Matthew 27:11-26~" Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
These verses describe our Lord's appearance before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. That sight must have been astonishing to the angels of God. He who will one day judge the world allowed himself to be judged and condemned, though "he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." (Isaiah 53:9.) He from whose lips Pilate and Caiaphas will one day receive their eternal sentence, suffered silently an unjust sentence to be passed upon him. Those silent sufferings fulfilled the words of Isaiah, "as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he opens not his mouth." (Isaiah 53:7.) To those silent sufferings believers owe all their peace and hope. Through them they will have boldness in the day of judgment, who in themselves would have nothing to say.
Let us learn from the conduct of Pilate, how pitiful is the condition of an unprincipled great man.
Pilate appears to have been inwardly satisfied that our Lord had done nothing worthy of death. We are told distinctly, "that he knew that for ENVY they had delivered him." Left to the exercise of his own unbiased judgment, he would probably have dismissed the charges against our Lord, and let Him go free.
But Pilate was governor of a jealous and turbulent people. His great desire was to procure favor with them and please them. He cared little how much he sinned against God and conscience, so long as he had the praise of man. Though willing to save our Lord's life, he was afraid to do it, if it offended the Jews. And so, after a feeble attempt to divert the fury of the people from Jesus to Barabbas — and a feebler attempt to satisfy his own conscience, by washing his hands publicly before the people — he at last condemned one whom he himself called "a just person." He rejected the strange and mysterious warning which his wife sent to him after her dream. He stifled the remonstrances of his own conscience. He "delivered Jesus to be crucified."
Behold in this miserable man a lively emblem of many a ruler of this world! How many there are, who know well that their public acts are wrong, and yet have not the courage to act up to their knowledge. They fear the people! They dread being laughed at! They cannot bear being unpopular! Like dead fish, they float with the tide. The praise of man is the idol before which they bow down, and to that idol they sacrifice conscience, inward peace, and an immortal soul.
Whatever our position in life may be, let us seek to be guided by principle, and not by expediency. The praise of man is a poor, feeble, uncertain thing. It is here today, and gone tomorrow. Let us strive to please God, and then we may care little who else is pleased. Let us fear God, and then there is none else of whom we need be afraid.
Let us learn from the conduct of the Jews described in these verses, the desperate wickedness of human nature.
The behavior of Pilate afforded the chief priests and elders an occasion of reconsidering what they were about. The difficulties he raised about condemning our Lord, gave time for second thoughts. But there were no second thoughts in the minds of our Lord's enemies. They pressed on their wicked deed. They rejected the compromise that Pilate offered. They actually preferred having a wretched felon, named Barabbas, set at liberty rather than Jesus. They clamored loudly for our Lord's crucifixion. And they wound up all by recklessly taking on themselves all the guilt of our Lord's death, in words of portentous meaning, "His blood be on us and our children."
And what had our Lord done, that the Jews should hate Him so? He was no robber, or murderer. He was no blasphemer of their God, or reviler of their prophets. He was one whose life was love. He was one who "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil." (Acts 10:38.) He was innocent of any transgression against the law of God or man. And yet the Jews hated Him, and never rested until He was slain! They hated Him, because He told them the truth. They hated Him, because He testified of their works that they were evil. They hated the light, because it made their own darkness visible. In a word, they hated Christ, because He was righteous and they were wicked, because He was holy and they were unholy — because He testified against sin, and they were determined to keep their sins and not let them go.
Let us observe this. There are few things so little believed and realized as the corruption of human nature. Men imagine that if they saw a perfect person, they would love and admire him. They flatter themselves that it is the inconsistency of professing Christians which they dislike, and not their religion. They forget that when a really perfect man was on earth, in the person of the Son of God, He was hated and put to death. That single fact goes far to prove the truth of Edwards' remark — "unconverted men would kill God, if they could get at Him."
Let us never be surprised at the wickedness there is in the world. Let us mourn over it, and labor to make it less, but let us never be surprised at its extent. There is nothing which the heart of man is not capable of conceiving, or the hand of man of doing. As long as we live, let us mistrust our own hearts. Even when renewed by the Spirit, they are still "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." (Jer. 17:9.)

This week is packed with crucial economic reports and announcements that are set to shape the global economic landscape. Here's a quick rundown of what to keep an eye on:
Monday, June 3:

• Start of the month with global PMI "industrial" reports from countries like Australia, Japan, China, India, various European nations, and the USA.
• End the day with the U.S. ISM Manufacturing Index for May and April construction spending data.

Tuesday, June 4:

• Switzerland will release its May CPI inflation data.
• Germany will announce its unemployment rate for May.
• The U.S. will provide data on April factory orders and job vacancies via the JOLTS survey.

Wednesday, June 5:

• May PMI data for the services sector from around the world, with a focus on the Eurozone and the USA.
• Eurostat will release the April PPI for Eurozone countries.
• The U.S. ADP National Employment Report for May and ISM Non-Manufacturing Index will be published.
• Later, the U.S. fuel inventory data will be released, which is crucial for the oil market.

Thursday, June 6:

• April factory orders from Germany, industrial production data from the Czech Republic and Spain, and Eurozone retail sales.
• The most anticipated event: The ECB is expected to announce an interest rate cut.
• The U.S. will release its April trade balance, weekly jobless claims, and Q1 productivity and unit labor costs.

Friday, June 7:

• China’s May trade balance and Germany’s April industrial production data.
• A public speech by the head of the Bundesbank.
• Final Eurozone Q1 GDP data.
• The U.S. monthly labor market report and similar data from Canada.
• The day ends with U.S. consumer credit data.

These reports and announcements will provide valuable insights into the state of the global economy. Stay tuned for detailed updates and analyses!
Full article: https://www.useyourbrainforex.com/post/weekly-economic-reports-global-pmi-inflation-employment-and-central-bank-decisions

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The following two brain scans were provided by the Neuro-Warfare branch of the Halcyon Security Division (HSD) for the purpose of analyzing the thoughts, behaviors, and information of notorious gangsters Vincent 'Troy' Cohen and Bruno (Deadname: Koraak Tel-Char). At the point of the recording of this archival shared, Bruno has since received his rebirth therapy, and Vincent is currently serving a long-term rehabilitative and reeducative sentence in the Erebus Supermax Prison on Io.
Warning: the contents of this archival shared may be especially disturbing to some audiences. Viewer discretion is advised.
Warning: the contents of this archival shard are for the sole purpose of analyzing the thought patterns and memories of certain degenerate criminals in an effort to ascertain vital information that can be used to eliminate their organizations. Only staff with clearance level Omega may view this archival shared, and the viewership of this archival shared by anyone of inadequate clearance level will lead to twenty years in prison and a fine of over a hundred thousand credits.
Booting up memory scan: Vincent 'Troy' Cohen, November 4th, 2446…
Loading and processing firmware data… translating… memories and subconscious simulated…
Beginning archival shard presentation…
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"Do you have visuals of the target, Troy?"
I knelt down in the alleyway, the bodies of me and my partners shrouded in long, waterproof, ashen-gray overcoats the shade of dirty street scum that we wore to ward off the constant heavy rainfall the color of osmium. Our faces were covered in a mix of scrapped respirators, visors, or full metal face masks carved with intricate designs to hide our identities. On our waists were our badges of honor: leather belts studded with interlocked rivets made from blackened titanium, each buckle forged of silver and shaped into the head of our gang's symbol, the black mamba. We hid amongst the shadows of the dark midday of Halcyon City, the heavy, oppressive rains blanketing the roads paved obsidian-black with asphalt and weathered concrete walkways. The street lamps were always on, like beacons of false hope in a storm of melancholy.
The city was dark and dreary as always, the planet of Proxima Centauri B, renamed Dawn's Lamentation over a century ago, orbited the red dwarf star of Proxima Centauri, and the atmosphere was thick with natural smog and ever-storming rain clouds. That didn't dissuade people from living here: there was plenty of money to be had for shrewd industrialists and hardworking pioneers, even in the urban sprawl. But that life also came with risks, especially for those on the bottom of the totem pole.
I was a ganger, and we were criminals; full stop. I won't assault you with some spiel about how we're the good guys fighting oppression because, at the end of the day, we could be just as bad, if not worse, than Halcyon's Security Division, or the HSD for short. We were traffickers, killers, extortionists, and money launderers. We dealt with everything from stolen tech and military-grade hardware to hard drugs and sentients.
Yes, sentients. We trafficked sentients, but not in the way you might think. They weren't prisoners, in fact, we were their saviors if they had the cash. We had developed a reputation for fighting the power, but it was still business: sure, freeing captives from the clutches of the Protectorate. The disruption of its many oppressive organizations held a certain satisfaction in my heart for sure, but we didn't help those who couldn't pay unless someone else paid on their behalf. It was about making sure me and my gang, my family, could live a decent life for another day.
It helped that most of us joined after leaving the state yard for partaking in acts of 'degeneracy' and 'anti-xenopet illegalities' as if those terms meant anything anymore other than that we were a threat to the local status quo. It was hard to pick up a job as a former inmate when even in something as harsh and backbreaking as a job in the iridium mines near the poles when the employment office had you blacklisted as a degenerate, which lead to the formation of many of the gangs: we needed to make a living somehow, and when all social programs were cut off from you unless you submitted for 're-education' and the only way to put food on the table was subverting, breaking, or even downright fighting the law, you did what you had to do or you died on the streets a scorned beggar.
It wasn't like the HSD made it easy for us on even a good day: the local HSD units were armed to the teeth with advanced, military-grade hardware that you'd often see on the front lines of the Second Authority War: armored assault transports, a myriad of advanced war droids, all sorts of chemical countermeasures that made tear gas seem like putting the garden hose on mist mode, and of course advanced firearms. Add that to the fact that they were authorized to use deadly force when they deemed it necessary and you had a ruthless, heartless, and nearly unstoppable enemy. But we could make that work: we weren't trying to stop them, just to withstand them.
"Yeah, I got eyes on the prize, Koraak; seven armored transports, two for droids, five for prisoners."
Today wasn't a day for a normal job: we were getting bolder, cockier, more ambitious. Our numbers had swelled for the last few years after the raid at Barnard's Star and the fall of the Blood Dragon Mafia. Their leader, Saito Yasuhide, had committed seppuku as their manor burned, and his twin sons had gone down fighting rather than allowing themselves to be captured simply to face a firing squad. In the aftermath, many of the family's associates had fled to the surrounding systems, and with the sheer size and scope of the criminal underworld found here, it was no wonder that many people who had developed skills of the less legal variety had decided to form ranks with the gangs, and with them they brought guns, tech, knowledge, contacts, and even something that we thought wasn't possible beforehand: a semblance of peace between the gangs, or at least the closest thing to peace that gangs could cultivate effectively. With the fall of the Blood Dragons, we saw the writing on the wall, and the writing couldn't have been clearer: work together or die together.
"Sounds like a massacre, Troy: are you sure we can handle seven?"
"We ain't got no choice, Cinder: this job's double the usual rate, and that's not including the weapons and gear we could scrounge if this goes well," I hissed, my eyes scanning for any resistance. There were at least four guards for each van, not to mention at least eight droids in total, meaning that we were already outnumbered, but we had the element of surprise: we could make it work. "So put your balls in your purse and get ready to spill some blood."
Koraak snorted at our antics, which sounded like someone pulling the ripcord on a lawnmower. He was a veteran Russu Corsair, and while his past of slaving, raiding, and killing was unsavory, so were the lives we'd lived, so who were we to judge? All we cared about was that he was a brutal and capable fighter and a loyal brother in arms. It turned out that being a ganger wasn't much different from being a Corsair: you lived and died by a code of honor, you fought to the death for your brothers, and you lived to die for the sake of your gang and your family, simple as that. In a strange, ironic way, it was an incredibly honest way of life: we were under no illusions as to what we were, what we did, and why we did it, and we'd long since accepted it. The Russu related to us in that aspect, in many ways I could respect, which is why I hated what the Protectorate was doing, and why I couldn't grasp how most of humanity could just collectively lose their marbles so long ago. What had happened for us to deem all other life below us in such a demeaning and infantilizing way?
The Russu were a race of tall, muscle-bound Saurians with avian features, and Koraak was no exception: reaching almost seven feet in height and weighing over four hundred and fifty pounds, he could be an absolute menace if he so desired. His skin was covered in stubby, knobby scales and dense plumage, with elegant feathers adorning the ridges along his back as well as his forearms, elbows, knees, and the crests on his head. He almost looked like how paleontologists described velociraptors, with razor-sharp talons, feathers shaded in vibrant greens, reds, and purples, and a maw full of sharp teeth, but at the tip of his snout was a sharp, beak-like growth meant for ripping flesh off the bone.
The Russu were strange as hell, but they also looked almost cute in the same way a fully grown alligator was cute: they were obviously dangerous, but humans would always have this innate desire to anthropomorphize them and to pet them for some inexplicable reason, although common sense usually prevented that, at least amongst the very few of us left that were sane.
"Shut up, Troy! All I'm saying is that that'll be rough, and you know it," hissed Cinder. Cinder was a tall black man whose coffee-colored skin was covered in tattoos. He wore an ebony mechanic's jumpsuit with metal inserts underneath his grimy overcoat covering his body and a faded black respirator on his face. His eyes were a startling blue that seemed sorely out of place, and his hair was braided into thick cornrows along his scalp. He wore a pair of heavy black combat boots and palmed his compact shotgun in his hands, the square barrel less than seven inches. Like a lot of the weapons the Black Mambas carried on their persons and dealt in, they fired caseless ammunition; in Cinder's case it was 16x40mm caseless shotshells filled with depleted uranium micro-flechetes no thicker than a toothpick. Cinder nervously fiddled with the detachable tube magazine underneath the barrel, his hands shaking. Despite the shit I have him, I didn't blame him for being anxious: I was anxious too, even if I refused to show it. The biting cold of unease and pessimism was in my stomach, and I ran all the way that this job could go wrong in my head over and over.
"Just hold yourself together, this ain't anything we haven't done before, there's just more of it," I reassured Cinder, "besides, we're not alone; we have reinforcements across the street. We'll make it out of this alive."
Cinder nodded almost absentmindedly, his eyes downcast and his breathing shallow. I turned from him and back to Koraak, who was making sure he had everything on his person; he had a synthetic leather bandoleer across his chest that contained the heavy eight guage depleted uranium slugs he kept loading and unloading into his much larger, longer, and more traditional shotgun he nicknamed ‘carnage’ and several leather straps that held his Tu'shan daggers: traditional Russu pyramidal blades forged from a silvery alloy with all three edges serrated and the tip barbed to leave behind horrible, gaping wounds that gushed blood. They were wickedly sharp and absolutely straight like a stiletto, and the hilts and pommels were beautifully decorated. He wore no clothes underneath his overcoat to cover the countless scars and blemishes he's earned in combat across his chest and abdomen, and instead of a normal respirator or visor, he simply wore a hood over his head and some traditional Russu facial armor to protect his mouth, eyes, and cheeks.
"You ready to fight, Koraak? The caravan will pick up and leave soon."
Koraak was silent for a moment before nodding, a human gesture he had picked up after serving as a soldier with the Black Mambas for years. "I'm always ready to fight," he said before lifting up his shotgun and aiming down the sights at the reinforced front wheels of the first armored car in the caravan. He exhaled and fired, the slug ripping through both front tires and causing them to deflate and fall apart. The echo of the shot rang through the alleyway and the street, causing pedestrians to panic and flee the scene as heavily armored guards poured out of the side doors of the armored cars and unholstered their carbines.
"Go, now!" I shouted, and both me and Cinder rushed out into the fray, our guns raised. Koraak was right behind the two of us, providing covering fire with his shotgun. Several guards fell quickly, Koraak's precise fire and the sheer force of the depleted uranium slugs putting them down for good as their heads were vaporized or their chest cavities were turned to mush. He emptied the tube with one final shot that painted the grey matter of a security guard on the door of one of the armored cars, then racked the shotgun and expertly loaded it in threes, his hands deft and agile as he reached for more slugs faster than any human.
With the cacophony of our initial assault, more Black Mambas poured out from the alleyways and the subways, armed to the teeth with all manner of weapons; shotguns, submachine guns, pistols, machetes, baseball bats, and all manner of homemade explosives. Molotovs and more potent concoctions shattered against the asphalt, herding in the caravan guards with their volatile contents as they were quickly gunned down. The assault was working, and we were winning.
Then I heard the robotic whine of a combat droid activating, and my heart sank. One of the armored cars in the back activated the four combat droids it held, the robotic assault units detaching from their charging ports on the sides of the large van and began to form up, each armed with a terrifying array of deadly weapons meant to quash any and all resistance. They were blocky, soulless, utilitarian things that stood at eight feet tall, with flat feet meant for stomping and blades, grasping claws designed to lacerate flesh and shatter bone. On each shoulder was a weapon: on the left was a multi-barrel rotary grenade launcher loaded with 15mm concussion grenades, and on the right was a burst-fire splinter cannon. They were all painted a dull grayish-green, the color of Halcyon's Security Division, although some had a few decorations on them: the one closest to me had a bit of graffiti on the side that said Mr. Hugs in Comic Sans, which I couldn't decide whether that made it more or less terrifying. They split up without hesitation and began to scan the chaotic battlefield, their single, red, beady lenses the security forces had the gall to call eyes focusing on specific targets to eliminate.
An entire group of Black Mambas was torn to pieces by a cloud of flechettes as one of the droids fired a withering three-round burst of shotshells from the four gauge splinter cannon mounted on its shoulder. Another picked up a Black Mamba in its hand and crushed her skull effortlessly before tossing her limp body to the side, its single, red, remorseless robotic eye tracking a new target. Most bullets that struck their thick armored chassis simply bounced off, and those that could pierce the armor didn't seem to phase the droids whatsoever, merely notifying them of a new potential target.
"Damnit," I shouted as I gunned down another guard only for two more to take his place. "Cinder! We gotta pop open the cars and scram! Get the maglock cutters!"
Cinder rushed and slid over through a dirty puddle, pulling out a maglock cutter from the inside of his coat and slipping it onto the back door of the first van. It immediately went to work, drilling through the maglock with a high-powered plasma torch nozzle, and within ten seconds we heard the telltale clunk of the maglock separating. I yanked the door open and ordered I side, ready to escort the prisoners out… only for my face to contort in shock and horror.
The back was empty. There was not a single soul inside of the back brig of the armored car.
"What the fuck…" Cinder gasped, his eyes wide with shock. "What the actual fuck… what the fuck is this, Troy?"
"I… I don't…" I stuttered the sounds of battle and carnage drowned out by the sound of blood rushing in my ears. All five cars were supposed to be filled with recently captured Russu from the front lines ready to be housed in the local Xenopet-Megaplex for processing and conditioning. The fact that this one was empty…
Suddenly, it all hit me at once with the force of a freight train, but it was too late. "We were set up, Cinder; our fucking client either squealed or was crooked to begin with…"
"Fucking bitch!" Cinder shouted as he spun around in an enraged arch, anger growing in his eyes. He aimed his shotgun at an approaching security guard and reduced his upper body to a fine red mist with a cacophony of shotgun blasts. "We gotta get everyone who's left out of here! Do you know what this means? The Jurors will be here soon, and then we're all going down! We gotta go, fuck the job!"
I grit my teeth. Not the Jurors, anything but the Jurors.
"Fine, gather everyone who's left and we'll slip through the sewers, the droids are too bulky to follow us there…"
As I spoke, my eyes wandered to the seventh and final armored car, the second of the droid cars, and my blood froze. Not only were all four ports empty, but they were also smaller and more shallow than the ports for the combat droids. That could only mean one thing.
"Oh fuck! Cinder, we gotta get our Russu members out of here! They've got arachnid droids!"
Arachnid droids were the stuff of nightmares. Resembling blocky, robotic arachnids the size of a manhole cover, they were specifically designed to take down sentient aliens, specifically the Russu, using sickeningly non-lethal means. They were equipped with full-body adaptive cloaking to blend in with their environments, paralytic agents that they could inject into their victims, built-in taser barbs, psychedelic gas ports for crowd-control, and a narrow-coned cacophony canon that disabled the Russu using incredibly high-pitched sounds that only they could hear, forcing them onto their knees and clutching the backs of their heads where their auditory organs were stored in agony. But worst of all was their stygian spinnerets: special ports near the end of their robotic abdomens that excreted a viscous, latex-like substance made up of millions of nano-bots. This substance could be used to render Russu blind, deaf, and mute by having it forced onto their faces, the black substance growing and enveloping their heads and working its way into every orifice. It was completely permeable to the standard atmosphere, but any Russu who had been 'webbed' was completely helpless and essentially captured, and the 'webbing' was both nearly indestructible and nigh impossible to remove without a triple-encrypted override key that was found in every arachnid droid's code, which was corrupted when the droid was destroyed or hacked into. Once you were 'webbed', you were essentially captured and the standard protocol was to leave you to the wolves since the nano-bots could be tracked, endangering the entire gang.
I turned just as I heard the deafening sound of Koraak discharging his shotgun, and I saw him squaring off against one of the assault droids. The droid has obviously been programmed to not use lethal force against Russu if possible, as instead of simply killing Koraak with it's shoulder-mounted splinter cannon, it approached with its claws extended, blades retracted. Koraak continued to back away and fire, pumping the droid full of depleted uranium slugs, its armor crumbling inward as the slugs pierced its chassis and damaged its internal cyberstructure. Eventually, Koraak ran out of slugs and instinctively reached to his bandoleer only to find that he had no more shells left at all, and he drew one of his knives and his sidearm, a simple high-caliber handgun. He tried to take down the droid with his handgun, but the bullets didn't even seem to affect the droid upon penetration, it's claws still extended as it attempted to apprehend Koraak.
In the corner of my vision, as I watched Koraak battle with the droid, I noticed a faint shimmer in the air on one of the black streetlight poles that was right behind him. I focused on it and blinked, believing my eyes had deceived me for a moment before realizing that it was actually a cloaked arachnid droid stalking Korvaak, ready to pounce and incapacitate him.
Before I could shout, it leaped from the pole and landed on Korvaak, causing him to shout in surprise while it began to coagulate its horrifying stygian webbing to disable Korvaak. Korvaak tried to wrestle it off of him, but the droid was agile and fast, clinging onto Korvaak and skittering around across his upper body as he attempted to grab it, forcibly wrapping the sticky black liquid across his face as he gagged like a spider wrapping up a fly. I rushed towards him to try and help, but I felt pain explode in my ribs as I was struck with the arm of the closest combat droid and launched into the chassis of a parked car, the metal denting from the sheer force of impact. I groaned in pain as I saw stars and my head spun, and just then I felt a blinding light be cast over me.
“Drop your weapons and kneel with your hands on your head, or you will be pacified with deadly force!” Shouted a loud, artificially deepened voice from above. “I repeat, drop your weapons and kneel with your hands on your head! Neither hostility nor hesitation will be tolerated!”
It was the Jurors, I could feel the air being pushed around from the thrusters on their drop ships, and I could hear screams and shouts as my fellow Black Mambas were quickly gunned down. I couldn’t see well since I was seeing double, but I could hear the slaughter as my eyes dimmed and I began to lose consciousness, my regrets crawling up my throat like vomit.
I’m sorry was all I could think as everything finally went dark, and the sounds of chaos, destruction, and combat faded away.
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Memory halted due to loss of consciousness. Booting next available memory in shard…
Booting up memory scan: Koraak Tel-Char Bruno, November 5th, 2446…
Loading and processing firmware data… translating… memories and subconscious simulated…
Beginning archival shard presentation…
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“Good morning, sleepyhead; it’s time for breakfast.”
My eyes shot open. I was not in the street anymore, nor was I home in my bed with my mate. I knew instantly that something was horribly wrong. I tried to stand up, but I couldn’t gain the leverage to do so: my ankles had been shackled together with magnetic cuffs and my arms were forced together in front of me.
I was wearing some kind of thick shirt. It was warm, fluffy, and comfortable on the inside, but it still made me incredibly uncomfortable that my arms didn’t have a free range of motion. I looked down to see that I was wearing some human garment I had heard about before, a straightjacket maybe?
The entire room was padded: the walls, the floor, even the ceiling. There was no bed or furniture; the floor was soft enough to serve as a bed in itself. There was nothing else except for the soft reddish-orange lights on the ceiling that somehow made me sleepy. I blinked slowly for a moment, my body screaming at me to just lay back down and lose consciousness, but I couldn’t do that: I needed to figure out where I was and how to escape.
Then I noticed who was speaking to me: it was a short human female, with crow's feet around her blue eyes, blonde hair braided down her back, and freckles all over her face. She had a soft smile on her lips, and her forehead was slightly crinkled. She wore a full-body white lab suit with a white overcoat and a pair of glasses for snugly on her face.
"There we go, now I can see those pretty eyes, such a beautiful shade of teal," she cooed softly, "You're such a handsome boy, even with all those scars: I'm sure you'll be adopted very quickly once we get you fixed up."
Fear gripped my heart as I began to piece all the evidence together. I had been captured; I was no longer on Halcyon, and instead, I was in one of the horrific space-born facilities I had heard so much about from the inside agents. I started to hyperventilate and squawk like a newborn hatchling, my eyes dilating in panic. This couldn't be happening! This has to be a nightmare!
The human woman merely wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into an embrace, cradling my head under her chin and speaking softly. I couldn't bite at her or claw at her: I was muzzled and wearing a straight jacket, so I had no choice but to allow her to coddle me.
"It's okay, sweetheart: I understand you're scared, but Julie's here to make all the pain and bad thoughts go away," she said as if she was comforting a child, which made anger blossom in my chest indignantly. "I'll be your caretaker for the next few months, and I'm going to make sure you're healthy, happy, and most importantly safe while you're under our care. I'm sorry to say that includes your restraints and restrictive clothing, but we have to make sure you aren't a threat to yourself or others before we can determine if it's a good idea to remove you from suicide watch."
I growled under my muzzle. Suicide watch? They must have had a lot of instances of Russu taking their own lives after being captured, something I wished I had been able to do before that damnable droid launched itself onto me and…
I shuddered at the thought of the black, viscous substance forcing itself into my nostrils and down my throat and windpipe, gagging me and rendering me completely helpless. It was so cold, so harsh, like slime, and when I had tried to tear it off of my face it merely attached itself to my claws and bound my talons together. I remember squirming on the ground as it enveloped me, unable to see, hear, or speak, and then everything went dark in an instant. It was the most horrible thing I had ever experienced, which was saying something.
"You alright, sweetheart? Oh, I know, you're probably hungry! Here, try some of this." She held up a piece of what looked like raw bacon and wiggled it in front of me before reaching out to remove my muzzle. In an instant, I attempted to snap at her only for pain to blossom in my forehead and my eyes to roll up in my head as I convulsed. It was like something was attempting to drill through my skull from the inside, and every breath felt empty and labored.
"Now, that didn't feel very nice, did it? This is why we have countermeasures in place because we can't trust you yet, sweetheart! Don't worry, we'll work on breaking you of all those bad behaviors and habits while you're here; after all, a well-trained pet is a happy pet!" She began to stroke the crests on my head as I slowly recovered, and she snugly fit the muzzle back onto my snout. "But I won't hold it against you this time, sweetheart; you're just scared and confused, but I'll make all the pain go away."
I struggled in the straight jacket, trying my best to break out of it, but it was no use. Eventually, I became exhausted and despondent, allowing my new caretaker to have her way with me as she gently ran her fingers through my feathers and along my ridges, quietly speaking to me in a hopeless attempt to cheer me up. She seemed genuinely concerned for my well-being, which concerned me even further: who could be this naturally twisted while attempting to be as benevolent and kindhearted as possible?
I felt the pain and terror build up in my chest, the anxiety from what horrific activities I imagined they had planned for me here. I couldn't take the infantilization, the lack of any autonomy, the dehumanization, and what I feared the most was if the rumors of 'rebirth' were true: would they take my personhood from me?
Suddenly, I felt her whisper to me. "Don't worry sweetheart, I know you're so scared and confused, but I promise you everything will be okay: it's going to be your birthday soon, and then everything will get better." She ran her fingers through the feathers along my crest lovingly. "It will be such a wonderful day, and then we'll choose for you the most wonderful family, and you'll spend the rest of your life happy in your forever home! Doesn't all of that sound wonderful?"
I wanted to die. I wanted to disappear. I didn't want to lose myself, not like this, not to these monsters!
"It'll be your birthday soon," she said wistfully as if she was remembering similar events to this in the past like I wasn't the first she'd done this too, "and you'll never be sad again."
I realized that I wasn't the first the stay in this particular cell, and I knew for certain that I wouldn't be the last: I'd end up like my brother, a broken, erased mess of a pathetic creature, reduced to nothing more than a pet for these humans to amuse themselves with.
"We took the liberty of picking out a nice name for you, sweetheart! Now, let me just slip this little programming chip into the port slot on your occipital bone, and... there we go! It will also help you calm down a bit and adjust."
I felt the chip begin to invade my mind, suppressing my thoughts. What made me me was slowly being ripped out of my mind. I couldn't remember my name my name is Bruno, and I needed to get out! I can't let them do this to me! Somebody help me! I was a good boy.
##Do not think. You are a good boy.##
I tried to scream, but my voice wouldn't work: I had trouble forming any words at all, the confusion clouding my mind like wet, slimy eels curling around my brain and sinking their teeth into its folds like needles. I couldn’t scream any longer, because I had nothing left: the chip was slowly beginning to take everything from me, robbing me of my identity and branding a new one into my psyche with a white-hot iron. Julie simply held me close, attempting to reassure me as I awaited the inevitable demise of my personhood. Soon I would be just like my brother: erased. My mind would be shaped into the mind of a loyal plaything, like a Dog.
##Relax. Allow caretaker [Julie] to comfort you. You will let go of your burden.##
Soon, everything was a blur. I quickly found myself resting my head in her lap as she whispered to me and fed me, my eyes bleary and my head fuzzy. I couldn't remember my name anymore My name was Bruno, and I needed to break free from this trance relax, and allow her to help me; good boys didn't resist help.
##Good Boy. Do not think. You are a good boy.##
You can't... I...
##Good boy.##
I wouldn't… good boys don't… I…
##Good boy##
I was a good boy… I was a good boy…
I was… I was… a good… boy…
Someone help me, please! I don't want to be erased!
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The following script is from episode #343 of Halcyon After Dark, a popular late-night and current events talk show hosted by Melinda Carter. This specific episode was sponsored in part by the Halcyon Security Division, with Director Lochlin O'Brien joining as a guest star to talk about the changing crime statistics in Halcyon City and the HSD's recent successes in busting organized crime as well as their plans for addressing the growing criminal underworld.
MC: Good evening Halcyon! I'm your host, Melinda Carter, and you're watching Halcyon's most popular late-night talk show, Halcyon After Dark!
The crowd claps and cheers as Melinda walks on stage and sits behind her desk, her glittering red dress waving as she does so from the special effects.
MC: Tonight we have a very special guest here to tell us about the state of crime in the city and his plans on resolving it: please put your hands together for the HSD's very own Director, Lochlin O'Brien!
The crowd cheers some more as HSD Director Lochlan O'Brien, a tall, muscular, caucasian male in his early forties with red hair and a well-trimmed beard steps into the room, waving at the crowd with a bright smile. He sits in the armchair angled next to Melinda's desk and gives her his full attention.
MC: It's so good to have you on the show, Director! Tell me, how are you doing on this fine evening?
LO: I'm doing excellent, Melinda: every day I wake up feeling fulfilled knowing I'm serving Halcyon to the best of my abilities and then some."
MC: That's the spirit, Director! Now, I know this question is just on everyone's lips, so I have to ask: how successful was the recent gang bust? I heard HSD forces took out dozens of gang members and liberated at least a dozen Russu Hounds from their abusive clutches, but I know that everyone in the audience and at home wants to know the numbers.
LO: I'd be glad to tell you, but I do have to preface this by saying that we still lost a lot of good officers that day, and while we did strike a crippling blow to one of Halcyon's biggest gangs, it doesn't change the fact that each death is a tragedy, and we're taking steps to prevent them in the future. That being said, those valiant officers did not sacrifice themselves in vain: we had over a dozen confirmed kills and several arrests, including the rescue of several corrupted Russu hounds.
MC: That's excellent, Director: proof that even when the number of degenerates and scum grow by the day, the HSD will always be here to keep the citizens of Halcyon safe.
LO: Absolutely, Melinda, and we're always working tirelessly to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our units, as well as racing to stay several steps ahead of the many gangs of Halcyon at all times. My newest goal as Director is to vastly increase the funding given to our Robotics Department and our Neuro-Warfare Department to potentially reduce the number of casualties we may experience in the future, as well as to quickly and effectively detain, and if necessary, eliminate criminals. Within the next decade, I want to double the number of automated units each Security Platoon is assigned: droids are the future of public safety as well as countless other industries, and it would be foolish to be left behind.
MC: That is quite a lofty goal, Director: what about the displaced jobs from the increased automation? What will the union say?
LO: And to that, I say: what misplaced jobs? We aren't replacing our honored and beloved service members with droids, Melinda, we are simply supplementing our units with more droids to ensure that future gang assaults end with fewer HSD casualties and more gang members in prison or eliminated, simple as that.
MC: That makes much more sense, Director, thanks for clarifying. Now, I have one more question that I'm sure much of Halcyon wants to know the answer to before we take a short break: what plans do you and your fellow directors have to make long-term progress in reducing crime beyond just increasing funding? Have you proposed any plans to strike at the source of where crime and degeneracy flourish?
OL: That's an excellent question, and one I am proud to answer: my constituents and I have been working tirelessly on a two-step plan to greatly reduce crime levels in Halcyon. Step one would be to prevent people from becoming criminals and degenerates at all in the first place: a lot of young men and women, but especially young men, have lost either one or both parents or even a sibling, aunt or uncle, or even a close friend by the brutality of the Second Authority War, and while the service of their lost loved ones will always be recognized and honored, many of these young men and women are left bitter, angry and lost without the guidance these people give them in their lives. Oftentimes they seek to fill that void with others who claim to relate to them: career criminals. These criminals will fill their heads with lies and false narratives to make them feel like they're fighting back against the 'evil protectorate government' that took their loved ones from them by sending them off to war when in reality it was the rogue Xenopets of the Triarchy that took them away by resisting their just and inevitable unburdening.
In response, I have proposed a slew of special programs that will make sure local law enforcement and HSD officers are present and contributing to their local community, and we'll be providing easy and light job openings for youngsters and teens looking to make a career for themselves in the force when they grow up. We want to let these lost souls know that there are people who care about them, people who understand them and that you shouldn't turn to degeneracy to feel fulfilled. We want to help the youth of our great society soar to new heights!
MC: That sounds like a wonderful beginning to your plan, Director, but what about the second step?
LO: Well, the second step is to prevent criminals and degenerates from becoming repeat criminals. Sure, they've made their mistakes, some worse than others, but they're only human like the rest of us. Some of them have been through hell: some are traumatized veterans who don't know how to adapt to normal life, others were recruited when they were young and don't know that there's a better way to live, and even more are mentally ill. We're alone in this galaxy, and we can't leave so many people behind. That's why we've come up with an excellent solution: we've set up isolated communities on distant moons and frontier planets where these criminals can be reeducated, rehabilitated, and allowed to repay their debt to society. When they're deemed 'reformed' and have graduated from our program, they'll be granted a hefty stipend and their criminal record will be deemed irrelevant, allowing them to reintegrate and become functioning members of our proud society.
MC: all of these sound like incredible steps forward in the fight to better our society and make real progress, Director. Sadly, we do have to step away for a moment, but you best believe I'll be back, Halcyon, and we'll be asking the Director here some burning questions about allegations over the quality of life Erubus Supermax! Now, a word from our sponsors!
Halcyon Xenopet-Megaplex! Everything your xenopet could ever need in one place! Adoption is now free-
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Good, you’re still alive! The rest of this shard appears to be corrupted, which means this particular trail seems to have run cold here, but do not despair; you need to keep searching. Find out what happened. Find the truth.I cannot guide you any longer: they've already found me, and if I remain in contact with you they'll find you as well. Take the archival database, and see what you can piece together. Maybe if we discover what truly happened we can put an end to this madness once and for all. I'm counting on you. Don't cry for me, I don't fear death, but I fear what they'll do to me to get to you: there are far worse fates than death, after all.

I am not the OOP. The OOP is u/blastfromthepast1122 posting in survivinginfidelity
Concluded as per OOP
1 update - Short
Original - 23rd May 2019
Update - 6th March 2020
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Ex wife drops back into my life after 6 years
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My ex and I met in college and were madly in love all 4 years in school. Got married after graduation in 2010. In 2013 I caught her in a year plus affair with a coworker. I was crushed. She said they loved each other, soulmates, didn’t mean to hurt anyone, blah blah blah.
We divorced only 3 months later. I was crushed. Worst time in my life. I mourned for over a year. I heard they got married. One day I decided I was tired of being sad so I completely let go of her in my heart, got off my butt and truly moved on.
I’m a programmer by profession and decided to take a pre-sales solutions consultant gig with one of the biggest software companies on the planet. That job has been amazing. I’ve traveled the entire world. Every continent and all the major cities. Life has been a great adventure. I never did date seriously or remarry. I’m not opposed to casual dating and have dated beautiful women all over the globe. After my experience with marriage I decided that wasn’t my path and have been happy. Sometimes lonely, especially during holidays, but overall happy.
I had decided enough traveling for a while so I switched roles and am based in a major city in the U.S. I’m sitting in a diner on a Saturday morning eating breakfast and reading the news, Facebook, Reddit, etc. and somebody says “? Oh my God.” The voice sounded like one of my women friends at work so I looked up to say hi and my jaw dropped. It’s my ex wife.
Here I am 2000+ miles away from our old hometown, haven’t seen her in almost 6 years and there she is. I was dumbstruck. All I could manage was “hi.” I hate to say it but she looked beautiful. She said I looked amazing. She asked if I was busy and that she didn’t want to bother me but that she’d love to talk. I said sure. We ended up talking for over two hours and continued for another couple of hours when we went for a walk in a close by park.
We were making small talk about mutual acquaintances, my stories of traveling the globe. Everything but the elephant in the room. She finally asks me if I had gotten remarried at any point. I said no, once was enough. She seemed sad by that.
We walked in silence for maybe a minute and she said “I have to say that I’m so so sorry for what I did to you. You didn’t deserve it. It was incredibly shitty and has haunted me since it happened. You didn’t do anything wrong.” I said you fell in love with someone else and married them. I couldn’t stop you from doing that. I wanted you to be happy. Then I asked are you happy? She laughed one of those joke laughs “Ha!” She told me the OM and her fought constantly and he ended up cheating on her and leaving her two years into marriage.
I said I’m sorry that happened to you. I know how bad that can hurt. She said she knew. That when her heart was broken all she could think of was that she had done the same thing to me and that tortured her. She said she fell apart for almost a year, engaged in very self-destructive behavior, and then went to therapy to figure out why she’s so screwed up. She said that was extremely helpful and several years ago she finally grew up and holds herself accountable for her own actions now.
She had ended up moving to this city because she has an aunt that she loves that lives there and after her second divorce before age 30 she needed to make big changes in her life. The changes were noticeable. She’s definitely more mature. I had to go and get ready for the evening with friends so we said our goodbyes. We exchanged contact info and agreed to go have coffee and talk more.
We have been doing that. We’re both single. I guess there’s no harm. I can tell she wants more from me. She wants me to want her back. She drops hints as big as the Pacific Ocean. I’m not dumb. I have to admit she still has that certain something that just makes my heart skip a beat. Something I can’t describe. Something I hadn’t found in anyone else since her. I guess it’s chemistry between us.
To be honest I want to be more than friends. I want to hold her and kiss her. She wants that too but as of yet I’ve made zero moves.
What holds me back? Fear. I’m afraid of getting hurt again. If she had been a casual girlfriend that dumped me I would have shook it off and moved on quickly. She wasn’t though. She was my wife and the love of my life. I used to dream of her somehow coming back into my life. Well here it is and I’m scared shitless. I don’t know if I can give her that much of myself again. I’m way more protective of my heart now. We’ve both grown a lot and the past seems like a hundred years ago. If she wasn’t who she is I’d already be head over heels in love.
I struggle with do I pursue love with her again or do I leave the past in the past? It sounds cliche but it just had to be her. Of all the people I could have met here it had to be her.
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Comments
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fatboy-slim
Personally....getting back with an ex is like eating your own vomit. Sagas are never good, remember you got divorced a reason beyond your control. Remember the pain you went through. I believe you are in love with the IDEA of her, and not the reality. 2 divorce’s before 30 is a trend.
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spazzitgoes
I'd keep this as friends only, if that. Who doesn't love romance, but life isn't a romcom. 2 divorces before 30 is a lot of baggage. If he hadn't cheated, they'd still be married - she didn't leave because she still loved you. You only crossed her mind after he did to her what she did to you.
Your life went on a dizzying upward trajectory after the divorce. Hers spiraled down and she lived a depressed, reckless life. She's at the bottom, you're at the top. Why wouldn't she want to be a part of what you have? Despite the problems and therapy one of the best life lessons that never fails is: when people show you who they are, believe them the first time. Good luck.
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messythehoe
Despite what a lot of people say - fear is not a bad thing. It’s there for a reason. She was “happily” married to you and then casually fell in love w someone else out of an affair and wasted a year of your life. Falling-in-love w your ex college sweetheart, aka maybe your love of life, sounds like a fairy tail, no? But imagine the literal heartbreak of having your heart in pieces again by the same person who broke it in the first place.

OOP: That is my fear. I don’t think I could survive that a second time. It’s been the most traumatic experience of my life to this point.

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Ash1221m1328
Tell her that. Tell her that’s what’s holding you back.

OOP: We haven’t gotten to that level of intimacy in conversations yet. We’re tiptoeing around where we are, getting close to the “next level” but I sense she’s as scared as I am. I can see the shame and guilt in her eyes. She senses my fear and hesitation. I think at some point soon we both need to lay our cards on the table and start the conversations we’re both thinking about having but haven’t yet. I do appreciate the advice.

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Update - 10 months later
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I’ve gotten so many requests for an update. I have one but was hesitant to post because in this sub I’d take a lot of grief.
The update is we got re-married over the Christmas holidays and we’re now pregnant. She has grown a lot as a person. So have I. We’re not kids anymore. We’re in an adult relationship and it’s much better than before. Throw in the chemistry we’ve always had and it’s wonderful. I couldn’t be happier.
I do want to address the accusations that she tracked me down. She didn’t. She had moved to our current city before I did. She really had moved on, went to therapy, and had grown a lot as a person. I just happened to be in that diner. We think it had to be fate or some type of intervening force. Neither of us are religious but the astronomical odds of us running into each other, both single, and in a city neither of us had ever lived in, are hard to ignore. Obviously the universe had a plan for us.
I wish all of you good luck! My only advice is don’t close your heart. You never know who will stroll into your life.
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Comments
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lmv123reddit
My friend, the only thing I can say to you is this:
Good luck...hope you know what you doing...
Experience tells me that you are playing with fire.
Well, hope you never need to come back to this sub but it's here if you ever need. May God help you...
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Datonecatladyukno
My heart says this is beautiful and romantic, my head said this is stupid and foolish. Update is in a year or two op and hopefully we are all wrong
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I am not the OOP. Please do not harass the OOP.
Please remember the No Brigading Rule and to be civil in the comments

To all of you who come asking “what would you guys charge?” Please read this before asking…it’s long but c’mon, you’re on Reddit…you’ve got time. Keep in mind, this is geared for residential, commercial is a different animal. DM for commercial advice.
What should I charge for this job? This question is THE number one question that tells the professionals in this group, that you a) are new/inexperienced and, b) have put zero effort into understanding your market.
Location determines your price ceiling, period, full stop. Guys in the Outer Banks, NC can charge $.50-.60/sqft on the vacation rentals, but where I live, I’d never land a job at that price. I can charge $.15-.20/sqft on a house all day and close 85% of my sales…massive difference. So asking what I, or anyone else would charge for a job doesn’t do you any good because we most likely don’t live in your area.
So how do you determine price? First let me say…If you don’t have any experience and are just starting out, I’d recommend going to work with an established PW company for a season before starting out on your own. Not only will you learn a ton about what to do, but you’ll also learn what NOT to do, which can be as, or more valuable.
That being said, if you’re determined to learn the hard way, and know all you need to know from YouTube, then at least do a little homework before coming in and asking about price. What homework, you ask? Keep reading.

1. Ask for a quote (or 3) from an established, professional PW company on your own house. If you don’t own/rent a house, ask a friend if you can get a quote for their house. Some companies will give you a quote over the phone/email without actually visiting the property and others will come out and look (I like to put eyes on and walk a property before quoting). If all of the quotes are similar then you can back into your sqft price. If there is a wide difference find something in the middle. If you get $99 or $129 don’t factor that in.
   
2. Determine how much you want to make per hour. That means how much you want to net, not gross. If you want to make $75/hr and the job is going to take you 3 hours to complete (if you’re new add an extra hour on every job…trust me) and your cost to do the job (chem, fuel, etc.) is $50 you need to charge $275 (or $350 if you added the extra hour) to make $75/hr. Don’t forget to factor in insurance, labor costs if you have employees, storage fees, advertising and anything else that it costs to run your business.
   
3. Don’t forget to add in the PITA factor. If the job or customer is going to be a Pain In The Ass, charge accordingly. I tell clients that I charge extra if they want to help. I say it jokingly, but have actually had to tell folks I needed them to step away while I worked (dangerous chems and what not).
   
4. If you have a 100% close rate, raise your price. You want people to say no sometimes.
   
5. This may be controversial, but do not negotiate. Set your price and stay with it…as long as it is fair and reasonable, don’t build in a pad in case they want you to go lower. I try to give my clients a fair price that I’m willing to do the work for, and I’m willing to explain it to them if they try to negotiate. I’ve walked away from jobs for $50 (see the PITA factor)
   
6. This doesn’t have anything to do with pricing, but just a few pieces of advice.
   
   • Set expectations before you start any job. If you see something that might be a problem point it out to the customer. Tell them you’ll do your best but also that it may not be perfect.
   • Always include the front walkway (porch to driveway) in the price of the house. It takes an extra 10-20 minutes, but I’ve sold more driveways than I can count this way.
   • Under promise and over deliver. Find something small to wash and don’t say anything. They may not see it right away, or ever, but if they do they’ll remember…they’ll also tell their friends, and that means more business.

If after all that, you still have questions about price…read it again.
Good luck and happy washing.

https://www.marxists.org/subject/left-wing/icc/1935/05/marxism.htm

To Marxism, the determining contradiction in present-day society lies in the contradictory development of the social forces of production within the existing relations of production, or, otherwise expressed, between the increasingly socialized character of the productive process itself and the persisting property relations. In all forms of society, the general advance of humanity has been expressed in the development of the productive forces, i.e. of the means and methods of production, enabling ever greater amounts of use articles to be produced with an ever diminishing amount of direct human labor. This process is divisible into historical periods. In it, each stage simply mirrors the attained level of the continuously increasing forces of production and develops for them corresponding social relations. And as soon as a given set of social conditions no longer sufficed, without giving rise to great maladjustments in the social, economic and political spheres, to satisfy the demands of the new and growing forces of production, those conditions were overcome through revolutionary action.
All social development is based in the last instance on the process of interaction between social man and nature. The contradiction arising through human labor between being and consciousness, nature and man, leads to further and further development, and change in nature, society, man and consciousness. Within this great contradiction evolve, in the process of development, narrower social contradictions, which in their turn propel the progressive social movement along the path of revolution.
Since the development of the productive forces has throughout the past been bound up with the rise and decline of classes, past history must necessarily be regarded as a history of class struggle. Thus the development of manufacture under feudalism had to lead, at a certain level, to the overcoming of feudalism and to the birth of capitalist society; a transition which took a revolutionary expression in all the social domains.
The statement of contradiction, the materialist dialectic, the philosophic theory of Marxism and at the same time the law of all real movement, seeks in all contradictions their unity - without, however, for that reason, confusing those contradictions - and sees in the spontaneous movement of contradictions their abolition, i.e. their resolution in a third form, which again produces and must overcome its contradiction. Since the Marxist analysis takes capital as its starting point, capital becomes the thesis, of which the proletariat is the antithesis. The dialectical law of the negation of the negation leads to the synthesis. This can only be the communist society, which knows neither capital nor proletariat, since it has taken up or resolved them both in their concrete forms. This is merely the falling off of a social husk, and, being a product of historical property relations, it is only in capitalism that this husk can possess concrete reality. History, like all reality, is dialectical, hence limitless. Each problem possesses no more than historical character. Marxism does not present itself as something absolute, but as the theory of the class struggle within capitalist society.
Not only, from the standpoint of Marxism, is the contradiction between capital and labor the beginning as well as the end of present-day society, but the progressive development of that society is to be seen only in the growth and sharpening of that contradiction. Capital being the result of the exploitation of labor power, so with the growth of capital, that is, in the course of the human progress under way in this historical period, the exploitation of the workers must of necessity be more and more intensified. If the possibilities of the exploitation of labor power in the present system were unlimited, there would be no reason to expect an end of capitalist society. But with the growth of the proletariat, the class struggle also increases, since at a certain point of development the productive forces of the workers can no longer be applied capitalistically. At that point, the proletariat, of its own accord, develops into a revolutionary force, which strives for and brings about an overthrow of the existing social relations.
Marxism, which perceives in the existence of the proletariat the realization of the dialectical movement of society, bases its theoretical justification mainly on the laws of economic development in general, and of capitalism in particular. Capitalist relations of production are not solely determined by nature (land as a basis for labor) and human activity, but these natural conditions are also subordinate to the capitalistic social relations. The concerns of human beings are not regulated from the point of view of their needs as human beings, but from the point of view of capitalist needs for profits. The decisive factor in capitalist society is not the production of use values but of capital; the latter is the motive power of the productive machinery. This dependence of human welfare upon the private interests of the capitalists is made possible through the separation of the workers from the means of production. The workers cannot live except through the sale of their labor power. The buyers of labor power, who are at the same time the owners of the means of production, buy this power only in order to further their private interests as capitalists, without regard to social consequences.
We have seen that in all forms of society, progressive development is illustrated in the continual growth and improvement of the means and methods of production, enabling the output of an ever greater quantity of products with ever less labor. In capitalism, this same process expresses itself in a more rapid growth of the capital invested in means of production as compared with the capital invested in labor power. That part of the capital which is invested in means of production we call constant capital, since as such it enables no changes of magnitude; and that portion which goes in the form of wages to the workers we call the variable capital, since it adds, through labor itself, new values to those already present. In this way it is shown that the development of the social forces of production under capitalism is expressed in a more rapid growth of the constant capital relatively to the variable.
Capital, and hence its material form, the means of production and labor power, can, however, as already stated, function capitalistically only so long as this may appear profitable to the owners of the means of production. Coming into action only as capital, they must reproduce themselves as capital, a thing which is possible, on the capitalistic basis, only by way of accumulation. The surplus value, from which are derived the funds for accumulation, the additional means of production and labor power as well as the capitalists’ profit, is, however, nothing but unpaid labor. It is that part of the workers’ products which is not consumed by them but was taken from them. Now since the surplus value is derived exclusively from the variable part of capital, and if this variable part must continually diminish relatively to the advance of accumulation, then the surplus value must, with mathematical certainty, continually diminish relatively to accumulation even though it increases absolutely. This contradictory movement, by which with advancing accumulation the capitalistic rate of profit falls (the rate of profit is computed on the total capital, constant and variable) - a process denoted as the growth of the organic composition of capital - is, however, up to a certain point of capitalist development, not at all dangerous, since at a rather low stage of development the system is capable of accumulating faster than the rate of profit falls, or, in other words, to compensate for the fall of the profit rate by the growth of the actual profit mass. This possibility is, however, no less historical than all other matters.
Accumulation there must be, and the lower the rate of profit falls as a result of this accumulation, the greater must the accumulation be. When accumulation goes out, the crisis comes in; the solving of the crisis is possible only through further accumulation, and necessarily at a continually accelerated rate. At a rather high level of capitalist development, when the tempo inherent in accumulation requires the further advance of accumulation in such measure that the absolutely swollen mass of profit is too small in relation to those demands for further accumulation, then accumulation must of necessity come to a stop, and the boom turns to crisis. In other words, capitalist accumulation devours for its own purposes, by which all society is conditioned, an increasingly large part of the surplus value produced by the workers; and in spite of the growth of this surplus value, it must nevertheless, at a high point of development, prove insufficient to meet the demands of accumulation. This law of capitalist accumulation, the primary cause of which is to be seen in the contradiction between exchange value and use value, between capital and labor, is confirmed as an actual law by all empirical factors involved. If accumulation comes to a standstill, by reason of the fact that there is not enough surplus value at hand for its continuance, then that part of capital which is destined for but is at the same time insufficient to meet the needs of accumulation, lies idle and seeks in vain for profitable possibilities of investment. We are faced with the paradoxical truth that a shortage of capital gives rise to a superfluity of capital lacking room for investment. There is no lack of purchasing power, yet, in the capitalist sense, no use can be made of this purchasing power, since from this point of view it is meaningless, because unprofitable.
If accumulation is not continued, the situation must of necessity give rise to a general tie-up of human activity. The commodities destined for further accumulation can find no buyers. They lie unused, and from the over-accumulation results the general over-production of commodities; a circumstance which expresses itself in the closing and paralyzing of enterprises in all spheres of social life and hence in an enormous increase of unemployment.
The crisis also brings with it certain tendencies working to overcome it. The organic composition of capital is lowered by capital being destroyed through bankruptcies and devaluation. Through the export of capital and intensified imperialistic ventures, new sources of additional surplus value are created. Through general rationalization of working methods, further technical innovations in the productive process, cheaper sources of raw materials, as well as through the pauperization of the workers and the expropriation of the middle classes, etc., the quantity of surplus value is adapted to meet the demands of further accumulation. All efforts during the crisis serve to revive profitable capitalist operation on a lower price and value level. If this occurs, nothing stands in the way of a new upswing, which, however, after a certain time, as a result of renewed over-accumulation, necessarily turns off into a new crisis. These factors we call the counter-tendencies directed against the collapse of capitalism.
Like everything else, however, these counter-tendencies are of an historical nature. At a certain point of capitalist development, their effectiveness as factors in overcoming crises ceases. They become too weak in relation to the further demands of accumulation, or are already completely exhausted as a result of previous accumulation (for example, capitalist expansion meets its objective limits long before it completes its march over the globe). Furthermore, capitalist rationalization leads, as has been shown, to mis-rationalization, and the revolutionizing of technique, too, has its capitalistic limits. Neither can wages in the long run be kept below the workers’ cost of reproducing themselves, nor can the middle-class elements be completely expropriated. Monopolization further lowers the possibility for capital expansion, and imperialistic ventures grow more and more dubious. But regardless of how or when the counter-tendencies are neutralized, it is clear to the Marxist that capitalism must of necessity reach a point where the past cycle of crises gives way to the permanent crisis which capitalism is powerless to overcome.
This permanent crisis, or the death crisis, of capitalism is a crisis no longer restricted by any counter-tendencies - a crisis in which the tendency toward collapse runs its course. But even here we are not presented with a single act, but with a process, a whole historical period. In such an economic condition, the relative pauperization of the proletariat, which goes with the whole of capitalist development, is bound to become absolute, general and permanent. During the upgrade period of capitalism, wages rose, since the cost of reproducing the workers continually increased also, though in relation to what they produced, their portion was less and less. In the permanent crisis, their real living conditions are bound to grow worse, absolutely and uninterruptedly.
The condition of permanent crisis forms the objective basis of the revolutionary labor movement. The class struggle grows sharper and assumes more naked forms. On the other hand, the means of suppression employed by the ruling class are adapted to this new condition. While in the upgrade period of capitalism, “formal democracy” sufficed to permit the smooth operation of the social mechanism, in the permanent crisis capitalism has to take up with open dictatorship. In the place of “democracy” there arises, at a rather high stage of development, a political condition which today is called fascism. The fact that the ideological basis of fascism is formed by the impoverished middle class does not alter the fact that the fascist movement operates only in the interest of the now monopolized capital. Capitalist concentration, which goes on even in the permanent crisis, necessarily impoverishes also the middle strata of capitalists. The energies thus aroused within the middle class are engaged by monopoly capital for its own purposes. Parts of the petty bourgeoisie are granted concessions at the expense of the workers, though these concessions are only of temporary character.
By destroying the organizations and doing away with the limited “democratic” political liberties of the workers with the aid of the corrupted middle-class gunmen and the part of the workers under their ideological influence, capitalism thinks to secure its continued existence even during the permanent crisis. But even though, through terrorism, the workers can be politically atomized, their congregation in large masses is still necessary for industrial production. With the destruction of the old form of the labor movement, new forms necessarily arise; and since these forms are deprived of other means of expression, they must express themselves on the job itself, whereby their strength is increased a thousand-fold. The workers-council movement, the organizational form of the revolution, thus arises naturally out of the very conditions which capitalism has created. The permanent terror is at the same time the political schooling of the workers. So that in the proletariat capitalism not only produces its own grave-diggers; it has also to demonstrate to the proletariat how they can fight successfully.
Even though the workers in great masses may never attain a revolutionary consciousness, in order to live they are forced to take up the fight against capital. And when they fight for their existence under the conditions of the permanent crisis, this fight, regardless of its ideological quality, is a fight which can only turn in the direction of overcoming the capitalist system. Until the successful revolutionary overthrow, the proletariat lives in barbarous, constantly worsening conditions, and the only possibility of getting away from that is communism; that is, the overcoming of capitalist relations of production, the abolition of private property in the means of production, which is identical with the abolition of wage labor.
Marxism is not only a theory which sprung from the existence of the proletariat and its position in society; Marxism is the actual class struggle between capital and labor, that is, a social condition in which the workers, whether they will or not, whether they are conscious of it or not, whether they know Marx or not, are unable to act otherwise than in accordance with Marxism, if they wish to maintain themselves and thereby at the same time to serve the general progress of mankind. While Marx himself actualized the Hegelian dialectic, that is recognized the real, concrete movement as dialectical, Marxism can be actualized only by means of the fighting proletariat. A Marxist is not one who has mastered the Marxian theories; a Marxist is one who strives to actualize those theories. In a word: Marxism is not only a view of the world; Marxism is the living, fighting proletariat.

Intro
It is October 20th, 2077. A couple of days before the Great War. Player exits out of their car to their new home (which was the Sole Survivor’s home) in Sanctuary Hills. Player interacts with Quick Rollin’ Moving employees. Player now gets the option to decorate and build inside their home (this serves as a tutorial for the building mechanics, except for the “survival” aspects). After Player finishes decorating, the Vault-Tec Sales Rep comes to the door. This is where Player chooses their SPECIAL stats, gendecharacter, traits, and tag skills.
Traits include:
Anchorage Veteran (Gun accuracy is increased, at the cost of guns breaking faster)
Kevlar (Damage from bullets is reduced, at the cost of other sources of damage doing more)
Wanna see me do it again? (Character movement speed is increased, while AP is decreased more)
Wild Wasteland (Pop Culture references, functions like NV’s)
Gameplay changes are also as follows: VATS freezes time, no voiced protagonist, and none of that horrible dialog wheel.
Your neighbors will visit you at times, bringing gifts like food. One of your neighbors, Greg Michaels, will invite you over to his house for shooting in his backyard on October 22nd, 2077 (the player can decline this, kindly or rudely. This affects the players reputation). Greg is a very ecstatic man, very happy to meet someone new, and had served in the Annexation of Canada years back.
Player also has the option to completely skip the intro by interacting with a clock (this skips to October 23rd).
On October 23rd, the nukes fall by the hands of the People’s Republic of China. Player flees to Vault 111, and them and their neighbors are frozen for 210 years.
It is now 2287, and the Vault computer opens your pod in particular. You have been chosen to go into the Wasteland and find a “Cryogenic Nuclear Battery” for your Vault. Every other pod is sealed shut. The Vault Computer needs the experiment to keep going on, and can not be reasoned with.
Player exits Vault 111, and finds Sanctuary Hills. Their house is now abandoned, with the same furniture you left in it still there. The atmosphere is also a bit more greenish than before, with more ambient noises familiar to Fallout 3’s. This is where you meet Codsworth, who was Greg’s Mr. Handy. He is a companion you can have later on.
Player goes to Red Rocket Gas Station and meets Dogmeat who can be a companion as usual. Player goes to Concord and meets Roger Nelson (who replaces Preston Garvey) who is defending the Museum of Freedom from a Raider gang called “The Conquerors.” Roger is an old man, and had served in the Commonwealth Provisional Government Army for 54 years now (He is 75). He is a Captain of a small platoon. He has gray hair, has a “pencil mustache”, wears a blue beret, and CPG combat gear. When you first see him, he is cursing and swearing at the Raiders down below him while firing his Assault Rifle (Fallout 3) at them.
He doesn’t see you at first, and retreats inside before he can. Once you go into the room you would usually meet Preston in, Roger aims a revolver at your head while other CPG soldiers aim their guns at you. They quickly realize you aren’t a Raider, and you have a moment to explain yourself. Amongst the people in the room, there are also settlers in there who had to find refuge with the CPG soldiers.
Explanation of the state of the CPG
Player: Who exactly are you?
Roger: We’re the Commonwealth Provisional Government. Part of its army. I’ve just lost a shit ton of soldiers in this platoon. Shit’s real bad right now…
Player: What’s going on?
Roger: We’re currently at war with the Fenway Empire. We’ve been taking heavy losses as of late. I’m starting to lose hope, and I think everyone is too. And now on top of it, these damn raider scumbags are attacking us! Makes me pissed.
Player: How did this war with Fenway start?
Roger: The CPG had started more down south from here, in Quincy. It’s been around longer than I’ve been around. Founded in 2199. But I’m getting off topic.
In short, the CPG wanted to expand more up north years back in 2282. The CPG wanted to integrate Diamond City, the now capital of Fenway, into its grand expanding nation. However, Diamond City wasn’t so… cooperative. They were sticking to their guns, and became threatening against us. They soon founded the Fenway Empire, and got other settlements and cities on their side to counter the CPG in case of war.
It finally came to a boiling point 3 years later. Those Fenway assholes attacked the city of Rexton. Two superpowers, both fighting for control. If it was up to me, I would go out and kill that bastard “President McDonough” myself. I just want to light his fat ass up with lead.
That’s what I’ve got so far.

A fun little story written with the help of Chat Gbt
Ashley sat in the dimly lit room, her face illuminated only by the soft glow of her phone screen. She scrolled through filters, each one transforming her features into something more palatable, more beautiful than reality. The reflection staring back at her from the phone was a comforting illusion, a refuge from the harsh truth.
From the very top of her head, her long, stringy, greasy black hair cascaded down, interwoven with shimmering tinsel that failed to disguise its neglected state. The tinsel, once a playful addition, now only highlighted the witch-like length of her face, ending at a chin that jutted out sharply.
Ashley's smile, once a point of unique charm, now betrayed her. The gaps in her teeth, initially quirky, had become grotesque. The missing top and bottom back teeth were a testament to years of neglect—perhaps due to drugs, sugar, or simply a lack of care. The front teeth, covered in decay and rot, were adorned with tooth gems, a desperate attempt to mask the underlying issues with a superficial sparkle. Cosmetic band-aids on real medical problems.
Ashley’s skin tells a story of years spent in neglect and abuse. The wrinkles around her mouth are deep and pronounced, etched into her skin from years of relentless smoking. Starting as a young girl, Ashley's addiction to cigarettes saw her go from Senecas to Winstons, never caring about the toll it took on her appearance. She even reminisces about the dark nights of her drug days when she would scour the streets of Jamestown, searching for discarded cigarette butts to smoke. Yet, when she looks at herself through the lens of her phone's beauty filters, she is blind to these harsh realities.
Her nose, once straight, is now visibly crooked, a telltale sign of her preference for snorting drugs through one nostril. This crookedness disrupts the symmetry of her face, but Ashley remains oblivious to it, hidden behind the digital perfection she clings to. The only redeeming quality in her appearance is the color of her eyes—a striking shade that draws fleeting compliments from her followers. However, even her eyes cannot escape the legacy of her past, as their shape hints at subtle birth defects, adding to the unevenness of her features.
Her followers had noticed. What once set her apart now drew comments of disgust. But Ashley couldn't face the mirror without the comfort of her phone's filters. The filters softened her long, witch-like face, filled in the gaps in her smile, and hid the decay behind a veil of digital perfection.
One evening, as she meticulously adjusted a new filter, her phone battery died. Panic surged through her as the screen went dark, leaving her with no choice but to confront her reflection in the glass window. The harsh reality hit her with the force of a nightmare—there was no smoothing effect, no digital makeup, just the raw, unfiltered truth.
Terrified by the glimpse of her true self, Ashley scrambled to her vanity. She grabbed more tinsel for her hair, more tooth gems for her decaying teeth, and even glitter for her face. She hoped that these sparkly distractions would once again create the illusion she so desperately needed.
Her hands trembled as she glued the new, sparkly adornments to her skin. The room grew colder, and the silence was broken only by her labored breathing. She avoided looking directly into the mirror, fearing another glimpse of the monster she had become.
In the shadows of her room, surrounded by discarded makeup and glitter, Ashley clung to her phone. She waited for it to charge, praying that the filters would once again shield her from the horrifying reality of her own reflection.

Residential Contracting 101
With over 20 years of building experience, I would like to share with you my insights in navigating becoming a successful contractor. With many different avenues of the building world its key to understand what problems will arise on any given day. A man once told a saying that stuck-the 6 p’s in life- Piss Poor Preparation leads to Piss Poor Performance. Preparation builds everything in construction, without preparation the jobsite will not run correctly. The best advice I was ever given was to learn a little about every trade giving you the ability to understand trade lingo and secrets. An example would be painters use the terminology flash; this means when the sub structure bleads through the paint. Subcontractors will give the best pricing if they respect your knowledge of the industry. If the subcontractor feels they will have to hold your hand through the job they will charge an extra fee…i.e. I call it the aggravation fee. In this blog I will explain the key elements in finding success in all aspects of the industry. Contracting is a physically and emotionally demanding job which requires planning and foresight to complete projects on time within budget. Picking your customer is just as important as picking your employees or subcontractors. I have worked for some of the most demanding customers leading me to question at the end if the job was even worth it. Sleepless nights, constant changes, lack of payment, lawsuit threats, adding work that was in the contract are just a few things you could face with a tough customer. With so many moving parts at all times it is critical to be able to adapt to changes within a short time frame. Materials will come in damaged, subcontractors will be late, employees will get sick, but the deadline you set does not change. The stress can be overwhelming at times keeping your mind in a good place is key to navigating all that is thrown at you. Choosing your client picking the right jobs-Keep these questions in mind The first question to be asked is what the time frame is to start the job to see if it fits within the timeframe for your business. If the time frame doesn’t work then move on from the project or let them know when you would be available to start. If the client really wants to use, they will wait until you are available. Taking on too much work will only lead to problems. Construction is a serviced based business, staying on top of the project and client will eliminate an unhappy customer and construction issues that will be over seen. With online presence if details are missed and customer service lacks it will only be a matter of time the phone will not ring. The second question to be asked to the client is do they have a budget in mind for the project. If they answer yes this is good, follow through with what the budget is. If the budget seems low let them know, this will eliminate a tire kicker, educate them on what the price range could be. If the budget seems reasonable then continue the discussion to the next question. If they answer no let them know that you can give them an estimate to see if the project is feasible with their finical capabilities. Taking on a job that is not correctly budgeted will lead to an unsatisfied customer due to non-transparency of the construction cost. The third question to be asked is anyone else bidding on the job, if the answer is yes, understand you might just be number check for the contractor doing the job. Dig a little deeper and find out how many numbers they are getting and why. If your business model is to be competitive be completely transparent with customer, this will gain trust with them. Let them know you get what you pay for and if you they choose the lowest bid it could lead into lack of quality of work.
The fourth question I will ask is there any specific subcontractors they wanted to use. If the answer is yes then I would explain to them you only use the subcontractors you have a working relationship with. Otherwise, this could backfire as the subcontractor might not show, do subpar work, talk behind your back to the homeowner. In my experience I would stay away from using any homeowner to alleviate problems down the road. A quick conversation now can save headaches down the road. The fifth question I will ask are planning on getting the job permitted, this needs to be known it takes more time for the permitting process. Plans will have to drawn submitted and approved to the city before work can commence. The sixth question I will ask if a residential remodel is are you going to be living through the remodel if yes understand this will take more time to navigate the project due to answering questions and cleaning the house on a daily occurrence. I would recommend seeing if the customer would be willing to move into an Airbnb or friends for at least the demo portion of the project. If they do plan on living through the remodel add a couple hours a day to accommodate the extra time that will be required. The seventh question I would ask in a residential remodel is how old the house is to see if there is asbestos that would need to removed by a proper company. A home built before 1979 will most likely have some asbestos in the house, use a licensed company with proper insurance to dispose of the materials. If everything looks good to this point find out a little more about the client personality. If the client seems reasonable, I would bid the job. Unreasonable people can cause you more stress than its worth. These are some red flags I would look out for. Some jobs are not worth the money. Very demanding in the way you are going to perform your job- I.e., tell you how you are going to do your job- You’re the professional not them! Give you a hard time about your price- haggle with price you estimated- The price is the price! If they are a family with little money and you want to help them out is one thing, if they are trying to beat you down is another. Mention they have a lawyer-there is no need for them to bring up that they have a lawyer - Run for the hills as if the job goes south, you will be the one losing out! Tell you what the payment terms are. It’s your business you get paid how it works for your company. If you want to get paid every Friday, put it into your contract-If the clients do not agree move on it will save you frustrations If they talk bad about the last contractor, chances are they will talk bad about you. There is a reason why the contractor does not work for them anymore, unless he did subpar work this a red flag Clients are using an interior decorator that will purchasing all of the materials- The materials could be ordered incorrectly by the interior designer your company will not make the mark-up it deserves. Interior decorators usually add time to the job as well as act like your boss. Charging a little extra for the time and stress that it will entail is only fair. Clients want to purchase the materials- You are using your knowledge to buy the correct materials-The mark up on the materials keeps the doors open working for wages only pays the bills The husband and wife do not get along-You will become the mediator between the couple it will lead to taking sides a losing proposition- A drama free work place is always best! Dangling carrot-if you do this job the next one will be better-Only look at what there offering at the present moment, if its not a good fit do not take the job for a job down the road…Its not worth chasing a job that might not happen! The Art of the Sale First things first selling your company is all about presentation. In meeting your clients for the first time show up with a collared golf shirt tucked in, belt, nice jeans, and newer shoes. Have a truck that a clean, no dents scratches, preferably washed the day you are going into your meeting. Have a leather note pad that is clean no dirt or paint visible. Show up 5 minutes early, if you’re running a little late shoot them a text to let them know. Treat the situation as if were going on a first date, best foot forward. As you introduce yourself give them a warm greeting, letting them know you are very interested in the work. Find out a little about them, hobbies, where they lived, etc etc. You are going to be working with them on a daily basis its nice to know what makes them tick. Having a good working relationship from the start is key forming a solid relationship. As the conversation progresses find out who wears the pants in the family…ie who’s the final decision maker. If its fits the wife, chances it is…..then kindly let the husband know happy wife happy life when their in a stall mate on an issue. As your looking at the project throw in some suggestions of what you think would look good from past experiences, this will get their attention that you have knowledge and want what’s best for them. If you see ways to save them money in their project let them know, money is a large point of the sale keep that in mind. Mention that you’re not the least expensive contractor but you’re not the most expensive either. Your customer satisfaction is your number one goal which leads to more time spent on keeping them happy. One happy customer will lead to another, one unsatisfied customer leads to work in the future. Bring up the fact the finishing the job on time is key goal to your business, many contractors run several jobs at once causing the jobs to be finished way behind schedule. You must stand out as having integrity, good morals, and the ability to problem solve to get the job. The clients will be testing you to see if you’re a good fit as well. Keep in mind as you take your notes that you must not forget anything they mention as it will come back before the job is completed…i.e. we mentioned that to you before we started the job! Take pictures of the proposed area for work, that way you can use it to better right your estimate. Let them know you will give them a detailed outline of when the job will be completed letting them see how long each phase will take and correlate it with your payment schedule. Before you leave their house let them know when the estimate will be sent to them. MAKE SURE YOU HIT THAT DEADLINE! Once you sent the email over with estimate make sure you get confirmation that they received it. Wait at least 2 days before checking with them, hopefully they contact you first! If they want negotiate the price, let them know that it is the best price that you can manage, its not worth losing money before you start. I closed 80% of the work I estimated by being very transparent and friendly. If you come off with an attitude charge double what the going rates are you might only land 1 out of 10 jobs as well as getting the reputation of being expensive. Bidding the job Looking up industry standards on pricing is what I would go buy for pricing. If you google the coat of any installation there will be a cost range for everything. Looking at the cost ranging from high to low I would tend to be in the middle. Some items might be low on the internet if this is the case use your best judgment not to lose money. Closing sales is key to success and keep the doors open for business. Being in the middle on pricing is key as most customers shy away from contractors that are extremely low or high on the price range. I tend not bid out hourly as wages do not pay for retirement. Bidding is better as customers no the exact price of the cost of construction. It also keeps the job moving quicker as time and material contractors take longer to complete projects…Thus costing the client more money and valuable time they could spend in their house. Using a Contract Using a detailed estimate tied to a contract covers your butt in 99% of the time. Having a piece of mind that every aspect of the job is covered in the estimate and contract protects both your company and the client. Key terms to include in your estimate/contract are. Have a schedule on excel showing the start dates and dates of each trade this will show the customer you are organized with time lines. If not written in the detailed in the estimate the item is excluded- This ensures if its not written down its not included. TBD- To be Determined- A phrase on a line item that has yet to had final decision of products or service needed. -The pricing will follow the decisions to be finalized Give out what your written warranty will be for parts and labor this changes state to state. If the homeowner provides the product than no warranty will be given on that particular item. In the contract have a start date and end date with the verbiage subject to change due to weather, product delivery, change orders Have a progress payment schedule to ensure the client understands when funding will be expected-Including if not payment is rendered service to the project will stop. Have written terms of how change orders will be charged-cost plus 20% or a set fee Make sure in your contract that arbitration is required versus going to court- This will save lawyer fees and going to court Many contracts can be found online and each state requires different contracts
Finding leads Finding leads is easy with the right network of people. I personally do not find working for friends or family members a good fit. Relationships get strained when money is involved, causing undue stress for both parties. I have listed a couple of ways to build a network or find work using the internet. Get in contact with realtor’s- Realtors have a big client base of homeowners who need work done Contact local Architects to see if they are working with any general contractors Leave some business cards at your local materials suppliers-Doowindow/lumber-many times clients will ask salesman for a referral. Join a business networking group- BNI is one of many Join a internet website lead generation company- Houzz, Angie’s List, Home Advisor, thumbtack, Yelp run an ad on craigslist Use a marketing company to market your website-This could become costly with little results Create a Facebook business page Create a Yelp business page
Building your subcontractor base Having 2 subcontractors for every trade, gives you the flexibility of completing jobs on time if the one the subcontractors is too busy at the time you need their service. Your subcontractors are the face of your business, choose owner run companies that are professional. Check to make sure there license are up to date..ie workman’s comp, liability insurance, state license. Choosing subcontractors with lettered vans, logoed t-shirts is s key to looking professional in the clients’ eyes. In the past I have gotten a lot of subcontractors for material supply shops, stopping by jobsites, researching the internet using Yelp, Home Advisor, etc etc. Once you get one good subcontractor ask them if they know any other trades they would recommend. One good subcontractor leads to another in most cases. The key to having a good group of subcontractors is to let them know that you are there to get help them get the job done. They do work for you but without them you are nothing…keep that in mind! Make them aware a clean jobsite is required at the end of everyday to ensure the proper safety for all parties including theirs! Over the years I have referred a lot of companies work when there is only 1 trade needed. Referring work to subcontractors is a good way to get top priority when you have work that needs to be completed ASAP. Timing is everything in times of emergency having a good group of subcontractors will make your business run smoothly. Pay your subcontractors immediately after performing work, this will make them feel appreciated! A happy subcontractor is one that will gladly go the extra mile for you knowing that there not just a number to your business! Buying lunch once a week for the jobsite is always a good token of appreciation!
Supervising In supervising any jobsite its key to monitor everything from materials on hand, weather, vehicle parking (if applicable), jobsite safety, and subcontractors’ workmanship. If you hired a professional there should be little supervision in the work being performed, on rare occasions a new hire might need some mentoring to get the results completed correctly. If you see a problem with there work address it with the worker directly, no need to call his boss…. building repour with the worker letting him know you got his back goes miles down the road! Checking in on the job first in the morning to answer any questions or changes that need to be conveyed and once in the afternoon to make sure all work be completed is done per construction industry standards. A job that is run blindly will have many more issues than one that is watched over. I have seen many jobs with no site supervision, leading to subpar quality work as well as safety hazards. Its better to be like an eagle than cluck like a turkey!
Working with the City/Inspectors On permitted jobs the city and site inspector will be a large part of how smoothly the job runs. Each phase of construction has an inspection allowing for the project to continue. Make sure your subcontractors are aware that the project is inspected before starting the job. The best way to stay on his good side is to provide a clean jobsite and having the job built to the highest standards possible. When having the site inspected be courteous to the inspector asking any questions or concerns you have with the work during the job. Being completely transparent will save you aggravation of problems down the road. The more he trust you the better if you seem sneaky or rude he will make your life a living nightmare! Many inspectors will have an attitude towards you….I suggest keeping quiet and doing what ever he wants….he’s the boss no need to get in a pissing match you will not win at. How to deal with irate customer Stay calm during any argument with an irate customer. Never raise your voice or show that you are bothered by their disgruntled behavior. If the customer is trying to get more from you than agreed upon stand your ground. Worst case scenario is you walk from the job, which in the long run be more of a loss for the client. I have only run into a couple of these clients; they are unreasonable and not worth losing sleep over a few dollars. Its best to terminate the relationship as it would be my best guess that a referral from this customer would not be one you wanted anyway. If you feel it was just a miscommunication on your end, take reasonability and remedy the problem. Taking accountability for your mistake will go a far way in their eyes and on future issues that arise. Prepping the homeowner pre-construction Before starting the job, it very important to give the homeowners a warning of what will happen during the construction process.

1. All furniture in the proposed working area must be moved- I would recommend having the clients take care of this to limit the risk of damage to their belongings.
2. There will be dust that will be in the house up to 3 months after construction-I would recommend hiring a construction cleaning company at the end of the job even so after it is cleaned dust will be present months after words.
3. There will be conflicts between you in the homeowner at some course of the job. - You will do your best to eliminate them as quickly as they arise-i.e. material damages, miscommunication, job delays
4. All decisions on materials must be made before the start of the job- this will eliminate job stoppage due to materials not being on site.
5. All materials will be on site before commencement of job-
6. Payment structures must be made per contract otherwise job will stop until payment rendered
7. Cars are to be moved out of the driveway- Ensures ease of loading and unloading of materials/tools
8. Give the specific hours that workers will be present- i.e. 7-3:30
9. Determine what areas are allowed to be used as staging for tools/materials
10. If animals are present in the home that they put outside or in a room during the day
11. All valuables in the house are locked in safe
12. Ask if using client’s household bathroom is okay or to bring in Porter Potty
13. Being transparent as possible is key to keeping a great relationship with your client!

During Construction During construction it is key to take detailed photos to eliminate any damages that were not caused by the construction process. I would also make a video to ensure all areas are included. All subcontractors should also take progress pictures to ensure if problems arise in the future, they will not be responsible for any work that they did not perform. Keep an on-going log of progress to the homeowners and share the pictures for there records. This will keep homeowners excited of the progress being made. When the house is gutted to the studs it is important to have construction photos showing where all utilities are run in the walls or sub floor. If there is a problem in the future there will photos showing all utility locations. Protect all flooring with plywood or floor protective. I also like to protect front door and tarp all areas where subcontractors are to be working. Make sure to cover any chandeliers/furniture/doorways with plastic to eliminate dust. Ask the homeowners if they have any concerns that they could think of. We’re all human and possibly a detail was missed! Post Construction Phase If the project went smoothly appreciation should be shown to the customer. Find out if the husband likes a particular type of liquor. Bring the wife a bouquet of flowers. Send a Christmas card to the family letting how much you appreciated the work. You know you have done a good job if they tell you they will refer you to their friends. The best compliment you could receive is a good referral. In Summary Try to find a knitch in the market, I found kitchens to be a great remodel projects. Bathrooms are tough as they are small, expensive with little profit margin with every trade involved. Windows/doors are also another great knitch as they can be installed quickly. There are so many different remodeling items that can be stream lined to make the selling installing process flawless. Once the core group subcontractors are in place the job almost runs itself. Every day is a learning experience with new materials or methods in construction. Keeping up with codes, materials, fluctuating labor and material cost is a job within itself. Anyone can be a contractor with the right mindset.

For those in Blacksburg, here's a rundown of 28 local events you can enjoy in Blacksburg and throughout the New River Valley as June arrives.
Weekend Rundown of Local Fun: 1. Matt Holloman in Concert Rising Silo Farm Brewery, Blacksburg Friday, May 31, 2024, 6:00 - 9:00 PM Admission: Free Born and raised in southeastern Virginia, Matt Holloman has been playing around Virginia for more than 25 years. Growing up on his older brother’s blues collection, Matt mixed the likes of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters with the experimental sounds of songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Frank Black, creating a style all his own. Always interested in reinventing his live performance, Matt uses a looper so he can improvise and manipulate layers of sound not usually heard from an acoustic performer. You can also expect simple, but memorable songs, reminiscent of storytelling songwriters like John Prine and Bob Dylan. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=777075
2. Friday Nights at the Farm with Music from Jim Korb Beliveau Farm Winery, Blacksburg Friday, May 31, 2024, 6:00 - 9:00 PM Admission: Free Jim Korb is an acoustic musician and guitarist based in Southwest, VA and a member of the band Stonehouse. "Just a singer; a natural-born guitar ringer, playing and singing a mix of Classic Country, Eagles, CCR, Skynyrd, and a little bit of everything else from John Denver to The Blues." Beliveau welcomes a special musical guest every Friday night with live music from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM and sing along to all of your favorite classics. Enjoy delicious food from their full service kitchen until 8:30 PM and chat over a glass of wine during our extended bar hours until 9:00 PM. Get a $5 Beliveau Buck to use during your next visit for every $50.00 you spend on Friday nights from 6:00-9:00 PM. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=777450
3. Pizza Roll (Bike Ride) Blacksburg Library, Blacksburg Friday, May 31, 2024, 6:00 PM - TBD Admission: Free The New River Valley Bicycle Association (NRVBA) presents a Pizza Roll starting at the Blacksburg Library. Enjoy a five mile bike ride on the Huckleberry Trail and through Virginia Tech's campus, followed by post ride pizza at Benny's provided by Trek Blacksburg. This is a NRVBA ride, meaning waivers are required and can be filled out on site. If you have never ridden with NRVBA before, your first ride is free. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=777778
4. The Grascals in Concert Little River Bluegrass Barn, Radford Friday, May 31, 2024, 7:00 - 10:00 PM General Admission: $30.00, Reserved Tickets: $35.00 Great musicians will always find a way to make good music, but for great musicians to make great music, they must form a bond – one that, more often than not, goes beyond the purely musical to the personal. For The Grascals, that bond has been forged at the intersection of personal friendships, shared professional resumes and an appreciation for the innovative mingling of bluegrass and country music that has been a hallmark of the Nashville scene for more than 40 years. Their cutting-edge modern bluegrass is delivered with a deep knowledge of, and admiration for, the work of the music’s founding fathers. Timely yet timeless, The Grascals make music that is entirely relevant to the here and now yet immersed in traditional values of soul and musicianship. It’s a unique sound that has earned three Grammy® nominations and two Entertainer of the Year awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association, as well as national media attention that seems to perpetually elude acts entrenched in niche genres. Such appearances include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Fox & Friends, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and CBS’ The Talk. The Grascals have over 200 guest appearances on the Grand Ole Opry to their credit and have also performed on the revered stages of Radio City Music Hall, the Ryman Auditorium and the Kennedy Center as well as music festivals such as MerleFest, Stagecoach, and the CMA Music Festival. In addition to performing across the United States and Canada, the awarding-winning band has traveled the world to take bluegrass music to Japan, Greece, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, and Belgium. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=777777
5. Line Dancing at Sinkland Sinkland Farms, Christiansburg Friday, May 31, 2024, 7:00 PM - TBD Admission: $10.00 Join Sinkland Farms for a fun-filled night of line dancing. All types of music and all levels of experience welcome. Energetic, enthusiastic instruction begins at 8:00 PM. Adult beverages and food truck will be available for purchase. Weather permitting, there will be outdoor dancing as well. This event is fun for all. Ages 16 & under must be accompanied by an adult. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778214
6. 2024 Pulaski County Spring Flea Market New River Valley Fairgrounds, Dublin Saturday, June 1, 2024 and Sunday, June 2, 2024, 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM Admission: $2.00, Kids 6 and Under: Free The Dublin Lions Club presents the 2024 Two-Day Pulaski County Spring Flea Market celebrating 49 years. With over 20,000 visitors and 800 vendors spaces, more than a dozen different food vendors offering varied food options and the chance to eat a few of the famous "Lion Dogs", you will not want to miss this event. Check out vendors with crafts, antiques and more at the semi-annual Pulaski County Flea Market. Expect to have a ton of fun hunting for that rare items or the deal of the century. Although over 100 spaces are under roof, it is a largely an outdoor event. All proceeds go to the Dublin Lions and their numerous community causes such as eyeglasses for the needy and hunger relief in the community. This is their primary fundraiser each year. The event is rain or shine and parking is free. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778201
7. Benefit Ride for Bubba Williston's Family KFC, Christiansburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM $15.00-$20.00 Donation per vehicle. The Benefit Ride for Bubba's Family will start and end at KFC. Registration begins at 9:00 AM with kickstands up at 10:30 AM. Help raise money for Bubba Williston’s family. Bubba lost his life on Thursday, April 11th after saving his boys. Bubba leaves behind a wife, Danielle and three small children, Brantley, Kyler and Aubree. Let’s come together as a community and help ease the financial burden. There will also be door prizes, raffle and 50/50 raffle. Lunch will be served following the ride and returning to KFC. All bikes, cars, trucks and all vehicles welcome. Snacks will be provided on ride and lunch and drinks afterward. All proceeds benefit Bubba's wife and his three children. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778242
8. Cabin Fever 12: Six Band Charity Event Cabin Fever, Pilot Saturday, June 1, 2024, 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM Adults: $10.00, Kids 13 & Under: Free Cabin Fever Charity Events presents their semi-annual charitable musical fundraiser event Cabin Fever 12 benefiting the Floyd County Humane Society in honor of Kevin Dodson. A family style buffet and t-shirts will also be available for purchase and there will be both a live and silent auction featuring donations from local businesses and our line-up of seven performers. 100% of the proceeds from all items will be donated to the Floyd County Humane Society. Music Performers include Chris and Chelsea, Seph Custer, Jake and Jess, The Good Ole Boys, The Flying Doves, Hoppie Vaughan and the Ministers of Soul and By All Means. The family style buffet is highlighted by the world class pulled barbecue provided by Cabin Fever friend Hamp Maxwell is $10.00 per person. Credit cards and personal checks will be accepted the day of the event. Pets and children are welcome. Bring your dog and a $25.00 donation will be made on your behalf. All donations made to Cavin Fever Charity are 100% tax deductible. The event is BYOB and lawn chairs are welcome. Parking is free. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778240
9. Summer Reading Kickoff Event Blacksburg Library, Blacksburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Admission: Free Grab your chalk and head to the library to kick off our summer reading program. Enjoy activities like a chalk walk, face painting, bubbles, and a sweet treat. Available while supplies last. All ages are welcome. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=777959
10. Ride-A-Rescue Cornhole Tournament Bisset Park, Radford Saturday, June 1, 2024, 11:00 AM - TBD Tournament Entry: $25.00 per team, Spectators: Free Ride-A-Rescue and Winterfrost Farm presents their Ride-A-Rescue Cornhole Tournament. Ride-A-Rescue is a local, non-profit, equine rescue that is holding an epic Cornhole Tournament throwdown to raise funds and awareness for their rescue's operation and rescue horses. The Cornhole Tournament is a double elimination tournament and open to all ages. There will also be a Kids Corner open all day and food vendors on site. First, second and third place teams will win big prizes. Teams can battle back in the Losers Bracket for another shot at the championship. All participating teams will also be entered in a drawing for awesome bonus prizes. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=776144
11. Lazy, Crazy, Hazy Days of Summer JBR Vineyards LLC, Pearisburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 12:00 - 5:00 PM and Sunday, June 2, 2024, 1:00 - 5:00 PM Admission: Free Wine Pricing: Tasting: $5.00, Glass of Wine: $5.00, Bottles of Wine: $15.00-$20.00 plus tax Experience the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer with a delightful afternoon of wine tasting. Savor fine wine in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. Stroll through the vineyard with a glass of your favorite wine. Credit cards and cash accepted. Dogs and kids welcome. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778155
12. Annual Loyalists in the Backcountry Event Wilderness Road Regional Museum, Newbern Saturday, June 1, 2024 and Sunday, June 2, 2024, 12:00 - 4:00 PM Admission: Free Join the Wilderness Road Regional Museum for the Two-Day Annual Loyalists in the Backcountry Event and learn about both the Patriots and Loyalists in the Backcountry of Southwest Virginia during the Revolutionary War. There will be some mischief afoot. Living history will be presented by the Fincastle Company on both days. Members of the Fincastle Company Living History group will share the history of the complicated interactions of the Patriots, "rascally" Loyalists, Tories, and those trying to stay "unaffected" during the American Revolution. On Sunday, there will be expanded programming including kids activities and a mock round up of the Tories to recreate some actual events in and around the Newbern area during the Revolutionary timeframe to include conspiracies, counterfeiting, and rounding up of the rascals. The event is free, but donations are always welcome and appreciated. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778165
13. 2024 New Town Festival Gospel Sing St. Luke and Odd Fellows Hall, Blacksburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 12:00 - 6:00 PM Admission: Free The Blacksburg Museum & Cultural Foundation presents the 8th Annual New Town Festival Gospel Sing. The afternoon will be filled with dancing, singing and fellowship as five local groups and soloists perform their favorite current and old-time gospel favorites. Kirk’s BBQ will be onsite with food available for purchase. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778231
14. Speed Friending Program for Ages 20-45 Christiansburg Library, Christiansburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 1:00 - 3:00 PM Admission: Free Are you interested in meeting new people? Want to make friends in the area, but find it hard to make time? Join the library for a fun and free way to connect with others in the community. Speed Friending will start with a speedy round of conversation starters. Yes, similar to speed dating, questions and conversation will be available for those who need it. Hang around after to chat, enjoy snacks, play games, or make plans with new friends. There will also be door prizes. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778081
15. Saturday Afternoon Music with Leslie Brooks New River Vineyard & Winery, Fairlawn Saturday, June 1, 2024, 2:00 - 5:00 PM Admission: Free Leslie Brooks is a singer-songwriter, performing solo with guitar, playing jazz, folk, blues, rockin' country and popular favorites originally from Kentucky now resides in Virginia. She has played the best venues in a 16-state area, as well as in Norway and Monte Carlo. Opened for Heart, James Taylor, Bob Margolin and Willie Nelson to name a few. Feel to free to select your favorites from her 300-song music menu. Seating is first come, first served. No reservation required. Guests can bring a blanket and/or chair. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778088
16. Spring Garden Day and Flower Art Opening Montgomery Museum of Art & History Gardens, Christiansburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 2:00 - 4:00 PM Admission: Free This event will feature the "Flower Art in the Garden" Theme Show, showcasing the creativity of local artists. Participants were tasked with decorating "flat flower" templates, thoughtfully crafted by students at Blacksburg High School, which will be placed throughout the site. Participants were encouraged to incorporate native southwest Virginia plants into their artwork, resulting in a vibrant display that celebrates the region's natural beauty and artistic talent. In addition to the art exhibit, Spring Garden Day offers a wonderful opportunity for attendees to explore the Museum Garden with gardeners on-site to answer any questions. Visitors will also have the chance to engage with the Virginia Native Plant Society's plant clinic, Virginia Master Naturalists, and Virginia Master Gardeners, as several booths will be set up to provide information and insights into the rich botanical heritage of Southwest Virginia. Note: This event was originally scheduled for Saturday, May 4th, but was postponed due to inclement weather. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778241
17. Summer Arts Festival Free Classic Movies: Wizard of Oz Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 3:00 - 4:45 PM Admission: Free The 2024 Summer Arts Festival kicks of the Free Classic Movies series featuring "The Wizard of Oz". The classic "Wizard of Oz" was originally released in 1939 with a rating of PG and stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr and Jack Haley. Synopsis: Dorothy Gale along with her dog Toto is swept away from a farm in Kansas to a magical land of Oz in a tornado and embarks on a quest with her new friends to see the Wizard who can help her return home to Kansas and help her friends as well. The Summer Arts Festival is presented by Virginia Tech and the Town of Blacksburg. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778205
18. Grand Opening in Blacksburg J.H Bards Spirit Co., Blacksburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 4:00 - 9:00 PM and Sunday, June 2, 2024, 12:00 - 6:00 PM Admission: Free J.H Bards Spirit Co. has moved the distillery from Fairlawn to Blacksburg and can't wait to show you their new completely renovated digs. On Saturday, last call will be ~8:40 PM and on Sunday ~5:30 PM. Parking is available in the Kent Square parking deck, on-street anywhere downtown, or in the municipal lot directly across Washington Street from us. Enter the distillery off of Draper Road. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778076
19. 2024 Oldtown Nights Concert Series Kickoff featuring Miller Holler Band Oldtown Fields (Shawsville Middle School Rec Area), Shawsville Saturday, June 1, 2024, 5:30 - 9:00 PM Adults: $5.00, Ages 12 & Under: Free The Eastmont Community Foundation presents the 8th season of the Oldtown Nights Concert Series Kickoff featuring the Miller Holler Band with a large open green space that is family and children friendly. Miller Holler is a country rock band with southern roots and a hunger for going against the grain and stirring up the music industry in Nashville, Tennessee. Concessions and drinks including adult beverages for those ages 21 & up will be available for purchase. Please bring cash for tickets and beer sales. Only limited credit card sales available. Please bring your own chairs and/or blankets. No tents or umbrellas allowed. Ages 16 & under must be accompanied by an adult. No outside drinks and no pets permitted. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=774327
20. The Wild Wood Band in Concert Long Way Brewing, Radford Saturday, June 1, 2024, 6:00 - 9:00 PM Admission: Free Wild Wood is based in the New River Valley performing country, classic rock & country, folk, bluegrass and originals. Enjoy an old school sound and a very eclectic catalog of music with your favorite sing-along ballads and originals. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778071
21. Baxter Briefly in Concert Rising Silo Farm Brewery, Blacksburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 6:00 - 9:00 PM Admission: Free Baxter Briefly is a Roanoke, VA musician performing unique and original music in the alternative rock, nu-funk and indie realms. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778232
22. Stand Up Comedy Show with Headliner Heather Joyce Bull & Bones Brewhaus & Grill, Blacksburg Saturday, June 1, 2024, 8:00 - 9:30 PM Admission: $7.00 Comedians Gone Rogue presents a Stand Up Comedy Show with Headliner Heather Joyce in the Banquet Room. Headliner Heather Joyce will be joined by other amazing comediennes from across Virginia and one very strong and independent man. Other performers include: Andrew Gustafson, Katherine Rogue, Christinia Tynes, Chelsea McCreight and Amanda Fitz. The cover goes directly to the talent. For ages 18 & up. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778246
23. 2024 Huckleberry Jam Point-to-Point 8.1 Mile and 1.75 Mile Run / Walk Runabout Sports, Blacksburg Sunday, June 2, 2024, 6:45 - 11:00 AM 8.1 Mile Run: $40.00 (through June 1st), $45.00 (after June 1st) 1.75 Mile Run: $29.00 (through June 1st), $32.00 (after June 1st) Return Shuttle: $5.00 Runabout Sports presents the 4th Annual Huckleberry Jam Point-to-Point 8.1 Mile and 1.75 Mile Runs on the Huckleberry Trail with the 8.1 Mile Run starting at RunAbout Sports in Blacksburg, VA and the 1.75 Mile Run starting on the Huckleberry Trail in Christiansburg, VA at the gate by Uptown Christiansburg's Kohl's store with both runs finishing at the Christiansburg Rec Center. Race Day Registration & Packet Pickup is from 6:45-7:45 AM. The 8.1 Mile Race starts at RunAbout Sports at 8:00 AM. The 1.75 Mile Race starts on Huckleberry Trail near Kohl's side of Uptown Christiansburg at 8:30 AM. Both race distances are point-to-point courses finishing at the Christiansburg Rec Center. Two aid stations will provide water and Gatorade along the way. RunAbout Sports will be donating all net proceeds to the Friends of the Huckleberry Trail. The group uses 100% of donations and funding for the engineering and construction of the Huckleberry Trail and the amenities along the trail. Participants may purchase an add-on shuttle ticket for $5.00 per person when registering. If you have a ride from the Christiansburg Rec Center, you are not required to purchase a shuttle pass. All finishers will receive an engraved rail-road spike finisher award with overall awards for the top three male and female finishers. The top two finishers in each age group also receive awards. Spectators and those picking up runners from the finish may park in front of the Christiansburg Rec Center and walk to the back where the race finishes. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778200
24. 2024 Check Farm Trail Downtown Check, Check Sunday, June 2, 2024, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM Admission: Free Floyd Country Tourism presents the 3rd Annual Check Farm Trail at seven participating farms and businesses throughout Check, Virginia. This family-friendly experience is an up-close chance to learn about agriculture through demonstrations, tastings and farm tours including plants & animals and more. Food and/or products will be available for purchase at most of the farms and businesses. Carpooling is encouraged and please leave pets at home. Note: Times and hours vary by farm and tour stop. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=778239
25. Youth Spaghetti Fundraiser Blacksburg United Methodist Church, Blacksburg Sunday, June 2, 2024, 12:00 - 6:00 PM Admission: $10.00 The Youth Ministry at Blacksburg United Methodist Church (BUMC) hosts a Youth Spaghetti Fundraiser. This fundraiser will offset cost associated with summer youth mission trip. BUMC’s youth will venture to the Eastern Shore of Virginia to Camp Occohannock on the Bay this summer. During the weeklong mission trip, the youth will work with Chesapeake Housing Mission. Grab lunch from 12:00-2:00 PM or dinner from 4:00-6:00 PM. The menu includes one serving of spaghetti (with or without ground beef), salad, garlic bread and choice of cookie (chocolate chip, sugar or snickerdoodle). For those unable to dine in, carryout will be available. Pre-ordering is available online. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=777765
26. Free Outdoor Acroyoga Class and Jam In Balance Yoga Studio @ VTCRC, Blacksburg Sunday, June 2, 2024, 12:30 - 2:30 PM Admission: Free Learn about the playful practice of Acroyoga in a safe environment. Acroyoga is a physical practice that combines yoga and acrobatics typically involving a base, a flyer, and spotter. No experience or partner is necessary. The first hour will be guided learning, followed by free form jam for an hour. This event will be held outdoors at the corner of Pratt Drive and Kraft Drive. The rain location will be In Balance CRC studio. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=777994
27. Book Club: Mr. Brightside's Italian Adventures with Discussion and Tasting Blacksburg Wine Lab, Blacksburg Sunday, June 2, 2024, 1:00 - 3:00 PM Admission: $40.00 Join the Wine Lab Book Club tasting & discussing featuring Mr. Brightside's Italian Adventures by Ryan Jacobson. After the success of his first humorous travel memoir, "The Adventures of Mr. Brightside", in which he traveled around the world exploring each country he visited on three different budget levels, Ryan Jacobson has now decided to tackle the country of Italy. Ryan travels to all of the Italy's twenty unique regions and splits his time in each by spending half his time on a low budget and half on a luxury budget before moving on to the next. Through the use of his humorous storytelling, Ryan shares what makes each of the regions so special and worthy of visiting. Reservations are required. Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=776425
28. Sunday Mountain Music Series Kickoff with Victor Lawson and the Boogie Chillin Band Mountain Lake Lodge, Pembroke Sunday, June 2, 2024, 4:00 - 6:00 PM Free Admission Mountain Lake Lodge presents their Sunday Mountain Music Series Kickoff with Victor Lawson and the Boogie Chillin Band. Victor Lawson and the Boogie Chillen Band have forged an identity as a good-time party band that plays the real deal blues and down in the mud rock ‘n roll and funk music as well. The tight three-man band takes their name from the song, “Boogie Chillen” which was made famous by late Delta blues icon, John Lee Hooker. From Tennessee to Virginia to West Virginia, in bars and saloons and restaurants and festivals, Victor Lawson and Boogie Chillen’s exuberant, joyful music has made the band one of the area’s premier attractions. Stop by Salt Pond Pub every Sunday from Memorial Day to Labor Day from 4:00-6:00 PM and enjoy live music along with food and drinks. Perfect for relaxing with the whole family (furry friends are welcome too). Link: http://www.nextthreedays.com/FeaturedEventDetails.cfm?E=776813
For all the 65+ big events happening this weekend, check out: • http://www.nextthreedays.com/featuredevents.cfm
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

In the wake of Furiosa bombing, there has been a lot of debate. It broke in a sense the sub, because the team saw abnormal mount of traffic through the site after during and after opening weekend. But I'm not here to bother you with that.
What you would read below might be a bit of naivety, delusional or borderline false, so take it all with a grain of salt, but it's my two cents why some of this is happening or at least partial reason why. I'm not touching every subject or every reason because it will open a discussion of Laplace's Demon.
The Rise of Franchises

• 2000 - 2011

Year	Movies over $300M Worldwide Gross	Leades in box office
2000	8	Mission: Impossible II
2001	12	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone / The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2002	12	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers / Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets / Spider-Man
2003	9	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King / Finding Nemo
2004	13	Shrek 2 / Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban / Spider-Man 2
2005	12	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith / The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2006	13	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
2007	17	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End / Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix / Spider-Man 3 / Shrek the Third
2008	17	The Dark Knight / Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull / Kung Fu Panda
2009	23	Avatar / Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince / Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs / Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
2010	21	Toy Story 3 / Alice in Wonderland / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 / Inception
2011	20	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 / Transformers: Dark of the Moon / Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

• From the beginning of the century, we can see a good jumping back and forth among top grossers - 12-13 movies have respectable $300M+ grosses each year. Franchises were young, some were already done. Before that we have rarely grossers over $300M+. A behemoth as Titanic was alone at the top in 1997, because no other movies grossed $300M that year. Approaching the new century $300M grossers became more apparent. Since 2000 we had 8-10+ movies grossing $300M.
• Mid 00s passed by and came 2007 - a sudden spike - 3 more movies grossed $300M+ than the year prior. What gives? A lot of closures in trilogies - Pirates, Spider-Man, Shrek himself and strong ongoing performance from Harry Potter. All examples of leader in the market.
• Then, another spike... a big one. The King of the Box Office is here. It's August 2009 and people saw the Cameron's Epos for the first time. No other came close (at least for another 10 years). The difference was beyond imagination. Consequent years saw also strong performances and Harry Potter reigned supremely one last time. As impressive this era was, it is dwarfed by what is coming next...

​
Enters... Marvel Cinematic Universe

• 2012-2019

Year	Movies over $300M Worldwide Gross	Leades in box office
2012	27	The Avengers / Skyfall / The Dark Knight Rises / The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2013	24	Frozen / Iron Man 3 / Despicable Me 2 / The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug / The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
2014	27	Transformers: Age of Extinction / The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies / Guardians of the Galaxy / Maleficent / The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 / X-Men: Days of Future Past / Captain America: The Winter Soldier / Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
2015	25	Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens / Jurassic World / Furious 7 / Avengers: Age of Ultron / Minions
2016	32	Captain America: Civil War / Rogue One: A Star Wars Story / Finding Dory / Zootopia / The Jungle Book
2017	32	Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi / Beauty and the Beast / The Fate of the Furious / Despicable Me 3 / Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
2018	34	Avengers: Infinity War / Black Panther / Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom / Incredibles 2 / Aquaman / Bohemian Rhapsody
2019	29	Avengers: Endgame / The Lion King / Frozen II / Spider-Man: Far from Home / Captain Marvel / Joker / Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker / Toy Story 4 / Aladdin

It's May 4th 2012 (Also Star Wars celebration day) and Marvel Studios pay-off has finally arrived.
As Deadline wrote it 'Avengers' Tracking Like Superhero: $125+M Opening Weekend With 4-Quadrant Appeal. There was sure an appeal. It was poised to open higher than Iron Man 2 (128M). How big, nobody knew at the time...

Right now Disney and theatre owners are adding screens every day for the release whose online pre-sales of tickets are already selling out. Midnight show business is expected to be phenomenal. Exactly how much the studio can gross for the first weekend depends on how many screenings each theater can pack into 72 hours by finding enough staff willing to work the extra hours and keep the pic running continuously.

It's interesting reading some of the comments under that article - many believed it will deliver, but not much more than what has already been done, few believed in the "B", but none predicated what happened.

• On May 4th, Friday, The Avengers opened to the second biggest Friday of All time, only behind Deathly Hallows Part 2. The rest you already know.
• I firmly believe The Avengers was one of the most influential movies in 2010s and in the cinema history. There were big movies before it and after it, but it's simple promise is what made the blockbuster scene. Cameron still reigned supreme, not even with $200M+ openers, but he came once every 10 years or so. Marvel "promised" to have that level every year and did they deliver.
• Since then, MCU was everywhere, talked, discussed, loved, hated but it was in people's mouths. The success of The Avengers might be remembered with giving the true birth of the shared universe and with so many failed attempts to copy it. What I think might be glazed over is the leading example it brought. Not in quality, but in blockbuster making. The 4-quadrant appeal was a great way to please everyone, and Hollywood saw that. It was nothing new, other movies were 4-quadrant, but never in such a big way. What Hollywood saw was the new path on how to make blockbusters.
• What we had between 2012 and 2019 was the audiences having blast going to the theater. MCU was almost around the corner and in-between every other blockbuster. You either watch MCU movie and then some other blockbusters or you watch some other blockbuster in wait for the MCU movie. It was the perfect run - from opening and breaking the $200M barrier, to opening and breaking the $300M barrier and becoming at the time the King of The Box Office.

​
And then COVID happened.

• 2020-2024

Year	Movies over $300M Worldwide Gross	Leades in box office
2020	6	The Eight Hundred / Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - The Movie: Mugen Train / Bad Boys for Life
2021	14	Spider-Man: No Way Home / The Battle at Lake Changjin / Hi, Mom / No Time to Die / F9: The Fast Saga
2022	15	Avatar: The Way of Water / Top Gun: Maverick / Jurassic World Dominion / Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness / Minions: The Rise of Gru
2023	17	Barbie / The Super Mario Bros. Movie / Oppenheimer / Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
2024	4 (as of May 31st)	Dune: Part Two

• I'm not going to delve deep into pandemic years. The data clearly show that there are still leaders during that time. It's just that people show only for the leaders. And there were leaders before 2012 and MCU rising but the experience year to year was vastly different. One year you got Shrek, the next you got Harry Potter and then Pirates of the Caribbean. All big, all loved by audiences, but vastly different, with different target demos. What MCU got audiences accustomed to was familiarity - you got 2-3 big blockbusters every year and in the same overall greatness. The biggest critique MCU has - all movies feeling the same, General Audiences didn't care about. And I believe GA still doesn't care about that, but their familiarity has fallen off, because the MCU has fallen off.
• The many factors surrounding the last 3-4 years are big part of the reason to where we are. Many points toward the rise of streaming and I agree it plays a role in shaping the experience. Everyday you are bombarded on social media with war and prejudices. The world feels a bit cold. Thanks to social media, distant problems become your problem in your head. You are bombarded with them... and then pops an ad - "You can watch now this movie on this platform".
• It has been discussed many times over in the last 1-2 years about the changed habits of viewers. The main culprit is the created habit of waiting to go on digital/streaming and I believe that is partially true. I, myself has been experiencing this more recently whether or not to go watch a movie or skip it and wait it few weeks / months later, because I have to weight my own priorities. But I think it's more than creating a habit of "I'll wait". If that was true, that means all those who waited would have buy it/rent it on digital and all those movies would have been big and would have heard about it. But it is not like that.

And this is why we need the box office leaders. The staples of blockbusters. Maybe not for you and me, who are interested in those topics and are familiar with it, but to general audiences, your everyday Joe who sometimes happen to stumble upon a movie which can caught his eye and go see it.
As to why $300M thresholds - that I will leave for the brain.

By Jacob Crosse
This past weekend, the “People’s Conference for Palestine” was held in Detroit, Michigan over three days, from May 24 through May 26. Organizers for the event stated that over 3,500 people attended.
The steering committee for the conference included 15 organizations, among which were the Palestinian Youth Movement, National Students for Justice In Palestine, the ANSWER Coalition (associated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation), Arab Resource and Organizing Society (AROC), Writers Against the War on Gaza, and Healthcare Workers for Palestine.
Despite the peaceful character of the event, police were a constant presence on the streets and outside the convention center. Several Palestinian speakers slated to appear at the event were delayed or were not able to attend in person, due to fascistic restrictions imposed on their travel by the US/NATO governments.
The stated goal of the conference, according to a program signed by the Steering Committee, was to provide “a space to assess, strategize and prepare for what is required for us in the next phase of the struggle.” However, the political perspective that dominated did not present a viable way forward.
Several panels did feature harrowing testimony of the situation in Gaza. In a recorded video message, Hind Khoudary, a journalist in Gaza who has been displaced since November 2023 said, “We are not only fearing air strikes, we are fearing famine.” She documented the catastrophic situation produced by Israel’s bombardment and the difficulties confronting journalists, who have themselves been targeted by airstrikes.
In a session titled, “Cutting Ties with Zionism in the Workplace,” former Google worker Ariel Koren discussed her experience trying to fight back against the implementation of Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract between Google, Amazon and the Israel Defense Forces that provides the military a suite of computer and artificial intelligence tools used to facilitate the oppression and extermination of the Palestinian people.
Koren explained that as part of the contract, Google is required to build “whatever cloud tools and AI tools the Israeli government and military ask for without asking any questions themselves. Google has no right to regulate or oversee or even know anything about how these get used on the ground and which government and military agencies are the beneficiaries of these tools.” Among the tools provided to the IDF are “facial detection, automatic image categorization, object tracking, and even sentiment analysis.”
Taghreed Ahmed, a member of the Palestinian Transport Union, explained that “Israel controls the conditions of workers” and that “over 9,000” workers were taken prisoner by Israel following October 7. While in Israeli custody, many workers were tortured and “over 80” are still missing.
Despite the IDF offensive on Gaza, Ahmed said that after workers were released they asked to return to the city to be with their families.
Before October 7, Ahmed said that over 32,000 workers in Gaza were granted permits to work in Israel, but not a single permit has been granted in over seven months. In order to survive, Ahmed said many working class families have resorted to selling their possessions, including furniture.

A political orientation to the Democratic Party

Despite the objective and empirical testimony provided by many of the panelists and speakers, the basic political perspective that emerged was thoroughly bankrupt: that of pressuring the Democratic Party.
The opening plenary event set the framework for the conference that followed. References to the crimes of the Israeli regime were combined with a great deal of chanting and slogans.
To the extent that anything was said about the background of the genocide, it was only in relation to the history of the Palestinian struggle. But even here, there was no examination of the essential experiences of this history, including the role of the bourgeois nationalist states in the Middle East in facilitating the repression of the Palestinians by Israel and imperialism.
In her keynote speech, Yara Shoufani of the Palestinian Youth Movement spoke of “historic revolutions” from “the Great Arab Revolution of 1936” … to “the popular revolution launched in the camps of Lebanon and Jordan”… to “the first and second intifadas.” Another speaker suggested that the “resistance” would last another “100 years” before victory.
To be blunt, the people in Gaza do not have another 100 years. The genocide in Gaza has already led to the deaths of over 36,000 people officially, a significant under-count, while hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine.
Neither in the introduction nor in any of the panels and plenary sessions was there a single reference to the broader war of which the genocide is a part. In particular, no speakers addressed the escalating US-NATO war against Russia over Ukraine, backed by the Democratic Party, which threatens to develop into a nuclear exchange.
Israel’s genocide, supported by the US and NATO imperialist powers, cannot be defeated by the resistance of the Palestinian people alone, no matter how self-sacrificing. It is necessary to mobilize the international working class, which has the social and economic power to oppose imperialism.
The political perspective presented at the conference, however, worked against this. On Saturday, the conference organizers welcomed a “guest appearance” by Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
In his last social media post before he was assassinated by the US-backed Israel Defense Forces last December, Prof. Refaat Alareer, tweeted, “The Democratic Party and Biden are responsible for the Gaza genocide perpetrated by Israel.” Why a member of the party responsible for not only backing Israel for decades, but murdering Alareer and tens of thousands of other Palestinians, would be welcomed into the conference was never explained.
In her brief comments, Tlaib attacked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling him a “war criminal.” She refused to apply the same label to Netanyahu’s patron and top weapons supplier, President Joe Biden. Instead she appealed to the president she helped elect in 2020, imploring him: “I hope you hear us loud and clear.”
Tlaib did not attempt to provide an explanation as to why the Biden administration and her “colleagues” in the Democratic Party have not only refused to listen to over eight months of sustained peaceful protests, but instead have overseen the police repression of the protests.
Tlaib said it was “shameful” that her “colleagues” voted to send “$14 billion to the apartheid regime,” while “seniors” in her district ask her, “When are we going to get an increase in Social Security?”
While Tlaib and a few other Democrats voted against providing military funding to Israel, she said nothing about her “yes” vote in the same $95 billion package to send over $61 billion to the fascistic Ukrainian government in order to continue the proxy war against Russia.
The deliberate omission of Ukraine on the part of Tlaib and the conference organizers was not a mistake. By presenting the genocide in Gaza, which is one front in the US/NATO global re-division of the world that includes Ukraine and the conflict with Iran and China, as an isolated episode, the organizers and participants could present different factions of the capitalist ruling class, and their adjuncts in the trade union bureaucracy, as “allies” to the Palestinian people, and to the “revolution.”

PSL backs “Uncommitted” trap

Joining Tlaib at the conference was her sister, Layla Elabed, who, alongside Party for Socialism and Liberation co-founder and ANSWER National Coordinator Brian Becker, led the penultimate plenary on Sunday, titled “Uncommitted Votes and the Fracturing of the Two Party System.”
As the WSWS has previously explained, the purpose of the Uncommitted campaign is to promote the illusion that the Democratic Party and Biden can be “pressured” from below via symbolic votes or empty ceasefire resolutions. Organizers for the Uncommitted campaign, including Elabed, who told the New York Times in February that she “has not ruled out” voting for Biden in November, have been clear that the purpose of “uncommitted” is not to “Abandon Biden” or the Democratic Party, but to “push” him to adopt their position.
Despite tens of thousands of people voting “uncommitted,” the Biden administration, with the support of both the Democrats and Republicans, continues to send weapons to Israel which are being used to ethnically cleanse Rafah. This did not prevent Elabed from presenting the campaign as a success. Speaking next to Becker, she said it sent “a clear message to Biden and the Democratic Party.”
Elabed said, “This is our way of telling Joe Biden he is being held accountable. That he needs to do, in order to save...if he really believed in saving his re-election, if he really believed in fighting fascism, if he believed in fighting for democracy, then he should be pro-Palestinian. He should be demanding a ceasefire now.”
Elabed cautioned against breaking with the Democratic Party, “before November we have a number of primaries happening, state house elections and congressional and senate seats. We need to protect our ceasefire candidates, if anything you come out and you vote and you send people like Rashida and [Missouri Rep.] Cori Bush and our pro-peace anti-war folks back to Capitol Hill and back in our state house.”
Lending support to Elabed and the Democratic Party’s electoral campaigns, Becker replied, “I want to shout out the Listen to Michigan campaign, and the Uncommitted campaign because given the available options, which are so limited in this tortured form of democracy, these women the other organizers have used the electoral arena to register something that Biden couldn’t ignore, which is the majority of the base of the Democratic Party in particular says ‘no’ to his policy in Palestine.”
Working in tandem with the Democrats to divert energy towards protest stunts, and away from building an independent movement in the working class, Becker later revealed that the same forces behind the Palestine Conference will be organizing a June 8 demonstration at the White House.

The promotion of the UAW apparatus

Several panels at the Palestine Conference featured the words “labor” and “Zionism” without ever critically examining the role of the US-based trade unions in supporting US imperialism and Israel’s genocide. There was no discussion on current UAW president Shawn Fain’s endorsement of “Genocide Joe.”
The conference featured various “reform” union factions, including Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), and several current and retired union bureaucrats, including UAW Local 4811 president Rafael Jaime and former president and bargain chair of UAW Local 909 in Detroit, Frank Hammer.
UAW Local 4811 comprises 48,000 graduate student workers and researchers in the University of California. Pressure from the rank-and-file compelled the UAW to initiate a strike, but the apparatus has sought to limit it to a handful of campuses, employing the “stand-up strike” tactic used to shut down the auto strike last year. It has also done nothing to inform autoworkers and other members of the union outside California about this highly significant political strike against the genocide in Gaza
Speaking in a panel, “The Role of Labor Unions in Palestinian Struggle,” Jaime tried to take credit for “organizing” the union in order to put it into a position to strike.
The chasm between workers’ desire to fight and the union bureaucrats’ reticence was present throughout Jaime’s comments. After joining what would become Local 4811 in 2016, Jaime admitted that even by 2018 “most workers didn’t even realize they had a union. And so, what we were able to win in 2018 was very limited.” Turning to the current struggle, Jaime said,

I think that the media will focus mostly on the strike and make it seem like all you have to do is press a button and it happens. And I just want it to be, very emphasized, that the work that’s taken to organize, to be able to actually respond to the moment with this kind of action, it’s been years of tireless work.

Near the end of his presentation, Jaime listed the various circumstances through which the union was prepared to call off the strike: “If the university doesn’t resolve its [Unfair Labor Practices], if it doesn’t guarantee the right to peacefully protest, allow protesters to speak up for justice in Palestine, then more campuses are going to go out on strike.”
Throughout his entire presentation Jaime never once mentioned that UAW President Shawn Fain endorsed Biden and stood by as UAW members protesting the genocide were dragged out of the convention where this nomination was announced.

The way forward

The perspective advanced at the “People’s Conference for Palestine,” in which ANSWER and the PSL play a dominant role, is a dead-end. It is not through appeals to the political establishment and the trade union apparatus that the fight against the genocide must be developed, but through a political struggle in the working class.
For nearly eight months, millions of people around the world have taken to the streets, campuses and government centers to demand an end to the genocide. Despite the overwhelmingly peaceful character of the protests, thousands have been arrested and assaulted by police.
Young people and workers opposed to the genocide, outraged by the daily atrocities, sickened by the support for Israel’s actions by the Biden administration and the imperialist powers, confront serious political questions that require serious and revolutionary answers.
The perspective of “pressuring” governments and corporations to adopt more humanitarian policies has proven to be less than useless. At the same time, the trade union apparatus, integrated into the state, is working to suppress the class struggle and subordinate workers to the ruling class policy of global war.
As WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North explained in a lecture in March on the suicide of Aaron Bushnell, the basic and urgent task is to mobilize “the only social force which actually has in its power, in its objective role in the whole process of capitalist production, in its position in the forces of production, its potential economic strength, its global character, the ability to bring capitalism to its knees, to destroy the very foundations of militarism.”
The political program upon which the struggles of the working class must develop is the program of socialist revolution.

Several weeks ago, I went into a thrift shop to browse the store with a friend of mine. Both of us had noticed this awesome art piece that was hanging on the wall. It was unclear as to whether or not it was for sale, but we both felt compelled enough by it to ask the store clerk if it was for sale, and if so, for how much.
The employee (call this person C) said that it wasn’t for sale right now, but that they would take my phone number and would reach out after they had talked to the owner of the store to determine if it was okay to sell. I gave her my phone number and went on my way.
Days later, I received a text from the store/C asking if I was still interested in purchasing the framed print for $700. I responded that I was, and eventually went to go purchase the piece with absolutely no issues. C rung me up and it was a normal and pleasant transaction.
The next day, I receive a text from a new person (call this person K) saying that they were from the thrift shop and that they were sorry for the inconvenience but had actually missold the print. More specifically, they intended to sell it unframed, and that she could swing by and pick up the frame from me. Again, before I bought it, I had been told via text that I was purchasing a framed piece. I initially did not respond, with the rationale being that the sale had been fair at the time, but after several follow-up texts from K (who heavily implies in their texts that my returning of the frame is just a given), I responded by saying that:
“Hi K, I can bring it back if we can reduce the price by at least as much as a new frame, otherwise I’m not very comfortable with that because I was told the frame was included.”
They responded by saying they could “just spot $100” for returning the frame. I have not yet responded as I don’t feel that this is sufficient for both the cost and labor of acquiring a new frame (this is a pretty large print). I also don’t believe I should be in a position where I have to be negotiating my return of a frame I feel like I bought under very explicit terms. At the same time, I respect this is a locally-owned thrift shop, so I don’t know if I should be more open to dealing with this sort of thing.
AITA for not wanting to return the frame, considering I was told it was framed when I bought it?

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The Background
Great British Bake Off (GBBO) is a cooking contest show that has been on BBC since 2010, Channel 4 since 2017. It’s long been notable for its refusal to entertain petty drama: in a 2014 incident known as “bingate”, judges famously voted off contestant Iain because he “lost it” after his ice cream was accidentally removed from a refrigerator. The judges later praise (and favor?) contestants like Nadiya and Rahul who persist through similar mishaps to deliver imperfect-but-intact food. Many fans saw bingate as a declaration of identity, that GBBO is not an American high-drama competition between cutthroat cheaters “not here to make friends” — it’s a cozy apolitical show where contestants help one another, and the worst drama comes from a mix-up between custards quickly resolved with heartfelt apology.
GBBO is a show about food, not interpersonal drama. It’s about British food, but also about multicultural influences on British food. It’s about being polite and caring and utterly British, soldiering on through dropped ice-creams and elbow-smashed rolls. It’s not about corporate sponsorship, and it’s not about politics.
HOWEVER. Then came Series 13. The resultant backlash caused a restructuring of the show, an alleged firing of a host, and a classic series of corporate apologies.
The Blunder
To be clear: what made the Series 13 fuckup unique was NOT (merely) going beyond the judges’ and contestants’ expertise in ways that revealed the hidden imperialism of the show’s assumptions about “coziness," “lack of drama," and "apolitical food." What made the Series 13 fuckup unique was that the show did all that for North American food.
The Imperialism
Butchering foreign recipes, and blundering in describing non-Anglo food, isn’t actually new for GBBO. S1E2, judge Paul refers to challah as “plaited bread” and claims it’s “dying off,” leading Shira Feder to declare “GBBO has zero Jewish friends.” Throughout S10, judges Prue and Paul ask contestants of SE Asian descent (Michael, Priya) to “tone down the spice” and stop using “so many chiles.” Paul openly declares American pie disgusting. In a brownie challenge (S11E04), literally every contestant fails to make good or edible food. During “Japan” Week (scare quotes intended), the challenges include Chinese bao and a stir fry where most contestants use Indian flavors. Hosts mispronouncing non-Anglo food names (“schichttorte,” “babka”) for humorous effect is a running bit on the show.
These incidents were not without backlash, but (until S13) none of it rose to the interest of producers.
S13E04: Mexican Week
GBBO has had national-themed weeks since S2, with what’s alternately referred to as “Patisserie” or “French Week.” In S11, it finally expanded beyond Europe with “’Japan’” Week. And in S13, in what was no doubt an effort to appeal to the simple majority of viewers who view the show through Netflix from North America, the producers gave us Mexican Week. Or “”Mexican”” Week. At least there were no bao this time?
This tweet of a butchered avocado foreboded everything wrong with the episode. Though the U.K. etc. largely consider avocado an exotic luxury (see: the avocado toast meme), in North America it’s been a staple for millennia, #1 produce item in Mexico and #6 in the U.S. last year. Contestant Carole’s attempts to cut the avocado… like an apple? I guess? result in food waste, and an inedible end product if pieces of the skin or toxic core are mixed in with the flesh. It calls into question the alleged expertise of the contestant bakers.
Then the episode aired. It opens with white hosts Noel and Matt in sombreros and sarapes (costume versions, not historical garb), Noel announcing “I don’t think we should make Mexican jokes; people will get upset.” Matt asks, “Not even Juan?” And Noel replies, “Not even Juan.” As NYT points out: both men have a history of blackface and brownface on other shows, so this is hardly out of the norm for them. It then goes into a montage sequence of the contestants proclaiming their lack of knowledge of Mexican food: “What do Mexicans even bake?”
Then contestant Janusz refers to “cactuses” and judge Prue interrupts him to say “cacti”; Janusz apologizes and corrects it to “cacti.” Cactuses is a correct plural. Then Noel’s voice-over complains about the “tongue-twisting title” of bella naranja. It just keeps coming. Paul and Prue go on to explain to the viewer that tacos typically contain “pico de GAL-low,” repeatedly saying “gallo” as if it is a singular of “gallows.” These are the people, let me remind you, who are being paid for their food expertise. The people who are about to judge food on the extent to which it is “authentically Mexican.” The people who can’t even say the name of the unofficial national sauce of Mexico. But in case you were worried that this buffoonery calls into question the whole premise of the show, fear not — Paul “recently visited Mexico”, and Prue “enjoy[s] a tres leces [sp] cake.”
Meanwhile in the tent, the poor contestants try to make tortillas… with the undersides of mixing bowls. Because there are no tortilla presses, and the show doesn’t appear to know what a tortilla press is. “Bleh!” one contestant announces, after trying cumin, “It’s burning my mouth… Well, it’s meant to be Mexican, isn’t it?” All of them speculate on what “pick-io day galliow” could be.
If I could soapbox for a second: it’s not so much that these fuckups happen. It’s that every single one makes the final edit. 10+ hours of baking, likely 20+ hours of testimonials, and an unknown number of reshoots got turned into a 60-minute episode… and no one bothered to look up the plural(s) of “cactus” or how to pronounce the Spanish word for “chicken.” GBBO has zero Hispanic friends. We all get the history of anglicizing words like “lieutenant” and “bangle.” But it’s not fucking ideal to be evoking that history so blatantly and clumsily, not when (an estimate since Netflix doesn’t do numbers) over 70% of your audience is syndicating this show from the Americas. To paraphrase Taika Waititi: the recent increase in performers of color is great… but behind the camera, most big shows are still whiter than a Willie Nelson concert.
S13E06: Halloween Week
This was the cherry on the shit sundae. Meant to be a North American week. Yes, Halloween originated in the British Isles, but it only became a major holiday in the U.S., and all the bakes were North American. It just added to the clusterfuck to see judges Paul and Prue deducting for contestants melting the marshmallow in their s’mores, presenting the piñata as Halloween décor, and otherwise anglicizing the hell out of bakes with North American names.
The Consequences
That avocado image went viral, as did the blatant incompetence about s’mores. The New York Times’s Tejal Rao did a great piece on the “casually racist” history of GBBO, archived here. Dozens of American publications got in on the criticism. Again, I want to emphasize: this wasn’t the first colonialist blunder committed by GBBO. It was just one impossible for North American viewers to ignore.
It also proved impossible for the BBC to ignore. Host Matt Lucas left the show, allegedly after being asked to step down. He was replaced by GBBO’s first-ever cast member of color: Alison Hammond is a comedian of Afro-Caribbean descent and a veteran TV host. GBBO announced an end to all “national” weeks. Reddit bandied the phrase “jump the shark.” The future of the BBC’s most popular reality show is looking murky.
Regardless of what else happens, the illusion of GBBO as “cozy” and “apolitical” has collapsed. Probably for good.
Footnotes

1. I used the British name and numbering system for the show, despite being from the U.S., because those are more conventional online.
2. “Cactuses” and “cacti” are both correct plurals of “cactus.” I’m not saying Prue had the plural wrong; I’m saying Janusz’s plural didn’t need correcting.

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SMP Economy Server with a Working Money System!
Looking for a mature audience 18+. Not a requirement but definitely preferred! :)
Realm Code: hcBGME7gFPM
To make things easier we’ve added the following to our server:
•Spawn Paper Teleporter: Throw down a Spawn Paper to instantly teleport to spawn from anywhere in the overworld
•One Person Sleep Cycle: If there’s more than one person on the server, only one person has to sleep to make it day time.
•Fast Travel: Travel instantly to certain points in the world from thousands of blocks away.
•Anti Cheat: We have one of the greatest anti-cheat modules in the world!
•Anti Combat Log: PvP is legal outside of spawn borders, so if a player try’s to leave while in a fight, the server will automatically kill them upon rejoining!
•Spawn Protection: On spawn island, there is no greifing & everyone is invincible!
Mods Enabled:
•Better on Bedrock: Better on Bedrock is a Minecraft Bedrock Mod that aims to improve the overall gameplay of the base vanilla game. It aims to improve a lot of aspects by improving and adding new bosses, blocks, items, mobs, structures, biomes and systems.
•Better enchantments: Adds a whole bunch of new enchantments to the game!
•Gun Mod: Looking for extra safety out there? We have Guns for sale in our gun shop in town!
•Furniture Mod: Adds MANY new furniture items to the game such as TV’s, Chairs, Radios, Tables, etc!
Server Features:
•Fully working Redstone Bank •Fully working Redstone Shops •PVP Arena •Courthouse •Guns & Ammo Shop •Loan Office •Player Owned Shops •Casino •Employment Tower •Jobs •Mob Arena •Shopping Mall •Apartment Buildings for rent •Houses for sale •Shops for sale •Jail •Stores •Trading Posts •Private Vaults •Send Cash and Receive Cash to and from other players with the fully working money system!
Own your own house & shop in this server 100% protected and insured!
Come see why we have over 400+ members and join today!
Message me on Xbox: Brandon368
Bedrock MCPE
Realm Code:hcBGME7gFPM