.

Internal Rate of Return (IRR): A metric used in financial analysis to estimate the profitability of potential investments. It's the discount rate that makes the net present value (NPV) of all cash flows from a particular project equal to zero.

CONQ (Cost of Non-Quality): This is the cost incurred due to providing poor quality products or services. It includes rework, returns, complaints, and lost sales due to a damaged reputation.

A&P (Advertising and Promotion): These are expenses related to the marketing and promotion of a company's products or services. It's a subset of the broader marketing expenses a company incurs.

Return on Investment (ROI): In simple terms, ROI measures the profitability of an investment. For marketing teams, this means understanding how campaigns contribute to the company's bottom line, beyond just tracking engagement metrics.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): ROAS specifically measures the efficiency of an advertising campaign. It assesses how much revenue is generated for every dollar spent on advertising. It's similar to ROI but focused solely on ad spend and the revenue directly generated from those ads. ROAS is exclusively used in the context of advertising and marketing. It helps businesses determine which advertising campaigns are most effective.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): This predicts the net profit attributed to the entire future relationship with a customer. Effective marketing strategies should aim at not only acquiring new customers but also retaining existing ones, thus maximizing CLV.

G&A (General and Administrative Expenses): These are the overhead costs associated with the day-to-day operations of a business. They include rent, utilities, insurance, management salaries, and other non-production-related costs.

[maybuds]

Believe me I’m no fan of late-stage capitalism, but I do feel like that last anon is in a particularly doom-laden mood with regards to creative works right now?! Yes of course the big studios and streaming services have a stultifying effect. But step even a tiny bit outside the mainstream big-budget stuff and there are amazing films being made. Not to mention that non-English language independent films are exciting and interesting and able to reach a bigger audience than ever before, thanks to the internet. Additionally, the sweeping statement that “the music isn’t even that good” just seems…unjustified? There’s loads of amazing music out there right now, even on the most mainstream labels. And you have the opportunity to fund a massive range of creators directly via Bandcamp and Patreon! But beyond that, what about all the people who don’t go to gigs just to take insta-content? What about all the people who go to watch tiny local rock bands play in the pub? Or folk bands play in a barn? Or world music played at a night event in a museum? If you spend a lot of time looking at instagram and TikTok, of course you’ll see the shiny people who only go to activities in order to film themselves there. But there are so many people who don’t do that, who listen and watch and pay attention in the moment. Who close their eyes against tears because they’re finally seeing the band they loved when they were 13, and weren’t allowed to go. Who use VPN to hunt down obscure Hong Kong movies from the 90s. Who go to themed film festivals at their local independent cinema. Yes it’s annoying that the Western mainstream is largely so shallow, but there are so many ways to access more interesting art these days…I just feel like a completely negative view is misguided and misleading. I hope the other anon can find joy in turning their attention away from the most dominant (and chronically online) Western pop culture in favour of things they value and love.

i love those descriptions, and they give me a lot of hope; they’re actually a much needed reminder about what meaningful engagement with creative works out there can still do if we just look for it. but at the same time, i also understand where the other anon is coming from, because there really is something to be said about the state of creative media production these days in general and especially the media engagement that currently happens a lot on social media. so that even if it wasn’t the barbie or oppenheimer movie but, say, some other foreign independent arthouse film from the late ’90s, or of one of the local rock bands, the way people ‘aestheticize’ it and flatten it out on social media is … frustrating to say the least. and the fact that this is one of the surest ways to really get more people to listen or watch is just so bleak to look at right now when you want to share your art to people. in a sense, it’s difficult for those who want to create meaningful art and live off of it, when all you get is this celebrity-obsessed culture. it’s like the way you can earn sufficiently from it is if you made ‘creative content’ that’s as consumable and as palatable to profitability as possible, plus you have to have your ‘identity’ (branding) down too. and even if you decided to exit the mainstream and wanted to go independent, you will still need income anyway. art is not separable from the material world, no matter how abstract it is. the way so many creative minds and energies are being ruined right now by branding and market logic is just a grim reality we’re being faced with more and more, even outside the west. and we get this excess of shallow media, and it’s what’s everywhere right now, and it’s melting all our brains, no matter if we still engage with meaningful art whenever we can.

still!!! i do have to thank you for a very hopeful message re: creative work and genuine engagement to works of art. despite everything genuinely loving art really is what it’s all about! just have to keep looking for more hehe

[primeblogs]

Living Like a Billionaire - The Ultimate Luxury Motivation Experience

Billionaires enjoy showing off their wealth by sporting extravagant clothes and high-end accessories. They're expensive however, they're an integral part of the life of billionaires. These people live in estates worth millions of dollars. These estates often include an helipad, beach and other amenities. 1. Create a Billionaire Mindset Millionaires are always learning new things in order to stay on top of their competitors. They read extensively to keep up with the most current trends and information. Exercise is also a major passion for them and provides many health benefits. They organize their time to be able to enjoy everything they love. They're not traditionalists, and are always pushing for change - think Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. 2. Create a Billionaire Vision Billionaires are extremely creative. They transform mundane products into something unique. They also have interesting hobbies. For instance, Elon Musk collects James Bond souvenirs. Bill Gates collects manuscripts and books. Self-made billionaires think that life is a meritocracy and they're superior to the rest of us. Also, they have an innate belief in entitlement. Their actions and attitudes toward charity reflect this mindset. 3. Develop a Billionaire Mindset Billionaires are curious, open-minded and constantly learning. They see opportunities that others cannot recognize obstacles. They follow their guts, and they take advantage of opportunities. Motivation is the key to the success of billionaires. Motivation is what drives them to overcome their obstacles and propel them forward. They establish goals and routinely review them to make sure they're in line with their vision. 4. Create a Billionaire Action Plan It requires hard work and commitment to become a billionaire. It can be very rewarding. Get yourself set for success by beginning your day with this billionaire's morning routine. This routine includes meditation, exercise and reading. Billionaires are avid readers of books about business as well as science, history, and technology. They also read books on fiction and self-help. Reading is crucial for development as well as learning new things. 5. Create a Billionaire budget Even a good annual income such as the $20 million that Tom Brady's new deal with ESPN nets him, won't make you a millionaire. Billionaires make billions by investing in businesses worth billions of dollars or purchasing shares. They also avoid investments like vehicles that decrease in value. However, they will make payments for things like security and a personal assistant. 6. Create a Billionaire Schedule Morning routines are a hallmark of billionaires. They are designed to promote health for body as well as mind and spirit. Their schedules are meticulously set and are in line with their long-term objectives to gain financial success, prosperity as well as personal growth. Bill Gates, for example has a habit of reading to stay updated about current events and expand his knowledge. Exercise in the morning is also a habit of billionaires, and improves their mental health and focus. 7. Make an Billionaire Goals List Billionaires make sure that every target they set is accompanied by plans. They also recognize that they must measure their progress and stay on track to reach their goals. They also make time to go through news stories every morning to stay informed. This helps them remain focused and productive throughout the day. Instead of investing in the 401 (k) They should avoid buying things that appreciate in value, such as cars. 8. Create a Billionaire Action Plan Millionaires concentrate on the things that matter. Millionaires aren't wasting time on Facebook, YouTube or the latest infomercial. They read articles in the morning to stay up-to-date. To ensure they are productive, they plan their day and establish goals. They're philanthropic. They contribute to non-profit organizations and contribute in other ways that do not involve money, like giving people with the resources they need. 9. Create a Billionaire Dream Billionaires often achieve success by creating and expanding their businesses. They put in a lot of effort to create and implement a brilliant idea. They also have a good understanding of the business and its latest developments. While billionaires can indulge in their wealth, such as through private jets and living in multiple mansions, others are surprisingly cheap. A lot of them still live in the home they bought several decades ago. 10. Create a Billionaire Vision Millionaires have a clear idea of what having a lot of money can accomplish for their lives. Their lavish lifestyle is a reflection of their vision.

They have expensive cars and engage in exclusive leisure pursuits. They express their intrinsic motivations. A few billionaires are known for having odd interests for example, like collecting James Bond memorabilia and old rocket parts. Hobbies allow them to maintain their sanity and provide them with enjoyment. Go to YouTube

[hazely2casimiro]

My contribution as an ABM student in the society

As an ABM (Accountancy, Business, and Management) student, here are several ways i can contribute to society.

Firstly, volunteer my skills-i will use my knowledge in accounting, finance, and business management to support non-profit organizations or community initiatives. Offer your assistance in managing finances, creating business plans, or providing financial literacy workshops.

Secondly, Support local businesses-Encourage entrepreneurship and economic growth by promoting and patronizing local businesses. You can help raise awareness about small businesses in your community through digital marketing campaigns or organizing events that showcase their products or services.

Lastly, Financial literacy advocacy-Many people lack basic financial literacy skills, which can lead to financial difficulties. Take the initiative to educate others on important financial concepts like saving, budgeting, and investing. You can conduct workshops or create informative content to help individuals make informed financial decisions.

[drsp00n]

Some amateur (and even high budget) horror pet peeves of mine

I'll try to be as brief as I can be (lie) but feel free to ask me to ellaborate if I don't make sense:

Takes place in middle class USA: That's it, that's the post. I feel like one of my biggest issues with modern horror is just how americacentric it is. There's a treasure trove of concepts and stories that can be found in other cultures yet we are recycling the most mass appeal shit possible. As someone who isn't white and isn't living in the US, I'm tired of mascot horror. I went to chuck e cheese once, I don't know what an animatronic is. I want to see a horror story about indigenous people's interactions with creatures of the forest from the 7th century, I don't care about your US high school experience.

Relies heavily on nostalgia to build atmosphere: I think we are actually stagnating culturally. "REMEMBER THE 2000s!?" has become the new "REMEMBER THE 90s?", which itself has not fucking died because of the aesthetic in emulating things from the past. The culture of consumption and instant gratification has only gotten worse and offers nothing in the realm of substance. Why build atmosphere when you can just rely on people's sentimentality? Hell don't even be accurate, just grab a bunch of shit from different eras and throw it in there.

Liminal space/impossible space/Non-eucledian geometry: Listen, I love me a good infinite pit of death. I love me a good blood lake. I love an endless staircase. Abandoned city, empty school, love em. But I feel like some people's concepts of liminal space is just going outside??? When you want to rely on the vague recollection of a shared experience, much like relying on nostalgia, you also have to recognize that some of these things are just... normal? These environments only make sense from a human point of view. The way they're placed is uncanny, but also very calculated. To me, it works against the genre itself because only another person could come up with something like this.

Digital and analog horror: There's a ghost in my computer dick, aahhhh. This goes kind of hand in hand with the reliance on nostalgia. But it really seems like not many people have delved into the genre further than the typical possession story or zombie-adjacent apocalypse. Within a year it became saturated. There are a few fun stories here and there, but these stories can only function in the realm of having all the time in the world to lead you around an easter egg hunt, or having a youtuber do it for you. ARGs can be fun, but most of them are tedius and pedantic. The payoff is usually not worht the buildup and the aesthetics get old very quickly. They're neat as something you can do basically from your bedroom with a shitty laptop, but beyond that they're not that remarkable because most are lacking in that creative spark.

It was capitalism all along: Alright, time to throw hands. Greed has been a driving force for most of the tragedies in human history. Many stories have themes of capitalism that are not outright addressed, but are just visible enough for you to realize that it's one of the main causes for the events of a story. However, I feel that we have reached a point in social awareness that gives people the resources and information needed to say meaningful things. We KNOW capitalism bad, but what do we do with that? Nothing! Political themes and horror are at odds because while we are running around from big scary monsters, people in the real world are actually dying by the thousands due to corporate greed. Horror itself is not something that HAS to say very meaningful things on a large social scale, but I just tune out when the villain is a CEO that turned 7 children into ghost fuel to make a 4% profit on the 2019 fiscal year. Someone in the story died because their boss exploited them too much and now they're a wraith? That sucks, that happens all the time in the real world. Have a little bit more tact with this subject matter or don't use it at all.

Mascot horror: As stated above, I can't take these kinds of stories seriously because they rely on such a dumb premise to begin with. These are stories for literal children, so I shouldn't complain too much. But they take center stage on most social spaces, so I will complain. In stories where the ghost of middle class children get to possess robots or costumes or whatever, EVERYTHING should be fucking possessed. You've probably heard every other criticism about how lazy and saturated the field is so I don't have to bring it up. But I can't engage with the premise in general.

I get that this is mostly a mainstream issue, but sometimes I wish people would just pick up a book sometimes and tell something new instead of trying to be barely deritative of something else lol

[seatextiles]

6. Booking a Venue

As a group, we decided we wanted to try and make the exhibition a reality, so I was put in charge of finding and booking a venue. I initially wanted to hold the exhibition at St. George’s Square (Huddersfield Train Station), as there would be a lot of foot traffic, with people getting the train to different parts of the country. The idea was that this would allow our project to spread across the country through word of mouth, and people seeing our logo on clothing. I filled out an activity-based permit application through the government site, which led to emailing with one of their employees, who provided help and advice around booking the space.

We decided against this idea, as through multiple emails we were made aware of the overall cost of hiring the area. These costs included:

£30 just to apply

£500 deposit, that’s refunded afterward

£40 for a tabletop license

£317 for a street traders license.

We would also have then needed to provide our own table and monitors and anything else that would have been needed for the event. For a one-day, non-profit charity event, this was way out of budget, so I began to look at other places that we could use.

I contacted the Student Union at The University of Huddersfield to see if holding the exhibition there would be possible. They were keen to help with the project, saying that we could use their monitors for the videos, and that they would provide us with a table and space to hold the exhibition, and that they would also promote the project throughout the university so that people would come. Through the application process, we were given advice on days to hold it, telling us the days and times that would be busiest, so that we could make our exhibition as successful as possible.

Though we wanted to hold the exhibition, we ultimately had to cancel it, as the work could not be completed in time. As I balance my studies with work and I was also going through some personal struggles at the time, I was unable to make enough successful patches and clothing pieces within the time-frame. However, I was able to make enough to showcase the idea and find how it would be best to make them should we hold the exhibition in the future. The collection of artworks on mirrors and the video had also not been completed in time.

[beardedmrbean]

The political institutions of the European Union are in turmoil with a cash-for-favours corruption scandal engulfing the European Parliament with the potential to spread.

Former European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili is one of four people in detention, charged by Belgian prosecutors with "participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption." 

She has already been booted out of her political parties and affiliations and stripped of her vice presidency, accused of accepting bribes from Qatar.

Gleaming speeches about the Gulf state in the European Parliament, voting in favor of files related to Qatar in committees, on which she didn't sit, and attending numerous unregistered events in the country are the alleged links between Kaili and Doha.

In a statement published online, the Mission of Qatar to the EU called the allegations "baseless and gravely misinformed."

While official details of the scope and depth of the police investigation in Belgium remain scant, the activities of members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and other EU bodies will now come under increased scrutiny.

EU experts are questioning whether the existing anti-corruption measures in place suffice.

"When there is highly complex and entrenched policymaking like there is in the EU, it becomes untransparent, and then it makes it easier to buy influence," Jacob Kirkegaard from the German Marshall Fund told DW News. "You can buy a vice president of the European Parliament for €600k! Are they really that cheap?"

"This is clearly a woman who wasn't afraid of being caught. It indicates that whatever measures and processes the European Parliament has, have no deterrent effect," he said. "Even stupid people, if they were afraid, wouldn't do it.”

Transparency measures

So what measures are in place at the EU?

It has a database, in which NGOs, lobby groups, consultants, charities, and any other organizations wanting to influence lawmaking must register.

All those listed in the Transparency Register are required to declare their budgets, and any donations above €10,000 (ca. $10,545) for NGOs.

Significantly though, Fighting Impunity, the NGO at the heart of the current corruption scandal, is not on the register.

Its president, former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, is also in detention. And Eva Kaili's partner Francesco Giorgi works there too. Furthermore, Fighting Impunity shares an office with the Italian non-profit No Peace Without Justice, whose director was also arrested in this case.

"With the loopholes in the system, this was bound to happen," Paul Varakas, president of the Society of European Affairs Professionals (SEAP), which helps lobbyists apply to the Transparency Register, told DW.

In 2021, the European Parliament refused to apply the principle of "strict conditionality" attached to the Transparency Register, which would have forced them to only meet with registered lobbyists.

Senior officials in the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, are already bound to this principle and only allowed to meet with lobbyists who are listed on the register.

But the MEPS argued that it would infringe on their "freedom of mandate" and rejected moves to force them to disclose all their meetings.

"That's how they [Fighting Impunity] were doing it," said Varakas. "You had an NGO influencing decision-making without having to disclose anything. They were invited by an MEP who didn't have to declare. It was simple for them."

SEAP and other organizations are now saying that while mandatory registration (and disclosure requirements attached to it) might be burdensome for smaller actors, such as NGOs, the pressure on the European Parliament to fall in line on the "conditionality principle" will be immense.

In the wake of the scandal, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has repeated a call for an ethics body to be set up that would oversee all EU institutions.

"We have one with very clear rules internally in the Euroepan Commission and I think it is time to discuss where we could establish this overall for all EU institutions" she said at a press conference in Brussels on Monday.

Diplomatic immunity

MEPS also enjoy diplomatic immunity so that they can carry out their political work without fear of prosecution.

According to a Protocol on privileges and immunities of the EU, they cannot "be subject to any form of inquiry, detention or legal proceedings in respect of opinions expressed or votes cast by them in the performance of their duties."

Immunity is not valid, however, "when a Member is found in the act of committing an offence and shall not prevent the European Parliament from exercising its right to waive the immunity of one of its Members."

If necessary, MEPs do have the right to request their immunity is upheld but the press office of the European Parliament said so far no request of that nature had been made by Eva Kaili.

Prosecuting judges in Belgium have also not asked for the immunity to be lifted.

"If there is no request for immunity to be withdrawn then that suggests that the judge has concluded that the criteria have been met for immunity to no longer apply," said European Parliament spokesperson Jaume Duch in Strasbourg.

In the past, immunity requests have been made in regard to extradition requests. But because the crimes are alleged to have been committed in Belgium, extradition would not apply in this case.

[blu-accounting]

As a small accounting firm in South Africa, we understand the importance of effectively managing your marketing budget. Allocating resources to the most efficient digital marketing platforms and maximizing the efficacy of your initiatives can be a daunting task, but it is essential for promoting brand and product awareness. If you’re unsure where to start when it comes to budget management and tracking, we’ve got you covered. In this article, we offer helpful suggestions for gaining control of your marketing expenditures and maximizing your return on investment.

Do you know how much your company spends on marketing? Let’s dive in and explore how you can take charge of your marketing budget and achieve your revenue and profit goals. #marketing

At our accounting firm, we understand that managing your marketing budget can be challenging, especially when trying to maximize your digital marketing efforts. With our expert guidance, however, you can create a well-planned marketing budget that helps you allocate resources to the most efficient digital marketing platforms and maximizes the efficacy of your initiatives.

In South Africa, most companies allocate between 2% to 5% of their income on marketing to advertise their products and services. No matter the size of your marketing budget, it’s crucial to use your working capital effectively. Therefore, we suggest that you ensure every Rand is effectively promoting brand and product awareness.

As a small accounting firm, we know that executives need tangible evidence of return on investment (ROI) to justify marketing expenditures. To gain control of your marketing expenditures, we recommend that you:

Determine the most successful marketing channels – Consider which channels are most likely to produce the best results for your business, whether it’s video, social media, blogging, events, or above-the-line advertising. Do research, communicate with your customers, and utilize the channels where your audience is most likely to interact with you.

Allocate your marketing expenditures across various channels – Allocate your budget according to each channel’s cost-effectiveness. Consult with other marketers in your field, review industry benchmarks, and estimate an approximate amount for each channel’s budget. By summing the costs for each channel, you may calculate your total marketing expenditure. Ensure that this does not exceed the percentage of your sales budgeted for marketing.

Establish revenue goals for each channel – Define measurable financial and non-financial ROI objectives for each channel. For example, how many clients will each channel attract? What effect will this have on cash flow? What effect do you want this to have on your revenue and profits?

Use advanced cloud accounting tools to record and monitor your marketing expenditures – Monitor your marketing expenditures by channel, product, and cost code to obtain a comprehensive summary of your spending. This provides you with the information necessary to track performance over time, so you have complete control over your expenditure.

Combine data and reporting from your cloud accounting and marketing software – This provides you with the most accurate marketing management information imaginable. You can use this data to make intelligent marketing decisions, such as where to spend the most money on marketing, which channel converts the highest amount of prospects, and how much of your marketing money has been spent and how much is left.

At our accounting firm, we have the expertise to help you track your marketing expenditures and ensure that you are getting the most out of your budget. We can assist you in setting up new expense codes in your accounting software and refining your per-channel marketing budgets. We can also work with you to customize your dashboard and management information so that you have access to all the necessary financial and non-financial data.

If you want to delve deeper into your marketing expenditures (and the ROI these Rand are generating), please email us and schedule a time to speak with us. We can help you make informed decisions that increase your ROI and your company’s overall digital presence.

[mariacallous]

For years, a secret organization run from inside Russia’s parliament successfully interfered with European policies on occupied Ukraine. Leaked emails give a new overview of the operation and show how European Union politicians who helped push Moscow’s agenda were offered cash and perks.

Key Findings

Leaked emails show how a Duma insider built a network of analysts, journalists, and others who helped him push the Kremlin’s interests abroad.

His group offered cash to European politicians to propose pro-Russian motions in their local legislatures, and paid far-right activists to publish pro-Kremlin articles in European media outlets.

The network arranged trips to occupied Crimea for European politicians and businessmen, with travel and accommodation covered by Russian state-funded organizations and honoraria apparently offered to some individuals.

It also helped bring European political figures to Russia to act as election observers, with a 68,000-euro budget allocated to the project.

Since Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s overseas aggression has reached a fever pitch. Yet Russia can still rely on the occasional friendly voice in Europe: Last November, for example, far-right Italian local legislator Stefano Valdegamberi penned an op-ed decrying the EU’s decision to designate Russia a terrorist state as “a serious mistake” that “foments conflict by denying historical truth.”

But what Valdegamberi didn’t mention was that he had long been collaborating with a secretive Russian lobbying group with a direct link to the Kremlin. Since at least 2014, that group had designed plans to channel cash to European politicians to help it legitimize Russia’s occupation of Crimea and promote pro-Moscow policies inside EU countries.

Details of the group’s activities have come to light via hacked and leaked emails belonging to its coordinator, Russian parliamentary staffer Sargis Mirzakhanian, who ran the “International Agency for Current Policy” in the years following the annexation of Crimea.

The emails suggest his group paid politicians thousands of euros to put forward pro-Russian resolutions in European legislatures, a new investigation by Eesti Ekspress, in partnership with OCCRP, IrpiMedia, iStories, and Profil, has found.

It also helped arrange for political figures from countries including Germany, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland to be flown on expensive junkets to pro-Russia events in occupied Crimea, and paid honoraria for their presence.

The lobbying group also flew several European political figures to Russia to act as official election observers.

The emails, which were leaked by a group of Ukrainian hacktivists, reveal especially close ties between Mirzakhanian’s operation and officials in Italy and Cyprus. These ties paved the way for pro-Russian motions to be passed in both countries, with both the Cypriot parliament and multiple Italian regional councils calling for an end to sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Crimea.

Previous media reports have shown links between EU politicians and Kremlin propagandists, but this is the first comprehensive insight into how this campaign was run from Russia. The emails show that Mirzakhanian, a well-connected staffer and adviser in Russia’s parliament, the Duma, built a network of political analysts, journalists, activists, and academics who helped him push the Kremlin’s interests abroad.

Anton Shekhovtsov, chair of the pro-democracy non-profit Centre for Democratic Integrity, said the leaked emails “represent one of the most important sources of our knowledge of how particular engines of the Russian political war machine works.”

Most significantly, Shekhovtsov said, they showed Mirzakhanian’s role coordinating protests, placing media articles, and preparing parliamentary resolutions across Europe, while organizing “fake” election observation missions as he and his associates sought to legitimize the annexation of Crimea and “advance Russian domestic and foreign policy interests.”

The emails run from March 2007 until September 2017, and it’s unclear whether the International Agency for Current Policy is still at work today, although those linked to the network like Valdegamberi continue to make pro-Russian statements.

Olga Lautman, a researcher on Kremlin-related disinformation and hybrid threats at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said that groups like Mirzakhanian’s had helped open the door to Russia’s ongoing aggression in the rest of Ukraine.

“Russia was extremely successful in its efforts to soften the response to its various campaigns by putting former and current politicians on its payroll,” she said.

“Russia’s latest full-scale invasion is a direct result of the international community’s failure to hold Russia accountable after the 2008 Georgia invasion, the 2014 Ukraine invasion, the atrocities they helped [Bashar al-] Assad commit in Syria, and the various assassinations or attempts, using chemical weapons on foreign soil.”

Mirzakhanyan and other key figures connected to his group did not respond to requests for comment.