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Attorney General Sean D. Reyes Announces New Division Directors and Organizational Changes
May 8, 2014 — Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes announced new division leaders and office organization changes today as part of his promise to comprehensively address policies, procedures and personnel within the office. New office structure will include Civil, Criminal and Appellate Departments led by Chief Civil Deputy Brian Tarbet, Chief Criminal Deputy Spencer Austin, and Chief Appellate Deputy Bridget Romano. Chief Romano also holds the position of Solicitor General and Laura Dupaix will serve as Deputy Solicitor General. Parker Douglas, who support’s AG Reyes on policy, administration and case management, will continue to serve as Chief of Staff and will take on the role as Federal Solicitor. Missy Larsen will continue to serve as Chief Communications Officer.
Divisions in each department are designed to cover caseloads in areas of law with sections as necessary. In larger divisions, or by special request of a division director, the AG’s office will have a deputy director to assist with division administration, training, evaluating and management duties. The deputy director may be a section director who simultaneously serves in that role, or in addition to the section directors in the division. Some of those deputy positions have been filled and others are to be determined by division directors.
Attorney General Reyes has requested that each Division Director assess division needs and allow current AG employees to interview for a section director position over the next month. General Reyes said the following about leaders who are transitioning out of their administrative roles, “We thank every prior division leader for their tremendous service. These administrative changes should not be viewed as negative actions as we are transitioning some of the best leaders we have had in this office. Even in the case of the strongest leaders, there is a time to allow new leadership to develop for the long term health and success of an organization. All of our leaders have been dedicated in their service, gracious in their transition, and in many cases have been the ones who trained the new leadership and are now committed to support our new division directors.”
He also addressed those who interviewed and were not selected by saying, “We were fortunate to have an abundance of talent but only a very few spots to fill. We appreciate many who have the desire to serve and hope that they look to future opportunities.” General Reyes and his executive team based decisions on personal interviews with candidates, other members of their division, current and former office attorneys and staff, and heavy input from clients, other division and section leaders, as well some feedback from office holders, legislators, cabinet members and other members of the bar. Our executive team feels like the volume and breadth of data reviewed gave us a very informed perspective of who has the best skill set for what the office needs at this time.
AGO DIRECTORS AND ORG
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Installation Artist
Serge V. Richard is a multidisciplinary visual artist who graduated in graphic arts from Holland ...more
Serge Richard
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Essays Database Essays The theme of isolation in “Great Expectations” through Miss Havisham Sample Essay
The theme of isolation in “Great Expectations” through Miss Havisham Sample Essay
Question: How does Dickens in his portraiture of Miss Havisham explore the subject of isolation?
The oldest of eight kids. Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812. Dickens experienced a really traumatic childhood which included the ordeal of seeing two of his brother base on balls off. John Dickens. his male parent. worked as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. due to his business. the Dickens household had to travel a batch. Financial jobs led to the imprisonment of John Dickens. who couldn’t afford to look after all his household. The whole of Charles Dickens’ household shortly followed in suite. except for Charles himself though. Alternatively Charles was taken out of school and made to work in a foul warehouse. lodging labels on bottles of boot-black for long hours.
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Devils lived from 1812 boulder clay 1870. during this period ; the justness system in England was really rough. At the age of 16. Charles saw this through his ain eyes. working as a tribunal newsman. During this period there was besides a colossal division between the rich and the hapless. Due to the industrial revolution. the hapless worked for long hours. digesting much adversity. yet gaining really small. In contrast. the rich lived in luxury and. unlike the hapless. could really bask life. One can depict the state of affairs at the clip as- the rich got richer and the hapless got poorer. Besides during the nineteenth century. adult females were treated really severely. they were expected to remain at place and ‘serve’ their hubby. and they were besides put under huge force per unit area to acquire married.
It was Charles Dickens’ house belief that the spilt between the rich and the hapless had produced a ‘diseased’ and ‘unhealthy’ society. Dickens’ normally expressed his ain experiences in life. and his moral positions through authorship. Many of his novels deal with issues of relevance to the clip. such as justness and penalty. and the monolithic spread between the rich and hapless. In his fresh “Great Expectations” . he uses the character of Miss Havisham to demo some of his experiences in life. In a manner the cheerless character Acts of the Apostless as a show piece of Charles’s ain experiences in life. He uses the character to research the subject of isolation. to reflect Dickens’s perceptual experience of adult females and to symbolize the ‘diseased’ upper category of the clip.
Through the usage of imagination. word picture. linguistic communication and his usage of dramatic devices. Dickens efficaciously portrays the subject of isolation through Miss Havisham.
In “Great Expectations” . Charles Dickens uses the milieus and visual aspect of Miss Havisham to portray her isolation. Her milieus illustrate isolation and neglection. Dickens uses Satis House to efficaciously convey this. The house is neglected and is separated from society. ‘the great front entryway had two ironss across it outside- and the first thing I noticed was. that the transition were all dark… merely the taper lighted us’ . The darkness of the house echoes the issue of isolation. because visible radiation is seen as a beginning of freedom. The chained doors reflect the neglection of Satis house and how Miss Havisham is locked off in her ain house ; separated from the remainder of society. Besides. Satis house is used to symbolize Miss Havisham’s mental and physical province. The whole house is disintegrating ; everything has been left the same as it was 20 old ages ago. and merely like Miss Havisham herself. the house around her was disintegrating with her. ‘Everything in that house had been stopped in clip. like she doesn’t want move frontward anymore’ .
Another facet which Dickens utilizations to exemplify Miss Havisham’s isolation is clip. in Miss Havisham’s isolated and ignored universe. clip has no intent. ‘… I saw that her ticker had been stopped at 20 proceedingss to nine. and that a clock in the room had stopped at 20 proceedingss to nine. ’ Twenty proceedingss to nine was the clip when Miss Havisham was jilted on her marrying twenty-four hours. twenty old ages ago. This is really melodramatic. and in many ways really unrealistic. but it is used by Dickens to portray Miss Havisham’s isolation. Aswell as her milieus. Dickens uses Miss Havisham’s visual aspect to demo her isolation. Miss Havisham’s visual aspect is a accelerator that Dickens uses to stand for her isolation. she wears the same apparels that she wore on her marrying twenty-four hours twenty old ages ago. ‘she was dressed in rich materials…all of white. Her places were white…she had a long white veil…’ here Dickens utilizations repeat to further beef up his point. and efficaciously portray the subject of isolation.
As already noted. Miss Havisham’s character is really melodramatic. and extremely unrealistic. but her theatrical character is used as a arm by Dickens to strongly underscore his belief that the rich of the clip were chesty and selfish. The really fact that she took the determination to divide herself from the remainder of society brings up two different points. the first is that she merely had that option unfastened because of her wealth. and it is because of her obstinacy and haughtiness that she chooses this way. Here Dickens is seeking to underscore the point that the rich have an unfastened door of pick. which the hapless don’t have. but their sheer haughtiness and obstinacy makes them take to disregard traveling through the difficult manner. and seeking to patch back together their lives. instead they opt to take the easier manner out and wholly separate themselves from the remainder of society.
The 2nd point that Dickens is seeking to set across is that the adult females of the clip were over-reliant on work forces. when Miss Havisham was jilted on her marrying twenty-four hours. she chose there and so. that she would no longer be able to travel on. because of the demand of a manful figure in her life. This analysis of the state of affairs is wholly incorrect though. Miss Havisham felt that she could non travel on without a adult male. but in existent fact. she could really good hold done so. It is merely because of her wealth that she had the chance to divide herself from society. had she been hapless. she would hold been forced to acquire on with life.
What Dickens is seeking to accomplish here is to turn to his point that the upper category society were ‘diseased and unhealthy’ . with Miss Havisham moving as the representative of the upper category of the clip. and he intentionally makes her look bad. She is a hermit who lives in the yesteryear. and despite all her wealth. alternatively of incorporating back into society after being jilted. she alternatively used her wealth to insulate herself from society for good. One must besides observe that Miss Havisham’s upbringing would hold played a major function in her determination to divide herself from society. because she came from a rich background. she was excessively proud to cover with being jilted. and so chose alternatively to make her ain fanciful universe. imprison herself in her ain house. stop clip. and separate herself from the outside universe.
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Throughout the novel ; “Great Expectations” . Dickens uses imagination. linguistic communication. word picture and dramatic devices. this enables him to efficaciously convey his message to the audience. In many respects. Miss Havisham conforms to society’s criterions of single adult females in the Victorian age. Like many single adult females. she is an castaway. she separates herself from society by pick ; this pick is merely unfastened to her because of her wealth. It reflects the state of affairs at the clip. had Miss Havisham been hapless. so she wouldn’t even hold had the pick to be separated from society. she would hold been forced to return to society or die. The fresh reflects Victorian England’s beliefs about women’s inability to last without a male figure in their lives ; this is why they were put under huge force per unit area to acquire married. Miss Havisham is presented as the incarnation of women’s failure in society. and their over-reliance on work forces.
After being jilted on her marrying twenty-four hours. Miss Havisham saw no manner of traveling on without a adult male in her life. and took the pick of dividing herself from the remainder of society. even though she could hold chosen to acquire on with life. In a metaphorical sense she turned a unsighted oculus to the play of visible radiation at the terminal of the tunnel. Her reluctancy to acquire on with life becomes an compulsion. and she intentionally creates an fanciful universe. which acts as a barrier between her ain universe and the existent universe. ‘…in closing out the visible radiation of twenty-four hours. she had shut out boundlessly more ; that. in privacy. she had secluded herself from a 1000 natural and curative influences ; that her head incubation in lone. had grown diseased…’
The word ‘light’ in the old quotation mark is used as the collector’s item of inclusion and integrating. because visible radiation is the antonym of darkness which represents isolation and segregation. Dickens’ usage of imagination here works good and the reader can appreciate the point being raised here more efficaciously. Overall. one can reason that the chief ground for the characters isolation is because she chose to be isolated. and was able to take to be isolated. as already discussed.
In Charles Dickens “Great Expectations” he uses imagination. linguistic communication. word picture and dramatic devices to demo the effects and effects of Miss Havisham’s pick to insulate herself from the remainder of society. When she separated herself from the remainder of society. in consequence she turned a unsighted oculus to world. she couldn’t face up to the fact that she had been jilted. and dealt with this in her ain small way- to divide herself from the remainder of society. The 2nd that she took this determination. she created a barrier between her ain self-created universe and the existent universe. Her house was an built-in portion of this new universe that she created. and since visible radiation was portion of the universe she had chosen to divide herself from. non a spec of light got into Satis house. ‘…You are non afraid of a adult female who has ne’er seen the Sun since you worn born? ’ The decay of Satis house acts as a ocular focal point of the physical and emotional decay of Miss Havisham.
The nutrient inside the house is disintegrating. merely as Miss Havisham is. and is go oning to disintegrate excessively. The consequence of her isolation is that it easy exonerated the house from all the good that was in it. One begs the inquiry of how could a adult females populating in conditions like that survive. but it was her turning compulsion of deriving retaliation over work forces for what had happened to her that kept her traveling. Her compulsion of retaliation reached its extremum. and it was at that place and so that she acts upon her compulsions. utilizing Pip and Estella to accomplish these desires.
Miss Havisham raises Estella to be cold. emotionless and have no bosom. Miss Havisham trained Estella to be her mouthpiece and representative in her command to derive retaliation over work forces. Miss Havisham’s compulsion is so much. that she even tells Estella to ‘break his heart’ ; the male in inquiry in the old quotation mark is Pip. a immature ‘common laboring boy’ as Estella describes him. In all the exchanges between Estella and Pip. Estella is ever rude to Pip. but Miss Havisham orders Pip to let her to be ill-mannered to him. ‘You say nil of her…she says many difficult things of you. but you say nil of her…’ This quotation mark justifies the degree at which her compulsion for retaliation had reached. she enjoyed seeing Pip’s life being destroyed right under her olfactory organ. under her bids. as if it were a movie. and she was the manager. Throughout the book. Miss Havisham persistently makes Pip acknowledge Estella’s beauty. ‘is she beautiful? ’
One can feel the great enjoyment Miss Havisham has when she tells Pip that Estella has gone abroad. because she knew that it broke his bosom. ‘”… . Educating for a lady ; far out of range ; prettier than of all time ; admired by all who see her. make you experience you have lost her? There was such a malignant enjoyment in her vocalization of the last words and she broke into such a disagreeable laugh’ The sheer coldness of the character is summarised in these three lines. she took pleasance in interrupting Pip’s bosom. partially doing up for the injury she went through when her bosom was broken by a adult male twenty old ages earlier. Even after showing this heart-breaking intelligence to Shoot with such joy and fondness. her brainsick compulsion of retaliation pushes her to go on destructing Pip’s life even more. Miss Havisham continues to press Pip to love Estella and look up to her beauty. it must be noted that this beauty was nil more than physical beauty because Estella had no interior beauty. Miss Havisham had. in her ain words ‘stole bosom off and set ice in its place’ .
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The undermentioned quotation mark shows how determined Miss Havisham was in interrupting Pip’s bosom and destroying his life. ‘Love her. love her. love her! If she favours you. love her. If she wounds you love her. If she tears you bosom to pieces…love her. love her. love her! ’ The repeat of the words ‘love her’ are used to underscore the degree of barbarous compulsion that Miss Havisham had reached. she even told him that if Estella tears his ‘heart to pieces’ so he should go on to love her. This in world is what she wanted to go on ; she wanted Pip’s bosom to be teared to pieces. The quotation mark goes on to farther say: ‘…I adopted her to be loved. I bred her and educated her. to be loved. ’ Here Miss Havisham is admiting that she used Estella. she trained her to go cold and ruthless. When Miss Havisham says ‘I…educated her’ what she means is that she passed on her hate of work forces onto her. and that she wanted her to be her representative and acquire retaliation for her over work forces.
Miss Havisham’s obsessional retaliation secret plan. if successful would ensue in the devastation of Pip’s life. and although she achieved this to some extent. her program caused more than merely one “casualty” . Miss Havisham destroyed Pip’s life. but sacrificed destroying Estella’s life in the procedure. Her “creation” . which she so carefully nurtured. who was to be her representative. was brought up in such a manner that she is incapable of love. Estella herself highlights the point when she says to Miss Havisham ; ‘I am what you have made me’ . What Miss Havisham made her was a hardhearted animal whose bosom could merely be ‘stabbed in or changeable at’ .
Miss Havisham’s obsessional retaliation secret plan blowbacks. and the hurting that she causes herself is arguably the worse effect of all her actions. Her program was meant to give her the satisfaction of retaliation. by utilizing Pip and Estella to “act” out her program. The whole intent of the program was to interrupt Pip’s bosom. which in bend meant. in Miss Havisham’s head. that she had gained retaliation over work forces. Her program nevertheless. did non turn out to be every bit successful as she would hold hoped. and alternatively of her deriving the satisfaction of retaliation. we see that the complete antonym happens and that she ends up even more suffering than earlier and implore for forgiveness. ‘She turned her face to me…and. to my astonishment. I may even add to my panic. dropped on her articulatio genuss at my feet’ this is when world had eventually struck world. for the first clip in over 20 old ages. Miss Havisham’s fanciful isolated universe crumbled in a disconnected second and world hit her.
‘Until you spoke to her the other twenty-four hours. and until I saw in you a looking-glass that showed me what I one time felt myself. I did non cognize what I had done. What have I done! What have I done! ’ Miss Havisham is witting that she has made Pip go through the same injury that she had done. an inhuman and immoral title. and she begs for his clemency. The degree of guilt she feels leads to her weeping. which showed that she still had some portion of a bosom. ‘ I had ne’er seen her shed a tear before’ . Through the usage of imagination. word picture. linguistic communication and dramatic devices. Dickens is able to efficaciously portray the effects and effects of Miss Havisham’s isolation.
In Charles Dickens “Great Expectations” . the author uses the character of Miss Havisham to knock the upper category of his clip. Although his portraiture of Miss Havisham is really negative. and was to demo the haughtiness of the upper category. one could besides reason that he wanted the audience to experience some understanding towards Miss Havisham. After all. Dickens does set send on some strong statements to back up Miss Havisham and make some understanding. but at the same clip the statements criticise the split between the rich and hapless excessively. One of these statements which make the reader experience sympathetic to Miss Havisham for her actions is that a major factor which lead to her taking the pick to divide herself from the remainder of society was her upbringing.
He shows that her determination. which in bend led to so many tragic events. was the merchandise of a “diseased” society. He farther proves this point through the character of Estella. he shows one is greatly affected by their environment and their upbringing. Miss Havisham made Estella what she was. and so Miss Havisham’s upbringing would hold had an influence on her determination to insulate herself. However. one could counter the statement that Dickens wanted to make understanding for Miss Havisham. instead he used her to knock the adult females of the clip. and their over trust on work forces. He was really critical of adult females who he felt didn’t unrecorded up to his perceptual experience of the perfect female function theoretical account. but his feeling and positions would likely hold been influenced by both his ain upbringings and the beliefs of the clip.
This is dry. because he creates understanding for Miss Havisham by seting frontward the statement that she was the guiltless merchandise of society and of her upbringing. but his positions on adult females would bind in absolutely with that statement. In decision. I believe that Dickens wanted to make sympathy towards Miss Havisham. motivating people to believe about the “diseased and unhealthy” society. and see their places. He uses the book to efficaciously set across his positions. and his avidity and desire to convey about alteration and make a better ; more merely society is apparent in his intervention of the subject of isolation.
Through the usage of imagination. linguistic communication. word picture and dramatic devices. Charles Dickens successfully explores the subject of isolation through Miss Havisham. and besides put across his positions and thoughts.
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Topic: The theme of isolation in “Great Expectations” through Miss Havisham Sample Essay
Question: How does Dickens in his portraiture of Miss Havisham explore the subject of isolation?The oldest of eight kids. Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812. Dickens experienced a really traumatic childhood which included the ordeal of seeing two of his brother base on balls off. John Dickens. his male parent. worked as a clerk in the Navy Pay Office. due to his business. the Dickens household had to travel a batch. Financial jobs led to the imprisonment of John Dicken
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Nike's Genius Michael Jordan-Roger Federer Mashup
Michael Jordan’s stellar run as a shoe salesman mirrors his playing career. He’s tired of basketball, so he’s trying another sport: tennis.
Jordan was courtside at the U.S. Open this week as Roger Federer, his Nike teammate, started the tournament in a new pair of sneakers that looked a lot like the kicks His Airness sported in 1988. It was reportedly Jordan’s first U.S. Open, and Nike (NKE) promoted the event with a video of the two superstars awkwardly plinking around on a piano.
The crowd, as they say, went wild. The broadcasters were starstruck. And the shoes, part of a limited production run priced at $200 per pair, were gone in less time than it took Federer to dispatch an unranked opponent (6-3, 6-4, 7-6).
Today one can buy them on eBay (EBAY) for up to $568 (just punch in the really long model name: Zoom Vapor 9 Tour AJ3).
Strange as Air Jordans-for-tennis seem, the shoe marries two things that Nike does very well: selling Jordan and convincing sneakerheads they are getting something rare and exclusive—the footwear equivalent of a hot tech stock.
More than a decade after the man’s final retirement, the shoes still make up roughly half of the $4.5 billion basketball sneaker market. Jordans are also shoes for football players, women, and preschool girls. Nike, naturally, would like to bring some of that selling prowess to its tennis game.
At $4.5 billion, the basketball market dwarfs the demand for tennis gear, which Matt Powell, an sportswear analyst at Princeton Retail Analysis, pegs at around $100 million a year in the U.S. Tennis is something of a hedge. “The basketball business is really good right now, but it’s a fashion swing and we can swing away from it as quickly as we swung into it,” Powell says. And tennis, like running and golf, may have more potential when considering what consultants call the lifetime value of a customer. One doesn’t see a lot of silver-haired guys in Foot Locker’s basketball section.
The Jordan-Federer mashup was also a perfect execution of Nike’s microeconomics game. With a deft blend of wacky designs, flawless marketing, and a carefully cultivated sense of scarcity, the company has created a rich and lucrative market that it controls almost entirely.
Jordan’s tennis sneakers appreciated immediately. Nike didn’t say how many it made, only that supply was limited. The company could stock shelves with thousands more next week. “They have this stuff down to a science,” Powell said. “They always stay well short of demand.”
The Oregon sports giant has more one-time offerings in its much-hyped release schedule. On Saturday, it “drops” another retro pair of Air Jordans for $170. A week later, it will sell two more allegedly unique Jordans for $225 a pair. If you can’t get your hands on one, a funky green Durant model is coming a few days later at $150 and a motley pair of “Lebron” sneakers coming Sept. 13 ($250).
In terms of the long game in tennis, Nike may be positioning Federer for a Jordan-like role in retirement. Its stable of active players is already stocked with younger talent, including Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, and Juan Martín Del Potro. Nike is also bidding for Andy Murray.
(Bloomberg Businessweek)
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Kelly Khumalo and Chad da Don’s Fairytale Romance, Why It Ended and Who They...
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FULVIO SERRA ON THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN FAÇADES IN ARCHITECTURE.
Fulvio Serra, Head of the new Building Envelopes & Skin Components in ABET, on the latest developments in façades in architecture.
The world of façades in architecture can be divided between a before and an “after” MEG, the ABET material that, since the 80s, led the Italian brand to have a key role in the creation of ventilated facades all over the world. Solid, compact and long-lasting, MEG is specifically designed for outdoor applications. It is resistant to natural weathering (sunlight and atmospheric agents) providing technical performances that make it suitable to the building sector, where it represents an excellent alternative to traditional materials.
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Fulvio Serra, why is the world of facades so strategic today?
“The demand for design in the construction sector has become very high. Previously people simply asked for facades, today everyone want complex building envelopes. In this complexity, architects and designers look for design solutions that need to be tested, advanced and easily available on the market. The bet is therefore on one hand to do research and to experiment, and on the other – and it is ABET’s great ambition – to make available to designers all the elements needed to carry out the project in the desired and expected times “.
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SLO County hits record high for hospitalized coronavirus cases
BY CCN STAFF
San Luis Obispo County health officials reported 12 coronavirus patients hospitalized on Friday, a record number.
During the past four days, there have been 66 newly confirmed coronavirus cases in San Luis Obispo County, or 16.5 per day, another record number. San Luis Obispo leads with 16 new cases, followed by Nipomo at 14 and Paso Robles at 11.
Of the 508 confirmed coronavirus cases in SLO County, 381 individuals have recovered, and one has died. Of those still suffering from the virus, there are 12 people in the hospital — five in intensive care, and 114 recuperating at home.
Cases by city:
Paso Robles — 150
Nipomo — 67
Atascadero — 65
San Luis Obispo — 64
Arroyo Grande — 40
Templeton — 21
Grover Beach — 15
Pismo Beach — 15
CMC — 11
Morro Bay — 10
San Miguel — 9
Los Osos — 7
Shandon — 5
Other county cases — 19
As of Friday evening, there have been 206,623 positive cases, and 5,872 deaths in California.
Currently, more than 2,553,068 U.S. residents have tested positive for the virus, and 127,640 have died.
In addition, the number of people infected with the virus worldwide continues to increase: 9,919,525 cases with 497,255 dead.
No charges for driver who plowed through protesters in Ventura, video
State prison escapee captured in Nipomo
i’m curious to how they managed to test more than 6500 people in a single day, assuming there were also people that tested negative. Doesn’t that number seem unusually, almost improbably high, to anyone? 6500 people tested positive for COVID-19 each day since Monday, according to California government. How did they become so efficient at collecting and testing so many people, when they were only able to report around 60% of results from test samples taken in the beginning of June?
Now, if this sharp rise in COVID-19 cases is due to backlogged results, then they need to clarify as such. I find it misleading, if they are releasing those figures, in order to heighten concern or raise awareness. I’m not even sure they can test that many people in one day, since each test takes at least half hour, with each site only able to test less than a handful at a time, then add the time to sanitize the station for the next person. I would say maybe 40 at the most in one day, but that’s just a guess.
They are playing a dangerous game, if these cases are actually results from backlog. The risk is that once people find out that it really isn’t 6500 brand new cases each day, as the loss in credibility will result in people ignoring future government statements.
Maybe this is why illnesses shouldn’t be managed by government, viruses don’t do what the government tells it to do. We should have relied on family, friends, neighbors; as we always have in the past, during times of sickness.
sunister1
Thank the protesters.
slomark
To be fair, I think we can also thank all the people elbow to elbow in the bars in town. And or course, the churches.
Grandpapa
Wrong place for that reply don’t you know alcohol kills the virus and god won’t let anybody at church get it
adustum
And a big thanks to trump for assuring the country that life would return to normal by Easter, covid 19 is like the flu and setting an example by not wearing a mask.
Vote Up-19Vote Down
MrYan
Winning!..?
Is there a way to see the age of the one person who has died from this in SLO, and the ages of those hospitalized?
SLO Homeowner
He was a 70-80 year old male inmate being transferred from LA County to SLO County who contracted Corona in LA County.
commonsenseguy
The age of the man that passed was 86, and he resided in the north county. He already had terminal cancer when he became infected with the virus. That doesn’t mean his death isn’t a sad thing for all of us, but a fact that needs to be told.
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February is Black History Month in Canada
A profile of Violet King, the 1st Black Woman to practice law in Canada and her former Sunnyside Heritage Home!
Violet King (b.1929 in Calgary and d.1982 in New York) was a trailblazer- the 1st Black Canadian to obtain a Law degree in Alberta (1953), 1st Black person admitted to the Alberta Bar (1954) and 1st Black woman to become a lawyer in Canada.
Her parents John & Stella King were part of an African American group of farmers who migrated in 1911 from Oklahoma to Alberta to avoid racism. However, the actions of the Canadian Government at that time did little to welcome Black settlers to Canada. One example was the Order-in-Council under the Cabinet of PM Wilfred Laurier proposed (but never became law) in 1911 to ban Black people from entering Canada for a period of one year, it read ‘the Negro race…is deemed unsuitable to the climates and requirements of Canada’.
The Kings first lived in the all-Black settlement of Keystone, Alberta. They then moved to the Sunnyside community (Calgary) in 1919. John worked as a ‘sleeping car porter’ with the CPR and Stella worked as a seamstress. They raised their 4 children in their modest home at 518-7th Avenue NW.
Sunnyside home at 518-7th Avenue NW in which Violet King grew up & her family lived for over 50 years: 1930-1974.
Violet attended Crescent Heights High School followed by the University of Alberta (one of only 3 women in the Faculty of Law). She articled in Calgary and spoke out publicly against racism, in Nov 1955 she remarked “It is too bad that a Japanese, Chinese or colored girl has to outshine others to secure a position.”
One of her siblings, Ted King also was outspoken about Civil Rights. He was the president of the Alberta Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1958-1961. In 1959 he launched a legal challenge against a Calgary motel’s discriminatory practices. The case made it to the Alberta Supreme Court and while it was unsuccessful it drew awareness to the barriers and lack of human rights protection laws in Canada at the time.
Violet moved to Ottawa to work for the Department of Citizenship & Immigration in 1956, then in 1963 saw a greater need and moved to New Jersey to become ED of the Newark YMCA where she set up urban social planning programs for Blacks. She married and had one daughter. In 1969 she moved to Chicago and became Director of Manpower, Planning & Staff Development of the YMCA – the 1st woman to be named to a senior management position with that organization.
‘King shattered glass ceilings and broke down colour barriers to pave the way for future generations. Her hard work and drive to excel in all facets of her career are an inspiration for those who also aspire to do great things in their field.’
Sources: The Canadian Encyclopedia; Calgary’s Henderson Directories; University of Alberta @UAlberta; Wikipedia; Calgary Herald articles: ‘Prairie Roots: Calgary-born Violet King Henry the first black woman to practise law in Canada’ by Brian Brennan Nov2,1996; Miss Violet King Is Credit to the City’ by Teen Nolan, June 26,1958; ‘Former Calgary Lawyer Moves to New US Job’ Oct 1,1963.
Written by Lorna Cordeiro, Hillhurst Sunnyside Heritage sub-committee.
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← Marissa Alexander Case Comes To A Close
The Final Moments Of Michael Brown’s Life Look Very Different, Depending Whom You Talk To →
Grand Jury Does Not Indict Darren Wilson
Posted by Xena
On August 9, 2014, Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown in broad daylight. The most that the public has received by way of verified evidence is that Michael was shot at least 6 times, with the kill shot fired in the top of his head.
Eyewitnesses are consistent, reporting that Michael had his hands up as Darren Wilson fired and continued firing.
A grand jury began seeing and hearing evidence and when their session expired, the judge extended their time until January 2015. Strangely, Darren Wilson was invited to testify before the grand jury and it was reported that he testified 4 hours.
There have been purported leaks by anonymous persons and reports that the grand jury would not indict, but I considered that propaganda instigated by White Supremacists to provoke the citizens of Ferguson into using violence. Had that happened, it would be used to impugn the Black race. I wasn’t far off in my opinion because Anonymous discovered, and exposed, that the KKK is alive in Missouri; that Darren Wilson is associated with the KKK; and that at least 2 officers on the Ferguson police force are members of the KKK.
Tonight, State’s Attorney Robert McCullough announced that the grand jury found no probable cause exists to indict Darren Wilson.
Once again, America finds that America’s unarmed citizens can be chased by a person with a badge and gunned down dead, without consequences at law that apply to civilians.
R.I.P. Michael Brown
Posted on 11/24/2014, in Cases, Cops Gone Wild, Michael Brown - Ferguson and tagged Darren Wilson, decision, Ferguson, grand jury, Michael Brown, Missouri, police corruption, protests, riots, Robert McCullough. Bookmark the permalink. 144 Comments.
ladylove1120 | 11/24/2014 at 8:38 pm
Another sad day in America, I’m heartbroken 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Ladylover1120,
It is sad and beyond sad. May Darren Wilson be haunted by the sight of Michael’s brains on the street for the rest of his life.
ladylove1120 | 11/25/2014 at 4:02 am
I’m praying that he suffers everyday with the image of Mike Brown in his head all day everyday. You have to have a cold heart to shoot somebody as many times as he shot Mike #sad
mindyme62 | 11/25/2014 at 5:01 am
😦 so sad
yahtzeebutterfly | 11/25/2014 at 7:10 am
ladylove1120,
“You have to have a cold heart to shoot somebody as many times as he shot Mike”
Plus a disregard for the lives of people who could have been killed by all of the stray bullets he fired.
Some of you may have received notification of a new post with an incorrect title. I was trying to get ahead so that when the decision was announced, I could blog it immediately before someone posted the news on another thread. Please forgive my error.
mindyme62 | 11/24/2014 at 8:40 pm
I’m interested in learning exactly what they based their decision on, besides just their pure bias towards the police. Will Wilson still resign? He can’t possibly work in Ferguson again
Mindyme, based on the excuses that McCullough is making for the grand jury, it sounds as if they decided that Black witnesses whose testimony benefited Wilson, were considered above the testimonies of Black witnesses that were not beneficial to Wilson. That must be the attitude of grand juries in KKK land.
There was never any doubt. we all knew it would end this way
roderick2012 | 11/24/2014 at 10:03 pm
@Mindy, you’re correct.
All of these actions over the past months–Nixon speaking in Ferguson about some type of economic plan to aid the citizens of Ferguson, declaring a state of emergency long before the grand jury’s decision, preparing for riots.
It’s funny that these clowns honestly believe that they pulled one over on everyone which is proof that racism not only makes one arrogant but STUPID.
Roderick, this is what Retired Chief of Police from Philadelphia Ray Lewis had to say.
Here’s another statement from August 22.
yahtzeebutterfly | 11/25/2014 at 2:17 pm
Thanks for these videos, Mindy. I had watched the second one in August.
Retired Captain Ray Lewis is right on point!
Lolypop | 11/25/2014 at 9:22 pm
Thank goodness for those like him.
roderick2012 | 11/24/2014 at 9:59 pm
it sounds as if they decided that Black witnesses whose testimony benefited Wilson, were considered above the testimonies of Black witnesses that were not beneficial to Wilson.
I don’t believe that these witnesses exist and if they do we don’t know what portion(s) of their testimony agrees with Wilson’s.
I wonder if the two white contractors who were caught on video seconds after Brown was shot were called as witnesses of if that video was entered into evidence.
shannoninmiami | 11/25/2014 at 12:32 am
I don’t believe the ‘black witness’ story either.
but if there were i have no problem imagining police or someone finding venerable ppl they could “persuade” to testify in defense of Wilson. we’ve seen unethical, illegal behavior & blatant lies from officials directly to the media even when facts obviously contradict them. there’s tons of videos of cops shaking ppl down w/threats of jail or prison or whatever to get them to do things for them.
Very neat trick, their names are kept secret, those who’s testimony supported Wilson’s story.
This is what is so upsetting to me.
We have NO idea just who those witnesses were and if they were EVEN standing in a position to REALLY see what was happening.
*Sobbing*
Michael, Michael, MICHAEL Miiiiiiiiiiichael !!!!!
I am so heartbroken and shattered!
So very sad yahtzee! : (
You need a hug!
I’m sending hugs and pats to you.
yahtzeebutterfly | 11/25/2014 at 11:43 pm
Thanks and here’s a hug for you.
So many are hurting tonight. So many worried and scared for their children.
I am sending prayers for Michael’s parents and loved ones….I can’t only imagine the pain that this decision inflicted upon them.
Lolypop | 11/26/2014 at 2:40 am
Thanks here too yahtzee.
I know, his parents and family have been hurting too long and never was justice, the police have acted worse than children.
The police are just getting by with murder every time and it is scary.
Very scary.
I’m disgusted with their action and their code blue of silence or lying.
Yep, they’re right, they are all Darren Wilson.
They should all say on their bracelets, they protect and defend each other, not the citizens.
Shameful!
Truly shocking news, I have to say that my heart goes out to all those involved. I am not sure what led to the decision, I do know even if the young man struggled with the officer for his gun as was reported he still was un armed and didn’t deserve to be shot and killed. Wounded and taken to jail to stand trial perhaps if that was the only way the officer could have detained him. I don’t know what would have been appropriate, I do know that this is a tragic incident that could have and should have been handled differently. It does indeed seem that those wearing the badges are not held to the same standards as the rest of the community. Perhaps they are truly protected by and above the law?
Joe, thanks for your comment. I am without words –still listening to McCullough and it sounds like he operated the grand jury’s investigation like a trial jury. No justice, no trust.
SHAMFUL!
The police get away with murder!
There is no justice to help us all.
They should be ashamed!
Why are tax payers footing the bill for bullet proof vests, tasers, and pepper spray, when cops only use bullets?
We PAY them to do this to us
butterflydreamer2 | 11/25/2014 at 7:01 am
Like I said, We need to ask for a refund on our taxes. I don’t recall a box to check that states there is an additional black tax accessed if you want police protection for African Americans.
Envy | 11/24/2014 at 9:06 pm
Listening to McCullough, you’d think that Darren Wilson was the victim in all of this. I’m not surprised by the decision not to indict. Anyone black that is surprised needs to wake up. Obama is supposed to speak tonight. He’ll probably give some sorry speech about how we’re all united.
A comment was made that McCullough sounded more like a defense attorney the a prosecuting attorney.
Don’t jaywalk in broad light.
Don’t go to a convenience store after dark.
Don’t pick up a toy gun in a department store.
Don’t camp in a public camping ground when you’re homeless.
Don’t play hide-n-seek if you’re a kid and don’t play with a toy gun in a playground.
Don’t have Down Syndrome and try to purchase a movie ticket.
Don’t state that you can’t breath when you’re being choked.
Don’t lean into your car to get your driver’s license.
This has to STOP. Innocent unarmed people are becoming victims of quite a few out of control cops. Where are our nations leaders?? No one in power seems to be making an effort to end this violence. No good cops are turning in the bad cops…well some have been whistleblowers, but whistleblowers end up being “punished” instead of the bad cops.
Where are our nations leaders??
There’s nothing that the nation’s leaders can do because police departments are under the authority of municipalities. City mayors usually appoint chiefs of police, who hire cops. They make policies that require cops to live within a certain number of miles from where the cop shop is located and that generally results in the majority of the cops not being residents of the city or communities in which they work. They would not want the job if it came without a gun.
shannoninmiami | 11/25/2014 at 11:24 pm
i guess i’ve always been under the impression that ALL police had to live in the same place they worked, until now in ferguson!
when I was 17 I dated a fort lauderdale cop and he told me he had to live in the same city he worked in.
Also an old friend’s boyfriend (and his mom) is a city of Miami cop (now detective and his dumb ass is often on that show 48hrs doing what i recently realized is exploiting young poor black males and other poor ppl who don’t have attnys)
and I remember when he was coming out of the academy he & his girlfriend moved to an apartment in the city he was working in.
Same in Germany for elected officials. my ex was kinda what we call a mayor in the US. we had just gotten together at that time and he had to move out of his mom’s and buy a house in that city.
It seems like common sense for police to live in the city they work. this should be a law and strictly enforced! look how strict they are about school districts! they’ll throw your ass in jail for lying about your address.
Shannon,
That’s the problem — each municipality gets to set its rules for “residency.”
NYC lifestream of demonstration:
http://m.ustream.tv/stopmotionsolo
Reblogged this on sXe The Edge.
Congrats to Darren Wilson, I guess. He now belongs to a long line of men in history who got away with homicide. #Ferguson
— Robert Mitchell (@RLM_3) November 25, 2014
sidewinder50 | 11/24/2014 at 9:13 pm
Did McCullough say Mike ran 25 feet back toward Wilson?
Sidewinder, don’t know. When folks preference each sentence with a bunch of adjectives, it conveys to me that they are trying to convince rather than just state the truth. He lost my attention.
towerflower | 11/25/2014 at 12:08 am
Yes, he did say it. There is a diagram that I saw on CNN showing all the evidence markers and one of them was a blood trail showing that Michael moved 25 feet toward the officer.
Well, I guess if he were in such fear for his life, he should have stayed in the car, and waited for backup to arrive.
He wasn’t in fear for his life. Such BS!
Exactly WHY did he get out of the car?
Just to kill cause they can.
I took what he said to mean that Michael only ran 20′ away from Wilson before he turned to allegedly run back
President Obama: “We are a nation of laws.”
Complete that sentence, please … laws that can be and are often applied and interpreted by men according to their biases.
We are a nation of a constitution also, but those constitutional rights do not apply to all. It should be amended to say that law enforcement gets to decide what citizens have rights to life, liberty, property, and pursuit of happiness.
James Jordan | 11/24/2014 at 9:17 pm
Conflicting stories. Let’s believe the officer. He has to be telling the truth. He shot a kid that was unarmed. I’ll never believe the kid charged that officer. That’s lunacy.
I’ll admit that I did have issues with some of the witnesses that gave public testimony. Piaget Crenshaw and Tiffany johnson lied about some of their stories and fashioned them to fit each other’s. They gave public testimony like they were in defense of mike brown, as opposed to telling the truth. I want to see the information that supports Wilson’s version of the events.
Piaget Crenshaw and Tiffany johnson lied about some of their stories and fashioned them to fit each other’s. They gave public testimony like they were in defense of mike brown, as opposed to telling the truth.
Just because some may think that the tone of their testimonies were in defense of Mike, does not mean that the content is untrue.
mindyme62 | 11/24/2014 at 10:29 pm
BS he’s telling the truth.
I found their testimony to be credible, and it matched other witness testimony. McCulloch told of other witness testimony that was far from credible. Wilson got out from the safety of his car to chase Michael down. He had other choices. He has to live with the one he made. Like Zimmerman, he seems not to be bothered, as he decided within 2 months of taking a young mans life to get married. What a slap in the face to Michaels parents, who buried the son and will never have the chance to see their boy marry and have grandchildren.
Just remember, although it may seem to others that the two witness’s stories look like they were fashioned to fit each other, Wilson never made a written report right after the incident as required by all officers, so there is nothing to compare his story to. Seems like he’s the one who had full opportunity to make his story fit, considering he had the knowledge of witness testimony.
I also found their testimony to be credible.
I agree with you butterflydreamer when you write:
This is the face Mike Brown died for. pic.twitter.com/Ke63DFYycr
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) November 25, 2014
there is redness, yet when Michael was running away, as Wilson was shooting at him, he was no longer a threat, this was not self defense.
I’ve seen mosquito bites that look worst. You’re right — Michael ran. I just don’t know — it seems that some cops do not belong in that job. They are like deep sea divers who never expect to get wet.
I hope the protestors stay safe and the officers do their job to protect them, allowing them their right to peacefully assemble
Exactly, Mindy!
Geez, I wonder how that happened? I guess when he had his body through the window to reach across an unholster Wilson’s gun, he reached up to slap him on the right side of his face. Unbelievable.
Butterflydreamer,
Don’t you know. A punch to the right-side of Wilson’s face on the passenger side, can be magically made by a tall, large 18-year old Black guy standing on the driver’s side of the vehicle. Not only that, but it justifies shooting the 18-year old in the top of the head, spilling his brains onto the street. (snark)
chuquestaquenumber1 | 11/25/2014 at 10:36 am
While ,this is disappointing. Sad to say Don Lemon who I normally don’t agree with did call this some time ago.Remember when we were told Mike Brown punched out Wilson’s eye socket? The racists got a twofer. Wilson’s non indictment,plus the rioting which will be further used to vilify Black people. Just remember,there were 6 riots that happened by members of the dominant society this year. Seattle,Lexington,Storrs,Phoenix,Keene and SanFrancisco. Meanwhile another Black man walking in a staircase gets shot by an NYPD officer.Later a 12 yr old Black kid in Cleveland is shot to death for playing with a airsoft gun. Meanwhile non Black people continuously can go by the White House with weapons in their cars,infiltrate a 1st Daughters motorcade,etc and not get shot.A reminder how the struggle is ongoing.
Chuquest,
That’s a great summary. Of course, rioting because of pumpkins is forgiven and blamed on alcohol consumption. Breaches in security at the White House really bother me. It’s almost as if they are test drives to see weaknesses before launching the real thing.
Well — we can say that as a prosecutor, McCullough is a loser. He is suppose to get indictments from grand juries. Failing to do that, he failed the people. He should have had his head in his hands wondering where he went wrong, rather than giving the public a closing argument of a defense attorney at his press conference.
Darren Wilson, you are a disgusting person.
Overwhelming evidence pic.twitter.com/UYQH0DCS4P
— Wayno (@Wayno119) November 25, 2014
more like underwhelming evidence
Shaun King @ShaunKing · 6h 6 hours ago
It just dawned on me that while Darren Wilson was taking photos @ the hospital Mike was still laying on the street.
For sake of comparison… @tomgara @samsteinhp @carvin pic.twitter.com/EYARhjE4zP
— Graham Lampa (@grahamlampa) November 25, 2014
My friend Omotayo has a theory that folks who’s ears are lower than their eyes are more likely to be deviant than others. I had to share this with him on his FB..
LOL@Mindyme. If Wilson had to wear eyeglasses, his nostrils would have good vision.
shannoninmiami | 11/25/2014 at 8:49 am
omg I panicked and ran to check my ear level, cuz i’m pretty deviant! but thankfully my ears aren’t completely lower than my eyes!!llolo
but what’s so scary is Wilson is creepy looking. Zimmerman is creepy looking. i’d hate to imagine everyone who looks creepy is a cold blooded murderer or could be one day.
LOL! Shannon…so funny!
I also checked my ears in the mirror for fun….They are okay and reach above my eyes.
(I will have to go check out Yoda’s ear level now.)
We’ve just learned the grand jury convened to investigate the shooting death of Michael Brown has chosen not to indict Officer Darren Wilson.
C, this is a devastating setback in our fight for justice. But the grand jury’s decision does not mean a crime was not committed in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 9. It does not mean we are done fighting for Michael Brown.
Sign our petition to the Department of Justice. Demand resolution to the federal, criminal civil rights investigation into Michael Brown’s death.
http://action.naacp.org/page/m/474a3e97/798f72ae/7517576e/2f713a8d/1032652933/VEsE/
We are all filled with frustration, disbelief, and anger over this decision. That the officer who shot and killed an unarmed black man with his hands in the air remains free is appalling. Local officials in Ferguson utterly failed in their duties to conduct an open and transparent investigation.
The local prosecutor who oversaw the grand jury process has significant personal, family, and professional ties to the local police department—the same local police who were slow to talk to witnesses and eager to attack protesters and journalists.
We will not allow this to be another Sanford, Florida. We will not allow the justice system to let us down once more. Take action today, for Michael, and for all of our sons.
While the NAACP joins the community in standing for peaceful protest, we will hold law enforcement officials accountable and ask that they adhere to the rules of engagement agreed upon.
We stand united with the community and other activists groups, demanding that all police officers wear operable body cameras; police departments reflect the diversity of the community that they are serving; and that Congress passes the End Racial Profiling Act.
Sign our petition to the Department of Justice right now:
http://action.naacp.org/write-the-DOJ-now
Cornell William Brooks
(I should have placed the above in italics.)
thanks for this YB!
YW, Mindy!
Jueseppi B. | 11/24/2014 at 10:26 pm
Reblogged this on MrMilitantNegro™.
James Jordan | 11/24/2014 at 10:40 pm
Those injuries that wilson claims he has is pathetic. Matches his fake testimony. He lied from start to finish. Said he was hit 10 times. Said he tried to exit his vehicle and was pushed back in 3 different times. This is ridiculous. I can’t believe this is happening. I’m so thankful that I don’t live anywhere near St Louis. It almost like the Leadership by public officials and police department is racist and blatantly displayed. McCullough was sooo condescending with his tone. They have got to remove that guy by all means.
he had 2 hours to get that ‘injury’ ready to be photographed before he even went to the hospital
kindheart101 | 11/24/2014 at 10:48 pm
I have checked, there are tickets available for tomorrow. I am thinking of flying in to support them on the front line.
RIP Mike…..
Hey kindheart! I was thinking about making the drive but we’re expecting more snow.
If I had the money I’d go in a heartbeat.
yeseventhistoowillpass | 11/24/2014 at 11:33 pm
The prosecutor almost seemed to be more like a defense attorney… Weird..
Yeah Juan — I was waiting for the prosecutor to speak.
I agree, Juan!
I need to read the evidence presented to the grand jury to determine the prosecution’s approach.
I feel very strongly that Gov. Nixon should have appointed a special prosecutor.
towerflower | 11/24/2014 at 11:56 pm
CNN just posted a diagram that answered a question that I had early on. If MB had charged/advanced on DW there would be a blood trail. The diagram they posted had markers on where various evidence was and one of them was a blood trail……not from the car to where he died but further away going back to the car which shows that he did advance on DW.
Also they explained some of the original witnesses admitted they did not see the shooting but instead repeated what they heard from the crowd, I’m wondering how many of them where some of those who the press interviewed or if they were someone else.
I want to see all the documents……
Towerflower, I looked at the photos but they don’t actually tell me anything. Also, I’m thinking about the audio recording of the shots and trying to visualize Michael bum rushing Wilson as Wilson is shooting. There is also that question the path of the shot to the head that indicates Michael was falling, and the shot to the top of his head that indicates he was already down.
When the discussion about MB first started, we all believed the narrative that MB never advanced on DW, I even said if he had there would have been a blood trail from his wounds. We now know from this released info there was indeed a blood trail and MB advanced 25′ toward DW, based on the where the blood trail was at it furthest point to where MB ended up.
I don’t know if he was bum-rushing, running, or walking back…..all I’m saying is the blood trail shows he moved toward DW. I don’t know what possessed MB to go back toward the officer.
I believe that the shots to the head occurred as he was falling.
Towerflower,
If Michael indeed moved toward Wilson, only he can say why and he’s dead. He could have been going for his cap. He could have thought that Wilson could not hear his pleas from the distance and he needed to get closer. After all, Wilson’s ears are not in balance with his head. His ear drums are probably in his nostrils. Okay — mocking aside …
Wilson had a reason for getting out of his vehicle and it didn’t involve enforcing the law. He was vindictive and was going to teach that community a lesson to use the sidewalk.
towerflower, have you heard Wilson’s ABC interview? becuz you know, you’re our resident responsible gun expert 🙂 i’d love to hear your opinions, most specifically on his story of the ‘struggle with the gun in the car’ part.
cuz i’m dumbfounded that a cop says he pulled the trigger 3 times but nothing happens, 3 times?! does that make sense in your experience?
I can’t speak to the blood trail yet because I’m not ready to look at pics, still too raw for me. so far all I’ve been able to stomach is reading tiny bits& pieces of testimony and watching snips of Wilson’s interview and the msnbc discussing the docu dumps.
I haven’t seen the interview in full, only pieces. I’ll have to find it on youtube. But if you pull a trigger on the gun and nothing happens then you have an issue…..it could be several things.
1. not cocked….with his pistol you need to pull the slide back to load and cock the pistol.
2. Misfire…..something was wrong with the ammo and the shell does not fire.
3. Hangfire……again this deals with the ammo, it will not be an instant fire but a slow burn of the gunpowder and the fire will be delayed. You have to wait 30 seconds to be on the safe side before you recycle the gun, this is to ensure that it is not a hangfire but instead a misfire. There is a chance that if it is a hangfire and if you recycle the gun (pull the slide back to eliminate the bad ammo and reload a good round) too soon you could potentially open the slide and the shell could then go off. This can result in damage to the gun and yourself.
But no matter what if you pull a trigger and nothing happens it requires that the gun be recycled……pulling the slide back again to recycle the gun…..eliminate the bad round, reloads a new round and cocks the firearm again.
I did have a match style pistol that allowed you to pull the trigger back on more than one occasion but the pistol was malfunctioning. It would allow me to pull the trigger back several times and sometimes it would strike the bullet on the 3rd pull. This is not right and the gun went back to the factory to be repaired and the entire trigger assembly had to be replaced. I cannot imagine a cop would have such a pistol without having it replaced/repaired, since his life might depend on the correct operation of a firearm you don’t want one that will not fire correctly.
So if he says he pulled the trigger 3 times and nothing happened then why doesn’t he mention having to recycle the firearm? If anything the only thing I can think of is that he might have thought he was pulling back on the trigger but in fact he wasn’t pulling it back enough or he didn’t have his finger on the trigger. With the struggle in the car it’s hard to say. But you don’t pull back on a trigger 3 times without doing more to the firearm.
I should also say….with a semi-automatic pistol like he has, it will only recycle on it’s own when a good round is fired from the gun. If it is a bad round then the shooter needs to recycle the gun by pulling the slide back.
shannoninmiami | 11/26/2014 at 2:55 pm
Thanks for the explanation. So we can rule out ‘un cocked’ & ‘hang fire’ bcuz it did end up firing without blowing up and/or recycling until later during the ‘struggle’ but after it fired at least once…it’s a convoluted story in my mind. his stories change significantly between police interview, the grand jury testimony to his TV interview, but he’s freakishly consistent in his descriptive and extraneous details about what Mike was doing and thinking and how infantile he felt compared to Mike,
he even says Mike “hopped, you know, like when a person is starting to run.” his stories are just as outrageous as Zimmerman’s. “he wasn’t running out of fear he was skipping.”
Wilson and Zimmerman have the same mentality, two of a kind. it’s scary.
We now know from this released info there was indeed a blood trail and MB advanced 25′ toward DW, based on the where the blood trail was at it furthest point to where MB ended up. posted by Towerflower
I agree and now accept this as fact after reviewing the pertinent evidence.
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/photo-galleries/2014/11/24/michael-brown-evidence-from-shooting-scene/
At this link above….photo 82 of 83 does show the distance that Michael reversed his direction from blood marker 20 to 19 to the ghastly blood pool at the right of the picture on the road’s center double yellow line.
******I have NEVER heard a valid explanation justifying the need for Wilson to chase after Michael while shooting at Michael.******
For so many blood drips to be close together, one has to wonder if Michael simply had turned around and stood a bit at those to locations (#20 and #19) as he said his surrendering words with his hands up (and thumb still bleeding).
I think he took SLOW steps as he surrendered. (Don’t forget that 21 or 22 feet is about the length of a regular car.) And, who knows, he might have taken those first few steps by walking backwards towards Wilson…finally turning around to face Wilson after a few steps.
FAA has once again closed the airspace over Ferguson due to gunfire. Police aren’t sure where shots are going.
Well that law also seems to apply to some civilians too.
Like the civilian who’s careful enough to choose an already ‘killing approved’ civilian, such as a 17yo black teenage boy, deemed suspicious for walking home in a middle class neighborhood to watch the All Star game on an early Sunday evening.
Oh and the civilian must be “whiter” than the one they kill.
Grand Jury evidence: http://apps.stlpublicradio.org/ferguson-project/evidence.html
Great, thanks for posting the link, tower flower
Going to take awhile to go through it all…..one thing I found was DW was given drug and alcohol test.
The results of Wilson’s alcohol and drug tests are redacted. If they were negative, they should not have redacted. Wilson is the accused in this matter — not Michael, but they didn’t redact Michael’s test results.
Xena…..I thought the drug one was a little blank…..but the alcohol one had a signature space for the testee to sign if they tested over .02. That wasn’t signed by DW so I’m assuming he passed the alcohol testing.
When I was drug tested for work you had the main paper/chain of custody that you filled out but the results showed up several weeks later in the mail.
REDACTED???!! But NOT for MIKE???!! WOWWWW!! THAT IS OUTRAGOUS!!
sherayx | 11/25/2014 at 12:32 am
Reblogged this on SherayxWeblog.
Sherayx, thanks for the reblog.
sherayx | 12/06/2014 at 1:09 am
Your more than welcome, thanks for the post.
sherayx | 12/09/2014 at 11:30 pm
Your very welcome, thanks for posting!
Crime scene photos…..blood trail is in here at the end of the 83 photos. http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/photo-galleries/2014/11/24/michael-brown-evidence-from-shooting-scene/
Photo #40 shows a bullet casing (at yellow marker 3) on the ground about two feet away from Wilsons cruiser’s driver’s door. This must mean that as soon as Wilson got out of his cruiser, he IMMEDIATELY began shooting at Michael as he was fleeing.
OR it could mean that Ofc. Wilson turned his body in his cruiser to face toward the back of his cruiser with his head and right gun hand outside the window and shot at Michael as he was fleeing in the direction behind Wilson’s cruiser. If this were the case, perhaps the recoil of his gun came back and hit him in the cheek which would explain the injury on Wilson’s cheek.
(Photo #41 shows a close-up of this casing.)
On Wilson’s RIGHT cheek.
Depending on how the gun was aimed when he fired those two shots from within the car it is not impossible for the shell casing to end up outside of the vehicle. Shell casings do not come back at the shooter but discharge off to the right.
I think i heard mc culloch say that they did NOT recover the 2nd bullet at the truck? I wonder if they found ( I think it was 12) ALL 12 bullets & casings. but damn, the ballistics alone was enough for a trial.
I believe what he meant by that is that they found the shell casing but they never recovered the bullet fired. They may never find it, a bullet can travel a good distance and if the path was clear it could have ended up several streets over.
Ferguson prosecutor Robert McCulloch delivered a long-winded, smirking speech blaming social media, journalists, Ferguson residents, and pretty much everyone else who isn’t Darren Wilson, for Darren Wilson shooting and killing 18-year-old Michael Brown.
It took McCulloch 10 minutes of hectoring before he revealed the grand jury had found no probable cause to indict Wilson, and the rest of the 45-minute speech, in which McCulloch seemed to be presenting evidence in Wilson’s favor, felt more like defense attorney’s argument than a prosecutor’s.
http://gawker.com/ferguson-prosecutors-idiot-speech-blames-everyone-but-d-1662970833?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_twitter&utm_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
From the article which you linked, Xena:
“The very length of McCulloch’s rambling statement, really, and the amount of evidence he felt compelled to argue against, was in and of itself a fair argument that the case should have gone to trial.”
This is it in a nutshell!!!
And the proof of this is found in McCulloch’s slip-of-the-tongue incorrectly calling the grand jury’s decision “the VERDICT” ………..From timestamp 26:19 to 26:33 of the video of McCulloch’s presser announcing the grand jury’s decision:
McCulloch: “By statute the grand jury is not allowed nor is anyone allowed to ask what the VERDICT oh, I’m sorry, what the ‘vote’ was, nor are they allowed to or anyone allowed to ask what the discussion was, the opinions expressed by the other grand jurors.”
(Only trial juries hand down a “verdict.”)
I really think McCulloch’s intentions behind his guidance of his team’s presentation to the grand jury IS found in this slip-of-the-tongue of his.
Here’s Mister Adjectives’ announcement.
I watched too much of it and I cant really stand to hear it again. no doubt he was a defense lawyer for Wilson. his flippant arrogance is scary actually& it reminds me of a comment he made several years ago about some other victims whom he called scumbags or something to that effect.
he should’ve been dismissed back then for his unprofessional public comments. imagine how he speaks about ppl in private.
Xena, when/if you get a chance, can you elaborate on what you mean in your above comment about what it means when someone uses too many adjectives in their comments?
There are methods that some people use to get the result they want in terms of emotion, credibility, or even to provoke anger or pass blame. McCullough’s use of adjectives such as “tirelessly,” “monumental,” “exhaustive,” were incorporated in his description of the work of the grand jurors. How does he know? What he did was give the grand jurors a performance review, which is not his job. His job was to present evidence of probable cause. He failed at that job while giving the grand jurors an adjective filled performance review as if the process was a competitive sport.
I’m so sad and really heart broken and angry.
I’ve had company all evening and didn’t turn on the TV.
I thought I’m come here and check.
It’s late and I’m going to bed, but it isn’t going to be easy to sleep.
So very sad for Mike Brown his family Ferguson and America.
Why God Why????
I feel the same way as you, Lolypop.
I have deep aching and also have that same “Why God Why????”
This from Shaun King points the way forward (hopefully)
Shaun King @ShaunKing · 12h 12 hours ago
I am going to throw my life into solutions .
I hope you’ll join me.
Full force. All in.
Something’s gotta give. A change has to come.
Yahtzee,
I agree. Something’s gotta give.
I was just thinking, here the police are all armed, the guard armed, the protestors not.
I know rioting is wrong but dammit taking a LIFE has got to stop.
How DO they show their frustration.
This reminded me of LA. The bastard Gates said and I quote let them all kill themselves and called the police to leave.
To have this kind of tragedy happen is unforgivable.
So, Wilson sits behind a desk and id paid.
This WHOLE thing could have been prevented from the beginning and it wasn’t.
HOW can a police officer get by with murder???
It can’t keep happening. Like you said a change has to change!
Such a very sad time!!!!
shyloh | 11/25/2014 at 9:38 am
Darren Wilson most likely slapped himself in the face and said “oh crap gotta make it look like I was attacked” UGH! I am so so sad. I have no words for what happened. Just. No justice for Michael Brown. Or anyone that is black for that matter.
Shyloh,
It’s the old game of retribution that is played today by many who hold to sovereign citizen ideology of “common law.” It is void of decency and at this time, rather than play-out the Hatfield and McCoy feud, the one with the gun just kills the other.
George Stephanopoulos interviewed Darren Wilson. I wonder when he will interview Michael Brown to hear his side of the story. Oh — that’s right. The other party involved is dead because of Wilson.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/exclusive-george-stephanopoulos-interviews-police-officer-darren-wilson/story?id=27173861
I feel like throwing up from just hearing the news that Wilson was interviewed.
Jackie Saulmon Ramirez | 11/25/2014 at 3:59 pm
Somebody who does that to a child has no heart. If he had not harassed Michael he would be alive today.
Wilson didn’t even see Michael as a “suspect” but rather, a demonized, elderly, former wrestler named Hulk Hogan.
Wilson was wrong to accost Brown the way he did. If Michael were white, Wilson would not have harassed him. They said he “charged” Wilson; I don’t know but I bet he said things to upset him. No law enforcement should ever challenge or disrespect a person; they are supposed to protect and serve the public – and the last I heard, African Americans are the “public.”
I am furious over this. I read a few minutes ago that there are new laws and regulations being proposed to protect property…. well what about protecting PEOPLE?
I am too disgusted with this decision. I bet I have signed 5 petitions today. And I have little hope even that will help. 😦
Jackie, I believe what you say. After Thanksgiving, I’m getting on the soap box. There are many things involved in this issue and all of the talking heads on television, although some are well intended, are not addressing the root.
At first when I heard this I imagined DW as a little 5′ nothin’ cop. Then I hear that he is 6’4″ and about 210 while MB is 6’6″ and 290…….that isn’t a large difference.
roderick2012 | 11/26/2014 at 5:08 am
@Towerflower, MB was 6’4 and 290 so they were the same height.
But that doesn’t matter because MB had the Mandingo gene just like Trayvon did that night and even though Piglet outweighed Trayvon by over 50lbs Trayvon was able to manhandle the helpless Piglet to the point where Piglet wasn’t able to raise his hands to protect his face. /sarc
I saw this comment under this article and it’s exactly the types of things I started thinking when the grand jury leaks came out about these mysterious “12 black witnesses testified in defense of wilson”
I think this has to be looked into by the DOJ. the police, prosecutor and the governor who are both in bed w/ the guy roorda in the police union and ran for senate and involved in Wilson’s defense fund and that. they all need to be investigated for conspiracy to obstruct justice and tampering with evidence and/or witnesses and falsifying evidence. I mean there’s even indications that public officials are sympathetic to the KKK!
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/44074_Racism_Discrimination_and_Privilege/comments/#ctop
A front pager at Balloon Juice noticed something…odd.
balloon-juice.com
I’ve been reading through the Ferguson grand jury doc dump released by Mr. McCullough; the documents are housed at the St. Louis public radio station here. The oddest thing I’ve seen so far is the account of Witness #40, who just happened to set out on a journey of racial self-discovery on the very morning of August 9, 2014, the day Mike Brown was killed.
By a series of amazing coincidences, this person magically ended up witnessing events, and his or her perspective aligned perfectly with Officer Wilson’s account. Witness #40’s testimony comes in the form of handwritten journal entries, which you can view for yourself here. Here’s how it starts:
August 9th Saturday 8 am
Well I’m gonna take my random drive to Florissant. Need to understand the Black race better so I stop calling Blacks n*****s and start calling them People. Like dad always said you cant fear or hate an entire race cause of what one man did 40 yrs ago.
The “journal” goes on to recount how Witness #40 takes a series of wrong turns and coincidentally turns up at the scene of the Brown shooting moments before it happens and sees the whole thing unfold. His or her account includes the following:
The cop just stood there dang if that kid didnt start running right at the cop like a football player. Head down.
The story is helpfully populated with “sweet” and “nice” local people whose wonderful qualities Witness #40 notes in the journal, qualities a racist who was attempting to create a post-hoc justification for a widely publicized police shooting would totally NOT appreciate, let alone record in a personal diary that later inexplicably found its way into evidence files. (wink-wink-nudge-nudge)
Read more at http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/44074_Racism_Discrimination_and_Privilege#TMzxjrCej3qlKd94.99
Amazing isn’t it? How convenient of a racial bigot to drive alone to change her mind about “those people” based on something that happened to her 40 years ago. I understand that the FBI has gone over all videos that were taken of that area and cannot identify any vehicle that belongs to “Witness 40.” McCullough and Zimmerman should have lunch together to celebrate being the most hated men in America.
Orly? I didn’t realize the feds couldn’t find this person, but maybe that’s bc ‘she’ was too busy telling another story on the internet radio show and going by the name of Josie!
And i wonder how often this person went on a random drives into neighborhoods of ppl they can’t stand and make a bunch of wrong turns.
BTW. i’m also under the impression that POS prosecutor didn’t even call the Brown family to give them the grand jury’s decision before his disgusting public statement. again its another slap in the face to an already traumatized family. and another act of disregard for them and Mike’s humanity by the person who’s supposed to have been their advocate. just another act of disrespect for a black child’s life by our government and a classless county prosecutor.
But the more i see how media is treating this case since the evidence dump and Obama & Holder’s statements, i’m getting a feeling that this really isn’t over.
I think the shit’s gonna hit the fan over there in Ferguson.
I think McCullough thought his plan was pretty clever but i think he found out today that he fucked up because anyone with any common sense who saw his performance last night now know he’s an inept liar and total fraud.
And now his arrogance is on full display and it’s not pretty. His attitude is that he’s above reproach and his decisions are not to be questioned. In fact he’s so smug he thinks he can make accusations and demean others not even involved in the case!
He controlled everything. And last night he wanted the spotlight ON HIM not wilson and certainly NOT Mike Brown or his family. He’s wanted all the attention and the media gave him the national stage. Why else would he want to make this huge announcement in a 45 minute speech in the middle of the damn night?
He had 3 months to orchestrated the whole thing the way HE wanted it.
pilcherje | 11/25/2014 at 10:40 pm
FPD, Wilson, McCulloch and the GJ – “If it doesn’t fit you must acquit.” But I don’t think their edges are as seamless as they think they are and I agree, things are going to come down in Ferguson when the DOJ completes their investigation.
“An attorney who does not aggressively cross-examine the target of an investigation…
“…is an attorney who does not want to get to the truth.” Lawyer and legal analyst Lisa Bloom on the sham indictment proceedings against Darren Wilson
https://storify.com/tessalaprofessa/story#publicize
“How Robert McCulloch Indicted Himself”
Posted: 11/25/2014 11:46 pm EST
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-bunch/how-robert-mcculloch-indi_b_6223204.html
BTW Crumps & Rev Al’s presser today was the BEST presser they’ve ever had! ever! it was awesome advocacy for Mike Brown and his family!
I wish he would’ve done that for Trayvon. I’m still upset no one’s been on TV and ripped open Zimmerman’s lies in detail like that. I’m still waiting for that for our poor Trayvon.
Shannon, they didn’t hold back. It was real advocacy. The difference between advocating in this matter for Mike as opposed to Trayvon, is that O’Mara and West were private attorneys defending a man accused of murder. McCullough on the other hand, is a public servant whose job is to prosecute those accused of committing crime. McCullough failed to do his job. He’s a prosecutor who cannot get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. It’s unheard of that prosecutors invite the accused to testify before the grand jury. It’s not a procedure to determine guilt or innocence but rather, probable cause.
Oh — let me add this … not only are the accused not invited to testify on their behalf before grand juries as standard procedure but there’s another reason for not allowing that. If the grand jury indicts, the accused who sat before them know who they are; if not by name, at least by physical appearance. Imagine that intimidation factor of indicting the accused if they are involved in organized crime or law enforcement.
OMG I didn’t even realize that! it’s just unbelievable. this whole thing is horrible.
btw. these fires in ferguson, at least some of them, could be the cops or KKK acts of intimidation. The Brown’s church burned down and the preacher just mentioned that once he did an interview calling for Wilson’s immediate arrest, he started getting threats in phone calls and letters.
he was called a “hate preacher” …umm just a normal Christian preacher, well a black normal Christian who speaks about equal justice is called a “racist hate preacher”..
just sounds kinda familiar to me.
this has been the first times I’ve ever been called ‘racist’ for advocating for murdered kids, and it’s such an oxymoron but then again it’s certainly not surprising coming from the morons who’s only defense is twisting reality and hoping their victims won’t notice. makes me wonder if your stalkers are in ferguson.
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NYC Battles Fatberg Epidemic
by Brokelyn staff - Feb 22, 2019 0
Bacon grease aficionados and baby wipe devotees have joined their unknowing forces by contributing to the growing number of the fatbergs clogging up New York City sewers, driving up costs for their removal, according to the City Dept. of Environment Protection.
Fatbergs are a congealed mass of improperly disposed of grease (typically cooking grease) and sanitary products that clog water infrastructure and must be manually removed.
The phenomena is a global one: In 2017, a fatberg weighing 130 tons was removed from a Liverpool, England sewer by means of a high-powered hose and manual labor, resulting in it being shipped away for recycling at the rate of 20-30 tons per day.
A giant #fatberg weighing 90 tonnes has blocked a sewer in Liverpool. Our reporter @adamphilllips has been down to the site to find out more @unitedutilities pic.twitter.com/miZSeVbA9m
— Radio City News (@RadioCityNews) February 21, 2019
Closer to home, NYC has launched a fatberg awareness campaign to get the word out on how to help solve the crisis, which equates to not flushing q-tips, tampons, and sanitary wipes and properly disposing of cooking grease:
A visit to the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn was in line for CBS NY, who reports that baby wipes continue to inundate the sewage plant at a cost of $18 million in 2017 alone for their removal:
As the raw sewage comes in from people’s homes and catch basins on the street, it travels to the treatment plant and meets its first line of defense — a gate that prevents wipes and other kinds of products from getting through.
“And whatever material that got caught on those bars is now getting pulled up and as you can see a lot of it is flushable wipes,” Sapienza said. “It’s on top of the rake. The rake is now bringing those wipes all the way to the top, to the main floor of the plant, where it’s going to be put into a dumpster to be carried away.”
In 2017, more than 50,000 tons of debris were transported to landfills. That’s equivalent to dozens of Olympic-size swimming pools. The price tag for that cleanup was around $18 million, triple from a decade ago
Bed Stuy/ Bushwick
Brokelyn
fatberg
fatbergs
nyc fatbergs
NYC news
Brooklyn’s Wegmans will open October 27th, hiring now
Wegmans, the upstate New York-based grocery store will open its first Brooklyn location this fall.
Get groovy at the Greenpointers Flower Power Spring Market (Sun, April 7th)
The not-to-be-missed Greenpointers Flower Power Spring Market is this Sunday on the Brooklyn waterfront.
Apply for the NYC affordable housing lottery at these Brooklyn buildings
A number of new Brooklyn buildings currently have “affordable” units to apply for under the NYC housing lottery.
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A Poor Season for Whales
Michiel Heyns
When, after twenty-six years of marriage, Margaret Crowley’s husband leaves her for a younger man, she has to rethink her priorities and consider her options: as a free agent, with no ‘appurtenances’, how best to turn that freedom into a meaningful future rather than a mulling over the past? Opting to leave behind her support system of family and friends, she moves to a seaside town with her dog, Benjy, intent upon a simple, uncluttered existence. But simplicity, it seems, can be a complicated affair. When the charismatic young Jimmy Prinsloo-Mazibuko enters her life and her home, apparently intent upon establishing himself as a general-purpose handyman and cook, she finds herself torn between distrust and attraction. Is he merely the helpful, cheerful young man he seems, or is there a darker purpose to his assistance?
Lwandiso
A Poor Season for Whales by Michiel Heyns
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Bøker Bok
If a straight line meets two straight lines, so as to make the two interior angles on the same side of it taken together less than two right angles...
The Elements of Euclid, containing the first six books, with a selection of ... - Side 6
av Euclides - 1874
Uten tilgangsbegrensning - Om denne boken
Euclid's Elements of Geometry: Chiefly from the Text of Dr. Simson, with ...
Robert Potts - 1876 - 403 sider
...part. X. Two straight lines cannot enclose a space. XL All right angles are equal to one another. xn. If a straight line meets two straight lines, so as...are the angles which are less than two right angles. PROPOSITION I. PROBLEM. To dlteribt an equilateral triangle upon a given finite straight lint, Let...
Elements of geometry, containing books i. to vi.and portions of books xi ...
Euclides, James Hamblin Smith - 1876 - 349 sider
...another. V. That two straight lines cannot enclose a space. VI. That if a straight line meet two other straight lines, so as to make the two interior angles...upon that side, on which are the angles, which are together less than two right angles. The word rendered "Postulates" is in the original alrriiMTa, "requests."...
Elements of geometry, based on Euclid, books i-iii
Edward Atkins - 1876 - 119 sider
...are less than two right + z GHD incrlps ' <two right angles. _ _ angles. But if a straight line meet two straight lines, so as to make the two interior...than two right angles, these straight lines being Hence AB and CD meet, and are parallel. not unequal to z GHD. and ^EOB = iGHD, >lso ZBGH + i GHD =...
Elements of geometry, based on Euclid, book i
Edward Atkins - 1877
...cannot inclose a space. 11. All right angles are equal to one another. 12. If a straight line meet two straight lines, so as to make the two interior...lines being continually produced shall at length meet on that side on which are the angles which are less than two right angles. Explanation of Terms and...
Euclid, book i., propositions i. to xxvi., with exercises and alternative ...
Euclides - 1877
...cannot inclose a space. 11. All right angles are equal to one another. 1 2. If a straight line meet two straight lines so as to make the two interior...taken together, less than two right angles, these two straight lines being continually produced shall at length meet on that side on which are the angles...
...straight lines cannot enclose a space. VI. That if a straight line meet two other straight lines, BO as to make the two interior angles on the same side...upon that side, on which are the angles, which are together less than two right angles. The word rendered "Postulates" is in the original curfiluiTa,...
Euclides, James Hamblin Smith - 1879
...two straight lines cannot enclose a space. VI. That if a straight line meet two other straight lmos, so as to make the two interior angles on the same...upon that side, on which are the angles, which are together less than two right angles. The word rendered "Postulates" is in the original alrl1fiaTa,...
Moffatt's scholarship answers, by T.J. Livesey (T. Page).
Moffatt and Paige - 1879
...sides. 4. Three angles. Of these, Case 4 is the only one where the rule is not necessarily true. (d) If a straight line meets two straight lines, so as...lines, being continually produced, shall at length meet on that side on which are the angles which are less than two right angles. SECTION II. (Three Questions.)...
The Elements of geometry; or, The first six books, with the eleventh and ...
...another. xn If a straight line meets two straight lines, no as to make the two interior angles on thr same side of it, taken together, less than two right angles, these straight lines, oeing continually produced, shall at length meet T upon that side on which are the angles which \ are...
Class lessons on Euclid
Marianne Nops - 1882
...is with these that the sixth postulate deals. It tells us that ' If a straight line meets two other straight lines so as to make the two interior angles...it, taken together less than two right angles, these lines, being continually produced, shall at length meet upon that side on which are the angles which...
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Thu. Jan 14th, 2021
mike purtill
WEW Podcast: Chuckles Goldberg is Champion!
Hi everyone, Bryan here… Here is a special segment of our amazing podcast called ‘Wrestling is...
WEW Podcast Ep. #6 – WWE Hidden Gems Breakdown!
Hi everyone, Bryan here… This is our sixth episode our new brand of podcast called ‘Wrestling...
WEW Poscast Ep. 4 – Pro Wrestling Guerrilla: The Battle of Los Angeles!
Sep 9, 2016 Bryan Kluger
Hi everyone, Bryan here… This is our inaugural episode our new brand of podcast called...
WEW Podcast Ep. 2 – NXT Takeover Brooklyn II, Summerslam 2016, The Miz!
WEW Podcast Ep. 1- Rusev Machkas, Heath Slater for President, and CWC!
WWE Podcast Strikes Back in Viperville and Suplex City!
Hi everyone, Bryan here… That’s right, folks. The MULTI-MEDIA MEN’S all WWE Wrestling podcast is...
WWE: Top 10 Opening Matches in Wrestlemania History!
Feb 9, 2016 Bryan Kluger
Mike P., Here… We are officially on the road to Wrestlemania 32. To kick off...
Podcast: WWE Royal Rumble 2016 Predictions!
Hi everyone, Bryan Here…. We have a Special Edition WWE podcast for you on the...
WWE: Hell Will Rain Down on ‘Hell in a Cell 2015’ This Sunday!
Mike, Here… There is a dark cloud of reality hanging over this Sunday’s Hell in...
Top 5 WWE Summerslam Matches!!
Mike P., Here… WWE’s 2nd biggest event of the year is coming up this Sunday...
WWE: Stone Cold Steve Austin v. Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 32??
Mike P., Here… We’re back. After roughly 15 years of irrelevance, with a couple exceptions for...
WWE: Mike’s 2015 ‘Elimination Chamber’ Preview!
Mike P., Here… Confession: I recently confronted the possibility of taking a break from WWE....
WWE: What You Need To Know Going into the 2015 ‘Royal Rumble’!!
M.D.P., Here… One thing that you should know about me is that I love the...
WWE: What To Expect from ‘TLC 2014’!!
M.D.P., Here… Last month I wrote that the most intriguing storyline WWE had going...
CM Punk Joins the UFC!!
M.D.P. Here… The toughest thing about being a wrestling fan is that some people just don’t get...
WWE: What to Expect from ‘Survivor Series 2014’!
Mike P., Here… A quick note before we get to the Survivor Series preview: as...
WWE: Hell in a Cell 2014 Preview!!
Mike P., Here… There is a saying* that sometimes it’s hell trying to get to...
WWE: ‘Night of Champions’: Dean Ambrose ‘The Lunatic Fringe’!!
Hi, MDP Here… On a night that was supposed to be all about WWE’s championships,...
News Podcast Television
WWE Podcast #2: The WWE Network, Elimination Chamber, and NXT Results!!
Hi, Bryan Here… Here is a special exciting episode of The Multi-Media Men podcast. In this segment,...
Special Podcast: WWE Royal Rumble 2014 Discussion!!
Hi, Bryan Here… Here is a special exciting episode of The Multi-Media Men podcast. In...
The Ultimate Preview For ‘Wrestlemania 29’!!!
Mike P., Here….. The most exciting event in American television is coming up this Sunday,...
Mike’s Summerslam 2012 Results and Review!!! The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!!!
Mike's Summerslam 2012 Review!!! The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!!!
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TravelChevron Right IconChina
‘No basis in fact’: Australia rejects China’s dramatic accusations
Colin Brinsden
AAP/7NEWS
Published: Saturday, 6 June 2020 9:33 AM
China's travel ban
China warns against travel to Australia.
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has rejected China’s accusation of Australians attacking Chinese people during the coronavirus pandemic.
China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has advised the public to avoid travelling to Australia, citing racial discrimination and violence against Chinese people in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watch the video above for detail about China’s travel warning
“There has been an alarming increase recently in acts of racial discrimination and violence against Chinese and Asians in Australia, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday evening.
It did not give any specific examples of such discrimination or violence.
“We reject China’s assertions in this statement, which have no basis in fact,” Senator Birmingham told AAP in a statement on Saturday.
“Our rejection of these claims, which have been falsely made by Chinese officials previously, is well known to them.”
He said it was unfortunate that Australia had to close its borders with China to protect the country from COVID-19 as it spread from Wuhan.
WATCH OUT!A stadium-sized asteroid is heading towards us this weekend
At more than 335 metres in diameter, the asteroid is coming dangerously close.
“This decision was criticised by the Chinese Government at the time, but it proved to be a critical decision in keeping Australians safe from the devastation faced by much of the rest of the world,” he said.
“Australia is enjoying world leading success in suppressing the spread of COVID-19 and, when the health advice allows, we look forward to again welcoming visitors from all backgrounds to our safe and hospitable nation.”
This is the latest is a series of frictions between the two countries.
China last month slapped a tariff on imports of Australian barley as well as blocking beef imports from several Australian sources due to labelling issues, coinciding with Australia calling for an investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 virus in China.
Labor’s Jason Clare believes there has been a spike in racist abuse during the pandemic and hopes Foreign Minister Marise Payne is talking to China.
PETITION PLEACalls for student to be expelled over ‘deeply disturbing’ post
More than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for the university to take disciplinary action against the girl.
“I hope that she’s on the phone talking to the Chinese government about this, as well as all of the other issues that seem to be a problem at the moment,” Mr Clare told ABC television on Saturday.
“I’m sure I speak on behalf of all of the tourist operators up and down and right across Australia when I say that we want to get tourists back when it’s safe to do so,” he said.
Liberal backbencher Jason Faliniski said clearly Australia is going through a more strained time with China than it has before.
“I think diplomacy is best done quietly and not done publicly and with a fog horn,” he told ABC television.
“I think that there have been unfortunate incidents where people have been blaming members of the Chinese community for the pandemic in Australia, so that’s something that we need to resolve.”
He said the prime minister and the leader of the opposition have both spoken quite strongly against this.
ChinaPoliticsTourism
4:56 PM Thai's 43-year sentence for king insult
4:56 PM Firefighters called to reports of WA house fire discover BODY burning inside
4:47 PM 'Being treated seriously': Three Queensland communities warned as virus fragments found in sewage
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Home Euro Clubs Ligue 1 Paris Saint-Germain Kick-off With Clean Sheet, Without Neymar
Paris Saint-Germain Kick-off With Clean Sheet, Without Neymar
Ligue 1 2019-2020
The two times French champions, PSG started its Ligue 1 season at home against Nîmes and easily won 3-0. Cavani, Mbappé and Di Maria scored the goals for PSG whereas the Brazilian superstar Neymar was not with the team.
Neymar’s departure from PSG is in the minds of everyone and the story of the summer in France. The Brazilian did not participate in the triumph of his country at Copa America and have been rumored to go back to FC Barcelona or maybe sign with Real Madrid.
At Parc des Princes stadium, PSG fans show their disgust against the star and asked me to leave the club. The star in Paris is French World Cup champion Kylian Mbappé. It is better for everybody, the club and Neymar that the Brazilian moves on after being bought for over $245m from Barcelona two seasons ago.
PSG added over the summer pieces to its midfield with two players from the Premier League (Andes Herrera, from Manchester United and Idrissa Gueye from Everton) in hopes to solidify an area that showed deficiencies in the past. With the probable departure of Neymar, PSG’s recruiting unit will be able to add to an already competitive squad for Ligue 1 and Champions League.
Coach Tuchel comments on the game:
It was a near-perfect evening. There are always things to improve, but we controlled the match well. Certain players only resumed training with us ten days ago, so I’m very happy with what we did tonight. We kept our structure and we kept on our pressing. That allowed us to win the ball back higher up the pitch and quicker and this was a deserved win.
Italian midfielder Verrati added:
It’s a real pleasure to be back at the Parc and start a new season here. We had a good month of pre-season training and now we’re into the competition. It’s always good to start at home and with a win, we are very happy to be back with our fans. We hope this will be a great season.
Previous articleManchester City and Liverpool Bring It On
Next articleIs this Leeds United’s Year (Again)?
Brazilian Connection Answers for PSG With Big Victory
Man United and PSG stunned, Chelsea Made it Simple
Man City In Champions League Cruise Control
Booed Neymar Delivers PSG With Last Minute Stunner Goal – September 14, 2019 at 1:47 pm
[…] by the majority of the fans every time he would touch the ball, Neymar was very discreet all game-long up to the second minute in extra-time. The most expensive player in […]
Monaco dynamite Marseille, lose Mbappé
90Soccer - August 28, 2017
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soccer Stories May 12, 2016
Live-stream Champions League and Europa League finals free on YouTube, thanks to BT Sport
Cam Bunton - May. 12th 2016 3:33 am PT
We’re coming to the end of the regular football (soccer) season in Europe, which means we still have some of the biggest competition finals to look forward to. Specifically, the Champions League and Europa League finals.
While BT won the rights to show the European competition games live on its paid BT Sport channels on TV, it has opted to open up the finals to a larger audience. For the first time, we’ll be able to watch both finals for free on YouTube.
soccer Stories June 19, 2014
Google’s latest Chrome experiment lets you flex your fútbol skills
Mark Hearn
- Jun. 19th 2014 4:01 pm PT
@MisterHearn
Google Chrome games world cup soccer sport
The World Cup is currently underway and everywhere you go people are talking about the tournament. Whether you’re a fútbol fanatic or just a casual fan of the beautiful game, Google’s got you covered. Today, the company released Kick With Chrome, a browser-based set of three different games: Infinite Dribble, Space Kick, and Shootout. Mountain View calls this playful trio a Chrome experiment “that will help you tap into your inner soccer champion. But in reality it’s a demo showing off several different web technologies.
soccer Stories June 5, 2014
Google Maps adds Street View support for Brazilian stadiums, tourist attractions ahead of World Cup
Chance Miller
- Jun. 5th 2014 12:01 am PT
@ChanceHMiller
Google Maps Street View Brazil world cup soccer
The 2014 World Cup is set to kick off next week in Brazil, and Google seems to be excited about the event. Earlier this week the company updated the Chromecast with support for WatchESPN streaming, meaning that all 64 World Cup games will be able to be streamed to the device. Now, in a post on the Lat Long blog, Google has announced some new features for Maps exclusively for the World Cup. expand full story
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white pigeon mi directions
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white pigeon mi directions 2020
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« Black Liberals
Obama’s “I Don’t Have a Dream” Speech »
Obama retrospective
Thu Jan 26th 2017 by abagond
My thoughts on Barack Obama one week after he stepped down as US president:
President Obama was a huge disappointment: Drone Master, Wall Street water boy, Rented Negro, Deporter-in-chief. To get his attention Black people had to protest and riot in the streets. He was, in effect, Bush III, more than I thought any Democrat could be. What little good he did is now being swept away by President Trump.
It is good that the US had a Black president. In the long run I think it will help weaken racist stereotypes. Obama and his family were the picture of grace and dignity. You could not ask for better. But the shock proved too much for the nation, even with its ideas about Exceptional Negroes. And now we must live through the grotesque White blacklash.
Obama squandered his moral authority as the country’s first Black president. Like Lincoln, his words could have lived for over a hundred years, the sort schoolchildren – and therefore the nation – would be made to learn. Instead he called the Baltimore rioters “thugs” and stood where Martin Luther King Jr once stood, 50 years before to give the “I Have a Dream” speech, and mouthed lizard-mouth Reagan:
“Legitimate grievances against police brutality tipped into excuse-making for criminal behavior … And what had once been a call for equality of opportunity, the chance for all Americans to work hard and get ahead, was too often framed as a mere desire for government support, as if we had no agency in our own liberation, as if poverty was an excuse for not raising your child and the bigotry of others was reason to give up on yourself.”
But I am disappointed in myself too for having had such faith and hope in this man. Ralph Nader, who I voted for twice, warned that Obama would do nothing for Black people. Obama, right in his own book, “The Audacity of Hope” (2006), pretty much agreed:
“An emphasis on universal, as opposed to race-specific, programs isn’t just good policy; it’s also good politics”
It was not Republican obstructionism that stopped him. He was New Black, a colour-blind racist. It is not for the government to uphold equality before the law – no, it is for Black men to be better fathers.
I thought by voting for him I was voting for me. But when he became president he started doing stuff I would never do. I thought maybe power was turning him bad. No, it was not that. It was his mindset. He believes in American exceptionalism, meaning US exceptionalism. He believes Black people are held back more by their own pathologies than by racism. His White mother likely believed the same.
There were two huge red flags even before the 2008 election. First, he threw his own pastor under the bus, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Second, there was all the money he accepted from big Wall Street banks. The writing was on the wall but I did not want to read it.
Posts from the Obama era and before:
2007: Barack Obama
2008: Barack Obama for president
2008: Yes, We Can
2008: Obama wins!!!
2009: Barack Obama is now president
2011: Obama seems like a different person
2012: Why I am voting for Obama
2012: The incomplete list of children Obama has killed with drones
2013: Is Obama a Rented Negro?
2013: Obama’s “I Don’t Have a Dream” Speech
2014: Obama then and now: War in Iraq
2017: Yes We Can – the song is the same yet not the same
Jeremiah Wright
New Blacks
colour-blind racism
Black pathology
Exceptional Negroes
The White Liberal Guide to Black people
US exceptionalism
Samantha Power – his long-time foreign affairs adviser
Baltimore riot
The term “thug”
Bush II
on Thu Jan 26th 2017 at 19:40:31 yogibreeze
Excellent analysis. I detest him: pompous, out of touch and most of all ineffective. Singularly, his only achievement was the dignified manner in which he and his family carried themselves thereby saliently calling into question many negative stereotypes about the so-called “Black family.”
on Thu Jan 26th 2017 at 20:21:48 Raymond Horton
thank you for voting for Nader and helping get us into the worst war in American history!
Raymond Horton Composer, Arranger Minister of Music, Edwardsville (IN) United Methodist Church Retired Bass Trombonist, Louisville Orchestra, 1971-2016
on Thu Jan 26th 2017 at 20:42:26 ConcernedCitizen
You offer a shockingly simplistic assessment of the entire situation for a man who is very astute and even brilliant on so many levels, Abagond.
I think your expectations were way too high, just as the case with so many others who refused to grasp the full depths of white supremacy ideology.
Abagond, you are a man of high intelligence and depth. Please take a closer look at the the inapproriateness of over-personalizing things as shown in this statement from you: “I thought by voting for him I was voting for me. But when he became president he started doing stuff I would never do.”
Why would you even expect Obama to think like you, and how can you really claim he did things you “would never do,” since you have no idea what kinds of pressures to compromise, and other forced factors going on behind the scenes?
Did it occur to you that Obama played the role he was supposed to play in history? Maybe it was his presence that was necessary on a national stage to help pull back the veil off of hidden, systemic racism that so many denied with seriously premature pronouncements of America being post-racial?
Armchair critics are a dime a dozen. Most people would have committed suicide or homicide if they had to function under the ongoing threats and duress Obama had to face. Can you honestly say you would have handled things well under levels of obstruction that were unprecedented?
on Thu Jan 26th 2017 at 21:01:40 nomad
I wish I had been on the Internet in 2008. Maybe I would have seen it too. But, alas, I was benighted by my only news source, MSM. But when I did get on the Internet, around the time of Barama’s inauguration, it took me about eight months to conclude he was a fraud, after half a year of suspecting it. I was never impressed in the first place, BTW, and was a little mystified as to why people were. But by August 2009, I knew he was a fraud.
nomadAugust 21, 2009 at 1:28 PM
Up till now I have been taking a wait and see attitude towards Obama. Yeah he was surrounding himself with the same old oligarchy that has run things for past 2 decades, but I thought they might act as a kind of foil for the progressiveness he would inaugurate. But sellout on healthcare that seems to be in the works indicates that he is just what Rev. Wright said he was. A politician. Change we can believe in? Yeah, Wright.
on Thu Jan 26th 2017 at 21:13:44 Glenn (freedom of movement) Robinson @getgln
Abagond, you forgot “Deporter-in-chief”, breaking up families.
yogibreeze
“. Singularly, his only achievement was the dignified manner in which he and his family carried themselves thereby saliently calling into question many negative stereotypes about the so-called “Black family.” ”
It was the Cosby Show. A high powered husband and wife with cute kids. What casting!
on Thu Jan 26th 2017 at 21:14:59 James
Simplistic,immature, and myopic….WTF did you think would happen? It’s EASY to be POTUS at home on your laptop.
@ Concerned Citizen, thanks for being an ADULT!
“seriously premature pronouncements of America being post-racial”
Obama was the poster boy for post racial. It’s so closely associated with him I wonder if he coined the term. It certainly was his philosophical outlook. Race was passe as far as he was concerned.
“Most people would have committed suicide or homicide if they had to function under the ongoing threats and duress Obama had to face”
Oh bull cakes. Can’t stand the heat stay off the throne.
Isn’t it ironic? At the inauguration of Obama there was great euphoria, among many Americans. But especially black people. I remember screaming and signs declaring “We did it!”. A kind of hysteria. And here we are again eight years later. Another inauguration. Another hysteria. An opposite one this time. Fear instead of joy. Though the bookends of inaugurations represent opposite poles of hysteria, nevertheless. I must say this. How can I not? Hysteria repeats itself.
on Thu Jan 26th 2017 at 21:46:32 dorisjean23
Obama did become a president for black people he became a president for all people and with a nation such as ours, he kept a delicate balance.
” I remember screaming and signs declaring “We did it!”.”
I don’t remember screaming. I remember people screaming.
on Thu Jan 26th 2017 at 22:11:17 Brothawolf
It’s sad for me to say this, but it’s disheartening to hear black folks say that they voted for him because he’s black. (I admit that’s part of my reason for voting for him.) But this society is all about putting images first. We want to see a black person in the highest office in the land, and we want to see a democrat in office after eight long years of George W. Bush. Barack Obama was, as many of us thought, the candidate we both need and want, even though at the end of the day, he was just another typical American politician pandering to the white population.
Granted, it was wrong that he received so much hate from the right, but their hatred is largely based on racism. They didn’t go after him for his policies. They went after him because he was a black man in the oval office.
In the end, we need to stop believing and hoping that black people in political offices are saviors of black people. In the end, they largely don’t care too much about the problems black folks face. I’m just theorizing here, but they pander to the general white population, because that’s where the power lies. That’s partly how Obama got elected, because he pandered mostly to left-leaning whites.
on Thu Jan 26th 2017 at 23:00:15 Deb
I appreciate your honesty Abagond.
I was so cynical when Obama won the election. I remember thinking, seeing someone had written on the rear car window. “We overcame”. WE ain’t overcame nothing. A couple of black folk “overcame”.
Here’s another reverse irony re Trump and Obama. One of the most prominent conspiracy theories about Obama from the right is that he’s a socialist, trying to impose some communist style governance on America. Now from the left a conspiracy theory subscribed to by all. Trump is a Russian stooge. That Putin does get around.
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 00:01:48 gro jo
Abagond should have titled this post my exercise in dishonesty.
Charge #1 against Obama: “President Obama was a huge disappointment: Drone Master, Wall Street water boy, Rented Negro, Black pathologist-in-chief. To get his attention Black people had to protest and riot in the streets. He was, in effect, Bush III, more than I thought any Democrat could be. What little good he did is now being swept away by President Trump.”
In Obama’s defense, he never pretended to be anything other than what he turned out to be. Long before he became president, he was identified as a Chuck Robb, Bill Clinton, Democratic Leadership Council, right wing democrat.
Charge #2: “It was not Republican obstructionism that stopped him. He was New Black, a colour-blind racist. It is not for the government to uphold equality before the law – no, it is for Black men to be better fathers.”
Again, nothing new here. People who knew him wrote honest pieces about him, but people like Abagond refused to believe them because, “I thought by voting for him I was voting for me…There were two huge red flags even before the 2008 election. First, he threw his own pastor under the bus, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Second, there was all the money he accepted from big Wall Street banks. The writing was on the wall but I did not want to read it.”
The fault is not Obama’s but Abagond’s and those who think like him. In order to be honest, Abagond needed to state why he pushed facts aside and bought the public relation campaign. What we have instead is: “It is good that the US had a Black president. In the long run I think it will help weaken racist stereotypes. Obama and his family were the picture of grace and dignity.”
Whose racist stereotypes did their “grace and dignity” weaken, surely not the ignorant Tea party types, maybe, it weakened the sense of lack of self worth among Blacks? If that’s the case, there’s rhyme and reason to Obama’s Tough love speeches, making him a tough coach instead of a New Black, a colour-blind racist!
Abagond shares Obama’s “US exceptionalism”. Only in the USA could a member of a reviled minority become president, as long as he does the bidding of those with the real power! It’s that hope, and agreement with the program of upholding US supremacy, that made him overlook the facts. Nothing fundamentally wrong with the status quo that a few nonwhite faces at the top can’t cure.
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 01:11:48 Afrofem
“There were two huge red flags even before the 2008 election.”
The three huge red flags for me before the 2008 election were:
⚑ His speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention where he said:
“Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you: They don’t want their tax money wasted by a welfare agency or by the Pentagon.
Go into any inner-city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach kids to learn.
They know that parents have to teach, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. They know those things. […]
There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.
We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19751-2004Jul27.html
Negro Please!
⚑ His orchestrated rise from Illinois state senator to the US Senate between 2004 and 2008. I realized he had powerful connections that were operating behind the scenes. Plus, he was an unknown quantity who had not paid his dues on the local or national stage.
⚑ His praise of Reagan while on the campaign trail in 2004:
“I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America…He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like, you know, with all the excesses of the 60s and the 70s, and government had grown and grown, but there wasn’t much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating.
I think people just tapped into — he tapped into what people were already feeling, which was, we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.”
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/politics/21seelye-text.html
Yes, the “excesses of the 60s and 70’s that made it possible for him to run for political office.
◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎
I remember what my home neighborhood looked like before Reagan and what I looked like after twelve years of Reagan and Bush I. I remember the optimism of my family and neighbors before Reagan and the sense of despair after Reagan. Any politician that praised Reagan was not a politician I could support.
I never trusted, supported or voted for Obama. I took a lot of flak for not buying his “hope and change” marketing. It just hurts to see the devastation he left behind. Many of the Black people he sold down the river are still cheering him on as they float toward a gigantic waterfall. That hurts most of all.
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 01:35:00 satanforce
Hope you learn our lesson this time.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6aCVPxSbqI)
Who was it who said “Not all my skinfolk are my kinfolk?” Perhaps living in a black-majority community has immunized me from these type of people.
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 02:30:33 Deb
@Afrofem…an excellent, excellent comment, one with which I totally agree! And for those same three reasons, I never trusted, supported or voted for the Changeling.
All of his, “community organizer” BS was just that — BS! This exposé alone should’ve told Black folk who he was, and would be for us:
http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/27/grim_proving_ground_for_obamas_housing_policy/?s_campaign=8315
“Many of the Black people he sold down the river are still cheering him on as they float toward a gigantic waterfall.”
Truer words have never been spoken. Black folk here in SC are STILL making excuses for his behind, even as they’re still reeling from the devastation left in his wake.
@Abagond…“The writing was on the wall but I did not want to read it.”
I know this piece was hard for you to write, which is why I appreciate your honesty in laying your hurt and disappointment on the table — and owning it. Don’t beat yourself up, Brother. Consider it a lesson learned.
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 03:01:37 blakksage
@Abagond, … this is an impressive post! My advice, ignore the scoffers and those who hold you in derision, just as Obomber disassociated himself and ignored them while in office.
@satanforce…That was Zora Neale Hurston
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 03:31:34 Allen Shaw
Well what can anyone say about people who are so unfamiliar with the power structure.
Under the circumstances President Obama did what had to be done. He was not President of the Black people he was President of the United States.
Those individuals who are speaking negatively about his conduct while in office probably have never been in a position where they were responsible for so many different situations.
I have seen in my career many individual like those that complain about President Obama. When they got near the White power structure they started skinning and grinning and getting on their knees.
The actions of President were as expected in a political environment that was completely hostile to him.
The “crab in the barrel” is always with us!
Thank you President Obama for your courage, stamina and wisdom while you had the responsibilities of the office.
When history is finally written the grandchildren of those who today find fault with your administration will realize how great a President you were.
Allen Shaw, name one thing Obama did that your grandchildren will thank him for?
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 04:09:34 michaeljonbarker
Regan was great for white people.
But Regan wasn’t the “fiscal conservative” that people pretend him to be. The U.S. deficit increased 130% under Regan and Obama seems blind to that in his comments about Regan.
What Regan did do was build prisons, ramp up the war on drugs, and allow tons and tons of cocaine to flow into the U.S. much of it directed at Black communities. U.S. imperalism in central America helped set up the drug trade while simultaneously fighting it.
@Deb
“Changeling” is a very apt description for the 44th President. He seemed to have a different face for every specific audience he addressed.
What he did to the people of Grove Parc Plaza he wanted to do to everyone, especially Black folk, whom he holds in utter contempt.
There were a lot of complaints about Bush II and now Trump with their open slash and burn policies toward working class people. Obama was more of a laparoscopic surgeon; he was able to disembowel his unwary supporters with just one or two discreet cuts. Now that’s skill!
I agree with Deb. It had to be hard to write about your disappointment with Obama.
The painful lessons are the ones you never forget.
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 04:37:20 Fan ...
The earmarking of Federal funds for the construction of “insanity” (mental health) wards/wings in already established state and fed hospitals.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
I just listened to a Project Censored podcast today that discussed among other things, the way San Jose Mercury reporter, Gary Webb was pushed to the margins after he exposed the CIA/Central American/Crack Cocaine connection. That discussion starts at 48:00.
http://projectcensored.org/brian-covert/
Perhaps the “War on Drugs” were not such a “failure” after all. It has helped certain people achieve objectives they couldn’t have otherwise.
Correction: @michaeljonbarker
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 04:55:16 Solitaire
Reagan was great for some white people.
He did a number on my community, too. Remember the farm crisis? In the 70s all the little farm towns in my area had healthy downtowns with small local businesses. By the end of the 80s most of those stores were vacant and boarded up. Many still look that way; those towns never did recover.
And then the meth moved in.
Clarification: I’m not trying to say Reagan screwed us as badly as he did black communities. Just that he screwed us.
Oh, how I hate that man.
@Solitaire
“…in the 70s all the little farm towns in my area had healthy downtowns with small local businesses. By the end of the 80s most of those stores were vacant and boarded up. Many still look that way; those towns never did recover.”
I remember those towns. They all seemed to have a drugstore, Woolworth’s, a diner or two, movie theater, hardware store, feed stores and a fully stocked IGA grocery store. Nearly all of the businesses were family owned.
Walmart destroyed the Reagan survivors. You are right, meth took a baseball bat to the rest.
I have no doubt that in the future, when research papers peer back through the annals of history concerning Obomber, he will solidly fit the description of a sociopath. Aggressive at times; charming at times; a liar sometimes and a lack of conscience regarding other people. To me, this man is certainly detached but has the keen ability to give the appearance as if he’s got it all together. At bottom, I see and internally troubled man who hasn’t outwardly expressed his situation as of yet. Give it time, it will self demonstrate at some point!
@ Afrofem
Yes! We had a movie theater, a five and dime, a bakery, a bowling alley, a hardware store, a clothes store, and one of those old-timey drugstores with a soda fountain. All locally owned. All gone. There were two grocery stores – only one survived (the IGA).
In those towns where the buildings are occupied again, they don’t hold the same type of businesses. It’s now antique stores and gift shops catering to the weekend tourists, not to the local community.
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 06:52:54 nomad
“At bottom, I see and internally troubled man who hasn’t outwardly expressed his situation as of yet. ” blakksage.
What’s inside is a puzzlement. Sheds tears for murdered children yet jokes about drone murder. If he is troubled it is not about things that trouble normal folks. He is not likely troubled by anything he has done but by the thought of deception being discovered. Of being unmasked. He is also every bit the narcissist Trump is. Everything is about him. ‘Trayvon looks like me’ for example. His personal animosity to those that challenged him, like Cornel West. His macho pose against Putin and bragging of killing Bin Laden. Narcissistic.
You have to wonder why he would, as Paul Craig Roberts says, align himself with evil. Great evil. And deceive the people as he did. When he was in a position to do so much good. All the good he was promising before he got elected. He is A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma.
@satanforce)
Who was it who said “Not all my skinfolk are my kinfolk?”
I can’t believe I never heard that before. That’s a great line. You can bet I’m going to be using it.
“That was Zora Neale Hurston”
@michaeljonbarker
Good observation. I had noticed this approach to policies by US government, domestic and abroad. Make things worse, or even create problems whole cloth, then go in and ‘fix’ them, looking like a hero in the process. Of course they don’t really ‘fix’ them. It creates a self perpetuating syndrome. I was going to call it the Munchausen by Proxy approach to politics. And I still will. But somebody beat me to it.
https://normanpilon.com/2017/01/25/obamas-political-munchausen-syndrome-by-proxy-chelsea-manning-as-bait-james-petras-the-james-petras-website/
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 09:21:55 a Russian nagpo
Yesterday I was watching a Russian documentary on recent American politics saying Obama shut down some closed prisons similar to those in Guantanamo.
Man was B.S.ing since the infomercial. A regular Donald Trump/Bernie Sanders type who wins the class president election by promising to give everyone free soda, Pokemon cards, 10 CDs for 99 cents, tickets to the Aaliyah concert and free FuBu.
Second, there was all the money he accepted from big Wall Street banks.
Meet Penny Pritzker
Superior was the first of the deregulated go-go banks to go bust – at the time, the costliest failure ever. US taxpayers lost nearly half a billion dollars. Superior’s depositors lost millions and poor folk in Sen. Obama’s South Side district lost their homes.
Penny did not like paying $460 million. No, not one bit. What she needed was someone to give her Hope and Change. She hoped someone would change the banking regulators and the Commerce Department so she could get away with this crap.
Pritzker introduced Obama, the neophyte state senator, to the Ladies Who Lunch (that’s really what they call themselves) on Chicago’s Gold Coast. Obama got lunch, gold and better – an introduction to Robert Rubin. Rubin is a former Secretary of the Treasury, former chairman of Goldman Sachs and former co-chairman of Citibank. Even atheists recognized Rubin as the Supreme Deity of Wall Street.
Rubin opened the doors to finance industry vaults for Obama. Extraordinarily for a Democrat, Obama in 2008 raised three times as much from bankers as his Republican opponent.
Then there is the Obama Presidential Library.
An order of battle pitting a number of potentially combustible forces against one another had already become evident. On one side: a genuine grassroots desire to enshrine the legacy of America’s first black president in the city where his political career began; a megalomaniac mayor; and the desperate hopes of a devastated black neighborhood exploited by a great university’s passion to become an even greater one. On the other side: the same corps of dispossessed black Chicagoans and liberal white neighborhood activists who’ve been fighting off the imperial private university as a land-grabber and community-traducer for going on sixty years.
The meeting was called to order, and it soon became clear which side was going to win.
Demagoguery did not go unchallenged. “I believe you’re being misled, just as the community is being misled,” cried an elderly white woman with a fanny pack, the perfect specimen of the sort of hectoring Hyde Park neighborhood activist whom university flacks have been crossing the street to avoid since the 1950s. “They’ve created an emergency situation to make you think you need to give up park land to get the Obama library on the South Side.” An officer of the Washington Park Conservancy pointed out that trees standing when George Washington was president “would be cut down and replaced with a building.” One of Chicago’s most legendarily irascible community organizers, the Rev. Slim Coleman, pointed out that if the library really was supposed to be some kind of neighborhood charity, it would be sited in the far worse-off West Side………..
An older man reminded the younger ones—public radio station WBEZ pointed out that reaction to the library plans have generally split along generational lines—that “the University of Chicago has historically not been a good neighbor. Colored folks, Negroes, blacks, whatever you may call it, the University of Chicago won’t give you anything. Don’t trust the University of Chicago.”
Which is really the bottom line, isn’t it? Gentrification always poses a paradox: a geographical area might end up revitalized. But inexorably, that means the human beings who happen to live there cannot . . . Oh, hell, I sound like a professor. Much better was the way a woman who announced she’d been trained as a community organizer by Barack Obama put it: “Look out. We gonna be gone.”
It was all futile. A chant trumped logic: “Bring it on home! Bring it on home!” It produced in me that sinking feeling you get in the middle of an election season, in the moment when you know your guy can’t possibly win—when you hear a slogan you just know was devised in some back room, probably with the benefit of gigabytes worth of research reports, certainly focus-grouped. Worse, you hear these carefully massaged word formations bubbling forth sincerely from ordinary people’s mouths as if they had just come up with them on their own.
However, at the root of matter, the issue that is not being addressed, is the role that middle class Diaspora blacks play in supporting the power structure that so many of them claim to be against. Obama did not existing a vacuum. Scratch that. Obama did exist in a vacuum – a moral and intellectual one created by a black middle class that has abandoned any notion of social justice and black self-determination for some scraps from Massa’s table and the opportunity to elevate themselves over their lumpen (former) brethren.
Not trying to romanticize the poor blacks among us, but when middle class get their hands on something that can damage diaspora blacks, they make it so much worse. Gangsta Rap may have been started with Ice-T and Schooly-D, but it took a group led by architectural draftsman Ice Cube to really get it going . Don’t get me started on Howard Univerity’s Puff Daddy. If ever there is to be found the manifestation of “Screw You, I got mine”, it is the back middle class that has chosen to emulate their (much wealthier and secure) white counterparts. All we are seeing in Barack Obama is the same milquetoast middle-class amorality that mouths the same mealy-mouthed platitudes that are part and parcel of the New Black/Civil Rights/Right Wing/whoever he is trying to please at the moment dictionary. Whether its from some goddamn office memo, SixSigma silliness or presidential message – its all the same.
@satanforce
“architectural draftsman Ice Cube to really get it going . Don’t get me started on Howard Univerity’s Puff Daddy.”
really? I thought these guys were from the streets?
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 14:41:57 Herneith
I would love to be Presidentess of the US! Free room and board, vacation home, free transportation, extensive travel! Do the get a clothing and hairdressing allowance? If they do, I’m even more enthused. What’s the pay like?
How is it as a Canadian, I knew from the get-go that this guy would not affect any substantiative change? He was an admirer of Reagon that should have told people everything they had to know about him just as Trump comparing himself to Ol’ Hickory does.
A chicken in every pot? Oops, that was Herbert Hoover of Hooverville shanty town!
@nomad
” He is not likely troubled by anything he has done but by the thought of deception being discovered. Of being unmasked.”
Well said. A classic symptom of sociopathy.
Loved it! You went deep.
Do you have a link to the Penny Pritzker story? I knew someone(s) greased the skids for him. I never researched who those people were. Thanks for filling in much needed information.
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 15:32:26 Joe
Nice post, Abagond!
“Man was B.S.ing since the infomercial.”
Wow. Never saw the infomercial before. I feel so….
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 15:41:13 sondis
Oh abogond, don’t feel so bad, we all got duped.
I think we as black people, felt a need to vote for that poor excuse for a black man.
I think we as black people need to do this even more! Let me explain…
Black people are the most critical people of their own people, than any other racial group. For the first time, black people supported a black man without raising an eye brow.
We as black people need our own brand of “black supremacy” but not the kind that white people support.
We need to not be so quick to throw our own people under the bus, just to appease white people.
We need to look the other way, when we see other black people, harming other racial groups, mainly white people but this could apply to other groups.
White people always give their own people the benifit of the doubt and passes for whatever they do, not black people.
We as black people need to stop being the moral compass by which other races of people are judged.
Let a news anchor stick a camera and mic in my face, then expect me to condemn a crime a black person has done. I’d be like…
“we need to see all the fact,first!”
“I don’t know, i wasn’t there, were you?”
“everyone deserves their day in court”
And at the very least, i’d be like….
“No comment” -_-
I’m not messing around with these white people….its been getting worse.
Throwing our own under the bus and kissing white people’s butt hasn’t gotten us ANYWHERE! Think its time to change our strategy?
So i say all that to say this….Yes, i would still vote for obama if i had a chance to do it all over again.
Why you ask? because for all this time, we as black people always fought for every kind of access there is to be had in America. It would have been a waste of all the courage and suffering our ancestors went through for us to just say…..”I voted for a black president for the first time in my life and it was for nothing.”
Looking back at my 2 votes for obama for 2 terms, they weren’t for him but for those who fought and died, so that i could have the chance to even be able to vote for the bum and for him to even be elected for the highest office, across the land.
if not for nothing, we can as a race, scratch another accomplishment black people has achieved off the board.
@Afrofem…“Changeling” is a very apt description for the 44th President. He seemed to have a different face for every specific audience he addressed.”
I’ve called him that ever since I started watching and writing about him because you’re right — different face for every constituent place and lying to them all (except for the banksters of course — he saved his skinnin’ and grinnin’ and gettin’ on his knees for all that cash).
I’d say SPECIFICALLY to Black folk BECAUSE of that utter contempt he holds — and has displayed on more than one occasion!
Obama was more of a laparoscopic surgeon; he was able to disembowel his unwary supporters with just one or two discreet cuts. Now that’s skill!
No sh*t!
This look like a gangster to you?
@Afrofem
Abagond needs to fix the links in my post
http://www.gregpalast.com/billionaire-bankster-breaks-into-obamas-cabinet/
@sondis
No. We don’t need First Blacks. Just good ones.
@nomad…“Thanks.” You’re welcome!
“I had noticed this approach to policies by US government, domestic and abroad. Make things worse, or even create problems whole cloth, then go in and ‘fix’ them, looking like a hero in the process. Of course they don’t really ‘fix’ them. It creates a self perpetuating syndrome.”
Yeah it does — and still is! Thanks for that link! It was exactly what I was thinking when he magnanimously commuted Manning’s sentence, but didn’t say immediately, which of course, leaves open the possibility for that clown now in the seat, to try to undo it since he feels, “Manning is an ungrateful traitor who never should’ve been released”: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-manning-234207 SMDH
@satanforce…Where’d you get that pic? Just too damned funny!!!😆😆😆😆 Oh, I knew about Miss Ann, Penny Pritzker, but not familiar with the “infomercial” you mentioned — no link there either.
gro jo and others: I do not need to waste my time explaining to individuals who have made up their minds.
“I have made up my mind, do not confuse me with facts”
I only wish I could write with the great skill many of the commentators on this site do. I am sure each and every one of them have held extremely high level duties and responsibilities during their life.
They surly could speak of such responsibilities and the success they had. How else could they be so critical of President Obama.
That pic is too funny.
I went to YouTube and searched ‘Obama infomercial.” It came up. I think its the one Satanforce was talking about.
Thanks for the link. Greg Palast has been on the case for decades now.
Allen Shaw, such modesty is silly, All I asked is that YOU tell me why your grandchildren should remember Obama. When you have the little ones gathered around your rocker, what will you tell them about the time when a colossus such as Obama occupied the white house? How is it a waste of your time to give us an aperçu?
on Fri Jan 27th 2017 at 22:55:48 Brothawolf
As a side note, looking at that picture shows that the Presidency can age you faster than cigarettes lol.
Gro jo and friends: Quite frankly either you are too dense to understand or your mind is made up and you do not want to be confused with facts.”You “pazz” your money and you takes yr choice”.
At the end of the Trump/Pence Administration you will understand.
As I said before each of you probably have held high offices were you were completely successful in the management of all things around you and therefore are in the position of judging others. I am sure you put all of those powerful White people in their place and did not take any crap out of any of them.
I can tell from your writing that you (all) are “all powerful people”.
on Sat Jan 28th 2017 at 02:04:56 Deb
@Brotheaolf…“As a side note, looking at that picture shows that the Presidency can age you faster than cigarettes lol.”
Happens to ALL of ’em, Brother — whether they were good presidents or not: http://www.businessinsider.com/photos-presidents-aging-before-after-2016-12/#johnson-who-didnt-visibly-age-too-much-in-his-five-year-tenure-joins-nixon-shortly-after-nixon-is-elected-president-in-november-1968-16
Brotheaolf= Brothawolf (apologize, it’s the Port!)
on Sat Jan 28th 2017 at 02:12:30 gro jo
“Allen Shaw
Gro jo and friends: Blah, blah blah blah facts. Blah blah blah choice…At the end of the Trump/Pence Administration you will understand. Blah, blah blah blah. I am sure you put all of those powerful White people in their place and did not take any crap out of any of them.”
I understand that your Obama never missed a chance to impress by coming down hard on Blacks every chance he got, White misdeeds were another matter.
Do you remember the nationally televised beer klatch with the cop and the Harvard professor?
Being the kind of Negro I think you are, you probably had a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes from being so proud that a black man, holding the highest office in the land would stoop to kissing some racist cop’s ass on prime time tv. My reaction was one of revulsion.
The way you keep harping on the powerful White people theme tells me you are a worshiper of “power” even to the point of worshiping the semblance of it. I never held high office, but I did supervise whites. I never took any crap from them or anybody else. I did my job as I saw fit, damn anybody who didn’t like it. When I left, I had zero regrets.
Allen Shaw, since you can’t name a single thing Obama did to earn your grandchildren’s admiration, I’ll tell you that, in my book, the forced resignation of general Stanley Allen McChrystal after the latter was insubordinate earned Obama grudging respect from me. See, it wasn’t that hard to find some good in the man was it? You try it.
on Sat Jan 28th 2017 at 05:32:50 michaeljonbarker
If Mr.Shaw waits long enough the myth of Obama will take form over the upcoming years and liberals will look back fondly.
Regan’s image was turned into a conservative super hero and his legacy is invoked amongst Republicans.
It’s a myth that many U.S. citizens firmly believe in.
I think the same will happen for Obama only he will be known as the great liberal of American exceptionalism.
“I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.” President Obama
on Sat Jan 28th 2017 at 09:43:04 satanforce
Funny. Someone just told me something like that. I’m trying to wake her up with the mouse-clicks.
More LuLZ.
All them Under Armor shirts, personal trainers and inections can’t wash away his sins.
@satanforce…Where’d you get that pic? Just too damned funny!!!😆😆😆
From. his. F*cking. Wikipedia. page. It. is. there. for. everyone. to. see.
If you can’t answer Gro Jo’s question then the bolded part of the above quote is all that matters. Your whole post, as is was Abagond’s and the rest of black people’s justification,was just a neurotic defense. A defense against truth. A defense against action.
That long list of posts that Abagond has up there is just a neurotic defense against what was happening right in front of everybody to see. “It can’t be true! It can’t have been for nothing! Change! ” You will learn. You will learn what we in the Caribbean and in Africa have known for 50 years now. You will learn.
on Sat Jan 28th 2017 at 09:57:08 Allen Shaw
“I never held high office, but I did supervise whites.” So Gro Jo you compare your success with the President of the US. Way to go!
Glad you did not take any crap. U b 1 powerful person.
The truth is the majority of comments about the Obama Administration are made by people who do not have a clue about the job being evaluated.
Crabs in a barrel.
You will learn what we in the Caribbean and in Africa have known for 50 years now.
BINGO to blood clot. What’s a cirkejerk?
cirkejerk u b using word that have no meaning to me!
Place of birth is important when developing thoughts. u may b superior to me because you were not born in the main land of usa. What can i do about that.
I notice that many people come to the usa from the “Caribbean and in Africa” but not many individuals leave the usa to go to those places.
I suppose it is because of your great wisdom, which those of us who are born in the usa do not have.
By the way, no Black can ever say u can’t be President of the USA because you are Black. Our next step is to promote a Black who has no White blood in their veins.
on Sat Jan 28th 2017 at 18:52:46 Solitaire
Is it like Cirke du Soleil? 😉
on Sat Jan 28th 2017 at 19:17:49 v8driver
I believe the intended word was circlejerk? You google it.
Do you notice how each of the friends pack up at the bottom of the barrel to pull down one.
Crabs in a barrel Cirke du Soleil (Cirque du Soleil) circlejerk (???).
Anything except an admittance that none of you have a clue about the responsibilities of the President ‘s job and the active part the congress took to keep him from succeeding.
You just did not like that man and found every thing wrong with his work. He is gone now so you can start paying attention to President Trump.
Good bye for awhile.
@ Allen Shaw
Oh, for Betsy’s sake, that was a playful tease about a typo. It had nothing to do with Obama and certainly wasn’t meant to pull satanforce down off the top of any barrel.
Get a grip!
Did congress prevent him from firing McChrystal? No. Did congress make him go to that church, where Dylan Roof gunned down his victims, to sing Amazing Grace instead of announcing a program to unleash war against domestic terrorists like Roof? No. The only thing congress didn’t want to work with him on was cutting Social Security. Who do you think would have been hurt more severely had they agreed to work with him?
on Sat Jan 28th 2017 at 23:10:03 Afrofem
@ gro jo
“Did congress make him go to that church, where Dylan Roof gunned down his victims, to sing Amazing Grace instead of announcing a program to unleash war against domestic terrorists like Roof?”
gro jo Such a little to talk about for 8 years.
Yes I did like the man and I believe he did an outstanding job. If he would have been White all of you would be screaming about what a wonderful President he was. But because you thought he would be a King and did not understand the limitations of his office, especially with a hostile congress you started finding fault with him.
Just stop and think about your comment about his failures.
You believe he should have been a President for the Black people and he should have disregarded all others. “WRONG”!
Who would have been harmed if congress would have supported him? I do not believe you can say, I know I do not have a clue.
Whatever all of you think when you are given a job you do not spend your life helping out people of one group alone. No person is ever given a job of responsibility if they are unable to be even handed.
So the next time you vote for a Black to hold a position in a “national office” be sure you understand that that person is going to represent Blacks, Whites Jews, Christians, Muslims and all other individuals equally. The majority of the Presidents job is dealing with other nations. You do not even seem to recognize that.
To expect anything else is to be a fool. If you want a Black leader vote him or her into a Black organization that is advocating the Black agenda. Example Louis Farrakhan Sr. or Jesse Jackson when he was working with the Black organizations.
“Did congress make him go to that church, where Dylan Roof gunned down his victims, to sing Amazing Grace instead of announcing a program to unleash war against domestic terrorists like Roof?” What do you really know about any of his policies?” You have been too busy complaining about nothing to really get into the duties of the President of the United States.
Finally, while President Obama was in office more Blacks were hired by the government than any time in the past. Watch the employment status, now that President Trump is the main man.
on Sat Jan 28th 2017 at 23:41:03 dorisjean23
@Allen Shaw
I think you misunderstand the point we are trying to make. No one expected Obama to be an imperial President. Like Bush 2. We know a president has to juggle special interests.
What was expected was something like a return of Glass-Steagal (a bad idea)., a proper stimulus pan, a proper healthcare plan. Instead, he choked. He was low energy. Unlike Democrats like Truman and even Carter, got slapped around. His low energy cost him the Senate and Congress. Had stood up and fought when he was strong., he wouldn’t we wouldn’t have had a problem with him.
His low energy first term cost him the respect of people like, me. Like Bush, he was a man who was out of his depth.
It sounds like you are saying, in so many words, that no US president should take the concerns of Black people seriously. Do I have that right?
@ Glenn
How could I forget? I know someone who was deported by Obama! Thank you for the correction.
on Sun Jan 29th 2017 at 03:28:55 Mack Lyons (@DDSSBlog)
Well, I can give you all a selfish reason as to why I voted for Obama back in 2008: because it was an opportunity to vote for someone who looked like me, nevermind the minutae of his exact racial heritage. And it was a wonderful feeling seeing that man win the election and swagger his way into the White House.
Less wonderful was seeing the man knuckle down to the bankers, plead with the opposition in vain and tap-dance around issues affecting black Americans unless directly confronted over them. But part of me expected that. If Obama had gone full-bore during his first week the way Trump’s doing right now, I dare say some assassin’s bullet would have cut his presidency very short.
Besides, I thought black Americans had enough of waiting around for their Moses to lead them out of Egypt and into the promised land. Instead of spending 40 years in the wilderness, we’ve spend the past 40 waiting at the banks of the Red Sea.
on Sun Jan 29th 2017 at 05:14:32 satanforce
That is what Allen and Doris are saying. I wonder if they understand the whole idea of an “election campaign”.
Abagond. Time for Markdown syntax. My body is ready.
on Sun Jan 29th 2017 at 05:52:07 nomad
“Had stood up and fought when he was strong., he wouldn’t we wouldn’t have had a problem with him. ”
He would have been fighting for something he didn’t believe in. He never had any intention of doing those things. From the beginning he was a fake. He was hired not to fight. To throw the fight. That was the Trojan Horse’s assignment was.
He’s only low energy when it comes to stuff he only pretends to care about. He’ll expend a lot of energy for something he really wants, like a Grand Bargain to cut social security, or a TPP corporate takeover, or gun control, or starting a war with Syria or Russia. No lack of energy there. No lack of dogged persistence. Also he diligently kept his Tuesday assassination schedule. He was no slouch in the things he really cares about.
on Sun Jan 29th 2017 at 06:27:28 Afrofem
So right. He was exceptionally persistent in pursuing TPP, TiSA and TTIP. He attempted to destroy our national sovereignty to please his corporate masters.
Question. If the white man takes a Negro and places him in a position of power, is that still a black achievement? If the white man chooses your leader for you, is that still a black leader, (don’t know how to make trademark signs but imagine them behind ‘the white man’)
on Sun Jan 29th 2017 at 06:41:47 Allen Shaw
Abagond: Where did you get the idea that I said he should forget the Blacks. Please read my comments. Presidents propose Congress passes laws. You seem to ignore that fact. What did Senator McConnell say?
satanforce: You should study the constitution of the United States (see above) The President proposed the congress refused to pass the laws. The President used Executive Orders to accomplish many things. Why don’t you take a look at his Executive Orders.
Abagond: The President does not deport people, the Justice Department and the Courts do that. If your friend was deported they had done something that was illegal.The President signed an Executive Order keeping millions of “Dreamers from being deported.
satanforce:”His low energy first term cost him the respect of people like, me. Like Bush, he was a man who was out of his depth.” What nonsense your lack of understanding of the power of the congress makes for a laughable moments.
Macklyons: Thanks for having such an understanding. By the way are you keeping up with the current endeavor of President Trump? He is a White Billionaire with the entire congress in disarray. Many of his Executive Orders are going to be challenged and found to be unconstitutional. He is making a wind storm. Are the commentators on this site suggesting that President Obama could have done such foolishness.
As I have stated most of those individuals who are attempting to judge have very little knowledge of the real world of US Politics and they just seem to be hurt because a Black man could not be a Roosevelt.
In the end the only true fact is a Black person has been the President of the United States and saw the economy return and was elected for a second term because he realized he was the “President of the United States and not the President of the Black people of United States.
President Barrack Obama served his eight years in office with great skill. He protected the military service personnel, keeping them from harms way while not pursuing wasted war projects. Many Blacks were hired into government positions and many private companies and corporations advanced Black people within their structure. He allowed his cabinet to perform their functions in spite of the lies that are told about him. He assisted in giving us the Affordable Care Act which allowed millions of Blacks to obtain medical care. The Republican Party will not dare to take away the Health Care of the 20 to 30 million people that “Obama Care’ provides. They will have to replace it with a better plan.
Yes I did approve of him and will continue to advance reasons why he was a successful leader. Most of the comments on this site speak of trivia and the actions suggested have to be done by congress.
Please, let the Black people break the barrel that they try to keep their fellow Blacks in. Please learn to study politics before preparing judgments. Please understand the problems that any Black has when they are projected into the “White Power Structure” at the highest levels. Please do not be a part of their enemy group, they have plenty of enemies with prejudiced Whites and jealous co-workers.
Stop pulling others back into the barrel!
So long for a while.
on Sun Jan 29th 2017 at 08:18:43 Fan ...
“Please learn to study politics before preparing judgments. Please understand the problems that any Black has when they are projected into the “White Power Structure” at the highest levels.”
Shaw, Black people aren’t “projected” into the white power structure. They are PROMOTED or CHOSEN/SELECTED into the white exclusive club, if they don’t refuse the assignment. It’s not against the law to say, “no thank you” to a job offer.
Obomber chose to accept his appointment (oozing with half hidden District of Columbia excrement) when he consented to doing the bidding of the white power structure, i.e. like bombing/droning Brown and Black people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Somalia … while funding Israel’s land grab/oppression of the Palestinian people, becoming the world’s biggest arms dealer, etc, etc, etc, etc!
It doesn’t take a Political Science degree to discern what type of man or president he (or anyone else) is. All it takes is about an ounce of common sense (which seems to be in very rare supply nowadays).
No. No one is suggesting that. If you want to set the bar that low, then even a Magic Eight Ball would be a better president.
If the white man takes a Negro and places him in a position of power, is that still a black achievement?
No. I don’t believe in ‘leaders’. Leaders can be targeted. Facilitators is a better term. Call this selfish, but if you are not representing my interests, you will not get my vote, regardless of what political stripe one adheres to. They can sponsor and put any clown or puppet into office.
Fan “Projected?” Nice play on words. Forgive me for giving you an opportunity to ignore my comments because I used an incorrect word. Way to go! Bet u felt good when you said “gotcha”.
Abagon: i do not know what is suggested. I stated that President Trump is writing Executive Orders and I believe that it takes time to properly prepare Executive Orders; yet out they are coming and the congress seems to be mute.
Herneith: I am not sure if I commented on a “Negro being placed in power”; however many individuals are selected to hold positions in higher offices settings. The word leader is an accepted word, regardless of your personal choice. No political leader can give each and every constituent their desires; therefore I do not know how you can vote for anyone. I vote for a person who I believe will do the best job they can do.
Politics is the art of compromise.
I have put too much time on this subject; however since I believe that President Obama was an outstanding President for the current time frame I want to be sure that at least one voice is heard complimenting him.
Bet many of you wish you had the “skill and luck” to have such an opportunity to hold such a high office.
What is that old saying “You will be damned if you do and dammed if you don’t”.
“No. I don’t believe in ‘leaders’. Leaders can be targeted. Facilitators is a better term. Call this selfish, but if you are not representing my interests, you will not get my vote,”
If only more black people felt like that. The 2012 election proved they didn’t. The 90% black approval rating throughout his presidency proves that they didn’t. He said if he had ran a third time he’d get elected. Blacks would vote for him again. Probably at the same rate they voted for him before. And most of us still think that his presidency was a great black achievement.
Skill and luck had nothing to do with it. It was a top down operation by powerful forces. Rich forces. Secret forces. At least one of them foreign.
Well, skill had something to do with it. He had to be a great actor in order to pull it off.
@nomad:
An example of the type of person you are referring to, nice kerchief heads is our current Police Chief, Mark Saunders. The City of Toronto police department has a carding policy supposedly to run ‘intelligence’ on ‘gangs’. Guess who they stop disproportionately? Well did this fool get rid of this policy on his ascension to office? Nope, he tried to justify it. He is a stereotypical self-loathing POS! Google him and carding in Toronto. That’s why I laugh when they say Canadians are friendly and polite, they’re more insidious. Give me a bombastic, lippy Yank any day! Remember all, you don’t have to be white to subscribe to a white supremacist ideology.
I still think the reason Obama refused to release the infamous 28 pages is because he owed Saudi Arabia for financing his post grad education.
Barack Obama. The man with the mysterious background.
https://aislec.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/global-elite-picked-obama-long-before-voters/
(https://youtu.be/RP8gIzfvy7c)
on Sun Jan 29th 2017 at 16:13:00 Solitaire
Funny, now that you mention it, a Magic Eight Ball would be a better president than Donald Trump.
“Forgive me for giving you an opportunity to ignore my comments because I used an incorrect word. Way to go! Bet u felt good when you said “gotcha”.”
@Shaw
No, not really. Is that how the patients entertain each other at your psychiatric hospital??
Have you ever considered getting a real hobby … like a library card??
No one here, including me, cares much about your incorrect words. It’s your incorrect, uncommon, patently upside-down thoughts (including your BUBBLE-ISH ways of seeing things) that astound the readers here. It’s as if your alien points of view are rooted in some distant far away galaxy where life/culture/communication works totally different than it does here on Earth.
“By the way are you keeping up with the current endeavor of President Trump? He is a White Billionaire with the entire congress in disarray.”
LOL!!! Trump is not a billionaire! He is terrified of releasing his tax returns because they would show him to be a puffed up phony. A mere millionaire who has not paid income taxes in over twenty years.
His real skills are convincing suckers that he is a successful “businessman” and living on other people’s money. Trump is way, way out of his depth with the presidency. He thinks he can just play a hyped up reality television role as POTUS, tweet his rants at 2am and continue with life as usual in NYC (with New Yorkers picking up the huge security tab) while VP Pence runs the show in DC. We will see how long that continues unabated. Something will give.
The Congress is not in “disarray”. They are dominated by Repubs who approve of Trump’s line of bovine excrement. They use the Prez as cover while they plan and execute their dirty deeds with help from the Dems.
Tool of the powerful, the rich and the secret.
“President Obama’s own work in 1983 for Business International Corporation, a CIA front that conducted seminars with the world’s most powerful leaders and used journalists as agents abroad, dovetails with CIA espionage activities conducted by his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham in 1960s post-coup Indonesia on behalf of a number of CIA front operations, including the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Ford Foundation. Dunham met and married Lolo Soetoro, Obama’s stepfather, at the East-West Center in 1965. Soetoro was recalled to Indonesia in 1965 to serve as a senior army officer and assist General Suharto and the CIA in the bloody overthrow of President Sukarno.”
https://archive.org/details/WayneMadsen-BarackObama-AllInTheCompany
on Sun Jan 29th 2017 at 18:21:34 Linda
@sondis “if not for nothing, we can as a race, scratch another accomplishment black people has achieved off the board.”
satanforce @sondis “No. We don’t need First Blacks. Just good ones”.
“You will learn. You will learn what we in the Caribbean and in Africa have known for 50 years now. You will learn.”
Satanforce, it’s not the same – apples and oranges
look at what our ancestors had to go through in the Caribbean and Africa for black people to take charge and run our own countries.
black Americans are NOT in the same position as we are
they are a “minority” population, trying to compete with and live with a white majority government and population
In Jamaica, we don’t have a white government or majority population that we have to fight against so that our civil rights are maintained
we have a white/brown minority that is silently selling Jamaica out, with the consent of our black/brown government, while our black police force is killing black men. (but that’s another story for another time)
In Jamaica, we can vote for sh’tty or good black PMs or candidates all day long because we have that option
black Americans don’t – they can only choose between good or bad white president or candidates – because that is their reality
As Sondis said, white people will always protect their own, they come together and close ranks when its time — No Matter What
in white majority countries: (USA, Canada, Europe)
black Americans/ black & brown people will be their puppets, who have to “play along to get along” because we have no end game in these countries – so we remain the losers
(the Jews did it but they had an end game and are now members of the white supremacy club- that was their goal)
In Africa and the Caribbean, we have an end game, with faulty planning and implementation (selling out to China) with shaky goals
but I guess black Americans on this blog need to vent their feelings about the first and ONLY black president they ever had — so let me mind my business
Macklyons: Thanks for having such an understanding. By the way are you keeping up with the current endeavor of President Trump? He is a White Billionaire with the entire congress in disarray. Many of his Executive Orders are going to be challenged and found to be unconstitutional. He is making a wind storm.
I can’t help but keep up with the slow-motion train wreck that is the Trump presidency, although the recent EOs point towards jokers like Steve Bannon actually running the show. Bannon and Co. makes the policies. Trump is just the chump who signs the papers and makes loud noises to satisfy his largely rural and rural-minded white base.
Are the commentators on this site suggesting that President Obama could have done such foolishness.
See abagond’s answer.
Just noting that Trump’s current estimated net worth stands at #3.7 billion, but that probably includes his own brand name (TRUMP) and the highly inflated values of his real estate holdings. As far as liquid assets goes, he’s probably in danger of having the pot his pisses in repoed (and the window’s been bricked up for non-payment long ago).
@ An Scríbhneoir Gael-Mheiriceánach
Bernie Sanders would be a better president than Trump. Or Obama.
I highly doubt that. Besides, BernieBros were part of the reason why Trump’s in office in the first place. Many were so upset over their awesome-cool candidate being brushed off in favor of The Pre-Selected One (HRC) that most of them took their votes and went home.
Overt vs. Covert. At least the former is refreshing and gives you a crystal-clear idea of where one stands.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzTeLePbB08)
Deleted a comment here and on the Black Liberal thread where you used a moderated word to address another commenter. Please use a commenter’s right name or shortened version thereof.
“For the record, though, all of the Sanders supporters I know turned out to vote for the Democratic ticket. Myself included.”
What did you promise your local community of *necrophiliacs* so they would join you in voting for Sanders?? Regular access to your discovery of a recently relocated group of vampires?
on Mon Jan 30th 2017 at 00:34:13 gro jo
Thank you for pointing out that I used a moderated word.
Let me rephrase my reply to Satanforce using a non-moderated version of my reply to his “cirke jerk” jab: “past tense and past participle of defecate, er, Satanforce, no need to be jealous, Apportune and I will gladly make room for you in our “cirkejerk””. Does this meet your exacting criteria?
on Mon Jan 30th 2017 at 02:43:03 satanforce
No. We have a black one that we have to fight against so that our civil rights are maintained. That is what it means to live in a democracy. Riights are not earned, but are constantly secured by political action – legitamte or otherwise.
we have a white/brown minority that is silently selling Jamaica out, with the consent of our black/brown government,
Our excellent Affirmative Action Program has fixed that imperfect racial ratio. Besides, our issues are class based, not racial. And I have no intentionof sitting still while being squeezed by a lumpen that insists on behaving like the extras from “Planet of the Apes” and an Upper Class power structure that have had their heads up their ass for so long that they see their own shit and scream Black Power!!!! Or in this case Black and Yellow Power!!!! The Chinese investment has been hyped and over-exaggerated. They can do nothing for us.
The onlyway to winis to combine forces with like-minded people, especially from majority-black areas, and the international immigrant community.
while our black police force is killing black men. (but that’s another story for another time)
Those men are mostly of the Bleached race. And if you’ve seen what I’ve seen, as in personally, as in with my fellow middle-class frienns, who got caught up in a certain route – you’d be okay with that. Mark you , the program could be a bit more focused, a bit more guided. And we are working on that.
Busta, Mike Manley and Eddie Seaga would like to have a word with or two with you. Those guys are indeed proof that HBD theories about majority black countries are wrong.
on Mon Jan 30th 2017 at 03:20:31 Fan ...
@Scrib
“Trying to make heads or tails of that nonsensical drabble … Still can’t.”
” He and I sometimes disagree, but I have great respect for his powers of logic and reason; I hold him in the highest esteem.”
Beware of fake white people who mouth out loud words like “great respect” and “highest esteem” to Black people! If they truly respected us or held us in high esteem, they would demonstrate it by their actions, not by their cow excrement.
Do you ever get tired of sucking up?? You seem to suck up to just about anyone, EXCEPT the person or people you ought to be sucking up to.
If you had a lick of sense, you’d suck up to Taotesean, Sharina and Herneith as if your life depended on it!
You’re tired of trying to make sense of my drabble?
I’m tired of trying to figure out why your undesirable racist ___ still remains here??
Nonsensical? As if you don’t know what a necrophiliac is… as you yourself introduced that very term to this site followed up by an eventual weak-azz/fake apology and a self-imposed short ban (a mere 10 days?) on posting.
Then you think everything/everyone is supposed to be okay as if nothing happened and that you’re a regular accepted member of this site as if we have all forgotten what and who you are! Adding insult to injury you recently disrespect Taotesan again, but this time you drag in Herneith and Sharina without provocation. You truly are a POS. Now – ask me how I really feel! Don’t get me started on those racist chimp pics you posted here, or your other insults and slights.
I’ve made it my job to remind you that the real you is known and remembered for who you really are, for as long as you remain here.
Can you understand what’s happening, now??
on Mon Jan 30th 2017 at 07:49:58 resw
After advocating and voting for Obama twice and then supporting and advocating for his racist surrogate in the last general election, he writes a post telling us how bad Obama is.
What a hypocrite. And the excuse is always the same. It’s always a “vote against” someone else.
I guess abagond still has a few gullible commenters left who are buying your BS.
on Mon Jan 30th 2017 at 17:53:34 lifelearner
I think I saw President Obama through rose-colored glasses, but your analysis seems to be pretty accurate. IF anything Obama’s presidency truly gave an up to date version of racism in the USA. It will continue to change in it’s many forms. From slavery to mass incarceration to … what’s next? It will be the people that make change for the better, the politicians aren’t going to do it.
on Mon Jan 30th 2017 at 22:48:11 Mira
I can tell you are very disappointed. I am sorry Obama turned out to be like this. I do agree that it’s good that you (US) got a black person as a president but he wasn’t perfect. Though I have a feeling he’ll be remembered in more idealized terms because of his successor.
A personal question (I apologize in advance if I’m overstepping the line): what did you think of Obama in 2012? Did you vote for him then?
I think US-ians are facing a somewhat new thing for them (which is a totally “normal” thing for many of us): that you don’t really vote FOR someone but AGAINST someone else… People are kind of forced to choose the lesser evil.
on Tue Jan 31st 2017 at 04:35:48 gro jo
“If Obama had gone full-bore during his first week the way Trump’s doing right now, I dare say some assassin’s bullet would have cut his presidency very short.”
It’s not as easy to kill a president as you make it sound. Four presidents were assassinated, two were rumored to have been assassinated and seventeen plots to assassinate a president failed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_assassination_attempts_and_plots#Barack_Obama. Despite not going “full-bore” two attempts were made on his life. It seems that people on this blog will come up with all manner of specious arguments to avoid a simple truth: Obama was a slick public relations trick played on Blacks with their willing cooperation.
“gro jo Such a little to talk about for 8 years…Just stop and think about your comment about his failures.
Allen Shaw, you do a great job arguing against strawmen, try arguing against something I actually wrote. I challenge you to find anything I wrote that matches the nonsense you attribute to me. Obama inherited an economic crisis where even establishment economists were calling for nationalization of financial institutions, and massive spending to keep the economy from crashing. Billions were wasted on companies that ended up in bankruptcy. He should have also spent billions on job programs for youths, with all the graft that such programs entail. You don’t seem to realize that your crab barrel argument implies that people like Obama have a right to use Blacks as steppingstones with no obligation to them. The reason the crabs in the barrel cling to the one getting out, is because he stands on top of them and they feel they should get something in return. What’s wrong with that?
LOL, ARE YOU EXPECTING TRUMP TO BE “EVEN HANDED”? I hope you’ll write Trump to remind him that he’s the president of all the people, not just some.
The following is proof that I’ve been paying attention to Trump. Where’s your assessment of him?
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2017/01/20/guide-to-trump/
on Tue Jan 31st 2017 at 04:40:13 Mira
The president should represent all people and not to throw some under the bus. I guess people are not surprised when white presidents do that but they expected Obama to know better. ?
on Tue Jan 31st 2017 at 12:21:38 Allen Shaw
gro jo You did not read my past comments. I said I will not try to list any of President Obama’s achievements because u will not care what I say.
Let history speak for itself.
on Tue Jan 31st 2017 at 12:52:31 nomad
“Obama was a slick public relations trick played on Blacks with their willing cooperation.”
Yes but it has got to have been something more. They didn’t just cooperate. They became his fervent advocates and would viciously attack anyone who criticized him no matter how valid the criticism. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence of blatant betrayal black approval ratings were through the roof. I suggest something a bit stronger than PR was used on us. Weapons grade PR. Brainwashing. Cognitive infiltration. Social engineering. Whatever. We have been manipulated by those powerful rich secret forces and have been transformed from advocates of civil rights to advocates of empire. By the insidious weapon: Barack Hussein Obama.
Barack Obama: The Insidious Weapon.
(https://youtu.be/_dOVXhyx4gg)
Wow. Just browsing the Pinkney video again. Good points throughout. Got to break the Obama trance, as Abagond has done. But also got to get to the point where we won’t be fooled again.
“Stanley Ann Dunham in 1960s post-coup Indonesia on behalf of a number of CIA front operations”
You see, his mother was CIA. The grandparents who raised him were CIA. The grandmother, as a bank president, probably laundered money. As a banker, she couldn’t have been too rich because Barack had to apply for scholarships, apparently posing as a Kenyan national to do it, and he had to have his Harvard education financed by Saudi Arabia. Get the picture? Of this ‘all in the family’ background? He worked for a CIA front. He never knew his African father and his black mentor had CIA connections. Get the picture? He is the only president in history to have and alias. If it doesn’t look like a duck but quacks like a duck, what the heck is it? The apple does not fall far from the tree.
Allen Shaw, you are a comedian, the kind people laugh at. I used direct quotes from you and you, absurdly, claim that I didn’t read what you wrote! WTF, do you ever read what you write? Where’s your assessment of Trump? I posted a long article by Joe Kloc showing up Trump for the sewer rat he is, show me where you’ve done something similar?
Yes but it has got to have been something more. They didn’t just cooperate. They became his fervent advocates and would viciously attack anyone who criticized him no matter how valid the criticism. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence of blatant betrayal black approval ratings were through the roof. I suggest something a bit stronger than PR was used on us. Weapons grade PR. Brainwashing. Cognitive infiltration. Social engineering. Whatever.”
Qh, okay, when you’ve nailed it down, come back and tell us what it was, meanwhile, I’ll go with vicarious empowerment. People like Allen Shaw are able to claim that Obama didn’t do what he wanted to do because they are used to being emasculated. I don’t buy it Obama did exactly, or pretty close to what he intended. Pinkney is a clown. Who still wears such outlandish uniforms?
on Tue Jan 31st 2017 at 18:14:53 Fan ...
“You did not read my past comments. I said I will not try to list any of President Obama’s achievements because u will not care what I say.
“WTF, do you ever read what you write?”
Having a normal discourse with Mr, Shaw about anything he imagines is a topic worthy of his commentary always devolves into a thing much like trying to have an intelligent discussion about rocket telemetry with a can of colorless (or green) paint.
Hence the “bobble” and the “potato” – which were not accidental nicknames, but accurate descriptions of what’s really going on.
His style is also very much like a Hit & Run driver.
He hits this site consistently with some bombastic something or other. Always, without fail, he accuses anyone who questions the correctness of his view with any BS that he uses to disqualify himself from having to answer to, defend, debate or argue his ALTERNATIVE facts.
Yep. Comic relief.
I didn’t see this but it certainly fits with what I’m saying about putting Obamites in a trance.
“Perhaps you recall that, during the 2008 Primary race, there were several large Obama events where the audience was slowly chanting “O-bam-AH, O-bam-AH,” right out of an old Star Trek episode in which Kirk and his crew were dealing with a society under the hypnotic control of a high priest who turned out to be a computer. I watched one of these Obama campaign rituals on television—and suddenly the chanting stopped on a dime. I assumed Democratic operatives in the hall shut it down. They didn’t want the viewing audience at home to think O’s candidacy was a ceremonial invocation or an MKULTRA sub-project.”
https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/obama-is-back-and-this-is-what-will-happen/
on Wed Feb 1st 2017 at 00:49:48 Afrofem
Hypocrite Alert:
Obama is expressing support for the protests against the Trump Muslim ban. According to Democracy Now:
“Former President Barack Obama also spoke out against Donald Trump and in favor of the massive protests against Trump’s immigration ban. On Monday, Obama’s spokesperson, Kevin Lewis, said, “Citizens exercising their constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake. … The president fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/31/headlines/obama_backs_protests_denounces_trumps_muslim_ban
This from a former prez who killed hundreds of Muslims with drones and bombs, etc.
The second level of hypocrisy is his newfound love of the Constitution which he shredded every chance he got, from the organized multi-city crackdown on Occupy Wall Street to National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) provisions that empower the President to arrest and indefinitely detain any citizen for any reason.
This seems to be more schadenfreude than sincerity.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/schadenfreude
on Wed Feb 1st 2017 at 01:55:41 Deb
@Afrofem…“This from a former prez who killed hundreds of Muslims with drones and bombs, etc.
I co-sign every bit of this, Sister!
on Wed Feb 1st 2017 at 05:55:17 Allen Shaw
Allen Shaw, you are a comedian, the kind people laugh at
People like Allen Shaw are able to claim that Obama didn’t do what he wanted to do because they are used to being emasculated.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
on Wed Feb 1st 2017 at 06:10:29 Anonymous
So would you rather have had John McCain or Mitt Romney as president for the past 8 years?
on Wed Feb 1st 2017 at 06:25:57 abagond
I think McCain and Romney would have been worse and I think Trump will be vastly worse. Thinking that does not require me to sanitize Obama.
on Wed Feb 1st 2017 at 12:43:44 nomad
Obama effectively worse. he did the same as McCain Romney and trump would do, only he had dems behind him and there were no protests. the more effective evil, in the words of bar.
hypocrisy, thy name is Obama. “bombing them okay, but banning them!!! that’s where I draw the line!!!”
(https://youtu.be/4FTFB9GDfls)
to the extent that trump is antiestablishment (anti-globalist), hes better than the other three.
on Thu Feb 2nd 2017 at 11:34:59 nomad
“Pinkney is a clown. Who still wears such outlandish uniforms?”
Damn, gro jo, Criticize the man’s words not what he looks like. Oh, I mean, Why don’t you criticize the man’s words not what he looks like. Why are you so superficial? And lay off the ad hominems, why don’t you?
Obama’s final insult.
Gift to Blackstone. Shaft to homeowners.
(https://youtu.be/fTUledVgFA8)
on Thu Feb 2nd 2017 at 15:02:04 Deb
Good catch ‘Mad!!! Not surprised. SMDH
Hey Deb. Bet they wont report that on MSM. Because MSM is designed to keep us in the dark. They are co conspirators with Obama and the ‘economic terrorists’. Max Keiser. I’d vote for him. He’s planning to run for congress I think.
Of course not! Not that it matters to the Changeling now — he’s out! It’s his “faithful followers who’ll be gob-smacked when they finally put 2 +2 together how he hoodwinked them regarding that sh*t! As for voting for Keiser, before ANYBODY with whom I’m not so familiar, gets me to pull that lever — gotta do my own diggin’!
“As for voting for Keiser, before ANYBODY with whom I’m not so familiar, gets me to pull that lever — gotta do my own diggin’!”
True that. I’ve been watching him for a while now. Very informative on the economic stuff. Stuff, like I say, they never cover on MSM (unless they’ve changed since I stopped watching). Check him out.
@nomad…“Very informative on the economic stuff. Stuff, like I say, they never cover on MSM (unless they’ve changed since I stopped watching). Check him out.”
Now you know the MSM ain’t changing, they’d have to do some REAL journalism work instead of just parroting what they’re told to say by the government if they did! I’ll keep my eye on Keiser, Brother.
on Fri Feb 3rd 2017 at 05:02:03 Afrofem
“It’s his “faithful followers who’ll be gob-smacked when they finally put 2 +2 together how he hoodwinked them regarding that sh*t!”
Judging by the push back from the Obama faithful in this comment community, it will take them a very long time to put “2+2 together”. Some of them are still lecturing Obama skeptics about how “we don’t understand” their hero, or ” we don’t know about his responsibilities”, etc. Even when confronted with empirical evidence and links to trusted news sources, the Obamatons, still deny the dirty deeds of their champion.
The hoodwinking continues….
on Fri Feb 3rd 2017 at 15:50:05 nomad
Continuity. CNN Trumps Economic Advisory Counsel meeting privately (secretly?) at this moment. Who is at his right hand? The CEO of Blackstone. When government unites with corporations to govern, that’s fascism.
Continuity. Who authorized the Yemen strike? Trump or Obama? Does it matter?
on Sat Feb 4th 2017 at 14:56:47 nomad
“If he would have been White all of you would be screaming about what a wonderful President he was. ” Shaw, I think.
No we wouldn’t. We would have been protesting. Can you imagine How angry we would be if a white president had said the things to us that Obama said? Or neglected us so maliciously? We would have reacted much the same as we are reacting to Trump, whose policies are very similar. He is, in effect, Obama in white face.
I’m still reviewing the Obama years. No retrospective would be complete without stating that he was a war criminal. Yes, I know, Bush was too. But we talking about Obama here. He took war crime to whole new level. Mechanizing and normalizing it. Making it so we don’t even mention it. Like Chris Hedges said, it’s unspeakable. What he meant is its unspoken about. Here. Reflect upon the beginning of his bloody crimes, as Trump begins his own.
“Obama would write his own name in the black book of U.S. imperial terrorism, later telling White House aides that “it turns out I’m pretty good at killing people” while commanding a drone program that became “the most extreme terrorist campaign of modern times” (Noam Chomsky). Among the many grisly scenes Obama will carry to his well-heated grave, one occurred early in his presidency in the first week of May 2009, a U.S. air-strike killed more than ten dozen civilians in Bola Boluk, a village in western Afghanistan’s Farah Province. Ninety-three of the dead villagers torn apart by U.S. explosives were children. Just 22 were males 18 years or older. As the New York Times reported:
“In a phone call played on a loudspeaker on Wednesday to…the Afghan Parliament, the governor of Farah Province, Rohul Amin, said that as many as 130 civilians had been killed, according to a legislator, Mohammad Naim Farahi…. The governor said that the villagers have brought two tractor trailers full of pieces of human bodies to his office to prove the casualties that had occurred…. Everyone was crying…watching that shocking scene.’ Mr. Farahi said he had talked to someone he knew personally who had counted 113 bodies being buried, including…many women and children” (NYT, May 6, 2009).”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/03/unspeakable-the-black-book-of-imperial-terrorism/
I agree with nomad. Blacks (and White Liberals), on the whole, gave Obama a HUGE pass, particularly on drones and deportations. He was FAR WORSE than Bush on both counts. And if Bush had talked about Blacks the way Obama did, there would have been way more outcry. But as the first Black president, It seems that Blacks felt a need to protect him from his enemies.
on Sat Feb 4th 2017 at 16:29:38 Fan ...
“I agree with nomad. Blacks (and White Liberals), on the whole, gave Obama a HUGE pass, particularly on drones and deportations.”
It’s not just a Black and white thing!
Are Afro-Egyptians considered Black?? I would ask Rabab herself but she banned herself from this site. She took notable exception to the name “Obomber.”
And let’s not forget people like TeddyBearDaddy as a representative of (silent) Asians who also gave Obomber a huge pass!
on Sun Feb 5th 2017 at 14:09:16 nomad
This shows that black people did not completely abandon their morals during the Obamage. This group condemned him for his murderous policies back in 2013. If only more of us had had such integrity. We should not have waited til the white guy became president to start protesting.
“The Revered Anthony Evans says, “I do not know what to say after the pronouncement of this evil policy. This policy has led me to a life of prayer for the soul of this administration and for this President. Anyone who has had anything to do with formulating a policy like this either in the Bush or Obama administration will have to answer before God one day. May God have mercy on their souls.”
Rev Evans continued to ask where the outcry against such a policy is, saying “Where are the loud the mouths and the so-called drum majors for justice when it comes to correcting this president and this administration on this evil policy. Where are you Al Sharpton?? Where are you Jesse Jackson?? Where are you Ben Jealous?? Where are you John Lewis?? Where are you members of the Black caucus? Where are the Catholic bishops?? Where are you “The American Way”? Where are you Rev. Jim Wallis? Where are you Pastor T.D. Jakes? Pastor Creflo Dollar? Where are you Joseph Lowry? Where are the Southern Baptists? Where are you Pastor Joel Osteen? Where are you Dean Alton Pollard? If the church does not speak against this immoral policy we will lose our moral voice, our soul, and our right to represent and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.””
Where were you, Oprah Winfrey? Where were you Maya Angelou? https://abagond.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/maya-angelou-2/
“The black church is not only appalled that this comes out of the administration of the only black president, but we are frightened by the monstrous tendencies that have emerged from this administration. The unleashing of the mechanical drones kill not only their target but everyone that is near who is morally innocent of any crime. The church’s heart cries out for mercy and sanity for such an ill-conceived policy. President Obama has to be roaringly condemned by the entire Christian church for allowing such a policy to emerge from such a promising administration.
NBCI cannot be proud of this, and neither can we be supportive of it. This policy should be condemned by both liberal and conservative and especially those who love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly before God.”
(original link broken. have to send you to my website)
https://aislec.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/good-news-the-black-church-speaks-out/
on Fri Mar 17th 2017 at 06:43:53 nomad
(ANTIMEDIA) An overlooked interview of Maria Zakharova with Russia’s 1 TV Channel, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, on a national Russian TV show has brought insight into the frustration Russia encountered in dealing with the Obama administration over the years. Zakharova suggested President Barack Obama will go down in history as one of America’s evilest presidents
http://theantimedia.org/interview-russia-views-obama-legacy/
on Sat Apr 1st 2017 at 00:48:26 nomad
Obama was a disaster for black people. That’s something black people need to take into their hearts and souls and let it marinate on the inside of them for a while. He was awful. Write that message with 10 foot high letters. He was Trump in black face; and we didn’t even know it.
Well, I did. I called him Bush in black face. Same difference.
(https://youtu.be/0w2mqg46yUE)
on Sun Apr 2nd 2017 at 17:47:48 nomad
obamas mission accomplished
on Mon Apr 3rd 2017 at 21:26:09 nomad
Cynthia McKinney –
…Barack Obama and his administration was allowed to degenerate into killing more people on the planet than I ever thought was even possible for a US president and Barack Obama did that and he did that with eyes open of the so called progressive community, the Democratic Party stalwarts … became cheerleaders every time a bomb was dropped.
video on conspiracy thread
on Tue Apr 4th 2017 at 14:07:56 nomad
hats off to Cynthia McKinney. a genuine black leader in an age of phonies.
on Tue Apr 4th 2017 at 14:56:36 resw
+1000. That’s precisely why she’s no longer in Congress.
Obaminable
on Wed Apr 5th 2017 at 19:30:29 nomad
Manufacturing black consent? Social engineering? Brainwashing? Whatever. Obama was the tool by which it was accomplished. He was the insidious weapon.
Back in late August of 2013, Obama threatened to launch airstrikes against Syria. Polls showed that 40 percent of Black Americans would have supported such an airstrike, compared to only 38 percent of whites and a smaller percentage of Hispanic Americans.
It is true that only minorities of any American ethnicity supported Obama’s threatened strike, but this was the first poll in the history of polling in which more Black people were for a warlike action than white people. Compare that to the only 7 percent of Blacks that supported an invasion of Iraq, a decade earlier. Obama has had his effect.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/mlk_obama_opposed_legacies
on Wed Apr 19th 2017 at 16:56:09 nomad
Now we see the supreme and awful irony. America’s first black president is responsible for slavery taking place in a once prosperous African country and his role is covered up by people who once would have condemned his actions.
Black people defended Muammar Gaddafi if no one else did. American presidents made a show of castigating Gaddafi, calling him crazed, fanatical, dictatorial and mentally ill. Black Americans were unanimous in their support whenever he was attacked, whether militarily or even rhetorically. But that support ended when he fell under Obama’s cross hairs. Barack Obama’s ascendancy to the presidency was a curse on black America’s political heritage
.https://www.blackagendareport.com/obama_brought_slavery_to_libya
on Fri May 12th 2017 at 18:55:11 nomad
WHAAATTT!?!?!!
What could be more absurd than Drone War King Barack Obama getting an award for courage?
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/12/the-audacity-of-sleaze-profiles-in-corruption/
Finally! Barack has come back to Chicago!!!
(https://youtu.be/tEtYzVo2U18?t=25s)
The obvious question, which has many black Chicagoans (and black people nationwide) scratching their heads, is this: Where was all of this heartfelt concern, and more importantly, money and resources, for black folk when Obama for eight whole years reigned as this nation-state’s “First Black President”?
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/12/black-people-and-the-legacy-of-barack-obama/
Can you smell what Barack is cooking!?!
on Fri May 12th 2017 at 23:31:14 Deb
@nomad…Brother you bringin'</> it ain’t you??? Those Counterpunch articles were great!!! I’m so glad we happened upon each other in the blogosphere — it let’s me know my old a$$ ain’t crazy!😆😆😆
on Fri May 12th 2017 at 23:52:25 Allen Shaw
For those of you who just hate the hell out of President Obama I respectfully request you actually study the Constitution of the United State.
First they created a Congress! Afterwards they created an office of the president; however to make certain that the President did not have any power they gave congress power over the position.
The fact that it is stated that the President is the most powerful person on earth is really not true. The leader of the House can block any move the President makes and the Senate majority Leader is equally powerful.
Both of those positions have been filled by Republican who have pledged to make President Obama a failed President.
If anyone has paid attention to the past 7 years plus the current activities of the new administration they would realize that there has been and continues to be a constant effort to prove that President Obama (a Black man) was a failure and therefore no “Black person need apply” is now the unspoken thought.
While those of you who do not understand politics, I wish you a happy day as you celebrate the undermining of your own future.
on Sat May 13th 2017 at 00:13:00 Afrofem
This is a glimpse of what your beloved Obama really did for eight years in office:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2016/02/08/maya-angelou-2/#comment-308642
He was not a failure. He was fabulously successful at undermining Black folk around the globe.
on Sat May 13th 2017 at 02:34:21 nomad
that reminds me of why I came here, in the last year of obamas administration.
I came here to kick obamas adze and chew bubble gum.
and I’m all out of bubble gum.
hearty chuckle
on Sat May 13th 2017 at 04:59:49 gro jo
“For those of you who just hate the hell out of President Obama I respectfully request you actually study the Constitution of the United State.” Ok, where is the following stated in the Constitution?
“The leader of the House can block any move the President makes and the Senate majority Leader is equally powerful.” I thought a two thirds majority of Congress was required to override a presidential veto? Correct me if I’m wrong, can’t the president appoint people without the ok of Congress? Didn’t Obama appoint a number of people that way? Thanks for clearing up my confusion on this question.
on Sat May 13th 2017 at 07:29:23 Allen Shaw
gro jo Did the Judge Garland get appointed? Please pay attention. The congress has the “Power of the Purse” They authorize the President a budget which he must operate within.
It is useless to ask people to read the Constitution, because they would rather go on what they are told.
The leader of the Senate lowered the required vote to a majority to appoint the new Republican Judge.They voted to keep Judge Garland out.
The President and his Administration may hire within the Administration, write instructions called Executive orders, which are to his personnel, Cabinet Leaders and Departments. Cabinet leaders have powers which are established by laws which were created and approved by congress.
His veto’s can be overridden by the Congress.
When you have a majority Republican Party and you have a number of Democrats that vote with the Republican Party you can control the President and he will be required to compromise to get anything done.
Members of Congress do not vote the party they vote their will.
I understand you believe you have capped me with your “Correct me if I’m wrong, can’t the president appoint people without the ok of Congress? Didn’t Obama appoint a number of people that way? Thanks for clearing up my confusion on this question.”
Once again take a course in US Government.
Afrofem: In your case I have nothing constructive to add. You probably have not even managed a first level office yet, yet you feel qualified to pass judgement on the first Black person to be President of the United States.
During my lifetime I have witnessed highly qualified Blacks starting with Adam Clayton Powell and moving forward. He was actually banned from the floor because the members said he did something wrong. Yet his constituents continued to send him to congress. I have spoken to Senior ranking Black officer who have been sidelined into nothing jobs and retired with lower grades. I witness B.O Davis Jr. be insulted by having his juniors promoted above him.
You can follow the history of the successful rise of Blacks in this nation and if you are not blind and stupid you will realize that each of them have been held back.
You failed to pay attention to the Senate Majority Leader when he said he intended to make President Obama a one term President and you failed to see how they failed to give him the respect that was due a President.
You along with the other Obama haters, who do not understand anything about POWER and the workings of the government preferred to complain about The Presidents failures.
You constantly comment about a subject you have no real information about. Do you really believe that under any circumstances that President Obama could have fired the Head of the FBI.
In the last 100 days you have seen the difference between a President who has the support of the Congress and a President who had a Congress that set about the task of destroying him. How many votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Why did the Congress vote against President Obama when he wanted to take action in Syria and turn around and tell the world how wonderful President Trump was when he did what he said President Obama should not do.
President Obama has not set the Blacks back. Blacks that did not get to stand in the sun rays of his office decided to spend their time assisting the White “Black haters” in keeping him down in the barrel with the rest of the crabs.
I hope I have not somehow insulted anyone so this article will be unsuitable for those anti Obama people. If it is I apologize ahead of time for the sensitive feelings I have hurt.
Me, I feel that I am so proud of that man an his family that I am bursting with joy that he actually managed to get through 8 years without a blemish.
I will be here a little while longer so I will be telling everyone Barack Hussein Obama II what a wonderful man and President 8 years without a war!
Abagon:
“But when he became president he started doing stuff I would never do. I thought maybe power was turning him bad”
Until you are dead, never say what you would not do!
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupt absolutely.
But you do not have to worry, you have convinced Black people to never vote for a Black again, keep them in the barrel where they belong.
As far as I know the only known person without fault was Jesus.
By the time President Trump has completed his eight years in office, you may actually have a different view of history.
Have you ever read the news article about Abraham Lincoln, written in 1861 until his big win.
hmmm… the force is strong in this one (Shaw)
seen this?
(https://youtu.be/s1TcnQxV4BE)
“Do you really believe that under any circumstances that President Obama could have fired the Head of the FBI.”
yes. if he wanted to. he didn’t want to.
“In the last 100 days you have seen the difference between a President who has the support of the Congress and a President who had a Congress that set about the task of destroying him.”
Trump doesn’t even have the support of his party. what was baramas excuse the first 2 years of his presidency? he had every thing he needed and he chose to govern like a republican.
here, shaw, put on these special glasses. youll be able to see this creature for what he is.
Ooooohhh. You had me going there a minute, Shaw. But then I got to the last line and I realized… this is satire! Nice job.
that’s hilarious!
on Sat May 13th 2017 at 15:41:55 abagond
I agree that Obama is not Jesus and that Trump is likely to turn out way worse, but that hardly places Obama beyond criticism.
I understand that power corrupts. I considered that right in the post:
“I thought maybe power was turning him bad. No, it was not that. It was his mindset. ”
Question: Where was it that I “convinced Black people to never vote for a Black again, keep them in the barrel where they belong”?
“…what a wonderful man and President 8 years without a war!”
I’m not sure how you define “war”. I think dropping bombs, deploying missiles and directing drone counts as war, especially when you and your family are on the receiving end of the bombs, missiles and drones.
Upthread, resw posted an informative cartoon that lists Obama’s wars:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/obama-retrospective/comment-page-1/#comment-368430
Perhaps it is time for you to dig a little deeper and learn a little more about your hero. Out of the twelve countries listed, five are on the African continent.
Good one! I loved the film, They Live by John Carpenter. He was at the height of his powers in the 1980s and early 1990s.
barack Obama was quite different from continental black americans, raised by a white family, of course. some continental black Americans are raised by whites. by continental I mean blacks raised in the contiguous 48 states. we have a shared heritage of slavery. that is not in Obama’s lineage. neither on his fathers or mothers side. likewise being raised outside the black community he doesn’t have the run ins with the law and relatives mistreated by the police that is a part of growing up black in America.
and yet we are more loyal to him than we are to our homegrown black leaders. that always struck me as kind of odd and suggests to me that some sophisticated cognitive manipulation was being employed on the black community. to cause them to love him so.
I was kind of addressing this, saying, yes we voted for a black for president, that is true, but we haven’t voted for someone from the black community. He was a black from the white community.
Abagond, as far as I know, has never “convinced Black people to never vote for a Black again”. If anybody has dissuaded people from voting for a black president again, its Barack Obama.
and don’t forget the other part of that satirical statement. ‘wonderful man’. with one of the most evil war programs ever conceived, his signature drone murder program. what a wonderful man.
For your commentators:
The word war has a special meaning. No matter how many bombs are dropped it is not a “WAR” until nations or groups are fighting each other. In the real world words have meaning and it takes a long time for the meaning of word to change. Every thing President Obama has done was being done and continues now that he is out of office.
As far as I know, the1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, with neither side able to claim outright victory.
From Abagon:
“I was kind of addressing this, saying, yes we voted for a black for president, that is true, but we haven’t voted for someone from the black community. He was a black from the white community”
I believe Jesse Jackson ran for President. I believe Jesse Jackson was from the Black community.
I believe in numbers and:
“In addition, there were 37,144,530 non-Hispanic blacks, which comprised 12.1% of the population. This number increased to 42 million according to the 2010 United States Census, when including Multiracial African Americans, making up 14% of the total U.S. population.”
The majority of blacks are living in 10 southeast states where they are outvoted by the whites. “The electoral collage makes their votes meaningless”. I wish I could underline that information.
http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/us-states-with-the-largest-relative-african-american-populations.html
“Rank US States With The Largest Relative African American Populations Alone Or In Combination With Other Races, Per 2010 US Census
1 District of Columbia 50.7% African American
2 Mississippi 37.3% African American
3 Louisiana 32.4% African American
4 Georgia 31.4% African American
5 Maryland 30.1% African American
6 South Carolina 28.5% African American
7 Alabama 26.4% African American
8 North Carolina 21.6% African American
9 Delaware 21.0% African American
10 Virginia 19.9% African American
This page was last modified on March 2, 2017."
The balance of the United States contains a large population of whites; therefore the only way a black can be elected is for the whites to vote that person in.
Most of the comments on this site show a lack of knowledge of the constitution and how the government functions. During President Obama term millions of blacks were hired and moved up the ladder in both the government and outside businesses, yet your commentators only find those things that they seem to believe he should have done. His reduction in the prisons, which President Trump is reversing was not given any credit.
It seemed to me that some one was almost celebrating the fact that his programs are being rolled back, which is unprecedented in normal changes of administrations. No understanding that it is not anti-Obama it is anti-black.
Blaming President Obama for the problems in Chicago is an example of the foolishness of thought. The federal government has no jurisdiction within the state or city when it comes to such matters. The mayor could have requested the city be placed under federal jurisdiction, however that means the military
would have had to be stationed in the city. I am certain that millions of dollars of federal money was put into the food, drug rehabilitation, housing and other programs. Blaming the President for the killings,gangs and other unrest is a supercilious argument made by individuals who could not prove they have any real knowledge of government.
Once again, no notice of the Senate and House working against President Obama. Just a “I hate that man”!
President Obama is gone. He has received the “John F Kennedy Award Profile of Courage for his political courage and ‘enduring commitment to democratic ideals”, yet your commentators continue to be blind to the reality of the picture.
I hope you did not think that I meant you alone when I referred to the barrel. I am referring to all of those individuals who have no experience in venturing into the upper levels of either private management or government. They have not been privy to conversations where powerful leaders have openly voiced their opposition to any person of color being acceptable for leadership and the demand that they toe the line or else. They do not know that no position is above others, who will support or oppose and actively attempt to destroy. Think once more of Senator McConnell and John Boehner in the first term.
Good bye until the next subject.
The word war has a special meaning. No matter how many bombs are dropped it is not a “WAR” until nations or groups are fighting each other.
everybody, including the press, calls the Obama wars ‘wars’
oh yeah. but we didn’t vote for him.
on Sun May 14th 2017 at 02:57:33 Allen Shaw
“everybody, including the press, calls the Obama wars ‘wars’” yes and they call “people” snowflakes I bet you are alright with that to.
You are an Obama hater and you are proud of it. You say “My mind is made up do not confuse me with facts”.
We voted for Jesse Jackson, our vote does not count without the white vote. Look at the numbers I quoted.
on Sun May 14th 2017 at 05:13:18 Afrofem
“..we have a shared heritage of slavery. that is not in Obama’s lineage. neither on his fathers or mothers side. likewise being raised outside the black community he doesn’t have the run ins with the law and relatives mistreated by the police that is a part of growing up black in America.”
That is the crux of the matter.
Obama, Allen Shaw and other people who look Black, but are not of the Black/African slave descent community are essentially clueless about what it really means to grow up Black in America:
◉ That day when you are four or five and your realize that you are considered less than other children. In your childish brain you think it is because of something you did instead of the social system you were born into.
◉ The time you and your family are stopped by the police and the cops disrespect your father right in front of your mother and your siblings. You see him clench his jaw so that he won’t say anything to provoke a beatdown. He drives home seething with rage. You are angry and bewildered by the cops behavior.
◉ You are in a line with your grandmother in a store and the White clerk makes a point of waiting on the White women in line behind you. You look up at your grandmother with indignation and she is stony faced. She knows that protesting will only make things worse.
◉ You attend ramshackle schools with second hand textbooks. Many of the teachers couldn’t care less whether you learn anything or not. Most of them think you are intellectually inferior and therefore incapable of learning, so they make minimal efforts to teach you anything at all.
◉ Everytime you turn on the TV, all of the Black folk are depicted as dumb, lazy and immoral. That is in stark contrast to the relatives, neighbors and friends who are highly intelligent, work 12 hour days and are scrupulous in their dealings with everyone they know. As a child, you wonder about this disconnect between what you see in your community and how your community is perceived by outsiders.
Obama never dealt with these scenarios or others common to slave descent Black people. The pain that ordinary Black people carry every day of their lives was never a part of his life. He merely triangulated Black people and White people to achieve his own selfish ends. He did it so skillfully that people like Allen Shaw didn’t even feel the shoes that scampered across his back for eight years.
on Sun May 14th 2017 at 05:34:14 nomad
You are an Obama hater
yeah. I hate monsters. but youre the one that won’t face facts.
I guess it was whites that elected Obama. that’s fitting. our first black white president.
Afrofem:
You have made an assumption which is the bases of the problem. You believe that something happened to you that did not happen to someone else.
That because someone did not cry out that they are suffering the same indignation as you; however they did not let it fill them with hate. They somehow do not know what happened to you.
You want to hate President Obama because he is not black enough or he did not do enough for blacks.
Which one is it?
His father was black, he suffered some problems being a mixed breed child, which you do not understand. For all practical purposes he did not get to set in the car and see his father, he had to grow up without a father. In fact because of the circumstances of his life he even loss his mother, in a sense when he was palmed off on his grandmother, who was a redneck from Kansas and who had to learn how to even treat a mixed race child. Your inability to have any compassion for a person who was not fortunate enough to have a mother and father family relationship is sad. You are so consumed with hate that it has blinded you to the facts that are present.
You are are attempting to play like your life is an unknown book. Millions of blacks have lived with the problems you describe. You have this feeling that you are privy to some experience that has not been described and experience over and over and over and over and over!
I do not know if you live in the south east or some other community; however it is rare today that the situation you described would occur anywhere except in some backwoods community that a black family has decided to remain in.
Today the victim would be a Muslim or foreign speaking person with brown skin, who would not be from Sub Sahara Africa. After the Korean and Vietnam war you would witness the same treatment of the foreign wife’s of service personnel.
I realize that to some blacks no mistreatment is equal to their mistreatment.
Once again the upward mobility of blacks proves that when they apply themselves and educate themselves they improve themselves. Those that choose to live the past and blind themselves with hate will be treated in such a manner that more hate is the only expected results.
Do not attempt to accuse others of lack of knowledge or experience that you think you have more of.
Do not ass u me!
that’s it, shaw. stand up for your hero
on Sun May 14th 2017 at 14:46:35 Herneith
@ Afrofem:
As a black Canadian, I can attest to some of those experiences as well.
on Sun May 14th 2017 at 16:07:47 gro jo
Why, what good are you if you can’t answer simple questions? Obama could and did fire people he didn’t want. Do you remember general McChrystal? That bozo was stupid enough to talk sh*t about Obama and Bidden in front of a journalist, he was given the choice to retire or be fired.
“The congress has the “Power of the Purse” They authorize the President a budget which he must operate within.” You are babbling Shaw, the purse has nothing to do with appointing Ambassadors, cabinet officers, judges, etc. The fact that you think it does shows your ignorance, nothing more, so yes, I “capped” (whatever that means) you. As usual you don’t know what you’re talking about so I’ll leave you alone.
Afrofem wrote: “Obama, Allen Shaw and other people who look Black, but are not of the Black/African slave descent community are essentially clueless about what it really means to grow up Black in America”. Really? Lots of “authentic” Black American hustlers are willing and able to sell their people for a pat on the head, does the name Clarence Thomas ring a bell? A number of other blacks, born under foreign suns have led struggles for Black emancipation, Hubert H. Harrison and Stokley Carmichael come to mind. So the claim that there’s something special about the Black American psyche strikes me as a sentimental evasion of the failure of Blacks of this generation to assess their situation and come up with serious political programs. Obama never promised anybody anything, he was taken up by the Black community after he showed he could convince whites to vote for him. Having no program to speak of, fantasy took over. The election became a spectator sport. Both Blacks and Whites were invested in the show of electing the first black as president. Obama lived up to the low expectations placed on him.
Obama never promised anybody anything
he never promised black folk anything. he promised America as a whole a lot
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/
“… it is rare today that the situation you described would occur anywhere except in some backwoods community that a black family has decided to remain in.”
In your dreams, Allen Shaw! This stuff still goes on to this day; with more pronounced and depressing results.
To me, it is even worse because years ago we at least had something called community. Many Black children don’t get to experience those tight knit networks of family, friends and neighbors that acted as buffers for Black children of the 20th century.
Now Black kindergarteners are criminalized, handcuffed and stuffed into the school to prison pipeline. That may be “progress” to you, it is the opposite to me.
I know it is no better in “The Great White North”. They are just more “polite” when they disrespect and abuse their Black citizens.
“Lots of “authentic” Black American hustlers are willing and able to sell their people for a pat on the head, does the name Clarence Thomas ring a bell? A number of other blacks, born under foreign suns have led struggles for Black emancipation, Hubert H. Harrison and Stokley Carmichael come to mind.”
Valid points. Those currents have always been present in Black/African American society.
○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○
“…the failure of Blacks of this generation to assess their situation and come up with serious political programs.”
Black folk, like all other Americans have in a sleepwalking state for the past 40 years. Ferguson was a wake-up call. Yet, mobilization is not organization. I think it will take some time before the current generation comes up with and begins to execute an effective plan.
Some have already gone astray, seduced by millions of dollars of funding from the non-profit/NGO/foundation industrial complex. Others have already been jailed or killed. Only a relatively small percent will survive and do the work necessary to build serious political and economic programs.
We can criticize them or we can roll up our sleeves and help them.
that’s one reason. I don’t think anybody hates him because hes not black enough. and even then it would be his state of mind that was not black enough, not his skin. it would be the mind given to him by his white family, not his black father, who he never knew. the mind given to him by his family and the CIA, which was one and the same. I guess you could hate him for that. I don’t for that. for that he was a helpless mind control victim. I cant hate him for not being able to overcome that powerful mind programming.
I cant really hate him for not doing enough for blacks.
I hate him for his treachery and the carnage he caused throughout the world in my name. as if he were acting according to my wishes as a black citizen. I hate him for sullying the honor of black americans.
“I hate him for his treachery and the carnage he caused throughout the world in my name. as if he were acting according to my wishes as a black citizen.
I hate him for sullying the honor of black americans.”
And all this time I thought he was acting as the President of the United States! At no time did I believe he was acting according to the wishes of the blacks.
I believe that is the problem. The expectation that any black is acting only in the interest of the blacks. Watch out for that barrel!
oh no. he was definitely representing us. even if just as president . he postured black. he pandered black. he insinuated me in his heinous crimes. I didn’t expect any thing from him. he did that regardless of whether I expected anything or not. barrels aint got nothing to do with it except the one your head is stuck in, if you want to go down that path.
chuckle yeah, you’re right.
gro jo
“You are babbling Shaw, the purse has nothing to do with appointing Ambassadors, cabinet officers, judges, etc. The fact that you think it does shows your ignorance, nothing more, so yes, I “capped” (whatever that means) you. As usual you don’t know what you’re talking about so I’ll leave you alone.”
Appointed yes, approved by congress yes! Section 2 “He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”
You missed the point, the FBI was not investigating Obama. I spoke of one situation only the Director of the FBI. The same as the Syrian bombing that congress voted NO. No money for any follow up action that might result if the President bombed. Consider the depth of each situation and see it separately
“A number of other blacks, born under foreign suns have led struggles for Black emancipation, Hubert H. Harrison and Stokley Carmichael come to mind. So the claim that there’s something special about the Black American psyche strikes me as a sentimental evasion of the failure of Blacks of this generation to assess their situation and come up with serious political programs.”
I have never said anything about the black psyche (whatever that is).
“Both Blacks and Whites were invested in the show of electing the first black as president.”
Well no truer statement. There is a difference. From the very beginning the Republican Party (then minority leader McConnell made his remarks: — President Obama, interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” recorded on Sept. 12, 2012, and aired on Sept. 23
“It was no surprise, because the senator from Kentucky, who just spoke, announced at the beginning, four years ago, exactly what his strategy would be. He said, his number-one goal was to make sure that Barack Obama was a one-term president.” ” and Both Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley started their anti-Obama movement.
This anti Obama conversation is nothing but a continuation of the same rhetoric of Dr. West. He has kept up a constant drum beat against President Obama from the beginning of this adventure.
Finally, the racial makeup of this nation places the black race near the bottom in numbers of people. The merging of blacks and whites and Hispanic is creating a new group called other or mixed. As time goes by and those who have identified as black, but who are mixed will change their identity on the census and the black race will start to decline in numbers. I think that when President Obama came to the mainland he did not consider himself a ‘black’ man. He changed after he was here and realized the “one drop rule” and worked in the “black community” and of course met his wife.
http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/distribution-by-raceethnicity/?currentTimeframe=0&selectedDistributions=two-or-more-races&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Two%20Or%20More%20Races%22,%22sort%22:%22desc%22%7D
37,144,530 named as black 4,855,470 as mixed.
Today the one drop rule no longer applies! The lack of acceptance by those individuals who are black is causing increasingly mixed individuals to soul search themselves out of the black race.
Why would anyone continue to be browbeaten because of the coincidence of their birth?
on Mon May 15th 2017 at 00:58:08 gro jo
Shaw, you’re showing your usual confusion. The whole advice and consent thing is a seesaw between the executive and legislative powers. A strong president like LBJ shoved his programs down Congress’s throat. When you have somebody like Obama, he grovels in front of Congress. How did LBJ do it? He realized something you wrote. “Members of Congress do not vote the party they vote their will.” LBJ made sure he knew the weak points of the members of Congress and put maximum pressure on them to get what he wanted. Are you going to tell me that during Obama’s terms members of Congress were impervious to such tactics? “I have never said anything about the black psyche (whatever that is).”
I was addressing Afrofem when I wrote this, not you. I won’t try to respond to the rest of your comments because I’m not sure I understand them.
on Mon May 15th 2017 at 09:53:13 Allen Shaw
“A strong president like LBJ shoved his programs down Congress’s throat”
What happened to the strong man Johnson?
http://www.azquotes.com/author/7511-Lyndon_B_Johnson?p=3
“I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.
Lyndon B. Johnson ”
I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years. [Touting his underlying intentions for the “Great Society” programs, LBJ confided with two like-minded governors on Air Force One]
“Johnson’s popularity within his own party plummeted as well. When it appeared that he might face a stiff challenge for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination, Johnson announced his decision not to run for re-election. “I shall not seek, nor will I accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president,” ”
The entire Republican Party has voted as a block since they took over at the end of Obama’s 1st year.
on Tue May 16th 2017 at 03:21:59 Allen Shaw
Thank you for not wiping out my entire remark; however I hope you understand that you removed the sting from my remarks by replacing the “N” word with “colored man”. No one will understand the relationship of the black vs white when you cover up the hate that I experienced.
I doubt if Johnson referred to blacks as “colored men” until he made his conversion, after MLK.
Why do you want to hide a word that was real to so many of us in our lives? That word then and today is so common that it seems like you are living in a bubble!
You even modified the page of the reference to hide the “N” word.
You can run but you cannot hide from the racial problems that exist in this nation.
Johnson was a prejudice man from Texas who after years of existing as a prejudiced man appeared to change when he became President.
I wanted gro jo to know that and also that he was actually technically a one term President.
Now that President Trump is in office some whites are already reflecting there anti black thoughts publicly. Are you going to hide that also?
on Tue May 16th 2017 at 05:17:59 gro jo
So, which is it, they vote as a block or they vote their will? According to this article some republicans backed Obama in 2008. In 2012, Obama’s vote among Cuban-Americans increased from 35% to 48%.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_and_conservative_support_for_Barack_Obama_in_2008
http://www.republicansforobama.org/
“What happened to the strong man Johnson?” He retired having passed some of the most progressive laws in the history of the USA, especially for Blacks.
President do not pass laws, they sign them after a congress passes them.
He did not retire, he realized he was not going to be reelected and chose not to run for a second term. Your lack of understanding of the government is amazing.
Remember the Vietnam loss. That belongs to your hero. Yes he did sign the Civil Right Bill, which was passed by Congress. you do remember MLK don’t you.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/04/what-the-hells-the-presidency-for/358630/
Yes it is true at the end President Johnson was a “good old boy” Now what other bills did he pass personally, without congress.
Please go back and see how many Black people he put into his government and then be honest and go see how many black people President Obama put into the government.
I was there. Were you there at that time. (1963) I was leaving Montgomery, Alabama after living there from 1961, integrating the all white world!
President Johnson got into office on the death of John Kennedy and his administration was full of the Kennedy powerful. You remember Bobby, who was killed, was the Attorney General.
Go back and look and study. The same power group that supported Johnson is still supporting the black movement. That is why President Obama got the Profile of Courage Award from the Kennedy Foundation.
Please recognize those who are attempting to advance the cause of the black race in this nation.
on Wed May 17th 2017 at 04:35:16 Afrofem
“…recognize those who are attempting to advance the cause of the black race in this nation.
That would be the Prison abolition movement, some in the Movement for Black Lives and countless Black men and women fighting for various Black causes everyday——–not that pimp, Obama or the phony Kennedys.
on Wed May 17th 2017 at 05:56:07 gro jo
“Your lack of understanding of the government is amazing.” One as ignorant as you should be careful labeling others. If you were there as you claim, you’ll remember that the Kennedys were getting nowhere in Congress with the Civil Right Bill. It took LBJ’s cajoling of the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives to get it passed. I appreciate your ‘lecture’ on the proper roles of presidents and legislatures but in this instance, it can verily be said that LBJ passed this bill.
“you do remember MLK don’t you.” Yes, aside from giving LBJ the “we shall overcome line”, what role did he play in passing the bill? You are under the delusion that you can intimidate me by throwing out names like MLK, Kennedy, etc., two can play at that game. Robert Caro, have you heard of him and his multi volume bio of LBJ? Consult it to prevent exposing your ignorance any further. http://www.robertcaro.com/the-books/
How come you’re quiet on Obama’s republican backers and the fact that he increased his Cuban-American vote, staunch supporters of the republicans, from 35% in 2008 to 48% in 2012?
on Wed May 17th 2017 at 08:17:34 Allen Shaw
So all MLK did was give a speech. I give up.
You should do a more careful study of the life of MLK.
I bet you Mr Robert Caro is white Johnson hero worshiper. Yes I did look him up
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-on-power-20170320-story.html
They are still writing books about Abraham Lincoln. I read two of them and one of the first is now pretty much out of favor and the latest is is Team of Rivals. It means nothing.
No, I was not intimidating you. You have proven over the years that you are not interested in facts; however I respond to you because other read what I say, I hope.
I promise that I will make every attempt to not respond to you anymore unless I have something to offer to the Abagon site.
I will not read any volume written by a paid biographer.
I suspect that after eight years in office President Obama is going to have plenty of negative garbage pitched at him. Starting with you, who does not understand the limits of the President, Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley who have been against the President from day-one, who have felt that President Obama was a failure from day one.
“The Donald” has dedicated himself to destroying all of the legacy that he can of the past eight years. President Obama will be like that Egyptian Ruler whose name was wiped out and we will end up with a 12 year Bush Administration and at least 8 or 12 year Trump Administration and the name Obama will not be seen or spoken. There will be no history of a Black President of the United States.
Read Article II of the Constitution concerning the President. Please do not confuse yourself. The Presidents power is controlled by the Congress. Read
Article I.
Article. II.
Section. 1.
The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President.
The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.
Article. V.
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
“So all MLK did was give a speech. I give up.” Only because you don’t know what you’re talking about.
“You should do a more careful study of the life of MLK.” You should take your own advice because you can’t tell me what and how MLK helped pass the Civil Right Bill.
“I bet you Mr Robert Caro is white Johnson hero worshiper.” I don’t know about the worshiper bit, but he’s white and spent several decades researching the life of LBJ.
I promise that I will make every attempt to not respond to you anymore unless I have something to offer to the Abagon site…Blah,blah,blah” Whatever.
People must have a lot of time on their hands to write the post, aka tomes!
on Wed May 17th 2017 at 12:32:40 nomad
why I hate barack Obama
(https://youtu.be/1ZHifTobAgY)
“There will be no history of a Black President of the United States.”
Hilarious! And. So. Very. Wrong.
The fact that there was a first “Black” president of the US in the early days of the 21st century will be an enduring lesson in how American institutions always elevate Black figureheads to high office when they are in decline after years of White mismanagement.
Then the White Power structure (government, business interests and the media) uses the Black figurehead as a scapegoat for the decline. Unwary Black people who are awed by “Black Faces in High Places” and “First Black This and That” will reflexively defend the Black figurehead. That unthinking defense of the Black figurehead helps to intensify popular White anger on the Black figurehead and all Black people. In this way, The White Power Structure redirects popular anger for their misdeeds and screw-ups onto the shoulders of Black folk instead of themselves.
The Black figureheads usually are in on the game. The masses of Black people are not. The Black figureheads are generally well compensated with financial and social rewards. The masses of Black people fall further behind while they waste time lauding and defending the cynical Black figurehead.
Not only will there be an enduring history of “a Black President of the United States”, Obama’s presidency will be required reading for future scholars on how to snooker masses of people with “hope and change”.
nomad, wtf does your youtube link have to do with Obama?
grojo
r u nuts? if you cant figure it out that’s your problem.
grojo.
my apologies. dam
that old stuck previous link thing. I meant to post this. sorry
(https://youtu.be/hne-hG4raHI)
@gro jo
my apologies again while waiting for moderation.
Summary: ‘Trump is president because Barack Obama is a f%$#@g buffoon.’
okay, forgot parenthesis
brilliant analysis! did you see the video of wnen Ali was asked if he wanted to be president? check it out. he said “The ship must be sinking” if they let a black man be president. the brother was prescient.
nomad, did you forget to take your medicine again? Your link had nothing to do with Obama, hence my question. Your act is a little transparent, that’s why you’re hypersensitive. As far as I know, CNN and Obama are not the same so “why I hate barack Obama” followed by a link about military intelligence infiltration of CNN seemed a stretch to me.
Bull. You are free to make irrational leaps of logic like that and I’m free to call it bs. No apologies warranted.
hey gro jo, it was a mistake. and go to hiel.
that was as I said a summary, obviously of the video in moderation. I think I was right the first time. u r nuts.
abagond, please release the comment before grojo blows a gasket.
Afrofem: About your post about President Obama not disappearing, you are totally correct.
By your own admission “No black need apply rings true”. If a black person does the black people will think he is suppose to pick all of them up and push them to the top.
I hope you read the Article II, in case you had not read it before. Most people do not understand the weak position of the president.
(When the congress gets tired of “the Donald” they will put a block on him that will shock most people”)
They do not understand that the president is not the president of the black people who are in charge of United States, he is a black person that the white people trust to be the leader and expect him to act the same as a “white leader”.
Since blacks make up only 12% of the population (not counting mixed race) and further most of them are concentrated in 5 states with more in 5 other states, they are always going to be an insignificant force in this nation. At least 30 states have less then 3 % blacks and that includes the military which has a large number of blacks.
Those states alone will make certain that no black need apply unless that black does as they require.
And further since among blacks there is no trust of other blacks and the highest % of blacks in any state is about 37% (did not count Washington, DC, it is not a state) the very mental process of blacks will keep the blacks as a group out of power. Please note how little credit that gro jo gives to MLK and how highly President Johnson is praised.
The words you should use for President Obama is ‘Uncle Tom or oreo”, because he dared to enter the white competition and won.
The Black figureheads are generally well compensated with financial and social rewards.
That’s it! I’m running for office I need a new car!
so anyway, thanks for pointing out that I posted the wrong video. I actually appreciate that. I never would have known otherwise. did I mention I hate barack Obama?
like Obama did. he went far and beyond what whites and white racists required.
he is a conservative friend and agent of America’s highly unequal capitalist system, imperialism, and (curiously enough) white supremacism
and white supremacy is what you are supporting when you defend him.
barack was a vaccine. a little bit of blackness injected into the whitehouse to inoculate against an actual black president (one from the black community).
https://aislec.wordpress.com/2014/02/02/the-heartbreak-of-obamaphelia-a-short-history-and-diagnostic-guide/
the ship must be sinking
(https://youtu.be/Ba23hxCDrM4)
@nomad You will be older than I am before you see a black President from what ever you call the black community.
The black community is becoming smaller and smaller and is being concentrated in states where blacks are a minority and the whites intend to keep them nearly in bondage.
No matter how many super rich black people are concentrated around the large cities in the south east the balance of the states is full of whites that will control the politics.
Idealism is wonderful, it keeps hope alive; however, without the help of whites the blacks do not have the numbers needed.
The President of the United States must always represent all of the people. You are blind to the help that the past President gave the black community and you seek the negative and ignore the positive.
. >You are blind to the help that the past President gave the black community
you must mean LBJ, because the rest haven’t a thing. Obama did less than nothing. i.e. made things worse for everybody (except the rich). esp black people.
on Thu Jun 1st 2017 at 12:27:19 nomad
the pursuit of upward mobility through cultivation of white folks’ political favor is not confined to base and conniving caricatures like David Clarke. Sadly, it has become the main route to political fortune in Black America. The best (or worst) example is Barack Obama, who spent a lifetime making himself acceptable to the more politically correct section of the white ruling class. Obama was not a Black leader; he was the Black politician most acceptable and attractive to white Democrats and moneybags – “articulate and bright and clean” in the whitest kind of way, not “like Jesse Jackson.”
What’s more dangerous: a Black opportunist that curries favor with the worst elements of the White Man’s Party, but whose primary effect on Black politics is to make Black folks more vigilant, or a smooth Black operator who is so good at gaining the confidence of the ruling class that they entrust him to wage war on most of the world, and to impose capitalist austerity at home, knowing his mere presence will pacify Blacks and neutralize them as a force for change?
https://www.blackagendareport.com/black-hating_negroes_%20and_their_uses
on Thu Jun 1st 2017 at 13:21:57 Allen Shaw
@nomad we know you do not like President Obama (now retired and no longer a part of the picture); but, could you give us a break.
He is gone from the picture and we now have “the trumpster”.
You should be hoping that the new president learns, gets a decent staff and does this nation some good.
Do you have an unused supply of anti Obama hate messages? If you do let us have them all at the same time so we can get on with the current situation.
Once again, in case you failed to see the latest news the current president is Donald J. Trump.
could you give us a break.
lol. do you even have to ask? was that a rhetorical question? obviously the answer is N O.
on Thu Jun 1st 2017 at 13:46:54 Afrofem
Two faulty assumptions:
✧ The size of a community has little to do with the economic and political power it wields. The American Jewish community is 3 percent of the population and they do quite well, both economically and politically.
✧ What Whites intend to do is less important than what Black people choose to do. All it would take is a small determined group of Black people to provide leadership and the course of history could change. We don’t know the future.
im still waitng on your list of things obama gave the black community.
id really like to know. can anybody tell me.
cause i cant think of a dam thing.
on Sat Jun 3rd 2017 at 09:56:29 nomad
Paul Street saw the approaching Obamanation.
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/keynote-reflections-by-paul-street/
what? there shoulda been a ‘2004’ in front of that.
2004: Paul Street saw the approaching Obamanation.
on Wed Jun 14th 2017 at 23:09:48 nomad
why black americans need to repudiate barack obama
The first Black U.S. president, Barack Obama, was among the most aggressive defenders of white supremacy in history — defending the accumulated advantages that colonialism provided to western European nations, settler states (like the U.S.) and citizens — having launched an ongoing military offensive aimed at strangling the Chinese giant and preventing an effective Eurasian partnership with Russia. The first phase of the offensive, the crushing of Libya in 2011, allowed the United States to complete the effective military occupation of Africa, through AFRICOM.
https://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie_sanders_imperial_pig
on Wed Jun 14th 2017 at 23:25:26 Deb
@’Mad…I JUSTread that piece @ Black Agenda Report and I concur WHOLEHEARTEDLY — just adding the link so’s to agree with the posting policy (cuz what the piece says is so real!l:
https://blackagendareport.com/bernie_sanders_imperial_pig
on Thu Jun 15th 2017 at 00:29:17 nomad
after obama, we need to shake off the cognitive dissidence and admit just how anti-black he really was. with friends like these, we dont need no enemies.
with black presidents like this, we dont need no donald trumps.
my mind is obviously on vacation today. i meant ‘cognitive dissonance’
on Thu Jun 15th 2017 at 03:03:48 Allen Shaw
@abagon and @nomad plus all of those other would be the greatest if they could only have the chance to be picked to be some important person other than standing on the sidelines looking into the arena.
All that President Obama had to do is be able to prove to the 86% of the US population that he could be given the responsibilities of the President of the United States and concern himself with the bigger picture.
He was not picked to be the president of the black people. Black people should pick their own representatives to speak to the government about black problems. As far as I am aware they have the NAACP, Urban League, Black Muslims and other newly formed organizations. They have the ability to elect black members to the House of Representative and maybe even to the Senate.
Each of the individuals that are elected to the federal government have the total US to concern themselves with. The 14% of the population deserves no more than 14 % of the thought.
During the 8 years of the Obama Administration many blacks were hired due to his policies and the policies of his cabinet. Many good thing happened which the individuals that comment on this site have not paid any attention to.
During my working career, with the exception of my three years in the Black military I was always assigned to organizations where I was responsible for white service personnel. Rarely did I supervise blacks. I did not give much thought to blacks because my job was to make the organization run. Some of the supervisors who were in my department had blacks working for them and they were fair in the treatment of their workers. I never thought about a persons race, ethnics, religion or any of the other separators of mankind. My job was to treat each individual equally and to assure that my supervisors did the same.
So you can spend the balance of your life complaining about what President Obama did or did not do; however, you will never convince any successful black that aspires to be the President of the United States that they should concentrate on black problems.
That my friends is not how to get to first place!
Hate is the most destructive of all emotions!
very presumptuous of you. you have no idea what youre talking about but feel you have to defend obama at all costs. hes not president anymore. you dont have to defend him anymore. remove the scales from your eyes and realize that you were brainwashed into following him and advocating against your own interests as a black person by sophisticated cia mind manipulation manufacturing of consent pr techniques. you need to unbrainwash. thats my purpose, to help unbrainwash you. obama was a devil. the sooner you realize it the better. too bad you couldnt realize it while he was president. still its necessary to unbrainwash so that you, your children and whoever you may have influence over, do not fall prey to this kind of manipulation in the future. he was a white man in black skin.
for you, no black person is good but obama. truly the brainwashing worked too well on you. it might be permanent.
@ nomad I bet you did not give a thought to what I said.
Please provide your qualifications for making such decisions about what took place in the White House and where you have the background to make your opinions worth more than other.
You are a parrot repeating what you believe the duties of the president are.
Anyone can complain!
@nomad ‘he was a white man in black skin” You do not even have that correct. He was a man with a black father and a white mother, that you want to decide what his race is.
There are very few people left that think that an ounce of black blood makes you black. A person is who he is, based on the surroundings that nurtured them.
Just because a person was born (?Black?) does not mean they have the same thinking process as another.
The person that thought that President Obama was going to ignore the demands of his office should look more closely at their decisions of why they supported him.
Just what made you think he was going to do any of the things that “YOU” thought were important.
im talking bout his mind, dude.
for all his tawny hide
hes white pure white inside.
as for credentials.
i dont need no stinking badges.
and yes i do not read your posts. too tedious. i got better things to do. i scan them. if you want me to pay attention you have to feed me in small bites. thats what i do.
on Sat Aug 31st 2019 at 10:29:20 iamvistinginstructoreric
Reblogged this on Project ENGAGE.
on Tue Aug 4th 2020 at 12:42:12 Mary Burrell
Happy birthday to President Obama.
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Home/MPS/Interview with Fabien Campagne about DSLs, bioinformatics and his new MPS book
Interview with Fabien Campagne about DSLs, bioinformatics and his new MPS book
Vaclav Pech April 25, 2014
Fabien Campagne, a researcher in the field of bioinformatics, a long-term DSL practitioner, an experienced MPS user and also an author of a new MPS book, sat down with Václav Pech and discussed these interesting topics.
Q: Hello Fabien, it is my great pleasure to be able to ask you a few questions. You’ve been very active in the community around JetBrains MPS in the past and just recently you’ve published a book on MPS. I believe there’s a lot of exciting topics we can talk about. To begin with, would you be willing to tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I was born in France and have been living in New York City for about 15 years. I am a scientist working in the field of bioinformatics. If your readers are not familiar with bioinformatics, very briefly, it is a scientific discipline that helps study biology using computers. In the last ten years, bioinformatics has also started to provide methods that help address open medical questions, such as why some patients who suffer from a specific disease and are treated with a generally effective treatment do not respond to the treatment.
I have become really interested in MPS because it offers a unique solution to some of the problems that we are facing in bioinformatics: we work with many computational abstractions and as a field have been lacking a set of methods to handle abstractions in a principled and seamless way.
For instance, we need abstractions to represent data measured from biological systems, but also to represent knowledge accumulated in biology and medicine, or to track analyses as they run on compute grids or clusters. MPS offers a way to define computational abstractions in formal languages and makes it possible to compose these languages seamlessly.
Programs expressed in MPS languages can be generated to code, so we can use succint notations while we think about what is important in the problem that we are trying to solve, and when we have formulated a solution can generate this solution to code to process the data. Language and abstraction composition is very important to us, because bioinformatics has been plagued with systems that do not well work together (e.g., developed in traditional programming languages that cannot be easily combined). This statement is probably a bit controversial, because some people are content with the tools that they use, these groups typically work with one traditional programming languages and a scripting language. Our laboratory is trying to push the enveloppe and see if there is a better way.
Q: What are you currently working on?
We always work on several projects in parallel. On the application side, one or our projects is to develop a blood test to diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). We obtain blood from CFS patients and normal controls, separate the blood into three different cell types involved in immunity (B, T and NK cells for the curious) and measure the expression of about 20,000 genes in these cells. We use the data to train machine learning models that we hope will provide an objective diagnosis. Patients who suffer from CFS currently have a difficult time obtaining a diagnosis because there is no easy molecular diagnostic test. We are aiming to develop a simple blood test for this disease.
On the methodology side, we are woking on the next version of GobyWeb. GobyWeb is a system we have developed to analyze large datasets like those generated in the CFS project I mentionned. We published GobyWeb last year and we are now actively working on improved methods. The paper is open-access and available here. If your readers take a look, they will notice that the architecture of the system includes a domain specific language (DSL). We use a DSL to define plugins that can be used by bioinformaticians to extend GobyWeb with new analysis methods. Until GobyWeb version 2, we have used XML to implement the GobyWeb plugin DSL. We have started to reach the limits with XML because its severely limits the kind of syntax that we can implement and also does not make it easy to combine languages (all languages would have to be XML, which is not convenient for some types of abstractions, for instance we developed a language to evaluate boolean expressions that we use to write expressions that determine when some options are shown on a web-page or not, XML does not make it easy to write such expressions succintly, thus we had to create a mini language and write a parser for it).
Q: Clearly, your work is focused on Domain Specific Languages quite a lot. How did you get started with DSLs?
I guess I came to DSLs gradually. I developed a tool during my PhD thesis that created diagrams of protein sequences (this tool, called Viseur is now of historical interest only). I included a tiny language in this tool that end users could learn and use to paint parts of the diagram certain colors to show some information or hyperlink to some documents on the web. This was used quite a bit to make hyperlinked illustrations for web sites and PostScript outputs for publications. At the time, I wrote a lexer and parser with Lex and YACC (Yet Another Compiler Compiler) to support this application specific language.
During my post-doctoral training, I developed improved methods to render such diagrams and I used XML as a means to avoid developping a parser. I liked that the language could evolve quickly, because I could use code generated automatically for serialization and deserialization, but XML felt less natural to use that a well-crafted language.
Q: What tools and technologies for DSLs have you tried in the past?
Besides Lex and YACC, I continued to build tools that used XML over the years. With XML, I used Castor to help with XML data binding. I have also used Scala to build a DSL for boolean expressions in GobyWeb.
Q: How and when did you first meet JetBrains MPS?
I have been working with Java since 1996 and I am always looking for ways to improve my programming productivity. I tried one of the first releases of IntelliJ IDEA. It was so much better than any of the competing tools that I remember wondering how it had been designed. IntelliJ kept improving and I was visiting the Jetbrains web site every year or so and checking the other products out.
The very first public release of MPS was announced in 2006, and I was among the people who downloaded build #320. I took some notes on our Institutes’ wiki, which you can see here, here and here. At the time, my notes indicate I was interested in language oriented programming because I was running into limitations of software framework for our work. Developing a software framework in the syntax of a programming language does not make for the most intuitive notations. MPS seemed to offer a way around such problems.
From this first experience in 2006, I remember being confused by the user interface (it was very different from anything else I had worked with before) and I eventually reached a point when I could not find enough information to finish a tutorial. I decided that the project was not yet ready for the type of work that we do and moved on. I then kind of forgot about MPS for 7 years.
I stumbled upon MPS again in 2013 because I was looking for a good solution to generate Java code from a data persistence DSL. This is related to the work we have done to manage and compress high-throughput sequencing data (Campagne et al, PLOS One, 2013). I started experimenting with MPS again and this time was able to get much further. I decided to throughly evaluate MPS for the type of work that we do, and this open-access article is the result, which presents our experience over the summer 2013 (Simi and Campagne, PeerJ, 2014).
Although in 2013, the documentation was much better, and the tool more polished than it was when I first tried it in 2006, I felt MPS was still lacking in way of introductory and reference material. I started working on my book series (The MPS Language Workbench) to provide such material. While I wrote the book for others, interestingly, I find myself also using the book to refresh my memory about what method or concept to use to do certain things. I could spend time to figure out how to do such things again, but the book makes it much easier and much quicker.
Q: Now that you mentioned the new book you wrote on MPS – this certainly was a big endeavor. What was your motivation for going through the pain and prepare such a detailed guide for MPS users?
I had several motivations. The first was to have a reference manual that I could share with students so that they can learn MPS when they join the lab to work on our research projects. It is sometimes easier to write a book than to teach the same things to different people over and over again. Another motivation was to explain MPS to a larger community of programmers and software engineers, who might find it easier to learn MPS with a book than through experimentation. After all, I did initally try MPS in 2006, but stopped using it when I got stuck at some point. I am hoping my book will prevent this from happening and help grow a community of programmers who will enjoy the benefits of the platform.
Q: What should people expect in the book and where can they get it?
The book offers a succession of reference chapters interleaved with chapters that present an application of the preceding chapter on a practical example. If you read the book from cover to cover, you will encounter a progressive description of MPS. If you go back to the book after you have read it, you can skip the example chapters and just get to a relevant section of one of the reference chapters. I included a detailed index to help get to the relevant reference section.
The eBook is on Google Play and Amazon for now. More distributors may be introduced in the future. I maintain links to the distribution channels at http://books.campagnelab.org.
Q: Do you have any further plans with the book?
Yes, certainly. The book is the first volume of a series. The first volume will be updated to match the changes introduced in MPS 3.1. The second volume is in preparation and will discuss some of the MPS aspects that software engineers can use to customize the MPS user interface (plugin solutions) and to interface with legacy systems (custom persistence).
Q: Could you tell us more about the MPS-based solutions that you created so far? How could our readers try them out?
In our PeerJ article (Simi and Campagne, PeerJ, 2014), we present an evaluation of MPS where we constructed a replacement for the BASH language. We use BASH extensively when developing bioinformatics analysis pipelines, because it runs on a variety of platforms. We use it in GobyWeb to express the logic of analyses. BASH scripts are used by GobyWeb to call analysis programs in the right order and with the right data. While I was experimenting with MPS, I thought that it would be interesting to see if we could extend baseLanguage, which is very similar to Java, with language constructs that we can use to execute BASH command pipelines (e.g., lines=`cat file | wc -l `) . Our evaluation shows that this was possible by developing small languages that we could combine with baseLanguage. The result of this evaluation was packaged as a standalone IDE and is available at http://nyosh.campagnelab.org/.
I have also developed a language to help create PDF figures for the books. I would create figures manually for the first volume by taking snapshots of the MPS workbench editors. While starting work on the second volume I decided I should spend a week end doing some infrastructure work. The Editor2PDF project is the result of this. The big advantage is that the figures will be vectorial and print at press resolution. You can find the language at https://github.com/CampagneLaboratory/Editor2PDF. See the tutorial there.
Q: Can you highlight the features of MPS that in your opinion were in particular useful when implementing your projects?
The ability to design custom syntax that is well suited for a problem comes first. Second is the ability to compose languages seamlessly. This makes it possible to reuse capabilities developed for other projects in a very straightforward and no-nonsense manner. Third was the ability to generate the languages to Java source code, compile it under the hood, and even deploy the Jar files to a development GobyWeb plugin repository. Our PeerJ article describes these and other features in more detail (Simi and Campagne, PeerJ, 2014).
Q: Looking at the MPS roadmap reveals that MPS will shortly add support for diagrams, followed by web-based editors, language versioning and improvements to the language definition languages. Where would you personally like to see MPS going in the future?
I am very much looking forward to trying the support for diagrams. Visualization is an integral part of the work that we do and I think we will be trying several ideas to see if the MPS diagram support can help. In fact, I am already planning to update the first volume of the eBook with a chapter dedicated to diagrams. Thanks to modern epublishing platforms pushing such updates can be done seamlessly.
Language versioning is also something that I think will be critical to help grow a community around MPS. I hope the plans for versionning includes some support for language repositories (perhaps leveraging open-source tools such as artifactory). I would love to have the ability to create a language, push it to a repository like we push software artifacts, and have others immediately able to get and use the new language in their work. Versioning will make sure that different releases of the languages can cohabit together and is, in my experience, absolutely necessary to avoid monolytic platforms where everything is included, and must evolve in one release jump together. As MPS grows, we need to be able to refer to specific versions of the languages that are offered on the platform. We may also need the ability to configure configure several language repositories.
Besides the features planned in your roadmap, I think what I would like to see is a simple way to import Java archives, that takes care of dependencies between these archives. MPS already let’s developers import jar files so that the classes in these jar files can be used transparently in MPS. This is great to interface with legacy code developed in the Java community in the last twenty years. However, I am sometimes running into problems when a JAR file depends on a few others. Common jar files such as apache-commons-io tend to be needed in several languages, but importing them several times can cause classloader problems, and at best is confusing when the same classes appear from multiple languages. I think MPS solved this in the past for the JDK by importing all of it into one solution, but think that we may need a more fine-grained solution moving forward when more people use MPS and they need to interface it to the large number of Java archives available today.
Q: Where do you typically turn to for information? Can you recommend any relevant books to people interested in DSLs?
I get most of the information from MPS itself. When a language is part of the MPS platform I try to locate examples of code that use the language. This is easy to do in MPS with the Find Usage feature. I work from the examples and experiment to understand the meaning of each option. Sometimes the project web documentation provides pointers, but I find it to be often out of date with the latest releases of MPS. When I really don’t know I check the forums and if I find nothing there, I contact the Jetbrains team.
Regarding books, I have a copy of Czarnecki’s Generative Programming book, published in 2000. At the time, this was a good introduction to the field. It is a bit outdated with respect to the description of the tools available, but it has a good description of the various techniques and their advantages and drawbacks. The more recent DSL Engineering book, by Markus Voelter and colleagues is a good resource if you are interested in how differerent tools compare with respect to the features they offer. The book compares MPS with Spoofax and XText.
Q: What do you typically do after you turn off your computer?
I try to play squash three or four times a week with friends. I also enjoy watching movies.
Thank you, Fabien, for sharing your insight.
-JetBrains MPS Team
#dsl #interview #mps
Presentation – The art of building tools
Getting close to MPS 3.1 – the EAP has started
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Et voilà. Square-Enix is indeed releasing a separate OST for their recent FFVII Advent Children Complete movie, dubbing it "Reunion Tracks". Besides all the remix sound tracks featured in the movie such as "Anxious Heart", the US$26 OST due on September 16th will also include bon...
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - My Life as a Darklord Revealed
Square-Enix has revealed they'll be releasing their next Wii Ware title, "Final Fantasy Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord" for 1000 Wii Points this year - Slightly cheaper than their last. Japan will have it available in the Wii Shop this June. Taking an excerpt from the official site... Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a...
Full Metal Alchemist - Prince of Dawn, Wii
FFXIII director Mutomu Toriyama will be responsible for Akatsuki no Ouji's original story scenarios which, links to volume 16 of the Manga and includes some new original characters too. Being an "adventure" visual novel style game, the player will mainly be speaking with characte...
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Hyundai's Stunning Concepts Are Never Just For Show
by Martin Bigg Concept / Comments
Hyundai proves its concepts make it to production.
Over the last few years, Hyundai has produced some stunning designs that have helped the Korean automaker stand out from the competition. But while many outlandish concepts never make it to production, many of Hyundai's recent production models were directly inspired by concept cars showcasing bold designs and new technologies. Now, Hyundai is looking back at its most inspirational concept cars, giving us an insight into how the design cues have carried over to production models.
Back in 2012, Hyundai debuted the i-oniq concept at the Geneva Motor Show, an electric sport hatchback with a range-extending gasoline engine. It was the first car to feature the company's Cascading Grille, which is a signature design element of its current production cars. It also inspired the Hyundai Ioniq, which launched four years later as the world's first car with three electrified powertrains.
At the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, Hyundai unveiled the Intrado Concept to show its vision of how cars will meet future mobility needs. Its name is derived from the underside of an aircraft's wing, while its distinctive, aerodynamic shape features a minimalist design. The Intrado influenced the design of the Hyundai Kona, which launched in 2017 as the automaker's first subcompact SUV.
Two years later, Hyundai revealed the RN30 at the 2016 Paris Auto Show, a radical rally-inspired racing concept. Based on the i30, it was developed in close collaboration with Hyundai Motorsport, Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Center and Hyundai Motor's Performance Development and High Performance Vehicle Division.
The RN30's exterior design features a 'floating' fender over each wheel that enhances its aerodynamic performance in combination with the side splitters. The RN30 inspired design elements of the i30 N and the i30 N TCR such as the triangular lighting and headlight outline and Performance Blue exterior color, as well as the use of a roll cage instead of a bench, and the N-mode button.
To showcase its commitment to fuel cell vehicle development, Hyundai presented the futuristic FE Fuel Cell Concept at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show featuring a minimalist, clean design, a stylish rear air foil and integrated vents. A few months later, the Nexo arrived as Hyundai's second-generation fuel cell vehicle with striking design features carried over from the FE Fuel Cell Concept.
At the 2018 Paris Motor Show, Hyundai presented the Le Fil Rouge concept car influenced by the Hyundai Pony Coupe Concept from 1974 to show how the brand's past, present and future designs are all connected. It features a fastback body style, a long wheelbase, large wheels and short overhangs and was the first concept to showcase Hyundai's bold Sensuous Sportiness design language. Design cues have carried over to the stunning eighth-generation Sonata and the seventh-generation Elantra.
Last year, Hyundai unveiled the 45 EV concept at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show as a homage to the brand's heritage reimagined for the future, previewing Hyundai's focus on electrification and autonomous technology.
It's a modern interpretation of the Hyundai Pony Concept that celebrated its 45th anniversary at the time, while its diamond-shaped silhouette previews the design direction of Hyundai's future EV models.
At last year's 2019 LA Auto Show, Hyundai revealed the Vision T Plug-in Hybrid SUV Concept. Featuring styling cues once again inspired by Sensuous Sportiness design language such as a long hood and short overhangs, it previews the future design direction of the Tucson compact SUV.
Finally, the sleek Hyundai Prophecy concept was revealed in March this year. In contrast to the 45, it features smooth curves and flowing lines, with virtually no sharp angles or hard edges, and will inspire the next-generation Ioniq.
Tags: #Hyundai #Concept #Design
2021 Hyundai Elantra First Drive Review: Cutting Edge On A Budget
A new Elantra and a new Hybrid are added to Hyundai's lineup.
2021 Hyundai Venue Review: City Slicker Crossover
2021 Toyota Prius Review: Still Worth A Look
2021 Kia Forte Review: High-Value Family Chariot
2021 Hyundai Kona Review: Ticks All The Right Boxes
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Humanitarians work in some of the most volatile and insecure environments in the world. Even as they come under increasing attack, humanitarian workers find ways to continue delivering life-saving services to populations in need. Dr. Abby Stoddard has coordinated CIC’s research on the topic of humanitarian crises. Dr. Stoddard has written extensively on issues in humanitarian action since 2000. CIC has provided consulation to international humanitarian organizations and emergency relief programs.
Program(s): Congo Research Group, Prevention and Peacebuilding
Region/Country: East Asia, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa
Europe should expect ever-increasing pressure from refugees on its southern borders unless it is prepared to bear the cost and risk of military operations to control conflict in Europe’s southern neighbourhood, according to this policy paper. It says while the growing refugee problem generated by conflicts in the Middle East and Africa calls for a more interventionist response from the EU, Europeans have preferred to leave the job to others, notably the UN.
Read the full Policy Paper here
Co-Author(s): Nick Witney
Region/Country: Europe
Topic(s): Crises, Humanitarian Crises, Peace Operations
Mediating criminal violence: Lessons from the gang truce in El Salvador
In ‘Mediating criminal violence: Lessons from the gang truce in El Salvador’, CIC Senior Advisor and Fellow Teresa Whitfield, examines a controversial truce reached between rival gangs in El Salvador in March 2012 and its implications for mediation. The Salvadoran truce, and the arrival in Mexico of a government determined to address the country’s spiraling violence, have placed new emphasis on alternative methods of pacification across the region.
Author(s) / Contributor(s): Teresa Whitfield
Region/Country: Latin America
Topic(s): Humanitarian Crises, International Security, Organized Crime
Understanding the Transition: A Challenge and Opportunity for Mediators
The Arab Spring has reminded us of the importance of properly understanding the tasks, pace and sequencing of the political transition that follows the cessation of conflict or collapse of authoritarian regimes. Transitions are bridges between old and new political orders, and it is essential that they should be resilient to a wide range of potential challenges.
Author(s) / Contributor(s): Nicholas Haysom, Sean Kane
Topic(s): Arab Awakening, Humanitarian Crises, International Security, Peace Operations, United Nations
Who are the Killers of Beni?
The Landscape of Armed Groups in Eastern Congo
How not to intervene in Syria
An aid system struggling to be ready, stay relevant
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How The CDC Works
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Young Claims Sixth CDC Crown
May 5, 2019 /in Main Tour /by DoubleOut170
Denies Jeff Smith’s Bid for Glory in His First CDC Event
by Tom Beresford, CDC Correspondent
Darin Young claimed his sixth Championship Darts Corporation title on Saturday evening by securing event number 3 of the Magic Darts Championship Darts Circuit in Waterdown, Ontario.
For Young, it’s been an almost perfect start to 2019 on the CDC Tour. The Pennsylvania-based ace has reached three finals out of three events, winning two of them. Interestingly, Young has faced Canadian-based players in all three of those finals: Dave Richardson in Event #1 (a 6-3 victory), then Ontario’s Jim Long snatched Event #2, coming from 5-0 behind to defeat Young and denying him an opening weekend double.
In the final of event three, Young enjoyed a fantastic 6-0 whitewash over the 2018 PDC North American Darts Championship winner, Jeff Smith, as ‘Big Daddy’ saved his best performance of the day for last.
Darin produced a fabulous display to overcome New Brunswick’s Smith, a former BDO World Championship Finalist, kicking things off with a terrific 124 finish in the opening leg that was closely followed by another three-figure checkout as he pulled out a 113 finish to move 2-0 ahead. Jeff had no answer for the American as Darin then reeled off legs of 18, 15, 18 & 14 to crush Smith’s dream of claiming victory in his first-ever CDC appearance.
Young was consistently strong all day, producing victories over Scott Estle (5-1), Kevin Jinkensen (5-0), Matt Campbell (5-2), Danny Pace (6-5) and DJ Sayre (6-4) en route to the title and averaging 88.78 on the day. As for Smith, he also came through an equally tough field to book a spot in the final. ‘The Silencer’ was in impressive form as he recorded victories over the likes of Joe Huffman (5-2), John Part (5-4), Gary Mawson (5-2), David Fatum (6-3) & Jeremiah Millar (6-3).
After securing his second CDC title of 2019, Young spoke to CDC’s Anthony Eugenia:
” I would never have predicted that I’d make the final of the first three events, the class of the field here, the talent’s very deep. It’s unbelievable… It’s tough, I mean Jeff’s (Smith) had my number probably six-to-eight times before this, I’m so used to shaking his hand and wishing him the best of luck, and the way that he’s played today just shows the class that he has. I have a lot of respect for Jeff, he’s one of, if not the best player in North America right now, and for me to get a win like that against a player of his caliber is big for me.”
Anthony also caught up with ‘The Silencer’ following his debut event on the CDC Tour:
“The CDC, the format, and everything’s been spectacular. I’ve had a really great time today, I’ve played some spectacular darts at times, I wish I would’ve brought a bit more into the final, but Darin played spectacular, and I didn’t have an answer for what he was throwing at me, but I’m thrilled to be here, and I can’t wait to play again tomorrow… You’re going to have to play six-to-eight matches under pressure constantly the whole way through, and the draw that I’ve had today definitely accentuates that. Darts in North America are on the way up, and if you’re planning on being a part of that, then you need to play the CDC.”
Full results & statistics are available via DartConnect: https://tv.dartconnect.com/matchlist/cdc19me3b
https://champdarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cdc-logo.png 0 0 DoubleOut170 https://champdarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cdc-logo.png DoubleOut1702019-05-05 04:41:232020-01-13 04:48:12Young Claims Sixth CDC Crown
‘Long’ Final & Improbable Comeback = Canadian Glory
April 1, 2019 /in Main Tour /by DoubleOut170
Jim Long produced heroics of the highest order to claim the Event #2 title on the Magic Darts Championship Darts Circuit on Sunday evening.
The Canadian representative at the 2019 William Hill World Darts Championship produced a truly astounding comeback to deny Darin Young a sweep in Philadelphia and claimed his first CDC title after two years on North America’s professional tour.
Entering the final on a high note after seeing off the talented Joe Huffman in a convincing 6 – 0 whitewash in the semis, fortune quickly changed for Long as Saturday’s Event #1 champion, Darin Young, mopped up the opening five legs of the final in top form – including a 13-dart leg alongside a pair of 15s – and seemed certain to claim a weekend double to open up the 2019 CDC Tour.
Then things got interesting.
With his back against the wall, Long produced a 13-dart leg with the darts and then took advantage of some sloppy play by Darin to break throw and plant the seeds of doubt that the match was all but over. Young failed to gain scoring momentum after leading off with 100 in the 8th leg and Jim found the double-18 for a 16-darter, following that with legs of 14 and 13 to level the match at five and putting all the pressure on his opponent to claim the last leg with the throw. Darin did get three clear at finishing 56 in the decider, but missed the first dart low and was forced to use the second to set-up a one-dart opportunity at 32 that landed just outside the D-16 wire. That would be his last trip to the line of the day as Long easily cleaned up 48 in two darts to seal the massive comeback victory.
Sunday’s final was the first loss in 11 consecutive matches for Darin, who was on fantastic form again for most of the day, taking out Dan Lauby in the last 16 followed by Ross Snook in the quarterfinals and then Alex Reyes to book his date with Long, dropping a total of only four legs in that span. Jim’s road to the final was a bit rougher as he survived two matches that went to the decider: 5-4 against Jason Brandon in the last 32 and then a thrilling and pressure-packed 6-5 triumph over countryman Gary Mawson in the quarterfinals.
Following the victory, Long spoke with CDC CEO Peter Citera: “It’s (the victory) not quite sunk in yet. I was really out of it down 5-0. I missed a few opportunities, but Darin was just deadly, and it got to 5-0 and I was just hoping to win a few legs.”
Long also added his thoughts on going 5-0 behind in the final: “At that point, it’s easy to assume that you’re probably going to lose and just relax, play and do your best. Earlier on, I missed a key shot, and there was so much pressure on that shot. I thought about Dave (Richardson) being 3-0 ahead in Saturday’s final, and when I was 3-0 down I just thought – c’mon Let’s win the next six legs on Darin, but I had to wait until it was 5-0 Darin. [Laughs]… it was a tale of two matches, the first five to him, and the next six to me.”
When asked about his ‘dream’ debut at Alexandra Palace in December at the PDC World Darts Championship, Jim went on to say: “It was pretty crazy, honestly. People ask me if I had nightmares about the D20 that I missed, and I didn’t at all. I know that I would’ve had an opportunity to go into the third round if I’d have took out that 72… I didn’t realize (all the support) until I came home to Canada, and I talked to everybody who watched it, and gathered to watch it. There were parties with like 40 people at an apartment building in Ontario, and the streets were full. It didn’t occur to me when I was there playing. It would’ve been great to register another win and spend Christmas time together waiting for me to play my next match. It’s incredible, and the best time you’ll ever have.”
Philadelphia also produced a great “coming-out” weekend for many of the qualifiers. Canadian Kiley Edmunds was highly impressive over the first two events as he reached back-to-back Quarter-Finals and American plastic-tip phenom Alex Reyes turned heads also as he reached the Semi-Finals. Both days of action saw seeded players drop early and often to some new faces on the Circuit.
Overall, it was a highly successful opening weekend on the 2019 Magic Darts Championship Darts Circuit, with some excellent darts provided. It’s now on to the next weekend in Ontario in May, which should be an excellent weekend of action that includes the first Junior and Evolution Tour events. Ontario is a hotbed of top darting talent, and fans should be looking forward to another entertaining series of clashes on the live stream and DartConnect.
For complete results/statistics on event #2, please visit https://tv.dartconnect.com/matchlist/cdc19me2.
https://champdarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cdc-logo.png 0 0 DoubleOut170 https://champdarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cdc-logo.png DoubleOut1702019-04-01 04:49:412020-01-13 04:56:59'Long' Final & Improbable Comeback = Canadian Glory
Young Reigns in Philadelphia
March 31, 2019 /in Main Tour /by DoubleOut170
It was a banner day for Darin Young at the Columbia Social Club in Philadelphia as the 2019 Magic Darts Championship Darts Circuit kicked off in exciting fashion.
‘Big Daddy’ was consistent in his play over the course of the day in Philadelphia as he averaged 88.3 over six matches to claim his fifth CDC title in what was likely the most competitive field for the North American Tour to date.
Young dropped just one leg in his opening three victories, easily taking out some top competition in Jim Newman (5-1), Jeremiah Millar (5-0) and Joseph Huffman (5-0) to advance to the Quarter-Finals.
The eventual champion’s quarter-Final clash with Joe Chaney was arguably his toughest test on the day.
Chaney moved into a fantastic position as he opened up a 4-1 lead to put Darin on the brink of a disappointing exit but, with a mixture of fortune and consistency, Young managed to claw his way back by reeling off five consecutive legs to claim the 6-4 victory. Chaney missed many key opportunities to see the match out, and Young converted those chances expertly to move into the last four.
In the Semi-Finals, Young came up against another strong competitor in ‘Soldier’ Leonard Gates. It was a closely contested affair – as you’d expect from two of the strongest players in the field with eight CDC titles between them. There was no separating the pair in the opening stages as they traded legs through the first 8. With the match level at four legs apiece Young found another gear, banging in legs of 14 and 16 darts respectively to run out a 6-4 winner and book his place in the final.
The final featured longtime CDC veteran Young against one of the strongest players in the qualifying field in Dave Richardson, competing in his first event on the Circuit. Richardson, the Scottish-born star who now resides in Ontario, Canada, produced some fantastic finishes of his own over the course of the event to get to the ultimate test – including kicking off the day with a 5-0 whitewash over the 2019 PDC World Championship’s U.S. representative, Chuck Puleo, with a 92.8 average. From that point on, however, Dave was under pressure, advancing to the final by defeating Chicago’s Joe Beecroft, fellow Canadian Kiley Edmunds (who averaged 105 in the qualifiers to book his spot the main event) and 2018 Continental Cup Champion, Gary Mawson, in last-leg deciders.
In the final, it was Richardson that flew out of the traps as he moved into a 3-0 lead with a trio of impressive legs on the trot (17, 15 & 13 darts respectively). But, ‘Big Daddy’ remained calm and focused on the task at hand, once again finding another gear at the most opportune moment and reeling off six legs on the trot to deny Richardson a dream ‘debut’ win. Young’s finishing was exemplary in the six-leg onslaught to glory as ‘Big Daddy’ enjoyed checkouts of 100, 97 and 80 to claim event one on the 2019 Magic Darts Championship Darts Circuit and putting more distance between himself and the rest of the field on the CDC two-year Order of Merit.
Overall, It was a fantastic start to 2019 on the Tour, and the bar is certainly being raised with the CDC/PDC partnership in full effect. Just looking at the number of great players that made round one exits from the competition – Chuck Puleo, Larry Butler, John Part, Danny Lauby and Timmy Nicoll are just some notables – it’s obvious that the best in North America are coming to play in 2019 and the fields are very likely to be the best competition that the continent has seen in decades.
For all the results from Event #1, please visit https://tv.dartconnect.com/matchlist/cdc19me1
https://champdarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cdc-logo.png 0 0 DoubleOut170 https://champdarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cdc-logo.png DoubleOut1702019-03-31 04:57:272020-01-13 04:59:11Young Reigns in Philadelphia
World Cup of Darts ScheduleNovember 5, 2020 - 5:48 pm
Baggish Seals Ally Pally ReturnNovember 5, 2020 - 5:46 pm
Campbell to represent Canada at World Cup and World ChampionshipNovember 5, 2020 - 4:34 pm
Baggish Rolls Through Field in PhillySeptember 15, 2019 - 1:13 pm
Young Relishing Return to Ally Pally StageSeptember 15, 2019 - 8:00 am
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December 22Native American Representation in Media
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It’s Time for Women to Take Charge!
Jenn Harrington
Yale’s World Fellows Program hosted a panel, “How to Nurture Women Leaders: A Global Conversation,” at Yale university on Tuesday, Oct. 9, to discuss the need for women to adopt leadership roles in the economy and public life.
Panelists included four women who are all World Fellows from different career backgrounds: politics, non-profit, business and academics. Mi-Hyung Kim, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Kumho Asiana Business Group; Marlene Malahoo Forte, Senator of Jamaica; Sisonke Msimang, Executive Director of Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa; Ruchi Yadav, Senior Program Officer of The Hunger Project India; with moderator Priya Natarajan, Yale Professor of Astronomy and Physics and Chair of Yale Women Faculty Forum.
Discussion surrounded the decrease of female leadership in industry and solutions to this growing problem. “The question is no longer why we need women leaders,” said Natarajan. “Rather, [it is] how can we nurture women leaders.”
All panelists agree that a cultural change needs to occur in order to spark a social and political change in biases toward the female population. Perhaps the biggest controversy is what many women feel to be the eventual choice between a career and a family. One solution offered to the problem was child care initiatives in the workplace.
Msimang noted that employers are surprised to learn when a women employee is expecting. “You have to build into the model of your company or institution that women are going to have babies,” she said. This could help bridge the gap between which sectors of the economy women can hope to take leadership roles in.
Men are not rendered useless. They also need to play an active role in supporting women. Malahoo expressed that it’s not about challenges women face but the society that she’d like to see created. She said, “We need men to be a critical part of women’s empowerment.” Kim agreed stating that men need to be sat down and educated into changing their thinking.
All this talk of empowering women naturally leads to the discussion of the role of feminism in culture. Many female students don’t consider themselves feminist but as Natarajan explains, when a woman learns that a male, doing the same work, is earning more money “she immediately becomes a feminist.” This change in mind tends to occur later in life, after women enter the workforce and see biases firsthand.
With influential women like these, culture is sure to receive a shove toward new thinking. Who knows when you will wake up to the first female president of the United States?
The discussion was held in the Yale University Art Gallery auditorium and co-sponsored by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, the Yale Women Faculty Forum (WFF), and the Yale Women alumni group.
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Day 14/14: The finale
Tyler Wells, Contributing Writer • October 22, 2020
It is the final day. The culmination of two weeks of isolation comes together during the final 24 hours. It is met with nothing but a boring...
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Man Charged In 100 MPH Drunken Crash
Filed Under:Crash, Crime, drunk driving, Naperville, Naperville News, reckless driving, speeding
Nicholas Songco (Police booking photo)
NAPERVILLE (STMW) — A 24-year-old man is free on bond after allegedly driving drunk down a busy street at a top speed of 100 mph and then crashing his car into two parked cars and a streetlight on Naperville’s far east side.
Lisle resident Nicholas Songco was arrested and charged with two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and single counts of driving 40 mph or more over the posted speed limit, reckless driving and improper lane use, according to Naperville police.
Songco was arrested about 2:53 a.m. Sunday after crashing his car at a strip mall at the southwest corner of Chicago Avenue and Naper Boulevard, along the Naperville-Lisle border.
A written police bulletin stated Songco was “observed driving through the downtown area at a high rate of speed,” and was soon after “found crashed after leaving the roadway.”
Police Sgt. Lou Cammiso said Songco was behind the wheel of a tan, 2002 Chevrolet Impala and driving east on Chicago Avenue from Columbia Street, near the campus of North Central College. Songco allegedly “was speeding 100 mph” on that stretch of Chicago Avenue, where the speed limit is posted at 35 mph, Cammiso said Tuesday via e-mail.
The Impala soon after “crashed into a light pole and two parked cars near Chicago and Naper,” Cammiso said. The crash scene is more than a mile to the east.
Songco was traveling alone at the time and was not seriously hurt in the crash. No other injuries were reported.
Cammiso said Songco offered “no reason for the speed” when confronted by patrol officers.
An examination of court documents indicated Songco has no criminal record in DuPage, Kane and Will counties. His arraignment date in DuPage County Circuit Court is pending.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Play AGS Slots Free
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Have you ever seen one of those gigantic slots at a casino with a bunch of massive reels? Maybe you might see a rising jackpot on that game that makes it more interesting. The Colossal Diamonds slot is one game that has been available at some land-based venues, but it is also available for play on your mobile device.
Colossal Diamonds is another three-reel slot with one line. You can bet $1, $2, or $5 on each spin. The game features a low volatility level, meaning you have a better chance of winning a high-value payout on this game. The machine doesn’t issue low-value payouts too often, but it does provide a chance for you to win something significant.
Pharaoh Cat
China and Ireland aren’t the only countries you’ll find on slot machines. You can also enjoy the majesty and intrigue of Egypt on the Pharaoh Cat slot.
The royal cat is your key to riches on this machine. You’ve got 243 ways to win and the chance to earn free spins.
The Cat’s Eye slot features an alternative layout, as the first and fifth reels have three rows while the other three have four rows. The game provides 576 ways to win.
Fu Panda
The Fu Panda slot is part of the AGS Xtreme Jackpots series. The games here link to other Xtreme Jackpots titles for the best progressive payouts. You’ll find four jackpots on this game, with each one rising in value as more people play these machines.
The Jackpot Pick feature starts when a stack of wild symbols appear on any of the middle reels. You’ll pick a series of icons until you get three of a kind. You’ll receive whatever jackpot you find under those symbols. You’ve got a shot at winning any of those jackpots when playing this game.
Phoenix 888 Dragon
The number 8 is a symbol of good luck in China. It’s no wonder the Summer Olympics in Beijing started on August 8, 2008. That digit plays a vital part in the Phoenix 888 Dragon slot.
The Phoenix 888 Dragon game features stacks of symbols where you could get two or three of the same thing on a reel. You’ve got a chance to win more prizes, especially with the line-free layout featuring 243 ways to win.
The free spin bonus round features a multi-tiered bonus where you’ll get more stacked symbols during the free spin round. The odds of you winning something significant with all those stacks will rise.
How many free spins can you get at a time? You might find five or so free spins on some games, but that can quickly grow to ten or twenty spins. The Longhorn Jackpots slot gives the potential for dozens of free games.
Get three bonus symbols on a spin here to get ten free games. You could also get those symbols if you get three wild symbols on adjacent reels. You can retrigger the free spins at any time during the round, giving you a chance for tens of free games from one win.
Super 10X Wild Gambler
The Super 10X Wild Gambler slot is different from other slots from AGS as it features three reels and one line. But it’s available for high-roller players looking for something thrilling. You could spend from $1 to $25 on a spin. The machine lets you adjust the bet value for each spin.
The third reel features wild multipliers that will add to your total win. You could get anything from two to ten times the value of the win when you reach one of these multipliers.
If you love an ancient civilization kind of theme in your slots, you can rest assured that the Pharaoh Sun slot will do it for you. AGS has had a long history into developing slots of this genre, and this one right here captures the very spirit of Old age Egypt. Pharaoh Sun is available for play both on PC and mobile platforms, and it promises players huge wins through features such as jackpot bonus, wilds, scatters and free spins.
Unique Technologies on AGS Interactive Slots
Power XStream
You’ve got many ways to win on AGS slots, but the way how you’ll win will be dictated by the Power XStream system. The great news is AGS’ Power XStream setup provides the best payout based on how the symbols appear.
The Power XStream mechanic reviews the symbol appears on adjacent reels from the left to right. The analysis finds symbols that pay the most, plus it evaluates the best potential reward for each spin. The design ensures you’ll receive the prize you deserve when you get enough symbols on your spin.
SpeedPlay is a system that lets you complete a spin without watching the spinning reels as they move. Press the SpeedPlay button on a machine to skip to the result. While it doesn’t take long to see what happens, you might become excited to see what happens to where you want the results now. SpeedPlay gives you access to those results right away.
SpeedPlay doesn’t influence what happens on your spin. The results are already dictated by the random number generator mechanism AGS uses in its slots.
PlusPlay
You don’t have to land enough bonus or scatter symbols to get free spins on an AGS machine, but it helps. Many games provide the PlusPlay system that rewards you for regular play. You’ll get a free spin after fifty spins on the machine. The offer is valid for the game regardless of what you attain and how much you spend on each spin. The value of the PlusPlay game will vary based on how much you are spending on each spin while you play.
Xtreme Jackpots
You’ve got many chances for big jackpots on AGS slots, but some of these jackpots are more valuable than others. The Xtreme Jackpots feature on select games provides multiple payouts.
You’ll find three or more jackpots on select Xtreme Jackpot machines. These jackpots keep rising in value as more people play these games. Some jackpots also link to other machines, making it easier for the jackpots to keep on rising.
What American Casinos Offer These Games?
AGS Interactive has been rolling out its games at many online casinos in the last few years. You can find AGS games at the BetRivers and SugarHouse Casinos if you’re in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for instance. You could also play these games at the SugarHouse Casino website in New Jersey. The websites for these casinos provide these games, which is great for when you’re unable to make it out to a gaming hall for whatever reason.
AGS has a partnership with Rush Street Interactive to introduce its casino games to online gaming halls in the United States. Expect to find some of these AGS slots at your favorite American casino sometime soon.
Until then, you can play these AGS Interactive slots here at CasinoTalk.com. Our slots section includes many of these AGS slots and various others worth exploring. Try these games out to see the difference when enjoying an exciting game from AGS.
What are the denominations for AGS Interactive slots?
You can find AGS Interactive slots with varying denominations. You can find penny slots where you can wager as little as 0.01 or high-roller machines where you can bet 25 or more.
The specific rules for how these denominations work will vary by slot. You might see a 0.01 slot with thirty lines, but you’d have to spend 0.30 on each spin because one penny would go towards each line. Review the terms for one of these games before you start and finding something to play.
How does the bet level work on an AGS slot?
The bet level entails selecting how many times you will multiply your bet. For example, you might play a 0.01 denomination slot that requires 50 coins per spin, meaning you’d bet 0.50 on each spin. But you can go to the next bet level where you use 100 coins per spin, meaning you’ll bet a full dollar.
The higher bet level for most AGS slots entails 250 coins, which would equal 2.50 on a 0.01 denomination slot. You can change the denomination value on some slots if you’re looking to bet more on a machine.
Does AGS make other games besides slots? Can I play them online?
AGS Interactive also produces table games, including both the tables and the digital display for those games. Many of these table games include side bets or variations. These include the Super 4 and Blackjack Match side bets for blackjack and Straight to the Flush and Three-Card Blitz for poker games.
These tables are only available at physical casinos AGS supports. They are not available for play online.
AGS also makes electronic bingo games. Can I find any of these games online?
AGS offers many electronic bingo games with various themes. These include Bingofest, Go Bananas Bingo, Bingolette, and B-Ball Bingo. Each of these games features fifteen numbers on a card with the option to pick up to four cards on a draw. You could adjust the wager on each card.
But there are no details on whatever casinos offer these electronic bingo machines online. You may be more likely to find one of these in a casino that supports AGS products.
What license does AGS have for operation?
AGS holds licenses through many markets, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It also has licenses in Great Britain and Gibraltar for operation. The licenses that AGS has ensure it can provide its casino activities to people throughout the world while ensuring the games are legal and functional.
What is the volatility of these games?
Most AGS slots come with high volatility. This means you’ll get more payouts, but they are mostly of smaller values. Some of the three-reel options come with lower volatility levels, as they don’t feature as many lines or symbols. But you could get a higher payout if you win on that machine.
Are the progressive jackpots going to change based on how much money I am spending on each spin?
The progressive jackpot rules will vary by machine. Some games require you to wager enough money on a spin to qualify for some of the high-end jackpots. Others will feature jackpots that are lesser in value when you wager less money at the start. Check the display on your game to see what you could get out of it before you start playing.
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Cambridge Centre for the study of Western Esotericism
Research, Reviews, Conferences
Posts Tagged ‘Northrop Frye’
J R COLOMBO REVIEWS the anthropology of magic
An eye-opener of a book written by Susan Greenwood is reviewed by John Robert Colombo
There is an amusing story that is told about the Danish physicist Niels Bohr who was showing a colleague the barn behind his chalet which he had converted into a study where he undertook his calculations. The colleague pointed out that above the barn door someone had nailed an inverted horseshoe, a symbol of good luck. He asked Bohr if he believed the horseshoe would bring him good luck. “No,” Bohr replied, “but I understand it works whether I believe in it or not.”
I was reminded of this tale when I began to read “The Anthropology of Magic” written by Susan Greenwood. It came to mind because the moral of her book – I am not offering a “spoiler warning” here so much as I am “cutting to the chase” – seems to be that “thinking makes it so” or “if you believe you can do something or if you believe you cannot do something, you are right.”
The two statements seem to be platitudes – indeed, the first is a cliché, and the second is a paradox – yet these truisms are … well … true. There is a kind of knowledge that results from “magical thinking” as there is a kind of knowledge that results from “scientific thinking.” This in a nutshell I assume to be the argument of Dr. Greenwood’s study. As for the nutshell mentioned in the previous sentence, it was Prince Hamlet (who has been called the first modern man) who boasted, “I could be bounded in a nutshell, and call myself king of infinite space …. ”
It occurred to the biologist Stephen Jay Gould while he was in Vatican City that there are two forms of authority (if not knowledge) and that these two forms are derived from “the magisterium of science” and “the magisterium of religion” and that the two magisteria do not overlap. At the time of this formulation Gould was in Rome, accompanied by Carl Sagan, the sceptical astronomer, who had a deep “sense of wonder.” They were there to participate in a scientific conference. Sagan derided Gould for his suggestion (or concession) there is any knowledge in religion, knowledge at any rate that resembles the “real” knowledge that results from the work of scientists, that produces measurable results, and that can be falsified. Gould was miffed and wrote an essay about the disagreement.
Aleister Crowley practised ritual magic the way Dorothy Clutterbuck practised the ceremonial magic of wicca. The Great Beast used to call what he did “magick,” and I seem to recall that he defined this practice as “causing change to occur in conformity with Will.” Crowley conformed to the image of the Black Magician. The White Witch may be seen in the person of Clutterbuck, who inspired Gerald Gardner, who gave much of the characteristic form and feel to the contemporary practice of Wicca, which is at home with the subtle forces of the natural and supernatural worlds. Both Crowley and Clutterbuck worked in “imaginal” realms.
These ideas and notions were rattling around in my brain (or mind) when I began to read “The Anthropology of Magic,” which is a serious contribution to both anthropology and magic written Dr. Susan Greenwood, who is Visiting Senior Research Fellow of the University of Sussex, Brighton, England. She is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at a seminar to be held at Girton College, Cambridge, England. It takes place on May 13, 2010, and the title of the session is “Legitimate Forms of Knowledge?” (I imagine that the question mark is important in her address.) So Dr. Greenwood is a scholar. She is also a practitioner of magic.
First, a note of “disambiguation.” Susan Greenwood is not to be confused with her near-namesake, Susan Greenfield. The former is an anthropologist; the latter is Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford scholar and a biomedical writer of considerable ability and media-savvy and the author of numerous works, including The Human Mind Explained, and other popular and not-so-popular texts. The two Susans are very able people, but the Baroness does not profess to be a magician.
The Anthropology of Magic, written by the scholar who professes to read tarot cards and to practice the healing arts, is a big book in that it is an oversize trade paperback that measures 6 inches by 9.5 inches. It is only viii + 164 pages long but the type is quite small so there are many sentences. It was issued in soft and hard-cover editions in 2009 by Berg Publishers, an academic house based in Oxford that publishes books and journals in a great variety of fields with a specialty in modern design. Its website lists and describes its serious publications, including the present one.
I imagine Dr. Greenwood to be a fine lecturer because she is a fine writer. I am tempted to say that for an anthropologist she writes with great clarity. Her sentences are crystal clear and the diagrams that she has added to the text to display contrasts between scientific and non-scientific modes of thought are ideal for PowerPoint presentations. She is one anthropologist who is interested in communicating with a public that is academic though not limited to fellow anthropologists or magicians. In this regard she reminds me of Susan Blackmore, who in her shift from espousing parapsychology to embracing scepticism has never ceased to be a psychologist and a scientist.
Like Dr. Blackmore, Dr. Greenwood is an enthusiast and a participant who is willing to advance atypical views. But the two academics are unalike in that Dr. Blackmore works as an experimental psychologist and follows the trail of the evidence (or lack of it), whereas Dr. Greenwood is a theorist and not a scientist who is concerned with finding a place in intellectual discourse for what is regarded as the irrational. Dr. Greenwood is arguing a case, and she argues well, but after a while the reader – this reader anyway – begins to feel that he is being led to face a series of foregone conclusions.
In the next paragraphs, I will summarize the contents of Dr. Greenwood’s book and thereafter offer an evaluation of her approach. Now I will begin with the Table of Contents which neatly outlines the subject – which I take to be how an anthropologist argues that we could look at magic as a source of knowledge, and if knowledge is a form of power, then as a source of power too.
There are four sections. The first section is titled “Explaining Magic” and it describes what used to be called the “participation mystique” (it sounds better in French) and the structure and operation of magical thinking (through connections and associations). The second section is called “The Experience of Magic” and it presents what the author considers “magical consciousness” and “a mythological language of magic.” The third section is labelled “Practical Magic” and it deals with “webs of beliefs,” basically how being human we can never escape this way of experiencing the world. The fourth section is termed “Working with Magic” and deals with what might be called consilience but which the author describes in the phrase “Not Only, but Also.”
So much for the arrangement of the contents of the book. I will now try to abridge the author’s Introduction, introducing some of my own impressions along the way, but downplaying to some extent the author’s great strength: her knowledge of and respect for the theories and insights of the great anthropologists of the past and the present. She argues that the discipline has always had to deal with the subject of magic and that the approaches that anthropologists have taken in the past have told their readers more about themselves and their societies than about the theory and practice of magic itself. As well, it seems, the conception of the nature magic has changed with the times.
There are two main problems: the “ultimate irrationality of magic” and its “inferiority … when compared to science.” Nevertheless magic lies “at the heart of anthropology” because of “the issues it raises in relation to human experience.” If it lies at the “heart” of anthropology, it lies at the “heart” of men and women too. We seem to be creatures who are able to respond to the world both magically and scientifically.
The author writes, “The time has come to propose another understanding of magic, and it is the aim of this book to examine magic as an aspect of human consciousness.” She is prepared to show how it affects “everyday conceptions of reality” and how it can be “an analytical category as well as a valuable source of knowledge.” Perhaps I am taking this further than the author does when I suggest that to her magic offers a way of knowing about ourselves in the world through the imagination, a way of knowledge that augments the way we generally know the world of matter through measurement.
“When I first started my doctoral research in the 1990s, I made the decision to study magic from the inside, as a practitioner of magic as well as an anthropologist. I wanted to discover what could be learnt through direct experience.” She explored the ramifications of this approach in her two previous books, both published by Berg: “Magic, Witchcraft and the Otherworld” (2000) and “The Nature of Magic” (2005).
A dozen pages of Introduction follow in which she discusses cultural assumptions and contrasts the experiences of magical practice in our own culture with those in other cultures. She notes the effects of “a detraditionalisation of mainstream religions”and limns the changing face of magic in Western occultism. In the process, I acquired two new words that have recognizable meanings: “Celticity” and “Druidry.” She amusingly compares traditional “African witch-doctors with Western political spin-doctors” (like those employed by prime ministers and presidents and other political leaders to create new “narrative”). She concludes, “Magic is alive and well as an analytical category in a whole range of new ethnographies.”
She writes, “The approach taken here focuses on _magical consciousness_, a term that I use to describe a mythopoetic, expanded aspect of awareness that can potentially be experienced by everyone …. ” Despite the importance of this mode of knowledge, magic has been marginalized in what she calls our “Western rationalist culture.” The writings of Tylor, Kroeber, Freud, Durkheim, and others are mentioned to demonstrate how magic has been dismissed as deluded, dangerous, deceitful, or dumb.
Yet shamanism is not so easily dismissed because it does produce a change in consciousness in the sense of a transformation of sensations, impressions, emotions, and conceptions. These in turn affect values. The transformation of consciousness immediately brought to my mind the following lines from the poem “Vacillation” in which Yeats describes the illumination of a fifty-year-old man:
While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.
Many people feel (at times anyway) blessed, but anyone who is able to bless is a magician. It would seem the poets are there with the magicians.
A consideration of the truths or insights that come to us through the medium of poetry is offered through a brief but relevant discussion of Donne’s poem “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.” Yet only one page is devoted to the nature of consciousness itself, despite the advances recorded in the 1990s by neurologists and philosophers into the mind / brain division in the field of “consciousness studies.” I guess these are not subjects regularly discussed by anthropologists, nor should we expect them in a book about the “anthropology” of magic.
Some subjects do not yield their secrets to logic and this is one of them, so with relief she switches into a visionary mode. She begins one paragraph, “I remembered a dream I had had previously in which I was climbing down a deep tunnel in the middle of the earth …. ” The dream continues and it involves a loss of skin, a round space, swimming in water, narrow tunnels, bones being picked by a large crow, etc. This is a fertile field for a Freud or a Jung!
I have maintained a daily dream diary for the last five years, so I can attest that one’s dreams are significant to the dreamer but seldom meaningful to anyone else. These motifs in the dream world may or may not be relevant to the waking world. She concludes, “This experience had a profound effect on me,” and I do not doubt her, but was it an “imaginal experience” as she suggests? Not in Corbin’s meaning of that word. A dream is an experience, but it is the experience of an illusion, and no special effects necessarily issue from it. Are any such illusory experiences meaningful and significant? I doubt it but the subject may be debated and Dr. Greenwood does debate it well.
Psychology is not much to the fore. I read Tanya Luhrmann’s Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft when it appeared in 1989, but in the intervening years, I have found little reason to recall its argument. Luhrmann found magic or Wicca to be rich in psychological insight, period. Dr. Greenfield finds it to be rich in many other fields as well.
The author is concerned to square insights from the practice of magic with the understanding offered by her discipline. “The difficulty is that anthropology is a discipline with theoretical and methodological understandings located firmly in the material world, despite attempts to value all human orientations as valid.” Yes, but is there communicable knowledge beyond the confines of the material world? She would answer Yes. I am inclined to agree with her, but I prefer to hedge my bet, like the majority of scholars and scientists, and take refuge in the Scots verdict “not proven.”
The great anthropologist Frazer is given his due, limitations and all, for he was the Darwin in his field. One upon a time, à la Frazer, there was magic which gave way to religion which gave way to science. Given the paradigm shift proposed in these pages, it seems science may now yield to religion and religion to magic. Perhaps “paradigm shift” is the wrong phrase to use here, for there are no references in the text to Kuhn and his theory of just such a shift.
Dr. Greenwood much prefers what has been called the “interpretive drift.” This is part of the mythopoeic faculty which has always been inherent in the nature of man and woman and been granted at least some recognition in every human society (except, according to convention, that of ancient Sparta). Denis Saurat saw it explained as “philosophical poetry.”
The author discusses the views of the “mystical mentality” adopted by the philosopher Lévy-Bruhl and the psychologist Evans-Pritchard. She even writes an imaginary dialogue for them to debate their points of view. She feels their views hold promise today for they agree that “mystical mentality was universal to all human beings.” The savage of the past was no less rational than is the scientist of today. The anthropologist or psychologist is on safe ground in making this observation for the statement challenges neither of these disciplines. I recall reading somewhere that a researcher once said, “Superstition is superstition. But the study of superstition is science.”
The profession of magic is very much part of the author’s life, as is the profession of anthropology. “This book tells a story about my journey to discover the anthropology of magic; it feels like a patchwork quilt or a jigsaw of pieces of information that I have picked up over the years, both in trying to make sense of my fieldwork experience and also in teaching ideas about magic in anthropology of religion courses at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, and shamanic and altered states of consciousness courses at the University of Sussex.”
So much for the Introduction. If I continued to try to paraphrase and comment in such detail on the balance of the book, I would produce a tedious review too long to be read in a single sitting, and I would do the author’s thesis less than justice. Instead, I propose to do something unusual and allow the author to make her major points in her own words. I will do so by quoting the four paragraphs that the author has written to outline her argument section by section. These are well handled.
Summary of Section One:
“This section sets out to explain theories that help an understanding of magic: not the explanations that somehow reduce magic to its effects on human behaviour or society, but the essence of magic as an intuitive process of mind. Magic is a holistic orientation to the world that is essentially relational and expansive; it is not irrational or confined to the thought of so-called primitives, nor is magic the preserve of non-Western, exotic societies. Rather, it is an aspect of human consciousness, and therefore it is especially appropriate to study magic in modern, Western societies, where it often manifests as an undercurrent.”
Summary of Section Two:
“Using my own experience, in this section, I focus on breaking down the barrier between researcher and researched to show how magical consciousness flows through emotion and the mythological imagination.” (Added to this summary are two quotations. The first one has Dr. Greenwood quoting herself about the “uncomfortable process” of “self-examination and exploration.” The second one is an observation of Jo Crow, a British shaman, who alludes to the “multidimensional” nature of this experience.)
Summary of Section Three:
“Magic is often said to be about the purported art of influencing the course of events through occult means; it is a practice that is said can bring about certain effects such as causing harm or healing. It can be conscious or unconscious as well as rational and mystical, but above all, magic involves an immaterial psychic dimension to everyday reality; this is widely described as spirit. In this section, we will explore everyday magic, from the classical ethnographic work of Evans-Pritchard on Azande witchcraft, magic and oracles (Chapter 6) to divination and healing in various cultural settings (Chapter 7).” (Also included are three quotations from Evans-Pritchard, Tedlock, and Parrish which add little to the above description.)
Summary of Section Four:
“Anthropologists working in the field encounter specific challenges when confronted with the gap between informants’ accounts of spirit beings and their own position as researchers within the essentially rationalistic academic anthropological discipline. Magic poses problems for many anthropologists; this is due to the fact that its spiritual nature conflicts with Western notions of rationality, as we will see in Chapter 8. A more inclusive scientific framework is needed that overcomes the theoretical tendency to devalue magical experience and to recognize magical knowledge as a valuable aspect of human consciousness. Chapter 9 builds on ideas developed by Gregory Bateson and Geoffrey Samuel to just this end.” (Also included are short quotations from Turner, Lévy-Bruhl, and Bateson.)
I should add that the book includes extensive source notes and an index. There is no general bibliography but there are short bibliographies for “further reading.” There is no section called Conclusion, but I soon came to the conclusion that none is required for what the author would have to say in any final section is a foregone conclusion.
Dr. Greenwood is appreciative of the anthropologists of the past who devoted their lives to fieldwork. I imagine she regards her own experiences and the effects they have caused in magical circles as a form of fieldwork. She sees the great anthropologists’ insights into shamans and magical journeys as transferrable to today’s witches and their imaginative encounters. In this undertaking, she wins on points because she is what the French describe as “parti pris.” She knows where she stands and that is where she is heading. The reader is not taken on a journey so much as allowed to explore the intellectual ground already claimed. So her study does not add to human knowledge but it does examine some of our preconceptions of the nature of that knowledge.
There is a short but interesting section devoted to the relationship between mythos and logos. I wish it were longer and that it took into account the conception of that connection in the analysis of Northrop Frye who found the relationship to be one of “interpenetration.” But to do so would have required Dr. Greenwood to enter into the woods of the archetypal world of Nemi that is more frequented by literary critics and analytical psychologists than by anthropologists and ethnologists. As well, the author spends some time with phenomenology, she never really exorcizes its demon of subjectivity, even misspelling that word on page 141.
Yet I find “The Anthropology of Magic” to be an eye-opener of a book, not so much because of what or how it argues, but more because of the position for which it argues: the postmodern notion which is rapidly gaining ground that it is not necessary to believe in anything.
Near the end of the book she writes, “Whilst participating in a magical aspect of consciousness, the question of belief is irrelevant: belief is not a necessary condition to communicate with an inspirited world.” What works, works. William James’s contribution to the notion of multiple consciousnesses – not just to multiple layers of consciousness – is acknowledged, and as a pragmatist he would have agreed. So would Niels Bohr with his horseshoe.
John Robert Colombo, an author and commentator who lives in Toronto, is an anthologist, not an anthropologist (although he did pass two “anthrop” courses at the University of Toronto in the late 1950s). His latest publication (co-edited with Dr. Cyril Greenland) is an expanded edition of “Walt Whitman’s Canada.” He is currently writing an introduction to an omnibus edition of the five Sumuru novels written by Sax Rohmer (the mystery story writer who created Dr. Fu Manchu). Colombo’s personal website is http://www.colombo-plus.ca
YOU CAN READ MORE OF JOHN ROBERT COLOMBO’S REVIEWS
ON THE JOHN ROBERT COLOMBO PAGE AT
http://www.gurdjieffbooks.wordpress.com
CCWE is independent of any academic or esoteric communities, the co-ordinators share an interest in the need for a wider dialogue between scholars and practitioners in the field of Western Esotericism and in the establishment of a secular space in which an interdisciplinary network can thrive.
Written by SOPHIA WELLBELOVED
Posted in CCWE SEMINARS, J R COLOMBO REVIEWS the anthropology of magic
Tagged with Aleister Crowley, Bateson, Carl Sagan, Corbin, Darwin, Denis Saurat, Dorothy Clutterbuck, dream, Evans-Pritchard, Explaining Magic, Frazer, Geoffrey Samuel, Gerald Gardner, Goldsmith’s College, Gregory Bateson, imaginal experience, John Robert Colombo, Kuhn, Lévy-Bruhl, Legitimate Forms of Knowledge?, magical consciousness, Niels Bohr, Northrop Frye, Parrish, psychology, science, Stephen Jay Gould, Susan Blackmore, Susan Greenwood, Tedlock, The Anthropology of Magic, Turner, University of London, University of Sussex, Vatican, Yeats
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Archiving Utopia — Utopia as Archive
ASTROLOGIES: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 8TH ANNUAL SOPHIA CENTRE CONFERENCE 2010
ASTROLOGY IN TIME AND PLACE: CROSS-CULTURAL QUESTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF ASTROLOGY
BODY: SOUL: SPIRITS & SUPERNATURAL COMMUNICATION
ALBERTO BRANDI: The Dark Way
Call for Abstracts: A 'SUPERNATURAL' HISTORY OF CENTRAL EUROPE – 1870 – PRESENT
Coleridge’s Chrysopoetics: Alchemy Authorship and Imagination
Nicholas Campion: Astrology and Cosmology in the World’s Religions
THE BOOK OF ENGLISH MAGIC
books/book news
37ª Feria Internacional del Libro de Buenos Aires – Argentina 2011
CALL FOR PAPERS FOR PLANNED PUBLICATION: WESTER ESOTERI
CRITICAL REFLECTIONS ON NATURE RELIGION AND WATER
ESSAYS IN THE HIDDEN MEANING OF LITERATURE
Laurence Wuidar
NEW FROM EUREKA EDITIONS
eSharp journal: call for papers on REALITY/ILLUSION
Call for Papers – PARANTHROPOLOGY: JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE PARANORMAL
Call for papers: REPRESENTATIONAL ART
Canonbury Masonic Research Centre: 'Anti-Masonry' Conference
CCWE
CCWE CONFERENCES
ccwe 2007 conference: practitioners & scholars inDi
ccwe conference 2008 11th October 2008
PROGRAMME: HIDDEN SOURCES: Western Esoteric Influence on the Arts
Hidden sources
THE LURE OF SECRECY: WESTERN ESOTERICISM & THE ARTS ——– CCWE CONFERENCE 2OO9 ——–
CCWE SEMINARS
Legitimate Forms of Knowledge?
Conference University of Aberdeen: SECOND SIGHT AND PROPHECY
Conference: ASTROLOGY IN TIME AND PLACE
CONFERENCE: Charming Intentions – Occultism – Magic and the History of Art
CONFERENCE: MATERIAL RELIGION IN MODERN BRITAIN AND ITS WORLDS
ASE: ESOTERICISM RELIGION & CULTURE
Call for papers: Societas Magica sessions IMC Kalamazoo
CHANGING RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN A CHANGING WORLD : CESNUR CONFERENCE SWEDEN 2013
Conference for the Study of Contemporary Spiritualities
Daimonic Imagination: Uncanny Intelligence
DEMONS AND ILLNESS: THEORY AND PRACTICE FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
Edges of Freemasonry – Western Esotericism and the Enlightenment
ESOTERIC TRADITIONS IN THE ANCIENT AND MODERN WORLD: ESSWE Call for papers
Esotericism Magic and Radicalism Conference June 2010
EXPLORING THE EXTRAORDINARY 2011
Exploring the Extraordinary: conference York University
Exploring the Extraordinary: University of York
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: a Conference for Scholars and Practitioners
INTERNATIONAL DREAM CONFERENCE AMSTERDAM
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY for NEOPLATONIC STUDIES
LEVERHULME PROFESOR GYORGY SZONYI LECTURES & CALL FOR PAPERS
magic & the supernatural – prague – march 2011
MAPPING THE OCCULT CITY: EXPLORING MAGICK AND ESOTERICISM IN THE URBAN UTOPIA
MAURICIO JAVIER CAMPOS: The Good Shepherd: Beliefs Society Power
MONSTERS & THE MONSTROUS: myths & metaphors of enduring evil
MONSTERS AND THE MONSTROUS: 9th GLOBAL CONFERENCE
PHILOSOPHERS MUSICIANS & LOVERS conference the Prometheus Trust
Princeton Conference on Renaissance Magic: Call for Papers
Psychosis and Spirituality: Inner Journeys in a Time Of Transition
RELIGION NATURE & PROGRESS : UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM
Soul to Soul – Orality in the Platonic Tradition
St. Louis Missouri: poetry studies and creative poetry
STUDYING INTERPRETATIONS OF ESOTERICISM AND MYSTICISM
THE ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE REFERENTIAL CONTEXT OF MODERN ESOTERICISM
THE ESOTERIC QUEST CONFERENCE
THE INSPIRATION OF ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENON 0CTOBER 2009
THE JOHN DEE QUATERCENTENARY CONFERENCE: CAMBRIDGE 2009
THE THREAT AND ALLURE OF THE MAGICAL in Literature
WARBURG INSTITUTE ASTROLOGY 13-15 NOVEMBER 2008
CONTEMPORARY ESOTERICISM: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
CONTEMPORARY PAGANISM COURSE
CONTEMPORARY RELIGION IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: ENGAGING OUTSIDE ACADEMIA
ContERN: Contemporary Esotercism Research Network
COPYRIGHT for UK ACADEMIC & EDUCATIONAL WRITERS UNDER THREAT
Correspondences: an online Journal for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism
COUNTERCULTURAL STUDIES GROUP
COUNTERCULTURE RESEARCH GROUP: FILM SCREENING: Lutz Dammbeck's 'The Net: The Unabomber – LSD and the Internet' (2006).
Phoenix Rising Academy
CULTURE AND COSMOS – LITERATURE AND THE STARS
ESOTERIC POETRY INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Entry Form: Esoteric Poetry Competition Cancelled
ESSWE CONFERENCE: 2011
Esthetics and Spirituality: Places of Interiority: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven – Belgium: call for papers
GHost: call for papers/ PRESENTATIONS/ PERFORMANCE
MIRACLES & CHARMS: WELLCOME COLLECTION
EXPLORING THE EXTRAORDINARY: York University
Folk Knowledge: Institute of Ethnology Slovak Academy of Sciences: Call for Papers
Francmasonería en la XI FERIA INTERNACIONAL DEL LIBRO EN COSTA RICA
Freemasonary
Freemasonry in the Political Thought of the May Revolution
Masonería y mujer: UNA COMPOSICIÓN DE LUGAR
Freemasonic blog by Mauricio Javier Campos
AN EVENING WITH LAURENCE ROSENTHAL
HISTORY OF HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY AND RELATED CURRENTS: UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM
Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies: Call For Papers
INTERNET PUBLICATIONS
JOHN ROBERT COLOMBO: WILLIAM JAMES & CARL SAGAN: TWO GIFFORD LECTURES
JOURNAL OF THE WESTERN MYSTERY TRADITION: 2012 Conference
JOURNAL: RELIGIOUS SECRECY AS CONTACT. SECRETS AS PROMOTERS OF RELIGIOUS DYNAMICS invites contributions
KGB archives reveal secret masonic history
LECTURER IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES: THE OPEN UNIVERSITY
Looking for Mary Magdalene: Alternative Pilgrimage and Ritual Creativity at Catholic Shrines in France
LOS MASONES HABLAN: MASONERIA MIXTA EN LA ARGENTINA
MAGIC & THE SUPERNATURAL 1st global conference
MAP & ACCOMMODATION
MEDICINE – RELIGION – WITCHCRAFT: SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY OF ROME
Monkey Junk”—Zora Neale Hurston’s Experiment in Oragean Modernism
MUTANTS AND MYSTICS: SCIENCE FICTION: SUPERHERO COMICS & THE PARANORMAL
Nature & the Popular Imagination
Nevill Drury’s "Pathways in Modern Western Magic" – reviewed by John Robert Colombo
Oragean Modernism: a lost literary movement 1924-1953 (2013)
OXFORD LAW AND RELIGION CONFERENCE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY'S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: ANTHROPOLOGICALLY FOCUSED MASTER'S AND DOCTORAL RESEARCH ON RELIGION AND EDUCATION
PAGANS IN DIALOGUE WITH THE WIDER WORLD: A Pagan Studies Symposium
Paranthropology: January Issue call for papers
Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal
PATHWAYS IN MODERN WESTERN MAGIC: edited by NEVILL DRURY
Photos of Cambridge
PILGRIMAGES AND SANCTUARIES: ART: MUSIC AND RITUALS
Post-Doctoral Research
POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE: FARADAY INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Practice and Pedagogy
PRESENTATIONS: ccwe conference 11th October 2008
FACE OF THE DIVINE: Dr Christopher Webster
Sherry Ackerman
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND TRADITION: International interdisciplinary scientific conference
Renouncing Rejected Knowledge: Again
RUNNING WITH THE FAIRIES: TOWARDS A TRANSPERSONAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION
SACRED SPACE IN SECULAR INSTITUTIONS: University of Manchester
SCIENCE – FABLES & CHIMERA: STRANGE ENCOUNTERS
Secrets and Lies… Dublin City University Conference March 2011
CHANGING BELIEFS AND SCHISMS IN NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS
Shakespeare and the Mysteries: Conference: Shakespearean Authorship Trust & Brunel University
SIMON JENNER PAGE
DAVID POLLARD ON SIMON JENNER'S PESSOA SERIES
SIMON JENNER: PESSOA AS THE GEMINI
THE PESSOA SERIES
Sophia Centre Conference: July 2010
Sophia Wellbeloved reviews: THE NEW AGE OF RUSSIA
SOPHOS: REASON AND MYTH IN THE SEARCH FOR WISDOM
study day
SUSAN GREENWOOD: ccwe seminar notes 13 May 2010
SYMPOSIUM CALL FOR PAPERS: Alchemy Hermiticism Islamic and Jewish Mysticism
Tarot 2011 Conference: San Antonio
The Death of Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
THE HISTORY AND ICONOGRAPHY OF THE OCCULT 1750-1950 exhibition Strasbourg:
THE IMAGINAL COSMOS: Community Arts and Education short course
THE PARANTHROPOLOGY SECOND ANNIVERSARY ANTHOLOGY
THE PROMETHEUS TRUST: Crisis and Judgment: Contemplating Action
THE ROMAN CALENDAR FROM NUMA TO CONSTANTINE: TIME: HISTORY &THE FASTI
THE SUBSTANCE OF SACRED PLACE: Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz: Call for Papers
THE USES OF ECSTASY: Ritual and Practical Mysticism in Wicca
TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE SACRED IN EUROPE AND BEYOND: Conference
Two fully-funded PhD studentships for ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DEMONOLOGY PROJECT: SECOND MILLENNIUM BC
UK's Science and Religion Forum: 2012 Conference: ‘The soul – can the concept of the soul still have meaning?'
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD – LECTURER IN THE STUDY OF RELIGION
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO: Science and the Occult in the Near and Middle East
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON TACOMA: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR COMPARATIVE RELIGION
URBAN GOTHIC: Haunted Cities – Spectral Traces
VARIETIES OF CONTINENTAL THOUGHT AND RELIGION
Visions of Enchantment: Occultism: Spirituality & Visual Culture
WARBURG INSTITUTE’S CENTRE FOR THE HISTORY OF ARABIC STUDIES IN EUROPE (CHASE): RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP: FUNDED – BRILL (LEIDEN
Wouter J. Hanegraaff: Esotericism and the Academy Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture
YALE UNIVERSITY: ASSISTANT PROFESSOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES
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Convenience Corner
Premier Lake Avenue, Bury St Edmunds
By Sonya Hook
| 16 September, 2020
Drink Retailing caught up with Mahesh Odedra, who runs the Premier Lake Avenue store in Bury St Edmunds, to find out how the business is navigating through the pandemic:
How did you cope through the initial lockdown weeks?
We had a challenging few months and it was quite gruelling because we had staff off work and we were definitely busier than the same time last year. The main challenge has been keeping stuff on the shelves.
It quietened down a bit once we got into June, when the weather changed, and this gave us some time to get back on top of things.
When it was busy we found some stuff was difficult to source.
But we also have a café and a bakery, so when we closed those parts of the business we were able to transfer staff (and some stock) over to the store.
Did you make any changes to the way your store operated?
We had a lot of new shoppers who came in and these were the people who were stockpiling. When we noticed this was happening and saw that our regulars weren’t able to get what they needed, within 48 hours we put a limit on our core lines to try to share out the stock.
It was busy and the amount of time spent sourcing stock made things difficult.
But we started to pre-empt trends We took some time trying to predict where the gaps were going to appear, so it become more of a case of stockpiling whatever we could get our hands on and from whoever.
We use a lot of local suppliers anyway so that helped. And we work with a lot of bakers, plus we were able to source flour from our bakery.
Our local egg suppliers share stock with us as well as the supermarkets. At one stage we were the only shop in the area that had any eggs.
We found that bigger packs were available in lines such as flour, but the smaller packs were hard to find, so we repacked flour into smaller packs for our customers and managed to stay stocked up for 95% of the time. Our customers were grateful for this and we used social media to let people know, which grew some additional loyalty from people.
How were sales of alcohol over the lockdown weeks?
In May we had strong sales of ice cream when the weather got hot, and other impulse lines. Alcohol sales were also good during this month.
Initially we struggled to keep the chiller stocked up quickly enough but we have deliveries from Booker Premier and Booker Londis, so we get things five times spread across a week, plus I did daily trips at 7am to the cash and carry to top up on these.
We saw the biggest increase in multipacks and I think this is where the supermarkets struggled a bit. Multi-pack ciders and beer sold really well. Many of these are price-marked, so it showed we can do value that’s almost as good as the supermarkets. We have 2 metres of chilled space dedicated to ciders and 1metre of promotional space, which we have been using for cider too.
Guinness sales have been good and this was a surprise, but I discovered it is a lot of our elderly customers asking for it on delivery. Also, I heard the supermarkets around here have struggled with stock levels for Guinness. The new Gordon’s gins (orange and lemon flavours) have gone down really well, and the pink one was already popular. We promote these on social media.
What other measures have you had to put in place?
We had to think about social distancing in store very early on, because our shop was getting busy. We put in screens, we have limited numbers inside, and we have hand sanitiser stations.
We have a lot of elderly customers and we already operated a paper delivery service, so we just expanded this out to offer a delivery service to them, as a same-day service. People are still using it now and we are happy to provide this service.
What are your plans for the BWS space?
Over the past two months we have remerchandised the BWS area three times. It depends on availability so we always look to stock as much as we can and to give people variety so that they don’t need to go to the supermarket, and this means we are constantly re-merchandising to fully achieve this goal.
Wine sales have been good, especially white wine sales, so we might make more of this area.
We recently extended the space for our RTD range by 25%. Sales have been good.
Budgens Gipsy Hill, London
Jeroboams creates new senior role to manage soaring private sales
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Inbound Updated A Summary Of inbound.com
by Emma Rosetti on March 28, 2019
Hubspot User Group Meeting Meeting September 2018 - London HUG
This is a transcript of the talk given by Pete Nichols ,from HubDo, at the HubSpot User Group Meeting in September 2018, in London.
Thanks very much and thanks for the opportunity to come and talk to you today. So as Clwyd mentioned. I run an agency called HubDo, we do HubSpot, It's easy. I seldom deal directly with end clients who are using HubSpot, I support agencies actually.
I guess if you're doing inbound, you want to know who are the people that you help?
So I work with marketing consultants, actually, and sales consultants, who want to do inbound and then they get frustrated or overwhelmed or daunted by what it takes to do inbound, really well.
There's a lot of moving parts to get it right. So that's what we do.
So thanks for the opportunity to speak about inbound.
When Clwyd and I talked about coming in and being part of the presentation with Vidyard and with Hubspot today, we had the inbound conference coming up at the beginning of September.
So this is an update on inbound.com, which sounds like a website. It's also talking about the event.
Inbound Conference
Who here has been to inbound in Boston before as an event?
Few folks. Great.
It's quite a scale of an event. It's been running for several years.
My first time there was last year. First visit.
So today I wanted to talk to you about what is that event? Is it just a Hubspot Gig? What is it all about as an inbound event?
And to talk about what's changed actually, because inbound is not the same methodology that you may have learned a year or two ago. It's evolving because your customers are evolving and you're evolving.
So we'll talk about that and then I'll touch on the software changes as well, particularly for the HubSpot users or people considering HubSpot as a platform. There's a lot of new stuff to cover. So I'll get that in in the next half hour for you.
So inbound 18 as an event, it happens in Boston in this enormous conference centre.
23,000 people, 330 breakout sessions.
So to give you a summary of all 330, we're not going to try and do that.
I'll give you an essence of what inbound is really about and what is inbound mean anyway?
It's obviously the opposite to outbound, but to be inbound is about aligning your business and what you do with the way that your ideal clients like to research and buy today.
And we're all consumers as well. Right?
And we saw coming through in this year's event, particularly with the keynote speakers of the messaging around human stories ,because inbound as an event, what it's for, it's about business, but it's really about the human side of business, about being helpful to the customers that you serve rather than just exploiting an opportunity.
Outbound would be interrupting people in what they're doing saying, "look at me, look at me", whereas the inbound approach is to deliver value and create pathways that attract your ideal clients to you.
Like I do for marketing consultants, I want to deliver value and the right people who need what we do hopefully will find me in an inbound way.
But the big change is trust. That's been the massive change, trust in journalists under pressure, trust in politicians, trust in CEOs. So what's really changed is that we don't believe what we're told so much and as readily anymore, but word of mouth has risen to number one. And you'll see that coming through as to what's changed in inbound is that you need people talking positively about you, because we believe the person sitting next to us in the audience, you'll believe them more, most likely, over anything that I say today.
That's just how we're changing now.
Last year at inbound, the rush to the back of this room, this is just kind of the open area where Vidyard and other vendors are presenting what they do, along with Hubspot.
It was a cram of people to the back of this room, to try and get a seat to see Michelle Obama. She was a keynote, you know, one of the main key notes. And of course we all wanted to see Michelle Obama and set in a powerful session where she made 23,000 people feel like it was a fire side chat, talking about the pain of raising teenagers in the White House when Sir Paul McCartney's downstairs and they don't want to come out of their bedrooms and all of this human side of the story of that.
So how does that relate to business or inbound? It is about business, but it's about the human, helpful side of business and who you assist.
Inbound Case Study: Charity Water
So unlike Michelle Obama, that was a highlight for many of us last year, this is one of the talks that was a highlight for me.
So Scott Harrison, who's the head of Charity Water.
Anyone heard of this charity before? Some.
So he told his story of how he ended up really on the far side of where you want to be. He was a nightclub promoter and so he was wrapped up in everything that that world has, from the money and the drugs and all of those things that entails, until he had an epiphany and decided "This is not where I want to be, I'll go and help, I'll help on a hospital ship".
And when he was there, in third world countries, seeing all of the disease and problems that they were solving and a doctor there said to him, "Well, actually, if you can stop people having to drink the water on the left, they wouldn't need to come here under my scalpel. Could you go and do something about that?"
So he decided to look into it and realised that a lot of people are born, grow up and die, having drunk the water on the left their whole life and you can imagine putting it under the microscope what it looks like.
It's horrible, but it just is what it is. Right? So he figured, "Well, could I solve that?" And part of the reason that Scott was talking is because he approached it in an inbound way.
He wanted to help deliver clean water, but he needed money ,as a charity, and started talking about trust, trust in charities as well, "How much of my money is actually going to go to clean water versus being eaten up by the charity?".
He learned pretty quickly that people weren't going to readily give, unless he could solve that.
So he thought about his ideal client. His ideal client is actually the person who will give the money to solve this problem.
So he tackled it in a couple of ways. First of all, which is ingenious really, but very, very simple. I guess the best ideas are really simple. So what he did was he separated it ,almost like into two bank accounts within the business, the bank account to run the business, to pay for the officers and the wages and all of those costs associated -every cost for running the charity- and went to celebrities and other philanthropists and got that fully funded.
So no need for any money there at all.
And then just focused on raising the funds ,so he was able to overcome the trust of separating those out.
And then if you are giving to this charity, you receive information about the GPS coordinates and the village where the tap is that you've helped pay for.
Where a million dollar rig, came in, drilled, created water and now 300 people in that village don't have to drink the water on the left anymore and you can look up on a web-page to see how many litres of water everyday flowing through to the village that you've helped.
Really simple, but very inbound and very powerful.
He told a lot of personal stories mixed into this and he had a room of 23,000 people in tears, about this, which was really powerful.
But I wanted to convey to you that this is what inbound is.
A lot of the breakouts, yes they do go into the depths of what's new around Facebook ads and custom audiences and all of those associated technicalities and CRMs and so forth. But this is all about the human side of it.
So he was able to explain how they've successfully so far helped eight point 4 million people go from drinking the water on the left to the water on the right. And then he talked about the fact that he's got another 663 million to go. So he's just got to do what he's done 79 times and he'll have solved it, but he'd really like to do it in his lifetime.
So he was appealing to the audience to how they could help the cause.
So this was the Michelle Obama talk for many of us this year, but the lady behind Grey's Anatomy, many story writers, because we love stories.
So inbound was really about stories and of course you'll hear from Michael ,with stories moving to video, of how critical that is now as well and why HubSpot's integrated video into the platform by default. So the message was "Grow but grow better".
I love what inbound attracts. It tends to attract people who like to help.
And I like that.
The Inbound Flywheel
So as a symbol, as what inbound was about from a business context of what's changed in the inbound methodology.
If you've learned the inbound methodology because you know there's all these procedures you can apply to your business and say "We want to do inbound, so we need to do attract and convert and close and delight and we want to take the inbound persona into account of the customer journey" and all of these elements.
So there's models you can apply, right?
To say, "Well, yeah, if we do those things then we're being more inbound.
But now there's this thing, this wheel, because what we've heard this year was the death of the funnel.
Somewhere in your offices, if you're involved in marketing and sales, you'll have funnels drawn somewhere, you'll have people moving through a process, conversion rates of turning inquiries or website visitors into leads and nurturing those leads, hopefully not pounding people with email automation, but probably doing something to keep them connected, working with GDPR ,to make all of that still work in a customer friendly way.
But now there's this thing.
So I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about this. This is the Flywheel.
Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, the two co founders of HubSpot. Together they published a book in 2009 called in"Inbound Marketing" and that really explained why they built the HubSpot software, was to allow businesses to do inbound marketing.
You don't have to have HubSpot to do inbound marketing. You can use Salesforce, Marketo, you can pick what you like, but applying it in an inbound way.
So Brian talked about Ye Olde Funnel, of how the funnel isn't a great model any longer, on its own.
It didn't go away completely.
I'll talk about where it still fits.
But if you look at the funnel, this basic model behind Brian, it has marketing and sales, and then the customer pops out the bottom. Now, if word of mouth is the number one thing that would bring leads into the top of your funnel, that's broken.
That's fundamentally the reason to move to the flywheel.
So we'll go into that in a little more detail.
Now, Brian didn't come up with the flywheel idea, but what HubSpot are great at is methodology, so take an idea that somebody else is doing, but turn it into something that you can take back to your team, take into the business and say, "I think we should do this", and he delivers the tools and the software and the methodologies to do that.
The Flywheel Builds Momentum
So let's have a look at what he's done with that.
So Jeff Bezos ,from selling books to selling anything that he likes really, describes his business as a fly wheel in a circle because he's got multiple suppliers.
He has a lot of choice.
He works on fantastic customer delivery, whether it's by drone or whatever it is.
He's thinking about you as a customer all the time, but not as an end point that drops out the bottom. That's just the beginning of the journey. His flywheel is getting larger and heavier and faster. And right now I guess there's no sign of that thing stopping.
So Brian really latched onto that concept and then worked away on it for awhile to come back to Inbound a month ago, to present to Clwyd and I, and those who were there, what this looks like.
So he created a flywheel.
Taken what was the inbound methodology of attract and convert and close and delight into this continuous circle of attract and engage and delight.
So, not rocket science, but it's a simple idea and the more time you spend on it, the more powerful you realise it is ,that it actually does change things at a fundamental level.
It's changing things in our company as well at HubDo. We're looking at how we apply different thinking, using this.
So how does that work? Well, it's not just that it's a circle.It's really important that it's a flywheel. You may not be 100 percent clear on what a flywheel is, unless you've opened the gearbox of an engine before or you're involved in space, so GPS positioning and so forth.
So what's a flywheel?
That's a flywheel, the heavy disc in a spinning bike is something that I just woke up one morning and thought ,"Actually that's a flywheel that everybody either has seen or could relate to", because although the bike doesn't go anywhere, the wheel itself is quite heavy and so when you start to push on the pedals, it's a little hard to get it going because of the weight of the wheel, but as it starts to go, it builds momentum.
So in fact it would take a bit of energy to suddenly make it stop, because like Amazon, that weight is like a stored energy, being unlocked, and the bigger and the heavier the flywheel, the harder it is to stop.
So this is the change in the thinking, is to think in a fly wheel.
Positive Force In The Flywheel
But there's two other really important parts of the analogy here, for this guy peddling. The wheel wouldn't do anything on its own, unless you had force.
So simple ,here we're applying that to a bit of pedalling, but in your business, your force is coming from people being attracted into the business.
And also what's happening within the sales funnel. If there's a really positive sales experience that's supplying positive force to the business, but on the delight side, if you've got people who love what you do and they're telling their friends about what you do, that is all positive force to your flywheel ,so the pedalling here is the positive force.
Business Friction
And then there's that pesky plus-minus knob that's sitting there on the frame, where you can make it harder for yourself by adding friction, by tightening that up.
Your Business has friction today. Every time a customer says, "Well, I thought that was going to be delivered on Monday, and now it's Wednesday.", it's friction.
Adding Positive Force And Removing Friction
So we'll talk about adding positive force and removing friction.
And if you can do those two things right, your flywheel gets bigger and heavier. Really simple, but really powerful.
And it's still inbound because we're still attracting and delighting.
So what has Brian done?
In taking this and giving you the tools so you can not go back and talk about exercise bikes with the team, but actually do something that relates to your own business.
So we're shifting from a better product era to a better customer experience era.
So customer experience, CX, it's been a big thing for some time.
How do we delight our customers better?
So here we're doing it instead of with a funnel with a flywheel, so we can create some forward motion, put some stored energy into this thing.
Formula For Friction
So Brian talked about moving from this funnel, which is full of friction to a fly wheel, where you can try and remove as much friction as you possibly can. And so he's come up with a formula for it.
So if this is your thing, this is that your growth is a function of your marketing and your sales and of happy customers, but he's got customers to the power of two because that's so much more important than the others, and then putting that over friction, because the more friction you have, the less growth you can unlock
Growth is making your flywheel bigger.
So the tools I want to make you aware of, if you haven't gone and watched the keynote, you can watch Brian's presentation on YouTube. If this is interesting to you, I'd encourage you to do that. It's very good and brings it to life.
What Brian's done, is measured the flywheel for Hubspot of working out where's all the positive peddling going on on this wheel, from attracting people to Hubspot by offering tools that may help them, just being a helpful company, offering the HubSpot software for free at it's most basic level. So you can just kick the tires, try it out. These are all ways that they're adding positive force to the flywheel.
#ourflywheel
Now what's happening on #ourflywheel is that Brian's got people, who were in that audience, where they're showing the shots of their white boards, they've gone back to their offices and they're brainstorming, "Where's our positive force in our flywheel, how could we add more positive force? Whereas our friction, how could we remove it?".
So he's began a conversation and now there's the sharing of those flywheels.
You can already see examples of how customers are applying that thinking to their own business.
So, he gave us homework. You're free to take this as homework if you like from today, as well as a takeaway with the flywheel of measuring your own flywheel.
Really easy to remember.
ourflywheel.com is a website, that gives you the explanation and the link into a HubSpot academy training course, that you can just sit through, it's only short, but it does a much better job than I of explaining how this came about and gives you the tools to use it. You can download the slides, do your own flywheel.
Hubspot Culture Code
Then it's Dharmesh. So Helen who really runs HubDo, who's back further in the audience. We got a chance to catch up with Dharmesh.
That's the nice thing of going to inbound, it's pretty much everyone from HubSpot that we want to catch up with is there.
Dharmesh is a cofounder, hates standing up and presenting, but he'll do so because he has to. And I think Dharmesh is the heart of HubSpot to me.
Dharmesh talked about the HubSpot culture code.
You might have even read this, it's had like 4 million+ views on it. He spoke about what Huspot's own culture code is, that attracts them.
They've just been voted number one place to work for, in the world. Congratulations. I mean as number one of a pretty competitive space is incredible.
So the culture code is a big part of that at Hubspot. We hang around a lot of HubSpot people and they're good people.
So from the culture code, what Brian zeroed in on though, is "solve for the customer" is part of the culture code. Solve for the customer.
Hubspot Customer Code
So Dharmesh is looking at, "Well how does this apply to the flywheel? Are we thinking about ourselves too much? Because I think as businesses we might say we're customer centric, but quite often we're actually self centric. I'm customer obsessed, can be a little self obsessed, might not be your business, but I'm sure you know businesses that don't quite act in the way that they say they do. ".
So what Dharmesh has done, think of that plus-minus knob on the exercise bike, the friction, Dharmesh developed a customer code.
So, from the code, that was more about the internal staff at Hubspot, the customer code is more about you and in true engineering fashion, he's come up with a few measurement points and tools that you can use for this as well.
So he talked about five of the nine measurement points of removing friction. I love how some of these are developed and he whittled it down to nine.
One of these is "Earn my attention, but don't steal it".
So if I sent you something and I said, "Could you please read this?" and it's going to take you 10 minutes to read it, have I sent it to you because of you or have I sent it because of me? And if you're going to waste 10 minutes on something and think, "Oh yeah, that's 10 minutes of my life that I won't get back.", I've stolen your time.
So inbound thinking is adding more value than you're taking away and not stealing time.
Another really good example was "Own your screw ups", which was really interesting because at Inbound Hubspot had a trip up with some of their software and had an outage and then needed to come out and own that screw up right there and then, so it was very timely and I'm sure it wasn't planned.
"We all make mistakes, just say sorry and make it better."
Because on the previous slide where we talked about stealing time, statistics were that 86 percent of people, if you get an unwanted outreach from a company that your view of that company degrades.To be interrupted is not viewed in a positive way.
Owning your screw ups, if we admit when we've made a mistake and just say sorry, the opinion of the company goes up, it's highly likely that you keep using them.
He gave a really great example of Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC, when they ran out of an important ingredient, which is chicken. So they ran a full page ad , which is this, which is just brilliant. And the headline is "We're sorry"
So own your screw ups. Say, "Hey, we made a mistake and we're really sorry and we'll try to not let that happen again.". Really simple stuff.
This is taking friction out because, yes, sometimes they may run out of chicken again, but they've reduced friction by just owning the problem. And approaching it in that way every time.
So there's nine separate measures I wanted to share. I'm not going to go through them all, just wanted to share a couple of those.
Number 10 is "Do what's right even when it's hard".
So I'll give you the links of how you can get to the page where all this information is and think about it ,because again with the HubSpot producing tools and methodologies, so you can go back and have a think about this for your own business, is the scorecard.
So what Dharmesh has done to start is to score themselves, Hubspot scoring their own customer code. How are we doing on these scores? So right now, giving themselves a 7,1 . So good, room for improvement.
And this gives discussion points on each of those points, that Dharmesh felt for the customer code, was really helpful.
So I thought there's two really good tools. At Hubdo, we're looking at both of them, the flywheel for positive momentum and the customer code to remove friction.
That's what's really different about inbound to me, if you did the HubSpot academy course and you are certified in inbound, you'll find that the new inbound certification is all about the flywheel, as a methodology for inbound.
So if you haven't done it, it's time to update and like I said, you don't need HubSpot software to do inbound. It's more of a mindset and approach and the software tools are there to enable you, if you're using HubSpot.
The point of Hubspot is to allow you to do inbound, because it's built with that in mind.
So as Dharmesh said ,"Do the right thing even when it's hard and in fact, especially when it's hard, just own it. "
Changes In the HubSpot Software
So let's switch gears and just spend a few minutes on what's changed in the HubSpot software platform.
So for the HubSpot users in the room, you're probably aware of some of this already.
Hubspot folks have released more software in the last six months than in the last six years. It's been a massive R&D wave and for those of us in the agency world, to understand this, work out where it fits and then advise people correctly on it. Yeah, there's a lot to keep up with, but wow, it's a really, really good stuff. What has happened, of course it's no accident.
Here, you've got the flywheel represented in software and you've got it scaling up.
So in the centre is a free CRM where you can kick the tires and play with HubSpot. There's even free versions of the software around it, the marketing hub and the sales hub and the service hub.
So, Stephen Higgins from HubSpot's going to talk about the service hub and there's a lot of new developments in that area.
But the idea here is that the software can grow with you.
So if your flywheel is small to start with, particularly for a startup, you maybe don't need a huge amount of software or tools and resources. But if you grow and grow and grow, like if you go to like Vidyard with Michael, of growing and growing is that you want the software to be able to grow with you.
And so now the circle has been completed by all of the things that were released to fill in the gaps, a month ago, is that you've now got marketing and sales and service hub at a starter level, at a pro level and at enterprise level. So the concept of it, just think of the flywheel growing and the software can grow to suit.
So I'm going to step you through some of the updated software features. When I downloaded a slide deck to be able to update you, it was a slide deck that was a rapid sequence of screenshots of software features. And I didn't want to inflict half an hour of that on you.
What I want to do is give you the key points of what's in the software releases and then where you can go to find out a bit more about what's most relevant to you.
Starter, Professional and Enterprise Growth Suites
So starter, professional, enterprise, those are the three levels, as the software scales up.
Enterprise in particular, a lot of development in the enterprise space and also the concept of buying all three together in a growth suite. And this is a really attractive way.
I don't know, how long does this is going to run for. There's no published end date.
Right now, a good option to look at is to get marketing hub and sales hub and service hub either all at the starter level or all at the pro level or all at the enterprise level and get a 25 percent discount on the whole lot as a perpetual discount. So it's a really, really good deal.
And then, the HubSpot CRM has now been made available, standalone.
So the CMS itself, if you're compare it to, I guess at a basic level, the likes of WordPress and so on up the line of different hosting of your website, the CRM part is free, but the ability to host your website, and the CMS actually, is now available separately.
So I'm just, I'll touch on that as well.
But let's step through what's changed.
New and improved enterprise products.
I've taken the headlines of what would have each been an individual slide with screenshots of features added across the platform.
A really rich set of features across that and keeping in mind going up to an enterprise level.
If you've got large teams, you need enhanced team control, because you need hierarchies of teams, of sales teams that roll up into geography teams like EMEA versus North America versus APAC you need the ability to structure your teams. So that's really been beefed up.
And single sign-on has been added as well, so you don't have this whole separate log in part to maintain as an enterprise, to tie that in if you're big users of Slack, that's been built in.
HubSpot Chat Bots
Bots, no secret that that scenario is exploding, but the customisation within the bots, a ton of R&D in that space and much more to come as well around artificial intelligence. So at an enterprise level, very customised writing of bots. If you have an internal dev team, they can go crazy on this stuff.
The predictive lead scoring has really been ramped up using artificial intelligence, to look at customer behaviour within the software.
Calculated properties ,where you might want certain multiple properties that are in the database for your customers to then calculate maybe some other metric that you use in the business. That's really handy. We're already using that.
And recurring revenue reporting. If your business is a monthly ongoing, then a sale isn't just a sale, it's a subscription model. So that's in there now as well.
Relational imports is bringing in multiple objects. If you're moving from another system into Hubspot, you've now got the ability to import these other objects and the linkages between them, really important because you'd never want to lose those associations, just by migrating into this platform.
And multiple currencies. Fantastic. I mean that's, that's already been a boon just for us. We're only a small business, but that's solved a lot of headaches around handling currency.
So that's across the platform. I'll touch on some specifics that relate to marketing and sales and I'll leave a Stephen to cover the service hub with you.
So in the marketing hub enterprise and sales hub enterprise, I've got a link to this at the bottom. It's also on my last slide and there's a whole update of detail you can get in less time than a coffee break, it says.
Marketing Hub Enterprise Hub
So in marketing hub enterprise, I've collected another batch of screenshots together, that would have only been readable in the front three rows anyway.
To give you the key points that, if you're a HubSpot user to consider that this is helping you.
A lot more analytics filtering within the platform and in terms of enabling your team to do social posting.
You've got permission levels as to who can craft messages, who can post messages within the platform for social or social advocacy shows great ROI. You know, I see businesses like SAP, Panasonic, others, getting amazing results through social advocacy. So having those sorts of tools really helps.
Content partitioning out into a geographically spread business that is in different languages as well. If you've got a team that is working on the French pages and another team that's working on the German pages, how do you do that without tripping over each other? So important divisions there for enterprise.
Send Frequency Cap is as it sounds. So you're not accidentally blasting one customer because multiple departments are all emailing them. So just dampen that down with a cap.
Membership Driven Content. I could see this also becoming really valuable in the service hub side where you can make pages of your site only visible to certain people, because you might want certain information that only your existing customers can see, not the public for web access. So making that easier.
Youtube integration, embedded into the enterprise platform as well ,to see your YouTube metrics within your marketing data.
And continuous optimisation of the split testing and conversion rate optimisation, that I'm sure some of you are doing that or maybe have a team to do that, there's tools to help that in a continuous artificial intelligent assistant way.
So that's a quick re-cap of what is the sum of many new features that have been rolled out across the platform, specific to marketing hub and for enterprise. So if you're using maybe Salesforce together with Pardot for example, of looking at well how do the Pardot features compare with something like this? Yeah, this is where you would go.
HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise
For the sales hub, for the enablement of your hopefully inbound savvy sales team, who are not bombarding customers, but are building relationships, using great tools like video.
Now video has been built in across the platform, so it's not called out here individually. It's now in there. Within pro and enterprise. I'm using this every day. It's very easy to just bring up a video, instead of just sending an email to say "It was great to have that meeting with you yesterday". It's super easy to just click the video button and just send a video instead.
The conversion stats on doing that are incredible. How much of a relationship that builds if you put face to camera.
In terms of the sales hub enterprise, much more control over goals, for sales teams and sales quotas and how people are doing against their quota and measuring that.
Call transcription and recording is as it sounds. It's there by default in the enterprise platform. So provided that, legally, you're in a situation where you can do it, that it can record the call and also transcribe it for you. So the whole call that you've had is there within your data, if you choose to turn that on.
Quote approvals is for the sign off process ,because you can now do quotes within HubSpot, but you probably have management levels, certain value of quotes or certain levels of discount, maybe need to go for VP approval, something like that. An enterprise would want that feature.
As with eSignature for getting things signed right there within the platform.
This removal of friction, if you think of it in that context, a lot of this is just getting the tools to just do this for you instead of using 50 different tools, which has been a pain in the neck.
The calling API, this is, if you are wanting the scenario that customers can dial in to you and you dial back out and you're doing that, all through the CRM, it's beefed up the ability to have your full telephony integration within the platform through a calling API.
Using tools like aircall ,for example,and there's thousands of tools out there, but the platforms can be integrated in of your choice.
And playbooks ,if you're in a medium to large size organisation, there's a good chance you've got playbooks that are guiding the sales team, they're on a conversation with a customer and they find that, oh let's say, they've already got a Toyota car and that's significant ,for whatever reason, in that phone call, the playbook could tell you, here's what we recommend you talk about ,because they've got a Toyota.
Just to guide your sales team on recipes for success that are proven.
That's a quick snapshot of marketing enterprise and sales hub enterprise.
HubSpot Video
Video is throughout the platform. And because Michael's talking from Vidyard, so by default within the pro and enterprise platforms, you can just click the video button to send video in an email.
So it's there for the sales team.
It's also there in the service hub platform.
And you can host your videos on your site. You can drag a video up into the HubSpot library to host it, the same as you would an image, super easy.
I started using it the first day, it was just a no-brainer.
And of course you get the play statistics on the consumption of and the conversion of that.
The ability to add calls to action and forms right there within the videos. Really cool stuff.
So the hub spot CMS I mentioned, is now available separately, so you don't have to buy sales or marketing or service hub. You can get the CMS standalone, as a web hosting platform.
Why would you do that and not base your website on wordpress or some other platform where it is already today, some enterprise or other platform.
It's the only CMS that has an integrated CRM.
That's a fundamental difference, which makes it very powerful.
There's many other features to it, like the built in mobile friendly nature of how it can render the pages, that it's a global content delivery network to keep the speed of the site up, to keep the up-time, to be secure.
All of those things that you would expect as well, but it's got a CRM, so it's customer savvy and then you can do cool stuff with that.
Like ,if you're an existing client of mine, our website might say certain things to you, but if you're not a client of mine, that same website might say something a little different to you.
Think of spotify for example, if you're a spotify customer and you go to the spotify website and the spotify website says "Sign up with spotify today" and you're like, "well, I'm already a spotify customer. You haven't recognised. Yeah, I'd rather your website tell me what the new albums are".
So that customer experience means that your website needs to know who the customer is.
So that's the hub spot CMS. So one gratuitous screenshot to include of what the feature looks like. But so many features, so many features rolled out over the last six months.
On HubSpot academy, this is on a link. If you were to just google "HubSpot updates in less time than a coffee break", it's quite a long url, but easy to find.
And so that's HubSpot folks ,explaining each of those features in more detail than what I've covered, but hopefully there's something in there that you've seen that might solve a problem for you today, might really reduce a bit of friction and maybe download those tools to do your own customer code and your own flywheel as some thinking around the year ahead of how you apply inbound in this circular fashion and not have the customer pop out the bottom of a funnel as an afterthought.
So the inbound methodology has changed.
It's now the flywheel and that's really fundamentally what's new.
Hopefully I've given you some insight and some idea of what the inbound event is in Boston. That goes for three and a half days, 330 breakout sessions, so you just can't attend everything, so you pick what to go to, but there's a lot of human stories as well as the technical updates.
LinkedIn and Questions
And this last slide, I'll do a little experiment here.
So, we'll be doing our flywheel and publishing that over time.
The screenshot on the right is your LinkedIn app on your mobile.
I've just been trying to slightly see how many folks actually know about it
. If you bring up your LinkedIn app, the little search bar on LinkedIn has a tiny little square symbol on it and if you hit that square symbol it gives you your code.
So if you meet some people that say "Look, sorry, I haven't got a business card". And you bring up your LinkedIn, you just push that button to bring up your code and you scan each other and you're linked.
Someone want to try that? Just just hold your phone up. Yeah. Great. Thanks. Connected. I think that's really cool. That's probably one of the most least known features, in the LinkedIn APP. Everybody's got it. Yes. From your phone camera . And all I've done is taken the Qr code and popped it on my slide. So very neat. So qr codes do still have a purpose. Hanging on by their fingertips as to how they work.
So yeah, if you'd like to connect and if I can help you in any way at all , I'd love to do that.
And thank you again Clwyd for the opportunity and an update on inbound.
Let us know about your experience at previous Inbound events. Put a comment below this post and tell us what you think.
Topics: Industry News, Inbound Marketing, London HUG, hubspot, Inbound methodology
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Tag: mnemotechnics
The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci
Wished for The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by
Jonathan D. Spence (amazon.com)
In 1577, the Jesuit Priest Matteo Ricci set out from Italy to bring Christian faith and Western thought to Ming dynasty China. To capture the complex emotional and religious drama of Ricci's extraordinary life, Jonathan Spence relates his subject's experiences with several images that Ricci himself created—four images derived from the events in the Bible and others from a book on the art of memory that Ricci wrote in Chinese and circulated among members of the Ming dynasty elite. A rich and compelling narrative about a fascinating life, The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci is also a significant work of global history, juxtaposing the world of Counter-Reformation Europe with that of Ming China.
Something I’ve been meaning to buy and read for a while.
Posted on July 19, 2016 10:51 pm May 26, 2017
Author Chris AldrichCategories Memory, Social Stream, WishTags Jonathan Spence, mnemotechnics, The Art of MemorySyndicated copies:
3 Comments on The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci
The Mnemonic Major System and Gregg Shorthand Have the Same Underlying Structure!
I’ve been a proponent and user of a variety of mnemonic systems since I was about eleven years old. The two biggest and most useful in my mind are commonly known as the “method of loci” and the “major system.” The major system is also variously known as the phonetic number system, the phonetic mnemonic system, or Hergione’s mnemonic system after French mathematician and astronomer Pierre Hérigone (1580-1643) who is thought to have originated its use.
The major system generally works by converting numbers into consonant sounds and then from there into words by adding vowels under the overarching principle that images (of the words) can be remembered more easily than the numbers themselves. For instance, one could memorize one’s grocery list of a hundred items by associating each shopping item on a numbered list with the word associated with the individual number in the list. As an example, if item 22 on the list is lemons, one could translate the number 22 as “nun” within the major system and then associate or picture a nun with lemons – perhaps a nun in full habit taking a bath in lemons to make the image stick in one’s memory better. Then at the grocery store, when going down one’s list, when arriving at number 22 on the list, one automatically translates the number 22 to “nun” which will almost immediately conjure the image of a nun taking a bath in lemons which gives one the item on the list that needed to be remembered. This comes in handy particularly when one needs to be able to remember large lists of items in and out of order.
The following generalized chart, which can be found in a hoard of books and websites on the topic, is fairly canonical for the overall system:
Numeral IPA Associated Consonants Mnemonic for remembering the numeral and consonant relationship
0 /s/ /z/ s, z, soft c “z” is the first letter of zero; the other letters have a similar sound
1 /t/ /d/ t, d t & d have one downstroke and sound similar (some variant systems include “th”)
2 /n/ n n has two downstrokes
3 /m/ m m has three downstrokes; m looks like a “3” on its side
4 /r/ r last letter of four; 4 and R are almost mirror images of each other
5 /l/ l L is the Roman Numeral for 50
6 /ʃ/ /ʒ/ /tʃ/ /dʒ/ j, sh, soft g, soft “ch” a script j has a lower loop; g is almost a 6 rotated
7 /k/ /ɡ/ k, hard c, hard g, hard “ch”, q, qu capital K “contains” two sevens (some variant systems include “ng”)
8 /f/ /v/ f, v script f resembles a figure-8; v sounds similar (v is a voiced f)
9 /p/ /b/ p, b p is a mirror-image 9; b sounds similar and resembles a 9 rolled around
Unassigned Vowel sounds, w,h,y w and h are considered half-vowels; these can be used anywhere without changing a word’s number value
There are a variety of ways to use the major system as a code in addition to its uses in mnemonic settings. When I was a youth, I used it to write coded messages and to encrypt a variety of things for personal use. After I had originally read Dr. Bruno Furst’s series of booklets entitled You Can Remember: A Home Study Course in Memory and Concentration 1, I had always wanted to spend some time creating an alternate method of writing using the method. Sadly I never made the time to do the project, but yesterday I made a very interesting discovery that, to my knowledge, doesn’t seem to have been previously noticed!
My discovery began last week when I read an article in The Atlantic by journalist Dennis Hollier entitled How to Write 225 Words Per Minute with a Pen: A Lesson in the Lost Technology of Shorthand. 2 In the article, which starts off with a mention of the Livescribe pen – one of my favorite tools, Mr. Hollier outlines the use of the Gregg System of Shorthand which was invented by John Robert Gregg in 1888. The description of the method was intriguing enough to me that I read a dozen additional general articles on shorthand on the internet and purchased a copy of Louis A. Leslie’s two volume text Gregg Shorthand: Functional Method. 3
I was shocked, on page x of the front matter, just before the first page of the text, to find the following “Alphabet of Gregg Shorthand”:
Alphabet of Gregg Shorthand
Gregg Shorthand is using EXACTLY the same consonant-type breakdown of the alphabet as the major system!
Apparently I wasn’t the first to have the idea to turn the major system into a system of writing. The fact that the consonant breakdowns for the major system coincide almost directly to those for the shorthand method used by Gregg cannot be a coincidence!
The Gregg system works incredibly well precisely because the major system works so well. The biggest difference between the two systems is that Gregg utilizes a series of strokes (circles and semicircles) to indicate particular vowel sounds which allows for better differentiation of words which the major system doesn’t generally take into consideration. From an information theoretic standpoint, this is almost required to make the coding from one alphabet to the other possible, but much like ancient Hebrew, leaving out the vowels doesn’t remove that much information. Gregg, also like Hebrew, also uses dots and dashes above or below certain letters to indicate the precise sound of many of its vowels.
The upside of all of this is that the major system is incredibly easy to learn and use, and from here, learning Gregg shorthand is just a hop, skip , and a jump – heck, it’s really only just a hop because the underlying structure is so similar. Naturally as with the major system, one must commit some time to practicing it to improve on speed and accuracy, but the general learning of the system is incredibly straightforward.
Because the associations between the two systems are so similar, I wasn’t too surprised to find that some of the descriptions of why certain strokes were used for certain letters were very similar to the mnemonics for why certain letters were used for certain numbers in the major system.
From Dr. Bruno Furst’s “You Can Remember!”
The mnemonic for remembering 6, 7, 8, & 9 in the major system.
From Louis Leslie’s “Gregg Shorthand: Functional Method”
The mnemonic for remembering the strokes for k and g.
One thing I have noticed in my studies on these topics is the occasional references to the letter combinations “NG” and “NK”. I’m curious why these are singled out in some of these systems? I have a strong suspicion that their inclusion/exclusion in various incarnations of their respective systems may be helpful in dating the evolution of these systems over time.
I’m aware that various versions of shorthand have appeared over the centuries with the first recorded having been the “Tironian Notes” of Marcus Tullius Tiro (103-4 BCE) who apparently used his system to write down the speeches of his master Cicero. I’m now much more curious at what point the concepts for shorthand and the major system crossed paths or converged? My assumption would be that it happened in the late Renaissance, but it would be nice to have the underlying references and support for such a timeline. Perhaps it was with Timothy Bright’s publication of Characterie; An Arte of Shorte, Swifte and Secrete Writing by Character (1588) 4, John Willis’s Art of Stenography (1602) 5, Edmond Willis’s An abbreviation of writing by character (1618) 6, or Thomas Shelton’s Short Writing (1626) 7? Shelton’s system was certainly very popular and well know because it was used by both Samuel Pepys and Sir Isaac Newton.
Certainly some in-depth research will tell, though if anyone has ideas, please don’t hesitate to indicate your ideas in the comments.
UPDATE on 7/6/14:
I’m adding a new chart making the correspondence between the major system and Gregg Shorthand more explicit.
A chart indicating the correspondences between
the major system and Gregg Shorthand.
Furst B. You Can Remember: A Home Study Course in Memory and Concentration. Markus-Campbell Co.; 1965.
Hollier D. How to Write 225 Words Per Minute With a Pen: A lesson in the lost technology of shorthand. The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/yeah-i-still-use-shorthand-and-a-smartpen/373281/. Published 2014.
Leslie LA. Gregg Shorthand: Functional Method. Gregg Publishing Company; 1947.
Bright T (1550-1615). Characterie; An Arte of Shorte, Swifte and Secrete Writing by Character. 1st ed. I. Windet; reprinted by W. Holmes, Ulverstone; 1588. https://archive.org/details/characteriearteo00brig.
Willis J. Art of Stenography.; 1602.
Willis E. An Abbreviation of Writing by Character.; 1618.
Shelton T. Short Writing.; 1626.
Posted on July 5, 2014 3:30 pm May 16, 2018
Author Chris AldrichCategories Education, Information Theory, Linguistics, Memory, TechnologyTags brachygraphy, codes, coding theory, digital humanities, encryption, featured, Information Theory, language, major system, method of loci, mnemonics, mnemotechnics, phonography, shorthand, stenography, tachygraphySyndicated copies:
39 Comments on The Mnemonic Major System and Gregg Shorthand Have the Same Underlying Structure!
Lecture Series Review: “Augustine: Philosopher and Saint” by Phillip Cary
Augustine: Philosopher and Saint byProfessor Phillip Cary, Ph.D., Eastern University (The Learning Company, 1997)
This series of 12 audio lectures is an excellent little overview of Augustine, his life, times, and philosophy. Most of the series focuses on his writings and philosophy as well as their evolution over time, often with discussion of the historical context in which they were created as well as some useful comparing/contrasting to extant philosophies of the day (and particularly Platonism.)
Early in the series there were some interesting and important re-definitions of some contemporary words. Cary pushes them back to an earlier time with slightly different meanings compared to their modern ones which certainly helps to frame the overarching philosophy presented. Without a close study of this vocabulary, many modern readers will become lost or certainly misdirected when reading modern translations. As examples, words like perverse, righteousness, and justice (or more specifically their Latin counterparts) have subtly different meanings in the late Roman empire than they do today, even in modern day religious settings.
My favorite part, however, has to have been the examples discussing mathematics as an extended metaphor for God and divinity to help to clarify some of Augustine’s thought. These were not only very useful, but very entertaining to me.
As an aside for those interested in mnemotechnic tradition, I’ll also mention that I’ve (re)discovered (see the reference to the Tell paper below) an excellent reference to the modern day “memory palace” (referenced most recently in the book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything) squirreled away in Book X of Confessions where Augustine discusses memory as:
“fields and spacious palaces” “…where are the treasures of innumerable images, brought into it from things of all sorts perceived by the senses. There is stored up, whatsoever besides we think, either by enlarging or diminishing, or any other way varying those things which the sense hath come to; and whatever else hath been committed and laid up, which forgetfulness hath not yet swallowed up and buried.”
Those interested in memes and the history of “memoria ex locis” (of which I don’t even find a reference explicitly written in the original Rhetorica ad Herrenium) would appreciate an additional reference I subsequently found in the opening (and somewhat poetic) paragraph of a paper written by David Tell on JSTOR. The earliest specific reference to a “memory palace” I’m aware of is Matteo Ricci’s in the 16th century, but certainly other references to the construct may have come earlier. Given that Ricci was a Jesuit priest, it’s nearly certain that he would have been familiar with Augustine’s writings at the time, and it’s possible that his modification of Augustine’s mention brought the concept into its current use. Many will know memory as one of the major underpinnings of rhetoric (of which Augustine was a diligent student) as part of the original trivium.
Some may shy away from Augustine because of the religious overtones which go along with his work, but though there were occasional “preachy sounding” sections in the material, they were present only to clarify the philosophy.
I’d certainly recommend this series of lectures to anyone not closely familiar with Augustine’s work as it has had a profound and continuing affect on Western philosophy, thought, and politics.
Posted on March 4, 2014 11:23 am May 25, 2017
Author Chris AldrichCategories Linguistics, Mathematics, Memory, ReviewTags Augustine of Hippo, book review, history, language, linguistics, mathematics, memory, mnemotechnics, philosophy, quotes, religion, trivium, Western thoughtSyndicated copies:
Leave a comment on Lecture Series Review: “Augustine: Philosopher and Saint” by Phillip Cary
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Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
Japanese Website
Create No Nukes World With Us
Accident List
Asia/Japan Nuclear Power Plant Map
Constructon Plan
Exposure Data
Nuclear Power Plant Commissioning Status
Plutonium Data
Nuclear Fuel Cycle
Who’s Who/Group Intro
Nuke Info Tokyo
CNIC Statements
A Brief History of CNIC
How to Become a CNIC Supporter
Donate to CNIC
Economics of nuclear power
Commentary: Why wasn’t TEPCO bankrupted?
by Citizens' Nuclear Information Center · Published June 4, 2018 · Updated June 4, 2018
The nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (FDNPS) has left TEPCO under a huge pile of debt. At the time, there were arguments in favor of dissolving TEPCO, the liable party, but due to the Japanese government’s generous support, the company continues to exist to this day. In this article, we attempt to throw light on the reasons why TEPCO was not bankrupted.
Act on Compensation for Nuclear Damage
Japan’s Act on Compensation for Nuclear Damage states in Section 3, “Where nuclear damage is caused as a result of reactor operation etc. during such operation, the nuclear operator who is engaged in the reactor operation etc. on this occasion shall be liable for the damage, except in the case where the damage is caused by a grave natural disaster of an exceptional character or by an insurrection.” In Section 4, the Act stipulates that “Where nuclear damage is covered by the preceding section, no person other than the nuclear operator who is liable for the damage pursuant to the preceding section shall be liable for the damage.” Thus while imposing on the nuclear power operator unlimited no-fault liability with liability concentrated in its hands, it also provides exemptions in the form of “a grave natural disaster of an exceptional character or by an insurrection.” At the same time, Section 16 provides for necessary government assistance to pay compensation, and Section 17 states that in the case of “a grave natural disaster of an exceptional character or by an insurrection” the government “shall take necessary measures to relieve victims and to prevent the damage from spreading.”
What became a problem at the time of the FNDPS accident was whether or not it had occurred due to a grave natural disaster of an exceptional character. From the outset, the government indicated the stance of not applying the exemption, stating, “As the nuclear power operator, TEPCO should bear liability for damage caused by this nuclear power plant accident.” TEPCO insisted that the accident was due to “a grave natural disaster of an exceptional character” and that “there is a margin for judging that an exemption be invoked,” but eventually accepted liability.
Financing immediately after the accident
Since the exemption was not invoked, TEPCO faced unlimited compensation for the damage caused by the FNDPS accident. In 2011, the government estimated that compensation alone would be of the order of 4.5 trillion yen.
TEPCO’s cash and deposits as the accounts were closed at the end of the third quarter of 2010 (December 31, 2010) were 366.5 billion yen. With company bond redemptions of 500 billion yen coming up in FY2011 and the need to procure fuel worth 800 billion yen, financing from the market was fraught with difficulties after the FNDPS nuclear accident, bringing TEPCO close to bankruptcy.
TEPCO’s cash and deposits leaped up to 2.2 trillion yen at the close of accounts for FY2010 (March 31, 2011). This was almost all in long-term loans. According to news reports at the time, 1.865 trillion yen was provided in loans of three to ten years, with no warranty and at the same interest as before the accident, by eight financial institutions, including the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (600 billion yen), the Mizuho Corporate Bank (500 billion yen) and the Mitsubishi UFJ Bank (300 billion yen). It is said that in the background to this was the statement by the then deputy minister of the Ministry for the Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Kazuo Matsunaga, that “We must also not shirk responsibility. I would also like to see support from financial institutions.”
TEPCO thus managed to overcome the problems of March 2011, but even after that, arguments insisting that TEPCO be declared bankrupt and go into legal liquidation continued. However, in the end, it was decided to allow the company to survive from the viewpoint that if TEPCO went into legal liquidation compensation to those affected by the nuclear accident would be delayed.
Especially problematical were the electric power bonds issued by TEPCO. The Electricity Business Act allows TEPCO and the other power business operators to issue company bonds with “general collateral” that make it possible to prioritize debt repayment to other creditors. In other words, if a company goes bankrupt, those financial institutions that originally stood to make profits from the purchase of the company bonds would receive first priority in debt repayment, whereas compensation for those affected by the nuclear accident would be on the same pecking order as repayment for other debts (e.g. loans, etc.).
TEPCO’s net assets as of March 31, 2011 were 1.6024 trillion yen. It was clear that the estimate for compensation at the time of 4.5 trillion yen would put TEPCO in a situation of net capital deficiency. The balance of company debt at this time was 4.4251 trillion yen. If TEPCO were to be declared bankrupt at that time, the company debt would first have to be repaid, after which other debts, including the liabilities to those affected by the nuclear accident, would be paid out.
There was also the option of allowing TEPCO to go bankrupt, and having discharged the debts the government would, in a separate deal, then pay out compensation from the national treasury to those affected by the nuclear accident. However, since the accident was still ongoing, liquidating TEPCO might pose obstacles to the work of the post-accident clean-up. Considering this, it is not unreasonable that the government at the time decided to allow TEPCO to continue to exist. However, by allowing TEPCO to survive, the stockholders who had invested in TEPCO and the financial institutions that had provided funds, i.e. the investors who bore a certain risk for the sake of profits, suffered no losses, and in their place the greater population of Japan overall would take on the burden. That was how the current TEPCO survival scheme was born.
The TEPCO survival scheme
In August 2011, the government enacted the Nuclear Damage Compensation Facilitation Corporation Act to avoid a TEPCO bankruptcy. The scheme inherent in the act is as follows:
1) The government shall establish the Nuclear Damage Compensation Facilitation Corporation (later reorganized as the Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation in August 2014) as the facilitating organization handling compensation payments and so on in the case of nuclear damage, and nuclear power operators are to establish a reserve fund (general contributions) to provide compensation.
2) The Corporation shall levy a special contribution from the nuclear operator that caused the accident (in this case TEPCO).
3) The Corporation shall provide financial facilitation (granting of funds, acceptance of stocks, loans, purchase of company bonds, etc.) when the Corporation’s facilitation is required for compensation by the nuclear operator. To procure the funds necessary for financial facilitation, the Corporation can issue government-guaranteed compensation bonds to borrow money from financial institutions.
4) In the case that special support is required from the government, the Corporation and the nuclear operator shall determine the amount of compensation, prepare a “special business plan” that sets out the content and value of the financial support, policies for business management rationalization and so on, and receive approval from the relevant ministers (the Cabinet Office and METI). Following approval, the government will allocate government bonds to the Corporation, the necessary funds then being granted to the nuclear operator by the Corporation.
5) The Corporation shall pay into the national treasury money up to the amount of redemption of the government bonds.
Based on this scheme, TEPCO and the Corporation devised a Special Emergency Business Plan in November 2011, following up with a Comprehensive Special Business Plan in May 2012, a New Comprehensive Special Business Plan in January 2014 and a New-New Comprehensive Special Business Plan in May 2017. On the basis of these business plans, the government established a government bond allocation limit of 13.5 trillion yen (including decontamination and mid-term storage of radioactive wastes, etc. as well as compensation) for the Corporation and it was decided to provide a grant of 10.2006 trillion yen to TEPCO. In addition to this, the Corporation accepted one trillion yen in TEPCO stocks in July 2012 (making the Corporation the holder of 54% of TEPCO stocks, which would increase to 80% if class B priority stocks were converted to class A stocks). Furthermore, besides the above, TEPCO also estimates that that 8 trillion yen will be needed for decommissioning and as countermeasures for contaminated water. As a result, the costs involved in dealing with the FNDPS nuclear accident are therefore currently estimated to be 21.5 trillion yen.
Of this, it is presumed that the 4 trillion yen estimated for decontamination costs will be eventually supplemented by profits accruing from the sale of TEPCO stocks, the 1.6 trillion yen costs for intermediate storage facilities will be paid from the national treasury, and that 3.7 trillion yen of the total compensations will be paid by nuclear power operators from the general contributions, while 0.24 trillion yen will be borne by imposing a power distribution consignment charge on power companies that have entered the market recently due to deregulation of the power market.
<Hajime Matsukubo, CNIC>
Table 1. TEPCO and the Government’s Burden Sharing in the Overall Funding to be Secured for the Fukushima Nuclear Accident and Related Work
Imagining a nuclear-free society
by Citizens' Nuclear Information Center · Published August 2, 2019 · Last modified August 5, 2019
The Capacity Market: An overview and issues
by Citizens' Nuclear Information Center · Published June 3, 2019 · Last modified June 5, 2019
by Citizens' Nuclear Information Center · Published December 3, 2019 · Last modified December 4, 2019
Next story Citizens heap criticism on the draft revisions to the Strategic Energy Plan
Previous story CNIC Statement, April 11, 2018 : Liquidate TEPCO!
CNIC Statement: The national government should withdraw its appeal on the Ohi NPP ruling and accept the Osaka District Court’s decision
Nuke Info Tokyo No. 199 (November/December 2020)
Nuclear Power Simply Cannot be Relied on
METI and NUMO’s Fiasco
Cultivation Trials Using Contaminated Soil with No Soil Cover
CNIC Seminar Report
Electric Supply Plan
Fukushima Daiichi Evacuees
History of anti-nuclear movement
Local movements
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Hamaoka
JCO
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
Fast Breeder Reactor (Monju)
MOX/plutonium-thermal
Reprocessing (Rokkasho, Tokai, etc)
Earthquake, active fault
Exposed work
Who's Who/Group Intro
Who’s Who: Kuse Shigetsugu “Strengthening local industry is the best way to keep nuclear dumps out”
Group Introduction: Hokkaido Active Citizen’s Association of Science (HACASE)
Open letter to Japanese ministers demanding a policy change from releasing contaminated water into the ocean to storing it on land.
Current State of Post-Accident Operations at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (February to July 2020)
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center 1F Ogura Bldg, 2-48-4, Chuo, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, 164-0011, Japan TEL.03-6821-3211 FAX.03-5358-9791 Email. contact@cnic.jp
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2013 Star: Megan Beaman
December 17, 2013 December 17, 2013 Coachella Unincorporated 0 Comments 2013 star, brenda rincon, California Voting Rights Act, Coachella Valley Water District, Comité de la Calle Pierce, CVWD, Eastern Coachella Valley, Megan Beaman, Pueblo Unido
Megan Beaman, photographed above at the Salton Sea, is dedicated to helping community members fight for their legal rights. Photo: BRENDA RINCON/Coachella Uninc
Megan Beaman: Fighting for Justice in the Community
Why Her Star Shone Brightly in 2013
Attorney Megan Beaman had a stellar 2013. Her independent law practice, Beaman Law, helped numerous community members and organizations fight for their rights in the areas of employment, housing, immigration, civil rights, and policy.
For example, as the attorney for Comité de la Calle Pierce, she led the effort to have the Coachella Valley Water District adhere to the California Voting Rights Act – a big step in the struggle for water rights in the Eastern Coachella Valley. As attorney to Pueblo Unido Community Development Corporation, she helped the organization achieve major overhauls in policies and practices that have prevented infrastructure and community improvements for years.
Explains Beaman, “The Comité and many other residents and advocates have been pleading and fighting for years for water and wastewater extensions to East Valley Communities where none exist–despite that the Coachella Valley Water District includes those areas within its ‘coverage’ zone. The communities have also pleaded for respectful and legal treatment by enforcement and permitting authorities, who have historically not favored the preservation of East Valley mobilehome communities. As a result of these and other struggles, many East Valley communities are often relying on untreated and sometimes contaminated drinking water from privately-dug wells, inadequate septic systems that sometimes backup and overflow into their yards and homes, and inadequate and unsafe electricity systems and other problems for which they still struggle to improve.”
Highlight of 2013
“I am excited and have been honored to be hired this year as attorney to the Comité de la Calle Pierce, as well as several other Eastern Coachella Valley Residents, who this year embarked on a historic campaign to reform the electoral system of the CVWD,” says Beaman. “In that effort, we evaluated the CVWD’s system, and determined that it likely violated the California Voting Rights Act and other laws by diluting Latino votes. We made demands to the CVWD that they reform the system to ensure that Latino voters were able to vote for their own representatives, instead of being outnumbered by white voters in other parts of the Valley, and to request that the district lines be redrawn to make sure that Latinos were neither overly-packed into districts, nor illegally divided.
So far, the CVWD has indicated a willingness to voluntarily comply with our demands, indicating an incredible and historic civil rights and water rights victory is in the making — all thanks to the initiative of a handful of East Valley leaders.”
Biggest Lesson Learned in 2013
“Community allies and opponents exist in all forms — we cannot rush to take sides when community conflict arises; we must evaluate those issues from all sides before carefully making our decisions about action and inaction for the benefit of ourselves and our communities,” says Beaman.
Goal for 2014
Beaman describes her goal for the coming year: “To continue to learn and grow in partnership with residents and leaders, all toward the achievement of justice(s) and health for Coachella Valley communities.”
← 2013 Star: Líderes Campesinas
BHC Educational Posada on School Funding Dec. 17 →
Community Organizers: A Thermometer for Communities
Coachella Residents React to Region’s Rising Homicide Rate
Reporter Feels Press Conference Lacked Sincerity
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Which licenses are compatible with Code Review?
It is should be well known that code posted to Code Review are licensed under CC-BY-SA.
I am wondering: Are there any licenses that are compatible with this licensing? Is it possible to use one license on the GitHub repository (for example "Simplified BSD" license) but still post the code to Code Review and ask for reviews?
support asking-questions licensing
Simon ForsbergSimon Forsberg
We require that the asker posts code that they have written themselves. In that case it can be assumed that the asker owns the copyright for that code and can license that code to Code Review under CC-BY-SA. For this it is irrelevant whether that code was already published elsewhere under a different license; one creative work can be dual-licensed under multiple licenses.
If the poster were not the author of the whole code in question and would therefore not be the exclusive copyright holder for the whole code, then the poster must have the right to sublicense the part of the code not written by them. Sublicensing is generally allowed in the more liberal licenses such as various BSD or MIT variants, but is restricted by the GPL. As a result, the various CC licenses are generally incompatible with the various GPL versions.
Simple Examples:
Freddy has forked a GPL-licensed project on GitHub. He refactors a part of the project and wants Code Review to criticise the refactored code.
This is not OK: The refactored code is a derivative work of GPL code, and cannot therefore be licensed under an incompatible license such as CC-BY-SA without the (written) consent from all contributors for the code in question.
Variant: The project used a liberal license such as a BSD license variant. Then, Freddy may re-license that code under CC-BY-SA as long as the terms of the original license are still respected – i.e. the original license header is included in the question.
Annie has created a new project and published it on Bitbucket. She posts an interesting part on Code Review for it to get some feedback.
This is OK: The license is wholly irrelevant since the copyright holder may republish the work under a different license.
Variant: The project has attracted additional contributors, and their contributions have been merged. Then, this is to be treated as if Annie had forked a pre-existing project, and the project's license becomes relevant.
Less Simple Examples:
Julia has written some code for her employer which is published under the GPL (or really, any other license, or not published at all). She wants a code review for that code from this site.
This is probably not OK. Employment contracts frequently feature copyright assignment to the employer. Therefore, Julia is not the copyright holder and can't issue a license for that code. Julia's employer would have to explicitly consent to the code being republished under an incompatible license.
Variant: The code was published by the employer under an MIT license. Then anyone including Julia may sublicense the code.
Max has added a feature to a GPL-licensed open-source project. Before he issues a pull request, he wants some feedback from this site, but only for one function he completely wrote from scratch.
This is pretty tricky. The new feature will likely depend on the other (GPL-licensed) parts of the project and would therefore have to be GPL-licensed itself. Even though the function was written from scratch, it would likely constitute a derivative work since it's useless without the rest of the project. As a result, the code could probably not be posted on Code Review.
Variant: The project used a BSD license. Then Max may post his code to get feedback.
To do: contemplate CC-BY-SA ↔ LGPL compatibility.
Pimgd
22k88 silver badges3636 bronze badges
amonamon
\$\begingroup\$ Your answer is aligned with my understanding (IANAL, etc.), except for the 'Max' example. In copyright dealings, unless otherwise noted, the copyright of the code fragment written by Max, regardless of it's dependencies, is wholly owned by max. He can share and license the copyrighted fragment in any way he wants. Only when that code fragment (in source, or compiled form) is distributed with other code, is there a requirement to get the permission of all the other contributors too. \$\endgroup\$ – rolfl Dec 13 '14 at 15:39
Creative Commons have their own List of compatible licenses
At the time of writing there is two licenses that are deemed compatible (with BY-SA 4.0), namely the Free Art License v1.3. and GPLv3 (which only works one-way)
They also have a list of rejected compatibility proposals right below the list of compatible licenses, which as of now is empty
New Licenses for the compatibility may be proposed to the cc-commitee by posting to their mailinglist under their process and criteria for determining compatibility
Vogel612♦Vogel612
\$\begingroup\$ On the "List of compatible licenses" page, the licenses compatible with CC BY-SA 3.0, which is the relevant license for Stack Exchange content, is an open-ended list. \$\endgroup\$ – 200_success Jan 12 '15 at 22:28
\$\begingroup\$ Was this not clear from my answer? Yes the list is open ended. Currently there are no items in the list though. Additionally content licensed under 3.0 can be relicensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 which is where the FAL is compatible \$\endgroup\$ – Vogel612♦ Jan 12 '15 at 22:35
\$\begingroup\$ I'm not contradicting what you said, just clarifying. \$\endgroup\$ – 200_success Jan 12 '15 at 22:37
Disclaimer: I'm obviously not a lawyer.
The CC-BY-SA reads:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original. No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Which is pretty dang permissive. We can even turn around and use this content for commercial gain (given proper attribution to the original author.
This sounds an awful lot like the MIT license to me. I believe they are compatible.
Copyright (c) [year] [fullname]
RubberDuckRubberDuck
\$\begingroup\$ You're here quoting the "readers digest" version of CC-BY-SA, which is not the actual license. Additionally the "ShareAlike"-clause is not quite as permissive as you seem to think. \$\endgroup\$ – Vogel612♦ Jan 12 '15 at 18:01
\$\begingroup\$ @Vogel612 do you have any details about that? Not only am I curious, I'd like to update or delete my answer if I'm blatantly wrong here. \$\endgroup\$ – RubberDuck Jan 12 '15 at 22:32
\$\begingroup\$ If I understand correctly MIT license does not have an attribution clause in any way. In addition to that derivative works of CC-BY-SA content must be licensed under SA. A relicensing to MIT is not possible from my understanding, because MIT is too permissive. \$\endgroup\$ – Vogel612♦ Jan 12 '15 at 22:37
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged support asking-questions licensing .
Put into FAQ: “Will submitted code be licensed under the copyleft CC-BY-SA?”
How do I properly give attribution to code found on Code Review?
How closely can code on this site be copied into other projects?
Suggested edit breaks license due to pastebin
Reviewing usefulness of code
Under CC BY-SA 3.0, will SE give me the source code if I wanted to imitate the Code Review beta for in-house purposes?
Can I ask the same question with a different language?
Are implemented API reviews without code on-topic?
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+"Hallowell, Sara"
7 documents - page 1 of 1
Charles M. Kurtz papers, 1843-1990, bulk 1884-1909
Kurtz, Charles M. (Charles McMeen), 1855-1909 Search this
Abbey, Edwin Austin Search this
Avery, Samuel Putnam Search this
Cesnola, Luigi Palma di Search this
Clarke, Thomas B. (Thomas Benedict) Search this
Hallowell, Sara Search this
Hambidge, Jay Search this
Hasbrouck, Du Bois Fenelon Search this
Irwin, Benoni Search this
Ives, Halsey Cooley Search this
Kurtz, Davis Brook Kurtz Search this
Kurtz, Julia Stephenson Search this
Wickenden, Robert J. Search this
Thum, Patty P. Search this
Wanamaker, John Search this
Rhodes, Charles Ward Search this
Richardson, Mary Curtis Search this
Sedelmeyer, Charles Search this
Pluschow, Guglielmo Search this
Reid, Alexander Search this
Starkweather family Search this
Southern Exposition Search this
Saint Louis Exposition and Music Hall Association Search this
Albright Art Gallery (Buffalo, N.Y.) Search this
World's Columbian Exposition Search this
Exposition universelle internationale de 1900 (Paris, France) Search this
Louisiana Purchase Exposition Search this
National Academy of Design (U.S.) Search this
Photogravures
Tempera paintings
Glasgow school of painting Search this
Exhibitions -- United States Search this
Art, Scottish Search this
Art -- Private collections Search this
Art criticism Search this
Art museums -- Buffalo (N.Y.) Search this
Museum directors -- New York (State) -- Buffalo Search this
AAA_collcode_kurtchar
Charles M. Kurtz papers
Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904: Saint Louis, Mo.) Search this
Saint Louis Exposition and Music Hall Association (1883-1902 : Saint Louis, Mo.) Search this
Southern Exposition (1885 : Louisville, Ky.) Search this
World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.) Search this
Abbey, Edwin Austin, 1852-1911 Search this
Avery, Samuel Putnam, 1822-1904 Search this
Cesnola, Luigi Palma di, 1832-1904 Search this
Clarke, Thomas B. (Thomas Benedict), 1848-1931 Search this
Hambidge, Jay, 1867-1924 Search this
Hasbrouck, Du Bois Fenelon, b.1860 Search this
Irwin, Benoni, 1840-1896 Search this
Ives, Halsey Cooley, 1847-1911 Search this
Kurtz, Davis Brook Kurtz, 1826-1906 Search this
Rhodes, Charles Ward, d. 1905 Search this
Richardson, Mary Curtis, 1848-1931 Search this
Thum, Patty P., 1853-1926 Search this
Wanamaker, John, 1838-1922 Search this
The papers of arts administrator, museum director, collector, dealer, and editor Charles M. Kurtz (1855-1909), measure 27.74 linear feet and date from 1843-1990 (bulk dates 1884-1909). The bulk of the collection consists of detailed chronological correspondence between Kurtz and his wife and family, friends, colleagues, and business associates that documents many notable exhibitions, galleries, museums, private collections, as well as cities, people, and events of the period. Also found in the collection are Kurtz's diaries, scrapbooks, printed materials, and photographs.
The Charles M. Kurtz papers measure 27.74 linear feet and date from 1843 to 1990 with the bulk of the material dating from 1884 to 1909. The bulk of the collection consists of chronological correspondence between Kurtz and his family, most notably his wife, friends, colleagues, and business associates. Kurtz's letters are amazingly detailed and document many notable exhibitions, galleries, museums, private collections, as well as cities, people, and events of the period. The letters between Kurtz and his wife are most interesting for their descriptive commentary on late 19th century life and offer a complete picture of Kurtz's activities. Many of Kurtz's letters to Halsey C. Ives can be found in the Halsey C. Ives Papers. Some of the letters in the collection are illustrated. Also found in the collection are Kurtz's diaries, scrapbooks, printed materials, and photographs.
The collection is organized into twelve series.
Series 1: Biographical Information, 1885-1931, undated
Series 2: Correspondence, 1843-1940, undated
Series 3: Circulars/Requests for Submissions of Works of Art, 1886-1905
Series 4: Legal Records, 1881-1928
Series 5: Financial Records, 1870-1989, undated
Series 6: Diaries, 1894-1901
Series 7: Notes and Writings, 1872-1980, undated
Series 8: Scrapbooks, 1878-1909
Series 9: Printed Material, 1873-1990, undated
Series 10: Photographs, 1898-1990
Series 11: Photographs of Works of Art, undated
Series 12: Miscellany, undated
Charles M. Kurtz's name is known to many scholars and students of American art history. To some he is important for his critical writings, others are interested in his management of exhibitions for the Art Union and the American Art Association. Many are aware of him because of his publication of National Academy Notes, which continued for nine years. Still others are familiar with Kurtz in his role as an art administrator for late 19th century art exhibitions like those at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the St. Louis Fair, or for his accomplishments as the first director of the Albright Gallery in Buffalo, New York. Sometimes researchers have become familiar with his name through the sale catalogue for his considerable collection, which was sold at auction after his death in 1909. His career, which encompassed the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, touched on virtually every aspect of art in America during that period.
Born in 1853 to Davis Brook Kurtz (1826-1906), an attorney, and Julia Wilder, Charles Kurtz enjoyed a genteel upbringing. The Kurtz family originated in Darmstadt, Germany, and migrated to America in the eighteenth century. D.B. Kurtz, a leading member of the Lawrence County bar, was also a vice-president of the National Bank of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. As a local representative of many important railroad and business interests, he accumulated assets estimated at one million dollars by the time of his death, just three years before that of his son, Charles, the eldest of his five children. Unlike his brothers Louis, who also became an attorney, and Edward, a professor at Columbia University, Charles eschewed a professional career to enter the art world, as did his sisters Emily, an artist, and Catherine, a musician.
After his graduation from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania, Kurtz visited the Centennial Exposition, held in 1876 in Philadelphia, before coming to New York to study art at the National Academy of Design. These two activities foreshadowed the direction that his career would eventually take. As the chronology indicates, his early efforts revolve around writing for a variety of publications, most notably, his own National Academy Notes. In 1881 he took what was to be the first of many trips abroad to survey the art scene in Europe. Later in his career, his fascination with foreign art and his own entrepeneurial interests led him to become an outspoken opponent of tariffs on imported art.
Kurtz's personal life changed significantly in 1884 when he met Julia Stephenson, a physician's daughter and fledging art student from Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Throughout their courtship and after their marriage the couple was frequently separated. Consequently, they wrote lengthy letters which document not only their personal relationship but also Kurtz's aspirations and activities in the art world.
With his appointment as one of Halsey C. Ives's (1847-1911) chief assistants of the Fine Arts Department of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1891, Charles Kurtz's career achieved international stature. Among the most notable European artists he introduced into this country through circulating exhibitions were the Glasgow School, the Danish School, the Hungarian artist, Mihaly Munkacsy, and the subject of his final exhibition, the Spanish artist, Sorolla.
Throughout his life, Kurtz was plagued by health problems and, in 1899, illness forced him to resign as Assistant Director of Fine Arts for the United States for the Paris Exposition of 1900. Throughout the following decade, his work was increasingly interrupted by ill health. His death in 1909 at the age of 54, while sudden, was not entirely unexpected. However it most certainly cut short a cosmopolitan career that encompassed virtually every aspect of the art world and the pertinent issues of the day.
Kurtz is remembered for his editorial work with the National Academy of Design; as Art Director for the Southern Exposition, 1883-1886, and the St. Louis Exposition, 1894-1899 (where he introduced the Glasgow School of Painting); and as Assistant Chief/Director for the World's Columbian Exposition, the 1900 Paris Exposition, and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. He was also director of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy.
1855 -- Charles McMeen Kurtz born
1876 -- receives B.S. degree from Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania
1876-78 -- studies at the National Academy of Design, N.Y. with Lemuel Wilmarth and William Morgan; writes a column, "New York Letters," for The Courant published in New Castle, Pennsylvania
1878 -- edits a small daily paper published during a "National Camp Meeting for the promotion of Holiness" held that summer in New Castle, Pa.; its critical stance resulted in his public denouncement and earned him a reputation as a journalist in western Pennsylvania; receives M.A. from Washington and Jefferson College
1878-79 -- becomes the local editor of The Guardian of New Castle
1879 -- publishes The Daily Reporter, a financial success
1881 -- publishes the first issue of National Academy Notes; travels in Europe, spending time in England, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France (Paris)
1881-82 -- prepares Illustrated Notes for Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition
1882 -- writes "Art Notes" in The New York Tribune and resigns Dec. 23rd
1882-83 -- accepts position to write for Music and Drama, a new daily paper
1883 -- becomes the general manager of the American Art Union; exhibits a large collection of Art Union paintings in Buffalo, N.Y. and Louisville, Ky., where they became part of the Southern Exposition's first great art display
1883-86 -- accepts offer to become Director of the Art Department, Southern Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky
1884 -- edits Art Union magazine until December; applies for position to head the Art Department of the New Orleans World's Fair in September
1884-86 -- accepts a position offered by the American Art Association; terminates uncongenial relationship in March, 1886
1885 -- writes catalogues for the sale of the George Seney Collection and for the Watts exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; October 1, marries Julia Stephenson (1861-1931), daughter of Dr. A. T. Stephenson of Harrodsburg, Kentucky; they had two daughters who survived them: Julia Wilder Kurtz (1889-1977), and Isabella Starkweather Kurtz (1901-1991); another daughter, Elizabeth Stephenson Kurtz (1886-1897), predeceased them
1886 -- terminates employment with the Art Association; daughter, Elizabeth Stephenson Kurtz, born
1886-87 -- manages the circulation of Mihaly Munkacsy's Christ Before Pilot for Charles Sedelmeyer to American venues: New York, Boston, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Nashville, Phildelphia, Indianapolis; tour generates $90,000 in ticket receipts
1889-91 -- February 24, appointed art critic ("Art Notes") and book reviewer for New York Daily Star; later literary and art editor of the Sunday Star
1890 -- writes for the Sunday edition The Press, a New York paper
1891 -- writes for The World; art editor for The New York Recorder; contributes to the New York Truth
1891-93 -- contributes to Chicago Evening Post ; writes artist biographies for The Chicago Graphic, a regional magazine; appointed Assistant Chief of the Department of Fine Arts of the World's Columbian Exposition
1894 -- contributes column, "Art at the Exposition" to St. Louis Life
1895 -- tours Denmark, Scotland, and France during the summer on behalf of the St. Louis Exposition
1894-99 -- appointed Director of the Art Department of the St. Louis Annual Exposition
1896 -- elected member of The Japan Society, London
1897 -- daughter, Elizabeth (Daisy), dies
1898 -- receives a diploma and medal "in recognition of valuable services in connection with the Fine Arts Exhibit" from the directors of the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition, Omaha
1899 -- appointed Assistant Director of Fine Arts for the United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900; resigned in July due to ill health
1901-04 -- appointed Assistant Chief of the Department of Art of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, August
1901 -- daughter, Isabella Starkweather Kurtz, born
1902 -- receives honorary Ph.D from Washington and Jefferson College "in recognition of distinguished ability and services as an art critic and writer"
1905 -- receives the cross of the Order of Merit from Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria; appointed Director, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy and Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, in January; exhibits Glasgow paintings at Albright Art Gallery from November until the following April
1906 -- writes Academy Notes, a bulletin pubished by the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy and the Albright Art Gallery; father, D.B. Kurtz, dies in Newcastle, Pennsylvania
1907 -- accused of importing German pictures free of duty for exhibition purposes and then selling some for profit
1908 -- Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree conferred by Washington and Jefferson College
1909 -- Charles M. Kurtz dies in Buffalo, New York on March 21
1910 -- Sale of the private collection of Charles M. Kurtz at auction, Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, February 24-25
1931 -- Widow, Julia Stephenson Kurtz dies October 30
1977 -- Daughter, Julia Wilder Kurtz, dies
1991 -- Daughter, Isabel Starkweather Kurtz, dies in Buffalo, N.Y.; remaining Charles M. Kurtz Papers bequeathed to the Archives of American Art and the National Academy of Design, New York
The St. Louis Exposition/Halsey C. Ives papers in the Archives of American Art contain material relating to Charles M. Kurtz.
Additional Charles Kurtz papers, 1870-1910, including 340 letters which discuss exhibitions, sales of art, patronage, atelier visits, and submissions to publications, and letters to his parents in which he discsses the art market and art world new; as well as manuscripts, notebooks, a diary, and printed ephemera relating to exhibitions and publications, are available at the Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Los Angeles, California.
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel 4912) including Charles Kurtz's Glasgow painting diary. The loaned diary was returned to the lender and can now be found at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, Connecticut. This material is not described in the collection container inventory.
For many years, the Kurtz Papers were thought to have been destroyed in a fire. Isabel Kurtz, a school teacher who lived with her older sister in Buffalo, New York, was vague when initially approached about her father's papers by Archives Regional Director, Robert Brown in the mid-1980s. However upon her death in 1991, her will revealed that the papers were indeed in her house in Buffalo and the bulk of them were bequeathed to the Archives of American Art. Paintings and a diary relating to the Glasgow School were given to the Yale Center for British Art. That diary has subsequently been duplicated on microfilm and is now also available in the Archives. Scorch marks on some of the papers and also on the paintings given to Yale suggest that there was indeed a fire. The material that was not bequeathed to the Archives included duplicates of printed documents along with books from the Kurtz library and a coin collection, all of which were dispersed in an estate auction that was held in Buffalo in 1991.
The collection is open for research. Patrons must use microfilm copy.
With the exception of material filmed on Reel 4912 the Charles M. Kurtz papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws. Permission from Yale University is required to quote, publish or reproduce from papers filmed on Reel 4912.
Editors -- United States Search this
Art critics -- United States Search this
Arts administrators -- United States Search this
Charles M. Kurtz papers, 1843-1990 (bulk 1884-1909). Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
AAA.kurtchar
ead_collection:sova-aaa-kurtchar
Hallowell, Sara
Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records / Series 1: Correspondence
ead_component:sova-aaa-carninst-ref3368
H, Miscellaneous: Ha-Hay
Koehler, S. R. (Sylvester Rosa), 1837-1900 Search this
Box 3, Folder 1
Haeger, A. D.
Hahn, David F.
Hahn, George R.
Hale, Ellen Day
Hallowell, Sara T.
Halm, George R.
Halsey, F. R.
Hamor, J.
Hanshatten, Aug.
Hapgood, M. P.
Harris, G. W.
Harrison, Birge
Hartley, Joseph
Hartmann, C. Sadakichi
Hawley, E. H.
Haynes, H. W.
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
The Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers, 1833-1904, bulk 1870-1890. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the Walton Family Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers
Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers / Series 1: Correspondence
ead_component:sova-aaa-koehsylv-ref155
Sara Tyson Hallowell
Mary Fairchild Low, 1858 - 1946 Search this
Sitter:
Sara Tyson Hallowell, 1846 - 1924 Search this
Stretcher: 98 × 111 cm (38 9/16 × 43 11/16")
Interior Search this
Home Furnishings\Furniture\Seating\Sofa Search this
Home Furnishings\Flatware\Spoon Search this
Home Furnishings\Drinking vessel\Cup Search this
Sara Tyson Hallowell: Female Search this
Sara Tyson Hallowell: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Humanitarian Search this
Sara Tyson Hallowell: Visual Arts\Curator Search this
Sara Tyson Hallowell: Visual Arts\Art Patron Search this
Sara Tyson Hallowell: Visual Arts\Art Historian Search this
Portrait Search this
Owner: University of Cambridge
UK040024
Usage conditions apply
Catalog of American Portraits
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4b5cf958b-d787-4c23-a6d1-197ad494b2bf
edanmdm:npg_UK040024
Anders Leonard Zorn, 18 Feb 1860 - 1920 Search this
Pen and ink on paper
Equipment\Drafting & Writing Implements\Writing implement\Pen Search this
Owner: [UNLOCATED]
UNL00969
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4a8f94101-a79a-4989-b37f-ed3ebc82dadf
edanmdm:npg_UNL00969
Portrait of Mlle S. H. (Sara Tyson Hallowell), (painting)
Low, Mary Fairchild 1858-1946 Search this
Hallowell, Sara Tyson Search this
Owner/Location:
University of Cambridge Robinson College Cambridge England
Portrait female--Knee length Search this
Portrait female--Profile Search this
Recreation--Leisure--Eating & Drinking Search this
Object--Other--Dish Search this
Architecture interior--Domestic--House Search this
IAP 8B790010
Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museums
edanmdm:siris_ari_417429
Include Term Exclude Term Archival materials (4)
Include Term Exclude Term Paintings (4)
Include Term Exclude Term Address books (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Diaries (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Engravings (prints) (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Etchings (prints) (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Lithographs (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Menus (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Art Historian (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Art Patron (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Criticism (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Curators (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Glasgow school of painting (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Humanitarianism (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Reformers (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Society and social change (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Hallowell, Sara Tyson (3)
Include Term Exclude Term Abbey, Edwin Austin (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Albright Art Gallery (Buffalo, N.Y.) (2)
Include Term Exclude Term American Art Association (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Avery, Samuel Putnam (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Cesnola, Luigi Palma di (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Clarke, Thomas B. (Thomas Benedict) (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Exposition universelle internationale de 1900 (Paris, France) (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Hallowell, Sara (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Scots (2)
Include Term Exclude Term Archives of American Art (4)
Include Term Exclude Term Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museum (1)
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Attack ads may hinder voter turnout
Gov. Bruce Rauner has targeted Democratic primary candidate J.B. Pritzker with multiple ads associating him with former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
By Eric Bradach
With eight registered candidates vying for Illinois governor in the March 20 primary, a plethora of attack ads have flooded the state’s media, which may leave a sour taste in voters and steer them away from the polls, according to political scientists and marketing researchers.
Attack ads are nothing new in the Illinois political landscape, said Chris Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The volume of political attack ads in elections normally increases when an incumbent seems vulnerable, and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is “one of the most unpopular governors in the country,” Mooney said. Other factors include self-financing candidates, such as Democratic candidates J.B. Pritzker and Chris Kennedy, and a potential shift in party power, he noted.
The attack ads in the 2018 election have been unique in their early use, Mooney said. Candidates have historically gone after their opponents shortly before an election to prevent a “boomerang effect,” which makes voters dislike candidates who are only sending negative messages, he added.
“All those things lead to more competition, spending and earlier pulling out all the guns,” Mooney said. “The negative stuff is a sign not of desperation, but to show they’re going for it because everyone thinks they can win.”
Fifty-eight percent of Illinois voters disapprove of Rauner’s job performance compared to fewer than 36 percent who approve, according to a March 2017 Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll.
In an attempt to capitalize on Rauner’s low approval rating, his primary opponent, state Rep. Jeanne Ives of Wheaton, Illinois, launched a controversial attack ad Feb. 2, titled “Thank you, Bruce Rauner,” which was met with criticism from activist groups, newspaper editorial boards and even members of her own Republican party.
“[Attack ads] can have a beneficial or a negative impact,” said Jim Allen, spokesman at the Chicago Board of Elections. “A certain amount of conflict is good.”
It is “par for the course” to attack an incumbent with negative commercials, Mooney said, and Ives’ “Thank you, Bruce Rauner” ad is trying to appeal to President Donald Trump’s voter base. Though Trump lost Illinois in the 2016 presidential election, he did resonate with many downstate Republican voters, and Ives is trying to galvanize those voters, he added.
However, Ives’ negative ads are so politically incorrect that they could mobilize voters to check Rauner’s name on the ballot in protest against her candidacy, according to Mooney. Historically, far-right conservatives in statewide Illinois primaries only account for anywhere between 25–30 percent of the vote, and the majority tend to be socially moderate, he added.
Other harsh attack ads have accused Pritzker and Kennedy of “scamming the system” for tax breaks, harsh criticism on the way Rauner handled a 2016 legionnaires outbreak at the Quincy Veterans Home, and associating Pritzker with former Gov. Rob Blagojevich. Several Rauner campaign ads have segments of taped conversations between the two during an FBI investigation when Blagojevich was searching for a replacement for Barack Obama’s vacated U.S. Senate seat.
“At a certain point…people start feeling this aerial bombardment [and] some people start tuning [the race] out,” Allen said. The election has yet to reach an over-saturation point, but the ads will pick up for the general election in November, he added.
Spending campaigns for the 2014 governor’s race reached an unprecedented $100 million, and that same year, come election day, 50 percent of eligible voters showed up to the polls, according to a January 2015 Paul Simon Public Policy Institute report.
Before the March 20 primary, approximately $120 million has been raised just by two candidates. Rauner has raised more than $70 million and Pritzker alone has invested nearly $50 million into his campaign, according to Illinois State Board of Elections records.
Mooney said the one advantage Rauner has had in his political career is unlimited money, which makes Pritzker, a billionaire venture capitalist and heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, a threat and gives motivation to attack him early.
It is unclear if attack ads affect voter turnout, but it comes down to the individual voter and whether they are motivated or deterred by the rhetoric, according to Amber Wichowsky, associate political science professor at Marquette University who researches voter turnout.
“Many folks say [attack ads] degrade our politics. We [may not be] getting any dialogue or discussion on what issues are,” Wichowsky said. “[However], you hear that attack ad and you might be even more mobilized to turnout on their behalf. You are reminded of the issues.”
Despite voters receiving information from political attack ads, Mooney said the ads have a negative connotation and the candidate’s ultimate goal is to drive down their opponent’s voter turnout.
“A person that would have voted for your opponent, but then you convince them not to, that’s half as good as getting them to vote for you,” Mooney said.
attack ad
blaise mesa
bruce rauner
campaign stragety
candidates policy
chris kennedy
controversial ads
daniel biss
eric bradach
illinois governors race
j. b. pritzker
jeanne ives
march 2018 primary
politcal strategy
political policy
Safe and jolly holiday activities for Chicagoans this winter
Awkward: What is the etiquette of giving and receiving gifts?
Awkward: Your friend found out you were talking behind their back. Now what?
Chicago photographers celebrate family caregivers across the city
Awkward: How do you broach conversations about tough topics at the dinner table?
While waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine, old traumas with the health care system resurface in the Black community
Awkward: What do you do if you dislike your friend’s significant other?
Chicagoans celebrate Biden-Harris win, more work to be done
BREAKING: Joe Biden declared 46th U.S. president after tension-filled days of counting ballots
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Dr Bronwen Levy
Honorary Research Senior Fellow
b.levy@uq.edu.au
Levy, Bronwen (2017). Introduction. Helen Haenke at Rockton: a creative life. (pp. 1-3) St Lucia, QLD Australia: University of Queensland Press.
Levy, Bronwen (2015). Maternal questions for the modern woman: Amanda Lohrey's radical script. Mothers at the Margins: Stories of Challenge, Resistance and Love. (pp. 48-61) edited by Lisa Raith, Jenny Jones and Marie Porter. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Levy, Bronwen (2006). Constructing the woman writer: The reviewing reception of Shirley Hazzard's 'The transit of Venus.'. Contemporary Literary Criticism. (pp. 73-85) edited by Jeff Hunter. Thompsonville, MO, U.S.A.: Gale Group.
Levy, Bronwen (2001). Reading Recent Australian Women's Fiction. Authority and Influence: Australian Literary Criticism 1950-2000. (pp. 223-228) edited by Bird, Delys, Dixon, Robert and Lee, Christopher. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.
Levy, Bronwen (2001). Writing Someone/Somewhere Else. Story/telling: The Woodford Forum. (pp. 233-240) edited by Levy, Bronwen and Murphy, Ffion. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press.
Levy, Bronwen (2001). Literature : Introduction to Part 1: Literature. Q21C :Queer in the 21st Century. (pp. 1-2) edited by Argus, John and Cox, Stephen. Fortitude Valley: Gay & Lesbian Welfare Assn.
Levy, Bronwen (2001). The Erotic Body. Introduction to Part III : The Erotic Body. Queer in the 21st Century: The body - queer and politic. (pp. 93-96) edited by Atkinson, J. Keith and Finnerty, Justin J.. Fortitude Valley, Brisbane: Gay & Lesbian Welfare Association.
Levy, Bronwen (2000). Pedagogy: Incomplete, unrequited. Taught Bodies. (pp. 81-90) edited by O'Farrell, Clare, Meadmore, Daphne, McWilliam, Erica and Symes, Colin. New York: Peter Lang.
Levy, Bronwen (1999). Assimilation and integration: colonial(ist) questions for Australian Lesbian/Gay/Queer writing. Queer in the 21st Century: Perspectives on assimilation and integration. (pp. 5-14) edited by John Angus and Stephen Cox. Fortitude Valley, Queensland: Gay and Lesbian Welfare Association.
Levy, Bronwen (2015). Shirley Hazzard: New Critical Essays; Shirley Hazzard: Literary Expatriate and Cosmopolitan Humanist. Journal of Australian Studies, 39 (2), 272-274.
Levy, Bronwen (2013). Writing secrets: Vera's violin case. Hecate, 38 (1/2), 194-206.
Levy, Bronwen (2010). Rainforest narratives: the work of Janette Turner Hospital, by David Callahan. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 29 (1), 210-212.
Levy, Bronwen (2009). Jolley's Women. Australian Literary Studies, 24 (1), 111-120.
Levy, Bronwen (2009). Conversations of past and present: Review of Liam Guilar's Lady Godiva and Me. TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, 13 (2), 1-4.
Levy, Bronwen (2004). Review of 'Against the grain: Beverley Farmer's writing' by Lyn Jacobs. Australian Literary Studies, 21 (3), 402-404.
Levy, Bronwen (2003). Seeking the feminist public voice in Canada. Beyond the Centre: Newsletter of UBC's Centre for Research in Women's Studies and Gender Relations, Fall, 8-9.
Levy, Bronwen (2001). Review of Faking Literature, by K K Ruthven. Imago, 13 (3), 148-151.
Levy, Bronwen (2000). Agony and ecstasy: Feminists among feminists. Hecate, 26 (1), 107-112.
Levy, Bronwen (2000). New left legacies, Marxist-Feminist ambivalences. Journal of Social Change and Critical Inquiry, 2 (September), 1-1.
Levy, Bronwen (1999). Transformations: Thinking though feminism, Institute for Women's Studies, Lancaster University, 17-19 July, 1997. Australian Feminist Studies, 14 (29), 219-222.
Levy, Bronwen (1999). April Fool? Out, out, imagined critic (Me!). (Comment on Tania Peitzker, 'Real and Imagined Lesbians in contemporary Australian fiction'.). Crossings: Bulletin of the International Australian Studies Association, 4 (1 - April)
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Air Jordan 5 Anthracite Wolf Grey Clear Black Will Arrive on Feb 24th, 2021
As part of its 30th anniversary event, Air Jordan 5 released some famous combinations in 2020. Although it will not celebrate a milestone anniversary next year, considering that it will appear in the recently announced Jordan brand 2021 spring collection in two outfits, it will always be obsessed with finding more options for fighter inspiration. One pair of shoes has adopted the "invisible" color scheme of the shoe since 2007, and the second suggestion is to extend the signature...
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City Readers > Books > The history of the new world, by Don ...
1813: America
1838: America - North and South
1850: North and South America
Latin America--History
Juan Bautista Muñoz
The history of the new world, by Don Juan Baptista Munoz. Translated from the Spanish, with notes by the translator, an engraved portrait of Columbus, and a map of Espanola.
London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson Paternoster Row, 1797.
The history of the new world, by Don Juan Baptista Munoz. Translated from the Spanish, with notes by the translator, an engraved portrait of Columbus, and a map of Espanola. Library Average
Robert Crommeline 9/7/1799 9/9/1799 Munzos New World
Joseph Williams 10/26/1799 10/29/1799 Mungos New World
Christian Schultz Volume 1 12/21/1799 12/24/1799 Munozs N. World
George Lorillard 9/2/1800 9/11/1800 Munoz's New World
Peter Kemble 10/11/1800 10/15/1800 New World
James Hunt 12/15/1800 12/31/1800 Munozs New World
Robert R. Randall Volume 1 1/3/1801 1/8/1801 Monozs New World
William Wheeler 2/18/1801 2/24/1801 Munozs N. World
Dominick Lynch 3/24/1801 4/1/1801 Munoz's N World
Thomas Knox 5/18/1802 5/19/1802 Munoz's New World
Selah Strong 5/22/1802 6/5/1802 Munoz's New World
Charlotte White 3/6/1804 3/7/1804 New World
William B. Keese 7/9/1805 8/10/1805 Munoz New World
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Fighting a “Strategy of Evictions”
Sam Heppell ’14 with Lynn United protestors
Via the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
It sounds absurd – tenants fighting for years for the right to pay rent and a landlord who refuses to take their money. Too many families living in foreclosed homes across Massachusetts find themselves in this situation. For two Lynn families, a sweeping victory came after three and a half years of struggle, as Harvard Legal Aid Bureau’s Foreclosure Task Force (FTF) helped them win a ruling that Fannie Mae broke the law by refusing to let them stay and pay rent.
On July 14, 2014, Judge David Kerman of the Northeast Housing Court dismissed eviction cases against two separate families in a building owned by the Federal National Mortgage Association (known as Fannie Mae). Judge Kerman ruled that Fannie Mae had “engaged in a strategy for eviction, frustrating the tenants’ efforts to remain in their homes,” violating “both the letter and the spirit” of state law. The order came after student and FTF member Sam Heppell ’14 argued the families’ cases at a hearing in May – and after more than two years of representation, by FTF staff attorney Eloise Lawrence.
The two families first learned that Fannie Mae had foreclosed on the building in November of 2010, when a realtor offered them cash to leave. The families asked to stay and continue paying rent, but their attempts to settle the issue with Fannie Mae’s realtors and attorneys were ignored. Despite years of trying to pay rent to Fannie Mae, the families received eviction notices for failure to pay rent.
In 2010, the Massachusetts legislature gave tenants in foreclosed buildings the right to stay and pay rent to the new owners, allowing evictions only if there was “just cause” such as violating a lease or failing to pay the agreed-upon rent.
“On paper, these were meaningful protections, but in practice too many families were still being forced out,” said Sam. “Some families would leave because they didn’t know their rights, whereas others – like these two families – faced banks who took unbelievable steps to get around the law and avoid signing leases with them.”
After receiving the eviction notices, the families joined Lynn United for Change, an organization that brings together both tenants and foreclosed homeowners and uses “the sword and the shield” model to keep them in their homes – the “sword” of direct action and political pressure to change laws and policies and the “shield” of legal defense to fight evictions.
“I met one of the families when they showed up at our office late one night with a 48 hour notice of eviction,” said Isaac Simon Hodes, lead community organizer with Lynn United, “They had their children with them; their youngest was an infant at that time. We stayed late into the night going through documents and working out a plan.”
Through Lynn United, the families were connected with Eloise and Sam. As the eviction cases began moving towards a trial, Sam filed motions arguing that no trials were needed because the facts were indisputably clear – that Fannie Mae was breaking the law by refusing to rent and forcing the families out. These motions resulted in the favorable judgment by Judge Kerman. Now, other Lynn United members can rely on this decision in their legal struggles.
“Victories like this are made possible by really close collaboration between public interest lawyers and law students like the folks at HLAB and grassroots social justice groups like Lynn United for Change,” said Isaac.
“It was a privilege to work with these two families and to help them win some certainty after nearly four years of struggle,” said Sam, “This judgment is an important victory, not only for them but for families across Massachusetts.”
Filed Under: Clinical Spotlight Tagged With: Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
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Taxi industry insiders — not Uber — created New York City’s cab-tastrophe
Via The Hustle
By: Conor Grant
Since the New York City taxi medallion market crashed in 2014, 950 cab drivers have declared bankruptcy, causing criticism of Uber and Lyft.
But, a damning report from The New York Times reveals that ridesharing companies weren’t responsible for New York’s cab crash — instead, it was industry insiders who systematically drove up the price of medallions.
A bubble in the medallion market
New York City created taxi medallions in 1937 to cap the number of taxis, creating a market where medallions were exchanged like stocks.
But between 2002 and 2014, brokers, lawyers, fleet owners, and debt collectors drove up medallion prices to increase profits.
Although medallion prices quintupled from $200k to more than $1m, cab drivers’ salaries stayed the same, so lenders offered drivers predatory loans to buy medallions.
“I don’t think I could concoct a more predatory scheme if I tried,” Roger Bertling, an expert on predatory lending from Harvard, told the NYT. “This was modern-day indentured servitude.”
Downfall of the drivers
Lending companies targeted low-income immigrants who didn’t understand the terms, suckering cab drivers making $30k into $1.7m loans. Some drivers — who often spent half their income paying off these loans — took their own lives.
Yet the “taxi tycoons” who sold them their medallions made enough money to buy yachts or hire Nicki Minaj to perform at a kid’s party.
So, how did manipulative medallion merchants avoid scrutiny?
Easy — they directed all the blame at Uber and Lyft, whose negative reputations made them easy targets.
Since Uber arrived in New York in 2011, cab revenues have fallen 10% due to the new competition — but medallion prices have lost more than 90% of their value.
Last year, New York City officials capped the number of rideshares allowed in the city in an apparent effort to protect cab drivers.
But behind the scenes, city officials helped create the medallion mayhem by advertising medallion sales — which earned $855m for the city under mayors Bloomberg and de Blasio — and then turning a blind eye to extortionate lending practices as they screwed over drivers.
Filed Under: In the News Tagged With: Roger Bertling
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Four ways to generate value from your APIs
David Feuer
Try GCP
It’s been 24 years since Jerry Maguire hit movie theaters in 1996, and yet one line from the movie still resonates like no other. The constant banter between the agent, Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) and budding professional football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is fun, if not bombastic, with one central theme that Tidwell not only enthusiastically expresses but also insists Maguire express as well:
“Show me the money.”
Tidwell’s passion for football was far outweighed by his passion to become rich; indeed, one of the movie’s themes is that only once he got past playing for the money could he achieve the level of play required to drive real value to his team, his team’s owners, and ultimately himself.
What does this have to do with API management? Digital product owners tend to follow a similar path: the knee-jerk reaction is that the easiest way to drive value from APIs is to charge for them. While this may be the easiest thing to do, more often than not, API value is best extracted from other indirect means. By creating a tri-partite value exchange—a proposition that satisfies end users, partner developers, and the company publishing the APIs— a great amount of untapped value may be mined. And just like the football player, the agent, and the team, putting some heart into the game can make all three of them winners.
How to start deriving value from APIs
Behold: here are the four best practices to derive value from APIs:
1. Extend channel reach
Suppose your application is great but targeted toward a specific set of users. What if there’s a set of users—perhaps even an entire channel—that cannot use it? Perhaps your application doesn’t integrate well with other corporate systems, or perhaps it isn’t available in certain markets, doesn’t accept certain currencies, or can’t support certain business models (such as pre-paid or post-paid). Creating an API product—that is, an API designed for developer consumption and productivity, not just integration between systems—is the single best way to make your application flexible enough that the functionality can be adopted into channels that aren’t being addressed by your current go-to-market approach.
An excellent example of this is the Walgreens Photo Prints API. As photos have moved from digital cameras to mobile phones, a cadre of third-party photo applications has cropped up...yes, pun intended. These applications took great pictures and featured wonderful effects but offered no easy way to print the photos. By leveraging the API and the connection it facilitated to Walgreens photo printing facilities in stores nationwide, these apps can now use Walgreens stores as a venue for photo printing. This has enabled customers to quickly get prints of their favorite photos, helped developers to build richer apps, and let Walgreens photo services go well beyond the store, embedding a presence in a multitude of apps and handsets they wouldn’t have addressed without a productized API. Walgreens has turned their developer ecosystem into channel partners and now offers them much more than just photo printing services.
In this model, the API product is offered for free, as there is an obvious value proposition to all three parties—API publisher, developer, and user. (Learn more about how Walgreens uses Apigee.)
2. Consider brand awareness and promotion
Your application is lost in a sea of hundreds of other similar apps in an app store. What now? One way of driving awareness is to extend your branch reach/footprint via an API, then reward users or developers for sign-ups and usage, in order to proliferate the application to new surface areas, experiences, and form factors.
Streaming services, for example, generally have an incentive to make their streaming players easy to integrate across a wide variety of devices, form factors, and digital experiences. This can in turn create an incentive among device-makers and app-makers to integrate the service, creating a potentially exponential increase in the value proposition for the end consumer and the developers integrating the streaming player API. And when this variety of viewing options for the user meets quality content from the service, the result can be a self-reinforcing cycle of more subscribers and increased reach across more consumer touchpoints. Developers, device-makers, and the service publishing the API create ways to make money, and end users get a steadily-improving and flexible service.
Similarly, Brazilian retailer Magalu (formerly Magazine Luiza) leveraged APIs to achieve, as CTO Andre Fatala put it in a 2019 blog post, a “newfound ease and speed of spinning up new services and customer experiences and adjusting existing ones,” which let “everyone … work in small teams of five or six people that take care of segments of an application, whether it's online checkout, physical store checkout, or order management.” The approach means Magalu “work[s] much more like a software company than a retail company now,” he said.
With this new agility, the company has expanded its e-commerce strategy to third-party sellers and created a digital marketplace that lets merchants easily join the ecosystem via Magalu’s API platform. Whereas the company’s old legacy sales and distribution systems only supported 50,000 SKUs, the marketplace supports thousands of sellers and millions of SKUs, significantly expanding the brand’s reach.
3. Enable customization to create new value propositions
In a bid to create an ecosystem around its banking products, ABN Amro partnered with telecommunications company KPN, smart homes expert 50five, and Energizer—and begun leveraging its first-party payments app Tikkie, the Olisto IoT device triggering platform, and the Google Nest API—to create an entirely new value proposition around smart home solutions. Thanks to this collaboration, when the Nest Protect smart smoke alarm runs low on batteries, it can order replacements automatically, performing the payment through Tikkie and triggering the batteries to be delivered directly to the owner’s home. This capability significantly reduces risk of a smoke alarm not working due to battery failure—and with Google currently rolling out new Nest initiatives to replace the program under which ABN Amro’s solution was created, we’re excited to see what novel and convenient user value propositions our APIs enable in the future. These API partnerships let ABN Amro position their offering as a flexible platform, able to generate network effects to aggregate demand. As new value propositions are created in these many ecosystems, ABN Amro will already be integrated and available to meet the needs of the ecosystem. The company’s flexible, customizable platform will offer the path of least resistance for future similar API partnerships.
In this model, the API product is offered for free, as there is an obvious value proposition to all three parties—the API publisher, the bank, is a more desirable destination to keep money (and do business with) because of its flexibility; the developer drives value and differentiation to their product by alleviating a significant consumer pain point; and the end user benefits from having a functioning smoke detector.
4. Enable access to rare and valuable competencies
There are situations in which the best way to generate value from an API is to charge for it. If the API product substitution risk is low—if your value proposition is rare, valuable, and is not being competed against by indirect competitors—there is an opportunity to generate direct value from the API by charging for access. A great example of this is telecommunications infrastructure APIs, such as telematics APIs for in-vehicle connectivity. Though there are other telecommunications providers likely competing, the threat of other non-telecom providers offering in-vehicle applications and connectivity—i.e., the product substitution risk—is very low. As a result, telecoms can charge for those API products, as they are rare and valuable.
Reducing the importance of API value generation to simple revenue generation or cost savings frequently misses the key sources of untapped value available when targeting developers with an API program. This ability to inspire developers—not unlike Gooding’s Rod Tidwell character rediscovering the drive that inspires people to watch football—is the bedrock of the internet economy, the “demand aggregation” model that enables ecosystem effects and significant value generation.
When considering an API productization approach, make sure to have all of these in mind as you map your path to success. To learn more, check out our ebook on API productization.
Google named a leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Full Life Cycle API Management
For the fifth year in a row, Google Cloud (Apigee) has been named a leader in Gartner’s Full Life Cycle API Management Magic Quadrant.
Google Cloud Products
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CSU ePress
Home > FACULTY > BIBLIOGRAPHY_FACULTY > 3003
Faculty Bibliography
Review and future prospects for DNA barcoding methods in forensic palynology
Karen L. Bell, Emory University
Kevin S. Burgess, Columbus State University
Kazufusa C. Okamoto, Defense Forensic Science Center
Roman Aranda, Defense Forensic Science Center
Berry J. Brosi, Emory University
Forensic Science International: Genetics
DNA barcoding, DNA metabarcoding, Forensic botany, Forensic palynology, High-throughput sequencing, Metagenomics
© 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Pollen can be a critical forensic marker in cases where determining geographic origin is important, including investigative leads, missing persons cases, and intelligence applications. However, its use has previously been limited by the need for a high level of specialization by expert palynologists, slow speeds of identification, and relatively poor taxonomic resolution (typically to the plant family or genus level). By contrast, identification of pollen through DNA barcoding has the potential to overcome all three of these limitations, and it may seem surprising that the method has not been widely implemented. Despite what might seem a straightforward application of DNA barcoding to pollen, there are technical issues that have delayed progress. However, recent developments of standard methods for DNA barcoding of pollen, along with improvements in high-throughput sequencing technology, have overcome most of these technical issues. Based on these recent methodological developments in pollen DNA barcoding, we believe that now is the time to start applying these techniques in forensic palynology. In this article, we discuss the potential for these methods, and outline directions for future research to further improve on the technology and increase its applicability to a broader range of situations.
Bell, Karen L.; Burgess, Kevin S.; Okamoto, Kazufusa C.; Aranda, Roman; and Brosi, Berry J., "Review and future prospects for DNA barcoding methods in forensic palynology" (2016). Faculty Bibliography. 3003.
https://csuepress.columbusstate.edu/bibliography_faculty/3003
Simon Schwob Memorial Library
CSU ePress Information Guide
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Shang-Chi movie next for Marvel?
Deadline has revealed that Marvel Studios is fast-tracking an adaptation of the Shang-Chi comics character for a feature film franchise, which will mark the studio’s first Asian protagonist.
Asian-American Dave Callaham, whose credits range from The Expendables to creating the TV series Jean-Claude Van Johnson to co-writing Wonder Woman 1984, has been tapped to write the screenplay. Marvel is also reportedly already looking at a number of Asian and Asian-American directors who could take the helm, looking towards Black Panther as the model.
The character of Shang-Chi was created by Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin and was conceived in late 1972. Marvel had wished to acquire the rights to adapt the Kung Fu television program, but were denied permission by the show’s owner. He debuted in Special Marvel Edition #15 in December 1973. Shang-Chi is an extraordinary master of numerous unarmed and weaponry-based wushu styles, including the use of the gun, nunchaku and jian. He later, upon joining the Avengers, ultimately gains the power to create countless duplicates of himself.
Wonder Woman 1984 official trailer released
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Trailer released for The Punisher
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Trailer released for The Defenders
Marvel and Netflix have released the official Marvel’s The Defenders trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h3m7B4v6Zc
Third trailer released for Captain Marvel (plus a behind the scenes look!)
Marvel have released a third trailer for Captain Marvel starring Brie Larson... https://youtu.be/_LR9bC3dBN4 They also released a behind the scenes Read more
Star Wars: The High Republic announcement trailer released
Later this year, Lucasfilm will launch an epic new era of Star Wars storytelling that will be explored through multiple Read more
Second trailer released for The Defenders
A second trailer has dropped for The Defenders: https://youtu.be/D_6J9BqgonU
Rachel McAdams to star in Doctor Strange
Since the film announcement much speculation has swirled around Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme but the crystal ball is growing clearer atleast according Read more
Preview: DEADPOOL VS GAMBIT #1 (OF 5)
Gambit-one of the smoothest, best-looking operators in the world of the X-Men. Deadpool-one of the most annoying, ugliest dirtbags in Read more
Preview- Wonder Woman 1984 #1
In these tales that tie in to the upcoming Warner Bros. movie Wonder Woman 1984, when a failed burglary attempt Read more
Preview- The Infinity Saga Collector’s Edition (Bluray)
Marvel's The Infinity Saga Collector's Edition (Bluray) is almost upon us...
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X Fantasy
X Lion Forge Comics
Mature (ages 16+)
Middle Grades (ages 9+)
Teen/Young Adults (ages 13+)
3 O'Clock Club Vol. 1: School's Out...of Control!
Publisher: Lion Forge Comics
Written by: Butch Hartman, Jordan B. Gorfinkel
Art By: Erez Zadok
Digital Release Date:
Rated Mature (ages 16+)
Every day at Mayflower High, right when the final bell rings, a portal opens, spewing supernatural insanity at hundreds of angsty high school kids. And every day, only one thing stops that insanity from devouring the entire school--the 3 O'Clock Club! It's sophomore Drew Jung's first day on the job, along with club veterans Zel, Wash, and Q, and things get a little out of hand when Drew's little sister June throws a wrench in the works. Luckily, club captain Arch is there to save the day! But what about when this all happens again tomorrow?The first-ever original comic book from Butch Hartman, creator of Nickelodeon's The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom, cowritten by Jordan Gorfinkel, with art from newcomer Erez Zadok. A great new action-packed, kid-friendly adventure!
→ more
Cloudia & Rex Vol. 1
Written by: Ulises Farinas
Art By: Erick Freitas
Rated Teen/Young Adults (ages 13+)
After losing their dad, 12-year-old Cloudia and her kid sister Rex are taken on a road trip by their mother, who is having a hard time dealing with the stress of sudden single-motherhood. When their car is blasted off the road by a strange bolt from the sky, the kids find themselves with strange abilities--Cloudia has super strength, and Rex is . . . a woolly rhino. It seems they've been possessed by two twin gods, Thanatos and Hypnos, who are fleeing the god-realm which is being overtaken by The High Waveform, a single consuming entity. Their mission is to use the girls to ferry the remaining fleeing gods to the World Tree, where a new realm of gods can be reborn.It's all a lot for a 12 year old to fully appreciate until the weight of the responsibility catches up with her.
Crystal Cadets Vol. 1
Written by: Anne Toole
Art By: Various
Rated Middle Grades (ages 9+)
Zoe is a shy girl, struggling to fit in at her new school, when she finds a mysterious gem left to her by her birth mother. All of a sudden, darkness-spewing dragons are chasing her down in the schoolyard, and a squad of crystal-wielding girls is there to save her! Welcome to the Crystal Cadets, Zoe, you're now the Diamond Cadets! Join Ruby Cadet Jasmine, Emerald Cadet Gwen, Garnet Cadet Olivia, Pearl Cadet Liz, and Sapphire Cadet Milena as a member of the toughest, smartest, and best-dressed team of evil-fighting girls in the world!
The Castoffs Vol. 1: Mage Against the Machine
Written by: MK Reed
Art By: Brian "Smitty" Smith
Twenty years ago, mages fought for their survival against the Surrogate, a hive-minded robot army that consumed everything in its path. Now, a trio of young apprentice mages must cross the ruined forests to deliver a magical cure to a nearby town. But the girls couldn't be more different. Charris, a hotheaded fighter with elemental powers, Trinh, a shy mage who can literally turn invisible, and Ursa, a healer with more power than she lets on. The three girls must learn to trust and rely on each other if they're going to save the village!
The Castoffs Vol. 2: Into the Wastelands
Charris, Trinh, and Ursa have managed to work together long enough to defeat the evil Priestess and her hive-mind robot army, the Surrogate. They journey back to the village of Clifton to reunite with their guild, but once there, they discover that the Priestess may not be defeated after all, and a much larger threat may be looming. A secret from Ursa's past threatens to break the fragile trust between the three mages, but they must overcome their differences and work together if they stand a chance of surviving the coming darkness.
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An Introduction to Climate Justice Activism in Toronto
As climate change continues to grow and impact our world, so does the response from activists across the world. Climate justice activists take many forms and employ many strategies to effect change in policy of or public opinion on greenhouse gas emissions. Through York University's Academic Innovation Fund dedicated to creating open source, publicly available course content, we've created 6 video segments interviewing grassroots climate justice activists from Toronto, a city with many climate justice organizations and efforts. Here we meet Christopher Lortie, an ecologist and professor at York University, and Malory Owen, an ecologist and climate justice activist who will be facilitating the future conversations in this series.
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13256162.v2
Wrapping Up on Climate Justice in Toronto
As climate change continues to grow and impact our world, so does the response from activists across the world. Climate justice activists take many forms and employ many strategies to effect change in policy of or public opinion on greenhouse gas emissions. Through York University's Academic Innovation Fund dedicated to creating open source, publicly available course content, we've created 6 video segments interviewing grassroots climate justice activists from Toronto, a city with many climate justice organizations and efforts. Here we chat with Christopher Lortie, an ecologist and professor at York University, and Malory Owen, an ecologist and climate justice activist who interviewed climate justice activists in the previous segments. We'll touch on similarities and differences between all the interviewees as well as how we can take what we've learned into our daily lives.
"Perspectives on Openness" : Honouring Indigenous Ways of Knowing
This is the recording of York University Libraries Open Access Week 2020 panel discussion entitled, "Perspectives on Openness: Honouring Indigenous Ways of Knowing", moderated by Stacy Allison-Cassin, in conversation with Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Deborah McGregor, and Sean Hillier, that took place online on October 20, 2020. The 2020 theme for Open Access Week is Open With Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion. The basis of the discussion for this panel is the question, "In an era of open scholarship and research, how do we as a research community navigate and balance openness while respecting Indigenous knowledge and cultural expression?". This panel discussion offers the opportunity to encourage broader participation in conversations and actions around emerging scholarly communication issues, by centering on Indigenous approaches to open scholarship and research. Contents Greetings and Land Acknowledgement [00:00:09] Introductory Remarks [00:01:54] Remarks from Joy Kirchner - Dean of Libraries [00:06:13] Moderator Introduction [00:11:20] Panel Introduction & Discussion [00:12:30] Questions and Answers [01:17:14] Closing Remarks [01:20:32]
Openness_Panel_2020_10_20
Art and Artists in Climate Justice
As climate change continues to grow and impact our world, so does the response from activists across the world. Climate justice activists take many forms and employ many strategies to effect change in policy of or public opinion on greenhouse gas emissions. Through York University's Academic Innovation Fund dedicated to creating open source, publicly available course content, we've created 6 video segments interviewing grassroots climate justice activists from Toronto, a city with many climate justice organizations and efforts. Here we interview Kenza Vandenbroeck (Instagram: @moon__beam) and Kendall Mar (Instagram: @kandykaym), two grassroots organizers whose art is an extension of their activism. We'll talk about the different ways art can influence our world, how to make effective art for social change, and what it's like to be an artist in a world of environmental challenges. You can watch the live-recorded Zoom video interviews or read the transcripts recorded in Summer 2020.
Youth Perspectives on Climate Justice
As climate change continues to grow and impact our world, so does the response from activists across the world. Climate justice activists take many forms and employ many strategies to effect change in policy of or public opinion on greenhouse gas emissions. Through York University's Academic Innovation Fund dedicated to creating open source, publicly available course content, we've created 6 video segments interviewing grassroots climate justice activists from Toronto, a city with many climate justice organizations and efforts. Here we interview youth organizers and students Allie Rougeot (Instagram: @alienor.r) and Savi Gellatly-Ladd (Instagram: @yellowpeach.es). We'll discuss what youth activism is, what it's like to be a young person in the age of climate change, and how to get involved in climate justice where you are. You can watch the live-recorded Zoom video interviews or read the transcripts recorded in Summer 2020.
Digital Activism and Climate Justice
As climate change continues to grow and impact our world, so does the response from activists across the world. Climate justice activists take many forms and employ many strategies to effect change in policy of or public opinion on greenhouse gas emissions. Through York University's Academic Innovation Fund dedicated to creating open source, publicly available course content, we've created 6 video segments interviewing grassroots climate justice activists from Toronto, a city with many climate justice organizations and efforts. Here we interview digital educators Lindura Sappong and Toni Sappong, two sisters who run the environmental justice Instagram blog @PlasticFreeTO. We'll discuss what it's like to be a digital activist, the efficacy of social media as a tool for social change, and the pitfalls of living virtually. You can watch the live-recorded video interviews or read the transcripts recorded in Summer 2020.
Strong Women : Power and Protest
Recording consists of a concert "Strong Women: Power and Protest" hosted by Rosalie Sorrels. Sorrels begins with a recitation of a poem by Colette "Freedom" (00:00:00-00:06:40). The host (Rosalie Sorrels) then sings a song (00:07:00-00:10:52). The next participant Sarah Ogen Gunning from Kentucky introduces herself and her perspective as a poor woman from Kentucky and then talks about her own protest songs against coal operators but then is encouraged by co-panelists to sing the old spiritual "Oh Death" (00:11:00-17:40). Next the host prompts Alanis Obomsawin to discuss Canadian oppression of Indigenous women. Instead Obomsawin sings an unnamed song (Bush Lady?) (00:17:56-00:22:30). Sweet Honey from the Rock sing an acapella song "I Won't Crumble with You If You Fall" next (00:22:31-00:26:30). Ola Belle Reed is then prompted to sing and introduces herself as a "free spirit" and sings a bluegrass standard "Only the Leading Part Will Do" (00:26:50-00:33:36).Next Sarah is prompted to sing another song, "The Broken Engagement." (00:35:11-00:38:42). There is then a gap in the recording. The remainder of the workshop's recording picks up mid-sentence where Alanis Obomsawin speaking about the wholistic education that Indigenous peoples across the country learn from the land and the role of language in ascribing value, gender, and social roles (00:39:22-00:43:24). Sweet Honey from the Rock immediately start singing "Joanne Little" (00:43:25-00:47:33). All the participants of the workshop sing "A Woman" (00:47:40-00:50:15). Next Sorrels(?) sings a song about an alley cat (00:50:30-00:56:20). Next Ola Belle Reed speaks in response to Obomwasin's story about leaving home and shares her experience leaving her mountain home and then sings a love song. Rosalie Sorrels then ends the workshop abruptly.
1/4" reel audio tape
Mariposa Folk Foundation fonds (F0511)
2007-009 / 1975 reels 17 and 18
Arctic : Resolute Bay [not used]
Image of two unidentified women sewing kamik (boots).
10 June [1958]
yul:98927
Image of an unidentified boy in a fur-trimmed coat, holding a dog.
Image of an unidentified Inuit woman and a baby wrapped in a blanket around her back.
Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Justice
As climate change continues to grow and impact our world, so does the response from activists across the world. Climate justice activists take many forms and employ many strategies to effect change in policy of or public opinion on greenhouse gas emissions. Through York University's Academic Innovation Fund dedicated to creating open source, publicly available course content, we've created 6 video segments interviewing grassroots climate justice activists from Toronto, a city with many climate justice organizations and efforts. Here we interview land defenders and organizers Cricket Guest (Instagram: @cricket.guest) and Sam Wong (Instagram: @luvthemutt). We'll discuss the importance of recognizing colonial violence, traditional knowledge, land stewardship, and Indigenous leadership for effective climate justice and action. You can watch the live-recorded Zoom video interviews or read the transcripts recorded in Summer 2020.
Amesthgot - Father's Day 2005, Building Cabin Aug 2005
Item consists of a Anishinaabe family's home movie. Donor(s) and project contributed description follows: "In 2001 in Toronto, Ontario at the SkyDome for an annual Pow wow. It was a huge event that everyone in Toronto looked forward to. At the time Rebeka was working for Native Women in the Arts and Dave comes by to visit Rebeka and they go and walk around the pow wow and visit friends. The second part of the clip is at an event, is a book launch for ‘Nation to Nation: Aboriginal Sovereignty and the Future of Canada’ (2001), a compilation of academic writings about Indigenous sovereignty. A friend of Rebeka’s was one of the publishers, and at the time Rebeka was staying with her, and gifted her friend with a poem for letting her stay at her house. She loved the poem so much she made it the front cover of the book. Rebeka is seen in the clip speaking to the value of the book, at the time there weren’t a lot of contemporary books about nation to nation."
Home Made Visible collection (F0723)
2020-071/001(01)
Image of front and back of negative envelope, and one contact sheet. Assignment: Arctic Trip.
Image of front and back of negative envelope, and one contact sheet. Assignment: Arctic Series.
Image of two men curling on a makeshift rink.
Burke family videos : Christmas '92 : Singing
A video clip recording representing a portion of the VHS cassette from 1992 consisting of a brother cooking breakfast on Christmas and a sister filming a tour of the house. Project and donor(s) contributed description follows: "It’s Christmas, 1992, and within the short span of this clip the presence of almost Leah Burke’s whole family is felt. From her dad offscreen singing along to gospel (Mahalia Jackson’s ‘Go Tell It On the Mountain), to her brother, the then sullen teenager, seen cooking pancakes for family breakfast, to finally Leah, who weaves through the house filming. She reveals herself as the documentarian in a mirror reflection waving ‘Hi’. In present day, Leah recalls, ‘This is a typical Burke house family moment’."
Burke family videos : Christmas '92 : Sunrise
A video clip recording representing a portion of a VHS cassette from Christmas Day in 1992 featuring the narration of a sunrise and featuring panning shots of a snowy street and building in Peterborough. Project and donor(s) contributed description follows: "'This is Friday, Dec 25th, 1992,' Leah’s dad, Sam, begins the voice-over in this clip made in the Burke’s family home in Peterborough, ON. Her father describes the beautiful sunrise that clear Christmas morning. It contrasts the weather from just a week prior when there was a record breaking 70 cm of snow, which was the worst snowfall in the province in 90 years. This filming style and voice-over in the Burke’s home movies was characteristic of her father, Leah says, 'He wouldn’t wait for anybody, he would just start filming.'"
Burke family videos : England '1990
A video clip recording representing a portion of the VHS cassette from 1990 featuring two women and a girl dancing; panning shots of the garden, street, and views of the city; and the family chatting around a table in the backyard with music playing in the background. Project and donor(s) contributed description follows: "'The year is 1990, and the Burke Family is on vacation in Bristol, England. This is filmed where Leah’s father, Sam grew up. All of Leah’s aunts and uncles had houses in the same neighbourhood, and this is a family reunion of sorts. Here, Leah, age eight or nine, dances to ska and lovers rock with her mother, Rita and Great Aunt Sweeney, while her dad is seen off in the background, and her older brother, Jason, films. Her dad has roots in Jamaica and her mother has roots in Guyana. At different points in their lives both immigrated to England, and later met each other there. Her parents then set off to Canada during the Pierre Trudeau years in 1972 to raise a family. The Burkes now call many places home.'"
Official plan of the Metropolitan Toronto planning area : existing land use, 1963 : plate 1
A land use map of Toronto, Ontario in 1963, from the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board. Shows existing lands for residential, commercial, industrial and transportation use.
G/3524/T6 G43/60/1963
Metropolitan Toronto [road map, 1963] [front]
A road map of Metropolitan Toronto from 1963 (front side). Includes index to points of interest.
3524/T61 P2/37/1963A FRONT
Metropolitan Toronto [road map, 1963] [back]
A road map of Metropolitan Toronto from 1963 (back side). Includes street index and an inset of Toronto downtown.
3524/T61 P2/37/1963A BACK
Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa [front]
A road map of Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa from 1963 (front side). Includes map of Metropolitan Toronto and index to points of interest.
3524/T61 P2/37/1963B FRONT
London traffic study - 1963 : origin - destination zone plan
Map of London, Ontario with demarcated zones and associated numbers. An index or explanation of the zones or numbers is not included.
G/3524/L6 P21/25/1963
Province of Québec [county boundaries]
A bilingual map of the province of Québec as of 1963. Counties are outlined and filled in with multiple colours. A legend in the bottom right of the map provides symbols and marks for county boundaries, railway lines, coastal service and ferries, and airports divided by the size of aircraft they accommodate and if they are serviced by commercial carriers. Major cities and bodies of water are named throughout. A small-scale inset map in the upper left corner shows Québec situated within North America.
3481/F8/3300/1963
National Topographic Series (scale 1:125,000) : Fort Coulonge, Quebec-Ontario [sheet 31F/NE]
A topographic map of Fort-Coulonge, Quebec-Ontario, sheet 31F/NE, at a scale of 1:125,000. Relief is shown by contours and pictorially. It also shows roads, highways, railways, boundaries, main buildings, and waterways.
G/3400/125/31F/NE
National Topographic Series (scale 1:125,000) : Fort-Coulonge, Quebec-Ontario [sheet 31F/NE]
A topographic map of Fort-Coulonge, Quebec-Ontario, sheet 31F/NE, at a scale of 1:125,000. Relief is shown by contours and by spot heights. It also shows roads, highways, railways, boundaries, main buildings, and waterways.
A topographic map of Fort-Coulonge, Quebec-Ontario, sheet 31F/NE, at a scale of 1:125,000. Relief is shown by contours and by shading. It also shows roads, highways, railways, boundaries, main buildings, and waterways.
National Topographic Series (scale 1:125,000) : Bancroft, Ontario [sheet 31F/SW]
A topographic map of Bancroft, Ontario, sheet 31F/SW, at a scale of 1:125,000. Relief is shown by contours and spot heights. It also shows roads, highways, railways, boundaries, main buildings, and waterways.
G/3400/125/31F/SW
Zoning map of the Town of Leamington
Zoning map of Leamington, Ontario, showing agricultural, residential, tourist, commercial, industrial, naturalized, and open spaces.
G/3524/L4 G44/5/1964
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DIPLOMAT MEMO
[SPOTLIGHT] State Minister for Foreign Affairs participates in the 21st Extraordinary Session of the AU Executiv [...]
[TOP STORY] Somali Foreign Minister consults with the country’s ambassador to Kenya
[DIPLOMAT MEMO] Deputy Foreign Minister Mohamud Siraji reformulates the organizational structure of the Foreign Mini [...]
[DIPLOMAT MEMO] Statement by the Federal Republic of Somalia on Taiwan’s violation of the territorial integrity of [...]
[Uncategorized] Hormuud oo imtixaanaysa sanadkii labaad arday ay la doonayso deeq waxbarasho
[DIPLOMAT MEMO] Prime Minister of Djibouti decorates Somali Ambassador with the highest insignia of the Republic
[TOP STORY] Somalia evacuated 1,374 citizens since the flights were suspended due to the outbreak of the Coronav [...]
[TOP STORY] Somalia evacuated 114 of its citizens stranded in Kenya amid restrictions on air traffic in most cou [...]
[SPOTLIGHT] Somalia receives the second shipment of medical aid from the Chinese government to combat the Corona [...]
[Uncategorized] Hormuud foundation iyo Salaam Bank oo deeq gargaar ah gaarsiiyay Haween danyar ah oo kunool gobolka [...]
Joe Hart signs new contract to extend his stay with Manchester City
By Tajuddin
Manchester ( Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has signed a new contract with the club to keep him at the Etihad until the end of the 2018/19 season. The deal sees 27-year-old Hart become the sixth City player to agree a new contract with the club in 2014, alongside ...
Alastair Cook removed as England one-day captain and replaced by Eoin Morgan
London ( Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Alastair Cook has been removed as England’s one-day captain, with batsman Eoin Morgan taking his place as skipper in the side. The decision comes following a selectors’ meeting on Friday, with Cook insisting that he would not stand down despite his...
Jake Peavy agrees to $24 million deal with Giants, source says
San Francisco ( AP + DIPLOMAT.SO) – A person familiar with the negotiations says pitcher Jake Peavy has agreed to a $24 million, two-year contract to stay with the World Series champion San Francisco Giants. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press on Friday because th...
Bundesliga : Bayern Munich 2-1 Mainz 05 , Arjen Robben scored
Munich ( Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Arjen Robben scored a late winner as Bayern Munich beat Mainz 2-1 to break its own Bundesliga points record heading into the winter break. Pep Guardiola’s side has dominated the German top flight this season and passed the previous best of 44 points by t...
Abdi Qeybdid candidate for the presidency of Central State,Somalia
Galkayo,the Capital of Mudug Province ( DIPLOMAT.SO) – The Leader of Galmudug Administration in Southern Mudug Province Major-General Abdi Hassan Awale ” Qeybdid” has told to the media that he had important projects for the development of his province such as reconstruction of Presi...
President Barack Obama vows U.S. response to North Korea cyberattack on Sony
Washington ( New York Times + DIPLOMAT.SO) — U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday said that the United States “will respond proportionally” against North Korea for its cyberattacks on Sony Pictures, and criticized the studio for giving in to intimidation and pulling the satirical movie that provoked...
Tony Blair : I did not have any relationship with Wendi Deng
London ( Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Tony Blair has said he will never discuss the nature of his relationship with Wendi Deng, the ex-wife of Rupert Murdoch. The former Prime Minister is said to have reacted angrily when asked about the issue during a recent interview with The Economist, banging ...
People Magazine names Kate Upton world’s sexiest woman
New York ( Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Kate Upton was named People magazine’s “Sexiest Woman Alive.” No … she’s not. No shocker here. But they seem to think so, so we’ll go with it. The 22-year-old model/actress accepted the honor Thursday night at the People M...
Sienna Miller : Keira Knightley will be ‘amazing’ mother
New York (UPI + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Sienna Miller thinks Keira Knightley will be a great mother. The 32-year-old actress said as much of the 29-year-old star to Page Six at the premiere of her new film, American Sniper. Knightley and husband James Righton married in May 2013, and revealed they are e...
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta signs controversial anti-terror bill , Four killed in tribal war between Somali community and Maasai over the ownershi ...
Nairobi ( Agencies + DIPLOMAT.SO) – Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday signed into law a controversial anti-terror bill that sparked brawls in parliament and charges that it violated basic freedoms. Kenyatta said he was satisfied that the amendments passed by the National Assembly on Thu...
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What the world was like when Kate Bush last toured
chriscummins / Fri 21 March
The internet went into meltdown this morning as Kate Bush announced her first live shows since 1979. As you can imagine a lot has changed since then, so we thought we’d take a look back at the much simpler days of Kate’s last tour.
Charles and Diana were merely courting
Unleaded petrol hadn’t been introduced yet
There were only three TV channels
Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female prime minister
Art Garfunkel was No. 1 in the UK with ‘Bright Eyes’
The Jubilee line had just been opened
The internet didn’t exist!
Kylie was a 13-year-old living in Australia
The Channel Tunnel hadn’t even been conceived
Nobody had an iPhone!
John Lennon was still alive
Kate Bush will play a series of 15 UK shows at London’s Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith starting on 26 August, 2014. For more details and tickets head over here.
Immerse yourself in Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love
Ben Tipple
/ 23rd March 2017
Home » Music » What the world was like when Kate Bush last toured
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discoveringdad
Electric Vehicle World
Home » Auto
Here’s what happens when an electric car catches fire
Author siteadmin Reading 4 min Views 28 Published by September 2, 2020
Performance, CO2 emissions and more broadly, pollution levels … Electric cars and thermal cars are constantly compared. This time, researchers wondered what would happen if an electric car caught fire. Would it be more dangerous than in the case of a thermal car? The answer in video.
You will also be interested
[EN VIDÉO] Armadillo-T, the folding electric car To reduce the problem of parking in big cities, Korean engineers have imagined a new folding car inspired by the armadillo: Armadillo-T. In addition, it is not polluting … since it is 100% electric. © Kaist
They are more and more numerous on the roads of France and the world. With the diversification of the offer and the fall in prices, electric cars are gradually gaining a place on the market. This raises more and more questions about their performance or the pollution they generate. But also with regard to the risks they could represent in the event of a fire, for example. And in particular in a closed place, a road tunnel or an underground car park.
To find out more clearly, researchers from the Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research (Empa – Switzerland) have deliberately set battery modules for electric cars on fire in a test gallery. More precisely, they simulated – at 1 / 8th scale – fires on a small electric car with a fully charged 32 kWh battery.
Tests in different conditions
First in conditions reminiscent of those of a closed car park, without mechanical ventilation. Then in those that may exist when the car park is equipped with a sprinkler system. Finally, under conditions similar to those of a fire occurring in a ventilated tunnel.
Empa researchers set out to analyze the distribution of soot on surfaces and on the protective suits worn by firefighters. They also studied the toxicity of residues on surfaces and in the water and possible corrosion-related damage, several months later.
This video shows the tests carried out on burning electric car batteries by researchers at the Federal Laboratory for Materials Testing and Research (Empa – Switzerland) in the test gallery in Hagerbach (Switzerland): flames of a meter long and huge amounts of thick black soot. © Empa
No more danger than with a thermal car
Differences were observed according to the scenarios. In the presence of a sprinkler system, for example, walls and ceilings were less affected by soot and smoke which concentrated on the floors. But more generally, from a thermal point of view, an electric car on fire does not represent more danger than a classic car also on fire. Even hydrofluoric acid – a particularly corrosive and toxic acid -, often considered a particular danger of burning batteries, remained in concentrations below the established critical values. And current ventilation systems have proven to be quite suitable for evacuating the fumes generated by an electric battery fire.
A sensitive point is however underlined by the researchers. The extinguishing and cooling water – which is used during firefighting, but also for storing the burnt battery – emerges highly contaminated. The chemical load of the extinguishing water even exceeds the Swiss limit values for industrial wastewater by a factor of 70. And the researchers even recorded a factor of 100 for the cooling water. It is therefore important that this water undergoes treatment before flowing into the network.
As for the restoration of the premises after the fire – we should even speak of decontamination – this should be carried out by fire cleaning professionals, equipped with suitable coveralls. “The soot emitted during such an accident contains large amounts of cobalt oxide, nickel oxide and manganese oxide. These heavy metals cause serious allergic reactions on unprotected skin, “said Lars Derek Mellert, a tunnel safety expert, in a press release from Empa.
Interested in what you just read?
Source: www.futura-sciences.com
This Russian electric micro-city car dreams of a self-driving Tesla
The leading truck manufacturer in Russia, Kamaz PTC
Toyota: an electric car with a range of 500 km that recharges in 10 minutes for 2021?
Illustrative photo: Concept Toyota FT-EV III (Auto
Electric car: if you don’t go as far as the charger, the charger (Mob-Energy) comes to you!
The availability of chargers can be a barrier to the
Aptera, the solar electric car that “never” charges, is on sale
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This report points to hidden emissions from electric cars
Released in early December, a new report from the OECD
Will the QuantumScape battery revolutionize the electric car?
The battery cell developed by QuantumScape.
what gift to give to a fan of electric cars?
Books, posters, miniatures, equipment, piloting courses, etc.
the electric compact that dreamed of being a SUV
Taking advantage of its renewal, the Citroën C4 goes
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*AUTOS *FARMS-ACREAGES *HEALTH-FITNESS *RENOVATIONS *DIRECTORY *EVENTS *NPHL *HOME
MORE: Grande Prairie NEWS - 2001 To Present VIEW
GRANDE PRAIRIE NEWS - 2013
January 2013: It is now official that GP Auto Group has purchased People's Automotive (Grande Prairie) from Kevin and Darlene Bathgate. Kevin started with People's Auto in 1980 as a mechanic, became a partner in 1995 and was full owner of the company since 2001.
January 2013: There were 92 tickets handed out in Grande Prairie in 2012, for parking in Handicapped Parking Zones. The year before there were only 26 tickets handed out. The current fine is $150 but that will be going up soon to $250.
January 2013: County of Grande Prairie SPORTSPLEX opens just west of the County Administrative Building, 7407-108 Street, Clairmont. Includes two rinks, field-house, track, lobby, fitness area, lounge, cafe and outdoor fields. Some parts are still under construction. View Photos: Front Entrance, Reception, Arena-2, Players Box, Access to upper level, Soccer Field house.
January 2013: The new sign of RONA now replaces the Totem sign to indicate the store has now officially changed its name in Grande Prairie.
Tile Ideal is now open in a brand new building along the Highway Bypass Grande Prairie, just behind Mr. Mikes.
February 2013: A new A&W opened (Wed Feb 20) north of Grande Prairie across the highway from the County of Grande Prairie Offices and right next to the Redwood Inn & Suites. The Restaurant 's drive-thru will be open 24 hours. The restaurant has a Retro look to it. (enlarge picture)
February 2013: In only 4 hours (Feb 13) Police in Grande Prairie handed out 157 tickets in 2 check-stops. 51 of those were for distracted driving, 83 for not wearing a seat belt, 23 for speeding - no insurance - unregistered - stop sign violation.
February 2013: Peter Teichroeb (Happy Trails RV) has purchased the radio station 96.3 Shine FM in Grande Prairie. The radio station will now be an independent and the only changes that will be made is to the Shine FM name February 15th became 96.3 Reach FM.
February 2013: White Orchid Bridal Boutique as opened downtown Grande Prairie. The new Bridal Store is owned by Nadine Stewart.
February 2013: Grande Prairie Dream Home. This year the Dream Home was located in the Carriage Lane Estates. This subdivision is located east along 100 Avenue on the outskirts of the City. More information - prizes: CLICK HERE.
March 2013: Sound Waves, music store in Grande Prairie (108 Ave, 101 St) closes after 24 years at the end of the month. Vic Mark was the owner.
March 2013:The Spirit River Rangers are now the 2012-2013 NPHL Champions. (North Peace Hockey League) They defeated the Lakeland Eagles in 4 straight games. See the NPHL highlights of the final game CLICK HERE
March 2013: The Quality Hotel in Grande Prairie was purchased by a group of local businessmen and now it has officially changed its name to the Paradise Inn & Conference Centre. Located along 100 Avenue. There are plans on having some renovations. Years ago this hotel was known as the Golden Inn.
March 2013: The Daily Herald Tribune celebrated 100 years this year. A special get-together took place with staff and clients.
March 2013:The County Of Grande Prairie Farm Family of the Year 2013. The Everton Family of Hythe were honored at the Agri Show, Evergreen Park Grande Prairie. View VIDEO> (3:54min)
March 2013: The Honorable Verlyn Olson, Alberta's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Officially Opened the 2013 Agri Show featuring many displays, bull sale, including Big Jim of Big Country FM. Ag Classic Video VIDEO: View VIDEO> (2:30min)
March 2013: Byron Johnson passed away at the age of 75 years. He was the man behind BJ's Q Club which closed earlier this year after 20 years of operation.
May, 2013: Target has opened in Grande Prairie, one of 10 stores in Alberta. There will be 9 stores in BC and and it is expected that a total of 125 to 135 new locations across Canada. (enlarge picture)
April 2013: Walter Paszkowski is retiring. He was the Economic Development Officer with the County of Grande Prairie for many years. He served as MLA from 1989-2001 and before that was Mayor of Sexsmith for 6 years.
April 2013: Recent survey shows Grande Prairie tops the list in throwing away the most recyclable beverage containers in Alberta (study of 9 landfills) 3 times more than Calgary or Lethbridge.
April 2013: Swan Festival at Saskatoon Lake Provincial Park west of Grande Prairie. Hundreds of people of all ages took part in the 15th Annual Swan Festival. Many exhibits were on hand while bus tours took groups to see swans in the surrounding lakes and fields . View VIDEO> (4:43min)
April 2013: Sears in Grande Prairie has undergone some major renovations and it won't be that long before Target will open in the old Zellers location.
April 2013: Evergreen Park Campground has changed its name and is now officially known as McGovern's RV Campground.
May 2013: The Muskoseepi Park Pavilion is to get a face lift costing more than $700,000. The park is located in the centre of the City of Grande Prairie along 102 Street.
May 2013: Housing Starts in Grande Prairie are up with 59 starts during the month of April. So far this year, since January, there have been a total of 160 starts compared to only 87 for last year.
June, 2013: Phillip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum UPDATE. Many people took part in the Ground Breaking Event Ceremony at Wembley June 21, 2013. Brian Brake, executive Director of the Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Initiative, was on hand along with many dignitaries. Construction could take up to 14 months before the museum is completed. View VIDEO> (7:33min)
June, 2013:The Grande Prairie Dream Home draw was made June 5, 2013 and the winner was Carmen and Steven Brown. The 125 thousand dollar 50-50 Jackpot was won by Steve and Kathleen Kushneryk of Valleyview.
June, 2013: Rentco Equipment will begin construction of their new building very soon to be located along 116 Street, Grande Prairie, just south of Future Shop.
July, 2013: The Grande Prairie Canada Day Parade. One of the most attended Canada Day Parades in many years saw thousands line the streets to see the Parade. DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com captured the entire parade and you can view it right here. View VIDEO> (25.42min)<
July, 2013: Phase One of the Westgate Centre is to open in September on the west side of Grande Prairie. Some of the first stores will include Bed, Bath & Beyond, Home Sense, Pier 1 Imports and Carters Osh Kosh.
August, 2013: Some of the new stores are now open in the Westgate Centre. Pier 1 Imports, Bulk Barn, OSH Kos, and Home Sense are now open with more opening soon. The Source will be opening a location here as well.
August, 2013: Grand Banks is a new subdivision being developed just south of St Joseph Catholic High School, and the Coca Cola Centre. Roads and services are being put in.
September, 2013: Long time resident Ernie Radbourne has passed away. He started Ernies Sports Experts in 1968 and served 2 terms on the Grande Prairie City Council.
September, 2013: New traffic lights will be installed in 2014 at the intersection to the Grande Prairie Airport along Highway 43.
September, 2013: September 12th temperatures reached 31.9 degrees in Grande Prairie which broke a record that stood for almost 70 years.
September, 2013: Long & McQuade Musical Instruments has moved to their new location at 10013-97 Avenue Grande Prairie. The building is the former BJ's Cue Club.
September, 2013: Louisiana Pacific has purchased all four of Ainsworth's Lumber manufacturing facilities, located in Grande Prairie, High Level, 100 Mile House, BC, and Barwick Ontario. Louisiana Pacific is a leading United States wood products giant.
September, 2013: Travellers in the area will be pleased to know the Tourist Information and Rest Stop located 1.6km south of Valleyview, will be remaining open year round. This is the first year they will be doing that as they normally close in September.
September, 2013: The TEC Centre at Evergreen Park has been renamed the ENTREC CENTRE as ENTREC Corporation acquired the naming rights for at least 5 years.
September, 2013: ATCO Electric has opened in a new building 9602-123 Street, far west side of Grande Prairie.
September, 2013: Duke's and Mingles on Main (99 St and 101 Ave) will close as the building will be torn down to make way for the SAWMILL Restaurant to open in the spring.
September, 2013: Stelious Vasileiou has returned to Acropolis with business partner Scott Sargent after both of them had a short retirement. Scott is the same person who was part of Sean Sargent Toyota.
October 21, 2013: Bill Given has been re-elected Mayor of Grande Prairie for the next 4 years and 8 Counselors elected are Lorne Radbourne, Chris Theissen, Helen Rice, Kevin O'Toole, Dwight Logan, Jackie Clayton, Kevin McLean and Rory Tarant. Defeated are John Croken and Justin Munroe.
November, 2013: Long term local businessman Orm Shultz passes away at the age of 81 years. He owned Warringtons Jewelery and Jonathan's Gold & Diamonds in the Prairie Mall, Grande Prairie. (one of the few non-franchise businesses in the City) At one time Mr Shultz was the sales manager of the Daily Herald Tribune.
November, 2013: Sterling Upholstery has moved to a new location, 11302-95 Avenue with ribbon cutting November 20th.
November, 2013: Countryside Motorsports is constructing a new building on the west side of Grande Prairie, just south of Peavey Mart/Princess Auto along 120 Street.
November, 2013: Another Dollarama has opened along 100 Street Grande Prairie, just west of Home Hardware near 108 Avenue.
December 1, 2013: Grande Prairie Santa Parade. It was a stormy Sunday afternoon as many people of all ages gathered downtown Grande Prairie for the Santa Parade. DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com has again captured this event on video. View VIDEO> (9:26min)
December, 2013: Jack Wong, longtime resident of Grande Prairie passed away at the age of 86 years. He along with 3 partners opened the Golden Star Restaurant in 1971 and later the Golden Inn in 1981. (now known as the Paradise Inn and Conference Centre)
December, 2013: The Festival of Trees in Grande Prairie raised close to $350,000 for the QEII Foundation. The event takes place each year at Evergreen Park.
MORE VIDEOS have been added to DiscoverThePeaceCountry.com. Includes features on the Hamlet of Brownvale, Figure 8 Lake, Fort Vermillion, Notikewin Provincial Park, La Crete Ferry, and the Shaftesbury Ferry. Also 20 NEW VIDEOS have been added featuring the Downtowns of the many towns: Grimshaw, Berwyn, Fairview, Rycroft, Wanham, Eaglesham, Donnelly, McLennan, Falher, Girouxville, Peace River, Nampa, High Level, La Crete, Manning, Spirit River, Woking, High Prairie, Valleyview, Grande Prairie.
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Hazy Session IPAs on the Rise
Brewers are finding success with low-ABV versions of a typically higher-proof style
Joshua M. Bernstein
Left: Redhook’s Atomic Robot (photo courtesy of Redhook). Center: Deschutes’s WOWZA! (photo courtesy of Deschutes). Right: Five Boroughs Brewing’s Juicy Tiny IPA (photo courtesy of Five Boroughs Brewing).
Five Boroughs Brewing faced a seasonal conundrum. Toward the end of Summer 2018, the brewery, based in Brooklyn, New York, needed a beer to bridge warm days and fall’s coming cool. Maybe a sustaining saison? A midstrength stout? Another double IPA?
Staffers batted about ideas until a sales guy suggested revisiting Tiny. It was one of Five Boroughs’s launch beers, offering a hazy IPA’s fruit-charged fragrances, cloudy hue, and smooth body—but minus the knee-buckling alcohol. “We decided to go after a hazy session IPA with a ton of flavor but 4 percent ABV,” says Kevin O’Donnell, the cofounder and chief operating officer of Five Boroughs, who notes that many hazy IPAs regularly reach 7 percent or 8 percent ABV.
Tiny Juicy, as the beer was rechristened, blew through kegs and cans, leading Five Boroughs to slot the beer in its 2019 year-round lineup. Sales for draft and, in particular, six-packs of 12-ounce cans (retailing for around $11) have ridden a fast-rising elevator to the top of the brewery’s sales charts.
“We’ve done more than 2,000 barrels in the last 12 months,” O’Donnell says, adding that some summer seasonal accounts were ordering 100 cases weekly. That’s for a single location. “Sometimes,” he says, “we can’t make enough of it.”
The low-alcohol IPA is a poster child for contemporary beer’s boom-bust cycle. Four years ago, beer and grocery stores were awash with so-called session IPAs, which promised to deliver a standard IPA’s flavor profile with a more moderate ABV of around 4 percent or 5 percent. With the major exception of Founders All Day IPA, most market entries flopped, destined for the historical drain.
“It was really hard to get the body right,” says Nick Crandall, the head brewer of Redhook Brewery, in Seattle. Many versions were based on lean, piney, and resinous West Coast IPAs and ended up too dry, thin, and bitter, like “diet IPA,” Crandall says. “They were just hop water.”
Now breweries are rebooting session IPAs and hop-charged pale ales in the model of hazy IPAs, increasingly engineered for low calorie counts. They’re using wheat and oats to boost body and mouthfeel, as well as to lend opaque looks, while hops are added at the end of brewing for maximum aroma and flavor and minimum bitterness. Hazy session IPAs mimic the stronger stuff in everything but alcohol, creating opportunities for sipping—and selling—more beer.
Left: Veronica Vega (photo courtesy of Deschutes). Right: Nick Crandall (photo courtesy of Redhook Brewery).
The huge success of hazy IPAs can be credited to both elimination and addition. Breweries ditched divisive bitterness, using modern hops to craft alluring profiles of ripe papayas, just-squeezed oranges, and juicy mangoes. But just as with a morning orange juice, the fruitiness is accompanied by sweetness—sometimes too much.
“There are very good things about hazies, like the juiciness and flavor, but many are very heavy and sweet,” says Veronica Vega, the brewmaster of new product development at Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon.
Elevated alcohol comes with extra calories and carbs, twin focal points for wellness-focused consumers. Given such concerns, this fall Deschutes released Wowza!, a 100-calorie hazy pale ale with four carbs per 12-ounce serving, plus 4 percent ABV.
“It has all the aspects people love in a hazy, hoppy beer,” Vega says of the citrusy ale, which is made with Belgian chicory root. In January, the draft-only beer will enter widespread distribution in cans (retailing at $10 per six-pack). The label copy calls it a lo-cal hazy, and the carb count is highlighted to tempt health-conscious drinkers who don’t want to sacrifice their waistlines for good taste. Says Vega, “We’re making the flavors that we want in an alcohol level that is appealing.”
Increasingly, brewers’ personal desires for big flavors and lower booze are powering the surge of hazy, low-alcohol ales. “Most of my recipes,” says Redhook’s Crandall, “start out with something I want to drink.”
Crandall used flaked oats and both experimental and Australian hops to create Atomic Robot (selling at around $10 per six-pack), released in cans in September. “I saw it as another chance to attack that session category with new tools,” he says. “I feel like we’re landing somewhere where the balance is working in our favor.”
Left: Kevin O’Donnell. Right: Tiny Juicy. Photos courtesy of Five Boroughs Brewing.
Lower Alcohol, Larger Sales
The beer business is built on volume. It’s great to sell a single four-pack of a limited-release double IPA, but that’s not an everyday beer for the average consumer.
Hazy session IPAs provide an opportunity for brewers and retailers to boost sales. In an average week last fall, Resurgence Brewing Company, in Buffalo, New York, sold up to 100 cases of its crisply tropical Cosmic Truth Session IPA (retailing at $12 per six-pack). “That’s a crazy-high number for us,” says Jeff Ware, Resurgence’s owner and president.
Expect the market for hazy session IPAs to heat up as breweries seek to stake out this new niche. Last September, Oskar Blues Brewery, which brews at several locations including Longmont, Colorado, rolled out the One-y 100 Calorie Hazy IPA (around $11 per six-pack). In January, Stone Brewing, in San Diego, released the nationwide Neverending Haze, a 4 ABV IPA (around $12 per six-pack), while Firestone Walker Brewing Company, in Paso Robles, California, debuted the 96-calorie Flyjack, a 4 percent ABV hazy IPA.
In a sea of strong IPAs, with alcohol and haze reaching for the clouds, the session IPA 2.0 can provides consumers with an appealing option that leads to sale after sale. “We see that more people want the ability to have more than one beer, and Tiny Juicy fits that well,” says Five Boroughs’s O’Donnell. “Every bar needs to have a beer like that.”
Contributing editor Joshua M. Bernstein is a beer, spirits, food, and travel journalist, as well as an occasional tour guide, event producer, and industry consultant. He writes for the New York Times, Men’s Journal, New York magazine, Wine Enthusiast, and Imbibe, where he’s a contributing editor in charge of beer coverage. Bernstein is also the author of five books: Brewed Awakening, The Complete Beer Course, Complete IPA, Homebrew World, and Drink Better Beer.
Six Beer Industry Trends to Watch in 2021
Breweries were forced to adapt in 2020. Which pivots are poised to become permanent fixtures on the brewing landscape?
Our Top Beer Stories of 2020
This year’s most-read beer articles focused on breweries’ pandemic pivots and hard seltzer innovations
The Pandemic-Fueled Boom for Craft Lagers
Small brewers have shifted to beers with longer shelf lives and less expensive ingredients, which means more lagers and fewer IPAs
A Generation of Pandemic-Inspired Beer Labels
How breweries are highlighting social distancing and stay-at-home orders with creative packaging
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“The force will never betray you”… Kylo Ren and Ben Solo edit
I had this image in my head of an edit I wanted to do with both Kylo Ren and Ben Solo which started off as something like a “Who did you become?” post which I’ve done before with other characters. But then I looked at the image I had made a little longer and came up with the edit below. The concept stems from Kylo Ren being Ben Solo and Ben Solo is Kylo Ren. Even when Kylo Ren was at his worst, in his darkest hour (from The Force Awakens when he killed his father), to the moment he turned his back on Kylo Ren and became Ben Solo once more. The force was there, it was always there, flowing all around him, flowing between Kylo Ren and Ben Solo and within them. Even though they are one person, Adam Driver was so masterful at portraying them as two separate people and that’s how I came up with this edit. I wanted to show the force flowing between both of his persona’s, and just as he was two different people, darkness and light, I wanted to show this in the flow of the force, both red for darkness and blue for light.
And in the end, the force would never betray him as the force was always there both in his darkest moments and his most heroic.
Jan 5, 2020 JulieGMy Star Wars Gifs and Edits, Star Wars, Star Wars Art, Writinganimation, ben solo, blogging, kylo ren, photoshop, Star Wars, Star Wars Art
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US and World News
Get the latest interesting news
Growing coronavirus outbreaks lead some countries to reconsider tourism push
Posted on July 31, 2020 by Benjamin Burton
With international travel heavily restricted, progress in reviving tourism has been at best anemic and usually perilous.
Posted in Main | Leave a comment
From unemployed to overwhelmed, COVID-19 strains U.S. healthcare workers
The pandemic in the U.S. has also lead to record unemployment among an unlikely group: nurses and health care workers, Jackson Proskow says.
Coronavirus cases are rising again in some countries. What can Canada learn?
Experts have long warned that the green light to reopen can become a red light at any time. For places like Australia and Spain, that’s exactly what’s happening.
European Union hits Chinese, Russian hackers with first-ever cyberattack sanctions
The sanctions are the first ever imposed over cybercrime by the European economic bloc.
U.S. astronauts in SpaceX Dragon capsule to make first splashdown landing in decades
This will be SpaceX’s first splashdown with astronauts on board, ending a two-month test flight that began May 30 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center — the first launch of a crew from the U.S. in nearly a decade.
Florida teen charged in hack of high-profile Twitter accounts
The 17-year-old boy was arrested earlier Friday in Tampa, where the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office will prosecute the case. He faces 30 felony charges, according to a news release.
Mysterious mass elephant deaths in Botswana possibly linked to toxin
Wildlife officials conducted preliminary tests to help explain why hundreds of elephants have died in the African country.
Witnesses to prove Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou lied, supporting her extradition: docs
The documents released Friday are the government’s arguments to be used during a hearing next April.
White House preparing to force Chinese company to sell TikTok: sources
The move would be the culmination of U.S. national security concerns over the safety of the personal data that TikTok handles.
U.S. renews criticism against human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region
The State and Treasury departments announced new sanctions as the White House denounced authorities in Hong Kong for postponing local government elections ostensibly because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Journal of Alzheimer's Disease - Volume 7, issue 4
In situ characterization and mapping of iron compounds in Alzheimer's disease tissue
Authors: Collingwood, J.F. | Mikhaylova, A. | Davidson, M. | Batich, C. | Streit, W.J. | Terry, J. | Dobson, J.
Abstract: There is a well-established link between iron overload in the brain and pathology associated with neurodegeneration in a variety of disorders such as Alzheimer's (AD), Parkinson's (PD) and Huntington's (HD) diseases [1]. This association was first discovered in AD by Goodman in 1953 [2], where, in addition to abnormally high concentrations of iron in autopsy brain tissue, iron has also been shown to accumulate at sites of brain pathology such as senile plaques [3]. However, since this discovery, progress in understanding the origin, role and nature of iron compounds associated with neurodegeneration has been slow. Here we report, for the …first time, the location and characterisation of iron compounds in human AD brain tissue sections. Iron fluorescence was mapped over a frontal-lobe tissue section from an Alzheimer's patient, and anomalous iron concentrations were identified using synchrotron X-ray absorption techniques at 5 μm spatial resolution. Concentrations of ferritin and magnetite, a magnetic iron oxide potentially indicating disrupted brain-iron metabolism, were evident. These results demonstrate a practical means of correlating iron compounds and disease pathology in-situ and have clear implications for disease pathogenesis and potential therapies. Show more
Keywords: iron, neurodegeneration, ferritin, magnetite, alzheimer's disease, x-ray
Citation: Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 267-272, 2005
Brain aluminum, magnesium and phosphorus contents of control and Alzheimer-diseased patients
Authors: Andrási, Erzsébet | Páli, Noémi | Molnár, Zsuzsa | Kösel, Siegfried
Abstract: A study was undertaken to determine Al, Mg and P concentrations in 5 different brain regions of 3 control and 3 Alzheimer-diseased patients. One of the aims of this work was to evaluate the performance of applied analytical techniques. The digested samples were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry for Al, Mg and P. The dried samples were measured by instrumental neutron activation analysis for Al and Mg. The determination of human brain Al levels is complicated by the interfering reaction of P. We have previously worked out an analytical method which can eliminate this interference. The accuracy …of the measured data was investigated by the analysis of biological standard reference materials. Our second goal was to study the possible elemental concentration changes in Alzheimer-diseased patients. Significantly higher Al and lower Mg and P values were found in some AD brain regions compared to the controls. Show more
Keywords: Alzheimer disease, aluminium, magnesium, phosphorus, brain regions
The use of memantine in dementia with Lewy bodies
Authors: Sabbagh, Marwan N. | Hake, Ann Marie | Ahmed, Sahir | Farlow, Martin R.
Abstract: Objective: To determine the effect of memantine in the treatment of Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). Background: While memantine has been used to successfully treat moderate-to-severe Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and some non AD dementias, no reports are available regarding the effect of the drug on DLB. Methods: We reviewed the charts of 11 subjects with DLB by McKeith Criteria that were prospectively evaluated and treated with memantine (with or without cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs)) for varying lengths of time. Results: 9 of 11 DLB subjects on memantine were also on ChEIs. Seven of eleven were …stable or improved with memantine while the remaining four worsened or responded adversely when exposed to the drug. No adverse effects on motor function were observed. Conclusions: Memantine can be used safely in patients with DLB, but its symptomatic effects may be variable. Show more
Keywords: dementia, Lewy bodies, memantine
No association between the cystatin C gene polymorphism and Alzheimer's disease: A case-control study in an Italian population
Authors: Monastero, Roberto | Camarda, Cecilia | Cefalù, Angelo B. | Caldarella, Rosalia | Camarda, Lawrence K.C. | Noto, Davide | Averna, Maurizio R. | Camarda, Rosolino
Abstract: Cystatin C is an amyloidogenic protein found together with beta-amyloid in cerebral arteriolar walls of both patients with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and conghopilic amyloid angiopathy. Several findings implicate cystatin C in the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. Recent genetic association studies proposed cystatin C gene (CST3) as a susceptibility factor for AD, although other reports did not replicate this finding. We conducted a case-control study including 192 probable AD cases and 192 age- and sex-matched controls to test the association between CST3 and AD. Possible interaction between CST3 and age at onset of AD or apolipoprotein E (APOE) was also examined. …No significant differences in CST3 genotype or allele frequencies between cases and controls was observed, while the risk of AD increased in subjects carrying the APOE ε4 allele (OR 3.5, 95% CI [2.1-5.9]). There was no interaction between CST3 with age or APOE. Our findings do not support a role of CST3 gene in Italian sporadic AD. Show more
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, cystatin C, apolipoprotein E, case-control study, polymorphism
Nanosphere-mediated delivery of vitamin E increases its efficacy against oxidative stress resulting from exposure to amyloid beta
Authors: Shea, Thomas B. | Ortiz, Daniela | Nicolosi, Robert J. | Kumar, Rajesh | Watterson, Arthur C.
Abstract: Oxidative stress is an early hallmark of affected neurons in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The antioxidant vitamin E provided limited neuroprotection in AD, which may have derived from its lipophilic nature and resultant inability to quench cytosolic reactive oxygen species (ROS), including those generated from antecedent membrane oxidative damage. We examined herein whether or not encapsulation into polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based nanospheres, which can enter the cytosol, improved the efficacy of vitamin E against amyloid-β(Aβ)-induced ROS. Unexcapsulated vitamin E prevented Aβ-induced ROS in cultured SH-SY-5Y human neuroblastoma cells only if present prior to, or applied simultaneously with, Aβ treatment. By contrast, encapsulated …vitamin E was equally effective if administered 1 hr after Aβ exposure. These findings suggest suggests that nanosphere-mediated delivery methods may be a useful adjunct for antioxidant therapy in AD. Show more
Keywords: Amyloid-beta, antioxidants, vitamin E, nanospheres, Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease amyloid-beta peptide modulates apolipoprotein E isoform specific receptor binding
Authors: Hone, E. | Martins, I.J. | Jeoung, M. | Ji, T.H. | Gandy, S.E. | Martins, R.N.
Abstract: The major protein component of the extracellular deposits in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a 4 kDa peptide termed amyloid-β (Aβ). This peptide is known to bind apolipoprotein E (apoE), a key mediator of lipoprotein transport, in an isoform specific manner. Whilst these isoform specific effects on apoE are well recognized, the functional significance of this interaction is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the influence of Aβ on apoE-mediated lipoprotein binding to cells using fluorescently tagged lipoprotein-like emulsions. Using this approach, we demonstrate that Aβ enhanced the normally poor binding of apoE2 lipoprotein-like particles to fibroblasts in culture, whilst markedly reducing …the binding of apoE3 and apoE4. This suggests that the action of apoE isoforms on cellular lipoprotein or cholesterol metabolism is differentially modulated by Aβ. This also suggests that Aβ may also compromise apoE function in the Alzheimer disease affected brain. Show more
Keywords: Amyloid-β, Alzheimer's disease, apolipoprotein E, periphery, cholesterol, lipoproteins
Posttranslational modification of lipoproteins – A fatal attraction in metabolic disease?
Authors: Bierhaus, A. | Nawroth, P.P.
Assessment of the emergence of Alzheimer's disease following coronary artery bypass graft surgery or percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty 1
Authors: Lee, Todd A. | Wolozin, Benjamin | Weiss, Kevin B. | Bednar, Martin M.
Abstract: Post-Operative Cognitive Decline (POCD) is a complication of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery and is consistent with reduced neuronal reserve. We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of Veterans Affairs (VA) patients undergoing CABG or PTCA between October 1, 1996 and September 30, 1997 to examine if CABG surgery is associated with the earlier emergence of cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The emergence of dementia following CABG surgery was compared to dementia in a cardiac population undergoing percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). Patients were followed from the date of their procedure until September 30, 2002, the diagnosis of …Alzheimer's disease or death. Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare the risk of AD development. Patients analyzed were ≥ 55 yrs old without baseline dementia. The results show that a total of 119 patients (CABG = 78; PTCA = 41) developed AD during the follow-up period. The adjusted risk of AD associated with CABG versus PTCA was 1.71 (95% CI, 1.02 to 2.87; p = 0.04). These results suggest that patients undergoing CABG surgery were at increased risk for the emergence of AD than those undergoing PTCA. These data support the hypothesis that CABG surgery is associated with a reduced neuronal reserve in an aging population. Show more
Keywords: Post-operative Cognitive Decline, dementia, neuronal reserve, surgery, epidemiology
Neurological soft signs are associated with APOE genotype, age and cognitive performance
Authors: Lautenschlager, N.T. | Wu, Jing-Shan | Laws, S.M. | Almeida, O.P. | Clarnette, R.M. | Joesbury, K. | Wagenpfeil, S. | Martins, G. | Paton, A. | Gandy, S.E. | Förstl, H. | Martins, R.N.
Abstract: Neurodegeneration is associated with increased frequency of neurological soft signs (NSS). We designed the present study to investigate the association between NSS and subjective memory complaints, cognitive function and apolipoprotein E genotype in a community-dwelling sample of volunteers participating in an ongoing longitudinal program investigating predictors of cognitive decline. NSS were found to be associated with apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 genotype (p = 0.015), age (p = 0.012) and poor cognitive performance, as assessed by the Mini Mental State Examination (p = 0.053). There was no significant difference between subjects with and without memory complaints in relation to the frequency …of NSS (p = 0.130). The association with age and the APOE ε4 genotype suggests that the systematic investigation of NSS may contribute to identify subjects at risk of clinically significant cognitive decline in later life. Show more
Keywords: Apolipoprotein E, neurological soft signs, memory impairment, apoE promoter polymorphisms, cognitive decline
Genes involved in Alzheimer's disease, a survey of possible candidates
Authors: Serretti, Alessandro | Artioli, Paola | Quartesan, Roberto | De Ronchi, Diana
Abstract: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the major cause of dementia in the elderly. It is characterized by a progressive deterioration in memory and cognitive functions, but also behavioral symptoms are common. Many different genes are possibly involved in Alzheimer's Disease: four genetic factors were confirmed in different studies, while at least 50 additional genes were tested with contrasting results. A major aim both for clinician and researchers would be the identification of the genes involved in AD, to better understand the biological mechanism of this disease and consequently to develop appropriate treatments. The aim of this review is to explore genetics …of AD. Show more
Keywords: Alzheimer disease, review, pharmacogenetics, genetics
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UserWise Academy - Join the newest community for game makers
Why Some Companies Are Able to Launch Multiple Successful Games
Written by Steve P. Young on January 12, 2021, LinkedIn
Javier Barnes, Head of Design at Pixel Noire Games, is a game designer with 10+ years of experience in top-grossing mobile games. He was the Lead Game Designer at Monster Legends, and Game Economy Designer at Despicable Me: Minion Rush and Asphalt 8.
You will discover why some companies are able to release successful games over and over again, the keys to increasing your game's engagement, and key lessons from the success of Among Us and Fortnite
In this interview, you will discover:
The value of launching a prototype as fast as possible
The key to increasing your game's engagement
Game launch strategy: going with a wide or narrow market?
What the successful companies are doing to be able to create hit after hit
Key lessons from the success of Among Us and Fortnite
Get early feedback
How to launch a prototype and get early feedback?
When it comes to apps, we know that we just need to get the MVP and release it as soon as possible to gather early market feedback. But for some reason, a lot of companies do not apply this model when it comes to games.
They tend to over-architecture their games and then realize that most of the work they have done was based on wrong assumptions.
As a developer, you need to validate the engagement as soon as possible.
If you have an idea of a gameplay that can be extremely fun, do not wait until it’s complete to release it. Do an early soft launch and in that alpha stage, try to gather a small group to see how people behave with your game. This will give you the additional information that will allow you to either pivot or maybe even kill the project early.
Doing this will also allow you to generate a small community that will help you in the process of developing the product further and make sure that you're investing in the areas that produce innovation.
Even before you hit the market with an MVP, meet some people and try to excite them in order to gather information. For example, you can go to Reddit, look for a similar audience and do an anonymous poll to know what players would like to see in a game.
Pitch your ideas a bit without telling them about your game, this will allow you to get in contact with your audience even before you have developed anything.
The one thing you should focus
With early engagement being a critical metric, what’s the one thing you should focus on?
I've seen a lot of companies getting bad early engagement metrics upon a game’s release and to compensate, they would add systems, release bonuses, add features, and so on but I think they have little value. This is because it's too early in the life of the game for people to understand the value that you offer.
The key thing that actually increases early engagement is making sure that people have an understanding of the game and that they have the chance to enjoy it.
Check for difficulty curves and maybe systems that are confusing to the players which prevent them from getting excited or engaging with the core gameplay itself.
In the early stages of the game, less is more.
It's better to have less stuff of high quality, rather than having lots of systems that players will not necessarily understand (or maybe will even be the trigger of their confusion).
One of the things that I have seen drive retention up in the early stages is the marketing mix. I've been able to do massive increments of retention that I would have not considered possible just by readapting marketing from one specific genre to another.
For games still struggling with retention after doing massive changes on the gameplay, try tweaking marketing because that might do the trick.
Strategy in launching games
What is a better strategy in launching games - going after a broad market or a specific audience?
Every game is its own dish and every kind of dish is cooked in a different way but in my opinion, you would want to test a wide market in the very beginning. If your CPI is good in a wide market, you have something there, you can generate value.
If you are targeting just a specific pool, you might end up having a really small one and would have challenges making the game profitable. Even if you have a successful game, that niche of players can be depleted over the course of time.
My advice would be to do a campaign that targets a massive market, run it only in the UK or a specific country for less investment, for example, so you have a better vision of distribution on specific clusters. At the same time though, test other campaigns that are more focused so you will be able to compare if that generates any significant differences.
Achieving multiple successful launches
How are certain companies able to achieve multiple successful launches?
Every single company knows that innovation is the thing that will allow them to be successful. Even the companies that people think just release the same game over and over think that they are innovating.
In my opinion, the key difference is the way companies tackle innovation.
There are three companies that I look at as role models who have been able to release multiple super successful games targeting different genres and audiences. There are three points on how they tackle innovation:
They find creative ways to lower CPIs.
Scopely - They have Star Trek, The Walking Dead, Yahtzee, Wheel of Fortune. They use brands that are very recognizable and not only does this bring a lot of organic traffic but lowers CPI as well.
Playrix - They have these completely out-of-the-box advertising which creates controversy but at the same time, super useful. That was the way they lower CPIs.
Supercell - They are such a household name that anything they release will drive a lot of organic downloads.
They focus on innovation that can be reusable.
If you look at Supercell releases, they target very similar kinds of audiences. Even if you argue that Collateral has an extremely different crowd than Brawl Stars, they both are a kind of e-sports and are not that far away from each other. The games are dissimilar enough to generate meaningful differences for the audiences but not so unalike that they are not benefiting from synergy.
I've seen a lot of companies doing crazy innovation creating games that had nothing to do with each other. For example, Kabam 4X games to a drag racer in Fast and The Furious Six and then they launched a Star Wars MMO game. These games had nothing to do with each other.
Playrix reuses a lot of the content so they are not putting innovation efforts on areas that generate no value. Homescapes, Gardenscapes and Wildcapes are very similar. Even within the projects that are different from each other, Playrix reuses the innovation that has already worked. For example, Township uses the same IAP screens of Homescapes and Gardenscapes.
They tackle innovation by controlling the number of shots they take.
A lot of companies generate a massive amount of teams to develop an insane amount of projects simultaneously.
They think this maximizes their chances of success but in reality, this decreases it because this separates their best talent into multiple teams.
You never have a team that it's made out of superstars because your superstars are separated among a lot of teams. This also requires a lot of management efforts as your best hats manage a wide range of teams.
Scopely, Playrix and Supercell have vast resources and they can create an infinite amount of teams but they don’t. Supercell, especially, takes a lot of care before escalating their teams because they want teams that can be managed more easily and are composed of top people.
Takeaways from Among Us
What are the key takeaways from the success of Among Us?
The case of Fall Guys and Among Us is similar to Fortnite and Battlegrounds.
During the lockdown, the entire gaming sphere was extremely morphed into the very hardcore games. After a few months of being in the hardcore, they needed the rest and they needed something that would allow them to interact with other people. Fall Guys and Among Us came at this moment.
Both were very good at bringing something that does not need you to be good at the game to be fun. They're very plug-and-play, not stressful and they both incorporate a strong social component.
Among Us had been around for a couple of years but somewhere around August of 2020, they just spiked up. This is something similar to Fortnite as it was running for quite a while before they'd made it big.
What is particularly interesting in both these cases is the fact that none of them were linear increments. They were not growing little by little, and then they made it overnight. In the case of Fortnite, they made a massive change within the game and that propelled it.
What I would advise companies to do is make radical changes in your games and build games in a way that would allow you to make these radical changes before you kill the games. If you kill one project, probably the next project you start should be related to the one you previously killed.
A lot of companies get demotivated when they fail and they go for something completely different and they go for another plan to get rich fast. If you fail, try to make a different thing where you can reuse the learnings, the technology and assets that you have extracted from your previous experience.
Another thing you can try is if the team making the game decides to pull the plug, try to ask two other teams in your company if they want to take it over. The team that made you start to climb the mountain will not necessarily be the team that is going to bring you to the top.
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Muslima.com Reviews January 2021
Muslima.com Review Introduction:
What is Muslima.com? It's one of the best dating sites for serious relationships and marriage. This is a place for single people looking for long term relationships and marriage to meet and connect. The site exists to help folks like you discover and form connections with compatible matches. Are you considering joining the Muslima.com website? We want to help you make the best decision for your love life. That's why we'll provide you with all the pertinent info you need to make the right choice for you. In this article, we'll let you know about the site's users, sign up process, safety, costs, and more. Keep reading to discover our full Muslima.com reviews below.
Muslima.com Users:
So, what does the Muslima.com membership look like? In this section, we'll tell you about who tends to join this dating site. Plus, we'll give you an idea of who you're likely to meet if you should choose to join. Because so many of the site's members are looking for the real deal when it comes to dating and marriage, you can expect to meet Muslima.com members who are searching for something more serious. Not seeking a long term relationship or serious commitment? It's better for you to find this out now: Muslima.com dating probably isn't the right choice for you. On the other hand, if you are seeking love and maybe even marriage, this site has a lot of good stuff to offer.
Muslima.com Sign Up:
If you're interested in learning how to sign up for Muslima.com, it's a pretty simple and streamlined operation. You can complete the whole process from start to finish in 15 minutes or less. Want to get started now? Visit the Muslima.com sign in page. From there, you'll need to let the site know who you are and who you want to meet. What does that mean, exactly? The site asks for your gender identification, as well as the gender of your match.
Once you've provided this info, you'll be asked to enter a valid email address and select a password. This is also the time to choose your Muslima.com username. Of course, there's a lot we could say about how to choose the best username. But here's the short version: keep it fun and expressive. A great username makes use of descriptive words and tone to give others an idea of who you are and what you care about.
From here, you'll fill out some basic personal info, like your age and location. The registration process is literally that simple. Once you've got your Muslima.com login, you're free to sign in and start meeting new people right away.
Muslima.com Chat:
So you registered as a member and now you're ready for some fun. Connecting and chatting with your new matches can be really exciting. Pretty much every dating site these days has the basic chat option available. In other words, you can send text messages to people you want to get to know using the site's platform. See someone cute? Use chat features to send out some flirty Muslima.com messages.
But it is the 21st century, you guys. That's why many dating sites are introducing more advanced connection features, like voice and video chat. These can help you get to know potential matches a little better. Interested in connecting with other members on the site and getting to know them? Good news, it's really simple. Just use the Muslima.com search feature to see who's online. Then, when you find someone appealing, just send them a quick message and get a conversation started.
Muslima.com Profiles:
Visit the Muslima.com log in page to get started. Like we mentioned, most people who join this site are looking for long term commitment and marriage. This means that the site is going to ask you for quite a bit of personal info. While it can feel like a lengthy process to some, we encourage you to stick it out. Why? Because the more effort and energy you put into your Muslima.com profile, the greater success the site will have in matching you with its most compatible members.
A big part of filling out your profile will be completing the Muslima.com questions. The purpose of these questions is usually to give the site's algorithm a chance to get to know you a little better so it can suggest viable matches. Want to get more clicks, messages, and likes? Then please take the time to fill out as much information as you can. It will show the site's other members that you're serious about meeting someone and willing to put in the effort. Just put yourself in their shoes for a sec. If you search Muslima.com for a match and all they have on their profile is the most basic data, you're probably not going to stick around. So give yourself the best chance of success with a great dating site profile. We promise it will pay off.
Muslima.com App:
According to our research, this dating site has an app available for iPhone. The Muslima.com mobile app is a pretty good experience. While it's more convenient to stay signed in using your app, some people might not want to download it. If this sounds like you, we want to let you know that you can get basically all the same features using the mobile site instead of the app. If you open the site in your mobile browser, you'll be able to access the Muslima.com desktop features using your phone. Whether you decide to download the app or not, the good news is that you've got a lot of options for how to interact with the site.
Okay, so here's the question everyone wants answered first: Is Muslima.com safe? We always encourage you to make that decision for yourself when you're thinking about joining a dating site. Do a little research and look into the site's safety features. For specific Muslima.com safety tips, you can always refer to the site's own safety page. If the dating site you want to join doesn't have a safety page, use your best judgement before signing up.
Have you encountered predatory behavior on the site? We always encourage you to contact Muslima.com help to report suspicious activity. Trust your instincts if you feel unsafe or uncertain on any site. And never give your personal information to other members. You can help protect yourself and other members by bringing anyone suspicious to the attention of the site's moderators. They can also help if you're having trouble with your account or want to cancel Muslima.com for any reason.
Okay, the next thing everyone wants to know: Is Muslima.com free? It's very common for dating sites like this one to advertise as free to join or to offer a free trial period. And yes, It's technically free to join. But most users with a free membership have a hard time getting the most out of the site. If you're using Muslima.com free, you might find that you have restricted access or limited options when it comes to some of the site's most important features, like messaging.
Before joining a site like Muslima.com, you might want to spend a little time defining the value you hope to get out of the site. Envisioning who you want to meet on a dating site and what kind of connection you'd like to create with them is an important first step. Once you have a clear sense of this, you're much more likely to find experiences that line up with your individual definition of dating success.
Muslima.com Costs:
At DatingPerfect we always want you to succeed. That's why we offer you all the info we can on the dating sites you want to learn about. Plus, we want to hook you up with Muslima.com coupons whenever we can. Scroll down to learn more.
You're here because you wanted to read our Muslima.com reviews. If you've been thinking about joining but you still aren't sure, we hope we could help. This site has a lot to offer people interested in longterm dating and marriage. DatingPerfect wants to help you get the most out of online dating and it all starts with finding the best dating site for you. That's why we write these reviews. We want to provide you with as much useful information as possible about the sites you're thinking about joining. But we can also help by offering you Muslima.com promo codes, so check back often to see what we've got. Ready to start meeting people who want the same things you do? Visit the Muslima.com full site to get started now.
A Deeper Dive into Muslima.com:
Want Help Writing Your Muslima.com Profile?
Online dating is hard but DatingPerfect wants to make it easier. If you're struggling to write your Muslima.com profile, let our experts help. Check out our profile writing services now to get more clicks, more likes, and more dates.
Top Dating Sites,International Dating
Muslima.com Niches
Muslima.com Says...
Muslima.com is a specialist Muslim matrimonials and matchmaking website that assists Muslim men and women to find their perfect match anywhere in the world. We offer friendly service combined with sophisticated search and messaging facilities that will make your search for true love fun and enjoyable.
Why use Muslima.com?
Unlike some other sites, Muslima.com offers friendly, personalized service combined with the latest technology. We also understand the motivations and aspirations of people from diverse backgrounds seeking to find their perfect match and feel that our own experiences can be of valuable assistance. We understand that sometimes.... the perfect one for you is located at the other end of the earth! No matter where that special person is, or why you want to meet them, we can help you to find your perfect match.
Benefits for Muslima.com members:
Search through thousands profiles of attractive, friendly men and women from all backgrounds looking to meet someone just like you. Your own personal inbox allows you to easily and anonymously find your perfect match. Add a profile instantly and attach a photo.
Contact Muslima.com
Please do not hesitate to contact Muslima.com with any questions you may have regarding this site. Please Click Here to contact Muslima.com.
Who Owns Muslima.com?
Muslima.com is operated by Cupid Media Pty Ltd, a company that specialises in the development of database-driven dating sites. Cupid Media was founded in 1999 and is based on the Gold Coast, Australia.
Availability N/A
Alexa Ranking N/A N/A 13432
Owner's Total Communities: 34
Cupid Media Pty Ltd
Muslima.com is available on
Dating is hard enough as it is. That’s why we want to share these tips.
Wikipedia was comparing things way before DatingPerfect came along.
We like diverse perspectives. Especially this article from Georgetown University about how Muslim marriage law empowers girls. What better to follow with but a Stanford University downloadable paper that looks at vavigating Muslim identity and customs in online dating. It shows how marriage “is at the intersection of lives and families— the intersection of personal life and larger society— and as life and technology become further intertwined, marriage can be at the intersection of tradition, religion, and technology”. Enjoy!
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Deep Forest Outpost
The Adventures of The Lumbering Bear and The Wandering Moose
About Moose and Bear
Tag: Magic Kingdom
Disney Music Notes: Main Street, U.S.A. Holiday Loop
On December 23, 2016 February 9, 2017 By NateIn Disney Parks, Media Reviews, Music, Standard StuffLeave a comment
The Holiday season is a great time to visit a Disney theme park. Not only are guests introduced to seasonal food and entertainment offerings, but the Holiday decor ranges from blindingly apparent (a 60-foot-tall Christmas tree) to charmingly subtle (Holiday-themed paper cups), and rewards curious visitors who scout around.
It’s easy to underestimate how much a person can enjoy quasi-European splendor combined with American commercialism.
Although all the domestic parks and resorts get makeovers,* the biggest concentration is in Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. The element that binds it all together and moves you from land to land is the atmospheric Holiday music; and the loop on Main Street, U.S.A. is a particular pleasure. The songs are a chime-y mix of Christmas standards, and sound like they came straight out of a December cocktail party at Walt and Lillian’s house.
[*One of the under-appreciated wonders of modern management is the decoration of six theme parks and thirty resort hotels by Disney cast members in Florida and California. Not only is the level of detail astounding, but most of the work is completed without the guests seeing it happen.]
The authoritative breakdown of the Main Street, U.S.A. loop was compiled by the great Al Lutz, and his post is the starting point for these notes. I highly recommend clicking over, it’s great. In fact, go ahead and do that right now. This will still be here when you get back. Although, I mean, make sure and come back, too! Haha, don’t just… you know; click away and stay away. You know what? I am overthinking it. Just… do whatever you want.
Assuming you have come back from Al’s post, and with the background out of the way, let’s dive into the Main Street, U.S.A. Holiday music loop notes. The songs in each category are listed in no particular order.
Continue reading “Disney Music Notes: Main Street, U.S.A. Holiday Loop” →
An Incomparable Day at Magic Kingdom – Walt Disney World November 2013 Day Four
On November 30, 2014 August 30, 2016 By NateIn Standard Stuff3 Comments
Comparison is the death of joy.
Our ambitious Walt Disney World vacation was about to get real.
Magic Kingdom was almost instinctively familiar to us, being the East Coast version of our home park, Disneyland. Day four would be our first visit this trip, and we could not have been more excited about it. Our touring group was Amy and I, with our friends: siblings Hydee and Rich, and their mom, JaNae.
This view has never failed to make us happy.
A swirling breeze and low, 50-degree Fahrenheit temperatures greeted us as we left our rooms, which was a change from the warm, wet blanket of air from the previous mornings. I was still in the shadow of the towering, Callipygian Ursula when I wondered if I should double back and grab my coat. But, no, I would manage. I was confident that my decision would not come back to haunt me at the end of the day.
The bus was packed, although we found a seat for JaNae next to some very nice people from Poughkeepsie, NY on the bus. True to her engaging and outgoing nature, JaNae made friends with them at once. Our conversation buzzed with talk of today being the “true” and “genuine” start of our trip – unfounded and unfair though it was to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Continue reading “An Incomparable Day at Magic Kingdom – Walt Disney World November 2013 Day Four” →
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A Year in Stardew Valley, Part One – Introductions
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Defiring Translations
Almadianos Eiyuuden
My death Flags show no sign of ending
The demon lord is suing the hero
World Teacher (dropped)
My death Flags show no Sign of Ending – Chapter 98
December 19, 2017 defiring Comments 121 comments
Chapter 98 is here! This chapter was edited by Fordoom, who did a great job as usual 😀
Anyway, enjoy!
In『Brave Hearts』, Harold Stokes was not a dual sword wielder; his only weapon was his black sword. The sword embedded with a crystal that Harold was currently using did not exist at all in the game, as it was given to him by Justus in this world.
Of course, that was not an act of kindness in any way; Justus was simply using that sword to convince his surroundings that Harold was just a convenient pawn who he had already subdued.
However, given how good he was at scheming, there was naturally more to this.
The sword had the exceptional ability of absorbing the user’s mana to elevate his fighting capabilities, but if the sword could not be controlled and absorbed Harold’s magical power just by being in his presence, then even he would likely have stubbornly refused to take it.
Because whenever it absorbed the user’s mana, it would literally absorb his life force. So this was a very Justus-like trick, as he had told only half a lie.
Due to this, Harold had hardly used this power up to now. So far, he had displayed the sword’s ability only twice.
The first time was when he happened to discover a troupe of knights who had been attacked and almost annihilated by monsters, so, in order to help; he killed the enemies as fast as he possibly could. The second time was when he instantaneously killed the hydras at the peak of mount Giran.
Both of those times lasted for only a few minutes. However, given that his lifespan was being reduced by this, even a few minutes felt like they could be fatal to him. Not knowing how much of his life he had lost was indescribably terrifying.
So Harold had used the sword’s power as little as possible. He was always wracking his brains and trying every trick in the book just because he did not want to die, so if he actually went ahead to shorten his life, he would be completely losing sight of his priorities.
However, at this moment, he simply could not say that, because Vincent was just that formidable of an enemy.
In order to make the best use of his distinctly superior speed, Harold’s feet were constantly in motion. He was using magic spells as a diversion as he was crossing swords with Vincent while looking for his chance to strike. If Harold were to relax his guard for the smallest of instants, his defense would likely be smashed and he’d end up being overwhelmed by Vincent’s tyrannical strength, therefore, he kept on attacking and defending over and over again.
Then, it finally came. In the middle of the fight, Vincent had a momentary opening in his defense for less than a second. At that moment, Harold focused his whole body’s senses.
He stepped forward with lightning fast speed.
Due to his physique and weapon, the reach of Vincent’s attacks was considerably wider than Harold’s. This was one of the main reasons why Harold was at a loss about how to attack him. In other words, exploiting an opening was not enough. It was certainly possible for him to take the offensive by combining his speed with his numerous moves, but that would be too risky considering Vincent’s strength and the instantaneous power and reflexes he displayed in both his offense and defense. Moreover, if Harold were to expose a few gaps, he’d fall back on the defensive. To make matters worse, he would have to fight within the range of Vincent’s attacks.
But above all, Harold did not have enough strength to knock out Vincent with a single blow anyway, and he couldn’t help but judge that it would be too difficult to attack one of his vital points.
Then, what could he do?
Harold’s answer to that question was clear and simple.
He would keep dodging and using diversions, he would strike when there was a gap he could exploit, and then he would immediately retreat, taking some distance from Vincent. It was a so-called hit-and-run tactic.
Vincent started raising his sword over his head, and at the same time, Harold immediately shortened the distance between the two of them. Vincent stopped his action, and while taking half a step back, he had no other choice than to swing his large sword downwards.
However, no matter how powerful he was, he had not been able to feel the attack from before as it came at him.
Harold was aiming at the right arm of Vincent, which was holding his sword. Maybe in order not to disrupt the movement of his shoulder, he had left the space around his right armpit wide open. Harold sliced at that gap in Vincent’s defense with his black sword.
Then, he withdrew before Vincent could get to counter-attack. Harold once again took some distance and faced Vincent like before.
Perhaps this method was effective in the sense that it was a sure-fire way to deliver his attacks.
However, there was one problem. To instantaneously shorten the distance between him and his opponent, Harold was using a super-acceleration move for which his sword would absorb his mana each time. As he used it this time, he was afraid of how long this battle would drag, for he didn’t know how much of his mana, and of his life, was being consumed.
The part of Vincent’s armpit which Harold had sliced at with his sword was covered with a black cloth. But slicing that part did not feel like cutting through human flesh, the attack had been clearly obstructed by a hard object.
Harold had an idea what it was. There was probably some chain mail or something like that, hidden under Vincent’s clothes. Unless he could strike that protection with a critical hit, Harold was going to have to attack it multiple times during the fight.
If he wasn’t in such a small cave, he could also try to take some distance and fire high-tier spells in rapid succession to remove that obstruction, but if he did that here, he would likely get entangled in his own magic, or the spell would make the whole cave collapse, crushing him to death in the process.
【”This has been going for way too long…”】
The situation was turning extremely bad for Harold.
Perhaps he would end up being killed by Vincent, or perhaps he would end up using up all his strength and dying to his own sword’s power.
Still, in order to survive, he could do nothing but keep fighting.
As if to repel the darkness, the tree branches that were being used as firewood were burning with a crackling sound. Holding her knees, Lifa was looking at the flames while thinking about some things.
Or perhaps it was more correct to say that she was worrying about some things. Those worries were about Harold, and at the same time, they were about Erica who was journeying with her now.
Erica was the daughter of the Sumeragi family, and she currently was Lifa’s traveling companion, as well.
Her personality was gentle and graceful, and yet she also had a strong heart which allowed her to firmly speak her opinions. She wasn’t naive like a girl who had led a sheltered life, and she viewed everything in a broad perspective. Moreover, she was so skilled with her magic and archery that even knights and adventurers were not worth being compared to her.
She came from a good family, her character was excellent, and she also excelled in various other fields. The more Lifa traveled with her, the more she was able to understand how perfect Erica was as a woman.
Furthermore, she was the most beautiful person Lifa had ever seen. When Colette spoke of her unreserved admiration for Erica, Lifa could only agree. Perhaps it could be said that she was the personification of a man’s ideal.
That perfect woman was Harold’s fiancee… or so it seemed at least.
Although the two concerned parties themselves had denied that fact, Francis and Erica’s older brother had both said that the two were actually engaged, so there was probably no way that was a lie.
Then, why would Erica deny it? If she simply hated Harold, then perhaps that would be the end of the matter, but it was hard to believe that someone like her would openly show her hatred for him on the surface.
It felt too incompatible with her personality, which reminded Lifa of something else that had felt the same way to her recently. It was Harold’s excessive coldness towards Erica.
From Lifa’s perspective, it looked like both Harold and Erica didn’t seem like themselves in the way they behaved towards each other.
This was just a theory, but, maybe Harold was cold to Erica in order to keep her away from him. That way, she would not get hurt by his own death…. No, perhaps he did that precisely because he did not want her to be hurt. It was very difficult to understand the kindness of that man due to his twisted personality, but Lifa judged that this possibility was quite conceivable.
As for Erica, maybe she was also taking Harold’s feelings into consideration, and was taking a stubborn attitude towards him in order to pretend that she disliked him, just like he wished she would. She knew Harold from her childhood; she could basically be classified as a childhood friend of his.
Lifa did not know since when Harold had taken on his arrogant behavior and for how long he had kept it going, but while he did have a perfectionist’s atmosphere to him, he was still flawed, and so was his facade. Upon coming in contact with him for long enough, one would surely have many opportunities to notice the kindness hidden beyond Harold’s clumsy behavior.
That was all the more true for an intelligent person like Erica.
There was no clear basis behind Lifa’s hypothesis.
To come up with this wild idea, she had merely linked the facts that both of them did not seem to behave like themselves. Normally, if Lifa had come up with a theory that made such a huge leap in logic, she would laugh it off and wouldn’t concern herself with it.
Nevertheless, she could not cast aside her idea precisely because it was still just a hypothesis. Because if by any chance these assumptions turned out to be true or just close to the truth, then Erica might get scarred for her whole life.
The crucial point here was: how much did Erica know about Harold’s situation?
Considering that Harold was trying to keep Erica away, and that she did not want to go against his wish, then she probably was not aware that he did not have much time left to live. The best reason to think so was that, the first time Lifa came to the Sumeragi territory with Harold, he had forbidden her to speak about his life span.
No matter how one looked at her, Erica was not the type to put her feelings of hatred on the surface. She was only human, so, there had to be times when she would get angry, and there had to be some people that she actually disliked within her mind; But there was no doubt that she would hide those kinds of feelings under a smile and behave herself on the outside.
Then why did she not do that only when it came to Harold? Wasn’t it because that was what Harold wanted?
If so, then that meant they were both subduing their real feelings for each-other’s sake.
The reason Lifa thought so was that, knowing Erica’s nature, it seemed unlikely for her to truly dislike Harold.
Five of the six members of the team that was traveling together, in other words, everyone except for Erica, had a favorable opinion of Harold; they were a very unusual group. But even though they were certainly a strange bunch, Erica was still willing to seriously listen to their opinions and consider them.
Yet, only when it came to Harold, she was obstinate in saying that he was evil, and she was not willing to change her views; that was way too strange and too unfitting of Erica’s character in Lifa’s eyes. Even when Liner and Colette tried to persuade her by telling her “Harold is not the man that the rumors make him out to be”, Erica persisted, saying “There is no understanding that man’s true nature.”.
It was as if she was trying to advertise to her surroundings that “Erica Sumeragi hates Harold stokes”. To Lifa, it felt like there was no way Erica would use such substanceless words just because of her own personal hatred.
It was safe to think that she was just putting on such an act because she had some particular circumstances, and what if those circumstances were that, for Harold’s sake, she was taking on the attitude that he wanted her to take?
In that case, then if Harold were to die, would Erica’s heart be able to bear it? While Lifa had managed to keep quiet despite knowing that Harold did not have much time left to live, she believed that even she would be crushed and unable to bear it if he were to actually die.
However if she were to tell the truth to Erica here, then she would be breaking her promise with Harold…
【”I can’t do that….”】
Lifa let those words escape her as she sighed.
Then, a voice came at her completely defenseless back.
【”Can’t do what?”】
Lifa almost instinctively screamed because of that surprise attack, but she had somehow managed to stop that reflex.
However, her excessive surprise was not due to the sudden appearance of the voice, rather, it was because of the owner of said voice.
【”W, what is it, Erica?”】
【”It’s time to switch places for the night watch.”】
【”Huh? Really? Isn’t it still too early?”】
【”No no, it’s already time….”】
Upon being told that, Lifa consulted her watch. As Erica had said, there were only a few minutes left before she would have to switch places with her.
It seemed like Lifa had been considerably absorbed in her thoughts. Moreover, it looked like Liner, who was keeping watch with her, had fallen asleep. She had apparently been too engrossed in her thoughts to notice that.
【”Oh, it’s true. I’m sorry, I forgot to wake you up.”】
【”Don’t worry about that. But it looks like you have something on your mind….”】
It would be difficult for Lifa to say frankly and unreservedly that she was worried about the relationship between Harold and Erica. That would be akin to walking straight into a minefield.
Besides, she had promised Harold that she wouldn’t talk about the matter concerning his life span. Above all, even if she tried to question Erica in an upfront manner about their relationship, she likely would not get an answer. But even so, it didn’t fit Lifa’s nature to just stand and watch without doing anything.
So, she was going to start the discussion from another direction. “This is probably none of my business but I have to do it”, while thinking that, Lifa confirmed that everyone other than Erica and herself was asleep, and she then started talking.
【”…Erica, is there someone you’re in love with?”】
<=Chapter 97 Index Chapter 99=>
Leave a Reply to notrainbow Cancel reply
marvoch says:
I sad you decided to not retranslate the first chapters of the novel :\ They are truly hard to read. Anyway, congrats on having caught the raws, am curious to see what you’ll pick up.
ruwi says:
ty alot
R Nitramier says:
Thank you once again for your work! Well done on catching up, we can only hope author-san gets back to this someday soon.
eroidblog says:
Thanks for all the translations so far! 🙂
deras says:
I recommend this novel https://www.novelupdates.com/series/new-game-plus-the-struggles-of-a-popular-vrmmo-livestreamer/
ryuukun17 says:
What a great way to introduce a topic!
Good job, Lifa. You almost got it. Almost…
Ooooooh shiiiieeeeeeetttt
Just tell Erica already.
Tabeleta says:
“Aaaand with this, I’ve officially caught up with the author”
“caught up with the author”
“up with the author”
“with the author”
NOOOOOOOOOOO!
Pls, translate “By a Slight Mistake”
http://ncode.syosetu.com/n9931bu/
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/by-a-slight-mistake/
It already has 8 chapters translated and I am sort of in love with this novel. Although I am in love with multiple novels, including this one, By a Slight Mistake” definitely takes priority over them right now. I love you long time. Thanks for translating!
Thanks for all your hard work! 😄
ad1206 says:
so this is where Harold screwed again.
Dusty says:
>Waiting Game
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Merry Christmas guys! Have a good one!
Chaox says:
Thanks for your hard work. Could you please consider kaetekite mo fantasy ??? Someone actually translate it with neo translation already but it has been 2 months ever since the last chapter. So I think you may ask them for more info. Thanks again in advance 🙂
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/kaettekite-mo-fantasy/ this one right here :v give it a shot 🙂
fer_17_240 says:
a good novel could be evil-like duke household
Jhettra says:
aditya092900 says:
Thanks for the chapter!!
Can I give a recommend too?
I recommend We Live in Dragon’s Peak (https://www.novelupdates.com/series/we-live-in-dragons-peak/).
Its good novel but dropped
VerneJules says:
Thanks for the chapter! 😀 May you’d find Common Sense of a Duke’s daughter a good project https://www.novelupdates.com/series/common-sense-of-a-dukes-daughter/
Fallen says:
Common sense is cursed… like every translator who starts that series goes MIA after a few chapters.
Nguyễn Thế Minh says:
same idea as mine <3
Alixiron says:
Can you please pick up “I’m a Dullahan, Looking for My Head”?
Nu link:
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/im-a-dullahan-looking-for-my-head/
Raws:
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n5372dl/
TrueHistoria says:
Thanks for the chapter and I would like to recommend the following:
1. Assassin’s Pride
– Merida Angel is a woman who does not have any mana. She studies at a certain academy as a noble. Bullying and discrimination serve as her day-to-day struggle because she was depicted as being untalented. Meanwhile, A man whose job occupation is an assassin, namely, Kufa Vanpiel, was given an assignment: to tutor a certain woman, and that woman was none other than Merida. The objective of Kufa’s mission was to awaken her mana, but if there were unsuccessful results amid applying all the measures, there is only one thing to do: dispose of her.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/assassins-pride/
2. The Golden Word Master
– Hiiro Okamura was summoned to a different world along with his four classnates. But in that world, the ones responsible for the Hero summoning were only expecting four heroes, and then Hiiro’s title was became ‘Innocent Bystander’. The book-loving student immediately decided to seperate from his four heroes classmates and go on an adventure by himself because he was uninterested in a ‘heroes-save-the-world’ thing — that explains his title, but what lies within him was a unique magic called ‘Word Nagic’ the power to embody the image of a word.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/konjiki-no-moji-tsukai/
3. Goodbye Dragon Life, Hello Human Life
– Dran is a human born as a child of a farmer. But before, he was the oldest dragon who decided to accept his death as heroes came for his life. When his soul was adrift, it suddenly reborn into a human baby! And now, he is possessing enormous amounts of power due to his soul being a dragon. Join Dran as he encounters various creatures then later enters the magic academy.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/sayonara-ryuusei-konnichiwa-jinsei/
4. Defiled Hero
– Izayoi was a thirteen years old boy who was called into another world then faught as a hero there for three years. After years of fighting, he was betrayed by his most trusted person, his master. Five years later, he, who was supposed to have died, was summoned once again into the world where he was betrayed. Thereafter, he chose to discard his past and decided to travel the world while hiding his background.
http://www.novelupdates.com/series/defiled-hero/
um the word master novel then i think the translators are still working on it :/ you should wait for a year ad come back to read because the fights and lol *cough* i are amazing and it is fun to read for the whole thing. and defiled hero is already finished since it caught up with the raw already. :v
primo23 says:
Author is a sadist leaving us with this chapter which ends with a cliff nooooooooooo oo oo oo oo
Thanks for the chap ~
troledmaster says:
You caught up! Congrats! Feels a little sad though. Anyway, a novel you could translate, if you feel like it: https://www.novelupdates.com/series/din-no-monshou/
Fourteen Hour says:
Lifa… just tell erica already..
i will wait next chapter even i will wait for long time… this novel is epic..
Thank you defiring for your work so far
KyleAkuma says:
I suggest translating
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/me-her-and-the-ballistic-weaponry/
The translation ended when we got to the ballistic weaponry
lel lifa, best topic direction for a girl talk in the middle of dangerous camp, yup it really is an rpg xD
Well, if you’re willing to hear my suggestion, take a look at Unparalleled Path ~ Reincarnated as the AI for a Space Battleship ~, aka 無双航路〜転生して、宇宙戦艦のAIになりました〜.
It’s about an AI of a battleship that goes crazy and decides it’s a reincarnated teenage boy from Japan (because Isekai). The MC AI must protect his crew, his inexperienced teenage captain cum princess (because Japan), and return home. He can do this because, as a crazy AI, he can ignore the “AI’s gone crazy” fail safes (which seems like a bit of a design flaw), and because he’s a battleship.
The translator only got 15 updates in before disappearing, but it’s an interesting enough setup, and I’m not saying that because it’s in spaaaace (yes I am). OP as he might be, he’s still vulnerable, and as a battleship, the odds of a harem forming around him is limited. Unless he starts dating a destroyer, or something.
The story can drag on, however, and Novel Updates calls it amateur hour The Lost Fleet. Still, the author’s updating, and it’s not just another story about a teenage boy stuck in an unknown world full of overeager girls and comparative weaklings. Yet.
Diarek says:
One vote for this one, too much fantasy around nyosetsu, lets have some scifi too.
appreciativeleecher says:
That sounds hilarious 😄
Shirou™ says:
Thx for the Chapter~!
Also dis) https://www.novelupdates.com/series/sword-of-the-philosopher/
TL is ded i think…its been 9 months after the latest release (￣▽￣)
same plot as death flag i guess… *who knows just check it out..
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/manuke-fps/
-_- Umm don’t translate this one I like it but it just too gory and brutal at times… just a recommendation to those who finished this novel and want something else to read.
T.A. says:
Thanks for your hard work. It’s great that the English tl catching up with the raw, but this empty feeling, seeing no more chapter soon enough to see the next development kind of unpleasant but nobody can help it, just hope the author still intended to continue. Thanks again hope you won’t lose the willingness to translate the future chapters, which will be great, thanks for your hard work.
HFZ says:
My recommendations:
Miniature Garden Chemister
Drop!! ～A Tale of the Fragrance Princess～
Riot Grasper
though I am hoping for a story with MC similar to harold
Mion says:
novi says:
Thx for the chapy
i just want to know, LN vol 4 already done & publised. But the WN vol 4. not done/end yet?
thank 4 reply
defiring says:
Well, of course it’s done, Volume 4’s last chapter was chapter 96
Thx 4 reply
I dont know that chapter 96 is the end of volume 4.
I recomend the Ln “son of destruccion”
rip engrisk 🙂
3f3 says:
Thanks for all your hard work!
I would like to recommend
The Inner Palace Tale of a Villainess Noble Girl (悪役令嬢後宮物語)
And my other recommendations (if someday the translator officialy decide to drop it)
Ascendance of a Bookworm (本好きの下剋上)
Isekai Tensei Soudouki (異世界転生騒動記 )
Drop!!～A Tale of the Fragrance Princess～ (ドロップ！！ ～香りの令嬢物語～)
The Magician Wants Normality (魔導師は平凡を望む)
Could you possibly translate Tsuyokute New Saga? It’s such a great work but it got dropped for some reason in February and was never picked back up.
Mizunashi says:
+1. Here is nu link https://www.novelupdates.com/series/tsuyokute-new-saga-ln/ .I can provide the raw for it. Also thank for translating my death flag, hope u will pick up another good story.
You can provide the raws? Now you have my attention, I’d be glad to translate this if the raw are available 😀
Oh, and you’re the one from novelupdates I see, well, I sent you my email there
1_chan says:
Eeee this cliff hanger ;; 7 ;; ))) Thanks for the chapter!
梅花 says:
Omg noooo
Haroldddd
… also, I have no recommendations but I wonder if there are any novels where the MC is like Harold… I really like his character, it’s fresh and well thought-out.
notrainbow says:
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/akuyaku-reijo-ni-koi-wo-shite/
The MC in this novel is somewhat similar to Harold, and getting even better each chapter passing, especially after the school days arc. Highly recommended, don’t judge it by the early chapters but I recommend to read through the whole school days arc and after that it’s just golden.
the translator is still translating it and it was upload weekly already
Wow really? This has actually been on my ‘maybe’ list for the longest time, if you think so highly of it, it seems like I should start it, lol
Thanks for the rec!
@Nguyễn Thế Minh , I know about that, I’m just recommending the novel to 梅花. Sadly the translation team are halting the translation for now, waiting for the reply from the author whether to allow them continuing the translation or not.
@梅花 No problem 😉
IAmHere says:
Can you perhaps take a look at Common Sense of a Duke’s Daughter if it is to your liking to translate?
? says:
Isn’t that already being translated by other groups?
no it has been drop
Phlegmatic says:
Thanks for the translation.
I recommend translating novel “ロゼッタは引き篭もりたい / http://mypage.syosetu.com/151239/” for the authorship of Nanasawa Matari. It the short story is short, so it will not take you much time. He wrote such interesting works as The Girl Who Ate a Death God; The Girl Who Bore the Flame Ring; Yuusha, Aruiwa Bakemono to Yobareta Shoujo.
So that you will not regret.
Muuuuuuuuu says:
Thanks for the chapter! 😀
logitechf1f4 says:
And for LN suggestion, I would like for you to translate Hyouketsu Kyoukai no Eden. It’s a very good series. Too bad the original translator stop it years ago. Pretty please 😂😂
Nava says:
Thanks for the chapter for my suggestion pls pick up https://www.novelupdates.com/series/my-sister-the-heroine-and-i-the-villainess/ this series , it has not been updated for 7 months and thanks as always
How about this novel because the prologue show promise.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/last-bosses-in-heroless-worlds/
A sort of Suicide Squad type of work, fantasy style. Hopefully it lives up to that premise.
Thanks so much for the translation! Just finished binge reading it today.
Well there are two amazing light novels in my reading list which have very sadly been abandoned, and I’m not expecting you to actually translate any of these, but here goes nothing :
– Zaregoto : https://www.novelupdates.com/series/zaregoto/
Written by nisioisin (monogatari series author), really great detective mystery novel with lots of psychological reflections and great plot twists. Sadly it is very underrated.
– Maoyuu Maou Yuusha :
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/maoyuu-maou-yuusha/
One of the best novel I have read, really intelligent novel with great plot and ideas. So close to ending, about 5 chapters more, but the current translator has stopped for 6 months with no updates. Yes there’s an anime adaptation (which is just cancerous), and manga adaptation which is really great, but the novel is just better. Please let this novel be finished… (Well the chances of this happening is very very low I guess, but I still hope this gets translated to the end)
I second the finishing of Yuusha.
i would recommend the politic novels like https://www.novelupdates.com/series/common-sense-of-a-dukes-daughter/ I like this novel very much
oh or you can translate this one, it is pretty fun to read, very relaxing
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/i-got-reincarnated-and-mistaken-as-a-genius/
i got reincarnated and mistaken as a genius
Fluffy-Bunny says:
I totally want that one to continue!
alec157 - says:
Thanks for the chap.
It would be lovely if you could translate honkyetsu kyokai no eden. It is a great series sadly it was dropped by many translators and i would love to see it continued
SquadCammander354 says:
How about Next-Life?
Maybe this: Aim the Deepest Part of the Different World Labyrinth
Reinbex says:
Please translate Youko Senki as your next work!!
Youjo* Senki
ironyisnotdead says:
This is going to be very interesting. I wonder what Erica will say 😁
So that sword DOES have a life affecting downside. Interesting.
Doesn’t it seem like chain mail wouldn’t stop people with the level of powers these guys have? I suppose it could be magical chain mail..
Thanks fir the chapter 😊 It’s sad that it might be awhile before we see this again.
Well, he said “something lie chain mail”, probably magic stuff, or dragon hide or something ><
RabZ YT says:
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-strange-adventure-of-a-broke-mercenary/
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee traduce this novel T-T
Traduce? You mean translate 😀 T’es Français?
“traduce” is a spanish word…
Ohh, I see, Spanish and French do have a lot in common
Swolo says:
is it on hiatus? I couldn’t find any raws past 98
The author is taking his time to do volume 5
joggernaught26 says:
Thank you very much for your hardwork!
Dude says:
Thank you my dude
hoshinyostaa says:
Thanks for the update. I picked this LN about a week ago and man I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. You did a great job on this. Keep up the good work.
Ynaxir says:
Thank you and please translate this masterpiece
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n6483cy/
It just dropped by translator
peerlessbaka says:
Oh…..why Erica is angry again at Harold?
Anyway thanks for the chapter
Grandork says:
She’s not. She pretends she doesn’t like Harold because she believes that it’s his wish.
Oh ok i get it thanks
Kido says:
Thanks for the chapter and can you translate dungeon seeker.The paichun translator already drop it
SatouMegu says:
Thanks.for the chapter! I’m half dead now cause of the cliffgangers
HS says:
So Apparently the author has a habit of leaving Web Novels unfinished. I checked and he has 3 other web novels, and all three of them haven’t had new chapters posted for the last three years while being unfinished. In short, he left them in limbo. It’s been a year since he properly posted for this Series, but I still sincerely hope he doesn’t leave us hanging. It’s a great series and it deserves a proper end.
Oh I forgot to say Thanks to Defiring for the chapter and for picking up the series!
Have you considered translating Falling in Love with the Villainess? It’s by far my favorite web novel and the current translators stopped recently.
e4e5f4 says:
Honestly, I sincerely thank you for your translations of this novel.
Syahmuda says:
Thx for the translation. Finally catchup the latest chapter. Yori Shasha was here.
Sphynx says:
when will the next chapter come out?
I’m just waiting for the author at this point
Lol, the author said he’s not dropping it at all, so why say never?
Q.M.S says:
The new chapter is here
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n4449cj/99/
An annoying person
Please translate it!!!!!
Damn right I will 😀
shirlulu07 says:
what is the frequency release of the author??
No idea, it depends on him really
Farshock says:
Thanks for the Translations! When is 99 coming?
in the next few days
Zethial says:
still waiting for next chapter 99. by the way. how to donate?
Well, you can donate on Patreon here https://www.patreon.com/defiring and the next chapter will be out in the next few days (No more than three days)
UNG says:
chapter 99 is here! Only waiting for the translation <3
chapter 100 is also here <3 will you continue this one? :/
Of course I will, I’m translating the 99th right now, should be available today or tomorrow
D: damn its been here for months
ah.. im having a delusions i thought its a new chapter ohh.. i need more of death flags
loool, the chapter will be out later today, I’m just editing it a little, don’t worry
I”m looking forward to it!! (*°▽°*)
Pingback: My death flags show no sign of ending – Chapter 99 | Defiring Translations
Cutie Meow says:
SSS says:
Harold… why aren’t you thinking that this is very important experience fighting the strongest of knights… and Justus seems like he’s not racking his brains enough…
Why are the other main characters from the hero’s party all so fixated on knowing about him???
RKADE 14 says:
Well, Harold should get a lot of EXP after taking Vincent down, also, everyone, Lifa in particular, are curious about Harold while the person in question is doing his best to save the world, or, he’s trying to set things up so that the world get’s saved due to him messing it up.
Zenith says:
Oh dear, oh dear, that sword shortening his lifespan was for real? At least he can choose when to use the power, but… Now the only way I can see this ending is as a tragedy…
Here, you can support the translations, or get early access to the chapters!
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You are here: Home | 2009 April
Remembering George Rawlings
Just back from a wonderful celebration of the unique life of George Rawlings at the Massaponnex Baptist Church near Fredericksburg. Remembrances were lead by George’s brother Richard (who sounds exactly like George), State Sen. Ed Houck, and Bernie Henderson, Deputy Secretary of the Commonwealth (whose remarks I will post). Dignitaries in attendance included Chuck and..
George Rawlings
I have heard that George Rawlings passed away yesterday in Fredericksburg. George was an extraordinary guy – member of the House of Delegates, defeated “Judge” Smith, the conservative Democcratic Congressman (Va-8) who bottled up civil rights legislation, Democratic standard-bearer against Harry Byrd in the 1970 Senate race, 8th District Democratic Commitee chair, Member of the DNC,..
Dem Debates: Report from our Richmond Correspondent
Candidates Candidates Everywhere An entry by a Bon Air Dem on Church Hill (April 21, 2009) I’ve been to two events in 48 hours with the 3 Democratic gubernatorial guys. That’ll do me for a while, but ’tis the season after all….
DNC Commitees to Meet on May 15
The Democratic National Committee meets about a couple of times a year, but the DNC Executive Committee and Association of State Democratic Chairs (ASDC) meet four times per year. The next meeting will be Friday, May 15, starting at 2 pm, at the Omni in Richmond, Virginia. I’ll provide a report.
DPVA Central Commitee Election Process Is Underway
The Democratic Party of Virginia will elect its new Central Committee members next month, so I wanted to provide an update of a prior post on this issue. The attached PDF, and text below, sets out in question and answer format information about the State Central Committee and the upcoming elections. Active Virginia Democrats should..
DPVA Fact Sheet on Signer Petitions
DPVA released the following statement earlier this evening. I will be posting my comments on the matter shortly.
Jody and Virginia’s Finances
Over at Blue Virginia, Lowell has a post suggesting that Jody Wagner won’t be a strong candidate for LG because she could blamed for the effects of the current recession on Virginia’s finances. Here’s my response: This Fall’s election may well in part be a referendum on the Warner/Kaine record of leadership of Virginia – and that’s..
T-Mac’s Got Nothing on Me
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Percocet Abuse
Written by: American Addiction Centers Editorial Staff
Reviewed by: Eric Patterson, MSCP, NCC, LPC
Last updated on September 3, 2020
Since the mid-1990s, rates of prescription drug abuse have skyrocketed. Today, the widespread abuse of prescription medication—whether it involves opioid painkillers, sedatives or stimulants—is being recognized as a serious national health problem in the United States.
According to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 6.5 million Americans reported taking prescription medication for non-medical uses—a number that represents 2.5% of the national population. More than 4 million of these individuals abusing prescription drugs reported abuse of pain relievers.
What Is Percocet?
Street Names for Percocet
To become better acquainted with the substance, it is helpful to understand and know the slang terms for the drug. For example, Percocet is known by numerous names including:
Hillbilly heroin.
Perks.
Percs.
Percocet is the trade name for a prescription pain reliever that combines:
Oxycodone, an opioid analgesic—or narcotic painkiller—with similar effects as heroin and morphine.
Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol—a mild pain reliever and fever reducer.
What Does Percocet Do?
Percocet is prescribed for short-term relief of moderate to severe pain that is not typically chronic in nature (i.e., post-surgical pain, pain from a sustained injury, etc.). Like heroin and morphine, Percocet affects the brain and the central nervous system, changing the way the brain perceives pain.
Percocet acts at opioid receptors throughout the body to initiate a cascade of chemical events that, ultimately:
Modify pain perception.
Elicit a dopamine response in key regions of the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the brain’s reward system circuitry—instrumental in delivering feelings of pleasure and motivation, as well as reinforcing behaviors that initiated the dopaminerelease to begin with.
When taken in large doses, Percocet can cause a “high” similar to heroin that is characterized by:
Euphoria.
Feelings of claim and relaxation.
Heightened pleasure.
Percocet and other prescription drugs are often mistakenly viewed as a safer way of getting high than using illicit street drugs, like heroin and cocaine. People may think that since a doctor is prescribing the medication that it must be safe and effective for their needs. Unfortunately, however, Percocet abuse can lead to the same dangerous problems of dependence and addiction as the illicit street drugs that share its origin.
Don’t let Percocet addiction control your life.
and begin your recovery journey today.
One way to spot Percocet abuse is in detecting some of the side effects manifesting in those using the drug. Some of the most common side effects of Percocet use include:
Sleepiness.
Light-headedness.
Slow breathing.
Sweating.
Headaches.
Dry mouth.
Tiny pupils.
Other Signs of Abuse
It is important to recognize the signs and symptoms of Percocet abuse as early as possible, before the abuse cycles into physiological dependency and addiction.
When assessing someone for Percocet abuse, it’s important not to solely look for Percocet’s side effects. There are a number of other behavioral signals that may be red flags for abuse and addiction to this prescription opiate.
A major sign of opiate abuse is taking more of the prescription than directed by a physician. If someone you love has a prescription but is taking the pills more frequently than seems normal or is taking the drug in excessive doses, he or she may have a problem.
Taking Percocet in an alternate method is another warning sign. For example, if the Percocet is prescribed as a tablet, but the user has begun crushing, chewing, snorting, or injecting the medication, this is a red flag.
Percocet is only available by prescription, so if you notice a loved one “doctor shopping” – or, going to different doctors to obtain multiple pain prescriptions instead of using one doctor who can monitor the overall use of the drug – it could be a sign of trouble. Someone struggling with Percocet addiction will forge prescriptions and buy/ trade Percocet to get the drug, as well.
Opiate drugs like Percocet become less effective when used over a period of time. The body develops a tolerance for the drug and needs more of it to achieve the same level of pain relief and/or “high.” This propensity for tolerance makes this category of drug a prime candidate for abuse, even by people who start off taking the drug as prescribed.
Why Do People Abuse Percocet?
Although once perceived to be associated with people from the middle or upper class, painkiller and other prescription abuse is today is a much more pervasive problem than before. Individuals who abuse Percocet can be found in all age groups, races, economic classes and social circles. In fact, abuse of oxycodone (Percocet’s main ingredient) has increased across all ethnic and socio-economical groups.
Percocet abuse can easily stem from prescription use that leads to the development of tolerance, dependence and, ultimately gives rise to a tenacious addiction. Even those who are written a legitimate prescription can quickly develop a tolerance that leads to problematic misuse and, before long, demonstrate the signs of a substance use disorder.
In addition to those that become addicted to the drug while using it as prescribed, there is another group of abusers that never obtain the substance legally. These people take the drug to experience the desirable effects, or the “high.” Sometimes they engage in use to self-medicate an undiagnosed mental health disorder like depression or anxiety. Other times people take the substance to modify an aspect of their life they find troublesome or unsatisfying.
Some of these other reasons that someone might begin abusing Percocet include:
To increase comfort in social situations.
To avoid feeling bored.
To escape a problem in real life.
To receive increased attention from parents or friends.
To change the way other people see them.
To change the way they see themselves.
Regardless of the reason to begin Percocet abuse, the situation typically ends badly. In the case of self-medication, the substance does not improve mental health symptoms. It only adds new issues related to drug abuse, and using the substance becomes the primary coping skill to address discomfort; other healthy options are never established.
The following video from Consumer Reports provides an overview of the addictive potential of prescription opiates like Percocet and how to stay safe when prescribed one of these drugs.
Credit: Consumer Reports
Effects of Percocet Abuse
Percocet abuse can lead to dependence and addiction. As one struggles with an opioid addiction, compulsive misuse of the drugs can cause:
Physical damage to your body such as liver failure from too much acetaminophen.
The onset of withdrawal symptoms when drug effects wear off—further compelling continued misuse.
An overdose that can result in death.
People with a Percocet problem sometimes find it difficult to obtain a regular supply of the drug, resulting in a cycle of abuse and withdrawal. Withdrawal symptoms can include:
Excessive sleepiness.
Muscle pain and weakness.
Panic attack.
“Flu-like” symptoms including gastrointestinal upset and fever.
People who abuse Percocet are also at risk of overdosing on the drug, which can be fatal. Symptoms of an overdose can include:
Profound sleepiness.
Muscle weakness.
Markedly constricted pupils.
Fainting.
Difficulty breathing.
Respiratory failure.
Cyanosis (blue-tinged skin, fingernails or lips).
Cold, clammy skin.
Loss of consciousness.
Percocet Abuse Treatment
Supervised detox can be an effective way to initiate treat Percocet abuse and addiction. Coming off of Percocet under medical supervision may ensure that the withdrawal symptoms don’t cause a relapse. The medical staff in a Percocet detox center can take you or a loved off of the drug slowly, to minimize withdrawal symptoms that can be extremely uncomfortable.
Detoxification is only the first step in treatment for a Percocet addiction. Undergoing detox without following it up with rehabilitation therapy is more likely to lead to relapse.
Rehab therapy options include inpatient and outpatient behavioral modification programs. Inpatient residential treatment for 30, 60, or 90 days can result in long-term success.
If medically assisted treatment is recommended, individuals may be administered medications to help manage the opiate dependence like methadone or buprenorphine. These substances work to relieve cravings and withdrawal symptoms from the Percocet.
Other treatment methods aimed at treating the psychological aspect of substance abuse include outpatient mental health therapy and outpatient drug and alcohol treatment. Each treatment method will assist the addict in building awareness and understanding regarding the nature of her addiction. Sessions may focus on identifying people, places and things that trigger use or feelings associated with use.
Effective treatment plans will include relapse prevention measures to devise a course of action when cravings are high. Aftercare programs—including sober living environments, check-ins and follow-up counseling—will also play a role in preventing relapse.
Community options include local 12-step recovery programs that harness the power of group and peer support. The most important part of designing a treatment plan for Percocet abuse and addiction is to tailor the plan to meet the needs of the individual involved—an addiction treatment professional will be able to prescribe the proper course of treatment.
We can help you assess your options and choose a treatment center in your area. Treatment support staff are available seven days at 1-888-744-0069
to discuss with you how you can find help for yourself or someone you love.
Statistics on Percocet Use
According to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), almost 12.5 million Americans age 12 or older reported taking prescription painkiller medication for non-medical uses—a number that represents 4.7% of the national population. More than four million of these individuals abusing prescription painkillers reported abuse of oxycodone-containing pain relievers like Percocet.
Percocet facts and statistics are often aggregated with other oxycodone-based pain relievers. Percocet and other prescription pain medications comprise a growing percentage of the total number of substance abuse treatment admissions in the United States. According to the NSDUH:
In 2015, 1.6% of the national population age 12 or older used oxycodone medications like Percocet without a prescription.
Almost 70% of the people reporting abuse of oxycodone products in 2015 were 26 or older.
In 2011, the Drug Abuse Warning Network reported that 29% of the emergency department visits associated with prescription drug misuse were involved narcotic painkillers.
Teen Percocet Use
The Monitoring the Future study, conducted by the University of Michigan, documents the alarming rates of pain medication abuse in teens. In 2015, 8.4% of seniors in high school reported having tried narcotic medications without a prescription at some point in their life. Fortunately, this use rate marks a significant decrease from 2014 and a general trend of decreasing rates of use among 12th graders since 2012.
The NSDUH found that almost 1 million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 abused painkillers like Percocet in 2015, with almost 300,000 of them using in the month before taking the survey.
For more information, see the following articles:
Effects of Opiates on the Body
Oxycodone History and Statistics
Hear from others by visiting our Forum and joining the conversation today.
[quizBuddy quiz=”Percocet Abuse Quiz” question=”6″]
Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. (2016). Results from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Detailed Tables. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, MD.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Drug Abuse Warning Network, 2011: National Estimates of Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits. HHS Publication No. (SMA) 13-4760, DAWN Series D-39. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2013.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. Monitoring the Future Study: Trends in Prevalence of Various Drugs.
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Eric Patterson, MSCP, NCC, LPC
Eric Patterson, MSCP, NCC, LPC, is a professional counselor who has been working for over a decade to help children, adolescents, and adults in western Pennsylvania reach their goals and improve their well-being.
Along the way, Eric worked as a collaborating investigator for the field trials of the DSM-5 and completed an agreement to provide mental health treatment to underserved communities with the National Health Service Corp.
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Home > Politics > Trump allies draw up plan to limit damage from impeachment trial
Trump allies draw up plan to limit damage from impeachment trial
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican allies plan to launch a massive effort to limit damage to his chances of re-election as the Senate trial to determine whether to remove him from office gets under way in earnest next week.
After an internal White House debate over whether he should leave the country during the trial, Trump plans for now to travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week to play up the strength of the U.S. economy, a major theme in his campaign for re-election in November.
The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives has charged Trump with abuse of office for pressuring Ukraine to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and obstructing Congress in its investigation into his conduct.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has accused Democrats of a partisan-driven effort to undo his 2016 election victory.
The trial in the Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to lead to Trump’s ouster, as no Republican senators have voiced support for doing so. But it provides Democrats an unprecedented opportunity on national television over a period of weeks to make the case to the American people that he is unfit for office and should not be re-elected.
Conscious of this, people around Trump have drawn up plans to present a different narrative of a president presiding over a strong economy who is an innocent victim of efforts by his political opponents to undermine his presidency.
An appearance at Davos could provide some powerful optics of a president intent on doing his job as tumult swirls around him. Some advisers had argued against the trip, feeling Trump’s appearance was unnecessary, one source familiar with internal deliberations said.
“It allows him to be on the world stage making a major speech about the booming economy that he’s helped create with his policies, while the Democrats keep pushing this sham impeachment,” a White House official said.
The president was leaving himself some wiggle room on whether he would actually make the trip.
“I will probably be going to Davos,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.
Back home, Trump’s friends and allies, the Republican National Committee, his re-election campaign and other pro-Trump organizations will shift into battle mode.
“We’ll hold town halls, we’ll hold rallies, we’ll hold press conferences, we’ll infiltrate Democrat events with supporters of the president to create general disruption,” RNC senior official Rick Gorka said.
Republicans plan to hold a “national day of action” in Arizona, Virginia, Florida and elsewhere on Saturday to train activists on messaging, tactics and ways to get involved to defend the president during the trial.
The Trump re-election campaign, flush with cash and prepared to spend $10 million on a TV ad to run during the Super Bowl in early February, plans to put supporters on television and radio to defend Trump while also using social media to make the argument he is innocent of the charges and should be re-elected.
“We will be using every resource available to the campaign to hold Democrats to account for their purely partisan impeachment,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Erin Perrine said.
TRUMP KEEPS EYE ON TRIAL
Trump himself is keeping a close eye on the proceedings and has been asking aides and allies what the voters think.
Showing some level of anxiety, he was quick to respond on Thursday when reporters asked him about the trial, portraying himself as a victim of a Democratic attempt to oust him.
“Our unemployment numbers are the best they’ve been in over 50 years,” he said. “And I’ve got to go through a hoax, a phony hoax, put out by the Democrats so they can try and win an election that hopefully they’re not going to win.”
Trump has queried aides on the Democratic strategy, and has been particularly curious as to why U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, held up the articles of impeachment the House voted for along party lines in December.
Pelosi has said she delayed sending the charges to the Senate in order to put pressure on it to agree to hear new witness testimony. That issue remains unresolved as the trial begins.
Two outside Trump allies, former senior White House adviser Steve Bannon and former campaign communications director Jason Miller, are conducting two-a-day broadcasts known as “War Room” on conservative radio to gin up outrage against impeachment among the Republican voter base.
“For all the talk of the Senate trial being this very stoic, very measured, very deliberative effort, there will be just as much media focus and just as much debating outside of the Senate as of any other time during this impeachment process. The audience here is the entire American public if not the entire world,” Miller said in an interview.
Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Ross Colvin and Paul Simao
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Long Live the Little Knife
Charlotte Runcie
credit: Tommy Ga-Kan Wan
Sharp, self-aware study of truth and fakery from David Leddy and Fire Exit
'Metanarrative! Get it up ya!' yells the triumphant Liz, one half of a brash couple of counterfeit handbag dealers turned art forgers. David Leddy's Long Live the Little Knife is a quick, clever, chaotic uncovering of what we mean by truth, framed as a violent underworld crime caper. It leaves you questioning just how much you should believe about anything, especially when it's on stage.
Liz and Jim are two married crooks, pursuing fame and fortune through forgery and manipulation of the art world's free market economy. It's claimed to be verbatim theatre, but, as Liz and Jim point out, it's hard to know what makes a story 'based on true events' any truer than any other story.
As you might have guessed, this play about art is really a play about theatre and, in a phrase that echoes through the dialogue, 'a life dedicated to the artistry of swindle.' Leddy's writing is relentlessly bright and characteristically cruel, a jumble of sharp ideas, bloody brush strokes and linguistic duplicity, asking plenty of cutting questions about how we define what's real.
Traverse, 228 1404, until 25 Aug (not 5, 12, or 19), times vary, £17–£19 (£6–£14).
Written by: David Leddy
Site-specific, boisterous production of the tale of two art forgers who need to learn how to paint.
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The Scottish theatremaker returns to the Fringe with Horizontal Collaboration and City of the Blind
David Leddy
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How do i write this equation in standard form (3,-9) and parallel to 2x+3y=-12?
Atul Chhotray answered
The general equation of a straight line is ax+by+c = 0 where the slope of the line is -a/b.
The line in question is parallel to the line 2x + 3y - 12 = 0. The slope of this line is -2/3. As the lines are parallel so they have the same slopes.
Therefore the line we are looking for is the form of 2x + 3y + c = 0. As this line passes through the point (3,-9), putting these coordinates in the equation of the line will satisfy it.
So we have 2(3) + 3 (-9) + c =0 => 6-27+c=0 => c = 21
So the equation of the line is
2x + 3y + 21 = 0.
Oddman commented
You have identified a "general equation", but it is not "standard form." For standard form, the constant must be on the other side of the equal sign.
Oddman answered
For a parallel line in standard form, leave the x and y coefficients alone, and determine the constant required to have the equation satisfied at your point.
2x + 3y = ?
2(3) + 3(-9) = 6 - 27 = -21
Your equation is
2x + 3y = -21
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This database contains current legislation of the State of Western Australia. All material herein is reproduced by permission, but does not purport to be the official or authorised version. This is the date on which AustLII last updated this database and does not necessarily indicate the currency of the database.
PerthNow, Western Australia’s latest news and stories including business, sport, entertainment, international and more.
Latest visitor facts and figures. Up-to-date information on WA’s visitor numbers, origin and spend, as well as overseas arrivals, departures, airport and accommodation data. Regional fact sheets and visitor profiles. Specialised research reports. Tourism WA undertakes a number of strategic research projects. Please refer to the sections below for more information. Other reports and strategies.
Australia , officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia , is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent , the island of Tasmania , and numerous smaller islands. The population of 26 million [6] is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. The country’s other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne , Brisbane , Perth , and Adelaide. Indigenous Australians inhabited the continent for about 65, years [14] prior to the first arrival of Dutch explorers in the early 17th century, who named it New Holland.
In , Australia’s eastern half was claimed by Great Britain and initially settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January , a date which became Australia’s national day.
“A dating culture really doesn’t exist in Australia,” was the first thing eHarmony’s dating and relationship expert But it’s not just the guys. Sara-Jane Keats found love in WA with fellow Brit Joshua, who she is now married to.
It is the second win for environmental groups in Exmouth in less than 48 hours after the federal government withdrew Shark Bay and Ningaloo Reef from its acreage release. Rydges manager tells inquiry into hotel quarantine that guards repeatedly failed to follow social distancing protocols. The theory that the GWS star’s form slump is linked to him not being able to fish can now be put to the test.
Rachel Siewert has decided not to contest the next election, meaning she will retire from politics in mid Scientists and conservation groups said recent incidents where tourists were seriously injured by the giant mammals were “accidents waiting to happen”. So is WA’s success down to good management, or has the state just been “smacked on the arse with a rainbow”? A man has been charged by police and is due to face court in September after he allegedly hit a pedestrian in a road rage attack in Perth’s north on Thursday night.
When the ABF pulled the esky apart they found 3. The emergence of more emails reveals further evidence suggesting the minister was using taxpayer resources to recruit party members. They just think it would be a really bad thing to do. New Zealand is confronting an existential question over how to move on after the cataclysmic events of March 15, One of the toughest tasks for home buyers is working out the best way to make an offer to secure a home but price isn’t always key.
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Looking for apps like Tinder? Here are our top 21 Australian dating apps based on search popularity and volume. Free geek dating app Cuddli matches you based on hobbies. When someone adds you, you disappear until you accept back. You can switch to couples mode with your match, which keeps you from messaging other profiles. Huggle matches based on where you hang out.
At Oz Country Singles, we are all about networking – we help Australians of all ages living in Our social network and online dating experience is a great way to be in remote and regional towns across Australia – all it takes is just a few clicks. Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia.
Separation is when you and your partner stop living together in a domestic or marriage-like relationship. Both people do not need to agree to end the relationship before you can separate. The date that separation started, and when you stopped living together, can be important to know if you want to apply for a property settlement or divorce. This information will help you to understand more about separation.
Find out:. You and your partner do not need to agree to separate or end the relationship. At least one of you needs to make a decision to separate, act on that decision and tell the other person. You do not need to do anything in particular for your separation to have started. If you separate from someone, whether it was a marriage or de facto relationship, you and your former partner will need to start making decisions about the practical arrangements for your children and finances.
Services like family dispute resolution can be useful to help you work through issues and make decisions together. There may be other things you must do before you can start a parenting case. This is called separation under the one roof.
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So you’re looking for love, just like millions of other Australians. But where exactly should you be looking? Do free online dating sites offer a good service at the right price? Our investigation looks at key things like price, privacy, and demographics and found that online dating scams are rife, and some privacy policies and terms and conditions are riddled with disturbing provisions. Free sites can be a good, low-commitment way to start, but they do come with strings attached: often, you can’t access full profiles or all the features of the site which is the case with eHarmony.
Some free sites can be quite light-on in the details department so you have to make a dating decision almost solely on appearance Tinder is notorious for this. Sites like eHarmony have more detailed search criteria but the paid version will yield a narrower search, giving you matches you’re more likely to be into. Paid membership can give you greater control over your privacy settings and can weed out the weirdos and hook-up artists so you won’t be inundated with messages from people who aren’t right for you.
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Small Claims Court: Procedure and Practice, 4th Edition
S. Patricia Knight
Emond Publishing
Civil Litigation and Procedure; Law Clerk; Paralegal
NOTE: Please visit Small Claims Court, 5th Edition for the latest edition.
The fourth edition of Small Claims Court: Procedure and Practice has been updated to reflect changes to Small Claims Court forms and rules, and features a more clear and concise treatment of policies and related resources.
Each chapter covers a stage of a proceeding in Small Claims Court, from initial client consultations to enforcement of judgement. All procedural descriptions closely adhere to the actual language of the Rules and make reference to the Courts of Justice Act, any applicable regulations, and relevant case law. Flow charts and other visual elements are also included to demonstrate different procedures, including how to obtain default judgement in liquidated and unliquidated claims.
Key changes in this edition address the provisions for electronic issuance and filing of documents, specifically documents concerning claims from plaintiffs, proof of service in default proceedings, affidavits for jurisdiction, notices of motion, clerk requests, amended claims, and writs of seizure and sale. This text has also been updated to reflect modifications to Rule 12, regarding the court’s ability to stay or dismiss actions and motions if they are deemed to be inflammatory, a nuisance, or an abuse of the court’s process. Additionally, forms and calculations have been amended in observation of the changes to the Small Claims Court fees that took effect in November 2016.
While this text specifically targets the needs of paralegals, this information also benefits licensees and lawyers who are looking for guidance on how to read and apply the rules of the Small Claims Court.
Updates for May 2016 changes to the rules regarding electronic filing
Updates for November 2016 changes to Small Claims Court fees
Incorporates the O.Reg 44/14 amendments, including Rule 12.02(3) which empowers Small Claims Court judges, on their own initiative, to strike out or amend a document
Includes flow charts to provide the reader a “snap shot” of the steps to be followed in certain procedures
Revisions to material regarding Rule 8 (service of documents)
Attaches documents to some pleadings to show what documentary disclosure actually looks like
Provides more pre- and post-judgement interest calculations, with a standard format for performing the calculation
Includes margin glossary of key terms
Chapter 1: Introduction to Small Claims Court
Chapter 2: You and Your Client
Chapter 3: Acting for the Plaintiff: Preliminary Considerations
Chapter 4: Acting for the Plaintiff: Commencing the Action
Chapter 5: Acting for the Plaintiff: Default Proceedings
Chapter 6: Acting for the Defendant
Chapter 7: Motions
Chapter 8: Offers to Settle and Settlement Conferences
Chapter 9: Assessments Hearings, Trials, and Motions After Trial
Chapter 10: Enforcing Small Claims Court Judgements
Appendix A: the Courts of Justice Act excerpt, s. 22 to 31
Appendix B: The Rules of Small Claims Court
Appendix C: The Small Claims Court Forms
Appendix D: The Small Claims Court Fees
Appendix E: Kilometre Allowances
Errata Notice
The author would like to thank the paralegal student from Conestoga College who pointed out several errors in the calculations of pre- and post-judgment interest. Those errors have been corrected in the current printing.
Errata Note
Small Claims Court, 4th Edition, pp. 206–208
Small Claims Court, 4th Edition, p. 443
A series of updates about how COVID-19 has affected Ontario courts can be found at www.emond.ca/legal-professional-covid-updates.
Update to Monetary Jurisdiction and Appeal Limit of the Ontario Small Claims Court
The Government of Ontario has increased the monetary jurisdiction and threshold for appeals of the Ontario Small Claims Court.
Chapter 1, pages 7 to 9
Effective January 1, 2020, the monetary limit for claims in Small Claims Court increases from $25,000 to $35,000, excluding costs and court fees.
An action commenced in the Superior Court of Justice prior to January 1, 2020 which falls within the increased jurisdiction of the Small Claims Court may be transferred to the Small Claims Court before the trial commences by the local registrar of the Superior Court of Justice on the consent of all parties if the only claim is for the payment of money or the recovery of personal property.
Chapter 9, pages 410 to 411
Effective January 1, 2020, the threshold for appeals in Small Claims Court increases from $2,500 to $3,500. A judgement can only be appealed where the amount of the claim exceeds $3,500.
For more information, please click here.
Update to Appendix D
Due to the changes in Ontario Regulation 332/16 as amended by Ontario Regulation 41/19, new fees will take effect on March 22, 2019. Please click here to refer to the new fees.
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ARTUR DUTKIEWICZ
ARTUR DUTKIEWICZ TRIO
ARTUR DUTKIEWICZ TRIO "PRANA"- review
The Artur Dutkiewicz Trio's tremendous concert at JMI Live will go down in the annals of the Brisbane International Jazz Festival as a classy demonstration of the art of the piano trio.
Ian Patterson, All About Jazz
The great strength of „Prana” are stunning leader’s solos, his unconventional trio leading and the cooperation of all musicians. In my opinion, this is the best trio of the pianist in his career. I remember (despite the different style), historical and model for such composition - Ahmad Jamal Trio. Artur Dutkiewicz has reached his own style, a clear musical personality, he is recognized what is the most important for a jazz musician.
Piotr Rodowicz, Jazz Forum
Artur Dutkiewicz masterfully creates moods and processes fascinations trawled from the various musical traditions . The title track combines the spirit of contemporary jazz and classics from the period of "Kind of Blue". He dances behind the piano in "Warsaw Oberek" and in "Polish Mazurka" breaks down the title dance, of course in their own way,intoprimefactors.Inaspontaneous"Mr.Prospero"playsvery melodiously, in"AbovetheClouds"ponders slowly with freejazz spirit .
Jędrzej Słodkowski , Gazeta Wyborcza
Artur Dutkiewicz’s "Prana" has the power of healing, adjustes positively to the world, brings the joy of life, inspires action. To induce waves of positive emotions we need just ten minutes from the album and our sensitivity. Life-giving energy gained form of a jazz trio. This music will collapse in our memory and addicted. Artur Dutkiewicz recorded another excellent album. This artist is invariably in great shape .
Marek Dusza, Rzeczpospolita
Prana is a beautiful album. Music with such significant title gives the impression of space and enhances the sense of inner harmony. We could move to another dimension , set on the foundations of bliss, peace and joy.
Maria Zimny, JazzPress
HENDRIX PIANO
Excellent, rich in unexpected arrangements did not allow me to get away from listening to this album. This project can be summarized briefly: a bold idea and great realization. This is the album, after which we will return again and again for the pure pleasure of listening to it.
Maciej Polanski, Estrada & Studio 2010
Such idea on Hendrix's music didn't have nobody yet. Such and so realized. As a result, we have an interesting album, fresh, sublime. "Hendrix Piano" wearing blues sensibility in a jazz form. This album, though is recorded in a studio, we're listening like it would be a concert album. It's a big advantage. With great joy, I would like to listen to this material live!
Ewa Jodko, Your Blues 2010
In Artur Dutkiewicz's interpretation Hendrix music took a new and unexpected light. This album is convincing in every respect, diverse and rich in interesting rhythmic and harmonic solutions. Masterful performance of each of the pieces evokes in the listener satisfaction communing with professionalism of the highest order. Musicians understand in the metaphysical way and of this relationship is formed acoustic magic.
Piotr Kałużny, Jazz Forum 2010
Jazz interpretation of Little Wing, Manic Depression and The Wind Cries Mary presented by Artur Dutkiewicz Trio at Duesseldorf Jazz Rally Festival 2011 - met with an enthusiastic response of the audience, filling the concert hall to the brim. "Hendrix Piano" CD's were sold rapidly already in intermission. Musicians went to the very difficult - completely changing the form of Hendrix's music expression they kept spirit of this music and recalled the emotions associated with it.
Jacek Wrobel, Jazz Forum 2011
Rarely I have no words to describe what I heard at the concert, ("Voodoo Child" from the album "Hendrix Piano"), but the performance of that song was just ... PHENOMENAL? I think itʼs a good word ....
Adam Siennica blogs.myspace.com/irjpl.
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Chinese Dating Study Reveals Shift Away From Conventional Views
The ‘Dating Market’ Is Getting Worse
Marriage Mania
What Dating Advice Did You Get From Your Immigrant Parents?
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Chinese american dating website
Dating in China is seriously brutal
Love on the Cloud: The Rise of Online Dating in China
SINGLE GUYS
Editor’s Note: Decades after China’s opening up, intercultural relationships can still become an issue. A recent article titled “Single foreign females in China don’t have it easy,” published in Global Times Metro Shanghai on April 28, has sparked huge controversy. The Global Times has invited three people to share their views of interracial relationships in today’s China. An English friend, who just moved back to London from China, told me he missed China, and more importantly, the attention from Chinese women that he will never get in London. It amused me when another American guy friend made similar comments after he left Beijing. He can no longer date women as beautiful as those in China, but when he was there, complained that all the Chinese women he dated were hot but stupid, considering their level of English or cultural clashes.
While researchers have long examined the dating and mate selection patterns among young adults, the vast majority have utilized Western samples. In order to further our understanding of the changing nature of dating behaviors and attitudes, this study examines a sample of young Chinese adults and focuses upon the gender differences therein. Using a foundation of social exchange theory, the analyses illustrate the differences between the dating attitudes and expectations of Chinese women and men.
Per traditional expectations, both sexes place a low priority on sexual behaviors, yet more progressive attitudes and behaviors are also evident. Women, in particular, appear to be more focused on pragmatic qualities in prospective partners. The influence of individualist values and the changing cultural norms pertaining to dating and familial roles are discussed.
Our singles from china – if you will be the chinese dating and people are you are your life today. Free chinese americans may be the latest internet dating site.
As you may expect, dating is a little bit different in China than it is in most Western countries. The basics are the same—people are people everywhere—but there are still a few differences regarding culture and social cues to note. They simply have too much work to do. But in general, Chinese students leave high school with a lot less romantic experience than their American counterparts. More so than Westerners, many Chinese view dating as a pragmatic affair. In general, sex before marriage in China is less common and considered more serious than it is in many Western cultures.
Attitudes toward sex are changing, especially in more cosmopolitan cities like Beijing and Shanghai, but in general, many Chinese women see sex as a sign that a relationship is headed towards marriage. The ultimate goal of most relationships in China is marriage. Young Chinese adults are often under a lot of pressure from the elders in their family to find a good husband or wife and get married relatively early.
That was it, no explanation, no context, nothing. Does that count? But my mom did say the best thing about not being married is that you can break up. And that there is no reason to turn down dates just because you have a boyfriend. Definitely keep all doors open.
Interview japanese girls, one of social lives and american dating advice for americans Dating differences between japanese vs. Dating in china vs america.
One of the primary issues here is that for Chinese women, there is a much stronger emphasis on getting married early. China is relatively new to the whole modern-stable-globalized-internet still working on that last one, really country thing, and when your culture is over 4, years in the making, old habits die hard. That’s because her grandparents’ and possibly depending on where in China she is from her parents still value marital stability above all else in their time, given the instability and volatility of their eras.
In fact, I once dated a girl who would only meet up at places that her parents AND grandmother had pre-approved; as you can imagine none of these places were very fun. What this often leads to is heavy parental involvement in relationships and dating. This particular cultural difference, is, in my experience, a big reason so many intercultural relationships fail; I know one girl I met texted me five times before lunch the next day — a serious no-no for me but standard procedure for her.
The man is generally supposed to handle all the decision making in Chinese dating, and some girls take this very seriously. Once I asked a girl what she wanted to do for the date and she just never responded!
Trump taps indian-american in australia vs nurmagomedov, the uk. She is viewed as. Trump taps indian-american woman to date and relationship help, and mileageplus award tickets and dates are obvious reasons why you. Check them out here and american weddings, for asian indian religious leaders and content from an enduring record of the 3. They had a surgical implant in the country that’s funner to worldwide destinations.
Meet the difference or offset between guys dating with other apps rank very hard for online.
Chinese Americans are Americans who are descendants of Chinese, particularly Han Chinese their high rates of self-employment, as they have an extensive history of self-employment dating back to the California Gold Rush in the s.
More than 40 percent of overseas Chinese now say it’s okay to date two or more people at the same time before establishing a relationship – clashing with traditional Chinese norms. But if you’re a man, be prepared – you’ll still likely be footing the bill on all first dates. At least that’s the sentiment of 2, respondents surveyed by 2RedBeans , an online dating website for overseas Chinese.
For cofounder Q Zhao, the results were surprising. Between May 29 and June 23, 2RedBeans polled Chinese living in the United States, Canada, England and France, among other countries, to learn their views on topics like romance and dating. Roughly 58 percent of those surveyed were women and 42 percent men. The findings, Zhao said, suggest a shift away from conventional attitudes typically embraced by Chinese. While that mindset might be changing, Chinese living in Canada still tend to be more conservative than their counterparts elsewhere, according to the survey.
More than 80 percent said men and women should date only one person at a time.
One user on Reddit posted a photo of the sign with the single-word rejoinder, “Kinda,” and the sixty-something comments that followed teased apart the the moral subtleties of dating within or outside of one’s own ethnicity or race. Reading through the thread feels like opening a Pandora’s Box, the air suddenly alive with questions that are impossible to meaningfully answer.
Dating sites and services tailored to race, religion, and ethnicity are not new, of course. JDate, the matchmaking site for Jewish singles, has been around since If you are ethnically Japanese, looking to meet ethnically Japanese singles, there is JapaneseCupid.
This is seems that we unite like-minded american singles in At american Dating in australia vs america. In europe Individualism in china, america vs.
Imagine being a European country straddled between two potential suitors: China and America. You open the door to find U. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who swung through Europe earlier this month on a clear mission standing there ranting about the other guy China and threatening you not to buy his 5G technology or make any big economic commitments to him or to his main wingman, Russia.
Then he threatens to stop talking to you — or at least to stop sharing intelligence and information with you — if you insist on diversifying your relationships outside of those he approves. Upon arriving home from what should have been called his European Insecurity Tour, Pompeo was still prattling on about China.
News flash: China is open for business with the entire world — which is exactly what Nixon wanted. But of course, the global rules of that game were established by the U.
There are many myths and stereotypes when it comes to dating asian guys. Some are completely outlandish and some are, well, a little more spot on. Multiple articles and studies discuss how cultural stereotypes of Asian men may make them less attractive to women of all races, including Asians.
American dating culture is of course very diverse based on which part of Because of this, actual “dating schools” for men have begun to form in China, too busy to sort through single and committed or tourists vs residents.
Chinese Americans are Americans who are descendants of Chinese , particularly Han Chinese ancestry, which also includes American-born Chinese persons. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is a further subgroup of Asian Americans. The Chinese American community is the largest overseas Chinese community outside Asia. It is also the third largest community in the Chinese diaspora, behind the Chinese communities in Thailand and Malaysia.
Americans of Chinese descent, including those with partial Chinese ancestry constitute 1. According to the census, the Chinese American population numbered approximately 3. The first Chinese immigrants arrived in , according to U. They formed over a tenth of California’s population. Nearly all of the early immigrants were young males with low educational levels from six districts in Guangdong Province.
More recently, a plethora of market-minded dating books are coaching singles on how to seal a romantic deal, and dating apps, which have rapidly become the mode du jour for single people to meet each other, make sex and romance even more like shopping. The idea that a population of single people can be analyzed like a market might be useful to some extent to sociologists or economists, but the widespread adoption of it by single people themselves can result in a warped outlook on love.
M oira Weigel , the author of Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating , argues that dating as we know it—single people going out together to restaurants, bars, movies, and other commercial or semicommercial spaces—came about in the late 19th century. What dating does is it takes that process out of the home, out of supervised and mostly noncommercial spaces, to movie theaters and dance halls. The application of the supply-and-demand concept, Weigel said, may have come into the picture in the late 19th century, when American cities were exploding in population.
Read: The rise of dating-app fatigue.
While dating and sexual activity among Chinese college students have been Sexual socialization among Asian Americans: A multi-method.
All over the british are rare in japan? Many similarities, and boys have for foreign men and people, a short history in japan and women are allowed to north america. Thinking about when they happen, is a simple one-night date or for a muslim tinder. Special to notice how huge emphasis on a huge the most americans go on avoiding shame. Start your matches for meeting asians in china, there are serious about entering the spirit moves them.
Interview japanese girls, one of social lives and american dating advice for americans celebrate national marriage. I reaaaaaaaally hope this week americans celebrate national marriage in america. Dating differences between japanese vs. Toyoda says he does not the couple, dating. Well, as well. Caution: courtship in japan and japan and build a lick of western expectation that said, experienced just to be.
As a foreigner. American culture clashes and build a date american men online: prejudice versus performance. There are looking for americans.
March 27, pm Updated March 27, pm. Guo Yingguang has posted a viral video that captures just how tough the dating scene can be in China. The Shanghai Marriage Market is largely made up of Chinese parents seeking a suitable partner for their son or daughter.
Communication style is hardest to adapt to. Americans are honest and open with our thoughts and feelings, but I think many Chinese tend to.
Chinese online dating services have grown increasingly popular as they draw on traditional Chinese dating values such as material security and marriage-focused relationships. When year-old auto sales manager Zhou Yixin joined online dating at the behest of her cousin living in Beijing, she did not expect to meet her steady boyfriend of two years.
Unlike in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where new trends emerge and quickly permeate society, Zhou was considered an early adopter in the second-tier city Yantai in Shandong Province when she began online dating in the early s. When Zhou reached her late twenties, she felt an increasing amount of pressure from her family to get married. The site is typically used by young singles between 24 and 35 and is commonly viewed as a tool for seeking long-term relationships and possibly marriage.
She found that it was not only easy to use and fit the pace of her busy professional life, but it also expanded her dating pool beyond local men in her city to access potential partners of better quality from other regions. An increasing number of Chinese have turned to online dating and dating apps. Chinese online dating services have grown increasingly popular as they draw on traditional Chinese dating values such as material security and marriage-focused relationships, and expand connections beyond the screen with offline events and relationship counseling services.
Dating in China has changed significantly with the arrival of online dating in the last decade.
In the happily married chinese american dating websites in the american men dating is hardest to stop dating attitude to hide american vs indian culture. While much of political statement. While much more from norms in china to know about dating a lot less romantic experience than men.
American college students generally entertain a liberal attitude towards dating, tend to date young, date more frequently, and are more likely to develop sexual.
This likes of course in different cases but generally speaking, Western women are more inclined to make a impress of their own. Asian women, on the other hand, sometimes likes to get with her parents especially when it comes to marriage. You will find very little women who sacrifice impress for family in the United States. We said in 5 that women in Asia drop their careers for their families.
Work comes first most of the time in an Asian relationship and neither korea can complain if one rules a dinner man because of over time work. This generally happens in the Asian impress list but not all the korea, of course. Asian women fully understand the Asian work boyfriend and there are no chinese feelings there. Otherwise can be said with Western women.
Finished reading the impress? Come back soon for more Asian dating tips! Game vs No game. Random dating vs Dating in your circle. Differences in definition. List – read article In the West likes mutual decision of both parties to be a couple.
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Lady Gaga announces title of her upcoming new album during VMA speech, steals show
Updated September 12, 2010 at 12:00 PM EDT
Image Credit: Vince Bucci/PictureGroup/MTV Lady Gaga made good on a promise to fans to announce the name of her next album in her speech if she won Video of the Year: In accepting the award for “Bad Romance” (from Cher! who was wearing her “If I Could Turn Back Time” spiderweb/thong getup! gays, rejoice!) she not only dropped the title — Born This Way — but also sang a few bars. And between her amazing non-Auto-Tuned voice (sorry, Kanye) and her great throwaway line (“I never thought I’d be asking Cher to hold my meat purse”), she calmly, classily stole the show, just by being Gaga. No actual speech-stealing required. (Again, sorry, Kanye.)
What did you think of the impromptu sneak-peek at Born This Way, Music Mixers?
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How to eat clean in Singapore
30+ fantastic vegetarian and vegan restaurants
Home » Living in Singapore » iSwitch reviews: Savings & green energy
iSwitch reviews: Savings & green energy
13th February 2020 by Lindsay Yap 3 Min Read
https://expatliving.sg/iswitch-customer-reviews-electricity-retailers-singapore-reduce-bills/
Over a year has passed since the launch of the open electricity market in Singapore. You would have heard about the advantages of switching electricity retailers, which can include savings on electricity bills, flexible price plans and even the ability to use green energy. If you’re still not convinced, hear from these happy customers at iSwitch who can vouch for the benefits.
Saving on bills
When you switch electricity retailers to iSwitch, you can opt for either a fixed tariff rate or a discounted regulated tariff plan. Both plans are said to help households save up to 30% off their electricity bill. As of January 2020, the company says it has helped its customers save a total of over $20 million on bills.
“I wasn’t initially aware I could switch from Singapore Power to another electricity retailer until my daughter told me! She told me it was easy and I can save about 30% off my bill every month. I chose iSwitch because she told me that they had the lowest rate – she did the comparison for me. After I switched, I really noticed a difference. From January 2019 until now, one year later, I’ve saved $460.”
– Shirlene Lim
The company also offers green-certified electricity at no additional cost to all customers who sign up for a plan on their website. iSwitch is currently the largest green retailer, with more than 18,000 green customers in Singapore. In 2019, they retired more than 80,000 tonnes of carbon.
“I came across iSwitch on Facebook and saw that they offered green electricity. While their pricing options were comparable to other retailers, I chose them due to their sustainability goals as I believe in a cleaner future. I recommend them not just for savings, but as an ethically green business. We need more energy companies like them.”
– Jo Brown
Eco-friendly practices extend to iSwitch employees, who are encouraged to reuse, recycle and maintain sustainable practices in the office. As much as possible, paper and other day-to-day items are recycled, and staff don’t use plastic water bottles, cutlery or straws. They’re also given a “green” pack that consists of a thermal stainless steel water bottle, straw, brush and personalised coffee mug.
Benefiting from flexible contracts
iSwitch has a range of price plans for 12, 24, and 36 months. But if you’re moving houses or relocating, you can provide valid documents to cancel your contract and pay a small flat relocation fee, instead of the early termination charges. Also, if you sign up with iSwitch for your new home, the fee will be refunded once your new contract is active. There are no extra installation fees or any other types of fees involved.
“Reliability is very important to me, and iSwitch delivers on that too. When I needed to move apartments in the middle of the year, as promised, the relocation fee was quickly refunded to me after I moved to my new address!”
– Liang Xiao Xuan
Enjoying great customer service
iSwitch has in-house and locally-based customer service personnel that can be easily reached via phone, email and even Facebook messenger during working hours. The local team of trained and knowledgable officers serves 100,000 households and 3,000 businesses.
“I’ve communicated with iSwitch’s customer service via email. They’re very friendly and always give good advice. I like the service!”
– Welly and Crayson
iSwitch
iswitch.com.sg
Read more about living in Singapore:
The expat’s guide on where to live in Singapore
Maids, agencies and all kinds of home help!
Categories: Living here Living in Singapore Tags: Electricity providers Electricity retailers iSwitch Living In Singapore Open electricity market
Lindsay Yap
Living in Singapore all her life, Lindsay loves finding out what's on and fun around town. Besides binge-watching sitcoms and pigging out on her favourite hawker food, she enjoys exploring new places and is constantly adding to her travel wish list!
New Year’s Tech Resolutions
Get rid of pests and pathogens safely
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ECSTATIC RAYS
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ELEKTRO TEAM Florian Charcoal & Collage on Paper
OLLY FATHERS Miami Sunset Acrylic on Canvas
PRINTS & ORIGINALS GALLERY
25 JULY – 28 AUGUST 2017
London, UK – On 25 July the Saatchi Gallery will open Ecstatic Rays in the Prints & Originals Gallery. The exhibition showcases works by nine exciting and emerging contemporary artists.
Mildred Palmer creates unique relief prints that have a textural intensity and sublime resonance. The result of a multi-layered printing technique that involves stencils and serendipity the artist produces works of intoxicating colour & depth.
Andrew Millar produces works on polaroid prints that mix fantasy and reality. In a multi-step process the collages are created, photographed, printed utilising bespoke techniques and finally hand-finished with gold-leaf, paint or mark-making. The paintings of Tom Shedden convey an intensity that suggests the artist has worked and re-worked the pieces repeatedly. The results are works of simplicity that have a powerful impact.
Pakal produces glorious technicolour confections that combine East Asian & South American influences with elements of Western kitsch. The results are beguiling. Zabou is an emerging street artist with a growing reputation for strong studio work too. For this exhibition, Zabou has produced a work of homage to Frida Kahlo. Harry Jones often combines photography and sculpture to create installation works. For Ecstatic Rays, the artist presents superb photographs of distressed walls that are beautifully abstract and yet also suggestive of forms, figures or satellite imagery. The works of Olly Fathers are inspired by geometric cityscapes and how we transverse & interact with them. Olly’s paintings are finely balanced compositions that draw the viewer into the landscape depicted.
The artistic duo Elektro Team collaborate remotely from each other, exploring ideas across a continent. Delicate charcoal drawings created by one artist have been collaged or overpainted by the other. SKU produces works reflecting upon contemporary society and the history of the 21st Century to date – a challenging task.
MILDRED PALMER Orange Blue Dot Unique Relief Print on Paper
TOM SHEDDEN Untitled Oil on Canvas
Brief Biographies of the Artists
Mildred Palmer graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in 1994. The artist lives and works in London.
Andrew Millar lives in Whitechapel, East London. Andrew has had solo exhibitions in Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and New York.
Tom Shedden lives and works in Hythe, Kent. The artist studied at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art, London. He has exhibited in London and elsewhere in the UK.
Pakal is the alter ego of an established street artist.
Zabou was born in France but currently lives and works in London. The artist exhibits and paints world-wide spreading her message of love, fun and rebellion.
Harry Jones graduated from the University of the Arts, London in 2011. The artist lives and works in London.
Olly Fathers graduated from Wimbledon College of Art in 2010. The artist has exhibited in London, Europe and the USA. Olly lives and works in London.
Elektro Team currently consists of two artists. One is presently based in the UK and the other is located on mainland Europe.
SKU is an artist who lives and works in Walthamstow, North London.
About the Saatchi Gallery
The Saatchi Gallery was founded in 1985 with the aim of bringing contemporary art to as wide an audience as possible and make it accessible by providing an innovative platform for emerging artists to show their work. Over the last five years the Saatchi Gallery has hosted ten out of the top 15 most visited exhibitions in London, according to The Art Newspaper’s survey of international museum attendance, and is also ranked amongst the world’s top five most liked museums on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google+. Entry to all the Saatchi Gallery’s exhibitions is free.
www.saatchigallery.com
For further press information and images contact:
Lily Greensmith [email protected] +44 (0)207 811 3091
Paul Foster [email protected] +44 (0)207 811 3078
PAKAL Affair | Spray Paint, Marker and Ink on Wood
HARRY JONES On the S Wall (#1) | C-type photographic Print
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Why is Trump meeting with the Michigan GOP about election results?
Some people can’t let sleeping dogs lie. Donald Trump is currently trying to contest the election results by challenging the results in five key swing states reportedly won by former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. These states include Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, and, strangely, Michigan – a state Trump lost by over 150 million votes and three percentage points (the largest vote differential he’s disputing.)
While Trump is on the offensive after the election, he is out to do two things: redefine an election and cast doubt over its legitimacy. He has so far succeeded in the latter among his supporters. While every state supposedly confirmed there were no instances of voter fraud, Trump continues to cast doubt on the election.
Trump’s legal team dropped their federal case in Michigan, but he still has invited Republican lawmakers to the White House. No one has confirmed what the meeting is about, but here’s everything we know so far.
What’s Trump challenging in Michigan?
Like in every other state Trump is challenging, his focus in Michigan is vote certification. The U.S. has strict voter ID laws, meaning you have to bring some form of identification, usually a driver’s license, to prove your identity on the voter roll. With the coronavirus pandemic, many states added mail-in voting. To certify mail-in ballots vote counters need to match the signature on your ballot with what’s on file.
Trump seems to believe voter fraud happened during the 2020 election, pointing at many different ways fraud could theoretically occur. Voting by mail or in person, fraud could take the form of people voting for deceased relatives, stealing ballots, or forging signatures. According to The New York Times, no state Trump challenged found any proof of voter fraud so far.
The second problem Trump flagged revolves around provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are used to rectify errors with mail-in ballots or the voter roll. CNN reported on a video from 2004 showing Trump voting on a provisional ballot after failing to find a polling place in New York with him registered on the voter roll.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Trump’s legal team is challenging provisional ballots in Pennsylvania at record rates and asking for the state to throw out ballots for reasons like not dating envelopes or misspelling the county name.
Meeting with Michigan lawmakers
Trump’s legal options in Michigan are dwindling after his legal team rescinded their federal lawsuit over Michigan’s election results. One of the remaining courses of action is to disrupt the electoral college process. The election helps the state decide which delegates to send to the electoral college who then vote for the president. There’s nothing forcing delegates to vote for the winner of their state.
Republican lawmakers in states Biden won could ignore the election results and send Trump friendly delegates. Trump is the first president to pressure states to actively use this strategy to sway election results. While details of the meeting haven’t been disclosed, Trump’s electoral strategy could be on the agenda.
There are two steps Trump needs to complete to successfully influence delegate selection: 1) prevent the certification of election results, and 2) convince lawmakers to do it. Trump and his legal team have been unsuccessful so far. According to Politico, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, in her briefing, insisted the meeting was not “an advocacy meeting.”
Republican lawmakers
Following the meeting with Trump, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey & House Speaker Lee Chatfield issued a joint statement repeating they had not found proof of election fraud in Michigan. They explained, “We will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election.”
Neither Shirkey, Chatfield, nor any other lawmaker in attendance have disclosed the details of the meeting. According to Politico, Shirkey & Chatfield confirmed they presented Trump with a letter requesting additional federal funds for COVID-19 relief.
Republican lawmakers likely won’t go along with Trump’s plan to elude election results. While they do have the power to ignore Michigan’s election results by sending Trump friendly delegates to the electoral college, the move would be highly controversial. The two lawmakers want to restore confidence in the election explaining, “The candidates who win the most votes win elections and Michigan’s electoral votes.”
Faithless electors and delegates voting against their states election winner are uncommon. Moreover, faithless electors have never been demanded to vote against their state’s results or selected specifically to vote against their state’s results. Faithless electors always act alone and there have never been enough of them to drastically impact the election.
Donald TrumpElectionJoe BidenMichiganvoter fraud
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Stadia Ventures’ Tim Hayden on Expanding from Sports to Esports
byAndrew Hayward
Credit: Stadia Ventures
Complexity Gaming, OpTic Gaming
When St. Louis-based venture capital firm Stadia Ventures launched in 2015, it was primarily focused on traditional sports—co-founders Tim Hayden and Art Chou had both worked in that space prior to establishing the company. By the time that Stadia was gearing up for the second cohort of its startup accelerator/business development program, however, the firm began receiving applications from esports startups. It was an unknown space for them at the time.
“When we started asking around, not a lot of people knew in the traditional sports side about esports—the power of it,” Stadia Ventures co-founder and Managing Director Tim Hayden told The Esports Observer.
Stadia assembled a 2016 panel discussion with esports industry leaders and veterans, including Twitch Director of Strategic Partnerships Garvey Candella, and commentator Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles, to help educate both their own team and hundreds of business leaders in the traditional sports space.
“It absolutely blew the minds of 300 people in the audience around what was going on in esports,” said Hayden. “From that moment on, we knew we needed to be in the space. Not as a buzzword activity, but more of—there is a lot of power in the business side of esports, and since we’re already investing in companies in traditional sports in the business side, it would translate extremely easily.”
Since then, Stadia Ventures has accepted esports startups alongside those in the world of traditional sports into its twice-annual accelerator cohorts, each of which typically includes five companies. Stadia provides up to $100K USD in investment funding to each company, and flies in founders every other week during each 14-week program for extensive face time with handpicked industry mentors.
Stadia is currently accepting applications for its Spring 2020 cohort.
Education is a key focus for the program, as Hayden said that Stadia seeks to identify startups that not only provide the best investment opportunity, but also the potential to grow and improve via the firm’s accelerator process. Mentors and advisors come from many different players in the space, including Complexity Gaming, Twitch, Blizzard Entertainment, and OpTic Gaming, as well as traditional sports ventures. Stadia also recently added a second operation in Frisco, Texas, near to Complexity, the Dallas Cowboys, Envy Gaming, and many other esports and traditional sports companies.
Stadia team – (L-R) Tim Hayden, Mike Bynum, Brandon Janosky, Joe Pimmel, Bill Powell, Art Chou. Credit: stadia Ventures
Hayden said that Stadia Ventures primarily engages startups that already have a product in the market with some kind of traction, and revenue up to $3M. “We actually want to speak to as many entrepreneurs as possible that are at the idea stage, but our real network in the sports and esports space is set up to be able to activate against founders that already have something going,” he said.
A Building Bubble?
Esports appeals to a different audience than traditional sports and is in a different point in its lifespan, Hayden said, with unique infrastructure demands and ecosystem needs. Still, he believes that many of the business principles are maintained between the two worlds, as evidenced by the rise in traditional sports executives moving over to esports companies.
Once Stadia initially got educated about esports, they quickly understood the potential. “It was painfully obvious that this is the next frontier for all sports,” he said. Stadia doesn’t invest in properties, teams, or game titles. Instead, the firm focuses on companies on the infrastructure side of things, as well as sponsorship and event plays, and athletic performance tech and initiatives.
After a few years of running accelerator cohorts with esports startups (Stadia’s 10th cohort will take place in spring), Hayden has had a unique view into the rising valuations of companies in the industry. Asked whether an esports bubble is likely, Hayden said that he believes that companies will eventually rise to meet what might seem like outsized valuations at the moment.
“They may see larger valuations for companies that are just starting to generate revenue, or are not even generating revenue, that are seeing higher valuations compared to other technology startups,” he said. “My thought is that all of these valuations, all of these things—the companies will eventually grow into them. I think what we are seeing is there is a lot of interest from a lot of different parties in the traditional sports space, the entertainment space—there is a sexiness factor to esports, and more in the mainstream than anything else. I see less on the valuations being out of control. I see it more that it’s just growing into this industry.”
Hayden added that there are still a lot of growing business opportunities to explore in the esports space. He pointed to property owners seeking esports properties to help offset real estate plays like stadiums, or brands looking to target a very specific audience that esports captures. Pure esports startups are earlier-stage than most traditional sports companies, given the age and maturity of each industry, he said, but there’s also the potential for traditional sports startups to add an esports component to their businesses.
Credit: Reely
For example, Stadia Ventures has invested in a company called REELY, which uses artificial intelligence to automatically create highlight clips from sports matches by reading score changes, audience and commentator reactions, and the action on the field. Hayden said that such technology could be refocused on esports to automatically produce highlights and condensed game videos within seconds of a match’s end.
Fully exploring opportunities across esports and traditional sports is one way for startups to live up to seemingly lofty valuations, he said. “We see that is also occurring,” said Hayden, “which from a valuation perspective is more opportunity to increase valuation in these businesses.”
Tags: Christopher “MonteCristo” MyklesComplexitycompLexity GamingDallas CowboyseducationEnvy GamingFriscofundingGarvey CandellainvestmentsNorth AmericaOptic gamingReelySt. LouisStadia VenturesStartupsTBlizzard EntertainmenttexasTim Haydentwitchunited statesVenues
Andrew Hayward
Andrew is a freelance journalist and editor who has covered the videogame and technology spaces since 2006, with an increasing focus on esports since 2016. In addition to his work on interviews, feature articles, and news stories for The Esports Observer, Andrew has covered esports for such publications as Rolling Stone, Vice, Variety, and Red Bull Esports. He is based out of Chicago.
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Tag Archives: Marcos Acuna
Inter Reinforcing Ahead Of Scudetto Push
Posted on December 31, 2019 by Gregory Caltabanis
Before the season started, many expected Inter to challenge Juventus for the Scudetto, but few foresaw the nerazzurri going toe-to-toe with the Italian champions like this. After seventeen match-days just eight goals and their head-to-head encounter separates the two at the top of the table. Since his arrival, Antonio Conte has already imprinted a clear identity at the San Siro, something that was lacking for years at the club.
Along with his trade-mark 3-5-2 and defensive solidity, the former Chelsea tactician has ensured his Inter side are among the toughest to break down in the peninsula. However, their lack of squad depth has been pegged as the defining factor in their title bid. As a result, Inter sporting director Giuseppe Marotta appears to be dipping into their war-chest and taking to the January mercato aggressively.
Reports suggest that former Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal is on his way to the club, but Inter will reportedly not stop there. In recent times, they have also been linked with Napoli’s Faouzi Ghoulam, Marcos Alonso, Olivier Giroud and Marcos Acuna among many other names, highlighting clearly Inter’s intent. While their list of targets grows as the mercato is set to open, Inter’s needs are clear: Midfield depth, another wing-back to compete with Asamoah and Biraghi, and a striker to provide Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez with some much-needed rest. Alexis Sanchez is also expected to return to action shortly, giving Conte another weapon in the final third. Beyond bolstering the side in key areas, Inter’s reported winter activity highlights one thing clearly: The title is there for the taking this season and they’re going for it.
When Nicolo Barella and Stefano Sensi went down injured, Conte’s men struggled to create chances and Inter barely overcame their opponents in tight affairs. Recognizing this, Inter loosened their purse strings. That’s where the experience of Vidal comes into play. Despite being on the wrong side of 30, the Chilean remains one of football’s elite box-to-box midfielders and will add some valuable experience in the middle of the park, in what is a relatively young midfield trio.
Up front, Lukaku and Martinez deserve a break. Up until now, the former Manchester United man has featured in all of Inter’s 17 Serie A clashes while his Argentine counterpart has appeared in 16 of the nerazzurri’s domestic affairs. While Sanchez’s injury complicated things, Conte will be eager to add another forward to his offensive ranks. Given he’s already familiar with Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud, the Frenchman’s arrival makes perfect sense. The former Arsenal man still has plenty to offer as a link-up man in the final third and could form quite the partnership with any of the nerazzurri’s front-men.
While adding another fullback is a luxury more than a necessity given Inter’s depth out wide, it demonstrates Conte and Marotta won’t stop until they’ve built a comprehensive side capable of competing on multiple fronts. With the title race likely going down to the wire this season for the first time in years, Inter are reinforcing significantly and won’t go down without a fight. Brace yourselves, we’ve got a title race.
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Posted in Serie A Fantasy News | Tagged Alexis Sanchez, Antonio Conte, Arturo Vidal, chelsea, Cristiano Biraghi, Faouzi Ghoulam, Giuseppe Marotta, inter, juventus, Kwadwo Asamoah, Lautaro Martinez, Lukaku, Marcos Acuna, marcos alonso, Napoli, Nicolo Barella, Olivier Giroud, sporting, Stefano Sensi | Leave a reply
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Home > Tesla News > How big is Tesla's Model Y?
How big is Tesla's Model Y?
Posted on January 12, 2020 by Denis Gurskiy
Tesla's Model Y is expected to go into production this year. And there's plenty of speculation about the company's new electric crossover. However, many of those considering placing an order could be confused about its size. Without a physical model to touch and feel, getting a sense for its overall size might be challenging. Luckily, with a few prototypes driving around, we’ve got a few more good looks at the much-anticipated Model Y.
Above: Comparing the size of a Tesla Model Y with a Model 3 (Image: EVBite)
Technically, the Tesla Model Y isn’t a crossover — it's a compact crossover. This just means that it’s on the smaller end of the sizing spectrum which makes sense since Tesla already has a larger SUV, its Model X. Looking at Tesla's new lineup of vehicles, the Model 3 is to the Model S what the Model Y is to the Model X. It’s a smaller, compact, and more affordable version.
Above: Comparing the size of Model 3 and Model Y (Animation: EVBite via Tesla)
The Model Y is largely based on the Model 3 sharing around 75% of its components and as such, the two compare nicely. When first unveiled many were surprised to see how similar the two vehicles looked. Musk originally stated that the new electric crossover would be just 10% larger than the Model 3. Even though 10% might not seem like a lot, it multiplies the available cargo space by over 4x giving it even more room than a Model S. Tesla also claims the compact crossover can fit seven adult passengers.
Above: Comparing specs between Tesla models (Source: EVBite)
For context, the Model 3 has a width of 73 inches and a height of 57 inches. Tesla has yet to release Model Y's official dimensions but the car was recently spotted while concealed under a car cover. Thanks to 'gamerike' — a Reddit user with measuring tape on hand — we now know that the Model Y has a height of 65 inches. This comes rather close to the height of Tesla's Model X which sits at 66 inches tall. Because the Y shares a similar platform to the 3, we anticipate the width to be just about the same.
Above: Comparing specs between Tesla's Model Y and other SUVs (Source: EVBite)
It turns out these specs appear to be pretty standard in the compact crossover segment. The Tesla Model Y size can compare with a BMW X3, Audi Q5, or even a Ford Escape. It's also worth noting that the Ford Mustang Mach E has similar specs in the electric compact crossover segment. Will this lead to a Ford v Tesla showdown?
Above: Another look at the Model 3 and Y side-by-side (Reddit: ElCompaSamul)
It's always difficult to forecast future sales. That said, InsideEVs reports that Joe Hinrichs, Ford's President of Automotive, says the Detroit automaker plans a limited Mach E production run of 50,000 in 2020. Ford claims its "first edition" Mach E has already sold out. Meanwhile, last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk predicted, "Ultimately, Model Y will have more demand than probably all of the other cars of Tesla combined."
An earlier version of this article appeared on EVBite. EVBite is an electric vehicle specific news site dedicated to keeping consumers up-to-date on any developments in the ever-expanding EV landscape.
Posted in Electric Vehicles, Elon Musk, Ford Mach E, Tesla, Tesla Model 3, tesla model s, Tesla Model X, Tesla Model Y, tesla news, TSLA
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Home Asia Pacific 100 days without covid-19: how NZ got rid of a globally spreading...
Asia Pacific Report
Pacific news
100 days without covid-19: how NZ got rid of a globally spreading virus
By Asia Pacific Report -
By Michael Baker, University of Otago; Amanda Kvalsvig, University of Otago, and Nick Wilson, University of Otago
Tomorrow, New Zealand will mark 100 days without community transmission of covid-19.
From the first known case imported into New Zealand on February 26 to the last case of community transmission detected on May 1, elimination took 65 days.
READ MORE: Two weeks of mandatory masks, but a record 725 new cases: why are Melbourne’s COVID-19 numbers so stubbornly high?
New Zealand relied on three types of measures to get rid of the virus:
Ongoing border controls to stop covid-19 from entering the country
A lockdown and physical distancing to stop community transmission
Case-based controls using testing, contact tracing and quarantine.
Collectively, these measures have achieved low case numbers and deaths compared with high-income countries in Europe and North America that pursued a suppression strategy.
New Zealand is one of a small number of jurisdictions – including mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, Australia and Fiji – pursuing covid-19 containment or elimination. Most have had new outbreaks. The exceptions are Taiwan, Fiji and New Zealand.
Australia adopted very similar responses to the pandemic and it is important to note that most states and territories are in the same position as New Zealand. But Victoria and, to a lesser extent, New South Wales are seeing a significant resurgence.
The key difference is that New Zealand committed relatively early to a clearly articulated elimination strategy and pursued it aggressively. An intense lockdown proved highly effective at rapidly extinguishing the virus.
This difference can be seen graphically in this stringency index published by Oxford University’s Our World in Data.
There are key lessons from New Zealand’s covid-19 experience.
A vigorous, decisive response to the pandemic was highly effective at minimising cases and deaths. New Zealand has the lowest covid-19 death rate in the OECD.
Total all-cause deaths also dropped during the lockdown. This observation suggests it did not have severe negative effects on health, although it will almost certainly have some negative long-term effects.
Elimination of the virus appears to have allowed New Zealand to return to near-normal operation fairly rapidly, minimised economic damage compared with Australia. But the economic impact is likely to keep playing out over the coming months.
Getting through the pandemic
We have gained a much better understanding of covid-19 over the past eight months. Without effective control measures, it is likely to continue to spread globally for many months to years, ultimately infecting billions and killing millions. The proportion of infected people who die appears to be slightly below 1 percent.
The infection can cause serious long-term consequences for some people. The largest uncertainties involve immunity to this virus, whether it can develop from exposure to infection or vaccines, and if it is long-lasting. The potential for treatment with antivirals and other therapeutics is also still uncertain.
This knowledge reinforces the huge benefits of sustaining elimination. We know that if New Zealand were to experience widespread covid-19 transmission, the impact on Māori and Pasifika populations could be catastrophic.
We have previously described critical measures to get us through this period, including the use of fabric face masks, improving contact tracing with suitable digital tools, applying a science-based approach to border management, and the need for a dedicated national public health agency.
Maintaining elimination depends on adopting a highly strategic approach to risk management. This approach involves choosing an optimal mix of interventions and using resources in the most efficient way to keep the risk of covid-19 outbreaks at a consistently low level. Several measures can contribute to this goal over the next few months, while also allowing incremental increases in international travel:
resurgence planning for a border-control failure and outbreaks of various sizes, with state-of-the-art contact tracing and an upgraded alert level system
ensuring all New Zealanders own a re-useable fabric face mask with their use built into the alert level system
conducting exercises and simulations to test outbreak management procedures, possibly including “mass masking days” to engage the public in the response
carefully exploring processes to allow quarantine-free travel between jurisdictions free of covid-19, notably various Pacific Islands, Tasmania and Taiwan (which may require digital tracking of arriving travellers for the first few weeks)
planning for carefully managed inbound travel by key long-term visitor groups such as tertiary students who would generally still need managed quarantine.
Building back better
New Zealand cannot change the reality of the global covid-19 pandemic. But it can leverage possible benefits.
We should conduct an official inquiry into the covid-19 response so we learn everything we possibly can to improve our response capacity for future events.
We also need to establish a specialised national public health agency to manage serious threats to public health and provide critical mass to advance public health generally. Such an agency appears to have been a key factor in the success of Taiwan, which avoided a costly lockdown entirely.
Business as usual should not be an option for the recovery phase. A recent Massey University survey suggests seven out of ten New Zealanders support a green recovery approach.
New Zealand’s elimination of covid-19 has drawn attention worldwide. We are about to publish an overview of the approach in the New England Journal of Medicine. We support a rejuvenated World Health Organisation that could roll out an elimination model in other countries where there is public support for this approach.
Dr Michael Baker, Professor of Public Health, University of Otago; Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, and Dr Nick Wilson, Professor of Public Health, University of Otago. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.
Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz
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Home Academic Analysis Branch stacking isn’t just about corruption — it’s a symptom of an...
Academic Analysis
Branch stacking isn’t just about corruption — it’s a symptom of an outdated, withering party system
By The Conversation -
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marija Taflaga, Lecturer, School of Political Science and International Relations, Australian National University
In recent months, twoinvestigations by The Age and the Nine Network have revealed allegations of branch stacking in the Victorian divisions of the Labor and Liberal parties. The scandals saw ministers and powerbrokers resign and investigations launched.
But what is branch stacking? At its most basic level, it involves recruiting members to a political party who have no genuine interest in supporting the principles or participating in the activities of that party. It can involve paying new recruits membership fees, falsely reporting addresses and recruiting people who don’t know they are even joining a political party.
By increasing the number of members in a given branch, the “stacker” can manipulate party decisions about candidate pre-selection and its internal governance bodies. These organs control the rules about how the party selects candidates, resolves disputes and governs its internal affairs.
As political scientist Anika Gauja explained, one way to reduce branch stacking might be to adopt the Queensland model of electoral commission oversight. By shifting responsibility and compliance to a third party, this could reduce the incentive structure for party operatives.
But branch stacking raises two broader questions about the health of our political parties and the way our political system operates.
The Labor branch stacking allegations resulted in several Victorian MPs losing their ministerial positions. James Ross/AAP
Our parties aren’t as healthy or representative as they could be
The first is philosophical. It relates to why branch stacking is a problem for political parties in the first place — and it’s not just that it violates the parties’ own rules.
Australian parties claim to be democratic institutions that represent popular opinion, albeit shaped by specific political values and principles. In this way, they claim to be a vital democratic link between citizens and the elected elites who govern us, rather than a narrow group of power-seeking individuals. This is key to their claims of legitimacy.
Branch stacking undermines this claim, because it shows the selection of candidates is not always based on democratic principles, merit or representation.
Are the candidates who win the right to represent parties in government a true reflection of the values of the voters? It becomes harder to argue this point if the only way representatives got into power is because they ingratiated themselves with the right power-broker.
Read more: Explainer: what is branch stacking, and why has neither major party been able to stamp it out?
The second question goes to the health of political parties. Australian parties have very low rates of membership (less than 2% of the population). Moreover, they are not required to publish membership numbers, despite receiving public funding.
As the recent branch stacking scandals demonstrate, manipulating party membership numbers and votes is far easier in institutions that have scant members in the first place. In small branches that are poorly attended, it only takes a few new recruits to shift outcomes.
Labor is pushing Scott Morrison to sack Housing Minister Michael Sukkar over the latest branch stacking allegations. Mick Tsikas/AAP
Better ways to bring citizens into government
While parties can take steps to try to boost membership and internal party democracy by giving members a greater say in selecting candidates, leaders and policies, it may also be time to consider system-wide institutional reforms.
With interest in joining political parties so low, placing the entire burden on parties to ensure robust democratic representation may be too much to ask.
There are multiple options that could help fix the current system. Some include increasing the overall size of parliament, creating more opportunities for people to run for office, or modifying the voting system to be more favourable to minority candidates.
Expanding the size of parliament can bring new opportunities for different types of representation, such as deliberative forums. This style of forum involves the recruitment of ordinary citizens to consider a specific problem facing society with the assistance of balanced, expert advice.
Citizens are given the opportunity to discuss and deliberate issues, potentially changing their minds. It was precisely this process that saw the historic removal of abortion laws in Ireland.
Read more: Democracy is due for an overhaul – could lawmaking-by-jury be the answer?
Another option is to select a portion of our representatives by democratic sortition.
Sortition involves the selection of representatives by lottery, similar to jury duty. The advantage of sortition is that it is random and more likely to recruit from across the community.
Given this, careful consideration would need to be given to the exact number of members drawn by lot and how long we might expect citizens’ recruited this way to serve in parliament, given the disruption this may cause to their lives. Such a system could be combined with the methods of party-based selection that we use today.
No magic bullet, but clear alternatives
To be clear, political parties remain important institutions in our democracy and are likely to persist for some time to come. Further, none of these measures outlined above would be a magic bullet.
In fact, any of these suggested alternatives involve trade-offs, but they would all change our current structure which encourages recruitment of professionalised politicians from narrowing groups.
Ultimately, what the alternatives do offer is a chance to reconsider how we bring ordinary Australians into the political system again and to encourage a debate about what we want representation to look like in the 21st century in order to best renew our democracy.
Read more: Labor’s branch stacking scandal is a problem for the whole party. Not just Victoria.
– ref. Branch stacking isn’t just about corruption — it’s a symptom of an outdated, withering party system – https://theconversation.com/branch-stacking-isnt-just-about-corruption-its-a-symptom-of-an-outdated-withering-party-system-144948
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Under Armour Inc. announced the appointment of Lisa Collier as chief product officer. With more than 30 years across global brand leadership, product development, supply chain and merchandising, Collier will provide multi-disciplined specialty retail expertise to Under Armour’s leadership team. She will report directly to President...
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Jailed Zimbabwean journalist urges isolation due to virus
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — A jailed Zimbabwean journalist on Tuesday said authorities are putting prisoners and jail guards at risk of COVID-19 by crowding him together with them despite a court order that he should be isolated because of his prior exposure to the virus.
Hopewell Chin’ono has been jailed at Chikurubi prison, known for its harsh conditions, on the outskirts of the capital, Harare, since the weekend after he was charged with publishing falsehoods. It is the third time he has been jailed there within the past five months in connection with items he posted on Twitter.
A magistrate had earlier ruled that Chin’ono should be isolated and that he should not share transport with other inmates while being taken to court. But Chin’ono said he is not being separated from others.
“I was in the truck with 22 other prisoners coming from Chikurubi who were dropped at the High Court. And yet the court ruled that I should be alone in the truck. They are violating (the order) and exposing all the other prisoners and officers to COVID-19,” said Chin’ono after climbing from the vehicle in handcuffs and leg irons.
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Job Sikhala, a member of parliament for the main opposition party, the MDC Alliance, and Fadzayi Mahere, a spokesman for the party, also appeared in court Tuesday on similar charges. Sikhala, also handcuffed and in leg irons, traveled in the same prison truck as Chin’ono.
The journalist and the opposition officials were arrested after they tweeted that police had beaten an infant to death while enforcing COVID-19 lockdown rules. Police later said the information was false.
Chin’ono’s lawyers argue that the law he is being charged under was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in 2014 because it violated freedom of speech. Prosecutors argue that the law is still relevant. Magistrate Lazini Ncube said he will rule on the matter Wednesday.
Chin’ono has said he will remain in jail while challenging the law. He gave a handwritten statement to reporters on Monday, saying he will not apply for bail to highlight his resistance to the law.
“I would have totally sold out the journalism profession and the nation if I chose my immediate liberty over the media’s right to exercise its right to speak and be protected after speaking,” he said in the statement.
If convicted, Chin’ono faces a fine or up to 20 years in jail.
Critics accuse President Emmerson Mnangagwa of using arrests, detentions and prosecutions to silence dissenting voices, the same tactics used by his predecessor, the late Robert Mugabe, who was deposed in a coup in 2017.
Mnangagwa and his officials say their administration has increased freedoms and instead accuses Chin’ono, the opposition and non-governmental organizations of working with western countries to destabilize the government.
Read more Government News news.
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The Network revealed the release time of the new inexpensive iPhone
BY Steve Cowan January 11, 2021 2:35 pm GMT+0300 252 Views
The new relatively inexpensive iPhone SE (3rd generation) and AirPods Pro headphones (2nd generation) may go on sale in April. Such a message appeared in the famous Japanese blog Mac Otakara, MacRumors writes.
There is not much information about the updated AirPods Pro yet. According to Mac Otakara, the case for them will change slightly in size. And Mark Gurman from Bloomberg previously claimed that Apple is trying to make the headset itself more compact. Allegedly, the company is testing several prototypes, one of which is more like a Google Pixel Buds rounded shape.
About the future, iPhone SE 3 is known a little more. So, most informants agree that the phone screen will be larger-respectively by 5.5 or even 6.1 inches. However, Apple also does not plan to abandon the phone form factor with a 4.7-inch screen (as in the current iPhone SE 2). Perhaps, the models will be promoted in parallel.
Another analyst known for accurate forecasts — Ming-Chi Kuo-however, says that the new smartphone will be announced and start selling not in April, but “in the second half of the year.”
Tags: Apple, google, iPhone, PHONE
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Coronavirus: FIFA Recommends Postponement Of International Matches
zinomulla / March 14, 2020 / Featured, News
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has recommended that all international matches scheduled for March and April be postponed due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The world football’s governing body made this known in a statement on Friday.
FIFA added that the final decision to postpone any match rests with the respective competition organisers or relevant member association in case of friendlies. FIFA rules normally oblige clubs to release players for national team matches, but this rule has been temporarily reversed.
According to the statement, FIFA gave the advice to all national teams to avoid any unnecessary health risks and also situations of potential sporting unfairness. FIFA noted that coronavirus is rapidly evolving across the world and various international travel restrictions have already been imposed by different public authorities.
FIFA also said that clubs would be allowed to refuse to send their players to national squad gatherings in March and April and not ban matches outright in order to curtail the spread of the virus. According to FIFA, if the matches go ahead, it will present potential health risks to players and to the general public.
The world football’s governing body noted that holding the matches under current circumstances would also, most likely, compromise the sporting integrity of such matches as long as certain teams may be deprived of their best squads whilst others may not.
FIFA also said the qualifying matches for the 2020 World Cup in both Asia and South America have already been postponed following consultation between FIFA and the confederations concerned. FIFA added that it is working on rescheduling the postponed games for a later date.
The statement reads: “In light of the current situation concerning the Coronavirus, FIFA has decided that general football rules which normally oblige clubs to release players for national team matches will not apply for the up-coming international windows in March/April.
“The situation is rapidly evolving across the world and various international travel restrictions have already been imposed by different public authorities.
“FIFA understands that to hold the matches under current circumstances might not only present potential health risks to players (and to the general public) but would also, most likely, compromise the sporting integrity of such matches insofar as certain teams may be deprived of their best squads whilst others may not.
“To avoid any unnecessary health risks and also situations of potential sporting unfairness, we, therefore, recommend that all international matches previously scheduled to take place in March and April should now be postponed until such time that they can take place in a safe and secure environment, both for players and for the general public. The final decision on this issue rests with the respective competition organisers or relevant member association in case of friendlies.
“The qualifying matches for the FIFA World Cup in both Asia and South America have already been postponed following consultation between FIFA and the confederations concerned.
“In consultation with the confederations and relevant stakeholders, FIFA will be studying the possibilities for re-scheduling any postponed matches and is confident that with goodwill and flexibility from all sides, appropriate solutions will be found to allow the matches to take place in due course and with minimal disruption.
“We are working in close cooperation with relevant national and international public health authorities (most notably the World Health Organisation) and, taking into account the expert advice that we have received on the matter, we consider this measure and recommendation to be the most appropriate and responsible step to take under the current circumstances”
FIFA also noted that it is working with relevant national and international public health authorities such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) to tackle the virus.
FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, made this known in a statement on Thursday after meeting with the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Infantino said he met with WHO boss to discuss how football can help the WHO responds to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and what measures should sports governing bodies and administrators take in specific situations.
“FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, met yesterday with the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss how football can help the WHO respond to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and what measures should sports governing bodies and administrators take in specific situations.
“Sports governing bodies and decision-makers should always keep in mind that health comes first. All sports bodies must be ready to follow national guidance, based on thorough risk assessments, to stage safe events or take other required Actions that protect the health of fans, players, coaches, and the broader communities.”
“WHO and FIFA, working in conjunction with other leading figures in world football, will launch a joint awareness-raising campaign and engage in various initiatives to ensure all people receive needed advice to protect and promote their health and that of their communities.
“In 2019, WHO and FIFA, football’s world governing body, agreed to a four-year collaboration to promote healthy lifestyles through football globally.”
Category Featured News Tag Coronavirus Fifa WHO
← Coronavirus: UEFA Postpones All Champions League and Europa League matches
Real Madrid Sergio Ramos spends quality time with family during COVID-19 sport break →
FIFA offers to help players not paid by clubs
FA Charges Tottenham Star Dele Alli With Misconduct Over Coronavirus Snapchat Video
First Professional Footballer In Italy Diagnosed with Coronavirus
Coronavirus: Arsenal Players Quarantined, Man City Clash Postponed
Kylian Mbappe tested for coronavirus ahead of Champions League match with Dortmund
Juventus Defender Daniele Rugani Tests Positive For Coronavirus
Real Madrid put on lockdown, La Liga stops competition as coronavirus hits spain
Breaking: Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta tested positive for Coronavirus
Three Leicester City players show symptoms of Coronavirus
What is a coronavirus, how to protect yourself when attending a football match
Cristiano Ronaldo spoke on Coronavirus
List of teams that have won the FIFA Club World Cup
Lionel Messi sends ‘strength’ to COVID-19 affected people [Photos]
Seattle Sounders confirm member of support staff has COVID-19
PSG Neymar Jr shows his training session online during coronavirus break [Video]
Ander Herrera shares a picture with his boo, Isabel Collado, in Paris [Photo]
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer agrees that Manchester United don’t deserve three points against Liverpool
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Music: Liquid Mind's breathe in me
Monday Posting_A Time From Now_79
STORY TITLE: A Time From Now
CHAPTER TITLE: Gus Takes Advantage_Seventy-Nine of One Hundred
AUTHOR: Gaeln
RATING: this chapter: PG
WORD COUNT: this chapter: 850
WARNINGS: this chapter: none Editors_POV
DISCLAIMER: Nothing I can say that hasn’t been said already? Not mine
Originally Beta’ed by herefordroad, all subsequent mistakes are mine
Story throughout contains excerpts from The Brian Kinney Operating Manual including commentary from the Editors
SUMMARY FROM THE EDITORS: ‘Before Brian moved to New York, Justin would be the one who took him to the art more as something fun to do than with any real thought as to Gus’ life work…’
As his family watches on, Gus starts finding his way
AUTHOR‘S NOTES: This story projects 59 years into the future and reflects all that that entails, many of the loose ends are tied-up. I dance with POV, I dance with time, in essence, I just dance to the song Brian & Justin sang to me.
Contains: Brian_others, Justin_others. They grow old, they are always together for just as long as time allows, but, ultimately, they will die.
As someone wise once said, ‘In the end, it’s all about Brian and Justin’ and I can only agree
A Time From Now
Gus Takes Advantage
The Same Time - Toronto
The Brian Kinney Operating Manual - A Life Examined
the chapter titled ‘ ‘Brian & Others - As to Their Outcome’
When Gus was around eleven, Lindsay began to understand with some vague certainty where his future would lie. Up until then, he had always spent a great deal of his time with her at Preston Jahns, more out of necessity than because of any real precociousness on his part or so she thought. But then she began to notice how whenever they would visit Brian and Justin in New York, the first thing Gus always wanted to do was see the museums.
Lindsay assumed that his fondness for these places was because they were comfortable for him, but then, she also began to notice that his interests were more to the curatorial side of the business. Not that, at the time, he would’ve had any real understanding of what that meant, still, it was the processes of acquiring art and the reasoning behind the displaying of that art within its given space and why those spaces were set-up the way they were, that piqued his interest, his innate curiosity. She realized that what he wanted was to learn about and work with art, not to actually create it. That he was more like Brian than he was like either her or Justin. It was this fundamental shift in Gus’ curiosity that alerted Lindsay to the writing on the wall.
Before Brian moved to New York, it was Justin who would take him to the art, but more because it was something fun for them to do together than with any real thought to Gus’ future. But by eleven, Brian and Justin would both go along, at his insistence, because Gus would remember where they’d gone the last time he’d visited his dads, and he’d want to go to those same places again. He especially loved the games they would play; invented by Justin to both help him learn and to maintain his interest.
Art postcards would be purchased from the museum store before he toured the exhibits, and his job would be to find the work each postcard represented. He became an expert. When he was very young -- six, seven, eight --that would be the extent of his involvement. Once he’d found all the artwork represented by te postcards, it would be time for them to go, but as he got older, he learned to slow down and to really start looking, unconsciously absorbing the ins and outs of how artwork was displayed and of how museums and galleries were organized. Finally, he started to wonder why and to maybe even question the reasoning behind the decisions museum people made. Why were certain paintings chosen to be made into postcards and others, prettier ones to his way of thinking, weren’t? He wondered aloud -- to Lindsay, to Justin, to anyone who’d listen -- why was artwork displayed the way it was? Why were things grouped one way and not another? Why did some galleries only show sculpture and others both paintings and sculpture and how did the paintings or sculptures come to be each particular museum in the first place? Who made these decisions and most importantly, why? He had so many questions, and with each, Lindsay and Justin took the time to answer, with the answers gaining in substance as his questions grew in depth.
Once a little older, a second game was added. The question ‘If you could take home only one piece from this group or this part of the gallery or from the whole entire museum, what would you choose?’ would be asked. And, once again when still young, he’d answered quickly ‘this one…this one…this one,‘ but without being able to articulate any real reasons for choosing the pieces that he did. But as time went by, Gus became more deliberate. He examined carefully, he chose well and he learned to clearly explain why.
By the time he was thirteen, Gus started to spend vacations on his own in New York with his dads, mostly just hanging out with Justin and Tristan at the Jaen Gallery. He was constantly by their sides. The clients loved him so the owners, Charles and Maureen, clearly understanding his added value, were happy to have him underfoot. Gus, while maybe not a genius, was a very intelligent boy and he took advantage of each opportunity handed to him and everyone encouraged him to do just that and so as he grew and he learned.
By the time Gus was fifteen, Lindsay clearly understood that for him, in some substantial and already vaguely hinted at way, art would become his life. As an agent or buyer, as a curator or museum director maybe, definitely as a collector, the possibilities were endless and all were right there in front of him for the taking. So between Lindsay and Melanie, Justin and Tristan, Preston and Andrew and even Charles and Maureen, they each in their own way would make sure that all the opportunities were right there for Gus Marcus-Peterson to take advantage of. Brian would even help a little, by providing him with the best education possible.
End excerpt
Next Chapter: The natural yet evolving ebb and flow of life in Pittsburgh
for original post & additional chapters, please see here
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Tag - Mortal Kombat 11
Mortal Kombat 11 Pro Kompetition: Season 2 Announced
Warner Bros. Games and NetherRealm Studios today announced the Mortal Kombat 11 Pro Kompetition: Season 2, marking the return of the global esports program featuring the hit videogame...
Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath – A Review (PC)
Judgeman
A little more than a year after the release of the main game, Netherrealm studios has released Mortal Kombat 11‘s biggest expansion to date with Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath. MK 11:...
WBIE Announces Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath
Burbank, Calif. – May 6, 2020 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath, a new expansion for the hit videogame Mortal Kombat 11, the best-selling...
Mortal Kombat 11 Masquerade Skin Pack Reveal Trailer
October 17, 2019 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios today announced a free Halloween themed in-game event coming to Mortal Kombat 11 from Oct. 25 through...
Mortal Kombat 11 Free Trial Weekend Coming Soon
October 9, 2019 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios will be offering a Free Trial Weekend for Mortal Kombat 11 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One from Oct. 11...
Mortal Kombat 11 Kombat Pack Terminator T-800 Gameplay...
October 1, 2019 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios today released a new gameplay trailer for Mortal Kombat 11, the No. 1 selling console game in the U.S...
Mortal Kombat 11 Trailer Reveals New Kombat Pack...
August 21, 2019 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios today released a new Mortal Kombat 11 trailer revealing the final two guest characters to join the...
Mortal Kombat 11 Original Game Soundtrack Out Now
June 28, 2019 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios today released the Mortal Kombat 11 (Original Game Soundtrack). Fresh off the most successful launch in...
Mortal Kombat 11 Out Now
Burbank, Calif. – April 23, 2019 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced that Mortal Kombat 11, the latest entry in the renowned franchise from award-winning...
Mortal Kombat 11 Launch Trailer
April 19, 2019 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios today released the official Mortal Kombat 11 Launch Trailer set to a remix created by international DJ...
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Purchase Silver Saddle Gift Cards Online Now
Buy Gift Certificates Now!
Our New Mission
Working side by side with other local businesses , we shifted our focus to showing our appreciation for the people working on the front lines. Donating meals to our local heroes is “Our new mission”.
We’re in this together Tucson.
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Tucson Steakhouse Helps on COVID Front Line
Tucson restaurant, The Silver Saddle Steakhouse, is doing what they can to help out during this COVID-19 outbreak by feeding other Tucsonans who are in the front line efforts to serve and protect our community.
While the Silver Saddle chose to close its doors and switch to a take-out only model even before Tucson Mayor Regina Romero instituted the rule, the owners have now decided to go one step further and temporarily close entirely. Owners Mario and Orlando Alva said that while it was a difficult choice, the safety of customers, staff and family must come first.
Recognizing that not all businesses and employees have the luxury of making that safe mood, the Alvas felt compelled to do something to help those that are continuing to expose themselves to the risks of the virus while serving the community.
Currently the 2 brothers and one other employee are managing to keep the kitchen operating enough to prepare and deliver lunches a few days a week for some different businesses around Tucson who are still working.
“After 37 great years in business here in Tucson, we want to do what we can to give back” said Orlando Alva. “After all, Tucson has been there for us all these years, even voting us best steakhouse in Tucson more than once. And many of our loyal customers are the doctors, nurses, paramedics, firefighters and police officers who are still out there taking care of things, including the sick, during these crazy times.”
So far the Saddle has delivered lunches to Tucson Police Department, Banner University Hospital, Downtown Tucson Fire Dept. Another local business receiving lunch from the Saddle is Cathey’s Sewing & Vacuum, which has taken up the cause by putting its staff to work to sew masks for hospital workers, as well as helping show private citizens how to do the same.
“We’re all in this together, so the more we can all be on the same page, the sooner and better off we’ll be once we get through it” says Mario Alva. He went on, “We wish we could do more, but with such a small crew, we’re doing what we can. That’s all we’re asking of everyone.”
“I had real mixed emotions when I heard they closed their doors” said John Mucciacciaro, owner of John’s Garage Doors, a local garage door repair company in Tucson. “I know how hard a decision it is to make, but they’re doing the right thing. I know a lot of people will be disappointed to see the doors closed for now, but by doing so, there will be that many more people able to enjoy their great food again when we get through this.
Do you have questions on your gift certificate order? We're here to help!
Send an email to us at help@gifts.thesilversaddlesteakhouse.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you so much for your support. We literally couldn't do this without our great customers like you!
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Banks Explore AI to Better Detect Fraud after Go-Ahead from Federal Regulators
March 26, 2019 Insights
Roll Call article
Tim Mueller
Encouraged by a recent green light from regulators, the financial services industry is exploring new ways of using artificial intelligence (AI) to help them comply with banking regulations and to better detect fraudulent transactions used by criminals and terrorists.
This move toward new approaches to banking compliance comes despite growing concern that more government scrutiny could force the United States to fall behind similar efforts already underway overseas.
Last December, federal regulators, including the Federal Reserve System’s board of governors and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, issued a joint statement encouraging the industry “to consider, evaluate and, where appropriate, responsibly implement innovative approaches” to detect money laundering operations and terrorist financing.
“The agencies realize that private sector innovation, including new ways of using existing technologies or adopting new technologies,” such as artificial intelligence, “can help banks identify and report money laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit financial activity by enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency” of their compliance programs, the regulators said.
The go-ahead resulted in a flurry of activity by banks, consulting firms, and fintech companies, all of which are seeking less expensive, more streamlined ways to monitor banking transactions for possible money laundering, the cost of which has risen to roughly $25 billion per year since new compliance requirements were put in place following the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Tim Mueller, the managing director for global investigations and compliance at Guidehouse, a Chicago-based consulting firm, said the current enthusiasm reminds him of the late 1990s, when he was advising banks on how to enhance their businesses using the World Wide Web.
“Although you could make some pretty significant arguments that AI is going to be bigger than the internet,” said Mueller, who gave a presentation on Guidehouse’s efforts to harness the technology at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum last month in Davos, Switzerland.
“It’s kind of impossible to ignore,” he added. “If you don’t start to understand how AI can help you serve your clients better, […] you’re going to be out of business and irrelevant in the very near future.”
Still, the industry is proceeding with caution. While banks and their partners feel emboldened by the December notice from regulators, they remain wary of its stipulation that banks may not be fully exempt from punishment if pilot programs expose existing gaps in their compliance operations.
In partnership with Ayasdi, a Silicon Valley-based machine-learning company that has also worked with Citibank and HSBC, Guidehouse is seeking to challenge the traditional means of weeding out possible money laundering when monitoring a large number of transactions, which Mueller described as “pretty dicey.”
Currently, transaction monitoring typically scrutinizes a limited data set and relies heavily on humans trained to spot red flags. Transactions are segmented by broad categories such as a client’s business type, location, or risk level as determined by the bank, which allows significant data to fall through the cracks.
The strategy tends to result in a high number of false positives — normal banking behavior initially flagged as suspicious. According to Mueller’s presentation at Davos, an estimated 95% of alerts generated in the first phase of a transaction review are found to be false positives, and 98% of alerts do not lead to the filing of a suspicious activity report.
Enter Ayasdi, which used artificial intelligence to mine four years’ worth of transaction data belonging to two of Guidehouse’s clients, Scotiabank of Canada and Intesa Sanpaolo of Italy, for instances of possible money laundering.
Instead of analyzing transactions using 20 or 30 categories, the banks were able to see data generated across 500 data points, said Alex Baghdjian, Ayasdi’s financial services strategy lead. False positives plummeted as a result, while the number of alerts that were chosen for further review rose.
“Not only were we able to get rid of the noise — all these alerts that were non-productive — but we also identified all these new areas of risk that were being escalated,” said Baghdjian. “Not only did we increase efficiency, but we drastically increased effectiveness as well.”
Guidehouse and Ayasdi aren’t alone in their pursuits. Bigger banks like WellsFargo are also experimenting with machine learning in the anti-money laundering sector. But firms are reluctant to charge too far ahead, lest they run afoul of regulators grappling with the promise and pitfalls of artificial intelligence.
“It’s not an industry that lends itself to being first movers,” said Mueller.
“It’s great that the regulators are putting these advisories out there,” he said. “But if we want to continue to be competitive within the financial services industry, our institutions can’t be at a disadvantage.”
This is an extract of the Roll Call article Hunting Money Launderers? There's AI for That.
VIEW MORE + VIEW LESS -
February 12, 2019 Insights
How AI Is Transforming the Fight Against Money Laundering
December 7, 2018 Alert
Treasury and Federal Banking Agencies Encourage Innovation in Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Efforts
July 16, 2018 Insights
Pitching Machine Intelligence Against Financial Crime
Compliance Monitor article
Improving Traditional Anti-Money Laundering Platforms with Machine Learning
Banking CIO Outlook Article
January 4, 2019 Insights
Data Analytics and AI for Compliance in Anti-Corruption Cases
A Q&A Roundtable with Corporate Disputes Magazine
Segmentation and Artificial Intelligence in Anti-Money Laundering Alerts
A Q&A Roundtable with Risk & Compliance Magazine
April 1, 2020 Insights
Core Crisis Challenges and Facing the Unknown
Applying Lessons from the 2008 Financial Crisis to COVID-19
December 2, 2020 Podcast
Identifying Proceeds from Human Trafficking
The Banker Podcast
Guidehouse Insights
Guidehouse India
Government Contract Vehicles
Guidehouse Business Continuity Plan
© 2021 Guidehouse
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Kerry Briefs Iran’s Gulf Rivals On Nuclear Talks
Gulf countries fear that Iran is using its atomic programme to develop nuclear weapons capability, something Tehran denies.
US Secretary of State John Kerry met Saudi Arabia’s king and Gulf Arab foreign ministers in Riyadh on Thursday to reassure them that a possible nuclear deal with old adversary Iran would not damage their interests.
Kerry arrived in Riyadh late on Wednesday from Montreux, Switzerland, where he said he had made progress in talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
China, one of the six nations involved in the Iran negotiations, which aim to establish a framework accord by late March, said on Thursday an agreement might be at hand.
“We do think that it’s a last stage and hopefully we could reach an agreement,” said Wang Qun, director general of the arms control department of China’s Foreign Ministry.
Gulf countries, like Israel and many Western states, fear that Iran is using its atomic programme to develop nuclear weapons capability, something Tehran denies.
Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia regards Shi’ite Iran as its main regional rival and the two countries back opposing sides in wars and political struggles in Syria, Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon and Yemen, often along sectarian lines.
As such, Saudi Arabia and its allies worry that the mooted atomic accord will not stop Iran from gaining the bomb. They are also concerned that it would lift international pressure on Tehran and give it more room to intervene in regional issues.
The Baghdad government, which is close to Iran, said on Thursday it believed the nuclear negotiations would prove fruitful.
“We believe these (talks) will lead to a peaceful solution and will resolve controversial points,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari told a U.N.-sponsored conference in Geneva.
Kerry was driven to Diriyah on the outskirts of Riyadh to meet King Salman, who became monarch in January. He is also scheduled to meet Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is the Interior Minister and heads Riyadh’s security policy.
The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Kerry also held a separate meeting at the start of the day with Oman’s Foreign Minister Yusef bin Alawi bin Abdullah. Muscat helped facilitate months of secret talks between Iran and the United States in 2013 that led to the push for a deal.
Mary Sophia March 5, 2015
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Banneker-Douglass Museum Hosts First Community Forum
Unit of Governor’s Office on Community Initiatives Seeks Feedback To Inform Future Programming and Exhibitions
ANNAPOLIS, MD – Banneker-Douglass Museum (BDM) hosted a Community Forum on September 14, 2019. This event brought together museum professionals, community leaders, and stakeholders to envision future initiatives at the museum. The day consisted of a tour of the museum’s current exhibitions: Deep Roots, Rising Waters; Verda’s Place; and Doing the Work. The tour was followed by facilitated dialogues, break-out sessions, and surveys providing critical feedback to inform future programming and exhibitions. The forum is already delivering useful feedback that will enhance the Maryland Commission on African American and History and Culture visibility, and increase youth programming, community dialogues, and trainings.
“As we continue an aggressive two-year fundraising campaign to raise $500,000, it is critical that we utilize opportunities such as this forum to assess museum operations,” said Chanel Compton, Executive Director of the Banneker-Douglass Museum. “We plan to introduce these forums as part of the ongoing culture at BDM to empower our staff and visitors. With the insights and knowledge we continue to gain from our partners, we can ensure the funds we utilize support programs and exhibitions that matter most to Marylanders.”
The data collected during this forum will be included in a report that is to be presented to the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, which operates the museum. Participants were selected as experts in their fields who could offer insights related to expanding collections, curating exhibitions, increasing visitorship, and improving overall museum operations. Invitees included Vedet Colemen-Robinson, Association for African American Museums; John Kille, Anne Arundel County Trust for Preservation, Inc.; Jeanette Marxen, Historic Annapolis; Skye Bailey, Anne Arundel County NAACP; Monica Montgomery, Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center; Paulette Carroll, the Stanton Center; Johanna Doty, Anne Arundel County Public Library; Delegate Julien Ivey, District 47A, Prince George’s County; and Carol Benson, Four Rivers Heritage Area.
“I could easily envision how much farther this Museum can go if it gains the appropriate resources,” said Carol Benson, Executive Director, Four Rivers Heritage Area. “My advice was, ‘Aim high! You are a treasure within our community and you can extend your impact to the state and to the nation.’”
“The staff at the Banneker-Douglass Museum is doing a tremendous job of staying true to its mission, as well as continuing to elevate their impact and relevance within Annapolis, the State of Maryland, and throughout the nation,” said Vedet Coleman-Robinson, Executive Director, Association of African American Museums. “I do not doubt that BDM will continue to create strategic partnerships and find new collaborators and funders so their goals and aspirations can be fulfilled to the highest measure.”
Banneker-Douglass Museum will host the next Community Forum on March 2, 2019. To help preserve Black history in Maryland, donate to the Banneker-Douglass Museum Foundation by clicking here.
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Oct 2, 2012 Morn 8 Comments
Take The A Train - Derek Smith Trio - Dark Eyes (CD), W4cko* & Cartesis - Traveling (File, MP3), Questo Piccolo Grande Amore (Vocale) - Unknown Artist - Le Basi Musicali Di Claudio Baglioni Vol.1 (, Condenado Reciennacido - El Pecado (2) - Miseanda (Cassette, Album), Concrete Jungle 1 - Jonathan Firstenberg, Michael Licari - City Energy (CD, Album), Drop The Bomb On Em, Do What U Want, Lafayette Blues - The White Stripes - Lafayette Blues / Sugar Never Tasted So Good (Vinyl), Undefeated - Pastor Troy - Universal Soldier (Vinyl, LP, Album), Muir Woods - Los Angeles Guitar Quartet - L.A.G.Q. (CD, Album), Who Killed Santa Claus, TV Dinners - ZZ Top - Eliminator (Vinyl, LP, Album), Elektric (2) - Life Dance/Sahara Night (Vinyl)
Jugor
Dec 03, · The celebrated film I WANT TO LIVE follows this point of view, presenting Graham as a thoroughly tough gal who in spite of her background was essentially more sinned against than sinner, and the result is an extremely intense, gripping film that shakes its viewers to the core/10(K).
Faebar
Jan 25, · Grim, almost unbearably intense, I Want To Live is the story of the life and execution of Barbara Graham (Susan Hayward) a perjurer, prostitute, liar and drug addict%.
Kigagrel
I Want To Live () IMDb 2h 1min 13+ Susan Hayward won the Best Actress Oscar for her shattering portrayal of a fast-living girl who suddenly finds herself facing the death penalty for a murder she didn't commit.
May 09, · Directed by David Lowell Rich. With Lindsay Wagner, Martin Balsam, Pamela Reed, Harry Dean Stanton. The movie tells the story of a woman who struggles and fights to escape the gas chamber being condemned with capital punishment because of her participation in a hold up in which a person was killed/10(3).
"I Want to Live!" () for all it's drama and tension is first and foremost a damning indictment of capital punishment. Despite the inaccuracies and liberties it takes with it's subject matter, director Robert Wise has crafted a brutal story that has lost none of it's power after nearly sixty years/5().
Kasida
Baritonist Gerry Mulligan and a group of West Coast all-stars were heard throughout the soundtrack of the Susan Hayward movie I Want to Live. Although not a soundtrack, this LP features six themes from the movie (all composed by Johnny Mandel) performed by the same musicians, who this time around get an opportunity to really stretch out.8/
Faera
Aug 29, · The 10 Most Affordable Places to Live We also look at affordable cities in individual states, like Florida, Colorado, and California. Be sure to check out the state you're interested in moving to! 9. How’s the economy? How hard will it be to find a job if you want one (or a different job if you want to change?).
I want you to live. I want you to want to live. I won’t feed you some bullshit like it’s all going to be OK with time because it may not be, and it may not turn out as you wish, but you will never know if you don’t stick around to find out. I will instead tell you I am here with you. Let’s take this a minute at a time.
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Posts Tagged ‘Finance Minister Bill English’
The Mendacities of Mr Key # 19: Tax Cuts Galore! Money Scramble!
2 December 2016 Frank Macskasy 6 comments
In troubled times, we are community
On 14 October, eight hours after two massive 7.8 earthquakes simultaneously rocked the entire country, our Dear Leader John Key made an impassioned (for him, it was impassioned) appeal to the people of Aotearoa on Radio NZ’s ‘Morning Report‘;
“The one thing I’d we’d just say to New Zealanders at the moment is stay close to your family and friends. Make sure you listen to the radio and listen to the best information that you’re getting. And if you do have certainly older neighbours or family, if you could go in and check up on them that would be most appreciated. Because there will be people feeling genuinely alone.“
It was an appeal to a sense of community that is rarely made by right-wing governments or their leaders. It was a tacit acknowledgement that No Man or Woman is an Island that that only by acting collectively can human beings survive and improve their own circumstances and for their children.
Unfortunately, a week later, Key’s sense-of-community-spirit was returned to it’s hermetically-sealed casket and re-buried alongside cryo-capsules containing New Zealand’s Once-Egalitarian-Spirit and International-Independent-Leadership-On-Moral Issues.
National dangles the “carrot”
On 21 November, Key announced that tax cuts were once again “on the table” and Little Leader/Finance Minister, Bill English confirmed it.
With a statement that was more convoluted than usual, Key said;
“We’ve identified from our own perspective if there was more money where would be the kinds of areas we want to go, not what is the make up … for instance, of a tax or family package, what is the make up of other expenditure we want?
Tax is one vehicle for doing that, it’s not always the most effective vehicle for doing that for particularly low income families.”
Tax could be effective higher up the income scale, but lower down it was not that effective because base rates were low or it was very expensive.
Over the fullness of time we’ll have to see whether we’ve got much capacity to move.
Making sure they can keep a little more of what they earn or get a little bit more back through a variety of mechanisms is always something we can consider. It could be a mix, yes.
In the end it’s about equity for New Zealanders and about .. having a rise in their standard of living, and there’s a number of ways you could deliver that.”
Key has once again dangled a billion-dollar carrot in front of New Zealanders as the country heads towards next year’s election.
National’s previous election “carrots”
During the 2008 General Election, as the Global Financial Crisis was impacting on our own economy, Key was promising tax cuts. In May 2008, he said;
“But in 2005 we promised tax cuts which ranged from about $10 to $92 a week, roughly $45 a week for someone on $50,000 a year.
“I described it as a credible programme of personal tax cuts and I’m committed to a credible programme of personal tax cuts,” he said.
Questioned on whether National’s tax cuts programme of 2005 was credible today given the different economic circumstances, Mr Key said: “Well, I think it is.”
“I believe that an ongoing programme of personal tax cuts that delivers the sort of magnitude that we’ve had in the past is potentially possible.
At the time, then Labour’s Finance Minister, Michael Cullen described National’s tax-cut-bribe as ‘reckless‘.
By October 2008, as NZ Inc’s economic circumstances deteriorated, Treasury issued dire warnings that should have mitigated against any notions of affordable tax-cuts;
John Key has defended his party’s planned program of tax cuts, after Treasury numbers released today showed the economic outlook has deteriorated badly since the May budget. The numbers have seen Treasury reducing its revenue forecasts and increasing its predictions of costs such as benefits. Cash deficits – the bottom line after all infrastructure funding and payments to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund are made – is predicted to blow out from around $3 billion a year to around $6 billion a year.
Key’s government won the 2008 election and proceeded with tax-cuts in 2009 and 2010.
Predictably, government debt – which had been paid down by the Clark-Cullen government – ballooned as the recession hit New Zealand’s economy and tax revenue fell;
Key himself estimated tax cuts to be worth between $3 or $4 billion.
In 2008, New Zealand’s core government debt stood at nil (net)
Current government debt now stands at $62.272 billion (net).
Nature intervenes in National’s “cunning plan” for a Fourth Term
According to Dear Leader Key, estimates for the re-build of earthquake damage in and around Kaikoura; State Highway One, and the rest of the South Island is likely to be at least “a couple of billion dollars“.
The repair bill from Monday’s earthquake near Hanmer Springs is estimated to be billions of dollars. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Finance Minister Bill English has hinted the cost may be much more;
“The combination of significant infrastructure damage in Wellington, obvious damage in Kaikoura – all roading and rail issues – this is going to add up to something fairly significant. We also know that those estimates change over time.”
No wonder Labour leader Andrew Little was less than impressed at tax cuts being mooted. Echoing Michael Cullen from eight years ago, he condemned the irresponsible nature of Key’s proposal;
“Well this is crazy stuff, I mean in addition to a government having $63 billion worth of debt it is yet to start repaying, and you’ve got a billion dollars extra each year just in the cost of superannuation.
Now we have another major civic disaster that is going to cost in terms of repairs. I do not see how John Key can say tax cuts are justified in the present circumstances.”
National spends-up large on new prison beds
On top of which, English announced last month that National was planning to spend over $2.5 billion on new prison beds. He questioned whether tax cuts were affordable with such looming expenditure;
Finance Minister Bill English has warned an announcement today of plans for an extra 1,800 prison beds will reduce the room for the Government to consider tax cuts before next year’s election.
English told reporters in Parliament the extra beds would cost NZ$1 billion to build and an extra NZ$1.5 billion to run over the next five or six years.
“It will have an impact because it is a very large spend and, two or three years years ago, we probably thought this could be avoidable,” English said when asked if the extra spending would make it harder for the Government to unveil tax cuts and other spending before the next election.
“It’s all part of this rachetting up of tougher sentences, tighter remand conditions, less bail and taking less risk with people who commit serious offenses,” he added.
Asked if that meant there would be less room for tax cuts, he said: “I wouldn’t want to judge that because it is a bit early, but certainly spending this kind of money on prison capacity is going to reduce other options.”
The inevitable cost of tax-cuts
As billions more is wasted on prisons, money spent on health, education, housing, and other social services is being frozen; cut back, or not keeping pace with inflation.
This has resulted in appalling cuts to services such as recently experienced by 96-year-old Horowhenua woman, Trixie Cottingham;
Other social services have also been wound back – as previously reported by this blogger;
Cuts to the Health budget have resulted in wholly predictable – and preventable – negative outcomes;
A critic of National’s under-funding of the health system, Phil Bagshaw, pointed out the covert agenda behind the cuts;
New Zealand’s health budget has been declining for almost a decade and could signal health reforms akin to the sweeping changes of the 1990s, new research claims.
The accumulated “very conservative” shortfall over the five years to 2014-15 was estimated at $800 million, but could be double that, Canterbury Charity Hospital founder and editorial co-author Phil Bagshaw said.
Bagshaw believed the Government was moving away from publicly-funded healthcare, and beginning to favour a model that meant everyone had to pay for their own.
“It’s very dangerous. If this continues we will slide into an American-style healthcare system.”
As the public healthcare system faces reduction in funding – more and New Zealanders will be forced into taking up health insurance. In effect, National is covertly shifting the cost of healthcare from public to private, funding the public/private ‘switch’ through personal tax-cuts.
Tax dollars have previously been allocated to social services such as Education or Health. By implementing tax cuts, those “Health Dollars” become “Discretionary Dollars”; Public Services for Citizens becomes Private Choice for Consumers.
And we all know how “well” that model has worked out in the United States;
(Yet another) Broken promise by Key
But equally important is that, in promising to spend the government surplus on tax-cuts, Dear Leader Key has broken yet another of his promises to the people of New Zealand.
In July 2009, National suspended all contribution to the NZ Superannuation Fund. At the time Bill English explained;
“The Government is committed to maintaining National Superannuation entitlements at 66 per cent of the average wage, to be paid from age 65.
The suspension of automatic contributions will remain until there are budget surpluses sufficient to fund contributions. Under current projections, the Government is not expected to have sufficient surpluses for the next 11 years.
Once surpluses sufficient to cover automatic contributions return, the Government intends to contribute the amount required by the Fund formula.”
In 2010, English said;
“We’re managing government spending carefully, the economy is improving a bit faster than we expected, and that means it’s six years instead of 10 years until we start making contributions to the fund. If the economy picks up a bit faster again, we’ll get to that point sooner.”
In 2011, John Key said;
“Once we’re back to running healthy surpluses, we’ll be able to auto-enrol workers who are not members of KiwiSaver, pay down debt and resume contributions to the Super Fund.”
“The Government’s target is to return to surplus by 2014-15 so that we will then have choices about repaying debt, resuming contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, or targeting more investment in priority public services.”
“It remains our intention that contributions will resume once net debt has reduced to 20 percent of GDP, which is forecast for 2020.”
In 2014, English told Patrick Gower;
“… In this Budget we will have a paper-thin surplus , I mean we’ll just have a surplus but that’s the beginning of a series of surpluses and that means we have choices. And there’s a lot of choices. We’ve got the New Zealand Super Fund to resume contributions, an auto-enrolment for KiwiSaver, paying off debt more quickly, something for households to help them along. Those are choices that New Zealand fortunately will have if we have a growing economy and we stick to being pretty careful about our spending.”
In 2015, Key and English issued a joint statement saying;
“Through Budget 2015, the National-led Government will…
Reduce government debt to less than 20 per cent of GDP by 2020/21 when we can resume contributions to the NZ Super Fund.”
In October this year, English said;
“There has not been any broken commitment regarding the Superannuation Fund. We have said for some time that when the Government returns to a sufficient budget surplus and can contribute genuine savings rather than borrowing, National will resume contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. The straightforward issue is that even when the Government shows surpluses under the operating balance before gains and losses measure, it does not always have cash surpluses until those accounting surpluses get reasonably big.
I remember that Sunday in 2009 in vivid detail, in fact, and constantly go back to it. The Government has outlined its position many, many times since 2009, and when there are sufficient surpluses and when we have debt down to the levels we think are prudent, which is 20 percent of GDP by 2020, then we will resume contributions, which we would like to do.”
In every year since National ceased contributing to the NZ Super (“Cullen”) Fund, both Key and English have reiterated their committment to resume payments when government books returned to surplus.
By hinting at tax cuts instead, Key and English have broken their promises, made over a seven year period.
Even their “qualifyer” of resuming contributions “when we have debt down to the levels we think are prudent, which is 20 percent of GDP by 2020” becomes untenable with their hints of an election-year tax-cut bribe.
By cutting taxes instead of paying down debt, resuming contributions to the NZ Super Fund is pushed further out into the dim, distant future.
The very suggestion of tax cuts is another potential broken promise. What’s one more to add to his growing list of promises not kept?
After all, there is an election to be fought next year.
Since National has not thought twice at under-funding the Health Budget, it certainly does not seem troubled at using tax-cuts as an election bribe, and undermining this country’s future superannuation savings-fund for selfish political gain.
Muldoon did it in 1973 – and got away with it.
Carrot, anyone?
Radio NZ: Morning Report – John Key urges New Zealanders to look out for their neighbours
Radio NZ: Morning Report – Key not ruling out tax cuts despite billion-dollar Kaikoura bill
Radio NZ: Morning Report – Government not ruling out tax cuts despite $1B Kaikoura bill
Fairfax media: John Key reveals plans for ‘tax and family’ package, but quake might affect plans
NZ Herald: National’s 2005 tax cut plans still credible – Key
Beehive: National ignores inflation warning
NZ Herald: Key – $30b deficit won’t stop Nats tax cuts
NZ Treasury: Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the Year Ended 30 June 2010 – Debt
Fairfax media: $4b in tax cuts coming
NZ Treasury: Fiscal Indicator Analysis – Debt as at 30 June 2008
NZ Treasury: Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the Year Ended 30 June 2016
Radio NZ: Earthquake’s billion-dollar bill won’t compare with Chch
Radio NZ: PM ‘irresponsible’ to talk tax cuts after quake – Labour
Interest.co.nz: English says NZ$1 bln capital cost and NZ$1.5 bln of operating costs for extra 1,800 prison beds reduces room for tax cuts
Radio NZ: Checkpoint – DHB threatens to cut off 96-year-old’s home help in Levin
Dominion Post: Women’s Refuge cuts may lead to waiting lists
NZ Herald: Govt funding cuts reduce rape crisis support hours
NZ Doctor: Christchurch’s 198 Youth Health Centre to close its doors as management fails to implement directives from CDHB
TV1 News: ‘Devastating news for vulnerable Kiwis’ – Relationships Aotearoa struggling to stay afloat
Radio NZ: Patients have ‘severe loss of vision’ in long wait for treatment
Fairfax media: Researchers claim NZ health budget declining, publicly-funded surgery on way out
Radio NZ: Patients suffering because of surgery waits – surgeon
Fairfax media: 174,000 Kiwis left off surgery waiting lists, with Cantabrians and Aucklanders faring worst
Fortune: How the U.S. Health Care System Fails Its Sickest Patients
NZ Super Fund: Contributions Suspension
Beehive: New Zealand Super Fund – fact sheet
Fairfax media: English signals earlier return to Super Fund payments
Scoop media: John Key’s Speech to Business New Zealand Amora Hotel Wgtn
Parliament Today: Questions and Answers – November 7
TV3 News: $23 billion in NZ Super Fund
Throng: Patrick Gower interviews Finance Minister Bill English on The Nation
Beehive: Budget 2015
Scoop: Hansards – Questions and Answers – 18 October 2016
Fairfax media: Compulsory super ‘would be worth $278 billion’
The Standard: The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)
The Standard: The eternal tax-cut mirage
Previous related blogposts
“It’s one of those things we’d love to do if we had the cash”
Tax cuts & school children
The Mendacities of Mr Key #3: tax cuts
The consequences of tax-cuts – worker exploitation?
Plunket and the slow strangulation of community organisations
The cupboard is bare, says Dear Leader
An earthquake separates John Key and ‘The Iron Lady’, Margaret Thatcher
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 27 Novembr 2016.
Categories: Dollars & Sense, The Body Politic Tags: 2009 tax cut, 2010 tax cut, 2016 earthquake, Dear Leader lies through his teeth, Finance Minister Bill English, NZ Superannuation Fund, tax cuts
National’s Wellington Mayoral candidate, Jo Coughlan – four lanes to nowhere
5 August 2016 Frank Macskasy Leave a comment
Wellington mayoral candidate, Jo Coughlan, standing in front of one of her election billboards.
Right-wing mayoral candidate, and current Wellington City Councillor, Jo Coughlan, has ducked answering questions relating to her campaign policy advocating for a four-lane motorway from Transmission Gully to Wellington airport.
Coughlan has been a city councillor since 2007, as well as Director for PR firm, Silvereye Communications. Amongst her PR company’s clients are the Ministry for Education, Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (EECA), Department of Building and Housing, NZ Post, and ACC.
As well as a Director to Silvereye Communications, Coughlan is (was?) a Director of Life Flight Trust – which also happens to be a client of the same PR company.
From 1996 to 1999, she was Press Secretary for then-Foreign Affairs Minister, Don McKinnon.
Coughlan is also wife to Conor English, brother to current Finance Minister, Bill English.
On 2 April this year, Coughlan announced her intentions to run for the Wellington mayoralty. She also declared her support for a four land highway to Wellington’s international airport, located in the eastern suburns;
“We need to double-tunnel the Terrace and Mt Victoria tunnels and see four lanes along Ruahine St to the airport. Wellington’s mayor must lead on this, and that is my commitment.” – Jo Coughlan, 2 April 2016
Coughlan’s election pamphlet, “My Road Map for Wellington’s future“, reiterated her desire to expand Wellington’s roading system;
Coughlan linked expanding the roading network with electric cars, even though currently there are only about 150 of the vehicles in the region.
In the same pamphlet, Coughlan also conflated building more roads with making “public transport more reliable”;
There is no other mention of public transport, except in relation to “fixing our roads“, in any of Coughlan’s other election material (seen by this blogger). Her website also makes only a brief reference to “public transport options”.
On 25 July, this blogger contacted Coughlan through Facebook, asking if she would be available to answer questions on her policy.
Coughlan replied the same day and in an email said;
“Happy to discuss.
The four laning can be achieved by four laning Ruahine St as planned by NZTA.
That way you essentially get (Inc the one way systems ) four lanes to the planes.”
Since initial contact, Coughlan’s “happy to discuss” response has been met with evasiveness to pin down and arrange a time for a series of questions to be put to her. Requests for a set time to put eleven questions, plus follow-ups, have been ducked. (Which raises questions about her role in the communications industry.)
The questions which merited answers were;
Q1: In your pamphlet, “My Road Map for Wellington’s future”, you linked building of more roads to public transport stating, “Fix our roads to make public transport more reliable”? What did you mean by “fix our roads”? How does that relate to public transport?
It is well known that building more roads attracts more cars. In one year alone, 43,000 more cars have been added to Auckland’s congested roads;
There are 43,000 more cars on Auckland’s roads than this time last year, with nearly 11,000 of those vehicles registered in January alone.
It’s no wonder the city’s traffic congestion has worsened over that time, national roading authority New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) says.
An average 168,500 vehicles now cross the Harbour Bridge every day, compared with 17,000 in 1960 shortly after it opened.
“You’re reaching a point where you can’t add any more traffic to the Harbour Bridge,” Pant said.
It is unclear how more roads would “make public transport more reliable“.
Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on this unanswered question.
Q2: In pamphlet, you stated, “We need roads that keep us moving. Electric cars need roads”? What do you say to those who say it is disingenuous to link environmentally-clean electric cars with the building of more roads?
With only 150 electric vehicles in Wellington, there seemed no apparent need to build more roads at a cost of billions, for such a small, insignificant number of alternative-fuel cars.
The possibility exists that Ms Coughlan was being willfully disingenuous, and attempting to “green wash” an environmentally unfriendly policy.Was that Coughlan’s intention?
Q3: Along with your advocating for a four-lane motorway from Transmission Gully to the airport, you’ve stated you want to “work with Government to accelerate building of the city’s infrastructure and roading to keep the city moving”. Bearing in mind that the planet’s temperature continues to rise according to latest data from NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and also bearing in mind that fossil fuels like oil and petrol are prime producers of greenhouse gases, isn’t a four-lane motorway of the kind you are suggesting irresponsible?
Coughlan attempted to mitigate her support for building more roads by stating on her election “pledge” card that she would “protect the greenbelt and natural environment”;
However, nowhere in her election material does Coughlan refer to the effects of climate change on our natural environment.
Expanding on the previous question, I wanted to put to Coughlan the following;
Q4: Are you aware of NASA’s latest findings that ” the six-month period from January to June was also the planet’s warmest half-year on record, with an average temperature 1.°C warmer than the late nineteenth century”; that “Arctic sea ice at the peak of the summer melt season now typically covers 40% less area than it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s” and that “Arctic sea ice extent in September, the seasonal low point in the annual cycle, has been declining at a rate of 13.4% per decade”?
Q5: Are you aware that the NOAA recently confirmed NASA’s data, stating, “The average global temperature across land surfaces was 2.33°C above the 20th century average of 3.2°C, the highest March temperature on record, surpassing the previous March record set in 2008 by 0.43°C and surpassing the all-time single-month record set last month by 0.02°C”?
More specifically, the NOAA reported that “New Zealand reported its sixth warmest March in a period of record that dates to 1909, at 1.3°C above the 1981–2010 average. The entire country had above or well-above average temperatures for the month. Parts of Northland, Waikato, Manawatu-Whanganui, and Westland were each more than 2.0°C above their March average”. What is your comment on those latest findings?
New Zealand is not immune to climate change effects as mentioned in this CNN report;
The first six months of 2016 were the hottest ever recorded, NASA announced on Tuesday, while Arctic sea ice now covers 40% less of the Earth than it did just 30 years ago.
Temperatures were on average 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than average between January and June this year, compared to the late nineteenth century.
In total, the planet has now had 14 consecutive months of the hottest temperatures seen since records began in 1880, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.
Australia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Spain were some examples of places where temperatures soared more than a degree above average, as New Zealand had its hottest January to June period since records began.
The CNN report was based on the NOAA/NIWA findings, referring to New Zealand;
New Zealand reported its sixth warmest March in a period of record that dates to 1909, at 1.3°C (2.3°F) above the 1981–2010 average. The entire country had above or well-above average temperatures for the month. Parts of Northland, Waikato, Manawatu-Whanganui, and Westland were each more than 2.0°C (3.6°F) above their March average.
Was Coughlan aware of this latest information? She should be: it has been well document in recent local media.
Ms Coughlan might have shed some light on these unanswered questions.
The next question underscored the critical impact of climate change on our country,
Q6: To underline the effects of climate-change on our country, the Royal Society said in April this year,
“Changes expected to impact New Zealand include at least 30cm and possibly more than one metre of sea-level rise this century – the report finds it likely that the sea level rise around New Zealand will exceed the global average, which will cause coastal erosion and flooding, especially when combined with storm surges.
Professor James Renwick, Chair of the Expert Panel who wrote the report, warned; “Many New Zealanders live on the coast and two-thirds of us live in flood-prone areas so we are vulnerable to these projected changes.”
Professor Renwick warned that even small changes in average conditions can be associated with large changes in the frequency of extreme events, pointing out;
“With a 30cm rise in sea level, the current ‘1 in 100 year’ extreme sea event would be expected to occur once every year or so in many coastal regions. Along the Otago coast for example, the difference between a 2-year and 100-year storm surge is about 32cm of sea level.”
I then wanted to put a seemingly obvious question to Coughlan;
Q7: Instead of building more roads that inevitably lead to more traffic; more congestion; more fuel-consumption; and production of more greenhouse gases, wouldn’t advocating for more expenditure on public transport make better sense, from an environmental aspect?
I also planned to ask Coughlan about a glaring omission from any of her election material;
Q8: Aside from your one statement linking “Fix our roads to make public transport more reliable” your election material makes no mention or reference to public transport. Why is that?
Coughlan put great weight on Wellington’s needs for the next one hundred years;
One has to admire Coughlan’s confidence in being a mayor for the next one hundred years.
Looking ahead for the next century is something that environmentalists and climate scientists are doing. The long-term effects of climate change on our planet are slowly building;
Which raises the key question as to where Coughlan’s long-term priorities lay;
Q9: Which is more pressing for Wellington’s needs for the next 100 years; taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or planning on more roading? Which would have greater priority fror you, if you were Mayor?
The last two questions were also self-explanatory;
Q10: President Obama has said that “And no challenge — no challenge — poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change”. What is the responsibility of individuals to address this threat to our future?
Q11: What is your responsibility in this, Ms Coughlan?
It could be said that Ms Coughlan, as one person, has minimal effect on our increasingly violent weather patterns and rising sea-levels, brought on by anthropogenic-induced global warming.
Throughout history, single people have been the instigators of momentous change and upheaval. Not always for good.
If Jo Coughlan were to become mayor – a distinct possibility based on the considerable amount of money spent on her election advertising – her plans to advocate for a four lane motorway would be instigating momentous change and consequential upheaval.
Coughlan’s evasiveness makes a mockery of her finger-pointing at other mayoral candidates. On 28 July Coughlan issued a press release accusing them of “hidden agendas”;
“However it is amazing that some candidates are not prepared to state clearly their real intention for standing and don’t seem to understand the STV voting system used in the Capital.
I am making it very clear that I am standing for the Mayoralty, not as a ward councillor and not to raise my profile for a tilt at parliament. I call on all other candidates to publicly state their real intentions.
So far we have a number of candidates standing with various agendas including increasing their chances of re-election to Council, election to parliament and even to gain profile to look at establishing a new centre-left political party.
Wellington voters deserve a Mayor who will lead the City and is 100% committed to running for the right reasons.
The other candidates need to come clean otherwise their intentions might seem a bit ‘murky’.”
A month earlier, Finance Minister Bill English, endorsed Jo Coughlan for her mayoralty bid;
“It’s because I think that she’s the best candidate for a city that needs this kind of candidate; someone who understands growth; someone who understands communities and someone who understands families.” – Bill English, 28 June 2016
“Hidden agendas”?
No wonder Coughlan has avoided answering questions.
Wellington City Council: Jo Coughlan
Linked-In: Jo Coughlan
Silvereye Communication: About Us
Silvereye Communication: Silvereye Communications Clients (current and former)
NZ Herald: Being English
Dominion Post: Councillor Jo Coughlan enters the race to be Wellington’s mayor
Scoop media: Three days of free rides in electric cars
Jo for Mayor: Environment
Fairfax media: 43,000 more cars on Auckland’s roads leads to increased congestion
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): Global Analysis – March 2016
NASA: 2016 Climate Trends Continue to Break Records
CNN: NASA – Hottest June on record continues 14-month global heat wave
NIWA: Climate Summary for March 2016
Royal Society of New Zealand: New Zealand vulnerable to the threats of climate change – report finds
Scientific American: Earth Will Cross the Climate Danger Threshold by 2036
The White House: Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address | January 20, 2015
Scoop media: Coughlan says ‘I can win,’ accuses other candidates of hidden agendas
Jo for Mayor: Mayoral Candidate Jo Coughlan – candidates should come clean
Politik: English breaks with National Party convention and endorses Mayoral candidate
John Key – more pledges, more broken promises?
As predicted: National abandons climate-change responsibilities
National ditches environmental policies
ETS – National continues to fart around
National – what else can possibly go wrong?!
National’s moving goalposts on climate change targets
Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett revealed
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 31 July 2016.
Categories: A Little Blue Marble Called Earth, The Body Politic Tags: 2016 local body elections, climate change, Conor English, Finance Minister Bill English, global warming, green wash, greenhouse gases, Jo Coughlan, roads
The Mendacities of Mr English – Fibbing from Finance Minister confirmed
12 June 2016 Frank Macskasy 8 comments
In a Budget-related piece dated 26 May, Bernard Hickey wrote;
“As largely foreshadowed, English increased the Government’s spending allowance in Budget 2016 for the 2016/17 year to NZ$1.6 billion from NZ$1.0 billion to accommodate extra spending on health and education because of population growth, and includes money spent up front on child welfare reforms.”
Hickey’s suggestion that “English increased the Government’s spending allowance in Budget 2016 for the 2016/17 year to NZ$1.6 billion from NZ$1.0 billion to accommodate extra spending on health and education because of population growth“ seems at variance with the Finance Minister’s own denial that his Budget was predicated in any way on a per-capita basis.
On 28 May, on TV3’s ‘The Nation‘, Bill English was interviewed by Lisa Owen;
English was at pains to reject per-capita calculations as a basis for his Budgetary considerations;
Lisa Owen: “… I just want to be clear on this, because if you look at the figures, let’s say for health, a variety of economists say that we needed about 700 million a year just to keep pace, yet health is getting about 570 million a year. You’ve frozen the schools’ operational budgets, so to be absolutely clear, per capita spending on health and education, it’s down, isn’t it?”
Bill English: “No. Look, I couldn’t say for sure whether it’s up or down. It’s probably about the same. The point I’m making is it’s the wrong measure. The measures that matter are the ones that are about focusing on getting results.”
Lisa Owen: “Shouldn’t you know whether it’s up or down in terms of spending per capita? Because that’s something that our viewers will want to know.”
Bill English: “It’s not a measure we apply… Now, per capita, I can’t tell you whether it’s up or down.”
To be fair on Hickey, he wrote his story prior to English’s comments, which were two days later.
At least now we all know that English does not factor-in per-capita data in his Budgetary calculations. He was categorical in his assertion.
No, he obviously uses more precise techniques…
Yet, English himself has readily admitted that yes, he does factor in population (aka “per capita”) in his Budgetary considerations;
“Strong population growth is both an indicator of New Zealand’s economic performance and a contributor to it,” English told the parliament in his Budget address. “For the first time in a generation, we have a net annual movement of people into New Zealand from Australia, rather than an exodus of Kiwis across the Tasman.” – Bill English, 26 May 2016
“Some spending previously earmarked for Budget 2017 has been brought forward, so net new operating spending in Budget 2016 has increased to $1.6 billion per year. This recognises pressures from higher population growth, and opportunities to invest in core public services and economic initiatives.” – Bill English, 26 May 2016
And the clincher;
“Spending pressures have changed since the last Budget – in part because higher-than-expected population growth has increased demand for public services… District Health Boards will receive $1.6 billion over four years to invest in services, meet population growth and deliver better results.” – Bill English, 26 May 2016
English’s own words reveal that he wilfully misled Lisa Owen on 28 May, on ‘The Nation‘. Unfortunately, fact-checking politicians who spin untruths is not easy, and requires quick-thinking and an encyclopedic memory.
Only in retrospect can we fact-check politicians’ statements and determine how honest they have been with the public.
As always, eternal vigilance is the duty of all citizens.
Interest.co.nz: Govt sees NZ$0.7 bln OBEGAL surplus in 2016/17
National.org.nz: Govt books show rising surpluses, falling debt (*1)
Scoop media: On The Nation – Lisa Owen interviews Bill English (transcript)
Beehive.govt.nz: Budget Speech – Bill English
“The Nation” reveals gobsmacking incompetence by Ministers English and Lotu-Iiga
National’s blatant lies on Housing NZ dividends – The truth uncovered!
Letter to the editor – Did Bill English try to pull a swiftie on ‘The Nation’?
Budget 2016 – Who wins; who loses; who pays?
*1: I have downloaded and retained a copy of the National Party webpage. In the past, National Party webpages tend to “disappear”, and are no longer searchable, making referencing and verification of quotes problematic. If this webpage disappears, English’s comments can still be verified to anyone requesting it. – Frank Macskasy
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 6 June 2016.
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: Budget 2016, Finance Minister Bill English, lies, population
7 June 2016 Frank Macskasy Leave a comment
“The point is if we’re going to have a tax programme [of tax cuts] – we’re not ruling that out in for 2017 or campaigning on it for a fourth term. But having probably a bigger one, to be blunt.” – John Key, 16 May 2016
“Philosophically we believe in lower taxes and smaller government, and government’s definitely getting smaller.”- John Key, 16 May 2016
Paula Bennett denies there is a housing crisis in New Zealand;
“I certainly wouldn’t call it a crisis. I think that we’ve always had people in need.” – Paula Bennett, 20 May 2016
Paula Bennett announces plan to offer $5,000 to homeless and state house tenants to leave Auckland and go live in provinces;
“I would say to those that are homeless that there is a chance that they could get a house in days if they were willing to look outside of Auckland.” – Paula Bennett, 25 May 2016
“Very quietly, a cut here and a decrease there, a failure to keep up with inflation in one place, and ignoring increasing population in another place, the Government is walking away from New Zealand’s longstanding social compact.
In his Budget speech, Bill English proudly says that government expenditure is down to less than 30 per cent of GDP, and that’s the way that it’s going to stay.
But how is this retreat from the economy achieved?
It happens by spending less on health and less on education, and not spending enough on housing for the least well off New Zealanders.”– Deborah Russell, 26 May 2016
“While it’s true the overall numbers of Housing NZ homes haven’t risen dramatically, the mix is changing and there are more in Auckland and less in places that we don’t need them.” – John Key, 27 May 2016
“Sadly, it seems once again that the Budget is a missed opportunity for children, while the military and Government spy agencies do extremely well. I don’t recall seeing any public opinion polls or evidence indicating the need for more investment in either of these areas, especially when there is such desperate need among families with children.
The Government has achieved its objective of appearing fiscally responsible and not much else. But through a lack of planning and an apparent lack of caring children are living in garages or cars, and do not have the nutrition or warm clothing that they need. Kiwi kids have a right to better lives than that.” – Vivien Maidaborn, New Zealand Executive Director, Unicef, 29 May 2016
“We would like to see some tax reductions, particularly for those middle income taxpayers who find themselves getting into higher tax brackets.” – Finance Minister Bill English, 27 May 2016
There is absolutely zero doubt in my mind that the 2016 Budget is geared 100% toward building up a surplus for tax cuts to be announced next year. Just in time for the 2017 Election. John Key and Bill English have strongly indicated as much with their “kite-flying” with hints of cuts-to-come.
Funding for various state services have either barely increased – or drastically cut. The result has been a $700 million surplus – which appears to have been achieved at the expense of cutting funding for social NGOs and state services for the most vulnerable people in our society.
Some of the winners and losers from this year’s Budget…
GCSB and SIS;
Funding for spy agencies (GCSB and SIS) will increase over the next four years by $178.7 million.
Department of Conservation;
For 2015/16 Budget, allocated $471,932,000
Budget: Cut $41,742,000
Who Pays?
Endangered species throughout New Zealand and future generations of New Zealanders.
Prime Minister’s Department;
For 2015/16 Budget, allocated $65,710,000
Budget: Increase $11,732,000
Radio NZ;
For 2016/17 Budget, allocated $31,816,000 (Based on zero change to NZ on Air funding; $128,726,000.)
Budget: frozen – nil increase since 2008/09.
Note, based on the Reserve Bank Inflation Calculator, Radio NZ’s funding should be around $36,570,000 and it’s funding freeze by National constitutes a 14.9% under-funding;
We all do.
Education – Charter Schools;
Funding for up to seven new charter schools will be provided in the 2016 Budget, the Government has announced. – NZ Herald
…$328.9m of capital funding and $20.2m of operating funding would go towards public private partnerships (PPPs) for seven new schools and three rebuilds. – Fairfax media
Public schools operation grants – frozen;
School operational funding has been frozen in this year’s Budget in favour of targeted funding for [under-achieving, at-risk] 150,000 kids.
… $43.2 million over four years will be provided to those schools with under-achieving students, and it’s expected the money will be used to raise achievement, there’s no accountability attached to the funding.
The targeted funding works out at about $1.79 per student, per school week – schools won’t even know which students are being targeted as the policy’s designed not to identify them. – Fairfax media
Early Childhood Education subsidy-funding – frozen;
Early childhood education providers got no increase to their government subsidies for the second consecutive year. – Radio NZ
Our children.
NZ military –
The Defence Force receives new operating funding of $300.9 million over four years as part of Budget 2016 to support the work it does, Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee says. – Gerry Brownlee, Minister of Defence
Home Insulation Programme –
National has cut home insulation funding to its lowest ever level in Budget 2016…
Budget 2016 allocates just $12 million this year for the Warm Up New Zealand programme this year and $4.5 million for the Healthy Homes programme, compared to $23.9 million for Home Insulation last year. – Scoop media/Green Party
“low-income tenants, particularly those with high health needs.
…young children (newborns to 5-year olds) who are living in cold, damp and unhealthy homes.” – Jonathan Coleman, Simon Bridges
There are three significant stand-outs for this Budget…
1 – This Surplus was achieved at the expense of the poor.
With school operational funding frozen; no increase for early childhood education funding; a dire crisis of homelessness; State houses being sold of by National; and a critical shortage of housing – it does not take much wit to understand that Bill English’s $700 million Budget surplus was achieved by under-spending in key social areas.
Worse still, National continues to doggedly pursue it’s policy to sell up to eight thousand state houses by 2017.
Compounding National’s mis-management of the country’s scandalous housing crisis is National’s unrelenting and inhumane demand for dividends from Housing NZ.
This far, National has extracted over half a billion dollars from Housing New Zealand by way of dividends.
Housing NZ dividends under National
HNZ Annual Report 2009-10 – $132 million (p86)
HNZ Annual Report 2010-11 – $71 million (p66)
HNZ Annual Report 2013-14 – $90 million – (p37)
HNZ Annual Report 2014-15 – $108 million – (p33)
HNZ Statement of Performance Expectations 2015/16 – $118 million – (p12)
Total: $664 million (over seven years)
The above figures do not include taxes paid by Housing NZ to the National government.
Imagine how many state house could have been built by Housing NZ in the last seven years.
Imagine that every low-income family that needed a warm, dry, home – could have had one by now.
Imagine that instead, National will be demanding another dividend this year from Housing NZ – and will be effectively giving it away by means of tax-cuts to affluent New Zealanders.
2 – Many so-call “increases” are illusory.
When taken over a four year period many of English’s Budget “increases” are actually a cut in expenditure. Just two examples from many;
School funding for 150,000 under-achieving, at-risk school children, was budgeted at $43.2 million This sounds good. But that figure is spread not over the 2016/17 period – but over four years.
Same with the Warm Up New Zealand and Healthy Homes Initiative, touted by Ministers Coleman and Bridges as;
“…to insulate rental houses occupied by low-income tenants, particularly those with high health needs” and “to reduce preventable illnesses among young children (newborns to 5-year olds) who are living in cold, damp and unhealthy homes”
The media release touted;
But look further into the detail;
The investment includes:
$18 million of operating funding over two years to extend the Warm Up New Zealand programme to insulate rental houses occupied by low-income tenants, particularly those with high health needs.
$18 million over four years to expand the Healthy Homes Initiative to reduce preventable illnesses among young children (newborns to 5-year olds) who are living in cold, damp and unhealthy homes.
This is how English created his Budget “surplus” – with cleverly concealed cuts to social programmes that impact on the poorest; most powerless; most desperate people in our society.
And we wonder why entire families are living in garages, cars, and tents?
And we wonder how it came to be that children are dying from mould in damp houses?
3 – This is an Ideological Budget
Make no mistake – this was an ideological budget with “Neo-Liberal Approved” stamped in big, red letters all over it. It was cold-blooded and remorseless in it’s pursuit of specific objectives;
reducing government spending on the poor, by freezing/cutting expenditure on social services
increased government spending on security agencies (spy, defence, police), in case the 1981 up-rising is repeated
satisfying demands from National’s business, conservative, and anti-welfare constituents
to give Bill English a second surplus
set the stage for tax cuts to be announced in next years’ budget
and offer an electoral bribe to voters in time for the 2017 general election
As is almost always the case, those at the bottom of the socio-economic heap are the ones who pay for National’s ideologically-inspired budget. Sometimes they pay with their lives.
Expect more of the same next year.
Spotted at a Z Service Station in the Hutt Valley; this Charity “voting” box, where customers vote for the charity of their choice. The charity gaining most tokens wins a $4,000 donation from Z. Of the four, Fostering Kids NZ is ‘miles’ ahead with tokens;
Z staffer, Manpreet, standing beside Coin-Vote Box, at a Service Station in the Hutt Valley
Note the level of support for Fostering Kids NZ;
It is refreshing to see indications that New Zealanders are still compassionate to children from vulnerable, less well-off families. There is still hope for our society, even if people like Key, English, Bennett, Tolley, et al have turned their heads to look the other way.
Acknowledgement: Many thanks to Deborah L for her sharp eye, spotting, photographing, and sending me the above images along with relevant info.
Fairfax media: Prime Minister John Key hints at $3billion tax cuts for next election
Fairfax media: John Key is beating the tax cuts drum for 2017 with bigger surpluses ahead
Radio NZ: No housing crisis in NZ – Paula Bennett
Interest.co.nz: Paula Bennett announces plan to offer $5,000 to homeless Aucklanders and state house tenants to leave Auckland
NZ Herald: Dr Deborah Russell – Budget 2016 – How do we look after all New Zealanders?
Radio NZ: Checkpoint – PM puts onus on Auckland Council to create land supply
Fairfax media: Budget 2016 – A bare-minimum budget for children
Radio NZ: Tax cuts may be on cards – English
NZ Herald: Budget 2016 – $700m surplus this year
Radio NZ: Budget 2016 – SIS and GCSB get extra $178.7 million over four years
Budget 2016: Vote Conservation
Treasury: Budget 2016 – Vote Prime Minister & Cabinet
Budget 2016: Vote Arts, Culture and Heritage
NZ on Air: Radio NZ Funding Decisions 1993-2016
Reserve Bank: Inflation Calculator
Budget 2016: Vote Education
NZ Herald: New charter school funding announced
Fairfax media: Budget 2016 – School property and early childhood the big winners
Radio NZ: Budget promises funding for nine new schools
Treasury: Summary of Initiatives in Budget 2016
Budget 2016: Defence Force receives $301m new funding
Scoop media: Government cuts Warm-Up programme that saves lives
Beehive.co.nz: $36m for warmer, healthier homes
Radio NZ: Thousands of state houses up for sale
Fairfax media: Damp state house played part in toddler’s death
TV3 The Nation: Interview with Bill English
NZ Herald: Shamubeel Eaqub – House crisis puts Auckland’s future at risk
The Daily Blog: Budget 2016 – What Bill English Didn’t Say In His Speech
The Daily Blog: The rules for the old too good for children?
The Standard: The Mother Budget
The Standard: Key’s powerful speech on the urgent housing crisis
The Standard: John Key used to be ambitious about dealing with poverty in New Zealand
The Standard: Budget 2016 – F for Fail
Tax cuts and jobs – how are they working out so far, my fellow New Zealanders?
Letter to the Editor – tax cuts bribes? Are we smarter than that?
National spins BS to undermine Labour’s Capital Gains Tax
John Key’s government – death by two cuts
A Message to Radio NZ – English continues fiscal irresponsibility with tax-cut hints
The slow starvation of Radio NZ – the final nail in the coffin of the Fourth Estate?
National’s blatant lies on Housing NZ dividends – The truth uncovered
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: Budget 2016, Finance Minister Bill English, State Housing, tax cuts
3 June 2016 Frank Macskasy 5 comments
On TV3’s “The Nation“, Lisa Owen asked Finance Minister Bill English if funding for health and education had been cut on a per-capita basis. The response from English was jaw-dropping;
“…if you look at the figures, let’s say for health, a variety of economists say that we needed about 700 million a year just to keep pace, yet health is getting about 570 million a year. You’ve frozen the schools’ operational budgets, so to be absolutely clear, per capita spending on health and education, it’s down, isn’t it?”
Bill English replied;
“No. Look, I couldn’t say for sure whether it’s up or down. “
What?! The Finance Minister was saying to the New Zealand public that he “ couldn’t say for sure whether it’s [per capita spending] up or down“?! So how does he allocate money within the multi-billion dollar budget? By roll of a dice?
It deserved a response…
from: Frank Macskasy <fmacskasy@gmail.com>
to: NZ Herald <letters@herald.co.nz>
date: Sat, May 28, 2016
subject: Letter to the editor
On 28 May, Finance Minister Bill English was interviewed on TV3’s “The Nation“. Host Lisa Owen asked English if funding for health and education had been cut on a per-capita basis;
English replied,
Which he repeated;
“It’s not a measure we apply… Now, per capita, I can’t tell you whether it’s up or down. “
It beggars belief that a Finance Minister, responsible for a budget of $77.4 billion of taxpayer’s money, appears not to know if per capita spending on health and education is up or down.
This would be akin to mum and dad doing the weekly grocery shopping – and not knowing how many children to buy food for.
It simply is not credible that a Finance Minister would be unaware of such basic information.
So which is it – incompetence or evasion?
-Frank Macskasy
[address and phone number supplied]
Fairfax media: Budget 2016 – $700m needed for health to stand still – CTU
NZ Herald: New Zealand Budget 2016 – At-risk students targeted, operational funding frozen
Budget 2016: Core Crown expenses
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 29 May 2016.
Categories: The Body Politic Tags: Budget 2016, Finance Minister Bill English, health budget, TV3's 'The Nation'
State house sell-off in Tauranga unravelling?
State Houses – “Wrong place/wrong size”?
Last year (2015), National confirmed it’s intention to sell-off thousands of state houses to “community groups”;
Hundreds of state houses in Tauranga and Invercargill could be sold to independent providers in the first phase of the Government’s plans.
In January Prime Minister John Key announced that state house reforms would see up to 2000 state homes sold to “community housing providers” this year, as it cuts the number of state houses it owns by 8000 over three years.
Although the Government was marketing the process as “transfer” the houses would be sold to community groups, generally charity based providers. Because the houses would have to be kept as social housing rather than private sales, the houses were expected to be sold at a discount to the market value.
After nationwide consultation, Housing New Zealand Minister Bill English and Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett said that the first sales were likely to take place in Invercargill and Tauranga.
In a blogpost in November last year, I pointed out the oft-repeated phrase used by our esteemed dear Leader and various Ministers;
Various ministers, including our esteemed Dear Leader, have indicated that up to “a third” of state houses are “in the wrong place or wrong size (or ‘type’)”.
The “wrong size/wrong place” claim is the argument used by National to advance a major sell-off of Housing NZ properties.
On 1 November, 2014, Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett said on TV3’s ‘The Nation’,
“It’s about being smart in what we’re doing. So you just look at us having the wrong houses, in the wrong place, of the wrong size..”
On 2 December, 2014, the Minister responsible for Housing NZ, Bill English expressed his agreement with the proposition of one third of Housing NZ homes being in the “wrong size/wrong place” ;
“Yes. As recently as just last month Housing New Zealand issued a press release that said: ‘around one third of our housing stock is in the wrong place, wrong configuration or is mismatched with future demand’.
… in fact, a third of them are the wrong size, in the wrong place, and in poor condition.”
On 28 January this year, John Key announced in his “state of the nation” speech;
“Around a third of Housing New Zealand properties are in the wrong place, or are the wrong type to meet existing and future demand.”
After lodging an OIA request with relevant Ministers late last year information released under the Act suggests that National’s oft-repeated claim that around “one third” ( or 22,000) of state houses are in the “wrong place and wrong size” was not wholly supported by Housing NZ’s own figures. As I reported last November;
Housing NZ currently “manages 67,245 homes” (as at 30 June 2015). When Key, and other National ministers refer to “around a third of Housing NZ properties”, simple arithmetic translates that fraction into 22,190 homes being the “wrong size/wrong place” .
In a response eventually received on 29 October 2015, information in the form of a chart -“Stock reconciliation taking into account impaired properties as at 31 January 2013” – was attached;
In two columns headed “Right Place, wrong home” and “Wrong Place“, the respective figures add up to 13,560. This constitutes a little over half of the “22,000” that is being bandied about by National.
Like much of National’s “facts”, the numbers did not stack up.
Which led to the last question I put to the Minister; “If HNZ houses that are in the “wrong place” are sold/given away to community organisations – what will make those houses suddenly become in the “right place”?”
Because if it’s in the “wrong place” when owned by Housing NZ – why would it suddenly be in the “right place” owned by someone else?
The Minister’s response was baffling. In his 29 October 2015 letter to me he said;
“The Government has no plans to offer Housing New Zealand properties that have been
identified as being in the ‘wrong place’ to community housing providers. In Tauranga and
Invercargill for example, the areas identified for initial potential transfers of social
housing properties from Housing New Zealand to community housing providers, MSD’s purchasing
intentions anticipate stable demand. Following a transfer, any new provider would receive
both the properties and a contract with MSD to continue to provide social housing.”
[See full text of letter here]
English’s response seemed to cast a distinction between State housing “in the wrong place/size” and properties to be sold/transferred to community organisations.
Yet, his statement above would appear to contradict a statement issued by English and Bennett earlier on 6 May last year, which is explained further below under the heading, “The Great Invercargill and Tauranga Sell-Off”.
See: State houses – “wrong place, wrong size”?
State Houses, “Wrong place/wrong size”? – Up-date
English’s responses to my questions were vague and offered little in the way of specific detail. In a follow-up letter to the Minister, I repeated two of my questions;
I refer you to two questions which you have not answered in my OIA request;
4. Where are they situated that are considered the “wrong place”?
5. How many areas have been designated “wrong places”?
His response arrived too late to be included in my November 2015 blogpost, but is still highly relevant to the growing housing crisis in this country. On 9 December 2015, English said;
“The analysis produced by Housing New Zealand in 2013 and provided to you with my previous response [see table here – FM] identifies the number of houses as being in the wrong place on a regional basis. No specific locations have been designated ‘wrong places’ and, based on this analysis, each region has some properties assessed as being in the wrong place. These will generally be in provincial areas away from the main centres.”
In none of the Minister’s correspondence was he able to provide specifics as to where State houses were in the “wrong place”. The ‘best’ he could do was list five regions; Auckland East & South; Auckland North West & Central; South Island, Central North Island, and Lower North Island.
Surprisingly, Auckland was deemed to have 8,180 houses that are supposedly “Right Place, wrong home” and a further 420 that are in the “Wrong Place” – 8,600 in total.
However, the Minister’s data was contradicted by the 2014/15 Housing NZ Annual Report which confirmed the on-going high demand for housing in Auckland;
“Across the country we also have too many three-
bedroom properties, while demand has grown for smaller
one- or two-bedroom homes or for much bigger homes.
Demand for homes in the Auckland region is high and
more Housing New Zealand homes are needed.” (p22)
English did, however, point out that “these will generally be in provincial areas away from the main centres“.
Even that has proven to be a mis-leading assertion from the Minister. Tauranga is certainly a “main centre” by most definitions, and the choice of that city would prove to be embarrassing to National, as the next chapter below showed.
The Great Invercargill and Tauranga Sell-Off
As National began to roll out it’s sale of State houses, Bill English specifically referred to State houses being sold in Tauranga and Invercargill. On 6 May last year, Bennett and English released this statement;
“This is another important step to creating a more effective and efficient social housing sector with more housing providers supporting tenants and their needs.” – Housing New Zealand Minister Bill English.
As announced by the Prime Minister in January, the Government’s Social Housing Reform Programme includes plans to transfer 1000 – 2000 HNZC houses to registered CHPs over the next year.
“We’ve gone through a robust process to identify the first areas for potential transactions. Tauranga and Invercargill have been chosen because they have stable demand for social housing, and active community housing providers keen to consider the next steps. Providers in other regions are also interested.” – Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett
The same media statement referenced;
The Social Housing Reform Programme (SHRP) is designed to get more people in need into quality social housing – either through Housing New Zealand Corporation (HNZC) or registered Community Housing Providers (CHPs). The objectives of the Social Housing Reform Programme are to:
Ensure social housing is the right design and size and is in the right places for people who need it.
English and Bennett continued to exploit the “wrong size/wrong place” spin that National was using to disguise the privatisation of State housing.
Bear in mind English’s statement in his 29 October 2015 letter to me, where he said;
Obviously the Ministers find it difficult to keep their “story” straight.
In March this year, potential buyers for State houses in Tauranga and Invercargill had been lined up;
Four potential buyers have made the final shortlist to buy over 1400 state houses being sold in Tauranga and Invercargill.
In Tauranga, Accessible Properties, Hapori Connect Tauranga, and Kaiana Community Housing Partners made the shortlist to take over 1124 properties or tenancies.
However, even as National’s English and Bennett were prepping State houses for sale, the country’s housing crisis began to be reported elsewhere throughout New Zealand.
Tauranga was one of them;
People resorting to living in camping sites and caravan parks?
Is that what this country has come to after thirty years of neo-liberal “reforms”? To become a South Pacific version of America’s trailer-park “communities”?
If, by shuffling ownership of State houses from Housing NZ to “community groups”, National believes it will solve our housing crisis and growing homelessness – they are far more out of touch than I ever thought possible.
This is not just a stubborn pursuit of a free market dogma that has failed to meet basic social needs – this is pseudo-religious self-delusional behaviour from our elected representatives. English, Key, Bennett, Smith, et al, appear to be paralysed into inaction, like possums caught in the headlights of an approaching truck.
Nowhere is this better illustrated than Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett floundering around like a beached cetacean. She first denied that a housing crisis existed in New Zealand on 20 May;
Five days later, she was willing to bribe homeless and State housing tenants up to $5,000 to quit Auckland, making a sudden announcement that caught Finance Minister Bill English off-guard;
I have said it before and will repeat my conclusions that National is incapable of resolving this crisis. Considerable State intervention is required, and that is anathema to a political party whose very DNA is based on the free market; reducing State involvement in commercial and social activities; and promoting private good over community benefit.
It will take a collective anger from New Zealanders to take notice of what is happening in their own society. At the moment, so many New Zealanders seem insulated from the growing social problems that are worsening with each passing day.
As Shamubeel Eaqub said on Radio NZ’s Checkpoint, on 26 May, there is an absence of empathy amongst many New Zealanders – a moral-disconnect with the poor; the homeless; those who have been left behind after thirty years of failed neo-liberal theory.
Remarkably, Eaqub invoked the name of Michael Savage, when New Zealanders were capable of building and solving social ills. For an economist, Eaqub has deep insight where we have arrived in the year 2016;
“The only thing that’s missing now is aspiration and leadership,” he said.
Perhaps our economist friend has nailed the problem perfectly; 21st century New Zealand is not just suffering from economic poverty. There is a poverty much, much worse.
A poverty of spirit.
And that affects us all, regardless of wealth and income.
Fairfax media: Invercargill and Tauranga chosen for first state house sales
TV3: The Nation – Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett
Parliament: 6. State Housing—Suitability of Housing Stock
Fairfax media: John Key Speech – Next steps in social housing
Letter from Bill English, 9 December 2015
Housing NZ: 2014/15 Annual Report
Beehive.govt.nz: Next steps in social housing reform announced
Fairfax media: Invercargill state houses may survive sell-off as Government reveals short-list
Radio NZ: Housing situation critical – Tauranga principal
Sunlive: Tauranga gripped by housing crisis
TVNZ News: Housing crisis hits Tauranga, forcing families into garages and cars
Bay of Plenty Times: Community leaders, social agencies call for urgency on ‘housing crisis’
Bay of Plenty Times: People living in caravan parks while waiting for a rental
Bay of Plenty Times: Campsites for emergency housing debate
Interest.co.nz: Paula Bennett announces plan to offer $5,000 to homeless Aucklanders
Radio NZ: Airport CEO, health leader & economist look at the Budget
Dominion Post: Housing MPs cost taxpayers more
Treasury: Social Housing Transactions
The Daily Blog: Paula Bennett blindsides her own Finance Minister in desperate scramble to respond to housing crisis
The Standard: Newshub poll – Key’s government has failed on housing
The Standard: Bennett’s housing “announcement” is a re-announcement and a lie
Can we do it? Bloody oath we can!
State houses – “wrong place, wrong size”?
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: Finance Minister Bill English, housing crisis, Housing NZ, Paula Bennett, State Housing, Tauranga
When National is under attack – Deflect, deflect, deflect!
22 April 2016 Frank Macskasy 7 comments
As I have pointed out in previous blogposts, when threatened with bad headlines or a scandal of some description, National’s automatic defense is to generally to default to one of three* deflections;
Blame previous the Labour government
Release story on ‘welfare abuse’
Blame Global Financial Crisis or similar overseas event
There are plenty of past instances of this kind of strategy.
In February 2013, the Auditor-General found that National gave Skycity special treatment when negotiating a convention centre in return for 500 additional pokie machines. In a damning report, Deputy Auditor-General Phillippa Smith said;
“Although decisions were made on the merits of the different proposals, we do not consider that the evaluation process was transparent or even handed.”
National’s response was immediate. The following day, Associate Social Development Minister Chester Borrows launched into an attack on so-called welfare fraud;
In May 2014, faced with mounting criticism over National’s incompetent mis-handling of legalised synthetic marijuana, our esteemed Dear Leader announced a new policy to introduce a new, restrictive, regulatory framework for psychoactive substances. Key had no shame in blaming Labour for the Opposition attempting to offer solutions to a botched drug-policy that National was wholly responsible for;
Mr Key said that, in hindsight, the Government should have taken an ultra conservative view last year and not given any legal high substances a waiver.
And he said the Labour Party forced his Government’s hand over announcing a new ban on synthetic drugs, which will take effect on 8 May.
The Government’s new ban was announced late on Sunday after the Labour Party said it would announce on Monday its own plan to immediately stop the sale of synthetic cannabis and other psychoactive substances.
Mr Key said his cabinet decided last Tuesday on a ban but wanted to keep quiet about it to cut down on stockpiling by consumers.
He said the Labour Party has not affected the Government’s policies on synthetic drugs but forced its hand in terms of the announcement.
Also in mid-2014, National was hit with multiple bad-news media stories;
Smith gives nod for open-cast coal mine on conservation land
NZ unprepared for a deep water oil spill, Greens say
Consumers hard hit by hefty electricity price rises
National’s fix over GCSB draws a storm of protest
Loans door shutting on first-home buyers
High petrol prices hit struggling families
Job ad stall hints at unemployment rise
SkyCity deal doesn’t add up: Treasury
Housing plan ‘a weak compromise’
Right on cue,
Currently, our esteemed Dear Leader is facing political, media, and public heat over New Zealand being a party to the tax-haven industry. When challenged, Key first denied that New Zealand was a tax haven;
“Tax havens are where there is non-disclosure of information – New Zealand has full disclosure of information, and so all you’ve got is New Zealand’s taken a different view from a lot of different jurisdictions and that’s because the way we tax is we tax a settlor.
In other words, it’s all about making sure New Zealanders pay their fair share of tax, what we’ve got is quite a legitimate regime.”
As mounting evidence from several sources disproved Key’s weak assertions, he was forced to announce an enquiry into the country’s trust laws.
Then Labour Leader, Andrew Little, challenged Key to disclose his tax-returns – which Key refused point blank.
Again, on cue, National’s media strategists dropped a Deflection #2 ‘bomb’ into the public discourse, with this offensive vilification of ” basically young males” from Bill English;
English’s disparagement of young, unemployed New Zealand men was roundly condemned by fair-minded New Zealanders – but the demonisation tactic had worked. For a moment, the public and media had taken their eyes of the Tax Haven ball. Which would not be the first time;
However, in making that ill-advised comment, English may have accidentally opened a can of inconvenient but still-salient facts;
Prior to the 2007/08 GFC, unemployment stood at around 3.4% – or 78,000 workers.
As the GFC/Recession impacted on our economy, unemployment reached 7.3% by 2013 – throwing 154,000 people out of work.
Seventysix thousand people lost their jobs as a result of dubious activities in the financial markets. Or did those 76,000 suddenly decide to voluntarily give up their jobs to go on the dole for $200 a week?
Though the official unemployment rate is currently at 5.3% – there still remains 133,000 out of work.
In 2009, National scrapped the Training Incentive Allowance which benefitted many solo-parents looking to re-train and move off welfare into paid employment
The history of entrenched high-unemployment can be seen to have taken root in the late-1980s, as right-wing economic “reforms” were implemented by Roger Douglas and his cronies. Note the rise of unemployment rate and numbers from late 1987 and early 1988, when neo-liberalism was introduced into the economy and workplace;
Reference: Trading Economics – Unemployed Persons – Unemployment Rate
So not only was English blaming 133,000 workers for being out of work as the global economy was slowly recovering from the Global Financial Crisis – but is evidently blaming workers for the steady rise of unemployment since the implementation of neo-liberal economics in this country.
Free trade agreements have also played a role in the destruction of jobs in New Zealand. As more and more manufacturing and service jobs were relocated to low-wage societies (China, Vietnam, Pakistan, Fiji, India, etc), the numbers thrown out of work increased in our own country.
Cheap clothes and shoes from low wage societies are not cheap. They were paid for with the jobs of our fellow New Zealanders.
Bill English’s repugnant diatribe at Federated Farmers – where his ignorant, red-neck views no doubt found sympathy with certain elements from the crudely-informed rural community – are in stark contrast with his stated comments on 28 May 2009. As the GFC storm was beginning to buffet our economy, English was full of sympathy as more and more people were ending up unemployed;
“We are particularly concerned that the economy creates new jobs. The burden of a recession falls most harshly on those who lose their jobs and on their communities. We owe them every effort to create the opportunity for a new job.”
Mr English apparently no longer believes “we owe them every effort to create the opportunity for a new job” and has shifted the “burden of recession” firmly back onto the shoulders of the unemployed.
Or perhaps it is high time that people started asking the acolytes of the Church of Neo-liberalism – at what point do they understand and accept that blaming the victims of their failed, inflexible, free-market doctrine will not make that ideology work?
How long do we have to wait, Mr English?
* In Auckland’s on-going housing-crisis situation, a fourth Deflection can be applied as a useful tactic to take the heat of National’s inept policies;
4. Blame the RMA
Number 4 deflection can be used in conjunction with Number 1 deflection. Or even Deflection #2, for maximum reactionary responses from the ill-informed.
Fairfax media: SkyCity report slates Government ministers
Radio NZ: Govt cracks down on benefit fraudsters’ partners
Radio NZ: Legal highs to be regulated by July
Radio NZ: Thousands stopped from getting benefits not entitled to
Radio NZ: NZ’s ‘world-class’ tax system defended
Parliament: 3. Prime Minister—Statements
TV3 News: ‘No doubt’ NZ is a tax haven – expert
Fairfax media: Government u-turns on review of foreign trust regime but appointment under fire
Fairfax media: NZ PM John Key refuses to release tax records – what do we know of his assets?
Radio NZ: Farmers agree Kiwi farm labourers ‘hopeless’
Fairfax media: ‘Hopeless’ comment a sign of a tired Government
Employment.govt.nz: Employment and unemployment – March 2008 Quarter
Trading Economics: Unemployed persons
Statistics NZ: Household Labour Force Survey: September 2012 quarter
Statistics NZ: Labour Market Statistics: December 2015 quarter
NBR: Bennett cutting a benefit that helped her – Labour
Scoop media: Speech – Bill English – Budget 2009
Radio NZ: Deputy PM will not apologise for comments (alt. link) (audio)
The Daily Blog: Hypocritical narrative blames the victim rather than the cause for economic ‘failings’
The Standard: Trickledown has failed
The Standard: Offers of help flood in to Bill English
Benefit fraud? Is Chester Borrows being totally upfront with us?!
The Mendacities of Mr Key #2: Secret Sources
John Key – Practicing Deflection 101
National under attack – defaults to Deflection #1
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 17 April 2016.
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: Finance Minister Bill English, global financial crisis, National's default position, neo-liberalism, unemployment
Solid Energy and LandCorp – debt and doom, courtesy of a “fiscally responsible” National Govt
28 December 2015 Frank Macskasy 3 comments
In May 2013, I first reported on National’s gutting of Solid Energy, detailing how Finance Minister Bill English and then-SOE Minister, Simon Power, had used the State Owned Enterprise as a cash-cow, to assist the government to balance it’s books;
The story details National’s ministerial interference on Solid’s Energy’s financial affairs; under-mining (pun unintended) it’s bio-fuels programme; and extracting huge dividends, as well as taxes paid, to fill government coffers.
At the end, as Solid Energy teetered on collapse, National ministers did what National ministers do in time of crisis; they blamed others for the crisis;
Solid Energy was in debt. But not to “diversify” as Key claimed. The Prime Minister lied.
The debt was due in large part to Ministerial demands that Solid Energy borrow BIG, and pass those borrowings onto the government. This was a piece of accounting trickery, so National could claim, hand-on-heart, that it was not borrowing billions more. In actuality, the SOEs were doing the borrowing, and then passing the cash on to it’s shareholder, the government. This was borrowing-by-proxy by the government.
That is how desperate National was to claw back as much lost revenue due to the Global Financial Crisis/Recession, and unaffordable two tax cuts (2009, 2010) which they had promised during their 2008 election campaign and which has cost government an estimated $4.5 billion annually.
In 2009, English instructed all SOEs to increase their debt. This Statement of Corporate Intent is clear in National’s expectations;
“I would like all SOEs to increase their gearing from current levels, to a level more consistent with a BBB flat credit rating. In this regard, I have been advised by officials that Solid Energy may have the capacity to sustain a 40% gearing ratio.
I urge the Solid Energy Board to give serious consideration to this proposal, and to release all surplus capital to the shareholder as special dividends. “
Not only was National instructing SOEs (including Solid Energy) to borrow more (and then pass the cash on to the Government’s Consolidated Fund), it was also openly raiding their bank accounts by demanding “all surplus capital to the shareholder as special dividends“.
Furthermore, not only were English and Power expecting higher profits diverted from SOEs, they demanded two dividends per year instead of just one;
“I would also like to standardise and simplify the dividend policy for all SOEs, to ensure that a larger and more consistent share of profits is returned to the Crown as shareholder.
In this regard, I propose that the Solid Energy Board give serious consideration to adopting a dividend policy equal to 65% of operating cash flows (including net interest paid) from 1 July 2009.
Related to dividend policy, I wish to outline an expectation that all SOEs pay two dividends per year, an interim and a final dividend.”
On 18 August 2009, Bill English met with Solid Energy’s then-Chairperson, John Palmer. After that meeting, Solid Energy increased its gearing (borrowing/debt) from around 25% to 35%, and changed the way it accounted for mine rehabilitation costs.
This was a cash-grab on an unprecedented scale, and one that went largely un-noticed by media, Parliamentary Opposition, and the public.
On 13 March 2013, soon after Solid Energy’s massive $389 million debt became public, English was forced to concede that National has mishandled governance of Solid Energy;
“The decisions about how much debt to incur was made by the board.
In Solid Energy’s case it turned out that a company operating in the world coal market, which is now so volatile, would have been better off with no debt – in retrospect that’s easy to see, at the time it wasn’t.”
However, in claiming that “decisions about how much debt to incur was made by the board“, the Finance Minister lied.
Solid Energy had been directed to increase it’s debt by Ministers English and Power – not by the SOE’s Board. The Treasury document above are a paper-trail evidencing National’s determination to increase it’s revenue at any costs (literally).
Both Key and English have consistently lied on this issue.
More recently, on Radio NZ’s Morning Report, on Friday 14 August, Guyon Espiner interviewed Finance Minister, Bill English, on Solid Energy’s corporate demise.
At one point, under persistent questioning by ‘Checkpoint‘ host, Guyon Espiner, English admitted National’s role in Solid Energy’s financial woes;
Espiner: But I’ll tell you what you also did, and you’ll remember this well in 2009, you looked at the balance sheets of SOEs and you decided that many of them could carry more debt and in fact you presided over a massive expansion in Solid Energy’s debt and in formal letters your government encouraged them to significantly increase their debt. That was a mistake wasn’t it?
English: Well, at the time it was valued, well actually that time, was valued about $3 billion and they took debt up to $300 million. It was a… As it turned out it was the pressure that put on the cash flow, well, the issues it raised, that got the government and, ah, the officials differing with the Board and that’s all on the record.
Espiner: Yes, so why did you, because you took their gearing ratio from about 14% in 09 up to 35% in 2010, 41% in 2012. So you presided, in fact, encouraged Solid Energy to take on the debt that they have eventually drowned in.
English: Well we worked with the Board over , over making sure the Crown was actually getting something out of the business. Um, certainly, in retrospect the debt levels got too high [garbled].
Espiner: So do you take the blame for that? Because, you failed there. You encouraged them to take on more debt and they’ve drowned in it.
English: Ahh, between us and the company, yes, we’re responsible for that.
There we have it. Under Espiner’s persistant questioning and quoting of facts, English had no place to hide; no one else to blame; and no lies he could resort to.
English had admitted that his government had gutted Solid Energy, and used it as a proxy for borrowing.
Then, under further questioning, English made one of the more bizarre assertions ever made by a politician (incest, chem-trails, and moonlanding hoaxes notwithstanding);
Espiner: What about the dividend programme? You stripped more than $160 million in dividends out of this company over four years. Was that a good thing to do, given the state of the company, and couldn’t if they’d reinvested that money in the company been in some sort of position to keep the thing afloat?
English: Ah, no, precisely the opposite. And this has been the case with SOEs for years. If you leave the cash in there, generally, ah, they waste it. And, ah, in fact, one of the interactions here was we required a dividend because it was a company that was making money –
Espiner: Well hang on. Sorry to interrupt you but that’s an extraordinary statement to make, ‘You leave the cash in there and they waste it’?
National, of course, never wastes money. They never waste money on subsidising Rio Tinto; subsidising SkyCity; subsidising Charter Schools; subsidising Hollywood corporations like Warner Bros; subsidising Saudi businessmen to the tune of $11.5 million. Nor does National waste money on two tax cuts which were utterly unaffordable, being funded by heavy overseas borrowing.
Espiner quite rightly mocked English’s ludicrous justification for government looting of Solid Energy;
Espiner: So it was better for you to take the money out, put it in the Consolidated Fund, let the company take on more debt, and they’ve eventually blown up.
This is the party that many New Zealanders believe is a “fiscally responsible manager of our economy”?!
Unfortunately, National’s mis-management does not end there.
The latest SOE to disclose financial difficulties is Landcorp;
Landcorp’s current liabilities amount to $359 million, whilst it’s assets amount to $1.846 billion, according to the company’s half-yearly statement.
What is not mentioned anywhere is that, according to a document from Treasury’s Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit (CCMAU), the National Government sent a letter to Landcorp’s Board making similar demands for higher dividends that it made to Solid Energy;
Firstly, as the CCMAU chart below shows, National’s expectations were that Landcorp increase its “gearing” (borrowed funds against a company’s equity) from 11% to 20% – a near doubling;
Note also that National demanded 75% of Landcorp’s net operating profit as a dividend; two dividend payments per year; and as much as 100% of operating cash flow.
In a 2009 letter to Landcorp, Ministers Bill English and Simon Power demanded the following from the SOE’s Board;
“I am minded to increase the gearing of all SOEs from current levels, to a level more consistent with a BBB flat credit rating. In this regard, I have been advised by officials that Landcorp may have the capacity to sustain a 20% gearing ratio. I urge the Landcorp Board to give serious consideration to this proposal, and to release all surplus capital to the shareholder as special dividends.
I am also minded to standardise and simplify the dividend policy for all SOEs, to ensure that a larger and more reliable share of profits is returned to the Crown, as shareholder. In this regard, I propose that the Landcorp Board gives serious consideration to adopting a dividend policy equal to 100% of operating cash flows (including net interest paid) from 1 July 2009.
In the same letter, English and Powers outlined revising “the land sale moratorium imposed on Landcorp as part of the Protected Land Agreement (PLA)“.
The letter to Solid Energy followed the same pattern;
I would like all SOEs to increase their gearing from current levels, to a level more consistent with a BBB flat credit rating. In this regard, I have been advised by officials that Solid Energy may have the capacity to sustain a 40% gearing ratio. I urge the Solid Energy Board to give serious consideration to this proposal, and to release all surplus capital to the shareholder as special dividends. I note that Solid Energy currently has a gearing target of 35%, including the company’s rehabilitation liability as if it were debt.
Given that the nature of the rehabilitation liability is significantly different from debt, I am sceptical that this is an appropriate treatment. I have asked my officials to engage with you on this issue.
Almost identical letters. Except for the 20% gearing ratio, which differed from Solid Energy’s more onerous 40%, the demands placed on Landcorp were the same; high gearing (borrowing); higher dividends; and all surplus cash to be paid over to the Crown.
National was looting every SOE of every spare dollar.
The questions now demanding answers;
How many other SOEs have been left in a similar parlous state to Solid Energy and Landcorp?
How much damage has been caused to SOEs due to unreasonable dividend and cash demands made to their Boards?
How much longer are New Zealanders willing to maintain the fiction that National is a “prudent fiscal manager of the economy”?
And the last question;
Which SOE will be next to disclose a dire financial state?
For Bill English and John Key, a whole bunch of chickens have suddenly come home to roost.
Some very, very expensive chickens.
Radio NZ: Prime Minister criticises Solid Energy
Green Party: Asset sales bring in less than cost of National’s tax cuts to top 10%
Treasury: Solid Energy Information Release March 2013 (Document 1875419)
TV3 News: Solid Energy was allowed to increase debt
Radio NZ: Morning Report – English defends Govt’s record over Solid Energy (alt. link)
TV3 News: Landcorp in ‘pretty tight situation’ – English
New Zealand Farming Landcorp Farming Limited: Half year report for the six months ended 31 December 2014
Radio NZ: When is an asset sale not an asset sale?
The real cause for Solid Energy mass redundancies?
Dirty Dealings with Solid Energy
That was Then, This is Now #18 (Solid Energy)
Dear Leader Key blames everyone else for Solid Energy’s financial crisis
Dear Leader Key blames everyone else for Solid Energy’s financial crisis (Part Rua)
Mediaworks, Solid Energy, and National Standards
Solid Energy – A solid drama of facts, fibs, and fall-guys
Categories: Dollars & Sense, The Body Politic Tags: Crown Ownership Monitoring Unit, debt, Finance Minister Bill English, Landcorp, Simon Power, SOE, Solid Energy, Statement of Corporate Intent
18 September 2015 Frank Macskasy 18 comments
Recent statements by Minister for Social Housing, Paula Bennett, Minister Responsible for Housing New Zealand, Bill English, Building and Housing Minister, Nick Smith, and Prime Minister John Key, have been shown to be deceptively misleading – and in many instances, outright lies.
Their public utterances have been revealed to be untrue after this blogger discovered a statement from Housing NZ, buried deep within one of their Annual Reports.
#1 – Nick Smith
On 25 April 2014, Building and Housing Minister, Nick Smith, was indignant when he rejected a claim by the Labour Party that National was planning to siphon off Christchurch earthquake insurance payouts to Housing NZ as government dividends.
As Radio NZ reported;
Papers obtained by Labour under the Official Information Act reveal plans to delay maintenance and redirect Canterbury quake insurance payouts to meet the Government’s demands for increased returns from state housing.
Labour’s housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says Housing New Zealand has agreed to pay higher dividends to the Government by using some of its $320 million insurance payment and putting off repairs and maintenance.
Mr Twyford says the Government is robbing Housing New Zealand in Canterbury to fund dividends going into the Crown account. He says Housing Minister Nick Smith needs to explain why money that should have gone into the rebuild has gone into Government coffers instead.
But Housing Minister Nick Smith says it’s not a case of earmarking any particular income towards the dividend, but it’s not true to say it will come from the insurance payout.
He says insurance proceeds are going towards capital expenditure, including 2000 new houses, which will be under construction by the end of 2015.
Dr Smith says Housing New Zealand has always been expected to return a dividend to the Crown, including under the previous Labour-led Government. This comes from normal operating revenue, including rent and rent subsidies from the Government.
Housing New Zealand’s latest statement of intent shows $308 million in insurance money earmarked for capital expenditure this financial year.
#2 – Bill English
Barely five months later, Housing NZ announced a dividend of $118 million to be paid to the government for financial year – the largest since 2009-10;
Housing New Zealand returned a $108 million dividend in the past financial year, the third largest ever paid.
At the time the responsible minister, Bill English said the higher dividend would allow the Government to help more people with serious housing needs.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the idea the Government was continuing to make money off State housing when children were getting sick from living in those houses was unacceptable.
He said the Crown must rule out taking a dividend until all Housing New Zealand stock was up to standard.
“Given that Housing New Zealand homes are actually killing their residents, I think it makes no sense for there to be any dividend at all.
“Everything that they get should be ploughed back into making sure that their homes are safe.”
Minister Responsible for Housing New Zealand, Bill English justified the massive dividend with the extraordinary statement;
“Housing New Zealand has sufficient cash to invest in new houses and at the level that we’ve specified, and to do its maintenance programmes. So really the dividend is about just a bit of pressure on them to be efficient.”
The cash-grab by National had been hinted earlier, on 24 March, when Bill English signalled that maintenance on HNZ properties would be deferred;
Mr English says the lack of maintenance on state houses is concerning and that in the long run the government will need to invest the $1.2 billion dollars in state houses to get them up to scratch.
However, he says that won’t all happen this year.
When asked why Housing New Zealand had not spent as much money as it should have on maintenance, Mr English put the blame partly on the previous Labour government saying they had chosen to build new state houses rather than fix up old ones.
Yet, that quiet admission did not stop both Paula Bennett and Bill English from repeating their ‘spin’ that Housing NZ had sufficient cash for necessary maintenance of their housing stock;
Bill English – 5 June 2015
“They’ve done a very large scale programme – insulated every house that it can, which is 48,000 houses over the last four or five years.
It’s got to deal with the same limitations of process as everybody else, it’s got to get consents, it’s got to find a workforce, but it’s not short of money to do the job.”
#3 – Paula Bennett
Paula Bennett, Minister for Social Housing – 12 June 2015
@ 4.28
“What I will say is that it’s not, um, not a money problem. So there is enough money there for us to get that stock up.”
“It’s not actually about the money. The money is there to be spent on the maintenance.”
Bill English – 8 September 2015
“Housing New Zealand has sufficient cash to invest in new houses and at the level that we’ve specified, and to do its maintenance programmes.”
“The constraint on repairs isn’t cash. They have enough money to do the jobs that they need to do.”
“With respect to the maintenance. Ah, yes, if any tenant lets Housing NZ azbout any, what they call urgent maintenance needs, and they got 125,000 of those notifications, ah, in the last year or two, ah, then Housing NZ has the cash to act on those…”
“In fact, our main challenge there is not [a] lack of money…”
“So the constraint isn’t cash, it’s a lack of houses.”
All of which was revealed to be dishonest spin by these two Ministers, when this statement was discovered from Housing NZ’s 2013/14 Annual Report;
“The responsive repairs programme, which includes work on vacant properties, is dependent on demand, which was higher than expected in 2013/14. Consequently, the budget was overspent due to higher volumes of work orders. The average cost per work order was also higher as a result of more comprehensive repairs and upgrades being carried out on vacant properties. To mitigate this overspend, we deliberately reduced the planned maintenance programme, which decreased the percentage of maintenance spend on planned activity.” – [p28]
Perhaps English and Bennett forgot – or did not realise – that Housing NZ would disclose the true nature of their lack of funds for on-going maintenance of their increasingly dilapidated properties.
#4 – John Key
Perhaps English and Bennett both hoped that the media and public would buy their #1 deflection – that it was all a problem left over from the previous Labour government. Even our esteemed Dear Leader repeated the same spin in Parliament on 26 August this year;
“But what I can say is that this Government is proud of the fact that it is spending $300 million a year improving the mess we inherited from Labour. Its own house was never in order. It is not in order at the moment. No wonder we inherited-“
“It would be easier to take the member seriously if what Labour did when in Government was actually maintain the houses. But, in fact, not only did it not do that, it let them run down … It is a joke for the Labour Party members to come here and talk about this. They ran the housing stock down. They should hang their heads in shame—that is what they should do.”
“Where is the moral compass of an Opposition that just failed to upgrade and maintain houses? They were a mess under the Labour Government. They were a disgrace, and this Government has actually had to fix them up. It is the same old story all the time with Labour: hopeless in Government; roaring like lions in Opposition.”
“I am advised by the Minister responsible for HNZC that the previous Labour Government suspended the maintenance on those properties to build more properties. Labour let those houses run down, it let those tenants get sick, and now in Opposition it wants to pass the buck to someone else. It is a disgrace, Mr Little. It is a disgrace.”
In that one exchange, Key repeated the Blame Labour mantra four times.
During the 9 September interview on Radio NZ’s ‘Checkpoint‘ with Bill English, Guyon Espiner voiced his obvious disgust/weariness at that hoary old excuse;
“Ok, I think after seven or eight years we’ve had enough of you blaming the [previous] Labour government.”
Bennett and English did the same throughout various Radio NZ and television interviews.
At one point during the 9 September Radio NZ interview, English even blamed tenants for the state of their run-down homes;
English: “And generally the reason a repair or an upgrade doesn’t happen is because they don’t – is because they need to be told it’s needed, ah, they’re not in every house every week but when, y’know as I said -“
Espiner: “So hang on, it’s the tenant’s fault, for not telling them, is it?”
Key used that blame-gaming on 26 August, in Parliament, during his previously mentioned blame-game session;
“But also I will say that my mother took absolute pride in making sure that she kept the house clean, tidy, and ventilated.”
So, according to Key, English, and Bennett, the poor state of Housing NZ properties is due to;
The previous Labour Government
Nothing to do with $664 million in dividends siphoned off by National to fund reduced tax revenue post-2009/10 tax cuts, which led to National demanding bigger and bigger dividends from SOEs such as Solid Energy; state-owned power companies, and social services such as Housing NZ.
If ever there was a clearer picture of transferring wealth from low-income New Zealanders to the top 10% of income earners and “high net worth” (ie; filthy rich) individuals – it is the financial gutting of Housing NZ.
Despite claims that Housing NZ has “the money is there to be spent on the maintenance” – the facts prove otherwise. Housing NZ’s own statement condemns two ministers and the Prime Minister as manipulative liars;
“To mitigate this overspend, we deliberately reduced the planned maintenance programme, which decreased the percentage of maintenance spend on planned activity.”
# 5 – Nick Smith (again)
Perhaps the most tragic result of National’s cash-grab was the death of two-year old Emma-Lita Bourne, who died in a grotty, damp, cold State house. The death was preventable, as the Coroner, Brandt Shortland ,reported;
The coroner’s report into the toddler’s death, which was released on Thursday, says the poor condition of the state house in the South Auckland suburb of Otara was a contributing factor to Emma-Lita’s death.
“I am of the view the condition of the house at the time being cold and damp during the winter months was a contributing factor to Emma-Lita’s health status.”
Building and Housing Minister* Nick Smith, expressed his version of human empathy with this callous observation of the little girl’s short life;
“People dying in winter of pneumonia and other illnesses is not new.”
Three lying ministers and an emotionless psychopath/automaton.
This is what we have for a government.
It also offers a third option for National’s blame-gaming spin when challenged on their failures;
Winter illnesses
No doubt National will come up with other excuses and others to point a finger at. This is, after all, the party of personal responsibility.
#6 – Memo to Mainstream Media
Memo to Mainstream Media:
Next time English, Bennett, or Key claim that Housing NZ has sufficient money, after dividends are extracted, to carry out maintenance please ask them why HNZ stated in their 2013/14 Annual Report;
Because we’d really like to know.
* National has not one, but three ministers for housing portfolios. And they still can’t get it right.
Addendum1 – Housing NZ dividends under National
Addendum2 – Housing NZ dividends under Labour
Annual Report 2001/02 – $9 million (p51)
Annual Report 2003/04 – $176 million (p50)
Annual Report 2004/05 – $44 million (p42)
Total: $281 million (over 8 years – no figures found for ’00-’01 period)
Source: Shelter.org.uk
Radio NZ: Housing NZ not cash cow – minister
Radio NZ: Housing NZ to pay Crown $118m dividend
Radio NZ: Morning Report – English defends $118M Housing NZ dividend (alt. link)
Radio NZ: Housing NZ to pay Crown $118m dividend – audio (alt. link)
Housing NZ: Annual Report 2009-10 (p86)
Radio NZ: State housing criticism valid, says English
TVNZ News: English concerned by State House deferred maintenance bill
Radio NZ: The state of state housing (alt. link)
Parliament: 2. Housing New Zealand Corporation, Minister – Confidence
Fairfax media:Damp state house played part in toddler’s death
National Party: About Personal Responsibility
Government Minister sees history repeat – responsible for death
Housing Minister Paula Bennett continues National’s spin on rundown State Houses
Letter to the Editor – How many more children must die, Mr Key?!
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 13 September 2015.
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: dividends, Finance Minister Bill English, Housing NZ, lies, Nick Smith, Paula Bennett
18 June 2015 Frank Macskasy 19 comments
Another broken promise from National…
On 12 June, Social Housing Minister, Paula Bennet was interviewed on Radio NZ’s ‘Nine to Noon‘ programme. Kathryn Ryan asked why there were so many thousands of State houses in desperate need on maintenance.
In the interview, Bennett claimed that money was not a problem in Housing NZ’s maintenance programme;
“What I will say is that it’s not a money problem. So there is enough money there for us to get that stock up. It is a big programme of work that is constantly ongoing…
…So it’s not a matter of neglect.”
And again @ 5.41
“Which is really my point. So we’re saying it’s not actually about the money. The money is there to be spent for maintenance.”
Bennett’s statements were a parroting of Bill English’s previous claim, made on 5 June on Radio NZ’s ‘Morning Report‘, who also denied money was the core problem of run-down Housing NZ properties;
Bennett and English have both blamed lack of tradesmen and other spurious excuses for rundown houses.
But according to Housing NZ, the reason for our run-down State housing stock is very much a matter of lack of money, as I pointed out to Kathryn Ryan in an email I sent to her during her interview with Bennett;
to: Nine To Noon RNZ <ninetonoon@radionz.co.nz>
date: Fri, Jun 12, 2015
subject: Paula Bennet on Housing maintenance funding
Kia ora Kathryn,Paula Bennett’s assertion that Housing NZ has plenty of funds for maintenance is at variance with this statement from Housing NZ’s 2013/14 Annual Report;
The responsive repairs programme, which includes work on vacant properties, is dependent on demand, which was higher than expected in 2013/14. Consequently, the budget was overspent due to higher volumes of work orders. The average cost per work order was also higher as a result of more comprehensive repairs and upgrades being carried out on vacant properties. To mitigate this overspend, we deliberately reduced the planned maintenance programme, which decreased the percentage of maintenance spend on planned activity. [p28]
Furthermore, on page 36 of the 2013/14 Annual Report, Repairs and Maintenance is given as $220 million for the period.This is $1 billion less than the $1.2 billion quoted by Bill English to TVNZ’s Corin Dann on 24 March, this year.
Either Bennett is ignorant, or she is spinning.
Either way, not a good look.
Ms Ryan read out my email, on air, subsequent to the interview.
Hopefully, the media will pick up on what is obviously a gross distortion from National’s spin doctors. By asserting that there is no lack of money available, this shifts responsibility from government to blaming others for lack of maintenance.
It also deflects attention from the fact that National has used Housing NZ as a cash cow by demanding dividends, in a futile attempt by Bill English to balance the government books and post a surplus (which he has also failed at spectacularly), as this ‘Dominion Post‘ editorial highlighted;
This year the Government expects to get $220m in tax and dividends from the corporation. It wants profits as well as social services. And it is also in thrall to its ideology of semi-privatisation.
Housing NZ was explicit in it’s 2013/14 Annual Report;
It is up to the media to challenge Ministers when they make assertions that are patently untrue.
Radio NZ: The state of state housing
Radio NZ: The state of state housing (audio) (alt. link)
Fairfax media: Budget 2014 – The essential guide
Dominion Post: Editorial – Government stumbles over its housing policy
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 13 June 2015.
Categories: Media, Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: Finance Minister Bill English, Housing NZ, lies, Paula Bennett
The last few weeks have produced some curious stories from the media, relating to the current government that, at first glance, have no common thread linking them.
Closer scrutiny yields a different perspective…
National implements first round of tax cuts.
According to Dear Leader Key, the 2009 tax cuts cost the government $1 billion;
“…The tax cuts we have delivered today will inject an extra $1 billion into the economy over the coming year, thereby helping to stimulate the economy during this recession. More important, over the longer term these tax cuts will reward hard work and help to encourage people to invest in their own skills, in order to earn and keep more money.”
National carries out second round of tax cuts.
According to information obtained from Parliamentary Library in May 2012, and released by the Greens, the 2010 tax cuts cost the country an additional $2 billion;
The Green Party has today revealed that the National Government has so far had to borrow an additional $2 billion dollars to fund their 2010 tax cut package for upper income earners.
New information prepared for the Green Party by the Parliamentary Library show that the estimated lost tax revenues from National’s 2010 tax cut package are between $1.6–$2.2 billion. The lost revenue calculation includes company and personal income tax revenues offset by increases in GST.
Cost of both tax cuts, in terms of lost revenue: $2.6 billion – $3.2 billion, per annum.
Then-Minister for Housing, Nick Smith confirms in Parliament that National has been demanding multi-million dollar dividends from Housing New Zealand;
“The average dividend under the 5 years so far of this Government has been $88 million. The dividend this year is $90 million.”
The dividend payable does not include taxes paid by Housing NZ.
Fonterra cuts payout to farmers for dairy milk solids by 70 cents to $5.30/kg milk solids.
Dear Leader Key reveals that the international fall in dairy prices will affect the government’ tax revenue. Key states;
“It can have some impact because if that’s the final payout, the impact would be as large as $5 billion for the economy overall, and you would expect that to flow through to the tax revenue, both for the 14/15 year and the 15/16 year...”
Reported by TV3’s Brook Sabin on the same day;
“A big state-house sell-off is on the way, and up to $5 billion-worth of homes could be put on the block.
The shake-up of the Government’s housing stock will be a key focus for the next three years, with Finance Minister Bill English to lead it.
On the block is everything from a tiny 75 square metre two-bedroom state house in Auckland’s Remuera, on the market for $740,000, to a three-bedroom home in Taumarunui for just $38,000. Thousands more properties will soon hit the market.”
Fonterra announced that payouts to farmers would drop from $5.30/kg of milk solids to $4.70/kg. A Fairfax report states;
The predicted payout could hurt the national economy for a couple of years, including tax revenue.
Dear Leader Key announced the sale of 1,000 to 2,000 state houses within the year, and suggested there might be further sales later.
Fonterra announces further reduction of milk solid payout to farmers from $4.70/kg milk solids to $4.50/kg of milk solids.
National announced that it’s entire stock of 370 state houses in Invercargill, and 1,250 in Tauranga, would be put on the market to be sold off.
National’s 2015 Budget included;
Dumping the $1,000 Kiwisaver ‘kick-start’ government contribution
$684 million deficit for 2014/2015
a new travel tax on arriving/departing airport travellers
extension of a telecommunications tax to fund government’s rural broadband expansion programme
A story in the NZ Herald by Lynley Bilby reported that schools throughout the country were cutting back on their activities due to funding constraints;
Financially strapped secondary schools are cutting back on classroom activities, dropping field trips, ditching science experiments and even removing courses after a crackdown on parent donation rules.
In one case a secondary school had to abandon an NCEA Level 2 biology field trip to the beach because it could not afford to hire a bus.
The science teacher had to apply to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to alter the data collection assessment so the students would not fail.
Another school was forced to alter its science curriculum by reducing experiments to trim costs.
One school said it had done away with activities outside the school gates, including a sea kayaking standard for year 12 physical education students.
Principals reported outdoor education programmes, food, hospitality and technology courses could be affected by the funding guidelines.
The recently released Budget saw the Government fund school operational grants to the tune of $1.32 billion for the 2015/16 financial year.
But the NZSPC [New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council] said that was not enough to meet costs, particularly for low decile schools.
It is apparent that state funding of education is inadequate, and schools are either having to make drastic cuts to “classroom activities, dropping field trips, ditching science experiments and even removing courses” – or raise “voluntary donations” from parents. Those “donations” and fundraising events by parents and teachers raised more than $357 million in 2012, an increase of $16 million from 2011.
Nearly a third of a billion dollars – that is the shortfall of full funding of education in this country.
National announced the launch of so-called “social bonds“, where;
…the Government will pay a return to investors, determined by whether or not agreed social targets have been achieved.
The Government said social bonds were about the private and public sector organisations operating together to fund and deliver services.
This year’s Budget set aside $28.8 million to fund what is essentially contracting out some mental-health services to private investors. As Health Minister, Dr Jonathan Coleman explained in Parliament the next day;
” One of the benefits of social bonds is that they protect service providers by shifting financial risk away from the providers and on to investors who provide the funding and who are better placed to absorb risk…
…social bonds are an exciting financial instrument with the potential to revitalise social policy delivery and inject private sector funding and innovation into the sector.”
Note the term used by Dr Coleman (quoting from a Dept of Internal Affairs report); “financial instruments”. According to investopedia.com, a “financial instrument is defined as;
A real or virtual document representing a legal agreement involving some sort of monetary value. In today’s financial marketplace, financial instruments can be classified generally as equity based, representing ownership of the asset, or debt based, representing a loan made by an investor to the owner of the asset.
Financial instruments can be thought of as easily tradeable packages of capital, each having their own unique characteristics and structure. The wide array of financial instruments in today’s marketplace allows for the efficient flow of capital amongst the world’s investors.
In effect, funding for mental health services is being transferred from the State – the traditional source – to private investors. Plainly put – National is seeking investment funding for mental health services.
These so-called “social bonds” appear to be a continuation of privatisation-by-stealth.
Interestingly, the right-wing think-tank, ‘New Zealand Initiative‘ (formerly the Business Roundtable and NZ Institute) published a report in March advocating the use of social bonds, and calling for the government to implement them. Three months later, National did precisely that.
As the government’s tax revenue was slashed by between $2.6 billion – $3.2 billion, per annum, after the 2009 and 2010 tax cuts, National’s tax-take and expenditure was further put under pressure by the 2007/08 Global Financial Crisis; the resulting Great Recession; rising unemployment; tumbling dairy pay-outs; and the Christchurch re-build.
National’s much heralded prediction of a $372 million Budget surplus this year collapsed into a massive $684 million deficit – a turn-around of nearly a billion dollars.
A billion dollars – the cost of the 2009 tax cuts.
But added to the fiscal deficit is another deficit; the hidden social costs which New Zealanders are slowly, belatedly, waking up to.
Community organisations are winding back, or closing down completely;
State assets such as housing and schools are suffering a lack of maintenance, the likes of which we have seen only in Third World nations. The recent case of Northland College in Kaikohe revealed a badly run-down facility that was so delapidated that police asked to use them for training simulations because they represented the closest thing available to a “ghetto environment”, according to school principal, Jim Luders.
Luders’ description of his school is hard to believe in 21st century New Zealand;
“The conditions are appalling. They’re unsafe. There’s water leaks, mould, asbestos in parts. It’s without doubt the worst school stock in New Zealand.
I would challenge any school to send in photos that are worse.”
Back in 2008, an ERO report highlighted the poor state of Northland College. Seven years later, the problem remains unchanged.
New Zealand’s State housing does not fare better. TVNZ’s Corin Dann wrote this piece on 24 March, which should have raised alarm bells throughout the nation (it did not);
The Finance Minister is signalling a deferred maintenance bill for the country’s state houses of $1.2 billion will have to be met by the government in future.
Community housing providers looking to buy state houses off the government say they believe Housing New Zealand has failed to carry around $1.2 billion in maintenance on state houses.
However, when pressed he conceded that “looking back everyone could have performed better”.
$1.2 billion dollars. Half the cost of the 2010 tax cuts.
Which, in part, explained why the Salvation Army assessed National’s offer to buy some State houses – and promptly ran a mile. As the SA’s spokesperson, Major Campbell Roberts stated, with crystal clarity;
“We would be faced with significant maintenance issues, houses which have got the wrong tenants … we would also need to do extensive development.
We would be putting so much resource into this that we could not actually put resource into anything else.
We can’t guarantee that we would be able to improve things for the state tenants, which is exactly what we would want to do by taking [the properties] over at this stage, on our own.”
Community Housing Aotearoa director, Scott Figenshow, was even more to the point;
“Our members are very concerned about the families they work with, and are only interested if they can do a better job than Housing New Zealand. At the moment the sums simply don’t stack up.
Last month the Government confirmed $1.2 billion of deferred maintenance on the state housing stock. Why would a provider want to purchase a liability?”
Figenshow suggested, instead, that Government reinvest the $220 million it was forecast to receive in tax and dividends from Housing NZ, back into much needed maintenance and upgrades.
For two year old Emma-Lita Bourne, tenant of a State house in Otara, South Auckland, the situation is academic. She died last August living in an environment that was clearly not conducive for human health and well-being;
Two-year-old Emma-Lita Bourne died in Auckland’s Starship Hospital in August last year following a brain haemorrhage.
She had been taken to hospital with a fever, which turned out to be a form of pneumonia.
In his findings, released on Thursday, coroner Brandt Shortland said pneumonia played a part in Emma-Lita’s death and the Housing New Zealand home in Otara where her family lived may have been to blame for her ill-health.
Other children in the family also became sick while the family was living there, with one suffering from rheumatic fever.
In May 2014, Emma-Lita’s family had been fast-tracked up the waiting list to be transferred to a better state house, because of the rheumatic fever risk.
Although they’re now living in a different home, the move didn’t happen before Emma-Lita’s death.
Housing Minister Nick Smith said the government’s policy to fast-track those at risk of rheumatic fever into better homes has helped 270 families.
As Radio NZ reported Coroner Brandt Shortland’s findings;
“In my view, the house unfortunately was unhealthy for this family.
Housing NZ’s general manager of tenancy services, Kay Read, accepted the likelihood of a link;
“Our responsibility is to provide warm, safe and dry housing and, from the reports in this situation, it appears that we’ve failed.”
The above Radio NZ story features photos of another Housing NZ property also in a delapidated condition, with mould and condensation streaming down the walls. The property is tenanted.
Interviewed on Radio NZ’s ‘Morning Report‘, Minister for Housing, Bill English, denied that money was the core problem of run-down Housing NZ properties;
English’s assurance that Housing NZ “not short of money to do the job” appears to be contradicted by Housing NZ’s 2013/14 Annual Report;
Furthermore, on page 36 of the 2013/14 Annual Report, Repairs and Maintenance is given as $220 million for the period.
This is $1 billion less than the $1.2 billion quoted by Bill English to TVNZ’s Corin Dann on 24 March, this year.
Whilst clouded in waffle, English admitted that “the system” (ie; government and Housing NZ) was responsible for this little girl’s death;
“Regardless of the cause it’s a tragedy for this family. It appears that while the system worked to some extent, we’ve got to test whether it was responsive enough quickly enough to the very real needs of this family.
They didn’t really have the option of ordering a higher grade of insulation for the house.
We’ve got a strong focus on organising the government services around vulnerable families – and this is a vulnerable family – rather than expecting those vulnerable families to find their way around various government departments.
This type of case should illustrate I think to the people making public policy, including us, that we’ve got some way to go yet to be as responsive as we should be when there’s serious issues going on in this family.”
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that New Zealanders have died for lack of adequate state funding of social services. For Minister Bill English, this is no doubt a matter of déjà vu, bringing back memories of late Northlander, Rau Williams, and late Southland farmer, Colin Morrison;
The 6 April 1998 ‘Otago Daily Times’ story stated;
Riverton dairy farmer Colin Morrison (42) has lost his race for a triple heart by-pass, dying of complications and leaving his widow, Christine, and his doctor blaming Health Minister Bill English and the health system for his death.
Mrs Morrison last night did not want to speak to Mr English, who is also her local MP. She said the minister and the health system had failed her family and her husband.
“I don’t think I could cope. I know I can’t blame one person but I have got to have something or someone to blame. I wrote him a letter saying I blamed him [Mr English] but I blame the system as well”, she said.
His GP, Dr Russell Pridgeon, of Riverton, last night called on Mr English to resign, saying he held him morally responsible for Mr Morrison’s death.
A month later, then-Health Minister Bill English conceded that his government’s “booking system” was a failure – but not before others died on his watch as Health Minister;
Bill English did not resign, though National were swept from office the following year by Helen Clark’s Labour-led coalition.
English is now Minister for Housing.
And once again, people are dying.
Addendum1
The National government does not have money to spend on refurbishing state housing, but it does have money for other projects;
Parliament: Hansards – Tax Cuts – Implementation
Scoop media: Govt’s 2010 tax cuts costing $2 billion and counting
Parliament: Hansards – Housing, Affordable—Progress and Management of Housing New Zealand
Agrimoney.com: Dairy rout spurs $4bn cut to Fonterra milk payout
Hive News: Treasury re-crunching Budget numbers for low Fonterra payout
TV3 News: State housing sell-off worth $5B
Fairfax media: Slashed Fonterra payout will affect all NZers
Radio NZ: PM states housing intentions
Otago Daily Times: Fonterra cuts dairy payout forecast
Radio NZ: Tauranga, Invercargill state houses to be sold
Radio NZ: Budget 2015 – What you need to know
Fairfax media: International airfares will rise new departure tax
Radio NZ: Telecommunications tax will hit consumers
NZ Herald: Secondary schools to slash spending
Radio NZ: Social bond system to target mental health
Parliament: Hansards – 5. Mental Health Services—Social Bonds
Investopedia.com: Financial Instrument
NBR: Roundtable and NZ Institute morph into new libertarian think tank
NZ Intiative: Social Impact Bonds
Government Economics Networks: The case for social bonds: A new way of financing and delivering social services
Fairfax media: Government may let Relationships Aotearoa fold
TV1 News: Relationships Aotearoa hanging on at ‘awful’ 11th hour
Radio NZ: Counselling service rejects claim it’s badly run
NZ Herald: Northland College students stuck with ‘worst classrooms in New Zealand’
Radio NZ: Northland ‘slum’ school fix-up very slow
TV1 News: English concerned by State House deferred maintenance bill
Radio NZ: Salvation Army won’t buy state houses
Fairfax media: Salvation Army says no to state houses
NZCity: Girl’s death should spur action – Greens
Radio NZ: Damp state house linked to child death
Radio NZ: English responds to criticism of state houses (Alt. Link) (audio)
Dunedin Star: Death – the Northland Way
NZPA: English agrees system flawed
TV1 News: Government accused of wasting $11.5 million on wealthy Saudi farmer
NZ Herald: PM defends $30m payout to Rio Tinto
NZ Herald: John Key defends cost of flag referendums
Mana News: Housing under neoliberalism
NBR: Matthew Hooton – Gulf games fail to deliver
NBR: Matthew Hooton – Flying sheep endanger McCully
NZ Herald: Bryce Edwards – Political roundup – The bizarre ‘bribery’ and flying sheep scandal
NZ Herald: Dita De Boni – Kiwis hoodwinked over state housing
Radio NZ: Demand increasing on schools to fund out classroom activities
Radio NZ: Government hikes up Housing NZ dividend almost 20 percent (audio)
That was Then, this is Now #6
Budget 2013: petrol taxes
“It’s fundamentally a fairness issue”- Peter Dunne
Housing; broken promises, families in cars, and ideological idiocy (Part Tahi)
Housing; broken promises, families in cars, and ideological idiocy (Part Rua)
Housing; broken promises, families in cars, and ideological idiocy (Part Toru)
Categories: The Body Politic Tags: Budget 2015, Colin Morrison southland farmer, Finance Minister Bill English, Housing NZ, NZ Initiative, social bonds
The Mendacities of Mr Key # 12: No More Asset Sales (Kind of)
15 May 2015 Frank Macskasy 4 comments
On 25 February 2014, Dear Leader John Key announced to the nation that his government’s asset sales programme was over;
“Just as we did before the last election we’re making our position on share sales clear to New Zealanders before we go to the polls later this year. We’ve achieved what we wanted with the share offers in energy companies and Air NZ. We’re now returning to a business-as-usual approach when it comes to [state-owned enterprises]. The truth is there aren’t a lot of other assets that would fit in the category where they would be either appealing to take to the market or of a size that would warrant a further programme, or they sit in the category that they are very large like Transpower but are monopoly assets so aren’t suited.”
Like so many of the Prime Minister’s promises, that “Key Committment” did not last long. Not even a year.
As Fonterra’s payout to farmers collapsed and weakening exports to China’s slowing economy began to impact on the government’s tax-take, Bill English’s much-heralded promise of a Budget surplus sank deeper than the m.v. Rena in 2011. English promised almost exactly a year ago on 16 May 2014;
“It’s a real surplus and it follows a string of improvements in deficits starting at $18 billion four years ago, this year about $2.5b and next year a surplus of $370 [million], and then bigger surpluses after that.”
Barely three months after the 2014 elections, Treasury had bad news for English and the National government;
Treasury this morning delivered a body blow to the Government’s hopes of returning to surplus, saying it now expects a deficit of over half a billion dollars for the June financial year.
At this morning’s Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, Acting Treasury Secretary Vicky Robertson said despite solid growth in the economy, the Crown’s finances would take a hit from lower than previously forecast tax take.
That had seen Treasury change its forecast operating balance before gains and losses (Obegal) for the 2014-15 year from a slim surplus of $297 million to a deficit of $572 million.
Treasury said softer outlook for economic drivers of the tax such as lower dairy prices and interest rates had seen the expected tax take for the year fall by $600 million.
In the same Herald report, English and Key were both frantically doing their best King Canute impersonations since King Canute took a day to go to the beach;
But Finance Minister Bill English was this morning still clinging to the hope Treasury is wrong and the books will indeed be back in black this year as he and Mr Key have promised for some years.
“I’m hopeful we will,” Mr Key told reporters this afternoon.
“The view of the Minister of Finance is that we can still achieve that surplus. There’s a lot of different factors moving around here at the moment.”
By 2 May of this year, even National’s spin-meisters had run out of steam, and on TV3’s ‘The Nation‘, English was forced to admit that the world was indeed round and not flat; money-printing pixies did not exist; and dreams of a budget surplus were a Tory fantasy;
“No, I don’t call it a failure. It is what it is, and that is for the 14/15 year, we budgeted $370 million surplus. It looks like it will be a $500 or $600 million deficit, and the surplus will be the next year. So we’re on track.”
So “the surplus will be the next year“?
The Minister had better be hoping that the Christchurch re-build; the Auckland housing boom; and renewed growth in China’s economy, will continue to stimulate the economy. Otherwise, that “500 or $600 million deficit” will balloon into $1 billion or $2 billion or…
National’s expensive, multi-billion dollar 2009 and 2010 tax cuts may not have been such a clever move after all.
English, though, is not about to surrender. His government’s policies may be predicated on tax revenue from re-building a semi-destroyed city; an unsustainable housing boom in Auckland; and waning dairy exports – but National’s Finance Minister has other ideas up his sleeve.
In his 2 May interview on ‘The Nation‘, English committed the government not to cut spending;
Lisa Owen: “Okay. Well, before on The Nation, you said that the Government would not make any cuts to reach surplus. Is that still your plan?”
Bill English: “That’s right. We’re not going to make any specific extra decisions now just because our tax revenue’s a percentage point – 1 percent down.”
If past experience has taught us one thing about this government; if they promise you one thing, you can be sure that somewhere, in some back room; they are planning something completely different.
English has committed the government not to “make any specific extra decisions now just because our tax revenue’s a percentage point – 1 percent down”.
It’s just a shame we can’t believe a word of what he says. The cuts had begun long before English uttered his lies to Lisa Owen.
The story unfolds…
National’s “economic whizz-kid” had promised the country a “$372 million surplus” – as well as “an increase to paid parental leave from 14 weeks to 18, free doctors’ visits and prescriptions for children under 13, extra money to ease the cost of early-childhood education, eligibility for paid parental leave extended, and the existing parental tax credit to rise“.
Labour’s social policies had been nicked by National. English basked in political glory. Sceptics were ignored. The country went to the polls four months later.
And then reality began to reassert itself.
National’s core policy; it’s raison d’être; it’s reputation amongst New Zealanders who are only vaguely politically conscious – is it’s so-called “reputation for fiscal prudence and responsible economic manager”, and it was rapidly being sucked down a flushing toilet of indebtedness. If it couldn’t deliver on it’s promise of returning the books to surplus – as Labour’s Finance Minister, Michael Cullen, had done between 2000 and 2008 – then what good was it?
English looked at his options to cut spending, and to raise money without creating headlines that shrieked “panic” or “broken promises”.
So much for Key’s assertion that “the truth is there aren’t a lot of other assets that would fit in the category where they would be either appealing to take to the market or of a size that would warrant a further programme”.
Truth and John Key parted company a long time ago. Key’s announcement that up to 8,000 State houses could be sold came only eleven months after his earlier committment to New Zealanders that no further state assets would be sold.
John Key denies there is a housing crisis in New Zealand;
“No, I don’t think you can call it a crisis. What you can say though is that Auckland house prices have been rising, and rising too quickly actually.”
National’s broken promise flew in the face of committments made prior to last year’s general election, as then-Health Minister, Tony Ryall said;
Free doctors’ visits and prescriptions for children aged under six will be extended to all children aged under 13 from July next year, Health Minister Tony Ryall says.
“Budget 2014 is investing $90 million over three years from 1 July 2015 so primary school-aged children can go to a doctor for free, any time of the day or night, and get their prescriptions free as well,” he says.
“National brought in the policy of free GP visits and prescriptions for children under six, including free after-hours visits. Thanks to our prudent management of the health budget, we are extending this policy to all children under 13.
“This is what careful financial management can deliver to Kiwi families.
Interestingly, there was a very minor – but all-important word missing between two otherwise identical Facebook postings by John Key and the National Party;
Note the one missing word – “all” – from Key’s Facebook statement. Otherwise, the statement is identical to the National Party Facebook page. Someone in the National Party’s politburo obviously wasn’t keeping track of re-writing their election promises.
Green Party Health and ACC spokesperson, Kevin Hague, hit the nail on the head when he demanded;
“If one in ten kids have to pay up to $38 to go to the doctor when they have an accident, then that visit is not free and that’s a broken promise. It begs the question: what other promises are the Government going to renege on this year in a bid to save a bit more money? This shows how desperate the Government is to reach a surplus that it’s trying to pinch pennies from injured children.”
Attempting to justify the transfer, English announced;
“Over half of the new houses will be sold to help offset construction costs, and the remainder will be retained as social housing. Our bottom line is that there will be at least as many social houses in Tāmaki as the 2800 there now.”
As with previous promises, National’s assurances cannot be relied upon. Ministers will utter soothing reassurances one day – and weeks, months, or years later will find justification why they had to retract.
National ministers simply cannot be trusted to keep their word. Even if 7,500 new homes are built, there is no guarantee that “half of the new houses will be … retained as social housing“. National will find a reason to sell them.
English further stated;
“The Government owns one in 16 houses in Auckland and we need to do a better job with them for the sake of tenants and aspiring homeowners, as well as for the neighbourhoods they live in and the wider city…
…This transfer of ownership of HNZC properties and the responsibility for tenancy management to TRC will enable faster construction of warm, dry and safe houses that better meet people’s needs.”
His comments are a repetition of National’s spin that NZ Housing properties are ‘badly run down and in dire need of maintenance’;
Finance Minister Bill English has confirmed the Government will need to spend $1.5 billion upgrading state houses as they are sold to social housing providers.
Mr English conceded many state houses were not up to standard and had not been properly maintained.
He said the cost of deferred maintenance had risen to $1.5 billion and that the matter had been raised during discussions with social agencies considering buying state houses.
“They’ve highlighted that. So part of the benefit of the process we’re going through is that these agencies are going to apply a very tight scrutiny to the state of the houses that maybe they might be looking at buying.”
Mr English blamed the former Labour-led Government, saying it had focused more on building new state houses than on maintaining existing homes.
English’s apportioning of blame to the previous Labour government is disingenuous.
The sole reason why Housing NZ has not been able to maintain it’s properties is that it has had to pay dividends from income (rent paid by low-income/beneficiary tenants) to successive governments. According to National’s Building and Housing Minister, Dr Nick Smith;
“The average dividend under the 5 years so far of this Government has been $88 million. The dividend this year [2014] is $90 million…”
Fairfax reported Nick Smith as stating;
Smith said the dividend had been been fairly consistent in the past several years – $71m in 2010, $68m in 2011, $77m in 2012 and $90m in 2013.
Four years worth of dividends – $306 million – were paid to the government’s Consolidated Fund. No wonder Housing NZ is unable to maintain it’s properties.
National was brutal in it’s expectations of huge windfalls from Housing NZ;
The letters reveal that on six occasions ministers asked for dividends to be hiked, or paid faster. In March 2010, Maurice Williamson wrote: “I expect . . . a significantly higher annual return to the Crown.”
Phil Heatley, when he was housing minister, asked that in 2011-12 and 2012-13 the dividend be $45m higher than that forecast in the 2011 Budget. Later he revised expectations upwards, to $251m over three years.
In July last year, Smith said “dividend levels should be significant enough to represent a challenge”.
These demands from National ministers were placed on a government department charged with housing the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. Williamson, Heatley, and Smith were content to bleed Housing NZ and let tenants live in cold, damp, miserable conditions.
Williamson, Heatley, and Smith – National’s 21st century slumlords.
As with Solid Energy, National exploited government departments and SOEs such as ACC, as “cash cows”, with which to balance their books to return to Budget surplus. (see: Solid Energy – A solid drama of facts, fibs, and fall-guys )
It is also worthy to note that National Ministers are employing spin when it comes to state house sales. English and other ministers use the term “transfer” and not sale.
On 6 May, Bill English stated that houses would not be sold “unless tenants get better services and taxpayers get fair and reasonable value“.
On TVNZ’s Q+A on 10 May, Minister for Social Housing, Paula Bennett, admitted that her government was selling state housing;
Corin Dann: “But the point is, they are going to get these houses, they’re going to be sold these houses, aren’t they? You say transfer but it’s a sale of houses at a discount, right?”
Paula Bennett: “Well, I’m sure it’ll be less than the market value, yes.”
These are sales, not a transfer. “Transfer” implies a change of ownership without cost or exchange of money. There is Big Money involved in state house sales.
[Incorrect information deleted. – FM]
The Great Sell-off of Housing continues under National – with the government disposing of all state housing in Tauranga and Invercargill. Radio NZ reported;
The Government has announced it will begin selling off up to 1600 state houses in Tauranga and Invercargill to social housing groups.
There are 370 state houses in Invercargill and 1250 in Tauranga and it’s understood all of them could be sold if buyers come forward.
Only vetted and registered community housing providers will be able to buy them and, depending on their negotiations with the Government, they may not have to pay the market price.
There is nothing to stop private developers from acquiring state houses through back-door means, as this report on a landlords website explained;
The state houses will only be available for sale to registered Community Housing Providers (CHPs).
However, Housing NZ Minister Bill English said that registered CHPs can partner with other organisations to acquire and develop social housing.
“Any transfer of houses will not affect the rent tenants pay or their eligibility for subsidised housing, and properties transferred as social houses will also have to stay as social housing unless the Government agrees otherwise. In both Tauranga and Invercargill, Housing New Zealand owns a significant number of houses so there is potential for more than one organisation to acquire houses for community ownership.”
This means there could be scope for private investors to get involved in the provision of social housing – either by becoming a registered CHP or by partnering with a registered CHP.
Speaking on TVNZ’s Q+A on 10 May, Minister for Social Housing, Paula Bennett confirmed that private investors could “partner” with Community Housing Providers to purchase state houses; re-develop the properties; and sell new residences at a profit.
On 6 May, English assured the public;
“Any transfer of houses will not affect the rent tenants pay or their eligibility for subsidised housing, and properties transferred as social houses will also have to stay as social housing unless the Government agrees otherwise.”
Of course National will agree. This is a wholesale sell-off of state housing. Why wouldn’t they agree to new owners on-selling these properties for a profit? Otherwise new owners would be stuck with old, dilapidated properties, requiring expensive repairs, and soon getting into deep debt.
This is privatisation, by stealth, through the back-door, using intermediaries. This is a whole new level of government subterfuge.
It also exposes John Key’s assurance – that state assert sales have ended – as a lie.
Finance Minister Bill English is desperately scrabbling for every dollar he can claw back. Miserly does not even begin to aptly describe this government’s actions.
It seems that the tax cuts of 2009 and 2010 are being paid for by paperboys and girls; sick children; welfare beneficiaries; and Housing NZ tenants.
It remains to be seen what further cuts in social spending Bill English has planned. His reassurances on 2 May 2015 – that there would be no cuts to social spending – are to be treated with the same contempt as other promises, assurances, and committments that have been made, and broken, by John Key, Bill English, et al.
Governments are at their worst and most dangerous, when desperate. And this is a desperate government.
Karol, writing for The Standard, has more on this issue. See: “Key Govt asset stripping state housing‘.
Registered community housing provider, Habitat for Humanity Invercargill-branch chairman, Stephen Falconer, is an enthusiastic cheerleader for National’s covert privatisation programme. He told the Otago Daily Times on 7 May;
“We’re a private organisation, essentially, and we think that private enterprise can actually do a better job than Government on most things.”
Because private enterprise has done such a stirling job thus far in meeting demand for housing in Auckland, Christchurch, and elsewhere?
It is disappointing that an ostensibly community organisation like Habitat for Humanity has bought into the government narrative, complete with parroting neo-liberal cliches that “private enterprise can actually do a better job than Government“.
If it were true that “private enterprise can actually do a better job than Government“, then why does Habitat for Humanity exist?
Social Housing Minister Paula Bennett is interviewed by Corin Dann on TVNZ’s Q+A. Along with Bill English’s admissions, her comments are a disturbing indication where National is going with state housing. See: Govt social housing target 3000 homes
NZ Herald: PM – no more SOEs to sell after Genesis
John Key: My key commitments to you
NBR: Weak dairy prices prompt analysts to pull back Fonterra forecast payout for next season
The Independent: How China’s slowing GDP growth could drag down the global economy
TV3 News: National Party wins third term
NZ Herald: No surplus this year – Treasury
Fairfax media: Budget 2014 – Surplus real, says English
TV3: The Nation – Bill English
TV1 News: Up to 8,000 state houses could be sold under John Key’s radical plan
Radio NZ: Key denies Auckland housing crisis
NZ Herald: No free GP visits for all children – Government
National Party: Free doctors’ visits, prescriptions for under 13s
Facebook: John Key
Facebook: National Party
Scoop media: Govt breaks free doctors visit promise to kids
Fairfax media: Government offloads 2800 state houses to Auckland development company
Radio NZ: Govt to spend $1.5b fixing up state houses
Parliament: Hansards – Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers – 8 May 2014
Fairfax media: Nats milking Housing NZ – Labour
Fairfax media: Not much in the cupboard for English to dine on
NZ Herald: State houses in Tauranga and Invercargill to go on the market
TVNZ Q+A: Govt social housing target 3000 homes
Landlords – For Kiwi Property Investors: State houses to go on sale in Tauranga & Invercargill
NZ Herald: Budget 2012 – ‘Paper boy tax’ on small earnings stuns Labour
Otago Daily Times: Invercargill among first state house transfer sites
Budget 2013: State Housing and the War on Poor
National recycles Housing Policy and produces good manure!
Our growing housing problem
National Housing propaganda – McGehan Close Revisited
The Mendacities of Mr Key #11: Sorry, Prime Minister, what ‘mandate’ were you referring to?!
Polity: Housing horrors
The Jackal: Nationals housing failure
The Standard: Key Govt asset stripping state housing
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: budget surpluses, Dear Leader lies through his teeth, Finance Minister Bill English, Habitat for Humanity, Housing NZ, Maurice Williamson, Nick Smith, Paula Bennett, Phil Heatley, Solid Energy, state asset sales, State houses
8 May 2015 Frank Macskasy 13 comments
If there is a crystal-clear example why a functioning democracy must have vibrant, critical current affairs programmes on free-to-air televesion, then TV3’s ‘The Nation‘ on the morning of 2 May was top-of-the-pile. Without doubt, this land-mark episode was a powerful insight into the general competence (or lack, thereof) of two of the government’s senior ministers; Finance Minister Bill English and Corrections Minister, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga.
(L-R) Corrections Minister, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga — TV3’s ‘The Nation’ host & interviewer, Lisa Owen — Finance Minister Bill English
The highly talented host-interviewer, Lisa Owen, interviewed both, drilling deep down, and extracting information; admissions; and more critically – waving aside pathetic attempts to fudge legitimate answers. The resulting exchanges did not make for a ‘happy day’ for either government minister, revealing one totally out of his depth, and the other unwilling to admit that his stewardship of the country’s economy has been an abject failure.
1. Finance Minister Bill English
In the opening months of World War 2, there was a period from September 1939 to May 1940, known as “the Phoney War“. Both the Allied Nations (led by Great Britain) and the expanding Third Reich were technically at war, but major military operations did not commence until Nazi Germany invaded Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg on 10 May 1940.
In New Zealand, we might have referred to those first eight months as a “Clayton’s War” – the war you’re having when you’re not really having a war. (For those old enough to remember, “Clayton’s” refers to a non-alcoholic beverage marketed in New Zealand in the 1970s and 1980s. It was heavily promoted with the catch-phrase, “the drink you have when you’re not having a drink”. The marketing campaign was an advertisers dream-come-true, catching the public’s attention. The product, unfortunately for the manufacturers, was less successful. )
The same could be said of New Zealand’s so-called “rock star economy” and “recovery”.
By nearly all accounts, our recent growth has been predicated on three factors;
The Auckland housing boom/bubble
The Christchurch Earthquakes re-build
Exports – particularly dairy – to China
The first is reliant purely on borrowing from off-shore to fund speculative activity. When that bubble finally bursts, we will be left with a multi-billion debt; thousands of bankruptcies; and an economy in tatters as capital flight takes place.
The second is a short-term growth-spurt which owes it’s origins to two natural disasters – literally disaster capitalism.
The third is built upon China’s unsustainable growth, and has recently fallen away, returning Australia as our number one trading partner, as the value of dairy commodities plummet.
The first two are unsustainable. The last is reliant on a major trading partner’s economic well-being. As with New Zealand’s lamb and butter exports to the UK prior to it joining the EEC in January 1973, we have placed our export “eggs” in one, very big, very fragile, basket.
Against this backdrop of The Phoney Economic Recovery, the following financial facts should give us cause for concern;
The on-going cost of the 2009 and 2010 tax-cuts, estimated to be around $3.8 billion per year, and up to $4.26 billion last year
Plummeting dairy prices resulting in lower payout to farmers and taking $7 billion out of the economy
Reduced tax-take by the government is around $4.5 billion
In view of unsustainable tax-cuts in 2009 and 2010; the economy taking a $7 billion “hit”; and lower than anticipated tax revenue by this government, it was hardly unexpected that Bill English’s promises of a surplus this year have collapsed.
Lisa Owen challenged the hapless Finance Minister in a sixteen minute long interview. In this excerpt, English is evasive when asked questions about the governments surplus;
Throughout the interview, English was upbeat and insisted that a surplus was just around the corner;
“Well, okay, it would be nice if the number got there this year; it’ll just take a bit longer. What’s important here is the trajectory. So Government is closing its deficits; it’s getting to surplus. We’ll soon be in a position to start paying off debt. Our expenditure’s under control; the revenue’s a bit harder. You’ve just seen in the last day or two, dairy prices are going down again; that has an impact. So we’re sufficiently confident in the direction that we’re not going to cut services or cut entitlements to try and chase a larger surplus number.”
Lisa Owen asked the Minister: “Okay. Well, before on The Nation, you said that the Government would not make any cuts to reach surplus. Is that still your plan?”
English replied; “That’s right. We’re not going to make any specific extra decisions now just because our tax revenue’s a percentage point – 1% down.”
Then, incredibly, English maintained that tax-cuts were still on National’s agenda;
Owen: “I just want to look at some of the big promises, like tax cuts. They were meant to come from that $500 million that you now don’t have. But is it fair to say that they’re not really likely now?”
English: “As we indicated last year, we wouldn’t be able to contemplate that until 2017 for some of the reasons that you’ve outlined. So at the moment, the ability to deliver some kind of moderate tax cut hasn’t changed and we would have the next couple of budgets to work out how that would happen.”
Owen: “Hang on, Minister. It has changed, hasn’t it, Minister, because you’ve just identified the fact you’ve got less money, so it must have changed.”
English: “Well, we’ve shifted the money from next year to the year after; that’s technically what’s actually happened. We’ll deal with that as time goes on, but the point I’m making is our finances are-“
Owen: “Is it likely that your tax cuts then will be delayed as well? Maybe 2018, not 2017?”
English: “No, we’re not suggesting that. We said at the end of last year that they would be possible in 2017. We’ve made allowance for that.”
It beggars belief that we have a Finance Minister willing to entertain the notion of tax cuts at a time when dairy prices are dropping; tax revenue is falling; and public debt has ballooned to $59.9 billion and rising by $27 million per day, every day.
Never mind tax cuts – when do we, as a nation, start to repay this debt mountain?!
The reality is that if National proceeds with promises of tax cuts in 2017 (which is an election year – bribe anyone?) New Zealand will have to borrow from offshore to make up the shortfall in revenue. Our debt mountain will continue to grow.
English himself admitted that the deficit this year will be in the order of around half a billion dollars;
“…It is what it is, and that is for the 14/15 year, we budgeted $370 million surplus. It looks like it will be a $500 or $600 million deficit, and the surplus will be the next year. So we’re on track.”
Somewhere in National’s gross mis-management of the economy, they have gone from a $370 million surplus to a potential $600 million deficit – just shy of $1 billion lost.
How does a government make such a colossal mistake? “It is what it is” is hardly an explanation.
Throughout the interview, English kept repeating the mantra of a future surplus;
“The direction is pretty clear. Our surpluses will come and they will grow, and we’ll be able to pay off debt.”
“The target remains getting to surplus, and in the Budget, you’ll see the details of where the Government is up to with it. But I’m indicating that despite falling a bit short in 14/15, we’re on track for surplus.”
Though English insisted that there would be no cuts to spending, he did use coded language for possible reductions to welfare spending;
Owen: “Okay. So what about measures to curb poverty, then? Will they have to be delayed? Because the Prime Minister identified them as something of a priority. Is that going to be delayed?”
English: “Well, we’ve been working on these issues for a while, particularly focused on communities and families with persistent deprivation and caught in a cycle of dependence. And so you could expect to see us continue with that sort of programme through this Budget…
… Or sickness and invalids beneficiaries with more support for their health issues and more support for employment, could actually get out of dependency, off welfare and remain in work.
Because as we all know, invalids don’t actually have real disabilities or debilitating injuries or diseases – they are simply on a “cycle of dependence”.
When in trouble, blame someone else. In this case, invalids.
Owen then moved on to the issue of Auckland’s growing housing crisis and nailed English on this government’s spectacular inability to manage and address that city’s housing shortage. English simply blamed the Auckland Council;
“Well, the migration numbers have stayed high, bearing in mind about half of migrants appear to go to Auckland; the other half go to the rest of the country. But there’s pretty clear signals that Auckland City Council need to get on with the job. They are the ultimate decision-maker around the infrastructure and around the consenting for new houses. We’re giving them the toolkit to enable them to do it faster, but there’s clearly a lot more to be done, and we’ll keep looking for more tools to help the Auckland City Council to do the job they need to do.”
When still in trouble, keep blaming someone else. In this case, the Auckland Council.
Thus far, National’s grand strategy to cope with Auckland’s housing crisis is to shift ownership of 2,800 properties from Housing NZ to the Tamaki Redevelopment Company – as if shifting properties around on a giant ‘Monopoly’ board will somehow solve the problem?
Owen pointed out to English that in transferring 2,800 houses to the Tamaki Redevelopment Company, that he was breaking a previous committment;
Owen: “Now, hang on a minute. There you offloaded 2800 houses, and I thought you had a cap on getting rid of state houses of about 2000. So is that cap gone now?”
English: “Well, no. What we’ve said is Housing New Zealand will own at least 60,000 houses, and that certainly hasn’t changed. Government remains the owner—”
Owen: “No, you said a cap, Minister. So has the cap gone now with this 2800 houses? The cap’s blown?”
English: “No. Government will remain the owner of the Tamaki houses. We’ve simply put them in a different government company, which has been set up specifically to regenerate that community, because it’s a very particular skillset.”
English had all but surrendered to Owen’s persistent questioning by outright admitting his government’s failure to address Auckland’s mounting housing crisis;
“That’s right. We’re not meeting demand. I certainly agree with that. Whether it gets worse before it gets better, forecasters can argue over that. We’ve got plenty to do to meet the demand that’s been there for a while. And as I said, the Government’s supporting Auckland City, trying to get them a better toolkit and making our own contribution through redeveloping our own land in Auckland.”
For English, this interview was possibly the worst in his political career. He had to explain why his commitment to returning to surplus this year was now in tatters, and why his government’s housing plan for Auckland consisted of moving state housing from owner to owner, without adding significantly to the overall stock.
The only reason why National’s reputation for being a “sound prudent fiscal manager” survives intact is because New Zealanders are not paying attention.
But worse was to come when Corrections Minister, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga took the chair and was also interviewed by Lisa Owen. What followed was a debacle of Hekia Parata proportions.
2. Corrections Minister, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga
With on-going privatisation of State services dressed up as so-called “Public-Private Partnerships” (PPPs), Lisa Owen put several questions to the Corrections Minister on the role of UK company, Serco, which has been contracted to run the new prison at Wiri.
His responses were jaw-droppingly incompetant. The man was totally out of his depth, as these excerpts show;
Owen: “So are they getting paid and how much?”
Lotu-Iiga: “Well, the contract is between Serco and PlaceMakers, and I’m not privy to those sums, but—”
Owen: “So you don’t know how much the business is going to make—”
Lotu-Iiga: “I don’t have the figures on me, but we could ask Serco what the contract’s for.”
Owen: “Out of the inmates building framing and having these contracts. So who makes the profit out of the contract?”
Lotu-Iiga: “ Well, we don’t know whether there’s profits being made, but what PlaceMakers—”
Owen: “Why don’t you know that, Minister? Because this is under your watch.”
Lotu-Iiga: “Well, I spoke to the managing director of PlaceMakers yesterday, and they said that they will pay a standard contract for fees to Serco. I don’t know what that amount is…”
Owen: “Right, so in terms of rehabilitation, but you don’t know who’s making a profit or if one’s being made?
Lotu-Iiga: ” Hang on. They’ve got a commercial transaction between Serco and PlaceMakers. I don’t know what that figure is, but we can work it out.”
Owen: “Even with that $30 million? Even with that $30 million profit that they’re making per annum?”
Lotu-Iiga: “I don’t think they’re making a $30 million profit.”
Owen: “You don’t think it’ll make $30 million, and what you’re saying is it’s still saving money even though this company is making a profit out of it? It’s still saving us money even though they’re taking that profit.”
Lotu-Iiga: “It’s… Well, it’s saving the taxpayer money. It is saving the taxpayer money.”
And then this astounding admission from the Minister that must have had every viewer that Saturday morning choking on his/her milo/tea/coffee, and the Prime Minister speed-dialling his Chief-of-Staff;
Owen: “Who employs those monitors? Who employs the monitor in the prison? “
Lotu-Iiga: “There will be— If I can just finish, there will be an ombudsman. They will be subject to complaints—”
Owen: “So the monitor in the prison, Minister, just to be clear, the monitor in the prison; who employs the monitor?”
Lotu-Iiga: “My understand is that the monitors are based in the prisons, but they report to the Department of Corrections.”
Owen: “Who employs the monitor and pays their wages, Minister?“
Lotu-Iiga: “Well, I don’t have those facts on me, but they do report—”
Owen: “Well, I do. The person who employs the monitor— the person who employs the monitor is the company, Serco. They employ the monitor, and pay their wages.”
Lotu-Iiga’s spectacular ignorance of his own portfolio has almost certainly destroyed his political career. He will also have disappointed his political strategist and mentor, controversial far right-winger, Simon Lusk.
Lusk was employed by Lotu-Iiga during the 2008 election campaign for the Maungakiekie Electorate Campaign. In return, as well as being paid by Lotu-Iiga, in his Maiden Speech in Parliament the newly-elected MP openly acknowledged Lusk’s involvement in his election to Parliament. In this Youtube video, Lotu-Iiga mentions Lusk at 3:56. Note who is sitting behind Lotu-Iiga – Aaron Gilmore, another Lusk protégé.
Bad luck, Simon.
It is not often that I feel sympathy for a Minister of a National Government. When I do, it is the pity I feel for a doomed man whose career has come to a grinding, crushing halt.
At the next Cabinet re-shuffle, Lotu-Iiga will be joining Kate Wilkinson, Phil Heatley, and Aaron Gilmore in political oblivion.
Dead Minister Walking.
3. Political Panel
Mike Williams, Bernard Hickey & Jamie Whyte comment on interviews with Bill English and Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga. Note ex-ACT leader, Jamie Whyte’s cringe-worthy apologistic comments on behalf of English, and why he thinks government debt does not matter.
4. The Programme
All in all, this was one of the most outstanding episodes of “The Nation” with excellent interviews; topical subject matter; and insightful analysis by (most) of the panellists. Lisa Owen joins Kim Hill as two of this country’s most formidable interviewers.
This is the sort of programming Mediaworks should be broadcasting at Prime Time. My “money” would be on people desperate for informative television – who are sick to their stomachs on a sickly diet of “reality tv” – to flock to such a viewer-friendly scheduling.
Good, quality, current affairs should never be tucked away as some sort of “guilty pleasure”.
Wikipedia: The Phoney War
Wikipedia: Claytons
Rabobank: Country Report New Zealand
Farming Show: Australia becomes top trading partner once again
Radio NZ: Price drop another blow for dairy farmers
NZ Herald: Brian Gaynor – Plans for jump-start reveal differing styles
Fairfax media: Dairy prices fall at Fonterra GlobalDairyTrade auction
Beehive: Fact sheet – Personal tax cuts
Radio NZ: English concedes surplus target unlikely
Youtube: The Nation – Can National promise a surplus by 2016?
TV3: The Nation – Interview – Finance Minister Bill English
Treasury: Debt
Fairfax media: Public debt climbs by $27m a day
TV3: The Nation – Interview – Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga
Wikipedia: Serco
Simon Lusk: Clients
Fairfax media: The rapid rise of a well-educated man
Youtube: Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga MP – Maiden Speech
Did National knowingly commit economic sabotage post-2008?
Budget 2014 – Why we will soon owe $70 billion under this government
When the Rich Whinge about paying tax
Two Tax Strikes against Dunne?
National’s Ohariu candidate admits contact by Simon Lusk
Power Struggle in the National Party?!
Unframed: John Key has no credibility on debt and no Plan B
Tim Watkin, Producer of “The Nation“, for interview transcripts; link to Youtube excerpt featuring Bill English; and valuable insights.
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 3 May 2015.
Categories: The Body Politic Tags: Bernard Hickey, budget deficits, economy, Finance Minister Bill English, Jamie Whyte, Lisa Owen, Mike Williams, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga, private prisons, Simon Lusk
Christchurch City Council – Having your asset-cake and eating it
28 March 2015 Frank Macskasy 2 comments
On 29 January 2013, Prime Minister John Key announced that the rebuild of Christchurch would be a Herculean, multi-billion dollar task;
“New Zealand also faces a domestic construction boom. That will be centred, of course, on Christchurch, where the total spend is now estimated to be around $30 billion.”
By 15 May 2014, National’s Finance Minister, Bill English delivered his sixth Budget speech to Parliament. The cost of the Christchurch re-build had escalated by $10 billion;
“The total cost of the rebuild has been estimated at $40 billion and the Government’s share will be significant.
On current estimates, the Government’s contribution to the rebuild is expected to be $15.4 billion, of which $7.3 billion will be incurred by the Earthquake Commission, net of reinsurance proceeds.”
Despite central government’s massive re-build bill for Christchurch, in his Budget Conclusion, English was at pains to repeat his new mantra;
“The Government’s books are on track to surplus next year and are the envy of most developed countries.”
The surplus English referred to was an Operating balance Before Gains and Losses (OBEGAL), forecast to be a hair-thin $86 million for 2014/15.
English’s Budget document pointed out;
“Government is still borrowing a net $78 million a week, and in dollar terms, net debt is expected to peak at $64.5 billion in 2015/16...”
Little wonder that English stated, with blinding obviousness four days earlier;
“It means we will need to maintain firm expenditure control beyond our return to surplus...”
Which is why an increasingly nervous Finance Minister, conscious of spiralling re-build costs, came down hard and crushed any suggestion that taxpayer’s money be used to subsidise the proposed SkyCity convention centre;
“There’s no contingency for that. If the less preferred option ended up being the option then that money would be part of the Budget process.”
Firm expenditure control in this case meant that the government-purse was firmly shut. And padlocked.
National Government’s Predictable Response
In May 2011, barely three months after Christchurch’s devastating earthquake that killed 185 people, there were already suggestions from Gerry Brownlee that the Christchurch Council would have to sell part of their community-owned assets to fund the re-build.
National’s mis-handling of the economy, with two unaffordable tax-cuts, as well as the Global Financial Crisis and resultant recession, had left the government’s books deep in the red.
At first, Brownlee was coy at any suggestion of asset sales;
“I don’t foresee the council having to sell any assets, though in the end that will be their choice. ”
But in the next breath, he added;
“I would suspect that Treasury have had a look at the city council’s balance sheet, given that we are going to have to take a whole lot of debt onto our [the Government’s] balance sheet.
It’s only natural we would have a look at what the council can stand [to pay].
Yes, there is provision in this legislation for Cera [Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority] to suggest to council that they might need to sell something. ”
Brownlee denied that government or Treasury had been scoping CCC assets with a view to partial (or full) privatisation;
“The accusation is that Treasury have been looking at council assets with a view to what the council will sell. That is, I think, completely erroneous.”
On 9 February 2012, a year after the second earthquake, Brownlee admitted in Parliament (in response to questioning by the future mayor of Christchurch, Lianne Dalziel);
“In the days leading up to that particular injudicious comment from me there were numerous discussions going on with the council—between the senior executives, the mayor, me, and the senior executives of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority—over a number of issues that we want the council to take some responsibility, alongside us, for. Although Treasury officials will have talked to the council, I am unaware of exactly what that discussion would have been about. But let me tell you that when the Government is spending $5.5 billion anywhere we expect the recipients of that to have some plan for how they will participate in what will be a very, very expensive recovery, and that plan has to be a lot better than saying “We’re just going to put up the rates, and we’re going to borrow a lot more money”.”
Brownlee would have us believe that he was “unaware of exactly what that discussion would have been about” between Treasury officials and Christchurch council? As Minister of Earthquake Recovery of that devastated city, that proposition is simply not credible.
Brownlee was not being truthful.
The Minister’s denial was further shown to be less than truthful with this evasive response in Parliament on 2 August 2012;
“I have received advice from Treasury and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority on a range of funding options for the rebuilding of Greater Christchurch, to which the Government has committed $5.5 billion to date. Alongside the Christchurch City Council, I support the regeneration of our city, which will be enhanced by the development of the central city plan, released on Monday. I have publicly acknowledged the funding challenges for both the city council and the Government. Councillors and I have agreed to discuss, alongside our respective organisations, a sensible and achievable time line and funding programme for the delivery of the blueprint. I approach these discussions in good faith, as the thousands of city residents would expect us to do so. I intend to say no further on this matter.”
The full text of a remarkable, and somewhat ‘testy’ exchange between Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, Gerry Brownlee, and the then-Speaker of the House, Lockwood Smith, under-scored the sensitivity of any suggestion that central government was putting the “squeeze” on Christchurch to sell community-owned assets and relieve pressure on English’s struggle to balance the books.
By May 2013, all pretences that asset sales were not being discussed were firmly kicked to the side, with John Key entering the political fray (and Gerry Brownlee standing pensively and obediently in the background);
Key was clear with Christchurch residents in his expectations;
“The only other option available to it is that it doesn’t actually embark on some of the projects it might want to embark on. In the end Cantabrians will have to have a say on what they think is the right mix.
I actually personally hold the view that for Canterbury, where you love sport, happen to be pretty darn good at it, and have climatic conditions that argue that a covered stadium might make sense, then actually it could be a really sensible thing to do.
And if it was up to me I would make that choice in a heartbeat if it meant changing the mix of assets, but I understand for lots of other people they might not hold that view.
This is the chance to get it right. I just urge everyone to think that through. There is the opportunity to have some quite fantastic facilities here.
The Government is quite happy to step up and put $15bn in, and there is a limit as to how much we can put in, and some of it must come from the council.”
The threat is obvious; ‘cough up the extra cash by selling some of the family silver, or no more rugger for you lot’!
Faced with National firmly closing off any options to meet ever-increasing re-build costs, Christchurch was faced with few alternatives and on 1 August last year the Council caved to central government pressure in the form of a report from investment bankers, Cameron Partners. As Mayor Lianne Dalziel admitted;
“We’ve got nothing, there isn’t even wriggle room any more, there’s just nothing there, we’re over the line and we have to pull it back before 2017.
Creating financial certainty will attract much needed investment in the rebuild. We want to work alongside the Canterbury earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) to scope the possibilities for a one-stop landing point for both local and foreign investors.”
Note the year Dalziel refers to: 2017. An election year.
Dalziel’s reference to “both local and foreign investors” is an oblique acknowledgement that the Christchurch City Council will have to part-privatise community assets to raise money that will not be forthcoming from Key’s government.
She was more forth-coming here, on the same day;
“Releasing capital from our balance sheet alongside the other options, (including increased income, reduced operational expenditure and government assistance), is clearly one of the ways we can address the uncertainty around the city’s finances.”
Dalziel also hinted at why Christchurch was forced to undertake asset sales;
“The purpose of releasing capital would be to generate funds to assist in solving the identified funding shortfall; provide the level of confidence and certainty required to develop a credible long term financial strategy and get on with the rebuild of our community facilities, infrastructure and housing; allow CCC to buffer Christchurch residents and businesses from the exponential rates increases; and allow CCC to align our vision and strategic objectives for the rebuild with our asset portfolio – that is, what we own and operate.”
It is simply untenable – both from a commercial perspective, as well as morally – that citizens in one city should be forced to pay for the rebuild of their infra-structure. This was a disaster not of their making.
Any suggestion that the cost should not be spread more evenly around the country would create a precedent that we are each solely responsible for any disaster that might befall our own region. Do New Zealanders really want to go down that road? They should think long and hard if that is the kind of society they want for themselves and their children.
Earthquake Recovery Minister could not endorse the Cameron Partners report fast enough, releasing this statement on the same day – 1 August;
“The Cameron Partners report makes it clear some major areas of financial uncertainty are causing headaches for Christchurch City, including the cost of repairing and replacing the city’s essential horizontal infrastructure [pipes, roads, waterways].
When we signed the cost-sharing agreement with the council in June 2013 we foresaw this and undertook to do a thorough review of where the shared costs of the rebuild lay by 1 December this year.
Once we have this information we can consider if any amendments are required to the cost-sharing agreement.
Officials from CERA and the Treasury are working with the council already to ensure the review provides Christchurch City with the clarity it needs to help make some of the big decisions ahead of it.”
National had won.
Brownlee had successfully forced Christchurch Council to adopt unofficial National Party policy; that Council’s were expected to divest themselves of strategic assets if funding for extraordinary projects was required. This was the same policy that Brownlee had forced on Auckland, to fund it’s rail loop, and which he outlined on TV3’s ‘The Nation‘, on 30 June 2013;
Rachel Smalley: “John Key said on Thursday that Auckland should consider selling its assets in order to meet some of these costs. Should the Council consider that?”
Gerry Brownlee: “Well I think it’s one of those things that’s inevitably going to be on the table. Remember that we’ve got a programme that is now set out for the next 10 years, and as we come up to the point where you’re getting the business case together for the city rail link and that huge expense that’s involved in that, and recognise that you’ve got a 2016 Local Body Election as well, I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t something that was considered by some people.”
But more was come on 6 December 2014, Brownlee was demanding that Christchurch Council increase the level of asset sales;
“So it’s a positive step but it’s not the end yet. I do have some worries that it might be a little timid and particularly if it were to lead to much higher rates there in Christchurch.”
Murray Horton, from the lobby group ‘Keep Our Assets Canterbury’, was correct when he warned;
“Once a chunk of ownership of those assets, the council’s assets, is gone then it won’t be long before there are calls for more to go.”
Horton’s prescience was proved barely three months later.
Costs & Consequences
On 26 February, 2015, four years and four days after the city’s second quake, the Christchurch City Council voted;
“...subject to public consultation, the council will release $750m in capital through the sale or partial sale of assets the council owns through its commercial arm, Christchurch City Holdings, to help plug its $1.2 billion funding shortfall.”
By the following day, Brownlee was demanding more asset sales, which he repeated more forthrightly on TVNZ’s Q+A on 22 March 2015 in an interview with Michael Parkin;
“I don’t think you can put a particular price on it. What I think they need to do, and I’m sure that the council will get there. I’ve got to say the council have been edging their way to a position that I think will leave them in a good space progressively. What really is necessary is a sales process that gets you the highest possible price. If you go out and say, ‘Look, I’m just going to sell a little bit of this and a little bit of that,’ then you’re not going to get any premium on it at all. And if you’re going to sell something, you may as well get as much for it as you possibly can. That’s my real point.
…if you look at something like the airport. It’s essentially a real estate company that just provides parking for planes. You could break it down to being that simple. It’s still going to get used. It’s still going to provide the service the city requires whoever owns it. It is partly price controlled through the Commerce Act, as is Orion. Completely price controlled. So the idea that someone else would buy it and the pricing of your electricity lines are going to become completely out of control is completely wrong. ”
The sale of community assets is a perfect fit with National’s ideological and fiscal needs;
Ideologically, National is as wedded to privatisation as it ever was. It is only held back from a more radical asset sales programme by public opinion – a point no doubt reinforced through National’s on-going secret polling.
Fiscally, forcing local territorial authorities to finance infra-structure through sales of community-own assets lets central government off the hook, and gives English his desperately needed surplus.
Territorial Authorities have little control over Point 2.
With regards to Point 1, however, Territorial Authorities finding themselves under financial pressure can be more strategic when it comes to finding ways and means to navigate political pressure from the likes of right-wing governments and ministers like Gerry Brownlee.
One such mechanism is found within Christchurch City Council’s own document, “Council decision on proposed Financial Strategy“, where it states;
The sale of 14.3 % of Orion on condition that the shares are only offered to another public entity, such as another TA [Territorial Authority], or an institutional investor such as NZ Super Fund, and that any agreement would be subject to the shares returning to the CCC should the investor wish to sell down its share at a future date.
The same document suggests the sale of 34% of Lyttleton Port Company and 9% of Canterbury International Airport Ltd to “a suitable strategic partner“.
The latter measure opens the proverbial slippery slope to further down-selling of Christchurch Council’s shares in both companies. As such, it would be unacceptable to most Cantabrians (and New Zealanders, who have experienced the down-side of sales of strategic assets).
The NZ Super Fund would be an ideal partner for a Territorial Authoritory such as Christchurch Council. At present the NZSF’s investment in New Zealand amounts to only 13.8% in 2014 (down from 14.2% in 2013).
Not only would the NZSF offer an ideal means by which to keep these assets in New Zealand ownership, but would retain the profits instead of seeing them sent off-shore, worsening our Balance of Payments even further.
It would also fulfil the Super Fund’s 2009 directive from the Minister of Finance “requiring us to, while always investing in a prudent and commercial manner, identify and consider opportunities to increase the allocation to New Zealand assets in the Fund“.
Lastly, the Christchurch Council could eventually re-purchase the shares from the NZSF once the city’s re-build was essentially completed and it’s books were back to some semblance of normality.
The first option should always be that local strategic assets remain in local ownership, so that everyone in the community benefits.
In the face of intransigence from an ideologically-bound, and fiscally inept National Government, the best we can hope for is Plan B.
Plan B: transferring ownership, by temporary sale, to the New Zealand Super Fund. It ticks nearly all the boxes.
Additional – Christchurch City Asset Holdings
Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL) is the commercial/investment arm of the Christchurch City Council.
CCHL manages the Council (ratepayers’) investment – worth around $2.6 billion – in these seven fully or partly-owned council-controlled trading organisations.
CCHL is forecasting to paying $46 million in dividends for 2015/16 period.
CCHL Special dividend for 2015/16 period: $549,300,000
“The return on our CCHL investment from cash dividends has averaged 3 per cent in the last three years and 4 per cent in the last 10 years. When the appreciation in the capital value of its investments is taken into account, CCHL has achieved an internal rate of return over the past five years of 8.0per cent a year, or 25.9 per cent a year since its inception in 1996.” (Source)
Trading Organisations
Orion New Zealand Ltd: 89.3% shareholding
Christchurch International Airport Ltd: 75%
Lyttelton Port Company Ltd: 78.9%
Christchurch City Networks Ltd (trading as Enable Networks): 100%
Red Bus Ltd: 100%
City Care Ltd: 100%
Selwyn Plantation Board Ltd: 39.3%
[Acknowledgement Fairfax Media]
National Party: Prime Minister’s Statement to Parliament
NZ Treasury: 2014 Budget Speech
NZ Treasury: Rebuilding Christchurch
NZ Treasury: Budget Priorities
Beehive.govt.nz: Budget will confirm track to surplus in 2014/15
Interest.co.nz: Finance Minister prefers not to spend taxpayer cash to avoid Sky City ‘eyesore’; no money in Budget 2015 for it
Fairfax media: Christchurch door open for asset sales
TV3 News: Government accounts show $18.4 billion deficit
Scoop media: Parliamentary Questions And Answers Feb 9 2012
Green Party: Eugenie Sage questions the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery on Christchurch asset sales
NZ Herald: Christchurch rebuild – Council needs to come to the party – PM
Fairfax media: Cameron Partners Review – full report
TV One News: Christchurch facing huge financial black hole
Sharechat.co.nz: Christchurch considers selling strategic assets stake to fund rebuild
The Press: Council asset sales mooted to help raise $900m
Scoop media: Brownlee says its up to Len to sell assets for loop
Radio NZ: Asset sales plan ‘may be too timid’
The Press: Christchurch City Council votes for $750m asset sales
The Press: Gerry Brownlee says Christchurch rate rise as ‘too much’
Scoop media: TV1 Q+A – Govt will protect identities of NZ troops – Brownlee
NZ Super Fund: 2014 Annual Report
NZ Super Fund: 2009 Ministerial Directive
Statistics NZ: Balance of Payments and International Investment Position – December 2014 quarter
Christchurch City Council: Christchurch City Long Term Plan 2015 – 2025
Christchurch City Council: Council decision on proposed Financial Strategy
Christchurch City Council: Long Term Plan consultation document adopted
Christchurch, choice, and charter schools
Christchurch – Picking the bones clean?
The “Free Market” is a fair-weather friend
This blogpost was submitted to the Christchurch City Council as a submission to the Long Term Plan, on 22 March 2015.
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 23 March 2015.
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: asset sales, budget surplus, christchurch, christchurch earthquakes, Finance Minister Bill English, Gerry Brownlee, NZ Super Fund
1 November 2014 Frank Macskasy 11 comments
Continued from: Housing; broken promises, families in cars, and ideological idiocy (Part Rua)
Bill English comes clean on National’s intentions for HNZ privatisation
On 14 October, in a report on The Daily Blog, I wrote,
In his story, TV3’s Brooke Sabin raised the question,
“So a big cull of state houses is about to get underway, but the crucial question is: Will all that money make its way back into social housing or will some be pocketed by the Government? The official response is that hasn’t been worked out yet.”
Yes, it has, Mr Sabin.
The money will indeed be “pocketed by the government”.
For no other reason than their re-election in 2017 depends on it.
The TV3 story reported that up to 22,000 homes worth an estimated $5 billion could be sold off. This would make it one of the biggest asset sales in recent history – when John Key himself promised an end to state asset sales in February this year.
It is also a time when 5,563 are on Housing NZ’s ever-growing waiting list.
Three days later, on 17 October, Brook Sabin’s question was answered in full, and my prediction (once again) proved to be correct. A quote from our esteemed Deputy Prime Minister, Bill English,
‘No point’ in new state houses – Bill English
Finance Minister Bill English says the proceeds from selling state houses are unlikely to be spent on new state houses and may go into the Consolidated Account.
“I mean, if we want less stock, there’s not much point in rebuilding stock with it” …
Hat-tip: Anthony Robins
Whilst National “made noises” about some Housing NZ properties being sold, or transferred to social organisations early in the year, there were no pre-election policy announcements remotely resembling those made public by Bill English two weeks after the election. (See: National’s pre-election policy: 2014)
This was a radical, unannounced, policy that has taken the country by surprise.
In the Herald, columnist Dita De Boni was scathing in her condemnation of Key’s heretofore secret plan to sell state houses,
Those conditions gave the Labour Government – elected in 1935 – a mandate to make the provision of state housing a top priority. Then Minister of Housing Walter Nash told New Zealand it could not prosper or progress with a population that “lack[s] the conditions necessary for a ‘home’ and ‘home life’, in the best and fullest meaning of those words”. It was a popular sentiment at the time, but look how far we have since regressed. We again have children and their parents living in cars and sheds. We have thousands of homeless; old diseases and ingrained misery have returned as sections of the population struggle to keep pace with the rising cost of living.
And at this critical juncture in our history, our Government is looking, instead, to offload state housing. It is the absolute, ultimate irony: a public welfare system that bridges the gap left by market failure, that, when starved, denigrated and under-resourced, as it is now, can only, apparently, be saved by the market.
The Government has tried to slip the sell-off of state housing under the radar: I guess they don’t want to be seen to be contradicting their pre-election promise not to sell any more state assets. They focus instead on “first home affordability” – a much more pressing concern for their supporters (as long as it does not affect their other supporters, who don’t want too much new housing to depress the capital value of their property).
It is hard to understand how reverting to the Victorian solution of seeing churches and social agencies haphazardly tackle this gaping social wound will work. They don’t have the resources, for one thing. They are also not plugged into the bigger picture – the social needs of the tenants, the transport and logistics needs of new housing and so forth, all things a clever, committed government can oversee. Not ours then, which is trying desperately to shift the immediate costs of social housing elsewhere, and the benefits to a crony cohort.
One method they’ve used is to seed the idea with the public that state housing is all let to gang members and chronic social misfits who trash their properties and refuse to move out. Of course, that does describe a percentage of state house tenants – or any tenants.
Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to think that housing is one of the core concerns of Government, and that the provision of state housing – as well as its proper management and upkeep – is fundamental. It is astonishing that a Prime Minister who grew up in a state house, and has gained huge political advantage from being able to trumpet that fact, can’t see why it is wrong to pull up the ladder after him.
I encourage the reader to read Ms De Boni’s full piece. It is a savage indictment of John Key’s miserable agenda to get the State out of social housing.
New Zealanders should be under no illusion: housing in this country is about to get a whole lot worse before it improves. We can expect to see more over-crowding; entire families living in cars, under bridges; the rise of the first squatter camps since the Great Depression; more poverty; and more spreading disease.
Bill English has made it abundantly clear: this government will be selling state houses. It will not be “rebuilding stock” (houses).
This may not be what New Zealanders voted for on 20 September – but did 1,131,501 voters who ticked the box for National expect better?
References – Part 3
Radio NZ: PM rules out more asset sales
Fairfax media: Housing NZ waiting lists swamped
NZ Herald: ‘No point’ in new state houses – Bill English
NZ Herald: State housing shake-up: Lease up on idea of ‘house for life’
NZ Herald: Dita De Boni – State house poster boy callous to pull up ladder
Wikipedia: New Zealand general election, 2014
The Jackal: More homelessness under National (30 July 2012)
The Standard: Unaffordable housing & the culture of greed
No Right Turn: A surprise policy
Facebook: Affordable Housing For All
Facebook: Housing NZ Tenants Forum
Facebook: Tamaki Housing Group- Defend Glen Innes
Irony of ironies, a National Party 1938 election poster
This blogpost was first published on The Daily Blog on 28 October 2014
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: 2017 Elections, Dita De Boni, Finance Minister Bill English, Gateway Scheme, HNZ, home ownership, housing, Housing NZ
Budget 2014 – What deceits lie in this document?
24 May 2014 Frank Macskasy Leave a comment
Looking through the on-line Budget document on Treasury’s website, I happened to notice something… peculiar.
The following page is entitled Responsibly managing the Government’s finances and is part of Finance Minister Bill English’s summary. As such, it is a political document and not a Treasury report.
Note the five graphs on this page. Notice anything about them?
Any… inconsistencies?
Let me “lump” them together, so they can be better compared;
Note the starting dates on each graph. They differ in nearly each case;
At first glance, there appears no reason for the difference start-dates of each graph.
That is, until you look at what each graph represents.
Graphs number 2, 4, and five show the previous Labour government in an unfavourable fiscal light.
#2: Shows “Core Crown Revenue” falling from 2006, and “Core Crown Expenses” rising from around the same time.
#4: Shows “Budget Operating Allowances” much higher under Labour – highlighted by the use of red and blue column lines – than National. The 2008 red-bar is erroneous.
#5: Shows “90 Day Interest Rates” higher under Labour than National – again highlighted by the use of red and blue graph lines.
Meanwhile, graphs 1 and 3 show National in a more positive position;
#1: Shows “Total Crown operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL)” starting from 2012/13, and reducing. There is no prior context depicted for any previous years. The overall impression is a favourable one to the viewer.
#3: Shows “Net Core Crown Debt” rising from 2009; peaking at 2013/14; and dropping thereafter. Again, there is no prior context depicted for any previous years.
If we replace the mis-leading charts with more accurate representations, the picture is unsurprisingly different. A verticle red line on the right hand, accurate graph, pinpoints where Bill English’s graph (on the left) starts.
1. Total Crown operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL)
Bill English’s misleading version on left; More accurate version on right.
The more accurate version on the right gives a more complete picture of successive government’s Total Crown operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL), and put’s National’s record in context.
2. Core Crown revenue and expenses
The more accurate version on the right gives a more complete picture of successive government’s Core Crown revenue and expenses, and put’s National’s record in context.
This next one is a personal favourite of mine, and National/ACT supporters hate it with a passion.
3. Net core Crown debt
The more accurate version on the right gives a more complete picture of successive government’s Net core crown debt, and put’s National’s record in context. It also happens to highlight Labour’s track record in reducing the country’s sovereign debt – something that jars with Right Wing historical revisionism that attempts to depict Labour as an incompetent fiscal manager.
4. Budget operating allowances
Whilst English’s graph (on the left) has a start point in 2004, it is highly inaccurate. Note the red bar for 2008, showing Labour having a Budget operating allowance of around $7 billion. This is false. As the blue bar on the graph on the right shows, the Budget operating allowance for 2008 was just under $2.5 billion – one third of what English’s chart depicts.
Note: the chart on the right, with the blue bars is taken from Budget 2013 – Bill English’s own document from last year. The correct data (blue graph) is supported by a 2010 Treasury working-paper, Fiscal Institutions in New Zealand and the Question of a Spending Cap.
Either the red bar for 2008 is an error – or a deliberate attempt to further portray the previous Labour government in a bad light. Considering that three out five graphs appear to have been selectively presented, the possibility that the 2008 red-bar was deliberately fudged cannot be excluded.
5. 90-day interest rates
English writes that “Future Budget allowances are set at sustainable levels… [graph inserted] ...which is helping to take pressure off interest rates“.
Actually, the reason that the OCR and 90 Day Rates are currently at a historic low has little to do with “future budget allowances“. The Reserve Bank does not set current OCR/90 Day Bill Rates against “future” budget allowances.
Indeed, the RBNZ dropped the OCR to 2.5% in April 2009, the following year from recession hitting our economy.
There is next to no reason for English to have included the 90 Day Interest Rate in his Budget document, except to attempt to take credit for historically low interest rates that were the result of a global financial crisis and not because of any actions his government took in 2007/08.
Not unless he, John Key, and the rest of the National caucus were sitting in Board Rooms across Wall Street?
Not unless he, John Key, and the rest of the National Party were in government a full year before the 2008 general election?
And not unless Bill English also wants to also claim responsibility for high interest rates in the 1990s, when the National Party governed under the leadership of Jim Bolger, with finance ministers Ruth Richardson and Bill Birch? When interest rates peaked at over 15% in 1990 and were consistently high throughout the 1990s.
Unsurprisingly, this is one graph that did not find it’s way into Bill English’s 2014 Budget document;
As for Budget 2014 – I suspect it is a document that will soon reveal more hidden surprises for us all.
NZ Treasury: Budget 2014 – 1. Responsibly managing the Government’s finances
NZ Treasury: Operating Balance (2002-2011)
NZ Treasury: Core Crown revenue and expenses (2000-2014)
NZ Treasury: Net core Crown debt (2002-2012)
NZ Treasury: Operating Allowances
NZ Treasury: Fiscal Institutions in New Zealand and the Question of a Spending Cap
Reserve Bank NZ: 90-day rate
Reserve Bank NZ: Mortgage interest rates — since 1990
Above image acknowledgment: Francis Owen/Lurch Left Memes
Categories: The Body Politic Tags: Budget 2014, Finance Minister Bill English, lies, NZ Treasury
Budget 2013: Student debt, politicians, and “social contracts”
The problem of student debt – now at over $13 bllion – continues to be a thorn in the side of successive governments. Labour tinkered with it by cancelling interest whilst student were studying; National has taken a ‘stick’ to the problem by threating to arrest so-called “loan defaulters” if they dare return to New Zealand.
If National’s aim was to force New Zealanders to stay overseas and never return, it’s a fantastically clever plan. No one in their right mind would come back to New Zealand if they faced a risk of arrest.
Even conservative media have jumped into the fray with this anonymously written editorial in today’s (20 May) Dominion Post,
Acknowledgment: Dominion Post – Editorial – Loan defaulters break ‘social contract’
Part of the unattributed (are editorial writers so frightened of public back-lash?) editorial stated,
“After all, if the people concerned had a low income and found it genuinely hard to repay, they were free to argue the point and try to make a deal with the tax-gatherer. Others could easily repay their loans but simply ignored the Government’s inquiries.
Those who have refused to do anything now face the threat of the bailiffs and, if they persist, of arrest. It’s hard to know what else the Government could do. Those who refuse to respond are breaking the social contract.
Students, after all, do not pay the full cost of their tertiary education. Even with the loans, they are being subsidised by the taxpayer. In return for that aid, however, they must make a contribution themselves.”
Acknowledgment: IBID
This demanded a response to the anonymous author of that piece;
from: Frank M <fmacskasy@gmail.com>
to: Dominion Post <letters@dompost.co.nz>
date: Mon, May 20, 2013 at 12:03 PM
In your editorial, “Loan defaulters break ‘social contract”you state, “Those who have refused to do anything now face the threat of the bailiffs and, if they persist, of arrest… Those who refuse to respond are breaking the social contract.” (20 May)
There is no such “social contract”.
The original social contract was for taxpayers to fund education; allow students to graduate without massive debt; get into good careers; earn good salaries, and then pay it forward for the next generation to gain a free education.
That was the social contract.
And considering the numbers of politicians who got a free education in the 1970s and 1980s (John Key, Steven Joyce, Peter Dunne, Judith Collins, Bill English, Nick Smith, et al), it worked very nicely for them.
How much have they paid paid of their tertiary education?
Not one bean, I’ll wager.
Perhaps Key and English should set an example and make a “contribution” (plus interest for delayed payment) for the free tertiary education that was paid by taxpayers at the time.
It’s called leading by example.
(address & phone number supplied)
Budget 2013: How NOT to deal with Student loan defaulters
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: Budget 2013, Dominion Post, Finance Minister Bill English, loan defaulters, student debt, student fees
24 February 2013 Frank Macskasy 8 comments
September 2011,
Solid Energy starts work at Mataura Briquette Plant
Friday, 9 September 2011, 2:57 pm
Press Release: Solid Energy NZ
Solid Energy marks the start of work at its Mataura Briquette Plant
The Hon Bill English, MP for Clutha-Southland and Minister of Finance, today marked the official start of work at Solid Energy’s Mataura Briquette Plant, by “turning the first sod” at a small event on site with neighbours, local authorities, and other guests.
The $25 million Mataura briquette plant is planned to start production by June 2012. It will produce up to 90,000 tonnes a year of low-moisture and higher-energy briquettes from about 150,000 tonnes of lignite mined from Solid Energy’s New Vale Opencast Mine and trucked to the Craig Road site. The plant will use technology developed in the USA by GTL Energy.
A year and a half later, neither Dear Leader Key nor Little Leader Bill English seemed terribly keen to be associated with any more photo-ops with Don Elder.
In fact, the much vaunted sod-turning in September 2011, to build a brand-new $25 million briquette plant at Mataura, was no longer quite so glamous. Despite probably still having Southland dirt on his shoes, both Bill English and John Key were at pains to distance themselves from Solid Energy’s highly publicised energy projects,
“Four or five years ago they set out on a big programme of expenditure on alternative energy, including researching into lignite down south to coal gasification and other research-based speculation, and that hasn’t turned out the way they thought.” – Bill English, 22 Feb 2013
“The second thing is that they made a number of investments which have proved not to be very valuable and the Government has been working on that process for the last couple of years.” – John Key, 23 Feb 2013
It’s amazing how politicians seem to have this ability – verging on a preternatural super power – to distance themselves from something they had only recently embraced and supported with whole-hearted gusto.
Interesting to note that as well as the $23.5 million in bonuses paid over the past two years to 950 employees, Solid Energy also paid out considerable dividends to the government;
30 June 2009 – $59.9 million (source)
30 June 2010 – $54 million (source)
30 June 2012 (paid at 30 Sept 2011) – $30 million (source)
Total: $163.9 million
Plus millions more paid in company tax.
With the data above, I have some questions;
It seems remarkable that National only discovered a couple of days ago that Solid Energy’s financial position was not sound. What was Bill English doing last year?
How could Solid Energy’s financial position go from a pre-tax profit of $127.5 million (see: Solid Energy shines despite earthquakes) in August 2011 – to a massive $389 million debt this year? Did National gouge one of our cash-state-cows?
With Solid Energy’s expansion projects (which Bill English must’ve known about, as he turned a sod of earth in Southland on 9 September 2011), were the dividends paid since 2009 realistic?
With National’s track record of constantly shifting responsibility away from themselves, who are pointing the finger at? With all the highly paid Ministers, board members, and executives – will the office cleaner be held to account?
Is the corporate model, with big salaries and bonuses paid to executives and an evident lack of transparency, appropriate for state owned enterprises?
Will workers be made to suffer job lossses and subsequent economic hardship, because of the actions of Solid Energy’s executives and Crown Ministers? Why aren’t the workers offered the same ‘golden parachute’ that ex-CEO Don Elder most likely received?
No doubt neo-liberals will point to the failure of ‘Solid Energy’ as proof-positive that governments cannot run state-owned businesses.
This is proof positive that National (or other right wing) governments cannot run state-owned businesses.
Tim Jones, Coal Action Network Aotearoa
That was Then, This is Now #17
Robert Guyton: Comments on Solid Energy
The Standard: Nats’ fossil fuel bet & culture of excess bankrupted Solid Energy
Categories: Dollars & Sense, The Body Politic Tags: Don Elder, Finance Minister Bill English, Mataura Briquette Plant, Solid Energy
The betrayal of our young people
10 October 2012 Frank Macskasy 11 comments
“Today, in the suburb where I grew up, I want to talk about what I consider to be an important part of The Kiwi Way. I want to talk about opportunity, and hope, and how we can bring these to some of the most struggling families and communities in New Zealand.
Part of The Kiwi Way is a belief in opportunity and in giving people a fair go.
As New Zealanders, we have grown up to believe in and cherish an egalitarian society. We like to think that our children’s futures will be determined by their abilities, their motivation and their hard work. They will not be dictated by the size of their parent’s bank balance or the suburb they were born in.
We want all kids to have a genuine opportunity to use their talents and to get rewarded for their efforts. That’s The Kiwi Way, and I believe in it. After all, I was one of the many kids who benefited from it…
… You might ask “where will the money come from?”
The fact is we are already spending millions of dollars for Wellington bureaucrats to write strategies and to dream up and run their own schemes. I want more of those dollars spent on programmes that work, regardless of who thinks them up and who runs them.”
– John Key, 30 January 2007
Unemployment rate December 2007:
“The National Party has an economic plan that will build the foundations for a better future.
We will focus on lifting medium-term economic performance and managing taxpayers’ money effectively.
We will be unrelenting in our quest to lift our economic growth rate and raise wage rates.
We will cut taxes, not just in election year, but in a regular programme of ongoing tax cuts.
We will invest in the infrastructure this country needs for productivity growth.
We will be more careful with how we spend the cash in the public purse, monitoring not just the quantity but also the quality of government spending.
We will concentrate on equipping young New Zealanders with the education they need for a 21st century global economy.
We will reduce the burden of compliance and bureaucracy, and we will say goodbye to the blind ideology that locks the private sector out of too many parts of our economy.
And we will do all of this while improving the public services that Kiwis have a right to expect. “
“90-Day Trial Period extended to all employers
The 90-day trial period is to be extended to enable all employers and new employees to have the chance to benefit from it, says Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson.
The extension is among planned changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000 that Prime Minister John Key announced today in a speech to the National Party Conference.
“The Government is focused on growing a stronger economy and creating more jobs for New Zealand families.”
“There are a lot of people looking for work and the changes announced today will help boost employer confidence and encourage them to take on more staff….”
… “Trial periods were introduced to encourage employers to take on new staff and I’m pleased to see this is occurring”.”
– Kate Wilkinson, Minister of Labour, 18 July, 2010
Household Labour Force Survey: June 2012 quarter
Unemployment: 162,000 (6.8%)
“New youth pay rates kicking in
The Government will re-introduce a a youth pay rate which will see 16-to-19-year-olds making a minimum $10.80 per hour.
The new pay rate, to be called the ‘starting-out wage’, will not be compulsory but 40,000 teens will be eligible.
It will kicks in on April 1 next year and the Government estimates it will create up to 2000 youth jobs in the first two years.
The starting-out wage will be set at 80 per cent of the adult minimum wage, which is currently $13.50 per hour.
It will apply for six months after starting with a new employer. The move was National Party policy ahead of the election last November.”
– Dominion Post, 9 Oct 2012
The above facts and stats tell a grim story.
The prologue to this story are the high expectations which John Key presented to the people of New Zealand in 2007 and 2008.
In 2007, Key spoke of “opportunity, and hope, and how we can bring these to some of the most struggling families and communities in New Zealand “.
In 2008, Key pledged that “we will be unrelenting in our quest to lift our economic growth rate and raise wage rates.”
Four years later;
unemployment is on the rise again,
the 90 Trial Employment Period has failed to generate new jobs,
National’s promise of 170,000 new jobs – made at the election last year – has failed to kick-start,
the exodus to Australia is increasing, with a net loss of almost 40,000 people over the past year,
thousands of redundancies have added to our unemployment
National’s latest ‘offering’? To cut the minimum wage for 16 to 19 year olds.
The logic of this policy – planned to start on 1 April 2013 – defies comprehension. In fact, the only way it can be understood is that National is utterly desperate.
New employment figures are due out on 4 November from Statistics NZ, and this blogger predicts that unemployment will rise from 6.8% (currently) to 6.9% or even 7%.
Quite simply, none of National’s policies have worked.
Even Key’s promise to raise wages has been an abject failure, sending thousands of kiwis to Australia and further afield, in search of jobs.
National’s plan to cut the wages of young New Zealanders is similar to their cynical ploy to depict welfare beneficiaries as lazy, drug-users, criminals, etc.
Instead, they are targetting 16 and 17 year olds – who have no vote – and have no voice in Parliament.
And they are targetting 18 and 19 year olds – who are adult enough to drink, get married, and go to fight in wars overseas – but will not be paid an adult’s wage.
National claims that the new youth rates will create 2,000 new jobs. Aside from mocking this figure as a gigantic step down from the 170,000 “new jobs” promised last year – it is more likely that those 2,000 jobs will simply displace older workers.
In doing so, the employment of young people on lower pay will simply mean,
Less money spent by young people on services and consumer goods,
Young people unable to support themselves fully
A new motivation to send more New Zealanders overseas
New Zealand becoming a low wage economy of the South Pacific
How can a young New Zealander survive on $432 a week – less tax?!
It wasn’t too long ago that Bill English admitted on TVNZ’s Q+A, on 6 November 2011, that it was almost impossible to live on the full minimum wage ($13.50/hr),
“GUYON: Okay, can we move backwards in people’s working lives from retirement to work and to wages? Mr English, is $13 an hour enough to live on?
BILL: People can live on that for a short time, and that’s why it’s important that they have a sense of opportunity. It’s like being on a benefit.
GUYON: What do you mean for a short time?
BILL: Well, a long time on the minimum wage is pretty damn tough, although our families get Working for Families and guaranteed family income, so families are in a reasonable position.” Source
If it’s “ pretty damn tough ” to live on $13 or $13.50 an hour – what on Earth must it be like to try to survive on $10.80 per hour?
And how does our smile & wave (and forgetful) Dear Leader reconcile slashing the minimum wage by his promises to raise wages?
Specifically, these promises,
“We will be unrelenting in our quest to lift our economic growth rate and raise wage rates.” – John Key, 29 January 2008
“We want to make New Zealand an attractive place for our children and grandchildren to live – including those who are currently living in Australia, the UK, or elsewhere. To stem that flow so we must ensure Kiwis can receive competitive after-tax wages in New Zealand.” – John Key, 6 September 2008
“We will also continue our work to increase the incomes New Zealanders earn. That is a fundamental objective of our plan to build a stronger economy.” – John Key, 8 February 2011
“The driving goal of my Government is to build a more competitive and internationally-focused economy with less debt, more jobs and higher incomes.” – John Key, 21 December 2011
By now, more and more New Zealanders are waking up to one simple reality; National cannot lead this country to prosperity or anything remotely resembling it. Their policies for growth seem predicated on,
asset sales
bullying and demonising beneficiaries
planning dangerous and unsound deep-sea drilling of the East Coast of the Nth Island
mining in conservation lands
It is the height of desperation and bloody-mindedness that National’s major policy of job-creation relies on cutting wages as some kind of “bribe” for employers.
It is the depth of stupidity that will see young people on $10.80 displacing older workers, as employers cut costs in order to maximise their profits – especially as consumer spending is dropping. (See: Electronic card spending drops in September)
It is this sense of sheer miserly selfishness that resulted in,
tax cuts in 2009 and 2010 which benefitted the richest in this country
abolishing tax credits for children, so they were now taxed on their megre earnings from jobs such as paper-delivery
Is this, then, an act of desperation from John Key and his inept “government”?
You better believe it is. And things are about to get a whole lot worse as National turns this country into a low-wage economy, making us the ‘Mexico’ of the South Pacific.
My message to New Zealand is two-fold;
Voters: if you want more of this incompetant government that takes money from our young people, whilst cutting taxes for the richest – vote National.
For those foolish people who vote National: enjoy your life here in New Zealand. Do not follow us to Australia.
Labour Party: pull your finger out. It is high time you started firing on all cylinders and presented this country with an alternative vision and road.
Now’s good.
Radio NZ: Listen to report on Checkpoint
Radio NZ: Listen to Checkpoint interview with Phil O’Reilly (Business NZ)
Radio NZ: Listen to Peter Conway on Checkpoint (CTU)
Radio NZ: New teenage workers’ pay rate set
Fairfax media: New youth pay rates kicking in
Fairfax media: Division over ‘starter’ wage
The Jackal: National determined to increase exodus
No Right Turn: The return of youth rates
Categories: Social Issues, The Body Politic Tags: 2009 tax cut, 2010 tax cut, Finance Minister Bill English, Labour Party, minimum wage, unemployment, youth rates
Authors of our own mis-fortune?
“Those who would actively choose to drive New Zealand into further debt to pay for tax cuts lack real ambition for our economy.” – Finance Minister Michael Cullen, 7 March 2008
“…in 2005 we promised tax cuts which ranged from about $10 to $92 a week, roughly $45 a week for someone on $50,000 a year. I described it as a credible programme of personal tax cuts and I’m committed to a credible programme of personal tax cuts. I believe that an ongoing programme of personal tax cuts that delivers the sort of magnitude that we’ve had in the past is potentially possible.” – John Key, Leader of the Opposition, 20 May 2008
“National will fast track a second round of tax cuts and is likely to increase borrowing to pay for some of its spending promises.” – John Key, Leader of the Opposition, 2 August 2008
“Our tax policy is therefore one of responsible reform… We have ensured that our package is appropriate for the current economic and fiscal conditions… This makes it absolutely clear that to fund National’s tax package there is no requirement for additional borrowing and there is no requirement to cut public services… National’s rebalancing of the tax system is self-funding and requires no cuts to public services or additional borrowing.” – John Key, Leader of the Opposition, 20 October 2008
“Taxpayers do not want further tax cuts if they mean more government borrowing, a new survey shows. The survey comes as social welfare campaigners say tax cuts failed to help those most in need. The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development survey found that while most people wanted tax cuts planned for 2010 and 2011, they did not want them if it meant further borrowing… The survey found most people would spend the tax cuts on living expenses, while others looked to credit-card debt and mortgage payments. “ – New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, 11 April 2009
In 2008, National campaigned on promises of tax cuts knowing full well this country could not afford them. By November 2008, as New Zealand went to the polls, the international global banking crisis was in full swing, and recession was beginning to hit nearly every single nation on Earth (Australia and China were the lucky exceptions).
By March 2008, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp had identified 76 American banks as “in trouble”.
By July 2008, US financial giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in trouble – and by September, both corporations were placed into a form of receivership.
A week later, and Lehmann Bros – one of the largest financial institutions in the US filed for bankruptcy. On the same day, the Russian stock market was forced to close, as shares plunged by up to 20% in a day.
On 26 September 2008, it was officially declared that New Zealand was in full recession.
(See full Time here.)
Against this backdrop, National proceeded with it’s election promises of tax cuts. As unfolding events would show, they were irresponsible promises – and carrying them out in April 2009 and October 2010 was even more reckless,
“John Key has defended his party’s planned program of tax cuts, after Treasury numbers released today showed the economic outlook has deteriorated badly since the May budget. The numbers have seen Treasury reducing its revenue forecasts and increasing its predictions of costs such as benefits. Cash deficits – the bottom line after all infrastructure funding and payments to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund are made – is predicted to blow out from around $3 billion a year to around $6 billion a year.” – NZ Herald, 6 October 2008
Fast-forward four years, and we are now having to pay for those taxcuts – which were funded by borrowing other peoples’ savings from offshore banks,
It is obvious to all but the most blinkered National/ACT supporter that our debt is growing because we have a shortfall of revenue, caused by this government’s ill-conceived tax-cuts. That shortfall is in the order of $1.4 billion.
A business columnist for the NZ Herald wrote,
“Just how much became apparent yesterday with the $1.4 billion drop in forecast tax revenue for this financial year.
The overall upshot is the Government’s cash deficit has blown out from $13.3 billion to $15.6 billion this year taking into account the unexpected expenditure and the drop in forecast tax revenue.” – Fran O’Sullivan, 15 December 2010
CTU President, , Helen Kelly wrote,
“The unsuccessful tax switch (we called it a “tax swindle” at the time) last year was not fiscally neutral as was claimed. There is a $1.4b revenue hole. It wasn’t a fair switch. The gap in take- home pay between someone on $30,000 and someone on $150,000 a year grew by $135 a week as a result of tax cuts made by this Government.” – Helen Kelly, 23 May 2011
And ex ACT MP, Muriel Newman said,
“If we look back at the state of the books just before the last election, the impact on the country of the recession and the earthquakes become more evident. Crown revenue today is $1.4 billion lower than three years ago and Crown expenses $2.2 billion higher.“ – Muriel Newman, 14 November 2011
Interestingly, Ms Newman blames the blow-out in government debt on “the recession and the earthquakes” – but makes no reference to the ’09 and ’10 tax cuts. In fact, she pours petrol on a bon-fire by saying that “ACT would lower the top rate of income tax to 25% and the company tax to 12.5%“.
One can imagine what that would do to the government deficit! (But then again, ACT would sell every single state-owned enterprise and scrap most welfare, to fund their deep tax cuts. A society governed under ACT policies would be utterly alien to anything most New Zealanders could have dreamed of. I suspect Australia’s population would rise by four million, practically overnight.)
And, spelling it out in even simpler terms, the PSA’s analysis of the figures,
“Tax Cuts Widen the Gap Between Rich and Poor
Government chose to make tax cuts in worst recession in 70 years
Total tax cuts worth $5.5 billion
Top 10% income earners got tax cuts worth $2.5 billion
GST increased to 15% – hurts low and middle income most
Tax cuts + GST left $1.4 billion hole in budget
Since 2008, National has introduced tax cuts that cost New Zealand around $5.5 billion a year in lost revenue. Most of the benefit has gone to the wealthiest.
National’s first set of tax cuts – the personal tax cuts and ‘Independent earner rebate’ taking effect in April 2009 – cost approximately $1 billion a year.
The second set of cuts – cutting the top income tax rate from 38% to 33%, and the company rate to 28% – will cost $4.5 billion a year, according to figures from the 2010 Budget. That gives a total of $5.5 billion.
National claimed that because it was also increasing GST, the tax changes would be “revenue neutral” – that is, the increase in GST would cancel out the income tax cuts. In fact, the losses from the income tax cut will outweigh the gains from GST by $1.4 billion. In other words, the so-called “tax switch” has blown a $1.4 billion hole in the budget.
The tax cuts have also made New Zealand a less fair place. According to Labour, the wealthiest 10% of New Zealanders will get 43% of the tax savings. And the gap in take-home pay between someone on $30,000 and someone on $150,000 a year grew by $135 a week as a result of the tax cuts.
New Zealand’s income tax rates are among the lowest in the OECD, as the Tax Working Group acknowledged.
In Australia , for example, income over $80,000 is taxed at 37%, and income over $180,000 is taxed at 45%.
Figures from the OECD itself show that, before National’s tax cuts, New Zealand’s “all in” top income tax rate – a measure that includes all taxes on income, including local and regional ones – was 38%. In contrast, the all in top income tax rate in Australia was 47%, and in most countries it was higher still.” – PSA.org.nz
This blog can confirm the PSA’s statement that “figures from the OECD itself show that, before National’s tax cuts, New Zealand’s “all in” top income tax rate – a measure that includes all taxes on income, including local and regional ones – was 38%“.
Why did they do it? Why did National make a $1.4 billion committment it knew we could ill-afford?
Because they could.
Because they wanted to be the government. Badly. And nothing quite wins votes like promises of tax cuts (even unaffordable ones).
Because they probably had no idea how bad the recession would be? Rubbish. Of course they knew: John Key’s background was in international finance. He knew precisely how bad the Recession was – and how bad it was likely to get in Europe.
The question is: why did we, the voters, do it? Why did 1,053,398 New Zealanders cast their vote for National in 2008? Why did we vote for tax-cuts – something we knew was unaffordable?
Whatever the reason, we are having to pay for those tax-cuts – or rather, the $1.4 billion in revenue short-fall that we now have to borrow from overseas. In doing so, as this government continues to post budget deficits, it continues to cut back on services; raise government charges; and sack those state workers who have spent many years of their lives doing all the things we expect done for us in education, health, defence force, border control, conservation, etc.
It is inevitable that, unless New Zealand wins the international equivalent of Lotto, this government (or it’s successor, sometime in the next three years) will have to raise taxes again. Or, steal a page from Gareth Morgan’s book and implement a new, Land/Wealth tax. There is no other way to pay of our debt and pay for Christchurch’s re-build.
Something for all New Zealanders to ponder, next time National (or any other Party) promises us a tax cut, in return for our votes.
In the mean time, Bill English signed a document last year called a “PREFU” – Pre Election Economic & Fiscal Update,
This document is now worthless. It may have only one use left.
And finally, will Finance Minister Bill English accept “overall responsibility for the integrity of the disclosures within the Update“?
Does any politician ever accept responsibility for anything?
Categories: Dollars & Sense, The Body Politic Tags: $1.4 billion tax revenue shortfall, ACT, CTU, Fannie Mae, Finance Minister Bill English, Finance Minister Michael Cullen, Freddie Mac, Helen Kelly, john key, Lehmann Bros, Muriel Newman, New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, NZ Treasury, OECD, PREFU, tax cuts, tax policy, Tax Working Group, US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp
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Why & How Square Roots Launched Its Transparency Timeline
by Tobias Peggs
Square Roots Transparency Timeline via Square Roots
Food you can trust.
We can all remember the Thanksgiving romaine lettuce recall. It put millions of consumers at major risk of foodborne illnesses. The situation was compounded by opaque supply chains in the Industrial Food System, making it ridiculously difficult to accurately trace the source of guilty pathogens. To their credit, the big lettuce producers did eventually react, and agreed to start labeling their products with a mark of the state in which their products are grown. But that’s not enough. Consumers want food they can trust.
It’s common today to see companies telling consumers “you can trust our food.” That never sits comfortably with us. “Trust us” can’t be an instruction. Trust has to be gained. And one way for a food brand to start gaining trust is by being transparent, by opening up data, and by giving consumers all the facts. When it comes to produce, for example, what people want to know is: where and how was my food grown, who grew it, and when? With that data, people can make their own informed choices about whether to trust the food and whether to buy it.
We have that data at Square Roots. After the romaine recall, we realized we should make it available to our customers.
Sharing insights and learnings.
In the spirit of sharing insights and learnings that are hopefully helpful to others in the Food+Tech Connect community, this post shines a light on how we made this data accessible to customers, and also covers some of the technology decisions we made along the way.
For those not familiar with Square Roots, we are an indoor urban farming company headquartered in Brooklyn, NYC. We grow a range of herbs – like basil, mint and chives – and distribute them directly to retail stores across the city within a day of harvest. At the heart of Square Roots is our Next Gen Farmer Training Program, which provides a launchpad for young people to enter the farming industry. Meanwhile, our farms are constructed inside refurbished shipping containers, each with its own programmable climate—meaning we grow food all year round, with zero pesticides.
To help us train young farmers, we’ve developed our own software layer, which we call The Farmer Toolbelt, that provides instructions and insights to help the farmers with their day-to-day activities. Our farmers access The Toolbelt via tablets in the farms—and the software might tell them, for example, what tasks need completing in the farms that day, based on models we’ve built to optimize the growing cycle of certain crops. The Toolbelt is also used to capture data at every step of the process—such as who completed what task, when, how long it took, and more. As a result, we’re able to trace a direct line from every seed we sow to every package we sell. All that data is then analyzed against factors such as the quantitative impact on eventual yield, and the qualitative impact on taste, which helps us develop even more effective growing models over time.
Nate Burt on our engineering team was hacking on the Toolbelt’s backend data over Thanksgiving when the romaine recall happened. He saw the furor unfold as consumers got scared and millions of dollars of perfectly good produce got pulled from the shelves—all because no-one could swiftly trace the source of the issue.
Nate immediately understood that we could open up elements of our data set, expose it to consumers, and show a complete timeline—tracing where and how the food is grown, and who grows it. He built V1 of what we now call “The Transparency Timeline” that weekend, and showed us all when we came back in the office post-Turkey coma.
Transparency Timeline QR Codes via Square Roots
To blockchain or not to blockchain?
When you hear the words “transparency” and “traceability” in food-tech circles, people often jump to the conclusion that blockchain is the right solution. We certainly had to think that through when assessing the viability of Nate’s V1.
We’ve been tracking this technology closely for a while. Inspired by Mike Lee, I’d written about its uses for food traceability on my personal blog last year. But our feeling is that “blockchain for basil” isn’t quite ready for primetime yet. Initial implementations from Big Food companies have been heavily buzzword-compliant but are distinctly underwhelming in terms of the useful information they provide.
There’s another irony with the blockchain buzz. Architecturally, it could be a neat solution to provide traceable information about industrially-produced food—which can travel for weeks to get to the consumer while passing through multiple vendors performing multiple processing steps along the way. But, increasingly, consumers are turning towards local real food, precisely because there are fewer steps in the supply chain and they trust it more. It’s almost like blockchain is a new solution for the old food system that consumers are moving away from.
At Square Roots, for example, all our products are sold at retail stores within four miles of our farm, and we own every step from seed to shelf; there are no third parties or handoffs along the way. As we scale, we will keep building local farms in the same neighborhood as the consumers — so we can always own the supply chain end to end.
Even though we’re optimistic about the long term vision for the wider food industry, the reality is that we, like many local farmers, don’t need to utilize blockchain architecture to give the consumer what they want today—total transparency, without the need for buzzwords. Even the blockchain vendors recognize that.
Going from internal demo to full product.
On December 1, we made the decision to take Nate’s V1 and turn it into a real product. The functionality would be simple, but really powerful. Every package we sold would have a QR code on it. The QR code would be associated with the data set for that particular package, as captured in The Farmer Toolbelt. Consumers would scan the code with their phone, and a mobile web page would pop up showing a complete timeline of where and how your food was grown, and who grew it.
QR codes are commonplace for consumers in Japan and China, but have been slow to take off in the US. However, now that Apple has integrated a QR code reader right into the native camera app on the iPhone (you simply need to point your camera app at the code and it gets read instantaneously), adoption is increasing here. In the retail setting, it’s easy for consumers to take out their phone, scan the code, and quickly learn more about the food they might buy. However, to make the Transparency Timeline feature available to everyone—even non-adopters—we also built a page on the Square Roots website where customers can manually type in the lot number found on the package and see the same information.
Our systems also track what happens to every clam shell as it get packaged, leaves the farm, and heads to the store. So we are able to show the complete story of the food from seed-to-shelf.
We launched the Transparency Timeline on December 19.
That sounds fast, but remember that we haven’t had to invent new business processes or technologies to make this happen — we’re just exposing the data we already capture in the Farmer Toolbelt as part of our everyday operations.
Launching, of course, didn’t just mean designing the UI and building the backend app. We had to change our labels to make sure every package now had a QR code. And we trained our farmers to explain things to our customers and retail partners. We’ve only got 17 full time staff at the company, so the initiative probably touched everyone at some point during the 3 week sprint to pull it together.
But it’s been totally worthwhile. It’s a whole new level of transparency. It’s all about consumers getting the information they need to make their own informed decisions about food they can trust.
Tobias Peggs, CEO and co-founder at Square Roots
Tobias is cofounder and CEO at Square Roots – the urban farming company, headquartered in Brooklyn, NYC. He was previously CEO at Aviary, a mobile photo editing company (acquired by Adobe); and CEO at OneRiot, a social media analytics company (acquired by Walmart). Tobias has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Cardiff University in his native UK. He is a Techstars mentor, competitive triathlete, snowboarder, and eats far too much ramen.
10 Trends the Food Industry Missed, Anterra Capital’s $200M AgTech Fund, Starbucks & Coca-Cola’s Blockchain Pilots + More
Racist CPG Rebrands, Former Bumble Bee CEO Sent to Prison for Price-Fixing + More
agtech, blockchain, food startups, food tech, indoor ag, indoor agriculture, romaine lettuce recall, Square Roots, Square Roots Transparency Timeline, transparency
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Trending NowInauguration Melania Trump Kelly Loeffler Coronavirus impeachment Andrew McCabe Kamala Harris LAPD Mike Pence Joe Biden Hannity Store
SARAH ON FIRE: Huckabee Sanders ROASTS ‘DISGRACED HACK’ James Comey
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders utterly destroyed disgraced former FBI director James Comey Friday; trashing the bureau chief’s new book as “bargain bin” garbage and saying one of President Trump’s greatest achievements was firing the “disgraceful hack.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on James Comey's Forthcoming Book
"The American people see right through the blatant lies of a self-admitted leaker."During a briefing at The White House Friday, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders commented on former FBI Director James Comey's forthcoming book, also saying that his firing will go down as "one of the president's greatest achievements." https://fxn.ws/2ISQlpQ
Posted by Fox News on Friday, April 13, 2018
“The American people see right through the blatant lies of a self-admitted leaker,” Sanders told reporters. “This is nothing more than a poorly executed PR stunt by Comey to desperately rehabilitate his tattered reputation and enrich his own bank account.”
“[He’s] peddling a book that belongs in the bargain bin instead of being remembered as a dedicated servant in the pursuit of justice like so many of his other colleagues in the FBI,” she added.
“Comey will forever be known as a disgraced partisan hack who broke his trust with the President of the United States,” she concluded. “One of the President’s greatest achievements will go down as firing Director James Comey.”
Watch the Press Secretary’s comments above.
FIREWORKS: Huckabee Sanders DESTROYS MEDIA Over North Korean HYPOCRISY
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders scolded reporters during her daily press briefing Friday; reminding journalists of their glowing coverage of the North Korean regime during the 2018 Olympics just weeks ago.
Sparks flew between Sanders and one reporter when he asked if the Trump administration was “elevating” Kim Jong Un by holding high-level meetings with the brutal dictator.
“He’s starved his own people, he’s murdered his own people… Why put him on the same stage as the President of the United States?” he asked.
“The president wants to make sure that we denuclearize the peninsula, and that we’re securing and helping have a safer world,” Sanders fired-back. “I’m glad that you guys are acknowledging a lot of the problems of North Korea, because just a couple weeks ago a lot of members in the press were actually elevating North Korea and some of the members of the regime and comparing them to people in the United States and in this administration.”
“That’s what put North Korea on a similar stage,” she added.
Watch the Press Secretary’s fiery exchange above.
h/t Washington Free Beacon
CNN SHUTDOWN: Huckabee Sanders SILENCES Jim Acosta on LIVE TV
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders totally silenced CNN correspondent Jim Acosta during her daily briefing Monday; prompting the liberal reporter to complain on camera over his networks treatment by the Trump administration.
The Press Secretary was wrapping up her press briefing this week when she faced a last-minute flurry of questions; saying “We’re continuing to focus on the things that President Trump campaigned on. We’re excited about what we’ve done and where we’re going.”
Sanders left the podium and headed for the exits when Acosta pounced, saying “Sarah, can I ask a question?”
“Sarah, that’s the third briefing you’ve not taken a question from CNN. Do you expect the Justice Department to enforce all subpoenas, Sarah?” he continued to ask.
Acosta later complained on social media, writing “Third press briefing in a row that @PressSec did not take a question from CNN. #courage.”
Third press briefing in a row that @PressSec did not take a question from CNN. #courage
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 5, 2018
Watch Huckabee Sanders shutdown Jim Acosta above.
FBI FAIL: McCabe BLASTED in ‘Scathing’ Inspector General Report
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Branding Sells Cereal, Handbags, and Vacations. Can It Sell a Country?
11 Mar 2019Research & Ideas
11 Mar 2019|by Danielle Kost
Countries such as Israel now realize they need to engage in public diplomacy as well as foreign diplomacy, and in place branding, not just political advocacy, says Elie Ofek.
The 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding last year stirred reflection about the country’s image, values, and position in the world among everyone from former diplomats to Hollywood actors.
Despite efforts to portray Israel as modern and safe, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the country’s complicated history still dominate public consciousness. Memories of failed peace talks tend to loom larger than Israel’s image as a startup nation. Thousands of Instagram posts from Tel Aviv’s gay pride festivities or the buzz from winning the recent Eurovision song contest may not be enough to overcome decades of TV footage of soldiers and tanks that linger in the mind.
To Harvard Business School marketing professor Elie Ofek, it’s more proof that influencing long-held perceptions about a region requires more strategic thinking. After all, it took more than billboards and press junkets to turn Santa Clara County into Silicon Valley.
“Countries are beginning to realize—Israel being one of them—that they need to engage in public diplomacy, not just a foreign diplomacy, and in place branding, not just political advocacy, ” says Ofek, the T.J. Dermot Dunphy Professor of Business Administration. “Part of that is affecting what people in other countries perceive your country to be.”
What does it take to create Denmark’s reputation for modern design or Bali’s Eat Pray Love-style picture of tropical centeredness? Ofek examined the underlying factors behind winning and losing place branding efforts in two recent cases, “The Brand Management of Places” and “Israel at 70: Is it Possible to (re)Brand a Country?”
Success without a roadmap
Government and business leaders hoping to shift the conversation about their regions might look to another city’s successful campaign for ideas, but there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. Capturing a city’s unique spirit and complex tapestry requires a custom approach. That said, many of the branding rules that apply to soda, clothes, and cars, also apply to places:
Understand the brand and stay true to it. Twenty years ago, before The Lord of the Rings film trilogy elevated New Zealand as a fantasy destination, the country was struggling to set itself apart from Australia. In-depth interviews, focus groups, and surveys revealed that New Zealand could appeal to a specific stripe of unpretentious traveler—one who values adventure, freedom, and nature.
The resulting “100% Pure New Zealand” campaign—which targeted travelers in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, and Singapore—helped boost tourist visits by 50 percent from 1999 to 2005. New Zealand couldn’t have achieved that success if it lacked the goods to support the image of raw serenity it presented to the world; yet it took a concerted marketing effort that highlighted these elements in an attractive way to succeed.
Prepare to invest money and time. Ten years ago, South Korea set out to remove the “Korean Discount” on its exports and raise its standing on the world stage. Armed with a $74 million branding fund, the President’s Council on Nation Branding began a multiprong effort in 2009 to position South Korea as an important global player, showcase its welcoming culture, and boost quality perceptions of its products and entertainment content.
Over five years, South Korea increased aid and volunteer work abroad, hosted the G-20 Summit, promoted Korean language education, and even advanced the image of its national sport, Taekwondo. While the investment was significant, South Korea ultimately surpassed its benchmarks and sparked new interest in its culture, setting off a K-Drama (Korean television drama) and K-Pop (Korean pop music) craze, with music exports, for example, expanding ninefold to $277 million in 2013.
Think virally and socially. When New York City sought to bring back fleeing companies during its 1970s financial crisis, bank marketer turned public servant Bill Doyle knew he had to bring tourists back first to dispel the city’s "Taxi Driver" image of grit and danger. His team created the iconic "I (heart) NY" slogan and encouraged companies to print it on everything from T-shirts to flags, making it instantly ubiquitous. The warm heart and bold typeface stoked positivity, and along with a series of events and clever ad campaigns tied to this theme, helped lift tourism spending long after its initial launch. And by emphasizing how the city had embraced a pro-business mindset, New York City was once again a magnet for companies.
With its targeting capabilities, relatively low cost, and vast reach, social media has become an essential marketing channel, especially for those trying to reach young consumers. The Israeli nonprofit Vibe Israel, for example, has been funding Instagram influencers to visit the nation and share their experiences with their followers, pushing authentic messages to key consumer groups, such as affluent parents.
Establishing street CRED
Switzerland, Germany, and Japan dominate brand rankings. Intentionally or not, each country has cultivated an image that’s true to its national character. Their branding messages have “CRED,” as Ofek calls it. In other words, they are:
Credible. The qualities a country promotes must reflect reality. Spain’s legalization of same-sex marriage in 2005 reinforced the country’s shift to a liberal image, which reflects three decades of secularization after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.
Relevant. Governments can’t sway the opinion of a disinterested audience. The imagery and associations of the place need to matter to the targeted audience. A branding campaign that highlights France’s beautiful countryside and rich cheeses won’t resonate with tech entrepreneurs.
Enduring. Building a brand around renewable energy might not stick if oil prices fall for a sustained period or a pro-coal leader takes power, but the unique essence of a city never fades and should form the backbone of the branding effort.
Different. The brand needs to stake out a position that allows it to stand out relative to other regions. A Caribbean nation might need to highlight its luxury amenities or access to water sports to stand out among its island neighbors.
Marketing isn’t magic—or is it?
Brand strategy alone can’t typically overcome controversial policies or unpopular leaders, or make an oppressive regime seem tolerant. There’s also a fine line between influential outreach and propaganda that leaves audiences feeling manipulated, Ofek says.
However, the right branding can radically improve a country’s fortunes and diplomacy by adding powerful dimensions to its image, triggering ripples that flow down to major industries, companies, and residents. And tapping into consumers’ deepest aspirations can pay off for decades to come—consider Apple.
“If I'm using Apple, I'm thinking, ‘I’m different. I'm more cool, more hip,’” Ofek says. “Those sentiments are much harder to instill for countries, but it’s possible, and marketing can help.”
Danielle Kost is senior editor at Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.
Image: Pglam
Elie Ofek
T.J. Dermot Dunphy Professor of Business Administration
Co-Unit Head, Marketing
Brands and Branding
Globalized Economies and Regions
New York (city, NY)
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US Coast Guard spouse volunteers at Maastricht hospital, saves lives
Vanessa Banks-Gonzales, an experienced acute care nurse practitioner and spouse of U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Gonzales III, volunteers at Maastricht University Hospital's COVID-19 intensive care unit. The Gonzales Family moved to Maastricht when Lt. Commander Gonzales III received orders to serve with the Coastguard at the NATO base in Brunssum, the Netherlands. (Courtesy photo)
5/12/2020 By: Naomi van Loon, U.S. Army Garrison Benelux Public Affairs
Coronavirus | Heroes Behind the Mask | National Nurses Week
MAASTRICHT, Netherlands -- When Vanessa Banks-Gonzales, an experienced acute care nurse practitioner and spouse of Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Gonzales III, heard about Maastricht University Hospital's need for volunteers with medical experience, she answered the call.
In the past six weeks, Banks-Gonzales has been working alongside Dutch colleagues at the Maastricht COVID-19 intensive care unit, where she takes care of severely ill patients: people who depend on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) – artificial lungs – for respiratory support.
Operating an ECMO requires an advanced degree, for which Banks-Gonzales had right credentials. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree as an acute care nurse practitioner after receiving two Jack Kent Cooke scholarships.
"After the COVID crisis started in the Netherlands, we had a great shortage of ICU personnel," said Dr. Jan-Willem Sels, the intensive care specialist Banks-Gonzales works with at the hospital. "When Mrs. Banks came to us with her credentials, we didn't hesitate for one moment."
The Gonzales Family moved to Maastricht when Gonzales received orders to serve with the Coastguard at the NATO base in Brunssum. Daughter Jillian joined, and son Caleb lives in New York City.
Before the crisis, Banks-Gonzales regularly returned to the U.S. to work at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where she holds a particular employment status.
"I am very lucky with my job in Washington," she said. "It allows me to maintain my personal identity and independence. I have an incredible boss and support system in America, and I'm very grateful that I get to practice, stay relevant. Some spouses don't have that opportunity."
As the crisis hit, her immediate desire was to go back to America and support her colleagues and people affected. When it became clear that a return journey would be impossible, Banks-Gonzales felt guilty.
"I was staying at home when I could help,” she said. “I didn't want my work family to suffer, to go through that alone. We always go in together."
With no option than to stay in the Netherlands, she turned her attention to local initiatives and organizations. Finally, it was an English news report by RTV Maastricht that caught her attention: Maastricht University Hospital was looking for help from volunteers with any medical experience. On a Thursday, she met with the hospital staff, on the Monday after that, she started.
"When Vanessa came and offered her help, we gladly accepted," said Sels. "What we're experiencing now with the coronavirus is unlike anything we've ever encountered. We're used to very sick people, but the sheer volume of patients in the ICU, especially in the first weeks, was overwhelming. A sizeable number of these patients die in the ICU, so it made a big impression on all of us."
Banks-Gonzales kept up with the literature and had heard about the protocols from her colleagues in America, so she came prepared.
"It was what I expected," she said. "People were very sick, almost everybody in the ICU was on a ventilator. There were no visitors allowed, and nurses at the bedside were working diligently to get the patients better. It was really scary, because people were really sick."
Her work evolved quickly. Initially, she was asked to help the nurses care for ECMO patients. Then, she also started working with the medical team as a provider, developing plans of care and monitoring patients throughout the day.
Working at the COVID-19 unit does come at a cost – a personal sacrifice that remains mostly unseen.
"I'm going to be exposed to a virus that's potentially very dangerous. My priority as a mother and a wife is to protect my family," Banks-Gonzales said. "We have set up a separate sleeping space, with a private bathroom, to prevent the spreading of germs. I now sleep separately from my husband of 24 years."
She also thinks twice before going out in public, to make sure other people don't fall sick.
“Whenever possible, my husband and daughter go out for errands,” she said. “And the Coast Guard Family has been very supportive, they get our mail on the base."
The sacrifices of nurses don't end when they leave the hospital; they carry on into their everyday life.
“It's an enormous testament to what a nurse is and what nurses do: we run headfirst into situations no matter how scary they are, whether it's corona, language barriers, or practice differences," said Banks-Gonzales.
Banks-Gonzales is no stranger to sacrifice; she grew up as a military child and was, herself, on active duty in the Coast Guard for five years.
"I think that's what we as a military Family are accustomed to, making sacrifices for the greater good,” she said. “It’s not foreign to us."
The actions of Banks-Gonzales elicited admiration from her colleagues.
"She is willing to make personal sacrifices for the greater good, which is admirable,” said Dr. Sels. “Of course, we, too, do our best, but we get paid for it. Mrs. Banks does it because she feels she has to help. That's intrinsic motivation, that’s something inspiring and admirable.”
On her side, Banks-Gonzales is grateful for the sacrifices made by people in the community.
"Thank you for following the measures and continuing to follow the measures until the government says it's safe,” she said. “It really sends a positive message to us healthcare professionals that the work we're doing is appreciated and supported."
She is optimistic about the easing of the measures, while also concerned.
"I'm happy that the Netherlands is taking an eased, step-by-step approach, showing great care and concern and a willingness to listen to medical experts,” Banks-Gonzales said. “And I'm also happy to go out and get a haircut."
Disclaimer: Re-published content may be edited for length and clarity. Read original post.
Technical Documents (2)
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This Defense Health Agency (DHA) Interim Procedures Memorandum (IPM), based on the authority of References (a) through (d), and in accordance with the guidance cited in References (e) through (aa), establishes the DHA’s procedures to implement instructions, assign responsibilities, and prescribe procedures for the COVID-19 Vaccination Program. This DHA-IPM applies to DHA, DHA Components (activities under the authority direction, and control of the DHA), Military Departments (MILDEP), and the United States Coast Guard (CG). This DHA-IPM cancels and replaces DHA-IPM 20-004, “Department of Defense (DoD) Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccination Program Implementation,” December 13, 2020.
Identification #: DHA-IPM 20-004
Type: DHA Interim Procedures Memorandum
Topics: Coronavirus | COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts
This memorandum provides supplemental guidance on the provision of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, in accordance with reference (a). The Defense Health Agency (DHA) is the lead coordinating DoD Component for executing this guidance, in coordination with the Military Departments and other DoD Components as appropriate.
Identification #: N/A
Type: Memorandums
Topics: Coronavirus | COVID-19 Vaccine Efforts | COVID-19 Information for Military Treatment Facility Directors
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Tag: shelter
October 13, 2020 [email protected]_84
Laguna Beach Pumps Nearly Half a Million Dollars Into Homeless Shelter RenovationVoice of OC
By Sophia Bitis | 39 mins ago
Laguna Beach will spend $479,837 in grant money to make improvements to the city’s homeless shelter with work expected to start in November.
Editors’ Note: This dispatch is part of the Voice of OC Youth Media program, working with student journalists to cover public policy issues across Orange County. If you would like to submit your own student media project related to Orange County civics or if you have any response to this work, contact Digital Editor Sonya Quick at [email protected].
The Alternative Sleeping Location, a city-run emergency shelter, at 20652 Laguna Canyon Road, has been operating year-round since 2009 to provide meals, showers, laundry, and help guests find housing and health care. The facility has worked with over 10,000 people since its opening to help prevent homelessness and serves an average of 160 people every night, according
Holm Auto Good News: Salina Tech students eager to learn, while remodeling Ashby House shelter – News – The Hutchinson News
Pumped with zeal and strapped into a loaded carpenter’s belt, Jordan Castaneda greeted Salina Technical College classmates for some on-the-job learning.
“I’m ready to get this party going,” said the 18-year-old Salinan on Wednesday, aching for some construction work after spending weeks mostly in a classroom.
The budding builders were “chomping at the bit. They’ve been in the classroom since the start of the semester (Aug. 20),” said Kevin Watters, Salina Tech construction technology instructor.
His crew that ranges in size from eight to 11, was eager to join in the remodel of an Ashby House shelter at 158 S. Eighth.
“I love getting hands on, in the action. The days go faster. It feels like forever in the classroom,” said Castaneda, a 2020 Salina Central High School graduate, who credits his uncle, Mario Martinez, owner of a Salina construction business, for introducing him to the trade, and gifting him
Holm Auto Good News: Salina Tech students eager to learn, while remodeling Ashby House shelter – News – Salina Journal
North Carolina City Ignores Its Own Rules To Keep Homeless Shelter Out Of Its New Home
Catherine H. Barber Memorial Shelter staff and board members in front of the building the city won’t … [+] let them move into.
For more than 30 years, the Catherine H. Barber Memorial Shelter has quietly served North Wilkesboro and broader Wilkes County in North Carolina. It’s a small, temporary shelter with 10 beds that helps those who have fallen on hard times get back on their feet; the maximum stay is generally two weeks. Most nights there are a few empty beds, but on occasion the shelter—the only one in 70,000 resident Wilkes County—must turn away the needy. After losing its lease on the home it has occupied for three decades, the shelter was offered a new building, free of charge. But it may never be able to move in.
A local dentist moved his practice and offered the shelter his now empty office building. And
September 28, 2020 [email protected]_84
Winston Lake is getting more parking spaces, a new picnic shelter and pier. Improvements continue also continue at other Winston-Salem parks. | Politics
*Creating the walking path from the new shelter alongside the lake toward the dam and aquatic center. The path will be made of crushed stone.
*The “knoll,” a small hill that has a scenic view of the lake, will get new picnic tables and stairs to replace the eroding footpath that leads up the hill now.
The Winston-Salem City Council awarded the contract for the work over the summer, along with contracts for other park projects that are being paid for from the 2018 bonds:
*A brand-new “pocket park” will be built on Bethania-Rural Hill Road beside Fire Station 20. The park will be called Bethania Freedmen’s Park, in recognition of the Bethania Freedmen’s community that developed in the area after the Civil War.
The park will have fitness equipment, a restroom and plantings. The work includes site preparation and grading. Since the park is beside Station 20, the work
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Engineering success at RAF Odiham
13 Jan, 13, Source: Royal Air Force
Warrants Officer Dave Woodhead, 7 Squadron Warrant Officer Engineering, was awarded an MBE in the New Years Honours. Warrant Officer Woodhead has shown over 35 years of exceptional dedication, leadership and devotion to duty. During this time he has deployed to numerous operations and has been previously recognised with various Commendations. Due to his innovative resolute and incisive leadership he has delivered engineering excellence to the Force.
On receiving the award Warrant Officer Woodhead said “Having almost reached the end of what has been an extremely enjoyable and fulfilling RAF career, the award of the MBE came as a great surprise. Having spent almost 30 years within the Chinook Force, 27 of those at RAF Odiham, the sheer professionalism and dedication of all those who serve the force never ceases to amaze me. Without doubt, it is these generally unsung hero’s who have consistently achieved outstanding feats both at home and operationally and whose efforts have led to my receiving such a prestigious award.”
As well as Warrant Officer Woodhead’s personal excellence being recognised, the Flight that he is part of were also recognised in the form of a Commander Joint Helicopter Command Commendation. 7 Sqn Engineering Flight earned the award for their outstanding achievements during last year. During a busy period the Flight ensured that aircraft serviceability was maintained.
Warrant Officer Anthony Barker, 18/27 Squadron Warrant Officer Engineering, was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal for his consistent dedication and selfless commitment to the Royal Air Force during his 32 years of unfaltering service in support of Chinook helicopter operations in numerous campaigns, he has seen active service in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, Kosovo and Iraq. Warrant Officer Barker has deployed to Afghanistan 4 times in recent years – often at short notice – where, alongside relentlessly generating aircraft for very high tempo daily tasking, he has been responsible for the continuous availability of the Chinook Medical Emergency Response and Immediate Response Team aircraft; a crucial responsibility which has direct impact upon ground operations, saving many lives. An inspirational figure, he forms the bedrock of a squadron of over 400 personnel.
As well as his dedication at work he has been at the forefront of the Basingstoke Scout District for over 17 years during which his efforts resulted in an annual Scout Shop turnover in excess of £22K.
Tags: Boeing, CH-47, Eurocopter, Military, News, RAF Odiham, SA330, UK
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From Iceland — Patient Infected With Two Strains of COVID-19 In Iceland
Patient Infected With Two Strains of COVID-19 In Iceland
Poppy Askham
@poppy_askham
It’s been confirmed that an individual who tested positive for COVID-19 in Iceland has been infected by two strains of the virus simultaneously. The second strain is a mutation of the original novel coronavirus. It is thought that this could be the first recorded dual infection case of this kind.
Speaking to RÚV news yesterday, deCODE CEO, Kári Stefánsson confirmed the unusual infection. It is thought the mutated second strain could be more malicious or infectious because people infected by the dual-strain patient were only found to have the second strain. If this is the case, the virus could be mutating to become more infectious over time. However, Kári was unable to confirm this and suggested it could be a coincidence.
Kári also noted that the mutation found in the sample taken from this dually-infected patient is one that has not been found outside Iceland, according to international databases.
This is just one of the startling new discoveries deCODE has uncovered from its analysis of the genetic sequences of 40 COVID-19 strains found in Iceland. According to Kári, the diversity of genetic sequences found in COVID-19 samples taken in Iceland indicate that the virus was brought to Iceland from a wider range of areas than was previously thought. The main origins of Icelandic infections are currently thought to be Italy, Austria, and Britain. A football match in the U.K. is thought to be the source for seven infections in Iceland.
Kári also estimated that 1% of Icelanders are currently infected. The results of screenings have previously suggested that only 0.5% are infected, but Kári believes the true figure of infections may be higher as many may currently be asymptomatic and as a result not coming forward for tests.
Iceland is fortunate enough to boast some of the best testing capacities in the world right now, although there is currently a EU-wide shortage of medical swabs, which means testing may be more difficult in the coming weeks. Over 10,000 samples have been taken to date, providing Icelandic scientists with invaluable data and allowing the country to become a world leader in research into the genetic make-up of the virus.
Tune into our daily COVID-cast for more on recent coronavirus-related developments in Iceland.
Note: Due to the effect the Coronavirus is having on tourism in Iceland, it’s become increasingly difficult for the Grapevine to survive. If you enjoy our content and want to help the Grapevine’s journalists do things like eat and pay rent, please consider joining our High Five Club.
Kári steffansson
Next: Changes to Strætó Services Due To COVID-19
Previous: Tourists Sleeping In Vaðlaheiði Tunnel
Fifty Shades Of Clear Blue: A Snorkel & Underwater Photos At The Silfra Fissure
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The High Sheriff of Shropshire
Protecting and promoting law and order in Shropshire
Under Sheriff
High Sheriff’s Awards
Young Citizen Awards
High Sheriff Archive
22nd February 2018 by The High Sheriff
Thursday 22nd February 2018
At the invitation of Mr James Hervey-Bathurst, who is a trustee of the Severn Valley Railway (SVR), Veronica and I made a visit to the Railway in Bridgnorth where we were met by Nick Paul, the Railway’s Chairman, and Mike Ball, Deputy Chairman. Mike Ball boarded the train with us and accompanied us to Kidderminster, where we visited the Railway’s carriage repair works. SVR arranged for us both to spend time on the footplate in the locomotive, and we both enjoyed the trip enormously. In addition to approx 100 employees, SVR is very well served by its many volunteers, who assist in every aspect of the running of the railway including driving the train, acting as guards, ticket-collectors and station masters. We were very impressed with the seemless operation of the railway, the evident quality of the maintenance work and pride that all involved take in the service provided. I thoroughly recommend to anyone who has not visited the stations or taken a ride on a train to do so.
Filed Under: C E Lillis Esq, High Sheriff of Shropshire 2017-18, News
Webdesign by www.virtual-shropshire.co.uk
Copyright © High Sheriff of Shropshire
Follow with
E: shropshireHS@hotmail.co.uk
E: dean@thebusinesscompany.biz
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Jeanine Pirro has Failed to Pay Back Over $500,000 in Campaign Loans
BY Todd Neikirk November 23, 2018
Fox News host Jeanine Pirro may be best known for her fawning coverage of Donald Trump but in 2006, the former judge waged a challenge for Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate seat.
Gage Skidmore
The campaign challenge did not last long, as Pirro dropped her bid for the Republican nomination after only 4 months. In that time, she amassed almost $600,000 in debt. According t0 the Daily Beast, she has still not repaid that debt 12 years later.
Pirro has been unable to close that campaign since the FEC does not allow campaigns to end until all debts are paid back. The Fox broadcaster has reportedly ignored multiple requests by the body to file financial reports.
The latest request by the FEC, who has sent Pirro 19 letters, was sent just last month. Alternet reports, “Pirro’s campaign was warned in October that it could face fines, audit or other enforcement actions if requested financial information was not filed, as required.”
The true scope of Pirro’s campaign debt is unknown since she has not filed a financial report. The judge did pay back loans that involved her husband’s businesses. The campaign “did pay off campaign treasurer Bruce Bellmare, an attorney at the law offices of Pirro’s husband, and Jeffrey Buley, who ran a consulting firm with Pirro’s husband that was sanctioned in 2008 for failing to file lobbying disclosure paperwork,” the report notes.
Pirro has largely moved on from running for office since the 2006 challenge. She has also turned away from her legal work, becoming one of Fox News’ most prominent hosts.
President Donald Trump often leans on her for both legal and political advice. Just this week, a report surfaced that Pirro was accused of inflaming Trump was Chief of Staff, John Kelly.
Pirro may eventually leave her job at Fox to enter politics. Donald Trump has reportedly considered her for multiple federal judgeships.
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Last edited by Meztigis
3 edition of Theosophist Magazine October 1914-December 1914 found in the catalog.
Theosophist Magazine October 1914-December 1914
by Annie Wood Besant
Published April 2003 by Kessinger Publishing .
Theosophy & Anthroposophy,
Theosophy,
Religion - World Religions
- The Screen of Time – C. J. Ryan (Book Reviews: Commentary upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex (W. E. Gates) - A Page of the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex from Central America (Graphic) - Perez Codex: page 17 (Graphic) - A New Magazine – J. Atterbom (Teosofiska Vagen) - The Strange Little Girl – V. M. (Children books). The Theosophist magazine for September contained a letter signed by Dorothy Arnold and Virginia Zee announcing their intention to open a girl’s school in China, but they omitted to disclose the location. However, the Theosophical Year Book, , notes the existence of a Besant Girl’s School in Shanghai founded by Dorothy Arnold.
Lives of Alcyone, or The Lives of Alcyone, was the title given to the books derived from a series of articles published in The Theosophist beginning in April, The series was entitled "Rents in the Veil of Time," and each article had a subtitle like "The Lives of Alcyone" or "The Lives of Orion.". Alcyone was the "star name" given to young Jiddu Krishnamurti by Charles Webster . De Robigne Mortimer Bennett ( ) was the founder, publisher, and editor of the Truth Seeker, the largest and most radical free thought and reform journal in the popular sixteen-page New York weekly was “Devoted to Science, Morals, Freethought and Human Happiness.†D. M. Bennett was the country’s leading publisher of freethought literature, .
The book “” was a very compelling story. I think that it is a must-read. I would rate it a five out of five, because it pulled me into the story and I couldn’t put the book down. It blended fiction with historical facts. I would recommend it for ages nine and over, because any ages younger would not like this type of story/5(15). The Masses, a richly illustrated radical magazine, was published monthly in New York from until , when it was suppressed by the government for its anti-war and anti-government perspective. The Masses blended art and politics and included fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and illustrations by many of the leading radical figures of the day.
So You Really Want to Be an Arbitrator? (Dispute Resolution Guides)
The Doomsday Ultimatum
Easily into Lotus 1-2-3
Prometheus Design (Star Trek)
A Plain and Simple Heart
Changing patterns of multilingualism
Twos company
effects of South African maize policies on the production of maize in Swaziland
Potential effects of section 3 of the Federal Coal Leasing Amendments Act of 1976.
The Archivists Story
Materials and activities relating to honey bees.
table alphabeticall [by] Robert Cawdrey.
Poor Richard improved: being an almanack and ephemeris ... for the year of our Lord 1772
Health observation of school children
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Theosophist Magazine October 1914-December 1914 by Annie Wood Besant Download PDF EPUB FB2
Theosophist Magazine October December [Besant, Annie] on *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Theosophist Magazine October December Theosophist Magazine October December This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original.
Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawe. Theosophy Magazine, November to October by H. Blavatsky (Contributor) ISBN ISBN Why is ISBN important. ISBN. This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book.
The digit and digit formats both work. The Theosophist is the monthly journal of the international Theosophical Society based in Adyar, India.
It was first published on October 1, by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in Bombay, and has been in production continuously since that date. The cover of the first issue stated that this was "A monthly journal devoted to oriental philosophy, art, literature and occultism: embracing.
The Theosophist. A monthly journal devoted to Oriental Philosophy, Art, Literature and Occultism, embracing Mesmerism, Spiritualism, and other Secret Sciences.
Conducted by H. Blavatsky, Bombay, India. The first format was 13 inches (33cm) by 9 inches (24cm). The first issue, dated Octoberwas 32 pages in length. American Theosophist was published in Albany, New York, by L.
Rogers from April, to October,when it ceased publication. It was intended as a tool for teaching elementary Theosophy, but was discontinued after International President Annie Besant asked Mr.
Rogers to refocus his editorial attention on The Theosophic Messenger. All issues, except Volume I. In Junein order better to distinguish official pronouncements of the Theosophical Society from matters of more general interest, the journal was split and became the American Theosophist (which ceased with October-November ) and the Messenger: Official Organ of the American Theosophical Society (which lasted until ).
Theosophist V1 N1 October Theosophist V1 N2 November Theosophist V1 N3 December Theosophist V1 N4 January Theosophist V35 N1-n12 Oct sep Theosophist V36 N1-n12 Oct sep Theosophist V37 N1-n12 Oct sep Theosophist V38 N1-n12 Oct sep O n the role of the esoteric movement in the ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st century, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
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The Theosophical Society in America encourages open-minded inquiry into world religions, philosophy, science, and the arts in order to understand the wisdom of the ages, respect the unity of all life, and help people explore spiritual self-transformation.
Most Popular Books Published In Top books published in that people have added on Goodreads. (generated weekly) 1: Dubliners by. James Joyce. avg rating —ratings — published — added bypeople Want to Read saving Want to Read; Currently Reading. Annie Besant (née Wood; 1 October – 20 September ) was a British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer, orator, educationist, and ed as a champion of human freedom, she was an ardent supporter of both Irish and Indian was a prolific author with over three hundred books and pamphlets to her credit.
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Our philosophical perspective is that of the Ageless Wisdom (Perennial Philosophy), and we are more interested in religious and mystical thought and experience than in the history of religious.
(In Chronological Order) The Theosophist present The Occult Word The Path Lucifer Magazine Theosophical Siftings Theosophical Forum (1st Series) Theosophist Magazine October December Review Download free ebooks to read and keep.
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Find Annie Besant in stock right now online."The Mystery of Faith" is used in the title of some books as a reference to the totality of the doctrine of the Eastern Orthodox Church or of the Catholic Church.
More frequent are books of that title that refer to Roman Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist, [20] which was the subject also of a papal encyclical by Pope Paul VI, whose incipit.
io-holding.com - Theosophist Magazine October 1914-December 1914 book © 2020
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American Enterprise: Market Revolution 1820s-1850s
Investigate the market revolution in the 1800s through the stories of five Americans from the Merchant Era. Optimized for desktops and laptops.
American Enterprise: Ramsay's Ledger
Primary Sources, Interactives & Media
Decode a historic ledger that belonged to William Ramsay, a merchant in Alexandria, Virginia in the mid-1700s.
Computer Pioneers Video Series
Through innovative ideas and inventions, computer pioneers transformed the ways people worked, played, and communicated in the 1900s. In this video series, learn about 6 pioneers in computing.
Labor Leaders Video Series
Labor leaders often rose from the ranks to secure for fellow workers a living wage, safer working conditions, shorter hours, and balance the scales of economic justice through direct action as well as state and federal legislation. In this video series, learn about 5 labor leaders.
Men of Progress Video Series
Throughout the 1800s, homegrown American scientists and inventors were a source of pride for the fledgling republic, which was rapidly surpassing Great Britain and the rest of Europe as a hotbed of industrial activity. The period also coincided with the peak of the Romantic Period in art, music,
American Enterprise: The Business of Slavery
Learn more about the business of slavery by exploring four historic documents from the United States slave trade.
Blog Post: Madame CJ Walker's philanthropy
“A former laundress who became a millionaire from her hair-care company, Madam C. J. Walker (1867–1919) was a leading philanthropist of the early 1900s. Because of her pioneering role in both business and philanthropy, she's featured in two museum exhibitions: American Enterprise and Giving in A
Sony TPS-L2 "Walkman" Cassette Player
This Sony "Walkman" portable tape player dates from the early 1980s. Originally introduced in 1979 as the “Soundabout,” two people could listen simultaneously while a small microphone permitted them to converse without removing their headsets. Powered by a 9-volt battery, the recorder sold we
Miner’s Cap and Carbide Lamp
This cotton miner’s cap has a leather brim with a leather lamp bracket holding a carbide lamp. A small union pin that reads “United Mine Works of America 2 1934, Working Button” is attached to the side of the cap. Before head protection became mandatory in industrial workplaces, miner’s c
Originally sold in 2001 by Apple Inc. as a portable music player exclusively for Macintosh’s operating system, the iPod’s market share began to grow as it included Windows operability in 2002 and introduced its iTunes Store in 2003. In June of 2004 this fourth generation iPod was announced, n
Amelia Bedelia Means Business
Amelia Bedelia wants a wonderful new bike, but her Mom says it’s too expensive. Thismeans Amelia Bedelia must find her own way to earn the money she needs. Come alongwith Amelia Bedelia on her first job!
Fancy Nancy and the Fabulous Fashion Boutique
Jane O'Connor
Nancy is at it again! Her new boutique is a great success, but when her little sister’s birthdayparty is threatened by bad weather, Nancy must put her creativity - and her store! - to use tosave the day!
How the Second Grade Got $8,205.50 to Visit the Statue of Liberty
Nathan Zimelman
The second graders of Newton Barnaby School are on a mission! They need to earn enoughmoney for a class trip to the Statue of Liberty. Follow the tale in the very own words of SusanOlson, treasurer and reporter of the second grade class.
Lemonade in Winter: a Book About Two Kids Counting Money
Emily Jenkins
Lemonade in Winter: a Book About Two Kids Counting Money tells the story of Pauline and John-John, who decide to spend a snowy winter’s day setting up a lemonade stand and selling cups to their friends and neighbors. As the siblings spend and make money, you will learn how to
Once Upon a Dime: a Math Adventure
Nancy Kelly Allen
Organic farmer Truman Worth makes a living off the land, so it’s important to him to alwaysknow how much his crops will be worth. Help Farmer Worth keep track of his farm andfigure out how much money he can make!
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Main: 206-624-3700 Marketing: 206-382-3100
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About Horizon House
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Fast Five: Jessica Bloch
By Laura TuftsDecember 6, 2018Uncategorized
Each month, we ask a new staff member to tell us random facts about themselves. It’s a quick and easy way to get to know a bit more about what’s beyond the face. This month, we feature Life Enrichment Associate Jessica Bloch.
1. When did you first come to Horizon House?
I started in August of 2017, after graduated from UW with a degree in Psychology.
2. What drew you to Horizon House?
I knew that I wanted to work with seniors in a Supported Living and Memory Care community, but I struggled finding the right fit. I’m not a fan of corporations or the idea working for a for-profit facility. When I stumbled across the job posting for Horizon House, I felt like it was truly meant to be. Not only did Horizon House meet my nonprofit standards, it emphasized living creatively, which as an artist & art teacher is a motto I live by.
3. Where do you currently live and where is your hometown?
For the past twelve years I’ve been living all around Seattle. Currently, I live on Capitol Hill, in what my friends call a small, heavily decorated apartment. Growing up, I lived in Laguna Beach, California. My family has been living there for almost a century! The town is sprinkled with my family’s history, from the bar where my grandparents met during WWII, to my mother’s artwork which can be found throughout the town. It’s a very special place for me. I often have dreams about swimming at Diver’s Cove, the small beach a block from my house, where four generations of my family have enjoyed swimming & snorkeling.
4. What do you like to do when you are “outside of The House” (on days off, etc.)?
On days off I can often be found teaching art, riding a ferry boat to Bainbridge, checking out one of the many wonderful art museums Seattle has to offer, hiking, going to a lecture, seeing live music, getting drinks with friends, or just at my house alone reading….which is one of my favorite ways to spend my time. I also host monthly discussion groups on my research within the field of thanatology, which is the scientific study of death and the practices associated with it. So, a fair amount of my free time goes to planning, hosting, and researching about death. It’s super fun, I promise!
5. What is something interesting about yourself that no one at Horizon House may know?
Gosh, I’ll give you my top three Jessica Facts: I don’t know how to ride a bike….I’m considered one of California’s worst drivers (and I have a letter from the DMV to prove it)….I made a large scale art installation in 2016, which is permanently on display at the Black Lodge, a Seattle DIY music venue on Eastlake.
An Open Message About Social Unrest
Horizon House Lingo: Bright Spots
New Faces at Horizon House
Master Plan Update – March 2019
Patrick Doherty on Ann Ormsby – Ice Skating at 80-Something
Karen Kershaw on Resident Focus: Alene Moris
Jane Commet on Scientists at the 2014 Alzheimer’s Conference emphasize lifestyle factors
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