#anbang

[ughtumno]

please forgive the unfinished art, i have bad brain disease that makes me give up on shit easily LMFAO

trying to be easy on myself but im fkin mad gravitate towards realism a lot cuz that turns my 15 min sketches into 12 hour sketches CUZ ITS NEVER GOOD ENOUGHHHHH AUGHHHHHH

but enjoy the wip i probably will never finish it

[inwiste]

Melkor: You want motivation? Mairon is up at 6:30 every morning, cursing and denying god. What are YOU doing in those precious morning hours? Sleeping? Pathetic.

[indizombie]

Ma had attracted trouble long before last year. His cult-like following helped him build unrivalled influence for a businessman in China, but he became too powerful in a country that only allows a single centre of power. Now supreme leader Xi is threatening to crush him, in a contest that captures the contradiction at the heart of modern China — the Communist party’s wary embrace of the capitalists who power the country’s economic growth. As Xi has tightened control over Chinese society, he has reinvigorated state-run companies and brought the country’s oligarchs to heel. Billionaire run-ins with the state over regulatory concerns, corruption or other perceived slights have become so frequent in recent years that a new rule has emerged: lie low. Some, such as Wang Jianlin, founder of real-estate conglomerate Wanda, have fallen silent while shrinking their businesses; others, like Wu Xiaohui of insurance conglomerate Anbang, have ended up in jail, with their empires taken over by the state.

Ryan McMorrow and Sun Yu, ‘The vanishing billionaire: how Jack Ma fell foul of Xi Jinping’, Financial Times

[slumbering-lore]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapter 2 if my dark!reader X Mairon is up!

Rating: Mature

Relationship: Dark!reader X Mairon; Melkor X Mairon

Characters: Reader, Melkor, Mairon, And some random orcs

Tags: Implied Sexual Content; Light Dom/sub; Kissing; Blood; Angbang; Dreaming; Past Abuse

Story Summary: You keep visiting Mairon through your dreams, though you don't know why. Mairon is pleased with a new 'friend', you are rather confused, and Melkor is being a jerk.

Chapter 2 summary: You get whisked away to Angbad again, but this time you strike up a conversation with Mairon.

Sneak peek:

“What’s the racket?” A honeyed voice asked, cutting off the orc. The orc scurried off quickly, leaving you kind of creeped out with his words. You sure were fond of a little pain, but whipping seemed a notch too above for you. Soon the previously seen glowing Maia entered the room. “Mairon…” you greeted, remembering his words.

Read full

[czeppeli]

"Sauron was only less evil than his master in that for long he served another and not himself"

Photography by Adoylible on Instagram

Original designs by the respective cosplayers

Melkor @failmacaw | Mairon @czeppeli

[sarcasticcynic]

Trump son-in-law firm set to make US$400 million in Chinese office tower deal

Trump son-in-law family firm set to make US$400 million in Chinese office tower deal

In 2007, Jared Kushner purchased a building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan for a then-record $1.8 billion. Then the Great Recession hit, and the property has been struggling financially ever since. In 2012, Kushner had to sell the more lucrative retail spaces at the base of the building, for $707 million. Today Kushner Companies still owes over $1.15 billion on the remaining office section, including one mortgage for over $250 million. (Note that Jared Kushner says he sold his stake in this particular building to family members, ostensibly to eliminate the conflict of interest from being his father-in-law’s senior advisor.)

Anbang Insurance Group is a prominent Chinese company “whose murky links to the Chinese power structure have raised national security concerns over its US investments.”

“The company’s ties to the Chinese government are sufficiently unclear that former President Barack Obama declined to stay at the Waldorf after Anbang bought it because of fears of espionage.”

One of Anbang’s U.S. investments is set to benefit the Kushners in a big way. Anbang and other undisclosed lenders are bailing out the struggling Fifth Avenue building, under the following remarkable terms:

For the purpose of refinancing debt, the property is being valued at $2.85 billion, “the most ever for a single Manhattan building.”

The $250+ million mortgage is being settled for $50 million, without further explanation.

Kushner Companies will receive $500 million in cash, $400 million from Anbang and $100 million from other investors.

Anberg will take out a $4+ billion construction loan to convert the property’s higher floors into luxury residential units; the completed project will be valued at $7.2 billion.

Kushner Companies and Anberg will become partners, and Kushner Cos will get a 20% stake in the entire building, including those more lucrative retail spaces and the new luxury residential units.

“The planned US$4 billion transaction includes terms that some real estate experts consider unusually favourable for the Kushners. ... ‘At the very least, this raises serious questions about the appearance of a conflict that arises from the possibility that the Kushners are getting a sweetheart deal,’ said Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Centre. ‘A classic way you influence people is by financially helping their family.’”

Ya think?

Kushner Companies is taking advantage of the controversial EB-5 program, “which is intended for economically distressed neighbourhoods and provides residency permits to major foreign investors.” This is not the first time Kushner Companies has utilized this program for a building that is by no stretch of the imagination in an “economically distressed” neighborhood. It’s also not the first time Kushner Companies has used the program’s potential U.S. visas as an incentive to attract wealthy foreign investors (Remember, Trump will still let you into the country if you’re rich enough.) And of course it’s not the first time lenders with business before the White House have made very favorable loans to Kushner Companies with suspiciously convenient timing.

[masonmerger]

I feel like I have two entirely different personas when it comes to appreciating Tolkien fandom. The first is way more LotR/Hobbit/3rd Age based and can probs best be described as a Gigolas enthusiast; it’s all, ‘GAY LOVE CONQUERS ALL’, ‘HOBBITS 4 THE WIN’, ‘SOLVE ANCIENT ELF/DWARF HATREDS WITH MARRIAGE’, ‘THE TRIUMPH OF GOOD OVER EVIL’. 

-- Then there’s my Silm based fandom self which is Angbang all the way and just ‘ERU SHOULDN’T HAVE CREATED MELKOR IF HE DIDN’T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN’, ‘THE DARKER THE BETTER’, ‘JUST COVER ME IN BLOOD aND CUE THe END OF TIMES’. 

And for the most part this is fine because the two fandom personas have all their conflicting ride-or-die headcanons in legit different time periods but it all breaks down around Celebrimbor. 

Because my Gigolas ass is all: “CELEBRIMBOR AND NARVI WERE THE PROTO LEGOLAS/GIMLI AND FUCK SAURON FOR GETTING IN THERE AND MESSING SHIT UP FOR EVERYONE”

But the little Angbang voice is all “yasss Silvergifting. Sauron u sneaky shit -- u put on ur Annatar face and just fuck up everything forever one day u gonna be reunited with ur husbando behind the door of night so just bang this elven smith, ruin his life, and get some’. 

...............I just have a lot of mixed feelings about him, is all. 

[nurantarenendurath]

The Fall

This is a short Exposé of my upcoming story “The Fall”, enjoy :)

Almaren is in its earliest days, the Valar are happy, the spring of Arda has just begun and the two lamps are shining over the world.

Everything seems alright, till an infamous Valar named Melkor decides to come down to Almaren. Him being in Almaren causes a ton of problems and stress

Espacially for the “Blacksmith of Almaren” Mairon. Melkor always seems to distract him on purpose and he is so annoying all the time. It seems like he has fun, mocking the servants of his big rival Aule.

Yet Mairon can’t help, but noticing, that Melkor is special. His views on the world, his words, his mockery on the other Valar. At first Mairon thinks this is all part of Melkors terrible personality.

But he gets to know him better and slowly but surely he begins to fall for Melkors black eyes, his powerfull ghost and his soft words.

The question is, how is this going to play out. Everyone else seems to hate Melkor, espacially Aule and a war between the Valar seems near.

Which way will Mairon chose. The path of light with Aule, or the path of sweet darkness with Melkor.....