#three statement financial model

[bizzview]

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[astonmartinii]

hii, can i request an insta au for lando? i don’t have something particular in mind, bit maybe best friends to lovers kinda thing? and their friends teasing them/ being annoyed? <33 love your work!!

best friends 4 ever | lando norris social media au

pairing: lando norris x bff!reader

best friends? lovers? who knows?

yourusername

liked by landonorris, maxfewtrell and 320,879 others

yourusername: clubbing on a budget 🍒

view all comments

user1: where's lando?

user2: yet another post without lando, have they broken up?

user3: how can they be broken up if they aren't together?

user4: why do you people think lando and y/n doing things separately is illegal?

user5: why weren't you at the race?

yourusername: babes i'm just a bartender i do not have the schedule or the finances to just fuck off to saudi arabia for three days sorry xx

user5: you clearly had the weekend off?

yourusername: please refer to my previous statement on my financial standing

yourbff1: who is that stunning woman?

yourusername: u bestie

landonorris: glad you went with outfit choice number one

yourusername: thank you miranda priestly

oscarpiastri: so that's who i could hear you talking to...

yourusername: clubbing outfits are a serious business oscar

oscarpiastri: serious enough for a three hour call?

yourusername: YES.

landonorris: YES.

landonorris

liked by yourusername, maxverstappen1 and 902,894 others

landonorris: mood before the race v after the race, see you next year jeddah 🇸🇦

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user6: what driving a tractor does to a motherfucker

yourusername: what's a performance where a man is having the worst time of his life but looks sexy doing it?

landonorris: beauty is pain

yourusername: then you must be suffering

user7: mr and miss we're not dating flirting up a storm in the comments as per

carlossainz55: maybe focus less on modelling and more on driving

yourusername: so no more ferrari thirst traps?

carlossainz55: damn i forgot that coming for lando means dealing with you

yourusername: meet me in the parking lot chilli

landonorris: y/n is like my little chihuahua so come for me, watch your ankles

user8: do they think we're dumb?

danielricciardo: ah the classic post mclaren snooze, if only you had your cuddle buddy

landonorris: i know you miss me mate but i'll cuddle you in melbourne

danielricciardo: ok. not what i meant. but i'll take the free cuddles

user9: so he was defo referring to y/n, right?

daniel3.jpeg

liked by landonorris, yourusername and 708,655 others

tagged: yourusername, landonorris, heidiberger

daniel3.jpeg: any wagon need a third wheel, i'm practically a professional now?

view all comments

user12: confirmation? this is confirmation, right? RIGHT?

yourusername: i gave you that banjo in good faith daniel and this is how you repay me?

daniel3.jpeg: i appreciate her !!!! thank you for my lessons, but these are cute so i will not be deleting sorry not sorry

yourusername: ur right we are serving

user13: life is just not fair

user14: official cause of death: the third slide

landonorris: how relegated to just an arm, i see how it is daniel

yourusername: you are literally the definition of pookie bear and cutieful in the first pic

landonorris: i'm going to need you to never say those words ever again

yourusername: that's not what you said last night ...

landonorris: you're right i am pookie bear

user15: actual pics + comments = y'all can no longer say i'm being delusional.

f1wagsupdates

liked by user16, user17 and 3,240 others

tagged: landonorris

f1wagsupdates: lando norris spotted on his boat in monaco with an unknown woman. the pair looked flirty and spent the whole day together alone on the boat. norris' rumoured girlfriend y/n y/ln was back in the u.k. where she works as a bar tender. what do you think?

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user18: i'm so confused rn

user19: i know we never had concrete confirmation but my heart is broken for y/n right now

user20: i don't want to jump to any conclusions, men and women can be friends, there's nothing in these photos that suggest anything more than friendship

user21: they're literally holding hands in the second pic

user20: i hold my friends hands every time i jump in the water doesn't mean i'm with them

user22: but the pic in danny's post .... i don't even know anymore

yourusername

liked by pierregasly, landonorris and 356,823 others

yourusername: food will never leave me

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user25: so like is this a dig after those pics of lando and the random girl?

user26: i know this is sad and all, but that kebab looks banging please tell us where you got it

yourusername: camden market babes

yourbff1: sexy girl, sexy food and sexy photography

yourusername: best photographer i know

user27: SHADE LANDP.JPEG YOU WERE NEVER THAT GIRL

landonorris: camden kebabs without me? offended.

yourusername: doing a lot of things without each other recently.

maxfewtrell: could've at least invited me i love that place

user28: oof. i feel like i shouldn't be watching this

lando.jpeg

liked by danielricciardo, yourusername and 1,305,066 others

tagged: yourusername

lando.jpeg: appreciation post for my bestest friend forever and the love of my life. i didn't want to give any attention to the rumours going around so i thought i'd just let you know i'm in love, i've been in love for years and will be in love with her for the rest of my life.

view all comments

user29: okay, now the confirmation is here, idk what to do with myself

user30: i survived the y/n x lando slow burn

yourusername: i love you too bob

lando.jpeg: i love you more, can't wait to see you

yourusername: i'm never letting you leave again

user31: so like you're gonna deny being all up close and personal with a random girl on the boat

landonorris: not that i owe you people anything, that girl is my cousin, she was visiting monaco and i showed her around. but it shouldn't matter, you guys don't know me personally and stop assuming things about athletes' personal lives.

yourusername: what he said.

carlossainz55: FINALLY

danielricciardo: i literally don't know how much longer i could've kept this a secret

oscarpiastri: i think we deserve a reward

charles_leclerc: i second this

maxverstappen1: i third this

maxfewtrell: i fourth this

yourusername: alright, alright we get it

yourusername

liked by charles_leclerc, landonorris and 607,845 others

tagged: landonorris

yourusername: i guess we owe our parents £50 xx

view all comments

user32: bro this shit has me straight up crying THIS AINT EVEN MY RELATIONSHIP

oscarpiastri: you guys are cute i'll give you that

yourusername: teammate stamp of approval get it @landonorris

oscarpiastri: i think you guys got that after i walked in on you after silverstone

landonorris: our bad lol

user33: this reads like a fanfic but they're so cute

maxverstappen1: awww lando was so cute in that first pic, what went wrong?

yourusername: u and kelly look like siblings, don't come for us

maxverstappen1: u got it

landonorris: i love you fairy princess

yourusername: i love you racer boy

note: enjoyyyyyyyyyyyy. i originally wrote this a while back but it deleted itself when my laptop had a meltdown. so this is a bit diff but i hope you like it anyway !! xx

[zot3-flopped]

Reading that article from the sunday times and just gagging:

"Upstairs, in a corner room, was where she asked for three books to be read and five songs to be played to her every night",

"According to family friends they drove a Chevrolet Suburban — an SUV fit for the secret service — sent Christmas cards showing their impressive holidays and brought their daughter’s pony to school for show and tell.",

"The family would also give teachers the keys to their holiday home as a thank-you present.",

"They had a hot tub on the patio, a jetty with a boat from which they waterskiied and two jet skis. They were also members of the sailing club.",

"“When Taylor was young, the family came over for dinner and the kids were all swimming,” Hand says. “They [Swift’s parents] asked me if I had the Disney channel and I said no. There was some country singer on that was Taylor’s idol — and so they got up and they left.”,

"Her father, Scott, now 72, grew up nearby. He was a financial adviser at the investment firm Merrill Lynch. Swift’s mother, Andrea, now 66, was a marketing executive born into a wealthy family who grew up between Singapore and Houston, Texas. Andrea’s father was the president of a construction company, her mother an opera singer.",

"A third-generation banker and former radio salesman, he updated them on which songs she had cut (I am told he spent $10,000 on building her a recording studio at their home); which singles were coming out next (by the age of 15, Taylor had a record deal with a company in which Scott had bought a 3 per cent stake); where she was touring (he had bought Cher’s former tour bus for her); and the awards for which she needed votes.",

"During the long, hot summer days Swift would walk through town, her guitar slung across her back, much to the judgment of the local girls.",

"Swift gave out wallet-sized photos of herself as Sandy to the kids in the years below her at school",

"Her notebook, he claims, was filled with pages of her own autograph.",

"Many, however, thought she was “a bit of a brat”, from the moneyed side of town and modelling clothes for Abercrombie & Fitch. At 16, Swift bought a Lexus SC430 convertible, the car driven by Regina George, the meanest girl in Mean Girls.",

"Swift made an entrance when she first arrived at Hendersonville High School, says a former classmate, telling people she was going to be a star. “We kind of rolled our eyes because, being in Nashville, we hear that a lot,” she says. “It was just such a strong statement for someone of that age.”

Underdog who??? Tbh it's not just TS being obnoxious, rich, spoiled brat flaunting her wealth left and right, it's her entire immediate family.

“There were times when, in middle school and junior high, I didn’t have a lot of friends,” she told the Great American Country network in 2008." damn, I wonder why. /s

Classic nepo baby.

[rilakeila]

heartbeats in motion, mattheo riddle

pairing f1 driver! mattheo riddle x art student!fem(?)! reader wc: 1.8k warnings: ig partying, drinking, mentions of mattheo being toxic; incomplete

summary: part 1 of the timeline of where f1 ferrari driver dates the wealthy art student. the ups and downs of dating the superstar of the ferrari team. who knows if it actually goes well.

request yes literally three requests into one

tmz sports

may 13th, 2023

mattheo riddle, f1 ferrari superstar, is officially back on the market. he has announced his split from evelyn swann after 4 years of dating. he went onto instagram (via mattheoriddle) to say, "good morning everyone. evelyn and i have decided to part ways and stay close friends. we have shared many many amazing memories together, and she will always carry a piece of my heart with her. she deserves the very best, and i was not able to do so due to my racing career.

amidst of this, i will continue to focus on my racing career and hope to be better.

thank you, evelyn for everything."

swann (via @lynnieswann) also released a statement on her instagram: "mattheo and i decided to end our relationship and continue to stay good friends. these last four years were filled with unforgettable memories. i will continue to support his endeavors from afar. he was an amazing person. thank you for everything <3"

close insiders have said despite the good endnotes shown on their instagram stories that the relationship was far far from perfect. it was said that riddle would continuously string swann along, leaving her for long periods of time without any words said before coming back to her with extravagant gifts. it is evident through past instagram stories of swann that riddle loves to shower her with expensive gifts and nights out.

more insider comments have said that riddle's feelings for swann seemed to fizzle out around their 3rd year of dating, but he stayed due to swann's significant investment within the team from her family's technology company. though, there has not been any evidence of this.

mattheo riddle is a formula one driver for scuderia ferrari. evelyn swann is a fashion model/influencer, as well as the daughter of the multimillionaire technology company, swanntech, founders, liam and kate swann.

scrolling through the endless articles about high-class breakups, celebrity gossip, and the occasional helpful news, the objective of finishing your art piece was lost. attempting to start as soon as possible, but the energy and creativity did not want to translate on the canvas. though, the silence was interrupted with a thud of the front door closing.

"i was gone for a couple of hours and not even a sketch is on your canvas," your roommate and best friend, emilia scotts, chuckled as she hung up her coat.

"easier for you to say, the random pull of the prompt, 'fast life,' seems so hard. like, where do i even start?" you huffed, tossing your phone to the side.

she shrugged before plopping herself next to you on the couch, "you've been going at this for like the past two days. i'm pretty sure the prompt doesn't even matter, the rubric just wanted you to capture a moment in oil paint."

"the problem is i can't think of anything," you pursed your lips, dropping your head into her shoulder.

"what about this? i'll help you with your project next week if you come with me in monaco. an hour flight away in my private jet," the idea of leaving your art project behind at current was all it took for her to convince you.

emilia was a monegasque socialite. her high class of being the daughter of the chief financial officer of a multimillionaire technology company led to being an eligible resident of country. though, her parents had sent her off to boarding school, lenox academy, which led you both to meeting. not as prestige as being an offspring of a chief financial officer of a global technology company, but your parents stayed afloat through their success in health care management.

despite a long term friendship, you had not a clue of emilia's friends and acquaintances in monaco. assuming that the experience would be similar to what you see in her stories of the parties in monaco: calm, refined, and classy, you would be able to bask in relaxation, but it is the exact opposite.

the party of an unnamed host in a penthouse. the first ten minutes upon entering the event was emilia hauling you around the floor, introducing you to her acquaintances. some were familiar from your family, some were only familiar due to how much emilia loves to gossip with the amount of receipts on her phone. though, the more you looked around, the more faces you recognized from being headlined on news article from actors, musicians, athletes.

"she has a way with talking to people, that's for sure," lisette commented. according to emilia, she was a friend of the person hosting, but the amount of names that she had mentioned fell through your ears.

"it's a double edged sword of her friendliness, one day she'll be buddy-buddy with them but gets the career-ending dirt on them. i don't know how she does it," you sipped on the alcohol, slightly gagging at the potentness of it. a reminder to not get that the blue bottle.

"tell me about it..." lisette chuckled before nodding her head to some other random people that entered the party. she chugged her cup empty before tossing it into the trash, " i see some people that i need to say hi to. i'll be back hopefully, you gonna be alright?"

"don't worry about it. there are some people here that i know that'll let me hang around if i just walk up to them," you waved her off.

there were truth in your words, but they were not in your line of sight anymore from where you were standing. emilia was absolutely no where to be found. tossing away the half-filled cup, the penthouse looked large enough to explore around. the paintings and art near the entrance seemed to be more interesting than the thumping bass of mediocre music.

your shoulders dropped, letting out a tired sigh. never doing this again. exploring the hallway of small sculptures and large paintings drowned the tones and lightened the slightly dim lights. fast life. you pulled your phone out, snapping pictures of the art pieces and its details. though even from a distance, you captured a couple of pictures of the party, figured it might be useful.

murmurs were heard as you leaned closely to the painting, figuring out the brush strokes and the fine details. though, a call of your name was heard. looking to the direction, you found your lost friend handing a phone back to a man, allowing you to smile in relief of your savior.

"emilia, guess what. i think i have a gist of what i could do for my art project," you called out to her. though, you accidentally brushed into the male that she was just talking to, in which you paid not much mind to, muttering out a small apology in french.

"really, that sounds great. since we're here, i got us passes to the monaco f1 race. i know someone in one of the teams that can help with the photography aspect. i think that could help with your project, y'know fast life."

"actually? sounds great, to be honest."

"do you know this girl?"

mattheo was skimming through the pictures that enzo had shared with him from the party. there was a female in the background, admiring the art gallery on the wall. though, he admired more of the way she lit up talking about the details of the paintings from when he had turned around.

"no, mate, she looks familiar though. i do know the girl that she was talking to, emilia scotts, the girl who took the pictures of us," enzo looked up briefly before returning to his digital camera.

he hummed in response. a small smile on his lips as he remembered the way she accidentally bumped into him. the smell of a fresh and clean yet sweet scent distinct from the musky scent of the party. "do you think you can find her on instagram, somehow?"

"already did. her name is y/n l/n, if i recall, i think her parents own or manage within the healthcare field. the last name sounded too familiar," enzo muttered in concentration, trying to remember anything related to this girl.

mattheo's phone vibrated in his hand, seeing the instagram notification from enzo. pulling down to see what was sent, it was a link to your profile. he immediately clicked on it, there were not many followers, assuming that you opted for a much quieter lifestyle. though, you intently looking at the art in the background of the pictures made more sense seeing that you added that you were an art major. upon stalking more, he found your art-based instagram and found that you were an exchange university student studying in france for a year.

"i reckon that you aren't planning to go after her, mattheo. i thought you were focusing on your racing career," enzo said, mischief laced in his tone.

"''m not, just curious," he tossed his phone to the side, head perking up to the bathroom door closing to see theodore drying his hair from his shower.

"what did i miss?" theodore questioned the silence, as well as enzo's smirk, knowing that someone's mind was either up to no good or he had something to share.

"nothing, just seeing how long mattheo's eligible bachelor streak lasts," enzo chuckled, causing theodore to look at mattheo with an amused face.

mattheo scoffs at this, "you both think lowly of me, i swear."

"why shouldn't we? you broke up with evelynn because she couldn't handle you being toxic, and you also say you want to focus on your racing career," theodore put air quotations around toxic after tossing his hair towel on the wooden chair. he leaned back with his hands behind his head, "is she cute, at least?"

"remember the girl that bumped into me at the party earlier?"

"you didn't even see her face. there's no way you're breaking your week and a half of being single with a half of an interaction. not even," theodore appalled at the confession while enzo broke out into a fit of laughter. "you're on some joke things, absolutely not."

mattheo eyed both in a deadpan expression. wow, hilarious, even.

a coughing fit emerged from enzo as he tried to calm down, taking in breathing exercises in between coughs, "if it helps, not saying i would condone you for immediately rebounding after a 4 year relationship. i requested passes for emilia, so they'll mainly be in the mclaren paddock, but i can assume since her dad is a sponsor, she can probably request to walk around past mclaren. a chance to maybe or maybe not talk to your bump in the park."

"okay, enzo, not your finest joke." theodore commented.

mattheo sought pass the backhanded comment, but it was too soon. that he could agree on, but introducing himself and leaving an impression was not too soon. not when he feels the strings of his heart tug thinking about the small details of you, even if it was just for a moment.

y/n's notification center

mriddle16 followed you! a sec ago 5tnott4 followed you! a sec ago berkedzo followed you! a sec ago

wrote this on a whim. mattheo is delulu fs. was supposed to turn into a series but i cannot hold myself accountable to finish it LMFAO, masterlist

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Resubmitting because I think this got eaten by the inbox. Apologies if it was passed over intentionally!

🐝🐝🐝🐝 <- Bees of recognition!

WIBTA for moving out of my parents’ house?

I’ve [22NB] always had issues with my parents, and at this point in my life I am getting old enough (and exposed enough to outside ideas) that I think they may have been or are still somewhat mentally abusive. Regardless, I know and believe that they truly do love me and care about me very, very deeply. I know the way they treat me is flawed, but at their roots they genuinely care about me and believe they have good intentions.

Most recently, we’ve been talking about me wanting to move out. I will be graduating with my bachelor’s degree this semester and starting a one-year master’s degree program this fall. My parents have paid for my school expenses throughout my undergraduate degree. Regardless of whether I move out or stay with them, my parents will not be paying for my graduate degree. My partner [22M] of three and a half years is planning to propose to me soon and we are planning for me to move in with him this summer. I’ve done the math and extensively planned my budget to model my financial outlook. I am well within the range to safely give up my parents’ financial support and still have a significant “cushion” of savings built up. The model’s annual totals could be off by a few thousand dollars and still be safe and healthy for me to move out.

My parents are extremely opposed to this idea. I have talked about moving out before (as in over the past few years) and their main argument has always been that I wasn’t financially ready (they were correct at the time). This most recent discussion is different. They are incessant in telling me that if I do this, because my partner and I are not yet married, we will be “living in sin” and I should “consider the weight on your soul of throwing yourself away.” Dad especially argued it is his job to “use whatever I can to get you to make the right decision.” He said he will be looking into taking me off of their health insurance policy and that I would not be allowed to take any of my furniture that was previously promised to me for when I inevitably move out someday, and even insinuated I may not be able to take my clothes (essentially, any item they paid for). I did not tell them this, but even if he follows through on that, I am still financially able to move out. It would be significantly more difficult of course, but I could still do it safely. My mom seemed shocked and upset at him suggesting this so she may “talk him down” at some point, but it is unlikely to have an effect on the outcome. My parents follow a very traditional approach to the “family hierarchy,” in that Dad gets the final definitive vote on all family matters. His explanation he has repeated for years is he. “takes everyone’s thoughts and feelings into consideration, but [he gets] 51% of the vote.” Despite this, I highly suspect Dad was speaking before considering the impact of his “ideas” and it is unlikely he will follow through on them. Mom has mentioned that she and Dad want to meet with the local priest to discuss the situation. She says she hopes he can help Dad understand the balance between healthy guidance and severely damaging his relationship with me as parent and child.

I have tried to gently and calmly (but firmly) explain that I simply disagree that it is a morally incorrect decision to live together before marriage and that I don’t fully believe in the Catholic church. Dad almost completely ignored the statement saying, “Right, you can’t just throw your soul away. What if you move in and you’re living in sin, and something happens and you die? What then?” Mom just started crying. She was inconsolable until I walked my statement back to a matter of just “questioning” my faith rather than not aligning with Catholicism.

They offered to allow me to spend the night at my partner’s place once a week if I were to remain living with them through my graduate degree and/or until my partner and I are married, whichever comes latest. I asked if they were sure they would be comfortable with that situation. We have had arrangements similar to it before. Every time we have, it ended with them having grown resentful and that feeling festering until it exploded in a massive argument between all of us. They insisted it would be fine and that it was vastly preferable over me “fully committing to a life of sin.”

I still want to move out. For a whole host of other reasons too long for this already long submission, I feel it is not healthy for me to continue to stay with them longer than I already have. If I am financially unable to move out or it would otherwise be a bad idea logistically, I could handle another year. Staying longer would almost certainly affect my mental and emotional health but I understand you have to do what you have to do. I feel deeply, horribly guilty for wanting to do this despite their beliefs and advice. I feel like I would be hurting them so much and I don’t want to destroy our relationship.

So, WIBTA if I went against my parents’ wishes and moved out of their house to live with my partner?

[jacksgreysays]

Extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of the Watcher situation, (2024-04-24)

So this is a relatively belated post — several days after the initial “Goodbye Youtube” and one day after the “An Update” videos — and surely by this point there are more interesting/insightful op-eds (both in written form and video form, especially penguinz0’s fairly objective POV as, essentially, a YouTube expert) but there is something about the Watcher situation that made my brain itch. Thus, I wanted to write about it in order to make sense of it all as well as get into a philosophy that seems to be haunting me in recent years and which I think applies greatly here.

This may seem completely out of left field considering 1) definitely not fanfiction and 2) about Watcher Entertainment, a YouTube channel which—as far as this tumblr is concerned—I’ve not engaged with whatsoever, but I don’t know where else I would put this, and weirdly enough I think the general tumblr response to this whole predicament is maybe the… if not objective… then at least, most thoughtful?—or, perhaps, least immediately reactive?—amongst the various social media platforms, that I think some people might appreciate this anyway.

In terms of my relevant background: I majored in Management Science (which is just a fancy way of saying Economics + Business + Accounting because they are, weirdly enough, separate things) and minored in Film Studies in school, I am currently working in the stage tech industry (which, I know, is obviously different from film/video industry), and I like to think I am a fan/consumer of a wide variety of independent creators, some of whom I am lucky enough to be able to afford being a patron/subscriber. I won’t go into all of them—because it is a lot—but there are four in particular whose business models I want to analyze in comparison to Watcher’s admitted blunder:

A) RocketJump (known for Video Game High School and Anime Crimes Division; the core group which turned into the podcast Story Break, then became Dungeons and Daddies) B) Dropout (formerly College Humor, we’ll get into their discography later) C) Drawfee (previously an offshoot of College Humor, now fully independent) D) Corridor Digital (used to be mostly behind the scenes of how VFX studios work, have since become a mostly original content creator)

I will say, right off the bat, I am a patron of Drawfee as well as Dungeons and Daddies, and I am a subscriber to Dropout. I am not subscribed to Corridor Digital’s streamer, which I will get into why later. I understand that being able to sustain those two patronages and one subscription is a luxury that not everyone can afford and so my point of view is already skewed by being such a person who could theoretically afford another streaming service if I so chose. I also acknowledge that many fans of Watcher are not in similarly financially secure places as I am and that regardless of the business model, any monetization that comes from fans would have been a rough ask. However, I wanted to go into this essay in a way that accepts Watcher’s statement—that they needed more funding—in relatively good faith rather than assuming the worst (although that is another point I’ll get into later, largely related to the philosophy I brought up earlier.)

All four of the above listed content creators started or, at least, hit their stride on YouTube:

RocketJump and College Humor were, if not household names, then the digital equivalent of it in the “early days of YouTube.” They were part of the wave of content creators that made YouTube seem less like a bunch of eccentrics with cameras making videos on the side and more like a viable way to support yourself/your team with the art you create.

RocketJump’s Video Game High School went from short (less than 10 minutes) minimal location episodes in season one, to 30 minute plus episodes with full on fight scenes and car explosions by season three thanks to a Monster Energy brand deal. They also had two seasons of Anime Crimes Division, a literal TV quality show, thanks to a Crunchy Roll sponsorship. Unfortunately, RocketJump shut down not long after (their videos are still up on YouTube but they obviously don’t add anything new) but the core creative team behind that have been involved in several projects outside of YouTube (Dimension 404 on Hulu being one of the biggest ones so far) including the podcast Story Break (part of the Maximum Fun network) and now the independent podcast Dungeons and Daddies, the episodes of the main campaigns which are free with ads or, for patrons, ad-less along with additional mini-campaigns and other benefits.

I will say, during RocketJump’s decline, they did try their best to keep going. The partnerships with Monster Energy and Crunchy Roll were the big swings to get the funding to make those TV quality shows they wanted. I believe they lucked out with those brands in particular, or, at least, those brands didn’t seem to inhibit the creative process or ask too much of them that it felt like “selling out” but I also don’t have insight into why they didn’t pursue this model of, essentially, very weird but interesting season long commercials. Maybe they just couldn't find the right brands or maybe they did feel like it was too stifling. Regardless, before they shut down completely, they did also downsize—moving out of the actual city of Los Angeles over to Buena Park. Which is in Los Angeles county, and basically counts as LA still, but is way cheaper than literal Hollywood real estate. (I should have added to my relevant background that I’m born and raised LA county, and have relatives and friends in the film/movie industry, so trust me when I say literal Hollywood/city of Los Angeles is so overrated and unnecessarily expensive. There is a reason why LA traffic is the worst and it’s because everyone is commuting INTO the city. Respectfully and with affection, no one should live there. No one’s start up should be located there.) Obviously the downsizing didn’t necessarily work for RocketJump, but they also didn’t have multiple successful revenue streams the way that Watcher currently does.

In contrast, College Humor was acquired by InterActiveCorp and was turned into CH Media which was three pronged: College Humor, Drawfee, and Dorkly. In 2018 they made Dropout, which had exclusive content separate from their YouTube videos which involved all three prongs. Then some financial shenanigans happened early 2020—IAC withdrew their funding—and there were a bunch of layoffs right before the pandemic which extremely sucked. It has been stated by multiple people involved that it was basically a miracle that Dropout survived through all of that, but there were definitely some sacrifices along the way to make that happen. Currently, Dropout seems to be thriving with mostly exclusive content with the occasional “first episode of a season” posted to YouTube, OR if Dimension 20 is doing a “sequel season” in an already established campaign they will put the entirety of the previous season on YouTube.

IAC withdrawing their funding did put CH Media in a bind. They had to layoff a lot of people right before pandemic and, understandably, a lot of trauma was had. There were also weird issues with who controlled certain IPs/brands/digital assets (I mostly come at this from a Drawfee POV, it took several years for them to own the Drawga series and be allowed to host all of the episodes on their YouTube, and there was also something about the sound file for their opening animation?) but mainly the difference is what kind of content they generate. Originally Dropout had multiple scripted shows with high budgets and pretty cool effects/animations/stunts (Troopers, Kingpin Katie, Gods of Food, Ultramechatron Team Go!, Cartoon Hell, and WTF 101) whereas now almost all of their shows are variations of improv comedians being put into different scenarios or given different prompts. I’m not just talking about Game Changer and Make Some Noise, because Dimension 20 and Um, Actually also technically fall under that description as well. Which is not to say that these shows are worse than the scripted shows—I subscribe to Dropout, so clearly I’m a fan of their current shows—and the budgets for them have since increased to resemble, if not match, those early shows, but it is a noticeable shift in their content creation strategy as a response to the lack of IAC funding. And I will say: Dropout releases at least three videos a week if not more and at least two of those are long form at 30 minutes plus (Dimension 20 being the longest, of course.)

So, these first two business models are not really the most applicable to Watcher Entertainment considering their origin was to get away from Buzzfeed—they’re probably not keen to be partnered with or purchased by a larger company—but there are some aspects to both that I believe are valuable in at least showing the strategy in how these former YouTube creators could successfully extract themselves from YouTube or how they still utilize YouTube even if it is not their main hosting platform or revenue stream.

Then there is Drawfee and Corridor Digital, both of whom are currently—if not primarily—on YouTube, whose situations are more comparable to what I believe are Watcher’s goals.

Drawfee had to rebuild themselves like a phoenix from the ashes of the CH Media layoff during the beginning/worst of the pandemic. Side note: I’m happy that Nathan (one of the four main artists of the current Drawfee team) at least has forgiven(? or let bygones be bygones) Dropout enough to be on an episode of Game Changer (although I will say that this happened after Drawga was “returned” to Drawfee, and after Dropout officially split from College Humor as a brand.) All that being said, Drawfee was a team of four artists plus their editor who wanted to stick together but basically had all of their support system taken away from them. They took a bit of a break to assess their goals and options, announced a patreon with several tiers with great perks, and stuck to their upload schedule. In addition to two videos a week, they also stream on Twitch weekly, have a patron only stream once a month, and a draw class (for one of the higher tiers) once month. After asking their patrons on the relevant tiers if they were okay with it, they began releasing the patron only stream and the draw class to the general public for free after a month. The patreon perks also include things like merch discount codes, high quality PNGs of the final rendered art, access to the draw class with live interaction/critique, and a commission from the artist of your choice. The only “ads” they run are for their own patreon and merch store and, even then, they’re usually at the end of the videos with a credit scroll of the patron names during their exit banter.

Admittedly, they only have MAYBE eight employees—that’s including their video editor(s?) and their discord mod(s?)—with the main four artists doubling/tripling up duties as additional video editors, CFO, and marketing/merch leads. It’s a very streamlined crew and their production costs are not very high since it’s mostly screen recording of their drawings with their audio recording overlayed onto that footage. Although the video editors do sometimes have clever cuts to relevant images depending on their vamping. Sometimes they will have a guest artist but, again, since it’s screen and audio recordings, there’s no travel/housing costs. So, very minimal expenses due to low production costs and small crew but, again, their only revenue source is the patreon/merch, they don’t do outside ads and they very rarely do live shows.

Corridor Digital is, I think, the most applicable to what Watcher would ideally do, which I suppose is somewhat ironic for this essay in particular considering they’re the only one of the four that I don’t financially support. They have two YouTube channels: their main one being where they show the “final product” videos, but I believe their Corridor Crew channel which started primarily as behind the scenes type of videos is where most of their views come from. Especially their React series (VFX artists, Stuntmen, and Animators React etc.) On Corridor Crew they usually upload two videos a week — one which is a React and the other which goes into fun projects/challenges (involving VFX or not) or using VFX to explain scientific concepts — as well as the first episodes of their exclusive content on their streamer. Also behind that paywall are longer and ad-less versions of the videos on YouTube. They also have merch. All of them have merch, I don’t know why I’m stating that. They don’t have a patreon as far as I know, but I also don’t know if their subscription to their website comes with similar perks like discounted merch or something similar.

Anyway, their studio seems to be about 15 to 20 people — not all of them are VFX artists, of course. I believe they have higher equipment costs than Watcher since, understandably, Corridor has to be on the cutting edge of video editing technology. They do occasionally travel for shoots, but it doesn’t require big teams, and that’s only when the local locations available to them don’t match the requirements for the “final product” videos. Otherwise most of their videos are set in the studio or in the alleyway outside their studio in Los Angeles (the city itself, not just the greater county, though they are in a rougher and thus probably cheaper part of Los Angeles). I personally don’t subscribe to their website primarily because their exclusive shows don’t appeal to me—either they’re too technical or a little too dry; to be fair, most of them are VFX artists first before they are performers—and I don’t particularly feel the need to see the extended cuts of the videos uploaded on YouTube. Also I sometimes get a little bummed out by their lack of diversity.

All of this to say, from these four different business models, a bespoke Frankenstein business model for Watcher could be cobbled together. But also, even with that bespoke Frankenstein, there are some changes that Watcher would have to make: primarily their upload schedule. As of right now, I think they do MAYBE one video a week if not, perhaps, one video every TWO weeks. If they want a monthly subscription model, their rate of content generation would ideally be higher to double/quadruple their current upload rate. Obviously they want to create videos with higher production value, but at that rate of generation, something’s got to give: supplement their TV quality shows with either a behind the scenes type series or an increase of “we get four episodes out of Shane and Ryan get increasingly drunk in someone’s backyard” or something similar. Leaning into shows like Worth A Shot (the first season in which Ricky Wang makes cocktails based on a random ingredient, the second season threw in some competitive aspects which I didn’t really find necessary) or the Beatdown which has relatively low production costs (no travel, one location, maybe two cameras at most therefore smaller crew requirements) but a higher polished look. Otherwise, for a separate streaming subscription service, 2-4 videos a month is not going to cut it.

As of right now they probably can’t back out of the separate streaming subscription service because those set ups usually require some level of contract/paying for servers for the website and whatever is hosting their videos for a set amount of time. However, what really strikes me is that I literally didn’t know they had a patreon until I scrolled through the comments of the first Goodbye Youtube video. Maybe it’s been linked "tactfully" in the descriptions of videos, but considering they claim to be lacking in funds, the fact that they weren’t plugging their patreon at the end of every video is not just strange, but also irresponsible considering they do have 25 employees that they don’t want to layoff.

Additionally, I understand artists needing to be in a space that promotes creativity, but there are cheaper places that must be comparable that aren’t in literal Hollywood. It’s an unnecessary expense. On top of that, other people have already brought up that it was fairly crass to introduce this paywall, attributing it to the increased production costs, when the next planned “new series” is a reboot of an old Buzzfeed series in which people travel and eat expensive food. I’m not even talking about the personal expenses of Steven, Shane, and Ryan; what kind of car they drive or the cost of their wedding venue doesn’t matter on a business model basis.

But getting back to the patreon: again, I literally didn’t know they had one. I’m looking over their tiers— they have $5, $10, $25, and $100 — and for the most part they seem okay, although I think they have more to offer that wouldn’t necessarily cost them more. Ie, something that has baffled me for a while: the fact they don’t sell the mp3s of the Puppet History songs; they already exist and it doesn’t cost them anything additional because they don’t need to put it on physical media. Or maybe they do and they’re not marketing it similarly to how they weren’t overtly marketing their patreon?

And, okay, maybe they didn’t want to seem desperate — in the early days of Dropout and independent Drawfee, they both were very blatant in getting people to subscribe/join their patreon. As they should be. Desperation maybe doesn’t look cool and sexy, but it is earnest in a way that conveys equal effort that fans who can afford it would want to see. The fact that we weren’t getting rotating ten second clips of Steven, Shane, and Ryan asking people to join the patreon at the end of every video — even if its the same clip every three videos — is wild. And yes, the $25 tier includes a shoutout every 3 months on Watcher Weekly+ (which I don't quite understand what that is,) but the fact that they weren’t doing a quick post movie credits scroll of all the patreon names is, again, wild. Once you have that initial list, it’s not too difficult to add any new names that join and put that title overlay on top of, again, those nonexistent ten second clips of the three.

As others have already stated, it seems like an extreme mismanagement of their existing successful revenue streams, if they are actually struggling to pay all of their employees. Which goes into the philosophy part of this essay: don’t assume malice when it might just be incompetence. It’s something that I have to remind myself of often because I do get paranoid about people’s intentions sometimes and I have to check myself. Am I being overly suspicious of what might be just an honest mistake? Am I assigning ill will to an action just because it inconvenienced me?

Yes, of course, a lot of this situation could be misconstrued as straight up greed. But, also, Watcher is a relatively young company, helmed by three people who certainly don’t have experience running their own company:

They like to travel. They like to bring a full crew around with them. They’re renting out a shiny office in the heart of Hollywood where everyone knows is where real show biz happens. They’re adding more employees to the team because surely more people means better. And they want better productions values because the prettier the videos the more people will like them right?

It’s naive. It’s a level of inexperience combined with giving responsibility to officers whose main priority is to entertain. And if that means entertaining themselves and their staff, then they might not know the difference. It’s the kind of mistake that first time managers make—trying to prioritize fun over getting the job done. Prioritizing making friends with their employees rather than making sure the work the employees put in is equal to (or greater than) what you spend on them whether that is in paycheck or bringing them to cool locations for fun shoots. It’s a mistake anyone can make, it's just unfortunate that they made this mistake in front of millions of people. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s solely a greed induced cash grab.

But then comes the catch-22 of the philosophy—is it worse to assume incompetence than it is to assume malice? Or, in this case, greed. Especially for the heads of a company that holds the livelihoods of 25 employees in their hands. At what point does it not matter if it’s incompetence or greed if the end result is the same?

Is it better to think that Watcher knew about the various other business models of independent creators and just ignored the efforts put into achieving those successes or is it better to think that they didn’t know and just stumbled into one of the worst moves they could have done. Again, other people have mentioned that Great Mythical Morning—which Watcher has had multiple collaborations with—has managed to make the YouTube subscription/tier system work to the point that they can sustain themselves as well as spinoff channels. Is it incompetence or greed that led to Watcher thinking they could bypass that completely in less time and with less content?

I’ve been at this mess of an essay for several hours when I should have been asleep. Ultimately I want to say, regardless of incompetence or greed… yes, Steven is CEO and yes he is ultimately the one who makes the final call but it is disheartening to see the pointed vitriol at Steven specifically and the infantilizing of Shane and Ryan in comparison. Either they’re all silly uwu boys who are messing around not knowing how to run a company, or they’re all complicit in a crass cash grab in an extremely busted economy.

I think what’s most frustrating to me in all this is that there were so many other channels and creators who have literally walked this path before them and, again, whether through incompetence or greed or arrogance, for them to just ignore it… It’s not betrayal because I don’t know them and so there’s no relationship to betray, it’s just so inefficient and convoluted that I don’t understand. Or, no, even if it was greed, it’s an incompetent greed because at least pure greed would have been pushing that patreon every second they could. Their ratio of YouTube subscribers to patreon members is less than 1% and I bet that’s because a lot of their audience, like me, literally didn’t know they had a patreon. I probably would have become a patreon member of theirs had I known earlier, ESPECIALLY if it included access to those Puppet History songs. Drawfee has half as many YouTube subscribers and nearly double the patreon members as Watcher. I’m just baffled, is all, and maybe by this point sleep deprived.

Anyway. That’s my extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of this situation.

Edit (several hours later after some sleep): I forgot to mention, because they did walk this back almost immediately, even before their "An Update" video, but I believe the original plan was to put EVERYTHING behind that paywall and pull their content from YouTube entirely. Which is, again, extremely baffling, because if ALL of their content is behind a paywall, how would they possibly gain new fans? Even if all of their current fans were able and willing to pay for their separate subscription streaming service, how would a brand new person even stumble on their content enough to want to subscribe if there wasn't a significant amount of "proof of value" free content on YouTube? Again, extremely baffling, and a level of incompetence that overshadows a "cunning" greed. But, like I said earlier, they did walk this decision back almost immediately. If I've misunderstood this and that was never their plan, please let me know, I don't want to be spreading misinformation in a situation that is already so convoluted.

[minervamagicka]

introduction / pinned post.

Howdy - I'm Maddie, but you can call me Minerva, minervamagicka or any of the three. I've been playing the Sims since 2010 and making CC for just about as long; though my current focus is Sims 4 equestrian-themed content in collaboration with my partner in crime, Schrodcat, who you can find on DA. Both of us will have a hand in just about everything that is to be released on this tumblr & to DA.

cc master folders

I've reorganized my SFS into folders that I'll be linking below for folks to refer to when searching for my CC. If you'd rather get everything in one go, this is the easiest way to do it!

Click here to view the SFS folder for all of my SIMS 3 content.

Click here to view the SFS folder for all of my SIMS 4 content.

These folders (or, well, just the TS4 folder) will have all of my CC added to them as its' released so they'll always be up to date!

p.s. if any creators would like an SFS code please message me!

donations

I'm not going to proselytize too much concerning my stance on modding and financial compensation here, as it could be an essay in and of itself. What it comes down to is this; everything I ever post for download will always be and always shall be 100% free. It will never be paywalled, hosted behind an ad.fly link or for purchase. However, for those who may want to buy me a coffee so I can fuel my caffeine addiction and keep posting at the speed of sound;

My Ko-Fi & SchrodCat's Ko-Fi / SchrodCat's Patreon

Again; financially supporting one, either or both of us will not grant access to anything exclusive or tangible beyond our gratitude. Additionally, donating with suggestions or requests will not mean those ideas will be automatically fulfilled as if they were a commission. This is just if you wish to express some thanks and get us some drinks!

requests / 'can you do xyz?'

I'm always happy to receive any requests or suggestions for what to release next, however me & S already have quite the list of personal ideas we want to get through first. Therefore, any requests we get will be secondary to those until we finish.

'what are you working on right now?'

S & I have set up a proper Trello board to track our progress on our original meshes & game conversions. You can view it here!

'how can i learn to mod?'

My friend Schrodcat wrote an excellent DA post on this topic with links to resources & some very solid advice on getting into CC creation or modding in general.

'you didn't make [xyz game model], how dare you convert it to the sims?!'

As I've seen an uptick in off-site concern over my [Game]toTS4 conversions, I'm adding this disclaimer to my pinned post that I do not convert models for profit, and I do so transformatively and as a fan of the original work. If it continues to bother you that I do so without the explicit permission/support of the games I port from, I kindly ask you to not engage and to leave my blog.

To learn more, I recommend reading my initial statement on my SSO ports, or, if you're interested in learning more about my stance on modding and my belief in the 'moral economy' of modding in general, this published journal covering the subject may of interest, or this journal article explicitly discussing the use of copyrighted material in modding.

🎊 latest release

→ [MMxSC] Loose Ring Snaffle Bridle

[sunbeltcanada]

How to Sell Your Software Company: A Step-by-Step Guide

Selling your software company is a major milestone that requires careful planning and understanding of the process. Whether you're looking to exit the industry, retire, or pursue other ventures, knowing what to expect can help you navigate the sale smoothly and achieve a successful outcome. In this guide, we’ll answer the most common questions about selling a software company, providing clear insights to help you through each stage.

1. What are the key steps to prepare my software company for sale?

Before listing your company for sale, it’s crucial to get your business in the best shape possible to attract buyers. Key steps include:

Organizing Financial Records: Ensure your profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and tax returns are up to date and accurate. Buyers will want to see at least 3 years of clean financial records.

Evaluating Growth Potential: Highlight future opportunities for growth, such as new markets, product developments, or untapped revenue streams.

Securing Intellectual Property: Ensure that all software, patents, and trademarks are properly documented and legally protected.

Stabilizing the Business: Make sure the company is running smoothly, with a solid customer base, strong recurring revenue, and efficient operations.

By taking these steps, you’ll increase your company’s attractiveness to potential buyers and ensure a smoother sale process.

2. How do I determine the value of my software company?

Valuing a software company involves looking at several factors, including:

Revenue and Profit Margins: Buyers will focus on your annual revenue, profit margins, and how consistent your earnings are. Recurring revenue from subscription models or long-term contracts will be highly valued.

Customer Base: A large, loyal customer base with low churn rates adds value to the business.

Growth Potential: Buyers will assess the company’s potential for future growth, such as new product lines or expansion into new markets.

Intellectual Property: Software companies with proprietary technology, patents, or other unique intellectual property are generally more valuable.

It’s recommended to have a professional business valuation expert assess your company to ensure you get an accurate figure.

3. What types of buyers are interested in acquiring a software company?

There are typically three main types of buyers for software companies:

Strategic Buyers: These buyers are often larger companies looking to acquire your software to complement or enhance their existing offerings. They are likely to pay a premium if they see strong synergies.

Private Equity Firms: These firms look for software companies with stable earnings and growth potential. Their goal is to improve the company’s value and sell it for a higher price in the future.

Individual Investors: Entrepreneurs or investors who are looking to enter the software industry may be interested in smaller, profitable software companies.

Understanding the type of buyer you want to attract will help you tailor your marketing and sales strategy.

4. Where can I find potential buyers for my software company?

Finding the right buyer requires a mix of industry connections and professional assistance. Here are some ways to identify potential buyers:

Work with a Business Broker: Business brokers specialize in helping you find qualified buyers. They can also assist with negotiations and the overall sale process.

Leverage Industry Networks: Attend conferences, events, or join industry groups where you can connect with potential buyers who are already interested in the software space.

Use Online Business Marketplaces: Websites and platforms dedicated to business sales are a great way to reach a wider audience of potential buyers.

A business broker can be particularly helpful in ensuring that you find serious buyers and avoid wasting time on non-committed parties.

5. What legal and financial documents do I need to prepare before selling?

Before the sale process begins, you’ll need to organize several important documents:

Financial Statements: Ensure your profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and tax returns are well-prepared and accurate.

Intellectual Property Documentation: Make sure any patents, trademarks, and software licenses are in order and ready for transfer.

Contracts and Agreements: Review and prepare any contracts with customers, vendors, and employees to ensure they can be easily transferred to the new owner.

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA): Protect sensitive business information by having potential buyers sign an NDA before sharing detailed company data.

Being well-prepared will make the due diligence process faster and give potential buyers more confidence in the deal.

6. How long does it take to sell a software company?

The timeline for selling a software company can vary, but it generally takes 6 to 12 months. Here’s what the process typically involves:

Preparation Phase: This involves organizing financials, securing intellectual property, and making sure the business is operating smoothly. This phase can take several months.

Finding a Buyer: Depending on your approach and the market, it could take a few months to find the right buyer.

Due Diligence and Negotiation: Once a buyer is interested, the due diligence process can take several weeks or even months as they review your financials, legal documents, and business operations.

Being patient and prepared for each phase will help ensure a smooth sale.

7. How do I negotiate a fair deal when selling my software company?

Negotiating a fair deal requires both preparation and strategy. Here are some tips:

Set Your Bottom Line: Know the minimum price you are willing to accept before entering negotiations.

Highlight the Value: Make sure to emphasize the company’s growth potential, profitability, and strong customer base during negotiations.

Consider Earn-Out Agreements: An earn-out is a payment structure where part of the sale price depends on the future performance of the company. This can be beneficial if your company’s growth potential is strong.

It’s a good idea to work with a lawyer or broker during negotiations to ensure you get the best possible terms.

8. What happens after the sale of my software company?

After the sale, there’s often a transition period where you continue to work with the buyer to ensure a smooth handover. This might involve training the new owner, introducing them to key customers, or helping with daily operations. The transition period can last anywhere from a few months to a year, depending on the agreement.

Additionally, make sure to consult with a tax advisor to understand the tax implications of the sale and how to manage the proceeds from the sale effectively.

Selling a software company is a complex process that involves preparation, valuation, marketing, and negotiation. By understanding the key steps and having the right documentation and support in place, you can ensure a successful sale that meets your financial and personal goals. Whether you’re looking to sell now or just preparing for the future, the insights provided in this guide will help you navigate the process with confidence.

[mobscene-london]

BASIC INFORMATION:

NAME: Izabele Anasenko.   AGE: 29. PLACE OF BIRTH: Kyiv, Ukraine. AFFILIATION: The Russian Mob. OCCUPATION: Supermodel. FACE CLAIM: Anya Taylor-Joy. AVAILABILITY: TAKEN.

BIOGRAPHY:

“You’re really willing to sacrifice everything we’ve worked for to be with a man like him?”

Everything we’ve worked for.

That statement summed up her mother perfectly.

Even though Izabele had started out life in Ukraine’s largest city, her family had been far removed from any affluence it might’ve afforded others. Both her parents—a turbulent marriage that only survived as long as it did because neither could cope financially without the other—worked long days for little pay. The home in which they raised their three children was hardly large enough for one, and they barely had the funds to make the place habitable, let alone comfortable. Childhood should’ve been miserable. Maybe for her two brothers, it had been.

Izabele always clung to the positives, though—ever the perpetual optimist.

Even when her father finally left them to shirk the financial burden of his children, she had remained an impossibly good natured child. Izabele hadn’t cried when she wasn’t allowed to take dance lessons like her peers because her mother couldn’t afford them, nor did she become petulant when told there would be no feeding of an extra mouth when she found a stray puppy on the way home from school. Mostly, she stayed in her quiet corner, reading books her brothers stole for her, and contemplating how she would one day create a life for herself that was better than this. Wallowing in self-pity wasn’t going to solve anything. Her parents had proven as much.

Izabele had only been fourteen years old when she’d been spotted by a talent scout whilst out in the city with her mother. There was no denying that she’d always been uniquely beautiful. It was about the only thing she was ever complimented on; a disappointment for a girl who worked so hard at her education, and even more so, to be a kindness to others that hadn’t always been offered to her. Izabele didn’t really understand what being a model was, nor did she much like the people they were dealing with, but her mother swiftly took control of the situation, and made the decision for her. Back then, she’d liked to think it was because her mother believed in her, but the reality was, her mother believed she could make money for her.  

The connections in Ukraine felt shady, and the situations she found herself in were uncomfortable, but her mother insisted she was being delicate, and that she had to persevere if she wanted to move on to bigger and better things. Izabele didn’t, though. All she wanted to do was go to school.

For years, her mother paraded her around like a material possession to be bragged about. When they broke into the world of fashion, though, things became a lot more palatable, and Izabele started to embrace that she was genuinely very good at what she did. The young girl graced the cover of Ukrainian magazines, and became one of the most sought after models for teenage fashion lines. Then, aged sixteen, she finally had her big break when she found herself at Paris Fashion Week, walking for an up-and-coming designer who would unknowingly shoot her fame into the stratosphere. Izabele stood out; natural talent, looks, and a gentle nature that made her easy to work with. The rest came in a flash so quick she barely felt present for most of it.

By the time Iza was eighteen, she’d walked for the likes of Givenchy, Chanel and Balmain in cities across the globe. She’d been on the cover of three different editions of Vogue, had been the face of a Dior campaign, and had been invited to awards ceremonies and movie premieres as though she were a star. The young girls of the world had become infatuated with the media’s portrayal of her. Social media was inundated with feel-good stories about what she’d achieved whilst coming from humble beginnings, and in the big cities, she couldn’t go outside without being recognised by somebody itching to be close to fashion’s next big thing.

At the absolute peak of success, she’d horrified her mother—who thankfully no longer had any control over what she did with her life—by deciding she wanted to take a break from her career. Izabele loved what she did enough not to want to give it up entirely, but she was also a realist. Spotlights faded, and this whirlwind wouldn’t last forever, and that was precisely why she wanted to pursue education like she’d always aspired to. Using her fame—because even if she was more than bright enough to be worthy of a place, that wasn’t how it worked at prestigious institutions like Belmonte University—she managed to secure a place studying literature in Launceston.

School came easily when she loved the subject as much as she did, but a degree wouldn’t be the only take away from her time in the city. Cressida Baryshnikova—or Berkeley, as she had been back then—had become her best friend as easily as if they’d been born to meet each other. A chance run-in at the library had not only delivered her someone she could finally trust to have her best interests at heart (a world away from the fickle friends she made in the modelling world) but also an unexpected connection to the man who would eventually become her husband.

Mikhail Vorshevsky.

At first, she didn’t quite know what to make of him. The Vorshevsky name was well known back in Kyiv, and apparently, even more so in Launceston. Never for good reasons. It left a bad taste in her mouth when she’d always had a particularly strict moral compass. But he was Cressida’s good friend, and Izabele always found it difficult to say no to the people she cared about. So, with no intention of disguising her reluctance, she agreed to go on the double date.

“You could have any man in the world, and you’re going to marry the son of a mobster? The brother of a Russian politician? Imagine what this will do to your reputation, Iza. Your career!”

Izabele wasn’t sure what she’d expected from Mikhail, but it certainly wasn’t to fall head over heels in love. To eventually have to sit her mother down and tell her she’d be leaving the new life she’d made for them in New York, and staying in Launceston to marry a man that somebody with as kind a soul as hers should’ve ran from.

Her mother was furious. Cut off all contact until Dmitri was born.

By that point, it was too late. Izabele continued to send enough money to her mother that she might live comfortably, but she and her brothers had a new life now, and it was healthier without her.

Whilst she could never wrap her mind around the idea of her husband—a man she truly adored, and who adored her in return, more than she ever thought possible—was involved in organised crime, she was wiser than to ask too many questions. The same couldn’t be said for her best friend and her husband, however, and Izabele learnt more about Vorshevsky dealings because of that than she’d ever wanted to. Perhaps a case could be made that she was just as bad as the people involved for being willing to turn a blind eye, and maybe she felt that guilt some mornings, too, but to her, he was perfect. Treated her with respect and kindness, and was such a wonderful father it made her soul happy just to watch him with their son.

Motherhood is still relatively new to her, but eventually, now Misha has moved their family to London, Izabele is hoping she can find a way to juggle it with a return to a modelling world that has vocally missed her. Surprisingly, her celebrity status has stood the test of time, in spite of her mother’s warnings that her choice of husband would blacklist her. Being married to a Vorshevsky brings with it a whole other spotlight of its own, however, and now they’ve left the Russian stronghold of Launceston, even she is beginning to wonder if her husband’s business—a world that she’s tried so hard to ignore for so many years—is finally going to force her to pay attention.

Izabele will always love him, in spite of the things he does. There is nothing he could do that would change that. But she can’t help but wonder whether this move is going to put both him and their small family in more danger than they can outrun.

And that scares her.

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS:

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Mikhail Vorshevsky (husband) FAMILY: Dmitri Vorshevsky (son, unplayable), Borys Anasenko (brother), Vasyl Anasenko (brother, unplayable) CONNECTIONS:

Cressida Baryshnikova: Best friend. Being married to a mobster is difficult, but she's glad that her best friend in the world fully understands it. Whilst Izabele is the kind of person who attracts many friends, the relationship she has with Cressida is different. They're practically family. Even before they became the couples that did everything together, they were joined at the hip, and despite their very different personalities, Iza would be absolutely lost without her.

Andrei Baryshnikov: Good friend. Even though he's a little rough around the edges, Izabele loves him dearly. Their two families spend so much time together, it'd be difficult not to. Whilst she hopes Mikhail can placate him somewhat for Cressida's sake, whenever he's with the girls, he's a gentleman, and that's the side of Andrei she has grown to adore. Mostly, she's grateful to know that her husband has somebody so loyal watching his back out there.

[castlesrp]

The Winston Family

Zeus : Politics and Government

The Winston family, a modern echo of political royalty, stands as an iconic emblem of American legacy and privilege. At its helm is the venerable patriarch, First Winston (91), former President of the United States and his wife, former first lady First Winston (82). During his time in the White House, he made many important changes for the Democratic party, including federal appointments of judges like First Lancaster (87). Much like the Kennedy family, the Winstons are an enduring symbol of wealth and influence, ever ready for their close-up on the grand stage of American politics and high society. Poised, affluent, and with an air of calculated charm, the Winstons continue to captivate the nation, leaving an indelible mark on the pages of American history.

Their eldest daughter, the accomplished New York Senator First Winston (58), has been the subject of persistent presidential rumors with many wondering if she will follow in the footsteps of her father before her as the next election cycle looms closer and closer. The pressure is mounting and only exacerbated by the public declaration of a presidential run by First Lancaster (64), and while she has not made a public statement yet, the rumors are building that we may have another Winston in the White House before too long. Married to the affable financial entrepreneur, First Thornton (58), the power couple has raised three children to the best of their ability amidst the ever watchful eyes of the media.

The former President's son First Winston (55) has made his mark as a socialite over the years, alongside his wife, the former model First Winston (54). The power couple are often seen at any and all high society functions or events, taking time to speak to the press and continue to push out the good meaning agenda of the Winston family. With three children of their own, the family has been trained from the start to be able to answer any question with grace and avoid any PR nightmares.

Rounding out the former First Family is their youngest daughter, First Winston (52). She has always been extremely driven, resulting in her career as an esteemed attorney who runs her own practice alongside her husband First Keaton (52), a lawyer. They have two daughters that round out the family’s multifaceted legacy - a legacy that seems to only be continuing to grow with the new generation of Winston children.

First Winston: 91 Years Old, Former President, Morgan Freeman, Available + First Winston: 82 Years Old, Former First Lady, Phylicia Rashad, Available

First Winston: 58 Years Old, New York Senator, Octavia Spencer, Available + First Thornton: 58 Years Old, Financial Entrepreneur, Will Smith, Available ----- First Winston: 32 Years Old, Open Occupation, John Boyega, Available ----- First Winston: 30 Years Old, Open Occupation, Daniel Ezra, Available ----- First Winston: 28 Years Old, Open Occupation, Letitia Wright, Available

First Winston: 55 Years Old, Socialite, Idris Elba, Available + First Winston: 54 Years Old, Retired Model, Mädchen Amick, Available ----- First Winston: 27 Years Old, Open Occupation, Michael Evans Behling, Available * ----- First Winston: 27 Years Old, Open Occupation, Zendaya, Available * ----- First Winston: 25 Years Old, Open Occupation, Madison Bailey, Available * Note: Winston (27) and Winston (27) are fraternal twins.

First Winston: 52 Years Old, Attorney, Gabrielle Union, Available + First Keaton: 52 Years Old, Lawyer, Taye Diggs, Available ----- First Keaton: 27 Years Old, Open Occupation, Keke Palmer, Available ----- First Keaton: 23 Years Old, Open Occupation, Storm Reid, Available

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil and the DRC engage in rainforest protection cooperation

Representatives of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are participating in a mission in three Brazilian cities from October 16-27 to strengthen commercial and diplomatic cooperation between the two countries.

One of the main topics is the creation of a strategic alliance — which would also include Indonesia — to coordinate rainforest conservation efforts, nicknamed an “Opec for rainforests.” Together, the three countries account for 52 percent of the reminiscent rainforests in the world, whose conservation is essential to control climate change.

The cooperation between the three countries is one of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s diplomatic obsessions. He argues that developed countries should financially and structurally help developing nations with more natural resources to control climate.

“Indeed, the Amazon rainforest model is a textbook example for the Congo Basin, notably for the DRC, which accounts for 62 percent of its forest cover, 52 percent of water resources, and ranks fifth in the world in terms of biodiversity,” says Congolese representatives tell The Brazilian Report in a statement. “The DRC would like to emulate the Brazilian model by establishing a green fund for projects to protect forests and prevent climate change.”

Continue reading.

[skitariiposting]

funct.print ("[statement] so. Just a little update on the imperator titan situation. I decided to sit down with the .stl files just to see what I'm working with. First off, most of them seem to be set up for a larger build plate, which is fine, I can cut most in half and just baaaarely fit them on a Mars 3. The problem is before I even do that there's already a funct. ton of models. Like holy shift so many models. I got like 4 or 5 sliced, just to see what I'm working with here and just those 5 added up to a little over 24 hours of printing. So when I say this'll be a long project, it's gonna be a long project.");

funct.print ("[optimistic] on the bright side, the poll I made is looking pretty positive, so if I did start the project, I know that at least at the beginning I'd have a couple people watching, which is a confidence boost. I wanna bring this up for people questioning the quality of the videos: I'm about to graduate as a Creative Media Production major. Producing high quality things is what I've spent four years of my life learning how to do and what I intend to do for the rest of my life to make a living. The question will be if it's entertaining or not, which I'm still worried about.");

funct.print ("[statment] I mentioned it in the replies, but if I started this project <and this is still a big if> I'd open a patreon to go along with it, because I don't think I can manage this project without a bit of support. One of the patreon rewards that I think would be cool is if you get the tier, I'll send you one of the pieces to paint however you like. No color scheme, no set amount of detail or quality, just paint it how you want to paint it. Scrawl your name in leadbelcher after painting it light pink for all I care, just no bare plastic. After I get everything printed, the patrons will send back their painted parts and then I'll assemble this big patchwork chaotic conglomeration of paint schemes and colors and we'll have a big art piece that the community helped to put together financially and physically. I've also been thinking more on the whole "giving me money" thing with patreon, and I have a morality thing I've reached a conclusion with. On top of paying for me to continue the project, any money I'd have left over that I didn't spend that month won't go to me. The budget will focus on the print first, video production second, helping with rent and groceries third, and then the excess past that. I'd feel guilty taking the excess money to pay for anything besides those three or four things. So instead, I'll use it to make donations to small upcoming creators in the community and artists, without sending it to the patreons for benefits or whatever. Just direct donations from my community to them. Because while yes money to buy more fun stuff for me is cool, I feel like if I'm taking money from the community, it's only fair I spend it on things for the community and give back to the community anything I don't spend.");

funct.print ("[statement] Now. I want to specify. This is all still hypothetical at this point. I'm still a college student living in their parent's basement with a part time job for three to four more months. While yes, I've been making connections with full time jobs, prepping for moving out again, <my roommate graduated, so I couldn't afford the dorm room anymore> and making plans, my future is not set in stone by any means. So, I'm not making promises that this is going to happen. More than anything I'm just sharing my idea to see if it's even a good idea and if there's anything I can do to improve it, or make it more enjoyable for people. So don't go holding this to me like it's 100% going to happen, it's just a project I'd love to do if I have the capability to. -Jerry");

[slutforstabbings-archive]

Number 5 with a Bullet - Eddie's Wikipedia

Fake screenshot I made of how Eddie's wikipedia page would look somewhere during the midpoint of Number 5 with a Bullet.

transcript under the cut!

Edward David Munson (born March 3, 1966)[1] is an American musician and model. He is best known as a founding member of iconic heavy metal band Corroded Coffin as vocalist and lead guitarist from 1979 to 2019. In the 1990's and 2000's he appeared in several editorials for magazines and runway shows for various designers as a result of his marriages to models Paige Peterson and Amy A.[2] 

These high profile marriages in addition to his musical success resulted in frequent tabloid appearances and widespread coverage of his divorces and struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. Despite the increased scrutiny, Munson's reputation as a "charming devil", and "a sweet dude trying his best"[3] endures. 

Since his retirement from Corroded Coffin, Munson has maintained a diminished media presence, other than donating significant sums to several projects in his home states of Indiana and Kentucky, including skate parks, music programs, and harm reduction initiatives.[4] 

He is the father of two children with Peterson, Twitch streamer NoMan[5] and fashion designer Lestat Shannon.[6] 

Early Life

Munson was born in rural Appalachian Kentucky on March 3, 1966, son of Cindy and Alvin Munson. His mother was only 17 when she got pregnant and her parents forced her to marry Munson's father, who was 25. After the wedding Al moved the family to Hawkins, Indiana to be near his older brother Wayne, who had found work at a chemical plant there. Although Wayne secured Al a job at the plant, the Munsons often struggled financially as a result of Al's substance abuse and gambling problems. Cindy left in the night in 1969 when Munson was three, leaving him to be raised by his father.[7][8] Al soon lost his job at the plant, and was in and out of jail until 1977, when he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.[9] Custody was granted to Munson's uncle Wayne, who in addition to helping Al and his family financially, had a history of taking care of Munson while his father was incarcerated or otherwise absent.[10] In 1982, Al was released after serving only half of his sentence. He would remain an inconsistent and disruptive presence in his son's life until his death in 2004.[11]

For Christmas 1978, Munson was gifted his first guitar.[12] In October of 1979 he met Gareth Ward while they were both students at Hawkins Middle School. The two would found Corroded Coffin over winter break. Munson's first time on stage was at the school talent show in spring of 1980.[13] 

Munson attended Hawkins High School, where he was ostracized by his conservative classmates for his left wing and nonconformist beliefs, interests in fantasy, horror, and the occult, taste in music and fashion, and low socioeconomic status.[14] Despite this, he was founder and president of The Hellfire Club, a successful school-sponsored Dungeons and Dragons group.[15] Munson was a Hawkins High student for six years, repeating his senior year twice, which he later attributed to "severe senior-itis," and "probably something they have a diagnosis for these days."[16] He dropped out only one month before he was set to graduate[17] to move to New York City and record Corroded Coffin's debut album, Torches and Pitchforks.

Career

Personal Life

Munson married his first wife, Heather Smith, in the fall of 1986.[18] Smith was a part of Munson's original intended graduating class and someone Munson had previously dated casually. The two reconnected while Munson was back in Hawkins before Corroded Coffin embarked on their first tour, and Smith was home for summer break from college.[19] They divorced in 1990 as a result of the band's second album becoming much more successful than anticipated. In her only statement on the subject, Smith said "I love Eddie. I don't love being a rockstar's wife."[3]

Munson met his second wife Paige Peterson in September 1993 when Corroded Coffin played Boneyard Magazine's Body of the Year party,[20] an award which Peterson was the recipient of.[21] By the end of the night they were seen slipping away together and the two married a week later in a ceremony in Las Vegas. The magazine replaced Peterson's planned Body of the Year spread[22] with a bondage themed shoot of her and Munson fully nude, his first modeling job outside of promoting Corroded Coffin. Their first child, Lestat David Munson, was born in 1999.[23] The couple appeared on a 2003 episode of MTV Cribs, where it was revealed they were expecting a second child when they included a partially finished nursery on the tour of their Hollywood home. The baby, Éowyn Paige Munson, had already been born by the time the episode aired.[24]

Peterson filed for divorce in 2005, citing Munson's increasingly severe drug and alcohol problems.[2] Munson had been using drugs recreationally since high school. While touring with Corroded Coffin he would experiment with drugs heavily, once saying "I haven't met a drug I don't like yet."[25] Even so, he maintained strict rules for himself, such as never being intoxicated in front of his children,[26] and managed to quit drugs completely for long periods of time.[27][28][29] However, after the sudden death of his father in 2004, Munson's semi-casual use rapidly deteriorated into addiction.[30] Peterson stated that she never intended to actually get divorced, and she filed to send Munson a wakeup call. It wasn't until Munson miraculously survived a high speed accident in his Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG and was subsequently arrested for street racing and DUI that Peterson realized "Nothing I did could wake Eddie up."[31] The divorce was finalized in 2006.[2]

Munson's divorce from Peterson was only final for six months when he married model and fashion blogger Amy A. At the time A was notorious for her own struggles with drugs and alcohol, and the two were introduced at a Grammys after party when Munson was searching for drugs.[32] Despite their common addiction being the reason they met, Munson was greatly upset by the frequent implication that he and A were only together because of it, stating in a 2017 interview "It was disgusting, it made me so mad. I married Amy because she's a beautiful person. I've been madly in love with all my wives."[33] Munson and A divorced in 2008 after each suffering several close calls with overdoses and other drug-related complications.[2] These incidents prompted both of them to get sober, the divorce resulting from the common drug rehabilitation rule of ending relationships with people you have done drugs with in the past. In the same 2017 interview Munson revealed that he and A did not speak for 5 years after the divorce was finalized, also in line with drug rehabilitation guidance, but since 2013 had fostered a distant yet supportive friendship.[33]

Munson met his fourth wife, stuntwoman and former WWE Diva Missy Winter, when she was featured in the music videos for all three singles from Corroded Coffin's 2010 album Disinterred. At the time she was engaged to Motocross racer Austin Andrew. Their engagement ended in 2011 when it was revealed that Andrew had cheated on Winter,[34] and she sought comfort from "the most divorced person I knew."[3] The pair married in 2012 and divorced in 2016.[2] It has been suggested that Munson and Winter's divorce was caused by the same personal issues that caused him to leave Corroded Coffin that same year,[35] but neither party has ever 

(text in image ends)

@rebel-blue @wolvesandvampires @toxicanonymity @hersweetrevenge @cordelium @persephone-of-roleplay

[yes-iamapirate]

To foretell the future, think like a banker

The banker's guide to owning it all

To foretell the future, think like a banker Ishkabibble

To extort the maximum value from a population, when one has control of monetary system, leverage the laws of supply and demand. Use deflation, inflation, and hyperinflation all as tools to transfer wealth. All have a place and a purpose.

The banker's guide to owning it all

Become majority lender in an economy of people with assets you want. Encourage indebtedness by loaning generously while securing on assets of interest. Loosen lending standards until the assets you seek to capture are attached. (this makes the economy debt dependent) Once debts are significant for the bulk of the population, sharply tighten lending standards. <-- Economic shock - Onset of deflation Backstop losses with public guarantees if possible. This is gravy if one can get it. (Fannie and Freddie guarantees, for example) Permit default 'without risk' on the assets you wish to sieze to maximize wealth transfer. (stall foreclosure, stay repossession orders etc) Stall the economy to maximize default positions and deplete private liquidity. <-- We are here Successively ratchet the economy downhill, while bettering secured positions. In a series of large actions, sieze all security for default. Target the assets of greatest interest first. (This deals a heavy economic blow and can help cause the ratcheting required for step 8.) Transfer asset ownership, but retain prior owners as renters where possible. (This reduces public lashback and helps maintain the asset for resale) Once the bulk of assets of transferred, write them down to leverage the public financial backstop. Buy up as many remaining assets on the cheap as possible. Hide this action. Hyperinflate to destroy the external claims on wealth. <-- Onset of hyperinflation (This destroys treasuries, gov't bonds, currency. Ensures free title on new assets. May cause war.) Stabilize the currency or devise a new one, resume lending at a reasonable pace. Sell the assets back, secured of course, at your chosen price in new currency.

Hyperinflation is only a risk to the wealthy if the population has the assets. Make note of that statement. It is key to timing the shift from deflation to hyperinflation.

I combined known events of the 1930s with those of other collapses and this is the model that results. Instead of positioning myself as a victim of the collapse, I positioned as the one that would profit.

The approach is reverse engineered, so it may not be entirely accurate. I expect it is close.

Ethics aside for the moment, one might consider the following in order of execution:

Eliminate secured debt. Store preps to carry you through steps 8-13. Secure precious metals for when the currency is collapsing. At that time, assets will become very cheap in terms of both gold and silver. Exchange for assets while public stampedes into PMs in a panic. If the gold price rises too high for your tastes, loan sums of cash against assets of much greater worth. Ensure you have a first on the security.

For those of limited means, directing capital can be very important. This model is deflationary while assets are transferred. It relies on limiting the panic in this period as well. From this, we can gather that accomodation is likely to remain available. Food will become a larger percentage of household spending (due to income reduction), and guns won't help against this enemy (protection will still matter though, as always). This can help prioritize where limited prep funds are spent.

For those with excess, items three and four may feel ethically questionable. Remember that private ownership of most of these assets will not survive this process with or without your involvement. Following in the footsteps of the banks directs some of their windfall to you... instead of them. I am personally comfortable with only the first three of the steps listed above. The fourth is a difficult one. I could only do that if I knew a bank was going to loan the money and complete the fleecing in my absence. But even then, I don't think I would take on the roll of aggressor.

I am bullish on both gold and silver from the point destruction of the dollar picks up momentum. For the immediate future, TPTB will jack the price all over the place to shake out the speculators. The choice to hold gold or silver must be based on market fundamentals, not the gamed valuation systems.

I am bullish on both gold and silver, but most bullish on silver. To an untrained eye, $1000 in silver looks like a LOT more than $1000 in gold. The market will soon become saturated with untrained buyers. They will be panicked and buying in haste. They won't know what to buy based on research or sound fundamentals, rather they will respond based on visual cues and heuristics. A suitcase of silver may buy a house because it looks like a lot, while the equal value in gold will not. As well, those little plastic sleeves will be big money makers. They will ensure a case filled with any PM looks more tangible. Less will become more when well packaged.

Emulating the actions of a banker would enable you to share in their spoils. It's hard to ensure you will have the dry powder to spend in step 12, and there's risk that a twist on this strategy could still come forth. But if it holds true, your suggestion would be effective.

h

[mariacallous]

Editor's Note: The following testimony was submitted to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions on March 23, 2023, for the “Follow the Money: The CCP’s Business Model Fueling the Fentanyl Crisis” hearing.

Dear Chairman Luetkemeyer, Ranking Member Beatty, and Distinguished Members of the Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions of the Committee on Financial Services:

Thank you for holding this hearing entitled, “Follow the Money: The CCP’s Business Model Fueling the Fentanyl Crisis.” This is an important issue that deserves the attention of the House Financial Services Committee and its Members. I am honored to have this opportunity to submit this testimony as a statement for the record.

I am a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution where I direct The Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors and co-direct the Africa Security Initiative. Illicit economies, such as the drug trade and wildlife trafficking, organized crime, corruption, and their impacts on U.S. and local security issues around the world are the domain of my work and the subject of several of the books I have written. I have conducted fieldwork on these issues in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. In addition to studying China’s and Mexico’s role in various illegal economies over the past two decades, I have been directing over the past three years a new Brookings workstream on China’s role in illegal economies and Chinese criminal groups around the world.

This testimony draws extensively on two detailed reports I published last year: “China’s Role in the Smuggling of Synthetic Drugs and Precursors” and “China’s Role in Poaching and Wildlife Trafficking in Mexico.”

The Brookings Institution is a U.S. nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and policy solutions. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public.  The testimony that I am submitting represents solely my personal views, and does not reflect the views of Brookings, its other scholars, employees, officers, and/or trustees.

Executive Summary

The structural characteristics of synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl, including the ease of developing similar, but not scheduled, synthetic drugs and their new precursors — increasingly a wide array of dual-use chemicals — pose immense structural obstacles to controlling their supply.

U.S. domestic prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and law enforcement measures are fundamental and indispensable to countering the devastating fentanyl crisis.

However, given the extent and lethality of the synthetic opioid epidemic in North America and its likely eventual spread to other parts of the world, even supply control measures with partial and limited effectiveness can save lives and thus need to be designed as smartly and robustly as possible.

Three U.S. presidential administrations — those of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden — have devoted diplomatic focus to induce and impel China to tighten its regulations vis-à-vis fentanyl-class drugs and their precursor chemicals and to more diligently enforce these regulations. China, however, sees its counternarcotics enforcement, and more broadly its international law enforcement cooperation, as strategic tools that it can instrumentalize to achieve other objectives. Unlike the U.S. Government, which seeks to delink counternarcotics cooperation with China from the overall bilateral geostrategic relationship, China subordinates its counternarcotics cooperation to its geostrategic relations. As the relationship between the two countries deteriorated, China’s willingness to cooperate with the United States declined. Since 2020, China’s cooperation with U.S. counternarcotics efforts, never high, declined substantially. In August 2022, China officially announced that it suspended all counternarcotics and law enforcement cooperation with the United States.

There is little prospect that in the absence of significant warming of the overall U.S.-China bilateral relationship, China will meaningfully intensify its anti-drug cooperation with the United States. U.S. punitive measures, such as sanctions and indictments, are unlikely to change that.

While China takes counternarcotics diplomacy in Southeast Asia and the Pacific very seriously, its operational law enforcement cooperation tends to be highly selective, self-serving, limited, and subordinate to its geopolitical interests. Beijing rarely acts against the top echelons of Chinese criminal syndicates unless they specifically contradict a narrow set of interests of the Chinese Government. Chinese criminal networks provide a variety of services to Chinese legal business enterprises, including those connected to government officials and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

China’s enforcement of precursor and fentanyl analog controls is also complicated by the challenge of systemic corruption in China and the incentive structures within which Chinese officials operate. Chinese Government officials also unofficially extend the umbrella of party protection and government authority to actors who operate in both legal and illegal enterprises as well as to outright criminal groups.

There is little visibility into China’s enforcement of its fentanyl regulations. But in the case of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals, small and middle-level actors in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries also appear to be the key perpetrators of regulatory violations and source for Mexican criminal groups. In the case of fentanyl and its precursors, Chinese triads – mafia-like organized crime groups — do not dominate drug production and trafficking.

Chinese actors have come to play an increasing role in laundering money for Mexican cartels, including the principal distributors of fentanyl to the United States — the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG). Chinese money laundering brokers mostly manage to circumvent the U.S. and Mexican formal banking systems. Other money laundering and value transfers between Mexican and Chinese criminal networks include trade-based laundering, value transfer utilizing wildlife products, such as protected and unprotected marine products and timber, real estate, cryptocurrencies, casinos, and bulk cash.

The increasing payments for drug precursors originating in China in wildlife products coveted there is particularly noteworthy. This method of payment engenders multiple threats to public health and safety, economic sustainability, food security, and global biodiversity. If this wildlife trafficking spreads dangerous zoonotic diseases, it could even pose a threat to national security.

But this convergence of illicit economies also provides the United States with new opportunities for intelligence gathering and law enforcement actions, even as China-Mexico law enforcement cooperation against the trafficking of fentanyl and precursor agents for meth and synthetic opioids remains minimal.

Mexican drug cartels are expanding their role into crimes against nature, and they are also increasingly infiltrating and seeking to dominate a variety of legal economies in Mexico, including fisheries, logging, and agriculture and extorting an even wider array of legal economies. For example, Mexican organized crime groups, especially the Sinaloa Cartel, seek to monopolize both legal and illegal fisheries along the entire vertical supply chain.

There may also be a growing involvement of Chinese fishing ships in facilitating drug trafficking.

And there is the possibility that Chinese fishing flotillas or individual vessels operating around the Americas and around the world may be equipped with spy equipment for collecting intelligence on behalf of China.

Just like with China, Mexico’s cooperation with U.S. counternarcotics efforts is profoundly hollowed out. The March 2023 crisis in U.S.-Mexico law enforcement cooperation is merely the visible tip of the iceberg of how Mexico has eviscerated counternarcotics and law enforcement cooperation with the United States since 2019 and particularly since 2020 when U.S. law enforcement activities in Mexico became shackled and undermined by Mexican Government actions after the U.S. arrest of former Mexican Secretary of Defense Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos.

Because of the diversification of the economic portfolio of Mexican cartels and Chinese criminal networks, to focus primarily on drug seizures close to their source is no longer an adequate approach for effectively countering drug smuggling networks that send pernicious drugs to the United States or their financial systems.

Countering poaching and wildlife trafficking from Mexico and thwarting illegal fishing in Mexican and Latin American waters are increasingly important aspects of countering Mexican drug-trafficking cartels and their damaging effects in the United States and Mexico.

I submit that to attempt to induce better cooperation from China, the United States should:

continue to emphasize Beijing’s interests in China’s reputation as a global counternarcotics policy leader and leverage multilateral fora to do so;

continue requesting that China take down websites that illegally sell synthetic opioids to Americans or to Mexican criminal groups;

strengthen U.S. cooperation with allies and partners to send coordinated messages to push Beijing in preferred directions germane to law enforcement efforts, including greater monitoring and enforcement against sale of precursors chemicals to criminal groups and more robustly and broadly-cast anti-money laundering efforts;

engage China bilaterally and multilaterally to adopt more robust anti-money laundering standards in its banking and financial systems and trading practices;

encourage the spread of best practices developed in the China’s pharmaceutical and chemical sectors, including encouraging the industries to adopt self-regulation systems to detect and police suspicious activities, by adopting “know-your-customers” policies, not selling precursors to likely drug traffickers, and alerting law enforcement authorities about such buyers;

be ready to sanction, including through termination of access to U.S. markets, Chinese firms that violate the best practices protocols and take further actions against those indicted by the U.S. Government;

develop packages of leverage on prominent Chinese pharmaceutical and chemical industry officials;

continue developing legal indictment portfolios against Chinese traffickers and their companies, and

incentivize international partners to act seriously against Chinese drug trafficking and criminal networks.

To attempt to induce better cooperation from Mexico, the United States also has new Policy tools to explore.

Designating Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) would enable intelligence gathering and strike options for the United States military, such as against some fentanyl labs in Mexico. But the number of available strike targets in Mexico would be limited and would not robustly disrupt the criminal groups. Nor would the FTO designation add authorities to the economic sanctions and anti-money laundering and financial intelligence tools that the already-in-place designation of Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) carries.

Moreover, such unilateral U.S. military actions in Mexico would severely jeopardize relations with our vital trading partner and neighbor and the FTO designation could significantly limit and outright hamper U.S. foreign policy options and measures.

Instead, the United States should:

consider significantly intensifying border inspections; and

develop packages of leverage, including indictment portfolios, against Mexican national security and law enforcement officials and politicians who undermine and sabotage rule of law cooperation with the United States.

Importantly, to effectively counter the fentanyl-smuggling actors, the United States should expand and smarten up its own measures against criminal actors, including by:

truly adopting a whole-of-government approach to countering fentanyl-smuggling entities;

authorizing a wide range of U.S. Government agencies, including the Departments of State and Defense, to support U.S. law enforcement against Mexican and Chinese criminal actors and fentanyl trafficking and crimes against nature;

collecting relevant intelligence on crimes against nature to understand criminal linkages to foreign governments and criminal groups and elevate such intelligence collection in the U.S. National Intelligence Priorities Framework;

expanding the number and frequency of participation of U.S. wildlife investigators and special agents in Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF);

increasing the number of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agents and investigators, flatlined since the 1970s even as the value of wildlife trafficking has significantly increased since then; and

designating wildlife trafficking as a predicate offense for wiretap authorization.

[bunkershotgolf]

Full Speed into the Past

By ED TRAVIS

After taking a few days to think about the implications of a proposed rules change announced Tuesday March 14 by golf’s governing bodies, the USGA and R & A, the conclusion is clear. By decreasing the distance standard for golf balls played by so-called elite golfers, in effect rolling back the ball to the performance characteristics of twenty years ago, it is a solution in search of a problem.

It’s almost certain in three years when the rule would go into effect fans of elite golf—college and professional—can look forward to seeing the big guys not hit it so big which is a negative for sure but the bigger problem more likely will be the reaction of ball makers such as Acushnet and Callaway.

In situations like this in the past—remember the long putter or square grooves–it says more about the governing bodies desire to control our game decades in the future rather than helping those with emotional and financial stakes in the game capitalize on the current growth trend. Why can’t we just make golf more attractive to play and watch rather than adding more restrictions?

It seems whenever the USGA is involved, their focus on the tradition and integrity of the game (whatever that’s supposed to mean), fans come out in second or third place. Referring to further restricting ball performance golf instructor Hank Haney said it several years ago, “People don’t go to a ball game to watch them hit bunt singles.” Fans don’t go to PGA Tour events to marvel at clever chip shots, holed three-footers or perfect 150-yard nine-irons. They go to watch the big guys smash the ball distances we can only dream about.

Otherwise, you might as well go bowling.

The governing bodies continue to be focused on what happened in the past not where the game is today and if there is one thing sure in this world it is you can never go back.

Certainly, at the elite professional level golf is entertainment and changing equipment to make golf less entertaining means fans are the losers.

In case you think the proposed rules change has a chance of not being adopted remember former USGA CEO Mike Davis swore the last think he would do is roll back the ball. The pandemic may have slowed down the process, but current CEO Michael Whan will ensure it happens.

They say the new distance standard in effect January 1, 2026, will only apply to the few thousand elite players in the world or using the word nobody says out loud, bifurcation. However, there is no assurance that won’t change and indeed since the U.S. Open and the British Open will enact the restricted ball specifications should “regular players” qualify they would have to comply certainly in the qualifying rounds too.

As far as the other major championships are concerned, the Masters probably will want to make use of a reduced distance ball—estimated at 14-15 yards less—but the PGA of America who runs the PGA Championship has not said what they will do.

If anyone knows that professional golf must be entertaining it is the PGA Tour and maybe they will not agree to use a reduced distance ball. They do know they must sell themselves to fans and comments by many current Tour members are against implementation. Further should the Tour opt out, that would create the interesting situation of week to week play with the “long ball” and two weeks annually, the U.S. and British Opens, having to play the “short ball.”

That makes no sense whatsoever. The PGA Tour is also in a competitive situation with LIV Golf and there is zero chance LIV will play the short ball. Additionally, the USGA says elite female players will not have to play the short ball, so the LPGA Tour doesn’t have a decision to make.

But what about the golf ball manufacturers you ask? An excellent question and according to a statement from Acushnet Company, the largest ball manufacturer, “Under the proposed guidelines, events that adopt this MLR [Model Local Rule] would require players to use a substantially shorter golf ball, similar in distance to what was available in the 1990’s.”

Do you remember the Titleist Professional? A fine ball, at the time everyone played it, but it was instantly out of date with the introduction of the solid core urethane cover Titleist Pro V1 in 2000. Ball makers marketing now is built around the average player being able to tee up the same ball as the PGA Tour stars. This aspirational quality of golf is integral to the charm, resiliency and long life of the game.

Singling out the golf ball is not a sound analysis of the situation when swing speed on the Tour continues to increase (2.23 mph in the past 15 years) but it would seem logical there is at some time an upper limit on the increasing athleticism of Tour players. That would limit the swing speed increases and therefore distance off the tee and with other clubs.

We haven’t heard the last from the ball makers and lawsuits are a possibility creating another mess caused by the USGA’s myopic view of modern golf.