#watergate podcast

[krissthinktank]

I'm back and I'm so much than I was before. In restricting my content in the way i see fit, I have decided to restart my podcast, and to educate based on not only theory and jargon, but clear cut events. So with that being said, I present to you, my first episode, where in which, I define the press's purpose through the use of Watergate and the pentagon papers.

[calilili]

Rachel Maddow is the best … and her guests & colleagues just expand the excellence… it’s especially important for those of us who have not lived through the history here — and who may have not even considered researching it … — to become informed about these unfortunate precedents to these “unprecedented” times … somewhat comforting that there were precedents… somewhat also disconcerting… please SHARE this knowledge everyone… whether it’s to remind those who did live through it or are aware— or to enlighten citizens like me who were NOT aware of this history— it’s a public service to speak of these issues and to gut check ourselves towards voting for our destiny, lest we imperil it …

[racefortheironthrone]

When it comes to Joe Rogan, I’m of two minds. On the one hand, he doesn’t really take responsibility for having a large platform that clearly reaches and influences a lot of people.

On the other, if you’re primarily getting your medical and political information from Joe Rogan podcasts, isn’t there a bit of personal responsibility that needs to be taken from the individual?

I don't think personal responsibility is the right analytical approach when it comes to media enterprises like Joe Rogan's. Rogan's failure to "take responsibility for having a large platform" isn't an individual failing of journalistic ethics; it's a conscious marketing decision about what kind of product he's going to sell, who he's trying to sell it to, and how he brands himself in order to more effectively sell his products to his audience.

And this ties into your second question when it comes to his audience, which is another area where I don't think personal responsibility is the right approach. Due to a number of structural factors - declining trust in institutions in the nearly 50 years since Watergate, the collapse of local reporting thanks to vulture capitalism and media consolidation, the lack of media literacy and digital literacy due to schools not having the time or resources to teach these increasingly vital skills, the impact of social media algorithms increasingly designed to take advantage of weaknesses in human cognition, increasing levels of alienation felt by certain demographics, etc. - there is a large (and increasingly growing) audience of people online who are simultaneously highly skeptical of experts and evidence-based reporting and analysis and highly credulous of conspiracy theories that confirm their pre-existing biases and beliefs.

It's pretty clear that, as a business decision, Rogan and the people who work for him decided to target these people as marks precisely because they are primed to buy into this contrarian persona and the conspiracy theories (on COVID 19, on vaccines, on trans people, on New Age pseudo-science, on election denialism, on any random hoax thought up by the alt-right) that come with it.

I would argue that the correct approach when it comes to Rogan's audience is one of harm limitation. We don't want these people harming themselves or others because they've bought into nonsense about ivermectin or some bullshit like that, but we also don't want them going down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and ressentiment that'll lead them into the arms of the alt-right - because that will hurt a lot more people. In the long term, we need to make media and digital literacy a core part of the public school curriculum from elementary through high school, we need to change media regulations to promote more and independent local journalism, and so forth.

But in the short-term, I think we need to focus regulatory pressure on social media algorithms. Platforms seem to be backsliding in the opposite direction after their brief post-January 6th moment of conscience, but if you actually change the algorithm to stop promoting engagement through negative emotions and conspiracy theories, that really limits the damage that the Joe Rogans of the world can do.

[joespinell]

bringing back howard hughes from the grave so he can do a podcast i imagine the first two episodes are equally an hour long that is solely him talking about his parents and his uncle rupert and after that it’s a complete free-for-all about how they didn’t even use the second xf-11 for reconnaissance and watergate and supposedly wearing his mother’s ring on his pinky finger for good luck on the opening night of hell’s angels and then segue into whatever yummy snacks he’s currently having and this is all being edited and revised by his team of mormons ofc

[tomorrowusa]

RFK Jr. is taking the side of Confederate statue worshipers. He really doesn't like the removal of monuments to a treasonous and pro-slavery entity called the Confederate States of America.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. denounced the removal of hundreds of Confederate statues and other monuments across the United States after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. In a podcast interview that aired live on Friday from the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, Mr. Kennedy, an independent candidate for president, portrayed the removal of statues honoring the Confederacy as “destroying history,” echoing similar comments made by former President Donald J. Trump in support of the monuments. [ ... ] Statues and other monuments glorifying the Confederacy were erected — most at the height of the Jim Crow era — as part of a movement to advance the Lost Cause myth, which in various iterations depicted the Confederacy’s rebellion as a noble defense of Southern values or falsely asserted that the Civil War was fought over “states’ rights,” not slavery. Many of the monuments also distort history by portraying Black Americans as loyal to white Southerners in their enslavement.

This puts RFK Jr. on the same side as Donald Trump.

Trump equated their removal to “changing history” when he defended some participants of a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, who had gathered to protect the statue of Lee that was later removed. Mr. Trump later resisted efforts to rename nine southern Army bases that had been named for treasonous Confederate generals who fought against the U.S. Army.

President Biden has taken the opposite view, saying that such monuments have no place in 21st century America. Biden is the only candidate who stands against traitorous racists.

As a candidate in 2020, President Biden supported the removal of Confederate statues, as well as the renaming of the Army bases, which was ultimately carried out during his administration.

By coincidence, today (May 29th) is the birthday of the late President John F. Kennedy. JFK would be ashamed of his idiotic anti-vax, pro-Confederate nephew.

In 1963 President Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard to assist in the integration of the University of Alabama – the last segregated state university in the US. Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace physically stood in the door to block two black students but gave way when confronted by the federalized National Guard.

That evening, on 11 June 1963, the president addressed the country on the topic of civil rights. Here is how historians now view the events surrounding that day.

Gov. Wallace went on to run as a third party candidate in the 1968 presidential election. Of course he didn't win but his presence in the election helped to elect Richard Nixon who gave the US the Watergate scandal and the invasion of Cambodia.

RFK Jr. is a lot more in the tradition of George Wallace than John F. Kennedy. Don't be fooled by RFK Jr.'s family name; most of his siblings and cousins have denounced him and declared their support for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2024.

[anotherpapercut]

started listening to a podcast series about Watergate so all my friends better get ready to hear way more than they ever wanted to about this shit

[eton75]

How Thiel, Musk, and a Shadow Campaign Paved the Way for a Trump 2024 Victory

In an election that has left political experts, law enforcement, and voters reeling, the roles of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk—two South African-born billionaire immigrants—have come under sharp scrutiny. Their technological influence, political investments, and alleged behind-the-scenes maneuvering appear to have reshaped the democratic landscape of their adopted country, culminating in Donald Trump’s controversial victory in 2024.

The Thiel Factor: Data, Politics, and Power

Peter Thiel, known for founding Palantir, a data surveillance company with contracts spanning intelligence agencies globally, has long played a strategic role in politics. In 2024, Thiel’s financial backing helped secure the vice-presidential slot for his close ally, J.D. Vance, as Trump’s running mate. This came with a condition: Thiel’s continued financial support was contingent on Vance joining the ticket.

Moreover, Thiel is linked to Polymarket, a prediction market platform accused of facilitating illegal betting on election outcomes. It reportedly attracted millions in wagers favoring Trump, with its data-driven insights creating an eerily accurate predictive edge. Following the election, the FBI raided Polymarket’s CEO, Shayne Coplan, to investigate allegations of illegal U.S.-based betting—a move that has raised questions about how such a platform might influence voter perception and campaign strategy.

Musk’s App: A Data-Driven Crystal Ball?

Elon Musk, meanwhile, has made strides in artificial intelligence and data analytics through ventures like xAI. During the election, Musk was alleged to have developed an app capable of real-time data collection that predicted results hours before official calls. Joe Rogan, on his podcast, claimed Musk’s technology could determine the winner based on granular voter behavior data—a claim Musk has neither confirmed nor denied.

Trump himself embraced Polymarket during his campaign, publicly boasting that he “didn’t need votes” because the data already showed he had won. Musk’s and Thiel’s influence, combined with data manipulation, painted a picture of a campaign bolstered by tools that not only predicted but potentially shaped outcomes.

A Corrupted Election?

Emerging reports suggest that the combination of Polymarket, Thiel’s data apparatus, and Musk’s tech savvy created a potent cocktail that undermined voter confidence. Investigations are now exploring claims that data manipulation may have suppressed votes for Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent, particularly in key battleground states. The evidence points to a campaign strategy reliant on advanced analytics to exploit vulnerabilities in voter behavior and electoral processes.

What’s Next?

With Trump set to take office on January 20, 2025, the U.S. faces a growing scandal that could rival Watergate in scope and severity. If allegations of election tampering are substantiated, it’s unclear whether Trump’s presidency will remain viable. Meanwhile, federal investigations into Polymarket, Thiel’s role, and Musk’s app continue to dominate headlines, leaving the nation and the world watching.

Conclusion

This election wasn’t just about votes—it was about the unprecedented intersection of technology, wealth, and politics. As evidence mounts, the story of how two tech billionaires helped Trump reclaim the presidency is far from over.

Hashtags: #ElectionScandal2024 #ThielMuskInfluence #DataManipulation #ElectionIntegrity #USPolitics

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Ford Greene interviewed following the death of Sun Myung Moon – his tactics similar to those of Hitler

Interviewed by Peter B. Collins in 2012

Ford Greene, an expert on religious cults including Scientology and the Unification Church, returns to talk about the death of Rev. Moon. Greene, once a Moonie himself, talks about the impact of Rev. Moon’s death. We touch on my podcast with Archbishop Stallings in early September, and the spin he put on the cult behaviors of Moon and his followers. Greene has deprogrammed many Moonies, and sued the church on behalf of former members. His own sister remains a member of the church. We talk about the CIA connections of Moon and his underlings, Moon’s role in right wing politics in the US, including his operation of the Washington Times....

Peter: Ford, one of the things that I hope we will learn about, some time in the future, is the connection between Moon, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency and the US CIA. Because when he first came to a political awareness in the United States, or to political participation, he kind of parachuted in at the very last minute of the Nixon impeachment process and argued in favor of the embattled president. He then went on to start the Washington Times which has been a reliable megaphone for the most extreme of right-wing and Republican politics in this country. And because of Colonel Bo Hi Pak, who was an officer in the KCIA, I have long suspected that there is much more there than what is on the surface. Your comment on that?

Ford: Well, the Moon organization was well in position prior to its campaign to ‘forgive, love and unite’ behind Richard Nixon. I think it was in 1974, or maybe it was later. It was a long time ago.

Peter: I think it was actually early ’75. I actually covered the whole Watergate episode in great detail. I had an all-night talk show in Chicago. I always praise Richard Nixon because he gave me the wherewith-all to become number one in the ratings. One day I was called into the office and the suits said, “Peter, what the hell are you doing?” And I said, ‘Oh we’re talking about Nixon every night,’ and they pulled out this binder and said, “Well, you are number one in the ratings and we don’t understand that.” (laughs) So I always have a little bit of a soft spot for Nixon because of that.

Ford: Yeah, yeah, because he gave you a good launching pad. Certainly the involvement of the Moon organization helps that. It is interesting when you go back and look at the historic underpinnings of the Moon organization. Among the persons present included a guy named Ryoichi Sasagawa who was the brain behind the kamikaze [suicide] pilots in Japan [that flew in WWII] and then Sasagawa went on to hold a position in the yakuza, in organized crime in Japan. Another yakuza guy who was also at the core of the beginning of the Unification Church was named Yoshio Kodama. And so the blending of the Moon organization and the yakuza was then expanded globally, first by means of what was called the Asian People’s Anti-Communist League, which then bloomed into the World Anti-Communist League. In the context of WACL, of the World Anti-Communist League, there were a lot of fascists from all the world that were ostensibly united by a hatred of communism, but whose objective really was to develop as much power as possible on an ad-hoc basis. One of the ways that it really came to the fore was in terms of taking positions [aiding] the Contras in the 1980s in Central America. Moon was involved intimately in that, intimately in providing funding, and in raising money and in supporting Oliver North and the leader in that was a US general named John Singlaub.

Peter: Excuse me, there was no implication on the Iran part of the Iran-Contra [affair] with Rev. Moon

Ford: No

Peter: Because that was just a weapons deal that was used to fund Contra operations

Peter: The weapons part, but then there was also, remember, the cocaine part. So there were a lot of moving pieces all of which were aimed at subverting the Boland Amendment which prohibited the US participation in all of that. It is just interesting to see how the Moon organization developed from having links with the Korean Central Intelligence Agency to organized crime in Japan to far right fascist organizations and then all of that gets rolled up and used to support far right fascism in the United States via the Washington Times and via other mechanisms that the Moonies employed to do that.

Ford: Moon’s writings very, very clearly state that the separation between church and state is what Satan likes the most. That the objective in starting the Washington Times and in influencing American politicians was to take over and control American democracy, because America was the strongest country and the one that provided, by means of the liberties protected via the First Amendment, the most access for the Unification Church. So really again it is like with anybody who’s a big bullshitter you look when the words don’t match the deeds you’ll look at the deeds and follow the actions and do your interpretations from there. And one of the things that is very interesting about Moon is, like Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf put the world on notice what his plans were early on before he did it, Moon did the same thing in Master Speaks. He detailed out how it was he was going to go about, to whatever extent he could accomplish, influencing, if not taking over, various American institutions and then went right ahead and did exactly what he said he was going to do. … Just to go back for one moment with Stallings talking about the meaning of the word messiah, it is sort of “Oh, Gee, I guess we are all messiahs.” (laughter) And personally that is the point that I prefer. But when you’re in an organization that places all power, all influence, all spiritual authority in the person of one living human being, and then specifically remove any sort of authority from other people, that kind of objectification is what helps set up what Robert Jay Lifton characterized as an atrocity producing situation where you’ve got complete objectification on one side and you are you’ve got the total exercise of power on the other side. More often than not what happens in that context is the expression of sadism that’s inherent in just about every human being. And so the use and utility of the term messiah assumes much broader meaning than the watered-down version that it sounds like Stallings tried to promote.

LINK:

Ford Greene, Attorney and Moonie De-Programmer, on the Death of Rev. Moon; Gary Chew Reviews ‘The Master’ ...

_______________________________________

Where does the Psychology of the Adversary come from?

“When I left, I looked back on the last four years and realized I had been serving Hitler.”

[darkmaga-returns]

Helen Andrews

Oct 25, 2024

In an interview with Donald Trump in August 2023, Tucker Carlson floated the possibility to the former president that someone might try to assassinate him. “They started with protests against you, massive protests, organized protests by the left, and then it moved to impeachment twice,” Carlson said. “And now indictment. I mean, the next stage is violence. Are you worried that they’re going to try and kill you? Why wouldn’t they try and kill you? Honestly.”

Trump brushed off Carlson’s concerns, but less than a year later an assassination attempt was made at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, vindicating the former Fox News host’s worries. Two months after that, a second assassin was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida, after a Secret Service agent spotted him aiming a rifle from the bushes at the golf course where the former president was playing.

Let us grant that Tucker Carlson may be more primed than the average person to see dark forces lurking behind acts of political violence. He seems to have been immersing himself in 20th-century conspiracy lore recently, mentioning in podcasts and interviews everything from the revisionist theory of Watergate (that it was a deep-state set-up to take down Richard Nixon) to the claim that the Central Intelligence Agency was responsible for the John F. Kennedy assassination.

But Trump himself is now apparently willing to entertain the possibility that “they,” whoever they may be, played a role in his attempted assassination. At his follow-up rally in Butler on October 5, when Trump returned to the site of his earlier near-death experience, he said, “Over the past eight years, those who want to stop up from achieving this future have slandered me, impeached me, indicted me, tried to throw me off the ballot, and, who knows, maybe even tried to kill me. But I never stopped fighting for you and I never will.”

Investigations into both attempted assassinations are ongoing. At this point, the evidence does not support any conspiracy claim stronger than, as Trump put it, “who knows, maybe.” The responsible thing to do is to wait for all the facts to come in. But there is an election in November, so preliminary consideration of these dramatic events must be undertaken even with incomplete information. There is, after all, much we do know.

[mourning-again-in-america]

Ppl like to think of Scalia and Thomas as amoral bastards, in it for themselves and while I can understand the functional argument, I think a proper psychological argument has to consider their positions wrt Bork and Silberman -- all except Thomas came up through the Nixon Justice Department and the Nixon admin seems to have really focused itself as being the first conservative government since Herbert Hoover, in contrast to the heady days of New Dealism where influence peddlers like Tommy the Cork could screw over the common man so long as they werent so egregious that they disrupted the bread and circuses the people had voted for themselves

I use Tommy the Cork because he's one of the few New Dealer wheeler-dealers we actually have records of using his influence improperly but there were surely hundreds of them, they were called lobbyists -- they just didn't do what Tommy did and try to lobby the goddamn Supreme Court ex parte

You see this in the suspicion of govts argument and that can be ascribed to philosophical libertarianism but the reason I believe this comes from seeing Silberman talk about Watergate. He visibly hates the Committee to Re Elect the President and the Plumbers, but he hates the insiders just as much -- the ones who turned on Bork for trying to do his job after he had to catch the falling knife that Richardson dropped and Ruckelshaus refused to catch and most of all, the corruption of the DC courts, esp Judge Sirica.

It's funny, there's only two other corroborations I've seen of ex parte meetings being regular and understood in that era -- one from Kantbot & Edbergs podcast on Watergate, where Sirica met ex parte with the govt lawyer in connection with the guy leading the prostitution ring that Mo Dean (wife of John Dean) was involved with before John met her, and one from the autobiography of Roy Cohn

[occupyhades]

God’s Whistleblower

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3 (ESV)

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. James 3:9 (NIV) 

A wicked person listens to deceitful lips; a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue. Proverbs 17:4 (NIV) 

May no slanderer be established in the land; may calamity hunt down the man of violence. Psalm 140:11 (BSB)

Calamity is hungry for him; disaster is ready for him when he falls. Job 18:12 (NIV)

As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” 1 Corinthians 1:19 (NLT)

This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD.“ Jeremiah 17:5 (NIV)  

The Righteous One knows what is going on in the homes of the wicked; he will bring disaster on them. Proverbs 21:12 (NLT)

[jmg-digitalhistoryuta]

History and Journalism

In journalism there is a saying that sometimes a story is too good to fact check, a story that is too good to bog down with tedious factchecking that would undermine the narrative and are less interesting to readers.  A perfect example is the report by Martin Gansberg on the murder of Kitty Genovese, titled “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call Police,” and led to the psychological phrase “The Bystander Effect,” but unreported at the time was that there were people who did indeed call the police.  So as more journalists move into the historic profession, from writing books like War on Peace, to podcasts like Bag Man by journalist Rachel Maddow from MSNBC, it is important to remain skeptical of their findings no matter how entertaining or accurate they may be.  With journalism not only is there a difference in methodology and approach to research, but their work has also been codified into a consumer product, designed to entrance their audience into either purchasing their newspapers, their magazines, or tune in to their TV and radio news broadcasts.  The news with the largest outreach, not the most accurate, are then the ones rewarded with the most advertising dollars.

History by historians on the other hand, is more academically rigorous, and peer reviewed.  Instead of being strained by viewership, ad revenue, and corporate interest, most historians work in academia, museums, even the books most historians published are from various University Presses.  This not meant to pin historians and journalists against each other, nor is this a strict critique on the institution of journalism.  Afterall, Slate Magazine managed to create a thorough deep dive into the Richard Nixon Watergate scandal with their podcast Slow Burn.  But to get audiences enticed to listening they started their journey with Martha Mitchell, the wife of the United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and was known as a frequent gossiper to the press to the point of ridicule on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, a hilarious story designed to pull more viewers than to simply inform them of a subject.  But that levity and personal touch is needed to lure the masses to comprehend complex subjects.  After all, if you search YouTube for a video explaining how SLAPP lawsuits work the first result is from HBO’s news satire program Last Week Tonight, the video also has the most views on the subject with 22 million while most of the others have not even break a million.

But historians have also participated in creating podcasts that are both entertaining and informative, the most notable that you should check out and listen for yourself is Nixon at War the podcast hosted by novelist and historian Kurt Andersen and published by the Public Radio Exchange, PRX, the focus was shifted away from the sensational Watergate scandal like most journalists tend to favor and instead focused on President Nixon’s experience with the Vietnam War.  The success led to the spiritual sequel LBJ’s War about Nixon’s predecessor Lyndon B. Johnson and his tenure over the Vietnam War, beginning with Johnson’s friendship with Vietnam President Diem.  However instead of historian Kurt Andersen LBJ’s War was hosted by journalist for The Texas Standard David D. Brown. Perhaps if we historians want to have our work viewed by the public sector then we must also have a voice for radio, some of us certainly have the voice for it.

[sublimeobservationarcade]

In A Culture Of Complaint They Developed The Politics Of Grievance

America has made its bed and now it has to lie in it. A while ago, expert political strategists worked out that voters engage more fully with the democratic electoral system on an emotive level than a mere rational one. Therefore, they made negative attack ads which painted their candidate’s political opponents as demons. These campaign strategists formulated speeches and oped content full of emotive finger pointing about stuff upsetting sections of the electorate. In a culture of complaint they developed the politics of grievance. This has now culminated with presidential candidate Trump, who lights the bonfire of hate every time he opens his mouth to speak.

Political Strategists Have Mined The Politics Of Grievance

As several expert political pundits have said, the Trump GOP voters love all this noise and nasty furore. They no longer find politics boring! Their guy pushes every statement to the edge of decency and well beyond. These folk don’t care about protocol and etiquette. They don’t care about doing or saying the right thing. To them it is a circus worth a few laughs and hardly deserving their respect. America has no standards. Free speech lets everything rip. Guns kill children on a daily basis. So what! The only sort of standard is a dollar figure in a civil court proceeding.

America The Land Of Lies & Disinformation Alex Jones tells lies to millions of podcast listeners about a massacre of little children at a school being a faked conspiracy. Sandy Hook. Fake news is a way of life in 21C America. Jones was successfully sued by the parents of the murdered children for millions of dollars. Donald Trump goes around telling tens of millions of people that he was robbed of the 2020 presidential election by voter fraud, despite numerous judicial and private enquiries proving otherwise. How can you have a candidate undermining faith in the electoral system with lies being allowed to do so without being prosecuted? It is crazy. America has no standards. Fox News peddled these election fraud lies and were sued successfully for $700 million by the Dominion company. America is full of lies and disinformation.

Attention Deficit Motor Mouth Culture Americans talk too much. Perhaps this is the consequence of running off at the mouth – nobody believes a word you have said? The truth gets lost in a web of lies. The facts go missing amid the storm of misinformation. Presidents lying – “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Bill Clinton. Richard Nixon was forced to resign from the presidency after telling so many lies about Watergate. Trump has taken the cake and turned presidential lying into the norm rather than the exception. A large section of the American public are so used to lying by their elected officials that they no longer see it as a bad thing. Better an entertaining lying President than a boring one for their attention deficit psyches fed on a diet of mind numbing TV shows. The Fall Of A Modern Day Rome “Americans have reached a point where ignorance, especially of anything related to public policy, is an actual virtue,” he would write in the preface to The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Expertise and Why It Matters, which was published by Oxford last year and quickly became a bestseller. “To reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for Americans to insulate their increasingly fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong about anything.” Further down the page, he would add: “I’m worried.”  https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2018/02/death-of-expertise-by-tom-nichols)

Navel gazing American pundits have long predicted the fall of their civilisation. The fall of the American empire viewed in Gibbon like Roman terms. I suppose there are modern parallels with the gladiatorial games attending denizens of Rome addicted to a diet of entertainment and free bread. The Trump cult Americans demand ever more piss and wind from their erstwhile President. If these folk feel disparaged by elites at least they can get their revenge and a few laughs along the way as they watch America crumble and burn before their eyes. Perhaps it is a case of – ‘if I’m not getting what I want I’ll make damned sure nobody else is either!’ Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.  ©WordsForWeb Read the full article

[kudosmyhero]

Web of Spider-Man (vol. 1) #9: The Twilight Heroes

Read Date: March 18, 2023 Cover Date: December 1985 ● Writer: David Michelinie ● Penciler: Geof Isherwood ● Inker: Vince Colletta ● Colorist: George Roussos ● Letterer: Janice Chiang ● Editor: Jim Owsley ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● heheh, Ludlow swats at a fly and knocks the door clean off its hinges. that’s one way to discover you’ve got super strength ● wow, wife turned on him quick. if my husband demonstrated he’s got strength like that, I’d have such a list of chores for him! ● this guy is massive!

● Fred Hopkins has white hair in this issue; last issue, he was balding but still had his hair color. he looks a bit more like the “old timer�� that Spidey called him last issue. ● I like that Spider-Man’s antagonists (3 of them!) in these two issues aren’t actually bad people ● “Little Miss Watergate” snerk ● oh FUCK that ending got dark… wow… grr, I really don’t like the photographer woman—Roxy DeWinter, I think her name is. ● still trying to process that ending… ● 👏👏👏👏👏

Synopsis: A planet explodes, sending debris across the universe. One piece came to the planet Earth, breaking in two as it entered the atmosphere. One half ended up in a junkyard in Smithville, Pennsylvania. The other half ends up crashing in a nearby farmers field.

One Year Ago:

Ludlow Grimes is toiling away, plowing his field by horse. Suddenly, his plow blade strikes a rock. Ludlow digs it out and suddenly feels strange, but dismisses it as getting too much sun. When his wife calls him back to the farmhouse for dinner, he simply tosses the rock away and heads in. Down at the homestead, Ludlow is greeted by his wife and children as they set the kitchen table. When Ludlow's wife tries to swat a fly, Grimes offers to do it for her. With a single swat, Ludlow not only kills the fly but smashes through the front door with his bare hands. Ludlow is confused by what happened, but his family is frightened. His wife now thinks her husband is a monster and tells him to get out.

Now:

Ludlow Grimes has smashed his way into the home of Fred Hopkins, who has just been outted as the Smithville Thunderbolt by Spider-Man and reporter Roxanne DeWinter. Ludlow pronounces himself the true Smithville Thunderbolt and intends to kill Hopkins. Spider-Man gets between the two men and tells Frank to flee. However, Hopkins can't bring himself to go, wishing there was something he could do, but doesn't feel confident as his powers are fading. Meanwhile, Roxanne DeWinter snaps photos of the battle, intent on getting the scoop on this story in order to advance her career and get out of Smithville. Eventually, the Smithville Thunderbolt loses his nerve and flees. Spider-Man continues to struggle with Ludlow, and tells Roxanne to get out as well. However, she refuses to leave until she is finished her roll of film. Spider-Man, manages to briefly stun Grimes and tells Roxanne to get a move on. She agrees and tells Spider-Man that she will call the cops after to drops her film off to be developed. The pair begins to fight again, but Ludlow gets frightened off by the sound of a police siren and flees the scene. With an officer banging on the door, Spider-Man takes his leave as well, wondering what he should do next.

Changing back to Peter Parker, the hero goes to the Smithville Gazette to try and stop Roxanne from developing the film. However, he arrives too late, as she has finished processing the photos. He tells her that he knows what happened and who Frank Hopkins is and pleads with her to destroy the pictures. He tries to convince her that this revelation will ruin Frank's life and he doesn't deserve it after all he has done for the community. Roxanne refuses to listen because she is still chasing fame and heads off to the printers with her photos. Meanwhile, Frank Hopkins has changed back into his civilian clothes and returns to his home. Talking to the police, he pretends to have no idea what happened at his home. After assuring the police that he isn't in any danger, he goes back into his home. There he pulls out his binder full of newspaper clippings of his exploits as the Thunderbolt. He laments on how he is a nobody without his powers, which are now fading. Knowing that Roxanne DeWinter will ruin his life with her exposé, he takes a gun out of his deskdrawer and briefly considers murdering her. However, he can't bring himself to take a human life and decides to find some other way.

Elsewhere, Ludlow travels through a nearby swamp, confident that nobody will find him here. Looking at his reflection in the water, Grimes begins to think back to the events of the past year. He remembers how his wife thought he was a monster since he got his powers and kicking him out of his own home. He went to the local church for guidance, but the priest insisted that his powers were the product of the devil and shunned him. Soon, a lynch mob was out searching for him forcing him to flee into the wilderness. For a whole year, Ludlow lived off the land. One day he happened upon a newspaper article about the Smithville Thunderbolt and became jealous how he was respected and treated as a hero with his powers. Grimes then came up with his plan to kill the Thunderbolt and take his place so that he could be considered a hero. This all brought him to Hopkin's home and his clash with Spider-Man. Later, as rain begins to fall over the town, Roxanne DeWinter drives the Smithville Gazette news van to the printers. Still intending to try and convince Roxanne to drop the story, Peter has changed back into Spider-Man and is hitching a ride on the roof of the van.

As they drive down a country road, they are spotted by a downed tree to block the road. When Roxanne is forced to stop, her car won't move and rocks begin to tumble down toward the road. As Spider-Man leaps into action, Roxanne tries to flee, only to be carried to safety by the Smithville Thunderbolt. Unfortunately, Spider-Man discovers that the rockslide was fake, another one of the Thunderbolt's fake rescues. Before the heroes can remove the tree, they are ambushed by Ludlow Grimes. As Roxanne slips into her van and tries to get away. However, when Spider-Man tosses Ludlow, it strikes the van knocking it over the side of the road and down a cliff. Seeing that the van is caught in some tree branches, the Thunderbolt overcomes his fears to climb down and try and save Roxanne. While Grimes and Spider-Man battle it out, Frank manages to save Roxanne, who is grateful that he had done so, even without his powers. By this point, Ludlow has knocked Spider-Man out and is annoyed to hear that Hopkins has no powers. Ludlow is about to lambaste Frank but sees how frightened he looks and realizes that they are the same. By the time Spider-Man recovers from Grimes' beating, the situation has defused itself.

The next day, the life of Ludlow Grimes takes a fortuitous turn, as he is enlisted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Finally finding a place to belong, Ludlow is finally happy. After witnessing this, Peter Parker is about to head out, when he sees that Roxanne still published the story about the Thunderbolt's true identity. Furious, Peter goes down to the Gazette office and confronts DeWinter over this revelation. She still doesn't care as she is confident that this will boost her career. Suddenly, they hear a mob heading toward Hopkin's home, thinking it is a lynch mob, Peter rushes to see what he can do to stop them. However, much to his surprise, the townspeople have come to celebrate their local hero. Roxanne is about to gloat about how her story caused no harm she is suddenly silenced by the sound of a gunshot. Peter forces the front door open and discovers that Frank Hopkins committed suicide. Saddened by this turn of events, Peter Parker walks away without saying another word. Roxanne DeWinter, however, pulls a camera out of her handbag and takes a picture of Smithville's fallen hero.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Web_of_Spider-Man_Vol_1_9)

Fan Art: Spiderman by NathanLueth

Accompanying Podcast: ● Untold Talks of Spider-Man - episode 10

[regardstosoulandromance]

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