#how much fraud do you have to commit for an alignment change?

[leavingautumn13]

tonight i'm wrestling with the fact that i've always listed hrissock as being lawful evil on their character sheets but they have the aura of someone who has absolutely committed tax fraud and i don't know if that tracks.

[cboffshore]

Both Djinn and Oni are seen as evil in the show but they don’t necessarily have to be. I wonder if there’s a Dragon-adjacent species in the Realms? If I squint, you can put Arin who’s Oni-coded with Lloyd’s old helmet or whatever with Nya and Sora with…whoever. But she’s Dragon-coded, AND Creation coded to Arin’s hypothetical Destruction. If I squint really hard I swear you can give Arin a character arc with Nya there’s gotta be more than just them not having any real powers at the start of the show.

I feel like my certified big brain bestie @nyaskitten would also enjoy this ask (and probably with WAY more coherence than me) so I'm inviting them to the party as well.

Before Raine shows up, here's my handful of assorted thoughts about this ask (under the cut for DRS1 spoilers:)

Regarding the Oni-Djinn-Dragon spectrum you imply and that I am about to run away with: what if the djinn are actually the MIDPOINT of that hypothetical range? I'm suggesting this because our sample size for djinn is so small right now (in order of appearance we ONLY have Jackass Supreme, Mr. Expo-Dump-And-Die, and Arrakore (who I do not yet have a funny summarizing nickname for because he's got like ten minutes of screentime under his belt), which isn't enough for me to extrapolate from) and we really don't have a TON of information to suggest that they lean one way or another as a collective. (Obviously if we get a montage of a bunch of resurrected djinn proving that Arrakore is the outlier by, I dunno, committing grand tax fraud or something, THEN we can make an overall assumption.) They do, however, display visual indicators of both Oni and Dragon - Nadakhan's finale evil magic ball things are destruction purple and Arrakore's magic manifests as bright creation gold - and generally otherworldly powers, although we don't know how universal they are. Nadakhan is the only one we ever see using most of the non wish-granting abilities like shapeshifting and teleportation (that reminds me, I still need to get that magic gatekeeping theory out!), but I'd assume that that early Skybound line where all Kai knows of djinn is that they're "sneaky and have great power" probably means this isn't a one-off thing. Anyway, back on track - I do agree that the djinn lean towards the Oni side given what little we've seen so far, but that evidence field is so small that any hint of Dragon coding in there could tip it. And Arrakore might not have done much yet, but I do think he's contributing to the Dragon side and dragging their alignment closer to the middle of the scale.

Regarding the Arin thing: I fully agree that Arin could have a killer connection with Nya right now, but I actually like that his arc is a bit disconnected from the rest of the team at the moment! Ninjago has always had a funky problem of shoving protagonists into relationships straight off the bat, whether that be romantic or not, so it's interesting that Arin's a bit emotionally isolated. He's very much trying to sort himself out, which isn't something I really remember getting in the first fifteen seasons. I feel like that's going to be a huge part of season 2 and I'm really curious to see how it's handled! Too curious to speculate, really, but that might change later, and I do love what you're going for here.

That was kind of a mess, but I hope it made some sense! Thanks for the ask!

[serafiel-jacobs]

Poker Face (Fanfic)

New chapter from my main series 🩷

Geppetto, Antonia, and Venigni were all hanging out together, it was nighttime not that late but not that early; Geppetto told his son to not wait for him and to go to bed as normal, the three of them had the opportunity to hang out for a few hours, without being in a room filled with others, or with alone but with a limited amount of time.

Every once in a while the stars align and they all have long times they can spend together, usually at night.

They had talked for the first two hours, but Antonia decided she wanted to have more fun, suggesting playing poker. At first, it was going to be a friendly match but while setting up the table to play things began to change.

“We already know how this is going to end, either I or Antonia will win, probably me” Geppetto was confident in his skills.

It was true, Geppetto and Antonia had skill while playing, poor Venigni no matter how many times he played, he never got any better.

“How is a man like you so good at poker Geppetto?” Antonia was intrigued, she always wondered how he was so good at it.

The reason was because while in his wild days as a student, he would constantly play strip poker, but he wasn't going to say that out loud in front of either of them.

“Well, I'm a man of many secrets Antonia” Geppetto had a grin on his face.

“Really?” Antonia took a sip of her drink, “What other fun secrets are you hiding?”

“They are called secrets for a reason”

“Like how you used to-” Venigni spoke up but he was interrupted.

“Don't you dare” Geppetto had a murderous stare and Venigni backed down.

“Then let's make this fun, each time someone wins a hand, they choose someone and make them reveal a secret” Antonia also had a grin on her face now as well.

“Can the two of you go easy on me this time?” Venigni didn't want to end up being the only one that ended up not asking anything.

Geppetto and Antonia looked at each other, they would go easy on him, but as soon as he lost, its game between them.

So the game began, Venigni was the one to win the first hand.

“Geppetto since you are a man of many secrets, let's start with you,” Venigni said teasingly.

“My grandmother is still alive”

“Excuse me?!” Both Antonia and Venigni shouted at the same time.

“Yes, she doesn't live in Krat, she lives in Germany so the two of you haven't met her” At first they thought he was joking, but when Geppetto offered to show them the letters she writes him from time to time they believed him.

“How old is she?” Venigni still couldn't believe it.

“I don't know actually” His grandmother is an enigma, he barely saw her as a child and has barely seen her since, last time he saw her in person was when Carlo was two years old yet she seems to know so much about his life.

She sent him a letter when Carlo died… it was quite a heartfelt letter, he appreciated it even if he didn't know how she found out Carlo had passed away, it had only been 3 days since his passing. Even more confusingly is that he got a letter from her, asking how Pinocchio was doing, he had never told her about Pinocchio.

“I think she is a witch” Geppetto is sure of it.

“I think you aren't the person I thought you were” Venigni is wondering what else Geppetto has kept hidden from them, the pile of secrets keeps adding up. Oh well, at least some of those secrets are about to be revealed.

Then, turn after turn passed.

“I have committed tax fraud” Antonia admitted.

“How did you get away with that?” Venigni asked.

“Oh I'm still getting away with it, but only one question at a time Ven” Antonia teased him. The secret is that it's technically not tax fraud, you have to work around the system.

“Venigni time to confess something” He lost the next round, Geppetto being the winner.

“There was that one time I found the company had spies, so I bribed them to be counter spies, so I guess I have committed corporate espionage”

“You guess? That IS corporate espionage” Geppetto was starting to question what other acts his friend “thinks” he committed.

“Okay Geppetto, your secrets are the most fun ones” Antonia was having so much fun this night, “Speak up”

“Since we're all confessing our crimes for some reason, one time, I got a call from Monad that Carlo was going to be expelled for plagiarizing his homework, so I might have given them some money to convince them to rethink that” Geppetto paused, seeing how both were staring at him silently “I obviously scolded him and told him to never do that again”

“What a great Influence you are”

“Shut up Antonia”

—--

“SO IT WAS YOU ALL THOSE TIMES?!” Geppetto shouted at Venigni.

“Look Geppetto hear me out”

“Why the hell were you putting tadpoles in the water fountain?!”

“Because they were going to die if I didn't! Each time someone found them they had to change the water filter and because it was a “health issue” they freed the tadpoles in the riverbank”

At Venigni Works, being a place that uses so much heat, it has pools of water for its use, but for some time, small tadpoles started appearing in parts of the water, Venigni felt bad about them, they would die melting in hot water if he didn't do something. Eventually, the tadpoles stopped appearing and Venigni felt relief.

“Then WHY didn't you just call animal protection to get rid of the problem in the first place?!” Geppetto was baffled.

“Oh... I didn't think about that”

“For a marvelous genius, you lack a lot of common sense Venigni,” Antonia said while laughing.

Venigni had been eliminated, so at least he was glad he didn't have to reveal more things.

“I win this round Antonia, tell us a secret” Geppetto was in high spirits, he knew he was close to winning, one more hand and the match would be over.

“Mmm” Antonia was thinking if she should say this out loud but she was running out of secrets to tell.

“Don't worry Antonia nothing comes out of this room” Venigni encouraged her.

That is a promise, a pact, after they all leave, this never happened.

“Oh well, I have revealed so much already” She paused for a brief moment, “I might have gotten… accidentally electrocuted while having fun with my love Polendina one time”

Antonia was blushing, Venigni was laughing and Geppetto was processing what he heard.

The last hand… both of them had a flush, unfortunately for Geppetto, Antonia had the ace, crowning her the winner. She gave out a triumphant laugh.

Geppetto was wondering what to say, he is a man of many secrets after all, what would be a fun secret to reveal? Well, so far he hasn't said anything about his time studying, and that always makes them get so stunned every time he talks about that so…

“There was this time when me and Alexander were hanging out” By that he means that he dragged Alexander to do it with him. “We decided to prank one of our professors” Geppetto explained how this professor, an older woman always carried around her poodle dog and it just so happened that next to the engineering faculty was the biology one, which had taxidermy animals, one of them was a poodle that looked just like hers.

They hid the dog in a closet and she was looking for it frantically for it, and when she came to her office she found the taxidermy dog in there.

“And then she fainted” Geppetto was panicking it got out of hand, he didn't think that would happen, Alexander kept shouting at him about how much of an idiot he was.

He got the dog out of the closet, and when the professor woke up, her dog was by her side, they managed to convince her that the stress got to her and that's why she fainted and that she probably dreamt about the taxidermy dog. She didn't question them, she was just so happy to see her dog.

“I never pulled another prank after that”

“I guess…” That was too much to handle for Venigni, “I guess Carlo had to get his behavior from somewhere”

Oh the many things that Carlo pulled while growing up, that boy was something else.

“Thank God I am here so that you don't corrupt poor Pinocchio,” Antonia said.

“Oh don't give yourself too much credit, you are spoiling him, he is turning into an even bigger brat” Geppetto wasn't going to let her get away with that.

“He is not a brat Geppetto”

“Oh, not when he is with you”

Venigni watched as Geppetto and Antonia argued over their parenting of Pinocchio and he was glad that he was just the fun uncle.

Geppetto, Antonia, and Venigni were all hanging out together, it was nighttime not that late but not that early; Geppetto told his son to not wait for him and to go to bed as normal, the three of them had the opportunity to hang out for a few hours, without being in a room filled with others, or with alone but with a limited amount of time.

Every once in a while the stars align and they all have long times they can spend together, usually at night.

They had talked for the first two hours, but Antonia decided she wanted to have more fun, suggesting playing poker. At first, it was going to be a friendly match but while setting up the table to play things began to change.

“We already know how this is going to end, either I or Antonia will win, probably me” Geppetto was confident in his skills.

It was true, Geppetto and Antonia had skill while playing, poor Venigni no matter how many times he played, he never got any better.

“How is a man like you so good at poker Geppetto?” Antonia was intrigued, she always wondered how he was so good at it.

The reason was because while in his wild days as a student, he would constantly play strip poker, but he wasn't going to say that out loud in front of either of them.

“Well, I'm a man of many secrets Antonia” Geppetto had a grin on his face.

“Really?” Antonia took a sip of her drink, “What other fun secrets are you hiding?”

“They are called secrets for a reason”

“Like how you used to-” Venigni spoke up but he was interrupted.

“Don't you dare” Geppetto had a murderous stare and Venigni backed down.

“Then let's make this fun, each time someone wins a hand, they choose someone and make them reveal a secret” Antonia also had a grin on her face now as well.

“Can the two of you go easy on me this time?” Venigni didn't want to end up being the only one that ended up not asking anything.

Geppetto and Antonia looked at each other, they would go easy on him, but as soon as he lost, its game between them.

So the game began, Venigni was the one to win the first hand.

“Geppetto since you are a man of many secrets, let's start with you,” Venigni said teasingly.

“My grandmother is still alive”

“Excuse me?!” Both Antonia and Venigni shouted at the same time.

“Yes, she doesn't live in Krat, she lives in Germany so the two of you haven't met her” At first they thought he was joking, but when Geppetto offered to show them the letters she writes him from time to time they believed him.

“How old is she?” Venigni still couldn't believe it.

“I don't know actually” His grandmother is an enigma, he barely saw her as a child and has barely seen her since, last time he saw her in person was when Carlo was two years old yet she seems to know so much about his life.

She sent him a letter when Carlo died… it was quite a heartfelt letter, he appreciated it even if he didn't know how she found out Carlo had passed away, it had only been 3 days since his passing. Even more confusingly is that he got a letter from her, asking how Pinocchio was doing, he had never told her about Pinocchio.

“I think she is a witch” Geppetto is sure of it.

“I think you aren't the person I thought you were” Venigni is wondering what else Geppetto has kept hidden from them, the pile of secrets keeps adding up. Oh well, at least some of those secrets are about to be revealed.

Then, turn after turn passed.

“I have committed tax fraud” Antonia admitted.

“How did you get away with that?” Venigni asked.

“Oh I'm still getting away with it, but only one question at a time Ven” Antonia teased him. The secret is that it's technically not tax fraud, you have to work around the system.

“Venigni time to confess something” He lost the next round, Geppetto being the winner.

“There was that one time I found the company had spies, so I bribed them to be counter spies, so I guess I have committed corporate espionage”

“You guess? That IS corporate espionage” Geppetto was starting to question what other acts his friend “thinks” he committed.

“Okay Geppetto, your secrets are the most fun ones” Antonia was having so much fun this night, “Speak up”

“Since we're all confessing our crimes for some reason, one time, I got a call from Monad that Carlo was going to be expelled for plagiarizing his homework, so I might have given them some money to convince them to rethink that” Geppetto paused, seeing how both were staring at him silently “I obviously scolded him and told him to never do that again”

“What a great Influence you are”

“Shut up Antonia”

—--

“SO IT WAS YOU ALL THOSE TIMES?!” Geppetto shouted at Venigni.

“Look Geppetto hear me out”

“Why the hell were you putting tadpoles in the water fountain?!”

“Because they were going to die if I didn't! Each time someone found them they had to change the water filter and because it was a “health issue” they freed the tadpoles in the riverbank”

At Venigni Works, being a place that uses so much heat, it has pools of water for its use, but for some time, small tadpoles started appearing in parts of the water, Venigni felt bad about them, they would die melting in hot water if he didn't do something. Eventually, the tadpoles stopped appearing and Venigni felt relief.

“Then WHY didn't you just call animal protection to get rid of the problem in the first place?!” Geppetto was baffled.

“Oh... I didn't think about that”

“For a marvelous genius, you lack a lot of common sense Venigni,” Antonia said while laughing.

Venigni had been eliminated, so at least he was glad he didn't have to reveal more things.

“I win this round Antonia, tell us a secret” Geppetto was in high spirits, he knew he was close to winning, one more hand and the match would be over.

“Mmm” Antonia was thinking if she should say this out loud but she was running out of secrets to tell.

“Don't worry Antonia nothing comes out of this room” Venigni encouraged her.

That is a promise, a pact, after they all leave, this never happened.

“Oh well, I have revealed so much already” She paused for a brief moment, “I might have gotten… accidentally electrocuted while having fun with my love Polendina one time”

Antonia was blushing, Venigni was laughing and Geppetto was processing what he heard.

The last hand… both of them had a flush, unfortunately for Geppetto, Antonia had the ace, crowning her the winner. She gave out a triumphant laugh.

Geppetto was wondering what to say, he is a man of many secrets after all, what would be a fun secret to reveal? Well, so far he hasn't said anything about his time studying, and that always makes them get so stunned every time he talks about that so…

“There was this time when me and Alexander were hanging out” By that he means that he dragged Alexander to do it with him. “We decided to prank one of our professors” Geppetto explained how this professor, an older woman always carried around her poodle dog and it just so happened that next to the engineering faculty was the biology one, which had taxidermy animals, one of them was a poodle that looked just like hers.

They hid the dog in a closet and she was looking for it frantically for it, and when she came to her office she found the taxidermy dog in there.

“And then she fainted” Geppetto was panicking it got out of hand, he didn't think that would happen, Alexander kept shouting at him about how much of an idiot he was.

He got the dog out of the closet, and when the professor woke up, her dog was by her side, they managed to convince her that the stress got to her and that's why she fainted and that she probably dreamt about the taxidermy dog. She didn't question them, she was just so happy to see her dog.

“I never pulled another prank after that”

“I guess…” That was too much to handle for Venigni, “I guess Carlo had to get his behavior from somewhere”

Oh the many things that Carlo pulled while growing up, that boy was something else.

“Thank God I am here so that you don't corrupt poor Pinocchio,” Antonia said.

“Oh don't give yourself too much credit, you are spoiling him, he is turning into an even bigger brat” Geppetto wasn't going to let her get away with that.

“He is not a brat Geppetto”

“Oh, not when he is with you”

Venigni watched as Geppetto and Antonia argued over their parenting of Pinocchio and he was glad that he was just the fun uncle.

[monsterqueers]

New Essay Up

New essay up on the website!

props and credit to @shadowfae , whos panel on problematic sources at Othercon 2021 motivated and inspired me to write about morality differences.

Alignments - A Memory Dump Essay

Essay has also been transcribed under this readmore if thats easier to read for anyone.

Morality, in The Before, was different, in the sense that there were Allignments.

I am A Silver Dragon, from a slightly AU-ed Dungeons and Dragons world. Alignments there dictated whether you were good or evil, lawful or chaotic. You may have seen the grid around, the nine squares with things like ‘neutral good’ and ‘lawful evil’ on them. This is that.

When I say ‘good’ and ‘evil’ I mean a different concept than the behavior choices that fall into ‘doing harm’ and ‘helping people’. There were words differing between the two in dragonic, though I do not remember them now, for what I am talking about.

In this world, ‘good’, ‘evil’, ‘lawful’ and ‘chaotic’ - the dragonic forms of these words, were not behavior descriptors, nor intention descriptions. They were factions, and many species simply could not choose their born faction or change it very much if they could. These factions were generally due to god interference in the creation of that species, and it meant certain magics worked or did not work against/for them or they had traits that were often seen as harmful. The correct translation for ‘good’ and ‘evil’ is more accurately ‘darkness’ and ‘light’, though lawful and chaotic are close enough to ‘things that follow order’, and ‘things that reject order’.

These alignments said very little about the behavior they exhibited or the morals they had. The dragonic word for ‘evil’ as in how people here use it to mean ‘does harm to others’ could be retranslated as ‘being an asshole’. A person aligned lawful good could regularly commit tax fraud and beat their wife, and a person who was chaotic evil could be a pacifist who gardens and is passionate about healthcare reform.

For some of the littlefolk (the Polite translated dragonic word for humans and elves and the like), this was more flexible, and generally littlefolk would not consider those who did large amounts of harm to their in-group to be good aligned, nor people who had never done harm any worse than neutral, despite this not being the case magically speaking. It could make things rather confusing when talking to the layman, as much of the littlefolk could simply choose whatever faction they liked and often could jump ship whenever they liked too.

There were other various littlefolk somewhat limited in their alignment choice however- a Drow could not be ‘good’, and Aasimir could not be ‘evil’, for example. Usually this was split down the good and evil, rather than lawful and chaotic, as the ‘good’ and ‘evil’ deities held the most active sway.

Think of it like nationality, I suppose. Its the closest equivalent. Some people can't ever gain citizenship in a country other than their country of birth even if they want to, others can do so with a bit of work.

Dragons, however, didn’t have this sort of choice. All true dragons were born a specific alignment to do with their species, and inherent instincts to follow the tenants generally professed by that faction. This is one of the major traits that separated a True -also known as Greater- Dragon from other dragonic creatures, such as fairy dragons, wyverns, and rust dragons, actually. Other dragonic creatures had some wiggle room.

Chromatic dragons were all evil aligned, Gem dragons were all neutral aligned, and Metallic dragons were all good aligned. Planar dragons, while true dragons, were another matter and their alignments were to nothing on the scale as their origin points and commitments were beyond the gods of that my former plane’s influence. Lung dragons were a type of Planar dragon in my canon, instead of their own category.

The individual species of those groupings each had a assigned further spot. A Gold Dragon was ALWAYS Lawful Good, whether they are an abhorrent entity or not, and a White Dragon was always Chaotic Evil.

The individual species were as follows(* for ones that are AU to dnd 5e canon but are true to mine):

Chaotic Evil - Red, Black, Yellow, White

Neutral Evil - Brown, Purple*, Gray

Lawful Evil - Blue, Green

Chaotic Neutral - Topaz, Crystal

True Neutral - Amber, Amethyst, Obsidian*, Prismatic

Lawful Neutral - Emerald, Sapphire

Chaotic Good - Copper, Mercury*, Brass

Neutral Good - Silver*, Iron*

Lawful Good - Gold, Bronze, Platinum*, Steel

So I was and am a Silver Dragon. Bahumat created metallic dragons with the intention of combating His sister Tiamat, who created chromatic dragons in turn. The deities of Law and Chaos- neither touched my kind deeply. We could use all magic aligned with the light or neutral powers, and none of the dark. There was little magic that was specifically aligned with order and chaos, but all of that was accessible, provided the spell was not of the shadow. Things that repelled creatures of the light could keep me out.

The more ‘good’ creatures that existed in the world in relation to ‘evil’ ones brought more and less power to Bahumat and Tiamat in their eternal fight. So long as one ‘good’ or ‘evil’ creature existed, neither god could die and they were driven to wipe each other out. The same could be said of the law and chaos deities.

Of my life, the beginning is murky. Once I was grown enough to roam, I first Adventured with a elven rider companion and then lived upon a mountain lair until my death. Towards the middle and latter end, the towns at its base paid me rites and respect for my guardianship. These rites did technically elevate me to a minor god* capable of working greater magic. I also had a village much closer to and in my lair, one where I took those who asked my asylum who perhaps needed greater safety or guidance.

I would defend my territory and would help those who asked. It was a good life, and I hold little to no exotrauma from it.

*not to be confused with Greater gods, which are what effect Alignment or embody big concepts, minor gods are just those who are Believed in by enough people- and thus given power from that collective Belief

The divide between what was and what is is deeper and more shallow that one would expect, all at once.

I’ve started tentatively identifying as a walk-in relatively recently, my selfhood simply showed up one day and the original, whos interests, opinions, demeanor, and identity was different than mine disappeared shortly thereafter. The system has many theories on how exactly this happened, the origins thus such, and how much of the original’s ego was made into me, and also exactly when. The transition was rather seamless and there was much brain weirdness to muddle it all and convince me that I have always been here. None of us know the answer, and it generally doesn’t matter in practice.

The experiences of the original that I inherited gave a large amount of distance to this life. For reference, I Awakened as a Silver Dragon ~2014 perhaps 2015 -time is muddy- or so- having finally put together all the noema and shifts and assorted feelings that were not my cat theriotype into what they were. I had been in the body for a good handful of years previous to that, however. It gives me a distance from that life. My memories and retained selfhood from that life are dull- a botched reincarnation. I remember just enough- I experience just enough bleedover that it upholds a pillar of my identity and I still identify as the being of that life, but not so much I am exactly as-is.

I want to do a little disclaimer- The statement that this definitively IS a past life and I AM a walk in and these ARE memories of a past life is a theory, not fact. I do not and cannot know if my theory is right, and I have a healthy dose of skepticism in regards to this. My experiences could be sourced to many things, however I experience my draconity in a fashion that is similar to how others describe their past life experiences. It fits accounts better than the accounts of people who are not past-life otherkin. It feels right to describe these experiences as such, and so I do. Perhaps one day my understanding of this may change, but for now it is as such.

Returning to the topic at hand; its a point of frustration to me almost to the point of dysphoria, how good and evil, and moral and immoral are used in society here and how. Good and evil denote both the ingroup-outgroup AND the moral standard, equating sinful with strange with harmful behavior. Evil no longer means ‘entity supporting or created by Tiamat’- who is night and shadow. Good no longer means ‘entity supporting or created by Bahumat’- who is day and light.

The congruence of good with helping and evil with harming is far more intense here, Bahumat and Tiamat as I know them hold no power here- as they shouldn’t. Their place was in my old reality and that is as far as those entities reach. The assignment of moral values to enjoyment of a thing or thoughts, rather than actions is wholly new, and honestly quite unpleasant.

Evil here, becomes ‘entity that enjoys harming’ and often ‘anyone I don’t like’

Good here them also becomes ‘entity that enjoys helping’ and often ‘anyone I do like’

There will be people who insist to ignore people that do that last part and claim that it doesn’t matter- that the social realities of how others assign you do not matter, but I disagree.

Being queer, kinky, mentally ill, neurodivergent, disabled, and a strong leftist among other things means people will think me evil for existing quite a bit. Stigmatized minorities are othered, our traits become evil no matter how kind we may be.

Society calls us evil, has designated us evil- alright, how is this a bad thing?

Disassociating Evil from moral allows one to reclaim Evil. Ok, we are Evil now, but oh, no less kind. No less caring. Take the words slung at you and make armor out of them.

And also no matter how kind you may be, by this metric if you enjoy causing pain and destruction, you are evil.

This… is a thoughtcrime thing. No matter how you conduct yourself in life, if you enjoy pain you are evil to society at large. So as above, unlink Evil from Moral, and it is reclaimable.

How people assign you is a material reality you can choose to make hold no power over you. You can make it your own scales.

It is for the reason of words changing meanings, of the fact that my god I was born to does not reach here and thus frees me from obligations, that I no longer identify as Neutral Good. It simply does not mean the same thing anymore and I can now choose my alignment besides. Bahumat was no terrible god to serve or anything, but I would have appreciated the choice if it was not hardwired into my dragon brain at the time to be devoted to such a being.

I take joy in harm and at the same time take joy in helping, I think the absence of care of society is not something I can do, nor do I think rigid obedience is right.

Thus I would consider myself in the alignments of this world today as True Neutral.

Not to mention I have chosen the service of a True Neutral god in Cernunnos, so by my former world’s standards I am True Neutral now as well.

It feels right, to identify as such now. Society considers me evil enough I am too sin-stained to be good, but I have too much love of creation and helping to be wholly evil.

I believe that rules are necessary or we get Situations that cause harm to others, but at the same time am too Anarchist-leaning to not chafe under absolute order.

Still, the... Dissatisfaction with how people use alignments here persists.

[mallowbees]

i dont know much about TMA but ,, could you tell me a bit about avatars? I want to make a sona really bad because they look so cool haha

Oh heck YEAH I can!!

Right so!! Avatars are people who have had experiences with or behavior that aligned with one of the 14(15 kinda?) fear entities and end up serving them!! Throwing people to their, for lack of better words, god, to feed off of their fears and occasionally try to kick of rituals to make their god strong and getting some sweet powers as a reward!

!! It’s gonna be kinda hard to avoid spoilers with explaining this, so I’ll try to keep it to the minimum but some spoilers for avatar people’s stuff :’D !!

The 14 are as follows (I’m just gonna snag most of this from the wiki but anything not in italics is me):

The Burried :

Also called The Center, Choke, Too Close I Cannot Breathe.

The fear of claustrophobia, small spaces, of being unable to breathe and the underground and dust. Being at the centre of everything and it is all pushing down. Fear of being trapped without enough space.

Notable avatar person I can think of is 18th centry guy who worked in a grave yard and would nap in the graves cause it was quiet and when they installed bells incase someone was actually alive when they burried them they could ring it, so someone rang it and he cut the line because he thought they were nice and deserved to sleep, also early episode lost johns cave is a good example but doesnt have an avatar in it so hfgh

The Corruption :

Also called Filth, The Crawling Rot, or The Hive.

This entity is linked closely to our feelings of disgust, of feeling revulsion and fear of corruption, disease, filth. Manifests as mould, bugs, rot, decay, infection. The feeling of your skin crawling.

Jane Prentiss, she wanted to be loved and found love in a bunch of worms in a wasp nest in her attic, so she became their hive, she loves her worms and her worms love her, they sing

Also other guy I genuinely don't know his name he just made everyone sick at that retirement home with disease and hung out at hill top road a few times, got sealed in concrete and he always looked like he was skin and slightly rotting

The Dark :

Also called Mr. Pitch, The Forever Blind, The Sandman

A manifestation of our very primal fear of the dark, of what lies beyond what we can sense. What might be in it?

One of the oldest of the Entities.

Uhh cult kidnapped that one kid i think that was them, i dont know who the dark avatar is actually

The Desolation :

Also called The Lightless Flame, The Torturing Flame, The Devastation, Blackened Earth.

This entity deals in fear of pain, of loss, burning, fear of unthinking or cruel destruction.

Acolytes are enriched by destroying the lives of people who had things to live for, destroying things before their potential is realised. In exchange, the cult members can create heat--but not fire--and gain the ability to make their skin run like wax.

They burn from the inside and consume everything in flames, Jude Perry and Agnes Montague are the two i know, Agnes was born into it and died because of forbidden love and Jude set her girlfriends flat on fire so hgfhfg

The End :

Also called Death, Terminus, The Coming End That Waits For All And Cannot Be Ignored.

This entity deals in the fear of death itself, uncaring and unstoppable.

No known attempts at a ritual, presumably because it sees no need to, as Death claims all in the end.

Oliver Banks!! Had dreams of strings that tied people to their deaths, actual rational avatar, also didnt ask for this but he does pretty well. Also commited identity fraud

The Eye :

Also called Beholding, The Watcher, The Ceaseless Watcher, It Knows You.

This entity is fear of being watched, exposed, followed, of having secrets known, but also the drive to know and understand, even if your discoveries might destroy you. Fear that you’re suffering for the sake of something watching.

Elias!! Horrible man!! Can body hop! Just wants to watch the drama unfold and get more power. Knows lots of things and compulsion ! Also Jon because he reckless curiosity kinda screwed him over there and yeah. And that one security guy who got consumed by a watcher lietner watching other people via security camera, rip that guy

The Flesh :

Also called Viscera.

Born from the fear of animals bred for meat, and in the human realisation that we are just animated meat and bones.

Manifests as strange bodies being twisted, reshaped, and butchered.

Thought to be the newest of the 14, born around the time of the Industrial Revolution

Jared Hopworth! Got a Lietner, runs a gym to change bodies into what people want until they're practically not human anymore, likes most bones if they're good bones

The Hunt :

Hunting and chase and violence, this is an animalistic fear, very old and primal. Fear of being hunted, being prey.

Less able to affect people due to our self-removal from the food chain. Self-proclaimed monster hunters (and those who do the same without referring to themselves as such) run a strong chance of becoming Hunters and then having a need to hunt and kill monsters.

Daisy! Things get kinda messed up when you combine non-human impulses with a person so! Murder! violence!

The Lonely :

Also called Forsaken, The One Alone The fear of isolation, of being completely cut off and alone. Fear of being disconnected.

Peter lukas, Martin, grew up lonely and shunned idk what you expected, can literally vanish, cool aethetic- Also that one girl who married one of the lukas’, nayomi? But she wasnt an avatar just with one

The Slaughter :

This entity feeds off of pure, unpredictable, unmotivated violence. Strong ties to war. Fear of not knowing, where, when, how or if pain will come but that it will. Can be violent like a frenzied killer or calm and regimented like soldiers firing on the battlefield.

Melanie! Anger! Murder! Stabby stab! Justificated feeling that your anger is right!

The Spiral :

Also called Es Mentiras, It Is Lies, The Twisting Deceit, It Is Not What It Is.

This entity is fear of madness, of being lost, that your world is wrong, that your mind is lying to you. It deals with deception, lying, deceiving the mind and senses.

Michael! Helen! I don’t,, really know what to say on this one hgfhfg

The Stranger :

Also called I Do Not Know You.

Fear of the unknown. That creeping sense that something isn’t right. Also of unfamiliar people. Manifests as objects pretending to be humans, like mannequins and taxidermied people.

Theyre not people they arent who they arE

The Vast :

Also called The Falling Titan.

This entity deals in our fear of our own insignificance in this universe, of losing yourself in too much space. Its effects involve void, vertigo, and falling, but also anything to do with openness and open spaces, fears like Agoraphobia, fear of deep water.

Simon fairchild is honest to god just vibing hes having so much fun also reeeally long lifespan he likes watching people fall off this and falling off himelf, also mike crew who didnt ask for this but just kinda ended up there anyway cause he got struck by lightning on a hill and got a book

The Web :

Also called The Spider, Mother of Puppets.

Deals with fear of being controlled, entrapped, being trapped and not knowing it, and your will not being your own, of being manipulated. Manifests as spiders and spider webs and patterns like spider webs.

The Extiction :

Also called The Terrible Change, The Future Without Us, The World Is Always Ending

The 15th Entity hypothesized by Adelard Dekker to be currently emerging. 

It is not yet confirmed to actually exist, if it is yet to be officially born, or if it is a combination of other powers and their overlap. It deals with the fear of catastrophic change, the destruction of humanity and its replacement by something different, especially via mankind's own causing.

Man-made elements are one of its hallmarks.

Avatars of other Entities would like to prevent it from emerging if possible.

Nobody on this one yet but yeah!!

So!! Usually it’s either the thing you are scared of embraces you and flips your behavior on its head, (Scared of being alone? Make other people alone! Scared of falling? Make other people fall!) Or something you like vibe with embraces and justifies you even if it scares you (Want to know?? Huh?? Buddy? Wanna Know? Or you just want some love? Get u some worms) Like if your experiences fall under one of the categories you probably go there if you’re not afraid of it, or if something happens and you’re terrified of it but not dead you’ll probably end up there hfhghgfh

Oh also here’s a what entity are you quiz if that helps ghfhfgh: https://uquiz.com/quiz/zxE9GQ/which-tma-entity-are-you-aligned-with?embed=False

Basically, does it scare you a little? Does it vibe with you a bit? There you go! You have an entity now! Have fun! HFGhfh

[griftercricket]

Information on Kaz can be found under the cut! 

Biography

Roya Kazemi

Roya was born on the road. Both of her parents were professional scammers, spending their lives travelling. They made their own rules, living outside of the law and never remaining in one place long enough to get caught. Their specialty was small towns, the kind of places the Emperor and those who serve him cared so little for that they didn’t even bother investigating their crimes. Their only child, Roya, was born on the backseat of their car, pulled over on the side of the road. They were back on their way within the hour, heading towards their next target. 

For as long as she can remember, Roya has been adored. Her parents showered her with praise, constantly telling her how pretty she was, how clever she was, and granted her every request. Despite spending most of her childhood on the road, she never wanted for anything, and knew everything she owned was stolen. Her parents passed their trade on to her, positioning it like a game, and the thrill of taking what was not hers is a feeling as familiar as an old friend to Roya. 

As she grew under her parents tutelage, Roya grew greedy and entitled. She believed that if she could get away with taking something, she deserved to have it. However, petty theft and small-scale operations ceased to satisfy her like they used to. By the time she was in her late teens, newly an adult and unfamiliar with any other life but the one her family had shown her, she was already looking to something bigger and better. The only trouble was, building something bigger was hard to do when you had to start from scratch every few weeks. Just before her twentieth birthday, Roya bid goodbye to her parents, and set off for the first time on her own.

Mystic Roya

Her first few months in the city weren’t easy. She had never even seen an attempt at putting roots down, and had no clue how to do it for herself. That changed when her mark appeared. Every resourceful, Roya had always had a lucky streak. With her mark, her life-long bout of good fortune made all the more sense. Suddenly, the path ahead was clear. 

It was the biggest con of her life, setting up as “genuine” psychic. She assumed there would be a learning curve, a certain art to reading people that she would learn over time. For the most part, people were far less complicated than they liked to believe themselves to be. All it took was a few vague statements from Roya, blanket “predicitions” that could have applied to anybody. It wouldn’t have been enough on it’s own, but when combined with her talismans, created with her powers and sold to desperate believers, it was hard to deny the power of Mystic Roya. When she promised good luck, she delivered. When she promised love, it was found. She laughs about it behind closed doors, delighting in the games she plays with those who reach out to her for spiritual guidance, but at least she’s laughing all the way to the bank.

Casino Kaz

She loves what she does- really, she does, but Roya has never been very good at the monotonous life. Being in one place for so long is stifling enough, without succumbing to something as mundane as regularity. Roya was naturally restless to begin with, but the storm in which she grew up in only exaggerated this trait. The psychic fraud was fun, and she has no intention of giving it up, but the need for something more developed. Having spent her life chasing thrills, she’s never done well when the thrills disappear. 

Having done so well with her first cultivated persona, it made sense to add another deception to her bow. Mystic Roya was one aspect of who she was, not-quite her, but with enough of her in it to come naturally. The second side of the coin was easier still to slip into. Kaz. Unlike Mystic Roya, there was nothing spiritual about Kaz. They gambled, and cheated, and conned and lied, and loved every minute of it. 

The thrill has always faded quickly, but for Kaz, every day is different, every game is different. It’s enough to keep the excitement alive, and something about her double life keeps her even more exhilarated. Though she still chases excitement where she finds it, for the most part, she’s totally content, happy amassing her fortune and revelling in her success. 

Headcanons

Her mark, the Grifter Cricket, appeared on her lower back, to the left of her tailbone (think a typical tr*mp stamp). She doesn’t know how long it sat there before she noticed it. For her, the transition from human to Night Monster was slow and seamless, reflecting the more subtle nature of her powers. It would be very easy for Kaz to lay low, but her own ego forbids it. She’s always been the flashy type, and never one for laying low when she could be taking center stage. A reckless risk-taker, she never fully thinks of the consequences of her actions. She has luck on her side, though, and for her, that’s all the protection she needs. 

Like most things in her life, Kaz doesn’t take her status as a Night Monster too seriously. She knows the danger, but she simply doesn’t believe anything could happen to her. She knows that everything she has is a direct result of her powers, and isn’t shy about using them to get herself out of almost any situation. Though she doesn’t necessarily shout about her abilities (she’s dumb but she’s not stupid), she enjoys using them and is fairly proud of what she is, even if she can’t express that in the ways she wants to. 

Kaz had a good relationship with both of her parents, but never really stayed in one place long enough growing up to form bonds with anybody out of the family unit of three. Though she was loved, being an only child with no opportunity for friends was a lonely experience for a little girl. She more than makes up for it now, though. Kaz loves making friends, but isn’t the best at keeping them. She’s very much the type of person you’d have a blast with on the odd night out, but keeping up with her over long periods of time can be quite tiresome. For those who can, however, she’s quick to embrace them as found family and accept them as one of her own. 

Kaz has a taste for fine things, and wants nothing less than to surround herself with the best of everything. With the money she has gained, she bought a fancy apartment in the heart of the city. It’s not quite Empire Gardens, but the pace of life there suits her better, anyway. Though she paid for the apartment, she didn’t purchase anything in it. It came fully furnished, anyway, courtesy of the previous owner, and all of Kaz’s own additions have been stolen or swindled. 

Kaz is loyal to the Madhouse Renegades, but only because they best serve her interests. She doesn’t really care very much at all about their mission, nor the plight of the other Night Monsters. Her main concern is what is going on in the here and now, how it effects her, and ensuring her own prosperity. As a result of never settling anywhere any longer than two weeks, she doesn’t really realise the extent of the emperor’s tyranny, nor why what she’s doing matters. It’s all a bit of a game to her, and while she loves the thrill of it, she could easily switch sides if she saw enough benefit in it. She’s pledged her loyalty, but her actual commitment is flaky. 

Despite her success in amassing a small fortune, Kaz is terrible at math. Numbers and data are too objective, and hold very little interest for her, doing little but making her head hurt. She can’t tell you exactly how much she is worth- only that she wants more, and there’s no job too small to be below her consideration. 

Inspo

Pinterest

Character Tropes: Winds of Destiny, Change  Phony Psychic Karma Houdini Born Lucky Hard-Drinking Party Girl Money Fetish

Character Inspiration: Domino (Deadpool) Crickee (Mulan) Oda Mae Brown (Ghost) Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Lando Calrissian (Star Wars)  The Thénardiers (Les Mis)

Personality Type  ESTP

Alignment Chaotic Neutral

Enneagram Type 7 - The Enthusiast 

Western Astrology Leo Sun Aquarius Moon Gemini Rising

Deadly Sin Greed

Heavenly Virtue Gratitude

Connections

Paper Butterfly - Potential Victim

Cinder Fox - Frenemy

Demon Cat - Mutual intrigue

Carbon Caiman - Found Family

Night Eagle - Dumbass Duo

Sacred Maggot - Client

Ghost Moth - Stole her home/belongings

Cipher Mole - best friend

Severed Chimera - former assignment

[butchspace]

(P1)Hey for the last year I ided as a trans enby boy, but in the last few months I’ve been talking to a sapphic who’s had a lot of similar experiences to mine, and I’ve read some things and started to believe I might be an enby fem who just likes to present butch, and is mainly attracted to fem and enby people, besides some attractions I think might have come from a life of comphet. I still have dysphoria but I understand some sapphics do, and (finally) get that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m masc

(P2)I know I have difficulties with change and some fluidity feels, so I’ve committed to questioning this as my identity for the rest of the year at least. But trying to join the sapphic community scares me. Talking to sapphics scares me. I feel like I’ll be seen as a fake or a fraud because recently I was id-ing as a “boy.” And obviously I still consider myself questioning. Idk. I don’t know how to get over my fear here

-

I’m just gonna start with saying that I don’t like the use of fem to mean women or women-aligned people. It’s kinda alienating to gnc women. And butch isn’t just a presentation!

But you’re valid, anon. Questioning can be really hard and being wrong can be really embarrassing. I thought I was a trans mlm for a while and it was and still is hard to talk about that with the people i knew during that period. 

It’s probably harder to question when you’re around people that knew you as something you might not be. You can always make a second tumblr and do some questioning and try IDing different ways in a safe space. It’s harder to make a second life but maybe starting on social media can help you find some confidence and come to a conclusion without as much pressure to be who you thought you were.

I’d like to end with this. I was watching one of Kat Blaque’s videos and she said hwne she was in college she came to the conclusion that she had no responsibility to be the person she said she was the day before. I think that might be a good way to look at questioning.

-mod q

[davewakeman]

Talking Tickets: 7 February 2020--Come See Me In NYC! And, London!

Hey everyone! 

Thank you so much for being here. Every week the community around this newsletter grows larger and larger all because you are sharing this newsletter with your friends and colleagues.

There were a few challenges with the link to the new ebook I produced with Booking Protect. So we worked up a fix. We are also putting together a special FREE webinar on 26 February 2020 at 1500 GMT (10 AM Eastern) with ideas, takeaways, and actions we felt were compelling from the ebook.

I’m in DC this week on a bit of a holiday with the boy. It is a winter break for DCPS. But I do have upcoming trips with details in the footer!

To the tickets!

————————————————————————————————————

1. Are diversity programs failing? 

This is an idea that is really close to my heart because it was a really huge issue that I ended up spending a lot of time on when I was going to Australia in November.

The term that people would whisper to me was “older and whiter”.

The idea of diversity popped up a lot lately as well with the Oscars.

In many of my recent talks, I’ve been focusing people’s attention on the idea of empathy as a competitive advantage when trying to reach and serve an audience.

But more widely, as marketers and sellers, we have to continue to try and juggle two competing ideas: building new audiences and keeping the old audience.

I think we should look at diversity as an opportunity and understand that reaching and cultivating is an ever-changing art form and one that we will always be revisiting.

This white paper is from 2014, but I think it still offers a lot of value to folks thinking about the makeup of their audience.

2. West Ham’s finances and relegation fight open an interesting window into the business of a sports’ club: 

Blame Simon for my almost all-consuming attention to the Premier League and Tottenham Hotspur.

But following the Premier League and European football so closely has helped me shift my thinking about revenue generation, ticket sales, and the role of fan development in the success of a team, especially long-term.

If you aren’t familiar, the bottom three teams in the Premier League standings are relegated to the Championship. The top two Championship teams are automatically promoted and the teams in 3-6 play a tournament for the last spot!

It is a truly fascinating system.

In 2016, West Ham moved from their traditional home ground, Upton Park, into London Stadium. Most of us consider it conventional wisdom that you are going to make boatloads more money if you move into a new stadium.

West Ham is challenging that convention.

If you read through their revenue numbers over the last few years, you’ll see that the revenues aren’t really all that different than before they moved from Upton Park, except in the TV money.

In the case of West Ham, we see rising attendance, new stadium, and investments in players, administration, and the venue…but no more money from the in-game experience.

I’d point to two things here that are worth our attention:

The fans seem to be ambivalent, at best, to the experience at the London Stadium and even with more fans, they aren’t as compelled to spend money as they might have with their destination location at Upton Park. 

We have to continue to always test our assumptions about things that are conventional wisdom or that everyone is doing. Due to the nature of reporting from Premier League teams we get a clearer financial picture than would ever happen in the US, but I like to offer the thought experiment of thinking through “what if what we know is wrong?” This is a great example of trying to think beyond conventional wisdom. 

3. The Super Bowl was a hot ticket! 

Ticketmaster reported that the average ticket price for Super Bowl LIV got up to $8507!

This is a really big number.

I remember being in NYC for the Super Bowl between the Broncos and Seahawks when on the Friday before the game, I had many brokers offering me tickets for less than $1,000.

QZ wrote up a nice piece about how the Super Bowl came to dominate our culture.

And, I think we can only look on at the people that were saying the NFL was over and roll our eyes.

I think the NFL does the big marquee event as well as anyone could, but I think you can still question how that can and should translate to the 16 regular-season games, preseason, and playoffs.

But you have to continue to be amazed that over 100 million folks will tune into anything.

One word of caution, the Super Bowl has really been a bucket list item for a lot of folks and I think that will continue for a while.

I do think that this year’s Super Bowl still highlights how much of demand and excitement is still driven by things that are outside of the NFL’s control and that is a dangerous place to be if you allow that to always be the case.

Demand generation and audience maintenance have to always be top of everyone’s mind.

4. Resale, transparency, and the secondary market get clicks! 

The first story in the headline is from November 2019, when I was in Australia. So I don’t think I really got it at the time, but my inboxes kept getting this one forwarded to me over the last few weeks…so why not!

To begin with, Ian Taylor sent me a comment a while back that made a good point about no one asking about inventory and transparency in many other industries.

True!

But I think the continued nature of stories around tickets and people’s questioning of the industry from outside of the industry reflects that the buying experience is often confusing and problematic for people at a point in time where many industries have developed almost frictionless transactions.

If you are me, you ask, “what if this didn’t make sense” and you are reminded that tickets are an easy tool to steal, commit fraud, or launder money from.

Every team, band, and organization should be working their tails off to create and keep customers. That’s the job!

So when Pearl Jam takes actions to limit resale and transfer, I’m sympathetic to their actions because they’ve been consistent in developing a fan base and working to control their tickets to the greatest amount possible.

I’m also not blind in my view of the market and recognize that there are plenty of organizations using the secondary market to their advantage. Which if that is their strategy, good on them.

Finally, I completely recognize that in the States our relationship is different with the secondary market than anywhere else in the world and that there isn’t just one reason behind this.

If I look at the secondary market and some of these things from a global perspective, I’d highlight 3 points:

In the States, we need the secondary market because the secondary market has a lead on digital demand generation, no one is doing a particularly great job marketing, and there are technology gaps between the primary and secondary. Among other things.

If you are a secondary market player in an international market, to establish yourself, stomping your feet about fairness and boohooing isn’t a good look. You need to educate about why resale is important and focus on creating unique value for your market. 

Everyone should be focusing on marketing more effectively because as Stephen Glicken mentioned on my podcast and Queue-it points out in their blog post, there are billions of dollars at play…and as Stephen points out, lots of it is left on the table. 

5. We should be paying attention to the sports business community in Australia:

Due to my recent trip to Melbourne and my friendship with a lot of folks from the Australian Football League, I’ve been paying a lot of attention to the kickoff of this season and the kickoff of AFLW.

The AFLW is setting a good example of women’s leagues around the world because they are focusing on growing the game, taking care of players, and long-term success from the start. Which can be extremely difficult.

At the same time, the AFL’s business continues to grow and their ability to incorporate and activate sponsors is a good example for teams and leagues around the world.

Look at the new deal with Cole’s to be the official supermarket of the AFL. And, what is interesting is that Cole’s will work to actively give back in communities…which may be brand purpose mumbo jumbo, but I think aligning your sponsors with your fans is a smart decision.

In extending their deal with BetEasy, the AFL is pushing responsible gambling efforts and handle a topic that is on the minds of a lot of folks around the world as gambling becomes a bigger part of the sports landscape globally.

Is it a perfect solution?

Is anything?

Finally, looking at the A-League and their conversations about how to grow the game and the sport in Australia has been interesting over the last few months.

This story about the possibility that Hyundai will walk away from their sponsorship of the A-League highlights a bunch of trends that might be on people’s minds everywhere like declining participation, poor car sales, and lack of demand/attention.

These are interesting situations to watch because Australia hasn’t suffered a recession in about 30 years!  So they give us a good laboratory for learning about how they manage growth, but also how they fight decline. —————————————————————————————————————-

What am I up to this week?

Episode 100 of the podcast is ME! I wanted to share a few ideas and learnings from the first 100 episodes and use the opportunity to talk about where I’m going next.

Queue-It asked me and a few other folks what we think is necessary to be successful in selling tickets.

I’m going to do a workshop in NYC on Tuesday, March 31st, 2020 on marketing and strategy in any market. I’ll have a landing page posted next week. But if you are interested in learning more, email me.

I’m in London on 13 April and I’m going to see about putting together a meetup at one of my favorite spots in London, Brewdog SoHo. More details to follow, but mark your calendars now if you are going to be in London that day.Ta

Please follow and like us:

Talking Tickets: 7 February 2020–Come See Me In NYC! And, London! was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

[katiemcveighaub]

HSBC 

The five pillars are the core element behind the animation or illustration which should be created. It was important to really research and understand them before designing. 

PILLAR 1: SUSTAINABILITY

At HSBC, we recognise that how we do business is as important as what we do. We have a responsibility to our customers, employees and the communities in which we operate and understand that to achieve success in the long term, economic growth must also be sustainable.We aim to minimise our impact on the environment and to help the global transition to a low-carbon economy. We are mindful of our social responsibilities, and committed to high standards of governance.We also recognise our responsibility to be transparent and open about our impact on people and the planet. We publish regularly updated material on our environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance on our corporate website, as well as in dedicated ESG updates.

Since its foundation in 1865, HSBC has adapted to and helped serve the needs of a changing world. It has financed economic growth, fostered international trade and overcome events such as economic crises. We recognise our wider commitments to the communities in which we operate and understand that economic growth must also be sustainable.

HSBC also recognises its responsibility to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a globally agreed framework to help protect the planet, end poverty and ensure peace and prosperity, and consist of 17 goals and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030. We will continue to play our part in achieving the SDGs through our work on our three sustainability priorities, our financing and investments, and the way we do business.

The HSBC Water Programme – a partnership between the bank and charities WaterAid, Earthwatch and WWF – draws to a close this month. It has supported people through water provision, protection, education, and scientific research.

The structured green bond market is still emerging, and itsignifies an important innovation for the green bond market.Packaging debt into different structures allows investors toincreasingly align their green preferences and investments totheir long-term goals. Structured green bonds can be either apublic or a private placement, enabling the needs of investorsto be met. Such innovation reveals the evolving nature of themarket to meet existing investor demand whilst also increasesthe prospect of future growth.

PILLAR 2: TRADE/COMMERCE

Trade. Building a future on bytes and boxes.

The Belt and Road Initiative is a key part of China’s efforts to tackle climate change, according to Bryce Johns, Group Head of Insurance, HSBC.The long-term plan to promote trade and economic integration between China and its trading partners envisages billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure such as roads, rail and ports. This new infrastructure will need to be built with the environment in mind, Mr Johns told an Asian Insurance Review conference in Singapore. Banks and insurance companies have a key supporting role to play, Mr Johns said. HSBC, for example, recently assisted Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in launching the first Belt and Road Green Climate Bond, which will channel more than USD2 billion towards projects covering renewable energy, low-carbon transport, energy efficiency, and water treatment and supply.

For much of the last 2,000 years, Southeast Asia was the centre of global commerce. Nearly all trade between East and West flowed through the Straits of Malacca. Today, the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are again playing a dominant role in world trade – but now the focus is on semiconductors and services, not spices and silk.The ASEAN members range from wealthy Singapore to expansive Indonesia. The most recent states to join are Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, while the other members are Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines. Integration across ASEAN, while slower than hoped, will see the seamless movement of goods, services and people within the region. Besides gains from the eventual realisation of the ambitious ASEAN Economic Community, financial-sector integration could boost growth.But ASEAN is also a driving force for global trade integration in a world beset with protectionism. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world’s largest proposed free-trade agreement, links the 10 nations with five others (including China, Japan and Australia) with which ASEAN already has separate agreements.

Technology is rapidly advancing and is changingalmost every aspect of our lives. Whether thatis getting from ‘a’ to ‘b’; how we stay in touchwith our friends and family; do our shopping;or relax and be entertained. Technology is alsobecoming smarter as companies harness thepower of data to personalise the products andservices they offer.Digitisation is also driving change in banking andfinancial services. People are used to technologymaking their lives easier and expect the same levelof simplicity and intuitive interaction from banks,as they have come to experience and benefit fromin other areas of their lives. This has led to peopleincreasingly turning to online or using their smartphones to manage their financial lives and interactwith their banks.But the impact of technology and data is going tobe different in financial services because of thedistinct aspects of this industry. For example, the need to protect people against borrowing money they can’t afford; to stop them from making complex and risky retirement investments they don’t fully understand; or protecting them, and the financial system, against fraud and financial crime.

PILLAR 3: EDUCATION

This school is part of the HSBC Global Education Programme granted to Dariu Foundation since 2012, with a total funding of US$339,500 (just over VND7 billion), including the launch of another mobile school (in a converted container) introduced in March last year, and sponsor of operational funding, facilities, training the trainers and students and other related activities.

By far 9 mobile schools, one of which is floating school, have been opened by Dariu Foundation by end of March 2014, increasing its training capacity to 7,000 students a year. The foundation has plan to operate a total of 20 mobile schools in Vietnam by 2016, and expand its mobile school project into Myanmar in May 2014, with the first 3 mobile schools.The Dariu Foundation is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization working in Vietnam since 2003, with activities focusing on microfinance, scholarships for poor students, funding to build kindergartens, and computer skills training and financial education via mobile schools. Today it is providing microfinance services to around 15,000 low income households in Dong Nai and Vinh Long provinces, awarding 1,500-2,000 scholarships, building 2-3 kindergartens and training around 7,000-10,000 students on computer, internet and financial education every year.

Princes Trust partnership The commitment and support from HSBC and now HSBC UK has been nothing short of transformational, enabling us to support thousands more young 11 to 30-year-olds back into education, training and work.

In 2015, HSBC announced a three-year commitment to our Achieve programme, becoming the largest corporate supporter of the Trust’s education programme. With HSBC supporting Achieve, over three years we will reach more than 5,000 of the most vulnerable young people and, together, improve educational underachievement as well as employability skills.As well as their commitment to improving educational outcomes for young people, HSBC is also one of our largest employability partners. Since 2014 HSBC has supported our Get into programme, an employability scheme to help jobless young people get back into work, and launched a bespoke HSBC Customer Services course – giving young people the opportunity to test out their skills in branches across the UK and gain valuable work experience.

 PILLAR 4: DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Pride means lots of different things to different people. Pride embraces everyone and everything that makes you, you. We’re proud to have a new home in the Midlands, and equally proud to support Birmingham Pride – the UK’s largest two-day LGBT+ festival. We want to continue advancing pride and prosperity for all our customers and strive for a better future – one that is more colourful, open and connected than ever before.

Diversity is in our roots. HSBC was founded in 1865 to finance trade between Europe and Asia, and we continue to bring different people and cultures together.

PILLAR 5: SPORT

HSBC is partnering with the Badminton World Federation (BWF), the sport’s governing body – a move that they hope will boost the popularity of the sport across the globe.

The bank will support the organisation’s full programme of events over the next four years. This includes being the title sponsor of the BWF World Tour, which this year comprises 26 tournaments in 20 countries and territories including Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the US.

HSBC has extended its sponsorship of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series for a further four years – reaffirming its commitment to the sport of rugby.Under the new deal, HSBC will remain the title partner of both the men’s and women’s World Rugby Sevens Series until 2023. It will also become the Official Banking Partner of World Rugby, the sport’s global governing body.As well as backing major tournaments, HSBC will continue to support grassroots initiatives that have already helped hundreds of thousands of young people to try the game and develop their skills.

The USD 10 million WGC-HSBC Champions is renowned as ‘Asia’s Major’. Taking place in Shanghai, it is the biggest golf tournament in the region.When we first brought HSBC Champions to China in 2005, our ambition was to create a world-class international golf tournament in an emerging market. For more than a decade, it has been a catalyst for the growth of golf in Asia.We are proud to support a tournament that continues to inspire new generations of fans and players.

Established in 2008, the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore showcases the best in women’s golf. It is an annual highlight in the calendar for players and fans alike.The tournament regularly attracts the biggest names in the game. In 2017, all of the top 15 players in the Rolex Women's World Golf Rankings competed at the Sentosa Golf Club for the USD1.5 million prize fund.In 2018, the tournament changed its name from the HSBC Women’s Champions to the HSBC’s Women’s World Championship.

https://www.hsbc.com/our-approach/building-a-sustainable-future

https://www.waterprogramme.org

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/sponsorship/pride/

https://www.hsbc.com/who-we-are/our-brand/sponsorship/golf

https://www.hsbc.com/news-and-insight/2018/hsbc-renews-rugby-sponsorship

[weconqueratdawn]

#fannibalselfrec event - Hannibal season one

Thanks to @hannibalficwriters for organising this, I’m looking forward to checking out everyone’s recs :)

I nearly decided not to take part - I have problems with self-reccing, especially when I think something has received ‘enough’ attention. It just seems greedy. But that’s a) stupid and b) I have a story I want to tell about the writing of this fic.

I have literally only one (1) which qualifies. Others have strayed too far into AU-land to count as taking place in S1. That fic is *drumroll*:

Cathexis

Hannibal/Will ~ 57k words ~ Explicit

A Season 1 BDSM AU

Summary: What if Hannibal's sadistic tendencies only find expression through consensual BDSM relationships? Set in a Season 1 AU where Will is allowed to continue teaching, relatively undisturbed by Jack, and seeks Hannibal's professional help of his own accord.

The story I want to tell is how I went from not even thinking about writing, to writing something which juuussst about qualifies as a short novel (if we go by word count) in the same bound. (And how you can too! No, just kidding - I hate those kinds of terrible advice blogs. But stick with me, there’s things in this story which might be relevant for anyone reading.)

Before this fic, I wasn’t writing. Anything. Not only that, but I wasn’t even a frustrated writer who wanted to write but couldn’t. The idea of writing had never occurred to me. Sure, I was a frustrated creative person - I have been all my life, even since I was a very small child. Just before this fic, I had been studying fine art with a load of other adult learners and trying to engage with the contemporary arts scene in a fairly amateurish but genuine way. I would have described myself as an artist. My creative friends are sculptors and printmakers and painters. We had just finished putting on a group exhibition - just to see if we could - and were thinking vaguely of other things we might do together in the future.

Enter fandom. I had come to Hannibal post-cancellation and watched all three seasons breathlessly, then wandered around Tumblr reading meta and finding great fic and thinking WHY OH GOD WHY ARE THEY LIKE THIS in a way which is familiar to anyone who has just Found Hannigram.

My gf is a fandom-savvy individual and we usually talk about our obsessions, whether they're shared or not. We came up with something which we found funny and which you most likely won’t - after steeping ourselves in Hannibal's god-complex we thought it would be hilarious to reduce him down to a common-or-garden bedroom sadist. He would make bad bondage puns and have a dungeon instead of a murder basement. Lololol etc. I even went so far as to refer to this as Fifty Shades of Graham, which if you know me, demonstrates how un-serious I was about it.

I DID NOT INTEND TO WRITE THIS is what I am trying to say. It was a joke, a bad one, and a private one. I never intended to be a writer* at all. 

Because apparently, unbeknown to me, that’s what I’ve been all this time. Secretly, under the surface somewhere. And what I think is this: I just wasn’t ready to be a writer before. I wasn’t ready to discover this about myself. The things that I did before - all the visual art, all my academic studies and crap jobs - all have, in differing and subtle ways, all fed into this part of me which wasn’t ready to come out yet. 

And I also think that this is happening to all of us. It’s just as true for you as it is for me. We all have hidden pockets of potential, things even the most self-aware of us do not know about, or refuse to look too closely at. Those pockets might not lead directly to anything life changing, they may be paths to other, deeper and more difficult to find pockets. Or simply to activities and interests we find enjoyable, a way of doing something just for ourselves or of meeting people we need in our lives.

A wise person on the internet said “follow the rabbit-holes”. They all lead to the same place anyway, and the easiest path there is the one of least resistance. Follow that strange tug, dive in, see where it leads you without worrying about the destination. You might end up being very surprised.

*It took me maybe six months to start to feel I could use the hallowed word Writer when talking about myself, and now I can even tell complete strangers this without blushing and feeling like a fraud.

18 months later and I can't imagine not planning all my not-work time around writing - I think about it constantly. It nags at me when I’m prevented from doing it by other commitments. My weeks and weekends are based squarely around which project I'm working on and how much time I have until that deadline, self-imposed or not. I have so many projects lined up they are constantly being juggled and re-ordered so I can try to maximise my available writing time in the most effective way. I’m even looking beyond fandom and beginning work on an original novel. And it all started with this fic.

For the really curious, here is how Cathexis got written (under the cut):

I read even more fic (really amazing and intimidatingly good fic too) and even more meta and I thought more and more about Hannibal and Will’s complex dynamic. The BDSM AU became less of a joke and more of a place where that could be explored without getting too tangled up in the difficulties of Will’s relationship with Hannibal. I thought about it often. There was so much discussion and activity in the fandom that the idea of putting down your feelings in the form of a story didn’t seem so strange.

But still, it didn’t seem like that was the route for me. Until, one morning after Christmas, I woke up with dialogue in my head (those moments just before and after waking are so good for weird happenings like this). I didn’t move, didn’t do anything at all, before I wrote it down on my phone. It felt like a strange thing to do at the time - trespassing in a place I didn’t quite belong. It was a compulsion. I just knew I had to do it.

I had no idea if more would follow or if I even wanted more to follow. But more did. I wrote that down to, in the same place (which, by the way, was the note app *not* anything as official as a Google Doc - the very idea :0 !!) 

It took me maybe three-four weeks of this to brave the idea of doing something with the snatches of dialogue and scattered notes which had built up. They had become pieces of a puzzle which I needed to solve - until then, I knew I wouldn’t find any peace.

I had been talking with @wraithsonwingsposts​ about the show and had encouraged her to work on a fic idea she had been playing around with. She returned the favour and was so fantastic and supportive all the way through - and therefore, this is all her fault, as she already knows ;)

The rest of the story was the same for anyone undertaking a piece of writing - one word at a time, much time staring at a blinking cursor, a lot of editing. But overall, I think what got this written and completed was keeping my aims simple. The were 1) see it through to the end (i.e. solve the puzzle), and 2) try not to make a complete tit out of myself.

I know for certain I hit one of those goals.

**************************************

Bonus: for the very-very-very curious, here is the original and un-edited version of the I wrote that morning (a version of which appears in Chapter 8), and the first thing I wrote since school:

"What kinds of things do you say when you... afterwards?" "I thought you found it too difficult to hear?" "I want to know. I can catch the odd word, but the way you say it... I like the way you sound." Hannibal hesitated for a tiny moment. Will smiled and said, "I thought it was for my benefit only you don't say it in English." Hannibal sighed and conceded, "Perhaps it's easier, sometimes." He moved closer to Will, made it almost impossible for Will to escape from what Hannibal had to tell him, and to study his face as he spoke. "I call you my darling, my lovely Will, so precious to me. I tell you how beautiful I find you, how complete my desire is and how abandoned you make me. I tell you that you are mine and belong to me, that I shall never leave you, that you have made me yours. I praise you, for being so very good, for indulging me, and for indulging yourself also. I tell you that you deserve it, and more, and I tell you I love you." Will went very quiet, almost not breathing. He had known what to expect but to hear it stated so simply was almost too much. Hannibal continued to look steadily at him, waiting. Will turned over suddenly, so he no longer could watch Hannibal's face, and pressed himself back into his body. Hannibal moved to accommodate, folding him arms around him and holding him tight. He brought his legs up so his thighs pressed into the back of Will's, and his ankles tangled with Will's also. They lay there for a few moments without speaking, bodies perfectly aligned. Will felt safe again. "If you wish to explore these issues, I have a suggestion. There are things you could wear, even in public, which could serve to remind you of my possession. Something more concrete than a bruise or a bite mark." Will considered how it might feel to have such a reminder, one he could feel wherever he was. An image came to him of a collar made of plain but good quality leather. It could be concealed under his shirts, especially if he wore ties. It would be slim but solid, with one heavy buckle to fasten it. He could almost feel it's weight resting on the back of his neck, like Hannibal had placed his hand there. Will opened his mouth to speak and then realised Hannibal was holding and touching his hand gently. The gesture was so soft and specific that Will had to look, to watch Hannibal's hands. Realisation dawned on him. Hannibal was meditatively rubbing small circles up and down in between the second and third knuckles of his third finger on his left hand. Will turned over to catch Hannibal around the shoulders and demanded, "Did you just ask me to marry you?"

Cathexis on ao3

[ryuuza-art]

About not voting...

I don’t really talk politics much on here and this is a long post, but it's an issue that's critically important to me and others and I really hope people will take the time to read it. -------------------------------------------- To all those who are considering not voting in the general election next month, This is a plea from myself and others in my position or worse who are fearful of the consequences of another five years of Conservative government.

Please, just vote.

Anyone but extreme right wing, I don’t care who. Even if it just means the Conservatives lose their majority and have to go back into coalition, it’ll be something.

I’ve seen a lot of people make this decision lately, or come out as habitual non-voters, both friends and strangers. The reasons for their decisions are varied. Some feel the candidates don’t adequately represent them, that their vote will be wasted, some feel the decision is too great. I get it, I do. I often feel the same way. It’s disappointing when parties don’t live up to their promises, so things just plod along as normal or, heaven forbid, get worse. It is also a very confusing business, especially with the media smearing candidates, hiding vital information, or misrepresenting information.

The common factor in all though seems to be that the reasons are centring on the individual vote, rather than being a collective. The vast majority of us know people who are struggling with work, disabled, have needed emergency or extensive NHS treatment, are immigrants or have close relatives who are, have faced any number of hardships as a direct on indirect result of government policy. You’re not just voting for yourself, but everybody who has been affected by the current government in some way and needs the current Conservative government to be booted out.

“My vote won’t make a difference” An individual vote may not mean much on its own. However, consider the fact that 22% of the electorate did not vote in the last general election. A large number of people also did not vote in the EU referendum. That’s a LOT of people who thought that their vote wouldn’t count. We can all argue “well they might have voted Tory”. They might. However there is no evidence for this and the facts are facts – Conservatives won with just 34% of the vote.

“But they’re all as bad as each other!” I used to think this way, but armed with more knowledge than I had back then, I can see they are categorically not. Yes, all parties have policies that don’t pan out when they get into power, or they say things to pander to both their core voters and people who may consider voting for them. However, the difference here is the level of compassion shown. It’s quite clear that the current government have little to no regard for those in need of a social safety net and are completely out of touch with the reality of how things are for a lot of people, the vast majority of whom are not scroungers looking to commit benefit fraud. Other parties, for all their faults, are at least showing an understanding of the problems at large and wanting to affect change.

Even if you just think you’re voting for the lesser evil, the keyword is LESSER, not evil.

“I don’t know who to vote for!” A common problem and you’re certainly not on your own for being worried. However, many people, myself included, will be happy to help you figure it out and there are lots of resources from websites that ask your questions and show you which party you best align with, to sites that show you how to vote tactically if you live in a borderline constituency. Safe seats are an issue and I feel for people living in those areas, but you can still get your chosen party represented on a local level at least.

“I don’t like [party leader]” A fair comment, lots of politicians are unlikeable. Remember though that you are voting for your local MP and not for the Prime Minister. Whatever you dislike about a leader or their proposals, the other party members can keep them in check.

“I can’t be bothered/ fed up with politics” I have nothing to say to this really. Political apathy is not something to be proud of though and it may come back to bite you if you’re ever in a position where you need government assistance.

“Why are you telling us who to vote for?” Obviously I can’t force you to vote for any one particular party, nor would I try. However, the reason I say “not Conservatives” is because a large number of people are in absolutely miserable circumstances or having bad situations made worse thanks to them and while I respect some individual members, I cannot in good conscience ever give my vote to them.

I don’t want to be angry with people for simply not voting and I’m not going to be one of those “it’s your duty!” people, but it’s difficult not to at least feel some resentment even towards friends, considering the above. This isn’t scaremongering about the future, it’s things that are happening now and need to be stopped.

So please, whether you are voting for the party you like, or whether you are voting purely to help other people, please just vote.

(I understand that some people might be bothered or even upset by this post, some may also be staunch Conservative voters. However, my mind is not going to be changed on this matter so please do not try.)

[bishopja]

Week 10

When I was fifteen years old I had a friend called Tom (not his actual name).

We first met at our local youth theatre group and I immediately knew that I wanted to align myself with his particular brand of genius. I never told Tom, but I was always in awe of his effortless humour and obvious creative spark, all the more remarkable considering he was a year younger than me. We became a bit of a double-act in the group, regularly pairing up for performances à la Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, but always with a quiet acknowledgement on my own part that I was the lesser genius of the pair.

I strove to impress Tom. When he revealed - at fourteen, mind you - that he was writing his own sitcom as a hobby and he wanted me to co-write it with him, I jumped at the chance. This is where I first cut my teeth writing scripts. He would devise all sorts of insanely original storylines and gags and I would go home and cobble them all together into screenplays. I put forth my own ideas, of course, but it was obvious to me that they never quite stacked up to Tom’s wit and they rarely made the cut. This never really bothered me and only gave me more drive to improve as a writer.

I developed a writing method and started carrying a little book around - at school and out and about - where I would write down ideas as they came to me with an eye to show Tom and put them in the show. It must have been a creatively fruitful time for me because I was filling out roughly a page of ideas a day, all neatly jotted into this half-exercise book that fit snugly into my massive pockets that were in vogue at the time (vale cargo pants).

I was so proud when Tom would approve of these ideas, even if he never seemed to approve of my method of accumulating and recording them like some sort of office clerk. His genius came effortlessly and in the moment, without toil or happenstance. Tom didn’t need a notepad - his jokes just came to him. Still, it was my method, and even beyond that I could feel myself getting a better grasp on my own style and work ethic - all to impress the biggest artistic role-model I had met to that point in my life.

Nothing came of that sitcom (obviously), and after I left the theatre group Tom and I never really saw each other, although I would look forward to seeing him on some light-entertainment program in years to come, shilling his newest work of genius like the star I knew he’d be. He let me in on his talent for a brief moment and I appreciated that for how it pushed me to grow and do better as an artist.

But, shortly after this, something happened that changed it all. Something that would make me re-evaluate the grounds of mine and Tom’s creative partnership and the sincerity of his influence on my own artistic endeavour. Something that was at first confusing - as it slowly unfolded over weeks - then ultimately disheartening and even a little sinister as the true nature of it all became clear.

What happened is, I started watching Seinfeld.

I don’t need to give you a bio on the greatest sitcom of all time, other than to say that I didn’t start watching it until I was about 18 years old. Catching a bunch of re-runs one day, I was kicking myself at not discovering the brilliance of this show in its original run. In my childhood, I had always written it off as a show about people in New York talking about nothing - which is, of course, exactly what it is. I guess I never realised that that is precisely why it was so subversive compared to anything else that had come out to that point, and ultimate proof that a threadbare conceit is all it takes to create good art, like a one-act play or the simple verse-chorus of a Beatles classic.

One night I was in fits of laughter at a sticky situation one of the characters had gotten themselves into when it occurred to me that I had seen it before. Not in another show or some old movie. No - it was one of Tom’s ideas. What’s more, it didn’t just bear a casual similarity, the scenario on the screen was a verbatim retelling - or perhaps original telling - of one of the storylines from our old sitcom. It was downright spooky.

Over the weeks, as I binged through the show, it only got worse. Seemingly every episode revealed more and more plagiarisms on Tom’s part. Lines of dialogue, entire plots - watching the complete run of Seinfeld was like sitting through Tom’s greatest hits. Every scenario in our own sitcom, every gag I remember him telling me, every effortless one-liner he delivered in casual conversation - it could all be traced back to Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine. Not only did he have me rewriting Seinfeld, he had me fooled all along as to the extent of his “genius” - a genius that amounted to nothing more than some kid who obviously worshipped a show and passed its brilliance off as his own without shame.

I was angry at myself. I was such a fool. I had always been frustrated at never matching up to his talent, unaware that I was only sandbagging myself the whole time by committing the sin of fucking originality. Learning that one of your idols is a fraud is a strange feeling - rather like listening to one of Paul McCartney’s solo albums, or discovering that your beloved childhood dog was just a bunch of rats stitched together the whole time to form a convincing dog-like shape (poor analogy, I know - again, sin of originality).

We had a theatre group reunion a couple of years ago and I had planned to bring it up. I wasn’t going to accuse him or anything like that - maybe just broach the subject and see his response. Something along the lines of “man, I was watching Seinfeld last night, what a great show!” or something else equally banal and obvious. I didn’t want a reaction necessarily, or an admission of guilt - I think I just wanted to know why he did it. Did he think I would never watch the show? Why would he rather steal from the greats instead of forge his own path? Was he intimidated by me the whole time, much like I was him, and it was all he could do to earn my admiration?

I steeled myself to confront him at the reunion - but, alas, he wasn’t there. In fact, I haven’t seen him or spoken to him since I made the discovery. A part of me was relieved, I think, at not having to dig it all up again. It remains today an embarrassing lesson in the potential pitfalls of creative collaboration, idol worship, and life.

In the years since, it’s been hard to reconcile Tom’s influence on me creatively with the complete absence of integrity in which that influence held. We actually made some great stuff together (that wasn’t pilfered from an NBC writing room), and it was the first time I caught the bug of writing for performance, after all. I don’t judge him for pulling the wool over my eyes - people do some weird things in their teenage years - but I do know that I will always strive to commit the sin of originality.

I will never be like Tom.

[lovequotescom]

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[bountyofbeads]

All the President’s Thugs https://nyti.ms/2RqLbHE

"By going public, Parnas has probably done nothing to sway Republicans toward removing Trump from office, not because they don’t believe him, but because they know Trump did what he’s accused of and don’t care" And that America is the real problem !

All the President’s Thugs

Of course Lev Parnas is unreliable. He worked for Trump.

By Michelle Goldberg, Opinion Columnist | Published Jan. 17, 2020, 4:06 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted January 17, 2020 |

One good thing about surrounding yourself with tawdry gangsters and grifters is that if they flip on you, you can claim they have no credibility because they’re criminals.

Now that Lev Parnas, a key conspirator in Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s plot to shake down Ukraine, is singing, Trump’s defenders are pointing out that he is a disreputable person who can’t be trusted. “This is a man who is under indictment and who’s actually out on bail. This is a man who owns a company called Fraud Inc.,” the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, said on Fox News, the only network on which she regularly appears. (Parnas’s company was actually called Fraud Guarantee, though that’s not any better.)

Grisham is obviously correct that he’s a shady character. He’s certainly not someone you’d want, say, threatening foreign officials on behalf of the president of the United States, as Parnas claimed he did during an extraordinary interview with Rachel Maddow that aired on Wednesday and Thursday on MSNBC.

Trumpists similarly dismissed Michael Cohen, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer before Giuliani did. The day Cohen testified to Congress that Trump is a “racist,” a “con man” and a “cheat,” a Trump campaign spokeswoman blasted him as “a felon, a disbarred lawyer and a convicted perjurer.” (Some of his felonies, of course, were things he did for Trump.) When Rick Gates, Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman, testified against his former boss Paul Manafort, Manafort’s lawyer grilled him, asking, “After all the lies you’ve told and fraud you’ve committed, you expect this jury to believe you?”

Giuliani himself is under federal criminal investigation. In a 2018 text to Parnas recently released by the House Intelligence Committee, Giuliani seemed to joke, apropos of Robert Mueller, “I’m no rat,” but should the prospect of prison ever change his mind, expect Republicans to make a similar case against believing a crooked and paranoid barfly. A willingness to associate with Trump is a sign of moral turpitude, so most witnesses to his venal schemes will necessarily be compromised.

Thus nothing that Parnas said in the Maddow interview should be taken at face value. Important questions remain unanswered, including who was paying all of the bills. (Remember — he was paying Giuliani, not vice versa.) Parnas’s decision to go public in the first place is hard to fathom.

None of that, however, means that his dramatic interview on the eve of Trump’s impeachment trial shouldn’t be taken seriously. That’s because much of what he says has been corroborated, and because the very fact that a person like Parnas was carrying out high-level international missions for the president shows how mob-like this administration is.

You don’t have to take Parnas’s word that he was working at the president’s behest. Last fall, when House impeachment investigators asked for documents and testimony from Parnas and his associate, Igor Fruman, they were initially represented by John Dowd, formerly one of Trump’s defense lawyers in the Mueller inquiry. Dowd, in turn, wrote to Congress that Parnas and Fruman would not cooperate with the impeachment investigation because some of the information the House sought may have been privileged. “Be advised that Messers. Parnas and Fruman assisted Mr. Giuliani in connection with his representation of President Trump,” the letter said. (Documents that Parnas later provided to the House Intelligence Committee show that Trump signed off on Dowd representing them.)

Some of the most disturbing and clarifying information Parnas has provided since turning on Trump involves the administration’s fixation on Marie Yovanovitch, the former American ambassador to Ukraine. It’s true that people around Trump saw her as an obstacle to getting Ukraine’s government to open a politically motivated investigation into Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, but that doesn’t quite explain the scale of the animosity toward her.

Trump didn’t just fire her. He told Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, that she was going to “go through some things.” We learned this week that Robert Hyde, a deranged Trumpworld hanger-on and Republican congressional candidate, sent a series of messages to Parnas suggesting he was stalking Yovanovitch. (Ukraine has opened an investigation into Hyde’s activity, and on Thursday he was visited by the F.B.I.) A lawyer and Fox News regular named Victoria Toensing — who has represented a Kremlin-aligned Ukrainian oligarch who is, according to the Justice Department, an upper-echelon associate of Russian organized crime figures — texted Giuliani saying, “Is there absolute commitment for her to be gone this week?” Why the obsession with Yovanovitch?

Parnas added to the evidence that when it came to Yovanovitch, Trump and his crew willingly allowed themselves to be manipulated by Yuri Lutsenko, a disgraced former chief prosecutor of Ukraine who loathed her for her anti-corruption work. (As the State Department official George Kent said during the impeachment hearings, you can’t fight corruption “without pissing off corrupt people.”) In WhatsApp messages to Parnas, Lutsenko expressed fury that Yovanovitch hadn’t been fired yet. He spoke of all he’d done to push the spurious Biden scandal, adding, “And yet you can’t even get rid of one fool.”

“In that text message to you,” Maddow asked on Thursday, “is Mr. Lutsenko saying, in effect, listen, if you want me to make these Biden allegations, you’re going to have to get rid of this ambassador?” Parnas replied: “Absolutely. Absolutely.”

A few months ago, I wrote a column arguing that when it comes to Ukraine, Trump is at once a con man and a mark, and the information Parnas has provided backs this up. Having promised Lutsenko that he’d get Yovanovitch fired, Parnas told Trump, falsely, that Yovanovitch had bad-mouthed him. His text messages show that he pushed Donald Trump Jr. to tweet about her.

Parnas was the vehicle through which a dirty Ukrainian politician pulled Trump’s strings to take revenge on an American official who’d tried to uphold the rule of law. She was threatened, smeared and fired in part because Trump is easily influenced by the goons and bottom feeders in his orbit.

By going public, Parnas has probably done nothing to sway Republicans toward removing Trump from office, not because they don’t believe him, but because they know Trump did what he’s accused of and don’t care. Writing to Politico’s John F. Harris, a Trump supporter recently described the president as “our O.J.,” an apt analogy for Republicans’ vengeful determination to give a guilty man impunity. (As it happens, Trump will be represented by one of O.J. Simpson’s old lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, at his Senate trial.)

But Parnas is worth paying attention to because he’s shown us, once again, what Trumpism looks like from the inside. It’s part “The Sopranos” and part, as he put it to Maddow, a “cult.” The qualities that discredit Parnas are the same ones that let him fit right in.

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If we think it's bad now, think of the tyranny that would characterize a second term. It would be difficult to exaggerate the danger. That it again is likely to turn on a relatively small number of voters in three states is a reminder of how fragile our semi-democracy is, how susceptible to the winds of Fortuna.

Being eligible to vote and not registering is a vote for Trump. Being registered to vote and not voting is a vote for Trump. Voting for a third party candidate is a vote for Trump.

Trump’s Evil Is Contagious

The president has shown us exactly what happens when good people do nothing.

By Timothy Egan, Contributing Opinion Writer | Published Jan. 17, 2020 | New York Times | Posted January 17, 2020 |

It passed with the usual shrug by the usual handmaidens of hatred when the president of the world’s most powerful democracy threatened to commit war crimes by bombing Iranian cultural sites — the kind of barbarism practiced by the Taliban and rogue-state thugs.

After being told that he would be in violation of Geneva Convention rules that the United States had helped to create back when America was actually great, President Trump relented, but still wondered: Why not?

The warlord in chief had already gone out of his way to protect a Navy SEAL member who’d been accused of committing war crimes. And what kind of man did the president upend the military code of justice for?

“The guy is freaking evil,” one fellow SEAL told investigators, referring to Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, who was convicted of posing for photos with the corpse of a teenage boy who’d been killed in his custody. After the presidential intervention, the formerly shamed serviceman was posing at Mar-a-Lago.

On any given day, Trump is vindictive, ignorant, narcissistic, a fraud — well, his pathologies are well known. But it’s time to apply the same word to him as the brave Navy man did to the renegade in his unit. Under Trump, the United States is a confederacy of corruption, driven by a thousand points of evil. And that evil is contagious.

We all grew up hearing an ageless warning about public morality: that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

The presumed outcome is reassuring, a story we tell ourselves. But in the last three years, that homily has been proved right, in the country where it was not supposed to happen. The Trump presidency has shown just how many ostensibly good people will do nothing, and how evil, when given a free rein at the top, trickles down.

When Trump retweeted a fabricated image of the two most important Democratic leaders of Congress dressed in Islamic garb in front of the Iranian flag, there was no chorus of condemnation from his side. Here was a graphic lie, a cheap defamation, the kind of dirty little trick that politicians usually give to the felon operating under the radar. For Trump, it was just another Monday.

Was it politics, or evil, when candidate Trump smeared a Gold Star family in 2016? Was it a mere shift in public policy, or evil, when Trump allowed people acting in our name to put children in cages and separate them from their mothers?

Was it mere theatrics to revel in a chant of “Lock her up,” about Hillary Clinton, who has now been exonerated, twice, by federal investigators? Was it normal for the 44th successor of a president who could not tell a lie, to lie more than 15,000 times?

Trump has so desensitized us that a day without a round of blunt force cruelty from the White House is newsworthy. And now it all comes to a boil in the impeachment trial. The facts are not in dispute: Trump tried to force a struggling democracy into doing his political dirty work for him. He tried to squeeze a foreign power into meddling in our election. What is very much in doubt is whether enough good people will do something.

In the process of this high crime, Trump broke the law, as a nonpartisan congressional watchdog reported Thursday. The greater evil is the violation of the lofty purpose written into this country’s founding documents. The smaller evils are the Republican senators who know the president violated his oath and deserved to be impeached, but don’t have the guts to say so.

“Do not, as my party did, underestimate the evil, desperate nature of evil, desperate people,” writes Rick Wilson, the Republican operative and witty Never-Trumper, in “Running Against the Devil,” his new book. “There is no bottom. There is no shame. There are no limits.”

As for the contagion of evil, you need not look far. In Texas this month, Gov. Greg Abbott said his state would become the first to refuse to take in even a small number of legal, fully vetted refugees. These are people who’ve been approved by the federal government for asylum, after being displaced by war, famine or persecution. In the past, people from Vietnam, Cuba and Africa have been welcomed, and have gone on to become some of our finest citizens.

A handful of citizens, the Catholic Church, some members of Congress, objected. “Accepting refugees with open arms — giving without keeping score — is who we are as Americans,” tweeted Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington, herself an immigrant.

Sorry, that’s not who we are as Americans in the Trump era. When the hate flag is flying, most of Trump’s followers have stood up and saluted.

Here’s the two-step that all good people must take now: First, realize the level of depravity that has taken over the White House, and second, fight accordingly.

“Do not come to this fight believing that the Trump team views any action, including outright criminality, as off limits,” writes Wilson. This doesn’t mean you have to cheat, lie or coerce. But it means you do have to fight, or be counted among the do-nothings who allowed evil to flourish.

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TOO LITTLE TO LATE, Rubio and his Republican colleagues created this monster it time to put your money where your mouth is and vote to impeach this SOB!!!!

Marco Rubio: Investing in China Is Not a Good Deal

It will result in American capital flowing to a regime that undermines our country. This is not a win.

By Marco Rubio, Mr. Rubio is a Republican senator from Florida. | Published Jan. 17, 2020 | New York Times | Posted January 17, 2020 |

It’s no secret that Wall Street hated President Trump’s aggressive trade tactics toward China. But its executives are very happy with the financial services section of the recently signed “phase one” deal that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin negotiated with China.

Instead of holding China accountable for exploiting American capital markets, “phase one” of the deal will make sure American capital continues to directly fund China’s state-run economy. American financing will increase to state-owned enterprises like China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, which produces about 80 percent of the Chinese Navy’s main equipment, and Hikvision, whose products Beijing uses to surveil Uighurs in Xinjiang.

Another appalling example of how good this part of the deal is for China is the provision authorizing American financial companies to purchase Chinese nonperforming loans. These are loans that the borrower is struggling to pay off. This makes them a favorite of Chinese state-owned enterprises and other companies with large capital expenditures but little revenue growth expected in the near term.

A majority of Chinese nonperforming loans go to state-owned enterprises. In the past, when a Chinese bank struggled with financing nonperforming loans on its books, Beijing had to bail it out with Chinese money. But now, under this deal, American savings can do it.

The rising number of nonperforming loans has been a problem in China’s economy; last year ended with almost the highest percentage of loans outstanding in over a decade. President Trump’s tariffs were having a real effect on the Chinese economy. It brought its leaders to the table to deal with vital issues like China’s theft of American intellectual property and its blocking of market access for American manufacturers. But now this part of the “deal” with China throws open the gates to American capital. They now get to keep up their exploitation, with our money.

For decades, China has used Wall Street’s hunger for profit to lure American capital into a trap: the Communist Party’s clear intent of displacing the United States as the world’s economic and military superpower. This “deal” will result in American capital flowing to the government-owned companies that China props up to undermine our country. This is not a win.

Investing American capital in China may earn better returns in the short term. But it will come at a tremendous cost in the long term.

American dollars aren’t being invested in Chinese companies that succeed based on their honest business model and ability to grow. They are being invested in companies that exist to serve a Chinese Communist Party intent on undermining America, human rights and religious liberty.

Allowing the savings of Americans to be linked to the success of the Chinese government and Communist Party is a grave error we will come to regret. Beijing’s state planners couldn’t have written the financial services section better if they tried. They’ll get to finance their industrial ambitions with the deepest, most liquid capital markets in the world — our own.

Policymakers in Washington, who were once naïve about China’s exploitation of our capital markets and the American-led global order, are now giving the financial relationship between the United States and Beijing the scrutiny it rightly deserves. For instance, the bipartisan Equitable Act, which I introduced, would delist Chinese companies that do not comply with American laws and regulations for financial transparency and accountability from United States exchanges.

Finding a peaceful and workable path forward for United States-China relations is the defining geopolitical issue of this century, and President Trump deserves credit for getting the Chinese to the negotiating table. However, the financial services section of the “phase one” deal could undermine the significant progress the agreement makes on other priorities.

As the Trump administration negotiates “phase two,” we must grapple with this challenge by enacting a pro-American industrial and financial policy that puts American capital to work for American workers, their skills and our development.

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The Real Risks of Republicans’ Burying Their Heads in the Sand

G.O.P. senators will harm Congress if they turn away from new testimony and information relevant to impeachment.

By Margaret L. Taylor, Ms. Taylor is a senior editor at Lawfare and a fellow at Brookings. | Published Jan. 17, 2020 | New York Times | Posted Jan 17, 2020 |

Just as President Trump’s impeachment trial is getting underway, the Senate is facing a highly charged, unusual situation. New, directly relevant information and evidence is spilling across the internet and the airwaves.

Documents and statements from Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer Rudy Giuliani, implicate the president directly in efforts to obtain dirt on and investigations of the Bidens.

Yesterday, the Government Accountability Office issued a legal decision finding that the White House’s Office of Management and Budget violated the Impoundment Control Act when it withheld from obligation the portion of Ukraine assistance funds appropriated to the Department of Defense.

This follows a previous New York Times report that detailed the haggling by executive branch officials over the legal consequences of the president’s decision to hold back $391 million worth of military assistance for the Ukrainian military. It makes clear that the decision to withhold the aid came from the president himself.

Established by statute in 1921, the G.A.O. is an independent, nonpartisan agency that helps Congress monitor executive branch agencies’ programs and spending. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 was written to ensure that the practice of reserving funds did not become a way for reckless presidents (like Richard Nixon) to further their own policies and priorities at the expense of Congress’s.

The G.A.O. decision goes to the heart of both the impeachment inquiry and our constitutional system of separated powers — and puts congressional Republicans in the hot seat. A violation of the Impoundment Control Act in connection with the Ukraine funds is directly relevant to the first article of impeachment because it is a mechanism by which the president executed the alleged abuse of power. The question of access to information about that violation is directly relevant to the second article of impeachment — obstruction of Congress. What is at stake is the status of Congress as a coequal branch of government. Much as Senate Republicans seem eager to, they — indeed, the entire Senate — cannot turn away from testimony and documents relevant to the articles of impeachment, however inconvenient the timing.

The G.A.O. decision addresses a rather narrow appropriations law issue. In short, what the president did here was precisely the type of adventurism the Impoundment Control Act was designed to prevent. The O.M.B. had no authority to withhold the funds because the act permits it only under specific circumstances — and in this instance, those weren’t met. The O.M.B. argued that the funds were withheld because doing so was necessary to ensure that they were not spent “in a manner that could conflict with the president’s foreign policy.” But the G.A.O. decided the withholding was an “impermissible policy deferral.”

The decision also renders a judgment that the withholding was not a mere delay, as the O.M.B. argued. Program execution was “well underway” when the O.M.B. held back the funds, and “there was no external factor causing an unavoidable delay.”

More broadly, the G.A.O. decision represents an assertion of Congress’s constitutional power of the purse. The G.A.O. is well respected, and historically the executive branch has given substantial deference to its opinions. In any other administration, this decision would have been an earthquake reverberating across the executive branch.

In this administration, the import of the decision is unclear. A Nov. 5, 2019,  memorandum instructed federal agencies that they are under no obligation to comply with the legal decisions issued by the G.A.O. because those decisions are part of the legislative branch and are therefore not binding on the executive branch. As a technical matter, that is true, but the president must faithfully execute the laws, including the Impoundment Control Act. Instead, executive branch machinations in the Times report indicate that O.M.B. lawyers were working up an argument that Mr. Trump’s role as commander in chief would allow him to override Congress. Such thinking is consistent with Mr. Trump’s unprecedented stonewall approach to Congress more generally — like his assertion that he has “an Article Two where I have the right to do whatever I want as president,” his lawyers’ direction of total noncooperation with Congress’s investigation into the Ukraine matter and his refusal to participate at all in the House impeachment proceedings.

These positions are so absolutist as to be a danger to the country, and Congress needs to respond forcefully.

On the spending power, there is substantial overlap among the branches: Congress has the power of the purse, and the president is responsible for running agencies and implementing programs. Rather than adhering to a strict separation of powers, in disagreements, the branches have traditionally engaged in a back-and-forth competition. As the G.A.O. points out in its decision, faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law. Some amount of cooperation — in addition to competition — is needed to make the system work.

The real question going forward is whether Congress will act to protect its constitutional role. Reactions so far are not particularly encouraging. On Thursday, Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, dismissed the decision as a mere legalistic dispute between agencies.

The G.A.O. decision suggests a further deterioration of the separation of powers. The decision applies only to funds that were appropriated to the Defense Department and not the State Department, because the O.M.B. and the State Department “have failed, as of yet, to provide the information we need to fulfill our duties” under the Impoundment Control Act regarding State Department funds. In what was, for a nonpartisan agency like the G.A.O., a blistering conclusion, it states that its role “is essential to ensuring respect for and allegiance to Congress’ constitutional power of the purse” and pointedly reminds readers that “all federal officials and employees take an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution and its core tenets, including the congressional power of the purse.” The consequence of Congress abdicating its right to information about the spending power could have the effect of eliminating Congress’s very control over that power.

Finally, the Senate must take seriously its role in the impeachment trial of President Trump. On Tuesday, when impeachment presentations start, these troves of new information will almost certainly begin to be aired in the chamber as senators listen to the presentation of the House managers.

The Senate must demand and obtain all documents and testimony of those with knowledge of the president’s actions who refused to obey lawful subpoenas issued by the House in the impeachment inquiry, like the administration members Mick Mulvaney, Robert Blair and Michael Duffey — as well as documents and other information that is directly relevant to the decision before them.

Clearly some are feeling the heat. Asked by Manu Raju of CNN whether the Senate should consider new evidence as part of the impeachment trial, Senator Martha McSally, Republican of Arizona, blithely responded: “Manu, you’re a liberal hack. I’m not talking to you.” Attacking reporters who ask fair questions won’t solve their problem. Only a thorough and honest reckoning with the oaths they have taken as senators and as impeachment jurors will do that.

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What is wrong with this administration? Under MIchelle Obama, our kids were offered a healthy variety of food, and now they want to go back to the good old days of hamberders and french fries? I am so tired of watching the positive moves made by the Obama administration to make our lives more healthy be rolled back by an administration whose main goals seem to be to destroy anything with Obama's name associated with it.

What's next? Reintroduction of lead paint? Banning seat belts and airbags? Suspension of food inspections? As his ability to shock and dominate headlines wanes, expect more, and more, and more, and more. Peak Trump must be just around the corner, or have we just passed it?

Trump Targets Michelle Obama’s School Nutrition Guidelines on Her Birthday

The Agriculture Department proposed a rule that would further unravel nutrition standards set by Mrs. Obama when she was first lady.

By Lola Fadulu | Published Jan. 17, 2020 Updated 3:43 p.m. ET | New York Times |Posted January 17, 2020 |

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved on Friday to roll back school nutrition standards championed by Michelle Obama, an effort long sought by food manufacturers and some school districts that have chafed at the cost of Mrs. Obama’s prescriptions for fresh fruit and vegetables.

The proposed rule by the Agriculture Department, coming on Mrs. Obama’s birthday, would give schools more flexibility in how much fruit is offered during breakfast and in the types of vegetables offered in meals. It would also broaden what counts as a snack.

The rule was applauded by food companies but condemned by nutritionists who predicted a comeback for starchy foods like potatoes and the return of daily hamburgers.

“Schools and school districts continue to tell us that there is still too much food waste and that more common-sense flexibility is needed to provide students nutritious and appetizing meals,” Sonny Perdue, the agriculture secretary, said in a statement. “We listened and now we’re getting to work.”

The Agriculture Department said the changes reflected requests made over the past two years by those who serve meals to children and teenagers throughout the school year. The department plans to release a regulatory analysis and open the public comment period on Jan. 21.

The proposal is the department’s second attempt to roll back nutrition standards promoted by Mrs. Obama through the 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which required schools to serve children fruits and vegetables every day and to offer more whole-grain foods and fat-free or low-fat milk. It also required school meal providers to limit calories and reduce saturated fat, trans fat and sodium.

The department finalized a rule in December 2018 that gave school meal providers permission to serve flavored low-fat milk in the national school lunch program and school breakfast program. That rule stipulated that only half of the weekly grains must be whole grain, and it gave providers more time to reduce sodium in meals.

Friday’s proposal goes further. It allows schools to adjust fruit servings during breakfast, to reduce waste, it said, and to make room for “meats and meat alternates.” Under current regulation, providers must provide one cup of fruit during breakfast for students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The new rule would also relax current vegetable requirements, which say providers must offer a variety of vegetables, like leafy greens and starchy foods. A department official said the goal was to give more flexibility, not change the amount of vegetables offered.

The proposal would also allow schools to offer lunch entrees for à la carte purchase, in order to reduce waste.

Child nutritionists said the proposed rule could lead to school meal providers turning away from healthy foods, instead of coming up with ways to make the food more appealing. More flexibility on the types of vegetables offered could lead to meals dominated by starchy foods, like potatoes, which are cheaper than green vegetables.

The National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity said allowing lunch entrees for à la carte purchase would create a “giant junk food loophole.” It could also lead to children frequently turning to meals that are meant to be eaten once a week, like hamburgers.

But conservatives applauded.

“The school breakfast and lunch programs have been riddled with waste for a long time, plate waste, being one, and that turns into financial waste,” said Jonathan Butcher, a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

He added that “clearly, no one wants kids to be served unhealthy foods,” but if nutrition requirements lead to children not eating the food offered, the standards are pointless.

The School Nutrition Association, which represents cafeteria workers and the food companies that provide schools with food, applauded the proposal and looked forward to more details.

“Updated nutrition standards for school meals have been a tremendous success over all, but a few of the requirements contributed to reduced lunch participation, higher costs and food waste,” Gay Anderson, the president of the association, said in a statement.

This rule is one of two the Agriculture Department plans to propose next week. The other rule would give meal providers more flexibility under the summer meal programs.

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[golicit]

Guest Post: Ransomware’s Year-End Thank You Note to Bitcoin

John Reed Stark

In the following guest post, John Reed Stark takes a look at the troubling rise of ransomware attacks, and the disturbing relationship between ransomware attacks and bitcoin. John is the President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement. I would like to thank John for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is John’s article.

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If ransomware were to write a year-end thank you note to bitcoin, it would probably look something like this:

    The unprecedented 2019 surge in ransomware attacks on cities, municipalities, schools and healthcare organizations in particular is just a foretaste of what is likely come in 2020. A recent Lloyds of London report boldly asserts that a large scale ransomware attack could cost the global economy $193 billion and impact more than 600,000 businesses worldwide.

  Meanwhile, ransomware variants have evolved considerably in 2019, from the early days of scareware and locker attacks to sophisticated social engineering schemes and full-on cyber warfare. The U.S. ransomware plague has gone from bad to worse, with no end in sight to the outbreak:

  Ransomware threat groups now routinely collaborate, creating a burgeoning ransomware industry. For instance, the creators of ransomware families such as Cerber lease out their attack mechanisms like franchises in exchange for a profit percentage of extortion earnings;

Ransomware attackers are now sharing attack vectors. For instance, security firm SentinelOne recently reported on how the operators of the TrickBot banking Trojan have begun selling access to networks it has previously compromised to other threat groups including those seeking to distribute ransomware;

Ransomware attack vectors have become more effective, impacting the outer reaches of IT infrastructure and back-up systems (even supply chains), while also becoming more targeted and strategic. For example, according to Yahoo Finance, a threat intelligence company called Anomali has discovered a new ransomware variant dubbed eCh0raix, with enhanced scoping power. Unlike traditional ransomware, which targets users and their files, eCh0raix attacks NAS appliances, the scalable hardware that has its own dedicated storage disks and (ironically) typically helps businesses protect corporate data, enable file-sharing among employees and remote connectivity;

No longer merely spray and pray, ransomware attacks have adopted a range of advanced persistent threat (APT) command and control tactics. For instance, ransomware gangs now use more sophisticated modus operandi, by illegally gaining access to networks, and over time, slowly taking command by installing backdoors, stealing the credentials of administrative accounts, and ultimately gaining control over domain controllers; and

Ransomware attacks have become more automated, requiring less attacker interaction. For instance, the ransomware variant called MegaCortex is now reportedly capable of executing directly with one single command. This makes post-exploitation deployment easier, requiring few, if any, other manual steps (such as requiring a password in order to decrypt and load the final payload during a live infection).

  Ransomware attacks now also accomplish far more than just paralyzing corporate, healthcare and government computer systems but also use the opportunity to steal company data and threaten to release their data via social media unless the companies pay more. In other words, ransomware attacks have become data breaches. Krebs on Security reports:

  “As if the scourge of ransomware wasn’t bad enough already: Several prominent purveyors of ransomware have signaled they plan to start publishing data stolen from victims who refuse to pay up. To make matters worse, one ransomware gang has now created a public website identifying recent victim companies that have chosen to rebuild their operations instead of quietly acquiescing to their tormentors.”

  How do most corporate victims of ransomware attacks pay the ransoms demanded? Bitcoin of course – it’s fast, reliable, verifiable, subject to little regulation, and virtually untraceable. Bitcoin has become ideal for ransomware extortion schemes. Attackers can simply watch the public blockchain to know if and when a victim has paid up. They can even create a unique payment address for each victim and automate the process of unlocking their files upon a confirmed bitcoin transaction to that unique address.

  Unlike the sequence of events during a kidnapping scenario, where the exchange of money arguably places criminals in their most vulnerable position, ransomware attackers can facilitate pseudo-anonymity and instantaneous payment via a simple, rapid and global bitcoin transaction process. Hence, rarely is there ever even an arrest, let alone a successful prosecution, of a ransomware attacker. Law enforcement remains virtually powerless and has even fallen victim themselves to ransomware extortion schemes.

  In the history of financial innovation, modernization and invention, there has always existed one constant: whatever the product, criminals will attempt to exploit its application. Bitcoin dramatically illustrates this axiom. And in addition to the treacherous reality of bitcoin’s predominant use, bitcoin still thrives despite a litany of hurdles, including: liquidity risk; price volatility; cybersecurity vulnerabilities; commission fees; anti-money laundering (AML) implications; ethical dilemmas; tax burdens; entanglement mishaps and many other obstacles. Bitcoin has essentially evolved into a highly resilient and resistant toxic virus in and of itself.

  Ransomware’s Dirty Little Secret

The first instance of what we now know as ransomware was called the AIDS Trojan because of who it was targeting – delegates who had attended the World Health Organization AIDS conference in Stockholm in 1989. Thirty years later, WannaCry, NotPetya and Cryptolocker have become household names and corporate nightmares.

  Today, bitcoin-enabled crimes like ransomware attacks upon medical facilities, physician practice groups and municipalities prosper especially because of ransomware’s dirty little secret i.e. ransomware victims pay the ransom. Left with no choice because of bitcoin’s global, anarchistic pseudononymity, paying the ransom remains the least painful solution to commonplace bitcoin-fueled extortion campaigns.

  Indeed, Emsisoft studied 948 government/educational/healthcare entities hit by ransomware in 2019, and a whopping 759 paid the ransom. In the past year alone, one ransomware response firm facilitated over $60 million in ransomware payments to offshore extortionists — all in bitcoin. Yet, none of these criminals have been captured, despite an overwhelming corporate willingness to cooperate fully with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. Ask any U.S. law enforcement why no ransomware attacker is ever caught – the answer will almost always be because of one reason — bitcoin.

  President Trump: A New Hope?

President Trump has recognized bitcoin’s threat to global commerce, tweeting as much six months ago, but nothing has changed.

  Yet President Trump could possibly transform his bitcoin-outrage into action because loathing of bitcoin is a wholly bipartisan issue. In fact, President Trump is 100% aligned with an array of outspoken and active cryptocurrency critics and skeptics, who also happen to be some of the most virulent anti-Trump Democrats, including U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D.Ca); U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D Mass.); and U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman (D.Ca.).

  President Trump even went so far as to co-opt some of Congressman Sherman’s arguments. Congressman Sherman (who specifically introduced articles of impeachment against President Trump) recently stated:

  “An awful lot of our international power comes from the fact that the U.S. dollar is the standard unit of international finance and transactions,” Sherman said at a meeting of the House Financial Services Committee last week . . . Clearing through the New York Fed is critical for major oil and other transactions. It is the announced purpose of the supporters of cryptocurrency to take that power away from us, to put us in a position where the most significant sanctions we have against Iran, for example, would become irrelevant.”

  The Myth: Cash Versus Bitcoin

Bitcoin-Barons argue that criminals can use cash and other trading financial systems just as easily as they can use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to commit crimes. After all, in comparison to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, isn’t cash similarly anonymous; untraceable; and fungible? Isn’t cash equally ubiquitous and available? The answer is no – which is precisely why bitcoin has become the currency of choice for criminals.

  First off, in the U.S., pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), transactions involving traditional financial firms, such as banks, brokers and dealers, and money service businesses (MSBs), are subject to strict federal and state anti-money laundering laws and regulations aimed at detecting and reporting suspicious activity, including money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as securities fraud and market manipulation.

  AML programs typically include a system of internal controls to ensure ongoing compliance with the BSA; independent testing of BSA/AML compliance; a designated BSA compliance officer to oversee compliance efforts; training for appropriate personnel; and a customer identification program. Thus, to ensure AML compliance, financial firms start by obtaining clearly identifiable information about a prospective client and identifying any potential risks of association. This rigor of oversight and regulation makes engaging in cash-related crimes challenging. Given in particular the tremendous technological innovation at financial institutions, moving or warehousing illicit cash is a good way to get caught and wake up one morning to find your financial accounts frozen.

  In stark contrast, bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions can settle efficiently from anywhere on the globe, without much of a trace of the recipient’s identity and whereabouts. There exists no central authority to handle disputes, manage complaints or freeze accounts — and transfers are irreversible. One cryptocurrency can also be rapidly traded for another. This all creates challenging hurdles for law enforcement to identify criminals, let alone capture and convict them.

  Theoretically, anyone with an Internet connection and a digital wallet can be part of any cryptocurrency platform, initial coin offering or other cryptocurrency financing endeavor operating anywhere on the globe – which, of course, opens a worldwide 24-7 laundromat for those with criminal motives. It is not surprising that security company CipherTrace found that “nearly all dark market commerce is transacted in cryptocurrencies,” while another recent study found that approximately one-quarter of bitcoin users and one-half of bitcoin transactions are associated with illicit activity.

  Looking Ahead: Where Were the Lawyers?

Make no mistake, the innovative community of blockchain developers and entrepreneurs deserves congratulations, admiration and encouragement — but their good work has been hijacked by a dangerous legion of criminals. And while blockchain technology may very well have extraordinary potential, there exists no responsible gatekeeper to keep the process and the players honest.

  Sadly, too many of the shamelessly self-anointed FinTech attorneys, who claim to practice within the crypto-space, are of little help and have at times actually exacerbated an already dire situation. Some not only blindly facilitate the criminal norms of the cryptocurrency marketplace, but their law firms also blithely encourage cryptocurrency transactions by accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for their legal services. It seems that some lawyers and their firms have become so desperate for fees that accepting bitcoin blood money seems somehow justifiable.

  This last point about lawyers and cryptocurrency hits home and bothers me the most. Because when ransomware gets worse (which it will) and people die as a result (which they will), someone somewhere will undoubtedly ask: where were the lawyers? 

  First formulated by the legendary Stanley Sporkin about corporate misdeeds decades ago when he was head of the SEC Enforcement Division in the 1970s and then as U.S. federal district judge from the mid-80s onward, this damning question has been repeated in every major financial scandal since.

  So thank you bitcoin, you have not only stained my profession, but you have once again proven true that ironic old adage: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

________________________

*John Reed Stark is president of John Reed Stark Consulting LLC, a data breach response and digital compliance firm. Formerly, Mr. Stark served for almost 20 years in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the last 11 of which as Chief of its Office of Internet Enforcement. He currently teaches a cyber-law course as a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law School. Mr. Stark also worked for 15 years as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught several courses on the juxtaposition of law, technology and crime, and for five years as managing director of global data breach response firm, Stroz Friedberg, including three years heading its Washington, D.C. office. Mr. Stark is the author of “The Cybersecurity Due Diligence Handbook.”

Guest Post: Ransomware’s Year-End Thank You Note to Bitcoin published first on

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Georgia toffolo on dropping herself after i’m a movie star, new relationships and why she’s bffs with boris johnson’s dad

last christmas day, in the early hours of the morning, georgia toffolo was on a four-hour road experience to her mum’s domestic in devon while she became too exhausted to pressure. She pulled into a carrier station, switched off the engine and closed her eyes. “i don't forget wondering: ‘i want to get domestic for christmas,’ but i was so worn-out,” she sighs. The 25-12 months-old joined itv’s this morning, offered at the ntas, landed a magazine column and designed a sixteen-piece line for undies emblem with love lillycredit: mark hayman jumpsuit, £49. Ninety nine from mango — buy now polo neck from primark— purchase now jewelry, £6 from river island — buy now boots, £90 from river island — buy now

“i had a half of-hour nap then arrived domestic for christmas day at 3 within the morning. That’s no longer regular. I must were home the day earlier than however i’d been working,

"then all christmas day i was so distracted and actually no longer nice employer. And that i went lower back to paintings on boxing day.”

winning i’m a movie star… get me out of here! In 2017 catapulted georgia, aka toff, to celeb heights beyond whatever she’d skilled on e4’s made in chelsea. In addition to countless media interviews celebrating her jungle victory, toff, 25, joined itv’s this morning as a reporter, supplied behind the scenes at the ntas, landed a mag column, designed a sixteen-piece line for lingerie emblem with love lilly and made her acting debut in an animated remake of the grinch. Georgia toffolo on losing herself after i'm a superstar, new relationships, and why she's bffs with boris johnson's dadcredit: mark hayman top from warehouse — purchase now skirt, £15 from pass over selfridge — purchase now jewelry from river island — buy now boots from river island — buy now

that’s on top of being signed because the face of favor logo very. Co. Uk and beauty powerhouse dermalogica, turning into an ambassador for amazing british racing, penning her autobiography constantly smiling and launching her very own youtube channel tofftube – in addition to continuing to megastar in mic. By means of remaining december, bodily and emotionally exhausted after grabbing “so many exquisite opportunities”, bubbly toff – who turned into so famous with i’m a superstar! Visitors that 71% voted for her to win – started out fading away.

“i think a touch little bit of my personality become misplaced,” she admits. “i’d be in a room however not be there due to the fact i used to be so worn-out. Ultimate yr i was running all of the time and work changed into over[powering] everything. Thank goodness my buddies and circle of relatives had been so supportive, and in fact pretty forgiving.”

nearly a 12 months on, the toff at our shoot is a one of a kind kettle of fish absolutely. She’s scaled returned paintings commitments and now simplest accepts projects that sense “real”. It is clear toff is still reigning very best as she pointers at a publishing deal and is bursting with ideas for her youtube channelcredit: mark hayman coat from reserved — purchase now sun shades, £7. 99 from reserved — buy now earrings from river island — purchase now

she attempts to hold her weekends paintings-loose, enjoys nights out with her friends again and doesn’t beat herself up over the occasional cover morning.

“ultimate yr if i’d achieved that i’d have concept: ‘oh my god, what’s wrong with you?’ the guilt that i used to be carrying all of the time…” she shakes her head with disbelief at how the balance become once so wrong. And now?

“i’ve honestly realigned the whole thing so that my personal happiness is on a par with my happiness inside my paintings lifestyles,” she says. “i’m toff once more.”

quitting mic last august after four years of sharing each spit and cough approximately her private lifestyles become, she admits, a calculated move to defend her intellectual fitness. 'i am toff again'

“i cast my profession out of giving the whole lot. While i was 18, 19, i didn’t provide a s**t. We signal our contracts and say: ‘we are able to provide you with our entire life.’

but now i don’t recognise whether being public property is conducive to being mentally satisfied. I just need to live happy and healthful in my mind. I’ve come to the conclusion that you have to maintain a bit bit for yourself.”

that “little bit” is her rumoured new courting with millionaire aristocrat george cottrell, aka “posh george”, a former senior advisor to nigel farage and deputy treasurer for ukip who spent 8 months in an american jail for cord fraud after explaining to undercover cops how cash could be laundered. He become released from prison in 2017. Toff and george, 26, reportedly met in march at a social event, however neither have confirmed or denied their relationship, regardless of pics aplenty suggesting they're together. As a teenager stunner toff suffered from horrible acne and become a target for bulliescredit: mark hayman

“i’ve attempted so hard to shield that part of my life. I simply feel as although i don’t want to talk approximately it,” she says, firmly. “i’m simply very satisfied in my private existence and i don’t want that to change.”

perhaps her reluctance to open up is also rooted in an awkwardness over george’s debatable beyond. In comparison to her other high-profile boyfriends, namely mic co-stars james taylor, james middleton and richard dinan, plus chelsy davy’s ex, jeweller charles goode, toff’s state-of-the-art suitor seems a bit much less clean-cut.

“i’ve by no means absolutely desired to talk about it… any time,” she insists. “i’m certainly sorry. I hate speaking about this.” difficulty closed. Her selection to take anything care essential to safeguard her mental health is understandable. Truth tv has confronted unheard of scrutiny this yr following the suicide of a visitor on the jeremy kyle display and the deaths of former love island contestants mike thalassitis and sophie gradon. I cast my career out of giving the whole thing. Georgia toffolo

in might also, the government released an enquiry into reality television’s duty of care to members, which includes assessing the psychological help offered to them by using manufacturing companies. Quickly after she joined mic in 2014, executives referred toff to the show’s psychologist when she found herself at a crossroads – whether to proceed with a law degree on the college of bristol or stay with television tube. She selected the latter and transferred to take a look at politics at the college of westminster, however she feels no uneasiness about her years baring all at the fact display. Even being dumped on small screen television is regarded thru rose-tinted glasses.

“all of us bloody realize how it hurts while you’re dumped or if a person runs off with a girl that you don’t like, and that i wouldn’t alternate it for the world because it’s made me have an appreciation for the u. S. And downs which can be inevitable throughout your 20s,” she laughs.

"high-quality, i did do mine in a genuinely bizarre public way, but i just wouldn’t trade it.” toff is also a lady dominated by means of her heart. It’s why the previous scholar of £30,000-a-12 months blundell’s boarding college in tiverton, devon, ultimately threw within the towel on university. Toff has banked a suggested £1. 8million since leaving the i'm a celebrity jungle in 2017

2 toff has banked a stated £1. 8million considering the fact that leaving the i'm a movie star jungle in 2017credit: getty - contributor

“thank god i did. 8million considering that i’m a superstar! She’s still obsessed with politics, although, and joined the conservative celebration as a youngster, however in recent times now attempts to be “as nonpartisan as possible”. What’s modified? “it’s tough because i’ve been really aligned with the conservatives, but i’m the primary to say that there are so many things i don’t trust,” she explains. “i suppose → the conservative birthday party could be very conventional of their thinking, so i wish they would modernise.

"when you have a look at westminster you suspect of it as faded, male and rancid and i hate that so much. What the ones human beings are talking about goes to have an effect on me and our generation a lot more than the fuddy-duddies in there.

"i might have greater young people in politics with hundreds of really different, out-there perspectives.” georgia is her rumoured to be in a brand new relationship with millionaire aristocrat george cottrell, aka 'posh george'

2 georgia is her rumoured to be in a new dating with millionaire aristocrat george cottrell, aka 'posh george'credit score: bguk

does that no longer make her, as young and lady, the right candidate for becoming an mp? She shakes her head. “i like what i do too much. Why might i alternate that during? Politics is so divisive. I simply want people to engage and have their own viewpoints.”

one mention of brexit and he or she winces. “oh my god. Christ, i don’t recognize,” she says, taking an urgent swig from her bottle of water. Firstly a remainer, she sooner or later switched allegiance and became firmly supportive of england leaving the ecu.

“i need human beings to be assured in our united states once more. I'd have been a remainer but i trust in democracy – 17. Four million human beings voted to leave.”

boris johnson could be chuffed. When she left the jungle, toff became called “boris in a bikini” – it’s a tag she nonetheless consists of round and thinks is “hilarious”. Given her former camp mate and close buddy is boris’ dad stanley johnson, 79, has she had an opportunity to speak about the funny story with the pm himself? Boris' dad stanley johnson is a regular at toff's mythical sunday lunch events

“i haven’t delivered up that word exactly. I’m sure he’s examine it,” she laughs, going  coy when asked if she and bojo are pals. I understand boris, yeah. I haven’t visible him for the reason that he’s been prime minister but… yeah.” toff’s now not so coy approximately her bond with stanley. While she got the keys to her new one-bed room basement flat 10 months in the past, stanley turned into on your doorstep inside the hour. He’s additionally a regular at her legendary sunday lunch parties or even seemed in a few episodes of mic, such were toff’s powers of persuasion.

Toff and stanley united once more in channel 4’s superstar hunted in aid of get up to cancer – a reason she is obsessed with because of her eighty two-12 months-vintage grandfather bertie’s ongoing battle. And the duo’s stint on movie star gogglebox in advance this year had the nation in stitches, no longer least the episode when they have been filmed watching a steamy sex scene from ‘80s mystery deadly enchantment. The distinction in my happiness and confidence… i will’t positioned it into phrases. Georgia toffolo

“oh don’t, i died!” roars toff, burying her face in her fingers. “it become so awkward! And that i made them promise they wouldn’t show whatever untoward!

“i was a chunk concerned that there would be a ‘earlier than’ boris become pm and ‘after’ chapter of our friendship, and when we were at the run [for celebrity hunted] stanley stated: ’i assume i’m going to close down my twitter and forestall doing some of these stupid small screen television matters.’

the next week [he was] tweeting, instagramming and taking place the television tube. I notion: ‘thank goodness, you’ve now not changed one bit.’”

toff again to ozultimate yr to film i’m a celeb! Greater camp, however in line with reviews fell out with show host scarlett moffatt after scarlett made her sense “unwelcome and victimised”. Such became the severity of the feud, toff flew home and missed out on crowning jungle king harry redknapp. Triumphing i’m a movie star… get me out of here! In 2017 catapulted georgia to celebrity heightscredit: james gourley/shutterstock

“if i’m absolutely sincere, i didn’t have a completely nice time in australia and i used to be pretty unhappy about that due to the fact i glaringly had such brilliant reminiscences the year earlier than,” she says. “it changed into very tough.”

because of scarlett? “i don’t need to mention, however my enjoy in australia wasn’t very fun,” she says. “it was very sudden due to the fact, via nature, i do get on truely nicely with every person.”

the only child of her assets developer mum nicky, 53, and scrap metallic enterprise proprietor dad gary, fifty four, who split whilst she become a toddler, as a teenager toff suffered from horrible pimples and changed into a goal for bullies, who shattered her self belief. Before getting into the jungle, she turned into so self-conscious about her complexion she siphoned bottles of estée lauder double put on into a large micellar water bottle – her one luxury item. 'very tough'

the night earlier than filming started out, she was knowledgeable camp mates would best be reunited with their gadgets after winning responsibilities over a count of days. Toff informed bosses she wouldn’t be taking element.

“i was like: ‘no, no, no, no.’ i burst into tears and said: ‘sorry, i'm able to’t do it.’ i got my mum to get all my docs’ notes about my pimples for the past 10 years,” she recollects. “[then] they stated: ‘we do believe it’s a medical difficulty, we’re going to can help you placed on your double wear as soon as an afternoon in the morning,’ and i did. Thank god.”

nowadays, she arrives for her interview make-up-unfastened, some thing she says wouldn’t were viable a year in the past, and credit the transformation to a “virtually strong skin care routine”, ingesting lots of water, cutting out dairy and decreasing stress.

“i appearance in the mirror and in reality like what i see. If you’d have informed that to my 14-12 months-old self, i wouldn’t have believed you. I might have idea: ‘this is a lifelong problem you’re going to have – you’re going to be embarrassed, hate your skin and that’s the quit of it.’ she siphoned bottles of estée lauder double put on right into a giant micellar water bottle – her one luxury item, while at the showcredit: rex capabilities

“and but i’ve just accomplished an interview with terrifi mag with out a makeup on! The difference in my happiness and confidence… i'm able to’t placed it into phrases.” as toff teeters closer to 2020 there’s plenty more to smile about. Next saturday she finishes her stint as a roving reporter for amazing british racing at huntingdon iciness ladies’ day, where she may be focusing at the horses and their adventure from the stables to the place to begin.

“it just doesn’t sense like paintings,” she says. “girls’ day at chester has been my favourite. I love the fashion that is going with racing, however you don’t should spend a fortune. Beauty good buy lady bags herself £a hundred of makeup revolution merchandise for simply £30 at b&m

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what a alleviation mum famous amazing tip for cleaning ‘ruined iron’ the usage of 29p paracetamol

aisle be damned visitor wears tiny white dress to wedding and you could ‘almost see her crotch’

pants concept sideflank is the new sideboob, however you cannot put on knickers to tug the appearance off

so inside the morning i went and purchased my whole outfit from a charity keep in chester. I spent £30 on everything, along with my bag!”

she pointers at a publishing deal to write a jilly-cooper-esque novel (“can’t let you know. Maybe!”) and is bursting with ideas for her youtube channel. Upload in a new home, man and outlook, and it’s clean – toff’s nonetheless reigning excellent.

● comply with @greatbritishracing for georgia’s record from huntingdon on saturday. Go to gbraci. Ng/toff

the final…

e-book you read? Sweet sorrow by david nicholls. I really loved it. Field set you binged on? The thick of it. I’ll watch box units on a hangover day. Movie you suspect? Up in the air with george clooney. Time you were drunk? Saturday night. Champagne doesn’t deliver me a hangover, are you able to believe? However it’s so expensive. Whatsapp message? Mum. My ex-headmaster known as her up asking me to retweet something. I imply, what the f**k? I left faculty seven years ago! Time you cried? I cried the complete manner via approximately time. I’m a sucker for a richard curtis movie. Hair: dino pereira the usage of kiehl’s considering the fact that 1851 magic elixir makeup: aimee adams the use of zoeva styling: nana acheampong