#owner-operator budget

[artisticdivasworld]

Financial Survival Tips to Help New Owner-Operators

We are starting a new series here on the blog. We want to talk to and help new owner-operators understand what exactly is involved with running a trucking business. We have identified 10 areas that cause issues for new owners, so we will address each one individually here. Since FRC was founded to help independent truckers succeed in an unfriendly economy, we hope that by talking about each of…

[aesethewitch]

Loopholes

Thinking about general versus specific spells and loopholes in magic today…

I find that general spells are often less effective than spells that are really specific. Or, at least, a general spell’s effects are more difficult to measure than a spell with specific instructions and expectations.

Leaving spells general also leaves room for loopholes. Now, depending on the paradigm you’re operating from, loopholes may not be an issue. But they can cause unexpected and sometimes unwanted side effects, or cause the primary desired outcome to manifest in a way that isn’t ideal.

For another example, consider if you cast a spell for someone to take a romantic interest in you with no specifications on the type of person you’re looking for. That coworker you don’t particularly like but who already thinks you’re neat is likelier to form romantic feelings for you than, say, the unattainable hot guy whose name you don’t know and with whom your only conversation is “Would you like that small, medium, or large?”

This, in my paradigm, is because those connections either already exist or they’re stronger. You know that coworker better, they know you better, and you have more ties than the hot barista you see once every three weeks.

If you want the barista’s attention and not the coworker’s, it’s important to specify that — to close the loophole.

I always think about connections working against me, too, when I’m doing magic. If a person who hates me is the primary interviewer at a company I’m interested in, I have to account for their rancid opinion if I want to get that job. I have to do extra work to either get around, rewrite, or disconnect the existing connection in order to increase the likelihood of a favorable outcome.

My partner and I are currently looking at buying a house (yay!). Our area is pretty expensive, and very affordable homes tend to be… well, to put it kindly… shitholes.

Those conditions (those connections) are strongly ingrained into the environment. I can’t single-handedly change the economy, though I wish I could. And I can’t force a house to spontaneously appear between two existing houses, even though that neighborhood is absolutely perfect and I desperately want to live there. There isn’t room, and that isn’t physically possible.

Well, alright, I suppose I could do a spell to convince both owners to chop up their parcels into smaller pieces for sale, do another spell to make the parcels affordable, and then another spell for someone to build an affordable house on the land. But that’d be a teeny little house and yard! It might work better in a location with bigger parcels and more space between houses, but this is a cute little rural-type suburb, not the country roads further out of town. As it is in this location we’re looking at, to make it viable for our wants and needs would be physically impossible; we’d be compromising too much one way or another, and it wouldn’t be worthwhile!

But I can do spells for houses with specific qualities to come onto the market, and I can include my particular price range! I can do magic to encourage the bank to give us a better deal on our pre-approval! I can do a spell to urge sellers to drop their prices or accept an offer that’s under their asking price but within our budget!

It’s a matter of identifying what I want and what might stand in the way. It’s also about considering the things I’m leaving unsaid, or that could be taken in multiple ways. Like, if I say I want a basement, and we find a house that’s perfect, fitting all our desired qualities!

…except that basement floods several times a year, and that’s why it’s unfinished, so it’s wasted space that requires expensive yearly upkeep or a massive, pricey overhaul to prevent for the future. That would be a hell of a loophole to discover. Closing as many loopholes as possible can help a spell produce a result that’s exactly (or close to exactly) what I expect it to be with as few unpleasant side effects as possible.

Another method I’ve seen, which I think comes from @windvexer, is the “if/then” method of creating conditions within a spell. I find it’s really useful for closing loopholes, since it keeps a spell from deviating from your instructions or fizzling out when it can’t fulfill its purpose as written.

The method looks like this in practice:

“This spell is a money spell. Its purpose is to bring $500 in tarot commissions to me by the end of April.

“If April is not possible, then by the end of June.

“If $500 is not possible, then no less than $300.

“If not by tarot commissions, then this money will come to me via tips and subscriptions.

“If not by tips and subscriptions, then this money will come to me via other types of contract work.

“If any final condition (end of June, no less than $300, contract work) is not possible, I will receive a sign in the form of three cardinals sitting on the hood of my car, and the spell will end.”

Thus, the loopholes I’m worried about are closed, and I have a condition set to end the spell and send me a sign if it isn’t possible. It’s a simple but very effective method that I’ve found really useful for getting super specific in my spellwork!

Anyways, point is, loopholes matter because connections matter and therefore the space between those connections matter. If one of my spells fails or produces an unexpected result, loopholes are the first things I look for. What happened, and could I have prevented it? How so? Then note it down, and do the next spell.

[bitterrobin]

Either I make multiple housekeeper ocs for my au or at least half of Wayne Manor is kept boarded up indefinitely. Sorry to burst people's bubbles but there is no conceivable way Alfred by himself is cleaning the entire mansion.

I've grown up helping my mother (who otherwise works alone w chronic back pain) clean middle to upper class homes here in SoCal. In very white oriented areas with housewives and large families with dogs and good financial situations. Now, there's a huge difference between large modern homes that have only two maybe three floors and the entire floor plan of a mansion that's at minimum built in the 1800s and has 30 rooms. But fundamentally the problems with upkeep are the same. You need to sweep all the floors, mop, wipe the baseboards, vacuum every carpet. You need to wipe clean windows, fans, HC units, lightbulbs, staircases, every surface used constantly - kitchen countertops, bathroom counters, showers/bathtubs/toilets. You need to do laundry, not only clothes, but towels and bedding used by the owners and the rags you use to clean. Fold that laundry. Make the beds. Take out every full trashbag and haul it out of the house. Wash dishes daily. Put those dishes away. Occasionally remind the owner that maybe a light needs fixing, there's a hole in their daughter's sweater, the dog peed inside, that their son tends to stuff trash under the couch cushions and now they have an ant infestation.

On average, with my help, it takes my mom 4-5 hours for one two-floor house. Takes longer by herself. That's not even getting into the amount of people and pets. If there's kids, you need to clean after their spaces more than the adults. With babies, there's diapers and toys all over. With dogs or cats there's always always fur to pick up. The bigger the family, the busier they are, the messier the house. And thats all for a housekeeper that visits every week and gets paid in numbers ranging from 6$0 to $100. (And often people will forget to pay you and you have to stretch out your budget for weeks and weeks and then they pay you and they forget again next month).

For Alfred, as an official butler and employee, he lives at the manor. There's no cost for him that comes from travel (no car to pay for fuel) or cleaning supplies (Bruce probably pays for them). But everything else? Not to mention the added chaos factor of BEING VIGILANTES. Alfred not only upkeep the house they live in, but prepares food, clothing, scheduling, and cleans the Batcave and feeds the bats, at least two large dogs, and one cat. Theres multiple cars and vehicles, guns, weaponry, technology to watch out for (and I know the average fanon enjoyer doesn't know Harold Allnut should be doing that). He picks Bruce's clothes and dresses him for godssake. Hell, Alfred even operates the Batcomputer when needed every night. He does their medical care (and people forget about Leslie yet again, even regarding her relationship w Bruce, still. still.) That's too much for one old man.

Realistically, either Bruce has a full house staff like nobles used to have, or Alfred simply does not do as much as people think. He's old. Forever aging. There's not going to be 20+ plus rooms ready all the time for people to sleep in. At best, the residents of the Manor are Bruce, Tim, and Damian. At best, their bedrooms are kept clean daily. All the other bedrooms are cleaned maybe monthly. The rooms that aren't bedrooms (foyers/attics etc) maybe every other month. Groceries are multiple day events. Same with cooking full meals, dietary plans. Galas and business functions require weeks and months. The pets take days for veterinary care and training. The kids all together take weeks, days individually and together. And they not only look at you as a butler but as family. You are responsible for their wellbeing, emotions whether you like it or not (bc Alfred frankly enables Bruce too much but thats for another day).

Only saving grace he has is that recently not many people live there anymore. Stephanie and Helena and Kate and Barbara shouldn't be living there in the first place. Dick and Jason have their own places. Tim and Cassandra are up in the air but I don't think they spend 100% of their time in the Manor because they're young adults with various circumstances.

[brightlotusmoon]

I’m heartened by the actions our courts have taken so far, and I’ll continue working closely to support these efforts.

And while we’re not in the majority, I am also determined to fight back in the Senate with every tool we have. Without Republicans on board, we don’t have the numbers to stop Trump’s moves outright, but we can slow him down. That’s why I have said the Senate should NOT operate under business as usual. And that’s why I’m voting NO on Trump’s nominees. Along with Senator Brian Schatz, I’m holding up every Trump political nominee for the State Department – as well as other nominees – until Trump stops wrecking our government.

For example, this week Senate Democrats held down the floor for 30 hours – the maximum time allowed under Senate rules – to delay the vote on Russell Vought, Trump’s nominee to run the Office of Management and Budget. I went to the Senate floor as part of this effort to make the case against Vought, who is a leading architect of Project 2025. At his confirmation hearing, I asked Vought if he’d follow the law—and he refused to say yes. That should be no surprise; he broke the law the last time he held that position.

Right now, I’m hearing from thousands of Marylanders who have been personally affected by Trump’s actions. Firefighters and small business owners who fear that federal resources will be ripped out from under them. Federal workers who fear being forced out of their jobs. Families terrified of losing their health care. I’m committed to fighting back for Marylanders each and every day. Again, if you are being harmed by Trump’s actions, you can share your story with me by clicking here.

Trump and Musk are engaged in an illegal power grab, trying to accomplish through executive orders and other means what can only be legally achieved through congressional action. They want us to believe they are more powerful than they really are. They want us to think we can’t do anything about it. But it isn’t true. Together, we can and will keep fighting back.

-Chris Van Hollen

[copperbadge]

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Just a reminder, I do these every once in a while -- except in specific cases, unless folks fill out the Radio Free Monday submissions form, I generally don't put anything not submitted via form into RFM. Partly this is to ensure I even SEE the request (tagging me on tumblr has no guarantees, I'm afraid) but it's also to ensure that I have all the relevant information. The form is linked in the bottom of every RFM post, as well as in the header of my tumblr; if you want me to see something that's the place to put it, or if you want to direct someone to Radio Free Monday, giving them the link is super helpful. Thanks all!

Ways to Give:

webkinzcode is a disabled artist and unable to work at the moment; he's raising funds to cover rent, and currently accepting donations and offering commissions. You can read more, reblog, and find giving and commission information here.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for Ola, a grad student and teacher in the faculty of science at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, whose life is one of many turned upside-down at the moment; she's raising funds to cover basic needs like food and water for her and her family. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

chibifukurou has a friend who has vertigo and EDS, and is raising funds for a second-hand Alinker (a foot-propelled mobility device); following an illness they are at an increased fall risk, and a recent fall subluxed the shoulder and collarbone on their crutch arm. You can read more and give via paypal here.

a-hackneyed-premise is raising funds for a car that is suitable transport for her disabled son; he is neurodivergent and frequently has mobility issues, and they need to be able to get him reliably to and from transport to his school. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Anon linked to longhorned's fundraiser for Laureae, a small Native farmer who has built up her farm over the last five years and was recently served an eviction notice; she had been promised by the land owner that she would be given a purchase agreement, but the land can now be sold off and both her and her tenants like Longhorned removed. You can read more and reblog here or support the fundraiser here.

liminalweirdo is raising funds for emergency vet fees for their cat Quintin; you can read more and reblog here or support the fundraiser here.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for Pillowfort, which needs to meet a $5K goal to keep in operation beyond December of this year; they're currently at just over $3K. You can read more and support the fundraiser here.

Recurring Needs:

thegeeksqueaks's school district has shorted her on her summer teacher's budget; she can't afford her own bills much less stocking her classroom for back-to-school. She's raising funds to get her students school supplies and personal support -- food and hygiene tools for underserved kids as well as various aids for neurodivergent kids. You can read more and reblog here, give via DonorsChoose here or via paypal here, or purchase from an Amazon wishlist here.

onedollopofsourcream is raising funds for food and medication for their family including young children; they need medication that is important for family mental health. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here.

chingaderita's family was recently impacted by a house fire that destroyed their home; their partner has been unable to work and is now ill. They're raising funds for basic needs such as food and water, as well as medication for their partner and other family members. You can read more, reblog, and support the fundraiser here.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.

[thenten]

@ahrencmeptn said: ❝ If you let me out, I promise I’ll behave. ❞ - Let Viola out of gay baby jail, Ben. You can trust her.

MUA3 Starters- Accepting!

When he'd gotten the alert of yet another Forever Knight prison operation, he already expected most of what he'd found tearing through it- innocent kidnapped aliens, unethical experiments, lots of new quirky knightly tech, Argit was there for some reason...

... but, as he blasted his way into the deepest, most secure section of the underground castle, he finally found something he didn't expect: a human, or at least someone that looked the part, locked up the tightest cell they could create on their shrinking budget. A sight that made the Opticoid on the other side tilt his head curiously.

Upon hearing the request with the ears taking up his entire face, the creature merely smirks and nods with little convincing.

"Sure, eye can handle that." He puns, painfully so, as the green eyes adorning his shoulders began to grossly merge together into larger ones, firing two beams of plasma that quickly melted through both the cell and the bindings that clearly weren't designed with his species in mind- freeing the other in seconds.

Clearly caring more about spiting the owners of the facility than he was why the girl was even here, already turning away.

"Exit is this way. Eye can-" The alien begins, before being quickly interrupted by an even angrier alarm than the ones he'd already triggered began to blare, followed by the sounds of every metal boot in the facility forgetting what they were doing and heading their way. "... high-priority prisoner, huh?"

[girlactionfigure]

🔘THE PENTAGON SAYS, GOOD MORNING FROM HEZBOLLAH - Real time from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

✡️Shabbat Parshat Noach (Torah Portion “Noah”) - Genesis 6:9 - G‑d instructs Noah—the only righteous man in a world consumed by violence and corruption—to build a large wooden teivah (“ark”), coated within and without with pitch. A great deluge, says G‑d, will wipe out all life from the face of the earth.

( VIDEO - IDF demolishing Hezbollah town used to launch extensive attacks on Israel - Kfar Kila, street by street. )

💧RAIN tomorrow with strong wind in most of the country.  Prepare for the first rain on Shabbat.  ( For those overseas, Israel receives seasonal rains, for most of the country there has been no rain since last winter - people store things outside that can be water damaged until rainy season. )

▪️NEWSPAPER CEO SEMI-APOLOGIZES.. (Amit Segal) Owner Shoken made a reserved apology. He did not retract his call for sanctions on the State of Israel, does not say to whom did he meant are freedom fighters? Hamas in Judea-Samaria? Islamic Jihad? Shoken read his words from the script. Suddenly he "reconsiders" his words. Amazing what an advertiser and subscriber boycott can do.

▪️NATIONAL BUDGET.. The Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar decided to vote against the state budget: "The treasury decided to delete the cultural bodies and sports support in Israel." ( The budgetary battles over must-have vs. nice-to-have vs. ministers defending their area will go on through the end of the year, due to war finance pressures. )

🔹PENTAGON SAYS.. The Pentagon: American Defense Minister Lloyd Austin talked tonight with Defense Minister Yoav Galant about "opportunities to reduce regional escalation". In a telephone conversation, the two discussed the demand of senior American officials to reach a solution to the situation in Gaza and Lebanon and to prepare for an Iranian response to Israeli attacks in Tehran.

♦️The IDF in an unusual official announcement: "Hezbollah rockets killed 7 civilians yesterday, Hezbollah attacks cannot go unanswered.”

♦️LEBANON - widespread wave of attacks overnight in Beirut, and Nabatia after evacuation warning.

♦️LEBANON - IDF airstrikes and artillery and the firing of more than 20 phosphorus shells in the area of ​​the Al Khayyam village detention center. A Lebanese source explained that the area of ​​the detention center is at a high point that allows fire control in the area.

♦️SYRIA - Syrian report, IDF forces attacked about half an hour ago Iranian militia sites in Kusayr in the western countryside of Homs.

⭕Overnight 2 INTERCEPTIONS OVER EILAT, suicide drones from Shia Militias Iraq.

⭕DRONE FROM IRAQ Shia Militias intercepted over Syria.

⭕HEZBOLLAH says good morning with a ROCKET BARRAGE (at least 20 rockets) at Upper Galilee towns.

⭕JUDEA-SAMARA.. 3 armed terrorist groups claim to have carried out 3 shooting attacks in the last few days in northern Samaria and in the northern Jordan Valley.  

.. IDF operating in Kalkilya and Shechem overnight - firefights!

🔸CEASEFIRE NEWS.. Lebanese origin: Great anger at the US envoy Amos Hochstein who did not even contact the decision makers in Lebanon before leaving the region yesterday and returning to the US.

[suzukiblu]

A bit more of "Match is technically also a Luthor".

Match frowns. Director Beta wasn’t involved in making Superboy, so what is Luthor talking about, “keep” making him children? 

Match and Superboy aren’t his children, obviously, because they’re metaweapons and clones, and no matter whose DNA was or wasn’t used to build them, they’re not anyone’s children or even anyone’s idea of people. But that’s the language Luthor is using, so Match is using it in his head and for clarity of communication. 

For the moment, at least. 

“So this is revenge?” he asks slowly, eyeing the man warily. 

“No,” Luthor says. “I’m perfectly grateful to her for her efforts. But I don’t want her in your lives, obviously.” 

“. . . ‘obviously’,” Match echoes, having no idea what should be “obvious” there. Luthor makes a dismissive little gesture, not looking up from his tablet. 

“You don’t need any other parents,” he says. “You have me. And all joking aside, I don’t like to share, in fact.” 

Match wonders why Luthor would expect him to want to share with Superboy, then, but supposes Luthor just doesn’t care about his opinion.

Which . . . well, why would he? 

He almost asks anyway, but he’s not stupid enough to question his new owner. Whatever the man’s calling himself, that’s obviously what he means. Match is being stolen–has been stolen–and he belongs to him now. 

He could’ve at least fought it, he supposes, but no one told him to. 

And no one has ever wanted him to do anything he hasn’t been told to. The only person Match has ever said “no” to in his life is still Superboy, because Superboy is still the only person he ever could have.

That’s . . . something he’s thought about, once or twice. 

“Now then,” Luthor says, glancing towards his chauffeur and bodyguard in the front seat. “I’m not used to children your age, so what do you need for your living space?” 

“. . . six hours of daily training room access and twelve thousand calories a day, for ideal performance,” Match replies, too mystified to know what else to say. Luthor will want to know how to keep him in optimal condition as a weapon, he supposes. Luthor just wrinkles his nose, though, looking appalled. 

“Only twelve?" he says. “You should be pushing twenty thousand, at this developmental stage.” 

Match has literally never once heard “you’re not eating enough”, but that seems to be, in fact, what Luthor is saying. 

“That would be over budget for the project,” he says, and Luthor immediately looks dubious. 

“I’m worth more money than most countries, Lysander,” he says, and Match feels–strange, being called that designation. Something about the way Luthor says it, maybe. “And budgets are for the board room.” 

“The project doesn’t have a budget?” Match says skeptically. 

“We’re going to start feeding you sixteen thousand and go up from there,” Luthor says. “I know you don’t have dietary restrictions, obviously, but I suppose dietary preferences would be too much to expect?” 

“‘Preferences’?” Match repeats blankly. What does that even mean, dietary “preferences”? 

“We’ll just start with the basics, I suppose,” Luthor sighs, looking exasperated. Match frowns. He doesn’t know what “the basics” are any more than he knows what dietary preferences are. Restrictions he understands, obviously, but . . . “preferences”? 

The drive is long and quiet. Match would be bored, if he were capable of boredom. It’s already the longest length of time he’s ever spent outside of an Agenda facility, but that’s not relevant to anyone but him, so it’s not an observation he voices. 

He doesn’t generally voice his observations at all. 

Why would he? 

It’s strange, though, that something so new and unexpected could be this boring. 

Not that Match can actually feel anything like that, again. 

Match doesn’t know where they’re going until the road signs tell him, and even then he’s mystified, because the road signs say Metropolis, and obviously that’s Luthor’s base of operations, but there’s also literally no way he’ll be useful in Metropolis. Nothing about his capabilities as a weapon is anything that Superman can’t handle, and Superman isn’t going to let Luthor keep a Kryptonian-based weapon around–even one that’s only half-Kryptonian. Match will end up in government custody the moment Superman finds out he’s here. 

He doesn’t . . . want to be in government custody, but it’s not as if he has a choice where he ends up anyway. And it’s not–he doesn’t want things anyway. It’s irrelevant, if Luthor’s being reckless with him. 

But the government might vivisect or dissect him, where Luthor already has his files and designs and doesn’t actually need to. So that’s . . . that’s . . . 

Relevant, Match thinks, and then pushes the thought back down. 

It’s not relevant. It isn’t up to him, and even if it were, it wouldn’t matter. He’s a weapon. If his owners want to take him apart, that’s their prerogative. 

Their right, really. 

It’s not up to him, and it never has been. 

The towncar stops in front of a shining skyscraper of an apartment building, and Luthor gets out. Match waits in the car, because Luthor doesn’t tell him to follow him. He assumes he’s going to be dropped off at a new lab, because obviously Luthor doesn’t intend to take him into an apartment building. Maybe the lab is outside Metropolis, and Match won’t immediately end up in government custody. That would make more sense, so–

Luthor leans down and looks back through the open door, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Problem?” he asks. 

Match stares blankly at him, not understanding the question. 

“. . . get out of the car, Lysander,” Luthor says. 

Match doesn’t understand that either, but it’s an order, so he follows it. He gets out of the car, and Luthor looks him over with a sigh. 

“We’re going to need to get you in actual clothes,” he says, then heads towards the front door as the chauffeur closes the car door behind him. The bodyguard follows him. Match doesn’t know what–“This way.” 

Match still doesn’t understand anything, but follows the order. He heads after Luthor, staying a step behind him with the bodyguard and wondering if he’s assuming too much, but figuring that until he has an actual assignment, he should operate under the assumption that his purpose here is parallel to hers. 

Assuming things doesn’t tend to work out well for him, but Luthor isn’t giving him enough to go off here, so he doesn’t know what else to do. He doesn’t know much, right now, but Luthor clearly isn’t prioritizing providing him with the necessary intel for . . . whatever he actually wants him for. 

Not like it’s the first time someone hasn’t bothered to do that, though, so Match can work with that.

[leveloneandup]

Christen Press, a two-time World Cup champion and the first player the team signed, said the facility will help make Angel City a destination.

“For the last three years, when we go as a club and talk to top players in the world, we didn’t have this facility to offer,” she said. “It’s a huge part of our day-to-day experience as an athlete and it matters.”

Angel City unveils new facility in effort ‘to build a winning culture’

When Willow Bay and her husband, Disney CEO Bob Iger, became controlling owners of Angel City last July, they inherited a women’s soccer team that had lost more games than it had won, had fewer playoff appearances than it had suspensions from the league and would end the year by parting ways with its second general manager and second head coach in three seasons.

So on Tuesday, when Bay cut the ribbon on the team’s massive new performance center at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, it was with the hope that would mark the start of Angel City’s turnaround as well.

“This is the vision of this team that we’re helping support and execute,” said Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, who joined her husband in investing $50 million in cash for the team to expand its budget and ease its losses. “It was very clear that we needed to invest in football operations here and support the leadership and support the players and making sure they had all the resources they needed to build a winning culture.”

The opening of the performance center comes six days after Angel City announced the hiring of Mark Parsons, one of the most successful coaches in NWSL history, as its sporting director. Parsons said the new training facility will be a big help in recruiting women to come play for his new team.

“If I can get them here and get them to walk around, then it’s going to be very hard for people not wanting to be in this environment,” he said. “When I think of Angel City and why I want to be here, what has started with an ownership group and investors to build a brand that is world-leading, how female athletes should be supported, knowing the ambition now and putting in a performance center that no other women’s sports team has in the world, you’ve kind of touched everything.”

The performance center is part of a 9-acre training base Angel City inherited from the Rams when the NFL team moved to Woodland Hills in August. It is the largest and most modern in the NWSL history, boasting a 5,400-square-foot gym, three locker rooms, a film room, a medical treatment and hydrotherapy area, and a children’s playroom, among other things. There is one full soccer pitch and an adjoining half field.

It’s a big step up from the last three seasons when Angel City worked out of a pair of temporary trailers in a far corner of the CLU campus and used a weight room that wasn’t actually a room, but a huge tent. Angel City would not say exactly how much it spent on refurbishing the facility but said it was a “multimillion-dollar custom rebuild.”

The move into the new facility comes at a time when the league is adjusting to radical new rules that have altered the building of rosters. Last September the NWSL became the first major professional league in the U.S. to ditch the draft, which bound players to the team that selected them. The new collective-bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ association also allows for out-of-contract players to negotiate with every team in the league and gives players the right to block trades to teams they don’t want to play for.

As a result, signing players now means recruiting them first.

“My job has just got much, much more easy with this facility,” Parsons said. “A few more clubs over the last few years have been investing. [But] this is unlike nowhere else. I’m excited to be a part of an organization that cares that much.

“But I’m also excited that my skill set just got a bit easier, because everyone’s going to want to be here.”

Christen Press, a two-time World Cup champion and the first player the team signed, said the facility will help make Angel City a destination.

“For the last three years, when we go as a club and talk to top players in the world, we didn’t have this facility to offer,” she said. “It’s a huge part of our day-to-day experience as an athlete and it matters.”

Whether it will be enough to turn around a team that lost a franchise-record 13 games last season, finishing 12th in the 14-team NWSL, remains to be seen. In the last month Matt Wade, the assistant general manager, and technical director Mark Wilson agreed to a one-year contract extension along with Press, added French forward Julie Dufour and Australian defender Alanna Kennedy, and signed Mississippi State midfielder Macey Hodge.

Still, the team will begin preseason training Wednesday without a permanent replacement for coach Becki Tweed and with Parsons just a week into his job replacing general manager Angela Mangano Hucles.

Parsons said the team has signed Sam Laity, who formerly worked in Seattle and Houston, to manage the club on an interim basis as he searches for a permanent coach.

“Getting the right person is the priority,” Parsons said. “If the right person is available sooner rather than later, fine. If we have to wait for that right person and they’re not available until the summer, then we’re open to that as well.”

For the time being, Bay is promising to be patient and supportive. The results, however, must follow eventually.

“Bob and I were very clear about investing the resources in this team and the people who lead and manage it. And most certainly the women who play for it,” she said.

But, she added, “we know how important it is to do our best to bring a championship to this city.”

[emeraldspiral]

Zim episode where Zim's budget gets cut and he needs to make some extra cash to fund his operations. He gets the idea to become a space DIY YouTuber posting tutorials on how to create devices and set-up elaborate schemes to complete your own invasion since you're obviously so inept you need the expert advice of the amazing Zim. Of course, most of Zim's tutorials aren't even for stuff that could be used to conquer a planet, they're just for petty mischief against annoying humans like his neighbors, classmates, and Dib. Most of Zim's viewers can plainly see the obvious design flaws and how his plans will either not have the desired effect or would do so in an extremely inefficient manner while others comment that they tried following his tutorials and were either led to their doom or just couldn't get anywhere because his instructions were so bad. Zim just deletes all the comments and blocks all the haters because they're clearly just naysaying his brilliant schemes out of jealousy. He quickly starts getting lazy and recycles content, posting the same clips in a different order as compilations so he can have new videos up every hour of every day without having to actually make anything new.

Eventually someone posts a video essay "exposing" Zim's schemes for being ineffective and dangerous and Zim responds by attacking them in-person. This only gets Zim a temporary demonetization because he uses bots to inflate his numbers on the platform to make the owners think he's a more valuable creator than he actually is. It's only when he shit-talks a sponsored product to deflect blame off himself for one of his inventions failing that advertisers drop him like a hot potato and he quits Space YouTube forever.

[clouds-of-wings]

Power Metal reddit currently has a discussion about Nuclear Blast, about what has changed with them and why, and man I have learned a lot of disturbing facts about what has happened there in the past 5 years. Someone posted an in-depth investigative article about it (from November 2021), which you should read if you speak German and are interested, otherwise or if it's too long here are the main points...

If you're into Nightwish, Sabaton, Blind Guardian etc., this is relevant information.

In 2018, the French Believe Music, which is a large corporation that mainly specializes in digital distribution, became majority owner of NB

Believe is not really interested in physical media like CDs and vinyls even though the people who worked at NB told their new corporate overlords that metal fans like physical media, both because many fans of especially the oldest and most successful bands are 50+ and because it's more ingrained in the subculture. Believe doesn't care and doesn't listen. They have their experiences from pop and hip-hop, where phone-based streaming subscriptions are the norm, and that's all they want to know. They are also ignoring printed magazines and don't advertise there much anymore.

Less focus on physical media means that bands now earn less, that they rank less highly in album charts, which in turn means that they lose negotiation power when they try to plan tours and negotiate with venues etc., because they "look" less successful

Believe has been dealing with this by signing mainly bands that are easy to market digitally and ending co-operations with bands that aren't, even ones that had been with NB for decades (like Rage and Nile, who went to Napalm)

The personal cooperation between bands and NB has really suffered, everything is more profit-oriented and impersonal, a lot of budgets have been decreased and the real decisions are made by Believe in Paris, not by any specific NB team

Believe has been stock market traded since 2021. Their stock value went down at first, was at about the price it had started out at when the article was written - I looked it up and in March 23 it's down 40% from its original value. Ouch.

The original founder of NB started a new label, Atomic Fire, and took "Amorphis, Helloween, Opeth, Sonata Arctica, Meshuggah, Primal Fear, Agnostic Front, Rise Of The Northstar, Silver Lake, White Stones and Michael Schenker Group" with him, also because Believe didn't really do much to keep many of these bands

It's certainly interesting to learn about, also because I had already wondered if NB, and some of their bands, had intentionally taken a more "commercial" approach in recent years, but I didn't know about the Believe thing. I thought it maybe had something to do with losses from the pandemic or something. Turns out they have a new owner.

[artisticdivasworld]

The Ripple Effect of Fuel Costs

Fuel pricing is one of those unpredictable forces that every trucker wishes they could control but can’t. It’s like trying to plan a picnic while watching storm clouds roll in—you know something’s coming, but you can’t be sure how bad it will get. For truckers, this unpredictability doesn’t just dampen the day; it can completely throw off budgets, schedules, and sometimes even livelihoods. When…

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 4, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 05, 2024

Long tonight, folks, but it’s been quite a day. And even still, I did not mention the day’s horrific shooting at a Georgia school.

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a series of proposals to help entrepreneurs create small businesses. Like President Joe Biden, she and her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, argue that small businesses and entrepreneurs are the “engines of our economy.” In a statement today, they noted that “small businesses employ half of all private-sector workers in America—creating 70 percent of net new jobs since 2019—and do trillions of dollars of business every year.”

The Biden administration has boasted of the record number of new businesses created since Biden and Harris took office. There have been 19 million new business applications in that time. Harris said she and Walz are setting a goal of 25 million new business applications in their first term. Their plan, they say, is to “kickstart…more young, small, and innovative firms.”

To make this happen, they propose raising the deduction for startup expenses from its current level of $5,000 to $50,000, noting that the average amount a new business spends to get set up in its first year of operation is $40,000. They also propose funding a network of new and existing “federal, state, local, and private incubators and small business innovation hubs” that will make it easier for small business and local suppliers to get technical assistance, funding, customers, and so on. 

They also promised to make low-interest and no-interest loans available for small businesses, to protect and expand the support of the Affordable Care Act for small business owners, and to guarantee that one third of federal contract money will go to small businesses. They promise to make it easier for small businesses to file taxes, reduce excessive occupational licensing requirements, and urge state and local governments to cut the red tape of burdensome regulations by streamlining them across jurisdictions. 

Harris and Walz said they are committed to making the investments that will build the economy while also paying for them and reducing the deficit. “They also know,” their statement said, that “we need to support America as a locus of innovators, entrepreneurs, and workers coming together to create a better future.  

Harris calls this a New Way Forward, but it is curiously close to the old Republican reforms of the Progressive Era, when entrepreneurs joined forces with workers and farmers to demand access to capital and a fair economic playing field after decades in which a few wealthy industrialists stacked the system in their own favor. When we look at that era, as well as the New Deal reforms of the 1930s, we tend to emphasize reforms designed to benefit workers and farmers, but members of those groups always allied with entrepreneurs shut out of the system by wealthy industrialists. The demand for securities and exchange law in the 1930s, for example, did not come from western farmers, but from entrepreneurs who knew they could not break into the system if established businesses made up the rules amongst themselves.

Harris recalled that Republican reform impulse when she said we must make the tax system fairer. She called for rolling back Trump’s tax cuts and implementing common-sense tax reforms for corporations and the richest Americans. She calls for setting a minimum income tax for billionaires, the corporate tax rate to 28% (it was 35% before the Trump tax cuts), and quadrupling the tax on the stock buybacks that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans.

She emphasized that no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes under her plans, and called for a tax rate of 28% on long-term capital gains for those who earn more than a million dollars a year. This is up from the current 20% rate, but less than the 39.6% rate Biden proposed in his 2025 budget. 

A Fox News Channel host applauded some of Harris’s ideas, saying, “When a political candidate comes up with what I think is a good idea, I have to call it a good idea. And a fifty thousand dollar…tax credit for startups or small businesses, coupled with less red tape, I’ve got to say, that is a good idea, regardless of her other tax ideas.” 

This was a nice endorsement of Harris’s policies, coming as it did after yesterday’s assessment by economists for the Goldman Sachs Group saying that the nation’s economic growth would take a hit if Trump wins, but will grow under a Harris presidency if she also has the support of a Democratic House and Senate.  

In her statement about economic policy, Harris called out Trump for supporting “himself and the biggest corporations” and noted that sixteen Nobel laureates have said that Trump’s policies would ignite inflation and trigger a recession by mid-2025. That recession, economists project, would cost more than 3 million jobs, explode the deficit, and raise costs. Harris pointed out that Project 2025 would cut funding for the Small Business Administration and make it harder for small businesses to get access to money. 

For his part, Trump has doubled down on the idea that the United States is a failing nation. For the past week he has been telling a story about a residential building in Colorado taken over by a gang from Venezuela. But it appears the story is entirely made up. Similarly, Trump on Friday said at a right-wing Moms for Liberty event that public schools in America kidnap children and operate on them to change their sex. This is bonkers, but it is bonkers in a way that deliberately demonizes Trump’s opponents.

Trump’s vision of the United States is one of darkness and carnage. As Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz said today, “It is a deliberate effort by some people to make them believe that our political system is broken. To make them believe that things are pessimistic. My God, every time I hear Donald Trump give a speech, it’s like the next screenplay for Mad Max or something. They are rooting against America.”

That bleak version of the United States, it turns out, echoes the talking points Russian handlers gave to their operatives working in the U.S. in an effort “to steer the U.S. public opinion in the right direction.” The Russians directed their U.S. employees to emphasize the following “campaign topics”: “Encroaching universal poverty. Record inflation. Halting of economic growth. Unaffordable prices for food and essential goods”; “Risk of job loss for white Americans”; “Privileges for people of color, perverts, and disabled”; “Constant lies of the [Democratic] administration about the real situation in the country”; “Threat of crime coming from people of color and immigrants”; “Overspending on foreign policy and at the interests of white US citizens”; “Constant lies to the voters by [Democrats] in power.” 

The target audience of the campaign was “[Republican] voters,” [Trump] supporters, “Supporters of traditional family values,” and “White Americans, representing the lower-middle and middle class.” The focus was in particular on “[r]esidents of "swing states whose voting results impact the outcomes of the elections more than other states. 

This information came out today when the Departments of Justice, State, and the Treasury announced sanctions against 10 individuals and 2 entities, and criminal charges against two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, who allegedly funded a company in the U.S. to hire right-wing social media influencers to push Russian propaganda before the 2024 election. 

While the indictment does not name the Tennessee-based company the Russians funded, it appears to be Tenet Media, a company registered by Liam Donovan and Lauren Tam, who is associated with The Blaze and Turning Point USA, as well as RT. The two appear to be married. The indictment alleges that the company’s two founders knew they were working for the Russians, but suggests the six commentators—Lauren Southern, Tim Pool, Tayler Hansen, Matt Christiansen, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson, all staunch Trump supporters—did not know where their massive paychecks originated. After the story broke, five of the commentators denied any knowledge of the source of the company’s funding; some insisted their words were entirely their own. 

One of the videos the company pushed at the request of the Russians was what appears to have been right-wing host Tucker Carlson’s visit to a grocery store in Russia where he praised the low prices (which even the company’s founders thought “just feels like overt shilling”).

Separately, the Department of Justice seized 32 internet domains that “the Russian government and Russian sponsored actors” have used to influence the 2024 election. In a malign influence campaign called “Doppelganger,” these domains produced fake articles that appeared to be from major U.S. news sites, to which influencers and fake social media profiles on Facebook, X, Truth Social, and YouTube then drove traffic. 

Russian operatives called in bold type for Russia “to put a maximum effort to ensure that the [Republican] point of view (first and foremost, the opinion of [Trump] supporters) wins over the US public opinion. This includes provisions on peace in Ukraine in exchange for territories, the need to focus on the problems of the US economy, returning troops home from all over the world, etc.”

One of the documents produced in the affidavit justifying the seizure of the internet domains called for trying to stir up a conflict between the U.S. and Mexico in order to distract from the fact that the U.S. economy is “very healthy” under Biden.

Tonight, in an interview with Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, Trump appeared to think he is running against Joe Biden. An internal email leaked to the press from the Trump campaign showed managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles warning staff not to communicate with the press and suggested anyone doing so would be fired.

Today, Steph Curry of California’s Golden State Warriors basketball team and former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. “Endorsing Kamala Harris is important for me and my family,” Curry said. “Knowing Kamala and having been around her, I understand she's qualified for this job."

“There was never a doubt that the courageous Liz Cheney would endorse Vice President Harris,” conservative judge J. Michael Luttig wrote, “because  Liz Cheney stands for America.  She is the very embodiment of country over party and country over self.  And she fears no one—least of all the former president.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[democracyunderground]

I'M ONE OF THE "WASTEFUL EXPENDITURES" THEY WILL CUT.

The incoming Trump administration’s solution to government spending is a NEW Department of Government Efficiency led by co-department (2 NEW) CHIEFS: the world’s richest man and Trump’s former political opponent.

But while on the surface the plan to cut government spending seems simple, the “department,” led by multibillionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is fairly unorthodox. The U.S. Constitution states the President: “may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments.” That section implies a primary leader and explains why the 15 executive Cabinet departments including State, Defense, and Treasury have a single secretary with a chain-of-command from the President on down. However, other agencies, like the Federal Trade Commission, are governed by a commission structure; the President taps one commissioner to serve as chair.

What is it? In a statement on Truth Social Tuesday, president-elect Donald Trump gave the department a broad mandate to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Trump compared the department’s importance to that of the “Manhattan Project” which led to the creation of the atomic bomb in the 20th century.

Trump added in the statement that the co-leaders would target waste and fraud that Trump said exists throughout the $6.5 trillion yearly federal budget. The department will operate through July 4, 2026, wrapping up its operations just in time for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Trump said in the statement.

Co-leader Elon Musk said in a Wednesday post that the massive cuts and reforms “will be done much faster.”

Why two department heads? Both leaders of the department, multibillionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, have been avid supporters of the president-elect. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the owner of social media website X, reportedly supported Trump via his super PAC with about $200 million in funding and often spoke with him at campaign rallies leading up to the election. Musk is the richest man in the world, with a net worth of $319 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Although he ran against Trump in the Republican primary race, Ramaswamy dropped out and endorsed Trump in January. The entrepreneur, who founded pharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences, has also appeared with Trump on the campaign trail.

Some leaders of the democratic party have already criticized the co-leaders of the department, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

“The Office of Government Efficiency is off to a great start with split leadership: two people to do the work of one person. Yeah, this seems REALLY efficient,” Warren wrote in a Tuesday post on X.

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

Will the Department of Government Efficiency be a new government department? Contrary to its name, the new “department” will not be a part of the federal government, but rather more like a consulting arm that “will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government,” according to the statement. Musk flagged the fact that the new department exists outside of the government as “important details” in a post on X Wednesday. Musk especially has his hands full elsewhere with his other companies, Tesla, SpaceX, and social media site, X.

Despite its separation from government, the department’s leaders have Trump’s support and have pledged myriad internal changes to try to cut back on federal spending.

What have the co-leaders said about government spending? On the campaign trail with Trump, Musk said he wanted to cut the federal budget by $2 trillion, and added in an October rally that “some pretty big moves” were required.

“Our defense budget is pretty gigantic. It’s a trillion dollars,” Musk said during a rally. “The interest we owe on the debt is now higher than the defense budget. This is not sustainable. That’s why we need the Department of Government Efficiency,”

Ramaswamy has previously floated the idea of eliminating the Education Department, the FBI, and the IRS by executive order to cut spending, the New York Times reported. Ramaswamy has said the federal workforce should be cut by 75%.

The pair have said the cuts will be transparent and Musk added that the department would create a “leaderboard” to display the “most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars.”

Will it work? Experts have cast doubt on whether Musk and Ramaswamy will be able to find $2 trillion to cut from federal spending without impacting long-untouched programs such as social security and defense spending.

The consequences of such big cuts could be massive layoffs for government employees and even some temporary economic pain. When a user on Musk’s social media site X wrote in October that Musk’s massive spending cuts could cause a temporary overreaction in the economy, Musk replied with “sounds about right.”

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said in a speech at The Economic Club of New York on Tuesday that Musk would be lucky to find $200 billion worth of cuts, much less $2 trillion, CNN reported.

Why the acronym “DOGE?” The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE as Trump abbreviated it in his official announcement, is a callback to the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which Musk has often promoted over the years.

The cryptocurrency was originally created as a joke but has grown to become the sixth largest cryptocurrency with a Wednesday market cap of $56 billion, greater than that of major companies such as Volkswagen or Ford.

The cryptocurrency jumped 20% following Trump’s announcement Tuesday and was up just over 1% on Wednesday afternoon.

[hollywritesinstardust]

Hey all,

Unfortunately this isn’t anything fun. 2024 has been rough. But this is I think more important.

If you live in the United States, you probably know about the political tumult and the very real threat to our democratic institutions. Nearly every large platform has come out with a statement endorsing one candidate or another. Oftentimes this represents a fundamental ideological difference that I don’t believe I have the type or size of platform to talk about meaningfully. But in this case, the Washington Post - one of our largest national newspapers - was prevented from publishing a political endorsement by its owner, Jeff Bezos. You may know Bezos as the ultra-rich and exploitative founder of Amazon.

As a result, reportedly hundreds of thousands of subscribers to the Washington Post have canceled their subscriptions. Nowadays, media outlets like newspapers make a significant amount of their operating budgets from subscription fees. Regardless of the percentage of budget that comes from subscriptions, the subscriptions also serve as an indicator of readership and reach. We know that the staff of the paper are not the ones who chose to pull this article and in fact it appears that many of them are as frustrated as their readers are. While wholly understandable to pull away and “punish” the paper for this decision, this punishes the staff of the paper and may threaten the ability of the Washington Post to operate with the kind of political independence and integrity that we want our reporters to maintain.

So here is the message I want to share: keep your WaPo subscription if you have one. If you already cancelled, please consider re-subscribing. If you were considering buying one, please don’t change your mind because of this incident. There are better ways to lodge our mass complaints in ways that don’t have a greater impact on the wellbeing of a well-respected paper and its staff than on the person whose actions we object to.

For example, we could start a challenge to refuse to engage with Amazon on the week of the election. Spend no money. Watch no Prime. Don’t open any Kindle files. Don’t even open the apps. Amazon is where most of Bezos’ wealth comes from and his financial wellbeing is strongly tied to its shares. His wealth comes from our willingness to use his products, and his actions can have financial consequences.

What do you think? Should we spread the word?

[queersatanic]

The Satanic Temple’s owner Cevin Soling really hates public schools

Newly discovered passages from 2014’s “The Student Resistance Handbook” by Satanic Temple co-owner Cevin “Malcolm Jarry” Soling show that using “After School Satan” clubs to disrupt education isn’t a bug or a side effect of them; it’s the whole point.

Religious Accommodations

A religious belief must be sincerely held and “must occupy the same place in life of the [believer] as [would] orthodox belief in God.” In other words, so long as you sincerely believe something and that belief represents a significant part of your outlook, it can be deemed a religious belief under the law. This means you can create your own religion, or announce that you are part of a religious organization that supports individual autonomy and sovereignty such as Satanism. The benefits depend on what state you live in. Schools are designed not to treat people as individuals. The more students engage in asserting their individual religious beliefs and demand appropriate concessions, the harder it is for schools to operate.

Holidays

Some states that have enacted various forms of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) permit certain rights under the banner of religious freedom. For instance, in Texas students are excused from school to observe religious holy days. If you are a Satanist and live in Texas, you can insist on taking Halloween off. Obviously, you want to exploit this judiciously, but just doing this once will upset and disturb the administration because it invites others to do the same.

Hair Length and Dress Code

Religious exemptions can be requested to avoid having to adhere to school requirements for hair length and school uniforms. Be aware that this could involve being transferred to a campus that does not have these requirements.

Page 65 of “The Student Resistance Handbook” by Cevin Soling (2014)

Religious Symbols

Religious symbols are permitted and wearing a Satanic pentagram and other forms of Satanic jewelry is legally protected even though many school districts inappropriately ban such apparel.

Curriculum

In some states, you may be permitted to not attend classes or participate in activities that conflict with your religious beliefs by providing a written statement to your teacher that states a conflict exists. Remember, religious beliefs do not have to be rational or even self-consistent—just deeply held convictions. Please note that you cannot be exempt from an entire semester and you cannot be exempt from graduation requirements including those for advancing from one grade to another.

Page 66 of “The Student Resistance Handbook” by Cevin Soling (2014)

Form a Club

In most schools, students have great leeway in forming clubs of their choosing. Form a club that will likely offend the faculty. Some suggestions:

• Club for the Practice of Witchcraft and Dark Arts

• Club for the Worshipers of Satan

• Banned Book Club

• Advanced Studies in Contemporary Pornography Club

• End Compulsory Schooling Club

• Students for a Lower Drinking Age Club

• Students for the Legalization of Heroin Club

• Students for a Sensible School Budget by Lowering Faculty Wages Club

• Death Metal and Gangsta Rap Appreciation Club

Page 70 of “The Student Resistance Handbook” by Cevin Soling (2014)

Moreover, we’re still being sued by The Satanic Temple in federal court and now King County Superior Court.

TST is also still suing Newsweek and its reporter (but maybe not her anymore!) for writing about us. In addition, the Temple is now suing a TikToker in Texas for talking about our case. Check the pinned post for more.