#reagan russell

[veganpropaganda]

The driver of a transport truck carrying live pigs was told by a 911 dispatcher not to move less than a minute before his truck drove forward, killing animal activist Regan Russell, according to information obtained by the Star related to the 2020 case. “Just stay in your truck with the doors locked, don’t move, and we’ll be there as soon as we can,” the Halton Region Police 911 dispatcher told the driver of the truck, who had stopped just outside the gates of a Burlington pork processing plant. “All right,” said the driver, according to an audio recording of the 911 call. Forty-three seconds later, the driver put his truck in gear, accelerated to 20.5 km/h, turned into the plant and struck Russell, 65, who was standing in the driveway with her right hand raised. This 911 information did not appear to form part of the court case when the driver, Andrew Blake, pleaded guilty earlier this year to careless driving causing death, a Highway Traffic Act infraction. Blake was fined $2,000 and his driving was restricted to work hours for one year.

CN: the article is graphic in describing Russell's death

[use your browser's reader mode to bypass the paywall]

[lakesparkles]

While I don't have new art to post, here's some Bluey requests I made in... the beggining of the year? I think so, I can't remember! Just an excuse to draw more dogs, and the show is so good and cute!! Bandit is my favorite btw!

I tried to mix the show's art style with my own and I'm still not sure how well it worked haha

[oldshowbiz]

Ronald Reagan and Walter Brennan both suspected the Professor from Gilligan's Island of being a pinko commie.

[silveragelovechild]

[l8rhader]

I will not be taking suggestions at this time.

[mariocki]

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

"I thought you said if we destroyed the brain, it'd die?"

"It worked in the movie!"

"Well, it ain't working now, Frank."

"You mean the movie lied?"

[gerrysherry]

In honor of that terrible tiktok that compares our blorbo Magneto to Tony Stark, I propose comparing him to one of the few avengers he actually has things in common with (the others being his own kids and Bucky Barnes) - Marc Spector, host of the system who call themselves Moon Knight.

Let’s play a game. I tell you vague plot points and you will guess whether I’m talking about Magneto or Moon Knight. answers under the cut.

1 Started out as the antagonist, after many years and fights they’re now allies with the protagonist

2 first wife, whose name is short for Mary Magdalene, left him for being too violent, not taking his idea of vengeance very well

3 Let a colorful team led by a woman arrest him so he could serve trial for crimes he committed in another country

4 The Nazi who tormented him as a kid really thought our protagonist would join him and his weird little murder club as an adult. Said Nazi gets murdered by our protagonist for his trouble.

5 His trauma and mental illness are used to either villainize or excuse his actions (or both at once)

6 Got revenge on his corrupt CIA handler and is portrayed as heroic for doing so

7 Almost enslaved the population of New York that one time except it wasn’t really him

8 Still blames himself for the paralysis of his oldest friend

9 Has exactly one close Jewish friend

10 Was revealed to be Jewish by a later writer who was Jewish himself

11 Writers occasionally retcon him as a goy in an effort to not write him as an antisemitic stereotype instead of not writing him as an antisemitic stereotype to begin with

All of these apply to both of them. Should have been obvious by the vague wording. I’m not for a second implying they’re the same character as many of these tropes apply to other characters as well.

Four and nine are kind of stock tropes for Jewish anti-heroes, sadly. I especially hate four being common. Five and seven happened to a lot of characters, especially those who ‘go crazy’. Six is really just the trope of ‘CIA bad, FBI good’ which is thoroughly deserved for the CIA but really lets the FBI off the hook for their crimes. Eight is a bit of a stock trope too, seeing disability as a friendship destroying tragedy. Ten is true for Ben Grimm and the Maximoffs (and their kids) as well. Few Jewish characters are introduced as such in Marvel. Kitty Pryde is the exception, not the rule.

The main differences between Magneto and Moon Knight are upbringing and motivation. I find it disingenuous to compare the experience of a surviving World War Two to growing up in Baby Boom Era (or 80s Reagan era) America, two very different types of antisemitism. The motivation angle is even more crucial, Magneto does things for a social cause, Marc was either in it for the money pre redemption arc and more for spiritual reasons post redemption arc.

Anyways, let’s look at the context to see they actually have very little in common, because when you look at the context often it’s not the same story at all.

Explanation:

Marc Spector first shows up in Werewolf by Night as a mercenary working for the villainous committee hired to capture the werewolf Jack Russell. Realizing that he’s the bad guy in WWBN, Marc joins forces with Jack and kills most of the committee (it’s a horror comic, they can do that). Marc and Jack have since worked together more than they’ve fought. Magneto started as THE first X-men villain but has since become their ally after many, many fights.

2. Magda is short for Magdalene, Marlene is short for Mary Magdalene. Magda leaves Max (Magneto’s birth name) when he murders everyone in a crowd of people who murdered their daughter Anya. Marlene leaves Steven (Marc’s alter whom she married) after Marc cut off his nemesis’ face and wore it as a mask. Unlike Magda, who absolutely freaks out that her husband can murder with his mind, Marlene has been putting up with Marc’s murderous ways for years and decides the line has been drawn at nemesis face wearing.

3. Magneto lets Mystique’s brotherhood arrest him for nebulous crimes and be extradited from the USA to France in UXM #199. Marc lets Silver Sable’s wild bunch arrest him for assassination of a South American dictator and extradited to said Latin American country for trial in ‘Marc Spector: Moon Knight’. Completely different stories but the fight looks oddly similar. I like to think that Marc and Sable have a history of working together because she comes from a family of Nazi hunters and they’re both mercenaries.

4. In X-men first class, Erik was exploited and abused by Sebastian Shaw, a nazi collaborator who uses Erik for his powers and murders Erik’s mother. When they meet as adults, Shaw runs the Hellfire club and wants Erik to join him. Erik kills Shaw with his powers, the very powers Shaw hoped to to use. In Max Bemis' Moon Knight, Marc has an abuser named Ernst who tries to goad the boy into murder. When young Marc doesn’t do it, Ernst disappears. When they meet as adults it’s revealed Ernst is a nazi war criminal who runs a society for sadists and expects Jake (the alter he views as most evil) to join him (despite hating Jews and having killed Marc’s grandfather). After much soul-searching over whether he’s just as bad, Jake essentially beats Ernst within an inch of his life and leaves him to die. Boxing is the first fighting style the system learned, in part to protect themselves from people like Ernst and in part to earn some much needed money. However how the two deal with their abusers is telling about who they are as people. Marc has killed plenty of innocents in his mercenary years but still can’t bring himself to hurt his abuser from childhood possibly fearing to ‘sink to his level’ and possibly because he still feels like a powerless child around Ernst. Erik… has no such compunctions with killing Shaw and also steals Shaw’s cool helmet. Also both stories take a character and dilute their two very different experiences with two different types of antisemitism and boil it down to ‘he has a vendetta against this one specific Nazi who hurt him as a kid’.

5. Erik clearly has PTSD and possibly bipolar disorder/ schizoaffective disorder as well. It’s sometimes used to explain why he’s evil: ‘Well, he was manic at the time’/‘his psychosis is worse than ever before’. Also his power levels do seem to fluctuate wildly and bipolar is used as the excuse. I have yet to see Erik’s bipolar being portrayed in a non-ableist way the way Lorna’s bipolar is. Marc is a host alter of a DID system. Many writers handle this badly and portray Marc or Jake as an evil possessing force waiting to be let free and murder for fun. Sometimes the writers do this to Khonshu instead and it’s as boring but less problematic than the evil alter trope. Other times, Marc and his alters work together to achieve their goals and are shown as trying to overcome their many issues together.

6. Erik murders Control, his CIA handler after Control kills Erik’s girlfriend Isabelle. Control does this because Erik killed a paperclip scientist America had plans for. Marc almost kills his former CIA handler William Cross after Cross tried to mind control him and Jake’s new friend Ben Grimm. Cross just wants to take over the world after losing his eye and his hearing to a botched assassination. It’s implied that either Cross taught Marc to resist mind control or even Cross has tried to brainwash Marc before and Marc learned to resist. It’s also possible MARC was the one responsible for the botched assassination of Cross.

7. Actually the time Magneto imprisoned and almost murdered most of New York wasn’t him at all, it was actually Xorn the whole time. Actually the time when Moon Knight turned New York into New Thebes and turned people into werewolves and forced the rest to build pyramids, he was possessed by Khonshu the whole time. Both runs are hated by fans of the characters for completely derailing both characters.

8. In X-men first class, Erik accidentally wounds Charles in the spine and paralyzes him below the waist. In Shadowland, Marc’s undead brother Rand attacks those close to the system. Jean-Paul, Marc’s friend from the mercenary days, is hurt especially hard and even with prosthetics he uses crutches. Neither Jean-Paul nor Charles hold it against their old friend. Both Erik and Marc blame themselves and decide this is a good reason to completely cut off contact. I get the rationale was ‘I’m too dangerous to be around’ but… like, maybe visit your friend in the hospital? Also it’s not like Marc is a wanted terrorist who would be instantly arrested in that space in time (he is his backstory, see point 3) so he has less of an excuse for never visiting his friend.

9. Erik’s ties to the wider Jewish community are tied to Kitty Pryde. If Kitty’s not dragging him to a party, he’s celebrating High Holidays alone (or not at all). The only Jewish person Marc, Steven and Jake keep up with is Ben Grimm. Ben sends a Hanukkah card to MK every year and this is canon. If Ben decides to attend one of Kitty’s parties he might invite Moon Knight too (as seen in one Marvel Holiday Special). This also means that MK and Mags have a) met at one of Kitty’s Hanukkah parties or b) share a mutual acquaintance through Kitty

10. Stan Lee just wanted a knock-off Dr. Doom to face off his X-men. Chris Claremont was the one to give Magneto his now famous backstory first revealed in UXM 150. And even then we never had onscreen confirmation that Magnus was Jewish until the late 2000s because Marvel feared backlash. Marc Spector was named after a (presumably Jewish) friend of writer Doug Moench. Moench liked the spooky sounding name for his horror comic without realizing Spector is a historically Ashkenazic surname. While Moench dropped hints that Marc was Jewish, he never revealed so outright. possibly because the mercenary past in which Marc was only in it for the money (an antisemitic stereotype as they go), possibly because Spector served a pagan god or perhaps because the Goy Moench didn’t feel qualified to explore that aspect of Marc properly. Alan Zelentz, a former principal at a Yeshiva (A type of day school for Orthodox Jews) decided to make Marc the son of an Orthodox Rabbi and explore in which ways Moon Knight did and didn’t embody traditional Jewish values (there is a literal page devoted to that in Moon Knight 37, I kid you not). Many writers forget Marc was Orthodox and write as if he was raised Reform which can be jarring. As Jarring when both start talking about purgatory or hell. Jews don't have a hell and our closest concept to purgatory is gehenna. Now you know!

11. Writers either avoid mentioning Erik is Jewish or try to retcon him as Romani when they write him as a villain again. Writers also tend to avoid mentioning Marc is Jewish in stories where they show his past as a violent mercenary who is only in it for the money. What would be much better would be to instead avoid antisemitism altogether and write a man who only cares about his in-group or a man who only cares for money and his close friends and not writing an antisemitic stereotype.

Will I make a sequel for Wanda and Pietro or Bucky? Sadly no. You're welcome to make your own.

[hoorayeroticaplus]

My fave sex goddesses...

Just for fun, a list of my favourite girls of all time. Some are still my crushes. Some are just plain gorgeous. Others are there for sentimental reasons. No particular order.

Ariel Rebel Anjelica (aka Anjelica Ebbi, Krystal Boyd) Zoe Voss Tori Black Little Caprice Eufrat Tiffany Thompson Stoya Zsuzsa Tanczos Gina Gerson Monica Sweetheart Lexi Bloom Faye Reagan Anissa Kate Veronika Simon Silvia Saint Dillion Harper Sasha Grey Ashlyn Rae Malena Morgan Daneen Boone Emily Grey Red Fox Ander Page Alexis Crystal Sweet Amylee Foxy Di Remy Lacroix Sam Slayre Mila Azul Maya Nunes Eva Elfie Michelle Wild Jenna Haze Martha Gromova Evelyn Claire Krista Allen Regina Russell April Flowers Cadey Mercury Karla Kush Demi Hawks Liya Silver Brooke Banner Jenna J Ross Marcelin Abadir Emily Willis Jia Lissa Caroline Key Johnson Veronika Radke Melanie Jane (aka Melanie Rios) Kuroha Suicide Jillian Janson Tiffany Tyler Nicole Ray Heather Vandeven Miriama Kunkelova To be continued...

[racefortheironthrone]

So bit of a vague question , but I’d be interested in how you feel about “the world outside your window” with marvel. Ofc it was started a lot more in line with the current happenings of the world specifically New York but these days due to a few reasons , such as the sliding timescale, to retain characters they’ve made things like the Sian Cong war, and then there’s fictional characters as presidents, street level becomes cosmic level, many events, more and more fantastical city, etc. not that it’s an issue on my end, esp since I’ve never had a connection to New York (different big city where no superheroes live :( ) so it’s always been a degree of speeratjon, but I’d be curious how you feel about it / what the heart of “outside your window” is that must be kept but other things don’t have to. Thank you!

The "World Outside Your Window" as a concept/slogan has always been a tricky thing, because it was sort of retrofitted onto the Marvel Universe from Jim Shooter's "New Universe" (an experimental brand-new comics universe which was supposed to have mirrored our universe exactly prior to the "White Event" that gave some people super-powers; the "New Universe" was also distinctive for not having a sliding timescale and being set in real time, such that the events of each comic were supposed to happen a month apart, and so forth).

The Marvel Universe had more of a complicated relationship with reality: the Fantastic Four would mention Beatlemania, but in the Marvel Universe it was the FF who was getting mobbed by young women at JFK; Sue Storm would mention Marilyn Monroe, but in the Marvel Universe it was Sue doing the famous photoshoot on a red velvet backdrop. On the other hand, there was also the original fiction that Marvel Comics existed in the Marvel Universe, with Stan and Jack making cameos that made it clear that they were working on (non-fiction) comics about America's biggest celebrities at the merry Marvel Bullpen.

It also mattered when you were talking about the Marvel Universe; the sliding timescale evolved gradually in the late 70s/early 80s and Marvel was a lot more specific about its real world references before it set in: most older men were WWII veterans, Charles Xavier fought in Korea, Tony Stark became Iron Man in a very definite Vietnam, real U.S presidents made cameos in Marvel comics and were elected (or not) in real time (people forget that the original Days of Future Past was themed around the election of Ronald Reagan; Chris Claremont pulled no punches), and characters were given definite birthdates and canon ages.

(That's right; Jean Grey is old enough to collect Social Security, although the Social Security Administration might raise a fuss about how to count missed payments when she was dead.)

But Marvel jettisoned that cultural specificity in the 80s in favor of the sliding timescale - and I think you can't have both a sliding timescale and "the world outside your window" because characters don't age and (confusingly) cultural change happens in the background without explanation. It's one of the reasons why Marvel has given Chip Zdarsky the creative freedom to do Spider-Man: Life Story (and then let Mark Russell steal the same idea for the FF).

[telaviv-delhi]

Hátigen A vicc, hogy az Apollo 11 legénységének is van csillaga a tv-ben nyújtott tevékenységért. Talán a Holdtagadók Társasága szponzorálta :) Végülis: Churchill meg irodalmi Nobel-díjat kapott :)

VIDEO:

A lencsevégre kapott valakik, benne néhány kivándorolt/elmenekült/elűzött magyarral:

Elvis Presley, Orson Welles, Clark Gable, Audrey Hepburn, Arthur Spiegel, Apollo 11 Crew (Neil Armstrong, Edvin E. Aldrin), August Lumiere, Johnny Cash, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Borgnine, Mariska Hargitay, Kim Novak, Kevin Bacon, Lassie, Ronald Reagan, George Cukor, David Niven, Marlene Dietrich, Jane's Addiction, Richard Pryor, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Sinatra, Orson Welles, Joseph Szigeti, Tom Jones, Eva Gabor, Larry King, John Cusack, Vladimir Horowitz, Daniel Radcliffe, Celine Dion, Bee Gees, Matt Damon, Forest Whitaker, Martin Landau, Billy Bob Thornton, Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, Russel Crowe, Anthony Hopkins, Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry, Steven Spielberg, Jamie Foxx, Jamie Foxx, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Bela Lugosi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rod Stewart, Hugh Laurie, Ella Fitzgerald, Aerosmith, Janis Joplin, Mötley Crue, Marilyn Monroe, Ozzy Osbourne, Jay Leno, Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Anthony Perkins, Britney Spears, Antonio Banderas, Peter Jackson, Ryan Reynolds, Ricky Martin, The Doors, Slash, John Travolta, Salma Hayek, Charles Bronson, William Shatner, Godzilla, Tom Selleck, Tom Selleck, Jodie Foster, Quentin Tarantino, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Elton John, Billy Crystal, Bruce Willis, Tommy Lee Jones, Bruce Lee, Orlando Bloom, Eddie Murphy, Drew Barrymore, Julio Iglesias, Glenn Close, James Dunn, Alice Cooper, Henry Fonda, David Hasselhoff, Patrick Swayze, Richard Chamberlain, Samuel L. Jackson, Johnny Depp, RuPaul, Peter Falk, Thomas A. Edison, Helen Mirren, Tony Curtis, Dwayne Johnson, Groucho Marx, Greta Garbo, Kermit the Frog, Mariah Carey, George Clooney, Colleen Moore, Eddie Murphy, Denzel Washington, Walter Matthau, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter Sellers, Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, Sean Connery, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, Robert de Niro, The Hunger Games, Kevin Costner, Kim Novak, Henry Fonda, etc.

As of 2023, the Walk of Fame comprises 2,752 stars, which are spaced at 6-foot (1.8 m) intervals. There is a $75,000 sponsorship fee upon selection. The fee is used to pay for the creation and installation of the star, as well as maintenance of the Walk of Fame.

Donald Trump valamivel leöntve. Nem akarom tudni, hogy mivel öntötték le ennek a derék, becsületes, szőke, fehér hazafinak a csillagát.

[freeuselandonorris]

16 femslash shoutout for the fic rec meme 💖 always love femslash recs!

tumblr ate my fucking draft of this, homophobic!!

okay so depressingly i have hardly any femslash in my bookmarks 😭 i want to change this!! pls if you are reading and have some good recs, drop them in the comments!!

these are all rule 63, because there are depressingly few actual girl drivers in mainstream motorsport.

rubbed raw and throbbing in the light by reaganing (max verstappen/daniel ricciardo — this one is genderswap so has M/M, M/F and F/F elements! the sex scenes are hot as fuck and there’s a really lovely and occasionally heartbreaking friends to lovers storyline too)

something too fresh by anon (logan sargeant/alex albon — butch/femme, strap-on sex, SMOKING HOT)

touch of a hand lit the fuse by @strawberry-daiquiris (george russell/alex albon — eating cunt fic my beloved!! again, just absurdly hot)

thankssss ❤️

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Breaking down the comics: The Stranger.

Moon Knight, Issue #15: Ruling the World from His Basement. 

Look at how beautiful that cover is! 

This is an interesting one. A weird villain, political and racial issues, and some deep Moon Knight issues with trust, identity, and betrayal. 

So the comic opens with a Japanese Envoy being shot in the arm. There is narration here, but it isn’t the usual sort. It makes it clear that 1. These are Japanese "jerks" and we aren't supposed to really like them. 2. This is not the first assassination attempt. 3. The fleeing figure that shot him has a very familiar silhouette. A moon shaped sort. 

Cut to Central Park, we see Moon Knight chilling in a tree. 

"Man do I feel aweful. Too much stress, too many hours riding around in Lockley's stinking cab, not enough sleep or food... All combining to send the sledgehammers crashing on my skull." 

Moon Knight once again asserts that he is not Lockley, Steven, or Grant. And he's feeling stretched thin. They aren't taking care of the body. 

At this point, they don't have their jobs. There is no real gate keeper, care taker, protector... There is only fighting and Marc who holds all the trauma and self destructs at the drop of a hat. 

So here he is, called to meet in the park at night by Detective Flint and someone new. 

Sargent Gwenn is with Flint. He tells Moon Knight about the assassination attempt on the Japanese trade minister. 

They mention that "after Lennon, Reagan, and the Pope, you can understand why we weren't thrilled." 

Yeah, the 80s weren't great for people with power. 

Turns out, the meeting is a trap! They're there to arrest Moon Knight for the assassination attempt! 

"Did my homework. Learned you once worked freelance. Took on jobs for hire. An odd little group called The Committee was one of your clients. Anybody can turn bad. Especially someone who was semi-sour in the past." -Flint. 

This takes us back to Werewolf by night. Moon Knight was hired by The Committee to track down Jack Russell. 

Which shows that Moon Knight himself used to work for hire. Much like Marc Spector. 

One has to wonder about that. Perhaps it was when they first came back from the desert and the death experience. Marc only knowing one way of life and trying to do better than mercenary work but not knowing how. Moon Knight blending? Still unsure of his own individuality? 

Anyways, the cops surround Moon Knight and Flint walks away. 

Moon Knight feels betrayed by Flint. "You're making a mistake, Flint! And you're going to regret it!" 

He easily fights off the cops. They don't have the training he does. 

They open fire on him and he easily avoids the bullets. Perhaps instincts from their time on the battlefield. 

"I mean it Flint...You're wrong! Dead wrong! And I'll be hanged if I'm going to pay for your mistake!" 

Moon Knight is not in a good mood. Probably could have handled things better, but at this point he is feeling persecuted and attacked. The body already is feeling terrible and now it's in danger. 

He runs off only to see the cops put a woman in danger when they shoot down a tree that starts to fall towards her. 

He saves life and still manages to get away. 

The police remark on the fact that Moon Knight just saved an Indian woman. Flint asks Sargent Gwenn "Are you sure it was Moon Knight you saw at the airport? Absolutely certain?" 

He comments that it doesn't make sense, but he's been around a while and "anybody can turn bad." 

Moon Knight makes it to Jake's parked cab and quickly changes back to Jake. 

The headache continues, but Lockley heads out to try to figure out why he's being accused of something he didn't do. 

He heads to Gena's diner. He apparently gave her phone number as the one Flint can use to reach him. 

While he's talking to Gena and Crawley, you see a Japanese family in the background complaining about the service. They eventually leave after being ignored. 

An interesting thing to include. Especially with the Japanese dignitary in town. 

And while it is written and displayed to show them being a bit rowdy and demanding of service, it also clearly shows Gena only interacting with Jake and Crawley. 

While talking about the incident at the airport, Jake complains about his headache getting worse. 

Gena asks him when the last time he ate was, as it's after 9pm. 

"Nine! I forgot about Grant's charity shindig at the mansion!" 

He runs out without eating. 

Back at the mansion, we find an extremely upset Marlene. It's after ten. 

"Tell her ta hold her horses just a little longer till I can change ta stuffed shirt Steven Grant." He mutters at Samules as he parks his cab. 

When Marlene comes at him for his tardiness. 

"Please, Marlene. I've got an excruciating headache and I'm in no mood!" 

"Trouble, Steven?" 

"Only as Moon Knight. Grant, Lockley, and Spector are just fine, thank you." 

"I'm sorry, Steven. I shouldn't be so selfish. I know the pressures you're under. Trying to be four different people... But you're not really having trouble again, are you-Psychological trouble?" 

"No, Marlene, I'm not. You helped me out of THAT dark hole...And I'm still standing on firm ground." 

Ohhhhh he's a liar.

Liar liar, Steven! Denial is a strong one here. 

Marlene takes a cheap shot and it hits home here: 

"I know YOU'RE alright, Steven... It's just Marc Spector I worry about...And sometimes Jake Lockley... Even Moon Knight... I know it's stilly, but I sometimes think you won't be able to keep them all under control. That they'll do something to spoil what we've made of you." 

OOOHHHH snap. With as much infighting as they already do, that was a call to arms and Steven heard it. 

Moon Knight was already complaining about Lockley's cab, lack of sleep, and lack of food. Lockley was resentful of fancy pants Steven. And now she's gone and put the fear of Marc ruining things into the mix. 

I'mma say it: Marlene is a complicated character to like in early Moon Knight. 

You are supposed to like her. She's self sufficient. She can handle herself. She can fight. She puts up with all the Moon Knight stuff. She rescues them on more than one occasion. She's compassionate and often comforts them and seems to help stabilize and ground them. 

But she is also pretty toxic a lot of the time. 

She plays favorites, makes them question who they are and what the others are up to. She even often makes them question their own mental health. 

Steven joins his party and greets his guests. He puts on a show of the socialite but: 

"Privately, behind the social mask, he is still haunted by Marlene's words." 

The next day, we see a man at the toy shop purchasing doll clothes. He says they are for his friends. Many many little friends. 

I'll say it, he's a white man and it's clear he's in the upper class part of town. He smiles and greets all the fellow white people around him. 

As he walks, we have narration. 

"In this section of the city, you can't notice it. You'd almost think the problem didn't exist. Indeed, it's almost like it used to be... 

But as he nears his home, it becomes more and more apparent, the grim reality facing him and every other god fearing American." 

We see pictures of a smiling black man, a black woman, an asian man.

"Yes. Here the problem is all too obvious. The fragmentation and disintegration of American society. It's gotten so an honest working man can't even live where he belongs. He's forced now to live among the very filth which is causing the problem." 

He enters his home and goes to the basement where he has control of his environment and rules his own world. 

It goes on to mention that here, he isn't alone. His friends give him ideas much like the TV and bible do. 

He pulls out the doll outfits he bought, little army outfits. 

"Time to face the problem, my friends, and I have some gifts which should help us. We all know what the problem is, don't we? Foreigners. Foreign Devils. Slowly but surely extinguishing the light of America." 

He rants about the "invasion of America". About the dilution of American blood and the fragmentation of the economy. 

He talks about the underselling of American made goods with cheap and inferior products, forcing American businesses out of the market, lost jobs, crime waves, drugs...

He then talks about a hierarchy of ethnicity. How "blacks have been here so long they're almost American". He talks about how because of the Asians taking all the work, the Blacks have to turn to crime. 

He dresses the rats as soldiers. 

He then talks about Moon Knight. Moon Knight saving the life of the Indian woman, in particular.

"He's been stained, blemished. He's evil. I hate him. They're wrong, of course, but they tell me it's called Xenophobia. A fear of strangers... Of any one different..." 

He claims he will kill them all. 

Side note: This is still relevant. I remember growing up in the 90s there was a huge "Made in America" movement. It comes back every few years. Encouraged to purchase American made only to support our economy as if there aren't other problems with big business vs. local small business. 

I also remember the increased news and feelings that were pushed on us about the foreigners taking all the jobs. 

This is still happening. There are still too many people that feel and teach this. 1980s is still relevant today. 

Anyways: Back at Grant Mansion.... 

Moon Knight is suited up and ready to go. But Marlene and Frenchie tell him not to go. The police are still after him! 

But Moon Knight has learned that the Japanese minister is supposed to go do something big soon and the threat on his life is still there. 

"The three of us have worked hard to make Moon Knight worthy of respect. What do I do with my respect if I don't even try to stop that assassination?" 

Marlene and Frenchie have nothing to say. They hate it, but they let him go. 

But as he flies away on the chopper: 

"His primary goal, of course, is to prevent a death- But even as the chopper lifts him from the roof, he feels the nag of a secondary goal as well... To prove that last night's headache was just that- and not the residue of a memory blackout. God help him if he has to fight himself." 

OH FUUUUUUU---

Memory blackout headache? Fighting himself? 

Things are not fine at all in Moon Knight land. The fact that he is aware of time loss and headaches being a symptom is just… This is fucking amazing. DID was not classified properly at this time, much less well researched or discussed. And the fact that Moon Knight is aware of it means that this is a problem the system has encountered before. 

As much as the system is in denial and covert, it’s just one more little special little nod to the fact that Marc Spector has been dealing with this for a lot longer than since he was killed and brought back. 

Here, we arrive at City Hall where the Japanese minister is about to give a speech. 

The Mayor talks about the important of maintaining relations with Japan. About how we accept imports into New York and send exports to Japan. 

He talks about friction with 'some Japanese Imports..." 

Again, I'll say it. 1980s. There was a lot of asian racism taking place that lasted well into the 90s. Along with the 'red scare' and cold war, we were not on friendly terms with China. Vietnam had just ended. Korean war was glossed over and forgotten. 

Not to mention that most Americans can't tell anyone apart. Today, the tensions have subsided, but there is still a lot of Asian racism present in America. 

Moon Knight arrives at the scene. He...He does his thing... 

Frenchie: How will you approach zee scene?" 

MK: Only way I know how.

With Style. That's how. 

He lurks on the roof tops and waits. 

And he sees a man dressed as a giant rat with a gun running towards the stand. 

He dives down, but the police spot him. 

The rat calls himself "Xenos". (Little on the head there). 

The bodyguards manage to protect the Minister until Moon Knight tackles the rat. 

The rat makes a run for it and dives into an open sewer! 

But the police are closer and head in before Moon Knight can add a count to his sewer man tally. (I was so disappointed). 

The police lose him in the sewer. But now the police at least know he isn't Moon Knight. 

Later at Grant Mansion, he's watching the news and has a sudden realization. 

"Not disappeared... But blended in." 

The rat is pissed and decides Moon Knight is the problem and must first be eliminated before he can go after the foreigners again. 

But here we see Moon Knight heading to a house. 

"Getting this address wasn't easy. Steven Grant had to tug pretty hard on more than a few strings..." 

It's a cop's house! 

He slips inside easily. He starts to look for signs that this is the cop he's after. 

He browses the book shelves, noting that he seems like a bit of a "Right-Wing nut". 

Then he finds a scrapbook. 

Yeah... The "Holocaust propaganda". This...This is a big deal. This is dangerous. This is even more of a problem today than it was in 1980s and that's depressing. I won't go on about this, because that would be quite extensive and long.... But just know that including this in a Moon Knight comic was pretty important. 

(also history lesson! "The House of Rothschild". A 1934 American film. 

It's about a Jewish banker with five sons and how they went on to become a powerful bank. It's based off the real Rothschild. It discusses using financial backing in times of war to make money and eventually become the richest, most powerful people/bank in the world. (a very very basic summary) 

It was supposed to be an attack on Nazism and anti-semitism while Hitler was coming to power. It was made by non-Jewish people and cast with non-Jewish people. The Jewish Anti-Defamation League had major concerns about the film. 

It won a lot of awards and some Jewish leagues and papers endorsed it. 

However, a scene from the movie was used in German antisemitic propaganda and it seemed to encourage fears and resentment of Jewish people holding all the money and belief that this was the reason Germany lost WWI and fell into depression. 

So... That's interesting! ) 

Moench had a lot to say with his Moon Knight comics. 

He wrote for other comics, of course, but I feel like he only really said things like this and included things like this in his Moon Knight run. 

Anyways, Needless to say, Moon Knight is not thrilled. 

He finds a hidden room with a makeup table for his disguises. 

"A makeup mirror. It fits...But what scares me the most about this guy is the similarity between us. We both play roles adopting different guises to--" 

He doesn't get to finish his potentially destructive thought as he's immediately hit in the head by a jar of goo. 

He realizes that it's rat food he's been covered in, and the rats are hungry! 

Two things I want to say about this page. 

There he is face down on the floor again. 

He spends the next few panels rolling on the floor. 

There is no way that the rat guy can know that Moon Knight is Jewish. But what he says to him is heavily coded. Things Marc probably heard a lot growing up when bullied by antisemites. It’s a little too close for home. 

Moon Knight has a little freakout here. He rolls around, flinging rats everywhere and yelling "Get off me!" 

He's been under a lot of stress lately. 

Now he's trapped in the house of someone that idolizes Hitler and tells him that he deserves to die while under threat of being eaten by rats. 

This is not going to do wonders for his mental health and stress. Not to mention past trauma. 

He calls up Frenchie to give chase to the rat guy. 

He rips off the rat mask and finds someone he doesn't know. He is unsettled at first until he realizes that he's wearing makeup and a fake beard. 

(Considering Jake wears a fake mustache I'm not sure why he's so surprised)

And the rat Xenos man is Sargent Gwenn! 

They fall into a hardware store and Gwenn gets the upper hand! But then he steps on a rat trap and Moon Knight manages to punch him out. 

He drags Gwenn out to the police and finds Flint. 

"I'm sorry. Gwenn was a good man. But like I said. Anyone can turn bad. Even a cop. There are stresses. Frustrations." 

"Yeah. I know all about it. Now if you'll excuse me, Flint... I think I feel another headache coming on." 

He returns back to the mansion and you see him talking to Marlene and Frenchie, still in his Moon Knight outfit with the mask off. 

"--Not that I ever actually BELIEVED I was the assassin, but...Well, like a certain cop has said...Any Mind can go bad, and maybe, in a way, I did do it... We seem to be living in a nightmare these days. Maybe in a way, we all did it." 

Frenchie: A sobering thought, Marc.

Marlene: Yes, but at least you have the strength and sense to admit something like that, Steven. Maybe if we keep at it, keep trying, we'll all wake up someday soon..." 

Here the comic ends. 

So let’s look at this issue. 

Go back to the asian family sitting at the diner asking for service and eventually leaving because they are ignored. 

The Indian woman that was put in danger by the police. 

The use of Holocaust denial. 

The rich white neighborhood that fades to the poor crime ridden and predominantly black neighborhood. 

The hero of our story is the son of Jewish Immigrants that fled genocide. On the surface, he is a white man and fits into Xenos' little fairy tale. 

All while the story of tolerance, racism, antisemitism, classism, and genocide is taking place….Moon Knight is struggling with his mental identity and overall health. 

The topic of taking care of the body and communication between the four of them is not resolved, but we get to see him talking about his fear that he has a new unknown alter that is hurting people. 

It’s the current day trope of “There’s an evil alter” that has done so much harm to the DID community. But in this case, it’s Moon Knight that is afraid. He has reason to doubt himself and with his fear of Marc and what Marc can do and does to himself, perhaps he was even afraid that it was Marc causing harm. 

A lot of people are afraid of the mentally ill (DID, bipolar, Schizophrenics, and PTSD in particular) and their reason is that they are afraid the afflicted person is going to hurt them. 

Many times, when surrounded by this ideology and considering the time period where it wasn’t uncommon for someone to be deemed hysterical and locked up for failure to blend into society… A lot of people internalize and start to believe things about themselves. 

Told over and over again that something is wrong with him, that his sanity is fragile, and that he is being watched like a hawk for any slip up of not knowing who he is, Moon Knight starts to doubt himself. 

Xenophobia was the topic of this issue and that means “Fear of Strangers”. 

Moon Knight’s fear was fear that the stranger was himself. 

This issue wanted to show that anyone and everyone is capable of racism. Just because you are not white does not mean you cannot be racist. Just because you fall into a persecuted person category doesn’t mean that you can’t prosecute someone else. 

We can all do better. The first step is recognizing it and trying. 

[usnatarchives]

Bill Russell at the March on Washington 8/28/1963. USIA, NARA ID 542073.

#RIP BILL RUSSELL By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

President Obama gets a sneak peek of the new Bill Russell statue & a hug from the @celtics great, 11/4/2013. Obama Library. NARA ID 222096181.

Excerpt from President Clinton's video tribute to Bill Russell, 5/11/1999, Clinton Library, NARA ID 134759190.

"Yours is a tradition of hard work, of teamwork, of dedication, a tradition of ``Celtics pride''... [A]winning tradition carried forth again and again down through the years by some of the greatest heroes in basketball history: Cousey, Sharman, Ramsey, Russell, Sam and Casey Jones, Heinsohn, Havlicek, Cowens, and White." Excerpt from President Reagan's remarks on meeting the Celtics, NBA World Champs 6/13/1984. Reagan Library.

Boston Celtics meet with JFK in the Oval Office, 1/31/1963, JFK Library. Russell missed this visit! Reportedly he overslept thinking it was just a White House tour.

COMING SOON: ALL AMERICAN - THE POWER OF SPORTS National Archives Museum in DC, 9/16/2022 - 1/7/2024

More online:

Gov and Basketball, The Text Record

Spinning the Globe: The History and Legacy of the Harlem Globetrotters, NARA Public Program

[missrayon]

hi... u shared your favorite lou reed facts.. do u have favorite beasties facts

omg I would have to think about this because I definitely do. how much is crazy adrock armchair psychoanalysis I wonder. well I think it's very sweet that adrock was a fan before he joined the band. when he said he used to see them around and think they were the kinds of people he wanted to be friends with... 😵‍💫. we all know they were a hardcore band but I love telling people that. and they played with reagan youth 🫶. I love that they "discovered" ll cool j and public enemy literally built def jam only to be screwed over so heartlessly. the way rick rubin was convinced that adrock was the star and russell simmons was convinced that mca was the star and no one gave a fuck about mike d calling him "the one who sounds like he has to try" and tried to get them to kick him out of the group. I'm haunted by their slapstick horror comedy film that never came to fruition. what they were gonna call licensed to ill. they're banned from performing in china and anyone who played their tibetan freedom concerts is also banned from performing in china. I love that there is no record of their alleged british airways lawsuit like okay myth building. we know I'm obsessed with the fact that adrock met liam gallagher during the doomed meth trip. and we know how personal opening for madonna on her virgin tour is to me. yauch vehemently denying that he made out with her and then a few years ago she changed her previous claim and said it was actually adrock. it's been said that mca threw the beer can at that fan in liverpool and ad whammy took the fall. I love that adrock auditioned for oliver stone's the doors... who was he reading for we can only wonder... I love that yauch is like actually a filmmaking pioneer inventing angles and shit. and who doesn't love their general paul's boutique antics. wearing vintage women's clothes blowing so much money that their label decides they're not gonna promote the album at all after their extravagant launch party for it. when they told blur to fuck off. the missing hydraulic penis. the ione skye saga. when they broke up and adrock left to be an actor claiming he watches the films of kenneth anger "all the time". sued by the beatles. are these really facts or just incidents I think are funny. world's vilest pop group ❤️

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Joe Heller

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 17, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUL 18, 2023

A story in the New York Times today by Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage, and Maggie Haberman outlined how former president Donald Trump and his allies are planning to create a dictatorship if voters return him to power in 2024. The article talks about how Trump and his loyalists plan to ��centralize more power in the Oval Office” by “increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House.” 

They plan to take control over independent government agencies and get rid of the nonpartisan civil service, purging all but Trump loyalists from the U.S. intelligence agencies, the State Department, and the Defense Department. They plan to start “impounding funds,” that is, ignoring programs Congress has funded if those programs aren’t in line with Trump’s policies.

“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” said Russell T. Vought, who ran Trump’s Office of Management and Budget and who now advises the right-wing House Freedom Caucus. They envision a “president” who cannot be checked by the Congress or the courts.

Trump’s desire to grab the mechanics of our government and become a dictator is not new; both scholars and journalists have called it out since the early years of his administration. What is new here is the willingness of so-called establishment Republicans to support this authoritarian power grab. 

Behind this initiative is “Project 2025,” a coalition of more than 65 right-wing organizations putting in place personnel and policies to recommend not just to Trump, but to any Republican who may win in 2024. Project 2025 is led by the Heritage Foundation, once considered a conservative think tank, that helped to lead the Reagan revolution.

A piece by Alexander Bolton in The Hill today said that Republican senators are “worried” by the MAGAs, but they have been notably silent in public at a time when every elected leader should be speaking out against this plot. Their silence suggests they are on board with it, as Trump apparently hoped to establish. 

The party appears to have fully embraced the antidemocratic ideology advanced by authoritarian leaders like Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, who argue that the post–World War II era, in which democracy seemed to triumph, is over. They claim that the tenets of democracy—equality before the law, free speech, academic freedom, a market-based economy, immigration, and so on—weaken a nation by destroying a “traditional” society based in patriarchy and Christianity.

Instead of democracy, they have called for “illiberal” or “Christian” democracy, which uses the government to enforce their beliefs in a Christian, patriarchal order. What that looks like has a clear blueprint in the actions of Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has gathered extraordinary power into his own hands in the state and used that power to mirror Orbán’s destruction of democracy.

DeSantis has pushed through laws that ban abortion after six weeks, before most people know they’re pregnant; banned classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity (the “Don’t Say Gay” law); prevented recognition of transgender individuals; made it easier to sentence someone to death; allowed people to carry guns without training or permits; banned colleges and businesses from conversations about race; exerted control over state universities; made it harder for his opponents to vote, and tried to punish Disney World for speaking out against the Don’t Say Gay law. After rounding up migrants and sending them to other states, DeSantis recently has called for using “deadly force” on migrants crossing unlawfully.

Because all the institutions of our democracy are designed to support the tenets of democracy, right-wingers claim those institutions are weaponized against them. House Republicans are running hearings designed to prove that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice are both “weaponized” against Republicans. It doesn’t matter that they don’t seem to have any evidence of bias: the very fact that those institutions support democracy mean they support a system that right-wing Republicans see as hostile. 

“Our current executive branch,” Trump loyalist John McEntee, who is in charge of planning to pack the government with Trump loyalists, told the New York Times reporters, “was conceived of by liberals for the purpose of promulgating liberal policies. There is no way to make the existing structure function in a conservative manner. It’s not enough to get the personnel right. What’s necessary is a complete system overhaul.”

It has taken decades for the modern-day Republican Party to get to a place where it rejects democracy. The roots of that rejection lie all the way back in the 1930s, when Democrats under Franklin Delano Roosevelt embraced a government that regulated business, provided a basic social safety net, and promoted infrastructure. That system ushered in a period from 1933 to 1981 that economists call the “Great Compression,” when disparities of income and wealth were significantly reduced, especially after the government also began to protect civil rights. 

Members of both parties embraced this modern government in this period, and Americans still like what it accomplished. But businessmen who hated regulation joined with racists who hated federal protection of civil rights and traditionalists who opposed women’s rights and set out to destroy that government. 

In West Palm Beach, Florida, last weekend, at the Turning Points Action Conference, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) compared President Biden’s Build Back Better plan to President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society programs, which invested in “education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and welfare, the Office of Economic Opportunity, and big labor and labor unions.” She noted that under Biden, the U.S. has made “the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs, that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete.” 

Well, yeah.

Greene incorrectly called this program “socialism,” which in fact means government ownership of production, as opposed to the government’s provision of benefits people cannot provide individually, a concept first put into practice in the United States by Abraham Lincoln and later expanded by leadership in both parties. The administration has stood firmly behind the idea—shared by LBJ and FDR, and also by Republicans Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower, among others—that investing in programs that enable working people to prosper is the best way to strengthen the economy. 

Certainly, Greene’s speech didn’t seem to be the “gotcha” that she apparently hoped. A March 2023 poll by independent health policy pollster KFF, for example, found that 80% of Americans like Social Security, 81% like Medicare, and 76% like Medicaid, a large majority of members of all political parties.  

The White House Twitter account retweeted a clip of Greene’s speech, writing: “Caught us. President Biden is working to make life easier for hardworking families.”

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON