#I would have to split up the profits over 50 years....

[woosh-floosh]

Hmm, in a bit of a conundrum here. Minecraft has usage guidelines for hand-crafted products, you are allowed to sell 20 units of the same design and can make up to $5,000 a year on Minecraft merch (pretty annoying that you can sell as many Minecraft books as you want but only 20 stickers of original art but bah!!!!! whatever). Now the problem I have is with the same design or "substantially similar" designs. So, like are these

"substantially similar" designs? I think I am probably straddling the line here. The silhouette is the same but I redid all the coloring and shading from the ground up, only using the same original sketch as a base (though I'm not sure that really matters...). Minecraft seems pretty responsive to fans, so I would email to ask for clarification. But this might be a scenario where it's better to ask forgiveness than permission. Being a small shop I would probably skirt under the rader, but I would like to be on Minecraft's good side. They one of the few games companies that have a fan merch policy which is really cool! Maybe abiding by Minecraft's would encourage more companies to implement a fan merch friendly policy!

The plan right now is create a "chicken gacha" of all the colors of chicken from Minecraft Earth (and april fools day designs). But if I can only sell 2 of each design then I don't want to waste my time painting all these chickens. I don't know..... any advice/input?

[projectcaramel]

Could you do a headcannon of how a game of truth or dare between the seven brothers go?

Thanks!

-- Caramel: Spoiler alert; the House of Lamentation would be destroyed at least once. --

How the brothers play truth or dare

Lucifer

Usually picks truth during his turn because his brothers dare him to do outrageous things like acting like a dog for five minutes (which, incidentally, turned out quite poorly for the dare-r (Mammon) because Lucifer bit him several times saying he was a hunting dog. He can be semi-playful when MC is present.)

A bit of a copycat in that he'll ask the same dare or truth as someone else. He's not usually interested in the game unless a) his brothers have done something wrong or b) MC is playing.

Under the circumstance that MC is playing, depending on their relationship status he will certainly use the game as an excuse to flirt. Which may occasionally lead to a more private game of truth or dare.

Mammon

Almost always picks dare because his brothers ask him pointed questions like "did you steal x from me a year ago" or "how much do you love MC" (He often tries to cheat either way.)

As per usual, he's in it for profit, so whether the brother asks truth or dare, he's trying to make money off it. Naturally, Lucifer drafted a set of rules, which was signed by everyone but the person in question to prevent something like having dares filmed.

If MC is playing, he has a habit of daring them to do things that he isn't necessarily prepared for, e.g. kissing his cheek.

Levi

Leans towards picking truth because he usually thinks words are less embarrassing than actions, but he surprisingly never runs from the challenge as if he needs to "win" truth or dare.

Many of his truths and dares have to do with Hana Ruri, though other topics unrelated to anime are not off the table. He once asked Belphie, who had chosen truth, to rate the last movie he made him watch. The house was soon flooded.

If MC is playing, he unintentionally tones down his truths and dares to spare them from embarrassment until someone points it out.

Satan

If he's in a good mood, he'll pick either truth or dare as a 50-50 split, but if he's in a bad mood, he will almost always pick truth.

He will dare Lucifer even if Lucifer has picked truth and proceed to call Lucifer chicken. Oddly, one truth he asked of Lucifer was "Do you secretly consider me your son?" (to which Lucifer replied: "If I had a son like you, just counting the number of times you've said 'I hate you.' wouldn't have been enough.")

If MC is playing and depending on how many ridiculous requests they've already gotten, he will likely err on the mundane side. Nevertheless, MC can expect to meow several times.

Asmo

Gets really excited and sometimes asks for both a truth and a dare at the same time so he can decide which one is more exciting. He will, however, cheat if he bites off more than he can chew.

Frequently asks for some hot gossip if he thinks that the given bro will give it to him. If the subject chooses 'dare', his standard choice until provoked (i.e. getting a particularly mean dare / having to confess to breaking Belphie's telescope by accident.) is to express some form of fawning over him.

If MC chooses to play, he will throw affectionate gestures like kisses into the mix, and that kiss does not have to be directed towards himself. By popular begrudging opinion, Lucifer also put restrictions on this.

Beel

Often asks his brothers which option he should pick, particularly Belphie, in part because he doesn't have much to hide, nor is he usually embarrassed.

Like Asmo, Beel will not up the ante unless one of his brothers makes him do something cruel. Unlike Asmo however, Beel's questions and dares are almost all mundane with a few uncomfortable exceptions relating to the brothers' pasts.

If MC plays, little else changes; dares typically consist of Beel just asking for favors like getting him snacks, and truths have a 50% chance of being questions he already knows the answer to.

Belphie

Tells Beel to pick for him, which is more often than not an alternating truth-dare-truth-dare pattern. He's usually half-asleep anyway, so does it really matter? He'll just sleep through it if he doesn't feel like it.

Belphie is almost always the instigator to the biggest fights both when asking truths and giving dares, and he is the most likely to make absolutely ridiculous demands unless it's Beel's turn.

When MC plays, whether or not he shows mercy purely depends on how much he's been allowed to use them as a pillow that week and what MC has already told him to do.

[copperbadge]

We recently got into a discussion of producing audiobooks for small press, indy, and/or selfpub authors on another post, but we had strayed pretty far from the original post, and @genedoucette very kindly gave permission for me to slice his comment off the end of that post and put it into a new one.

genedoucette

I have been very, very lucky when it comes to audiobooks, so I'm hesitant to offer advice without adding a huge YMMV caveat at the top. For most of my self-published novels, I used ACX and paid a narrator out-of-pocket (rather than 50-50 proceeds split), which just means I'm paying an agreed-upon X dollars per finished hour, prior to making any money off f the audio editon. Every book I did this with paid for itself, sometimes within the first two or three months, sometimes longer. (YMMV: I did a lot of this during what I would call the audiobook bubble, when demand was higher than supply.) I had another novel series--Tandemstar--that I brought to an audiobook company, who brought it to their distributor, who agreed to pay for the production costs of the book and to pay me a (small) advance. To date, the royalties from that series have not made up the cost of the advance, but the good news was that none of the production costs came from my pocket and the advance meant I did make something out of the deal. The rule-of-thumb I always heard was, don't expect books that haven't sold well to sell any better as audiobooks. But my experience, with ACX/Audible, is this: about 50% of my monthly earning come from audio sales. How long is the book in question (word count), and what is the genre? Because it is absolutely possible to get a not-terrible narrator at a not-terrible cost on ACX. If it's a low word count book with a decent sales record, I'd 100% do it. If it's a high word count book with few sales, maybe not.

Thanks so much for this! I am admittedly always suspicious of Amazon writ large, but it's not like I've never partnered with them before, and often for indy authors they're one of a very few games in town.

50% of sales via audio impresses me a lot -- I'm not really in the industry so my sense of scale may be off but my eyebrows went up at that. And looking at ACX, a split-profits model would be appealing. I'm more interested in providing the reader with more options than I am with making royalties, so I don't mind low payout, but I also don't want to exploit a narrator if I can avoid it.

I doubt I'm selling near the level you are, but it's pretty consistent, at least -- for the last literary novel I published in 2021, and for the four genre romances published in the past year-and-change, it's generally 200-250 copies (epub and paperback) in the first 6 months, and about 40 per year after that. None of them are over 100K words -- the first of the romance novels, the one I'd be most likely to have done as an audiobook to trial, is around 50K, and the other books are all between 60K and 90K or so.

There's some fine print I'm not nuts about -- exclusivity to Amazon/Audible/iTunes for example -- but I can see why it's a necessary business model for them. There's not a ton of clarity on cost per hour for a book, but it looks like for a flat fee it starts around $250 per finished hour? So I'd probably be looking at minimum $1K out of pocket, which is probably roughly (I haven't done the math) royalties per book for a full year. It could be fun to give it a swing regardless, although reading the ACX site made me realize I'd actually have to give notes and feedback to a reader which sounds nervewracking.

It looks like the readers for ACX are repped by SAG-AFTRA, which means that for now I have time to consider while the strike is going on. (Obviously not all of them are union but if it's an entertainment format where the union is involved, I don't want to cross the picket.) And the ACX site is pretty comprehensive in terms of figuring out how it all works, so if I did want to source a narrator elsewhere and perhaps not distribute exclusively through ACX, I now have a grounding from which to research other options too.

Sorry, a lot of this is just me thinking aloud, but I truly do appreciate the info and also something to bounce off of in terms of considering it. And I appreciate the opportunity to share it with my readership too, thank you!

[renewedmotionforjudgment]

I agree to a point about the ccp and the sanitization of content and it's a huge problem that if they keep going we won't be able to get anything remotely good or coherent anyway but the restrictions on numbers of episodes is also a disaster. A lot of shows especially those of the historical/fantasy variety need that number of episodes. The story of ming lan, yanxi palace nirvana in fire love and redemption, almost all of the shows of this kind need 50 or 60 or even 70, ming lan had 70 and the ending was still somewhat rushed they said they cut 30, I know they bloat most of them for profit but that also cuts out the good shows, it should be up to the creatives and if it means bloated shows then they need to tackle that another way but let's be serious they don't actually care about how good this stuff is. Look at destined it was 40 and it was a mess bc they needed almost twice that, LYF has split into 2 and who knows what might happen 12 months from now we might never get the second part, there are so many shows already with more than 40 but they have to butcher them to fit the rules and what kind of stories are we going to be left with. It doesn't help that most cdramas are adaptations of really really long books so this entire thing feels like a joke, these novels make up 90% of cshows. It's disheartening to see what could greatness stifled in so many ways. In a couple of years we might just get actors reciting propaganda to a screen as the only form of dramas left atp

Bc I don’t want to sound inconsistent (lol), I’m basically C+P my response to @dangermousie

I guess feel like the whole discourse about episode limitations overshadows what I find to be a bigger problem, which is the increasing stricter and random censorship by the CCP affecting the actual content of the drama. Like neither BBJX nor Gong — both under 40 episodes — would get aired today. Conversely, CCP could lift their episodic restrictions today and allow 100+ episode dramas, and we still would not get some of the greats from a few years ago because of the content regulations.

Basically, I think that you could lift the episode restrictions today and Yanxi palace or Nirvana in Fire still wouldn’t get the green light, not because they’re over episode limit but because the content is too controversial. So that’s why I don’t love the “episode restrictions is why we’ll never get another great cdrama” discourse. Fundamentally, the issue is the increasing stricter (bc there has been existing) censorship and sanitation of content that exists regardless of the episodic limitations.

[your-resident-boat-person]

Hi! Great blog. I just discovered it. I was wondering if you could elaborate on the reasons White Star was failing in the early '30s and forced to merge with Cunard? Thanks!

So, the main reason White Star did so poorly is a bit complicated. Despite being one of the most popular and profitable shipping lines at the time, their death was unfortunately kind of a foregone conclusion. Lots of people blame the sinking of Titanic and Brittanic, both in terms of the public losing confidence in shipping, as well as not having 2 very large revenue earners. This is not the case. In fact, White Star Line broke profit records in 1913, being one of their most profitable years up to that point. In reality, even if White Star had all 3 Olympic class liners, and somehow made it through the war without losing a single ship, they were unfortunately already doomed. In 1902, J. P. Morgan bought the White Star Line in hopes of creating a monopoly of shipping lines. If not for the money Morgan funneled into the company, we almost certainly wouldn't have gotten the rest of the big 4 or the Olympic class. However, this was a double edged sword. Most of White Star Line's profit was siphoned off to support the smaller less popular shipping lines that Morgan bought out. So even though they were extremely profitable, possibly even more so than their rivals like Cunard, the funds they had were limited. If I remember correctly, White Star didn't even have the funds to finish Britannic. The British government stepped in so they could use her as a hospital ship. This planned monopoly was doomed to fail anyway, because Cunard wanted nothing to do with it. Then in 1926, Lord Kylsant purchased the White Star Line. He was the then chairman of Harland and Wolff. To put it kindly, he wasn't a very good businessman. Much like with Morgan, he sucked the White Star Line dry to support his bad business decisions, which only intensified when the great depression hit. Lots of his business crimes got found out, he went to jail, and this was the end of the White Star Line. Even though they were still technically extremely profitable up until the great depression. So in that sense, White Star wasn't really “failing” per se. It's just that they were forced to hand over all their profits to the businesses that they ended up stapled to as a result of the buyouts. They were attempting to come back hard with their planned 3rd Oceanic. However, as previously stated, funds were scarce. They scrapped a LOT of their ships to help fund the project. This backfires hard later. Despite all of the scrapping, they still didn't have the money to finish the ship, and they made an appeal to the government for help, which failed. The ship was never finished. Meanwhile, Cunard was building their own superliner, the Queen Mary. Much like White Star, the depression hit them hard and they were out of money. A few years after White Star's appeal to the government for assistance, Cunard did the same. The government agreed, but only under the condition that they merge with White Star. This would result in one stronger company that would represent Britain, much like the Italian, French, and American lines did for their respective countries. However, control over this new company was not split 50/50. It was determined by how much tonnage each company brought. Remember how I said scrapping all those ships would backfire? I haven't done the math, but it's very possible that if they hadn't done that, they would have been the dominant company in the merger. Although, Cunard had VERY strong ties to the admiralty and the royal family, so maybe they still would have ended up on top. Who knows. Anyway, Cunard had a larger share of the company, and under them, the Queen Mary was completed. Almost all of White Star's and Cunard's previous ships were scrapped to help fund the Queen Mary at this point. In 1949, Cunard bought out White Star's shares of the company, and White Star ceased to exist.

(Part 2 with more immediately after this)

[fostersffff]

Reading more about the Blizzard being forcibly escorted away from the Chinese market and thinking- mind you, with absolutely no evidence to support my case- that Blizzard felt confident they could put the screws to NetEase and try to get themselves a better deal because the executives at Activision Blizzard assumed the acquisition by Microsoft was done and dusted.

Like, the whole purpose of the arrangement as I understand it is that navigating the bureaucracy involved with getting things released in China is such a nightmare that the only way to do it (unless you're Disney and have Disney resources) is through a proxy. Even if the profit split it something absurd like 50/50, it's still 50% of the Chinese market, which megacorporations have spent the last 5+ years desperately trying to court. It is, in essence, free money, and even though free money is no longer good enough for most corporations, it still seems better to do that than fuck up a good thing. Especially since the Chinese proxy is fully aware they're in a stronger bargaining position for a number of reasons.

But maybe they figured they could push their luck, operating under the impression that Microsoft's backing would make them stronger, because even though supergiants like Microsoft and Google have bent the knee to the Chinese government, they're still powerful enough to loom over companies like NetEase. But then the FTC finally fucking woke up, and even if the acquisition is somehow approved it's going to be in Litigation Hell for years, meaning Blizzard made a big threat assuming they were going to have backup, and then their pants fell down.

[cindylouwho-2]

Who Did Etsy Lay Off in December 2023? A Quick Look at the Numbers

When Etsy announced the layoff of 225 employees on December 13, 2023, some sellers expressed concern that the corporation was in trouble, and that the site might be in danger of failing. While I don’t expect Etsy to close any time soon, recent developments such as an activist investor gaining 13% of Etsy and placing a member on the board do not bode well for anyone hoping the site would return to its roots and support independent microbusinesses over a blind drive for profit. In that light, looking at who Etsy fired last December could give us a better idea of what the company is up to. This post examines the known demographics and other characteristics of some of the employees who lost their jobs, and puts the Etsy layoffs in context with the numerous other recent events in the tech and commerce sector. 

Sources:

I compiled data on the laid off individuals from Etsy’s own materials, and posts by current and former employees on the social network LinkedIn. That includes a spreadsheet of affected employees collected by another laid off employee and posted on LinkedIn. 

If the 2 senior executives let go at the same time count as part of the 225, my data set includes 53% of the people involved (120 individuals). While that is a majority, it is probably not a representative sample, as those who posted about their layoff on LinkedIn or added their name to the spreadsheet may be very different than those who did not. It is also extremely likely that I missed some people, especially those who posted in languages other than English. 

It is also difficult to determine much about the percentage of various groups laid off compared to the whole, as we don’t have access to this demographic data on Etsy’s remaining employees. Out of respect to those who lost their livelihoods, I am not linking to or quoting any of their posts on the matter (but if I did, the selection would be sobering).

The Basic Numbers:

Gender: 

60 male (50% of sample)

56 female 

1 non-binary 

2 not declared/unknown

Location:

107 (89%) lived in the United States, including at least 34 in the state of New York. Some US employees did not identify their state.

8 in Mexico

2 in Canada

2 in Ireland

1 unknown

Unfortunately, it was not possible to determine the exact percentage of fully remote or hybrid workers, as that information wasn’t always available; even those living in a city with an Etsy office might have worked from home. That said, at least 40% lived in a state or country without an Etsy office, so were almost certainly remote or hybrid workers. 

Years at Etsy:

Of the 119 laid off employees who listed their tenure at Etsy, the average person worked there nearly 4 years and 5 months. The median was lower, just 3 years and 4 months. There was a wide range in longevity, however, with one person staying there for just 4 months, while the longest-employed had been there over 16 ½ years, (remarkable given that Etsy was only 18 ½ years old at the time of the layoffs). 

Yes, someone actually worked at Etsy for 16 ½ years! Some Etsy old-timers will remember Rob White from his early days as a forum moderator, and later work on the Etsy Community pages. I’m not sure if there are any current employees that have worked at Etsy longer than he did. Best wishes to you, Rob - I am very sorry to see you go. 

Job Category:

The people in this sample were almost equally split between those with the titles of Manager/Director/Head/Chief, and those who did not list a supervisory or top-ranked role, 62 to 58. While many jobs involved engineering, people were also let go in such diverse areas as sanctions, market research, recruitment, legal, seller education, and marketing. 

Miscellaneous:

While some individuals might not feel comfortable revealing many personal details on a social media site, we know that 2 were expecting children, 2 were on parental leave, and 1 had just returned from parental leave. (The company's press release stated that all eligible leaves will be paid out in full.) 

As I mentioned above, I am not going to link to the profiles of anyone involved, nor will I quote them, but there are many, many interesting stories here. Do not think of these people as mere entries on a spreadsheet.

Analysis

Since I was only able to find just over half of the laid off folks, this data doesn’t tell us as much as I hoped when I started the research. (I had actually decided not to publish this, but some other sellers requested I write it up, so here we are.) But we do have a few interesting points to consider.

Etsy’s Careers page still implies that all new jobs have the possibility of being at least partly remote, and some can be fully remote, plus many affected workers did live near an Etsy office, so there doesn’t seem to be a public “return to office” push as part of these layoffs. However, what companies say publicly/advertise, and what they actually do can be very different. The fact that hybrid employees are told that “additional visits may be expected depending on team needs” could mean that some teams only allow the occasional remote day. 

On the other hand, many allege that “return to work” mandates at other companies were sneaky ways to avoid laying anyone off, since some employees inevitably quit when forced to work in person every day after previously being fully remote. Accepting resignations is cheaper than paying out severance and other benefits; Etsy estimated these layoffs will cost $25 to $30 million in various expenditures. If Etsy wanted more people working in the office, there were cheaper ways to do it. 

“[R]eorganizing our internal structure” was supposedly behind these redundancies, and the roles laid off do seem to reflect that. Etsy is also advertising several manager positions at the time of this writing:

Etsy was not the only company to recently cut the Chief Marketing Officer position; that seems to be a bit of a recent trend in restructuring. Over 2 months later, we are still waiting to see how different the new structure will be, and why it is expected to drive marketplace sales growth. 

Tech layoffs have been very common in the past year or so, with some businesses waiting until the start of 2024 to deliver the bad news, unlike Etsy. Even Etsy subsidiary Reverb laid off over 30 people in October 2023, something that I didn’t see mentioned in any of the media attention surrounding Etsy’s December announcement. During the 4th quarter financial results call today, Reverb’s layoffs were only referred to as “some organizational changes.” The 30+ affected people were essentially erased from Etsy’s reality in half a sentence. 

Many of the well-known names, such as Meta, Google, and Amazon, are reporting profits, just as Etsy did today. Many - such as Etsy - spent cash on stock buybacks to benefit shareholders while claiming that smaller staff numbers were required to due the competitive market. These businesses are not broke; they are just more focussed on share prices than on staff, or on results. Etsy loves to differentiate itself as the company that will “Keep Commerce Human”, but then treats its employees as disposable, just like every other faceless corporation. 

And strangely, it doesn’t seem there is much accountability for the leaders of most of these companies. When Etsy lost $1 billion in value on the Depop and Elo7 purchase just over 1 year ago, the stockholders barely noticed.

Despite sales stagnating, Etsy continued to hire for the past few years, as these layoffs put the corporation's staffing numbers “similar to where we were early in 2022 in terms of the size of our core Etsy team”. The only consequences for blowing this much money on assuming that pandemic gains would last forever seem to have fallen on the Chief Human Resources Officer, who lost her job after less than 2 years. The other people who approved all that hiring are still employed, including the Chief Marketing Officer, who lost his job but was retained as a consultant. This seems really bad for shareholders, as well as for all the people who lost their jobs - and for the Etsy employees who will be laid off in the future if gross marketplace sales do not turn around in the second quarter as CEO Josh Silverman has projected.  

Perhaps the upcoming explanation of Etsy’s restructuring will help us make sense of it all, and perhaps Etsy plans for 2024 will make canning 225 people 12 days before Christmas worthwhile. Put me down as doubtful, though. 

Published: February 21, 2024

[hmollik]

 Rollbit Coin ($RLB) has surged by 13,000% over 6 months.

200% increase in July, 23.

In May, the token's market cap was a mere $50 million, but now stands at around $700 million.

$0.001 (for approximately a year after launch) -> $0.05 (Feb. 23) ->$0.1 (mid-July 23) / Increase in market cap to $400 million from $60 million.

--> a continuation of the rise!!!

Like this, Rollbit Coin has given investors a golden age, showing the syndrome of a huge rise in revenue in online wager games.

But it's hard for us to expect another all-time rise in the early days of the Rollbit Coin, which has already gone up.

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The very start will be 'PIK Token', and I hope you'll take the golden opportunity to buy it at a lower price than the list price through the upcoming ICO.

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Currently, there is a lack of transparent and trustworthy betting platforms in web3.0. N-PIK aims to change this.

We have implemented the S2K L2 (Split Secure Key Layer 2) system, which utilizes a hybrid decentralized approach. The S2K L2 system verifies the cryptocurrency holdings in users' wallets on a daily basis.

In the event of any issues during the use of the betting service, users can recover their wallets securely through the 'Wallet Recovery' service using the security key provided during registration.

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It might be surprising, but holding PIK Tokens entitles you to a whopping 30% of daily casino revenue. For example, if we take the value of Rollbit, that would amount to "150 million dollars" out of a total casino revenue of 500 million dollars! Yes, "150 million dollars"! This substantial profit can be obtained through dividends.

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[paulk19]

The Stock Market and Me

As this blog continues to mature, I expect that my favorite topics will include the economy, investing, and, in particular, the stock market.  I may write about the stocks of certain companies occasionally, but more often, I’ll publish general comments, observations, and other items of interest rather than fundamental or chart analysis.  That being the case, I thought I would share how I became interested in the market, including an early failure and some early successes.  Nothing in this post should be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any particular security.  I have no current position in any security mentioned.

Growing up, I had almost no exposure to stocks and bonds.  I’m from a working class background, my parents were children of the depression, and all they knew was the bank.  My mom actually became interested in the market later in life, but that’s a story for another day.  We had a lesson on the stock market in middle school social studies, but it would be an exaggeration to say the class was superficial.  In college, I took a few economics classes, but they were mostly philosophical rather than practical in focus.

It wasn’t until my first real job that I got turned on to the stock market.  I was fortunate enough to work with some people who were into it in a big way.  I got involved in their discussions, they were kind enough to explain things to me, and soon I was ready to take the plunge.  Since I was still living at home, I had a lot of disposable income.  I subscribed to the Value Line Investment Survey and started reading The Wall Street Journal.  In short order, I picked out something I wanted to try.  And so we come to my first mistake.

I had read in the Journal about a new type of investment called a royalty trust, specifically the San Juan Basin Royalty Trust (NYSE: SJT).  As I know now, this was not buying the stock of a company, although the shares trade like a stock.  To make a long story short, shares in a royalty trust entitle you to receive a portion of the royalties paid when a natural resource is extracted from the earth.  For SJT, the resources were oil and natural gas.  The investment also carried certain tax advantages.  Looking back on it, I think it caught my eye because one of my co-workers was involved in oil and gas limited partnerships.  I thought we could bond over the energy markets.  Needless to say, for a new investor, this was NOT the place to start.  Factoring in the distributions I received and the tax benefits, I lost about $50 on the deal.  Quite an inauspicious start.

Sometime later, after a few more false starts, I decided to buy some shares of Conair, the hair product and (back then) telephone handset company.  I hadn’t owned it for too long when it suddenly became a big winner.  I always checked the quotes first thing in the morning and one day, I saw Conair had jumped about 50% the day before.  It turned out that the company was being taken private.  It was an exhilarating moment.  Other early successes followed.  My investment in Ford (NYSE: F) helped me make the down payment on my first house.  My friends had tipped me off on what was then a little-known pharmaceutical company that had an exciting pipeline of new drugs.  That company was Glaxo (now GSK plc, NYSE: GSK) and after a few years and a couple of stock splits, my $1,400 investment was worth just over $30,000.

In closing, allow me to offer a few items of advice.  If you want to get started in the markets, it’s best to stick to well-known companies with which you are familiar.  Don’t go for something obscure (like yours truly did).  Start small; avoid going all in.  Don’t “set it and forget it.”  Keep an eye on your investments.  Remember, it’s your money.  Not all of your holdings will be profitable.  You will make mistakes.  Cut your losses early, and try to determine what went wrong.  Was you analysis faulty, or did the company fall short?  The nature of the markets has changed since the early 1980s, when I purchased my first shares.  There are fewer opportunities to “buy and hold,” with every industry subject to disruption.  The rise of hedge funds, and programmed and quant trading strategies have brought increased volatility to the markets.

But, as I tell my grandchildren, short of starting your own business, the stock market offers the best risk/reward ratio of any asset class and is the best path to building wealth.  It’s a great learning experience in many areas, and can also be a lot of fun!

[jrpneblog]

Rovers Return as football comes homes

Battle recommences this Saturday, weather permitting, with a trip up the M65 to play high flying Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. It has been sort of a strange few weeks with no North End although we have had our football fix with England and the World Cup. North End travel to Blackburn on the back of a decent run but with a poor home defeat last time out against Millwall on November 12th so Ryan Lowe will be making every effort not to come away from Ewood Park empty handed. Rovers have won 8 and lost 2 of their 10 home league games and have yet to draw a game at Ewood this season. As far as North Ends away record is concerned it is very decent with the boys having won 5, drawn 3 and lost only 2 on the road this season. Obviously a months break is quite exceptional in an English league season and no one can really be sure how the first games back are going to pan out. It could well be a 0-0 draw as these lunchtime games often are or it could well be 4-4 such is the unpredictability of the Championship this season. Clearly, Blackburn start favourites on current form but North End are the masters of springing a surprise and with local bragging rights at stake I expect a fierce encounter between two sides who will be happy with their current league position but, in North Ends case, certainly hoping to improve it. Don`t forget it is a 12pm kick off live on SKY on a day full of football with England playing France in a huge World Cup semi-final in Qatar kicking off at 7pm.

This week saw the first anniversary of Ryan Lowe`s accession to the Deepdale throne so I thought we would just have a quick look at the facts and figures. North End have played 46 league games under Lowe and in that time they have won 18 drawn 16 and lost 12. These figures are, of course, over two split seasons but if those results had been in one full season then North End would have collected 70 points which would have put us very close to the play offs. 24 of those league games have been played at home and North End have won 8 drawn 6 and lost 10. Away from home North End have played 22 league games and won 10 drawn 6 and lost 6. All up North End averaged 1.52 points per game under Lowe which is very decent in my opinion saying that he came in when the club was at a low point following the departure of Frankie McAvoy. At home, however North End have managed just 1.25 points per games as opposed to the 1.64 points per game gathered on the road. On the pure fact based evidence of these stats the one liner you could roll out is that if North End`s home form was 20% better we would be a play off team and this is something Ryan must strive to improve on in the second half of the season. The manager is certainly still popular with the fans in general and two good loan signings in January could make all the difference for North End particularly if one of them is Cameron Archer.

And finally this week:- Saturday at 7pm is the time for England's biggest world cup game since the semi final against Croatia four and a half years ago. France are a good team, a great team, but they are not unbeatable and with the attacking options England have I make this very much a 50-50 encounter. In spite of criticism from some quarters Southgate's record speaks for itself as England manager and if this time next week we are talking about a Brazil v England final then GS will have firmly cemented his place as England`s best manager for 50 years. I will stick my neck out and go for a 2-1 win for England on Saturday evening.

.

JR`s HIGH FIVES

Argentina to beat Netherlands (in 90 mins) 23/20

A £5 Stake returns £10.75 on bet365

SEASONS STATS

Returns £110.88 Stake £85.00

Percentage profit+/-loss + 30.45%

Predictions 17 won 10 lost 7.

[diamond-coral]

Play by the Rules

Steve x Reader, Tony x Reader, Implied Steve x Reader x Tony

Summary: Working for the powerful CEO, Tony Stark, was a nightmare. Especially when you have to deal with his new, and equally as powerful, partner; the CEO of S.H.I.E.L.D. Inc., Steve Rogers. You have a plan to leave it all behind, but Tony has his own plans for you.

This is my first writing for @ darkficsyouneveraskedfor and @ harper-emory-writes Dark Bingo challenge: crossing off the squares Blackmail and CEO AU. I’m nowhere near a bingo but I’m super excited that I’ve started !!

Warnings: 18+ only! NON-CON/DUB-CON(ORAL (M RECEIVING), INTERCOURSE, MENTION OF ANAL), BLACKMAIL, VOYEURISM, sexism in the workplace, swearing.

 “We’ll review the new contract with S.H.I.E.L.D. today during the meeting. I’ll need two printed copies of it as well as a printed copy of our current one with Asgard Corp.” Tony snaps his fingers in front of your face. “Y/n, are you even listening to me?”

You look up from your notepad. “Of course, Mr. Stark. Just taking notes.”

Tony scoffs. “Wasn’t half the reason I hired you your ability to retain information without wasting time by writing things down?Since when did you start taking notes?”

Since I became willing to do anything to not have to look at you and remember that you were balls deep in me just last week.

“I’d just like everything to go smoothly for this meeting. I understand it’s a big deal for the company and for you, sir.”

Tony studies your face. “Well in the spirit of dedication, I’ll need you to stay a couple hours extra.”

You try to avoid scrunching up your features at that. Although you had been looking forward to curling up on your couch when you got home, you would never dare counter your employer, so you just nod.

“Rogers will be here in an hour,” he continues. “I’m expecting you to greet him, so I’ll have an intern go out and get you an outfit.” 

“With all due respect, Mr. Stark, I believe the attire I’m currently wearing is satisfactory, is it not?”

Tony eyes your black blazer and pants paired with flats. “It’s not,” he states as he gets up from his chair across from you at your desk and fixes his tie. After pausing to consider your confused look, he elaborates. “You gotta show some more skin, sweetheart. It’s the only way a woman like you will be able to make it out here.”

Your mouth falls open as he turns and leaves you to process his offensive comment.

“Bastard,” you mumble.

You could run Stark Industries in your sleep. In fact, Tony had already appointed you head of three separate divisions as well as let you bring a few of your own original projects and ideas to life in the years you had been here. You saw your own potential and Tony had been generous enough to help you expand and experiment with it. A couple more years and you could leave Stark Industries behind to start your own company with the connections you’d already made.

Which is why you remained compliant with Tony’s every demand. No matter how much it hurt your pride (especially when a drunk hookup with him practically destroyed your pride), nothing would compare to the sweet victory of running Tony’s company into the dirt when you started your own. You did your own projections. Tony wasn’t short of enemies, and with their help and your own skill set, you’d make double the profits Tony did in half the time.

So you put up with the touches, grabs, and comments from Tony. He had such a large company to run that he barely noticed that the three divisions he absentmindedly handed to you were the most successful. You’d giggle and bat your eyelashes as long as Tony didn’t notice you practically undermining his company.

Play by the rules,

But be ferocious.

_________________________

Twenty minutes later you’re interrupted from your pile of paperwork by a soft knock.

“Come in!” you call out.

A boy with short brown hair lets himself in. You’d seen him around as Tony’s shadow.  

‘What was his name again? Patrick? Pietro? Pierre?’

“Oh, Peter! How can I help you”

“Hey, Ms. L/n, Tony asked me to bring this up to you.”

Peter holds up the clear dry-cleaning bag, and it takes all your effort not to grimace at the short black pencil skirt inside. Instead, you give him a tight-lipped smile.

“You can just leave it on that chair, thank you,” you say.

As Peter leaves you get up to inspect the clothing Tony so graciously provided for you, and you notice a note attached.

leave a couple buttons undone ;)  -TS

Scoffing, you throw the note in the trash as you pick up the clothes and lock your door.

You’d begrudgingly play a little eye candy knowing you’d get your revenge in a couple years.

But how much could this escalate in a couple of years? 

“Stop it,” you mutter to yourself while pulling on the black blazer.

Once you're finished changing, you receive an alert that Steve Rogers had checked into the building. 15 minutes early.

You hadn’t even met the fucker and you already hated him.

________________________________

“Mr. Rogers!” you greet the blonde in a painfully cheery voice. “You’re early!”

“Well, this is an important meeting, sweetheart,” he replies, and you cringe at the pet name, handing him a clipboard and pen.

“This is just a quick confidentiality contract, Mr. Stark would like you to sign,” you inform. “Basically just saying you agree not to share any contents of the meeting or contract to any outside parties until you and Mr Stark have solidified and confirmed all aspects of your partnership.”

“Ah so Stark is already confident he’ll get a partnership with my company?” Steve muses and scribbles his signature. He looks up, handing the clipboard and pen back to you, and you motion for him to follow you down the hall.

“So what’s your role here exactly?” Steve asks, following behind you. “Are you an intern, receptionist...maybe a call-girl?”

You don’t bother turning at his teasing remark, instead answering calmly. “I run the three most successful divisions here, Mr. Rogers.”

“Impressive,” he remarks, but it sounds more of a mock from him. “And Stark still keeps you as an assistant.”

Your brows furrow at that comment. “How do you know I’m an assistant? And why would you ask what I did here if you already knew?”

“Women like you are just so fun to rile up. Stark and I had a meeting earlier in the month, and he talked of you very fondly.”

Well that didn’t sit right with you. You coordinated all of Tony’s meetings and practically created his everyday work schedule. “Mr. Stark didn’t mention meeting you already.”

“We decided to go over all possibilities of this transaction. It wasn’t much.” Steve brushes your comment off as he enters the elevator with you.

The doors close and you feel trapped. Through the short conversation you’ve had with this man, you can already tell how calculating he is. Every word, every movement, has been intricately steered by him for his benefit. And you couldn’t even begin to explain how belittled his stature made you feel; sheer power barely contained by an expensive three piece suit. The dark blue made his blue eyes more piercing in comparison. Everything about him radiated dominance. And for a woman like you who was practically clawing her way up the corporate ladder, that was a problem.

“You coming?” Steve’s voice snapped you out of your thoughts. He stood by the open elevator doors, arm gesturing out for you to lead. “Time is money.”

“Well then you have plenty of it, don’t rush me,” you snap.

“Feisty,” he muses, lips turning upwards.

Steve follows behind you, and you can feel his gaze burning on your ass. You’re more than grateful when you reach Tony’s door, having to refrain from frantically knocking, trying to escape the stare of the man behind you.

“Enter,” a voice calls from behind the doors.

You push open the large door and stand to the side, allowing Steve to enter the room before you.

“Mr. Stark,” Steve greets, crossing the room to give Tony a firm handshake.

“Rogers.”

The men begin to talk business and you take that as your cue to leave, turning back towards the door.

“Y/n, have a seat,” Tony calls out to you. You glance back at him and beckons you over with two fingers.

“Um, Mr. Stark, there are no other chairs,” you stammer.

“Don’t worry, doll, I wouldn’t be a gentleman if I didn’t offer a lady a place to sit,” Steve declares. You expect him to get up, but he just spreads his legs a little wider and gestures to his lap.

Eyes flitting to Tony in panic, your employer just nods and gives you look of warning as if saying ‘don’t mess this up’.

You let out a breath and hesitantly make your way to Steve.

‘How much could this escalate?’

The words from earlier rang in your head, but you brush them away and tentatively place yourself on one of his muscular thighs, angling yourself inward. You can’t hide how your face twists into a look of disdain as Steve’s arm snakes around, pulling you further up his leg so you’re back right up against his torso.

“Mr. Rogers I-” Your voice is nothing but a squeak before Tony interrupts you.

“As I was saying,” Tony interjected. “Your profits will grow exponentially if you add Stark Tech to your security services. Which is why I get 60%. I’m already doing you a favor by growing your profits.”

“I want 50/50. Stark Industries will gain consumers from S.H.I.E.L.D. We both get more buyers from the partnership, so I say it should be an even split.”

“Well we both know you’re not just getting the consumers, Rogers,” Tony spat. 

That has your attention fully invested in the conversation. What could Rogers possibly get from the company that Tony would be so mad about parting from? You look down at the contract on the desk in front of you and your heart stops cold.

“Mr. Stark, why is my name on this contract?” It was there. Under ‘assets acquired’, it was the last thing, as if added as a last moment bargain.

Tony just ignores you. “Steve, you’re taking the head of Stark-Touch Smartphones, my most profitable branch, you can’t just expect things to run as efficiently when she’s gone.”

“I’m taking her twice a week, I highly doubt that’ll make much of a dent in your operations,” Steve scoffs, and you tense up. “How about this. I get her for two weeks- straight- a month, and I’ll split it 45-55.”

“Mr. Stark, what’s going on?” Your voice quivers.

“Your boss here just agreed to sell you to me, as my...assistant,” he explains, hot breath fanning your ear. His free hand that’s not on your waist moves to grip your bare thigh up your skirt. “Two weeks a month, for every month, for as long as you work for him.”

“No!” you suddenly shout, wrenching your body from his grip to stand up. “I will take the comments, I will take the stares and the touches, but I will not be whored out like this. Mr. Stark, I quit.”

Stark just tsks and rises from his chair to stand in front of you. While shorter than Steve, it still feels like he towers over you with the demeanor he holds. “That’s just it, y/n...you see, you’re not gonna be quitting to start that new company of yours.”

Your eyes practically bulge out of your head as he mentions your future plans.

“Yeah, I know, you’re not as good at hiding as you thought. At least from Peter that is. Kid’s a whiz at the computer. Had him plant a bug on your home laptop and do a little sweep of your personal account. And I gotta hand it to you, the numbers you ran? Almost perfect. Every single projection and hypothesis you had would’ve gone through. You factored in almost everything. Almost. But you forgot one thing, sweetheart.” Tony’s hand flies up to grip your jaw and uses the momentum to throw you into the wall a few feet behind you. He’s back on you in an instant, seething, as the grip on your chin is bruising. “You forgot me, bitch. You forgot what would happen if you cross Tony fucking Stark. I’m the most powerful man in America. I can ruin your life with a snap of my fingers.”  Just as quickly as he was on you, Tony’s anger switches to calm, and in the blink of an eye, he’s off of you, casually smoothing his suit down. “Well more of a push of a button.”

Smirking, Tony reaches into his pocket to pull out his phone while you remain frozen in fear, glancing at Steve who just looks amused at the show in front of him. At the sound of Tony coughing to get your attention, you look back in front of you at the phone he’s now holding out. Black and white security footage is displayed on the screen, and the moment Tony presses play, you know what it is.

Your voice rings through the speaker, the moans, expletives, and begging coming out of your throat are clear as day as Tony fucks you over your desk.

“Harder, daddy!”

“Please, please, let me cum!”

Your eyes water. “Stop it,” you murmur, but the video keeps playing. “I said stop it! Please!”

Tony chuckles. “So now you understand what’s at stake here? One push of a button, one phone call to Peter, and this video will be up all over Time Square. Forget starting a company, you’ll be blackballed all over America from even being a receptionist.”

You’re defeated, your entire future crumbling before your eyes.

 “What do you want from me.”

“Well I think leaving me or the company is now obviously out of the picture, so for now, I want you to give Steve here a little trial of what he just bought from me.”

“Please...please no,” you croak, but Tony just holds up his phone and raises an eyebrow.

As you start to make your way toward the other man, Tony grabs your jaw once more. “Don’t half-ass it,” he grows in your ear before shoving you to Steve.

Eyes lowered, you stand in front of Steve and shrug your blazer off. “What would you like me to do...sir?”

“Suck me off.”

You’re barely able to breathe, sinking down to your nears, as tears begin to flow freely from your eyes.

“You’re so pretty when you cry doll,” Steve murmurs under his breath.

There is no dignity left in you as you unbuckle his belt and open his fly. The soft zip is deafening to your ears, and you reach in and pull out his hardening cock.

Shit. He wasn’t even fully hard and he was big. You’d be lying if you said that didn’t send a pang down to your core.

Giving him a few shy strokes, you then place your mouth over him, hollowing your cheeks as you lightly suckle at the tip. You pull back and take a deep breath. 

‘Don’t half-ass it’

You dive back in with renewed vigor, taking as much of him as you can and running your tongue across the underside of him. He’s hot and heavy in your mouth, and you find yourself pretending you were somewhere else with someone else, enjoying it. You let out a moan at his taste and Steve responds with his own groan, hand caressing your hair as you slightly speed up. His hand winds itself into your hair, and he begins thrusting his hips up into your mouth, extracting a whimper from you. Each buck of his hips turns harsher as his hand pushes down on your head to force his entire length down your throat, and at this point, you’re drooling onto his expensive slacks. He’s about to cum and you feel it; his thrusts becoming erratic and his entire body tensing, but before you can speed up and get this nightmare over with, he wrenches you off his dick and pulls you into a heated kiss, hands coming up to grope you all over.

You let out a startled squeal as both hands grasp your blouse and rip it down the middle, buttons flying everywhere, before he proceeds to do the same to the black lacy bra you're wearing.

“Ride me,” he commands.

All shame has left you at this point as you proceed to straddle him, your skirt now bunched up at your waist, and sink down on his length. The mewl that comes out of you is from how his girth is stretching you, and after what seems like eternity, you’re bottomed out and unable to move.

“Move,” he orders.

“I can’t,” you whine. “It-it’s too much.”

“Move.”

You let out another whimper as you slowly raise yourself a couple inches and sink back down, feeling every single vein on his cock brush against your walls. A few more attempts later, Steve grows impatient. A low growl is torn from his lips while he grabs your hips tight and slams you back down on his impossibly hard length.

You can barely hear the string of strangled screams and moans as he brutally thrusts into you, moving your body up and down and using you for his own pleasure. Every punishing plunge into your cunt punches the air from your lungs, and Steve’s groans are animalistic.

You glance over to the side to see Tony fisting his own dick, and the only thing that tears you away from staring at him is a particularly hard thrust from the man in the chair below you.

“Fuck, doll, your gripping me so tight,” Steve grunts.

The sound of skin slapping and the squelching of your now wet pussy is so overwhelming you don’t even register another set of hands on your waist.

“Bend her over more, Rogers. I wanna fuck her ass.”

[lol-jackles]

I'm having trouble figuring out the connection some are making between the CW bankruptcy thing and the market research they supposedly did on Destiel. I did some searching (nothing too in-depth, admittedly) and didn't find much besides a few accounts from a few blogs that it did happen, and a couple that responded to it and answered their questions. But some seem to think that the CW would have become profitable if they had made it a fully canon ship. Thing is, though, is that I can't seem to connect the same dots they're connecting. Just because there was market research done on the ship doesn't necessarily mean they got enough positive responses to go through with it, yes? I guess I'm wondering if I'm missing something here, some data or something, or if I'm misunderstanding the whole point of this research. I just don't see how they necessarily think that just because market research was done on it means that the conclusion was that making it canon would be more profitable. Honestly, I don't think even that would be enough to make the network profitable, but I'm not sure. I mean, is this just more of their grasping at straws, or...? I just honestly think it's a bit of a reach for them to claim that, especially when I haven't seen anything really concrete about this research, but I'm probably not privy to that anyway. I just think they're overstating it a bit.

Overstating a bit? How about they made up crap from their fake ass and threw it over the moon like angry horny howling monkeys. 

Shippers’ own research showed over and over again that Less than 1% of the SPN audience ships Destiel

This blogger worked in digital media and legit understands social media metrics did an analysis of #DeanCasWedding on twitter (LINK) and showed only 800 people are producing original content, the rest of the contributors are just retweeting it. That’s a 50/50 split between content creation, and just retweeting, which is useless in terms of overall engagement and further proof (on top of manyk) that the reach of the Destiel fanbase is small. 

If Destiel had gone canon it will turn off majority of fans and the general audience.

“I can't seem to connect the same dots they're connecting. “

This is how Destiel shippers’ mind operate:

A bug landed Cas between seconds 5:23-5:24.  The bug’s specie is Delusionex Hilarius and has green and blue stripes. Obvious case of color coding for canon Destiel.

Sam and Ruby are Destiel coded and when they kissed and have angry sex, it  means everybody ships Destiel

For the one hour that Jensen was talking about Jared he was really talking about Destiel because he looked down for 7 seconds and that is code for Destiel because the ship has 7 letters.

Of course you can’t connect the dots because the so-called dots are made up hilarities. 

Even bitter Destiel shippers admit that there are no text and not subtext on screen, which was why they fought so hard for canonization otherwise the general audience will never know that their fanfiction ship exist in the first place.

The Kirk/Spock is the biggest slash ship of all times, but it was never profitable for the franchise.  Who did they end up making gay? Sulu, even though he clearly has a thing for Uhura in the OS.  But they hooked Uhura up with Spock in the reboot movies and made Sulu gay in a blink-and-you-miss-scene.  George Takei hated that they made Sulu gay because he never played his character that way. (article)    Kirk/Spock shippers claim all the time that they and their fake ship saved Star Trek by keeping it alive years after it was canceled.  Sound familiar, right?  Those shippers’ claims are complete Bull Shit.  It was new fans discovering the series through syndication.

[theparanormalperiodical]

What The Hell Is Satanism? The Backstory, The Beliefs, And The A-To-Z On Devil Worshippers

4 days ago, Nike decided to sue a small indie art collective based in New York.

This isn’t news. This isn’t the first time a profit-mongering fashion-giant has targeted businesses trying to make a name for themselves. And it won’t be the last.

But this time, there’s probably something else influencing the executives reclining on their plush leather seats: they said it was because MSCHF stamped on the Nike Swoosh. But we all know what the real problem was:

These kicks were soaked with Satanic imagery - oh, and a single drop of human blood.

"MSCHF and its unauthorised Satan Shoes are likely to cause confusion and dilution and create an erroneous association between MSCHF's products and Nike”

Translation: no, we don’t want to be associated with devil worshippers.

Satan and his followers have once again hit the press following Lil Nas X’s latest viral YouTube hit and release of his custom footwear. And he does the belief system - and the LGBTQA+ community - justice.

But Satanism goes much deeper than pole dancing your way to hell.

It goes deeper than the fears of your evangelical aunt, it goes deeper than the rumours of a sacrificial ritual that happened in the woods outside of town, and it goes deeper than QAnon conspiracy theories.

Today we explore what Satanism really is. And what it really isn’t.

*twerks towards hell*

What Is Satanism?

Satanism is a group of modern religions that are centred around Satan, an entity in Abrahamic religions (e.g. Christianity and Judaism) that rebelled against God, has power over Hell and demons, and seduces humans into sin. Satan features in a vast number of major religions: he started off in Zoroastrianism, then making his way to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. But the modern followers of Satanism are inspired by the Christian fallen angel and ruler of hell.

A large proportion of Satanists follow atheistic Satanism - they don’t necessarily believe in an entity but follow a philosophy that focuses on individualism and satisfying the ego, or rebel specifically against the dominance of Christianity in Western society.

Although Satan is typically considered the embodiment of evil, most strands of Satanism are not. However, there are some groups that fit this mould like the Order of the Nine Angles: they’re neo-Nazis.

The actual worship of Satanism only began just over 50 years ago, in 1966. But the use of the term ‘Satanist’ stretches back centuries further. Calling someone a ‘Satanist’ (or something to that effect) was an insult reserved for those that disagreed with a Christian group’s beliefs.

A Not-very-brief-but-look-I-tried-ok History Of Satanism

Here’s the thing about Satanism: at one point in history, every religious group was deemed Satanist. 

You see, that’s how it all started.

Even the term ‘Satan’ originally meant ‘adversary’. It didn’t necessarily refer to a horned, evil ex-angel once scorned by the Almighty. It meant ‘other’; it was just an insult. It wasn’t created by groups of men draped in blood red robes preparing to slaughter a virgin to their ungodly master - Satanism was actually created by Christians.

The word ‘Satanism’ was first recorded in French and English literature back in the 16th century. Against the backdrop of the Reformation (when the Western Christian Church split off into Protestantism, Catholicism, and other more niche shards) rival religious groups would label each other with such terms frequently in various tracts and texts.

It was not to say that Protestants, for example, were actively worshipping Satan but were instead deviating from what Catholics thought was true Christianity. By ‘incorrectly’ serving God, they were supporting Satan’s claim to ruin the world with sin and evil.

*Disney villain laugh*

In the 19th century it broadened to encompass anyone that lived an immoral lifestyle and was thus serving Satan’s will. But in this same century it evolved yet again.

Yep, it’s time to introduce the actual Satanists: texts began to emerge that mention people that revered and worshipped Satan. It took a long 300 years for Satanists to reclaim their title. But the story doesn’t end here: this is a really important theme that runs like blood through the history of Satanism. Or, rather, the history of religious prejudice and persecution.

Throughout, well, all of human history, we have been swept up unto the belief that there is a dark, evil force lurking within our communities. The most recent example claims Joe Biden and his Democrat friends are Satan-worshipping baby-eating America-hating pedophiles. The fears of a discrete force that can hide at will fits the descriptors of the Judeo-Christian devil. And so, it had been applied to persecuted groups for centuries.

The Witch Trials and the Spanish Inquisition are the most famous examples of this. Satanism evolved in the Medieval era to scapegoat certain groups or to reinforce social norms by emphasising the apparently very real fight between good and evil.

Narratives of the French Revolution at the time were contorted with rumours of revolutionaries being part of a secret Satanic conspiracy. This revolution struck a blow to the power of the Catholic church, and some fingers pointed towards the dark lord of hell himself. Some even believed these revolutionaries had amassed supernatural powers to curse people and shape-shift into various creature ‘n’ critters like cats or fleas!

In the 20th century, another historical shift took place. And this time it (supposedly) happened from within the secret societies themselves: non-fiction authors and tabloids began to recount the allegations of people who once claimed to have been part of Satanic groups before converting to Christianity.

Doreen Irvine claimed she was given the ability to levitate amongst other witchy-powers. But Irvine’s claims sent shockwaves across the pond in the US. Much more horrific allegations were about to take centre stage. In the 1980s this would reach its climax with the Satanic Panic:

Also known as the Satanism Scare, the book Michelle Remembers (1980) detailed the alleged repressed memories of a psychiatrist’s patient which claimed they had been abused as a child for Satanic rituals. In these rituals, babies would be sacrificed and Satan would appear.

Reports of sexual child abuse for these rituals - known as Satanic Ritual Abuse - proliferated until the 1983 case made against the McMartin family. The McMartins owned a preschool in California and were allegedly sexually abusing the children in their care for ritualistic purposes. A lengthy trial ensued and the McMartins were eventually cleared of all charges.

But it was too late.

An evangelical anti-Satanism movement emerged claiming no children would lie about such claims and therefore all accused must be guilty. A conspiracy theory similar to those before emerged claiming SRA was rampant across the US, but it lost momentum by the turn of the 90s. Various investigations by the FBI and British government looked into SRA but found no evidence of Satanism or rituals in any cases of child abuse. Some lone cases of pedophiles did involve rituals, but these were isolated events that never involved Satanist groups.

The 7 Types Of Satanism

Satanism is an umbrella term to describe a vast array of religious groups. There’s a swirling sea of beliefs from the philosophical Satanists that don’t actually believe in Satan to the minority groups that are willing to sacrifice humans in the name of worshipping their god.

However, this ocean does share a common focus on individualism, self-perception, and non-conformity - traditional traits associated with the devil.

There are 3 forms of Satanism: reactive (attempts to invert Christianity and celebrates rebellion), rationalist (atheist and materialistic beliefs), and esoteric (actually worships Satan and draws upon religions like Paganism and western Esotericism).

The Church of Satan kick-started modern Satanism. Erected in 1966, Anton LaVey promoted an atheistic philosophy that focused on indulgence and an ‘eye for an eye’ ethical code that celebrated mankind as animals in an amoral world. Hate and aggression were not wrong but were advantageous for one’s survival. Yes, the seven deadly sins were actually beneficial for the individual.

The First Satanic Church was founded on Halloween night in 1999 by the daughter of Anton LaVey after his church was taken over by a new administration that Karla deemed against her father’s work.

The Satanic Temple is an atheist-activist group that stages political ‘pranks’ that rebel against the political and social dominance of Christianity. They aim to showcase religious hypocrisy in stunts such as performing a ‘Pink Mass’ over the grave of a Westboro Baptist Church goer (known for their explicit and offensive signs). They use Satan as a metaphor to rebel against a society that restricts personal autonomy and curiosity.

Luciferianism is a belief system that pivots around the characteristics associated with Lucifer. Followers believe Lucifer is the illuminated aspect of Satan, thus considering themselves Satanists. But some believe he is a more positive force than Satan. They follow the ancient myths of Egypt, Rome, and western Occultism. They consider him the true god - a destroyer but also a ‘light-bringer’ to the world.

The Temple of Set does not necessarily revere Satan by instead a being they call Set. Satan was the corrupted name of set, an entity that is the one true god. It gave humanity intellectual abilities to separate it from animals and they believe in a Setian philosophy with self-deification as the aim of all humanity.

The Order of the Nine Angles was inspired by ancient Pagan groups resident in Shropshire in the late 60s. But the founder of the group, Anton Long, is considered the pseudonym of neo-Nazi David Myatt. They encourage human sacrifice as a part of rituals and several members have joined the police and the military to do this without getting caught. The ONA is linked to several rapes, murders, cases of child abuse, and right-wing terrorism. They are also connected to several neo-nazi terror organisations.

The Joy Of Satan - contrary to its name - ain’t joyful. It’s an Occultist group that combines Satanism, Paganism, and UFO conspiracy theories. Just like the ONA, they’re Nazis. They believe Satan is one of many demonic deities which are powerful humanoid extraterrestrial beings which are equated with ancient gods. They believe Satan created humanity and brought us knowledge.

Reactivism isn’t a form of Satanism that is followed by an organised group but rather practiced on a personal, isolated level. It is considered an anti-social means of rebelling in a society dominated by Christianity. Most reactive Satanists are adolescents, mentally-disturbed, and have taken part in criminal activity associated with Satanic rituals they discovered through personal learning.

For example, in the 1970s two groups of teenagers in LA and Big Sur killed 3 people and ate parts of their corpses as a part of rituals devoted to Satan. Plotted murder and cannibalism are common traits of reactive Satanist crimes.

The A-To-Z Of Devil Worship

Baphomet

A deity that the Knights Templar allegedly worshipped. It is associated with the Sabbatic Goat which represents the equilibrium of opposites (half-man and half-goat, male and female, good and evil).

Black Mass

It is traditionally known as a requiem mass (funeral mass) in the Roman Catholic church from which the celebrants wear black clothes. However, it has been appropriated by Satanic cults. It often involves a naked woman as an altar and is the site of various Satanic magical rituals.

Cutter vs Wilkinson

A Supreme Court case which claimed federal funds cannot deny prisoners accommodations that are needed to engage in religious practices. Five residents of an Ohio prison including a member of a white supremacist Christian church, a Wiccan, and a Satanist filed the suit, claiming the officials failed to accommodate their ‘nonmainstream’ religions.

Devil

The personification of evil which shows up in many different religions. It is Satan in Abrahamic texts.

Demon

A supernatural entity often associated with evil. The original Greek word - daimon - did not have negative connotations.

Demonology

The study of demons.

Demonolatry

The worship of demons.

Goats

Satanism is always associated with goats. But why? There are several reasons: Baphomet is half-man, half-goat; the ‘infernal goat’ is depicted in many witches’ sabbats; Pagan traditions involved horned gods Christian forces deemed devilish; and the tarot card depicting the devil is a goat. In 1966, the church of Satan adopted baphomet as the sigil.

Lucifer

The name of mythological and religious figures associated with Venus. It is associated in the Christian tradition with Satan as he supposedly fell from heaven. Often called ‘the morning star’ or described as ‘light bringing’.  

Stanislaw Przybyszewski

The first guy to promote a Satanic philosophy.

What do you think?

Let me know in a comment below! And while you’re there, make sure you like and reblog this article.

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[mrsparknamjoon]

01. the linchpin | reliability • kth

index | next

pairing: taehyung x reader word count: 1.900 genre: drama, light angst rating: pg-13 warnings: cursing au: ceo/office trope: enemies to friends to lovers tags: ceo!taehyung, office!au, best friend!yoongi, unresolved emotional tension, mutual pining, slow burn crosspost: ao3

summary: a predictable mistake in buying shares becomes the perfect opportunity for taehyung to show everybody in the company no one is above his rules. what he didn’t know was that his plan would backfire making him question what the real meaning of trust is

A/N: this story began as a drabble bc i love dramatic scenes, whether in movies, television or books. confrontation is always one of my favorite things about them so i decided to try to write one for the first time ever. clearly i still have a lot to learn but i hope you like it!

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Another meeting, another group of incompetent people that I can't believe I hired. Sitting at the end of a long wood table, I scrolled through my phone reading a few emails while all the shareholders took their positions. It was absurd that I had to call a meeting on Friday night because of a predictable and, quite frankly, stupid mistake but here we were.

“Mr. Kim, we're ready” my secretary said discreetly as she handed me a folder filled with documents.

“Thank you” I replied as I got up from the chair and started spreading the papers on the table in front of me.

“Good evening! First, I would like to thank you all for coming on such short notice. The reason for this emergency meeting is to talk about the purchase of a few Min Industries shares” I paused and gazed into the eyes of everyone present. Some of them were curious, tired, others frightened and one in particular very angry.

“I believe all of you realized that ever since it happened our company has started to fall into devaluation, thanks to someone’s stupid and hasty decision” I continued while looking at the documents before me. “I don't want an explanation about what happened or why it happened, just how we are going to solve it” I turned and faced my main suspect, “Today”

“Mr. Kim, if I may, I think I speak for everyone here when I say that there is nothing legally wrong with the purchase” said Lee Sung, one of our oldest and most efficient lawyers. Still, it was a matter of principle for me and everyone knew that.

“I understand, Mr. Lee, but this is not what I'm worried about” I began calmly walking around the table while elaborating my thoughts, “You see... although Min Industries doesn’t compete directly with us they have affiliates who do. Therefore…”

“Therefore it’s smart to buy the shares precisely because it gives us more control over the affiliates” said Y/N, interrupting me.

I couldn't help the smirking that escaped my lips. Y/N took the bait and it was all I needed. From the beginning, I knew she was the one leading the expansion project and everything was going well until she put my credibility with Min Yoon Gi in check.

Yoon Gi and I are old friends, practically brothers, but our families have a particular rivalry that has lasted for almost 50 years. It is nothing that explicit or dramatic. An outsider wouldn't see the animosity, for example. I see it as a truce, however, it's still a delicate matter for our parents and grandparents. When we both took over the businesses, we agreed that we would not repeat their mistakes and promised to interfere as little as possible in each other's company. If it was strictly necessary, we would have to talk before any steps were taken. That was the deal and that is why I was furious at Y/N's audacity to make a decision like this one. She was aware of our family's situation even if not exactly about what I had promised my friend.

“Are you serious, miss Y/LN?”

“Why would I be kidding?” she replied looking confused, twisting the pen between her fingers like she was bored.

“I have no idea, but to call that a smart decision, one that immediately impacts my company's profit, not to mention my personal reputation, seems like a joke. And a bad one to say the least” I said, staring at her intensely as I approached her chair.

The atmosphere got heavy and I couldn't care less. I was right and everyone knew it. Y/N took a risk, as she is paid to do, but the risk was not worth it and she needed to take responsibility for it. If it was anyone else I would have already fired without even calling a meeting. Luckily, she's a key part of the company and one of the shareholders as well so I decided to scold her in front of others to send a subtle warning that nothing goes unnoticed by me and that measures will always be taken, regardless of the level of the hierarchy. This is my way to send a warning because I don't do threats.

Y/N gulped and shifted in her chair, visibly uncomfortable with my proximity.

“So I'm going to ask you again, miss Y/N: are you serious?” I crossed my arms and tilted my head to the side, watching her try very hard not to lose her composure. I had known Y/N for a long time and she always managed to be as cold as me, yet on occasions where her professionalism was questioned her replies used to be impulsive.

“Mr. Kim, I'll be frank” she started, standing up and walking towards the pulpit next to the projection screen. “It was indeed a risk on my part to put Vante Enterprises ahead of such a high-profile acquisition and, for the embarrassment caused, I sincerely apologize”

“Why do I feel like there's a 'but' coming?” I asked, sitting on the chair that she left vacant.

“But"

“See?” I turned to Seo Nu sitting on my left. He laughed politely because I laughed first. Deep down he didn't think it was funny and just wanted to suck up to me. Clever.

“But I still believe that in the long run, we’ll reap great results… excellent results, in fact! Here's a chart” Y/N pointed at the screen in front of us and began to confidently defend her decision, clearly and calmly, completely different from the Y/N of a minute ago who I thought would lose her temper.

* * * * * * *

The meeting room broke out in applause as soon as Y/N finished presenting a chain of detailed information regarding the shares, and although I was surprised by the level of research she prepared, I was unable to hide my dissatisfaction as CEO by confirming that Y/N still didn't understand the problem.

“Could you guys excuse us?” I looked at Y/N and then at the other shareholders. Since the person responsible presented herself there was no need to keep putting on a show, right? I got up, buttoned my jacket, and returned to my original spot on the table to organize the papers I had left lying there.

While arranging them all in a pile, the room emptied and Y/N approached.

“You love to exaggerate things, don't you?” she snarled looking me up and down.

“You love to ignore the rules and interfere with what doesn't concern you, don't you?” I fired back mimicking her attitude.

Y/N stopped for a moment and studied my expression. For a split second, I could feel a question in the air as if she wanted to know if that's what I actually thought of her — a nosy and unprofessional person who ignored her superiors on purpose. I didn’t. She looked hurt. Still, her voice gave no indication that my response had affected her.

“I love my work! It's great and you pay me well” she said, taking the papers from my hand. “Oh, what do we have here?”

“Don't be childish, give me the papers Y/N” I motioned my hands and closed my eyes feeling exhausted.

“What are these projections? How come I have never seen them before?” Y/N's voice came out louder than before depicting a mixture of shock and disbelief. “There is no actual proof that these companies are connected, it doesn't make sense” she walked back to the pulpit, eyes glued to the documents to compare the numbers and references with the slides she had spent hours preparing.

“Y/N give me the papers, that information is above you” I demanded in a firm tone. “Besides, my intention with today's meeting was to get you to find a solution to your own mess but even that you weren't able to”

“How can I solve it if I don't have all the information, Tae Hyung?” Y/N lowered the papers she was gripping so tightly in front of her face and I could see red, teary eyes along with the angry tone in her voice. She hadn't called me Tae Hyung since college and that felt like a blow in my stomach.

“If I had known that the companies were connected I would have thought twice before buying the shares... I…” Y/N's voice failed but she cleared her throat and continued “...this is your fault!”

“Mine?” I asked dumbfounded.

“You left me in the dark and I made an important decision without having all the information” she pushed the papers onto my chest and started pulling the projector's wires angrily, “This is not what I call trust”

“Seriously? Are we going to talk about trust? Bit ironic, don’t you think?” I started chasing her around the room while she collected her belongings and threw them into a big purse.

Y/N snorted like what I just said was absurd.

“You know very well the situation between my family and Yoon Gi's. I always made it clear that we don't do business with them and yet you went there and did it” I placed my hand on top of her purse, preventing her from continuing what she was doing. “Where is my trust in you now?” I questioned her almost in a pleading tone.

Y/N pulled the purse off the table in one swift motion and I almost lost my balance.

“You know what? You're right. I was wrong” she said, looking defeated. “I shouldn't have shown interest in shares that involved Yoon Gi's company, but you definitely shouldn't have hidden these documents from me either” she continued taking a few steps back, slowly moving away from me. “And that's where you fucked up. You're still obsessed with secrets and rules, keeping everyone who tries to help you away"

“Wait a minute” I interjected. This was unfair, it was not like that.

“I'm not done talking” she gazed at me very seriously and I had no choice but to stop and listen. “I know that we have differing opinions on many things and I have teased you too much in the past 10 years with my analysis and requirements, but I never... I say never... would do anything that would harm the company”

“I know” I whispered, feeling kind of dumb for blurting it all out like that.

“It doesn't look like it” she placed the purse on her shoulder. “For me, you're trying to find a reason to get me out of here”

My jaw dropped in shock. Y/N had no idea how much I valued her work, and at this very moment, I didn't know what to say first. An apology? An explanation? A plea? I could have said anything, but I didn't. Not even a fucking sound. My mouth remained open as my thoughts flew through my mind at a frightening speed, making it look like I was confirming her impression.

“I’m gonna save you the trouble. I quit”

Y/N gave me what looked like a small bow or maybe a quick nod as if to excuse herself and then left the room without another word, leaving me leaning against the table without understanding what had just happened, finding myself, for the first time in a long time, completely alone.

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𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗱 ❤ 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘀𝗸! 𝗶 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ revised version: 09.25.2021

[noassallclass]

So my roommate spent all of today writing up a report for Critical Role as a company and I really don't know much about business stuff but I think it is fascinating. Read to the end for a wild ride.

"Okay here is my idea of how Critical Role is actually structured based on what public information exists:

At Geek and Sundry, “Critical Role” as an entity was essentially a partnership between all cast members. The only asset this partnership had was the intellectual property of CR and the only Revenue it took in was licensing that IP to Geek and Sundry. This is because Critical Role Partnership was adamant about maintaining ownership of the IP. This license then pays out between the partners. Percentage

ownership of Critical Role Partnership is divided based on money put in, and previous work done. I would be very surprised if Mercer did not own at least 25% but probably not more than 50%, and the others are probably more or less even. At this point, the cast members both draw a salary from geek and sundry as employees (or contractors), and collect drawings from the licensing of the IP and also royalties as actors. When Orion leaves, the others almost certainly force him to sell out his ownership portion and he probably gets royalties from Geek and Sundry (and later CRPLLC). At this point, this licensing agreement is the only transaction that the entity “Critical Role” actually conducts.

Geek and Sundry pays to produce, distribute, and market the show, and takes all profit. It also takes some aspects of creative control, but probably not that much, though this is listed as the reason to leave Geek and Sundry. At this point, Critical Role continues to license with Geek and Sundry’s parent company Legendary Digital Networks and incorporates their partnership into a Limited Liability Corporation “Critical Role Productions”.

The ownership split is probably kept mostly the same, unless someone decides to sell portions of their shares, but I don’t see why they would. The shareholders (or owners) at this point hire a bunch of employees. Some roles they hire themselves, like Willingham as CEO and Mercer as CCO, and some they hire outsiders like COO Ed Lopez, SVP of Marketing Rachel Romero, and VP of Business Development Ben Van Der Fluit. Those who take additional roles will take salaries for those roles, as well as a salary for acting and writing, and dividends from profits. It is likely that Lopez got a certain amount of shares because C-Suite Executives often do as bonuses because it’s non-taxed income until he sells it and it incentivizes maximizing profits because that would increase his dividends. The other employees probably did not receive shares, so as not to dilute the percentage ownership further.

Critical Role seemingly has no board of directors (it’s possible they have one which is not public), which only happens when there are so few shareholders that they can all convene and take votes (Usually less than 20 owners), implying they don’t use investors to raise cash, which is consistent with a desire to retain creative control. This also means that it is up to all of the shareholders to vote on decisions about the managers of the company instead of a board. That means the only way they could fire Willingham as Chief Executive Officer is if all of the shareholders convene and vote for his firing. Without a board of directors, which often has independent outsiders, this is typically seen as bad for the company’s interests, but is legal in this case because it’s a limited liability corporation and they do not trade on an exchange .

Over the next year or so, CRPLLC makes a new studio and Geek and Sundry gradually relinquishes the distribution rights to older episodes. At this point everyone who works towards the function of the production and distribution of shows is an employee of CRPLLC and not Legendary or Geek and Sundry. For the past couple of years, Critical Role has licensed various brand crossover products like Funko Pops and The Darkhorse Comics. Funko Pop pays CRPLLC for the character likenesses and keeps all profits. CRPLLC also produces its own merchandise like t shirts and that sexy calendar that they pay manufacturers to produce and CRPLLC makes the profit in that scenario. They also have advertising revenue, which is a straightforward revenue stream.

Throwing back to two paragraphs ago, if they don’t use investors to raise cash, how can they afford to embark on a new expensive project that wouldn’t pay out until the future? Well, they could take out a loan (ew interest), save more money in retained earnings forgoing development in other areas (what do you mean we can’t afford to redo our website?) OR

They could do an 11 million dollar kickstarter! This would allow them to retain ownership of both the company and the product, because kickstarter is essentially just buying really expensive merchandise! People will buy a 30 dollar mug if it also comes with the promise that if enough people do it, they’ll make a tv show. Kickstarter money is revenue, not financing and it’s actually against kickstarter’s rules to promise equity for backers. Instead, kickstarter backers assume the risk that investors take (albeit on a smaller individual scale) with none of the benefit besides knowing that they helped make something exist. Compare this to if I, Callie invested $11 million into CRPLLC.

If the Legend of Vox Machina completely bombs and bankrupts CRPLLC which was kickstarted: CRPLLC would have to sell off all of its assets, resolve its liabilities (pay people for work done before laying them off, pay off bank loans) and whatever is left over would be split between the owners. Do they owe you, the kickstarter backer, for not making the show? Legally no. You chose to give us that money and had to trust we would spend the money well to make a good show and we spent all our money making sure our tree leaf animation looked good and could only afford to make 2 episodes.

If the Legend of Vox Machina completely bombs and bankrupts CRPLLC and it was Calliestarted: It would still be the same, except now Callie, the person who put in a lot of money for this show, is also an owner, and at least gets a slice of that money after the debts are paid off.

If the Legend of Vox Machina is really successful and it’s kickstarted: Good job, you did it! You got a fun tv show and like a t shirt! Fun!

If the Legend of Vox Machina is really successful and it’s Calliestarted: Not only do I get my fun tv show and probably also every piece of merch that exists, I got mad paid as an owner, not just from the show itself, but as we sell more and more merchandise because I’m a part owner of the company. I then continue to make money from literally everything else the company does until I decide to sell my shares or the company goes bankrupt.

And even better news! Amazon Prime bought the streaming rights for two seasons, so now I, Callie, have even more money from that sweet sweet licensing money.

Speaking of which, it is likely that the Amazon Deal is structured as follows: Amazon pays CRPLLC to license LoVM, with the stipulation that kickstarter backers can access the first 10 episodes legally. CRPLLC pays, with Kickstarter and Amazon money, Titmouse Inc. to produce LoVM. CRPLLC makes the difference between what they paid Titmouse (variable cost, depending on ultimate cost of animating) and what Amazon paid them. Amazon makes the difference of what they paid CRPLLC and what they make at market with LoVM. Amazon is the only company that stands to profit directly from the actual product of LoVM doing well. If it does poorly, there’s the possibility it gets cancelled, meaning that CRPLLC (and maybe Titmouse if CRPLLC already commissioned the work from them) will still get paid by Amazon, but never released. It’s possible that other companies could buy the license from Amazon in this scenario. This is the risk of selling your show to another company.

CRPLLC also has one subsidiary and one associated foundation: Darrington Press LLC and The Critical Role Foundation

Darrington Press LLC is an imprint of CRPLLC created to design and produce card and board games with the Critical Role IP. DP has 3 listed employees, Ivan Van Norman as Head of Darrington Press, Darcy L. Ross as Marketing Manager, and Mercer as Creative Advisor. As a subsidiary, it is wholly owned by CRPLLC. DP pays manufacturers and contractors to design and manufacturers games and pays for its own advertising, as a separate entity from CRPLLC. DP will likely sell its products to games distributers and the Critical Role Store. If the Critical Role Store sells DP games it’s because CRPLLC bought them from DP. The relationship between DP and CPRLLC is that when DP makes a profit and pays dividends, the recipient is CPRLLC. If DP goes bankrupt and cannot pay its debts, CPRLLC is not required to pay them. CPRLLC also chooses DP’s Board of Directors, which is probably just the owners of CPRLLC. This is all very ordinary. DP has four announced games set to release in 2021, but as of yet has not released any products or made any revenue.

The Critical Role Foundation is a registered non-profit and legally distinct from CRPLLC with seemingly no employees, with Johnson as President, and 4 other Board Members: Mercer, Lopez, Romero and another person named Mark Koro, who is a figure very closely tied to critical role I will outline later. Lopez and Romero are also in a long-term relationship or perhaps marriage. It is usually considered a bad idea to have two partners on a board of directors, as a conflict of interest can arise easily. As a registered non-profit CRF’s projected breakdown of donations is 85% grants to other non-profits, 10% emergency fund allocation, and 5% admin costs (this would be where possible future employees’ salaries would come from). Board Members on non-profits traditionally don’t take salaries, but can use their role as a board member to calculate donated time as a charitable donation for tax purposes. This all seems pretty normal. It’s not stated if or how much CRPLLC itself donates to CRF, including its initial endowment, besides the donation of free advertising, as no donation matching or any other programs seem to be advertised. In terms of an initial endowment, it seems that the only money put in was immediately spent on filing fees and legal fees, meaning the initial endowment was less than $5000. As a result, CRF operates from donors and possibly is not funded at all by CRPLLC. Any money that is donated from CRPLLC’s profits to CRF would be a charitable donation and lower CRPLLC’s taxable income amount. CRF began collecting non-taxable donations in May 2019, and as of December 8, 2020 CRF has yet to publish their 2019 financial statements, so not much is publicly known of how much money is raised by CRF and if they achieved their desired breakdown.

Now to talk about Mark Koro. Koro is an executive of Governmental Affairs (some places list director and others list VP) at Qualcomm, a telecommunications technology company with an annual profit of $7.67 Billion, and is estimated to make $20 per smartphone sold. Every smartphone. Qualcomm has been sued by China, South Korea, Taiwan, the EU, and the USA for anti-competitive behaviour. Koro’s department of Governmental affairs is responsible for negotiating and bidding with governments for contracts and rights to airwave frequencies, and also lobby and develop proposals for telecommunications legislation and policy. Before this, Koro worked at the National Security Agency in their corporate relations department liaising with defence and intelligence contractors. Before this, he worked in the George H.W. Bush administration as The National Security Advance Representative. This entails preparing logistics and security for Presidential events and dispatching Secret Service Agents to respond to Presidential Threats and continued in this capacity under following administrations until 2008. Koro was also an advisor to The Deputy Director of the NSA (the second highest position in the Intelligence Agency), and was a consultant to The Lawrence Livermore National Library, which is

“self-described as a ‘premier research and development institution for science and technology applied to national security.’ Its principal responsibility is ensuring the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons through the application of advanced science, engineering, and technology.”

These positions are all listed on Koro’s biography on the The United Nations website for the International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunication Sector (accessed Dec. 8, 2020). Mark Koro has no public associations with Charitable Work.

There is little online about Koro’s association with Critical Role, besides an article stating that Koro, as a fan of the show, in 2016 matched $50,000 worth of donations to 826LA. Koro’s associations with a monopolistic technology company, the NSA, Nuclear Weaponry, and multiple presidential administrations would be cause for alarm for many of CR’s fans, but if it were a purely professional relationship, it could be excused as including him for his business accumen, but Mark Koro is mutuals on twitter with all of the cast members and Brian W Foster, Britney Walloch-Key. This might seem like normal professional courtesy, but there is a lot of interaction between Koro’s account and Critical Role Employees’ personal accounts that reflect at least a close personal relationship between people that he would not interact with regularly just as a board member of a legally distinct organization."

P.S. 100% of Critical Role's Chief Officers are men in relationships with female subordinates.

[dwellordream]

“Tenant labor of one form or another may be the single most common form of labor we see on big estates and it could fill both the fixed labor component and the flexible one. Typically tenant labor (also sometimes called sharecropping) meant dividing up some portion of the estate into subsistence-style small farmers (although with the labor perhaps more evenly distributed); while the largest share of the crop would go to the tenant or sharecropper, some of it was extracted by the landlord as rent. How much went each way could vary a lot, depending on which party was providing seed, labor, animals and so on, but 50/50 splits are not uncommon.

As you might imagine, that extreme split (compared to the often standard c. 10-20% extraction frequent in taxation or 1/11 or 1/17ths that appear frequently in medieval documents for serfs) compels the tenants to more completely utilize household labor (which is to say ‘farm more land’). At the same time, setting up a bunch of subsistence tenant farms like this creates a rural small-farmer labor pool for the periods of maximum demand, so any spare labor can be soaked up by the main estate (or by other tenant farmers on the same estate). That is, the high rents force the tenants to have to do more labor – more labor that, conveniently, their landlord, charging them the high rents is prepared to profit from by offering them the opportunity to also work on the estate proper.

In many cases, small freeholders might also work as tenants on a nearby large estate as well. There are many good reasons for a small free-holding peasant to want this sort of arrangement (which we’ll come around to in a moment). So a given area of countryside might have free-holding subsistence farmers who do flexible sharecropping labor on the big estate from time to time alongside full-time tenants who worked land entirely or almost entirely owned by the large landholder. Now, as you might imagine, the situation of tenants – open to eviction and owing their landlords considerable rent – makes them very vulnerable to the landlord compared to neighboring freeholders.

That said, tenants in this sense were generally considered free persons who had the right to leave (even if, as a matter of survival, it was rarely an option, leaving them under the control of their landlords), in contrast to non-free laborers, an umbrella-category covering a wide range of individuals and statuses. I should be clear on one point: nearly every pre-modern complex agrarian society had some form of non-free labor, though the specifics of those systems varied significantly from place to place. Slavery of some form tends to be the rule, rather than the exception for these pre-modern agrarian societies.

Two of the largest categories of note here are chattel slavery and debt bondage (also called ‘debt-peonage’), which in some cases could also shade into each other, but were often considered separate (many ancient societies abolished debt bondage but not chattel slavery for instance and debt-bondsmen often couldn’t be freely sold, unlike chattel slaves). Chattel slaves could be bought, sold and freely traded by their slave masters. In many societies these people were enslaved through warfare with captured soldiers and civilians alike reduced to bondage; the heritability of that status varies quite a lot from one society to the next, as does the likelihood of manumission (that is, becoming free).

Under debt bondage, people who fell into debt might sell (or be forced to sell) dependent family members (selling children is fairly common) or their own person to repay the debt; that bonded status might be permanent, or might hold only till the debt is repaid. In the later case, as remains true in a depressing amount of the world, it was often trivially easy for powerful landlord/slave-holders to ensure that the debt was never paid and in some systems this debt-peon status was heritable. Needless to say, the situation of both of these groups could be and often was quite terrible. The abolition of debt-bondage in Athens and Rome in the sixth and fourth centuries B.C. respectively is generally taken as a strong marker of the rising importance and political influence of the class of rural, poorer citizens and you can readily see why this is a reform they would press for.

The third complicated category of non-free laborers is that of workers who had legal control of their persons to some degree but who were required by law and custom to work on a given parcel of land and give some of the proceeds to their landlord. By way of example, under the reign of Diocletian (284-305), in a (failed) effort to reform the tax-system, the main class of Roman tenants, called coloni (lit: ’tillers’), were legally prevented from moving off of their estates (so as to ensure that the landlords who were liable for taxes on that land would be in a position to pay). That this change does not seem to have been a massive shift at the time should give some sense of how low the status of these coloni had fallen and just how powerful a landlord might be over their tenants.

That system in turn (warning: substantial but necessary simplification incoming) provided the basis for later European serfdom. Serfs were generally tied to the land, being bought and sold with it, with traditional (and hereditary) duties to the owner of the land. They might owe a portion of their produce (like tenants) or a certain amount of labor to be performed on land whose proceeds went directly to the landlord. While serfs generally had more rights (particularly in the protection and self-ownership of their persons) than enslaved persons, they were decidedly non-free (they couldn’t, by law, move away generally) and their condition was often quite poor when compared to even small freeholders. Non-free labor was generally not flexible (the landholder was obliged to support these folks year-round whether they had work to do or not) and so composed the fixed core labor of the large landholder’s holdings.

Finally, at long last, we have wage laborers, who do a set amount of agricultural labor in exchange for payment in cash. And I’ll admit, I am being a bit disingenuous, because I am introducing these fellows in order to dismiss them. Wage laborers were, by far, the least common of these categories and the most marginal. That’s not to say they did not exist – they did (at least in highly monetized societies)! But they were almost never the primary source of labor, but instead used as that flexible labor-supplement during periods of chief demand (thus, for instance, the day-laborers working for cash in the Parable of the Workers, Matthew 20:1-16). Part of this has to do with monetization – as we’ll get to in a couple of weeks, most of the peasantry didn’t have a lot to do with cash anyway, so non-cash working arrangements (like sharecropping) were easier.

Highly monetized economies (early imperial Rome being a classic example) were generally the exception, rather than the rule of pre-modern agrarian economies. Moreover, wage labor was unpredictable (the day-laborers of the aforementioned parable are typical; consider how limited economic security is on that basis); it was also typically very low in social status – barely above non-free laborers (and in some cases below them, cf. Ody. 11.489-491). Consequently in many of these societies, for a freeholding farmer to do wage labor might even be shameful in a way that doing a bit of sharecropping on the side was not (though I should again stress – attitudes about this sort of thing vary a lot; consult your neighborhood primary source before making sweeping generalizations about the social acceptability of wage labor).”

- Bret Devereaux, “Bread, How Did They Make It? Part II: Big Farms.”