#Trump Shuttle

[galerymod]

A myth (more rarely mythus, obsolete mythe, plural myths, from ancient Greek μῦθος, "sound, word, speech, tale, legendary story, tale", Latin mythus) is in its original meaning a narrative. In religious myths, the existence of humans is linked to the world of gods or spirits.

Myths claim validity for the truth they assert. This claim to truth has been criticised since the Greek Enlightenment by the pre-Socratics (e.g. Xenophanes, around 500 BC). For the Sophists, myth stands in contrast to logos, which attempts to justify the truth of its assertions through rational evidence.

In a broader sense, myth also refers to people, things or events of high symbolic significance or simply a false idea or lie*.

For example, the adjective "mythical" is often used in colloquial language as a synonym for "fabulous-vague, fabulous or legendary".

Wikipedia

How can it be that a man who describes himself in public as a successful businessman worth billions cannot pay a financial penalty and that someone wants to vouch for him?

Trump can't pay 450 million dollars

In February, former US President Trump was fined 450 million dollars in New York for fraud. Now his lawyers have announced: Trump cannot pay. According to his lawyers, former US President Donald Trump is currently unable to guarantee payment of a fine of more than 450 million dollars from a fraud trial. Despite great efforts and negotiations with around 30 companies, it has not yet been possible to obtain such a guarantee, according to a letter from his legal team to the competent court in New York. Several US media outlets unanimously quote from the letter, arguing that it would be "practically impossible" to make the payment on time.

Trump has received a refusal from 30 bail companies, according to a letter from his lawyers to an appeals court on Monday. Many would not provide collateral in excess of 100 million dollars and would not accept real estate as collateral.

Forbes magazine estimates the property entrepreneur's total assets at 2.6 billion dollars. Trump recently stated that his cash assets totalled around 400 million dollars.

"I thought he was a billionaire? Is he lying to the public or the court?" Law professor Andrew Weissmann poses the question of questions on X in relation to Donald Trump's liquidity: How much is there to the image of the self-made billionaire?

How much money does Trump himself have?

Last year, Trump testified in court that he had a cash fortune of around 400 million US dollars. The latest legal documents indicate that he does not have anywhere near that amount of money at his disposal, Professor of Business Law Will Thomas from the University of Michigan. However, he and the Trump Organisation would have significantly more assets at their disposal. His largest asset holdings are tied up in property. If Trump is unable to pay in other ways, he could be forced to sell some of his properties, according to Professor Thomas. His lawyers want to prevent this and warn that Trump would have no way of buying them back if he is successful with his appeal.

Where could the money come from?

Without liquid funds, there are two options for Trump to prevent enforcement for the time being.

Guarantees: A guarantee would probably be the only solution for him. This would allow him not to have to sell anything for the time being. At the same time, guarantors require collateral and often only accept cash or shares in return - not property. Trump also needs to find someone who is prepared to guarantee an enormous sum of over 550 million dollars.

Donations or campaign funds: He is also receiving support from private sources, but the sums are nowhere near enough. Trump supporters are collecting money for him on the internet, with over a million private donations having been collected so far.

Again and again, it is also about money from Trump's election campaign. Federal law prohibits Trump from using campaign funds for personal purposes. However, it is legally unclear to what extent campaign money from political action committees (PACs) and funds from the Republican National Committee (RNC) fall under this. But even these funds would be far from sufficient.

If he loses the aura of the successful billionaire self-made businessman, he also loses his aura of success.

mod

This kind of legal action would not only be a serious blow to Trump's finances, but also to his image, as he always praises himself as a brilliant businessman.

The biggest bankruptcies* of Donald Trump

It was always visible to everyone, but as long as you can keep generating capital, the myth can be maintained

Trump Ice

In 1995, Donald Trump founded the Trump Ice Natural Spring Water brand (Trump Ice for short) - his own brand of bottled drinking water. However, the sales figures were not particularly good. After missed payments to the producer and a lawsuit against Trump Ice in this connection, production was discontinued. Today, only bottles with collector's value are sold on eBay and the like.

Trump Steaks

Donald Trump founded his own steak company in 2007. The company was to be dedicated exclusively to selling his favourite food and running a steakhouse in Las Vegas. The prices for the steaks varied between 199 and 999 US dollars. Despite such bargain prices, the company had to close in the same year. The steakhouse was shut down after the health department found 51 health code violations.

Trump University

In 2005, Donald Trump opened "Trump University" - a distance learning university specialising in the real estate industry that was not officially recognised as a university. Enrolment cost up to 35,000 US dollars, but many of the course instructors, who were allegedly selected by Donald Trump himself, often did not have the appropriate qualifications. The school had to be closed down for good in 2011. Thousands of students filed a lawsuit against the former US president, who relented in 2017 and offered a settlement despite his supposed innocence. This was confirmed by the US Court of Appeal in 2018 and secured compensation of USD 25 million for the more than 4,000 ex-students.

New Jersey Generals

In 1984, Donald Trump bought his own football team, the New Jersey Generals. However, they did not play in the famous National Football League, the NFL, but in the smaller offshoot, the United States Football League (USFL). Just one year later, the team was bankrupt and the entire United States Football League with it. Trump had tried with all his might to bring about a merger of the UFSL with the NFL. This prevented Donald Trump from taking over a team in the NFL.

Trump Vodka

According to Donald Trump himself, he does not drink alcohol. However, this did not stop him from launching his own premium vodka on the market in 2005. However, production was discontinued in 2011.

Trump Magazine

Donald Trump made several attempts to land a hit in the luxury magazine segment. After two failed attempts, he launched the quarterly "Trump Magazine" in 2007, which covered topics such as yachts and other toys for the rich. However, the magazine was cancelled in 2009.

Gotrump

In 2006, Donald Trump ventured into a search engine for luxury travel. It included private jets, tickets for exclusive events and supposedly personal recommendations and travel tips from Donald Trump. However, it was shut down again after just one year due to poor reviews.

Trump: The Game

Trump tried twice to establish himself on the board game market with the board game "Trump: The Game", but failed twice. The game is, of course, about money. The game first came onto the market in 1989, but was discontinued shortly after its release. In 2005, he tried a new edition in collaboration with Parker Brothers, but this version also failed.

Trump Shuttle

In 1989, Trump bought his own airline, "Trump Shuttle". The airline was to fly business people back and forth between New York, Boston and Washington. The interior of the Boeing 727 was elegantly furnished with maple panelling and chrome seat belt buckles, and gold fittings were installed in the toilets. However, the luxury was too expensive for the passengers. Three years later, the over-indebted company was sold to US Airways.

Trump Entertainment Resorts

With the company "Trump Entertainment Resorts", Donald Trump operated several casinos in the gambling metropolis of Atlantic City, including: Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza and Trump Marina. All were closed between 1999 and 2016, and the company filed for bankruptcy three times between 2004 and 2014. In 2014, debts are said to have totalled around 1.8 billion US dollars. Trump himself withdrew completely from the company in 2016 and sold his shares to billionaire Carl Icahn.

Trump Mortgage

In April 2006, Donald Trump announced the founding of his own mortgage bank, Trump Mortgage, at a press conference. He predicted a rosy future for his endeavour and that the bank would soon become the largest lender for home loans in the USA. However, as with "Trump Magazine", the timing was not exactly fortunate. Just one year later, the former US president's mortgage bank had to file for insolvency.

[fatehbaz]

This was a world [...] of breathtaking extremes: on one end were early modern European aristocrats who decorated their salons with sugar sculptures; on the other were millions of enslaved men and women, overwhelmingly of African origin, who were overworked so mercilessly on Caribbean plantations [...].

In the late 1600s, sugar confectioneries were introduced into Siam by a [...] woman of Japanese and Portuguese descent, Marie Guyemar de Pinha [...], who married the king’s Greek prime minister. Two centuries later, a sugar planter like Leonard Wray could effortlessly move between the Malay Peninsula, Natal (in today’s South Africa), and the American South, receiving land in Algeria from Napoleon III and conducting sugar experiments under the auspices of the former governor of South Carolina. Bosma traces the rise of a sugar bourgeoisie in places like Java, the Caribbean, Louisiana, and Brazil that was, by its very definition, transnational. Sugar, after all, constantly required new commodity frontiers as cane monoculture ravaged the soil and turned lush tropical forests into wastelands. Politics and war accelerated this scramble for new frontiers. [After the formal legal abolition of chattel slavery in British territories] [a] man like John Gladstone -- father of British prime minister William -- had to quickly pull up stakes in Demerara (in today’s Guyana) and Jamaica in 1840 and try his luck in deltaic Bengal instead. [...]

Of course, many of those transnational connections were sealed through acts of unspeakable brutality. [...] The workings of the slave-sugar economy [...] guaranteed that the enslaved were reduced to the absolute wretched of the earth [...]. Slaves were shuttled across the Atlantic’s western littoral as new sugar frontiers developed and as European colonies were gained [...]. Saint-Domingue sugar workers might have cast away their chains during the Haitian Revolution, but French planters simply carried those chains across the Windward Passage to Cuba, where they got to work establishing a new, brutal sugar frontier powered by yet more slaves. Equally unsettling, [...] the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834 was followed [...] by the resumption of British mass imports of slave-grown sugar from areas beyond London’s imperial control. Sugar from Brazil and Cuba was simply cheaper, and business and consumer interests trumped any questions of morality. [...] [W]ith massive refinery complexes lining the waterfronts of American and European cities, the commodity remained utterly reliant on slavery, coerced labor, and - in places like Java, where the Dutch designed a system of forced cultivation - suppressed land rights. [...] [G]rossly impoverished workers were cheaper and more easily dispensable. [...] Sugar was only profitable when churned out in mass quantities: consequently, sugar industrialists deliberately overproduced, which artificially drove down prices (and workers’ wages).

---

All text above by: Dinyar Patel. ‘Sugar, Slavery, and Capitalism: On Ulbe Bosma’s “The World of Sugar”’. Published online by LA Review of Books. 9 May 2023. [Some paragraph breaks and contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[ckerouac]

Too many books came in at the same time from my library queue, so @redheadgleek suggests a poll and yes, let’s poll! Y’all can see my… varied reading interests lol

What should I read next?

Daughter from the Dark: Late one night, fate brings together DJ Aspirin and ten-year-old Alyona. After he tries to save her from imminent danger, she ends up at his apartment. But in the morning sinister doubts set in. Who is Alyona? A young con artist? A plant for a nefarious blackmailer? Or perhaps a long-lost daughter Aspirin never knew existed? Whoever this mysterious girl is, she now refuses to leave.

The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett: Wanting to organize an assisted death on her own terms, world-weary octogenarian Eudora Honeysett forges an unexpected bond with exuberant ten-year-old Rose, who drags her to tea parties, shopping sprees, and other social excursions.

Flesh and Bone and Water: André is a listless Brazilian teenager and the son of a successful plastic surgeon who lives a life of wealth and privilege, shuttling between the hot sands of Ipanema beach and his family's luxurious penthouse apartment. In 1985, when he is just 16, André's mother is killed in a car accident. Clouded with grief, André's father loses himself in his work while André spends his evenings in the family apartment with Luana, the beautiful daughter of the family's maid. Three decades later, and now a successful surgeon himself, André is a middle-aged father, living in London, and recently separated. One day he receives an unexpected letter from Luana, which begins to reveal the other side of their story, a story André has long repressed.

Geek Love: The Binewskis are a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out-- with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes-- to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There is Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan. Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins. Albino hunchback Oly. And the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family's most precious-- and dangerous-- asset. As they set out across the U.S., family values will never be the same.

Same Bed Different Dreams: March 1919. Far-flung Korean patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country. This government-in-exile proves mostly symbolic, its petitions ignored by heads of state as Korea's nationhood is erased. After Japan's defeat in World War II, the KPG dissolves and civil war erupts, resulting in the North-South split that remains today. But what if the KPG still existed now, today-working toward a unified Korea, secretly harnessing the might of a giant tech company to further its aims?

Unholy: why white evangelicals worship at the altar of Donald Trump: Fueled by an anti-democratic impulse, and united by this narrative of reverse victimization, the religious right and the alt-right support a common agenda--and are actively using the erosion of democratic norms to roll back civil rights advances, stock the judiciary with hard-right judges, defang and deregulate federal agencies, and undermine the credibility of the free press. Increasingly, this formidable bloc is also forging ties with European far right groups, giving momentum to a truly global movement forecasted to last long after the Trump era.

Comemadre: In the outskirts of Buenos Aires in 1907, a doctor becomes involved in a misguided experiment that investigates the threshold between life and death. One hundred years later, a celebrated artist goes to extremes in search of aesthetic transformation, turning himself into an art object.

I Who Have Never Known Men: A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered... if indeed there were crimes.

Road of Bones: Kolyma Highway, otherwise known as the Road of Bones, is a 1200 mile stretch of Siberian road where winter temperatures can drop as low as sixty degrees below zero. Felix Teigland, or "Teig," is a documentary producer, and when he learns about the Road of Bones, he realizes he's stumbled upon untapped potential. Accompanied by his camera operator, Teig hires a local Yakut guide to take them to Oymyakon, the coldest settlement on Earth. Teig is fascinated by the culture along the Road of Bones, and encounters strange characters on the way to the Oymyakon, but when the team arrives, they find the village mysteriously abandoned apart from a mysterious nine-year-old girl. Then, chaos ensues.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

For those looking to raise doubts about American elections, it's becoming clear that a key 2024 voting boogeyman will be immigration.

The false notion that undocumented immigrants are affecting federal elections has been floating around for over 100 years, experts say, but this year, due in part to an increase in migrants at the southern U.S. border, the idea could have new potency.

The narratives are being pushed by prominent right-wing figures including Cleta Mitchell, a former adviser to Donald Trump, along with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee himself.

NPR acquired a two-page memo Mitchell has been circulating laying out "the threat of non-citizen voting in 2024."

"I absolutely believe this is intentional, and one of the reasons the Biden administration is allowing all these illegals to flood the country," Mitchell said on a conservative radio show in Illinois last month. "They're taking them into counties across the country, so that they can get those people registered, they can vote them."

Trump has made the same claims on the campaign trail. And even Elon Musk, the Tesla founder and owner of X, has used his social media platform to push the baseless idea to millions of people.

"[Democrats] are importing voters," Musk wrote in a post about undocumented immigrants on March 5 that X claims has been seen more than 23 million times.

It's illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and numerous studies over the years have found that it almost never happens, but voting experts still worry the claims could take hold at a time when huge numbers of Republicans simultaneously don't trust elections and see immigration as the top problem facing the country.

"I think that's what it's meant to do — to freak people out over an issue. It's a continuation of this myth of voter fraud," said Gilda Daniels, an election law professor at the University of Baltimore. "It not only creates hysteria, but it [furthers] this idea that only certain people should be allowed to participate in the process."

A TALE AS OLD AS VOTER REGISTRATION

The idea that people are being shuttled into the U.S. to influence elections is a familiar tale for seasoned election officials.

"I've been hearing it my whole career," said Kim Wyman, a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and the former Republican secretary of state of Washington.

In fact, the myth started taking hold in the U.S. in the late 1800s.

A hundred years before, when the country was first founded, noncitizen voting was actually fairly common and uncontroversial, says Ron Hayduk, an expert on noncitizen voting at San Francisco State University. But after the Civil War and Reconstruction, a wave of migration from Europe of nonwhite, non-English-speakers led to xenophobic fears about what would happen to the U.S. if immigrants were allowed to exercise their power politically.

One by one, states began implementing voter registration systems specifically as a means to disenfranchise immigrants.

"Allegations of vote fraud were the main stated justification for imposing restrictive practices," Hayduk said.

And in the century since then, he said, every time the country has seen an influx of immigrants, a loosening of immigration policy or an expansion of voting access, accusations of voter fraud have followed.

Mitchell's memo about the risk of noncitizen voting touches on two of those things. Migrant encounters at the southern border hit an all-time high in December, and the document focuses mostly on the implementation of a 1993 law, the National Voter Registration Act, that made registering to vote easier.

The NVRA does not require proof of U.S. citizenship for people to register to vote, only that potential voters fill out a form and attest under penalty of perjury that they are citizens. A federal voting law passed in 2002 also required applicants to provide a unique identification number to register, like a driver's license or Social Security number, which election officials say effectively serves as a citizenship check since both of those forms of ID involve the government checking whether someone is a citizen or not.

But Mitchell's main hope, according to the document, is to spur Congress to require documentary proof of citizenship as part of registration.

Experts say that sort of change would have a drastic negative impact on many eligible voters, like naturalized citizens, without solving any real problem.

"If you make [registering] harder, there will be students, young people, elderly people, poor people and other groupings of people who would just not bother," said Daniels, of the University of Baltimore. "This whole document is [saying] we don't want the NVRA or any other piece of legislation to do what it's supposed to do, which is register people to vote."

Mitchell did not respond to an email from NPR requesting comment.

SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM

The right's concerns about noncitizens voting have persisted despite there being no recent evidence that ineligible people are voting at anything other than microscopic numbers in American elections.

After the 2016 election, the Brennan Center for Justice, which advocates for expanded voting access, looked at 42 election jurisdictions including some of the jurisdictions with the largest noncitizen populations in the country, and found suspected noncitizen votes made up roughly 30 of the 23.5 million votes cast (0.0001%) in those places.

A recent study in Arizona (first reported by The Washington Post) found that less than 1% of noncitizens attempt to register to vote, and even in those cases, the vast majority are thought to be mistakes.

"There are dire ramifications for those who register when they are not eligible—in the naturalization process applicants for citizenship must affirm that they have not registered to vote," wrote Tammy Patrick, a former local election official in Arizona who is now the CEO of the nonprofit Election Center, in an email. "The stakes are high and not something that most people would willingly, knowingly gamble away for the sake of casting a single ballot."

Hayduk, of San Francisco State, agreed.

"The last thing [migrants] want to do is put themselves at risk of being detained, deported, let alone put a wrench in their application for citizenship," he said.

In Georgia, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger had his office perform a citizenship audit that found fewer than 2,000 suspected noncitizens registering to vote in the state over the past 25 years. None were actually able to cast a ballot.

"Noncitizens are not voting in Georgia," said Raffensperger, in an interview with NPR.

Still, in a sign that the issue has become a priority not just for the election denial wing of the Republican Party, Raffensperger has made noncitizens a key focus of his time in office even as he has fought against other conspiratorial election narratives.

Earlier this year, the secretary was pushing for a constitutional amendment in Georgia to explicitly ban noncitizen voting, something a number of other states, including neighboring Alabama and Florida, also passed recently.

"Perception is 9/10 of reality," said Hayduk. "Putting the solution on the table suggests there was a problem. And I think that's part of the point. [These laws] create a solution to a problem that doesn't exist."

Legislation tracking by the nonprofit Voting Rights Lab shows that in the first few months of 2024, 17 bills have been introduced in 12 different states that involve proof of citizenship provisions.

Federal law already bans noncitizens from voting in federal elections, but a few liberal U.S. cities, including Washington D.C., have begun allowing them to vote in local elections, adding to conservative fears that soon noncitizens will be voting en masse.

In Georgia the proposed amendment effort stalled in the legislature but Raffensperger said he plans to push for it next session.

That is almost certainly true. Both Ohio and Florida's constitutional amendments banning noncitizen voting passed with more than 75% statewide support.

But it's one thing to say noncitizens shouldn't vote. It's another to claim, as Mitchell and Trump have, that they already are in great numbers.

Raffensperger has directly refuted many similar election fraud claims over the past four years.

But when asked by NPR what he thought of the false idea that President Biden was shipping in undocumented immigrants to boost his reelection bid, Raffensperger declined to comment on it.

"What Joe Biden's up to, I don't really know. You'd have to ask him," Raffensperger said. "I'm going to make sure that we secure our elections: Now more than ever, American citizens are demanding this."

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #301: SUPER NOVA UNBOUND!

March, 1989

BRAIN LEECHES?!

Do they leech on brains or are they leeches what are brains? Both? Neither?

Day 1 of the Fantastic Two being on the Avengers and they're still rocking the 4s.

Get with the program, Richardses.

I also see that Day 1 of this new Avengers roster and the Captain has returned to being Captain America and ditched the darker costume. Funny how things coincide.

Gilgamesh continues to look like Some Guy in the roster box. Geez, not even going to wear your crappy helmet to look less boring in the roster box? Where's your team spirit, ya dink?

Last times in Avengers: Under the influence of ominous sex dreams from Nebula, Dr Druid basically broke the Avengers. Thor wound up disbanding the team because there was nobody left to be on the team. Then Jarvis had an adventure. Then the Captain and a team of ad-hoc Avengers thwarted the High Evolutionary. Then Inferno happened. During Inferno, first an egg then a demon kidnapped Franklin Richards. The Captain teamed up with Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman to save yon child. Also, Gilgamesh just showed up. And then they all met Thor. After beating up a lot of demons, the four decide to form a fantastic new Avengers team.

It ain't going to last so lets enjoy it while it does.

Simonson quit the book because he was told he wouldn't get to keep this roster. So this arc is written by Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Some of our temporary writers before Byrne takes over the book in #305.

Hi, Thor.

Thor is dragging Hydrobase closer to Manhattan. Parking it right next to Liberty Island.

If Hydrobase is to be the Avengers' new, definitely permanent base, then it's going to need to be more accessible.

They've also just bought the entire island and renamed it Avengers Island. A concept that will later be revisited when Sunspot similarly throws around 'purchasing an island' money.

Mr Fantastic is even going to install a shuttle tube between the island and Battery Park.

This is going to be one sweet, artificial island superhero headquarters!

Let's enjoy it while it lasts!

Captain America is impressed with all these projects Mr Fantastic is helping with. But he also wonders whether Reed wants to be in charge.

ITS NOT AVENGERS IF THERES NOT EVENTUALLY A STRUGGLE OVER LEADERSHIP I GUESS.

Hm. Not something you see as much in modern times. If there's a disagreement, usually there's just a Civil War or a spinoff book.

I can't believe Hawkeye yelling that Captain America is ooooooooold was the more mature option.

Mr Fantastic stretches up a thumbs up to let Thor know the island is in the proper spot. Then, he gives Thor more work to do. Gotta get good work out of your Thor.

He asks Thor to go help Gilgamesh pound in giant adamantium mooring posts. You know, to keep the floating island from floating away.

Gilgamesh is actually pretty into pinning down a floating island. It has a mythological/legendary energy to it that he vibes with.

Jarvis comes up to the new Avengers to introduce the new Avengers' head of security. BECAUSE THEY MAY AS WELL HAVE ONE OF THOSE, Y'KNOW?

I doubt it will help. Because supervillain attacks and infiltration or whatever are plot-mandated. No security can trump that.

But Michael O'Brien was head of security at Project Pegasus so maybe he'll be able to do a good job with Avengers Island.

This era of Avengers tries to make a supporting staff for the Avengers a thing.

I'm here for it. I like Jarvis and having more of a supporting cast can be fun.

Sue comments that the Avengers sure seem a lot more business-like than the Fantastic Four.

Since I think the Fantastic Four had more of a civilian supporting cast way before the Avengers, I don't know what she's on about.

Maybe she's just trying to make conversation but Reed isn't paying any attention.

So she asks how long Reed is planning to stay with the Avengers (and by extension, how long she'll have to?)

Mr Fantastic: "The, ahh, challenges of helping Cap get his group back on its feet interest me more and more. I haven't decided how long to stay."

Now, I'm pretty sure this conversation is to soften the blow when Reed and Sue fuck off back to the Fantastic Four book.

But I do think its an interesting starting place for the Richardses to be on the Avengers.

They were retired so maybe they aren't planning to stay long-term. With the Avengers being so short-handed, maybe Reed and Sue just stay long enough for Captain America to get the team back on solid footing. And in the meantime, Cap and Reed have big ideas on how to revamp the team.

Its good tension!

A leadership struggle between Cap and Reed. And Sue wanting to leave the team to go back to retirement so they can spend more time with Franklin.

Sue even wonders whether Reed wants to make his mark on the Avengers as a sort of way to compete with Ben The Thing Grimm now that his bestie is running the Fantastic Four.

It's an interesting dynamic!

It does make me wish that it got to play out longer than its going to.

Sue is saved from a conversation that Reed isn't really paying attention to by a giant A made of fire blazing above New York.

She wonders whether its the Human Torch, making an A like he usually makes a 4 to summon the team. But since Reed is always right about everything based on nothing, he decides its definitely not Johnny.

Why would Johnny waste so much flame-power to get their attention! Clearly he would never do that, as of this moment and just so Reed is right!

Reed summons the Avengers to the Fantasti-Car. Kkinda love that Reed just brought it with him onto this Avengers roster. It seems like it could be more convenient for shorter distance travel than getting in a Quinjet every time.

The Worst Roster assembles and heads to the Fifth Avenue and 71st Street park that used to be the Avengers Mansion and find... THEIR GOOD OL PAL STARFOX.

With Firelord's fire stick too.

It's been a while (issue #260) but when we last saw Starfox and Firelord, they had set off together to try to track down Nebula, after the Beyonder teleported her to a random location.

Starfox wanted to find Nebula because he felt responsible for her crimes since she claimed to be his grand-niece and Thanos' granddaughter.

Firelord wanted to find her because she murderfied the fuck out of his homeplanet of Xandar and killed the Nova Corp.

Until a later retcon, it seems like the Nebula subplot was wrapped up with her infiltrating the Kang Klubhouse and trying to use the Avengers to find the Best Weapon Ever. She did this by seducing shitheel Dr Druid into taking over the team for her. But then three random Kangs threw a wooden shoe into the cogs of her machinations and Nebula and Dr Druid wound up falling into a time hole.

Phew, recaps.

The Avengers actually explain this in brief to Starfox's chagrin. Because he and Firelord searched space in vain for her when they could have just stayed on Earth.

And by poking around in space, the two ran into worse trouble.

A being called Super-Nova, the last survivor of Xandar. He's super powerful and super pissed off and super on his way to Earth.

Thor takes Starfox off to a medical specialist who won't be baffled by his alien physiology. Its not said specifically that its Donald Blake but its usually Donald Blake.

Thor rejoins the Avengers just as they're taking off in the Fantastic Four's special 4-branded ICBM.

Like the Fantasti-Car, I'm tickled by how much it seems like Reed is trying to make the Avengers into a him thing. The Avengers already had a space-capable Quinjet. They didn't need to use the 4CBM but if Reed is offering, its rude not to.

Thor comes aboard the missile through an airlock and briefs the Avengers about Starfox's medical care.

Captain America muses whether they should make Thor's doctor buddy into the Avengers' official medic. And Thor says he'll ask.

That'd be awkward if it is Donald Blake. But we're post-Simonson so I don't think Thor has that identity anymore.

Reed starts scanning for any unaccounted mass in the area that Starfox said Super-Nova would be coming from.

Cap marvels at how sophisticated the FF-ICBM is compared to the Quinjets. So I guess thats why they took the missile. Its just way better.

And Reed's scans turn something up!

A BIG FUCK-OFF SPACESHIP.

It looks Xandarian in design so the Avengers figure this gotta be Super-Nova's ship.

And he didn't even bother to cloak so he must be on quite the power trip.

Reed also predicts that Super-Nova definitely saw them coming but if he's arrogant enough to tool around uncloaked when Xandarian ships can easily stealth-mode, then he might also be arrogant enough not to see them as a threat.

Reed also explains the idea of transparent spacesuits to Captain America, prompting Cap to go 'pls, no more exposition dump.'

Ah, invisible spacesuits. Everyone can still appear in their costumes, so they can be told apart and all you have to do is draw bubble helmets and an outline around everyone.

Everyone except Thor and Gilgamesh.

Pssh. Gods don't need to breath in space.

Inside the Xandarian spacesuit, there's no artificial gravity, so Invisible Sue puts an invisible force bubble around everyone and moves them as a group through the ship.

Captain America: Interesting how Richards just takes over and starts giving orders even though I'm Avengers leader! But... I guess space is more his domain than mine and I'm sure there's no slight intended!

Leadership struggle!

Sue asks Thor if Starfox told him anything about what to expect inside the ship but Firelord and Starfox fought Super-Nova outside the ship.

Reed is sure they're on the right track because Firelord's staff is burning more brightly so he thinks they're getting closer to Firelord.

And then

BRAIN LEECHES!

Why is space always so full of disembodied brains?

Sue suggests that maybe these brains are the crew of this ship and maybe they shouldn't jump the gun. Maybe they're not hostile.

Thor declares "We must strike first or mayhaps be o'erwhelmed by superior numbers!"

And throws Mjolnir without waiting for anyone's thoughts on that.

Reed is afraid that best case scenario, Mjolnir bounces off the force field and hits one of the Avengers. He tells Sue to drop the field. Better deal with the brains, than Mjolnir.

Sue herself thinks she might have held Mjolnir but that the strain was a lot.

Anyways, as soon as the field drops and Mjolnir obliterates one of the brain leeches, the rest swarm the Avengers.

Captain America: That was a foul-up we could've avoided! We've still got a long way to go before we're not stepping on each other's toes!

Since the writing on the wall, I think this is supposed to set the stage for the Richardses to quit the Avengers fairly soon. Their method of doing things just doesn't gel with the Avengers.

BUT IT IS ALSO GREAT CHARACTER TENSION!

Mr Fantastic almost reflexively barks orders at everyone. Captain America shrugs it off in this case because Reed is more experienced with space stuff. But Thor is used to doing things his own way and Reed hasn't personally earned his respect the way Captains America or Marvel have.

And Thor isn't an idiot. And he has a lot of experience with weird space stuff. More than Reed, probably. Very long lived god guy. Swarms of brains are just something that Thor looks at and goes 'better hit them with Mjolnir.'

But the mess they're in now because Thor didn't march to Reed's drum maybe justifies to Reed that he should be in charge, after all.

I repeat myself but its a shame that this is a throwaway story to dig the book out of the hole Simonson left it in. This is good stuff.

Gilgamesh metaphorically explodes out of the brain pile and starts beating a brain with another brain.

Which is just A+. Good job, Gilgamesh.

Thor squishes a brain with Mjolnir, again. And up close Reed is able to see that instead of organic nerve connections, the brain leeches are held together by electricity.

This means that it is 100% okay to murderfy the fuck out of these brain things. They are 100% not really alive, "at best, they're pseudo-life!"

I love when Reed speaks authoritatively out his ass.

This is comics. A real, living brain thing with electricity instead of nerves is so plausible.

But its good that Reed told everyone it was okay to kill the brains when they've already been killing the brains.

Maybe the comment was aimed at Sue.

Because it takes her exactly one panel after that before she starts exploding the brains by growing force bubbles inside them.

Sue just loves putting bubbles in peoples' brains. Its her thing.

Despite the numbers, the Avengers' willingness to just pulp these guys means the battle starts to turn to their advantage. But Reed bemoans this unnecessary fight scene all because Thor couldn't keep Mjolnir in his pants, metaphorically.

When the numbers get low enough, Reed slingshots the remaining group of them in all directions with his stretchy belly, SPRONG!, and the brain leeches flee.

Gilgamesh starts flying after them because one of them stole his dumb helmet during the fight but Cap yells at him to stick with the group.

Wa-hey! More group tension! Thor is used to taking orders from puny mortals but how about Gilgamesh?

He follows Cap's order but he looks awfully sour about it.

Captain America muses that although they won the fight against the brain leeches, they didn't gel as a group. Everyone just smashed brains on their own. He's determined to get this group acting like a real, united Avengers team -- if they survive this experience.

Since the fight is done, Sue asks Reed what the brain leeches even are.

Reed deduces that they're part of the living computer of Xandar, which he saw back in FF #207. If you know Nova stuff from when Dick Rider was the only Nova, then you know Worldmind.

Dead Xandarian brains are preserved and made part of the Worldmind. And, uh, the Avengers just squished a lot of data, I guess. Whoops.

File not found?

Its funny how a bio-mechanical supercomputer made out of the brains of the populace is something the Kree and Xandarians have in common. You'd almost think it's something that all sufficiently advanced space civilizations could manage but as far as I know, its not common among the other big names.

Anyway, Reed decides he needs to study one of the brain leeches and has Sue capture one in a bubble.

Captain America thinks that Reed's priorities are all wrong. The Avengers are here on a mission, not a research expedition. But he lets it play out because its not getting in the way, really.

Captain America: "Richards seems intent on being the scientist no matter the circumstances."

TENSION!

Also, the Avengers find Firelord.

Hanging upside down in a big chamber with a bunch of wires and devices stuck to him.

I wonder if he's being used as a battery.

Because of all the wires 'n stuff, Reed thinks its too dangerous to just yank him loose.

So instead he blasts Firelord with his Firelord stick.

Everyone goes 'what the SHIT, Reed??' but he explains that he was pretty sure that Firelord's weapon won't hurt him. Based on his experience with the Silver Surfer.

And then he backpedals and says actually exceptions apply. But he "channeled the power carefully."

Anyway, the stick blast frees Firelord.

Thor: "Firelord was a noble ally -- and sometimes foe. I rejoice that he yet lives! Now, we must needs seek the base villain who put him in such an ignominious state!"

AND THEN A BRIGHT LIGHT SHINES FROM ABOVE ILLUMINATING THE CHAMBER.

Thor: "Behind us -- sudden light! Our unseen enemy or --" Captain America: "Look sharp, Avengers! This may be the showdown!" Invisible Woman: "Look at that! No wonder Firelord didn't stand a chance!" Gilgamesh with Prince Valiant hair: "But we stand together -- and will prevail!" Thor: "By Ymir's beard!"

Super Nova: "WHO DARES?! WHO DARES DISTURB THE SANCTUM OF THE LAST SON OF XANDAR?!"

ITS A BIG PURPLE GUY!

Sue and Reed sure have to deal with a lot of those...

Thor says that they're the Avengers which piques Super Nova's interest.

BECAUSE YOU SEE

He's looking for the Avengers. Because he heard that Nebula is an Avenger. And Nebula destroyed Xandar.

Ruh roh.

Wait but how does he know about that? Nebula only joined the Avengers when they were trying to fly into the bubble what is in the center of time.

She was an Avenger for all of part of an issue! During which time nobody else was around to pass the news along!

How the hell did you hear about this, Super Nova??

Captain America explains that Nebula only joined the team through trickery and that she has nothing to do with them now.

Super Nova argues BULL and SHIT. Such a transparent lie won't fool him, the smartest guy around! He knows they're hiding her.

Soooo... he's going to go to Earth and break shit until the Avengers give him Nebula.

Thor: "Verily, thine arrogance is exceeded only by thine ignorance! Captain America speak truth! She is not among us -- or on Midgard! But if thou seeks battle -- the Avengers stand ready!" Super Nova: "I'VE NO TIME TO ENGAGE IN POINTLESS STRUGGLE WITH SUCH INFERIORS! OTHER PURSUITS NOW ENGAGE ME!"

Super Nova: "Super-Nova WILL RAVAGE THE EARTH AND LEAVE IT A SMOLDERING CINDER UNLESS THE WOMAN CALLED NEBULA APPEARS AND -- VENGEANCE IS MINE!!"

And Super Nova blasts off so quickly that he blows up his own ship.

Kinda wasteful, dude.

Also, I guess the Avengers are dead forever. Again.

I guess the West Coast Avengers are just the Avengers now. Or maybe the book will just be about Jarvis from now on.

But, nah, I'm sure that Sue put a force field around the Avengers just before disaster. She tends to do that.

What's funny is that the next issue teaser uses a very similar joke, guessing that "guest stars galore" will save Earth.

Follow @essential-avengers for all the posts, all in a row. Like, reblog, and comment if you'd like. I'd appreciate it.

[ewan-mo]

Back in the warmth of Uganda.

Friday 15th Sept 2023

This last week was meant to be quiet and relaxed as we made our preparations for our Uganda trip, which includes running a 4 day workshop for 30 people next week. You know that quote about best-laid plans of mice and men -? 

Our geriatric summer cycle tour is one of our year’s highlights. Ewan devises a wonderful route, this year in Burgundy, around Dijon, and through the glorious rolling Morvan landscape. Each day the four couples set out, taking it in turns to drive the support car or accompany the driver.

On this occasion my left knee was too painful to allow for cycling, so I was in the car every day. But then you get the fun of stopping for coffee and people watching, and shopping for a French picnic lunch and finding a happy spot on the cycle route, by a river or somewhere else agreeably scenic, and often complete with picnic table on the village green.

On the way up to Calais on Saturday 9th to take the shuttle, our dear old campervan came to a slow stop with flashing lights to match and we had to be taken off the autoroute by a big truck. (For the interested car technos, it was the fuel filter spraying fuel.) Saturdays and Sundays not best days to obtain Parts! 

Insurance came up trumps, thankfully, and we were accommodated in a small hotel where we could get on with the work needed for Uganda – thank you, Internet – and after a final night in St Omer we left early on Tuesday morning to catch the shuttle and drive home.

 

Working to music en-route and once we have arrived

This left us with two days instead of that quiet and relaxed week to get ready for Uganda! But here we are, sitting in the peaceful garden of the Guinea Fowl Guest House, a favourite of ours in Entebbe. We are glad to be here after the long day flight from Manchester.

Though it was fun taking advantage of Special Assistance and being wheelchaired over those long airport walks. The young people doing the pushing and other ferrying were charming. 

[mysticstronomy]

WILL WE EVER COLONIZE OTHER PLANETS??

Blog#247

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2022

Welcome back,

While humans have long thought of gods living in the sky, the idea of space travel or humans living in space dates to at least 1610 after the invention of the telescope when German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote to Italian astronomer Galileo: “Let us create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether, and there will be plenty of people unafraid of the empty wastes. In the meantime, we shall prepare, for the brave sky-travellers, maps of the celestial bodies.”

In popular culture, space travel dates back to at least the mid-1600s when Cyrano de Bergerac first wrote of traveling to space in a rocket. Space fantasies flourished after Jules Verne’s “From Earth to the Moon” was published in 1865, and again when RKO Pictures released a film adaptation, A Trip to the Moon, in 1902. Dreams of space settlement hit a zenith in the 1950s with Walt Disney productions such as “Man and the Moon,” and science fiction novels including Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950).

Fueling popular imagination at the time was the American space race with Russia, amid which NASA was formed in the United States on July 29, 1958, when President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. After the Russians put the first person, Yuri Gagarin, in space on Apr. 12, 1961, NASA put the first people, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the Moon in July 1969. What was science fiction began to look more like possibility.

Over the next six decades, NASA would launch space stations, land rovers on Mars, and orbit Pluto and Jupiter, among other accomplishments. NASA’s ongoing Artemis program, launched by President Trump in 2017, intends to return humans to the Moon, landing the first woman on the lunar surface, by 2024.

As of June 17, 2021, three countries had space programs with human space flight capabilities: China, Russia, and the United States. India’s planned human space flights have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but they may launch in 2023. However, NASA ended its space shuttle program in 2011 when the shuttle Atlantis landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 21.

NASA astronauts going into space afterward rode along with Russians until 2020 when SpaceX took over and first launched NASA astronauts into space on Apr. 23, 2021. SpaceX is a commercial space travel business owned by Elon Musk that has ignited commercial space travel enthusiasm and the idea of “space tourism.” Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezo’s Blue Origin have generated similar excitement.

Richard Branson launched himself, two pilots, and three mission specialists into space [as defined by the United States] from New Mexico for a 90-minute flight on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission on July 11, 2021. The flight marked the first time that passengers, rather than astronauts, went into space.

Originally published on www.britannica.com

COMING UP!!

(Saturday, November 26th, 2022)

"WHAT IS THE COSMIC CENSORSHIP THEORY??"

[texasholdem-tournament-japa-blog]

Transportation of Las Vegas

情報は２０２２年の現状です。

【AIRPORT】空港

ラスベガスの国際空港は、２０２１年１２月１４日に「マッカラン」から「ハリーリード」に名称変更されました。

映画ゴットファーザー２にはパット・ギアリー上院議員として登場するPatrick Anthony McCarran議員は、アイルランド系移民でネバダ州首席判事出身の民主党議員。蔣介石を好みロシアを非難する〝強烈な反共産主義者〟で知られ「移民よりアメリカの低落をより促進する」とビザ発行を拒否する権限の「移民規定」を作り、１９４８年１２月２０日に民間航空法を草稿した「McCarran」の名前が空港の名称に起用され議員在職中の１９５４年に死去しましたが、人種差別発言が問題視され国際空港の名称に相応しく無いとされ２０２１年に膵臓癌で死去したハリーリード上院議員の名前を死去の2週間前12月14日に変更しました。

「Harry Mason Reid」は、ネバダ州ゲーミング委員会委員長に就任からネバダ州副知事になり、その後民主党上院議員幹事を務めたキリスト教信徒のラスベガス出身者。

ロンドンオリンピックには、オリンピック委員会に対して、中国製のユニホームを使用していることに「ユニホームを全て山積みにして燃やすべきだ」と訴えたことで知られるＵ.Ｓ.Ａ.Firstの議員です。

極端な主義主張はＵ.Ｓ.Ａ.民主党議員の共通する傾向なので名称変更の理由としては弱い気がしますね。

数年後には「Donald John Trump International Airport」になっているかも…

【日本から���入国】

Transit Point

ロサンゼルス・サンフランシスコ・ハワイなどアメリカ・カナダバンクーバー以外で乗り換えした場合ラスベガスの空港でアメリカ入国の審査が必要になります。

カナダや米州内の空港を経由した場合は、その経由地で入国審査を行うことになります。

【Harry Reid International Airport】

ターミナルは［Terminal : １］［Terminal : ２］［Terminal : ３］と３箇所に別れていますが［Terminal : ２］は閉鎖されている為［Terminal : １］か［Terminal : ３］を利用する航空会社で分けられることになります。

［Terminal : １］の主な航空会社

　・アメリカン航空

　・デルタ航空

　・サウスウェスト航空

　など…

［Terminal : ３］の主な航空会社

　・ユナイテッド航空

　・エアカナダ

　・アラスカ航空

　など…

《Caution》

飛行機を降りたら預けた荷物を取りに行きます。

「Baggage Claim」に向かいますが、Terminal１か３に行くLight Rail Transit に乗る必要があります。

間違えて違うターミナルに向かうＬＲＴに乗ってしまうと戻ることができないので注意が必要です。

乗る前に必ず利用した航空会社を改めて確認しましょう！

《間違えた場合》

ターミナル間を移動する無料シャトルバスで戻るしか方法はありません。

　Terminal Shuttle

①ターミナル〝１〟から〝３〟へ移動する場合は…

　０階へ移動して外に出ます。歩道を渡った右側に〝Terminal Shuttle Stop〟と書かれた乗り場があります。

②ターミナル〝３〟から〝１〟へ移動する場合は…

　バゲッジクレームのエリアから外に出た右横に〝Terminal Shuttle Stop〟と書かれた乗り場があります。

　Terminal Shuttle Stop

【ホテルに向かう】

空港から市街地に行く方法はいくつもありますが、おすすめは２つのどちらかです！

①🚏Public Transit Bus🚍公共交通バス

　まず最初に〝US $６〟の小銭を用意しておくことが必要です。乗車時に直接運転手に支払うシステムです。

　料金は距離ではなく乗車している時間で決められます。

　「２時間」「２４時間」「３日間」のチケットを購入できます。

　バスを利用するのであれば、日本でアプリをダウンロードしておくこをお勧めします。

　初めてバスに乗る直前に利用開始ボタン（Activate）をタップ(要インターネットアクセス)することで有効時間のカウントダウンが始まります。アプリ内にある「Reduced Fare」は高校以下の学生に適応される料金のことで、５歳以下は大人同伴で無料です。

　国際空港から発車する公共交通バスは行き先に応じて分かれています。

Terminal:１のＲＴＣでは「ウェストゲートホテル」迄移動できます。

「ウェストゲートホテル」からは有料の〝Las Vegas Monorail〟で北の「サハラ」と南には「コンベンションセンター」→「ハラーズ」「ザ・リンク」→フォーコーナーズの「フラミンゴ」「シーザーズパレス」→「バリーズ」「パリス」→New Four Cornersの「MGMグランド」に移動できます。

Terminal:３からは、「フーターズ」や「ニューフォーコーナー」に停車するWestcliff Airport Express（WAX）のバスに乗車し「トレジャーアイランド」や「ウィン」「パラッツォ」を目指すならCentennial Express（CX）に乗ります。

［１］ターミナル１

　Terminal:１を出た目の前の道を渡り右に進んだ所に「ＲＴＣ」のバス停が２箇所あります。Terminal:３からはTerminal Shuttleで移動します。

　ストリップを経由してダウンタウンの「ボンネヴィル・トランジット・センター（Bonneville Transit Center）ＲＴＣ」まで約３０分で行きます。

バス停🚏１０８

朝４時３０分から深夜１時３０分迄の１時間に１本が運行しています。

バス停🚏１０９

１０～３０分間隔で２４時間運行しています。

［２］ターミナル３

　Terminal:３ からはＲＴＣエクスプレスの【WAX】と【CX】が運行しています。Terminal:１からはTerminal Shuttleで移動します。

【WAX】Westcliff Airport Express

　ストリップから１３km離れた郊外の「サンコースト」まで行きます。

　朝５時５８分から２３時２０分迄３０～１時間の間隔で運行しています。土日は朝６時２８分から２３時１７分迄です。

　　　　

【CX】Centennial Express

　ダウンタウンの北西に位置する〝ノース・ラスベガス空港〟より北西の地域「センテニアル・ヒル」のランジットセンターまで空港から約１時間程度運行します。

　朝６時４０分から２２時５０分迄１時間間隔で運行しています。土日は朝６時５０分から２２時４６分迄です。

②🚘配車アプリ🚙Ride App Pickup

【Uber・Lyft】

　１番のおすすめですが、注意点として空港から使用すると空港使用料として＄２.６が料金に加算されます。市内から空港に行くときは加算されません。

　それから、UberやLyftに乗車できる場所は空港のWiFiが切れるのでポケットWiFiなどの持参が必要です。

【PARADISE AREA】

Las Vegas PARADISEのエリアに位置するLas Vegas Boulevard（長さ : ６.８km）の中心にあたる〝STRIP〟での移動手段！

実際にはストリップのエリアはラスベガス市内には位置してないのでクラーク群領内ということになります。

Resort Casino が集中するエリアを効率よく移動するにはUBERやLYFTが最も効率良く時間を有効活用できますが、LasVegasを満喫するには〝無料〟の交通機関を熟知する事をお薦めします。

お勧めは『無料トラム』と『無料シャトルバス』です。

まず、食べ放題のBuffetが人気の「Studio B」のある『M Resort』とストリップの「Fashion Show」間で走っています。

『M Resort』と『Fashion Show』間のFree Shuttle Busは毎日１０時～２２時の間に４便が往復運行しています。

Fashion Showからは、モール内の「Forever 21」を出て左に行くと「Ｆ」の前くらいにあるベンチの前に停車します。

目の前には金色に輝くビルが目印になります。

次に、有料のＬＲＴ（Light Rail Transit）がありますが、ストリップの主要ホテル間を結ぶ無料の「TRAM」を是非有効活用して下さい。

ストリップの西側主要ホテルを移動できます。

東側の主要ホテルは有料のLas Vegas🚝Monorailが便利です。

駅は以下の７駅です。

🚉MGM Grand Station（Four Corners）

⇩🚝⇧

🚉Bally’s & Paris Station（New Four Corners〝Bellagio〟）

⇩🚝⇧

🚉Flamingo & Caesars Palace Station（New Four Corners）

⇩🚝⇧

🚉Harrah’s & The LINQ Station

⇩🚝⇧

🚉Convention Center Station

⇩🚝⇧

🚉Westgate Station

⇩🚝⇧

🚉SAHARA Las Vegas Station

《Free TRAM》

無料のトラムはストリップの西側に３本走っています。

最北は「トレジャーアイランド」と「ミラージュ」間を乗車時間５分弱で移動できます。TRAMは５分間隔運行しています。

運行時間は、日曜～木曜は９時～深夜１時迄、金曜と土曜日は深夜３時迄です。

Mirageの東側に有料のＬＲＴ「Harrah’s & The LINQ」駅があります。

中間地では、Four Cornersの「ベラッジオ」とNew Four Cornersの「ニューヨークニューヨーク」間を約３分程度で移動できます。

毎日８時～翌朝４時まで約８分間隔で２車線が運行しています。

ARIAとPark MGMの駅になっています。

空港に近い南部は、New Four Cornersの「エクスカリバー」の交差点に近い「Excalibbur North」と「マンダレイベイ」の移動で、エクスカリバーホテルに直結する「Excalibbur Hotel」の駅に停ります。マンダレイベイから乗車すれば「ルクソール」に停ります。

乗車時間５分弱の移動なので、エクスカリバーからマンダレイベイ経由でルクソールに向かっても１０分もかかりません。

帰国する際はTRAMで「Mandalay Bay」迄移動すれば「Harry Reid International Airport」迄〝UBER〟を利用するのが最も安価な移動で空港に行けます。

[antidrumpfs]

Ranking Donald Trump’s WORST Business Failures | Brian Tyler Cohen vs Tommy Vietor

In this episode of Liberal Tiers, former Obama spokesperson, Tommy Vietor is joined by political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen to Rank the absolute WORST of Donald Trump’s failed business portfolio. Delve into the downfall of the United States Football League, witness the nosedive of the Trump Shuttle, and uncover the profitless saga of Trump Steaks. Plus, stick around for Trump: The Game: The Punishment.

[ruminativerabbi]

The Two-State Solution

You would think that by now no amount of hypocrisy on the part of the great world out there could surprise, let alone startle, me at this point. Even I think that! And yet I find myself consistently amazed to find myself amazed at the duplicity of our so-called friends, not to mention the out-and-out phoniness of self-proclaimed allies who insist that they only want the best for the Jewish people or for the State of Israel.

If I had nothing to do for the rest of my life I could begin a list. But since my time is limited, I’ll settle for writing about our “friends” who have suddenly discovered, or rather re-discovered, the “two-state solution” as the cure for all that ails Israel and its neighbors. And they are legion: I’ve lost track of how many different newspaper articles I read this last week alone in which the author breathlessly announces that the reason the entire Arab-Israeli sikhsukh wasn’t resolved long ago has to do with the intransigence of Israelis with respect to the famous “two-state” solution, the compromise invariably touted by such authors as the obvious panacea to all that ails the Middle Eastern world. Here, for example, is a story from Taiwan explaining to readers of the Taipei Times how things would calm down instantly if only Bibi would heed President Biden’s call for a “two-state solution.”

The notion itself of a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli problem, of course, is as old as the state itself and, in fact, there actually are two states, one Arab and one Jewish on the territory of the old British Mandate of Palestine. Or, rather, there would be had the British not unilaterally sawn the entire kingdom of Jordan, then called Transjordan, off of the mandated territory and offered it to the Hashemites as their own country. So the U.N. was dealing with the part that was left and that, indeed, they voted on November 22, 1947, voted to split down into two nations, a Jewish one and an Arab one.

The next part, everybody knows. The Jews of the yishuv accepted the plan and declared independence on May 14, 1948. (Our apartment in Jerusalem is actually just half a mile or so from November 22nd Street, a pretty place named specifically in honor of the U.N. decision.) The Arabs of British Palestine, however, did not follow suit and declare their own state. Instead, they went to war and lost, which failure laid the groundwork for the subsequent seventy-five years of hostility towards the Jewish state.

Whatever the problem really is, it certainly doesn’t have to do with not enough ink having been spilt—or time wasted—trying to work things out. The Madrid Conference of 1991, the Oslo Accords of 1991 and 1993, the Wye Plantation Memorandum of 1998, the Camp David Summit of 2000, the Annapolis Conference of 2007, the John Kerry shuttle diplomacy of 2013, the Trump administration’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan of 2020—all of these were “about” the two-state solution, each in its own way an effort to finesse the details while ignoring the fact that only one party to the dispute seemed even remotely interested in recognizing the other’s right to nationhood.  Nor does the concept lack international sponsors: a quick google of “international leaders in favor of a two-state solution” yields a very impressive list, a list that includes President Biden, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz, British P.M. Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian P.M. Justin Trudeau, Australian P.M. Anthony Albanese, New Zealand P.M. Christopher Luxon, and, saving the best for last, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. They are all on board!

Most impressive of all is that a full 138 nations have alreadyrecognized the State of Palestine, the fact that none of the above efforts to create a viable two-state solution has succeeded waved away as a mere detail hardly worth mentioning.

So, all that being the case, what actually is the problem? Just this week, we were exposed to the current administration’s pique with Israeli P.M. Netanyahu for not being fully enough behind the two-state solution. The L.A. Times had a particularly interesting op-ed piece on the topic (click here). CNN’s piece (click here) was also quite good. And, of course, nothing could ever deter the New York Times from trying to pry some space out between the Biden and Netanyahu administrations, of which only the latest examples appeared in the last few days: Peter Baker’s “Netanyahu Rebuffs U.S. Calls to Start Working Towards Palestinian Statehood,” Thomas Friedman’s “Netanyahu Is Turning Away from Biden,” or Aaron Boxerman’s “Biden Presses Netanyahu On Working Towards Palestinian State.”

So, okay, I get it. The only solution is the two-state one. But why is everybody so irritated with Israel? The Palestinians could solve the problem overnight by declaring their independence, agreeing quickly to exchange ambassadors with the 130+ nations that already recognize their state, and getting down to the gritty business of negotiating safe and secure border with Israel. Bibi would probably not be pleased. But what could he do? The entire world would be on the Palestinians’ side and all it would take was a single unilateral announcement on the part of the Palestinians to get the ball rolling. The presence of Jewish so-called “settler” types in Judah and Samaria would not be a problem unless the State of Palestine intended itself to be totally judenrein—otherwise, why couldn’t those people live on their own land in an independent Palestine if they wanted to? (Most, I think, would not want to. But some surely would.) Nor would the status of Jerusalem itself be an issue: while the Palestinians are in unilateral-proclamation-mode, they could simply declare East Jerusalem to be their capital, then get down to work organizing a workable plan with Israel for policing the city, controlling traffic, and figuring out who picks up whose trash on which days.

Yes, I’m making light of intense issues. But, at the end of the day, why precisely couldn’t this happen? Everybody is happy to be irritated with Bibi, but Israel has demonstrated over and over—including in the context of all the above-listed conferences—that it is ready to negotiate for peace. And declaring independence would assist in Gaza as well: terror organizations like Hamas flourish in the atmosphere of hopelessness and desperation, but that would quickly move into the past if the Palestinians were occupied with nation-building and self-determination instead of endlessly complaining that the world hasn’t given them enough aid. If the Jordanians were big-enough hearted to create a kind of economic union with New Palestine, then there really would be no stopping the peace train. Even the United Nations would be unable to stop the momentum.

But, of course, none of the above has happened or, I fear, ever will happen. It’s much easier for the Biden administration to waste its time trying to bully Bibi into making concessions in the context of theoretical negotiations in which the other side has not given the slightly indication it wishes to participate. Yes, it’s more dramatic to build terror tunnels, murder babies, rape women, and take innocent civilian hostages. But that cannot—and will not—ever lead to statehood for Palestine. What will lead in that direction is the clear indication that the Palestinian leadership is prepared to create a viable Palestinian state and then to live within its borders peacefully and productively.

If the United States wants to defang Iran and lessen the likelihood that the Iranians will lead the world into World War III, it could take no more profound and potentially meaningful step forward than convincing the Palestinians to stop complaining, to take the independence the entire world wishes to offer them seriously, and to get down to the actual business of nation-building. The mullahs will be outraged. But they’ll get over it. And the world will be a safer and better place.

[msclaritea]

Global banks defy U.S. crackdowns by serving oligarchs, criminals and terrorists - ICIJ

"money laundering crackdowns by moving staggering sums of illicit cash for shadowy characters and criminal networks that have spread chaos and undermined democracy around the world.

The records show that five global banks — JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon — kept profiting from powerful and dangerous players even after U.S. authorities fined these financial institutions for earlier failures to stem flows of dirty money.

U.S. agencies responsible for enforcing money laundering laws rarely prosecute megabanks that break the law, and the actions authorities do take barely ripple the flood of plundered money that washes through the international financial system.

In some cases the banks kept moving illicit funds even after U.S. officials warned them they’d face criminal prosecutions if they didn’t stop doing business with mobsters, fraudsters or corrupt regimes.

JPMorgan, the largest bank based in the United States, moved money for people and companies tied to the massive looting of public funds in Malaysia, Venezuela and Ukraine, the leaked documents reveal.

The bank moved more than $1 billion for the fugitive financier behind Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal, the records show, and more than $2 million for a young energy mogul’s company that has been accused of cheating Venezuela’s government and helping cause electrical blackouts that crippled large parts of the country.

JPMorgan also processed more than $50 million in payments over a decade, the records show, for Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager for President Donald Trump. The bank shuttled at least $6.9 million in Manafort transactions in the 14 months after he resigned from the campaign amid a swirl of money laundering and corruption allegations spawning from his work with a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

Tainted transactions continued to surge through accounts at JPMorgan despite the bank’s promises to improve its money laundering controls as part of settlements it reached with U.S. authorities in 2011, 2013 and 2014.

In response to questions for this story, JPMorgan said it was legally prohibited from discussing clients or transactions. It said it has taken a “leadership role” in pursuing “proactive intelligence-led investigations” and developing “innovative techniques to help combat financial crime.”

HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon also continued to wave through suspect payments despite similar promises to government authorities, the secret documents show.

The leaked documents, known as the FinCEN Files, include more than 2,100 suspicious activity reports filed by banks and other financial firms with the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The agency, known in shorthand as FinCEN, is an intelligence unit at the heart of the global system to fight money laundering.

BuzzFeed News obtained the records and shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. ICIJ organized a team of more than 400 journalists from 110 news organizations in 88 countries to investigate the world of banks and money laundering.

In all, an ICIJ analysis found, the documents identify more than $2 trillion in transactions between 1999 and 2017 that were flagged by financial institutions’ internal compliance officers as possible money laundering or other criminal activity — including $514 billion at JPMorgan and $1.3 trillion at Deutsche Bank.

Suspicious activity reports reflect the concerns of watchdogs within banks and are not necessarily evidence of criminal conduct or other wrongdoing.

Financial institutions have abandoned their roles as front-line defenses against money laundering.

– Paul Pelletier

Though a vast amount, the $2 trillion in suspicious transactions identified within this set of documents is just a drop in a far larger flood of dirty money gushing through banks around the world. The FinCEN Files represent less than 0.02% of the more than 12 million suspicious activity reports that financial institutions filed with FinCEN between 2011 and 2017.

FinCEN and its parent, the Treasury Department, did not answer a series of questions sent last month by ICIJ and its partners. FinCEN told BuzzFeed News that it does not comment on the “existence or non-existence” of specific suspicious activity reports, sometimes known as SARs. Days before the release of the investigation by ICIJ and its partners, FinCEN announced that it was seeking public comments on ways to improve the U.S.’s anti-money laundering system.

The cache of suspicious activity reports — along with hundreds of spreadsheets filled with names, dates and figures — flag bank clients in more than 170 countries and territories who were identified as being involved in potentially illicit transactions.

Along with sifting through the FinCEN Files, ICIJ and its media partners obtained more than 17,600 other records from insiders and whistleblowers, court files, freedom-of-information requests and other sources. The team interviewed hundreds of people, including financial crime experts, law enforcement officials and crime victims.

According to BuzzFeed News, some of the secret records were requested as part of U.S. congressional investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Others were gathered by FinCEN following requests from law enforcement agencies, BuzzFeed said..."

The above graph on the article page is interactive. Republicans AND Progressives are currently attempting to blame the bank meltdowns on Biden and the FED. They all knew the banks have been under investigation for various activities since 2020. FinCen is the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

[defiantbird]

Something from the honeymoon I wanted to record somewhere. A French couple started chatting with us on a shuttle ride. The guy spoke limited English, the woman didn't speak any. Paraphrased him for clarity.

Guy: So how do you feel about your president?

Pat: He's not the best but it's better than the alternative.

Guy: *laughing, pointing to his head* He's too old, right?

Me and Pat literally simultaneously: They all are

Guy: Yeah but he's losing it isn't he?

Me: We're just glad Trump is gone.

And then they didn't talk to us for the rest of the ride.

Also, he was telling us how his wife hated the Dominican Republic and the reasons he translated for her basically amounted to "it's dirty and poor".

[abyssmalice]

(TL;DR me expanding on my prior hc on how smol tonia’s authority works in the fatui chain of command in regards to the chasm fatui quests + the osial incident + some Fun Tonitoni Opinions About The Fatui And Her Work

ft. I AM SO EMO RIGHT NOW)

(so to rehash, my hc is that smol tonia, as a harbinger, currently works alone with zero men personally assigned under her tho she’s capable of “borrowing” things in the area if she has to. so she really just got shuttled to liyue with her own personal mission re: the gnosis and could use the fatui men and resources there if she wanted, but otherwise, none of it was really her business

so most likely, tonia heard about the fatui mission re: the chasm in passing but didn’t know any real specifics, if anything at all

.

that said, even then........... knowing her own disdain for the fatui, for their immorality at times - i do also hc that the whole osial business was her final card. as quick as she is to anger, to make ridiculous decisions, she’s not stupid. and even if she acts horribly to her colleagues and to civilians, at heart, she doesn’t want to do harm or be a “bad person”. any “deeply evil acts” are because she’s resigned to it, has no choice to do them as a harbinger of the fatui.

if she had a choice - if she could just leave the fatui, no consequences involved - she would. she absolutely, 100000% would.

unfortunately the tsaritsa sees tonitoni as a trump card of her own, so she stays. and so, tonia is reluctantly resigned to crossing lines in the course of her work. tho she truly tries not to where she can, to restrain her devastation to ultimately petty things (buildings and objects are material; people’s moods and peace of mind can always be restored; lives and true happiness are not - unless the person deserves nothing). osial was her last card bc she very well understood it could cause a death toll, especially to oblivious innocents.

she wouldn’t particularly care about the fatui getting an awful reputation after. reputation is wholly immaterial and repairable. a person’s life is nowhere comparable. 

it’s why i also think that when it comes to the fatui trapped in the chasm......... she would be incredibly upset. to the fact that nothing was done for them—and to herself, because she didn’t do enough, she didn’t care to look deeper into the matter of the chasm and realize it’s not just her and personnel stationed in liyue that could have repercussions heaped on them bc of osial. and sure, these fatui aren’t under her direct command—none of them are, really—but she’s internalized quite early on into her harbinger career that she’s still responsible for people down the chain of command. she’s meant to be a leader, a trustworthy and capable figure, even if she doesn’t want to be.

it’s also possible that in regards to the fatui in the chasm, she had been reassured/preemptively reasoned that as they were under a different harbinger’s authority, that harbinger would manage the matter and make sure to recall their people. needless to say, in that case, tonia would be soooo pissssedddddd on hearing that no recall was put out, nor any attempts really to extract them. and feel even more guilty, as She has the ability to command another harbinger’s men if needed—which is to say, she could have put in a recall order before the rite of descension on the pretense that she needs them for her own mission.

.

—on a side note, i v much do hc that due to all of her traumatic experiences + fatui work, smol tonia does have a slightly......... bended moral stance, in general. 

certainly, she wants to be a good person - but she understands on a practical level, considering her situation, that’s just impossible in a strict sense. she’s killed, tortured, maimed and devastated people—so, so many, and some of them she honest to god couldn’t care about. she can’t be good. she accepts that she can never be a truly good person, after what she’s done and become.

but she aims to not stoop to a level of blindness because of this. that even if she’s not a good person, she won’t let it become an excuse for anything - she will accept her villainy as villainy, she will accept the cruelty and the horrors as fundamentally unacceptable things.

even as her work advances the tsaritsa’s respectable but extreme endeavors, even as it’s become instinctive to resort to terror and murder as a first and only option - even as she does all this for her own personal goals, in a way, to claw and tear her way back to her family and to ensure their wellbeing, no matter what. even then, she believes and accepts that the end should never justify the means.

eyes wide open, drinking in the never-ending shades of grey to black. she will always be a sinner, awaiting her ticket to hell. it’s just a matter of when.)

[mayopetersson69]

Cape May possibly quite possibly County, New Jersey Vacationing: Reject The Tempo

Typically a journey ought to actually in reality be a getaway. Often, all of us get much as well passionate about a family members holiday vacation. We want to see all the sights, do all the procuring, get integrated with every thing-- and we fail to try to remember to just unwind. Sea Isle Metropolis in Cape May County, New Jersey, is a perfect position to continue to keep in mind to rest. With a mile and a half of straight, deep beachfront, pretty much just about anything is great on the seaside, which includes your best journey rental residences. And Sea Isle Metropolis accommodates holidaymakers, with tons of dining establishments and bars in shut proximity to the boardwalk as beautifully as arcades and invest in other troubles to do. Even so it is definitely not all about the promenade, the beach front entrance, the tension-absolutely free. Cape May possibly County is at the southern idea of New Jersey, quickly obtainable to the vibrant tourist sights of Atlantic Metropolis if you continue to be in the fantastic locale, you could have accessibility to shuttle support correct to your doorstep. Irrespective of no matter if you come about to be into the glowing nightlife and gaming of your home that Trump manufactured or you decide for the indulging at 1 of the globe-very well-acknowledged wellness golf equipment appropriate listed here, you can devote the functioning day in Atlantic Metropolis and go yet again to your cozy holiday domestic retreat on the seaside in Sea Isle City. Vacationing With Youngsters If you have very little kinds, you've fallen victim to it: the strategy that the only great holiday vacation with your youthful young children is a one that consists of a dude in a mouse healthy, or drinking water slides, or video on the internet game titles and roller coasters. When you have been a child or when you have been participating in with your small children, of method. We put our youthful children significantly less than significantly intense force these days. A Cape May possibly County holiday vacation on the seashore will remind you that your young ones can entertain them selves. You can delight in your kids racing the waves on the seaside though you unwind in the solar, or you can assist them build a sand castle or bury their daddy in the sand. Beachcombing is a prevalent leisure workout in Sea Isle Metropolis the huge flat seaside is a magnet for shells and ocean particles of all varieties. Precisely what do you think about checking out the shorelines in the morning with your younger types, acquiring shells and ocean-weathered wooden? Or you can take into consideration them down to see the lighthouse at Cape Could Position, a conventional tall white monolith to day-to-day everyday living on the sea. In June, July, and August, celebrations and dozens of baby-useful features just acquire locale throughout Cape Could County and on the promenade at Sea Isle Town. As soon as they arise out from powering the Gameboys and Ipods, you could be the good thing is shocked to discover out who your minor kinds are. If Supply Chain Project Management have kids, you have fallen prey to it: the notion that the only excellent excursion with your youngsters is one specific that requires a male in a mouse match, or ingesting h2o slides, or online video clip video clip online games and roller coasters. When you finished up a child or when you have been taking part in with your youthful types, of course. You can delight in your youngsters racing the waves on the seashore even although you unwind in the photo voltaic, or you can assistance them create a sand castle or bury their dad in the sand. You may perhaps perfectly be pleasantly shocked to occur across out who your small children are when they show up out from driving the Gameboys and Ipods.

[the-firebird69]

Isn't Dave goes back to the pyramids base in Brazil after the space battle dracs is floating in spacep and somehow retrieved comes back to Earth and looks off in a shuttle that shuttle has a port in it Dave goes back and that's okay Dan and he's looking for information at the base on the rest of these shuttles in the poison centers and his father knew he would he somehow falls into the pit the water pit and he's a bit bigger ridiculous eating the women and Trump doesn't like it no he doesn't takes off in a shuttle and you can see that's one of the exhaust ports and a big opening and you can see where the body is looks just like that place accepted metal inside is gone and the stairs too and some other things which are not really stoned in the opening is blown open and more and you don't see the concrete. Now that was it launches used to be intense with a huge fuel tank and the flames will come out we'll go for about 30 seconds and the heat is intense we think that he dove into the pool and for some reason the Staples on him they came back and I think it was poisoned and I started to eat people and it came back before he returned anyways I was pretty close and so he is incinerated by his father before he goes up and is disintegrated

Hera

It is a dead he is dead ends up dead it does seem like it's after the predator saga and then she's up on top of an Aztec pyramid and we think that's what happens it's coming up but not that fast

Thor Freya

Olympus

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.7 (after 1940)

1940 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp. 1943 – The Holocaust in Ukraine: In Terebovlia, Germans order 1,100 Jews to undress and march through the city to the nearby village of Plebanivka, where they are shot and buried in ditches. 1943 – Ioannis Rallis becomes collaborationist Prime Minister of Greece during the Axis Occupation. 1943 – The National Football League makes helmets mandatory. 1945 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Yamato, one of the two largest ever constructed, is sunk by United States Navy aircraft during Operation Ten-Go. 1946 – The Soviet Union annexes East Prussia as the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. 1948 – The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations. 1954 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech during a news conference. 1955 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom amid indications of failing health. 1956 – Francoist Spain agrees to surrender its protectorate in Morocco. 1964 – IBM announces the System/360. 1965 – Representatives of the National Congress of American Indians testify before members of the US Senate in Washington, D.C. against the termination of the Colville tribe. 1968 – Two-time Formula One British World Champion Jim Clark dies in an accident during a Formula Two race in Hockenheim. 1969 – The Internet's symbolic birth date: Publication of RFC 1. 1971 – Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces his decision to quicken the pace of Vietnamization. 1972 – Vietnam War: Communist forces overrun the South Vietnamese town of Loc Ninh. 1978 – Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter. 1980 – During the Iran hostage crisis, the United States severs relations with Iran. 1982 – Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Sadegh Ghotbzadeh is arrested. 1983 – During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first Space Shuttle spacewalk. 1988 – Soviet Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov orders the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. 1989 – Soviet submarine Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway, killing 42 sailors. 1990 – A fire breaks out on the passenger ferry Scandinavian Star, killing 159 people. 1990 – John Poindexter is convicted for his role in the Iran–Contra affair. In 1991 the convictions are reversed on appeal. 1994 – Rwandan genocide: Massacres of Tutsis begin in Kigali, Rwanda, and soldiers kill the civilian Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana. 1994 – Auburn Calloway attempts to destroy Federal Express Flight 705 in order to allow his family to benefit from his life insurance policy. 1995 – First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops begin a massacre of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya. 2001 – NASA launches the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter. 2003 – Iraq War: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime falls two days later. 2011 – The Israel Defense Forces use their Iron Dome missile system to successfully intercept a BM-21 Grad launched from Gaza, marking the first short-range missile intercept ever. 2017 – U.S. President Donald Trump orders the 2017 Shayrat missile strike against Syria in retaliation for the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack. 2018 – Former Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is arrested for corruption by determination of Judge Sérgio Moro, from the "Car-Wash Operation". Lula stayed imprisoned for 580 days, after being released by the Brazilian Supreme Court. 2018 – Syria launches the Douma chemical attack during the Eastern Ghouta offensive of the Syrian Civil War. 2020 – COVID-19 pandemic: China ends its lockdown in Wuhan. 2022 – Ketanji Brown Jackson is confirmed for the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming the first black female justice.