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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 months

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The impoverished imagination of neoliberal climate “solutions

This morning (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

There is only one planet in the known universe capable of sustaining human life, and it is rapidly becoming uninhabitable by humans. Clearly, this warrants bold action – but which bold action should we take?

After half a century of denial and disinformation, the business lobby has seemingly found climate religion and has joined the choir, but they have their own unique hymn: this crisis is so dire, they say, that we don't have the luxury of choosing between different ways of addressing the emergency. We have to do "all of the above" – every possible solution must be tried.

In his new book Dark PR, Grant Ennis explains that this "all of the above" strategy doesn't represent a change of heart by big business. Rather, it's part of the denial playbook that's been used to sell tobacco-cancer doubt and climate disinformation:

https://darajapress.com/publication/dark-pr-how-corporate-disinformation-harms-our-health-and-the-environment

The point of "all of the above" isn't muscular, immediate action – rather, it's a delaying tactic that creates space for "solutions" that won't work, but will generate profits. Think of how the tobacco industry used "all of the above" to sell "light" cigarettes, snuff, snus, and vaping – and delay tobacco bans, sin taxes, and business-euthanizing litigation. Today, the same playbook is used to sell EVs as an answer to the destructive legacy of the personal automobile – to the exclusion of mass transit, bikes, and 15-minute cities:

https://thewaroncars.org/2023/10/24/113-dark-pr-with-grant-ennis/

As the tobacco and car examples show, "all of the above" is never really all of the above. Pursuing "light" cigarettes to reduce cancer is incompatible with simply banning tobacco; giving everyone a personal EV is incompatible with remaking our cities for transit, cycling and walking.

When it comes to the climate emergency, "all of the above" means trying "market-based" solutions to the exclusion of directly regulating emissions, despite the poor performance of these "solutions."

The big one here is carbon offsets, which allows companies to make money by promising not to emit carbon that they would otherwise emit. The idea here is that creating a new asset class will unleash the incredible creativity of markets by harnessing the greed of elite sociopaths to the project of decarbonization, rather of the prudence of democratically accountable lawmakers.

Carbon offsets have not worked: they have been plagued by absolutely foreseeable problems that have not lessened, despite repeated attempts to mitigate them.

For starters, carbon offsets are a classic market for lemons. The cheapest way to make a carbon offset is to promise not to emit carbon you were never going to emit anyway, as when fake charities like the Nature Conservancy make millions by promising not to log forests that can't be logged because they are wildlife preserves:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/18/greshams-carbon-law/#papal-indulgences

Then there's the problem of monitoring carbon offsetting activity. Like, what happens when the forest you promise not to log burns down? If you're a carbon trader, the answer is "nothing." That burned-down forest can still be sold as if it were sequestering carbon, rather than venting it to the atmosphere in an out-of-control blaze:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/26/aggregate-demand/#murder-offsets

When you bought a plane ticket and ticked the "offset the carbon on my flight" box and paid an extra $10, I bet you thought that you were contributing to a market that incentivized a reduction in discretionary, socially useless carbon-intensive activity. But without those carbon offsets, SUVs would have all but disappeared from American roads. Carbon offsets for Tesla cars generated billions in carbon offsets for Elon Musk, and allowed SUVs to escape regulations that would otherwise have seen them pulled from the market:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/24/no-puedo-pagar-no-pagara/#Rat

What's more, Tesla figured out how to get double the offsets they were entitled to by pretending that they had a working battery-swap technology. This directly translated to even more SUVs on the road:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Tesla,_Inc.#Misuse_of_government_subsidies

Harnessing the profit motive to the planet's survivability might sound like a good idea, but it assumes that corporations can self-regulate their way to a better climate future. They cannot. Think of how Canada's logging industry was allowed to clearcut old-growth forests and replace them with "pines in lines" – evenly spaced, highly flammable, commercially useful tree-farms that now turn into raging forest fires every year:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/16/murder-offsets/#pulped-and-papered

The idea of "market-based" climate solutions is that certain harmful conduct should be disincentivized through taxes, rather than banned. This makes carbon offsets into a kind of modern Papal indulgence, which let you continue to sin, for a price. As the outstanding short video Murder Offsets so ably demonstrates, this is an inadequate, unserious and immoral response to the urgency of the issue:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/14/for-sale-green-indulgences/#killer-analogy

Offsets and other market-based climate measures aren't "all of the above" – they exclude other measures that have better track-records and lower costs, because those measures cut against the interests of the business lobby. Writing for the Law and Political Economy Project, Yale Law's Douglas Kysar gives some pointed examples:

https://lpeproject.org/blog/climate-change-and-the-neoliberal-imagination/

For example: carbon offsets rely on a notion called "contrafactual carbon," this being the imaginary carbon that might be omitted by a company if it wasn't participating in offsets. The number of credits a company gets is determined by the difference between its contrafactual emissions and its actual emissions.

But the "contrafactual" here comes from a business-as-usual world, one where the only limit on carbon emissions comes from corporate executives' voluntary actions – and not from regulation, direct action, or other limits on corporate conduct.

Kysar asks us to imagine a contrafactual that depends on "carbon upsets," rather than offsets – one where the limits on carbon come from "lawsuits, referenda, protests, boycotts, civil disobedience":

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cif-green/2010/aug/29/carbon-upsets-offsets-cap-and-trade

If we're really committed to "all of the above" as baseline for calculating offsets, why not imagine a carbon world grounded in foreseeable, evidence-based reality, like the situation in Louisiana, where a planned petrochemical plant was canceled after a lawsuit over its 13.6m tons of annual carbon emissions?

https://earthjustice.org/press/2022/louisiana-court-vacates-air-permits-for-formosas-massive-petrochemical-complex-in-cancer-alley

Rather than a tradeable market in carbon offsets, we could harness the market to reward upsets. If your group wins a lawsuit that prevents 13.6m tons of carbon emissions every year, it will get 13.6 million credits for every year that plant would have run. That would certainly drive the commercial imaginations of many otherwise disinterested parties to find carbon-reduction measures. If we're going to revive dubious medieval practices like indulgences, why not champerty, too?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champerty_and_maintenance

That is, if every path to a survivable planet must run through Goldman-Sachs, why not turn their devious minds to figuring out ways to make billions in tradeable credits by suing the pants off oil companies?

There are any number of measures that rise to the flimsy standards of evidence in support of offsets. Like, we're giving away $85/ton in free public money for carbon capture technologies, despite the lack of any credible path to these making a serious dent in the climate situation:

https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/energy-transition/072523-ira-turbocharged-carbon-capture-tax-credit-but-challenges-persist-experts

If we're willing to fund untested longshots like carbon capture, why not measures that have far better track-records? For example, there's a pretty solid correlation between the presence of women in legislatures and on corporate boards and overall reductions in carbon. I'm the last person to suggest that the problems of capitalism can be replaced by replacing half of the old white men who run the world with women, PoCs and queers – but if we're willing to hand billions to ferkakte scheme like carbon capture, why not subsidize companies that pack their boards with women, or provide campaign subsidies to women running for office? It's quite a longshot (putting Liz Truss or Marjorie Taylor-Greene on your board or in your legislature is no way to save the planet), but it's got a better evidentiary basis than carbon capture.

There's also good evidence that correlates inequality with carbon emissions, though the causal relationship is unclear. Maybe inequality lets the wealthy control policy outcomes and tilt them towards permitting high-emission/high-profit activities. Maybe inequality reduces the social cohesion needed to make decarbonization work. Maybe inequality makes it harder for green tech to find customers. Maybe inequality leads to rich people chasing status-enhancing goods (think: private jet rides) that are extremely carbon-intensive.

Whatever the reason, there's a pretty good case that radical wealth redistribution would speed up decarbonization – any "all of the above" strategy should certainly consider this one.

Kysar's written a paper on this, entitled "Ways Not to Think About Climate Change":

https://political-theory.org/resources/Documents/Kysar.Ways%20Not%20to%20Think%20About%20Climate%20Change.pdf

It's been accepted for the upcoming American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy conference on climate change:

https://political-theory.org/13257256

It's quite a bracing read! The next time someone tells you we should hand Elon Musk billions to in exchange for making it possible to legally manufacture vast fleets of SUVs because we need to try "all of the above," send them a copy of this paper.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/31/carbon-upsets/#big-tradeoff

#pluralistic #neoliberalism #climate #market worship #economics #economism #there is no alternative #carbon credits #climate emergency #contrafactual carbon #carbon upsets #apologetics #murder offsets #indulgences

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boytumms · 4 months

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Okay, but imagine a crew of space traders who have a chance to conclude a very, VERY profitable contract with the local population of one of the distant planets. In the culture of this planet, food is of great importance, so in order for the natives to agree to this, one of the traders must present his team and pass the test. He will have to eat everything that is put in front of him, to the last crumb. If he gives up and asks to stop it, he will be considered to have failed the test. And since the traders benefit from this agreement more than the local population, losing or refusing the test means that they will be immediately rejected. Fortunately, they have a plump guy with a good appetite on board, to whom they entrust this important mission.

At first it seems to him that it will not be difficult. He's a really big guy who loves to eat his fill, and the food he's offered is so delicious that he actually enjoys filling his belly with it. He easily devolves one dish after another, feeling his stomach gradually become pleasantly heavy. He strokes it under the table with one hand and feels comfortably stuffed. However, the flow of food does not stop, and each subsequent dish is more high-calorie and more difficult to settle inside. He feels the fabric of his uniform tighten more and more on his swelling belly, and his belt begins to dig in, but he is forced to maintain decency and cannot simply unbuckle. His stomach begins to growl in protest every time he reaches for the plate again. If recently he was just a little overfilled, now it’s a real hard overeating. More and more often he just wants to sit back, rub his belly and take a break, but he's not allowed to pause for too long.

Eventually his belly becomes so full and tight that it barely gives way when he try to massage it. But he still has to keep eating. With difficulty holding back groans from fullness, he quickly pushes large pieces into himself in order to quickly end the ordeal, but along with them he accidentally swallows air, which also takes up space in his poor stomach. He sobs in pain and every now and then grabs his belly to ease the weight at least a little, but any pressure only causes even more torment. And then he continues to eat fatty foods soaked in oil, and his stomach growls and gurgles under strain. In his mind he begs for this to be the last plate, but more and more are placed in front of him, and he really isn't sure he can handle it anymore. He feels like he's stuffed to the capacity, and every next swallow brings his suffering tummy closer to the brink of bursting. He had never eaten so much before.

In the end, he still passes the test, but he cannot be happy about it. His stomach is pressing so hard against his diaphragm that he can barely breathe, and the lack of nausea only makes it worse because he knows he's going to be this swollen for a very long time. He just sits in a chair, unnaturally arched, in an uncomfortable position, and suffers from the pressure exceeding all limits in his overstretched stomach. It seems to him that he is about to burst, like an overinflated tire. He would be very happy if he finally vomited, but, unfortunately, those who arranged the test gave him in advance a drug that would block nausea for a long time, no matter how much the person overate. So he has no choice but to wait until all this mountain of food inside him is finally digested. It definitely won't be easy…

that poor guy <3 His coworkers are so happy he (by some miracle) managed to pass the test, but he's in so much pain he can't celebrate with them. His tummy is so swollen he looks like he could be overdue with twins, his skin is so tight it's flushed red and feels like the lightest touch could cause him to pop like a balloon. He's so full he can't even rub his belly, any pressure causing more pain then comfort at this point.

While the rest of the crew go on to finish up the trade deal, he's left to sit at the table, moaning and crying in pain, feeling his poor stomach scream at him for what he's putting it through. It takes a couple hours until he feels ready to be moved back onto his ship by his coworkers, and even with their help every step it torture on his gut. They lay him down in his bed to rest, but he cant sleep while his tummy is in such turmoil. He can feels his gut struggle to process the sheer amount of food he stuffed himself with. Pounds of food swimming around in gallons of drink, all alien to his body so it's not even sure how to break it all down.

As he lays in bed, he can see his tummy writhe beneath the taut skin, his stomach moaning and groaning just as loud as he is. It'll probably take his body weeks to work through such a tremendous meal, and because it's alien food, there's a good chance some of it isn't even digestible for the human body. He can only hope that nothing causes a blockage, or he'd be in some real danger...

#ask #anonymous #stuffing #tummy ache #belly ache #stomachache #writings #belly kink

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aditheursula · 9 months

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We're Kind of Doomed...Just a Little

Tonight while I was playing PVE DayZ, I came across a large gas canister that I didn't need. I typed out in the chat that I had a large gas canister that I didn't need and if anyone needs it then it's theirs. I would even leave it where they could find it later if need be. Someone responded with, "We can buy that at the Trader." This didn't exactly break my brain yet it started me thinking. Capitalism is a certain kind of brain rot that goes so deep into the psyche of a person that they impose its rigidity on a fucking video game.

I say this because that person and many other people on the server:

Believe that there should be no "hand outs".

Believe that community is not about sharing as much as it is about making a profit from others and expect rewards.

Find it foreign/baffling when a person doesn't want a reward or payment for something.

Get mean & aggressive when you want to share items with others. (Ex. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?!?!? THAT'S WORTH X-AMOUNT YOU C*NT!")

Cannot comprehend bartering or mutual aid.

What baffles me is that DayZ is about surviving a zombie apocalypse. Keyword being "surviving". Just because there are traders it does not mean that the survival aspect must be capitalistic. Helping people and building a communal aspect in a post-apocalyptic environment where you could be mauled to death by zombies, bears, wolves, etc at any time is the best survival option and not where one must depend on having enough cash on hand to buy every little thing.

The more I think about a zombie/post-apocalypse type scenario happening in a place like the United States or United Kingdom (or any hyper-nationalist capitalist state) the more I think we're kind of fucking doomed. Like just a little fucking doomed. Mainly because of the individualist, "pick yourself up by your bootstraps" mentality that has gotten only the 1% farther in life yet brainwashed billions into thinking they are millionaires in-waiting while they get paid unfairly. Too many do not understand mutual aid...yet they set up GoFundMe accounts so they can pay off their medical bills. It's disturbing how around-the-facts people can go and for how long.

Even in a fucking survival video game where you loot to survive in a post-apocalyptic world full of stuff that wants to kill you there are people that put a price on everything and hold currency over necessity. If you've ever been in a WoW Guild it can also be this way too.

We all saw and were impacted by the Pandemic. We all saw what people did with hoarding supplies and buying up supplies so they could sell them online at a markup...during a global pandemic. The world is still recovering from that greed (and Covid-19 has not gone away at all). Supply chains are still fucked. Imagine if the Pandemic was worse. Imagine if The Last of Us came to pass. I don't even want to think about it not because of the clickers. No. I don't want to think of it because of the ultra-individualism of too many people that would become a faction of rabid capitalists without a world bank or a stable currency.

Just a little fucking doomed.

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galacticguppy · 4 months

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Creates a life series au. goes wild.

click for best quality and there's loads more info under the cut if you're curious :]

Tentatively calling this the Familiars au!! Basically, there are several different kingdoms that our main characters come from, each with their own lands, laws, and systems of government. What our main characters have in common is that they are all Familiar- meaning that they are all people with a soul-deep connection to an intelligent animal, monster, or spirit!

People in this world can become Familiar if a creature with magic chooses them and forms a bond with them; or in the case of humans born with magic, they can create an animal Familiar by imbuing it with magic of their own. Basically, it’s a sharing of magic between two creatures that binds them together and offers some level of magic to both of them, regardless of how much they had before.

This is a life series au so each of the life series members are Familiar; either a human or a human’s companion :] All of them are fairly respected in their respective communities, and the actual story of the au begins when they’re all invited to represent their homes in a competition!! I don’t have a ton of details worked out on the competition stuff yet unfortunately but I’m feeling like. Locked Tomb series Canaan House vibes, if you've read that. There’s some great boon or serious stakes for winning, and everyone has their own duo (give or take.. there’s at least one trio!) and their own motivations, and their own secrets to hide.

That's about that on general au stuff- let's talk about these guys!!

Scar and Grian!!

Scar is Human, though he does have some magic of his own, and Grian is a Vex! In this world, Vex are one of many types of fairy- a particularly mean-spirited type, at that

Scar and Grian are from a desert commune with no real leader. Traders and travelers with silver tongues have power in the community, and Scar is one of the best. However, he's also known as a conman, and the others in the commune are happy to send him away to represent them when the challenge is issued to the various kingdoms.

Grian and Scar are hoping to make a profit, but they're also in it for fun. If not a chance to fill their bellies and their pockets, this competition can at least provide some entertainment!

Jimmy and Scott!

Jimmy is Human, and Scott is a Dryad, another sort of fairy.

These two are from a more prosperous kingdom not far from the desert. Jimmy is one of the few Familiar chosen by one of the land's nature spirits, thought to bring good luck and fertile harvests. He and Scott volunteer when the challenge is issued, and are chosen to be the ones to represent the kingdom.

Jimmy wants to win to earn fame and respect, among other things. All that doesn't matter as much to Scott, but he's more than happy to dedicate himself to winning if it's what Jimmy wants.

anyways that's the brainrot I've got so far lol. if you're interested or have questions PLEASE send me asks I would love to talk about all this!!

#life series au #traffic life series #goodtimeswithscar #grian #jimmy solidarity #scott smajor #guppy's art

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ronqueesha · 3 months

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I'm excited that I THINK I've finally nailed down the 3 characters I'll eventually play through Rogue Trader with, to experience the three paths and various romance options.

Of course, there's Nasosi, who I've gotten the farthest into the game with. Before being called to the throne of the Von Valancius dynasty, she was a commissar, attached to soldiers of the Imperial Guard. And she brings that iron will, combat experience, and unwavering leadership style to her new place as a rogue trader. Fanatically loyal to the God Emperor and the Imperium, she is going down the dogmatic path. Also she's accidentally romancing Yrliet. Which I find very interesting.

Aerix has gone through several changes since I first picked up the game. But the things that will always remain true are that she is a psyker, will gleefully jump down the heretical path whenever possible, and I intend for her to romance Marazhai. The current version is a telepath psyker, and I'm playing around with ideas on how that can lead to her ultimate corruption.

And finally, there's the return of another old favorite OC of mine, Marcus Kar'tir. A crime lord with a heart of gold, he could have had a much more profitable criminal empire in his old life if he didn't have such an aggrivating and arguably heretical moral code. But now as a rogue trader, he has the chance to do things all over again. Maybe do things right, and get even wealthier in the process by following the iconoclast path. He and Jae are going to become quite the money-making power couple.

#as always #my OC marcus comes pre-loaded with a boatload of mommy issues no matter which universe i make him in #and my brain is cooking up a ton of headcanons related to his brief yet deeply important relationship with Theodora von Valancius

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passionatemuslimaah · 6 months

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𝐀 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐏𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐇𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐦 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞!

‎The Muftī of Mecca Muḥammad bin ʿAlāa ad-Dīn Aḥmad al Nahrawānī al Ḥanafī رحمه الله (d. 990H) narrated:

‎That a merchant from Alexandria invested much of his wealth in a trading expedition to Constantinople by sea.

‎On his way there the ship he was traveling on was captured by Frankish Pirates. They captured all the wealth and men aboard.

‎They took everything the merchant owned and bounded his feet in chains and sat him at an oar to row for the ship. When the merchant was sat down and saw the state of his affairs, and thought of his family and his home and wondered if he’ll ever see them again he began to cry and wasn’t able to stop.

‎A Christian youth notice his crying and approached him. And asked him why he was crying. The merchant began to relate to him that he feared he will never see his family and home again.

‎The youth grabbed a handkerchief and threw it in the air and let it hit the ground. He then asked the merchant:

‎“Do you see how the handkerchief goes into the air and falls?

‎The merchant said yes.

‎The youth said:

‎“In time span of that handkerchief going into the air and falling Allah can change our affairs and turnover the Dunya and it’s people and Allah can bring about favors you cannot imagine. So do not wallow in your crying and sadness just because there is some hardship.”

‎The man was amazed by the youth’s words and by it Allah removed the sadness and regret in his heart. And he decided to wait for Allah to remove his hardship.

‎And at that very moment a Muslim military vessel appeared in the horizon and was able to quickly intercept the pirate ship and seize it without any fighting.

‎They were towed to a near by port and they offloaded all of the men, the merchandise, and the captured pirates.

‎They put all the Christian pirates in chains. It was then announced that whosoever has any claims to the wealth and merchandise should make it now.

‎The Muslim Merchant went to the Muslim commanding officer and informed him of what occurred and was able to reclaim all of his wealth without a single thing missing.

‎The commander then said to the merchant are you continuing to Constantinople or returning to Alexandria. The merchant informed the commander that he will be continuing to Constantinople, so the commander pointed him to another vessel that would be making the trip. And had all the merchandise loaded for him and appointed for him a guide to Constantinople.

‎Then the commander prepared to auction off the captured Frankish pirates. And the Muslim merchant saw amongst them the youth who gave him the advice, so the merchant approached the commander and requested a price for the youth. The commander, surprised, asked the merchant why did he want to buy one of his former capturers, so the merchant informed him of what transpired between the merchant and the youth. Amazed by the story the commander said he is yours for free.

‎So the merchant took the youth and freed him. Then merchant and the youth traveled to Constantinople together. Where the merchant was able to sell all his merchandise and was very profitable in doing so, he then returned to Alexandria.

‎And the Christian youth also decided to travel to Alexandria with Christian traders to conduct business. And a business relationship formed between the merchant and the youth wherein he would send merchandise to Frankish lands with the youth to sell them for him and it made them both very wealthy.

‎After a long time passed the merchant informed the Christian that he should become Muslim. The Christian told him he had become Muslim the day the merchant bought and freed him, but hid it so that he can continue to trade in Frankish lands in safety, but for now on he will no longer hide it. And he made apparent his Islam and perfected it up until he died رحمه الله.

📚 AL-FAWĀʾID AS-SANIYYA FI R-RIḤLA AL-MADANIYYA WA-R-RŪMIYYA

‎الفوائد السنية

‎في الرحلة المدنية والرومي

Via-SDdawah on Twitter

San Diego Salafi Dawah

#muslim #salafiyyah #salaf #islam #storiesofthesalaf #beauty

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silverbladexyz · 2 years

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Dolce

The image above is not mine. It belongs to it’s original owner

This can be platonic or romantic, up to you!

Stormbringer spoilers below!

Tw: Mentions of violence, killing, death, blood, soft!Pianoman, idk what else to put here, and the Flags are the Flags

You were only 20 years old when you joined the Mafia.

The Boss, Mori Ougai, had decided to make you a negotiator and a trader, seeing as how you were good at getting the job done and not hesitating to use violence if needed.

You were only a new recruit, but because of your more-than-successful missions, the Mafia had gained a lot more trading routes, and therefore more profit. The Boss immediately promoted you to being the right-hand man of the Head of the Trading Department, which was a big accomplishment for someone of your position.

The members of the Mafia treated you with respect, and you had even befriended some people. You were a calm and good-natured person who didn’t like looking for trouble, but you weren’t afraid to use any means necessary to complete your missions.

A few times in your missions, you had to borrow a vehicle to ensure the missions ran smoothly. This led you to meet Albatross; a chaotic orange-haired fellow who was probably a bit older than you. He was quite enthusiastic when he was talking about cars, and with your calm and easy-going nature, you two quickly became friends.

Even when you and Albatross rarely had any time together, that didn’t stop you two from hanging out whenever you guys could. From getting drinks to amusement parks, Albatross had become one of your closest friends in the Port Mafia. Perhaps even your best friend.

~~~

“Heyyy, Y/N-san, do you know the group called the Flags?”

You blinked at Albatross as you set your drink down. You two were currently in Bar Lupin, enjoying your free days off.

“I’ve heard of them before. Aren’t they the group of young men who are aiming for the executive position?” You asked.

“Yup! And I’m a part of that group.” Albatross beamed. You smiled a little.

“Say, why not let me introduce you to them? You’ll love them, and any friend of mine is any friend of theirs.” He jumped off the seat, beckoning towards you excitedly. You normally would have refused, but since this was Albatross, you decided to follow him. After all, having a few extra friends couldn’t hurt, right?

~~~

“Um, is this really a good idea? I might accidentally offend someone, or embarrass myself in front of them.”

“Aw, no you won’t! They’re great; you’ll warm up to them in no time!” Albatross pulled you to a small run-down bar and opened the door, dragging you in. The inside of the bar was pitch-black; you couldn’t tell if anybody was inside. It kind of sent chills down your spine.

“Hey everyone! Come meet Y/N!” Your friend called out cheerily. You bit your lip and uneasily fidgeted a little. You wondered what the Flags were like. Albatross was positive that you’d come to like them, but a group of men who were aiming for the executive position must be quite powerful as well. And most powerful people you met were slightly... intimidating sometimes.

Suddenly, coming out from the darkness, you found a gun, a syringe and a pool stick all pointed at your vital organs. It had happened so fast that you barely had time to react.

“E-EHH!!” You shrieked a little, jumping and nearly tripping backwards. You whipped out your defensive position, only to be interrupted by the laughter of several young men.

You blinked as the light turned on, showing a group of young males.

“Their reaction was great! You should’ve filmed it, Lippmann!” Albatross cackled, nearly doubling over from his laughter.

“Indeed. But to my regret, my camera is currently being fixed, and I don’t have another one,” A handsome blonde man said gracefully, smiling. He was by far the prettiest person you had ever seen, and you wondered if he was an actor.

“D-do you always greet new people like this?” You said, your voice slightly higher than usual. The men laughed good-naturedly.

“I was against it,” a rather tall man shrugged. He held a cigarette stick in his mouth and a scar ran down his right eye. “But after all, we had to welcome you one way or another. The others all settled for this option.”

A short man with an IV bag with a drip connected to his wrist came up to you.

“Fufufu, you were quite scared. If only my patients had been like that... it would’ve been quite amusing...” You were a bit weirded out by this, but you just gave a small, nervous laugh. You were slowly calming down, but the adrenaline was still in your veins.

“Hey, Chuuya! Come say hi to my friend!” Albatross called out, waving to someone behind the men. Your eyebrows furrowed a little at the familiarity of the name, but then you remembered that he was the head of the jewel trading business, in the same department as you.

A boy around the age of 16 appeared, holding an annoyed expression.

“Tch. I already know them. You do know that we work in the same department though, don’t you, Albatross?” His blue eyes stared piercingly at you, and you tried your best to not fidget.

“Ehm, nice to meet you again, Nakahara-san?...” You said, mentally cursing yourself for your awkwardness.

Chuuya clicked his tongue. “Well, whatever. Nice to meet you again, I guess.” You blinked, but you were glad that he wasn’t mad. You had to deal with him sometimes when the jewel traders had pissed him off, and let’s say that it wasn’t pretty...

“Please give them some space. Can’t you see that they’re a bit uncomfortable about how you’re all crowding around them?” A new voice cut through. The Flags immediately stepped back a few steps, and you focused your gaze on the young man who approached you.

He had short hair that was mostly white, but with a few black strands on the side. His clothes were black and white, but underneath his sleeves you glimpsed something that seemed metallic. It quickly disappeared, and you didn’t dare to ask what it was.

“Sorry about that. They normally are like this when they meet a newcomer.” The man said, smiling. You found yourself smiling back, albeit a bit nervously. Something about his presence was a bit... intimidating.

“Why don’t we start introductions? My name’s Pianoman. I’m the leader of this group.” He then gestured towards the other men and introduced them to you.

“And you must be Y/N, am I right?” Pianoman asked. You blinked, wondering where they had heard about you, but you nodded.

“Albatross had been talking nonstop about you. Especially when you tried out his vehicles.”

“Hey, but they liked trying out my vehicles! Right, Y/N?” Albatross grinned at you, and you found yourself nodding and smiling slightly in return.

“See? If Y/N likes it, then I don’t see a problem!” The Flags started to playfully banter, and you chuckled internally at their friendship.

“So... you’re Pianoman. Do you play the piano?” You asked the male with heterochromatic hair. He blinked, but shook his head, smiling an enigmatic smile.

“Unfortunately, I do not. My name, however, comes from how I kill my victims. Can you guess what it would be?”

The Flags crowded around you, curious to see what your guess would be. After all, Pianoman did make it a challenge to see how quickly a newcomer would guess it correctly, or give up.

“Hmmm... do you drop pianos on your victims?” You guessed, before realising how silly it was. Who would want to drop something that was worth a couple thousand dollars, possibly even more?

A wave of laughter passed throughout the Flags. Your cheeks burned a little from the embarrassment, but you found yourself laughing along with them. Pianoman smiled amusingly, shaking his head.

“Do you throw piano tiles at your victims? They’re hard and sharp enough to kill.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of talent. Iceman probably could, though.”

“Umm...” you tried to guess. Nothing really was coming up.

Albatross laughed and slung his arm around your shoulder. “Don’t think too much over it! It’s your first meeting with us; why not let us play some billiards instead?”

~~~

A few weeks passed ever since Albatross had introduced you to the Flags.

He was right; you had taken a liking to them. They weren’t as scary as you thought they would be, and it was always amusing watching them banter amongst themselves.

When you had free time or when you finished work, you would normally drop by the bar to visit them. Sometimes, a few or all of the Flags would be hanging around, and they would greet you excitedly every time. Your visits normally ended up with you playing billiards or card games with them, and you almost always won.

However, out of all the members, Pianoman intrigued you. You spoke to him in a normal and even tone, but it didn’t get rid of this weird ‘feeling’ you felt whenever you conversated with him. You brushed it off as admiration, or slight fear. Perhaps it was the aura that he carried.

You rarely saw him; he was often busy forging counterfeit money or completing missions. You had heard the rumours; he was the closest person to being an executive, and he killed his victims with brute force and elegance. Apparently, there would be screams and lots of blood spewing out from the wound of the dying victim. Even when blood had never bothered you, the vivid description was enough to make you shudder.

Pianoman always managed to regain control over the Flags with a few stern words, accompanied with a warning tone. He still cared for them, but he didn’t hesitate to discipline them whenever necessary. It made you wonder what he was like when he was actually being cruel.

He also was quite fickle, and somewhat a perfectionist. Everything had to be perfect, and if it wasn’t, he wouldn’t hesitate to disobey the Boss if it meant making one counterfeit dollar bill look exactly the same as a real one. Each of his fake dollar bills were made with delicacy and carefulness.

If you had to describe him with one word, it would be mysterious. A man with both elegance and sweet cruelty balanced in one; no doubt he was the closest to becoming an executive.

~~~

Opening the door, you walked into the familiar old bar and plopped yourself into a seat with a sigh. Looking behind the counter, you poured yourself some water and gulped it all down, before pouring yourself another glass. Setting it down, your eyes got accustomed to the semi-darkness. It was evening; the sky was starting to darken, but there was still some light left.

“Rough day today?”

You jolted and turned quickly in your seat, facing the person who spoke.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” You blinked and shook your head, assuring him that he didn’t.

“No. I just got a little startled, is all. I didn’t notice you there,” you said, trying to calm down.

Pianoman hummed in reply, as you traced the rim of your glass. You bit your lip slightly, trying to find something to say in the silence that ensued.

Frick. Why is this so awkward?

“So uh-”

“Tomorrow-”

You both stopped, and you gestured at him to continue.

“Tomorrow, we’re hosting a party. I was wondering if you wanted to join.” You tilted your head, curious.

“It’s Chuuya’s first-year anniversary in the Port Mafia. As you know, the first year is normally the hardest for any new recruit. So we decided to throw him a surprise party tomorrow at 7PM. Are you up for it?” He enquired, his eyes scanning your E/C pupils.

“As tempting as it sounds... I may have to decline. I don’t know Chuuya-san that well, and showing up at his anniversary party may be awkward for us both. And the party sounds like a thing that all six of you should enjoy. Thanks for the offer though,” you smiled slightly. Pianoman nodded, and gestured towards you to speak. You blinked, before remembering what you were about to say before.

“Since we both would be quite busy soon, I guess I won’t have much opportunities to ask you this. So... after this whole time, I never knew where you got your name from. I’ve never been successful at guessing the reason, and I rarely get to see you. So, I’m actually curious. How do you kill your victims?”

Pianoman chuckled. “Do you give up?”

“I never realised this was a competition,” you said, frowning. “But sure, I guess. I give up.”

Pianoman smiled. He lifted his sleeves, and pinned onto them were two metal winding machines. You saw something shining in them, but you couldn’t quite make out what it was.

“I use piano wires to kill my victims. Well, they’re not exactly piano wires. I just call them that because that’s what they remind me of. But they actually are industrial-grade wires that are strong enough to lift iron and concrete blocks. I just have to pop them onto my victim’s neck and wind these machines, then their head comes clean off.” You nodded slowly, fascinated at this unique way of killing. This would require great speed and accuracy; yet, you were curious of how he managed to get the wire onto his victims’ necks in the first place.

“That’s pretty cool, but... how do you wind the wires around their necks in the first place? Especially if the victim has fast reflexes and manages to evade you,” you said, still eyeing the winding machines.

Pianoman smiled, and stood up.

“Perhaps it is better if I showed you.”

Suddenly, he was behind you, in a move too fast to see. Strong, cold wires looped around your neck, not too tight, not too loose. You felt his breath on the back of your neck, his hands suspended in the air beside your head.

He felt like death himself.

Instinctively, you jolted, jumping backwards. Your back hit his chest, and the piano wires that hung around your neck started to tighten quickly, cutting into your vulnerable skin. The pain made you jolt more.

“Woah woah- hey!”

Pianoman immediately loosened and removed the wires, his eyes wide.

He touched your jaw and turned your head slightly to the side, investigating the wound. The cut wasn’t deep; yet it bled, and if not treated, it could become infected.

“Come on. I’ll treat you.” You barely had time to register what he said when he pulled you into the bathroom and got out medical supplies. Opening the bag, he took out a disinfectant bottle, cotton balls and long, white bandages.

“Doc said he stored some first-aid in here for emergency use,” Pianoman explained, soaking a cotton ball in the disinfectant. He held it up towards your neck, and you flinched instinctively.

“It’s alright. It’ll hurt for a bit, but I promise it will be better soon.” He said softly.

Gently holding your chin and tilting it up, Pianoman set to work disinfecting the wound. You held your breath at the sting, but deft fingers lightly at the cut, using up several cotton balls. You fidgeted a little, eyes wandering all over the bathroom in search of something to focus on.

“It’s nearly done.” Pianoman wrapped the bandages around your neck, the cloth gently covering your wound. You blinked and lowered your head, staring at him in silence.

“Is it feeling better?” He asked softly, his eyes gentle. “I’m really sorry for that. I should’ve known how prone you were to jumping at surprises. I’ll try to be more careful next time.”

You shook your head. “It wasn’t your fault,” you replied. You were about to say more when the door to the bar opened, and you heard the rest of the Flags in the distance.

“We should get back now. Thanks for treating me,” you smiled, and made your way out of the bathroom. You heard Pianoman starting to follow you from behind. Recalling how gentle and caring he was back then, your smile involuntarily widened.

Who knew that you were so dolce, Pianoman?

*Dolce: A musical term which means ‘sweetly and softly’

So hello, it’s me with another Flags fic. I feel like I kinda mischaracterized Pianoman in this one, so sorry if he is ooc 😅

*meanwhile admiring the artwork above* If you guys have any suggestions, feel free to pop into my inbox or DM me, I don’t bite~

@the-mourning-stars @pixyys @pianotross @angolicious @fi-nn-losofia

#bsd x reader #bsd x gender neutral reader #bungou stray dogs x reader #bsd flags x reader #bsd piano man #stormbringer #silverbladexyz

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justcallmecappy · 2 years

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Annulments, Harrowings, and Tranquility: Methods the Circles use to assert control over the mage population of Southern Thedas

I have noticed that it's not really common knowledge among the Dragon Age playerbase how terribly mages have it in Southern Thedas -- I'm still seeing takes where it's implied that Circles are benign 'magic schools', so going to use this post to elaborate on three widespread methods the Chantry uses to control and cull the mage population:

1 - The Right of Annulment is a form of group punishment where all mages within a Circle are put to the sword, including children and the elderly. A Grand Cleric or Knight-Commander may invoke the Right of Annulment if "a Circle is deemed irredeemable" at their own discretion. As of the events of DAO, the Right of Annulment has been invoked 17 times, and an additional 3 times afterwards. That's potentially 20 Circles purged of all mages since the inception of the Circles.

Even if you are a "good" Circle mage who has never stepped out of line, has done as you are told, and has never once broken a single rule your whole life, you could also be executed just for the crime of being born a mage, and being in the same Circle as "guilty" mages. (For additional context, group punishment is considered a war crime in the real world, for the reason it is inhumane -- you do not collectively punish the many for the crimes of the few.)

2 - Harrowings are more than just a "magic test" that determine who qualifies to become a full mage. Apprentices are not given any time to prepare for it, are not told of what the test consists of, and are taken at random in the middle of the night to fight a demon in the Fade. Not everyone survives and those that fail their Harrowings are killed and their friends are not informed of what happened to them. All Circles in Southern Thedas enforce Harrowings on their apprentices. Apprentices who refuse their Harrowings are made Tranquil.

3 - Tranquility is a form of magical lobotomy that strips a person of their autonomy and ability to feel emotion, essentially robbing them of their minds and free will.

Players in the real world might have trouble grasping this concept, but think about making someone unable to refuse anything you ask them to do, or unable resist anything you do to them, making them more susceptible to abuse.

It is against Chantry law to make full-fledged mages who have passed their Harrowings Tranquil -- and yet, Karl Thekla did not escape this fate, and was illegally made Tranquil to be cruelly used as bait to capture Anders.

The Tranquil are apparently immune to demonic possession, but this was proven wrong in the novel 'Asunder' when the Tranquil mage Pharamond was possessed by a demon. The Seekers of Truth have also been keeping the cure to Tranquility a secret, so that it may continue to be used as a method to keep mages under control.

Tranquil mages are also members of the Formari, a trader's guild under the Circles, creating and selling potions and enchantments to line the Circle (and Chantry)'s coffers. It is therefore profitable for the Circles to keep making mages Tranquil to ensure a steady supply of trade goods to sell leading to a steady stream of revenue.

Besides this, I have also found it's not common knowledge among the DA player base that Circle mages are not allowed to get married, not allowed to have families or relationships, and if they get pregnant while in the Circle, the child is taken away from it's parents to be raised in a Chantry orphanage after being born. All these are rules enforced by the Chantry to keep mage populations under control.

#da meta #right of annulment #tranquility #harrowings #mage rights #chantry critical #circle critical #actually making this post as reference/support for another longer post lol #my meta

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kemetic-dreams · 5 months

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How Portuguese Slave Traders Changed Ethiopia and Congo

Portuguese trading of enslaved Africans affected two major African powers in very different ways.

Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, the slave trade transformed African nations in profound and devastating ways. As historian Fikru Gebrekidan writes, we can see some of the diversity in how this played out by looking at the relationships among three Christian kingdoms: Congo, Ethiopia, and Portugal.

Gebrekidan notes that when Portugal established contact with Congo and Ethiopia around the turn of the sixteenth century, the three kingdoms had much in common, including similar levels of material development, systems of divine kingship, and belief in magic. Both African kingdoms exchanged ambassadors and trade goods with Portugal and sent students and interpreters to Europe.

Enslavement was a common institution around the world at this time, but enslaved people in Africa generally didn’t make up a permanent underclass. They might be war captives, debtors, or those banished from their home society for a serious crime. In Ethiopia, they could gain freedom in various ways, including becoming a priest or a soldier with their masters’ permission. In parts of Congo, they weren’t expected to do more work than free people, could hold office, and might marry into the host society.

But, as Portugal established increasingly strong positions in Africa, the slave trade intensified and changed in its character. Portuguese traders paid no mind to traditional guidelines that allowed enslavement only of people from a social or religious outgroup, kidnapping Africans indiscriminately and sending them to horrific fates in distant lands.

Gebrekidan writes that the increasingly aggressive slave trading affected Congo and Ethiopia very differently. Congo was located in an area often traversed by Europeans, and it was relatively easy for the Portuguese to get military backup from its colonies of Angola and Sao Tome, or even by sea from Portugal. This left the Congolese vulnerable to human trafficking. As early as 1526, Congo’s King Afonso I wrote to King João III of Portugal complaining that slave trading had devastated his kingdom and calling for the Portuguese to cease the practice. But the transatlantic slave trade only intensified.

This transformed slavery within Congo, too. People committing minor offenses might be enslaved within their own society, or they might be sold away to foreigners. The status of slaves became so degraded that leaders sometimes killed captives simply as a demonstration of their wealth and power.

In contrast, Ethiopia’s geography made it less vulnerable to Portuguese forces. This made it possible for Emperor Facilidas to successfully expel the Europeans from the country in 1632. While enslavers wreaked havoc in the East African territories around Ethiopia well into the nineteenth century, the kingdom itself remained relatively stable. And, although it did not participate in the slave trade itself, it profited by taxing enslavers along its outskirts.

The upshot, Gebrekida writes, was that, by the time the scramble for Africa began in the nineteenth century, Congo was destabilized, depopulated, and unable to mount a strong resistance. Ethiopia, on the other hand, successfully staved off colonizers, becoming a symbol of African self-determination.

#african #afrakan #kemetic dreams #brownskin #africans #afrakans #brown skin #ethiopia #portugal #portuguese #congo #gebrekidan #slave trade #afonso #king joao

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luxe-pauvre · 3 months

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In this situation, inequality only exacerbates the problem. The more wealth is concentrated at the top, the greater the demand for corporate attorneys, lobbyists, and high-frequency traders. Demand doesn’t exist in a vacuum, after all; it’s the product of a constant negotiation, determined by a country’s laws and institutions, and, of course, by the people who control the purse strings. Maybe this is also a clue as to why the innovations of the past 30 years – a time of spiralling inequality – haven’t quite lived up to our expectations. “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters,” mocks Peter Thiel, Silicon Valley’s resident intellectual. If the post-war era gave us fabulous inventions like the washing machine, the refrigerator, the space shuttle, and the pill, lately it’s been slightly improved iterations of the same phone we bought a couple years ago. In fact, it has become increasingly profitable not to innovate. Imagine just how much progress we’ve missed out on because thousands of bright minds have frittered away their time dreaming up hypercomplex financial products that are ultimately only destructive. Or spent the best years of their lives duplicating existing pharmaceuticals in a way that’s infinitesimally different enough to warrant a new patent application by a brainy lawyer so a brilliant PR department can launch a brand-new marketing campaign for the not-so-brand-new drug. Imagine that all this talent were to be invested not in shifting wealth around, but in creating it. Who knows, we might already have had jetpacks, built submarine cities, or cured cancer.

Rutger Bregman, Utopia For Realists: And How We Can Get There

#Rutger Bregman #Utopia For Realists: And How We Can Get There

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tieflingkisser · 1 month

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Sudan war: Army and RSF both profiting from smuggling of vital goods

Sudan's warring parties are both involved in the smuggling of food, fuel, medicine and Starlink internet devices

Fighters from Sudan’s two warring parties are exploiting the ongoing conflict to profit from the smuggling and sale of vital goods including food, fuel and medicine. Under the pretence of confiscating their enemy’s supplies, associates of both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been at war since April last year, are also looting merchants, robbing civilians, accepting bribes and imposing levies on goods at roadside checkpoints. According to multiple sources, officers and soldiers from the army and RSF are directly involved in the smuggling of an array of goods, as well as in renting Starlink satellite internet devices to civilians in areas in which access to the internet has been cut. Sudanese traders, local eyewitnesses and businesspeople all spoke to Middle East Eye about this wartime economy, as the one-year anniversary of the conflict approaches on 15 April. The war has displaced over eight million people and the current humanitarian situation in many parts of Sudan is dire, with children dying every day and 25 million suffering from hunger or malnutrition.

[...]

Another trader who spoke to MEE confirmed that the warring parties are responsible for the food markets that exist in the areas they control. “The RSF is bringing in the food it needs through South Sudan, Chad and CAR to the areas it controls, especially in Darfur and Kordofan, while its soldiers are trading food and other supplies widely,” Mahmoud Hussien, a trader from Gedarif told MEE. Hussien said that army officers are involved in smuggling food and groceries from Ethiopia or Egypt, which border army-controlled areas in eastern and northern Sudan.

[...]

Alhadi Mohamed, another trader, told MEE that he brought groceries from Ethiopia to Ad-Damazin, the capital of Blue Nile state, but that an army checkpoint outside the city had confiscated the shipment, accusing him of helping the RSF. “They clearly looted me,” Mohamed said, “with the excuse being that I’m supporting the RSF, which is totally incorrect as I’m a normal trader and I brought these items from Ethiopia like the other traders. But this hasn’t just happened to me, it’s happened to others as well.

[...]

With the internet cut in some parts of Sudan (accusations of blame have been thrown around by both sides), Starlink satellite internet devices, which are made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, have also become part of illicit trading networks. Zain telecommunication company has succeeded in restoring the network in Port Sudan and other states in the east and north of Sudan controlled by the army, promising that coverage will return to the entire country soon. An eyewitness from el-Gezira state said that the RSF has exploited the internet blackout –for which many blame the paramilitary group – to trade in Starlink devices, which can deliver broadband internet via satellite and are the only form of communication in the state right now.

#sudan #keep eyes on sudan #news

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uldren-sov · 1 day

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How could the rogue trader possibly be problematic?! Oc ask game for aresia?

Problematic OC Ask (tyty for the ask!!) I wish I had art for her but I do not yet, sorry anon!

How can

Aresia von Valancius

Be problematic??? A lot of ways.

Is lowborn, to start. Ew, commoners. The indignity!!

A deserter as well??? Can you imagine not wanting to be cannon fodder in the Imperium's war machine???

And BECAME A CRIMINAL, it just keeps getting worse-

BECAME A COLD TRADER CRIME LORD OF A SMALL STAR SYSTEM.

I heard she's not even part of the Kasballican...

Need I say more?

I can.

So, I will.

Thinks she's the smartest person in the room (and generally is)

Isn't scared to tell people so

Nor to stand on ceremony or circumstance - if she has an idea, its on other people to tell her it's the wrong one.

And they don't :) because they can't :)

(Have you noticed she has a bit of an ego? Unbefitting her station and position.)

Also ew imagine not wanting to resort to throwing lives away unnecessarily for her slightest whim? (coming from a place where she had to surround herself with small teams of highly effective people and maybe once BEING those people who could be thrown out)

ALSO IMAGINE WORKING WITH XENOS when you were trained since birth to KILL them

What is this but heresy?

Unfit for command

Unfit for acclaim

DEFINITELY unfit to become a Rogue Trader

....... and yet :)

Doesn't respect chain of command

or authority

HATES how garish riches look like in the imperium. (but might be getting used to it now that she's rich....)

HYPOCRITE.

Might be corrupting a member of the Inquisition...

(and may have some particularly heretical thoughts toward a certain xenos)

I heard her implants aren't even blessed by the Omnissiah

May find profit and opportunity in most things and isn't scared to codify it in a contract or kill someone to make sure she comes out on top :)

#OC: Aresia von Valancius #Rogue Trader OC #ask meme answers #I wish I knew more about the lore to flesh out the bg more but :) oh well

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tearsinthemist · 1 month

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Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp., the shell company that became Trump Media Tuesday morning, have spiked nearly 200% so far this year. That includes a 35% surge Monday after the deal closed. Shares popped again at the start of trading Tuesday – investors’ first opportunity to trade the stock after the merger, under the new DJT ticker.

The skyrocketing share price comes despite the fact that Trump Media is burning through cash, piling up losses and its main product, Truth Social, is losing users.

“This is a very unusual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, who has been studying initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 40 years.

Ritter said the closest parallel would be GameStop, AMC and other so-called meme stocks that skyrocketed during Covid-19 as an army of retail traders piled in. He said Trump Media is likely worth somewhere around $2 a share — nowhere near its implied stock price of $50.

“The underlying business doesn’t seem to be worth much. There is no evidence this is going to become a large, highly profitable company,” he said. “I’m reasonably confident the stock price will eventually drop to $2 a share and could even go below that if the company blows through the money it got from the merger.”

The eye-popping valuation is a massive windfall for Trump, who owns a dominant stake of 79 million shares.

At Tuesday’s opening price of nearly $78, that stake is worth nearly $6 billion, although lock-up restrictions likely prevent Trump from selling or even borrowing against those shares anytime soon.

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frances-baby-houseman · 5 months

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I'm almost done with Barbra but here are a few more gems:

My favorite note since she went on a tangent about McConnell's ice cream while talking about how fat Marlon Brando had gotten:

I went home so distressed that I asked Renata to make me a hotdog with mustard and relish. Fuck the diet. And then when I had finished, I said, "I need another one." I ate them both in bed, with two coffee ci cream cones afterward (I can never have just one), while I read the latest issue of The Economist. I thought, no more relationships. Back to politics.

~~~

On becoming a day trader:

One month, I made six figures buying and selling eBay, Amazon, AOL, and Apple, and that's what got Donna Karan interested. She wanted to give me a million dollars to invest for her. At first I said no. I wasn't happy when I lost my own money (which also happened, by the way), but I would be absolutely horrified to lose my friend's money.

I asked her, "Are you willing to lose it all? One million dollars?" And she said, "Yes!" (I think that's because her husband, Stephan, who was not only an artist but also a smart businessman, had just made a fantastic deal for her to sell her company.) And if we had profits, we both agreed to spend it on renting boats, which was our favorite kind of vacation.

~~~

The kind of irrelevant details she has chosen to include, which made this thing 1000 pages but is also the parts I love best about it:

Madeleine was born in Czechoslovakia. I felt a connection to that country after Yentl, and when she invited me to come to a Czech play and told me the title, The Insect Comedy, I said, "You won't believe this, but I played a butterfly in that play when I was eighteen!" Well, this latest version turned out to be some sort of musical or opera, and . . . put it this way . . . we wanted to leave after the first act (we spotted a mutual friend, Milos Forman, on his way out as well.) Wehn Madeleine gave her security guard the signal, he told her that she had a call from the secretary-general (which was their prearranged excuse for leaving). But actually the call turned out to be true! So she had to take it, but when we found her driver and got in the car, we couldn't move because it had a flat tire. So we had to get out and find a cab. The whole night was a comedy of errors (much funnier than the play), but eventually we made it back to her residence, where we raided the refrigerator.

~~~

Just another hilarious Babs anecdote from the filming of The Mirror Has Two Faces (which I have not seen but sounds terrible):

Our shoot happened to coincide with the worst winter in New York history. In January, Manhattan was brought to a halt by a record-breaking blizzard. I loved it. The snow muffled the city. It was so peaceful and quiet . . . everything was frosted in white. I had that same blissful feeling I had as a child, watching the snow fall from my first-floor window on Pulaski Street. And for months after that, the snow just kept falling, which wreaked havoc on our schedule. It's funny, because long before we started shooting, I had been asked to lend my two Edward Hopper paintings to an exhibition at the Whitney Museum, and I turned them down, becuase I didn't want to be away from them for so long. Little did I know that I was going to spend so much time in New York, making this movie . . . I could have visited them at the Whitney!

#more babs babes #also per that post that's going around about typing #I touch typed all of this #thank you to Mavis Beacon

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