Where is the economy is today – is it growing? Flat? Declining? What about YOUR economy – your personal investments, your nest egg? How safe is it, and how likely it is to grow at the rate you want it to? When you think about your current investments, how do you feel? Secure, or are you half-panicked? For many, the recession of 2008 still lingers. Those who suffered are waiting, white-knuckled, holding on to their portfolios and still wondering what to do next. We have, after all, been in one of the longest bull markets in history and bull markets always come to an end at some point. So how do you protect yourself from the possibility of another 2008? And how can you start to take a more proactive, confident approach to your portfolio? When Tony wrote Money Master the Game, he had the unique privilege of sitting down with some of the most successful, masterful investors and financial gurus of all time - including the legendary Ray Dalio. Ray founded the investment management firm Bridgewater Associates in 1975 out of his two-bedroom New York City apartment. Four decades later, Bridgewater has grown to be the largest hedge fund in the world, managing over 160 billion dollars, and making more money for its investors than any other hedge fund in history. Dalio himself has appeared on the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world, as well as the Bloomberg Markets list of the 50 most influential people. And in Money Master the Game, Ray explains just what it means to create a balanced portfolio and even revealed the exact percentages of a simple portfolio that will protect you from the dips and even the dives in the market. But now - as Ray nears retirement, he has made the decision to share even more of the systems and strategies that have brought him such massive success in his deeply personal book Principles: Life & Work. Tony recently sat down with Ray to discuss just why Ray felt so inclined to share his wisdom with the world and why Principles is an absolute must-read for everyone - whether you're in the financial industry or not. And in this episode of the podcast, you will hear from Tony and Ray as they discuss the evolution of Ray's career, the catastrophic mistakes he made that almost destroyed everything he built, and how the lowest points in his life taught him his biggest lessons. You'll also hear Tony and Ray discuss their personal beliefs about creating a successful and productive workplace culture, and why everyone should strive to create a meritocracy and invoke "radical honesty" in their lives.


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Home » Entertainment » On-Foot Look at the Air Jordan 3 "Reimagined"
On-Foot Look at the Air Jordan 3 "Reimagined"
While it still has to get through its slated batch of retro releases in the month of December, Jordan Brand is already brewing up excitement for its fans by giving us a sneak peek at its early 2023 lineup. One of the offerings that will be brought to the fore is Air Jordan 3 "Reimagined," and after surfacing by way of early imagery, we've not got a look at what they're going to look like on foot.
Inspiration for this forthcoming release comes from the Air Jordan 3 "White "Cement" — one of Tinker Hatfield's original designs. Tumbled leather material is utilized to craft the toe boxes, tongues and side walls while perforated leather formulates the collars. All of these components are styled in "Summit White." From there, "Fire Red" accents show face on the forefoot's eyelets and interiors of the tongues and the Jumpman logos while "Cement Grey" is distributed to the elephant print overlays on the toe tips and heels. "Nike Air" branding nods the OG pairs from 1988 and the heel counters that they rest on is dialed to a soft white hue to communicate an "aged" look similar to the Air Jordan 1 High "Lost & Found."
As of now, a March 11 release day is in order but Nike hasn't confirmed this. Retail is set at $210 USD.
Elsewhere in sneakers, Jordan Brand is opening a flagship store in Milan.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Published February 8th 2018
#PlantBased: An Exploration of Online Vegan Communities and Conversations
How do online vegan communities manifest themselves online? What do they look like, who frequents them, and what do they talk about? The Brandwatch React team investigates.
I hear more about veganism every day here at Brandwatch, whether it's another colleague converting to Huel, or discussions of favorite recipes in our #dietary-requirements Slack channel.
Our CMO Will McInnes has got involved too, and we haven't heard the end of it since. The fact that Will has gone vegan has become so much of a company meme that our CEO bought him a T-Shirt that says "VEGAN AS FUCK."
My personal sense that interest in veganism is growing may have mainly been inspired by office chat and novelty attire, but there's far more solid evidence that veganism is growing in popularity, including that we're more likely now than at any time in the last 12 years to Google the word "vegan".
Looking at that upward trend, I decided to use a number of the Brandwatch tools I have at my disposal to explore how vegan communities are presenting themselves online.
Brace yourselves for some vegan-heavy data from Twitter, Instagram, Reddit as well as some delicious Image Insights.
For many, veganism is obviously more than a simple decision about what to eat on a given day. It's a lifestyle, a set of principles, a stance – perhaps even part of their religious beliefs.
We used Brandwatch Audiences to find nearly 86,000 people on Twitter with the word "vegan" in their bio. Yup, it's definitely popular.
We also found that alongside the word "vegan" many of those in our database had animals, civil rights and the environment as core parts of their biography.
Looking at what they've been tweeting about recently, we found a whole lot of anti-animal cruelty stories as well as appeals for dogs who need homes.
The self-identifying vegans we found had more than double the number of female authors than male.
#Vegan #PlantBased #Veganuary #Blessed
We also took a look at mentions of the hashtag #vegan on Instagram since the beginning of the year.
Browsing the posts, it was easy to see that on Instagram #vegan is almost just as much about lifestyle as it is about food. People are posting their "before and after" photos from when they began their new diet and exercise is also a key element, with gym selfies and mountain climbing photos tagged with #vegan.
Make up is another big topic with around 50k instances of "make up" or #makeup being mentioned alongside #vegan
Mentions of #Vegan peak on Mondays and around lunch time each day.
The Top 10 Most Influential Food Bloggers on Twitter
There are thousands of food blogs online but only a few are successful. We use Brandwatch Audiences to find the cream of the influential food bloggers crop.
U R/Vegan?
Similarly to our Instagram mentions, mentions on the r/Vegan subreddit peaked on Mondays but tended to peak a little later in the day between lunch and dinner time.
The topics of conversation, however, are slightly different. Mentions of animals (including animal, animal rights etc.) have a far bigger share of voice compared to food, make-up and fitness on Reddit than on Instagram.
Meanwhile, fitness as a topic on r/vegan was not nearly as popular compared to in #vegan posts on Instagram.
Eating with your eyes
We thought we'd also look at the vegan conversation through the lens of one of everyone's favorite brands – Ben & Jerry's.
The makers of delicious ice cream have continued to add to their vegan range and are being paid back both in sales and thankful Twitter and Instagram posts containing the company logo.
Using Brandwatch Image Insights, we found 2.5k visual mentions of Ben & Jerry's that also mentioned the word "vegan" in the text between 15 July 2017 and 6 February 2018. Here are some of them in our Instagram Image Wall:
Throughout all the sources we looked at we found a willingness for vegans to discuss the brands they are in to, creating big opportunities for the food and beverage industry to learn more about this growing customer base and potentially get involved.
A simple search for "Brand*" in r/Vegan came back with a whole bunch of companies and products being discussed by the community there.
A scroll through the mentions will reveal reviews, opinions and stories about the brands that community managers and consumer analysts alike ought to be aware of – especially if they're negative.
That's a lot of vegan data on your plate
So what can we learn from this whistle-stop tour of online vegan communities and communication?
We should point out that we've only touched the surface here both on insights and platforms – you don't need us to tell you how many places small communities can grow on the internet, from groups surrounding particular accounts on big platforms like Twitter to the harder to find, more niche blogs. Either way, insights from both are accessible with Brandwatch Analytics.
The first thing I've found surprising from my brief dive into vegan conversation is the amount of brand and product related conversation I found. You don't need to be a vegan to realise that options both in stores and restaurants can be limited, which can present problems that online communities come together to discuss. Comparing thoughts on products is just part of that conversation.
Secondly, veganism is so much more of a lifestyle thing than I first imagined. I wouldn't consider my own vegitarianism as central to my identity, but the number of health and other topics that are related to veganism – particularly on Instagram, but also in Twitter bios – opened my eyes to how others frame their dietary habits.
Finally, there's so much that community managers in the food and beverage industry can get involve in here. There are opportunities to listen out for gaps in the market in certain areas or product types, enlist the help of vegan influencers, examine the problems vegans face in order to help create better experiences for them in restaurants or stores and learn what content does well in which online platforms and arenas. It's all there in the data.
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The initial focus of our environmental program is to reduce our operational footprint. We cannot credibly advise others if we don't first get our own house in order.
one of North America's largest and most advanced technology systems, including two primary data centres, six secondary data centres and nearly 84,000 personal computers.


An artist known as Captain Bob From Outer Space has designed a rather diverse and cute series of blobified versions of Marvel and DC characters. It's pretty impressive, especially with the number of alternate costumes and D-List characters he's put his attention to.
Check out much more, including Batman, Spider-Man and X-Men right here.
Click to blow it up.


JK Rowling has admitted that she considered killing off Harry Potter character of Ron Weasley out of "sheer spite".
Although the author did not originally plan to kill off any of the characters in the series of books – and subsequent films – she was tempted to change her mind after finding herself in an 'unhappy place'.
The role of Weasley was played by Rupert Grint in all seven of the hugely successful film adaptations of the books.
I think in my absolute heart of heart of hearts, although I did seriously consider killing Ron, [I wouldn't have]. It's a real relief to be able to talk about it all.
She made the admission in an interview with title role actor Daniel Radcliffe for a special feature on the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 DVD, which has leaked online ahead of its release later this year.
The DVD will be released in a variety of formats in the US on November 11 and the UK on December 2.


This page show the 540 prime list.
Prime number index is from 539001 to 540000.
Prime number list from 7987313 to 8003537, contain 1000 prime numbers.
7987313 is at position 539001, and 8003537 is at position 540000 in all prime list.


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0733 è il prefisso telefonico del distretto di Macerata, appartenente al compartimento di Ancona.

Il distretto comprende la parte orientale della provincia di Macerata, ad eccezione dei comuni di Porto Recanati e Recanati. Confina con i distretti di Jesi (0731) e di Ancona (071) a nord, di Fermo (0734) e di Ascoli Piceno (0736) a sud, di Camerino (0737) a ovest e di Fabriano (0732) a nord-ovest.

Aree locali e comuni
Il distretto di Macerata comprende 35 comuni suddivisi nelle 3 aree locali di Civitanova Marche (ex settori di Civitanova Marche e Potenza Picena), Macerata (ex settori di Cingoli e Macerata) e Tolentino (ex settori di San Severino Marche, Sant'Angelo in Pontano e Tolentino) e nelle 15 rete urbane di Appignano, Cingoli, Civitanova Marche, Macerata, Montecassiano, Monte San Giusto, Morrovalle, Petriolo, Potenza Picena, San Severino Marche, Sant'Angelo in Pontano, Sarnano, Tolentino, Treia e Urbisaglia. I comuni compresi nel distretto sono: Apiro, Appignano, Belforte del Chienti, Caldarola, Camporotondo di Fiastrone, Cessapalombo, Cingoli, Civitanova Marche, Colmurano, Corridonia, Gualdo, Loro Piceno, Macerata, Mogliano, Monte San Giusto, Monte San Martino, Montecassiano (compresa la località di Sambucheto del comune di Recanati), Montecosaro, Montefano (compresa la località Montefiore del comune di Recanati), Montelupone, Morrovalle, Penna San Giovanni, Petriolo, Poggio San Vicino, Pollenza, Potenza Picena, Ripe San Ginesio, San Ginesio, San Severino Marche, Sant'Angelo in Pontano, Sarnano, Serrapetrona, Tolentino, Treia e Urbisaglia .

AREE LOCALI E RETI URBANE

Area Locale di Civitanova Marche

Comprende le Reti Urbane di: Civitanova Marche e Potenza Picena.

Rete Urbana di Civitanova Marche

Comprende il solo comune di Civitanova Marche.

Rete Urbana di Potenza Picena

Comprende il solo Comune di Potenza Picena.

Area Locale di Macerata

Comprende le Reti Urbane di: Appignano, Cingoli, Macerata, Montecassiano, Monte San Giusto, Morrovalle, Petriolo, Treia e Urbisaglia.

Rete Urbana di Appignano

Comprende il solo comune di Appignano.

Rete Urbana di Cingoli

Comprende i Comuni di: Apiro, Cingoli e Poggio San Vicino.

Rete Urbana di Macerata

Comprende i Comuni di: Corridonia e Macerata.

Rete Urbana di Montecassiano

Comprende i Comuni di: Montecassiano e Montefano.

Rete Urbana di Monte San Giusto

Comprende il solo Comune di: Monte San Giusto.

Rete Urbana di Morrovalle

Comprende i Comuni di: Montecosaro, Montelupone e Morrovalle.

Rete Urbana di Petriolo

Comprende i Comuni di: Mogliano e Petriolo.

Rete Urbana di Treia

Comprende i Comuni di: Pollenza e Treia.

Rete Urbana di Urbisaglia

Comprende i Comuni di: Colmurano, Loro Piceno, Ripe San Ginesio e Urbisaglia.

Area Locale di Tolentino

Comprende le Reti Urbane di: San Severino Marche, Sant'Angelo in Pontano, Sarnano e Tolentino.

Rete Urbana di San Severino Marche

Comprende il solo comune di San Severino Marche.

Rete Urbana di Sant'Angelo in Pontano

Comprende i Comuni di: Gualdo, Monte San Martino, Penna San Giovanni, San Ginesio e Sant'Angelo in Pontano.

Rete Urbana di Sarnano

Comprende il solo comune di Sarnano.

Rete Urbana di Tolentino

Comprende i Comuni di: Belforte del Chienti, Caldarola, Camporotondo di Fiastrone, Cessapalombo, Serrapetrona e Tolentino.

Note

Prefissi telefonici italiani
Provincia di Macerata

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Our 25,000 square foot warehouse is fully stocked with a comprehensive selection of parts for all makes and models. Our on-site advisors are at hand 24 hours, 6 days per week to assist you in meeting your needs in the most economical way possible. And, don't worry if you can't come to us, we have a extensive fleet of on road sales and delivery staff willing to come to you, through our business to business delivery service. Covering the Niagara, Simcoe, Hamilton and Toronto / GTA areas, we are always on the road. If we don't have a certain part in stock, we will work closely with our distributors to get it the next day. An idle unit is the worst thing that can happen to your bottom line, and we are here to ensure that it doesn't stay idle for long. From large fleets to individual owners, everyone benefits from our full circle service.


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You are at:Home»Reef Conservation»EPA Rule Changes for Shipping Vessel Ballast Water to Cut Down on Invasive Marine Species
EPA Rule Changes for Shipping Vessel Ballast Water to Cut Down on Invasive Marine Species
By Guest Writer on	 March 29, 2013 Reef Conservation
Image from National Ballast Information Clearinghouse
When people think of non-native species invading a particular area, they often blame pet owners for releasing them into the wild. Such is the case for the lionfish debacle in the Atlantic and adjoining waters, as well as the presence of big snakes in the Florida Everglades, but it's not always the pet owners that are at fault. Now, I'm not here to tell you that the aquarium hobby wasn't responsible for the massive lionfish invasion, but a recent move by the Environmental Protection Agency would suggest that other sources have just as significant an impact as irresponsible pet owners. The government agency recently issued a new set of requirement for cleaning ballast water from large shipping vessels, which can carry millions of gallons of water from one part of the world and dump it in another. And as well all know, oceanic waters aren't devoid of life, not even remotely.
When ships leave a particular area, they often fill large ballasts within the hull with several millions of gallons of seawater. This is done to help keep the ship stable during incliment weather and rough seas. Then, when the ship gets to its destination, it simply offloads all of that water, releasing whatever animals or plant life that got sucked up in the first place. The animals contained in the ballast water, if they survived, could be introduced into a new area that they could easily exploit, leading to an invasion or some other negative environmental impact.
The new rules require ships to treat the water within the ballasts with UV sterilizers or harmful chemicals in order to kill "most" of the organisms. For obvious reasons, we do not favor the use of chemicals, and instead would like to see UV treatment or possibly some other form of mechanical death dealing that would have the least impact on local waters. Prior to these rule changes, ships were required to change out their ballast water 200 nautical miles from the US shoreline. Environmentalist groups felt that the previous rules still left too many possibilities for non-native species to have an impact on local waters, and many still feel these new rules don't go far enough.
There is no hard deadline for active ships to be retrofitted with this new ballast technology, but any new ships produced after December 1st (presumably from 2012) will have to be retrofitted immediately. Ships that stay within the Great Lakes and never make it out to see are immune from these rule changes, which environmental groups also do not approve.
Source: Yahoo! News
Image Source: National Ballast Information Clearinghouse
"Finding Dory's" Impact on Paracanthurus hepatus
Scientists Studying Ecological Impact Sea Star Die-Off in in Howe Sound, BC Canada
Banggai Cardinalfish and The Endangered Species Act
How do you like the JellyFish Art Aquarium?
Neat idea, but I probably wouldn't buy one.
I love it! Sign me up!


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Tag Archives: jobseeker
'Shoestring Army' to battle government-imposed 'slavery' in the courts
Posted by Mike Sivier in Benefits, Conservative Party, Crime, Law, People, Politics, Poverty, UK, unemployment
10, A Letter A Day To Number, allowance, benefit, benefits, challenge, claimant commitment, Coalition, coerce, coercion, compliance, comply, conditionality, Conservative, contract, court, crowdsource, Democrat, Department, DWP, employment, entitlement, fund, government, Human Rights Act, Iain Duncan Smith, jobseeker, JSA, Keith, legal, Liberal, Lindsay-Cameron, Lord Freud, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, Ordinary Guy, Pensions, people, police, politics, raise, responsibilities, sanction, Shoestring Army, slave, slavery, social security, Ten, Tories, Tory, unemployment, welfare, work
Energising: Keith Lindsay-Cameron prepares to take his case to the police.
An activist from Somerset is raising his own 'Shoestring Army' to crowdsource funds and mount a legal challenge against the government's new Claimant Commitment for jobseekers, after police said they were unable to arrest Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud for breaching the Human Rights Act.
Keith Lindsay-Cameron, of Peasedown St John, near Bath, was advised to obtain the services of a solicitor and raise a legal challenge in the courts after he made his complaint at Bath police station on Friday (May 2).
He said the conditionality regime that is part of the new Claimant Commitment will re-cast the relationship between the citizen and the State – from one centred on 'entitlement' to one centred on a contractual concept in which the government provides a range of support only if a claimant meets an explicit set of responsibilities, with a sanctions regime to enforce compliance.
According to Mr Lindsay-Cameron, this amounts to the reintroduction of slavery. Forced compliance – through the sanctions regime – means people will be denied the means of survival if they fail to meet the conditions imposed on them. Deprivation of the means of survival, he claims, also breaches the act's guarantee that everybody has the right to life and should not be deprived of it.
"The civilian desk receptionist asked my business and I gave her a verbal breakdown – that I had come to accuse Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud of crimes under the Human Rights Act 1998," said Mr Lindsay-Cameron, who is better-known to thousands of readers as the author of the A Letter A Day To Number 10 internet blog.
"The Claimant Commitment contract means the loss of access to any benefits if one refused to sign, and benefit sanctions if one was considered to be in breach of the signed contract. Either way, this amounts to forced labour and therefore slavery.
"I was asked for more details and explained that a sanction – loss of benefits – meant the loss of the means of survival. I said we had not come to ridicule the police or to challenge them, but that they existed as our – ordinary folks' – doorway to justice and that what I was doing there was asking for their help and that I was personally in the system and that we all needed help."
But a police inspector told the activist, and the small group who attended to show their support, that officers at his station could not deal with the matter.
"I explained the situation and what the coercion of sanctions meant and that this did not constitute anything normal as a civic obligation under the human rights act – and I pointed out that if he made a mistake, he would not face a loss of a month's income, nor three months' for a second error or three years' loss of income for a third infraction," said the campaigner.
"He explained to me that, under the law, Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud were upholding the laws that they had made and that – whatever I felt about that – they had no case to answer and that his job as a police officer was to enforce the law.
"He said that I would need to obtain the services of a solicitor and raise a challenge in the courts for a judge to decide whether the actions of Duncan Smith and Freud were a breach of human rights."
He said this process was already under way. The group has bought the internet domain name theshoestringarmy.com and will now start the process of a challenge.
Mr Lindsay-Cameron added that his visit to Bath Police Station was delayed when he stopped to meet a group of homeless people in the churchyard next door, while police were trying to move them on.
"It gave us a bizarre sense of what we were about to embark on," he said.
"Where do people go, having nothing and welcome nowhere, in the land of the growing dispossessed?"
How can we force politicians to do what they say?
Posted by Mike Sivier in Conservative Party, Corruption, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Politics, UK, UKIP
"slave labour", betray, book, Conservative, corrupt, deceit, deception, Democrat, Department, disaffect, disenfranchise, DWP, elector, government, insurance, jobseeker, Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Act, John Elwyn Kimber, Labour, Lib Dem, Liberal, Manchester, Mandatory Work Activity, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, National Health Service, new money, NHS, Orange, Party, Patrick Mercer, pension, Pensions, people, political, politician, politics, privatisation, privatise, reorganisation, reorganise, sanction, social security, state, student fee, Tories, Tory, UKIP, unemploy, unum, Vox Political, welfare, Whig, work, Workfare, workforce, workplace
One down: Patrick Mercer resigned because the weight of corruption allegations against him was too great. But what are the other 649 MPs hiding?
We need to talk about the culture of deception that is festering at the heart of the British political classes.
Every party is guilty of this to some degree – all of them. They have all made promises to the electorate and then, once in positions of power, they have done exactly whatever else they wanted.
On Tuesday, Patrick Mercer resigned as an MP rather than face suspension from the House of Commons over allegations that, rather than carrying out the will of his constituents, he had corruptly set up an All-Party Parliamentary Group to life Fiji's suspension from the Commonwealth, after having been offered money to do so by undercover reporters.
His resignation came 11 months after he resigned from the Parliamentary Conservative Party, and this decision was made in the knowledge that a TV documentary was about to present the allegations to the country. Would he have taken these actions otherwise? It's highly doubtful. Nobody resigns when they think they got away with it.
Nobody seems to be mentioning the fact that this allegedly corrupt MP managed to keep his seat in the Commons for 11 months after the allegations came out – that's nearly one-fifth of a Parliamentary term when he was still drawing his taxpayer-funded salary. Is that reasonable?
Mercer is, of course, just one individual case. In the lifetime of this Parliament we have seen entire Parliamentary political parties turn on their electors in betrayal. It is to be hoped that nobody has forgotten Labour's betrayal of the unemployed when it failed to oppose the Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Act that retrospectively imposed penalties on people who refuse to take part in state-sponsored 'slave labour' schemes.
Labour's front bench claimed it had negotiated important concessions, including an inquiry into the effectiveness of mandatory work activity – and when is that due to report? Around 30 Labour MPs are still entitled to hold their heads high, because they rebelled and voted against the legislation in any case.
Far worse is the behaviour of the Conservative Party, who promised that the National Health Service would be safe under a Tory government and then set in motion the wholesale upheaval that we have witnessed over the past few years, with funding squandered on reorganisation and privatisation of services that is intended to lead to the abolition of the publicly-funded health service in a few years' time.
Pensions are going the same way; the Workplace Pension discourages employers from participation, meaning they are trying to push their workforces into taking up private schemes instead. Meanwhile the state pension has been 'simplified' in a way that means people have to work longer before receiving it. The intention is, eventually, to privatise pension provision altogether and ensure only those on higher pay can afford them.
And the Tories are busy abolishing the rest of the welfare state as well. The harsh regime of sanctions and slave-labour schemes run by the Department for Work and Pensions is intended to soften up the workforce – and potential workforce – for the introduction of privately-run schemes, into which you will be expected to pay to insure against the possibility of becoming jobless – the policies would provide your income during any such period (as long as you didn't stay out of work for very long) instead of the government.
The problem with such proposals is that, if they are run along the same lines as certain health insurance schemes, they would be scams – as the conditions would be rigged to ensure that the companies running them never had to pay out. This is what we have learned from the fact that the criminal Unum Corporation has been advising the DWP on its policies.
And then, worst of all, we have the so-called Liberal Democrats, who promised to eradicate student fees in the run-up to the 2010 election and betrayed that pledge two months before the poll took place, in a backroom power-sharing deal with the Conservative Party.
The same organisation has gone on to support the Conservatives every step of the way to dismantling the welfare state and reducing the vast majority of the UK's workforce to conditions we have not seen since the early 20th century at the latest.
Many of us have been dismayed at this apparent betrayal by an organisation that we all hoped would have put a brake on the more excessive Tory policies, but VP Facebook commenter John Elwyn Kimber has cast illumination on the reasons we were mistaken.
"19th-century Whiggery, 'Orange' or 'Manchester' Liberalism, call it what you like, was about the unfettered power of new money – hence identical to modern 'Toryism'," he wrote.
"Just as Eisenhower was the last civilised Republican president, traditional patrician Downton-Abbey-style Conservatism of the more socially-responsible sort finally departed British politics after the MacMillan government. Even the sitting-on-the-fence Heathites, the 'Tory Wets', were gleefully kicked out of the cabinet by Margaret Thatcher after the 'Falklands election' in 1983, with the exception of Whitelaw who was retained [though sidelined] as a sort of sop to the traditionalists.
"Since when, the political consensus has been for whiggery-pokery all the way up till now. So while the understanding of 'Liberal' by Lib Dem grass roots voters is a mid-twentieth-century one, all about tolerance and socially-progressive policies, it seems obvious that Clegg's cabinet are only too happy to be rabid whigs nuzzled up to another lot of rabid whigs – the only difference is in the mood-music provided for the grass roots in each case."
The message is that we were all deceived – again.
The problem is that there is almost nothing we can do about it that doesn't take a lot of time – a commodity that is in short supply.
Historically, the UK does not carry a box on the ballot paper marked "None of the above". This means there is no direct democratic way of refusing all the candidates for election to a particular constituency and demand better. Nor is there ever likely to be, because our corrupt politicians know that would be equivalent to turkeys voting for Christmas.
Alternatively, we can form new political parties and try to beat the corrupt old parties at their own game. The problem with this is one of traction; it takes new parties many years to gain enough recognition to become a serious force. UKIP is only beginning to gain such recognition now, after more than 20 years – and this is as a protest party against membership of the European Union. If that party's supporters took a look at its other policies, they'd desert en masse.
Another possibility is similarly time-consuming: You actually join one of the main political parties and try to effect change from within. The problem here is that you would be fighting established members every step of the way. It has been done effectively in the past, though – look at the way Labour was transformed into New Labour by the influence of a few neoliberal infiltrators, and consider the damage that has done to the party's reputation and effectiveness.
The worst option is the most popular: You do nothing. This is, of course, the wide and easy path to disaster – but so many people are feeling disaffected because of the barriers that the corrupt political classes have put up against democracy, that they honestly can't see the point of voting.
This of course means our government will be elected by an ever-diminishing group of electors, and makes it all the more possible for our ever-more-elite group of corrupt politicians to argue for those who don't vote to lose the right to take part in elections. You will be disenfranchised.
Then you really will have no power to change anything at all.
Is that what you want?
Was political propaganda as blatant as this under Labour?
27 Sunday Apr 2014
Posted by Mike Sivier in Benefits, Cost of living, People, Politics, Poverty, UK, unemployment
agreement, allowance, benefit, benefits, claimant commitment, Department, DWP, government, identity, industry, jobseeker, JSA, Lord Freud, master, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, Pensions, people, politics, recruitment agency, sex, slave, social security, state, theft, thief, thieves, trade, trafficker, unemployment, Universal Credit, Universal Jobmatch, Vox Political, welfare, work, Work Programme
The DWP press office put out a diabolical piece of bilge masquerading as news on Friday. It's so godawful I have to share it with you.
The gist is that the new 'Claimant Commitment' a contract "demanding more from jobseekers" is now in place across the whole of the UK, with 635,000 JSA claimants having been forced to sign these agreements.
But let's go through it in detail, with each paragraph clarified by Vox Political's special 'BS' translation service.
"The Claimant Commitment has now been successfully rolled out across the country, the latest figures show. It means all new jobseekers and those completing the Work Programme must agree and sign the commitment in order to receive benefits." Translation: It doesn't matter that you've paid taxes all your working life – you do what we say or we bankrupt you.
"The new agreement sees jobseekers agree the steps they will take each week to give them the best chance of getting into work." Translation: Agreement has nothing to do with it – we'll make them jump through hoops in a poodle costume if we want but it won't help them get a job.
"This could include registering and looking for work through Universal Jobmatch or a recruitment agency." Not only do we do nothing to help them get a job, we also help identity thieves steal their details and put vulnerable youngsters in the clutches of the sex industry.
"It builds on help already in place." Obviously we're having a laugh with this line.
"Welfare Reform Minister Lord Freud said: 'With Universal Credit we are creating a modern and sustainable welfare system that is fit for the 21st century – one that supports people when they need it and helps them become independent." This has nothing to do with the Claimant Commitment but I've been told to 'big up' Universal Calamity whenever I can, to hide the fact that it's such an albatross.
"'The Claimant Commitment redefines the relationship between jobseekers and the state." To one between slave and master.
"'Claimants receive greater support to get into work from their work coach-' All our work coaches have been given extra training in how to use a whip '-and we expect them to do all they can to find a job as quickly as possible as part of the deal for receiving their benefit.' We know there aren't any jobs but this simply means we can cut off their cash more quickly when they fail.
"'Staff have told me it has strengthened their ability to support people into work at the earliest opportunity.' Those who haven't gone on long-term sick leave with depressive conditions have developed a kind of dead-eyed look and keep repeating, 'I'm just following orders'.
"Following an in-depth conversation, work coaches and jobseekers agree regular specific tasks, work preparation and training opportunities that will give them the best chance of finding work quickly." Tasks… preparation… opportunities! Oh, our sides are splitting! "The penalties claimants could face for failing to meet their responsibilities to get into work are clearly spelt out." And horrifying.
[The following paragraph is edited as it purports to feature an actual jobseeker] "'Dizzy' Guise [not his real name], signed a Claimant Commitment after he was made redundant." We know our official wording has it that their jobs are redundant, not the people, but it gives us a tremendous sense of superiority over these proles to say that they are redundant instead. "He said it helped him focus on his job search and he's now working as a business apprentice in Barking." You'd have to be barking to believe that!
"He said: 'When I first met my adviser I was probably like every person coming to the Jobcentre, a bit unenthusiastic.'" We want people to think that everyone claiming JSA is a sponger and doesn't want to look for work.
"'But I don't think people know how much the Jobcentre advisers do for them.'" To them.
"'I thought the Claimant Commitment was demanding, but fair. It motivated me.'" We want people to think that everyone claiming JSA is a sponger and doesn't want to look for work.
"'Without that commitment you probably don't do so many job searches.'" We want people to think that everyone claiming JSA is a sponger and doesn't want to look for work.
"The new commitment is an important part of the cultural transformation that Universal Credit will bring-" from a free society in which every citizen is equal to one where we can treat you like the scum we think you are "-and will place a strong focus on the responsibilities that claimants must fulfil" … while we accept no responsibility at all for whatever happens.
That seems much clearer now.
Would any jobseekers, who have had to sign this Claimant Commitment, care to tell us what it's really like?
An hour of honesty at the Daily Mail
Posted by Mike Sivier in Comedy, Media, UK
alternative, atheist, bad news, bathroom light, BBC, cancer, cause, Crowdwish, Daily Mail, emo band, flip flops, Hugh Grant, jobseeker, lefty, liberal elitist, lifestyle, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, negative, soup, stimuli, stimulus, survival, Vox Political, water, wind farm, women
Image: Crowdwish.
Have a good look at the picture above. If you click on it, you should get a larger version.
The sign it depicts was erected on the wall of the Daily Mail offices in London yesterday by an organisation calling itself Crowdwish (@crowdwish – "The most popular wish of the day actioned. Today, tomorrow and forever.") and the tweet accompanying this picture stated: "For one – very satisfying – hour the sign below adorned The Daily Mail offices this afternoon."
The blogpost accompanying the picture explained that it was in response to a wish that the media would focus more on the good things that happen in the world.
"The fact is that bad news sells; negative events cause spikes in TV ratings, sales of papers to rise and increases in traffic online," the article continued – and this is fair comment; Vox Political's own highest reader figures have been generated by disasters like the passing of the Gagging Law.
The article explained: "Man's (and women's) most primeval survival skill is to stay out of harms way; to be alert to threats or danger, and our brains are therefore hardwired to be highly responsive to negative stimuli. Bad is stronger than good because bad is inherently more threatening.
"As a result the media cater very directly to that powerful physiological reaction, giving us more of that which we fixate on and respond to, resulting in a slant towards negative news."
The article went on to quote a specific example: "a very comprehensive list of all things that the Daily Mail have claimed 'may' cause cancer. The list includes water, soup, wearing flip flops and switching on the bathroom light at night.
"It's more hilarious than offensive but led us to want to have a cheap laugh at the Mail's expense this afternoon, it being Friday and all.
"So we made a faux-marble sign that we thought displayed a more accurate depiction of the Mail's true editorial values, and sent someone – dressed as a workman in hard had and Hi Vis vest – to fix it to the side of their building in Kensington.
"Amazingly, it was a full hour before somebody noticed and removed it.
"Yes, we know the Daily Mail is an obvious target, and no, we don't think it was very grown-up."
It must have felt good, though.
Anyone wishing to keep an eye on Crowdwish's future activities – or who wants to make a request – can do so via the address above.
Vox Political has only one wish: financial independence.
Jobseekers told to do more to find (non-existent) work
Posted by Mike Sivier in Benefits, Conservative Party, Corruption, Cost of living, Employment, Liberal Democrats, People, Politics, Poverty, UK, unemployment, Workfare
benefit, benefits, bullied, bully, Coalition, Conservative, Democrat, Department, diminish, double standard, draconian, DWP, employment, esther mcvey, fraud, government, harass, identity, incentive, jobseeker, Jobseeker's Allowance, JSA, Liberal, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, minister, Pensions, people, politics, poverty, pretend, protect, repressive, Richard Hutton, sanction, scrounge, scrounging, search, self employ, sex work, shirker, social security, support, tax credit, theft, thief, thieves, Tories, Tory, training, undermine, Vox Political, welfare, work, work experience, Work Programme, Workfare
Esther McVile: The employment minister, who claims adamantly that changes to housing benefit do not constitute a 'bedroom tax', is pictured complaining about a so-called 'tunnel tax' in her own constituency in a blatant display of double standards.
WARNING: This article has been edited using the 'Guide to DWP euphemisms' published by Richard Hutton, and with inspiration from it.
New rules coming into force at the end of the month mean jobseekers will have to do more to find work – even though there are currently five of them for every job available – the Department for Work and Pensions has announced.
Simply 'signing-on' for benefits will be a thing of the past under the draconian and repressive new rules.
Employment Minister and double-standards queen Esther McVey has hailed the new rules as undermining the range of support available, which helps diminish aspects of the social security system so that it no longer protects anybody from being left impoverished – in this case by making sure people cannot start claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) by just signing-on without first humbling themselves before the Tory-led government.
She said: "With the economy growing, unemployment falling and record numbers of people in work, now is the time to start expecting more of shirkers if they want to claim benefits. It's only right that we should push people who are unemployed into such a depth of poverty that even 'in-work' poverty is a step-up.
"This is about taking support away from people and undermining the range of support available to them so they can hit rock bottom faster. In return, we will give people as much harassment as possible, to make them stop scrounging or face sanctions, because we know from employers that we have to break people's spirit before they'll work for a really low wage."
To prepare for their first interview with a Jobcentre Plus adviser, people looking for work will be told they will not even be able to sign as unemployed until they have prepared a CV, set up an email address – even though they might not have a computer on which to use it – and registering with the government's discredited jobs website Universal Jobmatch, which will expose them to identity thieves and exploiters looking for sex workers. This change will make it possible to exploit people as soon as they start their JSA claim.
People who don't tow the line will receive more harassment from their Jobcentre Plus adviser – weekly rather than fortnightly – to ensure they can be cleared off the books via sanctions if it proves impossible to push them into poverty work.
All new JSA claimants will also now have a quarterly review with their adviser, who will try to find a reason to impose sanctions and get them off the books.
These new measures are being introduced as figures show the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell by over 363,000 on the year, the largest annual fall since 1998. This shows that the system of sanctions, putting people on Workfare to hide the fact that they are unemployed, and asking them to pretend that they are self-employed in order to fraudulently claim tax credits instead, is working.
The government is committed to sanctions and the vast majority of people are bullied off JSA quickly – more than 75 per cent of people end their claim within six months. Every working day Jobcentre Plus advisers shout at 98,000 interviews jobseekers and there are a range of ploys available to push them off the system. These include:
• Hiding them on the Work Programme
• Referring them for 'training' by companies that provide the minimum help available, take the money and run
• Putting people on pointless 'work experience' that won't lead to a job but will clear them off the claimant count
• Fooling people with 'incentives' that mean nothing
• Getting people to pretend they are self-employed.
Vox Political wants to see more honesty in government press releases
… but we need YOUR help to keep up the pressure.
Good riddance to bad rubbish: Universal Jobmatch to be scrapped
Posted by Mike Sivier in Benefits, Media, People, Politics, Public services, UK, unemployment
benefit, benefits, check, close, contract, costly, criminal, Department, ditch, DWP, end, expensive, fake, fraud, identity theft, illegal, jobseeker, jobsworth, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, monster, Pensions, people, politics, record, repeat, scrap, sex, social security, The Guardian, unemployment, Universal Jobmatch, Vox Political, welfare, work
Leaked documents from the Department for Work and Pensions have shown that Universal Jobmatch is set to be scrapped – not only because it is full of fake and repeat job entries but also because it is too expensive.
But the government is bound to its contract for another two years and is unlikely to try to release itself until the agreement (with a company called, appropriately, Monster) comes up for renewal.
The plans have been revealed by The Guardian, after the documents were passed to the paper from an unnamed source.
It seems there was no mention of the adverts for illegal jobs such as sex work; perhaps the particular civil servants who wrote these reports don't look at that kind of material on the internet!
The leak follows revelations that some job postings "enticed jobseekers to spend money needlessly – for example on fake criminal records checks – or were a means of harvesting personal information for identity fraud".
According to Wikipedia, the site was developed by Monster at a cost of over £17 million and has annual running charges of £6 million. The Guardian states that Monster wanted an extra £975,000 to clear UJM of fraudulent employment adverts.
What is not clear is whether jobsworth Jobcentre staff will continue demanding that jobseekers use the site.
They'll have a big job on their hands – convincing anyone that it is still workable.
Cameron's 'mission' is morally bankrupt
Posted by Mike Sivier in Benefits, Conservative Party, Cost of living, Disability, Employment, Employment and Support Allowance, People, Politics, Poverty, UK, unemployment, Universal Credit, Workfare
allowance, attack, bankrupt, benefit, bishop, catholic, claimant count, Coalition, Conservative, Customs, David Cameron, death, debt, deficit, Department, destitute, destitution, dole, DWP, employment, ESA, evidence, expense, fraud, government, health, HM Revenue, hmrc, holiday, hope, hunger, Iain Duncan Smith, IB, IDS, Incapacity Benefit, Job Centre Plus, jobseeker, long term economic plan, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, mission, moral, mortality, national Statistics, office, ONS, opportunity, overpaid, overpayment, pension, Pensions, people, politics, punitive, purpose, Reform, responsibility, returned to unit, right, RTU, safety net, sanction, self employ, social security, support, Tories, Tory, travel, Universal Credit, Vincent Nichols, Vox Political, welfare, Westminster, work, Workfare, Working Tax Credit
When David Cameron stands up in all his hypocrisy and tells you that tearing apart the basic safety net that guaranteed people would not be left in hunger or destitution is part of his "moral mission", even die-hard Tories should agree that the country has taken a turn for the worse.
When he defends an administration that has become so punitive that applicants who don't get it right have to wait without food for months at a time, by claiming he is doing "what is right", even die-hard Tories should agree that the man who claims he is Prime Minister has diverged from reality.
That is precisely what he has done, and you can bet that the Tory diehards will quietly go along with it because they think it is far better for other people to lose their lives than it is for their government to lose face.
Cameron has been responding after the Catholic Bishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, delivered a vehement attack on the social security "reforms" being forced on the country's most vulnerable people by Iain Duncan Smith.
In the Daily Telegraph, Cameron smarmed: "Our long-term economic plan for Britain is not just about doing what we can afford, it is also about doing what is right… Nowhere is that more true than in welfare. For me the moral case for welfare reform is every bit as important as making the numbers add up.
"We are in the middle of a long and difficult journey turning our country around," Cameron said. "That means difficult decisions to get our deficit down, making sure that the debts of this generation are not our children's to inherit.
"But our welfare reforms go beyond that alone – they are about giving new purpose, new opportunity, new hope – and yes, new responsibility to people who had previously been written off with no chance.
"Seeing these reforms through is at the heart of our long-term economic plan – and it is at the heart too of our social and moral mission in politics today."
Drivel. Any evidence-based analysis will find the exact opposite. Where are the opportunities in Workfare schemes that pay only benefits, meaning travel expenses alone put claimants out of pocket, and then send jobseekers back to the dole queue so rich companies can profit further by taking on more claimants on the same terms?
How can anyone derive hope from taking responsibility for their job search, when DWP staff at Jobcentre Plus are ordered to ignore their own responsibilities in favour of harsh sanctions for invented infringements of the Jobseeker's Agreement?
And how is encouraging people to say they are self-employed, even though they have little chance of earning enough to support them and none of enjoying a holiday or a pension, different from writing them off with no chance?
Look at the new employment figures from the Office for National Statistics – the Coalition government has been making a song and dance about them ever since they came out. On the face of it, they seem reliable: In December 2013, 30.15 million people were in work of some kind, up by 396,000 from the same time the previous year; there were 2.34 million unemployed, down 161,000 from December 2012; and the Claimant Count (those on Jobseekers' Allowance) was 1.22 million in January, down 327,000 from a year earlier.
However, the number of people marked as self-employed has rocketed to a record level, totalling one in seven of the workforce. That's 4,370,000 – up 150,000 on the previous year. This is extremely suspicious, as the increase in the previous year totalled 25,000 – just one-sixth of this week's figure.
Some of these people might be genuinely self-employed and making their new business work – but all of them? In an economy where productivity hasn't increased since the Coalition took office? You'd have to be stupid to believe that.
Assuming the amount of real self-employment has increased in line with economic growth (at 1.9 per cent), that's an extra 25,475 in 2013, leaving 124,525 in limbo. Are these really self-employed? Or were they told by Jobcentre advisors to say so and claim working tax credits (as we've seen in the past), leading to a huge debt when HMRC tells them they have been claiming fraudulently and have been overpaid?
How many of the unemployed have been wiped off the books due to sanctions? We don't know, because we don't have figures up to December 2013. We do know that 897,690 sanctions were enforced in the year to September 2013. We don't know how many were for one month, how many for three months or how many for three years, but we do know that the rate was six per cent of jobseekers per month in the three months to the end of September 2013. Assuming that rate stayed solid, it suggests that 73,200 were off-benefit due to sanctions in December and should be added to the Claimant Count to give a more accurate figure.
How many of the unemployed have been wiped off the books due to Workfare? We don't know. How many are unemployed but on Universal Credit, which isn't included in the Claimant Count? We don't know – 3,610 were on it at the end of November last year, but the DWP has not divided them into those in work and those without.
David Cameron has access to all of this information, and he doesn't care. He also has access to the mortality figures for claimants of Incapacity Benefit/Employment and Support Allowance, that the DWP has been withholding from the rest of us, probably for fear of sparking an international outcry. He doesn't care about that either.
His comments are therefore doubly outrageous – not only is he claiming that his Coalition's changes are having a beneficial effect when the figures demonstrate the opposite, but he is also claiming the moral high ground when his actions are more appropriate to the populace of the Pit.
In terms of his morality, there can be only one description for him and his cronies:
Bankrupt.
The benefit debate is a diversion – that's why it will go on and on
Posted by Mike Sivier in Bedroom Tax, Benefits, Cost of living, council tax, Democracy, Disability, Economy, Employment, Employment and Support Allowance, Housing, Media, pensions, People, Politics, Poverty, Public services, tax credits, UK, unemployment, Universal Credit
allowance, banker, benefits street, blame, boss, build, Channel 4, Conservative, crisis, David Cameron, debate, dodge, economic, economy, Eton, flood, house, housing benefit, industrial, industry, job, jobless, jobseeker, low, Owen Jones, pay, private landlord, relief, rent, rip-off, strategy, subsidise, system, tax, tax haven, Tories, Tory, workless
How many of you tuned into the last episode of Benefits Street on Channel 4, and stayed on for the debate that followed?
Quite a few, I reckon.
They were worth watching, but the feeling that was left with this viewer (and I've been reviewing television for 20 years or more) is that we are talking ourselves around in circles – led by politicians with a vested interest in perpetuating the discussion.
They don't want a solution. They want us to keep going over the same ground – which they have laid out for us with very specific limits – and they want to concentrate our anger about this issue so that we blame, not the people responsible – the tax dodgers who put money into tax havens that could be invested in British industry, the private landlords and low-paying bosses who are subsidised by the benefit system and the bankers who caused the economic crisis a few years ago – but the people who have been forced onto benefits through no fault of their own and are being persecuted for it by a punitive system that penalises them for failing to find jobs that really do not exist.
Look at the way David Cameron leapt forward with fistfuls of cash to pay for flood relief when Tory heartlands were affected, saying that money was no object and Britain is a rich country. We're rich enough to look after the playing fields of Eton, but not our poorest citizens, according to his mentality. Property is worth more to him than people.
Why? Because the people who send their children to Eton are the people Cameron hopes will elect him (he can't be re-elected; he didn't win the 2010 election) in 2015. The unemployed are less likely to vote for him – in fact they are less likely to vote at all. It seems there is something about being rejected by society that instils a sense of listlessness and despair in the human psyche. People ask themselves: Why bother?
There are solutions, but it is cause for concern that we are not hearing about them from our MPs and politicians. Journalist Owen Jones came out with the clearest plan during the debate on Channel 4 last night, and it is well worth quoting in full.
He said: "Firstly let's make it clear – work does not pay in this country. We hear that as a mantra, when most people in poverty get up in the morning and earn that poverty.
"We're talking about people milking the system. Let's talk about the low-paying bosses who are being subsidised with in-work benefits because, in the seventh-richest country on Earth, they won't pay.
"If we're talking about getting people into jobs I actually think we need to talk about solutions here. One in six workers in the last two years have claimed Jobseekers' Allowance at some point; that's a lack of security.
"What we need firstly is a massive house-building programme that would reduce the amount spent on Housing Benefit which, by the way, is not going into the pockets of these tenants – it's lining the pockets of private landlords charging rip-off rents. If we build housing, it would create jobs and we would stimulate the economy as well.
"It goes the same with the need for an industrial strategy because what successive governments have done, and it started in the eighties, is let the secure jobs go to rot, if you like. Now, other countries like Germany, what they've done is had an industrial strategy. Instead of saying, 'Hands off, let the market decide,' they've said, 'Actually we want to create jobs in renewable energy.' Now we've just seen the floods; we're going to have a lot more extreme weather, so let's have an industrial strategy to go and create renewable energy jobs, giving people secure, dignified jobs, taking on the environmental crisis.
"These are solutions… We've got to change the debate we have at the moment where the real villains of the piece, like the tax dodgers who get away with not paying £25 billion a year in tax, like the private landlords and the low-paying bosses milking our welfare state, like the bankers who caused the economic disaster – they get away with it, but all we ever hear about is kicking people at the bottom."
Absolutely right. And that's all we'll hear about it for the foreseeable future, as well. We won't hear about returning to a full-employment society (which is perfectly possible), because that means the greedy rich will have less money for themselves in the short term.
In the long term, ensuring that there are properly-paid jobs for the most people, so they do not have to claim benefits, means that there is more money moving around the economy – and money makes money. The parasites – who are making a fortune unsustainably by working people hard and paying them poverty rations – would be just as rich in the long run, but they cannot bear to consider the possibility.
One has to consider whether they want to force people into poverty, just to make their own wealth seem more remarkable – the poverty trap as ego-trip, if you like.
But we won't hear about that because it is politically inflammatory. Far better to set the lower classes against each other, laying blame on each other for problems that are caused by different people entirely – and laugh all the way to the offshore bank.
If I had to describe Britain to a foreigner, I would ask them to imagine a person being robbed outside a public lavatory, by the mayor of his town, while council workers started demolishing the building; the rich are destroying our public services and mugging us at the same time.
Very soon, the same people who are mugging you will be asking for your vote…
… while blaming you for problems they have done nothing to solve.
Vox Political strives to stand on its own merits.
But the site needs funds if it is to carry on.
Peter Oborne is right to support the 50p tax rate
Posted by Mike Sivier in Benefits, Business, Conservative Party, Cost of living, Employment, People, Politics, Poverty, Tax, UK, unemployment
50 per cent, 50p, abuse, ambulance, assurance, banker, basic pay, benefit, bonus, checks and balances, claim, Coalition, compulsory, Conservative, corporate, corporation, Daily Telegraph, dependency, depress, dividend, Ed Balls, employer subsidy, George Osborne, Gordon Brown, government, housing benefit, incentive, job guarantee, jobseeker, Labour, Landlord Subsidy, living standard, living wage, low, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, minority interest, neoliberal, Peter Oborne, politics, poor, result, salary, sanction, shareholder, social security, super rich, target, tax credit, tax rate, taxpayer, top, Tories, Tory, underwriter, very rich, Vox Political, wage, Wales, welfare, welfare state, Welsh
… but wrong about many, many other matters.
The Torygraph's chief political commentator was right to come out as a supporter of Ed Balls's pledge to raise the top tax rate back to 50p in the pound.
He was right to say it was "profoundly shaming and offensive" for Conservative voters – especially those who are not super-rich – when George Osborne lowered the top rate to 45p, two years ago.
He was right when he wrote that "to make the rich richer at the same time as making the poor poorer – what George Osborne has been doing – is simply squalid, immoral and disgusting.
"Any decent human being must surely feel sick in the stomach that he is taking this action at the same time as cutting the amount of tax paid by people earning more than £150,000."
To that, let's add a point about the kind of people who are benefiting from the lower tax rate – the kind of people who take home around £1 million a year in basic pay, who are promised bonuses of up to twice those yearly salaries, and who caused the financial crisis that has allowed Osborne to pursue his policy of impoverishing the poor.
That's right: George Osborne's 45p tax rate is a £100,000 extra bonus, every year – in gratitude for all their help, one must presume – for bankers.
Oborne is also right to say that Labour's decision in the 1970s, to impose a top tax rate of 83p in the pound, was a huge mistake – for whatever reasons. It genuinely drove people out of the country, whereas at 50p they just grumble and threaten to go.
All of the above being said, Oborne continues to espouse some utterly wrong-headed nonsense. He claims that "the Conservative Party is not an interest group which represents only the very rich" when all of its actions since getting into office in 2010 demonstrate ample proof that a minority group representing only the very rich is exactly what it is.
Oborne actually puts in print: "The Coalition government has devoted a great deal of effort to lowering the living standards of the poor. I support this project."
It's great to see a Tory voter actually admitting this, but imbecilic behaviour for a columnist who (one presumes) wants people to respect his point of view.
He goes on: "I believe that Gordon Brown's welfare state forced some people into a life of dependency… There have been many people on welfare who need much more of an incentive to return to work."
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
The reason many people are without jobs and claiming benefit is, there are almost five jobseekers for every job. This is a situation created by the Tory-led government in order to keep wages low; with so many people clamouring for jobs, people who do have work but are on the bottom rung of the employment ladder can't ask for a raise – they would be jettisoned and replaced by a jobseeker (most likely on lower basic pay than the original holder of the job).
Nobody was forced into a life of dependency by Gordon Brown; the vast majority of unemployed people genuinely want to improve their situation with a job that allows them to avoid claiming benefits – and it is good that the Labour Party, if returned to office next year, will work hard to bring the Living Wage into force for all working people.
You see, Mr Oborne and his ilk conveniently forget that the vast majority of people whose living standards have been hit by the Tory war on the poor are in work. They are so poorly-paid by George Osborne's corporate friends that they have to claim tax credits – or, as I like to call them, Employer Subsidy – and housing benefit – otherwise known as Landlord Subsidy.
That's improper use of our tax money. We should not be subsidising fat corporates with our hard-earned taxes, so they can deliver ever more swollen dividends to their shareholders; and we should not be subsidising greedy landlords who charge multiples of what their properties are worth to tenants who have nowhere else to go if they want to keep their pittance-paying job.
It is valid to criticise Gordon Brown for allowing this to happen, but who knows? Maybe this figurehead of neoliberal New Labour was using tax credits as a stop-gap, intending to persuade corporate bosses round to the Living Wage in good time. We'll never know for sure.
There remains a strong argument that government schemes to get people into work should have checks and balances. As underwriters of these schemes, we taxpayers need assurances that the firms taking part will not abuse their position of power, using jobseekers until the government subsidy runs out and then ditching good workers for more of the unemployed in order to keep the cash coming. That is not a worthwhile use of our cash.
We also need assurances that participants won't drop out, just because life on the dole is easier. I was the victim of several personal attacks last week when I came out in support of Labour's compulsory job guarantee, because they hated its use of sanctions. I think those sanctions are necessary; there should be a penalty for dropping out without a good reason.
In a properly-run scheme, those sanctions should never be put into effect, though. That means that any government job scheme needs to be driven, not by targets but by results.
Look at the Welsh Ambulance Service. Targets imposed by the Welsh Government mean that ambulances are supposed to arrive at the scene of an emergency within eight minutes – even if they are 20 minutes' fast drive away, on the wrong side of a busy city like Cardiff, when they get the call. This means the Welsh Ambulance Service faces constant attack for failure to meet targets.
But what kind of results does the service achieve? Are huge numbers of Welsh patients dying, or failing to receive timely treatment because an ambulance arrives a minute or so after its target time? No. There will, of course, be some such occasions but those will most likely be the result of many contributory factors.
So: Results-driven schemes will put people into jobs and improve the economy; there is no need to impoverish the poor; the very rich never deserved their tax cut; and Ed Balls is right to want to re-impose the 50p rate.
The Conservatives are wrong to attack poor people; there is no need to impose further cuts on social security as part of Osborne's failed austerity policy; and these things show very clearly that the Tories are a minority-interest party supporting only the extremely rich.
In the end, I find myself agreeing with one more comment by Mr Oborne; Ed Balls really has "given ordinary, decent people a serious reason for voting Labour at the coming election".
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The Coalition is creating serious problems and distracting you with phantoms
24 Friday Jan 2014
Posted by Mike Sivier in Benefits, Employment, Immigration, unemployment
Annual Survey, ASHE, Bank of England, BBC News, beauty, bedroom tax, benefit, benefit cap, BoE, breasts, bribe, Bulgaria, business, business rate, catastrophe, Child Benefit, claimant, Coalition, Conservative, council, council tax, CPI, Croatia, cure, cut, David Cameron, debt, defence, Democrat, deodorise, earning, earnings, economic, economy, false, falsify, fiddle, figure, fiscal, flood, frack, fund, George Eaton, George Osborne, government, Heathrow, hours, household, housing bubble, IFS, immigrant, Income Tax, individual, industry, inflation, Institute, interest rate, invent, Jill Filipovic, job, jobseeker, Jonathan Portes, Jonathan Wilson, Keith Vaz, Lib Dem, Liberal, low-paid, Matthew Hancock, Mike Sivier, mikesivier, National Institute, national insurance, New Statesman, NIESR, pay, Personal Allowance, politics, pretend, problem, reassessment, retail, rise, Romania, RPI, salary, sanction, self-employed, shale gas, Social Research, storm, Studies, swoob, tax credit, The Guardian, Tories, Tory, unemployment, uprating, upturn, Vox Political, wage, weather, Workfare
According to the beauty industry, women must now start deodorising under their breasts.
I kid you not – it was in The Guardian.
Columnist Jill Filipovic hit the nail on the head when she wrote: "I can already hear your objections: 'But the area under my boobs doesn't stink!' or 'What kind of marketing genius not only came up with the term "swoob," but actually thought half the world's population might be dumb enough to buy into it?' or simply, 'This is a dumb product aimed at inventing an insecurity and then claiming to cure it.'
"You would be correct on all three points.
"In fact, inventing problems with women's bodies and then offering a cure – if you pay up – is the primary purpose of the multi-billion dollar beauty industry."
The simple fact is that you don't really need to worry about smells down there – a good old soapy flannel will cure any such problems.
That's not the point, though. The aim is to get you thinking about it and devoting your energy to it, rather than to other matters.
Now let's translate that to politics.
We already know that all the scaremongering about Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants storming the country from January 1 was a crock. That bastion of good statistics, The Now Show, told us last week that the total number of Bulgarian immigrants in the last couple of weeks was "around two dozen so far", according to their ambassador. In the first three months after our borders were opened to Croatians, 174 turned up.
Yet the government wanted you to believe they would flood our immigration service in their millions, "taking benefits and yet simultaneously also taking all the jobs".
My use of language such as "storming" and "flood" is not accidental. By far the more serious threat to the UK in the early days of 2014 was the weather – and, guess what, not only was the government unprepared for the ferocity of the storms that swept our islands, the Coalition was in fact in the process of cutting funding for flood defence.
This would have gone unnoticed if the weather had behaved itself, because we would all have been distracted by the single Romanian immigrant who was ensnared by Keith Vaz in a ring of TV cameras at Heathrow Airport.
Now the Tories are telling us that our take-home pay is finally on the rise for all but the top 10 per cent of earners, with the rest of us seeing our wages rise by at least 2.5 per cent.
The government made its claims (up) by taking into account only cuts to income tax and national insurance, using data leading up to April last year, according to the BBC News website.
This kind of nonsense is easily overcome – New Statesman published the above chart, showing the real effect of changes to weekly income for people in various income groups, and also provided the reason for the government's mistake (if that's what it was).
"The data used … takes no account of the large benefit cuts introduced by the coalition, such as the real-terms cut in child benefit, the uprating of benefits in line with CPI inflation rather than RPI, and the cuts to tax credits," writes the Statesman's George Eaton."
He also pointed out that other major cuts such as the bedroom tax, the benefit cap, and the 10 per cent cut in council tax support were introduced after April 2013 and were not included in the Coalition figures.
Once all tax and benefit changes are taken into account, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown that almost all families are worse off – and the Coalition also appears to have forgotten the five million low-paid workers who don't earn enough to benefit from the increase in the personal allowance.
Skills and enterprise minister Matthew Hancock compounded the mistake in an exchange on Twitter with Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). Asked why his analysis "ignores more than four million people in work (the self-employed)", Mr Hancock tweeted: "Analysis based on ONS ASHE survey of household earnings data".
Wrong – as Mr Portes was quick to show: "Don't you know the difference between household and individual earnings?"
Apparently not. ASHE (Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings) is a survey of employed individuals using their National Insurance numbers – not of households or the self-employed.
So the Coalition – and particularly the Tories – were trying to make us all feel good about the amount we earn.
That's the distraction. What are we supposed to be ignoring?
Would it be David Cameron's attempt to bribe councils into allowing shale gas companies to frack their land? Councils that back fracking will get to keep all the business rates collected from the schemes – rather than the usual 50 per cent.
He has also claimed that fracking can boost the economy and encourage businesses into the country, in a further bid to talk down dissent.
Or is it the growing threat of a rise in interest rates, which may be triggered when official unemployment figures – which have been fiddled by increased sanctions on jobseekers, rigged reassessments of benefit claimants, a new scheme to increase the number of people and time spent on Workfare, and the fake economic upturn created by George Osborne's housing bubble – drop to seven per cent?
It seems possible that the government – especially the Tory part of it – would want to keep people from considering the implications of an interest rate rise that is based on false figures.
As Vox Political commenter Jonathan Wilson wrote yesterday: "If the BOE bases its decisions on incorrect manipulated data that presents a false 'good news' analysis then potentially it could do something based on it that would have catastrophic consequences.
"For example if its unemployment rate test is reached, and wages were going up by X per cent against a Y per cent inflation rate which predicted that an interest rate rise of Z per cent would have no general effect and not impact on house prices nor significantly increase repossessions (when X per cent is over-inflated by the top 1 per cent of earners, Y per cent is unrealistically low due to, say, the 50 quid green reduction and/or shops massively discounting to inflate purchases/turnover and not profit) and when it does, instead of tapping on the breaks lightly it slams the gears into reverse while still traveling forward… repossessions go up hugely, house prices suffer a major downward re-evaluation (due to tens of thousands of repossessions hitting the auction rooms) debt rates hit the roof, people stop buying white goods and make do with last year's iPad/phone/tv/sofa, major retail goes tits up, Amazon goes to the wall, the delivery market and post collapses… etc etc.
"And all because the government fiddled the figures."
Perhaps Mr Cameron doesn't want us thinking about that when we could be deodorising our breasts instead.
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What Do You Think about To Be The Finest Paper Shredders?
Comments Off on What Do You Think about To Be The Finest Paper Shredders?
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La Copa de la Liga de Inglaterra 2019–20, también conocida como EFL Cup y por motivos de patrocinio Carabao Cup, fue la sexagésima edición del torneo. Es una competición que se juega en formato de eliminación directa a un solo partido en la que participan equipos de la liga de fútbol profesional de Inglaterra y Gales. El campeón clasifica a la tercera ronda de la UEFA Europa League 2020-21. El Manchester City es el defensor del título.

Las rondas se juegan a partido único a excepción de las semifinales que serán a doble partido, si un enfrentamiento termina empate se irá a tiros desde el punto penal sin tiempo extra a diferencia de la final.

Distribución
El torneo está organizado de forma que lleguen 32 equipos a la tercera ronda. Los equipos que juegan competiciones europeas durante esta temporada entran directamente en la tercera ronda, los demás equipos de la Premier League entran en la segunda ronda, y los demás equipos de la Football League en la primera ronda.

Primera Ronda
Un total de 70 equipos juegan la primera ronda: 24 de la League Two (cuarta división), 24 de la League One (tercera división), y 22 de la EFL CHampionship (segunda división). Para el sorteo, los equipos fueron divididos por criterio regional, "norte" y sur". John Barnes y Ray Parlour fueron los encargados del sorteo.

Los horarios corresponden a UTC +1.

(1) Encuentro suspendido. Bury suspendido por secretaría.

Segunda Ronda
Un total de 50 equipos son parte de la segunda ronda, donde se suman el Fulham y el Cardiff City de la EFL Championship y los equipos de la Premier League que no están en las competiciones europeas. El sorteo de los enfrentamientos se llevó a cabo el 13 de agosto de 2019 por Gary Neville y Paul Robinson.

Los horarios corresponden a UTC +1.

(2) Encuentro suspendido el 20 de agosto de 2019 por mal tiempo con el marcador 0-0 y reanudado el 10 de septiembre.

Tercera Ronda
Un total de 32 equipos compiten en esta etapa. Ingresan 7 equipos de la Premier League en competiciones europeas. (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur y Wolverhampton Wanderers). El sorteo de las llaves se llevó a cabo el 28 de agosto de 2019 por Andy Hinchcliffe y Don Goodman.

Cuarta Ronda

Cuartos de Final

Liverpool decidió jugar con jugadores juveniles debido a que debía disputar el Mundial de Clubes

Semifinales

En esta ronda participan los 4 equipos que ganaron la ronda anterior, realizándose partidos de ida y vuelta para definir los finalistas del torneo. Dichos encuentros se llevarán a cabo entre el 7 y 29 de enero de 2020.

Ida

Vuelta

Final
La final se disputó el domingo 1 de marzo de 2020 en Wembley.

Ficha

Goleadores

Referencias

Fútbol en 2019
Fútbol en 2020
2020


text:
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javascript, so it's easier to analyze, etc.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Restaurant manager Dodie O'Dell's themed food ideas have been called cute, clever, and delicious, but never revolutionary—until now. Dodie's Windjammer Restaurant is stocking the Etonville Little Theatre's concession stand with colonial-era desserts and drinks: Swamp Yankee applesauce cake, pumpkin bread, hot cider punch, and mulled wine to complement the latest production. A local playwright has adapted Thornton Wilder's Our Town into Eton Town, shifting the story to colonial America and the founding of Etonville, New Jersey, shortly after the Revolutionary War.
On opening night, hours before the curtain rises, Dodie runs into an agitated actress backstage with blood on her hands. Then a stranger is found among the chairs set for a graveyard scene with a knife in his chest. The show will not go on—the theatre is now a crime scene. Hoping to clear the red-handed suspect, Dodie returns to the role of amateur sleuth to mull over the clues and beat the backstage stabber to the punch—before someone else becomes history . . .
I've been thinking about clues lately…This past October I attended the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Toronto, Canada. It was a wonderful four days of meeting fellow authors, renewing acquaintances, hearing terrific panel discussions about the writing process and the business of authorship, and connecting with readers. There were book signings, informal conversations, chatting over drinks and meals, and sharing the ins and outs of publishing. Altogether an annual treat for both writers and readers of crime fiction, specifically cozy mysteries in my case.
At one panel discussion the first day of the conference, I, along with a large, enthusiastic crowd of convention-goers attended a brilliant discussion by a detective from the Toronto Police Forensic Identification Service on footprint evidence. He provided crime scene photos, detailed analyses of crime scenes, and touched on everything from blood spatter evidence to the fragility of DNA and various techniques for, and challenges of, lifting footprints off a variety of surfaces.
I have discovered that, in order to keep the clues consistent, to keep them accumulating in a clear and productive manner, I need to write forwards and backwards. By that I mean I first lay out the plot and characters via narration and dialogue, page one to page three hundred, and then I start at the end and backtrack through the manuscript to the beginning. I ask myself questions: I have introduced clue number one on page ten. Does it have a payoff by page three hundred? Do other clues have payoffs? Are they referred to again in the book? Are they useful or abandoned by the sleuth? If I introduce a potential suspect, do I present enough evidence, clues, to make him or her a viable guilty party without giving away the end of the story? If I want to introduce a twist in plot or character, is it hidden well enough that the perceptive reader does not see it coming?
As I wrote my most recent book I found myself thinking that maybe it doesn't matter so much if the reader connects the dots of the clues and solves the murder mystery before the end of the novel IF the motive for the murder is a well-kept secret that the protagonist pursues (possibly) independent of the official investigation. The guilty party may become obvious to the reader but the backstory on the murderer's intentions could keep him guessing until the last few pages.
Clues, motives, and suspects are the life-blood of the mystery novel, the elements that keep the investigation on track. All of which makes me think again about the Toronto detective…maybe I will include footprint evidence in one of my upcoming novels in the Dodie O'Dell mystery series. Someone dies, a bloody crime scene, shoe patterns, chemicals to lift off the prints…some great clues!
Suzanne Trauth is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and a former university theatre professor. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Dramatists Guild. When she is not writing, Suzanne coaches actors and serves as a celebrant performing wedding ceremonies. She lives in Woodland Park, New Jersey. Readers can visit her website at SuzanneTrauth.com.
I have come to creating a reading ritual around Suzanne's books. I spend the entire day curled up with fuzzy socks on and some tea to read her fabulous book. Running out of Time is her latest and just builds my love for Dodie and the charming little town she lives in.
Dodie and the rest of the town is back in a fun and suspenseful mystery. I really love Dodie, and her food creations. I also love the cute little towns people that are filled with personality. Dodie is sweet, and quick to engage the reader into her life. I could easily say she is becoming a favorite sleuth of mine.
I really loved the creations Dodie made in this story, they were cool sounding and like some I would never have thought of. I also really loved being reminded how charming this town was, even with murder the town spoke to me and became a happy to place to visit in my mind.
I really enjoy the way Dodie solves a mystery, she has the unique ability to get into a mystery and then with a true knack and instinct get herself out. She solves mysteries like I eat brownies, easy and with an enjoyable manner.
Overall, I come to expect a great book when the latest Dodie mystery releases. They are charming, unique even in a cozy genre and come quick to the recall when recommending mysteries. This latest has left this reader eager for the next three books to arrive soon, and I will try to savor them, but I make no promises.
What do you think of themed food? The latest was colonial inspired in this book.
This sounds like a great series. Since I have worked in the theater for many years, I am especially intrigued by it. Thanks for the chance to win!
Thanks Autumn! I hope you enjoy Running Out of Time and have a nice holiday!
Looks like another fun series that I would enjoy reading. Thank you so much for the chance.
Thank you for the review on Running Out of Time. I'd very much like to read this book even more so the more I read about it.


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Pipeman Deputation
Why 'Pipe Man,' a Tom Thomson tribute, has small-town Ontario up in arms
ROY MACGREGOR HUNTSVILLE, ONT. — The Globe and Mail Published Friday, Jul. 14, 2017 8:48PM EDT Last updated Saturday, Jul. 15, 2017 8:09AM EDT Ottawa has Voice of Fire. Little Huntsville – a picturesque tourist town in the heart of Ontario's cottage country – has Pipe Man. Both works of…
Organizers Dub Huntsville's FIRST Muskoka Life Show a Success
HUNTSVILLE — The Canada Summit Centre was packed on Saturday, June 17, but it wasn't for a sporting event. The Summer Muskoka Life Show, co-hosted by Metroland Media's Muskoka Life magazine and the Huntsville-Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce, was the first event of its kind and brought roughly 80…
35th Anniversary Recognized
Pipeman Ceremony
Public art, and art in general, are often subject to critical inspection which sometimes tips in its favour and sometimes not. Huntsville's latest public art installation, Pipe Man, an 18-foot tall monument to Tom Thomson which floats in the Muskoka River adjacent to the Town Docks, is no different. Since…
Pipe Man Arrived
Huntsville's latest and much-anticipated public art installation has finally arrived after a delay of several months. Pipe Man, an 18-foot tall by 4-foot wide floating sculpture in the Muskoka River adjacent to the Town Docks, was created by Pipefusion in honour of the company's 35th anniversary. Made of high-density polyethylene…
Buy Now and Save $500!
You'll never find a better time to buy a new dock! Pipefusion's NyDock floating dock pontoons come with a LIFETIME GUARANTEE and can be left in the water over winter. Pipefusion invites you to be one of the first people to have your new NyDock installed this Fall. Our professional…
Virtual Tour: NyDock Floating Docks
Pipefusion chosen as readers favourite for Decks/Docks
Pipefusion & NyDock celebrate 35 successful years
Tomorrow, June 9, Pipefusion will celebrate 35 successful years in Huntsville. Owner Jan Nyquist started the company in 1981. "I was five years old," he jokes. He was actually 26 – still a young man – and the decision came after two-and-a-half years of working during which he realized he…


Two of the women who spearheaded last year's walkout involving thousands of Google employees worldwide say the company has retaliated against them for organizing the protest.
Reuters Business 36d	 Newell Brands (NWL) Down 28.3% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Rebound?
Newell Brands, Inc. engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of consumer and commercial products. It operates through the following segments: Food and Appliances; Home and Outdoor Living; and Learning and Development. The Food and Appliances segment includes household products, including kitchen appliances, gourmet cookware, bakeware and cutlery, food storage and home storage products and fresh preserving products. The Home and Outdoor Living segment consists of products for outdoor and outdoor-related activities, home fragrance products and connected home and security. The Learning and Development segment deals with writing instruments, including markers and highlighters, pens and pencils; art products; activity-based adhesive and cutting products; labeling solutions; baby gear and infant care products. The company was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Hoboken, NJ. .


"I think some people in togas are conspiring against me," reads the entry subject. Why? Because it's the Ides of March and the 2049th anniversary of the assassination of Gaius Iulius Caesar.
On dies Mercurii Id. Mar. DCCX a.u.c. (Wednesday 15 Mar 44 B.C.), 710 years after the legendary founding of the City of Rome, the Roman Senate was to meet in the Curia Pompeii, an annex of the colonnaded Porticus adjacent to the stage of the Theater of Pompeii, which had been built by Pompey (Pompeius) just a decade or so before. Caesar was late. As Brutus and Cassius anxiously waited for him to arrive, one of the senators confided that his prayers were with them. "May your plan succeed," relates Plutarch, "but whatever you do, make haste. Everyone is talking about it by now." But there was nothing the conspirators could do except grasp their daggers and prepare to use them on themselves, if need be. Porcia, the daughter of Cato, whom Brutus had married within a year of her father's death, had insisted that she be told of the plan. The day of the assassination, her anxiety was so great that she became hysterical and fainted from apprehension.
If the conspirators had killed in the name of Republican libertas, it was the liberty of the Optimates for which they acted. There was to be no popular support for the deed; nor, perhaps, was what the conspirators had sought to preserve even the same. To Appian, at least, "The Republic has been rotten for a long time. The city masses are now thoroughly mixed with foreign blood, the freed slave has the same rights as a citizen, and those who are still slaves look no different from their masters." It was as if, for the conspirators, the death of the tyrant was sufficient, with no thought being given to what would happen in consequence. It all had been planned, relates Cicero, with the "courage of men and the foresight of children." But the res publica was not to be restored. The only outcome was what Caesar himself had predicted: "It is more important for Rome," Suetonius quotes him as saying, "than for myself that I should survive...should anything happen to me, Rome will enjoy no peace." And so it was: civil war would rage for another thirteen years.
This Roman civil war became the twilight of the Roman Republic and the dawn of the Roman Empire under Caesar's grand-nephew and adopted son, Gaius Iulius Caesar Octavianus (the Emperor Caesar Augustus).


This post will walk you through becoming aware of your thoughts and how to start focusing on the things you DO like in order to bring more of what you desire into your life.
Gratitude is recognising what you already have and acknowledging and expressing appreciation for it, through thoughts, words, and action.
How often do you think about what you have got versus what you haven't got? And how often do you think about what you don't like versus what you do like in your life?
We know that what we focus on we get more of, and what 'we think about we bring about'. Therefore, watching where our focus goes (because that's where energy flows), we become aware of our thoughts and what we would like to create more of in our lives. I call it conscious creation.
However, are we really aware of what we are most focused on and therefore drawing to us? All of us are energy hubs vibrating our own personal frequencies. The frequency you vibrate will be drawing to you the experiences you have in your life.
Ask yourself; what do you love about your life right now? What are the things that are going well and you're really grateful for? Can you list more than three things?
By thinking about what you do have you move your thinking and feeling from a place of lack and scarcity to one of abundance and fulfilment. By focusing on the things we are grateful for we also create new neural pathways in our mind and shift our energy into a higher vibration – knowing that like energy attracts like energy (we are all essentially magnets!). The best things that come in to our lives come from a higher vibration rather than a lower vibration. If you're not sure about high or low vibrations, think about when you feel sadness or anger (lower vibration) versus when you feel happy or elated (higher vibration), accidents and negative experiences are more likely to occur in our lives when we are in a lower vibration state or mood.
Start now, today, by bringing your awareness into your life and listing out things you are truly grateful for. If you are struggling then ask yourself, 'what could I be grateful for?' (Tony Robbins asks this question in his book Awaken The Giant Within).
In the morning when you awake, lie quietly and think in your mind about the things you are grateful for and the things you look forward to that day – you will be sending a message to your mind to look out for good things and you are more likely to experience them.
You can also use social media to acknowledge and express what you are grateful for, demonstrating it on a wider level, whilst at the same time encouraging others to adopt the same positive habit too.
Then, in your journal, begin to note if over time your default focus is moving from lack to gratitude. Notice how more of the good stuff is showing up in your life. It's important to make note of when you seeing good things showing up.
What you acknowledge in gratitude from today, (present), will begin to form your experiences for tomorrow, by focusing your thoughts on positivity and abundance we begin to draw more of precisely that to us.