#14 Martie 2023

[densi-mber]

Just Give us a Reason to Compete

“I’m just saying, of the two of us, one is clearly a better speller than the other,” Deeks proclaimed as he and Kensi walked into the bullpen.

“Deeks, I misspelled one word. It’s not that big a deal,” Kensi insisted, tossing her bag onto her already crowded desk. Callen reached out to catch a bottle of lotion. “And that was autocorrect’s fault.

“Uh-huh. Sure.”

“Hey, guys,” Nell said. “Do we want to know what’s going on?

“Kensi can’t spell,” Deeks announced loudly, before Kensi could respond. She rounded on him with a glare, and Deeks grinned back at her. He could tell it wasn’t true anger, so he didn’t feel all that bad about teasing her.

“All right, that’s it. I challenge you to a spelling competition.”

“Ok, I’m in. What do I get if I win?”

“The knowledge that you’re the better speller?” Kensi said with a shrug.

“Nah, that’s not good enough,” Deeks decided. He thought for a moment. “If I win, I want control of the radio for a week.”

“Then I want you to make me frittata every morning for a week.”

“Deal.” Turning to face the rest of the team, who had been watching the conversation with varying levels of interest, Deeks asked, “Any other takers?”

Callen snorted. “Not a chance. Sam, you in?”

“Oh no, I already know my spelling abilities. I once won a state spelling competition in high school,” he said, a hint of pride in his voice.

“I thought you were a mathlete,” Callen commented.

“I was.” Sam jabbed a finger at him. “And no jokes.”

“I would never,” Callen said solemnly. “Though it is impressive that one man can hold so much geekiness within him. I think you’re running neck and neck with Beale.”

“He thinks that’s an insult,” Eric said wryly. “For the record, I am not beyond competing in a test of spelling acuity.”

“Nell?”

“I would, but I don’t think you guys could handle it,” she responded.

“Ooh, that sounds like a challenge, Jones. Why don’t you put your money, or similar compensatory item, where your mouth is?”

Nell stepped toe-to-toe with Deeks, standing as tall as she could.

“All right Mr. Deeks. I’ll participate, but you’ll regret it. And if I win, the losers will write all my expense summaries for the next week.”

“It’s a deal,” Deeks agreed.

“Oh, you’re going down hard,” Kensi goaded him. “I’m looking forward to breakfast in bed.”

***

“Alright Kensi, your word is “onomatopoeia”,” Callen called out, waiting as Kensi stepped forward. He’d been assigned the role of choosing and assigning words, mostly because Sam refused.

Eric had dropped out after three rounds with the word chiaroscurist. Personally, Deeks thought he’d done it on purpose, in deference to Nell. Deeks had nearly lost it with lachsschinken, but somehow managed to squeak through solely by chance.

Kensi correctly spelled her word; she looked decidedly tense, biting at her thumbnail in between turns. When it came back around to her again, Callen gave her the word “arachnophagous”.

“A-r-a-c-h-n-o-p-h-a-g,” Kensi started, then hesitated. “u-s?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, that is incorrect,” Callen said, not sounding sorry at all. “Now it’s just down to Deeks and Nell.”

“Damn it!” Kensi hissed, plopping into her seat.

“I can’t believe I’m watching this,” Sam mumbled.

“You got this, Nell,” Eric encouraged, then shot Deeks an apologetic look. “Sorry, man.”

“It’s ok, brother. I understand.”

“Ok Nell, your next word is “budgereegah”.

“Now you’re just making things up,” Deeks muttered even as Nell rattled off the apparently correct spelling liked she’d actually heard the word before.

“Excellent. Deeks, yours is “sesquipedalian”.”

“Awesome. Uh, s-e-s-a-u-i—p-e-d-a-l-i-e-n”.

“That is…incorrect,” Callen called out. “Congratulations, Nell. You’re the NCIS Office of Special Operations’ inaugural spelling bee winner.”

“That implies there’s going to be another one,” Sam commented under his breath.

“Nicely done, Nell,” Deeks congratulated her, and Nell accepted the praise with a nod.

“Thank you. And thank you for the week of expense reports. I will enjoy going home early.”

“It won’t be so bad with Eric and Kens helping. Right, Kensi?”

“Right,” Kensi said with a grimace. “Congrats Nell, but I was really looking forward to those breakfasts.”

“Well, there’s always next year,” Deeks said brightly.

***

A/N: This one was a bit sillier, but I hope you still enjoyed it. I think the team would compete for anything under the right conditions. Also, some of the words I used were selected from the national Spelling Bees list.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

It's pretty easy to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, actually

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. THIS IS THE LAST DAY to pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

If Elon Musk wants to cut $2t from the US federal budget, there's a pretty straightforward way to get there – just eliminate all the beltway bandits who overcharge Uncle Sucker for everything from pharmaceuticals to roadworks to (of course) rockets, and then make the rich pay their taxes.

There is a ton of federal bloat, but it's not coming from useless programs or overpaid federal employees. As David Dayen writes in a long, fact-filled feature in The American Prospect, the bloat comes from the private sector's greedy suckling at the government teat:

https://prospect.org/economy/2025-01-27-we-found-the-2-trillion-elon-musk-doge/

The federal workforce used to be huge. In 1960, federal employees were 4.3% of all US workers; today, it's 1.4%. Zeroing out the entire federal payroll would save $271b/year (while beaching the US economy!), a mere 4% of the federal budget.

On the other hand, zeroing out the budget for federal contractors would save over a trillion dollars – the US spends 4 times more on private sector contractors than it does on its own workers, and while some of those contractors are honest folks giving good value for money, the norm is for federal contractors to pick the public's pocket and then use the proceeds to lobby for more fat contracts.

One key job we ask our federal employees to do is root out private sector fraud in federal contracting. We should hire more of these people! Private contractors steal $274b/year from the public purse – nearly enough to pay for all the employees in the federal government:

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-106285.pdf

Musk doesn't know any of these, and he doesn't care to know. As Dayen writes, he's doing "policy by anecdote." Take Ashley Thomas, the director of climate diversification for the US International Development Finance Corporation. Musk sicced a mob on her, decrying her for doing a "fake job" that was somehow related to "DEI." But Thomas's job isn't employment diversification – it's crop diversification.

If Musk wanted to run DOGE as a force for waste-elimination, he wouldn't be attacking the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS (whose budget accounts for 0.012% of federal spending). He wouldn't be attacking federal fiber subsidies (he's mad that he can't get more subsidies for his dead-end satellite service that caps out at one ten-millionth of the speed of fiber). He wouldn't be attacking high-speed rail (which competes with his Tesla swasticars). He wouldn't be fighting with the SEC (which defends the public from costly stock swindles, which is why they've been investigating Musk for seven years).

He could, instead, go after private sector Medicare waste. 33 million seniors have been suckered into switching from federally provided Medicare to privately provided Medicare Advantage. Overbilling from Medicare Advantage (whose doctors are ordered to "upcode" patients to generate additional bills) costs the public $83b/year:

https://www.medpac.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Mar24_ExecutiveSummary_MedPAC_Report_To_Congress_SEC.pdf

Medicare Advantage patients are, on average, healthier than Medicare patients (Medicare Advantage giants like Unitedhealtcare cream off the cheapest-to-service patients). Yet, this healthy cohort costs more to treat than their sicker cousins on the public plan – the fraud costs us about 11-14% of the total Medicare bill, and we could save $140b/year by zeroing that out:

https://pnhp.org/system/assets/uploads/2023/09/MAOverpaymentReport_Final.pdf

Zeroing out Medicare Advantage overbilling would pay for "an out-of-pocket spending cap, a public drug benefit, and dental, hearing, and vision benefits" for every Medicare patient with tens of billions to spare.

Of course, as Dayen points out, the guy in charge of Medicare is Dr Oz, who has spent years shilling for Medicare Advantage, while holding massive amounts of stock in Unitedhealthcare, the nation's largest Medicare Advantage provider, and the worst offender for Medicare Advantage overbilling.

Then there's Medicare itself. Rates for Medicare doctor reimbursement are set by committees of specialists, who award themselves sky-high rates while paying rock-bottom wages to the frontline general practitioners who do the heavy lifting. Lowering specialists rates to match the rates paid in Canada and Germany would save the federal government $100b/year:

https://cepr.net/rfk-jr-physicians-pay-schedules-and-the-elites-big-lie/

Then there's Big Pharma. For years, Congress legally forbade Medicare and Medicaid from negotiating drug prices, which is why the US government pays the highest rates in the world for drugs developed in the US, with US federal subsidies. US drug prices are 178% more than other wealthy countries, and many drugs are sold at 20-30x the cost of production:

https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/comparing-prescription-drugs

A few of these drug prices are going to come down in the coming years, thanks to timid, but long overdue action from the Biden administration. To really tackle a source of government waste, the US government could use its "march in rights" to federalize production of the most expensive drugs:

https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda/force-drug-companies-to-lower-prices/

One possibility floated by economist Dean Baker is for the US government to invest $100b/year in clinical trials, keeping the patents for itself and licensing multiple manufacturers to compete to produce these publicly owned drugs, which would save an estimated $500b/year:

https://cepr.net/financing-drug-development-what-the-pandemic-has-taught-us/

Then there's price-gouging, useless middlemen like Group Purchasing Organizations who soak the public purse for $20b/year – a "moderate" enforcement action could cut that to $10b. Speaking of eliminating middlemen, community health centers are a way cheaper source of care than big hospitals – $2371/year cheaper per patient, per year. By subsidizing these, the US government could save another $20b/year:

https://www.ohiochc.org/news/310956/Landmark-Study-Confirms-Medicaid-Cost-Savings-at-Health-Centers.htm

Next, Dayen moves onto the Pentagon, which pulled in $841b last year but has failed seven consecutive audits:

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4992913-pentagon-fails-7th-audit-in-a-row-but-says-progress-made/

The DoD firehoses money over private sector contractors, like the $3.6b it hands over to Musk's Spacex every year – a number Musk hopes to grow through Spacex's participation in a new consortium:

https://www.ft.com/content/6cfdfe2b-6872-4963-bde8-dc6c43be5093

Military contractor wastage is the stuff of legend, like the $2t F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a lemon that has over 800 outstanding defects and was just greenlit for another year's worth of full funding:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-13/lockheed-f-35-s-tally-of-flaws-tops-800-as-new-issues-surface

This kind of wasteage isn't merely shameful, it's illegal. The Nunn-McCurdy Act requires that these large-scale boondoggles be reviewed with an eye to shutting them down. But when beltway bandits like Northrop Grumman’s produce expensive lemons like Sentinel, the DoD continues to hand public money to them, citing "national security":

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3829985/department-of-defense-announces-results-of-sentinel-nunn-mccurdy-review/

The DoD contracts out so much of its essential functions that it literally doesn't know what it has. It pays contractors and subcontractors to produce parts for its systems, but has no way to know if those parts have actually been produced. Meanwhile, private equity rollups like Transdigm have merged every single-source aerospace supplier and jacked up the price of spare parts for existing military systems, pulling down 4,500%+ markups:

https://theintercept.com/2019/05/28/ro-khanna-transdigm-refund-pentagon/

To estimate the easy military savings – the ones that won't require shutting down jobs programs scattered in every key Congressional district – Dayen takes the CBO's estimate and cuts it in half, to get an annual savings of $150b/year.

Then there's general prodcurement, where the GAO estimates the US loses $150b/year to bid-rigging and another $521b/year to fraud (the USG also spends $70b/year on management consultants who do no discernible useful work). Dayen estimates the annual savings from "stringently enforcing fraud and abuse, insourcing operations, and no longer paying for bad advice" at $150b/year.

Then there's tax cheating. The IRS estimates that it undercollects about $606b/year in taxes. The top 1% account for $163b/year of that (Elon Musk's own effective tax rate is just 3.27% as of the five years preceding 2021, the year for which we have his leaked tax return; he paid no taxes in 2018). Every dollar the IRS spends on auditing brings in $2.17 in tax, and every dollar the IRS spends auditing the wealthy generates $6.29 in tax. A dollar spent auditing the top 10% brings in $10:

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2024/dec/01/opinion-the-irs-shows-what-government-efficiency/

Audits are durable sources of tax. People who've been burned by an audit are far more honest in the decade after that audit.

The GOP has zeroed out Biden's IRS increases. The CBO estimates that a fully funded IRS could easily increase the taxes it collected by a net figure of $200b/year.

There's also new sources of tax. Dayen likes Dean Baker's proposal for taxes on stock returns: just add dividends and stock appreciation at the end of the year, then multiply by the tax rate. Baker says this is a loophole-free way to bring the effective corporate tax rate up from 20% to 25%, generating $65b/year:

https://cepr.net/winning-the-tax-game-tax-stock-returns/

This would be especially hard on heavily financialized companies with "impossibly high stock price/earnings ratios" – e.g. Tesla.

Dayen also proposes rejigging the tax rate on retirement and health insurance plans, where nearly all the tax breaks are scooped by the highest earners. The Tax Policy Center has $1.12-$1.38t/year worth of other tax reforms that would shift the tax burden from working people to the idle rich:

https://taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-are-largest-tax-expenditures

Dayen says, "let's ask for about 20% of that" and ballparks the tax income at $200b/year.

How about subsidy cuts? $10b/year in fossil fuel subsidies. Eliminating the notorious sources of fraud in crop insurance would save $5b/year:

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-06-878t.pdf

There's $7b/year in subsidies to the Home Bank Loan system and $5b/year lost to pass-through entity loopholes.

Add it all up and you're saving $1.4215t/year without even breaking a sweat, just by tacking (some of) the country's worst looting and tax evasion. Dayen points out US expenditures will fall even more than this, because it won't be paying as much T-bill interest if it doesn't spend this money. We could also just make the Fed stop using the blunt, expensive tool of interest rate hikes to manage inflation. There's plenty of scenarios where interest payments result in the remaining $580b/year in savings, bringing the total up to $2t.

Now, sucking $2t/year out of the US economy all at once – even $2t in waste and fraud – would not be good for America! That kind of economic shock would bring the US economy to its knees, for years to come. All that money still fuels the demand side of the economy. But a slow rampup, and more public spending on useful programs (say, climate resiliency and retrofitting), would strengthen the economy while still bankrupting the fraud sector.

DOGE is wildly unpopular with the American electorate – even large pluralities of Republicans think its stupid. Campaigning on cutting fraud and profiteering would be a wildly popular way for Democrats to separate themselves from Republicans. Few Democrats are rising to the occasion, though.

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/27/beltway-bandits/#henhouse-foxes

Image: Steve Jurvetson (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/52005460639/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[labyrinthofstreams]

Jewish musicians of the 1960s

✡︎ Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941)

✡︎ Lesley Gore (born Lesley Sue Goldstein; May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015)

✡︎ Leonard Cohen (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016)

✡︎ Barbra Streisand (born April 24, 1942)

✡︎ Marty Balin (born Martyn Jerel Buchwald; January 30, 1942 – September 27, 2018) and Jorma Kaukonen (born December 23, 1940) of Jefferson Airplane

✡︎ Robby Krieger (born January 8, 1946) of The Doors

✡︎ Paul Simon (born October 13, 1941) and Art Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) of Simon & Garfunkel

✡︎ Phil Ochs (December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976)

✡︎ Cass Elliot (born Ellen Naomi Cohen; September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974) of The Mamas & The Papas

✡︎ Mary (December 28, 1948 – January 19, 2024) and Elizabeth Weiss (born November 27, 1946) of The Shangri-Las

✡︎ Neil Diamond (born January 24, 1941)

✡︎ Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink; April 7, 1951)

✡︎ Robbie Robertson (born Jaime Royal Robertson; July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) of The Band

✡︎ Gary Hirsh (March 9, 1940 – August 17, 2021), Barry Melton (born June 14, 1947), Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald (born January 1, 1942), and David Cohen (born August 4, 1942) of Country Joe and the Fish

✡︎ Manfred Mann (born Manfred Sepse Lubowitz; October 21, 1940)

[httpiastri]

PERFECTLY FINE – Y/N PROFILE

full name: y/n harper

date of birth: june 3rd, 2005

birthplace: cambridge, england

family members: william harper (father); sarah harper (mother)

teams: prema racing (2020-2023), campos racing (2024-now)

driver academy: red bull junior team (2019-now)

instagram: yourusername

best friends: jak crawford, dino beganovic, pepe marti

racing record:

2020 italian f4 championship – third place (six podiums; two wins)

2021 formula regional european championship – fifth place (four podiums; one win)

2022 formula regional european championship – second place (nine podiums; three wins)

2023 fia formula 3 championship – second place (five podiums; three wins)

2024 fia formula 2 championship – ongoing

trivia:

– y/n harper is the only child of four-time world champion william harper. her father was a ferrari driver for a total of eleven years and won his first two titles with the italian team in 2007 and 2008, before moving on to drive for red bull. there, he won his second championship in 2010 – only to move back to ferrari and take his last title with them the following season. as of early 2021, he's the head of the ferrari driver academy.

– y/n began karting at the age of seven, starting off with being coached by her father but later moving on to getting a trainer of her own. she joined the red bull junior team for her last year of karting and has stayed in the academy ever since.

– american f2 driver jak crawford joined the junior team one year later, and he and y/n found each other instantly. the two have been best friends, as well as neighbors, since then.

– y/n began being romantically involved with teammate paul aron during the summer break of the 2022 freca season. however, the pair split up almost a year later. she then started dating ferrari academy driver oliver bearman in late july 2023.

– y/n was homeschooled between ages 14 and 16 so that she could focus more on her driving.

– besides racing, her interests include skiing, baking, reading, and journaling.

– despite often being held back by her own performance anxiety and imposter syndrome, she is very set on and clear about her goal; getting into formula one. she has claimed that she will never truly be satisfied until she stands on the top step of the podium after an f1 race like her father did so many times.

series masterlist

[sgtgrunt0331-3]

U.S. Marines with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, posts security during Integrated Training Exercise (ITX) 3-23 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, April 14, 2023.

ITX is designed to provide large forces the opportunity to command and control their Marines through a live-fire program incorporating every element of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.

(Photo by Lance Cpl. Justin J. Marty)

[future-boi]

Doctober 2023 prompt #14: Coffee

Marty being clingy after the nightmare that is the Hell Valley timeline

George: this is fine

Don't keep reading LMAO

You fool

Suddenly evil!Marty? 😂

I spent wayyy too long on this... but it still makes me giggle 😆

The lengths I go to to I amuse myself 🙄 My humor is broken. I'll see myself out 😞😏🤭

Inspo for this prompt: The Hell Valley Timeline... + my own crackhead energy

[ferrarisbabygirl]

HI I WANNA TALK ABOUT YOUR TAAAGGGGS

YES YES YES YOURE EXACTLY RIGHT!!

This is a PROCESS

This is going to take YEARS but it is ALREADY WORKING!

It has WORKED more than ANYTHING ELSE THATS BEEN TRIED

we just need TIME

you’re so fucking right i’m screaming omg

i honestly love you so much for this post!! i usually find so hard to talk about f1 academy and have been on a few discussions on whether it is/will work - was called many names on twitter when i dared say that max was wrong in suggesting the cars needed to be faster lmao - so it's incredible to find someone who seems to get it.

f1 academy is a baby little series. just to put it in perspective 2024 is its second year and the first fully televised year... many point out to the girl's age being "too high for f4" and don't realize that this is the problem, in 2023 we simply didn't have that many 14, 15 or 16 year old girls ready to step up to single seaters for the first time that's why the age started so high and f1a's own karting program is what's changing this.

like you said in the post so many of the girls are leaving f1 academy with a much better career than they started and that is so important. just like not every f4, f3 or even f2 guy will reach f1 not every f1 academy girl will reach other single seat categories in the road to f1 and that's ok. lola lovinfosse, nerea marti and carrie schriner are some of the competitors who will be graduating from f1a with maybe not the most luxurious careers but with careers in a field they love and connections for future teams and sponsors.

i really think those who say "f1 academy isn't working" are either ignorant to the fact or choose to ignore their work in the champions of the future championship and in other areas of karting

tldr: i love f1 academy and believe in their potential so so so much it's insane <3

[middlespacekingdom]

i went into this knowing that the Wizards are a bad team, 2-18 before tonight, 14 game L streak

Marty has a season ticket package and hasn’t seen the Wizards win since 2023 and tonight’s W is only sweeter since there were SO MANY absolutely certain Nuggets fans

but not “Boo Girl” (what we started calling her) who got our section (and ultimately the entire arena) hyped by booing Denver free throws…it started as a lone, loud “Boooooooo!!!!” that became a celebration and while the research demonstrates that “home court advantage” is a myth, DEN FTs were only 59.3%

“Boo Girl” is my MVP and a W is a W, 3-18, you’re welcome Washington Wizards

[frithwontdie]

MLK: Cracks in the Plaster

[devoted-to-colin-farrell]

In Colin Farrell’s Golden Globe 2023 acceptance speech he said: "I want to thank Sheila Flitton, who played our banshee. I want to thank the cast and the crew, and the locals of Inis Mór and Achill Island that brought us in. There were lines blurred between all of us and we were just all one big family for the betterment of all our souls on that experience."

As a wrap gift, Colin gave Sheila a brown poncho from Inisheer.

The Banshees of the movie title and of the song Colm is composing are significant. In Irish folklore: female spirits who shriek and wail signal that a family member will die soon. In The Banshees of Inisherin, it’s clear that Mrs. McCormick (Shelia) whom Padraic and Siobhan avoid like the plague, is the village banshee. She suggests death is on the horizon with the Irish Civil War, Colm, Padraic or another islander.

Sheila with Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell at the Irish Premiere of The Banshees of Inisherin (14 October 2022).

Trivia - Martin McDonagh said he had the title of The Banshees of Inisherin long before he wrote the script. Similar to Colin’s character Marty who had the title of Seven Psychopaths before he wrote the script in the movie.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Kinkslump Linkdump

This is my dozenth linkdump! The world comes at you fast, and even though I'm writing 4-5 essays a week for this newsletter, many's the week that ends with more stray links than will fit in that format. Here's the previous ones:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

I managed to turn out five posts last week, despite being on tour with my latest novel, The Lost Cause, a hopeful solarpunk novel endorsed by Rebecca Solnit, Bill McKibben and Kim Stanley Robinson. The tour went great – the book's now a national bestseller on the USA Today list! Here's an essay I wrote explaining the structure of the feeling that the book is meant to convey:

https://www.torforgeblog.com/2023/11/14/cory-doctorow-the-swerve/

This is a climate emergency novel full of rising seas, terrible storms, wildfires and zoonotic plagues, and yet – it is a hopeful novel. What makes it hopeful? It depicts a future in which we are treating these phenomena with the gravitas and urgency they warrant, with our whole society's focus shifting to moving coastal cities inland, weatherizing and solarizing our housing, and creating permanent housing for internal refugees.

While it would be infinitely preferable to live in a world where none of that is necessary, that's not the world we have. This is an sf novel, not a fantasy novel, so all the climate harms we've locked in through decades of expensively procured inaction are present. But the difference between disaster and catastrophe is how and whether we address those harms. Sure, this is a world where superstorms wipe away whole cities and Miami is a drowned mangrove swamp, but it's also a world in which oil executives do not chair UN climate summits or complain that oil companies are being "unjustly vilified":

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/27/opec-says-oil-industry-unjustly-vilified-ahead-of-climate-talks-.html

I write a lot, and it's not just this newsletter. Writing transports me from my anxieties and aches. That's how I came to write nine books during lockdown ("when life gives you SARS, make sarsaparilla"). Lost Cause was one of three books I published in 2023.

I'm going to greet 2024 with another novel, The Bezzle, a sequel to 2023's Red Team Blues, about the hard-charging, high-tech forensic accountant Marty Hench:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

The Bezzle is a story about the shitty technology adoption curve – the way that the worst technologies we have are first rolled out on the people least able to complain about them. After these bad technologies have their sharp edges sanded down on the bodies of prisoners, refugees and kids, they move up to blue collar workers and discount store shoppers, and so on, until we're all living under their thumb.

In The Bezzle, a dear friend of Marty finds himself serving a long sentence in a privatized California prison that flips from one private equity fund to the next, each with even worse, more extractive ways to use technology to bleed prisoners and their families dry. You can read the opening scenes in a just-published excerpt on Tor Books's site:

https://www.torforgeblog.com/2023/11/20/excerpt-reveal-the-bezzle-by-cory-doctorow/

The period immediately before a book's publication is always a tense one, as the first reviews trickle in. Library Journal's Marlene Harris is the first out of the gate, with a spectacular review:

https://www.libraryjournal.com/review/the-bezzle-1802415

Marty’s reminiscences range from obscure financial machinations to heaping helpings of social commentary but always move the underlying thriller story forward in a backwards heist tale that delivers a righteously satisfying ending to the surprise of both the reader and the villain. This novel, like his previous outing, rides on Marty’s voice. He has a jaundiced view of everything, but he tells it with such style and verve that readers are caught up and ride along on the surface until the shark beneath the water jumps out and bites the villain where it hurts.

I'm headed into Skyboat Media's studios on Monday with @wilwheaton to record the audiobook for this one, directed as ever by the amazing Gabrielle de Cuir. Keep your eyes peeled for a presale crowdfunder in January!

I am often asked how I decide when to present an idea through fiction and when to do so with nonfiction. The answer is a complicated one, and I got into it in some detail on Nature's Working Scientist podcast, in discussion with Paul Shrivastava:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03394-8

When it comes to politics, fiction and nonfiction are intensely complementary. Nonfiction can convey the data about a social phenomenon, but fiction can convey the meaning of the data. It's one thing to see a chart about inequality, and another to inhabit it through fiction. Marty Hench's narrative adventures are a way into the feeling of living in a corrupt oligarchy.

There are other ways into that feeling, of course. Take Barry Bowen's "Lifestyles of the Blessed & Famous: Preacher Homes Sold in 2023" for The Roys Report:

https://julieroys.com/lifestyles-blessed-famous-preacher-homes-sold-2023/?mc_cid=9678383b64

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then carefully staged realtor drone shots ganked from the Redfin listing for a "pastor"'s $3.5m mansion in Newport Beach is a full-on sermon about the corruption of the Hillsong megachurch:

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Newport-Beach/503-30th-St-92663/home/12363926

Narratives and photos are all well and good, but there's always room for some data. The USA's weird breed of federalism and devolved power makes for some very interesting data. Writing for The American Prospect, Paul Starr rounds up several studies evaluating the "natural experiments" created by enacting very different policies in otherwise similar states:

https://prospect.org/health/2023-12-08-life-death-cost-conservative-power/

The data is in: conservativism kills. Living in a red state shortens your life expectancy. The redder the state, the worse it is. The bluer the state, the longer you're likely to live:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-0009.12469

The exemplars here are Connecticut and Oklahoma, whose life expectancies were at par until they began to diverge in policies. Oklahoma got more conservative, Connecticut got more liberal. Today, the average Oklahoman will pop their clogs at 75.8, while a Connecticutensian can expect 80.7 years.

Different scholars have parsed out different policy outcomes. Giving Medicaid to children, for example, shows benefits for the next 50 years:

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20171671

The big one, of course, is gun control. Here's the topline: "restrictive state gun policies reduce overall gun deaths." Water also wet:

https://journals.lww.com/epidem/fulltext/2023/11000/the_era_of_progress_on_gun_mortality__state_gun.3.aspx

Fact-free spiritual beliefs like "an armed society is a polite society" are key to conservative policymaking. Pesky progressives who confuse the issue with relevant facts are playing dirty, pointing out reality's unfair leftist bias.

But after 40 years of neoliberal deference to corporate power, the worm is turning. Somehow, a world on fire, filled with megapastors in megamansions who brief for lethal policies, has finally inspired a global vibe-shift (and not a moment too soon!). One of the most tangible expressions of that shift is the revival of antitrust, which has been in a coma since the Reagan administration.

All over the world – the EU, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and the USA – there are new competition enforcers challenging corporate power in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago. If I'd written an enforcer like FTC chair Lina Khan in 2010, critics would have slammed me for wish-fulfillment too unrealistic for science fiction.

But today, Khan is taking big swings at corporate power, fighting against a calcified edifice of decades of bad, pro-monopoly precedent. The pro-monopoly press hate her, which is why the WSJ keeps publishing sweaty op-eds insisting that she is wasting her time and that monopolies are good, actually:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

But she is still out there, fighting for all of us. After a pro-monopoly judge stymied the FTC's bid to block the rotten Microsoft/Activision merger, Khan re-filed, appealing the decision:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-ftc-tries-again-stop-microsofts-already-closed-deal-activision-2023-12-06/

Critics insist that she's on a foolish errand, but Khan is tackling the most promising face of a sheer cliff, and the plainly anticompetitive merger between one of the world's largest console makers (a convicted monopolist!) with one of the world's largest games publishers is the right place to start. If she can get her piton into one of the hairline cracks in that face, her arduous climb gains a solid anchor for the next stage of her assent.

Of course, Khan's highest-profile action is her case against Amazon, the omnipresent, dystopian poster-child for enshittification, a platform we can't avoid, but which is so haphazardly policed that the bestselling bitter lemon energy drink you order might be bottled piss harvested from its immiserated drivers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/20/release-energy/#the-bitterest-lemon

In a world of murderous, community-destroying monopolies, Amazon stands out for the sheer number of ways it makes the world worse. Amazon maims its warehouse workers and kills its drivers with impossible quotas. It poisons Black and brown neighborhoods with truck exhaust from its giant depots. It destroys small businesses that sell on its platform. It was part of the studio cabal scheming to destroy actors and writers' livelihoods with unfair contracts and AI. Its audiobook monopoly stole at least $100m from independent authors. It makes goods and services more expensive at every retailer (not just Amazon), and price-gouges on its own storefront:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

Keeping that scam going requires a lot of skullduggery. A new set of leaked internal Amazon documents shed some light on how that inedible sausage gets made:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxjbm9/amazon-brags-it-cultivated-california-mayor-with-donations-in-leaked-policy-document

Amazon's "Community Engagement Plan 2024" brags about buying off small-town mayors and astroturf groups in its bid to resist regulations that would limit warehouse delivery van emissions in communities of color (Amazon calls this "philanthropic work"). Coincidentally, that "philanthropy" targeted Perris, a town where residents voted for a warehouse tax to repair the roads that had been trashed by fleets of Amazon vans.

But the real focus of Amazon's "Community Engagement" is California's AB1000, a bill that will limit the construction of supersized, 100k+ sqft warehouses near daycare centers, schools or rec centers. Secondarily, Amazon is hoping to get California to make it easier to advertise alcohol around kids, to "unlock" California's liquor market.

This kind of shameless, mustache-twirling villainry can only go on so long before it meets resistance. One of the longest-running, hardest fought struggles against corporate malfeasance is the farmers' right ro repair fight against John Deere. Deere boobytraps its tractors so that after a farmer repairs a Deere tractor, they have to wait for days, and pay hundreds of dollars, for a Deere technician to come out to the farm and type an unlock code into the tractor's console:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

Despite multiple state right-to-repair initiatives and a pending rulemaking from the FTC, Deere is still fucking around. Now, they've found out. US District Court Judge Iain Johnson just handed Deere a scathing, 89-page memo rejecting the company's bid to kill a class action suit brought by its customers:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/deere-must-face-us-farmers-right-to-repair-lawsuits-judge-rules-2023-11-27/?ref=404media.co

The memo hearkens back to company founder John Deere, "an innovative farmer and blacksmith who—with his own hands—fundamentally changed the agricultural industry":

https://www.404media.co/a-massive-repair-lawsuit-against-john-deere-clears-a-major-hurdle/

Judge Johnson tells Deere's lawyers that the real John Deere "would be deeply disappointed in his namesake corporation," and calls out their lying. You love to see it.

This kind of thing is happening all over the world as policymakers, regulators and lawmakers take aim at corporate power. The Australian government just announced that it would force Apple to open up iOS to alternative browser engines:

https://open-web-advocacy.org/blog/new-digital-competition-laws-for-australia/

This is obscure and technical, but that's why it's so exciting: rather than mumbling broad platitudes about competition and user choice, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's regulation targets a critical leverage point where a small change will deliver huge benefits:

https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/consumers-and-small-businesses-to-benefit-from-proposed-new-regulation-of-digital-platforms

While there are many browsers in Apple's App Store, they're all just reskinned versions of Safari, all running on the same core engine, Webkit. Webkit is ancient, undermaintained and feature-poor. Crucially, Webkit does not implement the parts of the HTML5 standard needed for WebApps, which would allow app developers a safe channel to offer apps that don't go through Apple's App Store monopoly chokepoint:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/13/kitbashed/#app-store-tax

Now, there's a big jump between announcing this kind of regulation and enacting it. As Mark Nottingham points out, Australia's had an "in principle" commitment to enact a privacy regulation for two successive governments, with no actual regulation in sight:

https://techpolicy.social/@mnot/111546662237364754

So we can't take these announcements as a sign to declare victory and stand down. The policymakers who announce these proposals deserve our accolades for the announcement and they require our constant vigilance until they make good on their promises.

That's the case in Ireland, where the Coimisiún na Meán has just published a fantastic regulatory proposal for recommendation systems, requiring recommenders to be turned off by default and that recommendations based on "political views, sexuality, religion, ethnicity or health" have to be switched off by default:

https://www.cnam.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Draft_Online_Safety_Code_Consultation_Document_Final.pdf

It's especially significant that this is coming out of Ireland, a corporate crime haven that has successfully lured the world's tech giants into flying its flag of convenience, with the guarantee of tax evasion and lax regulation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

This rule won't enforce itself. It'll require constant vigilance and pressure. There's plenty of ways to do that on a part-time, voluntary basis, but if this kind of thing enflames you enough to make a career out of it, here's a tenure-track job for an infosec professor at Citizen Lab, fearless slayers of high-tech corporate ogres:

https://jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-Assistant-Professor-Information-Security-ON/576463017/

That's all for this week's linkdump. It's time for me to go hole up in my office and wrap presents. When I do, I'll be tuning into the latest Merry Mixmas MP3 of Christmas mashups from DJ Riko:

http://www.djriko.com/dls/DJ%20Riko%20-%20Merry%20Mixmas%202023.mp3

Riko's Christmas mashups have been part of my holidays for more than two decades now. He's been making them for 22 years! That's a lot of great holiday mashups:

https://www.djriko.com/mixmases.htm

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/09/gallimaufry/#marty-hench-rides-again

[bg-sparrow]

Sicktember 2023 Masterlist!

[The Maladies of Marty McFly on AO3]

1. Hopelessly Bad at Self-Care "I'm so sorry." 2. Quest for a Cure 3. "What happened to your phenomenal immune system, huh?" Fuzzy Socks 4. Hiding an Illness 5. Preventative Measures (Not Taken) 6. Sick and Injured 7. “You’re a Jerk When You’re Sick” 8. Persistent Fever 9. White Coat Syndrome 10. “The only place we’re going is to the pharmacy” 11. Beginner’s Guide to Faking Sick 12. Old Wives Tale 13. Anxious Stomach 14. ‘‘I shouldn’t be worried about you, but for some reason I am’’ 15. Sick in an Inconvenient Place 16. Consulting the Internet/Web MD 17. Magical Remedy/Healing Potion 18. “Wear Your Coat, You’ll Catch a Cold” 19. Curled Up With a Pet 20. Cramping Pain 21. "But if you stay, you'll get sick too" Pounding Headache 22. Terms of Endearment/Nicknames 23. Coughing Fit 24. “Did you just sneeze?” 25. Confused/Disoriented 26. Pink Eye/Conjunctivitis 27. Uncooperative Patient 28. “I should have stayed home” 29. Side Effects/Adverse Reaction 30. Patient 0 Forehead Kisses

[ncisfranchise-source]

The evolving dramatic universe centered around "NCIS" is hitting a major milestone: 1,000 combined episodes.

The April 15 episode of the original "NCIS" (9 EDT/PDT) will reach the millennial mark propelled by the "NCISverse" of shows that now spans from "NCIS: Hawaii" to "NCIS: Sydney," on CBS and Paramount+. Franchise stars from past and present were on hand for a February celebration during the filming of the episode, which features crossover stars Daniela Ruah (from now-defunct "NCIS: Los Angeles") and Vanessa Lachey (from "NCIS: Hawaii").

Two new upcoming shows – "NCIS: Origins" and the still-untitled spinoff led by Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo – were also represented at the party.

"Now it's like our own Marvel universe within 'NCIS,' which is the ultimate testament of the power of this show," says Rocky Carroll, who has portrayed Leon Vance on "NCIS" since 2008.

'NCIS' (2003 - )

"NCIS," also known as "The Mothership," is a spinoff of creator Donald Bellisario's naval legal show "JAG," which aired on NBC in 1995-96 and for nine more seasons (1997-2005) on CBS. 

Notable characters: Mark Harmon, the "NCIS" cornerstone as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, left in 2021 after nearly two decades. Other departed original characters include Weatherly's Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo, who departed in 2016 after 13 seasons, Pauley Perrette's Abby Sciuto, exiting in 2018 after 350 episodes, and David McCallum's Donald "Ducky" Mallard (the veteran actor died last year).

"NCIS" has been network TV's most-watched drama for the last five seasons with a team that includes Carroll, Sean Murray (Timothy McGee), Brian Dietzen (Jimmy Palmer), Wilmer Valderrama (Nicholas Torres), Katrina Law (Jessica Knight), Diona Reasonover (Kasie Hines) and Gary Cole (Alden Parker).

Seasons: 21

How to watch: CBS (Mondays 9 EDT/PDT); Paramount+; Netflix (first 15 seasons).

'NCIS: Los Angeles' (2009-23)

Notable characters: Ruah's Kensi Blye and the star pairing of Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J, as G. Callen and Sam Hanna, respectively. Linda Hunt starred as Henrietta "Hetty" Lange and Eric Christian Olsen as Marty Deeks.

Seasons: 14

How to watch: PlutoTV, for purchase on iTunes.

Flavor: The first spinoff was an instant hit that played a crucial role in expanding the franchise "during its incredibly long run," says David Stapf, president of producer CBS Studios.

'NCIS: New Orleans' (2014-21)

Notable characters: Scott Bakula as Dwayne "King" Pride, CCH Pounder as Loretta Wade and Lucas Black as Christopher LaSalle.

Seasons: 7

How to watch: Paramount+, PlutoTV.

'NCIS: Hawai'i' (2021- )

Notable characters: Lachey became the franchise's first female and Asian American, lead as Special Agent in Charge Jane Tennant of the Pearl Harbor Field Office. Supporting stars include Alex Tarrant (Kai Holman), Noah Mills (Jesse Boone), Jason Antoon (Ernie Malik), Tori Anderson (Kate Whistler) and Yasmine Al-Bustami (Lucy Tara). Sam, LL Cool J's LA transplant, moved to "NCIS: Hawai'i" in Season 3.

Seasons: 3

How to watch: CBS (Mondays at 10 EDT/PDT), Paramount+.

Flavor: Set in paradise with unforgettable island surroundings and many crimes intertwined with Hawaiian lore – with an added dose of Cool J. Stapf says the actor will continue "hopefully, forever, or as long as he wants to do it."

'NCIS: Sydney' (2023- )

Notable characters: Michelle Mackey (Olivia Swann) heads the collaboration between the NCIS Sydney office and the Australian Federal Police led by Jim "JD" Dempsey (Todd Lasance). Originally conceived for Australian TV audiences but recruited to the American schedule during the Hollywood strike, "NCIS: Sydney" has proven its worth, fair dinkum, and was renewed for a second season in March.

Seasons: 1

How to watch:Paramount+

'NCIS: Origins' (CBS 2024-25)

Notable characters: Beloved leader Gibbs returns as a younger man for the franchise's prequel series, "NCIS: Origins," announced in March "The Hating Game" star Austin Stowell will play young Gibbs. "We weren't just casting Gibbs; we were casting a young Mark Harmon," says Stapf. "And Austin embodies it all."

Harmon, 72, will narrate and serve as executive producer. Sean Harmon, Mark's real-life son, who often played the younger version of Gibbs in flashbacks on "NCIS," will also serve as executive producer.

"Origins" follows young Gibbs as he fights for his place on the team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks. Kyle Schmid has been cast as the younger version of the Texan Franks (Muse Watson in "NCIS") who played a pivotal role in Gibbs' early career.

How to watch: Coming to CBS this fall.

Untitled Tony and Ziva spinoff (CBS)

Notable characters: Fans loved the special sizzle between agents Tony DiNozzo (Weatherly) and Ziva David (Cote De Pablo, who left "NCIS" in 2013 after eight seasons). The couple, known as Tiva, announced their return in February for a European-set spinoff on Paramount+. No premiere date has been set, nor has an actor been cast to play the couple's young daughter Tali.

After Tony’s security company is attacked by terrorists, the new show features a family on the run through Europe.

How to watch: Coming to Paramount+

Flavor: Whatever the title, it's "NCIS: Tiva." In a statement, the two stars promised "an action-packed roller coaster fueled by love, danger, tears and laughter."

[sgtgrunt0331-3]

U.S. Marines with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, post security during Integrated Training Exercise (ITX) 3-23 at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California, April 14, 2023.

(Photo by Lance Cpl. Justin J. Marty)

[writing-fanics]

The Flash Review 2023 / Let Me Say

Never done a review on a movie before on here but here’s mine.

So the The Flash has been in development hell for decades, multiple directors delays. Set backs and other things. Was supposed to come out in 2018 but didn’t. Multiple, controversies and reshoots.

Firstly, Ezra Miller before their controversy I’ll admit I’ve had a crush on them. Especially, when I saw them in Fantastic Beasts as Credence Barebone/Aurelius Dumbledore and then when I saw them as Barry Allen in The Justice League. I was absolutely in love.

I was a middle school teenager around, 14. and was mostly crushing on fictional characters and reading Killing Stalking. I still continued to crush on their characters and the actor themselves, and I still do on the characters not the actor..

don’t get me wrong I love some of Ezra’s work which is fine in my opinion. I’ve really only seen them in, Fantastic Beasts and The Flash. I haven’t seen Perks of Being a Wallflower yet which I’ll definitely watch eventually.

I understand, not wanting to see The Flash because of their controversy and the things they’ve done.

But… I will say that his performance as Barry Allen. Is very enjoyable and funny and goofy, what I expect from a character like the Flash. I mostly grew up liking Batman but Ezra’s Flash I immediately fell in love with I’m the past movies

Again, I understand not wanting to see the film because of Ezra. Which is totally up to you even I was skeptical of seeing it. But I went with my gut and decided to see a film I’ve been excited about since I was like 15 years old.

Actually Talking about the Movie Now

SPOILERS

So, I waited five years for this and the opening was great the first act amazing. I love that he needs to basically eat food or he basically isn’t at full strength. That aspect I love. The CGI…

The CGI babies reminded me of Renesmee, and the director said it’s because we’re seeing it from Flash’s perspective and since he’s fast. He sees things differently and it’s distorted. Him saving, the babies from the hospital goofy as fuck..

But I couldn’t stop laughing.. Elephant in the room, him putting the baby into the microwave.. I audible laughed in theater and was “like no fucking way he just put dat baby in a microwave, like it’s a some breakfast burrito.” the guy next to me laughed when I said that

when he went for the vending machine instead of the baby.. I laughed the dog slowly falling I laughed. I love the interactions between Bruce and Barry, Barry and Iris left more to be desired honestly. Since last we saw her was in a slow mo in Snyder Cut. (which also was pretty decent but could’ve been shorter if not for the slow mo)

Flash is knocked into the next dimension by evil lookin dude

in all a or one gets a 7/10

Act Two.. Eric Stoltz is Marty Mcfly

Barry going back in time was cool, I loved how they interpreted him going back in time. That was cool seeing all the things that happened was amazing.

Young Barry, is fucking annoying but honestly he stole my heart. Like legit he’s goofy as fuck and honestly I’d probs have a crush on him if I went to the same school as him. His introduction is hilarious, and how Future!Barry tackled him to the ground I laughed. Past!Barry life though is just….

Their interactions were just goofy and hilarious, and also they honestly kinda had that older brother and little brother thing going on in my opinion. Which also added to me liking their interactions and little quips.

Barry, losing his powers and just doing that goofy run everyone dunks on is just hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing. Also, I had no idea who the fuck Eric Stoltz was.. and I was like Barry really just ruined back to the future by going back in time.

Also, even tho I hate Aquaman the fact he’s a dog in this universe. Omg..

Also the younger flash had me cracking up more.. the scene when he ran back into the apartment naked with a music instrument covering his parts. And slowly shuffled away I laughed.

seeing Micheal Keaton, I was so happy cause I absolutely adore Tim Burton’s Batman films. Especially, the sequel I love Catwoman in that one Omg!

Seeing him again, firstly as a disheveled man with th Gandalf beard I was like yo did batman? But seeing him in da suit. Brought back memories.. watching it for the first time on dvd when my mom bought it while at Walmart for me.

Kara, she was good I prefer her over Superman. Cause, gonna say it now.. I didn’t like Man of Steel. It was boring and I didn’t understand it cause of the constant flashbacks it got confusing. For little me.

But Amy Adams was in it so.. I was like ooh Giselle.

But I did get excited seeing Zod, idk why again I didn’t enjoy Man of Steel. But my stupid little ass liked Justice League it’s a guilty pleasure now but I was 14 when it came out soo. But I’m not surprised cause I also liked Batman V Superman and the Suicide Squad not The Suicide Squad (2021) < this one I love the first one no

Back to the Flash, I wish she was in the movie longer tho. When Barry saved her in the Russian base.. and said I got you and she repeated it back to him.. my heart..

also phasing the molecule scene I was like ‘He’s molecules got all rearrange’

6.5/10

Act Three…. zod kills babies now also bat nipples

so…we find out what happened to baby Superman.. Zod killed him when trying to find the key to remake Krypton.. yeah.. fuk Zod.

them preparing for battle was cool to watch but this act, also was the slowest. my mind started to wonder off about flash fanfiction I’ve read (on ezra’s flash before the controversy might I add).. then I went back to the movie.

so.. everything goes to shit real fast Batman dies. Kara dies. And both Barry try to fix it. and eventually older Barry realizes they can’t.

but the younger one who hasn’t seen lost, and is immature. Keeps trying, and I love how his suit gets darker and darker each time he travels back more and more sharp stuff starts appearing and eventually it’s revealed the guy that kicked flash at the beginning is Dark Flash.

which I figured out once I saw the stuff appearing on, younger flash. I’m all younger flash dies and dark flash ceases to exist.

Barry goes back and quickly disguised himself, and takes the cam of tomatoes his past self put in back onto the shelf not before having one last conversation with his mom. And I honestly teared up a bit. It was so sweet seeing him finally get to say goodbye to his mom.

and her giving him a hug. a twinge of me though she realized it was her son but she didn’t. And it was sweet.

the movie ends with his dad getting acquitted, and a hunted date for Barry and Iris and then fucking George Clooney is revealed as Bruce Wayne but he isn’t

also during one scene we see multiple versions of the Flash and Superman’s, we see the og and the one our parents most likely grew up on which I know has a lot of controversy. We see Adam West Batman. And Nicholas Cage Superman!!

omg I new from the way it looked it was him.

I’d give this act a 4.5/10 was slow

i guess im total the film is a B- it isn’t great but it’s good.

Ezra as the flash is great, i haven’t really gotten into the CW flash show I tried to but I wasn’t feeling it like I was with Gotham.

But from a cinematic stand point, I love Ezra Miller as The Flash. Despite, their controversy their version of the Flash/Barry as honeslty meant a lot to be growing up especially since I’d just moved across the state again from

Washington state to NC leaving behind my friends and a house I loved which I had a little place under the stairs. And my own living room. but since we moved I have none of that no place under the stairs for me to escape to when my adopted siblings get on my nerves.

i have a room but the loft is right next to it, and whenever they’re being loud I can hear it full volume and I wished I had a place under the stairs again.

Yes, Ezra Miller deserves to pay for the actions they’ve done spend some time in jail (even). And not get off with the slap on the wrist. I’m happy they’ve said that they’re getting help I applauded that but I’m still upset by the things they’ve been accused up especially for someone who enjoys the things they’ve been in.

But, I didn’t let that destroy my enjoyment of the film and seeing Barry again I couldn’t be even more happier and honestly my 14 year old self in me was still crushing on Barry disassociating him from the actor that portrays him.

In all..

Ezra Miller, should be held accountable of their actions and spend some jail time. Stay away from the camera a bit and get the help they need, and then and only then we’ll see what happens. Honestly idk this is my mind set I’m sometimes a very forgiving person depending on the circumstances.

I’m a fan of Ezra’s work that won’t change.. since he’s impacted my young teenage years for being in Fantastic Beasts heck I still have the Credence Barebone Lego dimensions thing. And then being as the Flash..

But as of now.. I’m absolutely heartbroken by the things they’ve done.

[I won’t turn off comments on this I will delete any hate towards me or anyone else if needed]

[wromwood]

BTTF quiz thing

Tagged by @rose-of-pollux. Thanks! Tagging @penny-anna and if anyone else wants to do this, they can!

This year:

How many times would you guess you watched the first back to the future movie?

Does "this year" mean how many times I watched the first movie this year? If so, then.... none, actually. But I was thinking about it a lot! If it's asking how much I've seen the movie over the course of my life, then sooooo many times. Can't think of a way to start counting.

2. Did you get any sweet bttf merch? If so, what!

Again, not this year, but in December of 2022, I got a little BttF skateboard keychain from the merch table of the Back to the Future musical.

3. How many cans of Pepsi Free did you chug this year?

I'm a Coke guy.

4. What was a favorite bttf fanfic you read this year?

Too many to choose from by penny-anna, who wrote so many this past year that I can't decide. Maybe the one where Marty's a borrower.

5. A favorite bttf fanart you saw this year? (please give us a link, not a screencap/repost!)

Honestly, I haven't seen or saved much BttF art. Sorry!

6. Did you create any bttf fanart or fanfic? If you did, what one(s) are you proudest of?

I'm more of a BttF lurker. I did write an extra verse for the "Something About That Boy" song from the BttF musical, but I didn't post it.

7. How many times were you late for work this year?

None. Most of my work was remote, and I was always on time for the work that wasn't.

8. Did you watch any other movies/tv shows with BTTF actors in them?

This year? ... wow, I really can't think of anything.

9. Was there a memorable moment you heard a Huey Lewis song this year?

Ooh, fun question! I'm gonna cheat a bit. This year, I relistened to a whole lot of Weird Al, so to prepare myself for "I Want A New Duck," I re-listened to "I Want a New Drug." I found myself grooving to it because I hadn't heard it in a while.

10. How many times did you fall down this year?

At least once or twice.

11. Did you get to see BTTF: The Musical? What was your experience like?

Yes, in London last December. It was super fun and I was bouncing in my seat by the end. I just wish the rest of my memories of the London trip were as positive.

12. How many times did your mom retell the story of how she and your father met?

None this year. My dad got close to telling the story once or twice.

13. If you could describe your year in a BTTF quote, which one would it be?

"I mean, what if they say I'm no good? What if they say, 'Get outta here, kid, you got no future?' I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection."

14. ⚡️LIGHTNING ROUND⚡️ Did you get to: go on any trains, skate on a skateboard, ride a horse, drive a DeLorean, run in the rain, go to a dance, hang up a clock, play the guitar, pull an all-nighter, read science fiction, or drive thru Burger King this year?

Yes, I went on a train (if you don't count subway trains, at the beginning of 2023, I took a train trip from Edinburgh all the way to Burnley, got driven to Colne, then rode the train back from Colne to Edinburgh). I went to a ceilidh and a couple of theater society dances. I unfortunately pulled my fair share of all-nighters finishing my dissertation. I read some sci-fi, including the first book of the Monk and Robot series just recently.

15. Your future is whatever you make it! So what are you going to make of this coming year?

I'm going to get back into the habit of writing regularly and finish my novel.