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thebibliomancer · 4 years

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #212: Men of Deadly Pride!

October, 1981

Here they are -- the new Avengers!

But not the New Avengers (the difference is that the hairy monster they have is Tigra instead of Wolverine).

And they are having difficulty.

I don’t know what they did to piss off Galadriel over here (I mean yes I do, she says it right on the cover) but she is kicking their asses.

A dark queen indeed.

Not much to actually say about the cover. Uh, the composition looks neat! There we go. A thing.

So lets jump inside.

Where in a moody dawn scene, Jarvis walks alone through a nearly empty Avengers mansion, little knowing he is being stalked until

RAWWR! IT IS CAT!

Tigra jumps out to do him a startle.

C’mon, Tigra. Be nice.

You’re the only Avenger actually staying in the mansion so try not to terrorize the butler.

And he was bringing you a glass of milk for your breakfast!

Although he says that he’s dealt with a lot of unsettling things and he’s learned to maintain him composure. He didn’t even spill a drop.

Jarvis: “I must say, madame, that I find you rather more unsettling than our previous resident Avengers!”

Tigra: “Oh? You a cat-lover, Jarv?”

AND DON’T FLIRT WITH HIM EITHER TIGRA GEEZ

Poor Jarvis is even allergic to cats which seems to include giant cat women.

Jarvis asks how she got this way, prompting Tigra to give a very laconic backstory that once there was a human Greer Nelson who got almost dead and then the cat-people saved her life by turning her into a cat-person.

Tigra: “And, so, here I am, one pretty kitty! But, c’mon, Jarv, does it matter how I got this sexy?”

Jarvis clarifies that he meant how she got this way as in her upbringing. Like, why you so rude.

I guess I’ll just be grateful that this is just playful Tigra flirtiness as opposed to ‘i must make out with someone 24/7 oh hey a supervillain sure I’ll make you with you’ hypersexuality she’d have while on the West Coast Avengers, in the future.

Elsewhere, Tony Stark is decompressing from his one night stand, Teri. Admiring her very comfy couch, grateful that she’s still asleep so he can sneak out (Tony, you cad), and lamenting being on the wagon. When all that’s left to drink is scotch, bourbon, and half a can of warm, flat Dr. Pepper, you drink that Dr. Pepper if you’re Tony Stark.

Tony calls his secretary to have a janitorial crew clean up after the party and to send up a dozen roses for Teri.

And then he flies out the window as Iron Man, the Man Who Kisses and Runs! as Teri wakes up and is like ‘hey tonykins what the hell was that whooshing sound?’

Tony, you cad.

And elsewhere meanwhile, Steve Rogers wakes up promptly at six o’clock in the damn morning bright as the sun and raring to go. Disgusting. Truly disgusting.

I joked about Steve getting up at 6 to run ten miles and whatever because of him criticizing Beast that time but its sickening to see it in action.

Anyway, after he damn sings in the shower like the perky morning man he is, he bounces out the window to the first Avengers meeting since the roster shake-up, musing how little they know about Tigra and how he’ll have to keep an eye on her because he doesn’t know if she’ll crack under pressure or not.

And then onto, ok wow, we are just having full pages of individual Avengers going about their mornings.

So we’re onto Normal Human Man Dr. Donald Blake reaching the end of the night shift he just pulled at a hospital.

Nurse Wilson pretty blatantly flirts with him (thinking to herself “C’mon, doc! Notice that I’m a woman! I dare you!”). Normal Human Man Dr. Donald Blake doesn’t seem to notice but his thoughts are on her, wishing he could take her out for lunch but that he has important Avengers business.

He then taps his walking stick and transforms into Thor and flies off towards the mansion.

And that brings us to Cresskill where Janet van Dyne aka the Wasp and Hank Pym aka Yellowjacket are going about their morning.

Befitting her blase attitude last issue, Jan just wants to stay in bed longer and cuddle but Hank is desperate not to be late to his first meeting as a newly active Avenger again.

So he’s in costume and ready to go while she’s still choosing which of her many many costumes to wear. Albeit with the ulterior motive that she’s trying to look good for him. She does put in like 90% of the effort into the relationship.

So she’s narrowed her choices down to a red and blue costume and a green and purple outfit that looks like maybe she raided the Green Goblin’s wardrobe. She asks Hank to decide for her.

And he does. In a sense.

He blasts the green and purple number to shreds and yells “Wear the other one!” and when she protests the destruction of her stuff he goes “So what? Like you said you’ve got lots!”

Hmm. We haven’t seen Hank in a while. And he didn’t talk much last issue what with all the Moondragoning. But he’s taken a bit of a level in being a jackass.

And then on the ride to the mansion, the limo gets stuck in traffic.

Yellowjacket: “That does it! You can ride in your blasted chauffeured limo so your two-hundred dollar hair-do doesn’t get mussed -- but I’m flying to Avengers Mansion under my own power!”

And then he ditches. He ditches hard. Leaving Wasp to fly after him begging him to wait.

You’re a bit of a rude, Hank.

Like Hank feared, the two do arrive late to the meeting and he is gently ribbed by sudden class clown Captain America.

Captain America: “Well, look who’s finally here! Now the Wasp has arrived with her new partner -- uh, Yellowjacket, right? We can get started!”

Is funny joke. Its been a time so they’re pretending he’s a new guy and ha ha he’s being described as Wasp’s partner instead of vice versa. What an upset.

And it is an upset. Tigra notices what the other Avengers seem to miss, that Cap’s joke just pissed Yellowjacket off.

And its not helped when Cap mentions that its time to elect a new chairman but Iron Man interrupts to say that he and Thor have agreed that its better for Cap to remain chairman. They did just reorganize the roster and all. Some stability is fine.

Thor: “We choose to waive the elections! Such is our right as founding members!”

And this sets Yellowjacket right the hell off.

Yellowjacket: “Is that so? Well, I resent not being consulted! As the Ant Man I was a founding member, too!”

Iron Man: “uh, of course Hank... you and the Wasp! But you came in late... we’d already decided...”

Yeah! The Wasp too!

But Yellowjacket has some kind of insect in his bonnet and he yells that he’s done being forgotten and treated as a has-been while Janet just silently cringes. She wonders what’s happened to the man she loves. And why he won’t let her reach him anymore.

The meeting continues but the scene transitions.

To a cottage in an isolated glade among the wooded hills of Virginia. Where the olde talking power couple of Gorn and Linnea wake up. Linnea wants to lay in bed with Gorn a while longer but he decides NAY TIME TO GET UP NOW.

Hey wait.

Hmmm.

I’m sensing... thematic parallels. I’m sure its nothing, though.

Anyway, Gorn is tired of living a quiet idyllic life in a beautiful glade with a woman who dearly loves him, as they’ve done for ten thousand years. His dander is up and he wants battles to fight and glory to win! He’s tired of being safe in the glade, protected by Linnea’s power. He’s a warrior, not a farmer!

(I see no evidence of farming around the cottage, just saying)

And since its either be ditched or go with him, Linnea decides to go with him.

Gorn: “You are beautiful in that gown, Linnea. Men shall again call you Elf-Queen as they did in ancient days!”

Linnea/Elf-Queen: “They also called me witch and devil-spawn! They are ever so cruel to my kind!”

Gorn: “Aye, and once we fled them! This time, if we must, we shall fight them!”

Ah, geez, Gorn. The cover implies this won’t go well for you.

So Gorn and Elf-Queen, him on foot and her on horseback) wander into Washington DC literally looking for trouble.

But before trouble, something to eat. Looking for an inn, they wander into a random restaurant.

Gorn, being Gorn, immediately starts yelling at the maitre d’, who he assumes is the innkeeper.

And here’s a bit of an interesting and not often used touch. Even though all speech bubbles are rendered without <> as is sometimes used to denote someone speaking a different language, Gorn and Elf-Queen Linnea are in fact speaking an ancient language.

Nobody can understand a thing they say.

And they can’t understand modern English.

This is a perfect setup for some farce.

Gorn ends up just yelling that he wants food and the maitre d’ gets the gist even though he doesn’t understand the words. This is Washington DC. A lot of people from other countries wander through. So he shows them to a table.

Linnea and Gorn decide that the maitre d’ is probably the innkeeper’s idiot brother. I mean, that’s probably why he can’t understand normal language, right?

And there’s more culture shock to be had. Linnea is realizing how differently dressed everyone is in this era. None of the men are even wielding swords!

Elf-Queen Linnea: “And the women, Gorn -- ! The way they’re dressed --! Like -- like harlots!”

Gorn: “Aye! Hmmm...” -totally staring at a butt and not paying attention-

Linnea: “Gorn... ?! I-if we stay here... would you like me to dress so? I do not know if I can learn the ways of these women... but for you my love, I would try! Gorn... ?”

Gorn: “Mmm...” -still not paying attention-

Linnea: (Oh, Gorn! For ten thousand years we have dwelt together in solitude, as one in our love! Am I to lose you now, here in this city of temptresses?)

Hmmm.... this reminds me of something.... but what?

A Barry Kaplan interrupts her inferiority anxiety by coming up and trying to hire her as a fashion model.

And neither Barry nor Linnea can understand each other still.

But she senses something of his intentions and warns him that this isn’t a good idea since she’s sitting next to a warrior and all.

Barry is like ‘maybe if I try other languages?’

And then Gorn notices. And Gorn is displeased.

Gorn: “NO ONE TOUCHES GORN’S WOMAN!”

Barry: “I warn you, I’ve had six jiu-jitsu lessons!”

Wow!

So Gorn gets up from that and just bodily lifts the guy over his head (Barry lamenting that he dropped out before jiu-jitsu lesson seven). But if you get the barbarian or warrior dropped into a modern setting trope they’re usually just way better than any soft modern man. So its funny to see this random dink get the better of Gorn, even if its just the preamble to what would have been Gorn delivering a thorough beatdown.

Its just not what you expect to see in this story.

Linnea magics Barry out of Gorn’s hands, trying to defuse the situation but Gorn interprets the situation as her ‘unmanning’ him.

Gorn: “Why, Linnea? Why do you seek to unman me? Is it not enough that your power has preserved my youth and kept me for centuries? Must you now interfere in my battles?”

Linnea meekly apologizes.

And then the maitre d’ comes pissed off that this loud, shouting weirdo started a fight and is going to call the police on them. Until Linnea goes ‘oh right we should pay for the damage we caused’ and gives the maitre d’ a gold and diamond necklace.

And the maitre d’ mentally goes cha-ching and reroutes an order about to be served to give to the big spending non-English speaking weirdos.

When Gorn and Elf-Queen finally leave the restaurant wouldn’t you know it, someone stole their damn horse!

What kind of city is it where you can’t leave a horse tied to a parking meter without someone making off with it??

Linnea once again is like ‘hey lets go home to our nice glade where nobody ever stole our horse’

Gorn: “It is your home, Linnea, where I am but a guest -- nay, a pet kept by your grace. Ages ago, I was a renowed warrior, honored and feared by nations and kings! If I am to be a man in my own eyes I must regain the glory I once knew!”

And then a cop comes up to Gorn because you can’t just carry a sword around Washington DC.

Gorn: “Eh? His words are gibberish but the intent is clear! This blue-clad warrior issues me a challenge! Have at thee scoundr- AHH!”

And then the cop just maces Gorn.

Its not funny like the talent agent tossing him into a salad bowl because: cops. Its still a little funny because: Gorn.

Anyway, while Gorn is screaming and coughing the cop just slaps some handcuffs on him.

And Linnea magics the cop away from her boyfriend and worries over him.

Given this new horrible thing that has happened to them, another in a line of horrible things happening to them once they left their home, Linnea begs Gorn again to give up this quest to fight a random thing to make himself feel manly.

Linnea: “I am so worried, Gorn! The world has grown so strange! There is so much here that we do not understand! Please, let us go back before something terrible befalls us!”

He again refuses and she asks if he would die for his pride.

So he slaps her across the face.

And after all that she’s meekly gone along with his whims and tantrums and whatever else ways to describe Gorn’s exceptionally gornish way of being, she draws the line here.

Linnea: “Go ahead, Gorn -- stay! Win your stupid ‘glory’! I do not care! Farewell!”

And she just walks away into the sky, twinkle, because she can do that.

When she’s too far to hear he whispers an apology but its too late and he sadly trudges off alone into the city.

Wow, that was six pages of just Gorn and Linnea, Elf-Queen. That’s nearly a fourth of the whole issue! We spend a lot of time with these two new characters!

Back at Avengers Mansion, Iron Man and Yellowjacket prep the Quinjet to fly.

Wasp: “You mean we’re going all the way to Washington, D.C. just because somebody there claims they saw a woman walking on air? What’s new about that? I do it every time my sweetie Hank gives me a wink! Then, again, they do have some wonderful stores there! Last time I went there I bought six fur coats!”

Tigra: “Sounds expensive! I’m lucky! Mine’s built in!”

Iron Man chimes in that the air-walking woman also assaulted a cop so clearly this looks like a job for the Avengers.

But when they finish up checking the Quinjet, Yellowjacket says that he’s discovered the ‘sonomodulator circuit’ on his disruptor gun is acting up.

He’s pretty sure he can fix it but Wasp chimes in with a more different idea.

Wasp: “I’ll just ring up Jeeves over at the East Side Penthouse! He can grab one of those doohickies from your lab there and zip right over in the limo! It’ll just take a few minutes!”

Yellowjacket: “You love doing that, don’t you? You love taking every opportunity to flaunt your blasted money! Well, I don’t need your butlers, your cars or your money -- and I don’t need you!”

And Wasp runs off crying that she only wanted to help. Yellowjacket storms into the Quinjet telling the other Avengers to forget Wasp and get going.

Making the other Avengers feel very awkward about witnessing this fight. Cap even feels as if he should do something but doesn’t know what since its a personal matter.

A suggestion? Mandated couples counseling since this kind of thing could affect the team, will be the reason you give? Like. This clearly is something that’s going to cause trouble. Get ahead of it, Cap.

Meanwhile, back in Washington D.C. because yes Gorn didn’t just walk out of the book forever alone. He walked into a very honestly uncomfortably stereotypical gang who decide hey maybe we should mug that guy with the sword, it’ll probably pawn for something.

Gorn still can’t understand a thing anyone says but they’re carrying weapons and finally here’s a situation he understands. And finally he also doesn’t get played for a chump. He just wades into the crowd of six and starts laying them out with his bare hands.

This is what you’d typically see for a warrior type dropped into modern world thing.

Oh and then the cops hear the fight and go hey its that guy with the sword that there was an APB about.

And Gorn goes, hey its guys wearing the same livery of the guy that got me with that stinging vapor. Time to run at them with a sword.

So they shoot him five times.

And he dies.

It turns out that Linnea has been watching Gorn from a distance this whole time, apparently unwilling to actually ditch. So she sees him get gunned down.

She floats down from the sky to his side and realizes that he is already dead. The cops mistake sky woman for an angel (but there was an APB out for Gorn so why didn’t the flying woman warrant a mention?) but if Linnea is, she’s an avenging one.

She turns on the cops with her magic and makes them sink up to their necks into the concrete.

Elf-Queen: “Are you begging? It is for naught! He’s dead! DEAD! My love is dead -- and this city, this world shall PAY!”

And she turns her magic on Washington D.C., blasting a building and a helicopter, lashing out in grief at the world that killed her dickbag boyfriend.

This is when the Avengers finally arrive to the Plot, in this Avengers book.

The Avengers just see someone breaking property and go to stop her.

Captain America: “Avengers... attack!”

Of course, Tony being Tony, and kind of a loose man immediately gets distracted at the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.

Iron Man: “Excuse me, miss! Couldn’t we discuss whatever’s bothering you... say, over dinner at the diplomat club?”

Its... not a bad idea. A little bit of empathy. Its just his motive that’s bad.

And also, his inability to speak ancient languages. Elf-Queen still can’t understand a thing anyone says. She does think a flying man in armor is something Gorn would have liked. But that just makes her mad.

So she magics a railing to wrap up Iron Man.

Thor grabs Elf-Queen from behind, pulling her arm behind her back. Its strikingly reminiscent of the Standard Female Grab Area trope but Elf-Queen doesn’t believe in that trope.

Elf-Queen: “You are strong, jackal! Your strength might have been enough to hold even me -- had you not presumed I was as frail as I appear!”

And she throws Thor into what is probably a monument.

Hmm, Iron Man and Thor got dunked so far because they really underestimated this woman because she’s a woman. Maybe don’t do that?

Meanwhile, Yellowjacket is thinking that this is his chance to prove what a star he is, if he’s the one that takes the threat down with his disruptor blast.

While Elf-Queen distracts herself with the dropped Mjolnir, Yellowjacket tries to shoot her with his disruptor from behind.

But it shorts out again!

Maybe he should have gotten the replacement part instead of trying to jury-rig a repair!

Elf-Queen senses the power in Mjolnir and tries to pick it up to better smash the world but finds she can’t lift it.

She guesses that there’s some enchantment on it since it doesn’t crumble the ground beneath it.

So she magics the ground to form a hand to grab and lift Mjolnir.

And then she hits Thor in the face with his own hammer. Hah.

Another for the list of silly Mjolnir loopholes.

Linnea monologues about her backstory because. Look. She may not be a villain. And people may not be able to understand a word she says. But people in comics have to comic.

Elf-Queen: “I am Linnea, called Elf Queen and great is the power I was born with! It transported my love and me across the ocean to this land ages ago in search of solitude! It preserved our youth! It kept us hidden when civilization spread its taint hither! The forces, forms and sustenance of the world bend to my will -- but all my power cannot help my Gorn now! Now, my gift serves only as a means for vengeance!”

Iron Man manages to tear free of the railing wrapped around him just as Tigra loudly pounces at Elf-Queen.

And Elf-Queen just gestures and sends Tigra flying into the air. High, high into the air. So high, so into the air that Iron Man has to fly after her to make sure Tigra doesn’t end up asphyxiating in space.

With all of the other Avengers out of action (or standing around uselessly like Yellowjacket), Elf-Queen turns out wrath on Captain America.

She blasts a building, sending a whole wall at him.

Cap dodges through the rain of rubble and berates himself. He realizes that he should have attacked sooner but he’s been holding back, trying to figure things out.

She’s speaking a language that doesn’t sound like any he knows of. Her clothes seem to be of ancient design. And he’s wondering if she maybe just popped out of the past, somehow surviving from some age undreamt of.

And hey, relatable, kinda. He spent decades in suspended animation.

Elf-Queen throws a lake of fire between her and Cap and Cap figures hey she’ll expect me to go around. So he jumps over it, doing her a startle.

Cap: “Good! I took her completely off guard! This is a perfect chance -- to show her that we want only peace!”

So he stands in front of her, hands to his side, palms showing. Showing no aggression.

Elf-Queen: “You did not strike when you had the opportunity! I could slay you easily now! Unflinchingly you face death! How like... my Gorn... my brave warrior!”

The fight could have ended here. Could. Could have. Could’ve.

Because Yellowjacket has been focused entirely on fixing his disruptor this whole time and has not paid any attention to how the fight has been going.

So when he gets the disruptor fixed, he doesn’t think ‘oh hey Cap is standing there and nobody is currently fighting!’ he thinks ‘wow this is a really easy shot’ and shoots Elf-Queen in the back.

And turns out that Linnea - a person who can toss Thor around - can also weather a disruptor. So she’s just mad. Furiously.

She figures that Cap’s courage was just a bold ruse. So she’s going to kill him. AFTER she throws a car at Yellowjacket.

Yellowjacket: “Oh, no! My sting’s shorted out again! No time to dodge! I’ll be crushed!”

But before Hank can be crushed like some kind of insect, can’t really think of a specific example, he is saved by Jan, who comes out of nowhere and blasts the car away with all of her might.

And apparently car blasting is under that umbrella.

But it takes it out of her and she weakly flutters to the ground.

Hank has mixed feelings about not being dead.

Yellowjacket: “You -- you saved me! You shattered the truck with your bio-electric sting! You saved me! You! She must have followed us down here... probably chartered a plane! She followed us down here, and when I was dead meat for sure, she saved me! Why her? WHY?”

Where are you in your life where you have to ask that, Hank?

Elf-Queen is like well that just happened but I’m just going to try to kill him again.

But Cap jumps in front of her again and very assertively non-aggressives.

Captain America: “Don’t do it! Don’t you see? It was a mistake -- an accident! If only you could understand me! Don’t kill him!”

Elf-Queen: “You dare stand in my way? Can you not see the rage in my eyes?”

But nonetheless, she subsides. The Avengers all re-assemble, ready to rush her but Cap tells them to stand down.

Elf-Queen Linnea starts crying and just walks away from the team.

Feeling a bit awkward, Cap decides to follow her to see what’s what. And they find her crying over Gorn.

Thor: “A fallen warrior! Her husband, perchance?”

Captain America: “Somehow I -- I think I knew! I mean... I’m not surprised! She seemed... grief-stricken!”

Iron Man: “I -- I wonder how this all came to pass?”

They’ll probably never know. The shot isn’t wide enough to say for sure but I think that if the Avengers saw, they’d say. I’m pretty sure those cops Linnea sank into the concrete have finished sinking. So it goes.

Cap says he’s sorry for what happened, knowing that his words will probably mean nothing to her. Language gap and all.

Linnea: “I hear compassion in your voice, brave champion! Is there such a thing in this cold, cruel place, save in your own heart? I cannot forgive your world for what it has taken from me.. but, for you, who are so much alike my beloved... for you, I will go in peace... for now!”

Yeah. She’s never coming back.

This is her and Gorn’s only appearance.

So despite Tigra wondering if she’ll be back and despite Iron Man’s suspicion that she might be a mutant, it doesn’t matter.

She’s done her role in the narrative and she’s gone.

But as the Avengers try to figure out what this was all about, Wasp looks at Yellowjacket with worry. For the issue ends with him still consumed in bitter thoughts and oblivious to Wasp.

And the big next time teaser says COURT MARTIAL! so. Yeah.

We’re coming on to a storyline that anyone who knows at least two things about Hank Pym knows. You probably already know it or will be able to guess it.

I was familiar with this story but only the moment where Hank shoots Elf-Queen in the back and makes things worse for himself. I hadn’t absorbed via osmosis how much of a shit he was being throughout. And nobody ever talks about Gorn.

Which is a shame.

The title of the issue comes right out and connects the obvious dots.

“Men of deadly pride!”

And that can only be Hank Pym and Gorn.

Much of this issue doesn’t actually feature the Avengers. There’s this long stretch in the middle that just has Gorn and Linnea leaving their home, traveling to the big city, Gorn’s attitude getting worse and worse, and finally his death.

Its clear enough that Gorn represents Hank Pym.

Hank rails against Janet for flaunting her money and emotionally withdraws from her and even becomes angry with her. He rankles at the idea he might be perceived her partner instead of vice versa. Feels he’s not being given the respect he deserves.

While Gorn resents that Linnea is the one caring for him. He emotionally withdraws from her. He perceives himself a pet to her. That he was once renowned and desperately needs to regain his glory.

And he just gets angrier when Linnea has to rescue him from his dumb mistakes.

Much like Jan had to rescue Hank in this issue, something that basically made Hank check out of the rest of the issue.

I don’t know what Gorn may have been like ten thousand years ago that Linnea sees him in Captain America most, but he’s a shadow for Hank Pym.

And what’s interesting is how the story looks at Gorn and his machismo. His obsessive preoccupation with proving himself. The story highlights the problems he creates for himself eventually leading to his death. It shows a person that just can’t live in the modern world.

And then the story looks at Hank Pym. One of the 60s style manly men holdovers. Paints him in much the same light. And seems to ask. “Can you live in the modern world?”

The question is in the air.

Its not particularly deep symbolism. But it surprised me that nobody ever mentions it.

Interestingly, if Hank is Gorn then Jan is Linnea. Their personalities are different enough that this might seem strange.

But they both draw the line in a similar place with their partners.

And there was a What If? based on this issue What If? #35 where Hank did die, much as Gorn did. And Wasp became an avenging angel of her own. Taking the identity of Black Wasp and brutally attacking criminals.

She even contemplates letting Cap be killed by falling debris, blaming him for Hank’s death.

All I can say is that this has been one awkward first day for Tigra.

Follow @essential-avengers. Like or reblog this post. Stay tuned for more of this sort of thing.

#Avengers #Elf Queen and Gorn #Yellowjacket #the Wasp #Captain America #essential avengers #Thor #Iron Man #Tigra #essential marvel liveblogging #tigra has a very cat first day #Jarvis not even drop #some thematic similarities happen and they're unfavorable to hank #captain america uses that empathy #its super effective #shooter ain't wasting any time

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cherryredicarus · 4 years

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do you prefer writing with a blue or black pen? black

would you prefer to live in the city or the country? mm in the city, I'd visit the countryside tho

if you could learn a new skill, what would it be? instruments!! i would like to instantly be able to shred my guitar

do you drink your tea/coffee with sugar? I usually only drink pre-made tea and i put creamer in my coffee

what was your favorite book as a child? probably milkweed by jerry spinelli or the secret identity of Devon Delaney... those two books could not being any different in subject matter if i tried fjdjfjd

do you prefer baths or showers? aesthetically, baths but i no longer have a tub so I'm rlly only taking showers yk

if you could be a mythical creature, which one would you be? okay get this: vampires

paper or electronic books? paper when possible! i like the feel of them in my hand

what is your favorite item of clothing? long t-shirts / my hoodies

do you like your name? would you like to change it? i like it well enough! my mom wouldve named me margreet otherwise, so i basically got stuck between two distinct European names sjsj

who is a mentor to you? any female English teacher <3

would you like to be famous? if so, what for? mmm in the social sense where my words and opinions have a larger platform and i'm listened to. if i ever made music, I'd probably want it to be from that

are you a restless sleeper? normally no,,,, but i fuck myself over during the school year and sleep in bursts so im up and doing homework at 4 am djsj.

do you consider yourself to be a romantic person? i focus on the romance of friendship so much oh my God

which element best represents you? probably air/earth. kind of spacey and free-flowing but patient and loyal yk

who do you want to be closer to? my family but also not bc i disagree with everything they say so... conflicted <3

do you miss someone at the moment? so many :( most notably my friend raina and my friend maggie

tell us about an early childhood memory when my cousin used to live with me, when i was like 4-6, she stopped sleeping in my room with me and only slept with her dad. some nights i snuck into their room and laid on the floor in the dark, listening to the sound of their breaths, letting it lull me to sleep. i usually only slept for a little bit and then snuck back out.

what is the strangest thing you have eaten? eh i mean pickled tomatoes? dried crickets?

what are you most thankful for? cheesy but L❤VE! for my pets and my friends i love them sm

do you like spicy food? usually! i prefer that the spice doesnt overpower the taste but i have been known to down a family sized bag of xxtra hot cheetos before.

have you ever met someone famous? literally no. my brother met arnold schwarzenegger tho

do you keep a diary or journal? did you mean: my notes app (but also i do keep a physical one for when im feeling more volatile and i need to personally write something)

do you prefer to use pen or pencil? pen

what is your star sign? my sun sign is capricorn

do you like your cereal soggy or crunchy? when i was younger i used to wait to eat my frosted flakes so it was soft and the milk was sweet djfjdj. but now i usually eat it crunchy

what would you want your legacy to be? mm, kindness in the face of the cruelty of the world

do you like reading? what was the last book you read? YES i love reading,,, however finishing something is totally different... im currently in the middle of reading stone butch blues and the foxhole court lol

how do you show someone you love them? literally all of the ways love is in everything i do :( but usually i tell them, im physically affectionate with them, i try to be super supportive, i become their sugar mommy, etc

do you like ice in your drinks? listen. if it's already cold. what does it need ice for.

what are you afraid of? my self destructive tendencies

what is your favorite scent? vanilla or tangerine

do you address older people by their name or surname? like in school, by their surnames. at my work, by their first names.

if money was not a factor, how would you live your life? donating to every gofundme i saw.... a cool two story house of my own.... traveling the world without stressing and planning meticulously

do you prefer swimming in lakes or oceans? seeing as ive done neither, uhh lakes?

what would you do if you found 50$ on the ground? if i knew who dropped it, return it. but if it's just randomly lying there uhh take it home and put it in my cash stash.

have you ever seen a shooting star? did you make a wish? no...

what is one thing you want to teach your children? *if*I have any- literally nothing is real. gender is a social construct. love and kindness are the only things worth anything.

if you had to get a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it? OOOh skdk i remember @killjoylouis and i joking about getting matching rbb and sbb tattoos somewhere gay. i dont personally desire any tattoos of my own but im so down for matching ones

what can you hear now? silence...the floors shifting..

where do you feel the safest? my grandma's house

what is one thing you want to overcome/conquer? my lingering melancholy and disillusionment with the loneliness of adulthood.

if you could travel back to any era, what would it be? THE 70S!!! DISCO PARTIES!!! ABBA!! THE FASHION!!

what is your most used emoji? 🙄 (someone was ranting 2 me ab straight ppl earlier dkkd)

describe yourself in one word. tender

what do you regret the most? literally most of my childhood years... i was so lonely and bitter and i just wanted attention any way i could get it... sometimes i made ppl cry and didnt care and looking back on it now i want to go into a coma!!!

last movie you saw? vita & virginia

last TV show you watched? she-ra and the princesses of power (the 2018 reboot)

(i was tagged by @killjoylouis to do this heehee love u sm!!)

now I tag (optional): @calmvocals , @noahvsart , @highscal , @h-isforhome , @cliffoconda

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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As mass shootings rise, experts say high-capacity magazines should be the focus

https://wapo.st/2z5BF3J

As mass shootings rise, experts say high-capacity magazines should be the focus

By Griff Wittes | Published August 18 at 6:23 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted August 19, 2019 7:45 AM ET |

It took a shooter all of 32 seconds to spray 41 rounds outside a popular bar in Dayton, Ohio, this month, an attack that killed nine people and injured 27. A lightning-fast response from nearby officers prevented a far higher toll: When police shot him dead, the killer still had dozens of bullets to go in his double-drum, 100-round magazine.

The use of such high-capacity magazines was banned in Ohio up until 2015, when a little-noticed change in state law legalized the devices, part of an overall rollback in gun-control measures that has been mirrored in states nationwide.

With the pace of mass shootings accelerating — and their tolls dramatically increasing — criminologists and reform advocates are more intently focused on limiting access to such accessories as one of the most potent ways to curb the epidemic.

Restrictions on the capacity of bullet magazines will not stop mass shootings, but they could make the attacks less deadly, giving potential targets precious seconds to escape or fight back while the shooter reloads, experts say.

“The high-capacity magazine is what takes it to a whole other level of carnage,” said David Chipman, who served 25 years as a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It’s the primary driver for why we’re seeing more mass shootings more regularly.”

Chipman, who now serves as a senior policy adviser for Giffords, a group that advocates for gun control, said banning the devices “does seem like a logical policy choice if you’re trying to stop a killer from turning into a killing machine.”

The odds that Congress or state legislatures will act still appear relatively remote. Powerful gun rights lobbying groups, including the National Rifle Association, vigorously oppose high-capacity magazine bans or limits, arguing that criminals will find a way to obtain the devices regardless of the law, just as they do with weapons. Would-be killers, they say, can always arm themselves with multiple weapons or magazines, effectively skirting any ban.

A man in Philadelphia held police at bay for seven hours Wednesday with an arsenal of weapons and ammunition that, as a felon, he should not have been able to have at all; he shot and injured six police officers before surrendering, and authorities have said it was a “miracle” that no one died in the shootout.

Still, a growing body of evidence suggests that past federal and current state-level restrictions on magazine capacity have been effective. And with high-capacity magazines becoming a staple of mass shootings, experts have an ever-longer litany of case studies to bolster their argument.

Magazines like the one used in Dayton have little utility in hunting, law enforcement or self-defense. But high-capacity devices, which are readily available online and in stores, have been used in more than half of all mass shootings in recent years, including especially deadly attacks in Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Tex., and Parkland, Fla. Taken together, those three attacks from October 2017 to February 2018 claimed 101 lives and injured 459 people at an outdoor concert, in a church and inside a public high school.

They were also used in the 2011 Tucson shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), for whom Chipman’s group is named. That attack was interrupted when the shooter, who was using a 33-round clip, stopped to reload and fumbled the fresh ammunition. A bystander seized the chance, clubbing him in the back of the head with a folding chair while another tackled him to the ground.

With smaller-capacity magazines, said Robert Spitzer, a State University of New York at Cortland professor who has written five books on gun policy, “you could still do bad things. But not nearly to the same scale.”

Studies have bolstered the view that a ban could have an impact.

Magazines with a capacity of more than 10 bullets were prohibited from 1994 to 2004 under federal law that included a prohibition on assault weapons. But since the law lapsed, gun crimes involving high-capacity semiautomatic weapons have increased markedly, research conducted by George Mason University criminologist Christopher S. Koper found.

A Washington Post analysis in 2011 came to a similar conclusion, finding that the percentage of firearms equipped with high-capacity magazines seized by police agencies in Virginia dropped during the decade covered by the federal ban, only to rise sharply once the restrictions were lifted.

In more recent research, to be published in the coming months, Koper and his colleagues have found promising signs about the potential for large-capacity-magazine prohibitions and their ability to yield reductions in mass-shooting deaths and injuries.

Boston University professor Michael Siegel has found that states limiting the size of magazines are less likely to experience a mass shooting. Nine states and the District of Columbia have such bans on the books, with most limiting magazines to 10 bullets.

Until 2015, Ohio had its own restrictions, capping magazines at 30 bullets. But the Republican-dominated state legislature erased those rules as part of a broader package of changes aimed at loosening gun laws.

“They just slipped it through,” said Cecil Thomas, a Democrat in the Ohio Senate. Following the Dayton attack, Thomas and other Democrats are pushing for new limits.

Thomas, a 27-year veteran of the Cincinnati Police Department, said he had to worry as an officer that, with a 15-round clip and one in the chamber of his pistol, criminals would outgun him. “My little nine-millimeter would be useless against an AR-15,” he said, referring to his standard-issue handgun and a high-powered rifle that has proved popular among mass killers.

The Dayton shooter’s killing rampage — carried out with a large magazine and other equipment obtained from a friend — has only deepened Thomas’s conviction that the laws need to be toughened. He said he hopes Republicans will be amenable to a change that would not infringe on the legality of guns themselves.

“I hear all the time from Republicans about the constitutional right to bear arms,” Thomas said. “I say ‘You can bear the arms. But I don’t know if you have the right to bear all the ammunition in the world.’ ”

There is precedent for accessory bans, even with pro-gun-rights Republicans in charge: The Trump administration last year banned bump stocks, the device that allowed the Las Vegas shooter to fire a semiautomatic rifle almost as fast as a machine gun.

In Ohio, however, there is little indication that a renewed magazine limit is viable. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine — who was greeted with cries of “Do something!” in his first appearance after the Aug. 4 Dayton attack — has proposed a range of measures that includes background checks and increased funding for mental health care.

A high-capacity-magazine ban is not among them. In a legislature dominated by Republicans — as well as some Democrats — who prize their ratings with the NRA, few dare defy the group, which calls magazines with more than 10 bullets “standard equipment for many handguns and rifles” and disputes findings that suggest limits can be effective.

“There’s not a shred of evidence that high-capacity-magazine bans work,” said NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen. “Politicians ought to focus on solutions that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals.”

The situation is similar at the federal level, where President Trump has expressed a willingness to work with Democrats on background checks. But he has said there is not sufficient “political appetite” for any bans — despite the fact that polls show a large majority of the public in favor. Republicans in Congress have echoed that view, with many recoiling even at the idea of stronger background checks.

Democrats on the presidential campaign trail have said they would prioritize the magazine issue if elected, and they have expressed incredulity that it has not been addressed.

“Who in God’s name needs a weapon that has 100 rounds?” former vice president and Democratic poll leader Joe Biden asked a crowd in Iowa. “For God’s sake.”

Whether anyone needs them, many people evidently want them. The NRA estimates that more than 250 million magazines with a capacity of 11 rounds or greater are in circulation. Of those, 100 million have a capacity of at least 30 rounds.

Gun experts say their popularity has undoubtedly grown as technology has advanced, making the devices lighter and less prone to jams.

A 100-round drum is still too heavy to make it useful for law enforcement or for self-defense, and it is not needed for hunting, said Rick Vasquez, a retired firearms officer and trainer for the federal government.

At the range where he and other professionals shoot, he said, he has never seen a 100-round magazine in use.

But to a certain demographic, the appeal is all about the image.

“You put it on your gun and take a YouTube video of yourself,” said Vasquez, who now runs Texas-based Active Crisis Consulting. “It looks really cool to the younger generation.”

At the online gun retailer Cheaper Than Dirt, where a drum similar to the one used in Dayton is on sale for $181.33, fun is what is emphasized.

“This 100 round drum magazine lets you shoot while your friends reload,” the seller boasts, noting that whether “stress relief or Zombie horde destruction fire this magazine lets the good times roll.”

Cheaper Than Dirt did not respond to a request for comment.

Even if a 100-round magazine is not particularly useful, Vasquez said, he believes there is little benefit in banning it. The Dayton shooter, he said, “wanted to create havoc. He could have done that with 30-round magazines, 20-round magazines or 10-round magazines. It didn’t matter.”

Gun-control advocates say that misses the point. And they say they suspect the real point for the gun industry in defending high-capacity magazines is that they are lucrative.

“They make a lot of money off these devices,” said Laura Cutilletta, who, like Chipman, pushes for gun control at Gifford. “They’re reluctant to let any law get in the way of their profit.”

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reaper-barry-bluejeans · 5 years

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Monsters Among Us

For the @blupjeansauboogaloo Day 4 - Free Day/Amnesty Lodge

The hunt wasn't exactly going great. At least, that was what it seemed like with Lup's magic failing her again and Edward laying sprawled out on the ground with a head wound that left crimson blood matting his hair down to his head. Barry was struggling to hold a corporeal form as he fired a succession of shots at the creature that was charging blindly into the forest now. They would need to do something about his disguise. The watch he always wore to maintain a physical form and hide his nature as a resident of Sylvain lay shattered on the floor, smashed under the hoof of the creature somewhere through the course of the battle. Lydia kept her head down as she ran to her brother, kneeling beside him.

"He's breathing!"

"Thank fuck." Lup's voice was strained and she went to pick up Barry's watch, looking over at him as his grip on physical existence finally broke. "I think you need this, babe."

He snorted, the sound echoing oddly in the air as he kicked uselessly at the pistol laying on the ground beneath him.

"Yeah, but it's gonna do me a fat lot of good all smashed up."

Lup scooped up his gun and stared at it for a moment.

"Want me to hold onto this?"

He nodded a little, rubbing his head.

"Yeah. Yeah... And we're gonna need to go tell Mama we lost that thing again." He turned, looking to where Lydia was helping her brother to his feet. "He good to move back to the Lodge?"

Lydia nodded and flashed him a thumbs up. Edward looked like shit, but he could walk and that was what mattered right now. Lydia had an arm around his shoulders and was supporting most of his weight.

"I'll grab him a potion for this when we get back to the Lodge. The rest of you get to fill Mama in."

Half an hour later, they sat around a table with a hastily sketched map of Kepler, West Virginia, spread out between them. Barry still hadn't managed to get a new disguise charm and was hovering irritably beside Lup while flames danced between her fingers. Edward was still a bit pale but he held a bottle in one hand that contained a glowing purple liquid that he occasionally took a sip from. Lydia leaned over the table, scowling at the plan they'd concocted while she was going through her alchemical stores.

"You've got to be kidding me. Why am I the bait again?"

Barry gestured towards Edward.

"Because we know this blood-drinker's got a thing for... for familial blood ties and it already got a taste of your brother. Ergo, Lyds, you are absolutely prime material for Victim Number Two."

Lydia shot him a glare across the table and then gestured to his incorporeal form.

"Fat lot of good you're gonna be without your gun there, Bluejeans."

Lup reached over, gloving one hand in the raw essence of magic so she could rest it solidly on Barry's shoulder.

"Chill, babe. We've got this. It's gonna be fine. And if you really want to swap out, it's gotta a taste of my twin too, remember? But you need to be ready to kick this thing's ass before it gets me."

All of them winced, not a single member of the Pine Guard team liked the reminder that one of their number was out of commission and lying in the hospital at that very moment. Lydia nodded though, running her fingers over a vial she had set on the table earlier.

"I've got a plan for that. This should freeze it solid and then all we have to do is smash it."

The plan was pretty solid, all thing's considered. They had everything they needed to lure the creature to them, they knew where it would be. They just needed to do it. Lup paused while Lydia and Edward went to get the last of the equipment they would need and get the car ready and she looked at Barry.

"You doing okay, babe? You don't wanna sit this one out until you can be a solid boy again?"

He shook his head and floated closer, the cold air around him briefly fogging her glasses.

"I'm alright, Lup. And I don't wanna leave you guys alone on this one. Not after what it did to Taako. I... I just wanna make sure everyone comes home okay." His voice dropped to a whisper and he reached towards her, brushing his fingers over her cheek. "Folks from this side don't become ghosts if they die, remember?"

Lup wished she could lean into that touch and closed her eyes, letting herself pretend.

"I know, Bear. I know. We're all gonna be as careful as we can be." She booped his nose with a light touch of magic. "Come on, let's get a move on before those two decide we've abandoned them."

Barry chuckled quietly and followed after Lup as she headed for the front of the Lodge.

Lydia was already in the driver's seat when they got out there, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel while Edward flipped through radio stations trying to find something worth listening to. Lup dropped into her usual seat and leaned back, hands behind her head. Barry hesitated for a moment and then floated into the car.

"It's equal odds I get left behind, just so you all know."

Edward shrugged.

"We know. And if you do, we'll handle this by ourselves. And you go get your watch fixed like you already should've."

Barry rolled his eyes at that but did his best to settle into the seat in a way that would keep his incorporeal form from phasing through the car when they pulled away. The plan of attack was pretty solid, the hardest part was just going to be tracking the creature so they could get their bait into the right place. At least, that was their concern before they heard the pounding sound behind them as they raced down the 92. Lup turned to look out the back window and swore under her breath.

"We got company, folks."

Lydia's gaze flicked briefly to the rearview mirror and she changed gears, accelerating as fast as she possibly could.

"Do we have a plan for this?" Edward's voice was shaky as he too looked back. "Because I swear that thing got bigger."

Barry frowned, turning and sticking his head up through the roof of the car. It was bigger, that was for certain, with talons that ripped up the asphalt of the highway.

"I think... I think maybe it's been feeding?"

Edward ignored what Barry was saying, focused on making sure his pistol was loaded. Then he leaned out the window and took a pot shot at the creature. Lup watched as the bullet hit it and the creature almost reformed after the damage. She winced.

"We might have to go all 'by fire be purged' on this one, my dudes. Because guns sure aren't working."

Barry hesitated for a moment and then let his incorporeal form drop out of the car as he dove towards the creature.

"I should be able to slow it down, Lup. Just... Remember what I said before, okay? I'll be fine!"

Lup yelled, words lost in the rushing wind of the car's wake as the spirit of the Sylph known as Barry Bluejeans turned on the Abomination coming up hard behind them. Lightning that mimicked the magic he once held crackled over his form and he hoped that he could slow this thing down long enough that the others could get a plan together. That was all he could hope for, really. The Abomination hesitated when the lightning lashed towards it and Barry grinned slowly.

"Come and try me."

Lydia slammed on the brakes, spinning the car so it skidded a few dozen feet further. She shot a glance back at Lup.

"You think magic's going to work? Then let's get this thing."

For her part, Lup already had her hand on the door latch and her other hand up and wreathed in flames. The moment the car came to a stop, she was out and running towards Barry, her heart pounding. She knew, objectively, that he was already dead and the dead couldn't be killed. Not like this, anyway. As long as he could feed on the essence of the hot springs, Barry Bluejeans would be just fine. Edward was on her heels, his pistol in his hands still. He cocked it, raised, and fired again, taking full advantage of the fact that he could shoot clear through Barry and hit the Abomination. Lydia was the last one moving, a bag slung over one shoulder as she fished through it for a specific potion she'd brewed. Somewhere in here was the answer, she was sure of that. Probably fire, if Lup's guess was right. Fire usually worked, anyway.

Lydia peeled off to the left, hugging the tree-line and hoping against hope that the Abomination wouldn't suddenly turn towards her. Edward had four shots left in his clip and he was taking a shot every chance he got, even if it only annoyed the Abomination. Lup was shaping a spell though, something big enough to hopefully destroy it. The Abomination dropped its head, shaking off the meager control Barry had managed to get and charged her, roaring. Once more, its claws shredded the asphalt as it bore down on her like a freight train. Barry shouted, turning and throwing up a hand as he tried to stop it. It was Edward that managed to knock Lup out of the way as he unloaded his last shot into the Abomination, catching it squarely in the center of the forehead. Even that didn't do much, but the disruption to her spell caused Lup's fire magic to explode outward. It caught everything in a wide path of destruction. Trees burst into flames on either side of the highway and Lydia dropped to her stomach to keep from being caught up in it. Edward grabbed Lup and pulled her down before the two of them could be incinerated and he swore, watching the Abomination scream.

"Whatever the fuck that was? Do it again," he hissed. "But aim this time."

Lup was too shaken to snap back at him. She could see what she'd done. If that spell had been on the ground, there would have been a perfect circle of destruction. As it was? She'd nearly killed them. And now she could see Lydia up and moving again, her fingers wrapped around a vial. Lup stood, igniting her hands again while Edward scrambled to his feet and started trying to change out his clip. All she needed to do was take a few pot shots while Lydia snuck up and problem solved.

And that was exactly what she did. A shot here and there and then Lydia was in place. She didn't even bother uncapping the vial, she just flung it at the Abomination and watched it shatter, acid and flames eating at the creature immediately. A moment later, they watched the figure of light as it vanished.

"Problem solved..." muttered Lydia.

Lup nodded a little, looking around.

"We should clean this up before the fuckin' park service notices, huh?"

#blupjeansboogaloo2019 #blupjeans #wondertwins #taz fanfiction #taz

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berniesrevolution · 7 years

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I have spent the past two weeks visiting the United States, at the invitation of the federal government, to look at whether the persistence of extreme poverty in America undermines the enjoyment of human rights by its citizens. In my travels through California, Alabama, Georgia, Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and Washington DC I have spoken with dozens of experts and civil society groups, met with senior state and federal government officials and talked with many people who are homeless or living in deep poverty. I am grateful to the Trump administration for facilitating my visit and for its continuing cooperation with the UN Human Rights Council’s accountability mechanisms that apply to all states.

My visit coincides with a dramatic change of direction in US policies relating to inequality and extreme poverty. The proposed tax reform package stakes out America’s bid to become the most unequal society in the world, and will greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality between the richest 1% and the poorest 50% of Americans. The dramatic cuts in welfare, foreshadowed by Donald Trump and speaker Ryan, and already beginning to be implemented by the administration, will essentially shred crucial dimensions of a safety net that is already full of holes. It is against this background that my report is presented.

The United States is one of the world’s richest and most powerful and technologically innovative countries; but neither its wealth nor its power nor its technology is being harnessed to address the situation in which 40 million people continue to live in poverty.

I have seen and heard a lot over the past two weeks. I met with many people barely surviving on Skid Row in Los Angeles, I witnessed a San Francisco police officer telling a group of homeless people to move on but having no answer when asked where they could move to, I heard how thousands of poor people get minor infraction notices which seem to be intentionally designed to quickly explode into unpayable debt, incarceration, and the replenishment of municipal coffers, I saw sewage-filled yards in states where governments don’t consider sanitation facilities to be their responsibility, I saw people who had lost all of their teeth because adult dental care is not covered by the vast majority of programs available to the very poor, I heard about soaring death rates and family and community destruction wrought by opioids, and I met with people in Puerto Rico living next to a mountain of completely unprotected coal ash which rains down upon them, bringing illness, disability and death.

Of course, that is not the whole story. I also saw much that is positive. I met with state and especially municipal officials who are determined to improve social protection for the poorest 20% of their communities, I saw an energized civil society in many places, I visited a Catholic Church in San Francisco (St Boniface – the Gubbio Project) that opens its pews to the homeless every day between services, I saw extraordinary resilience and community solidarity in Puerto Rico, I toured an amazing community health initiative in Charleston, West Virginia that serves 21,000 patients with free medical, dental, pharmaceutical and other services, overseen by local volunteer physicians, dentists and others (Health Right), and indigenous communities presenting at a US-Human Rights Network conference in Atlanta lauded Alaska’s advanced health care system for indigenous peoples, designed with direct participation of the target group.

American exceptionalism was a constant theme in my conversations. But instead of realizing its founders’ admirable commitments, today’s United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights. As a result, contrasts between private wealth and public squalor abound.

(Continue Reading)

#politics #the left #the guardian #UN #poverty #economics #economic inequality #neoliberalism #tax reform

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 8 Review: The Door

https://ift.tt/3mBsoZk

This Fear the Walking Dead review contains spoilers.

Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 8

Well, damn. This is a real heartbreaker of an episode, isn’t it? If you haven’t heeded the spoiler warning above, here’s another one for you: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for this episode. If for some reason you jumped straight to this review without first watching “The Door,” I strongly recommend that you rectify that right now.

In a show that so often trucks in death, this one hurts a lot. Yes, John Dorie is dead.

Unlike Morgan’s somewhat ambiguous fate in last season’s “End of the Line,” there’s absolutely no shred of doubt here. And unlike Madison and Nick, there are no hinky time jumps, no red herrings. By hour’s end, John isn’t just dead, he’s undead—and we all know there’s no amount of plot armor that can bring someone back from that.

After almost three seasons, John Dorie receives a proper final episode to send him off to that great beyond. Over the course of the hour, Fear the Walking Dead tries and succeeds in tugging at our collective heartstrings. After all, John was the show’s one and only hopeless romantic, a sensitive gunslinger who eschewed killing. He will be missed, and so will Garret Dillahunt.

As far as last days go, John’s was emblematic of his good-natured persona. In his final hours, he sought to help those closest to him, namely Morgan and Dakota. This is part of this episode’s brilliance, keeping things focused on this trio. The result produces an unlikely Venn diagram with Virginia’s sister in the center. Because as we learn, Dakota is the canny yet jaded arbiter of who lives and who dies.

While it was fairly obvious a few episodes back that Dakota murdered Cameron to cover her tracks, it was less obvious that she was Morgan’s mysterious savior. “The Door,” penned by showrunners Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss, is brimming with great dialogue. One bit that stands out is Dakota’s chilling assessment of the status quo: “It’s just how life is now. People kill, people die,” she says matter-of-factly.

Of course, this doesn’t sit well with John. To him, every life and every death carries a lot of weight. Otherwise, what’s the point? Like Morgan, John has had his fill of killing. Both men are pacifists in a world defined by constant death and destruction. In another great line, Morgan remarks to Dorie, “These times, John. They make us men we tried so hard not to be.”

Will Fear the Walking Dead Season 7 Bring Back Madison Clark?

By Joseph Baxter

It must be said that Dillahunt, Lennie James, and Zoe Colletti all hit it out of the park, immersing themselves in their characters’ pathos and desperation. As we know, in this godforsaken world, no one can outrun their past mistakes for very long. Thanks to Dillahunt, James, and Colletti, we see how the daily act of survival is a heavy burden to bear. This has always been baked into Fear the Walking Dead, though, this inescapable notion that regret and redemption drive characters forward in hopes of becoming better versions of themselves. Even John, one of the show’s purest characters, is consumed by doubt and self-recrimination.

If anyone can understand the darkness clouding John’s mind, it’s Morgan. In trying to recruit John to his cause, Morgan’s comment, “I found Grace” can be read two ways. Yes, he found someone he cares deeply about, but he’s also found renewed purpose by creating a new settlement. Whether this dual meaning is intentional or not isn’t important. The fact that any subtext might exist speaks a lot to Morgan’s larger character arc.

The same can be said for John’s explanation that a new door for his cabin isn’t meant for keeping people out. “It’s to keep the passed from getting at me, after I do what I need to do.” This can be read two ways, too. John is haunted by past mistakes, but everyone is haunted by the passed (John’s term for the undead). To me, this episode merits high marks for these lines of dialogue alone. There is an inherent logic and believability to these characters and their motivations in “The Door” that was sorely lacking in some of this season’s earlier episodes—most notably in “Damage from the Inside.”

“The Door” is careful to balance out the human drama with moments of intense zombie action. The bridge-clearing scene in particular is especially gruesome and violent. All three are committed to getting through that horde, working in tandem to forge ahead, earning every bit of ground along the way. It’s an interesting bit of symbolism that the cabin doors are literally keeping the passed at bay. Minutes later, after John finds himself in the river with a bullet in his chest, it’s the yellow door that bears him downriver.

In the end, John washes up at his lonely little cabin, now one of the passed himself. Of course, it’s a stunned June (Jenna Elfman) who finds John. The camera lingers a long time on his vacant expression as he crawls toward her through the mud. It’s fitting that their union would end in the very place where it began back in season 4’s beautiful “Laura.” June, nee Laura, deals the killing blow with a knife to John’s head. It’s not a good death, but his was a life well lived.

We do check in with Dwight and company just long enough to set the stage for an inevitable showdown. John’s death will likely shape the remainder of season 6, too. Surely Morgan runs the risk of losing himself again, now that his best friend is gone. As for Dakota, it’s anyone’s guess if she’ll make it to the end of the season. If Charlie can find redemption for her actions as a former Vulture, I suppose Dakota might find salvation, too.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

I’d like to think it’s what John Dorie himself would have wanted, this chance for Dakota to discover a better version of herself.

The post Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 8 Review: The Door appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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dispatchesfrom2020 · 4 years

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2020

Week 44: October 26-November 1

26: A downed power-line in Orange County sparks a fast-moving fire in Orange County, forcing 70,000 people to evacuate their homes. The Senate votes to confirm Amy Coney Barrett along entirely partisan lines. It’s a repeat of the highly contentious confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 - the pair tie for the narrowest confirmations in the history of the court. The addition of Barrett will swing the balance of the court heavily in conservatives’ favour, and sets Democrats up for an uphill battle on key issues like healthcare abortion, and voting rights. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says that Republicans acted in bad faith confirming Barrett so close to an election - something they protested against when Obama nominated a Justice 9 months before the 2016 election. Millions of Americans had already cast their ballots before the Barrett confirmation hearings began. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell defends the Republicans, saying they broke no rules. You don’t have to break rules to be an asshole, Mitch.

27: Time for a story I’ve been avoiding: the murder of Samuel Paty. The French schoolteacher was killed in retaliation for showing his students cartoons of the naked prophet Muhammad published in Charlie Hebdo. He used the images as props during a lesson about freedom of expression. The magazine was attacked by extremists in 2015 over the publication of these cartoons - 12 staff were killed. Paty’s death sparks off renewed tensions between muslims and non-muslims in France. President Emmanuel Macron weighed in early this month, offering a full-throated defence of the use of these images in schools. In a public address, in early October Macron said: “Islam is a religion that is in crisis all over the world today”. His comments have immediate blow-back, resulting in anti-French protests around the Muslim world. Today, protesters in Iraq burn French flags and thousands of people rally in Dhaka to call for a boycott of French goods. Saudi condemns his remarks and Turkey’s President blasts Macron as ‘mentally unwell’.

28: Spurred on by anti-abortion legislation passed last week, Polish women have organized strikes and rallies. An estimated 430,000 people participated in 410 demonstrations across the country. Meanwhile, Indonesia has logged 400,000 cases of COVID since the pandemic began, the first country in Southeast Asia to surpass this milestone. Hurricane Zeta makes landfall in Louisiana and strikes northwards. And the Trump administration rolls back decades-old protections for the Tongass National Rainforest in Alaska, allowing nearly half of the forest to be opened up to logging and road-building. Tongass is among the world’s largest temperate rainforests and a vital carbon sink for the continent’s carbon emissions. All five of Alaska’s Indigenous tribal nations withdrew from consultations about the plan, saying, “our participation in this process has not actually led to the incorporation of any of our concerns in the final decision. We refuse to endow legitimacy upon a process that has disregarded our input at every turn.”

Women in Lodz dress up like characters from the A Handmaid’s Tale to protest new abortion restrictions in Poland - Marcin Stepien/Agencja Gazeta

29: A boat carrying 140 refugees catches fires and capsizes off the coast of Senegal. 140 passengers drown. The heavy rainfalls from Typhoon Molave leave dozens dead and many others missing in central Vietnam. Zeta continues its destructive tour of the American southeast, cutting a path through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas and now Virginia. The storm’s death toll rises to six as forceful winds shred roofs, tear down trees and down power lines. In COVID-news, India becomes on the second country to total 8m cases, trailing closely in the United States’ wake. Italy records over 25,000 new cases of the coronavirus today - their total number of cases has now surpassed 600,000. And France approves new lockdown measures - all non-essential businesses will be closed, however schools will remain open. Traffic clogs the streets of the Île-de-France region, as people try to get out of Paris before the second lockdown begins.

30: The Belarussian President, still beleagured with pro-democracy protests, abruptly shutters the country’s borders with Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Ukraine citing coronavirus concerns. The Philippines brace for a massive, category five super-Typhoon. Goni will be the 18th storm to strike the country this year - and will be the largest cyclone in over a year, since Hurricane Dorian struck the Caribbean in 2019. And the New York Times reports that border officials have expelled at least 200 unaccompanied children from Central America to Mexico, regardless of whether or not those minors have family in Mexico to care for them. A further 545 migrant children are still missing, having been separated from their families upon arriving at land borders.

31: Video evidence shows Azerbaijani forces using white phosphorious in Artsakh. The use of this chemical agent as a weapon is banned under international law. In an interview with the Washington Post, Dr. Fauci criticized the White House’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying the country “could not be positioned more poorly” for the fall and winter surges. He tells the journalist that the coronavirus task force is more focused on the economy than public health and reports that he and the team’s other medical expert, Deborah Birx, no longer have access to the president.

Biden delivers a speech during a rainy drive-in rally in Tampa, Florida. In contrast to the Trump rallies, which rarely make concessions to the pandemic by asking attendees to wear masks or socially distance, Democrats have gone to great lengths to find novel ways to hold COVID-safe events - Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

1: Polling is showing Joe Biden with a clear advantage in swing states as the United States heads into a high-stakes election on Tuesday. Most polls show the former Vice-President leading in Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Pollsters are eager to regain much of the credibility they lost in 2016 when Trump upset Hillary’s performance and swept into the White House, against their predictions. Despite advancements in their technique - and oversampling Trump’s key demographics - the numbers will be way off again. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announces a month-long lockdown beginning next week although schools and universities will be allowed to remain open. Athens, too, will be locked down, following orders for the Greek Prime Minister. Portugal too, is following suit, and locking down most of the country

#2020 recap

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gov-info · 7 years

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December 15, 2017

Press Release: "American Dream is rapidly becoming American Illusion," warns UN rights expert on poverty” [Spanish]

Full Report [English] [Spanish]

Sections:

Introduction (below)

The human rights dimension

Who are ‘the poor’?

The current extent of poverty in the US

Problems with existing policies

The undermining of democracy

An illusory emphasis on employment

Shortcomings in basic social protection

Indigenous peoples

Children in poverty

Adult dental care

Reliance on criminalization to conceal the problem

The gendered nature of poverty

Racism, disability, and demonization of the poor

Confused and counter-productive drug policie

The use of fraud as a smokescreen

Privatization

Environmental sustainability

Principal current governmental responses

Tax reform

Welfare reform

Healthcare reform

New information technologies

Coordinated entry systems

Risk assessment tools in the pre-trial phase

Access to high-speed broadband access in West Virginia

Puerto Rico

About the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights

I. Introduction

1. I have spent the past two weeks visiting the United States, at the invitation of the federal government, to look at whether the persistence of extreme poverty in America undermines the enjoyment of human rights by its citizens. In my travels through California, Alabama, Georgia, Puerto Rico, West Virginia, and Washington DC I have spoken with dozens of experts and civil society groups, met with senior state and federal government officials and talked with many people who are homeless or living in deep poverty. I am grateful to the Trump Administration for facilitating my visit and for its continuing cooperation with the UN Human Rights Council’s accountability mechanisms that apply to all states.

2. My visit coincides with a dramatic change of direction in US policies relating to inequality and extreme poverty. The proposed tax reform package stakes out America’s bid to become the most unequal society in the world, and will greatly increase the already high levels of wealth and income inequality between the richest 1% and the poorest 50% of Americans. The dramatic cuts in welfare, foreshadowed by the President and Speaker Ryan, and already beginning to be implemented by the administration, will essentially shred crucial dimensions of a safety net that is already full of holes. It is against this background that my report is presented.

3. The United States is one of the world’s richest, most powerful and technologically innovative countries; but neither its wealth nor its power nor its technology is being harnessed to address the situation in which 40 million people continue to live in poverty.

4. I have seen and heard a lot over the past two weeks. I met with many people barely surviving on Skid Row in Los Angeles, I witnessed a San Francisco police officer telling a group of homeless people to move on but having no answer when asked where they could move to, I heard how thousands of poor people get minor infraction notices which seem to be intentionally designed to quickly explode into unpayable debt, incarceration, and the replenishment of municipal coffers, I saw sewage filled yards in states where governments don’t consider sanitation facilities to be their responsibility, I saw people who had lost all of their teeth because adult dental care is not covered by the vast majority of programs available to the very poor, I heard about soaring death rates and family and community destruction wrought by prescription and other drug addiction, and I met with people in the South of Puerto Rico living next to a mountain of completely unprotected coal ash which rains down upon them bringing illness, disability and death.

5. Of course, that is not the whole story. I also saw much that is positive. I met with State and especially municipal officials who are determined to improve social protection for the poorest 20% of their communities, I saw an energized civil society in many places, I visited a Catholic Church in San Francisco (St Boniface – the Gubbio Project) that opens its pews to the homeless every day between services, I saw extraordinary resilience and community solidarity in Puerto Rico, I toured an amazing community health initiative in Charleston (West Virginia) that serves 21,000 patients with free medical, dental, pharmaceutical and other services, overseen by local volunteer physicians, dentists and others (WV Health Right), and indigenous communities presenting at a US-Human Rights Network conference in Atlanta lauded Alaska’s advanced health care system for indigenous peoples, designed with direct participation of the target group.

6. American exceptionalism was a constant theme in my conversations. But instead of realizing its founders’ admirable commitments, today’s United States has proved itself to be exceptional in far more problematic ways that are shockingly at odds with its immense wealth and its founding commitment to human rights. As a result, contrasts between private wealth and public squalor abound.

7. In talking with people in the different states and territories I was frequently asked how the US compares with other states. While such comparisons are not always perfect, a cross-section of statistical comparisons provides a relatively clear picture of the contrast between the wealth, innovative capacity, and work ethic of the US, and the social and other outcomes that have been attained.

By most indicators, the US is one of the world’s wealthiest countries. It spends more on national defense than China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, United Kingdom, India, France, and Japan combined.

US health care expenditures per capita are double the OECD average and much higher than in all other countries. But there are many fewer doctors and hospital beds per person than the OECD average.

US infant mortality rates in 2013 were the highest in the developed world.

Americans can expect to live shorter and sicker lives, compared to people living in any other rich democracy, and the “health gap” between the U.S. and its peer countries continues to grow.

U.S. inequality levels are far higher than those in most European countries

Neglected tropical diseases, including Zika, are increasingly common in the USA. It has been estimated that 12 million Americans live with a neglected parasitic infection. A 2017 report documents the prevalence of hookworm in Lowndes County, Alabama.

The US has the highest prevalence of obesity in the developed world.

In terms of access to water and sanitation the US ranks 36th in the world.

America has the highest incarceration rate in the world, ahead of Turkmenistan, El Salvador, Cuba, Thailand and the Russian Federation. Its rate is nearly 5 times the OECD average.

The youth poverty rate in the United States is the highest across the OECD with one quarter of youth living in poverty compared to less than 14% across the OECD.

The Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty ranks the most well-off countries in terms of labor markets, poverty, safety net, wealth inequality, and economic mobility. The US comes in last of the top 10 most well-off countries, and 18th amongst the top 21.

In the OECD the US ranks 35th out of 37 in terms of poverty and inequality.

According to the World Income Inequality Database, the US has the highest Gini rate (measuring inequality) of all Western Countries

The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality characterizes the US as “a clear and constant outlier in the child poverty league.” US child poverty rates are the highest amongst the six richest countries – Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and Norway.

About 55.7% of the U.S. voting-age population cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election. In the OECD, the U.S. placed 28th in voter turnout, compared with an OECD average of 75%. Registered voters represent a much smaller share of potential voters in the U.S. than just about any other OECD country. Only about 64% of the U.S. voting-age population (and 70% of voting-age citizens) was registered in 2016, compared with 91% in Canada (2015) and the UK (2016), 96% in Sweden (2014), and nearly 99% in Japan (2014).

About the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights: Professor Philip Alston is the current Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. The Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the Human Rights Council and undertakes the following main tasks: (1) conducting research and analysis to be presented in separate thematic reports to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly; (2) undertaking country visits and reporting on the situation in those countries in relation to the concerns of the mandate; (3) sending letters to governments and other relevant entities in situations in which violations of human rights of people living in extreme poverty are alleged to have taken place.

The mandate on extreme poverty was first established in 1998 by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and was taken over by the Human Rights Council in June 2006. It is one of a number of mandates that together form what is known as the United Nations system of special procedures. For more information on those procedures see: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Welcomepage.aspx

#un #economics #taxes #asap

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tryc2management · 5 years

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#ITAD Virginia #drive sanitization services Richmond VA #Hard Drive Destruction Virginia #Destruction Shredding in Virginia

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shreddingmadeez-blog · 4 years

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Personal Shredding Services Provider

Shreddingmadeez in Fairfax County, offers our clients highly-secure paper shredding and computer destruction solutions throughout Maryland, Washington DC and Northern Virginia. Our team can handle any amount of document destruction for your home or business, no matter what industry you’re in.We also offer next day service for those who need access to our services quickly. Just give us a call and ask about our next day shredding to organize a next day appointment with us.

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limejuicer1862 · 4 years

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My goal in life is the destruction of 5G masts. I cut my sandwich into triangles as a lower-middle class pretension. Back outside, my window, one time, a cream room, a view of the street’s antenna. The problem with David Lynch is how he makes too much sense. Back in the simulacrum, a boy, my age, rangers in North America, first as tragedy, then as… ironing out our balaclavas, filling out our milk bottles; backpacks unattended on park benches, on the bus.

A page of Baudrillard, hides the truth to view witnesses fraying little by little into ruins, discernible ruined empire, rotting carcass of the soil double ends simulation, this fabled second-order no longer that of a territory, no longer saturated, a hyperreal map one must

return without origin, shreds unusable a questionable sovereign difference – the charm abstraction, the coextensivity of poetry, the representation produced no imaginary. Operational, in fact, no longer memory radiating synthesis, no space without atmosphere, no worse

curvature. Imitation, nor duplication; leaving room for simulated liquidation.

-Alex Mazey

.the title changes.

there is too much interference things could be left alone things were alright anyway

the battery is low yet plugged in the radio buzzes.

things are distorted

so i did what he says, whilst running up and down the stairs.

source to av, only there aint no av, not on that one anyhow.

press my scart lead, that is probably it.

press the sky button, the sky does not respond.

we still has television snow.

mine are bifocal and can distort gently if i concentrate poorly on the centre i have had help a while grateful at least that i can see unlike some of my family

yesterday I watched a documentary about monkeys

-sonja benskin mesher

The new starboard

Our larvae split their skin in the signal-fry, warmed over by the wire-witched currents of one filigree moon in a hundredweight sky

and if we no longer see the stars how do they counsel a chart for a new grub, or pull a blood’s spirit-iron toward the dissolving north

and if we no longer feel these waves how may we know our own water, what deeps us for the giddy bubble of this sailing. And I know

there are rocks here still, they make chimneys of it to vent everything we can’t burn railing sparks against the sky- silver that meshes none of our tides true

and it will rain hot tonight, the sizzle pelting the new hatchlings

-Ankh Spice

Of Forest And Stick

Foe forest, faux forest fee-fi-fo forest. Where giants hurl their broken stories from broadcast heaven to stone cast ground. Real, this least of things.

Inarticulate metal arms pluck down your dreams, to place within the flakes of soul slow dying desiccation.

Sick insects wave. These metal poles sway clamped to roof and breast.

All point as one, their martyr fingers show. As minds walk psychotic in their circular days.

To stars and planets that orbit our night sleep late night drunk deep on their celestial milky ways.

Antennae wave hello. Behind smudged glass walls as we sit and stare into this aquarium hell of our own making.

As we spread across our furniture of forked cartons, plastic and messy despair We start to take on our corrupt story.

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/of-forest-and-stick.m4a

Reception

Quiet the cluttered airways. Listen. Too many voices reaching skyward, Clamoring for reception, Propelling selfhood upward,

Destroys collaborative Synergy. And interference causes failure. After all, Man-made towers were only Ever meant to fall.

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/reception.m4a

-st

Every Stem Is

an aerial, antennae whose signal carries an image and a sound of growth and bloom.

Leaves are directors, flagellum, reach out, test the air and vibrations.

Listen can your hear the messages, or is it distorted,

image overlaid on image, sound overlaid on sound?

It processes fake news, phishing and cyber attacks. discerns real from false. scents and trails.

A filter bubble, an information sceptic decides what diminishes it, what makes it grow.

what makes it turn towards warmth, towards brightness.

More than a conduit.

-Paul Brookes

effluorescence

concrete flowerbed: aluminium amaranths dream of fecund earth

-Rich Follett

These gray structures loom Like a dead alloy forest A mill’s epitaph

-Carrie Ann Golden

The Arrival (EEN)

Blue eclipse sudden shudder silver vibrations strange sensations mauve hues silent screams shattered dreams rainbow screams black void bleak skies pink cries identity hides no way out seek beware who goes there wait stop where no here why there marble hush turquoise crush hide smile cry illusion confusion static wailing connections failing conscience melting blood moon a light alight powder dawn seek destroy rebuild regenerate no rescue failed sight emerald night pyramid flight incoming yellow tongue purple feast horrible sightings a drone atone leave us alone lavender glass chards charge cut chaos comet rush – Reverse

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/the-arrival-een-mp3.mp3

The Arrival (TWEE)

Falling earth new birth cosmic boom blast break away descend evacuate take position brace brave pathetic beast eject object reject investigate attack no way back hold blinding strobe light up get up move no room fire storm go swerve dive testing resting make haste chase erase record a face strange days delete reboot reverse rethink incoming homecoming survive surrender sharp solar bursts the thirst implosion ration succession orchestration new nation sinking earth toxic rebirth black hole tar soul screeching silence severed signals strange sour suns

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/the-arrival-twee-mp3.mp3

-Don Beukes

Bios and Links

-Alex Mazey

(b.1991) received his MA (distinction) from Keele University in 2017. He later won The Roy Fisher Prize for Poetry with his debut pamphlet, ‘Bread and Salt’ (Flarestack, TBA). He was also the recipient of a Creative Future Writers’ Award in 2019. His poetry has featured regularly in anthologies and literary press magazines, most notably in The London Magazine. His collection of essays, ‘Living in Disneyland’, will be available from Broken Sleep Books in October 2020. Alex spent 2018 as a resident of The People’s Republic of China, where he taught the English Language in a school run by the Ministry of Education. His writing has been described as ‘wry and knowing,’ with ‘an edge that tears rather than cuts or deals blows.’

Twitter: @AlexzanderMazey

Instagram: alexmazey

Here is my interview of Alex:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/18/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-alex-mazey/

-Rich Follett

is a High School English and Creative Writing teacher who has been writing poems and songs for more than forty years. His poems have been featured in numerous online and print journals, including BlazeVox, The Montucky Review, Paraphilia, Leaf Garden Press and the late Felino Soriano’s CounterExample Poetics, for which he was a featured artist. Three volumes of poetry, Responsorials (with Constance Stadler), Silence, Inhabited, and Human &c. are available through NeoPoiesis Press (www.neopoiesispress.com.)

As a singer-songwriter, Rich has released five albums of independent contemporary folk music. His latest. Somewhere in the Stars, is available at http://www.richfollett.com. He lives with his wife Mary Ruth Alred Follett in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he also pursues his interests as a professional actor, playwright, and director.

-Ankh Spice

is a sea-obsessed poet from Aotearoa (NZ). His poetry has appeared in a wide range of international publications and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He truly believes that words have the power to change the place we’re in, and you’ll find him doing his best to prove it on

Twitter: @SeaGoatScreams or on Facebook: @AnkhSpiceSeaGoatScreamsPoetry

-Carrie Ann Golden

is a deafblind writer from the mystical Adirondack Mountains now living on a farmstead in northeastern North Dakota. She writes dark fiction and poetry. Her work has been published in places like Piker Press, Edify Fiction, Doll Hospital Journal, The Hungry Chimera, GFT Press, Asylum Ink, and Visual Verse.

-sonja benskin mesher

born , Bournemouth.

now

lives and works in North Wales as an independent artist

‘i am a multidisciplinary artist, crafting paint, charcoal, words and whatever comes to hand, to explain ideas and issues

words have not come easily. I draw on experience, remember and write. speak of a small life’.

Elected as a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy and the United Artists Society The work has been in solo exhibitions through Wales and England, and in selected and solo worldwide. Much of the work is now in both private, and public collections, and has been featured in several television documentaries, radio programmes and magazines.

Here is my interview of sonja benskin mesher:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/16/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-sonja-benskin-mesher/

-Samantha Terrell

is an American poet whose work emphasizes emotional integrity and social justice. She is the author of several eBooks including, Learning from Pompeii, Coffee for Neanderthals, Disgracing Lady Justice and others, available on smashwords.com and its affiliates.Chapbook: Ebola (West Chester University Poetry Center, 2014)

Website: poetrybysamantha.weebly.com Twitter: @honestypoetry

Here is my 2020 interview of her:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2020/04/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-samantha-terrell/

-Don Beukes

is a South African and British writer. He is the author of ‘The Salamander Chronicles’ (CTU) and ‘Icarus Rising-Volume 1’ (ABP), an ekphrastic collection. He taught English and Geography in both South Africa and the UK. His poetry has been anthologized in numerous collections and translated into Afrikaans, Persian, French and Albanian. He was nominated by Roxana Nastase, editor of Scarlet Leaf Review for the ‘Best of the Net’ in 2017 as well as the Pushcart Poetry Prize (USA) in 2016. He was published in his first SA Anthology ‘In Pursuit of Poetic Perfection’ in 2018 (Libbo Publishers) and his second ‘Cape Sounds’ in 2019 (Gavin Joachims Publishing). He is also an amateur photographer and his debut Photographic publication appeared in Spirit Fire Review in June 2019. His new book, ‘Sic Transit Gloria Mundi’/Thus Passes the Glory of this World’ is due to be published by Concrete Mist Press.

Here is my interview of Don Beukes:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/11/02/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-don-beukes/

-Dai Fry

is an old new poet. He worked in social care but now has no day job. A keen photographer and eater of literature and lurid covers. Fascinated by nature, physics, pagans, sea and storm. His poetry seeks to capture image and tell philosophical tales. Published in Black Bough Poetry, Re-Side, The Hellebore Press and the Pangolin Review. He can be seen reading on #InternationalPoetryCircle and regularly appears on #TopTweetTuesday. Twitter. @thnargg Web seekingthedarklight.co.uk

Audio/Visual. @IntPoetryCircle #InternationalPoetryCircle Twitter #TopTweetTuesday

-Paul Brookes

is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). The Headpoke and Firewedding (Alien Buddha Press, 2017), A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Port Of Souls (Alien Buddha Press, 2018), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), Stubborn Sod, with Marcel Herms (artist) (Alien Buddha Press, 2019), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). Forthcoming Khoshhali with Hiva Moazed (artist), Our Ghost’s Holiday (Final book of threesome “A Pagan’s Year”) . He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews.

-Mary Frances

is an artist and writer based in the UK. She takes a few photos every day, for inspiration and to use in her work. The images for this project were all taken in the last two years on walks during in the month of May. Her words and images have been published by Penteract Press, Metambesen, Ice Floe Press, Burning House Press, Inside the Outside, Luvina Rivista Literaria, and Lone Women in Flashes of Wilderness. Twitter: @maryfrancesness

-James Knight

is an experimental poet and digital artist. His books include Void Voices (Hesterglock Press) and Self Portrait by Night (Sampson Low). His visual poems have been published in several places, including the Penteract Press anthology Reflections and Temporary Spaces (Pamenar Press). Chimera, a book of visual poems, is due from Penteract Press in July 2020.

Website: thebirdking.com.

Twitter: @badbadpoet

Here is my interview of James Knight:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/01/06/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-james-knight/

-Sue Harpham

is an admin worker, currently not in work Married, 2 sons. Loves poetry and words. She considers herself a writer of scribble rather than a poet. She has written a novel and is using her spare time to finally get it published (self-publishing) which has been an ambition of her for the last 10 years.

Welcome to a special ekphrastic challenge for May. Artworks from Mary Frances, James Knight and Sue Harpham will be the inspiration for writers, Alex Mazey, Ankh Spice, Samantha Terrell, Dai Fry, Carrie Ann Golden, sonja benskin mesher, Rich Follett, Don Beukes and myself. May 5th. * My goal in life is the destruction of 5G masts. I cut my sandwich into triangles as a lower-middle class pretension.

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dendroica · 7 years

Quote

On Wednesday, four people were shot in Northern Virginia, including Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, who remains in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the hip. A bullet to the hip from a handgun is far less likely to be deadly than a shot to the chest or head. Unfortunately, the shooter in Virginia reportedly used a semiautomatic assault rifle. I once treated a patient shot in the pelvis with a similar weapon. The bullet shattered the hipbone into hundreds of pieces. It shredded the femoral artery, causing life-threatening bleeding and destroyed whole portions of the bowel and bladder. This was the kind of damage inflicted upon victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando and other mass shootings including Newtown, San Bernardino and Aurora. Trauma doctors and nurses who treated patients in these tragedies and medical examiners who investigated the aftermath, all commented on the unbelievable devastation resulting from the bullet wounds. Indeed, this is the intended consequence of assault rifles. They are designed to be weapons of war. The bullets they discharge don’t follow a straight line through the body; they fragment and explode, destroying as much living tissue as possible. There are estimates that the annual society cost of gun violence exceeds $229 billion. What I see are the human costs, not only of death but also of survival. Because of spinal damage, my patients become paralyzed, unable to walk and sometimes unable to move anything from the neck down. Because of blood loss and infections, they have their leg bones removed and undergo limb amputations. Because of intestinal perforations, they wear colostomy bags to reroute feces to a bag over their skin. Many require multiple surgeries, followed by a lifetime of hospitalizations from antibiotic-resistant infections and chronic, unremitting pain. Some become addicted to painkillers; they face a downward spiral of unemployment and poverty, homelessness and hopelessness. Medical professionals are trained to stanch bleeding, stitch wounds and patch up broken bodies. We are good at our jobs; most gunshot victims survive their wounds. But every day, we are plagued by the question of how to prevent these injuries in the first place, when the damage is so extensive from weapons so readily available. Two years ago, a group of doctors wrote in the Annals of Internal Medicine: “It does not matter whether we believe that guns kill people or that people kill people with guns — the result is the same: a public health crisis.” In the war zone of the E.R., we don’t see partisanship or politics. We see the devastation that happens when our society normalizes tools of total bodily destruction.

What Bullets Do to Bodies - The New York Times

#gun violence #guns #medicine #public health #politics

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wlulex · 8 years

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Science, Society, and the Arts: Not your Average Academic Conference!

WLU’s biannual event, Science, Society, and the Arts, is a “multi-disciplinary conference at which Washington and Lee undergraduate and law students present original work to an audience of their peers, faculty, and staff.”

If you aren’t excited yet, you haven’t been paying attention.

For the last two years, W&L students have been researching, writing, practicing, and perfecting a collection of fascinating papers, posters, and performances that go way beyond the scope of your typical conference. Topics range from brilliant, to quirky, to completely and utterly fascinating: however, you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s just a small sampling of the awesome presentations you’ll be able to check out.

Tommy Bishop, ‘18L, will be performing a “fingerstyle guitar composition,” entitled ‘the one that barely got away.’ Fingerstyle guitar, as Tommy defines it, is “an amalgam of classical guitar (where, typically, classical pieces written or arranged for guitar are played on nylon string guitars) and ‘shred’ guitar (think neo-classical, finger-tapping solo guitar a la Yngwie Malmsteen or Eddie Van Halen). A pioneer of this musical style, the late Michael Hedges, called it ‘Acoustic Shred.’”

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(An example of ‘fingerstyle’ guitar)

“As for the piece itself, it was inspired, perhaps predictably, by a dysfuctional relationship that ended poorly. I love the Frost quote along the lines of ‘every poem begins with a lump in the throat,’ and that's certainly what inspired my little piece.”

Additionally, you can check out the creatively titled “Back to werk... work*,” a dance preformed by Lauren Arcinas, Kitanna Hirmosa, Grace Smith, Kiki Spiezio, Alexandra Seymour, and Iman Messado. All that Arcinas would tell us was that “sometimes when I'm trying to study I can't focus 'cause I have a song stuck in my head and just want to get up and dance. So I figured, why not make a piece about it!” To find out more, you’ll have to go see it for yourself!

You can check out Tommy’s performance, Back to Werk... Work*, and other amazing pieces on Thursday, March 16, beginning at 7:30PM in the Johnson Theater, followed by a delectable dessert reception!

In addition to Thursday’s performances, Friday the 17th begins with a collection of panels featuring student papers, digital stories, and creative writing.

Harry Lustig ‘17, an avid outdoorsman, will be presenting his digital story called “Get Out There.” It’s “a video tribute to the outdoors, to opportunity, and to adventure. The overall message? Get outside and do crazy things with cool people. There's never a better time. ‘Get Down on It!’”

Go see Harry (and others) present their stories from 10:30-11:45 AM in Science Addition 114, and then go “get out there” yourself!

Lizzy Stanton ‘17 will be presenting on her paper, "Do Beer Taxes Affect Birth Rates Among Teens and Young Women in the U.S.?." The title speaks for itself, and Lizzy is excited to participate in SSA “because it's so interdisciplinary, and it's great to be exposed to and learn about what people in different fields are working on. I'm also looking forward to getting questions and feedback on my paper from an outside audience.” If you want to hear Lizzy and other students present on the topic of Pregnancy and Poverty: Here and Abroad, head over to Huntley 235 at 10:30AM.

Virginia Kettles ‘19 will be presenting her paper as well, called “Heroes, Zombies, and Paranoia: American Film after 9/11.” Virginia says that her paper was inspired by “growing up in the age of paranoia and fear of post-9/11. I've always found it fascinating how the September 11th attacks triggered so many changes in the entertainment industry. The extensive death and destruction of 9/11 made the United States look at film in particular with a new sense of sensitivity and escapism, setting the stage for themes in cinema that continue to exist today.”

To contrast the themes and ideas presented by Virginia, Yolanda Yang ‘18 is presenting her paper, “The Chinese Cinematic Experience.” Without giving too much away, Yolanda says that “by comparing movies shown in Chinese cinemas and their original versions shown in the US, we have proven that several films are censored by the Chinese authorized institution SARFT. We summarized main types of censorships and tried to discover the possible reasons behind them.”

Yolanda and her research partner, Savannah Kimble ‘18, also interviewed professors and Chinese citizens living in Beijing in hopes of being able to better predict future policy changes based on the effect that censorship currently has on people’s lives. Yolanda and Virgina will both be speaking as part of the Cultures in Transition panel at 10:30AM in Huntley 230.

Finally, Catherine Simpson ‘18 asks the question “Why is it Socially Acceptable to Decapitate Barbie?” Catherine’s paper centered on her fascinating discovery that “ kids love to hate Barbie: they rip her arms off, cut her hair, draw on her face, and throw her off rooftops, all without social consequences.” So, she set to exploring why this might be. “I've conducted focus groups with tweens and college-aged women, and they've had a lot of feelings about Barbie and what she represents.” Check out her findings at the Women in Culture panel, starting at (you guessed it) 10:30AM in Ruscio CGL 212.

Barbie: “um, what now?”

Don’t forget about poster sessions, either! Starting at 3PM, you can peruse 81 different posters detailing student research from all disciplines at your leisure on Leyburn’s main floor.

Don’t miss "The Contribution of Bison Dung and Urine to Soil Nitrogen and Phosphorous Pools in Yellowstone National Park," presented by Sydney Lundquist ‘17 and Anna Alexander ‘18 (Easel #5). Their presentation is a summary of THREE years of research with Dr. Hamilton on the Yellowstone ecosystem. “Starting with Bison grazing patterns in the summer of 2015, we have expanded our project to include Bison urine and excrement in addition to their grazing in order to tell a more complete story about how Bison affect the ecosystem.” Sounds like you “doo” not want to miss it!

EVERYBODY is welcome and encouraged to attend SSA! Don’t miss the keynote speaker, either: this year, we will be hearing from Marlon West, the Head of Effects Animation at Walt Disney Studios (he most recently worked on the smash hit Moana)! You can sign up for the luncheon and West’s talk here, as well as see a full schedule and summary of events.

The Marlon West luncheon will be from 12-2PM on Friday the 17th

We can’t wait to see you at SSA 2017!

#SSA #science society and the arts #academic conference #conference #multidisciplinary #posters #panels #papers #performances #digital stories #lexington #Washington and Lee #wlu #wlussa

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