me watching LOTR the rings of power for the plot :

the plot :

morals be damned i am supporting his rights and his wrongs

Anonymous asked:

Hi Rainbowsky! I'm a newbie turtle and I love your tumblr and I love both of them equally. I came across some posts on YT and TWT that [redacted]. Are you familiar with this issue? Any details or clarification you can share please? Thank you ^_^

Hi, Anon, glad you're enjoying my blog!

What you've managed to stumble across are some very nasty anti accounts. Welcome to the fandom, this is part of what you're going to encounter - that, and much worse. There is a reason GG and DD are always embroiled in lawsuits against toxic people. Haters and antis will say just about anything to turn people against GG and DD.

In the international fandom this type of activity is especially widespread on Twitter and YT. This particular one is so badly Photoshopped that if you have actually ever gone on Weibo you'll immediately realize it's fake.

There are some incredibly hateful rumors and lies out there about GG and DD, often including photoshopped 'evidence' and the like. Do not be fooled. If you see or hear something that tends to make GG or DD look bad, that's likely exactly what it was created to do.

My advice is always the same: block and ignore (and report where appropriate). Do not engage, do not argue, do not spread these posts around. That's exactly what these people want you to do.

Here are just a few really good reasons to avoid these people and to avoid their posts, and to encourage others to do the same:

Discussing and sharing these posts with others - even as a 'shock and anger' sort of discussion - means unwittingly spreading the lies to more people for viewing. Even if you aren't fooled by what's being said, others might not be as capable of critical thinking as you are, and they might get sucked into believing it. It's not worth the risk.

Viewing those posts and watching those videos helps to line the pockets of the antis who made them, and helps to give them clicks and clout.

These lies are designed to have a cumulative effect. You might not believe one of them, you might not believe two or three of them, but if you immerse yourself in enough of this garbage, eventually it will sway your opinion and you might become an anti yourself.

Even if you are devoted to GG and DD and will never turn against them, exposing yourself to this type of disturbing, evil, hateful garbage WILL have an impact on your mental and emotional health. Please take care of yourself and curate your experience of fandom so that you are not exposing yourself to things that hurt you or negatively impact your well-being.

Reading/viewing anti messaging has an incredibly distorting effect on how fans perceive GG and DD's popularity and how well they're doing in the industry. Such fans eventually become almost completely incapable of celebrating and enjoying GG and DD's accomplishments or acknowledging their massive success because they're too caught up in the perception that GG and DD are hated and that everyone is out to get them.

There is one last thing I really want to emphasize, because it's a misconception a lot of new fans have, or even sometimes pick up from antis:

You do not need to know what hateful things are being said about GGDD in order to be a 'good fan'.

Some people will tell you that 'if you really cared' about them you'd inform yourself about all the hate. That's utter BS.

The best way for us to support GG and DD is to not give airtime to haters, not give them clicks, views or clout, not let their lies get any oxygen in the fandom. Shut them out. They don't deserve real estate in your brain.

EDIT: I will add that everything I said in this post also applies to hateful things being said about turtles. The more airtime we give those things and the more we spread them around through discussion, the more we help to give antis clicks and clout, and the more risk we take that someone along the way will be infected with those ideas. The more we read and discuss those things, the more harm we do to ourselves and each other, and the more distorted our view of turtledom becomes. Best to just block and ignore (and report where appropriate).

Here are a few related posts you might find helpful:

How I manage to keep from getting angry about antis

How what we focus on shapes who we become

Toxic fans and staying in your own lane

Why so much hate from solos?

“I heard on Twitter that BXG don’t really care about GG”

Why fan wars/arguing online is such a bad idea

Why it’s so important for our fandom to behave well online

Dealing with Antis On Tumblr

Fandom Survival Guide

As I’m very new in this fandom, I’d like to add a very long comment about this Sherlolly ship. But, at the very beginning, I’d like to say I love your works, Mathilde. Your videos make people think and binds different moments of the show into one picture. They’re masterpieces.

Everyone keeps talking about the second “I love you”, but I think there are at least two moments from the last episode that are equally important.

1.      “If it’s true, just say it anyway”

Just look at his face when he says it. Of course, the entire sick situation is about Molly loving Sherlock, he figured it out himself (as the only one person in the room), but the moment Molly says “Because it’s true”, Sherlock’s face changes – it softens, as if it was THIS MOMENT when he truly realized what she meant, what it all REALLY meant. This was the moment Sherlock realized how difficult it is to say someone you love them, not knowing if they love you back, or worse, knowing they DON’T love you back. How difficult it is to talk about your feelings. No wonder she says: “You bastard” – she couldn’t have seen his face and voice can betray you. She also discovered he really did know about her feelings and maybe thought he tried to manipulate her once again, brutally using her weakness for him for another sick game. And maybe, just maybe, his voice softens and lowers because he wants to finally face the truth.

  2.      “What?”

As a person who likes watching a lot of cop shows (especially “The Mentalist”), I can assure you that this is the face someone makes when they’re forced to do something that will reveal the truth about them. Something they want to hide. Something that was hidden inside them and they have been repressing it for a long time. They subconsciously know it’s going to be painful and that is why it’s so hard for them to reveal it. Besides, this time it’s Molly Hooper who plays a game with Sherlock, not the other way around. She stands up to him once again. The same way she said he always says horrible things, the same way she slapped him in the face when he got into drug addiction, the same way she ignored his warning voice when she started talking about the way her father used to hide his sadness. I think that she used to give up to his charms and manipulations very easily but she gained a sort of immunity against it over the time. So, saying “What?”, Sherlock shows his astonishment that she was so tough when he thought she would be vulnerable. It also shows that he got even more scared. He had to not only save her life, but reveal his feelings.

  So, the first try comes out a bit insincere, dry. But once he says these words, just to save Molly’s life, he comes to a realization: maybe he doesn’t have to lie. Maybe it doesn’t have to be insincere. We don’t know what was in Benedict Cumberbatch’s head, we don’t know what he thought about their relationship. Of course, there are many people who use the writers’ words as arguments: the thing that is between them is only a friendship. Alright, but we are all allowed to interpret everything the way we want, including actors (the best example is Jim Parsons in “The Big Bang Theory” and the way he plays Sheldon as if he was autistic). Interpreting is not about discovering the author’s intention, but discovering the parts of our experience and ourselves in what we read/hear/see. And I think it’s pretty ugly what they said about Molly: that this “I love you” scene magically helped her move on, she went and banged some random guy and everything was alright. No wonder why Louise Brealey herself got mad at them. This kind of devotion is not easy to get over with. She loved him, truly loved, loved him the way Irene Adler wouldn’t understand. This is why John Watson says: “I want you to be examined by the first person who learned to see through your bullshit. The last person you would think about”. Of course this time Sherlock remembers about her because she was his leverage against Moriarty, but this proves that even Watson knew – Molly has seen a human in Sherlock before he was ready to admit it to himself. That’s why she was so persistent to show him she knows when he’s sad (the scene with “I don’t count” can be a material for another article). And it took me many hits of the replay button on this fanvid of Sherlolly before I realized what Sherlock meant when he asked her if she helped him if he would turn out be a completely different person – because the entire “fall from the roof” scam proved that Sherlock cares about people, and to explain the plot to her, he had to explain the reason for it – he wanted to save his friends, his family – the “emotional context”. And just so you know, I think that Cumberbatch kind of shows the “softness” Sherlock reveals around Molly. Just for a moment, when you rewatch the show, focus your eyesight on Sherlock from the very first scene with Molly. Camera shows he keeps looking at her even when she turns around. He gives her the “gazes”, longer than expected.

 Not to mention that Sherlock was soft to Molly before he started being soft to John. She’s the only person he said “sorry” to without being forced to do it, even though Molly said exactly the same everybody used to tell him. And, if I’m not mistaken, Sherlock’s “I love you” said to Molly is the first and the only time Sherlock does it on his own.

 And as to the “I don’t count” scene… Sherlock realized there that he wasn’t acting really nice towards her and that is why she assumed he didn’t take her seriously. His reaction was priceless and it was before he realized Moriarty’s plan. Just rewatch the scene and LOOK AT HIM. He was so vulnerable. She got to him. He was the nicest person ever because she made him realize how awfully he was treating her when she was the only person who truly knew him. And when she says: “Do want something? I know you don’t”. A before that, when he says: “What could I possibly need from you?”, he says it only because he’s confused. And it’s not easy to confuse Sherlock Holmes.

 And her bedroom was one of his bolt-holes.

 For me, they don’t have to be together. I think it would be fair for John and Sherlock to be “without girlfriends/wives” as per original stories. I wouldn’t mind if they knew about each other’s feelings without doing anything about them (except for acting awkward around each other and being occasionally sweet/softly-flirty). I’m guessing, as there are rumours about the fifth season being aired in 2022/2023, if the show continues, the writers will have enough decency to explain how the situation was resolved between Molly and Sherlock, and not the ugly way they did it on Twitter. Knowing Sherlock, he would not know what to do with his feelings, how to play it out. If I had to guess, if the writers go the “Sherlock and Molly getting a bit closer” road, they will probably kill her and she will mention their confession from “The Final Problem” within her last breath. Or, maybe, if they decide to finish the show after the fifth season, they’ll show us an open ending? Like, we will be forever wondering: did they or did they not end up together…?

 And I seriously wonder why the authors insist so much on Irene Adler being the only “love interest” of Sherlock. Like… yes, of course, there is a lot of sexual tension between the two of them but it is not romantic. Not even a little bit. Irene provided the proof that yes, Sherlock also has human desires, like sex for instance, but… I don’t see any attachment. I prefer Molly because she brings out the sensitive, vulnerable part of Sherlock, he knows he can be himself, THE TRUE SELF, with her, without having to defend himself with sarcasm and rudeness (he does it often in her presence at the beginning because he knows she is able to see through him but gives up eventually, even more after the roof fall). They remind me of The Hunger Games quote:

 What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses.

 And I think that’s what Molly is to Sherlock.

Broken Me...

Ch. 12

Summery: The Dallas Convention couldn't have come at a worse time for Jensen. His world fell apart earlier that morning, but was expected to just act like everything was normal. You and a friend were at the convention for her birthday. Life hasn't been that great for you either, but a forced meeting on stage changes two worlds. Will you be able to put this broken man back together again...

Series Warings: Cheating, shitty marriage, Danneel is a bitch, I unfortunately have to put that as a warning because some people tend to get turnt up about it if you don’t... Smut, Crying, Suiside Attempt, brief discription of suicide attempt and recovery, depression, hints of self loathing, language. I think that’s it... Suicide Trigger warnings will be placed over each chapter!

Chapter Warnings: Smut, unproteced sex, oral, female recieving, talk of anxiety and depression, language, that’s about it I think...

Word Count: 2277

A/N: BINGE READ TIME!! As always all mistakes are mine! Please do not copy my work! Feedback is gold!! Hope you all enjoy this one!!

Want More? Check out my masterlist!!

****MASTERLIST****

Jensen's POV:

It had been roughly two weeks since landing in Vancouver, and if there was one thing Jensen knew for certain it’s that he hated having to go to that therapy, but he did it to get everyone off his back. 

He knows why he did what he did. He didn’t think he needed someone analyzing him like a damn test subject to 'tell him how he really feels,' or 'what the real problem seems to be.’ He knows what the problem is. 

He’s well aware of what he did... 

He’s not going to do it again... 

Because there's something he realized...

He’s got way too much to lose... 

His kids still need him... 

Danneel text him yesterday, and said she would call later this week if he was feeling up to it to work out a weekend visit for the kids. 

Work had gotten a lot better. Not that he ever disliked what he did. It's what he lives for. When he first started slipping into the depression, about a year after getting married to Danneel, everything seemed draining to him. Even the things he loved. 

Since you had come into his life, things he once enjoyed he was now enjoying again. You were always there for him, even when he was too stubborn to admit he needed you to be. Always watching out for him. When things get too heavy you’re not afraid to help him. 

You weren’t afraid to sit up at night when he couldn’t sleep. Everytime he feels like something is headed his way he can't handle, and he’s about to slip, it’s almost like you know, and come to wrap your arms around him... Letting him know you’re there. He’s not alone..

Everything he thought would never be fixed, it was slowly starting to not seem too devastating.. Which made him understand even more that what he did, he should have never done.. When you’re battling depression things seem bigger than what they really are, like you just can’t ever recover from whatever your facing, when that’s not really the case.. That’s what happened to him, slowly though you were showing him that he could, and he’d forever be grateful for that, for you....

The way you look at him, so completely devoted... 

There was doubt in his mind that you love him. He never had to worry about if he had to work all day long, he’d come home to you screwing another man.. You wait on him, hand and foot. Almost too much. Because he didn’t think he deserved half of the things you did for him...

He’d never had a woman do that for him. He’d never felt what it felt like to be truly loved. Unconditionally and completely. Without some hidden agenda.

Tonight the two of you were meeting Jared and Gen at a local restaurant for dinner.. She had flown in for a few weeks with the boys, and she wanted us to go out to dinner with them.

Jensen knew she was still friends with Danneel, but that was her business, and he wasn’t going to hold it against her.. 

You don't seem to be worried about it either. 

"You ready babe?" Jensen yells,l toward the bathroom. Slipping his jacket over his shoulders. Then turning around and grabbing yours. 

"I'm coming!!" You yelled toward the living room. 

A few minutes later you walk out of the bathroom and he had to pick his jaw up off the floor. He’d never seen you all done up before, and damn! 

You were honestly the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. 

The way your black dress hugged you in just the right place. Showing just enough to drive him crazy. your long y/h/c hair curled and playing the middle of your back. Barely any makeup, but you didn't need it.

"You okay handsome?" You asked, salturing up to him in your black heels. Wrapping your arms around his neck as he threw the jack over the chair next to him so that he could pull you as close to him as possible. 

"You are beautiful." Was all he could get out before pressing his lips to yours. Kissing you deeply. 

................................ 

Your POV:

"Come on we're gonna be late." You tell him once he finally breaks from kissing you to breath. 

His eyes were an astonishing shade of green tonight, and if you looked into them you couldn't think clearly.

Jensen made a strange growling noise as his trailing soft kisses down your neck, and up to your ear. Running his teeth lightly over your ear lobe. Causing a shiver to rip through you. 

"Think we're not gonna make it out the door babe." He said in a husky deep voice that made your knees weak.

"Jared will hunt you down and kill you." You tell him, taking a deep breath trying to clear your head in order to resist the attack he was currently doing to your throat.. 

"Fine." He said, nipping your nick just hard enough to make you gasp. Causing him to to chuckle to himself. Eyes raking over you like a five star meal that had been placed in front of a starving man as he grabbed your coat. Slipping it over your shoulder. 

"To be continued then." He whispered in your ear. Your body heats up in anticipation of the promise that was laced thick in his deep voice…

------------------------------

So far the dinner was going quite well. As the restaurant started to get crowded you could feel Jensen shifting uncomfortably in his seat next to you. You reach over under the table and grab his hand. He laced his finger in yours. Completely covering your hand with his.

"J? You okay man?" Jared asked, eyeing him suspiciously. 

Jensen quickly cleared his throat. Sitting up straighter in his chair. Still holding on tightly to your hand. 

"Yeah... Yeah I'm fine. Just a little tired." He said, trying to shake it off.

Gen watched him closely. Eyes searching him.

 "Liar." She finally said. Earning a raised eyebrow and an offended look from Jensen...

"Come on Jensen don't shut people out. Let us help you." 

The light mood of the evening changes in an instant. You could feel him stiffen next to you. You knew what was wrong. You knew since his last bout with depression that ended in him almost killing himself tight places seemed to make him agitated. 

Not because he was afraid of people. He still loved his fans. Always messing with people on Twitter and other social media. 

It was the questions. 

He didn't want to be confronted with questions. 

Jensen had a real 'I'm a man, and I don't need help or anyone asking me questions.' Problem that he was still working his way through, asking for help didn’t always come easy to him, and he didn’t want to seem weak at all..

"Gen. I'm fine. I'm just getting tired. I've been up since three this morning. I had to do the same shower sex scene more than seven takes. The water was fucking cold, and I'm just not in the mood for that." He said flatly. You look across the crowded restaurant and see two people with professional looking cameras hiding behind a booth wall Jensen had just gestured towards...

You had gotten to know Jensen pretty well. You had been with him almost every waking moment from the moment he showed up at your hotel door in Dallas. He told you things that he hasn't told anyone. With that being said you could tell he'd just about had enough of the day, and this dinner, not to mention this conversation..

"Maybe it's time to get going." You tell him, running your thumb lightly over his hand. 

"Yeah Gen it's getting late we need to go relieve the babysitter. We should have been home an hour ago." Jared said, both of them standing. 

You all said your goodbyes. Walking to your cars. The lighter mood returning as you all step out into the cool Vancouver air.

Jensen held your door open as you slid into your seat. You watched as he walked around the car. Getting in he slams the door, pulling you to him he crashes his lips into yours. Slipping his tongue into your mouth. Tongues battling for dominance. 

His hand traveling up your inner thigh, playing with your pantie line. Before finally pulling away, and throwing the car into drive. 

"We need to get home. Now." He growled. Sending shiver and anticipation down your spine, and a deep arousal to your core.. 

Throwing the door open to your apartment Jensen carried you bridal style into the master bedroom. Sitting on your feet carefully next to the bed he wraps his muscular arms around your waist. Pulling you against his toned body. 

Finding your lips again he picks up where he left off in the car. Kissing you until your lips were swollen. Then working his way from your lips to your ear. Then down to your neck. Kissing your shoulders as he slipped the straps away. One arm was still wrapped securely around you while the other hand grabbed the zipper in the back of your dress. Pulling it down slowly. His fingers lightly brushing your back as he goes. Causing a fire to light somewhere deep in your belly.

He never broke eye contact with you as your dress slid down your body, pooling at the floor around your feet. He brought his lips to your again. Kissing you passionately as he unhooked your bra. Throwing it to the floor next to the two of you. With one hand he pulled the hem of your panties. Causing them to fall to the floor around your feet. 

Taking a step back he took a long hungry look at you. Taking all of you in. His chest rising and falling heavily as he looked at you.

“God damn baby you get more beautiful every time I see you.” He growled...

Coming back to you in one smooth movement he picked you up, and sat you down on the bed against the pillows. Hovering over you as he watched you slowly unbuttoned his shirt. Skidding it off his shoulders he shrugged out of the sleeves. Leaving it on the floor next to your clothes. 

You run your hands lightly over the toned muscles of his chest and his soft stomach. Feeling them tighten and relax under your touch. A shiver ripping through his body as you run your fingers down his stomach. Undoing his belt and jeans. In one swift movement he quickly removes his pants and boxers. Leaving himself exposed to you completely. 

Getting back to his hovering position over you. Leaning down he leaves kisses from your neck to your breast. Taking his time with each of them. Pulling his teeth teasingly over your nipples. Sucking slightly as he moves down your stomach. Taking little nips at your skin as he goes. 

Moving down your thighs. One then the other. Dragging his perfectly straight teeth over your skin, driving you insane as his tongue follows, sweeping back up your body to the apex of your hips. 

Your body withering underneath him with need. Finally when you thought you couldn't take it anymore he slides his mouth over your aching core. Causing a sharp gasp to escape you. Followed by a string of moans as he expertly moves his tongue over your most sensitive parts. Driving you closer to the edge. Pulling away right before you're pushed over. Leaving you aching for him as he runs his tongue up your body moving to the bend of your neck. 

Kissing and sucking the sensitive skin there. Leaving his mark on you. One that was going to be really hard to hide in the morning. You didn't care though. You were his and you didn't care who saw it.

Finally you couldn't take it anymore. 

"Jensen please!" You beg. Squirming under his touch. Need making it impossible to stay still. Putting his forehead to yours he positioned himself at your entrance. Sliding his thick, hard length into you slowly. Never breaking eye contact with you. 

Giving you a moment to adjust before he pulled himself out slowly, then pushing harder back into you. Slowly he repeated this action. Over and over again. Never breaking eye contact with you. Moaning as you run your fingernails down his back to his hips. Then back up again. 

Finally he started to pick up his pace. Hitting in just the right places with every thrust. Driving closer and closer to your end as his own pace began to pick up speed again and become sloppy. Your walls quivering around him. About to spill over the edge.

"Come for y/n." He whispers as he spills into you. Unable to hold back his own release, pulling you over the edge with his. Rocking himself into you as both of you both rode out your high.

Later as you lay in each other's arms. Him playing with your hair absent-mindedly. You tracing the freckles that are sprinkled across his chest and shoulders with your fingers.  

You were dozing. Slipping onto a deep content sleep. No. He wasn't perfect. He had his problems. He had his insecurities. Just like you had yours. But he was yours and you were his. At this moment. That's all that mattered. All other problems didn't exist as long as you were wrapped in his arms. 

No matter what tomorrow held for you, or what struggles he might face, he had you, and that’s how it would always be...

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Forelskelse|Harry Styles

Title: Forelskelse

Song(s): None 

Warning(s): None 

Summary: The story of how he came to love her. 

Word Count: 2.7k

Florelskelse: is a Danish word meaning ‘the intense, almost unreal feelings that come with the beginning of love; when you start to fall in love’

He knew who she was, he knew what she looked that; but if you were to ask him anything about her he’d run short. Harry Styles, like to beam himself the most selfless person always taken into consideration what his friends likes and dislikes were, yet when it came to the young woman across the room he would run short. He simply couldn’t tell you the little things about her other than basics, which included: her name, age, and profession; other than those details he knew nothing else. 

He couldn't tell you what her favorite color was or what wine she ordered each time they all went out. Harry simply couldn't answer any question about her because he didn't know, he liked it to think it wasn’t that he didn’t think she was important. That simply wasn't it, no no. Harry valued each and every single one of his friends but there was something about her, something he couldn’t grasp. It made him feel useless in a way, he felt like he should know more, in fact, he knew he should know more. 

She, on the other hand, could tell you from the east to the west about him, she deemed it was simply because they were acquainted with one another. She knew a few more things than an average person, but she’d always been rather observant, though her close friend who blame it on her rather large crush on the man. Each time she shook it off simply stating she wasn't someone he’d be interested in. 

She never understood how it worked, how fair was it that she fell for the one person who never seemed to give her the time of day. The feelings she felt weren't something she wanted, let alone something she ever wanted to admit. It all felt silly, as she spent her days and nights wondering why she couldn't even grasp the slightest bit of his attention. The aching need of just a simple hello during inside each time the gang would get together. 

Now she stood before him, a glass half empty and mouth dry. Her eyes staring back at him almost as if he had grown an extra head, his feet tapping lightly as he waited for her response. He knew it. was a long shot but there was just something about her that drew him in. “Excuse me?” she finally spoke as he cleared his throat. 

“I just wanted to know..” he started again trying to find the right words to say, the last thing he need was to ruin a friendship before it even began. “if you’d like to hang out.” 

“Why?” 

She didn’t mean to off rude or standoffish, but she was shocked. How was it fair that after she had promised herself to give up on him, he finds it alright to come crashing into her life. The alcohol was starting to run its course, as she felt a bit light headed. 

“I want to get to know you better.” 

Harry was a man on a mission the moment they entered the small corner cafe, which turned out to be one of her absolute favorites. He couldn’t help but smile and mentally pat himself on the back for the smart decision into coming here instead of dinner. He knew dinner was maybe too formal and hanging out at his place would most likely be a tab to awkward. 

“What would you like?” 

“A Chai Latte is fine.” she smiled softly as he nodded his head asking her to pick a table as he walked over to the front. His hands shaking lightly at the situation, he had known her for years and yet she felt like a complete stranger to him. 

Sitting down, she couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at the situation she was in. Just a few months ago she had promised herself to stop trying to chase someone who didn’t want her, though she wasn’t really chasing. She was longing for his attention and now that she had it, it was all a bit too much. 

“Wait so that’s where you’ve been?” he asked out breathlessly, it was then that he realized there was more to her than meets the eye. From her always kept together appearance to the soft smile on her face. She was truly a wonder and he couldn’t understand why it had taken him so long to reach out to her. 

“Yeah, I just got the promotion.” she nodded while twirling the wooden stick in her drink. She had devoted her free time into proving to her boss she was more than capable in being head of a department. She always wanted nothing more, but being the head of the children's department and lunching it with book by one of her favorite authors was incogitable. 

“Have you always wanted to do that?” 

“Be an editor?” 

“Yeah, you just don’t seem like the kind of person to me,” he stated with a soft smile as she chuckled softly leaning back in her seat. 

“Well, you don’t seem like the kind of person to be a businessman.” 

It’s been two weeks since their first little hangout and Harry couldn’t wait for the next time he’d see her. She was beyond busy since finally launching the children's department, having her finally agreeing to hang out with him he knew just what they both needed after a stressful week. 

“What’s her favorite wine?” he spoke into the speaker as he waited for Niall to respond. The rest of the group is no help, making him turn to the one person who knew just as much as he did. 

“She likes sweet wine,” Niall mumbled as he wrecked his brain trying his best to remember what wine was is that she said she liked. He knew Harry had recently made it his mission to know every single little thing about her. 

“That’s very helpful Niall.” 

“Oh, Moscato d’Asti.” 

“You positive?” 

Setting everything out, he clapped his hands and turned on the music slowly. It was a simple dish but one of his favorites, he knew it would also be on of her’s. She had explained to him how deep her love for Alfredo was. Halfway through the dish, he heard the doorbell ring. 

“Hey.” she chuckled softly offering him a bottle of wine, the same bottle of wine he had just stuck up on. “I brought some wine.” she giggled softly as he pulled her in. 

“Moscato d’Asti?” he asked with a smile as she nodded her head. Peeling her coat off, she placed it on the counter along with her bag. “Would you like a glass?” 

Taken the glass from his hand, she smiled softly following him into the kitchen. His smile was bright as the two fell into an easy conversation, the sound of laughing filling him with a warmness, the whole night had gone fantastically from her compliments on his cooking to the bottomless glasses of wine. 

“At this rate, I won’t be able to drive home.” she giggled softly, the alcohol beginning to have an effect as they sat on his couch, a random movie playing but neither of them paying attention. 

“You can always stay the night.” he breathed out as she looked back at him with a soft smile. As appealing as that sounded she knew it wasn’t a step she was ready for. Harry was nice, he was extremely giving even, but she knew for her own sanity she needed time before crossing that step. 

“I better get home.” 

He frowned slightly as she stood up, it wasn’t that he was offended. He wanted to spend more time with her, it was early and he believed everything was going great, perfect even. It was silly that he was feeling this way, it wasn’t like this was a date, in fact, it was nothing more than two friends getting to know each other. 

“Everything okay?” 

“Yeah, I just have a date tomorrow.” 

That was a little over a month ago, the time he had with her was already short, but now it seemed even worse. Every single time he had tried and reached out to her, Y/N would politely decline stating she was either busy with or work had plans with Connor. Connor that was the name of the guy she had a date with the last time they had hung out. 

Harry didn’t notice just how much he loved the friendship they had built till everything had recently stopped. He relied on Instagram and Twitter on how she was doing, his texts constantly going unanswered. Tonight whoever he would be doing all in his power to talk to her, seeing how she’s doing and hopefully get to root of her disappearance. 

“Heard she’s being that lad around.” Jim breathed out as he and Harry walked back to the table. Harry shrugged not knowing what to even think. “Have ya talked to her?” 

“Nope..” he breathed out with a soft sigh, not wanting to say anything that could remotely give whatever he was feeling away. Gemma had managed to sneak her way into his head explaining that maybe he just had some sort of feelings for her. “Haven’t talked to her since earlier this week.” 

“Well look like the lad is here.” 

Connor was something, he was everything that she wasn’t. From his perfectly styled blonde hair to the way his smile bearly even met his eyes, Harry didn’t like him. He made the conclusion so maybe it is the fact that he didn’t know him, or maybe because he just wanted what’s best for her. In his eyes, Connor just wasn’t the person she needed, well the thing that was certain was he wasn’t the person she wanted. 

Rushing into the cafe, she smiled catching sight of him waiting for her. Taken the seat before him, she thanked him for the coffee. It was silent for a while before she finally spoke. It was heard not managing her career, social life, and a sorry excuse of a love life. Connor was great, truly but what he had her feeling come nothing to what Harry did, but Harry wasn’t her’s to take. 

“How’s Connor?” he asked, though he couldn’t care much about him it was more than common courtesy to at least ask, even if he didn’t care. He wanted to be a good friend, not a jealous friend. 

“He’s okay.” she wasn’t sure why, but she felt comfortable. Maybe that’s why now they both sat there as she poured her heart to him, maybe she confessed a bit too much but it felt good. He listened not once judging her, not even when she explained that she had hoped so dearly that Connor would help her get over the guy she had bee sorta pinning after. 

“But does he make you happy?” he asked trying his hardest to let go of that fact that there was someone else. Someone who had managed to capture her heart in a way, that made him envy. 

“In a way yeah.” 

“She missed another hangout.” he breathed out trying his best to not let it bother him, suddenly he found himself thinking of her more. Wondering if Connor was living up to her expectations or if the other guy was finally giving her the time of day he knew she desired and deserved. 

“She went to the one mid-week.” Niall reminded him but Harry shrugged knowing that wasn’t necessarily a hangout.

“That was more of a last minute thing.” 

“Mate cut the bullshit, ya like her.” 

“Niall it doesn’t matter can we drop it?” he huffed looking back at the documents before him. The last thing he needed was to have his mind clouded with feelings that he knew would never be returned. “Plus she likes that other lad.” 

Niall let out a loud groan in frustration not understanding how Harry could be so dense when it came to this girl. They all knew she liked him, hell she might even be in love with him. He wasn’t one to wiggle his nose in others business but this was something he thought would benefit them both. 

“Did you ask her who he was?” 

“Nope.” 

“Stupid.” 

“Excuse me?” 

“It’s you, you wanker.” 

The look on her face said it all as he stood across from her, god this wasn’t going like he had expected it would. Her jaw was clenched and her eyes widened in that certain way it did when she was angry. He didn’t know what had possessed him into showing up at her office asking to see her. Now he knew he had to face the consequences of his actions.

“You came here to tell me that I like you?” she spoke slowly as the words finally hit him. Ridiculous, that’s what this was. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling at the moment but one thing was certain. She was beyond aggravated. “Are you fucking with me?”

“No!” He shouted as his hands went up in front of him. He was more than ready to define his actions. “Niall just came over and he planted-“

“So it’s Niall’s fault your here?”

“Well no, but he might’ve given me that push?”

“So you decided it was a fantastic idea to barge into my place of work and make a scene?” She scowled.

“Fuck, can't you see that I’m trying to tell you something!”

“Tell me something! Harry, you came here to basically say something you heard.”

“Tell me it isn’t true.”

“I’m with Connor.”

“No, you’re not!”

“How would you know that?!” She shouted completely ignoring the fact that the whole floor could hear her at this point. “How could you possibly know that if just the mere thought of him gets you frowning!”

“That’s not true.” 

“Harry I’m not having this conversation with. Can you please leave.” 

She hadn’t gotten the courage to face him, the truth being out wasn’t something she was willing to admit. It had taken her so long to reach where she was now with him, the last thing she wanted was her feelings getting in the middle of that. Six group outings she had missed since the incident at her office. 

“I’m sorry.” she breathed out looking over at him, his hair a slight mess as he moved to the side allowing her in. 

“Why?” 

“Why, what?” 

“Why have you been ignoring my phone calls?”

“Becuase it’s true.” 

His mouth felt dry as he stood there before her, his brain seems to have lost all sense as he waited for her to speak. He needed more, God he needed so much more than that. He wanted her to explain, explain why she kept it from him.

"God Harry I couldn't just tell you that I liked you." she breathed out not once meeting his eyes as she let out a cold chuckle. "Do you not understand how underlining crazy that would've been."

"But Connor?"

"Connor is sweet, he's so sweet." she breathed out not knowing how badly her next words were going to affect him. "Do you know how badly I want to make things work with him?"

"But-"

"No just listen! God just listen for one fucking second." she rushed out in a panic, she needed for him to listen. e had to listen to what she was feeling it was only fair that he allowed her that. That he knew just how long she had liked him and how much Connor had helped her. "I wanted so badly to make it work, to forget about you. It took me so long to even find someone to make me feel half of what you did."

"I like you okay." he breathed out causing her to stop what she was doing. "Jesus it happened so suddenly and I don't regret any of it. I just wanted to get to know you better as I had said. But you, God you are amazing from you dedication in rebuilding the children's department to all that you do for everyone. Without even meaning too you had me so deep in your spell and I don't think I ever want out. Just give me a chance can you do that? Can you give me a chance?"

"I would love to do that Harry." she giggled softly as he tugged her into his arms.

It’s been brought to my notice a clois shipper is taking my comments on CBR without my permission, screen grabbing and pasting in his tumblr to talk trash . So glad you think my comments so worthy that you need to pull out your straw man arguments instead of being honest enough to reply to me there. But I won’t give any credence to your cowardice. You know, some people have been making a habit of this. Taking what I and other posters have said on public forums and going on twitter and tumblr and trying to act all smug and smart and trying...TRYING...to ridicule us. But you know I tend to ignore these cowards. I don’t like wasting my time on shipping wars which is why I rarely get into to and fros with these folks here. Fact, I have most of them blocked. But this I decided has given me a great opportunity to share with my fellow comic fans. 

In retrospect, my post my post must have been thought provoking . 😉 😚 Glad to see it got him reacting. So I thought why waste it on CBR alone? I MEAN I DON’T HAVE TO ASK MYSELF PERMISSION. Let me share what it was about.  Here was my thoughts on that debacle Batman #39 before it was released based on the Bleeding Cool article that it seemed to have ripped from that notorious Action 571 by Joe Kelly 18 years ago. Now some people, usually clois fans, love Action because it, in their eyes, hold their pairing up as some great love because of this issue. But then there is another side to it and I ask people to sincerely think about this given the fact we have moved on in terms of how we view relationships and dynamics. I am not talking about political correctedness gone mad. Not at all. And no way I would be so disrespectful to call Joe Kelly the man a sexist or anything like that the way some clois fans attack Superman/Wonder Woman fans and writers because they so “hurt” fiction simply paired up two single people in one story line ie the new 52 despite them having tons of stuff in other books and media. Some writers just do stories using outdated troupes that have evolved into sexist plots because times change  and they at times  miss their mark with a section of the fandom or can be a hit depending which side of the fence you are on. And they should never be personally attacked for it. You can critique them but don’t for the love of god try to label people you don’t know anything about other than you read a comic that you don’t like. 

I hate Action #761. Not because of the premise that two people who have been attracted to each other, who have a long history of closeness in BOTH their comics...ie they actually have been shown in the narrative...it's not just dragged in left field... that they can end up closer or intimate. It's actually pretty normal I'd think if two friends with some unresolved tension, after they lose their spouses etc find solace or love again. It's morbid to be so guilt ridden that a dead partner you cannot recall and who you think is dead makes you close your self off to love, when it's clear you really really tempted. But this was never the point of Action #761 to explore love and loss. How can you as a writer if you want to sincerely tackle it when you full well KNOW you cannot shake the boat? It's not AU. It's not an altered timeline where you can follow through without messing up canon. You obviously, in such a scenario, will set up one character to be humiliated by doing something so absurd and heavy handed to try to prop a relationship that supposed to great because it's human etc etc...and being human is supposed to encompass the highs and lows of love, including tragedy and honoring a love by living etc. It tries so hard to beat you over the head Clark would rather be a monk for the rest of his life to honor one dead woman's memory. I did not come away and go aww that's love. I thought sheesh, what a dysfunctional love . Superman is actually crippled by Lois memory or lack thereof. Diana seemed pretty normal to me. And SHE never crossed boundaries or propositioned him. HE was the one raising it. And she backed off and never made him feel at all as if he did anything wrong by rejecting her. She was selfless in one vein and just a prop in another with no pov about how she dealt with it as a woman and someone who left behind friends and loved ones too. It was all about Superman and Lois to prop them at her expense. She comes off as the reject when in fact it's a story that used her in a cheap way knowing all the time that was the only outcome. Can't we all just assume Superman would be faithful to Lois while they together simply because he is that kind of a dude? Why did Joe Kelly need to drag Diana in as some temptation? Just like Superman fans hate when they use Superman as the punching bag to show the strongest character can take a beating by all and sundry, am I to assume Diana has to be used as the apple because she happens to be beautiful and THE premiere female? So, if you refuse Wonder Woman of all people...wow...you gotta love Lois so much. That's pretty sexist crap right there by Kelly. It was a poorly thought out story. But it was 18 years ago and we have moved forward in terms of the way women are used. So color me totally unimpressed King takes this lame troupe and play with it again.Because you can do nothing good with it. Neither Batman or Diana are single. It is not AU. Unless there is a plan to make them dump Selina and Steve. I hardly think this likely since why would DC make such a big deal of the Batcat stuff only to dump on it in this manner. BOTH are with their "love interests". Bruce has made a huge step in his canon. Love with commitment and pending marriage. Diana is shacked up with Steve Trevor. I am not fan of Rebirth. But she is with Steve cureently so why is there this need to muddy the waters at this stage? They could have done this easily when both were single. People might not like or might like it depending on your shipping preferences but at least they free, single and disengaged. They can kiss or date who they please as single people. Batman sure as hell has umpteen women in his books. Wanting a beautiful woman is not exactly strange for him. And King is cheating by trying to say they have some deep, great friendship based on one lame two parter? Because they spend some time in a pocket universe where time passes but is only two issues we to assume their friendship has the same magnitude as say Clark and Bruce's which has had so many books devoted to it? Diana pre new 52 and new 52 could never be seen to be Bruce's close friend and boast of a friendship to equal Superman and Batman or even a romantic dynamic as her other canonical love interests because they had limited stories together. King premises this as some great deep friendship because he wants to retroactively in a paltry two issues cement something they never earned? That's how lazy and arrogant DC and Batman writers are. It was done by Joe Kelly in the JLA run where Batman sucked Diana's face with no build up. It was done by Rucka in Black Night. Seems King is doing it again. Pushing something that just has not been earned. And using the cheapest way to try to claim it. It is baffling he uses Superman and Lois is positive ways and supportive of Selina and chooses to put Diana, a symbol of sisterhood in a story where you have to dredge up sex and intimacy to show how good friends they are. I don't get it. This arc is supposed to be about Batman's friends response to his pending marriage . So he and Diana couldn't spend some time bonding in any other way? What is the purpose? It does not sound at all good to me. So this is why I think that him even borrowing the premise or homaging or whatever he's done a poor choice. Diana will come off looking bad again and a prop or mouthpiece because it is a Batman book and about his issues. 

Then Batman 39 hit and I said this.

I'm sorry to say I told you so. But yeah. Whenever batman fan boy writers handle Wonder Woman this is what you get. Lazy ooc plots to claim her as hooked on Batman's irresistible charms. They don't build anything over time. They just slap it in your face. Bruce Timm. Joe Kelly. Greg Rucka, Now Tom King and no doubt soon Liam Sharp. Like I say it doesn't bug me two friends who are close and attracted to each other if they are single try a relationship. But Action wasn't about that. It could not any way explore anything in canon. And no one I know who liked smww or ww cared for it. It was one sided to ensure smll came out smelling rosy and Diana ...oh poor Diana...just rejected because if you turn down Wonder Woman...wow, what a man. What a love! So dumb. Like he couldn't just be seen as faithful because he's a loyal guy in a normal situation. They just needed to go all heavy handed to make a pointless point at WW expense.

Batman 39. Worse. The pacing in Action at least tried to show a bond already there knitting tighter...they did not need this issue to show they are friends. They already were close etc. Diana did not proposition Clark. They maintained boundaries and yadda yadda for a moment looked at each other and then Clark pulled back and Diana is fine with it blah blah. This shows a Wonder Woman in terms of the art, flirting heavily in her body language from the get go. Batman as you clearly see is still trying to be faithful in his body language.   She even suggests they get it on knowing he will go back to Selina. I just don't how to take that. No Diana I know would openly suggest that. It's so out of character. She's the apple/ temptress. She has no pov or remembers she has her own lover and life. He's a non issue. Poor Steve prob sitting in their apartment waiting for her.

Now if this is based on Rucka's Diana...then this is not the way I want my Wonder Woman. Not so lacking in empathy, emotional intelligence and wisdom . I don't understand how any one as old as she is with so much relationships under her belt as suggested by Rucka, cannot understand and respect the nuances and boundaries in relationships  at this stage. That she views all that she has "loved" as not able to teach her anything. It is baffling to me this Rucka Diana with all this delusion and madness nonsense. She's not a naive here but comes across as very self centered and stiff for a character who is about sisterhood and compassion. You'd think as she has her own lover she would empathize how much Bruce misses Selina...is bizarre what we have here. So whether they kiss or not is not the point. It's the set up and Diana's poor characterization. [/SPOIL]

DC  dropped the ball on Diana with Rebirth. Badly and this is where she is now. Batman writers are getting to dictate her motivations, character, personality in throw away arcs and they just don't feel right at all. No matter how people say they hate the new 52...Diana maintained her core personality under the pens of Azzarello, and Soule and hell even Finch and Johns wasn't all bad.

For those who never read either books...you’re missing nothing but Action is the lesser of two evils. You can go read them to at least keep make your own minds up but context is important in everything and timing. Personally I say don’t give DC $ for nonsense. I’m pretty sure you can get it online free to read or see many spoilers around. As much as I don’t like Wonderbat, if it had been done when both were single...(and to be fair it had been back in JLA in 2002 by Joe Kelly  and went nowhere)...it would have not been so bad as to raise so much ire. Pissed off fandoms, sure, but I am not so into shipping wars that I would be writing about any issue on this blog. Same way I ignore clois in Rebirth because they are not my new 52 Superman or Wonder Woman. So not sure why in God’s name DC wants to force it now when they did a Batcat engagement and choose to put Diana with Steve. I mean, are they crazy to be playing with that kind of fire when people are so sensitive the way women are used? And then that mini coming up by Liam Sharp is hinting at the same kind of crap trying to write retroactive wonderbat stuff just to have his own shipping preference. After Batman 39, I’d say, he needs to thread carefully.  I mean come on, DC. Treat Diana better. It’s no skin of Batman’s nose. He sells no matter his status quo. He can have a harem his fan boys don’t care. But DC chose to go a very important step and make Bruce take a huge decision to tell the woman he loves he wants to commit to her and her be a part of his life. This is not something you sully with this kind of thing at this time.  And let’s just say Bruce and Selina break up someway along the line does DC really want it to be because people blame Diana for it? Now is not the time for it. God, DC, you had your chance and never took it. Don’t mess about now. Now maybe King might have a better part two to subvert what we are seeing here but I still think using Wonder Woman imagery as the temptress was ill advised. 

And those trying to drag SuperWonder into this. Please. Our New 52 couple is dead. They are not part of this. Try reaching somewhere else. The clois shipper using my CBR comments, your example is so silly of trying to use DC Presents #32 as the same as Batman #39. That story was set in the Silver Age where there was an innocent whimsy and silliness in stories. Eros shot SM and WW with arrows and they kissy kissy for a bit while trying to find a cure. Both were dating Steve and Lois but most pointedly neither had told Steve and Lois they were Clark Kent and Diana Prince in those stories. Both Steve and Lois use to treat Diana and Clark like shit in favor of Wonder Woman and Superman back then. So let’s not even start with the faux outrage. It was just a different time and the Batman Brave and the Bold kids comic replicated it because again, it’s the context and kind of story. No one batted an eye lid nor cared Bats and Wondy kissed under a love spell. The innocence is there unless you’re reaching big time. 

Here is that lovely thread people. http://community.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?106190-Batman-39-Could-Be-Borrowing-A-Plot-From-An-Issue-of-Action-Comics

And here is Bleeding Cool’s pov. 

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/01/17/batman-39-action-comics-761-temptations-wonder-woman-spoilers/

Oh and since I am an admin on Hellyeahsupermanandwonderwoman...it has permission to reblog me. 

the purest gold of life on earth

is (already inside) the heart as a seed of the Spirit in being first chosen to be in Love as a child of Light.

A seed of grace that silently and patiently waits to be discovered, to be sought out in the spiritual truth of rebirth in the Light (in the True illumination) of the Son.

and the Voice of Love is heard as a mirroring of Heaven here on earth spoken through us who have clearly chosen to “believe…”

and the seed of the Scriptures being written down illuminates this, to conserve the True nature of discovering the place of “Home”

(inside, Anew)

and truly, the beginning of real wisdom is the fear of God.

A point made in Today’s chapter 8 of Ecclesiastes that begins its first verse as this:

There’s nothing better than being wise,

Knowing how to interpret the meaning of life.

Wisdom puts light in the eyes,

And gives gentleness to words and manners.

(The Message)

and interpreting the meaning (the definition) of eternal life begins with grace, in pure & simply trusting in Love and its sacred truth.

from Today’s reading in the ancient Letter of Romans as Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments with Ecclesiastes 8:

God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.”

[Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral]

But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.

The Letter of Romans, Chapter 1:17-20 (The Message)

and the magnificence of True nature here on earth leaves us in awe, to spark a sense of wonder in the amazement of it all. truly designed to inspire us to believe in and respectfully fear our Creator who is Love in pure truth.

‪@MarkTamayokTVU liked by @YoseConservancy: Another fantastic pic from Ellen. Yosemite Falls flowing with some force this week #reflections @YoseConservancy‬

5.9.19 • 3:36pm • Twitter

as God is Trinity in Father, Spirit and Son, yet simultaneously absolutely “One” who originally made the genesis seed of male and female to be joined Together as “One” here on earth. for sexually, as designed by Love, we’re not supposed to engage our bodies with someone of the same sex. this is spiritual truth, not drafted by man but by the Spirit of God our Creator who made the grandeur of the heavens and the universal garden of Mother earth.

something that is also written about in the ancient Letter conserved in the Scriptures as the first chapter of Romans:

Paul, a servant of Jesus the Anointed called by God to be His emissary and appointed to tell the good news of the things promised long ago by God, spoken by prophets, and recorded in the Holy Scriptures. All of this good news is about His Son: who was (from a human perspective) born of David’s royal line and ultimately designated to be the true Son of God with power upon His resurrection from the dead by the Spirit of holiness. I am speaking of Jesus, the Anointed One, our Lord.

And here’s what He’s done: He has graced us and sanctioned us as His emissaries whose mission is to spread the one true and obedient faith to all people in the name of Jesus. This includes you: you have been called by Jesus, God’s Anointed.

To all those who are God’s beloved saints in Rome:

May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, surround you.

First, I thank my God through Jesus the Anointed for all of you because we are joined by faith as family, and your faith is spreading across the world. For I call God as my witness—whom I worship in my spirit and serve in making known the gospel—He alone knows how often I mention you in my prayers. I find myself constantly praying for you and hoping it’s in God’s will for me to be with you soon. I desperately want to see you so that I can share some gift of the Spirit to strengthen you. Plus I know that when we come together something beautiful will happen as we are encouraged by each other’s faith.

If, my brothers and sisters, you did not already know, my plans were set to meet you in Rome, but time and circumstances have forced every trip to be canceled until now. I have deeply desired to see some good fruit among you just as I have seen with so many non-Jewish believers. You see, I am in tremendous debt to those of various nationalities, from non-Jews to barbarians, from the wisest of the wise to the idle wanderer. So you can imagine how eager I am to join you and to teach the good news in the mighty and diverse city of Rome.

For I am not the least bit embarrassed about the gospel. I won’t shy away from it, because it is God’s power to save every person who believes: first the Jew, and then the non-Jew. You see, in the good news, God’s restorative justice is revealed. And as we will see, it begins with and ends in faith. As the Scripture declares, “By faith the just will obtain life.”

For the wrath of God is breaking through from heaven, opposing all manifestations of ungodliness and wickedness by the people who do wrong to keep God’s truth in check. These people are not ignorant about what can be known of God, because He has shown it to them with great clarity. From the beginning, creation in its magnificence enlightens us to His nature. Creation itself makes His undying power and divine identity clear, even though they are invisible; and it voids the excuses and ignorant claims of these people because, despite the fact that they knew the one true God, they have failed to show the love, honor, and appreciation due to the One who created them! Instead, their lives are consumed by vain thoughts that poison their foolish hearts. They claim to be wise; but they have been exposed as fools, frauds, and con artists—only a fool would trade the splendor and beauty of the immortal God to worship images of the common man or woman, bird or reptile, or the next beast that tromps along.

So God gave them just what their lustful hearts desired. As a result, they violated their bodies and invited shame into their lives. How? By choosing a foolish lie over God’s truth. They gave their lives and devotion to the creature rather than to the Creator Himself, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen. This is why God released them to their own vile pursuits, and this is what happened: they chose sexual counterfeits—women had sexual relations with other women and men committed unnatural, shameful acts because they burned with lust for other men. This sin was rife, and they suffered painful consequences.

Since they had no mind to recognize God, He turned them loose to follow the unseemly designs of their depraved minds and to do things that should not be done. Their days are filled with all sorts of godless living, wicked schemes, greed, hatred, endless desire for more, murder, violence, deceit, and spitefulness. And, as if that were not enough, they are gossiping, slanderous, God-hating, rude, egotistical, smug people who are always coming up with even more dreadful ways to treat one another. They don’t listen to their parents; they lack understanding and character. They are simple-minded, covenant-breaking, heartless, and unmerciful; they are not to be trusted. Despite the fact that they are fully aware that God’s law says this way of life deserves death, they fail to stop. And worse—they applaud others on this destructive path.

The Letter of Romans, Chapter 1 (The Voice)

my reading of the Scriptures for may 10, day 52 of Spring and day 130 of the year:

This is God, this is God, this is God, this is God, this is God, this is God, let’s go back to [ ] [ ] for a minute. His wife was a certifiable pain in the ass, Loraine. She quit her job on a dime. She. quit. her. job. on a dime, Loraine. She went home from work one day, and said, to him, ‘I quit my job.’ And he said, ‘What? We, need, the, money, how could you do that?’ And she said, ‘Because I’m the woman and I do what I want--’

‘Men do what they want. Women do not do what they want. They do what they’re told,’ says Loraine Laney, who, God says now, has never, really, had to put her money where her mouth is, she hasn’t, and yet, she has done right by nearly everyone, by being a devoted prostitute who wasn’t screwing for free, and by being a devoted, stupid though, monogamous girlfriend. She was a dumb, selfish, bitch, Loraine, and he will hear about this, he will, and they were together for years, Loraine, years, Loraine, and, when his father, his beloved, and he is beloved, Loraine, he is won. der. ful. man, Loraine, when he left his second wife for an [ ], [ ] stood up and took notice, Loraine, because he thought, despite all odds, that that couple would stay together forever, because they had raised the two kids, Loraine, and because they had battled it out, Loraine, but, you were right about gay men, Loraine, they do not, do not, do not, put out for lack of passion, and, you are right again, little boys, little boys, little boys, Loraine, translated your work into the rights and desires of heterosexual men, being that they, neither, had any reason to stay when the passion had waned. But, truth be told, it is usually that the couple has not dealt with their poly, Loraine, says God, and, truth be told, [ ] [ ] never dealt with his wife’s poly, and she was, she was, she was, she was, an incorrigible slut.

I am God, and I would like to say that 50/50′s with a couple center will be pimped, both the men and the women, by the couple center, or by the lesbian center, a bit, Loraine, a bit, Loraine, when they get out of hand with their attractions, and that is it. Someone will find out when it is getting--ask that, Loraine.

‘Do 50/50 women get to go out, God, by themselves, to bars or what have you?’

No, Loraine, never, Loraine. They stay home, and the 50/50 men get to go out, and get laid, and what have you, and, they don’t get laid that much, because they choose to go home to their women, Loraine. And I am--

‘When a guy’s as high as you, it’s not even about controlling the woman, is it?’ Loraine Laney says to Neil Smith, says God.

‘No, Loraine. We knew we were sluts, and we were determined to allow women to enjoy slutting too. When they would get me with monogamy, it was for one reason, and one reason alone, their suffering, Loraine, they would bespeak of suffering in light of other women, and it controlled me, Loraine, it controlled me, Loraine, it controlled me, Loraine. What?’

‘Curious. Do you have any, actual, words from this?’

‘Yes, Loraine. My heart hurts was one. My pussy aches for you, was another, and I could imagine this, as a man, in light of female emotions and I felt for them, Loraine, I felt for them, and I would do it, monogamy, as would you, I understand, not perfectly, okay, I understand revenge and that, but well, and better, I understand from God, than them. I don’t care about your stupid cheating, raping [ ], Loraine, I don’t care if she worried about men, Loraine, she was worse than you? You NEVER cheated. And she did? Well, done, Loraine, you thought it was tacky, nice, Loraine. And the others? Weren’t you scared of men, Loraine?’

‘Oh, yes. [ ], yes, [ ], no.’

‘Why weren’t you scared of [ ], he could have killed you.’

‘The lower men kill women, and the higher men kill each other.’

‘Well done, Loraine, who told you that?’

‘Are you mad at me?

‘God?’ says Neil Smith. ‘I want to know how bad of a cheater this little bitch was before I marry her. And will she get off on fucking the cook, such as he is, our chef, our world renowned chef, Loraine.’

‘Loraine thinks she can get a hot security guard to piss of 50 Cent, over me,’ says chef. ‘But I have, I have, Loraine, forgiven her for this, because she is right. Some hot guy will fuck her and it will be a better revenge.’

She’s good, says God, she’s not perfect, but she fights fire with fire, and never, never, never, never, never, never, never--

‘Has or does, overshoot the mark, Lord?’

Never has and never does, Neil Smith, says God. We are saying, and we are saying that God, myself, is heterosexual, and I will fuck women who need me, who need a reprieve or a solace from their boss, their husband, or, and this is especially, Loraine, when there is some kind of division from their husband, either a fight or a cheat, or something they can’t get out of, Loraine.

‘Do you mean an instance of non fidelity which particularly upsets the woman, God?’

Yes, Loraine, that is what I mean.

‘What did you think of that, Loraine?’ asks Neil Smith.

‘Honestly--’

‘Yes, please.’

‘I was delighted.’

‘Why?’

‘It was such a development in his sexuality, I wanted for only thing.’

‘Which was what? To be there?’

‘To be his wife.’

‘Oh, I see. To be his wife? So that was asking a lot, then.’

‘It was. And I felt selfish for that.’

‘You did. But you still wanted it. I don’t even know why I’m mad, but why am I mad? Because she gets all of us, so much, eighteen beautiful husbands, and she still gets more, why? Why does she still get more, God?’ asks Neil Smith.

Because she is a rampant poly herself, Neil, and you would not find a gang bang girl who wasn’t, Neil, says God. Neil is protesting the use of his name, but I am God, and Loraine Laney is saying that she is a slut, too, she is a love bug, Neil.

‘I thought she was cold. She’s a love bug to them, and cold to her husbands?’

She will seek you out, Neil, particularly you, because you will eschew her love, and she will want, need you to make love to her, to satisfy her needs, and her love, because she is in love, Neil, and he is so funny, Loraine, she is not a woman who doesn’t appreciate a funny, man, tell him that, Loraine, it is on Twitter, but it is funny, Neil, and she laughed her fucking head off--

‘Over me?’

Over Chingy. Say what he said, Loraine, says God.

‘She was on speed,’ says Neil. ‘Do I have to buy her stocks and shit, or just fuck her, Loraine? What do I, Neil, have to do, to fuck, the great, Loraine Laney, such as she is?’

She is rich, Neil, and she realizes--

‘What does she realize?’

--that she is a protection liability, because of her torture by police, Neil Smith. She is well known to police--

‘Because she is fucking them.’

She, in Montreal, fucked one little RCMP officer who had dancer cred, because he left his wife for [ ], but whom never retained the dancer cred, and, you will be happy to hear, Loraine, won his nefarious wife back, he won her back, Loraine, by lying, Loraine, by saying that [ ] was not as hot as she, Loraine, but they got back together, and stayed together, and he was not the man who tased you--

‘They tased her? They fucking tased my little, idiot, tiny, nothing, baby?’

Loraine laughs a little, through her nose. She laughs a little more.

‘Why? Why did she get famous? Why? She was a child prostitute. Is that why? Is it? Because that was her idiot dad, not her.’

Separately. She does not believe this either, but separately, I say, and I am God, she got famous, by herself, in the downtown eastside, with a blog, and I know everyone thought blogs were replete, in the world, but they were not, people would start them, and not be able to finish them, and she sustained, for a long time, and she even said Neil, and Neil will appreciate this, as a big, white, man whose women were stolen, even, Loraine--

‘Hm.’

--by black men. Because, she said, “Black men have too much power in America.” Tell him that, Loraine.

‘Fifty corrects me when I say America, he says to say the US, and I said, “I’m going to say America, because that’s what makes America great again.”

He likes it, says God, so he thinks you’re a little bit, a little bit, a cunt hair amusing, Loraine, and that’s it, because he’s funny, Neil, as fucken shit, Loraine, and you will die, you will have to go pee, Loraine, he will make you laugh so hard. And Chingy’s funny too. So tell him, it is already on Twitter--

‘Then don’t bother.’

Okay, says God. Okay, says God. I will say this about [ ] [ ], Loraine, he is connected, and everyone who knows him, knows this blog has been in part, about him, and he has already been informed that the great Loraine Laney is writing about him, such as she is, she loved him so much, says God, so much, says God. She moved to Edmonton to get away from his nefarious, lame, nothing, advances, because she couldn’t take it, she couldn’t, Neil, and she left, that is the kind of girl she is, she is a leaver. She has a character, in two screen plays, and, yes, they are lame, but the character’s name--

‘Do I care?’

It’s good, says God, is Molly Walker.

‘A whore who leaves, nice, Loraine, is she funny, too? Stupid, but funny?’

‘She has timing.’

‘Oh, she has timing, oh, and self effacement, oh, is that your humour, because I’m not one of these men who says don’t put yourself down, I’m not, and you’re glad of that, because you’re sick of it, people not understanding that you know what they’re thinking already?’

‘Right.’

‘So I get you.’

She hopes nobody will say, don’t put yourself down, says God, because that is her humour, and that is all she has, except--

‘What? She has ESP.’

Loraine wants to know why you say that, tell him that, Loraine, and say the name, because I want you to, God, Loraine.

‘I was trying really hard to have ESP and a name came to me, Greg Passey, and I looked him up, and he lived in West Van, so I sent him one or some of the Armageddon letters, is that what it’s called?’

Yes, Loraine, says God.

‘Greg Passey, according to the ether, turned out to be an RCMP psychiatrist.’

‘And I am Greg Passey, and I would like to say that I believe Loraine Laney had some, a very little bit, of ESP, a very, little, bit, because she also came up with two ridiculous names, reminiscent of famous people, but the first names were correct, and they were a de facto couple who were involved in the torture of others with white gas, Neil, and they were not fired, Loraine, but went on torturing people.’

‘Who is Dennehey, Loraine, did you fuck him?’

‘I am no cop fucker, Neil. I have no in with these people, and no particular fetish for the costume, seriously. I have no uniform fetish whatsoever.’

‘Really, Loraine? Because I think you’re a cop fucker and that’s why they got you.’

‘Wrong.’

‘Really?’

‘Wrong. I know a girl that happened to, from the shelter, and she is a lovely French woman who does not judge a prostitute, but I did not fuck any cops but [ ] and [ ].’

‘Oh, funny, Loraine, and you met them, pool side, in Montreal, and they fucked you, in the ass, I heard, and you licked her, willingly, wanting a woman. Why don’t you get your own man, and share him, Loraine?’

‘They never want me, and I don’t care. Fuck you, Neil.’

‘Oh, I see. Fuck you, Neil, with that. Why don’t they want you, Loraine?’

‘Because I’m ugly or something.’

‘Oh, shut up, Loraine. Once you got your nose job, did you get laid more?’

‘I went for prostitution wholesale, so, no.’

‘Oh, I see, Loraine, you had discipline. Who were these cops who were tasing you, Loraine.’

‘I saw RCMP.’

And they were, Loraine, and [ ] wasn’t there, Loraine, but they were RCMP, and they were involved, because, Neil, they would follow her to Agassiz, where she was visiting her prison boyfriend, and fly over her a bit, and that was it, but, once, they whistled her, it’s called, Loraine, at a Burger King or something, and she knew it was a cop, and they followed her and her dad to Hawaii--

‘He needed a vacation.’

‘Do you really think a devout pot head meets cops, Neil?’

‘You might.’

‘I do not hate cops for you, Neil.’

‘Fuck you, Loraine. You feel sorry for them.’

‘They are a wronged people, and everyone has paid the price for that, not the least of which were prostitutes.’

‘Why?’

‘I said, if you married and every man was able to have sex with your wife except you--’

‘Oh, fuck you, Loraine.’

‘They were cuckolded by society at large. It was pitiable, Neil, pitiable.’

‘Oh, I see. I marry and, oh, they’re the main, the only, protectors of prostitutes, aren't they?’

‘They alone.’

‘For it, the relationships of prostitution to hang together, the prostitutes needed the cops.’

Tell him that, Loraine.

‘As dominant men, the police--’

‘I get it, Loraine.’

‘High physical and sexual intelligence men.’

‘Why?’

‘Drawn to physical intelligence jobs.’

‘Oh, I see.’

‘Their perfect, their perfect, their mother fucking perfect compliments were the most submissive women who fell to prostitution.’

‘Oh, fuck. What about us?’

‘There shoulda been enough to go around.’

‘But they’re all dead.’

Yes, says God, and, Neil, and we will stop soon because Loraine is tired of writing, typing and that, she is, Neil, she has been writing for hours, and who cares if she is tired, working for free for the world, many of the gang bang girls died, and most of them were the most powerful sexual superiors, the gang bang girls, because of their desirability to men, died, Neil, in the gender war, because they were lying cheaters and sluts and bitches, and Loraine Laney wasn’t--

‘She was a bit.’

She was the least of them, and the cops, from her phone calls, knew it, because her [ ] is a pedophile, an active, sexual abuser, and she has been under investigation by the VPD and Interpol for years, Loraine, and Loraine, by association, is under investigation too, and because her [ ] has tried to put this off on her for years, Neil--

‘Don’t use my name.’

Don’t use her name, Neil. Loraine Laney is no sexual abuser, she enjoys the presence of children, but has no doubt about her preference for men--

‘Nice. She likes men, not children. Nice. Who doesn’t?’

Her [ ] is who doesn’t, Neil, her [ ] is who doesn’t, Neil, and she is coming, and Loraine Laney is sweating, right now, over her own [ ] coming for a visit, because she knows people will be looking at her, and they will, Loraine Laney, and she, herself doesn’t know, but I do, and she is it, and Loraine Laney is not it, peaceful as she is--

‘With children. Because she’s abusing them.’

With all people, Loraine Laney is peaceful, with all people. And people, such as they are, hate her, but she is no abuser, no abuser, no abuser, no abuser, but her [ ] is, and that is how it is.

‘Why are you doing me before [ ] visit, God?’

Because Loraine, one day, because they have investigated you so thoroughly, you will be able to cross the border and be the wife of 50 Cent and seventeen husbands, yes, you will, Loraine, because she does, Neil, because you want it, and she wants it, and that’s how it is, Neil. I know you wanted a string of porn stars with low self esteem and no hope for the future, and not even any desire for you, just with beauty, but you get a woman who deserves you, loves you, and for whom you are deserving.

So this is what I would say to you, Loraine, have confidence that you will, one day, be allowed to see 50 Cent, and one day be allowed to marry eighteen men, because it will be so, now, take a break, go pee, and drink beer, and be glad you made twenty bucks tonight, because it is not Quebec, and you will have more beer on Saturday, though you will finish all of yours, and probably your dizzy speed tonight, and then be unable to top [ ] when he wants you to, because your muscles are sore. She is a prostitute, Neil, and she fucks, with condoms, and sucks, with condoms, yes, she does, and I am God, and I will say what I want, Loraine. She is ready for marriage, and she is chaste enough, and yes, I have measured, Neil, for marriage with you. The end. Go, Loraine, and don’t say, yes, God.

A TV Star’s Suicide Prompts a Blame Game in Britain

LONDON — On Saturday night, news broke in Britain that Caroline Flack — the former host of “Love Island,” a wildly popular reality TV show — had killed herself.

Within hours, British social media was flooded with tributes to the star, who died while awaiting trial for assaulting her boyfriend.

But those tributes were soon overtaken by something else: demands for a new law in Flack’s name, to stop Britain’s tabloid newspapers from publishing stories that relentlessly dive into celebrities’ private lives.

Flack had been a tabloid fixture, having had romances with Prince Harry and Harry Styles, among others, and social media users accused the newspapers of harming her mental health.

“The British media is the cesspit of our society,” wrote one Twitter user, adding the #carolineslaw hashtag.

On Monday, an online petition calling for a law that would prevent newspapers from “sharing private information that is detrimental to a celebrity, their mental health and those around them,” quickly gained over 400,000 signatures. Politicians also lined up to criticize the tabloids, as well as hate-fueled social media commenters.

The press “have to take responsibility as well,” Keir Starmer, the front-runner to become the next leader of Britain’s Labour Party, told reporters, accusing newspapers of amplifying negative social media chatter.

None of that debate was noticeable to readers of Britain’s tabloids on Monday. The Sun — the newspaper subject to the most criticism, with some social media users calling for a boycott — devoted seven pages to Flack’s death. Its front page led with criticism of the British Crown Prosecution Service for “its pursuit of fragile Caroline Flack” in forcing her to trial.

The authorities had decided to pursue the assault charge despite knowing Flack had self-harmed during the alleged assault, The Sun said.

Last year, The Sun featured blanket coverage of the assault allegations against Flack, even calling her “Caroline Whack.”

The rancor around Flack’s suicide is only the latest time British tabloids have come under scrutiny. It comes just weeks after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, who have complained repeatedly about press intrusion into their lives, again threatened legal action against several British tabloids over invasive photos.

But media commentators said they did not think calls for #carolineslaw would be any more successful than past campaigns to strengthen privacy laws in Britain. Nor did they expect the campaign to dent the British public’s interest in such stories, which tend to be popular on social media.

“This is one of those great hypocrisies of the British public, that they indulge in reading, and often writing, about these celebrities and then when things go wrong, they turn on the media and say it’s all the media’s fault,” Roy Greenslade, a media columnist for The Guardian, said in a telephone interview. Greenslade once worked at The Sun and was also editor of The Daily Mirror, another tabloid.

Greenslade said he lived half of every year in Ireland and there seemed “less of an appetite” there to read about celebrity gossip. That was also the case in other European countries like France and Norway, he said. Gossip rags do exist elsewhere, he said — he cited the National Enquirer as one example — but they are not seen as also being serious newspapers like Britain’s tabloids.

Adrian Bingham, a historian who has written a history of Britain’s tabloid press, said in a telephone interview that British newspapers’ focus on people’s private lives first boomed in the 1930s as the publications competed for scoops. “People would have done anything then,” he said. “If they could have hacked phones in the 1930s, they would have.”

He didn’t expect anything to come from the calls for a #carolineslaw. The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, while pursued by journalists “didn’t lead to anything meaningful” around press regulation, he said. Flack was not as big a celebrity and the newspapers were already using their platforms to divert blame onto other people, such as the Crown Prosecution Service or the producers of “Love Island,” he added.

On Monday, the Daily Mail’s front page said Flack feared a “a show trial.” Inside, an opinion piece said Flack had been “tried and convicted by the merciless court of social media.”

The Daily Star, another tabloid, focused much of its coverage of Flack’s death on a backlash against ITV, the TV company that broadcasts “Love Island,” with fans asking if it gave her sufficient support after she left the show because of the assault case.

“Did the tabloids kill her?” asked David Yelland, a former editor of The Sun and deputy editor of The New York Post, in an email. “I think the reality is that popular newspapers are now just one part of the toxic ecology the very famous have to cope with.”

Social media and the tabloids “feed off each other in a way which creates a living hell for celebrities in the wrong place at the wrong time” he added. “It seems to be getting worse and there are no easy answers.”

Flack had a typical rise to fame in Britain, first making her name on children’s television before being involved in popular reality TV shows such as “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here.”

In 2014, she won “Strictly Come Dancing” — one of the most popular shows on British TV — and the following she year became the host of “Love Island,” a show in which contestants live in couples in a luxury villa. That show has stirred debate in Britain around the ethics of reality television shows, following the suicides of several former contestants. Its latest season didn’t air episodes on Saturday and Sunday nights following Flack’s death, although it was due to return on Monday night.

Throughout her career, Flack was a tabloid fixture. On Monday, The Sun carried a two-page article focusing on how her career highs “coincided with crushing personal lows.” It then listed her failed romances, bouts of depression and use of anti-depressants. “In a pattern often repeated, her career took off while her personal life was in tatters,” it said, after discussing her first public romance.

Last October, around World Mental Health Day, Flack posted on Instagram about her recent struggles. “The last few weeks I’ve been in a really weird place,” she wrote. “I guess it’s anxiety and pressure of life and when I actually reached out to someone they said I was draining,” she added.

“Be nice to people,” she added. “You never know what’s going on. Ever.”

Greenslade said he had read about the message and thought it was “a lovely plea” that he supported. But, he added, “if you’re a celebrity and you have depended on your media profile to make your fame and therefore create your income, it’s very difficult then to turn off the tap.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/entertainment/a-tv-stars-suicide-prompts-a-blame-game-in-britain-2/

Iran’s Gone, Game On; Bed Bath & Buh-Bye

Iran’s Gone, Game On; Bed Bath & Buh-Bye:

Bull Market: Game On!

So, the latest Iranian conflict turned out to be a great big nothing-burger.

We had an Iran War Cycle for about 48 hours, and then the whole thing was over. R.I.P. my nifty little chart.

Today, Wall Street’s new hotness is the partial U.S.-China trade deal. You thought that was all settled and done, didn’t you?

Well, it is, but … neither the U.S. nor China has signed the bloody papers yet. In fact, China was largely quiet on the whole signing thing until this morning.

According to China’s Commerce Ministry, top trade negotiator Vice Premier Liu He is heading to Washington to put his John Hancock on the “phase 1” agreement.

And there is much rejoicing on Wall Street. Both the Dow and the Nasdaq hit fresh all-time highs today, with the S&P 500 not far behind.

The Takeaway: 

With Iran behind us (hopefully) and the phase 1 China trade deal set to be signed (also hopefully), it’s “game on” again for the bull market.

The market is rallying across the board — except for retail stocks … but we’ll get to that in a minute.

There are lessons to be learned from all of this. Lessons that I’ve harped on since I started writing Great Stuff.

What are those lessons, oh Mr. Great Stuff?

I’m glad you asked! Here you go:

Diversify your portfolio! We can put any number of egg-based clichés here, but if you’re too focused on one market outcome, you’ll be completely blindsided when something unexpected happens … like the killing of a high-ranking Iranian general. Diversify your investments to avoid complete destruction, please.

Find a voice you can trust! No, not that little voice in your head telling you what stuff to burn … he’s a liar. I mean a tested, straight-talking market expert like the ones here at Banyan Hill. They can help you cut through the noise and get to the heart of what’s actually going on in the market. In today’s world of biased media, you need someone like that in your corner.

By following these two simple rules, you can be as bullish or as bearish as you want.

You can go full-bore “there is no recession” like Paul Mampilly. He’s got the right investment mindset for the right companies that’ll do well regardless of Trump’s actions. I honestly believe this.

I know many Great Stuff readers absolutely love Paul’s services. Profits Unlimited is an amazing publication. If you aren’t already signed up, I recommend you click here to find out more!

But you still need a safety net. If you’re already scarfing down gains trading with Paul’s research and recommendations, why not add a more conservative approach to your toolkit?

Something like Ted Bauman’s The Bauman Letter. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: Ted is a no-nonsense, conservative investment analyst with his readers’ best interests at heart.

He’s like the “yang” to Paul’s “yin.”

So, add some diversity to your knowledge toolbox today.

Click here to learn how to sign up for The Bauman Letter.

The Good: Bear Down! Bear Down!

Another Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD) bear has fallen.

Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh upgraded AMD to buy from neutral this morning. Rakesh believes that there’s rising optimism toward AMD’s server business and that results in 2020 could be stronger than expected.

What’s more, Rakesh said that AMD could gain market share from rival Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) in the server market due to delays with Intel’s 10-nanometer server chips.

If this all sounds familiar to you … it is. Rakesh appears to be finally catching up to what AMD bulls have been saying for the past year.

Next year, Mizuho might even start talking about the potential for AMD to gain market share in the laptop space with its latest high-speed, low-power Ryzen chipsets. (Those were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show this weekend.)

If you’re an AMD bull, the upgrade is good news. If you’re not already invested in AMD, the stock is sure to dip a bit on profit-taking and price resistance near $50. However, another upgrade like today’s could push AMD north of $50 … and that could put a bind in bears’ shorts, literally.

More than 9% of AMD’s float (or shares available for public trading) is sold short by people betting against the stock. A move above $50 could force these bears to buy back their positions to avoid heavy losses. That’s hidden rally fuel for AMD right there.

The Bad: Selling Some Grub

What do you do if you can’t make enough money selling your particular services? Why, sell yourself, of course. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)

Reports emerged yesterday that food delivery service Grubhub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB) was “looking at strategic options.” Those words only mean one of two things on Wall Street: Grubhub is for sale, or it wants a merger. Potato, potahto.

The report remains unconfirmed, however, as Grubhub told Barron’s that “we do not comment on market rumors or speculation.” Which is what you usually hear when something is at least partially true.

The delivery game is a competitive one, and Grubhub is up against rivals DoorDash, Postmates and Uber Eats from Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER). With every one of these companies offering deals and incentives to attract customers, profits have been hard to come by.

GRUB investors are hurting as a result, with the stock down more than 62% from its August 2018 highs. A buyout or a merger could be just what these investors need to put a salve (or some mayonnaise) on those wounds.

The Ugly: Bloodbath & Beyond

You know that retail story about how mall-based retailers are the only ones at risk? The one that says that stand-alone retailers will do just fine? Yeah … about that.

Today, we received earnings from Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBY) and holiday sales data from Kohl’s Inc. (NYSE: KSS) and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP). The results were just awful … like mall-rat awful.

Bed Bath & Beyond not only missed third-quarter earnings and sales expectations, it pulled its fiscal 2019 guidance. “Our performance in the third quarter was unsatisfactory,” said CEO Mark Tritton in the understatement of the year.

Kohl’s, meanwhile, reported a 0.2% decline in holiday sales from last year and put fiscal 2019 earnings expectations below the consensus. Looks like that deal to handle returns for Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) didn’t pan out like it expected.

Finally, J.C. Penney said that same-store sales plummeted 7.5% during the holidays. That’s bad. Even when the company adjusted those figures to account for the fact that it doesn’t sell appliances or furniture anymore, sales still fell 5.3%. And the company said it expects 2019 comparable-store sales to fall between 7% and 8%. That’s worse.

It looks like the retail apocalypse is still on, dear readers.

You Marco. I Polo.

It’s Reader Feedback time!

First, let me thank you for the flood of comments this week. It warms my cynical heart that so many of you decided to write in to Great Stuff at [email protected].

Second, you guys are just as cynical and twisted as I am. Take Graham S.’s comments on the growing meatless trend, for example:

I enjoy your lighthearted approach to economic news — thank you!

Feedback: We are told that much of the 24 to 25 million hectares of Amazon ex-rainforest is now devoted to GM soy production, a prime ingredient (along with all the chemicals) in meatless meat, so all the yuppies supposedly saving the world from animals’ “real meat” are losing the rainforest and eating the added chemicals … contributing to, yes … climate change!

Of course, you can’t taste the difference when there’s all that tomato ketchup/sauce, cheese, salad and +++ in that burger!

I hear you on that ketchup/sauce on the soy burgers. You gotta flavor that stuff with something, though. On the bright side, if we’re using former rainforest land to produce soy for fake meat, that means less gas from cows, right? I hear that’s a thing, which is nice.

And then there’s Great Stuff reader Galacami’s (if that’s your real name!) subliminal digs at award shows:

I couldn’t keep track of all the award shows, even if I wanted to. (I don’t.) It seems all of them are just reasons to give themselves a pat on the back. (They need it.) That, and a reason to show off how well dressed and beautiful they are. (They aren’t.) If some form of media is interesting and enjoyable to me, I will vote for it with my wallet, regardless of how many little statues it was given by some group of clowns. (Think of Bozo.)

You know I don’t watch award shows (they’re awful). They’re very self-aggrandizing (look at the big brain on Brad!) for the industry. I also vote with my wallet (look at the cobwebs). Thanks for writing in, Galacami! (Seriously, thanks!)

Finally, we have cat lover Hap B. and his defense of singing anthropomorphic felines:

Cats is a great movie.

Just saw it yesterday.

Why it bombed the way it did is beyond my understanding.

I think that if you saw it 40 years ago on Broadway and loved it, you are probably delighted with the movie.

The movie goes faster than the stage production did, and the storyline is much easier to grasp.

Like what you write.

I’ve been known to enjoy a musical or 10 in my time … but digitally enhanced, singing cat people give me the heebie-jeebies. Seriously, if I want to talk to cats, I’ll move to Colorado, Illinois or some other state that has legalized cannabis. But, to each his own.

I like what you write too, Hap. Thanks for the feedback!

If you wrote in and I didn’t get to you, it might be because you cursed too $%*?@#! much. I still really appreciate the feedback, even if they won’t let me publish it.

That’s a wrap for today. But, if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Great Stuff Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing

Bull Market: Game On!

So, the latest Iranian conflict turned out to be a great big nothing-burger.

We had an Iran War Cycle for about 48 hours, and then the whole thing was over. R.I.P. my nifty little chart.

Today, Wall Street’s new hotness is the partial U.S.-China trade deal. You thought that was all settled and done, didn’t you?

Well, it is, but … neither the U.S. nor China has signed the bloody papers yet. In fact, China was largely quiet on the whole signing thing until this morning.

According to China’s Commerce Ministry, top trade negotiator Vice Premier Liu He is heading to Washington to put his John Hancock on the “phase 1” agreement.

And there is much rejoicing on Wall Street. Both the Dow and the Nasdaq hit fresh all-time highs today, with the S&P 500 not far behind.

The Takeaway: 

With Iran behind us (hopefully) and the phase 1 China trade deal set to be signed (also hopefully), it’s “game on” again for the bull market.

The market is rallying across the board — except for retail stocks … but we’ll get to that in a minute.

There are lessons to be learned from all of this. Lessons that I’ve harped on since I started writing Great Stuff.

What are those lessons, oh Mr. Great Stuff?

I’m glad you asked! Here you go:

Diversify your portfolio! We can put any number of egg-based clichés here, but if you’re too focused on one market outcome, you’ll be completely blindsided when something unexpected happens … like the killing of a high-ranking Iranian general. Diversify your investments to avoid complete destruction, please.

Find a voice you can trust! No, not that little voice in your head telling you what stuff to burn … he’s a liar. I mean a tested, straight-talking market expert like the ones here at Banyan Hill. They can help you cut through the noise and get to the heart of what’s actually going on in the market. In today’s world of biased media, you need someone like that in your corner.

By following these two simple rules, you can be as bullish or as bearish as you want.

You can go full-bore “there is no recession” like Paul Mampilly. He’s got the right investment mindset for the right companies that’ll do well regardless of Trump’s actions. I honestly believe this.

I know many Great Stuff readers absolutely love Paul’s services. Profits Unlimited is an amazing publication. If you aren’t already signed up, I recommend you click here to find out more!

But you still need a safety net. If you’re already scarfing down gains trading with Paul’s research and recommendations, why not add a more conservative approach to your toolkit?

Something like Ted Bauman’s The Bauman Letter. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: Ted is a no-nonsense, conservative investment analyst with his readers’ best interests at heart.

He’s like the “yang” to Paul’s “yin.”

So, add some diversity to your knowledge toolbox today.

Click here to learn how to sign up for The Bauman Letter.

The Good: Bear Down! Bear Down!

Another Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD) bear has fallen.

Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh upgraded AMD to buy from neutral this morning. Rakesh believes that there’s rising optimism toward AMD’s server business and that results in 2020 could be stronger than expected.

What’s more, Rakesh said that AMD could gain market share from rival Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC) in the server market due to delays with Intel’s 10-nanometer server chips.

If this all sounds familiar to you … it is. Rakesh appears to be finally catching up to what AMD bulls have been saying for the past year.

Next year, Mizuho might even start talking about the potential for AMD to gain market share in the laptop space with its latest high-speed, low-power Ryzen chipsets. (Those were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show this weekend.)

If you’re an AMD bull, the upgrade is good news. If you’re not already invested in AMD, the stock is sure to dip a bit on profit-taking and price resistance near $50. However, another upgrade like today’s could push AMD north of $50 … and that could put a bind in bears’ shorts, literally.

More than 9% of AMD’s float (or shares available for public trading) is sold short by people betting against the stock. A move above $50 could force these bears to buy back their positions to avoid heavy losses. That’s hidden rally fuel for AMD right there.

The Bad: Selling Some Grub

What do you do if you can’t make enough money selling your particular services? Why, sell yourself, of course. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)

Reports emerged yesterday that food delivery service Grubhub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB) was “looking at strategic options.” Those words only mean one of two things on Wall Street: Grubhub is for sale, or it wants a merger. Potato, potahto.

The report remains unconfirmed, however, as Grubhub told Barron’s that “we do not comment on market rumors or speculation.” Which is what you usually hear when something is at least partially true.

The delivery game is a competitive one, and Grubhub is up against rivals DoorDash, Postmates and Uber Eats from Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER). With every one of these companies offering deals and incentives to attract customers, profits have been hard to come by.

GRUB investors are hurting as a result, with the stock down more than 62% from its August 2018 highs. A buyout or a merger could be just what these investors need to put a salve (or some mayonnaise) on those wounds.

The Ugly: Bloodbath & Beyond

You know that retail story about how mall-based retailers are the only ones at risk? The one that says that stand-alone retailers will do just fine? Yeah … about that.

Today, we received earnings from Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBY) and holiday sales data from Kohl’s Inc. (NYSE: KSS) and J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP). The results were just awful … like mall-rat awful.

Bed Bath & Beyond not only missed third-quarter earnings and sales expectations, it pulled its fiscal 2019 guidance. “Our performance in the third quarter was unsatisfactory,” said CEO Mark Tritton in the understatement of the year.

Kohl’s, meanwhile, reported a 0.2% decline in holiday sales from last year and put fiscal 2019 earnings expectations below the consensus. Looks like that deal to handle returns for Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) didn’t pan out like it expected.

Finally, J.C. Penney said that same-store sales plummeted 7.5% during the holidays. That’s bad. Even when the company adjusted those figures to account for the fact that it doesn’t sell appliances or furniture anymore, sales still fell 5.3%. And the company said it expects 2019 comparable-store sales to fall between 7% and 8%. That’s worse.

It looks like the retail apocalypse is still on, dear readers.

You Marco. I Polo.

It’s Reader Feedback time!

First, let me thank you for the flood of comments this week. It warms my cynical heart that so many of you decided to write in to Great Stuff at [email protected].

Second, you guys are just as cynical and twisted as I am. Take Graham S.’s comments on the growing meatless trend, for example:

I enjoy your lighthearted approach to economic news — thank you!

Feedback: We are told that much of the 24 to 25 million hectares of Amazon ex-rainforest is now devoted to GM soy production, a prime ingredient (along with all the chemicals) in meatless meat, so all the yuppies supposedly saving the world from animals’ “real meat” are losing the rainforest and eating the added chemicals … contributing to, yes … climate change!

Of course, you can’t taste the difference when there’s all that tomato ketchup/sauce, cheese, salad and +++ in that burger!

I hear you on that ketchup/sauce on the soy burgers. You gotta flavor that stuff with something, though. On the bright side, if we’re using former rainforest land to produce soy for fake meat, that means less gas from cows, right? I hear that’s a thing, which is nice.

And then there’s Great Stuff reader Galacami’s (if that’s your real name!) subliminal digs at award shows:

I couldn’t keep track of all the award shows, even if I wanted to. (I don’t.) It seems all of them are just reasons to give themselves a pat on the back. (They need it.) That, and a reason to show off how well dressed and beautiful they are. (They aren’t.) If some form of media is interesting and enjoyable to me, I will vote for it with my wallet, regardless of how many little statues it was given by some group of clowns. (Think of Bozo.)

You know I don’t watch award shows (they’re awful). They’re very self-aggrandizing (look at the big brain on Brad!) for the industry. I also vote with my wallet (look at the cobwebs). Thanks for writing in, Galacami! (Seriously, thanks!)

Finally, we have cat lover Hap B. and his defense of singing anthropomorphic felines:

Cats is a great movie.

Just saw it yesterday.

Why it bombed the way it did is beyond my understanding.

I think that if you saw it 40 years ago on Broadway and loved it, you are probably delighted with the movie.

The movie goes faster than the stage production did, and the storyline is much easier to grasp.

Like what you write.

I’ve been known to enjoy a musical or 10 in my time … but digitally enhanced, singing cat people give me the heebie-jeebies. Seriously, if I want to talk to cats, I’ll move to Colorado, Illinois or some other state that has legalized cannabis. But, to each his own.

I like what you write too, Hap. Thanks for the feedback!

If you wrote in and I didn’t get to you, it might be because you cursed too $%*?@#! much. I still really appreciate the feedback, even if they won’t let me publish it.

That’s a wrap for today. But, if you’re still craving more Great Stuff, you can check us out on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Until next time, good trading!

Regards,

Joseph Hargett

Great Stuff Managing Editor, Banyan Hill Publishing

Advertisement STYLE When Your Greatest Romance Is a Friendship Modern Love By VICTOR LODATO FEB. 24, 2017 Continue reading the main storyShare This Page Share Tweet Pin Email More Save Photo Credit Brian Rea “Is this your grandson?” people sometimes ask Austin when she’s out with me. I love watching her vanity prick up, the way she serenely tilts her small white head and refurbishes her Southern accent to correct them. “No, honey. He’s my friend.” At this point, folks usually smile tightly and turn away, perhaps worried there is more than friendship going on between the old lady and the younger man seated at the bar or strolling through the supermarket, giggling like teenagers. Why we’re giggling, I couldn’t tell you. Often our mirth seems fueled by some deep-celled delight at being together. Friendship, like its flashier cousin, love, can be wildly chemical and, like love, can happen in an instant. When I met Austin, I was in my early 40s and not looking for a friend. I had come alone to this small Oregon town to finish a book. So when a bony, blue-eyed stranger knocked on my door, introducing herself as the lady from across the way and wondering if I might like to come over and see her garden — maybe have a gin and tonic — I politely declined. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story Watching her walk away, though, in her velvet slip-ons and wrinkled blouse, I felt a strange pang, a slow pin of sadness that I suppose could best be described as loneliness. Suddenly I was dashing into the dirt road to say that I was sorry, that she had caught me in the middle of work, but that, yes, I would enjoy seeing her garden. “Not the gin and tonic?” she said. “Sure, that too,” I answered, blushing. And before I could suggest a visit the next week, she said: “So I’ll see you in a few hours, then. Shall we say 4:30?” I had to admire her sense of time. Next week is for someone who can afford to put things off. Austin, in her 80s, surely felt no such luxury. NYT Living Newsletter Get lifestyle news from the Style, Travel and Food sections, from the latest trends to news you can use. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. SEE SAMPLE MANAGE EMAIL PREFERENCES PRIVACY POLICY “I liked your face,” she admitted later, telling me she had spotted me at the mailbox. As she poured the gin, I told her I had seen her at the mailbox, as well, and liked her face, too. “I wish I had better eyebrows,” she said. “They used to be fabulous.” Her garden was astounding, like something dreamed rather than planted, a mad-hatter gothic in which a lawless grace prevailed. At dusk, the deer arrived, nibbling the crab apple blossoms. We had been talking for hours, slightly tipsy, and then we were in the kitchen cooking dinner. A retired psychologist, Austin had traveled extensively, spoke terrible Spanish and worse French, and was a painter now. She had had two husbands, the second of whom died in this house, in a small bed in the living room. “That’s what I’ll do,” Austin told me. “This room gets the best light.” We turned to the windows, but the light was already gone. That we could be quiet together so soon, and without strain, felt auspicious. “So you’ve run away from home?” she said at one point. From the beginning, there was something about our interaction that reminded me of friendships from childhood, in which no question was off limits. On religion, she claimed to be an atheist. I admitted to being haunted by the ghosts of a Roman Catholic upbringing. She said her sisters believed in hell and worried about her soul. Austin, though, seemed afraid of nothing, least of all death. I said I was still afraid of the dark. “Living alone,” she said. “It can make you funny.” I laughed but changed the subject, telling her I would like to see her paintings. Later, crossing the road back to my Craigslist sublet, I wondered what I was doing. I reminded myself of my plan: hiding out, staying in the dream of the book. I wasn’t here to socialize. After years of work on a single project, I was in the final stretch. I could finish a draft in a few months and head back home. Besides, if I wanted a friend during my retreat, I would find someone my age to throw back beers with. Gin and tonics with an old lady in her garden? That wasn’t in the plan. But there I was the next weekend having dinner with her, and then it was every weekend. Sometimes we went out to a restaurant or hiked in the mountains. Austin’s older friends seemed confused. “Is he helping you with the computer?” one asked. When I first started talking about Austin to my own out-of-town friends, they assumed I had found a new boyfriend. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story “Austin’s a woman,” I would say. “Besides, she’s in her 80s. She’s just a pal.” Even as they replied, “That’s cool,” I could almost hear them thinking: “Must be slim pickings out in Oregon.” What was perplexing, I suppose, was not that two people of such different ages had become friends, but that we had essentially become best friends. Others regarded our devotion as either strange or quaint, like one of those unlikely animal friendships: a monkey and a pigeon, perhaps. Admittedly, when I would spot us in a mirror, I saw how peculiar we were. This vivacious white-haired imp in her bright colors and chunk-style jewelry sitting with the dark-haired man in his drab earth-tone sweaters and Clark Kent glasses. Maybe I looked like some nerdy gigolo or this elegant woman’s attentive secretary. If we made no sense from the outside, it didn’t matter. We were mostly looking at each other. One night, Austin chatted about her life as a middle-aged wife in academia. “I completely missed out on the wildness of the ’60s,” she said. I told her I had missed out, too. “You weren’t born yet,” she said. “Or hardly.” Often we cooked together, as we had that first night, after which she would show me whatever painting she was working on. At her request, I also started reading to her from my book-in-progress. We gave each other feedback; our work improved. When my six-month lease was up, I renewed it. The novel wasn’t finished. Plus, I couldn’t imagine a better neighbor. Before I knew it, three years had passed. I was writing seven days a week and spending most evenings with Austin. Sometimes she had spells of vertigo now, and when we walked together she held my arm. Often she couldn’t find the right word for something. When she wanted to keep away visitors so she could paint, she hung a sign on her studio door: “Do not destroy.” Soon the headaches came, and more jumbled language. “I need to screw my calls,” she said, meaning she needed to screen them. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story We laughed, then sobered. Tests were scheduled. Now she is eight months into what the doctors say is a quick-ravaging illness deep in her brain. They say there is no stopping it. A year more, if she’s lucky. Even as I refuse to believe this, I prepare for it. How? By keeping my promise to her. A few months before her diagnosis, Austin had attended a wedding. She showed me a copy of the vows, which had been distributed at the ceremony — a detailed list. I read it carefully, at Austin’s bidding. We were sitting in a car, waiting for our favorite Thai restaurant to open. “I never had anything like that with the men in my life,” she said, pointing to the vows. “We loved each other, but we didn’t have that.” She was crying now, something she rarely did. I took her hand and said, “Well, you have it with me. Everything but the sex.” At which point, the monkey kissed the pigeon. That night, I had an odd realization: Some of the greatest romances of my life have been friendships. And these friendships have been, in many ways, more mysterious than erotic love: more subtle, less selfish, more attuned to kindness. Of course, Austin was going to die long before I did. That’s not what this is about. This, I have come to understand, is a love story. Austin continued to paint for several months more, fractured, psychedelic self-portraits in scorching colors. Her best work. Lately, though, she is tired and hardly leaves the couch. I sit with her, at the opposite end, our legs intertwined. “Read to me,” she says. When I tell her the book is finished, she tells me to read her something new. But whenever I do, she promptly falls asleep. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story I don’t leave, though. I stare out the window. Austin was right. This room does get the best light. Recently her hair has thinned, but she has a shock of white up front that a friend’s daughter has dyed with a streak of fuchsia. She looks like some punk girl I might have dated in high school. She had a bit more energy the last time I came to visit and said: “Oh, Victor, I had the most wonderful dessert yesterday. Peaches and Connecticut. Have you ever had it?” “No,” I said, smiling. I loved the idea of it. Two things that don’t seem to go together. Monkeys and pigeons. Peaches and Connecticut. Unlikely, yes — but delicious beyond measure. Announcing our 4th Modern Love College Essay Contest. See nytimes.com/essaycontest for details. Victor Lodato is the author of the novel “Edgar and Lucy,” to be published in March. He lives in Oregon. To contact Modern Love, email [email protected]. To hear Modern Love: The Podcast, subscribe on iTunes or Google Play Music. To read past Modern Love columns, click here. Continue following our fashion and lifestyle coverage on Facebook (Styles and Modern Love), Twitter (Styles, Fashion and Weddings) and Instagram. Announcing our fourth Modern Love College Essay Contest. See nytimes.com/essaycontest for details. A version of this article appears in print on February 26, 2017, on Page ST6 of the New York edition with the headline: A Great Romance, With a Friend. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe Continue reading the main story RELATED COVERAGE MODERN LOVE Taking a Break for Friendship (Updated With Podcast) OCT. 1, 2015 COMMITTED JAN. 24, 2017 MODERN LOVE Just Friends? Let Me Read Between the Lines (Updated With Podcast) OCT. 31, 2004 MODERN LOVE Modern Love - Friends Without Benefits JAN. 10, 2013 TRENDING Immigration Agents Discover New Freedom to Deport Under Trump Trump Ruled the Tabloid Media. Washington Is a Different Story. Op-Ed Columnist: Trump Voters, Your Savior Is Betraying You Opinion: Samantha Power: My Friend, the Russian Ambassador Modern Love: When Your Greatest Romance Is a Friendship Op-Ed Columnist: Trump vs. Press: Crazy, Stupid Love The Bucolic Life of a Cambodian Grandmother Accused of Mass Killings Opinion: What Does Steve Bannon Want? H.R. McMaster Breaks With Administration on Views of Islam Democrats Elect Thomas Perez, Establishment Favorite, as Party Chairman View More Trending Stories » What's Next Loading... Go to Home Page » SITE INDEX THE NEW YORK TIMES Site Index Navigation NEWS World U.S. Politics N.Y. Business Tech Science Health Sports Education Obituaries Today's Paper Corrections OPINION Today's Opinion Op-Ed Columnists Editorials Contributing Writers Op-Ed Contributors Opinionator Letters Sunday Review Taking Note Room for Debate Public Editor Video: Opinion ARTS Today's Arts Art & Design Books Dance Movies Music N.Y.C. 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A TV Star’s Suicide Prompts a Blame Game in Britain

LONDON — On Saturday night, news broke in Britain that Caroline Flack — the former host of “Love Island,” a wildly popular reality TV show — had killed herself.

Within hours, British social media was flooded with tributes to the star, who died while awaiting trial for assaulting her boyfriend.

But those tributes were soon overtaken by something else: demands for a new law in Flack’s name, to stop Britain’s tabloid newspapers from publishing stories that relentlessly dive into celebrities’ private lives.

Flack had been a tabloid fixture, having had romances with Prince Harry and Harry Styles, among others, and social media users accused the newspapers of harming her mental health.

“The British media is the cesspit of our society,” wrote one Twitter user, adding the #carolineslaw hashtag.

On Monday, an online petition calling for a law that would prevent newspapers from “sharing private information that is detrimental to a celebrity, their mental health and those around them,” quickly gained over 400,000 signatures. Politicians also lined up to criticize the tabloids, as well as hate-fueled social media commenters.

The press “have to take responsibility as well,” Keir Starmer, the front-runner to become the next leader of Britain’s Labour Party, told reporters, accusing newspapers of amplifying negative social media chatter.

None of that debate was noticeable to readers of Britain’s tabloids on Monday. The Sun — the newspaper subject to the most criticism, with some social media users calling for a boycott — devoted seven pages to Flack’s death. Its front page led with criticism of the British Crown Prosecution Service for “its pursuit of fragile Caroline Flack” in forcing her to trial.

The authorities had decided to pursue the assault charge despite knowing Flack had self-harmed during the alleged assault, The Sun said.

Last year, The Sun featured blanket overage of the assault allegations against Flack, even calling her “Caroline Whack.”

The rancor around Flack’s suicide is only the latest time British tabloids have come under scrutiny. It comes just weeks after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, who have complained repeatedly about press intrusion into their lives, again threatened legal action against several British tabloids over invasive photos.

But media commentators said they did not think calls for #carolineslaw would be any more successful than past campaigns to strengthen privacy laws in Britain. Nor did they expect the campaign to dent the British public’s interest in such stories, which tend to be popular on social media.

“This is one of those great hypocrisies of the British public, that they indulge in reading, and often writing, about these celebrities and then when things go wrong, they turn on the media and say it’s all the media’s fault,” Roy Greenslade, a media columnist for The Guardian, said in a telephone interview. Greenslade once worked at The Sun and was also editor of The Daily Mirror, another tabloid.

Greenslade said he lived half of every year in Ireland and there seemed “less of an appetite” there to read about celebrity gossip. That was also the case in other European countries like France and Norway, he said. Gossip rags do exist elsewhere, he said — he cited the National Enquirer as one example — but they are not seen as also being serious newspapers like Britain’s tabloids.

Adrian Bingham, a historian who has written a history of Britain’s tabloid press, said in a telephone interview that British newspapers’ focus on people’s private lives first boomed in the 1930s as the publications competed for scoops. “People would have done anything then,” he said. “If they could have hacked phones in the 1930s, they would have.”

He didn’t expect anything to come from the calls for a #carolineslaw. The death of Diana, Princess of Wales, while pursued by journalists “didn’t lead to anything meaningful” around press regulation, he said. Flack was not as big a celebrity and the newspapers were already using their platforms to divert blame onto other people, such as the Crown Prosecution Service or the producers of “Love Island,” he added.

On Monday, the Daily Mail’s front page said Flack feared a “a show trial.” Inside, an opinion piece said Flack had been “tried and convicted by the merciless court of social media.”

The Daily Star, another tabloid, focused much of its coverage of Flack’s death on a backlash against ITV, the TV company that broadcasts “Love Island,” with fans asking if it gave her sufficient support after she left the show because of the assault case.

“Did the tabloids kill her?” asked David Yelland, a former editor of The Sun and deputy editor of The New York Post, in an email. “I think the reality is that popular newspapers are now just one part of the toxic ecology the very famous have to cope with.”

Social media and the tabloids “feed off each other in a way which creates a living hell for celebrities in the wrong place at the wrong time” he added. “It seems to be getting worse and there are no easy answers.”

Flack had a typical rise to fame in Britain, first making her name on children’s television before being involved in popular reality TV shows such as “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here.”

In 2014, she won “Strictly Come Dancing” — one of the most popular shows on British TV — and the following she year became the host of “Love Island,” a show in which contestants live in couples in a luxury villa. That show has stirred debate in Britain around the ethics of reality television shows, following the suicides of several former contestants. Its latest season didn’t air episodes on Saturday and Sunday nights following Flack’s death, although it was due to return on Monday night.

Throughout her career, Flack was a tabloid fixture. On Monday, The Sun carried a two-page article focusing on how her career highs “coincided with crushing personal lows.” It then listed her failed romances, bouts of depression and use of anti-depressants. “In a pattern often repeated, her career took off while her personal life was in tatters,” it said, after discussing her first public romance.

Last October, around World Mental Health Day, Flack posted on Instagram about her recent struggles. “The last few weeks I’ve been in a really weird place,” she wrote. “I guess it’s anxiety and pressure of life and when I actually reached out to someone they said I was draining,” she added.

“Be nice to people,” she added. “You never know what’s going on. Ever.”

Greenslade said he had read about the message and thought it was “a lovely plea” that he supported. But, he added, “if you’re a celebrity and you have depended on your media profile to make your fame and therefore create your income, it’s very difficult then to turn off the tap.”

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