#next poll incoming one second

[corviiids]

hey

two questions

[bitchesgetriches]

Everything You Need to Know about How to Increase Your Income

Make more money at the job you have

One of the simplest ways to increase your income is to just make your current employer pay you more. But while it may be simple, it ain’t always easy.

Santa Isn’t Coming and Neither Is Your Promotion: How To Get Promoted

How I Chessmastered Myself Into a Promotion at Work

The First Time I Asked for a Raise

You Need To Ask for a Fucking Raise

Ask the Bitches: “Can I Quit With Unvested Funds? Or Am I Walking Away From Too Much Money?” 

The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Salary

Make more money at your next job

All that said, you’re statistically more likely to increase your income faster by job hopping! So if your current employer doesn’t want to pay you more, leave that sinking ship behind in pursuit of a higher salary.

Job Hopping vs. Career Loyalty by the Numbers

The Fascinating Results of Our Job Hopping vs. Career Loyalty Poll

How NOT to Determine Your Salary

When It Comes to Salary Negotiations, Are You Asking for Enough?

What To Do When You’re Asked About Your Salary Requirements in a Job Interview

If Your Employer Refuses To Negotiate Salary, Try These 11 Creative Counteroffers

Season 4, Episode 9: “I’m on the Wrong Career Path. How Do I Convince a New Industry To Take a Chance on Me?” 

Invest your way to more money

Of course there are some who say the true path to wealth is passive income: when you stop working for your money and instead let your money work for you. And they’re not wrong! Here’s how we recommend you increase your income passively.

When Money in the Bank Is a Bad Thing: Understanding Inflation and Depreciation

Investing Deathmatch: Investing in the Stock Market vs. Just… Not 

What’s the REAL Rate of Return on the Stock Market?

Dafuq Is a Retirement Plan and Why Do You Need One? 

Procrastinating on Opening a Retirement Account? Here’s 3 Ways That’ll Fuck You Over.

Season 4, Episode 1: “Index Funds Include Unethical Companies. Can I Still Invest in Them, or Does That Make Me a Monster?” 

Small Business Investing: A Kinder, Gentler Alternative to the Stock Market 

The Dark Magic of Financial Horcruxes: How and Why to Diversify Your Assets 

Make more money through side hustles

When it comes to side hustles, we have traditionally advocated caution. The last thing you want to do is burn out in pursuit of a second income stream. But with enough wits and fortitude, a side hustle could help you increase your income by leaps and bounds.

Romanticizing the Side Hustle: When 1 Job Isn’t Enough

Season 2, Episode 9: “I Use My Free Time to Volunteer. Should I Focus on Making Money Instead?”

Stop Undervaluing Your Freelance Work, You Darling Fool

Freelancer, Protect Thyself… With a Fair Contract 

Season 4, Episode 10: “I’m a Freelance Artist. How Do I Price My Work Fairly Without Losing Clients?”

Ask the Bitches: My Boss Won’t Give Me a Contract and I’m Freaking Out 

“Independent Contractor” My Ass: How to Stop Wage Theft Through Worker Misclassification 

Becoming a Millennial Entrepreneur (In the Midst of a Pandemic) With Katelyn Magnuson 

11 Awful Mistakes I Made as a Self-employed Freelancer, and How You Can Avoid Them

The Magic of Unclaimed Property: How I Made $1,900 in 10 Minutes by Being a Disorganized Mess

I Am a Craigslist Samurai and so Can You: How to Sell Used Stuff Online

What to do when you make more money

Once you increase your income, you might find yourself… not quite bored, but finding you have a little more bandwidth to handle the stuff that matters. It can be a jarring transition! Here are our thoughts on the matter.

Season 3, Episode 7: “I’m Finished With the Basic Shit. What Are the Advanced Financial Steps That Only Rich People Know?” 

Season 3, Episode 4: “The More Money I Save, the More I’m Scared To Lose It. Can I Break the Cycle of Financial Anxiety?” 

How to Avoid Lifestyle Inflation … and When to Embrace It

Ask the Bitches: I Know How to Struggle and Fight, but I Don’t Know How to Succeed

Update: I Know How to Struggle and Fight, but I Don’t Know How to Succeed 

The FIRE Movement, Explained 

I Was Happy to Marry a Poor Man. Then Things Changed.

I Have Become the Rich Relative I Always Wanted 

Believing in Miracles: A Conversation with Chris Dane Owens on Money, Creativity, and Self-Funding Art 

I Now Make More Money Than My Husband, and It’s Great for Our Marriage 

Season 2, Episode 1: “I’m Financially Stable, but My Friends Aren’t. The Guilt Is Crushing!”

The Resignation Checklist: 25 Sneaky Ways To Bleed Your Employer Dry Before Quitting

Advocate for systemic change

We don’t endorse an attitude of “I got mine.” So once you increase your income, there are lots of ways to use your newfound financial breathing room for good! Lift as you climb, my friend. Here are a few ways to do so:

Wallet Activism: Using Your Money for Good with Author Tanja Hester 

Woke at Work: How to Inject Your Values into Your Boring, Lame-Ass Job 

Raising the Minimum Wage Would Make All Our Lives Better

Post a Salary Range in the Job Description, You Fucking Cowards

1 Easy Way All Allies Can Help Close the Gender and Racial Pay Gap

The Truth About Unions: What Has Organized Labor Done for You? 

How To Support a Labor Strike with 3 Simple Steps

Everything in moderation

One last thing, my lambs: don’t crush your spirit while chasing the goal of a higher income. Working hard is hard work. If you find these tactics are leaving you exhausted and demoralized, you might be on the road to burnout. And that road leads nowhere good!

That’s why we just released our glorious new Burnout Workshop. Click the button below to take a peek!

Get the Burnout Workshop Here!

[potatoplace]

Game Night

💖 Valentine's Collection 2025: Monopoly 💖

Nessian x Reader | Azris x Reader | Cazriel x Reader

Summary: Game night with your partners means three things: chaos, anger, and sexual tension.

Warnings: daddy kink oops, don't think there's anything else tho

Words: 1,224

Author's Note: this was soooo soo sOoo much fun omg. I loved Nessian's the most, cause they're the ones I had in mind when I made the poll 😂 and uhhh the Azris one... got uh. More daddy-y than I'd planned but I'm not mad. I hope you guys like it!! Read it on AO3!

18+ only pls

🤍🩶🤍❤️🤍

“No, no, NO!” Cassian yelled as the dice stopped on doubles sixes, moving him from your hotel on Marvin’s Garden to Nesta’s hotel on Boardwalk.

“Yes!” Nesta cheered, a fist pumping into the air. “You’re going down, pretty boy!”

Cassian rifled through his stack of money that had already been cut into heftily from his last turn, leaving him with just ones and fives, his cheeks red. “I swear, Nes, you’re going to land on Illinois and then Pennsylvania Avenue and give me everything back.”

“Fat chance, Cassie, I’m going to bleed. You. Dry,” Nesta hissed, her hands clawing at the edges of the table.

“Okay, let’s cool it a little bit, guys,” you interjected, hoping to alleviate some of the tension that was quickly building to an unstoppable point.

As usual.

“Yeah, Nes, take you turn,” Cassian sneered at her, and you shot him a dirty look. He at least had the decency to look ashamed for five seconds, that’s more than he normally would.

Nesta rolled the dice, Cassian chanting for her to get a seven under his breath, only to yell when she rolled an eight, skipping right past his hotel on Illinois in favor of one of her railroads. “Would you look at that, Cassian, I seem to owe no money to anyone at this table.”

You sighed and scooped up the dice, hoping that your turn would help distract them from each other. Your hands shook the dice and loosed them, landing on a solid four - leaving you on free parking, which currently held over $1000 in Nesta’s income tax landings.

“Oh, you bitch!” Nesta yelled at you, though her hand landed on your arm gently, reassuring you that she may be loud, but she’s not truly angry with you.

You giggled at her as you raked in your new stack of bills, your wealth nearly equal with hers now.

“Oh, fuck me,” Cassian groaned. He never liked when the two of you were on top, as you rarely made someone go bankrupt, and Nesta would loan you money if you needed some - you are her princess are all. Meaning Cassian would have mercy from you, but all of Nesta’s mercy had been given to you.

“I can certainly arrange that, if you can’t pay for Boardwalk the next time you land on it,” Nesta said with a smirk, her eyes promising that she would offer such a trade.

“Over my dead body,” Cassian said, grabbing the dice again and rolling a ten, landing him at Nesta’s hotel on Connecticut Avenue. “FUCK!”

🤍💙🤍🧡🤍

“That will be $1000, Y/N,” Eris said from across the table, his amber eyes glinting as he watched you fidget in your seat.

You bit your lip as you looked from him to your stack of money, knowing that you had less than half of what you needed, and you’d already traded away most of your properties. “Can I owe you one?” You asked, knowing the limited likelihood that he would agree.

“No, that isn’t the rule of the game, bunny. You either pay up or go bankrupt, I’m sorry to say,” he said, though his smirk told you he wouldn’t be sorry. After all, whenever you went bankrupt you chose one of them to cuddle with until they finished battling it out.

You turned your gaze to Azriel, his hazel eyes already trained on you.

“How much do you need, bunny?”

You smiled and bit your lip before counting the money that you had left. “Uhm… $637?” Azriel counted out $700 for you and held his hand out, taking it back before you could take it. You rolled your eyes and stood up, going over by him to give him a long kiss, your mouths only separating when Eris coughed, annoyed. “Thank you, Azzie,” you said, giving him another kiss, on his cheek this time. “Here you go, Eris,” You said brightly, handing him the money.

“You know, it’s against the spiritual rules of the game to bail someone out, Azriel,” Eris said as he grabbed the dice.

“But she’s so adorable Eris, especially after you’ve rejected her offer of paying you back later. I mean,” he grabbed your cheeks and turned your head so you were facing him. “Could you say no to that face?”

Eris opened his mouth, but you slid your lip into a pout and squinted your eyes like you were going to cry.

He sighed. “No, I can’t. Come on, Y/N, just give up and come sit on daddy’s lap, hmm?” The request sent heat straight to your core, and your cheeks that Azriel was still holding onto.

“Or you could come sit on my lap, babygirl,” Azriel said, turning your face back to him. “I did just save you from bankruptcy.”

Your eyes flicked between the two of them.

“No, I think I’m fine for now, after all, I’m not bankrupt thanks to you, daddy,” you said softly, relishing in the light blush that dusted Azriel’s cheeks.

“See, Az? She does it every time!” Eris insisted, finally shaking the dice in his hands. “Just wait, you’ll be in my lap in no time, bunny.”

🤍❤️🤍💙🤍

“Ah, shit,” Cassian groaned as you landed on Pennsylvania Avenue, where Azriel had just put up a hotel. “Do you have enough money to pay for that, baby?”

You rolled your eyes at him. You were doing far better than he was this game, having slightly tricked him and Azriel into giving you all of their pieces of lower-priced property, leaving you owning two sides of the board, utilities and railroads included.

“I think I do, Cassie, thank you though,” you smiled at him, pulling out the money that you owed Azriel.

“Thank you,” Azriel said quietly as he put the money away in the proper order, both of you sharing the vast majority of the money. “Time for you to go, Cassian. And you should be asking if you have enough money,” he pointed out, waving at the part of the board he was on: your territory.

“Oh, I’ll be just fine, I’m going to skate by on chance and community chest, brother,” Cassian boasted as he picked up the dice and rolled them.

You couldn’t help but giggle at him landing on one of your hotels a moment later, biting your lip to keep your joy from being too obvious. You’d always found it funny how confident Cassian was, even when he sucked at the game like he did with monopoly.

“Pay up, big guy,” you said, extending a hand.

“I don’t-“ he sighed loudly. “Fuck you, Azriel!”

“What did I do?” Azriel asked with a brow raised.

“Well, I can’t say that to Y/N, now can I?! So fuck you!”

Az rolled his eyes at him. “Can you pay her, or not?”

“Yeah, Cassie, it’s only right to pay your debts,” you teased as he began counting out money, coming up a couple hundred short. He grumbled as he picked off a few houses from his monopoly, and pushed the money into your hands.

“Thank you, Cass,” you said, catching his eyes. “You know I love you, no matter how poor you are in monopoly, right?”

He let out an amused huff, and grinned. “If you love me so much, will you give me one of your monopolies?”

“Not a chance.”

🧡💙🤍❤️🩶

General Taglist: @daughterofthemoons-stuff @lilah-asteria @meritxellao @twismare @wrenisrad

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Stephen Robinson at Public Notice:

A near-majority of American voters willingly reelected Donald Trump. This harsh reality is a collective moral failure, but it’s also not a choice made in sound mind. Consider that voters believed Trump’s first presidency was a roaring success and Joe Biden’s only term a Carter-level catastrophe. It’s an upside-down Bizarro World view that ultimately played a key role in dooming Kamala Harris.

Trump’s 2024 platform was rooted in an obvious lie — that the nation under Biden’s leadership is a flaming dumpster fire and everyone was much better off when Trump was president. Democrats challenged this false reality with facts, but they ultimately lost the messaging war. Their best efforts were no match for the most powerful weapons in Trump’s propaganda arsenal — a timid press and a right-coded social social media environment. Greg Sargent reports in the New Republic that the Harris campaign’s own internal polling revealed an alarming trend: “Undecided voters didn’t believe that some of the highest profile things that happened during Trump’s presidency — even if they saw these things negatively — were his fault.” According to exit polls, Trump decisively won the questions “who do you trust more to handle the economy?” and “who do you trust most to handle a crisis?” Of course, in reality Trump utterly botched the 2020 pandemic response, which researchers concluded resulted in 40 percent more deaths than necessary. And yet swing voters are willing to risk it all again in hopes of cheaper eggs and cruelty against outgroups.

Disinformation on demand

Legacy media shoulders significant blame for their “sanewashing” of Trump’s incoherency and deteriorating mental state. Voters believed Trump could fix a steadily improving economy despite his promotion of inflationary tariffs. The media even presented Trump’s rants as cogent discussions of economic theory.

It’s worth noting, however, that an NBC poll from April revealed that voters who received news primarily from legacy media (newspapers, cable news, etc.) still overwhelmingly supported Biden. Trump owes his victory in great part to low-propensity voters of all races, including young men, and those voters don’t necessarily form their views based on mainstream media reporting. Rather, far too many are stuck in an online social media bubble where they are delivered a steady diet of rightwing propaganda. The median age of a Fox News viewer is 68, and liberals have joked about the network “brainwashing” their conservative parents. But rightwing social media content has effectively targeted and radicalized younger people, who — unlike the typical Hannity-obsessed grandpa — can vote for the next several decades. TikTok, which Trump joined in June, has 170 million users in the United States, and according a Pew Research survey, more than half of them said they regularly get their news from the platform. That’s up from just 22 percent in 2020. This is a serious concern because the far right uses TikTok to advance unfounded conspiracy theories and outright lies.

[...]

Lower income Americans, particularly young people, do spend more of their income on groceries, rent, and gas. That’s why Republicans were so laser focused on the price of eggs. Unfortunately, there’s a dearth of liberal content countering the negative vibes. Of course, explaining the post-pandemic economic recovery is complex and requires more than a punchy one-minute video can convey. Although people might idly scroll TikTok all day, consuming 60-second quick hit videos like potato chips, they will balk at reading an extensive, well-reported news article. That’s too filling a meal.

According to a University of Oregon study, 40 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans surveyed said they’d become more conservative from their TikTok usage. Half of the Democrats surveyed said they’d grown more liberal, but a lot of far-left content on TikTok is downright alienating and can sound like MAGA’s idea of a strawman leftist. For instance, one user boasted that she “didn’t care” if liberal economic and social policies “hurt the economy,” thus conceding that those policies are in fact harmful to economic progress. TikTok’s artificial “vibecession” dominated the discourse, while abortion-related content was actively suppressed even while pregnant women were bleeding out in parking lots. Users of the platform resorted to disguising the word “abortion” as “aborshun” or “ab0rti0n” in order to reach an audience. TikTok has a longstanding policy against promoting abortion services, which it classifies as “unsuitable businesses, products or services.” However, TikTok, YouTube, and Meta have allowed users to spread and monetize anti-abortion misinformation. Studies have shown an interesting gender gap in where young people receive their news on social media: For most women, it’s TikTok, while most men learn about the world from YouTube, X, and Reddit, all of which have become havens of crude masculinity.

On YouTube, 56 percent of users are between the ages of 18 and 44. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based nonprofit that researches extremism, conducted a four-part research project this year that determined YouTube’s algorithm consistently steers users to rightwing and Christian content. The algorithm does this even with seemingly apolitical search terms, like “male lifestyle guru,” which YouTube reflexively associates with conservative ideology. Rightwing news content was also more frequently recommended, including anti-vaxxer videos. As far back as 2019, both YouTube and Facebook’s autofill search boxes would return content that promoted anti-vaccine misinformation.

[...]

Why rightwing content has the edge

When Kamala Harris appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast, host Alexandra Cooper told her listeners, “I do not usually discuss politics or have politicians on the show because I want Call Her Daddy to be a place that everyone feels comfortable tuning in.” Left-leaning podcasters/social media content creators often avoid politics for fear of turning off their right-leaning fans. Joe Rogan and Dave Portnoy at Barstool Sports don’t bother with such apologies when they have rightwing guests because it doesn’t compromise their brand. They are rightwing cultural influencers. Liberal podcaster Hasan Piker recently commented on the impact rightwing influencers have on young men of all races.

“There is a massive amount of rightwing radicalization that has been occurring, especially in younger male spaces. Everything is completely dominated by rightwing politics,” he said. “If you’re a dude under the age of 30 and you have any hobbies whatsoever, whether it’s playing video games, whether it’s working out, whether it’s listening to a history podcast or whatever, every single facet of that is completely dominated by center right to [the] Trumpian right. Everything they see is rightwing sentiment.”

Rogan and Portnoy might not present as overtly political as Walsh and Shapiro, but their edgy, hyper masculine personas are pure MAGA. Even billionaire CEO Elon Musk likes to present himself as a “disrupter,” an agent of change who boldly confronts the status quo. Anyone who’s seen the more popular indie films of the 1970s would realize how compelling this narrative is to young men. The subtle way that Rogan and Portnoy infuse politics into their personas presents a contrast with left-leaning social media content. The liberal TikToker or YouTuber who releases videos about home makeovers might endorse Democratic politicians during election season while wearing their “just voted” sticker, but rightwing influencers prime their audience on a daily basis. Young men marinate in a stew of rightwing sentiment and end up resenting the libs.

Stephen Robinson wrote in Public Notice a very valid case that a right-coded media environment gave Donald Trump the decisive boost to get elected, such as praising the disastrous Trump reign as a “success.”

Social media algorithms heavily favored right-coded and pro-Trump content, despite the never-ending whining about “censorship” from conservatives.

[mariacallous]

By David E. Rosenberg, the economics editor and a columnist for the English edition of Haaretz and the author of Israel’s Technology Economy.

When Israeli jets struck Beit Lahia, Rafah, Nuseirat, and al-Mawasi last month, killing some 400 Palestinians in the process, the assault seemed like the resumption of the war being fought in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel and killed 1,200 people. The two sides had struck a cease-fire agreement in January that included the release of some Israeli hostages—but the truce fell apart in just weeks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu framed the new assault as a means of forcing Hamas to release the remaining hostages. “From now on, negotiations will be conducted only under fire,” he said in a televised address on March 18.

But three weeks into the fighting, it has become clear that Israel is now waging a different war, with different goals and tactics—sufficiently different that it might be useful to think of January as the end of the first Israeli war in Gaza triggered by Oct. 7 and the March assault as the beginning of a second one. Netanyahu suggested as much recently when he said that “this is only the beginning,” the implication being that this wasn’t a war to rack up tactical gains before resuming talks but rather something bigger.

The horrific attack of Oct. 7 had the effect of uniting Israelis across the political spectrum after months of deep division over the government’s judicial overhaul plan. The motives for fighting were manifold—to rescue the 250 hostages taken captive by Hamas, restore Israeli deterrence,  and take revenge on Hamas. But support for the war was virtually wall to wall. Many reservists reported for duty before they were even called up.

As the fighting dragged on over the next 17 months, enthusiasm for the war declined, especially as it became obvious that most of the hostages could not be freed in military rescue operations or as a result of sustained pressure on Hamas. But Israel has restored its image as a country one attacks only at great risk. Its assaults and operations have degraded Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran’s military capabilities.

But that hasn’t been enough for Netanyahu and his far-right coalition allies. According to many analysts, the prime minister had come to see the war as a useful way of distracting the public from his government’s failures and his ongoing criminal trial. More importantly, the far-right parties in Netanyahu’s coalition view the war as the means for achieving their dream of resettling the Gaza Strip, from which Israel withdrew in 2005. They have threatened to bring down the government if the fighting ends. Netanyahu agreed to the cease-fire in January mainly due to pressure from incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.

This second war in Gaza is not nearly as popular as the first one. A survey conducted in late March by the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies found that just 28 percent of the public supports a land war in Gaza of the kind that is now underway (another 29 percent supports aerial attacks only), while 37 percent opposes resuming the fighting at all. More than half of respondents think Netanyahu started up the fighting again for political reasons. The army has so far refrained from ordering a massive call-up of reservists. According to a Haaretz report, many reservists have told their commanders that they won’t report for duty if they receive orders. The resistance is not just about opposition to the war or distrust of the government. Repeated call-ups have disrupted the lives of many reservists and hampered careers or business ventures.

Instead of a people’s war, the second war in Gaza is a political and ideological one. The public overwhelmingly supports efforts to bring the hostages home, according to polls, so Netanyahu emphasizes that as a goal. He appears in public with the yellow ribbon pin worn by those showing solidarity with the hostages and their families. But resuming the war for him is largely about keeping his coalition together.

Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, meanwhile, are drawing up plans for a Gaza without Palestinians—with at least the passive consent of the prime minister. Shortly after the war started up again, the security cabinet approved the establishment of an office “to prepare and facilitate the safe and controlled movement of Gaza residents who wish to voluntarily move to third countries.” Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, estimated that if the new office could finesse the complex logistics involved, it could empty Gaza of its 2 million residents within a year.

Netanyahu’s indifference to the outcome, and the contrast of that with the ideological imperatives of his far-right coalition partners, surfaced in a recent cabinet meeting, according to an account by Haaretz military analyst Amos Harel. Asked by ministers what he hoped to ultimately achieve in the renewed fighting, Netanyahu reportedly mumbled something about a consortium of Arab countries to manage Gaza once Hamas is defeated. “But Gaza is ours, part of the Land of Israel. You’ll give it to Arabs?” responded Settlements Minister Orit Strock of the Religious Zionism party, to which Netanyahu answered, “Then maybe there will be a military government there. There are all sorts of possibilities.”

Or not. The first war in Gaza wasn’t fought in a way that would facilitate the far right’s dream of conquest and settlement. Under then-army chief Herzi Halevi, the military refrained from occupying large swaths of Gaza for extended periods. With a few exceptions, the policy was to attack a specific area, eliminate Hamas fighters and infrastructure, and withdraw—returning only (as often happened) when Hamas reestablished a presence. Halevi believed that the only way to truly defeat Hamas was by replacing it with another governing authority. Netanyahu’s quest for total victory was a fantasy. By the end of the first war, Hamas was a spent force, but Netanyahu made sure not to upset the right by developing a plan for Gaza’s postwar future.

Halevi resigned under pressure from the Netanyahu government at the beginning of March; his successor, Eyal Zamir, has other ideas about how to fight the war. He wants to deploy tens of thousands of troops in the territory, occupy large swaths of it for a prolonged period, control the distribution of humanitarian aid (as a means of undermining Hamas’s rule), and confine civilians to small humanitarian enclaves. His goal is to defeat Hamas militarily.

Zamir so far hasn’t fully implemented his strategy, perhaps out of concern that the large-scale reserves call-up it would require would meet resistance. Nevertheless, as of this week, the army occupies about half of Gaza, mostly in an expanded buffer zone along the border but also in two east-west corridors that divide the territory into three parts. Some 390,000 of Gaza’s 2 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations, and humanitarian aid to the strip has been halted. Without the restraints imposed by the Biden administration, Israel is under less pressure to avoid killing civilians, as evidenced by its attack on a medical convoy on March 23. Hamas is putting up minimal resistance: Three weeks into the second war, no Israeli troops have been killed, and Hamas rocket attacks on Israel have been confined to a handful of small salvos.

Zamir isn’t known to share the far right’s messianic fantasies of annexing Gaza and populating it with settlers, but he is doing the groundwork that may allow them to realize them. Once the army has achieved sufficient control of Gaza, or even just parts of it, settlers aided by cabinet ministers friendly to their cause could potentially make their way into Gaza. With living conditions for Palestinians already at an abysmal state, many could choose to leave Gaza, making it easier for Israelis to settle the territory.

During the first war, some Israeli gatekeepers acted as a restraint on the government, including senior security officials. But Netanyahu has managed to push out Halevi and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. He is now determined to rid himself of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. The political opposition, meanwhile, is weak and divided, and the protest movement against the war has failed to gain traction.

That leaves the future in the hands of Trump. So far, he has raised no objections to Israel’s second war. But the president can be inconsistent in his policies and strategies, and he has other goals that don’t square with an Israeli forever war (most notably reaching a potential deal with Saudi Arabia, which he plans to visit next month). “I’d like to see the war stop. And I think the war will stop at some point that won’t be in the too distant future,” Trump said this week while Netanyahu was visiting Washington. “Right now, we have a problem with hostages. We’re trying to get the hostages out.”

But Netanyahu’s priorities don’t seem to align with Trump’s. For him, this second war is about political survival, and for Smotrich and the far right, it’s about fulfilling God’s plans.

[gallavichthings]

Fanart Masquerade - sound off!

One event is barely over and the next one is already incoming! @michellemisfit suggested a Fanart Masquerade, so we're doing it!

I'm not an artist at all though, so I'll need your help deciding some stuff (let's pretend I didn't do this for the writers Masquerade as well 🤫).

Therefore, I'll be posting a couple of polls related to that. My idea is to have the guidelines by the weekend, and the actual Masquerade by the beginning of May.

These polls are for the fanartists, so please refrain from voting if you're not one. I'm not adding an extra button just for those who don't make art this time, sorry (because I think it would be the majority and it would make it harder to decide anything).

First poll

Second poll

[ccazimi]

Hi cee, im about to yap about how deeply in love i am with (all) of your sukuna fanfic.

uhh warning, i am not good with stringing words and allat, and i never interact beyond liking stuff with blogs cuz im lazy asl. That's why i choose to read instead, and dear. am i so so happy i found your blog. there's so much i wanted to say its making me so confused how to make it structured and ive been thinking of sending this like. a month ago. you successfully made me infatuated to sukuna out of all characters in the web. he went from nice looking evil villain to a nice looking evil villain all over my phone and desktop.

ok ok so like, starting off, found your unckuna fic first. it went from a 'im so bored i need new flavor.' so this dark content writer to that dark content writer and honestly idk why yours stood out the most but one fic turned into binging your whole masterlist. ;w;;

how the hell do i describe that unckuna fic with my limited vocabulary. but the change of reader & sukuna (still an asshole throughout and i love him (and u) very much for it) from that polite distance, to dependency to him, to him distancing himself because he saw how fucked it is, not from his own vision but by placing himself in someone else's shoes and then the confrontation and the ending that made me PRAY there's another part. it's not just the smut that captivated me (which is surprising 4 me cause i came for that if i had to confess) but the whole entirety of reader and sukuna's dynamic that you made really intricate is what really stood out. how you write them that makes me even question why. i feel every ounce of shame, disappointment, embarrassment, more shame,, even anger. and now im just eagerly waiting on that next part. cause i know you'd ate.

iirc your next fic that i consumed is To Be Human. loved it. made me more in love with sukuna. cried a bit at the end. the reader is so funny in a way and how she and sukuna slowly became more and more intimate? and sukuna burning down that village for her?? and how you just ended it like THAT??? thought i'd hate it but i physically cant cause my hand just keeps clicking on it to reread every once in a while.

the oneshots are so fucking funny too. cackled at the dead of night, truly lived up to the name of no 1 sukuna tormentor. why is reader such a menace. i love her.

my next dddne from you is Nightingale, this one, well, i actually read it with breaks every few days cause it was the last thing and i didnt wanna run out of stuff to read. that series introduced me to a whole lotta genre i would've thought nasty (dont stop) and refuse to eat but honestly? naur the dread reading it is actually lowkey addicting. imsosorryimyapping.

and then you uploaded The Contendings, that threw me into a goddamn rabbit hole of ancient egyptian mythology. the vampire reader poll (genuinely happy vampire reader won.) (but now that i think about it i also wanna see what you'd come up with vampire sukuna :T) and the release of Currit in Sanguine Nostra. wow. how do you serve every. time. it also have some pretty nasty stuff (again, dont stop.) and i ate it very gratefully.

idk what else to say since this is my first time sending whatever what this feature is called, but im just here to let you know you've got a fan who's always eager to eat what you have in mind. i love just how detailed you go into describing stuff but how subtle you can be portraying others. and im not sure if you're accepting these kinda stuff but can i be your 🗝️ anon if possible (and available) :'3, i jus saw it on other blogs and thought thats so cute and im planning on staying for a looong time so i hope you'll continue to feed us.

ps: have you stumbled across wasp!sukuna. oh and pls take ur time on the second part of unckuna fic :D

HI HI 🗝️ ANON ILY wow this ask made me so happy it changed my brain chemistry lowkey im gonna print it out and tape it on my wall ….

anyways read under the line cut bc there is an absolute YAPfest incoming im sorry i wanted to dignify this with thorough responses hehe

first of all im sooo excited i converted you into a sukuna fan :D

im thrilled that you could see what i was trying to lay out with the unckuna fic which is that it’s not only smutty kink stuff but meant to make the reader also feel the range of emotions that i assume would realistically arise in such a situation. ive probably already said this before but i think a lot of incest fics ive come across were just kink stuff and it read like “yeah im fucking my uncle and im super chill abt it” which ofc nothing wrong with that (in fics), but i personally see incest as almost ….psychological horror tbh.

and that element of “horror” is something im purposefully leaning into the next part like it’s supposed to be as erotic as it is deeply uncomfortable but at the same time im kinda nervous about it for some reason because balancing those elements is kinda hard and i might just ask for a beta reader when i finish the entire part to make sure it feels alright

i think to be human was the first time i dipped my feet trying a new type of format where an entire story is basically told in a long(ish) one shot. i went into a deep dive of kitsune lore and mythology for that one and basically there were some interesting themes of humanity - i think one thing i wanted to stress in that point is sukuna’s humanity. despite everything, even with his four arms and cannibalistic tendencies and however much he tries to deny it, sukuna was still a human, and that is in indirectly in a way what led to that ending. (speaking of endings can you tell im obsessed with bittersweet endings)

the oneshots… listen i think i have some kind of jester blood in me there’s just some innate need to bother my loved ones and if sukuna was real he would not catch a single break 😭😭😭

NIGHTINGALE. my first dead dove writing… looking back that was just me hornyposting LMAOO there were honestly barely any nuances or plot it was just my ovaries speaking. im glad it got u into some freak shit though 👅

the contendings was also lowkey my ovaries speaking from that one egyptian sukuna edit on TikTok which also jumpstarted the hyperfixations deep dive 😭 for the vampire reader poll tbh im also glad it won bc it seems like every vampire au fic i read the guy is the vampire ig cuz it’s seen as the “dominant” role (im probably not wording that right)… but imo vampires can very much symbolize an honestly kind of pathetic existence that’s marked by constant hunger. anyways there’s a shock collar in the next part Lol i didn’t want to shy away from how physically violent they can get with each other and how brutal sukuna can be

also yes i did indeed stumble upon wasp!sukuna. loved it but also my fucking stupid brain could only think abt how male wasps are literally princesses that don’t do SHIT in the nest like they’re just coddled and raised for the sole purpose of fucking after which they die and im like okay what if sukuna dies now that he fucked reader 😞 but seriously though i think @/yenayaps has some of the best crack fics tbh 😭

[letsplaydcttrpg]

Wheel of Destruction pt 41 - Rollapalooza

Start this module here!

Previous part here!

Links to all posts for this module in the pinned post!

(Long post with many dice rolls! We're getting to the GRAND FINALE, folks!)

Forcing the door it is! We need an 11 to have enough RAPs to get through. First one failed but we got through on the second! (30/60 minutes left)

Mark off 5 minutes. [25/60] You're moving quickly through the corridor. You come to a room that looks like something from a carnival midway. As soon as you enter, a brace of rifles pops out of the wall and begins firing...at you! There are 6 rifles and they all fire simultaneously. Three are in front of you, barring your way ahead, and three are behind you, effectively cutting off any retreat. You must dodge past three of the guns to leave the human shooting gallery.

All right, they get a bonus for making a Team Attack against us, but their stats aren't that great, so with the bonus they still need an 11 to hit. We do have a power for Armor that doesn't make it harder to hit us but does make it harder for us to take damage, so that bumps it back up to a 15 on their part to actually do any damage on us.

That's both barrages dodged! We technically have a choice on where to go, but I'm gonna save us a round of polls because going forward to D only redirects us to either leave entirely or turn right back around again, and we just came from B, so going south to E is kind of the only option.

You're at E on Map #5. You enter a room that looks like the deserted lab of a latter-day Dr. Frankenstein. "Welcome," say the familiar voice. And you spin around to see the Joker. You're about to attack when you hear, from behind you... "Welcome," another Joker! And again, "Welcome..." and another Joker appears. There are 4 Jokers and none, you see, is real. Each raises its hands and you see that each Joker's nails grow an inch longer, and become lethal weapons. Each mechanical Joker is DEX 4, STR 6, BODY 6, Initiative 7. You can attack or dodge any one during the ensuing bashing combat. Their nails are coated with a poison causing 2 APs of loss to your BODY per round after being hit. All damage against the Joker is taken by the BODY. When the BODY of each Joker falls to -1 it ceases to operate. Whenever one of the robots loses 3 BODY points, it collapses and uses the next round to right itself.

Oh boy, combat time. Many dice rolls incoming. First off, initiative. We got a 24, they get a 12, so we get to attack first. The good news is their DEX ain't great, and we have our Armor power, which means it's unlikely they're actually going to do any damage to us. We also have a mace that gives us a STR of 10 for our attacks AND we have a nifty thing called Martial Artist: Attack advantage, which does a thing where it partially negates the penalty on a multi-attack.

So I'm gonna roll a LOT and try to get them all taken down without dying. I'm opting to just do the multi-attack on all four of them, and with a 9 the way the math works out is that they all take 2 damage to BODY. Each of them gets to take a swipe at us, then.

They actually rolled pretty well (or really well in one case) but they need an 18 to hit us, unfortunately for them. The one did hit, but we we have ARMOR, BABY, which means on a regular success there's no RAPs and we take no damage.

MULTI-ATTACK 2: MULTI-ATTACK HARDER.

With our penalty negation we end up doing enough damage to knock them all out. PHEW.

Moving on to the next room, luckily we've managed to get through in less than an hour!

You surprise the Joker. He obviously didn't expect you to arrive. You see [Nightwing] struggling in the chair. Joker eyes the heavy rope holding the blade in place. Then you see him move. He's going to cut it, your mind screams. And you can't get to him in time. "Fool," he snarls. "You lose anyway!" In order to get to the Joker in time, tackle him, and prevent him from cutting the rope, you have to make a Trick Shot.

MATH TIME AGAIN. Because it's a Trick Shot and the number of RAPs we need, we end up needing a 18 to successfully stop him. We have 8 HP left to spend.

[theofficersacademy]

Happy July! After a couple of high-energy event months, let's catch up on threads and relax. Stay tuned for our annual anniversary event coming up in August!

Housekeeping

Current Month in TOA: Pegasus Moon (February)

New mission board tasks are available! You can find the whole collection here. Remember that at least one unaffiliated muse is required to complete certain prompts.

A big shoutout to Ree, Rai, and N for their work in the Summer Arena, as well as a huge thank you to our volunteer Scorekeepers, without whose invaluable help the arena could not continue on as it has!

Don't forget to claim your arena prizes if you haven't already! You can find more information on our closing post. Arena channels will also be closed on July 7th at 11:59PM EST.

Please don’t forget to leave feedback on our [feedback poll] for this month. Tell us about your arena experience!

Event Incoming!

We will be holding our annual anniversary event next month! More information will be available later this month.

What to expect: Lore events in TOA are month-long events that typically split participants into multiple groups, each playing through a story campaign led by one of the mods. We place a high emphasis on making progress week-by-week, so these are our most energy-intensive events and require some commitment on your parts. Please keep this in mind if you decide to sign up. This August may see things shaken up a little, but narrative remains the main focus. As always, make sure that your stats page is up to date.

Keep in mind that you still need to keep up with your activity during August, whether or not your muses are participating.

Other

July Mun Birthdays: Nic (14th), Leo (22nd), Heckles (24th)

July Muse Birthdays: Caspar (1st), Harken (7th), Balthus (9th), Kris (M) (15th), Claude (24th), Forsyth (26th), Yunaka (28th)

First-year mun anniversaries this month: Kuja (17th)

Second-year mun anniversaries this month: Ashera (10th), Rosie (11th)

Third-year mun anniversaries this month: Tiff (8th), Dewa (18th)

First-year muse anniversaries this month: Quan (6th), Harken (8th), Alcryst (30th)

Second-year muse anniversaries this month: Pelleas (14th)

Third-year muse anniversaries this month: Micaiah (4th), Katarina (15th), Deirdre (17th)

Muses who have been in the group for a solid year will also be granted an Academy Brooch to put in their inventory. It doesn’t do anything. It just lets others know your character has been around the block. These characters are also granted a new opportunity to change houses if they wish to do so.

- The House Leaders

[beardedmrbean]

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has received another boost in the polls: If federal elections were held this week, the populist party would win 21% of the vote, putting it firmly in second place behind the center-right bloc of Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), which remain the strongest force at 27%, despite taking some small losses.

That is according to the latest edition of the representative "Deutschlandtrend" survey, for which pollster infratest reached out to 1,297 eligible voters via phone or email between July 31 and August 2.

As in the previous months' surveys, Germany's center-left government again failed to win a majority. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD), the largest party in the three-way coalition, would garner 17% — down from 25.7% when it came to power in the last general election in 2021.

The Greens now have 15% support, which is what they had in that election — but a far cry from the high-flying 25% during a brief spike in popularity just over one year ago. The neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) stand at 7%, down from their strong showing of 11.5% in 2021.

The socialist Left Party was found to be slipping further. According to the latest survey, it would fail to clear the 5% threshold for representation in the federal parliament, the Bundestag.

Only one in five respondents said they were satisfied with the work of the federal government, and even within the ranks of the three parties' supporters, approval ratings are low.

Chancellor Scholz is also becoming increasingly unpopular: Only three out of 10 eligible voters (31%) say they are satisfied with his work, the lowest approval rating since he took office in December 2021.

Unfair conditions in Germany?

Voters are not only dissatisfied with the chancellor and his government, but also with the overall situation in the country. Some 58% say that burdens are not shared fairly in Germany. That feeling has to do with the distribution of wealth, but also with the fact that certain groups in the population feel that their views and interests are not being taken into account enough by the political mainstream.

Respondents to the survey believe that certain groups in society are not being heard by the political leadership, especially low-income earners, people in rural areas, pensioners and young families. As many as 62% of respondents said politicians focus too much on the interests of those who are wealthy, while 48% think that politicians focus too much on the needs of refugees.

Despite the fact that the opposition conservative parties are leading in the polls, only 19% said they believe that they would do a better job at solving the country's problems — in fact, 21% said they would do an even worse job, and 53% said they'd expect a conservative-led government's overall performance to be similar.

The CDU/CSU led Germany's federal governments for most of the almost 80 years since the end of World War II — in coalition with the FDP or SPD.

The low expectations for a CDU-led federal government correspond to the poor rating of CDU leader Friedrich Merz. Only three out of 10 respondents said they think he is a good party leader, and only 16% said they thought he would make a good chancellor. Perhaps even worse for Merz, only one in three CDU supporters want him to become the next head of government after the general election in 2025.

The CDU needs to work on itself

The Christian Democrats are also seen to have little to offer in terms of policy: Only 33% of CDU supporters said they know exactly what the party stands for, and a similar number, 31%, said they believe that the CDU has a feel for what's currently on people's minds.

The CDU/CSU has been thrown into turmoil by the question of whether the decision to disassociate itself from the far-right AfD should apply at all political levels. This comes after Merz suggested in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF in July that cooperation with AfD representatives on a local level was sensible common practice.He walked his comments back the following day in response to an immediate backlash, including from figures within his own party.

Overall, 64% of those surveyed for the Deutschlandtrend poll said they think it is right for the CDU to rule out cooperation with the AfD in principle, while 29% are open to considering it. However, there are considerable differences when the western and eastern German states are considered separately.

While two-thirds of eligible voters in western Germany welcome the CDU's official stance of rejecting cooperation with the AfD, in eastern Germany, the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), only half of the eligible voters agree. There, the AfD is the strongest party, polling at over 30%.

Some 70% of all respondents called for more pragmatism: They say that support of individual AfD motions in the parliaments of cities, municipalities and districts should be decided on a case-by-case basis.

In eastern Germany, as many as 81% of respondents said they were in favor of more pragmatism, compared with 67% in western Germany. Nationwide, it is only Green supporters (51%) where a majority say that all AfD motions should be rejected on principle.

[over-the-time-flow]

The Hows & Whys of Super Robot Wars

Pilot Stats

Welcome to the first installment of The Hows & Whys of SRW! This is how I'm going to handle explaining the game and its systems in-depth. Today, before we really get into things, I'm going to be explaining pilot stats, machine specs, and what they affect! Since these topics include in-depth explanation of game systems, they'll be split into two parts, with this one covering just the pilots' side of things, but even then both will be rather dense. Other #mechanics will be far less wordy in the future, i promise! The topics just have a lot to go over.

I’m gonna be using the term a lot both in this post and in the future, so let’s get this out of the way: in the MC gender poll I alluded to making a dedicated post for the Super/Real split, but the more I try to write one the more I realize there isn’t really much to talk about there, and it’s really hard to cover it well without being reductive. 

In short, the idea is that Real Robot anime are more grounded and political, while Super Robot shows are more fantastical and focused on spectacle, but it’s harder than you’d think to find shows that map cleanly onto these distinctions; they’re often applied liberally and arbitrarily, and back in the day i’d often see 4 or more pages of heated discussion on places like GameFAQs about whether G Gundam was a Super Robot show or a Real Robot show. While I'd like to believe we as a species have moved past such trifles, I know for a fact people are still arguing about dumb shit like this somewhere on the internet as we speak. Probably on /m/.

In short, for the purposes of this LP, all you really need to know is that Supers are about hitting hard and tanking hits, and Reals are about mobility and accuracy. With that out of the way, let’s actually talk about stats!

On the topmost “box”, we have our character’s name on the top left, next to their portrait. to the right of that, we have their Level. Unlike Fire Emblem, stat growths in SRW tend to be static, and two different players’ save games will always have characters with the same stats if they’re at the same level. SRW R takes this a step further by standardizing stat growths; every level, every single one of the character’s core stats (shown on the box below this one) grows by 1, except SP, which grows by 2. By the endgame, most of your main squad will probably be hovering around Levels 40-45. Below their Level, we have how much experience they need to level up again, noted by the english word NEXT. 

To the left of that, we have the pilots’ Willpower (気力). Willpower is incredibly important! It serves to emulate the Super Robot tradition of your robot becoming stronger just by you being more motivated, and certain moves are locked behind high Willpower, to emulate episodic anime conventions such as a robot having a canned finishing move that it won’t use until the end of the episode (or just for game balance reasons). On top of that, as a general rule, for every 10 Will above the default 100, you gain a 5-10% boost to dealt damage and reduction to incoming damage. From some incredibly surface-level testing, it seems to be around a 6.5% boost in SRW R. Of course, for every 10 points below the default 100, the opposite debuffs apply, but outside of scripted events, it’s rather rare for your units’ willpower to dip too far below 100 in SRW R. 

Now let’s look at the box below. On the top left, we have the Melee (格闘) stat, which affects the damage of Melee-attribute attacks (beam sabers, swords, punches, and even some moves that might look like they belong under Ranged-attribute but belong to melee-centric machines, such as Mazinger Z's Breast Fire); below it, the Ranged (射撃) stat, which does the same for Ranged-attribute attacks (beams, beam rifles, bazookas, guns, etc).

On the second column, we have Defense (防御), which is self explanatory, alongside Skill (技量), which governs how often you land critical hits; the higher it is in relation to your opponent, the easier it is for a critical hit to occur. Crits add a 1.25 multiplier to your final damage, and the formula for the base critical hit rate is the rather simple “attacker’s Skill - defender’s Skill”, though this usually gets compounded upon by various modifiers. In certain games, the Skill stat affects the activation rates of certain defensive actions, such as Counter, Shoot Down, Cut Away, or Shield Defense, but in SRW R, those are entirely determined by the level of the Pilot Skill (not to be confused with the pilot’s Skill stat) associated with the action.

On the third and final column, we have Evasion (回避) and Accuracy (命中), which are also rather self-explanatory. The Evasion stat has a little + symbol displaying Raul’s current unit’s Mobility stat, which is a holdover from back when machines had a Limit stat, which served as a hard limit to the sum of a pilot’s Evasion and the machine’s Mobility. It was used to emulate plot ploints such as Amuro growing too skilled for the (already rather fine-tuned) Gundam’s reaction speed, but in practice it was kind of a hassle to contend with.

Below these six core stats, to the bottom left we have the pilot’s Max SP, next to the pilots’ Spirit Commands (精神). Spirit Commands are basically little spells that act as handy little effects that’ll help your unit, such as healing, extra movement speed, extra damage, etc. These serve to help emulate moments in mecha anime such as a burst of motivation leading a previously unsuccessful move to work, or a robot sustaining serious damage but continuing to function for longer than it should out of sheer determination on the pilot’s part. SP is the resource you cast these with, and some of the more powerful commands can have costs up to 80 or more SP. There’s few convenient ways to regain SP, so managing where and when to use your spirit commands is a big part of the strategy in SRW.

On page 2 of our stats, we can see our pilot’s Pilot Skills, and on the little rectangle on the top right, their Killcount. Not much point in delving deep into Pilot Skills yet, as our protag here only has one and most of them are complex enough to warrant their own “Hows & Whys'' posts later down the line, but the Killcount is a bit important; once you reach 50, the character gets a little A symbol on their status screen, signifying their status as an Ace Pilot. Aces deploy with 5 more Willpower by default, which isn’t the biggest gamechanger, but it’s nice to have regardless. In SRW R, the pilots with the highest 10 Killcounts among your army will also get hefty bonuses to their stats upon starting a New Game +, but… I wouldn't recommend doing more than one or two loops of NG+ in this game due to a pretty funny glitch that I'll explain much later.

This about wraps up our look into pilot stats, but tune in an hour from now for a deep dive into our mechs’ stats!

[vikochub]

Creating Impactful Online Courses: A Guide for TikTok Creators

The rise of online learning has revolutionized how people gain new skills and knowledge, with platforms like Udemy, Coursera, and Skillshare leading the charge. For TikTok creators, this trend offers an incredible opportunity to harness their influence and deliver in-depth, structured learning experiences that go beyond the fleeting 60-second videos they’re known for. By creating online courses, you can provide your audience with valuable, actionable content while opening up new streams of income. Whether you’re a fitness guru, a DIY expert, or a makeup artist, this guide will walk you through the process of designing and launching impactful online courses that captivate your followers and turn your expertise into profit.

Understanding Your Audience

Before you start building your course, you need to know who you’re creating it for. Your TikTok followers already love your content, but what exactly do they want to dive deeper into? To find out, start by reviewing your most popular videos—look at the likes, comments, and shares to spot patterns. Are your dance tutorials getting the most traction, or is it your budgeting hacks? Next, use TikTok’s analytics to dig into your audience demographics and behavior. Don’t stop there—engage directly with your followers by running polls in your stories, asking questions in your video captions, or responding to comments. For example, you might ask, “What’s one skill you’d pay to learn from me?” Their answers will guide you toward a course topic they’re eager to invest in. The key is alignment: the more your course matches their needs, the more likely they’ll enroll.

Planning Your Course

Once you’ve pinpointed your audience’s interests, it’s time to map out your course. Choose a topic that showcases your strengths and solves a problem for your followers. If you’re a TikTok fashion influencer, a course like “Building a Capsule Wardrobe on a Budget” might resonate. Break your topic into bite-sized modules—think of these as chapters in a book. Each module should tackle a specific aspect of the topic, and within each, create lessons with clear goals. For instance, a module on “Wardrobe Essentials” could include lessons like “Picking Timeless Pieces,” “Mixing and Matching,” and “Shopping Smart.” Define what students will learn in each lesson, such as “By the end, you’ll know how to pair five items into ten outfits.” This structure keeps your course organized and helps learners feel a sense of progress. Add a quick quiz or checklist at the end of each module to lock in their learning.

Creating Engaging Content

Your course content needs to educate and entertain—just like your TikTok videos. Start by scripting each lesson to keep your delivery tight and focused. Avoid winging it; a clear outline ensures you hit all the important points. Bring your personality into the lessons with storytelling—maybe share how you once struggled with a skill before mastering it, or highlight a follower’s success story. Visuals are crucial too. Use slides, graphics, or even live demos to break down tricky concepts. If you’re teaching photography, show before-and-after edits on screen. Keep videos short—5 to 10 minutes per lesson—to match your audience’s attention span. Spice things up with interactive elements: a quiz to test their knowledge, a mini-assignment like “Film a 15-second TikTok using this tip,” or a discussion prompt to spark conversation. Accessibility matters, so add captions or transcripts to reach everyone.

Marketing Your Course

A stellar course won’t sell itself—you’ve got to get the word out. TikTok is your secret weapon here. Drop teaser videos showing off what students will learn, like a 30-second clip of you demonstrating a key lesson. Share behind-the-scenes peeks of your recording process to build excitement, and sweeten the deal with a limited-time discount for your followers. Use trending sounds and hashtags to boost discoverability—#LearnOnTikTok could be a winner. Don’t stop at TikTok, though. Cross-promote on Instagram with a carousel post or on Twitter with a thread about your course’s value. Build an email list (even a small one) and send updates with testimonials from early students or a countdown to launch day. Partnering with another creator can amplify your reach—imagine a shoutout from a fellow TikToker with a similar audience. Marketing isn’t a one-and-done task; keep the buzz going post-launch with fresh promo ideas.

Delivering and Improving Your Course

When your course goes live, your job shifts to delivering an amazing experience. Stay connected with your students—host a live Q&A on TikTok or Instagram to answer questions, or reply to their messages personally. Set up a simple community space, like a private Facebook group or Discord server, where they can chat and share progress. Ask for feedback early and often—send a quick survey after the first module or invite suggestions in a casual “What’s working for you?” video. If multiple students say a lesson’s too fast-paced, slow it down or add extra examples. Keep your course alive by refreshing it over time—maybe add a bonus module based on new trends or update outdated tips. This keeps your content relevant and gives past students a reason to spread the word. Happy learners become your cheerleaders, driving word-of-mouth sales.

Creating an online course lets you share your expertise, strengthen your bond with your audience, and build a sustainable income—all while doing what you love. By understanding your followers, planning a solid course, crafting engaging lessons, marketing smartly, and refining based on feedback, you’ll create something truly valuable. It’s not just about teaching; it’s about empowering your TikTok community to grow with you. Ready to start? Platforms like VIKOC make it easy to host and sell your course, offering tools tailored for creators like you. Take the leap—your audience is waiting!

[swldx]

RNZ Pacific 1309 28 Nov 2024

7390Khz 1259 28 NOV 2024- RNZ PACIFIC (NEW ZEALAND) in ENGLISH from RANGITAIKI. SINPO = 54333. English, s/on w/bellbird int. until pips and news @1300z anchored by Lydia Lewis. § A new study on plastic consumption warns that business as usual will result in nearly double the amount of plastic pollution. World leaders, including the Pacific, are currently meeting in South Korea to try agree on a new international treaty to fight plastic pollution. Neil Nathan, one of the authors of the study, Pathways to reduce global plastic waste mismanagement and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which was published in the journal Science, said business as usual means plastic waste will continue to grow exponentially. § Tongan Prime Minister Hu'akavameliku Siaosi Sovaleni is facing a second vote of no confidence next week. The prime minister has pointed out that this is happening just 11 months before the next election, which would leave a new government little time to do anything before parliament is dissolved ahead of the poll. The vote was instigated by 'Aisake Eke, who also initiated a similar motion last year. Hu'akavameliku easily defeated the previous vote. § The son of Fiji's former prime minister Frank Bainimarama has been sentenced to 28 months in jail after violently attacking an ex-girlfriend in Sydney, leaving her with a ruptured ear drum. § In Fiji, funding for baiting of homes from the infestation of termites will be made available to families with income less than $30,000 after Cabinet endorsed the expansion of the termite baiting programme. § A "huge" police presence is in the small Bay of Plenty community of Matapihi as Mongrel Mob gang members gather for the tangi of one of their own. According to local reporter for Aukaha News, Ripeka Timutimu, the community has responded to the influx of police with mixed views - but the majority are angry, and say there was not enough consultation about how big the operation was going to be. The tangi comes just a week after a new law was introduced, banning gang members from wearing patches and gang insignia in public. § US President-elect Donald Trump's vow to impose tariffs on China and Mexico unless they stem the flow of fentanyl and migrants across the US border could impel deeper cooperation from those governments on drug policing, experts said. § A new clinical trial has unveiled a promising way to treat severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) attacks. The study, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, indicates that an injection of benralizumab could work better than the current steroid tablet treatment. Researchers have hailed this development as the first significant breakthrough in managing these chronic lung conditions in over 50 years. § Sports. @1308z "Pacific Waves" anchored by female announcer. QRM=slight heterodyne. Backyard fence antenna, JRC NRD-535D. 100kW, beamAz 35°, bearing 240°. Received at Plymouth, MN, United States, 12912KM from transmitter at Rangitaiki. Local time: 0659.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Knefel at MMFA:

Fox News personalities have continued to mislead their audience into thinking that President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans aren't considering massive cuts to Medicaid, even as both chambers have advanced budget plans that would require billions in reductions to the program in order to offset tax cuts for the wealthy. As Fox’s coverage suggests, those budget plans are unpopular even among Trump supporters. A new poll from MAGA-friendly firm Fabrizio Ward, whose co-founder served as Trump’s 2024 campaign pollster, found that a majority of Trump voters and two-thirds of swing voters oppose slashing Medicaid to fund Trump’s tax cuts. That level of disapproval helps explain why Fox News and other right-wing media outlets have spent the first several months of Trump’s second term claiming the health insurance program for low income individuals and people with disabilities is safe from Republican austerity measures, despite all evidence to the contrary.    The obfuscation from conservative media comes amid Congress’ ongoing efforts to draft a budget for the next fiscal year. On February 26, the House of Representatives passed a budget outline calling for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts — overwhelmingly favoring rich people — and $880 billion in reductions to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid. The plan didn’t specifically call for cuts to Medicaid, but outside experts and the Congressional Budget Office, which provides nonpartisan analysis of federal spending, found that drastic reductions to Medicaid or Medicare would be necessary to meet the GOP’s requirements.  The Senate responded with its own budget plan, passed on April 5, which reportedly directed the same House committee to enact the same amount of cuts in spending — therefore placing Medicaid at risk. (As of Thursday morning, the House had failed to advance the Senate resolution.)  Over the past month — following the release of the CBO’s report — Fox News continued to mislead viewers, claiming that Trump and Congressional Republicans are not considering major cuts to Medicaid. The defenses of Medicaid that Fox personalities have offered, such as they are, should be taken with a high degree of skepticism given that many at the network have also called for cuts to the program.

[...] Levin’s arguments, though common in right-wing media, are deeply misleading. In general, undocumented people are barred from accessing Medicaid, except in some emergency situations — which makes up less than one percent of total Medicaid spending. Furthermore, almost two-thirds of working-aged people on Medicaid are already working, and many of those who aren’t in the formal workforce are taking care of a family member, have a disability, or are in school. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that imposing work requirements on Medicaid recipients puts up to 36 million people at risk of losing their coverage.   

Fox “News” keeps pushing the myth that Donald Trump isn’t a threat to Medicaid. In reality, Trump and the GOP are supporting cuts to Medicaid.

[mariacallous]

Early results in one of two votes that will help decide Moldova's future give pro-Europe incumbent President Maia Sandu a lead over pro-Russia Socialist Alexandr Stoianoglo in a battle of 11 candidates likely to lead to a runoff election next month.

Preliminary results after counting 35 percent of the vote on October 20 put Sandu at nearly 35 percent, with Stoianoglo at 29 percent, while Renato Usatii, the populist former mayor of Moldova's second-largest city of Balti, had 15 percent, according to the Central Election Commission.

If no candidate receives over 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be staged between the two leading vote-getters on November 3.

Observers cautioned that the early results are likely from diaspora sites in Russia and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union, meaning Sandu's lead could increase as votes from Moldova itself are counted.

Also being voted on is a referendum, proposed by Sandu, asking the 3.3 million Moldovan voters at home and abroad whether they "support the amendment of the constitution with a view to the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union."

Early results after counting 46 percent of the vote gave the "no" vote the lead with 56 percent, but incoming ballots could also reverse that situation, observers said. Polls closed at 9 p.m. local time and election officials began announcing preliminary results about an hour later.

Moldova's crucial dual election will help decide whether the nation's future will feature closer ties to Europe and the West or turn more toward Russia following a campaign marred by allegations of Kremlin meddling to get its desired result.

Election officials said turnout in the EU referendum passed the required 33 percent level, reaching nearing 50 percent, or more than 1.48 million votes.

In the presidential election, turnout surpassed 51.4 percent, or more than 1.56 million votes, as long lines were reported at some polling stations in Moldova and at sites outside the country, including France, Romania, Russia, and Greece.

Because of the lines, voting time was extended in parts of the diaspora. In Bucharest, polls were to remain open until 11 p.m., officials there said.

A delegation of electoral observers from more than a dozen countries helped to monitor the two polls in Moldova.

Moldovan and foreign warnings of alleged Russian meddling ranging from disinformation to vote-buying, co-opting sympathetic Moldovans, and channeling money to encourage unrest after the election have underscored the value that Chisinau and the international community place on the importance of free and fair -- and peaceful -- voting.

Front-running incumbent Sandu faced 10 presidential challengers led by Stoianoglo and populist Usatii in the poor former Soviet republic's third direct presidential election, as it navigates polarization at home and war to its east in Ukraine.

After casting her ballot, Sandu said by voting today Moldovans "can preserve peace and stability" in the tiny country, adding, "Moldovans must determine their own destiny" without "lies and dirty money."

The votes could provide valuable lessons for Sandu's allies and the opposition ahead of parliamentary elections next summer that will be a referendum on four years of rule by the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) that she founded eight years ago.

Moldova’s presidency holds limited direct power but Sandu has parlayed her pro-Western message and leverage with the liberal PAS into limited reforms and formal EU candidacy for her fractured former Soviet republic.

One of her most ambitious moves has been eliminating landlocked Moldova's reliance on Russian natural gas since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but that has contributed to inflation and other economic hardship for many of Moldova's 2.4 million residents.

Recent polling showed Sandu at 30-35 percent support, well ahead of Stoianoglo, whom she dismissed last year, at 9 percent and ex-Mayor Usatii, who says he wants greater balance between East and West in foreign policy, at 6 percent.

Many voters interviewed by RFE/RL outside polling stations in the capital, Chisinau, appeared to favor pro-Europe policies.

"I voted for a prosperous future for our country, for a better path, for a European path, for the development of our country. We've been stagnating for so many years," one man told RFE/RL.

Another male voter said he was casting his ballot "for the future of our children, for the young people, for a better life, and for a European future.”

A woman told RFE/RL said she voted "for the country's well-being, so that our children don't have to wander from one country to another. So that we can live like [we are] in Europe."

Aside from stark warnings by local officials, including Moldova's foreign minister, U.S. and other Western officials have pointed fingers at Russia, in July citing "very clear action by the Russians to undermine this upcoming election and referendum."

Russia, which maintains hundreds of troops at a former Soviet base in Moldova's heavily Russian-speaking breakaway region of Transdniester, denies intruding on the Moldovan vote.

Since his party was banned by the government and then the Moldovan Constitutional Court last year for allegedly fomenting a coup, convicted oligarch Ilan Shor has been accused of a multimillion-dollar scheme to pay anti-EU voters and influencers and been linked to other schemes from his Russian exile to promote Russia among Moldovans and foment dissatisfaction with their government.

Days before the voting, authorities said they arrested four people and warned that dozens more had been trained in Russia and the Balkans to “destabilize” the country after the vote.

Recent weeks have seen a flurry of conspicuous diplomatic support for the pro-EU cause in Moldova, highlighted by visiting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's announcement of nearly $2 billion of EU investment to help "double the size of your economy in a decade."

"It is your sovereign choice what to do with your country, and no one can interfere," von der Leyen said in Chisinau on October 10. "Of course, speaking as president of the European Commission, I believe that Moldova's place is in our European Union."

Denis Cenusa, an analyst with the Expert-Grup at the University of Giessen, suggested at a Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) event last week that the referendum was an effort to make up for years spent “oscillating between two vectors,” one toward EU membership and the other envisaging a more balanced international engagement that would almost certainly lead to closer relations with Moscow.

The amendments at issue in the constitutional referendum would include confirmation in the preamble of Moldovans' "European identity," the "irreversibility of the European courts" of the country, and integration as a national "strategic objective."

It would also add a section allowing for accession on the basis of a majority vote in Moldova's 101-member parliament.

At least 1.1 million voters must participate in the referendum to make it valid, a figure surpassed by early evening.

A "no" vote in the referendum would not preclude future membership, but it would deal a serious blow to Sandu and her pro-EU allies and almost certainly forestall accession efforts for years to come.

[bllsbailey]

Biden Set to Address Nation After Trump's Decisive Victory

President Joe Biden was set to address the nation Thursday after a stinging election defeat for his Democratic Party at the hands of Republican Donald Trump, whose stunning political comeback has reverberated around the world.

Biden, who was replaced in July as the Democrats' candidate in the race by Vice President Kamala Harris because of concerns about his mental acuity after a stumbling debate with Trump, will speak at 11:00 a.m. ET, the White House said.

Harris sought Wednesday to console the voters who had hoped she would become the first woman to win the White House. She, like Biden, has promised to aid Trump's transition between now and his inauguration Jan. 20 but said she was not prepared to embrace his vision for the country.

Trump's campaign said Biden had invited him to a meeting at the White House at an unspecified time.

Trump's victory, surprisingly decisive after opinion polls that had showed a neck-and-neck contest ahead of Tuesday's election, underscored how disenchanted Americans had become with the economy – in particular the effect of inflation on their standard of living – border security and the direction of the country and its culture.

Hispanics, traditionally Democrat voters, and lower-income households hit hardest by inflation helped fuel the victory. Harris' campaign had sought to press the message that Trump was unfit to serve again as president, as a convicted felon and one whose false claims of voting fraud after his 2020 election defeat spurred a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol.

This time, Trump prevailed in five of the seven battleground states to push him past the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency and was leading in the remaining two, Arizona and Nevada, where votes were still being tallied.

He was also on track to become the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote since George W. Bush two decades ago.

Republicans wrested control of the U.S. Senate from Democrats, ensuring Trump will control at least one chamber of Congress next year. It is not clear if they will retain their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, with dozens of races not yet called.

U.S. stocks rallied to close at record highs Wednesday after Trump's victory, with investors expecting lower taxes, deregulation and a U.S. president who is not shy to weigh in on everything from the stock market to the dollar, although fresh tariffs could bring challenges in the form of a higher deficit and inflation.

Personnel Picks

In the days and weeks ahead, Trump will select personnel to serve under his leadership, his campaign said Wednesday.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a prominent Trump donor, has been promised a role in his administration, as has former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson were seen as possible new entrants to his administration, while former Trump officials Robert O'Brien and Mike Pompeo could return to office. However, a source said Wednesday that Dimon would remain at the bank and had no plans to join Trump's administration.

On trade, Trump is expected to revive policies he favored during his first term, notably tariffs that he has called the "most beautiful word."

That could set him on a collision course with China, which has the world's second largest economy, sow discord with allies and roil global industries from automakers to chipmakers.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent Trump a congratulatory message and said he hopes the two powers will coexist peacefully and achieve win-win cooperation, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among world leaders congratulating Trump. But Trump has been critical of Biden's assistance for Ukraine in its war with Russia. He has said he could end the war in 24 hours but has not offered a detailed plan.

The White House plans to rush billions of dollars in security assistance to Ukraine before Biden leaves office in January, sources said Wednesday, hoping to shore up the government in Kyiv before Trump takes over.