#the party & Steve are famous for making content together regularly

[steviesbicrisis]

Dustin had been waiting this moment for months.

Mind you, Dustin isn’t one to bring up his personal life to the public at any chance he gets, but a part of him really wants everyone to know his role in one of the most important up-coming weddings of the year.

“So, I’ve heard you had a big role in all of this, what happened?” The host asks, on the edge of his seat.

“Well, I know Eddie cause we’ve done some livestreams together, we’ve met a couple of times and he seemed cool. And I know Steve cause, other than working together, he’s basically a brother to me, you know-” the audience interrupts him with a big ‘aaaaw’ sound and loud clapping.

“I think you misunderstood me, he’s the type of older brother who is no fun and makes you wish either of you was adopted.”

The audience laughs.

“Anyways, we were all at a party and I introduced them and Eddie was, you know, immediately obsessed with Steve. But Steve was engaged at the time,” Dustin decides to not dwell on this part of the story, it was a very tough time for Steve and some of it was public enough to make it worse. Dustin is just happy that he can talk about Steve’s ex-fiancé in the past tense.

“Time goes on, and as soon as the news of Steve being single again hits the public, I get a call from one begging Eddie Munson-” he wasn’t really begging but Dustin wants to sell the story “-asking about Steve once again. Like, how was he? Was he fine? Ready to meet other people? and I was like 'I don't know dude, I don't ask him about his dating prospects daily' and that's when he asked for Steve's number."

Dustin takes a small pause before going into the next part of the story "Obviously I don't go around giving people Steve's number, and I get asked a lot," the audience laughs again, "so I do the decent thing and ask Steve can I give Eddie your number? is it okay?

And Steve goes all into this theatrical performance Oi, no, mamma mia," Dustin goes strong with the Italian accent "All these men, che palle, they never leave me alone. Oddio-”

The host interrupts him “wait, does Steve have this strong Italian accent?”

“Of course not, he was born in Indiana, I’m trying to sell the story man!” Dustin pretends to be annoyed and the host goes along with it, making the audience laugh and cheer.

“Anyways, he was trying to say no but clearly meant yes. So I gave Eddie the number and whatever Eddie did with it, must’ve been the right call.”

A photo of Steve’s engagement announcement appears behind them right after: Steve and Eddie’s hands, finger intertwined and matching rings.

“Clearly he did” the host agrees after the clapping and cheering from the audience dies down.

“And what about wedding gifts? Are you doing something with the whole group? Or is it a solo thing?” The host inquires.

“Uh, I gave Steve a husband?? He should be giving me gifts”.

———

Predictably, the interview goes viral.

A few days later, Dustin comes back home to find a gift waiting for him.

It’s two VIP tickets for one of Eddie’s shows under his and Suzie’s name (a YouTuber friend Dustin didn’t have the courage to ask out, yet).

The note attached to the box is simple and very clear.

“Thank you, little shit. Now that we are even, the wedding gift is expected or you’ll be grounded.

See you at the wedding

S&E”

Despite being a twenty something, successful and independent since he was 17, Dustin takes the threat very seriously.

[mytwinklelights]

A Reunion - Part 1 | Peter Parker x Stark! GN Reader

A/N: Remember over a month ago when I wrote this preview and didn’t post again? Oops sorry, I had to take a little break from tumblr because I was reading way too much fanfic. But now I’m back, just to post, still no reading for a while! Umm but yeah, here’s the first part! I can’t guarantee when part 2 will be posted but it’ll definitely be within the next 2 weeks! I hope you like it, please let message me with any feedback because I need validation to stay motivated lol

Summary: Y/N is an Avenger, the youngest Avenger. Then, Peter Parker comes along and they’re happy to finally have someone their age to hang out with, even if it was the boy they spent their senior year of high school crushing over.

Content Warnings: I don’t think there are any - let me know if I missed any though!

Genres: Friends to lovers, Stark! Reader, Frequent cameos from Avengers and them being cute, Slow burn, Fluff, Angst

Word Count: 2019

                                                             ----

“Alright gang.” Tony begins, standing in front of all the Avengers at the end of a large oval table in the conference room.

“I’m sure you’ve seen these ‘viral videos’ of this Spider-Boy kid swinging around the city and being a friendly neighbourhood vigilante. Well, Happy and I have managed to track him down and he’s agreed to join the team”

“Viral videos of superheroes?” Steve exclaims, looking at Tony whilst tilting his head and looking genuinely exhausted. “I’m still catching up on these keyboard cats and kids biting fingers”.

I giggle. Having Steve around was just the same as having an uncle you saw once the year who lived of the grid. He was extremely sweet, but utterly clueless to anything other than his job. But I mean, that job does include fighting evil aliens.

“Anyway…” Tony continues as the other Avengers chuckles die down after Steve’s outcry “he arrived not too long ago. Happy is next door giving him all the T&Qs and they should be done now. Let me just check and I’ll introduce you all.” Tony then leaves the room, and the other Avengers start to talk among themselves.

I pull out my phone and type ‘NYC spider boy’ into YouTube clicking on the second search result with 20 million views. I have seen this video before as my friend Michael sent it to me around a week ago.

“Do you think there are many other super kids wandering around the city?” Sam asks, whilst looking at the video of my shoulder. Currently the hero is stopping a city bus from off-roading into some confused tourists by building up a wall with his web.

“I doubt it, I mean I guess he’s the only one going viral” I answer, moving the angle of my phone so the others who have gathered around me can see “but it would be cool to be able to meet some people my age who do what I do, no offence guys”

They all laugh. Being the youngest Avenger and hanging out with 30+ year olds all the time can be kind of isolating, but it’s like having a super close family. A family who also happen to be in life and death situations regularly together. But that’s a great bonding experience I would say.

“Guys, this is Peter, the Spider-Boy” Tony draws our attention away from my phone to the door where he has just entered.

“Spider-Man” Peter mutters as a lame attempt to correct him.

“Peter?” I question and the boy stood in front of me was not who I expected. I didn’t expect the masked vigilante swinging through New York to be someone that I knew.

“Y/N?” He responds, looking even more confused than I am “What are you doing here?”

-

“So Tony Stark is your dad?” Peter asks.

After seeing a guy from your school who you shared a chemistry class with last year, walking into a super-secret meeting for superheroes where he will be now joining your team. It is understandable that Peter and I were now talking this out to figure out how this state could be so small.

“Yep” I answer. We were sat next to each other on bar stools at the kitchen island. Wanda made some of her famous fruit smoothies for us and we were both stirring them around with our straws whilst conversing alone in the main living space.

“But your last name isn’t Stark, or Potts?” He continues, genuinely really confused about this whole situation.

“Yeah, well you can’t have the daughter of a billionaire and superhero couple walking around New York City alone, going to a normal school, having normal hobbies. It’s like asking for me to be taken hostage. So, I don’t have either of their last names and the general public doesn’t know I exist. It’s for my safety” I continue, reciting this memorised answer I’ve had to say to multiple people once they find out my existence.

Peter nodded as if he was understanding everything, he probably was, but I guess this wasn’t the conversation he planned to have today.

“And you’re the great Spider-Man” I continued, wanting the change the subject from me to him. “How did that happen? Wait… were you Spider-Man when you sat behind me in Chem last year?”

He began to explain to me the story, it happened to him on our school trip to OSCORP we took last year for our Chem class that happened just before the end of the semester. Something about a radioactive spider. It was strange, kind of the weirdest superhero transformation story I’ve heard. And I’ve heard quite a few.

My story was nowhere near as interesting. I guess having superhero parents who were always around weird alien technology and contaminated substances led to some weird epigenetic alterations of their reproductive cells and then when they had me, I could turn invisible.

They didn’t know at first, I was seemingly a normal baby. Then at my 2nd birthday party when they surprised me with a freaky clown, I was so scared that my body just decided to turn invisible. They weren’t expecting it, the clown definitely wasn’t expecting it and they had to cover up with a very convincing lie.

From then, whenever I was embarrassed, scared or essentially in a situation where I wanted to disappear. I did. Literally. It wasn’t entirely effective though as even though my body tuned invisible, the clothes I was wearing didn’t. I spent the majority of my preteen years of being a walking hoodie and jeans with no head or hands protruding from the gaps. For my 13th birthday Bruce and I got to work on a suit which responds to the activity of my skin cells, when I was invisible, my suit was invisible. It made it a lot more effective for me to actually be invisible when I turned but it also meant my dad let me start training to become an Avenger.

Training was fun, I worked with Nat a lot in our gym in order to become an efficient fighter. ‘Just because people couldn’t see me, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t know how to serve a mean right hook’ she always said. I also spent a lot of time with Wanda, trying to manage my powers. Now I am able to actually turn invisible and visible again on demand. And it only takes extreme embarrassment now to turn me invisible against my will, which is great because mum and dad finally let me, after my years of begging, attend Midtown High and stop being home school. This is where I met Peter last year and now I’m at Columbia studying genetics and engineering. A double major, I know but when you’re around the top geniuses in the world everyday, there is no such thing as too much learning.

“So, I guess we’re the only Midtown Alumni to have these crazy powers huh?” Peter finishes. After a long ramble about his becoming a superhero story. I guess he wanted to ease the tension after I couldn’t really think of what to say after “that’s super cool”. It wasn’t like I wasn’t interested, I really was, but when I wanted to have another person my age to hang out with, I didn’t expect it to be the boy I spent my senior year of high school obsessing over. I had turned shy, like really shy, like my normal levels of shy times 50. I couldn’t think of what to say.

“Sorry, if that story was too long and boring, I’ve only gotten to tell it to one person before, my best friend Ned so I was kind of excited to be able to tell it again.”

“No, it wasn’t boring, it was genuinely really cool!” I say a little too loudly and enthusiastically. I cringe at my tone of voice and speak normally again as I continue “It’s just I didn’t really expect the new Avengers recruit to be you, you know, like someone I know. It’s just kind of weird, but nice? I don’t know, now I’m rambling”

Peter chuckles.

“Umm, so are you going to be staying with us whilst you train or are you going back to Queens?” I ask, hoping this new question will miraculously erase Peter’s memory of what I last said.

“A bit of both, my Aunt is back in queens and I don’t want to leave her completely alone, but this upstate facility is a little too far for an everyday commute. I’m here just for today but once I start training on Monday, I think I might stay for the whole week.”

“Well, I can give you the tour! Since you’ll be staying with us soon, I guess you’ll want to know where everything is!” I say whilst jumping of my bar stool and putting my half full smoothie cup in the fridge. I noticed peter has just finished his, so I grab the glass and put it in the dishwasher for him. He thanks me as I do so.

“So this is the kitchen, where we make our food, different from the kitchen where the chefs make our food for occasions, charity events blah blah blah. And also, this seating area here is kind of the main seating area where we’ll sit throughout the day. Lots of sofas because there are lots of us and this is Bucky’s armchair. Don’t ever sit in Bucky’s armchair.” I say, stopping behind the chair and resting my hand on the headrest.

“Bucky, scary guy with the metal arm right?” Peter questions whilst following me at a slight distance around the room as I show him around. I nod. “Yeah, don’t worry, I won’t be sitting in his chair” he laughs.

I continue to show him the rest of the complex, the gym, the labs and finish up on the floor with all our rooms.

“I’m not sure which one of these rooms will be yours because we have a couple spare ones, but they all have the same layout. Look I’ll show you mine” I walk into my room, then hold the door open for Peter so he can follow me in.

“Uh, so this is my room. Obviously, yours won’t be decorated like mine but It’ll be the same size and have an en-suite attached with a full shower and tub and stuff. You know, the basics” I say, whilst sitting on the edge of my bed.

“I like your room, it’s cosy” he adds whilst looking around and then heading for the bookshelf as soon as he spots it.

“Ah thanks, I mean it’s cool, bigger than when we were in the tower in the city so I can’t complain” I say whilst also looking around. What is it about someone else being in your room that makes you see it with fresh eyes and make you super self-conscious that there is going to be a rogue piece of underwear on the floor? Even though I know I tidied my room this morning.

“Holy crap, Vision you scared the life out of me” I say on an exhale whilst holding my hand to my chest after the large gasp I just made as he enters the room, through the wall.

“Sorry, but your door is open” He continues, “Mr. Stark has told me that your car is here to take you back home Mr. Parker. If you would just follow me, I can lead you there” Vision continues, as if him just floating through my bedroom wall and speaking to the boy from my chemistry class now turned superhero was a normal thing to happen on a Thursday evening.

“Oh… thanks Vision” Peter says with some hesitancy, you can see that this is a weird circumstance for him too. “Well, I’ll see you on Monday then” he says smiling at me and walking towards the door. Which vision doesn’t use to exit.

“Yeah, see you then” I smile as he closes the door and I’m left in my room listening to him shuffling down the corridor.

Part 2

[theconservativebrief]

Amid the sprawling scandal over Russian interference with the 2016 election, there’s long been an odd subplot over Russian ties to, of all groups, the National Rifle Association — ties that, according to McClatchy, have been investigated by the FBI.

Now the arrest of 29-year-old Russian national Maria Butina on charges of conspiracy and acting as an agent of a foreign government has put those questions about the famous gun rights group on center stage.

But despite the new indictment (which is not part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe), the full extent of what happened here remains mysterious.

It’s long been known that Butina and Russian central bank official Alexander Torshin have spent years cozying up to the NRA. For instance, they’ve hosted NRA bigwigs in Moscow, and Butina was a conspicuous fixture on the conservative conference circuit.

Now, the government alleges that Butina was carrying out a plan to influence American politics on behalf of a Russian government official (Torshin). The plan, they say, was to try to influence the Republican Party to be friendlier to Russia, by way of the NRA. But Butina didn’t inform the US government she was acting as a foreign agent on American soil, which would be illegal.

Much of Butina’s alleged conduct seems to have involved socializing and attending US political events, which may not seem all that dastardly. But we’ve gotten hints that there’s much more to come. On Wednesday, the government alleged for the first time that Butina used sex — she dated and lived with a much older Republican political consultant, and purportedly offered another person “sex in exchange for a position with a special interest organization.”

There are also Butina’s publicly known activities during the 2016 campaign, which aren’t mentioned in charging documents. She asked Donald Trump a question about Russian sanctions at a public event, met Donald Trump Jr. with Torshin at an NRA dinner, and reportedly bragged that she helped the Trump campaign communicate with Russia.

Meanwhile, her boss, Torshin, has reportedly been linked to money laundering by Spanish authorities. And separately from that, McClatchy has reported that the FBI is investigating whether Torshin “illegally funneled money” into the NRA that was then spent to help Trump win — something that would be a major scandal implicating the group if it did happen (the NRA denies it).

So … there are a lot of questions here.

Alexander Torshin (center), between the then-speaker of Russia’s State Duma and Vladimir Putin, in 2011. Konstantin Zavrazhin/Getty Images

Let’s start with Butina’s boss, Alexander Torshin. He’s a major player in Russian politics. For years, he served in the upper house of Russia’s parliament, and since 2015, he’s been a deputy governor at the Russian central bank. Torshin is also a longtime gun enthusiast and supporter of gun rights — but some have alleged that he has more unsavory connections, too.

A report by Spanish investigators reportedly links Torshin to a Russian organized crime syndicate, the Taganskaya, and claims he’s involved in money laundering. In fact, Spanish authorities planned to arrest him when he was scheduled to fly into the Mallorca airport in 2013, but he didn’t show up. In April of this year, the US Treasury Department put Torshin on a list of sanctioned Russian officials and oligarchs.

Then there’s Maria (sometimes spelled “Mariia”) Butina, who’s said she’s originally from Siberia. She says she moved to Moscow around 2010 in hopes of starting a furniture business, and then an advertising agency. The exact sequence of events is unclear, but at some point soon afterward, two things happened: She founded a Russian gun rights group called Right to Bear Arms, and she started working for Alexander Torshin as his special assistant. (It’s unclear whether the group was a front all along.)

Citing a shared interest in gun rights, Torshin and Butina were introduced to top NRA officials, began regularly attending the NRA’s conventions in the United States, and became “life members” of the group. They also began to reciprocate with their own invitations to NRA bigwigs to visit Moscow for Right to Bear Arms events — the first of which, it seems, took place in November 2013 and featured a “concealed carry fashion show.”

That’s where Republican operative and lobbyist Paul Erickson — who appears to be Butina’s most important American contact — enters the picture. (He is reportedly “US Person 1” in government charging documents.)

Paul Erickson speaks to CSPAN in 2003 CSPAN

Erickson has a colorful history. He’s worked for legendary conservative activist Richard Viguerie, for Pat Buchanan’s 1992 presidential campaign, for Lorena Bobbitt’s husband/victim, and for dictatorial Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko. More recently, he’s been on the board of the American Conservative Union, and he has close ties to the NRA’s leadership, having helped fundraise for the gun rights group. A Forbes columnist has called him “a sort of ‘secret master of the political universe’ known almost exclusively to the cognoscenti.”

Erickson attended the 2013 trip to Russia, and reportedly met Butina there. At some point, the two became very close. Eventually, they dated and lived together, and by 2015, they were close enough for Butina to email Erickson her proposed plan to influence American politics.

The Justice Department claims that around March 24, 2015 — as the US presidential campaign was beginning to kick off — Butina emailed Erickson a proposal for a project called “Diplomacy,” apparently looking for his feedback.

The email itself had the subject line “The Second Pozner.” An FBI agent’s affidavit suggests that refers to “Vladimir Pozner, a propagandist who served in the disinformation department of the Soviet KGB and who often appeared on Western television.”

The project proposal makes several assertions:

Republicans will likely win control of the US government in the 2016 elections.

The GOP is “traditionally associated with negative and aggressive foreign policy” toward Russia. But now could be a good time to improve relations.

The NRA has a “central place and influence” in the Republican Party since it helps fund political candidates and sponsors events.

Butina and Torshin already have ties to the NRA’s leadership, and she’s visited the US.

Therefore, Butina requests a $125,000 budget so she can participate in “all upcoming major conferences” related to the Republican Party before the 2016 elections.

Erickson soon wrote back to her with advice on her “special project,” including a list of potential media, business, and political contacts whom she should meet with “off the record.”

“If you were to sit down with your special friends and make a list of ALL the most important contacts you could find in America for a time when the political situation between the U.S. and Russia will change, you could NOT do better than the list that I just emailed you,” Erickson wrote. “All that is needed is for your friends to provide you with the financial resources to spend the time in America to TAKE ALL OF THESE MEETINGS.”

So what we appear to have here is a plan to influence the Republican Party to be friendlier to Russia, based on the perceptive (and accurate) insight that the Republican Party is extremely beholden to the NRA. Keep in mind, too, that this was months before Donald Trump entered the race, and when most believed the GOP would choose a more traditional (and hawkish) nominee.

As for who was ultimately behind it? A more recent government filing also mentions that Butina refers to a particular “funder” who has “deep ties to the Russian Presidential Administration.” This is not Torshin but rather a Russian oligarch who has a net worth Forbes estimates to be about $1.2 billion. This person’s identity is not yet known.

Even before Butina wrote this plan, she had made some inroads in conservative activist circles. For instance, in 2013, she got Trump’s future National Security Adviser John Bolton to record a video message on gun rights for her group. In 2014, the conservative website TownHall ran an interview with her under the headline “Meet the woman working with the NRA and fighting for gun rights in Russia.”

But when Republican presidential candidates started to travel the country to campaign in 2015, Butina, too, increasingly started to pop up at events — posing for photographs with candidates like Scott Walker, Rick Santorum, and Bobby Jindal.

Alexander Torshin, Scott Walker, and Maria Butina in April 2015. Maria Butina’s Facebook

Soon after Trump entered the race and skyrocketed to the top of polls, Butina attended an event with him too — at the FreedomFest conference in Las Vegas in July 2015. Trump, in fact, called on her to ask a question.

Saying she was from Russia, Butina asked, “If you would be elected as the president, what would be your foreign politics, especially in the relationships with my country? And do you want to continue the policy of sanctions that are damaging to both economies, or do you have other ideas?”

[embedded content]

Trump answered by talking about how “the whole world hates us” under Obama, and then said, “I know Putin, and I’ll tell you what, we get along with Putin.” He continued: “I don’t think you’d need the sanctions. I think that we would get along very, very well. I really believe that.”

In their book Russian Roulette, Michael Isikoff and David Corn reported that Trump’s own advisers would later look back on the exchange and find it strange.

Steve Bannon raised it with RNC chair Reince Priebus. How was it that this Russian woman happened to be in Las Vegas for that event? And how was it that Trump happened to call on her? And Trump’s response? It was odd, Bannon thought, that Trump had a fully developed answer.

Priebus agreed there was something strange about Butina. Whenever there were events held by conservative groups, she was always around, he told Bannon.

Butina’s work continued in late 2015 and early 2016, as she went back and forth between the US and Russia.

She talked with Torshin about his plans to meet Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), the most pro-Russia member of Congress, in Russia that August.

In December 2015, her group helped pay for another trip from NRA bigwigs to Moscow — the delegation included Erickson, former NRA president David Keene, then-Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, and top NRA donors.

She and Torshin attended the National Prayer Breakfast in February 2016.

She and Erickson incorporated a company, Bridges LLC, in South Dakota in February 2016, for unclear reasons.

She and Erickson began planning a series of “friendship and dialogue dinners” with various American political players in Washington, DC, and New York.

It was around March 2016, though, that references about a communication channel between the Russian government and the GOP began to pop up. (The first round of primaries had already happened and Trump was the clear favorite to win the nomination at this point.)

That month, Butina emailed an American person that “Putin’s side” had given them a “yes.” She wrote that a “representative of the Russian Presidential administration” had given approval for “building this communication channel,” according to the FBI agent’s affidavit.

Then in May 2016, Erickson sent an email to Trump campaign (and Jeff Sessions) staffer Rick Dearborn, with the subject: “Kremlin connection”. He wrote: “Happenstance and the (sometimes) international reach of the NRA placed me in a position a couple of years ago to slowly begin cultivating a back-channel to President Putin’s Kremlin.”

“The Kremlin believes that the only possibility of a true reset in this relationship would be with a new Republican White House,” Erickson continued. He said that Putin is “deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” and wanted Trump to visit Moscow before the election.

So, he said, the NRA’s convention in Louisville, Kentucky, would be a good place for “first contact” — because “President Putin’s emissary on this front” would be there. (Another US conservative activist, Rick Clay, sent a similar email to Dearborn soon afterward, and specified that Torshin was the emissary. The email was reportedly forwarded to Jared Kushner, who wrote back that they shouldn’t accept.)

Getty Images

But later that month, the NRA held its convention in Louisville — and, as usual, Butina and Torshin attended. There, they met Donald Trump Jr. at a dinner.

Don Jr.’s lawyer has said that they only made “gun-related small talk.” Two weeks later, Don Jr. would get an emailed offer of information that would incriminate Hillary Clinton as part of “Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” (There’s no clear indication, however, that the two incidents are connected.)

In August, as the election drew nearer, Butina moved to the US on a student visa — to, she said, get a graduate degree at American University.

At some point, she began living with Erickson, the GOP consultant nearly twice her age. However, a government filing claims that she “appears to treat” this relationship “as simply a necessary aspect of her activities” — that she complained about living with Erickson, and at one point offered an unnamed other person “sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization.”

In October 2016, Erickson emailed an acquaintance that he’d helped secure “a VERY private line of communication between the Kremlin and key [Republican] leaders through, of all conduits, the [NRA].”

But Trump’s prospects looked grim that month — he was down in the polls and Clinton was generally believed to be the favorite to win. Butina and Torshin exchanged the following direct messages on October 5, 2016, according to the FBI agent’s affidavit:

Butina: “Time will tell. We made our bet. I am following our game.” …

Torshin: “This is hard to teach. Patience and cold blood + faith in yourself. And everything will definitely turn out” …

Butina: “Yesterday’s dinner showed that American society is broken in relation to Russia. This is now the dividing line of opinions, the crucial one in the election race. [Republicans] are for us, [Democrats] against — 50/50. Our move here is very important.”

A week later, they exchanged more messages; “Important things are ahead of us,” Butina wrote. “Right now everything has to be quiet and careful.”

Trump, of course, won the election. “I’m going to sleep. It’s 3 am here. I am ready for further orders,” Butina wrote to Torshin after the election was called.

Four days later, on November 12, Butina hosted a costume party for her birthday at a Washington restaurant. She dressed as the Russian empress Alexandra, and Erickson dressed as Rasputin. There, Butina “brazenly claimed that she had been part of the Trump campaign’s communications with Russia,” the Daily Beast’s Tim Mak later reported, citing two individuals who were present.

Erickson worked his GOP connections to try to influence Trump’s transition team and the new administration’s staffing. Butina and Torshin discussed who might be appointed secretary of state, with Butina asking how “our people” felt about one name, per the affidavit. She and Erickson would attend one of the inaugural balls together, and would host guests at the Dupont Circle restaurant Russia House, Mak reported.

Meanwhile, Butina planned another visit by Torshin and other Russians for the National Prayer Breakfast, to be held shortly after Trump was sworn in — “to establish a back channel communication,” Butina emailed Erickson. A meeting between President Trump and the Russian group was set up for the morning of the prayer breakfast, on February 2, 2017. But at the last minute, Michael Isikoff reported, an administration official flagged Torshin’s name on a list of attendees because of his suspected organized crime ties — so the meeting didn’t happen.

Butina dines with a Russian diplomat who the government says it suspects is an intelligence officer. Court exhibit

After that, there’s been less in published reports and government filings about what Butina has been up to. She allegedly asked a DC civil rights group about its cyber vulnerabilities for a supposed school project, per the Washington Post. She dined with a Russian diplomat who the government suspects is an intelligence officer. She wrote a note at some point mentioning an “FSB offer of employment.” She testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee this April — and had her home raided by the FBI. She got her master’s degree in May.

Then this month, Butina and Erickson ended their lease in DC and began preparing for a trip — until the FBI swooped in and arrested Butina this Sunday. Reportedly, the bureau had had its eyes on her since she moved to the US nearly two years ago — but this arrest was rushed out of fear that she’d leave the area and slip away from them.

Butina has been charged with two counts: conspiracy, and acting as an agent of a foreign government without informing the attorney general. On Wednesday, she pleaded not guilty to both.

Now, this is not part of the Mueller investigation. The FBI’s Washington Field Office investigated Butina, and she’s being prosecuted by the DC US Attorney’s Office. For whatever reason, this probe was not put under Mueller’s purview.

But the exact nature, and breadth, of what is being investigated related to Butina remains vague — making it unclear exactly how much legal jeopardy the NRA or the Trump camp is now in.

If the NRA really was bamboozled by a Russian spy, the group could be a victim in all this. Yet there are a series of McClatchy reports, dating back to January, asserting the FBI is investigating the NRA’s finances — and specifically whether Torshin “illegally funneled money” to the group “to help Donald Trump win the presidency.”

The NRA is not legally obligated to publicly reveal its donors, and does not do so. It spent tens of millions of dollars on the 2016 elections to try to get Trump elected. An aide to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who’s been investigating the matter, told McClatchy that the NRA had dodged his questions about whether it accepted money from shell companies that could have been routed from Russians. (Butina and Erickson set up a shell company, Bridge LLC, together.)

As for Trump’s associates — the government filings about Butina are conspicuously light on references to her outreach to Trump’s team, even though this outreach has been widely reported in the media.

However, in May, a Spanish organized crime prosecutor said that his government had given wiretaps of some of Alexander Torshin’s conversations to the FBI “just a few months ago.” He added, “Mr. Trump’s son should be concerned.”

For now, though, only Butina has been charged. A DC judge ordered Wednesday that she be jailed without bond until her trial.

Original Source -> Maria Butina, explained: the accused Russian spy who tried to sway US politics through the NRA

via The Conservative Brief

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Want to become a star blogger? Here's the way to work

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Want to become a star blogger? Here's the way to work

What’s the first-class manner to publicise a weblog?

It’s crucial to tailor social media platforms for your target market. “You want to become aware of which platform your readers are maximum possibly to be the use of (eg Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram) and target it with updates three instances a day,” says Phoebe Montague, founder of Lady Melbourne and one among Australia’s critical style bloggers.

How am I able to earn from my blog?

If you want to become a star blogger and if you want to earn a lot from it,you have to work hard.A way of life blog will never make a enormous share of its sales via advertising, says Glen Allsopp, founder of ViperChill. “Even in case you’re achieving one hundred thousand readers in line with day, there are some distance higher ways to monetise your audience.

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“I’d recognition on some sort of digital product, whether or not that’s an e-book, a video collection or anything similar. I might eliminate the commercials and put something extra vital in that outstanding area.”

Logo partnerships and subsidised posts also are an excellent manner to monetise your work.

What’s the high-quality running a blog platform to use?

The little blogging platform is only that suits your needs as a blogger, says Montague. “Quite a few human beings favour WordPress or Blogger, but Tumblr would possibly be just right for you if what you do is images based totally.”

Jeanne Oliver, editor of croatiatraveller.Com and journey creator, says: “For a total beginner, I might go for the platform that’s easiest which will use. One of the reasons WordPress is so popular is the innumerable subject matters and plugins that could get you up and strolling rapid.”

How do I grow my audience and readership?

“The high-quality recommendation I can provide is to be steady with offering new content to your target audience,” says Montague. “It’s fiercely aggressive, so if you can update your blog at the least three times per week so that it will assist.”

Format is likewise key. “The primary element to your sidebar shouldn’t be your social pages,” says Allsopp. “humans might be coming on your website to enhance their lives, now not just study yours. Regularly use the top space of your proper sidebar to offer a few kind of lead magnet. This indicates a few sort of giveaway that entices human beings to provide you their e mail deal with.”

Is it better to have one popular blog or more than one blogs for each hobby?

“If your blog is a private mission or a interest that you write just for enjoyment then you definitely should write about something you like on every occasion you can,” says Dr Lucy Williams, a historian and blogger. “if you Want it to be a profession although, you would possibly Need to awareness on one subject matter at the start and look for readers who’re inquisitive about that.”

Dr Tom Crick, a computer technology blogger, is of the same opinion. “There’s value in having it all in one region if you may discover a common topic or a thread to pull it all together. This can interact a broad readership however, extra importantly, it’s going to save you you having to unfold it slow over multiple blogs, with the chance of neglecting them.”

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Is becoming a blogger or vlogger a practical profession alternative?

“I’d propose human beings to start a blog initially as a hobby, as many bloggers don’t earn a complete-time dwelling,” says Karen Bryan, founding editor of the Europe a Los Angeles Carte journey blog and the assist Me to Store personal finance internet site.

“You must begin it as a interest and notice in which it goes,” is of the same opinion Steve Ward, founding father of CloudNine. “You can’t assure that blogging turns into your profession. But, a blog is a fantastic endorsement of so many skills that it could get you a job in digital communications, editorial, journalism – if backed up by means of the best college course.” I Need to be real on my weblog. I don’t Want to write down approximately products I’m now not the use of myself,” says Izy Hossack, 18, author of the baking weblog, top With Cinnamon.

She’s handiest simply completed her A-degrees, however has been walking the blog for 3 years – which now draws about two hundred,000 readers a month. Oh, and she or he’s just had an e-book published too, following the blog’s fulfillment.

Intelligent bloggers and vloggers – video bloggers, usually using YouTube – are balancing the differing necessities of advertisers and target audience, to make cash from their digital content material.

Brands are keen to work with college students Young readers have a excessive business fee, so student bloggers and vloggers could make sizeable sums of money to complement their research, says Kate Ross, dealing with director of digital marketing organisation eight&four, which advises Manufacturers on the way to work with bloggers.

student lodging corporations and the monetary industry were particularly keen to grow their pupil audiences in the interim, she says.

“If you could generate favourable content material and have a devoted and developing target market, they’re now not going to be concerned which you’re a pupil.”

Benefiting from your weblog Manufacturers frequently attain out to bloggers and vloggers to promote themselves. Product placement, as an instance, includes them sending loose samples to be reviewed and/or given away thru competitions. Hossack lately collaborated with Teapigs for a subsidized giveaway, which suit seamlessly right into a recipe submit.

sponsored posts are also an increasing number of modern, with bloggers taking part with Manufacturers to create content material that both parties are happy with.

Ngoni Chikwenengere, 21, a fashion layout student at the college of Northampton, says subsidized posts are the maximum “organic” way to monetise her blog, IAMNRC. She has labored with the Swiss Tourism Council, Nike and Samsung.

Before your following is big sufficient to draw big name Manufacturers, you can monetise your content material independently. Banner commercials, which you can sell to advertisers for a set price, are a little way of doing this.

Associate advertising schemes are also popular amongst bloggers, who can earn a charge from businesses – via an organization along with ShopSense or RewardStyle – if someone clicks onto their website or buys their product after clicking through from your blog.

Amy Mace, 18, an English literature student at the College of Bristol, uses banner commercials and Affiliate linking on her weblog, Style Junkie.

The profits from those haven’t been “life-changing”, but she makes positive to handiest promote Manufacturers her readers may be inquisitive about, in place of just the ones that pay the best commission.

Google AdSense is some other famous way to get commercials in your weblog. Google presentations clients’ adverts for your site and pays you for each click you force.

Monetising your films There are fewer money-making possibilities for vloggers, but they are able to still be profitable. Ordinary uploaders with large audiences can turn out to be YouTube partners, which means you percentage the sales generated from advertisements – which may be placed Earlier than or inside your videos.

Rosie Bea, 17, is an A-degree pupil with over eighty,000 subscribers to her fashion and beauty YouTube channel, MsRosieBea. She earns money from the commercials at the beginning of her movies, with the quantity varying every month relying on what number of human beings view and click on on them.

“The money allows me to be a bit extra impartial,” she says. “It’s been definitely useful as I’ve merely commenced sixth shape and have wished to buy new clothes. I’m additionally saving up for my own automobile, which goes to take a long time!”

How a good deal should you earn?

excessive-profile vloggers on YouTube can make as much as £4,000 per point out of a product and can price up to £20,000 a month for banner ads and skins on their internet pages, consistent with eight&4.

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however don’t anticipate something out of your blog or channel at the start, advises Hannah Farrington, 20, a law scholar at the college of Manchester who runs Hannah Louise fashion. “You have to put the work to benefit a following and Ordinary traffic.”

Now that her weblog has end up a success, the maximum worthwhile strategies are those who require the maximum private input. “A marketing campaign with a Logo involving a massive time dedication or a few travelling is usually extra moneymaking than a put up without tons writing, which could take about an hour to put together.”

She additionally says Associate links can be very profitable. But the sums made rely on the same old of the blogger’s content, their traffic, the variety of links they use and their conversion fee – how frequently a clicked hyperlink ends in a purchase.

Bloggers can earn some thing from hundreds of kilos in step with month to between £50 and £three hundred via Associate schemes, says Nastasia Feniou, blogger partnerships manager for Europe at ShopStyle. but with ShopSense, as an instance, bloggers are simplest paid as soon as the amount reaches £one hundred.

Blogs and vlogs aren’t a miracle remedy for college kids’ financial woes, however, with creativity, dedication, commercial enterprise acumen and employer, they can without a doubt ease the pain.

Recommendations for monetising your blog or channel: content material is king. with out pinnacle excellent posts or movies, you wouldn’t have a massive target audience within the first vicinity. “if you try to installation a channel or weblog just to make cash, it’s not going to work,” says Ross. “It needs to be natural and begin with a ardour. If it’s some thing you like, it shows.” Stay genuine in your target audience and your self. All backed content material and advertising have to be relevant in your target market – and ideally for a product or service you’d use your self. It’s a great deal harder to put in writing authentically approximately some thing you’re not using, says Hossack. Be honest approximately whilst a publish is backed and if you’ve been sent a product without spending a dime. Do your research. “Spend time discovering one-of-a-kind advertising groups,” says Hossack. This additionally approach understanding what you’re worth. Don’t overcharge and put off Manufacturers which could have in any other case offered you possibilities, however similarly, keep away from being taken for a journey by means of PRs who Want you to publish about their Manufacturers for not anything in go back. Speakme to different bloggers permit you to gauge what you must expect from your weblog. Get your name accessible. Be direct and community with marketing departments, says Ross. “Technique virtual groups and say, I’ve got this audience, is there some thing you could do with it?”. when Mace is interested in starting a PR courting with a Brand, she emails them asking to be brought to their mailing listing. “It’s additionally beneficial to electronic mail PR corporations as opposed to person Brands,” she says. “They have plenty of customers and might positioned you in touch with Brands that they assume will fit your blog’s content.” Be organised. Juggling preserving a  blog or YouTube channel with student life may be hard, so you want to be constantly on top of cut-off dates and emails. “a few weekends I pre-movie motion pictures for the following week if I recognise I’m going to be busy,” says Bea. She recommends sticking to a time table for importing content material and doing college or uni paintings as soon as you get it. “never put vlogging or running a blog Before schoolwork, as you in no way understand what the destiny holds.”