#Joe Miller and the investigator

[yumyumpod]

Watching The Expanse for the first time: Season Three

[tuppencetrinkets]

#1,500 200x100 icons of Thomas Jane as Investigator Miller / Josephus Miller in season 3 of The Expanse; slightly sharpened.

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[mariacallous]

At noon ET on Monday, the US presidency changed hands, and one of the largest governments in the world rearranged itself in service to the petulance and vulgarity of the nation’s new president.

At the Pentagon, a portrait of a general who Donald Trump had found insufficiently deferential to him in his first term was removed from a wall; photographs of the empty spot circulated on social media. Trump was set to sign a bevvy of executive orders, pledging to withdraw the US from the Paris climate agreement, to revoke policies promoting wind energy and electric cars, and to exert executive powers to speed up the construction of oil pipelines.

He was scheduled to revoke federal acknowledgement of transgender identity for the purposes of civil rights law, declaring in his inaugural address that “there are only two genders”. And Reproductiverights.gov, a federal web site aimed at helping women navigate abortion access, immediately went offline.

CBPOne, an app used by migrants to the US to manage their interactions with immigration officials, went dark when Trump was sworn in. An announcement posted on the programs website said that all existing appointments had been cancelled, leaving tens of thousands of people in the lurch. The press has reported that the new administration plans a series of high-profile raids in major cities this week, in search of immigrants to deport.

Latino businessowners in Chicago reported lost revenue as their clientele stayed home out of fear; a friend from college, a New York City public high school teacher, shared the instructions from her school administrators on how to protect her students in the event of an Ice raid. Meanwhile, Trump’s aides said he would issue an order ending birthright citizenship for the US-born children of immigrants, a move that would create a class of hundreds of thousands of un-Americans and move the concept of US citizenship from a legally protected status to something more akin to an inherited one.

It is not clear what authority, exactly, Trump has to do this; birthright citizenship, after all, is enshrined in the United States constitution. Like much of the inauguration’s declarations, the statements may be for show – grand pronouncements that will be muddled and eroded by the reality of policymaking, the grind of bureaucracy, the whittling-down of lawsuits.

Stephen Miller, the longtime Trump adviser and anti-immigrant crusader, has planned, according to the New York Times, a sort of shock-and-awe approach, hoping to issue as many executive orders and pursue as many maximalist policy changes as possible within the first days of the administration, hoping to terrify and exhaust the opposition. As is always the case with Trump, his statements are much grander than his actions. That doesn’t mean that his actions will not hurt people.

Trump returns to power with more loyal followers and more skittish, deferential and frightened enemies. The Republican party has been reshaped in his image, and so have the courts: just last summer, the US supreme court, including all three of Trump’s first-term nominees, voted to make him virtually immune from criminal prosecution for acts taken in office.

He has pledged to pardon all the convicted January 6 insurrectionists, and to halt prosecutions of those not yet convicted. And he is likely to use his authority over federal law enforcement to pursue civil and criminal proceedings against his enemies. On his way out the door, Joe Biden made a point of pre-emptively pardoning lawmakers who had investigated the January 6 attack, to protect them from Trump’s reprisals. The Democrats are weak, fractured, embittered and scared; the same consultants whose advice lost them the 2024 election are now telling them to defer to Trump, abandon resistance, and shift to the right. So far, many of them appear to be listening. The others are pointing fingers at one another.

Right now the money is on Trump, and the money is substantial. The three richest men in the world – Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg – all sat in the front row at Trump’s inauguration. (His cabinet members were in the second.) The men are there to court lucrative government contracts and discourage regulation of their businesses, but they also appear willing to commit themselves to Trump’s ideological project, especially with regards to gender, and to wield the massive communications platforms that they control to further his culture war agenda.

Bezos has intervened at the Washington Post to tilt the editorial slant in Trump’s favor; Zuckerberg has removed many sex, sexuality and gender protections from the content moderation policies of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. Musk, meanwhile, is reportedly slated to be given an office in the West Wing, though he has no official government job. Speaking at a rally of Trump supporters held at an arena after the official inauguration ceremony, the billionaire effusively thanked the crowd in his mealy South African accent. Musk then jerked a flat hand from his chest into the air, in a gesture that resembled a Nazi salute.

There is something broken in the soul when such spectacles can no longer shock you. But I confess that they no longer shock me. America is ruled, now, by men who are extremely psychologically transparent: their resentment and greed, their desperate, seeking needfulness, their insecurity and rage at those who provoke it; these things seep off these men, like a stench. They are evil men, and pathetic ones: mentally small, morally ugly. They are relentlessly predictable.

Here is another prediction: these men will not succeed in all their schemes. They will not deport as many people as they say they will; he will not change the law as much as they pledge to; they will not, cannot, capture the institutions as completely, or bury dissent as successfully. They cannot do everything they aim to do. Because politics is not over; because our institutions are not all collapsed; and because the existing institutions are not the only methods of resistance and refusal.

The Trumpist movement that ascended to power on Monday is relying on a tired, defeated America, one too diminished to do anything but submit to their demands and schemes. But the American spirit is indefatigable: it loves freedom and equality, abhors tyranny, values minding your own business and hates, above all, to be told what to do. When Trump was last in office, Americans found, at the end, that they did not like it. They will not like it now, either, and that dislike, however tardy, will have political consequences.

[puppy-steve]

one evening, eddie crouches on the porch next to where his granny sits in her rocking chair. lowers his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "psst. hey, granny."

she merely hums and tilts her head in his direction.

"whadda'ya reckon happened to that well over there?"

he points to the decorative wishing well at the end of the driveway. the roof of it's been torn off, the shingles laying scattered in the yard.

"well," granny says, in her slow and croaky cadence, her chair creaking as she rocks, "i imagine it was the storm we got last night. y'know, all that wind and rain knockin' things about."

eddie nods and bobby joe sits on granny's other side, seemingly popping up out of nowhere.

"y'know what i think happened, granny?" bobby joe asks. he and eddie share a mischievous glance.

bobby joe leans in close and looks around like he's expecting someone to be eavesdropping. "i think it was those miller boys down the road."

granny stops rocking. eddie holds back his snickering.

bobby joe continues, "yeah, i think i saw 'em last night, sneakin' around the yard."

granny grabs her cane and stands on wobbly legs. "well, i reckon i'll just have teach those boys a lesson, won't i?"

she hobbles over to the front door and calls out as she walks in the house, "pep, go grab that shotgun out of my room!"

eddie and bobby joe break into hysterics, falling over each other as they laugh until their sides hurt. one of the dogs comes over to investigate and licks all over their faces when she decides they aren't hurt, making eddie and bobby joe laugh even harder.

"eddie wayne, bobby joe, what did you tell your grandmother?!"

aunt peggy's yell is what breaks them up and makes them run toward the barn.

[yeollie-plz]

Let Me Go

Joel Miller x GN! Reader

Synopsis: Six reasons you wanted Joel Miller and one reason he wouldn't have you.

Genre: Angst, with some fluff for backstory purposes

Warnings: age gap, heart break, cuddling, mentions of fighting

Gif credits to owners!

When you had met Joel, he was this tough guy with a rough exterior. But as time went on there was something warmer about him. Something almost comforting.

This comfort soon turned into reliance and then dependence and sure enough you were in love with the older man. It wasn't just one thing that had led to the fall, actually it was six. You had counted them all, it was exact. Just like his exactly one reason to not have you. The one reason he broke your heart and ignored what he truly felt.

One: Little Gestures

The two of you had met in winter, the snow was falling lightly onto the streets of the Boston QZ. You were freezing, still not used to the chill of the winter air. Not to mention your jacket was thin.

You had met Tess a few times, traded a few things. But you had yet to meet her "guy". This "guy" was Joel, someone she had formed some sort of attachment to. This time Tess had brought Joel along.

He didn't say much, didn't really even make eye contact with you. Instead he sat there, scanning the surroundings.

You shivered slightly as a gust of wind passed the three of you. Not thinking much of it, you continued your conversation. Out of the corner of your eye you noticed something grab Joel's attention as he sauntered off to investigate it.

When he returned, he passed closer to you dropping the jacket that was once donned his shoulders onto your own. Your eyebrows furrowed at the gesture and when you went to question him, he had once again disappeared somewhere. So instead, you gladly accepted the thicker material and its collection of body heat.

You also accepted the flutter in your heart the gesture had given you.

Two: Eyes

Number two was a pair of things: his eyes.

The brown orbs held so much pain, yet every time they passed over5 you there was a softness behind them. It was like he could read everything your mind was trying to tell him. Sometimes they were even trying to scream out to him.

You never needed to bring up the hard stuff to Joel, he just knew. He knew you had pain just like he did. He knew not to dwell on those facts. They were the past and although he didn't see his future he knew yours was as bright as your eyes.

Three: Protector

Tess told you Joel was a protector. He'd do anything for the people he cared about. Even more for those he loved.

"This is why he's so good to have around." She told you. You had always thought there was something between her and Joel. That was until she told you otherwise.

One night you had gotten yourself into a little bit of danger. Some guys were trying to rough you up for some ration cards and luckily Joel happened by the situation. He fought off the men and walked you home.

You were now safely inside your apartment and about to close the door, when Joel held it open with his hand. He looked like something was on his mind.

Neither of you said anything, just held eye contact. Until he finally sighed and let go of your door, leaving.

A few days later you had a meeting with Tess. She brought up the events of that night, apparently Joel had told her. She laughed as she recounted the way he told it.

"I don't know what spell you casted on him but he's entranced with you."

Four: Listener

Joel wasn't much a talked, but he would always listen. You had always had an inquisitive mind. When the world was normal it used to bother your parents and friends, even your teachers sometimes.

But all your questions never seemed to bother Joel. He would sit and listen to them all, even when he didn't have the answers. Even when there was no answers to be given!

And in the rare times he did know a thing or two he would respond, gaining a huge smile from you.

These were the times his heart fluttered.

Five: Cuddles

I know what you're thinking! Joel Miller, a cuddler? You didn't believe it either. But after one particularly long night, you had both fallen asleep on his couch.

There was still a bit of a chill in the air, so naturally your body had gravitated closer to his in search of some warmth.

You were never sure whether it was a conscious decision or not but by the time you woke up the two of you were intertwined together. And this became a habit of yours.

Even when it was no longer cold out, the two of you would cling to each other.

Six: Pretending

After a few months of hanging more with Joel and Tess, they invited you to meet Bill and Frank. It was nice to get out of the QZ and have a normal meal like the whole world wasn't a complete shit show.

At one point you had found yourself inside with only Frank. You had insisted on helping to wash the dishes. While scrubbing a plate, you had caught a glimpse of Joel through the window. Craning to get a better look, you smiled to yourself. All of a sudden Frank laughed, causing you to look over at him.

"What?" You questioned.

"You two are so in love with each other and neither of you see it. It's just funny."

Your eyebrows furrowed and before you could contest, Joel walked into the kitchen.

"Why don't you two go and chat with Bill and Tess? I'll finish this up." He suggested, holding eye contact with you.

Joel wouldn't take no for an answer and ushered the two of you outside. Only to stop you before you made it out the door. He bent down and tied your shoe lace, you hadn't even noticed it had come undone.

Across the room you heard a throat clear and your eyes met Frank's. He gave you a knowing look, mouthing a "see".

One: Heart

The very foundation of a human is their heart. If it stops beating, you no longer have a living being. Only a body.

Joel told you once that his heart had stopped beating a long time ago. And when he was about to leave he told you again.

"I haven't had a heart in years. I haven't felt anything in years. Only pain. Only desperation. But I met you and I had felt my heart beating again. It skipped a beat or two a few times." He let out a small laugh before continuing.

"But I'm not what you deserve. I'm not what you need. I've lived a life and yours is barely starting. You have a beating heart, mine is more like Frankenstein, stitched together."

You couldn't help but to correct him, "Frankenstein was the scientist."

He took a deep breath in, "Then I'm the monster and you're Frankenstein, you stitched me back together."

"But I don't understand, if I've done all this for you, why are you leaving?"

"I can't watch your heart stop beating because of me!" He almost shouted at you.

"You leave and it will stop!" Okay, you were shouting. Grabbing his shirt, pleading him to make eye contact with you.

"I need you to let go. Let me go, Y/N." Finally his eyes met your own and you knew that the man you had fallen in love with was no longer yours.

You had six definitive reasons why you loved Joel Miller, but he had only needed one to leave.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Drew Sheneman, Newark Star-Ledger

* * * *

Lucian Truscott Newsletter

The limitations of loyalty

Lucian K. Truscott IV

Dec 01, 2024

What is Donald Trump so afraid of? I ask the question because in the military, it has long been known that only frightened, little men – it has always been men – appoint toadying loyalists to positions under their command. If a frightened little man wants his orders carried out, even when his orders are likely to cause deaths of his compatriots by their idiocy and cravenness, then he must appoint people who will follow his orders unquestioningly. Fellow frightened little men fit that requirement to a T.

All the news stories last night and commentators today on the appointment by Trump of Kash Patel to head the FBI have started out with the proposition that he is a “dangerous” and “shocking” appointment. He is neither. He’s not shocking, because Trump has made it clear over the last two years that he was going to put someone like Patel in the job of FBI Director. He’s not dangerous, because you’ve got to be effective to be dangerous, and Patel hasn’t been effective at anything he’s ever done.

Patel got his start as an aide to Devin Nunes when he was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in 2017. Nunes, with the able help of Patel, fucked up that job by the numbers. He claimed he received classified documents from unnamed sources that would prove that President Obama had “tapped my wires,” as Trump had claimed, and he would show them to the White House. The documents came from two National Security aides in the White House, with whom Nunes met secretly one night in early March of 2017. Nunes and Patel took the documents, which turned out not to be secret at all, back to the Capitol, where Nunes shared them with the press, and then made a show of taking them to the White House to show them to Trump, whose aides had had them all along. Even Trump toady Lindsey Graham compared Nunes to the fictional and incompetent “Inspector Clouseau.”

Patel stayed with Nunes throughout his comical attempts to prove anything Trump said about “Russia Russia Russia” was true. The problem was, they kept running up against uncomfortable facts. Trump’s campaign aide George Papadopoulos had, in fact, met with Russian agents of the GRU who offered “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. When Nunes traveled to London to meet with MI5, MI6, and GCHQ, the British office of government communications, no one would meet with him. Patel was his aide on all this.

Patel got a job as a counterterrorism specialist on the Trump National Security Council and promptly inserted himself right in the middle of Trump’s botched attempts to use Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas – remember him? – to pressure Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to open a fake investigation of Joe Biden that Trump could use against him in the presidential campaign. Patel’s many laughable maneuvers in that clusterfuck are too numerous to go into here, but suffice to say that Patel’s frequent contacts with Giuliani tell you pretty much all you need to know about how effective and successful that scam was.

Patel next popped into public view when Trump appointed him as Chief of Staff to Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, who replaced Mark Esper in the job after Patel accused him of being disloyal to Trump by refusing to deploy active-duty soldiers to put down George Floyd protests. During Patel’s three months in the Pentagon, he served alongside Ezra Cohen-Watnick, one of the sources who provided Nunes with the fake documents that “proved” Obama had tapped Trump’s “wires.”

While Trump was out of office, Patel was given a job with Trump’s social media company and with one of his superpacs, where he was paid several hundred thousand dollars for what amounted to no-show jobs. Patel also earned money hawking pro-Trump T-shirts and other cheap trash under the company name “K$H.” He also sold pills he claimed would reverse the effects of the COVID vaccine and wrote a series of children’s books that featured the character of “King Donald.”

Okay, Patel is one more grifter in the great panoply of Trump loyalists who have made careers out of their closeness and loyalty to the Great Man, for which he was promoted ever-upward. Every person who has ever had a government job at any level – county, city, state, federal – or in a corporation, has known a Kash Patel, a creepy little briefcase-carrier who’s always currying favor with the boss, and despite any evidence of having skills other than self-promotion and ass-kissing, just keeps getting promoted or shifted job titles that keep him or her employed and in a position where they can serve the interests of the boss.

That’s the point, how common the Kash Patels of the world are, how well known they are to anyone who has a job where they are actually required to produce stuff, whether it’s studies, or plans, or construct roads, or build cars, or come up with ideas for products that will produce income or in government, programs that are successful in what they are intended to do. Sniveling little suck ups like Patel are so prevalent in American life that everyone has had to suffer under them during their professional lives. So, if you know anything you say to a certain co-worker is going straight into the ear of the boss, you tend to keep your mouth shut about things you don’t want the boss to hear about. If one of these Patel-like suck ups is known for taking credit for ideas he or she didn’t come up with, then ideas of those down in the trenches of the government agency or corporation aren’t shared with that person. If a suck up is known for stabbing others in the back to get his or her way, then people learn not to present their backs in such a way that they will be easily accessed by a knife.

Here is how Patel described in a recent right-wing podcast interview what he would do if he was appointed FBI Director: “I’d shut down the FBI Hoover Building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state. And I’d take the seven thousand employees that work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals. Go be cops. You’re cops, go be cops. Go chase down murderers and rapists and drug dealers. What do you need seven thousand people there for? Same thing with DOJ. What are all these people doing here? Looking for the next government promotion.”

There are about 35,000 people who work for the FBI in all kinds of capacities, from field agents to office staff to evidence analysis to legal advisors to certified public accountants involved in investigating financial crimes. It’s a long list of people, many of whom have had long careers in the FBI doing the work of law enforcement, some of it drudge work that isn’t fun to do, but must be done if crimes are to be investigated and criminals are to be caught and put in prison. Many of these people in the FBI are very smart. Some FBI agents have law degrees. The minimum requirement is a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, accounting, forensic science, and other professional fields. They must have at least two years work experience in some form of law enforcement. Employment in the FBI is highly competitive. Only 20 percent of those seeking jobs with the FBI are accepted to begin the process of meeting employment qualifications. Many are eliminated by failing writing tests, interviews, medical and physical fitness exams, background checks, or field training schooling at the FBI Academy. As few as two to three percent of applicants meet all the requirements and become FBI agents.

My point is, the FBI isn’t a number like Patel’s 7,000. It’s people. They know stuff. They read the newspapers. They watch the news on TV. They are well-informed. When Kash Patel describes them as people who are just “looking for the next government promotion,” they know he is describing himself, not them.

The FBI is full of expert bureaucratic in-fighters. The people who reach positions of leadership are in charge of hundreds of employees under them and budgets in the millions that they have to fight for. Some fight for the FBI budget in Congress, some fight for departmental budgets inside the FBI. They’re not just sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

They see Kash Patel coming, and they’re not going to lie down and take it from this sniveling little fool.

Bureaucrats are experts at delay, obfuscation, dodging orders, putting things off for another day, flooding the zone with paperwork, overloading the system with unmanageable data, creating streams of seemingly important but useless data. You name it, they can do it. Kash Patel will land at the FBI, and he won’t know whether he’s coming or going. His instinct will be to hire and surround himself with other Trump toadies like Cohen-Watnick and Michael Ellis, the other Trump national security council official who provided Nunes and Patel with the fake secret documents that failed to prove Obama tapped anybody’s “wires,” least of all Donald Trump’s.

The problem with loyalists is their predictability. Patel will lash out without thinking, make assertions that cannot be proven, flaunt conspiracy theories that are dead letters on arrival. The problem is, he will be at the head of an agency that is evidence-based by its very nature, employing thousands of people who have spent their lives being tested in courts of law, where telling a lie can get you put in prison.

Loyalty is not a measure of a person’s worth unless that loyalty is to something greater than oneself. Patel will imitate the man who put him in power. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but it’s a piss-poor way to run a railroad, or the FBI, as the saying goes.

[Lucian Truscott on Substack]

[leupagus]

I'm making kirazi take the blame for this

because she said "what if you wrote a slowburn casefic for Broadchurch" and the entire plot fell into my lap.

~

"I mean yeah," Miller says, waving her chopsticks about, "I definitely would have killed Joe if he hadn't left, but I would have marched right over to that shitty little shack you used to lurk in—"

"It wasn't a shack and I lived there, Miller--"

"And said, 'Oi, sir, just killed my husband, here you go, I brought my own handcuffs.' I was never afraid of going to prison for that. If I'd killed him, you'd've been the first to know."

Hardy stares at her, busily digging through her container of bamee khai. "You'd have called me 'sir' when you were confessing to murder?"

"Ooh, plus, this skeleton's got all his teeth. Joe's got at least two crowns and got his wisdom teeth removed. So, there you go."

"There you go," Hardy agrees. He picks at his food but it's like grass between his teeth, too much work. He tosses it onto his desk and swears at himself when the dressing splatters onto a file, but Miller's already balling up some napkins to throw at him. "I did think for a while that you had killed him," he says, dabbing carefully at the picture of half-rotted shovel.

There's a choking sound; he looks up and Miller's coughing, using some more napkins to press against her mouth. "You what?"

"When you said it'd been handled, right as I was leaving," he explains. "I thought, ach, well, she's a professional, and I thought I'd leave you to it before you decided I needed handling too." He meant it as a joke, but she stares at him, stricken. "I didn't mean—"

"That's not why you left," she says, still staring at him. Staring through him, her eyes unfocused the way they are when she's got hold of some thread on a case and is chasing it down in her mind. "You left because if Joe's body ever did turn up, you'd have to investigate. And you thought if I'd done it that you'd catch me." She blinks, then glares at him. "I'm not sure whether to be touched at your consideration, or outraged at your assumption that you'd catch me if I had done it. Or offended that you didn't think I'd confess right off."

He gapes for a minute, trying to follow her logic, such as it is. "Are you angry with me for—"

"I'd be a great murderer," she insists, stomping to her feet and snatching away his salad and the napkins still held loosely in his hand. "You shouldn't be eating near the crime scene photos," she sniffs, and stomps out.

"What the hell?" he calls after her, scrabbling for some more napkins or tissues or something to get rid of the last speckles of lemon dressing.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Priscilla Alvarez and Alayna Treene at CNN:

Donald Trump’s allies and some in the private sector have been quietly preparing to detain and deport migrants residing in the United States on a large scale, according to four sources familiar with the discussions. And with the former president becoming the president-elect, those preparations are now expected to ramp up.

Immigration was a cornerstone of Trump’s 2024 campaign, and while he repeatedly touted promises of mass deportation on the trail – putting increased emphasis on interior enforcement compared to his 2016 fixation on the border wall – members of his orbit and some in the private sector discussed what that plan would look like, according to the sources. Trump’s day one priority is to reinstate his former administration’s border policies and reverse those of President Joe Biden, senior Trump adviser Jason Miller told CNN. Early discussions among Trump’s team have focused on removing undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes, a source familiar with the team’s preliminary plans told CNN. A key issue under consideration is how, when and if to deport immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, commonly known as Dreamers.

[...] “It’s not gonna be – a mass sweep of neighborhoods. It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous,” Homan told CBS News in an interview that aired last month. “They’ll be targeted arrests. We’ll know who we’re going to arrest, where we’re most likely to find ‘em based on numerous, you know, investigative processes,” he added. Brian Hughes, a Trump senior adviser, said that when the president-elect returns to the White House, one of his priorities will be border security. “President Trump won a landslide victory Tuesday because Americans embrace his common sense policy to secure our border and implement mass deportation for illegal migrants,” Hughes said.

Trump and his jackboot fascistic allies are prepping for mass detainment and deportation of undocumented immigrants.

This will NOT stop at just undocumented immigrants, but will eventually nab all dissidents of the tyrannical Trump Regime.

[misfitwashere]

The Big Reason Why Hunter's Pardon is Justified: Kash Patel

I've listened to hundreds of interviews of Trump's FBI Director nominee

Ron Filipkowski

Dec 02, 2024

I awoke this morning after a three day unplugged trip to Montreal to learn that in the previous 24 hours, two things had happened - Trump named Kash Patel as his FBI Director and then Joe Biden pardoned his only surviving son, Hunter. Neither one of these things were especially surprising since it is clear to me the two things are connected, but I was surprised by some of the reaction from those in the media, the Never Trump (former) Republicans, and a few Democratic elected officials.

Most of the criticism has taken the form of three primary arguments: 1. Trump will now have justification to make egregious pardons because of this; 2. Joe Biden lied and Dems who support the decision are hypocrites who claim to believe in the Rule of Law but really don’t; 3. Critics of the critics who cite Trump’s previous pardons are wrong because his awfulness doesn’t justify Joe’s awfulness.

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None of these things address the REAL reason for the pardon - Trump’s appointment of Patel, who has ranted and raved for the past four years on every right-wing podcast in America that he was going to get Hunter Biden for things he has never been prosecuted for. Joe takes that threat seriously. Apparently, the critics either do not, or are ignorant and unaware of exactly who Patel is and what he has pledged to do specific to Hunter.

I have spent the last 4 years covering right-wing shows, channels, conferences and podcasts. Some very fringy, conspiratorial and obscure. I am aware from time to time a legacy media journalist will dip their toe into that world by spending a week watching Steve Bannon or Charlie Kirk, write an article, and give their expert analysis. That has not been me. I have been immersed in their world - day after day, week after week, year after year. One person I have watched hundreds of times at all of these places is Kash Patel.

Patel first caught the attention of Trump while serving as an aide to Devin Nunes’s staff during the 2017-18 RussiaGate investigation. That led to an appointment by Trump late in his Administration to a post that Patel has no business ever being in - interim Chief of Staff to interim DOD Secretary Chris Miller. An interim to an interim. I have also heard Patel lie about and exaggerate his resume and accomplishments on an almost daily basis to the point of absurdity.

In these hundreds of Patel interviews there was always a central theme: That Trump was going to win, Patel was likely going to be appointed CIA or FBI Director, then he was going to use that appointment to go after Trump’s enemies from the Russia investigation, members of the media who supposedly lied about Trump, eliminate thousands of career civil servants (the Deep State), and go after Hunter and Joe Biden with a new criminal investigation.

I have posted many clips over the years of some of Patel’s most outlandish threats and statements. Some of them have been resurfaced by legacy media outlets, but only the ones where Patel vows to go after them, or to clean out government agencies. They never play the clips I posted where he obsesses on Hunter Biden, and boy, was he obsessed with Hunter Biden.

This is what Patel said last year in just one of the clips I posted:

Steve Bannon to Kash: “Do you feel confident when you go back as a senior member of this Administration starting in 2025 that you will be able to deliver the goods? That we can have serious prosecutions? That the people who did evil deeds will be held accountable and prosecuted? Can you deliver this in the first couple of months so we can get rolling on criminal prosecutions?”

Kash Patel: “Yes. We will find the conspirators not just in government but in the media. We are going to come after the people in the media who helped Biden rig the presidential election - we’re putting you all on notice.”

I should also emphasize that when he is talking about media “rigging” the election, he is talking about their refusal to cover the contents of the Hunter Biden laptop - Rudy Giuliani’s October Surprise in 2020.

Patel claimed in one interview after another that Hunter had gotten away with numerous felonies in connection with his business dealings in Ukraine and China, and that Joe Biden was also guilty and complicit in those crimes. James Comer spent two years investigating those allegations. He took dozens of depositions. Held numerous hearings. It was a disaster with one touted claim after another getting debunked when people actually had to present evidence under oath rather than on the internet.

Patel also said this in a separate interview specifically about Hunter:

“Hunter Biden is guilty of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Hunter Biden was shown to have been in bed with criminals from Ukraine and China to lobby the US government through the laundering of money that Hunter Biden received and leveraging his relationship with his dad. This DOJ should charge him, but they won’t. So I think that is where we need to focus (when we get in).”

The congressional investigation was so bad that Comer refused to even bring an impeachment case to a vote in his own committee, knowing that he didn’t have the votes from members of his own party. Democrat Jared Moskowitz repeatedly taunted him to call for a vote in committee on impeachment. Comer refused. That’s because Kevin McCarthy told him not to do it. Then Mike Johnson told him the same. They knew it was nonsense, they had no case, and many Republicans would vote against it.

But Patel claimed that Comer was simply weak and incompetent, and when Trump returned to power they would take over the investigation. That means a whole new round of subpoenas, grand juries, potential indictments, where many of Joe Biden’s family members and himself - not just Hunter - would likely be prosecuted.

When Trump nominated Patel as his FBI Director, Joe Biden already knew it was coming because it had been rumored for weeks. JD Vance let the cat out of the bag in a quickly deleted tweet two weeks ago where he disclosed that they were going to fire current Director Chris Wray despite the fact that he still had three years left in his term.

So it is important to emphasize, as nobody in the media seems willing to do, that this pardon is much more about protecting the Biden family from a deranged, vindictive Kash Patel than it is about Hunter’s BS gun charge that he was already convicted of.

I will give the critics in the media and some Dems who have chimed in some benefit of the doubt on the grounds that I don’t think they are aware at all of the things Patel has been saying about Hunter on the right-wing podcast circuit over the past four years. But I’m not sure even if they were aware it would’ve prevented them from clutching their pearls on their moral high ground. It’s far too important to them to feel like everyone is dirty, hypocritical and corrupt except them.

I have read the summary of every single pardon Trump granted during his term. Hundreds of them. It is a horror show. It is a litany of convicted Republican politicians, Trump donors, millionaires, drug traffickers, violent criminals, fraudsters, con artists, and just generally repulsive people. Trump also refused to use DOJ’s pardon office for any input - requests for pardons were screened by his son-in-law Jared Kushner in an obvious pay-for-play scheme. To suggest that there is any equivalency or justification for these things, or Trump’s future promise to pardon J6ers or commute the sentence of drug trafficker Ross Ulbricht, because of the Hunter Pardon is utterly absurd.

Joe Biden said many months ago in response to a question that he would not pardon Hunter. But the election was still months away. The circumstances have changed dramatically since that interview. Trump was elected. He first attempted to appoint Matt Gaetz as his Attorney General. Then replaced him with Pam Bondi, who isn’t much better on substance or future intent. Then he appointed a psycho obsessed with prosecuting Hunter as his FBI Director. That would change anyone’s minds about the landscape - especially a father who has already lost a wife, son and a daughter.

But the critics don’t seem to want to take any of that into account while calling Joe Biden a “liar.”

Joe Biden doesn’t want to spend his remaining few years after five decades in public service being hauled into courtrooms by Kash Patel and Pam Bondi. That is why he did this. So many of the critics still don’t fully understand what is about to happen with these unstable, vengeful lunatics being appointed to the most senior positions of the US government. I do because I have listened to them for the past four years, and I believe them when they promise revenge and retribution.

Or maybe the critics do have a pretty good idea about what is coming, but they just don’t really care as long as what they are criticizing doesn’t directly impact them.

Either way, I’m tired of their sanctimony, false piety, and weakness. Many of them have made millions from their roles as Trump critics and become prominent on cable news shows. Now maybe they’ve decided to flip the script.

Count me out.

[yumyumpod]

Watching The Expanse for the first time: New Terra

[yourreddancer]

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The Big Reason Why Hunter's Pardon is Justified: Kash Patel

I've listened to hundreds of interviews of Trump's FBI Director nominee

Ron Filipkowski

Dec 2

I awoke this morning after a three day unplugged trip to Montreal to learn that in the previous 24 hours, two things had happened - Trump named Kash Patel as his FBI Director and then Joe Biden pardoned his only surviving son, Hunter. Neither one of these things were especially surprising since it is clear to me the two things are connected, but I was surprised by some of the reaction from those in the media, the Never Trump (former) Republicans, and a few Democratic elected officials.

Most of the criticism has taken the form of three primary arguments: 1. Trump will now have justification to make egregious pardons because of this; 2. Joe Biden lied and Dems who support the decision are hypocrites who claim to believe in the Rule of Law but really don’t; 3. Critics of the critics who cite Trump’s previous pardons are wrong because his awfulness doesn’t justify Joe’s awfulness.

None of these things address the REAL reason for the pardon - Trump’s appointment of Patel, who has ranted and raved for the past four years on every right-wing podcast in America that he was going to get Hunter Biden for things he has never been prosecuted for. Joe takes that threat seriously. Apparently, the critics either do not, or are ignorant and unaware of exactly who Patel is and what he has pledged to do specific to Hunter.

I have spent the last 4 years covering right-wing shows, channels, conferences and podcasts. Some very fringy, conspiratorial and obscure. I am aware from time to time a legacy media journalist will dip their toe into that world by spending a week watching Steve Bannon or Charlie Kirk, write an article, and give their expert analysis. That has not been me. I have been immersed in their world - day after day, week after week, year after year. One person I have watched hundreds of times at all of these places is Kash Patel.

Patel first caught the attention of Trump while serving as an aide to Devin Nunes’s staff during the 2017-18 RussiaGate investigation. That led to an appointment by Trump late in his Administration to a post that Patel has no business ever being in - interim Chief of Staff to interim DOD Secretary Chris Miller. An interim to an interim. I have also heard Patel lie about and exaggerate his resume and accomplishments on an almost daily basis to the point of absurdity.

In these hundreds of Patel interviews there was always a central theme: That Trump was going to win, Patel was likely going to be appointed CIA or FBI Director, then he was going to use that appointment to go after Trump’s enemies from the Russia investigation, members of the media who supposedly lied about Trump, eliminate thousands of career civil servants (the Deep State), and go after Hunter and Joe Biden with a new criminal investigation

I have posted many clips over the years of some of Patel’s most outlandish threats and statements. Some of them have been resurfaced by legacy media outlets, but only the ones where Patel vows to go after them, or to clean out government agencies. They never play the clips I posted where he obsesses on Hunter Biden, and boy, was he obsessed with Hunter Biden.

This is what Patel said last year in just one of the clips I posted:

Steve Bannon to Kash: “Do you feel confident when you go back as a senior member of this Administration starting in 2025 that you will be able to deliver the goods? That we can have serious prosecutions? That the people who did evil deeds will be held accountable and prosecuted? Can you deliver this in the first couple of months so we can get rolling on criminal prosecutions?”

Kash Patel: “Yes. We will find the conspirators not just in government but in the media. We are going to come after the people in the media who helped Biden rig the presidential election - we’re putting you all on notice.”

I should also emphasize that when he is talking about media “rigging” the election, he is talking about their refusal to cover the contents of the Hunter Biden laptop - Rudy Giuliani’s October Surprise in 2020.

Patel claimed in one interview after another that Hunter had gotten away with numerous felonies in connection with his business dealings in Ukraine and China, and that Joe Biden was also guilty and complicit in those crimes. James Comer spent two years investigating those allegations. He took dozens of depositions. Held numerous hearings. It was a disaster with one touted claim after another getting debunked when people actually had to present evidence under oath rather than on the internet.

Patel also said this in a separate interview specifically about Hunter:

“Hunter Biden is guilty of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Hunter Biden was shown to have been in bed with criminals from Ukraine and China to lobby the US government through the laundering of money that Hunter Biden received and leveraging his relationship with his dad. This DOJ should charge him, but they won’t. So I think that is where we need to focus (when we get in).”

The congressional investigation was so bad that Comer refused to even bring an impeachment case to a vote in his own committee, knowing that he didn’t have the votes from members of his own party. Democrat Jared Moskowitz repeatedly taunted him to call for a vote in committee on impeachment. Comer refused. That’s because Kevin McCarthy told him not to do it. Then Mike Johnson told him the same. They new it was nonsense, they had no case, and many Republicans would vote against it.

But Patel claimed that Comer was simply weak and incompetent, and when Trump returned to power they would take over the investigation. That means a whole new round of subpoenas, grand juries, potential indictments, where many of Joe Biden’s family members and himself - not just Hunter - would likely be prosecuted.

When Trump nominated Patel as his FBI Director, Joe Biden already knew it was coming because it had been rumored for weeks. JD Vance let the cat out of the bag in a quickly deleted tweet two weeks ago where he disclosed that they were going to fire current Director Chris Wray despite the fact that he still had three years left in his term.

So it is important to emphasize, as nobody in the media seems willing to do, that this pardon is much more about protecting the Biden family from a deranged, vindictive Kash Patel than it is about Hunter’s BS gun charge that he was already convicted of.

I will give the critics in the media and some Dems who have chimed in some benefit of the doubt on the grounds that I don’t think they are aware at all of the things Patel has been saying about Hunter on the right-wing podcast circuit over the past four years. But I’m not sure even if they were aware it would’ve prevented them from clutching their pearls on their moral high ground. It’s far too important to them to feel like everyone is dirty, hypocritical and corrupt except them.

I have read the summary of every single pardon Trump granted during his term. Hundreds of them. It is a horror show. It is a litany of convicted Republican politicians, Trump donors, millionaires, drug traffickers, violent criminals, fraudsters, con artists, and just generally repulsive people.

Trump also refused to use DOJ’s pardon office for any input - requests for pardons were screened by his son-in-law Jared Kushner in an obvious pay-for-play scheme. To suggest that there is any equivalency or justification for these things, or Trump’s future promise to pardon J6ers or commute the sentence of drug trafficker Ross Ulbricht, because of the Hunter Pardon is utterly absurd.

Joe Biden said many months ago in response to a question that he would not pardon Hunter. But the election was still months away. The circumstances have changed dramatically since that interview. Trump was elected. He first attempted to appoint Matt Gaetz as his Attorney General. Then replaced him with Pam Bondi, who isn’t much better on substance or future intent.

Then he appointed a psycho obsessed with prosecuting Hunter as his FBI Director. That would change anyone’s minds about the landscape - especially a father who has already lost a wife, son and a daughter.

But the critics don’t seem to want to take any of that into account while calling Joe Biden a “liar.”

Joe Biden doesn’t want to spend his remaining few years after five decades in public service being hauled into courtrooms by Kash Patel and Pam Bondi. That is why he did this. So many of the critics still don’t fully understand what is about to happen with these unstable, vengeful lunatics being appointed to the most senior positions of the US government. I do because I have listened to them for the past four years, and I believe them when they promise revenge and retribution.

Or maybe the critics do have a pretty good idea about what is coming, but they just don’t really care as long as what they are criticizing doesn’t directly impact them.

Either way, I’m tired of their sanctimony, false piety, and weakness. Many of them have made millions from their roles as Trump critics and become prominent on cable news shows. Now maybe they’ve decided to flip the script.

Count me out.

[mariacallous]

On Sunday evening, president-elect Donald Trump fired off a post on Truth Social asking, presumably rhetorically, whether President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter would apply to “the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years.”

Trump routinely invoked the “J-6 Hostages”—rioters who participated in the Capitol insurrection four years ago—throughout his presidential campaign, and vowed to free them if elected.

But on Sunday night, these words, which were Trump’s first mention of the January 6 prisoners since the election, carried particular significance. Trump had just announced that he plans to nominate staunch loyalist and January 6 sympathizer Kash Patel to run the FBI. (Current FBI director Christopher Wray’s term ends in 2027; whether Trump intends to fire him or expects him to resign isn’t clear.) Patel, a former federal prosecutor who worked in a variety of national security roles during Trump’s first term, is an author of the children’s book series “The Plot Against the King,” which is about Trump’s “Deep State” enemies, and sells pro-Trump merchandise under the brand name K$H.

“I think January 6 individuals, those in jail, those in the legal pipeline, will be ecstatic over this,” says Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who served as an adviser to the Select Committee investigating the events of January 6. “They already bought into criminal activity on January 6, now they have someone who validates it, even excuses it. I think it makes them very happy.”

Patel, who was chief of staff to acting defense secretary Christopher Miller on January 6, 2021, has pushed the baseless “fedsurrection” conspiracy theory, which claims that undercover FBI agents instigated the Capitol riot with the goal of smearing the MAGA movement.

Patel helped produce “Justice for All,” a single that features the “J6 Prison Choir” singing the national anthem (a solemn nightly tradition for imprisoned rioters), mixed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. The song became a mainstay of Trump’s campaign rallies. Patel has also proposed a “full-fledged investigation” into the January 6 Select Committee. He has even helped January 6ers via his nonprofit the Kash Foundation, which provides, among other things, legal defense funds to help “defamed American citizens.” Patel has also flirted with QAnon, defending its slogan “WWG1WGA” (where we go one, we go all), praising QAnon supporters, and even appearing on the high-profile QAnon podcast X22 Report.

Riggleman believes that Patel is Trump’s most dangerous selection to lead a major agency, on account of his blind loyalty to the former president and his public displays of interest in conspiracy theories. “I think it’s his worst pick, even worse than Matt Gaetz,” he says. “Kash Patel is simply a foot soldier for Trump.”

For the sprawling community of January 6 activists—a smorgasbord of MAGA personalities, family members of jailed rioters, and rioters who’ve completed their sentences—Trump’s nomination of Patel is an indication that retribution is coming. And part of that retribution isn’t just about granting pardons and clemency to the rioters: It’s about going after those that put them behind bars in the first place.

Since at least the 1990s and the Waco siege, the anti-government movement in America has viewed the FBI as its enemy. Trump’s first presidency and the Covid-19 pandemic took anti-government animus mainstream. That animus was turbocharged by the investigations and prosecutions of January 6-ers, as well as by the federal investigations of Trump. And the narrative that both Trump and January 6 defendants are “political prisoners” of a corrupt and tyrannical “Biden Regime,” hunted down by his personal Gestapo in FBI uniforms, took hold.

The MAGA media ecosystem and network of J6 activists believe that Patel, if he takes the reins of the FBI, will root out corruption, expose all sorts of nefarious plots designed to damage Trump, and prove that J6 was a false flag.

“The FBI deserves Kash Patel,” wrote Suzzanne Monk, a prominent J6 advocate, on X. “They earned the ass whoopin he's bringing.” “That Kash Patel pick put the traitors in our government on notice,” wrote MAGA commentators The Hodge Twins on X.

“How many FBI agents were present for J6?” wrote Representative Mike Collins from Georgia, on X. “We’re about to find out.”

Representative Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana, chimed in via a post that addressed Wray directly. “Mr Wray. Remain close to DC. Your presence will be commanded,” Higgins wrote on X. “In this Holiest of seasons, as you box up your mementos of oppression, may visions of the thousands of American J6 families you’ve destroyed dance through your head.”

Philip Anderson, an accused rioter facing federal and misdemeanor charges for January 6, said on X that they’ll have to wait and see whether Patel and Trump put their money where their mouths are. “We aren’t taking you people seriously until you end the J6 prosecutions on Day One.”

So far, beyond his Truth Social post, Trump hasn’t said much about whether he plans to make good on his promises to grant pardons and clemency to January 6ers. Some hopeful defendants have sought to delay their proceedings or even drop charges entirely. Some lawyers are unsure whether Trump would pursue a blanket pardon for everyone involved in January 6, or grant pardons and clemency selectively based on, for example, the types of crimes people are accused of.

Meanwhile, Riggleman suggests that Patel faces an uphill, if not impossible, battle to get confirmed as the head of the FBI. Patel’s former colleagues from various points in his career have questioned his competence to lead the agency. “If there’s anyone that’s sane, I don’t think the Senate will confirm him,” said Riggleman. “But then again, there are senators who are very afraid of Donald Trump and their own reelection prospects.”

[thewanderingace]

Rewatching Broadchurch and in 3x06, the moment Ellie and Hardy find out that Ed Burnett is Katie's dad, Hardy screams "You understand how you might have screwed this investigation? If we find out Trish's attacker has any connection to you, this will never stand up in court! And you will have to answer not only to me, not only to the Chief Super, but to the women that he's attacked."

All I can imagine is that both Ellie and Alec are sitting there thinking "not again" because this is exactly how Joe Miller got off not guilty. It's been years now for the two of them but I know they are both thinking about that trial. And then in the meeting with the CS, Alec says in response to her saying "How likely is it this bloke is the perpetrator?" that "He's our prime focus now." Then she says"Course he is. Defense would have a party with this in court." and Alec says with such conviction, "I'm not letting this compromise us. No attacker is getting off because of her mistake." And he's so angry and the CS is just "Don't beat yourself up about this. It's not your fault." but he and Ellie are clearly thinking "we've seen this happen already. we know what comes next. we know this could blow up the trial" Their faces speak such volume.

[pretty-batty]

Nancy Drew

Eddie x Judy (OFC) Pt 10 of Eldath's Priestess 2213 Words

Warnings: Mentions of death by HIV/AIDs Now on ao3 Thank you @anakinkshamer

Summary- Judy takes matters into her own hands, investigating the list of names Gillespie provided. She receives a stunning realization.

“I’m grateful that you reached out, Judy. Came all the way to Indianapolis to see lil-ol-me.” Miss. Miller said, setting a cup of tea atop a coaster, “it’s been a few years.”

“Yeah, it’s just been difficult. After Joe died I kinda…I don’t know.”

“Sunk inside yourself.” The woman said, “I know. And after Eddie…I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” Her wrinkled hands gave hers a gentle squeeze. “You know my husband Andy died last winter. I know exactly how you feel.”

Judy scrunched her face in sympathy, returning the squeeze. “I came to ask you something, about Marty.”

“Ah…” the old woman’s gaze fell away, drawing her hand back to join the other in her lap. “Yes…” It was as if the mention of her grandson revealed a hidden space in herself, “it’s not true. He was always safe with his” an automatic pause she took when speaking about Marty’s lovers. But with one nod of Judy’s head, she continued with the truth, “boyfriends. It was those dirty fucking needles that got him. It only took one.” She blinked, once, twice, then one final blink, harder than the others. She was trying to clear her eyes. “I’m not saying these other kids deserve it for not being safe, in any sense. No one deserves this. It’s just…I hated how that town talked about him. Calling him all those horrible things. It sounds terrible, but I laughed when I found out about the earthquake. Tacky bitches and their snotty brats.”

There was the Granny Miller that Judy remembered. No doubt rebranding herself when she moved with Marty in his months. Judy learned from some friends that after Marty finally passed after that last brush with pneumonia, Granny Miller joined the local group of HIV/AIDS activists and caregivers. Through them she remained connected to the queer community, gaining more grandchildren than she could have ever dreamed.

“I meant to ask about something else. When he was eleven, there was this flu that went around, got a lot of kids sick, some were worse off than others.” Judy reached into her purse, producing a folded xerox before unfolding it and handing it to the older woman. “There is a list of kids who got a treatment…”

“Don’t even have my good glasses,” She pulled the list back from her eyes, “Oh you mean when he lost his sight, and I couldn’t see him for a week?” Her lips moved in a whisper, silently reading down the names. Tapping her nail to her grandson’s name. “There he is,” her finger went down, “and there you are too. What do these markings mean?”

“It’s a part of this thing I’m doing.” Judy quickly answered, verbally yanking Granny Miller back to the topic at hand, “The lab who created the treatment has been connected to some shady shit. And because their documents are either gone or under lock and key, I have no way of knowing what they did. All I can do is find the parents or the kids, see if they remember anything about the treatment.”

“Judy, what do these markings mean?”

A pause in the narrative, teeth biting back the prepared explanation of her project. Finally, she answered. “The exes are deaths, the checks are the living and their location…the circles are the ones I don’t know about.”

“All those kids…was this…was this like what happened to that Ryan boy?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why are you circled?”

“Because I don’t know.” Judy’s leg began to bounce.

Granny’s curved shoulders dropped, eyes moving from the list to Judy’s face. “Do you have a doctor?”

“That’s where I came from. Big hospital here rather than Hawkins General. Asked them to do a full blood panel. It’ll take them a week even though they rushed it.”

“The last circle, Vicky Blake…”

“She is the last piece of the puzzle. If I find out what happened to her, then maybe I can see if it’s all just a coincidence.”

Of course, getting information out of a high school acquaintance is better said than done. “No Vick, listen. You’re the oldest still alive who is willing to answer my calls. Do you remember what they did to us on that floor?”

Nothing.

“I’m sorry. But this is like…life and death.”

Silence.

“Please, I know we never talked in school but-”

“Good thing. Your boyfriend killed like…three kids. The fuck I want to talk to you for?”

“Because I think that treatment did something to us and it fucked up our immune system.”

“Shit…” Vicky hissed. “I was hoping it was just me.”

Judy stayed quiet, waiting for her to elaborate. Nothing. She continued to press, “what do you mean?”

She sighed, “I have autoimmune hepatitis. Basically, I have a swollen liver, no periods, and skin like a mustard seed. All joking aside, they have no idea where it came from. No one in my family had it. They think it might have been the flu but…” Vicky sucked her teeth, “if you’re right…shit…”

“Until I get the results back, we won’t know.”

Judy heard her sigh again, another pause before Vicky spoke again. “Listen, I know we don’t know each other well. But call me when you get them. And as for ten years ago, it wasn’t anything different. I remember this weird blond kid, eyes a little too far apart. He was there when I regained my sight. Fuck…what was his name? Anyway…he said his dad was the doctor who made the serum.” She laughed a little bit, “it’s weird he had this tattoo on his wrist.”

Her eyes widened, returning to the memory of El’s wrist. The XI. One of many. Before Vicky could comment on her silence, Judy let out a “Huh…weird.” She continued, “so, this guy brought his tatted son to a ward of contagious children.”

“Weird, tatted son. Gave me the wiggins for sure.”

Judy’s focus finally broke from Vicky’s tinned voice over the phone. Eddie’s nose directly sinking into the side of her neck. The ends of his curls tickling her nose. “Yeah…wiggins for sure.” She said, turning as Eddie drew back, mouthing “stop.”

The corners of his lips curled into a smile. Judy’s pointer finger immediately raised, letting out a voiceless warning, “no, don’t you dare.”

“I really appreciate that you were willing to talk to me. I know it’s like…a thing to dump on you. But…”

Once her eyes left his, Eddie opened his mouth and gently captured her finger in his teeth.

Vicky continued, “No yeah, it’s no problem. And if you want me to, I’ll ask my mom to find my diaries and see if she remembers anything.”

“If you could, I’d appreciate it, but don’t worry about it if you can’t.”

“Oh, of course, yeah.” Maybe it was the repetitive confirmations and negations in quick succession, as both Vicky and Judy felt the phone weigh them down. They bid each other goodbye, then Judy finally hung up the phone.

“Are you a fucking dog?” She drew her finger from his teeth.

“Do you want me to be?” Eddie asked.

“I’d like you to be normal when I’m on the phone.”

With an exasperated groan, he threw himself back into the couch. “You were gone all day, and then you get home and you’re on the phooooone.”

Judy crawled over him the best she could, her finger gently tapping in his nose. “I’m sorry, big guy.” She trailed her touch lower, stroking his bottom lip. “I feel bad trapping you here, all alone.” Her voice receded into a purr, “I missed you.”

He held her hand in place, pressing his lips against the pad of her finger. “Missed you too baby.”

“Do you want some…alone time?”

Eddie’s gaze shifted, face squishing in fake consideration. “Hmm…I’ll have to think about it. See if I have any openings in my schedule…” He took the hand from his lips, opening her palm. His finger poked various points of her skin with beeps and boops before holding her hand to his ear. “Hello, Sheila. Yeah cancel my three o-clock. Thanks dear. Looks like I’m free now.”

Three firm knocks rang from the door, followed by the bell. Judy immediately lifted off Eddie, hissing at him to “go” as he tore up the stairs as quietly as he could.

She waited until she head the click of the latch upstairs. She had hoped he would stay quiet, but the occasional thumps and occasional ‘oof’ proved to her that he was up to something.  She straightened her blouse before answering the door. A familiar tall man stood on the mat, crew cut hair peppered with gray, manila folder in hand with the seal already disturbed.

“Gillespie, I didn’t expect to see you.” Judy stepped back, “come on in.”

“They made me come all the way here to get the report. Can’t beat a formal request but they can sure drag their feet.” He took a step forward, following through. “Is it alright if I hang my coat?”

“Oh yeah, whatever you’d like. You want a pop, or I can put on a pot of coffee?”

“That’s alright, I won’t be here long.” Gillespie stopped, “living room?”

“Oh uh, sure.” Thump. Judy froze.

“The fuck was that?”

She had to lie. She sucked at lying. “I found this cat and took him home. He’s locked up in my bedroom until I can get him to the vet.”

“Mm.” Gillespie slowly sat down on the couch, furrowed gaze following Judy as she pulled her wingback chair from its spot by the window. It finally rested adjacent to him, Judy slipping herself into the seat. “I wanted you to be the first to see it.”

“It being?”

He reached into the folder under his arm, pulling out a thin stack of papers with a slight flourish. The top paper was a form, photocopied from the original.

            Roane County Medical Examiner

Judy’s lips parted, a “Holy shit” slipping past without her knowledge.

“Look at each of them.” He said, voice poorly masking his excitement.

Her eyes darted across each written line, then to the printed transposition.

Each said the same thing: “Lethal injuries caused by intense muscle spasm. One abrasion over 48 hours old (untreated). No evidence of Tdap.”

“Tdap what is Tdap?”

“Tdap is the vaccine for tetanus toxin. A tetanus infection, if left untreated, can lead to intense rigidity, muscle spasms, blocking airways. Apparently the body can contort itself into deadly configurations.” Gillespie sucked his teeth, “pre-ty nasty.”

“Tetanus? Like…step on a rusty nail tetanus?”

“Rusty nail tetanus. Your boyfriend had nothing to do with it. Just a witness to some horrible deaths.”

As Gillespie made his way out, Judy felt empty. A rush of relief from the proof of Eddie’s innocence, but also a sunken ache for what he had seen.

The turn of the doorknob was met with the growling, menacing bass of Metallica’s Orion as she opened the door. Eddie, completely nude, swayed in the low light of a single lamp. The music swelling as he rolled his hips and beckoned her closer with his claw. The heaviness in her chest subsided for a moment, a smile emerging, closing the door behind her.

His hands skirted along her skin as she leaned in for a kiss, only to be stopped, “ah-ah, no touching.”

The curl on her lips grew heavy quickly, fighting it with an “Oh, stripper rules?”

She found a spot on her bed, sitting down, arms stretching out behind her. Slowly, however, her attention was captured by the wall in front of her. Her hands slowly made their way back to herself, closing in.

“Mmm, until I say so.” He purred, gazing at her hands folded in her lap, “but I can’t give you a lap dance if you’re hands are there.” His eyes traced up to her face, finding her eyes vacant, expression dropped. “Hey, you can touch me, I was just playing.” Eddie grabbed her hands and brought them to his chest.

“It’s not that…I just…” Her left hand ran up his neck and into his hair, bringing his forehead to press against hers. “It’s finally weighing on me. All the kids. If they got out, their own bodies poisoned them. If they stayed in town too long, Vecna took them. Adding it all up, that lab didn’t just experiment on kids like El, but us too. And in doing so, exposed us to something they could not control. And I’m still here. I’m the last one left in Haw-”Judy shook her head at herself. “No, I don’t even want to think about that.” The back of her neck grew hot, spreading up her ears and across her cheeks.

A kind hand caressed hers, bringing her knuckles to his lips. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” A kiss, “never ever.” Another kiss, “you’re safe with me.”

“If I leave, I’ll end up like Vicky or Marty. I don’t wanna get sick like that, Eddie. I can’t…”

“Then we’ll get through it. C’mere.” Eddie led her back into her bed, curling himself around her until her face was tucked into his chest. “Let me carry this too, Judy.” His nose found a spot in her hair, drawing in a deep breath, “You’re not alone.”

Quite the scandal really. I hoped you enjoyed the little fluff in the end! I appreciate the time you all take to read this series.

Tag list: @loserboysandlithium @userchai @secretdryrose