#how to manage inflation in retirement

[perilegs]

shoutout to people working their dream jobs doing something mundane

[qqueenofhades]

I think its genuinely fascinating how Biden has somehow become the bad vibes sin eater for the party. I'm seeing people who were doing the whole "voting doesn't matter both old men are the same" pivot hard into voting as harm reduction. The anti voting rhetoric has COMPLETELY lost The Youths on tiktok. People suddenly remember the good things the Biden administration has done but don't associate Harris with any of the things they didn't like. In my swing state volunteers are signing up in droves. People feel ENERGIZED, the vibe shift pre and post Biden dropping from the race has just been insane

Y'know, that is a... good way of putting it. It's also why I'm quite sure that Biden has probably been planning it for a while. I don't think he was intending to step down, and didn't want to be forced out at the drop of a hat, but after he realized that the circus was never going to stop until he did, he did the honorable fall-on-his-own-sword thing and definitely, DEFINITELY spent some time choreographing this behind the scenes. Because while the roll-out has been very smooth, it could just as easily (as many of us were expecting) have been a total disaster, and that doesn't happen without SOME planning. It's also entirely possible that the campaign staff flipped from Biden to Harris are superhuman, to come up with a massive online roll-out, new branding, new signs (they had plenty of 'em in Wisconsin yesterday), new everything, but I'm guessing it's a combination of both. Biden has spent his entire political career being underestimated, and after we literally made a meme out of Dark Brandon juking the Republicans out of their shoes, we should definitely give credit where credit is due in how masterfully he pulled it off.

Because we have had eight years defined by the central question of Whether The President Is a God King Who Should Serve For Life (the MAGAts obviously think yes), the sheer idea of a president willingly giving up his power BEFORE he had to is also novel and admirable. It's sad that this is the case, but so be it. The Republicans also got a heaping helping of Be Careful What You Wish For that was undoubtedly brilliant; they've been yelling for years that Biden is old and frail and can't serve and should step down. Biden went "lol okay" and gave it to them, and now they're fucked.

Aside from that, on the most basic level, it's far, far easier to see the actual difference in the parties with Harris as the nominee, just because it shows that one party is willing to make progress and reflect the new demographic reality and social mores of America, and the other one is not. Now to be clear, Biden deserves an incredible amount of credit for coming out of retirement (he was ALREADY 77 years old when he became president and had had decades of a long and respected career in public service behind him) to fight, beat Trump, and deliver an incredibly successful presidency. He held the line against authoritarianism at home and abroad, he rescued the trashed American economy and managed a world-leading recovery from Covid, he stood up for democracy, he spent four years filling the benches with liberal judges to reverse even some of the Trump/McConnell hack job, he finally passed comprehensive infrastructure investment and the Green New Deal under the name of the Inflation Reduction Act -- and so on. Many of these priorities had been languishing for decades or were completely trashed under Trump, and he could not have done so much in just 4 years without all that age, skill, and experience. Hence why all the Ageism!!! was (aside from being a Republican/media smear job) dumb. He's able to do the job because he has had decades to study. Turns out that makes you actually pretty damn good at it.

Yes, Biden could not do as much as he wanted or originally planned, had to deal with MAGA Republicans and Joe Manchin/Kyrsten Sinema sabotaging him the whole time (lololol Manchin, possible possessor of the World's Biggest Ego and with Trump around that's saying something, popping out of obscurity to self-righteously announce he would not be willing to be Kamala's VP. YEAH ASSHOLE. LITERALLY NOBODY ASKED YOU. NOBODY WHATSOEVER. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS AT LEAST WE WILL SOON NO LONGER HAVE MANCHIN IN THE SENATE). And yes, Biden made some serious mistakes of his own, because he IS from an older generation and a different style of doing politics/different beliefs that no longer resonate with the younger segments of the electorate. But this old white Catholic guy at the age of almost 80 still managed to be the most progressive president ever, coming in at a moment of incredible domestic and international crisis and getting us safely to the other side, and all cynicism, criticizing, and caveating aside, he deserves an incredible amount of credit for that. I mean that absolutely, and I am very grateful.

As I said, willingly relinquishing that power takes guts, and when Biden saw the writing on the wall that he had to sacrifice himself, he took his time, he didn't jump too early, and he didn't jump too late. On the most basic level, it becomes a hell of a lot easier to make the "both parties are not the same" argument when one is running a (comparatively) young brown woman and the other is still running their loathed felonious old demented orange traitor. Most Americans are not plugged into policy minutiae and details. They look at Biden-Trump, they see two old white guys. When you take one of those old white guys away (who goes in a self-sacrificially heroic manner and in sharp contrast with the coup-happy fascist) and put Kamala Harris in there instead, it generates an obvious jolt. People can see for themselves that there is a real difference that doesn't rely on closely reading news and tracking complex policy, because as noted, most Americans simply don't. The brown first-generation American daughter of brown immigrants is a quantifiably different story from "old white guy career politician," which for better or worse is how Biden was seen, especially the old part. We needed that establishment expertise to beat Trump in 2020; I still think Biden is the only one who could have done it, and as noted, we owe him a great debt for doing so.

However.... 2024 is not 2020, and it is not 2016. There has been this HUGE and unbelievable swing to Kamala because she represents the antithesis of what the last eight years of Trump-induced anger, fear, panic, chaos, and hatred has stirred up. That's why people are so ready to rally around her, just as they were (I daresay) around Obama in 2008, after the exhaustion, chaos, war, and mounting economic misery of Bush. Trump has been out of office for the last four years, but his shadow over the American political landscape has been omnipresent. Now people know that we finally have a real chance at getting rid of him forever, and just as Biden was uniquely positioned to capitalize on that in 2020, so Harris is now. Which is why, however tough it will be, she has a real shot at winning. I can guarantee the Republicans know that, and are shit scared. Because the Black Lady Army of Democracy has indeed arrived in force to Get This Shit Done and I don't know about you, but I found that incalculably comforting:

Yikes! All lined up for Kamala pic.twitter.com/Dt4OCDp7WX

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) July 24, 2024

This, at the most basic level, is what scares fascists the most, it's exactly what we need now, and what Harris is uniquely positioned to mobilize, along with her gangbusters appeal to young voters:

This is the energy we need. This is what Biden saw and planned for and which he launched us into, and where all that experience and age paid off. This is why people, even people otherwise disengaged, disillusioned, or checked out of the tedious and mind-numbering drudgery and depression of American politics, are responding to it. Because it's easy to understand, it offers hope, and it tells a very simple story that is nonetheless long overdue:

Thanks so much, Joe. Go absolutely waste that orange fucker, Kamala. We got your back.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How an obscure advisory board lets utilities steal $50b/year from ratepayers

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in NYC on WEDNESDAY (26 Feb) with JOHN HODGMAN and at PENN STATE on THURSDAY (Feb 27). More tour dates here. Mail-order signed copies from LA's Diesel Books.

Two figures to ponder.

First: if your local power company is privately owned, you've seen energy rate hikes at 49% above inflation over the last three years.

Second: if your local power company is publicly owned, you've seen energy rates go up at 44% below inflation over the same period.

Power is that much-theorized economic marvel: a "natural monopoly." Once someone has gone to the trouble of bringing a power wire to your house, it's almost impossible to convince anyone else to invest in bringing a competing wire to your electrical service mast. For this reason, most people in the world get their energy from a publicly owned utility, and the rates reflect social priorities as well as cost-recovery. For example, basic power to run lights and a refrigerator might be steeply discounted, while energy-gobbling McMansions pay a substantial premium for the extra power to heat and cool their ostentatious lawyer-foyers and "great rooms."

But in America, we believe in the miracle of the market, even where no market could possibly exist because of natural monopolies. That's why about 70% of Americans get their power from shareholder-owned companies, whose managers' prime directive is extracting profit, not serving their communities. To check this impulse, these private utilities are overseen by various flavors of public bodies, usually called Public Utility Commissions (PUCs).

For 40 years, PUCs have limited private utilities to a "rate of return" based on a "just and reasonable profit." They always gamed this to make it higher than was fair, but in recent years, the "experts" who advise PUCs on rate-setting have been boiled down to a tiny number of economists, who have discovered that the true "just and reasonable profit" is much higher than it's ever been considered.

Mark Ellis worked for one of those profit-hiking "experts," but he's turned whistleblower. On paper, Ellis looks like the enemy: former chief economist at Sempra Energy, an ex-Exxonmobile analyst, a retired McKinsey Consultant, and a Socal Edison engineer. But Ellis couldn't stomach the corruption, and he went public, publishing a report for the American Economic Liberties Project called "Rate of Return Equals Cost of Capital" that lays out the con in stark detail:

https://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/20250102-aelp-ror-v5.pdf

I first encountered Ellis last week when he was interviewed on Matt Stoller and David Dayen's excellent Organized Money podcast, where he memorably referred to these utilities as "pocket-picking machines":

https://www.organizedmoney.fm/p/the-pocket-picking-machine

Dayen followed this up with a great summary in The American Prospect (where he is editor-in-chief):

https://prospect.org/environment/2025-02-21-secret-society-raising-your-electricity-bills/

At the center of the scam is a professional association called the Society of Utility and Regulatory Financial Analysts (SURFA). The experts in SURFA are dominated by just four consulting companies, who provide 90% of the testimony for rate-setting exercises. Just two people account for half of that input.

In order to calculate the "just and reasonable profit," these experts make use of economic models. Even in normal economics, these models are the source of infinite mischief and suffering, built on assumptions that legitimize the most abusive conduct:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/03/all-models-are-wrong/#some-are-useful

But even by the low standards of normal economic models, the utility models are really bad. They rely on unique "risk premium" and "expected earnings" calculations that no one else in finance will touch. As Dayen explains, these models are "perfectly circular."

This might be a bit confusing, but only because it's one of those scams that you assume you must have misunderstood because it's so, well, scammy. In the "expected earnings" analysis, the "just and reasonable profit" a utility is allowed to build into its rates is defined as "the amount of money it would like to make." In other words, if a utility projects future revenues of $10 billion over the next ten years, that is its "expected earnings." "Expected earnings" are treated as equivalent to "just and reasonable profits." So under this model, whatever number the utility puts in its financial projections is the number that it's allowed to take out of the pockets of ratepayers.

This is just as bad as it sounds. In 2022, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said that it "defied financial logic." No duh – even SURFA's own training manual says it "does not square well with economic theory."

In the world of regulated utilities, this kind of mathing isn't supposed to be possible. The PUC and its "consumer advocates" are supposed to listen to these outlandish tales and laugh the utility out of the room.

But it's SURFA that trains the consumer advocates who work for the PUCs, the large energy customers, and community groups. These people – who are supposed to act as the adversaries of the companies that pay SURFA members to justify rate-hikes – are indoctrinated by SURFA to treat its absurd models as accepted economic gospel. SURFA has co-opted its opposition, transformed it into a botnet that parrots its own talking-points.

Because of this, the private power companies that serve 70% of US households made an extra $50b last year, about $300 per household. What's more, because the excess profits available to companies that simply bamboozle their regulators are so massive, they swamp all the other tools regulators use to attempt to improve the energy system. No incentive offered for conservation or efficiency can touch the gigantic sums energy companies can make by ripping off ratepayers, so nearly all the incentive programs approved by PUCs have been dead on arrival.

What's more, utilities are allowed to fold the cost of hiring the experts who get them rate hikes onto the ratepayers. In other words, if a utility hires a $10,000,000 expert who successfully argues for a $1,000,000,000 rate-increase, they get to recoup the ten mil they spent securing the right to rip you off for a billion dollars on top of that cool bill.

We often talk about regulatory capture in the abstract, but this is as concrete as it can be. Ellis's report makes a raft of highly specific, technical regulatory changes that states or cities could impose on their PUCs. These are shovel-ready ideas: if you find yourself contemplating a sky-high power bill, maybe you could call your state rep and read them aloud.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/24/surfa/#mark-ellis

[colebabey888]

Financing 101: Handling your money| IT GIRL DIARIES

A few financial tips my father shared with me that has kept me secure and taught me valuable lessons on saving and future planning..

When it comes to managing your money, always apply the 30:30:30:10 rule. This means allocating 30% towards your day-to-day or monthly expenses, 30% towards investments, 30% for future retirement savings, and 10% for your wants and luxuries.

I consider myself fortunate to live with my parents, which means I don’t have to cover utilities or household expenses. However, instead of spending all of my income on luxuries and my wants, I divide it thoughtfully. I allocate 15% more towards investments, ensuring that my money works for me and provides a return. The remaining 15% is set aside and added to my personal wants and luxuries.

Don't use the full amount for luxuries because you want to make sure that you are using the extra funds wisely. This way, you can contribute towards your future plans, even if while living with parents. It’s important to enjoy the present, but always be prepared for the future.

Never keep all your money in one bank account. There are several reasons for this. If you don’t see your money, you’re less likely to spend it, by keeping your investments and savings in a separate account that you rarely check, you’re less tempted to dip into them so keep them separate from your regular income in a different bank account. Also having your money spread out in multiple accounts is much more safer than having it all in one place.

Always put your savings and investments into a high yield savings account so that your money doesn't lose value due to inflation overtime and you profit through interest return.

If you notice your income increasing significantly, it might be wise to consult a financial advisor or get an accountant. A professional can provide valuable advice on how to save, invest, and manage your growing assets effectively.

Use a separate bank account for online shopping. Opt for digital payment platforms like PayPal or Venmo. Even with reputable brands, it’s safer not to provide your primary bank details. I personally use a completely separate account for online shopping, only transferring money when needed, and it has kept me secure for a long time.

mwah! xoxo, colebabey8.88

[bitchesgetriches]

{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about Investing for Beginners

Fundamentals of investing:

What’s the REAL Rate of Return on the Stock Market?

Do NOT Make This Disastrous Beginner Mistake With Your Retirement Funds

The Dark Magic of Financial Horcruxes: How and Why to Diversify Your Assets

Dafuq Is Interest? And How Does It Work for the Forces of Darkness?

Booms, Busts, Bubbles, and Beanie Babies: How Economic Cycles Work

When Money in the Bank Is a Bad Thing: Understanding Inflation and Depreciation

Investing Deathmatch series:

Investing Deathmatch: Managed Funds vs. Index Funds 

Investing Deathmatch: Traditional IRA vs. Roth IRA 

Investing Deathmatch: Investing in the Stock Market vs. Just… Not 

Investing Deathmatch: Stocks vs. Bonds 

Investing Deathmatch: Timing the Market vs. Time IN the Market

Investing Deathmatch: Paying off Debt vs. Investing in the Stock Market 

Investing Deathmatch: What Happens in a Bull Market vs. a Bear Market 

Now that we’ve covered the basics, are you ready to invest but don’t know where to begin? We recommend starting small with micro-investing through our partner Acorns. They’ll round up your purchases to the nearest dollar and invest the change in a nicely diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, and ETFs. Easy as eating pancakes:

Start saving small with Acorns

Alternative investments:

Small Business Investing: A Kinder, Gentler Alternative to the Stock Market 

Bullshit Reasons Not to Buy a House: Refuted

Investing in Cryptocurrency is Bad and Stupid

So I Got Chickens, Part 1: Return on Investment

Twelve Reasons Senior Pets Are an Awesome Investment 

How To Save for Retirement When You Make Less Than $30,000 a Year

Understanding the stock market:

Ask the Bitches Pandemic Lightning Round: “Did Congress Really Give $1.5 Trillion to Wall Street?”

Season 3, Episode 2: “I Inherited Money. Should I Pay Off Debt, Invest It, or Blow It All on a Car?” 

Money Is Fake and GameStop Is King: What Happened When Reddit and a Meme Stock Tanked Hedge Funds

Season 3, Episode 7: “I’m Finished With the Basic Shit. What Are the Advanced Financial Steps That Only Rich People Know?”

Wait… Did I Just Lose All My Money Investing in the Stock Market?

Season 4, Episode 1: “Index Funds Include Unethical Companies. Can I Still Invest in Them, or Does That Make Me a Monster?” 

Retirement plans:

Dafuq Is a Retirement Plan and Why Do You Need One?

Procrastinating on Opening a Retirement Account? Here’s 3 Ways That’ll Fuck You Over

How to Painlessly Run the Gauntlet of a 401k Rollover

Ask the Bitches: “Can I Quit With Unvested Funds? Or Am I Walking Away From Too Much Money?”

Workplace Benefits and Other Cool Side Effects of Employment

You Need to Talk to Your Parents About Their Retirement Plan

Season 4, Episode 5: “401(k)s Aren’t Offered in My Industry. How Do I Save for Retirement if My Employer Won’t Help?” 

Got a retirement plan already? How about three or four? Have you been leaving a trail of abandoned 401(k)s behind you at every employer you quit? Did we just become best friends? Because that was literally my story until recently. Our partner Capitalize will help you quickly and painlessly get through a 401(k) rollover:

Roll over your retirement fund with Capitalize

Recessions:

Season 1, Episode 12: “Should I Believe the Fear-Mongering about Another Recession?”

There’s a Storm a’Comin’: What We Know About the Next Recession

Ask the Bitches: How Do I Prepare for a Recession?

A Brief History of the 2008 Crash and Recession: We Were All So Fucked

Ask the Bitches Pandemic Lightning Round: “Is This the Right Time To Start Investing?”

[shayberri789]

I saw a post that said Jeremy and Andrew would have to financially support their boyfriends and Kevin after graduation because of the mafia deal, and I thought, that can't be right? I distinctly remember a large numbers in tkm

Well I did the math

TLDR: The boys are earning bank even after deductions. They're Fine.

Neil estimates that IN COLLEGE, Kevin was earning in the MILLIONS, and projected him to earn 15–20 MILLION dollars EVERY YEAR after graduating. Keep in mind, this was 2k-fucking-6, neil has been obsessively keeping track of Kevin's career, is obsessed with exy including on a logistical standpoint, and a maths major who is good at statistics. I trust his projections here.

The past tense here is also up for debate. This was also before he started playing lefthanded again, before the foxes beat the ravens, and while Kevin was still recovering. I know nothing about the sports-world and how they'd react to the shit Kevin has gone through and recovered from, but I fully believe he can get his earning potential back up into the double digit millions again. Plus, he's more popular than ever with fans.

Now, Jean is one of the top exy players in collegiate exy atm. Probably The Best backliner in the NCAA in general. He is FAR better than an "average" exy player and I would bet my book collection he WILL make it to court. If he can manage to play a season without being grievously injured and endear himself to the public, I bet he could earn AT LEAST double the average exy income.

Neil is harder to gauge. As I've said, I don't know how the sports world works, or wider america tbh, so this is just logical guessing on my part. Neil has a lot of things going against him - his poor attitude/personality, zero tolerance for press and presumably little patience for fans (or at least: poor people skills), a shit ton of scandal surrounding him and ties to TWO mob families (that the public knows of), and by the time he graduates, would have been playing striker for only 6 years. On the other hand, drama drives attention, he is at the root of the Foxes winning streak, he went toe to toe against RIKO with only 2 years striker experience (and a little bit of backliner), was captain, and is undeniably talented. He stands to earn more than the average professional player, but I can't say by how much

So by these numbers (estimated early 2007), lets say they'll earn the following after a year or two after graduating:

Kevin: 15–17,000,000 USD

Jean: 5–8,000,000 USD

Neil: 3–5,000,000 USD

So if they pay 80% of these earnings to the Moriyamas, they will be left with:

Kevin:

Pays:

15,000,000–17,000,00 x 80% = 12,000,000–13,600,000 USD per year (12-13.6 million)

Leaving him with:

15–million subtract 12–13.6 million = 3,000,000–3,400,000 USD remainder per year

Jean:

Pays:

5,000,000–8,000,000 x 80% = 4,000,000–6,400,000 USD per year (4–6.4 million)

Remainder:

5–8 mill subtract 4–6.4 mill = 1,000,000–1,600,000 USD remainder per year

Neil:

Pays:

3,000,000–5,000,000 x 80% = 2,400,000–4,000,000 USD per year (2.4–4 million)

Remainder:

3-5 mill subtract 2.4-4 mill = 600,000-1,000,000 USD remainder per year

These are big numbers. Let's convert them for inflation to 2024¹:

Kevin: He gets to keep $4.2–4.7 million out of $20.9–23.7 million dollars

Jean gets keep $1.4–2.2 million out of $7–11.1 million

Neil gets to keep $840,000–$1.4 million out of $4.1–7 million

All of these guys have the potential to earn over A MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR even after they pay tribute to the Moriyamas (no idea if this would be before or after taxes. I will not attempt to calculate that. That's for people who understand how US taxes work to do.)

Neil made these projections/reported these numbers in 2006/early 2007, based on previous years salaries. Kevin and Jean would have graduated in 2010, and Neil in 2011.

based on this US census article I found [x], the average median income in 2010-2011 in the USA was between $37k–70k. This means, Neil at his lowest, is earning 8.6–16 times more than the average US income PER YEAR.

Based on the comments in this reddit thread from 2012² (OP provides figures of 24-42k for annual cost of living in San Jose, Cali), even Neil at his lowest can live a very comfortable life on his own, even if we increase that cost of living to 100k per year and consider his lowest income of 600k. He still has plenty left over he can spend or save for retirement³, and that's excluding what he will continue to earn from merch etc and what Blood Money he still has after graduation.

TLDR: Neil was right⁴. Even without their boyfriend's support, I think Neil, Jean and Kevin can live very comfortable lives for a long time. Hell, Kevin has the potential to earn so much he probably support all three of them by himself⁵, or live one hell of a bachelors lifestyle after retirement⁶.

They Will be Fine.

Endnotes & Disclaimers

Disclaimer:

I am not american, and know only as much about your country as media and socmed shove down my throat, and as much as I need to know to be Very Worried For My Friends.

Everything I know about sports is against my will and even that could fill a teacup. I know more about exy than I do any other sport combined, nevermind professional, american sports

I was once good at maths, but have not taken a maths class since 2021, and even then it was statistics which I Hated and promptly forgot all I could about it.

Take pity on me, I am a non-american english lit (and linguistics) major. this kind of analysis is NOT in my skillset.

So please, someone who understands American Economy, maths and sports better than me, PLEASE chime in and correct or add to this.

Endnotes:

Because the 2025 US economy seems to be in shambles rn. I used this calculator and just converted the values I gave earlier. I did not redo the math because it seemed irrelevant and because I Do Not Care That Much. All numbers given here are rounded to the second digit. Obviously.

Why is it so hard to find a concise article talking about the cost of living in the USA in 2011? I do not care enough to fish it or calculate the amount from small details hidden within 6 dense paragraphs. Please. Also only a few cities were mentioned, which is why I raised the possible CoL so fucking much. Cover my bases.

Average Rugby (the closest phsyically demanding sport I am familiar with) career length is around 13 years [x], Average American Football career is 3-5 years [x], and the average Ice Hockey career seems to be 5 years according to this article [x], though if you take care of your body they say you can even reach 10 years (ha. Not happening to the Raven Trained Babes).

"The average professional Exy player makes three million dollars a year. I don't need that kind of money for myself" (ch 14, TKM).

I strongly hc him as aroace but he is a chronic third wheeler. He won't live an isolated life his whole life.

If we average their careers to 5 years, they'll graduate in their late 20s with probably chronic pain. Andrew and Jeremy and their friends likely could go longer, but the main trio still have like 70 years of their life left. I can't see them sitting idle - they'd find some other career (probably exy related, though Kevin may go the history route) to keep themselves busy, which would still earn them plenty money

[black-fist-order]

BREAKING: Renowned business expert Scott Galloway hammers Donald Trump as "stupid" and says that he's "blackout drunk" at the "wheel of the global economy" as his tariffs destabilize the entire world.

He also alleged that Trump's sudden tariff reversal enriched his MAGA cronies in the "greatest day of insider trading and grift in history."

This is one rant that every American needs to hear...

During an appearance on The View, Galloway — who is a successful entrepreneur and a professor at the New York University Stern School of Business — was asked by co-host Whoopi Goldberg about Trump's recent behavior.

She slammed him for having "wreaked havoc on the global economy since his so-called liberation day last week with massive tariffs" and pointed out that he backtracked and lowered his tariffs on most countries to 10% while imposing an effective tariff rate of 145% on China.

"It would be hard to think of a more elegant way to reduce prosperity this fast," said Galloway.

"Let's talk about Apple," he continued. "The notion was we're going to bring back all of those great jobs? The average Apple assembly person in China makes $500 a month. The average Apple employee focusing on more high-value things like design, store management, makes $200,000 a year here."

"We want to wear Nikes. We don't want to make them," he went on. "We have outsourced low-wage jobs overseas such that we can create more profits, more investments, and create higher wage jobs."

"If these tariffs hold, your iPhone's going to go from $1000 bucks to $2,300," he explained. "To make an iPhone in the U.S. it would cost $3,500. As a result, the threats of these tariffs take Apple's stock down the value of Walmart in three days."

"If these tariffs hold... 80% of toys under the Christmas tree are from China," Galloway continued. "So 90% of U.S. households are budget-constrained. So we're talking about half the number of toys."

"We're talking about a destruction in shareholder value such that your parents can't retire as quickly and we're talking about the entire world rerouting their supply chain around 'brand America,' which, quite frankly, right now is toxic uncertainty — so they can bypass a series of unpredictable, epileptic, sclerotic decisions," he stated.

"What we finally need to acknowledge: We have someone at the wheel of the global economy that is blackout drunk right now," he continued.

Later in the segment, Galloway dismissed the idea that Trump's policy is setting the stage for the "economy of the future" by bringing jobs back.

"First off, America is the second largest manufacturer in the world," he said. "And the Cato Institute — we romanticize manufacturing — the Cato Institute did a survey, 80% of us believe that we should have more manufacturing but only 20% of us want to work in manufacturing."

"There is no line to get in and have work at an assembly plant in Lansing, Michigan," he continued. "What we want is high-paying jobs. Quite frankly, if this president cared about young men and trying to up-level people we'd go to a minimum wage of $25 a hour."

"And by the way, if minimum wage had kept pace with productivity and inflation it'd be somewhere between $23 and $27 an hour," he explained. "This is nothing but in my view—"

"Do you realize that yesterday about ten minutes before he put a pause on the tariffs and Apple skyrocketed, the market went up 2000 points, there was huge activity in the options market," he went on.

"Yesterday will go down as the greatest day of insider trading and grift in history," said Galloway. "Someone knew what was going on and made a lot of money and it wasn't us and we're going to find out about this."

"If you want to go back — he talks about the great era of the late 19th century — guess what? When we didn't have indoor plumbing? Where we had child labor? I'll take Netflix and novocaine," he said.

"We have a habit because of social media to talk about how terrible America is," he went on. "There are [one hundred and ninety-five] nations, they would all trade places with us."

"Do we have income inequality, we have polarization, do we have struggling young people? A hundred percent," he said. "But guess what? This nation is less bad than any other nation except if you want to take us back to the past. That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever."

Galloway was then asked about America's image around the world under Trump.

"We have the greatest inflow of capital which drives our stock up which lets us borrow money at a lower cost," he explained. "We have the greatest inflow of human capital. What do the best and the brightest in the world have in common? They want to come to our universities, they want to live in America."

"And part of that is that the American brand is risk aggressiveness, it's rule of law, it's consistency," said Galloway. "Rule of law has gone out the window. Right? We've now decided to defy court orders. We're having used car sales on the White House lawn."

"We are rounding people up with the wrong tattoo and shipping them off without due process to essentially hellscape prisons," he continued. "Rule of law is gone. Consistency? The tariffs are on, they're off, the tariffs are on, the tariffs are off."

"We're alienating nations that love us and we love. When did we decide to go to war against Canada!?" he asked. "Canada!? You know what Canada did?"

"There's this great line that the Holocaust survivor talking to Warren Buffet said, how do you judge friends? V'ery simply, I ask a question would they hide me?'" he said.

"Canadians hid us in the [Iran] hostage crisis," he went on. "The Canadian embassy hid six Americans and if they'd been found out they would have been hung by cranes. We're going to war against Canada!? They are our true friends. We can't even articulate why we're angry with them. We are going to war with everyone at the same time."

"The big winner here, if there is a winner, is China over the medium and long-term, who says 'You may not like us, but you can count us,'" said Galloway.

"The damage here... When he paused the tariffs yesterday, he took the knife halfway out of the economy's back, but the injury will take years, if not decades, to heal," he predicted. "The definition of stupid is doing something that hurts yourself while hurting others. This could not be more stupid...!"

[azuhra]

All Might's Birthday Bash

A series of prompts for June 1st through June 10th - All Might's Birthday. This birthday bash was created by @dogwaterdish and you can find the original post and list here.

I took these prompts and used them to create a 10 part story. Not 10 chapters, these are pretty short, but one cohesive story. Toshinori POV, multiple, if brief, other character appearances. Gen fic. I'll post a part a day for the next 9 days. Happy Birthday, sunflower man!

The Unwanted Party by Azuhra

Day One: Save the Date

--

There was the usual rumble of conversations and clacking of keyboard keys around the staff office that morning. Toshinori sat hunched over his desk with one pencil behind his ear and a red pen in his hand as he worked on grading a recent hero course exam. One of the many sticky notes on his computer reminded him that those grades needed to be in by tomorrow. No, he hadn’t procrastinated on that, thank you.

His focus was interrupted as Nemuri sashayed over to his desk and hitched a hip on the corner of it. Toshinori paused mid check-mark, leaned back in his chair, and blinked in surprise at his coworker. The dark haired woman smiled and waggled her eyebrows, waving an envelope around in her hands. “I’d think an old pro like you would do better about getting fan mail sent to his agency and not the school!”

Toshinori focused on the mail, which Nemuri tossed in front of him. On top of the test he had been grading. It read: ‘To All Might, UA Academy,’ in a precise printed font. “Ah…”

Ken laughed from a few desks over, his cement like features creasing in a smile. “Like we have control over what our fans do. Didn’t a fan send you an inflatable doll with their own picture taped to the face of it to this office just last year?”

Hizashi had stood to join the conversation then, leaning over Toshinori’s computer. “Pretty sure I saw Nemuri move that in with the rest of her things to the teachers dorms.”

The woman flicked her hair with a coy laugh. “We all have our little fan gifts that we collect, Mic! Its not my fault they all send you headphones and earbuds.”

“Anyway,” Hizashi waved that off, “Do you still have an agency these days, Yagi? How does that work with retiring?”

Toshinori had picked up the mail. It’d been a while since he’d managed to receive something directly. It usually went to the mail room at Might Tower. He read some letters here and there as he could in his career, but All Might had received millions. “Might Agency still exists, for now. Finishing up the last of the hero related paperwork and required documentation. I’m working on transitioning it to a charity and R&D specific organization after that.”

Ken sounded inordinately pleased about that as he commented from his desk, “I’m glad to hear that. I don’t think anyone could hope to take over the Might Agency as a hero without severe backlash. Transitioning is likely the best way to go.”

Nemuri was impatient. “I’m sure that’s all lovely. Now open your mail, Yagi. I want to see what salacious things All Might’s fans write to him!”

Toshinori groaned. His staff did a great job of sorting those letters out and they usually didn’t make it to All Might’s desk. There was the one mail room worker who, after All Might had forgotten her name once, took great pleasure in slipping the wildest, most sexually explicit, fan letters on to his desk once a month in revenge. He was starting to blush now just thinking of it.

Still, with both Nemuri and Hizashi watching in avid expectation, Toshinori took a letter opener and neatly cut through the envelope to pull out the paper within. It was not in anyway what he expected. Someone had meticulously cut out words and letters from a variety of magazines and newspapers published in English. There was a small pile of glitter and confetti tucked into the creases

It read: ‘To All Might, you're my favorite hero. I love you like no other fan does! Retirement doesn’t change that. I know its your birthday this month. Consider this an invite to the best party you’ve ever had. Save the date! Love Always, your very biggest fan.’

The silence among the three of them at the desk stretched so long that even Ken stood up to join them. Finally Hizashi asked, “Is this one of those letters we put in the threat category, or not?”

Even Nemuri didn’t look quite so amused as she had. “If they would have just typed it, I’d call it the usual fan adulation and a weird way to say Happy Birthday. The pasted on words and letters though? Creepy.”

Toshinori found it equally creepy. However, being Japan’s #1 hero had brought out a lot of very creepy fan letters over the years. Really, he didn’t see most of them, but the ones his mail department had flagged as concerning or threats in the past were much creepier than this. “I’m sure its harmless,” he mused, “It’s not like they gave me a location for the invite to go to. Just a very strange birthday letter, I guess.”

Nemuri nodded, along with Hizashi. “You’re probably right. Hey, aren’t those test grades due tomorrow, Yagi?”

“Yes! That’s why I’m working on them!”

Next -->

[the-owl-tree]

Can't send asks to the OC blog, but I'm so curious about Pikesnap's and Saugerleap's deals and would love to hear more. Love me some political drama between siblings <3

Thank you so much for this ask because it made me realize I HAD NEVER TURNED ON ASKS ON THAT BLOG IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!! Not sure why they were off on default but blegh, they should be fixed now! (shameless plug go to @clansofthepantheon for more on these clans and characters.) Anyways, a mix of recap and new info-

Pikesnap and Saugerleap are the deputies of SerpentClan and the sons of Troutstar, the Clan's very elderly leader. They are the second litter of Troutstar and his mate, Lakeripple, with the first not surviving the fire that devastated the territories (one died in the actual fire, while the other two passed soon after due to smoke inhalation and lack of available of treatments). Pikesnap and Saugerleap were sired by Froghop, who later on retired during their apprenticeship (at most they know they were sired by her, there's no kinship here fyi). Lakeripple passed when during their mid-kithood, so the two don't have too many memories of their other father. Troutstar doesn't really talk about him until later on in their life, those early years were very painful for him.

SerpentClan is a hereditary monarchy, both Pikesnap and and Saugerleap were taught from birth that one of them would one day be overseeing the Clan as leader. For note: leaders/rulers in SerpentClan also oversee the religious duties instead of the Medicine Cats, in SerpentClan that term has been changed to "Physician". For rulers with larger litters, it's encouraged to have some litters take over as Physician, Hunting Head, Kitchen Head, or Champion (Overview on the ranks here). Since it was just the two of them, neither of them showing much aptitude as a Physician, Troutstar decided to focus their curriculum in preparing them both to take over as the Ruler of SerpentClan; similar to BoarClan with a focus on Deputyship as a trial period to find the best leader.

Troutstar was a lot stricter when they were apprentices, grilling them on politics, mediation, the art of diplomacy - something that affected the brothers in very different ways. While he's mellowed out and has tried to take a kinder more understanding approach, the damage is already done. Sooo, onto more character specifics:

Pikesnap (He/Him)

Being Troutstar's kid got to his head early on, especially with the special treatment he received. He had a mixed relationship with his father, especially with how distant Troutstar could be at first. He got along a lot more with his caretakers, a trio of cats that were specially chosen to help look after Pikekit and Saugerkit.

Him and Sauger would started to form a rift between them during their apprenticehood, when Pikepaw began excelling and Saugerpaw, well...he didn't really have an immediate talent for anything.

Pikepaw was apprenticed to Tanglelily, the Hunting Head of SerpentClan, with Troutstar believing that Tanglelily's more disciplined methods that they would be able to wrangle Pikepaw's ego. It was...to mixed results. Pikepaw got better at hiding his ego, but being apprenticed to a high ranking cat definitely inflated it lol

Pikesnap took the history of war and destruction to heart in that a Clan that would survive would be one that wouldn't be pushed around. He's a staunch believer in traditional SerpentClan isolationism but, unlike his father, has more of a taste for battle than his Clanmates.

He heard tales of MustangClan destroying three Clans and now was witnessing the destruction they'd left, and how CardinalClan barely managed to end the war with BoarClan in a truce. SerpentClan is not a Clan of fighters, he knows they'd be wiped out if their neighbors ever turned their claws on them.

His solution? The Clan needs to learn to defend itself, stake its claim and make it clear SerpentClan will not be pushed around.

As an apprentice, he excelled in combat training. Pikesnap's name was given due to his sheer physical ability, he was barely beaten out for the role of Champion by Stingtongue due to her stunt in luring a coyote away from the camp. The loss of the title burns at him to this day, he wanted that Champion clout sooooo badly lol

If he had been picked, he would've been a Champion of the God of the Hunt. Almost the War God but his focus on preservation lands himself in good favor with the God of the Hunt and Harvest.

Despite his loss of the Champion title, he's very popular with his Clanmates as a candidate for Ruler. It only fuels his aggressive tendencies later on, driving him further to double down on his "plans" for leadership

Does not get along with the other leader babies, he's got no respect for BoarClan and MustangClan. At most, he has a polite if shallow acquaintanceship with Cranegaze from CardinalClan. Outright looks down on CoyoteClan and doesn't give a shiiit about TempestClan lol

He and Duskclaw butt heads a lot, it almost getting physical the first time they met. So when a betrothal was proposed to maintain peace between them, he was overlooked by his father in favor of Saugerleap. He had mixed feelings on the matter, the respect that came with the choice gave Saugerleap a huge reputation boost in SerpentClan (he'd already been mending it when he finally hit his stride in his late apprenticeship).

Sooooo when later on Pikesnap discovered Saugerleap cuddling up to Jaycall, the BoarClan Healer, out on the territory edge, well...it was only right to do the right thing and tell everyone. Preferably at a Gathering, so everyone knew how honest he was.

The decision to make the announcement was mortifying for everyone involved, both Bearstar and Troutstar were furious, Duskclaw and Saugerleap were humiliated, and even SerpentClan was....mixed on the decision.

Airing out dirty laundry like that in front of everyone was a bad move, though Pikesnap wouldn't admit it...not at first anyways. Regardless, the damage was done, him and Saugerleap's relationship was done, and, inadvertently, he had levelled the playing field even more in terms of who Troutstar would pick as his successor.

Saugerleap (He/Him)

Saugerkit was not immune from the ego boost that came with being Troutstar's son. Getting three caretakers, an early curriculum, and commanding respect as a child tends to get to one's head after all. Unfortunately, unlike his brother, Saugerkit would quickly be humbled by an early self-discovery: he was a slow learner.

Sauger isn't dumb, he'd later go on to excel in diplomacy and the gift of gab, dude's got a fantastic grasp on how to talk to people. But getting down history, hunting techniques, and fighting? It just took him a little longer, it didn't help that his mentor, Sablepelt, wasn't the most patient cat.

Note: Sablepelt was the former Head of Hunting but retired early due to a temporary injury, he still commands quite a bit of respect in the Clan.

He got compared to his brother a lot, something that really tanked his self-confidence in those early apprentice days.

What gave him the boost was meeting other cats during Gatherings, Saugerpaw hit it off with the BoarClan "royal family" and became easy friends with Jaypaw, a Healer's Apprentice about a moon younger than him. Jaypaw, similarly, was a slow learner but definitively did not share Saugerpaw's hang ups about it.

Any progress for Jaypaw was celebrated, perks of having Too Much Mom Dawnstar as a parent lol she was also happy to celebrate his wins.

Having actual friends and connections did a lot of healing when it came to Saugerpaw's self-confidence issues and, eventually, lead him to firmly request a mentor change from Troutstar, who agreed. Saugerpaw was reassigned to the much mellower, much nicer, Grasstuft, a more laidback Warrior who Saugerpaw vibed with way more.

With a more laidback approach, Saugerpaw's confidence began to repair and he realized he was an excellent negotiator, quick to figure out weaknesses and tells from the other cat. He went from a nervous and meek apprentice to a sleek and confident cat, with a mellow air to him that made him approachable.

And...he also kept visiting Jaypaw, soon given his name Jaycall, at the border. Days turned to moons and friendship turned to more...then the betrothal came.

Saugerleap knew he was gay early on, always had, and just wasn't open about it. He's a private guy, info like that isn't something he's interested in sharing with the Clan. So when his father, a cat he wants to impress, approaches him for a very important role, Saugerleap has a lot of trouble saying no.

Besides, it's just Duskclaw and Duskclaw knows him, clearly she knows that they can make this work. So, quietly, he talks to her and an agreement is made: a public betrothal and the two of them would have their own quiet affairs in private. Duskclaw, not exactly thrilled at being used, agreed, she wasn't exactly interested in respecting the sanctity of her betrothal anyways.

The hard part was telling Jaycall. Unbeknownst to Saugerleap, Pikesnap catches them as they meet and greet and leaves before he can see the ensuing falling out when Saugerleap tells Jaycall.

I like the idea it's this big awakening where they reveal how differently they were raised, where Jaycall demands for Saugerleap to just say no, to tell his father it won't work and Saugerleap snaps that it doesn't work that way for him, that he doesn't have parents like Smokestar and Dawnstar. Teasing out the details but Saugerleap definitely ends it by calling Jaycall an immature child or something, storms off. Just some sort of dig.

Then Pikesnap exposes him at the gathering and for a brief moment, Saugerleap thinks his life is over. His reputation has been sank, he's barely on speaking terms with Jaycall, Duskclaw must hate him, his own brother has to hate him if he'd go this far to hurt him.

But...life isn't over. Jaycall's reputation is fine, Dawnstar was fierce to defend her son's choices. Duskclaw's relieved the betrothal was cancelled, and even Pikesnap seemed sheepish after everything that happened. His own father isn't even mad at him, just that the other Clans got dragged into it.

I think him and Troutstar have a chat moons later by the water, where Troutstar apologizes for using his son like that and Saugerleap lies and says he forgives him. He doesn't, but he's not going to tell that to a dying man.

He and Jaycall eventually do begin mending their relationship again and slowly, Saugerleap realizes he doesn't want his reckless brother in charge.

Later on Pikesnap becomes more aggressive, especially when TempestClan (which is renamed to something else and lead by Wolf) officially makes contact with the other Clans. The town cats are getting aggressive, Tinystar, the successor of Oxeyestar, is making firm demands on reparations for her Clan, and Pikesnap thinks that SerpentClan needs to bloody its claws going forward.

Saugerleap sees a future of death for his home and loved ones, so, with a bit of help from Jaycall, he sombrely gives his brother his last meal.

[chussyracing]

What has been happening in the world of motorsports lately?

Alpine signed Franco Colapinto as a reserve driver on multiple year basis, his manager said in an interview that it is a 5 years long contract

Arthur Leclerc will be driving in 24 hours of Daytona with AF Corse number 50

Andy Cowell becomes team principal of Aston Martin adding to his role of CEO as Mike Krack moves to the trackside team

Haas is currently testing in Jerez in Spain with previous cars (Ollie and Este for Haas and Ritomo Miyata as a part of Toyota)

Toyota also said that they would like to return to F1 full time (just not right now, but it is a first step)

Romain Grosjean became Prema’s reserve in Indycar

Ben Sulayem criticised British media about how they speak about him and against Saudi Arabia and that British GP is sponsored by Qatar Airways which could retract the sponsorship and the money

FIA raised the 2026 cost cap due to inflation, more costs falling under the cost cap and also different technical rules (btw Audi will have different one as the costs in Switzerland are significantly higher)

Alex Dunne became McLaren FE team’s reserve driver

Felipe Drugovich extended his reserve driver contract with Aston

Hot Wheels produced Red Bull car which should bet he first of all teams with their F1 partnership (also the first Lego sets in partnership with F1 are already out too)

Charles sat down for Open Mind (interview??), became the face of latest issue of Sportweek, promoted Peroni, went winter training with his boytoys and then gave an interview to Goodwood

Lewis also has been skiing a bit, Carlos was cycling and Nando was… training his neck. Of course he was.

For some reason. Everyone went to a hairstylist. Pierre and Jack are bald. Oscar used a comb and exposed his hairline and now apparently George also cut his hair

Ollie opened the Autosport International

Guanyu won Weibo’s sport personality of the year

Checo’s dad thanked Red Bull for his time with the team while reports appeared that he would take some time off F1 before deciding on his future

Valentino Rossi will be driving for WRT in WEC this year

Racing Bulls signed a partnership with AI company called Dynatrace

For this year, FIA capped the testing time to 1000 hours of TPC (previous cars) and Ferrari decided to gave them all to Lewis to help him settle in the team

Will Buxton and James Hindcliffe (how do you even spell these names rip) will become part of Indycar’s Broadcasting from this season onwards

and some gossip/interesting facts from my comms under the cut

They were asked on drivers and PR and how they are in real life (which let’s be real nobody knows) and said Jenson Button was very unpleasant, Lance is sometimes pretty rude but only if they approach him as media (when they later met him without the TV’s badge on, he was nice to them), and Lando changed a lot since the year he came into F1 (he will now smile for the cameras and answer their questions for media but once the cameras go off he is really arogant)

Lewis already visited Maranello informally but his formal visit is still waiting

There was 70 less overtakes in 2024 than in 2023 despite there being 2 more races and this year’s Monaco only contained 7 overtakes

2025 F1 grid is made of 8 of 20 drivers affiliated to red bull (despite no longer featuring Sergio, Seb and Daniel): Max, Liam, Yuki, Isack, Alex, Carlos, Pierre, Jack

Despite Zak’s complaints about Red Bull and VCARB working together, the relationship between Ferrari and Haas is much closer

There is a rumour about Max’s and Zandvoort‘s contracts being interlinked somehow, so there is are whispers about him retiring sooner than in 2028 when his contract runs out

Lando’s number one mechanic Marc Cox who left to Extreme E for some time is now coming back as a part of Aston Martin’s crew

Hadjar said he knew about his promotion to F1 since midseason, just didn’t know which seat

There is another rumour about Carlos already looking for a seat outside of Williams

Yuki had offers from Sauber, Alpine and Haas but Red Bull blocked all of them

If anyone on red bull team (and junior team) doesn’t perform well, they are preparing Arvid Lindblad to potentially step up into F1 (the superlicence age change was rumouredly for him because he will only turn 18 later this year and because Marko thinks he is the new Verstappen)

Kimi did 9000 kms of testing with Merc which is about 30 race distances (it is huge number for the new era of F1 but back when testing wasn’t regulated, Lewis did 30k before his debut in MCL)

Newbies get more strict contracts but they get easier as they drive for the team longer – you won’t see rookies posting about skiing or skydiving but you sure will see Lewis or Lance do that (also apparently one of the first things that gets blacklisted first is horseriding lol)

binotto is mad that sauber factory is in terrible condition: they had no people, no methods, the wind tunnel is kinda okay but they have no capacity and knowhow to use it effectively

Ferrari and Mercedes are best prepared for 2026 so far because the new regulations are focused on the engines a lot („if i had to say numbers it is like 60% for Ferrari and 40% for Merc“)

There is unwritten rule that if a driver uses a scooter they do not want you to stop them for media duties and fresh batch of questions

and personal admission: i just discovered today that charles' and pierre's photographers are brothers 💀

[megacross-ground-zero-rated-r]

Oh, interesting. The FNAF books include a plotline where Springtrap intentionally springlocked himself. Didn't know that when I wrote something similar myself as part of a fake backstory he gives. Haven't looked into the specifics of the book plotine yet.

One consistent trait that I always give various versions of William is that he looooooves lying. And even my more sympathetic version in Fazbear Fault Lines who's backed into corners where he's forced to lie constantly, he still feels immense satisfaction at pulling off a big lie.

Megacross Springtrap has this big, grand story about being a manager / engineer / the sole performer for Spring Bonnie at Fredbear's in which he paints himself as another victim of the predatory company. He slowly watched everything fall apart, including the Springlock Suits because he couldn't get enough parts ordered for them. He gave the parts he did have to Fredbear, putting himself at risk of being crushed to death so other people would have a safe suit.

Sunk cost fallacy, pride, and a lot of other factors lead him to stay, then come up with a plan.

Long story short he tries to fake a Springlock incident "mangling his arm" to force Fazbear to stop using these specific suits as mascot costumes and it ends horribly. Not even retire them period or sue for damages, just stop making people climb into these deathtraps. "That's all I wanted, to keep people safe," and he killed one other person and got Springlocked for it.

Fazbear discovers this plan and fakes a manifesto that paints him as delusional while he's drugged into a coma, attempting to achieve Godhood by fusing metal and flesh. Megacross Springtrap's tone talking about this is quite incredulous, but he admits it was a genius move on their part to smear him: People would much rather believe one guy just lost it and crunched himself over the grim reality of how much Fazbear has been covering up. The community turns on him because of the manifesto and the tragic death of the person who tried to pull the Springlocks open.

Now I don't think it's a bad thing to have William be a remorseless killer AND a mad scientist. He can contain multitudes. The fact he was confident he understood remnant enough to rely on it saving him despite his paralyzing fear of death CAN provide a lot of interesting possibilities.

One way I can think of off the top of my head is his experiments always fail miserably, but his ego is so inflated, he cannot accept the idea of ever making a mistake, that he always rewrites his hypothesis to match what the data shows. He does this again and again but never takes the leap of faith in his own intelligence because some part of him knows how little he really understands. Then his hand gets forced, possibly by the threat of being jailed for his unethical experiments.

IDK just thought it was an interesting coincidence.

[mayakern]

Whenever I see you respond to someone who is like "oh I missed out on a my fav skirt and it won't be restocked :((( any chance it'll be restocked?" I would kinda wonder if you would find it annoying. But reading through your asks and realizing that this is a way of gathering information for business decisions has made me feel a lot better about inquiring about retired designs, especially since you mention how the more people are being vocal the more chances there are of bringing the designs back from the dead sometimes haha

it used to be pretty overwhelming, but for the most part making the skirt design has helped make it more manageable

part of what makes it overwhelming tho is having the majority of it be anon asks. sometimes publishing and ask asking about a certain design is good because i can gauge like the number of likes and whatever comments it gets as part of my metrics, but anon is difficult. i can’t really take those requests at face value because someone could be inflating demand by sending multiple asks. plus, i already take up a lot of dash space for a lot of people and i don’t want to be obnoxious (too late, i know). 😅

so honestly one of the best things you can do is if you see a post about a design you’re interested in, comments/reblogs are really helpful, especially because it helps to organize things in a more condensed location.

anyway here’s the obligatory link to the skirt design tracker.

[trulybetty]

dec' 10 x sleigh ride

Prompt: sleigh ride Pairing: dieter x reader Word Count: 690 Warnings: corporate parties, obnoxious yachts, seasickness, butchering of the bubble dialogue & a brief mention of alcohol Summary: parties on yachts, whose big idea was that? AO3: Linked

x. masterlist

“Dieter!” you cried, “Hold my hair!”

The cool sea breeze did little to ease your churning stomach as you leaned over the rail of the yacht, now festively adorned as 'Santa's Sleigh' for the industry party you’d found yourself at.

The yacht, a vessel of opulence, was adorned with twinkling lights draped on every available surface. Garlands of holly and mistletoe hung from the rails, and a gigantic, inflatable Rudolph with a glowing red nose bobbed at the bow. Even the captain of the boat had gotten in on the act fully dressed as Santa as he guided the ‘sleigh’ off the waters around Marina del Rey. 

Dieter, ever the dramatic presence, stood by your side, his hands gently holding your hair back at your request.

The party around you was in full swing. Executives, actors, and various luminaries of the film industry mingled on the deck, drinks garnished with candy canes and holly, their laughter and chatter a stark contrast to your current predicament.

Dieter gently rubbed your back and the irony wasn't lost on you; Dieter Bravo, the man known for his theatrics, especially when hungover or sick, was now in the role of caretaker. Of that, the caretaker of you, the film producer and his girlfriend, who usually had everything under control.

“You know,” Dieter said, a small smile playing on his lips, “I always thought my hands were destined for holding Oscars, not hair.”

You chuckled, grateful for the distraction. “Well, consider this a new role for you,” you quipped as you tried to take in a deep breath.

As the waves calmed somewhat, so did your stomach, and you managed to straighten up, feeling a bit more like yourself. Dieter handed you a bottle of water, his gaze lingering with genuine concern.

“Thank you,” you took a long sip, “trust me to find out I have seasickness on the one major industry event of the holidays,” you mumbled, trying to find humour in your misery.

Dieter chuckled softly, his deep voice warm against the slight chill of the ocean air. “Well, it's not like you’re hanging out on boats every day, is it?”

His words brought a small smile to your lips. Despite his on-screen persona, Dieter could be surprisingly grounded at times. 

You laughed, “Well, there goes my retirement plans.”

“You okay now?” Dieter asked, concern lacing his words.

“Yeah, I think so,” you replied, taking another sip of water. 

You glanced back at the party, where the festive atmosphere continued unabated.

“You know, I think I make a good nurse.” He mused as you turned and raised an eyebrow at him, “What? Who wouldn't want to be nursed back to health by me?” he asked in mock offence at your wordless response.

"Maybe someone who wants actual medical attention," you replied teasingly.

“Oh, I don't know,” his voice lowered as he stepped closer to you, and you instinctively leaned into him, “I have ways of making people feel better that medicine can't touch, some might say I have a healing touch.”

Your laughter, light and genuine, cut through the cool air, a sound that seemed to bring relief to Dieter's expression. It was a welcome change from your earlier nausea, and his smile broadened, glad to see you feeling better.

He pulled you against his chest, dropping a kiss to the top of your head, “I'll have you know I have impeccable bedside manners.”

A mischievous glint danced in his eyes as he leaned down to whisper in your ear, “In fact, I could show you just how good my bedside manners are if you'd like.”

Before you could respond the moment was interrupted by a burst of laughter from the party, a reminder of the festivities happening just a few steps away. 

You patted his chest with a sigh, “Maybe once we dock Nurse Bravo, we should head back.”

Dieter offered his arm, a gentlemanly gesture. “Shall we? Do a few laps and feign interest in the name of schmoozing?”

You nodded, smiling in appreciation as you hooked your arm through his and allowed him to lead you back to the party.

[fuzileirotrader]

Retirement with Bitcoin

Introduction to Bitcoin Retirement Planning

The concept of planning for retirement with Bitcoin involves using cryptocurrencies as a means to secure one's financial future. Bitcoin, known for its volatility, offers both opportunities and challenges when considered as part of a retirement portfolio. Here's a detailed exploration of how one might approach retirement with Bitcoin:

Understanding Bitcoin's Role in Retirement

Volatility: Bitcoin is known for significant price swings. While this can lead to substantial gains, it also poses a risk of substantial losses, making it a high-risk component in a retirement strategy.

Long-term Appreciation: Despite its volatility, Bitcoin has shown a tendency for long-term appreciation. Some analysts predict it could reach new highs in the coming years, suggesting that early investments might mature into significant nest eggs.

Decentralization and Security: Bitcoin operates on a decentralized blockchain, offering security against traditional financial system failures or inflation. However, this also means you are responsible for your own security - losing access to your wallet could mean losing your retirement savings.

Calculating How Much Bitcoin You'll Need

Cost of Living: Start by estimating your annual living expenses in your retirement years. This includes housing, food, healthcare, and leisure, potentially adjusted for inflation.

Bitcoin's Current and Projected Value: With Bitcoin's price at around R$ 652,431.96 (as of the last known data), and considering optimistic projections where it might reach values between US$ 99,926.37 and US$ 200,000 by the end of 2025, you can estimate how much Bitcoin you'd need.

Simple Lifestyle: If you need R$ 100,000 annually, you would need about 0.15 BTC per year at today's price. For 30 years of retirement, this would be roughly 4.5 BTC.

Luxurious or Family Lifestyle: For an annual budget of R$ 300,000, you'd need about 0.46 BTC per year, totaling around 13.8 BTC for 30 years.

Strategies for Accumulating Bitcoin for Retirement

Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA): Invest a fixed amount in Bitcoin regularly, regardless of its price, to average out the cost over time.

Diversification: While Bitcoin might be part of your strategy, diversifying with other assets like stocks, bonds, or real estate can mitigate risk.

Security Measures: Use hardware wallets to store your Bitcoin securely. Regularly update security practices as technology evolves.

Risks and Considerations

Market Fluctuations: Bitcoin's price can plummet, affecting your retirement funds.

Regulatory Changes: Future regulations could impact how Bitcoin is taxed, used, or even if it remains legal to own.

Liquidity: Converting Bitcoin back to fiat currency might not always be straightforward or without loss, especially if you need funds urgently.

Conclusion

Retiring with Bitcoin involves a speculative gamble on the future of cryptocurrency. While it could lead to a prosperous retirement if Bitcoin continues to appreciate, it also requires a careful strategy to manage risk. Regular reassessment of your investment strategy, understanding the cryptocurrency market, and perhaps most importantly, ensuring you have other forms of income or savings to fall back on, are all crucial steps.

In essence, Bitcoin retirement planning is not for the faint-hearted but can be rewarding for those who are well-informed and vigilant about their investments.

[superex-media]

U.S. Vice President Vance’s Speech at Bitcoin Conference：A Signal from the White House—Bitcoin Is No Longer Fighting Alone

#Trump #US #BTC

At the “Bitcoin 2025 Conference” in Las Vegas, U.S. Vice President JD Vance stepped onto the stage and lit up the entire crypto community with his very first sentence:“I told the Secret Service, Bitcoiners love their guns — but they love the President and Vice President even more.”

A humorous yet weighty opening — not a generic political speech, but a clear stance: the Vice President stands with Bitcoin.

This is no ordinary political address, and this isn’t just a tech summit. This is a signal. The people’s movement behind Bitcoin has reached the doors of national power — and even walked in.

JD Vance’s speech was unlike any traditional politician’s. He wasn’t selling campaign slogans. He was showing up with action:“Under the Trump administration, crypto finally has an ally in the White House.”

In other words, Vance laid out the Trump administration’s full backing of crypto and echoed the core sentiment of everyone in the space:“We don’t oppose regulation — we want clear rules, transparent enforcement, and at the very least, respect.”This marks a full-scale elevation of crypto’s position within the U.S.

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Bitcoin: A Tool to Resist Rotten Power

Bitcoin isn’t just a number — it’s a real hedge:A hedge against inflation, against banking discrimination, against government overreach.

Vance noted that today’s crypto tech is no longer just financial toys — it’s changing the real lives of tens of millions of Americans. He cited use cases in supply chains, hospitals, and privacy data management. Blockchain has moved beyond theory — it’s becoming practical infrastructure. Bitcoin is emerging as the strongest symbol of financial sovereignty.

JD Vance’s stance represents the broader stance of the Trump administration. And in this speech, we saw not just attitude, but action. Let’s break it down.

Deep Dive into Vance’s Speech: The Three Pillars of Crypto Policy

If we had to choose three words to summarize this speech, they wouldn’t be “regulate” or “enforce” — they would be support, freedom, and belonging. He even called the Bitcoin community “a place where I belong.”

The speech revolved around three core pillars of crypto policy:

Regulatory Rollback

Stablecoin Legislation

Crypto Market Structure Reform

Let’s unpack each of them — along with the political background, legal implications, and real impact on the crypto ecosystem.

1. Regulatory Rollback: Ending Hostile Oversight, Restoring Investment Freedom

“Your investment choices shouldn’t be decided in Washington.” — JD Vance

This might have been the most powerful line of the whole speech. Vance openly criticized the Biden administration’s Labor Department for restricting crypto in retirement portfolios and declared, “We will end all of that.”

During Biden’s term, the DOL had issued guidance discouraging crypto exposure in retirement plans, citing volatility and unsuitability for long-term savings. Republicans have repeatedly opposed this, arguing it infringes on individual financial freedom.

Vance said clearly: Crypto assets should be viewed as a legitimate part of a modern investment portfolio.“When the government tells you not to invest in Bitcoin, what they’re really saying is: ‘We know better than you how to plan your future.’ That’s arrogance.”

Analysis:

This isn’t about deregulating crypto into chaos — it’s about pulling back top-down controls and allowing markets to function freely.

For users, this could mean easier access to BTC/ETH via ETFs and IRAs.

For institutions, it helps lower compliance uncertainty — removing a key barrier to large-scale capital entry.

2. Stablecoin Legislation: Championing the ‘Genius Act’ to Cement the Dollar’s On-Chain Status

“We must secure the dollar’s leadership in the age of digital money — not just stand by and watch.” — JD Vance

Vance strongly endorsed the Republican-led Genius Act, aimed at regulating and legalizing U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins. He argued that the Act would end the current regulatory ambiguity and officially authorize the issuance and use of dollar-backed stablecoins.

He pointed out the current issue: stablecoins like USDT and USDC are widely used, but lack clear legal status and suffer from fragmented oversight.This, he warned, threatens the U.S. “digital monetary sovereignty.”

Analysis:

This legislative push is targeting what is arguably the most central, critical, and sensitive sector in crypto finance: stablecoins. Stablecoins have become the lifeblood of DeFi ecosystems, exchange settlements, and on-chain payments. Yet due to a regulatory vacuum, the industry has long operated in a “legal but non-compliant” grey area.

The advancement of the Genius Act means that the on-chain dollar will soon receive federal-level recognition. This not only boosts the credibility of stablecoins, but could also pave the way for traditional payment providers, commercial banks, and retail e-commerce platforms to enter the stablecoin market.This marks a pivotal step toward the mainstream institutionalization of crypto finance.

3. Market Structure Reform: Defining the Legal Status of Tokens

“We need clear lines: what’s a security, what’s not; what’s under CFTC, what’s under SEC.” — JD Vance

Vance closed by discussing long-term crypto market structure reform — a complicated but necessary project. Right now, the SEC and CFTC divide crypto oversight, but with wildly different standards.

The SEC uses the Howey Test to classify many tokens as unregistered securities (leading to lawsuits like Ripple and Coinbase), while the CFTC treats tokens as commodities and focuses on market conduct.

Vance called for:

A Digital Asset Classification Standard

Clear regulatory boundaries

A push for compliant token registration

Sandbox programs to encourage innovation

Analysis:

The core issue in the current U.S. crypto market is that “no one knows who to listen to.” This fragmented regulatory environment not only discourages entrepreneurs but also hinders institutional capital from making allocation decisions. The “Market Structure Act” proposed by Vance is essentially about laying a compliance foundation for digital assets — on the level of regulatory infrastructure.

If these reforms move forward as planned, we’re likely to see a clear division of responsibilities: the SEC would oversee the issuance and disclosure of security tokens, the CFTC would regulate derivatives and trading markets, and the U.S. Treasury Department would focus on stablecoins, anti-money laundering, and payment settlements.

In this way, crypto companies would no longer have to deal with three federal agencies simultaneously, and could instead understand their regulatory classification and compliance boundaries with clarity.

This also means that centralized exchanges, DeFi protocols, and on-chain payment platforms would, for the first time, be brought under a coherent and structured regulatory framework — paving the way for a full-fledged legal infrastructure for the crypto industry.

Conclusion: A New Era of U.S. Crypto Policy

Vance’s speech sends three powerful signals to the crypto world:

We are not your enemy;

We want to write rules with you;

We welcome your legal development in the U.S.

These three pillars — regulatory rollback, stablecoin legislation, market structure reform — don’t just answer the policy pains of the last three years. They lay a clear roadmap for crypto over the next decade.

From Bitcoin holders to DeFi builders, everyone in this ecosystem just gained a new shot at legal legitimacy. The Trump administration is shifting from strategic tolerance to strategic support — and that could reshape global crypto capital flows for years to come.

[xettle-technologies]

How Can Financial Literacy and Education Empower Individuals and Businesses?

In an increasingly complex financial world, financial literacy and education have become essential tools for both individuals and businesses. They serve as the foundation for informed decision-making, effective money management, and long-term financial stability. By understanding financial concepts and leveraging modern tools, people and organizations can optimize their resources and achieve their goals more efficiently. The inclusion of technology solutions in this journey has further amplified the impact of financial literacy, making it accessible and actionable for all.

Why Financial Literacy and Education Matter

Financial literacy refers to the ability to understand and effectively use financial skills, including budgeting, investing, and managing debt. Education in these areas empowers individuals to take control of their finances, reduce financial stress, and build wealth over time. For businesses, financial literacy is equally critical, as it enables owners and managers to make data-driven decisions, manage cash flow effectively, and ensure compliance with financial regulations.

Without adequate financial knowledge, individuals are more likely to fall into debt traps, struggle with saving, and make poor investment choices. Similarly, businesses lacking financial literacy may face challenges in budgeting, forecasting, and maintaining profitability. Therefore, a solid foundation in financial concepts is indispensable for long-term success.

The Role of Technology in Financial Literacy

Modern technology solutions have revolutionized the way financial literacy is imparted and practiced. From online courses and mobile apps to AI-driven financial advisors, technology has made financial education more engaging and accessible. These tools provide real-time insights, personalized recommendations, and interactive learning experiences that cater to diverse needs and skill levels.

For example, budgeting apps like Mint and YNAB (You Need a Budget) help individuals track expenses, set financial goals, and stay accountable. Similarly, platforms like Khan Academy and Coursera offer free and paid courses on financial literacy topics, ranging from basic budgeting to advanced investment strategies. Businesses can benefit from specialized tools like QuickBooks for accounting or Tableau for financial data visualization, enabling them to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.

Empowering Individuals Through Financial Literacy

Better Money Management: Financial literacy equips individuals with the skills to create and maintain budgets, prioritize expenses, and save for future goals. Understanding concepts like compound interest and inflation helps people make smarter choices about saving and investing.

Debt Reduction: Education about interest rates, repayment strategies, and credit scores empowers individuals to manage and reduce debt effectively. This knowledge also helps them avoid predatory lending practices.

Investment Confidence: Many people shy away from investing due to a lack of knowledge. Financial literacy programs demystify investment concepts, enabling individuals to grow their wealth through informed choices in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other assets.

Enhanced Financial Security: By understanding insurance, retirement planning, and emergency funds, individuals can safeguard their financial future against unexpected events.

Empowering Businesses Through Financial Literacy

Effective Budgeting and Forecasting: Businesses with strong financial literacy can create realistic budgets, forecast revenues and expenses accurately, and allocate resources efficiently. This minimizes waste and maximizes profitability.

Improved Cash Flow Management: Understanding cash flow dynamics helps businesses avoid liquidity crises and maintain operational stability. Tools like cash flow statements and projections are invaluable for this purpose.

Informed Decision-Making: Financially literate business leaders can evaluate the costs and benefits of various opportunities, such as expanding operations, launching new products, or securing funding. This leads to more sustainable growth.

Regulatory Compliance: Knowledge of financial regulations and tax laws ensures that businesses remain compliant, avoiding penalties and fostering trust with stakeholders.

The Role of Xettle Technologies in Financial Empowerment

One standout example of a technology solution driving financial empowerment is Xettle Technologies. The platform offers innovative tools designed to simplify financial management for both individuals and businesses. With features like automated budgeting, real-time analytics, and AI-driven financial advice, Xettle Technologies bridges the gap between financial literacy and actionable solutions. By providing users with practical insights and easy-to-use tools, the platform empowers them to make smarter financial decisions and achieve their goals efficiently.

Strategies to Improve Financial Literacy and Education

Leverage Technology: Use apps, online courses, and virtual simulations to make learning interactive and accessible. Gamified learning experiences can also boost engagement.

Community Programs: Governments and non-profits can play a vital role by offering workshops, seminars, and resources focused on financial literacy.

Integrate Financial Education in Schools: Introducing financial literacy as part of school curriculums ensures that young people develop essential skills early on.

Encourage Workplace Learning: Businesses can offer financial literacy programs for employees, helping them manage personal finances better and increasing overall workplace satisfaction.

Seek Professional Guidance: For complex financial decisions, consulting financial advisors or using platforms like Xettle Technologies can provide tailored guidance.

Conclusion

Financial literacy and education are powerful tools for individuals and businesses alike, enabling them to navigate the financial landscape with confidence and competence. With the integration of technology solutions, learning about and managing finances has become more accessible than ever. By investing in financial education and leveraging modern tools, people and organizations can achieve stability, growth, and long-term success. Whether through personal budgeting apps or comprehensive platforms like Xettle Technologies, the journey to financial empowerment is now within reach for everyone.