#like we know next to nothing about what was discussed in saudi arabia the year there was explosions seen from the track

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

Saying that the gpda should go care about something important, as if they aren't - for the first time in DECADES - taking a definite stand against the sports governing body publicly for all to see, is something.

This goes beyond the jewellery, the underwear, or even the swearing. And their issue about being told not to wear jewellery and bring told what underwear is more about the fact that they were told by the media, rather than by the governing bodies themselves directly in a meeting where the drivers could share their perspectives.

They publicly called out the FIA President for his hypocrisy and for how he has spoken about the drivers both to their face and behind their backs.

Most importantly, they have publicly expressed their feelings about monetary fines, publicly stated that they have no idea what the FIA does with the money they receive from fining drivers, and called them out for it. There is zero transparency from the FIA in an issue we now know has been raised since at least 2021. What is the FIA hiding? Because there is no reason why the drivers should not be allowed to see where that money goes, or at least no legitimate reason.

[bleedinglovehes]

liam payne sucks tbh

This compilation is for my dear friend, who goaded me into making a comprehensive list of every time Liam Payne has been openly homophobic in the past ten years, with a couple of bonuses at the end! Because he has been. A lot. He’s displayed his privilege and offended LGBTQ+ people on multiple occasions and shows no signs of even attempting to educate himself or empathize with those his words have hurt. On that note, let us begin this journey.

Let’s start with the obvious, shall we? The infamous Duck Dynasty's Family Values tweet. Anyone who’s been in the One Direction fandom should be able to easily recall the incident, but I’ll break it down for you. On January 18th Liam tweeted about how he loved the “family values” on Duck Dynasty. By that time, it was know that the family was openly homophobic. Just one month prior, in December 2013, the families patriarch (Phil Robertson) was suspended from the show following homophobic remarks that received backlash. (He compared homosexuality to beastiality).Liam immediately received backlash for the tweet, for good reason, so later that day he took to twitter to claim that “Being a fan of someones show and the way they still hold a family together doesn't mean i am ok with all they say”. (https://twitter.com/LiamPayne/status/424679109634314240) That was his “apology”. Now, Liam’s association with the Robertson’s did not end there. 8 months later he posted a happy birthday message from Willie Robertson (Phil’s son) on his instagram. Though his interacting with the Robertsons had upset many LGBT+ people, Liam continued to openly support the family.The very next month he, and close friend Andy Samuels (pay attention to that name, we’ll reference it later) went shooting in Louisiana with the family. Andy and Willie Robertson’s sister in law both posted about the event at the time, but the posts have since been deleted.

Now if you were one of the delusional people still convinced of Liam’s membership in the LGBT+ community, you may find lot’s of faults in my logic. Him supporting a family sticking together doesn’t mean he shares their homophobic values, and you’re right, to an extent. But a queer person would not be so careless. Liam is displaying his privilege as a straight white man by ignoring the disgusting homophobia displayed by the patriarch, and likely shared by his sons and grandchildren. So, with that incident we have, at the very least, hopefully shown the audience Liam’s blatant ignorance when it comes to the LGBT community.

Let’s continue. 2014 was the start of a startling trend of tasteless comments Mr. I-Used-To-Be-In-1D-Now-I’m-Free has made in relation to the community. In August of 2015, Liam said that Girl Almighty (a One Direction song he wrote on) is about "trying to find that number one woman of your life” which would have been fine, except he went on to say that “none of [the fans] can relate to, because most of you are girls. Except for the boys in here, you know what I'm talking about." Almost immediately, his remarks were under fire for being too heteronormative, and he was accused of being homophobic. Instead of using the incident as a learning experience, Liam took to twitter to first clarify he is “in no way shape or form homophobic that's a ridicules thing to say and I'm not here to offend people so take it as you will”. Essentially, rather than apologize to every LGBT girl at the show, he decided to say since he’s not homophobic the comments weren’t offensive. He went on in another tweet and called the statement that deeply offended his non straight female fans “throwaway”. All I can gather from his little twitter tirade is that Liam was upset that his “throwaway” comment hurt LGBT people and that those people would not let it go. He finished by tweeting “crap end to a good day”, blaming the backlash rather than his own ignorant comment. All of the tweets are still on twitter and a quick search will bring them up for you.

2015 was a big year for Liam in terms of casual homophobia, and just one month after the Girl Almighty Incident, he was back at it again with… The Pride Flag Incident. Now, to provide some background, pride flags started making appearances at the shows in large numbers thanks to The Rainbow Project. The project was started to promote a safe space for LGBTQ+ fans. It garnered a lot of attention and the starters of the project clarified several times that it had nothing to do with the infamous “Larry” ship, which I will not discuss as frankly it’s not relevant to my main point. So a month before the Pride Flag Incident The Rainbow Project was getting attention from the media. Anyone who took two seconds to research the project and motivation behind it would know that it was only to support queer fans.

Okay but seriously, the Pride Flag Incident was a big deal. Let me explain. In the summer of 2015, gay marriage was legalized in the US. LGBTQ Americans were absolutely thrilled, for good reason, and pride flags were seen in abundance. So here’s what happened. Liam was interviewed by Attitude, a UK gay magazine. Now he started off alright, claiming that he found it, “funny that being gay is still something that’s talked about as though it’s not natural”. The use of the term “funny” is… troublesome for me, but that’s not the issue with the article. It’s his next statements that, once again, show his ignorance. He talked about there being an increase in rainbow flags at One Direction shows following the legalization of gay marriage. He made the correct point and he should've stopped there. Unfortunately, he continued, saying “I think that was mainly because people think of the Louis and Harry thing, which is absolutely nuts and drives me insane.” Once again he ignored the huge queer fanbase One Direction had amassed at that point and was subject to backlash. He, once again, took to twitter and, once again, stood by his ignorant comments rather than make a real apology. I won’t bring up Harry. I won’t bring up Harry. I won’t bring up Harry. I won’t bring up Harry… ok fine I have to. Harry actually waved a pride flag at the next concert they had. AKA, the one right after Liam’s comments were made public. Harry was, according to Liam, one of the people being disrespected by the pride flags.

I’m sensing a trend here. Liam makes an ignorant comment that offends people, Liam goes on twitter and stands by the ignorant comments, Liam claims people offended are in the wrong. Moving on, I'm honestly not sure what Liam did in 2016. I think that’s when Strip That Down was released. Anyways he only offended…. every one direction stan with that.

2017 though, that one was big. That’s when Liam made The Clothing Comments. So in May he was on the radio, probably promoting something, and was asked which members of One Direction he would let watch his child. He said that he’d pick Louis, because he’s a dad, and that neither Harry nor Niall made the cut. The issue? His reasoning behind why Harry wasn’t a suitable babysitter was that, “I couldn’t rely on Harry because I feel that my child would come out dressed in something that I just wouldn’t understand”. Yet. Another. Ignorant. Comment. Harry had, beginning in 2014 and continuing to 2020, been dressing in a non traditionally masculine way. 2014 had him sporting pussy bow blouses while 2020 has gifted us with a lace jumpsuit equipped with matching lace gloves. Now, therein lays the issue with his comment. Harry doesn’t dress in a traditionally masculine way. That was apparent in 2017. That’s what Liam had an issue with. Also, Liam has been making comments about Harry’s fashion sense on a semi consistent basis since that article dropped so… yea.

2018’s… incident… is almost funny to me because once again Liam display’s absolute ignorance when it comes to the LGBT community. It began with Liam taking place in Adidas’s Prouder campaign in June. It was sponsored by a bunch of celebrities and an article was released where each gave a quote about what makes them proud, obviously in relation to Pride. When Liam was asked the question he answered “I think since I’ve had a little boy, everything changes in life. ‘I’m aiming more for him to be prouder of me, and already he’s making me a better man, which I think is incredible.’” He did not reference the community he was supposedly supporting. He received immense backlash for his “straight pride” comments on twitter and gay news outlet Pink News.All in all it was just insensitive. He was dragged on twitter for not knowing the meaning of pride and the movement he was supporting.That’s not where the incident ended though. On July 7th London hosted the annual Pride Parade, that I’ve heard Liam promised to attend. I do not have receipts for this, so my next point may seem a little weak at first, but stay with me. Instead of attending the event, Liam attended a Dolce and Gabbana fashion show. Why might that be an issue? Well, since 2015, the fashion label has been called homophobic after two directors made insensitive comments about same sex parenting. So, if you don’t believe he promised to attend the show, the fact that he attended a show for a homophobic brand should upset you.In fact, Liam has shown no indication of distancing from the brand. In contrast, Harry has only been seen wearing Dolce and Gabbana once since the comments were made. (Performing on the Jimmy Kimmel show in Nov. 2015). Liam has worn D&G several times in the years since the comments were made.

2019 was a bad year for Liam, and not just because he took Zayn, Harry, and Niall’s number ones and slapped them together to debut at #111 on the Billboard Hot 100. In July he was paid by the Saudi Regime to perform in Saudi Arabia. The issue? In Saudi Arabia being gay is a crime and women’s rights activists are jailed. Nicki Minaj was also set to perform at the festival but backed out due to the Saudi Regime’s blatant homophobia and sexism. Once again he displayed his ignorance and privilege. He’s not queer, he’s not a woman. So he accepted the money and performed. Now I know he had fans there excited to see him, but he made the wrong choice. He should’ve backed out and not accepted any money from the Saudi Regime. July was just not a good month for Liam.So he was asked whether or not he planned to vote in the election. His response? “I think I will vote but I am always out of the country. We need a mobile app where we can vote with our thumbprint or something. I mean, in regards to Boris or Jeremy, I don’t think we give people enough time. Same with West Brom football club. They always change their manager every week it seems and we never get time to gel with anybody.” He’s just so ignorant. As a rich white straight man, the election had no effect on him. He seemed to indicate a preference for Boris Johnson, a racist sexist homophobe. December was by far his worst though. So his debut album, LP1, dropped at the beginning of the month. Immediately, Liam was attacked for his fetishization of bisexual woman, seen in the song “Both Ways”. It’s just disgusting, and made worse by his history with the LGBTQ community. A straight man singing about how hot it is that his girlfriend likes girls is just… so bad. That whole incident speaks for itself in my opinion. That brings us to the reappearance of his comments about Harry’s clothing. He claimed that “I couldn’t put myself in that. I’d look fucking… It’d look weird.” Now, has anyone seen what Liam has worn over the years? Liam’s issue is that the Met Gala look was feminine. He’s claimed to be the antichrist version of Harry, and you know what? I see it. He’s a straight man uncomfortable with men wearing feminine clothing and gay people in general. Harry is a queer man who thrives in feminine styled or women’s clothing. They really are opposites.

So what have I established? A pattern of ignorance that have hurt LGBT people on multiple occasions. Now, ignorance does not equate homophobia, so here’s how we know. Remember his friend Andy Samuels? Well he’s been openly homophobic (and sexist) on his social media. He’s been friends with Liam for over a decade. Remember when Harry made his iconic “not that important” comment? Liam’s reaction is… troublesome. He does a short laugh, and then glances off camera with an uncomfortable look on his face. Take from that what you will. There are UNCONFIRMED rumors of Liam using homophobic language backstage at One Direction concerts. Like with his reaction to Harry’s “not that important'' comment, there is no proof, but, based on his other actions, I am inclined to believe it happened. So there you have it. Liam’s history of ignorance. Homophobia is defined as a “dislike of or prejudice against homosexual people”. I think it’s safe to say that applies to Liam. He’s uncomfortable with feminine styled men, supports homophobes (The Duck Dynasty family, Dolce and Gabbana, Boris Johnson), and makes ignorant comments that are extremely offensive to LGBTQ people. He may not go around screaming slurs, but he is homophobic. He’s the type of homophobic person who claims not to be because he knows a gay person. Who claims the pattern of ignorance is simply the fault of the one getting offended. That’s who Liam Payne is. Look, you don’t have to agree that he’s homophobic, but you have to agree that he’s ignorant and refuses to get educated. And you have to admit that there is no way he’s LGBT. There is no way anyone could orchestrate a smear campaign that relied on so many casually ignorant statements and incidences.

This post was not my fault. Really. It’s wasn’t. It’s actually my friend’s fault. She told me that there were people on tumblr who actually believe Liam Payne is LGBTQ+. Shocking, I know. She also said that some people were comparing the experiences of Liam, a straight man, to Harry, his queer former bandmate. Which, no? And because I am so sure people will deny everything I have presented, a link to a google doc with links to each article and tweet I referenced has been included. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i2lWQPr0oQeA_MYLdkmp6G19waj9KSYaQgcBek8O2OE/edit?usp=sharing

[good-times-with-theo]

Black Gold (Chapter 2)

(Here’s Chapter 2 of the fic I’m writing! I hope you guys like it!)

The European Union Newsroom; November 6th, 7:39 P.M.

“You better tell us everything we need to know, EU! There are people we care about who could be in grave danger, but you won’t tell us anything about it?!” Germany said angrily, slamming his hands onto the EU’s wooden desk. “You three are the only people who I will not give any information to. I could care less if people you care about are in danger,” the EU replied firmly, looking at the three with his hollow black eyes. “My own grandchildren were involved! Along with my son! How dare you exclude us from this information?!” France shouted, glaring at the EU. “Especially because of you, France. You leak intel to our enemies. You cannot be trusted with such classified information,” the EU said. The UK sighed. “France, let’s go find out ourselves. It’s the only solution. Besides, the EU can’t stop us if we go with our own national passports and not the European Union ones he gave us when we joined this bloody union,” he said, taking his lover’s hand and leading her to their car. The airport was only a few miles away, so it would be a short drive, yet a long flight; 16 long, painstaking hours to be exact. “Shouldn’t Germany come along too?” France asked, looking at the UK. “No. He is needed here. We have to go and find Austria for him just so we can make sure everything is alright.” The UK answered. “Alright. There should be tickets booked for us in the glove box. I booked them earlier since we were planning to visit anyway.” France said.

16 long hours later, and both the UK and France arrive in Yellowstone, Wyoming. “America is waiting for us outside,” the UK said, checking his phone as they left. France looked around and noticed America’s car. “You guys weren’t supposed to come for another month! Why are you here?” America said to his mother. “We heard about the whole incident in Salt Lake Creek. How is Wyoming?” France replied, looking at America.

“She’s fine, but I still didn’t expect you guys to come until Christmas like you normally do,” America said. “Especially since the whole incident could’ve been explained then. But since it’s so recent, and none of us know who made those six OPEC members try to steal oil from me, I can hardly clear anything up.” The UK noticed there were medical supplies in the back of the car. “America, why are there so many supplies back there?” He asked with worry. America fell silent. “I’ll explain when we get to my place. Hop in.”

About an hour and a half later, the UK and France are sitting on the couch with America. “Mind explaining the medical supplies to us now?” France asked her son. America took a deep breath.

“Well, during the incident, as I was trying to reason--”

“You mean to argue, dad?” said Wyoming from the kitchen.

“Like I was saying.. While I was arguing with Saudi Arabia and Russia, there was sudden gunfire. One single shot had been fired, and it got Texas in the leg. He’s fine now, but it was one of the most restless nights of my life. Saudi Arabia said it was him, but I don’t believe it. He was in front of me, not in the East where the bullet came from. So now we don’t know if someone was trying to assassinate me, Texas, or one of the culprits,” America said. “It could’ve been a seventh OPEC member who they made a sniper just in case they got caught,” the UK said. “Maybe,” America replied. “But why Texas? Sure, he has oil, but that doesn’t make him a target. The OPEC organization strictly forbids and foreign oil rigs on U.S Soil... Well, I believe they do anyway.” France then noticed a drop of some kind of substance on the floor. She went to it and kneeled down, picking some up with her fingertip. “France? What did you find?” The UK asked. “I believe it’s some form of cyanide, but I’m not sure,” France replied, taking off the glove she had on. “Let me see it,” America said, taking the glove from France. “Yep. That’s cyanide. A dangerous form of it, too.”

“But who would bring cyanide into a home with over 50 people living inside of it? Wouldn’t that be considered manslaughter? Or mass genocide?” The UK asked, looking at both of them. “It can be in-between,” France replied. “Unless there is no doubt that this was attempted mass genocide. Then again, it could still be a danger. Who knows if we’re standing right next to something that should be killing us right now, but it isn’t.” America tensed a little at the thought of dying and leaving all of his kids behind. Who would take care of them? Canada or Poland? Both, possibly. But if his parents died with him, that would cause a mass panic all across the globe; not just North America and parts of Central America or the Caribbean. “Don’t worry. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Just as long as--” the UK was cut off by Canada suddenly breaking the door down. “Step away from that area! There were signs of a bomb from one of my own satellites right in that place!” Canada said, getting his parents and brother away from that area. “Sorry, America, but I have to break the floorboards open,” Canada then said to his older brother. “Yeah, yeah! Whatever! Just get that bomb out of my house!” America replied, staying near his parents. Canada grabbed a crowbar he brought and forced the floorboards off of the floor. He grabbed the bomb and studied it. He then found the date the bomb was made. “January 1915. The same year dad was bombed about 51 times by the German Empire,” Canada said. “The bomb isn’t going to go off. It’s been deactivated for years now.” The UK looked at America in shock. “Why in Heaven’s name do you have a World War I bomb in your own home?! As a souvenir of all of the people and money I lost?!” He said angrily, clearly upset by the memories. “Or as a reminder that your own father almost died because of that German wanker?!” France grabbed the UK and held him close. “Calm down,” she said. “It’s nothing but a decoy.”

“France, it’s still a bomb from when I almost died! Do you even know how upsetting that is?! What do you expect from me? To be calm about this whole situation?” The UK said, getting out of France’s arms. “You know what? This was a ridiculous reason to even come here. I’m going back to London.”

“But dad--”

“No buts! I’m going home. You can come along if you want to, France. Unless you wish to discuss the raids on London during World War I with our own children.”

France remained silent. She didn’t even look her own husband in the eye as he left. “Kids, you know full well your father cannot handle such sensitive topics. Do not bring that up again. It was nice seeing you, America,” she said as she left with the UK. Canada turned to America. “So what are we going--”

“Leave.”

“What..?”

“Leave, Canada! Don’t come back!”

Canada rushed out immediately. Why was his family suddenly getting torn apart? It was all okay before. Why now? Canada needed to find someone. Someone he knew would be on the other side of the world, and that America nor the rest of his family trusted. He had to find China. He would know exactly what to do.

Beijing, China; 12:35 A.M.

Another day had gone by just like that. China had not expected the days to go by so quickly, but that’s what he got when he was a workaholic and most of the world was against him. Then again, it was nice to come home to friends he lived with due to loneliness. Firstly, there was Mongolia. He was the more peaceful one of the household next to China. Next was Macau; a micronation very few nations even know to exist. He was rather uptight for a small nation, but anyone can get like that when they have not yet been internationally recognized by the United Nations leaders and the UN himself. Finally, there’s Hong Kong. She moved out recently, but before, she was a rather bright and smart girl with a lot of imagination, like the UK.

“Hey, China. What’s with the sad look in your eyes?” Mongolia asked, facing China as he kept making dinner. “What do you mean? I always look like this,” China replied as he opened the door to his room. Mongolia just sighed. “Alright, if you say so,” he said quietly, fixing the apron he had on. China closed the bedroom door behind him and immediately took off his jacket, hanging it on a coat hanger right above his door. He then grabbed out his portfolio and began flipping through the paperwork as he sat on his bed. The paperwork was mainly financial, war strategies, military costs, and a few other things that China despised working on. Especially since the UN leaders piled work on top of work on the poor man. He always kept working though, regardless of what people told him to do. There was a sudden knock on his bedroom door. It sounded rather familiar, but so did most knocks. “Come in,” China said, putting the paperwork away. He then heard the clicking of winter boots and immediately saw the Canadian’s face. “Oh, hello, Canada,” China then said in surprise. He had expected Macau of Mongolia, but not Canada of all people. “Hey, China. Can we talk? It’s about the recent incident that included my brother, my niece, and my nephew,” Canada said softly, looking at China. “Yes, of course,” China said, making room for Canada to sit on the bed. “What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Well, it started all the way back in Salt Lake Creek, Wyoming, at around midnight. America and Texas were taking shifts guarding the oil rigs and they were on break while some of America’s top guards took their places. While they were talking, Saudi Arabia and Russia were both found listening in for intel. Well, what we believe they were doing at best. Saudi Arabia won’t tell any of us exactly what happened. Four other guards caught Austria, Venezuela, Iran, and Nigeria in the other rooms with their own oil barrels trying to harvest the recently pumped oil. Algeria was supposedly there as well, but no guards found her. They are assuming she was the sniper they hired to try and take out either America or Texas or possibly the other OPEC members if they were ever caught and were forced to give out classified information. Wyoming is still trying to recover her heavy financial loss, but it’s hardly gotten better. Now, I’m one for being optimistic, but this whole situation is even getting me hopeless that there won’t be a possibility of a war or two going on at once,” Canada explained to China. He watched China’s face become terrified to upset as he spoke. “Yeah, I knew you would be upset when you heard that one of your best allies was involved.” China was indeed very upset at Russia. He would have jeopardized his own life by doing such a thing! He has kids! What kind of father would do that?! “I am upset. Russia should not have risked such a horrible thing. Especially when he has kids who look up to him and try to be like him. If they grow up with that image of their father in their head, they will attempt the same thing. So will their kids. And so on,” China said firmly, looking at Canada. He still had a hard time believing it even when he was told by Russia himself that he had attempted it. How could his best ally do this and jeopardize their relationship? Their ties? Unfortunately, China had to find out the hard way when he was suddenly pushed onto a flight to Tokyo, Japan, the very next day.

After a long, grueling flight to Tokyo, China finally reached Khaosan Tokyo Samurai Hotel in the big, technological city he would be staying in. Of course, he hated it. He and Japan had never gotten along, due to their major and minor conflicts in history, and the executions of China’s own people by Japan during the Second World War. He set his suitcase down next to one of the two single beds in the hotel room and sat on the bed. “Well, another day, another stupid conflict you got yourself dragged into, China,” China muttered to himself. As he was making tea, he suddenly got a phone call from an old friend, yet a slight enemy; a frenemy, in better terms. The United States. “Nǐ hǎo?” China asked as he answered the phone. “Hey, China! Old pal! Uhm, do you have any spare planes?” America asked.

“Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Dunno. You seem to loan them to North Korea a lot, even though you constantly barrage his name around the rest of us. Are you two a couple or something?”

China immediately freaked out at that statement. “What?! Are you kidding, Měiguó?! Why would you even assume that?!” China asked in shock.

“Whoa, calm down there, pal. It was just a question. Anyway, I need one of your planes at Yellowstone Regional Airport by next week. If that’s possible.”

“Yes. Yes, of course, that’s possible. By next week works. I’ll be out of Tokyo by then.”

“Wait why are you staying in Tokyo?”

China hung up before he even answered America’s question. Of course, it was only because there was another situation involving China, Japan, and, unfortunately, the Philippines. He wasn’t exactly ready for the meeting. At all. China just went to sleep so he wouldn’t keep himself up all night with his own paranoia.

The next morning, China was suddenly joined by Russia; the same person who was caught red-handed stealing Wyomingite oil from Salt Lake Creek. “Russia,” China greeted his former ally. Russia remained silent for a few moments. “China, I just wanted to apologize--”

“Apologize for what? Breaking and entering? Almost being annexed? Risking our whole relationship? Take your pick, Russia!” China replied firmly, glaring at Russia. He was more upset with the fact that Russia, his own ally, had the audacity to think an apology would just work. “China. Look at me when I say this,” Russia replied. China looked up at Russia, his golden and red eyes staring into Russia’s blue ones. “I’m sorry. For everything,” he said softly. China couldn’t help but forgive Russia. If only he wasn’t so gullible, then maybe this wouldn’t even be the person he was going to marry. “It’s alright,” China said with a sigh. “I forgive you, Rus..” China then noticed Russia was holding two cups of coffee. “Did you get one of those for me like usual?” China asked.

“You read my mind, Chai.”

“Hey, you and I both know only the UK can call me that.”

“Haha! I know. I’m still calling you that regardless. You can’t stop me, Chai.”

China just sighed softly, followed by quiet laughter coming from him. Maybe this was what he really needed: a good laugh. Just once in a while. He didn’t feel like he needed to keep being stressed out, but now with this whole upcoming meeting, he knew that yearn for happiness or just a simple laugh would return quickly as the meeting began.

United Nations Administrative Office, Shibuya-ku, Japan

It was now past midnight when the meeting finally took place. China was sat next to Russia and North Korea, like usual. North Korea wasn’t really allowed inside, but China managed to get him a seat next to him and as far away from South Korea as humanly possible. Along with Japan. The Philippines has sat next to Russia and Vietnam; one seat away from the very person he was enemies with. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, leaders also were forced to attend due to the Philippines’ and Vietnam’s presence in the room. “What seems to be the issue?” The UN asked firmly. “It has been going on for weeks now, and I suspect it has something to do with you two,” he added, shooting a glare at the Philippines and China. “Or possibly you.” Another glare was shot at Russia, along with both Koreas. “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, what did I do?” South Korea asked when he was glared at. “I only have to come here because North has too as well!”

“Hey! Shut it, you K-Pop addicted, good for nothing, brother!” North Korea said angrily.

“Why don’t you, you closed-off, overly paranoid, maniac?!”

“Quiet! Both of you!” Malaysia said angrily, her voice rising for the first time in a long time anyone had heard it. “We’re already risking war because of Russia’s attempt to steal U.S oil, I’m not going to deal with another Korean War if I don’t have to!” Both Koreans fell silent, still shooting the occasional glares at each other. “As I was saying,” the UN continued, “we need to figure out who is responsible for all of the tension in Southeastern Asia. ASEAN and I have both agreed that we either need to isolate all of Southeast Asia until this issue is resolved, or we shall start closing off trading ports with American, British, French, and even Pakistani items. Make your choice, and choose wisely, or else all of Asia will suffer.” Now, it was up to everyone in that room to figure out what to do next. Only a few people would know exactly what to do, however. Those were the people of the Commonwealth of Nations. They would know exactly how to solve this. If not, the world could stop entirely, economies could collapse within minutes, and many countries could be annexed. It would be a massacre of men, women, children, and most of all… countries, even continents would be devastated.

A/N: Sorry for the really weird formatting! I couldn’t get the darn thing to cooperate with me! I still hope you guys like it!

[occamsgalileo]

Why I need Cameron, Viola, & Meryl at my next GYN appointment....

Should women be given more agency over their fertility decisions? How can we innovate around this?

it's 2022, I can order a car, a phone, buy a house and dinner and if I'm single a date ALL on my phone....this is the age of technology advances so surreal and sublime that it astonishes even the most cynical, but within the last ten years the changing political dynamic of the United States Supreme court has begun to rear its head and oddly somehow, for some reason again which appears cyclical a woman's reproductive system is at the focal point of discussion in every facet of society--and on the docket of he supreme court calendar. The U.S. most highest governing body which is supposed to be comprised of impartial, ethically inclined lawmakers who swear an oath to rule without passion or prejudice oddly is leaning not left nor right but toward an eery Handmaid Tale pseudo patriarchal superpower . Soon, it wouldn't matter how fabulous my phone is and what it can do, unless I have access to healthy, safe reproductive care. I'm an American and that's my right? Right?

Despite having dynamic women like RGB, O'Connor and Sotomayor having given paramount opinions, decisions and led the example of a what is a fair an impartial mind when it comes to making the most important decisions that affect a society, amounts to nothing when the lower courts of a nation are swayed by Governors hell bent on sticking their noses where they don't belong---in my GYN's office. Last time I checked and for most of you women reading this, only my doctor and I are allowed in this room. My checkup, fully protected under the HIPPA Act, now seems to be in jeopardy because a few politicians who have suddenly decided to read the Last Testament from cover to cover and without the guidance of scientific proof or medical doctors to back up their claims, in the last election cycle many touted their stance on why Roe Vs. Wade will be stricken down. They believe that somehow life begins after you've swiped right, at conception, or life begins at 4 weeks, or what they are really trying to say is "I'm a man and know better what you should do with your body than you do because you're a woman" . If you're conflicted about if women have the capability of making these decisions, try surrendering your passport at the consulate in Saudi Arabia or Iran and live there for a few weeks, a few days....good luck!

Should a woman be given total autonomy over her body? her fertility decisions?

I cant even believe we need to have this discussion when pre Roe Vs. Wade if a woman needed a D&C procedure she resorted to what was called "back alley abortions". As a woman with two young nieces I'm afraid of what their futures may hold if our country is trending toward a totalatarian, patriarchal society. With our population and birth rate trending downwards, I watched the first episode of Handmaids Tale and it intrigued me, but truly scared the crap out of my husband! Why? because the idea of an insurrection to the point of an entire governing body being slaughtered and taken over by zealots professing their hateful political, spiritual skewed views is not science fiction but almost happened. This is why celebrities with following ranging up to the tens of millions of followers are one of the best defenses (we hope) in helping to preserve the fragile laws on the books that protect women's rights, for now.

What does their power in media afford us? A voice, a platform, it bides us some time. Gone are the days of waiting to see what new unique name a celebrity was going to name their child, since Gwyneth and "Apple"

...Something happened, oh yeah, the climate really starting changing and things got Serious..at least until the next news cycle. Surely, the laws within the past year in many states that are being chipped away at are making us take notice to the fragility of democracy but it also makes us aware that a women in impoverished low income states, townships and districts need our help to make access to reproductive healthcare their right and not at the mercy of politicians who desire for their own political gains to make their lives difficult and nonexistent. We are afforded some time right now to use the voices we have to protect at least this generation.

The era of Truman Roosevelt surrounding the World War, from the stories I heard from my aunts and mother, this was a time of national pride and unity. Women left at home were united and left to don more hats to preserve the family unit while their men were away at war. On their return home the family unit became paramount and the marketing blitz, the idea of "madison avenue" since the 20's gave us the images of what the perfect family home should be...a home in the suburbs, a car, 2.5 kids...yes, somehow that number became part of the zeitgeist in american conversations that all women should aspire to stand by their men and create families.

I believe Roe Vs. Wade shattered this image, this concocted, fake American dream and women who once relied on men for their income, their self worth, company, now value their own autonomy. Women for over the last fifty years have educated themselves, created million dollar companies, set their sights on dreams we never thought imaginable and achieved them in every industry without apology. There are no shortages of examples of excellence of women for young girls to aspire to, the the questions begs to be--why are men so threatened by women? We never said we don't men, we said we can do things on our own and did exceptionally well and this has men angry, and even shockingly, some women.

Now with the recent supreme court justice appointments in the last few years with the controversial drama surrounding the appointment of Justices Kavanaugh and the midnight hail mary appointment of Barrett, whose opinions and political leanings lean far right, many women are in fear of not just their decisions around Roe Vs. Wade to be in jeopardy but the simple ability to have full autonomy over their body taken away from them within the next twenty, no five, perhaps next year....that soon in America the courts of America want to turn the clocks backwards and we will see what is was exactly like to live in the 1950's America. Women had little choice, little opportunity and frankly little freedoms. How far we've come to decide when and how family planning should begin. Women have redefined what fertility looks like and the image of the 2.5 american family is nonexistent.

No, that could never happen here in America, you say? We're nothing like North Korea, women have rights, we'd never be like Saudi Arabia--they're savages, yes this is what people actually say--I guess they haven't seen the Great Insurrection of 2020. The impenetrable walls of rights that were once enjoyed by women are closing in on us slowly but surely in The land of the free....the home.....of the brave...time to really read our history books again and understand who they were referring to....

[rs12345]

Getting Started With Coins on Twitter

The coins market is a fast growing market on Twitter. It seems that everywhere you turn there are people talking about coins. But where does this interest in coins come from? Coins trading seems to be an appealing avenue for many traders. Why do traders like coins? And what are the incentives to get into coins trading?

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First, players in the coins market twitter seem to be primarily interested in coins that they know nothing about. They follow the behavior of other players and base their decisions on that. So it's not surprising that the best advice for starting out in coins trading is to take on some less experienced players in order to learn more about the coins. If you follow this path you'll soon find that you have a better idea of how the coins market twitter research works.

Then players also have a great interest in other players' opinions. Trends can help you make better decisions. One of the ways to tell what the market will do next is to watch the trends. Watch and observe what the top players in the coins are doing. This knowledge gives you an edge.

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There are many ways to trade coins. You can follow the trends and trade them one way or the other. Or, you can develop your own trading strategy. The same holds true for coins. A trader can choose to follow a trend or develop his own strategy.

When I was first trading coins, I followed the trends. I found out later that the trend that I was following was moving against my coins. As a result I made a bad decision. Instead of jumping on board and getting out, I waited for the market to turn around. I waited a long time and during this time my coins lost a lot of value. This is when I decided it was time to move on.

I am not saying you should move on when the market is moving against your coins. What I am trying to say is there are better times to trade coins than when they are moving in the wrong direction. Avoid jumping on a bandwagon. Be wise and learn how to read the coins market. Do your research and develop a strategy. Only then should you try to predict where the coins market might head in the short or long term.

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There are several things you can use to help you along your research. The best way is to do your own coins trading research. You can use the internet and get information from several websites. Also, pay attention to the news and hear what other traders are saying. Many people feel they know how the coins market will move. However, experience shows us otherwise.

One good piece of advice is to start trading coins online. This way you get a better understanding of how the market works and a better idea of which coins are good investments. It takes time to become proficient at coins trading. That is why you should spread your time as much as possible with coins trading. Even a few hours a day can make a big difference in your profits. So, go ahead and give coins trading a try.

When you go on coins trading forums, you have to remember to be as factual as possible. Do not take yourself too seriously. Remember, people who invest their time in the coins market tend to be very serious. If you want to attract attention, you may have to go a little overboard sometimes. Avoid being a poster child for the coins market in this regard.

Another good thing to do when on the coins market is to have your own Twitter account. You can use this to post any information you have about coins you find interesting. Of course, it is a good idea to post about coins trading as well. Be sure to mention your Twitter name when you post information. This is one of the ways you can promote your coins trading business. Some people will even follow you on Twitter.

Finally, don't be afraid to interact with the forum members and other posters on the coins market. In fact, many people enjoy the coins trading experience so much that they try it out for themselves. That's just what you want. Get in there and meet new people and talk to them about coins. Use these tips for coins market on Twitter and you will find it is an enjoyable way to get information about coins.

The research team projects that the Game Coins market size will grow from XXX in 2020 to XXX by 2027, at an estimated CAGR of XX. The base year considered for the study is 2020, and the market size is projected from 2020 to 2027.

The prime objective of this report is to help the user understand the market in terms of its definition, segmentation, market potential, influential trends, and the challenges that the market is facing with 10 major regions and 50 major countries. Deep researches and analysis were done during the preparation of the report. The readers will find this report very helpful in understanding the market in depth. The data and the information regarding the market are taken from reliable sources such as websites, annual reports of the companies, journals, and others and were checked and validated by the industry experts. The facts and data are represented in the report using diagrams, graphs, pie charts, and other pictorial representations. This enhances the visual representation and also helps in understanding the facts much better.

By Market Players:

Guangzhou Wuche Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.

KY PLastic

Lijia Game Production (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd.

Zhejiang Nishi Badge Co., Ltd.

Tercat Tool & Die Co.

The Monterey Company

By Type

Metal

Zinc Alloy

Plastic

Brass

Iron

By Application

Souvenir

Business

By Regions/Countries:

North America

United States

Canada

Mexico

East Asia

China

Japan

South Korea

Europe

Germany

United Kingdom

France

Italy

Russia

Spain

Netherlands

Switzerland

Poland

South Asia

India

Pakistan

Bangladesh

Southeast Asia

Indonesia

Thailand

Singapore

Malaysia

Philippines

Vietnam

Myanmar

Middle East

Turkey

Saudi Arabia

Iran

United Arab Emirates

Israel

Iraq

Qatar

Kuwait

Oman

Africa

Nigeria

South Africa

Egypt

Algeria

Morocoo

Oceania

Australia

New Zealand

South America

Brazil

Argentina

Colombia

Chile

Venezuela

Peru

Puerto Rico

Ecuador

Rest of the World

Kazakhstan

Points Covered in The Report

The points that are discussed within the report are the major market players that are involved in the market such as market players, raw material suppliers, equipment suppliers, end users, traders, distributors and etc.

The complete profile of the companies is mentioned. And the capacity, production, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, sales volume, sales revenue, consumption, growth rate, import, export, supply, future strategies, and the technological developments that they are making are also included within the report. This report analyzed 12 years data history and forecast.

The growth factors of the market is discussed in detail wherein the different end users of the market are explained in detail.

Data and information by market player, by region, by type, by application and etc, and custom research can be added according to specific requirements.

The report contains the SWOT analysis of the market. Finally, the report contains the conclusion part where the opinions of the industrial experts are included.

Key Reasons to Purchase

To gain insightful analyses of the market and have comprehensive understanding of the global market and its commercial landscape.

Assess the production processes, major issues, and solutions to mitigate the development risk.

To understand the most affecting driving and restraining forces in the market and its impact in the global market.

Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by leading respective organizations.

To understand the future outlook and prospects for the market.

Besides the standard structure reports, we also provide custom research according to specific requirements.

The report focuses on Global, Top 10 Regions and Top 50 Countries Market Size of Game Coins 2016-2021, and development forecast 2022-2027 including industries, major players/suppliers worldwide and market share by regions, with company and product introduction, position in the market including their market status and development trend by types and applications which will provide its price and profit status, and marketing status & market growth drivers and challenges, with base year as 2020.

Key Indicators Analysed

Market Players & Competitor Analysis: The report covers the key players of the industry including Company Profile, Product Specifications, Production Capacity/Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin 2016-2021 & Sales by Product Types.

Global and Regional Market Analysis: The report includes Global & Regional market status and outlook 2022-2027. Further the report provides break down details about each region & countries covered in the report. Identifying its production, consumption, import & export, sales volume & revenue forecast.

Market Analysis by Product Type: The report covers majority Product Types in the Game Coins Industry, including its product specifcations by each key player, volume, sales by Volume and Value (M USD).

Markat Analysis by Application Type: Based on the Game Coins Industry and its applications, the market is further sub-segmented into several major Application of its industry. It provides you with the market size, CAGR & forecast by each industry applications.

Market Trends: Market key trends which include Increased Competition and Continuous Innovations.

Opportunities and Drivers: Identifying the Growing Demands and New Technology

Porters Five Force Analysis: The report will provide with the state of competition in industry depending on five basic forces: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, and existing industry rivalry.

COVID-19 Impact

Report covers Impact of Coronavirus COVID-19: Since the COVID-19 virus outbreak in December 2019, the disease has spread to almost every country around the globe with the World Health Organization declaring it a public health emergency. The global impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are already starting to be felt, and will significantly affect the Game Coins market in 2021. The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought effects on many aspects, like flight cancellations; travel bans and quarantines; restaurants closed; all indoor/outdoor events restricted; over forty countries state of emergency declared; massive slowing of the supply chain; stock market volatility; falling business confidence, growing panic among the population, and uncertainty about future.

Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is the USP of the report?

Global Game Coins Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market report offers great insights of the market and consumer data and their interpretation through various figures and graphs. Report has embedded global market and regional market deep analysis through various research methodologies. The report also offers great competitor analysis of the industries and highlights the key aspect of their business like success stories, market development and growth rate.

What are the key content of the report?What are the value propositions and opportunities offered in this market research report?Related Reports

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Global Medals Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market

Global Plaques Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market

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Who is Raffaello Follieri? Wiki, Biography, Age, Anne Hathaway's ex-Boyfriend, Instagram

Raffaello Follieri Wiki - Raffaello Follieri Biography

Raffaello Follieri is Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend. He claims that she never spoke to him after he was arrested for fraud in 2008. Follieri spoke about their sudden separation in a new interview, saying that he "never" heard from the actress, who was dating at the time, once he was handcuffed. “That night Annie called me from Los Angeles where she was doing press,” he recalled to the Daily Mail. “We were on the phone for 10 minutes talking about when she could come home. If I remember correctly, Annie's last words were "I love you forever" and we ended the call. That was at 2 a.m. on June 24, 2008, ”he continued. “At 6 in the morning, they arrested me. I never spoke to Annie again. "Page Six has contacted the Hathaway representative for comment.

Raffaello Follieri Age

Raffaello Follieri's age is unknown.

Anne Hathaway said, she never spoke to him after he was arrested for fraud in 2008

For four years, and Anne Hathaway in love would tell anyone who would listen that her charismatic boyfriend Raffaello Follieri was "a god." Not only was he, she said effusively, "soooooooo", but the handsome Italian real estate developer treated her very similar to her fictional character in The Princess Diaries, the movie that she launched into her brilliant career when I was a teenager. She took it around the world on jets and yachts, spending £ 87,000 on a private plane for a New Year's Eve party at the home of fashion designer Oscar De La Renta in the Dominican Republic, where Bill and Hillary Clinton were also guests. There were suites at the Ritz in Paris, the Excelsior in Rome, the Dorchester in London, and God knows how many other luxurious hotels when they weren't in her opulent £ 30,000-a-month Manhattan apartment. Here, Follieri, who claimed to have close ties to the Vatican, entertained some of the richest people in the world while looking for investors to buy properties belonging to the Catholic Church. Hathaway was, most of the time, by her side. It was her, she says, a "fiery" relationship with passionate outbreaks, passionate makeups, and plenty of gifts, including stunning sapphire and diamond earrings, an emerald and pearl Cartier necklace, and a diamond topaz bracelet. Hathaway, in turn, gave her "acute" green plastic frog, the kind that in fairy tales she turns into a handsome prince when she kisses a princess. “She was 25 when we met . We spent many happy and happy moments. I thought nothing was the limit for me, "says Follieri, today, in this exclusive interview. 'I remember one night when Annie (her name for Hathaway) was filming in another country, I was in the apartment looking out of this amazing window and feeling like I could do anything. that I would like. Then, on June 24, 2008, Follieri was arrested for fraud. "That night Annie phoned me from Los Angeles, where she was doing Press ," he says. We were on the phone for ten minutes talking about when she could come home. "If I remember correctly, Annie's last words were 'I love you forever and we ended the call. That was at 2 am on June 24, 2008. At 6 am I was arrested. I never spoke to Annie again.". Follieri insists that he harbors no bitterness towards Hathaway, but the pain is written all over his face. Since his arrest, he has not had any communication from the woman he loved, not even a note of support as he "broke into a thousand pieces" in jail. "Never, never, never," he says. “I think she made a business decision. He decided that saving her career was the most important thing. I am not bitter. You can look me in the eye I don't have rage, but they have hurt me. " This is the first time that Follieri has spoken openly about what would become known as the Vati-Con scandal. Following his arrest, court documents show that prosecutors claimed that Follieri lied about his ties to the Vatican. They said he claimed that top church officials had authorized him to represent the Catholic Church in the US while he was buying churches and monasteries. Investors' money, most notably Ron Burkle, the private equity billionaire best known for his close personal friendship with former President Clinton, was then used, prosecutors said, to finance the lavish lifestyle that Follieri led. with his famous girlfriend. In addition to the jets and yachts, his company's expense account paid for expensive meals, flowers, medical expenses for him, his parents, and Hathaway, and an elite dog-walking service for Esmeralda, the brown lab. partner. Later, Follieri would admit 14 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy in a New York court as part of a settlement reached with prosecutors. He really had no choice. Had the case gone to trial, he would face a possible 160-year sentence. Read Also: Who is Jennifer Emmi? Wiki, Biography, Age, Family, Charged, Arrested, Investigation Instead, he was jailed for four and a half years. Following his release, he was deported to Italy and remains unable to enter the United States. "One day I was in the Olympic Tower and the next in solitary confinement in a cell in New York," says Follieri. "You can absolutely say that I flew too close to the sun." When you are young, you try to do things quickly. I was 20 years old. I was superficial. I made mistakes. “For example, the first part of the trip to the Dominican Republic when we went to Oscar de la Renta's New Year's party was on business. I was with the Cardinal of Santo Domingo. I was wrong because I mixed business with pleasure and invited some friends. “It should have been detected when the budgets were approved, not years later when the money was already spent. "But, as you know, I pleaded guilty to my crime and paid a lot for my mistakes." Now 43, Follieri has, as he puts it, 'more gray hair and a few kilos more' than the dark-haired 'god'. who was photographed at endless parties with Hathaway. He is now happily married to Konstantina, a friend from New York who stood by his side during his years in prison. They have homes in Milan and Athens, a four-year-old son, Pasquale, and they expect a daughter any day. "If there's something positive that has come out of this, it's understanding that you need to have the right person by your side, someone you trust. I trusted the wrong people. Konstantina came to see me during the four years. My wife is a person at heart. She really cares about me, not what I have or what I can afford. If she tomorrow she decided to go and live a simple life, she would be fine with that. “But now I keep my business and private assets very separate. If I rent a jet for personal use, I pay for it myself. I live the life that my private resources allow me to live. Boat rental. I love sailing, there is something magical about it. Do you want to condemn me for that? Today, Follieri could afford to write a check for a fleet of luxury yachts if he so desired. He has built a new business empire that overshadows his ambitions in those heady Hathaway days. His company, Follieri Energy, has assets that include 162 service stations, worth more than £ 150 million. His parent company, FHolding UAE, with his other subsidiaries, is worth God knows how much. "The rebuilding was not easy. I kept in touch with people I had met in the United States. We had a meeting in London where we discussed business. They introduced me to contacts in Saudi Arabia. They knew what had happened and they trusted me." Right now, Follieri is considering investing £ 200 million of venture capital in the UK to develop a chain of green service stations. They will be a percentage of traditional carbon fuel and 50% of green energy, such as hydrogen and electric charge. Each will be self-sufficient, with solar panels on the roof, '' he says, his eyes shining with the passion that won this once-faithful Catholic boy from Foggia, southern Italy, Hathaway's love and an entrance to the interior of Bill Clinton. circle. Follieri lost her faith in jail, but many of the powerful men she once socialized with remain friends, such as Tony Podesta, brother of Bill Clinton's former chief of staff John Podesta, who is president of FHolding UAE. He describes Follieri as "a true visionary." Follieri, an only child whose father was a lawyer with connections in industry, banking and the Vatican, was 23 years old and was jogging near his Rome apartment when the idea of ​​buying real estate for the church took hold. The Church sold property to compensate victims after the pedophile priest scandal. Follieri had church connections: His friend Andrea Sodano was the nephew of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who, under the ailing Pope John Paul II, essentially ran the Vatican as secretary of state. “Local developers were buying properties in Manhattan and Los Angeles, but most of the properties were in the middle of nowhere with little real estate value. The Follieri Group was the first real estate fund to purchase church properties globally. "Andrea was my partner and vice president, so he had direct access to the Vatican." Within a few months of moving to Manhattan, Follieri began to land a lucrative investment. He was introduced to Hathaway in 2004. "I was having dinner with friends," he says. "A Swedish friend asked, 'Can I invite this girlfriend of mine? "I didn't know about Annie's movies, I wasn't watching the movies she was in: The Princess Diaries. She was just a good girl who made a really good impression. 'We were young. I was 25. She was 21. years. I invited her to lunch but I was late. I sent her roses to apologize, I think that night, "she laughs softly." It was a relationship that worked immediately. As Follieri's fund grew and Hathaway's career went from strength to strength, their love blossomed. So did Follieri's overspending: offices at 350 Park Avenue, the five-bedroom apartment at Olympic Tower, the private jet to the Michael Jordan Golf Tournament in the Bahamas where, again, Bill Clinton was invited, a superyacht in the Mediterranean. , another in the Adriatic. Over and over it happened. In fact, the week before 15 FBI agents arrived at his parents' apartment in Trump Tower, where he was staying that night, Follieri was in Capri, the playground of the rich and famous, finalizing arrangements for his 30 birthday at the exclusive Da Paolino on the island restaurant. When the bell rang, my mother answered. That's what I regret the most: that she was in the house when I was arrested. My mother has been to hell and she has come back for me. '' Follieri was handcuffed and taken to federal court in New York, where the charges against him were read. The bail was set at an astronomical £ 17 million. Follieri collapsed. "I couldn't breathe. I felt really bad. They took me to the hospital and, around midnight, they took me to prison, to solitary confinement . 'That's when it hit me hard. I was trying to understand what was happening to me - someone who never had a parking ticket in his life. '' Raffaello's inability to understand his arrest stems from the fact that charges of wasting investors' money had been issued for more than a year. a year earlier, in a civil lawsuit brought against Follieri by his billionaire investor, Ron Burkle. That lawsuit was settled and Follieri paid £ 1 million. However, two allegations remained: that Follieri had transferred sums of money totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars to a bank account in Monaco, and that he had lied about his connections to the Vatican, with some alleging that he claimed be the CFO. Follieri does not pretend to be a saint. He acknowledges that he was careless, arrogant and fiery. But some scratched their heads as to why the authorities criticized him so much. Follieri cannot discuss the charges as part of his plea deal, but he says, “I am not a criminal. Real estate is competitive and lucrative. My business was very successful. We had acquired large properties throughout the United States. “I accomplished a lot at a young age. Most get there when they are 50 or 60 years old. I think a lot of people didn't like that. "I was too big. I had too much, too soon, and since Annie and I were dating, I got noticed. I think the publicity sparked interest in me." The reality was that Hathaway's 'god' he had no chance of raising his £ 17 million bail, so he was transported from New York court in chains. "Like some kind of animal, they left me below 10 degrees in the cold in a T-shirt and a pair plastic pants, "he says." I stopped eating, probably for eight days. It was a dark time. "If she had wanted to contact me, she knew how to communicate with me through my family and friends." She did not do it. “We had been fighting a lot, as many couples do, but we were still in a relationship. He was broken into a thousand pieces. “I was at the bottom, but, at one point, I thought, 'This is not fair to my parents. I'm going to get over this. "My mother helped me. Every month for four years, she flew from Italy to New York and took a train to where I was to see me." Raffaello was transferred to four different prisons during his incarceration. "The detention center in Brooklyn was the most difficult," he says. “There were 120 people in a room with two bathrooms. Excrement in the showers. It was terrible, terrible, with rats under the beds. The food they gave us was so rotten that I got sick. That's where my religion left me a bit. Some say it's what God puts us through to test us, but I don't see it that way. I still believe in God, but I stay out of the church. " When Follieri came out of jail in nothing but a sweatshirt and the sweatpants he was wearing, he weighed more than two kilos less than when he entered. Since then he has needed surgery to remove his gallbladder and suffers from insomnia. "I did not sleep because you are always alert for something to happen, for someone to come for you, so you have to be prepared. That stays with me. I sleep very little, three or four hours at the most. "You know how people say," Oh, everything happens in life "? He shakes his head." Everything that happened will stay with me forever. It doesn't matter how much business I do, how many ships I buy, or how many planes, those years. prison is always there. You just have to learn to live with it and learn from it. And you learn. Being on the plane back to Italy was the best feeling of my life, better than being in the Olympic Tower on the 47th floor because it was freedom. My parents met me at the airport. We drove for three hours to Rome, where my mother had organized a big lunch. I had not eaten for a long time. "A few weeks later, Konstantina came to spend time with me and never left. So that's it, my life started again. " FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK Read the full article

[joehas]

Q&A with John O´Loughlin.

A BIT ABOUT YOU

Q1 Who are you and what do you do?

I am Joe Haslam and I´m the Executive Director of the Owners Scaleup Program and a Professor at IE Business School in Madrid. At IE, I teach classes on scaling and scaleups to University level students, to MBAs and to Senior Executives.  

I´m also a director a number of companies, mainly scaleups or startups started by serial entrepreneurs. I do a lot of speaking at conferences (now mostly virtual) as well as writing and podcasting.

To quote Peter Drucker “Entrepreneurship is risky mainly because so few of the so-called entrepreneurs know what they are doing” Having spoken to maybe 500 founders in the last ten years, I´ve a fair idea what you should not do to scale a business. I put the emphasis on not making known mistakes so that you give yourself the best chance to figure out what it is you need to do.

Q2.      What is your background?

After graduation from UCC, I went to London to work for Perot Systems as a Consultant. That was a great status job but it was no way to live so I came back to Ireland.

A group of us left consulting to set up a company called Marrakech during the dot com era. We raised over seventy million dollars and grew to over 250 people. This is where my interest in scaling up comes from.

After four years, I moved to Madrid to do an MBA at IE Business School. The first weekend, I met this girl and we are still together. In terms of lifestyle, I think that Madrid and Berlin are the two best cities to live in Europe.

Q3. Favourite business news resource?

CB Insights is a wonderful resource. It tells you, often on one page, who the cool companies are in each sector. My students absolute love this visual storytelling.    

I used to read The Economist every Saturday morning when it arrived on paper but I got out of the habit of doing this when i subscribed online instead. This makes no sense, I know, but habits are powerful.

My news now comes from links I find on Twitter. I think it´s a wonderful resource and it allows me to keep in touch with the news from places i previously lived in. You don´t have to live in Silicon Valley anymore to keep in touch with what is going on there.  

Q4. If I was to ask for a business book recommendation?

Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell is a great way to understand the importance of coaching. Coaching is much misunderstood. It´s not about telling someone what to do but to help them to find the answers themselves. Business should be like sport where everyone has a coach.

I think every man should read The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer. It has helped me a lot to understand how women feel in certain circumstances. Some men think they are helping but they are doing exactly the wrong thing.

Scaleup books are many. The best is Scaling Up by Verne Harnish. High Growth Handbook by Elad Gil is very Silicon Valley but also very well structured. Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman is a strategy I disagree with but you have to read it anyway. Scaling by Roland Siebelink makes the really important points in a way that you cant miss them. Growth and Scaleup Enablers for SMEs by Veijo Komulainen is deceptively useful.

Q5. Are you listening to any good business podcasts at the moment?

Like a lot of people, I listen to Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway twice a week. I can see why it annoys people but its makes business fun and that is welcome. In contrast the a16z podcasts are much richer in content but you do have to force yourself to listen to the end.

In terms of scaleup resources, we are very well served. There is Scaleup Valley by Mike Dias, Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman, Notion Capital´s “Pain of Scale” and The Scaling Startups Podcast by Ross Sheil.

While listening in the car or walking to work is better than nothing, I also recommend that you group listen. By this I mean to schedule a meeting with the management team. Listen to it together and then discuss immediately.

Q6. What’s your best bit of business advice?

I have got loads of this.

Find out what you are good at and get even better at it. Find out what you are bad at and get other people to do it.

Getting a “No” only means “no” today. Failure is part of the process of growing, so don´t take it personally. If you are shooting for big things then you should expect to fail.

Follow up. I see this all the time. Someone makes an intro, you have a meeting but you move onto another meeting before mining the first one fully.

Vulnerability is a super power. Ask for help. People are mostly good and will help if you are open about asking for it.

Q7. What do you do to wind down/relax?

I run 5km, 5 times a week. I also swim 1,000 meters twice a week. I hate bicycles though so I am not a Mamil.

As you get older, if you don´t do physical exercise then everything falls apart. Also it´s a time to think. And thinking cannot be done in short batches. I can think of many problems where the solution only came after thinking uninterrupted about it for more than half an hour.

Stress is a real issue so i try to have one entire day every week when i have no meetings or deadlines. This takes the pressure off and lets me go into random areas as opposed to the here and now. We have really only four productive hours a day, so I try to block off those and then do other not so intellectual tasks the rest of the time.    

ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS

Q8. Why are you in the news?

I´m never not in the news. It´s part of my job to be in the news! Last week it was Saudi Arabia, the week before India, the week before that South Korea.  

Engaging with people is how you learn. I´m really hard on my students who come to class just to listen. E.M. Forster's quote “How do I know what I think until I see what I say” captures this exactly.  

To quote a friend of mine from a private conversation “clear, strong writing was now a differentiator in the tech industry in the same way design had been in the early 2000s, when Apple schooled everyone on what actually created value.  Tech companies had spent ten years catching up on design, investing in talent and buying up studios—but they didn’t yet correctly value written communication. Internally, to customers, or to the public”

Q9. What is your biggest business challenge at present?

I have never had any expectation of stability so the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is just what it is this year.  There are always challenges, they just have different names.  

It is now more difficult to travel to Madrid for the Owners Scaleup Program, particularly from Latin America. A good Professor can creates an atmosphere in a classroom that is hard to match online. They also miss out on the social part of the program. Eating Cachopo and drinking Mencia in Restaurante Asturiano Carlos Tartiere is an important part of the Program.

I used to travel 20 weeks a year to promote IE Business School so that doesnt happen either anymore. Nothing beats going to a country to get to know something about the people in your classroom. In February, I did a six city tour of Mexico (Monterrey, Guadalajara, Mérida, León, Querétaro, CDMX). I haven´t left Spain since.    

Q10. What are you doing to address this?

We have moved online. But not online just in the sense of recording a video but my classes are now live. Death by Powerpoint is now gone as everyone is much more comfortable contributing from their happy place. On video, everyone is equal.  

I was also very lucky in that three years ago, I agreed to shoot something called a High Impact Online Program (HiOP) which is series of short videos and readings which is more like a Netflix series than a class. We .. ahem ... scaled up the course on Scaleup.

IE invested a lot of money in a production team to create this, especially as everything was new so we didn´t really know what we were doing. I am also using something called the WOW Room a lot more for classes. This has 48 screens shaped in the form of a “U” and with up to 200 degree vision. The reality now is that Professors are turning into TV Presenters.  

Q11. In terms of your scaling journey, why have you picked the UK?

In most countries in the world where I visit, the term scaleup is unknown. The exception is the UK where because of the work of the ScaleUp Institute, I´m usually not starting at zero.    

Going back to about 2014, a series of reports were done by organisations such as Deloitte and PWC as well as institutions such as the LSE highlighting the importance of SMEs to the UK economy and what could be done to scale them up.

While the situation since then has not got noticeably better, the UK has managed to put  place a lot more of what SMEs need to scaleup than other countries have. As an example the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR).

Q12. Where are the biggest opportunities in your sector over the next 3 years?

If there is a case for Brexit at all it is based on the idea that convergence and cooperation has dampened animal spirits of UK Entrepreneurs. Now that Brexit has happened, there is an element that average is over and that it´s get big or die.

One student of mine compares it to Russia's Shock Therapy is the aftermath of the dissolution of the USSR. It is likely that some people who have always had the ambition and the capability will use Brexit as the trigger to make aggressive bets and to double down on a new business model to catch an exponential wave.

While this is easier said than done, I think every SME needs to take a hard look at itself and redefine challenges as opportunities to grow.  There is help out there and people who want to see you succeed.

Joe Haslam 1 December 2020

[expatimes]

MBS: Why the world may be stuck with the ‘CEO of Saudi Inc’

Two years after the brutal murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad, a new book is pulling back the curtain on the kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).

Amid his father’s continuing health battles and the economic and political shakeups he has presided over, Wall Street Journal reporters Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck believe understanding the man known as MBS is more important than ever.

In Blood and Oil: Mohammed Bin Salman’s Ruthless Quest for Global Power, Hope and Scheck explore the rise of the aggressive and outspoken crown prince, his foreign and domestic policies, and his impact both as the next in line to the Saudi throne – and the effective “CEO” of the oil-rich nation’s vast oil wealth and investment portfolio.

Hope sat down with Al Jazeera Digital’s Managing Business Editor, Patricia Sabga, to discuss what he sees as MBS’s biggest missteps, the impact of Khashoggi’s murder on MBS’s international standing, and how the US election could affect US-Saudi relations. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Patricia Sabga: The Saudi royal family is something of a black box. It’s largely impenetrable to outsiders, including people who have spent decades visiting and studying in Saudi Arabia. How do you go about carving a window into that black box?

It’s always easier to understand what’s going on – whether it’s a business feud, a political feud or a royal family feud – when there’s an actual feud

Bradley Hope: It’s always easier to understand what’s going on – whether it’s a business feud, a political feud or a royal family feud – when there’s an actual feud. If there’s people that are really aggrieved on one side and people alienated �� people who are in the circle and then out of the circle – those are a lot of opportunities that you have.

But the other thing that we mentioned in the author’s note is that a lot of people have this kind of conception about foreign correspondents – I’m not saying this is a rule, but that you need to be based in Cairo, based in Riyadh on the ground hearing what the shopkeepers are saying. But when it comes to the Gulf countries, the best place to be is London, and then the second-best place is probably New York or Paris, because those are the places where you can meet people who come out of those countries, whether they’re consultants or actual members from those countries, and really speak to them in a more free environment.

I would never attempt to kind of go to Saudi Arabia or the UAE, for that matter, and do a kind of unauthorised interview, because I know just how extensive the surveillance state is. And not just that, just culturally and in terms of attitude, people don’t want to talk much about sensitive things on the ground.

PS:  In your foreword, you urge the readers to bear in mind that he’s not just the leader of the kingdom, but the “CEO” of al Saud Inc. Explain the distinction there and why you felt it was so key to readers understanding MBS and the kingdom.

BH: Take Aramco [Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant] for example. Historically, Aramco was almost its own domain. They left somebody in charge of it, it was never a royal that was the kind of the chairman of the board, so to speak, it was really kept separate. And the idea was this is such a crucial institution, we don’t want anybody interfering with it. Then one of the first things MBS did was take over Aramco himself, put himself in charge, and really take control of all the arms of the economic machinery of the state and start having them all go in the same direction that he envisioned. So that’s one thing.

He quickly became deeply entwined with the fabric of the global financial system. He’s the cornerstone investor in the $100bn Vision Fund. He is the cornerstone investor in this big infrastructure fund that Blackstone set up that’s largely doing infrastructure work in America.  And he developed all these relationships with everybody from the CEO of Six Flags to the CEO of Boston Dynamics that makes those crazy robotic-looking dogs.

I think that’s really important because when it came to the blowback after the murder of a Jamal Khashoggi, it was harder to disentangle him than it could have been for a different kind of prince. A different kind of prince could have been sort of jettisoned.

PS: He’s made so many missteps since his father became king. You’ve got the war in Yemen, which has become Saudi Arabia’s Vietnam. You’ve got the blockade against Qatar, which has failed to bring Doha to its knees. And then you’ve got the shakedown of wealthy Saudis at the Ritz. The most notorious misstep, of course, was the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And then this year, there was the oil price war, Of all these missteps, which one has been the most profoundly damaging not to MBS himself, but to Saudi Arabia and the people of Saudi Arabia?

BH: I think I would have to say the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, even though it is a reflection on MBS himself, many Saudis, if you speak to them, no matter how high-ranking they are – even in the government – they’ll all say to you, this was wrong. This is not how Saudi does things. This is a shame on all of us. And those same people don’t blame MBS for it, but they all feel the same kind of guilt about it for being Saudis. And I think the world has sort of now viewed Saudi Arabia through that lens.

When it came to the blowback after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it was harder to disentangle him than it could have been for a different kind of prince

PS: It earned him the nickname Mr Bonesaw, which dovetails with his initials MBS. But I find it really fascinating that people from the kingdom are so ashamed of this episode, and yet they still don’t blame Mohammed bin Salman for this.

BH: MBS has himself said publicly that he takes responsibility for it. I think most people don’t understand what that means, but what that means is that essentially, he’s admitting – without saying it so specifically – that I told my black-ops team to take care of the Jamal Khashoggi situation. That’s the sort of subtext that’s not kind of communicated. He told them, take care of this problem. What we’ll never know, probably – and even the CIA doesn’t seem to know the answer – what was the exact order? Was it: Please kill Jamal Khashoggi, that guy is a traitor? Or did he say: Take care of this guy – and then the team sort of went above and beyond? I think that we’ll just truly never know the answer to that, because whenever that was spoken, it may not have been spoken on a phone line or in a room with more than one person. So on one hand, I think Saudi people – especially the youth who feel so empowered by him and who feel like they give him the mandate – he has made a difference in their lives. They don’t want to turn back the clock. They have a lot riding on him, and that’s part of it.

They have a lot riding on him, and that’s part of it

PS:  This is a country with a massive youth population, and Vision 2030, which is MBS’s blueprint for weaning the kingdom off of fossil fuels, [involves] reinvesting that money into sustainable industries of the future to create jobs for all those youthful workers. If you had to give a report card to Vision 2030, how would you say it’s going?

BH: I would say it’s probably not going well in terms of achieving this idea of a complete – or even really taking large steps away from oil towards a diverse economy. But there’s other ways to look at it.

For example, if you think this is a country where subsidies are just way overboard, people were just having excessive amounts of electricity, water – it was a huge wasteful situation in the economy, some of those things have been dealt with. Subsidies have been drawn back. There’s kind of the introduction of the first sense of taxes. Some of the out-of-control benefits have been cut back. The royal family itself has been cut down to size by MBS, and those guys were responsible for a lot of wastage.

The royal family itself has been cut down to size by MBS, and those guys were responsible for a lot of wastage

PS:  Vision 2030 wasn’t just about modernising the kingdom, it’s really about keeping the al-Sauds in power. They have to transform their economy, and this is a blueprint that really requires, number one, foreign direct investment [FDI] – foreigners actually pouring their money into the kingdom to help it transform, as well as wealthy Saudis also banking on their own country’s future. And by both measures, it’s falling very, very short.

BH: Well, that’s true, and that’s always a problem for any of the Gulf states. I’ve always seen it. The experienced people become very cynical, because all the big high-flying CEOs and bankers, they love to come for a visit – a flying visit – on their private jet. But then everyone gets the distinct impression that if they’re being offered a deal, it’s like the thirdhand deal – it didn’t work out for the other people, so they came to bring it to the Gulf. And the same thing goes for the investment: They may kind of make sounds or commit something, but ultimately, it’s not very real.

The one thing Saudi Arabia has going for it, though, is it has a larger population than some of these other countries, and that means it has a kind of domestic consumption possibility. So they’re in there building movie theatres right now and there is some investment from the company that’s building those, but nothing is happening on the FDI front that’s headline-grabbing.

I think all of these missteps created an environment of uncertainty, and even if you were considering investing in Saudi Arabia, you may have definitely pulled the plug or just decided to wait a few years because you don’t know, is this place even a secure country? Is Mohammad bin Salman going to be the crown prince still? Is he going to stick around, or is somebody new going to come in with a new vision?

All of these missteps created an environment of uncertainty, and even if you were considering investing in Saudi Arabia, you may have definitely pulled the plug or just decided to wait a few years

  PS: Let’s take a look also at the other side of the equation, wealthy Saudis investing their money in the kingdom. How is it going on that measure?

BH: I think it’s not going particularly well. A lot of those guys felt pressured to buy into the Aramco IPO to make it reach the right levels. A lot of what happens in Saudi Arabia, unfortunately, is still about the image. Justin [Scheck] and I wrote a big story about how the sovereign wealth fund props up the stock market whenever there’s bad news. So after the Jamal Khashoggi murder and other bad news moments, the sovereign wealth fund goes in and buys the biggest stock, which was, I think at the time, SABIC, the Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation, and it lifts the whole index to make it look either flat or slightly up. It’s a huge waste of money, it doesn’t actually help anyone, it just looks good.

A lot of what happens in Saudi Arabia, unfortunately, is still about the image

PS: It’s interesting that you mention the Aramco IPO and the shenanigans by the sovereign wealth fund pouring money into the Saudi stock market to boost it during times of stress. So what does this say if everybody knows the system is being gamed? What does that say about not only confidence in the kingdom, but confidence in MBS?

BH: The people who are more charitable think Saudi Arabia was locked in an almost time warp where things weren’t progressing, everything was moving so slowly, the social fabric was antiquated, to say the least. And now, here comes this young prince who is shaking everything up, and he’s going full guns blazing on every direction. Some of it’s working, some of it’s not working at all, and some of it’s blowing back on him in a big way, but they feel glad that somebody is willing to shake things up. That would be the more charitable side.

The less charitable side is that he’s uncontrollable to some extent – that would be the criticism. That’s why the economy can’t develop, because there’s not a sureness or a basis in the rule of law, for example. That’s really the problem with the Ritz crackdown. It did send an image or a message to Saudis and to people in the government and in the royal family about how things are going to be different. But it doesn’t give business people any kind of security going forward.

The early years of MBS, he was willing to take just such dramatic actions – and we look back now and just think how over the top it all is

PS: I also have to ask you about the blockade of Qatar. Full disclosure, Al Jazeera is majority-funded by the government of Qatar. This blockade was intended to really just bring Doha to its knees and bend it to Riyadh’s will and effectively make Qatar, if you will, a vassal state of Saudi Arabia. And it’s failed. So far, to date, it has absolutely failed.

BH: I think it’s definitely failed to convince Qatar to change its foreign policy, and it hasn’t been good economically. Probably it’s not that important economically, but I think it just comes down to this idea that the early years of MBS, he was willing to take just such dramatic actions – and we look back now and just think how over the top it all is. And very few of those big bets have paid off. The only ones that have, have been things like, for example, believing that Saudi Arabia could handle women driving. A lot of princes and kings before thought Saudi Arabia couldn’t handle it, and he kind of called that bluff and found that actually, Saudi society was very ready for that kind of change. But some of these other big, foreign gambits just did not pay off.

MBS sort of played Trump better than Trump sort of played MBS

PS:  The Trump White House enjoys what some would describe as a very friendly relationship with the Saudis and with MBS. How would you describe it?

BH: Well, I think one of the points of our book is that MBS sort of played Trump better than Trump sort of played MBS. At that time when Trump was first elected, MBS was still trying to secure his power. He still had one cousin who was in front of him in the line of succession, and he hadn’t even convinced, perhaps, some of the other influential people in Saudi Arabia that he was the effective man for the job. And he was only a few years into this, he couldn’t have had absolute confidence that he could pull it all off.

So he really dedicated himself to convincing the Trump administration to come over to Saudi Arabia for their first foreign trip, and they really listened and paid attention. He put all of his team on it.

They lavished him with gifts and white tiger fur and all these different things, and of course, he ate it all up. And later on, when push came to shove, the Trump administration was loath to ever push back on the Saudi side. So I think MBS got a lot more out of the equation than Trump did.

I think MBS got a lot more out of the equation than Trump did

PS: Do you think that Trump’s very cosy relationship, if you will, towards Saudi Arabia plays for or against his bid for re-election with voters?

BH: Well, it seems like this whole normalisation of the Gulf states [the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain], two of them so far with Israel, is actually a big plus for him. There’s a lot of conservative voters who care about that issue and who are very pro-Israel. I think that’s got to be a positive, probably, more than a negative. They’re not going to convince the left-leaning people who already have certain preferences in that dispute, but he may persuade some of those people in the middle who are kind of on the fence. People who are thinking, you know what, I don’t really like this aspect of the Trump presidency, but then this could be an issue that tips them back into his camp. So I think it probably is a net positive for him and it’s probably a net positive for the Gulf states who are cooperating in the future. Because if another president came in – like Biden – it doesn’t mean that they can be jettisoned tomorrow. Because now they’ve become a crucial part of the Middle East strategy.

Mohammed bin Salman has become so centrally powerful and he’s likely to become the king for decades

  PS: So in that sense, do you think that Biden would do anything differently vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia?

BH: I think there’ll be a lot of sounds. There might be some investigations, but I think at the end of the day, Mohammed bin Salman has become so centrally powerful and he’s likely to become the king for decades, that the people [Biden] brings in to intelligence, defence, foreign affairs, they’re going to say to him: This is not a situation where we can actually change the outcome. There is not somebody waiting in the wings to take over. And even if there was someone that they thought could take over, the idea of them taking over is a very bloody, scary situation. Nobody wants to encourage any regime change in Saudi Arabia. So ultimately, they’re just going to have to be realistic. They’ll try to put some pressure on issues that they prefer, but I really can’t see them doing much differently.

#world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=11330&feed_id=8477

[squaredcircleconfess]

Talking Christ #2

𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗬 𝗦𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗖𝗜𝗥𝗖𝗟𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗙𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗔𝗟

𝗛𝗢𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗕𝗬 𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗔𝗡 𝗙𝗘𝗡𝗜𝗫 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗞𝗜𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗡 𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗨𝗦𝗧

Kiersten Fraust: Welcome back to Talking Christ, ladies and gentlemen! And we're here again in our lovely squared circle confidential studio ready to talk about the going ons on the first episode of CCW. The name alone is a topic worth discussing, but we have a great show to talk about, right Logan?

Logan Fenix: It was something, plenty of crazy things happened throughout the show and it was truly some edge of your seat content.

Kiersten Fraust: Not only that. We also have a very special guest that will be joining us later on in the show.

Logan Fenix: And that special guest may have a surprise of her own, I have it on good authority she came with a plus one, Kiersten!  A plus one!  But first, where do we start with episode one, Everytime We Meet at the Wrestling Ring Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes?  What a title.

Kiersten Fraust: It's unique, I will say that. Personally, it's one of my favorite episode titles for a show.  Everytime We Meet at the Wrestling Ring Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes just really gets in your face and screams, you know?

Logan Fenix: I think it was named after Winters’s head nearly exploding at Greatest Wrestling With Christ, but anyway, we opened up strong with Chellsea and Daequan announcing themselves in charge of the show…  and then came Anwar and Chellsea had an interesting stipulation for his upcoming Saudi Arabia Championship match, too.

Kiersten Fraust: I just have to say that Chellsea was bringing the slay in her outfit. Now, the Saudi Arabia championship may or may not be changed to the CCW television championship this upcoming show. Will Anwar win and the championship name remains or he loses and the championship changes. Pretty high stakes for the championship Anwar carries so proudly.

Logan Fenix: Then, of course, you can’t forget the strange situation with Neve Marx seemingly being abandoned by Astraea, who had been watching her back for the debuting Rimadonna.  Astraea seems apologetic but, Rima not so much…  that might all come to a head soon.

Kiersten Fraust: Well, Astraea asked for some time in the ring to apologize to Neve and if you think she's truly sorry then I'll give her a chance. It wasn't really cool of Astaea to leave Neve hanging like she did after the fact that she had her back. As how you are... what do you make of the whole situation?

Logan Fenix: I think Neve is a good girl and good girls are boring.  Remember, Astraea was one of the most vicious competitors we’d ever seen and now with her makeshift alliance with Neve…  that had sort of lapsed.  I think Rimadonna appearing when she did is good, and I hope we see the vicious Astraea again, not the boring ‘friend’ Astraea.

Kiersten Fraust: To me, Astraea is being who she is all this time. We wanted to believe that Astraea was being good because she wanted to genuinely help Neve, but since Rimadonna showed up, she's just been helping herself. And I know she owes nothing to Neve but show a little class once in awhile.

Logan Fenix: We’ll agree to disagree and go to the featured contest, which was Santana Johnson vs. Jason Van Owen vs. Lisa Seldon in a stabbing match, which, did not work how you’d think.  The person who was stabbed the most actually won…  why did they just not stab anybody and draw?  We may never know, but this was…  another strange contest, Kiersten.  Put it into words, do it.

Kiersten Fraust: I never thought I would ever be saying a stabbing match in my life, but I keep having firsts when it comes to CCW. Obviously I will never forget what I watched that night. It was literally a bloodbath of stab wounds and complete chaos.

Logan Fenix: 174 stab wounds and somehow, Santana is still alive.  He is a tough son of a gun for sure.

Kiersten Fraust: Santana's been around a very long time doing what he does, I'm sure he's use to it. From one extreme to the next, we saw the golden ticket champion and championship on the first episode. It was unusual than most of the ways some people won the championship. Rivers was mauled by many cats until Belle Valentine found a hose and sprayed them.... Please stop me now.

Logan Fenix: Somehow Allister got the title though, somehow.  Evil cats.  As if we don’t have enough to worry about…  then, of course, we have the announcement of Winter Drell’s newest opponent.  Tedmund Montgomery, who is clearly looking to clean up what he perceives as indecency here in CCW.

Kiersten Fraust: I like him. Tedmund seems like a stand-up guy who wants what is best for the business. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the girl power and Winter has been killing it but maybe her time with the CCW championship will come to an end. That is always the possibility and it’s strong.

Logan Fenix: I think Winter has proven herself to be a dominant force, she’s overcome the first CCW Heavyweight Champion in Constantine Jr.  She’s overcome Jacob Kuntz.  She’s overcome all of the American Pain Experience.  Tedmund has an uphill fight for sure.

Kiersten Fraust: No one is selling Winter short. She has done it all and has beaten them all for sure. It's gonna be a great match that I can’t wait to see.

Logan Fenix: And then at the end, Lisa Seldon just like, left Santana to be eaten by zombies as he begged for help and screamed about his fear of heights.  Jason Van Owen also died, rest in peace.

Kiersten Fraust: Lisa really did leave Santana with his fears. But yeah, R.I.P. Jason Van Owen... unless he's like a super serial slasher monster and we all think he's dead and he's really not. I mean it could happen since all this other insane stuff happening in CCW.

Logan Fenix: It probably will…  but that’s our recap for the show, other than that.  Tune in to episode 2 of CCW TV, and of course, catch the premiere of Christ Centered Combat on Grapstream a swell…  now, I think we can get to our guests, right?

Kiersten Fraust: Oh yes! My favorite part of the show. Please welcome the beautiful and distinguished, Angel McMaster.

Angel McMaster emerges from the back but then her father comes strutting out the only way Mitch McMaster knows how. Shortly they join Kiersten and Logan at the table exchanging pleasantries and getting comfortable.

Kiersten Fraust: It's great to have you two here. Mitch, welcome back to the show.

Mitch McMaster: Oh honey, call me daddy, please.  Mitch is so formal.

He winked at Kiersten as he sat by Angel, adjusting himself in his seat, trying not to show any sort of weird old man bulges.

Angel McMaster: What my dad was trying to say is that it's great to be back, right? Because I'm very happy that I was invited to the show.

Mitch McMaster: She should have been invited a long time ago, my baby girl is the best of all time for a reason.

Logan Fenix: She’s certainly getting up there, even with a recent string of bad luck against the current Christcore Champion.

Angel McMaster: You like to forget a lot, Logan. Did everyone erase the time C.J. spent in WEW? I mean she would be the one with the bad luck if it took me six or seven years to win my first championship, too. But you'll just sweep everything under the rug and that's fine. C.J. got the better of me and I will not challenge for the Christcore championship again. That just means I get to move up the ladder a little bit more.

Logan Fenix: But the ladder is pretty full, Angel.  Tedmund has been announced as next in line, are you saying you want I guess…  in the line up with everyone else?  Willie Pete and Jacob Kuntz have also been arguing about being in the line too…  and Deirdre Evans has made some of her intentions clear, too.  You’re painting a target on yourself.

Mitch McMaster: She’s always had a target, she’s a McMaster, but you will all marvel at her when she ascends to the top where she belongs.  Just watch and be amazed.

Angel McMaster: You see, I'm gonna do whatever the hell I want. Not because I can get away with it and not because Mitch McMaster is my father... I'm gonna do it because I feel like it. Tedmund, Willie, Pete, Jacob, Mary, Joseph, Paul. No one can stop me because they'll do what mostly everyone else does, and that's overlook someone. The way I see it- that's an opportunity right there.

Kiersten Fraust: You've seen the dominance of the current Champion and the ones who are vying for the same championship. How do you plan on getting your name into that conversation?

Angel McMaster: You'll have to tune into the show in a few days to find that out.

Mitch McMaster: But that show is then, and you honey…

Mitch pointed to Kiersten, a smirk on his lips.

Mitch McMaster: You are invited to a show, TONIGHT.  The Mitch McMaster show.  I’m gonna show you what a Modern Marvel can do.

He slid his arms around Kiersten who was giving Logan a look like ‘help’.

Logan Fenix: You kids have fun.

Kiersten Fraust: I, uhmm... busy tonight. I gotta feed my dog.

Angel rolls her eyes annoyed.

Angel McMaster: Before I was so rudely interrupted by Kiersten trying to pick up my dad, when the second show of CCW comes around you’ll definitely know what my intentions are. Everyone better watch out.

Mitch McMaster: We’ll talk later about you bein’ my 44th wife, Kiersten.  My daughter is trying to illuminate the world so let her shine.  Keep going baby.

Logan Fenix: Yeah does your perversion know no bounds, Kiersten?  Hold it in.

Angel McMaster: A very wise man once shouted into the camera back in the day, McMaster spells disaster for you.

Mitch McMaster: You god damn right.

Angel McMaster: Is that good enough for you?

Angel looks Kiersten in the eyes as her dad nearly had her in a headlock. She drops the microphone on the surface of the table before getting up and walking away.

Kiersten Fraust: That's it for us. Until next time.

The show comes to an end.

[pierrehardy]

COVID-19 x Businesses

So far, I’ve written about how the COVID-19 pandemic is wrecking us medically and economically. For this particular write-up, I’ll focus my lenses on its effects on businesses today and in the future.

TL;DR

Businesses are buckling under the stress of the pandemic. Evidence of this is rising unemployment, slashed investments, halted dividends, a sales drop worse than the 2008 financial crisis, and the persistently low price of oil.

Which businesses will survive depends on their size, industry, importance, and government connections. The analysis speculates that companies involved in healthcare, technology, data, factory robots,  e-commerce, and communications are a buy, and companies involved in energy and banking are a sell.

After the pandemic, we will probably witness: 1) A renewed vigor to adapting and investing in technology. 2) That the supply chain will be less global and less China-centric, which can make firms more inefficient but resilient. 3) That the pandemic might wipe out enough small firms to give rise to oligopolies and cronyism.

This write-up will have three main parts and two bonus discussions I’ll tuck in the appendices. First, we look at the present and see current signs of stress that businesses are having with this Corona hullabaloo. Under this, I’ll include a bonus discussion on oil’s depressed state (Appendix A). Second, we look in the short term future and speculate which kinds of companies will survive. The second bonus discussion, which is the risks banks face (Appendix B), will come from this section. Finally, the most curious part is knowing the long term and seeing how the pandemic affected the future trends of businesses.

It’s also noteworthy to mention that by reading this, you can deduce some stock investment advice.

Present: Signs of Stress

Basically, it’s not looking good. That’s all you need to know.

But if you wanna know why that is so,  here are four of the most telling signs:

FROM THE POV OF THE WORKERS: Unemployment spiked. Several companies are furloughing their employees [1], and applications for unemployment benefits in America [2] and Europe jumped up. This is the most definite sign of the economic cost of the pandemic to the ordinary working people. It’s also the most explicit manifestation that companies are reeling from the economic comatose, as they can no longer support employing their people.

FROM THE POV OF COMPANIES: The main and rather obvious reason for the rise in unemployment is that companies cannot generate enough income to keep them. But one thing to note is that the slump in sales is much worse than that of the 2008 financial crisis (Figure 1: the axes disappeared but the x-axis is chronological and the y-axis is the rise/fall of sales. The highlighted parts were past recessions, the second one being 2008).

Figure 1 [3]

FROM THE POV OF INVESTORS: A lot of companies have suspended disbursing dividends [4] to their shareholders and have slashed investments [5].

FROM THE POV OF OILY BOIS: Oil’s price has hit the lowest of lows. The best way to show this is how, just recently, the price of oil went negative for the first time ever (Figure 2). This was initially caused by the price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. But the virus wanted to join the game of oil price limbo and proved to be so good that it forced the two countries to a truce. But this warrants a more extensive discussion, which is why I expounded on this a bit more in Appendix A.

Figure 2 [6]

Short Term: Who Will Survive?

I found four main factors that can tip the probability of a firm’s survival, and they’re all interconnected in some way:

The most significant determinant is probably the size of the company. The biggest losers would be the small businesses, with medium-sized firms looking vulnerable too. But the second factor can affect this and tip the scales in the opposite direction:

The second factor is the importance of the firm. Some firms, despite being small, have been ingenious enough. They managed to do something vital in some supply chains that they have no alternatives. This means that if they go down, the supply chain of that particular product is brought down with it. This incentivizes big companies to go above and beyond to support the survival of these small but essential firms. [7]

The third crucial factor depends on what industry the company is in. Every sector is down, but some more than others (Figure 3). For example,  the technology and healthcare industry is faring better than the rest (more on that later). On the contrary, banks are being battered due to their risky roles in the pandemic. This one also warrants a more extensive discussion, which can be found in appendix B.  Another important detail about what industry a company is in is whether the government considers it essential to national security. Governments would focus much more attention to these firms and throw more money their way. Sometimes the taxpayers aren’t pleased about that. [9] This connects us to the last factor:

Government connections. With the government in the rich world injecting supporting money to the economy, whoever has links in the high office definitely benefits in having their companies prioritized for funds and loans. This can lead to a vicious cycle of cronyism, which I will bring up again later on.  

Figure 3 [8] 

Long Term: The Crater After The Pandemic

After we are done being ravaged by the virus, the business landscape would be changed, and some changes will be permanent. I speculate that three distinct trends in business will be accelerated by the virus. “Accelerated” is the keyword there because most of these trends were already taking place but were pulled forward.

First is the acceleration in the adoption of things, mostly technologically. Let me highlight four things here:

Before the pandemic, working from home (WFH) was considered to be some sort of experimental thing in most businesses. As we know, the virus shoved businesses straight into the arms of this policy, and it’s not unreasonable to think that a lot of bosses will realize the benefits of it. They could realize that they would need less office space in the future, saving some money. This will push the adoption of remote working tools even more, perhaps also prompting a wave of investments in it (read: buy stocks of companies involved in making these tools). [10]

Second, FINALLY, IT investments are getting some recognition. As I specialize in the management of IT, the prevailing view is that executives usually begrudge IT projects since the cost of IT investments is expensive and just too quantifiable. And due to the nature of IT projects, they also rarely proceed as planned and usually go over the budget. Conversely, the benefits of IT are too difficult to quantify, fueling the animosity of the big chiefs. Mind you, they know that IT is essential in surviving, but these big boys like to see things clearly in numbers and dollars. But now, thanks to IT, some businesses can limp on where others have collapsed by enabling WFH [11]. The benefits of all those IT projects can’t get any clearer than that. 

Two sectors that are seeing a boost in adoption is anything related to e-commerce, including digital payments, due to the lockdowns (read: it’s not unwise to invest in those companies). [12]

I also speculate that firms with data in their core would find the situation serendipitous. As someone who specializes in assisting companies leverage data for their businesses, I know that data really has the potential to boost the value of for consumers and companies alike. But the most significant barrier to this, for a good reason, is privacy. [11] As I’ve witnessed, there’s nothing like the fear of a virus to loosen people’s defensiveness of their privacy [13]. This can lead to a new normal of looser privacy standards that can benefit data centric firms (this is another possible investment advice).

Finally, another area worth considering to invest in are companies that make robots for factories. Why? Well, let me first discuss the second accelerating trend:

The globalization of the supply chain will unravel a bit. This trend has been slowly happening ever since Trump waged a trade war against China. As someone with an economic background, my first reaction to this would be to be horrified (as this can lead to more inefficient and more expensive supply chains, making things more costly and even making innovation slower). But after taking a closer look, it seems that businesses around the world had realized that the “global supply chain” is more of a “Chinese supply chain” [8]. It was undeniable that when China went on a swift and massive lockdown, it paralyzed numerous supply chains all over the world. This supply chain shift away from China was predicted even before, since as China grew, so did the salaries of their workers (Figure 4). This eroded the cost-benefit of having a supply chain run through China. So what can we speculate about this? I highlight three:

One can expect that companies would limit the risk of disruption next time and try to move their supply chains closer to home. Firms would, therefore, be more inefficient; however, they may be more resilient.

Or alternatively, they can simply transfer from China and to cheaper Asian countries. Doing so will genuinely diversify the chain and boost poorer economies [15]. (This can be positive news for the Philippines).

As companies decide to shift, governments are already jumping on advertising bringing the chain back home [16]. If this trend continues, governments would want big state champions. This can be good news to big tech, who just last year was under the threat of being broken up [17]. This is good for them but possibly to consumers too because these firms deliver value through networks and cannot be judged on the same competition rules as conventional businesses [11][18]. But this can also lead to the last trend, which will be detrimental to society:

The rise of oligopolies. As corona weeds out the weak of health, the virus also weeds out feeble businesses. Bankruptcies are expected to be widespread, leaving the business landscape to be more concentrated. Big companies will emerge, scathed but alive, to less competition. The smaller ones who survived would be battered, and it would be too easy for the big companies to take them over. Or perhaps, in fear of being eaten by the bigger fish, two small or medium companies might prefer to merge together. Either way, it will lead to even less competition. This is bad for consumers since these oligopolies can abuse their position and raise prices for inferior products (remember when Uber stopped operations in the Philippines, and we were only left with Grab?) But you may ask: what about the government’s antitrust? Well, that’s where the cronyism I mentioned earlier would make things worse. If, during the crisis, companies had to buddy up with politicians to secure aid, this better relationship between businesses and government would make everything worse and more corrupt. This can lead to antitrust regulators turning a blind eye on those who abuse their market power. But what if, instead of all that gloomy outlook, we progressed in the most Schumpeterian way? [11][19] That the creative destruction of the weak is what spurs a new generation of more efficient, more innovative, and more creative challengers and startups. We can only hope. In an information society though, network effects are strong, and big incumbents can make the barrier to entry too high [11][20].

Figure 4 [14]

Appendix A: Oil

To put it succinctly, the price of oil is in the shitter, and any nation that depends on it for their balance sheet is too. As I mentioned, it started with a Saudi Arabian vs. Russian price war. Let’s dig into that real quick.

Here is a very rough timeline and simplified narrative of the whole thing:

The USA became the world’s biggest producer of oil, thanks to shale (Figure 5). 

Russia wants to undermine this and would produce too much oil and bring the price down to choke off budding American oil boys (Russia isn’t part of OPEC. OPEC is a club of oil-producing countries that coordinates how much oil each will make so they can artificially keep the prices of oil up. Crazy, right? Saudis lead this clubhouse).

Saudi Arabia, secretly, probably also wants to choke of American shale. However, the country is currently spending a lot on projects that would diversify its income away from oil. So it’s in their interest to keep the price of the oil not too low to balance their books.

America is also twisting Saudi Arabia’s arm by withholding military aid to them if they try to choke off American shale. 

Earlier this year, Russia basically ignored the supply restrictions of the OPEC (sometimes, Russia cooperates with the OPEC), which infuriated the Saudis. So the Saudis went,  “two can play at that game,” and both countries opened taps that dropped the price of oil. 

Not too long ago though, they made a truce because of the pandemic.

Figure 5 [21]

Does the truce help? Not as much as they hope, probably, since this supply-side-caused depression of price is outweighed by the virus-induced collapse of demand for oil. [22]

To make it worse, the future changes in businesses due to the pandemic outlined above will have an effect on oil too.

The possible permanent adoption of some form of WFH policy will lessen travel overall, reducing demand for oil.

Unraveling supply chains can lead to shorter trade routes and less transportation. This can further lessen the demand for oil.

Add to the mix the usual pressure for climate change fueled trends, and we have a gloomy future for the oil industry. 

(Advice: I would avoid energy stocks)

Appendix B: Banks

Banks are expected not to have a jolly time during this pandemic, and their stock performance so far shows that (Figure 3). This appendix will quickly enumerate the risks they face:

Low interest rates. As governments cut interest rates to prop up the free-falling economy, this also means less income on bank loans.

The trade-off of being a hero or martyr. Being the villains of the last crisis, this time, some see them as heroes that could help give out loans to support businesses hit by the pandemic. However, this risks the stability that banks have built as a response to the 2008 financial crisis.

Risks of loan defaults are high. In China, the bad-loan ratio could climb up to 8% [23].

Regulators have ordered banks to freeze money earmarked for shareholders [24] and share buyback plans.

Regulators also target the bonuses of various banking executives. [25]

All of these endangers the progress made by weaker banks like those in Italy and Germany’s Deutsche Bank. The most significant risk is probably the rush of policymakers to unravel all the regulations set in place to make banks more secure after the 2008 financial crisis. This includes the loosening of capital buffers and loan-loss accounting [26]. In an effort to save ourselves from the current crisis, we might be making the same mistakes we did that caused that last one. 

References

[1]https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disney-furloughs-100-000-theme-park-hotel-workers-amid-coronavirus-n1188236?cid=public-rss_20200420 

[2]https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf 

[3]https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/business/stock-market-today-coronavirus.html 

[4]https://www.investopedia.com/dividends-are-dwindling-4801773 

[5]https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/04/22/2008835/philippines-german-firms-seen-investing-less 

[6]https://www.ft.com/content/26ea5ef9-0619-4e50-b605-58e36d3fc4d9 

[7]https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/suppliers/unilever-offers-500m-relief-to-suppliers-and-customers-donates-hygiene-products/603239.article 

[8]https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/04/11/the-changes-covid-19-is-forcing-on-to-business 

[9]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-26/boeing-asks-washington-for-help-critics-say-it-doesn-t-deserve 

[10]https://techwireasia.com/2020/04/a-remote-working-future-maybe-flexible-working-comes-first/ 

[11] Trust me, bro, I studied this. It’s just a bit cumbersome to dig through all the academic articles and textbooks I studied during my bachelor's and master’s. 

[12]https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/news/covid-19-pandemic-drives-e-commerce-upward-big-time/ 

[13]https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/04/02/privacy-mad-germany-turns-to-app-to-track-virus-spread.html 

[14]https://www.economist.com/briefing/2015/03/12/a-tightening-grip 

[15]https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/manufacturing-strategy-built-trade-instability.aspx 

[16]https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-28/ 

[17]https://www.investopedia.com/how-will-elizabeth-warren-break-up-big-tech-4772263 

[18]https://www.wired.com/story/dont-break-up-big-tech/ 

[19] Maddison, A. (1991). Dynamic forces in capitalist development: A long-run comparative view. Oxford University Press, USA.

[20] Shapiro, C., Carl, S., & Varian, H. R. (1998). Information rules: a strategic guide to the network economy. Harvard Business Press.

[21]https://www.statista.com/chart/19367/share-of-global-oil-production/ 

[22]https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/04/08/an-unprecedented-plunge-in-oil-demand-will-turn-the-industry-upside-down 

[23]https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2020/04/08/how-sick-might-banks-get 

[24]https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenpope/2020/04/01/british-banks-will-suspend-dividends-so-shines-a-good-deed-in-a-weary-world/ 

[25]https://www.ft.com/content/24740ddb-7cc8-4a3a-8fbe-616ea9b4ac7d 

[26]https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-coronavirus-bailout-repeats-2008s-mistakes-huge-corporate-payoffs-with-little-accountability

[loudlytransparenttrash]

Right Wing Extremism vs. Islamic Extremism Myth

Recently I have noticed a lot of people on Tumblr and all over social media posting articles that claim right wing extremism is more dangerous than Islamic extremism. They have cherry-picked stats, twisted a few truths and hid some facts to come to this wild conclusion that the left ultimately uses to brush off the epidemic of Islamic extremism today. 

There’s quite a lot of things wrong with this myth. First of all, the idea that right wing extremists are more dangerous than Islamic extremists is based on deaths and completely excludes casualties. They have also limited themselves to attacks in the United States, not worldwide. They have also purposefully excluded the nearly 3,000 deaths (as well as the over 6,000 survivors) that took place on September 11, 2001. They don’t count the 9/11 deaths as that would obviously obliterate their argument so they started counting from 9/12. 

It seems a little misleading to have a discussion about terrorism related deaths in the United States and exclude the most important and largest terror attack in U.S. history, particularly from 2001, it’s not like we’re talking about the 70′s or 80′s, but this nevertheless has become standard practice when they cover these issues. 

They also excluded the large number of attempted attacks. There have been over 50 planned terror plots that have been stopped since 9/11. Feel free to go through them all and tell me how many of these attempts were made by right wing extremists compared to Islamic extremists. 

Do you know what else they left out? The 49 murdered and 53 injured during the Orlando nightclub massacre. Yes, their numbers are conveniently outdated yet they still blindly run with it. 

I mean, there’s no point even continuing as the updated version of their own source shows that Islamic extremism is greatly more dangerous than any other form of extremism in the U.S. But let’s keep going. 

Their such misleading accounting also does nothing to recognize the disproportionately high number of attacks by Islamic extremists in the United States, who even after excluding the victims of 9/11, are still responsible for far more deaths of Americans due to extremism, even though Muslims only account for around 1% of the total U.S. population. Let that sink in. And still, the left refuses to discuss it or even acknowledge it. 

If we are going to compare Islamic extremism to right wing extremism, apples to apples, then why does their source stop counting the Islamic extremism cases after the first nine? There’s no mention of the other endless examples of Islamic extremism within the U.S. Consider the Beltway sniper John Allen Williams, a longtime member of the Nation of Islam, who only one month after 9/11 changed his last name from Williams to Muhammad and after his arrest, he told police that he modeled himself after Osama bin Laden and claimed one of their goals was to extort money from the federal government so they could set up a terrorist training camp in Canada. The Virginia Supreme Court affirmed his death penalty on the basis that he had committed an act of terrorism yet there’s also conveniently no mention of these murders.

There are, unfortunately, many more such examples that have not been included. In Denver, a Muslim man shot four of his co-workers and a swat team member, killing one and claimed he did it because it was “Allah’s choice.” No mention of this murder.

In Binghamton, a Saudi Arabian graduate student named Abdulsalam al-Zahrani killed Richard Antoun, a non-Muslim Islamic studies professor who served on al-Zahrani’s dissertation committee, in revenge for “persecuted” Muslims. Prior to the killing, one of al-Zahrani’s roommates tried to warn the university administration after al-Zahrani had threatened to kill him, “He often mentioned death, he was all the time shouting in Arabic, shouting threats, insulting this country for no reason.” No mention of this murder. 

In Houston, in two separate incidents in January and in November, two Christians were shot dead by a Muslim father and his family because the victims “had a role in the conversion of his daughter to Christianity” and running away with a Christian man. Gelareh Bagherzadeh, a 30-year-old researcher at MD Anderson, was shot to death outside her parents home. Ali Irsan, 57, was charged with capital murder in the case. His wife, Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, and their 21-year-old son, Nasim, were also charged with murder. Irsan also killed Coty Beavers, his daughter's Christian husband, 10 months after killing Bagherzadeh. The crimes were described an honor killing in court, "Nesreen Irsan would not succumb to her father's complete domination and rule of her. And she left his home without his permission and went into hiding. These two murders are linked by the belief on the defendant's part that his honor as a father and a Muslim has been violated by his daughter, who defied his rule and married a Christian man." No mention of these murders. 

In Richmond California, a Muslim man, Daymond Agnew, killed an Ace Hardware employee by stabbing him seventeen times, claiming he was on a “mission from Allah” and he was "following Allah's direction.” Agnew's Facebook page was filled with religious messages referring to his adherence to Islam, jihadist material as well as pictures of passages in the Quran. No mention of this murder. 

In Houston, Saudi Arabian student Mohammed Ali Alayed, slashed the throat of a Jewish student with a knife, nearly decapitating him. Before the attack, Alayed had undergone a “religious reawakening” and became a strict, devout Muslim and even went to a local mosque after the slaying and had planned to flee to Saudi Arabia to avoid prosecution. The court were forced to set Alayed's bail at $5 million after prosecutors said they feared the Saudi Arabian government would help post his bond after the Saudi consulate had already posted previous bonds for Alayed. No mention of this murder. 

It seems these few small examples (and many others) should have certainly counted as victims of violent Islamic extremism, but they were not included in the left’s attempt to take the focus away from the threat of Islamic extremism and make Islamic extremism a little bit easier to just “live with.” 

It all becomes very misleading when they exclude almost every American’s deaths of Islamic extremism but this is the only way to come up with a number that suits their argument.

This is not to dismiss the threat of non-Islamic extremism, it’s about keeping the debate factual and honest, something those who spread this claim clearly have little regard for. The moment you apply equal standards and remove the convenient restrictions, then the raw and unfiltered numbers of deaths of Americans due to Islamic extremism in the United States over the last fifteen years absolutely dwarf the numbers attributable to any other form of extremism.

If we move beyond America’s borders, then the disparity becomes sickeningly far greater, with somewhere around 90% of the world’s terrorism related deaths attributable to Islamic extremism, and only a fraction of 1% attributable to right wing extremism. So the next time they tell you that you should be more afraid of Trump supporters than Muslims as “right wing extremism is more dangerous than Islamic extremism,” you can now prove them to be the terrorist apologist fucking morons that they so shamefully are. 

[waldbrown]

Six Questions about Filmmaking in Saudi Arabia

A video of this interview can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYwHo-zkNxI

On the subject of manifestos. I met up at IFFRotterdam with Abdulrahman Khawj, a director  from Saudi Arabia who is at the epicenter of both the commercial and independent film work emerging after the Kingdom legalized cinema in 2018. For three years, we discussed the possibilities of cinema in a place it was not really permitted, often discussing a manifesto that would seek to document the unique challenges faced by filmmakers in this seemingly insurmountable--and sometimes bizarrely welcoming--filmmaking environment. Abdulrahman’s first feature film, The Great Muse, is the focus of my film, First Feature, which was screening at Rotterdam. Before running to catch our trains on the last day of the festival, we recorded an interview about the current state of filmmaking in Saudi Arabia, as well as our own goals with filmmaking in the next few years, touching on subjects that had served as discussion topics for a possible manifesto: splitting time between ads and shooting features, whether we aim to make films with a possibility of commercial cinema release, and the importance of place for someone looking to write and direct films. Here's the transcript of the interview.

Bentley (B)

First question: Where are the films with stories of people in Saudi Arabia who don't hold Saudi nationality?

Abdulrahman (A)

Where are they? Ok…

Well, even films for Saudi nationals, there's only three of them so far. It's true that Saudi Arabia has a very high diversity of people from different nationalities and backgrounds, and there are some awesome stories. There's a group called Thamaniyah who make documentaries, do you know them? They made two or three short films about the Hajj. Most people in the films are foreigners...or at least from different nationalities. It was really nice. 

So there are a lot of great stories out there, but we're still catching up on the Saudi ones. There's a huge potential.

Question for you: I know how you work but others might not know. What keeps you going with a majority of films whose work takes place in post-production.

So you're filming all the time and you wind up with a lot of footage.

B

Just like we're doing right now.

A

Yeah, by 2045 we might see this in a film.

What keeps you patient watching footage and then spending a year or two in editing? Here the whole film takes a year and a half.

B

What keeps me going? It's coffee, of course...espresso.

But what gives me patience? The idea is that I've got a lot of projects going on at the same time. So if I have a project that keeps me in an editing studio for a whole year, I don't feel like it's taking all my time because I'm spread out between other projects, many of which aren't even "documentary" or "non-fiction" in nature, such as dramas. So I'm having fun with some things but concentrating on post-production projects at the same time. Diversity of projects...distractions...just trick yourself, forget you're spending all your time on a film.

Next question: People say "Saudi Arabia's all oil and money" and that it's easy to get funds to make a movie. But maybe in reality it's not. Where do you ideally get your money for making a film in Saudi Arabia?

A

This is a good observation that many people think Saudi Arabia is all money. But those with money are the same, their religion is money. Whether they're in America or Saudi Arabia 

or Malaysia or anywhere else, they want something in return for their expenditure, and this is why they might not give out money. There hasn't been cinema in Saudi Arabia until now

so they're starting to envision that movies could earn profit. But even this is tough because there are many things more profitable than films. Individually we make very low-budget, inexpensive films which take a really long time to get any money back. Or we do something where the 

director and producer split costs. Savings...you have to save.

B

I feel like in life you have to save. No matter where you're living or what you're working

you have to save money.

A

You have to be smart with money.

We also work commercials and TV in order to earn money to spend on films later. So we work two jobs always.

Next question: What is the end goal for you? We're here, we're struggling, we're trying to make movies, trying to get noticed. Twenty years from now where do you want to be with filmmaking?

B

I'm working on a lot films composed of home video or other types of video not intended to be made into a movie. But the dream in twenty years is that I'd be back in films like Faisal Goes West with more of an imaginative space, addressing contemporary social issues. That's my goal, to get back into drama and comedy and the like. I would have a diversity of projects in form and content.

A 

So you won't to go more fiction?

B

It would be spread out...also virtual reality and installation. I've got a project I'm working on now, for example, that is four screens in the same room. But bigger than this, before I die, I want to tell stories...finish telling the stories I've got. Especially the things I witnessed unique to my experience as a kid and teenager in Chad. For example, my relationship with religion, with my parents, such as my father, who was a doctor in Chad. My later work in Saudi Arabia...I want to talk about these stories and get them out to the world. I want them to be public too, not just exclusive to theaters or film festivals.

A

Just like Kamal Jaafari, celebrated films talking about something important and personal but it's for everyone to...

B

Everyone should be able to get something from it.

My third question is: Will you make a commercial film for cinematic release in Saudi Arabia? Or is this not really one of your goals?

A

Yes, but as a producer. There are films for which I'm be a producer and there's films where I'm a director and writer. My directing and writing aren't really for general audiences. They're mostly art films and their audiences are limited. I'm happy with the way things are, but I also want to make films my dad or mom or younger siblings would go watch. That's why I produce, to make films other than those I'd write and direct. I help other people make films. So, hopefully in cinemas soon.

B

You've got the last question.

A

The last question is mine.

B

The last question of yours is for me.

A

It's not as poetic as that.

So now you're studying PhD. You're doing a doctorate in filmmaking and technology...it's very interesting. What are the pluses and minuses?

B

Oh my god that's a big question.

A

Let's just start the whole interview over now.

B

Let's start with the disadvantages. In order to do the PhD--and I still don't know if I'll be spending two years or four years where I'm doing my studies--I had to take myself out of the "Arab World," from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, Chad, and Africa in general. This hurts a bit. I feel that one of the best ways to spend my youth is to always be moving between Chad, Sudan, America, France, Saudi Arabia and the like. But to concentrate on the PhD I have to spend most of my time in America at the university where I'm studying.

There's many advantages of course. The first is that I'm making even more films now than when I was teaching filmmaking in Jeddah. Teaching six to seven courses a semester didn't allow us to work on our films. Most of the films we made together [in Jeddah] were made in the summer, for example. So now I'm making films inside the program where I'm studying. That's its focus.

The last thing, and this is something you helped me with when I was living in Jeddah--and I hope we keep the communication flowing so we can encourage each other in this--is that I'm challenging myself so that I can develop intellectually. I feel like you could spend your life telling stories, showing us a perspective we wouldn't see if it weren't for movies. And this is very nice, that you could show us a culture or lifestyle we knew nothing about. This is very beautiful. But without a higher thinking, or without pondering the future, or without incorporating a different point of view, or a depth of subject matter--to understand the background elements beyond the story, is very important. So I want to grow intellectually.

A

In filmmaking, the story is a medium for communicating an idea. It's a language--I admire that actually, and I miss it. I'm making movies but I don't have three months, for example, to learn and explore a new perspective.

B

Just look at the films we both enjoy, the director often has a hobby or passion they're crazy about. Perhaps they studied medicine, or architecture such as yourself. Their knowledge of another field made the film's story better, and deeper.

I hope you make it back to Saudi Arabia okay.

A

I'll see you at the next festival.

(Photo credit: Sara Alsubaie)

[wymanthewalrus]

I think I'm going to go on a bit of an educated and probably pretentious-sounding rant about popular perceptions of both current and historical events in, for lack of a better term, the Middle East. It's gonna be LONG. 

FOREWARNING: I'm not a published expert on the subject and this isn't intensively cited or peer-reviewed. I may get facts wrong. TAKE EVERYTHING I SAY HERE WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

So this post has been brewing for a while, but was specifically set off by something I saw on Reddit today. Someone, in a discussion about ISIS and the Syrian Civil War, said, and I quote: "We need a new Crusade." It's a sentiment I've seen a lot in the past few months in various forms all around the internet and the news, and it reflects, in my opinion, the complete and total ignorance of both history and politics of the people making those statements.

Now I'm going to start with the modern and geopolitical problems with that statement first because they're the simplest to explain and observe.

PROBLEM THE FIRST: Do we need a "new Crusade" to bring down ISIS? Not at all. The Iraqis and Kurds are currently in the process of winning the conflict. By quite a lot. The question is not IF ISIS will collapse, but WHEN. The big problem is that the conflict with ISIS is part of a much larger and more complicated quagmire of violence in Iraq and Syria. There are dozens of factions fighting amongst themselves for a dozen different reasons, which is complex enough, but the greater Syrian Civil War conflict has extended further into a sort of proxy war between local powers. Every neighboring country, and some that aren't even close, has a stake.

There are several important players and power blocs to consider. The first is Turkey. With the 8th largest military on Earth, and still riding a wave of popularity following the recent failed coup, Turkey's government has several goals. The first is to prevent Turkish Kurds from seceding in the even that the inevitable defeat of ISIS gives rise to an independent Kurdistan. Second, Turkey wants to keep the wider conflict from crossing over its borders.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf State allies, being primarily Sunni Muslim, are treating the war as a way to gain a leg up over the primarily Shia Muslim Iran in regional influence, so different militias supported by both factions are thrown into the mix.

Add in the Syrian Government and its brutal human rights abuses and recent Russian Interference on the regime's side, targeting non-ISIS rebels more often than ISIS troops and a resultant spike in tensions with the US and Turkey. In the middle of it all are the Kurds and Iraqis, operating with US and Iranian support in Northern Iraq and Syria. These guys are the ones who are currently doing most of the winning against ISIS, as far as I am currently aware.

The entire situation is a tangled mess of alliances, ambitions, angry rebels, and zero foresight. Anyone who has studied history can point to another specific war that highlights just how bad an unnecessary escalation would be: The First World War. It all started as a regional conflict between independence-seeking rebels and Austria-Hungary, but escalated when other European powers started treating it as a way to advance their own interests. A tangle of alliances and treaties fired off and BAM, Europe was in chaos. 

An escalation of the greater Syrian Civil War conflict, could easily result in something similar. Besides ALL of that, the most often-cited reason for an invasion is ISIS, the ones who are currently losing to the Kurds and Iraqis. So an escalation would not only be potentially devastating, it would also be completely pointless.

Which brings me back to the idea of the Crusades.

The implication of a "new Crusade" would be a religiously-justified war against a specific religious group, in this case Christian armies attacking Muslims. Now aside from the fact that this would be, according to a 2010 study, declaring war on 1.6 billion people and would almost certainly result in nothing but a further downward spiral in stability in the Middle East and a continuing cycle of violence, poverty, migration, and xenophobia, there is a much deeper issue with this Reddit post.

The Crusades are commonly portrayed in Western, European-descended cultures as a cut-and-dry series of wars waged by Christian Europe with the intent to return the holy land to Christian hands.

This explanation skims the surface of the reality of the Crusades and adds a cultural bias for good measure. It has parts that could be construed as accurate from a certain standpoint, but obscures massive amounts of complexity for the sake of a specific narrative.

To understand the Crusades, we have to understand the time period. The First Crusade was called by Pope Urban II in 1095. The world at the time, and the way religion was treated, was vastly different from the modern world. The previous four hundred years had seen the rise of a series of vast, immensely powerful Arabic Islamic Empires - the Caliphates. Following directly in the wake of the founding of Islam and the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the first of these empires quickly expanded from a small realm around Mecca and Medina all the way into North Africa and Central Asia.

I would argue that these conquests were not religiously motivated, but rather the same natural drive for expansion that every large Empire in history has required to remain intact, but that's an argument for another time. 

Of immediate relevance to this rant is the  interactions between the Islamic Empires and Europe. At the time of their first appearance, Christian Europe was in the midst of what we know of as the Dark Ages. Literacy rates and urban populations were at rock bottom and most people relied on farming to survive. There really weren't any powerful countries in Western Europe, but in Greece and Turkey the Byzantine Empire - the last vestige of Rome - reigned supreme as the sole bastion of civilization in a dark, dark Europe. 

The Caliphate entered the scene while the Byzantines were locked in conflict with their rivals, the Sassanid Empire of Persia. In a relatively short amount of time, the Sassanids had been destroyed and the Byzantines had lost control of Egypt and North Africa to what became known as the Rashidun Caliphate. Byzantium was still  powerful, though, and resisted multiple invasions over the next several centuries.

In essence, the Byzantine Empire became a sort of barrier preventing the Caliphates from pushing into Eastern Europe. Eventually, however, Spain came under Arabic control as well, and the initial wave of conquest was stopped by a Frankish army at the Battle of Tours in 732.

For the next three centuries, the rising Christian Kingdoms of Europe remained sheltered from conquest by the natural barriers of the Pyrenees Mountains and the Byzantine Empire. During this time, the Islamic Caliphates were HIGHLY tolerant of other religions and cultures, creating special ordinances and codes that protected non-Muslims' rights and encouraged their participation in local government. The Europeans were too busy slaughtering pagans and heathens to take note, but Christian and Jewish pilgrims were free to travel to their holy sites.

Fast forward to 1071. A nomadic people from Central Asia, the Seljuqs, have taken control of Persia and Iraq and crushed the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert. The Byzantines barely retain control of the coast of modern-day Turkey, with everything in the interior and East falling into Seljuq hands. The Seljuqs, although Islamic like their Caliphate neighbors, have less-pleasant policies towards other religions, and cut off the main overland pilgrimage route to the Holy Land.

The Byzantines appealed to the Pope for aid. I could go into the whole Catholic/Orthodox nature of this in detail, but it's not really worth the space. Suffice to say that Catholic and Orthodox Christians didn’t see eye to eye, and getting them to cooperate was nigh-impossible. What IS important is that the Byzantines were requesting help with the reasoning that is Byzantium fell, Europe would as well.

The problem for the Pope, thanks to the Catholic/Orthodox issue that I'm skimming over, was that "Help the Byzantines" wasn't a good reason to call for a holy war. Because his only influence over Europe was through the lens of religion, he needed a good enough religious reason to rally the European Kingdoms and get them fired up to invade. Fortunately for the Pope, the Seljuqs had cut off the pilgrimage routes and he could ask the European Kings and Nobles to invade for the purpose of "returning the Holy Land to Christian hands."

That right there is the important part. The Crusades did NOT start for religious purposes, they simply used them as a convenient excuse and rallying cry. Amusingly, although the Crusaders DID invade through Seljuq-controlled lands, the First Crusade also targeted lands and cities that weren't even under Seljuq control. Jerusalem, for instance, was controlled by the Fatimid Caliphate. 

While I'm on the subject of Jerusalem, I should mention that the super-Christian Crusaders, upon taking the city, slaughtered pretty much every non-Christian they could find. Although massacres were relatively commonplace in medieval warfare, the Massacre of Jerusalem is often said to have exceeded even the standards of the time. 

Eyewitnesses reported that the Crusaders waded through blood as high as their ankles or even knees in some places. The Jewish synagogue was burned with the Jews who took refuge there still trapped inside. On the Temple Mount, one crusader stated that over 10,000 innocents, including women and children, were butchered. Some Muslims were spared as captives and made to drag the corpses out of the city into massive, house-sized piles.

Ultimately, the Crusades were useless. They accomplished nothing and served only to spill the blood of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people. The Fourth Crusade even ended up as an invasion of the Byzantine Empire, sealing the coffin of the declining Empire's fate with a betrayal by supposed allies. So, in conclusion, the crusades were ineffective wars fought in the name of a religion by highly-religious warriors for a completely non-religious purpose that the failed at more miserably than just about anyone has ever failed in history while at the same time committing stomach-churning atrocities.

Do we "Need a new Crusade?"

No.

No, we absolutely don't.

[sethjungman]

Fits & Yo as immigrants, Jesus as a refugee, The Menace and mercy

I've written this post over and over in my head, never really being satisfied with how to start it.  Part of me has this idea that I need to join the fray of people speaking out about the current political climate and the other part of me wonders if it's worth jumping into feet first.  

Ultimately, the question I have to answer is what will my kids say when they're 18 and 20 and they've asked me if I ever said anything about the current political state or if I just kept my mouth shut. I'm an introvert by nature, and even discussing politics gives me the chills, but this time it's different.  

I'm the father of two immigrants. I had never thought of them as immigrants until there was banning people of certain countries from entering the United States.  Two of those countries border Fitsum's home of Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan (technically, the South Sudan too). Fitsum very well could have those genes in his blood, I can't be sure, but had he been born just a few hundred of miles from Ethiopia, he would have been on those lists.

Here we are, banning immigrants from seven countries, mainly because of the religion that they choose to worship, and I can't help but think of a a few things.

1.  Yesterday, during mass, my priest spoke about mercy, the idea that mercy is what helps make Christians who they are. Not that mercy is exclusive to Christianity, but it seems to be one of those things that when Christians discus their values, that they (we) talk about mercy as being one of those core values. The funny thing is that I feel that there's quite a bit of hypocrisy when it comes to mercy, a lot of Christians seem to want to pick and choose where you get to show mercy for other people and cultures and religions. That means for Muslims and just about anyone else in your rolodex of people who need help.

2.  Depending on your interpretation of the Bible, particularly Matthew's account, Joseph, Mary and Jesus were refugees.  Herod is paranoid that Jesus will threaten him as king, so he orders that children be killed. Joseph, Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt, which is still under Roman reign, but not under Herod's thumb. In the truest sense the Holy Family was absolutely a Muslim family today. Fleeing to a country that was under different rule for fear of the life of Jesus, all the wile being Jews, a religion completely different than what the Romans celebrated.  We know how the story ends, but it wasn’t with being denied at the border of Egypt.

3.  On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, one of my friends sent me and some other buddies a photo by text that demonstrated Catholic nuns marching and walking with MLK at Selma. This wasn't a surprise to me. I've read MLK's interview with Alex Haley, which is one of the more brilliant things I've ever read, particularly because what King spoke sounded like he had edited those words a thousand times, but that was an interview. One of the more brilliant things I've ever read. In any event, I noted to my friends that Catholics marching with MLK wasn't a surprise because Catholics were hated by the KKK. There was this newspaper, originated in Missouri, called The Menace, and had over 1.5 million subscribers in it's hey-day. The main purpose of The Menace was to spread propaganda and untruths about the Catholic church. I don't know if a lot of Catholics understand how disliked they actually were in certain parts of the country for a very long time. The Catholic religion was mis-understood, but to be in the crosshairs of the KKK was probably a strange and odd circumstance to consider for a lot of Catholics. And make no mistake, Catholics had it no where near as bad as African Americans. It’s not a comparison. Catholics should be embracing Muslims because that shoe was on your foot some 100 years ago (and before that as well). 

4.  I think of certain conversations that I'll have to have with my sons. For example, I've already told them both that if they are called a name and they don't know what that word means, they need to tell me or their mom immediately.  Fitsum is light skinned in comparison to Youssouf. His hair is curly, but not the tight curls that you have with a lot of African hair. I have always thought that Fitsum is a true mix of the culture of Ethiopia. It is a country that is pretty much split down the middle between Christians and Muslims. Not only that, but Fitsum could have ancestors from Egypt or Saudi Arabia or a handful of other places. But with Fitsum, when he's old enough to grow a beard, I'll have to tell him that he probably shouldn't, especially if the current climate hasn't dissipated. Am I crazy?  Hell yes. Do I want to protect my son even though it seems illogical that something like this would happen? Hell yes to that too. I'm scared to death to consider that someone might accuse him of being something he's not and what a terrible awful and completely insane thing to have to think, but there is a fear and a hatred for Muslims that I can’t understand.

5.  I absolutely abhor Donald Trump and everything that he stands for. It's disappointing and maddening. It's not me that I'm worried about. I'll be fine. I'm white and rich (relatively speaking, I'm just like a lot of you, are in the top 5% of the world's biggest earners). I don't lose sleep over my life, but I do lose sleep over what will happen to my kids and how they're treated over the next four years. Again, we shouldn't get to dole out mercy for others on an who we think deserves it, but rather everyone deserves to to be wrapped in that feeling of love and compassion.

6.  It's amazing how much my world-view has changed since the two boys have been home. It really is about helping people who would literally have nothing without some help, not just people from the United States. There’s room to support both, not one or the other. I tell people all of the time that I hope to benefit their lives as best as I possibly can, but I feel like I've gotten more back than I've given.

7.  Youssouf only has his green card. About two weeks ago, I started to get nervous about his situation. Surprisingly, Trump made me nervous about my immigrant son. He has a permanent green card, but no social security card, US passport or anything like that. I know that Trump’s ban has nothing to do with Youssouf’s situation, but what if? I had been waiting to pay for the process to have him re-adopted and truthfully, I thought that I could do it. However, given Trump's stand on a lot of things, I really figured I couldn't leave it to chance for me to potentially mess up his re-adoption so I paid the money for some attorney to get it done. I know, the thought is that, "Gosh Seth, don't you think you're being a bit reactionary?"  Well, yeah, but can I afford to take a chance? Same thing with talking to my boys about things that I really probably don't need to do, but what if something happens to them and it’s because I thought, “There’s no way it could happen to my boys.” Yeah. No way.

8.  At the end of the day, when my kids asked me if I spoke out, I'll be able to say yeah, I did. That doesn't make me a hero, but it also doesn't make me afraid either. I know I won’t change anyone’s mind with this little diatribe and that’s okay. We’re all pretty well dug-in with what side of the fence that you’re on and that’s okay. We’re still friends.

[scottmapess]

WARNING! Bitcoin Savage Price Fall If Central Banks Get Their Way [MUST SEE]

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Today in Krypto, a little known financial body called the Financial Stability Board could be dropping the equivalent of a nuclear bomb on the entire crypto-economy with a recommendation to ban all stable coins. Now, if this motion succeeds and it is indeed passed into law by the world’s major economies, then we could be facing a bit of a crypto apocalypse, with prices plunging potentially to unimaginable lows. If all stable coins are removed from the market. So even if you are not a stable coin holder, you need to hear this because this is a massive assault on the cryptocurrency industry and is really showing that cryptocurrencies are worrying the banks in a major way. The crypto lark, this is where you subscribe for all of the hottest and all of the latest happening out there in the wild, wildland of crypto. And if you are due to crypto, then I have made a beginners course to save you your time and to save you money by walking through all of the basics, like how to buy sand mine and store bitcoin in an area with step by step tutorials and top resources. There is a link down below where you can learn more. So the big story of today is that the Financial Stability Board has outlined 10 recommendations to central banks for regulating stable coins, including total pro habitation. Now, you have probably never heard of the FS B, but it is a powerful organization comprised of central banks and finance ministries from the world’s major economies. Now, of course, the board has also hosted and funded by the Bank for International Settlements. The Bank of International Settlements, in case you don’t know, is like the central bank of central banks. It’s kind of like the head of the evil octopus whose tentacles stretch out and just suck the life force out of countries around the world and just hand everything over to the bankers. That’s the B, I guess, or the big B.S., if you will. Now, the FSB issues non-binding recommendations, but more often than not, these recommendations and up being implemented and the recommendation that the FSB just made to the G20 is that stable coins are a big threat to the power of the banks and that major stable coins including USD T USD C T USD Paxos and die should be prohibited now just for reference. The G20 consists of the following countries, which is basically a list of all of the world’s major economies. We have Argentina. Australia, Brazil. Canada. China. France. Germany. India. Indonesia. Italy. Japan. Mexico, Russia. Saudi Arabia. South Africa, South Korea. Turkey. The United Kingdom, the United States and the E U. So that’s all the big ones. All the big ones right there in one group. And they’re all talking about the potential to ban stable coins. Now, not only is the world the world’s biggest economies, but those markets also make up basically the entire volume of the entire crypto industry. And just for fun, too, the FSB also counts among its members, the IMF, the World Bank and the European Central Bank, in particular, the SDF FSB warned that stable coins could pose a big risk to global financial stability, especially in emerging markets and developing economies. I mean, hey, you can’t have people in developing economies getting financial freedom that just wouldn’t work for those big, powerful central banks. No, no, no, no, no. Not today, my friends. The FSB goes on to state that stable coins also pose significant governance challenges to central banks in particular. They are concerned that citizens in both advanced and emerging economies might begin favouring stable coins over existing fiat currencies. Did you hear that? The bankers are scared. Crypto has indeed kicked the frickin hornet’s nest and the bankers are worried about the implications. Decentralized, open public networks are a real and present danger to the monopoly of power that the central banks currently enjoy. We should really be proud of away. Cryptos made it, guys. We’ve made it. They’re talking about us at the highest levels of the global economy, the central banks of the world. They are scared of crypto technology can end the tyranny of central banks in their commercial bank whores. In a way, this is all incredibly exciting. Now you might say, hey, look, I don’t own stable coins laughs. So why should I care? Well, for a few reasons. Racing stable coins will absolutely crush daily volumes in the crypto industry. Stable coins make up more than $40 billion a day in volume, which is nearly half of the daily spot market volume. It will also have a very negative impact on the crypto lending markets and of course, also on decentralised finance markets, which basically are all of the financial services beyond just sending bitcoin from person to person. B all the services, the auction, crypto useful for billions and billions of people. Also, we should always speak up for financial freedom. Freedom is freedom. Free markets are a great thing, not Ranzie That quote from World War 2. First, they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. Now apply that same logic to crypto. First, they came for the privacy coins and I said nothing. Then they came for the stable coins and I said nothing. And when they came for bitcoin, there was no one left to speak up. If you are a bitcoin maximalists and you’re out there cheering this on, say yeah, take down all the stable coins man, wake the fuck up. The exact same reasons that they are citing today to justify a stable coin ban that will be used against bitcoin in the future. Yes, today it’s stable coins, but tomorrow it will be basically anything that threatens the Fiat monopoly that the central banks have over society. And that thing, if you are really a believer in bitcoin, is bitcoin. Well, the bankers cannot shut bitcoin down. They can certainly do a whole heck of a lot to regulate it into impotence. The fight for financial freedom is everyone’s fight. Now, look at a practical level here. It will not stop all stable coins. It will certainly shut down the regulated and semi’s regulated ones, things like USD C and Paxos as well as course as Heather. Now, these coins are uniquely vulnerable because there are people who can be arrested and forced to shut the whole gosh darn thing down. There are bank accounts which can be seized by authorities, thus shutting the whole gosh darn thing down. Di, however, will be much, much harder to stop because this is really a decentralized, stable coin and it may not even be stoppable since it is really just a crypto-backed collateral coin, but that remains to be seen if they will be able to stop that or not should all of this go through. And hey look. Yeah, sure. Teather is a mess. I’ve been a very critical teller for a long time, but others like Dai and U.S. DC, they are not stable coins or a very useful part of the crypto economy and they should exist. Also a stable coin band likely through bitcoin into what could be the worst bear market of all time. I mean this if this happens, we could see a sub $1000 bitcoin. A nice time for buyers, right? I would totally be stacking some bitcoin at those prices, but such an event I think would actually destroy a lot of people’s faith in the crypto industry overall now long term. This could be positive for bitcoin only being traded directly in and out of fiat. But it will also push the industry more towards really highly regulated exchanges and more into the hands of Wall Street in the long run. The FSB man. Seriously, what the fuck are these guys anyway? More on elected bureaucrats. Just pull in our pants down and give us dirty old Roggeveen bureaucrats. Man bureaucrats. Anyway, this story extra reminds me of a story from last year about the F A T F and the coming implementation of the travel rule. You see the F A.T.F. On the issues recommendations like the FSB does and their recommendation was to do KYC on every withdrawal happening from crypto exchanges and of the official wallet providers. And to have the addresses for these wallets connected to names and ideas. Well, you know what? That recommendation that’s happening within the next year, we are likely to see a full implementation of the F 80 FS travel rule on to crypto. These unelected governing bodies, they have massive power. Welcome to the slave planet. My friends, now I know this. Some of you may be thinking lark’s out here spreading fraud Dardari. No, no, that’s not what I’m doing. These are real laws being considered and knowledge is power. You should always know what is going on in the industry. What I see here is that currently, in spite of the whale manipulations we have in the crypto market, we actually have a largely free 24/7 marketplace with crypto. I want to keep it that way. I the crypto Marcus me as free as possible. We do not need nor do we want bureaucrats to tell us what we can or cannot trade or how we can or cannot exchange value with other people. And look, final point here for you. There has been no final verdict as to what countries will do. This recommendation may not pass into law. That is just a recommendation at this stage, but a recommendation by a very powerful regulatory body. I hope that the final whatever is not this, but how this is playing out is nearly identical to how things played out with the EFF ATF last year. So it is worth being aware of. But one thing has made abundantly clear crypto is a threat and they damn well know it. Just understanding that they are out there discussing banning stable coins shows that crypto has made it to the big time. So congratulations us. But wow. Still not cool. They’re gonna potentially do this to stable coins, but wiping out stable coins. It is potentially also a natural progression towards central bank digital currencies, which make no mistake, those are coming and they will be very impactful when they do. The banking cartels are going to do anything that they can to maintain power which screws bankers. Seriously, what a bunch of douches. Never is your freedom given priority. It’s only ever their power, their money, their mates, their rules, their profits, their game. What a sick system to live in decentralized systems. There’s so much more exciting than what we have right now. We must stop bowing down and submitting to the poor versions of these ruling elites. But one thing does remain certain in my mind, even if stable coins get crushed. Bitcoin will carry on. Bitcoin is the steady survivor. Rain or shine, hell or high water. The blocks just keep coming. The fight for financial freedom is now entering. The next phase in Bitcoin remains the tip of the spear. In a weird way, all of this that I’ve discussed today, it kinda really makes me more bullish on the future of cryptocurrencies. But I don’t know. I’m a weirdo. What do I do anyway? What do you think about all of this? Is it nothing to be worried about? Do you think it won’t actually be implemented? Maybe you’re out there cheering for the death of all stable coins. Or do you think that this could actually just be a potentially major setback for the industry with something maybe it will overcome in the long term or maybe some other opinion? Love to know your thoughts down below in the comments section. Thank you so much for watching today’s video. Hope you have an awesome day wherever you are. And again, just thank you for supporting the Channel 4. Let me come out here and make these videos talking about cryptocurrency all the time. Your support just means the world. So thank you. So, so about you. Of course, if you didn’t join today’s video that thumbs up button, make sure to subscribe to channel. If you’re a new round here. Long live the blockchain. ADS-B sounds next time.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/warning-bitcoin-savage-price-fall/ source https://cryptosharks1.blogspot.com/2020/04/warning-bitcoin-savage-price-fall-if.html

[heatherrdavis1]

WARNING! Bitcoin Savage Price Fall If Central Banks Get Their Way [MUST SEE]

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Today in Krypto, a little known financial body called the Financial Stability Board could be dropping the equivalent of a nuclear bomb on the entire crypto-economy with a recommendation to ban all stable coins. Now, if this motion succeeds and it is indeed passed into law by the world’s major economies, then we could be facing a bit of a crypto apocalypse, with prices plunging potentially to unimaginable lows. If all stable coins are removed from the market. So even if you are not a stable coin holder, you need to hear this because this is a massive assault on the cryptocurrency industry and is really showing that cryptocurrencies are worrying the banks in a major way. The crypto lark, this is where you subscribe for all of the hottest and all of the latest happening out there in the wild, wildland of crypto. And if you are due to crypto, then I have made a beginners course to save you your time and to save you money by walking through all of the basics, like how to buy sand mine and store bitcoin in an area with step by step tutorials and top resources. There is a link down below where you can learn more. So the big story of today is that the Financial Stability Board has outlined 10 recommendations to central banks for regulating stable coins, including total pro habitation. Now, you have probably never heard of the FS B, but it is a powerful organization comprised of central banks and finance ministries from the world’s major economies. Now, of course, the board has also hosted and funded by the Bank for International Settlements. The Bank of International Settlements, in case you don’t know, is like the central bank of central banks. It’s kind of like the head of the evil octopus whose tentacles stretch out and just suck the life force out of countries around the world and just hand everything over to the bankers. That’s the B, I guess, or the big B.S., if you will. Now, the FSB issues non-binding recommendations, but more often than not, these recommendations and up being implemented and the recommendation that the FSB just made to the G20 is that stable coins are a big threat to the power of the banks and that major stable coins including USD T USD C T USD Paxos and die should be prohibited now just for reference. The G20 consists of the following countries, which is basically a list of all of the world’s major economies. We have Argentina. Australia, Brazil. Canada. China. France. Germany. India. Indonesia. Italy. Japan. Mexico, Russia. Saudi Arabia. South Africa, South Korea. Turkey. The United Kingdom, the United States and the E U. So that’s all the big ones. All the big ones right there in one group. And they’re all talking about the potential to ban stable coins. Now, not only is the world the world’s biggest economies, but those markets also make up basically the entire volume of the entire crypto industry. And just for fun, too, the FSB also counts among its members, the IMF, the World Bank and the European Central Bank, in particular, the SDF FSB warned that stable coins could pose a big risk to global financial stability, especially in emerging markets and developing economies. I mean, hey, you can’t have people in developing economies getting financial freedom that just wouldn’t work for those big, powerful central banks. No, no, no, no, no. Not today, my friends. The FSB goes on to state that stable coins also pose significant governance challenges to central banks in particular. They are concerned that citizens in both advanced and emerging economies might begin favouring stable coins over existing fiat currencies. Did you hear that? The bankers are scared. Crypto has indeed kicked the frickin hornet’s nest and the bankers are worried about the implications. Decentralized, open public networks are a real and present danger to the monopoly of power that the central banks currently enjoy. We should really be proud of away. Cryptos made it, guys. We’ve made it. They’re talking about us at the highest levels of the global economy, the central banks of the world. They are scared of crypto technology can end the tyranny of central banks in their commercial bank whores. In a way, this is all incredibly exciting. Now you might say, hey, look, I don’t own stable coins laughs. So why should I care? Well, for a few reasons. Racing stable coins will absolutely crush daily volumes in the crypto industry. Stable coins make up more than $40 billion a day in volume, which is nearly half of the daily spot market volume. It will also have a very negative impact on the crypto lending markets and of course, also on decentralised finance markets, which basically are all of the financial services beyond just sending bitcoin from person to person. B all the services, the auction, crypto useful for billions and billions of people. Also, we should always speak up for financial freedom. Freedom is freedom. Free markets are a great thing, not Ranzie That quote from World War 2. First, they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. Now apply that same logic to crypto. First, they came for the privacy coins and I said nothing. Then they came for the stable coins and I said nothing. And when they came for bitcoin, there was no one left to speak up. If you are a bitcoin maximalists and you’re out there cheering this on, say yeah, take down all the stable coins man, wake the fuck up. The exact same reasons that they are citing today to justify a stable coin ban that will be used against bitcoin in the future. Yes, today it’s stable coins, but tomorrow it will be basically anything that threatens the Fiat monopoly that the central banks have over society. And that thing, if you are really a believer in bitcoin, is bitcoin. Well, the bankers cannot shut bitcoin down. They can certainly do a whole heck of a lot to regulate it into impotence. The fight for financial freedom is everyone’s fight. Now, look at a practical level here. It will not stop all stable coins. It will certainly shut down the regulated and semi’s regulated ones, things like USD C and Paxos as well as course as Heather. Now, these coins are uniquely vulnerable because there are people who can be arrested and forced to shut the whole gosh darn thing down. There are bank accounts which can be seized by authorities, thus shutting the whole gosh darn thing down. Di, however, will be much, much harder to stop because this is really a decentralized, stable coin and it may not even be stoppable since it is really just a crypto-backed collateral coin, but that remains to be seen if they will be able to stop that or not should all of this go through. And hey look. Yeah, sure. Teather is a mess. I’ve been a very critical teller for a long time, but others like Dai and U.S. DC, they are not stable coins or a very useful part of the crypto economy and they should exist. Also a stable coin band likely through bitcoin into what could be the worst bear market of all time. I mean this if this happens, we could see a sub $1000 bitcoin. A nice time for buyers, right? I would totally be stacking some bitcoin at those prices, but such an event I think would actually destroy a lot of people’s faith in the crypto industry overall now long term. This could be positive for bitcoin only being traded directly in and out of fiat. But it will also push the industry more towards really highly regulated exchanges and more into the hands of Wall Street in the long run. The FSB man. Seriously, what the fuck are these guys anyway? More on elected bureaucrats. Just pull in our pants down and give us dirty old Roggeveen bureaucrats. Man bureaucrats. Anyway, this story extra reminds me of a story from last year about the F A T F and the coming implementation of the travel rule. You see the F A.T.F. On the issues recommendations like the FSB does and their recommendation was to do KYC on every withdrawal happening from crypto exchanges and of the official wallet providers. And to have the addresses for these wallets connected to names and ideas. Well, you know what? That recommendation that’s happening within the next year, we are likely to see a full implementation of the F 80 FS travel rule on to crypto. These unelected governing bodies, they have massive power. Welcome to the slave planet. My friends, now I know this. Some of you may be thinking lark’s out here spreading fraud Dardari. No, no, that’s not what I’m doing. These are real laws being considered and knowledge is power. You should always know what is going on in the industry. What I see here is that currently, in spite of the whale manipulations we have in the crypto market, we actually have a largely free 24/7 marketplace with crypto. I want to keep it that way. I the crypto Marcus me as free as possible. We do not need nor do we want bureaucrats to tell us what we can or cannot trade or how we can or cannot exchange value with other people. And look, final point here for you. There has been no final verdict as to what countries will do. This recommendation may not pass into law. That is just a recommendation at this stage, but a recommendation by a very powerful regulatory body. I hope that the final whatever is not this, but how this is playing out is nearly identical to how things played out with the EFF ATF last year. So it is worth being aware of. But one thing has made abundantly clear crypto is a threat and they damn well know it. Just understanding that they are out there discussing banning stable coins shows that crypto has made it to the big time. So congratulations us. But wow. Still not cool. They’re gonna potentially do this to stable coins, but wiping out stable coins. It is potentially also a natural progression towards central bank digital currencies, which make no mistake, those are coming and they will be very impactful when they do. The banking cartels are going to do anything that they can to maintain power which screws bankers. Seriously, what a bunch of douches. Never is your freedom given priority. It’s only ever their power, their money, their mates, their rules, their profits, their game. What a sick system to live in decentralized systems. There’s so much more exciting than what we have right now. We must stop bowing down and submitting to the poor versions of these ruling elites. But one thing does remain certain in my mind, even if stable coins get crushed. Bitcoin will carry on. Bitcoin is the steady survivor. Rain or shine, hell or high water. The blocks just keep coming. The fight for financial freedom is now entering. The next phase in Bitcoin remains the tip of the spear. In a weird way, all of this that I’ve discussed today, it kinda really makes me more bullish on the future of cryptocurrencies. But I don’t know. I’m a weirdo. What do I do anyway? What do you think about all of this? Is it nothing to be worried about? Do you think it won’t actually be implemented? Maybe you’re out there cheering for the death of all stable coins. Or do you think that this could actually just be a potentially major setback for the industry with something maybe it will overcome in the long term or maybe some other opinion? Love to know your thoughts down below in the comments section. Thank you so much for watching today’s video. Hope you have an awesome day wherever you are. And again, just thank you for supporting the Channel 4. Let me come out here and make these videos talking about cryptocurrency all the time. Your support just means the world. So thank you. So, so about you. Of course, if you didn’t join today’s video that thumbs up button, make sure to subscribe to channel. If you’re a new round here. Long live the blockchain. ADS-B sounds next time.

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