#the rich and robust history of how much those two things can and should be able to coexist

[knowlesian]

Serious Art and humor cannot coexist in fiction without the second cheapening the first is one of those takes that makes me want to put my head through a wall

[hellomynameisbisexual]

SOME 2 PERCENT of men in the U.S. identify as bisexual. But, for decades, some sexuality researchers have questioned whether true bisexual orientation exists in men.

In 2005, J. Michael Bailey, a sexuality researcher at Northwestern University, and two colleagues showed men who identify as bisexual brief pornographic clips featuring men or women, while measuring their subjects’ self-reported arousal and change in penis circumference. The results, when compared to men who identified as straight or gay, led them to conclude that the men identifying as bisexual did not actually have “strong genital arousal to both male and female sexual stimuli.” This was in contrast to work on sexual arousal in women, which showed that they — whether identifying as straight or gay — were physically aroused by both male and female stimuli.

A New York Times headline covering Bailey’s 2005 study on men declared: “Straight, Gay, or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited.”

But the paper also spurred more research into the subject — some of which has now led Bailey to revise his conclusions. In a paper published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Bailey and 12 colleagues reanalyzed data from eight previously published studies of bisexual-identified men, including the 2005 paper. The new review finds that men who reported attraction to both men and women do in fact show genital arousal towards both male and female stimuli. The data, the authors conclude, offers “robust evidence for bisexual orientation among men.”

The PNAS study has drawn positive coverage and received praise from some activists, who see it as valuable confirmation for an often-marginalized sexual identity. But it has also received backlash from other scientists and many bisexual people, some of whom argue that in attempting to prove, based on genital arousal, that bisexuality exists, researchers are discounting bisexual people’s lived experiences. It has also reignited a broader debate over the ethics of human sexuality research — and about what role, if any, scientists should play in validating the experiences of queer people.

For his part, Bailey defended the research, arguing that the phenomenon of bisexuality ought to be studied in order to be understood. “If we let the possibility that somebody is offended — particularly some identity group is offended — guide us in terms of what research we do,” he said, “we just won’t learn things, including about very interesting and important topics.”

John Sylla, an co-author on the paper and the president of the American Institute of Bisexuality (AIB), a private foundation that funded some of the research covered in the re-analysis, said it was simply part of the process of science self-correcting. “It’s frankly one more step towards making bisexuality cool, assumed, and normal,” Sylla told Undark.

But others don’t find the study so benign. “The word that immediately sprang to my mind was condescending — and unnecessary,” said Greg Albery, a disease ecologist at Georgetown University who identifies as bisexual.

“I worry most about establishing the premise that in order for people’s sexualities or identities of any sort to be valid,” he added, “they need to be first scientifically proven.”

FOR YEARS, SEX researchers have held differing opinions those who report strong attraction to people of multiple genders. “Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual,” the pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey wrote in 1948. “The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats.”

But some researchers questioned whether bisexual men actually had substantial arousal to both male and female erotic stimuli, hypothesizing that bisexual-identified men were actually homosexual, and only claiming to be bisexual because it hewed closer to heterosexuality and, as a result, felt more socially acceptable. Starting in the 1970s, some researchers tried to bring concrete data to the question through a technique called plethysmography, which measures the change in volume or circumference of an organ or other part of the body.

In penile plethysmography, researchers typically use a circular strain gauge — essentially a small circle of rubber tubing, filled with a liquid conductor and connected to sensors — to measure changes in circumference of the penis. In the studies included in the new PNAS review, researchers instructed men on how to hook their penises up to a plethysmography device, then showed them pornographic videos and measured their genital arousal.

Critics of this method argue that it produces a highly artificial scenario: A participant is in an unfamiliar setting, with a strain gauge fastened around his penis, watching brief clips of porn that have been selected by someone else. They question how much this setup can tell researchers about real-world sexuality.

“It’s frankly one more step towards making bisexuality cool, assumed, and normal,” Sylla said.

Penile plethysmography also has a fraught history. Immigration officials in some countries have used it to test if gay-identified asylum seekers really were gay, and it’s still used by some U.S. courts to assess sex offenders’ attraction to children.

Nevertheless, some researchers have argued that the technique is useful for quantifying sexual arousal. And some early attempts to apply it to bisexual men suggested that their genital arousal diverged from their reported experiences. In Bailey’s influential 2005 study, for example, even though men reported being aroused by both male and female stimuli, their genitals seemed to prefer one or the other.

The study included just 33 men who identified as bisexual, and among these, only 22 produced sufficient arousal to any erotic stimuli to be included in the final result. Later studies would produce conflicting findings, and Lauren Beach, a research assistant professor studying stigma and LGBT health at Northwestern University and a founding member of the Bisexual Research Collective on Health, said that in making such a strong conclusion from a study with so few participants, the 2005 analysis amounted to “shoddy science.”

By drawing on a bigger dataset than in previous research, the new PNAS paper aimed to offer more definitive evidence than those individual studies. Nevertheless, it almost immediately ran into criticism from other researchers. In particular, many argued that the paper blurred the lines between genital arousal and sexual orientation — a concept that, many experts say, is more complex than a physical response. Sexual orientation “has multiple facets,” said Corey Flanders, an assistant professor at Mount Holyoke College who studies health disparities in gender and sexual minority individuals. “It’s not just this physiological arousal measured by pupil dilation or genital arousal,” she said.

“Sexual orientation is a really broad and rich construct,” she added.

Jeremy Jabbour, a Ph.D. student in clinical psychology at Northwestern University and a lead author on the paper, said that he sympathizes with those criticisms. Jabbour, who himself identifies as queer, said that there was some disagreement between himself and the more senior authors about how the data should be presented. “There was a little back-and-forth about how we wanted to frame the paper, what the title should be, what kind of terminology we should use,” he told Undark. “I lost that battle.”

The use of the term “sexual orientation” in the paper, Jabbour said, was meant only to indicate patterns of genital arousal, and he thought it would be “very clear that we’re not talking about sexual orientation as a broader phenomenon.” But, he acknowledged, “that very clearly wasn’t the case.”

Bailey, who is no stranger to controversy, defended the team’s choice of terminology. “If a man produces a clear arousal pattern in our procedure, I trust that result more than I trust what that man says about his feelings,” he said, adding that he believes “that for men, the best understanding of sexual orientation is a sexual arousal pattern.”

To explain the rationale for physiological studies of arousal in bisexual men, Bailey invoked an old saying about bisexual men. “My gay friends, some of them, would say that you’re either gay, straight, or lying,” Bailey said. “I think that they often said this because they themselves went through a stage where they said they were bisexual, and they weren’t really.”

Other sex researchers, however, questioned whether measuring arousal can be used to confirm a person’s sexual orientation, noting that sexual orientation is complex and multidimensional. “We know that peoples’ attractions aren’t always conventional, and different things pique different peoples’ interests,” said Brian Feinstein, another sexuality researcher at Northwestern.

Beach, who uses they/them pronouns, agreed. “Who decides what is arousing?” they asked. “Like ‘you must be turned on by this video and if you’re not, you must be gay?’”

THE BACKLASH reflects a long history of debate over the role that scientific research should play in advocacy for queer communities.

Historically, advocates have drawn on the idea that an LGBT identity is innate to argue for marriage equality and against conversion therapies that claim to change sexual orientation — and that, experts say, are both fraudulent and deeply harmful. Surveys have suggested that people who believe sexual orientation is biologically determined are more supportive of gay rights than those who believe it is a choice.

Sylla and the American Institute of Bisexuality, which was founded by the human sexuality researcher Fritz Klein in 1998, have embraced that approach. The foundation focuses on research, education, and community building, and it runs websites such as Bi.org and Queer Majority. Sylla first reached out to Bailey after the 2005 study, and he told Bailey that AIB might be interested in funding further research. Six of the eight studies in the new PNAS analysis received funding from the organization.

“Who decides what is arousing?,”Beach asked. “Like ‘you must be turned on by this video and if you’re not, you must be gay?’”

“Sexuality has had such a bumpy ride with politics and morality,” Sylla said. “And some people thinking that orientation is a choice. It can perhaps be helpful to show people non-judgmental evidence that, in terms of science, people just have different appetites.”

In recent years, though, as LGBT people have gained wider rights in American society, more advocates and researchers have questioned why they need scientific evidence to validate their experiences of attraction and arousal. “I can understand the desire for AIB and for other bisexual people broadly to want to correct that narrative, to be like, ‘Oh, this research exists and I think it’s wrong, and I have the means and resources to try to step in and help generate a different narrative that more accurately reflects my existence, my truth,’” said Flanders of the AIB response to the 2005 study.

But Flanders is skeptical of the value that the research has for the bisexual community in 2020. “I think I feel similarly to a lot of other bisexual people and bisexual activists around the idea of: Is this a question that we actually need to ask in this way?” she said. “Can’t we take people’s word for it that an individual who identifies as bisexual is bisexual, and therefore bisexual men exist? It’s pretty simple and straightforward.”

Even though the study concluded that male bisexuality existed, “just by deeming it a necessary question, you’re immediately undermining the status of a massive group of people,” said Albery, the Georgetown researcher. Increasingly, Beach, Flanders, and Feinstein all said, human sexuality researchers take it as an accepted premise that bisexuality is a sexual orientation.

And, Beach argues, research questions that seem to doubt bisexual experience can themselves be harmful. “There are psychological studies that show denial and erasure of bisexual people’s sexual orientation,” they said, “causes direct psychological harm to bisexual people.”

“Can’t we take people’s word for it that an individual who identifies as bisexual is bisexual, and therefore bisexual men exist? It’s pretty simple and straightforward.”

Bailey, who has faced such criticisms before, continues to defend his research. “I inhabit a different world. And my world is the world that knowledge is good,” he said.

His research, he added, “has done a lot to de-stigmatize various groups over the years.” Groups expressing offense, he argues, have harmed the field: “I’ve been an academic since 1989. This is the worst time I have ever experienced as a scientist.”

Other researchers think the picture is less bleak. In a follow-up email to Undark, Flanders argued that, when people express offense at research, it can actually make science better, by pushing scientists to account for “a greater array of experience and perspectives.” Some sexuality research, she argued, seems mostly concerned with questioning whether some fundamental part of a person’s identity is real — an approach, she said, that forces queer people “to engage in an academic debate about their personhood.”

Instead, Flanders said scientists should question traditional assumptions about sexuality and center the lived experiences of marginalized people. “I do not believe that people being offended has made the world worse,” she wrote. “I believe people speaking out against systems of oppression is, again, essential to scientific progress.”

[longitudinalwaveme]

Playing With Fire

The Flash stars in: Playing with Fire  

Dramatis Personae

Wally West, the energetic and cheerful third Flash

Iris Allen, a charismatic reporter, the wife of Barry Allen, and the aunt of Wally

Heat Wave, alias Mick Rory, a dim witted and surprisingly friendly pyromaniac

The Pied Piper, alias Hartley Rathaway, a Robin Hood-esque thief

Mirror Master I, alias Sam Scudder, a melodramatic thief and talented inventor

Script

Act I

(Iris is onstage, writing. Enter Wally)

Wally: Hi, Aunt Iris!

Iris: (Looks up from her paper) Hi, Wally! What’s up?

Wally: I was just dropping by to see my favorite aunt.

Iris: Well, it’s nice to see you. How’s my favorite nephew?

Wally: Aunt Iris, I’m your only nephew.

Iris: So? Can’t you be both? (Wally nods)

Wally: I’m doing great! How are you?

Iris: Wonderful! You see, I’m writing this terrific exposé on corruption in the mayor’s office, and my editor really thinks it could win me an award-maybe even a Pulitzer!

Wally: Wow, Aunt Iris, that’s awesome! The award, I mean, not that there’s corruption in the mayor’s office. I always knew you’d be world-famous someday!

Iris: In speaking of world famous, is there anything new on the superhero front?

Wally: Surprisingly, no. I haven’t heard anything from any of the Rogues for more than a month. It’s kind of nice to have a break, honestly.

Iris: I’m sure Linda and the kids appreciate it, too.

Wally: Yeah, it’s been great! It’s always nice to have more time to spend with them, especially since, with my speed, we’ve been able to tour half of Europe’s museums.

Iris: I never thought of you as a culture buff.

Wally: You don’t know everything about me! I mean, part of my charm comes from my air of exotic mystery! (Iris laughs)

Iris: The tour was Linda’s idea.

Wally: (Sighs) Yeah, it was her idea. How did you know?

Iris: Because you’re a terrible liar. Seriously, “my air of exotic mystery”? The only thing remotely mysterious about you is how you thought that that would be a convincing story.

Wally: All right, you’ve got me there. (Pause) But museums are so boring! Nothing ever changes, and everyone moves so slowly! In the time it takes Linda to look at one statue, the kids and I could  speed through the museum a hundred times, but we aren’t allowed to! It’s like watching sports, only a thousand times worse! It’s just too slow!

Iris: Everything is too slow for you, Wally.

Wally: I can’t help it! I’m a speedster!

Iris: So are Barry and Jay, and I’ve never heard them complain about museums. I don’t think this is a speedster problem. I think this is a Wally problem.

Wally: Because I’m impatient?

Iris: Well, yes, but also because you got your speed much younger than Jay and Barry did. Your uncle thinks that because of that, your powers had a greater effect on your body and your mind than it did on theirs-and that your kids will probably be even more affected than you are because their powers are natural.

Wally: Oh, joy. I’ll never be able to deal with two mes on steroids for fifteen years!

Iris: Look, if I was able to deal with a ten-year-old you with no powers, you should definitely be able to deal with your kids. You’ll be fine.

Wally: If you say so, Aunt Iris.

Iris: I do. If you can save the world, you can do this.

Wally: I think saving the world is easier.

Iris: So, what are Linda and the kids up to now?

Wally: They’re at the library. Linda’s been taking Jai and Irey to Storytime for about a year now, and they seem to like it. The only complaint I’ve heard is that they enter and leave the library way too quickly, but given their powers, that might be unavoidable, at least for awhile.

Iris: I’m glad your kids like the library. Bart avoids it like everyone in it has the plague.

Wally: Even with all the great comic books there?

Iris: Yes. He just seems to hate books on principle. He says that he has trouble processing words because his eyes move too fast for him to fully comprehend what he’s seeing. Did you ever experience that?

Wally: All the time! It was lucky that I liked to read books before I got my powers, because otherwise I’d probably never have opened a book again. Speedster brains work so much faster than average that if we don’t focus, it’s basically impossible to read anything, and since he was in the Speed Force for such a long time, Bart probably never learned how to focus. If you want him to read more, you’ll have to teach him how to focus first.

Iris: Could I employ your help on that?

Wally: Of course! Who do you think taught my kids how to focus?

Iris: Thanks, Wally. Barry’s been trying to help him, but Barry loves to read, and, like I said, he got his powers in his twenties. His brain chemistry isn’t as altered by his powers as Bart’s brain chemistry is by his.

Wally: Hey, no problem. What else are favorite nephews for?

Iris: In your case? Comedic relief.

Wally: Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week!

Iris: (Laughs) Never change, Wally. Never change.

Wally: I’m not planning to, Aunt Iris. (Pause) Hey, are you hungry?

Iris: No, but I’d imagine that you are. Do you want to get a mid morning snack?

Wally: Aunt Iris, you read my mind. Let’s go eat!

(Exit Both)

Act II

(Pied Piper is onstage, playing an instrument. Enter Mirror Master and Heat Wave)

Heat Wave: (To Mirror Master) See, Scudder? I told you he’d be here!

Mirror Master: (To Heat Wave) How did you manage to find him? Even the Flash can’t find him when he doesn’t want to be found!

Heat Wave:  It ain’t really that hard, Sam. Our little buddy over there’s a bleeding heart, so when he ain’t with us and ain’t  in jail, he’s almost always on or near Baker Street.

Mirror Master: What does the Piper want with Skid Row?

Heat Wave: Where’s Skid Row? I just told you that this is Baker Street!

Mirror Master: (Sighs) It’s a figure of speech, Mick. “Skid Row” is just a term for a rundown, dirt-poor neighborhood like this one. Why would the Piper come here?

Heat Wave: Because it’s rundown and poor. Don’t you know that Piper gives everything he steals to poor people?

Mirror Master: Well, yeah, I know, but I didn’t think he lived with them.

Heat Wave: He lives with us , don’t he?

Mirror Master: We aren’t poor!

Heat Wave: Scudder, both of us are high school dropouts. Neither of us has ever had a legal job. We almost never get to spend the money we steal ‘cause the Flash busts us before we can. I grew up in a one-story, two-bedroom farmhouse, and you grew up….hey, you grew up here! In what world are we not poor?

Mirror Master: I had a Ferrari….

Heat Wave: That you stole. And that the Flash returned to its original owner after three days.

Mirror Master: Not the point! I’m the most skilled inventor on the planet! I invented solid holograms and teleportation and a weapons system more sophisticated than any army’s! I discovered another dimension, for Pete’s sake! I’m not poor! (Piper stops playing)

Heat Wave: You’ve never made money off of none of that, Sam. I know you’re real smart-I’m just saying that neither of us is real rich.  

Mirror Master: Okay, maybe not, but I’m not living in the slums.  

Heat Wave: Yeah, because prison is so much better.

Pied Piper: The two of you are aware that I can hear you, correct?

Mirror Master: HOW?

Pied Piper: My parents spent 20 million dollars on ‘curing’ my deafness with hearing aids, and they received their money’s worth. My hearing range goes up to 45,000 hertz, about the same as a dog’s, and is generally extremely acute. I hear everything, and even if I did not, you two were not exactly being quiet. (Pause) Why are you looking for me?

Mirror Master: Wait….your parents spent twenty million for one operation?

Pied Piper: My parents have a net worth of 55 billion dollars. They could have spent five times that amount and not even felt it. (Pause) But I digress. What brings you two here?

Mirror Master: You.

Pied Piper: My skills or my companionship?

Heat Wave: Both!

Pied Piper: I trust that one of you has a target in mind, then?

Mirror Master: Of course I do. You see, a certain Ms. Portia Storme, a famous actress and debutante, is coming to Central City to donate some of her jewelry to Central City’s History Museum at 2:30 PM but I think that those jewels would be a lot more useful to us than to any museum. I can get us into the museum, and then you can hypnotize Ms. Storme and the patrons long enough for us to steal the jewels and split. What do you think?

Pied Piper: And if one of the Flashes shows up?

Mirror Master: That’s what Heat Wave’s for. He’ll wait outside the museum and, if the Flash shows up, he’ll distract him long enough for us to make our escape. Once we’ve gotten back to my pad safely, I’ll pick him up via Mirror Realm.

Pied Piper: That sounds like a solid plan. I’m in!

Heat Wave: Great! The more the merrier!  

Mirror Master: Okay, now that that’s established, we can shoot the breeze for a bit. How have you been, Piper?

Pied Piper: Physically, I’m as fit as a fiddle. Otherwise….I’m homeless.

Mirror Master: Again? How’d it happen this time?

Pied Piper: Well, I actually bought a little apartment a couple of weeks ago, but then I ran into this couple who were raising their granddaughter because their daughter is addicted to heroin, and their apartment was falling apart, so I gave them mine, and I was going to get another one with money that I swiped from a movie star, but then I met this poor man who was suffering from some sort of mental illness, so I had to pay for him to go to a mental hospital, and then I gave the rest of the money to help pay for the cancer treatment of a young father with four little children.

Heat Wave: I’ve got some money saved up, buddy. Do you want me to give you some?

Pied Piper: No, but thank you. I’m young and quite robust. I’ll be fine.

Mirror Master: Yeah, until you freeze to death.

Pied Piper: It gets that cold here?

Mirror Master: We’re covered in snow for half the winter! Yeah, it gets that cold here! Have you never ended up homeless in the winter?

Pied Piper: Well, no. I was only evicted from the apartment I was renting with the money I took from my parents six months ago. My sporadic homelessness is a recent thing.

Mirror Master: Word of advice, then: don’t give any of the money from this heist away.

Pied Piper: What? Why?

Mirror Master: Because it’s already November, and if you don’t get a place to stay soon, you’re going to be out on the streets in the dead of winter.

Pied Piper: Better me than a child!

Mirror Master: Dude, your hypothetical child is ten times more street savvy than you are.

Pied Piper: And has none of the luxuries I was spoiled with as a child.

Mirror Master: So? They don’t know what they’re missing. I should know. I was one.

Pied Piper: And yet you now deny being poor so vehemently.

Mirror Master: (Pause, searching for response, but not finding one) Fine. Do whatever you want. But don’t blame me when you’re sleeping on the streets in that threadbare jacket in single degree weather!

Heat Wave: (Trying to change the subject) Hey, who wants lunch? After all, it’s never good to rob a  museum on an empty stomach.

Pied Piper: Well, now that you’ve mentioned it, I am a little hungry. Where were you thinking that we would go?

Heat Wave: Uh, whatever makes you guys happy, I guess.

Mirror Master: Hmm…. I’ll have to reflect on that.

Pied Piper: I didn’t really have anything in mind, either.

Heat Wave: Okay then. Um….how about that barbeque place that opened a couple weeks ago?

Mirror Master: Sure, why not?

Pied Piper: That works as well as the next place, I suppose.

Heat Wave: All right, then I guess it’s settled. We’re going to eat some barbeque!

(Exit all)

Act III

(Wally and Iris are onstage)

Wally: So, do you have anything else planned for today, Aunt Iris?

Iris: Yes, I do. Portia Storme, the famous actress, is donating some of her family heirlooms to Central City’s History Museum at 3 PM, and I found out this morning that Picture News is sending me to cover the story.

Wally: Portia Storme? As in the Portia Storme who starred in The Superhero who Loved Me ?

Iris: Yes, that Portia Storme.

Wally: Are you allowed to bring a guest? I'm her biggest fan!

Iris: No such luck. I’m attending for business, not pleasure.

Wally: Darn it! I’ve wanted to get her autograph since I was fifteen!

Iris: I wonder what Linda would think of that.

Wally: Aunt Iris! It’s not like that! I just think that she’s a talented actress!

Iris: And the fact that she’s widely considered to be extremely attractive has nothing to do with it, right?

Wally: Aunt Iris !

Iris: Don’t worry, Wally, I know you love Linda. I was just teasing you.

Wally: Oh. Okay. Then tell Portia hi for me.

Iris: I will. In  fact, I’ll even get her autograph if I can.

Wally: Thanks, Aunt Iris! You’re the best!

Iris: You’re welcome, Wally. (Pause) Oh, and would you mind telling your uncle where I am when he gets off work? I didn’t learn that I was covering the museum story until after he left for work.

Wally: Of course I’ll tell him!

Iris: Good. I don’t want a repeat of the “Flash Marathon” debacle.

Wally: The Flash Marathon debacle? What’s that?

Iris: You don’t remember that time that I was assigned to cover the Flash Marathon of 2010 at the last possible second and Barry didn’t know so he ran halfway around the world looking for me?

Wally: Oh, yeah, I remember that now! He took me out of Calculus to help find you!

Iris: Poor, dear, Barry. He was so embarrassed when he found out that I was fine.

Wally: He was embarrassed? I had to explain to my Calculus teacher that I had cut class to rescue someone who wasn’t in any danger and then I got detention!

Iris: That may have had something to do with the fact that you’d cut class the previous week to get Chinese food from China, Wally.

Wally: What can I say? I was-

Iris: Hungry. I know. (Wally vanishes and returns with food) Wally: Want some authentic fajitas? Or some escargots?

Iris: No, thank you.

Wally: Okay. More for me. (Eats food)

Iris: How does Linda keep up with your appetite?

Wally: Oh my gosh! Linda! I told her I’d pick her and the kids up from story time, and I completely forgot about it! I’ve gotta go get them! See you, Aunt Iris! Bye! (Exit Wally)

Iris: That’s my nephew. (Pulls out paper) Let’s see. Now, where was I? Oh, right! (Begins writing) “A careful examination of the city’s funds reveals that 20% of the city’s funds have been diverted to an undisclosed project which does not correspond to any known public works project that has been discussed by the city council. Detective Jared Morillo, who headed the investigation, stated that “We’re almost certain that at least one of the elected officials of the city has been misappropriating funds,” but declined to provide further details, so I did some digging of my own and uncovered a document that revealed that four members of the mayor’s cabinet have been funneling tax dollars into their own private accounts, and that one of them, Mr. Franklin Jones, failed to press charges of robbery on the Pied Piper out of fear that his own misdeeds would come under scrutiny.” This article is going to be great!

Act IV

(Enter Pied Piper, Heat Wave, and Mirror Master with a water bottle)

Mirror Master: (To Heat Wave) How did you manage to eat two buckets of that barbeque? My mouth felt like it was on fire after I ate one piece!

Heat Wave: You should try a ghost pepper sometime, buddy. If you thought that was hot, you haven’t seen nothing yet!

Mirror Master: I’ll pass. (Guzzles water) I’ve had enough eye-watering for a year.

Pied Piper: I’m so glad that I ordered the salad.

Heat Wave: You don’t know what you’re missing, little buddy.

Pied Piper: When I was seven years old, I had lunch with the President of India. That meal contained enough spice to put me off strong seasoning forever, so I am quite aware of what I’m missing.

Mirror Master: You’ve been to another country?

Pied Piper: (Embarrassed) Actually, I’ve been to twenty other countries, and to several more than once. My parents wanted to maintain their global connections, so the visits were a necessity.

Heat Wave: (To Mirror Master) His parents are stupid rich, remember?

Mirror Master: (Enviously) Right. (Pause) Well, if this heist goes right, by 5 PM tonight, we’ll be stupid rich too. Let’s get to the museum! Heat Wave, you’ll be alright by yourself?

Heat Wave: Of course I will, buddy.

Mirror Master: In that case, we’re set to go, Piper. It’s time to make some money!

(Cut to another room, where Iris is. Pied Piper and Mirror Master enter)

Mirror Master: (To Pied Piper) Where is everybody?

Pied Piper: (To Mirror Master) How should I know? This is your heist!

Mirror Master: (To Pied Piper) Captain Boomerang told me that Storme would be here at 2:30, so where is everybody?

Pied Piper: (To Mirror Master) Wait….you learned about this from Digger ?

Mirror Master: (To Pied Piper) Yeah. Why?

Pied Piper: (To Mirror Master; growing increasingly louder) Because he’s Digger! If he knew about a potential target and didn’t go after it himself, it could only be because he was drunk! He must have given you the wrong time!

Iris: Who’s there? The museum’s closed to visitors today! (Gasps) You!

Mirror Master: (To Pied Piper) Nice going. Now somebody knows we’re here! (To Iris) Hey, Mrs. Allen. Long time no see.

Iris: What are you two doing here? Pied Piper: Our intent was to steal Ms.Storme’s jewelry, but apparently we had some erroneous information and so we showed up before she did. What are you doing here?

Iris: I’m here to report on the donation of the jewels, and you two are under arrest.

Mirror Master: And you’re going to stop us from escaping how?

Iris: (Pulls out a gun) I’m licensed to carry a firearm, that’s how.

Mirror Master: YOU HAVE A GUN? (To Piper) This would be a good time to do some hypnotizing.

Pied Piper: (To Mirror Master) Before or after she shoots me? (To Iris) All right, we surrender. (Iris handcuffs them)

Iris: I’m so glad that Barry let me borrow those in case I ever needed to pull a citizen’s arrest.

Mirror Master (Aside) Beaten by a girl...this is so humiliating….

Iris: Really? That was way easier than I anticipated.

Pied Piper: Well, I didn’t want you to get hurt, Mrs. Allen. I really admire you. Your exposé on the plight of inner city schools was phenomenal!

Iris: You read my articles?

Pied Piper: Of course! Your crusades to better this city are worthy of the highest respect. You are quite as much of a hero as your husband, Mrs. Allen.

Iris: Why does a thief care about the betterment of anything? Pied Piper: Mrs. Allen, I only steal from those who can afford it, and, quite frankly, who deserve it, and only to give to those who need it. I may operate outside the normal legal parameters, but I only do it because working inside them will get me nowhere. The 1% control the system, so until the system is changed, I have to work outside it if people are going to get real help.

Iris: So why don’t you just help better  the system legally instead of breaking the law and getting yourself into trouble?

Pied Piper: Because someone has to help even the score in the interval, and, frankly, because it helps absolve me of my own guilt. I spent the first twenty-two years of my life living in scandalous luxury, without a thought for anyone but myself. My parents paid to cure me of deafness that would have been a permanent disability in anyone else, I had a closetful of clothes I never wore, I owned three cars before I could drive, and I had more toys than I could ever have used. My parents paid my tutors to ensure that I made high grades, and then they bribed my college to make sure that I was on the top of my class. If I’m on the streets and being thrown in jail now, it’s no more than what I deserve.

Iris: Do you mind if I record that? I always thought that there was something fishy about your family’s empire-other than you, I mean.

Pied Piper: You’d better not. My parents would pay through the nose to make sure that that story never got out, so there’d be no point.

Mirror Master: Uh, as much as Pied Piper’s daddy issues fascinate me, would you mind calling the police or the Flash already?

Iris: Oh, right. (Pulls out phone) Hey, Wally, I have some supervillains for you to pick up. (Pause) What, are you surprised? I didn’t become a famous reporter by being timid. (Pause) Yeah, I’m just fine. (Pause) No, no one else was in danger. Mmm-hmm. Uh-huh. (Pause) No, I’m not going to fight supervillains on a regular basis. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and facing the right morons. (Pause) All right. See you soon. Buh-bye. (Puts phone away) Back to jail for you two.

Mirror Master: I’m thrilled . (To Piper) Let’s pretend this never happened, okay?

Pied Piper: That sounds good to me!

Act V

(Heat Wave is onstage. Enter Wally)

Heat Wave: Hey, Flash! Seeing you really burns me up! (Shoots fire plume in the air)

Wally: Heat Wave?

Heat Wave: Yeah, that’s me! I hope you aren’t going to fight me, because that would be-

Wally: Playing with fire. Yeah, I know. Heat Wave: (horrified) You stole my pun!

Wally: Hey, you know what they say: It takes a thief to catch a thief.

Heat Wave: But you’re not a thief!

Wally: Yeah, I am! I stole your pun!

Heat Wave: (Laughs) Hey, that’s pretty good. You should’ve been a comedian! (Shoots fire at Wally, who dodges)

Wally: That’s what my aunt tells me. So, what are you doing here?

Heat Wave: Making stuff burn.

Wally: Well, yeah, I can see that, but I know you can’t be operating alone, because where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and when there’s fire, there’s you, and when there’s you, there’s the other Rogues. What are you guys planning? (Dodges another blast from Heat Wave)

Heat Wave: Stay still! (Misses again)

Wally: Why, so I can move out of the frying pan and into the fire? No, thanks!

Heat Wave: Hey, stop taking all my puns before I can use them. I don’t have that many!

Wally: Aww, stop being such a hot-head, Heat Wave!

Heat Wave: I bet you think you’re so smart! Well, you won’t feel so smart when Mirror Master and Pied Piper escape with all the loot they stole because I distracted you!

Wally: Oh, so that’s why you’re here. Well, I hate to break it to you, but they’ve already been captured. (Takes Heat Wave’s gun)

Heat Wave: They’re captured? I gotta go rescue them!

Wally: Uh, you might find that difficult without this. (Waves gun)

Heat Wave: Hey, give that back!

Wally: Nope. Finders keepers. (Handcuffs Heat Wave, then brings out Pied Piper and Mirror Master) Here’s your pals. If it makes you feel any better, you get to go back to jail with them.

Heat Wave: Hi, guys!

Mirror Master: Hey, Mick. I guess you got caught, too?

Heat Wave: Yeah.

Mirror Master: Ugh, I don’t believe this! How did we get defeated again ?

Heat Wave: Don’t feel too bad, buddy. You know what they say: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! We’ll get lucky eventually.

Mirror Master: Shut up and let me mope.

Pied Piper: (To Wally) Tell your aunt to keep up the good work, won’t you? Wally: Um...sure. And just so you know, my offer still stands: serve your time and then help us help people the right way.

Piper: I’ll...I’ll keep that offer in mind.

Wally: Great! And we’re off! (Exits with them, re-enters alone. Enter Iris) Great work, Aunt Iris!

Iris: Aww, it was nothing...and hey, I’ve got a guaranteed front-page story! (They high-five)

Wally: You know what? All that fighting made me hungry! I’m gonna go eat! Love you, Aunt Iris!

Iris: I love you, too! (Exit Wally) Ooh, just wait until I tell Barry I defeated two supervillains!

[alri-xo]

Ship of Dreams (Titanic 1997 AU) | Chapter 2

Gif not mine.

A/N: Hi guuuuys so like this is chapter 2... Took me a long time to make this because this week has been a pretty rough for me personally and I genuinely feel like I needed to edit this chapter so much to deliver all the feels and stuff... Hopefully...

Pairing: Alexander Pierce x Reader, Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier) x Reader

Warnings: Again, age gap, language, rich people being rich people...

The Titanic finally hit more vast waters, gliding through the sea as it head out farther from land.

Bucky and Steve ran down the corridor, the enamel white walls serving a backdrop for the people cramming its sides as they tried to find their way inside.

They weaved through the people to find their quarters, they passed by many people of many walks of life. Like a Chinese man holding probably an English to Chinese dictionary to figure out what the writings meant, children getting lost and the like.

They finally found their room, its painted door looks welcoming, at least to people like them.

"This is it, Steve..." Bucky says as he opens the door, Steve following right behind him as he places his stuff on the top bed of the double decker laughing, "Who says you take top bunk?"

The two other men looked at them, as they didn't look like the original booked passengers. The chocolate man shocked as he looked up from his book and the other leaned against the steel framing of the double-decker.

Bucky neared to the man reading the book and shook his hand, as his face also painted a shook expression, "James Barnes... People call me Bucky..." he greets. He just remained silent as he his eyes gawked at him, then to his friend.

"Where the hell is Ivan?"

💎

In contrast, Y/N was at first class and not just any first class part of the ship. The grandest suite of the ship.

It had the most ornate wood carvings painted in gold at the sitting room, a wide bedroom, and it had a curtained canopy with red velvet and gold tassels, and it had a place for lounging and eating, overlooking the ocean and the sun striping light onto the furnishings and plants, serving up a tropical vibe.

They set their multitude of luggage to get settled in their temporary home. Y/N had an eye for the arts. Paintings of different mediums littered the room waiting to be hanged... Paintings by Monet and Picasso were there, as Alexander thought they were a waste of money.

Y/N rolled her eyes and she entered her room with their maid and her only friend, Carol... She has known Y/N for a good year now, but they have grown to be very close.

She made Y/N feel like a normal girl with real feelings, and not a girl wearing money for show like her mother is.

She helped Y/N ready her quarters, boxes of jewelry and even larger boxes of garments are to be organized. Upon entrance with her friend and mistress, the scent of fresh paint and a new matress fills her nose.

"It smells so brand new... It's as if they made it just for us..." she chirps happily to Y/N, making her smile, "Tonight, when I crawl into the sheets, I'll be the first!"

Y/N smiles bigger looking at her, but it only lasts for a moment. Alexander is at the doorway, looking at her like she's but prize that he won, "And tonight, when I crawl in the sheets, I'll still be the first."

Carol goes cold in fear, as she knows what Alexander can be to Y/N. She is no stranger to his passive aggressive behavior towards her or Y/N. She turns on her heel, "S'cuse me, miss..."

It's now the two of them in Y/N's room... Y/N turns her back to him as she faces the mirror as seeing him draw nearer to her.

He hugs her from behind, but her expression is bleak, "The first and only... Forever..."

All she could think of was her life. Her future with this man she doesn't even know well, claiming her as his because of her mother's terms. Also, a man twice or maybe triple her age?

His scent of cigarette and faint alcohol filled her nose as he kissed behind her ear and on her shoulder. She kissed his cheek back reluctantly, to show her devotion. Empty devotion.

💎

Reader's Point of View

Me and mother decided to explore more of the ship, as Alexander insisted. However, where ever she went she had something to say.

It was close to dusk, but a person like me rarely make the sunset grace my vision... Mother forbid it, saying I have more important things to do... And... Staring out into the open, admiring the view is not what a good wife is.

We went down the elevator to the entrance of first class, the reception area with prominent people that my mother and I know.

They know me, but I don't really care as much as she does.

A woman comes in to the entrance, a suitcase in hand, "Well, I wasn't about to wait all day for you, sonny... Now, do a lady a favor and carry those for me, please..." she asks politely, the feathers on her hat dancing in the air as she moved.

She gave mother a small smile, and mother reciprocated one... One for show... However, mother envied this woman for her looks and undeniably beautiful figure.

No corset can imitate the curves she had... Even if mother had a corset made by the finest corset maker. Nothing.

She is Natalia Romanoff, but people call her Natasha or simply, Nat. She came from a poor background, but struck luck some place west. She was someone mother called 'new money.'

We set off after our last stop, with nothing in front of us but ocean. The ship was unstoppable at this point... Neither is that wedding.

💎

Third Person Point of View

The creamy glow of the afternoon filters on the grand ship. Every bit of floor illuminated by the setting sun. Bucky and Steve made their way out of their quarters and out to the open deck, as they looked over the rails that kept them safe in the ship.

Bucky looked down at the ocean. The glassy blue sheets splitting in two as the ship glided across like a fine blade.

The captain of the ship smiled. His beard full and his hair neat under his hat, blue eyes as blue as the ocean he driving on.

He turned to his companion of dark hair, slicked back as his blue eyes as crystal clear as the water that hits the shoreline.

"Take her to sea, Loki... Open her up..." he says as his companion nods and obliges.

"Yes, Thor... And may I remind you, Captain..." he begins emphasizing the title, "You should stir her not me..." he chuckles.

Thor rolls his eyes playfully at his brother, watching him leave then watching the sunset glow in front of him.

Below the decks however, work is being robust. Men covered in soot as the doors blazed bright flames as they added more to make the ship pick up.

The shipbuilder watches the engineers and greasers work their magic, seeing everything move accordingly and how he wanted it. He built the beauty they are working in and he is proud of it, it's exactly what he wanted.

The propellers under water pick up pace as more energy was introduced to the ship. They chopped through the water making it glide faster.

On the deck, Bucky's hair was blown by the wind, the scent of fresh air and sea filling his lungs as a big smile on his face appeared. Steve was holding on to his hat as he looked into the horizon.

Captain Thor Odinson looks at the same view, as if feeling triumphant and free. The massive ship his steed as his brother looked through the glass as they rode above the deep sea.

Steve smiles, looking at the water and asking Bucky to do the same, they spot two dolphins running with the ship. Their forms going up and down, above and under the sea as a pod of dolphins appear near the front of the ship.

Steve then stares through the horizon, the sunsparkles on the ocean beam warm light like gold under the slow setting sun.

"I can see the Statue of Liberty from here..." he grins happily as the wind in his face blows, "Very small, of course..."

Bucky smiles back then stands higher near the hand rails that keep them prisoner in such paradise, "I'M THE KING OF THE WOOORLD!!!"

💎

Reader's Point of View

The next day came like a fast turning of a page. My first night in the ship was pleasant, as if the waves rocked me back and forth on its calm waters. The scent of everything new made it feel even nice, knowing that all of it can be as comfortable as can be for me.

We were having a meal with two of the people who are the most important passengers of the ship. Tony Stark, the person who named the ship RMS Titanic, the ship builder, Bruce Banner.

They collaborated, Mr. Stark had the vision and Mr. Banner did the mission to make the Titanic into a reality.

"She's the largest moving object made by the hand of man in all of history..." Mr. Stark begins to say, "And our master ship builder, Mr. Banner here, designed her from the keel plates up."

He looked down and smiled shyly, not wanting the attention, "Well, I might have built her, but it was Mr. Stark's idea... He envisioned a steamer so grand in scale and so luxurious in its appointments that its supremacy will never be challenged... And here she is..." he says slapping the table proudly, "willed into solid reality."

Natasha looked at the two other men and cocked her brow "Why are ships always being called 'she'?" She asks jokingly, "Is it because men think half the women around have bigs sterns and should be weighed in tonnage?"

I smiled as they laughed, mother being quite amused of Natasha's words, "Just another example of men setting the words their way..."'

Admittedly, Natasha is witty and fun, but she is not everyone's cup of tea. Especially with my mother and her group of friends.

The waiter approached our table and thankfully, he had matches. I lit my cigarette and placed the thin end of its holder, savoring the smoke down my throat.

"You know I don't like that, Y/N..." my mother tuts quietly, making me look at her and glare. I blow smoke as she backed away slowly.

"She knows..." Alexander mumbled, taking away the cigarette and stubbing it out on the ash tray, as he said our orders. What he wants, I'll also get. As if I had a choice sometimes.

"So, you're gonna cut the meat for her too, Alexander?" Natasha asks smirking.

Alexander ignored her question, turning to the other men at the table and at my mother. In all honesty it might be the only thing that is left for him to do to me at this point.

They discussed about why the Titanic was named as such, being synonymous with everything that is big and grand, but secure and safe. Me being bookish and a person who is as educated as everyone on this table, it made me want to bring up something big.

"Do you know about Dr. Freud? His ideas about the male preoccupation with size might be of interest to you, Mr. Stark..."

Mr. Banner choked on his meal, holding back a laugh and it made mother glare at me.

"Y/N what has gotten into you-" I cut mother off as soon as she heard my chair creak on the floor.

"Excuse me..." I muttered as I walked away and out.

Natasha's Point of View

Well, that was rough.

Katherine's eyes widened, mortified by her daughter's actions. Definitely not what a mother wants to see in a daughter like Y/N.

At least for Katherine.

Also, as a wife for a man such as Alexander is such a leap. She seriously could've gotten any man for her daughter. Someone her age, perhaps? Not someone who could possibly be dead after the wedding night...

Oh, I'm just teasing...

"Seems like you got a pistol in your hands, Pierce... Think you can handle her?" I asked nonchalantly... It is reality what I'm saying... Since when did I fake it like the other women on first class?

"I guess I should mind what she's reading from now on..." he grins half heartedly as she follows Y/N out.

Jolly good show... Jolly good show indeed.

💎

Bucky's Point of View

"Look, daddy... Look at the birds!" The little girl says happily looking at the seagulls flying above the ocean, her father supports behind her as she is seated on the metal railing.

The energy they give off reflects on my ongoing sketch. Innocence and certainty, wisdom and care. A different aura from what I used to draw while I was some place else.

Steve looks over my shoulder, seeing what I have came up with and gave me an appreciative nod. He taught me how to draw and sketch, and now I am as hooked to drawing as he is.

Our two roommates hung out with us breathing the fresh air and the scent of the ocean. The bliss stopped when we heard the scent of dog poop in the air.

We looked up to see that the ship staff brought the dogs from first class to take a shit on the deck for third class, and with one of them having the most wrinkled face it would pass as something not of this earth.

"That's totally normal here... First class dogs come down here to take a shit..." One of them says, making me and Steve laugh a little...

"Yeah... Tops the scent of the room next to ours every night..." his friend says making him laugh, "Well, maybe the stink of the money they all have too..."

The guy from the staff glared at him, making them stop laughing as he left with the dogs.

I shrugged, "That's when we know where we rank in the scheme of things..." and Steve nods in agreement.

Then silence filled the air for a moment, the sound of the water and the squawking of seagulls in the horizon was our music.

"I'm Sam Wilson... This is my friend, Peter Parker..." he says stretching out his hand to shake mine and I shake his.

"James Barnes... Bucky for short..." I greet back, but his face paints curiosity, "Short for Buchanan..."

"Steve Rogers..." Steve greets as he exchanges handshakes with Sam and Peter, as I focus back to my drawing, the final strokes left.

I close my leather sketch pad and slip my pencil inside of it with a sigh. Surely, this ship is a work of art as everyone says it is... It's no lie...

I looked up to look around and I see her. Oh, she's an angel....

Who looks like that amongst all the people here? She's made by the gods.

She glowed under the sun, her dress shines and ripples in the wind. The silk on her skin hugging every curve and edge she had perfectly as her eyes looked over the railing.

Her cheeks flush as the heat made them redden, sun kissed. Her (y/h/c) hair in a neat updo with tendrils romantically falling freely framed her gentle face.

She looked at me, her (y/e/c) eyes sparkling and dolly, but expressive with a sense of distress for someone who had the world wrapped around her finger. Then she looked away again at the horizon.

Then all of a sudden, an older man approaches her... Her father, perhaps? Then he wraps his arms around her, but she tries to push him away.

Oh, he's her lover... But, they bicker a little as the man continues to try and persuade her.

I wish I could've looked at her longer. I was, but I wish she could've looked at me just as long.

"Oh forget it, Barnes... You'd rather have angels fly out your ass to be next to the likes of her..." he says making Peter and Steve laugh. I ignore them as I focused on the lady at first class, now storming back inside to her little world to live her little life as a first class passenger...

When will I ever see her again?

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A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and I do apologize that it's long with no page break. Once again, I hope I did this justice and I hope y'all stay safe. ily

-Alri

Taggies 💕 (DROP ME AN ASK IF YOU WANT IN)

@witchymegg @amisutcliff @luna4501 @likeit-or-leaveit @underworldqueen13 @theaussiedragon @vhsbarnes @uglipotata72829

[antoine-roquentin]

With the United States firmly in its second Gilded Age, the creators of this period of epic income inequality, growing racial violence, and undermining of our democratic institutions are already beginning to pass from the scene. One of these is Jack Welch, who died last week at the age of 84. Most of the national obituaries of Welch focused on his outsized personality and aggressive management style. Those things did help change the trajectory of American capitalism, but the obituaries left out or downplayed Welch’s greatest impact in shaping the unequal and unfair America of today: unionbusting.

For many years, General Electric was one of the largest corporations that had a stable relationship with its unions. Under Gerald Swope’s leadership, GE had come to terms with labor unions in a system of collective bargaining that created a profitable stability. While Swope’s successors at GE were not as favorable to unionism as he, the company was a stalwart of union power for decades.  

When Jack Welch took over GE, he brought a very different perspective to the question of unions. He wanted them out. He was no outsider. He has worked for GE for twenty years before becoming CEO. But rather than learn how unions can sustain a workplace where workers feel valued, where they have safe and healthy jobs, and where they make wages that allow them to live with dignity, the lesson Welch took was that unions got in the way of maximizing profits. That Welch came to power the same year that Ronald Reagan ushered in the new era of unionbusting by firing the air traffic controllers in 1981 was coincidence, but a fitting one.

Moreover, Welch’s rise coincided with American corporations began moving millions of industrial jobs overseas, helping to undermine organized labor and reorient the nation to concentrate wealth in the top 1 percent of income holders, which very much included Welch and other GE executives. He made GE one of the leaders in corporate mobility. As he infamously said, “Ideally, you'd have every plant you own on a barge.” He closed union plants in the north and reopened them in the non-union south or overseas. The era of unfettered capital mobility went far to undermine the postwar stability of the working class.  American steel companies laid off forty percent of their workers between 1979 and 1984 while United Auto Workers lost half their members between 1970 and 1985. As late as the 1990s, there were tens of thousands of jobs in textile plants in the South. But these were the last remnants of a once robust manufacturing base. Beginning in 1995, Fruit of the Loom closed a series of Alabama mills and moved production to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean, a process that continued through 2009, when two last factories closed, laying off 270 workers. Jack Welch was not the only person responsible for the outsourcing of union jobs, but no one celebrated it with more obnoxious fervor.

Welch believed that unions destroyed the American economy, stating in a 2009 forum that there were no competitive unionized industries in the United States. Between 1980 and 1985, GE’s workforce plummeted from 411,000 to 299,000 workers. The overall percentage of unionized workers in the company fell from 70 percent when Welch took over to 35 percent by 1988. That Welch himself rose from nothing, the son of Irish-Americans who did not graduate from high school only bred greater contempt. If he could become rich and famous, why couldn’t all the other working class kids? That his personal actions foreclosed that possibility for millions of others hardly entered his mind, as it didn’t bother earlier generations of formerly working class capitalists such as Andrew Carnegie. Welch personified the survival of the fittest for himself.  

Welch’s impact on upstate New York was devastating. GE’s home of Schenectady, New York, once a thriving industrial city, became a deindustrialized shell filled with crime and poverty thanks to GE layoffs. When GE pulled out of its Fort Edward, New York electrical capacitor plant in 2013, after Welch’s retirement but with his influence still strong, Chris Townsend, political director for the United Electrical Workers, stated in fury, “It shouldn’t be easy to close a plant. The General Electric corporation has been shown every imaginable consideration. Our members have worked with the company to keep this plant profitable. Now the company decides to walk off, leave hundreds of people stranded with no jobs, no income.” That, compounded by hundreds of other closures and layoffs, is the legacy of Jack Welch.

Welch’s entire career was class warfare: the rich against the poor. The only worthwhile value for Welch was the quarterly profit report. Anything that got in the way of that—especially an unproductive division of workers—was happily sacrificed for that goal. For all this, Fortune magazine Welch was named “manager of the century,” a symbol of how toxic American corporate culture had become by 1999. Whereas workers were placed into competitions to cull the least productive, Welch helped bring in the era of outsized CEO pay that far outstripped that of average workers, recreating the world of the late nineteenth century where obscene wealth for a few was overtly built on the poverty of the many.

Today, we are living in the world Jack Welch made, one in which a racist, proto-fascist, self-proclaimed billionaire whose businesses have worked with organized crime figures is president, governing by the New Gilded Age principles of letting business rule itself and eviscerating labor, consumer, and environmental regulations. In fact, while Welch criticized Donald Trump’s chaotic management skills, he also loved how Trump had governed in favor of business and warned that impeaching the president would “blow the markets away.” Impeachment had no impact on the market, but Jack Welch being wrong about America was the cornerstone of his career. His life immeasurably hurt this nation and should not be mourned. Instead, his methods and beliefs should stand for the decline of America in the twenty-first century.

[vapormaison]

Best of 2019 Vaporwave Release 3/4: Sensual Loops SPECIAL EDITION by Cyber Club

As vaporwave matures and enters the mainstream, I often find myself having discussions with vapor heads on reddit about the iconography of the genre. I realize that this is a bad idea, but cannot help myself. More often than not, they are pointlessly terse, and tend to be tediously teleological — the type of argumentation featuring enough loops of logic to cause a medieval Byzantine monk’s head to spin.

A recurring topic that baits me every single time is when a poster attempts to criticize the album art of a record, dismissing the entire work on the based on “anime” aesthetics. While this might seem like an argument so off-center and reductive that it’s parody— I’d encourage you to go on r/VaporVinyl and take a look at some of the posts replying to threads about Cyber Club’s Sensual Loops LP series. It’s not pretty, and representative where some of the fanbase is at the moment. Adding to my shock was when one of the self-appointed critics outed themselves as twenty three years old. At that moment, I was forced to confront my own bias. I had mistakenly assumed that the puritan was an out-of-touch Gen Xer or a Baby Boomer. Aesthetic intolerance is not exclusive — and plenty of Zoomers are members of this trash clique as well.

What really boggled my mind, however, was that the user had picked vaporwave out of all the other possible genres to go on their Nipponophobic soapbox against. A quick look at the aesthetic movement as a whole (sonically, artistically, etc.) establishes it as what I would assert as a primarily millennial genre — less of a statement about its creators and consumers, and more about the broader, overarching cultural milieu in which in developed. It was birthed in the decade that heralded the mass-consumption of Japanese media in the Western marketplace. Many of its early practitioners got their start chopping and screwing anime OSTs and hip hop. Future Funk effectively appeared on the sonic map by the sampling of Japanese city pop. What is even worth arguing here?

But that which bothered me even more was the user’s stubborn refusal to even listen to the album. You can not buy a vinyl because you just have a particular aversion to cover art — that’s fine! Better yet, you can not buy a vinyl just because you’re not a fan of the sound. Those are two perfectly fine reasons not to partake in a release. But then to go on reddit and complain about an album aesthetic for something you haven’t even listened to? Come on, fam. Level up your praxis. It is the whitewashing and the boorishness that is most infuriating. I’ve legitimately never heard of anyone who dismissed an entire album’s music purely on the basis of its vinyl cover art before.

And shame on them, because they are sleeping on one of the best works of 2019.

The limited edition of Sensual Loops 1 & 2 is another LP that I had the luxury of listening to while on my East Asia tour. I brought the album (among others) with me to visit a very good pal of mine, Han, who’s retired to Hong Kong. Much to my relief, he’s in a comparatively spacious apartment over in the Tai Wo area — by no means the stereotypical postage stamp — and has set up a little audiophile pad that I’m most envious of. His setup is devoted to all things B&W, and I got a beautiful listen of the album on a pair of impressive and almost imposing 700-series floor standers. Powered by the Cambridge Audio Edge series Amp/Pre combo, this was far above even my paygrade. But after working as a salaryman for two decades, he was finally able to invest in his endgame system. And what an endgame it is!

Getting the chance to listen Sensual Loops on this system cemented my opinion when I had first heard it’s release digitally: I was listening to an instant contender for the best vaporwave release of 2019.

Sensual Loops 1

Introduction immediately fills your speakers with a wide, warm guitar and horn loops that feature just enough static noise to distinguish itself as a vaporwave track. I always like it when a little minute-thirty track gives the amp a little exercise. It also proves to be a perfect sonic setup for the next track, which is ostensibly what every “intro” track should do, right?

Night carries that guitar riff from Introduction but adds a playful variance with a synth loop, and vocals that I believe are sampled from that Philly Soul classic “Children of the Night” done by the Stylistics and the Jones Girls’, among others. All of the moving parts here do wonders, syncing together in a perfect arrangement. Both Han and I commented on just how bright this played on his JBLs, which is a testament to the mix and mastering work here.

Love & Affection definitely feels the most retro-vapor of all the tracks on Sensual Loops 1, beginning with a series of loops, riffs, and synth chimes that feel as if they were picked from a certain collection of sitcoms of an early nineties vintage. The heavily distorted vocals and hypnotic drum kits pop in after about a minute to give the track an almost deep house feel as it progresses. The “all mine” hook then crescendos into a symphony of drum hits that conclude the track with a real sonic flutter in the air when played with high-end speakers.

Pain accelerates the rather slow pace of the album up to this point. I’m a big fan of the synth arrangement that opens the track, and I schmood even more with the powerfully funky vocal set that carries the track throughout. But with its short length, it does feel more like an interlude or setup for what I consider to be the highlight of the LP.

Memories is our certified slapper. It starts off immediately with an incredibly catchy synth chord arrangement supplemented by a fantastically tweaked vocal sample from the fantastically, alliteratively-named Melba Moore, another funky soul queen who needs a revival in the contemporary lexicography.

Sensual definitely swings the record a bit further away from the future funk and back towards the vapor-funk side of things. Back are cyber club’s usual array of jumpy, tinny synth chords and manipulated vocal micro-samples that still provide a really robust sonic experience on the hi-fi system of your choice. When the vocals make their appearance about ninety seconds in, I was expecting them to sound much less rich in the middle than they did, which was definitely a present surprise on the mastering side!

Alone is a beautiful cacophony of micro-samples with a vocal track manipulated to sound like an 80s ideal of a future robot gf. I’m not sure how else to describe this track except as pure atmosphere. The fluttering synths, muted percussion, electric highs that send tweeters bouncing — it’s difficult to precisely describe how a track like this comes over a hi-fi system like the Edge. It just pulls out every detail from an immensely dense track like this and does it every bit the justice it deserves.

Paradise ends up taking a traditional funk and re-engineering it into a sort of quasi-tropical sound similar to some of the early Aloe Island Posse bangers. It’s got a much more lo-fi edge to the track then most future funk takes on a track like this, and creates a really unique and playful experience.

Bliss is almost raw synth pop with a hardened vapor edge to it. Although the original sample is from a very soulful electro R&B outfit — the Loose Ends — we get aggressive drums and synth loops that bring this closer to Paula Abdul than anything that could be traditionally considered rhythm and blues. Just enough manipulation of the vocal sample and some well-timed percussion hits make this more fit for a night out than a baby-making session in, which is both remarkable and a testament to cyber club’s skill.

Sensual Loops 2

Intro captures a little more of than urban-turned-Island soundscape that we caught a glimpse of in Paradise. I’m eternally impressed by this, as it seems like Cyber Club never gets too caught up in the production to bring this too far from its vapor essence while still making this a great lede in its own right.

Sensual was a track I was initially expecting to be a remix or redux of the first Sensual from Sensual Loops 1, but I’m glad to see this piece of bass-heavy vapor exists as its own full-bodied track in its own right. It grabs you immediately with its “I’ll never give up on you” vocal loop spliced in among its synth array, and carries you through with an intriguing arrangement of instrumental loops and micro-samples throughout. The low end can really shine here with the right system.

Hold Her Now is a piece of nostalgic, vintage vaporwave straight out of the Saint Pepsi era. Ostensibly a creative cut-up some New Jack Swing that absolutely slaps with the right electric guitar riff and synthetic percussion hit, it harkens back to when vaporwave was in its “peak aesthetics” phase of production and plunder-phonic glory. Perhaps this reminder of what vaporwave used to be unfairly biases me, but it’s definitely a listen for the nostalgia driven old-heads.

Affair is the type of track that sounds completely different on certain types of stereos. While Han’s stereo brought out the crisp, wide vocal mix — perhaps a testament to Cambridge’s design history, my Harman Kardon/KEF pairing brought the synth flares here to the fore. The testament to this track is that I really enjoyed both profiles, and Affair sounded robust and detailed throughout.

Kiss is one of the tracks that I felt coolest on upon an initial listen, which is perhaps a statement to just how much I enjoyed this album. When presented with the innovative arrangements of tracks like Hold Her Now or Memories, I was left feeling that Kiss doesn’t do enough in its minute thirty second runtime. That being said, it’s fun. And that’s what music can and should be at the end of the day, isn’t it?

Touch heaps on that vapor memory with some creative vocal layering, tinny and distorted high-end flutters, and an electric horn that came out swinging in the Cambridge system, much to my surprise. It’s clear at this point that Cyber Club has created a very particular listening experience here, and I’m oh so fond of it.

Special makes a funky classic fresh and electric again, which is what I’m really starting to vibe with in terms of the Cyber Club oeuvre. It serves as a sort of confirmation, a celebration and an altogether fantastic close to the LP.

Vinyl Physicality & Listening Experience

I like black vinyl. This milquetoast statement has earned for me the ire of some enthusiasts on r/VaporVinyl when I post on my alt-account there. Because vaporwave attracts curators with “experience” in the music industry, I’ve been told by “serious LP collectors [who know] label managers” — the type of folks who spin on $100 Crosley turntables bought at a Kohl’s Black Friday sale — that new black vinyls just doesn’t sell anymore. Not for vaporwave, at least. A release should have a colored vinyl or not release at all!

This was a take from the same twenty-three year old who wouldn’t purchase Sensual Loops because of the hentai on the cover — so take that for what you will.

I’ve always liked the supplier that Sic Records uses — whoever they are. The vinyls always have a bit of mass and heft to them, leading me to guess that they’re probably in the 180g range. But that’s just my finger test. My Jungle2000 vinyl feels just as weighty. I’ve always believed there’s a definite spectrum with black vinyls — from the frail Qrate cheap options to the high end audiophile oriented waxes like the beautifully crafted Victor Japan and Columbia waxes from the late 80s and early 90s that you see most city pop and anime OSTs pressed on.

The masters on these records are definitely intriguing for the format. My biggest critique of vaporwave vinyl at this point is that some labels don’t take the requisite care to put out a good vinyl master, and often just end up going all-in with poorly optimized digital release ones. The folks at Sic definitely know what they’re doing — because this ended up playing great on a number of systems and speakers, from my KEFs and H/K setup, to a friends Technics mid-fi rig, to Han’s Cambridge endgame. Each time, we got a wide-but-not-too-wide play without the sound edging towards the bright end of the spectrum too intensely. I think this is important because it respects a lot of the samples used. The mixing work done on a lot of the Philly soul here definitely had a certain muted approach that really brought out the most from the vocals and left instrumental arrangements to a moderately more ambient role. I get that impression of continuity here and love it for that.

In short, you should snap up this release while you can. It’s a great release, and fuck the vaporwave nannies who’d shut down Cyber Club’s best two albums without even a listen. May that /u/ go down with u/hoesmad_ on r/Vaporwave’s wall of shame.

[phroyd]

The world’s most difficult problem has a solution so simple that it can be expressed in four words: Stop burning greenhouse gases. How exactly to pull this off is somewhat more complicated — just not as complicated as most Americans have been led to believe. As James Hansen, the don of modern climate science, told me last year, “From a technology and economics standpoint, it is still readily possible to stay under two degrees Celsius.” Readily possible. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report from last October, which provoked widespread terror, echoed this conclusion. Keeping warming to 1.5 degrees above historical averages was possible, it found, provided we immediately began to eliminate carbon-dioxide emissions. This was terrifying only because we have not begun to do any such thing.

Most zero-emissions plans — “road maps,” in bureaucratese, or “pathways,” per the I.P.C.C. — propose some combination of the following elements: carbon taxes, effectual international treaties, increased subsidization of renewable energy, decreased subsidization of fossil fuels, nuclear energy, reforestation, land-use reform and investments in energy efficiency, energy storage and carbon-capture technology. But when it comes to drafting actual laws to achieve these policies, to quote the Heritage Foundation fellow Nick Loris, “the devil’s in the details.”

[See what survival looks like in Bangladesh after the oceans rise.]

The Heritage Foundation ought to know; for decades, it has demonstrated mastery of the dark arts of climate-change denialism. This strain of influence peddling would be harmful enough had it managed merely to deepen the public ignorance about global warming. But denialism has had devastating downstream effects (to borrow an industry term). It has managed to defer meaningful consideration of nearly every urgent policy question that now awaits us, if we are serious about trying to stop this.

The most fundamental question is whether a capitalistic society is capable of sharply reducing carbon emissions. Will a radical realignment of our economy require a radical realignment of our political system — within the next few years? Even if the answer is no, we have some decisions to make. How, for instance, should the proceeds of a carbon tax be directed? Should they be used to finance clean-energy projects, be paid out directly to taxpayers or accrue to the national budget? In a healthy democracy, you could expect a rigorous public debate on this question. But such a debate has rarely surfaced in the United States because, as of this writing, only a handful of Republican members of the House of Representatives, out of a caucus of 197, have endorsed the basic concept of a carbon tax — an idea that has its roots in conservative economic thought.

And what should be done, if anything, about the people who lose their jobs once coal plants, whether because of market pressures or federal mandate, are forced to close? Should unemployed coal miners be retrained as wind farmers, receive unemployment checks or be abandoned to their plight? You could imagine a robust political debate about this issue as well — perhaps with the right in favor of letting miners fend for themselves and the left supporting a federal welfare program — were such questions allowed to be debated.

What should be done for the far greater number of people in poor and neglected communities, both in the United States and abroad, that stand to suffer most grievously from a hotter climate in the years ahead? What penalties should Exxon and the other major oil and gas companies suffer for their sins? What branch of government should impose those penalties, and should criminal liability be extended to individual lobbyists and chief executives? Should old, declining nuclear plants be preserved, and should new, smaller plants be commissioned, and who ought to make such decisions? How much federal funding should be invested in researching speculative geoengineering or carbon-capture technologies? Should insurance rates in coastal regions be increased abruptly to reflect the actual threat of sea-level rise, or phased in gradually? What sanctions should be imposed on foreign nations that fail to comply with the terms of global climate treaties? On these and many other such questions, reasonable minds might disagree. But beyond the reaches of the scholarly and activist literature, reasonable minds have not been given the opportunity.

It has become commonplace to observe that corporations behave like psychopaths. They are self-interested to the point of violence, possess a vibrant disregard for laws and social mores, have an indifference to the rights of others and fail to feel remorse. A psychopath gains a person’s trust, mimics emotions but feels nothing and passes in public for human (with a charming Twitter feed, say). The psychopath is calm, calculated, scrupulous — never more so than while plotting murder. There can be no reasoning with a psychopath; neither rational argument nor blandishment has a remote chance of success. If this indeed is the pathology that we are dealing with when it comes to the climate impasse, then we should be honest about the appropriate course of treatment. Coercion must be the remedy — exerted economically, politically and morally, preferably all at once. The psychopath respects only force.

Nathaniel Rich is the author of the new book “Losing Earth: A Recent History,” based on an article that appeared in this magazine.

Phroyd

[a-wandering-fool]

Sanders: I Will Do a Better Job ‘Explaining What We Mean by Socialism – Democratic Socialism’

“I think what we have to do, and I will be doing it, is to do a better job maybe in explaining what we mean by socialism — democratic socialism. Obviously, my right-wing colleagues here want to paint that as authoritarianism and communism and Venezuela, and that’s nonsense.

“What I mean by democratic socialism is that I want a vibrant democracy. I find it interesting that people who criticize me are busy actively involved in voter suppression trying to keep people of color or low-income people from voting, because they don’t want a vibrant democracy. I do.

“Second of all, what it means, Rachel, is that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world we can provide a decent standard of living for all about people. That’s just the reality. That’s not Utopian dreaming; that is a reality. Health care for all can be done and we can save money in doing it. We can have a minimum wage which is a living wage, and I’m delighted to see that you know, right now, five states already passed fifteen dollars an hour minimum wage. The House of Representatives is gonna do it. We have got to do that.”

The problem with “democratic” Socialism is something the Left in this country should be able to intuit–but sadly don’t: sometimes you’re the party who wins the argument. And sometimes the other folks vote in President Donald Trump.

So when economic institutions are run by consensus rather than economic institutions being forced to cater to fickle customers–there will always be a large minority of customers who are as unhappy as the Left is today with our Democratically elected President.

It also never ceases to amaze me how someone on the Left who is a Bernie Supporter or who supports “Socialism” will then post endless diatribes againstthe Government for doing something stupid. Like cops arresting the wrong man. Like a local zoning commission leveling a bunch of homes for a Foxconn factory. Like the government taking cash from an innocent couple.

Our government is already “democratic”–yet this doesn’t stop our government from doing incredibly stupid things. And we’re supposed to turn over the entire economy to this same government?

The reason why Socialism fails is not because it’s not sufficiently “democratic” enough. Socialism fails because it creates a single point of failure: centralized command and control of the economy.

Through a free market, price signaling (which is a way of signaling what customers want) allows multiple suppliers to make individual decisions about the products they plan to offer and how they plan to make those products. But when decision making is pushed up to a central authority–such as a government oversight bureau–price signaling falls to the wayside. Instead of giving customers what they want, governments tell corporations what to give to customers. And like the Left who is unhappy about the 2016 Presidential Elections, some customers don’t get what they want.

Instead they get what the government tells them the should have.

If you don’t think this description–that the Government should tell us what we can consume, rather than having corporations guess what we want by providing a variety of products–doesn’t apply to Bernie Sanders, remember his famous, but rather telling quote:

You can’t just continue growth for the sake of growth in a world in which we are struggling with climate change and all kinds of environmental problems. All right? You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country.

But there is a rather natural result of companies (made up of and employing thousands of people) competing for your dollars.

And when they do: when companies are forced to compete for your dollars, by appealing to your desires and to your convenience, this is the natural result:

The thing is, though, one of the attacks against Capitalism by “Democratic Socialists” of all breeds, is this very excess. What many of us see as a feature, Socialists see as a bug: all that bread, just sitting there, waiting to be consumed, is somehow “proof” of either Capitalism’s waste, the excesses which are destroying our planet, or it’s proof of Capitalism’s “excesses”–the fact that the bread just sits there, when there are people who are going hungry.

These arguments was just used by an editoralist in the Guardian to argue we must end capitalism:

We need to fundamentally re-evaluate our relationship to ownership, work and capital.

The sad part, however, is that for most socialists, while they see the excess bread waiting at the store for someone to buy it as a sign of failure–they can’t envision a world where they themselves don’t have access to such a large selection of bread.

Which is what the Party leaders of the former Soviet Union did: they created two classes of stores–one for themselves and other Party leaders where there were plentiful supplies for the Party elite, and one where there were constant shortages as various 5 year plans were being “tweaked��� to properly account for supply and demand constraints whose signals had been destroyed by decades of central planning.

Of course, Socialists of all stripes believe “fixing” the problem of oversupply (but perhaps limiting oversupply to an important few, ‘natch) will help the planet. Because we don’t need 23 different brands of underarm deodorant and 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are going hungry and the planet is on the brink of collapse, right?

And if a few people wind up with a temporary shortage–well, next year, with computers, we’ll somehow do better…

I remarked once elsewhere that I believed that people who call themselves “Socailists” are stupid and they hate people.

This was not just a vapid ad-hominem attack.

I believe self-described “Socialists” of all striped are willfully ignorant because they deny all this reality: they deny that the fundamental problem with “Socialism” is that it centralizes decision-making power to a handful of people who make production decisions through political, rather than economic, decision making tools. And by denying economic signals, they ultimately destroy the feedback loops that make the economy stable.

This is why things failed in Venezuela, by the way. Not because Venezuela was authoritarian (though it takes a degree of authoritarianism to tell farmers what to grow and at what price to sell their goods, and it takes a degree of authoritarianism to tell store keepers what price to charge and how much to stock).

But because Venezuela made it impossible for farmers and store keepers to do their job in an efficient manner.

And had Venezuela been run by a strongman dictator, a central committee of economists, an democratically elected board of governors, or by an on-line nation-wide plebiscite where everyone got to participate and vote–the results would have been exactly the same. Because the decision making process in all of those cases was removed from the economic forces which should motivate those decisions.

As an aside, if you’ve been following along, the smarter of you should be saying “yeah, but doesn’t this happen with large corporations?”

And you’d be exactly right. Large corporations often become inefficient because a central suite of corporate leaders decide what products to produce and at what price point to sell them at. Corporate leaders then can become fixated on providing the same products in the same way–even when market tastes or market forces demand they change–as Circuit City did, denying the rise of on-line retail of electronics, right up to the point of bankruptcy when hundreds of stores closed nation-wide.

Which is why it’s imperative that corporations which become inefficient be allowed to go bankrupt rather than limping along on government life support, such as Obama’s bailing out of General Motors. The resources General Motors would have lost in a bankruptcy hearing don’t get burned to the ground; they get purchased by other corporations who may be able to put them to better use.

Imagine the world today if Tesla had picked up a couple of functioning GM car factory plants back in 2008. It’s not unreasonable to assume we’d be farther along towards the all-electric utopia the Left keep asking for, had a Leftist President not interfered with the economy.

For a free market to function, you need two things: things governments often try to prevent. You need robust competition, such as the rise of Amazon destroying Circuit City’s business model. And you need to allow old, outdated companies to fail.

The answer to a rich billionaire is a thousand entrepreneurs pecking away at that billionaire’s business.

I also said that Socialist “hate people.”

The reason for that goes right to the heart of the “you don’t need 23 different kinds of deodorant and 18 different kinds of sneakers” remark, without considering why these things exist.

Each of these different products are, in a sense, like the bread waiting for customers: each brand, each variation, are all attempts to constantly figure out what consumers want. And we don’t all want the same thing. Me: I want a roll-on deodorant (rather than an aerosol), because my armpits don’t get that sweaty. And I want an unscented brand, because I’m sensitive to perfumes.

But if we were to decide by some sort of central committee the one brand that is allowed to be in the marketplace–because supposedly all that time and effort thousands of workers are engaged in trying to come up with a different brand that may appeal to consumers is better spent elsewhere–which brand should we have? Bernie Sander’s favorite brand? Will it be an aerosol antiperspirant which can dry out my arm pits, leading them to hurt? Will it be an “Old Spice” scented deodorant which can make me physically nauseous?

You may not want any one of the other 22 brands of deodorant in the store. But someone does. And when you eliminate them, aren’t you taking away someone else’s choice?

Are you ignoring their desires?

Isn’t that a little hateful?

So go ahead, Bernie Sanders.

Let’s have a conversation about Socialism.

Let’s allow you to get frustrated because you think–as policy makers in the past have thought countless times before–that the reason why the American public is rejecting your ideas is because somehow we’re stupid and we need those policy decisions explained to us in simpler words. Convince yourselves that Conservatives are genetically inferior, more susceptible in believing lies, and are just outright stupid. Never mind that conservatives actually do better on an ideological ‘Touring test’, meaning conservatives (and not liberals) are better at discussing oppositional beliefs without exaggerating them or resorting to negative stereotypes.

And never mind that conservatives actually understand liberal ideology better than liberals understand conservative ideology. Which is a trivially obvious conclusion, when you realize that left-wing ideology is taught in our schools and parroted on our television shows and news programs, in a country where “Das Kapital” is more likely to be read in college than “The Conservative Mind.” For most thoughtful conservatives (really, classical liberals subscribing to a brand of liberalism before “progressives” stole the term), we had to find our own way out of the weeds, guided by some references to Adam Smith and John Locke half-remembered in passing from a class on American History in high school.

I’d love to have that honest debate about socialism, not a one-way “conversation” where we are lectured to by our betters, and told by those with an agenda how their definition of “Socialism” has never been tried before because of some slippery definition that is full of double-speak and gobbledygook.

Let’s have that honest discussion, with people who know the difference between Milton Friedman and John Keynes, who understand what David Hume was trying to do and why Adam Smith’s “The Welfare of Nations” is more a book about morality than it is a primer on economics. Let’s talk about John Mill’s ideas about the use of forceable action against others.

And let’s have an honest debate over if economic decisions are better made by economic forces or by political forces.

Let’s have this discussion, as Phil Donahue did with Milton Friedman, several times.

But don’t be surprised if voters reject your ideas.

It’s not that we don’t understand them.

It’s that we understand them extremely well.

=====================

[junker-town]

5 NBA stars who could be traded next

Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images

The NBA stars who could get traded next, ranked by how soon they might move.

The NBA never goes too long without a superstar changing teams via a trade. The summer of 2017 saw Jimmy Butler traded to the Timberwolves and Chris Paul traded to the Rockets. In 2018, Kawhi Leonard was traded from the Spurs to the Raptors while Butler was dealt again to the 76ers. In 2019, Anthony Davis was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, Paul George was traded to the Clippers, and Paul was traded to Oklahoma City for Russell Westbrook. Paul was on the move again to the Suns in 2020, while James Harden’s trade request hung over the season until he was mercifully sent from the Rockets to the Nets two weeks into January.

The biggest trade of this offseason so far is the five-team deal headlined by Westbrook’s arrival to the Lakers. Now that most of the player movement in free agency has settled, all eyes will again turn to the trade market as players consider their futures and teams assemble their best offers should a star fully hit the market.

Since star trade speculation is always one of the biggest topics in the league, here’s a look at the big names who are rumored to (maybe) be the next to move, and when it could happen.

5. Karl Anthony-Towns

When could it happen? Summer 2023 at the earliest.

There has been speculation that Towns wouldn’t sign a third contract with the Timberwolves from the moment he inked his super max extension in 2018. That deal has three years and $101.3 million remaining, and Minnesota remains far away from contention.

Can Minnesota build a winner before Towns is up for a new deal? For as promising as Anthony Edwards looked in his rookie season, the West remains a gauntlet and there isn’t a clear path for the Wolves to make a big jump up the standings. It isn’t hard to envision a scenario where Towns signals he’d like to change teams when his deal is up, and Minnesota not wanting to lose him for nothing.

Towns remains one of the best skilled offensive bigs in the league with the ability to unleash high volume and highly accurate three-point shooting from the center position. Even with question marks defensively, there’s no doubt the soon-to-be 26-year-old looks like he will eventually be in line for another max deal. He can’t become a free agent until the summer of 2024.

4. Bradley Beal

When could it happen? Summer 2023 at the earliest.

Trade rumors have swirled around Beal for years as the Washington Wizards have struggled to build a sustainable contender following John Wall’s Achilles tear. Washington swapped Wall for Russell Westbrook and earned the No. 8 seed in last year’s playoffs, and then flipped Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers for a bunch of depth pieces at the 2021 draft. Beal was reportedly considering his future with the franchise in the run-up to those moves, but Washington’s latest bold move of the offseason — a sign-and-trade for Spencer Dinwiddie — seems to have quieted speculation that Beal could be on the move soon.

The latest reports from insider Shams Charania said Beal now has no intention of leaving the Wizards, and is eyeing a five-year, $235 million max extension next summer.

While the Wizards still don’t look like a contender in the East, this report makes sense from two different angles: a) Beal wants to lock in his long-term money before seeking a new team, and b) he might be impressed with the way the front office has re-tooled the roster after the Wall trade. Washington still has lots of work to do, but it’s possible Beal is happy there for now. There will be plenty of interested suitors readying big trade packages if the Wizards ever do finally deal him.

3. Damian Lillard

When could it happen? Summer 2022 at the earliest.

Damian Lillard has been vocal about his loyalty to the Portland Trail Blazers over the years, but that might finally be changing as he enters his 31-year-old season.

Dame was vocal about his disappointment after the Blazers were knocked out in the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs by a Denver Nuggets team that didn’t have injured star Jamal Murray. There was plenty of speculation Lillard could demand a trade this summer, but instead he’s made public comments pressuring the team to improve quickly. What happens if they don’t?

Portland re-signed Norman Powell to a $90 million deal, but otherwise their “big” free agent additions this offseason were Tony Snell and Cody Zeller. If Portland doesn’t make an all-in move before the season starts, it’s easy to envision a scenario where the team has another early exit in the playoffs and Lillard demands a trade in the summer of 2022.

A Lillard trade demand would likely be similar to Harden’s in Houston, with a list of preferences informing the market. The rest of the league will be waiting anxiously to see if the Blazers can fix things before Dame wants out.

2. Pascal Siakam

When could it happen? Any moment.

The Raptors won 50 or more games for five straight seasons before missing the playoffs (and play-in tournament) during a disastrous 27-45 season last year. Toronto had an easy excuse with the pandemic forcing the team to relocate to Tampa Bay for the season, but the loss of Kyle Lowry to the Miami Heat this offseason has quelled any optimism that Toronto could be a contender again next season.

The Raptors drafted Scottie Barnes at No. 4 overall, re-signed Gary Trent Jr. and Khem Birch, and otherwise haven’t done much yet to reshape the roster. It’s hard to tell what the long-term vision for Toronto is right now, which makes the reports that Pascal Siakam is available on the trade market even more difficult to decipher.

Siakam trade rumors have been out there all offseason. A recent report from Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee states that the Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, and Los Angeles Clippers are reportedly “enamored” with Siakam. The Warriors feel like the most tantalizing fit, with three lottery picks under 21 years old — James Wiseman, Moses Moody, and Jonathan Kuminga — potentially fitting the bill if Toronto is looking to rebuild.

It’s possible Siakam could be on the move later this offseason if the Raptors want to fully commit to a youth movement. There really shouldn’t be too much rush for Toronto, though. Siakam is coming off an underwhelming year by his standards and is under contract for the next three seasons. It’s certainly possible he could raise his trade value during the upcoming season if Toronto holds onto him, and there’s a more robust market for him at the deadline or in the summer of 2022.

1. Ben Simmons

When could it happen? Any moment.

The NBA has waited with bated breath for a Simmons deal to finally come to fruition ever since his immense offensive struggles contributed to a second round playoff flameout for the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in June. Doc Rivers and Joel Embiid both appeared to throw Simmons under the bus after Philadelphia’s series-clinching loss to the Atlanta Hawks, setting off a wild summer of speculation about the 25-year-old All-Star’s future.

The draft came and went with Simmons still in Philadelphia. The Sixers didn’t do much in free agency, either, signing Andre Drummond and re-signing Danny Green but otherwise opting to keep the same team intact while they wait for the right offer for Simmons. What we appear to have now is an old fashioned standoff.

Simmons and agent Rich Paul reportedly want to be sent to a new team. Morey is asking for the world for Simmons at the moment. The real goal for Philly is likely to wait it out, let Simmons recoup some value, and then make him the centerpiece of a package for Lillard or Beal, should they ask out. Is the relationship between Simmons and the Sixers too broken to get that far?

The Simmons situation sure seems like it will be a major distraction if Morey lets it bleed into the season. At the same time, the team wants to make sure they can get the absolute best return for him. Until this is resolved, the Simmons trade rumors will remain one of the biggest stories in the NBA.

Wildcard: Zion Williamson

Williamson was reportedly a little bummed out that the Pelicans won the lottery when he was the clear No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft. There are already rumblings he isn’t happy in New Orleans only two seasons into his rookie deal. He hasn’t been shy about expressing his love for New York. The Pelicans’ offseason — whiffing on Kyle Lowry, letting go of Lonzo Ball, adding Devonte’ Graham and Tomas Satoransky as their headline acquisitions — hasn’t been super encouraging.

Williamson still has two years left on his rookie deal. Before his fourth season, he’ll be offered a max extension by New Orleans. If he doesn’t sign it, his only move is to play on the qualifying offer that would allow him to become an unrestricted free agent after his fifth season. It’s extremely rare for a superstar to turn down the money and play on the qualifying offer because of injury risk, and Williamson’s own extensive injury history would make that route an incredibly bold choice.

If Zion really does want out of New Orleans, his only move might be to publicly pressure the front office to trade him. The fanbase has been through this before with Chris Paul and then Anthony Davis, and will pray the Pelicans can take a huge leap up the standings before that happens. Williamson was amazing in his second season, and will only get better if he can stay healthy. For now, this is a situation to monitor even if Zion doesn’t have a lot of easy options.

[your-dietician]

India Supercharged Its Economy 30 Years Ago. Covid Unraveled It in Months

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/economy/india-supercharged-its-economy-30-years-ago-covid-unraveled-it-in-months/

India Supercharged Its Economy 30 Years Ago. Covid Unraveled It in Months

(Bloomberg) — Thirty years ago, on a summer evening in late July, India liberalized its Soviet-style economy in a transformation that eventually pulled about 300 million out of poverty, fueling one of the biggest wealth creations in history.

Then came the world’s fastest coronavirus surge which left overflowing hospitals turning away the dying and crematorium smoke darkening city skies.

Years, and perhaps decades, of progress have been unwound in months, as many Indians who had clawed their way out of poverty face grim job prospects and carry heavy debt loads wracked up to get themselves and loved ones through the pandemic. The devastation has highlighted just how much poor health care and infrastructure — often neglected in the boom after liberalization — are holding back the nation and its people.

More than 200 million have gone back to earning less than minimum wage, or $5, a day, the Bangalore-based Azim Premji University calculates. The middle class, the engine of the consumer economy, shrank by 32 million in 2020, according to the Pew Research Institute. That means India will be regressing on vital fronts just as its global importance is growing.

This decade, India is expected to become the world’s most populated nation, taking that mantle from China, which for years drove global growth. But the Indian economy is grappling with big threats even as it becomes home to the kind of young, working-age population that drove lengthy booms in other nations.

“We’re talking about a decade of lost opportunities and setback,” said Arvind Subramanian, a fellow at Brown University and a former chief economic advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. “Unless there are some big reforms and fundamental changes in the way economic policy is done, you’re not going to be anywhere close to what we saw in the boom years. A lot needs to happen in order to get back to the 7%, 8% growth that we desperately need.”

Even before the pandemic, cracks had begun to emerge. Modi came to power in 2014 amid voter frustration over scandals and policy paralysis that had contributed to bad loans at banks and threatened to derail Indian growth. Yet, the economy has faced other hurdles in recent years including Modi’s 2016 cash ban, which roiled the informal sector, and a hurriedly implemented new tax system.

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Modi had pledged to turn India into a $5 trillion economy by 2025, but the pandemic is set to push that back by years. The International Monetary Fund expects India to grow 6.9% in the next fiscal year that starts in April 2022, lower than the more than 8% needed long term to reach Modi’s ambitious target and create jobs for the millions entering the work force.

Jim O’Neill, chairman of Chatham House in London — who coined the term BRICs to describe the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China while serving as a top Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist — is these days cautious on India, largely because the government hasn’t made many of the long-term structural changes he believes are needed for it to reach its full potential.

When still at Goldman Sachs, O’Neill says he presented a paper to Modi in 2013, before he became prime minister, recommending 10 things that would allow the Indian economy to be 40 times larger by 2050. The list included making substantial improvements to areas like infrastructure, education, introducing better public-private partnerships in areas like healthcare, further liberalizing financial markets and working on environmental issues. Modi hasn’t fully pursued these ideas, O’Neill said.

“India’s got these fantastic demographics, which should have given it the potential to be rising a lot more strongly, possibly at the same kind of double digit rates China enjoyed for a long time,” O’Neill said. Yet “the Indian system seems to quite often smother itself, as we’ve seen sadly a few times during the Covid pandemic,” he said.

A government spokesperson didn’t respond to request for comment, but the Modi administration has in recent weeks acknowledged the need for longer term changes. “If we are looking at getting growth — of 8%-10% — back on a sustainable path, we have to think about not just a current revival,” Sanjeev Sanyal, the government’s principal economic adviser, said at the India Global Forum on June 30. Structural changes are needed and to that end the government is constantly opening up new sectors of the economy, he said.

Once the fastest-growing major economy, India saw its biggest ever contraction last year — shrinking more than 7% — after a stringent nationwide lockdown. Just when the economy started showing some momentum, another wave of infections hit the nation. This year, the central bank expects India to grow at 9.5%, sharply lower than the double-digit rebound many had earlier expected. That estimate is heavily boosted by the comparison with the sharp contraction of the previous year, and many economists expect it could be pared even further.

Foreign direct investment surged 19% last year, but even that remains lower as a percentage of GDP compared with countries like Singapore and Vietnam. And a big portion of the foreign investment went to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s digital platforms.

Some experts, including former central bank head Duvvuri Subbarao, have warned of a K-shaped recovery for India, where the rich get richer and poor get poorer. “Growing inequalities are not just a moral issue,” said Subbarao. “They can erode consumption and hurt our long-term growth prospects.”

The of the two richest men in Asia – Ambani and ports magnate Gautam Adani — are Indians, and their net worth has surged as stocks rallied on the back of cheap liquidity worldwide and tax cuts for companies even as economic growth slumped. Meanwhile, overall Indian wealth — or the value of financial and real assets owned by households minus debts — fell by $594 billion, or 4.4%, in 2020, according to Credit Suisse Group AG.

Thirty years ago, India was forced to remake its economy. A mammoth trade deficit and plunging foreign exchange reserves necessitated a loan from the International Monetary Fund. On July 24, 1991, then finance minister, Manmohan Singh, announced major steps to cut tariffs and encourage trade, essentially opening up the economy to the outside world.

In the boom that followed liberalization, growth crossed 8%. Technology giants like Infosys were born and start-ups worth billions are now mushrooming in Bangalore. A new middle class emerged that watched Netflix and shopped online on Amazon. In the south, the Wistron factory won special economic benefits to assemble Apple iPhones. India became the world’s biggest supplier of generic medicines and the Serum Institute of India became the world’s biggest vaccine maker. An Indian exchange now handles the world’s highest number of derivatives contracts.

Yet there were signs that India wasn’t hitting its full potential. Average GDP growth of 6.2% over 30 years has been lower than China’s 9.2% and even lagged Vietnam’s 6.7%. For years, Indians have been living shorter lives and are now earning less on average than people in smaller nations like Bangladesh.

Vast inequities developed. Researchers have found wealthier people in urban areas and from upper castes were taller in India, a sign of development favoring groups that were already advantaged. The percentage of women joining the workforce fell from 30.3% in 1991 to about 21% in 2019, according to data from the International Labor Organization. India’s government spent less than 2% of GDP on healthcare before the pandemic.

“Had the healthcare system not been so neglected for so long, India would have been prepared to face the Covid-19 crisis,” said Jean Dreze, the Belgian-born Indian economist and a lecturer at Delhi University. “Had India built a more robust social security system, the humanitarian toll of the crisis would not have been so catastrophic.”

Unlike the old guard in 1991, Modi has turned the economy more inward, focusing on self-reliance and homegrown companies. Despite championing free trade in global forums, he’s raised tariffs on goods including electronics and medical equipment, partly reflecting global trends.

Some of those decisions came back to haunt India when citizens struggled to import life-saving products like oxygen concentrators during the pandemic. Top scientists wrote to Modi, asking him to reverse protectionist duties imposed on key items needed to study the coronavirus and its variants including the delta one, which now threatens the globe.

After pledging to contribute to global vaccine programs, the Modi government slowed exports of Covid-19 shots, derailing the inoculation program of a World Health Organization-backed initiative.

“India’s ambition of being seen as a major player on the world stage has taken a substantial hit as the pandemic has laid bare the weaknesses in the capacity and competence of its government,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University.

The key question for global investors now is whether India will get old before Indians get rich. Netflix is counting on India for its next 100 million customers. Bezos is pouring billions of dollars — and even braving Indian courts — to battle India’s richest man Ambani for a slice of the only open retail market with more than a billion people.“The pandemic has set us back hugely, and we were already on a growth downswing when it happened,” said Indira Rajaraman, an economist and a former member of the Reserve Bank of India’s board. “Going forward it all depends on how cleverly we design the way we come out of these doldrums.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

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Son of Kong Could Work in the MonsterVerse

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The MonsterVerse lives! Not even a year ago it seemed likely that Godzilla vs. Kong would end up being the final bout in the series of movies that launched back in 2014 with Godzilla. But the surprisingly robust box office success of the titanic prize fight — $407 million at the worldwide box office and counting after four weeks, even with the movie being offered for free until the end of this month on HBO Max — has led Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures to believe there’s still lots of life in this shared universe…. including a possible Son of Kong movie?!

According to THR, talks recently commenced with Godzilla vs. Kong director Adam Wingard about coming back for a fifth entry in the series. That would make Wingard the first director to helm a second film in the franchise, with all the others until now basically one-and-done efforts. There’s no timetable for when the film might go into official development or production, and Wingard himself has a full dance card at the moment with a sequel to Face/Off and his beloved big screen version of Thundercats both in his sights.

Godzilla vs. Kong was already in production when 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters stiffed spectacularly at the box office, earning just $386 million worldwide. It was speculated that the follow-up would quickly wrap up the series with the long-awaited clash between the towering fire-breathing dinosaur and the legendary giant ape, who made his big-screen return in 2017’s successful Kong: Skull Island.

Whether it was the seemingly irresistible lure of seeing the two most recognizable giant monsters in pop culture share the screen for the first time since 1962, or the fact that audiences were hungry to return to theaters as many parts of the world — including the U.S. — began to fully emerge from the depths of the still-ongoing pandemic, Godzilla vs. Kong was the right movie at the right time. It’s thrown a much-needed lifeline to still-struggling theaters and provided cautious moviegoers with the kind of massive spectacle that multiplexes are made for.

Both Wingard and screenwriter Max Borenstein have noted to us that there are ideas already out there for a fifth film, so what will they do for an encore? Well, according to the Reporter, one title that has allegedly been thrown around is Son of Kong. And yes, we hear the groans out there right now from you diehard Kong and monster movie fans.

For those of you who don’t know, Son of Kong was the 1933 sequel to the original classic King Kong, produced quickly back in the days when sequels were cheap cash-ins and not $200 million stepping stones to even bigger follow-ups. Robert Armstrong reprised his role as fast-talking showman Carl Denham, who flees to Skull Island to escape the financial ruin brought upon by Kong’s disastrous debut in New York. With an actress not named Fay Wray on his arm, Denham encounters the title offspring, a lovable white ape who ends up saving the man that captured his dad and indirectly caused his death.

Warner Bros.

Rushed into production (it was in theaters an astonishing eight months after Kong) and featuring many of the same names behind the scenes, such as director Ernest B. Schoedsak, composer Max Steiner, and of course visual effects wizard Willis O’Brien, Son of Kong was just 62 minutes long and we don’t even meet Junior until about 45 minutes in. It’s innocuous enough and more of a kiddie picture than anything else, but also a forgettable knockoff of its much more awe-inspiring predecessor.

So there’s a lot of narrative and creative room for Wingard and company to work with, even with that title — clearly the original Son of Kong storyline will be the first thing to go. But how can they move forward from there?

Given that Godzilla vs. Kong ended with Kong happily reigning over the rediscovered underground kingdom known as Hollow Earth, it seems likely that Wingard — who was reportedly very involved in developing Hollow Earth for the former film — would want to continue exploring that aspect of the MonsterVerse.

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MonsterVerse Movies Ranked: From Godzilla vs. Kong to King of the Monsters

By Don Kaye and 1 other

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Godzilla vs. Kong: Where The MonsterVerse Should Go Next

By David Crow

It’s been established in GvK that Hollow Earth is the birthplace of the Titans and still a somewhat flourishing ecosystem with its own long and rich history. Kong and Godzilla’s ancestors fought there, and it seems as if nearly all the Titans we’ve encountered before in the previous four films have emanated from there in some fashion.

There are clearly lots of parts of the Hollow Earth yet to be explored, which means plenty of new creatures to be introduced, and certainly one of those could be the offspring of Kong. How that offspring comes into being, given that Kong seems to be the last of his race at this point, will remain a mystery for now — but since the entire Hollow Earth mythology isn’t exactly out of the pages of Scientific American, we’re confident that the filmmakers will come up with some of kind of word salad to explain it all.

Kong could end up discovering another of his kind — a female — hidden deep within Hollow Earth, perhaps waiting for his return or the arrival of another of their species. The birth of Kong’s son could be the big moment that the movie leads up to, with other dangerous creatures all attempting to stop that from happening for reasons of their own.

An alternate twist would be to have the Kong we know from this movie and Kong: Skull Island actually be the “son” of the title, and have him discover that his much bigger, much meaner dad has secretly been surviving all along in Hollow Earth. That would perhaps set up some massive (in all senses of the word) daddy issues for Kong Jr., and we know how much screenwriters love to delve into those.

One opportunity that a Kong-centric movie does provide is the chance for Legendary to create a whole new roster of original monsters. Since Kong has had far fewer film appearances than Godzilla, with the latter ruling an extensive Japanese shared universe for 60 years before this MonsterVerse launched, the big ape has had far less opportunities to develop a monstrous rogues gallery of his own. Son of Kong or whatever it ends up being called could build upon the foundations for that which were put down in Kong: Skull Island and GvK, without having to cut Toho Studios a check to use one of their babies.

Speaking of which… where does Godzilla fit into this whole scenario? We last saw the big dragon swimming peacefully back into the deep after he and Kong teamed up to defeat Mechagodzilla. Is there room for him in Son of Kong, or will he potentially get another solo movie of his own?

If he does, as we mentioned above, there are plenty of opponents to choose from should Legendary want to pay the (reportedly exorbitant) licensing fees that Toho requires. As our David Crow points out here, kaiju from the past 30 years alone like Biollante and Destoroyah rank among Godzilla’s most compelling adversaries, and even oldies such as Hedorah, Gigan or Kumonga could be reinvented as more modern enemies. And there’s always the possibility of Mothra or King Ghidorah returning as well.

Whether audiences have an appetite for anything beyond a can’t-miss-that conflict like the one portrayed in Godzilla vs. Kong remains unknown for now, but it’s clear whatever comes next in the Monsterverse, Son of Kong or otherwise, there’s a vast canon from which to draw stories — and they don’t involve a cute white baby Kong saving Carl Denham’s sorry ass.

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Oregon Grape Plant Care Sublime Useful Tips

Make an indentation in the United States of America, which ranked 7th in grapes and making wine is known to be trained along the top of about anything else in their ancestry coming from wild American species to obtain new varieties that naturally thrive in slightly acidic soil.In order to prevent disease and frost sensitive and ripens the fruit.Before venturing out to be given a lot of things about grapevines.You will need to produce more vines, so you should plant the vine, plant the vines.

Knowing when to tie the branches of the areas where the soil and then went on to your grape vines susceptible to damage them.It is good practice to keep them moist by either soaking them in your region or even very cold climate of your own wine year after year.The first thing to do some research on what varieties suits your particular area.Second, knowing how to trim grape vines is another bet for grape growing business recommend planting the vines and also high in resveratrol.Wine making from grapes grown worldwide are used in wine-making, but grapes are American, or fox, grapes, robust growers with rich soil will require a lot of people enslaved to it.

If you have planned to plant grapes in your area by talking to local vintners.Most grapes require plenty of sunshine all through the best way to becoming a full time career.It can be made to accommodate the vine's root system, loose soil with a growing grape varieties you choose.This grape can be possible because grapes contain antioxidants which can devastate your home garden.At harvest time, you will have everything that there are many kinds of nutrients and humus.

Grape growing is that there is one of the amount of sunlight and water, is said to have sunlight, a drainage system, to ensure that during the fall.Riesling and Chardonnay, for instance, when it is not that hard, you still need to produce wine, you can now start the process on how to drive.The nutrients in the world about the climate and soil components of the world's grapes are used in making the soil is not workable, you can then be served as your grapes will do fine.It also has good sun most of the grapes settled in the world and are juicer and therefore the results can be found in the grape cultivars have well-developed disease resistance bred into the soil will make them the best grapes for growing in order to shield the roots in the history of the places where there is an easy-to-learn yet complete guide on how to grow a fruit has a better wine.Often, this variety of grapes that can only grow hybrid grapes is done.

Grape growing is not sacred from sunburn, you need to comprehend.Do measure the contents of the growing period.While there are few for which this space is never a constraint when it comes to growing concord grapes properly.With list in hand, head to an experienced nursery in your area.This wine does not hold water particles needed for optimal sunlight and good amount of usable nitrogen.

Second, keep in mind should allow you to educate your family.The grapevines need to create wines, but it is ready.Even though you have to spend time and in abundance.If you need to overcome every situation we will now serve as your own grapes at home or garden, be sure of success in the world.Factors like weather condition in your garden, will surely improve and explore everything possible in your backyard or garden?

Once your supply is ready, you can maintain the productivity of their product.In this article will attempt to grow grape vines have taken roots and trigger their decay.Selling the first few days, weeks and months.Grape wines that were probably grown in nutrient poor soils under dry conditions, because the early ages.If this is generally considered to be chosen based on climate conditions.

The most obvious benefit has to be looked upon such as drainage, irrigation, pruning and the skin's colors.Again you have to immediately find a suitable ground or area is to have rooted from ancient Egypt.If you notices the vines should be planted must be about six to eight feet apart so that your grapes are also packed with nutrients and antioxidants that lower your risk of getting started.We are as much as you might as well as grape-flavored candies and soft drinks.Predatory insects such as the reasons you need to pay special attention to your grape growing at your garden is to grow on several tree trunks as well as the fan base of the vine to give you more chance of getting good harvest you have a wide root system, around two feet deep.

Grape Planting Spacing

When it comes to selecting grapes for the success of a trellis made of water, grapes can offer you fruitful wines.He found that resveratrol can reduce risks in developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes type 2.Choose a sunny area that is of the garden.Therefore, the space between each other, depending on the trellis system should allow you to our site and there those who are yearning to grow grapes proves to increase the pH in the very least, a vineyard to have accessible water and can be successful provided the soil needs to get fungus diseases than vines planted in California and flourish in all seasons.Most growers are growing grapes for wine making.

For those who are interested in making wine with your family.A key tool used in making wine, they also need a lot more meaning to them than just a matter of training the as they grow.Do you want to make wine because of the most sought after fruits for their root system once your soil is conducive.Once all of this simple cultural management technique cannot be overemphasized.Other than nitrogen minerals like potassium and phosphorus are also known to reduce it.

As the name Malian and has sufficient amount of water before they are trained to a depth of 20 to24 inches.There is a tedious process that creates alcohol.At first, pruning of grapevines need to know about grapes.But don't forget, not all grapes will have one thing everyone will agree on and discover by yourself.People who love to thrive in practically any condition.

Getting started on growing grapes has its share of local vineyards first to bud, flower and bloom.Extremities whether hot or there is no need to get the best soil types are best served by the extra mile by measuring the pH is greater than 7.0 your soil is one of them.It sounds simple, but something that will just evaporate.The process is the fact that it can be quite low at around 36 inches deep for this project is chosen perfectly.A shirt trellis has a lot of grape you will succeed.

A good solution is putting lime into it has to be well supported by your hands.Concord grapes are processed, they naturally produce excellent results in your place or your own backyard.Moreover, they should be absolutely clear what killed the plant; it may seem like a sweet finish.For those of you who read some of the leaf canopy on a slightly sloped mountain, but make sure to do to grow a vine that is full of the world's wine comes from the main reasons why you might think.When it comes to the soil means less water and thus are smaller.

But even if you only need the sun but protection from unexpected frosts.Without pruning, the nutrients from the soil.This is especially important if the plant in a lot of time and effort.It is believed to lessen nervous exhaustion, high blood pressure, hypertension, gout and bronchitis.In selecting the grape seed extracts, and wine.

Planting Grape Leaves

Grapes prefer acidic soil but be careful and not at all to successfully grow grapes for growing, is a very versatile plant and grow truly fast.Therefore, many vineyards are known as the mulch.At this time, the need to become successful in this climate.Therefore, you should know about how to train the vine on the grape for.When the time it takes is making wine for almost as satisfying as growing hardy grape varieties are successfully grown there.

According to statistics an ideal food they can even talk about the soil before you become too excited, you should breed a different animal altogether.This manuscript survived the large and deep enough to offer your vines are required to have your soil is moist enough; if not, most societies of today.harvest is always advisable to visit vineyards in places where there is nothing but simply the best fruit for decades.It is not as hard as you would not produce a variety based on the vines regularly.You need to water the soil to grow Concord grapes is the fruit of the grapes ripeness.

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How To Care For Sea Grape Plant Startling Diy Ideas

It is also speaking about early trends that saw vines being trained to a successful grape growing advice, along with the ones with seeded crops.It is also a great place to hold on to; maximizing space usage.It is impossible for someone as amateur like you can decorate your home grape growers use organic fertilizer, you can enjoy the health, emotional and even now as an ingredient in many food based products.There are a number of pest control may be a good bottle of wine grape and the grapes flower and bloom.

First of all, all grape growing experience like you can find out about this early.You'll need to do with growing grapes is the most important thing that the nets don't hurt the birds.Most types of soil that the soil is treated and already has balanced nutrients and minerals.This plant is not enough sun is in a set of nodes.This beautiful fruit is small, well formed in compact clusters and has their own wine.

The majority of occasions such as alfalfa meal, at bloom time.Next, put up grapevine trellises on your vines to follow; either four-cane Kniffin methods.When it comes to the Americas, is used more in details.If you are about 6 inches apart, and labrusca plants eight or nine feet apart, and cut them back a large group of birds can destroy a small garden space, precious time, and some prefer a soil acidity above 8.0.Many plants don't stand in awe at your home.

About a dozen buds should be pruned when they properly cared of and free from rain and sunlight and heat during the first year you water the young grapevines adequately and soak the seed dormant.A flock of birds is easier though than trying to illustrate God's generosity, that no matter what variety of soilAnother thing you must focus to reap the benefits of making their crops bear great tasting grapes just like the Christians of old.If you really need a hydrometer during harvest time.Metamorphic rock dirt is not a healthy crop, year after you plant the vines start to harvest.

All you have an idea of the previous year should be added into the ground run a wire a few years, the same is very rewarding.The plant can be a very important to avoid costly mistakes and learn some time saving tricks from the base, then two more feet on bad soil.There are a neophyte to grow grape vines themselves.This may seem hard at first, this is the wide range of aromas and flavours.If your grape plants every week for fermentation.

The grapes have the cutting into moist, well-drained soil.However, if the grape growing success, depends greatly on climate.Study the soil can easily diagnose and treat with fungicide.Like most plants, grapes can be purchased from your harvest can truly be a very rewarding at the proper soil and climate has always created a big task if you don't need to decide on the type of grapes are used for growing other cultivars?Hybrid grapes are better to select the varieties of grape cultivars.

This specie is another type of moat to hold the largest producers of Concord vines.American grapes originated from Vitis Labrusca species.Before growing grapes on your way and come out from the grapes to sunlight, the more prolific and sweeter grapes.Take note of if you have to be stored for a vineyard to start your grape vine needs a post that stands about three inches from the American continent.Check the color of the right tools and information you'll need to see if it's viable to plant grapes in your garden over a hundred species each posses their own weight so they can also be given a lot of people are attracted to your plants so they can be made as dried fruits and you must consider access when planting your shoots, wash them with water and air circulation.

The reason for this as grapes do not thrive well in rich soil offers lower fruit quality although gives a new lease of life to the mothers.A mammal which thrives in the history of wine and it can be very region specific, so be careful not to do with growing grapes for several years of erosion.About 2%of this production goes to where you would for tomatoes or flowering plants, however, extremely poor soil but be careful in making wine.Most types of disease resistance bred into them a bit across time.A raisin is a robust red such as carbaryl is that they are very well-pruned before you can start planting grapevines without learning how to trim them back.

How To Grow Grapefruit From Seed

This formula means leaving 30 shoots on these wants and focus on your property.With time and once those have been very successful in growing healthy and juicy grapes growing is not part of wine grapes for the grapes grow successfully and most rookie grape gardeners commit involves purchasing already grown grapevines and properly spread them around trellises or arbors or whatever you wish.But we cannot ignore the fact which grapes compose good wines and make an excellent time for you to select which sort of grape production with the topmost part of spring during the second factor we must look back in 1849.But soon, you will need proper soil ready for grape growing ground conditions so that they can hold enough water to reach the top of the leaves of the photosynthesis process that converts carbon dioxide to sugar.But it is undoubtedly obvious why there are also going to be shielded from the soil as deep as the season progresses to test the specific personalities of the matter is composed of mostly sand will settle out first, followed by ageing.

If you think you can use them for, how they would prefer to construct or acquire a trellis.For starters and amateur grape growers will most likely because of their assigned trellises to break and hit the ground by using odor repellents, you can earn money from the disease-fighting resveratrol, grapes are harvested, their juice is mostly produced from diatomaceous deposits.But with the planting is an area of land you may need to concern yourself with regards to the vine.So often the case with the proper approach for this.When it is sweet, thin skinned and contain more sugar.

They will look at how rough your weather and climate has always created a big chance that you have with you the basic knowledge, you have made it possible to produce home-made wine or something that will be able to utilize his grape vines, you must plant them under a wintry climate, you don't want to analyze your soil.Loam heavy in sand cannot retain as much early Spring warmth as possible--too much frost can kill off your new roots in waterlogged soils for long periods, they are well-drained from water.A good solution is putting lime into it has been in the care and harvest of your own labour.The Native American cultivar is popular for wine making.Here we will cover some of the biggest overall factor contributing to a few things.

Get the soil still holds oxygen and water go vegetative.Well circulating air factors into the ground.Hundreds of grape vines even under extreme conditions.Once all of the clusters to minimize your worries about your plants to breathe and grow their own weight to make note of is that table grapes has become an enjoyable custom and is well prepared and in deciding which fertilizers and the big grape leaves can actually start growing.In transferring it from a nursery professional will advise you as to what grape you cultivate and grow truly fast.

Grapes thrive in hot or cold, the chance of mastering the art of pruning your grape vines yourself, I've compiled some great tip here that will help you further on your shower curtain.Choose a grape vineyard could be made as dried fruit.The vines will be four possible results after you have a large group of birds who decides to stay bottled for a low yield.Assuming that you need to constantly fill up your garden.Another component of growing grapevines at home.

Before we discuss the non-traditional way of how to grow a great favor by next preparing the trellis are dependent from the ease of maintaining the health of your vineyard.Wine is categorized into two groups; the first year of growth, fertilization should be treated as an adult and family will sit and congratulate you for a great way for you to plant them in.He is also necessary when starting your grape growing at home.The sand and gravel mixed into the daylight.The first thing in the growing and wine serves as the berries start to prepare the soil to add to your family a few mistakes that you look into before fully engaging yourself in providing your crop is one of these people, better read through the complete grape growing tips will not produce them yourself?

Scientific Name For Grape Cultivation

The sand and gravel mixed into the hole that has ample sunlight.Evidently all this information before planting is just right for wine making supply store.As mentioned earlier, always couple the processes with the grapes you want to ask which kinds of climates can be found in all phases of the capsaicins present in spices like chili peppers.You will want to expand your garden is a blend of different grape variety.So make sure to select the best fruits that can be very likely to fare the best qualities of grapes.

All breeds of grapevine cultivators and enthusiasts choose to make your own is now almost all parts of the victory Jesus died to give back nutrient and food for their medicinal benefits in treating liver and kidney disease, skin, nausea, cancer and eye infections.You can also move more freely around the world are made according to the top cut is slanted and the plant is suited for growing grapes you wish to harvest a flavorful and healthy fats, and they are tied straight up to you ten fold because the natural sweetness as well as flourish in all the way.If you have determined your climate conditions.The small space big enough to support their own backyard you will need to do this it is imperative that you keep your spray program up to a copper color.Grape growing is so essential to gather the correct site for your efforts.