#mo vaughn

[gummyartstradingcards]

[allurlsaregone-blog]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Matt Bors’s “Justice Warriors: Vote Harder”

On SEPTEMBER 24th, I'll be speaking IN PERSON at the BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY!

There's no political satirist working today quite like Matt "Mr Gotcha" Bors, whose 2023 masterpiece Justice Warriors just got a timely – and brutally funny – sequel, Justice Warriors: Vote Harder:

https://www.mattbors.com/store/p/justice-warriors-ffzgn

You've doubtless seen Matt Bors's work, which has repeatedly attained viral liftoff, most notably with his Mr Gotcha strips, easily one of the most useful additions to online political debate in internet history:

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Last year, Bors, along with Ben Clarkson and Felipe Sobreiro, published Justice Warriors, a postapocalyptic cyberpunk graphic novel in the vein of Warren Ellis's classic Transmetropolitan:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/22/libras-assemble/#the-uz

Justice Warriors is the tale of Bubble City, a domed enclave walled off from the teeming masses of the UZ (which stands for "Uninhabited Zone" – see what they did there?). Bubble City runs on vibes, therapy-speak, social media nonsense, memes and garbage hot-takes. And while there's a lot of broad satire here, the thing that makes Justice Warriors stand out is how its creators do the relatively straightforward futuristic exercise of asking themselves, "What if deeply unserious nonsense was taken seriously?"

Others have done this before – Mike Judge's Idiocracy, say – but Bors, Clarkson and Sobreiro attain a density of sight gags, trenchant wordplay, and outrageous cyberpunk imagery that is just next level. Think Al Jaffee meets William Gibson, with art direction by Vaughn Bode, who's had one too many at the Mos Eisley Cantina. To that, mix in all kinds of MAD Magazine style fake ads and social media postings, layering joke on gag, all of it walking the fine line between "you gotta cry" and "you gotta laugh."

Justice Warriors did big numbers, selling out three printings, and now the gang is back together for the sequel, Vote Harder, which drops just in time for the final, all consuming election-season media apocalypse.

Vote Harder sees Bubble City facing its first election in living memory, as the mayor – who inherited his position from his "powerful, strapping Papa" – loses a confidence vote by the city's trustees. They're upset with his plan to bankrupt the city in order to buy a laser powerful enough to carve his likeness into the sun as a viral stunt for the launch of his comeback album. The trustees are in no way mollified by the fact that he expects to make a lot of money selling special branded sunglasses that allow Bubble City (and the mutant hordes of the Uninhabited Zone) to safely look into the sun and see what their tax dollars bought.

So it's time for an election, and the two candidates are going hard: there's the incumbent Mayor Prince; there's his half-sister and ex-girlfriend, Stufina Vipix XII, and there's a dark-horse candidate Flauf Tanko, a mutant-tank cyborg that went rogue after a militant Home Owners Association disabled it and its owners abandoned it. Flauf-Tanko is determined to give the masses of the Uninhabited Zone the representation they've been denied for so long, despite the structural impediments to this (UZers need to complete a questionnaire, sub-forms, have three forms of ID, and present a rental contract, drivers license, work permit and breeding license. They also need to get their paperwork signed in person at a VERI-VOTE location, then wait 14 days to get their voter IDs by mail. Also, districts of 2 million or more mutants are allocated the equivalent of only 250,000 votes, but only if 51% of eligible voters show up to the polls; otherwise, their votes are parceled out to other candidates per the terms of the Undervoting and Apathy Allotment Act).

Despite the structural advantages afforded to Mayor Prince – like the fact that residents of District 12 on floors 120-145 of the Bubble each get 2048 votes, while District 1 (floors 1-7) only get a single vote – he's not taking any chances. Officer Schitt (a humanoid poop emoji) and the lovelorn Officer Swamp (an anthropomorphic catfish) are each prowling the Uz . Swamp – suffering from a head injury and gripped by a delusion that a TV cowboy has sent him to infiltrate the Flauf Tanko campaign – is playing spy/provocateur, while Schitt hunts dangerous subversives.

What unfolds is a funny, bitter, superb piece of political satire that could not be better timed.

The paperback edition of The Lost Cause, my nationally bestselling, hopeful solarpunk novel is out this month!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/11/uninhabited-zone/#eremption-season

[handfulofnickels]

more non canon doodles I did on my break lmao

Ivan is alive!!1!!1!

I hate Mo Vaughn

“USHER”

[lightandheatao3]

The Bunker - Criminal Minds

Chapter 2: The Inevitable

Summary: Spencer Reid wakes up in a locked bunker to find half the current BAU and two of its departed members unconscious on the floor. The old team is back together but the reunion is not what any of them would have wished for. An Unsub from their past has decided it's time they all stop keeping secrets, even if it means exposing them by force.

Hotch and Derek have been pulled back into a world they tried to escape. Emily, Rossi, and JJ are doing their best to keep it together. Spencer is falling apart.

AKA a found family is reunited and forced to go through the most nightmarish version of family therapy imaginable.

Set months after the end of Criminal Minds: Evolution. Evolution referenced, but not necessary to understand the story.

Chapter Summary: Spencer knows what's about to happen. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean he's prepared to deal with it

Read chapter 2 on AO3 or under the cut. All comments and reblogs are so appreciated <3

Chapter 1 link

There was no sunlight. No clocks on the wall. They had been stripped of their watches and phones. They had no way of being certain how long they’d been trapped.

Spencer had a pretty good idea, though. Cool air flowed in from the small vent in the roof but sweat beaded on his brow.

They were all sat leaned against various sections of wall. The room was big enough that they had to raise their voices slightly to ensure they were heard from the opposite wall.

“Are you doing alright, Spence?” asked JJ, then rolled her eyes at herself for the asinine question, given their current situation. “I mean, relatively speaking, obviously. You look a little pale.”

“Just exhausted,” he said.

Please please please someone break the door down and let them out.

They had spent a long time analyzing the note and had come to the conclusion that whoever wrote and delivered the note was a woman. The hand size, the passive language, the fixation on teaching them a lesson. The apparent belief that she was helping them, justifying her cruelty with compassion. All of it added up to a female Unsub.

They had debated heavily if she might have an accomplice. It would have taken a significant degree of physical strength to subdue them all. Even intravenous drugs don’t knock someone out instantaneously. In addition, the site of injection was incredibly precise and nearly identical on each of them. This would only be possible by holding them very still, likely with a headlock from behind.

An accomplice certainly seemed possible, but at this stage they had no hard evidence to support it.

Everyone looked to Spencer to compile a mental list of all female Unsubs they dealt with while the team was in this particular configuration. Nobody quite fit the profile.

Antonia Slade was intelligent enough and had a history of taking her victims in to care for them before she killed them, but she wouldn’t hide behind a door. She would gloat. He wouldn’t put it past Lindsey Vaughn. She was resourceful. It’s not her MO, but she’d been known to be adaptable when a good opportunity to fuck with them presented itself. But that didn’t explain why she’d gone after them but not Luke and Tara, who she’d also dealt with.

Spencer pointed out to the team he kept tabs on Vaughn in prison, given everything that happened in Mexico. She could theoretically operate via proxy, but he was pretty confident she wasn’t their Unsub.

Truthfully, there were no good candidates. Whoever was doing this was going to need to give them something more to go off if they wanted a chance of piecing it together.

The fluorescent lights buzzed.

Once again he was living under the looming threat of violence and death but all he could think about was how terrified he was to be seen by the people he loved.

There were too many people in too small a space. He had his arms crossed tightly over his midriff to hide the fact his hands were shaking.

Everyone agreed there was no merit to speculating on what secrets she was referencing. For all they knew that was her plan. Get them to reveal information she could use against them, or get them fighting amongst themselves.

There was an invisible ticking clock. Spencer could hear it like it was real. Each second that ticked by was one closer to the moment where his most pressing secret revealed itself anyway thanks to his uncooperative body.

Nobody had spoken for a long time when Rossi piped up, “When do you think dinner is?”

They all stared at him. Hotch raised an eyebrow. “Feeling peckish?”

“If she wants to keep us imprisoned for the duration, surely she plans to feed us.” He looked up at the camera on the roof and raised his voice. “If you’re taking orders, I would love osso buco and a glass of the ’95 Chateaux Latour!”

JJ laughed. “Could you throw in a carbonara for me?”

“And a carbonara!” he demanded from the camera. “Real egg, none of that cream shit.” He looked around the room. “Any other orders? I hear the food here is excellent.”

“Ribeye on the bone, medium rare, a side of fries with a Bearnaise sauce,” said Derek, closing his eyes and giving a satisfied sigh.

“Oh, that’s a good one,” said JJ.

“Yeah, I’ll have what he’s having,” said Emily. “Throw in a pinot for me.”

“What vintage?” asked Rossi.

“Whatever one tastes best chugged straight from the bottle.”

Spencer smiled at them. Truthfully the thought of food was making his stomach turn violently, but he played anyway. “I’ll take a cheeseburger from Bernard's Burgers,” he said simply.

The others hummed in approval. They all cast their eyes to Hotch. He hesitated. Eventually, he said, “There’s a seafood restaurant a couple of blocks from where I live that has the best lobster you’ll ever try. You wouldn’t expect it from a landlocked state, but there’s nothing like it.”

Everyone nodded, satisfied with their imaginary feast.

“Not to keep bugging you, kid, but are you sure you’re alright?” asked Derek. “You’re not looking so hot.”

“I’m fine,” he said. “I’ve been kind of off the last couple of days. I might be coming down with something. Sorry if you all catch it,” he said with his best impression of sincerity.

Derek made an ‘oof’ noise. “How’s that for timing?” he asked lightheartedly, though his eyes lingered longer than was entirely comfortable.

After another moment Rossi spoke again. “How long do you think we’ve been in here?”

“14 hours since we woke up,” said Spencer without missing a beat.

They all stared at him. “How the hell do you do that?” said Rossi, impressed.

He shrugged. Truthfully, he didn’t have the best internal clock. It was very easy for him to get lost in thought and lose track of time. The piercing headache and rising nausea were making him acutely aware of every passing minute.

That was how it went with this sort of thing. You had to develop a routine, especially if you wanted to function. He knew exactly how long he could go before he started getting sick. He scheduled his entire life around it.

The Unsub had clearly figured out their routines. Even if she hadn’t, the evidence of Spencer’s habits were strew across the bedside table in the room he was taken from.

He dug his nails into his arms through his sleeves. Time was running out. It was all getting away from him.

As if the Unsub had been reading his mind, the chamber on the door opened.

Derek was faster this time, managing to get his face right up to the chamber while the external hatch was still wide open.

“Talk to us!” he yelled. “We know you’re trying to teach us a lesson,” he said, an empathetic lilt pasted onto his voice. “We just want to know more. We want you to help us understand.”

A gloved hand deposited an unmarked brown paper shopping bag. The external hatch closed. The internal one released. Derek bowed his head as their captor left with no response. “She must be positioning herself to the side of the door. I still couldn’t see anything more than a hand. She’s careful, but we knew that already.”

Derek took the bag out and they all crowded around it cautiously.

It was packed full of fruit. Emily picked up an apple, turning it over in her hand.

With all eyes focused on her, she carefully took a bite.

She chewed, then swallowed.

“It tastes normal,” she assured them. “Give it half an hour to an hour to see if it has any effects on me, but I don’t think poisoning the food fits this woman’s MO.”

“I agree,” said Hotch, taking a pear. He followed Emily’s lead and cautiously bit into it. He nodded at the others.

The first rule of being held captive was to always take your food and water where you could get it. You never knew when your supply could be cut off.

They all reached in and took a piece of fruit, including Spencer. He had no desire to eat, but he knew he had to keep his strength up and get what he could down while it was still possible.

As he took his orange, he uncovered a note at the bottom of the bag. JJ saw it too, reaching in and grabbing it before he could.

They all watched her expectantly.

“Your room must always be clean. After you eat, put the food scraps in the bag and the bag in the chamber. There are consequences for breaking rules. Now, as a reward for good behavior, I will take away the burden of lies that weighs one of you down. If Dr Reid-”

She paused, reading further down the note, furrowing her brow.

They all stared at him. He tugged at his sleeves nervously.

“Keep going,” said Emily to JJ, though her eyes were fixed firmly on him.

JJ looked at him apologetically. He looked at the floor. She continued, “If Dr Reid is sick, it is only because he is missing his medicine. I gave you all a taste of it to get you here. I hope you don’t catch his disease.”

She dropped the note like it was radioactive. She mouthed the word 'sorry' at him, knowing as well as he did the shit show that was about to errupt. Derek immediately picked the note up. He looked over it himself like he didn’t want to believe JJ had read it accurately.

He looked back at Spencer.

They were all staring at him.

Instinct told him to run, but there was nowhere for him to go. Instead he stood and waited for the concrete beneath his feet to turn to liquid and encase him.

They were waiting for him to talk first.

He couldn’t.

“What’s she talking about, pretty boy?” asked Derek, finally taking pity on him and breaking the silence.

He took a few steps back, suddenly acutely aware of how close they were after gathering around the bag of fruit. “I have no idea,” he said petulantly, cringing at himself for it.

“It’s alright, kid,” said Rossi sympathetically. “Nobody is upset, just talk to us.”

Spencer’s brain sprinted in circles. Why did the lights have to be so bright?

He tried desperately to think of some clever way to talk himself out of it even though he’d figured out hours ago that this was going to happen. This Unsub’s plan was technically impressive, but it wasn’t exactly psychologically sophisticated. She wanted to out their secrets. This one was going to out itself pretty soon anyway, so of course she'd want to get to it first.

“Spencer,” said Emily, “How sick are you going to get?”

No is it true? Or does this mean what I think it means? Straight to believing it. They didn’t even look surprised. They looked like this was only confirming what they already knew. They looked sad.

Horribly, infuriatingly sad.

He ran a hand through his hair.

“The others are going to find us,” he insisted. “It doesn’t matter.”

He wished he could believe it, but he wished they could believe it even more.

“This is why you woke up before the rest of us,” said JJ softly. “Why you weren’t as affected. It’s because your tolerance is up.”

“You guys can see what she’s doing. She’s trying to pit us against each other,” he accused, wrapping his arms tighter around himself and taking another step back. "We're just playing into her fantasy."

“Don’t think about her right now,” said Emily. “If you’re going into withdrawal then we need to know exactly what to expect. Mind games can’t take precedence over your physical safety.”

“I’ll be fine. Opioid withdrawal has a statistically low mortality rate, with only 2% of the-”

“So it is opioid withdrawal?” She tilted her head. “Look at you, Spencer. You’re shaking, your skin is clammy. You said yourself, we’ve only been in here 14 hours! If it’s this bad already, how much worse is it going to get?”

“I don’t know!” he snapped. “Yes, fine, I’m going to get sick! What do you want me to say?”

“Easy, pretty boy,” said Derek gently. “This isn't an attack. The fact is, we’re all locked in here together and this is happening whether we like it or not. We just need you to tell us exactly how bad this is going to get.”

“I don’t know,” he said shortly.

“Yes, you do,” countered Emily. “You cold give us a detailed breakdown of the symptoms, timeline, and risk factors of an opioid detox based on frequency and duration of usage. You just don’t want to admit how much and for how long you’ve been using because it’s bad, right?” she said. Typical Emily, so pragmatic. There would be plenty of time for sentiment once she had a plan, but no sooner. “This isn’t just a slip, is it? You’re shooting up again and have been for a while.”

Spencer flinched. So did everyone else.

All eyes were on him, but for some reason it was Hotch’s gaze he caught. The man hadn’t said anything the entire exchange. Just stood at the back of the group and watched carefully.

When their eyes met, Hotch gave him a tight, sympathetic smile.

Spencer looked at a spot just behind Emily’s head and spoke quietly. “I… I’ll be fine, Emily. I’ll get sick but I’ll get better. It’s not the first time. I don’t need your help.”

“Roll up your sleeves,” she demanded.

He sputtered, “What? No!”

“Emily,” said Rossi placatingly. “Take a beat.”

She ignored him. “If you won’t tell us what to expect then show us. Spencer, I know this is fucking awful and believe me this is not the way I would like to have this conversation,” she said, gesturing to the oppressive room. “I am so sorry for not seeing what was happening and helping you sooner,” she said sincerely. “The least I can do is make sure you get through this safely.”

Even as he said it, he could feel himself regretting it, but before he could stop himself, “Fuck off Emily,” had slipped out his mouth.

JJ gasped and Derek interjected with a stern “Hey! I know this sucks but do not speak to her that way.”

“It’s fine,” said Emily. “I’m not trying to be condescending, Spencer. I’m just scared. I want to help.”

She sounded excruciatingly sincere. It made his blood boil.

“No,” he snapped, stepping back again until he felt the wall hit him. “None of you were there the other times I had to do this, and now you want me to defer to your expertise? What the hell do you know? What do any of you actually know? If you wanted to do an intervention you should have done it after Tobias Hankle, but none of you said anything and I don’t need you like that anymore,” he spat.

Emily’s eyes were wide with shock.

Spencer's words surprised himself just as much as the rest of them.

“I’m sorry,” she said, taken aback. “You’re right. I should have said something back then.”

Guilt twisted its way through the panic and rage, settling into his chest.

They were all trapped down there together and here he was punishing Emily for caring. He tried his best to hold onto the anger. To wrap himself in it. He could feel it slipping away.

Hotch stepped forward. Spencer had almost forgotten he was there.

“I was team leader at the time of the Hankle case. I’m the one who decided not to intervene,” he said firmly. “Emily brought her concerns to me and I shut them down because I was afraid if word got out you would lose your job, making your situation worse. I trusted that you were strong enough to recover. And you were. But you never should have done so without proper support. I regret that, Reid, and I always will.”

Maybe it was the stark inevitability catching up with him that there was simply no way to avoid going through withdrawal in front of them. Maybe it was the way his eyes kept searching for an exit he knew didn't exist. Maybe it was thinking about Tobias Hankle. All these years and all the other traumas, and a part of him was still stuck in that cabin in Georgia. A part of him always would be. Whatever it was, the fight left him.

He was still pressed up against the wall, and he slid down it until he was sitting on the cold concrete floor. The others sat too.

“I don’t know why I said that. I’m not angry about it anymore. Or, at least… I’m not angry at any of you,” he said, chancing an apologetic glance at Emily. “Maybe at Gideon, still. But what’s the point in that?”

“When someone who hurt you is gone it doesn’t take away the scars,” said Rossi. “I loved Gideon, but he made mistakes. It’s okay to be pissed about it.”

“Do you guys really want to hear all this?” asked Spencer skeptically.

They might say that’s what they want, but the subject of his addiction had never felt particularly welcome. They had always flinched away from it, just as they had only a minute ago when Emily referenced him shooting up.

He certainly didn’t want their pity or concern.

“Of course we do,” said Emily, with the others nodding emphatically.

He hesitated. They already knew, he reminded himself. They were asking because they care about him and because the secret was already out. He couldn't put it back.

“2 years. Or 1 year, 11 months, and 3 days, to be precise.”

Silence. He wanted to say stunned silence? But it could have as easily been disgust. He couldn’t tell.

“How is that possible?” asked Derek, deceptively calm.

“We couldn’t miss the signs for that long,” said JJ disbelievingly.

“It’s been on and off,” he clarified. “I was only using in between cases when I was last working with the BAU.” Then, sheepishly, “Mostly." There were some cases... well. He'd done his best. "You would be surprised how easy it is to miss substance abuse in people close to you. One study showed that up to 60% of heroin users are what we call ‘functional addicts,’ meaning they can hold down fulltime employment, social lives, and sometimes even have their addiction go unnoticed by intimate partners for months or years at a time,” he rattled off, before catching the look in his friends’ eyes and stopping. “It isn’t your fault,” he said simply. “I’ve been avoiding you on purpose. Not to mention you base your warning signs on how I behaved when I first became addicted, expecting me to be volatile and disorganized. But I’m not 25 and in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event anymore. I have more control. It’s not a problem like it was back then,” he assured them.

“Feels like a pretty big problem right now,” said Rossi.

“Functional addicts don’t stay functional forever, pretty boy,” said Derek. “I’m sure you know the other side of those statistics.”

“I don’t have a large enough dataset to offer credible statistics on the amount of opioid addicts who get kidnapped and forced to detox in bunkers. In retrospect, I should have realized that I am an outlier who should have expected something like this to happen,” he deadpanned.

“Well, we’re all outliers vis a vis kidnappings,” replied Emily dryly. "I'm sure that makes you feel better."

“I hate doing this while we’re being watched,” he said. “It feels like we’re encouraging her. This is exactly the outcome she was hoping for. It’s why she dosed you all with opioids instead of using pure sedatives. Just to taunt me.”

“Don’t worry about that now,” said Hotch. “What matters is that we get you through withdrawal. We need accurate information to ensure we know what to do.”

“I know,” he admitted reluctantly. He took a long, slow breath. “Ask me whatever you need to,” he said, directing it to Emily.

He wished he was high right now. He’d give anything for a hit.

Emily nodded; sentiment once again pushed down the line to when the job was done. “Dilaudid?”

“It’s whatever is easiest to get.”

“So, heroin,” she clarified.

He looked at his lap. “It doesn't make a difference to the withdrawal process. It’s all derivatives of the same compound.”

“It makes a difference to your risk of overdose,” she clarified, “but you’re right, that’s not an immediate concern,” she agreed. “Needles?”

He nodded, not looking at them.

“It’s okay, kid,” said Rossi. “We’re not judging.”

He didn’t really believe that, so he didn’t respond to it.

“Every day? If so, how many times a day?” Emily asked.

“It was previously more intermittent, as I said, but for the past 8 months or so It has been twice a day at a minimum.” A beat. "Usually more."

“Okay. Thank you for telling us all that. I know this isn’t easy,” she said. “I just have one more question for now. Is there any risk that you have an infection?”

“All intravenously administered drugs come with a statistically significant risk of infection,” he said, ready to ramble about it before she threw up a hand to preemptively cut him off. “I always use sterile equipment and alcohol wipes. I’m fine.”

“You are anything but fine, pretty boy,” said Derek, shaking his head. “But we’ll get you through this.”

“That would be more comforting if we weren’t locked in a bunker by a serial killer.”

“Minor problem,” Derek joked. “Consider it a study on innovative approaches to running a rehabilitation facility.”

Spencer didn't laugh. Neither did anyone else. JJ placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

He caught Hotch's eye again, briefly.

Had any of them ever really had a shot at escaping their pasts or was this all inevitable? He wasn't getting clean by choice. Hotch wasn't there in the bunker to reconnect with them. Spencer was struck by the reality that proximity did not always mean closeness.

He was already thinking about the moment he could get out of here and get high again. Was Hotch just counting the seconds until he could disappear from their lives forever?

Assuming they didn't all just die, of course.

Maybe that's what he should be focusing on now. Just don't die. Figure out the rest later.

He leaned into JJ, letting her put an arm around him. The red light from the camera blinked down at them.

[zayadriancas]

Hii! So we've never talked, but I wanted to say I love your blog! Who are your fav degrassi characters?? :)

Aww thank you so much! ❤️😀

My favorites in no real order:

Maya Matlin, Bianca DeSousa, Spinner Mason, Drew Torres, Darcy Edwards, Zig Novak, Fiona Coyne, Ellie Nash, Holly J. Sinclair, Jay Hogart, Sean Cameron, Jake Martin, Mike Dallas, Grace Cardinal, Tiny Bell, Paige Michalchuk, Lola Pacini, Shay Powers, Mo Mashkour, Zoe Rivas, Imogen Moreno, Becky Baker, Jane Vaughn, & Anya MacPherson

[angelloverde]

"Mo Soul" Player Playlist 12 March

Sofa Surfers - Can I Get A Witness (Thievery Corporation Mix)

Jitwam - Temptations

Justin Stanton - What Do You Want

Madison McFerrin - Try

Nick Waterhouse - This Is A Game

Robert Glasper Feat. Yebba - Fuck Yo Feelings

Sugaray Rayford - You and I

Steve Lacy - Playground

The Olympians - Sirens Of Jupiter

Tom Glide Feat. Shylah Vaughn - Soul Life

Timewarp Inc Feat. Georges Perin - Realistic

Theo Croker - Realize

Ash Walker Feat. Laville - Under The Sun

Javier Santiago - Phoenix

The Unbelievable Two - Super Fonque

If you really want to enjoy music and help musicians and bands, buy their lp’s or cd’s and don’t download mp3 formats. There is nothing like good quality sound!!!

(Angel Lo Verde / Mo Soul)

[piperslovebot]

The graduation class without retcons and in the proper years.

1992 - Archie Simpson, Caitlin Ryan (skipped a grade), Lucy Fernandez (valedictorian), Simon Dexter, Alexa Pappadopolos-Dexter, Christine Nelson, Derek Wheeler, Michelle Accette, Bryant Thomas, Heather Farrell, Erica Farrell, Lorraine Delacorte (left before graduation; leukemia), Liz O'Rourke, Amy Holmes, Allison Hunter, Shane McKay (left before graduation; brain damage), Stephanie Kaye (left before graduation; transferred to private school), Voula Grivogiannis (left before graduation; moved away), Joey Jeremiah (held back; didn't graduate with this class), Rick Munro (held back, wasn't gonna graduate with this class; left before graduation), Tim O'Connor, Nancy Kramer

1993 - Caitlin Ryan (skipped a grade later), Susie Rivera (left before graduating), Kathleen Mead, Melanie Brodie, Arthur Kobalewscuy, Yick Yu, Alex Yankou (probably valedictorian), Diana Economopoulos, Maya Goldberg, Joey Jeremiah (repeated), Rick Munro (repeated; left before graduating), Tessa Campanelli, Luke Matthews, Scooter Webster, Bartholomew Bond, Wai Lee, Trudi Owens , Trish Skye 

2004 - Dylan Michalchuck

2006 - Hazel Aden, Jimmy Brooks (held back; didn't graduate with this class), Sean Cameron (held back; expelled), Marco Del Rossi (valedictorian), Ashley Kerwin (left before graduation), Craig Manning (left before graduation), Spinner Mason (held back; didn't graduate with this class), Paige Michalchuk, Ellie Nash, Alex Nuñez (repeated one semester), Heather Sinclair, Fareeza, Amy Peters-Hoffman, Rick Murray (held back, wasn't gonna graduate with this class; died before graduating), Terri MacGregor (left before graduation)

2007 - Jimmy Brooks (Repeated), Damian Hayes, Toby Isaacs, Spinner Mason (repeated), Emma Nelson, Manny Santos, Liberty Van Zandt (valedictorian), Rick Murray (repeated; died before graduation), Chris Sharpe, Lucas Valieri (dropped out), J.T. Yorke , Ashley Kerwin (took a year off; dropped out), Sean Cameron (repeated)

2008 - Johnny DiMarco, Peter Stone, Danny Van Zandt,Jane Vaughn (Valedictorian), Bruce the Moose (Not seen graduating), Kendra Mason , Nadia Yamir, Darcy Edwards (left before graduation), Derek Haig (Not seen graduating), Mia Jones (held back, wasn't gonna graduate with this class; left before graduation), Chantay Black 

2009 - Sav Bhandari, Fiona Coyne (held back; didn’t graduate with this class), Anya MacPherson, Zane Park Holly J. Sinclair (valedictorian), Riley Stavros, Ethan McBride, Heather Poulette, Trish, Leia Chang (not seen graduating), Blue Chessex (not seen graduating), Declan Coyne (left before graduation), Mia Jones

2010 - Fiona Coyne (repeated; valedictorian), Mike Dallas (chose to stay back; didn't graduate with this class), Bianca DeSousa, Eli Goldsworthy, Marisol Lewis, Jake Martin, Mo Mashkour, Katie Matlin, Owen Milligan, Imogen Moreno (held back; didn't graduate with this class), Drew Torres (held back; didn't graduate with this class), Mark Fitzgerald (expelled), Julian Williams

2011 - Becky Baker, Alli Bhandari, Mike Dallas (victory Lap), Connor DeLaurier (valedictorian), Clare Edwards, Jenna Middleton, Imogen Moreno (repeated), Drew Torres (repeated), Fab Juarez, Liam Berish, Ingvar Andersson, Bo Andersson, Hannah Belmont, Cliff Jacobs, Reese, Jess Martello, Luke Baker (expelled), Wesley Betenkamp (not seen graduating), K.C. Guthrie (left before graduation), Adam Torres, Dave Turner (not seen graduating)

2012 - Jonah Haak (held back; didn't graduate with this class), Jack Jones (left before graduation), Tori Santamaria (held back; left before graduation), Campbell Saunders, Jess Martello (retconned to Class of 2014), Sadie Rowland

2013 - Tristan Milligan, Maya Matlin, Zig Novak, Zoë Rivas (valedictorian), Miles Hollingsworth III, Winston Chu, Grace Cardinal, Tiny Bell, Jonah Haak (repeated), Esme Song (held back; didn't graduate with this class), Goldi Nahir (salutatorian), Tori Santamaria (repeated; left before graduation), Damon Carter (not seen graduating)

2014 - Frankie Hollingsworth, Hunter Hollingsworth, Lola Pacini, Shay Powers, Baaz Nahir, Yael Baron, Vijay Maraj, Saad Al'Maliki, Rasha Zuabi, Esme Song (repeated), Keisha, Arlene Takahashi

2015 - Abra Al'Maliki

[cecilcooperstown]

Mo Vaughn

[vaughnsportsacademy]

Mo Vaughn's VSA Focuses on Developing Well-Rounded Athletes

 Vaughn Sports Academy (VSA), widely regarded as one of Florida's best baseball academies, was founded by former Major League slugger and MVP Mo Vaughn. Because of the school's origins, some assume it specializes in teaching young baseball players how to hit properly. Although the school does provide excellent hitting training, its comprehensive curriculum also covers other key baseball skills and is designed to develop well-rounded athletes.

The members of VSA's coaching staff serve as a testament to the school's commitment to providing comprehensive baseball education. Unsurprisingly, the team includes renowned hitting coaches like Mike Easler, one of Mo Vaughn's hitting coaches during the latter's professional playing days. 

However, the school also has the best pitching coaches on its roster, as well as mentors known for their expertise in other baseball positions. All VSA coaches are seasoned players and mentors and have experience coaching athletes of different player levels.

"Baseball is a complex sport that demands more than just the ability to hit the ball," said a VSA representative. "Our mission at VSA is to instill in our athletes the skills, discipline, and knowledge they need to excel in all areas of the sport. We're building versatile, strategic players who can help their team in every game."

In addition to teaching on-field skills, VSA's coaches guide young athletes in developing the right mentality for the game. Their approach emphasizes the importance of mental toughness, resilience, and teamwork. Having played competitively before, VSA coaches understand how essential these traits are.

"The sport involves a lot of pressure, especially if you add baseball recruitment into the mix," VSA's representative said. "There's this pressure on young athletes to be the best, or they won't get a recruitment letter. At VSA, we want to help young players develop the mental strength to face any pressure or challenge and overcome it with grace."

VSA's holistic approach has not escaped the attention of many parents and athletes. Even for the baseball camps that it organizes several times a year, the school receives a lot of inquiries from guardians seeking a reliable baseball coach in Florida for their athlete.

"I've enrolled my son in a couple of baseball camps before I tried VSA," said a parent of a VSA athlete. "But the level of dedication to player development here has been incredible, and we haven't looked back. The VSA coaches are not just focused on winning games; they genuinely care about the players' growth."

Parents and athletes interested in joining VSA will find a robust curriculum focused not just on perfecting one's swing but also on developing skills that will be helpful in all aspects of the game and life. 

About VSA

Vaughn Sports Academy is a premier baseball training facility in Boca Raton, Florida. The academy is dedicated to providing young athletes with the highest level of coaching and training, as well as access to first-rate resources that will help them achieve optimal performance. With a focus on developing all-around players, VSA prepares athletes for success on and off the field.

[xltribe]

Meet And Greet MVP Collection's Mo Vaughn At Destination XL What an amazing day I went out to the first event of The Curvy Fashionista Style Expo and met up with the folks over at MVP Collection who were hosting the meet up at the Destination XL location here in Atlanta. I got the opportunity to meet Mo and talked to him about fashion and style and even got to chop it up with his parents they were really really really nice folks. I even tried on a pair of jeans they were really nice they really soft they had a great stretch to the material I really did appreciate the thought they put into creating these jeans they really seemed like they were made by him for men of stature. One thing I learned is that so many people did not know that we are based in Atlanta Georgia. I had a great time getting to meet all the guys that I follow on social media seeing them in person and all of the ladies that I just met today. If today was anything like what the rest of the weekend will be I think we are in store for something really great. Thanks to Estrella & The Real Sample Size I manage to get all the pictures of the event last night. Estrella-Fashion Report Big Man Culture , Marv Neal, The Gentlemen's Curb Great Idea BTW @bigmanculture

[collectingall]

∀ Mo Vaughn Beckett BAS Autograph 1995 All Star Game Signed Baseball http://blog.collectingall.com/TDFh6r 👉 shrsl.com/4fuj5 👈

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Justice Warriors

Today (May 22), I’m keynoting Public Knowledge’s Emerging Tech conference in DC.

Tomorrow (May 23), I’ll be in TORONTO for a book launch for Red Team Blues that’s part of WEPFest, a benefit for the West End Phoenix, onstage with Dave Bidini (The Rheostatics), Ron Diebert (Citizen Lab) and the whistleblower Dr Nancy Olivieri.

The internet did not create Matt Bors, but the internet would be a much poorer place without Bors and his acerbic, scorchingly funny webcomics, which he publishes at The Nib (a site he founded), amongst some of the web’s most iconic humor:

https://thenib.com/

Founding The Nib and creating a home for all those great webcomics would be legacy enough for one creator, but Bors monumental accomplishment with The Nib is topped by his savage creation, Mr Gotcha, the single most effective rebuttal to the most annoying Reply Guys on the whole internet:

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Dayenu: if he had only founded The Nib, it would be enough. If he had only created Mr Gotcha, it would be enough. But Bors continues to amaze and delight. In Justice Warriors, a graphic novel he co-produced with Ben Clarkson, we get a distillate of all the weird, crazed things both grotesque and lovable about the net of a thousand lies:

https://membership.thenib.com/products/justice-warriors

Justice Warriors is what you’d get if you put Judge Dredd in a blender with Transmetropolitan and set it to chunky. The setup: the elites of a wasted, tormented world have retreated into Bubble City, beneath a hermetically sealed zone. Within Bubble City, everything is run according to the priorities of the descendants of the most internet-poisoned freaks of the modern internet, click- and clout-chasing mushminds full of corporate-washed platitudes about self-care, diversity and equity, wrapped around come-ons for sugary drinks and dubious dropshipper crapola.

Outside of Bubble City is the Unoccupied Zone, which is very much occupied with a teeming assortment of motley mutants, themselves gripped by endless crazes, fads, and trending subjects. The Uzzers are Bubble City’s hated underclass, viciously policed by the Bubble City cops, who mow them down with impunity, crying about their impending PTSD as they work the trigger.

Justice Warriors is a cop buddy-story dreamed up by Very Online, very angry creators who live in a present-day world where reality is consistently stupider than satire. As Bors told Cy Beltran in Comics Beat, “The current moment is so many things at once, it’s an omni-crisis of politics and attention — that’s what felt important to tap into, that sense of frenzy you can barely keep up with.”

https://www.comicsbeat.com/matt-bors-justice-warriors-interview/

That’s the feeling of Justice Warriors, all right. As Bors puts it, they tackle “social media derangement, celebrity culture, investment schemes, mass movements, and A.I.” in a tale with more sight-gags, densely packed literary references, and savage takedowns per page than anything you’ve ever read.

The art in this book is spectacular, styled a bit like those ultra-busy Al Jaffee full-page MAD Magazine spreads, or the Moss Eisley Cantina, or the wild alien scenes from Ben Hatke’s YA classic Zita the Space Girl kids’ graphic novels:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/06/25/zita-the-space-girl-delightful-kids-science-fiction-comic-thats-part-vaughn-bode-part-mos-eisley-cantina/

But Justice Warriors is grosser, busier, and more frenetic than any of them. As Bors describes it, they created “a chaotic mutant-infested city that tops the most sensory-overloading cities in all of comics and animation.”

Justice Warriors is a mind-altering experience. If you liked Bubble, Jordan Morris and Sarah Morgan’s apocalyptic comedy podcast/graphic novel, you’ll love Justice Warriors:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/21/podcasting-as-a-visual-medium/#huntr

This is a comic book the internet needs. In a century, when our mutant descendants wonder how it all went wrong, they can use Justice Warriors as a Rosetta Stone to make sense of the detritus of our civilization.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in DC, Toronto, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/22/libras-assemble/#the-uz

[Image ID: A panel from Justice Warriors depicting a mob of motley mutants protesting over the financialization of bread. One shouts, 'Stabilize the economy!' Another shouts, 'Bread is not money!']

[a2zsportsnews]

Making Sense of the MVP Races

Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports There’s quite a lot of bickering in sports, and not many things bring out more vehement disagreement than discussions involving who should get various awards. Even now, nearly 30 years later, when I think about Mo Vaughn beating out Albert Belle for the 1995 AL MVP, or Dante Bichette finishing second in that year’s NL race despite putting up just 1.8 WAR, I…

[enterdcc]

bold means the character is currently in use. italics means that the character is currently reserved. asterisk means that the character is taken by an admin.

adam torres

alex nunez

alli bhandari

amy peters - hoffman

anya macpherson

arlene takahashi

ashley kerwin

baaz nahir

becky baker

bianca desousa

blue chessex

campbell saunders

chantay black

chris sharpe

clare edwards

connor delaurier

craig manning

damian hayes

danny van zandt

darcy edwards

declan coyne

drew torres

dylan michalchuk

eli goldsworthy

ellie nash

emma nelson

esme song

fiona coyne

frankie hollingsworth

grace cardinal

goldi nahir

hazel aden

heather sinclair

holly j sinclair

hunter hollingsworth

imogen moreno

jack jones

jake martin

jane vaughn

jay hogart *

jenna middleton

jess martello

jimmy brooks

johnny dimarco

jonah haak

jt yorke

katie matlin

kc guthrie

kendra mason

leia chang

liberty van zandt

lola pacini

lucas valieri

manny santos

marco del rossi

marisol lewis

maya matlin

mia jones

mike dallas

miles hollingsworth

mo mashkour

owen milligan

paige michalchuk

peter stone

rasha zuabi

riley stavros

saad al'maliki

sadie rowland

sav bhandari

sean cameron

shay powers

spinner mason

terri macgregor

tiny bell

tori santamaria

tristan milligan

toby isaacs

vijay maraj

wesley betenkamp

winston chu

yael baron

zane park

zig novak

zoe rivas