Hello everyone, welcome to Options with Doug, streaming live daily on Bookmap Discord and the Bookmap YouTube channel at 1.30pm Eastern Time. Before I get started, I need to go through the disclosures. General disclosure, all Bookmap limited materials, information, and presentations are for educational purposes only and should not be considered specific investment advice nor recommendations. Risk disclosure, trading futures, equities and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. The focus of my presentation and the focus of the Options-Doug chat channel in Discord is options, order flow, the impact of options markets on stocks and futures, and the influence of market maker hedging flow on price action. I have a two-step process for trading and the first is planning and I use positional analysis. I look at how traders and market makers are positioned in the options market and how those positions change from day to day to develop a thesis regarding the expected trading range and volatility for the day as well as a directional bias. And the second step in my process is execution and I look at real-time order flow in Bookmap and real-time market maker hedging flow with Spot Gamma Hero to confirm my thesis and for setups for entries and exits. And I will be talking about setups today and just to be clear, I will be talking about a setup in an underlying asset like the S&P 500 or a stock like Apple or Tesla. And those setups can be taken in any number of ways with shares, for example, the S&P 500. The trades that I will talk about can be taken with futures, with spy shares, spy options, or SPX options. And finally, questions or comments are welcome and I will be watching the Options-Doug chat channel in Discord and the chat and YouTube for your questions and comments. All right, let's get started. My agenda, what I want to talk about today. First of all, I'll talk about news items, economic data releases coming out this week. Then I'll go through my positional analysis and then finally I'll talk about setups. All right, so first of all the news items this week. Coming up tomorrow, it really begins tomorrow with the CPI report at 8.30 a.m. eastern time. And then Thursday the PPI report comes out at 8.30 a.m. eastern time. And then finally Friday the consumer sentiment data, Michigan consumer sentiment comes out at 10 a.m. eastern time. And also there are a number of Fed speakers throughout the week. So if that's something you want to watch, I suggest you take a look at some sort of economic calendar to see when the Fed speakers are scheduled. All right, so that's the economic data coming out for the rest of the week. All right, let's talk about positional analysis now and let's start with the S&P 500. And this is the ES futures, S&P 500 futures in bookmap. And before I look further at this chart, I'm going to take a look at a larger time frame. This is SPX with a one-hour chart and thinkorswim looking back to the beginning of April. And this is showing SPX trading in a fairly narrow range since the beginning of April, although it did start to expand some last week. The red lines on the chart are SPOT gamma levels, the red horizontal lines. And these are showing the key SPOT gamma levels. These are provided to SPOT gamma subscribers for a variety of platforms. Again, this is thinkorswim. And this is showing levels of high gamma where market makers are likely to react. All right, let me point out a couple of key levels. First of all, this is the 4000 level, SPX 4000. And that is the put wall, the strike with the largest negative gamma that can be expected to act as support. And that's also the absolute gamma strike, the strike with the largest absolute put and call gamma. Here's the volatility trigger at 40.95. That is SPOT gamma's proprietary gamma flip level. Below that level, market makers position on the gamma curve is negative. And in a negative gamma environment, they have to trade with price to hedge their delta exposure. And that tends to enhance or increase volatility. Then on the other hand, like the current situation, market makers position on the gamma curve above the volatility trigger is positive. And that means they have to trade against price to hedge their delta exposure. And that tends to subdue volatility in a positive gamma environment. And then finally, here's the call wall at 4200. That's the strike with the largest net positive gamma. And that can be expected to act as resistance. So those are the primary key daily levels that I follow. The put wall, absolute gamma strike, volatility trigger, and call wall. And there are a couple of other things to point out here. First, this dash purple line is showing the lower and upper bounds of the weekly expected move. This is based on the options market. This is something that I put on the charts before the week starts. And then this is the dash blue line is the lower and upper bound of the daily expected move. And this is again for SPX. All right, so that is a one-hour chart. Let's take a look at, let's zoom in a bit, take a look at a one-minute, one-day one-minute chart and thinkorswim showing the same levels. And these are the levels that are in play. There's really not, not much. This is a very narrow range. So here's the volatility trigger at 40.95. And again, this is SPX, a one-day one-minute chart. And SPX did gap down and gap down close to the, or right at the lower edge of the expected move for the week, that dash blue line and now is trading slightly above. And so the SPX is trading above the volatility trigger at 40.95. Also the 4100 level. And then the 4150 level is above. And so again, SPX trading at an extremely narrow range today. Not a lot to see here, not much for intraday traders to do. If you're buying, if you're selling premium, it's probably worked out pretty well. All right, let's take a look at Bookmap now. So, Spot Gamma provides these key Gamma levels for a variety of platforms. And for Bookmap, they use this Cloud Notes. And there are no Spot Gamma levels shown on the Cloud Notes that are in play in the current price range. And then I have my own column of Cloud Notes shown here with the C Levels column. And I'm showing SPI key SPI levels. And there's the SPI 412 Absolute Gamma Strike Volatility Trigger. So as far as SPI goes, Market Makers position on the Gamma curve is slightly negative below the volatility trigger. And that's the 412 level. And then here's the 411 level. And that has acted somewhat as support today here and here. But again, the 411 level are slightly below and slightly below the 412 level. Those levels have defined the range for the S&P 500 today. And we'll take a closer look at this in a few minutes when I talk about setups. All right, so that's the S&P 500. Again, not a lot to see here. Hopefully with the CPI report coming out tomorrow, that will release some volatility. Hopefully, price will start moving again. All right, let's take a look at the NASDAQ now. So here's the NASDAQ futures, NQ futures. Again, on Bookmap. And before I look at this chart, I'm going to take a look at just a QQQ chart and think or swim. And here we go. So this is QQQ and think or swim. And this is showing the levels in play. This is a one-day, one-minute chart. And this is showing that price is trading up and down around the QQQ 322 level. And that was also an important level yesterday. And that is a large Gamma 2 level, that L2 level. That's what that means. Large Gamma 2 and the ranking of the importance of the Gamma levels is one being the highest by being the lowest. So that, again, price is trading up and down around that level. All right, let's go back and take a look at Bookmap. And again, we can see the 322 level in play and note the concentration of volume. This is the session volume profile. SPP. And showing the concentration of volume here just above the 322 level. All right, pretty quiet day in the NASDAQ as well. And I'll talk more about the SP500 and NASDAQ in a few minutes when I talk about setups. All right, shifts in levels. And there were a few. For SPX, there were no shifts in levels. We're looking at the Gamma levels and looking how they shift from day to day. So let's go take a look at the Gamma levels, absolute Gamma levels in Spot Gamma here. I'm going to start with SPX. So in SPX, these are the absolute Gamma levels, Market Makers position at these different strikes. And the orange bars above the zero line are showing call Gamma or positive Gamma. And below the zero line, the blue bars are showing negative Gamma or put Gamma. And for SPX, again, there were no changes in these levels, these Gamma levels from yesterday. So here's the 4000 key Gamma Strike or absolute Gamma Strike as well as the put wall. So it's pretty obvious that's the absolute Gamma Strike, the highest level of call plus put Gamma, absolute value. And then also, that is the strike with the largest net, negative Gamma, that's the put wall. And then the call wall is up at 4,200. The strike with the largest net, positive Gamma. That's expected to act as resistance. And then there are also some key Gamma levels at 4,100 and 4,150. And we know that SPX is trading between these two levels today. All right, so that is SPX. Let's take a look at SPI. I'm going to zoom in. All right, for SPI, there were some shifts in levels. So for SPI, the volatility trigger shifted higher. From 4,11 to 4,12 today. And then the call wall shifted lower. From 4,20 to 4,16. And here's the call wall. Again, shifted lower. From 4,20 to 4,16. And then the absolute Gamma Strike shifted higher. From 4,10 to 4,12. And then the put wall remains at 400. The strike with the largest net, negative Gamma. So there's the floor. 4,12, the absolute Gamma Strike. Strike with the largest absolute Gamma. And then the ceiling at the call wall at 4,16. All right, there's a question in Discord. Hello, Hector. Doug, when you enter an options trade through my methodology, how long do I stay in the trade? So yeah, I understand only in the day since you trade zero DTE. Yeah, that's correct. I hold on to it as long as possible. This for the SPX and QQQ, this is not a good day for trading options. When I'm trading options, I'm looking for movement. So I want a... I'm looking for today is definitely a range day, a very narrow range. And this is what I anticipated based on market makers position on the Gamma curve and also the day before the CPI report. So I was expecting a... expecting a narrow trading range. And in this environment, I'm more inclined to sell premium in a defined risk way rather than buy options. Now that may not apply for stocks, but certainly for the zero DTE SPI QQQ options. So the idea with buying or selling an option in a... preferably in a negative Gamma environment where you're expecting a lot more movement is to hold on to it. So that's risk that you... risk that you are accepting. It's buying an option as a defined risk trade and you can buy the option, buy the call, buy the put and then move on to the next trade and let it play out, not worry about a stop-loss. And Hector, how much you risk per position and percentage? That's kind of beyond the scope of what I'm talking about. I'm talking about really where my expertise lies in showing how the options markets affect stocks and futures. So, you know, most people would take, you know, one or two percent risk at most in a position. So that's just a general guideline. All right, so that is the Gamma levels for SPI. I normally have to do a refresh, so I'm going to do that now. And then let's take a look at NDX. So for NDX, again, we're looking at the absolute Gamma levels. And this is the 12,975 strike. And that's really the only strike with any significant amount of Gamma. And that is the call wall and the absolute Gamma strike for NDX. And then finally, let's take a look at QQQ. So for QQQ, there was one shift in the QQQ levels. The volatility trigger shifted higher from yesterday from 319 to 323. All right, so for QQQ, this is the 320 absolute Gamma strike. And the put wall remains at 310. And the call wall remains at 330. So there's the ceiling, the floor, and then the absolute Gamma strike in between. Well, let's take a look at one other thing while we're on this page. This is the Vana model. And for those of you who have seen this before, please bear with me. It does change from day to day. And what this is showing is market makers delta notional or delta exposure and the vertical axis and how that changes with price shown on the vertical horizontal axis. There are two curves shown on this chart. The first, this light gray curve, is just showing how market makers delta, delta exposure, delta notional changes with changes in price. And what this is showing is it is showing that market makers delta notional will increase as price increases. And they have to sell futures. They want to remain delta neutral. So they have to sell futures to hedge their delta exposure as price increases. And the purple curve here adds implied volatility to the equation. So the purple curve is showing how market makers delta exposure changes with changes in price and implied volatility. And that is the Vana effect. The change in delta with a change in implied volatility. And what this is showing is as price increases, market makers may not have as much delta exposure to hedge when you add in implied volatility to the equation. Let's see where SBX is trading now. We'll look at a watch list on another computer. So SBX is trading around $41.26. So that is about right here where I'm holding my cursor in this vertical line right here. So what this is showing when we add implied volatility into the equation, if price moves up from that level, market makers delta notional will decrease and they can buy back short hedges. So up until a certain point, they will actually be buying futures to hedge their delta exposure. And then if price moves lower, they will have to sell futures to hedge their delta exposure. So this is showing price moving lower and implied volatility increasing. And the purple line is showing that we'll actually have more delta notional to hedge when you take into account the change in implied volatility. All right, and this chart also shows how this has changed over time. So I'm going to go back to last Friday. And last Friday, market makers position on the gamma curve at the start of the day was negative. That was indicated by the spot gamma index that we'll look at in just a moment. So this is more typical of a negative gamma environment. And then this is Monday showing the shift to a positive gamma environment. And then this is today showing the shift to a slightly more positive gamma environment. So what I'm talking about is this number right here, the spot gamma, gamma index. And this is a, it's a proprietary measurement of the total amount of market maker, market gamma. This is market makers position. And a positive number indicates that market makers position is positive market makers gamma position their position on the gamma curve. And again, in a positive gamma environment, they have to create against price to hedge their delta exposure. All right, so for SPX, the number is positive for spy, the number slightly negative and then slightly positive for NDX and flat zero for QQQ. And I pay most attention to the SPX number. So right now market makers position is at the beginning of the day, slightly positive. And this implies lowered volatility. All right, so that is the, that's my positional analysis. And based on this, I was really expecting primarily a range day, selling highs, buying lows, narrow range, low volatility. All right, let's take a look at some setups. I'm going to start with ESP 500. And for those of you who may not be familiar with this chart, this is spot gamma hero, H-I-R-O stands for hedging impact of real time options. This chart is showing a combined signal for the S&P 500, combined signal of SPX trades, options trades, spy and ES futures. The white line is showing price, SPX price. And the purple line is showing that combined signal for options trades for all those instruments. And you can see that options traders have been buying every dip today. Any dip in price in there, they're buying. So I'm going to take a look and see what they're doing. And as expected, they are buying calls and buying puts. Let's zoom in on this. So these lines are shown in terms of delta. The rising orange line shows that traders are buying calls and also the notional value shown here at 2.38 billion. And then the falling purple line shows that traders are buying puts in the notional value at minus 487 million. So the call buyers are winning today.  So let's go back and just take a look at the various components of this signal. Again, it is SPX. That's the first component. And let's notice this number here. 1.92 billion, almost 2 billion now. So for SPX, very positive delta, 900 million. For spy, 1.14 billion positive. So traders are buying calls SPX and spy. And then for the ES futures, that number is slightly negative. At minus 72 million. So net for all. Again, traders have been taking positive delta positions and essentially buying every dip. So let's take a look. We'll take a look at the morning session and you can see more movement up and down. And this is a cumulative value. So it's typically going to show more range in the morning. And then as more of this delta notional accumulates, it won't show as much range. All right. So this pretty clearly shows that traders were buying every dip. Price was making higher highs. As again, options traders were buying every dip. Let's just take a look at one thing. Let's take a look at, let's shorten this rolling window and see what they're doing now. So again, I think this shows that options traders are buying dips. Let's go back to the one day rolling window. And we can also see what the zero DTE options traders are doing. So they're making up about half of the total trade. So these are options that expire today for SPX, SPY, and ES. Turn that off. All right. Let's go take a look at book map. So RJ asked Divergent Top there possibly. So let's go take a look at book map. So what he's noticing is this divergence and it may just be a small pullback. So let's go take a look at book map now. Go back to the ES. And we'll start with a morning session and then we'll... So I'm going to zoom in on the morning from the RTH open up until about 12 noon. So we know that traders were buying every dip, taking positive delta positions. Price was making higher lows, setting up a series of long scalps at this trendline up towards but never reaching the SPY 412 absolute gamma strike. So there are the morning setups in the SB500. All right, so let's go back and look at hero now. We'll take a look at about 12.30. And as far as reading these indicators in the sub chart, there's really not much to go on here. All negative, iceberg stops and CVD. All right, so let's go back and take a look at hero. And RJ is pointing out, again, a divergence in hero. So let's go back and take a look at hero now. And let's first of all, we'll start around 12.30. That was that reversal. It took a while. Took about 45 minutes to play out the reversal at the 411 level. More chop. Then finally, around 145. Price jumps higher. All right, now let's take a look at the current hero. We'll go to a 30 minute look back period. See if we can get more insight. All right, so that is setting up a potential short. And let's go take a look at book map and see if there are any additional clues. So the first thing is this resistance level at 41.30, which was noted in the Spot Gamma AM Founders Note. And that was intended to be at the 412 Spy 412 Absolute Gamma Strike. So setting up a nice short. And notice the aggressive cell are starting to come in a few ticks below that level. Showing my the pink dots there. All right, so we'll keep an eye on that. So RJ asked, maybe you can talk about using the daytime frame hero versus 30 minutes or less. What's your experience with one versus the other? So generally, I'm trading in the morning and I use the default, the total signal with the one day rolling window. And that works for the morning. And the afternoon, especially for a large, you know, the notional value for the SPX, Spy ES is the largest of all the all the instruments that have hero. And so it helps since that number, that notional value is has accumulated so much and is so large at this time of day that it helps to change the rolling window to eliminate some of that earlier accumulated notional value. So RJ, you know, simple answer to your question. I definitely would if I'm trading the SMB 500 right now, ES or Spy or, you know, whatever you're trading, I would be inclined to change it to a shorter timeframe, like 30 minutes. And I don't think I would go less. I have not found much value in going to five or 10 minutes. I just, that's not the way I trade. So let's go back and take a look at hero. And this is a 30 minute look back period. So we'll come back and take a look at this in a few minutes. And for those of you who were watching this and for anybody trading now, that would have been a good short setup, at least a short scalp. Anticipating, and this was something quick. Seeing as RJ did, seeing the move lower in hero and then price follows on a shorter timeframe 30 minute rollback period, rolling window period. All right, let's change. Let's go back to, all right, so that's only one day. There it is on the 30 minute. So it's a parent on both really. And that is, it helps because I've just zoomed in here. All right, let's take a look at NASDAQ and then we'll take a look at a few stocks. So here's NASDAQ. I'm going to zoom in. And this is a combined signal of NDX and QQQ. And we can just see from over here that the NDX is typically pretty small compared to QQQ, but it is the total signal. So I'm going to zoom in on this. And I'm going to show, first of all, something I posted in Discord this morning. And I was looking at this potential divergence setup. And it turned out to be just a, nothing more than a scalp. But I was looking at rising hero. Then it took about 20 minutes for this to play out. And this was chopping around that 322 level. And then price moved higher, but there was really no follow through. All right, so that's the first thing that I want to take a look at. Let's go to book map and go to the NASDAQ. I'm going to zoom in. All right, so here's the, here's the long setup. And again, it took a while to play out. There was quite a bit of chop around the 322 large gamma level. Then price finally broke higher. And there was about a 20 point trade. So nothing to write home about from the, around the 280 level on NQ up to the 300 level. And again, remember, hero was diverging higher. Traders were taking positive delta positions. So that was the first setup. And notice also in the sub chart, a little bit easier to read than the NASDAQ today, that this showed the traders were buying with iceberg orders, shown by the rising light blue line. And then briefly some buy stop orders, shown by this yellow line, helped to fuel the move higher as well as cumulative volume delta. All right, let's take a look at the rest of the day. So there's been a pretty strong confirmation up and down between hedging flow and price action in NASDAQ. All right, in YouTube, Roger asked, is hero part of book map? Or is it separate from book map? And it is separate from book map. So at one time, the only version of hero was a book map add on shown in the sub chart like I was just looking at. At this point in time, that book map add on version of hero is no longer available. And Spot Gamma has now, Spot Gamma just now has hero as a separate web based application. So this is from Spot Gamma. It's separate from book map. And it is included with a Spot Gamma alpha subscription. So I'm using two primary tools here. I'm using book map for order flow and Spot Gamma for my positional analysis and for hedging flow. So Roger, I hope that answers your question. All right, so there's NASDAQ. And now let's take a look at some stocks. So the first thing that I want to point out when looking at stocks, and for those of you who do subscribe to Spot Gamma, these alerts are a pretty handy feature that will save you some time. What I want to point out here is this Google call wall breach, this alert that fired at 10.01 Eastern time. And again, remember the call wall is expected to act as resistance. So you can click on this and it takes you to Google at the time around the alert. And here's the, let's just zoom in on this. So here's the call wall at 110. And that alert came in right around 10.01. And note that price starts to move lower as that call wall level acted as resistance as expected. Let's just see what traders were doing here. So they were buying calls, were buying puts, but overall the signal starts to drop. And let's just zoom out a little bit further and see how that played out. So that alert worked well. Let's go back and separate out the puts and calls, zoom out a little bit more. So the way to interpret this, up until that call wall breach and maybe a few minutes after, traders were, before they were buying calls, that show them by the rising orange line, the call walls breached and just a few minutes later, they stopped buying calls and start mildly selling, taking profits. And during this time, they're also buying puts. So when they stop buying calls, a few minutes later, price shifts lower. All right, let's go take a look at book map. We'll take a look at the order flow. So let's go to Google. I'm going to zoom in. So there is the call wall breach, the 110 call wall breach. So notice the, first of all, the high liquidity at that level that came in at the RTH open. These are limit sell orders that traders and stocks typically enter at the RTH open and they just leave them in there until they're filled. So that price, that liquidity tends to attract price as call buyers moved Google up to that 110 level and then note the absorption at that level. So there's a buy sweep up into that level, could be a stop run, and then sellers are absorbing the buyers and price starts to move lower. As again, traders stopped buying calls and continued to buy puts. Let's just take a look at cumulative volume, delta and see if that provides any additional clues. And not really, not in a timely or meaningful manner. That's generally why I don't look at CVD for stocks. Alright, so anyway, that's a nice setup in Google, alerted by Spot Gamma. So even if you were not watching Google, if you were just watching those alerts, you would be alerted and have time to evaluate order flow and hedging flow and take a short position there. Alright, so that's Google. And let's take a look at some other stocks. Here's AMD. And remember AMD was really strong yesterday, strong uptrend. Let's go take a look at Hero. And there's a very strong correlation between hedging flow and price action in AMD, confirming a short, then a long, then a short. So let's go take a look at BookBab. So we've got a short, a long, and a short, all confirmed by hedging flow. Alright, so there's AMD, short, long, up to the 96th liquidity level. Price is absorbed to that level, moves lower, and now it's chopping up back again. It looks like to the 96th level. Let's take a look at Amazon. I was looking at Amazon earlier and thought I saw a potential divergence short, but that really didn't play out. This is what I was looking at, the falling hero signal. So here is making lower highs. Well, Amazon makes higher highs, but that really didn't amount too much. Let's go back and take a look at BookMap again. So yeah, that didn't even amount to a point in Amazon. Alright, we looked at Google. Let's take a look at Meta. So Meta was strong off the open, chopped around for a while, then got going again around 12, 1230. Let's take a look at Hero. So this is showing the total signal. I'm going to separate outputs and calls. Alright, so this is separating outputs and calls, showing that traders are buying calls, and that really didn't start until around 1245, something like that where they started aggressively buying calls. So let's zoom in on this and look at the up until that time. So it was about equal, positive notional value of about 26 million for calls minus 22 million for puts. So call buyers slightly winning Meta, kind of chopping around. Now this does show a long set up in the morning when traders are buying calls up until about 1010, scroll to the right, and then price starts to pick up and then call buyers come in again. Alright, so there's Meta. Here's Microsoft confirmation short. And Microsoft I believe was weak yesterday as well. And Grasshopper, I'm glad you find this helpful, and I will show SPX in just a moment. Now the Vana model only shows how, he says you mentioned the Vana model, it looks like price may move lower. The Vana model only shows how market makers will are expected to hedge as price moves up and down and applied volatility changes. So that's what the Vana model is doing. There's no directional prediction to the Vana model. It's just an indication of how market makers delta notional changes and how they may have to hedge again as price moves up and down and applied volatility moves up and down as well. Alright, so here is, and the Vana model is part of my pre-market planning, positional analysis, and I, you know, I, so again what that tells me for trading is how market makers are expected to react as price moves up and down and applied volatility changes. So that is part of the static data that I look at. That's part of my positional analysis that I do pre-market. And then hero and hero, spot gamma hero now that I'm looking at is part of my execution process that happens once I start trading. Alright, so there's Microsoft. Let's take a look at Bookmap. Let's look at Microsoft. So Microsoft, again remember, hero is moving lower, confirming this short from the 310 level down to 307. And so Grasshopper says, I would love to see how you use hero to enter and I don't use hero necessarily as an entry signal. It's a confirmation. So I'm looking for two types of setups with hero and other information. First of all, for hero I'm looking at and I prefer divergent setups. So take a look at the post up above in Discord that I showed for NASDAQ this morning for NQ and QQQ. Looking at hero moving one way, price moving down to a level that I expect to act as support and then eventually resolving in the direction of hero. So that is a divergent setup and then the other setup is a confirmation of trend. So I'm looking for a reversal with a divergence or just a confirmation of trend with hero and I'm looking at the overall trend of hero confirming a long or a short. Joining a pullback in a trend entry. So for example, here's Microsoft and let's go back to hero. I'm going to zoom in on this. So in the morning I see hero continuing to fall. Very strong confirmation correlation with price and so in this case I'm looking at the overall trend of hero falling and you can look at price action in book map as well as any other directional indicators you may look at. Hero is one of my primaries. So I'm just looking for pullbacks to enter short. Could be on our trend line. So once I see this and I check on the trend of hero every now and then then I'll just go to book map and look for pullbacks. Look for pullbacks for short entry. So here, here at VWAP and then I see price targets down below. I can see liquidity targets down below. So I'm looking for pullbacks heading down toward the targets below and grasshopper asks, is it hard to find hero education? No, it's not hard. Just go to the book map. I'm sorry. Well I talk about hero every day. So if you want to see how to use it for trading then watch my webinars. The archives are available in the book map YouTube channel and also for basic information on hero you can go to the Spot Gamma website. Look out the free resources and then also there is go to the Spot Gamma YouTube channel and search for hero. There's a lot of information about hero. Alright, let's wrap it up. Let's go back to the we'll go back to the S&P 500 and see how that short played out that RJ pointed out and prices just chopping around that was a good for a short scalp actually two short scalps. We'll go take a look at a hero for the S&P 500 and then we'll call it a day. Let's go back to the S&P 500 zoom in on this. Alright so let's just see if the 30 minute rolling window provides any insight and yes it does. RJ says you need the patience of a monk today and yeah that's right this is what I expected today lower volatility smaller trading range but this is what this is showing now is that now traders are selling the high options traders and RJ mentioned selling volatility you could have sold a call spread and grasshopper asked would this be a divergence and I would yes I would call this let's zoom in on this so this first short scalp yes I would call this a divergence hero falls first price moves a little bit lower and then this is not really necessarily a divergence but heroes making substantially lower highs well the S&P 500 is making slightly lower highs so anyway based on what I see here only I would definitely be leaning short and again the way to trade this the way I trade this seeing that move lower and hero I'm looking for a level that could potentially act as resistance and there it is right there the SPX 41 30 resistance level noted as resistance in the spot gamma founders know as well as the spy 412 absolute gamma strike and I would really like to see really like to see order flow supporting this alright so that's all I have and remember CPI report is out tomorrow at 8 30 a.m. Eastern time and we'll talk about the aftermath alright thanks thanks for your questions and comments and I will see you tomorrow bye


Welcome back to the Photoshop tutorial. I'm going to show you how to create this awesome dramatic lighting effect. We'll do it in about 60 seconds. Let's delete all of this and start from scratch. Here we go, we've got this image of this fellow praying. The first step is you want to go over here to the left side, grab your polygonal lasso tool. We're going to go ahead and draw where we want the light source to be. So I see it sort of like this. Again, you guys might see it differently. I want it to go kind of right through the middle of his face and down like this. And then maybe, yeah, maybe out to here. I kind of want it touching the tips of his fingertips. It's not quite there, but we're going to feather it in post, in post. So hang on. Okay, good. We've got that added in now. Drop down here, grab the levels. We're going to create a levels adjustment layer. Here we go and presto. Pull these tabs on the right end, the furthest one right in a little to the left. Pull this one to the left and you'll see where we're going with this. And now pull this one a little bit to maybe four or five because we don't want it to affect the darks too much. Okay. Now you'll see we've got our beam of light. We're on our way. The last step here you want to do is you want to go over to this mask button here, click on this and now pull the feather quite a bit up. We don't want a really hard light. We kind of generally want a soft and more diffuse light.  Remember if this isn't quite right, grab your move tool and then you can just go ahead and make sure you're on the top level. You can go ahead and layer part of me. You can make it a little bigger. You can adjust the angle, whatever you need to make it work. That's all there is to it guys. Thanks for watching.


I have something to tell you and it's kind of hard to admit. It's a place of vulnerability that to you I would like to submit. I'm coming clean with you in the hopes that you'll benefit and be set free from the shackles that are so prevalent. Sometimes my anxiety gets the best of me. It drains the life right out of me until I can barely stand. I've heard from more than enough of you to understand that this isn't only my issue. But hold on tight, because this isn't going to be a comfortable conversation. From the time I was a kid, the weights of anxiety have never hid. But I did. I would lie down and feel the rhythm of my heart beating out of my chest. I would try to sleep, but this new master wouldn't give me any rest. I would try to pray to God and ask Him to take away this worry, stress and anxiety away from me. But there were so many nights that I believed lies about the God I couldn't see. Years later, still the battle rages. Evil tries to break in and tell me lies about the Rock of Ages. They say God's not with you. He doesn't care. He won't take care of you. He doesn't hear your prayer. When I believe these lies, I stare, stare into a darkness of reality without a good God, without a holy God, without a merciful God, without a loving God. But that is not our reality. Yes, sometimes my anxiety gets the best of me. You could say I'm prone to anxiety, but I don't use that as an excuse. We all have burdens to bear, but God doesn't want us to stare into the darkness of a reality built by lies about who He is and who we are. He wants us to stare at the eyes of our loving Father, who says everything will be all right. But will it? Will it really? What about my family, my friends, my hopes, my dreams, and everything in between? But it strikes me when I step back, when neglected to see. Not one mention of God in my laundry list of anxiety is probably because He's the furthest thing from my mind when it's consumed by worry. I think about me, my friends, my family, but not the God who's orchestrating it all for His glory.  But God is calling me to look on Him because His face He'll never hide. His truth He'll never compromise. His character He'll never change. His love will forever reign and our anxieties He'll take. If we take His hand with faith and see that He's already taken our anxieties for our sake, so we can rest. But no anxieties will still come until His kingdom come. Still our faith is placed on Him because His will be done.


On to the main event we have a dark magician tin a final fat pack and no we're not body shaming We're just describing this epic epic pack fat pack of legend of blue eyes. Let's see we can do a 2003 pack We have pulled a blue eyes out of this type of pack before we've got a dark world thorns red medicine We got the Kurama Tara the terrible new miruco so good We got the mystical sheep number two trip wire beast will it be the blue eyes will be the dark magician red-eyes black dragon Let's go the dark magician out of a dark magician tin


Field testing concrete part two. This program covers the slump test and casting cylinders for compression testing. We'll start with the slump test. Basically, the slump test consists of filling a standard slump cone with concrete, rotting it to consolidate the concrete, then lifting the cone off, and measuring how far the concrete slumps down when it's not supported by the cone. The slump test is a measure of two things, uniformity and consistency. And it indicates how workable the concrete is, whether it's relatively stiff or more fluid. Here are two examples with different slumps. It's a bit confusing to beginners, but you'd refer to the one on the left as having a high slump. The one on the right has a low slump. When you think about it, it makes sense. The concrete on the left slumped farther, so it has a high slump measurement. The procedure that you'll see here is based on test method number 804. The construction manual covers the procedures and the equipment used. You need to run one slump test for every 100 cubic yards of concrete placed. To run a slump test, you need first a rigid, stable base that won't absorb water from the concrete sample.  Just make sure there's no freestanding water on it because that would affect the concrete. Second, a standard slump cone. It should be reasonably clean with no major dents. Make sure the inside is smooth. No dried concrete. Third, the tamping rod. Make sure it's the standard rod made for concrete testing. It's not acceptable to use a cut-off reinforcing bar instead. The bar has to have a rounded tip so that the large aggregates aren't pushed to the bottom when the concrete is being rotted. Next, a scoop. The kind with a rounded bottom is best because it makes it easier to get the concrete into the cone. And finally, something to measure the slump with, a ruler or measuring tape. And that's all the equipment you need. The base, the cone, the rod, a scoop, and a ruler. Now for the test procedure. To begin with, of course, you need a sample remixed until it looks uniform. Dampen the inside of the slump cone so the concrete won't stick to it. And dampen the base as well. But remember, no freestanding water. Place the cone down on the base as close as possible to the concrete sample. Make sure the base is level and firmly supported. It has to be flat and stable. That's a must. The person doing the test should step onto the footholds at the bottom to hold the cone steady and stay there. That's why the cone should be close to the concrete sample. Now we can start filling the cone. It's best to move the scoop around the top to get the concrete distributed as evenly as possible. The cone is filled and rotted in three layers by volume, not according to the height of the cone. The first layer should come up about two and a half inches. The second layer should come up about six inches, about halfway up the cone. And the third layer should overflow. To make it easier to get the right depths, some people mark the outside of the cone at the two and a half inch and six inch levels. They don't have to, but it does make the testing more accurate. Okay, he has the first level in the cone. Now rotting. With the rounded end of the rod downward, he rods the concrete 25 times, starting at the outside spiraling toward the center. And he's rotting deep enough to just tap the base. Now notice one thing. When he's tamping at the outside edge, he holds the rod at an angle so it's just about parallel with the side of the cone. That's the way to do it. If he held it vertically, he'd miss the edge. It wouldn't get rotted properly. Now he's ready for the second layer. Again, it should reach about half of the cone's height. The second layer is rotted just the same as the first. 25 times, starting at the outside and spiraling toward the center. But one difference, he doesn't rod to the full depth of the cone. The rod should go just deep enough to penetrate the first layer by about a half inch. And there's an easy way to make sure the rod goes to the right depth. Just grip the rod at the right distance from the bottom tip. 12 inches for the first layer, 10 for the second, and six and a half for the third layer. And rod downward until the hand just reaches the top of the cone. Marking the rod at the 12, 10, and six and a half inch points can help you to position your hand quickly and correctly. Okay, ready for the third layer. As I said earlier, the third layer should overflow the cone. The concrete should stay above the cone throughout the rotting. If it drops down, stop rotting. Add concrete, then finish with the 25 spiraling strokes. No more than a total of 25 though. The rod should penetrate the top of the second layer by about a half inch. The cone's full and the rotting is done. The next step is to use the tamping rod to strike off the concrete at the top. The top should be fairly smooth so it's best to use a sawing motion and roll the rod at the same time. There, level and fairly smooth. The next step is to remove any concrete that is spilled around the bottom of the cone. That's important because any concrete down there will keep the sample from spreading out when the cone is lifted off. Now the cone can be removed. Notice that he places both hands on the handholds and presses downward to keep the cone stable while he takes his feet off. If it's done improperly, removing the cone can ruin the test. Here are the rules. Pull straight up with no twisting or tilting allowed. It should take about five seconds. It takes a steady upward lift, slow enough so the concrete doesn't pull on the cone. Now set the cone down next to the concrete, being careful not to jar the plywood base. Lay the tamping rod flat across the cone and measure the distance between the bottom of the rod and the top of the concrete. Measure to the nearest quarter of an inch. You'd record this as one and three quarters. Now here's an important point about measuring. Measure from the bottom of the rod to a point on the concrete that is directly above the center of the bottom of the concrete, not at the center of the top. If a fair amount of concrete falls off or shears away, the test is invalid. Make a new test using another portion of the sample. And that's the slump test. On a stable, flat, not absorbent base, fill the cone in three layers by volume, not by height. Rod each layer 25 times, spiraling toward the center. Strike off the top layer, clean around the base of the cone, lift the cone straight up without twisting or tilting it and measure from the bottom of the rod to the top of the concrete, directly above the center of the base of the concrete. There's a time limit too. Two and a half minutes between the point where he starts filling the cone to when he measures the slump. Always document the slump measurement on the delivery slip. If the slump is not within the range that's called for, discuss the deviation with your supervisor right away. And of course, after the test, the equipment should be rinsed off, especially the rod and the inside of the cone. Then it'll be ready for the next time. Now, on to casting cylinders in the field. Again, casting, testing equipment and methods are covered in the construction manual, test method 809. First, the equipment needed. Standard cylinder molds, a tamping rod like the rod used in slump testing and a scoop or a blunt-ended trowel. As part of the preparations, make sure there are enough cylinder molds on hand. You will need to make at least two and more if the pour will be over 50 cubic yards. The procedure for casting cylinders is very much the same as the slump test. Three equal layers of concrete, rotted 25 times in the same spiral pattern. You'll need a random sample of concrete as you saw in part one of the course. Be sure to get enough concrete to run all your tests without reusing any of it. Place the first layer into the mold, moving the scoop or trowel around the lip of the mold. If the concrete isn't distributed evenly inside the mold, use the tamping rod to move it around. Rotted 25 times, spiraling toward the center. Full depth for the first layer. Place the second layer and rod the same way, but deep enough to penetrate the top of the first layer by about one inch. You'll recall that slump tests called for a penetration of just a half inch. If the rotting leaves holes in the concrete, you should pat the sides of the mold with your hand very lightly to close up the voids. For the third layer, overfill the mold. Rod the same way, an inch or so into the second layer. Strike off the excess concrete with a trowel or a straight edge using a sawing motion. The contract number and the cylinder number on the side of the mold with a black felt tip pen. Number the cylinders sequentially from the beginning of a job to the end for each class of concrete. Be sure to record the numbers in the cylinder book. You have to know where to find the concrete that the cylinders represent. Cylinder curing is a critical part of the testing. Try to keep all cylinders undisturbed for the first 24 hours, buried with dirt within two inches of the tops, covered with the caps supplied with the cylinders. But that's not all because there are variations which your instructor will discuss after the program. There's one point that I can't stress enough. Be familiar with the specs and the construction manual and make sure that your references are up to date. Know the project that you're working on and the concrete mix design that it calls for. There's just no way to do a thorough inspection without having good references on hand. And that covers field testing concrete part two.


The Code and Library Catalog provides a useful starting point for your research. You can access books, journal articles, reports, online videos and more on your assignment topic. Logging in will provide you with extra functionality when searching, so click Log in on the Library homepage, then enter your Oasis credentials. To begin searching, enter broad keywords from your topic in the search box and then hit Enter. Initially, your search results will be quite large as the catalogue will list all resources which match your search terms. You can filter your results by clicking on the options in the right menu. The availability filters allow you to limit to peer-reviewed articles, resources that are available online or resources available in the library. Under resource type, you can filter to particular types of resources such as journal articles or newspaper articles. For example, if you select books, this will filter the results to books and ebooks on your topic. To remove a filter at any time and return to the main search results, click the cross next to the filter. If you find older items listed which aren't relevant to your research, you can refine your results using the creation date filter. Most of the library's resources are available online and can be opened directly from the library catalogue. To access, click the available online link in the catalogue record. This displays the database or databases that the item is available in. Note the available from date range as items listed in multiple databases may have different availability. To open the item, click the available at link, in this case ProQuest Central. If you have previously logged into the catalogue, the item should open directly. We recommend accessing articles in their PDF form wherever possible as it will assist you with your referencing.


All right, everybody welcome to the impromptu live stream on Wednesday and just like the title and thumbnail suggests We're gonna dive deep Well, just an overview of what's going on for this new law looks like it's us code 6050 i and there's been a lot of talk Especially about in the Twitterverse and on different social media sites that this law goes into effect And it means that if you don't report the $10,000 plus of your crypto within 15 days you're gonna face a felony charge and I didn't really know much about it I just thought that was going on to reach out to somebody that could help me She-han Chandrachara comes on as the crypto CPA she and welcome back the show for the six or seventh time I think yeah good to be here Yes, so actually like I had heard about it and then you reach out to me And I'm like, I don't know what really is going on But before we get into into all that stuff I just want to remind everybody that if you're watching the replay just know that there's gonna be a scam Video because that's what YouTube is all about and it's gonna be an AI video. It's gonna look something ridiculous like this It's gonna be Michael Saylor It could be any number of people that are big into the in the crypto space and they're gonna say scan this code And I will give if you send me one Bitcoin, I'll send you to news flash. That is not reality What is reality? Unfortunately is tax codes and this is everybody's favorite subject taxes I'm sure and this was actually what was sent to me This is Ryan Sean Adams and over the over there at one of the duo for bankless And he states if you're a US citizen and get 10,000 thousand one crypto You have to report the IRS within 15 days or they can charge you with a family felony that starts today They want your name your address your social carry number of the sender and they're not telling you how to file the report Which I got to be honest with you It's very easy to pile on the government especially when you see stuff like this and also I saw the same thing from Jerry He's the exact director of coin center DC base crypto think tank He says the exact same thing if you receive 10 care more and you know report it within 15 days You get a felony charge So I reached out to Sheehan and I was like is this true because if it is I'm in big trouble and he said no So let's go over this 6050 I code and what this really means Sheehan. It's up to you Cool. Um, so I guess let's start with the current law, right? So basically the 6050 I Code section of the IRS says that if you run a trade or business in simple terms of business And if you receive Paper cash in excess of $10,000 in a transaction. Let's say for example, I go to a dealership Like a car dealer Instead of cutting a check or giving my bank on information. I just give them You know $20,000 worth of Paper cash in a double back and buy a car. Sounds good. That's what I do If that were to happen the dealership has to collect my personally identified information meaning my social security name address and etc and File a tax form called form 8300 with the IRS and the FinCEN. So that is a rule Okay, and you might ask why people why we have this rule. It's to combat against you know money laundering tourist financing Because otherwise, you know there, you know, you can earn, you know money to illegal means and and kind of convert it to goods and services without, you know Without being caught. So that's the idea behind this existing laws that applicable to cash transactions Okay, so let me get this straight. So what you said So I go into the dealership and I want an upgrade for my 2018 Dodge Grand Caravan Which is a sweet ride? I must I must tell you very good in gas mileage very great in space and I come in there with the $23,000 that it costs and the dealership Dick Poetoyota and El Paso, Texas or wherever else or or Hinda here in Puerto Rico They say hey you just gave us all this money We need to collect a bunch of information from you because we don't want to be held responsible for your money laundering activity Which we're not saying you do but if you are we have your information and we can report it So that has always been an effect. Is that correct? That is right. Okay. All right. So now let's Flip on its head and talk about this new rule because has this law been in effect The 6050 I and there's been some changes to it to include virtual currencies Yeah, exactly. So the 6050 I has been in effect for a number of years But a lot of people don't encounter this because not many people carry that much cash and and buy like, you know, goods and services So what happened in 2021 was that infrastructure built has and as a result They subjected digital assets to 6050 I regulations So going back to our example Instead of me giving cash to the dealership if I give like one bitcoin and buy a car worth, you know, You know, $50,000 or so Now that the dealership has to collect my information And file that form 8300 with the IRS and the fintech. So that that's the change that happened And of course when we're talking about a felony charge, this isn't for the individual Let's just say, okay, let's take this example. So the same example as well.  Do you have a wallet? And they say, yeah, you know, for some reason they're like, yes, we we love dogecoin here at the dealership You give them dogecoin and they don't collect any information from me If they do that, then it's it's on them as the business owner, correct? It's not on me as the one who actually spent that crypto That that is correct. Great. So now all they got to do you're telling me is I got to find somebody Now I'm just kidding. I'm not going to go down that rough She can't hear you. She's telling me I just got to find somebody who who will accept my crypto Ask me for any kind of paperwork. Excellent Okay, so we have that down it makes a lot of sense. Is that it to the rule? How did we How did we get this so misconstrued because I've seen this in a lot of different social media platforms And you know, we're talking about hey, if you get $10,000 or more, it's automatic felony within 15 days Where do we go along here? Yeah, it's this key term Trade of business. So in our example, the dealership is clearly running. What's called a trade of business, right? You know, they're in the business of selling cars. Therefore, they have a business of selling cars So and a lot of people thought that like, you know, this is applicable to Everybody like even individuals even if you don't have a trade of business And I think what I was trying to clarify on Twitter is that the 6050 I again It applies only to trade of businesses meaning like You know, you should be able to carry like some type of economic activity. It could be, you know, selling cars I don't know selling something As a business if you do not do that as a business You don't have a trade of business and therefore 6050 I does not apply to you So how does that let's say so any kind of Transaction, let's just say it's me to you And I'm like a she and um, you know, thanks for Oh, I don't know for any kind of No, we can't say cpa. So we got an actual business, but I say, hey, you know, here is The 20 000 that I owe you from the bet that I lost because the cowboys lost last week or whatever it was If I if we did that, is there any kind of laws that say that I have to You know put it put in some kind of information with the irs that I've transferred that types of funds to you so in that case, you know, uh Assuming I don't run like a professional, you know, right service. I I I don't have a trade of business That was just a one time receipt coming from you And I don't have any obligation Yeah, excellent. Yeah All right, so everybody that's just what I wanted to get across I'm not going to beat a dead horse So like just be careful with the information that you get out there especially on the twitter verses and the social media sites because uh It's it's all about sensationalism and even I delve in that as well I mean you saw the title and the thumbnail it's to get your attention, you know But I don't go too far to where it's like get people get people heart attacks I just want to give you the best information we possibly can all right So shian that would take care of that piece unless there's something else that we missed But what I'm going to do is I'm going to open it up for for a quick q&a because I know you've got Things going on another 10 minutes or so. So everybody if you want to ask shian here who is a certified CPA and that dales and crypto specifically now would be the time to ask that and uh I got a question for a shian what's uh These are there any new laws that we're not familiar with that are coming on the pipe That could change things. I know last time we talked which the last video we did I don't know if you knew that but it had like a it had over 150,000 views And it's the one that we talked about about The government trying to ban Non custodial wallets, which is like, which is a great video. I urge everybody to take a look at it But any other laws coming in that could affect us as crypto users? No, I think the uh, the 1099 thing that we spoke about in the previous video That's going to be huge when it gets finalized The 6050 is going to be controversial as well It hasn't been finalized or anything like that that the law goes into effect January 1st to in 24 It does not mean that you have an obligation to report today because in order for a law to be effective You had to have like regulations Meaning the IRS has to come in, you know, kind of update the forms and kind of give you specific information So it hasn't happened yet So so you still have some time to kind of like, you know, figure out how to comply with the 65TI But just to summarize, yeah, the the the 1099 stuff and the 65TI There was a kind of like the two crypto tax-related rules that that that's going to have a big impact on the industry Gotcha. Excellent. So yeah, everybody, I will try to link this in the description Here was a video I was talking about look at 147k. Excuse me. That was just an impromptu video. So Hopefully hopefully she and you get more Followers for on your twitter account. All right, she and it's 540. I don't want to keep you I know you got another other meeting everybody I'm gonna stick around. We're gonna talk about This dump today that happens in the market and go from there Everybody if you want to find she hand there's a link in the description for his twitter account And of course his link train everything's there. She and thanks for stopping by where you appreciate Thanks for having me. See you. All right. See you All right, everybody. That was good stuff Let's talk everybody's been talking about this. Let's just go over this real quick And everybody knows why there's a dump today. I'm assuming because everybody their mother was talking about this It was just from one report from uh matrix port Where they said they this is their belief is why the sgc will direct the bitcoin ets and basically it come down to it came down to politics And why gary wouldn't approve it and one of the things they said was what one actually one of the things I said which was uh political Political divide and they're right in this one instance or as far as like The commissioner is it's gary caroline and haime and those are the three democrats and mark and hester pierce crypto mom They're both the republicans and it looks like they've mostly sided with gary So we'll see how it actually works out, but that was the reason for this dump today. I don't really care about Dumps or pullbacks and things like that what I do concern myself with is how this I have never heard of matrix port ever It's just amazing to me how one article can drop Bitcoin I think it was by 10 45 It's quite a bit 45 to 40. No, it wasn't 10 it's 7 roughly so That's the the thing that that concerns me and of course people say ah rob every every markets manipulated. I know that's true I mean Gold and precious metals jp morgan did that as well and they got they got busted for spoofing the markets But uh concerns me that our market is is controlled and manipulated that little bit for one stupid article that came up It says hey, we think this is going to happen and everybody lost their mind So it's just a good lesson. I think that's uh As we move forward that stuff like that's going to happen So I know people are like well, i'm going to go long i'm going to go short i'm going to go on leverage Did you see that coming? Did these leverage plays see it coming? No, the one they saw coming was an etf Potentially getting getting passed. I'm still on the fence about that one But uh, that's why I have the rules on the side But of course everybody can do what they want to do today. So look everybody. Thanks so much for stopping by I appreciate you like today's video give it a thumbs up instead of subscribing Everybody talk about his time sensitive. That's it and I will see you guys on the next one. Thanks so much adios


At Audiology Associates of Prestonsburg, you can live your life the way you want and find the freedom of better hearing. With 40 years of being in the hearing care industry, you'll experience patient care that is specific to you with exceptional follow-up care that ensures your hearing and balance needs are being met. Audiology Associates at 1428 Northlake Drive in Prestonsburg. Big Sandy Community and Technical College will be having their GenCyber summer camp during the second week of June. Night through 12th grade students in the region will be learning about the importance of cybersecurity while participating in educational activities. The program is made possible through a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. There will be students going into the night through 12th grade through our 5th county service region, which includes Pike, Floyd, Martin, Johnson, and McGuffin counties. We will have it the second week of June. We will have running buses. We will feed the campers. We're learning about cybersecurity. Our college has received ingrants from the National Science Foundation, supported by the National Security Agency, over $600,000 to spark the interest of students in cybersecurity because there's such a great need in our country. Every major company nowadays requires an IT team with cybersecurity experience. The GenCyber summer camp is a perfect opportunity for high school students to gain the experience needed to find a career in that field. We would love for students to come into our cybersecurity program. We just started the program two years ago. It's an awesome program where only we were the first associate in applied science in cybersecurity in the state of Kentucky. Now we have another sister college, Blue Grass Community College. They're offering the degree, so it's an opportunity. It's a very lucrative career. Students can live here and work remotely. In the world today, all organizations need some sort of security on their systems, and most everyone is online. So cybersecurity is in very high demand.


What's happening with human rights around our world on ThinkTech Live, broadcasting from our downtown studio in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Moana, New York, Canada. Today we're focusing on the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development, the voluntary national review and voluntary local review, country and city checkup on the UN sustainable development goals on the ground in the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development is an annual gathering of governments and regional civil society coming together to share about the 17 UN global goals on the ground in the nations of Asia-Pacific. The Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development provides opportunity for community organizers to share the genuine situation people experience from the community to the city to the capital. The UN sustainable development goals are the core currency in the conversation bringing together the country to prioritize what is necessary to improve from the neighborhood to the nation on sustainable development rooted in human rights, justice, and freedom. The Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development provides a chance for civil society to share prior to the actual voluntary national review and also the voluntary local review at the UN high-level political forum at the UN headquarters happening later in the year. Today we're meeting with people who are actively engaged to bring the UN global goals on the ground in the nation. Buntun thank you so much for joining us can you share with us a bit why the voluntary national review is so important. Just one thank you. I am Buntun Jantalawongwiso. I am the president of the Alliance for Democracy in Laos. I am from Germany now. We think to even win is very important for us. Why the VNR can report about how it's up to and in our country the SDG from 16th SDG was having the government to go but we see that the in the Laos there is not every SDG had to in practice for the people and the VNR must tell how must the SDG in Laos better for the people. Without VNR the people don't have any possible to change what's the program about development in this country. The people need SDG from 16th SDG for the people for every goal must change better for the people. Buntun thank you so much we know that there are 17 global goals but it is true SDG number 16 is very vital for Laos as global goal 16 focuses on peace justice and strong institutions. I also like how you shared what the VNR is so important because it allows the people a chance to speak and have their voices heard this week at the regional gathering so that they're able to then connect with other civil society from around the Asia Pacific but as you said in July at the global level so that people on the ground can share their truth and discuss with the world what matters most to them to make sure that their governments are held accountable and that the governments can't just say that all is well but that the people themselves can share what needs to be done. Christian can you share a bit why you believe the voluntary national review is so important? Thank you Chuzwa and I am the President of Lyon for Democracy in Laos and I'm very very happy to share with you the importance of the VNR because I think that the review demonstrates a lasting commitment to implementation of the 2030 agenda and a sharing a global goal as we know. VNR are a mechanism of accountability and for monitoring progress under the 2030 agenda. As the program is rooted in human rights it is essential to assess the progress made in a sharing first sustainable development that leaves no one behind. This is a core currency of the principle of the sustainable development but in Laos nowadays I am very very concerned that the goal we will not carry out and remain a huge challenge because of the rhetoric of the right of the citizen of Laos. It is very important today. Thank you. It is my take on it. It's an excellent point. I think you brought up something that is absolutely crucial that in the UN 2030 agenda one of the main pillars is to leave no one behind and the other part was also furthest behind first so it prioritizes the people who have not been centered around and included in public policy at the city and county level as well as at the national level so furthest behind first and leaves one no behind is absolutely crucial as we go forward for the 2030 agenda and that brings us then to Marcos. Marcos can you share with us why you believe that VNR is so important based on your experiences so far. Well at first I have to mention the good thing is that there is a VNR but that is in front of this really really good thing and that so many countries took place on this process and government. This is the good thing but unfortunately yeah okay we know some countries use misuses for so-called flower speech to say our country is the best and we are the best country of the country whatever and here we have the possibility to observe these countries in our case in this last to see what's the truth. They didn't write this ever seem real or good on the good way and this is the possibility for people and organizations like us bring the message what is right and what is wrong and there is no other message there is no other possibility to do this that's the main thing I think. No it's true what is crucial is that when the UN 2030 agenda was created and in 2015 when the 17 global goals were recognized for all countries and every country agreed to implement these important global standards at the local level and in every capital around the world it guaranteed that everyone everywhere on earth could aspire to actualize the various UN 2030 agenda in their own lives that's so crucial and what was also important as you said is that there was some review created so that it wasn't just these are the goals and we hope they happen it was a new process set up that happens at the regional level with the Asia Pacific Forum on sustainable development which is taking place this week in Bangkok but also as you said at the global level at the high level political forum in New York where we can look at what's happening. Buntun looking now what have you done so far to bring the global goals on the ground what has been the first steps we've seen so far in 2024 I remember there was a conference in Vien Chien can you share with us a bit what that was like and what Alliance for Democracy in Laos is doing here at the next steps. We have now been prepared for the VNR for July this year and now we have very information from our activist director from Laos and we have information about half half the people they're living now with SCG we see that a lot of people they don't have example SCT 16 it's very important for the people the people don't have right of assembly they don't have right of media especially social media and they don't have right for politicians or for angels so reported about what's the government have something better for the people we have now been prepared now report for the VNR to tell about what is reality with SCT in Laos now what the government of the Laos they don't take they don't make something for the people or they don't implement the SCG for the people example the people the the Laos government they don't allow for the people to tell about where they're living how who are the people in Laos now the people are very poor why the problem with land grabbing too much land building in Laos too much deforester too much influence from China from Vietnam from the deceptive system our report will be reported about a violation from human life of human life for people in Laos now it's very important the Laos government have last month the conference for prepared for VNR our viewers in this conference too but I see this the the NGO from Laos they don't have possible to tell the reality in Laos that the SCG don't implement it now uh we the ADL we we we prepared our report we tell on everything from SCG what not implemented in Laos now for better for implementing in every goal from SCG in Laos thank you Bunton that's very important so there was an early process which was important that the UN initiated the conversation allowing the Laos government to assemble NGOs to come together but you bring up an interesting point that with this Asia-Pacific foreign unsustainable development sometimes the NGOs or civil society are not independent and those are known internationally as gongos or government organized NGOs and that's what brings up what it's so crucial the role of Alliance for Democracy in Laos because you get the information directly from people impacted who are trying to defend their land who are trying to make Laos a better country such as Sombac Sompon and when they do stand up for themselves horrible things happen such as disappearances or unfortunately even sometimes killings and extrajudicial executions and so the role of Alliance for Democracy in Laos and why the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development is so important is that Global Goal 17 the partnerships where people come together and work with the people on the ground who are directly impacted so their lives can be improved and that these 15 years can actually have a reality that changes people's daily living conditions christian can you share what have you done so far and what's ADL focusing on to bring the global goals on the ground okay thank you so I don't I am very very happy to to know the statement of Dr Benton and I agree with her because the the most attention that we have now today in Laos is SDG 16 because is the the source of the happiness if the human rights are respected and in Laos this is very very important to the people because we have repeatedly tested testimony from our member in the ground it is a very very sickening people suffer from the lack of the rule of the law and from corruption as well um since uh nothing has been resolved you know on the contrary respect of human rights backslides and become worse nowadays in Laos and I I want to to add a four um STG in this forum because this is the essential of the social justice I mean uh SDG 16, STT 5, 4, 3 and 1 you know this STG are not achieved are not carried out nowadays in Laos PDR because the really reality that mentioned Dr Benton is is very very uh significant when it's significant you know uh why how to do that the the different uh the right of the people every day without action in europe uh union and um until speaking to the member in in inside the country you know um so at the Vienna Hell recently in Vientiane the captain of Laos the key point underlined by the expert versus social justice the fight again massive corruption and equality of genders and human trafficking is very very um important for us for our people uh living inside the city you know I I want uh that Laos government um take account and um take account and implement the recommendation of international community to see that whole it is all and the program will be will be resolved thank you so that's a very good point and you really do highlight why this voluntary national review is so crucial and why it's important to have an independent civil society to focus on accountability and transparency and you did bring up a good point that STG 16 is very crucial if there's no democracy it's very difficult to have development and you also bring up no poverty goal one number two zero hunger number four quality education and education is essential to be able to mobilize and we know that someone some poem studied at the east west center and university of hawaii and then was bringing back the traditional knowledge of farming but also combining new technologies with video advocacy so that more people could be involved in regenerative agriculture which we see a resurgence on Maui and hawaii as well marcus can you share a bit of why and what have you done so far to bring the global goals on the ground in Laos yeah the good thing i can tell you is uh that we are important this process from the first day the countries that the united nation decided to do is sustainable one thing we do better than the law government the law government takes the bnr after some years but we do and the stg report every year and for example for the next stg report will be published just before the bnr of the law of government will come we have started to collect the information in the end of the last year so i think we will be in time when we can publish it we can publish the first report now with a lot of problems but it will be completed i think in the next one we are a little bit better fortunately okay the first result i can tell the people that uses okay laws that are being done in every country marcus that's a really good point so what is part of this process is first the governments must write a report so in a way it's a report card where governments self reflect and see how they've been doing on the 17 global goals on the ground but what's also crucial is the stakeholder report the one that's drafted by civil society the one that's drafted by different major groups and other stakeholders that focus on specific global goals or the most important human rights in each nation and that is the important part that now not only is there a review of every country in the world how they're doing on these 17 global goals but also there's different reports that we can always reflect on as well as you're sharing about being able to see those reviews the actual vnrs at the high-level political forum. Bunton can you share with us though why is the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development a crucial conference and what actually happens during the Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development which begins this week in Bangkok. We will give our report and our statement about how reality of two problems in Laos now. We will tell about our problems from the people in Laos. Our report even thinks the reality with the people living in Laos now the big problem the people don't have human rights of the assembly of the media and of the political life and the problem with human rights wireless especially the killing of our activities killing of our activities in Laos now it's a big problem the now PDR didn't tell about two problems with human rights virus the government tell about now in Laos it's very good with human rights but in reality how the people have more and more impression when they are living in Laos now the Chinese people they have now more rights than the Lao people Chinese influence in Laos is very very big in Laos now why the Lao government have allowed everything for Chinese investors in Laos they they have buildings too much casino in Laos the building too much dam in Laos they make too much land grabbing for the people the Lao people now they are poor and poor this problem will be our report to tell in this time the reality in Laos now and I think our report will be maybe only our organization tell about two problems in Laos now and we need work together with other NGOs in this time in the Asia Pacific now to tell what is the two problem in Laos with STG the government don't implement any STG in Laos now this is reality thank you so much and you really highlight that the chilling effect of what happens when the activists who are really the champions of these global goals on the ground are silence through intimidation and actual human rights violations can you share with us christian why you think the what happens during the Asia Pacific forum on sustainable development is so important where we know the first thing is an opening all of the regional entities of the UN specialized agencies programs and funds the UN development program international labor organization UN women all come to share their actions on the ground can you share a bit christian okay okay it's very important and I want to add what Dr Bunton said today in this forum is very important the reality of the line in Laos is very very difficult all the goal of STG is not uh tackling uh by the Laos government I think it gives me the word uh the Laos government mock the international recommendation every tie and every way and when they uh make a statement uh in front of the community of the verse this is uh the the the pretty verse the the verse not no sense you know but in reality a lot of people uh suffer from the lack of old application of old implementation of human rights and and the goal of of human rights when I I look at the international aid you know it's a large amount of money but this money doesn't go to the people what is the program what is happening in Laos everything is clear it is massive corruption uh that the expert uh during the vietnam held recently in vietnam on the line the massive culture you know it is the the cause of the uh social injustice we want social justice for Laos people and why we day after day we we try to to share the difficulty of our people in the ground by uh talking in our TV broadcasting every two weeks you know thank you so what's really crucial is that you're pointing out is we are really now at the halfway part the UN Sustainable Development Goal Summit just took place last september and now we know it's the second half and that's when all the games are won and what you all described and have shared to us is so crucial because we know the voluntary national review and the voluntary local review is a country check up on how it is doing with the global agenda of the UN SDGs and nations share their improvements and initiatives create new chances in communities cities and capitals to achieve the UN 2030 agenda and the work that you're doing as stakeholders to demand that the governments do better with the global goals on the ground is absolutely crucial I want to thank you all for joining us and everyone for watching Cooper Union we look forward to sharing the results of the Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development as we go forward together for a better world Mahalo


Blackstone Publishing presents The Guilty Dead, a monkey-wrenched novel by P. J. Tracy. This book is read by Sarah Borges. Prologue. Hollywood Hills, California. Gus Risken sipped from a bottle of water as he surveyed Trey's living room. What he saw infuriated and disgusted him. The priceless Persian rug beneath his feet was filthy, pockmarked with cigarette-burns and littered with the cast-offs of a desolate life. Pizza and take-out boxes of indeterminate age, now housed skittering colonies of roaches, empty beer-bottles and martini-glasses, had drooled out their meager remains, leaving crunchy spots on the expensive silk pile. The paraphernalian detritus were scattered around the room like grotesque confetti. Something, somewhere, was putrefying. Or maybe the whole house was so fetted with human decay, both physical and moral, it had permanently saturated the air. None of this was his problem, but he still found it deeply offensive. Okay, gussie-boy, let's bang! Trey's voice was croaky and manic as he bounced into the room on spindly, skeperous legs, his margarita glass sloshing more effluent onto the rug. He sank into a sofa, drained what was left of his drink, then bent over the coffee-table and snorted a hearty noseful of coke from a snowy pile. He let out a pleasureed sigh. Then his waxen face twisted into an expression of warped mirth. One last party before spin dry, right? Guss smiled, wondering if Trey was asking for validation or just stating a fact. What could it hurt? Let's make it a good one, hey, you sure you don't want a drink, a bump? No thanks.  He laughed at his own bad joke, then rubbed his fingers together in a frenzied, greedy gesture. Gimme gimme, Mr. Sandman, whatcha got for me tonight? Guss tossed four glass-eyed packets of heroin onto the coffee-table. Something special for your last party. Trey fondled one of the packets with shaking hands, scrutinizing its contents. Looks good.  I wouldn't do you like that, man. This is pure number four. Just came in this morning. You don't even have to heat it up. You're the boss. Sample complete. Ready to continue?


So there's been talks of intraparty warfare with respect to the GOP for quite some time now But I haven't really seen it and what I have seen I think has largely been overstated I mean certainly tensions exist between the Trump wing of the party and the trad con wing of the party That's that's obvious But it's only now that I think these tensions are starting to kind of bubble up and reach the surface and become a lot More public which is really interesting because this is something that is Important because Donald Trump has an iron grip on the Republican Party even if he's not president He still is the de facto leader of the Republican Party So it is important that the Republicans who have previously kind of kept their mouth shut Speak up to stop his influence before he ends up retaking control of the party in 2024 Now just to kind of give you a quick example of the way that we've seen these Disputes between both wings of the Republican Party become more public is how Dan Crenshaw has been taking on members of the Freedom Caucus Not too long ago He called them grifters and he just recently took a shot at Marjorie Green after she tried to fundraise off of her ban From Twitter, so he wrote this on Instagram calling her out by name instead of playing the victim about censorship Maybe use your position as a legislator to help pass legislation against censorship Luckily, I've already done all the hard work for you and drafted a bill that would change the section 230 to prohibit political censorship Want to co-sponsor before I introduce it or prefer to keep up with petty and childish attacks your call He adds that Marjorie scoffed at the notion of supporting anti censorship legislation is indicative of her true intent to remain a victim She doesn't want solutions and she doesn't care if you get censored She just wants to be a victim so she can keep asking you for campaign donations It's a scam and look obviously I don't agree with him politically But I do give him credit for being courageous enough to call out people in his party who are just bat-shit fucking insane I mean there's a difference between someone like Dan Crenshaw who I vehemently disagree with ideologically and politically and Someone like Marjorie Taylor Green who I view as comparable to a child who you have to scold So they don't eat glue or something like there's just there is a difference there And I think that it would be wrong for those of us on the left to downplay that even if when it comes to policy There's really not that much of a difference But it goes deeper than just like these public squabbles between the trad cons and the MAGA chuds Because Donald Trump has been waging a war on members of his own party who refused to go along with the big lie Now there's another condition to where he'll attack you if you're a Republican if You voted to impeach him But he's actually expanding the range of reasons why he might support a primary challenge against a fellow Republican And so if you're a Republican and you're running for your reelection and you haven't kissed Trump's ass thoroughly enough He's coming after you but one Republican in particular is standing up to him and This individual Larry Hogan the governor of Maryland is endorsing incumbent Republicans who Trump has taken aim at So as Alex Eisenstadt of Politico explains when representative Jamie here are a butler a Trump impeachment backer whom the former president is aggressively targeting for defeat in 2022 through a fundraiser last month She was accompanied by a fellow Republican who trekked from the other side of the country Maryland governor Larry Hogan the foray was part of a broader effort Hogan is launching to bolster the ever-growing list of Republicans former president Donald Trump is trying to oust in this year's midterm elections Hogan has hosted fundraisers for Georgia governor Brian Kemp and he is looking at helping others including Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski Another impeachment supporter facing a Trump endorsed Republican challenger He has loudly advocated for the Republican governor's association to defend Kemp and other sitting incumbents under fire a position The organization has embraced. It's crazy. We've got the former president going after all these really good elected Republicans And so I'm trying to support people who I think deserve to be in office Hogan said we're trying to help people wherever We can and I'm sure we're going to be doing a lot more of it now It's not just Larry Hogan who's trying to counter the influence of Donald Trump and defend incumbent Republicans that Trump has taken aim at it's also Mike Pence Trump's former VP who he is at odds with and Mike Pence has vowed to support incumbent Republican governors on top of that He is supporting the Senate leadership fund Which is a super PAC directly aligned with Mitch McConnell who Trump hates for some reason Like Mitch McConnell was the reason why Trump was able to do as much damage to the country as he did So it's funny that he's seemingly mad at Mitch McConnell for Acknowledging that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won but still Trump is a petty bitch and anyone who crosses him He's going after them Now here's a brief rundown of some of the more high-profile races where Trump has gotten involved in So a number of races are high-profile in Alaska Trump is backing Kelly Shabaka against Senator Lisa Murkowski in Georgia He is backing former Senator David Perdue against GOP Governor Brian Kemp in Wyoming He's backing Harriet Hogman against representative Liz Cheney Now I previously hinted at the criteria Trump uses to determine whether or not He's going to get involved in a particular race and endorse a primary opponent to an incumbent Republican now the two conditions usually are A they supported Trump's impeachment or B They refused to go along with his big lie about the 2020 election being stolen But he's a lot more petty than that because he's expanding the list of reasons to go after you So he's going after Don Bacon not necessarily because he explicitly is an opponent to Donald Trump But because Don Bacon dared to support The certification of the election and he's going so far as to recruit a primary challenger Against on bacon saying anyone wants to run for Congress against Don Bacon in Nebraska Trump asked in a statement emailed to reporters on Monday Bacon did not vote to impeach Trump but did vote to certify the election results So this is all really interesting and I think it's it's good that the GOP is fighting I think that it would be who've Republicans who are not pro-trump to maybe stand up to him a little bit because I mean He's kind of turning your party into a clown show and he is quite literally Doing harm demonstrable harm to our democracy and the Republicans who are following in lockstep with him are also Complicated and that includes ironically someone like Brian Kemp who didn't go along with Trump's big lie But is making sure that he passes legislation that Rigs future elections, which is fucked up.  Both are bad both are destructive, but one will do harm a little bit slower than the other side So of course I'm rooting for Trump side to fail But the problem is Trump's already won Trump is still the de facto leader of the party as I said at the beginning of this video and a poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos that was recently published It shows that Trump is the leader of this party like it doesn't matter what other Republicans say or do The base is still with Donald Trump 54% of Republicans would still support Trump in 2024 and the only one who comes close is Ron DeSantis with 11% and Ron DeSantis is a Trump Republican So the only positive outcome of a GOP civil war and also a Democratic Party civil war between the Progressives and the right-wingers and the party would be an outright Implosion of the two-party system that we currently have hopefully this will lead to some actual electoral reform But I mean I'm I'm not gonna hold my breath and you shouldn't either because Odds are you know Trump is going to prevail victorious because in my opinion I feel like he kind of already has Anyone who wanted to speak up Against Donald Trump the Lindsey Graham's of the world the Mitch McConnell's of the world they waited too long They bit their tongue for too long and now Donald Trump is a disease of virus in their party rather and he's infected everyone and Even if they don't agree with Donald Trump, I'd say most elected Republicans probably disagree with him you know They have to shut the fuck up because you get voted out or you get targeted by Donald Trump Which can do a lot of political damage if he if he comes after you so you know, there's a civil war in the GOP It's starting to really show itself, but it doesn't really matter I think because Trump is already the winner Folks you won't regret it