drove me absolutely bonkers that none of the irken empire insignias floating around the internet are accurate to the show so i went and traced a hi-res one from screencaps and from the official OST cover.

go nuts with it

A Debt Owed Ch.2

Pairing: August Walker x Cait (Fae!OFC)

WC 1434

Warnings: None? Minors DNI 18+ ONLY

@brattymum96 , @ouroboros113 , @peaches1958 , @summersong69 , @henryownsme , @kingliam2019

Weeks passed far too quickly for Ethan’s liking and they were no closer to finding a new King than when they had started. He was starting to think she was doing it on purpose, setting him up to fail so she could invade anyway. He had confronted her about it and found the air pulled from his lungs, leaving him gasping and clawing at his throat, unable to draw breath as she stared down at him with malice in her ruby eyes for daring to insinuate that she lied to him. He was on the verge of blacking out when she released the hold she had on the air and he pulled in breath, coughing violently on the ground until he was sick as the others watched on, helpless to do anything. He didn’t make that mistake again.

Him and his team took any and all missions they could, regardless if it fell outside their purview. Enemies were captured instead of killed for her appraisal, but she dismissed all of them, disposing of them as she almost had him.

They had given her their true names as per her orders, but she was simply known as “Cait”, Ethan not believing for a moment that it was her actual name. She laughed when he asked her about it, telling him of the origins. It was Gaelic for the word cat, for her favorite subject, the cat-sith, a creature that resembled a massive black cat with a white spot on its chest, native to Scotland and Ireland. In his time among the Court, he had noticed several such creatures roaming the halls.

Cait kept to herself when she wasn't assisting with their assignments. He had adamantly refused at first, knowing she was observing their strengths and weaknesses should he fail, but her use of his full name had him agreeing. If anything, she was an asset. Her control over darkness and air made it so missions were completed efficiently, and her invulnerability to standard bullets made it so she didn't even get bruised. Ethan had gotten a clip of iron bullets made, just to be on the safe side.

He was talking to Director Sloan over communicator when she walked into the command center.

"I can't be getting someone caught up to speed at the eleventh hour, Director." Ethan said.

"You won't be." Sloan said, "He's only been given the basics. As far as he's concerned, she's a civilian contractor helping you track down rogue agents. Agent Walker is good at his job, Hunt, he'll be an asset."

"Where are we rendezvousing?" Ethan asked with a sigh and a location was sent over into the laptop.

"His flight lands soon, you best get a move on." Sloan said.

"Yes, Director."

Agent Walker was already waiting for them on the tarmac as they pulled up in the van. Cait had insisted on coming with them as she liked meeting new people and they weren't in any position to refuse her. The man was tall, wide in the shoulders and chest, but trim in the waist. The beginnings of a beard covered his strong jaw, but it was offset by a neatly kept mustache covering his upper lip. Blue eyes regarded them evenly as he got into the van, his eyes instantly going to Cait who was sitting up by the driver.

"Civilian contactor?" He asked and she held her hand out.

"Call me Cait." She said and he shook it gently, looking somewhat taken aback by the color of her eyes as he looked into them. "May I have your name?"

"Don't answer that." Ethan said, watching their interaction carefully and she smiled.

"There's nothing wrong with me knowing his name, Ethan. Don't you trust me?" She asked.

"I don't trust your nature." Ethan said and she laughed, Agent Walker shuddering slightly at the sound, a reaction that she noted with interest.

"Shouldn't I know his name? We are going to be working together after all." Cait said.

"You can call him Agent Walker." Ethan said.

"That's honestly not up to you." She said and turned her attention back to the newcomer. "Your name?"

"August Walker." He said and her smile widened a touch.

"That's not your name." She said and he gave her a questioning look. "What's your full name, your true name?"

"Don't answer that." Ethan said again.

"Why do you want to know?" August asked and she shrugged, resting her elbow on her knee and putting her chin in her hand.

"Curious." She said, "I like knowing people's true names, it says a lot about them and there's usually no harm in it. So, what's yours?"

"Don't answer that." Ethan said again.

"August James Walker." He said and when she smiled again, he would swear later that something in her irises shifted.

"Nice to meet you." She said.

"Can I know yours?" He asked.

"You may know the one I go by, yes. Cait Sidhe."

"Cait She?"

"Close enough." She said with an amused shrug. "Ethan here worries too much, thinks I'll use it against you."

"Use what against me?" August asked, "My name?"

"I won't unless you give me a reason." Cait said and he gave her another questioning look.

"I told you not to tell her." Ethan said, "Cait is--"

"Ethan Matthew Hunt." He cut off with a choking sound. "That truth is not yours to share. I will do so if I so choose. Understood?" He gasped, coughing slightly.

"Understood." He wheezed and August looked back and forth between them, confused at the interaction, but logging it away.

"So, August, if I may call you that, what do you do for the Agency?" Cait asked.

"A few different things." August said, "Mostly I track down and take care of rogue agents."

"A hunter, I approve." She said, Ethan looking over at her quickly. "Certainly a step above the present company. I did some hunting myself in my youth, taking care of…well, you may also call them rogue agents of a sort."

"Is that how you caught the Agency's attention?" He asked.

"No, but events unfolded that made them catch mine." She said, "I haven't had a good hunt in quite some time. Should things turn out a certain way for Ethan, perhaps I'll indulge myself."

"Cait, we're working as hard as we can." Ethan said and August noticed how he paled somewhat.

"And yet you are no closer." She said, but looked back to August, sweeping him over with her scarlet eyes. "Well, maybe a step closer. I would say time will tell, but you do not have that luxury." She turned to the front of the van. "Luthor, be a dear and drop me off at the hotel. I'm finished for the day."

"Yes, ma'am." He said and the rest of the trip was made in silence until he pulled up outside of a posh hotel, the side doors of the van sliding open.

"August Walker, it was a pleasure. I look forward to our future interactions." She said as she got out, tugging her jacket straight and she disappeared into the building, the door of the van sliding closed again.

"There are rules when it comes to Cait." Ethan said as they set off again, "Don't accept food or drink from her, never say thank you, and if you do anything to offend her, apologize and be sincere, she may forgive you. If you need to talk about her when she's not there, use text, do not speak her name in the open air and especially not at night."

"Odd rules." August said with an arched brow, "Here I thought you were going to tell me not to get too close to her."

"Don't do that, either." Benji said from the front seat, "I've seen what she does to those she loses interest in." He shuddered with a sound, "Not pretty."

"How is she helping the Agency, exactly?" August asked.

"I can't…tell you the details," Ethan said, "She's forbidden me from it and I can't go against it. The others won't tell you either, they don't want to offend her, but she's not helping the Agency, the Agency is doing something for her."

"She has us by the damn balls, is what it is." Benji said. "Walker, she likes you, I think, but that may not be a good thing. For you, anyway." Ethan's phone dinged and he dug it out, taking a look at it.

"Damnit." He sighed, "She's set Agent Walker up with a room at the hotel."

"She does like him." Benji said, "God help you."

Blockchain Means So Much More Than Crypto

Use the word “blockchain” in a conversation and the topic will likely gravitate to one of a handful of topics prominent in the news, like cryptocurrencies, the metaverse, and Web3. Theoretical, next-generation technology trends tend to dominate technology discussions. Blockchains have spawned entirely new asset classes for investors in cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFT), and they will power a new generation of innovations built on nebulous concepts like metaverse and Web3. But the real power of blockchain will first be felt in more conventional areas, according to Kieran James-Lubin, CEO of BlockApps. BlockApps is a blockchain technology firm focused on real-world implementations of the technology to help businesses run more efficient and secure processes. “You hear something different from most blockchain people. Maybe it’s a personality thing, but I think the greatest promise for blockchain technology is in improving the world as it is today,” said James-Lubin. “It’s less about creating a whole new world on a blockchain for all of us to inhabit or all of these interesting new asset classes.” You're reading Crypto for Advisors, a weekly look at digital assets and the future of finance for financial advisors. Subscribe here to receive the mailing every Thursday. Practical applications of blockchain already BlockApps looks for transactions where there is insufficient trust and transparency. To start, James-Lubin has found particular opportunity in the food industry, where there’s increased focus among consumers and restaurants on knowing where food comes from. Using a blockchain, BlockApps can help food producers and consumers track where their food has been and what processes it has undergone, from seed to table. “We’re starting to see more demand from the consumer side for transparency into what’s happening in supply chains, and this phenomenon started with food,” James-Lubin said. “In the grocery store, you may see labels saying things like product from Argentina or Australia, or organic, and people used to take the retailer’s word for it. Now they want to know what it actually means – which farms did the food come from, what has happened to these products along the way.” Read more: What Is Blockchain Technology? BlockApps provides similar services for environmental and social governance (ESG), offering a blockchain application that helps track carbon footprints and offsets throughout a value or supply chain. In yet another application, BlockApps uses blockchain to help the city of Reno, Nevada, track and maintain information on historic properties. “In some cases, they had been using sort of an all-email system to keep track of all of this, but now they’ve digitized all of their information and on the blockchain the record is immutable,” James-Lubin said. “It’s an interesting use case that impacts their day-to-day operations.” James-Lubin points out that there are a couple of trillion blockchain-native assets in the crypto space, but over $500 trillion in traditional assets are still waiting to be tokenized. Future applications of blockchain in crypto James-Lubin knows cryptocurrencies are an important innovation of blockchain technology. “They’re amazing,” he said. “One slightly cynical way to look at it, though, is that if you remove regulation as a barrier, even for a few years, and allow programmable financial services, you end up seeing a lot of rapid innovation – some of it unsavory, some of it fascinating.” NFTs, though not precisely an asset class, are another useful blockchain innovation, according to James-Lubin, as they may allow for new business models involving long-running residuals to artists, creators and publishers. Watch: How NFT Royalties Favor Artists Near-term applications of blockchain Eventually, much of the world’s wealth will reside on, or be tracked by, blockchains, but one of the first areas to be impacted will be real property, according to James-Lubin. “Most of that wealth will be land, land titles and real property,” he said. “If you think about the experience of purchasing and owning a home, the way we manage those records on a municipal and state level is archaic. There’s a sense of urgency to apply a more transparent, real-time system to these assets, and blockchain solves a lot of those problems.” Read more: How to Buy a House With Crypto Blockchain also creates a useful settlement layer on which to trade traditional assets more efficiently. While publicly traded stocks and some bonds are already easily and efficiently traded, other assets such as private securities and other forms of debt are often traded in opaque and inefficient manners. Furthermore, the process to invest in private funds and securities is often time and resource consuming, a process blockchains can help facilitate via automation. “Right now, public markets work pretty well. In the long term, blockchain will be applied to them. But in the nearer term, there are certain niches where there isn’t good market infrastructure, and that’s where the technology will take hold first,” said James-Lubin. Original Article Here: Read the full article

GITS: SAC  S01E01  第1話「公安9課SECTION-9」 Public Security Section 9 Stand Alone

Unmistakably, and perhaps inevitably, the first few minutes of Stand Alone Complex pay explicit homage to Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell. As in that film, the cold open finds Major Motoko Kusanagi standing alone on a rooftop, surveying a neon cityscape, electronically eavesdropping on terrorist chatter. Her expression is affectless. Her clothing is minimal. Drawing a pistol, she plunges toward a building below. With grace impeded only slightly by a TV budget, she sticks a perfect 3-point landing (a cliché she can be forgiven, having practically invented it). The subsequent chase scene makes further callbacks to the kind of action that wowed fanboys in '95-- cybernetically-enhanced parkour, acrobatic martial arts, bullet wounds erupting in horrific bursts of viscera. The message comes through loud and clear: this IS your big brother's GHOST IN THE SHELL!

Which is misleading, but sure-- a little torch-passing is probably in order. It's just hard not to wish it were handled more subtly. Narratively, it's of zero import-- we never get the backstory on the terrorists, or who they were hoping to nerve gas. Our introduction to the Major is also weirdly off-key. Normally a model of cool restraint, she takes down her target with a brutal, authoritarian zeal that would give Jack Bauer pause. When the perp has the temerity to question the system that just blew his leg off, she invites him to love it, leave it, or take a bullet to the dome. It all feels unnervingly close to Big Brother's Ghost in the Shell.

Luckily, things get better from there. Despite the lingering specter of Oshii, it quickly becomes apparent that SAC will be following the more procedurally-oriented lead of Masamune Shirow's original manga. The Major is front and center, but the show treats Section 9 as a real ensemble-- a kind of cyberpunk Impossible Mission Force, where every member has a unique role to play. In the episode’s first big set piece they’re deployed in A2 gear to area 82-D3, where a political hostage situation has sparked a jurisdictional pissing match between local police and the military (the alphabet soup and internecine bickering are pure Shirow). Five hostages are being held-- literally-- by hacked robot geisha at a high-end restaurant ¹ . Section 9’s Chief Aramaki cuts through the red tape and takes charge of the situation, dispatching the Major to spearhead the rescue. Watching her and her team do their thing, it must be said, is pretty sweet. Their tactical, no-nonsense approach offsets the sci-fi gadgetry and lends the action an earthbound realism-- more Michael Mann than The Matrix.

But how about that gadgetry? Just a few of the technologies floating around, here: thermoptic camo, cerebral augmentation, brain-swapping, memory wipes, holographic displays, insectoid robots, android sexbots, cybernetic eyes, neuro-link telepathy, and Galapagos-style Japanese flip phones (that these will endure in AD 2030 seems plausible). Trying to work out what this gear is capable of while simultaneously trying to parse all the jargon and political subterfuge can be migraine-inducing. Which brings me to the reason I've always found this series baffling and have never really engaged with it till now: I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to be paying attention. Like the Metal Gear games or a Thomas Pynchon novel, there's a very intricate techno-conspiratorial mythology here, and like the Metal Gear games or a Thomas Pynchon novel, it might not really matter. Unraveling the plot could easily be beside the point.  

Nevertheless, I've committed to try. As near as I can figure, here's the sequence of events: Someone affiliated with the foreign minister's office takes an interest in the Ichinose Report-- a classified document detailing the military response to a national crisis (vague, I know). This sets off alarm bells and prompts a secret investigation of the foreign minister, conducted by an agent posing as his secretary. Both are taken hostage by an unknown party, along with the foreign minister's chief of PR and two members of the North American Association for Industrial Development. The military intervenes to protect their asset, but their authority is superseded by Section 9, who seemingly get involved because crazy shit's their bailiwick. Four of the hostages are rescued. The secretary / undercover agent suffers a serious head wound, and one guy from the NAAID is killed, or so it's meant to appear. But in fact, Togusa and the Major figure out he's traded cerebral cores (i.e. brains) with the foreign minister, who has a fetish for getting drunk and swapping bodies with robot geisha, making him an easy mark for this kind of thing. Section 9 catches up to the perp at the airport, trying to board a private jet with the real minister's brain in a box and a copy of the Ichinose report in hand.

Got all that? It took me three viewings. The episode fails to address a few nagging questions, such as "Who?" and "Whaa?", but it hangs together better than expected. It also deftly handles the work of setting up the principal cast. We get glimpses of Aramaki's authority, the Major's competent leadership, Batou's big lug buffoonery, Togusa's humanity, and Ishikawa's beard. Togusa comes closest to getting an actual arc. Following the raid on the restaurant, he betrays some insecurity about being the most fallibly human agent in the field. The Major assures him he has other strengths to offer, and indeed, it's his powers of observation that end up cracking the case (with an assist from a CSI "enhance" button). Clearly, this man / machine tension will be an ongoing concern.

___________________

¹  For its big opening set piece, the live-action, Hollywood GITS mashes up elements of this sequence, the iconic rooftop drop, and Batou’s first assignment from Innocence. The largely practical geisha effects are impressively realized and probably that film’s most successful element.  

@mehagain I didn’t know that about the Asari on Virmire! But yeah I’m mainly talking gameplay consequences here since that has a tangible impact vs. a news report you can completely miss.

I’m just replaying ME3 now so forgive me if I mess up some details, but I’m pretty sure you can gain both the Krogan and Salarian support if you go Paragon too (You’ll still lose Mordin though, tragically :( since there’s no way to save him and cure the genophage) you just have to ensure the Salarian counselor lives in Priority: Citadel II (either by keeping Thane alive in ME2 or keeping Kirahe alive in ME1). Afterwards they’ll pledge the Salarian fleets to the cause.

In addition to that, you can only sabotage the genophage and still gain Krogan and Mordin’s support if Wreav, not Wrex is the leader of Clan Urdnot. Wrex will know you sabotaged the cure and tell you to pound sand, and I believe Mordin will only join as a war asset if Wreav is leader (since you can convince him Wreav won’t lead the Krogan toward change).

That case is pretty complicated because it depends on how you play your game. If you keep all your squad mates alive (meaning you have Wrex) then you’re punished for taking the renegade action here. But you can potentially be rewarded for going renegade if you let Wrex die (since you get Mordin in addition to Krogan and Salarian support). Though I’d still argue that the renegade option is more likely to punish you, since you’re much more likely to keep Wrex alive than kill him in ME1 and if you go renegade while Wrex is alive then I believe you lose both Mordin AND Wrex’s support.

I’m talking about instances where going Renegade is just the uncontested bad option that punishes the player. Going back to the Rachni Queen example: saving her is the best option without question, even though there are genuine concerns about keeping her alive!

If you save her in ME1 (paragon option) and you release her in ME3 (paragon option) then you gain +100 war assets (-25 because you lose Aralakh Company, so net gain of +75).

If you save her in ME1 (Paragon) and then don’t release her in ME3 (Renegade) then you keep Aralakh Company (net +25 war assets)

If you kill her in ME1 (Renegade) and then don’t release the fake queen in ME3 (Paragon. The options actually switch here!) then you get net +25

And finally if you kill her in ME1 (Renegade) and then release her in ME3 (Renegade) you get net -125 war assets since I believe you still lose Aralakh Company AND the fake queen orders her Rachni workers to kill members of the Alliance Engineering Corps.

So if you go Paragon/Paragon you’re rewarded the most, if you go Renegade/Paragon (or Paragon/Renegade) you’re rewarded a little, and if you go Renegade/Renegade you’re just straight up punished. And it wouldn’t bother me so much if the renegade options didn’t have a good point! The first go around the Rachni tried to wipe out galactic civilization! In ME3, you find out that the Rachni children are incredibly susceptible to indoctrination so it might not be safe to keep the queen around!

I wish it were more like save vs. kill the council. In terms of war assets you actually get slightly more for letting the council die in ME1 (Renegade) BUT to offset that the new council is much less likely to trust Shep and makes their life more difficult in ME2 and 3. Whereas if you save the council in ME1 (Paragon) you get slightly fewer war assets, but the galactic community is a little more open to working with you. So like? Maybe if you killed the queen you get valuable research data to add to your war assets or something? Just so it doesn’t completely punish the player for trying to play smart!

Friction

It started out as a hypothetical.

Wouldn’t it be funny if?

The discussion she’d had with her sister didn’t seem to go anywhere, at first. Just the two venting to one another about yet another formal event their father forced them into and another evening spent pretending they didn’t hate him with every fiber of their being. They played the game well enough, kept him from suspecting too much, but always kept in mind their precarious positions. If either fell into bad favor, they’d lose any chance of wrestling control of the company away from the man. 

He announced his retirement just after christening the newest branch to be added to the juggernaut SDC assets- and shortly before that day they’d spent at a local cafe in downtown Vale, bemoaning the news- while inviting every shareholder to the lavish soiree that would serve to ring in the new year and signal his departure from the company as one of his children took over. Leave it to Jacques Schnee to turn a worldwide celebration into an ego trip.

But then, he banked too hard on others’ perception of him, that his status translated to concrete fact. Father decided to allow his replacement to be chosen by the board of directors, giving them the options of his three children. He always had his favorite, of course, and spent the next several months introducing Whitley officially to every member of the board.

Weiss saw her chance and nudged her sister. Winter saw the same and they set to work. While their brother spent the time between the announcement and the vote attending parties and schmoozing, the sisters put in overtime. They plied their talents, sometimes working in concert and sometimes not, generating what the men of their family pointedly ignored: results. When it came time for the voting, nepotism waged a war against greed. Greed won out and Weiss, surprisingly, won the vote, as she’d managed to attain a higher profit margin- though she’d specifically chosen projects that would result in just that, while Winter focused on hard-to-solve problems.

Thankfully, there was no ill will between them; they’d accomplished their mutual goal. Replacing Father as head of the company would give either one of them the power they desperately needed to affect real change. Now, came the celebration.

Their conversation from before came rushing back and Weiss voiced it. The idea. The plan. The sweet promise of a revenge over two decades in the making. Winter, of course, agreed instantly.

Weiss put an anonymous ad in the local paper. It was simple and straight to the point, if slightly vague.

Date needed. Must be able to backtalk racists, xenophobes, and sexists. Must be willing to wage VERBAL war with morons for an indefinite period of time. Must be rude and have horrible table manners. Will be handsomely compensated for scandalizing rich people. Faunus only.

The first volley of responses were ridiculous. Mostly from people who fell into the categories of racist, xenophobic, or sexist, as they’d felt personally attacked by her ad. She ignored them and continued sifting through the responses until she happened upon one that caught her eye.

One could consider intentionally ignoring someone to be rude. Under that logic, if I could bring a book to continue my reading periodically throughout the night, I’d be interested in taking the job. -Blake

Upon reading it, Weiss couldn’t help but smirk as she sent a reply.

Which book?

She received a response rather quickly.

The Fallen Faunus. -Blake

It took her a moment to recall the book specifically but when she did, she instantly accepted and arranged to meet Blake in person to discuss the particular details. No doubt meeting with a member of the Schnee family would put the entirety of her ad to the test and, based on that, she could enact the rest of her plan. 

And it would be glorious. --- When the night of the party came, Weiss almost couldn’t contain herself. Her sister had gone the opposite route- perusing the advertisements of others until she found a suitable date for the event. Again, their approaches differed; Winter’s date embodied loud and abrasive, with an outfit far below the standards of the event itself and colorful language that resulted in many clutched pearls.

In contrast, the person who answered Weiss’ ad was... almost regal, in a way. Quiet, reserved, but- as she’d already found out- more than capable of delivering a verbal lashing that would sting just as much as any physical blow. Their first meeting, Blake had assumed the ad referred to that occasion, seeing as Weiss fit the supposed criteria- rich, from a family that had a well documented (and rather recent) history of racism, xenophobia, and sexism, and rather easily riled up to boot- and immediately began laying into her with an impressive diatribe. 

Weiss couldn’t help but be ecstatic as she pulled a book from her purse- her own well worn copy of The Fallen Faunus, with a bookmark halfway through the chapter detailing how humans drove Faunus from their native lands- and immediately began explaining what she hoped to achieve.

Much to her relief, Blake Belladonna accepted her offer- her interest piqued- and something secretive gleaming in amber eyes as she sat down across from Weiss to discuss the details.

“Are you ready?” She turned her head, trying her best to gauge what thoughts might be drifting across the Faunus’ mind, but her date for the night had an impressive poker face.

“As I’ll ever be,” she replied, feline ears twitching ever so slightly. They both wore gowns fit for a gala, catching the lights overhead and sparkling. Weiss’ had white and blue sequins while Blake’s had black and a dark purple that matched her eye shadow. “Though- just one more time- who are the off limit ones?”

“My sister, Winter, and her date.”

“And we’ve been dating...”

“For two years.”

“And you’re sure you want to go with that?”

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t?” She arched a bow, listening as the dull roar in the ballroom they approached grew more distinct. They walked along one of the seldom used halls to avoid any other potential partygoer prior to the ‘big reveal’ and stopped just short of making their entrance.

“Couples who have been together for that long typically... have a different set of boundaries.”

“Meaning?”

“Casual contact, invading each other’s space, knowing how the other likes their drinks- things like that.” As if to make her point, Blake took a small step closer, and though they still weren’t touching, exactly, Weiss could feel the shift between ‘casual distance between acquaintances’ and this.

“Ah. I see.” After taking a moment to evaluate herself, she took a step closer of her own, their arms brushing together as she slipped her hand into the Faunus’. “I believe this would be a bit more believable then, yes?”

Again, she caught a glimpse of that secretive gleam as Blake smirked. “Yeah.” --- The night proceeded much better than she could’ve imagined. Blake’s razor sharp wit resulted in some truly memorable quotes throughout the night. Between her very existence causing a mild panic to roll through half the attendees and her business acumen winning over the other half- apparently, she had some formal education in business management, though she opted not to follow it through- Weiss couldn’t be more pleased, and the way Winter’s date completely offset the Faunus by being brash and jingling with every step thanks to a multitude of chains attached to her pants for seemingly no reason- she had to admit, Father was perhaps stronger than she expected. Although he looked on the verge of an apoplectic fit, he somehow managed to retain his composure throughout the night, though he certainly lost the spotlight as soon as his daughters entered.

It felt almost natural to be on Blake’s arm for hours on end, mingling with people, sitting and eating, talking quietly, and even dancing to the music. At some point, Weiss forgot about everyone else and the display itself and started... actually enjoying herself. Especially when they decided they’d had enough of dealing with people and pulled out the Faunus’ copy of the book and began reading together, seats pressed close, Weiss’ head resting on Blake’s shoulder as she read aloud.

Distantly, she became aware of the growing concern regarding the storm and the lack of possibility that anyone would be leaving the mansion that night. It registered as a concern but one she could worry about later, posing a question to Blake regarding a detail that had always escaped her understanding. Thankfully, the Faunus could supply the answer, and they were deep into a discussion of their own making when she felt someone come stand by her elbow and await her attention- which she wasn’t keen on removing from her date for the evening.

“Ahem.” 

Begrudgingly, she turned her head to find her father standing there, a vein bulging from his forehead. “Yes, Father?”

“It would appear that no one will be able to leave due to the storm,” he tersely said, the words escaping his throat as if someone was strangling him. “Your... guest... will need to use one of the rooms in the south wing.”

“No,” she replied immediately and without thinking. “My girlfriend will stay with me in my room.”

“Your room has only one bed.”

Just as quick, Blake responded. “That’s not a concern. It won’t be the first time we’ve shared.”

As much as she would’ve enjoyed watching the minor stroke that comment caused, Weiss... found herself distracted by... quite a few thoughts.

“And, on that note, I think it’s time we retire, dear.”

“Of course.” The Faunus slipped the bookmark into place and accepted the hand Weiss offered to help her up, the two of them leaving the ballroom and Father behind without a look back. They were halfway down the hall, walking side-by-side and hand-in-hand, before she continued. “So, was that the performance you were hoping for?”

“Ah. Yes, quite.” She fumbled the moment, reminded all too suddenly that it was a display, an act- a performance, as Blake said, with a specific goal that she’d somehow forgotten all about. “I apologize for the inconvenience, though. This... wasn’t part of our original deal.”

“It wasn’t but... I pride myself on being flexible in many respects.” A moment’s pause. “Perhaps I went too far with that last comment, though. About sharing a bed.”

“I don’t think so,” she replied, noticing neither of them had moved apart as they continued towards her room. A request flashed through her mind and, though some part of her thought voicing it would gain her nothing, somehow the words slipped out anyway. “However, I feel a touch guilty.”

“For what? I agreed to put up with all this.”

“While true, I never asked you to lie, and you didn’t up until the bed sharing comment- at least, to my knowledge.”

Blake’s ears twitched but her expression remained inscrutable. “It seems like we will be sharing a bed soon, though, so it won’t be a lie much longer.”

“I have the feeling you... intended to imply more than simply sharing a bed.”

Slowly, they came to a halt, just as the lights above them sizzled out as a shuddering echoed from somewhere else- likely the generators failing, plunging them into the dark. Moonlight from the nearby windows allowed her to see when her eyes adjusted, finding that Blake’s caught every stray bit of moonlight and reflected them, amber glowing in the dark. Faintly, she could see the way the Faunus’ lips curled into a small smirk.

“You know, you could just ask me to sleep with you.”

“I-” A finger came up, pressing against her lips to cut her off.

“Before we go any further on this ‘I’m just trying to make you honest’ line, I feel like I should remind you that you hired me to pretend I’m your girlfriend of two years.” That gleam reappeared, somehow distinct from the glowing quality of her eyes in the darkness. “So, unless you’re interested in making that true, too, you don’t have much of an argument.”

Weiss had- somehow- forgotten that part.

Blake withdrew her finger and waited, black hair blending into the dark shadows thrown against the wall and still wearing that curious little smile with the gleam in her eyes.

Only after a moment of weighing her options did she attempt a response. “And what if I did intend on making the whole thing true?”

The Faunus’ eyes positively lit up. “In that case, our anniversary will be easy to remember.” A light tug. “Now... your room?”

Weiss smiled, her heart thundering in her chest. Whether or not she’d follow through with the... implied meaning remained to be seen but the prospect that she might actually have a relationship with Blake, frankly, made her look forward to the coming year more than her life’s ambition of taking over the company.

And she couldn’t wait to see what else the future had in store. --- So, I had every intention for this to include at least one sloppy makeout and maybe heavy doses of UST. Then... this happened and I don’t know how I got from point A to point B but here we are.

FLASHBack: Week 75 - Pong: It’s Not Just a Game

FLASHBack time again, and this week we're going to look at the Flash Pong: It's Not Just a Game. While this animation was uploaded on Newgrounds on 14 June 2002 (under the title "Pong Gets Personal"), and even earlier to Albino Blacksheep on 19 February 2002, I've found evidence of it being published for widespread online consumption as early as sometime in November 2001 on a site called madblast.com. Newgrounds and Albino Blacksheep list the author as Oska, but who is Oska? Oska is actually Oska Software, an Australian Developer that started out writing educational software for the Japanese market. One edutainment game they wrote featured a koala mascot, and they got the bright idea to repurpose all the animations of the character that they'd already made. Possibly inspired by Microsoft Office's Clippy, they made their koala Oska into a piece of software that would show character on your desktop, floating over other programs, playing different interactive animations. Oska was the first of the company's DeskMates®, but he would quickly be followed by a whole host of others.   Oska had been appropriate for all ages as was another of their DeskMates®, TeeCee, who was sort of a knockoff BonziBUDDY minus the malware nastiness. There was also Fat B an obese beer swigging redneck bastard whose animations were slightly more questionable. However the bulk of the DeskMates® made by Oska Software were straight up pornographic stripper girls who would dance on your computer screen for you. They originally started with just 2D Animation, then evolved to 3D models rendered in 3D Studio Max, and finally they used the profits this venture was turning to hire models for video capture.

Oska Sotfware would advertise their DeskMates® by having their animators work on funny Flash animations when they weren't putting together a new stripper girl. They would embed ads for their web store into the Flashes themselves, and then upload them into the usual places in hopes that the animations would go viral. These Flashes were also the basis of an eCard website they operated, cards-n-toons.com. The bulk of the Flash content on that site was either USA ultra-patriotic post-9/11 propaganda cartoons, or just straight up smut humor, in a similar vein to the software they were trying to sell (and sometimes even staring some of the DeskMates® girls). Both of these categories were likely to be passed around virally among their target demographic. Pong: It's Not Just a Game, being a homage to first generation videogaming as well as a stick figure beatdown Flash, was a bit of an outlier compared to the rest of Oska's Flash content. However, once Oska had the assets drawn for it, they went ahead and made two sequels: Pong: Breakdown, in which the accelerating ball of a continued perfectly horizontal volley breaks the right paddle, and the stick figures inside the paddle decide to go beat up Pac-Man instead, and Pong: Assassin, where the right paddle is letting loose with some Williams Sisters -style Tennis Grunting until a stick figure with a knife comes from offscreen to backstab it.   Even with the implausible storylines, Pong: It's Not Just a Game and its sequels did accurately portray a few aspects of the original Pong Arcade game by Atari. The timing chips on the original motherboard for Pong were not precise enough for the game's sprite drawing routine to keep up with the offset needed to interlace scanlines across both fields of the 30 frames per second refresh rate of the CRT monitors of the time. Instead, it just drew the second field of scanlines directly on top of the first, resulting in the every-other-line appearance that the Oska Pong flashes reproduce.   Secondly, the incident that kicks off the It's Not Just a Game animation, an argument about the ball being "Out", is actually reflective of a real hardware limitation of the original game. The paddles were not allowed full vertical travel of the screen, because of a quirk in how the ball movement logic was wired onto the motherboard. If the paddles had been allowed the full range of motion (or if the adjustment pots on the motherboard were miscalibrated), it was possible in situations where the ball hit the paddle right in the corner of the play field, for the ball to get trapped in the vertical blanking interval of the screen, straddling the top and the bottom of the playfield at the same time and softlocking the game. Rather than fix the ball movement logic, the game was wired to keep the paddles slightly away from the edges, which in practice, sometimes lead to shots that felt like they should have been counted "Out" because the paddle just was not allowed to reach them.   However, the perfect horizontal volley of Pong: Breakdown, while in theory was allowed by the game's 42 velocity vectors for the ball, was in practice very tricky to achieve on the actual arcade hardware, owing to a design error in the original schematics which went undetected for 40 years. The pinout on one of the Integrated Circuits used was misnumbered on the schematic, swapping the #1 pin and the #10 pin. This meant that when the printed circuit board was laid out, there was some crosstalk between the two paddles when they were closely aligned vertically, messing with the zones on the paddle that would bounce the ball at various angles. Only if the paddles were both at the EXACT SAME vertical height would there be a sweet spot exactly in the middle of each that would bounce the ball perfectly horizontally.   That wraps it up for this week. Next week on FLASHBack, we'll finally be getting around to that character that kills puppies, and a different character who saves them, that had to be postponed because of the breaking Magical Trevor news. (Unless some other news breaks about one of the First-Class Flash Artists, then who knows when we'll get to them?)

“It’s the Economy, Stupid”

Trump will be in a tough race for the White House in 2020. He saw a record number of Americans watching the Democratic debates and realizes that the key to his success is a strong domestic economy. James Carvel coined the phrase “the economy, stupid” as campaign manager for Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential run against sitting President George W. Bush. Bush failed run suffered from a recession and the ground war in Kuwait in 1991. The two other key messages for the Clinton campaign were “change vs. more of the same” and ‘don’t forget healthcare.” Sound familiar?

Trump and his team feel that the strength of the economy and his message about less taxation, more regulatory relief, a strong defense, protecting the borders from illegal immigrants, a conservative Supreme Court, and a more level playing field for trade protecting IP will carry the day over his personality, ethical and common decency flaws. “Make America Strong Again” will ring just as true today as four years ago as long as he can run on his record in his first term of a strong economy creating millions of new jobs with rising real wages. After all, Clinton succeeded a second time despite his character flaws. Right?

We were not surprised that Presidents’ Trump and Xi called a truce yesterday on any additional tariffs and announced that negotiations on a trade agreement protecting IP would recommence almost immediately. Clearly there was a lot of give and take in the talks as Trump surprisingly agreed to lift the restriction on U.S. companies supplying Huawei while China agreed to massive purchases of American agricultural products. Trump needs the farmer on his side and the G-5 technology supply chain intact while China badly needs our pork and soybeans as the Chinese people are suffering from huge local production problems.

You could hear a global sigh of relief yesterday after a truce was called between the United States and China. Markets will clearly rally as a huge cloud has been lifted. Markets will no longer have to fear that global trade and growth would slow even further if additional tariffs were imposed. While we continue to doubt that a final agreement will be made anytime soon, we also do not expect Trump to impose additional tariffs later in the year or in 2020 if talks fail as it would hurt the U.S. economy and his re-election chances. Trump will most likely kick the trade can down the road into 2021. Same goes with his negotiations with Europe. Don’t expect any tariffs against European car manufacturers as it would be too disruptive to the U.S. economy.

It is important to note that both the United States and China spent a lot of time at the G-20 conference solidifying relationships with other countries who clearly will benefit from the U.S./China ceasefire. For instance, we remain confident that the U.S. and Japan will reach a trade deal by the end of the summer. We also expect corporations to use this time to further diversify their supply chains reducing where possible their reliance on China.

Now that trade concerns have been pushed aside for now, we are back to focusing on the economy and monetary/fiscal policy. After all, “it’s the economy, stupid.” We continue to believe that the U.S. is best positioned as we look out into next year. Our consumer is strong and the Fed has the leeway to make several stimulative rate cuts as well as ending its portfolio runoff unlike most other monetary bodies. It remains clear to us that the Fed should cut rates at least once and possibly twice this year bringing the Fed funds rate down to 2% or even slightly lower at a minimum as inflation continues to run well beneath the Fed 2% target. If so, the yield curve will steepen and the dollar will fall. The mere fact that most everyone is anticipating a Fed cut has already led to dollar weakening as we had anticipated. 

Let’s take a look at the recent data points which support our view that there is no place like home:

1.) The U.S. economy continues to muddle through with consumer strength offsetting manufacturing weakness: personal income increased 0.5% in May; disposable personal income increased 0.5% also in May while personal consumption expenditures rose 0.4%. It is important to note that the PCE rose only 1.5% year over year remaining well beneath the Fed 2% target for the tenth year now. The Michigan index of consumer sentiment remained at a very high 98.2 with current economic conditions at 11.9 but consumer expectations fell to 89.5 which was still above year ago levels.

On the other hand, the Chicago PMI fell to 49.7 in June, the first time in contraction territory in two years; new orders for durable goods, excluding transportation and defense, decreased 0.6% in May while shipments actually rose 0.4% in May after declining 1.6% in April; and finally, unfilled orders for manufacturing goods decreased 0.5% in May while inventories rose 0.5%. Not too good!

We believe that the trade truce along with expected Fed cuts will boost consumer/business confidence and economic growth later in the year into 2020. Clearly that would be Trump’s intention. We continue to expect the Fed to cut rates once or twice this year and stay out of the way in 2020, an election year, unless data points glaringly force their hand.

2.) The trade truce should be a game changer for China as there clearly will be a surge in business/consumer confidence. The Chinese government will continue to institute very aggressive fiscal policies to stimulate growth which will be supported by the Bank of China. We would expect second quarter growth to be the low point for the year with improving performance sequentially as we enter 2020. The trade truce significantly improves our outlook for China and its financial markets.

3.) While the U.S./China trade truce will improve both consumer/business sentiment in the Eurozone, we remain pessimistic about longer term growth potential without major fiscal, regulatory and trade policy changes. There is no way that one policy fits all as long as the region is comprised of have and have-not nations controlled by Germany. There is very little that the ECB can do to stimulate growth. Finally, we do not see a trade deal with the U.S. anytime in the future. 

We began making subtle changes to our portfolio composition over the last few weeks anticipating a trade truce and a change in fed policy. In addition, we were then, and remain even more confident today, that Trump will do everything in his power to stimulate the domestic economy boosting the stock market over the next year as he runs for reelection. A perfect example was his trade truce with China permitting sales to Huawei. Don’t forget the power of the Trump’s ego to win next year at all costs. It won’t be his personality that carries him over the goal line but the strength of the economy, stupid.

As you can glean from our comments, we have increased our market exposure primarily by increasing the economic sensitivity of our portfolios while reducing some of the defensive holdings. In addition, we are more confident that the dollar has peaked and the yield curve will steepen as the Fed cuts the funds rate. 

Our portfolios comprise technology; global capital goods and industrials; low-cost commodity companies generating huge free cash flow; large global domestic banks (we correctly anticipated the stress test moves by the banks); cable with content; housing related to benefit from low mortgage rates; healthcare with major new product flow; and many special situations including farm related.

Remember to review all the facts; pause, reflect and consider mindset shifts; look at your asset composition with risk controls; do independent research and…

Invest Accordingly!

Bill Ehrman

Paix et Prospérité LLC

@bchemianrhapscdy

Charlotte had been working here for a few weeks.  In all honesty, she was trying to get her hands on the Red John case file, like her father was doing.  Neither of them were actually employees here, not in the get to wear an official badge sort of way, at any rate.  Her father a consultant, she an intern.  Both of them wanted her mother’s killer, and her own kidnapper, found.  Her father wanted him dead, and, while Charlotte had no qualms about it, she didn’t want her dad in trouble with it.  Which meant that she had to be as good as her father, if not better, and make sure she was there.  Make sure the police got the arrest, not him get ambushed in a trap.

Charlotte looked up when she heard someone discounting the odds that their witness in some case had amnesia, they couldn’t remember anything, not even their name.  She knew what that was like... well, not entirely.  At least, she had had her name back then, before Chicago Police Department sent her back to her father.  “Let me talk to her.  A minute with me, I’ll know if she’s lying.”

Nothing but a roll of their eyes before one made a comment about more coffee.  She raised an eyebrow before standing up.  “Fine,” she said before walking out of the room.  But, instead of going to the break room, she turned into the hall and slipped into the interrogation room, where nobody currently was with the witness.

Like she said, she was out in a minute, in another minute, she had a fresh pot of coffee brewing and she went in.  “Coffee’s brewing, and you were right, she was faking. Eyes refused to look at me, tried to offset the question.  Basic liar one oh one.  I got a bit more out of her after a fancy little parlor trick, but you know... I’m only good for coffee.”  She smirked as she sat down, watching them fight over something or other, but she assumed why someone hadn’t locked the door.  She chuckled slightly before looking back to the menial work they had assigned her.  A few minutes later, after one of them had left, presumably to go back to the fake amnesiac, she said, without looking back up, “Funny. Not even the least bit curious as to what she told me?  Disappointing.  Oh well.  Case closed, the fake amnesiac did it, right?”  Wrong.  “They won’t get anything out of her.”  She had to hypnotise the girl to get her to tell the truth, very good liar.  She got some evidence out of it, but it was circumstantial.  She knew she couldn’t be added professionally onto the team until she was 18, passed some detective’s test or made a name for herself as an exceptional asset on the team.

Recoloring assets at runtime in elf game

(crossposted from https://paranoodle.itch.io/elf-game/devlog/75412/recoloring-assets-at-runtime-in-elf-game )

intro

first disclaimer: this is just how i decided to do things and i've been using godot for barely a month so there's likely things that could be done better, but it does work. that said if you have suggestions on how to improve feel free to let me know!

when i was trying to decide on ways to handle color choices in the character creator, two implementation options were covered in example/guides and the such:

have every asset image available in every color

have every asset image available once in white, and use modulate/multiply to add color programmatically

the issues with (1) should be pretty obvious: not only do you have to recolor everything manually, but you have to have as many files for each asset as you have colors, so it scales incredibly badly both time-wise (your time) and storage-wise (you need to have all the files included with the game).

(2) already sounds more reasonable, since it scales well both time-wise and storage-wise, but the way modulate works means that you only use one color to modulate with, instead of having control over every swatch in the image. that's not inherently a bad thing, but i personally like having control over all the colors in an image (doubly so for pixel art). see below for the difference between column 1 (manual palettes) and 2-3 (modulate with different color bases).

so, in comes option 3, which i ended up coding from scratch and is what i decided to implement in this game: have every asset image available once in a pre-determined palette, and use shaders to palette-swap at runtime. it scales as well as (2) because i only need one image per asset, and while setting up the palettes takes a little longer, it's work that only has to be done once and then never needs touching again.

in theory it'd be possible to set up the list of palettes as just using Color objects or hex codes, but i find it a lot more intuitive to make/edit the palette file in an image editor, so i went and coded a script that can read the palette file i give it and translate to Color objects as needed.

so, in practice, on top of the standard asset files, i end up with two other files:

a "reference" file that lists all the colors from the asset files i want to edit (from left to right: hair color, skin color, marking color, eye colors)

a "palette" file that lists all the palettes i want to make available (truncated preview, from left to right: hair colors, skin colors, eye colors)

(note: you can also make one file for each type of palette you want, i just wanted to keep everything in one place because otherwise i get easily confused. it's very slightly simpler code if you have one file for hair colors, one for skin colors, etc)

and using those, i need to code two things: some manner of ui so people can select palettes, and the shaders to actually apply said selection.

palette selection node

the palette selection is reasonably simple to set up, we just need to:

decide what columns in the palette file we're reading from, and which one specifically to display as the selectable swatch

read through all the lines in the palette file, and for each of them, build an array of Color objects corresponding to the palette

fill our grid node with a bunch of buttons that link a swatch to a whole palette

in practice, here's a runthrough of the code for the palette selection node (implemented as a GridContainer, using markings as an example):

3: used to keep track of which part of the character i'm recoloring, edited via the node options 5: signal sent when we click on a swatch, containing the palette info linked to that swatch 7: list of all the swatch buttons in the palette grid 9-11: textures for the buttons (light/dark versions on press to prevent from blending in with the swatch/background) 13: ButtonGroup is necessary to handle toggle functionality on the swatch buttons (we only want one of them selected at any given time) 14: used to prevent sending the recolor signal again if we click on the same button twice in a row

17-18: loads the palette file and locks it so we can read pixel data 21-27: reads the pixels from the palette file and stores them into an array. line 22 stops the loop if we reach a line of transparent pixels (no more colors to read!) and line 25 blends a 50/50 mix of two of the pixels programmatically because it's easier than blending it myself in aseprite 29-34: creates the actual swatch buttons, sets the appropriate light/dark texture, and sets its modulate to the first color in the palette 36-37: adds the button to the grid and links its "pressed" signal to a function later in the file 39-41: "clicks" on the first swatch so we don't get any weird behavior with not having any of the swatches toggled when the menu opens 42: locking the palette file again since we're done using it

as mentioned in line 37 above, this sends a signal with the key defined in line 3 and the palette linked to the swatch that was clicked, but ignores any clicking on the currently selected button

coding the shader

in theory the shader is reasonably simple, since essentially all we need is "here's a file with the target colors, here's another with the new colors" and let it do the replacing, but in practice it's not quite trivial to write, especially for someone like me who's new to shader coding.

in the editor for the parameters, old_palette and new_palette are both the reference file listed earlier (imported as a texture), and palette_size is the width of the reference file. there isn't a ton to comment past that. for every color in the palette, we replace the old one in the image with the new one, keeping opacity intact.

tying everything together

with the shader and buttons coded, all that's left is something to tie the signal to the shader, and it's this little snippet of code here:

3-4: offsets (with names matching the key variable all the way back up in palette selection) so we know what part of the reference to replace with what colors 5: reference file from earlier, but with a different name because we're importing it as an image. this has to do with how godot reads image/texture data differently 10-12: replace all the pixels in the reference image that correspond to the channel we want to modify 14-16: create a new texture from this reference image  (shaders can only take textures as input, not images) and apply it to our material

on line 16, the set_palette method is just a wrapper for get_material().set_shader_param("new_palette", palette)

make sure you make a ShaderMaterial object and assign it to the part you want recolored, and then assign your shader script to it, as well as linking the recolor signal from the palette selection to wherever you want the above code to run.

result, with a couple more bells and whistles:

and that covers most of how the recoloring works! actually changing the image for each option is as simple as having it load a different texture, since the material stays unchanged. the way recoloring works for markings is a tiny bit more complicated as it uses what amounts to improvised masking mixed with the recoloring. i won't be sharing the code for it here since it's a bit more finicky and needs refactoring at the moment. the cool thing with this shader is it means i can also use it with all the npcs in the game, reusing any relevant assets without needing a full-on unique colored copy of their portraits/sprites

i hope this makes sense and explains things to anyone interested! feel free to throw questions at me over any of the implementation :>

Democrats criticized the legislation, originally known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, but officially called An Act to Provide for Reconciliation Pursuant to Titles II and V of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2018, but Republicans defended the law as a necessary overhaul to previous tax laws and a means to provide economic relief for the middle class.

The dueling partisan narratives left many taxpayers with a murky understanding of the law’s impact.

To gain a better grasp on the intricacies of the 2017 Act, professors David Kamin, Lily Batchelder, and Daniel Shaviro—tax law experts from the New York University School of Law—cowrote a paper analyzing the sweeping legislation which appears in the Minnesota Law Review.

According to the authors, “Many of the new changes fundamentally undermine the integrity of the tax code and allow well-advised taxpayers to game the new rules through strategic planning.”

Here, the authors describe how some may take advantage of the new system, and how changes to the tax laws may affect the US economy.

‘CRACKING AND PACKING’

David Kamin: One of the largest tax cuts in the legislation goes to “pass-through” businesses—where income is taxed at the level of the owner rather than the business. But, to be eligible for this tax cut, owners need to meet certain very complex criteria.

For those with higher incomes, this includes being in the “right” line of business. That means being an architect (eligible) and not a lawyer (not eligible). Selling skincare products (eligible) but not being a dermatologist (not eligible). The formalistic and largely arbitrary lines then allow for much gaming, including what we—borrowing from the election law context—call “cracking and packing,” pulling apart and combining businesses.

For instance, a dermatologist office might “crack” apart a skincare products business run out of the same office, share overhead expenses, and then try to assign as much of those overhead expenses as possible to the dermatology practice to maximize profits eligible for the deduction. Possibly abusive? Yes, but very hard for the IRS to catch.

Lily Batchelder: The bill creates large incentives for the wealthy to convert their labor income into business income. This was already an issue in the tax code because of the carried interest loophole and loopholes in the payroll tax. But the bill makes a bad situation much, much worse.

If a wealthy individual hires an elite tax advisor to make their labor income look like pass-through business income, they can cut their marginal tax rate by more than 7 percentage points. And if they don’t need to spend the income anytime soon and treat it as corporate income, they can cut their tax rate by 20 percentage points.

Theoretically, middle class families could engage in the same games but they are much less likely to do so for at least three reasons. First, middle class families would receive much smaller tax benefits from such gaming and in many cases, none. Second, they often have little leverage over their employers to restructure their compensation and, even if they did, probably would have to give up all of their employee benefits in exchange. This includes their health insurance, 401(k), and disability insurance. Last, they are less likely to be able to afford a tax advisor with the expertise to structure this kind of arrangement in the first place!

GAMING THE SYSTEM

Daniel Shaviro: One of the many disappointing aspects of the 2017 act was its failure to address the opportunities for sheltering labor income from tax at full individual rates, through use of the corporate tax. Pre-2017, the top corporate rate was far closer to the top individual rate than it is post-2017. The main rationale for the corporate rate reduction pertained to global tax competition for scarce capital. This has no bearing on the case where the owner-employee of a corporation pays herself far less than the market value of her work.

For example, suppose I create a wildly successful new start-up and pay myself zero salary, despite my becoming, in net worth terms, a billionaire via the stock appreciation. The income that my efforts yield will show up in the corporate tax base, and be taxed at only 21 percent. True, I would face a second level of tax on paying myself dividends or selling my stock, but even this would be at a reduced rate. And what’s more, I may not need to make such payments if I am sufficiently financially liquid, e.g., by reason of borrowing against the value of the stock.

Opinions in the “biz” differ on how frequently taxpayers will find it worthwhile to do this, given the difficulty of extracting funds from one’s company tax-free. What is plain, however, is that Congress in 2017 deliberately did nothing to prevent this from happening. Indeed, the final version of the 2017 Act reduced the efficacy of a provision in the House bill that would have slightly addressed the problem by setting the tax rate for “personal service corporations” (PSCs) at 25 percent rather than just 21 percent. In the final act that rate is just 21 percent, like the general corporate rate, causing the PSC rules to be close to meaningless as a defense against using corporations as a tax shelter for labor income.

Shaviro: In the international realm, the 2017 Act may actually have improved the law marginally. At a minimum, it created a new regime that could be tweaked by future Congresses to yield a better system than the previous one. However, the main new international rules that it added to the code unnecessarily created multiple opportunities for game-playing. Just to give some quick examples without getting too deep into the weeds:

The foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) rules, which provide a special deduction for exports by companies, such as Apple and Facebook, that have valuable intellectual property, create incentives for “round-tripping” goods—e.g., selling them to a foreign taxpayer, then buying them back with just enough bells and whistles to prevent the entire transaction from being disregarded.

Both FDII and the global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) rules can create incentives to locate business assets abroad rather than at home.

The base erosion anti-avoidance tax (BEAT) can be gamed through such means as restructuring supply chains so one is purchasing sale items for customers from one’s foreign affiliates. The BEAT can also be gamed by adding lots of extra deductions (offset by lots of extra income so the sum total is a wash), so that so-called “base erosion tax benefits” will fall below an arbitrary “floor” (as a percentage of total deductions) that the BEAT imposes for no discernible reason.

VIOLATING THE WTO TREATY?

Shaviro: The FDII rules almost certainly violate the World Tax Organization treaty, of which the US is a signatory. They are expressly an export subsidy, and the WTO makes export subsidies illegal. If other treaty signatories challenge the FDII rules, there is a very high probability that they’ll be held illegal, with the consequence that peer countries will be authorized to respond with targeted provisions of their own.

In the last 30 or so years, the US has enacted illegal export subsidy rules on three separate occasions. Each time the rule was held violative and the US backed down. Why do this again? I think the main answer was cynicism, but ironically the prospect of an overturn makes the US companies that wanted favorable tax treatment more leery than they would otherwise have been of setting up complex structures to take maximum advantage of the FDII rules.

‘AN ARRAY OF MISTAKES’

Kamin: The legislation was written at an extremely rapid clip, leaving an array of mistakes—some minor and some large. An early one to emerge was the “grain glitch.” In attempting to apply the pass-through deduction to businesses organized as cooperatives, especially prevalent in agriculture, legislators wrote in an even larger loophole by accident. Effectively, farmers selling to these cooperatives (think Ocean Spray cranberries) could potentially entirely wipe out their tax liability because of the glitch.

This one was large enough—and was causing sufficient chaos in the agricultural sector—that it was fixed. But most haven’t been. So, take another: one of the largest revenue raisers in the legislation was limiting the deductibility of state and local taxes for individuals to $10,000. However, the letter of the law seems to fail to apply that to another form of cooperative, a housing cooperative.

So, owners of pricey cooperatives in NYC may be able to deduct their property taxes without limit; by contrast, owners of traditional condominiums and houses will not. And the list could go on.

MAJOR TAKEAWAYS

Batchelder: The bill is heavily tilted towards the wealthy. According to the official Congressional budget scorekeepers, this year the average millionaire will get a tax cut of more than $27,000 on their personal tax return, compared to a tax cut of $431 for an average middle-class family earning $40,000 to $50,000. Even as a share of their after-tax income, the tax cut for the average millionaire is three times as large.

It is also a very costly bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will increase our national debt by $1.9 trillion by 2028, even after including its effects on the economy. These large tax cuts will eventually have to be paid for. If Congress pays for them by raising revenues in proportion to income, the vast majority of middle class and low-income families will end up worse off. These families will be hit even harder if the bill is paid for by cuts to programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Shaviro: It’s often said that tax legislation should be judged by four main criteria: fairness, efficiency, complexity, and revenue adequacy. The 2017 Act, despite having good particular rules here and there, egregiously failed on all four counts.

It was an act of class warfare benefiting those at the top relative to everyone else, for the most part it reduced economic efficiency by creating perverse incentives and arbitrary distinctions between different activities, it made tax planning more complicated for those who can afford sophisticated tax advice, and it will probably lose on the order of $2 trillion of net revenue over 10 years, even if all supposedly expiring provisions are actually allowed to expire.

It was also the sloppiest, most poorly drafted tax legislation that I have ever seen, despite all the talent and effort deployed by hard-pressed staffers, because the process was so secretive and rushed.

Source: New York University

Phroyd

Christmas 2021 : Day 3 - A Christmas Carol (2019) - Episode 2

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Three ten pound notes!

Now, let’s see here, where did we leave off? Oh yes, learning of Scrooge and Marley’s act of gross negligence that lead to the death of many of their workers in a factory. Just the kind of Christmas pick me up we’re all looking for at this time of year. Yes, we’re making another attempt at actually getting through this mini-series by picking up with episode 2 where we’re awaiting the arrival of the first of the foretold trio who intend to turn this miserly old bastard into someone more virtuous and caring toward his fellow man.

It’s interesting to continue to see the increased screen time for Marley in this version, as he reports back to the Ghost of Christmas Past on his fruitless efforts to prepare Scrooge for what lies ahead. For Scrooge has only one word in reply; humbug. As suggested previously it’s a little strange to get such a prominent actor as Stephen Graham in for the role that is usually such a fleeting one. Granted he’s no Hollywood A-lister or anything but he has some notable films amongst his credits and is a pretty big name in UK TV Drama.

But, the spirit isn’t one to back down from a challenge and relishes  the chance to win Scrooge around by reminding him of his most treasured memories and tortured nightmares. Andy Serkis does lend this spirit a much different look to the kind you might be used to in other adaptations. His thorny crown, glazed eye and scars do give him something of an intimidating look but it is offset slightly by his ashen face. What he more looks like is the Ghost of Christmas Present, specifically how he looks towards the end of his interaction with Scrooge when his time on this Earth grows short and he ages dramatically. It is said that he has many brothers who have come before him so it’s possible the Ghost of Christmas Past could be one of those.

His opening gambit of trying to warm Scrooge’s icey heart with an apparition of his childhood pet mouse doesn’t exactly go to plan though. There’s some sound logic there, take Scrooge back to a more innocent and care free time before the weight of the world ground him down. Plus, even the spirit of Christmas can turn the much maligned mouse into something beloved when given as a gift at this special time so why not too it might instill something within our curmudgeonly Scrooge that can have him gazed upon more favourably by the world around him? It’s going to take a lot more than that though, Scrooge’s frown reversing only but for a mere moment before taken it’s rightful place once more as he promptly jettisons the mouse from the nearest window, flying through the air before landing with a sickening thud on the cold city streets below. You were caring towards the horses at the end of the last episode, why are you turning on the mouse?! This scene is a good example of how Guy Pearce is another who seems to have the whole facial expression thing down as Scrooge. For a brief moment he stares upon this mouse with awe and wonderment before his cynicism takes hold once more and his expression changes. Just look at the way he’s sneering at that mouse!

Maybe because it runs in the family, as we come to learn when the spirit’s promise to visit Scrooge’s worst nightmares upon him rings true. Scrooge’s brutish father skulks around creeps around his chambers before unleashing a tirade about this humble pet, resentful towards this vermin that wears a golden bell around it’s neck which is more of an asset than even he can lay claim to. To him, this mouse is nothing more than another mouth to feed in a house that already has plenty of them. It’s a truly startling site to see the rather stern and authoritarian Scrooge now reduced to cowering beneath his bedsheets like an infant, looking on in horror as the shadows on the wall play out his own father’s grisly murder of his precious pet. It’s both a creepy visual in and of itself, moreso when you factor in that idea of your imagination filling in the blanks for what it can’t see, but it also adds to this idea of Scrooge’s father being a ghost from his past, a literal shadow hanging over him and something that has haunted him all these years. This whole affair does go some way to explaining why Scrooge is the way he is, no doubt scarred from this treatment in his formative years, but also learning from this incident that he cannot place affection where it can be so easily ripped away.

I do appreciate how these various adaptations continue to bring so much fresh material to the table. Granted, I imagine this one moreso than any other is taking some artistic liberties to mould the story in its own grim image but it’s neat to see Scrooge’s father brought up again in a relatively meaningful way. Usually he’s just mentioned when Scrooge’s sister comes to bring him home from school and I can only recall him coming up again in that musical version when we learn that he was jailed for bankruptcy.

Mouse murder is just the tip of the iceberg though. For as we take a trip back in time to Scrooge’s school years, the spirit takes an unusual form; that which Scrooge comes to recognise as Ali Baba. For this is who Scrooge would come to see as his only friend, taking refuge from the world inside the realm of fantasy as he would dream and pray of being rescued from his life and taken to these wild Arabian Nights. I thought this guy looked familiar, turns out it’s the guy from Prevenge, the leader of the climb that led to that ladies partner getting killed. Seems like his career is picking up a bit in the last few years with credits in that Men in Black sequel, Cruella and some TV gigs in What We Do in the Shadows and Archer.

Rescue being the operative word as the two take in their surroundings outside the school just as an older gentleman is seen approaching t he dorm in which Scrooge is staying by his lonesome, another Christmas left all alone when all the other kids get to return home but Scrooge is given another excuse why he is prohibited. A flood, an outbreak of illness, not enough from in the house...his father seems to have every reason under the sun to keep Scrooge away. The truth, we come to learn, is far more sinister. Something that is hinted at when the usually calm, collected and calculated Scrooge rashly takes a hand axe from Baba’s waist and swings wildly at the man...to no affect. The two of them are but mere spirits, they have no influence on this world, these are only visions of the things that have happened.

Scrooge’s sister, Lottie, encourages him to go wait in the coach outside, only for the man to shout him down and order him to stay. He tries to give chase, only for Lottie to trip him. As he grabs hold of her, she bites him in order to free herself, giving herself enough time to pull some form of flintlock pistol and train it on the man. Through some thinly veiled exposition, she explains that she and her mother now know all about the ‘arrangement’ made between this man and her father to keep young Scrooge at the school in return for his school fees being waived. Only, that arrangement is over now that she and her mother are ‘rid’ of her father.

Talk about a rather abrupt shift in tone, even for this show. Here we are rather judgemental towards this Scrooge who is infinitely worse than the many who have come before him, only now to be faced with this revelation of heavily implied child molestation. The brutal killing of his beloved pet was one thing, I can definitely see why he would be mentally scarred now. I am curious about the demise of his father though. When Lottie first approaches him, she speaks rather calmly and sweetly and suggests only that their father has left their mother. It’s only when Scrooge is out of earshot that she tells the man that their family is ‘rid’ of him. The way she very cooly pulls the pistol as well, very instinctual and without hesitation, it makes me wonder how much of a hand she and/or her mother had in his absence. Perhaps they were at their wits end with his treatment of them or had come to learn of this vile arrangement and bumped him off?  I guess add potential patricide to the list of offenses in this mini series.

But no sooner do we learn of the harrowing truth of Scrooge’s upbringing, we’re suddenly fast forwarded years into the future to a time when he and Marley have taken over a Welsh coal mine. Their eagerness to turn a profit extending to the infrastructure of the mine itself and inefficiency in it’s operations. It seems the last owners were just frittering away money on timber, plastering it all over the mine. Quite why they would go to such luxuries truly is a mystery, I’m sure that wood never had any engineering use. There’s no possible way that wood was for the structural integrity of the thing, it’ll run just as fine without it...

The spirit Scrooge does comment on the poor horse having to work in the mine though. You see, definite pro-horse agenda from Scrooge. Shame he didn’t think the same at the time when he sent the bloody thing down there.

I think it’s fair to say that anything else Scrooge might do pretty much pales in comparison to the ongoing gross negligence on display when operating his businesses. If it’s not the blazing work house it’s the cave in leading to the loss of some 27 men, women and children. But hey, why not mention the strong arming of a factory owner now beholden to his father’s debts and forced to sell his business for the low, low price of only £800 which Scrooge & Marley promptly flip only 4 days later for £8000? Or the opportunistic way in which he coerces Mrs Cratchit into sleeping with him in order to pay for life saving treatment for young Tiny Tim under the guise of a ‘social experiment’. Because, as Ted DiBiase once taught us; Everyone’s got a price...

That whole sexual abuse thing in the middle really is like some sort of emotional whiplash. You kinda forget about the whole burning building thing at the end of part 1, perhaps moreso in my case due to the year gap in between watching these episodes, in light of the horrible experience young Scrooge went through. But it’s hard to have sympathy for someone that continues to reach new depths of inflicting misery upon others. It’s almost as if the writers had this idea of yin and Yang behind Scrooge’s character. In previous iterations his misery is visited back upon him, he might be a complete arsehole to everyone but it means no one wants to be around him, even the love of his life abandons him when she sees how narrow minded he has become and how he thinks of nothing but profit. His misdeeds bring their own punishment. Here though, it’s like they wanted to amp up his bad side with his hand in all these deaths but had to try and compensate it the other way by giving him all this baggage to deal with and this was the extreme they went to.

It just feels like they’ve gone too far in doing so because ultimately this story is meant to culminate in Scrooge’s redemption. But how can you redeem this version of Scrooge? There is a vast disparity between the actions of, say, the Sir Patrick Stewart version of Scrooge and that of Guy Pearce’s here. What was Scrooge’s worst offence in that 1999 version? He was strict with Cratchit? Wouldn’t visit his nephew? He was dismissive of the poor and destitute and unwilling to provide towards their relief? You cannot possibly weigh that against some of the acts on display here. As Mrs Cratchit puts it herself in this episode, the scale breaks at the inbalance. To that end, is this even going to end with Scrooge’s redemption? To me, it just wouldn’t sit right. “Sure his penny pinching directly led to the death of dozens of people but, by golly, he bought Tiny Tim a turkey so he’s alright in my book!”

Though, if Scrooge did sleep with Mrs Cratchit, that does bring a worrying new meaning to the idea of him being ‘a second father’ to Tiny Tim...

What Is the Money Market?

The money market is a market in fixed-income securities. Like other fixed-income securities markets (the bond market, for example), the money market is a stable place to put your money but it's not a get-rich quick plan. We'll walk you through what it is and how it works. If you decide it's for you, you can choose a money market account for your emergency fund.

How the Money Market Works

Like bonds, money market securities are fixed-income securities that act as IOUs. The purchaser earns a modest amount of interest and the seller promises to return the principle (purchase price) of the money market security at a later date.

Money market securities are very liquid and they have short maturities. Examples include short-term certificates of deposit (CDs), US Treasury bills (T-bills), repurchase agreements (also known as "repos") and commercial paper (short-term unsecured loans issued by companies that need to raise money).

What Is a Money Market Account?

Money market accounts come from banks and credit unions. They're similar to savings accounts, but usually have a slightly higher rate of return. They also have limited check-writing, withdrawal and transfer allowances.

Like money in a savings account, money in a money market account is insured by the FDIC or the National Credit Union Administration. The catch, though, is that money market accounts often come with fees to offset their greater rate of return. If you maintain a high balance you can avoid these fees, but if you don't you will probably pay higher fees with a money market account than you would with a savings account.

When Money Market Accounts Make Sense

Because they're a safe place to stash your money, money market accounts can work well as a home for some emergency savings. Money market accounts pay fairly low interest rates these days, but they still may be higher than the interest rate you would get on a savings account at a bank. And in many cases, the larger the balance you are willing to keep in a money market account, the higher the interest rate you'll receive.

Compared to a savings account, a money market account can offer a higher rate of growth - though obviously not as high as what you could get from investing in stocks. Money market accounts generally have the same advantages and disadvantages as savings accounts. The advantage is the safety of the investment. The disadvantage is the lower rate of return.

A low rate of return is significant not just because it means less growth, but because it means more vulnerability to inflation. If the rate of return on your money is lower than the inflation rate you're actually losing money. You may be willing to pay that price for the money you keep in your emergency fund, but you probably shouldn't put all your money in such a low-growth account unless you're very close to needing that money for retirement.

What About a Money Market Mutual Fund?

A money market fund is a mutual fund that holds low-risk money market securities as the account asset. They're required by law to hold low-risk securities, but they can still lose money. Money market funds are often the default destination for investment accounts.

Say you write a check to your 401(k) provider or the brokerage that houses your tax investments. That money will often be parked in a money market fund until you make the time to sit down and put it into, say, a mix of stocks and bonds.

Putting all your savings in a money market fund and leaving them there typically isn't a good asset allocation strategy if you want that money to grow over time and fund your retirement. Some unlucky savers have made 401(k) contributions for 20+ years, only to discover that, because their contributions all went to a money market fund, their savings have hardly grown. Plus, money market funds (unlike money market accounts) can actually lose money in a market downturn.

Bottom Line

You can open a money market account quickly and easily online through a bank, and/or open a money market fund through a brokerage. You can write checks from a money market account (another advantage they have over savings accounts) and in some cases you can get a debit card tied to your money market account. Happy saving!

Photo credit: ©iStock/AfricaImages, ©iStock/Mlesna, ©iStock/Gizelka

The Path Forward

The U.S. stock market hit new highs last week continuing to climb on a on a wall of worry while most other markets including China declined. It remains clear that both the U.S. and Chinese economies have accelerated while the economies of Europe and Japan remain stuck in the mud, in desperate need of reforms and trade deals.

We continue to be surprised that the pundits/experts believe that our market is fully valued selling at less than 17 times prospective earnings when the 10-year treasury is yielding 2.5% and bank capital/liquidity ratios are at new highs. The investment winds remain to our back with an accelerating economy with minimal inflationary pressures; low interest rates with an accommodative Fed; stronger than expected operating margins, profits and cash flow; and the prospects of trade deals on the horizon We continue to believe that the market is 10% undervalued today. But not all stocks will perform equally. There will be new winners and losers as the investment environment continues to change. Paix et Prospérité’s strength is staying one step ahead by identifying new trends/investments early and benefiting when they become apparent to all.  

Let’s look at the events of the week that support our outlook:

1.) The United States economy clearly accelerated as we moved through the winter with March as the as the strongest month in the quarter. We were not as enamored with the first-quarter GNP results reported Friday as the pundits since the vast majority of the 3.2% real growth reported came from inventory accumulation and a smaller trade deficit. In fact, we were disappointed that the consumer spending rose only 1.2% but were pleased that the PCE price index slowed to only a 1.3% increase, well below the Fed target of 2.0%. The government shutdown in January reduced growth in services by 0.3%. We are confident that the Fed will look through these numbers next week maintaining its current accommodative policy recognizing that reported growth will slow in the second quarter even though consumer spending is likely to accelerate.

Other stats reported last week included the consumer sentiment index which fell slightly in April from lofty levels to 97.2; existing housing sales fell 4.8% to an annualized rate of 5.21 million while new home sales actually rose 4.5% to 692,000 units in March and durable orders for business equipment increased to a 7-month high at $258.5 billion.

Our initial read is that second-quarter growth will slow to around 2%. We expect consumer spending to accelerate offset by a decline in inventories and a higher trade deficit as we return to more normal trading patterns that were altered by the threat of additional tariffs in January which never materialized. We look for an acceleration in growth in the third and fourth quarters bringing full year GNP gains near 2.7%.

Our confidence is increasing that trade deals will be reached with China and Japan over the next few months which will boost growth in 2020 and beyond.

2.) Economic prospects are clearly improving in China too. We are quite confident that all the monetary, fiscal and regulatory stimulus thrown at the economy has done the trick as first-quarter GNP came in stronger than anticipated at 6.4%; industrial production in March rose 8.5% from a year ago; retail sales rose a healthy 8.7%; exports most recently surged 14.2%. and industrial profits rebounded 13.9% from a year earlier.

We paid special attention to comments from Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Belt and Road forum in Beijing where he essentially supported many of the trade/intellectual property reforms demanded by the Trump administration in the trade talks as well as acknowledging that the yuan won’t be used to increase competitiveness. He also dialed back China’s control/dominance over countries participating in the Belt and Road initiative. Here again, he is bending to U.S. demands making a trade deal much more likely to be concluded over the next month. U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer returns to Beijing this week.

3.) Europe continues to be a mess as we see little progress on the financial, regulatory and trade reforms so sorely needed to enhance the regions global competitiveness. For example, Germany’s IFO index fell again in April to 99.2 and French factory confidence fell to a four-year low. While French President Macron discussed plans to cut taxes, he failed on his plan to introduce regulatory reforms.

We remain very pessimistic on Europe’s prospects and continue to believe that it will be very difficult for them to reach a trade deal with the U.S. if they try to exclude agriculture as they say.

4.) While the economic stats out of Japan have deteriorated, we believe that the prospects of Japan and the U.S. reaching a trade deal near term has improved dramatically. Factory output fell 0.9% in March, the jobless rate increased 2.5% and food inflation pushed up overall inflation to 1.3%, the highest reading in 4 years. The BOJ maintained its short-term rate at minus 0.1% and that of long-term yields at 0% at its most recent meeting. It also lowered its current economic forecast while extending to the summer of 2020 its aggressive easing policy.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Trump appeared to have a very successful meeting in DC on trade and were both optimistic that a deal could be concluded over the next month or so when Trump visits Japan to meet the new emperor. Japan’s economy will clearly benefit from a U.S. trade deal with China and with themselves. We are getting more optimistic on Japan’s economic prospects.

Trade has moved to the forefront of our outlook over the foreseeable future. We are gaining more confidence that deals will be struck between the U.S. and China and then with Japan. A deal with Europe remains questionable as long as agriculture is not part of it. While trade deals will not alter our economic outlook for 2019, it will boost our global forecast for 2020 and beyond. But don’t forget that the financial markets will anticipate all the gains/changes well before they become reality.

Specifically, we would expect trade deals to boost global economic activity; increase inflationary expectations; steepen yield curves; weaken the dollar; increase commodity prices and have a favorable impact on corporate profits. But not all regions, industries, and companies will benefit equally. Herein lies our strength. We have been global investors for a majority of our 48-year career successfully managing money utilizing both a top-down and bottom-up approach understanding the inter- and intra-relationships amongst the variables. We are true active managers outperforming the averages by a wide margin while maintaining liquidity and controlling risk at all times.

As you know, we anticipated the change in market perception back in December and shifted our portfolios accordingly to reflect a stronger economic environment as the year progressed.

Our portfolios currently include global industrial and capital goods companies like EMR and HON; technology including CSCO and MSFT; U.S. domiciled global financials like BAC; low-cost industrial commodity companies generating enormous free cash flow like RIO; cable with content like Comcast and Disney; housing related like HD; and any special situations. We are flat the dollar expecting it to weaken on trade deals and own no bonds as we expect the yield curve to steepen. We remain fully invested owning the best in breeds with great managements, winning business plans and big free cash flow with above average dividend.

Remember to review all the facts; pause, reflect and consider mindset shifts; look at your asset mix with risk controls; do independent research and…

Invest Accordingly!

Bill Ehrman Paix et Prospérité LLC

A Guide for Beer alternative

New month of the year January is a good time to make time again. For some, it may mean "dry January," but for those of you who don't want to give up alcohol altogether, there are some options that will help you reduce calories and carbs while enjoying a happy hour. Are you all out and looking for some inspiration? Let's take a look at some of the beer options tonight. And want to enjoy tonight then just open your mobile and search on goggle liquor store or liquor store nearby me and order your favorite beer from your liquor store. In Emergency, We love beer at Drinkerrs. Beer is a mystical drink that transcends cultures and enriches the human experience. That being said, sometimes we all go out. Fortunately, there are many options for beer. Open your heart and give your life some non-beer beauty. Let's mine Drinkerrs for some of your favorite beer style fresh ideas and tasty options. I explore some ways to balance while enjoying your hobbies. Now days, the options available to people looking for calorie, carb and gluten slash are becoming numerous.

Non beer substitute of Belgian wheat

If you’re looking for a friendly break from your Belgian wheat ales you can find comfort in a farmhouse-style cider. Some farmhouse ciders use the same Belgian yeast for their fermentation. It doesn’t matter if the barley yeast is dripping down barley malt sugar or apple juice; whatever is available will bear fruit. Belgian yeast makes for Belgian flavors. Farmhouse ciders are often mysterious, fruitful or funky and slightly intense. The Wit Up of Citizen Cider is a great example. It’s a crunchy, zippy, and similarly fruity, spicy Belgian yeast character that has made Belgian wheat ales so popular. Pear cider is a slightly sweeter alternative to your favorite Belgian wheat. Pear ciders are sweeter and less acidic than apples (check cans to confirm sweet / dry levels, of course), their lightness indicates floral flavor. It makes a nice, accessible cider that helps you move things without breaking up.

Hard Kombucha

As per our research this may be favorite alternative beer. Unlike hard seltzer, hard Kombucha has a real taste! Fermented from tea with a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, Kombucha is naturally tangy, has a bit of fun, and often contains juices and other substances to enhance the taste and nutritional value of the drink. Regular Kombucha already has some alcohol in it, so having a version with a little more kick is not a stretch

Alternative of Light Beer

The days are gone when light beer was made only by big, domestic brands. Many small craft breweries are now offering low-calories, low-carb beer to customers who are looking to cut back on such beer. Last few years some people fell in love with the Brat IPA, it was to offset the loud craze of palette cleansers. They use an enzyme that allows yeast to make more sugar, so you have a dry, bright beer balance that also has fewer calories and less carbs than the comparable IPA. Read more about them Brut IPA: Bubbly of Beers. They are a great option when keeping light on.

Hard Seltzer

Many more people are like light beer but, sometime you can try Hard Seltzer. There is nothing left but to bend in it. However, your favorite light beer is a really nice and refreshing option. Most customers will want beer, but why not give something to a friend who prefers not to drink alcohol? Even beer drinkers find an occasion in which they are asked to crack a can of hard seltzer.

Similarities of Hard seltzer and light beer

There are so many types it's hard to say right now, but hard sellers have the same concept: alcohol. They are usually low on ABV, low in calories and extremely light, so you can enjoy a lot of them and still enjoy what you are doing. Kind of reminds you of your favorite light beer, right?

How Hard Seltzer different from Light Beer

As we see the similarity of Hard seltzer and Light Beer, Now we are telling you that the difference between the Hard Seltzer and Light Beer. Here is the main difference is Flavoring, Hard Seltzer is serves the boozy base like lemon, berries or mangos. Light beer is a signature of grainy flavor, so you will lose some of that seltzer.

Does a hard seller have less carbs and calories than beer?

It’s certainly looking that way. Bud Light, for example, has 110 calories and 6.6 grams of carbs per 12oz, whereas Bud Light Seltzer has 100 calories 2 grams for carbs.

What is the Best Hard Seltzer

Actually, answer of this question is too much tough one. White claw have a 5% ABV is off to a strong start to dominance, but Bud Light is working hard on some great types and a lemon water option that is quite refreshing. We are afraid that you will drown in yourself and find your loving friend.

What is Alternative to a Hazy IPA

Hazy IPA has many attractive features in modern flavors, but their soft, full mouth feel is an important asset. Cider has the same ability. Unfiltered Cider has the same mysterious fog as your favorite fog IPA, as well as a whole, naturally rounded haze. Your taste buds will swear by the cider, but your eyes and mouth will say it’s a lazy IPA. Angry Orchard Unfiltered is a good place to start.

Non-Alcoholic alternatives beer style

Plan is going to non-alcoholic tonight? Never be afraid. The non-alcoholic beer range is much better than before.

Good Non-alcoholic IPA

Athletic drinking strikes again here with their run wild IPA. They’ve used a mix of some of our favorite West Coast hops to create amazingly fragrant IPAs that don’t seem to really compromise.

Good Non-alcoholic Lager

Leger flavors are so delicate that it is difficult to find non-alcoholic leger. We found that Beck’s non-alcoholics have very good grainy pilsner character and hop balance. In addition, if you're a Heineken fan, the new Heineken 0.0 is more of a taste than almost anything suspicious. We would love to find out how to remove it. Beer is the most kept and most forgiving of all drinks. It will forgive you if you want to create a branch and try something different. Maybe tonight to be creative. Check out our liquor store partners for some great beer alternatives! And enjoy your night party.

Trouble Is My Business – it gives noir a good name

Posted on December 12, 2017 by frothy

Trouble Is My Business, the feature directorial debut of Tom Konkle, is not so much a neo-noir thriller as an homage to noirs of years past. It’s a stylish love poem, really, lifting many of the timeless elements that made noirs so powerful in the 1930s through the 1950s, including the hard-boiled detective, the femme fatale, and the MacGuffin (in this case, a diamond).

Konkle (who cowrote the script with his costar, Brittney Powell) stars as Roland Drake, a shamed shamus who now runs a one-man detective agency after his partner Lew (David Beeler) moved on to bigger and better things. Drake gets a phone call from a mysterious woman who – of course – desperately needs his help in locating her missing father, a man who had somehow procured a famous, expensive diamond from overseas. The diamond, incidentally, is also missing. But before Drake can get to some serious detecting, his mystery woman is dead. In his bed. A bad start to a bad day!

And soon he has company – the dead woman’s sister, Jennifer Montemar (Powell). Jennifer assumes Drake had a hand in her sister’s death, but she too wants to find her father. And the diamond, of course. But Drake finds himself up against almost everyone, including his ex partner, a sadistic detective (played by perennial heavy Vernon Wells), a corrupt police force, a haughtily rich family, and some Russian mobsters.

Now, it may seem like there are a lot of people in this murky stew. But I found the direction – particularly the pacing – to be a huge asset, offsetting the many variables to some extent. It’s also helpful that the story isn’t told in a completely linear way; in fact, it spices things up a bit. If the plot simply a series of contrived events, the nonlinearity might prove to be confusing. But the script is tight, to the point where short snippets of dialog or a darting glimpse of a scene can prove to take on added meaning as the movie progresses – or, indeed, no meaning at all.

Konkle is very well cast as the weary, yet noble, gumshoe who may be in over his head. Of all of the characters in the movie, Drake is certainly the most developed, the most relatable, and the best portrayed. I’m not sure how many actual noirs Konkle the director saw before making this film, but Konkle the actor seemed to channel Sam Spade and Mike Hammer effortlessly. I found it pretty easy to believe that Drake could be dumb enough to fall for a dame but smart enough to stay one step ahead of, well, everyone else. The rest of the cast ranged from sufficient to very solid to slightly hammy. That’s not a slight against the cast, either. This is not a movie in which every performance needs to be Oscar worthy. The biggest roles – Drake and Jennifer – were spectularly aced, and that’s important.

Sometimes the movie’s tone shifted abruptly – from a serious detective tale to a slapstick comedy. The occasional joke makes sense, but here the one liners sometimes took me out of the scene (and, in fact, made me remember that this is a modern film, even though it is set in the late 1940s). Comic timing is never easy when you’re working on a dramatic film, I assume. It’s just that sometimes an actor’s line delivery would feel almost like they had just stepped out of character for a moment. That’s the tone shift I noticed.

But for the most part, this was a wonderful film, and it should be seen by fans of the genre. It might have come off even better had it been filmed in black and white (which I believe is a much more expensive process nowadays), but some of the scenes are lit to give one the impression of monochrome, with stark contrasts and sharp angles.