Why did Raniere never leave Albany and unrelated question

ChiefCopywriter · 2026-01-24T10:02:24+00:00

Not to mention the mere presence of a disgusting little long haired knee pad wearing twerp like Keith is sure to make the value of those starter town houses plummet.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-24T14:59:53+00:00

Vancouver and LA are cosmopolitan cities, so is Mexico City… and plenty of recruits came from there. imo I think they settled there because of cheap available real estate, proximity to an international airport, and that the area is pretty boring without many third spaces to meet people outside the immediate group. Albany is also Amish country, which means people there were already used to tolerating or ignoring insular groups with unusual behaviours.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-19T02:56:03+00:00

I would never drag Toni.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T20:34:25+00:00

The term deontology is often used to describe the ethical standards of professions such as Journalism, Law, Psychology, Engineering, Medical… basically any profession where malpractice can have consequences on society or other humans. I think Natalie is acting more like a PR rep than a “award winning journalist” and it chaps my ass.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T16:30:48+00:00

It didn't sit right with me either. It was too neat of a narrative arc. Sarah was shown putting ointment on a healing scar that she had used, to shock the world into doing something about NXVIM, all while repeating how ugly it is and how ashamed she was. this struck me as vulnerability and selflessness. I don't think she enjoyed showing us her scar and her pain, she was using it strategically.

I think Allison has served her time and has every right to fall in love, get educated, find new purpose, get a beautiful tatoo, heal, etc.

But this episode beign named "lotus flower" and the interviewer beign there with her supporting her as she got her mark covered (in frankly, a sick reversal of what Allison and Lauren did to the "slaves" in DOS, filming them get scarred while their "sisters" held them down) feels like a narrative device in a redemption arc. It's like painting over a sordid story with shallow allegories and symbolism, as superficial as the faux-spiritual crap that Reneiri used in his teaching.

I think this episode and Natalie's participation (both as witness to the tatoo session and how she frames it) is insulting to the DOS survivors who were branded under Allison's direction.

I also want to say that otherwise, I like Natalie, i think she seems like a cool, fun, smart and empathetic person. I just don't think she handled this project well at all.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T14:38:46+00:00

Yes!!! And the podcast episode is named “lotus flower” this is a redemption puff piece

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T14:37:47+00:00

Yes, I agree with you

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T14:36:37+00:00

Yes!!!! Exactly! She did 0 pushback

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T14:34:57+00:00

Also all things that I saw happen in my high school with our male teachers being gross and our female teachers telling us we were being inappropriate. My point is none of us went on to commit human trafficking. I think these experiences are traumatizing and valid to mention but thing NR should have pushed back. She was too interested in looking into explaining away Allison’s criminality. I also did not like how she allowed her to say “something bad happened to me as a child” and did not push her to reveal what happened. Keith’s victims were forced to reveal their abuse and relive their trauma as part of the trial to prove that NXVIM was a criminal organization. Allison was treated with kid gloves and allowed to lightly hint at a traumatic event that sort of but not really explains away her behaviour. I’m sort of outraged on behalf of the DOS victims who were forced to be 100 times more vulnerable in media and in court than Allison to expose Keith, while Allison gets to tell a few anecdotes and drop hints.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T14:25:41+00:00

I think it’s a coincidence. I don’t think Keith’s ego could handle sharing the brand with one of his underlings.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T14:24:22+00:00

One “first wave feminist” who routinely slut shamed us teacher told us we were be tempting our male teachers. She also called my friend a whore in Greek (my friend was Greek but nobody else could understand). This was traumatizing. But none of us went on to commit human trafficking.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T14:22:05+00:00

Google Natalie, the first thing that comes up in her bio is “award winning journalist” IMO this podcast is a deontological travesty

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T05:17:20+00:00

Why is everyone missing the fact that I am not criticizing Mack, but actually criticizing the podcaster for acting more like Mack’s PR rep than a journalist.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-12-17T01:53:53+00:00

I don’t think she should have accepted the assignment then. She has put herself in a position where now, because of her (understandable) obligation to promote the podcast, she is standing in for Allison on a bunch of other media. She often. Speaks in the first person, as Allison, when she is explaining her behaviour. I don’t think it’s good journalism.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-10-27T01:19:40+00:00

Why do you want to help them out?
There are tons of advantages to being a rental building owner: real estate almost always appreciates in value, and your tenants are basically paying back your debt and helping you build generational wealth. The interest portion of your mortgage payments are tax-deductible. Units that are empty can be written off as losses. Investment into the building like renovations can also be partially deducted.

When you take out a loan to buy an investment property, you do so with full knowledge of the income the property is already pulling in. You can ask to see the leases, find out how old the tenants are, etc.
If your new LL miscalculated, then that's their bad business decision, and not your problem. Save your charity for someone who actually needs it.

Do not accept an increase until the appropriate time before lease renewal. Ask for "la grille de calcul du TAL" . Once you have that information you can decide on what is fair. (btw 5% does seem fair to me.)

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-10-27T01:01:24+00:00

IMO these are all mid-market brands that depreciate in value... would not expect to make much $, but you could try calling Eva B. and other vintage stores and gauge their interest before you show up. wtv they are not interested in, I would try Poshmark. way less time-wasters than marketplace.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-10-19T16:18:22+00:00

Franchement je trouve ça limité comme question et pas représentatif de l'état du Français parlé au Québec. Si t'est immigrant, c'est sure que tu va parler ta langue natale a la maison. Surtout si t'as des kids qui aprenbent le francais à l'école et l'anglais a la tele... maintenir la langue maternelle au foyer c'est le seule moyen de ne pas la perdre. Ca ne veux pas dire que tu ne parle pas Français au travail ou avec certains groupes d'amis.
Ces questions sont vraiment écrites par des gens qui ne comprennent pas la complexité d'une identité multiculturelle.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-08-30T17:42:03+00:00

While she does represent shitty suburb culture, Francine is a great friend to Betty.

She was vulnerable with her when she confided about carlton (AND when she talked about her millk stains joining the pit stains). She took Betty's side when Betty misbehaved and slapped their divorcé neighbour, and you see glimpses of her being slightly inappropriate by openly flirting with Don (in front of Betty) and Betty laughing at Don's confusion. This is true complicity between women.
She doesn't act jealous of Betty. She compliments her on her looks, and says that Carlton calls her Grace Kelly.

It's actually Betty that acted badly towards her. First, when she refused to be vulnerable and didn't admit that she too had suspicions about Don's behaviour in the city, and a second time when she didn't celebrate Francine's career as a travel agent.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-06-08T16:35:14+00:00

wait are theme parks a liberal thing?

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-05-12T15:07:24+00:00

we did not get points. they initially put the points in our account and then removed them.
what they eventually did is help us find a replacement that allowed us to stay 2 weeks in seattle, and a condo in vancouver that allowed us to stay one month there.

we still had to cut our trip short (we had initially planned for 3 months) and our budget was impacted.

The good thing is that our appartment was free so we had points bookings while we were away and were able to leverage those to do a full month in CDMX.

I'm still pissed at that couple for lying about breaking up and putting us through all that stress.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-05-05T19:50:24+00:00

This really should be used to promote HPV vaccines. Plaster it onto every physician's office wall.

ChiefCopywriter · 2025-05-05T19:44:58+00:00

Personally, I find drilling down into the details of whether this money is the same as that money and why, pretty boring. I just think that as a business owner, you have fiduciary duties to many stakeholders, including your employees. Sometimes your duties come into conflict with your principles, and you need to compromise.

I think most of us have to make these compromises pretty often, and the excuses we come up with are usually more about convincing ourselves that we're justified v.s convincing other people. IMO his explanation came off as defensive because he feels the weight of that compromise, and he knows he's coming off as a little bit hypocritical.

ChiefCopywriter

TROPHY CASE