#Unit 77: Broken

[reiderwriter]

She's a Silver Lining

Chapter Nine of I Can't Help Myself

Summary: Spencer comes to terms with your abduction.

Warnings: ANGST, Suicidal ideation, kidnapping, mentions of fetal abduction and murder of pregnant women, descriptions of abuse, descriptions of prenatal care, typical case details. Spencer is depressed.

A/N: I'm sorry this chapter is a day late, I literally saw God this weekend (I saw Taemin perform live), and really, all that's been on my mind is how God is Good (Taemin is hot), and so I haven't been able to write anything as depressing as this chapter. I hope you enjoy (?) it anyway~♡

Masterlist || tags are currently broken, I'm sorry ♡

Eight days. It had been eight days since Spencer had last seen you. Eight days since he'd screwed up his one job so massively that he'd lost you. 

He'd lost people before. He'd lost people on cases. Victims, unsubs, bystanders, and family members who didn't stand a chance at recovering from their own loss. He'd lost Maeve, which was a little too similar to his current circumstances to think about too hard. He'd been losing his mother since he was born, and he'd really lost her again a few months ago. He'd lost Gideon. He'd lost Elle, too, before that. He'd lost Emily, and though she'd come back too, it wasn't the same. He'd lost Morgan, and then Hotch. He'd lost Alex Blake.

He'd lost nearly everyone in his life. Some of them had come back, most of them hadn't. 

He'd thought himself immune to the pain of losing someone at last. 

He'd certainly lost enough of himself in prison. 

It may have only been 84 days, but whatever was left in him of hope before was gone. He'd emerged completely empty. 

He supposed that's why he'd accepted the role at the university. There was nothing left for him to give to the BAU, but he couldn't be the one to leave. 

As it was, he'd already been unsettled enough by leaving you behind when he'd finished up his time there. 

It felt weird to him, saying goodbye. Not that he'd actually said goodbye. He'd kissed your forehead as he slipped out of your bed, sure, but you'd been neither conscious, nor fond of him in anyway. It was a parting gesture just for him  and he hadn't been quite sure why he'd done it. 

It was just a gesture and one he'd repeated multiple times after getting you back. You didn't know, of course. How could you? 

He'd either woken up before you and kissed your forehead, or climbed into bed beside you late at night and greeted you then. 

You'd lain side by side, drifting to sleep slowly, when he realized it had become a daily habit. 

He hadn't any idea of what he'd do when you left. 

And now you had. And it was his fault. 

In the eight days since you'd been kidnapped, Spencer had come to terms with a few facts.

He knew 64,956 women were currently declared missing in the United States. He knew that 77% of adults reported missing were found in 24 hours. You weren't. He knew 4% were found in 48 hours. You weren't. Only 3% were usually missing still after a week. 

You were somehow in that small minority, even though there was an entire team of FBI agents working around the clock to find you. 

He'd had faith in his coworkers before. Before, he'd begged for their help, and they'd succeeded in 24 hours, even if the outcome wasn't preferable. 

This time, he didn't beg. He had no faith. He just hoped to be present with a gun, loaded with two bullets, if this time went the way of the last. 

On the eighth day after your abduction, Spencer finally returned home.

The damage from your abduction was still apparent. 

Not that your captor had left many clues. In fact, they'd left none. Not even a fingerprint or a good angle on the CCTV. But he hadn't taken returning to an empty apartment well.

He slashed through the crime scene tape quickly, letting in hang in the doorway as he entered. The bookshelves he'd attacked were limping, leaning on each other for support after he'd ripped books off so violently he'd set them askew. 

He'd kicked and ripped and punched the wall so hard he'd needed stitches that he'd absolutely refused to get. 

He'd cried and sobbed into his bloodied and bruised hands until Emily had arrived, and then he'd cried some more, leaning on his friend, his sister, for her support. 

Returning now, there wasn't a single tear left.

In the hospital, they'd addressed his flesh wounds, but the emotional ones would never hear. 

You were gone. And now there was only a 3% chance he'd ever see you again. 

Emily hadn't allowed him to stick around to make their jobs harder. She's placed him on house arrest - funnily enough, her house, where you should've been if he wasn't such a selfish ass - and assigned a watch. 

She’d said it was for protection, but what she'd meant was it was to protect him from himself.

The rest of the team had avoided the topic entirely. They didn't know how to deal with whatever stage of grief he was going through. Many of them had comforted him the first time. They didn't know how to do it a second. They didn't know if they could. 

After eight days, Spencer had left Emily’s apartment. He'd dodged the Agent she'd stationed alongside him, got into a taxi, and gone home. 

Surveying the damage, he was surprised how deep the hurt had already cut to not feel much anymore. 

He looked at the books splayed on the floor. It was a title that you'd been reading that week. One he remembered you using at the office, one that had been on both of your courses reading lists. He picked each of them up and put them back on the shelf. He righted each shelf and organised them neatly, how he thought you'd like them. 

He picked pillows up and rearranged them. He vacuumed the debris from the floor, the thin layer of dust that had gathered since he'd left, the splinters pf bookcase that had crumbled off, the shards of wall that were speckled with his blood. 

He wept the entire time, though silent, until there were no tears left to cry. 

Then he'd come across a tiny package underneath his coffee table, a single corner of plastic peaking out, begging for attention. 

He'd picked it up and wept again as he found depths of sadness to reach further down than what he'd assumed to be rock bottom. 

Aa he lay in a pool of his own despair, a new, haunting fact crashed from his brain to his heart. Since 1987, there had been 21 foetal abductions in the USA. 19 of them had ended in homicide, with the mother dying. 

You made 22. 

In the two months since you'd been abducted, you'd learned three things. 

The first was that you absolutely loved Spencer Reid. You'd spent enough time sitting introspectively about everything in your life to realize you had to stop being so stubborn and admit just that. You'd been about there before all of this, but now you knew for sure. 

You should be cursing the man that inspired your horror show of a life, after all. But instead, you thought about him and held back tears. 

She gave you updates these days, testing your reactions to his name, waiting to see you crack, to see you cry, and sob and break down completely. 

Today, Spencer had been to see his mother, she said. He'd broken down in her arms and caused her to have an episode. She'd hit him so hard, his face had already been bruised by the time she saw him. 

The second thing you knew was that your baby was going to be born healthy. You had no plans of having a home birth, but now, at seven months pregnant, and large enough that you almost thought about doing your conception math again, you knew you were on track for giving birth in the room you'd been in for the last 58 days. 

You hadn't counted. 

She’d been good enough to tell you the date, the day, and her plans every morning when she visited you. She checked your vitals, your blood pressure, the position of the baby, your temperature, your heart rate, and recorded everything in her chart. She asked you how the pregnancy was going, almost as if she was the nurse she'd been training to be. 

Her bedside manner was so good some days. You forgot entirely that you were tied down to the bed, ankle clamped down. 

She let you walk for an hour a day, but recommended bedrest after that for health reasons. You didn't complain or talk back because she didn't like that. 

She let you read, and she was even curious about your reading, asking you questions and taking notes as if this were just part of her regular college schedule, an office hour that had taken over her life. 

You shuddered sometimes as she stared up at you with those big eyes, so wide, and young, and naive, and full of hatred, and evil, and you wanted to claw them out and scream for help, and stab her with the pencil she wrote notes with, and stab, and stab, and stab, and-

The third thing you knew was that you'd never hold your baby in your arms because you'd be dead moments after they breathed their first breath.

You knew, because she had told you as much everyday since you'd woken up. 

In two months, Spencer had become more manic and self-destructive than he'd ever been in his entire life. 

His world centred around you, and finding you, even as his 3% slipped to 1%, slipped to 0.1%, and he knew deep inside that he'd never see you again. 

He hadn't returned to the BAU but had instead turned his home into an investigation room, emptying the walls so he could pin up information, evidence, pictures of you, everything he could find. It wasn't that he'd regained hope, but he'd grown so desperate that he suddenly gripped hard onto the only slither of it that he had left and refused to drop it. He was a dog that didn't know the game of fetch only conti he'd if he dropped the ball. His life would not go on without you.

So he searched. He knew how far along you were. He knew how far along a woman had to be for a c section, professionally performed or not. 

He barricaded himself into his house and paced for days as his friends pounded down his door. He let none in. He didn't go out. He wasn't sure what he ate, or drank, or if he slept, but he knew he paced, and he thought, and he came up with theories. 

After two months, Emily was tired of knocking. 

“Spencer Reid, I am coming in,” she shouted from behind the door. 

He usually ignored her. She couldn't pass the bookshelves he'd moved in front of the door anyway, even if his superintendent had given her a key. 

This time though, he heard a banging, a creak and a crash as the bookshelves went down and Emily, who had left him and returned, made her way inside his apartment. 

“You barricaded the door?” she said, looking at him. 

He took a shaky breath and tried to answer as she surveyed his apartment, the mess of papers, books, string on the wall. He saw her stare down at the pile of sheets on the floor where he'd been sleeping, the bag of your things he had dragged to be closer to him. 

He saw her look at the baby shoes, and baby grows he'd laid out neatly on the floor, and he saw the pitying look she turned on him. 

“She's pregnant,” he finally said out loud, though you must've been 7 months along by then. “I'm going to be a father.”

“Spencer,” Emily said, grasping his hand, voice cracking from the strain of emotion that coated her tongue, making her voice thick. “You would've been an amazing father.” 

“No. No-” he said, breaking away and moving back to his wall. “No past tense, I won't let you… I won't let you give up on them.” 

“It's been two months.” 

“So she's only seven months pregnant. I have two more months to find her, Emily. Two more. At least allow me that.” 

The tears in his eyes streamed freely now as she nodded. 

“We will…. you know we'll help you. We'll do everything we can, so come to the office.” 

He didn't want to give up his space. His reminders of you, the baby grows, the information he'd gathered.

Equally, he didn't like Emily being in this space. She thought you were already dead, and he couldn't even look her in the eye. 

Reluctantly, he nodded, lifting himself up on legs weakened by insurmountable grief, and he followed her to Quantico. 

By the end of your third trimester, you wondered how you could ever have gotten so big. When you gave birth, the child inside of you would only be the size of a small pumpkin. You felt like you'd swallowed five regular size pumpkins whole, and you felt you were still expanding. 

The point worried her. She'd broken two glasses in tantrums this last week alone, measuring you every day. 

The closer you got to birth, the more agitated she grew. 

“This demon inside of you is going to kill you. I won't even have to do it myself,” she'd whispered to herself, or to you, as she took your vitals that morning. 

“Please don't say that.” 

“Why not? You're a whore, and you're going to give birth to a devil. You have seduced my soul mate, because you are a jezebel and the Lord is punishing you.” 

You'd needed all the strength you could get for these conversations. Even one tear, and she'd erupt and put a knife at your neck. With only a few weeks left, there was no saying whether she'd speed her plan along. 

“I did not seduce your soul mate,” you said as calmly as you could muster, taking deep breaths, hoping that she would mirror them and calm down. 

“Do we have to watch the fucking video again?” she spat at you, stomping around to the side of your bed and pulling out her phone. She queued up the video quickly and you averted your eyes. 

She turned them back quickly, holding your head in place as she forced you to watch your own office space. She showed you the videos of you and Spencer talking, teasing each other. She showed you the video of you insisting you were not attractive to him. She showed you the video of Spencer fucking you on the sofa, though she screamed and cut her fingernails into her skin the entire way through. 

She even showed you the video of her attempting to seduce Spencer during their office hour. It was the first video in her collection, the first time she'd set up the camera. She used your entrance as proof that you were breaking her apart from her soul mate. From Spencer. 

You were a whore who had thrown herself at him in anyway you could, and you had trapped him with a baby. 

She was going to free him from all responsibility so he could be with her. 

“My baby will be your devil,” she said as the video ended, and you forced your heart to settle. 

“It is not your baby.”

“Spencer won't know that. He doesn't know it's your baby either, and who are the authorities going to believe when I show up with his child. One paternity test later, and I'll have him, and we can be a happy family together, and we can live happily. I'll take in your devil  and raise it as my own, and we'll forget about the whore who almost ruined it all.”

The psychosis was so clearly written on her face, you were surprised no one had caught onto her state yet. She was devolving. She'd been calm, and contemplative the first week. She'd laid out her plans still, her insane plans, and seemed somewhat coherent. 

Then she'd began rambling about the devil and soul mates, and you'd pitied her, even in your fear. 

Now you were just glad she counted your office tryst as your conception date, and you'd never corrected her. 

She still believed there was a month left until your death. You knew it was days. 

You just prayed your baby could buy you some time.

“Professor?” she said as she carried away the tray of items she'd checked your vitals with

“Yes.” 

“You are not in love with Spencer Reid,” she said, as if trying to convince you. 

“No,” you said, trying to convince yourself  though it was hopeless. “I am not in love with Spencer Reid.”

The first lead in the case came on your due date. Patient confidentiality was, happily, overlooked by a few doctors when he pressed the issue, needing to know until when he was counting down. 

He'd done the rough math himself, but he needed a professional opinion. 

The lead came in the form of an email. The university was cleaning out your office to make way for a new professor, despite his insistence that you'd return, and they needed him to collect things. 

And though he knew you'd be giving birth that day, and he had run out of time, something compelled him to go and do this menial task on today of all days. 

Luke had joined him, and then so had JJ and Emily, and Penelope and Tara. Rossi had even arrived to watch you pile books into boxes that were supposed to have lived on these shelves for a long career. Everyone in the room was so busy watching him, waiting for him to crack, that it had to be him to find it. 

At first, he thought it was a hole in the couch. It was so dark and black, its curved corners giving the illusion of introversion. Then he'd touched it and felt the rough bump. 

“Penelope, here, now,” he breathed out, gasping for air as he finally pulled the tiny spy camera free and thrust it into his friends hands. 

He had a lead. He had you now. 

The first hour of labour was inconvenient only because you weren't alone. She'd been tending to you all morning, fussing over your food, trying to maintain the right amount of prenatal vitamins as she usually did, but she'd ran out of two bottles, and the pharmacy wasn't open. 

You sat still and uncomfortable, trying to not even flinch as your water broke, too afraid of death to be thinking about the life you were bringing into this world. 

The second hour ticked by much the same until she left. 

The third came, and you ceased your screams of pain, even as your hands bore holes into your sheets. She returned, and you knew there wasn't much longer until she knew. 

By hour four, she had your legs spread and was watching you deliver your baby, and you knew the same blade that would sever your umbilical cord would also end your life. 

By hour five, you were so delirious with pain that you thought you saw Spencer. You heard his voice cooing to you as you pushed. You felt his hands wipe away your sweat, smooth the hair from your eyes. You heard his voice announce your daughters birth, and you felt his lips against your skin as you finally gave up fighting and drifted into oblivion. 

[mapsontheweb]

How do you say the number 57? 

Taking Asia's case in point, different countries call numbers in different structures in their languages.

The Northern Indian Subcontinent and The Arabian peninsula, would say the units digit first, followed by the tens digit. Like in Hindi, 64 would be Chausath (Chau:4, Sath:60) or Chaushatti (Chau:4, Shatti:60) in Bengali.

While the South of India and Manipur along with Central Asia would say 57 with the tens digit first followed by the units place- as fifty seven, much like in English. So in Tamil, 57 is Ambathi eḻu (Ambathi: 50, eḻu:7) or Malayalam Ampathi ezhu (Ampathi: 50, ezhu:7).

Much of East and South East Asia follows a basic form of number structures. For Example in China, 57 is broken down into 5x10+7 and would be called Wǔshíqī (Wǔ:5, Shí:10, Qī:7). 63 would be 6X10+3. In Cambodia, the number system has been simplified further with Number Names existing just for 1 to 5 and the Tens. 6 is called 5+1, 7 is called 5+2.

Finally to the systems that are farthest from the usual. With Bhutan and Georgia both following a vigesimal system or a 20 base system, just like French. Where in 77 would be called 3x20+10+7. Mind boggling calculations.

Numbers are much more diverse than we think they are. @loverofgeography created a post on how numbers are called in Europe, this one shows Asia's Diversity.

by the.indian.balcony

[mariacallous]

Courageous people risking their lives for freedom and democracy in Belarus and Ukraine need allies in the West if they are to prevail over tyranny, Tsikhanouskaya said in a speech in Washington.

“Tyranny is contagious. If not contained, it spills over,” she said. “We must reject the very thought that tyrants can be appeased or can be re-educated. Dictators will not stop until we stop them.”

Fresh from meetings at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Tsikhanouskaya said she had heard a lot of talk about the “fatigue” of war, of Russian President Vladimir Putin and of Lukashenka. Complaining about “fatigue” is a luxury unavailable to those on the frontlines, she said.

The tiredness of the conflict in the West is nothing compared to the experience of Ukrainian soldiers in cold trenches, parents whose children have been killed by Russian missiles, Belarusian political prisoners dying in jail, or a 77-year-old woman in Belarus who takes to the streets every day to protest Lukashenka’s regime, she said.

“I heard it so often that, at the end, I felt fatigue of fatigue,” she said. “This fatigue comes from the fact that we don’t know when it will end, when Ukraine wins, when the Lukashenka regime collapses. But sometimes, we can’t know when, and all we should do is bring this moment closer. We must do it because it is right.”

What unites true and dedicated campaigners for freedom is “immunity to fatigue” and “intolerance to dictatorship and injustice,” Tsikhanouskaya, who leads the Belarusian government in exile, told a September 26 awards dinner hosted by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA.)

“When you fight against tyranny, you have no rights for time outs or personal comfort. The struggle requires sacrifice, consistency, and bravery because any doubts, any hesitations, are seen by dictators as weakness,” she said. “We must continue to exert pressure on dictators, on Lukashenka and Putin, for each crime, for each broken fate, they must pay the price.”

Tsikhanouskaya’s husband, Sergei, was jailed for announcing his intention to stand against Lukashenko in 2020 and was one of 1,323 political prisoners currently being held in Belarus, according to Viasna, a human rights organization.

Those under fire and in jail as they fight for democracy and freedom in Belarus, Ukraine, and around the world need allies more than ever, she said, and appealed directly to the US for support.

“No war, no fight, can be won without allies,” she said. “It needs allies like the United States of America, you are a beacon of hope for many nations. Don’t stop standing for what is right.”

Tsikhanouskaya emphasized that the outcome of the struggle will have ramifications around the world.

“Supporting Ukraine and supporting Belarus is not charity, it’s an investment into peace and security globally,” she said. “The path for freedom might be very long and difficult, but it’s the only path worth walking, so let’s walk this path together.

[isawthesainz]

F1 2024 Summer Break Recap

A definitely-not-complete round up of the summer break drama

Monday 29th July 2024

Carlos Sainz announces that he will be joining Williams from 2025 onwards on a multi-year contract. Alongside teammate Alex Albon, this will be the first appendix-less team in F1 history

Wednesday 31st July 2024

Alpine announces that Oliver Oakes will join as the new Team Principal after the summer break. The current Hitech Grand Prix Team Principal will move from his duties in F2 and F3 to replace Bruno Famin at Alpine

Motorsport Italy reports that Jack Doohan will become Pierre Gasly’s teammate in 2025, and that Alpine will make an official announcement in the coming days

Thursday 1st August 2024

It is announced that Red Bull Sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will leave the team to become Team Principle of the Audi F1 project

Friday 2nd August 2024

It is reported that Mattia Binotto is considering 19-year-old F2 rookie Gabriel Bortoleto as a candidate to join Sauber next year

Tuesday 6th August 2024

It is reported that Adrian Newey has signed a four-year deal with Aston Martin, worth $100 million, and is expected to be announced in September

Wednesday 7th August 2024

It is reported that Aston Martin are looking to sign Max Verstappen for 2026 as Adrian Newey is set to join the team

Thursday 8th August 2024

Autosprint, an Italian publication, reports that Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be confirmed as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes for 2025 at Monza

It is announced that F1 will hold talks with Rwanda next month regarding a possible Grand Prix on a permanent track

F1 owners Liberty Media is to be investigated by the United States Department of Justice following its handling of Andretti's now-rejected application to join the F1 grid. The American corporation has been informed of an antitrust investigation by the United States Government, specifically the Department of Justice, into its handling of Andretti's application to join the F1 championship

It is announced that an appeal of the verdict delivered to Christian Horner following an internal investigation earlier this year has been dismissed

Saturday 10th August 2024

Helmut Marko reveals that there is an escape clause in Carlos Sainz’s contract with Williams, which will allow him to leave if he receives an offer from a higher placed team

Sunday 11th August 2024

Oscar Piastri reveals he completed the last two races of the first half of the season with a broken rib

Tuesday 13th August 2024

Valtteri Bottas posts that he is on a ‘secret mission’. The photo on Instagram shows him sitting in front of an Audi R8 with his race number 77 on it. Could he be joining Audi in 2026 as Nico Hulkenberg’s teammate?

Thursday 15th August 2025

Peter Bayer reports that’s Yuki Tsunoda will be considered for a Red Bull seat next season if he continues to perform well

Saturday 17th August 2024

It is reported that Gabriel Bortoleto is a serious contender for the second seat at Audi in 2025 alongside Nico Hulkenberg. Fernando Alonso visited the Sauber motorhome during the Belgian GP weekend - Gabriel is signed to Fernando's A14 Management agency

Thursday 22nd August 2024

Helmut Marko says that Liam Lawson will be in one of the Red Bull or VCARB cars new season

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 8.20 (1920-1990)

1920 – The first commercial radio station, 8MK (now WWJ), begins operations in Detroit 1920 – The National Football League is organized as the American Professional Football Conference in Canton, Ohio 1926 – Japan's public broadcasting company, Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK) is established. 1938 – Lou Gehrig hits his 23rd career grand slam, a record that stood for 75 years until it was broken by Alex Rodriguez. 1940 – In Mexico City, exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice axe by Ramón Mercader. He dies the next day. 1940 – World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes the fourth of his famous wartime speeches, containing the line "Never was so much owed by so many to so few". 1940 – World War II: The Eighth Route Army launches the Hundred Regiments Offensive, a successful campaign to disrupt Japanese war infrastructure and logistics in occupied northern China. 1944 – World War II: One hundred sixty-eight captured allied airmen, including Phil Lamason, accused by the Gestapo of being "terror fliers", arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp. 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Romania begins with a major Soviet Union offensive. 1948 – Soviet Consul General in New York, Jacob M. Lomakin is expelled by the United States, due to the Kasenkina Case. 1949 – Hungary adopts the Hungarian Constitution of 1949 and becomes a People's Republic. 1955 – Battle of Philippeville: In Morocco, a force of Berbers from the Atlas Mountains region of Algeria raid two rural settlements and kill 77 French nationals. 1960 – Senegal breaks from the Mali Federation, declaring its independence. 1962 – The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage. 1968 – Cold War: Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring. East German participation is limited to a few specialists due to memories of the recent war. Only Albania and Romania refuse to participate. 1975 – Viking program: NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars. 1975 – ČSA Flight 540 crashes on approach to Damascus International Airport in Damascus, Syria, killing 126 people. 1977 – Voyager program: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft. 1986 – In Edmond, Oklahoma, U.S. Postal employee Patrick Sherrill guns down 14 of his co-workers and then commits suicide. 1988 – "Black Saturday" of the Yellowstone fire in Yellowstone National Park 1988 – Iran–Iraq War: A ceasefire is agreed after almost eight years of war. 1988 – The Troubles: Eight British soldiers are killed and 28 wounded when their bus is hit by an IRA roadside bomb in Ballygawley, County Tyrone. 1989 – The pleasure boat Marchioness sinks on the River Thames following a collision. Fifty-one people are killed.

[assortmentrandom]

The top 100 best Wonder Woman stories

Im going to preface this with the confession that this is not a list I am entirely satisfied with, with some titles on this which I stuck in because I felt they brought something interesting to the character of Wonder Woman or her mythology.

I will also heavily emphasize that I did not in any way, shape, or form attempt to organize this list from best to worst. This was the result of me spending days considering what stories across Wonder Womans portfolio warranted recognition and jotted them down as I went along.

Some time in the future I may revise this by either changing the selection, or perhaps someday I will be mad enough to try organizing it by level of quality. But for now...I present what I consider 100 of the best Wonder Woman stories.

101. wonder women of the world 100. Wonder Woman (v3) #18-#19 Khund story 99. Sensation Comics(v1) 1-8 establishing the status quo 98. Wonder Woman(v1) #5 Doctor Psycho introduction and  sensation comics(v1) #20 Marva Jean Grey story 97. Sensation Comics(v1) #37 children visiting paradise island 96. sensation comics(v1) #11 Eros story 95. sensation comics(v1) #36  scooby doo mystery 94. sensation comics(v1) #75 leprechauns return 93. sensation comics(v1) #67 bar-l ranch rodeo 92. sensation comics(v1) #37 Joy Foundation 91. sensation comics(v1)#71 sun warriors 90. wonder woman(v1) #1 origin 89. wonder woman(v1) #2 mars intro 88. wonder woman(v1) #3 baroness 87. wonder woman(v1) #6 cheetah 86. wonder woman(v1) #7 wonder woman president 85. wonder woman(v1) #28 villainy inc 84. wonder woman(v1) #153 wonder girl medusa 83. wonder woman(v1) #140 dream tour 82. wonder woman(v1) #178-#182 and #187-#188 doctor cyber 81. wonder woman(v1) #183-184 battle for the amazons 80. wonder woman(v1) #212-222 labors of wonder woman 79. wonder woman(v1) #239-#240 trial of wonder woman 78. wonder woman(v1) #269-#272 bronze age status quo 77. wonder woman(v1) #291-#293 the Adjudicator arc 76. wonder woman(v1) #297-#298 and #310 the...Artemis arc? 75. wonder woman(v1) #326-#329 Pre crisis finale 74. Legend of Wonder Woman #1-#4 (1986) return of queen atomia 73. Wonder Woman Amazonia victorian england elseworld 72. legends of the DC universe #30-#32 maybe? on the fence. To reconsider later 71. wonder woman(v2) #1-#7 Opening Perez 70. wonder woman(v2) #10-#14 paradise lost 69. Wonder Woman (v5) #69 Nice 68. wonder woman: donna troy girl frenzy 67. wonder woman: the once and future story flashback story with domestic ab 66. wonder woman spectacular throwback story about Mars 65. wonder woman(v2) #66-#71 space rebellion 64. wonder woman(v2) #75 hospital visit 63. wonder woman(v2) #83-#84 Donna Milton 62. wonder woman(v2) #164-#167 Gods of Gotham 61. wonder woman(v2)  #170 Lois Lane interview 60. wonder woman(v2) #177 Themyscira reborn 59. wonder woman(v2) #190-#194 game of the gods 58. wonder woman(v2) #212-#213 Divine coup 57. wonder woman(v2) #215-#217 Journey to the underworld 56. Wonder Woman(v2) Annual #1 Perezian 55. Wonder Woman (v3) #26-#33 genocide arc 54. Wonder Woman (v3) #20-23 swords and sandals 53. Wonder Woman (v3) #611-#614 post crisis finale 52. Wonder Woman (V5) #2, #4, #6, #8 Rebirth year one 51. Wonder Woman (v5) #51 52nd visit 50. wonder woman(v2) #46 chalk drawings 49. JLA: a league of one 48. Wonder Woman (v5) #758 four horsewomen finale 47.  Wonder Woman (v5) #770-#779 journey back to Earth 46. Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor 45. Wonder Girl #1-#2, Wonder Girl Annual 44. Bombshells United #1-#7 American Soil 43. Nubia: Queen of the Amazons 42. sensational wonder woman special 41. Wonder Woman 80th Anniversary super spectacular 40. Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #12-#13 phoenix egg 39. Wonder Woman '77 #4-#6 who is wonder woman? 38. JLA #62-#64 The broken truth 37. Sensational Wonder Woman #3-#4 36. sensational wonder woman #5 35. Sensational Wonder Woman #9-#10 34. sensational wonder woman #13-#14 33. sensational comics featuring wonder woman #7 32. Wonder Woman Black & Gold 31. wonder woman(v1) #243 angle man 30. wonder woman (v1) #201-#202 catwoman team up 29. wonder woman the true amazon 28. just imagine stane lee: wonder woman 27. wonder woman the hiketeia 26. wonder woman (v4) #8-#10 (Im throwing that run ONE BONE) 25. wonder woman agent of peace #6 gundra 24. wonder woman agent of peace #7 etta focused story 23. wonder woman agent of peace #16 russian fable 22. wonder woman (V2) #9, #28, #29 Barbara Minerva 21. wonder woman(v1) #312-#316 mishkin circe 20. wonder woman (v2) #18-#19 perezian circe 19. wonder woman adventures 1-3 18. tales of the amazons 17. comic cavalcade #14 wanta wynn 16. wonder woman (v1) #286 dying wish 15. wonder woman (v2) #206-#211 medusa 14. wonder woman (v2) #186-#187 sebastian bellasteros 13. Wonder Woman (v2) #20 and Wonder Woman annual #2 12. Wonder Woman (V3) #24-#25 11. Trinity (2008) 10. legend of wonder woman (2016) golden age throwback 9. wonder woman: spirit of truth 8. wonder woman war of the gods 7. wonder woman: warbringer 6. wonder woman/Conan the Barbarian 5. wonder woman: the adventures of young diana special 4. Nubia: Real One 3. Wonder Woman Amazon Historia 1-3 2. Diana: princess of the Amazons 1. Diana and Nubia: Princesses of the Amazons

[shadyfennec]

Today, and since last Sunday, France is suffering from a late-summer heatwave. Many heat records have been broken (Carcassonne, Lézignan-Corbières, ...), and even more night-time heat records were smashed.

Météo-France, the national weather forecasting agency, has been issuing a "red" heatwave alert, the highest level possible, over a large area of the country.

This map is the combination of all alerts for every département (these small administrative regions, part of the bigger régions of France; there are around 100 of them in total). Most of the alerts are for the heatwave, but the north-east's orange zone is actually for thunderstorms.

There are 17 départements in "red" alert: Ain, Rhône, Loire, Isère, Haute-Loire, Drôme, Ardèche, Vaucluse, Gard, Lozère, Aveyron, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne, Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, Haute-Garonne, Gers. In total, this is 10,024,728 people (as of the 2019 census), or 15.4% of the total population. In land area, this is 93,667km² (or 36,165 sq mi). That's 17.2% of the metropolitan country.

Temperatures are neighbouring, on both sides, 40°C (104°F). In the city where I live, Grenoble, day temperatures have been at around 39°C (102.2°F) for the past 5 days. At night, it barely goes under 25°C (77°F). Combine that with a fever from Covid, and you can maybe imagine the hell I, and probably many others, seeing the current Covid wave, have been living.

Rich and successful people on TV and all other kind of news media will tell you that this is just "a normal heatwave", not climate change. "This isn't different from the 2003 heatwave, when no one was talking about that nonsense global warming!", they say. Our government says a lot about climate change, but does very little. Not surprising, seeing their hands are tied by the plastic zipties of petroleum companies (this isn't me going full conspiracy, it's public record. Look up the different politicians in our government, and you'll find sooner or later ties, shares, executive positions in companies like Total or Shell).

Of course, this isn't just France. The world is burning. But, I feel like if I can give another concrete example of the hell "elites" have been building for the rest of us, maybe this will add onto the pile of examples of climate change consequences. I feel hot. Tired. Sick from Covid. Sick from big companies' bullshit. I share this heatwave, so that maybe, people will see that it's not just them.

It's not just unusual hurricanes in the southwest of the United States of America.

It's not just record drought and wildfires in Hawai'i.

It's not just insane monsoon in India.

It's not just unusually quick cliff erosion in Britain.

It's not just permafrost turning into steam in Siberia.

It's not just your hunk of land on this Earth. It's every place that's affected.

The thing is: climate change isn't something that's going to be happening grandiosly, with telltale signs and a big message made of cloud in the sky reading "climate change is now!". We are frogs in a pot, and the heat is increasing ever so slightly. The catch is, it's old, decrepit frogs who are turning the dial because that makes them rich.

And I feel powerless.

[tearsinthemist]

Scientists make concerning new discovery about the Earth's rising temperatures: 'Truly staggering'

Jenny Allison

Thu, August 29, 2024 at 5:30 AM CDT·2 min read

2023 was the hottest year ever recorded — but 2024 is on track to beat it.

What's happening?

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), July 2024 was the hottest July on record.

July isn't the only month breaking records. Every month in the past 14 months has beaten its previous monthly temperature record for average global surface temperature, according to the NOAA.

"The streak started in June 2023 and now exceeds the record streak set over 2015 and 2016," the Guardian quoted Karin Gleason, monitoring section chief at the NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. Per the report, the NOAA said that there is a 77% chance that 2024 will beat out 2023 for the new hottest year on record.

"What is truly staggering is how large the difference is between the temperature of the last 13 months and the previous temperature records," said Carlo Buontempo, director of the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, per the Guardian. "We are now in truly uncharted territory, and as the climate keeps warming, we are bound to see new records being broken in future months and years."

Why is global heating so concerning?

The reality is clear: This unnaturally accelerated rise in temperature is due to the burning of dirty energy sources.

Watch now: Expert breaks down one issue that causes marketers to 'lose their instinct'

Additionally, the Guardian explained, climate scientists are now emphasizing that "efforts to keep the world to within a 1.5C [2.7 degrees Fahrenheit] temperature rise beyond pre-industrial times are insufficient." This means that the pollution goals and plans that have been established by many countries have not been addressed with sufficient progress or are not strict enough to prevent the impact of these temperatures.

It's not good news. According to the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO) calculated that global heating is responsible for at least 150,000 deaths per year, a number that is expected to double by 2030 and a "dire" threat to health.

The changes in climate also cause ripple effects, including severe weather events, a loss of biodiversity, the emergence of disease, the destruction of ecosystems, and more.

What's being done to slow down rising temperatures?

The Guardian quoted Drew Shindell, a climate scientist at Duke University, who urged that governments and corporations around the world "need to do absolutely everything we can to reduce the emissions driving climate change more rapidly."

"That means accelerating the phaseout of fossil fuels, reducing methane this decade, and tackling agricultural emissions as well," he continued.

To take action in your community, you can consult TCD's guide.

Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.

[newsource21]

The state of Mississippi is spending over $100 million on illegal immigration, according to a new report by the state -- with the governor blaming it on an "intentional failure" by the Biden-Harris administration to secure the border.

The report by the Mississippi state auditor found that there are at least 22,000 illegal immigrants in the state. Analysts estimate that it costs taxpayers over $100 million annually, with more than $25 million to educate illegal immigrants in public school alone.

Meanwhile, taxpayers spend $77 million to provide health care for illegal immigrants and their children, and another $1.7 million to incarcerate illegal immigrant criminals, it found.

Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves told Fox News Digital that states "are being forced to step up and pay for the Biden-Harris administration’s intentional failure to secure our border, and Mississippi is no exception."

"Their dangerous immigration policies are endangering Americans and putting enormous financial strain on states all across our country — and it’s long past time to put a stop to it. It’s clear Kamala Harris isn’t up to fixing the administration’s self-inflicted problems at the border," he said. "She’s been a disaster as border czar and is actually making the situation worse. Securing our border starts with electing Donald Trump in November."

"Mississippi’s illegal immigration problem is spiraling out of control and is costing taxpayers millions," said State Auditor Shad White. "Our public schools, hospitals, and prisons will continue to lose massive sums of money that we could have spent on our own citizens if this problem is not solved."

The number is only an estimate because specific data is not always available. The report noted that the Mississippi Dept. of Education is barred from collecting citizenship information. Instead, it used data from the University of Mississippi to project that there are approximately 2,500 illegal immigrants attending public schools. It also accounted for extra spending on English Language Learners  and Low Income Student Supplements. 

For health care, the report found that approximately 50% of illegal immigrants have no health care coverage and 38% use emergency medical services for primary care. It also notes the costs of births to illegal immigrants and the cost of Medicaid for children born to illegal immigrants -- who are citizens of the United States.

The report comes at a time when border security and the ongoing crisis at the southern border is a top priority for voters and a major issue ahead of the November election.

Republicans have blamed the three-year border crisis on the Biden administration’s policies, claiming that the administration rolled back Trump-era policies and encouraged migrants to flood into the country as a result.

The Biden administration has said it needs more funding and reform, including a recent bipartisan Senate bill, but that Republicans have failed to provide it. It has also pointed to a recent sharp drop in encounters and releases since President Biden signed an executive order limiting asylum in June. Vice President Kamala Harris told attendees at the Democratic National Convention last week that former President Trump has "ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal."

"As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law. I know, I know, we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system," she said. "We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border."

[mezerin]

Apparently my main AC unit is broken. Not sure how long it has been ... I keep a window unit on in my bedroom and a floor one in my office, so I sort of lose track of the temp of the rest of the house. But I realized my AC in my office had been running non stop the last 2 days at least, and it usually cycles. Then I realized I can't remember the last time I heard the main unit turn on. And of course I go to check and the main part of the house is 77, and I couldn't even get the AC to try to come on. The breaker wasn't tripped or anything .... and of course my parents are 4+hours away on vacation right now.

Long post just to rant about my AC ... figured it would happen soon though. I have the same unit (age and everything) as the one my parents have at their place. And they've been fighting to get it to work for probably over a month ... I'm sure mine is probably having the same issues.

[vintagelasvegas]

Tourist photo, 4/47 - from Chaddgar

Timeline of Huntridge Theatre, 1208 E Charleston Blvd Las Vegas

‘44, Apr: Construction begins. Huntridge Development Co. plans the theater as the nucleus for the business and shopping center in Huntridge subdivision. Huntridge Development Co. is Henry Leigh Hunt & family with investors including Francis & Irene Dunne Griffin, Loretta Young. Thomas Oakey, general manager. Original builder and proprietor was Commonwealth Las Vegas Theater, Inc; S. Charles Lee, architect; A.B. Heinsbergen, Interior design; Pioneer Construction Co, contractor (1).

‘44, Oct. 10: Grand opening. Oakey’s Huntridge Theatres Inc. later becomes operator of the Huntridge, Fremont, Palace, and Western theaters (2).

‘47: Adjacent building at 1200 E Charleston first seen. Construction date unknown. Exterior is modified with raised walls in c. ’63-’64.

‘51: Nevada Theatre Corp. leases and assumes management of Huntridge Theatres’ four properties (3,4). Lloyd Katz appointed general manager later in the year (5). Katz desegregates the three Nevada Theatre Corp theaters some time in the 50s (6).

‘58: Huntridge Post Office (1125 Maryland Pkwy) new addition, built by Huntridge Development Co (7).

‘77, Apr.: Closed, Katz lease not renewed (8).

‘78: Huntridge bought by Frank Silvaggio.

‘80, Nov: Partitioned into a 2-screen theater, reopened under lease by Don Lesh (9). Closed again in 1982.

‘83, Nov: Roberts Co. (Robert Garganese Jr. & Jim Larocca) lease theater, remodel, and reopen. “We wanted to make the theater look like the old Huntridge … but we couldn’t find any pictures of it” - Larocca (10). United Artists buys Roberts Co. and takes over operations of the theater in ‘87.

‘89, Sep 4: Last movies shown, UA closes theater (11).

‘92: Richard Lenz leases theater, tears down the dividing wall and converts it into live events hall: Huntridge Performing Arts Theatre (12).

‘93: Theater added to National Register of Historic Places.

‘94, Aug: Friends of the Huntridge (Lenz) buys the theater. Financing includes city redevelopment funds and NV historic preservation funds (13); “In the ensuing years it was sustained by more than $1.3M in state grants” (14).

‘95, Jul. 28: Roof collapse (15).

‘96, Dec: Reopens after repair. New roof, marquee, fencing, fly loft, and recording studio installed (16).

‘01, Dec. 31: Bought by Mizrachi family. Theater closed for renovation Jan.-Oct. 2002.

‘04: One of the last live shows is Beastie Boys, Jun. 9. Huntridge closes Jul. 31 for planned renovation, and remains closed for over twenty years.

‘21: Sale to Dapper Co. approved.

(1) Ground is Broken for Huntridge Theater. Review-Journal, 4/13/44. (2) H. Wentworth. “Pin Your Faith to Las Vegas.“ Review-Journal, 2/5/48. (3) New Theatre Group Takes Over in City. Review-Journal, 4/15/51. (4) Theater Story is Explained Today. Review-Journal, 5/11/51. (5) Theater Man. Review-Journal, 12/9/51. (6) M. Lyle. “Katz Elementary School namesake has lived a historic life.” Review-Journal, 8/1/2011; An Interview with Edythe Katz-Yarchever. Oral history MS_01075_087, UNLV Special Collections & Archives. (7) “Huntridge PO Station Opened To Public Today.” Review-Journal, 5/12/58. (8) No More Shows. Review-Journal, 4/21/77. (9) J. Hall. “Old LV theater to be reopened.” Review-Journal, 11/16/80. (10) Huntridge Theater Will Reopen. Review-Journal, 10/23/83. (11) C. Cling. “Hollywood had boring banner year.” Review-Journal, 12/31/89. (12) M. Weatherford. “Huntridge Theater earns one more run.” Review-Journal, 2/9/92. (13) J. Gallant. “Preservationists to save old Huntridge Theatre.” Review-Journal, 8/16/94. (14) J. Morrison. “Future of historic venue up in the air.” Review-Journal, 1/6/2002. (15) M. Weatherford. “Roof of Huntridge collapses.” Review-Journal, 7/29/1995. (16) M. Weatherford. “Downtown club calls it quits as Huntridge preparing to reopen.” Review-Journal, 10/25/96. (17) Huntridge to close temporarily for major restoration project. Review-Journal, 7/16/2004.

Additional sources: Guide to the Katz Papers, UNLV Special Collections; Elizabeth von Till Warren. Huntridge Theater, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 1993; “More Huntridge Theater History,” Classic Las Vegas, 3/11/2008; J. Warren. “The Huntridge Covenant: The Untold Story of a National Treasure Hidden in Las Vegas” 2015; Nevada State Historic Preservation Office.

Below: Rendering of the Huntridge Theatre, '43, from the S. Charles Lee Papers, UCLA Special Collections. Advertisement for its grand opening, 10/10/44.

[head-post]

US recognises Maduro’s opponent as winner of Venezuela election

The United States recognised Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s opponent and opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner of Venezuela’s disputed presidential election.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday:

Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election.

A dispute over the results of the presidential election triggered protests in Venezuela. The electoral council declared Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, the winner of the 28 July election with 51% of the vote. However, the country’s opposition argues that its count of about 90 per cent of the vote shows that González received more than twice as much support as the incumbent president, according to independent polls conducted before the election.

Blinken’s statement on Thursday did not threaten new sanctions on Venezuela, but he hinted at possible “punitive action.”

“We fully support the process of re-establishing democratic norms in Venezuela and stand ready to consider ways to bolster it jointly with our international partners. (…) Law enforcement and security forces should not become an instrument of political violence used against citizens exercising their democratic rights.”

The presidents of Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia called on Venezuela to release detailed results of Thursday’s vote amid a dispute over the results of the presidential election. In a joint statement, the governments of the three countries called for “impartial verification” of the results and urged Caracas to release voting data broken down by polling stations.

Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called on Thursday for protests “in every city” in the country on Saturday to denounce Maduro’s election.

We must remain firm, organised and mobilised with the pride of having achieved a historic victory on 28 July, and the awareness that to claim victory we will also go all the way.

At least 20 people have died in protests that erupted after the election, according to Machado, while more than 1,000 have been jailed. Venezuela’s Supreme Court summoned all presidential candidates to a hearing on Friday afternoon following Maduro’s request that it initiate a process to investigate and certify the election result.

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said one military officer was killed and 77 officials were injured during the unrest.

Read more HERE

[mariacallous]

In the mid-1980s, although its dissolution was nearly at hand, few were predicting the complete demise of the Soviet Union. But when it came to the politics of leadership succession, a country that had been widely feared or respected for decades had already begun making a mockery of itself.

By the late 1970s, Leonid Brezhnev, the once-vigorous man who had shunted aside Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 to lead the country, had been reduced to a shell of his former self by years of heavy smoking, hard drinking, and emphysema. He visibly huffed and puffed as he walked with a shuffling gait, and he occasionally slurred his words or displayed obvious memory lapses.

After Brezhnev, things in Moscow only got worse. He was succeeded by the former intelligence chief, Yuri Andropov, who was regarded in almost equal measure as a reformist thinker and as a corrupt and sternly authoritarian figure. No one knows which of these traits might have prevailed over time, because time was the one thing Andropov did not have. He died at age 69, his power lasting only 15 months, during the last year of which he suffered total kidney failure.

Andropov was followed by the scarcely-remembered Konstantin Chernenko, another heavy smoker afflicted with emphysema and heart problems. His rule only lasted for 13 months. The historian John Lewis Gaddis said of the ephemeral Chernenko that he was “an enfeebled geriatric so zombie-like as to be beyond assessing intelligence reports, alarming or not.” Chernenko’s death in office paved the way in 1985, finally, for the comparatively youthful Mikhail Gorbachev.

But by then it was the Soviet system itself that was running out of time.

Existential crises linked to the vagaries of succession politics are typically thought to be the province of authoritarian systems that lack regular and transparent rules for the passing of power from one leader to the next. But for the past three years, it is precisely this specter that has hung over the world’s oldest electoral democracy, the United States.

This has never been clearer than in the past two weeks. First, the mental competence of President Joe Biden, 81, was called into question in a report by Robert Hur, a special counsel appointed to look into the president’s improper handling of classified documents, and then by new flights of disturbing rhetoric by former President Donald Trump, 77, raised renewed profound questions—or should have—about his own fitness for presidential office. Describing a real or imagined conversation about NATO dues with a European leader, Trump related: “I said: ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’ … ‘No, I would not protect you, in fact I would encourage [Russia] to do whatever they want. You gotta pay.’”

There is a dismaying amount of confusion in the parallels and comparisons that many commentators have drawn between these two men, the current president and his immediate predecessor, each the prohibitive favorite at this point to head his party’s ticket in the coming election. This proceeds from the unavoidable impression that some things must be broken in the United States for its two main political parties to have simultaneously offered up two such flawed candidates.

There is a world of difference in the ways in which they are flawed, though. The anxieties and discontent aroused by Biden’s performance, whether it is his frequent public memory lapses and misstatements or his shuffling gait and other signs of frailty, are perfectly normal. It is far from ideal for the United States to be led by someone with such traits, but there is nothing about the Biden presidency that conceivably threatens the future of the U.S. republic.

Like his politics or not, for this is not a partisan argument, Biden has presided over a smoothly functioning government that with few exceptions has executed its policies in competent and predictable ways. Other than the outlier factor of Biden’s age, history will likely regard his tenure as fitting firmly within the conventional bounds of U.S. politics. Even Biden’s potential death in office, which would be unsurprising given that, if reelected, he would be 82 years old on Inauguration Day, would yield a routine and proper succession by an elected vice president whom the American people would be free to throw out on the regular timetable should they choose to do so.

The case of Trump, though, couldn’t be more different. Whether one calls it an insurrection or not, the former president’s attempts to rally support for him to stay in power on January 6, 2021, or arm-twist lawmakers and his vice president to bend electoral rules for the same purpose were threats to the integrity of the U.S. political system. And they were not the only ones he has created, either. It is, of course, Trump’s right to defend himself against the many charges he faces in numerous courts of law, but one of his arguments should be seen as uniquely menacing—namely, that a president should be free from prosecution for any criminal behavior committed while in office.

The U.S. Supreme Court must now decide whether to consider the former president’s argument. A legal victory by Trump in this case, however unlikely, would spell the end of republican-style rule in the country by placing presidents above the law.

Trump has also positively invoked the word dictator in describing himself, unreassuringly justifying this by saying this aspiration would only apply to his first day back in office.

He has backed the state of Texas in refusing to comply with a federal court order asserting Washington’s control over the country’s borders, reportedly pledging to encourage other states to send their national guards to Texas to bolster its defiance of the United States’ federalist order. He is reportedly considering naming his daughter-in-law as head of the Republican Party, no crime to be sure, but a personalizing corruption of the political system in line with his other authoritarian instincts. And most recently, as the quote above shows, he has casually threatened members of the NATO alliance that if they don’t meet an agreed benchmark for defense spending, he would not only tolerate a Russian attack on them, but also encourage it.

Even taken individually, many of these positions or actions pose existential threats to the United States that are far more threatening that any concerns raised by Biden’s age. It is the NATO comment, though, that brings us back directly to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

That country’s decay was brought on by the failure of its elites at renewal and reform. The ossification of its system was symbolized, if not exactly brought on, by the advanced age or poor health of its leaders in the pivotal moments of the 1980s. Economic growth in the Soviet Union was the envy of the world in the 1950s, and one might argue that, in fact, it was in the following decade that the country’s political system became too hidebound and corrupt to continue thriving.

Trump’s NATO rhetoric—and, should he become elected, his anti-alliance politics,—are even more damaging. They strike at the heart of U.S. success and prosperity in the world. If pursued, they would deliver a devastating blow to both the country and the global order, an own-goal with few historical parallels.

As filtered through Trump’s mind, alliances are like mob protection rackets in which the payments must keep flowing upward or back to the boss to keep him happy. Otherwise, he will allow bad things to happen, and the victims will have deserved their fate. Biden presents none of these risks.

There seems to be no recognition that the United States has been the premier beneficiary of its great alliances. Its former enemy Japan, for example, helped the United States in crucial, if indirect ways, in resisting North Korea’s takeover of the Korean Peninsula in the 1950s, and South Korea and Japan similarly helped Washington during the Vietnam War. Taken together, they and other allies in Asia are what allow the United States to maintain a favorable order and counterweight to China in the world’s most economically dynamic region.

NATO, likewise, has been similarly indispensable to U.S. power and preeminence in the North Atlantic. For decades, it has kept the peace in Europe and prevented renewed bids by Russia for imperial expansion. The accession of Sweden and Finland to the alliance that is now underway is not a sign of Washington being taken for a ride, as Trump might imagine, but rather a reaffirmation of U.S. power and vitality in the world. Enormous prosperity has flowed from this peace, as much to the United States as to the Europeans themselves.

Ukraine has been the one major exception in the post-Soviet era, and just as Trump seems to have no idea why the United States should help protect NATO members, he seems equally clueless about why allowing Ukraine to crumble before Moscow’s aggression should matter on the far side of the Atlantic.

I write this as someone who has spent a career freely criticizing Western imperialism, including the United States’ own. But if you want to overturn long-standing constitutional arrangements or the architecture of grand alliances, as Trump seems so inclined to do, you should have a coherent plan for alternatives. In a democracy, that should mean an exhaustive discussion and adherence to legal processes and informed choices at the ballot box. From Trump and many of his most ardent supporters, one hears no hint of anything beyond grievance and will to power. Matters of democracy fall by the wayside. All that remains is to follow the great leader.

Trump is a man who personalizes everything and seems to operate on impulses, whims, and grudges. If he is given a second chance to follow and execute them, in another decade or two, historians may be writing the kinds of books one can find today about the Soviet Union in the 1980s, all asking some version of the question: How did things go so completely off the rails?

The big difference, it seems, is that if this befalls the United States, it would be the result of an election in which voters choose a dangerous and incompetent leader—and one who is, moreover, nearly as old as Biden—and not a matter of elite mismanagement of an undemocratic succession. He would be enabled by members of his own party who have repeatedly shown little inclination to stand up to him on matters of constitutional or democratic principle.

Under such a grim scenario, it would not just be the conductor driving the train into the abyss, but also half the passengers, the station master, and the switch operators all contributing to the derailment.

[rickjsposts]

MLB overnights for 5/12 and comments

New Post has been published on https://www.rickjshandicappingpicks.com/mlb-overnights-for-5-12/

MLB overnights for 5/12 and comments

A 2-3 day yesterday and we find ourselves right at the breakeven mark heading into the middle of May. Top to bottom swing has only been around 10 units.

We are beating the closing line at a rate of 46-28-3 which is 62% of the time.  The difference over the 77 wagers is around .04.   A little low historically, but I am using

a new database this season. The company I was using went out of business after many years:)

But this one has been around and solid a very long time.

Overnight picks for 5/12 games are :

959  W BUEHLER -R 960 SDG  Y DARVISH -R 115 961  B ELDER -R 962 NYM  L SEVERINO -R 110 965  J VERLANDER -R 966 DET  J FLAHERTY -R 101 971  S LUGO -R 972 LAA  P SANDOVAL -L 117

Remember RickJ’s Handicapping Picks is now a free service until the beginning of NCAA FB. All subscribers monthly payments have been paused and you will pick up right where you left off when I switched to a free service.

The reason for this is 1. I am using a new database 2. I have a number of personal items on my plate, of which selling and buying another home is top on my priority list. You do not know the amount of effort this takes until you get into the actual process. I have been doing it my entire life, and still I have found no way to make it an easy process.

I lived 18 years peacefully in the last community I was in here in Las Vegas, but as I tend to do when property values dramatically increase, I take my profit. In the last sale it was $650,000 profit of which 500,000 was tax free!  But after 2 years in the community I am in now, it is clear it is not a good fit for us. So for the first time ever I am going to take a loss on this one.

I will write more on the process of buying and selling homes on my discord channel, sharing with you some of the rules to go by and should never be broken, unless you are into pain:)

So, in fairness to subscribers, in the past I have had handicapping my top priority. Once this chaos is over, which should be before the start of college football, it will be back to #1. with trading a close 2nd.

As a subscriber you get all plays sent out via email, and also access to my two discord channels, RickJSports and RickJInvest

If you wish to join us for the free period of time, just send me an email to rickj@rickjshandicappingpicks.com. I will have you signed up quickly with invites to both discord channels.

A week before the beginning of college football I will start sending out reminders that the free service becomes a paying service soon. Most subscribers sign up for the $49.00 a month option with a few taking the $499.00 yearly option.

I started sharing my picks online over 20 years ago. It is a testament to my ability to find positive EV plays, that I have had subscribers from day 1!  I am 100% transparent on my results as those that know me know.  Almost all my new signups come from word of mouth, as I do not advertise. 

If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to write me at the above email address.

Good Luck Today

RickJ

RickJ’s Handicapping Picks

rickjshandicappingpicks.com

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 25, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 26, 2024

This morning The Boeing Company announced that the chief of Boeing’s commercial airplane division, Stan Deal, is leaving immediately. Chief executive officer Dave Calhoun is stepping down at the end of the year. Chair of the board Larry Kellner will not stand for reelection. 

On January 5 a door plug blew off a Boeing 737 Max jetliner operated by Alaska Airlines while it was in flight. The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) immediately grounded about 170 similar Boeing planes operated by U.S. airlines or in U.S. territory until they could be inspected. “The FAA’s first priority is keeping the flying public safe,” it said, and added: “The safety of the flying public, not speed, will determine the timeline for returning the Boeing 737-9 MAX to service.”

Last year an FAA investigation “observed a disconnect between Boeing’s senior management and other members of the organization on safety culture,” with employees worrying about retaliation for reporting safety issues. After the door plug blew off, an FAA audit of different aspects of the production process released two weeks ago found that Boeing failed 33 of 89 product audits. On March 9, Spencer S. Hsu, Ian Duncan, and Lori Aratani of the Washington Post reported that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into the door plug failure. 

Today, Boeing announced a change in leadership.

Also today, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su reminded readers of Teen Vogue, on the anniversary of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that killed 147 garment workers in New York City after their employer had locked the exits, of how that tragedy prompted the federal government to create “programs that generations of Americans have relied on for economic security and dignity, including a nationwide minimum wage, health and safety regulations, restrictions on child labor, and more.”

Each generation “has a duty to take the baton of progress from those who came before us,” Su said. She noted that industries whose workforces are mostly women or immigrants have historically often broken the law, exposing workers to dangerous conditions and withholding pay.

This problem persists in the present, and she reported that the Department of Labor is working to address it. For example, after three injuries at a plant outside Chicago, including the December 2022 death of a 29-year-old sanitation worker, the U.S. Department of Labor fined the company $2.8 million. And, earlier this year, the department recovered more than $1 million for 165 workers whose employer had cheated them of overtime pay, the largest settlement ever for California garment workers. 

The U.S. Department of Energy today announced it has selected 33 projects from more than 20 states that will be awarded up to $6 billion to jump-start the elimination of carbon dioxide emissions from industries that are hard to adapt to green technologies. The projects will match federal monies to invest more than $20 billion toward commercial-scale decarbonization solutions for cement and concrete, chemicals and refining, metals including iron and steel, pulp and paper mills, and so on. The projects are funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, and will create tens of thousands of jobs. The Department of Energy estimates that the funded projects will cut carbon emissions by an average of 77%.

All of these news items today—airplane safety, worker protection, and technologies to address climate change���reflect a government designed to protect the American people. The nonpartisan civil servants staffing the agencies responsible for that protection are the ones that MAGA Republicans call the Deep State and Trump has vowed to replace with his own loyalists.  

For his part, as he faced cases in two different New York courts, Trump’s focus today was on the rule of law. He does not appear to be a fan of it.  

March 25 was the deadline for Trump to produce a bond to cover the $454 million he owes to the people of the state of New York for fraud. But before New York attorney general Letitia James could begin to seize his assets this morning, a New York appeals court threw him a lifeline, cutting the size of the required bond to $175 million and giving him 10 more days to post it. The order also paused the enforcement of many of the penalties Judge Arthur Engoron had imposed. So, for the time being, Trump and his sons can continue to do business in New York, although their businesses remain under the supervision of an independent monitor. 

The court’s order does not change Engoron’s judgment in the case. It simply puts the execution of that judgment on hold as Trump appeals it, which he must do on time.

In a different courtroom today, Judge Juan Merchan rejected further delaying tactics by Trump’s lawyers and set April 15 as the date for jury selection in the criminal case of election interference. This is the case in which Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide payments to people with damaging information about him before the 2016 election. This scheme gave Trump “an illegal edge in a razor-thin race,” as legal reporter Adam Klasfeld of Just Security put it. 

Trump has said he will appeal. 

Last week, Brian Beutler of Off Message noted that “Trump is scarcely running a presidential campaign…. [H]is efforts are overwhelmingly fixed on evading justice or mooting judgments he’s already lost by any means necessary. He’d ideally like to prevail in these efforts before the election, but the task will become much easier if he’s able to win or steal the presidency despite the legal peril.”

Trump appeared angry today at a press conference after Judge Merchan set a date for the start of the election interference case. He blamed President Joe Biden for his legal troubles, although the case is in New York. He insisted that holding him accountable for his behavior is itself “election interference.” 

In a statement, the Biden camp replied: “Donald Trump is weak and desperate—both as a man and a candidate for President…. His campaign can’t raise money, he is uninterested in campaigning outside his country club, and every time he opens his mouth, he pushes moderate and suburban voters away with his dangerous agenda.

“America deserves better than a feeble, confused, and tired Donald Trump.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[sotwk]

I am so happy for this guy and so proud of his resilience after his accident. I love and am inspired by such survivor stories and I hope others can be too. <3

From Wikipedia:

On January 1, 2023, Renner was hospitalized after suffering blunt chest trauma and 30 broken bones. He saved his nephew from being run over by his snowplow, but was hit himself,[74][75][76][77] by a snowcat weighing 14,330 pounds (6,500 kg).[78] Renner was flown by helicopter[79] to Renown Regional Medical Center (the region's only trauma center).[80] Renner underwent surgery and remained in the intensive care unit in critical condition.[76] By January 17, Renner was released from the hospital and had returned home to continue his recovery.[81] Ten weeks (3 months) after the accident, Renner was beginning to be able to walk with a cane. Doctors said that Renner's survival was probably aided by his health and fitness.[82]

When life takes a sudden dump on you, you don't have to take it lying down. :)

JEREMY RENNER via instagram stories | May 10th, 2024