#new post editor is much like MS Word in this regard

[kinevart]

raul

@wolfsonged

         raul almost sinks back down to the floor. not quite out of despair, not quite out of exhaustion. it’s been a long, long time since he’s had anyone present while he’s in this state, after being chained up in the dark. royal can keep the beast in line as a bear, even help pick him back up in the morning, but that’s not the same thing. he still doesn’t know how to be vulnerable, especially not like this. all of her points make perfect sense, their logic ( although it is more than logic ) impossible to fault, and yet... how do you convince yourself, after so long, that maybe being a hopeless burden isn’t all there is to life? he’s more than just some old dog—people are much, much more difficult to teach new tricks.        

 “i hope i can, too,” he mumbles, after a long moment. it always feels like a long uphill climb, and that he’s only managed to wedge his way up a couple of feet. but then, what in his life hasn’t felt like that at one point or another? but then, like all vulnerable moments, raul has to deflect from it. too much will just overwhelm him. “can you help me up?” @wolf

Kinevart does not immediately agree to help him up, regarding him soberly instead for a moment. He is still weak, she thinks. “Are you in a rush?” she asks with a small, kind smile, offering both her hands to help him stand. She will not refuse if he truly wants to get up, and go, but she hopes it is not on her account.

[gstqaobc]

'I still don't believe Meghan': Piers Morgan tweets defiant Churchill message and says he stands by view that saw him quit GMB - as Susanna Reid tells morning viewers 'it's going to be very different' without him

Ranvir Singh will host Good Morning Britain with Susanna Reid today - the day after Piers Morgan stormed off

Mr Morgan faced a social media campaign over comments he made about Harry and Meghan's interview

He faced a huge online backlash after he said he 'didn't believe a word' of the Duke and Duchess' Oprah talk

Twitter users responded by sharing links to Ofcom and gave instructions on how to complain to TV regulator

Ofcom today announced it was launching an investigation following the raft of complaints from Twitter users

MailOnline editor at large, who has helped show to record ratings, had blazing row with Alex Beresford

They were discussing the Sussexes' interview with Oprah, where the couple accused Royal Family of racism

Piers Morgan today doubled down after quitting Good Morning Britain by tweeting that he still doesn't believe any of Meghan's incendiary claims to Oprah in a defiant message sent as the show began without him with Strictly star Ranvir Singh in his chair.Susanna Reid admitted it will be a 'very different' programme without her co-star of five years and told viewers this morning that he had been a 'voice for many of you' through Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic.Mr Morgan sensationally quit the show on the day it scored record ratings after he told viewers he 'didn't believe a word she [Meghan] said' to Oprah and branded her 'Princess Pinocchio' after an interview where the Duchess said she was suicidal while five months pregnant and accused the Royal Family of racism. His views sparked more than 41,000 complaints made to Ofcom.

Just after the show began at 6am this morning he tweeted to his 7.8million followers: 'On Monday, I said I didn’t believe Meghan Markle in her Oprah interview. I’ve had time to reflect on this opinion, and I still don’t. If you did, OK. Freedom of speech is a hill I’m happy to die on. Thanks for all the love, and hate. I’m off to spend more time with my opinions'.

He also shared a quote by Britain's greatest prime minister Winston Churchill, which said:  'Some people's idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage'.

On an extraordinary day for the show he also walked off set live on air after the show's weatherman Alex Beresford accused him of unfairly 'trashing' Meghan, branding him 'diabolical' and saying: 'I'm sorry but Piers just spouts off on a regular basis and we have to sit there and listen'. Mr Beresford was not on screen today, with Laura Tobin presenting the GMB weather this morning.

Hours later Mr Morgan quit, with his supporters defending his views and claiming his exit is more bad news for free speech and a sad indictment of cancel culture in Britain after critics including Labour MP Dawn Butler encouraged people to complain to ITV and Ofcom. Others have questioned whether GMB's viewing figures will hold-up without its star, who helped add a million new viewers in his time on the show.

After Ranvir Singh, a GMB reporter and star of Strictly last year, stepped in for Piers today, Susanna then gave a short speech on the tumultuous events of the past 24 hours.

Ms Reid said: 'A number of people will know the news and many of you will not and will be surprised that Piers Morgan is not here this morning. Now, Piers and I have disagreed on many things and that dynamic was one of the things viewers loved about the programme.

'He is without doubt an outspoken, challenging, opinionated, disruptive broadcaster. He has many critics and he has many fans. You will know that I disagreed with him about Meghan's interview. He himself clarified his comments about her mental health on the show yesterday.'

Reid said there are 'many voices' on Good Morning Britain and 'everyone has their say'. She added: 'But now Piers has decided to leave the programme. Some of you may cheer and others may boo.

'He has been my presenting partner, Monday to Wednesday, for more than five years and during Brexit and the pandemic and other issues, he has been a voice for many of you and a voice that many of you have railed against.

'It is certainly going to be very different but shows go on and so on we go.'

Ranvir Singh, Reid's co-presenter for the morning, replied: 'Well said.' She described Morgan as a 'big character' and said 'many viewers will be absolutely gutted'. Singh called Morgan 'Marmite' and acknowledged his role in Good Morning Britain's success. Ms Singh is amongst the favourites to take the job, but said: 'I was here anyway, don't read anything into this, I was here anyway. I've shifted seats on this brand new desk'.

It came after 55-year-old Mr Morgan shocked viewers by walking off camera during a heated on-air row with weatherman Alex Beresford, saying 'I'm done with this' after being challenged on his position of the Duke and Duchess by his co-star. Afterwards ITV CEO Carolyn McCall - who formerly worked for the left-wing Guardian newspaper - said that the broadcaster's media and entertainment MD Kevin Lygo was speaking to Mr Morgan.And last night it was announced that Mr Morgan had quit the hugely popular ITV show - which he co-hosted with Susanna Reid.An ITV spokesman told MailOnline: 'Following discussions with ITV, Piers Morgan has decided now is the time to leave Good Morning Britain. ITV has accepted this decision and has nothing further to add.'It is understood Mr Morgan had been asked to apologise for his remarks which had been criticised by mental health campaigners but had declined.It brings to an end his six-year long association with the breakfast show, which he originally joined as a guest host in 2015, during which time he has made it must-see TV with a strong of exclusives and his strident opinions.Ironically it came the day after GMB recorded its highest ever viewing figures in the wake of Megan Markle's blockbuster Oprah Winfrey interview.It also came on the day that he had followed up with an agenda-setting interview with her father Thomas in which Mr Markle had taken aim at 'snotty' Harry, defended the British people and Royals against her claims of racism and revealed that he felt she had betrayed him, not the other way around.Earlier Morgan, who this evening Tweeted a picture of himself with former manager David Ferriter and the message 'trust your gut', also addressed his previous comments regarding the Duchess's mental health.Yesterday, he was criticised by the charity, Mind, after saying he 'didn't believe a word she said'. I wouldn't believe it if she read me a weather report,' he added.Today he addressed these remarks and said: 'When we talked about this yesterday I said as an all-encompassing thing I don't believe what Meghan Markle is saying generally in this interview and I still have serious concerns about the veracity of a lot of what she said.'But let me just state for the record on my position on mental illness and on suicide.'On mental illness and suicide these are clearly extremely serious things and should be taken extremely seriously and if someone is feeling that way they should get the treatment and the help they need every time. Every time.'And if they belong to an institution like the Royal family and they go and seek that help they should absolutely be given it.'It's not for me to question if she felt suicidal, I am not in her mind and that is for her to say.'My real concern was a disbelief frankly and I'm prepared to be proven wrong on this and if I'm wrong it is a scandal, that she went to a senior member of the Royal household and told them she was suicidal and was told she could not have any help because it would be a bad look for the family.'If that is true a) that person should be fired and b) The Royal family have serious questions that need to be answered.'But it was not enough to stop a wildfire social media campaign against him that resulted in 41,000 complaints to TV watchdog Ofcom by last night who announced they had launched a probe under their 'harms' code. The campaign featured an avalanche of tweets which criticised the host and supporting Meghan - some sharing direct links to the Ofcom complaints page. Among those launching criticism at Morgan were Labour MP Dawn Butler, who copied in the Twitter page of ITV to her Tweet.

In her social media post, which shared a comment from Mind criticising Morgan's remarks, she asked: '@ITV what have you decided to do?'Another Twitter user said: 'It took me about seven minutes to complain to fill in the Ofcom online form to complain about Piers Morgan's disgusting behaviour on mental health and race issues. It's not much, but if enough people complain they have to do something!' One Twitter user - who said: 'I am determined to get Piers off GMB Lolz. Which petitions do I need to sign?' - received a response with a link to the Ofcom complaints page.Their decision to act was in stark contrast to what happened with 24,500 people complained about dance troop Diversity's BLM-inspired routine on Britain's Got Talent last year when the watchdog refused a probe and said: 'We carefully considered a large number of complaints about this artistic routine, an area where freedom of expression is particularly important.'Diversity's performance referred to challenging and potentially controversial subjects, and in our view, its central message was a call for social cohesion and unity.'Any depictions of violence by the performers were highly stylised and symbolic of recent global events, and there was no explicit reference to any particular political organisation - but rather a message that the lives of black people matter.'Mr Morgan is also Editor at large for MailOnline and writes a twice weekly column for the website. A spokesman for MailOnline said: 'This is a very sad day for British free speech and one ITV will come to regret very quickly. We stand by Piers 120%.'  LOADS MORE ON THE DM

WELL HE HAS CERTAIN MADE HIS OPINION CLEAR AND MANY AGREE, MYSELF INCLUDED! EVEN GIVEN PAST ERRORS HE IS TO BE COMMENDED FOR TAKING SUCH A PUBLIC STANCE!

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿

[odetogyus]

ropes

↳pairing/s: boyfriend!seungcheol x fem!reader (w/ ceo!jaebeom on the side)

↳genre: angst

↳warnings: slight suggestive content, profanity, mentions of infidelity, mentions of death

↳song: apologize by timbaland

✎author's note: not my best work but this oneshot has been sitting in my notes for the longest time, and after hours of contemplating on whether or not I should post my works here.. well, I finally gave in. hope you find this, and I hope it makes you feel something.

—

It's been almost a year.

It's been almost a year since the last time she woke up next to him.

It's been almost a year since the last time he came home to her.

It's been almost a year.

Since the last time they kept their promise to each other.

“Seungcheol, don’t you ever break my heart. Don’t you dare break me.”

"The day I hurt you, is the day I die with the regret of breaking your heart, Y/N."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

But, Choi Seungcheol most definitely did not die with the regret of breaking her heart.

Instead, he watched her suffer from a good distance until she nearly lost everything– breaking from the inside out, with the regret of loving him.

—

The media and pretty much the entire country loved them as a couple, and after "careful" consideration, the two agreed that it would be best for the both of them to remain in the relationship– but just for show. And since Seungcheol believed that he had the upper-hand in the relationship, he paid little to no attention to his lover's feelings or opinions– leaving her with nothing but the name tag “Choi Seungcheol's Girlfriend”, highlighted in bold colours attached invisibly on her sleeve.

Their shared apartment was nothing but hollow bones and haunted memories.

Y/N L/N, who ended up keeping their once shared apartment after weeks of thinking about her boyfriend’s offer for her to stay, was tightly bound to shackles– the shackles that were everything Choi Seungcheol.

Being an editor for a men’s magazine had its perks, but Y/N never truly delved into the hole of the unfaithful. Well.. not yet, at least.

Meanwhile, Choi Seungcheol– full-time idol, rapper, and producer, lounged at his new place–an apartment unit right next to the one he once shared with his girlfriend. If you could even call her that.

Nothing seemed to bother the superstar other than the fact that he had to make tough choices every night when it came to who he was going to sleep with, and how long he would keep her around.

But, everything changes.

And they weren’t ready for that.

—

The photographers swarmed around the newly promoted editor-in-chief of the famous print, Men's Health Korea.

A tight body-con dress in fiery red hugged her body in all the right places. With her hair down and styled in loose waves, a sexy neutral lip, red bottoms, and a 6-figure designer handbag, no one would ever think that the glamorous and beloved Y/N L/N was a prisoner in her own relationship.

Except for one person.

Men's Health Korea's boss, and the youngest CEO in the editorial industry–the conglomerate son, Lim Jaebeom.

Standing next to each other at the podium set up right outside their headquarters, CEO Lim addressed Ms. Y/N L/N's promotion with so much passion and admiration.

“There is no one more deserving..” the CEO bit his lip and paused, staring lovingly at the beautiful woman beside him, racking his brain for words to say about his new editor-in-chief. “Than our lovely Ms. Y/N L/N. Congratulations! I cannot wait to work with the best of the best. Please give her love and wish her the best of luck. Thank you, everyone!"

And with that, the woman of the hour graced everyone with her presence by saying a few words of gratitude to the attendees of the surprise, and very last minute press-con.

“Wow.. I can’t really thank everyone enough for coming. I know that this was organized at the very last minute, but I would like to thank you all for coming. To my staff, my team, we did it. To every single employee working for Men's Health Korea, we did well. And to my boss, my CEO– our CEO, Mr. Lim, thank you for trusting me. I am looking forward to working right beside you from now on. Again, thank you all for coming! Please wish me luck, thank you so much."

Reporters and photographers from various media outlets desperately tried to get the CEO and the EIC's attention, and as expected from the ever charismatic and generous man that he was, Lim Jaebeom happily obliged to answer a few questions.

And.. maybe, he shouldn’t have.

But what was there to stop him?

He had nothing to lose.

But another man sure had.

—

Watching the news was never important to him, but it was now– after seeing another man stare at his girlfriend the way he used to.

Quickly grabbing the remote control next to him to put the volume all the way up, Seungcheol froze in place while his playmate from the night before straddled his lap, leaving dirty bites on his neck for breakfast.

Listening carefully, the celebrity’s eyes and ears never left the screen– his mind going through a million things by the minute.

Reporter: Mr. Lim, could you tell us a bit about the turning point for you in regards to Ms. L/N's promotion? And.. do you have a girlfriend at the moment, Sir? The people would like to know.

CEO Lim: Well, Y/N– I'm sorry, Ms. L/N– has been working for Men's Health Korea for 5 years now, and I have to admit, that I have never seen or met someone with the same drive as her when it comes to writing articles. She's truly an asset to the company, and to me.

Reporter: Mr. Lim, you have yet to answer the last question.. in regards to your dating life. Also, you referred to Ms. L/N as your asset. What exactly do you mean by that? And, a question for Ms. L/N, the press would like to know about your current relationship status. Your long-time boyfriend, Choi Seungcheol, was not present at today’s press-con, nor have we seen the two of you around together. Have you two called it quits?

At that very moment, Choi Seungcheol found himself in complete distress. Not only was his girlfriend being undressed and devoured by another man’s gaze, but their real relationship status was also at risk.

CEO Lim: Ah, yes. You're a quick one, aren’t you? Ms. L/N is an asset to me because let’s be honest here, shall we? If you’re ever in the same position as I am.. you know– blessed to know and work with someone as hardworking, bright, genuine, supportive, beautiful, and kind– would you not think of that person as an asset? Think about it.

Members of the press whispered amongst themselves and agreed with the CEO's positive remarks about his chief editor.

But the man in apartment unit 17 was not having it. He wasn’t ready to face the truth, and he wasn’t ready to lose her.

He just wasn’t ready for anything at all.

Reporter: Thank you, Mr. Lim. Ms. L/N? Would you like to answer the question?

Praying hard that his girlfriend would not reveal the truth about their status, SEVENTEEN's leader, Choi Seungcheol, felt his eyes prickle with tears as his old lover rose to the podium once more to finally answer the questions asked by the press.

“Please.. don’t,” Seungcheol muttered under his breath, not giving a damn about the woman from the night before that had already left his apartment in annoyance.

Smiling sweetly, Y/N held onto the microphone carefully, as if preparing herself for the worst. Her gaze was strong, but her tears were on its way down her cheeks.

That was the final straw, the last teardrop.

The end of the rope.

Editor L/N: Again, thank you all for coming. I think.. that this needs to be said, sooner than later. But, Choi Seungcheol and I are no longer together. I am now.. single, and I hope that answers your question.

Seungcheol's heart broke after hearing the painful words his girlfriend– now ex, just said.

Editor L/N: I will not discuss private matters with everyone, because my relationship with him remains between us only. But, I will say this. We all hold onto the ropes of life, and sometimes, we might just have to let go of some, especially if they’re hurting us. But no matter what, we should always choose the better climb for ourselves, and our future. To my former partner, thank you.. for everything. I wish you all the best, I truly mean that. Please continue to give Seungcheol and the rest of SEVENTEEN your love and support! Thank you to everyone that came today!

To say that he crumbled from the inside out was an understatement. He felt defeated– and boy, he really was, and it stung so much that the pain he felt was unbearable.

Everyone present at the press-con had their lips sealed, but had their eyes glued onto the face of the woman who no longer wanted to hold onto the ropes that bound her to a miserable life as Choi Seungcheol’s girlfriend.

It was a bittersweet moment for Y/N L/N– breaking away from the shackles that were once loving arms, and moving forward freely without any restraints.

No one dared to say a thing, and with every bit of confidence in his body, the conglomerate son stood from his seat, and spoke.

CEO Lim: Now that I think about it.. I believe I have one unanswered question.

Reporter: Apologies, Mr. Lim.. but, please.

CEO Lim: So, about me dating..

All eyes were on the CEO now, but Seungcheol only had eyes for her– watching his ex-lover’s gaze go up from the floor to her boss’ face.

It was the day he would dread forever, but he never prepared himself for that.

“Please don’t.. don’t love her, she’s mine,” he pleaded, but he could only beg a man he never really knew, from where he sat. In his living room, far from where she was– helpless, and wrecked to the core.

CEO Lim: I’m not dating anyone.. at the moment. But if you really want to know, I’ll tell you this much. The woman I am in love with had just been promoted as Chief Editor. She’s the one I would want to date, the one I want to give the world to. And, she’s sitting right there. I’ll let you guys put two and two together, but have a good day everyone, thanks for coming.

It was at that very moment, that Choi Seungcheol remembered the promise he had made a while ago. And seeing the hope in her eyes as she stared back at Lim Jaebeom, made him realize that it was just too late to undo everything. There was nothing he could do to stitch their love together, because the love they once had was dead and gone.

The day I hurt you, is the day I die with the regret of breaking your heart.

And so he relived the day where they promised each other the world– keeping his end of the rope that was long broken because of his mistakes.

Choi Seungcheol clutched his chest and cried himself to death– crying over a forgotten promise, and dying slowly with the regret of breaking her heart.

[askaceattorney]

(Previous Post)

Dear guquis,

Co-Mod: Well, that’s a relief.  I thought a mass crucifixion sounded a little dark for the Pokemon universe, but you never know these days.

(Referenced Letter)

Dear mungeondaster,

Mod Edgeworth: Wow, I just spotted this when going through our list of letters. Your comment is appreciated, though.

Co-Mod: Glad to hear it, and thanks!  I wish I knew for sure who wrote that response, but regardless, I have to agree that it was hilarious.  I almost want to see Pearl using Edgeworth’s cravat that way now.

(Playlist in Letter)

Dear bluedragoncody,

Mod Edgeworth: I’m not usually one for countdown videos, but I suppose I can check these out when I get the chance.

Co-Mod: I only had time to watch the “Top Fourteen Ace Attorneys” video and I just have to say, anyone who places Athena in their top three clearly knows what they’re talking about.  I also enjoy it when someone puts effort into editing a video (especially one that involves original art), so I appreciate that as well as his insight into the characters.

Dear Vivyn,

Co-Mod: It’s actually pretty simple.  Just click the gear icon in the top-right corner of your editing window (for lack of a better term), then go to the drop-down menu next to Text Editor, select HTML, and place the text you want to be small between the tags <small> and </small>.

Example: I’m sorry!  <small>For the way you were raised...</small>

I hope you’ll make good use of it!

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod: I agree, at least in terms of class.

(If we put aside her bad whipping habits, at least.)

When it comes to style, on the other hand...

Sorry, but nobody out-styles the Cykester.  I welcome any challenger to her superb styles in the courtroom (as would she, I’d imagine).

Dear Rogertheegg,

Mod Edgeworth: I’d like to have known more about Gregory Edgeworth. He’s the best Defense Attorney and Best Dad.

Co-Mod: I'd love to know more about Detective Arme’s background, too, now that you mention it.  The attitude she displayed upon discovering Ted Tonate’s bomb-selling business makes you wonder what she was like on the job.

I’d also kind of like to know a little more about Cinder Block Cindy Stone.  I’m not exactly a huge fan of models with a bunch of Sugar Daddies, but she apparently felt some attachment to at least one of them, as pointed out by Phoenix.

And to top it off, it’s the Butz, of all people.  That takes a special kind of girl.  I almost (almost) want to see what their relationship could’ve become if not for her cruel fate.

(Previous Letter)

Dear Anonymous,

Co-Mod: Can do!  His tag is now #British Judge.  With that in mind, we may have to pick something else for the judge from Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.  That’s become my main strategy for new things here, anyway.

Mod Justice: Perfect. Thanks!

Also, regarding Co-Mod’s response above: here’s an idea for the PLvsAA Judge: “English Judge” (I mean, he DOES appear in “The English Turnabout,” after all).

Dear dawsongfg,

Mod Edgeworth: ...... they’re alright. I prefer the ones with chocolate chip or from Dennys.

Co-Mod: I’m more of a waffle fan.  Pancakes are nice, but...kinda boring to look at, in my opinion.  Of course, that might just be because I once worked at McDonald’s, where I saw more than my fair share of them.

Mod Justice: They’re fine, but I always preferred the “Fast Food Breakfast Staple”: the Breakfast Sandwich. I especially love the ones at McDonalds with the “Griddles” as the bread! That with sausage, egg and cheese between them are definitely my favorites out of all the variations.

(Referenced Letter)

Dear Dawsongfg,

Mod Edgeworth: How about this?

NO!

Mod Justice: You mean Little Ms. Robo-Voice? NO THANK YOU.

Although I wonder... could the AAI2 Translation Team replace that voice only?

(Referenced Post)

Dear Dawsongfg,

Co-Mod: Hmm, how to word this...  It wasn’t really scary so much as unpleasant.  I knew Trucy wouldn’t harm me, but that didn’t make being tied to a chair and stuck in a dim, dank closet for several hours any more fun.  If she wasn’t one of my favorite cha--

Ahem...  If she wasn’t one of my favorite performers in the world, I’d probably be suing the panties off her.

Dear dawsongfg again,

Mod Edgeworth: I personally don’t mind, but I think Mod Justice was kinda like

Co-Mod: I’m guessing you’re referring to letters that are intentionally rude.  So long as you’re not purposefully insulting a specific person or a specific group of people, you can be as much of a troll as you want.  The good kind, that is.

Mod Justice: Yeah, we really need to get some more clarification regarding “Troll Posts” here. Don’t worry, they should be up soon enough after this post makes it out of the queue.

Dear Anonymous,

Mod Edgeworth: HOLD IT! (turns on this song) Proceed.

Dear dawsongfg again (again),

Mod Edgeworth: Yes. In fact, I have the full set of Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth mangas, including the two casebooks.

Co-Mod: I haven’t, actually.  I might have to do that sometime soon just so I can protect my Nerdiest Ace Attorney Nerd title (which I just made up).

Mod Justice: Can’t say I have, honestly. I’m not too big on Manga anyway. Never could get into it, no matter how hard I tried...

-The Mods

[thechicchicsagency]

Can Anna Wintour Survive the Social Justice Movement? A reckoning has come to Bon Appétit and the other magazines of Condé Nast. Can a culture built on elitism and exclusion possibly change?On Monday, as swiftly as a 9-iron taken to a tee at Augusta, Adam Rapoport resigned as the editor in chief of Bon Appétit magazine after a damning Halloween photo circulated on social media that morning. Drawn from the vast insensitivity archives to which so many influential people have made inadvertent submissions, the picture, from 2004, shows him costumed in a tank top and thick chain necklace as his wife’s “papi,’’ the term she attached to it in an Instagram post several years later.As it happened, Mr. Rapoport had been facing mounting grievance from his staff about the magazine’s demeaning treatment of employees and freelancers of color and the dubious ways in which its popular video division presented culturally appropriated cooking. But these apparently were insufficient grounds for forcing him out.Over and over, power structures seem to require that accusations of racial bias are documented by photographic evidence — proof to override a reflexive or simply inconvenient skepticism. Police officers abused their authority for decades without consequence. It was not until a growing body of video footage revealed all the brutality, and the systemic prejudice at the heart of it, that the world began to express the outrage there to be mined all along — justice by iPhone.In that sense, Mr. Rapoport’s ouster at the hands of a camera was entirely fitting. Bon Appétit belongs to Condé Nast, a media empire perhaps unrivaled by any institution on earth in its supplication to image. For decades, both at the level of corporate culture and branded worldview, the company’s lifestyle magazines have held to the notion that there are “right’’ people and wrong people, a determination made by birthright. 

There are the rich, and there are the dismissible; the great looking, and the condemned — a paradigm that has now become dangerously untenable, and one the company has been striving to change.Within the Condé Nast framework, autocratic bosses were left to do whatever they pleased — subjugating underlings to hazing rituals with no seeming end point. So much was excusable in the name of beauty and profit. “Difficulty,” Kim France, a former editor in chief of Lucky magazine, told me, “was regarded as brilliance.

”No one at Condé Nast has had more of an outsize reputation for imperiousness wed to native talent than Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, the artistic director of the company and more recently its “global content adviser’’ as well. Mr. Rapoport, who spent 20 years at the company and turned around an ailing product in Bon Appétit, reported to her.What sort of management cues were to be taken? Famous for a self-regarding style — she might demand that subordinates arrive 30 minutes early for certain meetings she attended — Ms. Wintour was obviously not in the best position to try to convince him, for instance, that he should not ask his assistant (black and Stanford-educated) to clean his golf clubs. (That was one of the many revealing details in a Business Insider exposé of the food magazine that arrived this week.)Race is a fraught subject at Condé Nast. Several employees of color I spoke with, all of them laid off over the past few years, talked about the challenges they faced. They struggled to be heard or get the resources they needed to do their jobs at the highest levels; they faced ignorance and lazy stereotyping from white bosses when the subject of covering black culture came up; they all said they were exhausted by always having to explain it all.

Even though they were no longer at Condé Nast, not one of them felt free to speak on the record out of fear of retaliation from the company or the concern that they would be looked at as complainers, making it much harder to find work.Editors’ PicksHotels Transformed New York’s Social Life. Now What?Solving the Mystery of What Became of J.F.K.’s Other Patrol BoatOne former staff member who is black could not fail to see the irony in being made to go to unconscious bias training — which became mandatory at the company early last year — only then to lose a big chunk of his portfolio shortly thereafter. “I felt so devalued,’’ he said, “after working so hard.’’Unconscious bias training is supposed to alert you to your blind spots in your perception of people and ideas. But at the level of corporate and creative governance, the programming at Condé Nast has not been seamlessly woven into the company’s broader philosophy. Last month, during a round of layoffs, in which 100 people were let go amid the economic calamities of Covid-19, the company dismissed three Asian-American editors, all of whom covered culture at different publications.Among the top 10 editorial leaders listed on Vogue’s masthead, all are white. According to a spokesman for Condé Nast, across divisions on Vogue’s editorial side, people of color make up 14 percent of senior managers. On June 5, amid global protests spurred by the death of George Floyd, Ms. Wintour sent a note to her staff, acknowledging that “it can’t be easy to be a Black employee at Vogue,’’ and that the magazine had “not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators.”Although Vogue has made a greater effort to feature black women on its covers in recent years — Rihanna, Serena Williams, Lupita Nyong’o — the gate swings open far more easily for those who are not. And in this particular area, too, legacy weighs heavily. When LeBron James made history as the first black man to grace the cover in 2008, he shared the space with a white supermodel, Gisele Bündchen, who appeared as a damsel in his clutches, an unmistakable reference to King Kong.

A spokesman at Condé Nast admitted that much progress needs to be made in regard to diversity at the company, but he defended Ms. Wintour’s record, pointing out that she has passionately supported various designers of color throughout her career, helping to raise money for them through her work with the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She also installed two black editors to lead Teen Vogue, genuinely radical in its content, one following the other (Elaine Welteroth and then Lindsay Peoples Wagner).At the same time, Ms. Wintour has presided over Vogue for 32 years, and during that period she has done more to enshrine the values of bloodline, pedigree and privilege than anyone in American media. A brief and very inconclusive list of Ms. Wintour’s assistants in the 21st century includes the Yale-educated daughter of a prominent Miami dance director, the Dartmouth-educated descendant of a major bank president, the Princeton-educated daughter of an Oscar-winning screenwriter and so on. For so long it was central to the Condé Nast ethos that you had to be thin, gorgeous and impeccably credentialed to retrieve someone else’s espresso macchiato.

Even now, as the publishing industry continues to implode and wonderful writers who could really use the work (or at least the prestigious affiliation) abound, Vogue continues to list among its contributing editors people like the German heiress Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis and many others among the well born. Five years ago, Ms. Thurn und Taxis posted a picture on Instagram of a homeless woman reading Vogue, seated on the sidewalk, with the words, “Paris is full of surprises.” Vogue quickly issued a statement, calling the gesture distasteful, and then proceeded to run her byline on its website at least 10 more timesLast year, Grace Coddington, another contributor, who had held enormous influence over what was shot for Vogue and how, in her many years as the magazine’s creative director, was photographed with her collection of “mammy’’ jars, racist ceramics depicting African-American women as servile maids.

Ms. Wintour clearly believes that she can break from the past and kill off any vestiges of a system steeped in the benighted values for which she has become the corporate avatar. The public apology from Bon Appétit was quite startling in its admission of failure, particularly its concession that the magazine “continued to tokenize” the people of color that it did hire.As part of her contribution to this new wave of progressivism, Ms. Wintour wrote a piece for Vogue.com a week after the death of George Floyd, aligning herself with Black Lives Matter and calling on Joe Biden to select a woman of color as his running mate.For someone who had seemed so averse to activism as the world has roiled from inequality for years, it felt like a desperate grasp for relevance. A spokesman for the company bristled at the suggestion, arguing that it is Condé Nast’s job “to cover what’s going on in the culture in the moment.”As it happens, André Leon Talley, who recently wrote a memoir about his complicated relationship with Ms. Wintour, as a black man and longtime former editor at Vogue, also has a lot to say about the current moment. This week in a radio interview with Sandra Bernhard, he offered his opinion about his ex-boss’s professed transformation.“I wanna say one thing, Dame Anna Wintour is a colonial broad; she’s a colonial dame,” he told Ms. Bernhard. “I do not think she will ever let anything get in the way of her white privilege.”

[bloggertutor]

Kadence vs Astra | Which is the Best Theme? Detailed Review 2020

Kadence vs Astra Quick Introduction

Choosing the best WordPress theme has never been easy for any blogger or developer because there are millions of themes available in the market for WordPress and every theme has their own feature and advantage.

But there are few best selling themes trusted by many bloggers and developers in which Kadence Wordpress Theme by KadenceWP and Astra by WPastra are in top. 

Now again the Question arises which theme is best for WordPress.

Choosing a theme is always determined by the purpose of using that particular theme. Example- If anyone need a blazing Fast website then he is going to use lightweight theme but if anyone need a fancy look and elegant design then he will search for a fancy theme.

Read How to increase Website Speed?

After reading this blog post carefully, you will understand which is the best suited WordPress theme for your website or blog.

-> Kadence Theme is still in Development and till now they are free for everyone. Many features of theme are still to come but after few months they will launch their Premium version also. This Comparison and review is based on my particular experience with theme and their support till today.

Read Kadence Theme Features, Review and Tutorial

-> Astra is a Free as well as Premium theme, means their basic core version is free for everyone but if you want to extend functionality and feature of theme you should install a additional Astra Addon Plugin that cost you around $60.

Let's start Kadence vs Astra Feature Comparison

Before we start discussion on Kadence vs Astra theme, I want to mention that any feature in Theme is subjective i.e. If I like a feature in theme it does not mean that you should also like that one.

1. Theme Header

Header is the first thing that anyone should care about their site because it makes first impression on the visitor. It provide professional and clean look to your website.

Kadence Header

Kadence theme have it's own inbuilt drag and drop header builder for Desktop and Mobile Separately with awesome features like 3 Header Bars to activate and customize with many essential widgets like Logo Manager, Primary Menu, Secondary Menu, Search Bar, Header Button, Social Icon, Cart and Custom HTML

Astra Header

Astra have a simple header editor with 3 styling in desktop and 2 in mobile which is for free and in Astra Pro you will get 3 More option Before Header, After Header, Sticky Header. They also offer transparent header option in their free version.

So in fight of Kadence vs Astra the winner in term of Header builder is Of course Kadence theme with it's simple drag and drop builder but If you do not need much customization in header Astra will be okay.

2. Theme Layout

Theme layout cover look and control of Blog Page and Shop Page. Having a good looking blog page and shop page significantly reduces bounce back rate and helps to increase user engagement and conversion.

Kadence Layout

Kadence theme have many designing features for blog page, archive page and shop page i.e. Woo Commerce Pages. You can control almost everything like Page Container Width, Title Look, Content Padding, Breadcrumb Control, Feature image size and look control, Category look, Meta, Author Box, Excerpt etc. Visit official site here to check all features.

Author box

Content

Post

Title

Astra Layout

As an old and most popular theme astra have responsibility to proof them more aware of look and designing to make their reputation consistent. Astra theme also give you control over most of thing that they think is necessary for user, but all layout features are not for free. You can visit astra official site here to see all free and premium Modules.

In the term of Page and Post Layout, again Kadence have more features in page customization but for simple website you can go with astra. So the winner in comparison of Kadence vs Astra is Kadence theme.

3. Widgets and Sidebars

Widgets and Sidebar customization for any theme is very important to make beautiful and creative website. As these features help in easy navigation for visitor and reduces bounce back rate by making them engage with website.

Kadence Widgets and Sidebars

Kadence theme have 2 Sidebars to use with no any off canvas panel or extra widget Panel. These 2 sidebars can be use separately like first one in post pages and second one in archive pages or Product pages. This helps to create 2 type of widget sidebar for different targeted visitors. There is no any extra widget option in Widget section because many of widget can be used in Header and footer builder.

Astra Widgets and Sidebars

Astra theme have 1 dedicated sidebar with an Off Canvas Panel that can be used as secondary sidebar for navigation. As they do not offer any header builder, some other widget like 2 After header, 2 Before Header and 2 Footer Bar widget are available additionally. But these features are available only in premium astra add on.

Astra Fre

In term of Widget and Sidebar Astra Pro is Dominating Kadence with features like Off Canvas Panel and additional footer bars, but If you do not need these features then its okay to go with Kadence.

4. Theme Footer

Theme footer have exactly same role as theme header but it contain more navigation widgets and trust seals with many important and quick links. Footer makes visitor feel that they are on a trusted website. It increase conversion and returning visitor percentage.

Kadence Footer

Just like their Header builder, they have dedicated drag and drop footer builder with three footer bar and each footer bar can be customize independently. All the widgets that can be used in header are available also in footer like Footer Navigation, Social Links, 6 Widgets, Copyright etc.

Astra Footer

Astra theme do not provide any drag and drop footer builder but they have a lot of footer widget in their premium Add on as I already mentioned. Their footer editor is simple with almost all customization and essential features like Custom widget, Footer menu, Copyright etc.

In term of Footer design there is a tie in kadence vs Astra comparison because kadence have drag and drop footer builder with 3 footer bar and Astra have a lot of widget area like footer bar 1 and footer bar 2 with 9+ footer widget area. So here you need to decide whether you go with astra or kadence.

5. WooCommerce Features

WooCommerce is a plugin to make ecommerce website using WordPress, so it is important to discuss about WooCommerce integration and features in kadence and astra theme.

Kadence WooCommerce Features

Kadence is a multipurpose theme and hence they also focused on WooCommerce features. There are many extra modules and features in WooCommerce Customization menu like Payment Security Badge, Assurance, Sharing, Rating, Distraction free checkout, Breadcrumbs etc. These extra modules in a single product page, checkout page and shop age helps in conversion by showing a professional look to visitor.

Above Content Area

Controls 1

controls 2

Astra WooCommerce Features

Astra theme also focus on Woocommerce design and layout that helps users to design awesome eCommerce website using WordPress. But there are not much additional features added on any Woocommerce page like Shop Page or Product Page. All the basic controls like Title, Pricing, Rating, Description, Add to cart Button and Meta are available. You can choose whether you want to show them or hide.

Astra Control 1

Astra Control 2

Astra Control 3

In term of WooCommerce compatibility and features between Kadence and Astra, Kadence theme is winner because it provides many additional features to increase your sales conversion. So if you are looking for extremely fast woocommerce theme then Go for Kadence

6. Additional Plugin Compatibility

As we already told that both themes are multipurpose hence they come with additional plugin compatibility like Easy Digital Download (EDD), Lifter LMS, Learn Dash, Elementor and Other Page Builders.

Kadence Compatibility

Kadence theme came with dedicated features for Lifter MS and Learn Dash to improve User Experience on your website. There are many dedicated feature to improve course page, Course List, Course Designing etc.

Astra Compatibility

Astra Pro also have dedicated features for plugins like Easy Digital Download, Lifter LMS and Learn Dash.

7. Speed of Kadence and Astra

Kadence and Astra both are designed for performance and hence there is no compromise in speed optimization of these themes. Both the themes Kadnece and Astra are extremely fast and there is only difference of milliseconds in speed test. You are not going to face any issue regarding speed in both themes.

Quickly Boost Website Speed

Final Words on Kadence vs Astra

After using Kadence and Astra both I selected Kadence as my best WordPress theme which I am Currently using on BlogerTutor. So the winner of comparison Kadence vs Astra is Kadence with their new and unique feature. They are free for now and have more features than Astra. But wait, the winner for you might be Astra also because I already mentioned that theme depends on purpose of use.

If you like any past of my hard work, Please support me by sharing this article with your friends. It will help me a lot.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is Astra Free?

Yes, Astra Have both free and paid version.

Is Astra the best WordPress Theme?

No, You can't say any theme as a best WordPress theme because theme depends on purpose of use but for blogging it is a good theme.

Is Astra Theme responsive

Yes, Astra is very lightweight, responsive and Fast theme.

Which is Best in Astra and Kadence?

Even both themes are optimized for speed and clean look, I personally like Kadence theme because of their new and unique features.

Is Kadence a Free Theme?

Yes for now Kadence is a free theme but they can also launch their pro version.

Which is Fast between Kadence and Astra?

Both the theme are extremely fast, so you can't say which one is fast and slow. There may be difference of few milisecond but that's okay.

Read More https://bloggertutor.com/kadence-vs-astra-theme-review/?feed_id=407&_unique_id=5ef1d9eec8759 #theme #blogging #wordpress#astra #astra_and_kadence #astra_review #astra_vs_kadence #kadence_review #kadence_vs_astra

[truemedian]

Can Anna Wintour Survive the Social Justice Movement?

big city A reckoning has come to Bon Appétit and the other magazines of Condé Nast. Can a culture built on elitism and exclusion possibly change?

Anna Wintour at the Coach show last spring.Credit...Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

June 11, 2020 On Monday, as swiftly as a 9-iron taken to a tee at Augusta, Adam Rapoport resigned as the editor in chief of Bon Appétit magazine after a damning Halloween photo circulated on social media that morning. Drawn from the vast insensitivity archives to which so many influential people have made inadvertent submissions, the picture, from 2004, shows him costumed in a tank top and thick chain necklace as his wife’s “papi,’’ the term she attached to it in an Instagram post several years later. As it happened, Mr. Rapoport had been facing mounting grievance from his staff about the magazine’s demeaning treatment of employees and freelancers of color and the dubious ways in which its popular video division presented culturally appropriated cooking. But these apparently were insufficient grounds for forcing him out. Over and over, power structures seem to require that accusations of racial bias are documented by photographic evidence — proof to override a reflexive or simply inconvenient skepticism. Police officers abused their authority for decades without consequence. It was not until a growing body of video footage revealed all the brutality, and the systemic prejudice at the heart of it, that the world began to express the outrage there to be mined all along — justice by iPhone. In that sense, Mr. Rapoport’s ouster at the hands of a camera was entirely fitting. Bon Appétit belongs to Condé Nast, a media empire perhaps unrivaled by any institution on earth in its supplication to image. For decades, both at the level of corporate culture and branded worldview, the company’s lifestyle magazines have held to the notion that there are “right’’ people and wrong people, a determination made by birthright. There are the rich, and there are the dismissible; the great looking, and the condemned — a paradigm that has now become dangerously untenable, and one the company has been striving to change. Within the Condé Nast framework, autocratic bosses were left to do whatever they pleased — subjugating underlings to hazing rituals with no seeming end point. So much was excusable in the name of beauty and profit. “Difficulty,” Kim France, a former editor in chief of Lucky magazine, told me, “was regarded as brilliance.” No one at Condé Nast has had more of an outsize reputation for imperiousness wed to native talent than Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, the artistic director of the company and more recently its “global content adviser’’ as well. Mr. Rapoport, who spent 20 years at the company and turned around an ailing product in Bon Appétit, reported to her. What sort of management cues were to be taken? Famous for a self-regarding style — she might demand that subordinates arrive 30 minutes early for certain meetings she attended — Ms. Wintour was obviously not in the best position to try to convince him, for instance, that he should not ask his assistant (black and Stanford-educated) to clean his golf clubs. (That was one of the many revealing details in a Business Insider exposé of the food magazine that arrived this week.) Race is a fraught subject at Condé Nast. Several employees of color I spoke with, all of them laid off over the past few years, talked about the challenges they faced. They struggled to be heard or get the resources they needed to do their jobs at the highest levels; they faced ignorance and lazy stereotyping from white bosses when the subject of covering black culture came up; they all said they were exhausted by always having to explain it all. Even though they were no longer at Condé Nast, not one of them felt free to speak on the record out of fear of retaliation from the company or the concern that they would be looked at as complainers, making it much harder to find work. One former staff member who is black could not fail to see the irony in being made to go to unconscious bias training — which became mandatory at the company early last year — only then to lose a big chunk of his portfolio shortly thereafter. “I felt so devalued,’’ he said, “after working so hard.’’ Unconscious bias training is supposed to alert you to your blind spots in your perception of people and ideas. But at the level of corporate and creative governance, the programming at Condé Nast has not been seamlessly woven into the company’s broader philosophy. Last month, during a round of layoffs, in which 100 people were let go amid the economic calamities of Covid-19, the company dismissed three Asian-American editors, all of whom covered culture at different publications. Among the top 10 editorial leaders listed on Vogue’s masthead, all are white. According to a spokesman for Condé Nast, across divisions on Vogue’s editorial side, people of color make up 14 percent of senior managers. On June 5, amid global protests spurred by the death of George Floyd, Ms. Wintour sent a note to her staff, acknowledging that “it can’t be easy to be a Black employee at Vogue,’’ and that the magazine had “not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators.” Although Vogue has made a greater effort to feature black women on its covers in recent years — Rihanna, Serena Williams, Lupita Nyong’o — the gate swings open far more easily for those who are not. And in this particular area, too, legacy weighs heavily. When LeBron James made history as the first black man to grace the cover in 2008, he shared the space with a white supermodel, Gisele Bündchen, who appeared as a damsel in his clutches, an unmistakable reference to King Kong. A spokesman at Condé Nast admitted that much progress needs to be made in regard to diversity at the company, but he defended Ms. Wintour’s record, pointing out that she has passionately supported various designers of color throughout her career, helping to raise money for them through her work with the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She also installed two black editors to lead Teen Vogue, genuinely radical in its content, one following the other (Elaine Welteroth and then Lindsay Peoples Wagner). At the same time, Ms. Wintour has presided over Vogue for 32 years, and during that period she has done more to enshrine the values of bloodline, pedigree and privilege than anyone in American media. A brief and very inconclusive list of Ms. Wintour’s assistants in the 21st century includes the Yale-educated daughter of a prominent Miami dance director, the Dartmouth-educated descendant of a major bank president, the Princeton-educated daughter of an Oscar-winning screenwriter and so on. For so long it was central to the Condé Nast ethos that you had to be thin, gorgeous and impeccably credentialed to retrieve someone else’s espresso macchiato. Even now, as the publishing industry continues to implode and wonderful writers who could really use the work (or at least the prestigious affiliation) abound, Vogue continues to list among its contributing editors people like the German heiress Elisabeth von Thurn und Taxis and many others among the well born. Five years ago, Ms. Thurn und Taxis posted a picture on Instagram of a homeless woman reading Vogue, seated on the sidewalk, with the words, “Paris is full of surprises.” Vogue quickly issued a statement, calling the gesture distasteful, and then proceeded to run her byline on its website at least 10 more times Last year, Grace Coddington, another contributor, who had held enormous influence over what was shot for Vogue and how, in her many years as the magazine’s creative director, was photographed with her collection of “mammy’’ jars, racist ceramics depicting African-American women as servile maids. Ms. Wintour clearly believes that she can break from the past and kill off any vestiges of a system steeped in the benighted values for which she has become the corporate avatar. The public apology from Bon Appétit was quite startling in its admission of failure, particularly its concession that the magazine “continued to tokenize” the people of color that it did hire. As part of her contribution to this new wave of progressivism, Ms. Wintour wrote a piece for Vogue.com a week after the death of George Floyd, aligning herself with Black Lives Matter and calling on Joe Biden to select an African-American woman as his running mate. For someone who had seemed so averse to activism as the world has roiled from inequality for years, it felt like a desperate grasp for relevance. A spokesman for the company bristled at the suggestion, arguing that it is Condé Nast’s job “to cover what’s going on in the culture in the moment.” As it happens, André Leon Talley, who recently wrote a memoir about his complicated relationship with Ms. Wintour, as a black man and longtime former editor at Vogue, also has a lot to say about the current moment. This week in a radio interview with Sandra Bernhard, he offered his opinion about his ex-boss’s professed transformation. “I wanna say one thing, Dame Anna Wintour is a colonial broad; she’s a colonial dame,” he told Ms. Bernhard. “I do not think she will ever let anything get in the way of her white privilege.” Read More Read the full article

[stopkingobama]

The Shameful Response of the Left to Attempted GOP Massacre

Maybe I’m just too naïve.

I’d expected that liberals would eventually turn to talk of gun control after Wednesday’s violent, horrible shooting targeting GOP lawmakers.

This was an attack that left House Majority Whip Steve Scalise in critical condition as of Wednesday night, according to the hospital treating him, as well as wounding three others–a lawmaker’s aide, a Capitol Police officer, and a lobbyist. One of them, lobbyist and former Capitol Hill aide Matt Mika, also is in critical condition, according to reports.

I’d thought liberals would at least react with sympathy and sorrow that innocent people had been targeted by former Bernie Sanders volunteer James Hodgkinson, the man police say was the shooter, and allow some time to pass before switching to gun control.

And maybe there even would be some honest self-reflection on whether there had been too much levity about comedian Kathy Griffin’s decision to pose with a red-stained replica of Trump’s head, ISIS-style, or a New York theater director’s choice to portray a Donald Trump look-alike’s assassination in “Julius Caesar.”

Now, of course, neither Griffin or “Julius Caesar” director Oskar Eustis is at all responsible for the shooter’s decisions—but, just as I would hope no conservative would have done such things to President Barack Obama, it’s reasonable to ask the left to behave better, to not forget that Donald Trump, too, is a person. (And yes, it was inappropriate when a 2012 version of “Julius Caesar” starred an actor resembling Obama.)

And of course some, perhaps even most, on the left have been acting in a respectful way.

But there’s been some glaring exceptions.

The New York Times, rightly, is getting pilloried for its editorial, published Wednesday, that insinuated Sarah Palin’s target map was to blame for the shooting of Gabby Giffords. Here’s the language from the original editorial (via National Review):

Was this attack evidence of how vicious American politics has become? Probably. In 2011, when Jared Lee Loughner opened fire in a supermarket parking lot, grievously wounding Representative Gabby Giffords and killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl, the link to political incitement was clear. Before the shooting, Sarah Palin’s political action committee circulated a map of targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs.

The New York Times has since corrected the piece, noting: “An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that a link existed between political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords. In fact, no such link was established.” Indeed.

National Review’s David French dismantled the argument, writing: “In its zeal to create moral equivalencies and maintain a particular narrative about the past, the Times flat-out lied. There is simply no ‘link to political incitement’ in Loughner’s murderous acts. The man was a paranoid schizophrenic who first got angry at Gabby Giffords years before Palin published her map.”

And CNN’s Jake Tapper, no conservative, similarly disputed the Times account:

You know what wasn’t mentioned in that Times editorial, which noted their grief in 2011 at “vicious American politics”? Kathy Griffin wasn’t mentioned nor was the “Julius Caesar” play. Oh, sure, the Times offered a pablum take on civility, writing:

Conservatives and right-wing media were quick on Wednesday to demand forceful condemnation of hate speech and crimes by anti-Trump liberals. They’re right. Liberals should of course be held to the same standard of decency that they ask of the right.

But without naming names or calling out any specific instances, that’s a pretty toothless take.

And when I went to The Slot, an offshoot of my favorite liberal site Jezebel, I found this comment on the article about the Scalise shooting:

Yeah, f— these people. Scalise voted for the AHCA [American Health Care Act] and got a good chunk of change from insurance and pharmaceutical companies and health professionals. [Republican Rep. Mo] Brooks is a Freedom Caucus member, so he can go to hell, too. Worst thing they’ll have is a traumatic memory, but they have insurance that allows them to get PTSD treated. Scalise will probably have a scar on his hip. No sympathy for these people. (Note: Language edited for decency, in both screenshot and quote.)

This comment was liked 156 times.

And while many Democrat politicians seem to be acting with humanity (including the wonderful display of Democrat lawmakers praying at a Washington, D.C. baseball field when they heard about the shooting), some almost immediately brought up gun control after the attack at the baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, had this to say Wednesday: “I think we need to do more to protect all of our citizens. I have long advocated — this is not what today is about — but there are too many guns on the street. We lose 93 million Americans a day to gun violence.”

McAuliffe, who clarified he meant 93 Americans a day after a reporter asked, said those words just a few hours after the shooting.

And Rep. Don Beyer, the Democrat who represents the district that includes the baseball field (and is, sadly, my House member), sent his constituents an email Wednesday afternoon that concluded with this sentiment: “I believe strongly that our nation should rethink its policies regarding gun violence, and I will have more for you soon on that issue.”

While I’m certainly aware of how fast the news cycle moves, could McAuliffe and Beyer maybe have held on to these hot takes, for oh, a whole 24 hours? After all, as of Wednesday night, Scalise was still in critical condition.

Never let a crisis go to waste, indeed.

Let’s refresh: The shooter was a former Bernie Sanders volunteer, who lawmakers said started shooting after confirming those on the field were Republicans, and whose social media use shows a clear liberal tilt.

Hogkinson’s alleged violent actions are his own responsibility, and nobody else’s.

But would it have been so crazy for the left to have taken a step back and reflected on their overheated rhetoric of the past few months, their willingness to depict Republicans and conservatives as monsters who want to hurt minorities and LGBT Americans and take away everyone’s health care? (Instead of people who have different views on appropriate discrimination policies, religious freedom, and the best way to ensure everyone has access to health care, not just insurance.)

No. It wouldn’t have been crazy.

It would have been refreshing.

But unfortunately, that’s not the America we live in today.

This is a guest post by Katrina Trinko managing editor of The Daily Signal and a member of USA Today’s Board of Contributors.

[god-hunter]

X-Men: Gold #1

This was very good.  Maybe not quite as groundbreaking as Prime, but for a new direction, I can definitely say that Guggenheim has got it covered.

[Spoilers and thoughts]

Right off the bat, you’re not gonna like what I’m gonna say.

I was so annoyed to see that Kitty cut her hair.  Why?  What’s the point??

Less hair does not equal strength.  At this point it’s a really stupid cliched trope that nearly EVERY female character falls into and I’m kinda sick of it.  And before anyone goes off toting that I’m a misogynist prick, let it be known that I only bring this up because Kitty’s always had an iconic look with her long hair in a ponytail.  And we were JUST re-introduced to her as such in Prime.  If they really wanted to take this new direction with her look, they could’ve made a point of her doing that in the Prime issue.  They showed just about every other transitional aspect in that regard...

But anyway.  That’s a minor annoyance.

This issue starts with Kitty, Old Man Logan, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm and “Prestige” investigating an issue with Terrax right at the heart of New York City.

[...Prestige?  The name threw me off on the character re-cap page, but it’s explained later that it’s Rachel Grey, which made me feel better.  Because at first I was hoping and expecting Rachel Grey.  Then they throw a new name at us, and I got scared, because you never know with Marvel.]

So.  Terrax is terrorizing the city for reasons unknown to us.  I should’ve said that the very first thing we see before this, is someone toting Mutant Hate on the news.  Someone who seems important.  A Ms. Lydia Nance.  I’m sure we’ll be hearing and seeing that name more in this book.

But back to Terrax.  Its unexplained why or how he got there, but the action is pretty great.  Storm tornadoes him away, clashes him with a bolt, but damage was done to a nearby building, which is about to fall and crash onto another building, hurting hundreds of innocents.

Kitty makes an impressive call to have Kurt teleport her up to the top of the building, where she can phase the entire place [and presumptively its inhabitants], so that when the building crashes down to the ground, it actually goes THROUGH the building and no one is hurt.

Logan and Colossus aided in this process too.  Logan taking on Terrax in mid-air and Colosses helping to hold the building from falling, probably softening the landing.

A whole crowd of people are now outside and staring at them in fear.

“You know, if the Avengers or the Champions were here, they’d be cheering right now.” Rachel throws in her 2 cents.

Kitty addresses the crowd and asks if everyone is okay.  A little girl speaks up, and the mother immediately says, “Don’t talk to it, dear.”

I loved Kitty’s reaction.  “’It’? Really?”

Then she tells all of them, “I think the word you’re searching for is ‘Person.’  ‘Human being,’ even. If you’re feeling charitable.”  “...You’ve never exactly trusted us... and I know that to the extent you ever [had], we have a long way to go to rebuild that trust.  But we’re starting today.”

I really appreciated that.  And I love that back-sass.  Definitely missed that.

[Now... I would be remiss not to mention something shitty in the art, done by Ardian Syaf, since its all over Tumblr today.  But apparently Kitty’s head was placed very close to the word Jewelry, which kind of only looks like the word “Jew” is prominently featured.  Also the number 212 on the store seems to take significance.

[Neither are things I noticed, but this is where I will sign on to something being amiss, for real.]

In the very next scene, the X-Men are once again playing Baseball, only this time it’s at Central Park, and I’m beginning to realize that maybe this is a thing the X-Men do in their downtime after all.  So maybe there was something to that last game in Limbo after all...

But Piotr is up at bat and wearing a very strange white shirt that reads QS 5:51. I didn’t understand it at first, and Tumblr blew up about it today, mentioning that this, and the 212 and the Jew thing are all references to the Quran.  That all of this is some sort of Muslim warning or something.

[I’ll be honest.  I didn’t read the post.  I was disgusted that a Muslim Artist would do such a thing in the first place, and I just kinda... don’t need to read on any of the hate.  Marvel apparently made a public statement saying that this artist is receiving disciplinary action and that future prints of the book will not feature this at all.]  - But holy shit man.  How crafty do you have to be to get passed the editors in the first place?  That’s fucked up man.  These guys are giving you work.  Don’t be subtley passive aggressively political.  What the fuck is that???  I just want to read an X-Men comic and enjoy it.

And of all issues, it had to be the most important Restart Issue??  ...This guy’s an asshole.  And his art is good.  [I never mention artwork in reviews unless I really don’t like it.]

So...  after/during the Baseball game, some lawyer guy comes looking for Katherine Pryde, and he slams her with legal paperwork, regarding their communities relocation to Central Park.

[Logan was being really annoying here btw.  I kind of hope Guggenheim fixes his voice for Logan.]

“I signed about a Phone book’s worth when the Mayor agreed to let us relocate here.” Kitty said.  Oh good.  So they didn’t just teleport in and expect to just.. inherit the territory.

So she reads the booklet and asks what it is.

“Just an invoice.  For the first, six months’ lease payments as well as property taxes for the parcel you’re occupying.”

She frowns.  “This is for Eighteen Million Dollars.”

“This is Central Park.” He smiles.  “Arguably, the most valuable residential real estate in the entire World.”

Her eyes widen with fear and shock.  [I kind of liked this realism a lot actually.  But I have no idea how they’re gonna get that kind of money or funding.  They’re gonna have to do a really good job with the public or something.  We’ll see.]

I did enjoy Logan’s quick, “Want me to claw him?” to her.  It added much-needed levity to the moment.

That night, Storm and Nightcrawler have a nice bit of downtime.  They’re watching that asshole Lydia so-and-so taut off her mutant anti-trust.

“The more things change, the more they stay the same...” Kurt says.

Storm decides to quote Magneto and says that, “The past is prologue.”

Kurt corrects her and says that it’s Shakespeare.  Then he asks what she means.

“That, perhaps we’re returning to our roots...  Perhaps, after all the trials and tragedies, we are returning to what we were.”

“Outcasts?”

“Heroes.”

I enjoyed that.  There was a little bit of her getting down on herself about IvX.  As Lydia brings up the fact that the world is unsure of the long-term effects of their war against the Inhumans, Storm feels like they’ve not only lost the war, but they’ve lost any sort of good reputation they might have had.

It was refreshing to see Rachel train with newer students, Armor and.. a stone guy. [I forgot his name.]   She explained why she’s going by “Prestige” now, which I really appreciated.  And it seems that they will go by new code names too.  Kitty wants everyone to move forward, not backward.  That’s pretty cool.

Kitty has a moment in her office, where she’s trying to go through files and work.  Narrative moments of self-doubt or just being in awe of it all occur.  I appreciate this.  Then Piotr walks in and asks her to have dinner.  I love that she worries about this internally and then tells him that she doesn’t want to eat with him.

“I mean, as friends sure. Always. No problem.  But you didn’t mean as friends, right?”

[Yes!  Thank you.]

She tells him she moved on, but she’ll always love him.  [The difference here than with Jean and Scott, is that Piotr and her HAD their past.  Multiple times.  And they’re both adults.  Jean... just knows a past that occurred between them.  And she’s fucking young and all over him.  Then saying, not interested when Scott makes a move?  That’s bullshit man.  It’s very Teenager.  And that’s why I reacted the opposite way, when this same exact thing happened between her and scott in the last issue of All-New X-Men.]

Thankfully, this awkward moment gets interrupted by Rachel, who tells them that someone’s attacking the city.  

Kitty feels both relieved and like the worst person ever for hoping for that sort of out.

They take the Blackbird Jet over to the UN Headquarters in Manhattan, and teleport directly to whoever is causing the problem.  It turns out to be a 5-person team, in which I only recognize Pyro and Avalanche.  And a fire-woman tells them, “We’re the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.”

-To Be Continued-

Aw man.  Well, here we go.

Thrust into a new thing.

I like it.  I wouldn’t say any of the outlying conflicts are groundbreaking.  We’ve seen this kind of politics before in Fraction and Gillen’s run a lot.  Probably Bendis’ too.

I do like the newness of Kitty making a conceited effort to have the Public know and Trust them though.  And I’m definitely looking forward to a day where this public looks to the X-Men and actually asks for their help and appreciates them!

We saw it in San Francisco very early in Fraction’s run.  So much that it almost didn’t make sense at first.

I’d kind of like to see that level of respect happen in New York.  But I would appreciate if it was gradual, if Guggenheim took it in that direction.

Looking forward to X-Men: Gold #2.

But I’m looking forward to X-Men: Blue #1 more.  That’s coming out this next week.

[pierce61716983-blog]

The Best eBook Software Creator auto ebook creator

Memoirs of Nepal: Images Across A Years John Paul Lederacho Fixed-Layout E-book Created through a distinguished peace-builder and also historian, this digital book was actually a budget-friendly feature for a decade of necessary charitable job and also a digital buddy to print versions. Here is actually a checklist of the greatest e Book production software our team contrasted, for all your digital book printing and also authoring necessities. Kitaboo -- Acclaimed cloud-based digital printing platform to generate, publish and also tightly shipping multimedia-enhanced active e-books. Epubeemaker -- Free of charge digital book printing software such as a term add-in, it assists you generate epub straight from your phrase doctor Flipbuilder -- Turns PDF in to Media Rich e Works along with a flipbook style Ad -- An ebook printing software efficient in aiding throughout the printing and also circulation method Pressbooks -- Provides epublishing remedy to universities, authors and also self-publishers Flip HTML 5 -- HTML 5 digital printing platform Idea press -- Allows self-publishers streamline their epublishing method along with its offerings i Works Writer -- e Book authoring resource through Apple, assists generate manuals for Apple tools. While traditional manuals were produced through dropping trees, e Works are actually produced in an extremely gentle and also agreeable way. The only thing you require to generate an e Book is an excellent e Book production software and also naturally your composition. For a first-time author who is attempting to create an e Book, it appears like very a painful task to discover the right devices which may efficiently get the job done. And right now you are actually confused over which e Book Production Software application to use. Google is kind sufficient to bring to pass fifty or even so ebook designers for you to pick from. But that does not reduce the trouble of finding out which one is a lot better. You can't maintain attempting each and also every e Book production software.

auto ebook creator https://justus27823161.tumblr.com/post/189941665326/sqribble-review-open-source-interactive-ebook Kitaboo is an active e Book producer. It is a cloud-based DRM defended satisfied . DRM makes certain that your information is secure from burglaries and also pirating. You can either generate an e Book from square one using Kitaboo authoring platform or even you can use their conversion service to turn your digital composition in to e CLUB documents. The information you generate utilizing this resource is device agnostic and also comes on all primary system software. Connected: Just How to Generate an Involved e Book (Basic Step-by-Step Resource) This is a complimentary e Book production software. It is a term add-in which will definitely assist you turn your phrase submits in to e CLUB, Mobi and also PDF layouts. When your e Book awaits circulation, you can transmit it to various analysis tools like Kindle, Nook, Kobo etc. e PUBee Producer can be utilized as an e Book Editor or even e Book Reciter. You can import various data layouts to read on MS Word. Through this resource, you may quickly generate an e Book from your phrase data.

auto ebook creator https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UPKKWVK0KhYMWrL4O1culkSihF933bxL

Here is actually more on just how to generate active e-books . The intriguing component regarding this software is that it provides the turning web page impact when you depend on the next web page in your e Book. This flip impact comes as an interesting adjustment when contrasted to typical e Works. You can add mixeds media elements to your e Book documents. The e Works can be accessed from any sort of body and also platform. You would must install this software on your Microsoft window, i Operating System or even Android body before utilizing it. Ad supplies you along with an e Book production software for generating and also posting. You would to begin with must install their complimentary desktop computer software deal so as to start along with publication production. You require a lowest of 22 pages to generate an e Book from a PDF. As soon as your e Book is ready, Ad even assists you sell your e Book. They manage the logistics, freight and also on-demand publishing. You can sell your e Book by means of the Ad Bookstore, Amazon.com, Ingram, and also Apple i Publication store. You just require to enroll and also can instantly start making your e Book. If you already have a composition ready, you can import the data and also insert chapters in this particular e Book production software. It permits you to add sound, video clip and also graphic documents. You can additionally decide on the appeal of your web page from their checklist of display screen design templates. As soon as you have actually installed your documents, you can submit them to e Book shops or even use a third-party representative to sell your freshly produced e Book. Yet another flip publication creator that lets you to generate active e Works. It is actually an HTML 5 digital printing platform, where you can install the information along with hyperlinks, mixeds media, photos and also computer animation. Your e Works can be accessed on all tools and also internet internet browsers. Flip HTML 5 is a complimentary resource and also can turn PDF, MS Office, Open Office and also Pictures to HTML 5, creating your e Book more active. It additionally allows you to generate a customized domain name for your e Book. This resource permits you to generate your e Works right from square one. You can decide on the web page style and also layout and also design the cover web page. Their rate estimate resource lets you prepare an appropriate rate for the e Book. The resource additionally assists you maintain a monitor of your profits and also the lot of manuals you've marketed. This software is offered completely free on the Mac Application Shop. You can generate active e Works utilizing this resource for i Pad, i Phone and also Mac tools. It has a bunch of attributes which you can use to boost your e Book, like photos, sound, video clips, animations, 3D things, algebraic expressions etc . You can export your e Book in various data layouts if you carry out certainly not intend to restrict it to an Apple device. It provides you the possibility to export documents in text, PDF, and also e CLUB format. You can start generating your brand new e Book along with some of the software plans detailed above. If it is a text-heavy publication like myth books or even bios, at that point you might certainly not have a chance to include a bunch of interactivities, however otherwise, you could really boost your e Book through incorporating some mixeds media attributes. Every person enjoys an excellent publication along with compelling information, and also if you can create your user's analysis encounter even a lot better through including engaging interactivities, your readers might certainly never put down their analysis device. Finest Overall The most ideal through much, Atavist lets you publish various kinds of on the web information using well-liked media data kinds to ensure you can place video clip and also photos straight in to your text message. Ideal Market Value for Mac Users Free along with an apple account, i Works has lots of devices and also lets you manage all your jobs from a central location. https://reece62798269.tumblr.com/post/189942990911/the-best-ebook-software-creator-atlantis-ebook

[goldeagleprice]

Letters to the Editor: July 9, 2019

2019 Floating Head Penny

I am writing to you about the 2019 Floating Head Penny from your June 4, 2019 issue of Numismatic News.

Would you answer my question regarding the article? My question is, is the head larger than the 2018 pennies?

I am concerned about the coin collectors and your subscribers. You do not apply answers that people ask you. The answers keep people looking and searching US coins, also buying coins. I have 20 rolls of 2019 pennies and am looking them over closely. I will also have one graded. When I found two “82D” pennies, I immediately mailed them to grading companies.

George Parks Kaplan, La.

  Editor’s Note: We contacted the grading company with regard to your question, as we do not have the actual coin in our possession that was written about in the article. We received word back from them that all of the dies are the same design as the master die. However, it may look like the head is larger because the die was polished, removing the neck area and isolating the head. So the short answer is no, the head is not larger.  Thanks for your question!

  The Mint and Surveys

Why doesn’t the Mint survey its customers? All of us are burned out answering innumerable surveys from those we do business with [and those we don’t], I suggest the Mint reward those folks who take the time to complete any survey which could be done online—perhaps a certificate good for free shipping [which doesn’t expire in 30 days or a 2019-W Lincoln which isn’t defective!].

In the same survey the Mint could gather additional information about what numismatists (and just plain coin collectors) would like to have the Mint produce.  It is not terribly complex.

James Sibley Spring, Texas

  Clash Marks on Nickel

I sent some not too great pictures of my 2009-s proof Jefferson nickel. As you can see, it has been certified by the ANACS as strongly clashed dies. I bought four of these proof sets from the mint to give as Christmas presents and kept one for my collection. I never gave it another thought until a few years ago when I opened it and noticed that the nickel was clashed on both sides. That’s when I sent it to the ANA to make sure.

There are several clear clash marks that can easily be seen and the more I look at it the more i seem to find. The most prominent one is that both of Jefferson’s eyes appear in the name Monticello on the reverse. One eye is above the first ‘O’ in Monticello and the other one is between the ‘I’ and ‘C.’

My question is, do you know if anyone else has reported the same thing? I have bought several others since then just to see and none have this clash. It is a cameo proof as you can see, so it must have been a first strike. The other three I originally bought don’t have it either. I’m just curious to know if it is unique. I hope there are others. Please ask your readers to check their sets just to be sure.

John Dunkle Essington, Pa.

  Modern Slabbed “Mint Fluff”

In 100 years, chances are the Morgan F Dollar will still be popular (for the life of me I have never understood why these are popular to begin with). The Seated Liberty in “any” denomination is a much nicer coin and much more scarce. Indian Head Cents may also still be popular and Lincolns (ones where I do see the appeal.)

The biggest laugh comes from all the so-called collectors that buy the modern junk at insane prices and it’s worth 1/10th  that a year later — or less. The latest is the UNC 2019-W cent in MS-70 which is $750 to $5000 (on the first day it was selling for $6,500). The combined first day is 83 at NGC already. Look at the PF-70 W or the PF-70 Reverse W; Both are over $100 and there are well over 5,000 of each PF-70 just at NGC.

So compared to the 2012 and 2013 PF-70 which still can be bought for under $100 at 1/100 the population, where is the common sense? 2013 PF70 Lincoln Cent First Releases =0, Early Releases = 55 for NGC and even lower (52) for PCGS First Strike. There is one guy who owns most of these and “tries” to sell them on eBay for $299. I’ve talked to him and nobody seems interested. I bought a 2013 PF-70 NGC ER for $38 just five months ago. I bought 10 from an eBay dealer in July of 2013 for $350 total. Where is the common sense pertaining to modern slabbed “mint fluff???”

Paul Bechtoldt Peckville, Pa.

The post Letters to the Editor: July 9, 2019 appeared first on Numismatic News.

[siliconwebx]

6 Best WordPress Slider Plugins – Performance + Quality (Compared)

Are you looking to add a slider in your WordPress site? There are dozens of WordPress slider plugins on the market that you can use.

However, not all slider plugins are created equal. Most of them load too many scripts which slow down your website.

In this article, we will compare the top WordPress slider plugins based on their speed, ease of use, and overall features. The goal is to find the best WordPress slider plugin in terms of performance and quality.

The Problem With WordPress Sliders

Most WordPress sliders are slow. If it is not properly coded, a slider can significantly increase your page load time. If you do not have a good WordPress hosting service, then your server may respond even slower than normal.

The other problem with WordPress slider plugins is ease of use. Most of them are bloated and come with a learning curve for beginners.

Last but not least, you want to make sure that your WordPress slider is mobile responsive. A lot of them are not.

So how do you go through hundreds of slider plugins and check for all of this? Well, you don’t have to. We did the research for you and below are our results for the best WordPress slider.

The Contenders for Best WordPress Slider Plugin

For the sake of this article, we chose the top and highly recommended WordPress slider plugins. While doing our research, we noticed that these slider plugins were among the most used and recommended.

Soliloquy

MetaSlider

Smart Slider 3

Slider by Nivo

Slide Anything

Master Slider

We decided to run some simple tests and see how each one of them performs. The criteria we are looking for is speed, ease-of-use, features, and compatibility.

Ready, let’s get started.

Speed – Which is the Fastest WordPress Slide Plugin?

The #1 problem with sliders is that they could slow down your website. Performance and speed not only affect user experience, but they also have a significant impact on SEO.

This is why slider speed is on the top of our comparison. We want to see which is the fastest slider plugin and then we will compare their features to see if the performance impact can be justified.

To find this out, we installed each slider plugin on a demo WordPress site. We uploaded the same images to create a slider. We didn’t change any other settings and embedded the slider on a blank WordPress page.

After that, we used Pingdom speed testing tool to run the test. Following are the results of our test for each slider plugin.

Slider Plugin Page Load time Requests Page size Soliloquy 860 ms 22 679 KB MetaSlider 863 ms 25 229 KB Smart Slider 3 865 ms 19 382 KB Slider by Nivo 928 ms 16 306 KB Slide Anything 866 ms 18 324 KB Master Slider 900 ms 22 345 KB

As you can see in the above scores, Soliloquy was the fastest loading WordPress slider in our tests. Closely followed by MetaSlider.

If you want a high-performance fast WordPress site, then Soliloquy is the best WordPress slider for you.

Now you might think that all other sliders performed well too. Why do we think that Soliloquy is the fastest?

If you notice the test results, you will see that Soliloquy increased page load size without affecting the speed.

This is achieved by using a neat little trick. Basically, it loads your cover slide first and then other slides are loaded asynchronously. In other words, you can upload high-quality slider images with minimum impact on performance.

Ease of Use – Which WordPress Slider Offers Better User Experience?

Creating sliders is not as simple as we would like it to be. There is too much technical language used in the user interface of all top WordPress slider plugins.

We want our slider plugin to be beginner friendly and something that just works out of the box. Let’s see how our top contenders perform in this regard.

Soliloquy

Soliloquy is the most beginner friendly WordPress slider plugin on our list. You can simply create a new slider and then just drag and drop your images.

It takes care of the other things like resizing images, choosing a slider theme, navigation style, etc. You can simply hit the publish button to save the slider.

The reason why it’s easy to use is that it uses the WordPress coding guidelines and blends in with your native WordPress admin interface. Soliloquy has a simple but intuitive user interface to create slides using the default WordPress media uploader.

Adding your slider to WordPress posts and pages is also a breeze. Soliloquy gives you a number of options including shortcodes, a Gutenberg editor block, a button for the old classic editor, and a widget.

MetaSlider

MetaSlider is another easy to use WordPress slider. Creating a new slider is quite simple and it automatically takes care of all the technical settings for you.

It gives you options to choose different slider scripts, slider theme and styles, add captions and SEO titles, and more. Beginners can ignore all those options and can simply insert slider anywhere on their site using shortcode, Gutenberg block, widget, or template tag.

Smart Slider 3

Smart Slider 3 uses a different user interface which feels different than the rest of the WordPress admin screens. It is somewhat easy to use and beginners can find their way around.

However, it packs a lot of options which may not be as easy to discover for beginners. The overall user experience is satisfactory and you can easily add a slider into posts and pages using the default block, shortcode, and template tag.

Slider by Nivo

Slider by Nivo is a free slider plugin that is easy and quite straight forward. You can simply upload slider images using the media uploader and rearrange slide order with drag and drop.

Using the same media uploader interface, you can add captions, link, and alternate text to your slide images. It comes with shortcodes and template tags so you can add a slider to your posts, pages, and template files.

Nivo Slider is an image slider and does not support video and other multimedia type. It comes with a nice bundle of themes that you can use and lots of transition effects to choose from. However, if you are counting on features and options, then Nivo falls behind other sliders on this list.

Slide Anything

Slide Anything allows you to add anything into a slider. You can add text, HTML, images, videos, or anything else you want. It is not as easy to use or intuitive as some other WordPress sliders and many of them also allow you to add other types of content.

You will have to insert all your slide content inside an HTML editor. This makes it a bit difficult to keep your slides the way you want them to be.

Master Slider

Master Slider is another slider plugin with a non-native user interface that looks different than the rest of the WordPress screens. It is easy to use, but many of the options are hard to locate.

It starts with a template selection and automatically imports some demo slides for you to start with. You can then delete those slides and replace them with your own.

It has beautiful templates and can be easily inserted into WordPress posts, pages, and sidebars by using the shortcode, Gutenberg block, and template tag.

Master Slider works best with WordPress themes that automatically load jQuery on each page load. If your theme doesn’t do that, then you will need to change plugin settings and force it to load assets on page load.

Features – Which Slider Plugin for WordPress Offers More Choices?

If all you want to do is create simple image slide shows, then any of the free WordPress slider plugins on this list can do the job.

However, Soliloquy and MetaSlider come with a lot more features. They are fully responsive sliders and look equally beautiful on all devices and screen sizes. Both support video slides, HTML 5 videos, featured content slides, themes, animations, and transitions.

They both offer simple and easy to use interface and they both have additional add-ons that you can install to add more features.

Soliloquy has slightly more features like WooCommerce add-on for product slideshows, social media integration, Instagram add-on, and more.

Pricing

Cost is another decisive factor that might help users choose a slider plugin for WordPress.

Here is the price for a single site license of these plugins.

Slider Plugin Single Site License Soliloquy $19 MetaSlider $39 Smart Slider 3 $35 Slider by Nivo Free Slide Anything Free Master Slider Free

Among the paid plugins Soliloquy may look the cheapest, but their single site license doesn’t give you access to all the add-ons. You’ll need the developer license to access all add-ons, which costs $99.

On the other hand, both MetaSlider and Smart Slider 3 give you access to all add-ons even with a single site license.

Conclusion – The Best WordPress Slider Plugin

After comparing these plugins we can confidently say that the best WordPress slider plugin award goes to:

Soliloquy

It is by far the fastest WordPress slider plugin in the market. It follows all of the coding best practices, it is very well documented, easy to extend for developers and even easier to use for users.

Use our Soliloquy Coupon to get an extra 10% off.

Our second choice would be SmartSlider 3. It offers a very good balance of functionality and performance. The user interface is easy to use for beginners as well as developers.

We hope this article answers the questions regarding the best WordPress slider plugin in terms of performance and quality. You may also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress caching plugins to improve your website performance.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 6 Best WordPress Slider Plugins – Performance + Quality (Compared) appeared first on WPBeginner.

😉SiliconWebX | 🌐WPBeginner

[wpdigits]

6 Best WordPress Slider Plugins – Performance + Quality (Compared)

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Are you looking to add a slider in your WordPress site? There are dozens of WordPress slider plugins on the market that you can use.

However, not all slider plugins are created equal. Most of them load too many scripts which slow down your website.

In this article, we will compare the top WordPress slider plugins based on their speed, ease of use, and overall features. The goal is to find the best WordPress slider plugin in terms of performance and quality.

The Problem With WordPress Sliders

Most WordPress sliders are slow. If it is not properly coded, a slider can significantly increase your page load time. If you do not have a good WordPress hosting service, then your server may respond even slower than normal.

The other problem with WordPress slider plugins is ease of use. Most of them are bloated and come with a learning curve for beginners.

Last but not least, you want to make sure that your WordPress slider is mobile responsive. A lot of them are not.

So how do you go through hundreds of slider plugins and check for all of this? Well, you don’t have to. We did the research for you and below are our results for the best WordPress slider.

The Contenders for Best WordPress Slider Plugin

For the sake of this article, we chose the top and highly recommended WordPress slider plugins. While doing our research, we noticed that these slider plugins were among the most used and recommended.

Soliloquy

MetaSlider

Smart Slider 3

Slider by Nivo

Slide Anything

Master Slider

We decided to run some simple tests and see how each one of them performs. The criteria we are looking for is speed, ease-of-use, features, and compatibility.

Ready, let’s get started.

Speed – Which is the Fastest WordPress Slide Plugin?

The #1 problem with sliders is that they could slow down your website. Performance and speed not only affect user experience, but they also have a significant impact on SEO.

This is why slider speed is on the top of our comparison. We want to see which is the fastest slider plugin and then we will compare their features to see if the performance impact can be justified.

To find this out, we installed each slider plugin on a demo WordPress site. We uploaded the same images to create a slider. We didn’t change any other settings and embedded the slider on a blank WordPress page.

After that, we used Pingdom speed testing tool to run the test. Following are the results of our test for each slider plugin.

Slider Plugin Page Load time Requests Page size Soliloquy 860 ms 22 679 KB MetaSlider 863 ms 25 229 KB Smart Slider 3 865 ms 19 382 KB Slider by Nivo 928 ms 16 306 KB Slide Anything 866 ms 18 324 KB Master Slider 900 ms 22 345 KB

As you can see in the above scores, Soliloquy was the fastest loading WordPress slider in our tests. Closely followed by MetaSlider.

If you want a high-performance fast WordPress site, then Soliloquy is the best WordPress slider for you.

Now you might think that all other sliders performed well too. Why do we think that Soliloquy is the fastest?

If you notice the test results, you will see that Soliloquy increased page load size without affecting the speed.

This is achieved by using a neat little trick. Basically, it loads your cover slide first and then other slides are loaded asynchronously. In other words, you can upload high-quality slider images with minimum impact on performance.

Ease of Use – Which WordPress Slider Offers Better User Experience?

Creating sliders is not as simple as we would like it to be. There is too much technical language used in the user interface of all top WordPress slider plugins.

We want our slider plugin to be beginner friendly and something that just works out of the box. Let’s see how our top contenders perform in this regard.

Soliloquy

Soliloquy is the most beginner friendly WordPress slider plugin on our list. You can simply create a new slider and then just drag and drop your images.

It takes care of the other things like resizing images, choosing a slider theme, navigation style, etc. You can simply hit the publish button to save the slider.

The reason why it’s easy to use is that it uses the WordPress coding guidelines and blends in with your native WordPress admin interface. Soliloquy has a simple but intuitive user interface to create slides using the default WordPress media uploader.

Adding your slider to WordPress posts and pages is also a breeze. Soliloquy gives you a number of options including shortcodes, a Gutenberg editor block, a button for the old classic editor, and a widget.

MetaSlider

MetaSlider is another easy to use WordPress slider. Creating a new slider is quite simple and it automatically takes care of all the technical settings for you.

It gives you options to choose different slider scripts, slider theme and styles, add captions and SEO titles, and more. Beginners can ignore all those options and can simply insert slider anywhere on their site using shortcode, Gutenberg block, widget, or template tag.

Smart Slider 3

Smart Slider 3 uses a different user interface which feels different than the rest of the WordPress admin screens. It is somewhat easy to use and beginners can find their way around.

However, it packs a lot of options which may not be as easy to discover for beginners. The overall user experience is satisfactory and you can easily add a slider into posts and pages using the default block, shortcode, and template tag.

Slider by Nivo

Slider by Nivo is a free slider plugin that is easy and quite straight forward. You can simply upload slider images using the media uploader and rearrange slide order with drag and drop.

Using the same media uploader interface, you can add captions, link, and alternate text to your slide images. It comes with shortcodes and template tags so you can add a slider to your posts, pages, and template files.

Nivo Slider is an image slider and does not support video and other multimedia type. It comes with a nice bundle of themes that you can use and lots of transition effects to choose from. However, if you are counting on features and options, then Nivo falls behind other sliders on this list.

Slide Anything

Slide Anything allows you to add anything into a slider. You can add text, HTML, images, videos, or anything else you want. It is not as easy to use or intuitive as some other WordPress sliders and many of them also allow you to add other types of content.

You will have to insert all your slide content inside an HTML editor. This makes it a bit difficult to keep your slides the way you want them to be.

Master Slider

Master Slider is another slider plugin with a non-native user interface that looks different than the rest of the WordPress screens. It is easy to use, but many of the options are hard to locate.

It starts with a template selection and automatically imports some demo slides for you to start with. You can then delete those slides and replace them with your own.

It has beautiful templates and can be easily inserted into WordPress posts, pages, and sidebars by using the shortcode, Gutenberg block, and template tag.

Master Slider works best with WordPress themes that automatically load jQuery on each page load. If your theme doesn’t do that, then you will need to change plugin settings and force it to load assets on page load.

Features – Which Slider Plugin for WordPress Offers More Choices?

If all you want to do is create simple image slide shows, then any of the free WordPress slider plugins on this list can do the job.

However, Soliloquy and MetaSlider come with a lot more features. They are fully responsive sliders and look equally beautiful on all devices and screen sizes. Both support video slides, HTML 5 videos, featured content slides, themes, animations, and transitions.

They both offer simple and easy to use interface and they both have additional add-ons that you can install to add more features.

Soliloquy has slightly more features like WooCommerce add-on for product slideshows, social media integration, Instagram add-on, and more.

Pricing

Cost is another decisive factor that might help users choose a slider plugin for WordPress.

Here is the price for a single site license of these plugins.

Slider Plugin Single Site License Soliloquy $19 MetaSlider $39 Smart Slider 3 $35 Slider by Nivo Free Slide Anything Free Master Slider Free

Among the paid plugins Soliloquy may look the cheapest, but their single site license doesn’t give you access to all the add-ons. You’ll need the developer license to access all add-ons, which costs $99.

On the other hand, both MetaSlider and Smart Slider 3 give you access to all add-ons even with a single site license.

Conclusion – The Best WordPress Slider Plugin

After comparing these plugins we can confidently say that the best WordPress slider plugin award goes to:

Soliloquy

It is by far the fastest WordPress slider plugin in the market. It follows all of the coding best practices, it is very well documented, easy to extend for developers and even easier to use for users.

Use our Soliloquy Coupon to get an extra 10% off.

Our second choice would be SmartSlider 3. It offers a very good balance of functionality and performance. The user interface is easy to use for beginners as well as developers.

We hope this article answers the questions regarding the best WordPress slider plugin in terms of performance and quality. You may also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress caching plugins to improve your website performance.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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[sempiternalsandpitturtle]

Marketing 101: Everything you need to know

If you’ve found your way to our blog chances are you work in marketing or you want some help with your marketing. But whether you’re an experienced marketer or a rookie we hope you’ll find something useful in this post.

This is our marketing 101 – an introduction to marketing. We’ve got a lot to cover so here’s a quick summary of what you’ll find if you keep reading:

CHAPTER ONE: A brief history of marketing

Okay, let’s not get carried away. We’re not starting with sponsored cave paintings. But we’ll take a look at some of the principles of marketing and how marketing has changed over the past 20 years.  

CHAPTER TWO: Building a marketing team

Next we’ll get into the different skills you’ll want access to in order to run effective marketing campaigns. To make this a little more interesting we’ve staffed your marketing department from the cast of the Avengers. We’ll also look at in-house versus outsourcing. And we’ll highlight some of the bear traps to avoid when working with third parties.

CHAPTER THREE: Marketing tactics and strategies

The third and final section will take a whistlestop tour through the most popular marketing tactics and strategies. We’ll cover content creation, SEO, social media marketing and email. And also run through the different challenges and opportunities at each stage of the marketing funnel.

“Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid.” Mark Twain

CHAPTER ONE: A brief history of marketing

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It’s hard to imagine a marketing campaign today that doesn’t involve one or both of Google and Facebook. Marketing though is as old as the hills. But we’ll save the marketing trends of ancient Rome for another blog post. Here we’ll stick to the more recent history.

First, let’s define what we mean by marketing. The Oxford English Dictionary defines marketing like this:

“The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.”

HubSpot, the marketing automation platform, has a more in-depth definition, which we prefer:

“Marketing is the process of getting people interested in your company’s product or service. This happens through market research, analysis, and understanding your ideal customer’s interests. Marketing pertains to all aspects of a business, including product development, distribution methods, sales, and advertising.”

And if you didn’t like either of those, here are no fewer than 72 definitions of marketing. Something for everyone in there.

Like David Packard (the “P” in HP) said: “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department”. It’s not a bolt-on or an after-throught. At least, it shouldn’t be. Marketing is something that should be woven into the fabric of an organisation.

Philip Kotler, regarded by many as the father of modern marketing, describes marketing as “the art of creating genuine customer value”. Professor Kotler has published close to 60 books on marketing since the 1970s. Something he’s written and spoken about extensively is the different marketing orientations that have captured the attention of marketers and business leaders over the years. As this is the history chapter let’s dive into that.

Marketing philosophies, concepts and orientations

There are a whole bunch of models and frameworks for analysing different approaches to marketing through the decades. We’re going with a popular one: the five marketing concepts as set out by Graeme Drummond and John Ensor (descriptions are our own):

The Production Concept: This stack ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap approach emerged during the industrial revolution. The idea is that supply creates its own demand. Companies should focus on scale and efficiency, because what consumers want is easily-available, affordable products. The priority for marketing is raising awareness. There is still plenty of evidence of this approach in practice today.

The Product Concept: This one is in many ways a reaction to the Production Concept. Rather than price and availability the focus here is quality. Companies build their strategy and marketing campaigns around their product’s quality, performance and features.

The Selling Concept: We could sum up this one as: “churn and burn”. The idea is to aggressively chase down every deal and prioritise short-term sales numbers over everything else.

The Marketing Concept: This orientation treats the customers a little less like sheep and instead puts them at the heart of the strategy. The Marketing Concept is about understanding what the customer wants. And then creating a marketing plan that speaks to those needs more effectively than your competition. 

The Societal Concept: This final orientation builds on the Marketing Concept. The needs of the customer are still paramount. But it also considers the wider impact of the organisation’s activities on the environment, community and natural resources.

Marketing in the digital age

You don’t have to work in marketing to be aware that the internet has been a huge disruptor in the marketing space. The internet has changed how people work, shop, entertain themselves and interact with one another. No industry has escaped the internet’s winds of change, but few have felt them as keenly as marketing.

Let’s take a look at where marketing dollars have been doing over the past 20 years. Back in 1999, we were all worrying about the Millennium Bug, the Backstreet Boys were number one and “The Matrix” had just come out. Marketing looked very different.

Fewer than 300 million people had access to the internet. As a result, television, print and outdoor advertising gobbled up the lion’s share of marketing budgets.

Fast forward to 2019 and we still have the Backstreet Boys. But the global internet population has exploded to 4.3 billion, according to Internet World Stats. This is what happened to ad spend over that period, courtesy of Zenith Media, an ad agency.

You can see that online ads have now eclipsed other channels. Outdoor was the first to go in 2005, followed a year later by radio. Print, which has lost the most market share to digital, went in 2013. Television spend has been growing, driven by a renaissance in content quality. But even that was overtaken by online spend in 2016. Zenith predicts that 2019 internet ad spend will top USD $274 billion.

But these headline numbers don’t tell the real story. This is really about the two companies we mentioned in our introduction. Two companies the Backstreet Boys wouldn’t even have heard of when they were working on the lyrics to “I Want It That Way”.

Facebook first. Last year, the world’s largest social media network made USD $55 billion from advertising. That’s around a fifth of global online ad spend, but really it’s small potatoes. According to its parent company, Alphabet, our favourite search engine, Google, raked in more than USD $116 billion in 2018 from its ad products.

CHAPTER TWO: Building a marketing team

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Okay, we admit “how [insert product or service] is like [insert pop culture reference]” content is a massive cliche. But they went to a lot of effort with Avengers: Endgame (it cost USD $400 million) and you won’t hear about much else over the next couple of weeks. So, we’re doing it. Marketers, assemble!!

Web Design and UX: Tony Stark/Iron Man

As the man himself said in the first Avengers movie: “I just pay for everything and design everything, make everyone look cooler.” Most web designers don’t have to pick up the tab. But they are essential when it comes to getting your marketing reality to match your vision.

What you’re looking for here is a techie who doesn’t just know how to build what you want but can also bring their own UX knowledge to your marketing campaigns. Tony has a bit of an ego that needs managing, but all the best hires do.

Analytics: David Banner/Hulk

Miss your numbers and he’ll turn green and demolish the office. But that’s a small price to pay in order to have your biggest brain crunching the numbers. Analytics are crucial to successful marketing. From understanding what your data is telling you to making the case for more budget.

You want someone who’s comfortable, not just with Google Analytics, but also whatever social media pages and third party tracking tools you’re using.

Creative: Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow

If you don’t have any actual super powers you have to get creative. Not the most tenuous link you’ll see in this month’s Endgame-inspired marketing blog deluge.

Ms Romonoff will add flair and the imagination you need to set your marketing campaigns apart from the competition. She’ll be able to turn her hand to design and video or find people who can. And she’ll come up with original and compelling ideas for packaging, presenting and promoting your key messages.

Writing: Thor

“Families can be tough. Before my father died, he told me I had a half-sister … that he imprisoned in Hell. Then she returned home, and stabbed me in the eye, so … I had to kill her. It’s life, isn’t it, I guess. I feel your pain.”

The God of Thunder has a way with words and got most of the best lines in “Avengers: Infinity War”, so look no further for your writer.

With such a premium on original content – and lots of it – you’ll always have plenty for your writer or writers to do. From turning out blogs and crafting new landing pages to snappy ad copy and engaging emails with clickable subject lines.

Editor: Clint Barton/Hawkeye

A poor man’s Jason Bourne, maybe. But he has an eye for detail. So, Clint Barton is your first choice for editor. It will be the editor’s job to ensure your campaigns fit the brief and that your brand guidelines are properly observed at all times.

Strategy and Project Management: Steve Rogers/Captain America

Experience is a vital element on any team. And how often do you get the chance to hire someone from America’s greatest generation?

Cap is a shoo-in for the strategy and project management role. You need someone who commands respect at all levels within the organisation. A stickler for doing things properly and ensuring deadlines are met, with military-grade strategic nous. His old school values and work ethic will get your projects delivered on time and on brief.

Outsourcing your marketing

Two problems with hiring the Avengers. First they don’t exist. And second they cost half a billion dollars per campaign.

Let’s assume you staff your marketing team with real humans. How do you decide what and when to outsource to third parties? We wrote a blog article on how content marketing agencies can be more effective than in-house teams. And as a content marketing agency, we obviously have a vested interest and natural bias.

So, rather than feather our own nest or recycle January’s blog article let’s take a look at some of the potential pitfalls of outsourcing parts of your marketing activity. Here are our top five based on our experience of helping clients pick up the pieces after bad agency experiences:

Losing access to Google Analytics, Google Ads or social media pages: Among the most damaging situations we’ve been asked to help out with are when clients have lost access to their data, social media profiles or even their whole site because a relationship with a third party has ended badly. You should outsource to get extra pairs of hands and bigger brains. Never to hand off responsibility for your company’s key assets.

Blackhat tactics to secure short-term results: Marketing is a competitive space and clients often ask for guaranteed results. So you can’t blame some agencies for giving them what they ask for. However, big promises often lead to disappointment or worse. Worse being short-term results delivered by nefarious methods that blow back on the client a few months later.

Technology lock-ins: There are lots of third party tools – free and paid – that can make a material difference to your marketing campaigns. But make sure you’re involved in deciding which tools to use. These choices matter and can have long-term consequences for your business. Maybe they lock you in to ongoing payments or tie you to a particular supplier for a lengthy period.

Outsourcing of knowledge: We quoted David Packard earlier in this post when we were talking about the importance of extending marketing beyond the marketing team. Marketing shouldn’t be siloed inside your organisation and it definitely shouldn’t be siloed outside of it. Agencies should add value both in terms of what they can do for you but also what they can teach you. Knowledge is something you always want to keep in-house.

Brand disconnect: A big challenge for agencies when stacking up against in-house teams is that they don’t get the chance to live and breathe the company culture every day. They are hired help and they work on multiple client accounts. As the client, you need to be aware of this risk from the outset and compensate by really engaging with the briefing and feedback process.

CHAPTER THREE: Marketing tactics and strategies

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In this chapter we’ll look at the marketing funnel and some of the popular tactics you’ll no doubt be familiar with for finding, engaging and nurturing leads.

The marketing funnel takes lots of different forms. Google it and you’ll see plenty of variations but also a common theme. Here is one of our favourites courtesy of Medium.com:

We like this one for its simplicity. You have three types of prospects:

In “Awareness”, it’s people who don’t know your brand or your products. Or don’t know that you can solve their problem.

In “Consideration”, people have engaged with you in some way already, but they’re not ready to buy for whatever reason (not the right time, haven’t been convinced yet).

And in “Action” they’ve reached decision time and it’s between you and the competition.

The challenges and opportunities for marketers change as people move down the funnel. But this sort of broad segmentation can be an extremely useful way to stress test your marketing campaign. Do you have content, a promotional strategy and a conversion goal for each funnel stage?

In our experience, brands often neglect the middle of the funnel, especially when it comes to setting a conversion goal. If website visitors – for example – have just two choices: leave or buy, you’re missing out on a massive lead generation and nurture opportunity.

So, let’s assume you’re sold on the marketing funnel idea and now you need some tactics and cool ideas to tackle each stage. Well, look no further. Here’s an intro, a top tip and a useful link for content marketing, SEO, social media marketing, email marketing and web design.

Content marketing basics

Content marketing is about creating valuable and relevant content that drives useful actions on the part of your target audience. You can use content marketing at every stage of the sales funnel from awareness with SEO-friendly blogs, to capturing mid-funnel leads with gated ebooks, to closing deals with compelling and well-targeted offer emails.

Top tip: Don’t rely on your creative skills to deliver ROI. Content needs to be promoted to get seen by the right people. As Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, said: “Before you create any more ‘great content’ figure out how you’re going to market it first.”

Useful link: How does content marketing work?

SEO basics

In Chapter One we highlighted the huge share of global online ad spend held by Google. The reason for this is that Google owns consumer intent. It knows what we want, when we want it because we tell it (5.2 billion times so far today). This makes ranking for the right search terms hugely valuable to any business. SEO is a longer-term play and less certain than PPC, but the ROI when you get it right is hard to beat.

Top tip: When it comes to ranking pages, the site is often more important than the content. So, it pays to pick your battles when competing for popular keywords. As Moz founder Rand Fishkin put it: “Without any domain authority or page authority it’s almost impossible to rank for competitive terms.”

Useful link: Content marketing and SEO: A Speed Date

Social media marketing basics

If your audience isn’t Googling, there’s a good chance they’re on social media. On average we spend 142 minutes a day checking, scrolling, posting and liking, according to Global Web Index, a consumer profiling company. And we do most of it on the same networks. In fact, four of the six biggest social media sites by users are owned by Facebook (Facebook, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram). The second biggest is owned by Google (YouTube).

That means social media marketing is really about going where your audience is. A generation ago marketers bought ad space in newspapers that their target demographic read every morning over breakfast. Now, newspapers don’t have the eyeballs. It’s a social media app on a smartphone.

Top tip: For brands, social media sites are advertising platforms. But just like television and radio, the ad content needs to fit the medium. So take advantage of the free tools and helpful ideas that social media sites offer to create really compelling ad content for your marketing campaigns.

Useful link: The importance of compelling content in social media success

Email marketing basics

Email is the oldest digital marketing tactic. Even the Backstreet Boys with their dial-up modems back in 1999 got marketing emails. But just like Captain America, old doesn’t mean obsolete. And thanks to marketing automation, email is enjoying something of a renaissance.

When you’re chasing people at the middle and bottom of your marketing funnel, few tactics are more effective than a properly-targeted email campaign. And if you use marketing automation software, you can massively ramp up the scale and level of personalisation that your emails offer.

Top tip: If email is a big part of your marketing strategy, don’t forget to feed the hopper. You always need a plan for capturing more email addresses, whether that’s pop-up subscription forms, interactive quizzes or gated ebooks.  

Useful link: Your complete guide to successful drip email campaigns

Web design basics

Okay, so you can’t afford Tony Stark and no guarantee he knows about UX anyway. But web design has become an essential part of your marketing mix. People are increasingly hostile to slow, clunky online experiences. They want their interactions with brands to be smooth and fast on whichever device they use.

What this means is that your otherwise perfect marketing plan can hit a wall if your web design sucks. Maybe your form is difficult to fill in on mobile or the clever animated banner takes forever to load. You need someone with the web design and UX skills to put that right before it kills your conversion rate.

Top tip: Don’t underestimate the importance of mobile. We often hear that mobile doesn’t matter because most of the traffic is on desktops. That doesn’t mean people don’t want to access your site on a mobile, it means they can’t. People have multiple interactions with your brand these days, more and more of those will be on a mobile device, even if the purchase is on a desktop or in a store.  

Useful link: 60 UX Tips Whitepaper

from http://bit.ly/2KUEcql

[duaneodavila]

Kopf: The Baseless (and nasty) Complaints Against Judge Ellis

I did not pay much attention to the trial of Mr. Manafort. When the jury came back for the government on eight of eighteen counts, I wasn’t particularly surprised.[i] After all, these were essentially tax and bank fraud cases (with one count of failure to register as a foreign agent). The government does not bring those document-heavy charges unless it thinks the basic case, while larded with weak counts, is a slam dunk.

From the reporting prior to the verdict, commentators hazed Judge Ellis for pushing the government hard to get the trial over and otherwise being a meanie to the prosecutors.[ii] But aside from this sniping, I yawned.

Then, the judge sentenced Manafort to “only” 47 months in prison for the 70-year-old defendant. The heavens rose up and hell vented noxious gas. Life plus cancer was the proper sentence, and don’t tell us otherwise, the Trump-haters yelled. I yawned once again.

The judge explained in detail why he sentenced Manafort below the Guidelines. It seems to me the judge was roughly on target. In any event, for an objective and quite good explanation of the judge’s thoughtful explanation and ruling, see here.[iii] Yawn.

But now, I am no longer yawning. Recently, Zoe Tillman published the dismissal of several complaints brought against Judge Ellis under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980, 28 U.S.C. §§ 351-364, regarding his conduct during the Manafort matter. Zoe Tillman, Paul Manafort’s Judge Won’t Face Disciplinary Action For How He Treated Mueller’s Office, BuzzFeed News (April 1, 2019). Even though it is not yet public as of the date of this writing, she even published the opinion of the Chief Judge of the Fourth Circuit dismissing the complaint.[iv]

Now, I don’t know Judge Ellis from a hot rock. So, I did a little looking. There is something called the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, CCH Incorporated (2019).[v] It costs the practicing bar a lot to subscribe to this service because the editors do a deep dive into what lawyers think of a particular federal judge. The publisher then summarizes and publishes the thoughts of the lawyers about that judge without revealing the names or other identifying information.

Here is what I learned. The judge is a senior judge who was born in 1940. He was appointed by President Reagan in 1987. The judge graduated Princeton with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. He went into the Navy and served from 1961 through 1966. After that, he attended Harvard Law School, where he received his degree magna cum laude. He was awarded a Diploma in Law from Magdalen College, Oxford University.

Now, for the evaluations in a summary fashion.

“Ellis is a brilliant judge, lawyers said. ‘His legal ability is off the charts, he has great legal knowledge.’”

“’He’s absolutely no-nonsense and sometimes a bit abrupt.’” “’He will put the lawyers in his courtroom to the test.’”

“Ellis runs a tight courtroom. ‘He has complete control of the courtroom.’ ‘One should never come into his courtroom unprepared.’ ‘He runs his courtroom efficiently.’”

As for the thoughts of criminal defense lawyers, “’He’s a real legal stickler and will really hold the parties to the letter of the law.’” “’He’s very pro-government.’” At sentencing, “’He’s a little tougher on sentencing than some; he can downward vary but more often he follows the guidelines.’”

Now, let me walk you through the Judicial Conduct complaints and how Chief Judge Gregory resolved them. There were four complaints. Each complaining party “apparently read or heard media reports regarding a criminal matter tried before the district judge.” Memorandum and Order, In the Matter of Judicial Complaints Under 28 U.S.C. § 351, Nos.4-18-90063, -90111, -90112, & -90121, at p. 1 (Mar. 29, 2019). In other words, the complaining parties were not participants in the trial, but bystanders relying on second-hand media accounts.

There were three areas of attack.

Initially, and the one Chief Judge Gregory spent the most time discussing, was the claim that Ellis violated various Canons of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, particularly Canon 2 (avoiding impropriety and the appearance of impropriety) and Canon 3 (admonishing that a judge should perform his or her duties “impartially and diligently”). Greatly summarized and condensed, all the complaining parties thought Ellis was too tough on the prosecutors and “was more interested in hampering the prosecution with unreasonable demands for a quick and speedy trial than he was with carry[ing] out a fair trial.”

The secondary line of attack was still darker. It relied upon Canon 5, which requires judges to refrain from political activity. The judge “tilt[ed] the scales of justice against the prosecution,” made “partisan rulings,” and “deliberately put his thumb on the scales of justice for partisan reasons. A less likely, but entirely possible explanation is that he was subject to other improper, corrupt or illegal influence.”

The final line of attack was that the judge must have been nuts. That is, the judge “has early onset dementia.”

As for the first two lines of attack, Chief Judge Gregory denied them after careful examination. He explained why:

Reviewing the relevant transcripts in the case, and considering the district judge’s remarks in their overall context, the record does not support the conclusion that the district judge engaged in misconduct. One might say that the judge may have been injudicious in his tone or choice of words, but one cannot say that his comments were so discourteous, uncivil, or “bullying” as to “transcend . . . the expected rough-and-tumble of litigation.” Implementation of the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980, Report to the Chief Justice of the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act Study Committee (Breyer, J., chair), Appendix E (Committee Standards for Assessing Compliance with the Act), at 147. The judge was sometimes strident with counsel, to be sure, and especially with the prosecution. But judges have wide latitude to manage cases in the way that seems best to them. Moreover, pressing the prosecution to move a case along certainly does not necessarily signal that the trial judge believes the prosecution is wrong or has acted improperly, or that the judge is illicitly attempting to impede the prosecution in the eyes of the jury. These kinds of case-management considerations are directly related to the merits of the judge’s handling of the litigation. A judge’s approach to them, therefore, is not subject to review through a complaint of judicial misconduct. 28 U.S.C. § 352(b)(1)(A)(ii).

To be sure, especially in a high-profile, politically-charged trial, a judge should take care – with the precepts of Canon 5 of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges in mind – to avoid careless remarks that could foreseeably be interpreted as partisan. In this case, the district judge did not cross the line into partisan political commentary.

Memorandum and Order, In the Matter of Judicial Complaints Under 28 U.S.C. § 351, at pp. 3-4.

As for the claim of a corrupt motive or “dementia,” Judge Gregory devoted one line while first noting that the complaining parties had failed to provide him with any evidence. He wrote, “The record does not support the existence of an improper influence upon the judge, mental disability, or ‘early onset dementia.’” Id. at p. 4.

So, why do I write about the travails of Judge Ellis? I have three reasons.

First, the reader should know that Judicial Conduct complaints, mostly by disgruntled litigants, are commonplace. I can’t estimate the number of times I have been subjected to complaints. Every experienced judge (read “old”) has been put through the gauntlet numerous times. While it is not fun, the complaint process serves an important public purpose, even for those who completely misapprehend the governing law, 28 U.S.C. §§ 351–364, and the rules promulgated thereunder. There are judges who cross the ethical line. For those few judges, it is important that there be a process for dealing with them. In short, I am glad that the process, although abused, is in place.

Second, Chief Judge Gregory’s thoughtful analysis makes an important point. A federal trial judge is involved in the “rough and tumble [of] litigation.” The judge is under enormous pressure to control the trial participants and look after the jury. It is unsurprising, indeed commonplace, for a judge like Judge Ellis or me to make a remark during trial that upon reflection we wished we hadn’t. As the now-deceased former Chief Judge of the Eighth Circuit, and a truly great trial lawyer before he became a judge, emphasized, law is a human process and that is particularly true of trials. See Donald P. Lay, Law: A Human Process (1996).

Finally, I am angry that the Judicial Conduct process has now been weaponized for political purposes. Reading Chief Judge Gregory’s opinion leaves little doubt that the complaining parties, who were not participants and who relied on the accounts of others, lashed out at Judge Ellis to achieve a political end. He didn’t hate Trump (enough) and should therefore be punished. Such activity bodes ill for the independence of the federal judiciary and our country. As for me, I’m very glad that Judge Ellis was not a shrinking violet. I fear that young federal judges will be cowed—I urge them to have the courage displayed by Judge Ellis.

Richard G. Kopf Senior United States District Judge (NE)

[i] Manafort was found guilty of five tax fraud charges, one charge of hiding foreign bank accounts, and two counts of bank fraud. Jurors were unable to reach a verdict on 10 other charges. The government elected to dismiss them.

[ii] Nancy Gertner, The extraordinary bias of the judge in the Manafort trial, Washington Post (Aug. 16, 2018). By the way, I have enormous respect for Ms. Gertner, formerly a distinguished federal trial judge and now a professor at Harvard. Oddly, however, she ends her opinion piece with this sentence: “Seeking to expedite matters, Ellis impaneled the Manafort jury in a single day.” I am surprised that Gertner is surprised. I have never spent more than one day picking a jury, and that includes complex cases like the Beatrice Six wrongful-conviction case or a particularly nasty murder case. With rare exceptions, I give each side 20 minutes apiece to ask questions, and my courtroom deputy times them.

[iii] “Manafort’s defense team gave Ellis 17 cases to consider where defendants broke tax or foreign banking laws and got probation or home detention — in other words, no prison time. In some of these cases, the guidelines recommended the defendants go to prison for years — and yet judges all over the country decided that wasn’t necessary.

Ellis cited one case he handled that was similar to Manafort’s case involving secret foreign bank accounts. In that case, Ellis gave the man who avoided paying exponentially more in taxes than Manafort only seven months in prison.”

[iv] I can’t find the order on the Fourth Circuit’s website. It may have been leaked to the reporter. Every Circuit is required to make such orders publicly available when they are final. That omission suggests to me that the Chief Judge’s dismissal has been appealed to the Judicial Council of the Fourth Circuit. So, there may be more to come. By the way, the name of the judge and the names of the complainant or complainants are almost never disclosed pursuant to the rules. See here for all the rules. Nevertheless, from the background set forth in the dismissal order, one can tell that the order pertains to Judge Ellis.

[v] I deny that I have ever read my entry.

Kopf: The Baseless (and nasty) Complaints Against Judge Ellis republished via Simple Justice

[thewebofslime]

ARCHIVE ED MORRISSEY SHOW NEWSLETTERS × About that Podesta ‘underage sex-slaves’ Tweet from Andrew BreitbartSHARE ON FACEBOOKSHARE ON TWITTER About That Podesta ‘Underage Sex-Slaves’ Tweet From Andrew Breitbart LARRY O'CONNORPosted at 10:01 am on December 5, 2016 SHARE ON FACEBOOK SHARE ON TWITTER 0 Nefarious operators on the Internet (as well as some innocent, misinformed individuals) have been freaking out over a Tweet from the late Andrew Breitbart connecting John Podesta to a “underage sex slave” operation. SEE ALSO: Captain Marvel isn’t awful but it’s not top-tier Marvel either (some spoilers) TRENDING: Justice Alito shatters glass before Congressional testimony The reason this Tweet is suddenly getting responded to and re-tweeted thousands of times is because a recent conspiracy theory making the rounds about Podesta and the Clintons accuses the Democrat power-players of running an underage sex operation out of a pizza joint in DC. It’s the kind of story you’d find on the cover of Weekly World News (think “Bat Boy” and “Aliens visit Ross Perot before election” kind of stories) and other supermarket tabloids before the advent of the Internet. There are tons of websites who make a lot of money doing pretty odious things. One of those odious things is to purposely pass along fake stories to suck people in and make them think that even though a story seems completely unbelievable on its face, it’s true because it appears to have a legitimate news organization behind it. I know because once I was faked out for about 45 minutes by a story that I discovered on the Boston Globe’s website. (It had apparently originated on a satirical site) Another odious thing many websites do is to make money speculating about Andrew Breitbart. Some of them pass false conspiracy theories about Andrew being murdered by government operatives. Others spend thousands and thousands of words speculating about what Andrew would have thought, said or done about something happening in the current news cycle. The last thing I want to do is be that guy who tells you what Andrew thought or meant back when he was alive because everyone who interacted with him at the time has their own personal experience and not one of them is the whole truth. However, because of the confusion over this Tweet, I think some context and an explanation is called for. And, for some reason, Breitbart News has not stepped up and delivered it themselves. (I searched, if they have, I will update this column post haste.) Here is the text of Andrew’s Tweet, again: How prog-guru John Podesta isn’t household name as world class underage sex slave op cover-upperer defending unspeakable dregs escapes me. It’s a classic Andrew Tweet. His abbreviations, his invention of words (“cover-upperer”) tells me that this was probably Andrew’s work. I never really knew him to allow anyone to Tweet on his behalf but I suppose it’s possible at some point he did so without my knowledge. So, for our discussion let’s stipulate that it was Andrew who sent this out. What is he talking about? Anyone who knew Andrew well and worked closely in his sphere and knew what he would talk and Tweet about with regard to “underage sex slave(s)” and John Podesta, knows exactly what he is referring to: ACORN If you don’t remember James O’Keefe, Hanna Giles and the ACORN story that broke on Andrew’s Big Government website in 2009, here’s a quick description via Wikipedia,which has a lot of bogus takes on the story, but this brief description is correct: In July and August 2009, Giles and O’Keefe visited ACORN offices in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, San Bernardino, San Diego, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami. Giles dressed as a prostitute, while O’Keefe wore white khakis with a blue dress shirt and/or tie and claimed to be her boyfriend. Giles and O’Keefe recorded the encounters using hidden cameras and pretended to be seeking advice on how to run an illegal business that included the use of underage girls in the sex trade. So the ACORN story that Andrew was intimately involved with, helped define his brand, and catapulted him into the media spotlight was a story about an underage sex slave operation. OK? So how does Podesta factor in as a “cover-upperer” of the ACORN sex slave story? Here’s the explanation from liberal Think Progress in 2009, a site overseen by John Podesta at that time as he was the head of Center for American Progress (CAP): In response to recently released videos of ACORN staff engaging in inappropriate and potentially unlawful activity, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today that “the conduct you see on those tapes is completely unacceptable.” ACORN President Bertha Lewis released a statement explaining that the advocacy group for low- and moderate-income Americans will now conduct a “thorough review” of the organizations’ operation. CAP President John Podesta, who also sits on ACORN’s Advisory Council, said, “Accountability starts with knowing all the facts. ACORN, which is doing important work in advocating for lower-income Americans all across this country, is taking an important step today by acknowledging its need for reform and demonstrating its desire to take corrective action.” Yeah, talk about the fox watching the hen house. To prove ACORN did nothing wrong in the O’Keefe/Giles videos presented on Andrew’s website they asked Podesta, a partisan hack who sat on their own Advisory Council to investigate them. Here was Andrew’s take at the time in his Washington Times column: The next day, Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta, the Democratic Party’s top fix-it guy with control over much of the left’s well-funded vast attack machinery (think George Soros, the Tides Foundation, et al.), was among a small advisory group placed in charge of investigating the matter. With the mainstream media continuing to ignore the evidence on the tapes, Mr. Podesta is now clearly in charge of feeding them information about his well-structured investigation into the investigators. The ACORN internal probe is a “war room” aimed at destroying the messengers and is not meant to clean up major corruption. Since Mr. Podesta was appointed to investigate ACORN, the only thing investigated has been the investigators, Mr. O’Keefe, Ms. Giles and the publisher of the journalism behind it, yours truly. Of course, his conclusions were that ACORN did nothing wrong and all the fault in the story lay at the feet of Breitbart. A conclusion picked up by Media Matters for America, a left-wing activist site that made it their goal in life to destroy Andrew Breitbart. MMfA turned the ACORN story into a cudgel with which to beat Andrew over the head, and did so hundreds of times, in an attempt to discredit anything he did. When the Anthony Weiner story first broke it was MMfA who pointed to ACORN as a reason why he should not be trusted and they pointed to the Podesta report as “evidence” for that theory. MMfA, not coincidentally, began their operations in office space borrowed from… wait for it…. John Podesta. So, who is John Podesta? He runs the Center for American Progress think tank, which in 2004 helped launch Media Matters for America, the well-funded watchdog outfit run by ex-conservative journalist David Brock, which feeds the media reams of anti-conservative documents that attempt to diminish the credibility of alternative media outlets. Here are Andrew’s words, again, from 2009: Both the CAP and Media Matters sites are focusing their attention on Ms. Giles, Mr. O’Keefe and me. Does anyone really think Mr. Podesta is investigating ACORN, when his well-greased external machinery is so blatantly investigating us? So get into Andrew’s head for a moment circa Feb, 2011. His entire sphere of reference at that time with regard to Podesta was in the context of his role creating left wing activist groups like CAP, ACORN and MMfA. Podesta had just joined the Obama Administration. Andrew was tweaking the media for giving Podesta a pass and celebrating the man who Andrew saw as his bete noir. And one of the most outrageous things Podesta did to Andrew, that the media never scrutinized, was his white-washing of the ACORN scandal. In other words, from Andrew’s perspective, Podesta was a “world class underage sex slave op cover-upperer defending unspeakable dregs .” That’s what the Tweet means, and anyone who tells you otherwise is up to something. TAGS:ACORNANDREW BREITBARTJOHN PODESTASEX SLAVETWEETTWITTERUNDERAGE SEX SHARE ON FACEBOOK SHARE ON TWITTER RELATED STORIES Eric Holder: Maybe we should pack the Supreme Court with two new Democratic justices in 2021 ALLAHPUNDIT Mar 09, 2019 2:31 PM Here we go. 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