#destroy all neighbors (2024) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mostlysignssomeportents · 3 months

Text

When private equity destroys your hospital

I'm on tour with my new novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW in PHOENIX (Changing Hands, Feb 29) then Tucson (Mar 9-10), San Francisco (Mar 13), and more!

As someone who writes a lot of fiction about corporate crime, I naturally end up spending a lot of time being angry about corporate crime. It's pretty goddamned enraging. But the fiction writer in me is especially upset at how cartoonishly evil the perps are – routinely doing things that I couldn't ever get away with putting in a novel.

Beyond a doubt, the most cartoonishly evil characters are the private equity looters. And the most cartoonishly evil private equity looters are the ones who get involved in health care.

(Buckle up.)

Writing for The American Prospect, Maureen Tcacik details a national scandal: the collapse of PE-backed hospital chain Steward Health, a company that bought and looted hospitals up and down the country, starving them of everything from heart valves to prescription paper, ripping off suppliers, doctors and nurses, and callously exposing patients to deadly risk:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-02-27-scenes-from-bat-cave-steward-health-florida/

Steward occupies a very special place in the private equity looting cycle. Private equity companies arrange themselves on a continuum of indiscriminate depravity. At the start of the continuum are PE funds that buy productive and useful firms (everything from hospitals to car-washes) using "leveraged buyouts." That means that they borrow money to buy the company and use the company itself as collateral: it's like you getting a bank-loan to buy your neighbor's mortgage out from under them, and using your neighbor's house as collateral for that loan.

Once the buyout is done, the PE fund pays itself a "special dividend" (stealing money the business needs to survive) and then starts charging the business a "management fee" for the PE fund's expertise. To pay for all this, the PE bosses start to hack away at the company. Quality declines. So do wages. Prices go up. The company changes suppliers, opting for cheaper alternatives, often stiffing the old company. There are mass layoffs. The remaining employees end up doing three peoples' jobs, for lower wages, with fewer materials of lower quality.

Eventually, that top-feeding PE company finds a more desperate, more ham-fisted PE company to unload the business onto. That middle-feeding company also does a leveraged buyout, pays itself another special dividend, cuts wages, staffing and quality even further. They switch to even worse suppliers and stiff the last batch. Prices go up even higher.

Then – you guessed it – the middle-feeding PE company finds an even more awful PE bottom-feeder to unload the company onto. That bottom feeder does it all again, without even pretending to leave the business in condition to do its job. The company is a shambling zombie at this point, often producing literal garbage in place of the products that made its reputation. Employees' paychecks bounce, or don't show up at all. The company stops bothering to pay the lawyers that have been fending off its creditors. Those lawyers sue the company, too.

That's the kind of PE company Steward Health was, and, as the name suggests, Steward Health is in the business of stripping away the very last residue of value from community hospitals. As you might imagine, this gets pretty fucking ugly.

Steward owns 32 hospitals up and down the country, though its holdings are dwindling as the company walks away from its debt-burdened holdings, after years of neglect that have rendered them unfit for use as health facilities – or for any other purpose. Tcacik's piece offers a snapshot of one such hospital: Florida's Rockledge Regional Medical Center, just eight miles from Cape Canaveral.

Rockledge is a disaster. The fifth floor was, at one point, home to 5,000 bats.

Five.

Thousand.

Bats.

(Rockledge stiffed the exterminators.)

The bats were just the beginning. One of the internal sewage pipes ruptured. Whole sections of the hospital were literally full of shit, oozing out of the walls and ceiling, slopping over medical equipment.

That's an urgent situation for any hospital, but for Rockledge, it's catastrophic, because Rockledge is a hospital without any hospital supplies. Steward has stiffed the companies that supply "heart valves, urology lasers, Impella catheters, cardiac catheterization balloons, slings for lifting heavier patients, blood and urine test reagents, and most recently, prescription paper." Key medical equipment has been repossessed. So have the Pepsi machines. The hospital cafeteria had its supply of cold cuts repossessed:

https://www.reddit.com/r/massachusetts/comments/1agc1j4/comment/kolicqo/

It's not just Steward's nonpayments that reek of impending doom. Its payments also bear the hallmarks of a scam artist on the brink of blowing off the con. The company recently paid off a vendor with five separate checks for $1m, each drawn on "a random hospital in Utah" (Steward recently walked away from its Utah hospitals; its partners there are suing it for stealing $18m on their way out the door).

This company – which owns 32 hospitals! – has resorted to gambits like sending photos of fake checks to doctors it hasn't paid in months as "proof" that the money was coming (the checks arrived 22 days later).

Steward owes so much money to its employees – $1.66m to just one doctors' group. But the medical staff keep doing their jobs, and are reluctant to speak on the record, thanks to Steward's reputation for vicious retaliation. Those health workers keep showing up to take care of patients, even as the hospital crumbles around them. One clinician told Tcacik: "I watched a bed collapse underneath a [patient] who had just undergone hip surgery."

Rockledge has nine elevators, but only five of them work – the other four have been broken for a year. The hospital's fourth floor has been converted to "a graveyard of broken beds." The sinks are clogged, or filled with foul gunk. There's black mold. Nurses have noted on the maintenance tags that the repair service refuses to attend the hospital until their overdue bills are paid. The fifteen-person on-site maintenance team was cut to just two workers.

Steward is just the latest looting owner of Rockledge. After the Great Financial Crisis, private equity consultants helped sell it to Health Management Associates. The hospital's CEO took home a $10m bonus for that sale and exited; Health Management Associates then quickly became embroiled in a Medicare fraud and kickback scandal. Soon after, Rockledge was passed on to Community Health Systems, who then sold it on to Rockledge.

Steward, meanwhile, was at that time owned by an even bigger private equity giant, Cerberus, which then sold Steward off. That deal was performatively complex and hid all kinds of mischief. Prior to Cerberus's sell-off of Steward, they sold off Steward's real-estate. The buyer was Medical Properties Trust, who gave Cerberus $1.25b for the real-estate: three hospitals in Florida and three more in Ohio. Steward then contracted to operate these hospitals on MPT's behalf, and pay MPT rent for the real-estate.

This complex arrangement was key to siphoning value out of the hospital and to keeping angry creditors at bay – if you can't figure out who owes you money, it's a lot harder to collect on the debt. The scheme was masterminded by Steward founder/CEO Ralph de la Torre. De la Torre is notorious for taking a massive dividend out of the company while it owed $1.4b to its creditors. He bought a $40m yacht with the money.

De la Torre was once feted as a business genius who would "disrupt" healthcare. But as Steward's private jet hops around "Corfu, Santorini, St. Maarten and Antigua" as its hospitals literally crumble, he's becoming less popular. In Massachusetts, politicians have railed against Steward and de la Torre (Governor Healey wants the company to leave the state "as soon as possible").

Florida, by contrast, is much more friendly to Steward. The state Health and Human Services Committee chair Randy Fine is an ardent admirer of hospital privatization and is currently campaigning to sell off the last community hospital in Brevard County. The state inspectors are likewise remarkably tolerant of Steward's little peccadillos. The quasi-governmental agency that inspects hospitals has awarded this shit-and-bat-filled, elevator-free, understaffed rotting hulk "A" grades for quality.

These inspectors jointly represent a mismatched assortment of private and public agencies, dominated by a nonprofit called Leapfrog, the brainchild of Harvard public-health prof Lucian Leape, who founded it in 2000. Leapfrog likes to tout its "transparent" assessment criteria, and Steward are experts at hitting those criteria, spending the exact minimum to tick every box that Leapfrog inspectors use as proxies for overall quality and safety.

This is a pretty great example of Goodhart's Law: "every measurement eventually becomes a target, whereupon it ceases to be a good measurement":

https://xkcd.com/2899/

But despite Steward's increasingly furious creditors and its decaying facilities, the company remains bullish on its ability to continue operations. Medical Properties Trust – the real estate investment trust that is nominally a separate company from Steward – recently hosted a conference call to reassure Wall Street investors that it would be a going concern. When a Bank of America analyst asked MPT's CFO how this could possibly be, given the facility's dire condition and Steward's degraded state, the CFO blithely assured him that the company would get bailouts: "We own hospitals no one wants to see closed."

That's the thing about PE and health-care. The looters who buy out every health-care facility in a region understand that this makes them too big to fail: no matter how dangerous the companies they drain become, local governments will continue to prop them up. Look at dialysis, a market that's been cornered by private equity rollups. Today, if you need this lifesaving therapy, there's a good chance that every accessible facility is owned by a private equity fund that has fired all its qualified staff and ceased sterilizing its needles. Otherwise healthy people who visit these clinics sometimes die due to operator error. But they chug along, because no dialysis clinics is worse that "dialysis clinics where unqualified sadists sometimes kill you with dirty needles":

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-dirty-business-of-clean-blood

The bad news is that private equity has thoroughly colonized the entire medical system. They took hospitals, fired the doctors, then took over the doctors' groups that provided outsource staff to the hospital:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/04/a-mind-forever-voyaging/#prop-bets

It's illegal for private equity companies to own doctors' practices (doctors have to own these), but they obfuscated the crime with a paper-thin pretext that they got away with despite its obvious bullshittery:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/21/profitable-butchers/#looted

The financier who decides whether you live or die depends on an algorithm that literally sets a tolerable level of preventable deaths for the patients trapped in the practice:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/05/any-metric-becomes-a-target/#hca

Private equity also took over emergency rooms and boobytrapped them with "surprise billing" – junk fees that ran to thousands of dollars that you had to pay even if the hospital was in network with your insurer. They made billions from this, and spent a many millions from that booty keeping the scam alive with scare ads:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/21/all-in-it-together/#doctor-patient-unity

The whole health stack is colonized by private equity-backed monopolies. Even your hospital bed!

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/05/hillrom/#baxter-international

Then there's residential care. Private equity cornered many regional markets on nursing homes and turned them into slaughterhouses, places where you go to die, not live:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/23/acceptable-losses/#disposable-olds

The palliative care sector is also captured by private equity. PE bosses hire vast teams of fast-talking salespeople who con vulnerable older people into entering an end-of-life system before they are ready to die. Thanks to loose regulation, the nation is filled with fake hospices that can rake in millions from Medicare while denying all care to their patients (hospice patients don't get life-extending medication or procedures, by definition):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/26/death-panels/#what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-CMS

If you survive this long enough, Medicare eventually tells the hospice that you're clearly not dying and you get kicked off their rolls. Now you have to go through the lengthy bureaucratic nightmare of convincing the system – which was previously informed that you were at death's door – that you are actually viable and need to start getting care again (good luck with that).

If that kills you, guess what? Private equity has rolled up funeral homes up and down the country, and they will scam your survivors just as hard as the medical system that killed you did:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/09/high-cost-of-dying/#memento-mori

The PE sector spent more than a trillion dollars over the past decade buying up healthcare companies, and it has trillions more in "dry powder" allocated for further medical acquisitions. Why not? As the CFO of Medical Properties Trust told that Bank of America analyst last week, when you "own hospitals no one wants to see closed." you literally can't fail, no matter how many people you murder.

The PE sector is a reminder that the crimes people commit for money far outstrip the crimes they commit for ideology. Even the most ideological killers are horrified by the murders their profit-motivated colleagues commit.

Last year, Tkacic wrote about the history of IG Farben, the German company that built Monowitz, a private slave-labor camp up the road from Auschwitz to make the materiel it was gouging Hitler's Wehrmacht on:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/02/plunderers/#farben

Farben bought the cheapest possible slaves from Auschwitz, preferentially sourcing women and children. These slaves were worked to death at a rate that put Auschwitz's wholesale murder in the shade. Farben's slaves died an average of just three months after starting work at Monowitz. The situation was so abominable, so unconscionable, that the SS officers who provided outsource guard-labor to Monowitz actually wrote to Berlin to complain about the cruelty.

The Nuremberg trials are famous for the Nazi officers who insisted that they were "just following order" but were nonetheless executed for their crimes. 24 Farben executives were also tried at Nuremberg, where they offered a very different defense: "We had a fiduciary duty to our shareholders to maximize our profits." 19 of the 24 were acquitted on that basis.

PE is committed to an ideology that is far worse than any form of racial animus or other bias. As a sector, it is committed to profit above all other values. As a result, its brutality knows no bounds, no decency, no compassion. Even the worst crimes we commit for hate are nothing compared to the crimes we commit for greed.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/28/5000-bats/retaliation#charnel-house

#pluralistic #Rockledge Regional Medical Center #private equity #looting #Steward Health #ponzis #maureen tcacik #Medical Properties Trust #Ralph de la Torre #Massachusetts #florida #Cerberus #too big to fail #pe #guillotine watch

341 notes · View notes

actorsinunderwear · 5 days

Text

Thomas Lennon and Ryan Kattner in Destroy All Neighbors (2024)

#briefs #trunks

60 notes · View notes

tcustodisart · 5 months

Text

Okay, here's the second summary, this time for all the work I've done this year.

Jan | Feb | Mar

Apr | May | Jun

Jul | Aug | Sep

Oct 1 &2 | Nov | Dec

Honorable mentions go to: this year's pride month post, "I wish I had wings", some kisses, baby Faust, BFFs, grrahrarjshhhhrhjjrhragrrrgaghghr, all of Faustober

2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

I want to take some time to share my thoughts on 2023, it's kinda personal and long so you can read it under the cut.

This year has been the hardest year of my adult life. It started with my grandma coming back from the hospital. She was in a terrible state so we had to take care of her almost 24/7. Which was colliding with my work a lot because we we're understaffed. I have very vague memory of the first 4 month of this year because to me it was: go to work, go to my parents to take care of grandma while my parents are at work, go back home, sleep, repeat. Unfortunately grandma passed away near the end of april. But that wasn't the end of my problems, now I had problems with my apartment. Some of you may know I was struggling with bedbugs, I spent over 1k PLN for professional help just for these feckers to come back because they were coming from my neighbors. Then around summer a cable in my kitchen melted and caused a power outage. I'm ending my year with a gaping hole in my bathroom wall because an upstairs neighbor flooded me and the bathroom cabinet had to be removed because it was destroyed by water. It was an awful year for me personally. I'm surprised all that stuff had almost no effect on my art. While picking stuff for this summary I had some hard time picking just one for month. I'm hoping that the next year will be better, because I can't believe it can get any worse. Thank you for following my silly little blorbos from my head, it means so much to me, you have no idea. Here's to more happy Fausts in 2024.

#art summary #art summary 2023

73 notes · View notes

girlactionfigure · 28 days

Text

Israel's Chief Rabbis David Lau (left) and Yitzhak Yosef (center) sell the state's chametz in Jerusalem ahead of Passover, April 21, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.

Arab Israeli buys state’s chametz for $150b Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich authorized the chief rabbis to carry out the transaction.

At the instruction of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the chief rabbis of Israel sold all of the chametz (leavened foods) owned by the state to an Arab Israeli businessman in accordance with the laws of Passover, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel announced on Sunday. Halachah, or Jewish religious law, forbids the eating or ownership of leavened products during the seven-day holiday, in keeping with the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Passover starts at sundown on Monday. The sale has “halachic and legal validity and allows the citizens of Israel to properly observe the commandments of Passover without the fear of chametz remaining in their possession,” the Chief Rabbinate said. Hussein Jabar, 64, from the Arab town of Abu Ghosh west of Israel’s capital, paid a deposit of 20,000 shekels ($5,300). After the holiday, he will be offered the possibility of completing the transaction, which has an estimated total value of $150 billion. “The ceremony took place at 11 a.m. at the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in Jerusalem. It felt very dignified. It made me proud and it was moving,” Jabar told JNS on Sunday night after signing the agreement. “I put together a team of experts in the food and catering business from Abu Ghosh. We are about 10 people, and we designed a plan to raise the money. Hopefully, this year, we will make it happen,” Jabar said.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sells the state’s chametz in Jerusalem, April 21, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90. If Jabar and his partners fail to raise the total amount before the end of Passover on the night of April 30, the ownership will revert to the state. Jabar took over the task some 28 years ago after the previous buyer, also from Abu Ghosh, was relieved of his duties when it was discovered his maternal grandmother may have been Jewish. At Jerusalem’s Ramada Hotel, where he has worked for about 40 years, Jabar met with Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, then-Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, who suggested he take the job. Jabar said on Sunday, “My family is really happy for me. They love it. By doing this, I feel that I am creating a connection between the Jews and the Arabs in Israel, bridging the gap between both communities.” As Israel enters its seventh month of war in Gaza triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 people, Jabar expressed a wish for quieter times. “I hope we will soon have peace and only good news for everyone. I wish the people of Israel a kosher and happy Passover,” he told JNS. As part of the ceremony, Smotrich authorized the chief rabbis, Rabbi David Lau and Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, to carry out the transaction on behalf of the state. “Since the holiday of Simchat Torah, when the terrible disaster happened to us, we have been praying for the success of the security forces,” said Yosef. “We need to continue to pray for our soldiers, who give their lives and fight on the northern and southern borders and wherever they are.” Lau said, “Our neighbors want to destroy us and make us forget the joy, but the entire nation of Israel has stood up to fight for its home, for our essence as the Jewish people— we are not ready to give up on that.

By Amelie Botbol & Akiva Van Koningsveld

#Israel #Pesach #Passover #chametz

42 notes · View notes

palestinegenocide · 27 days

Text

At Passover, the Jewish community must break up over genocide

Blind Israel support in AIPAC funding appeal sent to Phil Weiss’s mother’s house. April 2024.

It’s a beautiful day in my town and I am going to go out for a walk with full awareness of my blessings. I don’t live in Gaza where the innocent are murdered day in and day out with U.S. weaponry and Joe Biden’s imprimatur (and that of many running dogs such as Jonathan Capehart and David Brooks on PBS News Hour). I don’t live in Israel, where I would have been indoctrinated in a supremacist ideology from a young age, and made to hate and fear Palestinians and to cheer genocide— and where I would have struggled to ever understand myself as a Jew. No, I live in the most privileged country in the world where there are wonderful freedoms for someone of my class.

Tomorrow is Passover so this is a message to my Jewish community. We must break up over Zionism. We must break up over genocide. Too many innocent people (on all sides) have died for this false and bigoted ideology to go on.

The good news is that some in the Jewish community are at last awaking from sleep over this. We will see more and more allies come forward in the Peter Beinart tradition—Jews who once drank the Koolaid – Beinart used to do events for AIPAC, and supported the Iraq war for Marty Peretz — and who have walked a path of independence.

Many of those Jews will come to have solidarity with the victims and the martyrs and the persecuted: the indigenous Palestinian population, driven from their homes to make way for the alleged liberation of the Jewish people.

“In my view, the Zionist narrative, even in its more liberal forms, cultivates an exclusivity and proprietary ethos that too easily slides into ethnonational chauvinism,” Shaul Magid of Indiana University writes in his new book. “

A simple, truer message to Jews was never spoken– by a former liberal Zionist. I urge my community to open its eyes to the grotesque armored thing that is modern Israel, and denounce its actions if only in order to save ourselves. (Because as the great rabbi said, If you are not for yourself who will be.) And yes it’s true: Palestinians who denounce Israel are pleasing their grandparents and parents; and we are not; but as Scott Roth used to say, that is the lamest fucking excuse for a thoughtful person in America.

Yesterday many progressives voted against more bombs for Israel (among others Bowman, Balint, Bush, Carson, Frost, Jayapal, Khanna, Summer Lee, McGovern, Omar, Pingree, Pocan and Pressley); and in a notable break Jamie Raskin voted against. So let us celebrate the memory of his son Tommy a great Jewish idealist and anti-Zionist who left us three years ago.

Zionism is today a danger to Jews. It is destroying free speech in our country (in the name of the Jews). It is destabilizing the Middle East (in the name of the Jews). Israel is wantonly attacking a foreign consulate in a neighboring country (in the name of the Jews). And so this Jewish identity, promulgated by Zionists, will only hurt Jews.

In the Forward last week, Jodi Rudoren, who has carried the water for Israel for years, wrote that Israel must stop killing Palestinians for the sake of “world Jewry.” And in a further heresy, she said, “antisemitism… is not an explanation for everything.”

She means that people are protesting Israel’s actions, not Jews. I believe she sees what I see, People will turn on our community for its blind support for genocide. Because what keeps Israel going in its violations of international law? The blind backing of the Israel lobby, the organized American Jewish community, never called out by the media for such, but everyone knows. As Obama said in 2015, there is only one country against the Iran deal; and today there is one country that wants the genocide to continue (and compels progressive politicians in the U.S. to violate their creed to ship more weapons).

There is another Jewish story. The brave Jewish students who are demonstrating at Columbia. The IfNotNow protesters at Biden rallies. The Jewish presence in the broad antiwar movement in the United States. They are moved by human rights and opposing the endless slaughter of children and women. They are “not hate-filled and bigoted… fringes,” as David Brooks, a longtime Zionist said of the protests on the PBS News Hour.

The Jewish protesters are today the leaders of our religious community. They are bringing an uncomfortable truth to a huddled, fearful, self-involved congregation. They are the heroes of Jewish history. They will save the world, and maybe too the lost Jewish tabernacle in the deserts of militarism.

Happy holidays,

#israel #free gaza #gazaunderattack #israel is a terrorist state #gaza strip #genocide #gaza #free palestine #jerusalem #palestine #jews #jumblr #passover

20 notes · View notes

dnalt-d2 · 4 months

Text

QSMP 2024 THINGS

OH BOY OH BOY IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN

TIME TO TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT HAPPENED TODAY, HOW I FEEL, AND THINGS I PREDICT

To start off with, I maintain my stance of "Fuck that Rabbit." I never liked the Duck, and this fucking camera-staring-at Rabbit is irritating me even moreso. May he perish in the flames of capitalism that he has created

Also fuck that narrator guy. He has no right sounding so jovial

(And god I can't believe the Duck really never did anything SERIOUSLY FUCK THAT GUY /lh)

Regarding the paywall thing, I kind of like the idea of it in certain increments. I know that Etoiles has been praying to any deity that will listen for the Nether to open, and I'm sure he's happy to know he can pay those deities off now. On the other hand, I've already seen a decent amount of discouragement on the lack of Create. I'm hoping that's the second thing to get unlocked for both Tubbo and AyPierre's sakes

And in terms of the reset itself, I also like the idea of it somewhat. I'm sure I'm not the only one who sometimes likes to start these types of games over for that fun feeling of playing from the ground up. Though maybe the mobs should be a little weaker, since everyone's starting from scratch. Then again, Etoiles has like a million Dark Metal, so

It's also nice seeing the beginning of these communities. Phil becoming Cellbit's temporary neighbor before he begins his nomadic lifestyle. And of course theres the up and coming Home of Fobo where definitely no one is Homophobic

Though speaking of Phil and Cellbit, I also maintain my disappointment in the lack of actual rescue mission. Like I was excited for that. I made a comic about it. And while my disappointment doesn't come from my comic being wrong, it does come from the fact that this was a thing that an ADMIN introduced. RICHAS went to Phil to recruit him for the mission, just for them to just do a little cinematic instead. Like I'm guessing this has to do with the delay in the server opening, since it was originally going to open about a week ago. My guess is that the rescue was going to happen this prior week, but because of the delay in opening the server, they decided to nix the rescue entirely and just have them show up on the opening day instead. It sucks, but I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles

AND NOW PREDICTION THING

So remember how Bagi at one point said that the Admins asked them what structures they'd like to have preserved for NO REASON AT ALL????

And how everyone spawned at about -200000 blocks away??

Well I'm kinda hoping that there's some of the original structures, back near that Zero Coordinate. Or maybe there's something else. Obviously I have no basis for any of that, but I think everyone's gonna be upset if they really lose all their builds. Specifically the Dragon, Titan, and Bad's as-of-yet unused Egg Carton. He labored over that for a while, it would SUCK if it just never got used at all. My other hope is that there's a pay-goal for bringing some structures back. That'd be a neat way to incorporate that feature. Not to mention that people who might've been in the middle of projects can get back to said projects. I think that's the main problem with losing everything, a lot of plans have essentially been destroyed

And now an Analysis

So fun fact, you know how Ducks and Rabbits are both heavily associated with Easter, which celebrates the death and rebirth of a certain person?? And how the server has essentially been reset and reborn??

Yeah that I guess, that's all I've got on that really

All I've got in general really

Here's to 2024, everyone. And the further loss of sanity we and the Islanders shall all endure

yee

28 notes · View notes

richincolor · 1 year

Photo

Trans YA Books for Your 2023 TBR Pile

The last time there was a big B&N sale, I knew I had to stock up on some YA books -- and as I was sifting through my frankly absurdly long to-be-read list, I realized that there were more than a few YA books centering trans and BIPOC characters. I was so excited by this, and hope there are even more books centering BIPOC trans characters in 2024. For now, here are 5 trans YA books -- available now! -- that you should bump up to the very top of your TBR:

Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore Keep your enemy closer. Cade McKenna is a transgender prince who’s doubling for his brother. Valencia Palafox is a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana. Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect. Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, and the prince Gael has vowed to destroy.

Cade doesn’t know that Gael and Valencia are the same person. Valencia doesn’t know that every time she thinks she’s fighting Patrick, she’s fighting Cade. And when Cade and Valencia blame each other for a devastating enchantment that takes both their families, neither of them realizes that they have far more dangerous enemies.

Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution by Kacen Callender From National Book Award–winner Kacen Callender, a contemporary YA that follows Lark's journey to speak the truth and discover how their own self-love can be a revolution

Lark Winters wants to be a writer, and for now that means posting on their social media accounts––anything to build their platform. When former best friend Kasim accidentally posts a thread on Lark's Twitter declaring his love for a secret, unrequited crush, Lark's tweets are suddenly the talk of the school—and beyond. To protect Kasim, Lark decides to take the fall, pretending they accidentally posted the thread in reference to another classmate. It seems like a great idea: Lark gets closer to their crush, Kasim keeps his privacy, and Lark's social media stats explode. But living a lie takes a toll—as does the judgment of thousands of Internet strangers. Lark tries their best to be perfect at all costs, but nothing seems good enough for the anonymous hordes––or for Kasim, who is growing closer to Lark, just like it used to be between them . . . In the end, Lark must embrace their right to their messy emotions and learn how to be in love.

Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore Stonewall Honor recipient and two-time National Book Award Longlist selectee Anna-Marie McLemore weaves an intoxicating tale of glamor and heartbreak in Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix, part of the Remixed Classics series.

New York City, 1922. Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Minnesota, has no interest in the city’s glamor. Going to New York is all about establishing himself as a young professional, which could set up his future—and his life as a man—and benefit his family.

Nick rents a small house in West Egg from his 18-year-old cousin, Daisy Fabrega, who lives in fashionable East Egg near her wealthy fiancé, Tom—and Nick is shocked to find that his cousin now goes by Daisy Fay, has erased all signs of her Latina heritage, and now passes seamlessly as white. Nick’s neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious young man named Jay Gatsby, whose castle-like mansion is the stage for parties so extravagant that they both dazzle and terrify Nick. At one of these parties, Nick learns that the spectacle is all for the benefit of impressing a girl from Jay’s past—Daisy. And he learns something else: Jay is also transgender.

As Nick is pulled deeper into the glittery culture of decadence, he spends more time with Jay, aiming to help his new friend reconnect with his lost love. But Nick's feelings grow more complicated when he finds himself falling hard for Jay's openness, idealism, and unfounded faith in the American Dream.

The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa El Diablo is in the details in this Latinx pirate fantasy starring a transmasculine nonbinary teen with a mission of revenge, redemption, and revolution.

On Mar León-de la Rosa's 16th birthday, el Diablo comes calling. Mar is a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical ability to manipulate fire and ice. But their magic isn't enough to reverse a wicked bargain made by their father and now el Diablo has come to collect his payment: the soul of Mar's father and the entire crew of their ship.

When Mar is miraculously rescued by the sole remaining pirate crew in the Caribbean, el Diablo returns to give them a choice: give up your soul to save your father by the Harvest Moon or never see him again. The task is impossible--Mar refuses to make a bargain and there's no way their magic is any match for el Diablo. Then, Mar finds the most unlikely allies: Bas, an infuriatingly arrogant and handsome pirate -- and the captain's son; and Dami, a genderfluid demonio whose motives are never quite clear. For the first time in their life, Mar may have the courage to use their magic. It could be their only redemption -- or it could mean certain death.

Transmogrify!: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic edited by g. haron davis Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you’ll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences—because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.

Featuring stories from: AR Capetta and Cory McCarthy g. haron davis Mason Deaver Jonathan Lenore Kastin Emery Lee Saundra Mitchell Cam Montgomery Ash Nouveau Sonora Reyes Renee Reynolds Dove Salvatierra Ayida Shonibar Francesca Tacchi Nik Traxler

#trans ya #ya lit #we need diverse books #self-made boys #the wicked bargain #transmogrify #venom and vow #lark and kasim start a revolution

113 notes · View notes

brokehorrorfan · 26 days

Text

Destroy All Neighbors will be released on DVD on May 14 via RLJE Films. The 2024 horror-comedy is streaming exclusively on Shudder.

Josh Forbes (Contracted: Phase II) directs from a script by Mike Benner (Bob's Burgers), Jared Logan (The Late Late Show with James Corden), and Charles A. Pieper. Jonah Ray and Alex Winter star with Randee Heller, Pete Ploszek, Kiran Deol, Jon Daly, and Thomas Lennon.

While the lack of a Blu-ray is unfortunate, the DVD carries some good extras; they're detailed below.

Special features:

Cast audio commentary

Behind the Scenes

Interviews with actors/producers Jonah Ray and Alex Winter

youtube

William Brown (Jonah Ray Rodrigues), a neurotic, self-absorbed musician determined to finish his prog-rock magnum opus, faces a creative roadblock in the form of a noisy and grotesque neighbor named Vlad (Alex Winter). Finally working up the nerve to demand that Vlad keep it down, William inadvertently decapitates him. But, while attempting to cover up one murder, William’s accidental reign of terror causes victims to pile up and become undead corpses who torment and create more bloody detours on his road to prog-rock Valhalla.

Pre-order Destroy All Neighbors.

#destroy all neighbors #jonah ray #alex winter #randee heller #thomas lennon #shudder #horror #horror comedy #john daly #josh forbes #kumail nanjiani #dvd #gift #rlje films #splatter

16 notes · View notes

00127am · 5 months

Text

@ noisecomplaint ln yn isn't too fond of apartment living, between the occasional roaches and the person who keeps stealing her grocery deliveries. but especially because of her exceptionally loud next door neighbors whom she has decided: she cannot stand. it's not all bad though, certainly not when xiao dejun (the prettiest boy she's ever seen) lives in the building. well, it was a perk. until it's revealed that him and her next door neighbor are one in the same.

xiaojun. resident pretty boy, xiao dejun never seems to be down on his luck. is a statement he wished he could say in confidence. but between his neighbor who absolutely hates him (same neighbor who makes him feel light headed) and rooming with hendery, it doesn't look like the odds are going to be in his favor for a while. he wants hendery to stop bringing back hermit crabs to the apartment without telling him only to lose them and for xiaojun to find them in his bed in the middle of the night. gokinjo monogatari alignment? tsutomu yamaguchi.

kun. university student who seemingly lives about one hundred different lives (currently a bar tender who also volunteers at the dog shelter whilst doing graduate research), qian kun is somehow still ncit's star student, despite all his other responsibilities. he desperately wants to figure out where ten keeps misplacing his keys. is it that hard to answer a call?

ten. wait ten again? charismatic ten lee seems to be apart of every friend group, which knowing him, you wouldn't put it past him. caught between both yn and xiaojun's ends of their relationship, he feels a bit omniscient but offers no assistance beyond a few pushes in the right direction here or there. he wants kun to stop calling him five hundred times.

winwin. class crush (in every class), dong sicheng is the epitome of the university boyfriend archetype. or ... he would be, if every waking moment wasn't consumed with trying to either ignore or stop the antics of his friend group. he wants to find and destroy the copy of his apartment key that ten made so he can stop entering his house only to see ten in the living room.

hendery. handsome campus crush and co-captain of the basketball team huang guanheng has no complaints. well, if he had to have one it's that he (and by proxy, xiaojun) are one noise complaint away from getting an increase on their rent. not that xiaojun knows and hendery plans on keeping it that way. he wants to befriend his next door neighbor both for the benefit of teasing xiaojun about his enormous crush and also to keep her from filing any further noise complaints against them.

yangyang. undergraduate student liu yangyang can't exactly tell you how he got inducted into an all graduate student friend group. nor can he tell you if they know he's still an undergraduate (probably not). he wants to get a cat but his apartment has a strict no pet policy ... not that that will deter him.

@ previous @ home @ next

26 notes · View notes

sins-slender-mansion · 2 months

Text

Entry 1: Jeffrey Alan Woods

{Alright, this is where the rewriting stuff comes in. I will be reworking his story and implementing personal and some fanon/canon stuff into his backstory. I will also include his ref sheet I designed and colored, its rough but it works for what it needs to.}

--------

04/03/2024

After analyzing this particular boy I can come to the conclusion that yes, indeed, he is a crucial part of this project. One of the very first, right after Masky and Hoodie at least. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. If you see him, you're already dead.

----------

Jeff Woods Status: Alive Age: 22 Species: Human Danger: Extremely dangerous, do NOT approach Appearance: A lanky, lean young man with very pale, pasty skin and a plethora of scars all over his face, neck, chest, and hands. He has long, unkept black hair and fringy bangs that protect his very sensitive icy blue eyes from the sun or mood while on missions. The most striking part of his entire appearance is the permanent smile cut into his cheeks, self inflicted, that refuse to heal. Often seen in just a hoodie and jeans and whatever running shoes he could find.

The boy is deranged, to say the least. A killer with a headstart, even before Tim and Brian began killing. It all began at the age of 14, when he was bullied so severely in his last year of middle school. Bullies taunted and teased him for his relationship with his parents, which was rocky due to an unfortunate ongoing divorce process. He and his brother were severely abused due to this process by both parents and as a result, Jeff would find himself with bruises and marks when he went to school. Kids noticed, and kids are cruel. At the age of 15, Jeff was attacked by three of his bullies at a school event, an event he had attended in order to escape his home life. The attackers doused him in bleach and set the boy on fire in one of the bathrooms at the football field snack stand. He was left there overnight, burned, scarred, and bleeding. His eyes were now extremely damaged and as a result his eyesight is never very reliable. he was unable to cry due to his burn injuries, and could only sniffle and sob without tears. Returning home that night, the boy was chastised and further humiliated and attacked by his parents, who told him he would be better off dead. In the heat of it all, his parents screamed at having to raise such an ugly boy'. His brother, 11 at the time, was horrified and tried to defend him. The final straw was when his mother handed him a kitchen knife, and told him to 'finish himself off in the bathroom'. Jeff didn't know what to do. The boy was overloaded with emotions, and ran to the upstairs bathroom. His brother followed. In the bathroom, Jeff would have his first suicide attempt. It was only an attempt. Because he had another idea. Staring in the mirror, mourning who he was the night before, he brought the knife to his face and cut into his cheeks, to form his permanent smile. No longer would he be ugly. Now, he was beautiful, like his parents wanted. His brother was mortified, and ended up being Jeff's first 'victim'. In a rush of adrenaline, he 'killed' his brother by stabbing him, three times. Unknown to him, his brother lived while he continued his rampage. Running downstairs, Jeff surprised his parents, who were equally horrified. In their shock, Jeff was able to kill them. their screams were forever etched into his mind. His mother tried to fight back, but failed, and his father tripped trying to run out of the house. Both were swiftly dealt with. Alone in his house, Jeff felt.. Sick. then excited. He was free! Free from it all! And yet he cried. he couldn't help the screams that came from inside. He was devastated. Destroyed. And yet he was free. he was a whole new person. Unfortunately for him, his neighbors heard the screams and within moments he could hear distant sirens. In his panic, he tried to burn down the house, setting the couch on fire with a lighter. he grabbed his school jacket and escaped through the backdoor, where he ran and ran and ran until his legs gave out. Now, in the middle of the forest, collapsed to the ground, he as alone. Alone with that searing pain from everything coursing through his body. At the age of 15, he had become a monster.

Slenderman found him shortly after his collapse in the woods. He offered a helping hand to the 15 year old murderer. He promised protection, if Jeff vowed to work for him. At the time, Jeff was just trying to go as far away as possible. So he took the offer, and was swiftly brought to, at the time, the manor in Missouri. It wouldn't be until Jeff was 18 that the Project was moved up north.

Jeff now lives in the manor as a permanent resident, forever bound due to his contract with Slenderman. At the time, he was not a proxy, but after discovering his brother was still alive, he vowed to server Slenderman until he eventually dies in exchange for protection of Liu and Nina. His freedom, forever gone, was exchanged for the safety of his most valued people. The last selfless act he every will do.

Now he is restless and rowdy and loud. At only 22 years old he has one of the highest body counts of all the residents. He is quick, quiet, but sloppy and an extremely important asset to the Project. As one can imagine, he is irritable, cocky, and overall a little brat who needs to be humbled. Due to his status though, no one dares even touch him. DO NOT INTERACT, just RUN. or better yet... Go to sleep.

"Hold still now, I'm gonna make you beautiful.."

#jeff the killer #jeffrey alan woods #jeff wood #slenderman #slenderverse #slendermansion #creepypasta #creepypasta fanfiction #creepypasta rewrite #sinshine's slenderman project

10 notes · View notes

orthodoxydaily · 3 months

Text

Saints &Reading: Wednesday, February 21, 2024

february 8_february 21

E PROPHET ZECHARIAH (ZAKHARIAH) THE SICKLE-SEER FROM AMONGST THE 12MINOR PROPHETS (520 BC)

The Prophet Zachariah the Sickle-Seer the eleventh of the twelve Minor Prophets. He was descended from the tribe of Levi, and seems to have been a priest (Nehemiah 12:4,16). He was called to prophetic service at a young age and became, in the wondrous expression of church hymnology, “a spectator of supra-worldly visions.”

The Book of the Prophet Zachariah contains inspired details about the coming of the Messiah (Zach 6:12); about the last days of the Savior’s earthly life, about the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem on a young donkey (Zach 9:9); about the betrayal of the Lord for thirty pieces of silver and the purchase of the potter’s field with them (Zach 11:12-13); about the piercing of the Savior’s side (Zach 12:10); about the scattering of the apostles from the Garden of Gethsemane (Zach 13:7); about the eclipse of the sun at the time of the Crucifixion (Zach 14:6-7).

“Enlightened by dawnings all above,” the Prophet Zachariah, “saw the future as it were the present.” According to Tradition, this “most true God-proclaimer” lived to old age and was buried near Jerusalem, beside his illustrious contemporary and companion, the Prophet Haggai (December 16). The title “Sickle-Seer” given Zachariah comes from a vision in which he saw a sickle flying in the air, destroying thieves and perjurors (Zach 5:1-3).

The holy Prophet Zachariah died around 520 B.C. His tomb was discovered in 415 in a village near Eleutheropolis (Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. VI:32, IX:17). At the prophet’s feet was the body of a child dressed in royal accouterments. His holy relics were transferred to the church of Saint James the Brother of the Lord (October 23) in Constantinople.

1 PETER 4:1-11

1Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles-when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 5 They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. 7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. 8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins." 9 Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

MARK 12:28-37

28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" 29 Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 'And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these. 32 So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. 33 And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 34 Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." But after that no one dared question Him. 35 Then Jesus answered and said, while He taught in the temple, "How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? 36 For David himself said by the Holy Spirit:'The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool." ' 37 Therefore David himself calls Him 'Lord'; how is He then his Son? And the common people heard Him gladly.

#orthodoxy #orthodoxchristianity #easternorthodoxchurch #originofchristianity #spirituality #holyscriptures #gospel #bible #wisdom #saints

10 notes · View notes

swap-and-possessions · 3 months

Text

2024 February Update

Before you knew it, January was over with a new batch of male-to-male body swaps, possessions, transformations, and other modes of taking someone you love under your control. I want to preface this update with an apology since the finished works were a bit less this time. I got too busy with life and such. But that’s in the past since I’m on a long break right now, and I can fill the entire February with the ideas I’ve meant to write.

I’ve also opened up the ⭐IDEAS SUBMISSION BOX⭐. I’ve been receiving many messages from people giving me their ideas. Unfortunately, I am only one person (if only I could take control of two more bodies huhuhu…) I’ve responded to many of these messages, but some slipped past the cracks. If you’re one of these people I forgot to respond to, I offer my apologies. However, I opened this ideas submission box so I could see all your suggested ideas on one page. It’s not a guarantee that I might write your ideas, but there is a chance if you submit one. Commissions are the complete guarantee, which is still closed at the moment.

Now, let’s go back to the update. Despite busy schedules, there are 21 new stories in January. This brings a total of 260 stories to Discord and Blogspot. As stated before, every month has a general theme/scenario voted by Star Subscribers, and January’s scenario was “My Friend Will Pilot Your Body.” See how someone you know takes control of someone you love or hate. Read the following tales in the next shorts and stories. ✅ –SFW | 🔞 – NSFW | 🔒 – Subscriber Access

•·················•·················•

🔒🔞 New Stepbrothers These two bums will have my stepbrother's bodies. In exchange, they will do everything I ask. #Possession #Caucasian #Brothers #Stories

🔒🔞 Ruin his Reputation How did the most popular football player this campus has ever known turn into its most popular slut? It was unthinkable, knowing he never had this cock-hungry attitude just three weeks ago. Let's see the events that led to this point. #Possession #Caucasian #Football #College Stories

🔒🔞 For my Favorite Nephew It is a good thing I have an uncle that could possess the assholes who bother me. #Possession #Caucasian #Stories

🔒🔞 What Have I Done Nolan's job stole him from me. An escort who can possess his body brought him back. #Possession #Asian #Caucasian #Boyfriends #Stories

🔒🔞 I’m Sorry Jon is mad at his alien friend. The only thing that could quench that anger was if Marduk possessed their cute neighbor and entice him with Henry's cock. That will surely make him happy. #Possession #College #Alien #Caucasian #Stories

🔒🔞 Caught I caught my gardener wearing my son’s body. #Bodysuit #Racial Change #Caucasian #Asian #College #Father-and-Son #Stories

✅ Smell my Pits [Possession]

✅ I’ll Get My Chance [Bodysuit]

✅🔞 Salary Increase [Possession]

🔒🔞 Travels [Possession]

🔒🔞 Long Way From Home [Bodysuit]

🔒🔞 Discarded [Possession]

🔒🔞 Don’t Leave [Possession]