#Notable Deaths in June 2024

[gone2soon-rip]

FRANCOISE HARDY (1944-Died June 11th 2024,at 80.Laryngeal cancer).French singer-songwriter and actress. Mainly known for singing melancholic sentimental ballads, Hardy rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a leading figure of the yé-yé wave. In addition to her native French, she also sang in English, Italian and German. Her career spanned more than fifty years with over thirty studio albums released.Her songs included "Tous les garçons et les filles" (English: "All the Boys and Girls"),and ''All Over the World (1966),and she appeared in John Frankenheimer's 1966 motor racing film,Grand Prix,with an ensemble cast including James Garner,Eva Marie Saint,and Toshiro Mifune. Françoise Hardy - Wikipedia

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Bramhall

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

November 14, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 14, 2024

Two snapshots today illustrate the difference between the economic—and therefore the societal—visions of the Biden-Harris administration and of the incoming Trump administration.

The Biden-Harris administration today released numbers revealing that over the past four years, their policies have kick-started a boom in the creation of small businesses across the country. Since the administration took office, entrepreneurs have filed more than 20 million applications for new businesses, the most of any presidential term in history. This averages to more than 440,000 applications a month, a rate more than 90% faster than averages before the pandemic. Black business ownership has doubled, and Hispanic business ownership is up by 40% since before the pandemic. 

The administration encouraged that growth with targeted loans, tax credits, federal contracts, and support services. Small businesses are major job creators and employ about 47% of all private sector employees. 

President Joe Biden rejected the “neoliberalism” of the previous 40 years that had moved about $50 trillion dollars from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. Those embracing that theory maintain that the government should let markets operate without regulation, concentrating wealth among a few people who will invest it more efficiently than they can if the government intervenes with regulations or taxes that hamper the ability of investors to amass wealth. 

Biden and Harris returned the U.S. to the model that both parties had embraced until 1981: the idea that the government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. That system had reduced extremes of wealth in the U.S. after the Great Depression and given most Americans a path to prosperity. 

Biden’s policies worked, enabling the U.S. to recover from the pandemic more quickly than any other country with a modern economy, sending unemployment to historic lows, and raising wages faster than inflation for the bottom 80% of Americans. 

It has also had social effects, most notably today with the announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the U.S. is seeing a historic drop in deaths from the street drug fentanyl. From June 2023 to June 2024, deaths dropped by roughly 14.5%, translating into more than 16,000 lives saved. Experts say the drop is due to better addiction healthcare, the widespread availability of the opioid reversal drug naloxone, and lower potency of street fentanyl. 

If the record of the extraordinary growth of small businesses in the past four years is one snapshot, the other is a social media post from yesterday, in which former pharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy noted that the government spends $516 billion a year on “programs which Congress has allowed to expire.” “We can & should save hundreds of billions each year by defunding government programs that Congress no longer authorizes,” he wrote. 

Bobby Kogan, who worked in President Joe Biden’s Office of Management and Budget and on the Senate Budget Committee, explained that Congress often authorizes spending as “temporary” in order “to encourage Congress to revisit it to update various parts of the bill, such as eligibility, benefits, etc.” But Congress can still fund the programs in appropriations bills. 

Kogan noted that the largest program currently operating under expired authorization is veterans’ medical care. 

Trump and his advisors embrace the neoliberalism Biden rejected. Rather than invest in the economy to create opportunities for middle-class Americans and those just starting out, they want to slash the existing government to free up more capital for investors. 

Trump has tapped the world��s richest man, Elon Musk, who invested at least $132 million in cash in Trump’s campaign as well as the in-kind gift of the support of X, and former pharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy to run a “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, named for Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency.  

According to the Washington Post’s Jeff Stein, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Cat Zakrzewski, and Jacob Bogage, people around Musk say the group is intended to “apply slash-and-burn business ideologies to the U.S. government.” Musk has vowed to slash “at least” $2 trillion from the federal budget and has warned it will create “hardship.”  

That the people embracing this plan see a world in which a few elites run things showed in today’s social media post by the “DOGE.” The post called for “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account…. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.” 

Such cuts would be enormously unpopular, and in the Washington Post yesterday, Stein, Dwoskin, Zakrzewski, and Bogage reported that Trump’s aides are exploring ways to enact dramatic cuts to the government without congressional approval. Key among those is simply refusing to release the money Congress appropriates for programs Musk and Trump want to cut. This is known as “impoundment,” and Congress made it illegal in 1974 after President Richard Nixon tried to shape the government to his wishes by refusing to fund congressional programs he opposed. 

Trump tried to do this quietly in 2019 by refusing to release the money Congress had appropriated for Ukraine to fund its fight against Russian incursions until Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky smeared Biden. When the threat came to light, the House of Representatives impeached Trump. Although the Senate ultimately acquitted Trump, according to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) all the Republican senators agreed he had done as the House charged. 

Now Trump’s team apparently hopes that a pliant Supreme Court will declare the 1974 Impoundment Control Act unconstitutional, permitting Trump—or Vice President J.D. Vance, should Trump not be able to fulfill his term—to shape the government without consulting Congress.

Because of the 2024 presidential election, Trump will soon be able to return the country to the neoliberal vision of the 40 years before Biden, supercharging it with the help of unelected billionaire Elon Musk, who recently claimed the title of being the “George Soros of the right,” a reference to the liberal philanthropist who has been the bogeyman of right-wing pundits. 

But it’s not at all clear that Americans actually want that supercharged neoliberalism. As vote counts are continuing, it has become clear that Trump’s victory was slim indeed. New numbers from Nate Silver suggest he will not clear 50% of voters.

At the same time, a new study out today from Data for Progress showed that people who paid “a great deal” of attention to political news voted for Vice President Kamala Harris +6, while those who paid “none at all” went +19 for Trump. 

Many of those voters got their information from social media or right-wing websites, but one of those today underwent a historic change. The satirical news outlet The Onion bought right-wing radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s InfoWars at auction. Jones’s property was up for sale because juries found him guilty of defamation and awarded his victims about $1.5 billion in damages. After the 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 26 students and teachers, Jones insisted the event was a hoax designed to provide an excuse for gun safety regulations. He and his supporters harassed the victims’ families for years.

Jones appeared to be trying to keep control of InfoWars by having a company associated with him buy it up under the terms of the bankruptcy and restore it to him. But Sandy Hook families worked with The Onion to keep it from returning to Jones’s hands. Jones is screaming that the sale that took it away from him was a conspiracy. The company associated with him, First United American Companies, is already protesting the sale in court. 

Jones rose to prominence in 1993, when he dropped out of community college to start a talk radio show that warned the government was making war on Americans. His shtick echoed the anti-communist grifters of the post–World War II years that promised small donors that their contributions could stop the creeping communism in the United States. Jones became popular enough that he went on to found InfoWars, which made him rich from the sale of nutritional supplements. The theme of InfoWars was that “There’s a war on for your mind!” and that only people like him could deliver the truth.

But his lies cost him a billion dollars, and now, noting that “InfoWars has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society,”  The Onion has bought his website, which it plans to relaunch in January as a parody of Jones and a site that promotes gun safety legislation. But the chief executive officer of The Onion, Ben Collins, told Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: “It’s not just [Jones], it’s the people on Instagram trying to get you to drink raw milk; it’s the [multilevel marketing] people trying to get you to join a scam…. Those people have outsize impact in our completely bifurcated and balkanized media environment.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[dailydemonspotlight]

Fionn Mac Cumhaill - Day 56

Race: Genma

Alignment: Light-Neutral

June 17th, 2024

Can you believe it guys? SMT V: Vengeance, just a... wait, it already came out? Damn, this joke doesn't work. Still, today we delve deeper into the hallowed hallows of Irish stories, examining a certain hero that has only one rival in terms of his popularity, which says a lot, given that rival is none other than Cu Chulainn; a legendary hunter-warrior who led the powerful army of warriors known as the Fianna, Fionn Mac Cumhaill. Infamous within the series for having one of the toughest boss fights in SMT V, Fionn actually is one of the most popular (and prominent) legendary figures in Irish folklore, and I'm frankly surprised it took this long for him to show up in the series.

Most of these Irish stories come in the forms of appearing in books called cycles- for one, the Ulster Cycle covers the exploits of Cú Chullain and Queen Medb, but in the case of Fionn Mac Cumhaill, one need not look further than another one of these books, that being the Fenian Cycle. The reasoning for this common naming scheme has actually been lost to time, so that's fun, but at least some people try to offer explanations. One that I enjoy actually comes from a Reddit post that purports that it may be because these tales 'cycle' around a certain character, like how the Fenian cycles around Fionn, or the Ulster cycles around Cú. That aside, though, these tales are notable from place to place for both providing context on Irish history itself as well as being great stand-alone stories in-and-of themselves.

One of these stories in the Fenian Cycle is entitled "The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn," originating as a fractured manuscript called Laud 610: folio 118Rb-121Va, though translations and added-on segments from other stories likely connected have led to the commonly accepted translation. Originally, Laud 610 was the only thing we had to work off of for Fionn Mac Cumhaill, a 14th century manuscript written in I believe Gaelic? The most recent translation we have to work off of, made up of translations, transliterations, and added-on segments, appears in a book written by Joseph Falaky Nagy called "The Wisdom of the Outlaw: Boyhood Deeds of Finn in Gaelic Narrative Tradition." In the story, it goes over the, well, exploits of Fionn Mac Cumhaill, starting with what else but his birth.

In the tale, it begins with the death of Fionn's father, Cumhall, who was the leader of the Fianna, a word used to effectively mean a band of hunter-warriors. Killed by his mortal enemy, Goll mac Morna, his unborn son and his wife Muirne were waiting for him, but upon Muirne learning of his death, she sent her son away as soon as he was born, fearing for his safety. This son's name was Demne, and whom he ended up with, a druiddess named Bodhmall, gave him the surname of Máel, his name effectively meaning "Stalwart shorthair druid." Bodhmall and her gal-pal Liath Luachra end up raising Demne to be a strong warrior, accompanying him on his myriad adventures, within one of which he gains his name, Fionn. After eating a salmon. We'll get to that. Given that he was just a kid, he had no real reason to be much of a fantastic warrior as of yet. However, the fates had different plans.

One day, while out hunting with a band of the Fianna, he'd come across a nice place to go fishing. While still known as Denme, aka being very young, he'd come across what was effectively a video game sidequest- a poet named Finnegas had spent years fishing in a nearby river to catch the mythical Salmon of Wisdom, as he had gotten a prophecy years back that he would eventually eat the salmon and gain all the world's wisdom. However, he had very poor luck. Denme, recognizing the frustration of the struggle, offered to help in going fishing. After a little while, the poet finally caught it! Recognizing the metaphorical good luck charm in Denme now by his side, he'd let the kid cook it.

While cooking the salmon, however, Fionn accidentally burned his thumb, to which he instinctively stuck it in his mouth... incidentally blessing himself with all the world's knowledge. Likely astonished by how dumb this kid was, Finnegas would give up, letting him have the entire rest of the salmon, now meaning that he could have access to the entire world's repository of knowledge... as long as he sucked his thumb. Yeahhh. Hilariously, this ability went on to be known as the "Thumb of Knowledge." I gotta wonder how Fionn felt when he got older and still had to do such an embarrassing ritual to access his strength.

As Fionn began to grow older, he grew accustomed to working under the services of many kingdoms, but when he'd mention his father's name- Cumhall- they'd send him away out of fear that they couldn't fight off his enemies. As it'd turn out, Cumhall was a massive fan of making foes, and was also a piece of work, to say the least, having abducted his wife and forced her to marry. Yikes. Thankfully, Fionn was far from his father in spirit, as shown when in future myths he ended up forgiving and even teaming up with Goll mac Morna. This story also ties into the Fomorians, but I'll leave you to look into that further yourself.

Several more myths surround Fionn, but this DDS is growing long, so I'll let you read them yourself. Trust me, they're a blast. A personal favorite of mine is that he never truly died- instead, he sealed himself into a cave to return when Ireland was at it's most dire moment. Given Irish history, I dread to think about what could happen next for Fionn to return (joke shamefully stolen from OSP's fantastic video on Fionn mac Cumhaill.) It's speculated that the reasoning for Fionn's biting of his thumb to access his pool of knowledge is actually connected to a belief in Fionn possibly being based on a real figure as well, though who this historical figure is is unknown- as the theory goes, he might've had a habit of biting his thumb while deep in thought. While this hypothesis has been offered time and time again, it's hard to pin down who exactly Fionn might have been.

In SMT, Fionn's design is honestly one of my favorite in the series, combining so many aspects of his character- his badass hunter-warrior look, druidic influences, his great blade, all the way down to one of his thumbs being covered in salmon-colored scales. I haven't played SMT V, unfortunately, but he appears as a rather infamous boss in the game with an utterly bumping theme, almost feeling like an anime character's theme track, which is very fitting, given Fionn's exploits. I can't wait to see this guy when I finally get my hands on Vengeance.

[sanityshorror]

Introducing...Sullivan Sweeney !

Sullivan Sweeney is a character from The Hellcrew Project and the newest to be officially released as of June 2024.

[Proper ref art coming soon]

Click read more for info!

Basic Character information

Full Name:

Western Name: Sullivan Feng Sweeney

Chinese Name: 鄭勁風 [traditional Chinese characters]; Zheng Jingfeng [Anglicized]

Alias(s) & Nickname(s):

The Wigmaker

The Hairdresser from Hell

Sulli

Feng/Fēng

Species:

Current: Demon [incubus]

Former: Human

Age:

21 (locked)

152 (true age)

Birth Date:

January 29th, 1872

Gender:

Nonbinary; masc-fem fluid

Pronouns:

They/Them/He (strongly prefers they/them, however)

Sexual Orientation:

Bisexual

Height:

6’3” (barefooted)

6’4½” (in boots)

Weight:

175lbs

Hair:

Dyed/Colored: Dark vibrant blue with bright purple highlights

Natural: black

Eyes:

Current/Demon: bright yellow iris; white pupils

Former/human: golden-brown

Body Type:

Healthy/Average

Lean and fit but not all that muscular

Ethnicity:

Irish-American (father's side)

Chinese (mother's side)

Place of Birth:

Luoyang (洛阳市) in Henan (河南) Province, China

Luoyang was known as Henanfu (河南府) in 1872

Current Residence:

Boston, Massachusetts

Appearance:

Tall, slender but healthy. Dresses in a punk-goth style but wears bright colors.

Notable Features:

Yellow iris and white pupils

Long black claws

Bright blue-purple hair

Always wears white boots (which match their white corset)

Personality:

Feisty

Sarcastic

Thinks highly of themselves

Intelligent

Seems very quiet at times due to selective mutism

Hard worker

Easily annoyed

Calm but quick to fly into a rage without warning

Scheming

S tier troll; pretty funny; good sense of humor

Easily bored

Very bossy

Likes:

Doing hair

Reading

Art

Fussing over Octavian

Shopping

Make up

Music

When others listen to them

Food.

Pissing off Lucien for shits and giggles.

Spa pamper time with Sera and Duvessa

Helping Seamus and Julius with ‘work’

“Making wigs”

Dislikes:

Being pestered

Questioning they feel are “stupid”

Their human life and their death being brought up

Killian, not a fan of Julius either, but they are more tolerant towards Julius.

Interruptions

“Uncooperative customers”

Kids (they kind them annoying but they don't hate them)

Being fetishized(they'll cut you)

Family Members:

Father (deceased)

Mother (deceased)

Siblings (deceased)

Relationship Status:

Taken, in a relationship with Octavian Doherty

Friendships/Allies:

The Hellcrew

Enemies:

The entire ass world

Crimes/Criminal History:

Yes.

Classification of Murderer:

Sadistic serial killer

Method of Murder:

Yes.

Motivation:

Art, beauty, turn on

Kill Count:

Unknown

Strengths:

Inhuman strength

Immortal

Can read minds

Can control people's thoughts

Weaknesses:

Their boots are chains to hell and they can never go further than a 10 mile radius of the pocket dimension

Catchphrase:

“Now, watch what I do next!”

Other Notable Quotes:

“Wouldn't you like to know?”

“Shut the fuck up, Westerner!”

“You need to log out of life.”

Theme song:

Coma White by Marilyn Manson

Backstory:

(will be added soon I'm rushing this out sorry)

Additional Information:

(Coming soon)

Fun Facts:

(Coming soon)

Want to know more? Ask me on my Tumblr https://SanitysHorror.tumblr.com/ask

Hellcrew Master post: x

[mythaura-blog]

Development Update - June 2024

Hello everyone! Our June development wraps up the first half of 2024, and we're cruising along with work on some pretty substantial gameplay features. We're excited to discuss one of them today: Elite Enemies, who will pose a greater challenge to your Beasts--and those who defeat them will find themselves with greater rewards because of it, too.

We also discuss some other strategic gameplay elements, reveal the Summer 2024 quarterly Ko-fi rewards, show off some beautiful new sponsored content, and more!

Elite Enemies

During your adventure in wild areas, you may encounter Elite Enemies. These foes resemble their regular counterparts but boast more health, are 20% larger, and possess special modifying keywords like "Shielded," "Quick," or "Armored." For example, a Quick Armored Breezetail would have increased speed and have armor when encountered. The keywords are assigned randomly, and as the difficulty of the wild area scales, the number of keywords an Elite Enemy can have increases. Notably, when an Elite Enemy is tamed into a companion, it retains its increased size. Elite enemies also have an increased chance of spawning as its Radiant coloration.

Temporary Health

Certain moves in battle can grant temporary health. This temporary health is consumed first before any damage impacts the battler's actual health, offering an additional layer of protection during combat.

Shield & Armor

Some moves can grant a Shield in battle, which absorbs Projection type damage and must be depleted before health is affected. However, Combat damage bypasses the Shield and impacts health directly. Conversely, Armor absorbs Combat damage, while Projection damage bypasses the Armor and impacts health directly. This distinction between Shield and Armor introduces strategic depth, allowing players to tailor their defenses based on the type of incoming damage.

Summer Quarter (2024) Concepts

It’s the first day of Summer Quarter 2024, which means we’ve got new Quarterly Rewards for Sponsors to vote on on our Ko-fi page!

Which concepts would you like to see made into official site items? Sponsors of Bronze level or higher have a vote in deciding. Please check out the Companion post and the Glamour post on Ko-fi to cast your vote for the winning concepts!

Votes must be posted by July 27, 2024 at 11:59pm PST in order to be considered.

All Spring 2024 Rewards are now listed in our Ko-fi Shop for individual purchase for all Sponsor levels at $5 USD flat rate per unit. As a reminder, please remember that no more than 3 units of any given item can be purchased. If you purchase more than 3 units of any given item, your entire purchase will be refunded and you will need to place your order again, this time with no more than 3 units of any given item.

Spring 2024 Glamour: Chinoiserie

Spring 2024 Companion: Gossamer Campanula

Spring 2024 Solid Gold Glamour: Unicorn (Young)

Ko-fi Sponsored Items

More Inkminks!

Sponsored by: Potats

Wild Inkmink

Albino Inkmink

Prismatic Inkmink

Celestial Inkmink

Baneful Somnowl

Sponsored by: Kettle

Mythauran Astrology: July

The month of July is referred to as Frostcrown's Flame in Dragon culture, representing the first month where the sunlight begins to wane--calling upon the legend that when the first Dragons almost froze to death in the Spine of Ere, a massive Frostcrown Phoenix led them to a volcanic cave, thereby saving their lives. This month is associated with the constellation of the Magistrate and the pyrite stone.

Those born under the sign of the Magistrate are known for their unwavering commitment (to themselves, their jobs, their cause, their loved ones) and a tireless work ethic. Like a dedicated ruler presiding over their kingdom, individuals influenced by the Magistrate take on responsibilities with a sense of duty and precision.

At their best, Magistrates are diligent, organized, and dutiful. At their worst, they can be defensive, uncooperative, and prone to indignation.

Custom Color Contest Reminder

In honor of the new color change that we made to a Beast's tongue/mouth, we're opening another Custom Color Contest. We want to offer the opportunity for you to make a permanent impact on Mythaura's color wheel!

This contest is free to enter, and only has the following parameters:

Only one entry allowed

Fill out Google Form by Friday, August 23, 2024 at 11:59pm PST

The dev team will reach out to the winner on September 1 to begin the color design process. Winner will have until September 23, 2024 to complete their color design. Please feel free to use our PSD file, if you'd like!

Winner will also receive 3x copies of the Empemeral Ink that matches their color's base hue (Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Green, or Violet).

We're so excited to see what you come up with!

Feel free to re-enter colors you submitted for the previous Custom Color Contest!

Mythaura V0.29.1

Refactoring and restructuring was done allowing for the removal of redundant code.

Adds critical endpoint to allow users to spend stat points when creating their first beast.

Creates a service to handle skill's effects on abilities while in battle and adds the ability to handle 10 varieties of skill.

Adds support for Element Mastery in skill trees.

Adds support for both abilities and skills to add Temporary Health, Shield, and Armor.

Fixed a live-and-broken issue with the shadow assets on adult Dragons, Unicorns, Griffins, and Perytons, making it so they can be used as party leaders without breaking Wild Areas.

Thank You!

Thanks for sticking through to the end of the post, we always look forward to sharing our month's work with all of you--thank you for taking the time to read. We'll see you around the Discord!

[moongazeonastarfillednight]

The Terror: When, How, Where... (PART 1)

See part 2 for the end of my sanity (ep 6 through 9. Wasn't enough characters left on the post for ep 10)

See part 3 (and episode 10)

As I am writing the fic, I was getting frustrated at trying to figure out the timeline of the expedition. More specifically, what happens after they dropped the Victory Point Note.

Therefore, in order to organize my ideas, and also because it might be of interests to some of you, I will document here what I got.

Episode 1 through 5 for now.

Methodology

If we agree that the showrunners (and Dan Simmons to an extent) made their research, we should be able to match some of the event of the story with notable point of interests where artefacts and/or remains were found over the numerous searches made to ascertain the fate of the Franklin Expedition

I also tried to take note of all indications of time passing so that I might document their speed travel and the dates when they are not mentioned.

... And the death count. (Departing Beechey Island with 24 officers and 102 men)

Finally, I also used the following website to keep track of sunrises and sunsets: https://www.timeanddate.com/

1927 Admiralty Map

I may be an amateur in this kind of research but I find myself frustrated that the most complete map I've been able to find showing all that was found between 1850 and 1926 is shown on this map from 1927

To be noted, we now know that the Skeleton of H. Peglar was more probably W. Gibson or T. Armitage

The Skeleton of Lt. Le Vesconte has also been reevaluated and is now believed to be that of Harry Goodsir ( :( )

Also, as it happens, if we compare to 2024 maps, we can say that this is not the actual shape of KWI (close enough!).

Therefore, for my own sanity, I recreated with modern maps. Is it accurate? Well, I wouldn't publish it but I think it gives a good enough view of where they went and where they were going:

Where the Ships had drifted to in June 1847 (According to G. Gore's coordinates left on the Victory point note)

Where the Ships had drifted with the Pack by April 1848 (Victory Point Note)

Victory Point

McClintock's Boat Place (proposed to be same location as NgLJ-1)

Camp with Many skeletons

From D. Simmons' The Terror - The Hospital Camp

Peglar Skeleton

Starvation Cove

A Bunch of cairns in the area

Harry Goodsir

Gjoa Haven (Netsilik Settlement)

Fort Resolution (Dear God... look at how far they wanted to walk/Canoe/make portage...)

Matching the Show

Episode 1 - Go for Broke

Location 1 - David Young's grave (71.22, -96.60)

Date: September 5th 1846

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 14h 57 min

Twilight - 9h 03 min

Sunset: 7:51 PM - Sunrise: 4:55 AM

David Young was buried 7 days before they were beset in the ice (see point 3 on the map below).

During the dinner in which we were regaled by the tale of Mr. Fitzjames' Holes, Franklin discuss that they were approaching a bigger channel, which is now know as the McClintock Channel (see point 1 on the map below), meaning that at the time, they were still in the Franklin Strait.

On the day after his death, Franklin discuss their next course and assure that they must be 'nearly in sight of KW Land'. Crozier suggests it might take them weeks to actually make it to KWI. This would confirm what was infer above.

As we can see the two ships fitting in a cozy little cove while the grave is being dug, I would like to propose Point 4 on the map below as Ficitonal David Young's final resting place, on Tasmania Islands

Location 2 - Ships September 1846 (70.25, -98.00)

Date: September 12th 1846

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 13h 45 min

Twilight - 10h 15 min

Sunset: 7:19 PM - Sunrise: 5:34 AM

Well, for this one, we need to use the extrapolation provided by the 1927's Admiralty map by tracing the line from where the ships were known to be in 1847 and 1848 (Point 5 and 6). (see point 3)

For Future Reference:

Travel Time between Loc 1 and Loc 2 - 7 days

Distance between Loc 1 and Loc 2 :70 NM / 80 Miles / 130 km

Average Travel Speed - 11.4 miles a day

Travel Condition - Ice breaking

DEATH COUNT: 2 + 3 (Total 5)

24 Officers and 100 Men remaining

Episode 2 - Gore

Location 3 - The Ships in 1847 (70.15, -98.30)

Date: May 24th 1847

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 24h min

Twilight - None

Sunset: N/A - Sunrise: N/A

Coordinates and Date From the Victory Point Note (see Point 1)

Location 4 - The Cairn (69.66, -98.27)

Date: May 28th 1847

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 24h min

Twilight - None

Sunset: N/A - Sunrise: N/A

From the ships, Gore lead his party to James Clark Ross' Cairn.

Now, in the Show, they found JCR's Cairn without an issue. In reality, while Gore had found the Cairn just fine, Crozier and Fitzjames did not. One of the reason for it is that JCR had, apparently, made a miscalculation in reporting where he had erected the Cairn by several miles. Honestly, the way that Fitzjames had written the words was so confusing, I appreciate that the show made the whole thing so much simpler, ahah. So let's say that it matches what we know now as Victory Point. Easy Peasy! (see Point 2)

To be Noted, we know the dates of departure from ships and arrival at cairn from the Victory Point Note.

Location 5 - The Ice Camp (69.665, -98.32)

Date: May 28th 1847

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 24h min

Twilight - None

Sunset: N/A - Sunrise: N/A

The Camp was raised just beyond the ice ridge that blocked the way form the shore and the Cairn was only a mile or so away. (see Point 3... hidden between point 2)

Of Note: That hail storm's cloud coverage was intense to say the least... So dark :')

Back to Loc 3 (70.15, -98.30)

Date: June 2nd 1847

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 24h min

Twilight - None

Sunset: N/A - Sunrise: N/A

Wednesday is a good day to drink with the Captain :D which makes it the Wednesday following May 28th 1847! So it's June 2nd!

For Future Reference:

Loc 2 to Loc 3

Travel time - 8 months, 12 days or 254 days

Travel Distance: 8.6 NM / 10 miles / 16 km

Average Travel Speed - 0.04 miles a day

Travel Condition - Pack drifting

Loc 3 to Loc 4/5

Travel time - 5 days

Travel Distance: 29 NM / 33.5 miles / 54 km

Average Travel Speed - 6.7 miles a day

Travel Condition - 6 Men hauling Sledge on Ice

Loc 4/5 Back to Loc 3

Travel time - 4 days

Travel Distance: 29 NM / 33.5 miles / 54 km

Average Travel Speed - 8.4 miles a day

Travel Condition - 6 Men hauling ASS and Sledge on Ice

DEATH COUNT: 1 (Total: 6)

23 Officers and 100 Men remaining

Episode 3 - The Ladder

This one is fun because, well... they're not moving! I could point out where Silna ends up but it looks like she remain close enough to the ships that it doesn't matter all that much. So, let's just make note of the date and events:

Location 3 - Ships in June 1847 (70.15, -98.30)

For the duration of the episode:

Nighttime - None

Daylight - 24h min

Twilight - None

Sunset: N/A - Sunrise: N/A

Date: between June 2nd and June 10th 1847

- Silna makes her igloo a few miles away from the Ships

Date: June 11th 1847

- Franklin Dies

- Crozier drafts his resignation letter

Date: June 12th 1847

- Franklin's leg is buried :')

- Lieutenant Fairholme is sent to KWI.

DEATH COUNT: 2 (Total: 8)

22 Officers and 99 Men remaining

Episode 4 - Punished, As a Boy

Another fun bottle Episode!

Location 3 - Ships in same approx position as June 1847 (70.15, -98.30)

Date: November 23rd 1847

Nighttime - 12h 35 min

Daylight - None

Twilight - 11h 25min

Sunset: 11:47 am - Sunrise: 10:51 am

- William Strong's birthday :)

- We know because it's the last sunrise of the year!

- Evans and Strong die :(

They searched for a long time if it was just before 4 pm when they got the alarm and then they came back in time for last sunrise at 11 am...

Date: November 24th 1847 to November 25th 1847

Nighttime - 12h 35 min

Daylight - None

Twilight - 11h 25min

Sunset: N/A - Sunrise: N/A

- Hickey has a communion with Tuunbaq (supposedly next day or so)

- Then Hickey gets evily booped.

DEATH COUNT: 2 + Hickey's postern (Total: 10)

22 Officers and 97 Men remaining

Episode 5 - First Shot the Winner, Lads

More fun in a bottle. These boys are not going far...

Honestly, for this one, the trouble was figuring out how much time had passed. For one, we know it's not yet Christmas because Christmas is, in fact, mentioned in Episode 6 (And Lady Jane's Christmas Pudding, hear hear) as part of the meeting between the officer and there was not yet a cooperation between the Terror Lts and Fitzjames for counting the supplies.

ALSO! That scene where Mr. Wentzell got killed dead over his nail... well, it gave me the feeling that either the review of the crew is not daily or that they've been on Erebus for a short time because 1) Fitzjames doesn't know their names and 2) He has to repeat the instructions about cleanliness... Perhaps they sent the Terrors in waves and not all 50 of them at once.

Other details to be mentionned:

Hickey is not recovered yet and Goodsir suspects he might reopen his wounds from working.

Goodsir has had time to be quite good at speaking inuktitut. Now, he could have had a continuous learning experience from Dr. McDonald since June 47 and before but considering that Dr. McDonald is stationed in Terror and Goodsir in Erebus, I suspect they did not have much time to have a class together...

Finally. Crozier suggests that he would be 2, perhaps, perhaps more... sick from sobering up. He got up just in time for First sunrise (Jan 17th).

So! We can infer that the episode might have spanned over 1 or 2 days (what's with the movement between the ships and the whole Rat Wedding).

My best guess is that the dates for this whole episode would be:

Date: December 14th 1847 to December 18th 1847

Nighttime - 13h 32 min

Daylight - None

Twilight - 11h 28min

Sunset: N/A - Sunrise: N/A

Why December 14th? Because it would be Edward Little's Birthday and I feel like it is appropriate for his character to have his boss send him back to the killing cold for more booze :') (December 16th to December 20th seems more likely but...)

This would give Crozier a full month to recover from sobering up and 22 days for Goodsir to learn inuktitut (impressive!), for Hickey backside to feel better and for Fitzjames to NOT learn the name of his new Terrors.

DEATH COUNT: 3 + Blanky's leg (Total: 13)

22 Officers and 94 Men remaining

That's it for now. I'll do the last 5 episodes soonish...

Conclusion to the first sets of episode: Sunsets and Sunrises were whacky in June 1847 but, so far, distance and travel times make good sense. If the accuracy holds up until episode 10, we might be able to have a pretty good idea of what, when and where everything happened in episodes 6 through 10.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Harris, Trump Mum on Present-Day COVID-19 Situation Amid Summer Surge - Published Aug 13, 2024

The U.S. is in the middle of a summer wave of COVID-19 – though you wouldn’t know it from listening to the candidates running for president.

Former President Donald Trump has brought up COVID on the campaign trail, but his comments have mostly been related to the past.

“We got over that bad period where it was – everybody was dying, and it was just not a good period,” Trump told Elon Musk during a talk broadcasted on social platform X Monday evening. “Interestingly, you know, during his administration, many more people died during his administration of COVID than during my administration, and we really got the brunt of it,” Trump said, referring to President Joe Biden.

Trump’s only recent acknowledgement of present-day COVID was an unfounded accusation that Biden faked his recent infection. “Does anybody really believe that Crooked Joe had Covid? No, he wanted to get out ever since June 27th, the night of The Debate, where he was completely obliterated,” Trump posted on Truth Social in late July.

Biden, for his part, made light of his diagnosis with a dig at Trump and Musk.

“I’m sick,” Biden posted on X in July, quickly following up with another message: “Of Elon Musk and his rich buddies trying to buy this election.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, though she has only been running for president for less than a month, hasn’t made COVID – past or present – a significant part of her platform.

Her pick for vice president, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, however, has notably brought up Trump’s record on the pandemic in his very short time on the ticket.

“He froze in the face of the COVID crisis,” Walz said during a campaign event in Philadelphia last week.

But all these political digs are looking in the rearview window while the U.S. is in the middle of a coronavirus surge.

“Most areas of the country are experiencing consistent increases in COVID-19 activity, with substantial increases in the southern United States,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a recent post.

Of course, the coronavirus has become less of a concern as variants became less severe and the U.S. gained access to vaccines and treatments.

Still, the latest month of fully available weekly coronavirus death data put the total four-week toll at more than 1,600 deaths. Test positivity, which is a measure of how many COVID tests are coming back positive, as well as emergency department visits and COVID-19-associated hospitalizations are “elevated,” according to the CDC. The agency warns the trend is particularly true among adults aged 65 and older.

“Surges like this are known to occur throughout the year, including during the summer months,” the agency said.

The surge doesn’t appear to have peaked yet, and new COVID variants are spreading. Two strains – KP.3.1.1 and KP.3 – were responsible for nearly half of new coronavirus infections in recent weeks, according to CDC estimates. The strains, which are both descendents of the JN.1 variant that was dominant at the beginning of this year, don’t appear to be more severe than previous ones so far. Experts expect vaccines to remain effective against the circulating variants.

[bettyshoweduptotheparty]

what's your wildest clown theory right now? ;)

What qualifies as 'wild'? 😉

If you mean, what theory keeps my brain twisting in knots the most, then it's the current possibility of 1989tv being some sort of double album drop. With the constant colour alternation of blue and black recently, I know most people assume it's reputation. And that would be the most obvious conclusion, but I have so many more questions, it literally keeps me up at night.

Like, why the heck is 1989 on this wall twice, once in white and once in black??

The only other thing that's on there twice is obviously Karma, and notably also in two different colours. One of them being orange, the very same colour that Taylor randomly changed her lover nail on tour to:

March to June: pink ⬇ July-August: orange ⬇

You can't tell me she just ran out of pink nail polish, everything is for a reason with this woman, especially when she's meticulously painted her nails the eras colours for EVERY single show, except 7/7 when they were all purple for Speak Now tv release. WHY TAYLOR??

Reputation on the wall also has the number 2024 in it, so if it was coming as a double drop before the end of the year, was that just a red herring? It would also break the 112 day pattern... so while I see all the rep hints and snakes, I think something is off with it just being reputation sooner than we think.

But if we think back to when this Karma album theory started, it was right in between 1989 and reputation era. The big supposed hint was the TS6 plane in the LWYMMD mv that gets grounded and then spray painted to be reputation instead. So, if anything, Karma was going to be some form of TS6, so why the hell did she change her 7th finger to orange and not the 6th one?? I really have no idea, but it brings me to my other big rumination of this year, which is the visuals from the Eras tour, and there is one other overlap of that karma origin era of 2016 with the lover era and that is when she burns the lover house during the 1989 set. I did a whole theory post on it, but basically, the lover house gets a bit charred during the lover set, and then she brings it back hours later during the final song of the 1989 set to be completely obliterated by blue flames. BUT, while the house burns with blue flames first, it then suddenly changes to red/orange fire before it collapses:

So the most iconic thing to come out of the Lover era gets destroyed by 1989...The blue flames were definitely a choice. But then why not just let it burn down in blue flames? The colour change is also a choice. The final death of the lover house is orange...whatever that means. But it does somewhat support the double drop theory: 1989 (blue) unexpectedly changes to orange. So could the double album be 1989 and karma? Tbh, I don't think karma was ever a full 'lost' album. We got reputation only a year later, that wouldn't have been enough time to write a whole new album, so I think some of these songs are actually on reputation, in one form or another. I've often joked with a friend that karma is just reputation but with all female pronouns to make our Karlie stan album what it deserves to be 😆😁 (for the record, I don't think that's it either but it wouldn't surprise me if Taylor tried to put some of these songs out with female pronouns and was told no. There's a reason that the last ever song she recorded with Big Machine was getaway car...And fun fact: the first ever song released under her new label was what? ME! out now, on...you guessed it, Lesbian Visibility Day 😉).

I know we now have a song called karma and believe me, that little giggle when she announced that song title in MMWM will haunt me forever, that woman is enjoying playing with us! So do I think the karma album theory is dead? Not sure, but maybe we will get some more of those songs as vault tracks on 1989 and rep tv, that was, after all, the time they originated from. Or, if I'm totally wrong with all of this, we may get a 1989/rep tv double drop after all and karma will be TS11, just like karma is track 11 on midnights. Who knows...? What I am excited about is that we're now crossing over to the left side of the Man wall and that's certainly looking juicy. Can't wait for rep tv, whenever it's coming. The reality of a new cover makes me nervous though and I think given the lore around the rep cover, it would make sense if she just dropped it without announcing it two months in advance. It would mirror the OG rep release and also avoid giving us two months to dissect the new cover to find which one of Karlie's body parts she has 'borrowed' this time, because she must be aware that that's what people will be looking for as soon as the cover art drops. So 1989, rep, karma, I think all is on the table, and luckily we won't have to wait that much longer to find out. 🤞

[enlighten3d]

ok another ask because you are fun

explain the minecraft guys with the ken and wifies and parrot in simple beginner terms. I know absolutely nothing and i want a basic understanding so that i can start to digest whats actually happening 'cause as i understand it, a LOT is happeneing

cackles evilly you will regret asking this.

okay so. theres two things happening here. theres the kww collab (fandom-given name) and unstable universe. ill explain both !

so the kww collab (that playlist is not chronological, its recommended watch order imo) is a series of. okay its mostly three videos, all released on june 29th, 2024. its a very very late april fools thing LMAO. theres the main three videos (main two actually, and then theres the true creator which is an epilogue of sorts), and then theres. the supplementals ig? two short videos (from wato and from ken), and a prologue in the form of a weird short part of a video released three months earlier by wato)

and the kww collab thing is PROOOBABLY a part of kenadians general april fools lore thing (heres a playlist)! we only know this because we see wato wear a mask in the true creator thats. a kenadian lore thing. so quickly, ill summarise both the ken lore and the kww collab:

ken lore is essentially that shes debunking fake 'prison' (its actually rly bad escape rooms) escapists, notably this guy named omziscool, but then omz quit youtube and ken essentially made him into an oc LMAO. so in the lore, ken is debunking omz and finally defeats him, and. gets the mask that omz wore. and omz dies i think, after thanking ken. so the mask was making him fake escape rooms and be insane abt hoppers (its a thing). but ken now has the mask, and is wearing it, so they go a bit insane too and... kill a hundred thousand ppl using hoppers. and then he loses the mask somehow. is in jail. abt to be transported to the prison that they themselves built. then theres a video where theyre on a train to said prison, almost escape, and then get their memory wiped again I THINK?? and. then we never got an escape from the daedalus prison.

and the kww collab is basically. ken goes to debunk wifies (an actually legit escape room escapist), goes to spy on him, finds out that theres TWO wifies (henceforth theyre evilfies and clonefies). one, evilfies, is helping out clonefies from the outside, like chanigng the weather or flatout cheating. clonefies has no clue this is happening and thinks its all legit. ken confronts evilfies, learns that cloenfies is a clone made to fake escape rooms bcs evilfies just wants that sweet video revenue, and ken gets sent into the escape room themselves (clonefies softlocked himself btw). so ken goes through the escape room (solving it a second time bcs thats possible here), finds clonefies, and they escape together. they track down evilfies, ken realises that shes had Character Development (aka she actually cares abt clonefies now), and they confront evilfies. and clonefies challenges him to trivia to the death bcs if theyre the same person then whoever knows more should be the real wifies. but its rigged in clonefies favour, evilfies is Dead, yayy they win!!

AND THEN YOU WATCH THE TRUE CREATOR AND NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE. I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY HERE. basically we see wato being interrogated by ken and wifies, and camera footage of wato (WEARING WIFIES CLOTHES AND THE FUCKING OMZ MASK) going through the escape room after ken did (thus solving it for a THIRD time), going to the evil lair, picking up a wifies head, and dying. and. yeah we have no actual clue whats happening here, its v confusing. but. yeah omz mask is there, watos memory is fucked up.

thats the kww collab. i personally hc that uu and kww collab are in the same universe and that uu!wifies and uu!ken are kww!wifies and kww!ken. they are the Same Thing to me.

now, unstable universe.. this ones harder to explain. have an explanation post i made an hour ago: here. read that, that goes over the basics of what uu IS.

so whats most relevant here is parrots pov of uu, and. basically hes just doing shit and wifies shows up, and they end up being rlyyy close, and would do almost anth for eachother. ken shows up and then, in my head, the kww!loyalty duo (thats ken and wifies) dynamic gets superimposed onto uu!loyalty duo and its rly interesting, yeah?

so. yeah thats the whole thing basically explained. iirc this ask was sent around the time i explained rau?? like. i dont actually fucking remember, i thinkt hat was a week ago. but. whatever. for rau, kww is canon to uu, which im sure explains a lot of shit. and. if im very wrong abt the timing of this ask, heres my bad explanation of rau (my beloved au that im so very insane abt): here. so much angst.

uhh yeah thats about it. sorry this is fucking LONGGG. i hope i have answered your questions !!! i rly do !! im. ASK ANY SPECIFICS AND I WOULD BE SO GLAD TO ANSWER??? this is rly a heavily-summarised ver of everything, and i can provide a summary of parrots uu too if you want (that would be Long), but. i really do just recommend watching kww collab at the very least, im so insane abt it. rahh !!

[moonbreezes]

"-sickly Georgie (literally trauma bonding through sickness and period accurate “medicine”) he was ill every other month why not use it '

Sounds intresting and I haven't heard that before. What did you mean by that????

I do not know how to present this in a coherent way so allow me to create a vague list of some of the more notable events that revolved around George’s health. And I will restrict myself to only the time that he was James’s favourite.

I will not comment on George’s early years, because I cannot find any source (I might edit this later when I find anything of substance) that comments on his health. (Nonetheless I vaguely remember reading something about his poor health when he was a child.) However, there are records about him being sick whilst being already a favourite. It is especially interesting as King James often personally visited George or sent him gifts (fruits) so that he could recover quickly. There are not only third party records about George’s health and his sickness form outside visitors, but there are also letters from James directly addressed to Buckingham that mention his health.

The first incident oh his health collapsing is around late 1616, when it was speculated that he fell from grace and was not going to stick as a favourite, because of his absence. This is also around the time when he received the nickname Steenie, after St. Stephen who was dubbed as person with an angelic face. At that time, it became imminent that he was prone to being sick during moments of great tension. It might have been a prolonged sickness as it was noted around spring he was not feeling well, perhaps due to the death of one of his promoters – Sir John Graham. Some also speculated whether his poor health and absence was connected to John’s ‘fits of insanity’ (elder brother).[1]

Another incident happens three years later around June 1619. In April, James fell ill, and many feared he might die due to the severity of it. George, fearing his bad prospects after the possible death of the king was immensely relieved once James started to recover. Nonetheless the constant fear and taking care of the king resulted in him felling ill. After quick recovery he overexerted himself once again and a series of fainting spells took place, this forced him to rest much longer. After that James gave him, a stern talking to as he worried about George.[2]

Then, at the very end of Charles’s and his stay in Spain (around the end of August 1622) he, once again, fell ill which resulted in a delay of their return to England. There were rumours that he contracted syphilis while staying in Spain, which was supposed to explain a collapse in health shortly after he returned.[3]

(late April 1624 – June 2024) Then, there was the carriage incident. After the failed Spanish Match, there was a lot going on between not only between James and George but in general (Spanish weaving in accusations against George while talking with James, then there was the Parliament, James not liking what was going on and the influence George was exercising over Charles and the whole popularity thing. There was a lot). Their relationship turned colder.

He was about to leave for Windsor, for the Garter ceremonies on St George's Day, but could not bear to take Buckingham in his coach with him. The Duke, sensing that something was wrong, pressed James to say what was the matter. Thereupon the King, bursting into tears, declared that he was the unhappiest man alive, to be treated with such ingratitude by those who were dearest to him, and told Buckingham of the charges made against him. The Duke, who could not restrain his own tears, protested his innocence and called for a full investigation to discover who had given the ambassadors this false information. But James drove off to Windsor, taking only the Prince with him, and the disconsolate Buckingham was left to return to Wallingford House where he retired to bed and refused to see anybody.[4]

After that George fell ill once again. Charles in letters to Buckingham assured him, that he would mediate with James so that he would forgive the duke and the affection would return once more. Still weak in body and mind, after some time George was allowed to travel with the king in his coach. Nonetheless, his frail health was compromised once more, and illness returned. This time however, it was not entirely certain that he would survive. (James’s head physician tended to him).

Chamberlain reports on 13 May 1624: "The Duke of Buckingham hath ben sicke above this sevenight of a feaver, the jaundisse, and I know not what els, so that besides other phisicke he hath ben thrise let bloud at least, yet the world thincks he is more sicke in mind then body and that he declines apace" (Letters, 2: 558) [5]

After a difficult night, the King, fearing for his favourite’s life rushed to his side and was by his bedside for some hours. As Buckingham steadily recovered James was said to send him gifts (fruits such as cherries, melons, or grapes) daily, for which George thanked him in letters.[6] Then it is also said that at one time, he knelt at his bedside and begged the God to transfer the illness onto him so that the favourite would recover.

Dear Dad and Gossip, Though you commanded me to write no answer, yet, since I should not a slept well this night except I had done it, I hope you will excuse my disobeying of you at this time. I have been the longer a-doing of it because I might send you the certainer news of my health, which at this time is so good, what with your sweet cordial and my seasonable drawing of blood, that I hope tomorrow to wait of you a perfect man. I hope you will not be put to much pains to read this hand, since you have received so many love letters from her who joins with me in humble thanks for your kindness and care of us both. So, craving your blessing, we end Your Majesty's most humble slaves, Kate. Steenie.[7]

And once again, the affections between James and George returned to their, let’s call it, default state. Nonetheless, despite a quick recovery, during his next appearance Buckingham was supposed to be carried on a chair, as he was unable to walk or even hold a pen; his body was simply too weak.[8]

Following that, there were other minor instances when George’s health gave out.

Dear Dad and Gossip, I have not yet been able to acquaint the Ambassador with what you have found in your book, because I received your letter when I was come from him; but before I shall be able to see you, I shall have done it; for what with the rainy weather, my late coming last night, and this day's long treating with him in the garden, I have such a swelling in my throat, and such a noise in my head, that I can neither swallow nor hear well; wherefore I shall be forced for my health, if your service will permit me, to take a little physic. The physicians tells me this is the seasonablest time […].[9]

Sweet heart, Blessing, blessing, blessing […]. Remember now to take the air discreetly and peece and peece. And, for God's sake and mine, keep thyself very warm, especially thy head and thy shoulders. Put thy park of Bewlie to an end, and love me still and still. And so God bless thee, and my sweet daughter, and god-daughter, to the comfort of thy dear dad. JAMES R[10]

In January 1625, whilst dealing with various (war-related) affairs he has once more fell ill, and even the King urged him to leave London and rest in the countryside. Nonetheless this time around, he had to suffer through what was ailing him and carry on working.  And lastly the death of king James also affected George, as the grief rendered him so weak in his body that he had to be, once again, carried in a chair.[11]

So there it is. I am absolutely sorry about the amount of my yaaping about George and his health, even if is truncated. I have tried to stay coherent and do not stray from the timeline, so I hope that this little ‘compilation’ is alright. Tldr; George had health of a Victorian street urchin battling with consumption and contemporary medicine.

Bibliography

Bergeron, David M. 2002. King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire. University Of Iowa Press.

Lockyer, Roger. 2014. Buckingham: The Life and Political Career of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham. Routledge.

[1] Lockyer, Roger. 2014. Buckingham: The Life and Political Career of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham. Routledge, 28.

[2] Lockyer. Buckingham, 55-57.

[3] Lockyer. Buckingham, 162.

[4] Lockyer. Buckingham, 187.

[5]Bergeron, David M. 2002. King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire. University Of Iowa Press, 125.

[6] ) Bergeron. King James and…, 208.

[7] Letter form Buckingham to King James (c. 16th June 1624) ) Bergeron. King James and…, 205.

[8] Lockyer. Buckingham, 196-9.

[9] An excerpt from the letter form Buckingham to King James (c. August 1624) Bergeron. King James and…, 207.

[10] An excerpt from King James’s letter to Buckingham (c.1624) Ibid., 176.

Lockyer. Buckingham, 213, 226, 234-5.

[gone2soon-rip]

BILL COBBS (1934-Died June 25th 2024,at 90). American actor, known for such film roles as Louisiana Slim in The Hitter (1979), Walter in The Brother from Another Planet (1984), Reginald in Night at the Museum (2006) and Master Tinker on Oz the Great and Powerful (2013). He also played Lewis Coleman on I'll Fly Away (1991–1993), Jack on The Michael Richards Show (2000), and had guest appearances on Walker, Texas Ranger and The Sopranos. In 2012, he had a reoccurring role as George in the sitcom, Go On. In 2020, he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Performance in a Daytime Program for the series Dino Dana.Bill Cobbs - Wikipedia

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Breaking down the comics: A New Past (Vol 3, Issue 1-3)

Marc Spector: Moon Knight Vol 3

So this follows right after the OG run. We left behind Moench and Zelenetz. 

Now we run into a new group of writers and artists. 

Writers: 

Chuck Dixon, Mike Baron, Howard Mackie, J.M. DeMatteis, Al Milgrom, and Bruce Jones

Artists: 

Sal Velluto, Bill Reinhold, Russ Heath, Mark Bagley, Ron Garney, J.J. Birch, and Denys Cowan. 

A whole group of names that aren't that common place. Which is a pity because they did an alright job! 

When you look at the Omnibus, you also get a content warning! 

"This content contains Depictions of racism, sexual assault and suicide. Reader discretion is advised. If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, or are worried about a friend or loved one, please reach out to a counselor or someone you trust or Dial 988 for the suicide and crisis lifeline." 

A bit of history: The crisis line was created in January 2005. 

Since the first Marc Spector story came out in June 1989, it's safe to say this is a late Marvel addition. Hidden in moderate font on the credits page. This Omnibus book was published in 2023. A lot of new books that contain old content contain these new warnings. 

I highly respect the Marvel publishers for the singular reason that when they re-released older content, they recognized the problems in them and rather than correct, censor, or hide them, they kept it as a piece of history and slapped a content warning on there. 

ANOTHER interesting fact, when looking at the Omnibus, you get to see the dates. This series of Moon Knight ran from June 1989 through 1994. 

It was ongoing and takes place after the West Coast Avengers, which technically took place directly after Zelenetz left, but I'm going to skip over that for now. 

I doubt very much I will really cover West Coast Avengers (1987-1989, starting with issue #21 and ending with Issue #41). I might touch on it a bit later, but I was never really a fan. Plus he mostly just kinda pops in silently in the background with most of them. 

Now, this was an interesting time in the comics. The early 90s saw things take a drastic turn towards EXTREME. The 90s were a new target audience, a new decade, and the world was changing. 

The cold war came to an end at the end of 1991, but the Gulf War started in 1990. 

Comics were suddenly competing with and trying to get a foot in on Television, which was suddenly a household thing and latch-key kids wanted something to hold their attention. 

Now, the Marc Spector series has recently been released in Omnibus volumes. Vol 1 holds issues 1-34 with excerpts from Amazing Spider-Man #353-358 and specials including 'Divided We Fall'

Terry Kavanagh kicks off with Omnibus Vol 2 and that name should start to look more familiar. He worked on Spider-Man for a long time and X-men along with Avengers, Iron Man, and a lot of big crossovers. 

Vol 2 holds Issues 25-60, a Moon Knight special, more Spider-Man crossover "Web of Spider-Man #93-94, and some Moon Knight from 1998-1999!  (The Omnibus comes out this March 5th, 2024 if you're a collector!) Since it's not out yet, I'm going to be starting with Vol 1 for now. 

What's interesting is that the series 'Marc Spector' ends with Marc's 'death'. 

So what happens to Moon Knight after that? The king himself, Moench returns to resurrect Marc Spector for a second time in a 4 issue special. 

In fact, Moench returns for the whole Moon Knight Vol 4 and 5 (1998-1999) mini series, each one 4 issues long. 

Things had to be fixed after how it all ended, after all. 

I'll cover the Moench specials later. 

I’ll be honest. I’ve been putting off the 90s runs. The 90s were not exactly my cup of tea when it came to Marvel comics. I was more of a Batman fan (with a few notable exceptions). But as I’ve mentioned many times… My memory is pretty shit so maybe I’ll get into it and be happily surprised and enjoy myself more than I think I will.

 So let’s get into it! 

Let's start with Issue #1! 

Marc Spector: Moon Knight. Issue #1: New Moon. 

Written by Charles Dixon

Art by Sal Velluto

We open on Long Island. We see someone doing a 3am diaper run and stopping at an ATM first. 

Two thugs sit in a car on the corner waiting. They spot the poor sleepy dad and decide he'd make a nice cash grab. 

They hold him up at gun point and demand he take out the max. 

Well... One holds him at gun point. The other rips the door off the man's car for some reason. 

Hey look, It's our man! 

Now, remember, Moon Knight has been out of New York for a while with the West Coast Avengers. We're picking up here right after he left them. 

Moon Knight casts his shadow on the villains. 

"You boys forget your bank cards?" 

"It's a ghost!" 

"I've been away too long. You guys don't even recognize me." 

"It ain't no ghost, Rocket scientist. But he's gonna be one." 

Title card: NEW MOON. Beginning a new series chronicling the adventures of Marc Spector.

You know, the art here really brings to mind early Sienkiewicz Moon Knight. The dramatic leap that leaves his ass out. The awkward stances, the action kicks, the clenched fists... Maybe the poses are a LITTLE more awkward than Bill gave Marc credit for, but I'm loving the clean lines and shading. 

Plus, Do I spy a crescent dart upgrade!?

Marc quips “After all of the high-powered weirdos I fought with the West Coast Avengers… It's good to be back on home turf kicking the rear ends of a few AVERAGE lowlifes!"  

Marc has always loved beating on common thugs. He so often fights supernatural brutal muscle bound villains. When he gets a casual robbery, he’s almost giddy. 

Notice I’m saying Marc here a lot. 

When Moon Knight joined the Avengers on the West Coast, we did not see any sign of Jake or Steven. We know from the OG run that Jake doesn’t leave New York. And I suspect that Steven has never played well with the Avengers or team ups of that sort. 

Perhaps we had Moon Knight as himself, but it’s clear from the title of this series that we’re going to be getting Marc Spector himself and the writers that will be working on this are most likely not comfortable working with Friendly and Loving Jake and Generous and glitzy Steven. Of course the wild and extreme early 90s is going to focus on Marc. And thus we start down the LONG and drawn out Moon Knight tradition of forgetting that he has DID with other Alters and not just Schizophrenia with a ‘pretend’ identity crisis. 

But I’m going to take this down a different path and we’re going to look at this as Marc falling into the trap of his usual denial and trying to get his life together by holding front so hard that you’d have to literally pry it out of his cold dead fingers (ha ha, we’ll get to that later). 

Anyways, back to the comic. The thugs are subdued and the poor sleepy dad man thanks him "You're Moonbeam, aren't you?" 

"Moon KNIGHT, pal. I have been out of New York too long." 

Marc ties up the thugs and tells the guy to wait there for the cups. He radioed ahead to them before he dropped in. 

The chopper arrives and Marc gets on the ladder and takes off with the most awkward: 

"There they are now. Take it easy, Citizen." and he salutes. 

Yeah.... It's Marc. Without a doubt... No one could be that awkward but Marc... 

On the chopper, Frenchie has also taken note of the moment. 

"'Take it easy, Citizen?'"

"Aw, lighten up, Frenchie." 

Marc takes off the mask and relaxes back next to Frenchie in a really weirdly designed chopper that looks more like a hover car than anything... But sure. Upgrades! 

"Y'know, Frenchie... I think the guy I saved down there was more afraid of me than those hoods." 

"Is that not the reason for the costume?" 

"Sure. But I don't want the innocent to fear me." 

"The innocent will fear you most of all." 

"I should have shaved. This mask chafes my face something awful." 

Marc... 

It is very nice to see them actually talking, though. You never got to see Marc and Frenchie actually be the friends they were supposed to be. And Marc is never more relaxed than when he's with Frenchie and they can talk about the past without worry. 

"Crime fighting doesn't seem to suit you these days, frenchie." 

"It is a waste of our talents, Marc. We could have easily strafed those dogs out of existence." 

"We're not mercenaries anymore. We can't just make things up as we go along. We've got rules in this country, m'man." 

"Then I do not like the rules." 

"Live it or live with it, Frenchie." 

Now this is interesting because this is the first time that we really get a feel for what Frenchie thinks of all of this superhero business. 

We know Frenchie was a Legionnaire, we know he was a very GOOD mercenary that helped recruit Marc in the first place, and that his talents are with vehicles. 

We also know that Frenchie had strong opinions on the work he took (as seen in the very first issue when he came to Marc to complain about Bushman's sketchy business). 

But Frenchie ALSO was very attached to Marc and followed him without question. 

So here we have Frenchie noting that picking on thugs is far below what they are both capable of. 

Just an interesting tidbit. 

Another interesting tidbit is that we see the Mooncopter landing back at Grand Mansion and Marc notes that he was able to buy it back after returning from West Coast Avengers. 

"At TWICE the amount you sold it for, Marc." 

"You're on my case tonight, Frenchie." 

We get a little map of where the mansion is on Long Island and that the current Market Value is $5,890,000. Which.... In today's currency is: $14,649,807.50 today!!!!!! 

Here’s a pretty cool design of the mansion with fun facts! 

Now what's interesting is that we see Marc returning to an empty mansion. Just him and Frenchie. No Marlene. No Samules the Butler or Nedda the cook. 

The phone rings from an unlisted number and when he answers, no one says anything. 

Angrily, he hangs up and we get a view of a woman on the other line saying "He's home. We got the right number." 

This explains why we are getting blueprints of the moonchopper and the mansion and map of Long Island. Someone's looking for Marc.

Marc does Marc things and wanders the mansion a bit and starts talking to the Khonshu statue. 

It's time for the Marc Spector Recap of how he became Moon Knight! (remember, this is issue #1 so it's a good place for new readers to pick up a new comic. You'll often find recaps and deep character introductions in 1st issues.) 

"Past four in the morning and all the sane people are in bed. It's all YOUR fault, Khonshu. You got me into this. God of the moon, taker of vengeance.

Actually I got me into this when I hooked up with that crazy Bushman back in my mercenary days. Now THERE was a prime psycho.

Killing is a part of any war, but Bushman got off on it. I tagged along until he killed Dr. Peter Alraune, an American archaeologist, and it looked like his daughter was next. 

I helped Marlene escape and then challenged Bushman in hand to hand combat. Not one of my brighter ideas.

He left me for dead and he was just about right! Somehow I managed to make it to the digs that the doctor was trying to protect... The Shrine of Khonshu. 

Marlene tells me I 'Died' there and was revived by the spirit of Khonshu. 

I wrapped myself in Khonshu's shroud and, from that night on, I took on the mantle of Moon Knight." 

Oh Marc... You would tell it like that. 

Marc heads up stairs to bed (tossing his cape on the stairs as he goes) and when he enters his room someone jumps at him. 

Marc fends them off, elbowing them and then flipping them onto the bed. 

Oh hey! It's Marlene! 

And she's already half undressed. Welcome to the 90s! 

"You play a little rough, cowboy. I think you broke one of my nails." 

"What did you expect sneaking in here like that?" 

"Well, there was no one home. I thought I'd surprise you." 

"Mission accomplished, Baby." 

"Not so easy the way you have this place wired. But my sneaking skills needed a workout anyway, so...I thought I'd come see you. It's been so long, and I thought I'd take a chance..." 

And the two goof off a bit then we have implied hanky-panky as the scene cuts away. 

I have well known mixed feelings about Marlene. And with Marc now running the show, it's interesting that she'd come back, considering her feelings on Marc vs. Steven. More interesting that he left her behind. 

We cut to Manhattan and find two guys in Hawaiian shirts at a large computer terminal (gotta love those 1980s thick monitors). They're celebrating because: 

"We got this Moon Knight guy blued, stewed and tattooed! We know more about him than he knows about himself, Tector! 

Yuh done good, little brother. You worked some real magic with that keyboard. Our bossman is gonna be so proud." 

And the boss steps in, asking if they have found him yet. 

"Tector's digging up more data on his home security system. So far it looks like a hummer! Bet the Kremlin in Russia ain't got so fine a wire job, boss." 

And we pan out to find the boss: 

Alright, he’s upped his style and given himself a new title. I appreciate the new look. They kept it authentic to the original Bushman and also added in their own artistic style and I dig it. Not sure about the new outfit, but who am I to tell our delusional bad guy how to dress? 

"I want projections on the best way to approach Moon Knight. I want his weaknesses exposed to me. This information is vital to my nation's security, Lyle. You will have it by morning." 

Good to see he's still absolutely obsessed with Marc. 

And that since we are starting Marc Spector Issue 1, we are going back to the original with Marc's own personal villain, Bushman. 

I have a lot to say about Bushman, and I'll save it for the end. So stick around! 

Back at Spector Mansion...

It actually says "Spector Mansion." 

Another interesting detail because the OG ALWAYS called it Grant Mansion. 

Marlene wakes up to find Marc working out in his gym. 

"You know, Marc, I'm kind of surprised you're still doing the Moon Knight thing." 

"You have a problem with that, Marlene?" 

"Why do you do it?" 

"I want to do like that dog says on TV. 'Take a bite out of crime'." 

(Scruff McGruff. You were a weird part of my childhood). 

They argue about letting the police do the work and Marc argues that the police can't be everywhere and do everything. 

(That style though.) 

"You used to fight a more noble battle." 

"I was a Mercenary, for cryin' out loud." 

"Don't play the cynic with me. You weren't in it for the cash. If you were you wouldn't have pitched in on the losing side so often." 

"I LIKE long odds." 

"You're impossible!" 

"And YOU are getting more like Frenchie. I get the feeling I'm outnumbered around here." 

This is an interesting conversation we keep getting here from both Marlene and Frenchie. That they think he was better as a Mercenary but he argues that his Mercenary work was not good for him. 

Marc says he's starving but that he gave the cook the week off. 

Marlene asks how Nedda is. 

"Oh, I retired her to my condo in Boca Raton. I never go there anyway. Chloe's the new cook." 

"What's she like?" 

"Not terribly attractive. She's older than Moses and has a mustache that Frenchie's jealous of." 

"Marc, you're terrible." 

And then Chloe walks in unexpectedly. 

(Alright. It’s going to be like that. Welcome to the 90s.) 

Yep. 

Down in the chopper area, we find Marc now working on the chopper for once. 

Come to think of it, in the OG, it was ALWAYS Frenchie up working on the chopper. But then again, it was always Steven at the mansion. Now that Marc is out and about, he's the one tinkering about. 

"YOu're working down here late, Marc. Didn't I see Marlene earlier?" 

"Sure did, Frenchie. We have resumed our stormy relationship. She got an eyeful of Chloe and I sent her packing off to the mall with my goldcard to smooth things over." 

"Americans... You fight with your women because you don't know how to love them." 

Ah, Frenchie... 

They are interrupted by a frantic call on the radio from Marlene. She's driving on the highway and she's "Under attack"! 

I am pleased that the writers remembered that Marlene knows how to handle herself. She was trained by Marc, after all. She can shoot, fight, and drive. She’s no damsel in distress. 

Marc shows up and finds the car empty. He attacks the remaining gun-men and demands to know where Marlene is. 

"Spector, are you STILL parading about in that ridiculous costume?" 

"You're one to talk about taste in clothes, Bushman." 

"Amusing, Spector, you always were a glub one." 

Bushman holds Marlene at knife point (Speaking of damsel in distress) and demands that Marc meet up with him later tonight to find out what his demands are. 

He then shoots one of his own men just to prove the point that he's still a vicious cold blooded killer, then he drives off in a classy car with Marlene. 

Marc is...less than happy about this. 

"You're a dead man, Bushman. You just don't know it yet." 

TO BE CONTINUED. 

I’m not going to make you wait. Here you go!

Marc Spector, Moon Knight: Issue #2: Hunter’s Moon. 

Written by: Charles Dixon

Art by: Sal Velluto

Alright, Apparently Spider-Man is going to be in this one. This is going to be interesting. 

We open back up in Manhattan. 

We got three nerdy looking guys on a roof across from the Excelsior (Fancy hotel) with a telescope spying on the guests. 

While fighting over the 'scope, they happen to catch a glimpse of 'a ghost'. 

Yeah, he's being real sneaky there. 

So there he is... at the Embassy of the Republic of Burunda. This is Bushman's new country that he has made himself 'President' of. 

Marc notes the place looks pretty well armored and guarded. He has Frenchie up in the sky as usual. 

"I'm WAY behind on my current events. I didn't know that Bushman had set himself up as the strongman in Burunda." 

"I saw it on sixty minutes. Forgot to tell you." 

Frenchie suggests waiting for Bushman to call and tell him what he wants, since they aren't even sure if Bushman has Marlene in the embassy. 

Marc says Bushman enjoys always having the edge, including diplomatic immunity. There's no way he's going to wait. 

Hey look, the tech brothers from before are back! 

They have caught sight of Moon Knight on their CCTV cams. 

Bushman decides to send Marc a message. 

"Spector must be discouraged from coming near the embassy again. He must meet my demands without question. Is that CLear, Mister Glitch?" 

While Marc tries to track someone leaving the Embassy, Bushman sends his personal bodyguards after him. 

HEY. Remember the warning at the top of this collected run? The one about racism and other things? 

He puts up a fight, telling Frenchie to stay on the guy leaving the embassy. 

Marc puts up a fight and jumps around building to building until he gets ahead. 

Spider-man happens to be swinging by and notices Marc's group. 

"Now there's something you don't see everyday... A bunch of guys dressed like Tarzan extras running into central park after midnight." 

Spider-man follows and good ol' Peter Parker takes out the camera to catch some shots of Moon Knight in action. 

"They seem to be after the one in the cape. Might as well take some pictures to sell to the paper. This guy sure doesn't need MY help. Say "Cheese" everybody." 

Marc takes out the last of the group and continues his chase. 

"Moon Knight, huh? I thought he was in California. Well, off to the darkroom. And thanks for the help with the rent, Moonie!" 

And Spider-man heads out. 

(I've talked about 'special guest appearances' in comics before. It's a big show to get people to buy and read the comic and try to convince new fans to come in. You're lucky if they are in the comic for half a page.) 

Marc is back on the tail of the guy and he meets up with him. 

He tells the guy they need to talk and then...He knocks him out with knockout gas. Wh...Why? 

Maybe the guy wanted to talk? Why are you knocking out and kidnapping a guy before you even find out if he has the info you need?! 

....Back at the Embassy, we find Marlene is inside and not happy. 

People forget that while Marc has a grudge and hate of Bushman, Marlene is the one whose father was killed by him. 

He tells Marlene that he's a man of the people, HIS people, and unfortunately his people are very poor. It seems he expects Marc to fix that situation. 

Back to Marc and his poor decision making skills... 

We find the man he's kidnapped waking up... and dangling upside down from the moon chopper. 

Not going to lie, his little wave in that first panel is sending me. 

So it seems Bushman wants ten million dollars. Lemme just get the conversion calculator out: $25,456,099.59. 

Yeah. I'd want that much too. 

"He wants it in one week or he'll chop the girl to pieces." 

"And where am I supposed to get Ten Mill?" 

"Find a way! The General knows you've got the money!" 

"I don't like what you had to say, Buddy. Have a nice fall." 

And Marc pushes him out of the chopper. 

Lucky for the man, Frenchie had bought the chopper down and the man only falls a couple feet. 

He tells the man to tell Bushman that he'll be in touch. 

Next up? Marc goes to see his accountant! 

"You don't have ten million bucks lying around in 'sacks' somewhere." 

LOL Marc... 

"Your money's tied up in real estate and business interests and your art collection." 

"So SELL some of the paintings. Sell some of my business interests." 

"What wuld you like me to do? Hang a garage sale sign on the mailbox? 'Picasso for sale, CHEAP'? And as far as your business interests go, they're just that: INTERESTS. You have partners in these ventures that you would HURT by liquidating in a big hurry--Not to mention the employees." 

Steven is in there having a FIT right now. 

I'm dying right now because I was JUST talking to someone about how clever Steven was with their money and how Marc has no idea what he's doing with money and probably took two days to lose it all in the current run. I’d like to amend my statement to say he’d lose it in two hours. 

"I don't know what you need the money for, it can't be anything Kosher, Marc. But we just can't swing it." 

Marc apologizes for losing his temper. The accountant leaves and he tells Frenchie the bad news. "I'm what they call cash poor." 

Oh Marc... Is... Is that a Khonshu bust on his desk? Wh... 

"That's the bad news. The good news is that we get to do this MY way." 

Marc... 

"And this time I go alone." 

Back at the Embassy, we see a "Empire Cable commercial repair" truck pull up. A guy gets out and goes up to the gate. 

Oh no. Is he doing what I think he's doing? 

MARC. 

The guard says he can't let anyone in without varifying first. The General is busy and doesn't want to be disturbed so "I will call your company." 

So he calls the number on the truck, which would not verify anything if this was a guy trying to sneak in. But what's logic for you? 

And GUESS WHAT. The number goes to Frenchie putting on an accent. 

He verifies the job and sends the cable repair guy in with another guard. 

Once inside, Marc knocks out the guard with chloroform (Why does he had so much chloroform?) and rushes off, leaving the body in the middle of the floor. 

And the tech brothers sure as heck notice a strange guy running around on the CCTV cameras. 

They call the front gate and have a thing or two to say about a 'cable repair guy'. 

Marc starts just opening random doors looking for Marlene. 

A couple of guards spot him and Marc knocks them out. So much for his disguise. 

Back in Moon Knight attire, he runs down the hall. The tech guys decide to take off. They know a bad fight when they see one coming. 

Marc continues his quest of opening EVERY door he finds while yelling "MARLENE!" 

SIGH. Marc��� This is why you need Steven and Jake. Just putting that out there. 

So Marc beats up all the big buff gym boys. 

I appreciate that they at one point get the upper hand and pin him down while beating him and Marc just goes "You'll have to do better than that" after taking a few hard hits. 

Marc really does not treat the body well. 

He asks the last guy where Marlene is before knocking him out. 

He busts in so hard that I’m tempted to count it on my “jumps through window” tally. 

(Look at this dramatic idiot. This is the biggest wet cat yowling energy I’ve ever seen.) 

SO he busts in and is met with a SAW-esque situation with Bushman on TV. 

Bushman tells him he had to fly back to his homeland on urgent business and he's taken Marlene with him. 

TO BE CONTINUED. 

At the end of the issue we have a "Let's meet the team" afterward and we get to learn a little about the new group working on Moon Knight. 

It's very brief. Mostly it's just how old they are, if they are married or have kids, and a few previous comic names they have worked on. 

I'm going to be frank with you here. If you've been reading my other reviews, you have an idea on what's been going on in Marvel during this time and WHY Moench isn't writing Moon Knight at this time. 

Marvel comics had just had a huge upheaval of all their major writers and artists due to disagreements with the editor in chief. So these are a lot of young guys that are coming in off of low name comics. 

ALSO none of them talk about why or how they got placed into the Moon Knight run. 

So my big question is why don't you think of these guys when you think of Moon Knight? I can name SO MANY writers and artists from may different runs that were amazing or terrible. Or even just mid. But these guys? Not even a blip on my chart. 

Clearly Chuck Dixon had Moon Knight for more than just a guest writer or special. 

Doing a little background look into him, he was best known for Punisher and DC comics like Batman, Nightwing, and Robin in the 1990s and 2000s. 

He got his start in the big leagues with Conan and worked his way up to Marc Spector: Moon Knight. After that, he started on Punisher and Punisher war Journal. DC got their mits on him and he became "DC's most prolific Batman writer in the 1990s". 

So yeah... Despite working on Moon Knight 1989-1992 for 25 issues... He just isn't a big name for the comic. 

And honestly, the Marc Spector Moon Knight run was often considered very MID. Not outright terrible, but very directionless. It existed and left very little impact on the series. 

I'll give it credit that it DID at least keep the series going and allow it to reboot again later instead of just disappearing forever. So thank you for that! 

But… I remember that Zelenetz had an interview where he talked about where he had wanted to take Moon Knight after Vol 2 ended, but he was no longer on the project. Now I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if he had been allowed to keep going. 

ANYWAYS… What issue are we on?

Marc Spector, Moon Knight: Issue #3: Butcher’s Moon

Written by: Charles Dixon

Art by: Sal Velluto

Oh boy. Where’s that Content Warning able? I have a feeling this is about to get dicey. 

WOW. Right out the gate! 

Alright so... We see an airport and someone is going through customs. 

We are now in Burunda. 

And a very uh... characture... fellow... asks to see this guy's passport. 

It's CLEARLY Marc in a disguise. He has a European UK Passport and is claiming to be Ian Waller, a photo journalist from Manchester sent to take pictures of how the country is doing under the new General leader Bushman. 

The customs officer keeps his passport, telling him that he will get it back when he leaves. (Not a good sign.) 

The town is "Freedomtown" and ....  

I'm going to make you squint at this picture. 

You got a clearly poor country depicted under the rule of a tyrant that rules through fear and violence. 

You got a car with the word "TAXI" spray painted on the side. He claims to be the only taxi in the country. 

Then you have several children running after the 'photojournalist' yelling "White man rich? White man have dollar?" 

Then on the corner you have what's clearly supposed to be a hooker and her pimp not too far away, though it's cleverly disguised as a bus stop and can be argued otherwise. Then you got homeless guys and bags of trash... There's a lot going on here. It's like a Where's Waldo of stereotypical poor African country depiction. 

He gets in the taxi and the driver takes off. 

"Driver? I didn't give you a destination." 

"Only ONE destination, Sah. Only ONE Hotel." 

(I am grinning at the idea of Marc putting on a fake Manchester Accent. Thank you Steven Grant MCU. He actually says "I guess it is, innit?" and I'm so happy). 

The 'photojournalist' goes to take a picture of some military group and the Taxi driver smacks his camera down. 

"No! NO picture without permission, Sah." 

How very North Korea of you. 

The Journalist gets to the hotel and starts to unpack. 

Would you look at that? It's Marc Spector in disguise! (Another mustache) He vows that once it gets dark he's going to go looking for Marlene and also take care of Bushman. 

We head over to the Presidential Palace. 

Out front we see a truck arrive full of people and a bunch of guards with guns offloading them. 

And in the back of the palace there is a large pool. So of course we see Marlene out for a swim in a tiny bikini. Getting back to the basics. 

She gets out of the pool and Bushman offers her a robe. They exchange a few quips. 

"What's your game, Bushman? What made you want to settle down and rule your own personal dungheap?" 

"I Feel compassion for my people. This WAS my homeland. The Tribe my family belonged to once ruled this land frm end to end until the Europeans deposed them. Now I rule. I am like a warming sun shining on my people. I am like the rain that nourishes the soil." 

"I can think of another thing that nourishes the soil, General. And you're full of it." 

While they talk, they are interrupted by gunfire. 

"You do amuse me. You find my ways harsh. I see them as direct. As sole ruler of Burunda, I face no opposition, no Bureaucracy. I am free to deal with my nation's problems efficiently." 

We cut to another panel where we see soldiers with smoking guns and a pile of dead bodies of men young and old. 

"Problems such as aids. I have found a cure for aids." 

HISTORY TIME: 

Alright. There is a LOT going on in that last panel. A LOT of history. A LOT of politics. a LOT of terrible things.

This comic came out in 1989. We are at the height of the Aids pandemic. I'm not going to get deeply into it, but if you have questions please feel free to ask. In America, it was seen strictly as a Homosexual disease and the people afflicted were written off, forgotten, and left to die alone and scared. In Africa, many places saw Aids as a sin-ful or taboo disease and they were cast out of their villages or outright killed. 

It was a disease that wiped out a generation of homosexual men and is the reason why there are so few older gays for younger people to learn from. It's... It's a whole thing and there are papers and books and documentaries on it. 

What I find interesting in relation to THIS comic in particular... 

We are in 1989, it's still killing gay men and a lot of people saw this as a good thing. The way this panel is done is to show how terrible this is. It brings humanity to the aids victims and shows that killing them is NOT a solution and is a terrible thing. ALSO considering the Marvel editor in chief that caused a lot of writers to leave was intensely homophobic, this may have been a sneaky jab. 

Take my word for it, there is a LOT going on. 

It's a beautifully sad panel. I'm not going to show it because it has dead bodies and depicts extreme violence and is just too depressing. 

Back to the comic! 

Marlene yells at Bushman, demanding to be let go. 

Bushman says that "Spector will come for you. He loves you more than he will ever admit to you, I know him. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants." 

Back at the hotel we see a bunch of guards knocking on the 'photo journalist's' door. 

They go inside only to find him gone! 

Up on the roof, we have Moon Knight holding a bow and arrow set. 

"Nobody in sight. Bushman probably has a curfew around here. Boy, is he strict. Hope nobody asks for my hall pass." 

I must say that the colorist really did a fantastic job on the night time shading and moon light glow. It's just very pretty. 

He climbs a bell tower to get a good view of the area and finds a military compound with a large fuel truck. 

Marc, of course, gets a bright idea for a diversion. 

One of the guards near the truck pulls out a cigaret and asks for a light. A note says "Translated from Domi, a local tribal dialect"

"I got your light, Pal." Marc says just before he lets loose an arrow. 

What I love about this is that Marc understands him. Implying that Marc understands the dialect. This is why he's such a good mercinary. He isn't just good at killing and fighting. He was amazing at learning everything about the places he went, including the language. 

The arrow hits the truck and BLAAAAAAAAAAM. 

Oh look at that. An Ammunition storehouse. 

Yeah, he blows that one up too. He's having a good time. 

"That should keep their eyes off the rooflines and their minds off ME for a while." 

We find Bushman in his private office wathing a women's fighting match. 

Someone interrupts him to tell him that the supply depot has exploded and injured many men, but somehow not killed anyone. 

"He is here." Bushman smiles. 

If you will think back to issue 1 of Moon Knight, Marc did the exact same thing when he came back from the dead and was sneaking back into the dig site. He blew up a truck to cause a distraction. 

I'm starting to think Marc might be a bit of a pyro. 

"We now head Several Hundred Miles South" where a bunch of men are sitting around a camp fire near a helicopter. 

And here we see Frenchie walking up. He starts in French, saying hello and asking if they speak French. Then English. 

"I want to buy your helicopter." 

"You are saying WHAT?" 

"The Huey. I want to buy your Huey." 

They laugh a little, thinking he is joking until Frenchie pulls out a suitcase full of money. 

....Now... I'd like to point out that Frenchie did just as much work as Marc, possibly more, and got paid a lot. He never really did much with it... He probably has a lot saved up. He ALSO probably had Steven invest for him. I would not be surprised if Frenchie is richer than Marc. 

So he takes off with the chopper and tosses behind the money. 

Back in town, we see the soldiers running around looking for Moon Knight. 

Up high, we see Moon Knight walking across the power lines towards the palace. 

He sneaks inside and takes out a guard. 

Elsewhere, we see two soldiers moving to retrieve Marlene for Bushman. 

They hear the shower running and go to get her (and take a peek). She opens the curtain and reveals she's in her bathing suit and ready to fight. She sprays one guy with hot water in the face then kicks the other guard. 

She manages to steal a fifle and takes off. "This is what Bushman calls an army? I might not even need this rifle." 

Marc is having a similar thought. 

Bullets fly all over as he runs down a hall. 

"These guys can't be this bad at marksmanship by accident. It's more like they're just chasing me somewhere. If it's closer to Bushman, then I'm happy to oblige." 

WINDOW! WINDOW! WE HAVE A WINDOW! 

Now, let me just say, I do love the Bushman design in this. This is how he SHOULD be. Not whatever that was that Bemis gave us. 

"Do you see this sword? It is the traditional weapon of my people." 

"Thanks for showing me the family silverware, Bushman. But I'm here for the woman." 

"Some things never change. You always did use snappy banter when you were most nervous, Spector. Defeat me and the woman's yours." 

Marc asks why Bushman became obsessed with him. 

"You represent everything I hate. A mercenary making his fortune from the miseries of the third world." 

"Cut the bull! You made millions and never cared where the money came from as long as you could spend it. I may have been a mercenary, but you were a butcher! I never shot anyone who wasn't pointing a gun at me." 

"It was just such softness that always got you in trouble!" 

They start the battle. Marc with his nun-chucks snaps takes their swings. Bushman draws first blood when he slices through Marc's mask. 

"It's not who bleeds first. It's who's left standing!" 

Another slice cuts into Marc's side, but he's had worse. 

Marc kicks him in the chest then smashes his face with the palm of his hand. 

Marc goes full ...Marc... on Bushman, fists and blows. It's his fighting style to take hits and keep going. 

Marc gets the upper hand and demands to know where Marlene is. 

Bushman calls out to his men to shoot Marc. 

"They shoot me, they hit you too!" Marc reminds him. 

But then bullets rain down around them, snapping Bushman's sword in two. 

And Frenchie comes in with the chopper. 

"Through playing the hero yet, Marc?" 

"Good to hear your voice, Frenchie. Put her down as close as you can. This place is HOT." 

Marlene wants to know why she can't just shoot Bushman and end it. 

Marc tells her not to. He fails to give her any good reason other than that they need to get out of there quickly. 

I have theories about this that I'll discuss in a moment. 

Marc releases Bushman as soon as they start to take off. 

"You walk away this time, General. THIS time!" 

Frenchie opens fire, scattering the men to prevent them from trying to shoot them down. 

What I love about this is that Marc is still the chaotic, bad decision making, single man army, and utter goof he has always been and will continue to be when written well. He has a strange but endearing sense of humor and he does not take it well when those close to him are at risk. 

So this story done, let’s address a few things! 

In this introduction to the new series, you’ll notice a lot of people are missing. 

Where’s Gena, Crawley, Samules, Nedda, Jake, and Steven? Why is this Marc Spector in title and the Spector Mansion? Why is Marlene suddenly addressing him as Marc and okay with dating Marc when she’s previously hated Marc and only wanted to be with Steven? 

No one addressed their DID better than Moench. With Moench out of the picture, who was very forward thinking in terms of this mental illness and its depictions for its time, we are now at the mercy of people who have not done their research and who have not kept up with the evolution of mental illness. We are now at the mercy of writers that follow Hollywood depictions. Sure, Moench based it off of Hollywood at first, but somehow, this man was in touch with modern issues, accurate depictions of DID, PTSD, depression, dissociation… He had a gift. 

With the upheaval at Marvel, they were more reliant on the reader and what the statistics told them readers wanted. Readers of the early 90s apparently wanted ACTION and HOT BABES and MANLY MEN. So guess what? Marc’s in charge and the others? They are going to be lucky to get any screen time. We’re going to start seeing more references to Marc ‘pretending to be other people’ and more references to Marc as being closer to Schizophrenia or ‘crazy’ than DID (or Multiple Personality Disorder, as it was known by at the time). 

And all those side characters? We’ve already seen that Nedda has been retired. Samules? Also probably retired and replaced by Chloe up there in her bikini. 

Gena? In the last run, Gena was talking a lot about leaving. She’d been through a lot and she, perhaps, was the first victim of being too close to them. She was beloved by Jake and she acted as a kind and nurturing voice with him. She brought out the best in him and he loved her boys like a doting uncle. And she was the first to get hurt. 

So will we see Gena in this run? We’ll have to wait and see. 

What about Crawley? An eccentric and useful man to Jake and Moon Knight. Here’s the deal on Crawley. Moench wrote him with such a unique way of speaking that other writers found it difficult to keep it going with him. Even his personality was pretty unique. So we aren’t going to see a whole lot of Crawley either, and he may change in how we see him. 

Now for Jake and Steven? In Moench’s run, Marc took the back seat. From this point on in Moon Knight history, Marc is going to sit front and center and the other two are going to be passing fancies. Perhaps I’ll make a different analysis on this later. What DOES happen is that we are going to start seeing more of WHO Marc Spector really is, and not just what Steven and Jake see. (He's kind of a goofy idiot with severe self loathing).

Bushman: I think I talked about this before, but in case I didn’t or you haven’t read it yet, here we go again (for the first time?).

Bushman was never meant to be the BIG BAD. He was the catalyst. When Marlene asks Bushman why he’s obsessed with Marc, Bushman notes that he created Marc’s need to become Moon Knight. 

In reality, he is the one that ‘killed’ Marc, which did take him to Khonshu’s temple and this made him take the shroud and become Moon Knight. He’s also the one that made Marc realize he had a conflicted code of ethics and morals. 

But when it comes to Bushman, Marc does not see him as ‘the big bad’. He sees a frustrating man that has an unhealthy obsession with him and often causes him stress. 

And we’ve seen time and time again that Bushman does not stand up to Marc’s fighting abilities. It’s why Bushman obsesses with him. He feels like Marc was just some random guy he found and somehow Marc is better than him. And while Bushman has set out to be the best, Marc doesn’t care. Marc just IS good at what he does. 

So why do fans and writers see Bushman appear and go “OHHH” and get excited? 

Because Bushman represents who Marc could have been. Bushman is a representation of Marc’s past. The violence, the killing, the coldbloodedness. He’s everything Marc was becoming but still fought against. Bushman is Marc’s inner struggle. He is what Marc rebels against but still turns to time and time again. 

When Marc spirals, he spirals with the image of Bushman. He was never that bad. He was never seen as being as ‘good’ as Bushman because he would not let himself become that far gone. But as Moon Knight, they have proven to be better. 

Of course then you have the writers that just have a thing for Bushman because he’s ‘badass’ (Looking at you Bemis) and don’t know how to utilize him properly. 

Anyways! This was the start of “Marc Spector: Moon Knight”. What do you think so far? 

I’m going to be taking these in batches and not one at a time. So expect longer posts when I get to them! (Unless you have a special single issue that deserves more time). 

…this was a long post.

[dailydemonspotlight]

Attis - Day 57

Race: Kishin

Arcana: Hanged Man

Alignment: Light-Neutral

June 18th, 2024

It's odd that this is the first figure from Greek Mythology I'm covering, given how widespread it is throughout the series, honestly, but I'm not complaining. Something that I have to give SMT a lot of props for is how it goes into far more obscure things from mythology- sure, you've got your Thoth's, your Odin's, your Shiva's, and your Baphomets, but something this series does a lot that I adore is that it creates demons for some of the most obscure figures out there. Sure, it makes researching them difficult (a la Porewit) but the spotlights (heh) that this series shines on otherwise obscure figures is fantastic. Case in point, today's Demon of the Day, Attis.

While everyone knows the Greek pantheon, there are so many lesser gods in the sprawling labyrinth of Greek mythology, gods worshipped by obscure cults or left in the tradewinds of history. Attis, of course, was one of these gods, but he also had another reason- he was from a completely different mythological origin. In Phrygian myth, the archetypical 'Mother Nature' was a character named 'Cybele,' who has her own tonnes of myths to tell. However, when the Greeks began to subsume into the rest of the Phrygian people, she was met with a mixed response. Some took her to become a new form of Gaia, the Greek goddess of nature, while others took off and painted her as an exotic goddess whose meaning couldn't be known. Now, what does this have to do with Attis? He was her consort.

The tales surrounding Attis are, and I cannot stress this enough, insane. Everything happens in them from weird amounts of hatred towards an intersex prophetic child, to a cycle of life and rebirth, and I'm a bit scared of going into it, but... okay. Let's do this. Recanted in Catullus 63, the first recorded tale of Attis begins with, and I'm not kidding, him castrating himself. Right off the bat. Yup, this is one of those stories. And I quote,

Over the vast main borne by swift-sailing ship, Attis, as with hasty hurried foot he reached the Phrygian wood and gained the tree-girt gloomy sanctuary of the Goddess, there roused by rabid rage and mind astray, with sharp-edged flint downwards dashed his burden of virility. Then as he felt his limbs were left without their manhood, and the fresh-spilt blood staining the soil, [text]

We just got here! Okay, okay, I'll continue. The story goes on to describe the aftereffects, and the motivation for this sudden castration, that being a fanatical obsession with the nature goddess, Cybele. After he awakens in likely the world's first (and worst) hangover, he looks out and bemoans his fate, having been left behind by his companions who had already run to pursue the goddess. However, from what I can tell of this story, given the confusing wording, the goddess grants the man permission to drive one of her nuns to 'his allegiance.' I can assume this means someone in his home kingdom, but I'm not very sure? It might be referring to the goddess herself. My lack of knowledge in ye olden terms has made this a headache and a half. Later in the story, after his self-mutilation led to his death, he would later be revived by Cybele, becoming her consort.

A later addition expands on this, giving light to Attis' birth- in the story regarding it, it begins with, as always, Zeus being Zeus. In the tale, he fell in love with Cybele, who didn't return his advances, but... of course, with him being himself, he forced himself on her. Her child would later be reared, a deity called Agdistis who was notable for being a hermaphrodite, essentially 'male and female.' For whatever reason, the gods got terrified of how particularly powerful they were, and proceeded to... castrate Agdistis. What the fuck is with the castration?! Jesus Christ! From the blood left behind, an almond tree spurted forth, and a nearby woman named Nana would decide to take an almond and put it in her bosom. Okay. This led to her getting pregnant. Okay. Later on, she would give birth to the newborn Attis, before promptly throwing the kid out into the nature, to which he was soon raised by a goat. Oh kay.

A lot of stuff relating to Attis has been lost to time, especially given that he was only really worshipped in, you guessed it, cults. Originally, separated from the Greek mythology he would later be co-opted into, a cult formed surrounding him in 1250 BCE, in-and-around an area of modern-day Turkey called, and I kid you not, Dindymon. Originally worshipped as a semi-deity in the area, he would later become slowly integrated into Greek mythology as several Greek cults began to form surrounding Attis around the fourth century BCE. In Phrygian culture, later adapted into Greek, Attis was a deity who represented vegetation and the cycle of fruits- particularly, the castration story (yes, again) represented the idea of fruits dying in the winter then coming back in the spring; the date of Attis's revival, that being the spring equinox, is no coincidence. Frankly, though, as pretty as this concept is, the absurd amount of castration in his stories is just... Why? Why are you like this, Greek Mythology?

Okay, now with all of that over with, how is he portrayed in the series? I honestly really like his design. The bandages and the blade make him look rather unique, and I really do enjoy just how bizarre he looks. Wait, but is the reason why his legs are separated from his body...

No.

You have got to be fucking KIDDING ME.

IT'S CASTRATION AGAI

[ppenvs3000w24]

Blog 3: The Privilege of Driving to Nature

Mcintosh described privilege as “an invisible knapsack of unearned assets ... of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks” while Oxford describes it as “a special right or advantage that a particular person or group of people has” (Noel, 2000; Oxford University Press Editors, 2024). My personal definition of privilege kind of relates to my country, Nepal. When I think of privilege, I think of the rich tourists who go to Nepal to summit Mount Everest. Not only can they afford the expensive tickets, but they are also able to sit around doing nothing at the base camp while waiting for ideal weather conditions to summit the Mountain. They don’t even have to carry all their heavy equipment; that’s the job of the Sherpas; all they must carry is whatever they feel like carrying. At the same time, the Sherpas must plan their whole year around when and how many rich tourists they can help summit the Mountain. They are not afforded the opportunity to worry about their lives or how taxing carrying all the heavy equipment is on their body. If they don’t risk their lives, the families that rely on them risk starvation for the season, as growing their own food and making money through alternate pathways is nearly impossible. I am frequently reminded of the video where a Sherpa carried a dying tourist all the way back to safety, only for the tourist to go back home, become a celebrity, and not acknowledge the Sherpa who saved their life until the internet forced them to (Zachary Rogers, 2019). I believe the ability to scale Mount Everest, sometimes multiple times, without putting in much effort is the best representation of privilege for me.

A Sherpa carrying a heavy load for a climber on Mount Everest summit

Privilege plays a huge role in nature interpretation since people who are not privileged enough to experience nature interpretation do not even know what nature interpretation means. To the immigrant parents living in the Greater Toronto Area, nature and nature interpretation are not even in their mindset. Their mind is filled with how to support their family, whether they can afford rent this month, and if they can finally buy a car to open more job opportunities. I witnessed my parents go through this as my dad would work night shifts at a Petro Canada and then go to college all while relying on whether this bus would arrive on time. This posed an economic barrier for my parents to experience nature and nature interpretation, which was one of the five factors mentioned in this week’s assigned reading on ‘Why Don’t More Minorities Come?” (Beck et al., 2018). In the same chapter, the authors proposed that public transportation from urban areas to interpretive facilities would greatly alleviate the car economic barrier (Beck et al., 2018). I believe this is a great idea, as I experienced this myself while living in Ottawa, where I did not have a car. I wanted to visit Gatineau Park however, you cannot reach the park without a car or paying for a cab. The city provided free shuttle buses from urban downtown Ottawa to Gatineau Park to alleviate this barrier.  

Shuttle bus at Gatineau Park

References

Beck, L., Cable, T. T., & Knudson, D. M. (2018). Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage: For a Better World. In Interpreting Cultural and Natural Heritage: For a Better World. Sagamore Publishing LLC. https://sagamore.vitalsource.com/reader/books/9781571678669/pageid/152

Noel, J. (2000). Notable Selections in Multicultural Education. Dushkin/McGraw-Hill.

Oxford University Press Editors. (2024). Privilege - Definition. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/privilege_1

Zachary Rogers. (2019, June 6). Man saved from certain death on Everest criticized for thanking sponsors instead of savior sherpa. ABCNews4. https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/man-saved-from-certain-death-on-everest-criticized-for-thanking-sponsors-instead-of-savior-sherpa-mount-ravichandran-tharumalingam-gelje-zone-rescue

[symbolicliving]

Pluto Retrograde stations Direct in Capricorn October 10, 2023

Pluto has been Retrograde since May 1, 2023 and entered back into Capricorn June 11, 2023.

Today, Pluto goes Direct in Capricorn - October 10, 2023 at 9:09 pm ET.

Pluto in Capricorn reveals the power structures of society, especially where the political and financial realm dominate. Pluto is a path of destruction, death, transformation and rebirth.

Pluto is considered revolutionary, but revolving can indicate repeating. Pluto stationing Direct reminds us to ask, "How do we transcend repeating cycles so we can evolve beyond them?"

What larger goals are changing in your life now?

Pluto direct in Capricorn will enter Aquarius January 20, 2024. Pluto will make one final trip between Capricorn and Aquarius from September 1, 2024 to November 19, 2024 and will never be in Pluto again in our lifetimes. More about Pluto Direct in Capricorn

More notable astrological activity for October 2023 here.

[misfitwashere]

November 14, 2024 

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 15

Two snapshots today illustrate the difference between the economic—and therefore the societal—visions of the Biden-Harris administration and of the incoming Trump administration.

The Biden-Harris administration today released numbers revealing that over the past four years, their policies have kick-started a boom in the creation of small businesses across the country. Since the administration took office, entrepreneurs have filed more than 20 million applications for new businesses, the most of any presidential term in history. This averages to more than 440,000 applications a month, a rate more than 90% faster than averages before the pandemic. Black business ownership has doubled, and Hispanic business ownership is up by 40% since before the pandemic. 

The administration encouraged that growth with targeted loans, tax credits, federal contracts, and support services. Small businesses are major job creators and employ about 47% of all private sector employees. 

President Joe Biden rejected the “neoliberalism” of the previous 40 years that had moved about $50 trillion dollars from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%. Those embracing that theory maintain that the government should let markets operate without regulation, concentrating wealth among a few people who will invest it more efficiently than they can if the government intervenes with regulations or taxes that hamper the ability of investors to amass wealth. 

Biden and Harris returned the U.S. to the model that both parties had embraced until 1981: the idea that the government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. That system had reduced extremes of wealth in the U.S. after the Great Depression and given most Americans a path to prosperity. 

Biden’s policies worked, enabling the U.S. to recover from the pandemic more quickly than any other country with a modern economy, sending unemployment to historic lows, and raising wages faster than inflation for the bottom 80% of Americans. 

It has also had social effects, most notably today with the announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the U.S. is seeing a historic drop in deaths from the street drug fentanyl. From June 2023 to June 2024, deaths dropped by roughly 14.5%, translating into more than 16,000 lives saved. Experts say the drop is due to better addiction healthcare, the widespread availability of the opioid reversal drug naloxone, and lower potency of street fentanyl. 

If the record of the extraordinary growth of small businesses in the past four years is one snapshot, the other is a social media post from yesterday, in which former pharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy noted that the government spends $516 billion a year on “programs which Congress has allowed to expire.” “We can & should save hundreds of billions each year by defunding government programs that Congress no longer authorizes,” he wrote. 

Bobby Kogan, who worked in President Joe Biden’s Office of Management and Budget and on the Senate Budget Committee, explained that Congress often authorizes spending as “temporary” in order “to encourage Congress to revisit it to update various parts of the bill, such as eligibility, benefits, etc.” But Congress can still fund the programs in appropriations bills. 

Kogan noted that the largest program currently operating under expired authorization is veterans’ medical care. 

Trump and his advisors embrace the neoliberalism Biden rejected. Rather than invest in the economy to create opportunities for middle-class Americans and those just starting out, they want to slash the existing government to free up more capital for investors. 

Trump has tapped the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who invested at least $132 million in cash in Trump’s campaign as well as the in-kind gift of the support of X, and former pharmaceutical executive Vivek Ramaswamy to run a “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE, named for Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency.  

According to the Washington Post’s Jeff Stein, Elizabeth Dwoskin, Cat Zakrzewski, and Jacob Bogage, people around Musk say the group is intended to “apply slash-and-burn business ideologies to the U.S. government.” Musk has vowed to slash “at least” $2 trillion from the federal budget and has warned it will create “hardship.”  

That the people embracing this plan see a world in which a few elites run things showed in today’s social media post by the “DOGE.” The post called for “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account…. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.” 

Such cuts would be enormously unpopular, and in the Washington Postyesterday, Stein, Dwoskin, Zakrzewski, and Bogage reported that Trump’s aides are exploring ways to enact dramatic cuts to the government without congressional approval. Key among those is simply refusing to release the money Congress appropriates for programs Musk and Trump want to cut. This is known as “impoundment,” and Congress made it illegal in 1974 after President Richard Nixon tried to shape the government to his wishes by refusing to fund congressional programs he opposed. 

Trump tried to do this quietly in 2019 by refusing to release the money Congress had appropriated for Ukraine to fund its fight against Russian incursions until Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky smeared Biden. When the threat came to light, the House of Representatives impeached Trump. Although the Senate ultimately acquitted Trump, according to Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) all the Republican senators agreed he had done as the House charged. 

Now Trump’s team apparently hopes that a pliant Supreme Court will declare the 1974 Impoundment Control Act unconstitutional, permitting Trump—or Vice President J.D. Vance, should Trump not be able to fulfill his term—to shape the government without consulting Congress.

Because of the 2024 presidential election, Trump will soon be able to return the country to the neoliberal vision of the 40 years before Biden, supercharging it with the help of unelected billionaire Elon Musk, who recently claimed the title of being the “George Soros of the right,” a reference to the liberal philanthropist who has been the bogeyman of right-wing pundits. 

But it’s not at all clear that Americans actually want that supercharged neoliberalism. As vote counts are continuing, it has become clear that Trump’s victory was slim indeed. New numbers from Nate Silver suggest he will not clear 50% of voters.

At the same time, a new study out today from Data for Progress showed that people who paid “a great deal” of attention to political news voted for Vice President Kamala Harris +6, while those who paid “none at all” went +19 for Trump. 

Many of those voters got their information from social media or right-wing websites, but one of those today underwent a historic change. The satirical news outlet The Onion bought right-wing radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s InfoWars at auction. Jones’s property was up for sale because juries found him guilty of defamation and awarded his victims about $1.5 billion in damages. After the 2012 shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 26 students and teachers, Jones insisted the event was a hoax designed to provide an excuse for gun safety regulations. He and his supporters harassed the victims’ families for years.

Jones appeared to be trying to keep control of InfoWars by having a company associated with him buy it up under the terms of the bankruptcy and restore it to him. But Sandy Hook families worked with The Onion to keep it from returning to Jones’s hands. Jones is screaming that the sale that took it away from him was a conspiracy. The company associated with him, First United American Companies, is already protesting the sale in court. 

Jones rose to prominence in 1993, when he dropped out of community college to start a talk radio show that warned the government was making war on Americans. His shtick echoed the anti-communist grifters of the post–World War II years that promised small donors that their contributions could stop the creeping communism in the United States. Jones became popular enough that he went on to found InfoWars, which made him rich from the sale of nutritional supplements. The theme of InfoWars was that “There’s a war on for your mind!” and that only people like him could deliver the truth.

But his lies cost him a billion dollars, and now, noting that “InfoWars has shown an unswerving commitment to manufacturing anger and radicalizing the most vulnerable members of society,”  The Onion has bought his website, which it plans to relaunch in January as a parody of Jones and a site that promotes gun safety legislation. But the chief executive officer of The Onion, Ben Collins, told Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: “It’s not just [Jones], it’s the people on Instagram trying to get you to drink raw milk; it’s the [multilevel marketing] people trying to get you to join a scam…. Those people have outsize impact in our completely bifurcated and balkanized media environment.”

—