#meanwhile neal was corrupted right back

[gonnadosomethingwmylife]

I wonder if it haunts Peter that Neal did worse criminal acts for him and the FBI than he ever did as thief

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT 3X18 - Bleeding Through

If you don’t like Cora, then I’d recommend you EVA-cuate before this review begins!

...Fuck what you say! I’m proud of that one!

Anyway, the review is under the cut!

Press Release

After Zelena steals Regina’s heart, Regina casts a spell so that she can speak across the realms to her dead mother, Cora, to discover the truth about why she abandoned Zelena, and Belle stumbles across what Zelena’s ultimate end game is. Meanwhile, in the Fairy Tale Land that was, young Cora is duped by a man claiming to be a prince and finds herself alone and pregnant. But a chance meeting with a real prince could lead Cora to the royal life she’s always craved, but she must keep her pregnancy a secret or risk losing everything.

Main Thoughts - Characters/Stories/Themes and Their Effectiveness

Past

The Cora insight in this episode is so great. Like we really see how a woman with ambitions of royalty, but still a level head becomes someone so driven like the Cora who abused Regina so she’d become royalty. ”Revenge is a long-term plan.” I like how even in an episode that is more-or-less leaning towards sympathizing with Cora, there are nuggets of her darker side wedged in there. It really helps balance the story and remind the audience that yeah, this is Cora. There was always that darkness to her, even while she still had her heart.

Everything in this flashback also completely recontextualizes what happened with her and Regina and Daniel’s relationship. Like, of course a love with a commoner would leave Cora just a bit apprehensive. That’s not to excuse her for SHIT, but I do this it’s important to point out nonetheless.

Present

It’s weird that we don’t really reach the meat of this story until the halfway mark. Everything beforehand is more setup than anything and it’s unlike most every other episode in that regard. The closest comparison that I can think of is “Coming Home” which spent its last fifteen minutes as an epilogue.

I compared the Regina/Zelena/Cora conflict to the Snow/Regina/Cora conflict in the past, and I guess now’s as good of a time as any to unpack that. Just like how Snow did something that hurt Regina without meaning to at all, so did Regina to Zelena. Both Snow and Regina in their respective situations were innocents and so were Regina and Zelena victims of Cora. So, is there a point to pointing this out rather than to just say that it exists? Well, I think the latter instance shows the only good way that a complicated issue like this can be resolved: communication and understanding. Snow and Regina grasp this about each other and finally, this is where the bulk of their issues are put to bed. While Snow’s divulgence of her secret comes out, it’s going forward played for laughs in the instance of a corrupted state or as a “what if.”

But ANYWAY, that aside, the Snow/Regina dynamics sits at the heart of the present segment’s story. It’s hinted at early on and blossoms from the end of the failed seance onward. Snow’s apologies to Regina throughout the episode allows for these two women to finally confront the complicated nature of their run-ins with Cora. Cora was a bad person who in the end, got what she deserved, but the mess she left behind wasn’t deserved by those with whom she left it.

All Encompassing

THAT ALL HAVING BEEN SAID, ”She didn’t want to give up Zelena. She was forced to by my mother.” Everything Snow recounts about her possession is utter BULLSHIT and makes me think she has no comprehension skills! To put it bluntly, that aspect of the ending fucking sucks! This would be one thing if this were a few episodes ago, but she’s contradicting things that have and will be in mere minutes literally clarified. Cora DID willingly give up Zelena and all Eva had to do with it was making sure Leopold wasn’t swept up by it. THAT is why “My best chance” is the swerve of a line that it is, because it’s a mother giving up her child to die in the woods with absolutely no remorse! Because of all that, the moment where Snow “exposits” about the present ends up as the weirdest story hole that paints everyone involved in such an unnecessarily weird light. This is either the result of the writers not communicating with each other about the framing or the framing being flat-out wrong. Like, they’re trying to make this a more complicated issue, but are going in the reverse order of things! How did they fuck this moment up so badly?! If they wanted to do that, Eva should’ve been shown in the episode to be a lot more malicious than she was instead of exposing a liar. The actions should’ve been worse, but I’m more on Eva’s side than Cora’s. OR FUCK! LEOPOLD has a giant ass hatedom and he was the one who proposed to someone he was roughly four times older than! Make HIM the baddie! Have him outright reject her for the pregnancy and kick her out, no lie attached. That way, you get to keep the message the same, but give that assholery to someone who deserves it. Just...this element that makes up the moral center of the story is utter GARBAGE here, and it’s so sad given how well set up everything else was. Eva’s move was only douchey if you remove the fact that Cora was keeping such a big secret!

Insights - Stream of Consciousness

-”Red apples are so sickly sweet. Don’t you agree?”That must be an Enchanted Forest thing, because not in our realm, or at least not compared to Granny Smiths!

-Okay, Zelena’s plan to get Regina’s heart was sinister and ingenious as fuck!

-The way Roland just drops the firewood in his hands upon seeing Rumple is so fucking adorable! #bestcharacter

-Aww! Regina’s first thought when she loses her heart is to ask if anyone was hurt!! <3

-I love the background music in the flashback’s first scene. It’s so bouncy and peppy and just makes me smile!

-Jonathan’s such a sneaky asshole-ish fuck. He has his seduction of Cora down to a freakin’ science!

-”I’ll turn this ring into gold.” Bitch, she’ll do it herself!

-”Can you please tell your mother that we’re not naming your brother Leopold?” Yes! Please don’t!

-”Eva might not work for a boy.” Edwin?

-The Dark Vortex is hands down the silliest thing this show has ever done and I kind of love it.

-”Oh don’t be jealous.” ...This line was said from Zelena to one of her monkeys. Do her monkeys have crushes on her?

-I like the explanation for why they don’t use the seance more. I am curious though, do you think people who have moved on can be communicated with? Like, if Neal were killed with an actual weapon and Zelena were present for it, would he have been able to be summoned?

-FUCK YOU, JONATHAN!

-”Good luck finding me.” Why? You’re a gardener. You’re pretty easy to find. ...Okay, so you’re just gonna run away from your job? ...You are such a loser.

-Hey! Pre-scummy Leopold! Decent to see you!

-Jeez. Hearing Emma talk about how powerful her magic is hurts! Damnit!

-”I’m not in the mood for a heart-to-heart.” “I’m not sure that’s physically possible right now.” XD That’s an underrated joke and Regina’s chuckle was well earned!

-”You can help with the teacups.” Why is it that teacups are this show’s equivalent of being soft and cute?!

-I love how you can see how freakin’ amazed young Leopold is when Cora takes his knife to make the fire.

-The way Emma says “Boom!” is sooooo cute! She’s so excited and I want that as my fucking text tone! <3

-...I love how Belle for once gets to interrupt someone at Granny’s. This is ending up as the best Belle episode ever and she’s not even the main!

-”You should have a woman dress you more often.” I can’t say that I disagree.

-”Why a heart? Why courage? Why a brain?” Do you think Zelena knows that there’s not only a book series, but a classic movie based around these things?!

-”My son is not lost. He’s dead.” Don’t remind me!

-Haunted house! Why are there so many Halloween episodes that have fuck all to do with Halloween?!

-I love how the possession blends into the next flashback scene! That was COOL storytelling!

-...I know Rumple’s playing her, but damnit, the dude’s dashing as fuck. If I were Zelena, I’d have fallen for him too.

-Damn! Zelena’s touch starved! Have a listen to those gasps!

-”And he said I have a tough placenta, which somehow came out creepy.” Yup, that’s Whale for you.

Arcs - How Are These Storylines Progressing?

The Wicked Witch - So we now have Zelena’s plan and I while I stand by what I said in my “It’s Not Easy Being Green” review in saying that it’s kind of pointless going back in time when Cora only wants a child that will grow up to be royalty, the process of how she time travels is nonetheless a good one and Zelena’s the kind of character who is both cocky and talented enough to make it happen.

Regina’s Redemption - We get so much of Regina’s Redemption in this episode and once again, it’s all just spectacular! “If she wants to kill you, she’s gonna have to go through me.” Like, Regina’s not only defending someone who she used to HATE, BUT is freely standing up to her mother. That’s so impressive!

Killian’s Redemption - I think it’s a big show of how much Killian has grown as a character that while not romantically pursuing Emma, he’s still doing everything he can to help the cause while he comes up with another plan. He’s definitely in a complicated spot here and not telling Emma is definitely a mistake, but for his current situation, he’s doing what he can to ensure everyone’s safety.

Rumple’s Redemption - Rumple made a really impressive stride here. Just as much as Rumple mourns for Bae’s loss, he wants to honor the sacrifice he made and thus refuses to resurrect him at the cost of invalidating that sacrifice. Look, Rumple has a tendency to put his needs above others, but with Bae, he will never do that again.

Favorite Dynamic

Belle and Regina. Let’s talk about that apology scene and how good it is. I like how at the start of it, Regina does what she did with the Lost Boys and points how how them working together could benefit them both, but upon seeing that that won’t work (Or that it will, but Belle deserves better), she gives a real apology. And I like how Belle, while working with her, doesn’t necessarily accept it. It’s also a good moment in that it gives Belle a voice as she gets to react to things and get angry, and as Belle isn’t often granted that by the writing staff, I think it’s something that makes those moments stick out more.

Writer

Jane Espenson and Daniel Thomsen finish out their work for the season here, and they were doing such a good job...but then they fucked it up! Like, the mistake was easy to fix. Either make Eva do something FAR more villainous than convince Leo to test Cora or axe the “my mom was evil too” angle. But by not going all in on one or the other, you lose the center of your story, and that’s exactly what happened here.

Rating

8/10. Not gonna lie. That 8 comes solely from the ending resolution on Eva and Cora. That lack of understanding of what your own narrative was saying is so shocking and appalling to me that I had to take off more than just one point for it. The rest of the story -- both of them -- are so good. How did they not stick the landing? I feel like they were trying so hard to make Cora more complicated that they neglected Eva in the process.

Flip My Ship - The Home of All Things “Shippy Goodness”

Captain Swan - This is such a weird moment to love as a CS fan, but I still do. Emma’s finally opening up herself more to Killian and Killian can’t do the same, but Emma’s still trying and she’s trying fairly hard! Also, I want to know how that conversation would’ve gone had Belle not stepped in! Would Emma have gotten the truth out of Killian? Would there have been cuddles? It’s anyone’s guess!

Golden Heart - Just gonna point out that when Cora finally showed up, it was in by a spinning wheel of all things!

Outlaw Queen - I like the present buildup to Robin and Regina getting together. Regina’s softness and understanding of them being soulmates on top of their chemistry really helped the expedition of their romance work. Robin’s subdued presence alongside Regina and Snow’s conversation about her resilient heart really helped their kiss come together.

-----

Hey guys!! Thank you all for reading and to those fine and fabulous folks at @watchingfairytales for birthing this project! Also tagging the marvelous @daensarah by request! Love you all and I’ll see you all next time!

Season 3 Total (169/220)

Writer’s Scores: Adam and Eddy (39/60) Kalinda Vazquez (26/40) Andrew Chambliss (34/50) Jane Espenson (28/30)* David Goodman (29/40) Robert Hull (30/40) Christine Boylan (20/20)* Daniel Thomsen (28/30)*

* Indicates that their work for the season is complete

Links to the rest of my rewatch will no longer be provided. They take posts with links outside of searches and I spend way too much time on these reviews to not give them that kind of exposure. Sorry for the inconvenience, but they still can be found on my page under Operation Rewatch.

[tomeandflickcorner]

OUAT Episode Analysis- Beauty

I’m gonna shake things up a bit this time around and focus on the present day stuff in Hyperion Heights first. The reason for that is because once I start talking about the flashback portion of the episode, I probably won’t be able to switch gears again very easily.  In a related story, consider this my disclaimer for this episode analysis: If you were among those who liked this episode and would rather not read something that could dampen your enjoyment of what befell the characters, then it’s okay if you skip over this one.  You won’t hurt my feelings if you decide not to read any further than this.  The last thing I want to do is to ruin things for the fans of the show who found this episode to be moving.

It’s Halloween in Hyperion Heights. But because Victoria/Parallel Evil Stepmother is a petty b-word and a sore loser after Jacinda/Parallel Cinder managed to save the Community Gardens, she has forbidden her from taking Lucy trick-or-treating.  Instead, the stepsister Ivy/Drizella is charged with taking Lucy around on her candy-gathering outing.  Of course, Ivy is not the least bit happy about this and is only consenting because she isn’t willing to stand up to her mother and just does whatever she’s told. So when they’re out trick-or-treating, Ivy doesn’t pay much attention to Lucy, or her desire to visit this haunted house in the area. Instead, she spends the time complaining that she’s stuck watching Lucy when she could have been at some Halloween party.  Lucy eventually gets sick of this and gives Ivy the slip, bribing a girl dressed like Elsa to masquerade as her for a bit. And because Ivy is focused on her phone, she doesn’t notice the switch until the Elsa girl speaks.

Ivy, desperate to find Lucy to avoid getting in trouble with her mother, is forced to head to the fried chicken restaurant where Jacinda works.  Unfortunately, she arrives just as Henry was working up the courage to ask Jacinda out on a date.   There was a scene earlier when he was at Roni/Regina’s bar, in which Henry was telling Roni/Regina about finding what he believes to be the graves of his wife and daughter and Roni/Regina gave him a pep-talk about putting old ghosts to rest and taking a chance at finding love again.  When Jacinda hears that Lucy ran off on Ivy, she’s fully prepared to just up and leave work.  But Henry, knowing that Jacinda would lose her job if she did so, offers to go and look for Lucy for her.  He even gives her his phone number so she could text him ideas of where Lucy might go. And again, while this was probably the best option as Jacinda really couldn’t afford to be fired from her job, I still feel she should quit that job and go work at Roni/Regina’s bar.  I just really want that jerk of a boss to get knocked down a few pegs.

Eventually, night falls, but Lucy still hasn’t been found.  That’s when Henry and Ivy have a heart-to-heart about not being afraid to take a chance and just live your life to the best of your ability or something like that.  Anyway, it does the trick and Ivy relents, accepting Henry’s help by checking Jacinda’s list of places where Lucy might have gone.  This leads them to determining that Lucy is at the Haunted House. Though why Ivy didn’t think of trying the Haunted House earlier is beyond me, as it was clear she’d heard the girl talking about it.  So Lucy is returned to Jacinda safely, and Ivy, possibly taking the first step towards redemption, allows Jacinda to be with Lucy for the remaining hour of trick-or-treating, announcing that she’ll deal with Victoria’s wrath.   Henry is even invited to accompany the pair, though he chickens out when it comes to actually asking Jacinda out.  Which is a bit of a shame, but at least there are steps being made.

Meanwhile, in Suplot B, New Alice/Tilly is seemingly going off the rails and ends up harassing Victoria in her car.  This results in her getting maced, which was not undeserved.  Unfortunately, New Alice/Tilly leaves behind her backpack, which Victoria proceeds to check.  Inside, she finds an untouched bottle of prescription medication, along with Detective Weaver’s business card.  Concluding that New Alice/Tilly has some connection to Weaver, she calls him in and pretty much instructs him to control the girl or she will make sure some tapes will be leaked to the public.  From what I can gather, Victoria has dirt on Weaver that will expose him as a dirty, corrupt cop.  As horrible as it may sound, I get a fiendish delight at seeing Rumpelstiltskin get a taste of his own medicine and being on the receiving end of blackmail and manipulation.

Either way, Weaver tracks New Alice/Tilly down and tries to convince her to take her pills, as the story is that she’s mentally unstable and the pills keep her focused.  But it’s heavily implied that what the pills actually do is keep New Alice/Tilly from remembering who she is.  And when she stops taking them, her true memories start to resurface.  New Alice/Tilly becomes adamant about proving to Weaver that what she’s saying is true and insists that he go with her to some warehouse.  Though she really could have been more convincing if she refrained from talking nonsensically and using what I guess were supposed to be Wonderland metaphors.  Weaver seems to humor her at first, but he ends up tricking her into eating a sandwich laced with her pills.  Upon discovering the deception, New Alice/Tilly goes ballistic, knowing that she’s now going to fall back asleep again.  In desperation, she jumps out of the moving vehicle and runs toward the warehouse, forcing Weaver to follow her.  Inside the warehouse is the iconic chipped teacup, which was also brought over by the new curse.  New Alice/Tilly shows him the teacup in an effort to make him remember who he really is. Because apparently, my earlier prediction is once again wrong and Weaver really wasn’t awake.  Which seems really lame now, as we all SAW the expression he got on his face when he first saw Detective Rogers.  Why have him display that expression if he didn’t recognize Rogers?

Anyway, Weaver doesn’t recognize the chipped teacup, which leads to New Alice/Tilly shooting him in desperation. Because apparently, this is what Rumpelstiltskin instructed her to do before this new curse took them to Hyperion Heights.  Of course, Weaver/Rumpelstiltskin is still the Dark One and therefore immortal.  So even though the bullet goes right through him, he survives.  And when he wakes up later in the hospital, it’s strongly implied that he’s finally woken up.  Especially when he characteristically calls Victoria ‘dearie.’  As such, he informs Detective Rogers that he has no intention of pressing charges on Tilly, since he now remembers that she was following his orders.  So now, Rumpelstiltskin is fully awake.  Which makes me very nervous about what he’s going to get up to.

We also get this small moment when Detective Rogers talks with Tilly (who has once again forgotten that she’s New Alice due to the pills fully taking hold) in the waiting room.  He assures her that she’s not in trouble for shooting Weaver/Rumpelstiltskin, as she clearly wasn’t in her right mind at the time.  They then proceed to play a game of chess together.  Obviously, this could be a hint that New Alice is Wish Killian’s long-lost daughter, but I’m not 100% sure on that.  I think this might be a red herring.  If New Alice WAS Wish Killian’s daughter, wouldn’t she be more concerned with finding her father than trying to get Rumpelstiltskin to wake up?  And why would she knowingly align herself with her father’s arch enemy?  But who knows?  Maybe the writers aren’t trying to trick us.  I guess we’ll see what happens.

However, I am confused about one thing.  So these pills keep New Alice from remembering who she is.  But why is she the only one who seems to be issued these pills?  No one else seems to be on this medication.  The curse itself is what keeps them from remembering.  But with New Alice, they need the addition of these pills to keep her from remembering.  What makes Alice so different from the others?

All right.  I’ve put it off long enough.  Time to talk about the main focus of the episode- the Rumbelle flashback. It begins back in Storybrooke, where they’re setting up for Gideon’s first birthday.  And it appears they’ve invited all the Nevengers.  Though I am a bit surprised Rumpelstiltskin allowed Belle to invite Killian.  Or that Killian didn’t sneak a crocodile onto the cake that he and Emma brought to the party. I refuse to believe they ever completely let go of their blood feud.  Also, it’s kinda weird they still call Snow and Charming’s kid ‘Baby Neal.’  If Gideon is turning one, Neal should be around two by now.  I don’t know many people who call a toddler ‘baby.’

Regardless, before the party begins, Rumpelstiltskin announces his intention to grant Belle’s wish to travel the world.  So they end up leaving Storybrooke with Gideon and, I guess, travel to other realms.   After some time has passed, as evidenced by a brief glimpse of Gideon as a young boy, Rumpelstiltskin announces his intention of giving up the dagger for good.  Because he wants to live a natural life with Belle.  Which would be a nice gesture if not for one little detail. Rumpelstiltskin already HAD the chance to live a natural lifespan.  Back in the Dark Swan arc when he was given a magical reset complete with a bleached out heart.  But he took back the Dark One mantle the moment the opportunity presented itself. He even planned to take advantage of someone’s life sacrifice in order to do so.  So hearing him talk about giving up the dagger like this is really bizarre.  Of course, getting rid of the dagger is obviously easier said than done.  And this is made clear when it magically returns to his pocket after he tries dropping into a magical river.  So he and Belle start researching ways for him to be free from the dagger.  (Again, it’s a shame they didn’t think of this when Excalibur was still around.)

Their research apparently continues for a few years, as Gideon reaches the point when he’s accepted at what I gather is the Enchanted Forest equivalent of an Ivy League school.  And I admit, it’s cute to think that Gideon ended up to be as much as a bookworm as his mother.  (Let’s hope he didn’t inherent any choice traits from his father.)  Eventually, they find this weird prophecy.  “When the dark one finds eternal love at the sun’s brightest set where time stops, the path will appear to where the darkness will rest.“  Thinking this might be the key to how to give up the dagger for good, Rumpelstiltskin takes Belle to this pocket dimension that I guess runs on Narnia time.  You know, one of those realms that you could spend half a century in while only a second passes in your native world.  His reasoning is that the prophecy was referring to the setting of the sun in this dimension.

We then get this whole montage of Rumpelstiltskin and Belle building a life together in this new realm, even building a house from the ground up.  Which is a bit surprising.  I mean, this is Rumpelstiltskin we’re talking about.  He really helped build a house without using magic?  And this is the same guy who they implied never helped out around the house when he and Milah were still married.  Yeah, this is weird.  And a bit depressing when you remember he never made this kind of effort with poor Milah. Anyway, throughout this montage, which many people have compared to the famous UP montage, we see Belle slowly but surely growing older.   Until she reaches the point when she’s actually dying from old age.   It’s then that it’s revealed that she purposely misinterpret the prophecy, and had known all along that the ‘setting sun’ was referring to her death.  She goes on to explain how she knew that Rumpelstiltskin would have tried to find a way to defy the prophecy if he’d known, or would focus on the destination instead of the journey.  Something like that.  Of course, Rumpelstiltskin is upset, as he’s not ready to have Belle die and leave him. But Belle responds by reminding him of how he once let her go, back in the ‘Skin Deep’ flashback, and how she found a way back to him.  So she’s sure they’ll find each other again on the other side.  They even have the Beauty and the Beast theme playing during this part.  Now I appreciate the effort they made at trying to make this seem like a happy little love story.  I really do. The problem is that, in doing so, they completely gloss over everything Rumpelstiltskin did in Seasons 4 through 6.  The writers may have thought they were writing a rendition of Beauty and the Beast when they created this pairing.  But what they ultimately gave us was a corrupted version of the fairy tale, in which the Beast really was a horrible person whose redemption arc was virtually non-existent but still got the hero treatment in the end. Not to mention how he treated Belle Post S3.

Regardless, Belle ends up dying, with Rumpelstiltskin and Gideon burying her on the top of a hill in this Pocket Dimension.  It’s then that Rumpelstiltskin announces his knowledge about the existence of this random bloke called the Guardian.  And apparently, if Rumpelstiltskin gives the dagger to the Guardian, he’ll be automatically stripped of the Dark One mantle for good, which would allow him to die a natural death and reunite with Belle in the afterlife.

Okay, are you KIDDING ME? Where was this information about the Guardian during the Dark Swan arc?  Don’t you think we could have benefited from this back then?  Especially considering how desperate Emma was to be free of the Darkness, which she only took in in order to save everyone’s lives and souls. So let me get this straight. Emma, who only gave into the Darkness out of love, never actually did anything all that terrible, and didn’t kill a single person during her time as the Dark One had to kill her True Love and best friend to be free of the Darkness.  But for Rumpelstiltskin, a man who embraced the Darkness and tortured, killed and terrorized hundreds of people, sometimes just for fun?  All he has to do is hand the dagger over to some Joe Schmo and he’s automatically free?  Ugh, thank you show, for once again making the heroes bend over backwards while presenting happy endings to the villains on a silver platter.

Another thing that annoys me about the direction this episode went in?  What about Belle’s father?  And the people she developed friendships with?  People like Killian, Ruby, Anna, Ariel, Merida, Mulan, Leroy and Shady Blue?  Do they know Belle is dead?  Does ANYONE other than Rumpelstiltskin and Gideon know?  I seriously doubt it, because Belle apparently just decided to settle down with Rumpelstiltskin in some Pocket Dimension where she’d never see her father or friends ever again.  And she was apparently okay with that.  So in other words, the narrative is portraying Belle as someone whose happy ending involves having a life that revolves solely around a man, and never giving another thought to her family and friends again.  The thing that makes this even more aggravating is that this is exactly what the anti-CSers accuse OUR OTP of being. They constantly try to insist that CS ruined the show and how Emma had turned into a weak character who only cared about Killian and neglected her parents and son.  Even though the narrative showed Killian actively encouraging Emma to maintain a connection with Snowing and supported her relationship with Henry. While I make an effort to avoid the anti-CS blogs for obvious reasons, I’m willing to wager that they’re not waving their ‘anti-feminist’ flags after this episode.

I know I should talk about the scene when Rumpelstiltskin began his quest to locate the Guardian, which led to him running into New Alice and them joining forces, but considering I’m a bit enraged right now, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to settle for me mentioning it.  Although there was also a brief glimpse of Adult Henry riding by on his motorcycle, which I’m guessing is the show’s attempt at placing the time of Rumpelstiltskin and New Alice’s first meeting around the time when Henry first met Parallel Cinder.  Which I admit was a nice touch.  Though I do wonder why Henry didn’t stop and say hello.  Granted he was passing by rather quickly.  But you would think he would have done a double-take upon seeing Rumpelstiltskin standing there at the side of the road.  Especially since Henry always seemed to continue to acknowledge the man as his grandfather, despite having more than enough reasons to simply disown him.

(Click here to read more Episode Analyses)

[cbilluminati]

Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way. Here’s all the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017.

RICK AND MORTY: POCKET LIKE YOU STOLE IT #1

Retail cover illustrated by Marc Ellerby with Katy Farina

Alternate cover illustrated by Carolyn Main

(W) Tini Howard

(A) Marc Ellerby

(C) Katy Farina

(CA) Marc Ellerby with Katy Farina (retail cover), Carolyn Main (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Rick and Morty: Pocket Like You Stole It is a new comic book miniseries based on the popular [adult swim] television series and inspired by the Pocket Mortys mobile game! In this five-issue series, Morty is on a quest to free himself (and all the other Mortys) from the clutches of Ricks, who collect Mortys and force them to battle one another for schmeckles and glory. Along the way, he’ll discover the grisly history of Morty battling, the dastardly lengths that Ricks are willing to stoop to in order to win, and perhaps… the strength in himself that’s needed to free the Mortys once and for all?

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KILL THEM ALL

(W/A/CA) Kyle Starks

(C/CA) Luigi Anderson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 9/4/17

IN STORES: 9/27/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Humor, Adventure

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 184

The new gonzo graphic novel love letter to 90s action movies by Eisner-nominated cartoonist Kyle Starks (Sexcastle, Rick and Morty).

A betrayed murderess wants revenge. A hard-drinking former cop wants his job back. For either to get what they want, they’re going to have to fight their way through fifteen flights of criminals, assassins, drug lords, murderers, yup, even accountants, and… KILL. THEM. ALL.

KAIJUMAX SEASON 3 #1

(W/A/C/CA) Zander Cannon

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

New season! New jumping-on point! Ah, Kaijumax Prison… that cesspool of corruption in the South Pacific! Tensions among the city-destroying convicts have eased after a month-long lockdown and Electrogor’s capture, and now the kaiju gangs have begun vying for power again, all-out-attacking their rivals, trading addictive smog and dioxin, and abusing weaker inmates. The Creature from Devil’s Creek, after a long time as the low mon in the Cryptid hierarchy, stumbles upon some information that makes him think it doesn’t have to be like this. Also: Mind-controlled murders! Pre-smartphone navigation fails! And… some VERY old timey religion?

THE DAMNED #3

(W) Cullen Bunn

(A/CA) Brian Hurtt

(C/CA) Bill Crabtree

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime, Fantasy

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Sketchy gambler Pauly Bones has slithered into Eddie’s life with an offer—together they can turn the tables on the demon crime families and finally get what they deserve. Eddie and Pauly can’t trust each other, though, and it’s only a matter of time before one double crosses the other. But with a new hired killer in town, they might both be dead before they can make their treacherous plays.

HEARTTHROB SEASON TWO #2

(W) Christopher Sebela

(A/CA) Robert Wilson IV

(C/CA) Nick Filardi

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and after spending the last several months avoiding her criminal past to try and build a normal life, Callie is fonder than ever. Forced to set her normal existence aside and break her anarchist pals out of a Canadian jail, Callie finds herself head over heels for her old life. When this one-time dalliance threatens to turn into a full-blown crime spree, Callie turns to the only person who will understand: Mercer.

LETTER 44 #35

(W) Charles Soule

(A/CA) Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque

(C) Dan Jackson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/26/17

IN STORES: 7/19/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

THE END IS HERE. The final installment that will bring the award-winning series to a close.

KIM REAPER #4

(W/A/C/CA) Sarah Graley

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Adventure

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Kim is suspended from her job as a Grim Reaper and is working in a bakery with Becka—a welcomed change of scenery, until a zombie rolls up to the counter. Animated corpses are the last straw, gosh darnit, so the pair decide to take matters into their own hands and venture down into the Underworld. And if they end up kicking some ghoulish booty on the way, that’s fine with them!

RICK AND MORTY #28

Retail cover illustrated by

CJ Cannon with Katy Farina

Alternate cover illustrated by

Jenn St-Onge

(W/A) Kyle Starks

(A) Andy Hirsch

(A/C) Marc Ellerby

(C) Katy Farina

(CA) CJ Cannon with Katy Farina (retail cover), Jenn St-Onge (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/3/17

IN STORES: 7/26/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

OH MY GOD IT’S INTERDIMENSIONAL CABLE TIME! Rick and Morty are wanted fugitives in an alien dimension, so until the heat dies down, there’s not much to do but watch interdimensional cable! Can you even believe it? A special one-shot issue drawn by writer Kyle Starks (with a special cameo by Andy Hirsch)! Meanwhile, Jerry learns a painful lesson in film history in this issue’s back-up comic drawn by Marc Ellerby!

#gallery-0-11 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-11 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-11 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-11 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

INVADER ZIM #22

Retail cover illustrated by Warren Wucinich with Fred C. Stresing

Alternate cover illustrated by

Jon Vermilyea

(W) Eric Trueheart

(A) Warren Wucinich

(C) Fred C. Stresing

(CA) Warren Wucinich (retail cover), Jon Vermilyea (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/3/17

IN STORES: 7/26/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

WELCOME TO ZIM’S GREATEST PLAN YET! Earth will soon be his! (Maybe!) Unfortunately, there’s something wrong with GIR—ASIDE from the usual list of things. For one, he’s intentionally trying to kill ZIM. And for two, he’s doing it at the worst possible times. Is ZIM’s greatest plan destined for failure (like it usually is)? Part one of a four-part story!

#gallery-0-12 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-12 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-12 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-12 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

REDLINE #5

(W) Neal Holman

(A/CA) Clayton McCormack

(C) Kelly Fitzpatrick

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Mature

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Everybody’s dead and everything basically sucks, so it’s a good time for Superintendent Coyle to start actually getting some leads into just whatever the hell is going on on Mars. Plus a robot armor guy fights a limousine. Plus some answers to questions you may have been wondering about. Plus shenanigans. HOOORAY!

INVADER ZIM, VOLUME 4

(W) Jhonen Vasquez, Eric Trueheart, Danielle Koenig, Aaron Alexovich

(A) Warren Wucinich, Aaron Alexovich

(C) Fred C. Stresing, Cassie Kelly

(CA) Warren Wucnich

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/10/17

IN STORES: 8/2/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 128

ZIM has plans to take over planet Earth. Schemes! Designs! Machinations! Uh… other words that mean “plans”! And in the fourth volume of the critically acclaimed comic series, these “plans” are plentiful, horrifying, and only half as terrible as usual!

From taking over a local restaurant to proving to Dib that he’s the master of fear, will rule the world, one way or another! Or not at all. Or only on Tuesdays? COLLECTS INVADER ZIM ISSUES 16-20!

JEFF STEINBERG: CHAMPION OF EARTH

(W) Joshua Hale Fialkov

(W/A/CA) Tony Fleecs

(C/CA) Luigi Anderson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/28/17

IN STORES: 9/20/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 176

Have you ever wondered what could have been if Kevin Smith directed Men in Black? Us either because that’s kind of a dumb thing to wonder. Besides, why obsess about “What ifs?” when you could be reading the defining sci-fi-rom-com-dram-actioner of our time! From the writer of The Bunker and the artist of My Little Pony—wait really? Okay, I guess we’ll go with it—comes an alien invasion the likes of which have never before been seen by human eyes.

The space invaders are real. They’re here. They’re mean. And they’re standing in judgement over the citizens of Earth. The human race’s final exam. They’ve chosen a single champion to test and, unfortunately for us, it’s none other than Jeff Steinberg. Romantically challenged idiot, video store clerk, constipated, confused, distractible. In other words, the planet is totally doomed.

MERMIN, BOOK THREE: DEEP DIVE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W/A/C/CA) Joey Weiser

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 8/21/17

IN STORES: 9/13/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Adventure, Humor

PRICE: $12.99

PAGE COUNT: 152

The third book in Joey Weiser’s Eisner Award-nominated series is now in PAPERBACK! No one knows much about Mer, the underwater kingdom where Mermin the merman was born, but due to a rising conflict with the people of Atlantis, Mermin needs to get back home immediately. Which means his human friends get to accompany him and see all the aquatic wonders of Mer.

But once again, Mermin is tight-lipped about his past—even when it’s swimming right in front of him. And there are enemies lurking in the seedier depths of Mer, who’ve got their sights set not only on Mermin, but on Pete and his friends!

ATOMIC BLONDE: THE COLDEST CITY (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W) Antony Johnston

(A) Sam Hart

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 4/17/17

IN STORES: 5/10/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $14.99

PAGE COUNT: 176

NOVEMBER 1989. MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton was sent to Berlin to investigate the death of another agent, and the disappearance of a list revealing every spy working there. She found a powder keg of mistrust, assassinations and bad defections that ended with the murder of MI6’s top officer, as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Now Lorraine has returned from the Cold War’s coldest city, to tell her story. And nothing is what it seems.

THE COLDEST WINTER: ATOMIC BLONDE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W) Antony Johnston

(A) Steven Perkins

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 4/17/17 ​

IN STORES: 5/10/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $14.99

PAGE COUNT: 184

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE “ATOMIC BLONDE” …BERLIN FROZE. After a string of botched assignments for MI6 in Berlin, David Perceval is being sent home. Even his final mission before leaving—the defection of a Soviet scientist—goes badly wrong, as the coldest winter for 30 years descends on Europe.

With transport out of Berlin impossible, and the KGB searching everywhere for their lost scientist, Perceval must improvise a deadly game of cat and mouse through the frozen city to keep the Russians at bay, and deliver his own unique brand of revenge!

FAUNS & FAIRIES: THE ADULT FANTASY COLORING BOOK

(W/A/CA) Trungles

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 8/28/17

IN STORES: 9/20/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Erotica, Fantasy

PRICE: $11.99

PAGE COUNT: 88

Fauns & Fairies: The Adult Fantasy Coloring Book is an erotic coloring book for adults, offering a steamy interpretation of traditional fantasy characters. From succubi to knights to pixies, the beautiful art nouveau-inspired illustrations show classic characters in sensuous poses sure to please. The delicate and detailed artwork is ideal for adult coloring book enthusiasts!

via Oni Press

Atomic Blonde is Back in the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017

Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way.

Atomic Blonde is Back in the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017 Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way.

[brajeshupadhyay]

The Trailer: The ‘squad’ gears up for two tough primaries

DETROIT – The day after her 44th birthday, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) gathered supporters and volunteers at a juice bar in her district for a socially distanced party. Rashida-for-Congress sanitary wipes shared table space with birthday cake. A tracker snuck in and was quickly ushered out by the congresswoman herself. When it came time to speak, Tlaib choked up, reflecting on how her district had come together to protest police brutality and stand with Black Lives Matter.

“This is the only place that ever truly embraced everything about me, including that little edge, and that little rawness that I have,” Tlaib said. “All the different colors of rainbow are out there, marching, and saying black lives matter. And they know that it’s not only about who killed George Floyd, and police brutality; it’s about the systems that set up George Floyd to be killed in that way.”

In nine days, Tlaib will defend her seat against Brenda Jones, the Detroit City Council president she defeated by just 900 votes in the 2018 primary. Last time, the district’s mostly black electorate splintered behind other candidates. This time, her opponents united behind one opponent. 

One week later, fellow squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) of Minnesota will face challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, who rocketed from obscurity to raise $3.7 million by arguing that the congresswoman is too “divisive” to represent Minneapolis. Omar, who won easily in 2018, is feeling the backlash from comments she made about pro-Israel donor influence and from a trio of campaign finance controversies, all of it thrown back at her in millions of dollars of ads. 

In the first primaries of this year, as the presidential contest wound down, the resurgent left that elected Tlaib and Omar was mostly focused on expansion. Campaign organizations that had helped elect the “squad” – Tlaib, Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) – ousted more conservative Democratic incumbents in Illinois and New York. There are a few more targets on the calendar, such as activist Cori Bush’s rematch with Rep. William Lacy Clay of Missouri, and a challenge to House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal in western Massachusetts.

But for the next few weeks, the squad is playing defense. Seven hundred miles apart, Jones and Melton-Meaux make roughly the same argument about the incumbents: That they are too abrasive and too famous, that their cities would be better off with representatives who could work across the aisle and make less news. In an interview, Jones repeatedly cited the comments Tlaib made on her first day in Congress, promising to impeach the president, and referring to him with an unprintable epithet.

“How often have you, as a reporter, heard someone speak like that?” Jones asked. “Even when you disagree with someone, there is a professional manner of disagreeing with them. I am a professional legislator. I am a professional worker. And I think that professionalism is important in doing the job of representing the people.”

Jones did represent the district briefly, at the end of 2018. The resignation of Rep. John Conyers Jr. created a special primary election to fill his seat the same day as the primary for a two-year term. Tlaib won the six-way primary, while Jones won the four-way special. That put Jones in the House for a few weeks, and her campaign’s advertising asks voters to “return” Jones to the seat. In advertising from Concerned Citizens of Michigan, a pro-Jones PAC, black voters are told that “the 13th belongs to us” and that it’s time to “take our seat back.”

Tlaib’s rebuttal has been her record. When she mentions impeachment, it’s typically to say that the same president she voted to impeach has signed her legislation; when asked about that, Jones points out that the Republican Senate hasn’t taken up some of Tlaib’s work, such as an amendment to spend billions of dollars replacing lead water pipes.

Local Democrats long expected Jones to run, pointing to the results from 2018, when nearly two-thirds of Detroiters backed one of Tlaib’s rivals. “I think it’s about numbers,” said Ian Conyers, a former state senator and grandnephew of the former congressman. Like the three other candidates who ran behind Tlaib and Jones two years ago, he has endorsed Jones: “If there had been a runoff in 2018, Brenda Jones would have won. It almost feels like Rashida has an opinion and a prescription that the people of the district themselves have not asked for.” 

Tlaib does hold some advantages. The city council president did not officially announce she was running until March 25, a week into the state’s stay-at-home order. Eight days later, Jones tested positive for the coronavirus and has made only limited public appearances since. Tlaib has raised more than $3 million, double what she spent to win the seat in the first place; Jones has raised less than $140,000, less than half of what she spent in the crowded 2018 race.

It’s another story in Minnesota, where the official Democratic Farmer-Labor Party has rallied behind Omar, but her challenger is set to outspend her in the final stretch. Melton-Meaux, an attorney who’d never run for office, trailed in fundraising until the last few months before the primary. But he established himself a credible competitor. Since March, Melton-Meaux has brought in millions of dollars, most of it from Minnesotans, and nearly half a million of it bundled by the pro-Israel NORPAC and Pro-Israel America PAC.

The money has funded a steady stream of direct mail and TV ads against Omar. The ads don’t focus on the incumbent’s position on Israel. Instead, they portray Omar as “aggressive” and corrupt, emphasizing some fundraising controversies that made as much news in national conservative media as they did in Minnesota. One involves a misuse of funds for travel, which Omar paid a 2019 fine to settle; one is more personal, accusing her of funneling campaign money to her husband’s firm.

On Saturday, Omar defended her use of E Street, which played the same role in her successful 2018 campaign before she married the firm’s co-founder Tim Mynett. “They’ve contracted vendors for us to not only run ads, digital ads, but also to do all of our mailers, and online fundraising,” Omar said of Mynett’s firm. “They are a one-stop shop.” (The firm’s other founder has also defended Omar.)

Tlaib and Omar arrived in Congress with similar profiles on the issue of Israel, and both opposed a resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Asked why donors had rallied behind Omar’s opponent, but not Tlaib’s, Michigan Democrats speculated that Tlaib’s district would likely be broken by redistricting in 2022 anyway. Any map in Minnesota is likely to keep Omar’s 5th District, which covers Minneapolis and its closest suburbs, largely intact. But a simpler reason is that of two immigrants who came up through local activism, Omar has been more combative.

In this race, Omar has questioned Melton-Meaux’s résumé as an attorney with an emphasis in workplace mediation whose old law firm helped companies fight union drives. “There’s no evidence that this mediation is something that’s ever been deployed in bringing people together in our community,” Omar said. “On the contrary, I have a track record of being a coalition builder.” Asked about his legal work, Melton-Meaux said that he had no role in anti-union work at a “multinational firm that does a lot of different things.”

She has also tried to paint Melton-Meaux’s backers as Wall Street cronies and Republicans, like telecom executive and Trump donor Howard Jonas. “Look at the sheer amount of money that is coming from people who funded Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell,” Omar said in an interview, recalling the cries to “send her back,” an insult directed at the two Muslim members of Congress who were born outside the United States; in Omar’s case, arriving here as a refugee. “They’re giving to a man who agrees with the sentiment that we shouldn’t be in Minnesota, that we shouldn’t have representation in Congress, that our voices and visibility in the halls of Congress is an inconvenience.” 

But Melton-Meaux has pushed back. “The support we’ve got from PACs is from nonpartisan organizations that have given to Democrats and Republicans, including Democrats like Senator [Tina] Smith and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and even, yes, Joe Biden,” Melton-Meaux said in an interview. “What’s really happening here is that the congresswoman does not want people to know just how much strength we have here in the district.”

As incumbents, she and Tlaib benefit from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s rule that contractors who work for challengers to Democratic incumbents can’t work with DCCC candidates; Melton-Meaux has criticized that rule. “It’s a decision that I think, frankly, is trying to chill the democratic process. I have a constitutional right to run for this office,” he said. 

But Melton-Meaux has less than three weeks to convince Minneapolis to ditch Omar, and Jones has less than two weeks to win over Detroit. Meanwhile, Omar’s campaign has activated her national supporters, bringing both Tlaib and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont together for a virtual “day of action” on Sunday. At Tlaib’s Saturday party, Angela Gallegos, 34, recalled how she met the future congresswoman at a protest, more than a decade ago, before either of them were involved in electoral politics.

“When I see the opponent’s sign, that’s almost equivalent of a Trump sign to me,” Gallegos said. “Like, why are you doing that to my girl? It’s Rashida. Everyone knows her. We should get her back.” 

Reading list

Inside the futile quest for a big MAGA party in Jacksonville.

What it’s like to run for office and watch a post office throw the election.

The next stage of the fight with Xi Jinping.

One of 2020’s left-wing underdogs is on the ropes.

The backstory of how Portland’s endless protests became a focus for the White House.

The simple, fixable and politically fraught reason behind hours of long lines.

How the end of traditional campaigning also means the end of tracking and gaffe-catching.

In the states

After New York’s primary debacle, which has left tens of thousands of votes uncounted and more in limbo, the Democratic-controlled legislature in Albany passed another reform of the absentee ballot process. Instead of being processed 30 days before an election, voters’ requests for absentee ballots will be processed as soon as they’re received. Like voters in states that previously implemented expansive mail voting, New Yorkers will be informed of their ballot status and get chances to “cure” it — ie, to fix an error that left the ballot uncounted by election officials. Connecticut, one of the few remaining Democratic-run states that requires an excuse for requesting absentee ballots, took a step closer to nixing that with a broad, bipartisan vote in the state House of Representatives.

In Illinois, the first state where Kanye West obtained signatures to petition onto the ballot, five voters have challenged his filing. While West only needs 2,500 signatures to appear as a presidential candidate — he did not file the name of a running mate — he filed around 3,200 total signatures. That’s in the danger zone for a successful challenge, as scrutiny can sometimes remove 20 to 30 percent of the names on petitions, if voters’ identities cannot be verified. (In weekend tweet, West suggested he could “beat Joe Biden off write-ins,” though only 10 states and the District of Columbia count write-in votes for candidates who have not filed for official status.) 

West may have missed the deadline to make the ballot in Maine, where petitioning ended on Saturday. Meanwhile, the state’s Republicans are continuing their effort to end the state’s ranked-choice voting system, after a petition drive to put it on the ballot for November failed. A new federal lawsuit argues that ranked-choice voting disenfranchises those who don’t want to rank more than one candidate; if successful, the lawsuit could change calculations about the state’s presidential and Senate contests, where third parties and independents currently pose no “spoiler” risk to either party. (While Democratic Rep. Jared Golden won his 2018 race thanks to second-choice voters who’d supported a left-wing challenger, there is no third party in his race this year.)

Ad watch

Ilhan Omar, “Ballot Box.” The Minnesota congresswoman waited until this week to run ads ahead of her Aug. 11 primary. This one boils down a longer campaign video into a message about activism in which she only sometimes appears, wearing a mask and casting a vote. “We can translate our cries for justice into legislation, and that’s the fight we’ve been leading in Congress,” says Omar, whose voice is the only one in the spot.

Americans for Tomorrow’s Future, “Self-Dealing.” The super PAC has mostly played in Omar’s race with harsh direct mail; its first ad compiles a series of financial controversies into a story of the congresswoman benefiting from her role. “She’s paid her new husband’s business over $1 million in campaign funds,” a narrator says. That’s the only cash total mentioned in the spot, as the civil fine Omar paid for a long-running expenses scandal was just $500.

Rashida Tlaib, “Rooted.” The main ad in rotation for Tlaib’s campaign, it combines quick flashes of her legislative record (“Rep. Tlaib secures $1.5 billion for access to water for families”) to the kind of high-profile stances her opponent, Brenda Jones, has pegged as too distracting from her job (“Deny ICE its request for more funding, abolish it.”).

Concerned Citizens of Michigan, “Take Our Seat Back.” A PAC created to help Jones, CCM’s TV ad argues that the legacy of the late John Conyers can be filled by Jones. It never says outright that Jones can represent the district better because she’s black. But the only white politician seen in the ad is former House speaker Paul Ryan, from 2018, swearing in Jones to fill the final weeks of Conyers’s expired term. “The 13th belongs to us,” a narrator says.

You are reading The Trailer, the newsletter that brings the campaign trail to your inbox.

Poll watch

There are just 100 days left until the general election, and fewer days until early and absentee voting starts across most of the country. The calendar was enough of a hook for multiple news outlets to conduct swing state polls, with some wide variances but one consistency: Democrats are holding a lead, with the president trailing Joe Biden when voters are asked who is best able to handle the pandemic and social unrest.

Here’s a poll-by-poll look.

Michigan Joe Biden: 49% Donald Trump: 40% (-1)

Minnesota Joe Biden: 51% Donald Trump: 38%

Pennsylvania Joe Biden: 50% Donald Trump: 39% (-3)

The two of these states won by the president four years ago were last polled in April, not long into the coronavirus pandemic. Minnesota, narrowly lost by Donald Trump in 2016, is polled for the first time this cycle, with no evidence that the protests that began there at the end of May have altered the state’s defining trend: suburbanites moving toward the Democrats, and “greater Minnesota” voters in rural counties moving toward the GOP. 

Joe Biden: 50% (+3) Donald Trump: 45% (-1)

Since March, the last time NBC/Marist polled the state, the positions of both the president and Gov. Doug Ducey have deteriorated. Just half of Arizonans now approve of Ducey, and just as many as say that the pandemic is getting worse. President Trump’s disapproval rating has jumped to 53 percent, with his personal unfavorable rating even higher, at 58 percent. That has opened up the race for Biden, who just 41 percent of voters view favorably. That was Hillary Clinton’s rating in 2016, when she narrowly lost the state. What’s changed? Just 50 percent of voters have a negative view of Biden, compared to 57 percent for Clinton, and Clinton and Trump entered Election Day with the same favorable rating.

Arizona Joe Biden: 49% Donald Trump: 45%

Florida Joe Biden: 51% Donald Trump: 46%

Michigan Joe Biden: 52% Donald Trump: 40%

Here and in the CBS numbers below, Biden has gained and down-ballot Democratic candidates have inched ahead. In Arizona’s Senate race, Democrat Mark Kelly leads by 7, while in Michigan, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters leads by 16. Both of their opponents have plenty of money and have been on the air for months, but nothing has clicked, and while Michigan challenger James is black, he’s losing nonwhite voters by the same 50-point margin as the president.

Michigan Joe Biden: 48% Donald Trump: 25%

Ohio Donald Trump: 46% Joe Biden: 45%

The best set of polls for the president this weekend still show him losing; he’s just holding onto more white voters, and his support from black voters is a bit higher than 2016. (He gets 9 percent of the black vote in Michigan and Ohio; four years ago he got 6 percent and 8 percent of the black vote in those states, respectively.

These are the only polls this weekend that suggest a strength for the president: job creation. A majority of voters in both states think Trump would do more than Biden in creating manufacturing jobs, and a plurality of voters think his reductions in environmental regulations have helped the economy. While the Trump campaign has obsessed over policing in its recent ads, there’s an opening there for its anti-NAFTA attacks on Biden. The caveat: In both states, more than two-thirds of voters say they dislike how Trump “handles himself personally,” and in both, only half say that of Biden, who has been appearing in public, at most, for a few hours each week.

Candidate tracker

President Trump stayed off the campaign trail this week, marking a month since what may have been his last traditional rally of the campaign season, in Tulsa. Since Thursday’s White House briefing, when he canceled the Republican convention in Jacksonville, Fla., Trump has only fitfully engaged in the campaign. Still, with little fanfare, he continued his run of announcements and executive orders with an order that would force Medicare to pay lower prices for prescription drugs.

“As a result of the orders I’m signing today, the heads of the major drug companies have requested a meeting to discuss how we can quickly and significantly lower drug prices and out-of-pocket expenses for Americans,” Trump said on Friday. “They want to do what’s right.  Look, they’re going to do what’s right. Look, I think it’s so important what they’re doing on therapeutics and vaccines. And we’re going to see them on Tuesday. We’ll see if we can do something here.”

Joe Biden had no public events after the middle of the week, but he participated in a virtual Friday fundraiser that focused on Latino issues, co-hosted by actress Eva Longoria.

“Day 1, Dreamers are staying, period. They’re more Americans than most Americans are,” Biden said. “The idea of having to worry if you go to get tested or you go to get help for COVID that you can be deported? No. Not in my country. Not in my country, not going to happen.”

On Saturday, Biden marked one year since a failed effort to grant temporary status to Venezuelans fleeing the country — a point of contention with some in the party’s left. “The people of Venezuela and Hispanics across our country deserve a real ally who will stand up for what is right, and not just pay lip service to the suffering of the Venezuelan people,” Biden said in a statement.

Countdown

��� nine days until primaries in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington … 11 days until primaries in Tennessee … 13 days until primaries in Hawaii … 16 days until primaries in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin … 22 days until the Democratic National Convention … 32 days until the Republican National Convention … 40 days until some absentee ballots start going out … 100 days until the general election

The post The Trailer: The ‘squad’ gears up for two tough primaries appeared first on Shri Times.

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[teeky185]

Kevin Lamarque/ReutersRepublican congressman Justin Amash’s support for impeachment proceedings against President Trump ratchets up the pressure on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call for the same. Citing “multiple examples of conduct satisfying all the elements of obstruction of justice” uncovered in the Mueller report, the iconoclastic Michigan lawmaker spared no one in a lengthy Twitter thread on Saturday—calling out Trump, Attorney General William Barr, and other lawmakers he says put partisanship above their own allegiance to the Constitution. Many were quick to wonder aloud why it was a Republican lawmaker making the case for impeachment rather than top Democrat Pelosi, who has called Trump “unfit” for the presidency but come out against impeachment, saying it’d be too “divisive” for the country. “Conservative Republican Justin Amash is more principled and forward-leaning on impeachment than Pelosi, Nadler, Neal, and any of the other House Dem leaders right now. Will they wake up?” tweeted Ezra Levin, a former Capitol Hill staffer and co-founder of Indivisible, a movement fighting to “resist the Trump agenda.” Neither Pelosi nor Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer immediately responded to Amash’s argument for impeachment. But at least one Democratic lawmaker appeared to heed his call.“Come find me in 1628 Longworth. I’ve got an impeachment investigation resolution you’re going to want to cosponsor,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) tweeted at Amash late Saturday. Reactions from within his own party weren’t quite as encouraging. “It’s sad to see Congressman Amash parroting the Democrats’ talking points on Russia,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “The only people still fixated on the Russia collusion hoax are political foes of President Trump hoping to defeat him in 2020 by any desperate means possible.”Pelosi has repeatedly suggested impeachment proceedings would be likely to backfire, suggesting in early March that Trump actually wants to face impeachment to rile up his base. Earlier this week at an event hosted by the Georgetown University Law Center, she said she doesn’t “want to impeach” even though in her opinion, Trump is giving more “grounds for impeachment” with every passing day by ignoring subpoenas issued by House Democrats. “I believe that we are headed toward an impeachment inquiry,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told MSNBC earlier Saturday, saying “the anger and frustration is growing.” In making his case for impeachment, Amash argued that “extreme partisanship” had blinded Congress to the true purpose of impeachment: to “deter misconduct” and get rid of any official who “has engaged in careless, abusive, corrupt, or otherwise dishonorable conduct.”Trump did not necessarily have to be found guilty of a crime in order to face impeachment, he said. “Under our Constitution, the president ‘shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” While 'high Crimes and Misdemeanors' is not defined, the context implies conduct that violates the public trust.” “Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report,” Amash said, adding that Barr’s testimony on the report—in which he repeatedly defended Trump’s conduct—made it clear he “intended to mislead the public about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s analysis and findings.” Those findings, he argued, did not clear Trump of wrongdoing as Barr has claimed but revealed “that President Trump engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment.”While Mueller did not establish a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, he did not make any determinations on obstruction of justice, choosing instead to leave that matter up to Congress. But Amash argues that many members of Congress didn't even bother to read Mueller's report. “Their minds were made up based on partisan affiliation—and it showed, with representatives and senators from both parties issuing definitive statements on the 448-page report’s conclusions within just hours of its release,” he wrote. “America’s institutions depend on officials to uphold both the rules and spirit of our constitutional system even when to do so is personally inconvenient or yields a politically unfavorable outcome. Our Constitution is brilliant and awesome; it deserves a government to match it,” he said. Amash, who identifies as a libertarian, has previously voiced a desire to see a third party challenge Democrats and Republicans in politics and in March said he wouldn’t “rule out” a 2020 run himself. Meanwhile, his break with the GOP over impeachment could put a big target on his back. A Michigan state lawmaker hinted on Saturday that he might challenge Amash in a primary.Amash has raised the prospect of Trump facing impeachment before. In early 2017, when former FBI director James Comey first accused Trump of asking him to stop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Amash said such a move would be grounds for impeachment. “But everybody gets a fair trial in this country,” he said at the time. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2QdBiM9

[thefabulousfulcrum]

America the Banana Republic

Thanks to Trump the tinhorn dictator and those who elected him, this country is no longer a beacon of freedom, but a laughingstock.

via Bill Moyers

BY NEAL GABLER | NOVEMBER 29, 2017

When people call Donald Trump an authoritarian, it almost gives him more credit than he deserves.

You don’t think favorably of authoritarians; they are despicable. But you do think of them as monstrously large, grievously terrifying, as somehow taking the measure of the polity they control and drawing on its stature to puff themselves up, even as they destroy their nation’s moral core. Despots like Mussolini and Hitler epitomized evil on the grandest possible scale. To call them clowns would trivialize the unconscionable horrors they inflicted.

Trump is certainly an authoritarian, but he is more of a tinhorn dictator, a tiny, negligible man who, rather than inflating himself with the nation’s grandeur, has managed to deflate the nation with his own insipidness. Thanks to him, America is now a banana republic. It is no longer a country of soaring ideas and idealism, a beacon to the world, an example of freedom at home and a protector of freedom abroad, an anchor of sanity in a world often bouncing on the waves of madness.

Whatever her failings, America was once majestic. Now she is hopelessly diminished — a wealthier version of the corrupt nations in the developing world that we used to ridicule. And we owe it all to Donald Trump for making America small again.

The meme of America withering into a banana republic is not a new one. Some observers made the claim after the 2000 presidential election, when Republicans successfully wrested the presidency from Al Gore, just the way cabals do in those banana republics. And it was toted out again in 2008 during the great financial meltdown when the economy was revealed to be not some great dynamo but a façade hiding a giant swindle, banana republic style. Citing the inability of the congressional Republicans to do anything but dither in the face of crisis, Paul Krugman called us a “banana republic with nukes.”

In Vanity Fair, the late Christopher Hitchens was more expansive. He enumerated the many ways in which America, the last great hope of mankind, had become a banana republic — primarily the way the government was willing to bail out the oligarchs while letting the general public suffer.

Hitchens wrote:

The chief principle of banana-ism is that of kleptocracy, whereby those in positions of influence use their time in office to maximize their own gains, always ensuring that any shortfall is made up by those unfortunates whose daily life involves earning money rather than making it.

Hitchens added that there is absolutely no accountability for the thieves. This all should sound very familiar this week, as Republicans retool the entire tax system to rob from the poor and middle classes and give to corporations and the wealthy. If that isn’t a banana republic, I don’t know what is. 

But Krugman and Hitchens were writing before we had a bona fide banana republic dictator to rule our kleptocracy. And while America long has had the economic and social characteristics of a banana republic, it took Trump, who has the instincts and temperament of a gangster, to finish the transformation. There is no disguising it now. We are what we are.

Tick down the list. If kleptocracy is the hallmark of a banana republic, Trump is the kleptocrat-in-chief. He not only appears to be using the presidency as his own personal ATM, now promoting a tax-cut scam by which he stands to gain tens of millions of dollars, he also has been petty enough to steer business to his hotels and hawked his “Make America Great Again” tchotchkes. Check.

Apparently not satisfied to have enriched himself at the public’s expense, Trump has brought unprecedented nepotism to the presidency in a way that only tinhorn dictators do, giving his family access to the public trough while placing his unqualified cronies in positions of power. In this administration, everyone may be on the take. Check.

Just about every Trump directive, from health care to the environment to so-called tax reform to trade policy, seems expressly designed to give benefits to a small coterie of the wealthiest Americans while the rest of the country goes to hell. There is no longer even the pretense of concealment as there was in the good old days of Republicanism. Sure sounds like a banana republic to me. Check. 

Like other tinhorn dictators, Trump has no use for the essentials of democracy. He openly attacks a free press and has a house press of his own, Fox News, and soon, quite possibly, Time Inc., the acquisition of which has been partially financed by the Koch brothers. More, there are allegations that he may using the levers of government to punish his press opponents, using the Justice Department’s antitrust suit against the proposed AT&T purchase of Time Warner to try to force the divestment of CNN.

This, too, is unprecedented in an American democracy, but not in a banana republic. Meanwhile, the Voice of America has placed on administrative leave (a reporter whose bias has leaked into his stories and who on the side has been advancing Trump’s right-wing agenda and casting racial epithets at others in the media. Check.

Trump has taken aim at the electoral process itself, not only claiming that his loss of the popular vote was a fraud, but empaneling a government commission whose sole purpose is thought to be the disenfranchisement of voters who might oppose him. This is pure banana republicanism and an affront to democracy. Check. 

Banana republics are often agent states — that is, they operate at the behest of larger states. In fact the phrase “banana republic” first was coined by the writer O. Henry back in 1904, to describe the dependence of Central American countries on American businesses like United Fruit, which ran plantations in those countries and exported bananas.

Now, America itself is one of those agent states, thanks to Trump’s troubling obeisance to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Let’s not pretend otherwise just so we can save some face. There is no more face to save. American elections interfered with by Russia and a president intimidated by a Russian dictator? Check.

In banana republics, ideology is nothing, policy is nothing, ethics are nothing. Power is everything. Trump is notoriously nonideological. He has no policies or any interest in them. His sole desire is to feed his own inflated ego. In this, he stands with other banana republic potentates. Check.

Tinhorn dictators do everything they can to dismantle a system of checks and balances. Trump has done everything in his power to do the same.

Tinhorn dictators do everything they can to dismantle a system of checks and balances. Trump has done everything in his power to do the same — from dismissing FBI Director James Comey, who was investigating Trump, intimidating the Justice Department and taking over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to…. well, you name it. Untrammeled power is his goal. Check.

In a banana republic, power is concentrated in the hands of one man or a small coterie. Trump has been openly contemptuous of any delegation of authority, even calling himself the “only one that matters,” which is dictator talk, not the talk of a democratically elected chief.

What’s more, he actively has worked to damage any countervailing authorities, essentially gutting the entire diplomatic corps, to cite just one example. Check.

In a banana republic, the dictator makes his own rules and lives by his own reality. Clearly, Trump thinks he is above the law, be it legal or moral. He boasts of it. He also is above fact. The latest example of the thousands of his presidency: According to The New York Times, he privately has declared that the Access Hollywood tape was not actually him! Banana republic time. Check. 

And last but not least, there is the tragi-comic state itself — a kind of laughingstock of governance. America has joined that company of buffoonish nations that keep tripping over their own feet. By one account, when Trump took his first world tour in May, other leaders were aghast at Trump’s ineptitude. One foreign expert commented on how “rapidly the American brand is depreciatingover the last 20 weeks.” Check.

Donald Trump has demeaned himself, but he has also demeaned the country that was deranged enough to elect him. These characteristics speak to a corrupt and desiccated nation, one that is staggering into oblivion.

The “alt-right” insist that until Trump, America was going the way of Rome — rotting from the inside. They are wrong. It is not decadence that is destroying America, but petulance. We are going not the way of Rome but the way of Guatemala or Zimbabwe or the Philippines — the way of banana republics. Thus does this once great nation tumble.

Check and double check.

[outright-geekery]

Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way. Here’s all the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017.

RICK AND MORTY: POCKET LIKE YOU STOLE IT #1

Retail cover illustrated by Marc Ellerby with Katy Farina

Alternate cover illustrated by Carolyn Main

(W) Tini Howard

(A) Marc Ellerby

(C) Katy Farina

(CA) Marc Ellerby with Katy Farina (retail cover), Carolyn Main (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Rick and Morty: Pocket Like You Stole It is a new comic book miniseries based on the popular [adult swim] television series and inspired by the Pocket Mortys mobile game! In this five-issue series, Morty is on a quest to free himself (and all the other Mortys) from the clutches of Ricks, who collect Mortys and force them to battle one another for schmeckles and glory. Along the way, he’ll discover the grisly history of Morty battling, the dastardly lengths that Ricks are willing to stoop to in order to win, and perhaps… the strength in himself that’s needed to free the Mortys once and for all?

#gallery-0-10 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-10 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

KILL THEM ALL

(W/A/CA) Kyle Starks

(C/CA) Luigi Anderson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 9/4/17

IN STORES: 9/27/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Humor, Adventure

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 184

The new gonzo graphic novel love letter to 90s action movies by Eisner-nominated cartoonist Kyle Starks (Sexcastle, Rick and Morty).

A betrayed murderess wants revenge. A hard-drinking former cop wants his job back. For either to get what they want, they’re going to have to fight their way through fifteen flights of criminals, assassins, drug lords, murderers, yup, even accountants, and… KILL. THEM. ALL.

KAIJUMAX SEASON 3 #1

(W/A/C/CA) Zander Cannon

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

New season! New jumping-on point! Ah, Kaijumax Prison… that cesspool of corruption in the South Pacific! Tensions among the city-destroying convicts have eased after a month-long lockdown and Electrogor’s capture, and now the kaiju gangs have begun vying for power again, all-out-attacking their rivals, trading addictive smog and dioxin, and abusing weaker inmates. The Creature from Devil’s Creek, after a long time as the low mon in the Cryptid hierarchy, stumbles upon some information that makes him think it doesn’t have to be like this. Also: Mind-controlled murders! Pre-smartphone navigation fails! And… some VERY old timey religion?

THE DAMNED #3

(W) Cullen Bunn

(A/CA) Brian Hurtt

(C/CA) Bill Crabtree

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime, Fantasy

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Sketchy gambler Pauly Bones has slithered into Eddie’s life with an offer—together they can turn the tables on the demon crime families and finally get what they deserve. Eddie and Pauly can’t trust each other, though, and it’s only a matter of time before one double crosses the other. But with a new hired killer in town, they might both be dead before they can make their treacherous plays.

HEARTTHROB SEASON TWO #2

(W) Christopher Sebela

(A/CA) Robert Wilson IV

(C/CA) Nick Filardi

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and after spending the last several months avoiding her criminal past to try and build a normal life, Callie is fonder than ever. Forced to set her normal existence aside and break her anarchist pals out of a Canadian jail, Callie finds herself head over heels for her old life. When this one-time dalliance threatens to turn into a full-blown crime spree, Callie turns to the only person who will understand: Mercer.

LETTER 44 #35

(W) Charles Soule

(A/CA) Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque

(C) Dan Jackson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/26/17

IN STORES: 7/19/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

THE END IS HERE. The final installment that will bring the award-winning series to a close.

KIM REAPER #4

(W/A/C/CA) Sarah Graley

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/19/17

IN STORES: 7/12/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Adventure

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Kim is suspended from her job as a Grim Reaper and is working in a bakery with Becka—a welcomed change of scenery, until a zombie rolls up to the counter. Animated corpses are the last straw, gosh darnit, so the pair decide to take matters into their own hands and venture down into the Underworld. And if they end up kicking some ghoulish booty on the way, that’s fine with them!

RICK AND MORTY #28

Retail cover illustrated by

CJ Cannon with Katy Farina

Alternate cover illustrated by

Jenn St-Onge

(W/A) Kyle Starks

(A) Andy Hirsch

(A/C) Marc Ellerby

(C) Katy Farina

(CA) CJ Cannon with Katy Farina (retail cover), Jenn St-Onge (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/3/17

IN STORES: 7/26/17

AGE RATING: Teen

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

OH MY GOD IT’S INTERDIMENSIONAL CABLE TIME! Rick and Morty are wanted fugitives in an alien dimension, so until the heat dies down, there’s not much to do but watch interdimensional cable! Can you even believe it? A special one-shot issue drawn by writer Kyle Starks (with a special cameo by Andy Hirsch)! Meanwhile, Jerry learns a painful lesson in film history in this issue’s back-up comic drawn by Marc Ellerby!

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INVADER ZIM #22

Retail cover illustrated by Warren Wucinich with Fred C. Stresing

Alternate cover illustrated by

Jon Vermilyea

(W) Eric Trueheart

(A) Warren Wucinich

(C) Fred C. Stresing

(CA) Warren Wucinich (retail cover), Jon Vermilyea (alternate cover)

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/3/17

IN STORES: 7/26/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

WELCOME TO ZIM’S GREATEST PLAN YET! Earth will soon be his! (Maybe!) Unfortunately, there’s something wrong with GIR—ASIDE from the usual list of things. For one, he’s intentionally trying to kill ZIM. And for two, he’s doing it at the worst possible times. Is ZIM’s greatest plan destined for failure (like it usually is)? Part one of a four-part story!

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REDLINE #5

(W) Neal Holman

(A/CA) Clayton McCormack

(C) Kelly Fitzpatrick

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 6/12/17

IN STORES: 7/5/17

AGE RATING: Mature

PRICE: $3.99

PAGE COUNT: 32

Everybody’s dead and everything basically sucks, so it’s a good time for Superintendent Coyle to start actually getting some leads into just whatever the hell is going on on Mars. Plus a robot armor guy fights a limousine. Plus some answers to questions you may have been wondering about. Plus shenanigans. HOOORAY!

INVADER ZIM, VOLUME 4

(W) Jhonen Vasquez, Eric Trueheart, Danielle Koenig, Aaron Alexovich

(A) Warren Wucinich, Aaron Alexovich

(C) Fred C. Stresing, Cassie Kelly

(CA) Warren Wucnich

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/10/17

IN STORES: 8/2/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 128

ZIM has plans to take over planet Earth. Schemes! Designs! Machinations! Uh… other words that mean “plans”! And in the fourth volume of the critically acclaimed comic series, these “plans” are plentiful, horrifying, and only half as terrible as usual!

From taking over a local restaurant to proving to Dib that he’s the master of fear, will rule the world, one way or another! Or not at all. Or only on Tuesdays? COLLECTS INVADER ZIM ISSUES 16-20!

JEFF STEINBERG: CHAMPION OF EARTH

(W) Joshua Hale Fialkov

(W/A/CA) Tony Fleecs

(C/CA) Luigi Anderson

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 7/28/17

IN STORES: 9/20/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Humor, Sci-fi

PRICE: $19.99

PAGE COUNT: 176

Have you ever wondered what could have been if Kevin Smith directed Men in Black? Us either because that’s kind of a dumb thing to wonder. Besides, why obsess about “What ifs?” when you could be reading the defining sci-fi-rom-com-dram-actioner of our time! From the writer of The Bunker and the artist of My Little Pony—wait really? Okay, I guess we’ll go with it—comes an alien invasion the likes of which have never before been seen by human eyes.

The space invaders are real. They’re here. They’re mean. And they’re standing in judgement over the citizens of Earth. The human race’s final exam. They’ve chosen a single champion to test and, unfortunately for us, it’s none other than Jeff Steinberg. Romantically challenged idiot, video store clerk, constipated, confused, distractible. In other words, the planet is totally doomed.

MERMIN, BOOK THREE: DEEP DIVE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W/A/C/CA) Joey Weiser

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 8/21/17

IN STORES: 9/13/17

AGE RATING: All Ages

GENRE: Adventure, Humor

PRICE: $12.99

PAGE COUNT: 152

The third book in Joey Weiser’s Eisner Award-nominated series is now in PAPERBACK! No one knows much about Mer, the underwater kingdom where Mermin the merman was born, but due to a rising conflict with the people of Atlantis, Mermin needs to get back home immediately. Which means his human friends get to accompany him and see all the aquatic wonders of Mer.

But once again, Mermin is tight-lipped about his past—even when it’s swimming right in front of him. And there are enemies lurking in the seedier depths of Mer, who’ve got their sights set not only on Mermin, but on Pete and his friends!

ATOMIC BLONDE: THE COLDEST CITY (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W) Antony Johnston

(A) Sam Hart

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 4/17/17

IN STORES: 5/10/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $14.99

PAGE COUNT: 176

NOVEMBER 1989. MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton was sent to Berlin to investigate the death of another agent, and the disappearance of a list revealing every spy working there. She found a powder keg of mistrust, assassinations and bad defections that ended with the murder of MI6’s top officer, as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Now Lorraine has returned from the Cold War’s coldest city, to tell her story. And nothing is what it seems.

THE COLDEST WINTER: ATOMIC BLONDE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

(W) Antony Johnston

(A) Steven Perkins

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 4/17/17 ​

IN STORES: 5/10/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Crime

PRICE: $14.99

PAGE COUNT: 184

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE “ATOMIC BLONDE” …BERLIN FROZE. After a string of botched assignments for MI6 in Berlin, David Perceval is being sent home. Even his final mission before leaving—the defection of a Soviet scientist—goes badly wrong, as the coldest winter for 30 years descends on Europe.

With transport out of Berlin impossible, and the KGB searching everywhere for their lost scientist, Perceval must improvise a deadly game of cat and mouse through the frozen city to keep the Russians at bay, and deliver his own unique brand of revenge!

FAUNS & FAIRIES: THE ADULT FANTASY COLORING BOOK

(W/A/CA) Trungles

FINAL ORDER CUTOFF: 8/28/17

IN STORES: 9/20/17

AGE RATING: Mature

GENRE: Erotica, Fantasy

PRICE: $11.99

PAGE COUNT: 88

Fauns & Fairies: The Adult Fantasy Coloring Book is an erotic coloring book for adults, offering a steamy interpretation of traditional fantasy characters. From succubi to knights to pixies, the beautiful art nouveau-inspired illustrations show classic characters in sensuous poses sure to please. The delicate and detailed artwork is ideal for adult coloring book enthusiasts!

via Oni Press

Atomic Blonde is Back in the Oni Press Solicits for July 2017 Just in time for the movie release, Atomic Blonde makes a comic comeback in a big way.

[aion-rsa]

Oni Press’ Solicitations for July 2017

Oni Press has provided CBR News with the exclusive first look at covers and solicit information for products shipping July 2017. When you’re through checking out these solicitations, be sure to visit CBR’s Indie Comics Forum and discuss these Oni Press releases with fellow readers.

Oni Press Solicitations – Last Six Months

Product shipping June 2017

Product shipping May 2017

Product shipping April 2017

Product shipping March 2017

Product shipping February 2017

Product shipping January 2017

RICK AND MORTY: POCKET LIKE YOU STOLE IT #1 (OF 5)

TINI HOWARD (W) • MARC ELLERBY (A/CA) • KATY FARINA (C/CA)

ALTERNATE COVER ILLUSTRATED BY CAROLYN MAIN

Rick and Morty: Pocket Like You Stole It is a new comic book miniseries based on the popular [adult swim] television series and inspired by the Pocket Mortys mobile game! In this five-issue series, Morty is on a quest to free himself (and all the other Mortys) from the clutches of Ricks, who collect Mortys and force them to battle one another for schmeckles and glory. Along the way, he’ll discover the grisly history of Morty battling, the dastardly lengths that Ricks are willing to stoop to in order to win, and perhaps… the strength in himself that’s needed to free the Mortys once and for all?

JULY 5 / 32 Pages / Teen / Humor, Sci-fi / $3.99

KILL THEM ALL

KYLE STARKS (W/A/CA) • LUIGI ANDERSON (C/CA)

The new gonzo graphic novel love letter to 90s action movies by Eisner-nominated cartoonist Kyle Starks (Sexcastle, Rick and Morty). A betrayed murderess wants revenge. A hard-drinking former cop wants his job back. For either to get what they want, they’re going to have to fight their way through fifteen flights of criminals, assassins, drug lords, murderers, yup, even accountants, and… KILL. THEM. ALL.

SEPTEMBER 27 / 184 Pages / Mature / Humor, Action / $19.99

KAIJUMAX SEASON THREE #1

ZANDER CANNON (W/A/C/CA)

New season! New jumping-on point! Ah, Kaijumax Prison… that cesspool of corruption in the South Pacific! Tensions among the city-destroying convicts have eased after a month-long lockdown and Electrogor’s capture, and now the kaiju gangs have begun vying for power again, all-out-attacking their rivals, trading addictive smog and dioxin, and abusing weaker inmates. The Creature from Devil’s Creek, after a long time as the low mon in the Cryptid hierarchy, stumbles upon some information that makes him think it doesn’t have to be like this. Also: Mind-controlled murders! Pre-smartphone navigation fails! And… some VERY old timey religion?

JULY 12 / 32 Pages / Mature / Sci-fi / $3.99

THE DAMNED #3

CULLEN BUNN (W) • BRIAN HURTT (A/CA) • BILL CRABTREE (C/CA)

Sketchy gambler Pauly Bones has slithered into Eddie’s life with an offer—together they can turn the tables on the demon crime families and finally get what they deserve. Eddie and Pauly can’t trust each other, though, and it’s only a matter of time before one double crosses the other. But with a new hired killer in town, they might both be dead before they can make their treacherous plays.

JULY 12 / 32 Pages / Mature / Crime, Fantasy / $3.99

HEARTTHROB SEASON TWO #2

CHRISTOPHER SEBELA (W) • ROBERT WILSON IV (A/CA) • NICK FILARDI (C/CA)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and after spending the last several months avoiding her criminal past to try and build a normal life, Callie is fonder than ever. Forced to set her normal existence aside and break her anarchist pals out of a Canadian jail, Callie finds herself head over heels for her old life. When this one-time dalliance threatens to turn into a full-blown crime spree, Callie turns to the only person who will understand: Mercer.

JULY 5 / 32 Pages / Mature / Crime / $3.99

LETTER 44 #35

CHARLES SOULE (W) • ALBERTO JIMÉNEZ ALBURQUERQUE (A) • DAN JACKSON (C)

THE END IS HERE. The final installment that will bring the award-winning series to a close.

JULY 19 / 32 Pages / Mature / Sci-fi / $3.99

KIM REAPER #4

SARAH GRALEY (W/A/C/CA)

Kim is suspended from her job as a Grim Reaper and is working in a bakery with Becka—a welcomed change of scenery, until a zombie rolls up to the counter. Animated corpses are the last straw, gosh darnit, so the pair decide to take matters into their own hands and venture down into the Underworld. And if they end up kicking some ghoulish booty on the way, that’s fine with them!

JULY 12 / 32 Pages / Teen / Humor, Adventure / $3.99

RICK AND MORTY #28

KYLE STARKS (W/A) • ANDY HIRSCH (A) • MARC ELLERBY (A/C) • KATY FARINA (C/CA) • CJ CANNON (CA)

ALTERNATE COVER ILLUSTRATED BY JENN ST-ONGE

OH MY GOD IT’S INTERDIMENSIONAL CABLE TIME! Rick and Morty are wanted fugitives in an alien dimension, so until the heat dies down, there’s not much to do but watch interdimensional cable! Can you even believe it? A special one-shot issue drawn by writer Kyle Starks (with a special cameo by Andy Hirsch)! Meanwhile, Jerry learns a painful lesson in film history in this issue’s back-up comic drawn by Marc Ellerby!

JULY 26 / 32 Pages / Teen / Humor, Sci-fi / $3.99

INVADER ZIM #22

ERIC TRUEHEART (W) • WARREN WUCINICH (A/CA) • FRED C. STRESING (C/CA)

ALTERNATE COVER ILLUSTRATED BY JON VERMILYEA

WELCOME TO ZIM’S GREATEST PLAN YET! Earth will soon be his! (Maybe!) Unfortunately, there’s something wrong with GIR—ASIDE from the usual list of things. For one, he’s intentionally trying to kill ZIM. And for two, he’s doing it at the worst possible times. Is ZIM’s greatest plan destined for failure (like it usually is)? Part one of a four-part story!

JULY 26 / 32 Pages / All Ages / Humor, Sci-fi / $3.99

REDLINE #5

NEAL HOLMAN (W) • CLAYTON MCCORMACK (A/CA) • KELLY FITZPATRICK (C/CA)

Everybody’s dead and everything basically sucks, so it’s a good time for Superintendent Coyle to start actually getting some leads into just whatever the hell is going on on Mars. Plus a robot armor guy fights a limousine. Plus some answers to questions you may have been wondering about. Plus shenanigans. HOOORAY!

JULY 5 / 32 Pages / Mature / Sci-fi / $3.99

INVADER ZIM, VOLUME 4

JHONEN VASQUEZ, ERIC TRUEHEART, DANIELLE KOENIG (W) • AARON ALEXOVICH (W/A) • WARREN WUCINICH (A/CA) • FRED C. STRESING, CASSIE KELLY (C)

ZIM has plans to take over planet Earth. Schemes! Designs! Machinations! Uh… other words that mean “plans”! And in the fourth volume of the critically acclaimed comic series, these “plans” are plentiful, horrifying, and only half as terrible as usual! From taking over a local restaurant to proving to Dib that he’s the master of fear, ZIM will rule the world, one way or another! Or not at all. Or only on Tuesdays? COLLECTS INVADER ZIM ISSUES 16-20!

AUGUST 2 / 128 Pages / All Ages / Humor, Sci-fi / $19.99

JEFF STEINBERG: CHAMPION OF EARTH

JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV (W) • TONY FLEECS (W/A/CA) • LUIGI ANDERSON (C/CA)

Have you ever wondered what could have been if Kevin Smith directed Men in Black? Us either because that’s kind of a dumb thing to wonder. Besides, why obsess about “What ifs?” when you could be reading the defining sci-fi-rom-com-dram-actioner of our time! From the writer of The Bunker and the artist of My Little Pony—wait, really? Okay, I guess we’ll go with it—comes an alien invasion the likes of which have never before been seen by human eyes.

The space invaders are real. They’re here. They’re mean. And they’re standing in judgement over the citizens of Earth. The human race’s final exam. They’ve chosen a single champion to test and, unfortunately for us, it’s none other than Jeff Steinberg. Romantically challenged idiot, video store clerk, constipated, confused, distractible. In other words, the planet is totally doomed.

SEPTEMBER 20 / 176 Pages / Mature / Humor, Sci-fi / $19.99

MERMIN, BOOK THREE: DEEP DIVE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

JOEY WEISER (W/A/C/CA)

The third book in Joey Weiser’s Eisner Award-nominated series is now in PAPERBACK! No one knows much about Mer, the underwater kingdom where Mermin the merman was born, but due to a rising conflict with the people of Atlantis, Mermin needs to get back home immediately. Which means his human friends get to accompany him and see all the aquatic wonders of Mer. But once again, Mermin is tight-lipped about his past—even when it’s swimming right in front of him. And there are enemies lurking in the seedier depths of Mer, who’ve got their sights set not only on Mermin, but on Pete and his friends!

SEPTEMBER 13 / 152 Pages / All Ages / Adventure, Humor / $12.99

ATOMIC BLONDE: THE COLDEST CITY (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

ANTONY JOHNSTON (W) • SAM HART (A)

NOVEMBER 1989. MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton was sent to Berlin to investigate the death of another agent, and the disappearance of a list revealing every spy working there. She found a powder keg of mistrust, assassinations and bad defections that ended with the murder of MI6’s top officer, as the Berlin Wall was torn down. Now Lorraine has returned from the Cold War’s coldest city, to tell her story. And nothing is what it seems.

MAY 10 / 176 Pages / Mature / Crime / $14.99

THE COLDEST WINTER: ATOMIC BLONDE (SOFTCOVER EDITION)

ANTONY JOHNSTON (W) • STEVEN PERKINS (A)

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE “ATOMIC BLONDE” …BERLIN FROZE. After a string of botched assignments for MI6 in Berlin, David Perceval is being sent home. Even his final mission before leaving—the defection of a Soviet scientist—goes badly wrong, as the coldest winter for 30 years descends on Europe.

With transport out of Berlin impossible, and the KGB searching everywhere for their lost scientist, Perceval must improvise a deadly game of cat and mouse through the frozen city to keep the Russians at bay, and deliver his own unique brand of revenge!

MAY 10 / 184 Pages / Mature / Crime / $14.99

FAUNS & FAIRIES: THE ADULT FANTASY COLORING BOOK

TRUNGLES (W/A/CA)

Fauns & Fairies: The Adult Fantasy Coloring Book is an erotic coloring book for adults, offering a steamy interpretation of traditional fantasy characters. From succubi to knights to pixies, the beautiful art nouveau-inspired illustrations show classic characters in sensuous poses sure to please. The delicate and detailed artwork is ideal for adult coloring book enthusiasts!

SEPTEMBER 20 / 88 Pages / Mature / Fantasy, Erotica / $11.99

The post Oni Press’ Solicitations for July 2017 appeared first on CBR.

http://ift.tt/2oPUioy

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT 2X22 - And Straight On ‘Til Morning

Despite all the mourning from the last episode, we’re gonna go straight on ‘til we finish off this season.

...Wanted to make my last pun of the season classy. Now you know what to do.

Press Release The inhabitants of Storybrooke brace themselves for the end when Greg and Tamara detonate the trigger Regina had placed within the curse, with the annihilation of the town and its residents imminent; and Mr. Gold mourns the loss of his son, Bae/Neal. Meanwhile, back in Neverland of the past, Hook discovers his connection to a young Bae after he rescues him from the sea and soon realizes that the Lost Boys are in hot pursuit of the boy. General Thoughts - Characters/Stories/Themes and Their Effectiveness Past I really struggled with how I felt about the past segment. Something about this flashback has always rubbed me the wrong way (Or at least, as much as the two times I’ve watched it can do) and I spent the lesser part of two days wondering why. And I think I finally figured it out.

The actions and broad strokes of this storyline are great, as is admittedly much of the dialogue. I like the bond that forms between Killian and Bae and I like how Killian’s framed. The dialogue is for the most part pretty good and I love all the time we get to spend on the Jolly Roger. However, the thematically heavy lines like “being alone” and “caring only about yourself” are honestly so distracting because Killian’s is blatantly committing revenge on Milah’s behalf and he has a whole crew with him.

Now on one hand, I get it. Especially given Killian’s decision at the end of the flashback, one can argue that Killian’s revenge and the decisions stemming from it are more for his sake than Milah’s. It’s similar to what Regina was doing with Snow and her subjects, where she claimed that after she killed Snow, she’d show them love. On the other hand, as I said before, it’s honestly so distracting and I feel like if the above were the case, there would’ve been more to paint it that way.

Okay, so now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, just remember: The segment is good, but dialogue choices like that separate good from great. The drama between Killian and Bae is one of the most important parts of Killian’s redemption and their bonding provides serious insight into who Killian is as a character.  Present First off, I love the way Neal’s “death” was handled. First, let’s talk about the acting. Robert Carlyle continues to be flawless. He shows how Rumple’s overcome with sadness and regret immediately upon hearing the news. Second, I love how he’s paralleled against Henry. While Henry has his mother to lean on and hold (A great if not tragic Swan Believer moment in and of itself), despite being told the news by two people, Rumple’s in the shot where he first takes it in alone and only comforted from a distance. Third, it gets Rumple questioning his own philosophy and is one of the biggest cases of “all magic has a price” being turned on him. It’s nothing short of a spiral and the way he pulls everyone down with him fits the character so well.

I got so many Spongebob Musical feels as I was thinking about the main story here. XD I’m going to explain it when I get to arcs, but I think that the main story does a good job bringing together Emma, Regina, Henry, Snow, and David’s stories. Every emotion here hits and the main story, which seemed to rightly get the most focus, was handled well.

Keep that in mind when I go off here.

”I did it [Kill Cora] because it was easy. It was a mistake.” FUCK THAT NOISE! NO! IT WASN’T EASY! IT WAS ACTUALLY BOTH DIFFICULT IN EXECUTION AND IN ITS AFTER EFFECTS! It was cruel, sure. And I get the guilt, but honestly, it was Cora (An uncontrollable monster) or Rumple (Someone who had been persuaded to do good in the past and could in the future AND had two morality pets to keep him on the straight and narrow). Fuck the noise where this was a wrong decision and that GOD this is the last instance where Snow says something like that! “There were other paths -- harder paths.” AND THEY WOULD’VE RESULTED IN MASS MURDERS ALL AROUND. FUCK! The ONLY good thing about that shitty flashback in “The Cricket Game” was that you supposedly learned that this idea was bullshit and you just threw that idea out like a dirty diaper! FUCK THIS SET OF LINES! It’s especially infuriating because it comes in the middle of a GREAT Snow scene where her optimism and leadership are so well shown!

Finally, What’s interesting to me is how Killian immediately dismisses Emma’s speech about being alone and being part of something by asking “Why are you really doing this?” Bae, being dead and Henry no longer having a father, is the spark that becomes the flame of his redemption. I’m with @sab031794 with the idea that Bae is definitely his turning point, while Emma’s words further the point, something he appreciates. Insights - Stream of Consciousness -Was there ever a concrete answer as to who drew the Milah drawing? Was it Killian? Milah herself? Like one of the people at theme park who paints people? -SMEE!! So by this point, is Smee Killian’s first mate or is he still just a regular crew member? Also, got to hand it to Smee for his faith in Killian. Smee’s a scared dude, so to see him with so much resolve in his voice as he tells Killian that they’ll avenge Milah, it’s so much bigger of a moment! -I didn’t realize how closely this episode borders on child trafficking until now! Dark. -I’ll never quite be over the way Bae’s eyes pop when he tells someone what happened to his father. Powerful! -It’s great seeing Killian piece together the puzzle that’s this new boy and immediately making a plan upon realizing just who he is. -It’s so creepy seeing how having only Lacey to depend on as a morality chain can corrupt Rumple so much. Hurting Henry to save himself at the very least was a point he was torn on when he first found Neal and learned the truth about his and Henry’s relation. But as he sees Henry on the swing, he’s so close to giving in and killing Henry. (Okay, someone write a dark ass fic where this happens. Henry dies and Emma goes crazy trying to figure out if his death was an accident or not. Can you IMAGINE the final confrontation there?!) Also, I refuse to believe it’s a coincidence that it’s David that snaps him out of it. Sheep Bros to the rescue! -Colin acts that last scene in the mine so freakin’ well! Like, less than three minutes later, that’s gonna turn out to be horseshit, but he sells that so believably! -I will say, while I don’t like a lot of platitudes this season, I’m cool with Henry’s “work together” schtick. -David, that was an amazing punch! XD -WHAT AN EXCELLENT REGAL BELIEVER SCENE! Once again, Regina apologizes to Henry and it’s very sincere. She’s not blaming anyone and is saying that it’s she who failed to live up to his standards. And Henry’s reaction does not absolve her, but lets her know that he loves her. THAT is GOOD! -”The things we do for our children.” This is kind of a weird line. -I love how it’s so obvious that this Pan is “him” and they are doing every backflip to make this a killer twist. -Oh My God! Felix is trying to be so menacing and it is just the HAMMIEST thing ever! XD I love it! It’s not appropriate at all to the mood they’re setting, but fuck it! I love it! -Grumpy, that is the best cup I have ever seen! I can’t even blame you for taking it back for Sneezy (And then maybe channel your inner-Stealthy and take it for yourself)! -I’ve been trying to do a count of the number of men in KIllian’s crew. So far, I’ve seen at most six pirates (Killian and Smee included). Does anyone have a better count? -Left is port, right is starboard. I don’t know why, but I always forget it. Hopefully, Captain Hook will be able to help me remember! -It’s interesting to me how Killian, even when he was just using Bae, used a real and vulnerable part of his life to relate to him. It’s great insight into Killian’s life and a subtle nudge in the direction of Killian coming to care for Bae even before the truly touching moment on the scene hits. -I do have to wonder, why does Killian want to live so badly? During “The Outsider,” Killian was more than willing to die so that he could return to Milah, but he wouldn’t have even killed Rumple then (though one could argue that he’d at least leave a black mark on Rumple and Belle’s relationship). Here, he’d be killing Rumple and there’s no sign he care about saving anyone else. -”I’m not your mate.” Give it a season, Davey! -Emma and Regina work brilliantly together here. There’s such a softness to Regina sacrifice and the way Emma tries to fight against what looks to be the inevitable. It’s a great testament to their dynamic. -Wow! The CG for the destruction of Storybrooke is awful! XD -Farewell, Lacey. I hardly knew ye. -Snow, that is not all of Storybrooke. That’s not even a quarter of Storybrooke. There should be a giant ass crowd of people, not just your besties! -The moment when Bae is told the truth of his mother by Killian is so powerful! There’s so much rage, passion, and love, all of it left on on the floor in the scene. -”I’ll track them down in Hell if I have to.” Granted it’s not regarding the same character, but give it a few seasons, Emma! -”There’s no way. I spent a lifetime trying to cross worlds to find my son.” Hindsight makes that line utterly hysterical! -Rumple! Let Belle help! Get some other stooge to cast the protection spell! Belle’s such a good tracker! -Why is this goodbye making me flashforward to Belle’s death?! *bawls* -GOLDEN HOOK WORKING TOGETHER!!! That look they exchange as they understand the map’s destination! YES! I’M FILLED WITH THE POWER OF YESSSSSS! Arcs - How are These Storylines Progressing? Regina’s Redemption - Regina’s redemption was handled masterfully in this episode. The focus of it was put on Henry. As the inevitability of the end hits her, all she can and does focus on is keeping Henry alive. But that’s not all. Her acceptance of ehr bad reputation being her own fault goes a long way towards washing away the exasperation from the last few episodes away. Her sacrifice works on every level, reinfusing sympathy into Regina without it feeling out of character because of the sharp focus on Henry. Rumple’s Redemption - So like usual, Rumple takes one step back and one step forward, and I felt that it mostly worked. I say mostly because I don’t really get how Lacey attempting to use Bae’s shawl is the turning point for Rumple using the memory potion on Lacey. It’s not like Lacey used the shawl maliciously and she even apologized for it. Was it so she could help him grieve? If so, I wish it came across better. That said, I like the effect that Lacey has been corrupting Rumple, but he realizes that he both needs Belle in her real state and that his thoughts of murdering Henry are awful and need to be shunted. At the same time, he’s not willing to lend a finger to help with the end of the world. Killian’s Redemption - What’s interesting to me is how early on in this episode, Killian is pointed at for not believing in something by Tamara, and when he does turn, Killian himself is one of the most belief-heavy people on the show! Additionally, in the flashback, Killian is so belief-heavy, believing that he can get his revenge on the Dark One and later that he and Bae can fill the empty holes in their hearts. But aside from that, Killian’s turn around is actually pretty simply set up for a sympathetic character. First, it comes through in the decision to go to the heroes to help stop the diamond, knowing they’re more effective. Second, it’s of course the decision to turn his ship around. It represents Killian’s decision to start caring again, allowing himself in a way to be reborn. Emma Accepting Her Parents - “Mom...Dad…” ...Do I even need to say any more? ...Well, apart from the fact that it’s a great closing out of the arc in the beginning of the season, it’s also a PHENOMENAL setup for the events of Season 3. Greg and Tamara - Greg and Tamara kind of get stupid in this finale upon revealing that they don’t know who runs the home office and all the deflectation that takes place when Killian questions them. Really? A group of people who supposedly value science over magic wouldn’t ask who their boss is? Favorite Dynamic Emma and Regina - Emma and Regina are amazing to watch. The episode doesn’t pretend that they’re friends or even that they like each other all that much, but that their bond over Henry is powerful enough that they can overcome those facts and at least start in that direction. For the first time, I feel these two come together as real mothers. They act in Henry’s best interests and that includes saving the other, being honest to Henry, and portraying the other in a good light. Darker Elements (TW: Mention of Child Trafficking) I’ve seen it be said that Killian’s decision to abandon Baelfire was the most evil moment of his life. While I’m not sure how much I believe that, I must point out how this is as close to child trafficking as OUAT can ever get without outright saying it, and that is fucking dark. While trying to examine my own feelings on the issue, I think in terms of the show, because of the fantastical distance of the child trafficking being conducted in an equally fantastical way by a pirate with a hook for a hand and a set of children in cloaks putting a boy in a dinghy to take him to Peter Pan, it’s different than other instances of Darker Elements that I’ve already touched on. If a woman is assaulted or someone is raped by deception, the resonance with the treatment of women and the realities of sexual assault, especially in our modern political climate, makes it difficult to cloud with fantastical elements. And I’m not saying trafficking isn’t, but it’s not something a large portion of OUAT’s audience sees on a constant basis.

Writer A&E are as usual in charge of the finale, and honestly, while well delivered, I expected better. So much of the dialogue works, and that makes the fact that some of the crucial dialogue doesn’t hurt so badly. I feel like they were trying to make square pegs fit in round holes when they talk about things like Killian choosing to be alone and how kiling Cora was easy and and how Rumple decides to turn back Belle because Lacey accidentally used Bae’s shawl as a napkin. it almost overshadows the genuinely good dialogue in other places and I feel like with another draft, those problems would either be minimized or non existent. It pains me how this episode reminds me in a lot of respects more of “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” (My current least favorite episode of the series) than some of their better episodes like “Broken.” Rating 8/10. I’ve been torn on ratings before, but never quite like this. So much of the Season 2 finale does work, but it does have failings and they chip away. However, I’ve gone on about some of the dialogue choices enough. Let’s talk about the good stuff. This episode is a good culmination point for so many of the arcs started and presents a good jumping off point for them to be furthered in the next season. It’s entertaining to watch emotionally resonates where it counts. It’s dark, but optimistic and has that Once-y feel! Flip My Ship - Home of All Things “Shippy Goodness” Swan Fire - We get to see some pretty sad and yet hopeful Swan Fire stuff. Emma is barely able to mourn Neal’s loss, but when she tells Henry and Killian the truth, you really feel the grief she’s going through. And then Neal’s alive! Swan Queen - It was so great seeing Emma and Regina working together! You really feel for the emotional bond they’ve formed as they fight off the diamond and it’s gotta be said that there’s a serious weight to the fact that the two of them together managed to fight off something that neither thought possible. Captain Swan - I feel like Emma and Killian really get their deserved start here. Emma not only tries to get her bean back, but tries to invite him to the hero squad with as much effort as she can given all else on her plate. And while it initially doesn’t work, Emma’s speech does find its resonance with Killian through remembering of his love for Bae. Rumbelle - My thoughts on how Rumple decided to use the potion aside, the moment where Belle comes back and they kiss is beautiful and heartwarming, as is their goodbye at the docks. Grumpy Beauty - Grumpy went out of his way as they were all gonna die to get another memory potion to restore Belle! That is so cute!!! I love this ship!!! There’s also such a real feeling of sacrifice as Rumple sees Belle off before his trip to Neverland. ()()()()()()()()() Oh My God! Season 2 is completed!!! Well, sort of! Like last season, I’m going to do my overview where I talk about everything from the quality of the season itself to the best dynamics to who was the best writer! I hope you’ll join me for it because it’s gonna be a lot of fun!

Thank you all for reading and to the fine folks at @watchingfairytales! Couldn’t have done it without you!

See you next time!

Season 2 Tally (194/220) Writer Tally for Season 2: Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis: (58/60)* Jane Espenson (44/50)* Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg (40/50)* David Goodman (24/30)* Robert Hull (24/30)* Christine Boylan (26/30)* Kalinda Vazquez (28/30)* Daniel Thomsen (18/20)* * Indicates that their work for the season is complete Operation Rewatch Archives

[brajeshupadhyay]

DETROIT – The day after her 44th birthday, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) gathered supporters and volunteers at a juice bar in her district for a socially distanced party. Rashida-for-Congress sanitary wipes shared table space with birthday cake. A tracker snuck in and was quickly ushered out by the congresswoman herself. When it came time to speak, Tlaib choked up, reflecting on how her district had come together to protest police brutality and stand with Black Lives Matter. “This is the only place that ever truly embraced everything about me, including that little edge, and that little rawness that I have,” Tlaib said. “All the different colors of rainbow are out there, marching, and saying black lives matter. And they know that it’s not only about who killed George Floyd, and police brutality; it’s about the systems that set up George Floyd to be killed in that way.” In nine days, Tlaib will defend her seat against Brenda Jones, the Detroit City Council president she defeated by just 900 votes in the 2018 primary. Last time, the district’s mostly black electorate splintered behind other candidates. This time, her opponents united behind one opponent.  One week later, fellow squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) of Minnesota will face challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, who rocketed from obscurity to raise $3.7 million by arguing that the congresswoman is too “divisive” to represent Minneapolis. Omar, who won easily in 2018, is feeling the backlash from comments she made about pro-Israel donor influence and from a trio of campaign finance controversies, all of it thrown back at her in millions of dollars of ads.  In the first primaries of this year, as the presidential contest wound down, the resurgent left that elected Tlaib and Omar was mostly focused on expansion. Campaign organizations that had helped elect the “squad” – Tlaib, Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) – ousted more conservative Democratic incumbents in Illinois and New York. There are a few more targets on the calendar, such as activist Cori Bush’s rematch with Rep. William Lacy Clay of Missouri, and a challenge to House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal in western Massachusetts. But for the next few weeks, the squad is playing defense. Seven hundred miles apart, Jones and Melton-Meaux make roughly the same argument about the incumbents: That they are too abrasive and too famous, that their cities would be better off with representatives who could work across the aisle and make less news. In an interview, Jones repeatedly cited the comments Tlaib made on her first day in Congress, promising to impeach the president, and referring to him with an unprintable epithet. “How often have you, as a reporter, heard someone speak like that?” Jones asked. “Even when you disagree with someone, there is a professional manner of disagreeing with them. I am a professional legislator. I am a professional worker. And I think that professionalism is important in doing the job of representing the people.” Jones did represent the district briefly, at the end of 2018. The resignation of Rep. John Conyers Jr. created a special primary election to fill his seat the same day as the primary for a two-year term. Tlaib won the six-way primary, while Jones won the four-way special. That put Jones in the House for a few weeks, and her campaign’s advertising asks voters to “return” Jones to the seat. In advertising from Concerned Citizens of Michigan, a pro-Jones PAC, black voters are told that “the 13th belongs to us” and that it’s time to “take our seat back.” Tlaib’s rebuttal has been her record. When she mentions impeachment, it’s typically to say that the same president she voted to impeach has signed her legislation; when asked about that, Jones points out that the Republican Senate hasn’t taken up some of Tlaib’s work, such as an amendment to spend billions of dollars replacing lead water pipes. Local Democrats long expected Jones to run, pointing to the results from 2018, when nearly two-thirds of Detroiters backed one of Tlaib’s rivals. “I think it’s about numbers,” said Ian Conyers, a former state senator and grandnephew of the former congressman. Like the three other candidates who ran behind Tlaib and Jones two years ago, he has endorsed Jones: “If there had been a runoff in 2018, Brenda Jones would have won. It almost feels like Rashida has an opinion and a prescription that the people of the district themselves have not asked for.”  Tlaib does hold some advantages. The city council president did not officially announce she was running until March 25, a week into the state’s stay-at-home order. Eight days later, Jones tested positive for the coronavirus and has made only limited public appearances since. Tlaib has raised more than $3 million, double what she spent to win the seat in the first place; Jones has raised less than $140,000, less than half of what she spent in the crowded 2018 race. It’s another story in Minnesota, where the official Democratic Farmer-Labor Party has rallied behind Omar, but her challenger is set to outspend her in the final stretch. Melton-Meaux, an attorney who’d never run for office, trailed in fundraising until the last few months before the primary. But he established himself a credible competitor. Since March, Melton-Meaux has brought in millions of dollars, most of it from Minnesotans, and nearly half a million of it bundled by the pro-Israel NORPAC and Pro-Israel America PAC. The money has funded a steady stream of direct mail and TV ads against Omar. The ads don’t focus on the incumbent’s position on Israel. Instead, they portray Omar as “aggressive” and corrupt, emphasizing some fundraising controversies that made as much news in national conservative media as they did in Minnesota. One involves a misuse of funds for travel, which Omar paid a 2019 fine to settle; one is more personal, accusing her of funneling campaign money to her husband’s firm. On Saturday, Omar defended her use of E Street, which played the same role in her successful 2018 campaign before she married the firm’s co-founder Tim Mynett. “They’ve contracted vendors for us to not only run ads, digital ads, but also to do all of our mailers, and online fundraising,” Omar said of Mynett’s firm. “They are a one-stop shop.” (The firm’s other founder has also defended Omar.) Tlaib and Omar arrived in Congress with similar profiles on the issue of Israel, and both opposed a resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Asked why donors had rallied behind Omar’s opponent, but not Tlaib’s, Michigan Democrats speculated that Tlaib’s district would likely be broken by redistricting in 2022 anyway. Any map in Minnesota is likely to keep Omar’s 5th District, which covers Minneapolis and its closest suburbs, largely intact. But a simpler reason is that of two immigrants who came up through local activism, Omar has been more combative. In this race, Omar has questioned Melton-Meaux’s résumé as an attorney with an emphasis in workplace mediation whose old law firm helped companies fight union drives. “There’s no evidence that this mediation is something that’s ever been deployed in bringing people together in our community,” Omar said. “On the contrary, I have a track record of being a coalition builder.” Asked about his legal work, Melton-Meaux said that he had no role in anti-union work at a “multinational firm that does a lot of different things.” She has also tried to paint Melton-Meaux’s backers as Wall Street cronies and Republicans, like telecom executive and Trump donor Howard Jonas. “Look at the sheer amount of money that is coming from people who funded Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell,” Omar said in an interview, recalling the cries to “send her back,” an insult directed at the two Muslim members of Congress who were born outside the United States; in Omar’s case, arriving here as a refugee. “They’re giving to a man who agrees with the sentiment that we shouldn’t be in Minnesota, that we shouldn’t have representation in Congress, that our voices and visibility in the halls of Congress is an inconvenience.”  But Melton-Meaux has pushed back. “The support we’ve got from PACs is from nonpartisan organizations that have given to Democrats and Republicans, including Democrats like Senator [Tina] Smith and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and even, yes, Joe Biden,” Melton-Meaux said in an interview. “What’s really happening here is that the congresswoman does not want people to know just how much strength we have here in the district.” As incumbents, she and Tlaib benefit from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s rule that contractors who work for challengers to Democratic incumbents can’t work with DCCC candidates; Melton-Meaux has criticized that rule. “It’s a decision that I think, frankly, is trying to chill the democratic process. I have a constitutional right to run for this office,” he said.  But Melton-Meaux has less than three weeks to convince Minneapolis to ditch Omar, and Jones has less than two weeks to win over Detroit. Meanwhile, Omar’s campaign has activated her national supporters, bringing both Tlaib and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont together for a virtual “day of action” on Sunday. At Tlaib’s Saturday party, Angela Gallegos, 34, recalled how she met the future congresswoman at a protest, more than a decade ago, before either of them were involved in electoral politics. “When I see the opponent’s sign, that’s almost equivalent of a Trump sign to me,” Gallegos said. “Like, why are you doing that to my girl? It’s Rashida. Everyone knows her. We should get her back.”  Reading list Inside the futile quest for a big MAGA party in Jacksonville. What it’s like to run for office and watch a post office throw the election. The next stage of the fight with Xi Jinping. One of 2020’s left-wing underdogs is on the ropes. The backstory of how Portland’s endless protests became a focus for the White House. The simple, fixable and politically fraught reason behind hours of long lines. How the end of traditional campaigning also means the end of tracking and gaffe-catching. In the states After New York’s primary debacle, which has left tens of thousands of votes uncounted and more in limbo, the Democratic-controlled legislature in Albany passed another reform of the absentee ballot process. Instead of being processed 30 days before an election, voters’ requests for absentee ballots will be processed as soon as they’re received. Like voters in states that previously implemented expansive mail voting, New Yorkers will be informed of their ballot status and get chances to “cure” it — ie, to fix an error that left the ballot uncounted by election officials. Connecticut, one of the few remaining Democratic-run states that requires an excuse for requesting absentee ballots, took a step closer to nixing that with a broad, bipartisan vote in the state House of Representatives. In Illinois, the first state where Kanye West obtained signatures to petition onto the ballot, five voters have challenged his filing. While West only needs 2,500 signatures to appear as a presidential candidate — he did not file the name of a running mate — he filed around 3,200 total signatures. That’s in the danger zone for a successful challenge, as scrutiny can sometimes remove 20 to 30 percent of the names on petitions, if voters’ identities cannot be verified. (In weekend tweet, West suggested he could “beat Joe Biden off write-ins,” though only 10 states and the District of Columbia count write-in votes for candidates who have not filed for official status.)  West may have missed the deadline to make the ballot in Maine, where petitioning ended on Saturday. Meanwhile, the state’s Republicans are continuing their effort to end the state’s ranked-choice voting system, after a petition drive to put it on the ballot for November failed. A new federal lawsuit argues that ranked-choice voting disenfranchises those who don’t want to rank more than one candidate; if successful, the lawsuit could change calculations about the state’s presidential and Senate contests, where third parties and independents currently pose no “spoiler” risk to either party. (While Democratic Rep. Jared Golden won his 2018 race thanks to second-choice voters who’d supported a left-wing challenger, there is no third party in his race this year.) Ad watch Ilhan Omar, “Ballot Box.” The Minnesota congresswoman waited until this week to run ads ahead of her Aug. 11 primary. This one boils down a longer campaign video into a message about activism in which she only sometimes appears, wearing a mask and casting a vote. “We can translate our cries for justice into legislation, and that’s the fight we’ve been leading in Congress,” says Omar, whose voice is the only one in the spot. Americans for Tomorrow’s Future, “Self-Dealing.” The super PAC has mostly played in Omar’s race with harsh direct mail; its first ad compiles a series of financial controversies into a story of the congresswoman benefiting from her role. “She’s paid her new husband’s business over $1 million in campaign funds,” a narrator says. That’s the only cash total mentioned in the spot, as the civil fine Omar paid for a long-running expenses scandal was just $500. Rashida Tlaib, “Rooted.” The main ad in rotation for Tlaib’s campaign, it combines quick flashes of her legislative record (“Rep. Tlaib secures $1.5 billion for access to water for families”) to the kind of high-profile stances her opponent, Brenda Jones, has pegged as too distracting from her job (“Deny ICE its request for more funding, abolish it.”). Concerned Citizens of Michigan, “Take Our Seat Back.” A PAC created to help Jones, CCM’s TV ad argues that the legacy of the late John Conyers can be filled by Jones. It never says outright that Jones can represent the district better because she’s black. But the only white politician seen in the ad is former House speaker Paul Ryan, from 2018, swearing in Jones to fill the final weeks of Conyers’s expired term. “The 13th belongs to us,” a narrator says. You are reading The Trailer, the newsletter that brings the campaign trail to your inbox. Poll watch There are just 100 days left until the general election, and fewer days until early and absentee voting starts across most of the country. The calendar was enough of a hook for multiple news outlets to conduct swing state polls, with some wide variances but one consistency: Democrats are holding a lead, with the president trailing Joe Biden when voters are asked who is best able to handle the pandemic and social unrest. Here’s a poll-by-poll look. Michigan Joe Biden: 49% Donald Trump: 40% (-1) Minnesota Joe Biden: 51% Donald Trump: 38% Pennsylvania Joe Biden: 50% Donald Trump: 39% (-3) The two of these states won by the president four years ago were last polled in April, not long into the coronavirus pandemic. Minnesota, narrowly lost by Donald Trump in 2016, is polled for the first time this cycle, with no evidence that the protests that began there at the end of May have altered the state’s defining trend: suburbanites moving toward the Democrats, and “greater Minnesota” voters in rural counties moving toward the GOP.  Joe Biden: 50% (+3) Donald Trump: 45% (-1) Since March, the last time NBC/Marist polled the state, the positions of both the president and Gov. Doug Ducey have deteriorated. Just half of Arizonans now approve of Ducey, and just as many as say that the pandemic is getting worse. President Trump’s disapproval rating has jumped to 53 percent, with his personal unfavorable rating even higher, at 58 percent. That has opened up the race for Biden, who just 41 percent of voters view favorably. That was Hillary Clinton’s rating in 2016, when she narrowly lost the state. What’s changed? Just 50 percent of voters have a negative view of Biden, compared to 57 percent for Clinton, and Clinton and Trump entered Election Day with the same favorable rating. Arizona Joe Biden: 49% Donald Trump: 45% Florida Joe Biden: 51% Donald Trump: 46% Michigan Joe Biden: 52% Donald Trump: 40% Here and in the CBS numbers below, Biden has gained and down-ballot Democratic candidates have inched ahead. In Arizona’s Senate race, Democrat Mark Kelly leads by 7, while in Michigan, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters leads by 16. Both of their opponents have plenty of money and have been on the air for months, but nothing has clicked, and while Michigan challenger James is black, he’s losing nonwhite voters by the same 50-point margin as the president. Michigan Joe Biden: 48% Donald Trump: 25% Ohio Donald Trump: 46% Joe Biden: 45% The best set of polls for the president this weekend still show him losing; he’s just holding onto more white voters, and his support from black voters is a bit higher than 2016. (He gets 9 percent of the black vote in Michigan and Ohio; four years ago he got 6 percent and 8 percent of the black vote in those states, respectively. These are the only polls this weekend that suggest a strength for the president: job creation. A majority of voters in both states think Trump would do more than Biden in creating manufacturing jobs, and a plurality of voters think his reductions in environmental regulations have helped the economy. While the Trump campaign has obsessed over policing in its recent ads, there’s an opening there for its anti-NAFTA attacks on Biden. The caveat: In both states, more than two-thirds of voters say they dislike how Trump “handles himself personally,” and in both, only half say that of Biden, who has been appearing in public, at most, for a few hours each week. Candidate tracker President Trump stayed off the campaign trail this week, marking a month since what may have been his last traditional rally of the campaign season, in Tulsa. Since Thursday’s White House briefing, when he canceled the Republican convention in Jacksonville, Fla., Trump has only fitfully engaged in the campaign. Still, with little fanfare, he continued his run of announcements and executive orders with an order that would force Medicare to pay lower prices for prescription drugs. “As a result of the orders I’m signing today, the heads of the major drug companies have requested a meeting to discuss how we can quickly and significantly lower drug prices and out-of-pocket expenses for Americans,” Trump said on Friday. “They want to do what’s right.  Look, they’re going to do what’s right. Look, I think it’s so important what they’re doing on therapeutics and vaccines. And we’re going to see them on Tuesday. We’ll see if we can do something here.” Joe Biden had no public events after the middle of the week, but he participated in a virtual Friday fundraiser that focused on Latino issues, co-hosted by actress Eva Longoria. “Day 1, Dreamers are staying, period. They’re more Americans than most Americans are,” Biden said. “The idea of having to worry if you go to get tested or you go to get help for COVID that you can be deported? No. Not in my country. Not in my country, not going to happen.” On Saturday, Biden marked one year since a failed effort to grant temporary status to Venezuelans fleeing the country — a point of contention with some in the party’s left. “The people of Venezuela and Hispanics across our country deserve a real ally who will stand up for what is right, and not just pay lip service to the suffering of the Venezuelan people,” Biden said in a statement. Countdown … nine days until primaries in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington … 11 days until primaries in Tennessee … 13 days until primaries in Hawaii … 16 days until primaries in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin … 22 days until the Democratic National Convention … 32 days until the Republican National Convention … 40 days until some absentee ballots start going out … 100 days until the general election The post The Trailer: The ‘squad’ gears up for two tough primaries appeared first on Shri Times.

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