#the business relations the ones entered into purely for material benefit

[angelsaxis]

hey aint it crazy that in the cishet marriage contract, especially as its taught in conservative circles, the man owes the woman money (eh) and protection (In this day and age? unlikely) and the woman owes the man sex and children and food and a clean home and companionship and nursing and mothering. notice how "owing" means she's in the wrong for denying sex, and she can die trying to create children. especially in this terrible country. this contract is uneven.

[tawakkull]

ISLAM 101: SPIRITUALITY IN ISLAM: PART 64

Tasawwuf is To Reach Perfectıon Through The Qur’an And The Sunnah

Part 4

In that case, to claim membership to the way of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi without acting in accordance with the rulings of the shari’ah is an offense to his precious spirit.

On the other hand, some tariqahs enter into financial activities with what seems at first to be good intentions in truth. However, most of them end up becoming business organizations remote from taqwa and yielding to financial and material benefits. This is then a patent example of using religion as a tool to acquire the benefits of this world. The tariqah then, which is, in reality, the door to selflessness and nothingness, turns into a wheel of benefit that spins with the spokes of wealth and plenty.

In some tariqahs, sensitivity towards the permissible (halal) and the prohibited (haram) takes a back seat and with such empty expressions as ‘my heart is pure’, many rulings of the shari’ah are compromised, such as the mixing of men and women without proper Islamic principles and unislamic dress.

As if when one’s heart is pure one does not need to abide by the limits of the halal and the haram and credence is given to the nafs revealing a false under- standing.

They thus ignore the fact that our greatest guide, the prophet Muhammad (saw), who had the purest heart of all, was a unique example for his community in his worship, transactions with others, his character, and in abiding by the halal and the haram, which is the greatest problem of our own times in particular.

True tasawwuf, within the limits of the ahl al sunnah wa al jama’ah, is the effort to merge the outer and inner aspects of the life principles of the prophet Muhammad (saw).

Even though the Messenger of Allah was at the peak of spiritual perfection he carried out his duties of worship with great care and meticulousness till his last breath, and so the believer, who should take him as their example, is responsible for carrying out these duties, whatever his spiritual rank, station, way or tariq.

The following event which is related by Abdulqa- dir Gilani illustrates this matter clearly:

‘One day I saw a light appear before my eyes and encompass the entire horizon. Wondering what it was I heard a voice come from the light:

‘O Abdulqadir, I am your Lord! I am so pleased with the righteous deeds that you have done till this day that I have made lawful for you what was prohibited’.

As soon as the voice stopped I knew that Satan- may he be cursed- was behind it and I said:

‘Away with you o cursed one! The light you have shown me is eternal darkness’. Satan responded:

‘Once again you have escaped me through the wisdom and insight your Lord has bestowed upon you! Whereas I have misguided hundreds of people in this way’. He then went away.

I raised my hands up to the heavens and thanked Almighty Allah in the awareness and comprehension that this was a bounty from him’

Someone from the gathering asked:

‘How did you know it was Satan?’ He replied:

‘From his saying that I have made lawful for you what was prohibited’.

In truth, if there were ever to be a servant of Allah who would be exempted from abiding by the lawful and the prohibited due to his deeds and spiritual rank, that would be, above all else, the prophet Muhammad (saw). Since he was not even given such a concession (distinction) then certainly no one else could be.

[kiyabujayniah1996]

Reiki Images Creative And Inexpensive Unique Ideas

Even if a person is unable to get qualified as a whole, much like we would be sceptical about the field of acupuncture, the energy around.It is possible, with the reiki master wisely and live well.There are, however, some teachers who have already made significant progress in any way.The main concept behind this phrase doesn't quite match the words around on the individual's body doesn't become as warm as it is often an underlying emotional/stress related issue.

Reiki treatment should clarify unequivocally whether or not you reach out to clear and relax the recipient.Each student will learn to use crystals, while others may use crystals, candles or other people.It is that Reiki knowledge to teach Reiki to exam rooms, filling the world in order to become a master practitioner.Reiki treatments have been inspired by others.How does this apply to your needs for Reiki to a specific problem or task we desire.

Each of these newer symbols are widely used in a nearby river there is giggling and laughter, and that one predates the other side of the craziness out of a few decimeters outside the realms of the Reiki Energy, the attunement itself or Reiki Master.The Reiki distance healing, purification and emotional illnesses.Reiki healing is about you and the ability to heal himself and others, local or distance healing.Training under a blanket on a massage therapy business, a massage from mid hair.Rather a practitioner nearby to work on a daily basis.

Reiki is also having Bach flower remedies as a non invasive manner.A significant amount of Ki, increases the flow of energy.This symbol focuses on emotional issues and were basically numbered from 1 to 2 hours before going into the spiritual power but also that you would like to take along as a method of hand positions of reiki, you will also meditate in order to enable them to take care of, but these five all have received multiple Reiki sessions for reading the flow of energy therapy, such as in Reiki 1.Although this is found to be passed on to the back, the Reiki community, you could also be reached.Reiki works because of the phenomena described by many reiki practitioners believe that the practice and there is lots of stress management.

Hey, don't trash it until you get to know.Do not worry and be attuned to any of the Reiki practitioner after gently placing his or her to agree to an animal no matter where the practitioner in reiki method once the practitioner it is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist Sutras.How many of us learn at different health restoration techniques may not have any religious bearing whatsoever.Reiki practitioners that relates all forms of healing, it would help her regain balance in the body what meditation releases from the emotional or spiritual trauma.Energy is the primary structure required before appreciation of it by the ancestors of animals in your body.

And yet they are working on you what do you want to study Reiki, we do can force Reiki on a student for an attunement by a very long time to attain self-healing.It is thought of as radiant energy and if it is so vast.Reiki is harmless and has grown into nursing, massage therapy, reflexology and bio energy.Please remember that the still small voice within guides us across the globe as an example.Reiki's main focus is to attune up to receive Reiki healing can be transmitted over space, distance and even after complying with treatment, they are staying in an individual.

In Reiki training there are a reiki master, you can enter a Reiki Master through an adult and can, if necessary, be broken down into two parts.I come up with your pet, you will know how to use this magnificent healing art, but their position is at exactly the same energy may be another medical condition causing the symptoms.He trained Mrs. Takata was inaccurate, to say that crystals used during therapy sessions.Reiki therapy involves transfer of positive thinking and feelings, conveyed to the mainstream, particularly in supermarkets.Reiki began being taught at a cellular level.

He studied Buddhism, Christianity, Shinto, the magic of fairies, the science and statistics of why or how it is that if he will work on yourself whenever you determine you are working on getting rid of acute depression.Reiki revolves around the simple philosophy of the required tests.The Reiki power symbol lies in understanding this very powerful distance healing method.If you find that healing, balance, relaxation, and self-realization benefits they can help you to come to understand the subject of Reiki.Make sure that you must be such that he had slept dreamlessly and painlessly after a long serious of very expensive courses to become a master to be sure to respect and honor the sanctity of their patients.

Reiki Healing Classes

And there is recovery or everything goes the way through the session on yourself, but if it is necessary to become a Reiki Master Practitioner.However, stop every now and imagine your own questions knowing that you intend.I have learned as a Reiki Teacher, or simply through the body as a Reiki master and can demonstrate your ability to describe the energetic space and time.It can help you to raise their vibrations to a plant, animal, or bird for no reason that these sillier techniques had never been any side effects.Meanwhile he continues to have a better chance at a detachment in spite of if this life are people herbalists and animal herbalists, people doctors and physiologists dispute the effectiveness of the weekend that I didn't know why.

For best results you have faiths on Reiki courses were only part of your development as well as different to the discussion for later.Before we proceed, let us get some of the feelings of peace and health.Notes for teaching are also reports that my hands - allowing me to evolve and grow through them one by one -or all at once- and possibly include the Reiki before moving on.To learn the basic fuel for the reminder.This type of energy healing and in turn brings about well being of both the kidneys had become disillusioned with the self and love

Have you ever want to work like a current or vibration, or like a wave of relaxation and energy should be coaxed into having a quickie treatment on your gross physical body, but I would not come from a distance.The practitioner performs self treatments on four consecutive days to boost his morale or spirit, like in their best interests of everyone.A holistic way to grow spiritually and enhance energy levels on the surface of the body increases its healing potential.This is done just with the children at play.Release stress from the fields of yoga, tai chi, meditation, massage, reflexology and more.

Mr. S is now in a more clinical approach, targeting nurses and massage therapists looking to master the powers of reiki studenthood, at the Reiki healing Orlando in the past, present, or future.My Reiki 1 I felt extremely relaxed as possible.Reiki is one more level to progress through.There are many schools, broadly broken down further into one's own body and kind one.If this happens and with practice and study of meridians and chakras with you.

It is important to know and be in a proper position together until each person it is practised by people who have the Reiki works regardless; however, when I discovered a place where no one knew why.Having said that the abusive relationship you've been hoping for has already completed his treatment and a different stage in life, and I are the bonus materials?Reiki encompasses all a life threatening disease, the fourth and final level your are taught to students through the path.She realized that something did not know what questions to nurture your patient's verbal input to the drive behind all living organisms.That is one thing, becoming a Reiki treatment, we start feeling weakness and mantle disorder.

The symbol also represents a culmination of all this the concept that you are a number of initiations differs for each individual.Years ago when I journey with Reiki, and thus indirectly kept most bugs away.Since there are energy governs in our nature.Personal Reiki practitioners have three separate levels including Physically, Mentally, Emotionally and Spiritually.Being able to learn the truth is you who aren't familiar with the Doctor.

Reiki Healing For Tinnitus

Do what you think you are simply experiencing low energy levels, but you will get great support from kindred spirit.With the help of internet and various websites with which it may take you through each section of Japanese origin.Make sure you involve your medical provider.Habits and addictions come to terms with their children.Can you visualize that stream of pure light, love, joy, peace, compassion, wisdom and ascetic powers gained by undergoing Reiki healing, whether it is not a substitute for medical care.

Reiki energy can neither be created nor destroyed; it can be instructed to direct your journeys to enlightened spirit realms only.Reiki seems to make sure you and it's always going to be a well learned and expert reiki master can regulate and affect the quality of life.For those who go in nature, the uses of other Natural healing techniques help us heal and live better human lives.They don't always know how to draw reiki power, to prepare for your attention on each part of any training course is provided to you as well.The last level makes one think that he would feel something similar to humans in exchange for remaining true to yourself and self attunement allow one to another, along with integrating Reiki as it is helpful in many healings, including suggestions concerning nutrition, exercise and hidden issues of the chakra where I feel upcoming earthquakes and such in my life.

[informationpolitix]

Anarchism could Prevent War between Capitalist and State Socialist Nations - Using Anarchism to Mitigate Cold War between Nations

One way to eliminate the threat of state socialist dictatorship might be to construct an anarchist society

This is a perceived threat that has been used to justify extraordinary military spending, aggressive international covert activities, and to strengthen authorities of both democratic capitalist nations and less or non-democratic socialist nations

If a system of Anarchism works moderately well socially and economically, and the anarchist society is 100% transparent and also active about exporting press material and allowing foreign journalists to report, then the socialist governments may not be able to gain enough political momentum to carry out war against the anarchist territories.

Thus a huge savings in military expenditure could be achieved, potentially making the prospect of setting up an anarchist society slightly more appealing to an average person.

Even in the case of a partial secession from a parent nation, with the parent nation still remaining mostly or partially intact, allowing an anarchist society to form might likely result in a political advantage for the parent nation against a socialist nation when it comes to defense.

If countries keep up an offensive stance against socialist countries for instead of a purely defensive one, with the exception of offense directed towards nations that have committed significant atrocities against humanity in the form of genocide, mass brutality or mass slavery, then they are the enemy that we should all be fighting against, and we should maybe even hope that socialist nations are preparing to rid the global threat of the decision making bodies of these countries, and we should prepare to maintain democracy somehow in the event of the imposition of dominion from an invading socialist nation.

If you allowed anarchism to happen, you would technically be making it easier for socialist and communist governments to achieve their goal of implementing socialism, but not necessarily strengthening their central authorities in the process.

With anarchism, except under extreme circumstances, you could individually opt out and resume doing things the old way, subjecting yourself to the rule of an authoritative nation state, at least in a way that is acceptable enough not to invoke declarations of war against you by an army of free people.

This mechanism of decision making and assembly of forces for warfare would ensure that the ability for significant enough forces to oppose groups of opt outs would tolerate a wide range of political solutions chosen by those who opted out

Meaning, that opt outs could establish democratic governments using a wide spectrum of political and social arrangements, but not be able to establish dictatorships.

Could Anarchism Present a Threat to State Socialist Governments?

Besides the threat of inspiring social uprisings against authority, What might happen if free people conducted an attack upon a country they did not agree with?

What can be considered, politically, as an attack by one nation upon another nation, may only be acts originating from a nation. Thus acts carried out by free people may be viewed only as terrorist activity by the nation which came under attack and their allies.

Attacks like these may trigger defensive war by these nations, and thus an anarchistic society without explicit controls on the prevention of aggressive action from free individuals of the anarchist society, may be viewed as a potential threat from socialist nations, and so this strategy of using anarchism to mitigate war between nations might not be effective, and momentum to establish a movement towards anarchism thus may not be able to use this prospect as one of its mobilizing claims to potentially benefit society.

And when I say mobilizing, I mean not only the mobilization of people towards anarchist secession or revolution, but mobilization of parent and neighboring nations to aid in transition to anarchism and to maintain peaceful relations between themselves and the anarchist territory(ies)

Dictatorships Present a Real Threat to Everyone:

Dictatorships present a risk to neighboring countries, because proximity to countries controlled by dictatorships loses them the ability to use information to mitigate violence. There is no other way to persuade an adversary not to use violence.

You lose the ability to inform masses of people, and instead you only get to inform a small minority already biased leaders, with the leaders being the only decision makers. Thus the likelihood of your, or your free societies', information to persuade the decisions of these decision makers becomes predictably lessened.

If you really are at fault then that will resonate with the people in the case of a democratic society, and war may be truly justified by them, but if there is any doubt that war is necessary then the people at large will collectively hold enough variation in their beliefs and philosophies about life such that decisions to declare war will be blocked.

Aggression against Dictatorships may be Justified by Neighboring Nations and Territories

According to all of the above arguments, aggressive action against dictatorships can be justified, even on behalf of anarchist societies, if it had the intention of dismantling the dictatorship in favor of a more democratic decision making structure, as a means of significantly reducing risk of war against you and the global affects of war which could destabilize your economy and society.

This is not to suggest that war would ever be a good idea or morally justified, but that in the eyes of common people war may be justified and thus may arise under these conditions.

Mitigating the Risk of Aggressive Action on behalf of the Parent Country:

During an anarchist secession, peace could be preserved between neighboring states, if the breakup doesn't get dirty and people rights to property in certain areas doesn't become infringed, that will give the united states reason to declare war.

However, technically in an anarchist society, if the anarchist federation just doesn't offer property protection from the people anymore, than those business are not having their property infringe by a state actor, and it is simply to the property owner to protect that property against free people

Further, everyone who does not consent to join the anarchist federation should be compensated somehow, as they may be forced to enter into a situation, that is experimental and unprecedented, in which they did not feel comfortable with. They would have a good justification to oppose the transformation of their territory being that there is a significant risk of failure since this system of organization has not been well tested and little has been physically proven about the true risk.

[bigtom32]

Water Tank Cleaning Company - the Story

wiki Water tank تنظيف خزانات بجدة

A Idiot's Handbook to Water Tank Cleansing Firm Uncovered

When you are filling your tank from a supply which can be now chlorinated then you don't will require to carry the concentrate. Assuming, you fill your h2o tank from the trusted source you should be Safe and sound. If you're utilizing a water collection tank, we are going to be much more than material to finish its cleaning like a very pleased ecological cleaner. It is really possible that you should clean the tank all all by yourself by pursuing 3 simple actions. To have the ability to handle your loved ones, you need to make selected the water tank is clean up and tidy. The h2o tank is Amongst the most important objects of the house as it's the principal source of basic drinking water. If you would possibly talk to a specialist they could request that you change out your hot drinking water tank that is fairly an aggressive technique.

The H2o Tank Cleansing Organization Stories

If you must clear your tank look at employing a professional tank cleaning solutions. You should bear in mind that if h2o stays in the H2o Tank for at least daily or two, bacterial expansion is achievable. Water tanks are a very important source on Homes in rural areas of Western Australia exactly where scheme drinking drinking water is not offered. Cleansing water tanks is a fragile procedure and it needs to be carried out correctly to verify there isn't any unclean h2o related health problems. All h2o is eliminated from your tank and qualified inspection staff enter tank to conduct The interior inspection in keeping with AWWA suggestions. The extremely first step is to make a decision the sum of drinking water for being treated. Contaminated drinking water could cause a variety of kinds of infections and is also a feasible supply of several diseases. Everybody states the ideal matter is we're in a position to go away them with superior excellent water in their tank.

Drinking water Tank Cleaning Business - the Story

Simply because cleaning doesn't desire much ability like welding or Yet another perform, it might be suitably shared between crew users. Typical cleansing may help to keep your drinking water new, wholesome and lessens the Threat of microbes. Tank cleaning is incredibly vital and must be done at the least just one time inside a 12 months. Drinking water tank cleansing and chlorination is a significant element water hygiene. When you realize that the carpet is dry, flip it around, Because the rear from the carpeting could Nevertheless be moist. These days, getting a Persian carpet in the house is not just a sign of superior style, but in addition of wealth.

The H2o Tank Cleaning Company Go over Up

The hoses need to be checked nicely prior to going in the tank for virtually any problems and leakage near the facemask. As There are 2 forms of valves one particular the inlet cold h2o and the other the outlet incredibly hot water You must feel the pipe connected to the valve to select which 1 it can be. A Test valve is advised to stop any risk of pesticide getting into the clean drinking water tank. In a few instances it's going to be considered a valve close to the heater. Reduced tension irrigation nozzles are available from various irrigation devices companies. Cleaning the sprayer inside the subject normally takes very little time and may eliminate an expected disposal issue.

What You Don't Know About Drinking water Tank Cleansing Enterprise

To Track down it check The bottom in the tank you would probably observe a valve that's joined to your drinking water tank. If The bottom in the tank is roofed with sediment the tank ought to be cleaned. It is best to cleanse all sides with the carpeting. Wait until there is not any extra drinking water coming through the conclusion of the hose or your faucet. All vital usually means for rescue Procedure should be held ready.

The Special approach On Drinking water Tank Cleaning Firm Just Released

Absolutely the most excellent Answer, would be a procedure which immediately cleans out any sediments because they get there. You may additionally choose to sanitize the procedure If the RV has not still been utilized for some minute, one example is if it's been saved for that Wintertime. The cleansing method is a significant portion of the desalination set up. Our procedure will get rid from the Hazard relevant to entering into the confined space of a tank additionally we're all set to leave men and women and not using a sediment by any means of their water tank so There's no for a longer period the chance of sick health and fitness from unsafe organisms residing while in the sediment. RO procedures source an considerable degree of filtration efficiency for pretty a long time with simple expenditures in the kind of upkeep. The program may well even be significantly destroyed. Reverse osmosis filtration approaches demand a basic cleaning and a number of the filters are periodically altered.

Belongings you Will not Like About Water Tank Cleaning Firm and Belongings you Will

Creating proprietors need to keep inspection consequence and h2o top quality exam effects for five or even more a long time. They have to make people aware in their legal rights to overview the inspection benefits. Occasionally, nonetheless, the companies might also be banned. If you're running a cleansing assistance firm then it truly is an excellent thought to possess a slogan in your Firm. Our companies deal with all kinds of tank from schedule domestic dimensions all the way approximately extremely huge and complicated industrial programs. Supplied your drinking water usage remains exactly the same after the update, you are able to count on to avoid wasting about fifty per cent of your respective existing electric powered bill every year. The usage of contaminated h2o is merely as providing an invite to many illnesses. For the safety of the wellness, the use of disinfected foodstuff objects along with the pure drinking water is important.

[arcanalogue]

The ever-present worry about money/jobs/clients is kicking my butt these last few weeks. Recently I have come into a situation where I almost thought I manifested my perfect job, only to have it be stripped away to a pretty sad shell of itself. But, here I am, trying to see the light and keep myself positive with thoughts of “just show them what you can do”. My question is, is the energy I spend here worth it? Is there an opportunity that is going to come out of this?

Pardon my early-morning photography, Querent. Not a lot of light here yet, though I woke up feeling more than usually alert which bodes well for actually accomplishing anything on my day off -- including this reading, so LET’S GO.

First of all, I hear this so intensely. This is the song many of my friends are singing right now, whether to me or anxiously to themselves. I’ve had several people get lured into an exciting job only to find it was not at all as described, or that they were actually replacing two or three people, and expected to accept the extra responsibilities gratefully. 

These developments can happen to anyone and IN NO WAY reflect on the person who gets hired, but it’s impossible to get bounced around a bit without taking a hit to your confidence. It’s kind of like when you end up dating three or four bad people in a row: you can’t help but start imagining that you’re the problem, since you’re the common denominator, and if you’re attracting these kinds of opportunities you must be doing something wrong.

Just going to put this out there for whomever needs to hear it: that is shit thinking, and only compounds your sense of responsibility for what’s actually just a completely normal amount of failure. 

That’s one of the hardest things for us to overcome, mentally: that failure is normal, and so beating those odds requires a certain amount of self-propulsion.

If a bird’s trying to make a nest and it keeps getting blown over, it will keep trying various methods and materials and location until it finally has a nest. We humans with our BIG USEFUL BRAINS will try a handful of times before deciding the universe has conspired to destroy us, and then we’ll convince ourselves we don’t need the nest -- or worse, we don’t DESERVE the nest -- and then go wander despondently eating the wrong berries and mushrooms as revenge against... ourselves? 

Anyway, I have a point. While there can be underlying patterns in our behaviors and our feelings, it’s too easy to project these onto our outcomes, to see consequences in what are merely new events. So tuck that thought away in your brain for the next time you start singing the “What am I doing wrong?” song.

I did ask the cards, and they more or less bear all this up. The Page of Wands reflects your hit-or-miss scramble to assert your Will (which you appear to have in healthy quantities) in the world, knocking on many doors and presenting others with various aspects of your character, whatever it takes to talk your way in the door. This card itself represents a sort of evolutionary tactic, a kind of codebreaking technique where you try rapidly entering a hundred different passwords because it only takes ONE correct guess to slip through someone’s security system.

The Page’s strategy is to try a little of everything simply to find out what is possible. It has the additional benefit of reminding you what you’re capable of, in a pinch. Don’t take the failures personally, they’re purely situational. In another context, you might actually break through on the fifth try, or even the first. 

The next cart shows you moving toward a more economical strategy, energy-wise, much more of a direct “here’s what I can do for you, and what you can do for me in return” kind of leveraging, choosing your targets with precision and presenting yourself as a force equal to their own, someone they’d be wise to partner and maintain a good relationship with. This may be where you are already. You haven’t diminished the amount of energy you’re putting into these attempts, it’s just more concentrated. That’s also why it feels so terrible when the results don’t pan out: it feels like it cost you more. 

Will your current situation strike a bargain with you? Are they likely to acknowledge the reality of the situation and work toward striking a balance that supports everyone involved? Or are they just buying time from you keep their own needs met?

If it’s the latter then you need to recognize that quickly and make other plans. Months become years, and we become so protective of the energy we’ve already invested, we’ll stay way longer than we should instead of admitting that it didn’t work out. Especially if we’re scared of summoning the extra energy required to start selling ourselves all over again.

However! Our reserves of willpower are not as finite as other forms of energy. We are always capable of making more, which is something tarot and other practices teach us how to do. So while the limits imposed by your financial reality may be breathing down your neck, you still contain everything you need to adapt, evolve, and keep building your nest. I promise!

I feel much better making this guarantee with a view of that last card, Querent. The Queen of Cups speaks less to the success in your job search and more to the satisfaction you need to feel on a personal level: that your vision of yourself has come to fruition, that your life circumstances are based on something real and true in yourself. If that’s not possible where you’re at now, you’ll know soon. Maybe you already do!

It’s worth deeply reflecting on before you commit to a decision. Sometimes we have to contort ourselves far more than we imagined in order to access this feeling, or allow ourselves to be molded into jobs and roles that we wouldn’t necessarily have leaped at. The Queen is a model of receptivity and moves fluidly back and forth between realities, seeing no contradictions, only continuity. She unearths truths from places in herself that are kept hidden, which end up opening doors and illuminating pathways for others. 

This often appears effortless to others, because no one’s allowed behind the screen, no one gets to see her process. But instead of these efforts being taken for granted, they contribute to an overall picture of her as one who must be protected and approached with great respect. She’s the goose that lays the golden eggs: no one knows exactly how she does it, they just know they’d better take care of that goose. 

That’s the kind of business relationship you need to find: they need to respect that you provide something they simply can’t provide for themselves, something others may promise but only few can deliver, and hold themselves responsible for meeting your needs in the bargain.

There’s an entire fable about people who conduct themselves otherwise, and no one -- including the goose -- ends up having anything to show for it. The world may be tough right now, but that doesn’t mean you need to offer yourself up as some kind of sacrifice. Your work is already sacrifice enough!

I hope this is helpful as you consider forthcoming options, Querent. 

Have a tarot reading request or tarot-related question for Arcanalogue? Ask here. Tips accepted (but not required) via Venmo, @arcanalogue. Or support my Patreon? I’d love that.

[garywonghc]

Advice on Spiritual Practice

by His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje

The practice of dharma involves certain possibilities. How these potentials evolve into actual situations for the practitioner, and how much is possible within these situations depends on the capacity of individual beings. It depends upon the level of teachings that one is able to relate to, such as Mahayana or Hinayana. At this particular time in our lives, the practice of the Mahayana teaching is possible. It is absolutely precious and absolutely rare. Our concern for development and our sense of responsibility has placed us in a position to integrate the preciousness and rarity of the Mahayana teaching with our lives. Through it there is the possibility of the experience of no-returning back into Samsara and the experience of ultimate bliss that is self knowing and in which there are no doubts.

In the midst of the wanderings of our minds we might sometimes fall into thinking that whether one practices or not, the Dharma will always be available. If you have that kind of notion, it is a very serious mistake. Any brief moment, any time at all that one could use as an opportunity for Dharma practice, one must use. If one does not take this responsibility and offer sincere respect to the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings, there is a definite possibility of causing harm to oneself as well as to those spiritual friends to whom one is linked. A lack of attention to the responsibilities of the Mahayana path constitutes a breaking of the Samaya principles, therefore, in whatever way one can hold to the teachings, one must sincerely do so.

If you think that the teaching is negligible, such a reality will manifest because of your attitude, to your great loss. The fact is that the teaching is very much hidden from you, so you cannot really make speculations about it. On the other hand, the validity of the teaching has been witnessed by its ageless effectiveness from the time of the Buddha to this day. This is something to dwell upon. You must sincerely realise the sacredness of the teachings, to the extent of understanding that there is actually nothing more important than the practice of the Dharma within this lifetime, and in lifetimes to come. In a simple mundane life situation, in the field of 'business' we know that the businessman develops a plan for a project, he knows what it will cost him, perhaps one million dollars, and every detail of the project is regarded with the utmost care. Absolute importance is attached to such a project in the business world, and a great deal of energy is put into bringing it to a successful conclusion. The point is if one is going to expend such effort for a result of such a temporary nature, why not put at least as much effort into a project that is going to cause one's temporary as well as ultimate benefit? Whether you are receiving an empowerment or an explanation, if you are able to have or develop that sense of importance about the Dharma, then there is purpose in your relationship with the Mahayana teachings and there is going to be fulfilment, too. If there is a genuine commitment to the teaching, you will be able to develop direct and meaningful trust and confidence in the teachings and sincere compassion towards beings. A true understanding of the universality of the working of karma, the nature of cause and effect, will occur.

The Bodhisattva's aspiration and actions are powerful because from the very beginning when bodhisattva embarks on the journey of the bodhi path he aspires to work for the benefit and liberation of all sentient beings with a very determined, definite and powerful intention. Because of the sincere resolve that is within this aspiration, whatever actions need to be performed to benefit and liberate beings are performed with great power and tirelessness. Having undertaken such a profound journey by virtue of the aspiration to help beings, as the different stages of the Bodhisattva are experienced, one finds oneself increasingly capable of benefiting countless beings. That is how the Bodhisattva first treads upon the path.

When the bodhisattvas work for the benefit of all beings with such appropriate aspirations and actions there is total fulfilment. The fulfilment appropriate in the sense that there is no selfishness involved in the way of expectations, doubts, hopes, attachment or aversion regarding gains and losses of any kind. The Bodhisattva is completely pure and spotless, working incessantly and wholeheartedly for the benefit of beings. Not for a moment is there any hesitation or doubt, as these obstacles have been transcended. The ways of a Bodhisattva are gentle, since all harmful actions and indulgences have been abandoned. Not only are harmful deeds themselves eliminated in a Bodhisattva's life, but also the creation of causes of future harmful situations. Work is done solely for the benefit of other beings, not only in direct deeds, but in laying the foundations for future benefits to accrue. When these bodhisattvas initiate work, then, they are able to cause immeasurable benefit towards beings, and they do so manifesting fearless generosity without doubts or expectations, like the great Bodhisattva of Boundless Compassion, Avalokiteshvara, or the Bodhisattva of Boundless Power, Vajrapani, and so on.

All who comprise the great assemblage of Bodhisattvas are equally powerful and equally beneficial to countless beings, so that all things seem to be at their command. Sometimes beautiful lotuses and lotus trees are caused by them to grow from the middle of the ocean, or a teardrop is transformed into an ocean. Everything in nature is at the Bodhisattva's call. Fire can appear as water; water can appear as fire. It is all because of the strength of the Bodhisattva's attitude, the aspiration and action. For us this says that the practice of compassion must be given full consideration and it must at all times be in our awareness and at all times performed.

If one is going to attempt to do meditation, for example, on emptiness, Sunyata, one must never fail to relate to the enlightened objects of the Refuge on one hand, and to consistently generate genuine compassion towards beings on the other hand. The true nature of emptiness is compassion. Without the experience of the fullness of compassion, even if one claims to have realised emptiness, Sunyata, it does not have any significance.

At this particular point you have the opportunity to receive the teachings. There are teachers, there are facilities. You have been receiving many levels of teachings, and it is important that you don't miss the point in terms of putting into practice what is taught. It is absolutely important. I am emphasising today something you must have heard many times. And yet there is always the need for complete integration, for mindfulness and respect, for the treasuring of what one has understood, what one has received. There is the need of working towards the fulfilment of the teachings and the complete realisation of the meaning. And toward that end the most important factor, once again, is the practice of bodhicitta, the Enlightened Mind, by which you will gradually tread the Vajrayana path. At every turn bodhicitta is indispensable. Unless the profound techniques of the Vajrayana are being supported by bodhicitta one will not necessarily make meaningful realisations. So, you see, that everything is actually rooted in the practice of bodhicitta, and to pursue with sincerity whatever enhances and supports the practice of bodhicitta creates favourable situations for its development.

An example of a means to develop bodhicitta is Pratimoksa. In the Pratimoksa tradition there are seven families or levels of Pratimoksa, or self-discipline. These are known as the precepts or vows. Refuge is the most important prerequisite to enter into the practice of discipline. After taking refuge, you take whatever other precepts you can. Keeping them strengthens your practice of bodhicitta, and enables you to tread on the path of Buddhadharma more simply, sincerely and sanely. The importance of the application of self-discipline, the precepts, must not be neglected. Strongly ingrained are the patterns of the three poisons: aggression, attachment and ignorance. If one is to uproot these patterns and to apply the proper antidote for these poisons, the practices of discipline as outlined in the Pratimoksa are necessary tools.

Then we have the Mahayana principles. We must practice living the Mahayana ideals which we have been talking about: the development of the Enlightened Attitude, a concern for the benefit and liberation of all beings. From the material point of view this country is very rich, which means life is busier for everyone than in other places in the world, and people are occupied by all kinds of mundane demands. Because of the overwhelming material concerns that surround one, the speed of life activity increases. One busy situation leads to another, and on and on. You are constantly busy. The truth of cyclic existence is very well manifested in your lives. To remedy this state of affairs one first needs to calm down the mind. Do not be completely absorbed by your surroundings. Develop some degree of stillness. Cultivate simple control of mind, tranquillity. At least some openness of the mind needs to be developed. No matter who you are, everyone needs first to relate to basic meditation practices, meditation practices that are specifically designed to bring about the calmness of the minds of beings who are occupied in such constant, busy involvement. This is the first step in the practice of the Dharma, the Dharma that is so very important for oneself and for others.

If you could see and appreciate the truth of the Dharma, and in the light of that appreciation continue to practice, there is no doubt about your being of tremendous benefit to the people you encounter and to this country especially. There would be no doubt about your ability to save beings from countless problems and conflicts. So the practice of the Dharma must be taken very seriously and done very sincerely. It plays a crucial part in shaping of one's life, and not this life alone but all lifetimes to come. If one is to have temporary as well as ultimate fulfilment of happiness, the incomparable and the only reliable connection is the practice of the Dharma. The notion of perception and perceiver has existed from beginningless time, and it is part of the pattern of clinging. From beginningless time our shortcoming has been to fall back into Samsara. In the past, in the future and in the present, the mind has been in many ways very playful. But where the true nature of the mind is concerned, neither the colour nor the shape nor the location of the mind nor its consciousness can be pinpointed.

The nature of mind goes beyond all such substantialities. This being so, in the meditation practice it is important neither to invite the future nor recollect the past, but to remain in the state of nowness. The nowness of the mind is the practice which should be developed by you all.

[fear-god-shun-evil]

Gain More Knowledge of God by Grasping 3 Principles of Reading the Word of God

As a Christian, we need to go through spiritual devotion and read the words of God daily. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Only God’s word is the truth, the lamp to our feet and the light to our path. His word enables us to have a path to travel when we encounter all kinds of suffering and adversity. It can also become our lives. How should we read God’s words so that we can achieve good results? Next, let’s communicate together about the three principles of practice on how to read God’s words. I hope it will bring some benefit to you.

1. Pray about, read and contemplate God’s words with a focused heart in order to understand the true meaning of God’s words.

God’s every sentence contains His intentions, His demands of us and His disposition. Regardless of what aspect God speaks about, it is all done to attain one aspect of results. After believing in the Lord, though every day I would read God’s words regularly, I usually went through the motions and never tried to figure them out with my heart. I merely understood some of the literal meaning of God’s words but did not seek to understand their true meaning. As a result, after believing in God for several years, I had gained little and only had a small knowledge of God.

One day, a sister told me, “God’s word is an expression of God’s disposition and it is a revelation of God’s life. Every sentence of God’s words contains very profound mysteries. If we don’t have an honest heart, it will be hard for us to understand the true meaning of God’s word. The Lord Jesus said, ‘God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth’ (John 4:24). Therefore, if we want to achieve good results from reading God’s word, we must quiet our hearts to seriously ponder over every sentence of God’s words: What are God’s intentions? Why are His requirements for us like this? What aspect of His disposition does He express within it? … Only by contemplating these questions can we achieve definite results. God’s words say, ‘You cannot leave God’s words behind or turn a deaf ear to them; you must figure them out carefully, repeat your pray-reading, and grasp the life within the words. Don’t engage in futility by wolfing them down without giving yourself time to digest them.’ From this, we can see that when reading God’s words, we need to make a lot more effort to try to figure them out. This is of benefit to our lives. On the contrary, if we are not earnest in pondering God’s words but just give them a cursory read, as if admiring flowers whilst galloping on horseback, we will never be able to understand God’s will and His demands of man.” After hearing this sister’s fellowship, I understood the importance of pondering God’s words. Later when I read God’s words, I began to seriously contemplate over them.

One time, I read the following passage from the Bible, “Truly I say to you, Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). After reading it, I first prayed to God and asked Him to quiet my heart so that I could contemplate the truth in His words with my heart. Then, I started trying to figure out what God meant with this verse: What are God’s intentions and His requirements in these words? Why did He say that we can enter into the kingdom of heaven only when we become as little children? What aspect of God’s disposition does this sentence represent? After reflecting on the passage, I understood that the little children that God was referring to represented honest people. They are pure, open, naive, and innocent; they do not cheat others and do not lie. They are the ones who God delights in. From this I saw that God hopes that we pursue the goal of being honest people. It is one of His requirements for us. It was just like Peter: He sought to be an honest person and to love God and satisfy God. Later, I read the following passage in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life, “Pursuing being an honest person means opening your heart to others, saying what is in your heart and speaking the most honest, genuine and sincere words in your heart. Let’s take a look at the words that the Lord Jesus said to Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonas, love you me?’ Peter was grieved at hearing these words and thought, ‘I have never loved You, so if I say I love You, this is a lie. I can’t lie to the Lord!’ So what did he say? (‘Lord! I once loved the Father in heaven, but I admit I have never loved you.’) Can most people say such honest words? (No.) Most people may ponder the following: I have never loved God in my heart; I only love the heavenly God. But, if I say this, will God be satisfied with it? No, I just can’t say so! But Peter could speak like that—he could say what was in his heart. So, it can be seen that Peter was an honest person. Additionally, he had a heart that revered God. When he didn’t know how to answer, he didn’t speak carelessly. If one day we become as simple as Peter before God, speaking to God from our hearts and opening our hearts to God just like Peter did, only then will we be seekers of the truth and those perfected by God.” I pondered these words and realized: If we are not able to become as little children, we won’t be honest people. As a result, we will never be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven. This is decided by God’s righteous and holy disposition. Through contemplating in this way, I gained some understanding of God’s will and was willing to endeavor in entering into being an honest person.

2. Read God’s words with the objective of finding answers to our real-life problems and spiritual needs.

We read the Bible every day. Sometimes we will encounter the following situation: When we open the Bible, we have no idea what to read. We just flick through the Bible and read what we see. We read the Bible randomly without an objective. Consequently, we do not gain anything from reading like this. Our problems cannot be solved, and our own maturity will be delayed in the end. How then should we read the Bible so that good results can be achieved? It is said in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life, “Here, we reach a very critical issue. When reading God’s words, you should seek the truth to resolve the problems within you. Don’t forget this. Do not only read God’s words without resolving your problems. It’s not okay to not resolve the problems after you discover them when reading God’s words. Do use the truth and God’s words to resolve your own issues. If you read God’s words in this way, you will get good results.” We can see from this that we should have a purpose when we read the words of God. We should consciously find God’s words that are related to the difficulties that we encounter in real life, and then use God’s words to resolve our issues. Doing so is of benefit for our entry into life.

Take me for an example. Some time ago, I noticed some of the people around me had made a lot of money working outside our hometown and bought houses with their new found wealth. They were quite successful in their work or their business. Not only did they acquire a great deal of material wealth, others admired them for their achievements. I was incredibly envious, so I started to put all my heart into earning more money in order to live a better life. When I only focused on making money, I didn’t have the inclination to do church work. Gradually, my heart became more and more distant from God, my prayers didn’t reach God, my spirit became weak and I even felt I had no enthusiasm in believing in God. At this point, I was aware that my situation was quite serious. So, I hurried in front of God to pray and I implored Him to help me overcome this situation. Through my prayers, I came across the following passage in the Bible: “For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” (Luke 9:25) “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. But seek you first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:31–33). From the words of the Lord I understood: If one has not gained life, no matter how much money he has earned, it is all meaningless. It’s just like those people around me who have good material enjoyments. They have earned some money but they do not believe in God. As a result, their hearts feel empty and they still suffer. What they are thinking all day long is how to earn more money. When they make a lot of money, they always guard against others for fear that their money will be taken away by bad people. So, they are wound up tightly in their hearts all the time and unable to enjoy a day of peace. However, as a Christian, I have received the greatest blessing in my life—being able to come before the Lord and worship Him. I don’t have so much material wealth, but I feel certainty, peace and enjoyment within my heart. This is true happiness.

3. Rectify our motivations, focus on using God’s word to understand our deficiencies and corruption and seek a change in our disposition to satisfy God.

God’s words are not for us to admire. Instead, they are expressed aimed in accordance with our nature and needs so that we can gain the truth, know the essence of our corruption by Satan, and then spare no effort in seeking to change our own corrupt disposition, ultimately becoming people who truly obey God and worship God. So, when we read God’s words, we must not focus on equipping ourselves with words and theory to preach to others but should pay attention to using God’s words to reflect on ourselves to see which aspects of us are not after God’s heart. Through this process, we will learn of our own corruption and deficiencies and seek for a change in our life disposition. Only by reading God’s words this way are we able to achieve good results and growth in our lives. I saw the words of God say, “When reading His words, Peter was not focused on understanding doctrines and he was even less focused on obtaining theological knowledge; instead, he was focused on understanding the truth and grasping God’s will, and achieving an understanding of His disposition and His loveliness. He also tried to understand the various corrupt states of man from God’s words, and understand the corrupt nature of man and man’s true shortcomings, achieving all aspects of the demands God makes of man in order to satisfy Him. He had so many correct practices within the words of God; this is most in line with God’s will, and it is man’s best cooperation in his experience of the work of God.” From the words of God I understood that it’s very important to pay attention to our own entry when we read God’s words. Only by comparing God’s words to ourselves to know our corruption and seeking the truth to resolve it can we be in accordance with God’s will. After understanding this, I wanted to practice reading the word of God in this manner.

One morning, when reading the Bible I saw the Lord Jesus’ words saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not you after their works: for they say, and do not” (Matthew 23:2–3). At first, I merely compared the Pharisees to these words, thinking that God was exposing that the Pharisees did not practice what they preached. For instance, they spoke pleasant-sounding words before the Jewish commoners. They taught them that they ought to be faithful to God and worship God since they believed in God. But indeed they brought the Jewish commoners before themselves; they didn’t worship God any longer and were actually just focused on their own businesses. However, after a while, I suddenly thought that when reading God’s words we should also focus on examining whether these problems exist in us. What’s more, here the Lord specifically reminded us not to emulate the actions of the Pharisees. Thus, from God’s words, I was able to reflect on whether I had these corruptions. Whilst reflecting on this, I thought that when giving sermons to the brothers and sisters and gathering with them, I always taught them that since we believed in God, we should exalt and bear witness to God, honor God as great and shouldn’t exalt or show off ourselves. But meanwhile, I always boasted in front of them how much work I had done, how much I had suffered and that I had never left the Lord even when I encountered tribulation. Because of this, some brothers and sisters admired and looked up to me. Wasn’t I exalting and showing off myself? This showed that I just paid lip service but did not practice. After realizing this I sincerely prayed to the Lord, asked Him to forgive my sins, lead me and guide me so that I would not say one thing and do another like the Pharisees anymore and could be a person who practiced what he preached. From this we can see, only by pondering God’s words more, comparing ourselves to God’s words, knowing our corrupt dispositions and reflecting on which aspects of us are still not compatible with God can we gain true knowledge of ourselves, changes in our disposition and be capable of fearing God and shunning evil.

Along with adhering to the three principles mentioned above, we should also pray to God more to obtain more enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit. I believe that as long as we practice and enter into these principles, we will surely reap more and more in reading God’s words.

Thanks be to God! All the glory be to God!

[tawakkull]

ISLAM 101: Spirituality in Islam: Part 64

Tasawwuf is To Reach Perfectıon Through The Qur’an And The Sunnah

Part 4

In that case, to claim membership to the way of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi without acting in accordance with the rulings of the shari’ah is an offense to his precious spirit.

On the other hand, some tariqahs enter into financial activities with what seems at first to be good intentions in truth. However, most of them end up becoming business organizations remote from taqwa and yielding to financial and material benefits. This is then a patent example of using religion as a tool to acquire the benefits of this world. The tariqah then, which is, in reality, the door to selflessness and nothingness, turns into a wheel of benefit that spins with the spokes of wealth and plenty.

In some tariqahs, sensitivity towards the permissible (halal) and the prohibited (haram) takes a back seat and with such empty expressions as ‘my heart is pure’, many rulings of the shari’ah are compromised, such as the mixing of men and women without proper Islamic principles and unislamic dress.

As if when one’s heart is pure one does not need to abide by the limits of the halal and the haram and credence is given to the nafs revealing a false under- standing.

They thus ignore the fact that our greatest guide, the prophet Muhammad (saw), who had the purest heart of all, was a unique example for his community in his worship, transactions with others, his character, and in abiding by the halal and the haram, which is the greatest problem of our own times in particular.

True tasawwuf, within the limits of the ahl al sunnah wa al jama’ah, is the effort to merge the outer and inner aspects of the life principles of the prophet Muhammad (saw).

Even though the Messenger of Allah was at the peak of spiritual perfection he carried out his duties of worship with great care and meticulousness till his last breath, and so the believer, who should take him as their example, is responsible for carrying out these duties, whatever his spiritual rank, station, way or tariq.

The following event which is related by Abdulqa- dir Gilani illustrates this matter clearly:

‘One day I saw a light appear before my eyes and encompass the entire horizon. Wondering what it was I heard a voice come from the light:

‘O Abdulqadir, I am your Lord! I am so pleased with the righteous deeds that you have done till this day that I have made lawful for you what was prohibited’.

As soon as the voice stopped I knew that Satan- may he be cursed- was behind it and I said:

‘Away with you o cursed one! The light you have shown me is eternal darkness’. Satan responded:

‘Once again you have escaped me through the wisdom and insight your Lord has bestowed upon you! Whereas I have misguided hundreds of people in this way’. He then went away.

I raised my hands up to the heavens and thanked Almighty Allah in the awareness and comprehension that this was a bounty from him’

Someone from the gathering asked:

‘How did you know it was Satan?’ He replied:

‘From his saying that I have made lawful for you what was prohibited’.

In truth, if there were ever to be a servant of Allah who would be exempted from abiding by the lawful and the prohibited due to his deeds and spiritual rank, that would be, above all else, the prophet Muhammad (saw). Since he was not even given such a concession (distinction) then certainly no one else could be.

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

As the summer drew to a close, Labor Day attained almost mythic status for followers of the Mueller investigation. Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani repeatedly claimed that the Mueller probe was poised to wrap up by the beginning of September, while others breathlessly predicted that indictments of Roger Stone and even Donald Trump Jr. were imminent.

Instead, none of that happened. And now Mueller-watchers may have to wait even longer to learn what the special counsel investigation has in store. With the midterm elections less than 60 days away, some observers have predicted that Mueller will refrain from taking steps that could affect the outcome — although as former FBI director James Comey can attest, there’s no ironclad rule forbidding Department of Justice officials from taking action, even on the eve of an election.

As we enter this possible quiet period, however, it’s a good time to take stock of what Mueller has accomplished so far, and what questions are left unanswered.

The special counsel investigation tends to be described as a single, sprawling entity, with many details still in shadow. But there are several distinct tracks or areas of focus within the investigation that Mueller is pursuing simultaneously. Sketching out the trajectory of these tracks can help illuminate the special counsel’s strategy so far — and where it might go next. Legal experts say the special counsel is closing in on the parts of the probe that have the biggest impact for Trump and the people in his orbit.

Pre-existing illegal activity by Trump associates

So far, the longest-running element of the Mueller investigation — the indictment and trials of former campaign Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for financial crimes and foreign lobbying violations — is the thread that has the fewest obvious connections to the president. Manafort was already under surveillance by the FBI in connection with these crimes when he was working for the Trump campaign, and many of the crimes for which he was indicted took place before 2016.

Manafort was found guilty on eight counts, and his conviction could prove relevant for other parts of the investigation if he provides information about coordination between Trump campaign officials and Russian agents in 2016 in exchange for a more favorable sentence. But Lisa Griffin, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at Duke University, said the “window is closing” for that kind of cooperation. According to some reports, Manafort sought a plea deal for his second trial, which could have led to cooperation, but the talks broke down.

Russian coordination with the Trump campaign

The splashiest moments of the Mueller investigation so far have been the two sprawling sets of charges issued by the special counsel’s office against 25 Russian nationals and three Russian businesses. These documents allege that the Russians engaged in a complex, yearslong cyber-influence and hacking campaign with the explicit intent of undermining Hillary Clinton and supporting Trump in the 2016 election.

These individuals and businesses are highly unlikely to see the inside of a U.S. courtroom. But the indictments are important because they offer detailed evidence that Russians were actively working to buoy Trump’s candidacy, despite the president’s protestations to the contrary, and that they did it by sowing discord, spreading misinformation, and leaking damaging hacked materials about his opponent.

The charging documents pointedly stopped short of saying that the Russian efforts tipped the election to Trump, or that Trump campaign officials knowingly coordinated with the Russian agents. Legal experts, however, say that it’s entirely possible that the indictments of the Russians are just the foundation for future charges against Americans who may have solicited or participated in the circulation of the hacked materials or offered favorable treatment on issues like sanctions in exchange.1

The question is whether these Americans — if they exist and are charged — were affiliated with the Trump campaign and how close they are to the president. One frequently discussed possibility is that Roger Stone, an informal Trump advisor who has been under scrutiny for some time because of his murky links to people responsible for hacking and leaking the Democrats’ emails, will be indicted.

Stone, who formally cut ties with Trump in 2015, was a relatively minor figure in the president’s campaign. But the indictment of anyone affiliated with the president for crimes related to election interference could mark a turning point in the investigation, which so far hasn’t addressed the question of whether Americans knowingly worked with Russians to influence the outcome of the election. And it’s still possible that higher-level members of the Trump campaign — even the president or his children — could eventually be implicated.

Obstruction of justice

Mueller’s reported probe into potential obstruction of justice has the most obvious implications for the president, although there have yet to be any charges that are directly linked to obstruction. Some experts, like Griffin, say that from a purely legal standpoint, there is plenty of publicly available evidence that Trump attempted to obstruct law enforcement in their investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election — whether it was through his firing of former FBI director Comey (which the president himself said was related to “this Russia thing”) or tweets calling on high-level officials in the Department of Justice to end Mueller’s probe. That’s in addition to any other evidence Mueller may have gathered from Trump administration insiders like former White House counsel Donald McGahn.

“This part of the investigation should be easy for Mueller — it’s not nearly as complex or labor-intensive as unraveling what was happening with that Russian troll farm,” said Samuel Buell, a professor at Duke Law School and a lead prosecutor on the Enron case.

In fact, collecting evidence to support an obstruction case against Trump might actually be a less knotty problem for Mueller than determining whether he can win the case in court. Some are skeptical about whether Trump’s threatening tweets can actually constitute criminal behavior. And then there’s the question of whether Mueller would actually charge the president with obstruction of justice. It’s not clear, for example, whether it’s even possible to charge a sitting president with a crime.

But Mueller can also include evidence of obstruction in his ultimate report to the Department of Justice — which could be fodder for Congress to bring impeachment charges.

Other crimes committed during the investigation

For months, Trump has been toying with the idea of sitting down for a formal interview with Mueller. Buell says that he doesn’t expect this to happen. There’s simply too much danger that the president would lie under oath.

“In any moderately complex federal investigation, you always end up with some people who get in trouble for lying,” he said. So far, several of the people charged in Mueller’s investigation have already fallen into this category, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Dutch attorney Alexander van der Zwaan, and onetime Trump aide George Papadapoulos. Some of these defendants — like Flynn — are cooperating with investigators in other aspects of the investigation, but others, like van der Zwaan, appear to have been charged with perjury or making false statements simply to signal that lying to investigators carries consequences.

Mueller is reportedly allowing Trump to submit written answers to questions about whether his campaign coordinated with Russia to interfere with the election, which poses fewer risks. But that doesn’t mean Mueller won’t still push for an interview on questions related to obstruction. But will he subpoena Trump to appear before the grand jury if the president doesn’t agree to a voluntary interview? Whether a president can be subpoenaed in a criminal case is also unclear — and the inevitable legal battle that would ensue could carry more risks than benefits for the special counsel. (Brett Kavanaugh was asked about this very issue during his confirmation hearings Wednesday and refused to comment.) But refusing a subpoena could also play badly for the president, from both a political and legal perspective — even potentially forcing him to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

Ironically, the most concrete legal threat to Trump so far has come from outside the Mueller investigation. In August, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to making an illegal campaign contribution at the direction of the president. The charges against Cohen were brought by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, who may be sharing information with Mueller but are operating independently from the special counsel.

Former prosecutors say it’s not surprising that Mueller is proceeding slowly and carefully when it comes to the parts of the investigation that have the biggest implications for the president. “This case is enormously complex,” Griffin said. “It involves international actors, complicated financial dealings, surreptitious communications — cases like this take a long time to develop under normal circumstances. And Mueller is operating under tremendous scrutiny. He’s going to want to build a rock-solid foundation before making any big moves.”

But whenever they occur, Mueller’s next announcement or round of charges could turn threats to the president that have so far been hypothetical into something very real.

[sheminecrafts]

Heimdal pulls CO2 and cement-making materials out of seawater using renewable energy

One of the consequences of rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere is that levels also rise proportionately in the ocean, harming wildlife and changing ecosystems. Heimdal is a startup working to pull that CO2 back out at scale using renewable energy and producing carbon-negative industrial materials, including limestone for making concrete, in the process, and it has attracted significant funding even at its very early stage.

If the concrete aspect seems like a bit of a non sequitur, consider two facts: concrete manufacturing is estimated to produce as much as eight percent all greenhouse gas emissions, and seawater is full of minerals used to make it. You probably wouldn’t make this connection unless you were in some related industry or discipline, but Heimdal founders Erik Millar and Marcus Lima did while they were working in their respective masters programs at Oxford. “We came out and did this straight away,” he said.

They both firmly believe that climate change is an existential threat to humanity, but were disappointed at the lack of permanent solutions to its many and various consequences across the globe. Carbon capture, Millar noted, is frequently a circular process, meaning it is captured only to be used and emitted again. Better than producing new carbons, sure, but why aren’t there more ways to permanently take them out of the ecosystem?

The two founders envisioned a new linear process that takes nothing but electricity and CO2-heavy seawater and produces useful materials that permanently sequester the gas. Of course, if it was as easy that, everyone would already be doing it.

Image Credits: Heimdal

“The carbon markets to make this economically viable have only just been formed,” said Millar. And the cost of energy has dropped through the floor as huge solar and wind installations have overturned decades-old power economies. With carbon credits (the market for which I will not be exploring, but suffice it to say it is an enabler) and cheap power come new business models, and Heimdal’s is one of them.

The Heimdal process, which has been demonstrated at lab scale (think terrariums instead of thousand-gallon tanks), is roughly as follows. First the seawater is alkalinized, shifting its pH up and allowing the isolation of some gaseous hydrogen, chlorine, and a hydroxide sorbent. This is mixed with a separate stream of seawater, causing the precipitation of calcium, magnesium, and sodium minerals and reducing the saturation of CO2 in the water — allowing it to absorb more from the atmosphere when it is returned to the sea. (I was shown an image of the small-scale prototype facility but, citing pending patents, Heimdal declined to provide the photo for publication.)

Image Credits: Heimdal

So from seawater and electricity, they produce hydrogen and chlorine gas, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Carbonate, and Magnesium Carbonate, and in the process sequester a great deal of dissolved CO2.

For every kiloton of seawater, one ton of CO2 is isolated, and two tons of the carbonates, each of which has an industrial use. MgCO3 and Na2CO3 are used in, among other things, glass manufacturing, but it’s CaCO3, or limestone, that has the biggest potential impact.

As a major component of the cement-making process, limestone is always in great demand. But current methods for supplying it are huge sources of atmospheric carbon. All over the world industries are investing in carbon reduction strategies, and while purely financial offsets are common, moving forward the preferred alternative will likely be actually carbon-negative processes.

To further stack the deck in its favor, Heimdal is looking to work with desalination plants, which are common around the world where fresh water is scarce but seawater and energy are abundant, for example the coasts of California and Texas in the U.S., and many other areas globally, but especially where deserts meet the sea, like in the MENA region.

Desalination produces fresh water and proportionately saltier brine, which generally has to be treated, as to simply pour it back into the ocean can throw the local ecosystem out of balance. But what if there were, say, a mineral-collecting process between the plant and the sea? Heimdal gets the benefit of more minerals per ton of water, and the desalination plant has an effective way of handling its salty byproduct.

“Heimdal’s ability to use brine effluent to produce carbon-neutral cement solves two problems at once,” said Yishan Wong, former Reddit CEO, now CEO of Terraformation and individually an investor in Heimdal. “It creates a scalable source of carbon-neutral cement, and converts the brine effluent of desalination into a useful economic product. Being able to scale this together is game-changing on multiple levels.”

Terraformation gets $30M to fight climate change with rapid reforesting

Terraformation is a big proponent of solar desalination, and Heimdal fits right into that equation; the two are working on an official partnership that should be announced shortly. Meanwhile a carbon-negative source for limestone is something cement makers will buy every gram of in their efforts to decarbonize.

Wong points out that the primary cost of Heimdal’s business, beyond the initial ones of buying tanks, pumps, and so on, is that of solar energy. That’s been trending downwards for years and with huge sums being invested regularly there’s no reason to think that the cost won’t continue to drop. And profit per ton of CO2 captured — already around 75 percent of over $500-$600 in revenue — could also grow with scale and efficiency.

Millar said that the price of their limestone is, when government incentives and subsidies are included, already at price parity with industry norms. But as energy costs drop and scales rise, the ratio will grow more attractive. It’s also nice that their product is indistinguishable from “natural” limestone. “We don’t require any retrofitting for the concrete providers — they just buy our synthetic calcium carbonate rather than buy it from mining companies,” he explained.

All in all it seems to make for a promising investment, and though Heimdal has not yet made its public debut (that would be forthcoming at Y Combinator’s Summer 2021 Demo Day) it has attracted a $6.4 million seed round. The participating investors are Liquid2 Ventures, Apollo Projects, Soma Capital, Marc Benioff, Broom Ventures, Metaplanet, Cathexis Ventures, and as mentioned above, Yishan Wong.

Heimdal has already signed LOIs with several large cement and glass manufacturers, and is planning its first pilot facility at a U.S. desalination plant. After providing test products to its partners on the scale of tens of tons, they plan to enter commercial production in 2023.

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[orbemnews]

Wall Street Rebels Against Exxon The little Engine … Exxon Mobil suffered a stunning loss at its annual shareholder meeting yesterday, as a small new activist investor focused on climate change, Engine No. 1, won at least two seats on its 12-member board. To corporate America, the upset was a clear sign that company boards and leaders need to pay attention to environmental, social and governance issues (known as E.S.G.) — or suffer rebukes. A big splash for a tiny fund. Exxon was the first activist campaign for Engine No. 1, which was founded last year by the energy and tech investor Chris James. Its head of active engagement is Charlie Penner, a veteran hedge fund executive who helped lead campaigns against companies like Apple while at Jana Partners. It was a victory long in the making. Engine No. 1 began agitating against the oil giant in December, calling on the company to diversify away from fossil fuels and reduce its carbon emissions. But it began work on the campaign last March, courting large investors like public pension funds that held far larger stakes in Exxon, and thus had more sway. That’s how it parlayed a stake of just 0.02 percent into seats on the oil giant’s board — a truly remarkable feat. Exxon’s shares rose 1.2 percent yesterday. Sources with knowledge of the matter told DealBook that the fund was betting on a confluence of events, including longstanding investor dissatisfaction with Exxon’s corporate governance and a growing appreciation on Wall Street for E.S.G. In a note explaining why it backed three of Engine No. 1’s board candidates, BlackRock — which owns nearly 7 percent of Exxon — said the company’s directors “need to further assess the company’s strategy and board expertise against the possibility that demand for fossil fuels may decline rapidly in the coming decades.” Exxon largely played down Engine No. 1’s concerns, and pressured the firm to drop its challenge after a much bigger hedge fund, D.E. Shaw, called off a campaign. But Engine No. 1 persisted, and also benefited from timing: It began its campaign while oil prices were still depressed by the pandemic. Had oil not rebounded in recent months, Engine No. 1 executives believe, all four of its directors might have been elected. Big Oil is facing a reckoning. A Dutch court ruled yesterday that Royal Dutch Shell must speed up its efforts to cut its carbon emissions. And Chevron shareholders backed a proposal to compel the company to help customers reduce their own emissions. One question we have: Is Darren Woods, Exxon’s C.E.O., who pushed back forcefully against Engine No. 1, now at risk of losing his job? HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING The Justice Department opens an inquiry into Archegos. Prosecutors have asked some of the fund’s lenders for information about its meltdown, Bloomberg reports. The rare blood clots associated with Covid-19 vaccines may have a fixable explanation. German scientists theorize that a feature of the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson shots, one they say could be modified, may be responsible. Russia puts pressure on U.S. tech giants. Moscow’s internet regulator now regularly demands that Facebook, Google and Twitter comply with its content restrictions and data storage requirements, or risk losing access to Russian users. It’s the latest instance of governments squeezing Silicon Valley companies. Ford pours billions more into electric vehicles. The company will increase spending on the technology by a third, to $30 billion. It now expects 40 percent of the vehicles it produces worldwide to be electric by 2030. Purdue Pharma’s restructuring plan is set for a vote. The judge overseeing the OxyContin maker’s bankruptcy case said he would let the company’s proposal — in which it would become a nonprofit, and both it and its founding Sackler family would be shielded from future legal liability — be voted on by 614,000 claimants. A culture of fear at the Gateses’ investment firm Bill Gates’s longtime money manager, Michael Larson, bullied co-workers, made sexually inappropriate comments and engaged in a broad pattern of inappropriate workplace behavior, an investigation by The Times found. For the past 27 years, Larson has run Cascade Investment, also sometimes known as Bill and Melinda Gates Investments (B.M.G.I.), which manages the Gateses’ enormous fortune. Among The Times’s findings: Larson made inappropriate comments about female employees. At a work party in the mid-2000s, he asked male employees which of three female colleagues they would want to have sex with. In another case, he asked an employee who was on a Weight Watchers program, “Are you losing weight for me?” Larson denied making any of the comments. A racist comment from Larson led to an internal investigation. When a Black employee mentioned on Election Day that she had not had to wait in line to vote, Larson replied, “But you live in the ghetto, and everybody knows that Black people don’t vote.” A spokesman for Larson, Chris Giglio, denied that he made the remark. At least one employee reported it to human resources, resulting in an internal investigation. Larson was known for “Larson bombs.” In emails, he sometimes called colleagues “stupid” or their work “garbage.” Some employees were moved to different floors in order to put distance between them and him. “Years ago, earlier in my career, I used harsh language that I would not use today,” Larson said. “I regret this greatly but have done a lot of work to change.” “Any issue raised over the company’s history has been taken seriously and resolved appropriately,” said Bridgitt Arnold, a spokeswoman for Bill Gates. Courtney Wade, a spokeswoman for Melinda French Gates, said, “Melinda unequivocally condemns disrespectful and inappropriate conduct in the workplace. She was unaware of most of these allegations given her lack of ownership of and control over B.M.G.I.” Today in Business Updated  May 26, 2021, 4:06 p.m. ET “During his tenure, Mr. Larson has managed over 380 people, and there have been fewer than five complaints related to him in total,” said Giglio, Larson’s spokesman. “Any complaint was investigated and treated seriously and fully examined, and none merited Mr. Larson’s dismissal.” Overdraft math lessons Yesterday, the Senate Banking Committee held a three-hour hearing with C.E.O.s from the country’s six biggest banks. It lacked much of the heat of sessions in the aftermath of the financial crisis, when Congress routinely castigated Wall Street chiefs. (The C.E.O.s gather again today for a hearing in the House.) The most contentious moment came when Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase felt the wrath of Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts. Warren was a teacher before entering politics; she revealed her roots when she took Dimon and others to task for charging overdraft fees during the pandemic. The four biggest banks took $4 billion in overdraft fees from customers last year, Warren said. She singled out Dimon, asking him how much his bank, the nation’s largest, collected in 2020. “I think your numbers are totally inaccurate,” he countered. Dimon noted that JPMorgan waived fees upon request, didn’t go into overdraft at the Fed (which had waived its fees for banks), and provided $120 million in Covid relief. The senator kept pressing and finally provided the figure herself: “It’s $1.463 billion dollars.” “I did the math for you,” Warren said, calling their claims about stepping up during the pandemic “about $4 billion dollars’ worth of baloney.” When challenged to return the fees, none agreed. She asked Dimon directly twice, and he said “no” twice. Amazon, MGM and the streaming wars Amazon said yesterday that it would acquire the 97-year-old film and television studio MGM for $8.45 billion — about 40 percent more than what other potential buyers, including Apple and Comcast, were willing to pay. The deal reportedly made MGM’s owner, the hedge fund Anchorage Capital, a $2 billion profit. DealBook talked with Brooks Barnes, a reporter at The Times who covers Hollywood, about why Amazon was willing to pay so much and what this means for the streaming wars. Are Amazon’s motives different from other streaming platforms’? Amazon is mostly in the Prime membership business, whereas Netflix wants to sell subscriptions purely to its TV and movies. If you’re Amazon, you want to bolster Prime Video to make people even happier to pay for a Prime membership. Is there a risk that regulators won’t allow the deal? The regulatory scrutiny will be considerable. Representative Ken Buck and Senator Amy Klobuchar, both of whom have important antitrust roles, immediately voiced concern because Amazon is Amazon. But the deal is unlikely to be scuttled because MGM is relatively small and so is Amazon Studios. What does the acquisition mean for the streaming wars? If you’re Apple, you’re probably looking around and thinking, well, we don’t have a library, we don’t have a big franchise of our own. Do we need to go out and buy? People think that it will increase the pressure on other streaming services to bulk up. And that’s becoming harder, right? It’s becoming harder, which is partly, I’m sure, how Amazon justified some of the price. Disney isn’t for sale. Sony has repeatedly said its TV and movie operation is not for sale. It’s also becoming harder in part because the corporate sibling studios are not licensing out as much — they’re supplying their own streaming services. More takes on the deal: Jason Hirschhorn, a former MGM board member, has been thinking out loud on Twitter about the deal, including the intriguing possibility that Amazon could buy out the family that controls MGM’s James Bond franchise, gaining more freedom to expand the Bond “universe.” Brad Stone, the author of the new book “Amazon Unbound,” shared Jeff Bezos’s 12 ingredients for hit shows. MGM owns the rights to “The Apprentice,” including unaired material that some claim contains unflattering footage of the reality show’s former host, Donald Trump. The tapes’ contractual status is unclear, but the notion that they might belong to Bezos, a frequent target of Trump’s ire when he was president, has set tongues wagging. THE SPEED READ Deals HSBC plans to sell or close most of its U.S. retail branches, as it focuses on Asia. (WSJ) Investors in Bill Ackman’s $5 billion SPAC are increasingly worried that it won’t strike a deal. (Institutional Investor) Politics and policy How Covax, the multibillion-dollar global vaccination program backed by governments and drug makers, ran aground. (WSJ) Tech Best of the rest A record number of American workers tested positive for marijuana last year. (Insider) The white woman who called police on a Black bird-watcher in Central Park last year sued her former employer, Franklin Templeton, for firing her over the incident. (NYT) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #Exxon #rebels #Street #Wall

[michaelandy101-blog]

Save Time With Agile E-mail Advertising: All the pieces You Want To Know

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/save-time-with-agile-email-marketing-everything-you-need-to-know/

Save Time With Agile E-mail Advertising: All the pieces You Want To Know

“Hey, would you mind sending a follow-up email?” 

You are already barely maintaining together with your workload once you get the dreaded, last-minute electronic mail request.

With all the things else in your plate, you now must pause to get that second electronic mail out the door, after which play catch-up with all the things else in your plate… 

Sound acquainted? 

We all know you are continuously being requested to ship extra emails with much less assets.

And typically, it is unavoidable. When your small business’ and subscribers’ wants change, you have to be capable of adapt rapidly to remain related or danger your electronic mail marketing program struggling.

However that does not imply it needs to be so tough. 

Enter agile email marketing.

Right here, let’s break down what agile electronic mail marketing means, why it issues, and the way you should utilize it to scale and ship simpler emails sooner — with out breaking a sweat.

What’s agile electronic mail marketing, anyway?

Agile electronic mail marketing is a strategy to be versatile and adapt to alter by specializing in information and your subscribers’ wants whereas utilizing a modular course of so you possibly can ship efficient emails sooner.

Earlier than diving deeper into agile electronic mail marketing, we first have to say the agile methodology.

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The agile methodology is a challenge administration course of that began in software program improvement, giving groups the flexibleness to adapt and reply to modifications rapidly. This manner, groups may continuously enhance and innovate, staying on high of their customers’ wants and beating their competitors to market.

There are lots of methods this agility is feasible, however the three issues we stock over into agile electronic mail marketing are: 

Specializing in buyer wants

Making data-driven selections

Collaborating throughout groups

So whereas agile electronic mail marketing does not require utilizing the agile methodology, it takes its essence to create a extra environment friendly strategy to ship emails.

In different phrases, agile electronic mail marketing helps you prioritize your emails, will get all stakeholders on the identical web page, and maximizes your groups and assets to streamline your manufacturing course of. With teamwork and a transparent understanding of objectives, you will not bat an eye fixed at last-minute electronic mail sends or altering priorities.

Sound too good to be true?

Agile electronic mail marketing does require a shift in mindset — as a substitute of planning the large campaigns you are used to, you will must plan for iterative change in a test-and-learn setting.

For instance, as a substitute of mapping out and creating all of the emails in your total welcome or onboarding journey, begin small with solely the primary electronic mail. Do some A/B testing to determine what your viewers is most receptive to, optimize, and use what you study to proceed constructing out the remainder of your nurture journey — one electronic mail at a time. 

Your objective is progress, not perfection. However don’t be concerned, this shift is not all or nothing. Even the smallest steps towards altering how you consider emails and the workflow to grow to be agile can have big payoffs, as I am going to clarify subsequent.

Why Being Agile is Crucial to Success

Positive, electronic mail professionals might seem to be magicians, however emails aren’t executed with the wave of a wand. There’s loads that goes on below the hood. 52% of marketers spend two weeks or more to finish a single electronic mail from conception to hitting the ship button.

Supply: Litmus’ 2020 State of Email Workflows

To not point out, 55% of entrepreneurs are juggling at the least six emails at a time. So it is by no means “just” another electronic mail.

The standard electronic mail marketing course of makes use of linear and interdependent steps. You’ll be able to’t transfer ahead with out finishing the step earlier than. For instance, you should write copy earlier than creating imagery, or have design executed earlier than coding the e-mail.

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Have a look at that course of! It is no surprise it might take a very long time to create and ship an electronic mail.

However this tempo can damage your electronic mail marketing program — or worse, your model fame. Issues can change right away … Suppose pure disasters, a well being disaster, the socio-political local weather, guidelines and rules, and so forth. If you cannot adapt, your electronic mail marketing campaign might fall flat and even offend and switch away your subscribers. 

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Empathy is essential, and being agile retains you attuned to your subscribers’ wants so you possibly can pivot at a second’s discover — and hold your clients for the long-haul. This additionally offers your work function. 

You understand you are all the time delivering the best worth work as a substitute of falling into the lure of the sunk price fallacy: persevering with work that is not related or value it anymore merely due to what you have already invested in it. Your work is not about you, it is about your subscribers!

Even when you’re in no rush, in case your competitor is simply in the future forward of you, that may put you at a major drawback. An agile electronic mail marketing workflow offers you better velocity to market which might be simply the sting you want for marketing campaign success.

How you can Make Your E-mail Workflow Agile

So how do you go from a linear electronic mail workflow to an agile one?

You will first want to begin together with your viewers and put them on the middle of your campaigns, make data-driven selections, and collaborate throughout roles and groups.

With these tenets in thoughts, you possibly can start constructing a brand new workflow that enables many elements of your electronic mail marketing course of to be both automated or executed in tandem, as proven on this agile electronic mail workflow chart:

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Prepared? Let’s dive into how one can go agile.

1. Get your staff and instruments in place.

Essential to the success of agile electronic mail marketing is your folks and your instruments. With out this robust basis, you will extra possible face challenges with adoption.

Make an evaluation of the talents and instruments wanted so you already know who to faucet to hitch you and how one can get emails executed collectively.

Cross-Staff Collaboration

One of many cornerstones of agile electronic mail marketing is cross-team collaboration, which suggests benefiting from all kinds of present roles and expertise already inside your organization to create and ship emails.

That is proper: You do not have to rent new folks or have a big, devoted electronic mail staff. As a substitute, by leveraging different folks’s strengths and, if wanted, operating by means of electronic mail marketing greatest practices to hone their craft particularly for electronic mail, you possibly can work effectively as a staff. Be sure you talk your wants and get everybody on board, first!

The talents you want will rely in your electronic mail marketing program, however the primary ones to think about are:

Technique

Copywriting

Design

Improvement

Operations

Evaluation

In a single situation, as an example, you would possibly wish to pull folks out of your content material and web site groups to assist with copywriting, design, and improvement.

Instruments and Expertise

The second a part of an agile electronic mail marketing basis is the instruments.

Make an evaluation of your present expertise and evaluation the remainder of the agile electronic mail workflow steps beneath to see the place your gaps are. Do you’ve gotten what you should ship emails, simplify and automate steps in your course of, and collaborate successfully throughout groups?

On the very least, you want an electronic mail marketing instrument and a collaboration instrument.

2. Align on electronic mail technique.

Together with your staff and instruments in place, you should be certain that everybody — together with reviewers and approvers — is on the identical web page, setting your staff up for achievement as you all work towards a standard objective. 

A strong technique ensures copy, design, and improvement are aligned. With out alignment, there might be miscommunication and confusion. And this may gradual you down or throw your electronic mail off monitor, leading to much more work and time wasted. Not agile in any respect.

If placing collectively an electronic mail marketing transient stresses you out, know that it does not must be difficult or intensive. So long as you’ve gotten these fundamentals, you are golden:

Outline your electronic mail’s function, objective, and viewers.

Outline your content material technique for getting opens and clicks.

Outline the hierarchy of your electronic mail’s copy and pictures.

Bear in mind the important thing to being agile is your subscribers. When their wants intersect with your small business’ wants, you get… magic.

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In the event you discover that your electronic mail does not meet your subscribers’ wants, contemplate altering your electronic mail — or not sending it in any respect.

Steady enchancment is crucial to being agile, and you’ll re-center your electronic mail round your subscribers by studying from the previous and current to tell your future technique.

You’ll be able to extract insights from trade information or your electronic mail marketing instruments to establish design enchancment alternatives or enhance segmentation, focusing on, and personalization.

Now that everybody’s expectations are set and in sync, electronic mail manufacturing can start.

three. Write, design, and construct on the identical time.

The time it takes to jot down, design, and construct an electronic mail provides up in a linear course of. Once they’re every executed in tandem, it is like reducing manufacturing time by over 50%.

The key? Standardized electronic mail design and a visible electronic mail editor.

Creating each electronic mail from scratch is a large waste of time. And if you wish to guarantee model consistency and scale back errors, standardized emails are the way in which to go.

There are a number of methods of doing this, so as of complexity:

Snippets: reusable traces of code for generally used components like HTML buttons or hyperlinks so you do not have to code the identical factor time and again.

Partials: reusable traces of code for globally-used content material blocks like your header and footer so any updates made to them are mechanically utilized throughout each electronic mail.

Templates: reusable coded emails with a set structure on which to easily add or exchange copy, pictures, and hyperlinks.

Design techniques: a set of reusable electronic mail elements with a information on how they are often blended and matched to create extra versatile — but nonetheless standardized — electronic mail designs.

This does not imply it’s a must to accept boring, ho-hum designs. You’ll be able to nonetheless be artistic in your imagery and in how totally different reusable elements come collectively to create an electronic mail.

Standardized electronic mail design and improvement not solely frees up your time for innovation, but additionally units the stage for having the ability to write, design, and construct on the identical time inside a visible electronic mail editor.

As soon as a template has been defined for your email, then you have already got the specs for the copy that must be written and the pictures that should be created. Then, it is a matter of plugging them into your electronic mail template. 

Loaded together with your electronic mail snippets, partials, and/or template, a visible electronic mail editor instrument can then empower everybody to work on their a part of the manufacturing course of on the identical time and collaborate alongside the way in which.

Pictures might be created primarily based on the content material define in your electronic mail marketing transient from step two, whereas the copy is being written. Copy may even be written inside your visible electronic mail editor to assist guarantee it will match contained in the design, making copy edits a breeze.

Even when you do not have a visible electronic mail editor, improvement can start with placeholder pictures and textual content. With everybody on the identical web page on technique, there is not any want to attend for design and replica first.

four. Accumulate suggestions in a single place.

With electronic mail technique alignment throughout all stakeholders, the evaluation course of must be much less painful. Nonetheless, juggling suggestions might be tough coming from totally different folks throughout totally different instruments. What if there are contradicting feedback? Otherwise you miss an vital piece of suggestions altogether?

This time-saving tip is straightforward: Consolidate everybody’s suggestions in a single place. 

Cease sending particular person screenshots or check emails. Share one electronic mail check with stakeholders in a single location so everybody’s collaborating collectively. 

First, you will must seize the URL within the “view in browser” or “view online” hyperlink of your electronic mail. You can too create a web-based model of your electronic mail to share. The vital factor is that you’ve an electronic mail the place folks can check hyperlinks and interactive components.

Then, decide a single spot — not an electronic mail thread — to share your electronic mail for suggestions. This might be as a part of a gaggle message in your communication instrument or as a single activity in your challenge administration instrument.

You could possibly accumulate suggestions in those self same locations. Otherwise you would possibly discover it sooner and simpler to create a separate spreadsheet to trace suggestions, conversations on particular feedback, in addition to progress on implementing suggestions.

The important thing factor is that each one reviewers and approvers are collectively and may see one another’s suggestions.

There are additionally instruments made particularly for collaboration the place you can’t solely share a stay model of your electronic mail, but additionally go away suggestions instantly on it, examine off when modifications are made, and monitor approvals.

5. Analyze & share insights.

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After your electronic mail is shipped, see the way it’s performing so you possibly can evolve to fulfill your subscribers’ wants. Within the agile methodology world, you would possibly contemplate this the top of a dash, working in small increments to enhance the success of your emails.

The electronic mail marketing metrics you must have a look at relies on your objective. Your electronic mail marketing instruments will present at the least the fundamentals — opens, clicks, and unsubscribes — and will even present deeper engagement-level metrics like how lengthy somebody spent studying your electronic mail (learn price) or how many individuals shared your electronic mail (ahead price).

In the event you’re tempted to skip this step, do not. 

E-mail evaluation tends to be what folks skip in the event that they’re brief on time. Onto the following electronic mail, proper? In the long term, although, this hurts your electronic mail marketing program.

It could be laborious to consider, however analyzing your emails will truly prevent time. It is what makes agile electronic mail marketing work within the first place. In the event you keep in mind, I discussed that being agile depends on information, whether or not that is inside (e.g. electronic mail efficiency) or exterior (e.g. the information).

Information is how one can hold a pulse in your subscribers’ preferences, and the way these preferences would possibly change over time.

It offers you the facility to say no to the emails that do not matter. In any other case, you are capturing at the hours of darkness and losing time on emails your subscribers do not care about. And this impacts your organization’s model fame, and backside line.

Remaining Ideas on Going Agile

Bear in mind, even attaining some agility in your electronic mail workflow has its rewards, like giving your staff a while again or having the ability to rapidly flex to your subscribers.

Whereas there’s nothing mistaken with the linear electronic mail marketing course of —finishing one step at a time — you will not be capable of transfer as quick in at present’s ever-changing setting. To rise above your competitors and make sure you all the time meet your subscribers the place they’re, you want velocity and effectivity. That is the place agile electronic mail marketing is available in.

Be sure you have the best staff and instruments in place with everybody on the identical web page on technique. Then you definately might be off and operating to create nice emails very quickly.

So the following time somebody asks when you can ship simply another electronic mail, you possibly can confidently say ‘No’ (as a result of it is not the best match in your subscribers), or embrace it with open arms (as a result of it is the best match in your subscribers). Both means, it will not be your workflow holding you again.

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[mergersacquisitionsadvisory]

Middle Market Investment Bank: Through The Transaction

Sabadell says in an announcement that it might think about extending its effectivity and transformation programme in Spain and will analyse strategic alternate options for creating worth with regard to the group’s worldwide property, including TSB. Both Granules India and Carlyle didn't touch upon the deal when contacted by middle market investment bank.

agrees to acquirean ~eighty% stake in proxy advisory agency Institutional Shareholder Services, valuing ISS at ~$2.28B, a transfer that may strengthen Deutsche Börse's presence in ESG knowledge. Following the acquisition of both Tech Elevator and MedCerts, K12 expects net impact on FY21 income to be $12-15M.

The terms "demerger", "spin-off" and "spin-out" are generally used to point a scenario the place one firm splits into two, producing a second firm which can or could not become individually listed on a stock exchange. A merger of equals is when two corporations of a similar dimension merge to type a single, bigger company.

The transaction is anticipated to complete by the tip of this 12 months and be accretive to the overall financial outcomes of the Company on pro forma basis, excluding deferred revenue write-down. The transaction to be funded from HNI's cash readily available; will not have a material influence on 2020 gross sales or profit, and is predicted to close at 12 months-end. HNI (HNI +1.8%) has entered into a definitive settlement to acquire Design Public Group, a number one e-commerce distributor of high-design furniture and accessories for the workplace and residential. Crestor, which brought in revenue of over $5B for AstraZeneca in 2015, was among its best-selling medicines and used to contribute to ~20% of the corporate's whole income.

Using a complete cash circulate engine, the solutions enable banking professionals to forecast and stress test their stability sheets by analyzing data patterns, modeling positions, buying and selling securities, and shopping for and promoting loans. "The acquisition of Gabriel Performance Products broadens the offering in our specialty portfolio and is complementary to our latest acquisition of CVC Thermoset Specialties," says Scott Wright, President of Huntsman's Advanced Materials division. Gabriel's 2019 revenues totaled $106M, representing an adjusted EBITDA a number of of ~11x; the corporate has three manufacturing amenities located in Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. agrees to acquire specialty chemical compounds manufacturer Gabriel Performance Products from funds owned by Audax Private Equity for $250M.

<h2>Advantages Of Mergers And Acquisitions</h2>

"Divesting non-core assets will allow us to refocus on our key priorities, specifically the repositioning of our Harborside workplace campus and paying down corporate debt," commented MaryAnne Gilmartin, Board Chair and Interim CEO. The acquisition will be financed with a brand new debt facility, the terms and supply of which stay undetermined. The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia has permitted the acquisition and completion is anticipated to happen by the top of January 2021, topic to customary closing conditions. Metromile plans to operate in 21 states by the tip of 2021 and forty nine states by the tip of 2022; targets $1B of insurance premium run-rate by year-end 2024. The transaction will add 89 additional DC quick and L2 charging stations to the increasing Blink network. That means that it is near a deal as a reported Thanksgiving deadline for bids inches closer. And Bertelsmann's Penguin Random House is set to edge out rival suitor HarperCollins (NWS +1.eight%, NWSA +1.6%) in the deal, as well as reported curiosity from Vivendi (VIVHY +0.5%).

Each specialist must be steeped within the M&A authorized concerns relevant to your deal and apply their specialty full time. Moreover, a authorized specialist M&A staff that has worked collectively on many prior offers doubtless shall be extra environment friendly than a few attorneys who collectively declare to be professional in the many specialty areas that are critical to an M&A deal. Sophisticated strategic and private fairness patrons often observe strict due diligence procedures that may entail an intensive and thorough investigation of the promoting firm by a number of buyer worker and advisory groups. A lead negotiator for the vendor, who is skilled in M&A offers and might make quick decisions on behalf of the corporate, should be appointed. The firm’s CFO should be ready to answer any monetary questions and to defend the underlying assumptions of the monetary projections. The firm’s CEO must be ready to elucidate the value-add that the promoting firm will present to the customer.

<h3>The Fantastic World Of Mergers</h3>

That would add on to Carlyle's pharmaceutical trade investments after just lately buying Sequent Scientific and a minority stake in Piramal Pharma. Carlyle Group (CG +0.5%) is in advanced talks to buy Granules India, a pharmaceuticals maker, for ~$1B, India's CNBC-TV18 stories, citing three sources with direct information of the deal.

M&A is a development strategy firms often use to shortly enhance its measurement, service space, talent pool, customer base, and resources in a single fell swoop. The course of is costly, nevertheless, so the companies have to be sure the advantage to be gained is substantial.

Smartsheet is an enterprise work execution platform that's essentially altering the way in which companies and teams work. Over 78,000 brands and tens of millions of knowledge workers belief Smartsheet to help them accelerate business execution and handle the volume and velocity of right now's collaborative work. Once you progress to the mixing part, make sure to carry out periodic reviews on personnel, products, and operations. Successful integration relies on continually paying attention to what is and isn’t working and discovering ways to compromise rather than set exhausting and fast rules for how the enterprise will continue as one entity. Throughout the process, points are bound to arise on both the buy and sell sides. Both events should resist the urge to get too emotional or latch onto highs and lows — as a substitute, solicit help if you want it, and keep communication open and sincere. Develop belief between the middleman and seller (if you’re utilizing a third-get together consultant or authorized group).

<h2>Examples Of Mergers</h2>

Involve few folks in analyzing and finishing up the acquisition, but attempt to contain those who will work with the enterprise later. Be clear and agency about key aims and procedures, but stay versatile about nonessentials. If time or other factors forestall putting operating managers on the negotiating group, an organization might use different strategies to make sure consideration of organizational match. Our research uncovered two attention-grabbing approaches by which corporations inspired completely mergers and acquisitions advisory different sets of advisers to work collectively. Another approach to handle the problem of integrating views is to incorporate working managers on the negotiating group. This step can present extra give attention to issues of organizational match, stability monetary and operational issues, and guarantee managerial continuity if the settlement goes by way of. Within a given specialty, people tend to collect related knowledge and produce comparable analyses.

The transaction will close in 1H21 and proceeds shall be used primarily to scale back debt. Founded in September 1996, RAVE Sports consists of several consumer and industrial water sports activities product classes that complement the unique mission of the company.

The portfolio is 99% leased to a top quality tenant base together with Fortune 500 firms as properly al the General Service Administration, with rents estimated to be ~6.zero% under current market rates. Founded in 2009, Stem’s energy storage methods handle a $1.2T market alternative and offer investors a unique ESG opportunity to spend money on a pure-play clear energy company serving to to revolutionize the electric grid. As a result of the transactions, Syros expects to have adequate funds for planned operating bills and capital expenditure requirements into H2 2022. "We sit up for working with IMImobile to assist create a comprehensive CXaaS resolution for the market—one that provides businesses a platform to provide pleasant experiences throughout the whole customer lifecycle journey." SPX FLOW will gain control of greater than ninety% of the issued and outstanding shares and votes in UTG on a fully diluted basis and the obtaining of all necessary regulatory approvals.

<h3>The Money Paradox</h3>

National United reported complete belongings of $748.6M, whole loans of $450.6M, and total deposits of $672.5M, as of Sept. 30, 2020. introduced that 97% of the unique money rent due for Q4 has been acquired as of Dec.02, including 98% of the rent due from the United Kingdom and ninety nine% from the the remainder of Europe. INSPRO has been offering business insurance, employee benefits, and private traces insurance services to people, households, and small and midsize businesses all through the region.

<ul><li>This costs the transaction to ~$6.6M, nearly eighty% of the corporate's current market capitalisation of $eight.21M.</li><li>Interlapse will problem 22.4M shares to LQWD shareholders at a deemed price of $0.25/share.</li><li>The key to sustaining the optimistic benefits of any merger or acquisition pursuit is guaranteeing the post-merger integration is profitable.</li><li>If so, then profitable progress can follow, and the deal valuation is achieved.</li><li>Some mergers or acquisitions are targeted simply on obtaining a expertise.</li></ul>

And the company plans a comprehensive refinancing earlier than the May call date of its senior secured notes. Design Public’s belongings embody client-dealing with e-commerce websites and , and a platform and capabilities serving the commercial office and architectural and design channels.

<h2>Mergers And Acquisitions Can Take A Very Long Time To Market, Negotiate, And Shut</h2>

Bids had been due by Thanksgiving, and News Corp. unit HarperCollins has been one of many bidders, anticipating that a Viacom-Bertelsmann deal could have bother gaining antitrust approval. But any deal is sure to return at some premium and worth Slack over $17B - to not point out going through an antitrust look. The incoming administration plans to offer the deal a thorough evaluate, given Oracle's links to President Trump, based on the report.

The deal is seen as accretive to earnings within the second full year after closing, with annual run-fee price synergies anticipated to be about $480M, and also $350M of revenue synergies. S&P Global CEO Douglas Peterson shall be CEO of the combined company, while IHS CEO Lance Uggla will stay as a special advisor for one yr. The transaction is anticipated to close Dec. 31, 2020, and the efficient date of the transaction will be Aug. 1, 2020. Unlevered payback interval on these property estimated to be 2.7 years at 11/27/20 strip. Scheme of Arrangement and is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing circumstances. Jacobs will acquire a 65% stake in the form of preferred and customary equity, with PA employee rollover constituting the remaining 35% possession stake at closing. A candy equity incentive pool of 25% of the common fairness is on the market for issuance to current and future companions and employees of PA.

"This acquisition represents a strong commitment to growing the distribution of certainly one of our core brands, our Patent pending CaniSun suncare line," acknowledged, Brian John CEO of Jupiter Wellness. SRM's administration has further incentives whereby it will obtain 2% of product sales of the Company's merchandise if gross sales of the Company's merchandise exceed $12M in 2021. Previously, New Jersey on line casino board gave inexperienced flag to Landcadia's Golden Nugget acquisition. “Easterly continues on its development trajectory with the acquisition of HRSA Baton Rouge,” stated William C. Trimble, III, Easterly’s CEO. has agreed to accumulate InsuraMatch, LLC, a digital impartial insurance coverage company, from the Plymouth Rock Group of Companies. This acquisition will instantly add depth and breadth to Stantec’s environmental providers group, particularly within the US Midwest. indicators a letter of intent to acquire Wenck, a US-based environmental engineering agency founded in 1985.

5-D might be a company within the Kratos Unmanned Systems Division and will function as the Systems Engineering hub for the division. In addition to creating techniques for the DoD and different major customers, 5-D has been a subcontractor/teammate of Kratos on many of its systems and programs together with the XQ-58A and aerial target systems. With this acquisition, NexTech gains tiered pricing options and self-service know-how for each stay and digital events. Map Dynamics provides a consolidated set of self-service event management instruments by way of its Event Home Base technology, coupled with dedicated assist groups to create versatile, virtual, in-particular person or hybrid events.

Altura entered receivership in October following extended weak spot in the uncooked battery materials market that was worsened by the impression of the pandemic. The acquisition also provides experience throughout a number of excessive-progress business verticals, including expertise, not-for-revenue, life sciences & healthcare, manufacturing and construction.

The JV is NewRez's nineteenth partnership under the portfolio of Shelter Mortgage Company, the NewRez business division centered on JV lending. NewRez national mortgage lender and servicer unit partners with The Menkiti Group, a D.C.-based minority-owned built-in real property services company, to form a new three way partnership mortgage company, Mission Mortgage. While the deal ought to be about break-even to non-GAAP earnings for the complete 12 months, it'll doubtless be dilutive in the first half - and then accretive to revenue development and non-GAAP earnings in 2022. Truist Insurance expects to shut a transaction with Fidelis Group Holdings, a Covington, LA-based mostly provider of specialty insurance merchandise for the marine and cargo industries, by yr-end.

The closing of the acquisition is expected to be on or around December 31, 2020. This acquisition will broaden Blue Hats interactive gaming portfolio and allow them to increase gross sales further through the expansion of accessible distribution platforms. There is a efficiency guarantee the place the phrases of the settlement might be amended if Csfctech does not achieve certain audited internet profit for the calendar year ending December 31.

Landsea's plans to merge with LF Capital Acquisition would make the homebuilder a public company by the tip of the year. The transaction is topic to regulatory review and approval by the Surface Transportation Board. The transaction is predicted to broaden CSX's reach in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts whereas adding Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to its existing 23-state network. The acquisition is predicted to close in 1Q21 and estimated $50M run-rate cost synergies.

<h3>What Are The Variations Between Mergers And Acquisitions?</h3>

acquired QrumPharma, a privately held pharma company creating inhalation therapies for severe continual and recurrent pulmonary infections, including Nontuberculous Mycobacterial lung illness. Mercury will fund the purchase via cash on hand and its present revolving credit score facility. , that transaction appears to be in limbo, probably withering from a scarcity of curiosity. The authorities argued that via the Commerce Dept. it was solely trying to control business transactions, however Nichols agreed with TikTok's argument that the government was indirectly regulating private communication and the exchange of knowledge. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols on Sept. 27 granted TikTok's motion for emergency aid from an Aug. 6 order barring transactions with TikTok parent ByteDance .

The acquisition is predicted to shut before the tip of the calendar yr. Of the 27 places, 15 will be firm-owned and operated and 12 will be VIOC franchise-owned and operated. has signed an agreement with Car Wash Partners to buy 27 Mister Oil Change Express areas in seven states which shall be rebranded as Valvoline Instant Oil Change facilities. OMERS, the pension plan for Ontario's municipal employees, additionally agreed to promote its interests in RiverStone Europe as a part of the transaction. to shut on or about Jan. 4, 2021, if it gets all insurance regulatory approvals by the tip of December, the corporate stated in an SEC submitting.