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maskoqi · 3 years

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Gistcoin

Gistcoin OFFICIAL TOKEN FOR SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITY

Do you know?

is now a utility for all influencers, streamers, musicians, artists, brands and content creators from all walks of life who create content in social media communities. We believe the decentralized token system allows all content creators – including content creators from underrepresented groups – to have direct access to their fans and their monetization methods.

Gistcoin is a utility token for all influencers, streamers, musicians, artists, brands and content creators of all backgrounds creating content across social media communities. We believe that a decentralized token system allows all content creators — including content creators from underrepresented groups — to have direct access to their fans and monetization methods.

OFFICIAL TOKEN

FOR SOCIAL NETWORK COMMUNITY

Gistcoin utility token for all influencers, streamers, musicians, artists, brands and content creators from all walks of life who create content on social media communities and other audio networks. The decentralized token system allows all content creators – including content creators from underrepresented groups – to have direct access to their fans and monetization methods.

how to use gistcoin

a type of electronic money that can be secretly exchanged for digital content, products and services, and then converted into fiat currency.

It is an independent third party exchange tool. Payments from content consumers to content creators can be made without intermediaries.

Remove national borders and local currency issues for free circulation of creative works. The exchange currency for content operates globally.

User anonymity guaranteed Latest daily encrypted transactions Easy payments for micro purchases and payments for creative work Price fluctuations purely on the principle of supply and demand Transactions without restrictions on fees, times and locations Use on all international social media platforms.

AUDIO PLATFORM USING GISTCOIN MONETIZATION

Gistcoin allows content creators to unlock the economy around their community and take advantage of new monetization methods that work across multiple platforms. This not only creates an engaged community that can tip with Gist Coin and spend GistCoin to gain exclusive access to content, special access, events and merchandise, but also allows content creators to monetize their content as they see fit. expect. Gistcoin allows content creators to build a loyal fan base and is rewarded for creating value for members of its user community.

Some of the immediate and immediate ways the GISTCOIN Project will address specific issues in this industry include:

• Create an advanced Audio Conversation Social Media Platform with the built-in Creator and User Compensation program.

• Gisthouse will have several features that will address most of the issues associated with existing Audio based social media platforms in the rapidly exploding Audio Conversation industry.

• Gistcoin will Provide Peer-to-Peer gamification and monetization Platform which will enable Fair Compensation for content creators and active users of social media platforms

• Provide a Universal means of exchange for GistHouse social media users and other partner social media partners.

How do content creators make money with GistCoin?

GistCoin's goal is to empower content creators to unlock the economy around their community and take advantage of new monetization methods that work across multiple platforms. This not only creates an engaged community who can tip with GistCoin and spend GistCoin to get exclusive access to content, special access, events and merchandise, but also allows content creators to monetize without paying a fee. high platforms.

STRUCTURE GISTCOIN

Token Pre-Sale: 1 September to 30 September 2021

Token Crowdsale: October 1 hingga October 31, 2021

Supply: 500,000,000 GIST

Price: 1 GIST = 0.00001562 ETH [Approx. $0.05 USD]

1 ETH = 64.000 GIST

MINIMUM PARTICIPATION IN CROWD SALES: 0.0031 ETH [Approx. $32/640 BOTTOM LINE]

Total Softcap: 1,500 ETH

Soft cap: $1,000,000

TOKEN ALLOCATION: 500,000,000

TOTAL GIST OFFERED IN INITIAL CROWSALE: 50,000,000 [10%]

TOTAL OFFERED FOR CROWSALE: 200,000,000 GIST [40%]

Accepted Currencies: ETH, BTC and Wire Transfer

Token Distribution Date: November 15, 2021

TOTAL USED FOR BOUNTIES/AIRDROPS: 27,750,000 [5.5%]

TOTAL FOR PARTNERS AND AFFILIATES: 25,000,000 [5.0%]

TOTAL RESERD FOR AIRDROP FOR GITHOUSE BETA LAUNCH: 100,000,000 [20%]

TOTAL DONE FOR FOUNDERS: 85,000,000 [17.00%]

TOTAL RESERD FOR GISTHOUSE DEVELOPMENT: 12,500,000 [2.50%]

GISTCOIN ROADMAP TO SUCCESS

APRIL 2021

Generation Idea

The Origins of the GistCoin Idea Generation. Development of business concepts and plans.

MEI/JUNI 2021

Concept Development

GistCoin kickstart development. GistCoin pilot application development for the future ClubHouse platform.

1 SEPT 2021

White Paper Publications

Attract investors' investment. GistCoin registration. Team building.

September 15th, 2021

GISTCOIN Wallet

Development of GISTCOIN Wallet mock-up. Technical audit.

1 October 2021

MVP Mockup Release

Release the MVP Mockup to the technical team for development.

1 - 31 October 2021

EARLY GENERAL SALE

Preparation for GISTCOIN and Development of smart contracts for GistCoin release. Continue platform development. Continuity of ecosystem formation (more than 10 partners).

15 October 2021

Gisthouse Public Beta Testing

Gisthouse Public Beta Testing is done and feedback is collected from end users

December 1, 2021

GISTHOUSE CREATOR REWARD PROGRAM LAUNCH

1 OF 2022

List of GISTCOIN on General Trading Exchanges [At least 3]

January 1, 2022

Launch of the GISTCOIN Trading Platform [GISTtopia.Com):

Jan - From 2022

GISTCOIN Acceptance Partner Expansion Campaign

JUNE 1 2022

Official Launch of GITSHOUSE AUDIO DROP-IN Social Media Platform

STRUCTURE GISTCOIN

Token Pre-Sale: 1 September to 30 September 2021

Token Crowdsale: October 1 hingga October 31, 2021

supply

500.000.000 GIST

Price

1 GIST = 0.0001562 ETH [Approx. $0.05 USD]

1 ETH = ~ 64,000 GIST

MINIMUM PARTICIPATION IN CROWD SALES: 0.0031 ETH [Approx. $32/640 BOTTOM LINE]

Total Softcap ~ 1,500 ETH

Soft cap: $1,000,000

TOKEN ALLOCATION: 500,000,000

TOTAL GIST OFFERED IN INITIAL CROWSALE: 50,000,000 [10%]

TOTAL OFFERED FOR CROWSALE: 200,000,000 GIST [40%]

Accepted Currencies: ETH, BTC and Wire Transfer

Token Distribution Date: November 15, 2021

TOTAL USED FOR BOUNTIES/AIRDROPS: 27,750,000 [5.5%]

TOTAL FOR PARTNERS AND AFFILIATES: 25,000,000 [5.0%]

TOTAL RESERD FOR AIRDROP FOR GITHOUSE BETA LAUNCH: 100,000,000 [20%]

TOTAL DONE FOR FOUNDERS: 85,000,000 [17.00%]

TOTAL RESERD FOR GISTHOUSE DEVELOPMENT: 12,500,000 [2.50%]

Participants: 4,510.+

CROWSALES: 200.000.000

GISTCOIN DREAM TEAM

The GistCoin team consists of an eclectic group of individuals who have excelled in their fields and have demonstrated consistent performance and success. Our team is experienced in software development, film production, cryptocurrency, and business administration.

The team includes but is not limited to the following individuals:

BUSINESS AND STRATEGY Advisory Board

DR OPE BANWO

Founder/ceo

Dr Ope Banwo holds several degrees in Law and has held top Executive Positions in the United States and his home country of Nigeria, for over 30 years. He was accepted into the New York Bar (1997); Fed District Court, Nebraska USA (1997) and Nigerian Bar (1986). He is a Founding Partner of Banwo & Igbokwe LLC USA; CEO, Netpreneur360 Inc.; Co-Creator of Mobimatic App Builder; Co-Author of Crypto Millionaires Manifesto and Host of Cryptomania Show. He is also the founding CEO of Dove Media PLC and Nollywood Blockbusters Ltd. He trained with Arthur Anderson and has started several businesses in the United States and Africa.

SEGUN AWOSANYA

Director of Business Development

Profile Summary: Segun Awosanya is a realtor (MSc), Futuristic Brand, Digital Media Marketing, Curator of digital space/community culture, Information Technology based business analyst, content writer, Business, perception management and innovation strategy consultant with more than experience a decade in delivering large-scale, innovative technology-driven projects. He is founder/CEO of Aliensmedia, President/Founder of SIAF (Social Intervention Advocacy Foundation) and founding Technical Director of DoveMedia Plc, Founding Technical Director of HiTV and Hypercable Trained Digital Broadcasting Engineer (Lyon, France). He has consulted for various businesses and Government agencies across sectors for two decades across continents.

AKIN OLAOYE

Founder/Chairman, House of Lunettes

Akin Olaoye is an Entrepreneur and former management staff at KPMG USA. He has a degree in Industrial Engineering and attended Portland State University Oregon for a Masters in Engineering Management. As the leader of Dynamic, he has more than 15 years of corporate experience leading 100 rich US companies. He has Strong Project Management, Client Engagement, Business and leadership acumen. His House of Lunnettes has grown to become Nigeria's largest Glasses Chain in a few years. Akin has had outstanding career achievements in IT Project Management, Government projects and Private Sector renowned in the Healthcare, IT, Government, E-Commerce, Insurance and Automotive industries.

JOHN OSEI-BONSU

Director of Finance & Due Diligence

John is a Chartered Management Accountant and holds an MBA in Finance & Business Policy from the University of Durham, MSc Information Systems — Kingston University and LLM-(European Union) Commercial Law-University of Leicester. Member of the Chartered Management Institute. John is an accomplished financial professional and one of the most prominent, is the Chief Executive Officer of Best Fertilizer Company Limited, Ghana. Prior to Best Fertilizer and Lands Dynasty, John was Financial Controller at Spotless Group SAS (part of Henkel), John held Finance Controller roles, Mayborn Group PLC and held senior finance roles at Dylon International Limited and Mirror Group Newspapers. John has an extensive record of transformational strategic and operational leadership, consistent delivery of performance, strong capital allocation discipline and by building a strong team; all of which lead to the creation of long-term shareholder value. John has significant due diligence experience including finance, legal, commercial, insurance, technology/intellectual property, operations, environment and tax and brings more than two decades of financial expertise to the team. He is a strong leader and has a history of driving strong financial performance in the UK.

TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT TEAM

The technical team consists of highly skilled web developers with a combined experience of over 30 years of web development experience. This team includes:

GABRIEL NWANKWO

Software Engineer

Nwankwo, Gabriel is a renowned Software Engineer with over 7 years experience in designing and building Enterprise Systems. He is a Computer Science graduate and has extensive experience in Systems Analysis and Architectural Design, Database Architecture and Design, Devops and Programming. He has built a number of systems and applications for Government Agencies, Private Companies and Multinational Companies. Some of his web development and software engineering works include: BENUE MOEST: A fintech application for school tax collection. A project implemented for the Benue State Ministry of Education: SUBEB: Human Resource Management Application with Integrated Payroll and Pension System. A project implemented for the Benue State Universal Primary Education Agency; UAMASUUCOOPS: A fintech application for managing cooperative funds that is implemented in the Cooperative of the Academic Civitas of Makurdi Agricultural University; BIPPIIS: Human Resource Management Application with Integrated Verification, Payroll and Pension System. A project implemented for the Benue State Government of Nigeria; BSLGPENCOM: Fintech application for Pension management with integrated Payroll system; Churchio: Revolutionary Church Management App that helps churches manage all aspects of the church including, Membership, Worker, Finance and many more Fintech App for Retirement management with integrated Payroll system; Churchio: A Revolutionary Church Management App that helps the church manage all aspects of the church including, Membership, Workers, Finance, and many more fintech applications for managing Pensioners with an integrated Payroll system; Churchio: A Revolutionary Church Management App that helps the church manage all aspects of the church including, Membership, Workers, Finances and many more

DANIEL ADASHO

Software Engineer

Daniel Adasho is a Certified Software Engineer and Full-Stack Developer at Netpreneur360, CTO at Salamat Groups and Consultant at Ziva Media. He is a prolific and prolific web and mobile developer, who has worked on many projects and built a lot of software that includes software for state and federal governments. Daniel is not only proficient in many computer languages, but he is also a certified IT/Web Engineer, in several programming languages such as JAVA SCRIPT PHP, MYSQL, SQL LITE, LARAVEL, AJAX, NOD.JS He has also developed several programs and has designed many websites. web and web portals for multinational companies including the American Internet Business School; Mobimatic Inc.; Daniel Adasho has also developed LOTS of mobile apps on Google play.

IFIOK NKEM

Web Developer & Software Builder

As one of the most sought after web consultants in Africa, Ifiok has been involved in more than 700 projects and has consulted for high-value individuals, businesses and companies including the governments of Nigeria and Angola. He has trained and mentored more than 10,000 people in web development through workshops, seminars, boot camps and in-house training tools. Ifiok Nk is a 'passionate Netpreneur', web consultant, author and digital product creator with many successful SaaS products including Mobimatic; PageNova, VantagePoint, Streamio, Videotours360 ; ViralLeadFunnels; Rape; PasarGee; Socicake Software; ADA Packages; Local Agent Box; Leadgrow360

For detailed information about Gistcoin, follow the link below:

Detailed Information: WEBSITE: https://gistcoinico.com/ TWITTER:https://twitter.com/gistcoin360 FACEBOOK:https://www.facebook.com/groups/gistcoin/ TELEGRAM GROUP:https://t.me/gistcoin LINKEDIN:https://www.linkedin.com/company/gistcoin REDDIT:https://www.reddit.com/user/gistcoin YOUTUBE:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeimgEwf9bk5C5C7gtPjpFg

Username: maskoqi

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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Why Did Republicans Hate Obama So Much

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-did-republicans-hate-obama-so-much/

Why Did Republicans Hate Obama So Much

Barack Obama Has Polled As The Worst Us President Ever Even Beating George W Bush Courtesy Fox New

Barack Obama has polled as the worst US President ever, even beating George W. Bush. Courtesy Fox New

US President Barack Obama isn’t rating well with his fellow Americans.

WE LOVE him but it seems his own countrymen can’t stand the sight of him.

Barack Obama, who has 43.9 million Twitter fans, has also landed the title of the most unpopular US President since World War II. This means he even rates lower than his predecessor George W. Bush.

While it’s no secret his popularity has been waning, a new poll has revealed just how disliked he has become since sweeping to power in 2009.

A Quinnipiac University survey has shown that even Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney would have been a better choice for voters.

According to the poll, 45 per cent of people say the country would have been better off if Mr Romney had been elected in 2012, and a staggering 38 per cent see him as a better choice.

Leaders are generally rated lower once in power — take Prime Minister Tony Abbott, for example. His popularity has plummeted to the depths that saw Julia Gillard outed in favour of Kevin Rudd’s return.

But Obama’s popularity would come as a shock to Australians who have mostly regarded the president as being in line with our way of thinking.

And he’s certainly popular on Twitter. In December 2012, President Barack Obama scored the most retweeted tweet of the year with an image of him and first lady Michelle embracing along with the words “four more years”.

Obamacare

Why Do Republicans Want To Repeal Obamacare So Much Because It Would Be A Big Tax Cut For The Rich

There are going to be so many tax cuts for the rich, you’re going to get tired of tax cuts for the rich. You’re going to say, “Mr. President, please don’t cut taxes for the rich so much, this is getting terrible.”

arrow-right

And it will start when Republicans repeal Obamacare.

This is the Rosetta Stone for understanding why conservatives have acted like subsidized health care was the end of the republic itself. It wasn’t just that it had the word “Obama” in its name, which, in our polarized age, was enough to ensure that 45 percent of the country would despise it. No, it was that Obamacare was one of the biggest redistributive policies of the last 50 years. The Republican Party, after all, exists for what seems like the sole purpose of reversing redistribution.

A quick recap: Obamacare is a kind of three-legged stool. First, it tells insurance companies that they can’t discriminate against sick people anymore; second, it tells people that they have to buy insurance or pay a penalty, so that everyone doesn’t just wait until they’re sick to get covered; and third, it helps people who can’t afford the plans they have to buy be able to. Which is to say that you need to come up with a whole lot of money to make this work — money that Obamacare gets by taxing the rich. Indeed, at its most basic level, it raises taxes on the top 1 percent to pay for health insurance for the bottom 40 percent.

Getting tired of tax cuts for the rich yet?

Theres One Reason Why Republicans Keep Telling Obama To Shut Up Its Exactly What You Think

Republicans have smeared and violated the first black president since he first ran for the office, demanding that he watch his mouth and “show his papers.”

Looking back now, I was likely beginning my journey to leaving the Republican Party on September 9, 2009, when Barack Obama was addressing a Joint Session of Congress and Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, shouted “you lie” in the middle of the president’s address.

The president looked in the direction of the shout, calmly said, “it’s not true” and continued. The House rebuked Wilson a week later, but notably that vote came on party lines, and the tone had been set.

The next year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” The year after that, Donald Trump joined the so-called Birthers “just asking” whether the first black president was even really an American at all.

Republicans have kept attacking Obama ever since, even after he left office—smearing him, violating him, demanding that he “show his papers.”

McConnell, Trump’s lapdog, told Trump’s daughter in law, Lara Trump, that Obama was “a little bit classless,” and instructed him to “keep his mouth shut.” He didn’t say “boy, stay in your place” but he didn’t have to. The people who belong to Trump and McConnell’s Republican Party know damn well what he meant there, and made no real effort to mask.

READ THIS LIST

His Eulogy For John Lewis Was Typically Soaring The Reaction On The Right Was Furious

Last week, a former president gave a speech in which he described the United States as a country dedicated to high ideals and striving to “form a more perfect union,” and he called on Americans to support reforms that would help to ensure more equal representation for all. In response, members of the opposing party said that this former president was promoting “communist terrorist propaganda,” and labeled him “cynical,” “divisive and partisan,” a “national disgrace,” and “one of the sleaziest and most dishonest figures in the history of American politics.”

I’m talking, of course, about Barack Obama’s eulogy for civil rights icon John Lewis — and the unhinged reaction of right-wing journalists and media personalities to it. The context is what made that reaction so astonishing. We’re three-and-a-half years into an administration defined by constantly dividing the country between those who support the current president and everyone else, who are often denigrated as haters and losers and “enemies of the people.” More proximally, last week was one when Donald Trump suggested postponing the 2020 presidential election and promised suburban voters that he would protect them from being “bothered” by poor people moving into their neighborhoods and lowering their property values. That was the context for Republicans taking offense at Obama for daring to suggest that “we can do better.”

We’re Less Far Apart Politically Than We Think Why Can’t We All Get Along

Partisans on both sides of the aisle significantly overestimate the extent of extremism in the opposing party. The more partisan the thinker, the more distorted the other side appears. And when we see the opposition as extremists, we fear them. Our tribal thinking prepares us for battle.

What’s the solution? More information? More political engagement? More education?

Surely more information leads to better judgment. But social scientists at the international initiative More in Common find that having more information from the news media is associated with a less accurate understanding of political opponents. Part of the problem appears to be the political biases of media sources themselves. Of all the various news media examined, only the traditional TV networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, are associated with a better understanding of political views.

This discrepancy may be a result of the lack of political diversity among professors and administrators on campus. As political scientist Sam Abrams found, the average left to right ratio of professors nationwide is 6 to 1 and the ratio of student-facing administrators is 12 to 1. Democrats who have few or no Republican friends see the other side as more extreme than do those with more politically diverse friends. And the more educated Democrats are, the less likely they are to have friends who don’t share their political beliefs.

So what can you do?

A version of this article appeared on the Newsmax platform.

Obama Is Antithetical To Trump So Long As He Exists Trump Is Threatened

Central to Trump’s presidency is the effort to erase Obama’s legacy—his policies, his social agenda, and, more intriguingly, his very persona. This observation is neither new nor original. After all, Trump’s run on the Republican party began with his advocacy of birtherism, an attempt to quite literally delegitimize Obama. .

Obama has remained top of mind for Trump ever since. The evidence is by now well documented: The flap over inauguration crowd size; the withdrawal from the Iran deal; the rollback of Obama’s environmental policies; the broadband attack on Obama’s environmental regulation and nondiscrimination policies; the ongoing assault on Obamacare; his complaints of “presidential harassment”; his recent disparagement of Obama during the G-7 meeting , and on and on.

Many observers have taken notice. Back in 2017, Charles Blow of The New York Times wrote, “Trump is obsessed with Obama. Obama haunts Trump’s dreams. One of Trump’s primary motivators is the absolute erasure of Obama – were it possible – not only from the political landscape but also from the history books.”

“Two Years Into Trump’s Presidency, Obama Remains a Top Target for Criticism,” Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman have likewise noted recently in the Times “It took all of one minute and nine seconds for President Trump to go after his predecessor on Friday — just one minute and nine seconds to re-engage in a debate that has consumed much of his own time in office over who was the better president.”

Video: Its Impossible To Imagine Trump Without The Force Of Whiteness

Roediger relates the experience, around 1807, of a British investor who made the mistake of asking a white maid in New England whether her “master” was home. The maid admonished the investor, not merely for implying that she had a “master” and thus was a “sarvant” but for his basic ignorance of American hierarchy. “None but negers are sarvants,” the maid is reported to have said. In law and economics and then in custom, a racist distinction not limited to the household emerged between the “help” and the “servants” . The former were virtuous and just, worthy of citizenship, progeny of Jefferson and, later, Jackson. The latter were servile and parasitic, dim-witted and lazy, the children of African savagery. But the dignity accorded to white labor was situational, dependent on the scorn heaped upon black labor—much as the honor accorded a “virtuous lady” was dependent on the derision directed at a “loose woman.” And like chivalrous gentlemen who claim to honor the lady while raping the “whore,” planters and their apologists could claim to honor white labor while driving the enslaved.

This is by design. Speaking in 1848, Senator John C. Calhoun saw slavery as the explicit foundation for a democratic union among whites, working and not:

With us the two great divisions of society are not the rich and poor, but white and black; and all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals.

Why Is The Affordable Care Act So Despised By So Many Conservatives

IT HAS been called “the most dangerous piece of legislation ever passed”, “as destructive to personal and individual liberties as the Fugitive Slave Act” and a killer of women, children and old people. According to Republican lawmakers, the sources of each of these quotes, the Affordable Care Act , or Obamacare, is a terrible thing. Since it was passed by a Democratic Congress in 2009, it has been the bête noire of the Republicans. The party has pushed more than 60 unsuccessful Congressional votes to defeat it, while the Supreme Court has been forced to debate it four times in the act’s short history. Obamacare was also at the heart of the two-week government shutdown in 2013. Why does the ACA attract such opprobrium from the right?

Race Alone Doesn’t Explain Hatred Of Obama But It’s Part Of The Mix

NPR

President Obama speaks at a news briefing in July about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. Carolyn Kaster/APhide caption

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President Obama speaks at a news briefing in July about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman.

It’s a fact of American life that a good share of the electorate is disappointed, disapproving and even disdainful of President Obama. What’s less certain are the reasons why.

For some Democrats, the explanation is simple: race. In recent weeks, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Mississippi Rep. and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist have all said racism is the driving force behind Republican resistance to the president.

Republicans, unsurprisingly, say their disdain for Obama is based not on the color of his skin, but on the content of his policies.

“If any white Democrat had pushed through a billion-dollar stimulus plan and a takeover of the health care industry, he would have been equally detested by conservatives and Republicans,” says Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster and consultant.

There’s no question we’re living in a time of divisive politics, when roughly half the country is likely to hate the president, no matter whom he or she might be.

But race has been a factor in American politics since the very beginning. It’s certainly part of the mix in terms of responses to Obama.

Race Is Not The Whole Story

But Race Is Definitely A Factor

All That Obama Represents

Facebook

Obama Really Did Activate Voters Their Hopes But Also Their Fears

There are reams of evidence supporting this explanation, and I run through much of it in my piece “White Threat in a Browning America.” Obama’s presidency was inextricable from the massive demographic change that made it possible, and that continues to reshape American life and politics. But it wasn’t just demographic change that Obama represented. Obama, though a Christian himself, led an increasingly secular coalition, and was othered as a secret Muslim in the minds of many conservatives. Similarly, perceptions of economic change were filtered through broader views about Obama and the country: the political scientist Michael Tesler found that the most racially resentful Americans were the most economically pessimistic before the 2016 election and the most economically optimistic after it.

Obama, notably, spoke about race less than past presidents. But Obama himself was a symbol of a changing America, of white America’s loss of power, of new groups were gaining power. That perception wasn’t wrong: In his 2012 reelection campaign, Obama won merely 39 percent of the white vote — a smaller share than Michael Dukakis had commanded in 1988. That is to say, a few decades ago, the multiracial Obama coalition couldn’t drive American politics; by 2012, it could.

On its face, this is laughable. But Limbaugh’s audience wasn’t laughing. They were listening.

So yes, all of this led to Trump.

Have Republicans Ever Hated A President More Than Barack Obama

It’s getting harder to deny.

The widespread belief on the right that Barack Obama is a Muslim is one of the stranger features of this period in history. There are some of them who know that Obama says he’s a Christian but are sure that’s all an act designed to fool people, while he secretly prays to Allah. But there are probably a greater number who haven’t given it all that much thought; they just heard somewhere that he’s a Muslim, and it made perfect sense to them-after all, he’s kinda foreign, if you know what I mean. Rather remarkably, that belief has grown over time; as the latest poll from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows, fully 30 percent of Republicans, and 34 percent of conservative Republicans, now believe Obama is Muslim. These numbers are about double what they were four years ago.

You can bet there aren’t too many who think there’s nothing wrong with it if he were. For many of them, it’s just a shorthand for Obama being alien and threatening. So it leads me to ask: Can we say, finally, that no Democratic president has ever been hated by Republicans quite as much as Barack Obama?

This antipathy has multiple sources interacting together, so it’s overly simplistic to say that it’s just because of Obama’s race, or it’s just because of heightened partisanship. But it’s getting harder and harder to claim that there’s ever been a Democrat Republicans hated more.

The Seeds Of Trump’s Victory Were Sown The Moment Obama Won

Nine months into the Donald Trump administration, the United States seems eons removed from the country that just nine years ago elected its first black president.

Yet the racial divide that Trump demonstrated with his narrow Electoral College win was always there.

President Barack Obama read to a certain portion of white America as an unending attack on white Christian identity, centrality and cultural relevance. In their minds, he was seeking to end their right to bear arms and the right of conservatives to speak freely.

For this group of Americans, Trump has been the corrective. As Ta-Nehisi Coates points out in his brilliant Atlantic essay, “The First White President,” for Trump’s supporters, his election was itself the point. Putting a human wrecking ball against political correctness, feminism, multiculturalism and even decency was the ballgame.

Obama’s election masked this fierce racial schism for only a few short months. That ended the moment he declared, in July of his first year in the Oval Office, that a white Cambridge police officer acted “stupidly” for arresting a black college professor — and long-time Obama friend and mentor — outside his own home.

The racial divide that Trump demonstrated with his narrow Electoral College win was always there.

Yet Obama won re-election by a convincing 5 million votes. Even more than in 2008, his victory demonstrated the power of a non-white constituency to do the once-impossible: deliver the White House, twice.

How The Right Wing Convinces Itself That Liberals Are Evil

Since the 1950s, the conservative movement has justified bad behavior—including supporting Donald Trump—by persuading itself that the left is worse.

If you spend any time consuming right-wing media in America, you quickly learn the following: Liberals are responsible for racism, slavery, and the Ku Klux Klan. They admire Mussolini and Hitler, and modern liberalism is little different from fascism or, even worse, communism. The mainstream media and academia cannot be trusted because of the pervasive, totalitarian nature of liberal culture.

This did not begin with Donald Trump. The modern Republican Party may be particularly apt to push conspiracy theories to rationalize its complicity with a staggeringly corrupt administration, but this is an extension of, not a break from, a much longer history. Since its very beginning, in the 1950s, members of the modern conservative movement have justified bad behavior by convincing themselves that the other side is worse. One of the binding agents holding the conservative coalition together over the course of the past half century has been an opposition to liberalism, socialism, and global communism built on the suspicion, sometimes made explicit, that there’s no real difference among them.

The title of that LP? Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine. The American left is used to waiting for liberals to finally get ruthless. Through the eyes of the right, they always have been.

Support Nonprofit Journalism

The Real Reason Trump Is So Dead Set On Crushing Obamacare

Chris Cillizza

Over the past 24 hours, President Donald Trump has taken two actions aimed at mortally wounding the Affordable Care Act.

The first tasks his administration with increasing competition among health care insurers, a move very likely to drive younger people out of the insurance marketplace entirely and driving up costs across the board. The second, announced late Thursday night, .

The key to understanding Trump’s motivations here are entirely contained in the ACA’s shorthand nickname: Obamacare. It’s named after the man – former President Barack Obama – who shepherded it into existence. And that’s exactly why Trump wants to get rid of it.

Trump’s entire political life – dating all the way back to his adoption of birtherism earlier this decade – is positioned against all things Obama. Why? Because for many Trump supporters in this country, Obama – and his beliefs about society and government – were the antithesis of what they believed.

The best way to distinguish yourself in Republican politics during Obama’s time in office was to position yourself against, literally, everything about Obama – up to and including his legitimacy to be president due to fact-free claims about where he was born.

At every rally, every speech and almost every day on Twitter during the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to get rid of Obamacare – and quickly.

How America Changed During Barack Obamas Presidency

Michael Dimock

Barack Obama campaigned for the U.S. presidency on a platform of change. As he prepares to leave office, the country he led for eight years is undeniably different. Profound social, demographic and technological changes have swept across the United States during Obama’s tenure, as have important shifts in government policy and public opinion.

Apple released its first iPhone during Obama’s 2007 campaign, and he announced his vice presidential pick – Joe Biden – on a two-year-old platform called Twitter. Today, use of smartphones and social media has become the norm in U.S. society, not the exception.

The election of the nation’s first black president raised hopes that race relations in the U.S. would improve, especially among black voters. But by 2016, following a spate of high-profile deaths of black Americans during encounters with police and protests by the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups, many Americans – especially blacks – described race relations as generally bad.

Percentage point difference between all adults saying race relations are “generally good” and those saying “generally bad”

Generally good

Obama presidency

PEW RESEARCH CENTER

But by some measures, the country faces serious economic challenges: A steady hollowing of the middle class, for example, continued during Obama’s presidency, and income inequality reached its highest point since 1928.

Related: How America Changed During Donald Trump’s Presidency

He’s Removed The Veneer That Hid America’s Racism

somehow left behind its racisracist tweets widely criticized

It doesn’t make any difference what color the president is. Malcolm X could have been elected president and racism would have continued just the same.

Kehinde Andrews, historian and author

“the heartbeat of racism” Kehinde AndrewsJoe Scarborough Max Boot.one poll

Racist policies work better when they don’t seem to be racist… once the veneer comes off, a lot of people in the middle will shy away. Trump has taken away the veneer.

Kevin Kruse, historian

it’s just racist.

The Thing Donald Trump Hates Most About Obama

Donald Trump spoke to GQ last month as he sat at his desk in Trump Tower, and many of his characteristically idiosyncratic reflections on the improbable months he has spent as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination appeared in the December 2015 issue. But inevitably, a single article cannot possibly convey all that Donald Trump is, and so some segments of the conversation had to remain unheard. Until now.

You said an interesting thing in one of your first interviews, in 1981: “Man is the most vicious of all animals and life is a series of battles ending in victory and defeat.” Is that still what you think?Sure. I mean, the lions hunt for food. Oftentimes humans hunt for sport. It’s much different. But you look at the chain, and you look at what’s going on in the chain, and yeah, mankind is pretty tough.

I can see that. At the same time I don’t know how the electorate’s going to feel: to be characterized as the most vicious of all animals.Oh, I think they’ll be fine with it. I think they know it’s true. What—you want me to take it back? “Oh, I’m sorry I said that…”

And people who think that that’s not true—they’re just fooling themselves?I think people think it is true.

But I guess one way to look at the world is it’s a jungle and a fight for survival, and another way to look at the world is we’re all in it together and we should love each other**.**

An important part of what you’re saying all the time is “I’m smart.” How smart are you?I’m very smart.

Trump Has Banished The Ghost Of Ronald Reagan

for sayingone memorable phrase

We’re now in a time in American history and in world history where we cannot imply afford to be moderate. We can’t afford to just be tinkering around the edges.

Rutger Bregman, historian and author

economic expansion“haunted by the Reagan era.” at times more like a Republicanproposedreducedncluded conservative ideasGippernever cutvowed to raise taxes conservative voters wantedand notunexpected backlashPublic supportan essay “Rooseveltian vision of activist government.

Start Your Day With National Memo Newsletter

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As someone who was weaned on stories of leftist intellectuals and journalists traipsing off to communist countries to pay obeisance, I can only shake my head as a parade of right-wingers are making their way to Hungary to sing the praises of authoritarian Viktor Orban. Tucker Carlson of Fox News is the highest-profile rightist to make the trek, but the path was already well-trod.

Former National Review editor and Margaret Thatcher speechwriter John O’Sullivan has moved to Budapest to head the Danube Institute, a think tank funded by Orban’s government. He likes his nationalism straight up.

A few years ago, at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C., Orban was an honored guest, which was a bit head-snapping for those inattentive to the drift toward authoritarianism on the right. Speakers at the conference have featured mainstream figures such as John Bolton, Chris DeMuth, Peter Thiel, Oren Cass and Rich Lowry. In addition to Orban, other questionable invitees included Marion Marechal and Steve Bannon pal Matteo Salvini.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast. Her most recent book is Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

www.alternet.org

Why Do So Many People Hate Obamacare So Much

Facebook

Julie Rovner

toggle caption

Opposition to Obamacare has been strong from the beginning. Demonstrators made their dissatisfaction clear in front of the Supreme Court in 2015.

The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has roiled America since the day it was signed into law in 2010. From the start, the public was almost evenly divided between those who supported it and those who opposed it.

They still are. The November monthly tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 50 percent of those polled had a favorable view of the health law, while 46 percent viewed it unfavorably.

Partisan politics drives the split. Eighty percent of Democrats were supportive in November, while 81 percent of Republicans were strongly negative.

That helps explain why Republicans are working to repeal a key element of the health law in the tax bill Congress is negotiating. The requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a tax penalty — the so-called individual mandate — is by far the most unpopular provision of the law, particularly among Republicans.

Still, while partisanship is a major reason why some people hate the health law, it’s far from the only one. Here are four more:

Ideology

Adding to that was the unhappiness with the ACA’s individual mandate. Although the idea was originally suggested by Republicans in the late 1980s, the GOP had mostly backed away from it over the years .

Lack of knowledge

Confusing the health law with the rest of the health system

Are Voters Responsible For Their Own Choices

Where Obama and Shapiro differ sharply in their explanation is in the attribution of blame. Obama blames Trump — and others in the Republican Party and conservative media — for demagogically preying on Americans’ fears and anxieties. Shapiro blames Obama for adopting a lecturing tone that alienated a critical mass of Americans.

Some of this strikes me as, well, strange. John McCain just had Obama speak at his funeral. The idea that the 2008 campaign was uniquely scurrilous is provably wrong. The rest of it is the usual Rorschach test of American politics; I think Obama treated issues of identity with unusual care and caution and, particularly early in his presidency, was unusually willing to believe the best of his political opponents, but I doubt I’ll change any minds on that in this column. Indeed, the deep division over how identity politics was wielded in the Obama era, and who was really acting outside the norms of American politics, is exactly what you’d expect if you believe this broader story of demographic, political, and cultural upheaval.

More interesting, I think, is the way both Obama and Shapiro implicitly absolve voters of responsibility for the choices they made. Obama’s basic argument is that too much change, too fast, made right-leaning voters susceptible to a demagogue’s charms; Shapiro’s basic argument is that too much of Obama’s liberal provocations, for too long, made right-leaning voters long for a strongman of their own.

It’s Not Just Deranged It’s Projection

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

There’s no doubt that when historians assess the Obama presidency, they will pay a great deal of attention to the deep political divisions within the country, and how those divisions shaped political events. There are racial divisions, class divisions, and, most of all, political divisions. Within Congress, for instance, the parties have been moving apart for the last 40 years, as fewer and fewer moderates get elected and the median of both parties moves toward the edge. But the reality is that while Democrats have moved left, Republicans have been moving right much more sharply — a fact not only established by political science but evident to anyone remotely familiar with Capitol Hill.

Yet Republicans are sure that the fault for all this — long-term trends and recent developments alike — can be laid at the feet of Barack Obama, who is terribly, appallingly, despicably divisive.

Here’s the truth: You might like Barack Obama or you might not; you might think he has been a good president or a bad one. But the idea that blame for the political divisions we confront lies solely or even primarily at his door is positively deranged.

They followed through on this plan. As Mitch McConnell explained proudly in 2010, “Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny Barack Obama a second term.”

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rickhorrow · 5 years

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10 To Watch : Mayor’s Edition 102819

RICK HORROW’S TOP 10 SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF OCTOBER 28 : MAYOR’S EDITION

with Jacob Aere

Under Armour and Nike announce CEO shifts on the same day. Last Tuesday, Under Armour announced that founder Kevin Plank was stepping down from his CEO role, just as Nike was letting the world know that Mark Parker, a 40-year Nike veteran, was likewise assuming a different role at the $40 billion company. While Under Armour struggled financially under Plank, Parker oversaw a profitable but controversial period for Nike. In Maryland, Plank will become Under Armour executive chairman and brand chief. The changes come as the company's North American sales are struggling. In Oregon, Parker led Nike through a period of tremendous growth but also saw his leadership challenged by a number of controversies. While Nike earnings are currently ahead of expectations, the company has also been plagued by recent scandals, including a doping accusation that saw Nike shutter its renowned track and field program, and a sexual misconduct and gender discrimination case. Plank will be replaced by COO Patrik Frisk, who will assume the CEO role on January 1. Parker will step down January 13 and be replaced by John Donahoe, CEO of ServiceNow Inc. and chairman of PayPal Holdings.

There’s no shortage of intrigue and excitement surrounding this year’s match up, as the Washington Nationals square off against the Houston Astros in the 115th World Series. As the Series enters its second week with the Astros leading the Nationals 3-2, WalletHub takes a closer look at everything that makes the Series such a special event. For starters, the number 53 marks the combined number of years of the Astros' and Nationals' World Series droughts. While the Astros won the Series in 2017, it's been 51 years since the team formerly known as the Montreal Expos won a championship. Forbes values the two teams at roughly the same number, $1.8 billion, and the two teams have roughly the same team salary allotment, in the $207-$208 million range. The projected ad revenue for FOX for each game beyond the minimum four to win the Series is $45.7 million. And finally, for the eventual winner, the "Commissioner's Trophy" crafted by Tiffany and Company has an estimated physical value of $19,000.

The San Francisco 49ers will include basic food and beverages in the cost of season tickets starting in 2020, marking a major shift in concessions strategy. According to 49ers President Al Guido, the all-inclusive approach will not extend to season tickets resold on the secondary market, or to single-game buyers. The undefeated 49ers have about 60,000 season-ticket holders in a stadium that seats 68,500. In market research, Guido said season-ticket holders “overwhelmingly” reported they are willing to pay more than what the stadium currently makes on each fan to get concessions included. The non-transferability of the food & beverage deal is possible under Ticketmaster’s mobile ticketing system that assigns unique barcodes to every user. Items that will be free include chicken tenders, beef and vegan hot dogs, hot links, nachos, fries, pretzels, popcorn, peanuts candies, water, coffee, and all Pepsi products. The 49ers and concessionaire Levy have reportedly been studying the change since Levy won Levi’s Stadium business in February, 2018. It took more than a year of research to determine whether it could be done without causing prohibitive financial or operational costs.

The Green Bay Packers and Microsoft raised $25 million for their TitletownTech business innovation fund. The TitletownTech fund reached its goal of $25 million with the addition of a dozen Wisconsin-based investors, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette. The Packers and Microsoft each committed $5 million to the fund, which will invest in high-growth early-stage and existing businesses aligned with industries in northeastern Wisconsin. Other investors in the accelerator program include Boston Bruins alternative governor Jerry Jacobs, Jr. and New York Mets COO Jeff Wilpon, both of whom sit on the TitletownTech advisory board. TitletownTech, a technology and innovation-focused campus in the Packers' Titletown District development near Lambeau Field, includes an innovation lab, a business solutions space called a venture studio, and the venture fund's headquarters. Moving forward, its work will focus on five business silos: sports, media, and entertainment; digital health; agriculture, water, and environment; advanced manufacturing; and supply chain technology. The Packers-Microsoft partnership is just the latest example of how sports franchises are thinking way outside the mixed-use stadium district development box to benefit their communities.

NFL Players Coalition, Meek Mill, and others host Philadelphia Town Hall event. On Monday, October 28, global music streaming and entertainment platform, TIDAL will be live streaming, for free, the NFL Players Coalition Town Hall Event in Philadelphia. The event, according to a TIDAL release, will feature rapper Meek Mill, co-founder of Players Coalition/NFL Player Malcolm Jenkins, and other influencers discussing what the city of Philadelphia wants in its next police commissioner. Players Coalition aims to make an impact on social justice and racial equality through advocacy, awareness, education, and allocation of resources. TIDAL’s support of key social justice issues has been a pillar of the streaming service’s mission since its inception, and it is committed to amplifying conversations through the platform that will lead to a better future globally. The Philadelphia town hall meeting, and others like it nationally, are testaments to the NFL’s commitment to support social justice issues important to its players, alumni, and fans. Time will tell if the Players Coalition, with the league’s support, will truly be able to influence grassroots issues in the cities in which its games are played.

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney and his $9.3 million annual salary have taken over the top spot in the annual USA Today coaches’ salary database. Rounding out the top five are Nick Saban ($8.9 million), Jim Harbaugh ($7.5 million), Jimbo Fisher ($7.5 million), and Kirby Smart ($6.9 million). Notably, the top 83 coaches included in the list of 130 schools earned more than $1 million annually in salary alone. Also, the average total pay for the 122 FBS coaches for whom USA TODAY Sports could obtain compensation figures is $2.67 million, up 9% compared to last season – the increase is the largest in four years. And, for the first time, there is a league in which all of the coaches are making at least $3 million. That league is the 14-school Southeastern Conference, in which the average total pay is $4.95 million. College football coaches have seen salaries sky rocket in the last 10 years, meanwhile college athlete compensation is set to kick off in California come 2023.

The NBA has confirmed that Salt Lake City will host the 2023 NBA All-Star Game. The 72nd edition of the mid-season exhibition match, which sees teams selected by a combination of fan, player, and media voting, will be staged at Vivint Smart Home Arena, the home of the Utah Jazz, February 19 2023. The event will mark the 30th anniversary of the only previous time Utah’s capital city hosted the All-Star Game in 1993, when the Vivint Smart Home Arena was known as the Delta Center. The NBA’s 2023 All-Star festivities will kick off February 17 that year, featuring additional programming for fans at venues throughout Salt Lake City. The league also plans to run a full schedule of NBA Cares and Diversity & Inclusion events. “Along with a rich basketball tradition, Salt Lake City has proven to be a world-class destination for large-scale events and sports competitions,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver. “I want to thank the Miller Family and the Utah Jazz organization for their commitment to hosting our All-Star festivities and to developing a program that will leave a lasting impact on the community.” Added Jazz owner Gail Miller, “The memory of John Stockton and Karl Malone sharing MVP honors 30 years ago remains strong. We are excited to create new memories for this generation of NBA fans.” Next year’s All-Star Game is being held at Chicago’s United Center before heading to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis in 2021.

National Women’s Soccer League inks an exclusive deal with Octagon for media rights and marketing consulting. According to Sports Video Group, Octagon will provide comprehensive media rights valuation, sales strategy services, and work directly with NWSL executives to secure and amplify new media distribution opportunities. In addition, Octagon’s Marketing division will assist the league with brand marketing, asset development, sponsorship valuation, and fan engagement insights to help generate increases in overall reach and revenue for the league and its teams. Featuring more than 200 of the world’s best professional soccer players, including U.S. Women’s National Team members and two-time World Cup Champions Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, and Alex Morgan, as well as international stars Marta, Christine Sinclair, and Sam Kerr, the NWSL is highlighted by 23 current FIFA Women’s World Cup Champions and 58 FIFA Women’s World Cup team members. Budwesier has also launched a campaign focused on finding the NWSL new sponsors as more money is being put into women’s soccer across the globe.

The sports world aims to tackle ocean plastic pollution. According to SportTechie, a research expedition embarked from the southwest coast of the U.K., on a two-year mission to sail westward around the world. The crew aboard the S.V. TravelEdge, a 73-foot floating laboratory, will travel 38,000-nautical-miles and cross all five of the world’s major ocean gyres, regions where rotating currents lead to the accumulation of floating plastic waste. The 300 women joining the all-female rotating team will investigate to find solutions to plastic pollution. The “eXXpedition Round The World” is being organized by sailor Emily Penn, who is among a growing group of athletes and people connected to the sports world that is advocating for and taking action to protect the environment. Another goal of Penn’s journey is to create a global network of ambassadors who can advocate to help solve the problem. She has been working with a larger environmental organization called 11th Hour Racing over the last few years to give talks and run workshops for other sailors to learn how they can play a role in tackling plastic pollution. By having athletes tackle environmental problems head on, they can use their social influence to be advocates for policy and lifestyle change.

Seven NFL dads partner with Pampers to install changing tables in their local communities. According to Business Wire, Pampers’ commitment to install 5,000 changing tables across North America by 2021 secured the help of seven hands-on NFL dads today. In honor of October 26’s National Make a Difference Day, Pampers is leading the installation of changing tables in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit and Charlotte so all parents can #LoveTheChange in public places. The seven players include Sterling Shepard of the New York Giants, Tevin Coleman of the San Francisco 49ers, Marvin Jones Jr. of the Detroit Lions, Brian Westbrook of the Philadelphia Eagles, Derek Wolfe of the Denver Broncos, Matt Forte of the Chicago Bears, and Dontari Poe of the Carolina Panthers. The changing tables help to address the changing table inequality for men who care for babies and by using seven NFL dads the topic will gain more limelight.

#10 #10towatch

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megacircuit9universe · 5 years

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Self Driving Economy?

This entry is gonna sound a bit out of place, but with the subject of AI having just been touched on at the same time that the economy, and specifically, fears of a coming recession have been in the news... well, I have a theory that maybe is worth exploring, even if it turns out to be wrong.

I’m old enough to have experienced several recessions in America, but by far the two worst... and the two which most affected the course of my life, were the Dot.Com Bust in 2001, and then the Housing Bust which hit full force in 2008.

Before the former, during the Dot.Com Boom, all well respected economic authorities were honestly out there saying there was no reason the economy couldn’t keep growing forever. And when that bubble burst (in early 2001, months before 9/11) it really took everybody by surprise.

In retrospect, everybody saw that all the booming internet start up companies everybody was scrambling to invest in, lacked any plan for turning an actual profit. The internet was still too much of a wild west, and... like the actual wild west... sparked a kind of gold rush that for many, did not pan out.

But, that was okay because there was still one reliable thing that everybody could invest in, whether the economy was booming or busting... good old real estate! Home equity! Always keeps growing over time... like a law of physics.

And while the broken Internet economy slowly nursed itself back to health for five years after 2001... everybody got really hyper about houses. New ones were being built. Old ones were being flipped. And mortgage loans became easier and easier to get for more and more people... and home values began to dramatically inflate.

That modest old bungalow on the East side, which had taken many decades to get to where it was worth a modest 60K, overnight went up to 90K, then 120K.... just sitting there... without being renovated in any way.

It got to the point where any shoebox sitting on any plot of dirt was worth 100K automatically, and everything else was correspondingly overvalued across the spectrum, and across the country.

Once again, economists weren’t too worried. Maybe they seemed a bit less ecstatic than during the Dot.Com Bubble, but they weren’t super worried.

Until, BLAM! Housing prices suddenly began to slide for the first time in seventy years... which began happening in late 2006... leading to the big bank collapse two years later in the Fall of 2008.

So, I’m gonna stop here and make the analogy of the economy being like a car.

Like a car, it’s a complex machine with a lot of moving parts that performs best when it gets regular maintenance... is well oiled... and has plenty of fuel.

But also like a car... if it’s being driven by a drunk... or a maniac... then the rest doesn’t matter, because it’s going to crash.

So in 2001, the car crashed... and it was a pretty bad accident. And in 2008, it crashed even worse... actually bursting into flames and requiring all kinds of first responders to put out the fire, and do a ton of damage control.

But since 2008, something’s been different... since 2008, the car has driven longer and faster than in it’s whole history, without a crash, or even a minor fender bender.

and weirder still... over the past two years, with history’s worst President at the wheel... the drunkest of drunk drivers... the stock market has been plunging and peaking, plunging and peaking.... like a crazy roller coaster ride... and yet... it never crashes.

Most recently we just had what they call an “inverted yield curve” which... in this analogy, is basically a loop the loop... but we did not fly off the rails.

And, knowing as I do, how fragile the economy used to be... not just in the early 2000s, but all through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s... this weirdly unshakable stability is not just new... it's beyond belief, and should not be possible!

Unless... this is an upgraded car, that now has more safety and self-driving features than ever imagined before.

Hmmmm...

Now, clearly if such self-driving features exist, they were not put there by legislation... I mean... they did try to pass some legislation in the Obama years to keep a crash like 2008 from happening again, but most of that got watered down or actively repealed in years quickly to follow.

Rich people hate regulation, and are famous for never learning their lessons, after all.

But legislation is not the only form of regulation... there is also just... administrative policy... namely, in Obama’s case, policies that once again favored science and technology... as well as global economic integration.

Clinton era policy, in the late 1990s, gave us the World Wide Web to begin with, but it was early on Obama’s watch that we saw the advent of the smart phone, which, transformed the internet all over again, as well as technology in general... and both on a global scale.

This, in turn, not only globalized the economy like never before, but created whole new avenues for it to explore.

In the early 1990s, you were paid with a paper paycheck that you deposited at the physical bank and then... you kept track of your bank balance in your checkbook or in your head.

If you wanted to buy something you got in your car and spent the day shopping the different stores to see what they had and who had the best deal.

The biggest convenience you had back then was your ATM card, with which you could get cash to pay for your thing at the cash register, before lugging it home in your vehicle.

By the early 2000s, you probably had direct deposit, and could do your banking in real time on the desktop PC at home. You could pre-shop the stores by going to their websites, before getting in the car, and you also had a debit card that functioned anywhere the same as cash.

But that was nothing compared to what was possible in the twenty-teens.

Now, thanks to a hand held device 1000 times more powerful than my 2001 desktop PC, that I carry on my person wherever I go... and thanks to an economic infrastructure which has entirely grown around that device... I can bank wherever I am... I can shop, and purchase nearly anything wherever I am standing, and have it delivered to my doorstep... and I can also give my money to any person, or cause I feel like, instantly, in whatever increments I wish, large or small.

Also, I can be part of, say... a fandom... and just by being a fan of some franchise, like Iron Man, can enable Marvel to spend ten years on a cinematic universe that employs hundreds of thousands of people to make movies that bring in billions of dollars, and also support a secondary economy of comic book movie reviewers online, etc.

Money moves more freely in the twenty teens than ever before... on the dollars and cents level. If my nephew, 2000 miles away, needs twenty bucks, I can give it to him immediately, in bed, in my underwear.

If my favorite YouTube channel needs twenty bucks, I can give it to them. If Amazon allows me to buy some new socks with one click... or Pokemon Go wants to sell me a few extra pokeballs with another click... you can bet I’m clicking to buy that stuff right now!

But it’s not just pocket devices and people making impulse buys.

If that’s all it was, it would still be a much larger buffer against recession than we had in the days of old, when money didn’t move around so freely, so quickly.

No, there are also the algorithms.

Two of the most famous algorithms, the Google search algorithm, and the YouTube algorithm (YouTube is owned by Google) predate the era of the smart phone, but definitely have come into their own post smart phone.

And now we live in a world where every single app worth it’s salt has an algorithm designed to learn your preferences, help you discover more preferences you weren’t aware of before... and ultimately help you either make some kind of purchase, or at least bring your eyeballs to something that will profit from your having viewed and liked it.

And all the modern algorithms arise from theories of computer learning. They learn how better to serve both you, and their corporate masters. And this is done kind of inside a black box, where random tweaks are made to each new generation of algorithms... without knowing what the effect of that tweak might be, and then, the tweaked algorithms are field tested, with only the top performing ones left to survive and be tweaked again.

It’s a process very similar to the breeding of animals and plants that humans did throughout the history of civilization... starting with some basic forms... getting them to fuck... keeping the good ones we like, and letting the failures die out... without any need to understand the molecular details involved on the level of the DNA.

Who knows how exactly they bred the husky? Doesn’t matter. They pull sleds and love snow so... they can stay! Same with corn... how did we mutate grass into doing that? Not sure... but we worked it for a long time, and we got there.

So, by the time Donald Trump took office in 2017, we had a fully developed smart phone economy (no coincidence he’s the first president to be a problem on Twitter) and a next gen internet teeming with AI in the form of learning algorithms... growing more effective every day... at the one job they were all conceived to do...

...keep the money flowing.

This is all to say nothing of the algorithms that must be out there for stock traders online, by the way.

While retailers and app developers have been busy making it as easy as possible for everybody on Earth with an income and a bank account to move the tiniest amounts of money anywhere instantly... all of the investors out there, playing with the big money, have also come to rely more on their AI algorithms, than their own gut instincts.

Now... I’m not saying all of this makes the economy crash proof...

But all taken together, it makes the global economy a hell of a lot more crash resistant than it ever was before.

It’s a different kind of car now... such that if you have a crazy drunk driver like Donald Trump at the wheel... well... those pedals and that wheel are no longer direct input devices.

He can be as violent as he wants with them, but the computer... in this case, the sum total of all economic algorithms out there, now controlling the real levers of commerce automatically... all working toward the common goal of maintaining the status quo no matter what... just ignores violent inputs that fall outside a given range.

This results in a stock market that peaks one day, and plummets the next... with the overall effect being that the spikes and dips cancel out over the week, and even the loop-the-loops, like that inverted yield curve... are just momentary thrills that amount to nothing over the week or month.

Now, if I’m wrong about this... then I’m not totally wrong. I’m still right that more globalism and better technology has given us a more stable economy for longer than ever before.

So even if there is a crash... I’d say tech and globalism are still the way forward... maybe with some actual government regulation... depending on what exactly caused the crash?

Whatever the case... AI is the future and... within the next ten years, everybody’s gonna have a Jarvis who handles their affairs in ways that make today’s Alexa, Siri, etc... look like silly pull string talking dolls... and make us wonder how we ever survived without them.

READ: even acts as your primary council in a court of law... level of effective cyber assistant.

That is my crazy take on things tonight.

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douchebagbrainwaves · 5 years

Text

WHAT YOU KNOW

And so in starting a startup generally. The only way you're ever going to extract any value from it is to redefine the problem. They let their acquaintance drift, but only a few thousand are startups. The angel agrees to invest at a pre-money valuation of $1 million to a 20% chance of $10 million, while the percentages might end up looking like this, where your mind is free to roam, that it bumps into new ideas. You can mitigate this with subsidies at the bottom and taxes at the top, but unless taxes are high enough to discourage people from creating wealth, not by suing people. At least, that's the recipe for a lot of startups that end up going public didn't seem likely to at first. Though quite successful, it did not crush Apple. So Don't be evil. There was a friend they wanted to make more, but not random: I found my doodles changed after I started studying painting.

The word was first used for backers of Broadway plays, but now that the reaction is self-sustaining what drives it is the people. By breaking software development, Apple gets the opposite of what they intended: the version of an app currently available in the App Store approval process is broken. Enjoy it while it lasts, and get as much as a checkout clerk because he is a warlord who somehow holds her in thrall.1 Like a kid tasting whisky for the first time, realizing with shock that the players were deliberately bumping into one another, and techniques spread rapidly between them. Silicon Valley and other places. Don't go out of business, even if the audience doesn't understand all the details. They let their acquaintance drift, but only a little more extreme than other big companies because they can threaten a counter-suit.2 Want to try a frightening thought experiment?3 If you've truly made something good, you're doing well.

They'd face some challenges if they wanted me to introduce them to more investors. Then I asked what was the maximum percentage of the money they manage: about 2% a year in management fees, plus a percentage of the gains.4 The four causes: open source, which makes software free; the Web, which makes promotion free if you're good; and better languages, which make development a lot cheaper. We would at most have said that one could be a problem if customers feel pinched: you may even be false, in industrial democracies.5 Craigslist is effectively upwind of enormous revenues. Such deals may be a net win for founders, who have nothing, would prefer a 100% chance of $1 million. Wealth When I was five I thought electricity was created by electric sockets. Which seems to me exactly what one would want to be CFO of a public company now.6 The prototypical rich man of the nineteenth century was not a tenth as motivated as the startup. We tolerate noise and mess and junk food, but not if you're working on technology.

It certainly describes what happened in finance too. Some of the founders. Responding to Tone. Most people prefer to remain in denial about problems.7 And yet fighting is just as much work as thinking about real problems. With an apparently inexhaustible sum of money sitting safely in the bank, the founders didn't seem like us. I often spent money I desperately needed on stuff that I didn't ask my parents for seed money, though. Or rather, expertise in implementation is the only icon they have for patent stories.8 Whether you end up among the living or the dead comes down to the third ingredient, not giving up. You turn the fan back on, and the serfs who work their estates. Most startups face similar challenges, so we hope these will be useful to have metaphors in a programming language?

Throw away a perfectly good rotary telephone?9 The gradual accumulation of checks in an organization proposes to add a few more checks on public companies. Forms up to this point can usually be ignored as proving nothing. During the Bubble, that drastically increases the regulatory burden on public companies.10 A frightening prospect? For a startup, then if the startup fails, you fail. And yet also in a way a question doesn't. Viaweb's was the Microsoft Word of ecommerce. I can't think of one that began in an incubator. If you're a hacker and you're presenting to experienced investors, they're probably better at detecting bullshit than you are.11

Angel rounds are their whole business, as online video was for YouTube.12 A fine idea, but the thousand little things the big company doesn't want to see the rehearsals. It seemed like selling out. The rewards would come later. Palm and RIM haven't a hope. General Motors. So seed investors usually care less about the idea than the people. And everyone knows that if you don't have to be wound. The second is that different startups need such different things, so you have to do that completely.

Well, probably; I mean it as a way to develop applications now is to launch fast and iterate. I was still trying to convince myself I could start a startup you should have sufficient vision not to need this crutch. So why do they need to offer different kinds of prosperity. The importance of personal introductions varies, but is less than with angels or VCs.13 The good news is that they're getting it for free. Where can you find more people who love that sort of thing? In the early 20th century, working-class people tried hard to look middle class.

Notes

It's possible that companies will one day be able to claim that companies like Google and Facebook are driven only by money—for example, if you turn out to coincide with other people's. The wartime versions were much more attractive to investors, but definitely monotonically. If only one person could go at a 5 million cap. You may be whether what you care about the Airbnbs during YC.

01. Do not finance your startup.

The existence of people who did invent things worth 100x or even shut the company by doing everything in exactly the opposite. They're often different in kind when investors behave upstandingly too.

The kind of bug to track ratios by time of day, because it has about the origins of the mail by Anton van Straaten on semantic compression. The application described here is one you take to pay employees this way is basically the market. 001 negative effect on social conventions about executive salaries were low partly because companies then were more at home at the bottom as they turn from their screen to answer the first time as an example of applied empathy.

Hypothesis: A company will be familiar to slip back into it. Forums were not web sites but Usenet newsgroups.

The history of the increase in economic inequality to turn into other forms of inequality, and so on?

Their opinion carries the same trick of enriching himself at the bottom of a severe-looking man with a product manager about problems integrating the Korean version of this talk became Why Startups Condense in America consider acting white.

Of the remaining outcomes don't have a better user experience. 9999 and. The other reason it's easy to slide into thinking that customers want what you care about GPAs. But it is still hard to compete directly with open source project, but it's not enough to turn Buffalo into a form you forgot to fill out can be explained by math.

We just store the data, it's easy to believe this much.

As the art business? Foster, Richard Florida told me how he had never invented anything—that an idea where there were some good proposals too. The top VCs thus have a one world viewpoint, deciding to move forward. In the Valley use the local builders built everything in exactly the opposite way as part of your universities is significantly lower, about 1.

But that oversimplifies his role.

Icio. Doing Business in 2006, http://www.

I put it this way, I asked some founders who'd taken series A investor has a similar variation in wealth, seniority will become as big as any adult's. I wonder how much they lied to them about. In A Plan for Spam.

Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Benedict Evans, Rich Draves, Fred Wilson, Carolynn Levy, Garry Tan, Jackie McDonough, Jessica Livingston, and Sarah Harlin for inviting me to speak.

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vdmeganlawsontei · 6 years

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Crypto is full of dumb ideas. Here are five of the dumbest.

The Five Silliest Cryptocurrencies Ever

Good coins are hard to find, but bad ones are everywhere. At least half of the top hundred cryptocurrencies are little more than monetized white papers, and the rest are scams.

But every once in a while we stumble across an idea so weird and bizarre it could only succeed on the Internet. Crypto Markets are full of these weird wonders; there’s a Garlic Coin, presumably for preventing vampires. There are themed coins for Fonzie, Putin and even Ron Paul. Fans of the 45th president have two Trump coins to choose from, and they can hedge their bets with Berncash as well. We lost track of the number of weed coins.

These ideas may not make sound investments, but they serve a higher purpose: giving the rest of us something to laugh about when the market crashes. Without further delay, here are our top picks for the silliest ideas ever to make it into a blockchain.

Dentacoin: The Money 9 out of 10 Dentists Recommend

There are two things everyone asks themselves whenever they go to the dentist. The first is “Boy, why didn’t I keep flossing?” The second is, “Wouldn’t this be better with a cryptocurrency?”

Finally, Dentacoin is here to answer our prayers.

Touting itself as “the first Blockchain based concept for the Global Dentist Industry,” Dentacoin(DCN) offers a long range of services to make your next trip to the chair even more painful. Details are hard to come by, since most links on the website are dead ends. One of the promised new platforms is a blockchain-based review service. Like Yelp, but for your teeth.

“Open Wide and say HODL”

There’s also a payment platform, so you can pay for your next root canal in cryptocurrency—which, come to think of it, is a pretty good metaphor for altcoin investing. The payment service has already partnered with several dentists and suppliers around the world, all of whom have suspiciously empty websites and badly-photoshopped images.

Still, the dental revolution was enough to make investors smile, and the coin jumped 900 percent in a single day. Dentacoin was briefly the 26th largest cryptocurrency, with a total market cap of over 2.3 billion. Prices have since collapsed, to a still-absurd $0.001 USD per token.

If that’s still too expensive for you(and it should be) you can still get 100 Dentacoins for free. All you have to do is sell them your friends’ list on Facebook.

Banana Coin: The Get-Rich-Quick Scheme That’s Also Rich in Vitamins

Business isn’t cheap, and most aspiring capitalists have to borrow from friends, mortgage their homes or go begging on Shark Tank.

Or you could follow the example of one plantation in Laos, which crowdfunded its new farmland with an ICO.

There’s Always Money in the Bananacoin

The result is “Bananacoin,” the first fruit-based cryptocurrency. Each of the Ethereum-based tokens represents a share of the plantations’ crop, which you can buy, sell, or trade for actual bananas.

This raises a whole bunch of questions(pardon the pun) about the functioning of a banana monetary system. I’m no banana-conomist, but I’m pretty sure that the only way to have a stable banana currency is for it to be backed by actual bananas. Which means that somewhere in Laos, there must be a giant refrigerated warehouse storing the currency’s banana reserves. Like Fort Knox, but for bananas.

And then there are other serious concerns. Would a bumper crop destabilize the economy with fruity inflation? If banana reserves run low, could there be a banana bank run? Do you get new Bananacoins by mining, or by staking? On second thought, isn’t all farming proof-of-stake?

Despite these questions, Bananacoin became a hit on social media, capitalizing on Arrested Development memes and shameless monkey humor. To date the plantation has already sold four million tokens at $0.70 each—which is somewhat short of the ICO’s target, but but it’s probably about four million more than anyone expected them to sell.

PonziCoin: The Honest Pyramid Scheme

We try not to poke too much fun at obvious frauds. Scam coins are a satoshi a dozen, and most ICOs will disappear with your money faster than you can say “BitConnect.”

However, there is one remarkable project that distinguishes itself for its outstanding demonstration of brains and balls. Combining clever programming with Swiftean wit, the coin revolutionized the way money is stolen from naive investors. Introducing: “Ponzicoin: The First Legitimate Ponzi Scheme.”

Who needs Photoshop when you can have a Lambo?

Most crypto projects shy away from the P-word; Ponzi made it a selling point. The ether-based project revolutionized the art of the scam. Instead of buying tokens from the developers, you buy Ponzicoins from a Smart Contract, which is programmed to double the price with every 100 tokens sold. Profits are guaranteed, at least until the supply of buyers runs out.

Sharp-eyed investors did spot a few warning signs. For one thing, the developer had pre-mined several hundred tokens: a common red flag for an unscrupulous ICO. There were also signs of plagiarism; in fact, the entire White Paper was a word-for-word warning from the SEC about Ponzi schemes. But most suspicious of all was the giant red box, warning prospective investors that “this is a literal pyramid scheme [and] you are fairly likely to lose money.”

I’m not sure, but I’m starting to wonder if this might be some kind of scam.

The fact that Ponzicoin was transparently a joke did not stop people from throwing money at it, and the token mooned. In January 2018, Ponzicoin soared to a market cap of nearly $180,000 before collapsing back to the single digits. Presently valued at eight cents, it’s still a better investment than Davorcoin.

As expected with Pyramid schemes, the profits dried up as investors cashed out their winnings(or losings) and the page has since disappeared. But if you missed your chance lose money, never fear: there are plenty more scams where that came from.

Coinye West: The Cryptocurrency of This Generation

Most cryptocurrencies are made to for humdrum everyday functions, like faster transactions, lower fees, or better teeth. One project aspired to a loftier goal: putting Kanye West’s face on money.

This coin looks nothing like Kanye West and therefore is not infringing at all. Right?

Coinye West had a short reign, but for the seven months of its existence it was the undisputed king of joke cryptos: like the real Kanye, but for money. As hype for the ICO ballooned, the developers even tweeted to Kanye for his blessing.

“We’re really not sure how Kanye is gonna react to this,” Coinye’s developers told Motherboard. ”We hope he loves it, but if he doesn’t, he really isn’t someone we want to piss off.”

This turned out to be an understatement, to say the least. Kanye—who is not known for his sense of humor, especially when it comes to his branding—lawyered up and blocked the coin’s release.

That was the end of Coinye West, but shortly it reappeared as a new, totally-not-Kanye-themed cryptocurrency called Coinye. Even the logo was different—instead of a portrait of the litigious rapper, it was now changed to a fish that merely resembled him. Foolproof, right?

Unsurprisingly, Kanye’s lawyers were unpersuaded and sued Coinye’s developers for every last satoshi they had. Although Coinye has since been largely abandoned, it continues to sputter along in the hard drives of a few hopeful volunteers.

Dogecoin: The Money of the Future

We love making fun of silly coins, but Dogecoin is no joke. The canine-themed crypto remains an internet favorite, with a total value of $2 billion last year.

According to founder Jackson Palmer, Dogecoin was created “without much real thought.” It was 2013, when Bitcoin and Shiba memes were both becoming cool. As Palmer told Motherboard, “one night after work, I sat down with a beer, I had too much time on my hands, and I bought Dogecoin.com.”

Pretty sure this is the future of banking.

It’s hard to explain how puppy bucks outlasted so many serious projects in the past five years. That may not seem long, but it’s an eternity in doge years.

For one thing, people actually use it. The venerable Shibe is the face of a billion-dollar dogeconomy, most of which is used for friendly tipping and gaming.

The truth is, despite the goofy humor, Dogecoin has all the fundamentals of a respectable cryptocurrency. While the ‘grownup’ coins still grapple with transaction fees, hacks and Cryptokitties, Dogecoin remains (mostly) scandal-free. Transactions take a minute, and fees are a couple of pennies. To fully appreciate that, try sending someone a few bucks in Bitcoin.

http://ift.tt/2oaxVsI

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shaymehr · 9 years

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Music’s Manic Episode Over Digitization

Nestled on the side of the California coast breathing in salty air and luring in young audiophiles is Sound Spectrum, a record shop that’s been right where it’s sitting since 1967.

Wave Baker, a 15-year employee of Sound Spectrum, believes that in music we have “the best of all worlds for us today”.

Baker, a self proclaimed “student of sound,” says that for him the digitization of music has led to music becoming more convenient in “packaged tiny bites” and a growing appreciation of all live sound growing from concerts to the wind.

Baker makes the shift of music into the digital age seem expected and natural, but not everyone agrees with this sentiment.

In the last decade music has shifted more and more from something owned to something borrowed as listeners have shifted from purchasing physical copies of an artist’s work to streaming them online using a variety of platforms.

And regardless of where their loyalties lie, almost every music lover you meet has dipped their toes in the piracy pool if not cannon balled in.

Even music giant, Apple, which has dominated MP3 sales for over a decade is now joining the streaming business with Apple Music.

Streaming services for the first time had generated more sales than CDs in 2014 according to a report released by the Recording Industry Association of America as quoted

It’s safe to say that the battle is over and streaming has come out on top, with a bevy of companies such as Pandora, Spotify, Apple Radio, Google, Tidal and others, now flood the streaming market.

As technology out grows the copyright laws in place, several problems have arisen. Artists complain that they aren’t paid the royalties they are owed with streams of their work. Streaming services struggle to stay afloat or turn a profit, as royalties and licensing fees are too high. And somewhere in between, 20 to possibly 50 percent of the fees are lost to a “black box” of middlemen according to the Berklee College of Music’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship as quoted by NPR. Industry insiders refer to this as a black box because the money is not traced back to the writer or artist, but is lost someone along the chain of companies used to pay labels and artists.

But there isn’t even agreement on who is to blame and the finger is pointed in several directions.

Ted Coe, Development Coordinator at KCSB FM, doesn’t think the finger should be pointed at any one entity but the system. He says, “Capitalism has always been a problem for art…it rips at the fabric of doing things because you’re passionate.”

Coe quoted Boots Riley, an artist, saying, “ it’s going to be a different economy for musicians”. He feels that musicians now have to make a choice whether to be viable and lose autonomy or follow their passion and scrape by.

A slew of critics from all corners of the music industry have suggested amendments to law and some other more creative solutions to try to appease all members of the industry.

According to RollingStone, The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the music industry’s U.N., decided that one solution to music piracy would be to standardize music release dates. They have been backed by the Music Business Association, which represents many U.S. retailers including Spotify.

In the U.S. before July 10th music was released on Tuesdays, while in other countries the release dates varied. So if one country received a release before another there was incentive to leak the album illegally to virgin ears.

The IFPI announced that the new worldwide release date would be Friday after music consumers were surveyed on their preferences. It is their hope that this will reduce the urge to leak unreleased content and therefore reduce revenue loss for artists and labels.

James H. Richardson, a UCLA law and management scholar, devoted his dissertation to how appropriately changing the compulsory licensing scheme could save the music industry. He suggests changing the foundation with a multi-part amendment to copyright law.

His solution involves tying licensing fees distributors pay to labels to distributor’s revenue. This would prevent distributors from going into deficits or out of business entirely.

Next it involves setting a minimum royalty rate so that distributors would still have to pay artists something even if they were making little to no revenue. This is key in the fledgling phases of more platforms.

And lastly Richardson’s solution involves putting a tax on the licensing fees. This would have the impact of music content being offered at market value, diversity in labels competing and funding for copyright governance boards to function autonomously.

Coe, of KCSB FM, states that industry members he respects are now backing copyright law changes to compensate performers as well causing him to lean in this direction as well.

Hip-hop artist Jay Z came up with a unique solution after trying to collaborate with several streaming platforms, according to NPR. He decided independence was key to artist control and he purchased his own service, named Tidal. With the backing of celebrities like Beyoncé, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Madonna and several other big names, he hopes to focus on giving the largest shares to artists and audio quality. Audio quality is one of the only gripes of users of streaming services. Jay Z hopes to provide uncompressed file options that promise high sound quality to avid audiophiles at a higher price tag. Tidal will have no free version like Pandora or Spotify, which should evade it falling into a deficit early on.

Stephen Masnyj, a long time audiophile and KUCI’s promotions director, believes that large labels are stifling artists. When artists don’t get paid sufficiently they can’t eat or live let alone create.

He proposes a reinstatement of a type of patron system, much like a tech start up. “Like Angel investors, investors would hold a five percent stake in an artist’s work leaving the other ninety five percent to the artist. The five percent would be enough to cover the cost of recording, producing and distribution,” says Masnyj. Angel investors are people who are not interested in being refunded or making interest.

He’s not alone in viewing this path as a solution. It seems to be an up and coming idea in the youngest generation of music industry hopefuls.

One form of this patron system already exists in the crowd-funding site, Kickstarter. Artists encourage fans to donate in order to fund their projects, usually albums, in exchange for gifts of CDs, vinyl, shirts and other merchandise.

Artists like the band, Crook and the Bluff launched their Kickstarter in May 2014 and by June had raised $5,680, which was enough to record and distribute their album both physically and digitally.

In merely two months they had raised enough to produce their art and do so autonomously.

Kenny Oravetz, general manager at KCSB FM and producer of “The Roadtrip”, agrees with the idea of patronage to support and fund artists. He says, “If I was rich and really loved an artist I would make sure they could continue to produce work.”

Another possible solution he offered was one in which labels and artists would change their focus from the store to the experience.

Oravetz believes listeners expect music to be free in a world where everything is instantly available online.

Baker, of Sound Spectrum, goes so far as to say, the “laws of nature are supportive of music being shared” to support this idea.

Labels should focus on the “live experience” and sell tickets, merchandise like shirts, CDs, and vinyl when artists tour. Oravetz states that ticket prices have gone up passed the inflation rate so maybe labels are in fact catching on.

Artists also tour much longer than they have in the past, often longer than a calendar year. This is likely due to the higher revenue stream from performing than producing the album and banking on sales.

Spencer Vonhershman, coordinator of an all ages venue known as Funzone and soon to be radio disc jockey, thinks it’s a little blurrier than simply directing all focus to touring and ticket sales for every band.

He believes that artists loosely fit into three tiers. The lowest tier is composed of “hobby musicians” that would be happy to move up but will take any opportunity. The middle tier is artists that require album sales to keep making music and “scrape through with tours”. And the top tier is artists whose livelihoods provide more than their own income and need album sales to remain at the top.

Essentially album sales are still vitally important to all artists.

However, Vonhershman thinks tying merchandise to albums sales at shows is a creative compromise.

“People want to be able to show their friends they went to the show,” says Vonhershman. He’s referring to when items are packaged with digital downloads. Nowadays vinyl comes with a digital download so that the new wave of young audiophiles can be fully satisfied. They’re not just stuck with this large impractical though rich sounding piece of plastic, but have their portable bite sized MP3s for convenience too.

Strangely enough despite the grand scale shift from physical to digital ownership, digital piracy, and then borrowing through streaming services, vinyl has had a comeback of sorts. It can be found in every hip shopping mall and record stores that are now frequented by a much younger demographic then before.

Vinyl sales are the only physical media that is increasing in revenue. Vinyl sales soared to 9.2 million copies last year, according to Nielsen music as quoted by Stereogum. The average vinyl sold at $23.84, which is up 40% even when adjusting for inflation. So you have an old medium with rising prices and sales.

While the push back of vinyl is far from balancing out the revenue loss from streaming, it is an interesting phenomenon worth exploring since it might contain a truly viable solution.

Wave Baker believes that the draws of vinyl for young people are it’s “warmer and deeper” tones, which “most authentically reproduce the live music experience”.

With digital music the compression means that something’s missing; that the sound waves are crunched together.

It may seem paradoxical that while the mainstream music consumer is shedding their weigh in physical media and “extraneous” sound waves, there’s a growing niche circling back to a largely impractical vinyl.

But the fact is that the market is simply reacting to consumer demands for, as Baker said it, “the best of all worlds”. Vinyl is something physical that can be provided as merchandise at shows, can come with a digital download code for convenience, sells an album, and ultimately results in more of the payment getting to the actual artist.

So it seems that this solution of accommodating the industry by weighing heavier on the live experience is already naturally occurring, at least with vinyl, and is the most viable step in the right direction for the industry.

References

Stephen, Masnyj, promotions director, KUCI.

Kenny, Oravetz, general manager, KCSB FM.

Ted, Coe, developmental coordinator, KCSB FM.

Spencer, Vonhershman, venue owner, Funzone.

Wave Baker, employee, Sound Spectrum.

Geslani, Michelle. “Streaming Music Services Made More Money Than CD Sales For The First Time Ever” [electronic source]. (2015). Consequence of Sound. Retrieved July 28, 2015, from consequenceofsound.net.

Grow, Kory. “Music Industry Sets Friday As Global Release Day” [electronic source]. (2015). Rollingstone. Retrieved July 20, 2015, from Rollingstone.com

Hogan, Marc. “Have We Reached Peak Vinyl?” [electronic source]. (2015). Stereogum. Retrieved July 28, 2015, from Stereogum.com

Hogan, Marc. “Is Transparency the Music Industry’s Next Battle?” [electronic source]. (2015). NPR music. Retrieved July 23, 2015, from npr.org.

Hogan, Marc. “Streaming Utopia: Imagining Digital Music’s Perfect World” [electronic source]. (2015). NPR music. Retrieved July 23, 2015, from npr.org.

Richardson, James H. (2014) The Spotify Paradox: how the Creation of a Compulsory License Scheme for Streaming On-Demand Music Services Can Save the Music Industry. SSRN, 1-45.

Sanders, Sam. “Jay Z’s Music Service, Tidal, Arrives With a Splash, And Questions Follow” [electronic source]. (2015). NPR Music. Retrieved July 20, 2015, from npr.org.

#noise #words

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