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Category: Russia
Note: On December 23, 2019, I was notified that a criminal complaint (see English summary here) had been filed against me with the Bulgarian prosecutor general's office by the subject of this piece, Krassimir Ivandjiiski. I was given a deadline of December 31 to take down this piece. I refuse to do so.
For my lastest story in The New Republic magazine, I tried to figure out where conspiracy theories come from. The answer took me on a strange reporting journey that led to the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. It's a long read, but a good one, and you can read it here.
The story mentions Zero Hedge, a popular financial blog. There wasn't room in the TNR piece to get into it, but Zero Hedge and What Does It Mean have a lot in common. They have both found that Russia and conspiracies are good for business.
Zero Hedge, with its mix of gloom-and-doom financial analysis, current events, conspiracies, and pro-Russia commentary, is one of the most popular sites on the Internet. It ranks in the top 2,000 of all Internet sites worldwide, meaning that it pulls in more than a million views every day.
Zero Hedge says its mission is "to widen the scope of financial, economic and political information available to the professional investing public" and it does that by refusing to follow what it calls the "pro-US script."
Instead it follows the pro-Russia script.
It runs stories that hew the Kremlin line, such as how the poisoning of a double agent in England was staged by British intelligence operation or how the Steele Dossier was created by Internet trolls. Throw in commentary from a self-described "Kremlin troll" and writings from Russia Insider (which the Trump State Department describes as "an English-language publication linked to pro-[Russian] government oligarchs") and you see how many think Zero Hedge is some kind of Russian disinformation operation.
Despite its pro-Russia leanings, or perhaps because of them, Zero Hedge a critical part of the right-wing conspiracy ecosystem. This became clear when Facebook temporarily blocked Zero Hedge in March, prompting howls of outrage from people in President Trump's circle like his son, Don Jr., Nigel Farage, and Katie Hopkins. (The ban was lifted, and Facebook told Breibart that it was the result of a "mistake with our automation to detect spam.")
The censorship continues. How does @zerohedge's content not "meet community standards?" FB doesn't agree with them and they hit the platform's obvious flaws at times. That's it and it's disgusting!
Facebook Bans Zero Hedge | Zero Hedge https://t.co/n6YsFhvFI5
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 12, 2019
A few days later, Australian Internet providers blocked customer access to Zero Hedge after a gunman killed 51 people in a New Zealand mosque.
The Australian ISP ban had less to do with the site and more to do more with the people who read it.
Zero Hedge readers were sharing links to the shooter's live-streamed video of the massacre, which many of them thought was a hoax.
Yes, these are people who are so narcissistic that they think the mass slaying of 51 unarmed people in a mosque is all about them.
Who is behind Zero Hedge?
All posts on Zero Hedge are written under the pseudonym of Tyler Durden, the character played by Brad Pitt in the film Fight Club. "Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority," reads the Zero Hedge "manifesto."
Of course, anonymity is also a shield for someone who has something to hide.
In a 2016, a former Zero Hedge employee named Colin Lokey, who wrote much of the site's political content, told Bloomberg that he felt pressure to frame issues on the site in a way that felt disingenuous.
"I tried to inject as much truth as I could into my posts, but there's no room for it," Lokey explained. "Russia=good. Obama=idiot. Bashar al-Assad=benevolent leader. John Kerry= dunce. Vladimir Putin=greatest leader in the history of statecraft."
Lokey identified the other Durdens at Zero Hedge as Dan Ivandjiiski, a Bulgarian-born financial analyst banned from the industry in 2008 for insider trading, and Tim Blackshall, a credit derivatives strategist in San Francisco. In a telephone interview, Ivandjiiski told Bloomberg that he and Blackshall had been "on the payroll."
Neither Ivandjiiski nor Blackshall own Zero Hedge directly. The site is owned by ABC Media Ltd. In one lawsuit, ABC Media was identified as a Bulgarian company.
Cornerstone Macro v Ivandjiiski
Indeed, ABC Media Ltd. is listed on Bulgaria's corporate registry.
Founded in 2011, ABC Media (АБЦ Медия) is a single member LLC. The sole proprietor is Daniel's father Krassimir Ivandjiiski (Красимир Иванджийски).
If you can read Bulgarian, here's the company's corporate filing.
In addition, Zero Hedge's domain name is registered under Krassimir's name at an address in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Who is Krassimir Ivandjiiski?
Krassimir Ivandjiiski
Krassimir Ivandjiiski has an interesting background.
Born in Bulgaria in 1947, he was educated at the First English Language School in Sofia and the Warsaw School of Economics.
As a young man, Ivandjiiski worked in the Bulgarian the Ministry of Foreign Trade, before leaving to join the military and begin a career as a journalist. He became a "special envoy before 1990 to the most important political and military conflicts." He spent more than 12 years abroad as a foreign in Prague, Warsaw and Vienna, then in Africa — Harare and Addis Ababa.
Craig Pirrong, who blogs at Street Wise Professor, wrote that this is the perfect resume for a spy:
That is an intel operative's CV with probability 1. Probability 1. Every one of those jobs was a classic cover. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever—none—that Mr. Ivandjiiski senior was a member of the Bulgarian Committee for State Security (Държавна сигурност or DS for short)—the Bulgarian equivalent of the KGB. And remember that Bulgarian DS was the USSR KGB's most reliable allied service during the Cold War. It carried out wet work in western countries, notably the "umbrella murder" of Georgi Markov in London. It was linked to the plot to assassinate the Pope; although in the topsy-turvy world of intelligence, it is also alleged that the CIA fabricated the case against the DS. Regardless of the truth about the links to the attempt on John Paul II, it was a very, very, very nasty operation. (The African stops in Ivandjiiski's resume makes it highly likely that his path intersected that of another charmer, Igor Sechin, who was a "translator" in Africa.)
On his website, Krassimir Ivandjiiski assures us that he had nothing to do with the KGB and he will sue anyone who says otherwise. Zero Hedge has attacked Pirrong as "the world's favorite finance 'expert' for Wall Street hire."
In 1994, after the Soviet Union collapsed, he began publishing a Bulgarian tabloid, Strogo Sekretno (Top Secret), which describes itself as the country's only independent newspaper. Strogo Sekretno is published by a separate company, Primex-7 Ltd., also owned by Ivandjiiski, senior.
I found out about Strogo Sekretno because it often runs the fake conspiracy stories created by What Does It Mean. Krassimir Ivandjiiski also published Bulgaria Confidential which has run stories that have nothing to do with Bulgaria such as drug trafficking in Montana.
The site is also filled with pro-Putin, anti-Semitic garbage:
"The US dollar is built on the so-called 'Jewish Mafia'. This is not some racial prejudice, but a proven truth." Source
Millions of people in Russia and around the world were stunned to see Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in the Victory Parade in Moscow on 9 May. This hideous spectacle let the genie out of the bottle: "What is it? What's going on with the Zionist Netanyahu and at whose expense?" Source
"Chabad is a "racist, criminal Jewish supremacist doomsday cult." Source
"It doesn't take a genius to recognize that Talmudic behavior is the real cause of Anti-Semitism." Source
Zero Hedge, for the most part, steers clear of such outright anti-Semitism, but is nevertheless very popular with the sort of people who like the hatred Krassimir Ivandjiiski likes to spew.
Just look at the Zero Hedge comments section: a lot of racists and crackpots are reading. Don't believe me? Do a search for the n-word or "joo" in the Zero Hedge comments section.
What Is This All About?
In a word, money.
"They care what generates page views. Clicks. Money," Colin Lokey, the former Zero Hedge employee, told Bloomberg.
Zero Hedge says they have nothing to do with the Russian government or any government. "We have also never accepted a dollar of outside funding from either public or private organization – we have prided ourselves in our financial independence because we have been profitable since inception," the site wrote.
As my story on What Does It Mean shows, this may very well be true. It would be nice if Vladimir Putin were secretly running things, but the sad truth is sites like Zero Hedge don't need to take marching orders from Russia; they gravitate to it on their own because it keeps the audience happy.
And keeping the audience happy is what really matters. An audience comprised of racists, anti-Semites, extreme right-wingers, and conspiracy wingnuts is a valuable one. They are all credulous fools, and, as all dime-store preachers know, the credulous are easily monetized.
Krassimir Ivandjiiski, who did not respond to emails sent to ABC Media and Strogo Sekretrno, wrote on his site that the only reason his name is connected to Zero Hedge is because "they even did not have $30 for the initial registration."
That may have been true at one time, but the web domain registration fee is spare change for Zero Hedge today. Dan Ivandjiiksi, who didn't respond to questions, lives in a multi-million dollar mansion.
It's possible that Zero Hedge is registered in Bulgaria because it's somehow connected to a Kremlin disinformation operation. It's also possible that Zero Hedge is registered in Bulgaria for financial (tax?) reasons.
The bottom here is the bottom line. Conspiracies are big business.
Written by Seth Hettena 8 Comments Posted in Conspiracies, Russia, Zero Hedge	Tagged with Daniel Ivandjiiski, Krassimir Ivandjiiski, Zero Hedge
Impeachment Showcases Putin's Skill at "Working with People"
Few people realize that Vladimir Putin was once asked how his past experience as an officer in the KGB helped him as a politician. His answer related to his experience "working with people." (работы с людьми)
For Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council and Russia expert who delivered powerful testimony last month before the House impeachment inquiry, "working with people" is not as innocent as it sounds.
It is a bit of what she calls "KGB jargon" that reveals a great deal about Putin's nearly two-decades long hold on power. And it also sheds light on what has befallen our current political order here in the United States.
During Putin's days as a spy in the 1970s and 1980s, the KGB was all about "working with people," a euphemism for what might better be described as working on people. Rather than repressing, detaining, or killing critics and opponents of the Soviet regime, Yuri Andropov's KGB decided it would try to win them over using guile, patience and, most importantly, leverage. "It means studying the minds of the targets, finding their vulnerabilities, and figuring out how to use them," Hill writes in her insightful 2012 book, Mr. Putin, Operative in the Kremlin.
Hill lays out how Putin has used this skill to great effect in winning over the Russian political elite as well as its citizens, nearly half of whom still approve of his performance as he approaches the 20th anniversary of his election as president. It's also quite clear that one of the people with whom Putin has been diligently "working" is President Donald Trump.
The Russian leader has had ample opportunity to work with Trump over the course of more than a dozen phone calls and in-person meetings, including the two-hour private meeting in Helsinki that offered the relaxed, informal setting that Putin prefers. "To be able to work with people effectively," Putin has said, "you have to be able to establish a dialogue, contact."
While we know when the two leaders have spoken, including a phone call between Trump and Putin shortly after the Ukraine election is of particular interest to House investigators, we know little about what they have discussed. Even Trump's former director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, said he did not "fully understand" what the two leaders had discussed privately in Helsinki. But Trump has given us some clues about a frequent topic of conversation.
Putin has repeatedly told Trump that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. "He just — every time he sees me, he says, 'I didn't do that.' And I believe — I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it," Trump told reporters in 2017. The president went even further the following year in Helsinki when he said he didn't "see any reason why" Russia would have interfered, citing the Russian president's "strong and powerful" denial.
Putin has called working with people "the most complicated work on the face of the Earth," but for an experienced KGB case officer Trump isn't a tough study. The president's deep insecurity about being perceived as an illegitimate leader is painfully obvious.
This insecurity is at the root of his false claims about the "millions and millions" of illegal ballots that cost him the popular vote in 2016 or his "massive landslide victory." Trump cannot stomach the fact that he was elected by a minority of the people.
Nor is the president able to accept the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. A former aide, Hope Hicks, told Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators that whether or not Russia had an impact on the election or not didn't matter to the president because "people would think Russia helped him win." Hicks astutely described the intelligence assessment as Trump's "Achilles heel."
Another leader might let the matter drop, but a former KGB case officer recognizes the issue of election interference – the very same one the U.S. intelligence community found Putin ordered — is a vulnerability he can skillfully exploit. It provides an opportunity for the Russian president to create the shared understanding necessary to "achieve results," in working with people. "You need to make that person an ally," Putin has said, "you have to make that person feel that you and he have something that unites you, that you have common goals."
It's not hard to see how destructive this shared understanding that Russia didn't interfere in the election has been to Trump's presidency. The July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky that is at the heart of the House impeachment inquiry was in part an attempt by Trump to cast doubt on Russian interference. Similarly, Trump's potentially criminal efforts to obstruct his own Justice Department's investigation into Russian interference are the fruits of the poisoned seeds planted and carefully nurtured by Putin.
After the uproar over Trump's comments in Helsinki, which he swiftly walked back, the president no longer publicly voices his doubts about Russian interference. He leaves it to surrogates like Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who show loyalty to the president by voicing his feelings. Asked recently whether it was Russia or Ukraine that hacked the computer servers of the Democratic National Committee, Kennedy replied, "I don't know, nor do you, nor do any others."
Likewise, Hill called out Republican members of the intelligence committee for suggesting that Russia did not attack the election but somehow Ukraine did. "This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian Security Services themselves," she said.
Hill stopped short of accusing the Trump of serving the Kremlin's interests for fear of creating more fodder that the Russians could use against American democracy in 2020.
At the same time, she made it perfectly clear that anyone who pushes the debunked theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election – as Trump did on Fox & Friends the day after Hill testified — is serving Russia's interests.
Surely, not even Putin could have imagined the uproar that would flow from his shared understanding with the American president, but the upcoming impeachment vote in Congress is in no small measure a testament to the remarkable power of Putin's skills at "working with people."
Written by Seth Hettena Leave a comment Posted in Donald Trump, Russia, Vladimir Putin
The Problem with "Letting the Voters Decide" about Donald Trump
Photo via Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/8M6PhK
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and President Trump's former UN ambassador, is out with a new book this week. Casting her lot with Trump and his base, Haley says she doesn't think her former boss has done anything to merit impeachment.
"There's just nothing impeachable there, and more than that, I think the biggest thing that bothers me is the American people should decide this. Why do we have a bunch of people in Congress making this decision?" Haley told CBS' Norah O'Donnell.
Ralph Reed, the former executive director of the Christian Coalition who was so fond of telling us during the Clinton impeachment hearings that "character matters," agrees with Haley.
"Let the voters decide who should be president! This impeachment inquiry is a sham and is an attack on our democracy," Reed tweeted.
"Let the voters decide" is fast becoming the impeachment battle cry of Trump and his band of loyal Republicans who say the president's only real "crime" was winning the 2016 election.
But Trump's defenders have it backwards. Impeachment is the only remedy left for a president who has welcomed, solicited, and extorted foreign interference in our elections. Letting the voters decide is a fine idea when elections are free and fair, but there is simply no guarantee that an election will be free and fair as long as Trump's name is on the ballot.
The framers of the Constitution worried about foreign interference in elections, which they saw as chief among "the most deadly adversaries of republican government." But the framers surely never anticipated a president like Trump who would make foreign interference in domestic politics an element of his statecraft.
As the impeachment inquiry in Congress has made painfully clear, the scheme that Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, cooked up in Ukraine took advantage of a beleaguered country's need for help battling Russian invaders and sought to use it for Trump's political advantage back home. Congressionally-appropriated money for Javelin anti-tank weapons was held hostage as the White House tried to coerce Ukraine's new president into announcing an investigation of a company connected to Joe Biden's son.
To be sure, politics is a dirty business and candidates have been slinging mud in elections for as long as we've had them. But using the power of the presidency to coerce a shaky democracy into investigating the family of a political opponent is so breathtakingly corrupt that it manages to undermine American democracy, damage the rule of law, weaken a U.S. ally, and undermine our national security all at the same time.
The cry of "let the voters decide" signals a retreat to safer ground from the earlier, now abandoned position that no such quid pro quo occurred. An anonymous whistleblower followed by a parade of current and former members of the administration who defied the White House told Congress a sordid story about the administration's shady goings-on in Ukraine. That led Gordon Sondland, a hotelier who serves as Trump's ambassador to the European Union, to "refresh" his recollection and concede, contrary to his earlier denials, that not only was there an ultimatum given to Ukraine, but he was the one who had delivered it.
Letting the voters decide might be a plausible if Ukraine were the only instance of foreign interference in a Trump election, but it isn't. Russia interfered in the 2016 election in what Special Counsel Robert Mueller called a "sweeping and systematic fashion" to help elect Trump, and the campaign welcomed some offers of Russian assistance, such as the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian attorney whose offer of dirt on Hillary Clinton was described as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."
Not much has changed. Offers of help from abroad were still welcome in the Trump campaign, even after Special Counsel Robert Mueller sent Trump's campaign chairman, his lawyer and a campaign aide to prison for lying about Russia. The president told ABC News's George Stephanopoulos in June that there was nothing wrong with accepting dirt from foreign governments. "It's not an interference, they have information — I think I'd take it," Trump said — a statement that was noted by the anonymous whistleblower in his complaint laying out the details of the president's efforts to shake down Ukraine.
The trial of Roger Stone, Trump's longtime political advisor, is a reminder of the lengths the Trump campaign was willing to go in order to benefit from Russian interference in the 2016 election. As early as April 2016, Stone was informing the Trump campaign of upcoming Wikileaks email dumps of emails stolen from the Democratic Party by Russian intelligence. Prosecutors said that Stone repeatedly lied to Congress about his contacts with Wikileaks because "the truth looked bad for the Trump campaign and the truth looked bad for Donald Trump."
The toxic combination of foreign interference and Trump's desire to win at all costs also may go a long way to explaining Trump's strange attraction to tyrants and strongmen like Vladimir Putin. Trump was clearly willing to punish Ukraine because it wasn't willing to "do us a favor," as he put it, and help the president politically. Just imagine what Trump would do for a country that did help him win.
As new details emerge, one can't help but wonder how many other times the Trump White House solicited foreign interference in episodes that we don't yet know about. How many testimonies collected by Special Counsel Robert Mueller might have been "refreshed" had courageous insiders stood up to Trump's bullying and blown the whistle? How many witnesses were less than forthcoming because of the intimidation Trump openly directed at those who stood in his way?
In the end, impeachment isn't about who wins, regardless of what Trump says. It's about whether Congress believes foreign governments belong in our elections and whether a leader who welcomes help from abroad or tries to extort it is worthy of letting the people cast their votes for him.
Written by Seth Hettena Leave a comment Posted in Donald Trump, Russia, Ukraine
On Red Sparrows
"There is a colossal institute of co-opted Soviet girls," an ex-KGB man told a room full of U.S. senators. "There were many, many co-opted Soviet girls with different appearance, different talents."
Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee that day in 1970 was a KGB defector named Yuri Krotkov, testifying under the alias of George Karlin.
Krotkov, a Soviet screenwriter, playwright and radio correspondent who defected in 1963, called these women "swallows" because like the birds, they are "gentle" and "soft."
Testimony of George Karlin
Krotkov said he "recommended" — procured, one might say — "swallows" for the KGB. "The swallows are clever girls," Krotkov continued, "they want all sorts of jobs with foreigners, they dream about them, even if it is risky, because they hope, they would marry them, maybe they would go abroad."
One of his swallows became a mistress to Sukarno, the president of Indonesia. Another was used to seduce Maurice Dejean the French ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1955 to 1964.
The goal, Krotkov said, was to use these "swallows" to get these foreigners to do something for the KGB.
Today, these sorts of women are better known as "sparrows," after the best-selling 2013 book Red Sparrow by former CIA officer Jason Matthews (highly recommended, and the way) and film starring Jennifer Lawrence.
The closest thing we have to a real-life "swallow" or a "sparrow" these days is Maria Butina, the redheaded Russian graduate student who went to prison for acting as a clandestine Russian foreign agent. According to the Justice Department, Butina worked at the direction of a high-level official in the Russian government, Alexander Torshin.
Prosecutors initially accused Butina of offering sex in exchange for a job. That allegation was soon withdrawn, with prosecutors saying they had misread a text.
During her time in the United States, Butina did have affairs well-connected older men, such as Paul Erickson, who helped her gain entree into Republican circles. With help from Erickson, Butina infiltrated the National Rifle Association, met with Donald Trump Jr. at an NRA annual meeting, and came very close to a meeting with President Trump. You can read more about that here.
Another man who had a romantic affair with Butina was Patrick Byrne, then the chief executive of Overtstock.com. You can read what Byrne told me about his relationship with Butina and the FBI here.
Maria Butina and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.
A few months ago, I met with Byrne at a hotel in downtown San Diego and he told me a story that, I think, reveals a lot about Maria Butina.
Byrne wrote part of the story last month on his blog, Deep Capture, but his account leaves out what I view as the most revealing part.
In the spring 2018, Byrne was visiting Washington, D.C. when he got a message from Butina. She somehow knew that he was in town and asked to come by his hotel room. Butina had received a master's degree in international relations from American University and she wanted to show him her diploma. She arrived and after a while pulled out her cellphone and showed him a picture of her transcript.
"…. Then she swiped the screen. I was staring at a subpoena she had received from the Senate Intelligence Committee a few weeks earlier. She told me about being questioned by Senate Intel, about how the forces of the [U.S. government] were closing in on her."
Missing from that account is something Butina told Byrne in that hotel room. According to Byrne, Butina told him that the Senate Intelligence Committee had spent "about a third of their time" asking about him, Patrick Byrne. "They have a stack of every message, every text, every email we every wrote," Byrne said Butina told him.
It was the last time Byrne saw Butina. A few weeks later she was arrested on charges of being an unregistered foreign agent. Butina pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. She was released last month and returned home to Russia where she was welcomed as a hero.
There's a good reason why Byrne left out the part about the Senate Intelligence Committee asking about him: It wasn't true.
I checked with Butina's attorney, Robert Driscoll. Butina's Senate testimony isn't public but he had a copy and he reviewed it at my request. "No reference to Patrick after a pretty close skim," he emailed me.
I relayed this to Byrne:
According to Byrne, he told her to go home to Russia. She told him she couldn't. If she did, she would serve 15 years in prison. As Butina's heroic welcoming in Moscow shows, this, too, was a lie. He told her to go to the FBI. She said that, as a Russian, she couldn't.
Some will no doubt say that perhaps Byrne was lying. I don't think so. When he told me this story, he seemed to believe it. Even so, he encouraged me to go check this account with Driscoll. That's not something a liar would do.
I think Butina told Byrne a well-crafted lie. Since her testimony was sealed, she knew whatever she told Byrne about would be impossible to verify. Also, it's no secret that Byrne saw himself at the center of various intrigues. Thus, it was a lie that he would be likely to accept without much fuss.
The question is why. Why would Butina lie to Byrne? Why was she using him and what for? Had someone told her to make this approach Byrne? Did she hope to provoke a reaction? Did she know that Byrne was talking to the FBI?
I wrote Butina several letters in prison to see if she was willing to talk about this. She never responded. As often happens with intelligence-related matters, we are left with more questions than answers.
But it's a revealing glimpse into the world of woman who was much more than a foreign grad student. A "sparrow" or a "swallow" was a beautiful seductress. Maria Butina was using her brains as well as her body.
Written by Seth Hettena Leave a comment Posted in Russia, Spooks	Tagged with Maria Butina, Patrick Byrne
The Origins of the Internet Research Agency
The Internet troll factory in St. Petersburg was a surprise to Americans during the 2016 election. In Russia, it was an open secret from its very inception.
Payments Weekly and Free Food!!!
In August 2013, an intriguing posting for jobs in St. Petersburg, Russia appeared on social networks:
"Internet operators wanted! Work in a chic office in OLGINO!!!! (m. Old Village), payment 25,960 rubles per month. Objective: posting comments on specialized Internet sites, writing thematic posts, blogs, social networks. Screenshot reports. The work schedule is selected individually <….> Payment is weekly, 1,180 per shift (from 8:00 to 16:00, from 10:30 to 18:30, from 14:00 to 22:00). PAYMENTS WEEKLY AND FREE FOOD !!! Official or contractual employment (optional). Training offered! "
Original wanted ad for the Internet Research Agency
Novaya Gazeta, the fiercely independent Russian newspaper, sent one of its correspondents to find out what it was all about.
Their queries took them to an address in Olgino, a historical neighborhood in St. Petersburg.
The Internet Research Agency's original location in Olgino.
The Novaya Gazeta reporters were told they would be required to write 100 comments a day on specified articles. As an example, the reporters were told to write that the recently concluded G-20 summit in St. Petersburg was a great honor for Russia.
The goal was to increase the visibility of these articles in the same way that writing reviews on Amazon boosted product sales, the reporters were told. Robots could do the job, but the sites often blocked them so it was decided to have humans do the work.
Within a few years it would be wreaking havoc in elections around the world, but even in its early days, the group had bigger plans.
It was in the process of recruiting people for an even bigger project that would begin in 2014.
The name of the business was the Internet Research Agency.
"Masha Hari"
Maria Kuprashevich
The Novaya Gazeta reporters were able to figure out who was behind the Internet Research Agency almost immediately because they recognized a former colleague.
Her name was Maria Kuprashevich (Марию Купрашевич).
The reporters knew Kuprashevich because she had been sent undercover to work in the advertising department at their newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.
In fact, Kuprashevich worked in the PR department of Concord Catering, a company owned by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the oligarch known as "Putin's chef." Novaya Gazeta dubbed her "Masha Hari" after the famous woman who spied for Germany during World War I.
Prigozhin was a convicted criminal whose connections ran all the way to the top chain of Russian command. Prigozhin had been found guilty of robbery and was a member of an organized crime group that practiced fraud and involved "minors in prostitution," as I wrote in Trump/Russia:
Yevgeny Prigozhin
He served nine years in prison and was released in 1990, opening a hot dog stand as the Soviet Union collapsed around him. He then managed a chain of grocery stores and in 1997 opened a restaurant in an old ship called New Island that became one of St. Petersburg's hottest restaurants. And it was through that restaurant that Prigozhin not only became wealthy, but fell into Putin's inner circle.
Russian president Vladimir Putin dined at New Island with French president Jacques Chirac in the summer of 2001. Prigozhin personally served the two heads of state. Putin not only became a regular at New Island, but Prigozhin became the Russian president's favored caterer, which earned him his derisive nickname. He was awarded lucrative contracts to provide lunches to Moscow schoolchildren and feed Russian soldiers.
In return, the Kremlin called on him to perform jobs that it did not want attributed to the state.
The first Western journalist to take note of the Internet Research Agency was Max Seddon, then writing for Buzzfeed (now with The Financial Times).
Seddon got hold of internal organization documents posted online by anonymous hackers.
Seddon's June 2014 story in Buzzfeed showed that the organization was reaching far beyond Russia's borders. In the internal documents were guidelines on posting in the comments sections of Fox News, The Huffington Post, The Blaze, Politico, and WorldNetDaily.
Few, however, were paying attention.
By the time Seddon's story ran, the Internet Research Agency had upgraded to a four-story office building on Savushkina Street in St. Petersburg and the troll factory was in full operation.
IRA employees known as "specialists" were expected to create false online personas on these sites known as "sock puppet" accounts complete with fake names and photos.
Specialists had to maintain six Facebook accounts publishing at least three posts a day and discussing the news in groups at least twice a day. By the end of the first month, they were expected to have won 500 subscribers and get at least five posts on each item a day. On Twitter, the were expected to manage 10 accounts with up to 2,000 followers and tweet 50 times a day.
"We had to write 'ordinary posts', about making cakes or music tracks we liked, but then every now and then throw in a political post about how the Kiev government is fascist, or that sort of thing," one former employee told The Guardian of London. For this, she was paid 45,000 rubles ($790) a month. English-language trolls could earn up to $1,000 a month.
Working conditions were miserable. Employees were fined for being a few minutes late or not reaching the required number of posts each day. Editors imposed fines if they found posts had been cut and pasted or were ideologically irrelevant.
Another cache of internal documents smuggled out by IRA employees and published by the St. Petersburg publication Moi Region included the following job description:
TROLL. The purpose of the troll is to produce a quarrel which offends his interlocutor. It is worth remembering that trolling is not writing articles to order. It is a deliberate provocation with the goal of ridiculing your opponent.
Cited in Information Wars by Richard Stengel
The organization's paid trolls were being given specific themes to write about that included the United States.
The USA
US policies are aimed at achieving a unipolar world. They are ready to destroy any country to achieve their goal.
The EU and NATO act on the orders of the United States. Because of this, Europe cannot establish relations with Russia.
The internal problems of the United States are violence, terrorism, obesity—but they try to teach the whole world how to live!
The only thing America ever gave the world was Coca-Cola and that turned out to be poison.
Stengel, Information Wars
Employees told the Russian news site MR-7 that training was provided by a "bearded, intelligent man" who printed out particularly illiterate posts, passed them around and sighed.
Another journalist even managed to film surreptitiously inside the IRA, which looks like any modern office anywhere:
A Troll Abroad
What Seddon other Russian journalists had caught a glimpse of was a much larger story that would only become clear when Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted the Internet Research Agency and its top officials.
According to the special counsel's indictment, the Internet Research Agency was already planning on interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election by May 2014.
The Internet Research Agency had formed a department that was called, among other things, the "translator project." Its stated goal was "spread[ing] distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general."
The translator project focused on the U.S. population and conducted operations on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Anna Bogacheva
Two employees traveled to the United States to "gather intelligence" in June 2014, according to an indictment filed by the special counsel's office. Aleksandra Krylova, the organization's third-highest ranking employee, and Anna Bogacheva, director of the translator project's data analysis group, made stops in Nevada, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Texas, and New York.
Prior to the trip, the two women had worked with their colleagues to plan itineraries and purchase equipment, including "cameras, SIM cards, and drop phones." They also worked on various "evacuation scenarios" and other security measures for their trip.
Another employee traveled to Atlanta, Georgia in November 2014.
A memo distributed inside troll factory shows how they had used the intelligence gathered from the U.S. trip to formulate angles of attack that were sure to produce a deliberate provocation:
Main idea:
The ongoing series of accidents in the United States, caused by the lack of American authorities concern for the safety of their citizens.
We are forming a negative post condemning the policy of the American authorities.
In Texas, a three-year-old boy died by accidentally shooting himself with a pistol found in a bag.
Theses:
In Houston, a three-year-old boy found a loaded pistol in his mother's bag and accidentally shot himself in the head. The child was taken to the hospital by helicopter, but it was not possible to save his life.
According to police, the woman left an open bag with weapons on a shelf and for several minutes went into another room. The child somehow took out a bag and found a gun. So far, no charges have been brought in this case, TASS reports.
In the United States, several similar tragedies have recently occurred. So, in January, in the state of Florida, a two-year-old child died by shooting himself in the chest with a pistol, which he found in the interior of the parent's car. And a few days earlier in Missouri, a five-year-old boy shot his nine-month-old brother from a revolver found at home.
The irresponsibility of the American authorities, not paying attention to such incidents, leads to accidents. The weapons that every US citizen has (practically) are in the public domain and, as a result, fall into the hands of children.
Instead of protecting the country's citizens from weapons and drugs, US authorities continue to develop aggression around the world, not paying attention to what is happening inside the country.
A Terrorist Attack in Louisiana?
On September 11, 2014, residents in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana got a disturbing text message: "Toxic fume hazard warning in this area until 1:30 PM. Take Shelter. Check Local Media and columbiachemical.com."
Twitter accounts were lighting up with reports of an explosion at a Columbia Chemicals plant.
There was even a screenshot of what looked like CNN's home page, with the plant explosion leading the news.
There was a Wikipedia page, a YouTube video of a man showing his TV screen with masked ISIS fighters next to footage of an explosion. But if anybody bothered to check, there was no explosion; the CNN page, the Wikipedia page, the YouTube video were all fakes.
As Adrian Chen revealed in his incredible story in The New York Times Magazine it was a hoax pulled off by the Internet Research Agency.
This was a modern twist on an old spy game, one that was very familiar to the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS, the World War II predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency, as I wrote in Trump/Russia:
The OSS didn't have the benefit of social media, but the operatives in its Morale Operations branch used what they called "rumors" as weapons of war against Nazi Germany. According to a now-declassified 1943 field manual, the OSS developed a special class of gossip called "subversive rumors."
This form of scuttlebutt could be used "to cause enemy populations to distrust their own news sources" and "to create division among racial, political, [and] religious" groups within a country. Subversive rumors could be used to "create confusion and dismay with a welter of contradictory reports." The OSS believed that the best fake gossip was simple, plausible, and vivid, the more "strong emotional content" the better. "Rarely can [rumors] by themselves change basic attitudes," the OSS field manual declared in highlighting the limits of their new word-of-mouth weapon. "Their function is to confirm suspicions and beliefs already latent; to give sense and direction to fears, resentments, or hopes that have been built up by more materialistic causes; to tip the balance when public opinion is in a precarious state."
The Soviet KGB also understood the nature of rumors. The KGB's Service A was the unit tasked with running aktivnye meropriiatiia—covert "active measures" designed to sow distrust against the West. One example included developing fraudulent info about FBI and CIA involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Another was Operation Infektion, a KGB-planted rumor that the AIDS virus had escaped from a biological weapons lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Thousands of people were involved in the active measures operations, which were integrated into the whole of the Soviet government, and they surely would have been familiar to Vladimir Putin, who was just beginning his KGB career in 1980, a time when the CIA estimated that the annual cost of the Soviet Union's active measures program was no less than $3 billion a year. In the 1990s, the United States asked Russia to stop these rumor campaigns, but Sergei Tretyakov, a high-ranking Russian spy who defected to the United States in 2000, said nothing changed. "Russia is doing everything it can today to embarrass the U.S.," Tretyakov said in a 2008 book, Comrade J. "Let me repeat this. Russia is doing everything it can today to undermine and embarrass the U.S."
What the Internet Research Agency really represented was a modern Russian version of the old OSS rumor factory and KGB active measures division. Social media gave the St. Petersburg operatives a power the likes of which neither the OSS nor the KGB could have imagined. The OSS had to send operatives into enemy territory to plant rumors; the KGB planted the AIDS rumor in a newspaper in India. The modern influence operative didn't have to leave his or her desk in St. Petersburg. In the hands of a spy, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were machines for the rapid transmission of rumors. But one needed to flip through the musty pages of the OSS field manual to see how well their creed holds up today, and just how accurately the St. Petersburg troll factory was able to wreak havoc on the American public during the 2016 presidential election.
In February 2016, an outline of themes for future content was circulating inside the Internet Research Agency. The organization's "specialists" were instructed to post content that focused on "politics in the USA" and to "use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them)."
The Internet Research Agency's sock puppet accounts would produce pro-Trump social media postings, pro-Trump Twitter accounts, pro-Trump rallies, pro-Trump political ads.
By September, the IRA was spending $1.25 million a month on operations on "Project Lakhta," which involved Russian domestic audiences as well as foreign audiences in the United States and elsewhere.
More than 80 people were working in the American part of the translator project by July 2016 and employees were posting more than 1,000 pieces of content per week, reaching between 20 and 30 million people in the month of September alone.
When you hear of foreign actors making big plans to influence the West, believe them. Information operations are cheap, and they work.
It's fairly easy to figure out who is behind these operations, but in Russia it doesn't matter which oligarch is behind it. They are proxies for the Kremlin.
Russian information operations test out strategies and themes and spend years refining them.
Read critically. Verify everything before you trust it.
Written by Seth Hettena 1 Comment Posted in Cyberwarfare, Russia	Tagged with internet research agency


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THE GENIE SCHEME
by Kimberly K. Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2009
Twelve-year-old Janna is fed up with the constant struggle to get by on her mom's paltry income. Disenchanted with secondhand clothes and thrift stores, Janna is ready for change. That change, however, springs from an unlikely source. It comes not from her dream of winning the lottery but evolves out of Janna's impulsive act of generosity toward an elderly bag lady. The curmudgeonly geriatric turns out to be a thousands-of-years-old genie with an attitude, jaded by the excesses of human greed. Not your usual tween offering, Jones's tale delves into the perils of homelessness, the poverty of lives filled with monetary wealth but lacking substance and the necessity of effecting a positive change. What makes this tale palatable despite its weighty moral is readers' ability to relate to Janna. Spunky and slightly self-absorbed, Janna wishes first for a closet full of the newest fashions. Under the gruff tutelage of the genie, Janna eventually recognizes the interconnectedness among all people. What Janna chooses to do with her wishes will keep readers engaged until the tale's satisfying conclusion. (Fantasy. 8-12)
Publisher: McElderry
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
Categories: CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
More by Kimberly K. Jones
SAND DOLLAR SUMMER
by Kimberly K. Jones
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)
Coretta Scott King Book Award Winner
National Book Award Winner
Newbery Honor Book
by Jacqueline Woodson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 2014
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is "a country caught / / between Black and White." But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father's people in Ohio and her mother's people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah's Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe's Stevie and Langston Hughes' poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that "[W]ords are my brilliance." Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Categories: CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
More by Jacqueline Woodson
BEFORE THE EVER AFTER
HARBOR ME
THE DAY YOU BEGIN
by Jacqueline Woodson ; illustrated by Rafael López
Woodson, Albertine Win Andersen Awards
Laura Bush Releases Summer Reading List for Kids
MacArthur 'Genius' Grants Are Announced
With Ivan's movie out this year from Disney, expect great interest—it will be richly rewarded.
by Katherine Applegate ; illustrated by Patricia Castelao ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2020
Tiny, sassy Bob the dog, friend of The One and Only Ivan (2012), returns to tell his tale.
Wisecracking Bob, who is a little bit Chihuahua among other things, now lives with his girl, Julia, and her parents. Happily, her father works at Wildworld Zoological Park and Sanctuary, the zoo where Bob's two best friends, Ivan the gorilla and Ruby the elephant, live, so Bob gets to visit and catch up with them regularly. Due to an early betrayal, Bob doesn't trust humans (most humans are good only for their thumbs); he fears he's going soft living with Julia, and he's certain he is a Bad Dog—as in "not a good representative of my species." On a visit to the zoo with a storm threatening, Bob accidentally falls into the gorilla enclosure just as a tornado strikes. So that's what it's like to fly. In the storm's aftermath, Bob proves to everyone (and finally himself) that there is a big heart in that tiny chest…and a brave one too. With this companion, Applegate picks up where her Newbery Medal winner left off, and fans will be overjoyed to ride along in the head of lovable, self-deprecating Bob on his storm-tossed adventure. His wry doggy observations and attitude are pitch perfect (augmented by the canine glossary and Castelao's picture dictionary of dog postures found in the frontmatter). Gorilla Ivan described Julia as having straight, black hair in the previous title, and Castelao's illustrations in that volume showed her as pale-skinned. (Finished art not available for review.)
With Ivan's movie out this year from Disney, expect great interest—it will be richly rewarded. (afterword) (Fiction. 8-12)
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
More by Katherine Applegate
by Katherine Applegate ; illustrated by Max Kostenko
by Katherine Applegate
by Katherine Applegate ; illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Cooking Country is a free game, but some of its items can be bought with real money. To avoid accidental unintentional purchases, simply adjust the settings of your device.
1. Go to Settings for your device -> General -> Restrictions.
3. Enter a password. We suggest you use a different password than the one you use to unlock your device.
4. Once the restrictions are activated, you will see a list of applications and actions allowed on your device. To restrict embedded purchases, disable the appropriate option.
1. Open the Play Store.
2. Touch the Menu icon and select Settings.
3. Tap Require authentication for purchases.
-For all purchases via Google Play on this device. Authentication will be required for all Google Play purchases (including built-in purchases).
-Every 30 minutes: The system will request the password for Google Play purchases every 30 minutes. After entering the password, all purchases made in the next 30 minutes will not require a password.


The Wandsworth under 13s boys team won the Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon on Sunday (April 23).
The event, held on the same day as the main London Marathon, is the official British Athletics three-mile road championships for young athletes aged between 11 and 17 and is run on a three mile course from Old Billingsgate to The Mall. Previous winners include double London 2012 Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah.
Thirty-six young athletes from Wandsworth competed again the best new talent in British road running from all over the UK, including teams from all 33 London Boroughs.
Six groups represented Wandsworth; under 17, under 15 and under 13 (male and female) with outstanding results across the board. Jaden Kennedy won the under 13 race in a time of 15 minutes 57 seconds. Wandsworth were in the top five London boroughs in five of the six categories.
The Wandsworth athletes were selected from running trials which took place in Battersea Park in February.
Wandsworth's sport development team works with sportspeople, clubs, community groups and coaches to help develop sport and physical activity in the borough. Clubs can gain support, development and funding advice and young athletes are supported and trained to represent the borough in the Wandsworth Youth Games.
Enable Leisure & Culture provides sports services on behalf of Wandsworth Council, including sports development, sports centres, school sport competitions and the annual Get Active Wandsworth Festival.
Find out more about sports in the borough at www.enablelc.org/els.


"The Biggest Game in Town" video was produced distributed only on VHS tapes. It was put up for internet access on December 25th 2008. We'd forgotten about this story which came out several years ago, before our blog. But UndergroundDocumentaries has resurrected it.
A complete AUDIT of international holdings and trading activity is URGENTLY needed to see the "NET" results of the market manipulations that took place since September 2001 to present…… Will this happen? Not as long as the foxes maintain regulation over the hen house!


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Missouri Tigers vs. Auburn Tigers Point Spread – Pick Against the Spread
No. 5 Missouri Tigers (11-1 SU, 10-2 ATS) vs. No. 3 Auburn Tigers
(11-1 SU, 10-2 ATS)
College Football Week 15: SEC Championship Game
Date and Time: Saturday December 7th, 2013. 4:0PM Eastern
Where: Georgia Dome Atlanta, G.A.0
TV: CBS
by Jay, Football Handicapper, Predictem.com
Point Spread: Mizzu +1.5/Aub -1.5
An unfathomable match-up awaits inside the Georgia Dome this week when
the no.5 Missouri Tigers meet the no. 3 Auburn Tigers for
the SEC Championship. It's hard to believe either school made it to the
SEC Championship Game when you consider the fact that neither team received
a single AP vote to be considered in the preseason AP Top 25. Missouri took
down 4 ranked teams in route to a breakout 11-1 regular season with the
help of a dynamic offense averaging 38.8 points (15th in FBS) and gritty
defense that yielded just 19.4 points per game (14th in FBS).
While Auburn, sparked by first year head coach and offensive mastermind Gus Malzahn, turned the tide on a 3-9 2012 campaign into a 2013 Cinderella story for the ages. Not only did Auburn beat Georgia on a Hail Mary two weeks ago but they captured an unthinkable field goal return for a touchdown as time expired to defeat no. 1 Alabama in the Iron Bowl last week. Now as long as the clock does not strike midnight on Cinderella, Malzahn's Tigers have the opportunity to capture the most prestigious title in college football and stake their claim as SEC Champions if they can pull out just one more victory over Missouri this Saturday.
However, Missouri promises to be one tough out and odds makers have the Tigers of the West marked as miniscule 1.5 point underdogs. Missouri, like Auburn, has found ways to win close games when the pressure has been at its highest. Mizzu captured wins over no. 24 Ole Miss and no. 21 Texas A&M during the final two weeks of the season in must-win situations to punch their ticket to Atlanta. Missouri also overcame adversity during the mid-point of the season when quarterback James Franklin went down with a shoulder injury. Franklin missed 4 games before returning in the wins against Ole Miss and Texas A&M. Franklin has been rock solid with a 66.9 completion percentage to go along with 16 scores and 4 picks. Even backup Maty Mauk was impressive under center in Franklin's absence with 10 scores and just 2 picks.
The reason both quarterbacks have been so successful is because Coach Gary Pinkel has gotten excellent production from their rushing attack. Junior tailback Henry Josey is the workhorse for the offense and is narrowing in on the 1,000 yard barrier on the season. Josey and sophomore tailback Ruseell Hansbrough have combined for the bulk of Missouri's 236 yard per game average this season which ranks 18th in the FBS. If both backs can run well again this Saturday, it should keep Franklin in position to capitalize on throws down the field when the opportunity arises. If you break down the match-ups of this game, the similarities are obvious. Both teams have tremendous rushing attacks and stout defenses to match. However I would give the edge in pure passing situations to Missouri with Franklin behind center. Still that is only a slight edge and I emphasize "pure passing situations."
On the other side of the field, Auburn has an outstanding quarterback that has emerged from the depths of the unknown similar to the way Cam Newton emerged into the national spotlight during Auburn's 2011 National Championship run. Junior quarterback Nick Marshall has been outstanding in the 2nd half of the season with his legs. Marshall has been able to grasp the style of the read option that Malzahn made famous with Newton and the offense has been nearly unstoppable ever since. Marshall has rushed for more than 400 yards in the last 3 games and is closing in on the 1,000 yard mark as well. Marshall is an extremely dangerous runner but possibly not as dangerous as running back Tre Mason.
Mason has racked up more than 1,300 yards and 18 touchdowns already on the ground this season to make a case for the best rusher in the SEC. With both Marshall and Mason shredding defenses, it should not be surprising that Auburn has the 5th best rushing unit in America averaging 318 yards per game. What may be surprising is that Auburn has been able to run the ball effectively on everyone including 296 yards against Alabama's dynamic defense last week. Obviously the key to Missouri winning this game will be trying to stop that dynamic Auburn rushing attack which is much easier said than done. The good news for Mizzu fans is that quarterback Nick Marshall is not the best "pure" passing quarterback and does make mistakes when kept in obvious passing situations. If Missouri can force Marshall into those passing situations continuously, it will greatly increase their chances at claiming their first SEC Championship.
Jay's Pick to Cover the Point Spread: If last week's finish to the Iron Bowl did not convince you Auburn is destined for success, I do not know what will. This should be a great match-up and there is no way I will bet against the magical ride Auburn is currently on. Take Auburn -1.5!
Additional College Football Betting Previews


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Play as Cyclones in EA Sports' NHL 17 video game
The Cincinnati Cyclones and 26 other ECHL teams will be available on EA Sports' NHL 17 video game.
Play as Cyclones in EA Sports' NHL 17 video game The Cincinnati Cyclones and 26 other ECHL teams will be available on EA Sports' NHL 17 video game. Check out this story on cincinnati.com: http://cin.ci/2cXtfSW
Dave Clark, dclark@cincinnati.com Published 3:05 p.m. ET Sept. 13, 2016 | Updated 5:20 p.m. ET Sept. 13, 2016
ECHL logo(Photo: EA Sports)
More from IndyStar.com's Joe Tamborello:
All 27 ECHL teams, jerseys and rosters will be featured in the new hockey game, according to EA. You'll be able to play as the Fuel for an entire season or in "Play Now" mode. The minor league uniforms and logos will also be unlockable items in different parts of the game.
It also appears that you can have ECHL teams take the ice against NHL franchises. Have the Fort Wayne Komets face a rebuilding New York Rangers team, for instance.
The game comes to stores on Sept. 13, but you can play it early with an EA Access membership.
Single game tickets for the Cyclones will go on sale next Monday at 10 a.m.


Is racism enshrined in the United States Constitution? How could the same Founding Fathers who endorsed the idea that all men are created equal also endorse the idea that some men are not? The answer provided in this video by Carol Swain, former professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, may surprise you.
James Wagner, President of Emory University, said the three-fifths compromise was an example of _________________________.
The three-fifths compromise was devised by those who _________________.
By the time of the Civil War, the slave population had grown to ____________.
The United States Constitution says a slave is three-fifths of a person.
If one hundred percent of the slave population had been counted during the Civil War, _______________________________.
The Three-Fifths Compromise is a reminder of the evils of slavery, but it also shows the Framers' attempts to restrict slave states' power.
The Three-Fifths Compromise is often cited as evidence that the Framers of the Constitution were racist, rather than seen as a calculated political move devised by opponents of slavery to restrict the power of slave-holding states.
Without the Three-Fifths Compromise, the U.S. Constitution would not have been ratified.
With the 13th and 14th Amendments, slavery was abolished and every person in the state was represented.
Many of America's Founders abhorred slavery but conceded that it wasn't possible to fully abolish it when the Constitution was crafted.
Slaveholders among the Framers included James Madison and George Washington, while John Adams and Alexander Hamilton did not own slaves.
George Washington owned many slaves, but still hoped for abolition. His slaves were freed upon his wife's death according to his will.
Despite owning slaves, many Founders and Framers spoke against it, and hoped it would eventually be abolished.
Despite their personal opinions on slavery, the Southern economy was based on slave labor, and the south would never agree to be part of the Union if it was abolished.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was devised by those who opposed slavery, not by those who supported it.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was devised by opponents of slavery, not by southern politicians who supported slavery.
Contrary to popular claims, the Constitution does not say that a slave is not a person. Black freemen and white freemen were counted as one person, and slaves themselves were referred to as "persons." However, slave-owning states were only allowed to count three-fifths of their slaves to determine the states' political influence.
The Constitution, which would not have been possible without the Three-Fifths Compromise, laid the groundwork for future abolition of slavery.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was devised by opponents of slavery, not by southern politicians.
The Constitution, which would not have been possible without the Three-Fifths Compromise, laid the groundwork for the future abolition of slavery.
Without the Three-Fifths Compromise, the southern states would have held even more political influence in the Union.
In the 1790 census, the free states had a population of about 1.8 million free whites. The slave states had about 1.1 million free whites and 633,000 slaves.
By the time of the Civil War, the slave population had grown to nearly 4 million.
If slave states had been able to count all slaves, rather than three-fifths of them, they would have had much more political power by the time of the Civil War.
Without the Three-Fifths Compromise, there would have been no Union—and slavery in the South would have gone on unchallenged.
The U.S. Constitution required many compromises, but slavery was the most contentious of all the issues.
Slavery was not a unique institution to the southern colonies, but the Constitution, which was ratified by the South in part because of the Three-Fifths Compromise, laid the groundwork for its eventual abolition.
Without the Three-Fifths Compromise, there would be no Union between the North and South, and slavery in the South would have gone on unchallenged.


There are a number of Broadway shows that you can choose to see but there are a few that have been known to be all time classics. Hello Dolly is one such Broadway show that has been around since 1964 and considering the popularity of this show it was remade and launched on Broadway all over again. There are a number of reasons why people enjoy watching this show and if you want to get Cheap Hello Dolly tickets then make sure that you book the tickets in advance.
There are a number of ways that you can book it, but it's always best to book it online. This helps you to pick out the best seats and also make sure that you do not struggle with prices. The sooner you book these tickets, the cheaper it's going to be and this is a great advantage. This is a very interesting show that depicts the life of the main character Dolly who comes to a new town to make an independent career shine. It's loaded with interesting one-liners and humor.
Hello Dolly is one of the best shows that is currently playing. It is a production that is directed by Jerry Zaks and is choreographed bby Warren Carlyle. The original was directed and choregraphed by none other than the great Gower Champion. The sets and costumes are arranged by Santo Loquasto and he has done a brilliant job of it. Some of the purists feel that some of the costumes are very loud and do not do justice to the original however Dolly pulls off each of the costumes with ease and confidence. Bette Midler plays the character of Dolly with finesse and she pulls off the entire show single handedly. If you truly want to be entertained and keep laughing hysterically then Hello Dolly is the show for you.


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KDV Alert: Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck Prevails in Defending First Amendment Free Speech Rights
(November 21, 2016) – In a first amendment case decided on November 16, 2016, a federal district court in California enjoined the California Attorney General from requiring that the Thomas More Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization, send its donor list to her as a condition of soliciting donations in the state.
Arguing that the right to anonymous free speech was threatened by the donor disclosure requirement, a legal team led by Kaufman Dolowich & Voluck (KDV) San Francisco partner Louie Castoria prevailed in a nonjury trial in the U.S. District Court, Central District, Judge Manuel Real, presiding. Associate attorney Marion Cruz and paralegal James Jordan were also on the trial team.
The court found that "as applied" to the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), which represents advocates of causes based on traditional Christian religious principles, the disclosure requirement "places individuals 'in fear of excising their constitutionally protected rights of free expression, assembly, and association'" (citing other authority).
"Free speech can be exercised without making a sound or writing a word," said Castoria. "Private donors who provide financial support for advocacy organizations that represent clients who advocate causes are exercising their First Amendment rights. Such donors' identities should not be subject to mandatory disclosure to state agencies when doing so will likely expose them to harassment, boycott, or bodily harm." He noted that on cross-examination, the Attorney General's employees admitted that no complaints had ever been made against TMLC, nor had they conducted or planned to conduct any investigation of the Law Center.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented, "Louie Castoria did a fantastic job not only defending the Law Center, but defending fundamental aspects of the First Amendment."
Since NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449 (1958), the Supreme Court of the United States has recognized that supporters of organizations advocating controversial views have the right to donate anonymously, with their identities free from disclosure from prying government eyes other than disclosure to the IRS. KDV's team established a reasonable probability that the compelled disclosure "would burden the donors' First Amendment Rights," as the court found.
TMLC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, raising funds through charitable contributions. California state law requires TMLC to file a copy of its IRS Form 990 (including the Schedule B) with the State Registry of Charitable Trusts. It includes the names and addresses of every donor who gave more than $5,000 in a tax year. The Form 990 is public but the Schedule B is not. Since 2001, TMLC filed its Form 990 with the Attorney General, not including its Schedule B, and each year the Attorney General accepted the registration. But in 2015, the Attorney General gave TMLC 30 days' notice that if it did not file its Schedule B list, its tax exempt status and license to raise funds would be revoked, and its officers would be held personally liable for penalties.
The District Court granted TMLC a preliminary injunction which the Ninth Circuit partially vacated, but allowed the District Court to decide TMLC's "as-applied" challenge at trial.
As an "as-applied" constitutional challenge, the case does not apply on a blanket basis to all advocacy organizations, but illustrates the continuing need for judicial protection of controversial free speech, on all points in the spectrum of opinion.
The case is Thomas More Law Center v. Harris, No. CV 15-3048-R, (C.D., Cal., 11/16/2016).
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I'm trying to put the Date Published and Date Modified into the meta tags of the head of the header.php page - so far no luck.
I've also left off the get_ with the_date but that didn't work either. I've tried the_date. I've tried without the echo.
I assume that since the header.php is pulled on each post and page, and that these dates are pulled in the Admin area that these should already in the Loop without needing to add to the functions.php. If I do need to add this can someone assist me with the code to put into the file and which file?
I really don't want to use a plugin. I'd rather learn how to do it.
I understand how to put this into a post or page but I can't get it right in the header.php.
You can check if is_singular page/post and then use global $post to get the post ID outside the loop. Also for the modified date you should use get_the_modified_date instead because you're already echoing.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged headers date get-post-meta or ask your own question.


This entry was posted in attitude, Faith, Family Life, God, gratitude, humor, inspiration, life lessons, parenting, trials, Uncategorized and tagged children, family, grief, life, mom, Mother's Day, motherhood, parenthood, parenting. Bookmark the permalink.
So much truth… I listened to a sermon at Christmas about joy and pain coexisting…exactly what you just shared. Healing and heartache seem to go hand in hand. Thanks for sharing. Happy Mother's Day.
HI Tammy. Sounds like a great sermon. I find interested that these two opposite feelings co-exist in our lives. I love how you put it, that healing and heartache go hand in hand.
I still miss my sister! I miss talking on the phone with her, and all the hand written letters she sent me. I have many wonderful memories of our times together. You were lucky to have her – we all were!
Tracy, Bless your heart..I love the pictures..you look so much like your Mother…i believe that everyone that knew her…loved her…she was a awesome big cousin….i always thought she was "so neat" when we were growing up…i always loved to go to your Grandma and Grandpas 'house…all were always made to feel very welcome there….what a fantastic family there are/were!!!! After my daughter, Jennie,m had open heart surgery in 2006….your mother came to see her and also..took homemade soup to her several times[They lived in Indpls., and I live in Cin….I know also what it is like to lose a mother..mine was so precious also…guess we are among the blessed daughters in the world…Happy mother's Day, Tracy.
Joyce and I spoke on the phone today and we talked about your Mom. Joyce misses her phone calls and I just miss her. I see she already told you that though. We are both doing OK.


mercy | Anything is Possible!
This story touched my heart. I'm thankful that the animal shelter staff helped these two reunite.
who remembered the non-human companions who are at our mercy.
Categories: Animals, Hope | Tags: animals, dogs, mercy, rescue | Permalink.


text:
TV's changing view of the change: The menopause conversation is getting better, finally
At last, women have a real, comforting view into menopause by way of TV shows like "Fleabag" and "Better Things"
Nearly two full decades ago, when I was in glow of my 20s, television provided me with my first extensive education about menopause via the British sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous." Never one to be coy about her subject matter, series creator and star Jennifer Saunders titled the episode after its subject, making it easy for a person to find years later.
The jaunt features a menopausal support group that terrifies its two potentially newest members, Patsy and Edina, as individuals "share a few horrors," as one woman puts it. She stands at regular intervals and launches into a list of menopausal woes that includes having three heart attacks a day, "and my skin thinks it's in the Congo. Otherwise I'm fine!"
When self help/life coaching addict and recurring idiot Bo Chrysalis greets the group to ask what the meeting is for, and they tell her, she replies, "Oh! We don't have that in America. We don't believe in it. Certainly not in L.A.!"
Arguably this is the most candid and depressing commentary in this episode, because she's right. American culture devotes entire educational plans to the birds and the bees and menstruation, but what lies on the other side of that crimson wave is a mystery largely left to the individual to discover on her own, and quietly. "Broad City" even joked about it in its "Jews on a Plane" episode when Abbi, in need of a tampon, asks a nearby woman if she has one, and the woman tells her no because she doesn't need them anymore.
"Menopause isn't represented in mainstream media," the woman says. "No one wants to talk about it." The joke is, neither does Abbi. She's already walked away mid-sentence.
Despite the media trend that spilled out a few years ago touting 40 as the new 20, that loving embrace of maturity hasn't been extended to the so-called "change of life." But we can joke about it, obliquely, via interludes like the famous "Last F**kable Day" skit on "Inside Amy Schumer" that, among other things, warns younger women that they may one day grow a beard — a detail Wanda Sykes builds an entire bit around in her latest Netflix comedy special "Not Normal."
And this is why Kristin Scott Thomas' guest star appearance in the second season of the Amazon series "Fleabag," and the beloved third season "Better Things" episode titled "Show Me the Magic," are basically postcards from deep within the mists of Avalon. Following years and years of TV series kicking the subject into the bushes just for funsies or dancing around it, here are two recent instances in shows created by women and featuring women that wade deeply into the experience.
("Fleabag" is streaming on Amazon Prime, while the latest season of "Better Things" can be streamed via FX+ or by signing in with a cable subscription on the channel's official site.)
Thomas doesn't appear in "Fleabag" for very long, but she makes her time count — and then some — in a flirtatious bar scene between her Belinda Frears, a successful 58-year-old business woman, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge's eponymous character. When Fleabag shares with Belinda that she's 33, Belinda gives her an assurance you don't usually see an older woman giving to a younger one that society deems to be in her sexual prime: "It gets better," Belinda says.
Then Belinda launches into a monologue designed to be remembered, not just at awards season but for all time:
"I've been longing to say this out loud: Women are born with pain built in. It's our physical destiny: period pain, sore boobs, childbirth, you know. We carry it with ourselves throughout our lives. Men don't. They have to seek it out. They invent all these gods and demons and things so they can feel guilty about things, which is something we do very well on our own.
"And then they create wars so they can feel things and touch each other, and when there aren't any wars, they can play rugby. And we have it all going on in here! Inside! We have pain on a cycle for years and years and years.
"And then, just when you feel you're making peace with it, what happens? The menopause comes, the f**king menopause comes, and it is the most wonderful f**king thing in the world. And yes, your entire pelvic floor crumbles and you get f**king hot and no one cares. But then — you're free! No longer a slave, no longer a machine with parts. You're just a person, in business."
The speech leaves the viewer and Fleabag awestruck, and she probably speaks for a number of women watching when she says, "I was told it was horrendous."
"It is horrendous," Belinda admits, "but then it's magnificent. Something to look forward to."
For many decades television's default portrayal of menopausal and perimenopausal women is to sculpt them as grapes on the verge of raisin-hood, making punchlines out of it or creating one-episode B-plots informed by a character's experience with "the change," as viewers may have witnessed on episodes of "That '70s Show" or "All in the Family."
Samantha contends with her fears on an episode of "Sex and the City" way back in 2000, but — phew! — the late arrival of Aunt Flo announces it as a false alarm. That character is an apt example for the conundrum women face on the edge of maturity, actually.
We've been conditioned to keep our true chronological number a secret until we absolutely must produce our driver's license. Inequitable conditions in the workplace provide good reasons for this, of course, but societal taboos surrounding female aging demand for us to pay ample tolls to the beauty industry, to hold the signs of aging at bay until the absolute last moment.
Then, when nothing else can be done, we are encouraged to don loose fitting floral fabrics and defiantly announce that we shall wear purple while male counterparts are dubbed silver foxes and grand lions.
All of this only applies to the aesthetic ramifications of aging. Openly discussing the biological trial that cisgender women are destined to confront is another matter altogether, and many of us have been taught, by television and other sources, that to admit you're in the throes of it is not only an admittance of aging but also irrelevance and decreasing sexual viability.
The "Absolutely Fabulous" menopause episode opens with Eddy going to ludicrous lengths in the hopes of being noticed by Madonna and Guy Ritchie (talk about a series dating itself) in the hopes that she can join Madge's inner circle and somehow be reborn into relevancy. And it's interesting to watch that now, about a week after the New York Times published "Madonna at Sixty," a long profile examining the performer's lasting impact on popular culture and the passion she still inspires among her fans.
"Among my middle-aged peers — my female and gay male peers, mostly — she was still an object of fascination," writes Vanessa Grigoriadis, who follows with an interesting anecdote. "My old crusty punk friends, including an ex-dominatrix who now owned a restaurant, said: 'Madonna's hard-core! I want to know what she thinks about menopause. We need her back in New York.'"
Needless to say, Grigoriadis later "realized I couldn't ask her about anything as personal as menopause, but I had to broach the topic of aging." Needless to say, broaching the topic of aging went over with Madonna about well as one suspects asking her to talk about menopause would have — that is, not well at all.
In another timeline it might have been wonderful for Madonna to provide some insight into her experience with it, or it might not have added anything to the conversation. She's a woman who built her image on symbolism as opposed to the concrete, which may be why she was epically miffed at the writer's lengthy meditations on what it must mean for a woman to spend her life evolving into totems of the feminine ideal and still be standing, dancing and talking tough at 60.
I get where Grigoriadis is coming from; she's a woman in her 40s standing at the edge of a foggy passage who has access to a woman she idolizes and who seems to have survived making it through those badlands. She wants that idol to drop some guiding wisdom upon her; the icon merely wants to sell her new album.
And the writer realizes as much: "I felt a little foolish for thinking that she would want to talk to me about my own concern about aging, like an older sister. She was an icon, not a shoulder to lean on." True. At the same time, where are those shoulders for women of a certain age?
If Madonna can't bring herself to be comfortable with aging, let alone menopause, it can't be shocking that series featuring women in central roles are generally reluctant or unable to grapple with this life state with specificity. Think Claire Underwood leaning into the refrigerator during a dinner party to get some relief on an early episode of "House of Cards." She does this without admitting to a friend, who asks her if she's experiencing symptoms, that she is. Claire being who she is, she pivots to another subject.
Scripted television is at its best when it operates from a place of utter honesty, showing the beauty and the ugliness of a thing. And while fictional depictions of humanity are meant primarily as entertainments, they can also be educational tools. Imperfect ones, sure.
But in this department, for women who see some of themselves in a few "Big Little Lies" characters but aren't quite ready to claim "Grace & Frankie" as contemporaries, these stories are what we've got.
"Better Things," in fact, spends its entire third season exploring what life is like for a woman on the verge of 50, opening with an episode in which Pamela Adlon's character Sam takes her daughter Max (Mikey Madison) to college. Ample time is spent showing Sam comedically drowning Max in contraceptives and other feminine products. But on the other end of the trip, as Sam is heading through airport security, she gives a female TSA agent a glimpse into the future waiting for her when she explains why she keeps setting off the scanners.
"OK. Look. I'm wearing this special underwear. They're, like, super thick and absorbent and kind of, ish, like a diaper," Sam says matter of factly. "But they're underwear. Because . . . I'm having a very heavy, very heavy late-in-life period."
The TSA agent looks stunned.
"You're so young," she says. "Anyway. That's my story." Later Sam giggles at being carded by a bar before she's informed by the much older people around her that everyone gets carded. And so it goes.
But the great homage to this stage of life awaits in the episode titled "Show Me the Magic," the series' "girls' night in" tribute. At the outset Adlon drops viewers into a ladies-only hot tub gathering hosted by Lala (Judy Reyes), a friend of Sam's. The affair feels intimate yet inclusive, as Sam's circle of friends, including Rebecca Metz's Tressa, Cree Summer's Lenny and Rachel True's Pascal, drink cocktails, smoke weed and sigh in the pleasure of doing nothing in the company of sisterhood.
Leaving no doubt as to the opening interlude's theme, Pascal arrives with a call of "Halloooo!" she holds aloft her bottle of wine and shouts, with rebellious joy, "Menopause!"
The important part comes later, in a segment Adlon designed to be largely improvised; the dialogue filmed is what the women answer to questions posed as the camera is rolling. They discuss hormone replacement therapy in ways that aren't alarmist, trading information with one another and revealing along the way how different every woman's situation can be.
For instance, Pascal explains that she has to take a different prescription than the other women since they have children, and the biological process of procreation kicks into gear hormones in a woman's body that women who don't have children don't have. The other women at the table are surprised by this. The more you know!
Now: True is not a doctor, and "Better Things," for all of its realism, is still a fictional series. However, this is one of those passages that childless women might note and perhaps take to their doctors, which as empowering as the emotional aspect of it.
"Can I say the hardest part of going through all this is you realize on top of it all, you no longer exist as a woman?" Pascal says, leading Tressa to respond that she actually embraces her mid-life invisibility.
"But how about that you don't realize how much juice you used to get from it?" Lenny/Summer replies. "That's what freaked me out. You know what I mean? Like that day I walked into Starbucks, and the two cute young chicks were getting all the juice, and then I realized, I like that juice!"
Pascal sums everything up by stating what should be the scene's thesis, aside from reminding everyone watching that women need these escapes as a vital tool for coping. "The problem is that nobody is talking to anybody," she says. "We have to compare notes!"
This rally cry is far more sustaining than Saffy's comedic description of Patsy's osteoporosis diagnosis way back when: "She is just gristle clinging on to bone powder! This is what happens when you have the menopause!" Is it? Maybe, but not necessarily.
More realistic sounding is Belinda's warning in "Fleabag" about "the only really shit thing about getting older, is that people don't flirt with you anymore. Not really. Not with danger. I miss walking into a room and not knowing, and there's a sort of energy. A dare. Do not take that for granted: there is nothing more exciting than a room full of people."
When Fleabag answers this with a misanthropic quip, Belinda knocks it down. "Listen, people are all we've got." People, and stories like these that could represent the beginning of something, or perhaps not. What matters is they exist for women who need them, and that's a more optimistic change than what previous generations had.
Melanie McFarland is Salon's TV critic. Follow her on Twitter: @McTelevision
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Check out this article! https://www.salon.com2019/06/12/tvs-changing-view-of-the-change-the-menopause-conversation-is-getting-better-finally/


Shaumaun is a melding of progressive and modern hard rock, which will be out just a few days after this review has been posted. It's not the heaviest thing in the world, but you've definitely got to hear it. It's a solo project of Farhad Hossain (former Iris Divine) who performs the incredibly melodic leads as well as the extremely passionate and ridiculously catchy (you'll have these songs in your head for days) vocal approach that I'd consider the ebb and flow of the album. There are some metallic sections, but I'd more or less consider Shaumaun an extremely good rock album. Why? Because it's a disc that I can remember easily. I can tell you for certain that I love "You and I Will Change The World" (4:35), "The Drop" (9:02) and "Ambrosia" (4:14) beyond measure. Let's just add "Floods" (4:14) to that for the exact same reason. The record actually begins with a very Tool-ish number called "A New Revolution" (6:21) and they're using one of the more commercial pieces (Miracles Of Yesterday) as a single, which should really show this record in a positive light. I don't know if it's Hossain's vocals, his leads, or perhaps Jose Mora's melodic bass licks and even Tyler Kim's fretwork, (not to mention Darkest Hour/Periphery drummer Tanvir Tomal's steady and precise drum taps) but something here really sets it off for me. There's a decidedly middle-eastern flair to the sound and atmosphere, but it also seems channeled through that of acts like Tool, Dream Theater/James Labrie and the more atmospheric work of Stabbing Westward/The Dreaming which I found unusual and profoundly interesting. I would have never expected to draw a Stabbing Westward/The Dreaming influence from a prog record like this, especially since there are no electronics to be found. Some of these songs as you can see are quite lengthy, yet they're marvels in not only accessibility, but sheer craftsmanship. There's even an instrumental called "Sunrise At Midnight" (4:11) that's an earth shattering mix of world music and prog. I don't want to go revealing the entire disc to you, but if you're looking for a modern rock sound that is extremely melodic and quite atmospheric, you're going to find it on Shumaun. Hossain's vocals are simply beautiful and they'll work to guide you through the disc. He does shout a couple of times, but there's nothing in the vein of frantic screaming, which leaves the record an air of class about it – something we wouldn't expect from such a commercial sound.
Keep in mind, I'm not trying to market this to you. That's not my job. I'm here to give you my honest opinion on records, which is just what I'm doing here. I want the band to know that too, as these guys obviously spent a ton of man-hours on this thing. It definitely needs to be recognized in the rock world and should be playing on the same radio stations that we're playing acts like Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Disturbed and Five Finger Death Punch on. It's rock music with a lot of replay value, and some strong messages at heart. Shumaun is REAL music with REAL effort and REAL values put behind it. There's a definite positivity here, and it comes off as a rather heartfelt and passionate moment that I'm thankful to have been able to recommend your way. Again, there's a time when we post heavy and grim things, but then again there's a time when we post simply beautiful works of art like those that you'll experience here. Shumaun make music that should make a splash, and I really hope that it does. This is coming out around the same time as Justin Bieber's new record and just a week before the new Adelle drops, which is projected to make millions. Let's show how much we like real music, and make this thing top even higher than even the Beebs. Let's show the world that rock music isn't dead. Grab a copy of Shumaun the day it drops and you too will experience beauty flowing right from your stereo. This is great stuff, and it's undoubtedly one of my favorite rock albums of the year.


Training Update: I have sent an email to all confirmed attendees. Please check your spam folder if you can't see it and if not received, please email me.
There are some traders who only trade Outside In and others who only trade Inside Out.
Firstly, for those not familiar with my terms, let me give a high level definition.
Outside in trades are those where the trader is trying to catch the turning points in the market, the troughs and the peaks.These trades are lower win rate trades as you are anticipating a change. However, the profit per winning trade is relatively high.
Inside out trades are trades where the trader is joining a move that is under way. They are inside out because by the time the trader realises the move is under way, you are already inside the move. These trades are higher win rate trades but less profitable per trade as you have missed part of the move.
Specialising in one or the other can be both good and bad. Good because you get really good at something when you do it over and over again, and bad because you miss a lot of great trades.
Many years ago, I went through a phase when I used to have a hard time with long positions. I was always looking for a short, even in an an uptrend. I guess it was my Pavlovian response to the instant gratification of a short win against the slower gains from a long. I overcame this disability by forcing myself to only trade from the long side for a while.
As a professional trader, I realised I needed a full tool box to deal with whatever the market threw at me. I saw that unless I could trade every which way and loose, I would not recognise what was going on and be able to deal with it.
In teaching Kiki to trade, I took a holistic approach. We found, firstly, one setup that she could trade both from the long and the short side and she became CP with that. We then added a second setup and did the same. The first one was an inside out, the second an Outside in. We then added to this basis.
I'm confident that she is now a trader.
Without taking anything away from Kiki and the enormous amount of time and work she put into it, I am convinced that the way that we went about the process of learning had a lot to do with her emergence as a trader. This is what we will replicate in the training.
Today's trades in RTH were around the gap trade. Trade #1 was inside out, trade #2 outside in. I have increased size and am trading less. That's all for today, I'm watching the Wimbledon tennis. Federer currently down 2 sets and losing the 3rd, but the fat lady hasn't sung yet.
Tom, i have some problems with a long outside-in trades, when i wiped out my entire account on the may 6. I had understood that there is always possibility of the war, the day like 2001/09/11, flash crash ans so on. There is a reason why put options is always more expensive than calls. And your trade nr. 2 was such a trade, there was a very good possibility that the gap would be filled without retracement isn't it? It is interesting where was your stop? Is it first red bar of VB indicator or 2 points stops? If we are waiting longer, we could expect 3-4 full points losing trade any day? What is your stop, Tom on such a trades?
I took the same trade 1 you did. While you took profit and reversed where you indicated 2, I stayed in the trade and got stopped out BE.
While I was in the trade 1, I can see 3+ point profit and couldn't find any reason to exit the trade where you did. there is no support, no POC, no VAH, nothing in its way down till Friday's high. So i didn't exit, it reversed and stopped me out at BE.
Thanks a bunch for a great blog.
Andreyyy, Oversold and change in momentum. Look at the CCIs. BTW, a Put and Call are the same - you can make a call into a put synthetically with futures. I don't exit with stops. That trade was pretty sure to go up enough to gibe me time to get out.
Chak. You could have scaled out once or twice and put your stop to B/E and had a profit on 1/2 or 2/3rds of your position. 3 points is a lot to give back. Trying to hit home runs on every trade is a losing strategy. High win rate with lots of smaller profits is what makes me money. Home runs come around 1 out of 10 times. Smaller profits are there 9 out of 10. Look at your trade plan and backtesting.
Hi Tom, many thanks again for this excellent blog. Your way of reading order flow has opened my mind and I now see the markets in a totally different way.
Could you please explain, why you didn't take the 2nd trade labelled "BUY S1"?
I was also in trade 1 - but got out after the 2 points profit target.
Peter, the CCIs didn't fit. Looked like the resistance would hold, and it did. If you had taken it you could have reveresed for only a few ticks loss, so no biggy.
Tom, many thanks for your answer.
Hmm, 6CCI is crossing 0 and in sync with 45 pointing upwards?!?