#justice for jerry citizen

[anthrophobixx]

can u share with us why/how you chose the typings for the characters like why karen fairy, why oliver ghost and so on

of course !!

Karen got the fairy type because fairy types are mostly known for being quiet, calm, collected, but also very hard hitting, which I feel like resembles Karen quite well

Oliver got ghost because of the spooky mansion !! At the end of his good route he talks about how the cinema was indeed haunted by ghosts, but he managed to befriend some of them. This was actually suggested by a different tumblr ask, since we originally wanted to give Oliver the electric type :]

Randy got poison, since poison types usually live in conditions that are deemed "poor" by humans, but they're infact optimal for them. That's kinda how they found Randy actually. Bro is also probably a walking hazard so it only makes sense. Not to mention the kind of poison type pokemon that exist that just...scream Randy Jade (eg garbodor, who's actually his strongest guy)

Gabby got electric since she works at a phone shop and her job is to fix phones, printers, typewriters, all that good stuff. Since she fixes items that require electricity we thought electric type was the most fitting. Even if electricity isn't always needed when repairing things, pokemon such as magnemite, magneton and rotom can be useful regardless as shown in the games

Jerry got normal since he is probably the most casual citizen in dialtown. He's just livin his life, got nothing too special going on, he's just a regular guy

Norm got fighting and I feel like it's kinda self explanatory why. Fighting types are known for being angry and aggressive, but also reasonable and kind once they get used to their trainers. Some fighting type pokemon are also known for wanting justice and they fight for whatever they feel is right (eg lucario). Sounds kinda like Norm imo

Mingus got dark because she's a corrupt mayor, but also because the dark type has the most cats. Majority of dark type pokemon are sassy and they all give off this weird mingus energy I can't put into words.

Callum got steel because he works with metal. His arms, legs and his head are made out of metal. There's pokemon that shed pieces of metal when they evolve (aron) so he doesn't only use his pokemon in battle, but also in his workshop, kinda like Gabby. I can't explain it any better sobw

Bunny got ice since he's "cold as ice" iykwim. Tried to give him as many passive aggressive pokemon as possible (and this includes alolan ninetales somehow)

Gingi doesn't have a specific type since it probably ate the gym leader guide book it got from the higher ups. It also doesn't keep it's pokemon in pokeballs since 1. no money 2. the concept of big ass creechurs being trapped in tiny balls terrify it and it doesn't want its pokemon to be "put in ball prison". Gingi also resembles the player in this au thing

Abel got fire since fire does resemble anger, but also power. Abel owns a whole ass funfair and is also part of the minglings !! Bro got plenty of power !! He is also angry at Gingi for wasting his time, bothering his employees and pissing on one of his attractions I totally didn't forget what it was but I remember it happening !! We tried giving him all the passive aggressive fire type pokemon we could find in the dex (he's also matching w his boywife bc love wins)

Mr. Dickens got psychic since psychic types are known for being the wise, knowledgable pokemon. Like fairy types, they're also calm, quiet and collected, but they got a lil touch of wisdom in there. They also represent the power of the intellect, which is pretty mr. dickenscore if I say so myself.

Theoroar got the dragon type, since theo doesn't actually give a damn about building a bond or relating to his pokemon. He wants the rarest, most powerful pokemon under his grasp and dragon types just so happen to fit in both of those categories. His logic is that his pokemon work for him and whatever gets him to the top he will use it

Hobo got all the gods. Dialga, the god of time, Palkia, the goddess of space, Xerneas, the goddess of life, Yvetal the god of death and Arceus the creator of it all and the being above everything. He probably has Groudon and Kyogre in his pc, since they're the god of land and the sea respectively. He got herdier for good measure, it's kinda like Red's pikachu in the johto games.

Tango and Billy are both rocket executives so they don't have a specific type they specialize in, but Billy has a more offensive team no pun intended, while Tango has a more defensive one

Shooty and Stabby well....they obv don't have a type they specialize in since they're pretty much just rocket grunts. Their goal is to become executives one day

[russiantapo4ek]

“I like how you draw Rusame, but as a US citizen I will never accept it, bcuz Russia is a terrorist who unleashed a war with Ukraine, it offends me. Russian is wild (???? what 😂) ofc I prefer Usuk more, u now?“ - wrote to me a dude who retweets patriotic American quotes about “freedom“ and mute evidence that Trump is an agent of Putin. Dude, first of all, for what purpose did you write to me about this, given that I deeply don't care about your opinion with preferences, while you so directly assure how terrible Russia is spreading propaganda (let me remind you that there is propaganda in US too, it has always been, especially nothing it does not differ from the Russian one, do not try to deny it, I know what I'm talking about, I once visited my aunt and listened to American political programs for the sake of interest, should I say how much outright nonsense I listened to, my ears almost withered ...) a retweet was made on your page about Trump as about a Russian agent, and do you willingly believe that? Dude, you're 27 years old, you're two years older than me, and you have the mindset of a 14-year old teenager who believes in all sorts of conspiracy theories and other nonsense from the Internet without any logical evidence. Is Trump an agent of Russia? Really?! Where do such conclusions come from? Election 2016? Does anyone else remember them? Why not Obama then? Not John Kennedy? Btw, he was suspected of fictitious collusion with the Communists only bcuz he wanted to improve relations with the USSR, he was not killed bcuz of suspicion, but your state sources will never reveal the truth about the true motives for the assassination of the president. Why only Trump? Does the American community still believe in this? Well, then I have no more questions for you 😂 is it more like paranoia to see the participation of Russians in everything (as some of you still like to call us “commi“, which we have not been for a long time) in the elections bcuz Russia wants to destroy America? Omg…Dude, I don't support the war, don’t support Putin, but that doesn't mean that I think that the US government is a bulwark of justice, it's far from it, I won't list what terrible things the White house did with other countries, including Yugoslavia/Iraq/Syria/Vietnam, and I don't want to talk about how hypocritical the US treats Russia and after that you claim that there is no propaganda in your country, but only the truth is being told? You know, in Soviet Union, they also believed everything that was said on TV, but the country was isolated, people believed everything that Stalin, Brejnev, Gorbachev said, we did not broadcast anything Western (Russians usually learned about Disney, Tom and Jerry, Looney Tunes and others foreign cartoons after the collapse of the USSR, American delegation often visited Russia, importing a lot of her production, spreading high crime in the country, instead taking away our scientists, Soviet equipment, including the resources of a weakened country). Why ,of all the things that America has done to my country , do I not consider all of America terrible , unlike you ? (Damn it, in the 90’s Russia was literally dying dude, my country could have died if not for humanitarian support, and even after all the hell Russia went through, still wanted to get closer to the US, but the US, oddly enough, was in no hurry to reach out in response…) Were Americans isolated from the world like Soviet Russia ? No. So where does such a superficial judgment about Russia come from? Dude, pls don't provoke me into a polemic with you, you've got the wrong address, I have no desire to continue this meaningless chatter with you, you still won't understand a damn thing from what I've written, bcuz your horizons are limited only by what you are told through liberal channels. They will tell you that every Russian comes home riding bears and that it snows all day in the country, you will believe it without any doubt. Bcuz based on what you wrote to me under the post with art, you think with the logic of the TV 😂

my conclusion: ❌🧠❌->🤡

(guys, I banned this clown, unfortunately, I don't want to show what he wrote, bcuz I deleted all this shit from the comments under my art, you can read my entire answer above, I think adequate people who don't think like him will support me)

Honestly, I still can't understand what he attributed the irl policy with Hetalia to?😂

[yourreddancer]

Daniel Thomas - from a FB comment on the meme:

- [ ] The crowd was ostensibly angry but it was a somewhat joyful tone that split the morning air as the convicted and Removed President, wearing an appropriate red felon jumpsuit, with a black silken hood over his head, was led 40 feet up the stairs to the impressive stainless steel guillotine erected in Times Square this brisk fall morning. We are receiving reports from those near to where the Correctional Officers from Ryker’s Island and Federal Marshalls guide The dethroned president who would have been King through the stoic but bitter gathering of watchers saying they hear a childlike whimpering emanating from underneath the black hood.

- [ ] We watch the unprecedented procession unfold before our Nation as a definitive Day of Retribution for the nation, after this man had ransacked our very name throughout the world, destroyed our alliances, and flushed billions of dollars down the toilet while paying, or having his actually wealthy backers pay, complicit news organizations to cast him in a favorable light to their unsuspecting followers.

- [ ] On an informative note, let us also share that the Farmers of America, auto workers and NYPD have helped in a united effort to have this massive but oddly beautiful Stainless Steel Guillotine designed and built with state of the art failsafes to insure that the ex-President’s neck will be severed instantly and completely. A co-operative project between the engineers from Boeing and Lockheed, with some ancillary from the Disney Corporation, this 87 foot tall Madame Guillotine shall, after serving its intended purpose, be relocated to a picturesque spot near the New White House, which has been in recent years called the House of White Power due to the the thankfully short lived rise of The Nationalist Movement in the US. It will embody a significance comparable to the Statue of Liberty or the Washington Monument for our true citizens, and a palpable warning to Nationalist thinking in this country, which has now been so palpably ostracized by the vast majority as to be simply ridiculed, yes, even In some places like Alabama! Some experts have intimated that, in fact, this criminal to mankind will very probably have a moment or perhaps most of a minute or two to perceive the crowd and perhaps his own headless body if his head lands in the basket at the proper angle, and if his own blood doesn’t obscure his view.

- [x] The crowd is getting louder now, we can hear. As there will be a few minutes before the climactic moment, we break briefly for commercial. The commercials for this spectacular event are clearly surpassing in sheer ostentatiousness the Super Bowl ads of fame, and some are quite provocative, ladies and gentlemen, given the reestablishment of our democracy and the hope we all share of finally undoing and obliterating all the self-serving acts this ex-president has engendered.

- [ ] So we cut now to Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream!!

and a FB answer to some MAGAs crying tears about the meme above:

It’s a WARNING!

When rights are taken away, you never get them back easily. Trying to make people understand where fascism leads, such as beheading your “enemies”. (Not always literally.)

This country, founded on the IDEA that people should be able to make their own rules, design their own laws, appoint their own leaders and everyone is equal under the law.

For years right wing politicians have been determined to change America into a country RULED by ELITES. All these years later while telling you the “elites” are celebrities, TV newscasters, athletes, or authors, we find out the true elites are real estate investors, tech entrepreneurs, and corrupt SC Justices.

They aren’t fiercely determined to fix our crumbling infrastructure, they aren’t concerned about lack of healthcare for Americans, they have NO PLANS to make life better in any way in our country.

They intend to OWN, PROFIT FROM, TAKE, SELL OFF, BARGAIN WITH, LIE ABOUT, DECEIVE, WHATEVER IS NEEDED TO TAKE EVERY DIME THEY CAN FROM AND GIVE ZERO BACK TO you!

You could have researched them and found they have left a long line of lied to, defrauded, embezzled, broke people in their wake.

They are concerned with POWER, MONEY, POWER

But they have you complaining about a singer, a movie star, or a meme.

Keeping you busy while they steal food right out of your mouth.

STEP 1 Cut Social Security and Medicare to have money to give billionaires another tax cut.

STEP 2 deport ENOUGH immigrants to make it LOOK GOOD. Keeping their “personal” illegals hidden away from sight. Arrangements CAN be made for swaths of illegals to work for chicken plants, vegetable farms and such, FOR A PRICE. That’s what this whole, “they’re criminals, drug dealers, murderers, they’ll slit your throat for nothing.” Business is all about.

FIGURING OUT HOW TO MAKE A BUCK FROM ILLEGALS BY BEING IN CHARGE OF DISTRIBUTING THEM!

They’re gonna make sure you have plenty to worry about, while they SELL our military to others, bargain with our nuclear capabilities for highest payment, use our tax money to build another tower, rocket, or AI project, and you won’t even notice you have become a third world society, living in the richest nation in the world, with NO ALLIES, NO ABILITY TO RAISE YOUR STANDARD OF LIVING, and NO JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS.

Maybe some country out there will someday allow YOU an immigrant from America to seek ASYLUM!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Kristine Harley

Published: Sep 5, 2022

There’s a saying: “Don’t think of a pink elephant.” In other words, what one resists can dominate and even control one’s mind, making the action a person wishes not to do the action that person ultimately does. Religious believers often use this accusation against atheists. We allegedly “resist” or “deny” a belief in God, therefore “proving” His existence or at least His importance to us, because believers see atheists as spitting in the wind like rebellious adolescents.

Of course, we know atheism is akin to democracy in that it rejects any supreme being or cosmic authority. Atheists observe a decentralized universe in which physical, chemical, and biological processes interact to evolve, not impose, reality. Democracy did not elect a new king, and likewise the god-concept is not a “pink elephant” to atheists. But unfortunately today, something else threatens to be.

“Racism” is the new “pink elephant,” with woke apologists invoking “whiteness” and “white supremacy” in an absurd downward spiral of resentment and retribution that will benefit no one (certainly not people of color). It has the ironic effect of feeding a white narcissism that apologizes for “white privilege” in the abstract, while punching down on working-class whites and regarding people of color as children, without agency, needing intervention and rescue.

Many atheists have adopted this dualistic, simplistic self-righteousness that mimics the good/evil, virgin/whore scriptures of religion! This has misled otherwise intelligent people into paradoxically adopting quasi-religious concepts: utopianism (or what I call the Racial Rapture), a past Golden Age (especially before the year 1619), Original Sin, retribution to be visited upon the sons and daughters of the guilty, and a perpetual payment of indulgences and/or personal flagellation without any forgiveness, human or divine. James Lindsey has already made these points.

However, I see a more subtle problem here: wokeness, especially as it combats “racism,” is not only a secular religion, it is a secular religion without a god. There is only the Devil: white oppressors. Cis-gendered white men, suburban white Karens, white toddlers in school being told they oppress students of color, etc. There is only perpetual complaint, perpetual grievance, and a pound-of-flesh philosophy that no longer believes in equality, let alone strives for it. Rather, to quote Ibram X. Kendi in How to Be an Anti-Racist, “Like fighting an addiction, being an antiracist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examination.”

In other words, many atheists, seeking to fill a void that apparently did not disappear with their former belief in god(s) and religion, unfortunately embraced a radical 12-Step program of “anti-racism” without seeing the connections to the same religious dualism that characterizes the Twelve Steps for alcoholics.

(It’s interesting that Kendi describes the prioritizing of elderly people for the Covid-19 vaccine as a justification for racial discrimination, without also mentioning 1) being elderly is a biological realty, not a social construct or identity, 2) such a program would have been applied to all ethnicities, and 3) it was actually suggested that elderly people not get the vaccine, since they were largely “white” and not productive. Of course now we have the CDC’s recommendation that vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens be treated equally, showing why different treatment of demographics in the name of “social justice” becomes maladaptive over time.)

The Pound-of-Flesh Approach

This negative obsession with a manufactured Satan also characterized the inflammatory sermons of the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who denounced evil everywhere and focused on sin and biblical “inerrancy.” (Unfortunately, I had to listen to Falwell quite a bit while growing up.)

In contrast to other religious leaders, whose supernatural beliefs I also rejected but who at least focused on charity, forgiveness, repentance and growth, Falwell spread fear, accusation and paranoia even amongst his own flock and this same internal accusation, rather than a group effort toward positive change, has divided the atheist movement.

Internal accusation has spread throughout society. There is the Amanda Gorman affair, in which activists expressed hot outrage that a white Dutch woman would translate Gorman’s poems into, well, Dutch. A translator in Spain also had to step down as Gorman’s translator for having the wrong identity. (Apparently, only black people can translate black people’s poetry into European languages.)

The widely-publicized Minneapolis Teachers’ Union contract stipulates that if an “underrepresented” teacher of color is next in line to be laid off, that teacher should be retained and instead the next white teacher higher on the seniority list would be laid off instead.

Of course, this is completely illegal, a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but I have a question:

What benchmarks, if any, have been set for justice to be “restored” for these teachers from underrepresented groups, so that layoff decisions can revert to a seniority-only system that treats everyone equally under the U.S. Constitution? (In other words, how will the union know when it has succeeded?)

I doubt there are any metrics or even goals, because as with the Gorman debacle this just is more knee-jerk, irrational thinking justified by invoking “past harms” and real disparities. Yet even critics of the teachers’ contract miss a key point: the purpose is not really to achieve equality of outcome, undesirable as that is. The purpose of this stipulation, along with other gestures toward “equity,” is to satisfy an emotional, momentary need to “stick it to the man” (or in this case, the senior white colleague.) Setting workers against each other satisfies Kendi’s exhortation that we refrain from “being neutral” and turn away from equality as an ideal, instead resorting to petty squabbles over scraps in the name of making some supposedly “privileged” workers “uncomfortable.”

Here is my prediction for the future of this dubious equity initiative: the Minneapolis teachers’ union contract will unintentionally create yet another racial disparity, with newly-laid off white teachers departing for private school positions or leaving the profession entirely, and young teachers of color laboring valiantly in an increasingly anachronistic public education system while parents pull out their children and find alternatives, like magnet schools or learning pods. In ten years, as with automobile line workers and other blue collars laborers in the 1980s, and more recently service industry workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, teaching will remain a high-stress, low-paid, and increasingly outsourced job largely dominated by people of color (as auto workers were and service jobs now are), while the issues of teacher burnout, low pay, social passing, a national teacher shortage, out-of-touch administrators and disruptive, large classrooms remain unaddressed.

“Equity,” like religion, offers static solutions to dynamic problems. This is, essentially, a new form of mysticism, even creationism. Woke atheists should reconsider their embrace of a utopian future that requires a belief in a reconstituted Fall of Man (and in a new-fangled human exceptionalism, or soul-concept, in the form of gender identity extremism which estranges people from the natural, biological, sexual world of limits and consequences, which we fought to teach in science class).

CRT Proponentsists

Meanwhile, in the material world, a siege-mentality has taken over that treats resources like pie: one person must sacrifice for another person to get a fair share. Such a zero-sum game is hardly necessary (and we were assured it was a lie) but the real agenda here is a Marxist one. Equality is outdated, flawed; there must be a transfer of power from the “white supremacists” to the “oppressed” members, this time based on race, not class and owners/laborers.

This appeals to white progressives because it reinforces their controlling tendencies to solve everything and rescue everyone (paradoxically giving them a sense of power over other people), and it appeals to young, radicalized teachers who believe their success only comes from wrestling “privilege” out of the hands of someone else, even if that privilege is minute or imaginary. It is the struggle that is the goal, because all proponents are externalizing their behaviors.

If Black Lives Matter, anti-racism, and the call for “equity” have any kernels of truth they’re wrapped in thick layers of nonsense. Whatever facts they possess are derailed in an incoherent cry to 1) dismantle “systems of oppression” and 2) sacrifice certain individuals on a sinking ship. The second statement negates the first, and the first is a red herring. This adds up to a circular argument in which a “system that was never set up for black people” depends on white people to “address” the problem which breeds only patronization and dependency, a shallow and immature philosophy in the name of resistance.

(This is akin to the breathtakingly inane fallacy that anyone can confront their “inherent biases” in an unbiased way, or that teachers, being adults, should be teaching “equity” (Critical Race Theory) to children, as if children were more likely to be racist than adults.)

The New Soviet Bread Line

Suppose instead the Minneapolis Teachers’ Union wrote the contract so that instead of laying off the white teacher with the next least seniority, the teacher with the highest seniority – vested, guaranteed a pension, and likely close to retirement or able to find another job – would be asked, for the good of the membership, to step down, thus shifting all other teachers up in seniority. This would have achieved a new seniority balance voluntarily, without mentioning race, and without leaving the union vulnerable to lawsuits while still retaining younger teachers of color. But instead, a myopic rush to make the contract All About Race – even claiming it did not go far enough – resulted in at least one court challenge while still protecting those teachers at the top (who might have voted for a race-based contract knowing full well it would never affect them). Equity, indeed!

Mentally this is like being Soviets in a bread line, waiting to wrest a crumb from the Cassocks. A crumb taken from someone else is more desirable than a goal striven for by one’s own efforts, since that would only affirm capitalism and the meritocracy. And it is this—the tit-for-tat hacking away at “whiteness” rather than addressing the real issues (such as teacher burnout, which also disproportionately affects teachers of color), which is the real goal.

Other examples abound. A church in Illinois announced it was giving up the music of “white composers” for Lent. Did the marquee say, “We are celebrating the music of black and brown composers”? No—the church in Illinois announced it was “fasting from whiteness,” therefore ensuring everyone would be talking and thinking about whiteness. Real good hypocritical job there, First United Church of Oak Park.

(I certainly hope the pastor did not assume Aram Khachaturian or Clara Schumann were “white men,” and I wonder if Tchaikovsky, who was gay, merited an exception.)

By contrast, my childhood church’s choir, led by a black director, performed his grandmother’s Spiritual hymns, which were recorded and sold on cassette tape (this was the 1970s) to pay for the new church organ. Our director could play almost any instrument but he relished that organ, and would perform classics by memory, including the famous Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor.” The emphasis was on us learning the story of his grandmother’s journey to freedom, not divisive concepts about our “whiteness.”

The New Prohibition

So how did atheists go from presenting a united front on the fight against Intelligent Design to a splintered community arguing about racism, misogyny, identities and “white tears”? Why would those who promote science fall into racial essentialism and side with #ShutDownSTEM?

I don’t have a simple answer. But I would like my fellow “woke” atheists to consider one more fact:

In the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries a lawyer from Illinois ran for President three times as a Democrat, representing the left-wing Populist Party. His second Presidential campaign specifically opposed American imperialism after the Spanish-American War. A gifted orator, he railed against the gold standard and eastern banking interests and won two elections to the House of Representatives. He became Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson but resigned to protest U.S. threats against Germany after the sinking of the Lusitania. He supported U.S. joining the League of Nations, the minimum wage and the eight-hour workday, the right of unions to strike, and women’s suffrage. He called for agricultural subsidies, a living wage, full public financing of political campaigns and government inspection of food, sanitation, and better housing conditions.

Sounds like a great guy, doesn’t he? And I’m sure he was if you knew him.

His name was William Jennings Bryan, and he was an ardent Prohibitionist. Of course, atheists mainly know him as the prosecutor in the case of The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, arguing against the teaching of evolution opposite Clarence Darrow, who defended John T. Scopes. Bryan took this stance against evolution because he feared it would lead to a tyranny of the strong against the weak and the destruction of his gentle, justice-oriented Christianity.

Bryan, an otherwise reasonable guy, found his devil and stood on the wrong side of history. Atheists should not.

[atotc-weekly]

Book the Second—The Golden Thread

[X] Chapter II. A Sight

“You know the Old Bailey well, no doubt?” said one of the oldest of clerks to Jerry the messenger.

“Ye-es, sir,” returned Jerry, in something of a dogged manner. “I do know the Bailey.”

“Just so. And you know Mr. Lorry.”

“I know Mr. Lorry, sir, much better than I know the Bailey. Much better,” said Jerry, not unlike a reluctant witness at the establishment in question, “than I, as a honest tradesman, wish to know the Bailey.”

“Very well. Find the door where the witnesses go in, and show the door-keeper this note for Mr. Lorry. He will then let you in.”

“Into the court, sir?”

“Into the court.”

Mr. Cruncher’s eyes seemed to get a little closer to one another, and to interchange the inquiry, “What do you think of this?”

“Am I to wait in the court, sir?” he asked, as the result of that conference.

“I am going to tell you. The door-keeper will pass the note to Mr. Lorry, and do you make any gesture that will attract Mr. Lorry’s attention, and show him where you stand. Then what you have to do, is, to remain there until he wants you.”

“Is that all, sir?”

“That’s all. He wishes to have a messenger at hand. This is to tell him you are there.”

As the ancient clerk deliberately folded and superscribed the note, Mr. Cruncher, after surveying him in silence until he came to the blotting-paper stage, remarked:

“I suppose they’ll be trying Forgeries this morning?”

“Treason!”

“That’s quartering,” said Jerry. “Barbarous!”

“It is the law,” remarked the ancient clerk, turning his surprised spectacles upon him. “It is the law.”

“It’s hard in the law to spile a man, I think. It’s hard enough to kill him, but it’s wery hard to spile him, sir.”

“Not at all,” retained the ancient clerk. “Speak well of the law. Take care of your chest and voice, my good friend, and leave the law to take care of itself. I give you that advice.”

“It’s the damp, sir, what settles on my chest and voice,” said Jerry. “I leave you to judge what a damp way of earning a living mine is.”

“Well, well,” said the old clerk; “we all have our various ways of gaining a livelihood. Some of us have damp ways, and some of us have dry ways. Here is the letter. Go along.”

Jerry took the letter, and, remarking to himself with less internal deference than he made an outward show of, “You are a lean old one, too,” made his bow, informed his son, in passing, of his destination, and went his way.

They hanged at Tyburn, in those days, so the street outside Newgate had not obtained one infamous notoriety that has since attached to it. But, the gaol was a vile place, in which most kinds of debauchery and villainy were practised, and where dire diseases were bred, that came into court with the prisoners, and sometimes rushed straight from the dock at my Lord Chief Justice himself, and pulled him off the bench. It had more than once happened, that the Judge in the black cap pronounced his own doom as certainly as the prisoner’s, and even died before him. For the rest, the Old Bailey was famous as a kind of deadly inn-yard, from which pale travellers set out continually, in carts and coaches, on a violent passage into the other world: traversing some two miles and a half of public street and road, and shaming few good citizens, if any. So powerful is use, and so desirable to be good use in the beginning. It was famous, too, for the pillory, a wise old institution, that inflicted a punishment of which no one could foresee the extent; also, for the whipping-post, another dear old institution, very humanising and softening to behold in action; also, for extensive transactions in blood-money, another fragment of ancestral wisdom, systematically leading to the most frightful mercenary crimes that could be committed under Heaven. Altogether, the Old Bailey, at that date, was a choice illustration of the precept, that “Whatever is is right;” an aphorism that would be as final as it is lazy, did it not include the troublesome consequence, that nothing that ever was, was wrong.

Making his way through the tainted crowd, dispersed up and down this hideous scene of action, with the skill of a man accustomed to make his way quietly, the messenger found out the door he sought, and handed in his letter through a trap in it. For, people then paid to see the play at the Old Bailey, just as they paid to see the play in Bedlam—only the former entertainment was much the dearer. Therefore, all the Old Bailey doors were well guarded—except, indeed, the social doors by which the criminals got there, and those were always left wide open.

After some delay and demur, the door grudgingly turned on its hinges a very little way, and allowed Mr. Jerry Cruncher to squeeze himself into court.

“What’s on?” he asked, in a whisper, of the man he found himself next to.

“Nothing yet.”

“What’s coming on?”

“The Treason case.”

“The quartering one, eh?”

“Ah!” returned the man, with a relish; “he’ll be drawn on a hurdle to be half hanged, and then he’ll be taken down and sliced before his own face, and then his inside will be taken out and burnt while he looks on, and then his head will be chopped off, and he’ll be cut into quarters. That’s the sentence.”

“If he’s found Guilty, you mean to say?” Jerry added, by way of proviso.

“Oh! they’ll find him guilty,” said the other. “Don’t you be afraid of that.”

Mr. Cruncher’s attention was here diverted to the door-keeper, whom he saw making his way to Mr. Lorry, with the note in his hand. Mr. Lorry sat at a table, among the gentlemen in wigs: not far from a wigged gentleman, the prisoner’s counsel, who had a great bundle of papers before him: and nearly opposite another wigged gentleman with his hands in his pockets, whose whole attention, when Mr. Cruncher looked at him then or afterwards, seemed to be concentrated on the ceiling of the court. After some gruff coughing and rubbing of his chin and signing with his hand, Jerry attracted the notice of Mr. Lorry, who had stood up to look for him, and who quietly nodded and sat down again.

“What’s he got to do with the case?” asked the man he had spoken with.

“Blest if I know,” said Jerry.

“What have you got to do with it, then, if a person may inquire?”

“Blest if I know that either,” said Jerry.

The entrance of the Judge, and a consequent great stir and settling down in the court, stopped the dialogue. Presently, the dock became the central point of interest. Two gaolers, who had been standing there, went out, and the prisoner was brought in, and put to the bar.

Everybody present, except the one wigged gentleman who looked at the ceiling, stared at him. All the human breath in the place, rolled at him, like a sea, or a wind, or a fire. Eager faces strained round pillars and corners, to get a sight of him; spectators in back rows stood up, not to miss a hair of him; people on the floor of the court, laid their hands on the shoulders of the people before them, to help themselves, at anybody’s cost, to a view of him—stood a-tiptoe, got upon ledges, stood upon next to nothing, to see every inch of him. Conspicuous among these latter, like an animated bit of the spiked wall of Newgate, Jerry stood: aiming at the prisoner the beery breath of a whet he had taken as he came along, and discharging it to mingle with the waves of other beer, and gin, and tea, and coffee, and what not, that flowed at him, and already broke upon the great windows behind him in an impure mist and rain.

The object of all this staring and blaring, was a young man of about five-and-twenty, well-grown and well-looking, with a sunburnt cheek and a dark eye. His condition was that of a young gentleman. He was plainly dressed in black, or very dark grey, and his hair, which was long and dark, was gathered in a ribbon at the back of his neck; more to be out of his way than for ornament. As an emotion of the mind will express itself through any covering of the body, so the paleness which his situation engendered came through the brown upon his cheek, showing the soul to be stronger than the sun. He was otherwise quite self-possessed, bowed to the Judge, and stood quiet.

The sort of interest with which this man was stared and breathed at, was not a sort that elevated humanity. Had he stood in peril of a less horrible sentence—had there been a chance of any one of its savage details being spared—by just so much would he have lost in his fascination. The form that was to be doomed to be so shamefully mangled, was the sight; the immortal creature that was to be so butchered and torn asunder, yielded the sensation. Whatever gloss the various spectators put upon the interest, according to their several arts and powers of self-deceit, the interest was, at the root of it, Ogreish.

Silence in the court! Charles Darnay had yesterday pleaded Not Guilty to an indictment denouncing him (with infinite jingle and jangle) for that he was a false traitor to our serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, prince, our Lord the King, by reason of his having, on divers occasions, and by divers means and ways, assisted Lewis, the French King, in his wars against our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth; that was to say, by coming and going, between the dominions of our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, and those of the said French Lewis, and wickedly, falsely, traitorously, and otherwise evil-adverbiously, revealing to the said French Lewis what forces our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, had in preparation to send to Canada and North America. This much, Jerry, with his head becoming more and more spiky as the law terms bristled it, made out with huge satisfaction, and so arrived circuitously at the understanding that the aforesaid, and over and over again aforesaid, Charles Darnay, stood there before him upon his trial; that the jury were swearing in; and that Mr. Attorney-General was making ready to speak.

The accused, who was (and who knew he was) being mentally hanged, beheaded, and quartered, by everybody there, neither flinched from the situation, nor assumed any theatrical air in it. He was quiet and attentive; watched the opening proceedings with a grave interest; and stood with his hands resting on the slab of wood before him, so composedly, that they had not displaced a leaf of the herbs with which it was strewn. The court was all bestrewn with herbs and sprinkled with vinegar, as a precaution against gaol air and gaol fever.

Over the prisoner’s head there was a mirror, to throw the light down upon him. Crowds of the wicked and the wretched had been reflected in it, and had passed from its surface and this earth’s together. Haunted in a most ghastly manner that abominable place would have been, if the glass could ever have rendered back its reflections, as the ocean is one day to give up its dead. Some passing thought of the infamy and disgrace for which it had been reserved, may have struck the prisoner’s mind. Be that as it may, a change in his position making him conscious of a bar of light across his face, he looked up; and when he saw the glass his face flushed, and his right hand pushed the herbs away.

It happened, that the action turned his face to that side of the court which was on his left. About on a level with his eyes, there sat, in that corner of the Judge’s bench, two persons upon whom his look immediately rested; so immediately, and so much to the changing of his aspect, that all the eyes that were turned upon him, turned to them.

The spectators saw in the two figures, a young lady of little more than twenty, and a gentleman who was evidently her father; a man of a very remarkable appearance in respect of the absolute whiteness of his hair, and a certain indescribable intensity of face: not of an active kind, but pondering and self-communing. When this expression was upon him, he looked as if he were old; but when it was stirred and broken up—as it was now, in a moment, on his speaking to his daughter—he became a handsome man, not past the prime of life.

His daughter had one of her hands drawn through his arm, as she sat by him, and the other pressed upon it. She had drawn close to him, in her dread of the scene, and in her pity for the prisoner. Her forehead had been strikingly expressive of an engrossing terror and compassion that saw nothing but the peril of the accused. This had been so very noticeable, so very powerfully and naturally shown, that starers who had had no pity for him were touched by her; and the whisper went about, “Who are they?”

Jerry, the messenger, who had made his own observations, in his own manner, and who had been sucking the rust off his fingers in his absorption, stretched his neck to hear who they were. The crowd about him had pressed and passed the inquiry on to the nearest attendant, and from him it had been more slowly pressed and passed back; at last it got to Jerry:

“Witnesses.”

“For which side?”

“Against.”

“Against what side?”

“The prisoner’s.”

The Judge, whose eyes had gone in the general direction, recalled them, leaned back in his seat, and looked steadily at the man whose life was in his hand, as Mr. Attorney-General rose to spin the rope, grind the axe, and hammer the nails into the scaffold.

[agentcable]

Chicago Justice Season 1 Ep. 12 "Fool Me Twice"

The team is investigating the shooting of a man who was left for dead. However, they are facing a roadblock due to the presence of other detectives who are also working on the same case. Later, Nagel discloses that the victim was her confidential informant. As a result, Stone prohibits her from working on the case because of her proximity to it.

If you want to watch the series for yourself, stop reading! This post contains spoilers to the storyline.

Laura Nagel rushes to the hospital to be with her friend Lizzie. Lizzie's brother Eric has been shot three times, and they are unsure if he will survive. Laura leaves as soon as Lizzie's boyfriend, Manny, arrives, instructing her to call as soon as Eric wakes up.

Nagel arrives at the crime scene where they found seven casings around Eric's bullet-riddled car. She pauses when she sees blood on the cracked windshield. Ken Banks introduces himself and Dt. Steve Kim from narcotics to her. She is confused about their presence but quickly learns that they found a kilo of heroin on the floor of Eric's car.

Nagel returns to the ASA office and shares the case with Peter Stone. She tells him that Eric Cates was her confidential informant and that it was Eric's information that helped convict Jason, a felon who ran the Death King's stash house. Stone wonders if Jason arranged for Eric's murder in Statesville. Nagel informs him that Jason's younger brother, Jerome, now leads the gang and suspects that he discovered Eric was her informant. stone explains that it is now a case for the Chicago Police Department, but Nagel insists that people like Eric risk their lives to help them. Stone advises her to gather information discreetly and avoid interfering with the investigation.

Laura informs Antonio that they can investigate the case. Before Antonio can question her, she asks if he is coming. They visit Jerome at his car dealership, where Laura suggests they review his books to check for money laundering or ask him a few question. Jerome denies being in a gang since they imprisoned his brother, Jason. Jerome claims he has not seen Eric Cates in a few years. Nagel does not believe him and suggests that he obtains the books. Jerome reiterates that he is not involved and that Eric worked for his brother. However, if Eric was hijacked, it was from Ricky Marscak's crew.

Dt. Banks informed Nagel that a good Samaritan reported witnessing the shooting. Although he did not see Marscak, he saw a red Chevy, and given the red Chevy and drug heist, they immediately suspected Ricky Marscak. Kim emerged from the interrogation room, stating that Marscak claimed he was with a woman until 3 am, but he did not know her name. Nagel then entered the interrogation room and revealed that Eric Cates was still alive. Marscak expressed relief, hoping that Eric could confirm that he did not shoot him.

After leaving the precinct, she takes Antonio back to the hospital. Eric denies that the heroin found in his car belongs to him. According to him, he was driving home on a one-way street when a car approached him. Two men got out of the car, but he couldn't identify them due to the bright lights shining in his eyes. He reversed his car and doesn't remember anything else. He claims that he couldn't see anything, but he would have noticed if the car was red.

Anna Valdez is surprised that they have a witness since it is such a rarity. Nagel finds the witness statement a bit suspicious because he said there was only one guy, but Eric says there were two. The witness mentioned the red Chevy, but Eric is sure he would have remembered that. However, the witness doesn't even have a parking ticket, so he is a model citizen.

Antonio and Laura returned to the crime scene and decided to visit Jerry Burrows, the witness. However, upon arriving at the apartment, Burrows' son Bobby informed them that his father was out driving as he worked as a cab driver. During lunch, Laura questioned why Burrows chose to report the incident to narcotics instead of going to the nearest precinct, which was only a couple of blocks away.

Antonio suggested that Laura was too emotionally invested in the case and couldn't see things clearly. She explains that she grew up with Eric. When her dad drank too much, Eric's mother took her in. Antonio reveals that Jerry may be clean, but his son has been arrested twice for intent to distribute. Six months ago, he was arrested for statutory rape of a 15-year-old. She asks why he wasn't in prison, and Antonio learns that the charges were dropped on the same day that cocaine charges were filed by Dt. Banks and Dt. Kim.

Banks and Kim quickly express their belief that Bobby was not a major player and would be more useful to them on the street. Banks asserts that Bobby became an informant after they released him. Laura finds it suspicious that their informant's father is a witness in a shooting they are investigating. Kim becomes angry at the implication that they are lying. Laura and Antonio return to question Jerry Burrows, who insists he saw the red truck and rushes back into the house.

Laura returns to the hospital, where Eric offers to say the car was red if she wants him to. She declines and begins to reminisce about their childhood. She apologizes for putting a target on his back, but he maintains that the heroin is not his.

Stone and Anna meet with Antonio and Laura to review the case. Antonio explains that the heroin was only 10% pure. He investigated similar cases involving murders and found three cases with no arrests. All three cases happened in the past 24 months and have the same gang connection: the 23rd Street Jokers, who are still in a turf war with the Death Kings. Jason ordered all four shootings, and the same detectives are investigating all four cases. Anna is shocked to learn that Banks and Kim may be covering up the murders, and Laura suggests that they may even be the ones committing the crimes. Stone advises them not to jump to conclusions and reminds them that their first priority is to prove that Jerome knew about Eric Cates' betrayal of his brother.

Eric did not reveal that he snitched and implies that someone discovered it on their own. Nagel requests protection for Eric during her meeting with his sister, Lizzie. Laura discovers that Lizzie disclosed their secret to her boyfriend, Manny.

Nagel interrogates Manny, who confesses that he owed Jerome $10,000 and mentioned that he had a contact in the ASA office who could help him if he needed anything. She asked if he mentioned her name. When he said no, she told him he would be carged with conspiracy to commit murder. He choked and admitted he told Jerome her name. Laura and Antonio returned to the Ferrari dealership, and she arrested Jerome.

Stone observed as Laura and Antonio interrogated Jerome. Laura played him a recording of Banks and Kim's statements, claiming they were following his orders on the other murders. Jerome was shocked they turned on him, but his attorney told him to be quiet. Jerome desired a deal, but was informed that it was not possible. However, Stone arrived and presented him with an offer: one murder in exchange for a reduction of one-third of his sentence. Despite his lawyer's counsel to the contrary, Jerome accepted the deal.

Antonio meets Banks at a bar, and they reminisce about a bust they did years ago. Antonio admires Banks and wanted to be like him. Meanwhile, Laura arrives at Kim's home while he is having dinner with his family. As two police cruisers arrive to take him, Kim tries to close the door, but Laura holds it open. After Kim is taken into custody, Laura calls Antonio. Antonio orders Banks to leave the bar as if they are friends, or he will arrest him in front of his "fans". Mark Jefferies and Peter Stone are standing outside.

In court, the judge hears about the detectives' decorated work history. However, Anna shares that they are both charged with four violent felonies as paid assassins. She sets their bail at $250,000 each.

Both attorneys meet with Stone and Anna, stating that they shot to kill when Cates came racing towards them in his vehicle. Stone admits that they took off, leaving Cates for dead. The attorney explains that they panicked. They are willing to plead guilty to leaving the scene. Anna says Jerome will testify that he hired them, but they scoff, claiming he is an infamous gangster who will say anything to save himself.

Forensics cannot verify their distance when they shot at Cates, but there is gunshot residue in the detectives' car. Anna discovers that the dash cam in the car was never turned on, but it turns on a minute before the sirens are activated. However, Anna cannot explain how it works.

In the office, there is an audio recording of the detectives preparing for and shooting Cates. Apparently, they did not know that the recording starts as soon as the siren is activated. Anna explains that she noticed the camera is always recording because it cannot detect when a siren will occur. Stone is impressed with her work and instructs her to make copies and send them to the defense counsel.

In the judge's chambers, the attorneys, Stone, and Anna listen to the audio. The judge instructs them to begin discussing deals, but one person protests, stating that the police required a warrant to bug their own vehicle, making this recording a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights. The judge rules that the recordings are admissible.

Dt. Kim's attorney visits Stone's office to explain the truth about Kim, his partner, and Jerome. Kim is willing to go to jail for as long as necessary, but he wants his family to be relocated and kept safe. He is also willing to testify to everything. Stone offers him life in prison, to which Kim agrees.

Jerome takes the witness stand and confesses to paying Detective Banks and Detective Kim twenty thousand dollars for each murder. He admits to taking a plea deal. He cannot be trusted. Cates confesses to being a drug runner for the Death King's, but has been clean for over a year since his arrest and agreement to be an informant.

The defense attorney accuses Ricky Marscak of the shooting, but now claims responsibility. Detective Kim testifies and the court hears a recording of him and Detective Banks. Kim explains how they took all the cases to prevent others from investigating. The defendant claims that Banks deceived him into committing the crime and that the victims were targeted because they were gang members. The defense lawyer argues that greed cannot justify murder.

At a bar, Stone learns that Banks' lawyer is putting him on the stand the following day and is unsure if society can convict him. On the stand, Banks admits that he went along for the ride as Kim was the lead detective on every case. When Stone asks if this was all for the greater good, Banks agrees that it was his job to do that. He clarifies that the killings had nothing to do with any investigations but that a cop never stops being a cop. Stone then asks if the money was just a tip. Banks believed that Cates deserved to die because he conducted business with a gang member. Stone challenged this belief by questioning Banks about taking money from Jerome. Banks remained silent.

The closing arguments were completed, and the jury found Detective Banks not guilty of all four counts of murder and attempted murder.

Laura chased after Cates, who quickly left the courtroom. Cates shared that if he had gone to jail for the burglary, he would have been released six months ago. Laura promised to protect him, but he did not believe her.

[college-girl199328]

Overturned acquittal could have impact on convoy protest case: expert | Ottawa Citizen

An Ottawa criminologist said the Ontario court’s order to retry a convoy protester could have implications for the ongoing trial of the protest’s two key organizers. Superior Court Justice Narissa Somji ordered a retrial last week for Allen Remley, a convoy participant who had been acquitted on a mischief charge. Remley was by Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, also presiding over the criminal trial for organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. The court ordered a retrial after concluding Perkins-McVey didn’t adequately context of the protest.

Protesters flooded the capital in 2022 at the tail end of the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most said they were there to demonstrate against public health restrictions and vaccine mandates, though many also railed against the government.

The protesters stayed in Ottawa for three weeks, blocking downtown roads around Parliament Hill with big rigs and other vehicles, blaring horns at all hours, blasting music over loudspeakers, and setting off fireworks in the street. In Remley’s case, Perkins-McVey found the Crown had failed to adequately prove that he was engaged in mischief during the protest.

Police accused him of being involved in a “mobile gas station” — a children’s wagon filled with jerry cans. His truck was also illegally parked.

In the absence of more evidence, doubts persisted about whether he was committing a crime, or even shared the same aims or political beliefs as the protesters, she said. Somji agreed that simply being at the scene wasn’t enough to prove guilt, but found the decision didn’t take into account “the evidence as a whole, including evidence of the ongoing protest.”

In another convoy-related case last year, Crown prosecutors successfully appealed an acquittal on mischief charges involving protester David Romlewski. In that appeal, Superior Court Justice Adriana Doyle found the trial judge erred in Romlewski’s acquittal by imposing a higher burden of proof on the Crown than was necessary to reach a finding of guilt.

Justice Robert Wadden, the trial judge, had acquitted Romlewski after ruling he was not a trucker and didn’t bring a vehicle into the city, he was not a convoy organizer or in contact with organizers, and the judge said there was no documentary evidence linking Romlewski to the protest. Prosecutors successfully overturned that verdict, with Justice Doyle saying Romlewski’s presence in a designated “Red Zone” during a highly-publicized police operation went beyond “mere presence,” and was “aiding and abetting” the mischief.

The facts of the Lich and Barber case are slightly different since they spent most of their time organizing the protest, fundraising, and sharing updates on social media from a “command center” set up in a local hotel. The Crown has argued Perkins-McVey need only consider whether streets were blocked and property was interfered with, and whether Lich and Barber were party to those crimes.

While Remley’s trial lasted only three days, Lich and Barber’s case is still ongoing after months of testimony, evidence, and legal wrangling. Their trial paused last month and is expected to resume in March.

Rents for Canadian military personnel to increase | Ottawa Citizen

Rents for Canadian military personnel in accommodations used by National Defence will be going up in April. National Defence confirmed information that was leaked to this newspaper by soldiers who questioned why rents were going up for troops when the military is struggling to keep personnel in the ranks.

Under Treasury Board policy and Department of National Defence regulations, “shelter charges” for all Crown-controlled housing are reviewed and adjusted annually to reflect market changes, she added. This process is administered by the Canadian Forces Housing Agency as the managing authority for the residential housing portfolio on behalf of the department, Poulin noted.

Updated rental fees for 2024-2025 will be available online by April 1. The rates vary depending on the type of accommodation and location. Poulin said rents for National Defence housing units are established based on a market analysis of dwellings of similar age, size, type, condition, and location.

In October 2023, this newspaper reported on internal military documents that acknowledged that Canadian Forces personnel were increasingly leaving the ranks rather than moving to a new military base where they couldn’t afford housing. Canada is in the midst of a housing crisis, but some members of the military are particularly vulnerable as they are required to often move around the country for their jobs.

In some locations “average cost to purchase or rent housing now exceeds incomes of several CAF working rank levels,” a June 14, 2023 briefing by Brig.-Gen. Virginia Tattersall pointed out. Military personnel can also try to rent accommodation from the Canadian Forces Housing Agency, or CFHA, but there are shortages of those units.

The CFHA manages the largest housing portfolio in the government of Canada at 27 locations across the country. Its portfolio consists of single, semi-detached, and row houses, as well as barrier-free accessible houses and apartments, according to National Defence. However, the department has noted that thousands are on the waiting list for such units.

In addition, the Canadian Forces has identified the need for at least 5,000 more housing units to be built at its facilities around the country. In 2022, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre acknowledged that a lack of affordable housing has emerged as one of the main complaints made by military personnel to senior officers.

Military personnel are increasingly becoming frustrated with the lack of action by the Canadian Forces' senior leadership on the housing situation, according to defense sources.

[sebeth]

All-Star Squadron #10, 11, 12 (Revised 1/28/24)

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

All-Star Squadron #10 – 12 by Roy Thomas, Adrian Gonzales, and Jerry Ordway

“If An Eye Offend Thee!”

The issue opens in San Francisco. It is early January 1942 and Hawkman has snuck away from the military base for a late evening flight. Carter notes he feels guilty for taking a “joy ride” while regular citizens are bracing for gas rationing. I enjoy Roy’s additions of historic details of life in the United States during World War II.

Carter’s guilt can be assuaged as his wings don’t require gas.

The majority of the Justice Society retired their heroic identities to enlist in the various branches of the military.

Carter joined the Air Force and is set to make “pilot in record time” but “it’s liable to be months before I’ll see action in the army air force.”

Hakwman witnesses a fleet of B-17 Bombers arriving at the base from Randall Field, Texas.

Carter muses: “Those flyboys will do America a lot more good than one former playboy swooping around in a beaked masks and wings.”

“Speaking of former playboys, I just remembered Randall Field’s where Starman – Ted Knight – is based. I wonder if he might be – no, not likely. He couldn’t have his officer’s commission yet.”

Carter is wrong, as Ted is flying one of the planes. Ted’s co-pilot can’t get over how fast he made pilot status.

Ted suspects his co-pilot feels Ted’s money cut through the red tape but, in fact, as Starman, Ted has been “flying high for a year now.”

I’m not sure how flying under your own power allows easy mastery over flying a plane but I’ll go with it.

Starman admits missing using his gravity rod to fly under his own power. Ted is in one of the B-17 fleet bombers that Carter is flying next to.

A flying UFO appears out of nowhere, “glowing so blindly I can barely look at it.” The UFO attacks the planes.

A plane plummets to the ground. Hawman races after, knowing it’s futile, but hoping his Ninth Metal harness can stop the impending crash.

Fortunately for Carter, Ted makes excuses to head to the back of his plane. He promptly changes into his Starman costume, grabs his gravity rod, and exits the plane.

A relieved Hawkman has Ted save the plane while he prevents the UFO from attacking more planes.

An unconscious man falls out of the UFO. The UFO flies away to parts unknown.

Starman has to get back aboard the plane but Carter wants to know how Ted made pilot so fast.

Ted: “I got the President himself to fix it up for me.”

Ted admits he hates “using our ‘in’ with F.D.R.” but “winning this lousy war that’s important” and he would “mangle every rule in the book” if he had to.

Carter realizes he needs to return to base before he’s reported A.W.O.L. but first he needs to find help for the unconscious man. Unfortunately, the man dies in his arms before Carter can reach the ground.

Carter believes he knows the dead man and if it’s who he thinks it is “the secret behind that ‘Flying Eye’ may be even more sinister than I’d imagined.”

A caption box informs us we’ll have to wait an issue or two before discovering the full meaning of Carter’s words.

I enjoyed the quick check-in with Hawkman and Starman. The military enlistment was used throughout the All-Star Squadron run to explain why the members of the Justice Society weren’t featured heavily in the series.  It’s still nice to have the occasional appearance from a Society member.

We switch to Washington DC.

The Shining Knight, Hawkgirl, and Johnny Quick are careening past the Washington Monument.

I still don’t understand how Shiera hasn’t died of hypothermia while fighting crime in a bikini top during an East Coast winter.

I don’t have a problem with certain female super-heroes fighting crime in swimsuits, hot pants, or skirts. For example: She-Hulk, Supergirl, Power Girl, or Mary Marvel. All four women are mostly invulnerable and largely immune to temperature extremes. If it’s true to their personality, those women can wear what they want – they don’t have practical concerns to worry over.

However, women like Black Canary, Huntress, and Hawkgirl are neither invulnerable or immune to temperature extremes. Their costumes should reflect their need to protect their body from physical harm.

Side-note: Huntress’s abdomen-baring, hot-pants costume was one of the most idiotic outfits of all time. Both for the reasons listed above and because shorty before its debut, Helena was shot multiple times in the abdomen by the Joker. And the life-saving surgery was performed in Gotham during No Man’s Land. There was no plastic surgeon nearby to minimalize the scars. Yet no artist ever drew Helena with a scarred abdomen. Stupid!

Johnny compliments Shiera on the design of her new mask.  Shiera took the time to modify her mask but not to add sleeves to her top? Okay.

Johnny mentions he’d “better get some newsreel footage of all this, or Johnny Chambers is gonna be looking for a new job.”

Johnny is a cameraman for See’s All/Tells All News.

Sir Justin tethers Winged Victory and notices an unconscious man: “Here lies a man unconscious and he wears the regalia of an American soldier.”

Johhny has entered the Washington Monument in time to stop a sabotage attempt.

Johnny stops the actual explosion while Shiera and Justin deal with the saboteurs.

Sir Justin: “We thank you for letting us deal with these Nazis, Johnny Quick, for, in sooth, ‘twould be most unseemly to have let you fight the good fight unattended.”

Johnny: “Knight, you sure do talk pretty sometimes.”

The trio take the unconscious man (wounded guard) to the hospital.

Johnny mentions this is the second national monument he’s saved in a month and “I wonder how things are going out at Mount Rushmore?”

Hey, every hero needs a specialty. Superman fights alien invasions, Batman solves crimes, and Johnny Quick protects national monuments.

We switch locations to “one of the few American outposts in the distant Pacific Ocean which has not yet fallen to the Japanese juggernaut” where a “total blackout has been rigidly enforced for the past month.”

We have another check-in with a JSA member.

Dr. Charles McNider is on the island researching tropical fever. And he’s brought Hooty!

Charles serving in a research role for the military is a perfect fit. Charles wouldn’t be able to actively enlist in the military as he is blind.

Enemy planes and the “Flying Eye” attack the island. Charles changes into his “Dr. Mid-Nite” uniform to help the soldiers on the ground.

A solider is very confused: “Dr. Mid-Nite?! How the heck did you get over here?”

I understand Charles’ natural impulse is to change into costume at the first sign of danger but making an appearance on an isolated island is not a good way to maintain a secret identity.

The Flying Eye causes multiple plane engines to stall and crash. Fortunately, the pilots bail out.

The Flying Eye retreats and Charles heads back to his lab: “Better get back before my assistant Myra Mason notices Dr. McNider’s missing.”

Charles, trust me, Myra knows you run around as Dr. Mid-Nite. She may not say anything but she knows.

Did Charles use the “FDR card” in order to have Hooty and Myra accompany him? Myra is a nurse and Charle’s long-time assistant, used to working with the blind Charles, so she’s a logical choice to accompany him but Hooty?

I mean, I love Hooty, I’m just now sure how Charles convinced the military brass to allow his owl on the island.

We switch to the Russia’s Crimean Peninsula where the Flying Eye attacks both the Russian and the German forces and flies away.

Back to Washington. Robotman examines Steel. Robotman declares Steel free of any influence from Baron Blitzkrieg.

Firebrand accompanies the duo outside in time to witness the arrival of the Flying Eye.

The Flying Eye causes the hospital generatiors, along with Steel and Robotman, to shut down.

The Flying Eye heads to the White House. Firebrand along with a recovered Robotman and Steel race to the White House.

The trio arrive at the White House and meet up with Liberty Belle, Hawkgirl, the Shining Knight, Johnny Quick, and the Atom.

A shadowy, seven-foot man emerges from the Eye and battles the All-Star Squadron.

The man removes his helmet and proclaims: “I am Akhet, and I have come from the second planet of the star you call Proxima Centauri to annex this world, and all upon it, in the name and by the power of the Binary Brotherhood!”

The Fact Files at the end of the issue feature Starman, Liberty Belle, and the Atom. The only new information is Starman has never received an origin from his debut in the Golden Age until now but will receive one in an upcoming issue of All-Star Squadron. We’re told we will receive more information on Liberty Belle’s adrenal powers in a future issue. The fact file notes the Atom appeared in more Justice Society stories than any hero except Hawkman.

Up Next: “The Spaceman’s Sinister Secret!”

Akhet issues an ultimatum: “All of Earth’s nations must surrender that a united planet may be ruled by myself, as emissary of the Brotherhood. Any nations which resist – be it one or all – will be obliterated by such power as my starcraft has already demonstrated. You have one earth-day to choose between abject surrender and total annihilation!”

The All-Stars want to attack but Liberty Belle correctly states that they should wait for the President’s signal.

Half the Squad attacks anyway, and when it goes badly, the rest rush in to help.

Sir Justin, as always, has the best battle cry: “Nor shall any man or maid set a foot further than does the Shining Knight! Forward to the fray, Winged Victory!”

The fight doesn’t go well and Ahket, also known as the Star-Smasher, absconds with Steel, Hawkgirl, Atom, and Robotman.

Johnny laments: “What a time for the big guns in the Justice Society to have decided to enlist in the Army as privates!”

The Flying Eye attacks random locations across the globe.

The remaining All-Stars meet with the President, Prime Minister Churchill, and a military general.

Liberty Belle is suspicious of Akhet’s claims: “I’m convinced there’s more to this than meets the eye.”

Hawkman arrives at the White House. He informs the others of his and Starman’s encounter with the Flying Eye.

Carter tells the group the identity of the man who fell out of the ship: “Garret Owens, a pioneering bio-chemist. He’d gone out for a stroll near his Illinois home in 1933 – and hadn’t been seen since!”

Carter notes the emblem on Owens’ uniform is an old alchemist’s symbol for the Middle Ages, it is the sign for “the spirit of the world”.

Hawkgirl and Atom awaken in the Eye. Shiera’s a bit over-whelmed as she’s not a “full-time masked hero type. I’ve just put on this outfit to help the Hawk a time or two – and now this happens!”

Atom informs her “It’s a little late to fall back on your amateur standing.”

Atom and Hawkgirl explore the Eye.

Hawkman and the non-captured All-Stars race to the estate of Elwood P. Napier, a physio-mathematician.

Elwood is another scientist who has gone missing in the last decade.

Johnny Quick has discovered the missing scientists were part of a government brain trust that ran out of funds in 1930.

Elwood was the last of the scientists to go missing. Before that one of the scientists went missing every six months.

Firebrand uses her powers to light up the interior of the house.

Sir Justin: “Odd’s blood, lass, but in my long-ago day, they’d have burned ye for a witch.”

Good thing Firebrand’s a modern woman. Also, good luck with the burning thing considering the nature of her powers.

Hawkgirl and Atom encounter Akhet and easily knock him out. The duo discover Akhet is a robot.

The duo discovers the rest of the captured All-Stars along with the missing scientists.  All individuals are placed in clear tubes.

Hawkgirl and Atom discover the true mastermind behind the plan: Dr. Hastor, Hawkman’s arch-enemy.

“Doomsday Begins At Dawn!”

Hawkman and his fellow All-Star leave Elwood’s estate.

Carter recognized Hastor in the photos found at the estate, “a man I saw die more than two years ago”.

Carter recaps his origin and debut as Hawkman. This is familiar ground for DC fans but I’ll offer a quick summary: Ancient Egypt – Carter/Prince Khufu and Shiera – murdered by Hath-Set, a priest of Anubis, all three re-incarnate to their present day lives.

Carter battles Dr. Anton Hastor in his first adventure. Hastor presumed dead after his fight with Carter.

Carter informs his fellow All-Stars that there is no alien invasion – only Hastor’s machinations.

Hastor explains to Shiera his plans and how he became involved with the missing scientists.

Hastor took control of the group of scientists and the Flying Eye, starting the events of the last few issues.

The All-Stars reach the Flying Eye via a hot-air balloon! No engine to knock out in the balloon.

Carter, Shiera, and Hastor battle by using their past lives’ astral forms.

The Hawks win, the Flying Eye is deactivated, and Hastor falls into a comatose state.

I love the All-Star Squadron but this is a pretty “meh” arc. Too many twists needlessly over-complicated – and stretched out - the plot. The highlights were the recap of Hawkman’s origin and some character development for Hawkgirl. She has been mostly wallpaper during the series but we got to see her fear over her inexperience compared to the heroes and her determination to be an asset and not a “debutante” hero.

[renaissanceclassics]

A Tale of Two Cities - Book 2: Part 8

In 45 parts.

A Sight

CHAPTER II. A Sight

You know the Old Bailey well, no doubt?” said one of the oldest of clerks to Jerry the messenger.

“Ye-es, sir,” returned Jerry, in something of a dogged manner. “I do know the Bailey.”

“Just so. And you know Mr. Lorry.”

“I know Mr. Lorry, sir, much better than I know the Bailey. Much better,” said Jerry, not unlike a reluctant witness at the establishment in question, “than I, as a honest tradesman, wish to know the Bailey.”

“Very well. Find the door where the witnesses go in, and show the door-keeper this note for Mr. Lorry. He will then let you in.”

“Into the court, sir?”

“Into the court.”

Mr. Cruncher’s eyes seemed to get a little closer to one another, and to interchange the inquiry, “What do you think of this?”

“Am I to wait in the court, sir?” he asked, as the result of that conference.

“I am going to tell you. The door-keeper will pass the note to Mr. Lorry, and do you make any gesture that will attract Mr. Lorry’s attention, and show him where you stand. Then what you have to do, is, to remain there until he wants you.”

“Is that all, sir?”

“That’s all. He wishes to have a messenger at hand. This is to tell him you are there.”

As the ancient clerk deliberately folded and superscribed the note, Mr. Cruncher, after surveying him in silence until he came to the blotting-paper stage, remarked:

“I suppose they’ll be trying Forgeries this morning?”

“Treason!”

“That’s quartering,” said Jerry. “Barbarous!”

“It is the law,” remarked the ancient clerk, turning his surprised spectacles upon him. “It is the law.”

“It’s hard in the law to spile a man, I think. It’s hard enough to kill him, but it’s wery hard to spile him, sir.”

“Not at all,” retained the ancient clerk. “Speak well of the law. Take care of your chest and voice, my good friend, and leave the law to take care of itself. I give you that advice.”

“It’s the damp, sir, what settles on my chest and voice,” said Jerry. “I leave you to judge what a damp way of earning a living mine is.”

“Well, well,” said the old clerk; “we all have our various ways of gaining a livelihood. Some of us have damp ways, and some of us have dry ways. Here is the letter. Go along.”

Jerry took the letter, and, remarking to himself with less internal deference than he made an outward show of, “You are a lean old one, too,” made his bow, informed his son, in passing, of his destination, and went his way.

They hanged at Tyburn, in those days, so the street outside Newgate had not obtained one infamous notoriety that has since attached to it. But, the gaol was a vile place, in which most kinds of debauchery and villainy were practised, and where dire diseases were bred, that came into court with the prisoners, and sometimes rushed straight from the dock at my Lord Chief Justice himself, and pulled him off the bench. It had more than once happened, that the Judge in the black cap pronounced his own doom as certainly as the prisoner’s, and even died before him. For the rest, the Old Bailey was famous as a kind of deadly inn-yard, from which pale travellers set out continually, in carts and coaches, on a violent passage into the other world: traversing some two miles and a half of public street and road, and shaming few good citizens, if any. So powerful is use, and so desirable to be good use in the beginning. It was famous, too, for the pillory, a wise old institution, that inflicted a punishment of which no one could foresee the extent; also, for the whipping-post, another dear old institution, very humanising and softening to behold in action; also, for extensive transactions in blood-money, another fragment of ancestral wisdom, systematically leading to the most frightful mercenary crimes that could be committed under Heaven. Altogether, the Old Bailey, at that date, was a choice illustration of the precept, that “Whatever is is right;” an aphorism that would be as final as it is lazy, did it not include the troublesome consequence, that nothing that ever was, was wrong.

Making his way through the tainted crowd, dispersed up and down this hideous scene of action, with the skill of a man accustomed to make his way quietly, the messenger found out the door he sought, and handed in his letter through a trap in it. For, people then paid to see the play at the Old Bailey, just as they paid to see the play in Bedlam—only the former entertainment was much the dearer. Therefore, all the Old Bailey doors were well guarded—except, indeed, the social doors by which the criminals got there, and those were always left wide open.

After some delay and demur, the door grudgingly turned on its hinges a very little way, and allowed Mr. Jerry Cruncher to squeeze himself into court.

“What’s on?” he asked, in a whisper, of the man he found himself next to.

“Nothing yet.”

“What’s coming on?”

“The Treason case.”

“The quartering one, eh?”

“Ah!” returned the man, with a relish; “he’ll be drawn on a hurdle to be half hanged, and then he’ll be taken down and sliced before his own face, and then his inside will be taken out and burnt while he looks on, and then his head will be chopped off, and he’ll be cut into quarters. That’s the sentence.”

“If he’s found Guilty, you mean to say?” Jerry added, by way of proviso.

“Oh! they’ll find him guilty,” said the other. “Don’t you be afraid of that.”

Mr. Cruncher’s attention was here diverted to the door-keeper, whom he saw making his way to Mr. Lorry, with the note in his hand. Mr. Lorry sat at a table, among the gentlemen in wigs: not far from a wigged gentleman, the prisoner’s counsel, who had a great bundle of papers before him: and nearly opposite another wigged gentleman with his hands in his pockets, whose whole attention, when Mr. Cruncher looked at him then or afterwards, seemed to be concentrated on the ceiling of the court. After some gruff coughing and rubbing of his chin and signing with his hand, Jerry attracted the notice of Mr. Lorry, who had stood up to look for him, and who quietly nodded and sat down again.

“What’s he got to do with the case?” asked the man he had spoken with.

“Blest if I know,” said Jerry.

“What have you got to do with it, then, if a person may inquire?”

“Blest if I know that either,” said Jerry.

The entrance of the Judge, and a consequent great stir and settling down in the court, stopped the dialogue. Presently, the dock became the central point of interest. Two gaolers, who had been standing there, went out, and the prisoner was brought in, and put to the bar.

Everybody present, except the one wigged gentleman who looked at the ceiling, stared at him. All the human breath in the place, rolled at him, like a sea, or a wind, or a fire. Eager faces strained round pillars and corners, to get a sight of him; spectators in back rows stood up, not to miss a hair of him; people on the floor of the court, laid their hands on the shoulders of the people before them, to help themselves, at anybody’s cost, to a view of him—stood a-tiptoe, got upon ledges, stood upon next to nothing, to see every inch of him. Conspicuous among these latter, like an animated bit of the spiked wall of Newgate, Jerry stood: aiming at the prisoner the beery breath of a whet he had taken as he came along, and discharging it to mingle with the waves of other beer, and gin, and tea, and coffee, and what not, that flowed at him, and already broke upon the great windows behind him in an impure mist and rain.

The object of all this staring and blaring, was a young man of about five-and-twenty, well-grown and well-looking, with a sunburnt cheek and a dark eye. His condition was that of a young gentleman. He was plainly dressed in black, or very dark grey, and his hair, which was long and dark, was gathered in a ribbon at the back of his neck; more to be out of his way than for ornament. As an emotion of the mind will express itself through any covering of the body, so the paleness which his situation engendered came through the brown upon his cheek, showing the soul to be stronger than the sun. He was otherwise quite self-possessed, bowed to the Judge, and stood quiet.

The sort of interest with which this man was stared and breathed at, was not a sort that elevated humanity. Had he stood in peril of a less horrible sentence—had there been a chance of any one of its savage details being spared—by just so much would he have lost in his fascination. The form that was to be doomed to be so shamefully mangled, was the sight; the immortal creature that was to be so butchered and torn asunder, yielded the sensation. Whatever gloss the various spectators put upon the interest, according to their several arts and powers of self-deceit, the interest was, at the root of it, Ogreish.

Silence in the court! Charles Darnay had yesterday pleaded Not Guilty to an indictment denouncing him (with infinite jingle and jangle) for that he was a false traitor to our serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, prince, our Lord the King, by reason of his having, on divers occasions, and by divers means and ways, assisted Lewis, the French King, in his wars against our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth; that was to say, by coming and going, between the dominions of our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, and those of the said French Lewis, and wickedly, falsely, traitorously, and otherwise evil-adverbiously, revealing to the said French Lewis what forces our said serene, illustrious, excellent, and so forth, had in preparation to send to Canada and North America. This much, Jerry, with his head becoming more and more spiky as the law terms bristled it, made out with huge satisfaction, and so arrived circuitously at the understanding that the aforesaid, and over and over again aforesaid, Charles Darnay, stood there before him upon his trial; that the jury were swearing in; and that Mr. Attorney-General was making ready to speak.

The accused, who was (and who knew he was) being mentally hanged, beheaded, and quartered, by everybody there, neither flinched from the situation, nor assumed any theatrical air in it. He was quiet and attentive; watched the opening proceedings with a grave interest; and stood with his hands resting on the slab of wood before him, so composedly, that they had not displaced a leaf of the herbs with which it was strewn. The court was all bestrewn with herbs and sprinkled with vinegar, as a precaution against gaol air and gaol fever.

Over the prisoner’s head there was a mirror, to throw the light down upon him. Crowds of the wicked and the wretched had been reflected in it, and had passed from its surface and this earth’s together. Haunted in a most ghastly manner that abominable place would have been, if the glass could ever have rendered back its reflections, as the ocean is one day to give up its dead. Some passing thought of the infamy and disgrace for which it had been reserved, may have struck the prisoner’s mind. Be that as it may, a change in his position making him conscious of a bar of light across his face, he looked up; and when he saw the glass his face flushed, and his right hand pushed the herbs away.

It happened, that the action turned his face to that side of the court which was on his left. About on a level with his eyes, there sat, in that corner of the Judge’s bench, two persons upon whom his look immediately rested; so immediately, and so much to the changing of his aspect, that all the eyes that were turned upon him, turned to them.

The spectators saw in the two figures, a young lady of little more than twenty, and a gentleman who was evidently her father; a man of a very remarkable appearance in respect of the absolute whiteness of his hair, and a certain indescribable intensity of face: not of an active kind, but pondering and self-communing. When this expression was upon him, he looked as if he were old; but when it was stirred and broken up—as it was now, in a moment, on his speaking to his daughter—he became a handsome man, not past the prime of life.

His daughter had one of her hands drawn through his arm, as she sat by him, and the other pressed upon it. She had drawn close to him, in her dread of the scene, and in her pity for the prisoner. Her forehead had been strikingly expressive of an engrossing terror and compassion that saw nothing but the peril of the accused. This had been so very noticeable, so very powerfully and naturally shown, that starers who had had no pity for him were touched by her; and the whisper went about, “Who are they?”

Jerry, the messenger, who had made his own observations, in his own manner, and who had been sucking the rust off his fingers in his absorption, stretched his neck to hear who they were. The crowd about him had pressed and passed the inquiry on to the nearest attendant, and from him it had been more slowly pressed and passed back; at last it got to Jerry:

“Witnesses.”

“For which side?”

“Against.”

“Against what side?”

“The prisoner’s.”

The Judge, whose eyes had gone in the general direction, recalled them, leaned back in his seat, and looked steadily at the man whose life was in his hand, as Mr. Attorney-General rose to spin the rope, grind the axe, and hammer the nails into the scaffold.

[esonetwork]

'Disturbing The Peace' Review By Ron Fortier

New Post has been published on http://esonetwork.com/disturbing-the-peace-review-by-ron-fortier/

'Disturbing The Peace' Review By Ron Fortier

DISTURBING THE PEACE A Jeremiah Halstead Western By Terrence McCauley Pinnacle Western 325 pgs

Coming on the heels of the first Jeremiah Halstead western, “Blood on Trail,” this new book has the young U.S. Deputy Marshal traveling into northern Montana on the trail of the outlaw Ed Zimmerman. After Hastead had wiped out his gang and stronghold, Zimmerman managed to escape to hills and mining camps where he hoped to ally himself with another vicious killer, one Rob Brunet. Zimmerman has come up with an elaborate scheme that goes beyond simple robbery. He plans on using the stolen loot he, Brunet, and the gang of outlaws they recruit, to buy a small town.. Hard Scrabble is on its last leg economically and as the story opens, the majority of its citizens have moved to the newly established township of Battle Brook.

Of course, Halstead and his fellow deputy, young Jerry Sandborne, have no inclination of the outlaw’s grand scheme. Their simple directive from Marshal Aaron Mackey is to find and apprehend Zimmerman and Brunet and bring them to justice; dear or alive. Once again, McCauley establishes his plot fast and keeps the action moving smoothly. Along the journey, Halstead makes friends with Battle Brooks veteran lawman, Marshal McBride, who quickly becomes a valuable source of information. He also crosses paths with Abigail Newman, a newly arrived school teacher and almost instantly the sparks fly between them as both become enamored of each other. All of which is both an exciting and frightening experience for Halstead. Exciting in that this beautiful, intelligent young woman has taken a genuine fancy to him; frightened because as she becomes someone dear to him she also becomes a vulnerability. Were Zimmerman to learn of his affection for her, he would have no remorse in using her as a pawn in his game of destroying the deadly Halstead.

“Disturbing the Peace” once again adds validity to the fact that Terrence McCauley is one of the finest new Western writers on the paperback scene today. First, we had his wonderful Aaron McCkey trilogy and now he’s back with this spin-off series proving to be just as much fun as the first. Honestly, saddle pards, waiting for the next Halstead tale will be damn tough.

[legalanupamthapa]

VALHALLA INN MANAGER RELEASED FROM JAIL ON $500 NO DEPOSIT BAIL

A 45 year old DILAWAR SINGH NINDRA appeared by Zoom from the Thunder Bay Jail today, Tuesday October 26, 2021 before His Worship, Justice of the Peace Jerry Woods.

TBPS MEDIA RLATIONS COORDINATOR SCOTT PARADIS STILL REFUSING TO TELL THE PUBLIC

NINDRA was released on a $500 no deposit bail with conditions:

-passport to be handed to Thunder Bay Police -do not apply for new passport -attend the Valhalla Inn only once to get his belongings -no contact with victim -reside at Super 8 Hotel on Kingston Road in Scarborough NINDRA was released with a future court date of December 10,2021

Local taxpayer subsidized media are still refusing to tell the public about this

READ THE INSIDE EDITION ORIGINAL STORY BELOW

Below Please Rate and Share this story To help us learn what is important to you 

The views expressed in this article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Lake Superior News / Lake Superior Media.

Appointed by Thunder Bay City Council Ken Boshcoff and councillor Shelby Ch'ng Citizen Empty Appointed by the Province Karen Machado No Appointment No decision-making powers Malcolm Mercer appointed by the Province oversees the TBPS. And a new arms-length Human Rights/Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Unit within the force. The citizen of Thunder Bay fund the Board but made no decisions.

[lwandilebhengublog]

VALHALLA INN MANAGER RELEASED FROM JAIL ON $500 NO DEPOSIT BAIL

 A 45 year old DILAWAR SINGH NINDRA appeared by Zoom from the Thunder Bay Jail today, Tuesday October 26, 2021 before His Worship, Justice of the Peace Jerry Woods.

TBPS MEDIA RLATIONS COORDINATOR SCOTT PARADIS STILL REFUSING TO TELL THE PUBLIC

NINDRA was released on a $500 no deposit bail with conditions:

-passport to be handed to Thunder Bay Police

-do not apply for new passport

-attend the Valhalla Inn only once to get his belongings

-no contact with victim

-reside at Super 8 Hotel on Kingston Road in Scarborough

NINDRA was released with a future court date of December 10,2021

Local taxpayer subsidized media  are still refusing to tell the public about this

READ THE INSIDE EDITION ORIGINAL STORY BELOW

Below Please Rate and Share this story To help us learn what is important to you

The views expressed in this article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by Lake Superior News / Lake Superior Media.

Appointed by Thunder Bay City Council Ken Boshcoff  and councillor Shelby Ch'ng Citizen Empty  Appointed by the Province Karen Machado No Appointment No decision-making powers Malcolm Mercer appointed by the Province oversees the TBPS. And a new arms-length Human Rights/Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Unit within the force. The citizen of Thunder Bay fund the Board but made no decisions. 

[garudabluffs]

The Secret Plan to Break the “Independent Spirit” of the Supreme Court Revealed May 18, 2023

Hamilton and the other Framers envisioned a Supreme Court that was immune to public opinion, the arguments of presidents and senators, and great wealth alike - but today's GOP has a different plan…

"Republicans were burned again when Jerry Ford nominated John Paul Stevens to the Court in 1975.

Stevens was a lifelong Republican; was functionally the lead prosecutor for the Greenberg Commission which removed two corrupt justices from the Illinois Supreme Court; voted as an Appeals Court judge to reinstate capital punishment and against affirmative action; and was seen as so business-friendly that the former president of Bell & Howell, then Republican US Senator Charles H. Percy, proudly put his name into nomination for the high court.

But once Stevens experienced the “independent spirit” Hamilton referenced, he became one of the Court’s most outspoken liberals. His dissent in Citizens United is must-reading today as he predicted all the corruption we’ve since seen; he wrote the opinion in Wallace v. Jaffree striking down school prayer; and he voted to legalize pornography under the rubric of free speech."

After four “conservatives” on the Court disappointed Republicans, the billionaires who fund the conservative movement set out to make sure it would never happen again, Alexander Hamilton be damned.

Wealthy donors poured millions into the Federalist Society and other groups to select, groom, and maintain the rightwing purity of future nominees. Once in office, gifts, trips, speaking fees, lavish vacations, and regular visits to the mansions and estates of high-profile billionaires became staples of Republican justices.

READ MORE https://hartmannreport.com/p/the-secret-plan-to-break-the-independent

5 Comments

[artpoint420]

Presenting: My Captain Underpants “Lives of AU” on Tumblr! (Part 1)

Here’s the characters!

Harold: A fun-loving creative boy with too much trauma to unpack in one fic.

George: The supportive and equally creative best friend who has his own problems.

Mr. Krupp: A passive-agressive repressed creative who became an elementary school principal before even knew it... and has mommy issues and several untreated mental illnesses, including D.I.D.

Captain Underpants (who will go by Cap): Krupp’s altar ego that gives him a way to show his care and affection for his students without fear of becoming a pushover. A result of hypnosis triggering Krupp’s D.I.D. he deals with harsh existentialism once he’s separated from Krupp.

Edith the Lunchlady: A shy lady with a passion for “cooking” who likes Krupp but... she has a secret.

Mr. Meaner: A man who walked into his position shy but soon became the most lively teacher, geniunely enjoying birthdays, school parties, and holidays as the keep him from feeling like he’s in the middle of a midlife crisis. Oh, and he likes to be an auctioneer on the side!

Grace Hutchins: Harold’s mother who was pushed by her husband’s drunken temper to divorce him and develops a broken psyche treated with terrible coping mechanisms which only begins to heal after Harold was traumatized by the creep at the gas station.

Herbert Hutchins: The black hearted loser who can’t even play in his own band, because no one likes a wife beater.. no one. But, who knows, maybe there’s an ounce of love in him.

Jerry “Senor” Citizen: The “spanish” teacher who learns spanish along with the students after faking his credentials out of desperation to get a job and stay off the streets after being kicked out of his family’s home.

Georgia and Gary Beard: George’s hard-working mother and father. Nuclear families are perfect, aren’t they...... aren’t they?

Drop questions if you have them :)

Read the stories on my AO3!

[thespeedyreader]

Black Lives Matter: A (By No Means Complete) Reading List

“Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are a reflection. Books change your mind.” - Toni Morrison

It has always been, and always will be, vital to educate ourselves on the world around us. In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, I hope that this blog can become a platform for sharing resources on black history and literature, in a conscious effort to educate both ourselves and those around us. It is our duty to continue to amplify the voices of people of colour, because it is through education that we can make lasting changes in the world.

Here you will find a list of books and essays by authors of colour, and which speak about the experiences of people of colour everywhere. By committing to read even one of these books, you are expanding your consciousness of the lives around you, and giving people of colour a voice.

(Please reblog with your own book recommendations - keep the chain going!)

Classic Fiction

The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison

Beloved - Toni Morrison

Another Country - James Baldwin

Go Tell It on the Mountain - James Baldwin

The Colour Purple - Alice Walker

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys

Kindred - Octavia E. Butler

The Lonely Londoners - Sam Selvon

Small Island - Andrew Levy

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Contemporary Fiction

Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo

An Orchestra of Minorities - Chigozie Obioma

White Teeth - Zadie Smith

Red at the Bone - Jacqueline Woodson

An American Marriage - Tayari Jones

Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams

A Brief History of Seven Killings - Marlon James

Black Leopard Red Wolf - Marlon James

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong

The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett

Sorry To Disrupt the Peace - Patty Yumi Cottrell

Freshwater - Akwaeke Emezi

The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin

My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours - Helen Oyeyemi

Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi

The Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead

The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead

The Girl With the Louding Voice - Abi Daré

We Cast a Shadow - Maurice Carlos Ruffin

Washington Black - Esi Edugyan

The Black Flamingo - Dean Atta

Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson 

The Icarus Girl - Helen Oyeyemi 

Poetry, Theatre and Graphic Novels

A Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry

Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankine

Night Sky With Exit Wounds - Ocean Vuong

I Am Alfonso Jones - Tony Medina, illustrated by Stacey Robinson & John Jennings

Your Black Friend and Other Strangers - Ben Passmore

Say Her Name - Zetta Elliot, illustrated by Loveis Wise

Silencer - Marcus Wicker

Don’t Call Us Dead - Danez Smith

How ro Be Drawn - Terrence Hayes

The Black Unicorn - Audre Lorde

Coal - Audre Lorde

Passion - June Jordan

Children’s/YA Fiction

Children of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

Akata Witch - Nnedi Okorafor

Binti - Nnedi Okorafor

You Should See Me in a Crown - Leah Johnson

With the Fire on High - Elizabeth Acevedo

Refugee Boy - Benjamin Zephaniah

Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X - Ilyasah Shabazz

Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness - Anastasia Higginbotham

A Is for Activist - Innosanto Nagara

New Kid - Jerry Craft

This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work - Tiffany Jewell

Non-Fiction and Autobiography

The Miner's Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy - Lani Guiner

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

Me and White Supremacy: How to Recognise Your Privilege, Combat Racism and Change the World - Layla F Saad

Don’t Touch My Hair - Emma Dabiri

Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging - Afua Hirsch

The Good Immigrant - Nikesh Shukla

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge (available for free on Yorsearch)

The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander (available for free on Yorsearch)

Sister Outsider - Audre Lorde

So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo

The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism - Robin DiAngelo

Divided Sisters: Bridging the Gap Between Black Women and White Women - Midge Wilson & Kathy Russell

They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement - Wesley Lowery

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America - James Foreman Jr.

The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir - Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower - Brittney Cooper

Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race - Debby Irving

The Hidden Rules of Race: Barriers to an Inclusive Economy - Andrea Flynn, Susan R. Holmberg, Dorian T. Warren, & Felicia J. Wong

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race - Beverly Daniel Tatum

How to Be Anti-Racist - Ibrahim X. Kendi

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Rev. Moon, President Nixon and a Green Card

iF Magazine    *   May-June 1998

Rev. Moon, President Nixon and a Green Card

Rev. Sun Myung Moon received his status as a U.S. “lawful permanent resident” – his valuable “green card” 25 years ago, during President Nixon’s administration, according to a Justice Department document released under a Freedom of Information Act request.

In a letter dated April 7, 1975, James F. Greene, then deputy commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS, listed the date when Moon obtained his “green card” as April 30, 1973. But it was unclear from the letter whether Moon received any preferential treatment from the Nixon administration.

By 1973, Moon already was drawing public criticism for engaging in alleged brainwashing of impressionable young Americans. Moon was causing concerns, too, within the INS by bringing hundreds of foreign followers to the United States on tourist visas and then assigning them to mobile fund-raising teams.

But Moon also was making himself useful to the Nixon administration by organizing support for the Vietnam War and later for Nixon’s defense against the Watergate scandal. Moon’s pro-Nixon activities led to a Face-to-face White House meeting between the South Korean theocrat and the besieged U.S. president on Feb. 1, 1974.

According to a 1978 congressional investigative report on the so-called Koreagate influence-buying scandal, “Moon had laid the foundation for political work in this country prior to 1973 [though] his followers became more openly involved in political activities in that and subsequent years.” The report added that Moon’s organization used his followers’ international travels to smuggle large sums of money into the United States in violation of federal currency laws.

That flow of money helped make Moon possibly the U.S. conservative movement’s most important source of financial support. Since the 1970s, Moon has poured billions of dollars into conservative causes, including an estimated $100 million a year to subsidize the daily Washington Times newspaper. Moon’s organization also funnelled money to many conservative political figures, from the Rev. Jerry Falwell to former President George Bush. [For details, see iF Magazine, Sept.-Oct., Nov.-Dec. 1997 and Jan.-Feb. 1998]

According to other Justice Department records recently released under FOIA. requests. Moon’s legal alien status has protected him and his movement from government investigations into their sources of money and other legal questions. But Moon never became a U.S. citizen.

Two years ago, Moon denounced the United States as “Satan’s harvest” and moved his base of operation to South America. Still, according to U.S. officials, Moon has not renounced his “green card.”

RP

iF Magazine = International Focus Magazine, Houston, TX

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United States Congressional investigation of Moon’s organization ___________________________________

Because of complaints about the Unification Church’s interest in politics, and its emphasis on fund raising, various Federal, state and local government agencies have begun questioning its claims as a religious movement. The Internal Revenue Service has not taken action against it—on complaints about its $10 million income-tax exemption—but the U.S. Immigration Service has—ordering the deportation of 600 Moonies, mostly from Japan, for illegal soliciting. Their visas had been granted for “religious education and training.” But the Immigration official in charge of the case subsequently found little evidence of formal religious education: “As nearly as we can determine, their ‘training’ consists of soliciting funds and selling some items.”

Full story:

The Pull of Sun Moon. 1976

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All these Unification Church members were killed while fundraising for Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han

Montreal girl dies fundraising for the Unification Church