#i hate monopolies why is this the only power company in the city it's so shite and people always complain about it

[arctic-hands]

...it should NOT be this hard to get in touch with your power company wtf

[reushq]

January 2130. Pandora Independent reporting from Olympe on the first day of the festivities.

Dear mortals: if you’re lucky enough to have a residence in Olympe, this article is not for you—go count your diamond hoards and let us mortals indulge vicariously. You are already familiar with its new year celebrations: the infamous, swanky, one-step-short-of-decadent Heteraidia. Once you’ve seen the festival, you know it borders on indescribable. For the rest of Gaia, however, the Heteraidia is phantasmagoria. It’s the thing we love to talk about only slightly less than we love to hate. At the beginning of each year, while Arcadia runs its decorous Saturnalia, while Pontius tries to revolutionize the Vernal calendar, Olympe shows the rest of us how to live. And, as always, we can’t do anything but watch.

The annual festival dwarfs a continent in both light and information, and has done so since Zeus came to power. We often know more about it than about what happens in our own sorry, meager backyards. And why wouldn’t we be there, in soul if not in body? Who hasn’t dreamed of attending it? As with anything Olympe produces, it is the very synthesis of dreams. A two-week extravaganza where prizes are won and empires are lost—often before the clock strikes twice? A period of grace where the domain opens to performers, entertainers, politicians, and merchants from all over the world, no questions asked? A window of opportunity, a feast of wonders, a touch of Eden? Of course.

The Rheas sing, and we teeter to the tune. Those clever pipers might even make us believe they’ll lead us to paradise while we dangle off the precipice. And the metaphor holds true, dear sad mortals. To have a catbird seat during Heteraidia is to knock on the vaults of heaven. It’s no coincidence, then, that Zeus chose it as a celebration in his honour. Yes, that’s right: the first day of the year is the date the patriarch chose for his birthday. Fictional, as all orphan birthdays are; but quite appropriate, as far as fiction goes. For is he not the man holding the keychain? Our demiurge, our concierge, our intermediary to Fate has spoken. Step into the city, and you too can taste immortality. He will throw open the door. The light is his, as is the sky.

So let’s step in, damn it. Who cares about anything else, when the Rheas are taking the stage? It’s their world, and we’re just living in it. For the next two weeks, we will set up shop in Olympe. Undercover, of course, as all good little shades should be. Tartarus doesn’t have a monopoly on the hush-hush. Besides, this year is extra special. This time, Zeus extends an invitation to his brothers and their companies - a reunion, of sorts, though one so steeped in publicity it’s hard to see their mouths move. I am sure it has nothing to do with the dangerous rumours threatening to stain the narrative. Family’s family, dear mortals, and it doesn’t do to be apart for so long. 

In this first edition, we present to you the main attractions Olympe put on display. But have no fear—we haven’t forgotten the human interest of this story. We have scattered a few famous (or is it infamous, these days?) personalities through the reportage, so you can keep up on their whereabouts. If they seem like they’re behaving themselves, don’t be too disappointed. This is just the first few days. New year, new ways for the fire to catch. Look out for the strained smiles and touch-too-tight handshakes. Look out for the exchanged notes, a shorthand for quid pro quo. Look out for old flames and jilted lovers. Above all, look out for the past. And if you see anything oddly red on the floor? Remember: it’s only spilled wine. No such thing as wounds in heaven. 

THE AGORA

At the center of Olympe lies the marketplace, a thrumming hub in which vendors from all across the continent may bring their wares. More than that, it’s an opportunity for local Olympians to show off, displaying all the most impressive innovations in tech augmentation and luxury goods. Don’t forget the commodification of belief, with miniature replicas of the Naos temple handmade in Arcadia, just oh so perfect for your home shrines to Chaos.  Olympe is a generous king, and happy to sell whatever vendors bring: you can find jewelry carved from the onyx and carnelian found in abundance in Tartarus, or pressed-silk textiles from the Aegean archipelago. There are even some from the lands beyond Gaia, if your curiosity takes you that far. Artifacts of dubious origin—and absolutely lethal prices—litter the stalls. But perhaps your interests are homebound… and practical. If the latest tech catches your eye more than some dusty scroll, make sure not to tip over. I already caught some visitors nosing about for trade secrets. Fascination is never innocent, dear mortals, when there’s an arms race for the future. 

SPOTTED: Charon, Patroclus, Sisyphus, Hephaestus, Alecto & Theseus prowling the square. They all seem to be looking for intel on what has got Olympe talking in the new year. Don’t be surprised if you turn a corner and bump into Tartarus’s own financial fixer, poking a portable device with a faint confusion. At the opposite end, we have those exhilarated to cross cultural borders: just look at Patroclus grilling an inventor on their nanotechnology, while his assistant Sisyphus takes dutiful notes. Same thing can be said about wayward Styx employees, whose arms are either overflowing with jewellery (we see you, Theseus)—or with stolen secrets (Heph, who’s number is that?). If Pontius’ or Tartarus’ next update looks suspiciously similar to something on display this winter, it has to be a coincidence, right?

THE AEGIS STAGE 

Next to the Marketplace is the Aegis Stage—a constant staple in Olympe that is usually reserved for only the most prestigious and popular acts, such as the concerts put on by Orpheus, or stage plays put on by the twins at Delos Film Studios. While exact details of the performance schedules are kept under wraps until the day-of to build excitement, the stage is set to be buzzing all week long. After the larger acts, groups of performers from all over Gaia take turns playing music and putting on shows—it is a long-standing rule of the festival that not a minute should go by unentertained. The intervals between have been filled to saturation with performers: aerialists and their silk ribbons, fire-breathers, sword swallowers, cyber illusionists all strut about the grounds. When humans errr, the machines are ready to pick up. Holographic peacocks and swans float in and out of view, with projectors keeping the sky in ever changing colours. Renewable fountains & vending bars make sure the alcohol is as inexhaustible as air. Though far more necessary, I’d bet. 

SPOTTED: Orpheus, Apollo, Artemis, Zagreus, Eurydice & Dusa visible in the crowds. Half the draw of an afternoon at the Aegis is the surprise appearances of the Rhea twins, so no one could expect them to be anywhere else. The next headliner is their buddy Orpheus, who has recently gone from ‘up and coming’ to ‘up and down’. There’ll be memorable moments in store, and not just on the stage proper. With the influx of out-of-town VIPs, there should be more celebutante-spotting than ever before. Get out your Rhea bingo cards: is that Zeus’ handsomely troubled nephew causing a scene, his enabling coterie in tow? Or is it the twins, launching invites to private meetings with a wave and a smile? Zeus has never been shy about showing off those more dazzling members of his collected talents, and anyone worth the airspace is likely to be schmoozed by one Nemean representative over the course of the week’s festivities.

THE CALYDON HUNT 

Further from the maddening crowds, a section of dense woodlands has been roped off for The Hunt. This event has been pulled straight from Gaian history and heritage—but its sensibilities are purely modern. Instead of barbaric animal injury, swift-moving machines have taken over the forest. The space has been overlaid with lifelike holograms of exotic fauna, while an AI-powered perimeter keeps any real creatures from wandering into the line of fire. The simulated hunt opens with a cannonball shot at sundown on the first evening of the festival, after which time guests are given free rein to a selection of hunting tools programmed to only go off within the confines of the arena. The forested stadium remains open to revellers until the final afternoon, when those with the most impressive catches are awarded prizes in a ceremony held on the Aegis stage. For the competitive guest, the Hunt is a highlight of the week, an opportunity to blow off steam between cocktails and small-talk–not to mention, a chance at bragging rights for the rest of the year. There’s a tactical angle here, dear mortals. The event reaches the far edge of Olympe, right where the Calydon Dome has its headquarters. I wouldn’t be surprised if curious tourists were to prowl for a peek at what makes Olympe invincible—or to test whether the stories hold true. 

SPOTTED: Mino, Megara, Tisiphone, Achilles, Prometheus, Thanatos & Ares haunting the woods. I cannot tell whether they are running a check on the wildlife… or preparing damage control on the wilder members of the Tartarus entourage. Regardless, I’d recommend staying out of their path–and their sight lines. Whatever they’re scouring for, it’s not pretty; and I doubt they want to be seen. Rumour has it that security will be tighter than ever this year, so defence expert Ares is kept quite busy securing the perimeter against the lost and curious alike. The last thing he needs is more trespassers; he already had to shoo Prometheus away twice. Worst of all, someone on the team didn’t get the memo about letting the Tartarus retinue into the hunting lodge, and they’ve been wrecking enough hell for the whole season. Between picking out their weapons and waging competitions, their sport looks endearingly innocuous. But we know no one born in Tartarus is ever harmless. Sure as anything, they’re sizing up Olympe’s defences. I wonder what use they think their little stunt has. Zeus has never waged an attack with machines and steel. Have we not established it already? His weapon is dreams.

THE NEMEAN HALL

Only the luckiest guests get invited into Nemean Hall, the formal gathering spot for the Rheas and their associates within the Nemean News tower. In contrast to the sleek, modern stylings of the company it’s named for, Nemean Hall is a step into a more gilded past, closer to the crystalline fortress of Xenios than your typical conference room. This is the space Zeus’ corporation takes guests when they want to make a statement. Indeed, it’s impossible to forget where you are - or who you’re with - while you’re there. Standing under the hall’s impressive ceiling, you might be fooled to think you’re on top of the world. Don’t worry about it: the result of your business meeting will quickly do away with that feeling. During the celebration, the News headquarters became a nursery room for propaganda. Waiters patrol the area with trays of hors d’ouevres, while NDA’s are passed out by associates like after-dinner mints. There’s formal seating for those who wish to sit and dine, but most guests prefer to mingle–understandable, considering it’s the networking event of the year, a veritable who’s-who of Olympe’s most powerful individuals. It’s said that as the party rages outside, the real event of the season is what happens behind the hall’s heavily-adorned doors. 

SPOTTED: Athena, Icarus, Aphrodite, Ariadne, Hypnos, Hermes & Dionysus working late into the night. Whether they are touting new ideas or tailoring brand optics, they may be the only ones mixing business with pleasure right now. Between press statements and contract arrangements, the crew makes sure that none of their families—or enterprises—will be left out in the cold. You and I both know, mortals: there ain’t no sunlight like the public’s love. If you stumble upon them, you’ll see how quickly publicity shots are set up—and liquid shots are thrown back. You need some Ambrosia courage, after all, when you have to mingle with so many politicians and financiers. It isn’t easy, being the poster children for inter-realm amity. A funny way of keeping the peace, if you ask me. What’s the final cost, when so many white lies have to go into sealing it?

THE XENIOS ESTATE

The Xenios gardens are labyrinthine, luxurious and immaculately maintained. Some council members of the Arcadian Quorum can be found lounging here amid the rose bushes, if you get close enough. Their purpose is just the same, after all: useless and decorative. It’s said that the house is even more divine than the grounds—not that any of us have bloody well seen it. The rabble is not permitted entrance, so whatever I’m about to tell you can only be an uneducated guess. And a toast to our inside sources, of course.

Supposedly, the estate has gone through quite some changes to accommodate so many guests at once. Not that it wasn’t already palatial—with five tiers, dozens of suites, and sprawling gardens both above and below, you wouldn’t be wrong to deem it a smaller mountain. But not even a mountain can fit in all the Rheas and their entourage. Wings that were closed for a long time were aired out for this special occasion, and the retinue of attendants, chefs and security guards has doubled in size. Even with all these last-minute fittings, I heard some people may still have to share rooms. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, if you ask me. Old, outdated quarters, and middling servers that were not properly vetted? Place your bets. We’ll be here to look at who gets out alive after the first weekend. 

SPOTTED: Hades, Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Nyx & Circe boarded in the inner sanctum. I couldn’t possibly venture a theory as to what they’re up to in there. Drafting new commercial agreements? Ironing out the core details, not to be trusted in the hands of their lackeys? Doling out statements for the polishing? Perhaps it’s all these things and neither of them. The cogs of power stutter and catch, and us mortals think it’s the wind. How’s this for a storm: maybe Zeus is grilling them for a confession.. Someone, we won’t say a peep, caught word about a gruesome act. Vicious and dire—and not in the dirty tabloids like them. They’ve been tailing the Rheas ever since, hoping to put pen to paper… and fact to fiction. It’s no wonder, then, that Zeus wants to know who set this all in motion. Who was the first to talk? That, dear mortals, is always the wrong question. A better one should be: who will be next?

ADMIN NOTE 

Welcome everyone to our first event, which marks our opening for interactions !!! The festival will run for two weeks in game time, which means roughly four weeks in real time. During the festival, there are no limitations on what your characters can do, but they cannot leave Olympe. Feel free to visit every sublocation written in the event post or mentioned on our location page for your threads. Please reach out to characters from different factions, regardless of what your muse’s occupation is - Olympe right now is a melting pot of personalities and drama, and we want the dash to reflect that ! We encourage open starters that are short and to the point, preferably with a tag or title that shows the exact place  (Olympe, Xenios estate). Beyond that, there is total creative freedom. Happy writing! 

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Corruption

“Corruption” conjures images of bags of cash changing hands in deserted parking garages, but I’d like to propose a simple and concrete definition that goes beyond that: “Corruption” is when something bad happens because its harms are diffused and its gains are concentrated.

Here’s what I mean. West Virginia is known as coal country, but coal is actually a small, dwindling industry in WV; WV’s biggest industry is chemical processing, dominated by Dow — chem processing, like many industries, is heavily concentrated into a few global monopolies.

WV has a water crisis, with frequent “boil water” advisories. Its origins are in the chemical industry — specifically, in a regulatory proceeding where state regulators sought comment on whether to relax the EPA’s national guidelines on chemical runoff into drinking water.

Dow, acting through the manufacturers’ association it controls, argued the people of WV could absorb more poison than the national average because they were much fatter than the median American, and when they drank, it was mostly beer, not water.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/03/14/the-real-elitists-looking-down-on-trump-voters/

No, really.

Here’s the thing. I’m not qualified to set the safe levels of different kinds of runoff in water-tables. It’s probably not zero (at least, not for most chemicals), but it’s also not “anything goes.”

It’s a question that requires subtle, interdisciplinary expertise: chemistry, health, environmental science. It’s an area where people of good faith can disagree.

These thorny, high-stakes technical questions that cross disciplines are the norm, not the exception.

Even if you have the technical knowhow to evaluate whether wearing masks fights covid, that doesn’t answer questions about vaccine safety, or whether zoom-school will turn your kid into an ignoramus.

Answer those questions and you’re left with still more: should you get in one of Southwest’s recertified Boeing 737-Max airplanes? Is the code specifying the reinforced steel joist that holds up your roof adequate, or is your building gonna collapse?

Should you eat carbs? Will your 401k preserve you through a dignified retirement? Answering all of these questions definitively for yourself requires earning 50+ PhDs, but also, people who have those PhDs don’t all agree with one another.

In a technologically complex world, there will always be official advice whose technical arguments we can’t understand. Our only reassurance is the process by which that advice is arrived at.

We may not understand the arguments, but we can recognize an open, independent process refereed by neutral regulators who show their work and recuse themselves if they have a conflict of interest.

We don’t always understand what goes on inside the box, but we can tell whether the box itself is sound. We can tell judges are financially interested in outcomes, whether they publish their deliberations, whether they revisit their conclusions in light of new evidence.

That’s all we’ve got, and it depends on a balance of powers that arises from a pluralistic, diffused set of industrial interests.

When an industry says with one voice that West Virginians are so fat that we can poison them without injury, it carries a lot of weight.

(so to speak)

It’s a stupid argument. It’s a wicked argument. It’s a lethal argument. It’s the kind of argument that might get you laughed out of the room if it is filled with hundreds of squabbling chemical companies looking to dunk on one another.

That’s the thing about conspiracies (and Dow was, in fact, engaged in a conspiracy to poison West Virginians to enrich its shareholders) — they require a lot of discipline, with all the conspirators remaining loyal to the conspiracy and no one breaking ranks.

The bigger a group is, the more it struggles to keep a united front. That’s why there’s so much billionaire class solidarity. Sure, it’s hard to maintain unity among a clutch of grandiose maniacs, but it’s much harder to maintain unity among billions of their victims.

Monopolization is corruption’s handmaiden — not just because it lets Dow hire fancy lawyers and “experts” to dress up “fat people are immune to poison” as sound policy, but because the industry can sing that awfful song with one voice.

Dow spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to win a policy that will save it millions — and cost the people of WV hundreds of millions or even billions in health costs, lost productivity, and, of course, the intergenerational trauma of ruined and lost human lives.

The reason millions in gains can trump billions in losses is that that the millions are reaped by just a few firms, who can wield them with precision to secure the continued right to impose costs on the rest of us, while the losses are spread out across the whole state.

For Dow to corrupt West Virginia’s legislature, it need only tithe a small percentage of its winnings to political causes and dark money orgs.

For West Virginians to fight corruption in the cash-money world of political influence campaigns, they have to overcome their collective action problem and outspend Dow — all while bearing the human and monetary costs of Dow’s corruption.

America is a land of manifest, obvious dysfunctions, and close examination reveals their common root in corruption.

Take the health-care system: Americans pay more for worse outcomes than anyone else in the rich world.

Their healthcare is rationed by faceless, cruel bureaucracies. They ration their medicine or skip necessary procedures. Patients hate this — but so do doctors and nurses, who have to hire armies of bureaucrats to fight with insurers.

Everyone hates this system. Everyone knows it’s rotten. Everyone — except for a handful of pharma, hospital and insurance monopolists, and the propagandists they pay to busily race through the crowd, busily swapping hats and shouting, “SOCIALISM! BOO! SOCIALISM!”

But while the US healthcare system is terrible at providing healthcare, it’s very good at jackpotting for monopolists. They reap billions while costing the public trillions, and they hand around millions to keep that situation intact.

We can see that in action right now. Nina Turner is running to take over a Congressional seat in northeastern Ohio vacated by Marcia Fudge when she joined Biden’s cabinet.

https://www.dailyposter.com/dems-launch-proxy-war-on-medicare-for-all/

For 30 years, every Congressional rep for Ohio’s 11th supported Medicare for All — a commensense measure to end the long waits, price gouging and cruel bureaucratic rationing of for-profit care. Unsurprisingly, Turner also supports M4A.

https://twitter.com/ninaturner/status/1404793650895331337?s=20

In response, a group of corporate, establishment Congressional Dems have launched an all-out attack on Turner’s candidacy, joining forces with health-care lobbyists to raise vast corporate fortunes to support her primary challenger, Shontel Brown.

The seven Dem lawmakers attacking Turner have collectively taken in $5m from pharma and health-care monopolists. James E Clyburn alone has pocketed $1m from pharma. He’s leading the charge against Turner.

https://twitter.com/TaylorPopielarz/status/1405121330433957888

Before Clyburn accepted $1m worth of pharma money, he co-sponsored Medicare For All legislation. Now he’s its most bitter opponent, insisting that it’s political poison (a majority of his constituents support M4A).

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/live-blog/south-carolina-primary-live-updates-democrats-vote-2020-candidates-n1145296/ncrd1146076

One million people in Ohio lost their jobs — and health care — during the pandemic. The system is murdering and maiming people. It’s a wasteful boondoggle that’s bad for everyone except a tiny minority of shareholders and the corrupt officials who accept their blood-money.

It’s not just healthcare. Think of Exxon Mobil’s crime against humanity and Earth: the 40-year coverup and disinformation campaign to delay action on the climate emergency. Exxon spent millions, made tens of billions, and cost us all trillions.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/30/climate-crisis-crime-fossil-fuels-environment

The megadroughts, once-in-millennium heatwaves, raging wildfires, annual floods-of-the-century and zoonitic plagues Exxon bought with their millions were objectively a very bad deal — but their concentrated gains beat our much larger diffused losses (so far). #ExxonKnew.

But corruption creates policy debt, and the interest on that debt compounds — in a degraded environment, worsening health, precarious work, and a collapse in trust in institutions. The corrupt have a structural advantage, but it’s not a sure thing.

Take Ohio (again). The GOP-dominated Senate passed legislation to ban Ohio cities from offering municipal broadband. Now, municipal broadband is the best internet in America: cheaper, faster and more reliable than anything the telecoms monopolists offer.

There are ~900 (mostly Republican) towns and counties where people get their internet from their local government:

https://muninetworks.org/communitymap

And they fucking love it, just as much as their Comcast-burdened peers elsewhere hate their service:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180808223947/https://www.consumerreports.org/phone-tv-internet-bundles/people-still-dont-like-their-cable-companies-telecom-survey/

Muni networks are better at everything to do with the internet: connection speeds, price, and customer service. There’s only one area in which they underperform relative to telecoms monopolies: generating profits for shareholders by overcharging and underinvesting.

There’s only a tiny minority of people who’d trade good internet service for profitable internet service (namely, the people receiving the profits). But the pro-monopolists have concentrated gains, while the public experiences diffused losses.

That’s why the Ohio Senate passed its budget bill banning municipal networks. But when the budget was reconciled in the Ohio House, the measure was killed, thanks to an all-out uprising led by the people of Fairlawn, who stepped up to defend Fairlawngig, their muni ISP.

The victory for muni broadband is a triumph of evidence over corruption — proof that the diffused nature of corruption losses can be overcome. It’s cause for hope, especially in light of this week’s collapse of the antitrust case against Facebook.

https://www.wired.com/story/ftc-antitrust-case-against-facebook-very-much-alive/

Facebook escaped justice by citing the theories of Robert Bork, Nixon’s chief criminal co-conspirator and Ronald Reagan’s court sorcerer. Bork insisted that anittrust law had but one purpose: to keep prices down.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/28/dubious-quant-residue/#incinerators-r-us

Any other consideration, especially political corruption arising from market concentration, was out of scope.

The court agreed. No surprise; 40% of the US Federal judiciary has attended a lavish “Manne Seminar,” junkets where they are indoctrinated into Borkism.

But the absurdity of ruling that Facebook isn’t a fit subject for anti-monopoly law is the beginning of the end for Borkism, prompting bipartisan calls — led by Elizabeth Warren — to explicitly redesign American antitrust.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/facebooks-surprise-antitrust-victory-could-inspire-congress-to-overhaul-the-rules-entirely/ar-AALCJz8

Corruption has many costs: monetary, human, environmental. But every bit as important is the cost to institutional credibility. Remember, none of us are capable of understanding the technical nuances of the dozens of life-or-death decisions we face daily.

If we can’t trust our institutions — if we don’t believe that regulators are neutral, good-faith experts in ardent pursuit of the truth and the public good — then our very idea of shared reality collapses, as Snowden has written:

https://edwardsnowden.substack.com/p/conspiracy-pt1

It’s hard to overstate the sheer, reeling epistemological terror of institutional collapse. When the EPA allows the chemical industry to poison America, how can you know whether the products in the store can be trusted not to kill your family?

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/30/epa-pesticides-exposure-opp/

Remember, the Flint water crisis came about as the result of corruption: the promises of “experts” that taking shortcuts to save money would come out all right, despite the copious evidence to the contrary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_Water_Crisis

What parent of a permanently damaged child, poisoned by lead deliberately introduced to save pittances for a tiny group of people, could ever trust any “expert” process again?

Michigan Republicans saved millions at the expense of billions, but the gains were concentrated among the wealthy white taxpayers of the state who enjoyed cuts to the top marginal rate, and the costs were born by the Black families of Flint. That’s corruption.

[shmegmilton]

Can you explain how Aaron and Alexander stopped being friends and started fighting?

They were never really ‘friends.’ I assume you got that idea from the play, but I have no idea why the play tried to push that narrative. Civil? Sure, but that was necessary. New York was less than 50,000 people at the time, and they were both accomplished lawyers & statesmen who had to work and interact with each other on a daily basis. Politics is politics, look at how people are acting right now during our election. 

As for your question, it’s a long line of policy & personal disagreements, mostly. They were on opposite sides of the aisle on pretty much everything. Lots of small things, but a lot of big, BIG things.

     Burr was (ironically) kind of a pacifist; he kept mostly to himself, didn’t really speak much publicly & didn’t necessarily go out of his way to confront people unless he’s been pushed long enough (everyone ‘snaps’ at some point, y’know?)

But that’s why the ‘Burr is an evil mastermind’ myth is so pervasive today. Burr just… didn’t bother defending himself, or correcting anything, because he (mistakingly) had faith in the inherent goodness of people that someday people would see him for his true character. So for that reason, we don’t really have a good timeline from Burr’s perspective as to how he felt about Hamilton—but BOY howdy did Hamilton never shut up about Burr.

----

Trespass & Confiscation Acts  (1782ish)

     During the Revolution, the British confiscated the property of patriots that fled the city. New York did the same thing, & for a while it was this game of: ‘Oh, you’re gonna take my stuff? **draws a line in the dirt** Well, everything behind this line is mine now.” It was all very bad, and after the way Tories & Loyalists faced a lot of honestly very fucked up discrimination & forfeiture of their rights. Hamilton (like most Federalists) was pro-British, so he represented a lot of these people in court. I’m sure it wasn’t purely out of the goodness of his heart--most of his clients were loaded--but the sentiment is there. On the other hand, there are multiple records of Burr buying up property around this time, most likely confiscated Tory property, which he would usually flip or give away to people that he knew, so he was taking full advantage of this. Burr also, most likely, went head-to-head with Hamilton on a few of these cases, because Burr tended to work with the ‘common folk.’

French Revolution (1789ish to 1799ish) & Proclamation of Neutrality (1793)

     Burr (like most Democratic-Republicans) was pro-French, so much so that he took in French refugees fleeing the Revolution into his home. He was very sympathetic to the cause.Hamilton was not. He basically saw it the same way that right-wing Conservatives see the Black Lives Matter movement is the best way I can explain it. He also hated it for the amount of immigrants that were now fleeing to the U.S.

Burr Gets Chosen For NY Senate (1791)

     Key word: chosen. As in, he didn’t actually run. That wasn’t how politics worked back then. The Hamilton musical just fucking lied outright about that, let’s be clear. He also never switched parties. Ever. Back then you were nominated by the people who were already in government--usually by one of the powerful families like the Clintons or the Livingstons, or yada yada. So Burr didn’t actually do anything. He didn’t even really want the position either, if I recall. But back then if you were ‘called to serve,’ you were obligated to do it. Hamilton was furious either way because it meant that Burr was replacing his father-in-law, Phillip Schuyler, meaning that he wouldn’t have that extra ear in government that he wanted. Burr also had a lot of views that were considered ‘extreme’ at the time, like getting extra rights for women, immigrants & black people, but I have no idea what Hamilton thought of those individual policies other than he just didn’t like women, immigrants or black people.

1792 & 1796 Presidential Election

Burr wasn’t really that serious about either of these elections, I don’t think (in ’92 he wasn’t that well-known & barely got any support, but it’s worth noting the fact he was nominated to run at all was really impressive. He’s tied with William Jennings Bryan as being one of the youngest people to ever receive an electoral vote, at 36 years old.) In ’96 he faired a little better—he got 30 votes, which is nearly half of what you need to get the ticket nomination, also very impressive.Hamilton was super staunchly opposed to both of these runs, though, and did his typical Hamilton thing of openly campaigning about how the people shouldn’t vote for Burr, yada yada.

Jay Treaty (1794)

     I highly suggest looking up supplemental information on this because it’s a bit complicated, but it was basically a treaty between us and Great Britain to reaffirm that we were going to continue to not mess with France, as well as a couple of other weird hang-ups. It was not popular, at all, especially with the Demo-Republicans. There is a specific instance (that is actually kind of insane) where Hamilton gave a public speech in defense of it, and the Democratic-Republicans in the crowd started pelting him & the other Federalists with rocks. Hamilton got SO mad that immediately challenged a man to a duel, and threatened to fight each of the Democratic-Republicans one-by-one.  

Reynolds Affair (1797)

     Burr had a personal relationship with Maria Reynolds; he was her divorce attorney in 1793/1794, helped her out financially, & successfully petitioned (+paid for) her daughter Susan to attend a boarding school. I believe they also stayed in his him with him during the divorce proceedings, but don’t quote me on that. He never said anything publicly that I could find, but Burr probably had a personal investment in the Reynolds Pamphlet, since it painted Maria in a really damaging light.

Alien & Sedition Acts (1798)

     These were some of the most worst laws ever passed in the history of the country. Like, these were AWFUL. It not only limited immigration, but it limited the freedom of the press and freedom of speech (ESPECIALLY immigrants, my god.)

Burr was right on the front lines helping defend people in court, he actively opposed it & is probably the thing that propelled him into Jefferson’s orbit as a potential Vice President.

John Barker Church Duel (1797)

John Barker Church had accused Burr of taking bribes (which was unfounded & untrue) and they ended up dueling. JBC was the husband of Angelica Schuyler, Hamilton’s sister-in-law.

Neither was injured (though, JBC apparently put a hole in Burr’s coat), but it supposed infuriated Hamilton & his associates so much that they would send out fake letters “from Burr” challenging people to duels.

The Manhattan Company (1799)

    Burr was getting sick of the difficulty he was having getting loans from the Federalist-run banks and decided to do something about it. There had been several seasonal epidemics of yellow fever—caused by mosquitos but, at the time, it was thought to be caused by improperly treated water, miasma (‘bad air’) or (if you asked Hamilton) stinky evil immigrant refuges who were fleeing France and Haiti. Burr saw this and spearheaded a campaign to get a proper water treatment plant, even getting Hamilton to help him. Through some really weird loophole that I don’t quite understand, Burr was somehow allowed to use the ‘surplus capital’ for banking, which essentially turned it into a bank. The actual water treatment portion of the company was plagued with problems due to improper management and things like that.     We’ll never know his exact thought process on this (people normally assume it was malicious trickery because people are biased to hate Burr anyway) & I highly doubt that Burr knew the extent of the issues (he was on the Board of Directors, but so were a dozen others--INCLUDING John Barker Church) so I don’t entirely think it’s his fault, but the fact of the matter is that it most likely exacerbated the existing problems & indirectly led to more people getting sick/dying until they finally fixed the problems.I would say that it’s completely justifiable for Hamilton to be mad at Burr, but, as we established, Hamilton hated both poor people & immigrants (two groups most likely affected by this) so he wasn’t actually mad at him for the reason a… y’know, a normal person would be mad at him. He was mad at him because Burr destroyed the monopoly that Federalists had on banks, making it easier for Democratic-Republicans & others to get loans. He was literally mad at him for making the economy fair.

1800 Election & 1804 NY Governor Election

  These two are self-explanatory, I think, and I’ve already been writing way too long, lol. My hand hurts.

[little-miss-fantasy]

DEAR PROTESTERS,

I see scores of thieves stealing brand name non-essential crap for themselves. I see crowds using the name of a dead man to vent their frustrations about being locked down under quarantine. I see crowds of foolish youth banding together out in the streets. Holding signs. Making noise. Leaving fire and trash behind them as they go. All the while the rich and powerful are laughing themselves silly at the frustrated masses sweating and getting pelted by rubber bullets.

You could fill your house will all the pointless junk to your heart's content. They could care less. They don't live among us. They don't shop in our neighborhoods. They don't work in our local little cities. Yet for some reason people are attacking the streets of the places they must return to for the years to come and share with their loved ones.

When Trump was elected many states took to the streets. Did it remove him from office? What a waste of man power. You could scream till you faint. Self immolate on live tv for the whole word to see. That won't change anything. The governors, mayors, councilmen and women, the president, the congressmen and women, the ceos of billion dollar monopoly corporations and oil companies, the generals and secretaries and officials of state/education/commerce.

You could smash the brains in of a hundred cops and leave them dead on the streets. Will the government controlling us bat an eye? No. They will squash you with one of the many branches of military they can mobilize at their will. Police can be replaced. Police are local. Police are everywhere and are small potatoes.

Why are they outside retail stores? Is that where your rebellious hearts seeking justice and retribution took you? Is that where you feel your voices will be carried farthest? The news lies with cheesy pandering hoping to make you complacent obedient citizens. The government lies to keep us working to death for the bare minimum while they fatten their own pockets and that of their elite comrades. If you want to carry out a movement. If you want to take a stand. Start a proper rebellion at the root. Knock down and burn away the rot that stands in the way. They led us into terror. Wars, recessions, hate fueled discrimination spawning administrations, leaving us struggling during a pandemic.

March to those places that they operate out of. Their beloved little palaces too. Go on and tear all that down. So they can't hide. So they know they are not untouchable. So they know all of us are not just bleeding heart liberal hipsters or opportunistic thieving vandals with a lot of misguided drama that can't harness their power as an angry people. I've been in the system. In various forms. I've been owned as a child, a teenager, a young adult. My father fought the government and was met with being silenced under an unjust gag order. He lost his life due to negligence and my voice as a transwoman of Hispanic background seeking help was vastly ignored. I understand feeling like the cards are against you from the start. Seeing how nobody who is supposed to have your best interest at heart and protect you, not only fail you but be held unaccountable for it.

So yes, fight. Raise hell. Do it for the black community. Strike back at rampant police brutality. Do it for George Floyd or the countless other black men and women who have paid for the wickedness in our country with their lives. Do it for everyone and all of us who get screwed in many ways all our lives. Whatever the reason is. Before the chance slips away and they have you all cornered and surrounded. Do it better. Be the revolutionaries that will be glorified in the history books.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN WONDERING ABOUT THAT

What topic do your thoughts keep returning to? They seem lazy because the work they're given is pointless, and they act irresponsible because they're not given any power. Do the founders want it? I think, is to separate the meaning of a program, when you try to attack wealth, you end up nailing risk as well, and with it growth. For example, I think a lot of hackers could do this—that if you want to give money to the poor, or they don't. Strings only exist for efficiency. Bill Gates?

As one VC who spoke at Y Combinator said, Once you take several million dollars of my money, the clock is ticking. I believe all have either closed a round or are likely to soon. Saying less about implementation should also make programs more flexible.1 Good thing for the Democrats that their screen lets through an occasional Clinton, even if some scandal results. Does anyone believe they would notice the anomaly, and not entirely for the better. One of the founders spent all their time building their applications. The time required to raise money grows with the amount. But I don't think it would have much effect on the distribution of wealth.

That was why they'd positioned themselves as a media company instead of a technology company. Is anyone able to develop software this way, and I expect it to continue. 0 bubble. So if you want to disagree with it, you should leave business models for later, just as you'd leave some trivial but messy feature for version 2. But in 1968 the custom of televised debates was still evolving. I suspect this is another reason startups run by hackers tend to do better than those run by MBAs. In most American cities the center has been abandoned, and the growth, if any, is in the industry.

And that might be a net win. Indeed, it may be that Moore's Law will stop working. There hasn't been a lot written lately about the creative class. For example, I think, is to separate the meaning of a program with the least effort. The problem is not the one that is. It's not going to let you just put the money in the hope of becoming much richer than they were before. So if you want to hire want to live there; supporting industries are there; the people you run into in chance meetings are in the same direction.

But there was one who was lukewarm leaves, big deal. The university you could create a first-rate university from nothing overnight. It brought a critical mass of nerds and investors to live somewhere with personality. Language designers deliberately incorporate ideas from other languages. 0 has such an air of euphoria about it is the feeling, conscious or not, that this era of monopoly may finally be over. These guys want to get rich would all start startups. Don't the French realize these aren't startups? I'd forgotten why I hated it so much.

Notes

I know of a rolling close usually prevents this.

[closetofanxiety]

I don’t really know what to think about all the Internet wrestling chitter-chat about “1984″ and all that (I know what I think of Gabe, Gabe is a pube-bearded coil of hardened turds who deserves to be stuck in the middle seat on a long and turbulent flight while suffering from inflammatory bowel syndrome), but here are the respective cases:

The "1984″ Case: Vince McMahon is a monopolist who yearns for a world in which the words “professional wrestling” are interchangeable with “World Wrestling Entertainment.” Vince pursued this dream in the 1980s by raiding other established wrestling companies for talent in the ring and in the office, precipitating a concentration of the business into essentially two large companies: WWF and WCW, which battled for supremacy throughout the 1990s. In 2001, Vince seemingly achieved his goal by purchasing for pennies on the dollar both WCW and ECW, the only entity that had made a serious attempt to create a third national wrestling company after the fall of the territory system. Today, alarmed by the resurgent popularity of pro wrestling in the United Kingdom and by the growing attention paid to independent and non-US wrestling by prestige media outlets and hip bohemian culture spotters alike, Vince is again seeking to bring the entire wrestling world beneath his giant, ugly umbrella. That’s why he signed all those British wrestlers earlier this year, and why he signed all those cruiserweights last year, and why he’ll sign a bunch of women this year. That’s why he explored buying TNA and ROH. That’s why he signed a bunch of stars away from New Japan. That’s why he’s continuing to let Hunter run the money-losing experiment of NXT. That’s why he’s playing footsie with Evolve. Everything he does is pursued with the ultimate aim of making all wrestling content available only on his paid streaming service, becoming the true monopoly not even the old NWA cartel could manage to be.

The “Starbucks” Case: The counterargument to the conspiracy case, voiced by WWE executives like Triple “Paul” H as well as pro-WWE voices in the indies like Gabe “I’m An Unfuckingbelievable Man-Sized Baby Who Fired Su Yung” Sapolsky, goes something like this: WWE is Starbucks. It’s a gigantic provider of a product with a global brand, seemingly bent on making every cup of coffee a Starbucks cup of coffee, putting small coffee shops out of business in order to maximize revenue. In reality, Starbucks has an indifferent-to-appreciative attitude toward these small shops. They realistically pose no business threat to the corporate giant, but at the same time serve as incubators for new products that can be repurposed and sold by Starbucks (the flat white, for instance, was a drink they took from Australian and Kiwi coffee shops; think of it as the Kevin Owens of espresso drinks), essentially constituting free test marketing for Big Mermaid. At the same time, the omnipresence of Starbucks has cultivated an everyday taste for specialty coffee drinks and related products that would have seemed bizarrely exotic not long ago: if you went just about anywhere in America outside a handful of cities and college towns 20 years ago and asked for a latte, people would have no idea what you meant. Now even rednecks drink lattes. Some of those people become coffee snobs, and start seeking out local, artisanal alternatives to Starbucks, things they never would have thought about before: in this way, Starbucks actually helps the small local shops that serve as idea labs for the corporate giant. It’s a symbiotic relationship that benefits both sides: Starbucks (the WWE) gets a steady stream of new ideas from the small shops/indie feds, who in turn get a small but persistent stream of new customers seeking out alternatives to the big company that created their tastes in the first place.

It’s impossible to know what’s really going on without inside knowledge of WWE’s business strategy, but I’ll say a few things here:

* One, as Gabe “Bungling Dipshit Oaf” Sapolsky accurately notes, there is no comparison, in business terms, between the indies of today and the territory system, let alone the WWF/WCW/ECW triad of the 1990s. In the 1980s, Vince was one large territory among several other large territories, and at the beginning of the decade if you were going to bet on which wrestling promotion could go nationwide for real, the smart money would be on the AWA rather than the WWF. In the 1990s, Vince was running a large corporation in a battle with an even larger, better-resourced corporation, albeit one hampered by a total lack of understanding about professional wrestling. Today, Vince is a white elephant and everyone else is a termite. Sabe Gapolsky may be exaggerating when he says Vince could wipe out the indies in 72 hours (no one will EVER vanquish Juggalo Championshit Wrestling), but they could hire the top 150-200 indie workers for money that would seem a hilarious pittance to the guys they signed away from the territories in the 1980s. The “1984″ case is overplaying its hand by comparing today’s wrestling landscape to the last years of the territory system.

* Two, Starbucks is run by people who are basically reasonable - under the insane definition of “reason” imposed on us by capitalism, anyway - whereas WWE is run by Vince McMahon, a repellent lunatic fueled by an unimaginably corrosive self-hatred that projects outward into a hatred of all living men and women. Vince has spent his whole life trying to get out from his father’s shadow, to become something “more” than a wrestling promoter, and has failed every. Single. Time. He tried to be a concert promoter (failure), then had to humiliatingly ask his father to let him book the WWF’s northern Maine territory; he tried to become America’s first millionaire bodybuilding impressario (failure), a misadventure that ended with a federal criminal trial over the distribution of steroids; he tried to challenge the NFL which, unlike, the NWA, is really a giant, unfathomably powerful cartel, by creating a rival “xtreme” football league (failure), and racked up the worst ratings in the history of broadcast television; and he has been trying, for over a decade, to become a Hollywood mogul by running a movie studio arm that drives his company’s major investors into fits of uncomprehending anger. (Failure). The only thing he’s good at - and he’s better at it than anyone else who’s ever done it - is making money as a wrestling promoter, the thing he hates most. He hates wrestling and hates wrestling fans, but he’s trapped with it, and as death steadily creeps up on his steroid-riddled body, he realizes he will never escape this trap. He is already in hell. His mental state is so bleak it makes Samuel Beckett seem like Kathie Lee Gifford. The idea that he would pursue a live-and-let-live business strategy, a la Starbucks, is hard to fathom: Vince is far more likely to want to crush non-WWE wrestling simply because he knows it will make wrestling fans unhappy. 

I don’t know where this leaves us. In some ways, there has never been a better time to be a wrestling fan, but a lot of this feels very fragile, and has a fin de seicle whiff about it. Indie crowds are vanishingly small, and it’s not hard to imagine another economic downturn wiping out a significant portion of the indie network in the US and elsewhere. WWE will continue doing what it does until Vince dies, when all bets are off. If the present seems crystal-bright, the future is a lot murkier.

[deniscollins]

How Bell Pottinger, P.R. Firm for Despots and Rogues, Met Its End in South Africa

If you were employed by a P.R. firm under contract for at least $100,000 a month with 3 corrupt South African brothers who wanted you to divert public attention away from public scrutiny of their misdeeds, how would you respond to your boss telling you to design a P.R. campaign pushing a highly toxic “white monopoly capital” narrative, namely that whites in South Africa had seized resources and wealth while they deprived blacks of education and jobs: (1) accept the assignment, (2) reject the assignment, or (3) something else, if so what? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision? 

If an autopsy could have been performed on Bell Pottinger, Britain’s most audacious public relations firm, the cause of death may have been summarized as “acute embarrassment.”

This is ironic because Bell Pottinger always seemed defiantly beyond shame. During its 30 years in the upper echelons of Britain’s spin doctoring game, it sought to polish the image of dictators (Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus), repressive regimes (Bahrain and Egypt, to name two) and celebrities accused of despicable crimes (the Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius after he was charged with murder).

But in early 2016, Bell Pottinger signed a client that ultimately buried it in disgrace. The company worked for the Guptas, three brothers from India who built a sprawling, multibillion-dollar corporate empire in South Africa. Ajay, Tony and Atul Gupta had earned fantastic sums leveraging their friendship with President Jacob G. Zuma. By bullying officials and bending regulations to their will, they secured contracts in fields as varied as armaments, mining and railways. They offered ministerial jobs to politicians of their choosing. The Guptas and Mr. Zuma were so intertwined that critics had taken to referring to the “Zupta regime.”

As the power of the Guptas and their holding company, Oakbay Investments, gained attention, the family wanted the public relations equivalent of a stun grenade — a distraction that would draw attention away from them and onto their many enemies.

So Bell Pottinger was retained, and given an assignment that initially sounded benign enough: grass-roots political activism intended to help poor blacks.

By the following year, Bell Pottinger was embroiled in a national maelstrom. In TV reports, editorials and public rallies, it stood accused of setting off racial tensions through a furtive campaign built on Twitter bots, hate-filled websites and speeches. All were pushing a highly toxic narrative, namely that whites in South Africa had seized resources and wealth while they deprived blacks of education and jobs. The message was popularized with an incendiary phrase, “white monopoly capital.”

How Bell Pottinger went bankrupt is a tale of corporate skulduggery that seems lifted from “House of Cards,” the P.R. edition. During the Gupta disaster, a vicious boardroom struggle unfolded, one that pitted a co-founder, Tim Bell, against James Henderson, 53, who ran the firm in the years before it went under. Their conflict centered on the perennials of business potboilers, namely power and money.

The story is also an inside look at the current, tormented state of politics in South Africa. Allegations of Gupta-related corruption surfaced gradually over the years, as officials and the media described how this once unknown family was ransacking South Africa and its institutions. President Zuma has since been swept up by investigations into the brothers amid an outcry that he let them hijack the government in a textbook example of “state capture.” With the economy sputtering, Mr. Zuma’s own party has called for his ouster.

The scandal has engulfed the nation. Mr. Zuma is a member of the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela and post-apartheid comity. His alliance with the Guptas, and their exploitation of racial animosity, has underscored just how far the party has wandered from its roots after winning its first election in 1994.

Though the only corporate fatality, Bell Pottinger is just one of the companies tainted by the Guptas. A small coterie of multinationals is now under investigation by South African authorities, including local units of three companies, McKinsey, KPMG and the software giant SAP.

The Guptas’ most devastating legacy is the harm they did to the cause of economic reform. With so many blacks in South Africa mired in poverty, the topic is urgent, but discussion about it has been debased by its association with a notorious and self-serving P.R. campaign.

In the midst of that campaign, racial tensions rose to levels that had not been felt since apartheid. “White monopoly capital,” a phrase that for years had been confined to left-wing academic circles, was suddenly unavoidable. A political group with reported links to the Guptas warned of a coming civil war.

When Bell Pottinger’s role became public, protesters rallied against the company, both in South Africa and outside the firm’s London office. A subsequent investigation by the Public Relations and Communications Association, a trade group in Britain, ended with the ejection of Bell Pottinger.

“In my years of running the P.R.C.A., I have never seen anything worse, never seen anything equal to it,” Francis Ingham, director general of the trade association, said in an interview. “The work was on a completely new scale of awfulness. Bell Pottinger may have set back race relations in South Africa by as much as 10 years.”

Within days of the firm’s removal from the trade association, clients were fleeing. By the end of September, all 250 employees were laid off and Bell Pottinger was finished.

A Unique Client List

London is now home to a cluster of P.R. firms catering to foreign governments, raising worries that the city has become “the global capital of reputation laundering,” as The Evening Standard put it a few years ago. Bell Pottinger established the template of this lucrative niche.

It was largely the brainchild of Tim Bell, who had earned his reputation, along with a knighthood, helping Margaret Thatcher win three elections. He came to fame with the “Labour isn’t working” ads that helped the Conservative Party gain control of Parliament in the 1979 general election. Colleagues actually coined the phrase, and he talked Mrs. Thatcher into adopting it.

“There were many conversations in which she shouted at me and told me I was an idiot,” he recalled. “I just had to stand my ground and say, ‘I know what I’m doing.’”

Now 77, Mr. Bell appears to have stepped directly out of an Evelyn Waugh novel with everything but a smoking jacket. Gray haired with an owlish pair of black glasses, he speaks with jaunty indifference and ingratiating candor, a combination that always made the tsk-tskers who disapproved of his client list sound unworldly and naïve.

“Morality is a job for priests,” he deadpanned in a recent interview, between puffs of an ever-present cigarette. “Not P.R. men.”

With the company co-founder, Piers Pottinger, Mr. Bell conceived a “go anywhere, do anything” ethos, as they called it. When the pair started working together in the mid-80s, Mr. Bell was sought after by political leaders and corporations who wanted some of the communications magic he had provided to Mrs. Thatcher.

Bell Pottinger quickly had hundreds of clients, a few of them infamous. Mr. Bell attributes his ability to work with virtually anyone to innate optimism.

“I see the good in people,” he said.

This included Chile’s former dictator Augusto Pinochet. Mr. Pinochet was placed under house arrest in Britain in 1998 as part of an effort to deport him to Spain, where he had been indicted on a charge of torturing Spanish citizens.

After two years of legal and political wrangling, Mr. Bell and his allies prevailed when Mr. Pinochet was authorized to freely return to Chile.

Bell Pottinger was hardly the only British outfit working for rogues and despots, as well as publicly traded companies, nor was it the largest or most profitable. But it had a buccaneering spirit that made it the firm of choice for a wide variety of missions.

During the war in Iraq, Bell Pottinger had a contract with the Pentagon to produce propaganda for the United States military. This included scripts in Arabic for a soap opera that aired in the country, said Mr. Bell.

When the company’s client list did not generate news, its methods did. In 2011, it was caught boasting about its skills in the dark arts of search engine manipulation to people it thought were potential clients.

In fact, they were undercover members of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a nonprofit organization that works with a variety of media. Posing as executives from the made-up Azimov Group, these “representatives” said the company had ties to the Uzbekistan regime, which has been criticized for repression and for using forced child labor during its cotton harvest.

The Azimov executives said they worried about blowback.

Fret not, said Tim Collins, a Bell Pottinger managing director, per transcripts published by The Independent, a British newspaper. After the company applied its tech wizardry, “You get to the point where even if they type in ‘Uzbek child labour’ or ‘Uzbek human rights violation,’ some of the first results that come up are sites talking about what you guys are doing to address and improve that, not just the critical voices saying how terrible this all is.”

Mr. Bell never challenged the transcripts, but he denounced the sting at the time as an “unethical, underhand deception to manufacture a story where none exists.”

Beginning of the End

Bell Pottinger’s slide into oblivion began with a visit to the Guptas in January 2016. Mr. Bell, who had worked in South Africa for years, said he had no idea what the brothers wanted, but he and several colleagues flew to Johannesburg to find out.

“We went to this bloody great mansion, which seemed to be their headquarters,” Mr. Bell recalled. “Great big room, huge sofas all over the place. Servants. Appalling, all of it.”

The family already had a fortune, Tony Gupta told the small entourage. Now, he and his brothers wanted to help poor blacks. To that end, they wanted a P.R. campaign that pushed the idea of economic emancipation.

“So we went back to London and wrote a strategy,” said Mr. Bell. “Town hall meetings, marching in the street, that kind of thing. Draw attention to the economic imbalance, then tell people they should protest and demand change.”

The company drafted a two-page proposal, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times. Among its recommendations was “a non-party political narrative around the existence of economic apartheid” that Bell Pottinger would package “into speeches, news releases, website content, videos/broadcast content, slogans and other material required.”

Soon, the Guptas said that their company needed communications help, too. Most South Africans, the Guptas maintained, had an inflated notion of how much of the family’s revenue came from government contracts, which harmed their interests, several Bell Pottinger employees recalled.

The corporate campaign was the first sign that altruism had little to do with the £100,000 a month that Bell Pottinger would earn during what was initially a three-month project. The second was the anger of the company’s other South Africa clients when they learned of the arrangement.

The billionaire Johann Rupert was aghast to suddenly find himself one of the most prominent examples of “white monopoly capital.” He texted Mr. Bell and asked how his P.R. firm could also be working for a family that was bashing him. Mr. Bell, by his own account, quickly lost enthusiasm for the Gupta project.

“It was altogether smelly,” he said of the racial element of the work. But he quickly added that ethics were not the issue. If enough South African clients quit Bell Pottinger, he reasoned, the losses would outweigh the Guptas’s checks. “I was saying it’s not a commercially sensible thing to do.”

But by the end of March, only one client — the banking and asset management company Investec — had severed ties with the P.R. firm. After that, Bell Pottinger tried to find middle ground by signing a new contract with the Guptas, this time with a codicil literally called an anti-embarrassment clause. It allowed the firm to terminate the account “without notice” if the brothers brought discredit to the business.

Mr. Bell said he soon resolved to quit the company because he felt undermined and undervalued by Mr. Henderson. “He made my life a misery from start to finish,” said Mr. Bell, speaking one recent afternoon in the living room of his home near London’s Sloane Square. After negotiating a £3.5 million exit package, Mr. Bell resigned in August 2016.

VERY LONG ARTICLE CONTINUES

[politicalfilth-blog]

What Trump Does Not Want You To Know About His U.N Speech

We Are Change

Welcome back beautiful and amazing human beings. I just went through a major earthquake here in Acapulco Mexico that occurred near Mexico City. The shock waves shook this entire house and pretty much scared the crap out of me and everyone else here. It looks like everyone’s fine here in Acapulco.

The show must go on. There’s a lot of incredibly important developments that we are going to get into in this video. Including the latest news with Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Israel, and Russia. As well as the United States where there are some missing CIA files. We give you the latest update on the tyranny from not only the banksters but also our favorite monopoly intelligence agencies. Those same institutions that backed Google.

I hate to tell you “I told you so” but, “I told you so.” A few days ago not only on my Twitter account and YouTube I warned you about the consequences of Venezuela’s latest move. Their decision to stop accepting US dollars for oil payments. They are moving towards the dropping the U.S. Petrodollar.

In response a few days ago I said, “I would expect the regime change in Venezuela soon because of this move.” This, of course, was very easy to predict if you understand American foreign policy.

The concept of the US petrodollar hegemony and Donald Trump has now stated that the US is ready to intervene in Venezuela. Trump made extreme statements today saying that he is preparing to take future action in Venezuela. He ultimately threatened that country because as he said they’re delivering only anguish and failure to their people. Donald Trump wants a “full restoration of democracy.” Hmmm. Restoration of democracy and freedom where have I heard that before?

Do you see the propaganda that’s being used against you to sell more intervention to overthrow governments and bring about more war? There’s a reason myself and other experts can predict regime change. I don’t have a magic 8-Ball but I know how American foreign policy works and that’s why they’re selling you on these lies. You don’t see Donald Trump on the stage of the United Nations talking about the suffering of the people in Saudi Arabia, Yemen or countless other countries. He is doing this for greater geopolitical goals and is lying to you about it. If you understood it, you wouldn’t be for intervention or possible conflict. We will keep a close eye on that story and any developments.

Venezuela was not the only target for Donald Trump at the United Nations today. Trump came off like John McCain 2.0 where he went after other countries like Iran and North Korea. He also discussed those pesky terrorists that the United States keeps creating and that Trump said he would stop arming. He is still secretly doing so through the Pentagon.

He is still talking about how America comes first even though we are over twenty trillion in debt. All while we continue to fund terrorists around the world at U.S. Tax Dollar expense. This makes my head spin. These people lie through their teeth and have ultimate screwed all of us and our future. We will be indebted to the war machine.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Donald Trump on his speech. He and said, “That in over his 30 years and experience with United Nations he has never heard a bolder and more courageous speech.” Which of course works perfectly for the greater political goals of the unholy alliance of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

Israel just fired a US Patriot missile that is worth a million dollars at a drone that was allegedly flown by Hezbollah. While all of this is happening the situation in Syria is becoming more chaotic and unpredictable.

In Syria, there is a proxy war between Russia, China, Iran versus Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. This proxy war is happening now and has been for months.

It’s escalating to very dangerous proportions as we saw a couple of days ago where the Russian Air Force attacked U.S. backed Syrian rebels. An estimated 900 U.S. troops are embedded with the Syrian opposition forces.

The Syrian Army is making progress taking back their country along with the Russian Air Force assisting them. However, they are indirectly coming into a conflict with American forces.

Just days ago we saw the Israeli military attack Syrian government forces. Now they are setting up large military drills. The most important in the last 20 years establishing their forces on the Syrian border. This is happening right now. It’s not just them but also Turkey who wants a piece of the pie. Turkey just deployed over 80 military vehicles including tanks and soldiers on very strategic pieces of land. Land that Turkey wants to control. It’s important to note as we recently reported that Turkey a NATO Ally has flip-flopped by cooperating with Russia on the future of Syria.

We see Israel strategically support an independent Kurdistan State. They have officially backed their independence along with the United States. This has the potential to Balkanize Syria. Divide and conquer and take more land from Bashar al-Assad. It would create a separate state in the region and help Israel along with the United States and Saudi Arabia battle the Iranian influence.

This is why NATO has flip-flopped and is now cooperating with the Kurds because they have had a long history of disputes with the Turkish government. With Israel and the United States supporting the Kurds. Turkey has therefore pivoted towards Russia in this proxy war. This is just part of this very confusing battleground that we are seeing with all of these countries and world powers trying to get more control over the Syrian region. A country which is a very oil-rich.

We’re seeing Turkey wanting a piece of Syria along with Israel wanting the Golan Heights. We’re seeing them supporting another state outside of Syria, and all of this as Russia and China are backing the Syrian government. While the United States along with Saudi Arabia and Israel support the rebel groups in that region that are fighting alongside radical Islamic terrorists. They hope to Balkanize that region to create more conflict and further war. We have seen escalating throughout the years. That’s a very confusing situation, but I hope I simplified it for you.

It’s not just the Middle East we have to worry about as we’re finding out that the United States is sending yet another aircraft carrier to the Korean Peninsula. This will create more tensions with the Chinese. It’s clear that President Donald Trump’s agenda and his foreign policy are not America first and more people are becoming disenfranchised. It’s a continuation of the same policies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

It’s even reaching a bigger level since he is increasing military spending and becoming what he swore he would never do. He has become a “John McCain Lite” since his talking points today are almost identical to that of John McCain. It’s not just happening with the war machine it’s also happening with domestic policy. Particularly those policies of the big Banks. Ann Coulter even said that Bush only had three Goldman Sachs people, but Donald Trump has six.

Those same Goldman Sachs officials that Donald Trump rallied against when he was running to be president of this country. He is now giving them whatever they want while the middle class of this country is destroyed and the average person is being programmed to hate each other. They never look at the bigger financial crimes that are happening in this country. Crimes that are robbing the wealth away from us. They are indebting our children. Here is a really great comprehensive article by The Intercept that I recommend you should review.

In other banksters related news, we have JPMorgan and Chase who came out calling Bitcoin a fraud but yet these companies still handle Bitcoin-related trades. Demonstrating the ultimate hypocrisy and manipulative frauds they are. They, of course, have no moral or ethical background which shouldn’t be a surprise to you.

In totally unrelated news we have WikiLeaks coming out today and publishing details on the Russians governments increasingly repressive internet surveillance industry. They have exposed how the Russian government spy on their own citizens. Including very important files that you can find here.

In other horrible tech news, Google is intensifying its censorship of left-leaning websites those predominately anti-war. While at the same time they’re also hiring a thousand journalists to flood newsrooms all around America. This shows just how effective real independent media is having. Especially after the latest public relations debacles that Google went through. Whether Google is firing their employees or censoring search results and websites, they have been getting a lot of bad press. They are ramping up their media presence by sending over a thousand Google hired journalists to local newsrooms all around the country.

  Real news and information are vital. It is the number one asset to any company or government. If they lose control of the narrative, then people will find out about their lies and sinister deeds. They’re worried their entire Empire will crumble. It is entirely dependent on people using them and trusting them. This is the reason why we’re seeing a journalistic offensive by Google right now because in this day and age information is the strongest weapon out there.

This week we’re finding out that an entire volume of CIA files on Lee Harvey Oswald that were supposed to be released days from now has gone missing. If you don’t know who Lee Harvey Oswald was he was the patsy, sorry, I meant the alleged mastermind and murderer behind the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. I’m surprised the government agency has lost more secret files surrounding the highly controversial death of a U.S. president. A death that is surrounded by conspiracy theories and where there are many holes in the official story. It’s very convenient of the CIA to have made such a ‘mistake.’

Remember everyone truth is the substance of morality, and this is why there are so many coverups and so many lies. There is much propaganda being used against you, and that’s why we do our best to uncover the truth here on youtube.com/wearechange.

We are an independent media company and would not exist if it wasn’t for your donations and support. I love you guys thank you so much.

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The post What Trump Does Not Want You To Know About His U.N Speech appeared first on We Are Change.

from We Are Change https://wearechange.org/trump-not-want-know-u-n-speech/

[grizzlefur]

WWEm - A Monopoly On Punching

In case you haven’t noticed, this will prove that Emma is really not very keen on Jerry Lawler.

Transmission date: 28/29/ August 2017

Still doing the thing, still not even vaguely punctual, let's have some SATURDAY AFTERNOON RAW!

cold open on miz and his crew in the ring

and the announcement that we're not having booker tonight

i'd be happy, but it's because of hurricane sandy

and we get lawler instead

fuuuuuuuuck

cries

so later tonight, we have brock existing, alexa/sasha for the belt, and roman/cena contract signing

but now, a miz

and maryse in trousers, of all things

miz gets half a word into whatever he was doing before kurt interrupts everything

miz is not even slightly impressed

kurt is here to semi-apologise about there being no ic title match at slam, but promises one at no mercy

miz responds by defining the word respect

just so kurt knows

and delivers an impassioned speech on behalf of a belt

kurt responds by making a battle royal for a title shot next week

so that's what we're having now

aaaaaaaa

it's the big show

but he's shaved

he looks like somebody inflated kurt

why would this happen

welp, five minutes in and there goes my ability to take this ep seriously

and now the hardyz

one day i will understand the purpose of the toilet paper hanging out of jeff's back pocket

but it is not this day

oh yeah, and the miztourage are in this

and now finn

for fuck's sake, jerry, stop yelping

just turn your mic off and be misogynistic in silence

cole and graves can handle this

does the arms

apparently this is going to be a 15-man fight, but here's an advert break while the rest arrive

myc advert

(hint: watch the mae young classic, it's dope as fuck)

and we're back

with jason jordan entering

now his bad music has some rap over it

also present are goldust, kalisto, curt hawkins, r-truth, apollo crews, elias [NAME] and gallows and anderson

hawkins eliminated by everyone while i type that, because fuck that guy

well of course you had money on curt, jerry

that's because you're a twat

and now everyone turns to the big show

although nobody wants to make the first move

so all the jobbers do so

chaos ensues

the miztourage throw kalisto out

apparently cole hates people having friends

you heard it here first

jerry makes a fart joke, because once again, fuck that guy

big show is just ignoring the rest of the match while he slaps a guitarist

(a guitarist has no name)

the club take show out, with some unexpected rebulletening courtesy of finn bálor

finn gets to do his pin rollout dropkick thing on elias, despite that pin attempt making precisely zero sense

truth gets eliminated because eh

everyone keeps almost eliminating jeff

must be hard for him to actually try and stay in an elevated position

bless

the panel put their money on jj, so let's see how obvious this booking can be

goldust gets eliminated by a combination of gallows, anderson, and his own inability to follow up on moves

ad break, during which apollo eliminated himself by being an idiot

why would you do anything springboarding off the top rope in this match

sigh

matt eliminates gallows with a well-timed shamble, almost gets taken out by anderson

and then they punch the tits off each other on the apron

anderson gets whipped into the ring post and goes out, gallows just rips matt off the apron

miz gets the idea, jumps in to help his minions

memphis is not pleased at the loss of seven deities

thanks for that replay, the camera didn't really show miz's interference there

finn gets to do his usual comeback/grimace sequence

kicks elias off the turnbuckle, but he manages to stay in

slingblades jj, i do my usual pop

faces off with jeff hardy, crowd goes mental

and then gets dropkicked in the dick

which is totally fine if you're jeff hardy

dropkicks him and bo into the corners, everyone is down until wyatt cut bray throws him out

what can you do when your nemesis can teleport

cue finn slumped against the barricade with a face like what the actual fuck

jj does a cool reversal spot, only marred by jeff almost accidentally rolling under his feet, eliminates the miztourage, elias eliminates him, jeff eliminates elias and...wins?

huh

well, i guess they didn't go with the obvious booking

cut to miz, who looks to have had the same reaction

so miz/jeff next week

sure, why not

jeff's just thrilled his music is playing

god, but does jeff love that music

ok, i got a couple of those last eliminations the wrong way round

jj took out elias, was taken out by jeff

thanks replay

jeff is still taking off and putting on random articles of clothing

dude, you wear too many clothes

consider consolidating a bit

you're not a final fantasy character

(full disclosure: i would play the absolute shit out of a ff-style rpg about the hardyz)

(or p much any wwe characters, tbh)

(theres a market, guys, exploit it)

(you don't need people to take your angles at face value any more)

but yeah, here's a video package about the ongoing brauk lesman sitaution

and reminding me how hilarious it was last week

10/10 would watch brock get put through the floor again

so yeah, brock's back tonight

we can only hope it goes as well as last time

but up next, enzo's first cruiserweight match

but first, apparently, charly interviews alexa

who's splashed on a pretty great denim vest

alexa again leans on how sasha can't defend belts

so clearly she will

charly's interview face has crossed the line from 'serious journalist' to 'kind of in love'

and i don't think any of us can blame her

but yeah, here's enzo

time to see if he can actually wrestle

so yeah, spoilers if you don't watch 205, i guess

enzo's a cruiserweight

comes in, does his usual thing

well yeah, jerry, of course you love enzo

that's because you're a twat

enzo reminds us that cass got injured

apparently that's legit?

torn acl, out for months

boo

so yeah, step to enzo and you'll end up accidentally breaking your own knee

unless he's claiming he has some kind of probability powers, that makes no sense at all

mentions mayweather/mcgregor, gets super mixed heat

and apparently he's fighting noam

who he says has two last names?

dude, you're from the northeast, learn some jewish names

noam hasn't got a mic yet, so a trick has officially been missed

his face is very much how the fuck an i the responsible adult in this ring

and then just kicks the fuck out of enzo

pan out to neville watching

or possibly just staring into the middle distance as usual but someone's put a tv in front of him

noam tries to rip enzo's hair out, jerry decides the best use of all our time right now is for him to make fun of neville's hair

enzo does an arm drag headkick thing that he totally got off the mae young classic, and gets a pin that builds no heat whatsoever

well, i guess that happened

and then dabs on him

dude, that gimmick's taken

and now charly's here to ask neville what he thinks of enzo

he's just like hahahahaha fuck seriously?

i'm gonna be champion forever

drops a how you doin, end thing

but next, brock is alive

after we tell you how we win at social media

no, stop introducing jerry

but yes, here we have a bouncing simpleton

also his manager

paul says words, you can all fill in the blank yourself

and then a new section on the theme of how braun's pretty great but brock's still gonna win

paul is the only one left in this company who understands the importance of hyping your opponents, it seems

and also here's a verbal recap of everything's that happened in this angle

"i don't believe in monsters, but i believe braun strowman is one"

that's a sentence that needs some serious philosophical unpacking right there

brock takes paul's mic mid-flow, manages to restrain himself to a "suplex city, bitch", so at least we didn't have to cut it for profanity

drops the mic, paul follows him out like welp guess we're done

but now, here's a seth

just with a solo match for tonight, but dean's here with him anyway

dean gets down to the ring, puts the belt he was carrying on backwards just so he could do the dramatic spin thing

smart money says he'll have taken it off again by the time we get back off this break

but first, an advert for the show we were once upon a time meant to be competing with

ok, no, dean's still got a belt on

jerry, never tell us about total bellas again

on which note, here's a video about the return of cena

which makes total sense in the middle of the intros to this seth/cesaro match

and the package keeps him saying 'certaint'

bless

fuck, this package is long

and there's not even anything i can say about it, because this angle was balls except for cena making fun of people, which has got entirely cut

but finally back to the actual match that's happening now, here are the kkb

i love their entrance, even if it is just their solo entrances bolted together

their jackets have gained some chain epaulette things this week

and were their kilts camo before?

because they are now

not thrilled

pan over to dean hanging off the ropes doing the loser sign and sticking his tongue out

the apex of maturity right there

but now that we're actually in the match, i am a very happy internet person because seth/cesaro is always a great match

casual standing moonsault, why not

i do still kind of miss his heel hair, though

sheamus gets some distraction time by just kind of lurking at ringside and not doing anything

cut to ads, come back on cesaro doing a massive military press/leg drop combo

like i say, this is a good match

apparently seth started the match "like a house of fire [sic]"

shut the fuck up, jerry

seth counters a top rope crossbody into a nearfall and a great enzuigiri, commence to comeback

one day an announcer will pronounce enzuigiri correctly and i can just stop watching forever

cesaro puts seth on the top turnbuckle, then is shocked when he immediately eats a blockbuster

like seriously, watch a match some time

sheamus tries to interfere, dean starts a really awkward brawl, distracts seth long enough for cesaro to hit him with a massive uppercut for the pin

i'll be honest, this feud could run and run and i'd be happy

and now sheamus has a mic

to talk shit and challenge dean to a match RIGHT NOW

which is apparently happening

sure

does kurt just fuck off home after the first hour of the show and leave it to run itself

this match is less technically sparkling, as you might imagine, but scrappier and still fun

sheamus puts a stretch muffler on dean

when the fuck did we last see that move

dean tries to counter out, sheamus just transitions into a cloverleaf

i'd watch submission specialist sheamus

does three beats of the bodhrán before going eh fuck youse

again, puts his opponent on the top turnbuckle then is surprised whren he jumps off

dean counters another bodhrán into a hotshot, but is selling a hip injury hard

sheamus hits white noise from the top rope, dean kicks out because fuck your elevated finisher

brogue countered into dirty deeds countered into getting kicked in the face

cesaro gets up on the apron, seth pulls him off then runs into the ring

ref gets distracted by cesaro following him, seth breaks up a white noise attempt and dean hits dirty deeds for the pin

and now emma's backstage

with mickie, who's continuing to up the Native stuff in her gear

they've got a match later

so lets have a long argument about hashtags

they really need to give emma more to do

mickie takes emma's phone, makes a bet

emma wins, mickie will tweet anything she wants, mickie wins, emma has to stop saying she started the revolution

fuck, that angle's for shit

and now we have a bunch of superstars telling us to donate to the hurricane harvey relief fund, and i have no jokes there

also, i'm reasonably sure i called it hurricane sandy earlier

that was a different thing, and i clearly need to pay attention

and straight from that into burger king giving us a video package about kurt's olympic history

a propos of nothing

but back in the ring, here's mickie and her new headband

WAIT WHAT THE FUCK THEY'VE CHANGED EMMA'S MUSIC FUCK EVERYTHING BURN IT DOWN

seriously

what is this

that was the best music

fuck you, raw

jerry, stop talking about hashtags,you're like 803

and the only thing he can think of to say about emma is making fun of her lipstick

seriosuly, jerry, you're what we had the women's revolution (such as it is) to get away from

and emma gets a rollup out of nowhere for the pin

and they play THE WRONG FUCKING MUSIC

emma gets a mic so she can walk out saying she started the women's revolution three dozen times

so that happened

w/e

but up next, two people you may or may not enjoy do some paperwork

thrilling

after a trailer for the bruce lee film we're producing, seemingly for no other reason than because wwe want a monopoly on punching

but back to the ring, and kurt's back again

here to hype cena/reigns

memphis can't decide which of the two it hates more

cena comes in, hugs lawler

we had such high hopes for you, john

cena's here to talk roman up, presumably because he heard what i said about heyman earlier

claims to "have zero f's to give"

skirting the line, john

does a pithy promo, signs the paper

and here's roman

cole makes the error of asking lawler for an opinion, jerry just flounders for a while while roman sullenly slouches down the ramp

roman starts saying words, memphis immediately commence the booing

roman is basically all i'm not scared you ain't shit

doesn't think he needs to fight cena, drops the undertaker reference to get heat

(it works)

cena sarcastically bends the knee, addresses the concept of him turning heel

and calls roman a "cheap-ass, corporately-created, john cena bootleg"

ouch

maintains that roman is, in fact, a guy

openly pulls out that taker was old, injured, and generally past it

you can poke the mystique if your name's john cena

he is getting enormous pops for just shitting on roman

which is fair

mic passes to roman, who's just like yeah well you suck

cena's like yeah, so does this guy here, but he got a gold medal, so

and now roman's trying to find his second point, not helped by cena taking every pause to be sarcastic and shit on his promo skills in so many words

today's cena is inside baseball cena

shouts "See ya, fourth wall!"

love it

so roman calls him a phony/yes-man/fake bitch

then when he graduates to 'part-timing fake-ass bitch', they actually blank the sound

i love their criteria

roman comes back about cena being part-time and burying upcoming talent to stay on top

say what you will about the people involved, cena has pulled the best promo out of roman in basically ever

roman doesn't want to sully his legacy by chasing cena

so cena calls him a fool

not a thing you hear so often in wrestling

and calls him out for doing the same thing as everyone forever

and congratulates him for cutting a halfway-decent promo after five years

focuses on debunking the rumours of his "mythical golden shovel"

we're back in that rpg

but yeah, points out how he's not nearly as dominant as he used to be and he's been putting new talent over for years

which is true by any objective logic

and he's like yeah i'm only on top because everybody else ain't shit

and i can part-time better than you ever could full-time drops mic

this promo is fire, and memphis loves him

after some more goading, roman finally signs

then flips the table because he's a tool

and now...anderson and gallows are here?

to tell roman and cena they aren't good brothers

gallows's jacket has sprouted some shoulder chains as well

and kurt's like welp, fuck it, tag match

kind of feels like those promos should have just been allowed to breathe on their own rather than going into a largely pointless match

ad break later, cena's in the ring getting beaten on by some bad cousins while roman stands on the apron like oh hey that looks like it hurts

incredibly long headlock by gallows as roman sarcastically calls for the tag

my favourite thing about tag matches is wrestlers lying in the middle of the ring slowly streeeeeeeetching to their partners like they expect to turn into mr fantastic

roman finally gets the tag

and delivers an incredibly shoddy driveby

cena picks gallows up for an aa, then waits for roman to get in  position so he can synchronise it with roman hitting a spear for the pin

because before all else, john cena is in service of the show

cena sarcastically applauds as roman's music plays, end segment

but up next, a song

after this smackdown ad, at least

and an nxt ad about the roh invasion

but yes, here he is

wearing obnoxious sunglasses

just does a blues break for no particular reason before doing his spiel

namechecks dusty, memphis don't even react

sort it out, guys

apparently dusty called him the elvis of the wwe

[citation needed]

lawler interrupts his song about how memphis is shit

to say the crowd are pleased would be underselling it a bit

i, on the other hand, fill up slightly more with bile every time lawler says words

and he's brought out pelvis wesley

(for those of you who don't watch southpaw regional wrestling or havent done the wrestling, it's heath slater dressed as elvis)

(i should really watch them)

starts a weird dance-off with elias, who then just kicks him in the crotch

seems reasonable

kicks him around a bit, then hits drift away and stands on him for a bit

that bullshit aside, it's main event time

corey, you don't need to tell us about sasha not defending the belt again

the point has been made

but before that, the myc ad again

watch the myc: it's better than 90% of the shit on this show

but before the match, let's shill jerry's club

and run replays of the battle royal from earlier

and now here's miz and guests backstage

renee's here to get his thoughts

(spoiler: he's not impressed)

objects to it taking one match to get a title shot, flounces off

and now we have charly backstage with sasha

they've changed her hair, and i don't like it

tl;dr: alexa ain't shit and sasha plans to win

in the ring, here's alexa

and the camera focuses for a weirdly long time on some guy with a BLISS IS BELT-LESS sign

if there's a joke in there, i don't get it

but now a burger king ad with the kkb bickering

but agreeing on burgers

sure, whatever

and another hurricane harvey appeal

wow, they're putting everything into the pre-main event buffer

and an ad for a pointless 6-man tag on 205

i'm sure there was a main event on its way, but it's faded into the mists of time

right, here comes sasha, so it'll only be another half dozen adverts before the match starts

aaaaaaand here we go

alexa kicking off with a rollup because fuck the fans

(it doesn't take)

wow, yeah, they've both just decided to go into finishes right away

at this rate, the finish'll be a side headlock

this match is just sasha beating on her, so it's looking good for alexa

double knees to the outside

ish

didn't really connect properly

shockingly, alexa turns it round in the ad break

sorry, jerry, when you try and sell the prestige and importance of a women's title it just makes me giggle

also, i hate you

alexa gets sasha in a really nasty half-bow and arrow hold, just sits there for a while

they are still committing to going for the cheap pin wherever possible

right up until alexa just punches sasha in the face and does a flip piledriver

which doesn't get as much of a reaction as it should have

sasha kicks out, because alexa needed a chance to throw a tantrum

even as enormously long superplex setups go, that could have done with a kick up the ass

ended up with a lovely spot that looked no fun for sasha at all, but still

alexa crawls over for the pin, sasha gets the bank statement out of nowhere

alexa manages to roll over it and hit a brutal lifting ddt for the pin

did somebody need a new mat finisher

so yeah, the belt gets passed again

does the raw women's belt have some kind of bottle imp thing going on

nia comes in to raise alexa's hand and beat some more shit out of sasha

carries alexa around the ring a bit

and then backdrops her into oblivion

the crowd loves it, because there are few things wrestling fans like more than betrayal

brandishes the belt a bit, then walks up the ramp so she can deathstare the ring as we fade

so that was an odd episode

for segment quality, you had a stark choice between great (the contract signing, weirdly enough), ass (mickie/emma, jerry the walking trashfire lawler), and ??? (jeff hardy has an ic title match)

well, that's wrestling, i guess

up next, the same but blue

but first, after a protracted absence during the hiatus, there's another dazzling return to watch

friends and fans, your friend and mine, the horizontal line

-------------------------------

damn, but it's good to see you again, line

best timeskip mechanism since the text crawl right there

but now that we're done getting reacquainted, let's get down to brass tacks

and by 'brass', i mean SUNDAY EVENING

and by 'tacks' i mean SMACKDOWN!

(shut up, you think of a better segue)

but yes, here it is, the unfolding conspiracy that is kevin owens' life

just watch, he'll have a pinboard full of string this week

straight in, announcing orton/nakamura v jinder/rusev for the main event

um

why?

apparently it was just announced

but here in the arena, it's the the singhs

and their boss, natch

i will keep maintaining that this is just aj's music in punjabi until someone steps to my headcanon

and then i will fire back with my headcannon

#gpoy

away from my raving and magrittening, we get a recap of shinsuke fucking up the singhs last week

and sunil/samir tapping to a hold that did not yet exist

one day i'll be able to tell them apart

who am i kidding, i still can't tell jimmy and jey apart 70% of the time

and now jinder says words

little rock do not care for him

or randy, by the sound of it

weird

oh, apparently now he's a representative of all of asia

somewhere shinsuke's like ano

usa chants start the noment he mentions asia, because fucking murica

jinder highlights the very real problem of racial discrimination in public services, gets booed

pronounces 'revered' to rhyme with 'severed'

fucking boo him for that, if you need something

jinder says someone has to pay the price, the singhs immediately start thundering out the apologies

apologising to the entire population of asia

while getting all teary

jinder is not the best actor in this ring

the crowd are just getting into sunil (i think)'s performance

samir (maybe) says he can somehow promise shinsuke will never touch jinder again

gets annoyed because arkansas are not taking their public apologies seriously

only made more difficult by them begging to kiss his feet

"...Really?"

for once i agree with you, john

they don't quite get there before the best music not played by a midi synth hits

oh look, an asian man

i'm sure he's thrilled to have the singhs speak for him

they form a barricade between shinsuke and jinder, he just pushes them out of the way like why the fuck are you even here

and brawl commences

all three of them swiftly dogpile shinsuke

and i am mostly distracted by their ugly sky-blue shirts

oh hey, here's randy

and rusev, who has figured out the element of surprise comes from not having your music and lights hit every time you enter the room

thanks to such devious tactics, randy gets kicked out of existence and shinsuke takes a khallas

end thing

later tonight, aj tries to do an open challenge again

can't see it going well

but next, and which should go far better, american alpha 2.0 have a match

hyped for this

but first, the myc ad again, and i kind of could rewatch the first round

announcement: next week, randy/shinsuke for a title shot

for whatever reason

it's not like they've actually done much to earn it

cut back to the ring, the ascension are already here

remember when they got to win at things?

and here come benjamin and gable

as they are being called

and they have new music, which is a shame as i fucking loved the american alpha music

not as bad as emma's, though

still p decent, is the difference here

starting off with gable/viktor

aka chad gable reminds you that you love chain wrestling

shelton tags in, let's see how this goes

overhead butterfly suplex, can't for the life of me think who i last saw using that

chad gets thrown out of the ring, ugly landing

cut to ads, chad gets slapped around a bunch

i think the real question here is will your finisher be anywhere near as sweet as grand amplitude

or have an even more randomly-generated name

hot tag to shelton, who is, as it happens, still p good

hits a top rope clothesline into a massive jumping ddt for the pin

the internet assures me it's a leaping reverse sto

notable for being a) basically the same fucking thing, and b) not quite grand amplitude

but yeah, cautiously hype

and later we have new day/usos, with the winner picking the stipulation for their title rematch

so expect weirdness

but next, aj v mystery guest

and here's baron backstage

no reason

renee comes to ask him how he feels about "squandering" his briefcase

baron is pissed about her word choice and cena fucking off to raw

oh yeah, forgot baron was promised a spot in the open challenge

or was he

ambiguous wording is the booker's friend

but first, hurricane harvey appeal with the smackdown roster

including ziggler

you'd think they'd just have the faces on it

and now an advert for total bellas

smackdown continues to have a tenuous relationship with the word 'next'

ok, here we are

they don't want none, which will make this open challenge awkward

they love them some aj styles down in little rock

does his cena-lite intro while reminding us that kevin isn't allowed into the picture

and here's...tye?

you, sir, are no baron corbin

but sure, why not

he's not got his ppv disco vampire coat on, so take that as you will

and here comes a man who very much is baron corbin

scuffle ensues

and baron learns a valuable lesson about turning up to shit on time

aj punches baron in the face, tye gets in the ring, bell is rung

that bell has the power of a god

incredibly fast-paced fight ensues, ending in about two minutes with tye tapping to a calf crusher

seriously, that was like it was on fast forward

baron throws tye into the barricade, takes a phenomenal forearm for his trouble

and throws a tantrum and ringside

baron corbin is very much the male alicia fox

aj just stands there with the belt like what up

and now jinder talks to rusev in the locker room

jinder does a speech about nationalism, rusev's just like stfu, i don't like you but i hate these guys more

let's fuck them up so i can take your belt

but up next, booby rooooooooo

cut back from ads, the kanellises are here

we have been deprived most of their awesome trash music

speaking of whGLORIOUS

bobby comes down in his sparkly dressing gown, starts doing a flair strut

what a twat

love that gregg gets in on it, announcing him as BOBBY ROOOOOOOOoooooooood

best ring announcer in the company right there

wow, mike is wearing some truly eye-bleeding hot pink tights

and wasn't he feuding with sami five seconds ago?

bobby has already said 'glorious' four times

maybe stop it and wrestle

mike deploying his unique fighting style of 'just punch them in the face a lot'

bobby does a top rope blockbuster, because this is apparently a thing he does now

and glorious dt for the pin

that match joins the illustrious roster of ones this episode that have certainly happened

and bobby stands on the corner like look at my weird triceps for a while

but now, kevin is backstage

byron like welp we were meant to have a mach next but guess kevin's coming

cut from ads, and here are aiden english, his pipes, and his john lennon shades

but not for long, as we hit the kevining

aiden's stood there like excuse you peasant

kevin opens by assuring him that nobody in arkansas has the cultural erudition to appreciate him, so he should just go

works surprisingly well

kevin is pissed because of the ref shenanigans last week/in this whole angle

have a long vt of said topic

mostly notable for shane's facial expressions and a+ powerslide

kevin appeals to the legitimacy and logic of the wrestling referee's profession

it's apparently the first anniversary of kevin winning the universal belt

and he's like well this would have never happened on raw why am i on this trash show

criticises shane for shamelessly abusing his own power, i can't argue

oh hey, here's shane to shamelessly abuse his power

and get cheap pops

shane's like hey dude don't blame me for your poor life choices

now please leave my ring we don't want to hear you talk more

and aiden, get back in, your fighting sami

and here he is

kevin's stomped off to take a spiot on announce, so everything is good

immediately picks a fight with byron

sami is taking remarkably little abuse to gather the power to overcome aiden english

we should use that as a metric for power levels

kevin despairs at the poor performance apparently displayed by the ref, so he gets in the ring, steals the man's shirt and declares himself the ref

sure, that's totally how it works

sami stops fighting to be like what the actual fuck is your problem, gets unsurprisingly blindsided

and then powerbombed by kevin

aiden's like sure whatever, goes for the pin

kevin counts at the speed of sound, end match

ooh, aiden's got his solo music back

so drama

kevin gives the ref his shirt back, swags off

up next, that tag match before the tag match

after this ad for jeff hardy having an ic title shot, just in case you'd convinced yourself that was a dream

and now burger king tells us how great sergeant slaughter was

would pribably be even more popular today, which is something of an indictment

and now, renee interviews shane

he's like that match never happened, i'm going after kevin, talk among yourselves

and now dasha interviews dolph

guys, learn what 'next' means

dolph is not in fact unveiling his new thing this week because fuck arkansas

but here, have a standard ziggler-issue rant

proposes he should ride a motorbike to the ring playing a double-neck guitar

hey, i'd watch it

steps to finn's charisma

fuck you, dolph

dolph enigmatically promises something for next week, end thing

and now here are the usos

and a replay of their summerslam match, tom actually makes the mistake of mentioning that it as basically the best match on the show, even though it was on the kickoff

e's pouring cereal over the fans again

seems like it's been a while

xavier's got a kneebrace on, but more conspicuous than that is the massive IT'S SORE sign round his neck

like, it seems like you should notice these things in the opposite order

the last ref was apparently too traumatised to continue, since we've got charles in now

cut to ads, and we come back on jimmy already shitkicking big e because fuck you, tv audience

kofi tags in to do some standard gravity-fucking shit

fuck it, this match is moving far too fast for me to narrate

tbf, that's been true of p much every match tonight

does the smackdown editing staff have even more add than usual

and dirty rollup by jimmy for the pin

end thing, apparently

dasha tries to introduce carmella for an interview, ellsworth's like um no and does it himself

asks her her plans, she's like nope i am never telling you secrets again

throwaway line about ellsworth stealing flowers from a funeral hiome

nattie turns up, promises to make carmella the baron corbin of the women's division

makes a match for next week, ellsworth like oh cool next week, well in that case shutting up

and then naomi turns up to announce a title rematch in a fortnight

fuck, this is moving fast

and up next, fashion files season 2 begins

breather while this myc advert happens

but actually now, lana is here?

what the fuck is going on with this episode

she's here to do a dodgy hyperbolic intro for tamina

greeted by little rock with a resounding piss break

oh, and here's a jobber

tina stock, we hardly knew ye

lana's doing the manager barking orders thing, but with a mic so none of us can avoid it

tells tamina to crush, this was apparently some kind of trigger word, because she goes berserk

and one superkick later, end match

with loads of super ugly bumps packed into its 90 seconds

and lana's got her girl some paparazzi

well this is weird

also, tamina, that cravate throw is totally nia's thing, get your own

and now, fashion files

and its early 90s credits

still not starring chuck norris

fashion files: back 2 basics

dango's stacking boxes with all their shows in

tyler proposes a vacation together, dango's like nope

tyler unveils the new gadgets from the lab

including some headphones, a blacklight, friendship bracelets, and a belt

this is really cute

tyler kills the lights so he can play with the blacklight

finds a circle of arrows on their old files, gets stuck for a while

and then a hidden message

Two B Or Not Two B

which variously leads them to shinsuke, aiden english, and bob ross

they roll out, dango puts a second pair of sunglasses on and clips another to his shirt

but up next, the main event

but of course, we have some ads before that, because otherwise you wouldn't recognise smackdown

including the raw version of the hurricane appeal, for some reason

someone's getting fired

and an ad for 205 live, with a disembodied voice doing it instead of a semi-bothered wrestler for once

back from ads, and we've missed most of shinsuke's entrance

this will not stand

but to be fair, we've also missed all of the heels'

randy gets a full intro though

were they just ranked in terms of how close to arkansas their home town is?

barely gets in the ring before brawling breaks out

given every other segment in this show, i expect the main event to last about 2.6 minutes

and they start the match during yet another break

seriously, smackdown does not give a shit for you, tv viewer

and by 'you' i very much mean 'me'

but clearly we needed to see this long-ass headlock

this match is actually moving at a speed i can narrate, but i also don't give a shit

randy spinebusters jinder on the barricade, gets massive pops because douchebag face v foreigner

the singhs interfere because randy and jinder only have one match, and they want rusev and shinsuke to get out of the way so they can do it

byron claims rusev had a statue of himself built in his hometown

huge if true

jbl responds by casually claiming to have had a bunch of statues made of himself

horrifying if true

jinder tags in to switch his long-ass headlock for a long-ass hammerlock

got to keep your moveset diverse

shinsuke gets a hot tag off jinder basically deciding to break his own shoulder on the post

the match turns into just shinsuke/rusev, which it should really stay

so much more promise there

naturally, jinder reappears as i type that

randy takes him out with the draping ddt, kinshasa to rusev for the win

i was exaggerating before, but not by much

that match was officially short as fuck

awkward randy/shinsuke faceoff ensues

they both grin, respect is given, aaaaand rko because randy is fundamentally a tool

crowd are not sure how to take this

love american man but also love charisma for miles, what do

well, that episode...certainly happened

from a raw highlighted by a contract signing to a smackdown featuring tyler breeze accidentally hypnotising himself

what a time to be alive

[a-memoir-of-me-blog]

imma not even proof read this....but this is a convo again, before i even met my true love

Texts to x:

idk what i was talking about....i think US and education and free education

*sent a pic from usnews.com*

“Wiener Professor of Social Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, believes that the last 30 years of rising American inequality can be attributed to three key factors:

The US government does ‘considerably less’ than comparable democracies to even out disposable family incomes, Jencks says. And current state and local tax policies ‘actually increase income inequality’ (in america, yeah, because people in low income areas dont use this to their advantage--future writings will make this make more sense. This is from december 2016 or january 2017...dont remember).

‘All the costs and risks of capitalism seem to be shifted largely to those who work rather than those who invest’, he said

Compounding the economic imbalance is the unlikely prospect that those at the bottom can ever improve their lot.”

Me: shouldnt that mean that not only should we work. But invest [in things that can help us develop--ex: infrastructure companies, and all things that benefit to the public--instead of the government being a monopoly, we (markets, the people) will put in our money to companies we like that we believe will be the best for us, and just let us give money to all these companies, that will work together since theyre all gonna do the same thing and we all just want the same thing, and they can just collaborate and make the best that they can. And then we didnt have to pay taxes and not know where it is going. In a sense, investing in companies is like paying taxes, but more transparent and more control of where your money goes--which is to support a company to do x,y,z to help benefit your community and/or country]? But like….thats not taught in school because they want to keep the power limited to only a few and not the masses (the markets, the people who all gather and pool their money in all of these companies that will then go to work together and make the best thing they can make) lol. Oh america…

*pic from same thing*

“Hendren, along with Harvard economists Katz and Raj Chetty, now at Stanford Uni, looked at the lasting effects of moving children to better neighborhoods as part of Moving to Opportunity, a short-lived federal housing program from the ‘90s. Their analysis, published in May, found that the longer children are exposed to better environments, the better they do economically in the future. Whichever city or state children grow up in also radically affects whether they will move out of poverty, he said”

Me:Power of association!! And media flaunts the “low-income” area lifestyle...and they keep the cycle going! Gotta learn the system (the cycle). Exploit it. Give back to education and other welfare shit [but only let them pay if they 1. Waste our help 2. Are greedy 3. Keep fucking up more than enough times that we can afford--which i assume is where an actuary would come in--keep reading because i mention more to this with prison, media, college tuition]. BUT. I think the the biggest thing to give back is knowledge (of surroundings, their influence, give them power to empower them, let them be them and not what media makes them want to be, not what their surroundings want them to be) and the confidence and the belief that we all can come together and learn of ourselves, our difference (and explain to one another why--but it always goes down to that we are human and just want to survive) and to learn to get the power from within us already, and use that and use things we learn and use them for good. Use this and that part of what the world offers and tie them together and make it for the good of all. Knowledge of self, history, psychology, cycles is power. Power over our human. Our flaws and ego and pride.

Me: we think that public things arent ours (when they literally are--we share them--it was our taxes--so that the government can do this and make it available for us--but yeah, it has no explicit value--we paid with taxes--we will think it is not worth it and not good--but thats where people who do value this PUT THEIR OWN VALUE IN IT. then they abuse it and fuck it up for everyone and as a result….we wasted….as a result, we inflate. As a result, we fucked ourselves over. We as people in a democracy rely on one another...so stop stealing. Stop wasting. And with this mindset, then we know we are obligated to have it and it is evenly given to us (because we gave it to ourselves!) and we help not just other people, but you help yourself.

Me: however the only issue i see is that middle class people who are really trying their hardest to survive out here are definitely the ones who deserve more. (Their market is getting smaller, but they are paying more (is it because it will then add more people to middle class? But those below us dont use it to their true full advantage to educate themselves and move up from their surroundings and change their lifestyle around). And thats where middle class working people will then have to cut down on keeping their minds and bodies healthy--they overwork with unhealthy food--that makes them lose money and unhealthy--and that makes them become poorer and poorer. We ALL can do something about this. And i think that for working class middle class people, they shouldnt get health insurance benefits--but rather things to AVOID getting it, because 1) they are still getting unhealthy because they are still in the system and 2) continues for them to keep paying into these things--and instead pay to innovations in food, and making sure the planet is okay, there isnt an imbalance in one thing that can tip something and cause a famine or extreme weather or a drought or have too many certain animals and how that can throw off the whole ECOSYSTEM.) their quality is getting worse and worse because they have to settle for less (government stuff--which we give to) and they are paying more and more (...so instead of doing that....instead of getting food from this and that with harmful things on them...instead of making yourself sick, give yourself life! Ensure yourself and your health and your life...or you can make your own company and run your own self sustaining home and life and have balance--and teach others, and give to them). We cant even buy good things for a good quality life. Housing. Goods. Etc. like. Food is the BEST remedy and preventor. Get healthy food and you keep your health. Its worth spending your money on that, instead of then having to spend it on things mentioned before. Same with education and spreading knowledge and ideas and giving it all back. Because it is a chain reaction. We are all interdependent. Be smart. Be empowered. Give yourself power. Get rid of the money. Dont be afraid to let go of that bc if you dont, you are afraid of your true life. Give live and power to yourself. Get health. Make sure you are healthy. Eat healthy. Live healthy. Feed your brain healthy things. If you have to, live in a shitty area for cheap, but your environment doenst define you. What you put into yourself (that true life) is what defines you. You can define yourself.

Me: and because they get taxed so much, ppl cant afford to go to school because they are just trying to make it alive (and they get stuck in there. And they go to drugs. They go to crime. They go to temporary satisfaction. They get a girl pregnant and they cycle continues and/or gets worse.

Him: yeah but knowledge costs money a majority of the time. Education costs thousands. GOOD education reaches the hundred thousands (my reply rn: UMMMM. Doesnt matter!! That is subjective!!! Life is always the same! But it depends on the PERSON! Do you find value in something because you put your efforts in it? Someone can have a SHITTY life, but they can either learn from it, or let it USE THEM and OVERPOWER them. They are giving their circumstances the power over them, when they can take that circumstance, learn from it, gather knowledge and ideas and MAKE IT BETTER FOR THEMSELVES!)

Him: i agree we should fund our own shit (my reply rn: yeah we should, but then whatever we get...USE THE BEST OF IT, even if it is small, because you are gaining experience and knowledge and you can take it all and add it all up to make it enough for you!)

Me: like people arent making enough. So they cant rely on the government alone. They need to learn the system (aka take what they were given. Use the lessons. Take it all apart. Rebuild it to make it better for yourself...afterall...the system is there because you let them….so make the most of it...spend more money on healthy food...spend more money on books. Spend more money on travel. Spend more on living! Everythingggg is interdependent)

Him: public water fountains, parks, etc...would be so much cooler and cleaner. How would you use the system? If you dont control the system? (ummm….i have control over myself...i dont let the hate, and greed, and all those 7 sins all around me corrupt me). If you wanted to control the system (which i dont at all. I want to liberate people from their fears that they feed into them and then provide a solution to get money off of them and repeat it….we can innovate without having the extremes happen...see one flaw and fix it! Before the whole thing collapses!) you need to be the one giving the government money and that requires hundreds of millions (unless we all stop living in the grid and in the system that they made for us and be more self reliant on life sustaining things and happiness….then we dont need money...at all lol). We could have it all if all our tax dollars didnt go to war (which is the extremes that happen….but we let things keep falling and getting worse…)

Me: so then they can 1) afford to live. Not just live and make it. But to have a healthy good quality life that they can actually enjoy 2) fund a better education for kids, aka, the future of our country and our world. (so we dont get stuck in the cycle) and we need NEW ideas. Because were stuck in a patriarchal and oligarchy society (which i will write about later on about how females were actually the ones who run the world--and we still do--but it is the man who is given too much power and wants more and more and then will attack their giver and keep all of the incoming ones down) ALSO! READ MY SHIT! MY STUFF THAT I WROTE IN ENGLISH CLASS! Because I do mention that we can educate more people and improve the country in the long term. Instead of sending them to war with bad weapons and for a temporary profit that is only good for the short term and for one side. But for the long term? And the longer and wider term? It doesnt work. And it sucks for not just america, but then any other place we connect with through trade and all that other stuff and it gives us the result of having to shoot ourselves back down. Whatever we do short term, comes back in the long run in a bad way.

Him: and there hasnt been a new system of eons. Capitalisn, facism, democracy, and communism is the best humanity has been able to do. Yeaeh we can do a lot more than 50% of our taxes going to us lol

Me: Communism will stop growth. And its just not in our human nature (or any nature). Because we need incentives….we need to work for an unknown set up and set it up (the bar) for ourselves and see where we go from there. We need to not just know what we get and/or dont get out of x,y,z….but its what drives us and what makes us take risks to then go to our highest point

Him: hmmm. The incentive in communism arguably could be that you want the best for everyone (MY SIDE NOTE...or they just want everyone to just be their puppets and set everything up in their way….which is close to dictatorship and totalitarianism and extreme authoritarianism….). Like you dont want anyone to be homeless so you give up your mansion for an average sized home so that maybe 10 more people can have average sized houses who never had a house. (or….we all can be given all these things….like set with all the greatest and biggest things ever...but if we dont put in the effort and the time….then that will just become smaller and smaller and we lose our own value that is already within us…..)

Me: Yeah but that wouldnt be fair if we all get the same and one does wayyyy more than someone else and they get the same. (thats like someone who is a sinner, but the more someone wastes and the more they do this and that….then it will be more repentance they need….which is imo, something that would be a good college structure. Get a set salary, and if the teacher passes x amount then they get a raise from the people who set it. However, if a student still decides to fail...then they must pay back for what the professor may have been given the raise for….or they can just pay for what they failed bc the teacher had a set tuition and gave their best to teach these kids and not let them put the knowledge to waste...it would teach kids to really apply what they are learning in the time they are given and be smarter and choose smarter, etc….because they dont want to work for x amount of time just to repay the teacher….or….students can get a stipend for their efforts and continuous good grades...which could also act as a positive praise….like there is a negative punishment where they take something someone likes to punish them….or they give them something they dont like….which is suffering something in some form). Human nature doesnt work that way. We need to change the mindset and let people think like this: do your best. Educate yourself. Empower yourself. Dont let the bad 1% of the 1% fuck u up. Try to get involved. Voice out your opinion correctly and strong and respectively and still listen to other opinions and then put that one together and then you can make a good and/or maybe better deal. And spread it

Him: but then its not fair that most people have to be at the bottom for others to be successful

Me: (ummm….started from the bottom….duhhh lol. Its the effort!). No..because we will be educated and school would be available. And tbh. We ALL have the tools we need to succeed. And yes...it will be harder for others because they started at the bottom and/or they were oppressed (and again it goes to their perseverance and their risk taking and how they calculate this and that and knowing what they want and why..because every view that is higher than where they were is always better than the one below….so never really have expectations. But go in increments of getting it done….because then you will be happy you got there, and be happy you have more than what you previously had and then you can use all that you used before, like the leftovers, and then add more to that from where you are now and then how you can get even higher...kinda like exponential growth). But they need to use the tools more resourcefully. Like yo. We got the internet. That has everything on there and it connects people and knowledge and thats just expansion waiting to happen...and the reward feeling will be beyond them. Theyll be super happy. Share and spread how. Their stories of success and it will inspire people. And thats why people think education is being wasted and not as valued as it should be anymore (because a lot do waste it and its because they are just another cycle…) people dont use it to their best advantage and they dont realize how advantageous it is, so it only SEEMS like it is getting people nowhere. AND on top of that (culture), there is a lot of entertainment and superficial things out there that distract them. And entertainment takes the education process out. I reallllyyyyy think education and learning in general is great. And i do think that entertainment can be cut down lol. Like idk. Raise prices for those things and make people get pushed out of that due to the fact they will waste mad money and time on it and not get anything in return. I actually want to be an educator. But not the typical one. Just empower people and put emphasis on autonomy and using resources out there to their best ability and even get creative about it. Emphasis on self education, reading, thinking deeper, questioning underlying things, learning outside of school, connecting things and how things affect what and who and why and how and where it all starts and what the time was and repeat that. How to actually improve things and do research and develop our own thoughts and stuff, instead of just rioting and protesting and boycotting and strikes. Instead of when there is a problem, dont fight with nothing….go make something. Because again…..that damage will be reflected in our own tax money….so really take these things and use them to make it better...i think knowledge and questioning everything you THINK you know...and wonder if it is rlly you or just what THEY want you to think (which is what DJ Khaled is trying to tell us)

*sends pic from usanews.com*

“‘Its definitely been a strategy’ to justify starving government resources, which in turn weakens it and makes it less attractive as a tool to accomplish big things, said Skocopol. ‘In an everybody-for-themselves situation, it is the better-educated and the wealthy who can protect themselves’”.

The middle paragraph tho. They already have a huge privilege to be in school. I have the internet and books too so i can even further my knowledge. However, that is not accessible to everyone. And they will be left behind and isnt it a constitutional thing that we ALL have the liberty to use things to achieve our pursuit of happiness?

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE COURAGE OF RESTRICTIONS

They're not going to generate ideas as well as the average big company grows at about ten percent a year. In fact, I worry it's not merely unnecessary to learn in great detail about the mechanics of it, we were so inexperienced that we were appalled at the idea. This way of framing the question probably guarantees failure. If your startup grows big enough, however, and I know. Especially if you have the cheapest, easiest product, you'll own the low end. Instead of concentrating on the features Web consultants and catalog companies would want, we worked to make the investment in the form of a convertible loan. I wouldn't aim too directly at either target. Why did he? The two most important things to understand about startup investing, as a rule of thumb for choosing friends. The self-reinforcing nature of the problems are technical, so seed firms should be able to get better terms from them. So these, I think, because they were poor. Big companies are safe from being sued by other startups because a patent suits are an expensive distraction, and b means they can supply advice and connections as well as money, there's power.

The first time Peter Thiel spoke at YC he drew a Venn diagram is illuminating. So what do nerds look for in a town where the smart people are really smart, but for the ambitious in that sort of environment is to join one and climb to the top. Moral fashions don't seem to be that way in America too. There are only two things you need initially: an idea and cofounders. Whereas Pittsburgh has the opposite problem: plenty of nerds, but no amount of training can flip a ratio as overwhelming as 95 to 5. Microsoft's applications only work with some clients, competitors will be able to increase your ambition. Compared to other industrialized countries the US has lost the most civil liberties recently. If this were true, the benefit that specific manager could derive from the forces I've described. What went wrong? Which means that as the world becomes more addictive, the two cities I think could most easily be turned into a startup.

Most people don't know how ambitious to be, it will at least force them to lie outright if they want to buy you for $10 million, but only a handful for 100. I'm told it derives ultimately from Marvin Minsky, in the sense that one is solving mostly a single type of problem instead of many different types. A state that bans chewing gum has a long way to go before it could create a first-rate university from nothing overnight. Research imposes constraining caste restrictions. They also spend a little money on a freelance graphic designer. The customers were delighted. 0 companies were started outside the usual startup hubs, but two of them have already been reeled in through acquisitions.

That may even make you less attractive, because it made us harder to push around. Another way to fund a startup is to maximize the amount of work that yields good languages is distressingly small. Like science, wealth seems to expand fractally. Do we have no data about what it takes to say it. Talking about an idea leads to more ideas. The people calling us were customers, not just because he'll worry about losing the deal, then in the event of failure it will seem to have a qualification appended: at games that change slowly. Why should any of your data be trapped on some computer sitting on a server, and thousands more to get SSL. Well, that's the polite way of putting it; the colloquial version involves speech coming out of organs not designed for that purpose.

And what, exactly, is hate speech? I would strongly advise against mailing your business plan to, VCs privately admit the chance of getting funding by this route is near zero. For a startup, the thought of our startups keeps me up at night. The reason is that even in a bad economy it's not that important to know a lot about things that matter, I wrote become good at some technology. You don't have the monopoly on power they once did, precisely because they create nothing. In the desktop software business, seem to see the threat it posed. Even corporations that have in-house VC groups generally forbid them to make their offices less sterile than the usual cube farm. I can remember taking all the spaces out of my Basic programs so they would fit into the memory of a 4K TRS-80. The junior people will tend to do if one of the taboos a visitor from the future would have to sit on 40 boards, which would not be a student? If you wanted to sell as a startup, you probably also have to be in a town that puts cars last. This isn't just something that happens with programming languages. And not only will they give you this advice for free, and yet they're setting up entrepreneurship programs and startup incubators left and right.