#tax court has a cow

[tuatha-de-danann-blog]

The Irish Gods pt. 1

After reading several texts, I've painted this picture of the Irish gods.

There is the war god Net. His descendants procreate with his granddaughter Ethniu. She has 7 sons: the smith, the carpenter, the wright, the physician (Dian Cecht), the king (Nuada), the druid warrior (the Dagda), and the god of every skill (Lugh).

Elatha, Net's grandson, is a Fomorian king. He is father to Bres, the Dagda, and Ogma the champion; though, one text makes Ogma the son of Ethniu.

The gods lived in islands in the northern parts of the world where they learned all their magic, sciences, and art.

They invaded Ireland. They sailed there, and clouds shielded their arrival.

They had four treasures: the cauldron that everyone left satisfied from, the spear no one could defeat, the sword that nothing could escape from, and the stone of destiny that shouted when the true king of the land put his foot on it.

They battled the Firbolg, the existing inhabitants, for Ireland. The Morrigan and her sisters cast clouds and rain of fire and blood over the Firbolg. The gods defeat the Firbolg. (The Firbolg and gods have common ancestors).

Nuada loses his hand in battle. A blemished king can't rule. Bres is made king in hopes his Fomorian side would render the Fomorians under the gods' power.

The smith god made a silver hand. Dian Cect attached it to Nuada, making a working silver hand.

One text says Bres was a bad king. He chose the Fomorian side of his family. He made the Dagda build forts and Ogma carry wood. There was no food or drink at his court. The gods were taxed heavily, and all their wealth went to the Fomorians.

Miach, Diancecht's son, restores Nuada’s real flesh hand, unburying it, attaching it, and restoring it completely. Nuada is able to be king again. Diancecht was upset at Miach, so he killed him. From his grave grew healing herbs. His sister gathered the herbs on a cloth, but Dian Cecht mixed them, and their healing knowledge was lost.

A poet made a satire about Bres. It embarrassed him and brought him dishonor. The gods told him they wanted to remove him as king. He went to his dad Elatha for help to battle gods. Elatha refused. Bres went to the Fomorian Balor for help. (Balor is the war god Net's son).

Meanwhile, Balor's grandson, Lugh, son of Ethniu and the god Cian (Dian Cecht’s son) comes to the god's court. They don't let anyone in without a skill. Lugh was the only one that had all the skills put together. They let him in. He was stronger than Ogma, and Nuada put him in charge of the war.

The Dagda slept with the Morrigan at the mouth of a river. Afterward, she gave him war intel and told him her plan: to kill one of the Fomorians. (Some texts say the Dagda and Morrigan are married to each other).

The Dagda’s daughter, Brigid, is married to Bres. She owns the king of the cows and king of the pigs. They cry out when Ireland is being plundered. Her son with Bres is a spy. The son is killed by the gods, and Brigid is the first to cry and scream in mourning in Ireland.

The war was on. Dian Cecht and his kids made a healing well, filling the water with herbs. Anyone wounded who bathed in it was healed. Only people with their head cut off or brains bashed in could not be healed. The smith god and his brothers magically repaired the gods' weapons by the next day of battle.

Lugh defeated Balor in battle. Balor had an "evil eye." Whatever it looked upon was destroyed. Lugh hit the eye with his sling shot. The eye shot through the back of Balor's skull and killed several many Fomorians.

They spared Bres' life if he agreed to teach them the times to plant and harvest.

Nuada had died in battle, and Lugh was made king.

See pt. 2

[nokingsonlyfooles]

Ya know, if they ever want to crush me, they will...

This is what allowing a corporation to distribute your shit gets you. Sony crushes a local makeup brand with impunity, and they don't even have to win the case. The legal fees are too expensive. It doesn't matter how you navigate Kafkaesque situations like being asked to prove your makeup does not resemble a cow because the song lyrics in the background mention a cow, and if you're basing your cow makeup off these lyrics that we own, you owe us $18 million. You can't even afford to argue. There goes all your work.

Are the artists who made the music going to get any of that money? No. They got paid when they sold the rights. Maybe a small slice in royalties, but not so much that they don't have to keep cranking out new music and giving it to their contract holders to remain active in creative spaces.

"There are lines" says the legal expert. Yeah. Well. I'm pretty sure the only line you need to cross is: a corporation notices you and decides to incite a hostage situation. If Sony wins this case, it gets even easier for the big guys to take it out of the little guys. And if they don't... It's not like they're going to stop suing people and gatekeeping the use of art.

If humanity remains a going concern long enough for us to come to our senses, there's just going to be this huge hole in our media right around the 20th century. If Sony or Disney or Warner Brothers or Fox or some other huge corporate conglomerate doesn't make it into the fossil record, or just decides to delete everything it owns for tax purposes, future historians are going to be trying to reconstruct a significant portion of lost culture off whatever's left of Internet Archive and AO3. And that's only if the corporations don't obliterate that stuff too.

I guess there are non-zero folks out there who are just doing commission-style work to get paid so they can eat, maybe they don't care what happens to it. But if your art means something to you, or if someone else's art means something to you, you should be upset about this.

You like Nosferatu? The movie? Well, like it or hate it, we weren't supposed to have it. They filed off the serial numbers but it didn't matter - they stepped on Stoker's copyright, they got sued, they lost, and they were supposed to destroy all the copies of that film. A film that's widely considered one of the best movies ever, codifier of many of the vampire tropes you know and love - which you could also call plagiarism, if you had enough money and were so inclined. Yeah, it's in the Public Domain now, but it doesn't have to stay that way (see: Peter and the Wolf). Copyright law destroys art. Period. Artists need to eat, but this is not the way to make that happen!

The makeup company is already dead. If the court case goes against them, it's precedent to kill so much more, just because someone sang a tune, or said words in a certain order, or played notes in a certain way. And, yeah, my work could evaporate on that basis. I reference real music. I don't have to, but it fits the themes and I do not agree with these laws and how they are applied. I'm contrary. I'm protesting. But if I ever get popular enough to make a difference... I could be toast.

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/perils-of-the-high-ground/

Perils Of The High Ground

A month before leaving public life, I published a critique on the media.  At a retirement gathering soon after,  a reporter asked why I’d waited until leaving office to share my views. Previously, I’d written other papers –one on property taxes and the other on Grand Juries. The last appeared in December 1988. The Media: Who’s Watching the Watchers? I wrote the piece because I’d been looking into the viability of Press Councils, citizen groups set up to review people’s complaints about the media. Few of these organizations existed, largely because news outlets lobbied against them. Several academic studies did support the idea, however.  The reasons varied: The symbiotic relationship between the media and the power structure was too great Having wrapped itself in First Amendment claims, journalism had rendered the courts powerless against it. Its business interest competed with its public duty, leading to a temptation to manipulate the audience. Said one academic, “Democracy cannot survive if we are to be the targets of hidden persuaders.“ (News Media Locked in Established, Rigid Structure,” by Robert Shara, The Oregonian, Forum Section, October 31, 1988, B7.) *   Having felt the sting of editorial criticism while in office, I gave the inquisitive reporter an honest answer. “No politician is insane enough to take on the press as a public figure.” The reply drew laughs, even from the reporter. Times have changed, of course.  Fear of the press is diminished and the term “fake news” is part of the vernacular. The media has earned some of the criticism it receives.  More than one reporter has made up a story to advance a career.   Nonetheless, I concur with Thomas Jefferson that a flawed press is better than no press at all. To “err” is human and journalists make mistakes like the rest of us, though those I’ve known would never admit it.  Even so, their mandate to inform the public is vital to a democracy. NBC no doubt had the best intentions when it hired the former chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Ronna McDaniel as a contributor to its news roster.  Absent a Fairness doctrine, management’s decision to inject a conservative viewpoint into what many see as a liberal press was a bold one. The Fairness doctrine, a creation of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC,) was established in 1949.  It required broadcasters and the print media to air all sides of issues that were in the public interest. The policy worked for a time, but the advent of electronic media changed the landscape.  The near-monopoly news sources of the past became less worrisome when social platforms with commentators and bloggers mushroomed. Eventually, the FCC allowed the Fairness Doctrine to fade away.  As no good intention goes unpunished, NBC’s decision to hire McDaniel put the managers at odds with their brightest luminaries, including affiliate anchors. MSNBC’s Rachael Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell excoriated the recruit. They accused her of lying and attempting to undermine the media’s legitimacy. Geraldo Rivera, a correspondent with NewsNation disagreed.  He called the objectors a cabal of aging hosts.   Rivera, who was born in 1943, is older than those he attacked, which gave his remark whimsy but no substance. Even so, his protest raised a question. What gave the dissenting journalists the right to claim the moral high ground? Admittedly, McDaneil’s case is moot. Cowed by their staff, NBC fired her. But was the decision fair? The debate seems to lie more with opinion than fact, something we humans exercise in abundance.  Other primates have norms that serve as social laws.  But human opinions are personal truths, usually impervious to information. How else could chauvinism exist over the centuries? In Politics, opinion holds sway over truth much of the time. It’s axiomatic that the appearance of impropriety is as bad as having done the deed.  In McDaniel’s case, whether she lied or unwittingly served as Donald Trump’s pawn probably can’t be established in a court of law–which is why, unlike her former boss, she was never charged with a crime.  Still, her NBC firing was a punishment and based on perception. In my opinion, McDaniel should have been allowed to strut her hour or two upon the public airwaves. Voters might have learned something. Or, maybe not which would also be telling. But a “cabal of journalists” shouldn’t decide what the public hears.    That’s my two cents worth, anyway, though I don’t expect anyone to live off the proceeds. For a gratuity, I’ll add one other personal truth. Never in my 87 years has my decision to take the high ground led anywhere but to a precipice.     *Anyone interested in the sources for these statements, let me know.  

[wellthatwasaletdown]

Dia dhuit!

Bono is a joke. U2 have been selling out for YEARS. Ask Apple 😖

Bono “lives in Ireland” - but only the max legal number of days he can (per year) without paying tax. Yet thinks he’s qualified to talk on Irish politics at every turn. And it’s usually a horrific elitist take - especially when he talks about Northern Ireland. Also - when Harry was in Dublin in June 2022 for LOT, he went to Vico baths With Eve Hewson* it seemed odd at the time.

*Bonos daughter

In the fandom there was loads of speculation about why it was so heavily papped. Harry doesn’t usually do that. It was because Full Stop was courting U2 and wanted to show off their prize cow reach.

In October 2022 ~ U2 joined Full Stop Media: Run by Jeffery Azoff.

Also as an add on: Eve Hewson was tone deaf on the nepo baby thing (she thinks that because she’s not called Eve Bono she’s exempt- ignoring all the wealth and access privileges she has)

It just further proves that absolutely nothing is coincidental when it comes to Harry Styles. Wasn't Bono at one of his shows with Eve as well?

[reasoningdaily]

Donald Trump is expected to be indicted this week by a Manhattan grand jury following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. into whether Trump’s alleged payment of hush money to former porn star Stormy Daniels rose to felony-level criminality on the part of the ex-president. Once again, Trump is facing court over allegedly shady dealings, and his chief nemesis is a Black man, only this time that Bragg isn’t trying to rent one of Trump’s apartments, he’s seeking a historic conviction that could mark the first time a former president ends up incarcerated.

If it feels like Trump has spent the last 50 years being sued over his business practices and antagonizing Black people, your instinct isn’t far off. In 1973, the Justice Department sued Trump for discriminating against Black prospective tenants in his then rental real estate portfolio. Trump settled, and to this day claims he did nothing wrong. That lawsuit foreshadowed two themes in Trump’s life that this week could also begin his downfall: court battles over his business practices and tussles with Black folks who refused to be cowed by his racist public policy and rhetoric.

Since then, Trump been accused of jerking contractors who worked on his construction sites out of their money. The Trump Organization reorganized under federal bankruptcy protection three times. The company was convicted last year of tax fraud. He bought an infamous full-page New York Times ad asking for the death penalty (which didn’t exist in New York at the time) for five Black teenagers who were ultimately exonerated for the rape of a white woman who was jogging in Central Park. His presidential campaign and four years in the White House centered on anti-Black and anti-immigrant demagoguery.

So you’re not wrong if you also think it’s fitting that since leaving office, the biggest threats to his fortune and his freedom are investigations led by three Black prosecutors: Bragg, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office could still indict Trump over his attempts to undo Georgia’s 2020 election results, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is suing the Trump Organization in civil court over the kind of accounting practices at the company’s criminal conviction.

Trump has tried hard to delay or derail all those investigations. He challenged subpoenas. He filed an unsuccessful countersuit against James. He made veiled threats against Willis. He was seen sticking a banana in the tailpipe of Bragg’s chauffeured SUV (ok, that didn’t happen but you can’t stop seeing the visual, can you?). As late as Monday morning, his legal team filed paperwork to try to get Willis thrown off the case and to seal her grand jury’s report, which recommends criminal charges against multiple, unnamed people. Wanna guess who one of those people just might be? So far, none of it has worked.

Still, that it’s Bragg whose investigation appears to have reached the finish line first is ironic. A year ago this week, I questioned whether Bragg was pulling punches on Trump after one of the former lead prosecutors from Bragg’s team wrote a scathing resignation letter that accused his ex-boss of ignoring overwhelming evidence that Trump had committed multiple felonies. Back then, it looked like if any of the investigations against Trump would implode, it would be Bragg’s.

I’ve interviewed Bragg several times since and asked him directly about the Trump investigation. Every time, he was measured and cautious with his words, demure about discussing an ongoing grand jury proceeding. But never once did he close the door on the idea that his office would prosecute Trump if evidence led the grand jury to indict. And as I noted in last year’s piece, it’s pretty easy for New York prosecutors to get grand juries to bring charges if they really want to.

Of course, an indictment is a long, long way from a conviction and the trial of a former president–especially one that would play out in a New York courtroom–would be a spectacle that would do more pay-per-view buys than a Floyd Mayweather fight. But if boxing is the appropriate metaphor for Trump’s current legal woes, maybe with all his antagonizing, he finally picked the wrong opponent, somebody he couldn’t push around the ring too easily. Somebody willing to punch back, or even go on the offensive. Maybe this time, he finally loses.

[hotcupoteckla]

"... and the tradesmen of Firthing are in need of some funding to finish the armaments for the Castle Guard-"

"Again?! Why now? We just sent the latest collection of taxes to them," Queen Lydia Merina Charlotte Annalynne Contessa Darling Regina the Fourth interrupted her economic advisor, Lord Hynd, incensed at the delay.

"Yes, your majesty, but there's the matter of the tariffs being imposed from The Avalenia Kingdom on raw iron, and our own supply has fallen short as a result of needing to armor an additional 250 men & horses in the royal dress plate."

"Ah," King Tyber leaned towards his wife, and rumbled low into her perched ear, "Lyds, are you sure it's necessary for the additional soldiers? The Evils have been willing allies thus far, and the courtship between the lovebirds has left little to complain about from either side." Her cheeks flushed at Tyb's use of his petnane for her, and even though he was quiet, Hynd still had ears. It wouldn't do to act cowed in this situation, she turned from his advising in her ear, and in her perfected posture & diction, gave her direction.

"Hynd, please follow up on the famine in the Northern Terrn mountains, send from our stores if need be. Send word to the Accounts that additional funds may be needed for the Firthing Guild, and invite Avalenia's ambassadors to the next Court gathering. Is that a fortnight hence?"

Hynd flipped through the pages of his brown ledger, knocking his hat askew when the green plumed feather got in the way, "It's nine days, your Highness."

"Excellent. Dismissed!"

Lord Hynd clasped his book, bowed, and took his leave. The torches in the throne room guttered as the doors open to allow Hynd to pass.

Tybs took his wife's hand up to his lips and pressed gently. She smiled warmly back at him, but withdrew her hand from him, as she stood to head to their chambers.

"Lyds, dear, don't. I didn't mean to challenge you in front of Hynd. I just don't see the point in the additional costs. Everything has been going well with Charming & Villainessa," Tyber pleaded with his wife.

"Yes, but that is still problematic. Even if she is sincere in her affections, however macabre they might be, I just don't believe the rest of her ilk will stay in their kingdom with this arrangement."

"Macabre? Ilk? Do you hear how you sound, Lydia? You're acting ridiculous-"

"No! You're acting ridiculous! As though she could ever give him the doting adoration he deserves, be the light and life of any tenuous diplomatic relation, nurture any harbingers into friendships, assuage his bleeding heart from betrayals of his confidence-" King Tyber put his hands on her arms from her outburst, slightly crouching to be at eye level with her, at arm's length, his eyebrows cooked and lips pursed as though he was trying to find her in the woods. She had paused at his touch, and breathed with him, and smiled slightly when the breath from his nose made his mustache flutter.

"I'm worried for him, that they are just too different for him to feel loved, and for her that she can't fit in here," she realized aloud, "Just as I worried about you."

"What would you need to see to allay your concerns? What can you do with the situation at hand," Tyber rumbled, soft & low in his tiger purr. "This is new, and change is always alarming, so it helps to-"

"-have a plan," Lyds laughed with her husband. They made a good match, contrary to her original thoughts on the matter.

"I think I need to talk to Charming, and ask him if he is happy with how things are progressing. Then I should look to Villainessa and see if she is willing for the challenges this match may pose, and build her some allies," Queen Lydia had begun staring through King Tyber in her way of visualizing the battlefield she faced, tapping on his arm as she recounted the steps in her head. Oh, he loved her! Overwhelmed by the warmth & pride in his chest at his wife & happy with the results, he embraced her. She collapsed into his arms & chest, still staring into the distance thinking on how best to ensure this allyship with the Princess Villainessa. She surrendered her train of thought at the gardens, and proceeded to embrace & kiss her husband back.

Lyds finally could see the merit in Tybs's plan, and she would do everything in her power to help it come to fruition & protect Charming in the process.

Daughter of fantasy villains decides to rebel against her parents by actually going through with her arranged marriage to a local golden retriever of a prince instead of running off with some local villain-to-be or conquering said golden retriever’s kingdom and ruling it solo like her parents expect her to. Plus, sue her, she’s into the clean-cut earnest look.

At the same time, local prince charming discovers that he’s actually very into the gothic fiance his parents have landed him with in order to try and establish peace with the local evil lair down the lane, he would never have guessed a spiderweb pattern could look so fetching on a ball gown…?

Meanwhile, two pairs of parents in a tizzy because they both expected their offspring to whole-heartedly reject this union and give them an excuse to conquer their goody-two-shoes/evil neighbours, they’re not supposed to actually like each other-!

[nijjhar]

Punjabi - Four Advent Candles - To the people of the 4 Varnas, one Preac... Punjabi - Four Advent Candles - To the people of the 4 Varnas, one Preaching - Updesh. Saltless have none. https://youtu.be/hYs-hV_PhqU For Full description, please visit my website:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/4AdventC.htm The Four Varnas – ACCORDING TO THEIR SPIRITUAL STAGES. Although every Hindu must follow general moral codes, each has individual duties according to his or her own nature. These are called sva-dharma, literally “own duties.” They are regulated by four varnas (social classes) and four ashrams (stages of life). The ideal varnasrama system is discussed here. (For more information on actual practice and related issues of caste and untouchability; please see Reincarnation and Samsara). Below we list the main duties of each of the four varnas. Shudras (Artisans and Workers) -  Once-born – Learn the moral laws – Simpletons – Goyeishi Kopah. People of “Salt” JAATI AUR BAASI = HINDU. The shudras are the only section of society allowed to accept another’s employment; other varnas are occupationally and financially self-sufficient. To render service to others. To take pride in their work and to be loyal. To follow general moral principles, (e.g. not to steal). To marry (the only compulsory rite of passage). Vaishyas (Farmers, Merchants, and Business People) – Twice-born clever people working for money. Tribal “Salt”, SONS OF BRAHMA, YAHWEH, KHUDA, ETC. The Vaishyas are the productive class. They and the two varnas below are called twice-born, indicating that they accept the sacred thread (symbolising spiritual initiation) and must perform certain rituals and rites of passage. To protect animals (especially cows), and the land. To create wealth and prosperity. To maintain workers with abundant food, clothes, etc. To trade ethically. To give taxes to the kshatriyas (ruling class). Kshatriyas (Warriors, Police, and Administrators) – Twice-born old honest contented people - Politicians. Tribal “Salt”, SONS OF BRAHMA, YAHWEH, KHUDA, ETC. The kshatriyas are the nobility, the protectors of society. Though permitted a number of privileges, they are expected to display considerable strength of body and character. To protect the citizens from harm, especially women, children, cows, brahmanas, and the elderly. To ensure that the citizens perform their prescribed duties and advance spiritually. To be the first into battle and never to flee the battlefield. To be true to their royal word. To never refuse a challenge. To develop noble qualities such as power, chivalry, and generosity. To levy taxes (from the vaishyas only) and to never accept charity under any circumstances. To take counsel, especially from the brahmanas. To know the scriptures, especially the artha-shastras. To deal uncompromisingly with crime and lawlessness. To take responsibility for shortcomings in their kingdom. To conquer their own minds and senses and to enjoy only according to scriptural injunction. To beget an heir. Brahmanas (Priests, Teachers, and Intellectuals) – Cohens – Rabbis – Sits in the court to approve the King has decision. They worship Brahma, the creator of male and female = Yahweh, Khuda, etc. Lord of the Nature. Knowledge of the Oral Torah = His Word – Matt 13v52. The Brahman provides education and spiritual leadership. They determine the vision and values of any society. Traditionally their basic needs were fulfilled so that they could dedicate themselves to their spiritual tasks. They are expected to live very frugally. To study and teach the Vedas. To perform sacrifice and religious ceremonies, and teach others how to perform such rituals. To accept alms and also give in charity. To offer guidance, especially to the kshatriyas. To provide medical care and general advice free of charge. To know Brahman (spirit, the self, God). To never accept paid employment. To develop all ideal qualities, especially honesty, integrity, cleanliness, purity, austerity, knowledge and wisdom. KALYUG - SHANKAR VARNA OF THE RELIGIOUS FANATICS – SALTLESS SUPER BASTARDS – JOHN 8V44. The “Chosen People” of Abraham = Adam. Sarah = Eve and Yahweh gave them the Promised Land = Garden of Eden to enjoy so far they remained faithful to Abraham and Yahweh. They were the first to become the sons of the Most Powerful Satan Al-Djmar Al-Aksa. To educate them, Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc. our Supernatural Father of our supernatural “soul” sends his own Anointed Son, the Christ. For the Chosen People were sons of Satan, Jesus had to take a Virgin Birth among the most satanic people of the Judah tribe of King David, an Angel of Peace. In India, the Second Coming of Jesus was Satguru = Christ Nanak who appeared among the most clever greedy people of the Khatri tribe and they were the staunch enemy of Sikhism. Much more in my videos. In Kalyug when the Brahmins had become greedy, most of the people became religious fanatics or Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, etc. of appearances CALLED “Tares” – Matt 13v24-30 and not inwardly ..............

[sporadicarbitergardener]

October 26 , 2023

They were out to get Donald Trump and then they are being lose about protecting Biden as well . And well all I can say is keep calm because this shit is getting really crazy because this is not what needs to happen they say the democracy no its demonism in a reality, they are trying to throw people in jail over shit and well they are also trying to over tax the working class and well someone brought cocain in the white house it was Hunter Biden's shit and fbi tipped off the secret service also paying biden 200,000 and he is also a CI and he gets an immunity deal as well. They classify shit for years hoping people are dead instead of being honest yet they say weed is a bad drug as well. This is what causes issues in the society we live in today the secret services were the ones who killed the creator of cash app because they did not like what the cashapp accounts were being used for . The cash cow is going to end meaning china giving the us loans. As life goes on I am still going to keep up with this information he has a court date in March as well. Then he said the George of Rico Deals . There is nothing but betrayel going on and well they are going to keep him safe people all lives matter man this is getting crazy and scary as well.

October

[silvereternitywrites]

Empires and Moralities

Prompt:  "No," the Evil Emperor said to the demon lord "I will not sacrifice my captain of the guard to you. Not for all the power in the world. That is one line even I will not cross." Prompt Source: user KaiserArrowfield; subreddit “Writing Prompts”

"One line, he says," the demon Lord (his name was Forestqeue, thank you very much) said sarcastically as he gestured with his teacup. "One line you won't cross! Really? You also won't sell children into slavery-"

"It's abhorrent"

"-even pretend it's acceptable to muck about with sexual consent-"

"Because it's not, consent is clearly and easily defined as only valid if it's clear and ongoing!"

"-AND you won't do blood sacrifices, implied debt, indentured servitude, OR making questionable pacts with beings of dubious moral standard! And he says he has only /one/ line he won't cross!"

"Forest, we've had this argument every time you come over for tea, literally there is only one line, it's just that all of those things are well OVER my line. I'm starting to think she's right, by the way, and that you DO come over just to rehash this argument because it's a familiar stalemate."

"It's much easier than trying to rewrite tax laws in my own lands, I'll tell you that," the Lord shuddered and dumped the contents of a flask into his cup. It went from being tea-colored to looking like a slice of the night sky, barely contained by porcelain.

"It takes quite a lot of stress for you to break out the Astra Liquor, Forest. Other than the inherent difficulties you've expounded on- at length- of rewriting Laws that are inherently magically binding while simultaneously dismantling the magic of the previous Law, what else troubles you?"

"My daughter's started bringing suitors to the Palace," he groaned, putting his horned head face-down on the table and covering his head with both hands, claws working deep into his mane.

The Captain caught the cup before it floated off and broke on the ceiling.

"Does that not mean you can intimidate them properly, sir?" she inquired.

"I mean, yes, but tradition dictates I can't go full Fatherly Intimidating on them until after they make their courting intent known AND she picks one, THEN I can test him to see if he'll be a strong enough, or loyal enough, mate for my baby girl. In the meantime I have forty-seven peacocking little demons parading around my front Hall, getting into arguments, scrapping in public, damaging my furniture! Ohhhh they're insufferable. And I can't get any WORK done, they've bumbled into two different magical workings already- one of them is shapeshifted into a cow and has my mages wrapped up in how to turn him back, and two more are currently working their way through every brothel in the kindgom until their curse wears off, I don't dare start working on a Law with them in the Palace."

The Emperor, whom his enemies called Evil, and of course his people didn't (they called him by his name, Hardol), gave his friend a consoling pat to the hand.

"Have you considered setting them a Suitor's Task? You know, one of those traditional events held to weed out the less worthy of potentials by testing their wit or- well, I suppose two would run away with the 'vigor', so perhaps something about strength or political maneuvering instead," he chuckled, listening to Forest groan.

"Something to get them out of the palace for a day would let you work, though! At least in small stints."

Tired gray eyes peeked out from under the heavy brow ridges, and Forest sat up to take his cup back from Brigid.

"You sound like this is from experience."

Hardol grinned around his tea.

"Brigid has had excellent ideas for getting rid of unwanted pests that won't leave the throne room and keep complaining, repeatedly, about my lack of Heirs, and my lack of a Harem, and how they have numerous daughters available on offer," he said, tone as bland as his smile was wicked.

"Oh-ho! Now THAT'S what I come here for, do give me the gossip on what the dowagers got up to this time!"

The page who'd brought the tea slipped out, knowing he'd been noticed, but still quietly keeping up the pretense that pages and serving-boys were invisible, shaking his head as he removed the empty plates and cups from the first half of the "Demon Lord Negotiation Session" in progress. Yeah, his spy network hadn't lied; the "evil emperor, dominion of nations" wasn't evil to his own, and didn't care to sacrifice those who were loyal.

Maybe he'd keep this page gig. He liked it better than his last job.

[erosephalopod]

Okay, BUT, a counterpoint: I think Stardew isn't about ruthless/soulless efficiency versus pastoral comfort in that way, and then ironically fails at addressing that. I think it's an exploration of what fulfillment and nurturing look like in the face of ruthless and impersonal exploitation.

In the end, you expand the town. You build an efficient and automated farm. You change the people around you. Everything you said about could certainly be true when viewed through the lens of how the game ratchets up an extraction of value and enforces a certain view of progressive modernization on the town itself, but I posit that this changes when you approach it through a lens of how PEOPLE are impacted.

You (can) build an efficient farm because it helps you spend time doing all the other things that bring you joy. So you can buy things for the people you care about, so you can devote time to your hobbies, so you can explore.

You clear out your land because it's overgrown and tangled and it needs tending and nurturing. It's not wild land you're claiming as your own; it's your grandpa's old farmland and, like you, it's a ragged mess because nobody has taken care of it. It is meant to be farmland; it is meant to be loved and molded; it is meant to be given a purpose and valued. So are you. And by cleaning it out, by filling it with plants, by handing it over to cows and chickens, you are also enacting the player character nurturing themself and devoting themself consciously and mindfully to a purpose.

You intervene in the town but, as far as I've seen - and I'll admit I have a bad habit, a cycle of starting, leaving, and starting again - you are doing the same to others that you are doing to yourself and they are doing to you: nurturing, supporting, and facilitating growth. It's a change and you're shaking up the town but it's that central message (that I perceive) that change and growth can be good. Your presence provides new meaning and new opportunities in the town.

I see the point of Stardew as a message about mindful engagement, community, and nurturing. As that being an inward process and am external process; about how that interacts, and how loving yourself helps you care for others and how loving others betters ourselves. I see the elements of the game serving that well... and I'll be really bold and say I see that at a meta level because of how we as players engage with the game.

Almost nobody who plays goes the Joja route. It's obviously bad, and not even THAT tempting. And it's very easy to be swayed into consciously refusing them by the messaging of the game even if we as players might have otherwise approached a video game that way. But what the game CAN'T sway us from is the implicit and internalized Joja-ness that makes us play the game sort of in the way you seem to be describing while consciously patting ourselves on the back by doing it "the right way."

When I started playing Stardew for the first time, it stressed me out and I stopped almost immediately.

"How do I do this optimally?" It was clear that you could and it was clear it would take work and it was clear my little ADHD brain wasn't going to achieve it, so I quit because ruthless optimization is taxing. And that's exactly the point. When I started playing again, I said to myself "this is supposed to be a game about REDUCING stress and by god I will play it that way." And I had more fun. I enjoyed myself. Because I played it in a way that fulfilled ME.

I'm still the way to that I am. I get antsy if I don't grow enough tulips because I'm courting three people and I want to be able to give them QUALITY gifts at EVERY opportunity damn it! I still plan what crops I'll buy and when to plant them to get money because otherwise I feel like a bit of a failure. I get into a frenzy devoting all raining evenings in Summer to trying to catch the rare fish I need for the community center because otherwise I have to wait a WHOLE year! I can't completely change that... but I try to set achievable goals. I try to check in with myself and ask what I actually want to do. I try to remind myself there's next year and the year after and the year after THAT. I try to remember that the parts of the game that are a struggle - and to a certain extent I'd argue the dissonance you're describing with the game - are INTERNAL. We're placing then on the game. We're choosing to be the farmer that looks at the farm and the town that way.

In all honesty? When I started approaching the game that way, I started to think the game was a good exercising in helping me scaffolding the kind of change in myself that the game is showing the player go through. When I do absurd things to milk efficiency and value out of my hobbies, it's because the process itself brings me joy. When I pivot to a new hyperfixation with a previous project half done, I remind myself I can come back to it later, even if it's years from now. When I get on my bullshit and get frantic because my 3D printer had downtime for 6 hours and if I'd just MANAGED IT better or PLANNED my prints-... When that happens, I do sometimes legitimately remind myself of how Stardew Valley was initially miserable because I brought a push for optimization to it that it never asked me to carry with me.

Joja never offered us a choice. Joja didn't care about us, our joy, or lives outside our use. It neither invited nor allowed. Stardew Valley - the in game location and the game itself - similarly does not invite, but it DOES allow. It allows us to play it more or less with whatever approach we want, and just as it doesn't advise us the best way to play it, it also doesn't warn us about the worst ways to play it. And I'd argue that, intentional or not, it makes an interesting point in doing so.

Making my own post to respond to this, because the point is pretty tangential:

When I first played stardew valley there was something I found really dissonant. You start in this shitty company that's implied to be cold and isolating and treats you as a a cog in a machine, and you inherit this idyllic and pastoral farm. So far so good. But then immediately you set about on trying to upgrade the farm and make it efficient and extract as much value from the land as quickly as you can. You clear cutt large sections of land and replace them with cash crops. You turn the land and the town into a well-oiled machine, just as your previous job had done to you. This process of upgrading and increasing efficiency is the central form of progress in the game.

Obviously the game never really addresses dissonance, but I really wish there was a game that did. I wish that the back half of the game turned into something like Factorio as you seek to automate more and more of your production so you can buy the late-game upgrades. Gradually these changes affect the town as well, people start to move away because of the smog, and you can buy up their land to have a place to put your new combine harvester.

One of the characters is a philosophy grad student studying Heidegger who's home for the summer, and she talks to the player about his theory of technology. Where modern technology is powerful enough that it's actually feasible to use of 100% of an existing resource, and so we start thinking about that resource in terms of how to most efficiently extract value from it. We objectify it, in a sense -- a river can't be a beautiful ribbon of blue stretching across the countryside, because we can only think of it in terms of "the thing that powers hydroelectric plant" and think about how to maximally utilize it. And the player slowly realizes that they've carried this mindset back with them from the city. That the dehumanizing aspects of their old life were never about the skyscrapers and asphalt, but about the way that their superiors viewed them as a resource, and the way that their environment facilitating efficient use of them as a resource. And that they've carried this attitude back to the idyllic country town where it's now spread like a virus, destroying all the things that drew them to the farm in the first place, and that they now live in a hell of their own making. They restore the community center, but they've destroyed the community it was made for. The only way to avoid this ending is to deliberately refuse to upgrade past a certain point. To accept that certain end-game content is forever out of reach, and to be okay with that.

now to be clear, I don't actually endorse all the politics implied by this. But I think it would be interesting for a game to actually grapple with the kind of pastoralism thats common in this genre. This flavor of pastoralism has fundamental tradeoffs against efficiency and reduction of labor. And I think if you want to endorse this ideal, that's a bullet you have to bite.

[theladyofbloodshed]

Admittedly, I sometimes wonder just... how the NC even works in canon. Sarah is probably not putting much thought behind it but it certainly is weird. They seem to be such a isolated and empty court as well, I wonder if there even are other noteworthy cities in the whole land besides Velaris and the Hewn City. What do you personally headcanon about it?

Anon I love these kinds of things, I absolutely love world building in my oc stuff! I liked CC because we had more development of the society but it is sadly lacking in ACOTAR.

This got really long so there it's under the read more...

The Night Court is a vast territory and we see NOTHING of it and it drives me insane. What are their main imports/exports? They eat a variety of food but we never hear of anyone being a farmer in the Night Court - however importing all of their crops and meat would be SO expensive. Who is growing their food? HOW are they growing it? If Winter is in perpetual winter, they can never grow crops surely? Summer is likely too hot. Only Spring/Autumn could be viable options to grow in the seasonal courts. Do Winter have to import all the food they have or do they live off smoked fish/meat?

I HC that Illyria, with its rugged land, is the NC's main source of farming. I imagine them to eat a lot of goat/sheep because these can be quite hardy or I imagine highland cows (if NC is supposed to map onto Scotland). In my mind, Illyrian food is also rich with spices and really good for the soul - despite Emerie saying spices are hard to come by. Sorry, Emerie, you're ruining my day dream.

Further, we've only met one blacksmith in ACOSF, but they have Keir's army plus Illyrians who all need armour/weapons so they must have a lot of blacksmiths/must have access to metal ore otherwise that's another massive cost.

Money! Is it the same currency across Prythian? How is Rhys so rich - are there variable tax levels throughout the NC e.g. less taxes paid by Illyrians as they have less money? Do they receive a veteran pension from the state for serving in the NC army? Is there a court where they mine for ore/precious gems? Is that why Beron is so rich?

Schools! Are there schools? Or just private tutors? Can all children attend school?

Politics! Who was the NC's emissary before Lucien/Nesta? Has it only ever been the IC that we know serving Rhys or were there ever others? Do they not hold regular meetings with Hewn City and Illyria like a small council? Can people mix across borders e.g. if you live on the border between Autumn/Summer do the people look like a blend of both because they mix? Can you change "allegiances" and live in another court if you're just an ordinary Joe?

Religion! They all seem to believe in the Mother/Cauldron as almost deities and there are temples (the one Gwyn resided in Sangravah) but are there temples in Velaris that people go and pray in? Is it like a religion or what?

Honestly, when I write OC stuff, I always try and weave these things into stories because I find it fascinating. Thank you for this question, it got me really excited ha!

[mack3030]

Things the Sims 4 Community Can Do About Paywalls...A Post...

[This is going to be a bit long, so you may want to save it and read it when you have time, or just...you know, buckle in.]

I thought I would ring in the new year by talking about something that I feel we as a community need to finally decide on. (It’s been debated since 2017 or so, and it’s now 2021...) I’d like, if possible, to try to suggest some real solutions and choices that we can make that will hopefully create a better and more honest community out of all of us.  Now I would like to start by making some postulates. In geometry, postulates are facts that do not need proven with a mathematical proof. They are assumed to be true. Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers would call these “Self-Evident Truths”. I would like to use these as a bit of a basis for my arguments. 

Truth: The Sims 4 has been enough of a cash cow for EA.  If you buy the base game ($40) plus all expansion packs (40 each x 10) + all game packs (20 each x 9) + all stuff packs (10 each x 17) you would come to a total of seven hundred and 90 dollars ($790) plus tax. This is of course, without sales, bundling, etc, which many people DO take advantage of, but STILL. That is a TON of money for EA’s pockets.  EA makes a majority of its money on the fact that the Sims 4 is an “incomplete game”. It “completes” the game further and further by adding more “expansions” to the game to the point that it seems almost useless to buy the base game alone without adding to it. 

Even with sales and other things, it’s easy to spend over $500 dollars on the sims 4 game + expansions. Still a lot of cash for a game that is years old. This is just money that is spent on the game that goes to EA. This does not account for:  * Money spent to buy a new computer because your old one wouldn’t run the sims.  * Money spent supporting CC artists who have donations open or early access.  * Money spent on access to sites that have ads/paywalls/exclusive sims 4 CC such as Leosims, etc. (Which are the problem, frankly)

We should be able to respect the fact that a majority of us paid a hefty amount for this game. It is unfair, and frankly greedy to REQUIRE people to pay MORE just to unlock or gain access to specific user created content. 

I am not talking about a VOLUNTARY support or donation because they like what you offer. I am talking about FORCING people to pay if they want to ever be able to use the CC or mod you offer. 

Now, the typical defense for this is “Well, I’m an artist! I spend time/effort/etc working hard on these meshes, the code, etc to make this content!”  Which leads me to point #2. 

Truth: Mods, CC, and other content for the Sims 4 are useless without the game. Once they are created/uploaded to the game, all copyright to those objects IMMEDIATELY transfers to EA. 

I teach art in a Missouri public school. Our state standards dictate that when art students are in middle school grades, they have to learn about copyright, fair use, and creative commons. While I am not a copyright lawyer, I have had to learn enough about this subject to teach it. So allow me to break down a few facts about copyright: 

First, when ya make it, ya own it. There’s not a process to apply for a copyright. The moment you create something that is 100% your own work, you hold the copyright to it. 

Second, when you make something that is created based off of or USING someone else’s intellectual property as a reference or resource it is a fan creation. In art, we call this “fanart”. It is not 100% your own work. Someone else’s intellectual property is involved. 

Fan creations always have tread a very thin and shadowy line when it comes to different companies and the legality of them. You can easily search google for various articles explaining it, but to summarize it in a short method: 

Most companies do not actively go after those who create fan creations unless they are making profits that could instead be going to the creators of the intellectual property. If the fan creation is discovered to be making profits and/or taking the intellectual property in a direction the creator does not approve of, they have legal options to pursue (court, cease and desist letters, etc). 

Third, Copyright can be transferred from person to person. In most cases this is done through a written document that both parties sign, however there IS an exception to this that EA uses to allow itself to transfer your copyrights to your content to them: 

EA’s agreement with you is non-exclusive, meaning that the moment you hit “agree” on the sims 4 terms and conditions, you have handed over your rights to any CC you create for the game. 

If you want to maintain full creative rights over the mesh/mods/etc you make then, you have to not make that content for the sims 4 and make your own platform to host it on. This is way easier said than done. 

Truth: There have been various examples in the past of CC creators who have stolen meshes, bases, bits/pieces of work, or “inspiration” for CC from other sites/companies, who have been called on it publicly. 

The most recent event concerning this was drama concerning itsbrandysims and their use of meshes from imvu/secondlife (you can see my opinion on the subject HERE), but there have been other documented cases. Leosims, for example, has been listed as an example of someone taking meshes from secondlife creators and reuploading them (when it was told to me, I was shown THIS thread as evidence). Another well known creator was accused by a former sims 4 cc creator (who now makes content from second life), and was called out in THIS post in 2019. 

The horrible part of this? Many of these creators are charging people (often at not so great rates as well), for STOLEN content. Content they don’t even own, that they ripped from another place. This should not be accepted by a community that loves a game as much as the Sims 4 community.  Truth: EA has provided a way for people to make money while not hiding content behind paywalls entirely, and the INTENT of this was to OFFSET COSTS.  Almost every post about content locked behind paywalls features this post found on the Sims Forum from 2017. In it, SimGuruDrake, who was the community manager at the time (she has since left the Sims 4 team for another job).  Most of you who have seen this discussion topic before know this post by heart, but I’d like to highlight one important aspect of it: 

One thing that is always important about communication is the intent behind it. The intent for people to be allowed to make patreons and allow early access wasn’t so people could just make money for themselves, the idea was to offset costs to buy programs to make the content. For example, a yearly subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud (which has photoshop, illustrator, etc) costs a couple hundred dollars US a year. If someone was using photoshop to help them create their CC in addition to blender or other free programs, EA/Maxis wanted to allow the creator to not have to pay for making the CC out of pocket.  Can EA/Maxis control what people spend the money they make off of patreon on? No. But it should be noted that the intent of this action was to help people pay for supplies for their hobby more than to make a business out of it. 

Onto the next truth! Truth: There is an image that disputes this post above, however the authenticity of it and timing of it are very disputed. 

This image is often thrown around by people who lock content behind paywalls, but I would like to take a second and try to provide an honest assessment of it.  First of all, I have a bit of a problem with the fact that the original person who “messaged” SimGuruDrake this question has not been identified. This image was not posted on the tumblr of a CC creator who claimed “Hey I reached out to a sims guru and this is the answer I got!” The main pages that have this image are either tweets from CC creators using it to defend their stance on paywalls (ex: here), or tumblrs/tweets “debunking it” (ex: here, here).  I even reverse image searched this image using google, and another platform and could not figure out where this originated from. Of course, I’m not an expert, but...still. 

The fact that the origin of this picture is unknown casts doubt on it. If it were a well known CC maker who is known for being honest, that’s one thing. But the fact that we don’t exactly know where it came from is suspicious. Because frankly, anyone with some decent editing ability could photoshop this. 

Here’s my imperfect edit, but I’m just a self-taught graphics nerd and I am not as dedicated at faking screenshots as some. (And the crap photo quality didn’t help.) Another common issue is that at the supposed “time” that this question was being asked, some state that SimsGuruDrake had already left the Sims 4 team. I will admit, this photo is within the correct timeline, as SimsGuruDrake did not officially depart the sims 4 team until February 2018. (There is a post on the sims forums that has a timestamp that confirms this.) But, if you were in the process of leaving your job within the next month (as a two week/30 day notice is common when leaving a job), would you REALLY be answering questions in DMs on twitter, or be focusing on packing up, and training your successor?  The last thing that really makes me doubt the validity of this picture is the fact that it’s not really easy to message the sims gurus on Twitter. This appears to be twitter from the screenshot (although there are some things that are a little out of place from the current UI): But when I attempt to direct message a sims guru I get this message: 

I even tried seeing if I could reach out via DM to Drake herself, (who now posts under a different twitter) to see if it was possible: 

Could the policies have changed since 2018? Possibly, but I feel that opening up direct messages is just asking for Sims 4 team members to get angry messages, so this could very well be a long running EA policy. I have also reached out to her via a twitter tag (as of 1/2/21), and will update y’all if I get a reply:

Okay, so now that we’ve gone through all of this, let’s talk about the last truth that’s really important:  Truth: Putting content behind paywalls has generally been considered disgusting by many in the sims 4 community, and TAKES AWAY the choice of people to support CC creators they love/appreciate WILLINGLY.  A few notable posts sharing the disgust with this practice can be found: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE). And these are just what I can find from a simple precursory search.

Okay, Brainiac. So what can we do to solve this problem? 

Well, there’s a few methods we can employ, and sadly, it’s going to take a bit of a commitment and concentrated effort from the community. 

Step #1: Make the COMMUNITY the VICTIM instead of EA. 

Now when I say this, I don’t mean we’re actually victims, but mean that instead of constantly saying things like “WHEN YOU DO THIS YOU VIOLATE EA’S TOU!”, thus making EA the “victim” of the crime. We change the dialog to saying “When you lock stuff behind paywalls, you cheat the sims 4 community and disrespect their choice to support you or not.”  Because let’s be honest. Maxis/EA really doesn’t give much of a care about if people aren’t following this rule. You can report people to the team, but as far as most people have seen, it doesn’t get anywhere. But if we make it where the community is the party being “wronged” it is much harder for those who have paywalls to not be scared. Because the community, in the end, has to be with them.  DepthofPixels had a really amazing post about this HERE. 

Step 2: Decide to not support anyone who puts their content behind exclusive paywalls and do not hesitate to spread the word about why you choose not to do so. 

By that, I mean

not paying any patreon accounts that don’t offer either their content 100% for free, or offer early access.

And sharing about why you choose to do that on your social media. Something I might suggest would be to make it a bit personal and share something like:

Instead of spending $15 a month to get exclusive content from Leosims (or any other patreon/paywall creator here) I’m spending that $15 supporting creator x, creator y, and creator z, who don’t put their work behind paywalls! 

Link their patrons, share why you like their content, and why you take the stance to make the community better. Make it a positive thing, praising the people who are doing RIGHT by the community. 

Yes, you may not get their content for a while (although there are some different places (

x

,

x

) to find them *cough*. But in the end, is it worth supporting someone’s content when they’re treating the community badly? 

Step 3: Report creators who actively steal content from IMVU/secondlife to those respective companies, and all others to EA. (Even though nothing may happen.)

Here’s the deal. When people steal from either of those sites, they are infringing on someone’s copyright, as well as Imvu/secondlife’s copyright as well. It’s not okay, and they should be held accountable for it. Here’s the LINK for submitting a ticket to Secondlife. I haven’t been able to find one for IMVU, but maybe someone else will find one. Let those companies know and allow them to handle those specific creators.  As to the other creators, EA may not handle them at the moment. But IF (and this is a wishful thinking “if”) there were suddenly a flood of messages about certain creators...? I think they might have to pay attention to some of those messages. There is an official report form, but it might even be worth tweeting to SleddingGuruFrost, who is the current community manager asking about their stance on paywalls.  And last but not least: 

Step 4: Make sure that those who are doing the right thing and not putting their work behind paywalls feel appreciated. Show them some love via a tumblr ask, or by tagging them on twitter, or by going up a tier on their patreon (or pledging for the first time). Celebrate these heroes who are creating content and not forcing it on us. 

Us asking for people to give us a choice to support them isn’t being greedy, or disrespecting their time. We just want transparency, and respect from those who create content for the game we love so much versus them treating us like we’re just a source of income. I know it might seem a bit hard to do this for some of you, and for some it may seem like I’m preaching to the choir, but we have to decide where we stand on this issue and stop letting those who abuse this system keep doing it. We can make a difference if we decide as a COMMUNITY to work together.

With commitment,  ~Sunny

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Saturday 15 December 1838

7 55

12 35

fine but foggy frosty morning F40 ½° in my study at 8 55, and went out – Robert Mann + 3 (i.e. Jack Green, William Lord and a Thomas -----) siding – they and the 2 York joiners all at work moving oak boards and planks into the joiners’ shop and into the kitchen court – breakfast at 9 ¼ in about ½ hour – A- had SW. – I had Mallinson (David, joiner) and gave him check for £150 in a/c of the Northgate hotel -  It seems Greenwood asked the Riders £12 at the fair and they offered £10 but G- would not listen to them at all, so they took another piece of ground and thus this and the whole fair was lost to Northgate – then had David Booth and gave him check in a/c for £50 – A- came – asked B-‘s valuation of Listers’ Landymere stone and told him (B-) to look at it and say how much less or more he thought it worth per foot than Bentleys’ – A- rode off before 12 took him with her to the Lane ends cottages – some little repairs wanted – to be let to our Listerwick colliers – A- tells me tonight B- thought them worth £4.15.0 a piece the tenant paying taxes – I out again at 11 and from then to 5 with the men siding –had John from 12 to 12 ½ while the other men dined and had had him great part of the morning and a little while afterwards in the afternoon – put the gin partly into the farmyard shade and partly into the coal shade and put old oak timber in the kitchen court – and 31 stone-posts in the farmyard and a pile of old coping stone (from the Wakefield road walling formally in front of the house) – A- sent for me at 5 – she had Bancroft – he could go twice a week to Huddersfield with engine-coal and with his one horse clear 20/. in the two days – thought he could do very well if he had 2 cows – A- very properly not choosing him to sell off – 2 good cows = £30 – A- anxious for his doing well, agreed to lend him £25 without interest and to be repaid by instalments as he could manage it by and by – he has between 7 and 8 tons of hay good and 5 or 6 hundred stone of stock of straw worth 6d. a stock – the poor man very grateful to A- he reckoned his horse to eat 1stock of hay a day, and his 2 cows to eat 1  stock a piece per day – staid talking to A- afterwards till 5 ¾ - dressed – dinner at 6 10 to near 8 – coffee – read the London and H-x papers – wrote all the above of today (downstairs) till now 11 ½ - fine day – F39° at 11 40 in mu study – came upstairs at 11 40 – Letter tonight from Lady Stuart de R- franked at Leeds – stood talking to A- in her room till 12 35

[jrcraddock828]

READ, WEEP, PRINT AND KEEP!

This should be on the front page of every newspaper.

Charley Reese's Final column!

A very interesting column. COMPLETELY NEUTRAL.

Be sure to Read the Poem at the end..

Charley Reese's final column for the Orlando Sentinel... He has been a journalist for 49 years. He is retiring and this is HIS LAST COLUMN.

Be sure to read the Tax List at the end.

This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. The article below is completely neutral, neither anti-republican or democrat. Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day. It's a short but good read. Worth the time. Worth remembering!

545 vs. 300,000,000 People

-By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.. ( The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.)

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House?( John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. ) If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to. [The House has passed a budget but the Senate has not approved a budget in over three years. The President's proposed budgets have gotten almost unanimous rejections in the Senate in that time. ]

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ..

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees... We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have read it... is up to you.

This might be funny if it weren't so true.

Be sure to read all the way to the end:

Tax his land,

Tax his bed,

Tax the table,

At which he's fed.

Tax his tractor,

Tax his mule,

Teach him taxes

Are the rule.

Tax his work,

Tax his pay,

He works for

peanuts anyway!

Tax his cow,

Tax his goat,

Tax his pants,

Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,

Tax his shirt,

Tax his work,

Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,

Tax his drink,

Tax him if he

Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,

Tax his beers,

If he cries

Tax his tears.

Tax his car,

Tax his gas,

Find other ways

To tax his ass.

Tax all he has

Then let him know

That you won't be done

Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers;

Then tax him some more,

Tax him till

He's good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,

Tax his grave,

Tax the sod in

Which he's laid...

Put these words

Upon his tomb,

'Taxes drove me

to my doom...'

When he's gone,

Do not relax,

Its time to apply

The inheritance tax.

Accounts Receivable Tax

Building Permit Tax

CDL license Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Tax

Excise Taxes

Federal Income Tax

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel Permit Tax

Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)

Gross Receipts Tax

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax

Inventory Tax

IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Luxury Taxes

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Personal Property Tax

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Service Charge Tax

Social Security Tax

Road Usage Tax

Recreational Vehicle Tax

Sales Tax

School Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone Federal Excise Tax

Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax

Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes

Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax

Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax

Telephone State and Local Tax

Telephone Usage Charge Tax

Utility Taxes

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the heck happened? Can you spell 'politicians?'

I hope this goes around THE USA at least 545 times!!! YOU can help it get there!!!

GO AHEAD. . . BE AN AMERICAN!!!

SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ant, Uber, and the true nature of money

The US election news has largely overshadowed a seismic moment in global finance: Ant, a fintech company that spun out of Alibaba/Alipay, was scheduled to have the world's largest IPO, topping even Aramco, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.

Then Chinese regulators canceled it.

As Yves Smith writes in her excellent Naked Capitalism breakdown, the consensus narrative on this is capricious Chinese regulators changed their minds and jerked the rug out from under Ali's billionaire owner Jack Ma.

The reality is a lot chewier.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/11/china-takes-step-against-securitization-consumer-borrowing-with-suspension-of-ant-ipo.html

To understand it, you need to understand the difference between the Chinese and American "money story." In the US, there is widespread, unquestioning faith in the fairytale that money predates the state and is separate from it.

In this story, people come together to trade but are plagued by disparate goods: if I want to pay for your chickens with a cow, how do you make change? They spontaneously decide that something (gold?) is money and price their cows and chicks in it.

Then, governments come along tax our gold away, and then to add insult to injury, governments abandon gold and insist that paper is as good as gold, print too much of it and crash the economy!

This probably sounds familiar to you, but it's just not true.

The actual historical reality, supported by history, archaeology and anthropology, is that governments created money by creating tax. The first "money" was the Babylonian ledgers that recorded how much of their crops farmers owed to the state and their creditors.

Money took a leap forward with imperial conquest: emperors solved the logistical problem of feeding and billeting their occupying soldiers by charging the occupied a tax that had to be paid for in coins stamped with the emperor's head.

They paid the soldiers in these coins, and demanded that their conquered populations somehow get the coins in order to pay their tax, with violent consequences if the tax wasn't paid. So the people sold food and other necessities to soldiers to get the coins.

Money, in other words, is how states provision themselves, and it derives its value from the fact that you have to pay your taxes in it. Governments spend money into existence by buying labor and goods from the public, and then tax it out of existence once a year.

The money the government spends, but does not tax, is the public's money - the money left over for us to transact. All the money in circulation is the sum total of all the money the government spent but didn't tax - that is, the government's deficit is the public's asset.

When governments run "balanced budgets" (or budget surpluses), they remove money from the economy, leaving the public with less to spend. That can be a good thing - a way to fight inflation, which is when too much money chases too few assets.

Low government spending slows growth by taking away the private sector's ability to spend. When the private sector is at full employment, when it is buying all the stuff that's for sale, you need to do something to keep inflation at bay.

During WWII, the USG competed with the private sector for stuff and labor. Uncle Sam spent lots of new money into existence, paying people to build munitions - but then convinced people to buy war bonds, burying that new money for years to come.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/taxes-for-revenue-are-obsolete.html

But when governments run so lean that there isn't enough money in the economy for the private sector to buy the stuff it needs, it seeks out other forms of money, like bank loans (which generate interest income for shareholders - one reason the market likes austerity).

In theory, bank lending is tightly regulated. Banks are the government's fiscal agents, creatures of the state, only able to trade because of a government charter. But when there isn't enough money in the system, unregulated banks spring into existence.

Another word for "unregulated bank" is "fintech" (h/t Riley Quinn).

And now we're back to China and the money story. Chinese finance regulators have always treated money as a public utility, to be spent or withdrawn to accomplish public purposes.

During the country's rapid industrialization, regulators loosened the flow of money to allow for rapid capacity-building, directing the country's productive capacity to building factories that would multiply that capacity.

But when they shut off the spigot and told factory owners that their future growth would come from making and selling things, the wealthy rebelled and sought out money from unlicensed banks or banks that were willing to break the rules.

This led to a string of subprime debt crises over the past five years, as regulators crushed these wildcat money-creators as fast as they popped up.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2016-02-17/china-s-600-billion-subprime-crisis-is-already-here

China's 1% fought back. They emigrated:

https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/08/rich-chinese-flee/

They used cryptocurrency (aka fintech) to evade capital controls, inflating the Bitcoin price-bubble and the Vancouver/Sydney/etc real-estate price bubble as they laundered their money and stashed it in safe-deposit boxes in the sky:

https://www.ft.com/content/bad16a88-d6fd-11e6-944b-e7eb37a6aa8e

As China's shadow economy ballooned it also grew in criminality. There was the wave of Chinese debt-kidnappings, which became so widespread that hostage-taking was described as "China's small claims court."

https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/08/chinas-police-think-hostages-arent-their-problem/

No wonder regulators fought back.

China's regulators didn't win a decisive victory, but they retained enormous control over their money-supply, and that REALLY paid off when the pandemic hit and they suspended all debts, rents, and taxes and mothballed the entire productive economy.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/01/cant-pay-wont-pay/#jubilee-now

Contrast with the US where the finance sector is an industry, not a public utility. Finance flexed its political muscle and diverted nearly the whole stimulus to itself, then crushed the productive economy by demanding debt service and rents.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/09/michael-hudson-how-an-act-of-god-pandemic-is-destroying-the-west-the-u-s-is-saving-the-financial-sector-not-the-economy.html

The ability to use finance as a utility is one of China's crucial assets, and it defends that asset ferociously. And THAT'S why the Ant IPO got killed. Ant's major source of income is short-term, high-interest lending, what Chinese regulators call "pawnbrokering."

China's pawnbrokers are a $43B shadow banking sector, and the country's regulators have been cracking down on them for the past year.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-12/china-is-said-to-scrutinize-43-billion-pawn-shop-lending-boom

$43B is a drop in the bucket of China's shadow economy (valued at $9T!), but it has real metastatic potential.

Ant's innovation is to fintechify the pawnbroker industry, by tying it to apps (on the front end) and to a US-style debt-brokerage (on the back end).

IOW: Ant's business model is that desperate people use an app to request and quickly receive high-risk, high-interest loans.

Then Ant sells the loans to "investors" (AKA "securitization"). Converting debts into income streams for third parties is the true basis of the finance industry. It's the means by which socially useless intermediaries extract ever-mounting rents from the productive economy.

And as Smith writes in her breakdown, the fact that Chinese finance regulators weren't going to let Ant explode his mass-scale, app-based payday-lending pawnbrokerage is not a surprise. They've been telling Jack Ma this for MONTHS, publicly and privately.

Ma thought he could simply bull his way past the Chinese regulators - that because he runs Alibaba and its subsidiaries, that they would defer to him. But the whole point of a finance regulator is NOT to let the finance sector write its own rules.

That's because bankers will cheerfully set the whole economy on fire to turn a buck (see, e.g., America).

Ant was on track for the largest IPO in world history due to investors' appetite for converting Chinese money from a public utility to a private enrichment vehicle.

So yeah, you're goddamned right the Chinese regulator wasn't going to let him do it. Their whole JOB is to not let him do it.

If you read this far, you may be asking yourself why, if governments don't need taxes to fund programs, they bother to tax at all?

There are two important reasons. The first is to fight inflation, by removing existing money from circulation so that when the government spends new money into existence to pay for the things it needs, that money isn't bidding against the existing supply.

But the other reason is to deprive the wealthy of the power that money brings, lest they use that power to pervert policy. Jack Ma's billions are what got him to the brink of a disastrous IPO for his unregulated bank.

And the US election demonstrates just how badly public policy fares when concentrated money is brought to bear on it for parochial purposes. Take Prop 22, the California ballot initiative to allow Uber and Lyft to misclassify their employees as independent contractors.

No on Prop 22 is a no-brainer. Vast numbers of gig workers are full-time employees, not contractors, and Lyft and Uber and other gig economy companies have pioneered labor misclassification as a tactic for paying literal starvation wages.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/14/final_ver2/#prop-22

And yet, Prop 22 passed, thanks to the largest-ever spending on any ballot initiative in California history: $205 million ($628,854/day!), spent pn 19 PR firms (including Big Tobacco's cancer-denial specialists).

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/11/proposition-22-california-uber-lyft-gig-employee/

The spend included a bribe to the NAACP Chair's consultancy that made sub-minimum wage jobs with no benefits for people of color (the majority of gig workers) seem like a blow for racial justice.

All told, Uber/Lyft's campaign outspent 49 out of 53 CA House races COMBINED.

And it was a bargain. Lyft and Uber have stolen $413m from California's employment insurance fund since 2014 - and that's just one cost they ducked through this victory. Far more important are the savings they'll realize on worker safety and job-related death claims.

The gig economy companies are the epitome of the financial economy destroying the productive economy. None of these companies turn a profit, after all - all they do is destroy actual, profitable businesses.

Currently the entire restaurant sector is being laid to waste by Postmates and Uber Eats (even as both lose vast sums):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/19/we-are-beautiful/#man-in-the-middle

And the workers who lost out with Prop 22 are being "chickenized" - having all the risk of operating a business shifted onto their side of the ledger:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poesy-the-monster-slayer/#stay-on-target

(No surprise, one of Prop 22's signature achievements was denying workers the right to unionize).

The desperation of chickenized workers is downright dystopian:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/02/free-steven-donziger/#phone-trees

and chickenization (not automation) is the major cause of falling wages:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/17/on-face-interaction/#zombie-robots

Lyft, Uber, Postmates, and the whole gamut of gig economy companies are all haemorrhaging money. Uber alone lost $4.7B in the first half of 2020. That's how you can tell they aren't tech companies: tech companies profited during the pandemic.

Gig-economy companies aren't part of the productive economy - they're part of the finance economy. They rely on investors, not profits from delighted customers, to stay afloat. They make nothing. They destroy everything: workers' lives, productive businesses.

They will never be profitable. Ever.

Take Uber. The company only exists because the Saudi royals amassed so much money that they could bend reality. The "Saudi Vision 2030" plan calls for the creation of new sources of post-oil wealth.

To that end, the Saudis have poured money into the Softbank VC fund, which then supported global-scale, money-losing, predatory businesses in the hopes of securing a monopoly (or, failing that, unloading the company onto dazzled suckers).

When the company IPOed last year, it had already lost $10b. It loses $0.41 on every dollar you spend on your fare. And yet, the Saudis got away clean, off the backs of investors who assumed that a pile of shit this big must have a pony under it somewhere.

Some believed the company's lies about the imminence of self-driving cars. Uber is not going to make a self-driving car.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/30/death-to-all-monopoly/#pogo-stick-problem

Some believed the company's lies about profitability via growth. It can't grow to profitability. By its own disclosures, profitability depends on every public transit system in the world shutting down and being replaced by Ubers. #Nagahappen.

https://48hills.org/2019/05/ubers-plans-include-attacking-public-transit/

The Saudi strategy - and its punishing, economy-destroying reality-distortions - are exemplary of what happens when government let too much money accumulate in unaccountable, private hands. Prop 22 will kill and starve workers, and the public will pick up the pieces.

The businesses that profit from these deaths and immiseration will fail anyway, but not before their major backers and top execs make hundreds of millions or billions.

Recall: the Ant IPO was set to smash the existing record: Saudi Aramco (AKA the money behind Uber).

Meanwhile, all the blood and treasure squandered on Prop 22 - the $205m spent on the Yes side, the $20 spent by unions on the No side - won't save Uber or other gig economy companies.

Not only are they bleeding money, but as Edward Ongweso Jr explains, "Uber is losing legal challenges in France, Britain, Canada, Italy," turning drivers into employees or allowing "lawsuits reclassifying them as such."

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3annmb/proposition-22-passes-in-california-but-uber-and-lyft-are-only-delaying-the-inevitable

And other US states - NY, MA, NJ - are working to end the misclassification of Uber drivers and other gig workers.

Permitting Uber and other gig economy companies to flout the law did not make the economy better. All it did was transfer more money to the wealthy.

And the money they wealthy amass is converted to political power, usurping money's role as a public utility and converting it to a means to seek private gains at public expense.

[valiantarcher]

So, there is a fairy/folk tale in a book (info at bottom) that my sisters and I grew up with, but we haven’t been able to find it anywhere else*. @fictionadventurer was interested in hearing about it, so here goes my paraphrase of Staver and His Wife Vassilissa (I mistakenly remembered this being called Vassilissa the Bold - an easy mistake, I think you will agree).

The Grand Duke of Kiev is having a wonderful feast for his men and for the many heroes in the land; about halfway through, he realises he’s forgotten one. “Oh, well, better late than never,” he thinks and sends for a young hero named Staver to come and join them. Staver answers this delinquent invitation and arrives without any sign of ill will at being forgotten. As the feast continues, the men get to boasting and talking about their wealth and the wonderful things they have. Staver remarks offhand to his neighbor that these men are braggarts and, besides, he beats anyone else because he has more riches, a larger castle, and a treasure above all other treasures - his wife, Vassilissa. He says Vassilissa is beautiful, a wonderful household manager, and also excellent in fighting, archery, etc. The Duke hears of the remark and decides he doesn’t like this talk; he throws Staver into his dungeon at the end of the feast (first forgotten, now imprisoned - presumably not a banner day for Staver). He then sends his men to pillage Staver’s castle and land, and bring Vassilissa back to the court.

One of the feasting heroes does the decent thing and rides ahead to Vassilissa before the Duke’s men do; he warns Vassilissa of the Duke’s decision and tells her to flee. However, she is not to be cowed - and, besides, her husband is in prison. So, she dresses up like a man, arms herself (the story specifically notes that her quiver is full of arrows that she sharpened herself), saddles up, and rides TOWARD the Duke with a dozen of her men. When she meets them, she introduces herself as Vassili, an emissary of the Khan on his way to remind the Duke that he owes the Khan twelve years’ worth of tribute. She then asks them who they are and, when they tell her what they’re doing, tells them they’re too late - Vassilissa was warned and has fled, leaving the castle empty. At this point, the men aren’t keen to go chase Vassilissa down, so they ride back to the Duke with the news that the Khan’s emissary is coming to collect all the backtaxes. The Duke and Duchess are none too pleased about either piece of news, but what can you do?

Vassilissa arrives and introduces herself as the Khan’s emissary, Vassili. The Duke acts like a gracious host, but as soon as she’s out of the way, the Duchess grabs him and says this is no emissary - this is Vassilissa, Staver’s wife; she is too graceful and sits like a woman does, not like a man. The Duke is delighted at the two-fold notion of capturing Vassilissa and not having to pay his taxes. He therefore arranges a wrestling match - Vassili versus seven of his best wrestlers, one after the other. Vassilissa agrees and easily defeats three of her opponents in short order - the rest run away before they can be beaten up by her. The Duke is furious and tells his wife not to be silly, there’s no way this is a woman. The Duke’s wife, however, continues to insist the emissary is Vassilissa in disguise - she matches all the qualities of beauty that Staver said she had! The Duke gives in and says he’ll try another test.

The Duke then arranges an archery contest for the next day. Vassilissa - no doubt having a field day - not only hits the target (a giant oak), but shatters it into pieces with the force of her arrow. The Duke is furious and tells his wife there’s ABSOLUTELY no way Vassili is a woman. The Duke then decides to challenge Vassili to a chess match to test his cunning; Vassilissa beats him at three games easily.

Vasillissa then sits back and announces that this is enough socializing - she didn’t come for games and competitions, but for the Khan’s tribute. He wants them pronto and so does she - all two hundred forty thousand gold rings of them. The Duke complains, “It’s been a bad year. Have you seen the economy around here? I don’t make anything in taxes anymore.” (Obviously he had to charge admission to that feast the other day then.) He even jokes that Vassili should take himself and the Duchess back as tribute. “Why? What are you good for?” Vassillissa demands. “If you’re all out of gold rings, at least offer something USEFUL.”

“Well, what would you suggest?” the Duke says. “Surely there’s SOMETHING that will appease the Khan.”

“Well, as a matter of fact, there might be something,” Vassili says. “The Khan has been wanting an excellent gusla player for quite some time - do you happen to have one of those?” The Duke is delighted, because he does - in fact, he’s in his dungeon at this very minute. The Duke brings out Staver and commands that he play for the Khan’s emissary; if he likes him, he can go be the Khan’s slave, and isn’t that better than being in prison? Staver keeps a poker face and plays the gusla beautifully. Vassili admits grudgingly that he is a good gusla player and he seems to be better company than the Duke and Duchess and might even be more valuable than those two hundred forty thousand gold rings, so she’ll take him. The Duke gratefully releases him and rejoices that he has saved all his gold rings - “What luck I just happened to have Staver in my dungeon! This calls for a celebration! I know! We’ll have another feast!” And so Vassilissa returns home with her husband and her men and they presumably lived happily ever after (no word on if the Duke ever figured it out or if the Khan’s REAL tax collector ever showed up).

---

The book this story was in is an anthology that has long since lost its cover and front pages, but a little online sleuthing indicates it is The Children’s Treasury: Best Loved Stories and Poems from Around the World, edited by Paula S. Goepfort (published by Discovery Books in Toronto, 1987). The original story is Russian and came from Hans Baumann’s Hero Legends of the World; the editor notes that it should’ve been called Vassilissa and Her Husband Staver.

Also, the illustrator either apparently didn’t read the story or didn’t pay much attention to the details - Vassilissa doesn’t have the “sable eyebrows” Staver proclaimed about, and Staver appears to be playing a zither instead of a gusla - granted, this was pre-internet, and I wasn’t sure what a gusla was until I looked it up.

*Until today when my sister found a copy of the story under the title Vassilisa the Wise (retold by Josepha Sherman, published 1988 and republished 1991) for 10 cents; a number of the details are different but the substance is the same. It is not to be confused with the more common story of Vasilisa the Wise which is also known as The Frog Tsarevena. Sherman says a gusla is like a zither, but the illustrator shows what appears to be a lute, maybe - so, there’s still some confusion on the matter.