#officer hines

[e2castiel]

Mr. Dent, come with me. No, come on.

[nerdysquirrel]

Attention all rookies! New magnet just dropped.

[mercurialkitty]

Chad Fiveash's LEGO GothamKnights!

This show had the showrunners this fandom deserved. We're sorry we didn't get to keep them, but let's remember the imaginative, kick-ass LEGO GK.

Penultimate - City of Owls, Episode 12 - post 1

[djkerr]

Gary Cole reprising the iconic Bill Lumbergh from Office Space in a 2015 ad campaign for HipChat. One of his future NCIS partners in crime-solving, Diona Reasonover, was also in a couple of the ads. ✨

��Technology develops so quickly, I liked the idea of Lumbergh colliding with new ideas and being completely baffled. Plus, I had a random urge to wear suspenders and drink coffee from a labeled mug.” ~Gary Cole

[source]

[concertphotos]

San Francisco Financial District Aerial View by David Oppenheimer Via Flickr: San Francisco Financial District aerial view - © 2024 David Oppenheimer - Performance Impressions aerial photography archives - performanceimpressions.com

[twilightkitkat]

I'm so sorry if i'm annoying you. But like do you think in the movies he had some prepping before the bonding? We see him getting drawn on with sharpie by Dr. Hines and a shot of him getting injected with contrast agent for the X-rays. But i like to think they also coated his teeth in a clear liquid to strengthen them so he wouldn't break them biting down on his mouth guard during the adamantium bonding. That's why he avoids dentists now. Also he probably was injected with prepping fluid as these pictures show. And now he is afraid of needles and when Wade wants to take him to the doctor for check up routine he is nervous like a dog going to the vet. Thoughts on this?

You aren't annoying me at all, I really enjoy answering your questions because I love talking about science. If I don't get to it immediately, it's just because I'm thinking of an answer or I need to find time where I can go through and respond to my asks.

I actually used this same image as a basis for my knowledge about Logan's procedure. He definitely had prepping before the bonding. We see clearly how adamantium slices straight through regular bone, drills would cause his bones to break under pressure at the wrong angle.

I also think that they probably messed with his mouth some, whether it was a protecting or superpowered numbing gel. Logan has sharper teeth than the average person and a higher bone density, so they also would want to make sure they didn't break through his mouth guard.

Logan would have trauma around all doctors, honestly. It doesn't matter if it's a dentist or surgeon or just a check-up, he's immediately on guard.

Every part of him was violated in that procedure. His trust, his mind, his body, and his memories. He can still feel the uncomfortable itch as fluid was injected into him and the searing pain when the adamantium was bonded to his bones.

Being in any kind of medical situation reminds him of that pain and headspace and the panic he felt. He was screaming and thrashing and nobody fucking helped him. They tried to turn him into a weapon against his will. His body and mind will never recover from that.

I think that the best Wade is gonna get is an agreement for an at-home family doctor checkup. The thought of going into a doctor's office makes Logan anxious as hell, and he'd rather do it on his own terms where he feels more comfortable and in control. And Wade has to be there the entire time or he won't do it. Wade would lightly tease him if he wasn't touched by the thought that Logan trusted him enough to want him there for something tied to his trauma.a

[mariacallous]

Immigration is one of the most important topics in this presidential election cycle. Former President Trump has promised to conduct a massive deportation effort that would remove millions of people per year. The latest statistics show about 11 million unauthorized immigrants are living in the U.S., and several million more people have arrived in the past two years on parole or with an uncertain legal future. Would a mass deportation effort improve the U.S. economy and provide more jobs for U.S.-born workers? Recent, rigorous economics research sheds light on the consequences of increasing the number of deportations on the U.S. labor market. This research consistently points to deportations hurting the U.S. labor market and leading to worse labor market outcomes for U.S.-born workers.

Landscape of deportations in the US

A deportation is a mandatory departure of a noncitizen out of the U.S. based on a formal order of removal. Official estimates of the cost of deportations are scarce but the best estimates suggest that each deportation costs about $13,000 in current dollars.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of deportations in the U.S. in the last few decades. Deportations, including removals at the border and those from the interior, increased from about 200,000 per year in the early 2000s to 400,000 per year in the late 2000s. Deportations were then steady at about 300,000 per year until the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the pandemic, deportations of long-term residents have fallen, but other types of removals from the U.S. increased, especially at the border.

A real-world test of the effects of deportation

To isolate the causal effects of deportations on the economy, economists study the rollout of an immigration enforcement policy called Secure Communities (SC). The Secure Communities program increased information sharing between local law enforcement agencies and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with the express purpose to identify and deport people who were in the U.S. without authorization. About 400,000 people were deported under SC between 2008 and 2014, after which SC was replaced with the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP). While the first counties implemented SC in 2008, it was implemented county by county with the last counties implementing the program in 2013. The timing of enactment was based on how close the counties were to ICE offices and how quickly the technology could be set up in a county. Bottlenecks in implementation meant some counties were put on waitlists. Because of this, the exact timing of when a county implemented SC was out of their direct control, and counties that adopted the program early compared to late are otherwise very similar. Thus, researchers can compare the labor market outcomes in counties that implemented SC earlier compared to later.

While only people who were arrested had their immigration status checked under SC, the policy nonetheless impacted a large portion of immigrants. There were broad “chilling effects” of the policy that meant even people not targeted for deportation became fearful of leaving their house to do routine things like go to work. This is partly because the program did not only target serious criminals—the most serious criminal conviction for 79% of those deported was non-violent, including traffic violations and immigration offenses, and another 17% were not convicted of any crime.  

Increased deportation is associated with poorer economic outcomes for US-born workers 

Across multiple studies, economists have found that once SC is implemented, the number of foreign-born workers in that county declines and the employment rate among U.S.-born workers also declines. My research with Annie Hines, Philip Luck, Hani Mansour, and Andrea Velásquez finds that when half a million immigrants are removed from the labor market because of enforcement (due to deportations and indirectly due to chilling effects), this reduces the number of U.S.-born people working by 44,000.

Why do deportations hurt the economic outcomes of U.S.-born workers? The prevailing view used to be that foreign-born and U.S.-born workers are substitutes, meaning that when one foreign-born worker takes a job, there is one less job for a U.S.-born worker. But economists have now shown several reasons why the economy is not a zero-sum game: because unauthorized immigrants work in different occupations from the U.S.-born, because they create demand for goods and services, and because they contribute to the long-run fiscal health of the country.

First, unauthorized immigrant workers and U.S.-born workers work in different types of jobs. Figure 1 shows the percentage of unauthorized immigrant workers, authorized immigrant workers, and U.S.-born workers that are in each of the 15 most common occupations among unauthorized immigrants.

It is clear that unauthorized immigrants take low-paying, dangerous and otherwise less attractive jobs more frequently than both U.S.-born workers and authorized immigrant workers. For example, almost 6% of unauthorized immigrants work as housekeepers, construction laborers, or cooks, compared to about 2% of authorized immigrant workers and 1% of U.S.-born workers (See Figure 1).

Occupations common among unauthorized workers, such as construction laborers and cooks, are essential to keep businesses operating. Deporting workers in these jobs affects U.S.-born workers too. For example, when construction companies have a sudden reduction in available laborers, they must reduce the number of construction site managers they hire. Similarly, local restaurants need cooks to stay open and hire for other positions like waiters, which are more likely to be filled by U.S.-born workers.

Caregiving and household service jobs are also common among unauthorized immigrants. The availability and cost of these services in the private market greatly impacts whether people can work outside the home. My research with Andrea Velásquez and new research by Umair Ali, Jessica Brown and Chris Herbst find that Secure Communities impacted the childcare market—the supply of childcare workers fell. This led to a reduction in the number of college-educated mothers with young children working in the formal labor market.

Several recent Brookings pieces have highlighted the role that immigrants play in caregiving jobs, which are becoming increasingly important as the U.S. population ages. These pieces call for increasing the number of legal pathways for immigrants willing to work in these types of jobs to come to the U.S.

Another important way in which immigrants help create jobs for U.S.-born workers is that unauthorized immigrants contribute to local demand for goods and services like haircuts, food, and cars. This means deportations lead to less revenue for local barber shops, grocery stores, and auto dealerships, causing them to hire fewer workers, including U.S.-born workers.

Finally, deportations impact tax revenue and the fiscal health of the federal, state, and local governments. A comprehensive study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that, in a given year, each foreign-born person and their dependents pay on average $1,300 more in federal taxes than they receive in federal benefits, and, looking over a 75-year time horizon, immigrants are a net fiscal positive at all levels—they pay $237,000 more in taxes over their lifetime than they receive in benefits from federal, state, and local governments. While these estimates are not broken out by immigration status, the study indicates that the net fiscal impacts of unauthorized immigrants are larger than authorized immigrants because unauthorized immigrants are more likely to be of working age. Thus, deportations reduce tax revenue both because of a reduction in taxes paid by unauthorized immigrants, and through a reduction in taxes paid by U.S.-born workers who lose their jobs.  Unauthorized immigrants and their children also facilitate the solvency of the Social Security and Medicare systems by paying into these systems when they are not eligible to receive any benefits.

Implications for policy

Immigration law has not been comprehensively updated for 34 years and as a result is designed for an outdated labor market and an outdated demographic reality.  With so much political discussion about immigration this year, it’s important to understand the role of unauthorized immigrant workers in the U.S. economy. Recent economics research shows that unauthorized immigrant workers help to create more jobs for U.S.-born workers. Large-scale deportation efforts would be very disruptive in some industries and would hamstring the current growth in employment, which has been driven in large part by increased immigration. Instead, Congress should set its sights on reform and expansions in legal immigration pathways.

[darkmaga-returns]

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) is pushing forward in Missouri v. Biden, aiming to uncover the depth of government-led censorship on social media. This legal action follows a June Supreme Court ruling that vacated a preliminary injunction in the case, previously known as Murthy v. Missouri, which barred officials from the White House, CDC, FBI, CISA, and the Surgeon General’s office from pressuring social media platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech.

NCLA’s clients, including prominent figures such as Drs. Jayanta Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff, and Aaron Kheriaty, as well as free speech advocate Jill Hines, allege that they were systematically blacklisted, shadow-banned, de-boosted, throttled, and even suspended across major social media platforms due to their viewpoints on Covid-19, public health, and government policies. NCLA claims this censorship campaign was orchestrated as part of a “whole-of-government” initiative that saw coordinated efforts across a dozen federal agencies, with direction from top White House officials.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Canary Media:

Buildings everywhere need to get off fossil fuels in order to help the world avoid climate catastrophe. Yet owners of large commercial buildings in New York City are especially feeling the pressure: The groundbreaking Local Law 97 takes effect this year, requiring buildings of more than 25,000 square feet to meet specific emissions limits, which become more stringent in 2030, or face hefty fines.

One cutting-edge retrofit project is underway at the corner of Hudson and Charlton streets in lower Manhattan. The 17-story Art Deco office building, built in 1931, is ditching its fossil-gas boiler for uber-efficient electric heat pumps that are both heaters and air conditioners. They’re key components of a system that aims to heat and cool the building more efficiently by capturing thermal energy that would otherwise be wasted.

The state is backing the demonstration project, which could serve as a model to decarbonize the more than 6,000 high-rises that punctuate New York City’s skyline. As part of the Empire Building Challenge, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) awarded $5 million to the 345 Hudson project in 2022, which also has more than $30 million in private funding.

Project leader Benjamin Rodney estimates that once the project is complete in 2030, the building will use 25 percent less energy than a conventional design and reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 70 percent relative to 2019 levels. As the grid cleans up, he expects the figure to climb to 90 percent by 2035. The deep emissions cuts will allow the building owner, Hudson Square Properties — a joint venture of Hines, Trinity Church Wall Street, and Norges Bank Investment Management — to avoid more than $200,000 in fines annually starting in 2030.

But more importantly, it could help other building owners determine how best to eliminate emissions — a crucial task given that nearly 70 percent of the city’s carbon pollution stems from the fossil fuels used to heat and power its buildings.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

The disappearance of Danielle Stislicki 

Dec. 2, 2016, was a cold Friday night. Stislicki, 28, left work at around 5 p.m. Witnesses said they saw her leaving the parking lot of her MetLife office on Telegraph Road in Southfield with Floyd Galloway, a security guard who worked in her office. Galloway was known to seek out or flirt with Stislicki, and had previously sent her flowers.

Galloway told police he had worked until 11 p.m. that night. Investigators later learned that Galloway did not work and had called off for a “doctor appointment.” The witness said that night Galloway was in the parking lot with the hood up on his Buick Regal -- indicating he had car trouble, according to court documents.

Her co-worker told police that they later saw Galloway in the passenger seat of Stislicki’s Jeep Renegade. They said Stislicki was leaving the parking lot and waiting to turn north onto Telegraph Road. Prosecutors said Stislicki’s phone pinged with a cellular tower nearest to Galloway’s home in Berkley.

Stislicki had plans to get to dinner with her best friend that evening but did not show up and did not contact her friend. She was never seen again.

On Dec. 3, 2016, Stislicki’s Jeep Renegade was found outside her apartment. Stislicki’s best friend, the one she was supposed to have dinner with the night before, contacted Stislicki’s parents and they went to her apartment in the Independence Green complex in Farmington Hills. When they arrived, they found her vehicle in its normal spot -- just eight feet from her door. Her purse, ID and credit cards were found inside her vehicle. Her phone, a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime with a rose-gold case, and keys were missing. They contacted the police and initiated the first missing person report. Her belongings and her cat were still in her apartment. Police weren’t sure if she drove the Jeep to her apartment or if someone else did.

On Dec. 19, 2016, police announced that they believed Stislicki was the victim of a crime. On Dec. 22, 2016, police searched Galloway’s home for evidence in Stislicki’s disappearance.

They discovered that a patch of carpet had recently been replaced in his bedroom. They tested the carpet adjacent to the replaced patch and found “very strong support” that Stislicki’s DNA was on the carpet. Investigators also discovered that Galloway had purchased a new comforter from Bed, Bath, and Beyond on Dec. 4, 2016 -- two days after Stislicki vanished.

What prosecutors say happened the night Stislicki vanished:

8 p.m.: Stislicki’s phone communicates with towers on the route between Galloway’s home and her apartment. Security footage shows a vehicle matching hers moving toward her apartment.

8:40 p.m.: Security camera footage from Tim Horton’s (a 10 minute walk from Stislicki’s apartment) shows Galloway getting coffee and using the business’ phone.

Police later found her keys and FitBit in the area between her apartment and the Tim Horton’s.

9 p.m.: Cab driver says she picked up Galloway from Tim Horton’s and dropped him off at an apartment complex about 1,000 feet from the workplace parking lot.

9:35 p.m.: A vehicle matching Galloway’s was found on security cameras driving toward his home.

On June 27, 2017, Galloway was arrested in connection with the attempted sexual assault of a jogger in Hines Park. Galloway told a judge on Nov. 21, 2017, that he had tried to rape a woman on Sept. 4, 2016 when she was jogging at Hines Park in Livonia.

Galloway was ordered to stand trial in Stislicki’s murder on Sept. 10, 2019. At a hearing, a judge ruled that there was enough evidence to send Galloway to trial in her murder. At that point, it had been nearly three years since she vanished. Due to complications, the trial is still ongoing.

[cherryblossomshadow]

No (Federal) Taxes on Tips

No Tax on Tips by the Daily Show ft Desi Lydic

Desi Lydic: It's weird he's even talking about sending teachers to the gulag, because Trump has more popular policies, like his proposal to end taxes on tips, which is so popular that Kamala Harris now says that SHE supports it. And Trump is not happy about that … Look, to be fair, Kamala did copy Trump's no tax on tips idea,

which would make it the first time in history that a woman got credit for repeating a man's idea.

We did it, girls. And she didn't stop there. Kamala also completely ripped off his idea to lead in the polls by 3 points against a rapidly deteriorating candidate. That was his thing. That was his thing.

.

Harris v. Trump on Taxing Tips by Robert Reich

Kamala Harris, Saturday, in Las Vegas: Raise the minimum wage. And eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers Donald Trump, at Mar-A-Lago: We’re gonna have no tax on tips. Very simple

Ali Velshi from MSNBC: The Trump plan sounds like it's for regular people, but it could easily be a backdoor way to give big tax breaks to rich people who can reclassify their commission income as tips

Robert Reich: You betcha. In fact, we are going to see all kinds of things reclassified as tips. You can bet that private equity managers and hedge fund managers, who are now in the seven or eight digit classification, suddenly a lot of what they earn will become tips. At least under Donald Trump's proposal, because it's not — there are no guardrails. There's no limits to who can declare what as tips Ali Velshi from MSNBC: The key difference in Kamala Harris’ no taxes on tips proposal is that it's only for service and hospitality workers RR: I think it could be helpful if combined, as Kamala Harris wants to do, with a minimum wage hike. And also limit it so that Wall Street commission professionals can't sort of reclassify their income as tips. By the way, let me just say one further thing about this, and that is that the Labor Department under Donald Trump DID change the regulations to allow employers to take the tipped incomes of their employees and use it for their profits.. I mean, it's quite rich that Donald Trump has jumped on this one

.

Americans For Tax Fairness (@/4TaxFairness)

"No taxes on tips" isn't the win you think it is. Most tipped workers wouldn't get much of a tax cut at all. But you know who would? Corporations that employ tipped workers and the wealthy who can relabel their income as "tips" at will. Pass.

(Title of the above image is Table 1: The No Tax on Tips Act would provide no or paltry tax cuts to many tipped employees – far less than restoring American Rescue Plan tax credits)

.

Robert Reich (@/RBReich) quote-retweeted with:

Trump keeps touting plans to not tax tips. But estimates show that a majority of tipped workers wouldn't benefit.  Who would benefit? Big earners like hedge fund managers who could convert their fees into "tips" and get big tax breaks. It's another Trump tax scam.

.

Why Trump's and Harris' proposals to end federal taxes on tips would be difficult to enact

By Dee-Ann Durbin | The Associated Press

Quotes:

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris agree on one thing, at least: Both say they want to eliminate federal taxes on workers’ tips.

But experts say there’s a reason Congress hasn’t made such a change already. It would be complicated, not to mention enormously costly to the federal government, to enact. It would encourage many higher-paid workers to restructure their compensation to classify some of it as “tips” and thereby avoid taxes. And, in the end, it likely wouldn’t help millions of low-income workers.

“There’s no way that it wouldn’t be a mess,” said James Hines Jr., a professor of law and economics and the research director of the Office of Tax Policy Research at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Both candidates unveiled their plans in Nevada, a state with one of the highest concentrations of tipped service workers in the country. Trump announced a proposal to exclude tips from federal taxes on June 9. Harris announced a similar proposal on Aug. 10.

.

Harris’ campaign has said she would work with Congress to draft a proposal that would include an income limit and other provisions to prevent abuses by wealthy individuals who might seek to structure their compensation to classify certain fees as tips.

Her campaign said these requirements, which it did not specify, would be intended “to prevent hedge fund managers and lawyers from structuring their compensation in ways to try to take advantage of the policy.” Trump's campaign has not said whether its proposal would include any such requirements.

Even so, Hines suggested that millions of workers — not just wealthy ones — would seek to change their compensation to include tips, and could even do so legally. For example, he said, a company might set up a separate entity that would reward its employees with tips instead of year-end bonuses.

“You will have taxpayers pushing their attorneys to try to characterize their wage and salary income as tips,” Hines said. “And some would be successful, inevitably, because it’s impossible to write foolproof rules that will cover every situation."

.

Though supporters say the measures are designed to help low-wage workers, many experts say that making tips tax-free would provide only limited help to those workers.

The Budget Lab at Yale, a non-partisan policy research center, estimates that there were 4 million U.S. workers in tipped occupations in 2023. That amounted to about 2.5% of all employees, including restaurant servers and beauticians. Tipped workers tend to be younger, with an average age of 31, and of lower income. The Budget Lab said the median weekly pay for tipped workers in 2023 was $538, compared with roughly $1,000 for non-tipped workers.

As a result, many tipped workers already bear a lower income-tax burden. In 2022, 37% of tipped workers had incomes low enough that they paid no federal income tax at all, The Budget Lab said.

“If the issue is you’re concerned about low-income taxpayers, there are a lot better ways to address that problem, like expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit or changing tax rates or changing deductions,” Hines said.

In her speech in Nevada, Harris also called for raising the federal minimum wage. (The platform on Trump’s campaign site doesn’t mention the minimum wage.)

Changing federal tax policy on tips would also be costly. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan group, estimates that exempting all tip income from federal income and payroll taxes would reduce revenue by $150 billion to $250 billion between 2026 and 2035. And it said that amount could rise significantly if the policy changed behavior and more people declared tip income.

Whether Trump or Harris wins the presidential election, tax policy will be high on Congress’ agenda in 2025. That’s because Trump-era tax cuts, passed in 2017, are set to expire. But Hines said he thinks Congress will be in no hurry to add “vast amounts of complexity” to the tax code.

“A presidential candidate can say whatever they want, but it's the House and Senate that have to do it,” he said.

[burnsoregonphotoblog]

25 Office - Edward Hines Lumber Co. - Replica of Mount Vernon - Hines, Oregon

Lemon's Studio Burns, Ore

This location is now a bed and breakfast. https://www.hinespinemillhouse.com/

[rennerator]

YES YES YES!!!!!! S2 These are ALL SOOOO F* GOOD!!!!!!! AWWWWWWWWWWW I LOVE THEM!!!! I LOVE THEM ALL!!!!!!! :D LOVE LOVE LOVE Thank YOU!!!! Thank YOU SO SOOO MUCH for these!!! You are AMAZING!!!!! :) <3 #SaveGothamKnights

While we’re all waiting for Season 2 here have some retail therapy:

[lboogie1906]

George Edwin Taylor (August 4, 1857 – December 23, 1925) was the candidate of the National Negro Liberty Party for the office of POTUS in 1904.

Born in the pre-Civil War South, he would become the first African American selected by a political party to be its candidate for POTUS.

He was born in Little Rock to Amanda Hines and Bryant (Nathan) Taylor. At the age of two, he moved with his mother to Illinois. He attended Wayland University. He went to work for the La Crosse Free Press and the La Crosse Evening Star. He produced newspaper columns for local papers as well as articles for the Chicago Inter Ocean.

He sided with one of the competing labor factions in La Crosse and helped re-elect the pro-labor mayor, Frank “White Beaver” Powell. He became a leader and officeholder in Wisconsin’s statewide Union Labor Party, and his newspaper, the Wisconsin Labor Advocate, became one of the newspapers of the party.

He was a member of the Wisconsin delegation to the first national convention of the Union Labor Party. His race became an issue, and he responded to the criticism by writing about African American issues.

He moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa where he continued his interest in politics, first in the Republican Party and then with the Democrats. He owned and edited the Negro Solicitor, and became president of the National Colored Men’s Protective Association and the National Negro Democratic League. He aligned himself with the Populist faction that attempted to reform the Democratic Party.

He and other independent-minded African Americans joined the first national political party created exclusively for and by African Americans, the National Liberty Party. The NLP Executive Committee approached him to be the party’s candidate.

The 1904 campaign was his last foray into politics. He moved to Jacksonville, Florida. There he edited a succession of newspapers and was director of the African American branch of the local YMCA. He was married three times but had no children. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[thebisexualdogdad]

Can I please request harper row x gender neutral reader. Reader and Harper were super close, Reader had slight feelings for her and went to tell her, only to find Stephanie(idk how to spell her name,lol) and Harper kissing. They don't see r, and r kinda distances themself from Harper.

Harper Row x GN!reader

You thought she knew. 

You thought she felt the same. 

At first you pushed down your feelings for Harper, you had way bigger things to be worrying about right now but she was always in the back of your mind. 

There were long nights talking in the library until the sun came up, there was sneaking out of the belfry and driving around Gotham in her car to clear your minds when you were restless, there were lingering glances after impressively breaking into buildings together. 

In the last few months you had grown closer to her than anyone you ever had before. 

The situation with the court of owls was escalating and only growing more dangerous after Turner nearly died, it was now or never. 

"Have you seen Harper?" You ask Cullen who is changing out of his officer Hines uniform after rescuing Turner from the cops. 

"I think she's upstairs," he replies, pulling his fake mustache off. 

You're ready to finally tell Harper all the things you've been too afraid to say but when you arrive at the top of the stairs your heart drops. 

There she is… kissing Stephanie. 

They don't see you and you quickly make your escape, holding back tears. 

That night you can't sleep and in the morning the pain cuts even deeper when Harper and Stephanie walk in smiling and holding hands. 

You can't look at them, it hurts too much. 

So you do the only thing you can, distance yourself from Harper. 

It's a week later when Harper confronts you in the library.

"What's up with you? You've barely spoken to me the last few days." 

"Why does it matter, you have Stephanie now," you say more harshly than you meant to.

"What does Stephanie have to do with this?" She asks confused, "I thought you'd be happy for me." 

You want to be happy for her, all you want is for Harper to be happy. 

You just wish she could be happy with you. 

So you say nothing. 

"Y/N," she says. 

"I'm fine I'm just feeling claustrophobic being confined in this damn belfry all the time," you lie. 

"Do you want to go for a drive? We can go down to the docks and get some fresh air," she suggests. 

"I think I'd rather be alone right now," you say, shutting the book you were reading. 

"Alright," Harper says with a tint of hurt in her voice. 

You instantly regret the way you had been acting seeing the look on her face but you couldn't tell her the truth. 

She walks away and once again tears form in your eyes. 

If Stephanie was who she wanted to be with then you would be happy for her, even if it meant lying to yourself. 

If only she knew what she meant to you.

[popculturebuffet]

Into The Spider-Verse: Spider-Man Noir (SM Noir #1-4) (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy true believers? What is this I hear? What wonderous thing? Could it be the jazz piano's ring? A dimly lit light above the doooor could it be… noir? Noir, what is it good for, it's good for you it's good for me and it's our next stop on the spider-verse train. It also might strengthen the economy

Like SP/DR Spider-Man noir is a bit diffrent in the source material. In the movie he's mostly a bunch of detective cliches strung together with the dulcet tones of nicholas woooooooomotherfuuuucccckkiiing cage, one of another spider-person mostly there for jokes and to give a phenomenal actor something to do. Out of the three he gets the least to do character wise: Spider Pig gets plenty of mileage out of being a talking pig, cartoon physics shenanigans and being played by Baby J, and Peni gets both plenty of utility in fights and SP/DR's emotional death. In contrast Noir is just again mostly played off the strength of being Nicholas Woooooooomotherfffuuuuckiing cage. Noir in the comics though.. he's a fairly tragic well done character using a part of spider-man's character that people don't tend to think of and a 30's noir setting to craft a compelling tale of revenge, responsiblity and doing what's right. Noir , like Miles, was part of a subline with marvel if a mostly forgotten one outside of spidey: Marvel Noir. The concept came about when a french comics editor pitched a noir version of spider-man to writer David Hine, whose career is all over the place, mostly filling in for various other writers, with his most notable works being this mini series and District X, a mutant based police procedrual, both speaking to his love of gritty crime stuff. He co plotted the mini and it's sequel Eyes Without A Face, which I might cover depending on how this one does, with said editor Fabrice Sapbobliski. Marvel realized what they had and thus launched had underated comics legend Fred Van Lete craft an x-men series that I weridly HAVEN'T read but will likely cover as my attitude to most x-men stories is

WIth both series getting sequels, along with evne more noir titles for Daredevil, Wolverine, Luke Cage and Punisher, all ones i'd be willing to look at, along with an iron man one to run alongside the x-men and spider-man sequels. Spidey Noir would go on to be a key part of the spider-verse, before dying, getting better, and getting another mini I haven't read, but the line itself kinda faded into the mists. The combo of the inherently cool concept, spidey getting more multiverse team ups than the others, and the deft writing of this one. But how'd it hold up this reading? How does spidey adapt to a gritty noir story? Why does it tie in shockingly well with the characters history? Find out bellow!

Issue one begins with, in natural noir fashion, in media res. Even if your not familiar with the name, your familiar with the trope; we begin in the middle or towards the end of the story and then work back to how we got here.

The here in this case is a bunch of police busting into J. Jonah Jameson's office to find…

Naturally Spidey didn't do it but since the cops, as always no matter the time or relative dimension ins pace, shoot first ask questions later and Noir flees into the night.

Three weeks earlier, and the story proper begins: Ben Ulrich is taking pictures of the homeless for the daily bugle and also serving as our narrator. The Great Depression is in full swing and many has suffered with the bugle profiting off that. For those less familiar with Spidey's supporting cast, Ben is an older journalist who tries to mentor peter on occasion and serves as a source of info for our hero, taking turns with city editor Robbie Robertson in providing peter with exposition on the villian of the week. That said while Ben frequently pops up in spidey stories in this role, and to serve as a supporting character for his nephew Phil, aka the heroic green goblin and one of many less than heroic hobgoblins, his biggest roles have been outside the web of spider-man: he served as a major character in Dennis Hopless' underated Spider-Woman run , finding cases for Jessica to solve, and most recently was a MAJOR part of Gerry Duggan's x-men, finding out mutankind could ressurect, getting the knowledge wiped from him, then having it restored by Cyclops who never signed off on that and helped break the story to soften the backlash, a decision that's having repercussions to this day and likely will continue to as fall of x begins. He's most writers go to when they need a writer at the bugle. He's mostly known for being part of Daredevil's cast though, having figured out his id and then refused to print it, serving as an ally and confidant to matt from then on.

Here he's a bit diffrent: he's still a beaten down experinced joruanlist, but the greasier kind. Like I said most of his stories are depression era misery porn. He has a sense of justice.. but it's been beaten down by how broken the system is as we'll soon see. For now he's paticuarlly shadowing May Parker, in this unvierse a socialist firebrand who wants basic rights for all. It's funny how we're STILL fighting for that nearly a hundred years later

She's naturally dismissed as a socialist and oddly it's not the police who beat her down.. but hired goons

These are the enforcers, unchanged from their role in the main marvel universe. The Enforcers are early foes of spideys and personal faviorites of mine: Muscle man ox, skeezy mustache man and swift with a punch of a knife fancy dan, and bullwhip expert montana. They mostly show up in crime related stories and are a group partly because spidey being spidey could likely wreck their shit alone. Their also not really used a TON thanks to that, but I like their cool apperances and unique status as some of spidey's only rogues who don't use gadgets, powers or super suits. It's just pure skill or muscle in ox's case.

Their also an emblem of why spidey adapts so well to this setting: Versatility: Spidey has dealt with space, magic, and most often costumed menaces. But just as common as punching guys dressed as birds or insects is organized crime. Peter often deals with Crimebosss, especially early on with Kingpin having debuted as one of his rogues and still often showing up as a thorn in our heroes side. Even the Green Goblin and Doc Ock have weirdly gotten involved with crime wars and most goblin stories for either Gobby or Hobby have them taking over crime for some reason. So taking peter and plopping him in a mob style noir stoir and making him a more 30's style pulp vigilante fits like a glove and what' sused of his cast likewise adapts gracefully as we'll see. Their scaled down to fit the realistic tone more , but they still fit perfectly. For now though let's get back to the story. The Enforcers ask may to go back to russia ya commie, which again sadly is something that STILL fucking happens. Seriously you can lovfe a country and still crticize it. I don't like how badly this country treats immigrants, trans persons, queer people in general, children or mental health and tha'ts just the SHORT list, you can crticize something because you want better. And that's what May's doing: She dosen't want to leave america, she just wants people to not be starving on the streets because a few big shots got greedy and fucked it up for the rest of us. Are we sure this isn't the 1930's? Absolutely positive?

Anyways, before Montana can whip an old lady, whip her good, Ben comes in, and while Ox wants to pummel him, he's mysteriously off limits, though the enforcers don't like it. We find that like May around the same time in the mainline comics, May is runnig a shelter. I prefer this brand of aunt may and i'm glad it carried to the mcu: fighting for her community, rabble rousing, instead of just waiting to die basically and serving as a reson peter can't go public with his id lest she have a heart attack.

The encorcers work for the Goblin, no prize for guessing whose counterpart he is, the local mob boss who peter KNOWS killed uncle ben. This peter.. is full of rage and understandably so: the police did nothing to catch his uncle's killer and the mobsters despite seemingly having no reason to, attack him and his aunt for just trying to do the right thing.

Ben decides to help educate peter why things are this way, taking him to the black cat club. In this universe instead of stealing fancy things Felcia Hardy runs a fancy speakeasy.. and it's there Peter sees the mayor, the cheif of vice squad, and an industralist Ben spoke out against.. and is thus why he died. As Ben explains the attack on May isn't personal, the Goblin is simply a mercinary at the end of the day: the various big wigs all help clear the job in some way, and the goblin does it to give all these creepy assholes denablity. After all the police don't strike may.. because the police attacking an old woman looks bad. But some petty thugs beating up an old woman is just buisness. They can turn a blind eye to that. The Goblin does some work for hire and in return he can do whatever he wants… which is really how this job works, just with less elder abuse.

We also get an actual look at the Goblin himself: Norman looks normal enough with his Goblin name a mystery, but has mysterious ties to the psychics as his right and left hand men are both freak show alumni: The Vulture, who in this universe is a carnival geek. Which means he bites chickens heads off eddy.. and yeah it's as fucked up a practice as it sounds. Watch the film nightmare alley for a more in depth examination of this. And then you have Kraven who here is an animal trainer instead of a big game hunter, but it still fits as while a hunter Kraven does frequently used trained animals, lions and alligators mostly, against spider-man.

Peter decides to rage against the machine but despite all that rage he's still just a rat in Norman's cage and only dosen't die because he's with Ben. Ben wonders what the hell he was thinking, but Peter responds that he just.. can't stand there and do nothing while Norman gets to gloat about what he's done. So Ben finds a more healthy outlet for his new sidekick's anger: the daily bugle.

This JJJ is about what you'd expect: he has the usual sesantionalist asshole bent you see, but a heart of gold, agreeing to help peter pay for school for getting him pictures of human misery since he dosen't have a spider-man yet to get pictures of.

I do like how peter, unlike most continuities, dosen't jump RIGHT to photography thougH: ben simply has peter carry his shit and learn how to by watching… and watch he does as we see tons of misery ending with a woman whose husband comitted scucide to escape his debts.. unware the goblin's just gonna put it on his wife because wherever you are in time or space, norman osborn is objectively the worst human being. Except weirdly the main universe right now. Peter is still fired up though… and later that evening ben muses on that, how he used to have the same passion for justice before he got broken down and worries peter's rage will consume him, turning him into the same burnt out shell.. and also worries because we finally get a clear picture of his hinted connection to the goblin… as he reveals that contrary to what peter, who found ben's corpse , assume it wasn't a wild animal that killed uncle ben.. but the vulture who has razor sharp teeth and an unhinged jaw… the visual.. is truly horrifying… but the important part is how ben knows it..

We open issue 2 with Peter and Ben watching some apartments go up, with Peter having upgraded to actually taking the pictures himself… and still spinning at how the Goblin is just blatantly getting away with this. Fancy Dan was on sight. But taking it to the police won't do anything and while Ben is determined to keep his head down… Peter refuses, citing what Uncle Ben told him about the great war

I love this socalist take on the old mantra.. and it's not wrong. When someone in power is corrupt we have to do everything we can to get rid of them. It just often dosen't work because the system isn't BUILT to remove corruption but support it. It was true in alternate 1930's new york and it's true now. That night Peter visits Ben who feeling guilty for watching the other ben die is down booze avenue… while PEter gets a phone call from one of ben's informant's calling ben "the spider" and telling him the goblins goons are opening up some artifacts swindled from the museum.

Said artifacts are spider-idols from… some place far away. They look african in design but what country on the massive contient I can't tell ya just yet. The point is when fancy dan touches the idol he's swarmed with about 80 dozen posions giant spiders and dies horribly…. i'd show you this but given my reaction to just SEEING the page myself

And my general arachnnophobia… hard no. I do howeve rhave to show you what happens when one bites peter. Turns out it was a test of worthness.. of sorts

…. also I question why the spider god needed a teenager naked for this. Just saying. Peter wakes up in a coccoon because this comic is determined to break me it seems, but Peter finds he now has spider sense, his muscular, you know all the usual spider man stuff. He can also naturally shoot webs. I like the mystical bent here too, helps the pulp feel of things since they often used tribalism. Granted that comes with the asterix that it shoudl've been something a tad more specific like anasasi, an actual spider-god, and not just "GENETIC AFRICAN TRIBAL IMMAGERY", and that maybe by 2010 they shoudlv'e known better.

Now he has the power Peter bursts in on a meeting between Ben and the goblin, easily dispatching his men.. but finding himself a problem. He tells the goblin to stop.. but Norman refuses, and makes a valid point: the only way to really stop him this easily is to kill him.. and peter isn't ready to do that. He dosen't confront Ben who recognizes Peter.. and Peter's utter distgust at what his mentor really is, a stooge for the goblin, gets to Ben. Ben quits the goblin's service and plans to unload the files he has on the guy. Problem is…. he tells Jonah who comes over and plugs him… and nicely makes it a good case for Peter having actually killed him in revenge.

While one spider dies.. another is born. Peter decides he needs to step it up to really end this.. and the only way to do that.. is to become something else… to do it for revenge, to do it to try and stay true, doing it for the ones left to twist in the wind...

I love the design here.. while the fedora added next series really completes it the mitliary jacket, turtle neck and repurposed flight mask all fell nicely home spun yet still suitably badass. Peter made this himself, with what he had being a poor teenager during the depression.. but he makes it out of his uncles uniform turning a hidden shame from killing people in a war he didn't belive in into a uniform, a symbol against crime. And yes I get the batman parallels here but it was kinda unavoiable given how much of film noir is in batman's dna, but it's still diffrent enough and peter's own quest for vengance are diffrent enough for it to be a non issue. We open issue 3 with peter swearing there's a scientefic explination for the spider god thing, but for now he just wants to get help and goes to Ben…. and find shis corpse. The resulting scene is soul crushing,… peter weeping openly with the police not giving a single damn and only not pinning it on peter because the da dosen't buy it. Once again the Goblin has taken someone from peter for trying to do the right thing.

WHile Goblin intimdates Jonah, JJ having not found the files Ulrich was about to give to the press, Peter goes to who really has them: Felcia hardy, ben's ex whose utterly broken. The art here. is amazing, and her expressions just haunting as she explains Ben told her to give them to peter if anything happened. The art by Carmine Diamncio is fucking fantastic and eaisly one of the highlights getting the gritty tone while also being expressive and animated. Peter still drags his feet slightly, feeling Ben was terrible.. but Aunt May naturally gets through to him even if she dosen't know the full story: he did right by peter, do right by him.

After the funeral and JJ confirming he's pure scum and peter can't trust him peter decides he was given his power for a reason: to take the goblin out. He can't go after him directly.. but with Ben's files, he can go after his rackets and his mob associates looking to norman for protection

The latter is the real problem: The goblin's power was, as mentoind, all in the fact he could do the jobs no one else could do.. now his association with his various criminal buddies means their giving him one week: kill spidey or he's done. Norman decides enough of this and plans to send his men after peter after Ox reveals he saw Peter at ben's apartment. Norman takes it well. Concidentally Ox is never seen again in this story and probably died on the way back to his home planet.

Peter meanwhile is annoyed abotu JJ's suddenly spineless editorials and goes to confront him and well…. opening sequence. After that Peter is shaken both by the fact there's no way that was a setup as his visit wasn't planned or anything, and the bullet in his shoulder.

He decides to play it smart, and uses the files and what he has on ulrich.. and in a clever twist we find that the jj we saw at the start and that killed ben.. is in fact the chameleon, in this version using makeup and what not instead of masks. He's also Kraven's half brother, something that hasn't really come up but will be very important here in a moment. So the issue ends with Norman having Felcia dragged to his private base where he plans to murder both her and jj.. and peter… and he's sent the vulture to go get him… but with peter absent we end the issue with him just above may. We open the final issue with Vulture preparing to eat the other half of the couple when peter comes in.. and disturbingly FILLING vulture with lead. While he disturbed it, it's clear one shot , maybe two, would've done it… peter is just full of rage, at nearly seeing one of his family once again sensely slaughtered. This isn't justice.. it's vengance. And may rails into Peter for it pointing out he's no better than the others if he keeps down this road. But peter's narration, having taken over for ben in issues 3 and 4, makes it clear it's complicated: he can tell he's right.. but his heart is telling him he would've hurt her. She sees a reckless man.. but what peter is is a scared child who lost his uncle and his mentor and almost lost the one person he had left. What he did was wrong… but you can understand it. The question is will peter continue down the road of the animal and become what Ben Ulrich was.. or become what his late mentor couldn't. Let's see shall we?

At Goblins secret torture house, we find out Felcia killed Chameleon.. and is thus shook that Jameson is alive and well. Norman decides that everything else was fine but he can't really let her live after killing one of his minons and after she scratches his face, he plans to feed her to spiders…. only for another to show up… a melee insues as Peter easily takes down the remaning two enforcers, and fights kraven, eventually both saving jameson from a tiger and pushign Kraven into spiders while Goblin runs away with Felcia… who isn't scared. Felcia is done well her ea swhile she did sell out to the goblin previously she's clearly taken none of his shit and points out even if he ESCAPES… the mob is going to be gunning for him now he's lost just abotu everything.

And he's about to loose the rest as Peter swings down and rescues Felcia and while she runs away the two confront each other.. and rip off theri masks. Goblin finds out Peter parker is spider-man .. and Peter… well..

I love this twist and how this reveal plays out. Norman also points out anyone who see his real face dies.. it's killed or be killed.. but in the eleventh hour… Peter refuses. Goblin needs to stand trial. Peter's character arc is fantastic here: he starts out full of rage, finds an outlet… but also starts to loose himself in what he can now do, that he has the power.. but he has to use it responsibly. It's this final moment where he realizes how to: the goblin's lost his power, he can stand trial.. and it's not peter's responsibly to end him. While this peter HAS killed.. he's learned he doesn't NEED to

Norman dosen't want.. any of that but luckily for peter he didnj't actually KILL kraven.. at least not yet. The spiders from kraven grab norman and Peter looks on at this horror show as at last the goblin and the gangsters.. are no more. So we get our wrap up with Felcia: two months later and a combination of JJJ being back in charge of the bugle and Ben's files has cleared out the cities corruption for now: all the cops the goblin owned are gone, the mayor is gone, everything is mostly better. Peter asks Felcia about her relationship with the goblin that i'm just bringing up now, she refuses to tell but he still gives her a ncie picture of her and ben, reminding us that even if our heroes won.. they still lost something int he process.

We end on a great closer too, one that hints at the eventual sequel but still feels concise enough as a finish.

It's a great message to go out on: That evil does exist and may always.. but someone will always exist to fight it…. and they usuallyw ill eventually win. And for now.. peter is that someone.

If it wasn't obvious enough.. Spider-Man Noir is a masterpiece and one of the best spider-man stories i've ever read. A well done take that honors the characters history while forming the kind of story that only could be told in the setting it's in. It's gripping, has a wonderful character arc, dynamite art and some truly haunting images. If you have the stomach for some noir, seek this one out.

Next Time: We get the opposite of this as we dive into the first appearance and secret origin of the spectacular spider-ham! Weird isn't it?