#turkey news lockdown

[mostlysignssomeportents]

“Brand safety” killed Jezebel

I'll be at the Studio City branch of the LA Public Library this Monday, November 13 at 1830hPT to launch my new novel, The Lost Cause. There'll be a reading, a talk, a surprise guest (!!) and a signing, with books on sale. Tell your friends! Come on down!

Progressives: if you want to lose to conservatives, all you need to do is reflexively praise and support everything conservatives turn into a culture-war issue, without considering whether they might be right. Because sometimes…they're right.

Remember early in the Trump presidency, when conservatives all woke up and discovered that America's spy agencies – excuse me, "the intelligence community" – were dirty-tricking psychos who run amok, lawlessly sabotaging democracy? Progressives have been shouting this ever since Hoover's FBI tried to blackmail MLK into killing himself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_suicide_letter

But millions of progressives forgot about COINTELPRO, CIA dirty tricks and CIA mass spying when this "intelligence community" temporarily set out to wrong-foot Trump. Remember James Comey votive candles?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/08/30/james-comey-fbi-memo-leaks-trump-inspector-general-report-column/2157705001/

Anthropologists have a name for this phenomenon, in which one side reverses its positions because their sworn enemies have done so. It's called schizmogenesis, and it goes like this: "If they hate it, we love it":

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/18/schizmogenesis/

Schizmogenesis is an equal-opportunity delusion. Within living memory, white evangelicals supported abortion, because their sworn enemies – Catholics – opposed it. Some of those white Boomer women who voted Trump because abortion was literally the only issue they cared about held the opposite position on abortion not so long ago – and completely forgot about it:

https://text.npr.org/734303135

The main purpose of the culture war isn't immiserating marginalized people – that's its effect, but its purpose is to distract low-information turkeys (working people) so they'll vote for Christmas (the ongoing seizure of power by American oligarchs). For the funders of conservative movement politics, the cruelty isn't the point, it's merely the tactic. The point is power:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/09/turkeys-voting-for-christmas/#culture-wars

Which brings me to "woke capitalism." Conservative string-pullers have whipped up their base about the threat of companies embracing social causes. They (erroneously) claim that corporations have progressive values, and that big business is thumbing the scales for causes they despise. The purpose here isn't to sow distrust of capitalism per se. Rather, it's to stampede talk-radio-addled supporters into backing the oligarchy's agenda. Remember when culture war leaders told their base to support being gouged on credit-card junk fees "to own the libs?"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

That's schizmogenesis working against the conservative rank-and-file, tricking them into taking the side of a cartel of wildly profitable payment processors who are making billions by picking their pockets (credit card fees are up 40% since the covid lockdowns), because (checks notes), Target pays these profiteers a lot to process its payments, and Target sells Pride merch (no, really):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping

It's easy to point and laugh at conservative dopes when they're tricked into shooting themselves in the balls to own the libs. This is not a hypothetical example:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/28/holographic-nano-layer-catalyser/#musketfuckers

But progressives do it, too, particularly when they embrace monopolies as a force for positive social change. Remember 2019, when people got excited about playing loud pop music at Nazi rallies in the hopes that the monopoly video platforms' copyright filters would make any video from that rally impossible to post?

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/23/clever-hack-that-will-end-badly-playing-copyrighted-music-during-nazis-rallies-so-they-cant-be-posted-to-youtube/

I warned then that if this tactic worked, it would be used by cops to prevent you from recording them when they're macing you or splitting your skull with a billyclub, and yup, within a couple years, cops were blaring Taylor Swift music in hopes of preventing the public from posting videos of their illegal conduct:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/07/moral-hazard-of-filternets/#dmas

Conservatives are (partially) right about woke capitalism. It is a threat to democracy. Concentrating the power to decide who gets to speak and what they get to say into the hands of five or six corporations, mostly run by mediocre billionaires, is bad for society. The moderation decisions of giant platforms are a form of (commercial) censorship, even these don't violate the First Amendment:

https://locusmag.com/2020/01/cory-doctorow-inaction-is-a-form-of-action/

(The progressive delusion that censorship only occurs when the First Amendment is violated is a wild own-goal, one that excuses, for example, the decision by school book-fair monopolist Scholastic to remove books about queers and Black and brown people from its offerings as a purely private matter without consequences for free speech):

https://www.themarysue.com/scholastic-response-to-authors-and-illustrators-on-diverse-books/

Conservatives are only partially right about woke capitalism, though. Here's what they're wrong about: corporations don't have values. Target isn't selling Pride tees because they support progressive causes, they're selling them because it seems like a good way to increase returns to their shareholders. Individuals – even top executives – at Target might endorse the cause, but the company will only durably support the cause if that endorsement is profitable, which means that when it stops being profitable, the company will stop supporting the cause:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/23/business/target-lgbtq-merchandise/index.html

The idea that corporations have values isn't merely stupid, it's very dangerous. The Hobby Lobby decision – which allows corporations to deny basic health-care expenses for women on the basis that a Bronze Age mystic wouldn't approve of an IUD – rests on the ideological foundation that corporate personhood includes corporate values:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burwell_v._Hobby_Lobby_Stores,_Inc.

Citizens United – the idea that corporations should be allowed to funnel unlimited funds to politicians who'll sell out the public good in favor of investor profits – also depends on a form of corporate personhood that includes values:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC

There are undeniably instances in which corporate monopoly power benefits progressive causes, but these are side-effects of corporate power's main purpose, namely: taking money and power away from working people and giving it to rich people. That is what monopoly power is for.

Which brings me to ad-tech, "brand safety," and the demise of Jezebel, the 16 year old feminist website whose shuttering was just announced by its latest owner, G/O Media:

https://www.metafilter.com/201349/This-is-the-end-of-Jezebel-and-that-feels-really-really-bad

Jezebel's demise is the direct result of monopoly power. Jezebel writes about current affairs – sex, politics, abortion, and other important issues of great moment and significance. When we talk about journalism as a public good, necessary for a healthy civic life, this is what we mean. But unfortunately for Jezebel – and any other news outlet covering current events – there are vast, invisible forces that exist solely to starve this kind of coverage of advertising revenue.

Writing for the independent news site 404 Media, reporter Emanuel Maiberg and former Motherboard editor-in-chief Jason Koebler go deep on the "brand safety" industry, whose mission is to assist corporations in blocking their ads from showing up alongside real news:

https://www.404media.co/advertisers-dont-want-sites-like-jezebel-to-exist/

Maiberg and Koebler explain how industry associations like the World Federation of Marketers' Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) promulgate "frameworks" to help advertisers automatically detect and exclude real news from consideration when their ads are placed:

https://www.peer39.com/blog/garm-standards

This boycott makes use of scammy "AI" technology like "sentiment and emotional analysis" to determine whether an article is suitable for monetization. These parameters are then fed to the ad-tech duopoly's ad auction system, so Google and Meta (who control the vast majority of online advertising) can ensure that real news is starved of cash.

But reality is not brand-safe, and high quality, reputable journalistic outlets are concerned with reality, which means that the "brand safe" outlets that attract the most revenue are garbage websites that haven't yet been blacklisted by the ad-safety cartel, leading to major brands' ads showing up alongside notorious internet gross-out images like "goatse":

https://www.404media.co/sqword-game-dev-sneaks-goatse-onto-a-dozen-sites-that-stole-his-game/

More than a fifth of "brand safe" ad placements end up on "made for advertising" sites, which 404 Media describe as "trash websites that plagiarize content, are literally spam, pay for fake traffic, or are autogenerated websites that serve no other purpose than capturing ad dollars":

https://www.ana.net/miccontent/show/id/rr-2023-06-ana-programmatic-transparency-first-look

Despite all this, many progressives have become cheerleaders for "brand safety," as a countervailing force to the drawdown of trust and safety at online platforms, which led to the re-platforming of Nazis, QAnon conspiratorialists, TERFs, and other overt elements of the reactionary movement's vanguard on Twitter and Facebook. Articles about ads for major brands showing up alongside Nazi content on Twitter are now a staple of progressive reporting, presented as evidence of Elon Musk's lack of business acumen. The message of these stories is "Musk is bad at business because he's allowing Nazis on his platform, which will send advertisers bolting for the exits to avoid brand-safety crises."

This isn't wrong. Musk is a bad businessman (he's a good scam artist, though). Twitter is hemorrhaging advertisers, notwithstanding the desperate (and easily debunked) stats-juking its "CEO," Linda Yaccarino, floats onstage at tech conferences:

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/10/11/math-problem-for-linda-yaccarino-if-90-of-the-top-advertisers-have-come-back-but-are-only-spending-10-of-what-they-used-to-how-screwed-are-you/

But progressives are out of their minds if they think the primary effect of the brand safety industry is punishing Elon Musk for secretly loving Nazis. The primary effect of brand safety is killing reality-based coverage of the news of the day, and since reality has a well-known anti-conservative bias, anything that works against the reality-based community is ultimately good for oligarchy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

We can't afford to let schizmogenesis stampede us into loving things just because conservative culture warriors have been momentarily tricked into hating them as part of oligarchs' turkeys-voting-for-Christmas project. "Swivel-eyed loons hate it, so it must be good," is a worse-than-useless heuristic for navigating complex issues:

https://locusmag.com/2023/05/commentary-cory-doctorow-the-swivel-eyed-loons-have-a-point/

A much better rule of thumb is "If oligarchs love something, it's probably bad." Almost without exception, things that are good for oligarchs are bad for the rest of us. I mean, this whole shuttering of Jezebel starts with an oligarch imposing his will on millions of other people. Jezebel began life as a Gawker Media site, beloved of millions of readers, destroyed when FBI informant Peter Thiel secretly funded Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against the publisher in a successful bid to put them out of business to retaliate for their unfavorable coverage of Thiel:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/02/hogan-thiel-gawker-trial/554132/

This, in turn, put Jezebel under the ownership of G/O Media, who are unwilling to pay for a human salesforce that would – for example – sell advertising space on Jezebel to sex-toy companies or pro-abortion groups. G/O has been on a killing spree, shuttering beloved news outlets like Deadspin:

https://deadspin.com/this-is-how-things-work-now-at-g-o-media-1836908201

G/O's top exec, an oligarch named Jim Spanfeller who answers to the private equity looters at Great Hill Partners, is bent on ending reality-based coverage in favor of "letting robots shit out brand safe AI-assisted articles about generic topics":

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/ai-articles-disinformation-future-g-o-media-rcna95944

Three quarters of a century ago, Orwell coined a term to describe this kind of news: duckspeak,

It was not the man’s brain that was speaking it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words but it was not speech in true sense: it was a noise uttered in unconsciousness like the quacking of a duck.

When investors and analysts speak of "content" (rather than, say, "journalism"), this is what they mean – a warm slurry of platitudes, purged of any jagged-edged fragments to render it a perfectly suitable carrier for commercial messages targeted based on surveillance data about the "consumer" whose eyeballs are upon it.

This aversion to reality has been present among corporate decisionmakers since the earliest days, but the consolidation of power among large firms – ad-tech firms, online platforms, and "brands" themselves – makes corporate realityphobia much easier to turn into, well, reality, giving advertisers the fine-grained power to put Jezebel and every site like it out of business.

As Koebler and Maiberg's headliine so aptly puts it, "Advertisers Don’t Want Sites Like Jezebel to Exist."

The reason to deplore Nazis on Twitter is because they are Nazis, not because their content isn't brand-safe. The short-term wins progressives gain by legitimizing a corporate veto over what we see online are vastly overshadowed by the most important consequence of brand safety: the mass extinction of reality-based reporting. Reality isn't brand safe. If you're in the reality based community, brand safety should be your sworn enemy, even if they help you temporarily get a couple of Nazis kicked off Twitter.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/11/ad-jacency/#brand-safety

#pluralistic #jezebel #publishing #brand safety #adjacency #adtech #media theory #censorship #surveillance advertising #dynamic ad placement #quackspeak #Global Alliance for Responsible Media #garm #debated sensitive social issue #Third Party Safety and suitability #schizmogenesis #woke capitalism #duckspeak

[jesuschristmattyhealy]

bleak midwinter

(this is the first thing I've written in ages pls pls be nice! Also, I know that it is neither cold nor snowing in London right now but I simply don't care!! this is literally just domestic cuteness because that is what I have brain power for <333 goodnight)

It’s biting cold. So cold they’ve said on the news that the dogs shouldn’t go out for any longer than it takes them to pee. So cold that your dad is texting you from home that you should buy a space heater for the basement so the pipes don’t freeze. 

“Tell your dad if I’m buying a space heater it’s to shove up my own arse so I don’t turn into an icicle in my own living room.” Matty enters the room as you read him the message, clutching a blanket shawl around his bare shoulders. 

“Have you thought about starting with a shirt, sunshine?” You ask, tugging the fleece fabric tighter to his chest. 

“I did, but then I thought you’d rather stare at my ripped man muscles all day,” He jokes, flexing under the blanket. His hair is unbrushed and falling in competing angles across his face. 

“Ugh, you know me so well,” you laugh, pinching his arms, “Thank God for my big strong man and his big strong man muscles.” 

His voice deepens to a grunt, “Big strong man hunt mammoth throw spear light fire.” 

“Yeah, could you actually? It’s worse than the North Pole in here.” 

“Should we walk the boys first? That way we don’t yunno… burn the house down.” 

“We’re ignoring the weathermen’s advisory?” You ask, waving your phone screen at his face to reiterate. 

He sighs, “Okay, well then you get to tell them that they’re only allowed out for five seconds and deal with them looking at you like you ran over their friend for the rest of the day.” 

As if on cue, Mayhem and Allan lumber into the kitchen, jowls quivering at the prospect of the word “out.” Ever since you moved in with Matt, the dogs have become as much yours as they are his. Matty swears they love you more than him. And it’s true. You can’t resist their droopy faces and old man frowns. 

“Okay, fine,” you relent, huffing, “But they have to wear their blankets and their boots and possibly even a scarf.” 

“Right, that can be sorted.” 

He runs off upstairs to pull on something for the blustery weather while you root through the baskets by the front door to find the dogs’ blankets and winter boots. Matty made relentless fun of you for buying them, saying that no way would it ever get cold enough in London for them to use them. And then he’d seen the awkward, baby giraffe prance the two creatures did when the boots went on. He was so entertained he began searching for excuses to put them on. 

You pull each dog into your lap, cooing apologies and encouragement at their stiff limbs and whale eyes. 

“You’re going to look so handsome in your boots!” You remind them, to no avail, “All your neighborhood friends will be so jealous.” 

Neither animal seems convinced. Next are the blankets: green for Mayhem, red for Allan. You scrounge up a couple of crochet neck warmers you made back during lockdown that have become the dogs’ (your first designs were too rudimentary for human use). The two stand blankly in the entryway, staring up at you, a pair of disheveled and disdainful babushkas.  

“Right love, I brought you an extra jumper because that one’s not nearly warm enough, and I think you should wear these.” Matty rounds the corner, fully dressed now and very much resembling Joey Tribiani a la “The One Where No One is Ready.” He’s holding the sweater of his that you love to steal, and a pair of NorthFace snow pants that you haven’t touched since going home to visit your parents last Christmas. 

“Wearing enough clothes there, gorgeous?” You pull lightly at his two turtlenecks. 

“Time will tell, darling,” he quips, pulling a balaclava over his unruly curls, “Get your pants on then, would you.” 

“I’m going to look like a stuffed turkey in these,” you protest. 

He looks at you, “Love, we’re the only ones dumb enough to be outside right now, who are you worried about seeing you?” You purse your lips which he takes as invitation to steal a kiss, “C’mon, you’ll be the cutest stuffed turkey on the block.” 

You pull the snowpants on in a rustle of movement and fabric. He turns to the dogs who are still frozen in position by the door, unwilling to move a toe in their boots. 

“And who are these dashing gentlemen!?” Matty coos, rushing over to the dogs to tug gently at their ears, “Are you boys ready?” 

You love the voice he uses for the dogs, a high pitched, horse squeak that seems so uncharacteristic coming from a man who dresses in leather and cowboy boots on the daily. In the morning, while he’s feeding them before coming back to bed, you’ll lie awake and listen to the monologue running in the kitchen — asking if the doggies had sweet dreams, asking why Allan was whimpering in the middle of the night, asking where they should go walking today, quipping “the usual boys?” as he sets the dishes down. 

“They were born ready!” You say, straightening up from pulling on your fleece lined boots. 

“Right, then let’s go!” 

You open the door and the wind hits your little group like a cement wall. Within the first five seconds of exposure, your eyes are watering and your nose is dripping ferociously. Over the howling gusts, you can hear your boyfriend’s indignant complaints. 

“This is by far the most ridiculous idea we’ve ever had, I mean what are we doing, it’s literally cold enough to castrate me.” 

“Okay, okay,” you gasp, “We’re walking two blocks and turning around.” 

“And then is it Virgin River time?” 

“Virgin River and fire time, very much so.” 

“That’s all you had to say.” 

And he’s off, pulling Allan down the stairs and through the front gate. You and Mayhem can only stiffly follow in their footsteps, Mayhem taking each step as if stepping down into the Grand Canyon. Allan has stopped to pee on a tree and Matty is hoping up and down next to him. 

“I didn’t wear enough clothes,” he moans as you get closer to him. 

“Oh, poor man,” you pout, looping your arms and running a mittened hand up and down his bicep, “Is this helping?” 

He closes his eyes, scrunching his nose dramatically, “Emotionally yes, physically, not really.” 

“Oh dear, well let’s keep it moving,” you stick your hand in the jacket of his puffy coat and find his, “We’ll think warm thoughts.” 

He nods, “Sahara Desert, I am in the Sahara Desert and it is so hot.” 

The four of you walk as quickly as you can down the sidewalk. In a way, the silence of the cold is sort of pretty. It hasn’t snowed in a while and the remaining piles of snow are frozen into the concrete, glittering menacingly in the steely sunshine. There are rarely cabs or cars in your neighborhood, but today there isn’t even one. You can hear the window panes rattling in your neighbors' homes. You understand what they’re singing about in “In the Bleak Midwinter,” that silent frost that hangs over your head, a threatening promise, an empty maw. 

You’ve barely made it three house fronts when Matty suddenly announces, 

“Right lads, have you both pissed? Can we go back?” 

The dogs peer up at him as best they can from beneath their shawls. Allan does a full body shake. 

“Taking that as yes,” he turns the two of you in a half moon and sets off again at a brisk pace, a horse going back to stable, “I’m going to drink so much tea when we get back, you’re not even going to believe it.” 

“I’ll join you in that,” you mutter, tucking your chin further into your favorite wool scarf. 

You tumble back through the front door, a cascade of static electricity and shivering limbs. Matty hurries off in one direction to start the fire, and you in the other to turn the kettle on. You’re rolling the sleeves of his sweater up and over your hands and debating turning the oven on just so you can stick your freezing hands in when you feel a pair of hands on your shoulder. 

“How’s it coming?” Matty mutters in your ear.

“It’s not going half as fast as I need it to,” your teeth chatter around the words, a full body shiver pulsing through your body. 

“You know what they say about watched pots.” 

“I know, but I don’t know where else to look.” 

“How about at me?” He asks with a hint of indignation. 

“Oh, okay,” you giggle as he spins you around so that your hands can loop behind his neck. His curls are rough from the cold and goosebumps rise across his rosy skin. 

“Let’s never go back outside,” he mutters, burying his face in your neck. His hands wind themselves in the excess fabric of your sweater, his thumbs brush the bare skin at the base of your spine. 

You sigh, “But what if we need something?” 

He grumbles a laugh, “I have half a Sainsbury’s worth of tea, Jack and Mel, the dogs, the fire, and you. I don’t know what else I could possibly need.” 

You smile, inhaling. He smells of the wood stove, tobacco smoke and the vanilla lotion that he keeps swearing he isn’t stealing from you. 

“You’re right. There's nothing else.” 

#matty healy #matty healy x reader #matty healy fic #the 1975 fic #I'm genuinely so nervous to be writing again oh no #hope you enjoy !!

[sophietv]

The Ultimate LSK Threads Of Koincidences (2020) Part 1

Ok, since there's soooo much. I'll do it by years and link the other.

See Fall 2019 before reading this one (X)

As I did in the other, I'll link posts that explains certain piece of Kaylor Lore so you are able to better understand certain Koincidences. So if there's an (X) beside something, it's to give more context and info.

Here's the list of every Koincidences that happened in 2020.

If I forgot something, don't hesitate to tell me and I'll add it so we have everything!

Here's the amazing masterposts that helped me a lot make this part (X) (X)

January 2020

January 1st:

Karlie does a 2019 recap video on Klossy and says something really inchteresting about her second wedding:

"Kind of had a second wedding, but, it was pretty much just a party"

January 17th:

Karlie went did an interview with Andy Cohen and she talks about her "Love Story" and there's just sooo much to unpack there:

"This is quite a Love Story actually"

"I met my man in 2012" (The "I love Karlie Kloss! I want to bake cookies with her" is from 2012) See my before 2013 Kaylor timeline (X)

Also Karlie saying "my man" to "that's my man, every bait and switch was a work of art"

"It's not been easy, but it's worth it" I'm - 🥹🥹🥹

"I would make that same decision a million times again" ties pretty well with "For you I would ruin myself, a million little times"

January 31st:

Miss Americana is out.

Karlie is credited in the movie. There's a scene where you see a glimpse of her at the AMAs red carpet.

But most importantly... the Call It What You Want scene:

Soooo much to unpack on that scene.

Some say that with the reflections on the guitar, you see a woman. But that's not the most important thing.

First.

There's a littelal Easter egg:

Second.

She's wearring the Victoria Secret Angel Ring.

Source : Tily Nation

But the most important evidence is that when Taylor lifts her foot and you hear someone laughing singing: "I did one thing right"

It's not Taylor, it's Karlie.

Someone isolated the vocals and you can hear it very clearly (X)

(Putting the video here just so if the post is deleted, we don't loose it)

Source @lexiiieee223

Also, when by the end Taylor sings "Karlie would you want to?" you hear Karlie say "Yes!" before Taylor even finishes singing (impossible to be Taylor).

This whole scene is used in the Lover Lyrics Video (X)

February 2020:

February 12:

Karlie is papped during New York Fashion Week wearing a daisy coat. (X).

February 18:

Karlie post a story with a drawing of the dress Taylor wore for the NFL ME! announcement...for Galentine's day:

February 27:

The Man MV is out with tons of Karlie's reference. (sadly I did not do a thread yet about all of it).

But the most important part is the fake wedding:

No one's there to officiate it.

But the absolute loudest thing of all is this:

Look closely at the ring. The pose. Everything.

See my Love Blackout post for more information on this, because this is LOUD (X)

February 28:

Every year since the Love Locked Down (X), Karlie takes a picture in Paris around that time.

Here's a thread of all the times since 2015: (X)

March 2020:

March 3rd:

Karlie post during a vacation. In the exact same snow outfit that Taylor posed in for Variety 4 months before.

And March 3d is also really really close to their anniversary...

March 20th:

Karlie's first post since Lockdown.

Also, first post of 2020 where she is wearring the Amulette de Cartier. (X) (Very important!)

You can also see those amazing posts about it (X) (X)

May 2020:

May 7th:

Taylor wears a daisy shirt on her Instagram post:

May 5th:

Karlie makes a post about a Turkey Baster...

Right aroung the time where she would have been trying to get pregnant for Levi to be born on March 11th 2020.

May 10th:

Taylor does a post for Mother's day with a video and caption talking about her being 10 months old.

(Levi is born 10 months later).

May 13th:

Eye theory in Karlie's Instagram story. (X)

March 14:

Taylor does a very interesting post about Buns in the oven.

9 days after Karlie's Turkey Baster post.

There's 10 buns on the picture, Levi was born 10 months later.

June 2020:

June 25th:

Karlie does a post about forgetting to feed the Tamagotchi.

Interesting. Considering that in Miss Americana, Taylor compares babies to Tamagotchis...

July 2020:

July 10th :

Karlie post a video on Instagram dancing in a cardigan in a forest. 13 days before Folklore's release.

Wich is practically identical to a video Taylor did for Folklore.

Taylor's Cardigan video:

Karlie's :

July 16:

Karlie does a story about her July Klossy Run Club with a calendar.

Her pfp points directly to Folklore's release date:

July 17:

Karlie post an interesting Instagram picture with a Sun Flower that is very reminescent of the Lover photoshoot Taylor did witht the daisy.

Also. Eye theory.

This is 7 days before Folklore's release.

Do you see the ressemblance?

July 23rd:

Karlie does a post with pictures of her in the forest à la Folklore.

This prompted a lot of medias to talk about how Karlie was showing her support to Taylor for her new album release.

I've reached my limit of 30 images per post!

Tumblr agrees with me that these girls are A LOT 😅 (In the best way!).

Here's the link to Part 2! : (X)

#lsk #kaylo #koincidences

[denimbex1986]

'Writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah has died aged 65, after being diagnosed with a brain tumour eight weeks ago.

A statement posted on his Instagram account confirmed he died in the early hours of Thursday.

The statement said Zephaniah's wife "was with him throughout and was by his side when he passed".

"We shared him with the world and we know many will be shocked and saddened by this news," it added.

Zephaniah was born and raised in Handsworth, Birmingham, the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse. He was dyslexic and left school aged 13, unable to read or write.

He moved to London aged 22 and published his first book, Pen Rhythm.

His early work used dub poetry, a Jamaican style of work that has evolved into the music genre of the same name, and he would also perform with the group The Benjamin Zephaniah Band.

As Zephaniah's profile grew, he became a familiar face on television and was credited with bringing Dub Poetry into British living rooms.

He also wrote five novels as well as poetry for children, and his first book for younger readers, Talking Turkeys, was a huge success upon its publication in 1994.

On top of his writing work, Zephaniah was an actor and appeared in the BBC drama series Peaky Blinders between 2013 and 2022.

He played Jeremiah "Jimmy" Jesus, appearing in 14 episodes across the six series.

Zephaniah famously rejected an OBE in 2003 due to the association of such an honour with the British Empire and its history of slavery.

"I've been fighting against empire all my life, fighting against slavery and colonialism all my life," he told The Big Narstie Show in 2020.

"I've been writing to connect with people, not to impress governments and monarchy. So I could I then accept an honour that puts the word Empire on to my name? That would be hypocritical.

He often spoke out about issues such as racial abuse and education.

When he was younger, Zephaniah served a prison sentence for burglary and received a criminal record.

In 1982, Zephaniah released an album called Rasta, which featured the Wailers' first recording since the death of Bob Marley.

It also included a tribute to the then-political prisoner Nelson Mandela, who would later become South African president.

In an interview in 2005, Zephaniah said growing up in a violent household led to him assuming that was the norm.

He recalled: "I once asked a friend of mine, 'What do you do when your dad beats your mum?' And he went: 'He doesn't.'

"I said, 'Ah, you come from one of those, like, feminist houses. So, what do you do when your mum beats your dad?'"

In 2012, he was chosen to guest edit an edition of BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Zephaniah was nominated for autobiography of the year at the National Book Awards for his work, The Life And Rhymes Of Benjamin Zephaniah, which was also shortlisted for the Costa Book Award in 2018.

During a Covid-19 lockdown, Zephaniah recited one of his poems in a video for the Hay Festival.

"Benjamin was a true pioneer and innovator. He gave the world so much," the statement announcing his death said.

"Through an amazing career including a huge body of poems, literature, music, television and radio, Benjamin leaves us with a joyful and fantastic legacy."

A statement from the Black Writers' guild, which Zephaniah helped establish, said: "Our family of writers is in mourning at the loss of a deeply valued friend and a titan of British literature. Benjamin was a man of integrity and an example of how to live your values."

Others paying tribute included author Michael Rosen, who said: "I'm devastated. I admired him, respected him, learnt from him, loved him. Love and condolences to the family and to all who loved him too."

Actress Adjoa Andoh posted: "We have lost a Titan today. Benjamin Zephaniah. Beautiful Poet, Professor, Advocate for love and humanity in all things. Heartbroken. Rest In Your Power - our brother."

Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy said in a statement: "Benjamin was a truly gifted and beautiful human being.

"A generational poet, writer, musician and activist. A proud Brummie and a Peaky Blinder. I'm so saddened by this news."

Broadcaster Trevor Nelson said: "So sad to hear about the passing of Benjamin Zephaniah. Too young, too soon, he had a lot more to give. He was a unique talent."

Singer-songwriter and musician Billy Bragg added: "Very sorry to hear this news. Benjamin Zephaniah was our radical poet laureate. Rest in power, my friend."

Comedian, actor and writer Lenny Henry said: "I was saddened to learn of the passing of my friend Benjamin Zephaniah. His passion for poetry, his advocacy for education for all was tireless."

Writer Nels Abbey said: "To call this crushing news is a massive understatement. He was far too young, far too brilliant and still had so much to offer. A loss we'll never recover from."

The X/Twitter account for Premier League football club Aston Villa, whom Zephaniah supported said everyone at the club was "deeply saddened" by the news.

"Named as one of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008, Benjamin was a lifelong Aston Villa fan and had served as an ambassador for the AVFCFoundation. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time."'

#Benjamin Zephaniah #The Benjamin Zephaniah Band #Peaky Blinders #Cillian Murphy #Adjoa Andoh #Michael Rosen #Black Writers Guild #Hay Festival #The Life And Rhymes Of Benjamin Zephaniah #Jeremiah “Jimmy” Jesus #Rasta #Pen Rhythm #Aston Villa #Nels Abbey #Lenny Henry #Billy Bragg #Trevor Nelson

[originallandlockedmariner]

2023

Pickleball. Generative AI. Lula takes office in Brazil, Amazon Rainforest throws a party. Prince Harry refusing to stop talking about his frozen penis no matter how many times society begged him to stop. UFOs are real. Viral cat dubbed ‘largest cat anyone has ever seen’ gets adopted. Pee-Wee’s big adventure ends. Musk & X. Turkey-Syria earthquake kills thousands. India surpasses China as ‘country squeezing in the most peeps’. Tucker Carlson ousted. Miss USA and her 30 lbs moon costume. Wildfires in Kelowna and Hawaii. Macron tinkers with retirement age of the French. Paltrow can’t ski. Big Red Boots. Bob Barker leaves us. Alabama mom delivers 2 babies from her 2 uteruses in 2 days. Charles III. Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces as the war drags on. Taylor Swift is Time’s Person of the Year. African ‘coup belt’. Flo-Jo dies in her sleep. Chinese spy balloon shot down. Hollywood writers strike. Human ‘nice mugshot’ Shitstain and his 91 indictments. Highest interest rates in 2 decades. The Bear’s Christmas episode. War in Gaza. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Alex Murdaugh. Ocean Cleanup removes 25 000 lbs of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Vase purchased for $3.99 sells for $100 000 at auction. Barbenheimer. A third of Pakistan is flooded. Lionel Messi is the GOAT. Travis Kelce. The Sphere opens in Las Vegas. Regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, resulting in two of the three largest bank failures in U.S. history. “The Woman In Me”. WHO declares COVID ain’t a thing no more. Titan sub sinks, rich people die. Matthew Perry drowns. Dumbledore Dies (again). Massive sales of ‘Fuck Trudeau’ flags for jacked-up micro-dick trucks. Everything Everywhere All At Once. June-August was the hottest three-month period in recorded history across the Earth. Tina Turner dies. And the Beatles release a new song?! Wow… You got big shoes to fill 2024.

Archives for context:

2020

Kobe. Pandemic. Lockdown. Koalas on fire. Harry and Meg retire. Toilet paper hoarding. Alcoholism. Impeach the f*cker. Parasite. Bonnie Henry. Tiger King. Working from home. Sourdough bread. Harvey Weinstein guilty. Zoom overdose. Dip your body in sanitizer. 6 feet. Quarantine. OK Boomer. Home schooling (everyone passes). Murder hornets. Dolly Parton. Don’t hug, kiss or see anybody, especially your family. Chris Evans’ junk. TikTok. Glory holes. Face masks. CERB. West Coast wildfires. Stay home. Small Businesses lose, big box stores win. F*ck Bozos. ‘Dreams’ and cranberry juice. Close yoga studios, but thumbs up to your local gym. Speak moistly to me. George Floyd. BLM. F*ck Trump. Phase 2, 3 and Summer. RBG. Baby Yoda. Biden wins. Bond and Black Panther die. No more lockdown. Back to school and work. Just kidding... giddy up round 2. Giuliani leaks shit from his head. Resurgence of chess. UFOs are real. Restrictions. Dave Grohl admits defeat. Monolith. “F*ck... forgot my mask in the car”. No Christmas shenanigans allowed. Bubbles. Alex Trebek. Use the term ‘dumpster fire’ one too many times. Jupiter and Saturn form 'Christmas Star'. Happy New Year Bitches!!!! 2021... you better not sh*t the bed!!

2021

“We love you, you’re very special”. Failed coup attempt at the Capital. Twitter, FB and IG ban Donny. Hammerin’ Hank goes to the Field of Dreams. Bozo no longer richest man but still a twat. Leachman, Tyson, and Holbrook pass. The economy is worse than expected. Kim and Kanye split. Brood X cicadas. Dre has an aneurysm and nearly has his home broken into. Bridgerton. MyPillow CEO is a douche. Covid restrictions extended indefinitely. Captain Von Trapp dies. Proud Boys officially a Terrorist Organization. Richard Ramirez. Cancer takes Screech. Travel bans. Impeachment trial (again?… oh and this was barely February? WTF??!!) Suez Canal blockage. Myanmar protest. Kong dukes it out with Godzilla, while Raya watches. Olympics. Friends compare elective surgeries. F9. Canada Women’s Soccer Gold. Free Britney. Multiverses. Residential Schools in Canada unearth children’s bodies. Kate is Mare of Easttown. Cuomo resigns. Disney and Dwayne cruise together. Wildfires. Delta variants. Musk passes Bezos. Candyman x 5. Capt. Kirk goes to space. F*ck Kyle Rittenhouse. Astros didn’t win. Squid Game. Goodbye Bond. Dune is redone. Angelina is Eternal. Astroworld deaths. Meta. Omicron. Three Spidermen. Tornados in December? World Juniors cancelled. Pills against Covid. School opening delayed. And Betty White dies. 2022… my expectations are ridiculously low…

2022

Wow… eight billion people. Queen Elizabeth II passes away after ruling the Commonwealth before dirt was invented. The monkeypox. Russia plays the role of global a**hole. Wordle. Mother Nature rocks Afghanistan. Hover bike. Styles spits on Pine. Olivia Newton John, Kristie Alley, and Coolio leave us. Pele was traded to team Heaven. FTX implodes. Madonna and the 3-D model of her vagina. Pig gives his heart to a human. Beijing can brag that it is the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics. Uvalde. $3 trillion Apple. Keith Raniere gets 120 years. The Whisky War ends with Canada and Denmark going halfsies. Mar-a-Lago. Nick Cannon brood hits a dozen. Shinzo Abe is assassinated. Inflation goes through the roof (if you can actually afford to put a roof over your head). Volodymyr Zelensky. European heat wave. Bennifer. Salman Rushdie is stabbed on stage, Dave Chappelle tackled, and Chris Rock is only slapped. Thích Nhất Hạnh. Heidi Klum goes full slug. Cuba knocked out by Ian. Liz Truss and 4.1 Scaramuccis. Taylor Swift breaks Ticketmaster. Human shitstain Elon Musk ignores helping mankind and buys Twitter instead. Riri becomes a mommy. NASA launches Artemis 1. Trump still a whiny little b*tch. Music lost Loretta Lynn, Christine McVie, and Meat Loaf. Democracy died at least three times. Pete Davidson continues to date hottest women on the planet (no one understands how?!) Microplastics in our blood. Alex Jones is a c*nt. So is DeSantis. Argentina wins the World Cup. Meghan and Harry. Eddie Munson rips Metallica in the Upside Down. tWitch. Roe vs Wade is overturned by the micro dick energy of the Supreme Court. CODA. James Corden shows he is a "tiny Cretin of a man". Amber (and the sh*t on the bed) Heard (round the world). Sebastian Bear-McClard proves he’s one of the f*cking dumbest men alive. Latin America's ‘pink tide’. Anti-Semitic rants by Ye. Bob Saget. A verified blue checkmark. Godmother of punk Vivienne dies. And, Tom Cruise feels the need for speed yet again. 2023… whatcha got for us?!? Nothing shocks me anymore.

@daily-esprit-descalier

#me #my words #doodles

[jaygabler]

Review: Guthrie Theater’s “Christmas Carol” constrains its characters

I suspected my mom would have one question about this year’s production of A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater: Does the turkey trot?

Fifteen years ago, the Fezziwigs’ onstage party was so riotous, a roasted fowl was produced and “the darn turkey causes an uproar by hopping off the table,” my mom wrote in a 2008 review for the Twin Cities Daily Planet. “It runs around the stage several times and exits stage left.”

Director Gary Gisselman’s Christmas Carol was chockablock with physical humor and treated Scrooge’s journey broadly, playing to the peanut gallery (as the headline on that 2008 review put it). The Guthrie added some discipline in 2010, commissioning a new script from Crispin Whittell for a rendition that, with various edits over the course of its decade-long run, came increasingly to focus on the spirit of the story and its social conscience.

The current Christmas Carol was adapted from Charles Dickens’s 1843 novel by Lavina Jadhwani, in a script that debuted in 2021 with artistic director Joseph Haj at the helm. This year, Addie Gorlin-Han directs the show, though Haj retains a “based on the original direction” credit.

This was my first year seeing the Guthrie’s post-lockdown Carol, and it was moving just to browse the program: the cast is full of familiar names, taking regular Twin Cities theatergoers on their own journeys of memory — not only to previous Guthrie productions, but also to the stages of Penumbra, Mixed Blood, and even Theatre de la Jeune Lune.

While I’m not particularly nostalgic for the era when Fezziwigs’ prank turkey was followed by a scene where a prop dog ran amok on the streets of London (“chasing an unfortunate soul out the same exit where the turkey disappeared,” noted Mom), the current Carol left me thirsty for just a bit of the character humor that this material lends itself to.

read more

#minneapolis #minnesota #theater #a christmas carol

[beardedmrbean]

BRUSSELS (AP) — Abdesalem Lassoued had been denied residency in four European countries by the time he chased two Swedish men into a building in Brussels this week and gunned them down at close range with a semiautomatic rifle.

The 45-year-old Tunisian arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in a smuggler’s boat in 2011. He spent jail time in Sweden and was refused entry to Norway. At one point Italy flagged him as a security threat. Two years ago, Belgium rejected his asylum claim and he disappeared off the map.

Until Monday night, that is, when he killed the two Swedes, wounded a third and forced the lockdown of more than 35,000 people in a soccer stadium where they had gathered to watch Belgium play Sweden. In a video posted online, he claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State group.

Within days he has become the new face of the European Union’s campaign to toughen border controls, rapidly deport people and allow the police and security agencies to exchange information more efficiently.

“It’s important that those individuals that could be a security threat to our citizens, to our Union, have to be returned forcefully, immediately,” EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told reporters on Thursday, as EU interior ministers met in Luxembourg.

Only around one in four people whose asylum applications are denied ever leave or are deported from the 27-nation bloc. Often the countries they come from, including Tunisia, are reluctant to take them back.

With EU countries constantly bickering over how to manage migration – their differences lie at the heart of one of the bloc’s biggest political crises – the European Commission has sought to outsource the challenge.

The EU’s executive branch has helped to seal deals with Turkey and Tunisia to persuade these countries to stop people from the Middle East or Africa – not to mention their own nationals – from trying to enter Europe, as they did in large numbers in 2015.

About 25 countries that people leave or transit to get to Europe are of concern. Egypt is the next country on the list. The commission is already helping to locate and pay for new boats for the Egyptian coastguard.

Belgium’s top migration official, Nicole de Moor, said that countries refusing to take back their nationals must be made to cooperate.

“The terrorist that committed an attack in Brussels on Monday had asked for asylum in four different European countries, and every time he was rejected because he did not qualify for protection,” de Moor said.

The EU does have coercive tools at its disposal. The commission has used visas as a lever, making it harder, more time-consuming and costly for the citizens of migration source countries to gain entry to Europe’s ID check-free zone – the 27-country space known as the Schengen area.

Thanks to this, Johansson said, the EU now has “much better cooperation” on deportation with Iraq, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Senegal.

The shooter Lassoued’s case was also marked by other failures. He applied for asylum in Belgium in 2019. His application was rejected a year later, and a deportation order was issued in 2021. Officials said this week that he couldn’t be found, as they had no address for him.

Within a few hours, admittedly with public help, prosecutors conceded, the authorities had discovered where he lived. He was shot dead by police at a café nearby the following morning when they tried to arrest him.

“It turns out that the individual had been convicted and had served time in a Swedish prison, which was unknown to our police and judiciary,” Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told reporters.

“We need to improve the information exchange on these kinds of things. The man apparently arrived in Italy in 2011 (and) wandered around Europe for 12 years,” she said. Migration services and the police must share information, she said, “to ensure that this cannot happen.”

The clamor for tougher laws and better intelligence sharing are fresh, but the problem is not new. Lassoued’s case resembles that of another Tunisian man, Anis Amri, who drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin in 2016, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others.

German authorities tried to deport Amri after his asylum application was rejected but were unable to because he lacked valid identity papers. Tunisia had denied that he was a citizen.

On Tuesday, after leading security talks throughout the night while the hunt for Lassoued went on, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo loosened his tie from around his collar as he answered a reporter’s thorny question about the failings of Belgium’s police, justice and migration services.

“An order to leave the territory must become more binding that it is now,” De Croo conceded. “We have to respect the decisions that we take.”

#nunyas news

[burlveneer-music]

Speedometer - Lockdown Sessions - Ukraine Crisis Appeal - looking for info on their forthcoming Funk Sessions albums, I came across this EP they put out a year ago

Given the horrific scenes that we see daily coming from Ukraine, we have decided to donate all the money we receive from sales of the Lockdown Sessions tracks (whether purchased as a package or individually) to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal - donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-crisis-appeal This collection of 3 recordings were arranged remotely by the band whilst the whole world was in Covid-19 lockdown. The idea of musicians performing remotely via zoom became the norm quickly for many and for Speedometer we felt we wanted to develop a more global sound to these tunes particularly as travel was no longer an option. Each of the compositions brings our core funk sound but blended with influences from around the world from New Orleans, Turkey to India. 1. KASHMIR – composed by Leigh Gracie – Brass arr. Dave Land 2. SATCHMO’S STOMP - GUMBA YA YA composed by Leigh Gracie – Brass arr. Dave Land 3. TURKISH DELIGHT - composed by Dave Land Leigh Gracie - Guitar Chris Starmer - Drums Richard Hindes – Bass James Junior – Vocals / rap Matt Wilding – Percussion Matt Hodges – Keybords / Hammond Simon Jarrett - Tenor Sax Dave Land – Trumpet & Flugel Special Guest Musicians Stephen Wilcock - Baritone Sax and Flute on KASHMIR Mark Brenner - Sitar on KASHMIR Steve Green – Drums on TURKISH DELIGHT John Elliott – Sousaphone on SATCHMO’S STOMP Neil Robinson - Drums on SATCHMO’S STOMP

#Speedometer #funk #deep funk #uk #charity #benefit #ukraine

[heroofshield]

Comfortember 2022, Days 1-3, Hugs, Stressed, and Warm Food (Clint/Laura & BossGat)

Days 1 & 2: Hugs and Stressed (Clint/Laura)

Clint Barton bounced his leg up and down repeatedly, wishing the rental car agent would hurry it up with the paperwork. He was on his way back to Iowa, to see Laura and the kids, and it seemed like the universe didn’t want him to get there. First there had been a lockdown of the Triskelion when he was on his way out, something about a security breach, and he’d had to wait while security dealt with the issue. Missing his flight, he’d had to ask Deputy Director Maria Hill if she could get him on another one. That had come with a veiled ‘you owe me’ and as Clint sped towards the airport he didn’t want to think of what a favor from Maria might entail.

Barely making his new flight, the two connections and bumpy rides hadn’t made the trip easy. Now he was trying to keep his temper in check because it looked like the rental car agency had lost his reservation. “It’s not the agent’s fault. I’m sure the later flight didn’t help.” Clint told himself as the computer keys kept clicking away.

“Ah, here we are.” the agent said at last, looking up at Clint with a customer service smile. “We’ll pull your car up in a few minutes.” 

“Thank you.” Clint all but collapsed on the counter as the agent turned around to get the car keys. Slowly letting out a sigh, he picked up his back and walked outside. 

Getting into the car once it pulled up, Clint pulled out of the parking lot, merging into the highway…and into near gridlock traffic. Turning on the radio he heard, “-accidents in both lanes have caused traffic to back up to nearly five miles.” 

Letting out a groan, Clint rested his forehead against the steering wheel. “I’m never going to get home.” he muttered to himself.

–

It was late when he finally turned onto the access road that led to the farm and Clint was bone weary. Shutting off the engine, he grabbed his bag and walked up the gravel driveway, letting the frustrations of the day fall from his shoulders.

Clint knew from the time and the lights that Lila was asleep, but since there were a few lights still on he hoped that Laura was still awake. He’d texted that he was going to be later than expected but didn’t expect her to wait up for him. Quietly catching the screen door as he walked in, he set down his bag and lightened his footsteps over the old floorboards. 

“Hey stranger.” Laura smiled, looking up from the book she was reading on the couch. “Nice to see you finally made it.” 

“Somehow.” Clint rubbed the back of his neck with a hand and sat on the arm of the couch. “It’s been a day.” 

Laura let a half-smile appear as she placed a bookmark in her spot so she didn’t lose her place. “But you’re here now, so that’s all that matters.” she leaned towards Clint and breathed in his aftershave, the sharp pine smell that made her think of the woods of her childhood, as she gave him a kiss. “Need anything to eat? There are still leftovers in the fridge.” 

Clint shook his head, “I grabbed a burger on the way here, but thanks.”

“Anything I can do? You seem tense.” 

“Just a hug, traffic didn’t lighten up until way away from Des Moines.” 

“You know I’m always good for a hug.” Laura crossed the short distance between them, wrapping her arms around Clint’s sturdy torso.

Closing his eyes, he leaned into the hug, feeling the stress from the drive and the rest of his trip slowly melt away. “I missed you.” Clint said softly, wrapping his own arms around Laura as they continued the embrace.

“So did I.”

Day 3: Warm Food (BossGat)

Ros Shepard climbed the last step and rubbed the back of her neck as she walked towards the door of Shaundi’s apartment. It had been a long day at Technically Legal and she was starving but at the same time couldn’t muster enough energy to make something to eat. 

“And I already pulled out turkey slices from the package once this week.” she thought to herself while pulling out the apartment key and unlocking the door. “Pathetic does have its limits.”

Walking into the small place, she expected silence to greet her- everyone else was out trying to hustle for their nightly haul, but the smell of something wonderful greeted her. Inhaling deeply, Ros paused just inside while wondering what it was. Following the smell into the kitchen, she saw something she never thought she’d see, Johnny Gat standing next to the stove stirring something.

“What’s going on?” Ros asked from the doorway of the kitchen, still wondering if what she was seeing was real. “Who are you and what happened to Gat?”

“Funny Boss.” Johnny smiled while still concentrating on stirring whatever was in the pot. “Figured you could use something nice and hot after working all day.” Nodding to the table, he deftly switched off the knob to turn off the burner before cracking open the oven door a bit to check on the rest of what he was making. “‘Sides, gotta keep my cooking skills sharp or they’ll go rusty.”

“Knock me over with a feather, Johnny Gat knows how to cook.” Ros shot back with a smile as she walked over towards the table and sat where he’d indicated. “Mind telling me what you made or is that a secret.”

“It’s nothing fancy, just something my moms used to make.” Johnny replied, opening the oven door all the way to pull out what Ros saw to be some kind of roasted meat.

“Damn Gat, that looks edible.” Ros teased as he set it on the empty burners and then carefully grabbed the pot and dumped it into the sink. A cloud of steam rose up and the smell of cooked noodles wafted towards her. Taking off her heels, she flexed her feet to wake them up after being on them for so long, and watched as Gat went for two bowls and filled them with noodles, veggies, and some kind of sauce.

“Here we go; Teriyaki chicken noodle bowl.” Johnny said with a smile as he set one bowl in front of Ros and the other in the space across from her. Sitting down in the empty chair, he then opened the bottle of white wine that he’d had chilling in the fridge while Ros had been gone.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say this was a date.” Ros smiled as he poured the wine.

“And if it was?” Gat asked, tipping his face so he was looking over the rim of his trademark sunglasses. He’d be the first to admit that dating in their line of work wasn’t easy, too much could go wrong and he didn’t want to get hurt again. 

Losing Aisha had nearly destroyed him but it had been Ros, Shaundi, and Pierce that had pulled him through the worst. Then somewhere along the line Ros had become his best friend and someone he could just blink and hours had flown by. Now that they were in Steelport, trying to take down the Syndicate, he wouldn’t want anyone else by his side.

Ros finished her swallow of wine and set the glass down carefully, trying not to show how much the comment had surprised her. Her and Gat had always gotten along, they clicked when fighting and knew that the other had their back when the bullets were flying. “And I won’t deny I’ve had my share of sex dreams where Gat just fucking railes me.” she thought, feeling her face flush involuntary at the thought.

Taking a breath she continued cautiously, “If I say yes, would I be replacing Eesh?” 

“Not replacing, just moving on.” 

“Then that’s something I feel good about. Now let me eat for fucks sake, I haven’t had anything other than a power bar all fucking day.” Ros said with a wink, picking up her fork and digging in. Letting out a moan after swallowing, she continued, “This is just what I needed Gat after a long day at work.”

“Glad to hear it Boss.” Gat replied in his usual even tone, while inwardly glad that his mother’s comfort meal hadn’t lost its touch.

#comfortember #clint/laura #clint barton #laura barton #saints row #bossgat #ros shepard #johnny gat

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Iowa's starvation strategy

I don’t really buy that “the cruelty is the point.” I’m a materialist. Money talks, bullshit walks. When billionaires fund unimaginably cruel policies, I think the cruelty is a tactic, a way to get the turkeys to vote for Christmas. After all, policies that grow the fortune of the 1% at the expense of the rest of us have a natural 99% disapproval rating.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/19/whats-wrong-with-iowa/#replicable-cruelty

So when some monstrous new law or policy comes down the pike, it’s best understood as a way of getting frightened, angry — and often hateful — people to vote for policies that will actively harm them, by claiming that they will harm others — brown and Black people, women, queers, and the “undeserving” poor.

Pro-oligarch policies don’t win democratic support — but policies that inflict harm a ginned-up group of enemies might. Oligarchs need frightened, hateful people to vote for policies that will secure and expand the power of the rich. Cruelty is the tactic. Power is the strategy. The point isn’t cruelty, it’s power:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/25/roe-v-wade-v-abortion/#no-i-in-uterus

But that doesn’t change the fact that the policies are cruel indeed. Take Iowa, whose billionaire-backed far-right legislature is on a tear, a killing spree that includes active collaboration with rapists, through a law that denies abortion care to survivors of rape and forces them to bear and care for their rapists’ babies:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/us/politics/iowa-kamala-harris-abortion.html

The forced birth movement is part of the wider far-right tactic of standing up for imaginary children (e.g. “the unborn,” fictional victims of Hollywood pedo cabals), and utterly abandons real children: poor kids who can’t afford school lunches, kids in cages, kids victimized by youth pastors, kids forced into child labor, etc.

So Iowa isn’t just a forced birth state, it’s a state where children are now to be starved, literally. The state legislature has just authorized an $18m project to kick people off of SNAP (aka food stamps). 270,000 people in Iowa rely on SNAP: elderly people, disabled people, and parents who can’t feed their kids.

Writing in the Washington Post, Kyle Swenson profiles some of these Iowans, like an elderly woman who visited Lisa Spitler’s food pantry for help and said that state officials had told her that she was only eligible for $23/month in assistance:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/04/16/iowa-snap-restrictions-food-stamps/

That’s because Iowa governor KimReynolds signed a bill cutting the additional SNAP aid — federally funded, and free to the state taxpayers of Iowa — that had been made available during the lockdown. Since then, food pantries have been left to paper over the cracks in the system, as Iowans begin to starve.

Before the pandemic, Spitler’s food pantry saw 30 new families a month. Now it’s 100 — and growing. Many of these families have been kicked off of SNAP because they failed to complete useless and confusing paperwork, or did so but missed the short deadlines now imposed by the state. For example, people with permanent disabilities and elderly people who no longer work must continuously file new paperwork confirming that their income hasn’t changed. Their income never changes.

SNAP recipients often work, borrow from relations, and visit food pantries, and still can’t make ends meet, like Amy Cunningham, a 31 year old mother of four in Charlton. She works at a Subway, has tapped her relatives for all they can afford, and relies on her $594/month in SNAP to keep her kids from going hungry. She missed her notice of an annual review and was kicked off the program. Getting kicked off took an instant. Getting reinstated took a starving eternity.

Iowa has a budget surplus of $1.91B. This doesn’t stop ghouls like Iowa House speaker Pat Grassley (a born-rich nepobaby whose grandpa is Senator Chuck Grassley) from claiming that the cuts were a necessity: “[SNAP is] growing within the budget, and are putting pressure on us being able to fund other priorities.”

Grassley’s caucus passed legislation on Jan 30 to kick people off of SNAP if their combined assets, including their work vehicle, total to more than $15,000. SNAP recipients will be subject to invasive means-testing and verification, which will raise the cost of administering SNAP from $2.2m to $18m. Anyone who gets flagged by the system has 10 days to respond or they’ll be kicked off of SNAP.

The state GOP justifies this by claiming that SNAP has an “error rate” of 11.81%. But that “error rate” includes people who were kicked off SNAP erroneously, a circumstance that is much more common than fraud, which is almost nonexistent in SNAP programs. Iowa’s error rate is in line with the national average.

Iowa’s pro-starvation law was authored by a conservative dark-money “think tank” based in Florida: the Opportunity Solutions Project, the lobbying arm of Foundation For Government Accountability, run by Tarren Bragdon, a Maine politician with a knack for getting money from the Koch Network and the DeVos family for projects that punish, humiliate and kill marginalized people. The Iowa bill mirrors provisions passed in Kentucky, Kansas, Wisconsin and elsewhere — and goes beyond them.

The law was wildly unpopular, but it passed anyway. It’s part of the GOP’s push for massive increases in government spending and bureaucracy — but only when those increases go to punishing poor people, policing poor people, jailing poor people, and spying on poor people. It’s truly amazing that the “party of small government” would increase bureaucratic spending to administer SNAP by 800% — and do it with a straight face.

In his essay “The Utopia of Rules,” David Graeber (Rest in Power) described this pathology: just a couple decades ago, the right told us that our biggest threat was Soviet expansion, which would end the “American way of life” and replace it with a dismal world where you spent endless hours filling in pointless forms, endured hunger and substandard housing, and shopped at identical stores that all carried the same goods:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/02/02/david-graebers-the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/

A society that can’t feed, house and educate its residents is a failed state. America’s inability to do politics without giving corporations a fat and undeserved share is immiserating an ever-larger share of its people. Federally, SNAP is under huge stress, thanks to the “public-private partnership” at the root of a badly needed “digital overhaul” of the program.

Writing for The American Prospect, Luke Goldstein describes how the USDA changed SNAP rules to let people pay with SNAP for groceries ordered online, as a way to deal with the growing problem of food deserts in poor and rural communities:

https://prospect.org/health/2023-04-19-retail-surveils-food-stamp-users/

It’s a good idea — in theory. But it was sabotaged from the start: first, the proposed rule was altered to ban paying for delivery costs with SNAP, meaning that anyone who ordered food online would have to use scarce cash reserves to pay delivery fees. Then, the USDA declined to negotiate discounts on behalf of the 40 million SNAP users. Finally, the SNAP ecommerce rules don’t include any privacy protections, which will be a bonanza for shadowy data-brokers, who’ll mine SNAP recipients’ data to create marketing lists for scammers, predatory lenders, and other bottom-feeder:

https://www.democraticmedia.org/sites/default/files/field/public-files/2020/cdd_snap_report_ff.pdf

The GOP’s best weapon in this war is statistical illiteracy. While racist, sexist and queerphobic policies mean that marginalized people are more likely than white people to be poor, America’s large population of white people — including elderly white people who are the immovable core of the GOP base — means that policies that target poor people inevitably inflict vast harms on the GOP’s most devoted followers.

Getting these turkeys to vote for Christmas is a sound investment for the ultra-rich, who claim a larger share of the American pie every year. The rich may or may not be racist, or sexist, or queerphobic — some of them surely are — but the reason they pour money into campaigns to stoke divisions among working people isn’t because they get off on hatred. The hatred is a tactic. The cruelty is a tactic. The strategic goal is wealth and power.

Tomorrow (Apr 21), I’m speaking in Chicago at the Stigler Center’s Antitrust and Competition Conference. This weekend (Apr 22/23), I’m at the LA Times Festival of Books.

[Image ID: The Iowa state-house. On the right side of the steps is an engraved drawing of Oliver Twist, holding out his porridge bowl. On the left side is the cook, denying him an extra portion. Peeking out from behind the dome is a business-man in a suit with a dollar-sign-emblazoned money-bag for a head.]

Image: Iqkotze (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iowa_State_Capitol_April_2010.jpg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #ecommerce #Foundation for Government Accountability #fga #iowa #florida #ebt #david graeber #utopia of rules #big government #usda #surveillance #cruelty #gop #devos #starvation #food stamps #snap #koch network #Tarren Bragdon #state policy network

[cra-a-ave]

20s highlights so far:

20: Revue, “gap sem”, travel to Europe/Turkey/Abu Dhabi with stopover in Shanghai, V card loss/situationship, First ever YouTube video, First ever leadership experience

21: Fiji, China, Japan and New Zealand trips; kimono in Kyoto experience, skiing, snow monkeys, week with grandpa seeing sights, drove around New Zealand. Balanced uni, work, friends, family, me time, later on leadership experience too. Went out with amogh like 2x a week on all sorts of adventures. Sleepovers, staycations in Macquarie, Bondi, got police called on us for being too loud. Fun times.

22: First ever rave, became society execs for two different uni societies, Italy study abroad, mini travel around Italy and bus tour around Europe slept in tents and hostels, had some interesting bar/pub crawls and explored clubbing scene; went to Hungarian baths and spent a week in China afterwards; grandpa went to hospital… Went to the old burnt down summer palace and Starbucks reserve. Alice and Lucy stayed with us that year and I felt like I had sisters; I helped teach Lucy English. I passed my driving test. James and Cameron came to Sydney. Thailand trip. Bushfires. I hosted exchange students. Pandemic hit.

23: Lockdown birthday. Stayed sane through walks in concord by the waterside. Was in lockdown for months. Graduated uni into pandemic, moved out and lived in the city for almost 2 months before moving home. Swiped on dudes around the world for a bit. NEET life; had no idea what to do with my life. Grad photoshoot instead of ceremony. Ended up doing the Wollongong subsidised grad cert; difficult AF needed a lot of help. Did a Wollongong/South Coast trip and realised I didn’t want to live there. Blue Mountains trip and staycations in city and Olympic park. Hooked up/dated soccer dude and cy alongside emoji on off. Started full time work; took a while to adjust. Started trying to learn Chinese on and off again. Bought the defining decade; felt that I was getting old and my twenties were going to pass by me. Hanfu experience. Occasional at home photoshoot. Started therapy regularly/semi regularly

24: Went into lockdown again and spent almost four months in lockdown. Finished grad cert. Went from hybrid work from home to almost full work from home. Started reading again. Started making Tiktoks casually. Paint by numbers. Renovations drove me crazy and I felt that for months, I had no life. Moved from concord to strathfield. Mini trips to Nelson’s Bay and Mt Toomaree area. Joined a gym, tried TKD didn’t stick with it. Work socialising on occasion. Tried to continue with Korean, Italian and Japanese. Watched Frozen musical and La Traviata. Was dumped with a bunch of new projects at work in the new year and spent around 2 months or so adjusting.

#20s #thoughts #mine #early twenties

[frogmajick]

In 2018 I was very sick. I had quit a 5 year opioid addiction cold turkey in 2017 and immediately transferred my addiction to food. But then food wasn’t working and my whole world fell apart when my family crumbled in February and I lost my home in July of 2017. Working a job I hated for a boss I detested, mourning the loss of my mother in law and first husband, I decided booze fixed me better than food.

The girl on the left on March 31, 2018- as much as I ever weighed, terribly alcoholic, diabetic, a litany of ailments. This is a party at our favorite local bar.

And then, September 1, 2019, my husband intervened and with the simple statement “I don’t want to be married to an alcoholic”. I dumped out my vodka. I took my diabetes seriously. I started eating keto and exercising. I was essential through the pandemic and the only thing I could do, the only place I could go, was walk. I walked through lockdown and saw the pounds come off.

My largest weight loss at one time was the 20lb that breast cancer took on January 6, 2022. In May I began working my dream job for a labor union. I did amazing work, met amazing people, and was happy in my work for the first time in my life.

I also met a fabulous naturopath in Spokane named Dr. Christopher Valley. I went to my first appointment with an absolute block, ready to pooh pooh all his woo and laugh about it. When I am wrong, I admit it, and I own it. I WAS SO WRONG. Chris nailed everything wholistically, and I saw myself in a way I never had. I had always asked, why this? Why this disease? Why this disease but not this comorbidity? In one visit, Chris had real, reasoned suggestions. One of which was to see a neuropsych doc named Anna. Anna verified Chris’s diagnosis, and also made sure I knew one medication I had taken religiously for 15 years was actually not for long term use (risperdal/risperidone and I heard theres a new brand name) and I needed to have a CT scan to see if I had a tumor on my pituitary that would cause a lot, including Cushing’s disease. I did not have Cushings, but I did have extremely high prolactin, which came down to normal range within 6 months of stopping the medication.

I quit smoking June 11, 2023.

As the hormones came back to normal and I began to explore somatic yoga to deal with the trauma of a lifetime of undiagnosed neurodivergence and cancer, I find myself in 2024 down 100 lbs and staying right there steady.

Yesterday I met a trainer and when she asked me my goals, I told her I’m fine with my lbs, but I want to change my shape. However I get there, goals is:

To do a dragon flag hold for at least a minute.

Her eyes got big.

I showed her a tiktok from @leekeyrouz_ doing a dragon flag hold and simply said I want to get HERE. She nodded, and we are starting from ‘walking, some yoga, and beginner with an 8lb kettlebell’.

A very wise woman once told me that the process of menopause is a second puberty where we can, as wiser women, become what we wanted to be before the world told us “women can’t do that”. Because now, past breeding, past beauty, we’ve transcended what women can and can’t do and can now do what we wanted to do all along.

#perimenopause #tw: addiction #tw: smoking #tw: weight loss #fitness journey #personal

[chemicalsectorupdates]

Exploring Emerging Applications: Bay Leaf Beyond Culinary Uses

The global bay leaf market is estimated to driven by increasing health benefits Bay leaves are the aromatic leaves of the bay laurel tree and are one of the most versatile herbs used in cooking. Used either fresh or dried form, bay leaves add a pungent, woody and earthy flavor to soups, braises, stews, rice dishes and more. Beyond culinary uses, bay leaves contain powerful antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory properties making it beneficial for the immune system. Bay leaves help in digestion, lower blood sugar levels and reduce nerve and muscle pain.

The global bay leaf market is estimated to be valued at US$ 887.4 Mn in 2024 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 4.1% over the forecast period 2023 to 2030. Key Takeaways Key players operating in the bay leaf market are House of Spices (India) Inc., Mars Incorporated, Goya Foods, Olam International, McCormick & Company Incorporated, Frontier Natural Products Co-op Inc., Anatoli Spices, Pacific Spice Company Inc., Zizira, Alpina Organic Company, Mountain Rose Inc., The Spice Hunter Inc. The global demand for bay leaves is growing due to increasing demand for ethnic cuisines across western countries as well as rising health consciousness. Bay leaves find wide applications in Indian, Turkish and Mediterranean cooking where they add flavors to meat, seafood and rice dishes. Market Trends -Popularity of Mediterranean diet: The health benefits associated with bay leaves and Mediterranean diets are driving their inclusion in western cuisine. This is a major trend in the market. -Demand for organic bay leaves: Consumers are increasingly preferring organic alternatives due to awareness about chemical pesticides. Many companies have added organic bay leaves to their product portfolio. Market Opportunities -Scope in online retail: Online channels provide opportunities for new product launches as well as direct reach to consumers. Major players are focusing on strengthening their online presence. -Product innovation and new applications: Companies are developing new formats like powdered bay leaves as well as product blends featuring bay leaves to increase applications in cooking. This will augment future demand. Impact of COVID-19 on Bay Leaf Market The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the growth of the bay leaf market, specifically in 2020 and 2021. During the peak of the pandemic when lockdowns were imposed worldwide, the supply chain and logistics were massively disrupted. Farmers faced difficulties in harvesting and transportation of bay leaves from farms to processing units. This led to a decline in the production and supply of bay leaves. Similarly, restrictions on travel and temporary closure of restaurants hugely affected the demand for bay leaves from the food industry. Geographical Regions with High Bay Leaf Market Concentration In terms of value, the Middle Eastern region holds the largest share of the global bay leaf market. Countries like Turkey, Syria and Egypt are the major producers and exporters of high-quality bay leaves. They contribute to over 30% of the worldwide production. The Mediterranean climate and soil conditions in these nations provide an ideal environment for bay leaf cultivation. Fastest Growing Region in the Bay Leaf Market North America is poised to be the fastest growing region in the bay leaf market during the forecast period. With growing health awareness and popularity of Mediterranean cuisine in the US and Canada, the consumption of bay leaves as a seasoning is increasing rapidly. Besides, the growing South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Hispanic population in North America boosts the demand for ethnically spiced foods featuring bay leaves. Moreover, the presence of key players and availability of innovative product formats suitable for the busy Western lifestyle are also driving the market growth. The easy availability through online retail channels is further propelling the market expansion.

#Bay Leaf Market Growth #Bay Leaf Market Trends #Bay Leaf Market

[bhavesh2022]

North America Skin Toners Market Forecast to Register Substantial Expansion by 2028

Business Market Insights offers investors a comprehensive study of the North America Skin Toners Market from the perspective of entrepreneurs in their most recent research report, " North America Skin Toners Market Share, Size and Trends Analysis| Forecast Year 2028." Examining current market conditions yields insightful information for businesses.

This report provides insights into market possibilities, obstacles, and incentives that companies shouldn't pass up. It would be a company recipe for success to choose a North America Skin Toners Market research since consumer-centric firms often provide higher returns on investment. Making a small batch of items won't be enough, given the intense competition in the North America Skin Toners Market. Businesses may estimate a product's potential and success with the use of market research.

What are areas in focus in this market research?

1) Overview of Business Environment - Numerous elements that characterize the North America Skin Toners Market are examined in this chapter, including opportunities, dangers, limitations, and drivers. Genuine market determinants foster innovation. The distribution of company activity and the factors influencing development are the main topics of this section. A wide range of market-specific data is offered, making it possible to make an initial determination of the market's potential.

2) Competitive Comparison Matrix - The goal of this market research chapter in North America Skin Toners Market report is to provide businesses with a competitive comparison matrix. This section provides a comprehensive overview of rivals' business strategies and scale-ups. Businesses can use in-depth market research and target market insights to identify rivals' alternatives. Through studying rivals' offers, businesses might find new market segments and sales channels.

Key companies in the North America Skin Toners Market are-

Burt\'s Bees Inc

Dickinson Brands Inc

Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc

L\'Oreal SA

Mario Badescu Skin Care Inc

Shiseido Co Ltd

The Bodyshop International Ltd

The Procter & Gamble Co

3) Briefing on COVID-19 impact - The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply and demand worldwide. North America Skin Toners Market participants had to contend with poor marketing performance, lower revenues, and difficulties surviving their manufacturing lifecycles. Lockdowns and transportation limitations created a distribution channel crisis for businesses at the same time. Maintaining supply-demand balance and controlling expectations proved to be difficult for small and medium-sized businesses. An examination of COVID-19's effects on companies and alternate strategies they have employed to deal with the interruptions caused by the epidemic. This chapter also discusses the potential for recovery following COVID-19.

4) High ROI Trade Offs – To effectively serve their consumers in a competitive North America Skin Toners Market, businesses must educate themselves about important categories. Streamlining market tactics is a potent use of market research. The product, application, and regional categories are highlighted in this study area. Comprehending demographics and high-return-on-investment (ROI) regional regions facilitates brands in optimizing their offerings.

Based on Regions:

North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico)

Europe (U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Central & Eastern Europe, CIS)

Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, India, Rest of Asia Pacific)

Latin America (Brazil, Rest of Latin America)

The Middle East and Africa (Turkey, GCC, Rest of the Middle East and Africa)

Rest of the World…

How can this research help you in getting business strategically Correct?

Exact valuation and key facts about the market

Value proposition analysis that helps businesses revise their offerings timely

Marketing and segmentation strategies for new entrants in the market

Competitive growth strategies for market participants

Latest trends and technologies in the market

About Us:

Business Market Insights is a market research platform that provides subscription service for industry and company reports. Our research team has extensive professional expertise in domains such as Electronics & Semiconductor; Aerospace & Defense; Automotive & Transportation; Energy & Power; Healthcare; Manufacturing & Construction; Food & Beverages; Chemicals & Materials; and Technology, Media, & Telecommunications

[market-sample-reports]

Female Fragrance Market Size, Growth Status and Latest Application into Broader Industries with Better Investment Opportunities

The Insight Partners offers investors a comprehensive study of the Female Fragrance Market from the perspective of entrepreneurs in their most recent research report, " Female Fragrance Market Share, Size and Trends Analysis | 2021." Examining current market conditions yields insightful information for businesses.

This report provides insights into market possibilities, obstacles, and incentives that companies shouldn't pass up. It would be a company recipe for success to choose a Female Fragrance market research since consumer-centric firms often provide higher returns on investment. Making a small batch of items won't be enough, given the intense competition in the Female Fragrance market. Businesses may estimate a product's potential and success with the use of market research.

What are areas in focus in this market research?

1) Overview of Business Environment - Numerous elements that characterize the Female Fragrance market are examined in this chapter, including opportunities, dangers, limitations, and drivers. Genuine market determinants foster innovation. The distribution of company activity and the factors influencing development are the main topics of this section. A wide range of market-specific data is offered, making it possible to make an initial determination of the market's potential.

2) Competitive Comparison Matrix - The goal of this market research chapter in Female Fragrance market report is to provide businesses with a competitive comparison matrix. This section provides a comprehensive overview of rivals' business strategies and scale-ups. Businesses can use in-depth market research and target market insights to identify rivals' alternatives. Through studying rivals' offers, businesses might find new market segments and sales channels.

Key companies in the Female Fragrance market are- Burberry Group Plc,Elizabeth Arden,Gianni Versace S.r.l. P.IVA,Guccio Gucci S.p.A.,H51 SAS,LVMH,Puig,Revlon,Shiseido Co.,Ltd.,Tapestry Inc

3) Briefing on COVID-19 impact - The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply and demand worldwide. Female Fragrance Market participants had to contend with poor marketing performance, lower revenues, and difficulties surviving their manufacturing lifecycles. Lockdowns and transportation limitations created a distribution channel crisis for businesses at the same time. Maintaining supply-demand balance and controlling expectations proved to be difficult for small and medium-sized businesses. An examination of COVID-19's effects on companies and alternate strategies they have employed to deal with the interruptions caused by the epidemic. This chapter also discusses the potential for recovery following COVID-19.

Inquire before Buying a Copy of Female Fragrance Market:

4) High ROI Trade Offs – To effectively serve their consumers in a competitive Female Fragrance market, businesses must educate themselves about important categories. Streamlining market tactics is a potent use of market research. The product, application, and regional categories are highlighted in this study area. Comprehending demographics and high-return-on-investment (ROI) regional regions facilitates brands in optimizing their offerings.

Female Fragrance Market Segmentation

Based on Type this market is categorized further into -

Fruity Fragrances

Citrus

Oriental

Woody

Others

Based on Distribution Channel  this market is categorized further into -

Supermarkets and Hypermarkets

Specialty Stores

Online Retail

Others

Based on Regions:

North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico)

Europe (U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Central & Eastern Europe, CIS)

Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, India, Rest of Asia Pacific)

Latin America (Brazil, Rest of Latin America)

The Middle East and Africa (Turkey, GCC, Rest of the Middle East and Africa)

Rest of the World…

How can this research help you in getting business strategically Correct?

Exact valuation and key facts about the market

Value proposition analysis that helps businesses revise their offerings timely

Marketing and segmentation strategies for new entrants in the market

Competitive growth strategies for market participants

Latest trends and technologies in the market

Author’s Bio:

Akash Khilare

Senior Market Research Expert at The Insight Partners

[diya110]

Flatbread Market Size, Share, Comprehensive Analysis, Opportunity Assessment by 2027

The Insight Partners offers investors a comprehensive study of the Flatbread Market from the perspective of entrepreneurs in their most recent research report, " Flatbread Market Share, Size and Trends Analysis | 2027." Examining current market conditions yields insightful information for businesses.

This report provides insights into market possibilities, obstacles, and incentives that companies shouldn't pass up. It would be a company recipe for success to choose a Flatbread market research since consumer-centric firms often provide higher returns on investment. Making a small batch of items won't be enough, given the intense competition in the Flatbread market. Businesses may estimate a product's potential and success with the use of market research.

What are areas in focus in this market research?

1) Overview of Business Environment - Numerous elements that characterize the Flatbread market are examined in this chapter, including opportunities, dangers, limitations, and drivers. Genuine market determinants foster innovation. The distribution of company activity and the factors influencing development are the main topics of this section. A wide range of market-specific data is offered, making it possible to make an initial determination of the market's potential.

2) Competitive Comparison Matrix - The goal of this market research chapter in Flatbread market report is to provide businesses with a competitive comparison matrix. This section provides a comprehensive overview of rivals' business strategies and scale-ups. Businesses can use in-depth market research and target market insights to identify rivals' alternatives. Through studying rivals' offers, businesses might find new market segments and sales channels.

Key companies in the Flatbread market are- American Flatbread Company , California Lavash , Conagra Brands, Inc. , Evron Foods Ltd , GRUMA, S.A.B. DE C.V , Klosterman Baking Company , Kontos Foods Inc , KRONOS , Signature Flatbreads LTD , Stonefire..

3) Briefing on COVID-19 impact - The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply and demand worldwide. Flatbread Market participants had to contend with poor marketing performance, lower revenues, and difficulties surviving their manufacturing lifecycles. Lockdowns and transportation limitations created a distribution channel crisis for businesses at the same time. Maintaining supply-demand balance and controlling expectations proved to be difficult for small and medium-sized businesses. An examination of COVID-19's effects on companies and alternate strategies they have employed to deal with the interruptions caused by the epidemic. This chapter also discusses the potential for recovery following COVID-19.

4) High ROI Trade Offs – To effectively serve their consumers in a competitive Flatbread market, businesses must educate themselves about important categories. Streamlining market tactics is a potent use of market research. The product, application, and regional categories are highlighted in this study area. Comprehending demographics and high-return-on-investment (ROI) regional regions facilitates brands in optimizing their offerings.

Flatbread Market Segmentation Based on Product this market is categorized further into -

Based on Distribution Channel? this market is categorized further into -

Tortilla

Naan

Pita

Others

Based on Regions:

North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico)

Europe (U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Central & Eastern Europe, CIS)

Asia Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN, India, Rest of Asia Pacific)

Latin America (Brazil, Rest of Latin America)

The Middle East and Africa (Turkey, GCC, Rest of the Middle East and Africa)

Rest of the World…

How can this research help you in getting business strategically Correct?

Exact valuation and key facts about the market

Value proposition analysis that helps businesses revise their offerings timely

Marketing and segmentation strategies for new entrants in the market

Competitive growth strategies for market participants

Latest trends and technologies in the market