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Title: Capitalism in Crisis
Author: Workers Solidarity Movement
Topics: capitalism, financial crisis, neoliberalism, Red & Black Revolution
Source: Retrieved on 15th November 2021 from www.wsm.ie
Notes: Published in Red & Black Revolution No. 15 — Spring 2009.
Workers Solidarity Movement
Capitalism in Crisis
The neoliberal origins of the global capitalist crisis
The development of the capitalist crisis: 2008 to 2009
Financial Crisis: August 2007 — September 2008
Crisis in the Real Economy: September 2008 — Spring 2009
Global Political Repercussions of the capitalist crisis
Keynsianism
The neoliberal model that global capitalism has depended upon for its growth over the last three decades has collapsed in spectacular fashion. The collapse has been remarkable for the astonishing speed with which it has spread all over the world and into every corner of the global economy.
The roots of this crisis are found in the basic structure of the neoliberal economic system. Neoliberal economics first came into vogue in the late 1970s. They represented a reaction by the powerful against social democracy and the wave of radical social movements — anti- colonial, civil-rights, feminist, socialist — that flourished in the post-war period. At its essence neoliberalism amounted to a very simple strategy — to remove as many constraints as possible governing how capital could be employed. To this end, from the 1980s onwards, having gained ideological control of the political systems of the major economies, neoliberal financial, legal and diplomatic measures were introduced to progressively facilitate the free movement of capital around the globe. The mobility and freedom from regulation and oversight that such reforms allowed effectively removed any prospect of democratic forces influencing the running of the economy.
If any population even looked like they might have the temerity to impose restrictions on capital movements, the markets would move and capital would leave, destroying the economy in the process, long before the local population could act. If any workforce became too assertive and started organising to achieve better pay and conditions, production could move overseas, closing their factories and eliminating the workers' jobs. Thus, the basic neoliberal principles, when translated into policies, were very effective in increasing the power of those who owned significant capital and, conversely, decreasing the power of the masses who did not. For example, the rising tide of Third World nationalism and anti-colonialism was militarily impossible to defeat in the 1960s and 70s. However, the Third World debt crisis of the early 1980s managed to quash the threat, with an effect that lasted for decades. Similarly, neoliberal deregulation allowed the industrial barons of the US auto-industry to move production away from the heavily-unionised and militant cities of Detroit and Pittsburgh. The economic dereliction that they left behind still serves as a potent warning against any would be imitators of the militant Detroit workers.
The major problem, however, for the ruling class with this strategy is that the regulations that neoliberalism tore up were put there for a reason and they were largely put in place by the ruling class in their own interests. During the 19th century — the era of classic liberalism — 'laissez faire' economic ideas were in vogue. The unregulated economy experienced regular, cataclysmic crises, frequent cycles of boom and bust, social upheavals, resource wars and even revolutions. That economic period culminated in the apocalypse of the First World War and the Russian revolution. The economic mess that ensued led to the Second World War and another surge of social upheaval. The economic regulations, put in place as part of the post-war settlement — which neoliberalism shredded were put in place for a reason.
There are various different theories that explain why markets are prone to cycles of boom and bust. Regardless of the ultimate cause, however, what is clear is that, when people interact through markets, crises invariably occur. The severity and disruption caused by these crises depends on the presence of regulations and mechanisms for preventing them and counter-acting them when they occur. Without any regulation or oversight, markets will frequently collapse completely and will simply cease functioning. In general, regulations that have been put in place exist because, without them, significant problems may occur that threaten the survival of the system. The neoliberal crusaders who constructed the financial infrastructure of the modern economy were presumably at least vaguely aware of the structural problems inherent in deregulated markets. However, they were able to delude themselves into imagining that modern fiscal and monetary policy mechanisms were of such sophistication and power that the government would be able to prevent the system from ever descending into crisis. This belief was seductive too. Neoliberalism delivered almost three decades of solid growth in profits. The frequent crises that appeared, in accordance with their fears, were managed, contained and isolated from the rest of the global economy by the International Financial Institutions. The major economies were largely able to avoid recessions — they were contained within developing regions such as East Asia or Latin America.
However, this apparent success in staving off busts in the major economies was based on a serious dose of both voodoo economics and wishful thinking. Every time that the markets got into trouble, central banks would lower interest rates, making it easier for people to borrow money to keep investments flowing. While it might have looked like it was working at the time, this simply amounted to moving bubbles around and keeping on inflating them whenever they looked like bursting. The dotcom bubble was moved into housing and financial services and, all the while, underlying debt was building up. The entire financial system eventually became little more than a massive pyramid scheme. What made the problem worse was that neoliberalism attacked workers' incomes and conditions as part of its drive to deliver profits to capitalists. Since modern economies such as that of the US are heavily reliant on consumer spending by workers, this creates a basic contradiction. Thus, during the neoliberal era, a large proportion of consumption as well as investment was fuelled by credit. Low interest rates allowed this dependence on credit to mushroom into a huge bubble.
Credit bubbles can only grow so large. At some stage, debt grows to such a stage that the debtors can't afford to service their debt. Thus, when interest rates increased in 2007, a chain reaction of debt-defaults was set in motion all across the global economy. It became clear that, rather than having conquered the boom- bust cycle, neoliberalism had simply managed to build up the greatest boom of all time, and its unwinding would be similarly the greatest bust. The immediate factor that triggered the rise in interest rates and the onset of the bust was the increase in commodity prices in 2007 (food, energy, minerals...). This represented a new, underlying and extremely serious long term threat to capitalist growth — the supply of commodities is inherently finite, but capitalist growth demands ever more resources as time goes on. At some stage the raw materials available from the earth will fall below demand. The commodity price bubble of 2007 represented the market's opinion that the rates of growth were not sustainable in the long term due to the finite nature of supply.
Although the prices of commodities collapsed along with the credit bubble, the spectre of resource shortages hangs over the system. Any recovery of capitalist growth is likely to lead to another explosion in commodity prices.Thus, overall, it is fair to say that the crisis of 2007/2008 represents an enormous and unprecedented challenge to the world's economic order. As of March 2009, there is no prospect of recovery on the horizon and the pace of the crisis is, if anything, increasing over time, despite the best efforts of bankers and politicians.
Despite the fact that the crisis has and will continue to cause great suffering for ordinary people all over the world, this is a good time to be a revolutionary. The neoliberal capitalist ideological orthodoxy, which reigned supreme for over three decades has been smashed to smithereens and will never return. Suddenly, there is space for new economic visions that are not based upon capitalist greed and growth. Ordinary people are willing to consider different ideas as to how we should run our economy and in many cases, the impossible circumstances that they find themselves in will force them to seek out such answers.Nobody can be sure exactly how the current crisis will play out. We know that it will be severe and prolonged, but exactly what will happen is impossible to know. However, it is obvious that the crisis represents a real opportunity for anarchists and other socialists to rebuild support for alternative economic visions.
A new era of revolutionary possibilities lies before us.
The first 18 months of the crash from the Credit Crunch to the spread to the 'real economy.
In August 2007 the world's financial systems started grinding to a halt as financial institutions began to realise that they had no real idea of the risks that were contained within the complex financial instruments that they owned. Since the bankers couldn't work out exactly how risky their own securities were, they certainly weren't going to trust the assurances of other institutions. Due to the complexity of the inter-relationsshps within the financial sector, this resulted in the credit market basically shutting down. The financial institutions were no longer willing to lend money to any of their peers as they thought it was far too risky. This was known as the Credit Crunch.
As 2008 progressed, the credit market remained closed and it became ever more apparent that the reluctance of the bankers tomake loans to one another was well-founded.
In March 2008, Bear Stearns, one of the world's largest investment banks, collapsed under the weight of its bad loans. Then, in September 2008, another Wall Street bank, Lehman Brothers, collapsed. Rather than bailing it out, or transferring its assets elsewhere, the US government allowed it to declare bankruptcy. This almost led to a total collapse of the global financial system, as Lehman's bad debts rippled through it. Lehman's bankruptcy shone a light on the vast web of deals between banks which meant that the entire system was dependent on the value of assets that were known to be 'toxic'. As of March 2009, the financial system continues on a downward spiral — the injection of trillions of dollars of public money has merely slowed the collapse. The basic problem is that almost all of the banks are insolvent. The financial system is dead and will not be revived in the same form ever again.
Although world stock-markets had been in retreat since November 2007, it wasn't until September 2008 that the full effects of the crisis started to be felt in the real economy. There were two basic reasons for this spread. Firstly, it became more difficult for businesses to access credit. This was particularly problematic as, during the era of neoliberalism, it became standard practice for companies to borrow heavily in order to minimise the tax liabilities of their owners. Many businesses were heavily dependent on cheap credit and when it disappeared, they faced an immediate crisis and had to close or downsize to survive.
Secondly, the crisis was ultimately triggered by the fact that workers were unable to service their debts. This meant that there was going to be less consumer spending and companies were going to sell less products. This caused share prices to collapse and companies to cut back even further. These effects combined in a negative feedback loop — rising unemployment and less credit caused companies to cut back even further as spending collapsed, leading to a runaway economic crisis.
As soon as the scale of the crisis became clear, all rhetoric about free-markets and competition vanished. Bankers, capitalists and right wing politicians were all suddenly huge believers in the role of the state and the importance of regulation.
It took no time at all for the bankers and various other troubled industries to start demanding public money to bail them out. This showed just how thin capitalism's ideological layer is — they will believe anything and say anything as long as it is in their own immediate interests to do so. Thus far, the neoliberal governments of the world, with their hatred for government interference have poured more than $10 trillion into bailing out their banks. However, the chain reaction of the collapse in the real economy has caused even more fundamental shifts in economic policy.
The U.S. government amongst many others has responded to the crisis by adopting programs of economic stimulus. This amounts to a re-birth of the economic thinking of John Maynard Keynes, whereby countries spend their way out of recessions by borrowing heavily and using the money to provide jobs and capital to 'stimulate' the economy, in order to counteract the negative feedback loops that recessions cause. Keynsianism was traditionally associated with Social Democratic policies and the welfare state, so its new popularity marks a fundamental shift from neoliberalism. However, the scale of the crisis and the fact that it is occurring on a global level means that such responses, alongside the cost of the bank bailouts, have caused an explosion in demand for international credit at precisely the time when it is least available.
Due to its large export sector, China is one of the principal creditors between states. However, the slow-down in the Chinese economy is likely to cause unrest amongst the huge and volatile Chinese working class. Whether China can continue to serve as a major international creditor in the long term is uncertain.
The massive cost of the crisis will put pressure on the imperial role of the US. Their public finances will increasingly constrain their ability to serve as the "world's policeman." Significant changes are in motion, exactly how they will turn out is impossible to say, but the world will be different.


Wyoming's #26 In "The Definitive and Final Ranking Of All U.S. States"
This week, the travel and lifestyle website Thrillist released their self proclaimed "Definitive and Final Ranking of All U.S. States". Although it's a completely subjective list, the authors claim their results are based on each state's contributions to the country, entertainment options, natural beauty and famous residents.
Here's how they characterized Wyoming, which finished in 26th place on their list.
"A state as played by Jack Palance in City Slickers, you'll recognize Wyoming as the one eating bull fries and venison jerky, dressed in gold and brown, talking (bleep) about Colorado. It should be given credit for creating the USA's first national park in Yellowstone, and giving teenage boys everywhere a chance to snicker at the Grand Tetons."
Citing the fact that most of their residents are willing to apologize for native son Kid Rock, Michigan was ranked first. Maine, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Louisiana rounded out the top five.
Florida was ranked as the worst state in the country, followed by Delaware, Ohio, Arizona and Utah. Check out the complete "definitive and final ranking of all U.S. States" here.


There are two basic types of leadership book.
The first is the philosophical book. Books in this category are full of fresh ideas and illustrative stories that are meant to inspire. Reading them feels good, and finishing them feels even better. They're empowering. The best books of this type include one or two key concepts that stick with us long after we've turned the last page, influencing our future behavior; the others give us a temporary boost of energy and enthusiasm before they're forgotten.
The second type of leadership book is the practical book. These books forego inspiration and ideology for marching orders. Full of specific guidelines and tactics, the most effective practical books become trusted manuals for doing business well. The majority get bookmarked and put down about a third of the way through, never to be picked up again.
Do Better Work is a rare book that falls in both categories. In it, author Max Yoder weaves the philosophical and the practical together, seamlessly and to great effect. The result is a leadership book that is not only helpful, but delightful and surprising to read—one where step-by-step instructions for, say, sharing work before you're ready or achieving clarity, fit neatly alongside the lessons we can learn from philosopher J. Krishnamurti or the vulnerability of superheroes.
I'm acquainted with Max—Visible and his company, Lessonly, share common investors—and his warmth and optimism, both immediately obvious when you meet him, make up the DNA of Do Better Work. Other touches, like the Vonnegut-esque sketches scattered throughout, make the book feel less like a typical leadership volume and more like a diary. Although Yoder writes about himself very little in Do Better Work, it still feels like a deeply personal read.
Each of the book's chapters is a vignette, with a simple title printed to look like handwriting. Fittingly, each of the chapter titles reads like it's taken from a to-do list: Look For Opportunity, Ask Clarifying Questions, Get More Agreements. If there's a central theme, it's one of empathy and vulnerability, presenting interpersonal risk-taking and openness as the true path to better business outcomes.
If there's a flaw here, it stems from the author's apparent reticence to insert himself into the work. It's telling that Yoder gives a paragraph each to three of the major turning points in his life, but spends almost four pages on the lessons we can learn from production issues on the set of Jaws. It's unclear whether more details about, say, Yoder's failed first startup, Quipol, would've made the book better, but it is apparent that he's more comfortable sharing others' stories than his own.
Do Better Work was self-published, largely because Yoder was resistant to publishers' requests to inflate the word count. The final product is refreshingly free of fluff, but the book's independent status may keep it from getting the full recognition it deserves.
In the spirit of optimism, I have to hope that does not end up being the case. Do Better Work is a singular, winsome and challenging book for leaders and their teams alike.


I met Arthur Miller when I was seventeen. He was a recipient of the Four Freedoms Award (for the freedom of speech), and I had been selected among local high school students to attend the ceremony, which was held near the Roosevelt mansion in Hyde Park, New York. I remember almost nothing about the ceremony, except for three things. First, while Arthur Miller was accepting his award, a friend or possibly a teacher leaned into me and said, "Do you know he used to be a communist?" Second, I shook Arthur Miller's hand. He had a firm, pleasant handshake, and he struck me as being the perfect height. And third, perhaps noticing my starry-eyed look, that same friend or teacher told me that Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe had been married briefly.
A decade later, I opened a file stamped "Restricted Correspondence" and found a series of letters written by the man who had performed the marriage ceremony of Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe. New Haven rabbi, Robert Goldburg, had presided over Monroe's conversion and officiated at a Jewish ceremony, in the wake of a civil one, for the couple. Two of the things I had learned about Miller the day I met him—the allegation that he was a communist, and the fact that he had once been married to the iconic American beauty—rushed into my mind.
I stared at a photograph of Miller, Goldburg, and Monroe taken at a benefit dinner in 1959. The men in tuxedos flanked Monroe, who wore a tank dress with a lace bodice. She leaned into Miller, and smiled at Goldburg. I could not trace Miller's line of vision. Was he gazing lovingly at his wife, or were his eyes trained on the rabbi? Was Miller grimacing or smiling? I thought, then, about that firm handshake.
When writer's block hit, I returned to the photograph. I was writing a book about about the Jewish perception of the lines that separated and connected Jews to non-Jews. Yet everything about that photograph seemed to obscure those lines. Most obvious, the photograph captured romance across ethno-religious-racial boundaries. Those boundaries certainly were not erased. Commentators and critics (such as sharp-tongued Norman Mailer) made much of the union between the "great American mind" and the "great American body"—the cerebral was the Jewish man; the corporal and sensual was the Protestant-raised woman. But the presence of the rabbi, one point in what surely appeared as a triangle, interrupted the dichotomies.
Rabbi Goldburg signed Marilyn Monroe's conversion certificate hours before he performed her wedding. Though he had known Miller's family for a number of years, his relationship to the new couple pivoted around the intimacy he felt with the convert, Monroe, and not the Jewish playwright. In fact, Miller had not encouraged Monroe's conversion, and I imagine that he, ever the secularist, must have looked upon it with some bemusement. Still, he understood that Monroe craved what the rabbi offered: a sense of connection to a tradition and a community, something that lasted beyond the present, with long threads of meaning extending into the past and toward a future. In epistolary recollections after Monroe's death, Goldburg described her joy while studying Jewish texts with him and participating in rituals. He believed he gave her something that neither fame nor her husband could give her.
Goldburg's letters, which he wrote periodically to Jacob Rader Marcus at the American Jewish Archives, suggest the love he felt for Monroe. In his desire to defend his motives for the historical record and explain that the conversion he performed was proper and appropriate, Goldburg's affection for Monroe lingers. His love for Monroe may have indeed been requited in the way that was acceptable to him—through her high regard for him as a rebbe, a teacher, a guide. Perhaps this accounts for Miller's expression in the photograph of the benefit dinner, with the suggestion of a grimace cast in the direction of the rabbi, who ironically injected the intermarriage with a brand of Judaism that comforted Monroe more than it pleased Miller.
Miller would not have attended the dinner, a fundraising event for the American Friends of Hebrew University, but Goldburg urged him to do so. Two years earlier, Goldburg had prevailed upon the couple to make an appearance at a United Jewish Appeal gala at the Fountainebleu in Miami Beach. Exercising his influence over the couple, Goldburg even persuaded the reticent Monroe to talk for three minutes about why she converted to Judaism. ("I wrote the speech for her," Goldburg recalled.) The day of the event arrived and with it a subpoena for Miller to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Goldburg received word from the United Jewish Appeal's organizers that Miller's invitation was rescinded. The rabbi must have been mortified when he had to call the couple and let them know what his people, their people, had decided. Proud of his own FBI "red file," Goldburg seethed at the timidity of these establishment Jews. Later, he would protest the Vietnam War, invite Stokely Carmichael to speak at his synagogue, and dismiss the kind of Jews who allowed their anxiety about Jewish assimilation into the mainstream to overshadow their concern for societal inequality.
In 1991, near the end of Golburg's life, Miller explained how he had come to admire this rabbi—despite the coolness that I perceived between the two in that triangulated photograph. Miller praised the rabbi for stepping outside of the "narrow, unilinear" Jewish life that frustrated the playwright and that, it seems, Monroe craved. According to Miller, ethnicity and religion left a "trail of blood, of injustices and hatred" in their wake, but not so the form of Judaism Goldburg endorsed. As Miller wrote, "For holding onto universal values, [Goldburg] has turned Judaism's best face to the world. For this, which has taken courage, we owe him a great debt." The two men, a playwright and a rabbi, were fellow travelers resisting a world that insisted on boundaries—religious, ethnic, sexual, racial.
Marriage may not transcend boundaries, but it always crosses them. Who among us has maintained a deep friendship or a marriage without experiencing moments of division, a gap, even a chasm? In individual relationships, whether or not formed across lines of ethnicity, religion, class, or race, we confront places where the cry of universalism cannot be heard: an argument over a childrearing decision, a difference of opinion about how to spend money, a conflict about responsibility. Whatever identity markers we share, we also find ones that separate us—this is what is so creative and revolutionary about marriage, an assertion that even in our differences we can function together. This is neither rigid universalism nor narrow particularism.
If we imagine in each marriage a creative revolution, then we may embrace the changes and transformations—not eternal sameness—that marriage in this country in the last half of a century have brought. The photograph, that still captivates me each time I look at it, captures a moment in that ongoing revolution, when a rabbi, a playwright, and a starlight stood unified by a Jewish tradition, at its best capacious enough to make room for all of them.
Lila Corwin Berman is Murray Friedman Chair of American Jewish History and director of the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History at Temple University. Her article "Jewish Urban Politics in the City and Beyond" appeared recently in the Journal of American History.


Polar Bear Fishout 2006...Flashback to the BIG fish!
The purpose of the club is to: Promote appreciation and increase interest in the sport of flyfishing by means of education programs, fellowship and assistance to club members, youth and others, encouraging them to become better fly fishers and true sportsmen; Encourage and promote conservation and the betterment of fisheries, waters and watersheds; Support observance of fish and game laws and advocate the practice of catch and release fishing; Facilitate camaraderie through general membership meetings, clinics (fly fishing and fly tying), fish-outs, tier's cabins, banquets, annual barbeques, fly tying expos, and other social events; Raise funds and provide financial support to projects, organizations, agencies, in furtherance of the above purposes; Provide volunteer support for the betterment of the sport and fisheries.
The Club does a number of projects in support of the Nevada Division of Wildlife. They include constructing information kiosks for posting information and regulations at popular fishing locations, assisting with annual spawning operations, assisting with stream population surveys, with fish relocation projects, LCT species preservation, and other projects as possible. The club also hosts fly fishing courses, fly tying courses, fly tying expos, and assists with beginning and intermediate casting clinics.
Two awards are presented annually at the annual fall banquet.
The Fly Fisher of the Year award is a framed fly plaque, presented to a member "for achievement of significant results toward education, habitat restoration, conservation or enhancement of fisheries or fly fishing".
The President's Award is determined by the president and given to the member "who has contributed most to the assistance of the president or the benefit of the club"


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[Cosplay&More] – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Aela the Huntress by the gorgeous Monono Cosplay
Posted bycosplayinfinity 31 January 2017 28 August 2017 Posted in[Cosplay&More]Tags:Aela the Huntress, Bethesda, CosplayMonono, Skyrim, the elder scrolls
@CosplayMonono – Photo Zeno Gaich Photography
Sab Rina – Monono Cosplay
Photo Zeno Gaich Photography
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an open world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2011. The game's main story revolves around the player character and their quest to defeat Alduin the World-Eater, a dragon who is prophesied to destroy the world. The game is set two hundred years after the events of Oblivion, and takes place in the fictional province of Skyrim. Over the course of the game, the player completes quests and develops the character by improving skills. The game continues the open world tradition of its predecessors by allowing the player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time, and to ignore or postpone the main storyline indefinitely.
Skyrim was developed using the Creation Engine, rebuilt specifically for the game. The team opted for a unique and more diverse game world than Oblivion's Cyrodiil, which game director and executive producer Todd Howard considered less interesting by comparison. The game was released to critical acclaim, with reviewers particularly mentioning the character development and setting, and is considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time. The game shipped over seven million copies to retailers within the first week of its release, and sold over 30 million copies across all platforms. Three downloadable content (DLC) add-ons were released—Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn—which were repackaged into The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Legendary Edition, which was released in June 2013. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition, a remastered version of the game, was released for Windows, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in October 2016, which includes all three DLC expansions and a complete graphical upgrade, along with additional features. A port for the Nintendo Switch is planned for release in 2017.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_V:_Skyrim
Aela the Huntress
Aela the Huntress is a Nord werewolf, a member of The Companions, and one of five members of The Circle. Residing in Jorrvaskr with the other Companions, Aela offers lycanthropy deep into the faction's questline. Additionally, she is an expert level Archery trainer, as well as a candidate for marriage and a follower after The Companions' main questline.
From http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Aela_the_Huntress
[Cosplay&More] – BioShock Infinite, Elizabeth by the gorgeous Angela Bermudez
[Cosplay&More] – X-Men, Psylocke by the gorgeous Giu Hellsing

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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J.K. Rowling sues former employee for buying too many cats, the witchiest crime of all
Filed to:AUX
Photo: Walter McBride (Getty Images)
Suggesting that Grindelwald isn't the only one out there committing crimes against the wizarding world right now, BBC News reports that author J.K. Rowling is suing a former assistant for, among other things, supposedly using a company credit card to buy herself a couple of cats. (The News refuses to note whether the animals in question were secretly either familiars or animagi, but we can only fucking assume, right?) In fact, former assistant Amanda Donaldson is alleged to have hacio'd a whole bunch of shit while working for the Harry Potter author, charging it all to a company credit card, for which she was supposedly dismissed last year.
To us, though, most of the items Donaldson is accused of illegally charging sound less like personal indulgences, and more like vital working tools for the eldritch arts. Where you poor, myopic muggles and no-majs might see more than $2,000 in Starbucks purchases, for instance, we see all-important "magic juice." $1,936 in luxury candles? "Incantation supplies." A $600 Hogwarts Express toy that Donaldson is accused of stealing? Well, how the hell else is she supposed to get off of Platform 9 3/4? The Whomping Willow already demolished Arthur Weasley's flying car!
Clearly, this is just another (and very literal) witch hunt, with Rowling suing Donaldson for allegedly taking a total of something like $31,000 worth of stuff over her three-year tenure as her assistant, as though money doesn't just grow on trees. (We haven't actually seen Crimes Of Grindlewald yet, but we assume it contains at least one scene where money absolutely grows on a tree. If not, we formally apologize for the previous sentence.)
There's not much magic in the plotty, reference-heavy Fantastic Beasts sequel
Johnny Depp drags J.K. Rowling down to his level
Someone stole a valuable Harry Potter prequel written on a postcard


Need icons for your next project? No idea how to make the most important graphical part of the software? Try visiting the site www.777icons.com! It will help you add beauty and grace to your application, which will play an important role for you later!
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It is extremely important and absolutely necessary for every software developer to gain money from his project, otherwise there will be no incentive to start another project and the progress will stop. Trying to rise the sales of a product and to earn a good reputation on the market, developers usually underestimate one of the main visual parts in software - its icon, while it might help to get more buyers and, as a result, rise sales and profit many times.
A lot of developers see an icon as a useless attribute in software development, do not spend time on it and, therefore, the demand for their products is low and they suffer losses. And the following question appears: why is the need for the software low if it contains great features, its algorithms work flawlessly and marvelous development tools were used during its creation? When we purchase a product in a shop, the first thing we see is its visual look and if it looks okay, we buy it and only after that we discover what is in the pack, but if the look does not satisfy us, we leave such a product in place and go on to find a more suitable one. The same is right for the digital world - when a client gets a shareware program, the primary thing he looks at is the icon of this program and he already gets the first impression about the software, which will later play the major role in selecting the product. Only after starting the program, the client evaluates its features.
Judging from the psychological characteristics of all people, it is necessary to make the first impression (which is the strongest one) good so that the icon could appeal to the user as much as it can and get him to using the program. Just imagine that the need for your product among competitors on the market depends on what pictogram your software has. And losing a client nowadays means wasting the effort and money spent on this project, which equals to losing profit as well! therefore, you need to think if it would be better to confide the development of such an important part of your project to experienced designers and to dedicate more time to developing the functions of your program?
One of the leading experts in this area is the Aha-Soft company that developed the site www.777icons.com. Each customer gets a personal approach so all demands and details about the icon are taken into account. And this icon will later increase the sales of your project and, therefore, money you earn!
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Henri Poincelot, né le  à Monthureux-sur-Saône et mort le  à Vittel, est une personnalité politique française, conseiller de la République de 1946 à 1948 (sénateur sous la ).

Biographie
Après l'obtention d'un certificat d'études primaires, Henri Poincelot travaille d'abord dans la scierie familiale de Bleurville, puis devient cultivateur. Il s'inscrit au parti communiste à partir de 1934 et s'intéresse vivement à l'activité politique locale. Il est ainsi élu conseiller municipal de Monthureux-sur-Saône en 1936 et le sera jusqu'en 1947. Il est mobilisé pour la guerre dès 1939. Après l'armistice du 22 juin 1940, il rentre dans la Résistance où il se distingue par une importante activité. Il héberge nombre de réfractaires, de communistes évadés ainsi que des FFI et des FTPF. À la fin de la guerre, il devient membre du comité cantonal de Libération de Monthureux-sur-Saône puis secrétaire de la section du parti communiste de Monthureux-sur-Saône à partir de 1945 et enfin membre du bureau de la fédération des Vosges du PCF ainsi que de la confédération générale de l'agriculture dès sa fondation en 1946.

Parcours politique
Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il se porte candidat aux élections du  au Conseil de la République sur la liste présentée par l'Union républicaine et résistante et remporte le siège avec  sur  exprimés. Il adhère au groupe communiste le , il est nommé membre titulaire de la commission du ravitaillement et de la reconstruction des dommages de guerre. À ce titre, il prend part à la discussion sur la dotation prévue par le gouvernement concernant le budget de reconstruction et d'urbanisme. Très attaché à défendre les administrés de sa région, Henri Poincelot intervient d'abord dans la discussion sur la proposition de résolution relative au secours des premières victimes des inondations des départements de l'Est puis prend part au débat au sujet du projet de loi prorogeant la législation en vigueur dans les départements d'Alsace-Lorraine.

Le , il est à nouveau nommé membre de la commission du ravitaillement et de la reconstruction des dommages de guerre. Il défend ainsi de nombreux textes législatifs concernant notamment le rétablissement du trafic ferroviaire, et plus particulièrement de la ligne Nancy-Nomeny, ou de l'indemnisation des ouvriers envoyés de force en Allemagne. La même année, il participe à la discussion sur la proposition de loi portant sur la suppression de  du code général des contributions directes ainsi qu'au débat relatif à la modification du taux des redevances perçues au titre de l'extraction du minerai de fer. Il intervient enfin dans la discussion sur l'aménagement des dotations budgétaire pour l'exercice

Henri Poincelot ne se représente pas aux élections au Conseil de la République de .

Notes et références

Liens externes

 Persée, la revue scientifique

Sénateur de la Quatrième République française
Sénateur des Vosges
Sénateur membre du Parti communiste français
Résistant français
Naissance en juillet 1902
Décès en décembre 1980
Naissance dans le département des Vosges
Décès à Vittel
Titulaire du certificat d'études primaires
Décès à 78 ans

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
A Brief History of Drake, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj Comparing Themselves to Jay Z
On Remy Ma's February 2017 annihilation of Nicki Minaj, "shETHER", Nicki's constant comparisons to Jay Z were rebutted, but it seems she's merely following in the footsteps of labelmates Drake and Lil Wayne, who aren't afraid to compare themselves to the God MC.
Wayne had been claiming Jay's title of "best rapper alive" since as early as 2004, when he rapped on "Bring It Back": "The best rapper alive since the best rapper retired", a reference to Jay's outro on his 2003 single "Dirt Off Your Shoulder." Wayne doubled down on the message in 2005, on his track "Best Rapper Alive" off Tha Carter II. He was further provoked in 2006, when Jay released Kingdom Come, with the title track insinuating that hip hop needed saving, and Jay was the man to save it ("not only NYC I'm hip hop's saviour / so after this flow you might owe me a favour").
Wayne said in a 2006 interview:
I'm better than him... I'm 24 years old. ... I'm 13 years deep with five albums and 10 million records sold. I don't like what he's saying about how he had to come back because hip-hop's dead and we need him. What the f--- do you mean? If anything it's reborn, so he's probably having a problem with that. You left on a good note, and all of the artists were saying, 'Yo, this is Jay's house. He's the best.' Now he comes back and still thinks it's his house. ... It's not your house anymore, and I'm better than you.
Wayne went ahead and dominated the period from 2006-2009, eclipsing all other hip hop artists in terms of sales and critical reception. He dropped 3 classic mixtapes, and at least 1 classic album. On his 2008 track "Mr. Carter", a collaboration with Jay, the hatchet seemed to be buried, as Jay rapped: "Young Carter, go farther, go further, go harder... I took so much change from this rap game, it's your go". Jay went even further in 2009 on "A Star Is Born", acknowledging Wayne's dominance, and for the first time in his career (and to date, the last), offering to "pass the torch" to another rapper:
"Wayne scorchin', I'll applaud him / If he keep going, pass the torch to him"
Their rivalry is complex, and Wayne has only ever shown respect and admiration for Jay, despite the subliminals that flew between then from 2011-2013. Wayne has rapped over a number of Jay's beats, has Jay's lyrics tattooed on him, admitted to being obsessed with Jay and Roc-A-Fella earlier in his career, and as recently as 2016 was shouting Jay and Roc Nation out at concerts.
But did Wayne have a point? Was he the best rapper alive during this period? Forget record sales, business deals, contracts, or net worths, and focus on the bars and the music. Here's a quick rundown of what all the major critical outlets thought of their respective output (all major projects) during this time:
Lil Wayne:
Tha Carter: 70/100
Tha Carter II: 78/100
The Dedication: 200k downloads and 100/100 from Datpiff
Dedication 2: 80/100
Da Drought 3: 87/100
Tha Carter III: 84/100
No Ceilings: 73/100
Rebirth: 37/100
Total: 68/100
Jay-Z:
Unfinished Business (with R. Kelly): 64/100
Kingdom Come: 67/100
American Gangster: 74/100
The Blueprint 3: 65/100
Total: 67.5/100
Result: Lil Wayne wins this, by the tiniest of margins. But he released 9 projects during this period, and Jay only released 4. Rebirth, his rock album, also drags him down considerably I think Wayne was quite right to claim he was the best rapper alive from 2004 through to 2009. Jay's output was inconsistent at best, and Wayne was truly scorching.
Drake has compared himself to Jay on two distinct occasions:
2011's "I'm On One," he raps: "I'm just feeling like the throne is for the taking - watch me take it"
2016's "Summer Sixteen" he raps: "I used to wanna be on Roc-A-Fella then I turned into Jay"
The second reference sparked a small firestorm. Meek Mill, who was engaged in a high-stakes beef with Drake at the time, smacked him down over the comparison, "You ain't write it' n*** we caught ya, can't erase that shit / And you claimin' you HOV now? Why you state that shit?"
Jay, for his part, sought to put Drake in his place on numerous occasions:
On 2014's "We Made It Freestyle", Jay raps: "I own my own masters
You know I ain't missin' no royalty statements /
I can't be rated (God, God), damn Hov stunt on them haters /
Sorry Mrs. Drizzy for so much art talk
Silly me rappin' 'bout shit that I really bought /
While these rappers rap about guns they ain't shot
And a bunch of other silly shit that they ain't got"
On Khaled's 2014 single "They Don't Love You No More", Jay appears to call Drake "soft as a Lacrosse team".
Khaled again provided Jay with the chance to smack Drake down on 2016's "I Got The Keys": "N***s always asking me the key / Til you own your own you can't be free / Til you're on your own you can't be me / How we still slaves in 2016?"
And in 2017, Khaled gave Jay the keys to clap back once more on "Shining": "I shouldn't even worry, backward n***s . 12 solo albums all platinum n***/ I know you ain't out here talking numbers, right? / I know you ain't out here talkin' summers, right? / I know you ain't walkin' round talkin' down / Sayin' boss shit when you a runner right?"
Does Drake have a point when he raps "I used to wanna be on Roc-A-Fella, then I turned into Jay"? Drake's OVO Sound label was formed 5 years ago, so Drake is comparing himself to Jay from the year 2000.
OVO Sound:
Has a number of mildly successful artists, the most being PARTYNEXTDOOR.
Has multiple hot producers, including Boi-1da and Nineteen85.
Has the OVO Clothing Line, which has also seen Drake collaborate with the Nike Jordan brand on sneakers.
Is distributed by Warner Music.
Drake is still a Cash Money Records artist, and only his 3rd album, Nothing Was The Same, was attributed to the label OVO Sound (as well as Young Money, Cash Money, and Republic)
Roc-A-Fella
In the year 2000, it featured Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel, Amil, and DJ Clue, all of whom were more successful in sales and chart positions than anyone on OVO Sound.
In-house producers included Bink!, Just Blaze, and Kanye West, again, all more successful than anyone on OVO Sound.
Rocawear clothing became wildly successful, so much so it facilitated a spin-off clothing label, State Property Clothing, which managed to sell as well.
Roc Films had already produced Streets Is Watching and Backstage, both critically acclaimed.
Jay, Dame, and Kareem Burke owned the masters to Reasonable Doubt.
After the year 2000, Roc-A-Fella exploded into the stratosphere. If Drake hopes to compete with Jay, he needs to try and equal some of these achievements:
Roc-A-Fella went platinum multiple times with Jay Z, Cam'Ron, and Kanye West
ROC Films produced the hood classic Paid In Full in 2002
Rocawear exploded in popularity, eventually selling for $204 million in 2007
Jay releases his own signature sneaker (not a collaboration with another athlete, like Drakes Jordans), the S. Carter Collection, which sells out almost instantly, and becomes the most successful sneaker ever by an artist.
Jay becomes the president of Def Jam, and in turn wins back the rights to all of his own masters.
We won't even bother talking about Roc Nation, Roc Nation Sports, and the management side of the label. That's decades down the track for Drake
The Result: Jay wins this one, by a land slide. At the same moment in time, Jay was in control of his creative output, he was independent, and he had a group of commercially and critically successful artists around him. He'd branched successfully into both clothes and films. Drake is yet to achieve any of this.
Before the release of her third LP The Pinkprint, MTV ran a story on Nicki's obsession with Jay, including this quote:
I think everybody knows how obsessed I am with Jay Z. He's always been my favorite rapper -- him and Wayne. He did such a great job of creating this Blueprint brand for male rappers, I felt. And I studied a lot of his blueprint, just in terms of becoming a mogul. I wanted to do that, I wanted to be like Jay Z. I felt like with what I'm doing, I want female rappers to be able to pattern themselves with what I've done one day. And I think the album is soooo classic, it's gonna feel so good and it will probably be one that female rappers will look to as a 'pink print' for years to come.
While The Blueprint went multi-platinum and is heralded as one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time (sitting at 88/100 on Metacritic), The Pinkprint was met with a lukewarm reception (70/100 on Metacritic), although it is certified double platinum, likely helped by streams. It's certainly no classic.
But Nicki also wanted to build her brand in the same way Jay did. On "I Am Your Leader", she raps:
"I'm a brand bitch, I'm a brand"
Very similar to Jay's lines on "Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Remix)", about being a business. So, does Nicki stack up?
Collaboration with MAC Cosmetics in 2010
Nail polish collection with OPI in 2011
Nicki Minaj Barbie Dolls in 2012
Her Nicki Minaj KMART line, which has been discontinued as of late 2016
In 2013 she had her own Beats speaker, the "Pink Pill".
In 2012 she launched her own fragrance line, which continues to this day.
Her own alcoholic beverage, a fruity Moscato.
Her foray into the fashion world has been successful. She was the lead on a 2015 Robert Cavalli campaign, collaborated with designer Farai Simoyi in 2015, and allegedly inspired Giuseppe Zanotti to design a sneaker, although she's been vocal recently about his "racism and disrespect".
The Result: She's only been major in the game since 2010, and she's already amassed a decent resume. She's well on her way to achieving some of the branding success that Jay did during the 2000s, although she hasn't nearly scaled the heights that Rocawear, Ace of Spades, and D'Usse did. Don't forget though, Jay had a failed fragrance, a failed colour, a failed car, and a failed alcohol brand. She could end up on-par with him by the end of her career, it is still early days, but Jay managed to juggle business and music. Nicki is yet to release a classic album, and if she doesn't respond to Remy Ma soon, hip hop fans may abandon her, reducing her credibility and future branding opportunities.
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