#also. how are the odds of the show getting a good budget on hulu

[popculturebuffet]

Pinky and the Brain: A Pinky And the Brain Christmas Review or I Just Think Schotzie’s Neat

Christmas Continues on this blog... and getting away from one set of Christmas commissions and into another, I offered my friend Blahdiddy three commissions as a present. The other two we’ll get to eventually, but with Animaniacs on the brain, heh, due to the reboot, he selected two Pinky and the Brains and one Animaniacs for me to cover. And while I intended to cover this one sometime this month anyway, my friend’s recent and sad covid diagnosis meant i’m bumping this one all the way up to the front of the line so he has some christmas cheer during this rough time. So with that in mind let’s talk about pinky, pinky and the brain brain brain brain brain shall we? Of course we can’t really talk about pinky and the brain without talking about Animaniacs. I absolutely love the series, I grew up with it as a kid and reconnected with it as an adult when it ended up on netflix. It was smart, well animated and most importantly really fucking funny. I highly recommend checking both the original and reboot of it out some time if you have Hulu. Speaking of the reboot while I might go on in full about it at some point it’s pretty good, with some creatvie jokes, some nice updates, with Rita Anita Anrita being a great new addition to the warner side of things. It’s only real flaw is it gets a bit reptitious as for the most part there’s only really the warners and pinky and the brain with a few exceptions one of which DAMN well deserved at least two segments and we all know which one that is. 

Bring.. this.. to series. The warners and pinky and the brain segments weren’t bad, but as is inevitible in a screwball comedy some just weren’t as good as others and those fell harder when you’ve already seen 2 or 3 better versions of this sort of skit in the season. They did really find their groove towards the end and if you like both Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, or even just one or the other, it’s worth checking out.  But enough about the reboot let’s talk about those labratory mice whose genes have been spliced. Thanks to wikipedia, I now know the duo were based on Eddie Fitzgerald and Tom Minton, who worked with Tom Rutgeter on Tiny Toon adventures, with menton being the one who came up with Narf, even saying it in one episode of Tiny Tunes. During the creation of animaniacs, Bruce Timm, yes THE Bruce Timm, sketched the two, and Ruetger added mouse ears and the rest was history. Maurice LaMarche was the one who added the Orson Welles to the character, as LaMarche saw the Orson Welles in Brain, ran with it and got the part and a long and storied career in voice acting as a result. In a nice and fitting bit of contrast, Rob Paulsen got the part.. because he was already on the show. Not to downplay Paulsen’s clear talent, I just find it hilarious. 

That’s about what I could dig up on the behind the scenes of the show. From what I can tell it was greenlit because Animaniacs was a massive it, and Pinky and the Brain was the most popular segment, so it just made sense. The show would likewise be a massive sucess with both adults and kids, and go on for three seasons and what should legally be considered a war crime. 

For those of you blissfully unaware yeah, that happened, no no one people actually LIKED from Tiny Toons was in it. And yeah if you want me to talk about it commission it otherwise not going near this one. While I do need to tackle more bad animation... I’ve successfully avoided watching an episode of this show for 22 years next wedsday, I’m not breaking the streak for free. 

But some.. things aside I remembered liking the series as a kid but just never got around to seeking it out as an adult. I had nothing against the animaniacs segments and I even still have a stuffed brain doll I got at a garage sale.. the pinky is sadly missing and persumed dead. I just wasn’t as bit into it as I was the slappy bits rewatching animaniacs and didin’t really see reason to watch the show. Watching this though made me realize I was wrong and I probably watch more of it in the future This special is damn good, i’m pleased ot review it and to revive and old childhood memory. So with all the exposition out of the way let’s talk Pinky, PInky and the brain brain brain brain christmas edition after the cut. 

This was indeed a special: while it was presumably produced with season one of the show and is packaged with it both on DVD and on Hulu, where I watched it, the special was aired in prime time and even put on it’s own VHS.. which I found out and of course, like with my review of the Darkwing Duck Pilot, had to use as the art for old VHS’ tapes for cartoons.. was really fucking beautiful and it’s a nice break from my traditional screencaps.   So we open with a clever Christmas rendition of the theme, frequently sprinkling in bits of other christmas stuff, utterly fantastic. The intro animation is less impressive as it’s literally just the regular intro but with a stock snow effect over everything. In case you thought Ducktales doing that was a new thing. I do not blame the team however, as apparently they only had a week to get the scripts out, so I highly doubt warner was forking out more cash for the animation than they had to. They still forked out enough to make it LOOK really good mind you, something I wish they’d do more often with their DTV Movies but do do with their animated shows still with certain exceptions so good on them, i’m just saying they clearly cared more about money than having a memorable christmas opening. Given a budget to actually make one, i’m sure the animators would’ve come up with something lovely, and i’m sure the same is true of Ducktales and other shows and like i’ve said, i’m highly in favor of shows actuallly doing unique openings for the holidays, especially since Holiday episodes tend to get reaired every year as long as the show is in circulation on the network. Sometimes even if it isn’t. So it’s fully worth the effort to fork out a little extra for this as while you’ll most likely only use it once, you’ll be using the special for years. You can afford to treat yourself networks come on. It’s...

Just like Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain. But onto the episode itself after 80 years. We find Pinky writing his Christmas list to santa, complete with Narf, a gag I like. As usual for a comedy show, I will try to gloss over as much of the gags as possible, to avoid repetttion but yeah this episode is really damn funny and reminded me just how good these characters are. Maurice and Rob just have perfect chemistry. It’s like Tom and Jerry: It’s a very simple premise, that one being “Cat chases mouse and Mouse beats shit out of mouse”, and pinky and the brain of course being “Super genuis mouse and dimwitted but loveable sidekick try and takeover the world eveyr night”. But a simple premise can be used just about anywhere and adapated for anything. To me a cartoon’s premise only has to be as complicated as it needs to be to work. Sometimes you have a vast complex tapestry behind the world like She Ra, Steven Universe or Avatar with lots of planning and ins and outs and deep character stuff.. and sometimes you just have two mice who get into shenanigans because one is a would be dictator who sounds like orson welles and the other’s a loveable british weirdo/moron. Sometimes simple just works. 

Anyways, Brain, noticing Pinky’s distracted and replaces himself with a horrifying poorly made doll of himself called Noodle Noggin, which is both an excellent name and not the only time they’d use the name either, as there was an animaniacs short about Brain making himself a fad to endear himself to the children of the future with the same name. It’s just an inherently funny set of words, but also shows Brain’s genius in a subtle and clever way as he never spells it out, but despite sounding kind of ridiculous for such a buttoned up intellectual like brain... he knows that’s the kind of name kids will eat up. His schemes may often fail, but he’s an objectively brilliant schemer and i’ts often either PInky’s incompetence or his own miscalculation of humanity, either over or underestimating them, that undoes Brain.  Back to the plot, so Brain’s plan is to distribute noodle noggins around the world, make it the hot new toy, and as always, take over the world. Problem is naturally two Mice simply don’t have the resources to make the billions of dolls. But PInky stumbles upon the solution in the paper: a want ad for elves! Everything about that sentence except “pinky stumbles upon the solution” has not aged paticuarlly well, but point is they have a plan and we have our christmas special.  This does bring me to my one problem with the special.. Brain’s weird inconsistency towards Santa. What I mean is he spends the portion doubting Santa can do anything he’s claimed to despite being proven frequently he can. That part is not all that annoying as it’s in character with him and while yes, he is a talking mouse, he’s also a man of science and reason and Santa is the opposite of that. That would be fine... IF it wasn’t for the fact that said magical bollocks weren’t constantly part of his plans. Despite Brain constantly throughought the special doubting Santa... his plans FREQUENTLY rely on everything we’ve heard about him being right. His initial plan here ENTIRELY runs on the fact Santa has a massive workforce to make the toys yet even if that’s true by Brain’s own logic, he wouldn’t be able to deliver them. Later when the boys need to escape, They hide with the Reindeer despite Brain just saying santa can’t be everywhere in one night.. which if he can’t then the odds are slim he’ll wind up at Acme Labs isn’t it? It would be fine if the special acknowledged any of this outside of one bit we’ll get to, but other than that one bit.. they don’t. IT’s just really frustrating and really sticks out since the rest of the special is perfection, so this one failing bit really grates. That being said, it dosen’t last long enough to really drag the episode down as a whole, just to annoy me a bit every so often. It speaks to the episodes quality that the bad part ONLY drags so much because everything else is so well put together.  So our boys head to the north pole with the help of a kooky pilot and a santa dummy, this pilot is voiced by Tress MacNeile and is easily one of the best parts of the special. And naturally given their luck, she asks them to take the wheel so the plane instead jerks and causes them to fall out. Luckily they end up near Santa’s workshop and soon apply for temp work with local head of things and gruff type Shotzie, played by Jeff Bennett. And yes that is his name.  I like Shotzie: he’s a goateed elf and Bennett just plays him well.. hard to explain honestly I may just like his name and Bennett’s voice for him, one he used before in animanaics for various bit parts and in shows after this, it’s just a voice i’ve always liked. 

They get put to work in the mail room, which is the bit I mentioned: Brain earlier scoffed at Santa answering all the letters with Pinky simply suggesting that Santa had his elves go through all of them. Turns out Pinky was right... while he may be a BIT stupid, one intresting thing i’ve found about Pinky after watching the reboot that ironically the friend who comissioned this and I discussed is that he’s not ENTIRELY stupid, it’s just , much like Dan from Dan Vs his knowledge is just random.. he can not know how a lot of things work, but sometimes like in this instance Pinky generally just GETS something. It’s part of why he and Brain are such a good team despite their failures: Brain is all about planning and thought and research, Pinky is about intuition and gut instinct. He just does things and it often works out. This also makes their recently added backstories all the more brilliant as they explain this well: Pinky started life just being told to find the diffrence in cheeses and thus was taught form childhood to trust in himself and his weird brain. Brain was cruelly torturued with an experiment on learned behaviors via electroshock, and was taught to never give up control again, to always know what’s going on and to always control it. It perfectly sums up who the two are and why they are that way.  Brain however quickly pivots, as the mail room ends up being the perfect location to start his plans. Since their job is to file away what each person wants Brain simply adds Noodle Noggin to it and plans to put his plans into the workshop. While Santa and Schotzie are suprised and baffled, Santa quickly adds it to the list. However things hit a snag when Schotzie gets supscious when the two try to sneak into the blueprint room to drop theirs off and he accidently yanks off their disguises leading to a REALLY fun chase scene, as the boys end up in a toy wherehouse and thus try out various toy cars: a barbie dream car that dosen’t have a working motor, a toy truck that dosen’t go very fast, and finally an rc car that while fast naturally just means Schotzie can grab it and capture them. It’s easily my faviorite scene of the episode just for how clever it is and as someone whow as a kid around the time this came out, I applaud the accuracy.. granted I didn’t have any of those personally but I had lots of friends so yeah. 

So our heroes are interrogated.. and again Brain brilliantly pivots. Schotzie assumes since they have the blueprints their spies for the easter bunny or the tooth fairy or Herschel, the Hanukah Goblin. Why Herschel never got his own Hannukah special trying to stop Pinky and the Brain from using it to take over the world, I genuinely do not know and that’s something the reboot really needs to adress in the future. Seriously Hannukah needs a mascot and it’s either Herschel or the Hannukah Zombie. Kwanza already has Kwanzabot. I want to see more of Herschel the Hannukah Goblin dammit!. I love goblins. Especially this one.

And this one

And most of all this one

I likes goblins. It’s a thing. So anyway, point is Schotize has the blueprints taken in while our boys slip out and sucessfully make their way outside, though they have to find a way home to turn on the mind control device. They see Santa and brain being a dick refuses to let pinky hand in his letter.. but does as mentioned earlier have them pose as reindeer.  So our heroes make their way home and in time to be able to activate the device once santa’s route’s finished!

And.. then land directly on the mind control device thing, meaning they now have to scramble to repair it. Oh and Pinky is inconsolable after realizing Santa didn’t get his letter and Brain is a HUGE dick about it. Easily the worst i’ve seen him just far more focused on his machine than his friend’s wel lbeing especially since ALL he needs from pinky is for him to throw one lousy switch. 

But we then get easily the best part of the entire special. As Brain scrambles to rebuild his device while abusing his best friend we get a really nice tense sequence as Brain rebuilds while kids all over the world warmly receive noodle noggin. I mean.. it’s not the creepiest doll I’ve seen a kid enjoy. 

Also Bill Clinton gets one because the series apparently really likes “Bill Clinton is stupid jokes” Oh you poor innocent dears who haven’t had to suffer through the president being revealed to be a sexual predator, the one after him being even dumber if not a predator, the one after that being easily one of the best people around, and the outgoing one being a waking nightmare whose both a preadator and dumb beyond all comprehension ina dangerous and soul crushing way. 

But yeah onto the good part, Brain, for whatever reason, reads the letter.. and finds Pinky asked for nothing. He just wanted to give Brain the world at long last, recognizing his friend really and genuinely means well for it and that he’s worked hard to conquer it. And with that goal in reach, with the very thing he’s always wanted his... Brain instead uses the device to wish a merry christmas. He sees through his friend’s kindess and selflessness that he himself.. has been selfish once again turning something into a world destroying plot and being cruel to his best friend... when all his best friend wanted was to selflessly make sure he finally got what he wanted. It’s then that Brain, for all his cold and cynical logic and superiority complex, realized the true meaning of christmas, which i’ve said before and i’ll say again: it’s about giving, about giving someone something with your heart and soul just to be nice with no expectation of something in return. It’s about being selfless for once instead of selfish. I’ts about love. And Brain loves his friend too much to destroy his faviorite holiday. For once the world can wait.. and for once they all join in saying merry christmas to one another and in love and camradire. And I know not everyone celebrates christmas, there are other winter holidays and not everyone in the world would willingly do this. I know all that.. but the special has such a well meaning message, I really can’t be mad at that or get into the weeds too much> This isn’t some jackass making an entire movie, of which there have been several, saying “There’s a war on christmas” which instead equates to them just bitching about not everyone celebrating HIS holiday. It’s about a mouse for one moment truly being selfless and putting ihs loyal and faithful friend over his greatest want to give him a nice christmas and to do something nice for the world instead of trying to take it. And that.. that’s really damn heartmelting.  So we end on the two exchanging presents, with it being a little extra heartwarming as Brain likely already got Pinky something meaning even before his big revelation, he really does care beneath all the dope slaps. Pinky got him a keychain of the world and rather than be frustrated like you’d think.. Brain just takes it in stride. It is christmas after all.. the world.. it can wait. For now it’s just the two of them having one moment in time, this merry christmas.  Final Thoughts: If it wasn’t obvious, I loved this freaking special. It’s funny, clever and has one hell of an ending. There isn’t much more to say other than go watch it if you have Hulu.. you will not regret it and a sepcial thanks to Blah for comissioning this. it was an amazing time and is now a competitor for a spot on my best christmas special list. For now though it’s just really good and I say go check it out. Merry christmas, happy holidays and later days. 

#animaniacs #pinky and the brain #warner brothers #pinky #the brain #santa claus #christmas #blahdiddy #christmas specials #reviews #animation #kids wb

[scoutception]

Ranking the 5 animes I’ve recently watched

Long story short, I’ve been taking a break and watching anime, something that I’ve only really experienced in small doses before, though in general I don’t really watch a lot of stuff nowadays (to my memory, the only anime I’ve watched in full is Danganronpa 3, so I’ll go ahead and say it gave me an aversion to it all). As the title says, I’ve gone through 5 so far, so I’ve decided to just type up my personal rankings and thoughts. If I had to say anything important before starting, it’s that 1. everything I list here is a very enjoyable and worthwhile watch, and I would definitely recommend giving any of them a try, and 2. this is just a personal ranking, and so it’s very biased. I might, for example, think whatever is number 5 is technically better than whatever is number 4, but still prefer number 4 for any number of reasons. I’m at least going to try to point out when that’s the case, but it’s still something to keep in mind. I’ll also be including information like number of episodes, what streaming platforms they’re on, which I’ll admit mostly comes down to Netflix, Hulu, and Crunchyroll, and whether or not English dubs are available, or only subtitles. Other than that, let the rankings begin. 5. Little Witch Academia

Number of episodes: 25. Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Netflix. Little Witch Academia originated as a short film released in 2013 as part of a training program for animators. It was only about half an hour long, but the fun cast and beautiful animation gave it a lot of charm, and enough popularity to spawn a second short film in 2015, the Enchanted Parade, which lasted for closer to an hour. Then, in 2017, it got a full series on Netflix, produced by Studio Trigger, which did away with any continuity from the short films, but kept the general concept. Little Witch Academia follows Atsuko “Akko” Kagari, who, after witnessing a magical show hosted by the witch known as Shiny Chariot, dedicated her life to becoming a witch, despite not coming from a family with magic in its bloodline. Despite managing to enroll in the academy of Luna Nova, dedicated to training witches, Akko finds the reality of it isn’t anywhere near what she expected; Chariot is ostracized by most of the magical community for portraying magic in a flashy, illusionist manner considered embarrassing, Luna Nova’s education is much more focused on tedious, small scale magic than what Akko had come to expect, the world at large considers Luna Nova and its magic to be weak relics of the past, something even its staff can’t argue well against, and worst of all, Akko is incompetent at magic to a downright abnormal degree, even for her normal origins, incapable of so much as riding a broom. Despite the constant demoralization, Akko receives help from one of the academy’s professors, Ursula, who puts Akko on the path to unlock the secrets of the Shiny Rod, Chariot’s personal wand, found by Akko on her way to Luna Nova. This isn’t exactly the most original series out there, and if you’ve watched pretty much anything involving non evil witches and magic schools, you’re not going to be too surprised. The main strength, writing wise, is the fun cast. Akko herself is a pretty entertaining main character, being very excitable and passionate, enough to keep likeable even with her many, many missteps throughout the series, but the rest of the cast is pretty good too. Characters like Sucy, Akko’s roommate obsessed with poison, mushrooms, and picking on Akko, the delinquent Amanda O’Neil, the mute technological genius Constanze, and Akko’s alleged rival, Diana Cavendish, who, though very haughty, has a lot more depth to her than you might expect, help hold the series together very well. Most of the series is pretty goofy and lighthearted, which helps keep it from feeling too cliche. Starting with the second half of the series, though, it gets much more story based, which might be a bit jarring for some people, but still manages some surprisingly sad moments. This is all helped by the great animation, as Trigger can always be counted on to provide, and the dub is good overall, with Erica Mendez especially perfectly capturing Akko. Overall, this is a fun watch, but it’s really not much special, so I can’t really put it anywhere other than dead last. If you want a fun, lighthearted romp that isn’t stuck to only 13 episodes, this is a good one to try. 4. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou/Sakura Hall

Number of episodes: 24. Language options: subs only. Streaming availability: Crunchyroll, Hidive. Firstly, don’t let the very questionable title give too many bad impressions. Sakura Hall, as I’ll be calling it, was originally a series of light novels by Hajime Kamoshida, with 10 main novels being released. The anime, produced by JC Staff, actually only adapts the first 6, though it ends rather conclusively regardless. This is also probably the most obscure anime on this list. Sorata Kanda is a rather unremarkable high school student attending the Suimei University of the Arts High School, forced to live in the very abnormal mixed gender dorm of Sakura Hall. Sakura Hall’s other residents consist of Misaki Kamiigusa, an extremely talented, and extremely weird and energetic, animator capable of creating anime almost entirely on her own, Jin Mitaka, the scriptwriter and childhood friend of Misaki, who is cool, mature, and has an almost chronic playboy streak, Ryunosuke Akasaka, the extremely reclusive, but talented computer programmer who mostly communicates through texts, and Chihiro Sengouka, Sakura Hall’s extremely irresponsible supervisor who prefers to leave the students to fend for themselves, outside of the occasional words of advice. Sorata is only stuck in Sakura Hall due to his refusal to abandon a stray cat he rescued, and intends on escaping Sakura Hall however he can to escape his roommates and return to normalcy, a plan that’s certainly not impacted by him picking up 6 more stray cats along the way. One day, a new resident moves into Sakura Hall: Mashiro Shiina, a relative of Chihiro and extremely talented artist, on a level only Misaki and Ryunosuke can match, who is also very unemotive and almost completely incapable of caring for herself, not helped by some rather odd thought processes (she’s almost certainly autistic, but they never actually clarify that). Sorata and some of the other Sakura Hall residents thusly become Mashiro’s caretakers, and are soon additionally joined by Sorata’s friend, the workaholic aspiring voice actress Nanami Aoyama. Sorata’s previously tedious life becomes defined by his struggles to find a direction to his life, his attempts at caring for and understanding Mashiro, and the various problems of the rest of the Sakura Hall residents. The main writing strength, is, again, the cast of characters. The characters are all very enjoyable, even the designated average guy, Sorata, and they all have their share of struggles, hidden depths, and development. The first half of the series is, for the most part, plain wacky, and while it does delve into serious moments more than a few times, it’s also prone to plain breaking the mood, either by starting them suddenly, or just as suddenly interrupting them with a gag. It’s enjoyable on its own, but it can be a bit hard to get into. The second half of the series is a big change of pace, becoming much, much more focused and serious, and for the better. Bitter topics like resentment against those who can outperform others simply through natural talent, and the risks of overworking, and the slippery slope mentality against accepting help that it can generate, are frequently brought up, and it does not shy away from how brutal reality can be. It’s never dark to the point of creating apathy, though, and it overall captures a very bittersweet portrayal of nearing the end of one’s teenage years, and preparing to become an adult. The animation is pretty good, and the voice actors all give memorable performances. Overall, this was probably the hardest series for me to get into at first, but sticking with it is very worthwhile. I can’t really say much about it, if only because I don’t want to risk getting into spoilers, but it genuinely is great. I was even considering placing it higher than number 4, but the next three things were stiff competition. 3. Gurren Lagann/Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Number of episodes: 27. Language options: dub and subs available. Streaming availability: Netflix, Crunchyroll, Hulu, Funimation. Here’s what I would bet is the second most popular anime on this list, and was more or less one of the grand finales to the golden age of Studio Gainax, directed by one of the co-founders of Studio Trigger, and is perhaps most memorably one of the series where Gainax didn’t completely mess up the budget by the end. Simon (pronunced see-moan) and his self appointed big brother Kamina live in an underground village, with Simon living a monotonous life digging tunnels so the village can expand, in hopes of finding artifacts and being awarded better dinners, while Kamina constantly causes trouble in his attempts to breach the underground and reach the surface. Simon is insecure and self deprecating, thinking he’s only capable of the job he already has while Kamina is extremely boisterous, charismatic, and capable of seeing the potential within Simon. The way to the surface is finally opened for the pair by the appearance of a giant mecha called a Gunmen, which are piloted by the beastmen, who control the surface and are out to exterminate any humans they come across. Simon and Kamina are saved by the appearance of Yoko, a human who lives on the surface, and a miniature Gunmen discovered by Simon, which Kamina dubs Lagann. Making their way to the surface and capturing an enemy Gunmen Kamina names Gurren, Kamina decides to take the fight to the beastmen themselves, and drags Simon and Yoko with him, starting what can only really be described as a rollcoaster ride of giant mechas, drills, and general insanity. The series honestly starts only about average, but starting about episode 7, the scale just starts going up and up, and doesn’t tend to slow down. It goes for bigger and bigger heights, making for some amazing action scenes, and doesn’t get desensitizing like some things would. The cast of characters is great, between characters like Kamina, being lovably boisterous and encouraging, Simon, who gets some fantastic character development, Yoko, the sniper who despite seeming just like designated fanservice has some great development herself, Viral, the recurring beastman commander who just can’t keep up, and Lordgenome, the absurdly manly leader of the beastmen, and that’s just listing a few. The animation is great, the soundtrack is very memorable, the dub is one of the best out there, especially with Kyle Herbert as Kamina, and the writing, despite just seeming like big fun robot show, makes a surprisingly great story. I unfortunately can’t go much more indepth without definitely wading into spoilers, but it doesn’t take too long to start paying off. Overall, if I had to try to rank without bias, this would actually be number 2 on this list. It’s a great ride, and one I can recommend pretty much without question. 2. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Number of episodes: 64. Language options: dub and subs available: Streaming availability: Netflix, Crunchyroll, Hulu, Funimation. Here’s what’s certainly the most popular anime on this list, and what would be my number 1 without bias. There’s actually two Fullmetal Alchemist animes, with the original 2003 one going very off track from the manga and becoming its own thing, while Brotherhood, made in 2009, stays faithful to the manga. Fullmetal Alchemist follows the Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse, in a world where the art of alchemy allows its users to transmute materials for purposes such as reshaping them into new forms, and operates on a principle of equivalent exchange, with every transmutation made relying on something being taken away. After being abandoned by their father, Van Hohenheim, and losing their mother to a plague, Ed and Al attempted the forbidden practice of human transmutation in an attempt to bring her back to life, only to fail, with Ed losing his left leg and right arm, and Al losing his entire body, forcing Ed to affix Al’s soul to a suit of armor. His missing limbs replaced with automail, a type of prosthetic, Ed becomes a government employed alchemist for the nation of Amestris, ruled over by Fuhrer Bradley, in hopes that he and Al can find a Philosopher’s Stone, an artifact said to be capable of eliminating the equivalent exchange requirement of alchemy, in hopes they can reacquire their natural bodies. Since things can’t ever go so smoothly, they end up involved in a massive conspiracy led by one known as Father, who commands Homunculi, artificial humans, who are themed after the seven deadly sins. By far the longest anime on this list, it’s also easily one of the richest. Almost every episode does something to move the plot along, and introduces a lot of important plot points fairly quickly, which helps keep the story interesting. There are many storylines going on, but all of them are both interesting and relevant, helped by the downright amazing cast Fullmetal Alchemist has to offer. From colonel Roy Mustang, out to become Furher to help atone for Amestris’ crimes, to Ling Yao and May Chang from the country of Xing searching for the secret of immortality, to the Ishvalan named Scar, out to avenge his people, who were the victims of a war of extermination waged by Amestris. As for characters closer to the main plot, Ed and Al are both great protagonists, with plenty of development between the two, and their interactions with Winry Rockbell, their childhood friend and mechanic, make for some great scenes. The antagonists are also great, with quite a few defying how one note themed villain groups like them can be, like the shadowy abomination Pride, the sadistic rat that is Envy, the independent Greed, and especially the extremely intimidating Wrath. The animation by Studio Bones is great, as is the soundtrack, and the dub is fantastic, helped by almost all of the cast from the 2003 anime reprising their roles. Voices like Travis Willingham as Roy Mustang, Christopher Sabat as Alex Louis Armstrong, Chris Patton as Greed, and Ed Blaylock as Fuhrer Bradley especially are fantastic. Overall, this is one of the best shows I’ve watched, period. I recommend it very highly, and almost wish I could confidently declare it number 1. 1. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai

Number of episodes: 13. Language options: subs only. Streaming availability: Crunchyroll, Hulu, Funimation. Firstly, again, this is not something to judge based on the name. Secondly, yes, this is where all the bias on this list comes from. This is anime is actually only about a year old, so it’s surprisingly recent, and is also by far the shortest of all the series I’ve listed here. Rascal is based off a series of light novels by the same author as Sakura Hall, Hajime Kamoshida, and was produced by CloverWorks. Like Sakura Hall, the anime doesn’t completely adapt, only going through 5 of the 9 novels currently released, with a movie, of all things, adapting the 6th. You may or may not have heard of this anime while it was airing, but regardless, I’m here to spread the word of it, cause it’s a special place for me. One day, while browsing a library, high school student Sakuta Azusagawa notices a girl wearing a bunny suit walking around, not being acknowledged by anyone other than himself. The girl turns out to be Mai Sakurajima, an actress on hiatus that attends his high school, who has found she’s recently become invisible to an unknown number of people outside of their school. Sakuta identifies it as “Adolescence Syndrome”, a mysterious phenomenon that occurs due to the unstable psyches of adolescences, which causes physical effects on the world based on their biggest causes of stress. Sakuta has seen the effects of Adolescence Syndrome himself, with it causing physical harm to his sister, Kaede, and causing her to become a recluse, and somehow causing Sakuta to be scarred as well. Hoping to learn more about the phenomenon, as well as just hoping to spare Mai from a similar fate, Sakuta decides to solve the mystery of her syndrome, as well as those of other girls in each story arc after. The premise is pretty unique by itself, and it uses its potential very well, thanks to the grounded writing and great cast of characters. Sakuta is not your typical protagonist: he’s blunt, blatantly perverted, and more than willing to verbally pick on people with little to no provocation. He’s not even close to a bad person, though; he treats the friends he already has at the start of the series, and everyone else he proceeds to grow closer to, much more respectfully, and when the chips come down, he’ll do crazy things for other people with no hesitation. He’s one of the most refreshing protagonists I’ve seen in a long time, and has most of the best lines in the series. The rest of the cast is also great, especially Mai, the other main lead. In fact, the main focus of the series besides the Adolescence Syndrome cases is Sakuta and Mai’s relationship, which is very well written, to the point of being my favorite part of the series. It avoids so many stumbles a lot of other series can run into: the relationship is started up early, nobody manages to threaten their feelings, and any misunderstandings, current or even just potential, they take steps to work though. Even when she’s willing to jab at and mess with Sakuta, Mai is always affectionate and transparent with her feelings, and becomes progressively even more so as it goes on. It’s also just, a refreshing change of pace compared to most relationships in anime. The other main focus, the Adolescence Syndrome cases, are just as well written. Despite exaggerated situations like becoming invisible to people, or even causing a time loop, there are few times they’re played for laughs. The series takes it all very seriously, mostly because of the kind of factors that lead to the syndrome appearing. Things like an oppressive school atmosphere, where standing out causes scrutiny, and most decide to just follow the leader to avoid consequences, or the fear of your only friendships being damaged over minor reasons. While more positive than Sakura Hall, it takes the same care to show just how damaging issues like this can be. Even Sakuta isn’t above it: he’s rumored to have send some of his classmates to the hospital once, and despite being completely false, it’s ostracized him to the point that he considers himself lucky to have 2 whole friends, and he’s just accepted the mindset that fighting against such an atmosphere is pointless. There a lot of emotional moments throughout the series, especially the last three episodes, and it earns them all. It even shies away from fanservice most of the time, even despite the very title of the show (the bunny girl part was actually only the title of the first light novel, but the series just kept it for the whole thing) The animation isn’t too wacky due to the tone and grounded writing, but it has an appealing artstyle, and the voice actors do a great job as well. Overall, this is an anime that’s genuinely very good by itself. Even so, what is it that makes me so biased towards it? For one thing, it just hits some emotional soft spots a lot of other stuff doesn’t personally manage, through stuff like, once again, Sakuta and Mai’s relationship. The very interesting premise and general grounded nature also wins it a lot of points. But, ultimately, it’s not something I can really put into words. Might be because I watched it on a very weird day. Regardless, this is one I would definitely want everyone to give a chance, and here’s hoping the movie gets a DVD release soon. And with that, there’s to end to my rambling. Again, I would recommend everything I’ve put here to most people, but especially the top 2. I’m planning on watching some more anime, so I may make another ranking like this soon. Otherwise, till next time. -Scout

#anime #bunny girl senpai #the pet girl of sakurasou #fullmetal alchimist brotherhood #gurren lagann #little witch academia

[jmsa1287]

Apple TV+'s 'The Morning Show' is Mad as Hell but Will Anyone Watch?

Apple’s foray into streaming TV is upon us and its flagship series “The Morning Show” is...fine.

With the launch of Apple TV+, the new streaming service from the biggest tech company in the world, on Nov. 1 it officially marks the beginning of the so-called "Streaming Wars." The intangible battle has been a looming threat for the last few years — ever since Apple and Disney both announced they'd be going head-to-head with already well-established streamers like Netflix and Amazon. (The Mouse House's Disney+ will launch on Nov. 12 and we'll get a handful of new steamers next year, including HBOMax, Peacock and Quibi.)

Apple and Disney have different strategies when it comes to the rollout of their over the top services. With its impressive ownership of some of the biggest intellectual property in the world, Disney will launch with a "Star Wars" spinoff show called "The Mandalorian," along with a "High School: The Musical" series, but more notably, the company revealed in an epic Twitter thread just all the content that will be available on Disney+, ranging from the obscure ("Smart House") to its most beloved films ("Beauty and the Beast," "Avengers").

Apple doesn't have a content library as deep as Disney, so it's setting sail with a number of brand-new shows in hopes it will be enough to get people to sign up for its $4.99 monthly service. And Apple TV+'s biggest bet is "The Morning Show," a star-studded adult drama about a morning news program in the throes of the #MeToo Movement. It's very topical and features some of the biggest celebrities in TV history, including Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon reuniting from playing sisters on "Friends" as well as Steve Carell, marking his first major TV role since "The Office."

It'll be determined whether or not the trio of A-listers will be enough for casual TV watchers and the more diehards to fork over the nearly $60 a year for Apple TV+ -- folks who are likely already shelling out good money for Netflix, Amazon, a music streaming service, and the number of other streamers out there like Hulu (which Disney has full control of), The Criterion Channel, HBO Now, and Shudder. (Not to mention many people pay for cable on top of that.) It's likely early reviews of "The Morning Show" will play a significant role in getting people to sign up or skip adding another streaming service to their diet.

"The Morning Show" is fine. It's not a disaster that its odd trailers would have you believe. Loosely based on journalist Brain Stelter's book "Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat Worlds of Morning TV," the new drama is that adult middlebrow fare that has a little too much swearing for network TV, has a higher budget ($15 million an episode!) and looks sleeker but... untimely feels like it would air on CBS primetime in 1995. Maybe not a bad thing for some! Both Aniston and Witherspoon give great performances, playing veteran "Morning Show" anchor Alex Levy and a non-nonsense conservative reporter from a local news station down South, Bradley Jackson respectively. In a supporting role, Carell plays Mitch Kessler, Alex's longtime "Morning Show" cohost who is outed in the first minutes of the show's pilot, directed by TV vet Mimi Leder, as the latest celeb to be accused of sexual misconduct.

Indeed, the confident pilot is the best of the three episodes Apple provided. Alex wakes up to learn The New York Times published an article about the allegations against Mitch, who she calls her "on-air husband," at 3:30 a.m., learning with the rest of the world about this TV's dad's transgressions. Reacting to the leaked story, Alex has to quickly prep for the show, figuring out how to react on live TV and what to say getting guidance from her producer Chip (Mark Duplass) and the newly appointed network president Cory (a great Billy Crudup). Later on in the episode, Bradley finds herself going mega-viral for having a "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" moment when a protest she's covering gets out of hand.

Almost everyone on "The Morning Show" is mad as hell. Alex can't stop crying and lashing out from the revelation about Mitch, which is causing her professional and personal lives to be turned upside down. Bradley is sick and tired of trying to do good journalism while constantly bumping up against the patriarchy and people's lack of interest in hard news. Chip's head is constantly spinning while trying to manage the Mitch controversy and finding his replacement along with constantly reeling in Alex. Cory, who is sly but seems the calmest and optimistic about the situation, is feeling the heat from the network execs to get "The Morning Show" on the right path. Mitch is mad at the whole damn world for being a "victim" of what he calls the second wave of Me Too Movement. This is where "The Morning Show" gets a bit dicey. It doesn't hesitate to show you Mitch's side of the story ("I didn't rape anyone!" he yells more than once). He admits to having affairs albeit consensual, unwilling to understand the power he has in that kind of relationship. There's also a scene in which Mitch gets to have an odd positive moment when he's discussing his allegations with a sketch filmmaker, played here by Martin Short, who admits to being a predator.

"The Morning Show" has a lot on its mind but thankfully it doesn't take itself too seriously and has a necessary undercurrent of comedy that pops up in the right places. It feels like the right time for a splashy drama to take on real-life headlines about prominent men facing consequences for their inappropriate actions (in this case viewers won't be able to stop thinking of Matt Lauer and his exit from "Today"). And there really hasn't been a good TV show about the newsroom in recent years; Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama "The Newsroom" was the biggest kind of a disaster. The short-lived NBC comedy "Great News," starring Andrea Martin, didn't have the bite to take off and was more focused on a 'will-they-won't-they' relationship. It's a bit crumby that "The Morning Show" has the added pressure of being Apple TV+'s flagship series. If it debuted on Netflix this week, it would probably get the kinds of reviews Netflix shows usually get — mixed-to-positive. There's an exciting energy to the first three episodes but it suffers from the feeling that the showrunner, Kerry Ehrin, who took over the drama after it was developed, was desperate to fill up each hour (and in some cases, over an hour) each episode. "The Morning Show" suffers from a lot of the same symptoms Peak TV programs usually have except it's under a magnifying glass. Though timely and well-acted, there are probably better ways to spend $5 a month.

#tv #apple #apple tv #apple tv+ #the morning show #jennifer aniston #reese witherspoon #steve carell #peak tv #mark duplass #billy crudup

[swordsandrayguns]

Science Fiction And Fantasy Fans Should Write Reviews

Writers, especially indie authors like yours truly, always ask for reviews. Why? Is it just to be annoying? Truth is, on ebook retailers, reviews = increased visibility. Even Google has indicated reviews affect search engine returns. So that is honestly a big part of why authors ask. Some of us also ask because we really want the feedback. I know I do, but I can’t pretend like that is why all authors ask. Because of that, I always feel kind of sleazy asking for them. It is like a waiter not so subtly reminding you to tip as they present the bill. However, I think there is a good reason we (all of us) should write reviews for books we read. I believe it helps the overall science fiction and fantasy community.

Hear me out; I know this sounds like me trying to justify asking for reviews but I really mean it is for the good of us all. See, I am old enough to remember the fan organized science fiction newsletters and fanzines, although I was too young to actually participate in that culture. I do, though, distinctly remember when conventions and other fan gatherings were the only time you could see obscure science fiction and fantasy shows/movies and find certain books, magazines, etc. Back when “anime” was “Japanimation,” for example, the 24 hour viewing room at the local convention was your best, maybe only, chance to see stuff like Vampire Hunter D, Fist of the North Star, Macross or Dirty Pair. If you were lucky, there was a club in your area that gathered monthly and crowded around a TV to watch untranslated VHS tapes traded with other clubs or laserdiscs purchased through friends in Tokyo. I was in one that met monthly at the Pantera’s in Webster Groves. Pizza and Captain Harlock in Japanese makes for a great Saturday afternoon!

Today, there are thousands of anime options out there… you don’t even have to buy them. They are on YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, etc… How do you decide? How do you cut through the madness? Same thing with books. Actually, it is even worse with books because you have all the independent authors and small presses available, too. Back in the day, if you were a science fiction and fantasy fan, you were a “science fiction and fantasy fan;” there were no distinctions and Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain books sat to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation titles and nobody even thought about putting them in separate sections! You read what was at the library or on the paperback rack at the bookseller of your choice because that was all there was! Hardback science fiction was pretty much just from the Science Fiction Book Club (if you had that kind of money/were old enough to enter a mail order contract). I don’t even remember if there was a dedicated fantasy book of the month club; you probably just had to hope the Science Fiction Book Club would throw you the odd bone. If you were lucky, you had maybe a dozen titles in that spinning paperback rack (because science fiction and fantasy probably shared the real estate with Louis L’Amour westerns, spy and detective thrillers and romance novels) and whatever you hadn’t already read at the library. That was it! That was all you could get unless you had spare cash for expensive mail order or could swap books with friends. If you were really lucky some selfless fan would donate a paper grocery sack of their paperback cast-offs to your library and keep you going for weeks! 

But in 2021 Amazon alone dumps about 18 bajillion-million books in your lap (bajillion-million is really a word; they had to invent just to describe Amazon’s book catalog). There are physical books, ebooks, web only stuff and audiobooks. At the same time, the science fiction and fantasy meta-community is now fragmented into at least a thousand distinct fandoms. You do not have to be a science fiction and fantasy fan anymore; you can get very, very specific about your tastes. You only like martial arts stories framed with video game conventions? It’s a thing. Prefer historical novels told from an extraterrestrial point of view? It’s a thing. Female driven tales of magic set in the modern day as a metaphor for larger social problems? It’s a thing. Robots versus dinosaurs? Stories of Elvish warriors with a well defined and unique culture? Belgian post-apocalyptic comic books set in America? They already made that into a TV show. 

How do you cut through the noise and find what you really want? How do you figure it all out? You only have so much time you can read and you have to budget it as carefully as your money… maybe even more carefully. After all, even if you are not buying, most libraries participate in e-book lending systems that still dump thousands of titles in your lap for free. How do you choose between the 400 books with spaceships, lasers and/or dragons on the cover published since you started reading this article? Reviews are your answer. Scratch that; good reviews, written by other fans, are your answer! 

I used to shy away from writing reviews for two reasons: one, I always felt like I should write a dissertation on a book and two, I kind of didn’t want to admit to how many Star Trek books I end up reading because Simon and Schuster sells a new group of Star Trek ebooks every month for 99¢*! And even as I started to adjust my attitude and realize why book reviews are good for the science fiction and fantasy reader communities, it isn’t like anyone needs a review to discover Star Trek, right?

Let’s be real, that is probably fair. It is really, really hard to imagine someone stumbling across Star Trek, Star Wars or Game of Thrones in book form without any previous knowledge of the franchise… and I imagine things for a living! If you are pressed for time or nervous about writing reviews, it seems reasonable to not worry about the big franchises so much. On the flip side, if you are a serious Star Trek or Star Wars reader, for example, you could post reviews mentioning if a story felt true to the series, where the book would fall in the chronology of the overall series, which characters from the shows/movies appeared and the like. Some readers want to know these things and that is really what I think reader reviews should address!

Some of you are nervous about posting a review because you are nervous about sharing your thoughts and writing. I get that (for me it is that I feel obligated to write a dissertation as a matter of respect to the author and the work they put in). I suggest you just write a review as if you were telling a friend about the book. That is essentially what you are doing anyway; true, you probably haven’t met a single person who will read that review but just the fact they are considering reading that book with spaceships and lasers and dragons on the cover makes them part of the big science fiction and fantasy community, so they certainly could be a friend!

When it comes to writing a review, the only rule is no spoilers! You are not trying to re-tell the story, just help potential readers figure out if it is what they want in a story. I honestly suggest answering any questions you wanted answered when you were choosing the book. I think it is fair to mention other, possibly better known, properties the story brought to mind. Not necessarily compare, but more in terms of categorization. “The title suggests this book would be something like Doctor Who, but it made me think more of Blake’s 7 with a dash of Space: 1999,” or “This story reminded me of Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar stories and Greek mythology.” Would you read either of those books? Would you not? That is what I am suggesting we try to do with reviews. 

I think it also might be a good idea to mention any content concerns. “This seemed kind of R-rated for the Star Wars universe,” “The author does not shy away from violence,” and a simple “Contains adult language” could all be tremendously helpful to other readers. This is the only time you might bend (not break) the no spoilers rule... If there is something in the story you believe could truly upset a reader (a racist character, sexual assault, the bad guy kills dogs), mention it if you must. Just try to respect the no spoilers rule to the best of your ability. 

Some people might not want to speak negatively of a book. Maybe you realize just because it was not your cup of tea this does not keep it from being the story that will change someone else’s life or maybe you just believe if you don’t have anything nice to say, be quiet. That is 100% okay. You could only review books you truly like. That is still going to help the community of readers. Or, you can stick to reviews that do not pass judgement. I am advocating reviewing books as a kind of crowd sourced categorization method for the overall and heavily segmented science fiction and fantasy community. With that in mind, I do not believe a “review” has to offer an opinion or judgement about a book, only information to help other readers decide if it is something that may be of interest to them. 

This leaves one big question: where do you post a review? That is a good question and I believe the answer is wherever you would look for information about what to read next. The logical place to start is wherever you got the book. Pretty much every book retailer, be they online or brick and mortar, has a web presence that will let readers post reviews. Some will even automatically ask you for one. That seems a perfectly logical place to post a review, but if you are reading library books there may not be an opportunity to review titles (although my library system does post reader reviews, yours might not). There are social media options, Goodreads springs to mind, but there is no reason you could not post your thoughts on books to Facebook, Twitter, whatever. There are also websites and blogs which take reader reviews. You can post on as many or as few as you want (but please post a review somewhere!)… Personally, I guess I would think about the level of privacy and anonymity I want. As a reader, I did not really think that way but as a writer I do. I will admit I am afraid some Goodreads members, for example, may permanently discount my own writing because I read comic books or assume because I posted reviews of the 1950s Tom Corbett, Space Cadet novels my books are going to be of that shiny silver rocket ship brand of science fiction. I have actually kind of abandoned Goodreads for review platforms were I am anonymous. I do not use my name on Amazon, for example, so I post reviews there. In setting up profiles in other platforms I am careful now to stay generic. Goodreads requires a name, so if that bothers you find another place to post reviews. 

I mentioned the fanzines and conventions earlier in this article. Sometimes I hear people kind of mourning those days, when the science fiction and fantasy community felt like more of a community because it was so much harder to get access to materials and merchandise. Maybe this is the complaining that all generations start as they decide the next generation has it so much easier, but I can say as someone in on the tail end of things, back in the day the science fiction and fantasy community did kind of feel more like a community. Whether you went all in and organized a club, convention or fanzine or just participated by attending or subscribing, fans had to go out of their way to participate and find the things they loved. Nobody was accidentally a science fiction and fantasy fan. Writing reviews, making that little commitment, means you are participating and contributing.

I hope I have convinced you to start reviewing books (or podcasts or movies or whatever part of science fiction and fantasy you love) because it is going to help us all find the next things we love. And also, despite our thousand fandoms today, I personally would love to see the science fiction and fantasy meta-community become a little more of a community again. 

Thanks for reading. It really does mean a great deal to me just to get some other people thinking about this… if you have enjoyed this little article, if you find yourself agreeing with me please take a couple minutes out of your day and review the next book you read. Let me thank you in advance for the person you are going to end up helping to find their next read!

* If you are unaware of Simon and Schuster’s monthly selection of 99¢ Star Trek ebooks, you can find them here, I don’t get a piece of this or anything, just sharing: https://www.simonandschuster.com/startrekbooks

#science fiction #fantasy #readers #fandom #indie publishing

[zenruption]

I am Hereby Absolved of My Ignorance

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

Recently I have had the living shit scared out of me. No, I haven’t been to a haunted house or watched a scary movie. It is all from watching A Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. It’s simple. People honestly sit in our government that think somewhat similar and no matter how much you try to admonish this upon their supporters, the votes will still come.

You see it constantly. Not one person reading this can say they haven’t at least opened a thread on a Facebook discussion (political argument) and thought, “Holy shit, this is nuts.”

Why did you think that? Because facts are gone, stats are now a lie and every person in the U.S. has an excuse that makes them the expert. They are right and no one else is. In a country where roadside billboards nationwide now have signs that say, “There is Evidence for God” and urge you to call 855-for-truth, anything is now possible. Conspiracy theories are accepted, Alex Jones is a patriotic American and science is a lie. (bonus: 104 Actual Headlines from Alex Jones’ InfoWars)

We’re headed to a special kind of hell that is of our own doing. Where the real Hell never existed, the believers thought it best to subconsciously create one. Their hypocrisy is non-existent with the new logic of America and their sins can easily be forgiven with a prayer and a vote for Fuhrer Trump. It doesn’t matter if you think, or attempt to do so, only that you stand for the Pledge.

It makes perfect sense that we have ended up here. A high standard of living, unrivaled power, constant marketing, materialism, entitlement, multi-level marketing, an Internet of echo chambers, polarized politics, biblical literalism, hidden racism, easy outs and a the political mythotainment complex that began with the first actor president, 37 years ago, have made us the bastard nation of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The rest of the world is looking at us in utter disbelief and still, a very large percentage of our population, with zero world view, believes they absolutely know more. They know so much and are so patriotic that they might even tell certain people to leave the country and never come back if someone has so much as questioned.

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That the country once achieved such highs and is now moving backwards, has become the justification to suspend all ability to think. As the US enters the unthinkable territory of becoming the first poor superpower, with male longevity actually falling, household incomes falling against inflation for 40 years and economic disparity equal to a third world country, the myths associated with a country that once was are easy to grasp for many than tackling policy failures. A hat that says, “Make America Great Again” is easier than admitting we have been sold a line of bullshit.

The rise of Trump has given them a renewed sense of power and being on the right side of history. Suddenly, moving to the right of the highway shoulder by 400 feet means you sit exactly in the center. Anyone near the center or that ever bothered to take a logic class, is now a Commie. Na Zdorovie!

So, let’s get to the point. Here is a list of every argument that reaffirms the rest of us shouldn’t even bother anymore: 

Fake News

We must start with the new rally cry of the right. What started as phenomenon of kids from Macedonia making bank from stories designed to trick and incense conservatives, has been turned back around by them. It is the new supplement for the term main stream media. One could ask if the inverse term of alternative media is now the purveyor of real news, but we all know that the articles written at a fifth-grade level about PizzaGate and the 30,000 scientists that dispute global warming, will always win.

Recently, even Fox News had a rash of social media proclamations against it as a purveyor of fake news. Why? Their latest poll showed Donald Trump at a 40% approval rating.

The argument is now so simple. If they don’t like what it says, it is fake. Only a news source that continually tells them what they want can be real.

Of course, it was the largest inauguration ever. The pictures were faked by a news media that doesn’t want to admit to our new President’s popularity.

Even worse, you can include an actual Trump tweet to show his Moron-In-Chief for what he is and even that will be called fake news.

Hey. I don’t like the thought of climate change wrecking my kid’s future, but that doesn’t mean I get to call it a hoax. 

Alternative Facts

Ok. What the hell is an alternative to a fact? Believe it or not, the alternative to a fact is a lie. That this term has ever been used, even once, shows that the US is now subject to a world where stupidity is in charge and anything can be real. Will we outlaw the teaching of evolution soon as well? 

Tit – for Tat Arguments

For years the Fox News crowd was given scandal after scandal, whether they existed or not, about our former President. They were told he was constantly ignoring the Constitution and breaking the law. The Article “Criminal In Chief” — 78 Times President Obama Broke The Law During Presidency, lists such egregious activities as  trying to shut down family farms, proposing military intervention in Syria, “illegally” didn’t submit a budget on time and this laughable list goes on and on with offenses that either never happened or aren’t offenses in the first place. Many things listed as horrific on this list, pale in comparison to actions of the new President in less than 6 months. The Trump supporters will believe everything in their search for reaffirmation of the ego.

The common argument is that if Obama had done so many horrific things, surely Trump can be excused for his misdeeds. After all, Trump is going to defend the Constitution where Obama was trying to destroy it to found a Communist utopia.

Well people, regardless of what you think Barack Obama did, Trump is President now. You long ago showed us that a higher standard wasn’t what you wanted with the election of a vile human being. No, you’ll create any past act that justifies current actions despite how unconstitutional and ridiculous they might be. In fact, some of you justify the current racist sentiments as a valid response to the “horrors” you were subjected to for 8 years.

There is no point arguing this either. 

Common Sense

It is so painful when one of them says, “You can have all your facts and stats, but I have common sense.” The reasoning behind this is that stats can be manipulated to fit the narrative but what this country has been lacking is common sense, despite that people with common sense actually would use good data.

Obtaining this common sense is apparently the function of hours of reading and watching news and commentary sources that frequently abuse the living shit out of actual data to achieve their points.

So… no matter how often you quote an actual stat or fact, it doesn’t matter. Obviously, you have no “common sense”.

Walk away and save your breath. 

Science is Your Religion

Seriously? Is their “common sense” unable to distinguish between a religion and science? When was the last time you saw a peer reviewed paper discussing how many times someone in the old testament lived to be older than 500?

This is the de facto argument from someone that is religious, their religion supersedes good governance and everything else in the world is out to destroy their way of life. Their reasoning, or lack of it, has a Christian country being destroyed and the scientists are in on it. A belief in scientific tenants at odds with their religion is not only an attack but also indicates the presence of an evil liberal.

Isn’t it funny that science process seeks to correct itself while religion and politics often mean doubling down on what already hasn’t been working? Science can be neither a religion or a political conviction. It’s simply science and it doesn’t care what you believe.

Recent discussions observed online even have the Trumpanistas disavowing math. Seriously math? If math didn’t exist as a universal constant, neither would we.

Once again, no amount of logic or facts will work here. They are impervious. 

Universities are Hotbeds of Communism (i.e. the educated should be dismissed for their bias)

Yes, it has happened. Experts don’t matter and education is now an indicator of stupidity. Those with degrees lack common sense, are indoctrinated, think they know it all and only argue points that fit their political bent.

Every single authoritarian movement has needed to marginalize the educated elite to maintain the populism and centralized control of the movement.  The US is now following this trend.

The everyman is reaffirmed in that they aren’t “brainwashed”.

Your degree and background means nothing with this crowd. Any expertise you have is a waste. They know how science works, understand economics and have a lock on their revised history.

Another instance of wasted breath is upon us.

 You’re Just Another Snowflake, Mad that Hillary Won

No jackass, the election is long over. I am mad that my kid’s future is being destroyed. That’s the extent of the argument. They’ll believe that is the case regardless though.

Walk again

The list of logical and argumentative fallacies (isn’t cool I included a list of them?) goes on and on. There are straw man arguments, anecdotal evidence, false correlations, arguments of false consequences, etc. No debate judge is sitting there to show them they are wrong and even if there were, they wouldn’t accept it in any case.

This is America now. Our exclamations are wasted on the new experts of everything. A Ph.D means nothing. Critical thinking is dismissed. The crowd that thinks an open window wastes the air conditioning even if it is colder outside, has won. 

For now

A professor of history told me prior to the election that if Trump won he would kick back in his easy chair and watch the destruction. He knew the secret; that there would be no fix or argument until everything fell apart.

The world has changed and those of our ilk know the proposals of Trump are only detrimental to supporters. He can’t do what he promised. You can’t bring back jobs automated away. One cannot defeat an ideology. The workings of checks and balances restrain him for now.

20 percent of Trump supporters will always support him. The rest might eventually be up for grabs.

 So, the art of the argument is dead. It gave way to the fake Art of the Deal. They believe their extremism is center right and nothing will change that.

Forget the argument. Keep it civil at the bar.

Our moment comes when we all turn out in 2018. Let’s expend our energy on motivating everyone that knows better when the time comes.

Sit back, watch the destruction, leave them with nothing to assuage their ego and get ready to act in less than 18 months.

 No memes were harmed in the making of this article.

#Alex Jones #Infowars #Kellyanne Conway #Trump #Alternative Facts #propaganda

[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/04/21/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-42117/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 4/21/17

Star Wars Celebration (I can’t say that without thinking of Dave Chappelle’s Rick James yelling “It’s a celebration, bitches!”) happened in Florida last weekend, and we got our first teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Folks seemed to like it alright. I’ve never claimed to be the biggest Star Wars fan, but nothing about this really gave me a Force Boner or anything. That’s probably because Rogue One left such a bad taste in my mouth. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll see it, but it’s not really on my radar.

In other movie “news”, we got the track listing for Awesome Mix Vol 2 from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2., which comes out today. Is it just me, or is it weird that Mama Quill gave Peter mixtapes of all the songs that played while she was banging dudes in Camaros? Come on – she was totally that chick! Anyway, there are no real surprises here, as it seems to be in-line thematically with the first volume. Personally, I’m ecstatic that “Come A Little Bit Closer” will be introduced to a new generation, as I’m a huge fan of Jay and the Americans (check out “Cara Mia” if you’ve never heard it).

This rumor came out a few weeks ago, but it kinda floated under my radar: apparently Warner Bros wants to release 4 Batman-centered films in 2019 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Detective Comics. This slate would include Nightwing, Gotham City Sirens, the Joss Whedon Batgirl, and the oft-delayed The Batman. Nice idea, but there’s no way this happens. DC just doesn’t have its shit together enough to pull this off. Marvel could do it, but they would’ve been planning it since 2012. It’s already 2017 and they expect to crank out 4 movies in 2 years? Shit ain’t happening.

Bring on the teen angst train, as we’ve got two more comic-based series just dripping with it! First up is Cloak and Dagger on Freeform, which looks like the Freeformiest show that ever Freeformed. It’ll be right at home between the show about the deaf girl and the show about the foster kids. I’ve never been a huge Cloak and Dagger fan, but the series follows teen runaways Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, who were kidnapped and injected with an experimental drug. The drug left Tandy (Dagger) with “light daggers”, while Tyrone (Cloak) has a mystical cloak that transports people and things to a dark dimension. Oh, and there’s that sweet, sweet interracial love/Jungle Fever aspect to things. Based on the trailer, it’s gonna focus more on the love thing than the power thing, which is understandable since powers are expensive on a weekly TV budget. I haven’t heard if this is actually considered part of the MCU, but it’s nice to see the Roxxon sign at the end, so there are clear ties to the universe itself.

The angst doesn’t end there, though, kids! We also got a trailer for Syfy’s Krypton series (which has since been yanked down) – ya know, the one that nobody asked for. It’s hard for me to get excited about Krypton when very little about that planet has ever seemed appealing. It’s most recently been painted as a cold, stoic, science-based society. And since they don’t have our sun, it means they’re powerless. Here’s what I don’t get about the trailer: the show takes place approximately 200 years prior to Man of Steel (I guess making it the first series to be an official part of the DCEU), but the monologue is of Kal El’s grandfather leaving a message for him. Um, how does he KNOW his grandson’s name is Kal El if he hasn’t been born yet? Anyway, it’s about Grandpa El, who happens to be a sexy, CW-ish twenty something, trying to restore honor to the disgraced House of El. The effects look nice (AKA expensive), but nothing about this show makes me want to see it.

There’s some laughter coming from a different comic-based series, however, in the form of Freeform’s New Warriors. I mentioned it a few weeks ago, but it’s been confirmed that Kevin Biegel of Enlisted/Cougar Town will be the showrunner, and we got a confirmation of the roster. Led by Squirrel Girl (who has never been a New Warrior in the comics, but I won’t harp on that), the team is comprised of Speedball, Night Thrasher, Microbe, Mister Immortal, and Debrii. I’m familiar with career Warriors Speedball and Night Thrasher, but I don’t know anything about the others. Considering Mr. Immortal and Squirrel Girl are Great Lakes Avengers characters, this is something of a hybrid team.

I’m the furthest thing from a foodie, but I love a good dairy-based gimmick drink, and this week featured TWO of them! First up, I’d read online that Burger King had been testing a Froot Loops Shake at certain East Coast locations, with plans to roll it out nationally today. Well, I traveled around until I found one that had it early (well, I didn’t travel too far – it was down the street from my apartment), as I had to see what the fuss was all about. I had heard it described as made from vanilla soft serve, with Froot Loops pieces, topped off with a sweet, syrupy drizzle. Sounds exotic, right? WRONG. Whoever thought of this probably got a bonus for the idea, but it lacks in the execution. It’s basically a vanilla shake with edible confetti in it. From Loops don’t really have a strong fruity flavor to them, so it’s not like it’s rubbing off into the soft serve. And when you do get some Froot Loop chunks through the straw, they just taste like flavorless corn cereal. I didn’t taste any kind of drizzle, and I kept waiting for the WOW to kick in. It never did. I drank this so that you don’t have to and, trust me, you really don’t have to.

Next up was the Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino. I hadn’t even heard of the thing until Wednesday morning, when everyone and their mom was talking about it. Looking at it, I was reminded of the Birthday Cake Frappuccino that comes out in March (I remember this because it was out at the time Evie was born). I LIVED on those things for the two weeks or so that they were in stores, so I was expecting this to be more of the same. I wasn’t sure what flavor this one was supposed to be, but there were certainly visual similarities. Anyway, after dinner Wednesday night, I snuck off to the corner Starbucks to try it out. You’ve heard of a Butterface, right? Well, this is a Buttertaste. It looks cool and everything, but the taste…THE TASTE! Its marketing emphasizes that it magically changes flavors while you drink it, but I could never really nail down what those flavors were supposed to be. There was a pervasive muskiness to it, making me feel like I’d basically sucked off a real unicorn. Of course, that would be silly – everyone knows you’ve got to buy a unicorn dinner before it lets you do that! Then, near the end, the muskiness gives way to a hyper berry taste, reminiscent of the Blue Raspberry that candy scientists seemed to have discovered in 1992. At no point in the drink was it what I would call “enjoyable”, and even the whipped cream on top was disappointing. As far as I’m concerned, this drink can fuck off back to Narnia where it came from.

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

Bill O’Reilly was fired from Fox News following sexual harassment allegations. See, if he’d told Billy Bush he only grabbed ‘em by the pussy, he’d be President by now!

Nintendo officially ended production on the NES Classic, followed by rumors that an SNES Classic is coming later this year

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck were announced as the directors for Captain Marvel. I’ve never seen anything they’ve done (Half Nelson, episodes of Billions, and The Affair), so I’ve got no real opinion right now

Speaking of Marvel films, Black Panther wrapped production this week, as Hollywood braces for the return of every living Black actor

Will Smith is in talks to take on the classic Robin Williams role of The Genie in Guy Ritchie’s live action Aladdin adaptation. Obviously, Jaden Smith will probably get the role of Aladdin.

Stranger Things co-star Shannon Purser came out as bisexual on Twitter. Well, she’s bisexual in real life. She just used Twitter to announce it.

Director James Gunn announced that Guardians of the Galaxy 3 would be the final iteration of this lineup of the team

Black-ish was sold into off-network syndication, launching in Fall 2018

Jane The Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez will voice Carmen Sandiego in a new animated series coming to Netflix

Steve Harvey will host a revival of Showtime At the Apollo for Fox

Fate of the Furious debuted to $532 million internationally, beating the record-setting $529 million earned by Star Wars: The Force Awakens

With its original pilot rejected by Fox a few years ago, Joe Hill’s comic Locke & Key will have a new pilot filmed for Hulu

The X-Files has been renewed for a 10-episode 11th season. I couldn’t even make it through the last 6-episode batch they gave us, so I think this is a pass for me.

For the past 6 seasons, I have pretty much hate-watched HBO’s Girls. I hated Lena Dunham’s dumpy, Play-Doh body which was constantly on nude display. I hated all of her character Hannah’s “problems”. I hated her boyfriend Adam. I had convinced myself that I was really just watching, hoping that the characters would eventually be hit by a truck or something. Then, this season came along. Even through all my hate, I had to admit that this was a pretty strong season. From Hannah’s odd interaction with a bestselling author to Marnie finally realizing she sucks at life, there were some great episodes of television to be found in this season of the show. I was also forced to admit things about myself.

First off, I always knew I liked Shoshana because she had enough sense to know that she deserved better than the friends with which she’d found herself. And I definitely missed her once she decided to finally distance herself from them.  I also realized there was much more to the Ray character and, while they didn’t exactly put a bow on it, I’m glad they led us to believe that he had found a happy ending. Even a character as originally unlikable as Elijah had some strong development this season, and he was truly missed in the finale, even though this chapter of his story had come to a close. As I already admitted in my Get Out review, I had to come to terms with my crush on Allison Williams and, by extension, Marnie Michaels. Yeah, she sucked at life, but she seemed like the one out of the four who had Tony Starked her way into that situation; she was the cause of her own problems. Once she began to realize that, the character held more promise. And I realized I hated Jessa because she reminded me too much of girls I’d hooked up with in college: damaged, tattooed, pseudo-junkies who are lucky to still be alive. And I guess Hannah reminded me of girls I’d hooked up with post college. Yeah, I hated a lot about Girls because, I guess, I hated a lot about myself.

This Sunday saw the series finale of the show, and I wasn’t quite sure I was ready for it. After a season that had given us a pregnant Hannah, but also showcased the dissolution of the group’s friendship, I didn’t really know how they could “end” the story. I was further distraught when I read an article last week saying that Jessa and Shosh’s final appearances had been in the penultimate episode that had just aired. While I would miss them in the final half hour, I had to admit that their chapters had also come to a close.

When we get to the finale, there’s a five-month time jump, where Marnie and Hannah are living in a remote house upstate, raising Hannah’s baby, Grover. Yes, that’s what she named him. Anyway, it was 30 minutes about what it means to be happy, but also what it means to be an adult and a parent. I like to think that Hannah finally grew up once she realized that Grover wasn’t another problem that she could simply run away from. The entire episode, she’s freaking out because Grover won’t breastfeed, but in the final seconds he finally takes to her breast. The look on her face is a mix of relief and maturity. It was then that I realized the show had to end at that point, as Hannah was no longer a girl. The entire series had been about millennial drama, as they skirted adulthood, but those times were over. The title Girls no longer applied to Hannah because she was now a Woman, with all the responsibilities that entailed. I used to worry about Hannah, and I sure as Hell worried about Grover when we learned she was pregnant. After Sunday’s finale, though, I think they’re gonna be OK. It was a finale that I had to give some thought to, but it didn’t leave me unfulfilled like Don Draper creating a Coke jingle only to end up hocking tax prep software six months later. For this reason, Girls had the West Week Ever.

#Batman #Comics #DC #Indie #Marvel #Movies #Music #Politics #Race #Relationships #Star Wars #Syndication #Television #Video Games #West Week Ever

[thepalegoldmoon]

All the luxury asks~! C:

Woot!~ alright haha. Here ya go fam.

🌹luxury asks🌹

bubble bath: do you have any routines before bedtime? like skin care, etc. what are they?

Uhm kinda if I decide to actually do one, I usually will play on my ps4, draw, or use the computer, I’ll get ready for bed. Maybe wash my face and drink some tea. Send a “goodnight” to the people I’ve recently talked to and then kinda just let my mind wander till I fall asleep.

((If I wash my face, I run warm water, then wet my face, scrub with ocean salt from lush, wash it with aquamarina, use the rosy checks face mask. I then rinse and check my pimples then dry my face and go to bed haha ;u;))

When I take a bath I usually run the bath, throw in a chunk of bath bomb or bubble bar set up some candles and chill for a bit after doing my face routine. Then I get out dry off and bed. XD

champagne: what topic could you talk about for hours?Yikes, depends there’s a few topics. Hahah mostly views on the world, certain fandoms, religious/ spiritual beliefs, and just life in general?? It’s pretty much everything tbh. Especially if ya get me with the right people.

crushed velvet: have you ever used your charm to get something you want?Um when I was a kid I used to try and act really cute to get toys or candy I wanted but I don’t know if I have a “charm” I kinda have a way with words?? It depends on the day cause half the time I can’t fucking speak proper English to save my life haha.

diamonds: how do you feel about excessively spending money?Ummm ouch. I grew up with a tighter budget than most so I like getting presents but I won’t blow my budget hahah. I think about it but I never go through with it I just like putting together or making things to show my creativity and it helps me show my affections in some way I feel haha. Uhm over all it depends on prices and what I’m buying tbh.

faux fur: describe your wardrobe.Ahhhhahahaha uhmI have alot of fandom/ band shirts and plain shirts. Black pantsI have a couple different pairs of shoes I tend to wear. They’re either red or black. I usually wear a sweater, hoodie, or a flannel. And occasionally a snap back.Overall my style is like a 90’s artist, a 90’s fuck boi, tumbler and hot topic threw up on me hahah.

glitter: describe someone special to you.Fucking amazing, and entire universe. Stars in his eyes, he holds planets in his hands, he’s fucking amazing tbh ;u;. Free spirit, acts like a dumb ass but he’s really fucking intelligent. Cheesy as fuck and I love it. He’s just ahhhh perfect and amazing tbh. He’s diverse, and fun and amazing. There’s never a boring day with him tbh. It’s always an adventure or learning experience. Overall it’s exciting and fun in so many ways. I could go on for pages but I can’t cause theres other question but hahah yeah that’s a very brief description.

gold: describe what you would call the most perfect meal.Yikes I love all food tbh so I can’t really say man.

jazz: name a song that resonates with you and your emotions. explain the reason why.Ah god it always changes cause it depends on my mood man. An idk how describe mine rn cause I’m just chilling.

lace: what is something in your life completely different from last year?My social life and views of things in my social life. Or my school life in general haha.

lingerie: do you consider yourself a promiscuous person?Hmmm hell fucking no. I loyal to the person I love romantically. And honestly giving something like that over is the biggest act of affection I could ever give someone and it takes me a bit of time to build up to that I guess cause I’m awkward as fuck and idk I need to be in a relationship with someone to give them something like that. That’s physical proof I’m giving over everything tbh. In my opinion. Like y'all enjoy what you wanna enjoy but I’m just saying that’s me. ;u;

lipstick: do you enjoy talking to strangers?kinda??

pearls: what’s something about your personality that surprises others?I honestly wouldn’t know hahah. But I always tend to find something someone’s never done before, like a first time being called something or, oh that’s something a bit new. Idk just small things that are a first or not done alot between me and the person I guess haha. It’s a little odd. But idk if there’s anything else.

penthouse: what would you consider your dream home? describe it.Oh yikes hahah ummm I know I wanna start out in a studio apartment so just art supplies and easels around and just aesthetically pleasing kinda shit hahah but idk how to describe it all. Just look down my aesthetic house tag in a few weeks you’ll see.

perfume: if you could make your own signature fragrance, what would it smell like?Probably sweet, maybe something from my childhood. Or something more tougher and that would remind you of fireplaces or a cozy winter or cozy fall night in front of a fireplace???

robe: how do you prepare for an evening alone with a loved one/date?Uhhmmm depends on the partner I have cute romantic date ideas like going to the movies or going places they’d enjoy. Usually it all depends on likes of my partner and something I’d also enjoy as well haha.

roses: If it had to be winter, autumn, spring or summer for the rest of your life, which would you choose? Autumn because the cooler weather, changing leaves, and Halloween spooky vibes tbh.

satin: what is your most favorite article of clothing?Probably my junkets t-shirt I just got, my pronouns sweater (it’s comfy as fuck), my flannels, or my kigus.

sheet mask: what’s your favorite lazy activity?Playing games or drawing/ painting, while Netflix or Hulu plays in the background.

silk: do you have more inner or outer beauty?I wanna say more inner beauty but I have a little bit of outer beauty on good days haha.

silver: do you have any obscure hobbies? what are they?Taxidermy, and special fx makeup ((I actually wanna ask my good friend to be my model cause he’d be A👌 Fucking 👌 Mazing 👌tbh 💯🔥 and I need a model for fx because I suck ass doing it on myself haha)) (I also wanna make masks)

sparkling water: what are your top three songs for the summer?Idfk cause I don’t really pick out songs for seasons but I might as well start right?? Haha idk songs that always reminds me of summer are -fashionably late by falling in reverse, -forever stuck in our youth by set it off.

wine: what kind of drunk are you (happy/affectionate, angry, sad, fun/wild)? if you don’t drink, what kind do you think you WOULD be? I’ve never been drunk. Tbh I feel like I’d either be all of them OR. A happy, fun/ wild, and affectionate kind of drunk. My filter and my walls would probably get destroyed to the ground so I’d be a wreck.

#my asks #Jay #if this was kinda awkward af #I'm so sorry #non anon

[samuelpboswell]

The B2B Content Marketing Derby: When & Where to Place Strategic Bets

The Kentucky Derby has long been referred to as the fastest and most exciting two minutes in sports. And when it comes to your B2B content marketing efforts, getting your audience to sit on the edge of their seats, glued to your content for two whole minutes can be a major feat. To generate Kentucky-Derby-like attention for your B2B brand, your content marketing strategy needs to leverage the right tactical mix for your audience, industry, product mix, and objectives. However, over the last decade, the content marketing field has become crowded and even convoluted with hopeful tactical and strategic champions. The field has evolved from traditional winners like blogging and eBooks to include a new breed of favorites like influencer marketing, interactive content, and more. So, when and where should you place your B2B content marketing bets? Read on to learn about the latest content marketing tactics and their odds of putting your brand in the winner’s circle.

The B2B Content Marketing Derby Contenders

1. Old Reliable

What: Blogging Racing record: Blogging is the trusty content marketing steed: It’s Old Reliable, with origins dating back some 25 years. With the right audience focus and SEO insight, blogging allows B2B marketers to consistently create relevant, quality, best-answer content for every stage of the buyer’s journey. But having been the reliable favorite for so many years, the blogging field has become crowded and fiercely competitive. Anyone and everyone can have a blog—and topical and target keyword overlap with your direct (and indirect) competitors is inevitable. In fact, the number of bloggers in the United States alone is expected to reach 31.7 million by 2020.

via GIPHY Odds: Old Reliable is a smart bet for your content strategy if you have dreams of creating a consistent content drumbeat to educate your audience at multiple stages of the funnel. For the best odds, SEO—another favorite content marketing stud—needs to be part of your blog ideation, creation, and ongoing optimization. This helps ensure you’re creating data-informed blog content around keywords and topic clusters that can boost search visibility and capitalize on white space. Read: Nearly 3 Years Later, Antea Group USA Still Seeing Triple-Digit Growth Thanks to SEO-Driven B2B Content Marketing Strategy

2. Hollywood Heartthrob

What: Video Marketing Racing record: Over the last few years, video has become a top consumption channel for audiences. Now that bingeing TV shows and movies on streaming services like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime have become the norm, so too has bingeing video content on social media networks, Vimeo, TikTok, and others. Research supports this trend with 57% of consumers saying they want to see video content from brands. Plus:

Tweets with video see 10 times more engagement than those without.

LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share a post with video.

The average user spends 88% more time on a website with video.

However, professionally produced video can be time, budget, and resource intensive. In addition, live video featuring more unscripted commentary and scenarios in the B2B space can be hard to get buy-in on. Odds: If you’re looking to bring your brand to life and infotain your audience, strategic use of video content, who we like to call Hollywood Heartthrob, is a horse to add to your betting roster. The key of course is choosing the right video content type and style to engage and nurture your audience, and align with and support your marketing goals. Generally speaking there are four video content marketing types:

Teasers

Trailers and Previews

Explainers

Video Essays and Companion Videos

As far as keeping production costs down, there are plenty of free apps that can turn your phone into a studio any director would love. Vidyard is tool that can help you produce, publish, and track high quality videos without expensive equipment. As a more general rule for creating great video, you need to be able to tell a story—a story that doesn’t focus on hitting all your product talking points, according to seasoned B2B marketer and comedian, Tim Washer. “For example, we did a mini documentary for Cisco that showed how smaller service providers are serving third-world countries,” he mentioned in an interview. “It focused on how our customers are making a difference, and of course inferred that our technologies are helping them make that difference.” [bctt tweet="As a general rule for creating great video, you need to be able to tell a story—a story that doesn’t focus on hitting all your product talking points. @timwasher #B2BContentMarketing" username="toprank"]

3. Fact Not Fiction

What: Infographics Racing record: Infographics are loaded with information. But so is an encyclopedia. One of the best benefits of infographics is that they provide valuable information in an easy to read, easy to understand way. It pairs text-based information with data visualization, graphs, and pictures to help educate audiences. And it is for this reason that 40% of marketers listed infographics as their top performer for driving engagement. Odds: When it comes to educating your audience in a simple, easy to understand way, infographics are second to none. Plus, they’re extremely shareable, extending your reach to a larger audience. Fact Not Fiction is a smart bet for your content strategy when awareness and education are top of mind, or if you’re attempting to simplify a complex topic.

4. The Proof Is in the Pudding

What: Case Studies Racing record: Evidence is some of the most compelling content you can create. Testimonials, case studies, and reviews show audiences that your products and services actually work. It also allows them to envision themselves as a customer and see how they could benefit from similar services. According to the 2018 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey Report, 73% of marketers found case studies to be the most successful tactic for converting and accelerating leads in the middle and late stages of the funnel. Image credit: 2018 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey Report Odds: When prospects are in the consideration or conversion stage of the buyer journey, proof and evidence can help guide them towards a purchasing decision. If moving more buyers through the funnel means winning for your brand, relevant and insightful case studies are a great bet.

5. One for the Record Books

What: eBooks Racing record: According to the 2017 Demand Generation Content Preferences Survey Report, 63% of buyers are willing to share information about themselves (e.g. email addresses) in exchange for eBooks. By creating longer, more visual content through eBooks, studies show that eBooks are a great lead generation tactic. In addition, eBooks rank in the top five most effective content marketing tactics for both the top and middle of the funnel. Odds: One for the Record Books is able to last for miles, diving deep into a niche topic to further educate audiences and provide valuable information in great detail. This is helpful for both the top and middle of the funnel when education is key. When gated, eBooks are also great lead generation tools that open up new paths for audience nurturing—as long as the content delivers the kind of robust insight and value that warrants an exchange of information. Read: To Gate, or Not to Gate? Answers to an Age-Old Digital Marketing Question

6. Social Butterfly

What: Social Media Marketing Racing record: The number of active social media users is expected to reach 3.02 billion by 2021, according to Statista. And the average person spends nearly 2.5 hours on social media each day. If you want to meet your audience on their turf, social media marketing needs to be a part of your content marketing betting strategy. Because social media allows you to share content on a channel where your audience spends a great deal of time each day, there are opportunities for growing a following, building a community, delivering customer service, and boosting engagement. However, the social media ticket is evolving thanks to a few scandals, abuse concerns, and platform changes to aimed at enhancing the user experience. So, if you’re getting ready to double-down on your bet, go in with eyes wide open. Odds: Savvy B2B marketers said goodbye to organic-only social strategies built on “post it and they will come” a long time ago. But still, Social Butterfly can be a great community building tool for B2B brands if you’re providing relevant, thoughtful, and valuable content and insights.

via GIPHY Take the time to research your audience’s content consumption preferences (e.g. leverage your website and social analytics, survey your existing customer base, etc.) to uncover patterns and top content types, as well as gauge which platforms deserve your care and attention.

7. Dapper Don Draper

What: Digital Advertising Racing record: Organic visibility and reach are anything but guaranteed on today’s content marketing track. But digital advertising can give you a competitive edge, supplementing your organic efforts at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Studies have shown digital ads to be an effective method of top of funnel lead generation and awareness with findings like:

Mobile search ads can increase brand awareness by 46%.

Businesses see an average ROI of 100% with Google Ads.

However, it’s important to note that a quarter of U.S. internet users blocking ads. The good news is that the real beauty of Dapper Don Draper is it’s versatility, with options including native text and video advertising, paid social, search, and display. Odds: With clearly defined objectives and the right content, Dapper Don Draper is a well-placed wager. Whether you’re breaking into a new market and need some quick brand awareness wins or you’re promoting a new interactive influencer asset, Triple D can help your other efforts win, place, and show. For the highest probability of generating results with your digital advertising, it’s important to use all of the audience targeting features available to you. In addition, native advertising units are very effective as they appear similar to the other content on the page.

8. Black, White & Gray All Over

What: SEO Racing record: SEO, which we’ve affectionately named Black, White & Gray All Over, has one of the longest and wide-ranging B2B content marketing records. She’s won some and certainly lost some, but her place in the B2B Content Strategy Derby Hall of Fame is confirmed. Why? Because as TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden has often said: “Content is the reason search began in the first place.” And according to Internet Live Stats, there’s currently an average of 40,000 Google searches every second. That’s the equivalent of 3.5 billion searches per day on Google alone. But search is growing more crowded by the second, with trillions of website pages already indexed and counting, and algorithms growing more sophisticated. [bctt tweet="Content is the reason search began in the first place. - @leeodden #B2BContentMarketing #SEO" username="toprank"] Odds: SEO is a fickle filly, with her training regime and environment evolving at the speed of machine learning. But she’s built for the long haul if the content jockey builds good rapport at all stages of the funnel. Increase your odds by regularly reviewing results and identifying opportunities to attention to optimize existing and future content to better match search intent, volume, competition, and more. In addition, look for white space that you can fill with relevant, best answer, SEO-informed content.

9. On Good Authority

What: Influencer Marketing Racing record: Influencer marketing, aka On Good Authority, burst on the content marketing scene a few years ago and has proven to be a rising star. In fact, Instagram influencer marketing is expected to hit $8 billion in spend by 2020. But that growth trajectory is not limited to consumer brands. B2B companies are also realizing the value of collaborating with influential thought leaders for marketing purposes and count the practice as one of the top 4 tactics planned for 2019. On Good Authority’s efficacy and worth have been questioned, but the results speak for themselves. (Checkout our cheat sheet of inspiring B2B influencer marketing examples.) Odds: Fast out of the gate with a strong finish, On Good Authority has great odds when it comes to increasing brand awareness, thought leadership, and even lead gen. But place your bets wisely. Topical relevance, for one thing, is absolutely critical. So, for the best chance of success with your influencer marketing programs, make sure you’re working with the right influencers that have the appropriate levels of expertise, relevance, and reach.

10. All That and a Bag of Chips

What: Interactive content Racing record: All That and a Bag of Chips is perhaps the prettiest horse in the race. It grabs attention. It encourages interaction. It improves the user experience. And it’s been known to work well with all of the other horses listed above. But just because this horse is a team player, doesn’t mean it’s not here to win. In fact, 87% of marketers agree that interactive content is more effective at grabbing attention than static content. Plus, one of our interactive campaigns drove three times the average share rate and a 500% increase in pageviews. Odds: If you’re looking to go bold at every stage of the funnel, All That and a Bag of Chips is as good as gold. To ensure that this horse is crossing the finish line first, consider pairing it with another horse in the race to slingshot it to victory. For example, create an interactive infographic, eBook, or influencer-driven landing page. You might just see your results compounded.

Place Your B2B Content Marketing Bets

To win big at the B2B Content Marketing Derby, the “watch and win” approach isn’t advised. You need to place smart bets on multiple horses, pairing them together and investing in different heats to hit your marketing goals. Depending on variables like budget, objectives, or time, any combination of the above contenders could win their way into your content strategy—there’s a time and a place for each of them. So, step on up and place your bets … wisely to win.

via GIPHY Need a little help selecting your strategic bets? Follow this three-point checklist for documenting your B2B content strategy.

The post The B2B Content Marketing Derby: When & Where to Place Strategic Bets appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

from The SEO Advantages https://www.toprankblog.com/2019/05/b2b-content-marketing-derby/

[christopheruearle]

The B2B Content Marketing Derby: When & Where to Place Strategic Bets

The Kentucky Derby has long been referred to as the fastest and most exciting two minutes in sports. And when it comes to your B2B content marketing efforts, getting your audience to sit on the edge of their seats, glued to your content for two whole minutes can be a major feat. To generate Kentucky-Derby-like attention for your B2B brand, your content marketing strategy needs to leverage the right tactical mix for your audience, industry, product mix, and objectives. However, over the last decade, the content marketing field has become crowded and even convoluted with hopeful tactical and strategic champions. The field has evolved from traditional winners like blogging and eBooks to include a new breed of favorites like influencer marketing, interactive content, and more. So, when and where should you place your B2B content marketing bets? Read on to learn about the latest content marketing tactics and their odds of putting your brand in the winner’s circle.

The B2B Content Marketing Derby Contenders

1. Old Reliable

What: Blogging Racing record: Blogging is the trusty content marketing steed: It’s Old Reliable, with origins dating back some 25 years. With the right audience focus and SEO insight, blogging allows B2B marketers to consistently create relevant, quality, best-answer content for every stage of the buyer’s journey. But having been the reliable favorite for so many years, the blogging field has become crowded and fiercely competitive. Anyone and everyone can have a blog—and topical and target keyword overlap with your direct (and indirect) competitors is inevitable. In fact, the number of bloggers in the United States alone is expected to reach 31.7 million by 2020.

via GIPHY Odds: Old Reliable is a smart bet for your content strategy if you have dreams of creating a consistent content drumbeat to educate your audience at multiple stages of the funnel. For the best odds, SEO—another favorite content marketing stud—needs to be part of your blog ideation, creation, and ongoing optimization. This helps ensure you’re creating data-informed blog content around keywords and topic clusters that can boost search visibility and capitalize on white space. Read: Nearly 3 Years Later, Antea Group USA Still Seeing Triple-Digit Growth Thanks to SEO-Driven B2B Content Marketing Strategy

2. Hollywood Heartthrob

What: Video Marketing Racing record: Over the last few years, video has become a top consumption channel for audiences. Now that bingeing TV shows and movies on streaming services like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime have become the norm, so too has bingeing video content on social media networks, Vimeo, TikTok, and others. Research supports this trend with 57% of consumers saying they want to see video content from brands. Plus:

Tweets with video see 10 times more engagement than those without.

LinkedIn users are 20 times more likely to share a post with video.

The average user spends 88% more time on a website with video.

However, professionally produced video can be time, budget, and resource intensive. In addition, live video featuring more unscripted commentary and scenarios in the B2B space can be hard to get buy-in on. Odds: If you’re looking to bring your brand to life and infotain your audience, strategic use of video content, who we like to call Hollywood Heartthrob, is a horse to add to your betting roster. The key of course is choosing the right video content type and style to engage and nurture your audience, and align with and support your marketing goals. Generally speaking there are four video content marketing types:

Teasers

Trailers and Previews

Explainers

Video Essays and Companion Videos

As far as keeping production costs down, there are plenty of free apps that can turn your phone into a studio any director would love. Vidyard is tool that can help you produce, publish, and track high quality videos without expensive equipment. As a more general rule for creating great video, you need to be able to tell a story—a story that doesn’t focus on hitting all your product talking points, according to seasoned B2B marketer and comedian, Tim Washer. “For example, we did a mini documentary for Cisco that showed how smaller service providers are serving third-world countries,” he mentioned in an interview. “It focused on how our customers are making a difference, and of course inferred that our technologies are helping them make that difference.” [bctt tweet="As a general rule for creating great video, you need to be able to tell a story—a story that doesn’t focus on hitting all your product talking points. @timwasher #B2BContentMarketing" username="toprank"]

3. Fact Not Fiction

What: Infographics Racing record: Infographics are loaded with information. But so is an encyclopedia. One of the best benefits of infographics is that they provide valuable information in an easy to read, easy to understand way. It pairs text-based information with data visualization, graphs, and pictures to help educate audiences. And it is for this reason that 40% of marketers listed infographics as their top performer for driving engagement. Odds: When it comes to educating your audience in a simple, easy to understand way, infographics are second to none. Plus, they’re extremely shareable, extending your reach to a larger audience. Fact Not Fiction is a smart bet for your content strategy when awareness and education are top of mind, or if you’re attempting to simplify a complex topic.

4. The Proof Is in the Pudding

What: Case Studies Racing record: Evidence is some of the most compelling content you can create. Testimonials, case studies, and reviews show audiences that your products and services actually work. It also allows them to envision themselves as a customer and see how they could benefit from similar services. According to the 2018 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey Report, 73% of marketers found case studies to be the most successful tactic for converting and accelerating leads in the middle and late stages of the funnel. Image credit: 2018 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey Report Odds: When prospects are in the consideration or conversion stage of the buyer journey, proof and evidence can help guide them towards a purchasing decision. If moving more buyers through the funnel means winning for your brand, relevant and insightful case studies are a great bet.

5. One for the Record Books

What: eBooks Racing record: According to the 2017 Demand Generation Content Preferences Survey Report, 63% of buyers are willing to share information about themselves (e.g. email addresses) in exchange for eBooks. By creating longer, more visual content through eBooks, studies show that eBooks are a great lead generation tactic. In addition, eBooks rank in the top five most effective content marketing tactics for both the top and middle of the funnel. Odds: One for the Record Books is able to last for miles, diving deep into a niche topic to further educate audiences and provide valuable information in great detail. This is helpful for both the top and middle of the funnel when education is key. When gated, eBooks are also great lead generation tools that open up new paths for audience nurturing—as long as the content delivers the kind of robust insight and value that warrants an exchange of information. Read: To Gate, or Not to Gate? Answers to an Age-Old Digital Marketing Question

6. Social Butterfly

What: Social Media Marketing Racing record: The number of active social media users is expected to reach 3.02 billion by 2021, according to Statista. And the average person spends nearly 2.5 hours on social media each day. If you want to meet your audience on their turf, social media marketing needs to be a part of your content marketing betting strategy. Because social media allows you to share content on a channel where your audience spends a great deal of time each day, there are opportunities for growing a following, building a community, delivering customer service, and boosting engagement. However, the social media ticket is evolving thanks to a few scandals, abuse concerns, and platform changes to aimed at enhancing the user experience. So, if you’re getting ready to double-down on your bet, go in with eyes wide open. Odds: Savvy B2B marketers said goodbye to organic-only social strategies built on “post it and they will come” a long time ago. But still, Social Butterfly can be a great community building tool for B2B brands if you’re providing relevant, thoughtful, and valuable content and insights.

via GIPHY Take the time to research your audience’s content consumption preferences (e.g. leverage your website and social analytics, survey your existing customer base, etc.) to uncover patterns and top content types, as well as gauge which platforms deserve your care and attention.

7. Dapper Don Draper

What: Digital Advertising Racing record: Organic visibility and reach are anything but guaranteed on today’s content marketing track. But digital advertising can give you a competitive edge, supplementing your organic efforts at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Studies have shown digital ads to be an effective method of top of funnel lead generation and awareness with findings like:

Mobile search ads can increase brand awareness by 46%.

Businesses see an average ROI of 100% with Google Ads.

However, it’s important to note that a quarter of U.S. internet users blocking ads. The good news is that the real beauty of Dapper Don Draper is it’s versatility, with options including native text and video advertising, paid social, search, and display. Odds: With clearly defined objectives and the right content, Dapper Don Draper is a well-placed wager. Whether you’re breaking into a new market and need some quick brand awareness wins or you’re promoting a new interactive influencer asset, Triple D can help your other efforts win, place, and show. For the highest probability of generating results with your digital advertising, it’s important to use all of the audience targeting features available to you. In addition, native advertising units are very effective as they appear similar to the other content on the page.

8. Black, White & Gray All Over

What: SEO Racing record: SEO, which we’ve affectionately named Black, White & Gray All Over, has one of the longest and wide-ranging B2B content marketing records. She’s won some and certainly lost some, but her place in the B2B Content Strategy Derby Hall of Fame is confirmed. Why? Because as TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden has often said: “Content is the reason search began in the first place.” And according to Internet Live Stats, there’s currently an average of 40,000 Google searches every second. That’s the equivalent of 3.5 billion searches per day on Google alone. But search is growing more crowded by the second, with trillions of website pages already indexed and counting, and algorithms growing more sophisticated. [bctt tweet="Content is the reason search began in the first place. - @leeodden #B2BContentMarketing #SEO" username="toprank"] Odds: SEO is a fickle filly, with her training regime and environment evolving at the speed of machine learning. But she’s built for the long haul if the content jockey builds good rapport at all stages of the funnel. Increase your odds by regularly reviewing results and identifying opportunities to attention to optimize existing and future content to better match search intent, volume, competition, and more. In addition, look for white space that you can fill with relevant, best answer, SEO-informed content.

9. On Good Authority

What: Influencer Marketing Racing record: Influencer marketing, aka On Good Authority, burst on the content marketing scene a few years ago and has proven to be a rising star. In fact, Instagram influencer marketing is expected to hit $8 billion in spend by 2020. But that growth trajectory is not limited to consumer brands. B2B companies are also realizing the value of collaborating with influential thought leaders for marketing purposes and count the practice as one of the top 4 tactics planned for 2019. On Good Authority’s efficacy and worth have been questioned, but the results speak for themselves. (Checkout our cheat sheet of inspiring B2B influencer marketing examples.) Odds: Fast out of the gate with a strong finish, On Good Authority has great odds when it comes to increasing brand awareness, thought leadership, and even lead gen. But place your bets wisely. Topical relevance, for one thing, is absolutely critical. So, for the best chance of success with your influencer marketing programs, make sure you’re working with the right influencers that have the appropriate levels of expertise, relevance, and reach.

10. All That and a Bag of Chips

What: Interactive content Racing record: All That and a Bag of Chips is perhaps the prettiest horse in the race. It grabs attention. It encourages interaction. It improves the user experience. And it’s been known to work well with all of the other horses listed above. But just because this horse is a team player, doesn’t mean it’s not here to win. In fact, 87% of marketers agree that interactive content is more effective at grabbing attention than static content. Plus, one of our interactive campaigns drove three times the average share rate and a 500% increase in pageviews. Odds: If you’re looking to go bold at every stage of the funnel, All That and a Bag of Chips is as good as gold. To ensure that this horse is crossing the finish line first, consider pairing it with another horse in the race to slingshot it to victory. For example, create an interactive infographic, eBook, or influencer-driven landing page. You might just see your results compounded.

Place Your B2B Content Marketing Bets

To win big at the B2B Content Marketing Derby, the “watch and win” approach isn’t advised. You need to place smart bets on multiple horses, pairing them together and investing in different heats to hit your marketing goals. Depending on variables like budget, objectives, or time, any combination of the above contenders could win their way into your content strategy—there’s a time and a place for each of them. So, step on up and place your bets … wisely to win.

via GIPHY Need a little help selecting your strategic bets? Follow this three-point checklist for documenting your B2B content strategy.

The post The B2B Content Marketing Derby: When & Where to Place Strategic Bets appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

[ouraidengray4]

17 Extremely Good Ways to Save Money When You Are Broke As a Joke

Being broke can teach you how to live very thriftily—trust us, we spent years figuring out how to live well on next to nothing. This is not one of those "Here's how we saved $50k while only earning $20,000 a year" stories because, hi, that isn't a real thing. Instead, we're here to offer small, actionable steps you can use to help you get your money right so you can go from scraping by to building your savings.

1. Go through every meal kit subscription in the universe.

Seriously, try them all. Just remember to cancel your subscription after those $60 off, first-five-meals-are-free coupons have stopped kicking in.

2. Make a list of your luxury items and see what can stay and what can go.

Do you really need a paid Spotify account when the free one also works extremely well? How about your Hulu, Netflix, Mubi, and HBOGo accounts? You can cut back on two and get a library card—most libraries let you rent DVDs and stream movies and TV shows now too.

And ask yourself if some of your other monthly expenses are really that necessary. Is the super-fancy gym membership necessary, or would a more basic gym be Just Fine? (It would. And you can bring your own expensive shower products—worth it).

3. Family plan it up.

And when you decide that yes, yes, you really do need Hulu, Netflix, Mubi, HBOGo, and a paid Spotify account, start up a share system with friends and family. It takes a few minutes of planning, but if everyone in your group subscribes to one service, you'll all save big bucks.

4. Be the host when you hang out with friends.

If your house becomes the hangout spot, you can avoid spending wildly overpriced bar prices for a glass of wine (and bonus, you don't have to worry about finding your way home if you party too hard). Or create invites for BYO drinks-and-snacks picnics in the park—everyone shares, and you don't even have to clean your place after.

5. You can find really, really good stuff used.

If you check out garage sales and secondhand shops, you'll find plenty of clothes (not to mention furniture and a seemingly endless supply of charmingly mismatched, shabby-chic glassware) for cheap. Try searching your town's name plus the word "garage sale" in the Facebook search bar to find a ton of local postings.

For furniture, sites like Craigslist and online community boards like Nextdoor are fantastic. You can get practically brand-new, high-quality items by just throwing the name of a brand you're interested in ("Crate & Barrel") into the search tool. And check out sites like Thredup that are basically gigantic online thrift stores. You can get really well-made, designer clothes for 1/16 of the retail price, and it's a far more environmentally friendly way to live.

6. Get your cash right.

While lots of different savings accounts offer interest, credit unions typically have better rates and higher limits. You can also try the Mint app—it can help you figure out what you're spending where and how to do better—use the discount-code-whiz Honey app whenever you shop online (it's kind of amazing), and give the cash-back Ibotta app a go, because why not.

7. Check out discounted services.

Groupon hasn't been as popular in the past few years as it used to be, but redownload it—it's not just for restaurants. You can find everything from haircuts and spa services to dental and eye exams.

8. Do odd jobs.

This one kinda goes without saying, but if your paychecks aren't stretching and you have some free time, a side gig is always helpful. You can always opt for Lyft and Taskrabbit, but don't forget the classics like babysitting gigs (which you can find on Care), dog-walking (Wag!), or using sites like Upwork to make a few extra dollars doing creative tasks. Plus, having a fun side-gig like dog walking to occupy some of your free hours will keep you from overspending (... and the bonus cash doesn't hurt).

9. Revamp your dining style.

Meal prepping can help you with eating healthy while saving money (and avoiding waste). Also, check out food co-ops to save money on fresh produce, always buy dry goods like paper towels in bulk, and don't overlook the cheap (and delicious) benefit of starting your own garden.

EDITOR'S PICK

You can also create budget-friendly rules for yourself, like prepping food for meals you'll be eating alone, which can create a little room for a dining-out budget with friends. And pro tip: If you start meeting friends for breakfasts instead of dinner and drinks, it's way, way cheaper—and a really lovely way to start the morning.

If you're someone who just hates meal planning and is always going to eat lunch out every day, try a service like Mealpal. You can buy a bundle of lunches from local spots for less than $6 a meal, and the company has great intro packages (like we're talking 40 percent off) too.

10. Think before you spend.

It's really easy to see something you want and drop a stack right then and there. But what if you just... didn't? Adopt a two-week to 30-day policy before spending money on non-emergencies. Corporations spend a lot of time and money researching the absolute best ways to get you to spend before you have the chance to think, but you can avoid their Jedi mind tricks if you spend some time thinking first, do price comparisons, and assess value. Think first; spend later. It's less fun in the moment but more fun when you realize you totally have the cash to go on vacation later this year.

11. Dust off your bike.

You can save so much money on transportation (plus give yourself a good cardio workout and avoid using fossil fuels) by opting for a bike ride over taking a train or a car. Don't want to make the investment in a bike of your own? Check to see if your city has a bike-share program and hop on one of those bad boys—your wallet will feel the relief as much as your feet.

12. Put a personal trainer in your pocket.

These days, there are so, so many different options for in-app fitness, and they're all super customizable for your workout needs. So even though having the one-on-one attention of a personal trainer is the bomb.com, we guarantee there's a muuuuuch cheaper way for you to get that workout and still have it be, well... personal. At least until you win the lottery, that is.

13. Two words: Trader Joe's.

This—and every other brand shoutout in this article—is not an #ad. But the entire Greatist office is obsessed with TJ's, and we don't care who knows it. We'll shout it from the top of a tower of Trader Joe's almond milk because it's only $1.99 so we can afford it!

Seriously—not only do we love their products (have you had this?! Or this?!), but you can't beat the prices on typically expensive items like quinoa or blueberries. Trust us when we say that the amount of food you can get for your money will practically double what you'd scrounge together at another grocery store. Long live the Hawaiian shirt!

14. Get scrappy with your movie/festival/concert candy.

Should you break the rules at the movie theater? Of course not! Great, now that we've gotten that out of the way: Who hasn't snuck candy into a movie theater? You've gotta get crafty sometimes (jackets with pockets on the inside) because bag checks are (rightfully) common at theaters, but hey—drugstore candy is just cheaper and every bit helps. This also applies to festivals, concerts, and plays, so if you need to BYOC... we won't judge.

15. And it's OK to fool your friends into thinking you're fancier than you are too.

Yeah, we're not above refilling an old Aesop soap bottle with cheaper Mrs. Meyers so the bathroom seems nicer than it is. See also: upcycling the glass containers from nice candles into bud vases and mini planters for succulents (which you'll kill, but oh well), and serving your friends from carafes of sangria, which you made with a few bottles of TJ's "Two-Buck-Chuck" cab sauv, an apple, and a couple of oranges (no one ever needs to see the label).

16. Be your own ATM.

You know the saying "out of sight, out of mind," right? We're pretty sure that phrase originated when debit cards became a thing. Try taking out cash on Sunday night or Monday morning and let that be your allowance for the rest week—those Jacksons will feel infinitely more real in your hands than they do in your bank account.

17. Go for free.

Take advantage of the free cultural events in your area. You can get into some interesting things this way and, worst case scenario, it's not the most amazing time you've ever had but at least you didn't get spendy for it. We're into free museum days, outdoor concerts, improv shows, cemetery walking tours… whatever's happening, we're game to try anything twice.

from Greatist RSS https://ift.tt/2LWhmd3 17 Extremely Good Ways to Save Money When You Are Broke As a Joke Greatist RSS from HEALTH BUZZ https://ift.tt/2NgteeQ

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[blacknfromakron72]

When you have to ask yourself if a streaming platform is best for you

There are a lot of streaming platforms out there.  And from my personal experiences, they're all worth the money.  But that doesn't mean that you should invest in all of them.  It can be a bit confusing if you're considering cutting the cord.  On one hand there are free platforms like YouTube that offer a freemium experience; you can watch content for free, but the best long form content is going to cost you something.  On the other hand there are platforms offering a live television experience with several channels that can cost as much as $70 per month. Which should you choose?  I've tried a lot of different platforms.  I'll try to list each platform I've either tried, or considered, and why I think they're worth the money, or not.  Regardless of my thoughts, those platforms might work for you. YouTube YouTube is a free platform, for 99 percent of what it offers.  YouTube also offers movies that can be watched for a fee, as it doubles as the front end of Google Play Movies and TV.  This is confusing to a lot of people but the easiest way to think of this is that for users that do not have the Google Play Movies and TV app installed, or users that do not need to download their purchases from Google, the YouTube app is a front end that everyone can agree upon.  But Google Play Movies and TV is not going away; Google realizes that a lot of people do not use it for its intended purpose, so it has repurposed Google Play Movies and TV as a recommendation engine to help people figure out what they want to watch.  It will launch other video streaming platforms for you.  You can still use the app to watch your purchases, but you no longer have to use it for that purpose. There is a lot of interesting stuff on YouTube for free.  But a lot of that consists of podcasts, video blogs, and compilations of old television commercials as well as illegally uploaded shows and movies.  It is what it is.  YouTube also has evolved into a dumping ground for millions of music videos, and Google has created a front end for those music efforts into a product known as YouTube Music.  Google wants to evolve the front end into a serious music app that can go head to head with Spotify and Pandora.  So there are databases, front ends, front ends for other front ends, and so on and so forth, where YouTube is concerned, it is very confusing. Then we have YouTube Red, which is turning into YouTube Premium.  A new front end for YouTube's efforts at professionally created content.  Instead of merely allowing people to aimlessly upload content to YouTube, Google is working with the most popular video creators on that site to produce new shows and movies.  They are also giving opportunities to actors and actresses we haven't seen in a while.  But YouTube wants you to pay for this; $11.99 a month.  Is it worth the money? It is worth the money if you're young and you fit the demographics of what YouTube's popular creators are putting out there.  For older people, I would save my $11.99 and put it towards a different service.  Yes, it is cool to be able to watch videos offline without commercials.  But there are other offline video services.  Dailymotion and Vimeo also offer offline capabilities.  Hoopla Digital provides offline videos as well, and you only need a library card to take advantage of that service.  Offline YouTube was a big thing 10 years ago.  A lot of us went out of our way to download YouTube videos.  But no longer. Dailymotion Dailymotion is a very weird website owned by a record company.  Seriously, the owner of Dailymotion also owns Universal Music Group, as well as a number of other companies.  Dailymotion offers offline capabilities, for free, to anyone willing to use their app on Android, Windows Phone, and iOS. A lot of you may have heard of Dailymotion but did not realize that it was still in operation.  Unlike YouTube, Dailymotion is owned by companies that own companies that own companies.  Too many corporate interests infusing money into this platform. Dailymotion does have original content.  Good luck on finding that content.  Generally, their "Editors Picks" section will usually have a playlist featuring their original content.  Dailymotion also has exclusives.  The amateur content that is uploaded to the site includes no end of content that would never survive YouTube because of the way that copyright infringement is dealt with in the United States.  Being that the website is based out of France, a lot goes on, on this site, that would never fly in the states.  There are no hard numbers as to how many people use the site, how many videos are on the site, no metrics, nothing that you can use to gauge how popular the site is.  It is generally understood to be the second most popular video uploading site after YouTube. The good thing about Dailymotion is that they are not asking for money, for anything.  The bad thing about Dailymotion is that they are not asking for money, for anything.  You will never get away from advertisements using this site.  But the ads are targeted, and the experience is far greater than anything I've ever dealt with using YouTube.  Their software is better, their algorithms seem random, but they work, I just do not understand how they work. Again it is a very weird mashup of primarily foreign content.  If you find a few videos you like follow whomever or whatever is uploading the videos.  This will make your life a lot easier. Vimeo Vimeo is a great site for anyone looking for dark, artistic, quality videos on the web.  It will blow you away and make your brain hurt, and not necessarily in that order.  You can pay for the privilege of being able to upload more videos, but you do not have to pay anything to download videos.  You'll find enough here to keep you occupied for long periods of time.  But Vimeo is rather odd in that, you do not have to subscribe to anyone to find great content on a reliable basis. Most of the videos you find here are either deserving of having won a prestigious award, or maybe that has already happened.  I also encountered a number of interesting music videos I never would have watched otherwise.  Vimeo does a great job of making money from charging people for storage, so there are no advertisements whatsoever.  Their two most expensive plans allow users to hire videographers to professionally produce videos. But if you are looking for video blogs or social commentary, this isn't the site for you.  Vimeo is at the other spectrum of the free for all that is YouTube, the corporately sponsored, though not always corporately produced, aspect of Dailymotion, and the pure artistic freedom for serious audiences looking for something cutting edge that is not always available through other outlets. Before I go further I would like to mention the websites and platforms of various television outlets, which can be a little confusing. I am not going to mention Hulu because that is a collaborative effort and in itself is interesting enough for me to create an entire section for it.  Sites, or apps, representing the major television networks in the United States, PBS, or cable channels in the United States, are not straightforward. If you have access to cable service into your home or if you use a remote service like Contour or Xfinity that allows you to watch cable outside of your home (or without a cable box) you can use your credentials to log into those services; say, the NBC or ABC apps and watch everything those apps have to offer.  If you do not have access to cable, or you do not use a service like DirecTV Now or Sling TV, for example, you can still use these apps but the experience is very frustrating because some of the content is free for everyone and some of it is only free for people that are paying for that content through other means.  Because of this, the only television apps I can recommend in good conscious are PBS, CW, and CW Seed.  These apps are what they sound like and provide content for everyone.  CW Seed is a mixture of old content from WB and UPN when their television networks were on the air and webisodes. Hulu Earlier I mentioned Hulu.  The first thing that often comes to people's minds when I mention Hulu is that Hulu used to be free, but it is no longer free.  Hulu is still free, but you have to go to Yahoo View to watch it.  It is only available on PC and Mac, Linux if you're into that sort of thing any desktop with a browser should work.  You can use Chrome to mirror it to your television, and there are a few apps out there that make it available on your smartphone. I am not going to mention what those apps are. But if you do want to pay for Hulu, keep in mind that this is a service owned by Disney, 21st Century Fox, Comcast, and Time Warner.  It is not an answer to Netflix.  It never was an answer to Netflix.  Hulu is a dumping ground for old television shows and movies that would otherwise end up in the back of a video rental store for a cheap.  They also produce original content.  The original content is, generally, high budget with production values as good as anything the owners of the service would broadcast over the air or show on the big screen.  The company can be mum on their metrics, like Dailymotion.  The company is also finding ways to implement offline capabilities into their applications. Hulu has ads. You can pay for fewer ads, but you will always get ads.  There are not as many ads as over the air television.  There are no where near as many ads as you will experience watching cable television.  But there are still ads.  If you hate paying for ads, make your life a lot easier and watch Yahoo View instead. Users that subscribe to Hulu will receive content first, but it will eventually make its way to Yahoo View.  You do not get any of Hulu's original content on Yahoo View. As far as people thinking that Hulu was a response to Netflix, that is a timing issue.  Netflix used to be a dumping ground for older television shows and movies.  This was back when Netflix was still known for their DVD service.  Netflix was acquiring a lot of content that did not have a home online.  What Netflix was good for, was watching shows that cable channels had in their on demand lineup.  Netflix had a lot of shows and movies from Starz.  Starz eventually developed their own service that competes with Netflix.  If anything was a response to Netflix, it was probably services like Starz, Showtime, and HBO Now that allow you to subscribe to their platforms directly without the use of a cable subscription.  But more on that later. I am biased for personal and professional reasons, but I honestly believe that the owners of Hulu wanted to distribute their own content through their own platform, rather than allow it to exist on sites like Netflix, or on YouTube illegally (a lot of shows are still being uploaded to YouTube without the permission of the companies licensed to distribute the content) and there is nothing wrong with that.  Plus this was the best thing to happen to Netflix.  It pushed them to develop themselves into an award winning platform for original content. Before I get into Netflix though, this is what I think that the future of Hulu is.  At $7.99 a month it is a great deal, even with ads, because they allow you to watch television on multiple screens at a time.  Netflix allows you to watch standard definition video on one screen for that price.  It is not clear what Hulu's simultaneous screen limits are, but they are definitely more generous than Netflix on that issue.  Hulu will have offline capabilities at some point; if you need that now I would focus on Netflix.  Also keep in mind that you are downloading ads that are embedded into the content, with what Hulu is proposing.  Hulu, most likely, will always be a place where you can find television a day late and a number of original shows and movies.  I don't see a scenario when they will ever get away from distributing content that their owners show in the theatres, or on the small screen.  Hulu will continue to play content until you either turn off your computer or your device, or if enough time passes, they will ask you if you are still watching.  The service automatically plays shows based on an algorithm that takes into account shows you started watching but never finished, as well as recommendations it is making based on what you have watched previously. Netflix Netflix is what people think of when they think of streaming shows.  Netflix will either play an entire season or run of a show, or it will play the movie you have selected, and then it will stop.  What Netflix will not do, is automatically play a movie it thinks you like (or one you started watching previously) after finishing a movie you watched last.  This does not appear to be a feature that its users want.  Netflix is not a laid back experience, in that way.  This is something to consider if you are looking into giving them your money. One thing I do like about Netflix is that they have prepaid cards available everywhere.  Hulu does have cards, but they're hard to find (although you can easily purchase them online) in physical brick and mortar stores.  Netflix is a completely algorithmically ran video platform.  You don't tell Netflix what you want to watch, Netflix tells you what to watch.  You can search if you want to, but you will eventually tire from searching, and you will end up watching exactly what they wanted you to watch anyway.  It is an experiment in artificial intelligence. That is not necessarily a bad thing.  But I find that Netflix offers plenty of choice on their original programming, but if you want to watch something they're merely distributing you will lose each and every time.  If you enjoy Netflix's original programming, this is the best value for your money out there.  Unlike YouTube they have something for every demographic.  Unlike Hulu they have stuff that is weird and eclectic, and not as high society or stiff as what you would expect from a major studio.  Netflix is very good at having a movie there one day, and then it will disappear from the service the next day (or so you think) though you may find it the day after the next day after tomorrow which is three days later than yesterday.  I find it to be infuriating. But I commend Netflix on the ability to watch content offline.  Even though they keep track of how many times you download the same title and prevent you from downloading it too many times and the bulk of what you can download is what they produce it is great to have that option.  A great option if you're taking a flight across the country and you are not going to have service or hate what is available for free on the plane.  I think that they play hardball when it comes to their metrics (like is everyone really watching a show because they want to or because it was easy to find in their search of Netflix's catalog) but it is what it is and plenty of people love it.  Millennials and Generation Y appear to love it more than anyone.  Plus you can't go wrong around the water cooler talking about what you watched on Netflix.  Save us your spoilers though. HBO Now, Starz, Showtime, etc. Earlier I mentioned that cable channels are now offering streaming platforms.  I won't go into them in detail.  But I will say this; they are a great value for their back catalog of films.  Cable channels have rights to thousands of films.  Far more than you'll ever find on services like Hulu or Netflix.  Apps like HBO Now, Starz, and Showtime will interchange titles, quietly, for their on demand service without consumers ever realizing what is available, if they were just to search for content that is not some award winning show people talk about around the water cooler.  So the value is not necessarily in the shows that you are subscribing to the apps to watch.  The value is often in the programming that you don't always see.  Some of these apps, like Starz, will allow you to watch content offline.  That is really all that I have to say about this as the apps are a front end for the cable channels in question. There are other front ends, too many to mention, so if you want HBO you may be able to add it onto some other streaming service you enjoy. CBS All Access One exception to the rule of network television apps is the CBS app.  CBS has created a platform for original programming known as CBS All Access.  There are six original shows available.  These shows are not available on CBS over the air.  The shows are a lot rougher than what you would normally watch on CBS over the air, not in a bad way, but nudity and rough language is more prevalent, than what CBS offers otherwise.  It is a bit surprising because CBS has never been known for offering this level of programming, but it makes sense when you consider that CBS has part ownership in Showtime.  And you can add Showtime to your package. Aside from the Showtime upgrade, there are two tiers available.  If you do not mind ads, a lot of ads actually, then $5.99 is the price you will end up paying each month.  If you do not want ads pay $9.99 a month.  Personally, considering that CBS only has 6 original shows, I do not think the extra four dollars a month is worth it to avoid ads. Either way you get access to CBS' back catalog, which includes shows they have distributed or produced but have not aired on CBS, like Cheers.  There is no offline, not even for the original programs.  I would like to see this added but I do not think that this is in the works.  It is worth it if you want a cheap service. For about six dollars are month you are getting exactly what you paid for. The service has a weird way of going back a minute and a half from the place you left off at when resuming a program.  My final observation about this platform is that they have 18 movies available on demand.  Unlike their back catalog, I don't think these movies have anything to do with CBS whatsoever.  They could be old properties from old acquisitions; I do not care enough to find out and I doubt that anyone else cares enough to find out either.  But they are available.  So, 6 shows and 18 movies, not the worst thing in the world.  If CBS All Access ever takes off in a major way, it would be a great deal say if we get 20 original programs and like 50 movies, it could be an incredible value.  But I like it the way that it is.  Again, $5.99 a month is an incredible deal, you get to watch your local CBS affiliate in real time, and they have prepaid cards you can purchase that should last for several months.  The cheapest card I could find was like $25. DirecTV Now, Sling TV, Philo, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue, Hulu TV, etc. The last category of apps I'll talk about are apps that allow you to watch cable TV offline.  There are some advantages to this approach. For one, you do not need cable equipment. For another, you do not have to deal with the cable operator.  You do not get offline capabilities with these apps.  You do get cloud DVR services, which is interesting but it is just a fancy way of saying that you can create your own playlist of shows, or show episodes, and watch it without searching deep into the service to find something to watch.  There are many services available.  Sling TV, Philo, DirecTV Now, YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue, and Hulu TV are the only names you need to know.  Philo is the cheapest, but there is no sports.  YouTube TV is the best value for your money, and is the service to go to if you want to watch the four networks live, and you get access to YouTube Premium (the original content, not the music service).  PlayStation Vue is an obvious choice for anyone that has a PlayStation, even though one is not needed to watch the platform. DirecTV Now is an obvious choice for anyone on AT&T, because they can watch it without using up their data.  Hulu TV is a nice add on for Hulu enthusiasts, but I see no reason why anyone else would sign up for it.  Sling TV was the first of it's kind, but that does not necessarily make it the best.  One thing to keep in mind with these services is that to watch live TV you need sufficient bandwidth.  The software is clunky and difficult to use.  And unless you subscribe to everything they offer, you will get infuriated coming across programs that you cannot watch because you have not paid for that channel. There are even more services that I won't get into in this article. Services that allow you to watch for free as long as you have a library card (and count how many titles you have "rented" and institute limits as to how long you can "hold" a title, just as though you were physically checking it out from the library).  Services that provide exclusive content to British content.  Services for Korean, or Far East Asian, content.  Services for soccer fans.  The list goes on and on.  But the services I've mentioned, as the ones that I love and enjoy.  There is no wrong answer when it comes to streaming.  There is something for everyone, and new services being added all of the time.

[zenruption]

I am Hereby Absolved of My Ignorance

Add to Flipboard Magazine.

By Brian McKay

Recently I have had the living shit scared out of me. No, I haven’t been to a haunted house or watched a scary movie. It is all from watching A Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu. It’s simple. People honestly sit in our government that think somewhat similar and no matter how much you try to admonish this upon their supporters, the votes will still come.

You see it constantly. Not one person reading this can say they haven’t at least opened a thread on a Facebook discussion (political argument) and thought, “Holy shit, this is nuts.”

Why did you think that? Because facts are gone, stats are now a lie and every person in the U.S. has an excuse that makes them the expert. They are right and no one else is. In a country where roadside billboards nationwide now have signs that say, “There is Evidence for God” and urge you to call 855-for-truth, anything is now possible. Conspiracy theories are accepted, Alex Jones is a patriotic American and science is a lie. (bonus: 104 Actual Headlines from Alex Jones’ InfoWars)

We’re headed to a special kind of hell that is of our own doing. Where the real Hell never existed, the believers thought it best to subconsciously create one. Their hypocrisy is non-existent with the new logic of America and their sins can easily be forgiven with a prayer and a vote for Fuhrer Trump. It doesn’t matter if you think, or attempt to do so, only that you stand for the Pledge.

It makes perfect sense that we have ended up here. A high standard of living, unrivaled power, constant marketing, materialism, entitlement, multi-level marketing, an Internet of echo chambers, polarized politics, biblical literalism, hidden racism, easy outs and a the political mythotainment complex that began with the first actor president, 37 years ago, have made us the bastard nation of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The rest of the world is looking at us in utter disbelief and still, a very large percentage of our population, with zero world view, believes they absolutely know more. They know so much and are so patriotic that they might even tell certain people to leave the country and never come back if someone has so much as questioned.

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That the country once achieved such highs and is now moving backwards, has become the justification to suspend all ability to think. As the US enters the unthinkable territory of becoming the first poor superpower, with male longevity actually falling, household incomes falling against inflation for 40 years and economic disparity equal to a third world country, the myths associated with a country that once was are easy to grasp for many than tackling policy failures. A hat that says, “Make America Great Again” is easier than admitting we have been sold a line of bullshit.

The rise of Trump has given them a renewed sense of power and being on the right side of history. Suddenly, moving to the right of the highway shoulder by 400 feet means you sit exactly in the center. Anyone near the center or that ever bothered to take a logic class, is now a Commie. Na Zdorovie!

So, let’s get to the point. Here is a list of every argument that reaffirms the rest of us shouldn’t even bother anymore: 

Fake News

We must start with the new rally cry of the right. What started as phenomenon of kids from Macedonia making bank from stories designed to trick and incense conservatives, has been turned back around by them. It is the new supplement for the term main stream media. One could ask if the inverse term of alternative media is now the purveyor of real news, but we all know that the articles written at a fifth-grade level about PizzaGate and the 30,000 scientists that dispute global warming, will always win.

Recently, even Fox News had a rash of social media proclamations against it as a purveyor of fake news. Why? Their latest poll showed Donald Trump at a 40% approval rating.

The argument is now so simple. If they don’t like what it says, it is fake. Only a news source that continually tells them what they want can be real.

Of course, it was the largest inauguration ever. The pictures were faked by a news media that doesn’t want to admit to our new President’s popularity.

Even worse, you can include an actual Trump tweet to show his Moron-In-Chief for what he is and even that will be called fake news.

Hey. I don’t like the thought of climate change wrecking my kid’s future, but that doesn’t mean I get to call it a hoax. 

Alternative Facts

Ok. What the hell is an alternative to a fact? Believe it or not, the alternative to a fact is a lie. That this term has ever been used, even once, shows that the US is now subject to a world where stupidity is in charge and anything can be real. Will we outlaw the teaching of evolution soon as well? 

Tit – for Tat Arguments

For years the Fox News crowd was given scandal after scandal, whether they existed or not, about our former President. They were told he was constantly ignoring the Constitution and breaking the law. The Article “Criminal In Chief” — 78 Times President Obama Broke The Law During Presidency, lists such egregious activities as  trying to shut down family farms, proposing military intervention in Syria, “illegally” didn’t submit a budget on time and this laughable list goes on and on with offenses that either never happened or aren’t offenses in the first place. Many things listed as horrific on this list, pale in comparison to actions of the new President in less than 6 months. The Trump supporters will believe everything in their search for reaffirmation of the ego.

The common argument is that if Obama had done so many horrific things, surely Trump can be excused for his misdeeds. After all, Trump is going to defend the Constitution where Obama was trying to destroy it to found a Communist utopia.

Well people, regardless of what you think Barack Obama did, Trump is President now. You long ago showed us that a higher standard wasn’t what you wanted with the election of a vile human being. No, you’ll create any past act that justifies current actions despite how unconstitutional and ridiculous they might be. In fact, some of you justify the current racist sentiments as a valid response to the “horrors” you were subjected to for 8 years.

There is no point arguing this either. 

Common Sense

It is so painful when one of them says, “You can have all your facts and stats, but I have common sense.” The reasoning behind this is that stats can be manipulated to fit the narrative but what this country has been lacking is common sense, despite that people with common sense actually would use good data.

Obtaining this common sense is apparently the function of hours of reading and watching news and commentary sources that frequently abuse the living shit out of actual data to achieve their points.

So… no matter how often you quote an actual stat or fact, it doesn’t matter. Obviously, you have no “common sense”.

Walk away and save your breath. 

Science is Your Religion

Seriously? Is their “common sense” unable to distinguish between a religion and science? When was the last time you saw a peer reviewed paper discussing how many times someone in the old testament lived to be older than 500?

This is the de facto argument from someone that is religious, their religion supersedes good governance and everything else in the world is out to destroy their way of life. Their reasoning, or lack of it, has a Christian country being destroyed and the scientists are in on it. A belief in scientific tenants at odds with their religion is not only an attack but also indicates the presence of an evil liberal.

Isn’t it funny that science process seeks to correct itself while religion and politics often mean doubling down on what already hasn’t been working? Science can be neither a religion or a political conviction. It’s simply science and it doesn’t care what you believe.

Recent discussions observed online even have the Trumpanistas disavowing math. Seriously math? If math didn’t exist as a universal constant, neither would we.

Once again, no amount of logic or facts will work here. They are impervious. 

Universities are Hotbeds of Communism (i.e. the educated should be dismissed for their bias)

Yes, it has happened. Experts don’t matter and education is now an indicator of stupidity. Those with degrees lack common sense, are indoctrinated, think they know it all and only argue points that fit their political bent.

Every single authoritarian movement has needed to marginalize the educated elite to maintain the populism and centralized control of the movement.  The US is now following this trend.

The everyman is reaffirmed in that they aren’t “brainwashed”.

Your degree and background means nothing with this crowd. Any expertise you have is a waste. They know how science works, understand economics and have a lock on their revised history.

Another instance of wasted breath is upon us.

 You’re Just Another Snowflake, Mad that Hillary Won

No jackass, the election is long over. I am mad that my kid’s future is being destroyed. That’s the extent of the argument. They’ll believe that is the case regardless though.

Walk again

The list of logical and argumentative fallacies (isn’t cool I included a list of them?) goes on and on. There are straw man arguments, anecdotal evidence, false correlations, arguments of false consequences, etc. No debate judge is sitting there to show them they are wrong and even if there were, they wouldn’t accept it in any case.

This is America now. Our exclamations are wasted on the new experts of everything. A Ph.D means nothing. Critical thinking is dismissed. The crowd that thinks an open window wastes the air conditioning even if it is colder outside, has won. 

For now

A professor of history told me prior to the election that if Trump won he would kick back in his easy chair and watch the destruction. He knew the secret; that there would be no fix or argument until everything fell apart.

The world has changed and those of our ilk know the proposals of Trump are only detrimental to supporters. He can’t do what he promised. You can’t bring back jobs automated away. One cannot defeat an ideology. The workings of checks and balances restrain him for now.

20 percent of Trump supporters will always support him. The rest might eventually be up for grabs.

 So, the art of the argument is dead. It gave way to the fake Art of the Deal. They believe their extremism is center right and nothing will change that.

Forget the argument. Keep it civil at the bar.

Our moment comes when we all turn out in 2018. Let’s expend our energy on motivating everyone that knows better when the time comes.

Sit back, watch the destruction, leave them with nothing to assuage their ego and get ready to act in less than 18 months.

 No memes were harmed in the making of this article.

#Alex Jones #Infowars #Kellyanne Conway #Trump #Alternative Facts #propaganda