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pynkhues · 3 years

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.... any succession fic recs? 👀

Yes!! I haven't read a lot for it yet, but some of the stuff I've read has been staggeringly good. I'm generally more into gen fic in this particular fandom, but have enjoyed some Stewy x Kendall, Gerri x Roman and Naomi x Tabitha too.

A few recs under the cut!

“I wanted to get out. From under all this. Take the money and run.”

Kendall tells Stewy even though he knows he’ll never get it, not like Naomi does. He’ll never understand the crush of it, the heart-stopping head-fucking fear of failing a tyrant. Kendall’s been ignoring the shape of it for a long time, putting pieces of it together in the back of his mind in total darkness like a blindfolded man. It doesn’t matter that one day his dad will die. It doesn’t matter about the money or the hostile takeover or the stolen files or any of it. There’s no running. Kendall’s Logan Roy lives inside his head.

Stewy laughs. Stewy laughs for a long time.

“There is no out, Ken, what the fuck are you talking about? You were born this and you’ll die this. You are what you are, and what you are is a fucking Roy.”

Kendall hates him, for a moment. Lightning-strike furious. What the fuck does he know about any of it, about his dad’s swinging dinner plate-sized hands, about getting 24% name recognition in reliable international polling, about puking every time you think about a car swerving off the road in the rain. About finding out that you can do something unthinkably, unimaginably terrible, and it doesn’t matter to anyone you know but you. There’s a scar on his arm that no one else who hasn’t already been told how it got there can ever know about, and he’s sick of it, and it’s not fair. He hates Stewy for a moment because Stewy’s right.

“I wanted to do the right thing, Stewy, for once in my fucking life.”

Stewy laughs again, more briefly, and the predator flash of his eyes in the neon of the motel sign is a torture all its own.

‘There is no right and wrong, Ken. How the fuck do you not know that yet? Not for people like you. Like us. There’s shit you get caught doing and there’s shit you don’t.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You really, really fucking don’t,” says Ken, and fuck, there it is. The road less travelled, that only he has ever driven on. The path he’s down where Stewy can’t follow. That place beyond Stewy Hosseini where he never thought he could go.

“You’re not telling me something, and when I find out what that is, and I will find out what it is, Kendall, don’t you think I won’t, so I am warning you that when I do find out I am going to be righteously fucking pissed,” says Stewy, and if Kendall thought those were a predator’s eyes before—

“Yeah, you will,” says Kendall, because he knows exactly how perceptive Stewy is. Exactly how weak he is. Exactly, precisely what both of them are.

And treat this night like it’ll happen again by postcardmystery. 8k words. Kendall x Stewy. Post s2. (CW: internalised homophobia, some homophobic language)

I tried to pick a shorter excerpt, but I literally couldn’t, this fic is so. good. The voices are pitch perfect, and it’s got this incredible build to it overall that goes back and forth between time and point of views and just rips your heart out. The premise itself is pretty simple – after the press conference at the end of 2.10, Kendall calls Stewy, and they drive through rural America while Kendall has a breakdown, and it’s just - - unspeakably good. I love it so so so much, I have no words.

r/roysucks Connor’s gf just posted on Instagram (instagram.com) submitted two months ago by webbedscrum_2279 23 comments share save hide report

[–] DM_ME_SAMESMAIL 40 points two months ago I too like to escape to my yacht in the Mediterranean when my family and I are on trial for covering up rape and murder. permalink embed save report reply

AITA for accusing my father of multiple crimes on his own news station? By amleth 3k words. Gen fic. Post s2.

And now for something completely different – epistolary fic which is just reddit news threads of the Roy family drama. I love an epistolary fic and this is just totally charming, and made me laugh a lot out loud.

“You’re quiet,” she observes. “That’s a first.”

“Yeah, well, the Turks beat it out of me. Gave you a run for their money.” He waggles his eyebrows. “So what is this? Whips and chains? Are we doing the whole boat-sex thing? I heard Shiv and Tom are looking for a third —“

Gerri finds what she’s looking for: a black leather binder. She drops it on the bed and begins paging through it, and Roman cranes his neck enough to recognize that it’s just full of documents, not like, dick pics. “I’ve given some thought to what you proposed a few weeks ago, and I agree that we should make things official in some way,” she says, and he blinks.

“Uh,” he says. “Which — what part of it?”

“Take a look.”

Gerri closes the folio and hands it over. It’s deceptively heavy, and the print on these pages is way too fucking fine, he thinks, paging through it. “Is this some kind of, like, Fifty Shades of Roy sex contract? Because it’s not that I’m not into it, but I think there’s a strong argument for going paperless —”

“Strictly speaking, this isn’t legally binding,” Gerri says. “Just something I threw together with regard to our business arrangement going forward. But with no respect to the family — the past few weeks have really illustrated that no one should take anyone at their word right now. Give me a little more than your word.”

Evacuation strategies for a yacht on fire by devourthemoon. 11k words. Gerri x Roman. Post s2. Explicit.

After the events of s2, Roman and Gerri fake being married as a professional alliance, only, y’know, maybe it’s not so fake. This fic is just so, so much fun, and messy in the best possible way. The author nails all the character voices, and the sex scenes are just the right amount of hot and ridiculous, and I just love it all a lot too.

Kendall estimates it will take an hour for the first articles to go up. Some rapid-fire blog without oversight—the New York Post, maybe, or wherever those Vaulter hippies have skulked off to—will slap a catchy headline on it and report his words verbatim. Give or take a gif of his face when he switches to script number two. New York Times, Washington Post, AP, those fuckers take longer. They like to bleed the story like Middle Ages plague doctors for its marrow, fact-check and add context and analysis and as many backlinks as their servers can handle. Still, a couple of hours, and his face will be plastered on every major news outlet. His voice will play over the nightly talk shows. He’ll trend on Twitter. A few more days, and he’ll be the star of analysis segments, podcasts, weekly briefings. Maybe, fuck it, maybe he’ll trend on Twitter again.

It’s been years since Kendall read Shakespeare. But that shit sticks with you, gets under your skin and emerges when you least expect it, like eczema or Keynesian economics. He knows how the media will spin this. Kendall Roy Attacks CEO Logan for Years of Corruption. Prodigal Son Disrupts Family Legacy to Restore Credibility. That’s how Hamlet ends, right? And Macbeth, Lear, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, even Titus fucking Andronicus. The spilled blood sinks into the ground, the seedlings sprout forth from the soil, and a new castle is built on the bones. Order out of chaos, or at least close enough an approximation that the tabloids will buy it.

Legacy for profit by owlinaminor Post-2.10. Kendall Roy. Kendall through Shakespeare analogies – just - - ooooof. It's a beautiful, lyrical character study that weaves through Roy family history and teases at a future none of them are even sure they want. It's gorgeous writing.

For the next few days Shiv would have to keep the pressure on Kira like an open wound because there were other women, victims that Nate’s people were going to find one by one as soon as that phone call disconnected. Mo was her father’s friend, good friend, for a long, long time. Nate and Gil, Sandy and Stewy, too many sharks in the water and the share price probably dipped to a new low but she would never check a stock ticker. Her husband’s nerves fraying at the edges on national television. She had promised a woman she’d never met before that she would kill roughly one third of the top male executives of her family’s company. Her company.

The last look Rhea gave her before she shut the car door was concern close to fear—no longer the same woman who heard their pitch in the safe room, who laughed with her at Argestes. Rhea had only looked into the abyss; she got cold feet and she didn’t even know what it’s like to grow up in it.

Her family’s company is hers, will be hers. Even from a whale fall, new life would spring.

Feed his flesh to wayward daughters by reogulus. 2k words. Shiv Roy. Set during 2.09.

This entire fic is set around Shiv bribing Kira not to testify, and god, it is so good. It’s bleak and rough, and really hones in on the complex ground Shiv walks as a character. It's another brilliant study of what it takes to be a Roy, and the way they make the awful choices in order to fulfill this legacy that they don't even know they want.

Kendall sets down his fork. “So. Tell me. Is it everything you wanted? Is it what you thought it would be?”

Roman stills. He never does that. He’s constantly a menace in motion, slouching and fidgeting, worse even than Kendall at his amphetamine peak. “What? The view from the tippy-tippy-top?”

“His regard.” Kendall wipes his mouth with the edge of the white cloth napkin. It comes away pink from the steak. “Dad. He’s all yours now.”

Roman still hasn’t moved. Finally, he lurches, like corroded machinery come uncertainly to life. “Yeah, man. It’s fucking tight as hell. I love every beautiful daddy and me moment I was a good enough little boy to earn.” He snorts. “Fuck you.” His face goes curiously slack then, like something Kendall’s own face would do. An intermission in the performance, an energy cut. Something genuine finding its way to the surface. “Why don’t you tell me. When you got everything you wanted, how the fuck did that make you feel?”

Nauseous, is the first word that springs to mind. Sick. Scared. I’ve never had everything I wanted, there’s that. I’ve never once had a single fucking thing I wanted. There’s that, too.

Interim leadership by arbitrarily 2k words. Roman + Kendall. Post s2.

I love Roman and Kendall scenes generally, but this one which features Kendall and Roman meeting for the first time a few months after the press conference in 2.10 is just a bit magic. The push pull dynamic that's just inherent to them mixed with the genuine affection and brotherly love is really special, and arbitrarily embraces both in equal measure. It's a great little fic.

There are lots more of course, and I'd also recommend checking out other works by these authors, but I hope this is a good place to start! :-)

#hbo succession #succession fic #fic recs #welcome to my ama #kendall x stewy #gerri x roman

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kaateodonoghue · 3 years

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The Buyerarchy of Needs Being the design and manufacturing of high volumes of low-quality clothing at a rapid rate of production, fast fashion is a means of bringing inexpensive styles to the public using trend replication. Despite being a recent phenomenon, fast fashions rapid development over a short period of time is extremely concerning from a sustainability point of view, as these cheaply made, trendy pieces result in an overwhelming amount of consumerism, while harmfully impacting the environment, garment workers, and ultimately, the consumer and their wallets. This fast fashion nightmare is being combatted daily, with the likes of boutique owners and designers Chrissy Adams, and Ilah and Tracy challenging its every move by promoting slow fashion, buying second hand, and everything in between.

According to Audrey Stanton, slow fashion is a direct response to fast fashion, and is a “thoughtful, intentional, and holistic” approach to excessive manufacturing, overcomplicated supply chains, and senseless consumption. The term slow fashion was first coined as a means of defining the ideal that having quality-based clothing over time-based clothing is far more advantageous for both the consumer and the environment. Slow fashion encourages slower production, and ultimately invites consumers to invest in quality clothing, as a means of building a minimalist wardrobe that will last a lifetime. Because fast fashion companies launch new collections almost weekly, slow fashion obviously aims to promote the opposite of this. Essentially, slow fashion boasts slower production schedules, small-batch collections, and zero waste designs, as a means of reducing textile waste. Rather than following micro trends and seasons, slow fashion labels utilise enduring styles and create classic, versatile pieces, created in-house or locally, as a means of ensuring that the supply chain process and labour conditions align with global standards. The idea of purchases benefitting not only the individual, but the environment and those who are slaves to the industry, has begun to become more appealing to buyers, as more people are adopting a non-consumerist mentality by maintaining quality over quantity shopping habits.

When considering our global consumption crisis, Canadian illustrator Sarah Lazarovic created the “The Buyerarchy of Needs” as a means of differentiating between what is needed, and what is wanted. At the bottom of Lazarovic’s pyramid, use what you have can be seen. This ideal is undoubtably inspired by the many unused items that are forgotten as new items are invested in, and aims to promote the ideal that you must first assess your current belongings before purchasing new items for the sake of the environment. Following this, Lazarovic suggests that borrowing be the next option when considering whether to buy or not; this ideal promotes personal savings and lack of overconsumption. Lazarovic’s next suggestion, being to swap, is one of the easiest suggestions on the pyramid, as there are numerous means of swapping within a community. Thrifting follows suit as the next best option, as it is the most cost-effective means of purchase, and quite sustainable. Not as sustainable yet just as effective, Make is the next suggestion on the pyramid. While it’s important to remember that making products can involve waste, it can be done sustainably through upcycling. Lastly, Buy can be seen as the last tier on Lazarovic’s Buyerarchy of Needs – by doing this, consumer priorities are shifted away from traditional forms of acquiring products, and are instead encouraged to take a more ethical approach. However, it should go without saying sometimes products do need to be bought brand new.

In addition to supporting slow fashion brands, other sustainable options include the likes of buying second hand, upcycling, hiring, and swapping clothing. According to Chrissy Adams, owner of slow fashion boutique Just Peachy, buying second hand has become “quite the norm, whether it be online or in person, because of how affordable it is”. When discussing other eco-friendly alternatives, Adams also suggested upcycling clothes as “another great alternative to fast fashion, as items already owned can be turned into more ‘on trend’ pieces – this ensure that you are keeping up with the latest trends, however not at a cost”. Adams also recommended hiring and swapping clothes as a new and upcoming means of combatting fast fashion. Hiring clothes, while only becoming popular in recent years, is a great alternative to “spending hundreds of dollars on outfits that will only be worn once and left to sit in the back of a wardrobe for years,” she said. Similar to hiring, swapping clothes with friends or family is a great alternative to fast fashion, as “you can pick and choose what pieces you are wanting, at no cost”. These options, which undoubtably help in reducing fast fashions footprint on the world, are “aiding in combatting fast fashion micro-trends and seasons, while promoting the quality over quantity ideal of slow fashion”.

By handmaking their garments at both a local and international level, Melbourne’s mother daughter duo Ilah and Tracy aim to highlight “the importance of independence and urbanity in a constantly evolving industry” through their slow fashion business Vesper and Co. Vesper and Co, having launched in 2019, have joined in paving the way towards a more ethical approach to fashion; while copying ideas of many fast fashion labels, but creating them in a more sustainable way using long lasting fabrics and patterns, they are providing alternatives for consumers to change their gaze from fast fashion labels, to slow fashion labels, while simultaneously allowing customers to have the same purchase, just in better quality. Ilah believes that “In order to change the way in which we digest fashion, we must first take a step back, and have a look at ourselves – we must question why we support fast fashion, and what it actually does for us.” The morals and ethics in which their label was founded upon centre around the fact that they want to minimise their footprint in the fashion industry. “We hand make our clothes because we want to eradicate big supply chains, and how impersonal fast fashion is – we aim to have minimal impact on the environment, but maximum impact on our buyers,” says Tracy.

While there are still so many gaps to close and lines to blur, fast fashion is an everchanging presence within the fashion world, and one that must be eradicated at all costs. Options like thrifting, hiring, recycling, and slow fashion are all appropriate measures that are being taken by numerous slow fashion labels and eco-fashion warriors, and ones that will hopefully aid in the promotion of a more ethical approach to the industry as a whole.

Pop-culture has Subconsciously Infected Us

When Gossip girl characters Blair Waldorf and Serena Van Der Woodsen find themselves in a ‘dark place’, the one thing they do in order to make themselves feel better is shop. Serena has been dumped by Dan again – what does she do? Shop. Blair didn’t get into the college of her dreams – what does she do? Shop. Serena is fighting with her mother over something trivial – what does she do? Shop. It would seem that some of our most beloved characters infectious urge to shop when the going gets tough has subconsciously rubbed off on young people alike, with people turning to online shopping as a coping mechanism. While at the time this may not seem bad, it comes at a cost, with that being one large one for the environment.

Unfortunately for the environment, I myself have adopted this unhealthy coping mechanism, and now own excess of 150 pieces of clothing that are waiting to see the light of day. My incessant need to shop has been used to cure sadness, joy, and everything in between; nowadays, an excuse to shop and spend my monthly pay isn’t necessary. But why do I feel the need to buy clothes, when I have so many patiently waiting in the back of my wardrobe? Kate Wayenberg of Consumption and Environment estimates that people do not wear at least 50% of the clothing stored in their wardrobes, as they continually buy more and more, despite not needing it.

It comes as no surprise that shopping acts as a coping mechanism. The natural production of dopamine is released when we do something we love, like for example, shopping. The burst of pleasure we get from hitting ‘buy now’ becomes addictive over time, and the more we experience it, the more we crave it, and the more we buy. It’s a vicious cycle that leads to overconsumption and an everchanging fast fashion industry. It comes as no surprise that there is no easy solution when it comes to the fast fashion industry, and combatting our ‘buy now, think later’ mentality. Sure, there are numerous pathways that still let you hit ‘buy’ that are good for the environment, but they often come at a cost that people aren’t willing to pay. Fast fashion is easy, cheap, and accessible – why wouldn’t people use it as a coping mechanism?

My wardrobe is full of clothes that are “special to me” and clothes that “I’ll definitely wear when I lose weight,” even though I know that is not the case. My year 11 formal dress, which hasn’t seen the light of day in the last 4 years, patiently waits while I scramble past it, time and time again. My favourite jumper from when I was 7 years old, which now wouldn’t even fit on one arm, collects dust in the back of my wardrobe, because “I’ll recycle that into something cool,” one day. My wardrobe is full of clothes that remind me of good times and smell of nostalgia, yet they are continually replaced with ones that have been bought in the heat of the moment, and ones that urges me to click ‘add to cart’ time and time again.

Fast fashion doesn’t help my spending problem, nor does it act as an appropriate coping mechanism; the more fast fashion I consume, the worse I feel. So why do I keep subjecting myself to its every beckoning call? Pop culture, sadly, has conditioned my brain to associate every human emotion with shopping, and that is something I will have to come to terms with on my own.

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arquitetosaopaulo · 3 years

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How To Select A Contractor For Your Architectural Project And What NOT To Do

I'm sure you have actually heard the age-old dispute of the designer and professional not managing. Today's culture is moving in the direction of interdisciplinary professions, as well as people are obtaining significantly much better at the workplace with each other, slowly relieving this problem. A lot more design/build companies (where the specialists as well as architects are both benefiting the exact same company) have started to emerge, yet not every one of the perceived benefits are really valuable. One common claim made by design develop companies is that architects don't understand how to build, as well as having in-house service providers eases the lots of issues that arise because of this. First, we have the extremely apparent answer that you can not repaint the entire profession with a broad brush stroke. Do I require to remind you to pick an architect with actual experience? No? Excellent. Second, if you were to for a short time entertain that all engineers don't understand how things go together, the claim that service providers are pertaining to the rescue would hold true, despite whether the two line of work become part of one business or separate companies. I have actually recognized both architects and contractors that have actually owned design/build companies that returned to their corresponding edges. WHY? They couldn't do both the style and also building and construction well, AND pay at the exact same time. Bottom line right here: paying attention? The reality is, in our swiftly changing world, it is tough sufficient to be good at one kind of organization, let alone two. When you have actually the added concern of worrying yourself with both professions AND paying, the client will always shed. It is an inherent dispute of passion. Component of our task as your engineer is to safeguard your interests. We are your advocate and create an agreement collection of papers (your building illustrations are really properly called "contract records") to show your dreams, with which you agree on a cost with a professional. If the person writing your agreement and also the person executing it are under one roofing system, it would certainly resemble permitting your insurance provider to figure out which medicine you take ... Oh wait ... they do. I like that. Do not you?

An excellent service provider is worth his or her king's ransom. It takes years of experience and also a creative, yet practical thinker, to visualize challenges boiling down the pipe, and also act appropriately among the many professions as well as details involved. I have miraculous regard forever service providers and also take pleasure in dealing with them. When choosing a contractor, you should call around and also chat briefly with as lots of as you can to get a feel for their individuality as well as the globe in which you are about to embark. I make sure you've discovered some arbitrary short articles online like, "The 5 questions you require to ask professionals", or "The 3 things you need to look out for when picking a specialist". If not, you should go discover some, as there are numerous them, and a lot of them are valuable. I wish to focus on another thing below.

There are a vast array of professionals that will give you with a lovely array of quotes for the same amount of work, and you need to know exactly how to make sense of all of it. Take a go back as well as consider the big picture. You have your low, medium and also high contractors to select from. You require to begin by asking on your own what degree of service you are expecting. If you want super creative, one-of-a-kind, customized information, built with the highest degree of craftsmanship, don't anticipate the reduced to tool priced contractors to do it. I'm presuming a number of them could, if given endless time and budget plan, however their low or medium valued estimate suggests that isn't what they are planning for your project. If you are just trying to find an uncomplicated as well as comfortable house needing less specific talents, after that perhaps you do want to deal with a service provider that costs less, yet take into consideration the complying with. Most professionals acquire their materials from the same places as well as make use of similar sub-contractors that, in order to be competitive, need to bill affordable (i.e. comparable) prices. Consequently, many times the reason Professional A's price quote is so much lower than Specialist B's and also C's isn't since they have the within track on extremely affordable labor as well as products, right? And also if they did, my guess is they would certainly still bill you the going rate and also maintain the revenue on their own. Provided, I'm sure some individuals are much better at the office at a more fast rate than others, but probably it will take the exact same amount of time to frame your kitchen no matter that does it. Taking all of that into factor to consider, it comes to be clear that your project is going to set you back a certain price no matter who does it. The differences is whether you will certainly learn about the added prices beforehand (in an in-depth estimate) or after the truth (via change orders). I am not indicating that low-priced professionals are being unethical. They are human. Everyone suches as to tell individuals what they intend to hear, as well as everyone suches as to earn a profit. Find more info Arquiteto São Paulo

Nevertheless, if you are a numbers kind of individual, one of the only black and white numbers you can quickly compare is how much each service provider increases his or her services and products. I have actually seen percentages varying from 10-20%, as well as you can typically locate this in a lump sum plainly defined at the end of the price quote. Beyond that, the demonstration still needs to be transported away, the coatings still require to be added, and also the structure still needs to be confined. If one quote consists of demo yet doesn't include the carrying as well as discard charges, creating a visibly cheaper estimate, do you believe that the contractor is just going to turn the expense for that out of his or her very own goodwill? No, you will. Surprise! Don't pick your contractor based upon that has the lowest quote, as many times all it means is that it is doing not have points the other service providers have actually included.

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skepticraven · 4 years

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Dear Trump Fans,

I keep hearing you say that Trump has done so much for America but you never elaborate on that, even when I ask you to. So, I’m asking again & my question is simple. What has he done that you think is so great? Aside from insulting people you don’t like, I just don’t see any achievements. This is what I do see:

-Trump didn't end the overseas wars like he promised. Instead, he got us involved in Syria. And he has nearly started a couple new wars with Iran & North Korea

- It seems you don't have your giant, waste-of-money wall. You have a small amount of fencing that anyone could cross should they want to. And Mexico won't EVER pay for it. Now, I’m fine with no wall but you shouldn’t be.

- Trump is trying to cut the CDC budget by almost 20% amidst a pandemic.

- Trump fired the pandemic response team last year.

- Trump is already saying he wants everyone back to work by Easter & all of the churches full on Easter- except every doctor & all his medically educated advisors are advising Trump against that. The cases of coronavirus are still increasing rapidly. Sending people back into such close proximity to one another will only inflame the problem, increasing the number of infected & dead tenfold.

-Trump has violated the emoluments clause of the constitution by failing to put his assets in a blind trust & thus is charging foreign leaders & American politicians inflated prices to stay at his hotels to win his favor & get private access to the president since he goes there all the time

- Trump is guilty of blatant nepotism. For example, he appointed Jared Kushner to negotiate peace in the middle east, handle diplomacy with China & Mexico, address the opioid epidemic, manage the wall construction process, etc. Jared isn't qualified for any of that, he only has that job because he bones Trump's daughter. Jared wouldn’t be qualified to manage a Pizza Hut. He was born rich and has done nothing but lose billions when he landed in his father job because his father went to prison for tax evasion, witness tampering, & illegal campaign contributions.

- Trump, who claims to be tough on terrorism, signed a multi-billion dollar weapons deal with Saudi Arabia RIGHT AFTER they murdered & dismembered an American journalist. Not to mention the genocide they were waging in Yemen. There is a reason that 80% of the 9/11 terrorist were from Saudi Arabia.

- Trump has eliminated funding for programs that work to de-radicalize people in extremist groups/organizations & help them escape that life.

- Trump cut his own taxes & that of his rich buddies & corporations BY 40%. Due to all the tax loopholes & shady financial dealings (like equity swapping or offshore tax havens) which the wealthiest Americans & corporations do, they already historically weren't paying anywhere near the marginal tax rate they should be on paper. Trump cut the corporate marginal tax rate from 35% to 21%. So after the loopholes & their shady bullshit, they're very likely paying a lower effective tax rate than you are. Thanks to Trump, many paid no income taxes at all in 2018 like Amazon, Netflix, Chevron, IBM, Delta Airlines, General Motors, Whirlpool, Goodyear Tires, etc.

-Trump promised to reduce the deficit but he has actually raised it by a lot. When you decrease the amount of taxes coming in that drastically & you increase government spending that much, the deficit is going to increase. The Caronavirus situation has only exacerbated that problem but the problem was already there.

-Trump pulled out of the Iran deal, solely because Obama did it. And Mr. Art of the Deal did not even try to negotiate a new deal.

- This great healthcare Trump promised hasn't happened. Less people have insurance now than when Trump first took office. Drug prices have only gone up. There have be cuts to Medicaid as well.

-Trump appointed a judge who clearly lied to congress & whom likely sexually assaulted someone. Why Trump did not pick a different conservative judge to nominate, I will never understand.

- Trump cut all the social safety net programs that help the poor & disabled: SSI Disability, Food Stamps, Medicaid, HUD, etc.

- Like it or not, Trump was technically impeached. He just wasn’t removed from office by the Senate because there are a bunch of scared Republicans who are too scared to do or say anything against Trump. Tribalism saved him. That’s it. Because he admitted on national television that he talked about Biden & his son on that phone call- you can even see the exact moment when he realizes he shouldn’t have said that. So, he did do what he was accused of.

-His administration is a revolving door of hiring & firing/quitting. Trump said he knew the best people so why would he need to fire so many of them? Think about how many people have come & gone. These are just some of the big names who left the administration but there are WAY MORE than I am listing: Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo, Scott Pruitt, Steve Bannon, John Bolton, Jeff Sessions, John Kelly, Anthony Scaramucci, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, Sarah Sanders, James Mattis, Rick Perry, Nikki Haley, Dan Coats, Alexander Acosta, Scott Gottlieb, Bill Shine, Tom Price, H.R. McMaster, Ryan Zinke, Mick Mulvaney, James Comey, Sebastian Gorka, Omarosa Newman, Gary Cohn, Don McGahn, Rod Rosenstein, Michael Flynn, Sally Yates, Tom Homan, Ty Cobb, Tom Bossert, K.T. McFarland, Rob Porter, Dina Powell, Rick Dearborn, Matthew Whittaker, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, Hope Hicks, Brenda Firtzgerald, Rob Snyder, Michael Dubke, Sean Doocey, etc.

-This is kind of a minor point but it does illustrate Trump’s hypocrisy. Trump criticized Obama for golfing so much & then Trump turns around & plays 2.6 times more golf than Obama in his first 2 years and 91 days & has cost the tax payer an estimated $74 million more than Obama.

- Does it ever embarrass you how little Trump knows about anything? Ever notice how he never goes in depth talking about anything? Its all vague because he doesn’t know enough about healthcare or the Iran Deal or climate change to address it in any kind of depth. You still see that idiocy spill out regardles. During an interview for SiriusXM’s P.O.T.U.S. channel, Trump said that former President Andrew Jackson was angry about the Civil War. The only problem is, Jackson couldn’t have been angry about the war. He died in 1845. The Civil War was in 1861. Another example would be during a call with Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, Trump claimed Canada burned down the White House during the War of 1812. Canada didn’t exist as a country until 1867. That was the British... Trump also claimed General John J. Pershing dealt with Muslim terrorists by shooting them with bullets dipped in pig’s blood. That did not happen. The story began circulating the internet around the September 11 terrorist attacks. Apparently Trump believed it was factual, talking about it during his 2016 presidential campaign & again after a terror attack in Barcelona. Then, speaking to the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Trump confused the Quds Force, a unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, with the Kurds, the minority group battling ISIS in northern Iraq (who he would later abandoned). Maybe that confusion could be forgiven for an average Joe but if you’ president, you need to know stuff like that (especially given the region these two groups are in). Hence why most presidents study political science, law, or economics in college or at least, they bother to read up on this stuff. But Trump doesn’t really read. The only book he claims to have read was a biography about Andrew Jackson whom, he thought was mad about a war that happened 16 years after his death & he also seems to have missed the whole Trail of Tears thing.

- By pulling out of the Iran Nuclear Deal & the Paris Climate Accord, Trump has isolated us from our allies. Our word means nothing anymore. And who can blame them for being pissed? Whether Iran has a nuclear weapon effect more than just us. Given the size of our nation, our refusal to take the looming threat of climate change seriously is a detriment to the entire world that can & likely will have devastating consequences for everyone. Furthermore, Trump trash talks our closest allies & has placed tariffs on nearly all of them. For example:

AUSTRALIA: Shortly after taking office, Trump reportedly berated then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over an agreement between the U.S. and Australia involving refugee resettlement.

CANADA: Trump also attacked Canadian President Justin Trudeau as “meek, mild, dishonest, & weak” during a conversation on trade at the G7 summit in 2018. He also threatened to withhold the U.S.’s signature from a joint communique from the meeting over the feud. Trudeau he also found it “insulting” that tariffs were placed on Canada under a rarely invoked law that allows levies to be placed on a country in the interest of national security. Since when is Canada a national security threat?

DENMARK: Trump also went after Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen after she refused to sell him Greenland. She called the idea “absurd,” & Trump referred to her as “nasty & inappropriate.” The people that live there don’t want to become American. You can’t just buy a country on whim. Greenland belongs to Denmark but its semi-autonomous.

FRANCE: Trump threatened to slap tariffs on French wine & called French President Emmanuel Macron “foolish” after he signed a digital services tax on tech companies making at least 750 MILLION EUROS annually, a figure which meant U.S.-based tech giants like Apple, Google, Facebook & Amazon would be included.

GERMANY: Trump has had a particularly tumultuous relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The president has repeatedly threatened Germany with auto tariffs, saying if companies like BMW and Mercedes wanted to sell cars in the U.S., they should build them in the country. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday criticized President Donald Trump's tweets about four Democratic congresswomen of color telling them to go back to where they came from. She said that the president's tweets contradict "the strength of America." "I distance myself firmly from this & feel solidarity with the women who were attacked," Merkel said. (Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau also criticized Trump for the same thing).

JAPAN: Trump has lamented the U.S.’s responsibility to defend Japan if attacked, saying the alliance between Washington & Tokyo is uneven. Trump has also threatened Japan with auto tariffs, though it announced in May it was delaying any levies for six months.

MEXICO: President Trump has repeatedly torn into Mexico, slamming it on trade but focusing much of his ire on the country over immigration. Trump has threatened America’s southern neighbor with tariffs over its alleged inaction in working to stem the flow of undocumented migrants in the U.S. And let’s face it, he doesn’t exactly talk about the Mexican people in the nicest way and stroked racial tensions.

SWEDEN: President Trump feuded with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven after American rapper A$AP Rocky was detained in Sweden & charged with assault following a June incident in Stockholm. Apparently Kanye West told Trump about it. 🙄 The rapper was ultimately released in & returned to the U.S AFTER he was convicted & had to pay a fine (plus time served).

UNITED KINGDOM: While Trump has bashed the United Kingdom over trade practices, threatening tariffs on one of the U.S.’s closest allies to rectify what he sees as an imbalance, he has directed much of his criticism toward the country’s handling of Brexit. He also attacked the UK's National Health Service, claiming it is "going broke & not working." That’s not true but its not really his business either way. Trump is so disliked in the UK that at one point, 75,000 protestors gathered in central London’s Trafalgar Square to protest U.S. President Trump’s visit to the U.K

SOUTH KOREA: The Trump administration is reportedly demanding South Korea pay 400% more for U.S. troops in the region- despite the fact that having a base in South Korea is essential as much for us as it is for them. We need a base near North Korea should we ever have to attack. Maybe raising it some is reasonable but raising anything 400% overnight is a little absurd.

I see failure & corruption in Trump. I see a danger to America. Feel free to try to change my mind.

#politics #conservative #liberal #democrats #republicans #explain #political blog #PoliticalQuestions #potus #potustrump #failure

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eurosong · 5 years

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ESC 2018 vs 2019 - Semi-final 2

Good afternoon, folks! A few days ago, I took a look at the songs of Eurovision 2019’s first semi-final, comparing them with songs from the same countries in 2018 and sharing my verdict on which year was better and why. Now it’s the turn of semi-final 2! Again, I try to see as much good as possible in each song and I mean no offence to anyone who disagrees with these opinions.

· Albania – 2018 – Albania had always been a bit of a bête noire for me at this contest, because they would so often pick fabulous songs at their long-running Festival i këngës national final, only then to completely mutilate them musically and (with the help of Bing translator, lyrically) in the revamp. Last year, that trend hopefully came to an end in the most glorious fashion when Eugent Bushpepa didn’t make any major change to Mall, one of the songs that most impressed me in this era, a soaring, moving, poëtic cri de cœur of a song. This year, they have also opted to neither translate nor musically mutate. I like their 2019 song a lot, but it’s a Scafell Pike to last year’s mighty Everest.

· Armenia – 2019 – as a glossophile who always advocates the use of national languages over English, I have some respect for Qami, the only song Armenia ever sent entirely in their language. Respect, but no love, because I found it merely ok and rather repetitive. I thought this would be a second year in a row that I’d be underwhelmed by Hayastan, but whilst this year’s offering cannot shape up to the majestic Fly with me, it’s become an earworm and I enjoy the fiery defiance of Srbuk’s lyrics and the incorporation of traditional instrumentation into something otherwise decidedly contemporary.

· Austria – 2018 – I seem to be one of very few people rating this year’s gentle, stripped-back but impassioned Austrian entry. It more than tilts its cap in the direction of Kate Bush, but I am down with that. However, it would really take some doing to beat last year’s Austrian song, Nobody but you, in my estimations – a worthy winner of the jury vote and probably the ESC’s best ever gospel-infused song for my money.

· Azerbaijan – 2019 – I’m not as won over by this Azeri effort as many people that I know. I was expected something rather different from their snippet (a word I wish I will never hear again given the amount of them this year). It’s not bad by usual standards though, and is certainly a class above Delete My Heart and its bizarre computer-generated lyrics last year.

· Croatia – 2018 – Last year’s Croatian song was a rather lame reimagining of Sam Brown’s Stop. I didn’t like the original and I sure didn’t fancy the semi-skimmed version that much either. Having said that, Franka, all is forgiven. Your song is a delight compared to the demonic screeching of this young budding ego ironically wearing (fluffy) angel wings. I thought Jacques Houdek had unleashed enough hell with his Maa fwenn/Moy frennddd but it was nothing compared to this abomination. It’s so bad that it almost scares me how bad it is.

· Denmark – 2019 – Another one where I go against the grain is Denmark. I never got the hype for Rasmussen, whose song sounded like a soundtrack for some 90s direct-to-video movie about Vikings. The only thing is that they managed to make even Vikings feel lame. It all seemed a little OTT and gimmicky to me, and the amount of repetition and the cliché pitch shift both annoyed me. On paper, this hyper-sweet Danish song should also grind my gears, but in a subpar year, I’ve actually grown a fondness for it. Maybe the Frenchness of it all was what won me over. I hope they’re not actually going to sway side to side on a big chair in the actual final, though.

· Ireland – 2018 – Two decent songs in a row from Ireland and it’s difficult to choose between them, even though neither set my world alight. I still think the staging of last year was rather cynical – two enamoured lads who had little to with the song about heartbreak, but did seem to win over some folk who otherwise would have dismissed it as a boring ballad. Seeing it live, it was quite moving, and I was able to put this incongruousness out of mind. This year’s entry has rather less artifice and a low-key charm, but I have to go for ’18 as having more depth as a composition.

· Latvia – 2018 – Despite never having reached the heights of Aminata who pulled them up from the non-qualification doldrums, I’ve enjoyed every subsequent song from Latvia, even though the standards of Supernova have dropped since the Riga Beaver stopped delighting us in the ad breaks. This year’s Latvian song is delightfully low-key, the kind of thing I imagine hearing on the radio late at night, driving in the rain. At the minute, though, I have to say I still prefer the sultry, tempestuous Funny Girl – though Esamiba would have topped both.

· Macedonia – 2018 – Macedonia, perhaps the country at the contest who least has received their dues despite some excellent songs, is a perfect illustration of how difficult these 2018 vs 2019 choices can be. Their entry this year, “Proud”, is touching and impactful on first listen, but I’ve seldom sought out to listen to it much since then. On the other hand, I was absolutely obsessed with last year’s “Lost and found”, bewitched by its changes in style and tempo. Unfortunately, the live version of 2018 was an absolute clusterfuck; it felt as though someone had been deliberately tasked with ruining their qualification chances, and that casts a shadow over the song in retrospect. I wouldn’t be surprised if 2019 is a more effective song on the stage, but for the time being, I prefer 2018 musically.

· Malta – 2019 – There is absolutely no contest here for me. This is the first song sent by Malta that manages to hold my interest since “Tomorrow” way back in 2013. It’s more daring and contemporary than I ever imagined would be their choice. In a different universe from the screechy “Taboo.” It’s also refreshing to have a Maltese song that doesn’t try to get brownie points from their message.

· Moldova – 2018 – A truly plague vs cholera choice. 2018’s bizarre Kirkorov-spawned ode to the ménage-à-trois versus this year’s painfully, painfully dull ballad-by-numbers with rhyming-also-by-number (rhyming say with stay, never with forever. Troolee jeenyuss.) I have to go with 2018, which creeped me out, but at least was kind of interesting in its own weird way, and its staging showed ingenuity despite limited resources.

· Netherlands – 2018 – I’m sure for a lot of people, this choice is a no-brainer, but for me, it is very much a difficult choice. I really loved “Outlaw in ‘em”, Waylon’s country style is up my street and, whilst I still think “Thanks or no thanks” would have been a cannier choice, I appreciated one of the few moments last year in which one could rock out. “Arcade” is a different beast entirely, so comparisons are odious. Both are stirring, but OIE is riotous and defiant, whilst Arcade is poignant. It’s hard to choose just one, but I have to go for the one I’m more likely to have on repeat, last year’s song.

· Norway – 2019 – Oh, Norway. For a few glorious years, with Margaret Berger, Karl Espen and then especially Mørland, they were the coolest thing going out of the Nordics – but how the mighty have fallen. I haven’t really liked a single one of their entries since then and once again, I am faced with a choice between two unsavoury options. Their entry this year sounds like Aqua went into the woods for a spiritualistic retreat, came back, wrote a shitty b-side about the experience and then decided not to release it, only for some Norwegians to find it about 20 years later and pass the song off as their own. Everything about it makes me cringe on an almost existential level. It appals me that the “come on barbie, let’s go pardy”-style joiking is being compared to JHF who actually representing joik in a classier way. I say all this, and yet, this year’s offering is still not ás bad as 2018’s “That’s how you write a song”, a “children’s TV show theme” song whose cosmic irony would be funny were it not so tragic.

· Romania – 2018 – I didn’t think this would be such a tough decision when I found out the results for Selecţia Naţionala, and was absolutely amazed that the public had only 1/7th of the result, and that the juries had catapulted a song that only picked up 3% of the televote (Laura Bretan, the televote winner, got a 42% share, in contrast) on the back of a rather dubious live performance. I’m still not sure why Ester puts on a vocal affectation that makes her sound like she’s having a tantrum, but somehow the song’s dark ambiance and the hilarious video won me over. It still can’t compare to last year’s emotional, underrated effort which brought to mind departed friends.

· Russia – 2019 – Sergey’s return is a little pompous and will certainly be wrapped up with unnecessary staging frills; that being said, it’s a decent song, which is more than I can say about the truly ghoulish “I won’t break,” whose only virtue for me – being slightly better than the hideous and ungrammatical “Flame is burning” – was removed when I saw that impossibly bad staging, confining their singer almost embarrassedly into the background.

· Sweden – 2019 – For the first time in a few years, Sweden have sent an artist and song that I don’t find completely objectionable. That isn’t to say that I don’t find any objection at all – soul is not really soul when it is so heavily manufactured, and I cannot help but feel that they’ve taken more than a fair amount of inspiration from both Austria of last year and Bulgaria of 2016. Nonetheless, I can bear it a lot better than Dance you off.

· Switzerland – 2018 – For once, I actually had a little bit of hope for Switzerland, who have been going through the motions with some turgid fare for the last number of years, with the only exception for me being Hunter of Stars. Going internal made me feel they had something exceptional, and I guess they thought they did, but for me, instead they brought a thinly veiled male take on Fuego and little more. Last year’s effort also didn’t impress me much, a dirgey bit of trust fund faux-rock (frock?), but I’ll take it over the Chernobyl levels of radioäctive smugness exuded by this latter Swiss attempt.

And as for the automatic qualifiers:

· Germany – 2018 – When I heard that Barbara Schöneberger, she of the eyes that are bigger than Lake Baikal and seems permanently traumatised, was coming back after a year’s absence as host, I joked that I was amazed she was given back the gig given that every year she’s been in charge, there’s been an abject failure and the one edition where she was absent, Germany managed to get a fantastic result. I feel they’re back to their losing ways with Sister, a song performed by a group called S!sters who have only known one another for a few months if that. It’s one of many songs this year with decent verses but a horrible chorus. It’s supposed to be a celebration of sisterhood, but it feels moreso like these two want to scratch the other’s eyes out whilst they stand there, wailing at one another. There were things that annoyed me about last year’s German entry too, particularly the large section in which he merely said “whoahaoaoaoa” as if he’d run out of ideas for lyrics, but it was otherwise a stellar, well-written effort. In another league to these imaginary sisters.

· Italy – 2019 – Italy is one of the very few countries where I prefer 2019 to 2018, 2018 to 2017, 2017 to 2016 and 2016 to 2015! They just get better year on year. I adored “Metamoro” and still consider their song a huge highlight, one of the best of last year and of recent years. It’s incredibly difficult to choose between them and Mahmood’s Soldi, but he somehow managed to win me over even more with his anthemic, autobiographical song which has a contemporary edge but also the timelessness and quality of San Remo orchestral compositions. My number one this year so far.

· UK – 2019 – Eurovision: You Decide got even drearier than usual this year. Whilst other countries like France increased the number of songs from which their viewers could choose, BBC cut their choices down to three, got two sets of people to perform each song in a different style pastiche and then didn’t even allow the viewers to choose which rendition they preferred. We ended up with a bog-standard “X factor winners’ single”-style song that SVT told John Lundvik not to perform for them. It has the edge because it at least “hey muvva, bruvva” lyrics or random Casio noises in the background like Surie’s song. She really deserved more.

#esc #eurovision #esc 2019 #eurovision song contest #opinion #eurovision 2019

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enfpurplekitti · 5 years

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Coming up with The Fairy Game Mother

I'd like to tell you about how I came up with my new original series, The Fairy Game Mother. Fully conceptualized in November 2018, its roots go back over a decade when I wanted to write and illustrate a manga series about four video game players who are inadvertently trapped inside a collection of video games after using a faulty game cheating device. I set it aside for other pursuits because, at the time, I recognized that I was not yet ready to work on that series. I knew that my skills in drawing, writing, and other areas needed a lot more development.

Over the past two years or so, I was knocked down by severe depression caused by a series of life events, which both paralleled and resulted in worsening health, together which caused a painful cycle of one feeding the other and back again. Through this period, my ability to work on anything creative became harder and harder until I reached a point where I felt like all of my creative ability had been turned completely OFF. However, there were a few rare moments where I was able to create, and in those "upward" moments, I watched as my art skills advanced greatly, as well as a better understanding of theme and structure in writing. I dabbled in various ideas here and there, but could find nothing I was able to commit to, being unable to bring anything COMPLETELY to life. There were ideas, but most were without much substance and I couldn't create anything usable.

Over my life time I have written and illustrated more than 20 manga - mostly original stories, but a couple of fan fics were included. I started many more manga series and one-shots, few of which survived the initial stages of ideas, partial storyboards, etc. There were two problems which plagued me the entire time, and that was my internal conflict caused by having great ideas, a tremendous ability to create compelling characters and story concepts, but also recognizing the many areas which I lacked significant understanding or skills. I could rattle off a long list of my artistic strengths, balanced by an equally long list of my artistic weaknesses and struggles. Though I received a lot of encouragement for my art talent, few people understood how VERY seriously I took my craft, nor the fact that I cannot simply write and draw manga and just post or sell it as-is and expect to be taken seriously.

I did a good bit of research on the comics and manga industry, and one of the top complaints of publishers about North American manga crafters was the lack of understanding of their own craft, often caused by a lack of EDUCATION in their craft. Assumptions are made that manga is somehow either inherently "inferior" or inherently "easier" than the comics that Americans are used to seeing cranked out by Marvel and DC, but these assumptions are complete myths. Worse than that, it seems the primary basis of education for American manga artists and writers come from the likes of Christopher Hart (don't get me started on him) and other how-to-draw-manga books, which are - even in complete collections - woefully lacking in any education of real substance. I have quite a stack of those books, and while I am able to glean a certain amount of wisdom or ideas from them, they almost all say the same thing, and teach the same "things" about drawing (here's how to draw eyes, here's how to draw mouths with different expressions) over and over again. They also basically fly through a decade or so of learning and craft crammed into 160 or so pages, which, after removing all the redundant lessons I mentioned above, reduces their "learnable" content to what I estimate to be about 15 or so pages. And just to kick you while you're already down, these books are NOT suitable for beginner artists, regardless of the fact that that is how they are marketed. There are so many things you need to learn about drawing before picking up one of those books to be effective. And after learning whatever they present in their "chapter 1", there is a lot to learn between that and their next chapter. So much information is missing, and it's no wonder so many aspiring American manga artists are unable to fulfill the basic requirements for publication!

Anyway, as I touched on before, I knew - I readily accepted - even long before I began my research on the industry that I had a lot of work ahead of me in terms of learning and development before I was ready to publicly release and monetize my manga. Somewhere around summer to autumn of last year, after my depression had made a great improvement, I was reviewing where I began and where I currently stood in terms of my skills and abilities, and it dawned on me that I was READY. I can DO this. There are, indeed, many more things I still need to learn about, but I am ready to put something out for public consumption now.

From October to November of 2018, I thought carefully about the most promising stories I had prepared, from character development to setting and genre to plot to theme. That old idea about the game cheating device floated up into my mind, and initially I rejected it. It wasn't developed enough, I didn't have a good villain, I didn't really even have well developed protagonists. But it didn't like being ignored, I guess, and it continued to pester me until suddenly I had a villain. I was impressed, but a villain wasn't enough - I still needed, well, everything else. But my mind was already at work on this, and after considering the traits my villain had, her background, her desires, one by one came the traits that my group of protagonists would require in order to counter her. Jasper came first, whom I initially labeled as "Overly Extroverted Gamer". He's a collection of many gamers I have known in my life (myself included), as well as ones I've seen on YouTube. He's loud, he's jumpy, he's impulsive, he's impatient - and he's bossy. He has many other characteristics as well, which will be revealed throughout the series. I'm also proud of the work I've put into the other three players, Lita ("Highly Empathic Gamer"), Margaret ("Super-Attractive Grrl Gamer"), and Wade ("Troll Gamer"). With this team, I found a very promising, workable manga series. I set the due date of the first chapter, World 1-1: Please Select a Player, to be March 1, 2019, in time for Agamacon, as an independent, self-published work. I had plans to print out some copies, as well as to print a few pinups to sell at a table, but unfortunately I won't be able to able to attend Agamacon this year. :( Though I have fallen behind schedule, I'm still keeping the (tentative) date of March 1 as its completion date.

I already have a collection of drawings of my characters, a few of which I have uploaded on Tumblr, Facebook, and DeviantArt in the past week. I'm finished with all the pre-production work, including script, I just have to draw the actual pages. It's going to take a lot of concentrated effort to get them all done in time, and... yes, sadly, I do anticipate missing my deadline if my body chooses to conk out and betray me again. T_T But I'm going to give it my best.

Wish me luck, you guys, and keep your eyes open for further updates - most of which will occur on my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/PurpleKittiArt/ - because it is the easiest for me to access on my phone on a fairly pitiful wi-fi signal. @_@

#The Fairy Game Mother #purple kitti #enfpurplekitti

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theonyxpath · 6 years

Link

A comment in the comments section, of all things, basically asked why every time they look here lately there’s dogs all over the place. The art samples have dogs in them, the Kickstarter news is about the dog card game. Dogs, dogs, dogs!

Part of that is, of course, coincidence or a coming together of multiple projects for a line with three Kickstarters and a bunch of projects which came out of those KS Stretch Goals. And it helps that Eddy Webb is the kind of developer who pushes to get projects finished as close to estimate, and sometimes earlier, as possible.

So, woof, woof, woof go the dogs.

In a week or so, maybe it’ll seem like only WoD books are mentioned, or CofD, or Exalted. And so on. It’s all pretty much coincidence as to how books of a particular setting come out together, as we have projects from all of our “worlds” going at all times at different stages of creation, and a lot depends on which projects you’re waiting for.

This also applies to Kickstarter news when you don’t back Kickstarters, or Onyx Pathcast news when you don’t listen to podcasts, or convention info and our plans for FangCon 2019 when you can’t get to the convention.

So for this blog, I try to mix the things I mention and art I put up to give a bit of a taste of as many game worlds and activities we’re doing as I can so that I’m touching on something, I hope, that is relevant to YOU. But, if coincidence gives me mostly Exalted stuff that week, I’m mostly going to be relaying that, with a mix of other things if I have other things on my radar to share.

No Marketing department, no professional writer here – just your dear old Uncle Rich and whatever we’ve discussed during the Monday Meeting.

(Which reminds me, not only is last week’s Onyx Pathcast a great inside look at the way we conceive, create, and publish our projects, but this Friday yours truly is grilled by Dixie and Matthew for a very special episode. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. You’ll learn secrets of the early days of White Wolf right into Onyx Path.)

Wraith 20th Handbook of the Recently Deceased art by Michael Gaydos

Which means, it’s time for some quick topic hits:

In a similar conversation to the one above, there was a poster that remarked how the first mention of Pugmire made him wonder just what Onyx Path was turning into. Then, he dug into the background of Pugmire and realized there was a lot more to it than a funny animal TTRPG.

My response must be that we aren’t turning into anything different than we’ve always been on track to be: a publisher who creates amazing and engaging worlds for folks to explore. And that the poster was dead-on right to identify that one of the threads that combine all of our projects is that there are depths built into our worlds that reward players who look into them.

Some of that is a heritage from old White Wolf we’ve been fortunate to bring to the fore, and use as models for what works and what doesn’t, and part of the depth is built in by our amazing creative teams who know they can do that kind of game and world building with us.

Monarchies of Mau art by Pat McEvoy

We’ve been having other great conversations on our Onyx Path Publishing Discussion Group on Facebook, which you might be able to get to through this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/419273928504341/ I haven’t had a chance to join in to the discussions yet, but hope to very soon.

Boggans art by Brian LeBlanc

I haven’t been able to jump in because these last couple of months have been a combination of working up and with contracts for new projects and licenses, putting in pitches for projects, and getting Changing 20th, Prince’s Gambit, and soon, V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary Kickstarter rewards out to backers. It’s a bit of an endurance challenge, so I’m lucky to have maxed out Fortitude.

Plus, I’m trying to keep up the communication with backers for the Scarred Lands Kickstarter that the late Stewart Wieck had started for our two companies, while representatives for his company, Nocturnal Media, work to get the KS fulfilled and shipped. So, four KSs shipping around a month from each other.

The flip-side is…we’re getting out four KSs’ rewards to our backers!

Nerma Fetch Quest Stretch Goal card.

Finally, I think I might have mentioned this before, but one of my working methods when creating a new setting, or establishing an overall art “look” for a project, is to take what Allen Moore calls a “high altitude pass” and gather all sorts of reference material and sift through it without trying to force any sort of viewpoint over it.

For visuals, this is very often seeing what registers as “right”. What feels like the sort of feeling we want the setting to give players. Although we can pull huge amounts of story from an illustration (picture=1K words), very often a far more lasting impression comes from the viewer’s emotional reaction. I’ve been doing this pass for Aberrant for about 3 months now, and we’re getting to the decision point on creating an artist list, and actually further back for when I did the initial designs for all four Trinity Continuum main books.

Right now though, I’m reading through a collection of 1950’s EC Weird Science comics in preparation for establishing the art for They Came From Beneath the Sea!. Developer Matthew Dawkins and I already have a strong idea overall based on the films of the time and some TV, but in a lot of ways looking at illustration when thinking about kinds of illustrations is actually more directly what I need.

Not going to go too far into the history of EC right now, although I could and it is a fascinating tale of the rise and fall of a publisher, but suffice to say that their comics were a gigantic influence on both the comics that came after, and on the generation of creators who wrote science fiction in all media (including TTRPGs) for decades to come.

So I get to read comics collections as part of my job. It is tough. But it’s what ya gotta do in order to explore:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Fetch Quest, the adventure card game set in the Realms of Pugmire went live last Tuesday, May 22 and funded in under a day, and now we’re over 250% funded and have added a group of six cats from the Monarchies of Mau to the game as alternative adventurers via Stretch Goals!

This is definitely a game that needs to be spread by word of mouth, so please let your friends and family know about this game of good dogs (and cats!) out to fetch what Man has left behind!

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

This week, we’ll be releasing a cornucopia of merchandise and other items on Wednesday!

This is our monthly release week for our ongoing series of PDF releases for Exalted 3rd Edition, and we have the Barrow Hound and Devilstone for Hundred Devil’s Night Parade www.drivethrurpg.com/product/242687, and Iron Siaka for Adversaries of the Righteous http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/242686 on DTRPG.com!

CONVENTIONS!

Prep is also underway for Gen Con 2018 in the first week of August, which takes place in Indianapolis. In addition to our booth presence, be sure to check out the games and panels in the Gen Con Event Schedule.

From Fast Eddy Webb, we have these:

Eddy will be speaking at Broadleaf Writers Conference (September 22-23) in Decatur, GA. He’ll be there to talk about writing for interactive fiction, and hanging out with other writers who have far more illustrious careers. http://broadleafwriters.com/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference/3rd-annual-broadleaf-writers-conference-speakers/

Eddy will also be a featured guest at Save Against Fear (October 12-14) in Harrisburg, PA. He’ll be running some Pugmire games, be available for autographs, and will sometimes accept free drinks. http://www.thebodhanagroup.org/about-the-convention

If you are going and want to meet up, let us know!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Dog and Cat Ready Made Characters (Monarchies of Mau)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Second Draft

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

Fetch Quest (Pugmire)

They Came From Beneath the Sea! Rulebook (TCFBtS!)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

WW Manuscript Approval:

Guide to the Night (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Editing:

Night Horrors: The Tormented (Promethean: The Created 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Indexing:

Wraith 20

Cavaliers of Mars

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Scion Hero – Last art notes and contracts sent.

Trinity Continuum

Geist 2e

The Realm

M20 Gods and Monsters

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – Wave 2 art in progress

Promethean Night Horrors: The Tormented – Sending out Artnotes and Contracts.

Marketing Stuff

Storyteller System Brochure

Posters and Displays

Gen Con Cards

In Layout

Wraith 20 Screen – I’ll pull this together this week.

Fetch Quest – Putting together the Mau Pioneer card previews.

EX3 Dragon Blooded – Firming up layout and tweaking some backgrounds.

Proofing

Scion Origin – PDF almost ready for in-Onyx review.

Changeling: the Lost 2 – Meghan has the proof.

At Press

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary & Beckett Screen & V20 Dice – At fulfillment shipper, prepping for KS ship-out. Shipping addresses to be locked down on Wednesday.

Scarred Land PGs & Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – Shipping from fulfillment shipper. PDF and PoD physical book versions on sale at DTRPG.

Prince’s Gambit – Shipping from fulfillment shipper.

Scion Dice – At fulfillment shipper.

Cavaliers of Mars – Errata input on Backer PDF, now to Indexing.

Boggans – PoD files uploading.

Monarchies of Mau – Errata gathering on Backer PDF.

Wr20 Guide for Newly Departed – Backer PDF should go out to backers this week.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: In 1783 the Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon). A year later in 1784, Élisabeth Thible becomes the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon. Her flight covers four kilometres in 45 minutes, and reached 1,500 metres altitude (estimated). In the future, people of all genders are able to fly in balloons and zeppelins to work and to visit friends, at least if any pulp setting ever can be believed!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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acidicbaby · 6 years

Photo

I firmly believe that the window washing business has a tremendous amount of advantages over other businesses.

I've been in a number of businesses as many of you probably have, and when making the comparisons between window washing and some of the other lame businesses out there, you have to admit that window washing comes up smelling like roses.

BUT...us window washers will still face challenges.

And I'm not talking about the challenge of cleaning a window. Anybody can get a window clean with a little elbow grease and the proper tools.

No, I'm referring to the ability to clean windows and market your business at the same time. This is the ultimate juggling act.

If you stop marketing your business for any length of time, it's only a matter of time before calls from interested prospects dry up, and consequently, so does your calender.

I saw it happen very recently with a guy who had a good 3 weeks of window cleaning jobs lined up. He used every marketing technique outlined in my manual How to Start Your Own Residential Window Washing Business. He lined up all kinds of jobs. But then he decided to focus his attention only to window cleaning, not to marketing. Oops.

To make a long story short, after that 3 week spurt of business, he woke up one day to find no customers on his calender, so he essentially had to start over. Now of course, he'll have those customers to come back to again and again on a repeat basis, but I'm talking about right now having gaps on the schedule which really shouldn't be there.

And it's harder and more time consuming to start over then it is to just keep the gravy train rolling.

Let me explain with a couple of stories.

--Master motivator Zig Zigler talked about "starting over" in one of his speeches I heard recently. He used the analogy of one of those old fashioned Wells you may be familiar with.

These types of Wells have big 'ole handles you need to crank in order to draw water from the Well.

When first wanting water, you have to really pump fast and furious. But once you have a constant stream of water coming out, then it just takes a little pressure on the pump handle to keep it going. The hard work was already done at the beginning. BUT...don't stop. Because the water will go all the way to the bottom if you do, and you'd have to start all over again with serious pumping action.

--The people who I've helped get into the window washing business have heard me talk about when I was in the Insurance business. One of the things I used to do at the beginning of my insurance career was actually shut down my marketing efforts during Thanksgiving week and not crank it up again until after the last college football bowl game was played at the beginning of January.

I just sat around for six or seven weeks or so getting fat on all the Holiday goodies, and alhough it was great just kicking back on my little mini-vacation, come the beginning of January, I had to start all over again generating interest, making phone calls, following up, setting appointments, etc.

Which means that I didn't see the fruits of January's labor until March or so as far as having a full calender of appointments again and banking commissions.

I mention the above couple of stories just to illustrate a point, and that is simply that we can't back off or let up. Because if we do, we could find ourselves with some unwanted vacancies on our schedule. And this is especially true if you're relatively new to the window cleaning biz.

But that's the challenge. Like the person above who had 3 weeks of window washing jobs. How in the world do you wash windows and still market your biz?

The short answer to this is that we need to learn to prioritize and incorporate effective time management principles.

I know, I know. Pretty elementary stuff here, but it really is critical to master them.

One of my most successful students is a guy that plans his entire day around a 2 hour marketing window where he'll distribute flyers, coordinate a postcard campaign, talk to other service businesses, talk to realtors, talk to property managers, talk to builders, visit commercial storefronts, or any number of other things on the marketing agenda.

Time doesn't permit everything above to be done within that two hour time frame obviously, but he'll pick one, maybe two strategies he wants to use that day, and then do 'em.

The 2 hours may be at the beginning of the day or the end of the day, or it may be one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. That doesn't matter. What does matter is that he'll take ACTION and expose his marketing message for 2 hours each day to prospects.

Mike truly understands that we have no business without customers, so he sits down at night and jots down the next day's marketing goals on a "to do" list. This is as basic as it gets, but hey...it works.

And this is confirmed when he calls and we talk about the fact that prospects are calling (many times as we're talking, we'll be interrupted a couple of times by his phone ringing) and his calender is filled up with window washing jobs.

By doing this, and committing to it on paper, the challenge of finding prospects is null and void. Like my 'ole sales manager used to say, "if you talk to enough people, you've got to make sales".

In my case, I used to take one whole day and part of another to do what Mike does every day.

I generally preferred to do my window washing estimating on Friday, and Friday morning was when my business breakfast was held where business owners got together and supported each other with leads and referrals.

Since I figured I was already dressed up in nice company clothes (polo shirt/dockers) instead of my window washing work clothes, I figured I may as well make that my main marketing day, so I mapped out a schedule on Thursday night of who to see and talk to on Friday in addition to the estimates I was scheduled to do.

That doesn't mean I didn't do any marketing during the week. Postcards were a big part of my biz, so if I was ready for a mailing, there was always time during the week to place a 5 minute phone call to my direct mail house and tell Dick to send out a mailing to zone such and such.

And Saturday morning was pretty much reserved for me to go out with 2 to 4 neighborhood kids and blanket subdivisions with flyers.

As an example of what you could do, if you're scheduling a job, schedule it at 10 or 11 and then head out at 9:00 to:

--introduce yourself to 5 realtors and give them your business card. --quickly drop off 25 flyers to commercial storefronts. In/out/next. --visit 3 other service businesses to see if they would be interested in getting together to promote each of your businesses. (I know of one guy who formed his own leads type of organization since there were none in his town)

And then the next day, jot down other things you can do, or repeat the above. At the end of the week, you'll not only feel like you accomplished something, but more importantly, you'll be creating tremendous awareness for your company, which of course, leads to more phone calls, more business, and more moolah in your pocket!

The above is not hard, and when looked at daily, they're just little things, but it's the little things you do every single day that will determine your ultimate success, not the one big thing that we might do every 2 or 3 weeks.

Now the good news is that over time, we can all drastically decrease our marketing "to do" lists.

The first two years of my business was hustle, bustle, hustle bustle. Every form of marketing that could be used was used. After about two years though, guess what? The pump was primed hard enough during the early stages, I then just had to apply a tiny bit of continuous marketing (it never can stop completely), kick back, get the phone calls, fill up the calender, and coordinate my window washing crews. All the fun stuff.

Just remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint. An initial burst of massive action is excellent because it generates immediate dollars and gets you entrenched into the biz, but mark- eting needs to be sustained over time if you're looking for long term success.

Experts have said that once we do something for 21 days, it becomes a habit. I don't know about the 21 days part, but I do know if we do something long enough, it'll simply become second nature to us.

So...there are many challenging pieces to the window washing business. Prioritize the implementation of those pieces by creating yourself a simple "to do" list (Hint-place marketing at the top), incorporate time management into making that list work, and repeat on a regular basis.

Lather

Rinse

Repeat

If you do that, then the snowball of window washing customers that I refer to in my manual will gather up speed. And when that starts to happen, you may as well get out of the way because there ain't nothing you can do to stop it. :o)

To your window washing success,

Steve

256-546-2446

Steve Wright is the author of How to Start Your Own Residential Window Washing Business, and has started hundreds of individuals on the path to success in their own window washing business. Mr. Wright has also developed a revolutionary online web-based system called The Customer Factor to assist all window washing business owners in maintaining and growing a successful business. Using both of these resources provides the one-two punch needed to catapult anyone from zero to six figures per year in the window washing business. For more information, give Mr. Wright a call at 256-546-2446 or visit either of the websites posted.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Steve_Wright/6268

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/75407

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nelliievance · 3 years

Text

Review of Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat

The full title is Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat: Why Well-Raised Meat Is Good for You and Good for the Planet by Diana Rodgers and Rob Wolf. The book looks into the ethical and religious, environmental, and nutritional aspects of eating meat, as well as not eating ultra-processed junk. They argue, quite compellingly, that we are being sold an oversimplified narrative that the only approach to improve our health, cause the least harm to all beings (human and animal), and save the planet, is to eat a vegan diet. If you can’t go that far, at least eat as little meat as possible, especially red meat. The truth is, to put it mildly, more nuanced than that. They obviously did a lot of work researching this, and their writing is superb. I could not recommend the book more highly, regardless of what your current views are on this. Remember, they are paleo diet advocates, and I lean more towards whole-foods plant-based. But I pretty much agree with everything in the book on ethical/religious and environmental issues, I had some nits to pick with them about nutrition, which we’ll get to below. But that’s kind of the point. If we find common ground on the ethical/religious and environmental issues, only then is it possible to have a rational discussion about nutrition.

I’ve touched upon this in the past, and the main point was that the ethical/religious and environmental arguments make the discussion much more contentious, so opposing groups will not listen to each other and look for common ground or compromise. I mentioned back then that we could defuse this by using the term “reduceitarian” (as in the book of the same name by Brian Kateman) instead of “vegan”, and that everyone could do their part to address the “less harm” and environmental issues by not eating junk, and reducing their consumption of animal products. I also pointed that the paleo diet is already reduceitarian by limiting dairy.

I think Diana and Rob might agree that’s a step in the right direction, except they don’t think the focus should be on meat consumption, but instead on replacing modern industrial agriculture, both plant and animal, with a more sustainable version. They definitely sold me on that point. I was especially fascinated learning about the environmental aspects, To me, feeding the world as nutritiously as possible, while doing the least harm, is an optimization problem. That’s in my “wheelhouse” because I used to write software for mechanical engineers to optimize their designs.

Up till now, I had read widely, and with an open mind, on the nutritional aspects of various diets (like whole-food plant based, the paleo diet, and low-carb). But I hadn’t investigated the ethical and environmental aspects deeply enough. I had bought claims like the standard statistic, “meat production causes more greenhouse gas emissions than transportation”. I think in the back of my mind I wondered if it was exaggerated, but I never dug deeper. That’s why this book was such an eye-opener.

Giant fields of commodity crops like soybeans, wheat, potatoes, and corn are unsustainably farmed just to make junk food. That does a lot of harm, to bees and animals in the fields being sprayed, as well as to the environment. So who is doing the least harm, a “junk food” vegan, simply because they abstained from meat, or someone who avoids junk and gets their plant food and meat from from sustainable and humane sources?

Of course these are not the only two choices. There are plenty of vegans who also don’t eat junk food and sustainably source their food. But I’m afraid the message is slipping into the mainstream consciousness that you can save the planet by eating your crappy diet as long as you substitute an Impossible Whopper for your meat Whopper to go with your fries and soda.

And what’s often left out of the picture is that a lot of environmental harm is done from unsustainable farming practices of some plant crops. Rice is a major contributor to greenhouse emissions. The authors give evidence that “riceless Fridays” might actually be more beneficial than “meatless Mondays”.

The authors describe some examples of extremist, and rude, actions by vegans, which I was sorry to hear about. All the vegans I know personally are nice and gentle people who do not judge others for their food choices. To be fair, I need to point out that vegetarians and vegans often face questioning and sometimes contempt for their choices. I know I did when I was a vegetarian back in my youth, even though I was never trying to proselytize or “convert” anybody. This is yet more evidence of the “religious-war”-like nature of this issue, which I’d like to see taken down a few notches by both sides.

Bottom line: These are examples of how the issue is more nuanced that “meat bad, plants good”. What I totally agree upon is that if we want to do the least harm to our fellow creatures and the environment, the focus needs to be shifted to sustainable agriculture of both plants and animals. It is “factory farming”, or modern industrial agriculture, that is the main problem. The authors take it further and teach us about “regenerative” farming which actually improves the ecosystem, and show that humane integration of animals into a combined farming system helps make it regenerative. A great way to learn more about this is on the website “a greener world“, which has certifications like “animal welfare approved” and “regenerative” approved”. I would love to see that take off, much like free range certification for eggs or fair trade certification for coffee and chocolate. Diana is on the board of their animal welfare approved branch.

https://agreenerworld.org/certifications/

You can get more of the details by reading the book, or read on and I’ll give you my take. I’m going to discuss the issues in this order: ethical/religious, then environmental, then nutrition. This is actually the reverse of the order in the book. But as I said, only after the first two issues are addressed can we talk about the health effects of animal products rationally, and carefully listen to each others views.

Ethical/Religious:

I (and the authors) respect the views of those who avoid meat and other animal products for religious regions or humane reasons. For example Buddhists want to reduce the suffering for all beings. Or people may have seen documentaries showing cruelty to animals in the farming industry. This leads many to become vegan or at least reduce their meat consumption. There is a lot of cruelty in modern industrial animal agriculture. That is why I’ve support the Humane Farming Association (and will now add Diana’s Animal Welfare Approved to my list): A lot of this can be minimized by more sustainable farming practices.

The authors show that modern industrial farming of plants also causes a lot of suffering, and give a strong argument that sustainable animal farming (or sustained farming of a combination of plants and animals) can actually lead to less overall suffering, especially if you include the welfare of wild animals. For example, current practice is to grow giant “monocrops” like soybeans or corn. Just plowing the field kills animals, The heavy use of pesticides and herbicides like roundup is killing off bees needed for pollinating.

My wife and I are enthusiastic fans of a show on RFDTV called “FarmHer”. It chronicles the contributions of women in the farming community across the US, including farms with animals. From the many first hand accounts, it is clear that many women and men in the farming community believe passionately in sustainable farming and care deeply about the welfare of their animals. So does Diana, as is clear from stories from her farm in the book.

But couldn’t you take the further step of better faming practices and abstaining from meat to do even less harm? It depends on what you’re substituting for your meat, tofu from sustainably raised soybeans may be a good step, tofu from soybeans conventionally farmed may not be, because it may be avoiding harm to farmed animals, but causing harm to wild animals. An Impossible burger, made from a variety of conventionally farmed ingredients, is even less likely to be a step in the right direction.

Environmental:

Let’s start with one of the biggest misconceptions that’s become something “everybody knows”: animal agriculture, especially beef production, causes more greenhouse emissions than the entire transportation sector. It turns out the calculations on which this statistic is based are inaccurate. The authors meticulously chased the numbers for the claim about greenhouse emissions from beef production. For the details I’ll leave you to read the book because it is complicated to explain. But here is one tidbit illustrating the bottom line: the Epa estimates the contribution of all livestock in the US is 4% (only half that from beef), vs. 28% for transportation. Transportation actually contributes 7 times the amount of livestock! Compare that to the exaggeration being bandied about that agricultural livestock contribute more than transportation.

Pronghorn antelopes, fantastic endurance athletes. They can run for an hour as fast as a human can sprint.

Here’s another fascinating point that is overlooked in this discussion. You might be thinking, “wait a minute, what about all the methane from those cow farts?” First of all, ruminants, like cows, apparently belch methane, not fart it. But we currently have 94 million cows in the US. In 1850, there were well over a hundred million total ruminants on the great plains, and sadly a great many are gone now. These included bison, elk, caribou, deer, and pronghorn antelopes. Their methane emissions added up to about 82% of the current methane emissions from cows. But the world’s methane emissions have gone up by about 2 and a half times (250%) since 1850. I don’t think we can blame that on the cows.

Returning to the optimization problem, of providing the most nutritious food while doing the least harm to the planet, I’d always thought some animals fit in the mix. A lot of the traditional healthy “Blue Zones” communities herd goats or sheep on marginal land not suited for growing crops. There are a lot of cows grazing on our hillsides in California. I never thought they were the issue, it was the feedlots where you see (and smell) the cows crammed together when you’re driving south on Interstate 5. I first heard the marginal land argument, specifically using the example of sheep herding in New Zealand, from Dr. Grant Schofield and his colleagues in the book What the Fat?.

But the authors go further than this. They show the role animals, especially cattle, play in regenerative practices, which actually restore the soil and improve the local ecosystem. They contrast this with conventional practices that they refer to as extractive (I’ve also heard them called mining the soil). A lot more plants and animals exist in the healthy ecosystem of a regenerative farm, vs a conventional one:

The authors powerfully argue that regenerative farming that raises animals and plants sustainably causes less environmental harm than industrial agriculture farming of plants. Practices include rotating fields with plant crops and animals. The fallow field (with last year’s remaining harvest, or planted with a cover crop, is grazed on by the animals, who of course provide free fertilizer. The details are fascinating and encouraging. Another way animals can contribute is by fertilizing hillsides they graze on which otherwise can get depleted by runoff. I can attest to this mechanism, since I hike in open spaces where cattle grazing is permitted. There’s plenty of cow fertilizer. It’s a very good incentive to be mindful when you walk!

Definitely sustainable combined plant/animal farming is superior to conventional farming. What about sustainable plant farming? That’s superior to conventional also, but the authors make a case that the presence of the animals actually improves the situation.

Here’s one crucial calculation: Can we produce enough food if we switch from grain-fed beef to grass-fed? They proved the answer is yes. And if we really want to make sure there’ll be enough land to make plant and animal food, a major step nobody talks about is to stop wasting the large percentage of cropland used for commodity crops to make junk foods. Grow something useful on it.

There is one other important misconception that needs to be addressed. That is the claim that it takes a lot more land to provide the same nutrition if its by raising beef rather than a plant crop. The authors investigate the claim and show the calculations are misleading. The thinking goes like this: “what if you grow corn, and eat it, vs. growing the corn, feeding it to a cow, and instead eat the meat from the cow”. This makes it seem like you’d need a lot less land if you just ate the corn. But even with conventional farming, only a small fraction of the food that a cow raised for beef eats in its lifetime comes from food directly grown for it (feed crops). It spends the majority of its life on pastureland, then the last few months in a feedlot. Even in the feedlot a good percentage of the “grain” it’s fed is not from feed crops like corn but from agricultural waste. Second, you have to compare the nutrients from the beef vs. the corn. To match the protein and micronutrients, you’d have to supplement the corn with other plant foods.

This calculation is important to me because I’ve had that misconception in my mind for over 50 years! When I was 18 I read the book Diet For a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe. She showed how we can get high quality protein (the right blend of essential amino acids) by combining different plant foods, and that this has been done for centuries in traditional cultures (rice and tofu, tortillas and beans, etc.). This major contribution of her book has stood the test of time. But the title of the book comes from calculating how many acres it takes to grow the same amount of protein from animal protein vs. plants such as soybeans. For beef she estimated it would take over 10 times as much. But this calculations suffers the same inaccuracies as shown in the previous paragraph.

Nutritional

Summary:

Overall I consider the overlaps between the authors’ recommendations and those I believe are healthy, such as eating no junk and lots of healthy plant foods, to be vital, The main point of contention is over how much meat should be in a healthy diet. I readily concede is not zero, it is a number as high as 15%. The authors argue for a somewhat higher figure, and I’ll discuss the evidence below.

They make a very good point that nutrition needs vary at different stages of life, children vs adults, vs. aging adults. I totally agree and feel there is an especially important distinction between those in a growth stage vs aging (I am becoming experienced at the latter…)

The authors concede you can be healthy on a vegan diet but only if you know what you are doing, You have to supplement missing nutrients like B12 and omega3. And you can get enough protein but need to be careful to do so. I discussed protein combining above. Some vegan authors say you’ll get plenty of protein as long as you eat a variety of healthy foods. It depends on what you mean by plenty, as we’ll see below. I personally feel you need to at least audit your diet once in a while to assure adequate protein, and consider using concentrated sources like tofu or tempeh. The authors give some sad examples of children raised by vegan parents who didn’t know enough about nutrition.

The authors also argue that the evidence for the health consequences of meat eating are not as solid as presented in guidelines. This is a crucial point. If you concede, as I do, that some meat can belong to a healthy diet, the question becomes how much. Making an analogy with drugs, we want the optimal dose but minimal side effects. So it’s important if the evidence for “side effects” is solid or exaggerated.

They specifically cover protein, and argue that the guidelines may be adequate to avoid deficiencies, but not to thrive. I agree with that. The current guidelines are for about 10% calories from protein. I’ve discussed previously why that is too low, and came up with an estimate of about 12%. The authors argue for 20%, which is still way below estimates I’ve found for the safe upper limit of protein. I’m not going to squabble about 12 vs 20. My only comment is that they assume the entire 20% has to come from meat. Why not some from meat and some from healthy plant sources (mushrooms, lentils, etc.)? This is important because there are health and longevity concerns over excess animal proteins in the diet (details below).

Details:

Let me review some background on where I come from on nutrition before I delve into how it largely overlaps, but somewhat contrasts, with the authors. I’m mostly a WFPB guy. The authors are more paleo (but having read Robb’s book Wired to Eat. he is more flexible in his interpretation of paleo, as I am of WFPB). The term “whole food plant based” (WFPB) was coined to distinguish from an unhealthy vegan diet. WFPB is, in a nutshell: no junk, a variety of healthy minimally processed plant foods, minimal dairy, and reduced meat (including fish). A healthy vegan diet is a subset of WFPB that has no animal foods. Unfortunately, “whole food plant based is quite a mouthful”. So the shorter “plant based” is now in vogue. But french fries and oreos are plant based! Leaving out the “whole foods” takes us full circle back to “junk food vegan”.

Now let me contrast WFPB with the Paleo diet, which I discussed previously here. Paleo is an attempt to follow a diet closer to what we evolved on, specifically before the onset of agriculture. It can be summarized as no junk, a variety of healthy minimally processed plant foods, minimal dairy, minimal grains. Previously this diet discouraged legumes also, but now they’re considered OK unless you’re intolerant.

Note that there is considerable overlap between the two diets. The contrast is mostly between limiting meat in WFPB, vs. grains in Paleo. And as to grains, grain intolerant people can certainly follow WFPB and use gluten-free grains or pseudo-grains instead like buckwheat or quinoa (which are both really seeds).

One thing has always amused me about the raging controversy between WFPB and Paleo. Lots of authors in both camps recommend 80/20 eating. Nobody’s perfect, so strive to follow the diet really strictly 80% of the time, and “let your hair down” 20%. So I could be really strict about limiting meat most of the time, but allow it 20% of the time. A paleo follower could be really strict about limiting grains most of the time, but allow them 20% of the time. We might end up eating almost exactly the same thing overall. We’d only disagree on when we thought we were being strict!

Meat is the more crucial contrast between the two diets, especially in connection with discussing this book. WFPB recommends lower amounts than paleo.

Ok, on to the details. I readily agree with the authors on all points above except 4 and 5. I refer you to the book for details of the discussion of points 2 and 3. So let’s go over 4 and 5.

First I agree with the authors in their discussion of the quality of evidence from nutritional studies. Animal studies provide important clues, but not proof. And “Correlation is not causation”: the authors give an amusing example of this. I’ll add my own. Coffee correlates with lung cancer. Does it cause it? Of course not. It turns out heavy smokers tend to be heavy coffee drinkers as well.

Health aspects (“side effects”) of meat

A lot of the discussion of meat hinges on whether saturated fats are healthy. I’ll concede the authors point that the science on this is not as settled as commonly thought. Here’s my take. A major conventional argument goes like this: the ldl (bad cholesterol) number below which Heart attacks are rare in traditional populations, including hunter-gatherers, with and ldl (bad cholesterol) of 70 or less. Ldl is well-known to go up when you add more saturated fat to your diet. End of story. Well, not quire…

The latest word is that what really matters is oxidized ldl. The likelihood of having oxidize ldl is reduced if you have a high ratio of good cholesterol (hdl) to triglycerides, in which case TC or even the amount of ldl may not matter. As an aside, note that the second author of the “ldl under 70” study is paleo diet proponent Dr. Loren Cordain, who believes it’s important for meat consumed to be lean because that better approximates the wild game consumed by hunter-gatherers. Ok, on to other health aspects.

There does seem to be a negative association between protein intake from animal sources and all-cause mortality [2], But remember correlation vs. causation, above. So more evidence is needed.

The authors show the recommendations to reduce red meat (especially processed versions) because it is carcinogenic are not as solid as we think. These are based on WHO guidelines for hazardous substances, which say red meat is carcinogenic, but not how strongly.

Other aspects include harmful substances like TMAO, which I discussed previously. They give references that question how strong the claim is that these are harmful. I chased these and contrasted them to my previous references, and frankly do not have the nutritional biochemistry background to tell who is right. So I’ll just leave it that this point is controversial.

But there remains a vital point that was not discussed. I mentioned the role of nutrition in different stages of life above. The are substances which are healthy and beneficial for a growing organism, but actually can become harmful (e.g. cancer-promoting) in excess for an aging organism. These include IGF-1 (“insulin-like growth factor 1”) and mTOR (“mammalian target of Rapamycin”). There he goes with the alphabet soup again. Sorry. There is a really good discussion of this in Dr. Valter Longo’s book The Longevity Diet. It’s a fascinating story and it has to do with the long history of researching diet and longevity, including caloric restriction. It turns out the beneficial part of caloric restriction for longevity has been traced to restriction of animal proteins. The evidence in humans is more correlational [1], except we do have the evidence that all of the longer-lived Blue Zone populations eat lower amounts of animal protein than the general population.

What’s the Safe Upper Limit For Meat in a Healthy Diet?

This is point 5 above. Right away, based on the Blue Zones populations, I’d concede the safe upper limit is at least 15%, The authors argue for more like 40%, so we have a bit of controversy here. Their discussion is very well reasoned and with good evidence. One issue I have is that they accept Dr. Cordain’s controversial number of 45%-65% of calories from animal foods being in the diet we evolved on. But since we’re looking for a safe upper limit, I’ll concede that at least some of the population may thrive on this higher level. Our tolerances vary, as shown in Eat To Live. There are known genetic variations, for example, in the gene that determines how much salivary amylase we have in our saliva. Those with less tolerate less starch but possibly more meat.

The other way the authors approach it is looking for the right amount of protein, and as we saw above they came up with 20%. Since lean beef, for example, is about 50% protein, that leads to about 40% animal products. Normal recommendations for protein are about 10%, I’ve discussed how children, athletes, and older adults might need more like 12%. The authors correctly point out the protein has a high satiety value so more of it might help prevent overeating. But they assume all of our protein intake has to be from meat. That is the main bone of contention (no pun intended). Especially for aging adults, there is the issue of the relation between animal protein and longevity discussed above. This concern could be addressed by getting some of your protein from plant sources.

I would add an argument in favor of higher total protein (plant plus animal) for aging adults however, and that is prevention of muscle loss (sarcopenia). In his book, Dr. Longo describes the centenarians he knew in the region of Italy he grew up in (sounds like another Blue Zone). They are healthy, but somewhat frail. He thinks adding some fish to their diet would help with this. The centenarians in China described in the book Longevity Village are healthy and robust. And they have a significant amount of fish in their diet. The point is not fish specifically, but adequate high quality protein.

On Longevity

One of the problems with looking for traditional populations with good longevity is they don’t often have access to good health care, and may have a higher incidence of child mortality. The average longevity of the population seems lower, but if you compared those who reach adulthood and don’t die of infectious disease, they be healthier and longer-lived than modern populations. That argument is made here.

The real issue is preventing the scourge of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer that have been attributed to our poor modern diet. The next best thing to proving longevity is finding populations that are free of these diseases. In addition to the Blue Zones populations, these all tend to be subsistence farmers, like traditional people in Africa and rural China. They all ate a diet with no modern processed junk, and also happen to eat a diet lower in meat, because subsistence farmers tend to be poorer and not able to afford as much meat as richer people or modern populations. There is at least one healthy traditional population that are a combination of subsistence farmers and hunter gatherers, the Tsimane in Bolivia, but their diet also only gets 14% of its calories from animal products. Are there any healthy populations that eat a diet higher in meat?

The Masai come to mind for many people. They traditionally ate a diet high in meat and low in animal products, but absent of modern processed foods, and are cited as being free of heart disease, but the evidence is not conclusive. They do not have particularly high longevity, but that is why I put in the caveat above. They are certainly robust. If facing down lions with spears isn’t enough, David Rudisha proved to the world how robust they are, including at the Olympics in 2012. Here’s the evidence they are free from heart disease: A doctor visited them in 1972 and was permitted to perform autopsies on 50 deceased men. They showed signs of atherosclerosis and significant thickening of the coronary arteries “which equaled that of old U.S. men”. But there were “very few complicated lesions” and he speculated they may be “protected from their atherosclerosis by physical fitness which causes their coronary arteries to be capacious” [3]. As I’ve discussed previously, a heart attack is not caused by clogging with plaque like a pipe. It is more like a pimple bursting, then the clot forming. “No complicated lesions” might be a hint this was less likely, and having larger coronary arteries doesn’t hurt either. This is compelling, but not conclusive, evidence. The other population that is often claimed to be free of modern diseases on their traditional diet, high in animal foods, is the Inuit in the Arctic but that appears to be a myth [4].

There is an article here that discusses the longevity of hunter gatherers, but the only evidence it gives is the Tsimane, who as we saw do not eat a high meat diet.

I haven’t yet seen scientific proof of healthy populations, free of modern chronic disease, that eat a diet that gets more than 15% calories from meat. It may be out their and I’m not aware of it. Please tell me in the comment section if you’re aware of any.

Conclusion

My overall take away is: don’t eat junk, and support organizations that promote regenerative agriculture, and try to buy your food from sustainable sources (local doesn’t hurt either). That’s the best approach to causing the least harm. And eat the amount of meat you think is the most healthy for you. Not eating junk is the most important step, health-wise, as long as you make that, you’ll be far healthier than those eating the typical modern diet. And please don’t judge people whose food choices differ from yours.

I personally believe that at least for people in my age group (that is the cue for millennials to roll their eyes and say “OK, boomer”), replacing some of your animal protein with healthy plant sources might be a good option.

Finally, thanks Diana and Rob, for the tremendous work you did on this truly eye opening book.

References

Hristov, A, “Historic, pre-European settlement, and present-day contribution of wild ruminants to enteric methane emissions in the United States”, J Anim Sci. , 2012.

Song, M, et al, “Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality,” JAMA Internal Medicine, 2016

[3]. Mann, G, , “Atherosclerosis in the Masai”, Amer J Epid, 1972.

Caterina, R, “n–3 Fatty Acids in Cardiovascular Disease”, NEJM, 2011.

Review of Sacred Cow: The Case for (Better) Meat published first on https://steroidsca.tumblr.com/

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