As someone who was publicly chewed online a decade ago for my anti Zionism please know that evil prevails for long before it’s exposed. Don’t let anyone gaslight you into thinking you’re anti semitic. Zionists have always proudly declared their ideology is colonialist and rooted in racial supremacy. Keep in mind that Palestinians are much more Semitic than the mostly European settlers on there. I also advise everyone too look up the rise of the ideology in the late 19th century predating WWII

I saw this article calling Sasuke a Villain and how the live-action shouldn't include his "villain" arc, because it "felt tedious and too convoluted to the bigger narrative" and instead they should make him a pivot for the fight against the Otsutsuki...

Did this person watch the anime or read the manga?

Article from CBR, Title: The Naruto Live-Action Movie Doesn't Need To Adapt This Villain Arc

1. Protect Konoha from what? The Uchiha wanted to end the decades long discrimination and oppression they were facing at the hands of the higher ups... (Not to mention that when Kurama attacked the village (under genjutsu, when Naruto was born), and during the konoha crush, no other villages went to attack the Leaf after the events), not even after the Pein arc...

2. Most people would hate growing up alone, and why was that sentence in bold?

3. Sasuke didn't find out about the true reason Itachi did what he did, until after Itachi died, as well as the real reason behind said Coup... as far as I am aware. And why wouldn't he want revenge against Konoha (specifically the 3 people who are left that caused all of his trauma and the uchiha genocide, it'd be 4 but the Sandaime Hokage was already dead by this point in the story)

4. What "wars" against Madara and Obito? There was only 1 War against them, the 4th great ninja war, that lasted 2 days a.k.a. approximately ~212 episodes, including filler (volumes 55 through 59 in the Manga, according to google)

"Naruto and Sasuke were reincarnations of her sons (Ashura and Indra, respectively)"

Okay, so the author didn't watch nor read Naruto...

Indra and Ashura Otsutsuki are not Kaguya's sons... they are her grandsons 👁️👄👁️ Homura and Hagoromo Otsutsuki are her sons... and Hagoromo is Ashura and Indra's father…

I feel like the author doesn't know much about Kaguya either, if they did they'd know her story.

"The advantage of Sasuke being a rebel without defecting from Konoha is that Naruto would have the help needed to fight the big villains of the franchise: the Ōtsutsuki."

When the time came, was Sasuke not helping Naruto with that? 🧐 And why shouldn't he have defected from Konoha? What good could they do for him?

Why does Sasuke need to be convinced to return home, when his home was taken from him by this "home" the author speaks of, that "home" being Konoha? Why should he return to the place that treated his people so poorly that they felt they no other choice but to do a coup against the people in charge of Konoha only to be wiped out for daring to stand up for themselves after years of oppression...?

Konoha, specifically Danzo, the third hokage, and 2 hogake advisors, Homura and Koharu (3 of which where Tobirama Senju's students and all 4 of which were on his personal team, and we all know what Tobi thought of the Uchiha) forced Itachi to wipeout his whole clan, excluding Sasuke, and then blamed him for it. They swept what they did under a filthy rug, that already had many skeletons piling up, and acted like he was the most evil person... He was a child and he was forced to do that and to become a fugitive by the old people in charge, who had no business being in charge of Konoha since there should've been a 5th Hokage by then... (regardless if Itachi regretted it or not, which he never really does)

I won't say it...😇

"Sasuke could learn more about how Indra developed a dark side, which passed down to the Uchiha, while Ashura's light gave way to the Senju and Uzumaki (Naruto's family) clans"

1. While I do agree that Naruto should've learnt more of the Uzumaki (and the Namikaze), besides finding out they excelled in Sealing Jutsus, had very long lives and were a bit savage (it wasn't in-depth at all, and there is no one to teach him, since the Uzumaki are also victims of genocide (in which Konoha did not help protect them) and well, I don't know what happened to Minato's people)

2. And that Sasuke should've learnt more of his people (but how was he going to, when he was the only one left at age 7/8?)

3. Indra's dark side... it wasn't passed down, nor did it emerge until his father gave his little brother the title of successor and expected him to follow without questions, having his birthright taken away because he was more introverted than his little brother whom their father called "the flunky useless dropout younger brother" (according to a panel I saw). And implied, at least to me, that ninjustu was created for wars and all things evil (Indra created ninjustu when he was just a child). ah yes his dark side the Uchiha inherited, that darkness of wanting to be treated like people and with respect in the village they helped make.

4. Kushina calls the Uzumaki, among other things, a bit savage. Batsuma Senju punched Hashirama, a child at the time, for being angry/sad that his little brother died, saying he was disrespecting his brother (and him) by basically questioning the system. Tobirama is a Senju, who was not shy about his hatred and prejudice against the Uchiha Clan (he is after all the founder of the bigoted psuedo science that was the "Curse of Hatred" the Uchiha are supposedly afflicted by, a clan that according to him is cursed and called Sasuke "a brat possessed by Uchiha evil") and that's on Ashura's "light" that gave way for his descendants, the Uzumaki and the Senju, "a clan of love~"🥰

Right, because he wasn't a pivot to the story, nor did his and naruto's story have any "heart and impact"... Right...

At some point, I wonder if some of this article is just satire 😅

let’s talk about bela talbot and how truly the narrative let her down in time is on my side (spn 3x15). because you see, bela could’ve been spn’s feminist manifesto. in fact, she should’ve been.

bela’s been in a handful of eps this season. great, fun eps. working both with and against sam and dean. she’s a mirror to the pair of them. hunting down supernatural artifacts and selling them. a hunter, in her own way. only she does it for money.

and that’s supposed to be the morality play. sam and dean, virtue incarnate, do the “job” for free. they would never stoop so low as to be paid in cold hard cash. and to prove their meekness, their humble sacrifices, they squat in abandoned homes or stay in rundown motels.

get over yourself spn. the family business is literally revenge. john upends his kids lives, teaches them to hunt and kill, periodically abandons them, and ruins their whole lives so he can find the demon that killed his sainted wife.

so really, what’s so wrong with bela asking for a living wage? for one, it’ll keep her off the fbi radar. she can then actually do her job, rather than spend all her time laying low from the authorities. sam and dean can’t say the same.

and sure, she lies and steals. so do sam and dean. they repeatedly pose as various law enforcement officers and run credit card fraud to stay afloat. lie meet steal.

now that we’ve established that bela is basically the same as sam and dean. here is the bitter pill spn forces us to swallow. bela’s history.

she tells dean he knows nothing about her. and it’s true. glaringly true. because when dean does learn about bela’s abby’s childhood, he misses one crucial piece of information. everyone does. because it’s obvious that bela never told anyone.

actually, let me amend that. I’m sure 14-yr-old bela did tell someone about her father. about what he did. hell her mother probably knew.

and no one listened to her.

I know this because she proceeds to never tell anyone again. let’s people think she killed her parents. that their mysterious car accident was for the express purpose of getting their millions. and that her artifact-hunting is just more greed.

most importantly, she doesn’t tell dean. but we, the audience, have to see it in a bela-centric flashback. we know exactly what happened. why she made that deal. why she had no other choice. why we even applaud her for it.

but again, dean doesn’t know. bela admits, with minutes on the clock and dean breathing vitreol down the landline, that she should’ve. should’ve trusted them, asked for help. worked together.

but even then. at the end of her world. she keeps her secret. let’s dean think the worst of her. because no one has ever listened before. and why would dean be any different? after all, it’s not like the entire hunting community doesn’t know about the winchesters. their history. bela’s smart. she knows that in dean’s eyes she’s commited the greatest sin a person could. killing your parents. your family.

and in many ways it’s not dean’s fault. he was brought up to hold family—esp dead family members—above everything else. to top it off, dean *remembers* a time before the YED, before mary’s death, when john would scoop him off the ground with laughter, would tuck him in at night, would love him unconditionally. it’s a version of john that dean clings too—decades after that version is gone.

so yeah, what he thinks bela did. what he assumes are her motives. those are anathema to him.

to make matter worse, dean makes no move to dig deeper into the information rufus gave him. a man he only just met. who is apparently willing to sell bela out for a bottle of whiskey. once again proving that bela can’t trust anyone. with anything. let alone a secret like the one she’s carried this last decade.

and now for the final salt in the wound. the what-ifs spn were idk...good? and didn’t kill off all early seasons women?

bela telling dean what really happened. why she had to make that deal. how no one ever helped—so she helped herself. dean being shaken to his core. the emphasis on the message that the monster of the week (a dr frankenstein and frankenstein’s monster all rolled into one) that would’ve sent.

that humans are the worst monsters.

can you imagine? bela and dean bonding over their shared traumas. teaming up on hunts. bela teaches them sophistication and helps them network. sam helps her research. dean trains her in new weapons.

and the closer their friendships become the more bela shares with sam and dean. how she uses her money to help fund women’s shelters and children’s programs. how she only resells artifacts that are basically harmless. how the worst ones—the ones to do evil with—stay locked up in her private collection. safely off the market.

eventually she meets ellen and jo. they adopt her immediately. and then we have a proto wayward sisters all the way back in season 3. of course, in this version there is still a roadhouse. and ash is still alive and kicking. surrounded by these fierce independent women who love and protect him.

and dean and sam too. they are constant visitors. stopping by with cases or for holidays or for no reason at all. their unofficial headquarters. because their unofficial home is at bobby’s. after all they’ve had rooms there since they were kids.

isn’t it beautiful? this feminist manifesto version of spn? where the author/father/god is swept under the rug by the writer/mother/goddess? where sam and dean are the american dream of untoxic masculinity. driving around the midwest in their vintage car and leather coats. hunting monsters and monstrous people. saving humans and humane monsters.

the family business.

NAME: Alicia Lynn Walker NICKNAMES / ALIAS: Janus, Blue, Jay, Bluejay.  AGE: Verse dependent. Mid twenties - mid thirties. DOB: July 30th, 1987 HEIGHT: 5′9″  HAIR COLOR: Originally blonde, dyed blue with tints of purple. EYE COLOR: Icy blue  ETHNICITY:  1/2 American & Irish.  SPOKEN LANGUAGES: English, some Italian because of Marietta and Spanish. OCCUPATION: Owner of night club near Vespucci Beach called ‘Paradise’ & an auto shop, bodyguard for Aurora Argent and Marietta, criminal / can fill any role for jobs / heists, executioner of the Lost & Triscilla MCs. SKILLS / TALENTS: Vast experience in using any weapons from pistols to rocket launchers, pro motorcycle & car racer, can drive and pilot any kind of vehicle from motorcycles to small jets; (being a pilot has earned her the nickname ‘Bluejay’ by her friends jokingly). Knows how to fight (mostly street style) and knows some karate. Has a wicked talent in torturing evil scumbags and making them beg for mercy. Knows how to craft makeshift weapons. She also is very good at gambling and rarely loses.  PARENTS: Roy & Annabeth (deceased; murdered by enemy MC known as the Triscillas) SIBLINGS: younger sister Ellie (alive; currently living in Liberty City with their uncle) OTHER FAMILY / ALLIES: Rob Walker (Uncle & leader of a gang in Liberty City), Aurora Argent (multi-billionaire, ex army field medic & CEO of Merryweather), Marietta Lombardi (trusted friend, racing buddy & heist crew mate). PETS: used to have a black Cane Corso named Ace.  LIKES: Women, sex, motorcycles, muscle cars, racing, gambling, beating the crap out of the Lost MC bikers, Jack Daniels, marijuana, classic rock & heavy metal music. DISLIKES: Racists, nazis, Lost & Triscilla MCs, cocky racers who likes to talk trash, pedophiles & rapists (she’ll take joy in beating the crap out of these kind of disgusting people too), cilantro. HISTORY: Born in San Andreas up in Blaine County (or Los Angeles), Alicia was raised into a family of bikers. Her father was the President of the Wild Aces motorcycle club. Her whole life basically revolved around motorcycles, the rough and gritty life... nothing about it was glamorous or luxurious. When she was seventeen, a member of the rival MC, the Triscillas somehow infiltrated their land and the club--- shot her mother and then her father when he tried to throw himself over her. Shock and horror hit Alicia at first before rage was quick to consume her, prompting her to pick up her father’s revolver and shot the murderer in the head. Her first kill. 

It didn’t stop there. Even as she was riddled with grief, her rage still burned strongly and so it began her path of vengeance. After securing her parents’ bodies and prepping them for a proper burial, she stocked up weapons and explosives before disappearing into the night and hunted down every single Triscilla charter scattered through-out Blaine County. She killed nearly every single one of them, burned down their homes and businesses. It was the bloodiest massacre San Andreas had seen in decades. Only several Triscillas made it out alive... and so did their leader, unfortunately. They went into hiding. Alicia then left her MC behind in the capable hands of her father’s righthand man, took her baby sister Ellie with her along with the family fortune that she inherited from her parents and fled to Liberty City to live with their Uncle, the brother of their mother. 

Over the years living in Liberty City, Alicia got into the life of a criminal and doing dirty work with the criminal organization her Uncle was involved with. She found that it was her calling. She couldn’t ever see herself doing legal and boring work. There was just something about playing dangerous games with death that thrilled her. It helped her get even more money, even though she was already rich from the fortune her parents left behind for her and Ellie, to raise her baby sister and make sure they had a decent life. She also got into racing in Liberty City. Till one day, she got a phone call from an old friend... requesting for her help and received word that the Lost MC were allies with the remaining Triscillas. She decided to return to Los Santos, changed her name to Janus... or rather, Jay. Dyed her hair in her favorite color and the nickname, Blue, just stuck with her. It was a way for her to avoid being recognized by her enemies. 

She met Lester through the old friend, a hacker and reliable contact to get hooked up with contract jobs and heists. It was also through him that she met Aurora Argent, an ex army field medic and Marietta Lombardi, one of the best wheelwomen in Los Santos. She started to build a life for herself in Los Santos, making big bank, making new friends and powerful allies. She became a millionaire and still sends money to her younger sister in Liberty City. She became highly recommended for any heist that surfaces. In the meanwhile, she would hunt down the Lost MC members to torture for information about the Triscilla leader and the remaining survivors. She also became a bodyguard for Aurora, after they had discovered that the new CEO of Merryweather, Don Percival, murdered Aurora’s father--- the original CEO and was the one responsible behind Aurora’s wrongful discharge from the army. They worked together to expose Don and take him down, before Aurora gained her rightful spot as the heiress and CEO of Merryweather... becoming a multi-billionaire. 

With Aurora as one of the most powerful allies, Blue couldn’t be touched by the law... let alone be found and caught. Whatever trails she leaves behind would be erased and swept under the rug. That included the murders she would commit upon the Lost MC. After Aurora’s reign over Merryweather, Blue purchased a night club and an auto shop that are still up and running to this day. 

Wall Street, October 1929 FIRST HOPE FINANCIAL http://firsthope.biz Claud Cockburn, writing for the "Times of London" from New-York, described the irrational exuberance that gripped the nation just prior to the Great Depression. As Europe wallowed in post-war malaise, America seemed to have discovered a new economy, the secret of uninterrupted growth and prosperity, the fount of transforming technology: "The atmosphere of the great boom was savagely exciting, but there were times when a person with my European background felt alarmingly lonely. He would have liked to believe, as these people believed, in the eternal upswing of the big bull market or else to meet just one person with whom he might discuss some general doubts without being regarded as an imbecile or a person of deliberately evil intent - some kind of anarchist, perhaps." The greatest analysts with the most impeccable credentials and track records failed to predict the forthcoming crash and the unprecedented economic depression that followed it. Irving Fisher, a preeminent economist, who, according to his biographer-son, Irving Norton Fisher, lost the equivalent of $140 million in today's money in the crash, made a series of soothing predictions. On October 22 he uttered these avuncular statements: "Quotations have not caught up with real values as yet ... (There is) no cause for a slump ... The market has not been inflated but merely readjusted..." Even as the market convulsed on Black Thursday, October 24, 1929 and on Black Tuesday, October 29 - the New York Times wrote: "Rally at close cheers brokers, bankers optimistic". In an editorial on October 26, it blasted rabid speculators and compliant analysts: "We shall hear considerably less in the future of those newly invented conceptions of finance which revised the principles of political economy with a view solely to fitting the stock market's vagaries.'' But it ended thus: "(The Federal Reserve has) insured the soundness of the business situation when the speculative markets went on the rocks.'' Compare this to Alan Greenspan Congressional testimony this summer: "While bubbles that burst are scarcely benign, the consequences need not be catastrophic for the economy ... (The Depression was brought on by) ensuing failures of policy." Investors, their equity leveraged with bank and broker loans, crowded into stocks of exciting "new technologies", such as the radio and mass electrification. The bull market - especially in issues of public utilities - was fueled by "mergers, new groupings, combinations and good earnings" and by corporate purchasing for "employee stock funds". Cautionary voices - such as Paul Warburg, the influential banker, Roger Babson, the "Prophet of Loss" and Alexander Noyes, the eternal Cassandra from the New York Times - were derided. The number of brokerage accounts doubled between March 1927 and March 1929. When the market corrected by 8 percent between March 18-27 - following a Fed induced credit crunch and a series of mysterious closed-door sessions of the Fed's board - bankers rushed in. The New York Times reported: "Responsible bankers agree that stocks should now be supported, having reached a level that makes them attractive.'' By August, the market was up 35 percent on its March lows. But it reached a peak on September 3 and it was downhill since then. On October 19, five days before "Black Thursday", Business Week published this sanguine prognosis: "Now, of course, the crucial weaknesses of such periods - price inflation, heavy inventories, over-extension of commercial credit - are totally absent. The security market seems to be suffering only an attack of stock indigestion... There is additional reassurance in the fact that, should business show any further signs of fatigue, the banking system is in a good position now to administer any needed credit tonic from its excellent Reserve supply." The crash unfolded gradually. Black Thursday actually ended with an inspiring rally. Friday and Saturday - trading ceased only on Sundays - witnessed an upswing followed by mild profit taking. The market dropped 12.8 percent on Monday, with Winston Churchill watching from the visitors' gallery - incurring a loss of $10-14 billion. The Wall Street Journal warned naive investors: "Many are looking for technical corrective reactions from time to time, but do not expect these to disturb the upward trend for any prolonged period." The market plummeted another 11.7 percent the next day - though trading ended with an impressive rally from the lows. October 31 was a good day with a "vigorous, buoyant rally from bell to bell". Even Rockefeller joined the myriad buyers. Shares soared. It seemed that the worst was over. The New York Times was optimistic: "It is thought that stocks will become stabilized at their actual worth levels, some higher and some lower than the present ones, and that the selling prices will be guided in the immediate future by the worth of each particular security, based on its dividend record, earnings ability and prospects. Little is heard in Wall Street these days about 'putting stocks up." But it was not long before irate customers began blaming their stupendous losses on advice they received from their brokers. Alec Wilder, a songwriter in New York in 1929, interviewed by Stud Terkel in "Hard Times" four decades later, described this typical exchange with his money manager: "I knew something was terribly wrong because I heard bellboys, everybody, talking about the stock market. About six weeks before the Wall Street Crash, I persuaded my mother in Rochester to let me talk to our family adviser. I wanted to sell stock which had been left me by my father. He got very sentimental: 'Oh your father wouldn't have liked you to do that.' He was so persuasive, I said O.K. I could have sold it for $160,000. Four years later, I sold it for $4,000." Exhausted and numb from days of hectic trading and back office operations, the brokerage houses pressured the stock exchange to declare a two day trading holiday. Exchanges around North America followed suit. At first, the Fed refused to reduce the discount rate. "(There) was no change in financial conditions which the board thought called for its action." - though it did inject liquidity into the money market by purchasing government bonds. Then, it partially succumbed and reduced the New York discount rate, which, curiously, was 1 percent above the other Fed districts - by 1 percent. This was too little and too late. The market never recovered after November 1. Despite further reductions in the discount rate to 4 percent, it shed a whopping 89 percent in nominal terms when it hit bottom three years later. Everyone was duped. The rich were impoverished overnight. Small time margin traders - the forerunners of today's day traders - lost their shirts and much else besides. The New York Times: "Yesterday's market crash was one which largely affected rich men, institutions, investment trusts and others who participate in the market on a broad and intelligent scale. It was not the margin traders who were caught in the rush to sell, but the rich men of the country who are able to swing blocks of 5,000, 10,000, up to 100,000 shares of high-priced stocks. They went overboard with no more consideration than the little trader who was swept out on the first day of the market's upheaval, whose prices, even at their lowest of last Thursday, now look high by comparison ... To most of those who have been in the market it is all the more awe-inspiring because their financial history is limited to bull markets." Overseas - mainly European - selling was an important factor. Some conspiracy theorists, such as Webster Tarpley in his "British Financial Warfare", supported by contemporary reporting by the likes of "The Economist", went as far as writing: "When this Wall Street Bubble had reached gargantuan proportions in the autumn of 1929, (Lord) Montagu Norman (governor of the Bank of England 1920-1944) sharply (upped) the British bank rate, repatriating British hot money, and pulling the rug out from under the Wall Street speculators, thus deliberately and consciously imploding the US markets. This caused a violent depression in the United States and some other countries, with the collapse of financial markets and the contraction of production and employment. In 1929, Norman engineered a collapse by puncturing the bubble." The crash was, in large part, a reaction to a sharp reversal, starting in 1928, of the reflationary, "cheap money", policies of the Fed intended, as Adolph Miller of the Fed's Board of Governors told a Senate committee, "to bring down money rates, the call rate among them, because of the international importance the call rate had come to acquire. The purpose was to start an outflow of gold - to reverse the previous inflow of gold into this country (back to Britain)." But the Fed had already lost control of the speculative rush. The crash of 1929 was not without its Enrons and World.com's. Clarence Hatry and his associates admitted to forging the accounts of their investment group to show a fake net worth of $24 million British pounds - rather than the true picture of 19 billion in liabilities. This led to forced liquidation of Wall Street positions by harried British financiers. The collapse of Middle West Utilities, run by the energy tycoon, Samuel Insull, exposed a web of offshore holding companies whose only purpose was to hide losses and disguise leverage. The former president of NYSE, Richard Whitney was arrested for larceny. Analysts and commentators thought of the stock exchange as decoupled from the real economy. Only one tenth of the population was invested - compared to 40 percent today. "The World" wrote, with more than a bit of Schadenfreude: "The country has not suffered a catastrophe ... The American people ... has been gambling largely with the surplus of its astonishing prosper

WandaVision: Who is Agent Jimmy Woo?

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This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

Now that WandaVision episode 4 has expanded a bit to show more of what’s going on, it really ties into what made the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe work, but in a very surreal way. The first Avengers movie was about the culmination in connections and bringing together the top heroes that existed so far in continuity. Now that we’re four Avengers movies in and we’re taking our first step into the era of Marvel’s Disney+ TV shows, we have such an odd collection of characters from all over the MCU converging.

Really, it’s pretty wild. We have two Avengers who otherwise never had all that screentime. We have a supporting character from Captain Marvel who first appeared as a child now a central character all grown up. We have the comic relief from the first two Thor movies. Then there’s that FBI agent from Ant-Man and the Wasp, whose only role was to be a pestering doofus to the hero.

Yes, Agent James Woo (played by Randall Park), the guy who tried to make sure Scott Lang was making good on his house arrest, is trying to figure out what the hell is going on in Westview, New Jersey. That goofball from Ant-Man and the Wasp is the guy talking over Wanda Maximoff’s radio in episode 2 to try and figure out who is controlling her.

Dorky or not, Jimmy Woo has a long history with Marvel. In fact, he predates all the other characters on this show. He even predates Marvel itself!

He first appeared in Yellow Claw #1 from Atlas Comics, created by Al Feldstein and Joe Maneely, though Jack Kirby pretty much took over as of the second issue. The Yellow Claw was a Fu Manchu-type yellow peril villain and FBI Agent Jimmy Woo was the agent assigned to track him down. With Yellow Claw being one of those awful racist caricatures that the era was known for, Woo was seen as almost revolutionary in comparison. He was Asian, but not a walking joke based on his nationality.

Yellow Claw only lasted a mere four issues, but its status as a comic book footnote would ultimately help out Woo in the long run.

Woo was brought back in the late-60s as an agent of SHIELD. He spent the next many decades being a run-of-the-mill go-to SHIELD guy. Someone you would merely throw in a scene, even though the focus was on someone like Nick Fury or Dum Dum Dugan. Really, one of his more notable appearances was in the late-70s Marvel Godzilla comic. He admittedly didn’t do much, but he survived a few confrontations with the King of the Monsters and that’s awesome!

The late-70s also laid some important seeds for Woo’s future in an early issue of Marvel’s What If? series. The anthology comic was usually about Uatu the Watcher focusing on an alternate reality and seeing how things would have ended up if history had zigged instead of zagged. A world where Captain America wasn’t frozen, a world where Spider-Man prevented Uncle Ben’s death, etc.

The ninth issue, “What If the Avengers Had Fought Evil in the 1950s?” was written by Don Glut and drawn by Alan Kupperberg and Bill Black. As a framing device, the story was being watched by Avengers members Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Vision, and Beast. Looking into the past of an alternate reality, Iron Man saw an adventure where a bunch of 1950s characters teamed up and called themselves the Avengers.

The team was made up of:

Jimmy Woo, still trying to hunt down the Yellow Claw.

Marvel Boy, a twist on Superman’s origin where a man tried to escape Nazi Germany by flying he and his son to Uranus on a rocket. The son grew up to be a hero using gadgets and enhanced scientific knowledge.

3D Man, with the speed and strength of three men. He was sort of a cheat, as he was introduced in the 70s with his story taking place in the 50s.

Venus, the Goddess of Love.

Gorilla Man, who is like Tim Allen in the Santa Clause if you replaced “being Santa” with “being a talking gorilla.”

The Human Robot, a malfunctioning 1950s robot from a horror comic.

There were also appearances by Namora and Jann of the Jungle. Pretty sure one of the villains showed up in one of the obscure “Commie Smasher” Captain America issues.

Anyway, after the good guys won the day, President Eisenhower told them to disband. The way he saw it, the world wasn’t really ready for a ragtag super team of weirdos. Watching this, the mainstream Avengers noted their similarities to the members of this alternate lineup. Captain America and 3D Man were cut from the same cloth in terms of fighting style, Iron Man and Marvel Boy were both geniuses with cool gadgets, Thor and Venus were both gods fighting alongside mortals, Vision and Human Robot were both androids with heroic hearts, and Beast and Gorilla Man were both smartass talking furballs.

The Watcher appeared at the end to remind the reader something important: just because Iron Man saw this in an alternate reality doesn’t mean it didn’t happen in regular continuity. After all, who’s to know? It was a neat team-up that was quickly swept under the rug and didn’t have any lasting complications.

Other than a minor appearance in Avengers Forever, the What If? issue finally got the callback it was looking for in the mid-2000s. The team of Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk did a miniseries called Agents of Atlas. The idea was that while they didn’t call themselves the Avengers, those 1950s heroes did indeed secretly team up back in the day.

For the most part, the characters were the same, but there were plenty of tweaks. Since their origins were tied to the 1950s, Jimmy Woo was aged up immensely for it to make sense, only to be de-aged through Marvel Boy’s technology. Marvel Boy himself was renamed the Uranian and they altered his backstory since one doesn’t really live a normal life on the surface of Uranus (tee-hee). Human Robot was referred to as M-11 and would rarely speak. 3D Man wasn’t part of the team, but they eventually brought in the hero Triathalon to fill in the role. As for Venus, she was retconned into being a guilt-ridden siren of the sea who for a time believed herself to be the goddess.

Most importantly, it gave us this panel.

Sadly, despite its high-quality and Marvel trying again and again, Agents of Atlas never truly caught on. It did last roughly as long as Guardians of the Galaxy did around the same time and we all know how successful that was once it became a movie. Come on, Marvel! Give us some cinematic Gorilla Man! You already know that people love wise-ass talking animals!

Marvel rested the concept for a few years until bringing it back as a new all-Asian superhero team led by Agent Woo. So Woo still has stuff going on.

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Maybe WandaVision will be a stepping stone from learning close-up magic to actually being the leader of his own group of heroes. One day…

The post WandaVision: Who is Agent Jimmy Woo? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/36sZIee

I feel like in s1 of ouat they left it ambiguous if regina rlly cares for henry and were maybe even going to make henry "more" Emma's son but then they realized that would be a horrible take on parents who adopt so then they went straight to regina really cares just as much as emma in s2 idk why but I get the vibe that if the fandom didnt love regina/lana so much that adam and eddy would have been worse to her character

i watched the show when it first aired and the problem with season 1 is that regina had already committed so many unforgivable crimes that her being redeemed and being forgiven seemed impossible. and not once i thought they would redeem her. i do think if regina wasn’t a beloved character, the writers would have kept her as the evil queen. after all, lana did evil well, and she liked playing the evil queen.

as for regina, she was abusive. there’s no point discussing that fact, but she loved her son. she learned love from cora, and of course, it would come out in its ugliest form. regina was extremely selfish and possessive and it’s understandable why she would latch onto something that hers and would refuse to let it go, no matter how detrimental to her son it was at that point.

but then she did let henry go. and she let her enemies parent her son. then, she let him go once again, when she had to undo the dark curse. it was a punishment in itself, it was ironical, and sad and beautiful. she caused misery and pain for decades and it was karma laughing at her face—losing henry when they finally reached a point where they both healed and understood each other, where they knew they’d always loved each other. but regina separated children and parents, she made it impossible for them to remember...regina was a villain that needed to feel the pain she inflicted on people and by losing henry and him not remembering her when they were back in storybrooke was a necessary push towards her redemption.

i’m not saying regina faced enough consequences, some of her actions were swept under the rug and the writers acted like they never happened (graham’s death, rape...her erasing henry’s memories...) but she faced more consequences and was punished more than the other villains on that show. at least she truly wanted to be better and a good mother for henry.

What if Star Wars had tanked?

May 1977, 20th Century Fox distributes a really WEIRD movie.  It’s a science fiction fantasy story about medieval knight samurais in space with laser swords and fighter pilots.  Nobody expected it to be a hit, it seemed to be such a niche movie, one that would garner a small cult following then be swept under the rug by the other summer tent poles like “Smokey and the Bandit” or “The Spy Who Loved Me.”  To everyone’s surprise, it became an instant success, rocketing no name George Lucas from a no-name bush-league indie director into the echelon of A-list Blockbusters.  His idea for a decade spanning six part saga (two sequels, three prequels) was greenlit then and there, and the budget for Star Wars 2, now called Star Wars 5, was double what he was given for the original.  Star Wars 1, nor 4, was given the subtitle “A New Hope” to let audiences know it was just the beginning of a series, and the rest is history.

But in 1977, George Lucas was not as confident in his vision as he would soon become.  He figured, as every producer did, that his film would be a flash in the pan genre piece, something that would play in theaters just long enough to make it’s budget back, then disappear into obscurity.  In 1976, he planned for the worst.

Star Wars, like many other films of the day, was being given a novelization.  Before home media became ubiquitous, the only way people could experience the film was to see it in theaters or buy the book version.  Lucas hired a ghostwriter, Alan Dean Foster, to write the novelization of Star Wars 1, AND to create a tentative Star Wars 2 that could be adapted to the screen if the original film failed to meet his high expectations.  Star Wars 2, titled “Splinter of the Minds Eye,” was written to be as low budget as possible; no big set pieces, and for that matter no big sets.  Every scene had to take place in a set that the studio already owned, and couldn’t include any major space battles because there was no guarantee that the special effects would fit into the budget.  On top of that, it meant that none of the characters played by big name actors would be included; no Harrison Ford, no Alec Guinness.  Splinter was a bare bones story set entirely on what would essentially become Dagobah, and would have taken the franchise in an entirely different direction.  None of the story elements from Lucas’ dream sequel were included, and none of the plot twists either; there is no connection between “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye” and “Empire Strikes Back,” and in fact, once Empire was released, Splinter was relegated to secondary canon because the official sequel had overidden it so the story no longer made sense.

But if Star Wars 1 had flopped, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye would have been made into the official sequel, and the story would have had to pick up where it left off; Lucas didn’t plot out a low budget version of Star Wars 3, so we can only speculate as to what may have happened.

In Splinter, Luke and Leia are going on a diplomatic mission to convince some neutral star systems to join the rebellion.  Their ship crash lands on a backwater swamp planet (called Mimban, a name eventually used for the World War I trench planet in the Disney movie Solo), which is roughly analogous to the Dagobah we saw in Empire.  Stranded on the swamp planet, Luke and Leia find their way to an imperial mining colony, get into a scuffle, and escape with the help of a Jedi witch named Halla.  The titular “splinter of the mind’s eye” is a broken fragment of a magical crystal, because this was the 1970s and crystals were a big thing in fantasy (the splinter was called the kaiburr crystal; this name would later be re-purposed in canon as the crystals used for lightsaber and Death Star laser construction).  The splinter is said to focus the force, allowing the wielder to become more powerful or something; it’s a MacGuffin, the book is vague as to what it actually physically does.  After a confrontation with locals, and a duel with none other than Darth Vader (in which Leia wields a lightsaber and Luke cuts off Vader’s whole arm), Halla takes over the role of Luke’s mentor to train him in the ways of the Force.

At this point in the series, Luke and Leia were never intended to be brother and sister.  It was clearly supposed to be a chivalric romance between a knight errant and his courtly love.  He is the royal bodyguard to the Queen of Alderaan (the entire Royal Family was destroyed in Star Wars 1, so Princess Leia should by all rights have been coronated as Queen Leia).  George Lucas added the twist that they were brother and sister well into production of Empire; in fact, in Empire he shot two scenes of Leia kissing Luke (one was to make Han jealous, the other was near the end, right after she rescued Luke from cloud city; I’m glad they cut the second one, because it undermines the fact that she literally just told Han that she loves him).  Han Solo himself is mentioned in passing, not even by name, just as some pirate Luke used to know who took his reward money from the first movie and went to pay off some debts.  If this movie had been made instead of Empire, there’s no guarantee that a Star Wars 3 would even be greenlit.

But if it had been, here’s what would have happened.

Darth Vader is not Luke’s father in this version; that too was a twist Lucas invented after the series took off.  So, in this version of Star wars 3, which I will call “Revenge of the Jedi,” Luke goes on a quest to slay the evil Emperor.  It’s a fantasy movie, in any other setting the point of the franchise would be to kill the main bad guy; imagine if Lord of the Rings had ended without the heroes destroying the ring and defeating Sauron, that would have made no sense.  In this version of the story, Darth Vader is just the archetypal Black Knight; tying back into the Japanese influence on the series, he is an evil Shogun, appointed by the Emperor to be the military dictator.  There would be more emphasis on fight choreography in this version, drawing influence from the works of Akira Kurosawa.  The word Jedi comes from the word for the Japanese film genre Jidaigeki, meaning ‘period piece,’ featuring samuri and ronin (for western audiences, “Ronin” are nomadic heroes, like Clint Eastwood’s man with no name, or the Road Warrior).

Revenge of the Jedi would end with a climactic fight scene in the Emperor’s palace, with Luke battling his way through the many levels, defeating wave after wave of imperial soldiers and those red guards fans love to care about even though they do literally nothing on screen.  The prequels we got in canon were bogged down with boring politics about trade federations and unions and guilds and alliances, but politics can be interesting if done well (and written by someone who isn’t George Lucas; the original trilogy we got was good DESPITE him, not BECAUSE of him).  Revenge of the Jedi would see Leia building an army, the rebellion becoming an actual superpower in the galaxy; the New Republic wouldn’t just be restored after the Empire was defeated, it would be restored during the war with the express intent of rallying neutral systems behind an actual government body against the Emperor.

Darth Vader betrayed and murdered Luke’s father, but more importantly he committed genocide against Leia’s people, the survivors of which now live in diaspora.  Sound familiar?  “The Rebellion” isn’t a great name, but “the Alliance” is perfect because it evokes the Allies of World War II and shows that it is a galaxy-wide phenomena, not just a single splinter cell as depicted in the films in our timeline.  Luke wants to avenge his father, but if you’re insistent that the good guy isn’t allowed to kill the bad guy, you could have Vader go out the way he did in “Return of the Jedi,” turning back to the light side and sacrificing his life to kill the Emperor.  Everyone loves a redemption story, but Darth Vader really was a piece of shit and didn’t deserve to just get a free pass into Jedi Ghost Heaven because he decided to stop being evil five minutes before he died.

Maybe in this version of Star Wars 3, Harrison Ford returns for a cameo as a favor to George Lucas.  If so, he dies; Ford wanted Han to die in “Return of the Jedi,” and only agreed to do “The Force Awakens” if they finally killed him off then.  If he returns for “Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Jedi,” he will sacrifice himself for the Alliance, going out as a hero.  After the Emperor is defeated, the threat doesn’t just go away; suddenly there’s a power vacuum, with all the admirals and regional governor’s vying to replace him.  In both pre- and post-Disney Star Wars, the Emperor had a son (Triclops in Legends continuity, and Rey’s dad in Canon), so he would be heir to his father’s throne; perhaps he is propped up as a puppet for the military leaders, or maybe he surrenders to the Alliance and allows his Empire to be balkanized into dozens of independent powers, as with the fall of every great Empire; Rome (East and West), Mongolia, China, Austria-Hungary, Britain, the USSR, the list goes on.

This Star Wars trilogy would not be the enormous franchise we know today, it would still be a very niche series with a cult following.  It would be a step up from the Planet of the Apes series; sure, people have heard of it, and there have been attempts to revive it in the modern day, but it’s not even close to being a tent pole of the modern cultural zeitgeist.  Nobody looks forward to the new Planet of the Apes movie every year, it’s not a multi-billion dollar multi-media enterprise, there’s no dedicated “Planet of the Apes Celebration,” no cartoons, no streaming service shows that everyone geeks out about online, no triple-a video games, nothing.  This version of Star Wars would be just another weird artifact of the 1970s.  Maybe there would be a push to release a sequel, Star Wars 4, in like 2007, but that would be closer to Rambo IV or Superman Returns or Tron Legacy.

There are dedicated fans, but it’s not the biggest movie of the year.

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars 2: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye (1979)

Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Jedi (1982)

Star Wars: Journal of the Whills (2011, a prequel set during the Clone Wars mentioned in the first movie)

Out from the Facades

Fandom: The Librarians

Rating: General, sfw, some swearing

Relationship: Jazekiel

Word Count: 2236

Going off a previous post where I headcanoned Stone as a trans guy, this is a fic revolving around that, and the concept of found family for June 4th's prompt: Found Family.

Also posted on my Ao3.

-----

Jacob came home, hair cut short, with a button down shirt from the thrift store, trying to ignore the uncomfortableness of the too small sports bra he was using to bind. His father was usually home later, so he figured he’d have some time to think up what he was going to say, and where he could go if he ended up getting kicked out.

Unfortunately, Isaac Stone was standing at the kitchen counter, looking at some bill that had come in the mail that day. His father looked up, squinting at the open door from the bright Oklahoma afternoon. When Jacob unfroze and shut the door, Isaac sucked in a breath.

“So, you’re a boy now,” Isaac said, inspecting Jacob like he was a prize heifer at the county fair. While his feet could move, Jacob’s throat did not want to cooperate, so Isaac continued. “Since you couldn’t even be a decent girl, you better be a better man, you understand?”

Jacob nodded, mentally finishing the thought that came next: because I can’t have a queer for a kid.

So that’s what Jacob did. So long as he acted like a good ol’ boy, everyone went along with it. He was surprised how quickly people just decided that yeah, Rebecca Stone was actually Jacob Stone, star of the high school football team, more than capable of drinking with the actual linebackers, and making the same comments, though thankfully he never felt compelled to act on them like others did.

But the real shocker was how easily Isaac Stone swept the notion of Rebecca, the rough tomboy, under the rug like he had with his late wife's heritage. Surprising support wrapped in the ultimate thought that if things weren't right by themselves, he'd force it into a more acceptable image and move on. He’d drive Stone to Oklahoma City for hormone replacement therapy until he could drive himself, his father hid of all the pictures past baby stage that indicated a girl that wasn’t on board with being one, and somehow never misgendered him.

Of course, his father didn’t have to worry about misgendering if he wasn’t home, or was passed out drunk on the couch if he was.

By the time Jacob turned 18, no one made any mistakes. He’d been blessed by the transgender gods, spending most of his formative years on testosterone, and soon got top surgery in the city (thankfully paid for before his father completely ran the company into the dirt). To complete the perfect picture, he got himself a nice, manly job oil rigging. It was easy to forget he’d ever been Rebecca first.

But jacob couldn’t ignore how much of a fuckup he still was. No one knew that he’d went to college instead of “a stint up on the Keystone pipeline,” that he’d published dozens of scholarly essays on art and literature of all sorts while “apprenticing to be a surveyor,” that he still liked men even though he was a convincing fake womanizer. Despite briefly living more like who he really was, he was terrified of what would happen if the people back home found out. So, what better way to prevent that than to come back to Oklahoma and work long hours on a dead-end pipeline job, biding his time until Isaac decided he’d done enough to murder his company and let Jacob actually take over.

And then, when he was at the bar with some of his buddies, after dutifully hitting on the hot foreign chick with a Latin tattoo, ninjas showed up, and a NATO counter terrorism officer saved his ass.

The Library made it really hard to be Jacob Stone, manly oil rigger from Oklahoma, because he wasn’t any use to the Library for just that. No, Jacob Stone, brilliant scholar and expert in all things liberal arts, that was exactly who the Library needed to repeatedly save the world. And Jacob realized that, hey, it was pretty nice to actually be the real Jacob Stone, the one under all those facades.

The problem was old habits, ones that were decades in the making, were hard to break. It took him a few months to quit instinctively playing stupid before realizing, no, he didn’t have to do that. Only recently did he actually tell his colleagues what he was always busy working on in their off time, still publishing under Dr. Oliver Thompson, though the thought of abandoning the pseudonyms gave him the same fear that kept him hidden in Oklahoma.

At least the artificial interest in women was becoming not so artificial, but then there was Ezekiel Jones, doing his damn best to remind Jacob how not straight he was. And he still wasn’t totally truthful with the team; no one knew he was trans. Though he knew he didn’t owe them that bit of personal history, it felt like one more mask still hanging on his face.

And then the Library sent them to one of his father’s new sites in Wagner, and his past that he tried to shed came rearing its head all at once. Fortunately his father had hired local contractors who didn’t know Jacob, but he couldn’t do much about Isaac himself, or the fact they were dealing with some Choctaw mythology causing a ruckus, with protestors who seemingly could see through his white-passing visage and into his native blood.

It was as if the universe decided that he needed to actually confront the cultural past he’d carefully locked away years ago with his mother’s death, and the past he’d managed to lock away recently with becoming a Librarian. And maybe he actually would.

Isaac, of course, was off being useless in a bar, so naturally he got to introduce his colleagues to his father in his worst state.

“The hell you doin’ here?” Isaac was looking at him, just like he had that afternoon 25 years ago.

It took all of his willpower to not just turn around and leave. “...hey Pop.”

They managed to convince Isaac that he was just a surveyor assistant to Ezekiel, though part of him was on guard in case Cassandra decided to throw down with his father’s disgusting misogynistic behavior (he was convinced she gave Isaac a headache with all the jargon she threw around, so she got some revenge). It was easy knowing what to say to keep Isaac from suspecting anything, to get him to cooperate (especially considering he was oiled with alcohol), but after effectively being “out” intellectually for a year, it hurt to shove himself back into the good ol’ boy role, even if part of him was screaming it was the safe thing to do.

Being locked in the truth chamber was a thrilling experience, in that his anxiety about kept them from escaping. He thought he was going to have to come out right there to Ezekiel and Cassandra, but thankfully the door was happy enough with him talking about his father.

In the end, even after getting a practice run with Hokolonote, he realized it didn’t matter if Isaac had no clue who he really was. Isaac would never care, because Jacob still ended up being the family fuck up, just the “turnin’ your back on your family” one. He left Oklahoma with a different hurt, the low ache of realizing he never actually had genuine family to begin with.

And then he spent more time with the Librarians, and that ache began to fade. These people he worked with, saved, got saved by, knew him as he was, and loved him for it. And realized he felt the exact same way about them. He near spooked himself with how much he cared if Eve had died by Dulac’s sword, if Ezekiel got killed by anubis’s werewolves, if Cassandra didn’t make it through the surgery, if Flynn hadn’t been strong enough to take in evil while they scrambled for a solution to Apep, if Jenkins somehow died (thank god he was immortal). Family was only half of having people care about you; you had to care about them too.

He had family.

But he didn’t want any secrets with the family, and he still had one left tugging on his heart. And who better to tell than the other professional faker on the team.

He cornered Ezekiel in the main room while the others went about doing whatever they were doing. “Hey, Ezekiel, can we talk?”

Ezekiel looked at him, a mix of confusion and concern, since Jacob rarely pulled the first name card for him. “Sure, mate. Is something wrong?”

“No...uh, just, let’s go somewhere more private,” Jacob said, about-facing and walking deeper into the Library. Ezekiel followed him, and he knew the thief was suddenly hyper aware of everything because Jacob caught him off-guard.

The wandered for a bit, eventually far enough from the others and any main walkways where someone might come near. “Okay, what’s this about?” Ezekiel asked, folding his arms.

Jacob took a death breath. “I’ve not been completely truthful about my past-”

Ezekiel cut him off. “No one ever is, least of all me, so what of it?”

“No, just-” Jacob rubbed his face in frustration “-I know you and Cassandra found out I’d lied to my father about myself for decades, but that’s not the only thing about me you don’t know.”

“Okay?” Ezekiel just looked at him even more confused. “Are you like, coming out or something? Because that isn’t a big deal, I mean it is, but like, Cassandra has a girlfriend, mate, and you know I’m not the straightest bloke around.”

“You’re not?” Jacob shook his head, ignoring that bit of apparently obvious information for now. “I, uh, well, yeah, Jones, I’m coming out. I’m trans.”

There was an awkward silence as Ezekiel tried to figure out what Jacob meant by that. “Congrats?” He opened and closed his mouth a few times like he was trying out sentences in his head and deeming them not appropriate, and then a flood of words came out. “Um, so, do you have like prefered pronouns you want me to use? Are you thinking about a new name? Cuz that’s cool too. Are you still into women, or do you not want me to set you up anymore-”

Jacob felt like he’d been doing Atlas’s job for him, and Atlas had finally relieved him. “Ezekiel,” Jacob started to get the thief to quiet, “I’m a trans man.”

“Ooh, okay.” Ezekiel, despite his ability to don a quality poker face, had no control over the blush on his face right then.

Deciding he had nothing left to lose, Jacob decided to answer Ezekiel’s last question. “And you can stop with setting me up with women too...because I’m not straight either.” He let out a bark of a laugh at how surreal he felt, which made Ezekiel startle. Apparently Ezekiel realized how big this was for Jacob, because he was looking at him in amazement now. “I can’t believe I’ve not told anyone else that in two and a half decades.”

“You...it’s been that long?” Ezekiel blinked in disbelief. “How did you hide that?”

Jacob shrugged. “You’d be surprised how easily people will ignore things if you fit in somehow. And I wasn’t ever totally hidden...you met Slaten. He knew me, well, more than anyone else until the Library.” He knew what was coming next after he said that.

“Were you...together?”

A smile crept onto Jacob’s face, reminiscent. “It’s the worst when you fall for your straight best friend.”

“It really is,” Ezekiel replied, and then his expression changed to something more serious, his posture annoyingly more seductive with just a slight tilt of his head and angle of his hips. “Now I pride myself in reading people, a necessary skill for effective grifting, and, well, when I first met you, you gave off some repressed gay vibes for sure. Was there something more when you shoved me against that bookcase when ninjas were invading the Library for the crown?”

Jacob thought back to that moment. “Not exactly, I mean, I'm a fighter so my first thought was to immobilize you.” Ezekiel raised an eyebrow, but Jacob had more to say. He stepped closer to Ezekiel as he said, “then my second thought was you looked like you were enjoying it.” Now he was almost toe to toe with Ezekiel, and the thief had certainly picked up on where he was going. “And my third thought was that I enjoyed looking at you like that.”

Conveniently, they were near a bookcase, not the one from the memory, but close enough. With all other thoughts out the window, Jacob grabbed Ezekiel by the shirt and pushed him against the bookcase. Ezekiel let out a little gasp when his back hit the wood, making Jacob's heart flip in his chest. What he said was true; Jacob was enjoying pinning Ezekiel to the bookcase, and based on Ezekiel's turned on expression, he was too.

Ezekiel interrupted his observations. “Are you just going to look at me?”

“Hmm, I might with that attitude,” Jacob purred. Ezekiel scoffed, but he glanced down at Jacob's mouth, and then Jacob couldn't resist any longer. He relaxed his elbows and brought his face near inches away from Ezekiel's, but something making him hesitate.

Ezekiel read him like an open book. “You aren't second guessing, are you? There's nothing wrong with who you are, though your wardrobe could still use help-”

“Oh, shut it,” Jacob growled, but he didn't back away.

“Make me, cowboy,” Ezekiel retorted. That was enough to get Jacob to close the remaining distance and press his lips onto Ezekiel's.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration for him to say he felt fireworks when Ezekiel kissed back.

This was his family, this building, these people. Blood wasn't everything, despite what the folks back home thought. It only took him 40 years to find it, but he was very glad he did.

-----

Post Notes: So, this is some idyllic world where trans teens got HRT in the 80's, which as far as Google would tell me, wasn't a thing until more recently. Also, since I used “And What Lies Beneath the Stones” for reference on Jacob and Isaac interacting, I also noticed how the one protestor reacted when he looked at Stone, and my brain decided that was him recognizing Choctaw or another tribe in Stone because that's also a fun headcanon in my head from when people mentioned it way back.

I picture this happening after season four, so technically the LiTs don't remember the whole Jenkins dying bit (I feel like Flynn and Eve wouldn't say for time line stability, since Flynn does watch out for that already from “And the Final Curtain”).

REVIEW

Serve ‘N’ Protect by Tee O’Fallon

A Federal K-9 Novel #5

 What a delight to find a wonderful new author that made me smile, care, and want to read more of her work. I even chuckled a bit here and there even though this was definitely a romantic suspense genre novel.

 What I liked:

* Cassidy Morgan: feisty, strong, survivor or major physical and emotional trauma, math wizard, accountant, giving, caring, loquacious, sister, daughter, and al- around good person. She was perfect for Markus

* Markus York: K-9 Secret Service Agent, survivor of brutal attack, in hiding, quiet, back story impacts his present, team player, more than he realizes and perfect for Cassidy.

* Ghost: K-9 partner of Markus, made me smile, smarter at times than his partner, stole the story from time to time, loved his part in this book.

* The Morgans: big fun-loving, talkative, intrusive family that explained why Cassidy was as she was.

* The writing: I loved the way it made me feel, care and want to read more

* That this was a standalone story

* The men mentioned in the book that must have been part of previous stories in the series…would love to know more about them all.

* That there were mysteries to solve and bad guys to catch

* In a way…being able to empathize with one of the bad guys…could definitely see why he did what he did though it was wrong.

* How the bad guys were caught

* That the H/h were both imperfect but perfect in their own right ~ Really liked this couple!

* All of it really except…

 What I didn’t like:

* The bad guys…especially one of them…what a creep!

* Knowing that there are people out there willing to do evil things for money

* Hugh – the ex-fiancé of Cassidy – what a creep and spineless guy!

 Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more in this series? Definitely!

 Thank you to NetGalley and Entangled Publishing-Amara ~ This is my honest review.

 5 Stars

SERVE ‘N’ PROTECT by Tee O’Fallon is out now! Check it out and grab your copy today!

 Title: Serve ‘N’ Protect

Author: Tee O’Fallon

Genre: Romantic Suspense

  About Serve ‘N’ Protect:

Ambushed and left for dead, U.S. Secret Service K-9 Officer Markus York is on the mend and laying low in a safe house while his team tracks down his attacker. But Markus isn’t good at sitting still. Even with his K-9, Ghost, for company, he gets restless and decides now is the perfect time to do some repairs around the house…and inadvertently tears open his wounds.

Fresh out of a bad relationship that ended after a car accident left her with limited mobility, freelance accountant Cassidy Morgan has sworn off men. At least, that’s the plan. Until a frantically barking dog leads her to a neighbor’s house where she finds a mysterious man out cold and bleeding on the floor...and mumbling things like “no, they’ll find me” when she tries to call an ambulance.

Yeah, that’s not at all concerning.

Despite Markus’s surly attitude, Cassidy senses there’s something else at work beneath his rugged, keep-your-distance exterior. Whatever it is, it’s sexy as hell.

With someone still trying to kill him, Markus doesn’t want an innocent to get hurt, let alone take care of him.

If only his dog wasn’t crazy in love with her.

If only the chemistry between Markus and Cassidy didn’t explode whenever they were in the same room.

If only Cassidy wasn’t a target now, too.

  Get Your Copy Today:

Amazon | Nook | BAM! | AppleBooks | Kobo | Google

Read the Standalone Series:

Trap ‘N’ Trace

Dark ‘N’ Deadly

Armed ‘N’ Ready

Locked ‘N’ Loaded

   EXCERPT

Fear snapped her into action and she threw her legs over the side of the bed. No sooner had the alarm kicked on than it abruptly kicked off. The barking eased to an occasional snarl. What she heard next frightened her more.

Voices. Lots of voices, and she knew whose they were.

Her entire family was downstairs. All six of them.

And Markus is alone with them.

With her heart racing at what she could only imagine in her worst nightmares was happening downstairs, she snatched up her clothes then opted for the more expeditious option—her robe.

Still tying the robe around her waist, she all but ran from the bedroom. Halfway down the stairs, she froze. Heat scorched her face.

Markus’s expression was grim as he stood in front of the keypad in nothing more than his jeans and a gun tucked into the small of his back. Ghost sat obediently beside him, with only the slightest rumble coming from the back of his throat. Her father, mother, two brothers and sisters stood in front of the open door.

“What’s doing, sis?” her oldest brother, Jimmy, asked in a frosty tone.

Wearing only her robe, it was pretty darned obvious exactly what she and Markus had been doing.

“Merry Christmas, Cassidy,” her younger sister, Kaitlyn, said, flipping back her unruly head of red curls and grinning as she cast an unabashedly appreciative eye at Markus. “Merry Christmas to you, too.”

While she totally understood her sister’s sentiments because, well, Markus was hotter than hell in his bare feet and the top snap of his jeans still undone, it irked to have her sister drooling over her new boyfriend.

Boyfriend?

She shook her head to clear it. Deciphering what she and Markus were exactly would have to wait. Especially after last night’s conversation. Right now, there were more pressing matters at hand. Like keeping her father and brothers from pounding on Markus all at once.

Cassidy took the rest of the stairs in record time, stepping in front of Markus and Ghost as if they needed protection. He might not know it, but he does. “What are you all doing here?”

Sean, the second oldest sibling of the family, tapped a finger on his watch. “It’s ten o’clock, Cass. On Christmas Day.”

She gasped. Oh my gosh.

Her father pursed his lips as he glared at Markus. “We were worried about you, lass,” he said in the same thick Irish brogue that hadn’t diminished much, even after decades of living in the U.S.

Jimmy crossed his arms. “You’re always the first under the tree. When you didn’t show at nine on the button, we were surprised.”

“When you didn’t show by nine fifteen,” her older sister, Brianna, chimed in, “we got a little worried.”

“By nine thirty,” her mother added in a lilting brogue and coming to wrap an arm around her shoulder and give her a good squeeze, “we decided to come by and check on you. You can blame me for that. I insisted.”

Then and there, she made a New Year’s resolution to collect every single one of her house keys from every single member of her family so this would never, ever happen again. “I’m sorry to have worried all of you, but you could have called or at least texted.”

“Between all of us”—Sean swept his arm to encompass the family—“we probably called ten times.” He pointed to her phone which was right where she’d left it last night. On the kitchen counter.

She smacked a hand to her forehead. “You did call, didn’t you?”

As if sensing there were no words he could say to pacify her family at finding a half-naked man and a snarling dog in her house, Markus wisely remained silent. She couldn’t be sure whether the slight upturn of his lips was a grimace or a smile. Given the awkwardness of the situation, she’d go with grimace.

Her father arched a brow. “Care to introduce us, lass?”

  About Tee O’Fallon:

Tee O'Fallon is the author of the Federal K-9 Series and the NYPD Blue & Gold Series. Tee has been a federal agent for twenty-three years and is now a police investigator, giving her hands-on experience in the field of law enforcement that she combines with her love of romantic suspense. When not writing, Tee enjoys cooking, gardening, chocolate, lychee martinis, and spending time with her Belgian Sheepdogs, Loki and Kyrie. Tee loves hearing from readers and can be contacted via her website https://teeofallon.com where you can also sign up for Tee’s newsletters.

Connect with Tee:

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What do you think of the shinobi system?

I think a lot of things about the shinobi system, all of those things being negative. I’ll be talking about both the systems: the one which used to be in place, and the one which is currently under place.

More under the cut.

When I first started watching the anime, I was really drawn to the idea of this shinobi world, where ninjas are used as tools for the greater purpose. It’s a cruel reality, and team 7 learns about it through their fight with Zabuza and Haku. One of the things that really got me interested in this immoral system was when Sasuke ‘dies’ in his fight against Haku, and Sakura, in a state of mourning, recites this shinobi rule:

“No matter what situation, a shinobi must keep emotions on the inside. You must make the mission your top priority. And you must possess a heart that never shows tears.”

It gives us a fair idea of what the traditional shinobi must be like: emotionless tools that must do as they’re told to. Rules like this one were taught to students in the Academy, to young children. 

This was a really intriguing concept to me. This was an ‘evil’ and ‘ruthless’ system, and I figured that from that point on, Naruto’s dream of becoming Hokage would incorporate fixing the ideals this system was based on (but sadly, we never heard from Hokage Naruto about what the hell happened).

And not to mention that they were twelve when they were faced with this threat.

There might be the argument that this fictional world and the ideals it’s based on are different from what we, in the real world, believe in. However, when the idea of the Leaf Village had found its way to young Hashirama’s head, he formed the idea of a place where children wouldn’t have to kill each other, and that children wouldn’t have to face the horrors of the battlefield. And yet, a couple of decades later, we have the chunin exams where children kill each other for no better reason than getting a higher ninja rank, while all the elders and village people watch and rejoice.

Nice.

So yes, the idea of child soldiers was looked down upon in-universe as well. It’s a bad concept in real world, as well as in their ninja world. 

Child soldiers aside, this world is fucked up in the way that it excuses (and a lot of times, completely ignores) the ones responsible for this system because they were Certified Good Guys. (*cough* Hiruzen *cough*)

Even if I don’t focus on the warring periods (which were bad in their own right), the shinobi system and the relationship between the nations were very strained. To put it into perspective, Hizashi Hyuga had to sacrifice himself just for the sake of diplomatic relations with Kumogakure aka the Hidden Cloud, even though the Hidden Cloud was clearly at fault.

Then there is, of course, the Uchiha Clan Massacre, where Konoha sponsored the genocide of hundreds of its own people, a massacre which was put into the hands of a mere thirteen year old who belonged to that very clan he had to slaughter just because the higher-ups couldn’t come up with a proper way to handle this situation. To top it off, it was swept under the rug. Even when Kakashi and Naruto got to know about it, they did nothin; even when they both respectively became Hokage. Because, of course, they can’t go against Good Guy Third. Oh no, that would be terrible.They didn’t even tell Sakura, their friggin team mate.

Moving on to what happens after the war. Child soldiers still exist, Boruto and his team mates are being sent off to a B-rank mission which is shown in such a positive light because Kazekage-sama used to do the same when he was their age (and happened to be a sadistic murderer), the truth of the Uchiha clan massacre hasn’t been brought to light, the Hyuga matter is assumed to have been solved magically, there is no mention of the smaller villages which had previously existed at the mercy of the larger nations for decades, orphans are still living lonely lives, Sasuke Uchiha is still miserable, etc. 

Kakashi and Naruto are more concerned with building skyscrapers and buying gifts for kids that are not their own, while forgetting all the wrongs that their predecessors committed and completely ignoring the glaring flaws of the system they are a (significant) part of.

There is a lot of things wrong with the shinobi world, something I cannot expand upon for now because of my lack of political knowledge. But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what is wrong with this ninja world. It just takes a few good minutes of thought.

A system which was looked upon negatively at the start of the manga, is now acceptable because it is on the shinobi to ‘endure’ whatever burden is put on them. 

Remember kids, do not worry if you think Konoha is shitty! They are actually the good guys! Now, go back to killing each other.

Bottom line:

THE SHINOBI SYSTEM SUCKS.

and it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact.

New Classics: Universal Soldier - Day of Reckoning (2012)

“Would you like to be free from pain?”

The Universal Soldier series was never the blockbuster franchise its producers so desperately wanted to be. Even the original 1992 entry felt like a decade too late when it appeared, a warmed over mish-mash of post-Vietnam fears and cornball sci-fi that’s only remembered for Dolph Lundgren’s delirious villain and Jean Claude Van Damme’s naked buns. By the second, Van Damme was already phoning it in and Lundgren’s charming psychopath was nowhere to be found. Eventually the rights were swept up in the late 2000s, presumably to be relegated to the same dollar-bin garbage that keeps pumping out unnecessary z-tier sequels to forgotten fare like Behind Enemy Lines or The Marine. Yet John Hyams, son of director Peter Hyams of 2010, Outland, and Timecop fame/infamy, had other plans. 

While on paper 2009′s Universal Soldier: Regeneration sounds like any other cheap action film shot on whatever Eastern European backlot that will stretch every dollar in their budget, Hyams showcased a natural talent for shooting action that many of his rivals lacked. Especially in the post-Bourne era, an action film that isn’t cut within an inch of comprehension seems like a wonderful breath of fresh air. Bringing back a freshly rehabbed Van Damme and an always hard-working Lundgren certainly helped too. So what to do after achieving a mild success with a mostly forgotten C-tier action franchise? John Hyams certainly had a bold idea: throw everything related to the series in the trash and turn it into a two hour arthouse horror film, complete with hallucinogenic freakouts, nightmarish atmosphere, and some of the most brutal action put to film.

To be fair, he didn’t jettison all aspects of the franchise, although you won’t miss much by going in fresh. He keeps the core concept of the “universal soldier”, a government program that revives deceased soldiers and uses them (under mind control) for their own dirty work which usually goes horrifically wrong every time. He also brings back Van Damme and Lundgren’s respective characters, though now with entirely different personalities and motivations (also Lundgren’s is alive again after having half his head blown off in the last one). He retains the menacing former MMA fighter Andrei Arlovski from the previous film, although he actually plays a different character this time around. Barring all that, Hyams essentially starts from a clean slate, and to do that he finds a new lead in Scott Adkins. A hero in a very specific film niche, Adkins was always the right man in the wrong time. A highly skilled martial artist, he initially started in turn of the century Hong Kong fare, making a few appearances in mediocre Jackie Chan crap and direct to video garbage as evil henchmen. Once he moved on to Hollywood, the Bourne style had taken over and directors had no need for an actor who could actually fight when they could just cut around an actor’s lack of athleticism. Relegated to the henchman role for almost the entirety of his mainstream work (most widely recognized today for Marvel’s Doctor Strange where he plays... a henchman), he only received larger roles in cheap video fare, where he was also mostly wasted. One particular director named Isaac Florentine took a liking to him though, and often gave him major roles that allowed him to showcase his skills. His breakout role was as hardened Russian fighter Yuri Boyka in the Undisputed franchise, a similarly hijacked brand that took a bad prison movie and turned it into a quasi-Bloodsport tribute, complete with flashy fight scenes and a lot of actual talented martial artists. But even then, there was a watchability to Adkins’ raw acting talent, and being handsome and able to roundhouse people flawlessly also couldn’t hurt. 

We open with average everyday dad John (Adkins) woken up by his daughter in the middle of the night. She worries that she hears monsters in the house and needs her dad to give her the all-clear to go to sleep. Much to his horror, his kitchen is inhabited by a group of ominous masked men, led by a bald man named Luc Deveraux (Van Damme). The Deveraux of past films was a noble if tired soldier, who was more than willing to save the world last film. This one rocks a shaved head and a thousand yard stare, a man broken by the world around him into whatever shape stands in front of John. He rambles in vague existentialist terms, only to interrupt when he begins to summarily execute John’s family right in front of him. One shot later, John awakens in a hospital bed with that as the only memory left in his shattered brain. A government agent gives him word of an investigation into Deveraux, but even the injured John knows there’s no backbone to his words. Whatever that agent knows he’s keeping to himself, so John has to do some digging on his own. We set on a path reminiscent of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, a dreamlike collage of characters who all seem a little bit off in an environment that looks not to far behind from joining them. A possible lead winds up dead with only the classic noir matchbox to lead John to his next destination. A seedy strip club with a girl who seems to recognize him but under an entirely different name and personality. And for a man who was gravely injured, he seems to be healing at an almost unnatural rate.

Intercut with this first half is the descent into hell of sleeper agent Magnus (Arlovski). An imposing hulk in a massive plumber jumpsuit, he becomes activated in the middle of a job by the same mysterious agent John was questioned by and goes off wordlessly hunting. He shows up at a seedy neon-soaked brothel filled with a group of soldiers led by Deveraux’s right hand man Andrew Scott (Lundgren), all receiving copious amounts of strange, almost brutally violent sexual pleasure. Magnus’ shotgun does most of his talking here, in quite graphic form, until Scott hits him with a drugged syringe. A piercing fluttering sound enters as Magnus slows down and stares into the camera with a thousand yard stare. Scott (and soon a hallucinated Deveraux) preaches about being freed from his government oppressors and joining their separatist group, aimed at infiltrating the very top powers of America through these techniques. He arrives at their compound and it’s a nightmarish hellscape of masculinity: dingy lighting, distant dog barking, more camo than an army surplus store, and a near never-ending barrage of hyper masculine muscle men with guns at their side beating the hell out of each other for pure entertainment. We drift through the compound in slow motion, driven by a constant unnerving low rumble and lights feverishly pulsating. Scott delivers his speeches on freedom to his recruits, but one can only wonder if Deveraux has merely become their new slave master, as he roams the halls silently killing any who seem to perturb him. He is their cult leader, as all bow down before him and worship his words like that of a priest. They send Magnus after John, and soon enough the chase is on. 

Hyams’ slow-burn style reads like Lynch by way of Gaspar Noe, a mix of the puzzling bad dream confusion of the former and the drugged up nightmare rave aesthetic of the latter. The brothel Scott’s troops spend their time in plays very much in the fashion of Noe’s underground trips of perversity. Taking full advantage of the film’s rare NC-17 rating, men’s muscular naked bodies are on full display, playing much more like contorted funhouse portraits of the “desired” male physique. Everything is sweaty and dingy, the people more rugged than Hollywood usually goes for, with the glimpses of depravity we see far beyond the usual we expect from sexy fanservice in low rent action movies. We see extremely aggressive acts from violent abuse to fetishized self-harm; the only way these men can get off is through the same violence that surrounds them. We meet mysterious characters later on who seem to know what’s ahead of John even before it happens and once Magnus attempts to hit John with the same drugged concoction that turned him, things get even stranger. Particularly nasty wounds seem to miraculously regenerate, he begins seeing visions of Deveraux in the mirror, and finds footage of a mystery man who looks just like him committing heinous acts of brutality towards people from his past.

Speaking of brutality, Hyams knows that at the end of the day this is an action film, and he really lets it rip with the full freedom of the NC-17. Magnus often comes in like a feral animal, screaming like a bat out of hell and often with a very dangerous weapon to boot. His first confrontation with John is a mess, an average man having to face an enraged behemoth, throwing him around like a ragdoll and tearing the set apart. John’s carelessness gets his fingers get caught in Magnus’ axe, immediately grounding Hyams’ action in clear physical stakes. We’ll eventually see a enraged John storm through Deveraux’s compound, mostly staged like one long shot, tearing through men like they were paper, as he too becomes like a rabid animal, letting out feral yells as he mercilessly slaughters everything in his path. But the real showstopper is a one-on-one showdown with Magnus in a sports department store, as both men grab whatever they can, from baseball bats to dumbbells to bowling balls, to pulverize the other one into pulp. Hyams’ and his team always shoot very clearly and cleanly, letting these talented men showcase their athletic skill and only sprinkling a little extra spice on top when needed.

John will eventually discover that he is quite literally a monster himself, not so different from them, and will be led towards the swamps of the Bayou. There, he will literally descend into the earth into the compound, into the masculine hell, looking for Deveraux’s promises of pure freedom. He’ll find a curious doctor, a man fallen right out of a Cronenberg movie, who will promise him freedom by telling him the truth and offering a rather gruesome surgery. But can John handle learning the truth, a truth that will shatter his entire reality? Much like in Noe’s Irreversible, the original crime is a lot more important than the vengeance we are supposed to demand. And to put it simply, John will not handle the truth very well. 

The film ends on a rather disquieting note, as we meet the mysterious government agent again in the middle of nowhere. He admits his greater involvement, but has a bizarre adoration for John, noting how impressed he was that he was not powered by simple blind patriotism like the turned murderous agents, but rather his blind love for family. He speaks to him like a father would to a graduating son. One gun shot later and the agent is being replaced with an identical copy, who takes his spot in his vehicle to presumably go back to work and infiltrate higher parts of society with the separatist group’s ideas. But before he leaves, he gives a blank, subservient bow to the changed John, a man who has become all powerful only by rejecting the reality right in front of him. For if patriarchy has taught one thing, it’s that power and force are the only means of control, and John’s violent rampage has only won him followers. And when a broken man has an army that will listen to his every word, it’s hard to not throw your morals out the window and become a literal god among men.

A Letter from a Concerned Citizen

When Trump was declared President of the United States of America, the free world mourned. We consigned 2016 into the depths of hell as one of the worst years in recorded history. Now that we’ve only seen the first third of 2017, we sit on the brink of nuclear war. Not with Russia as it had been in years past. But with North Korea. 

How wrong we were that the previous year was a simple anomaly where many of our cherished celebrities passed away. 

Someone should have seen the stupidity that came from the threat of mutual destruction. Did no-one wonder what would happen when a dictator rose to power that could not give any figs to life on the planet and simply wanted to see the world burn just to have the last word?

Yet, every day, the lives of others carry on around us as if the threat of war is not on the horizon. What else can we do? Huddle in silence? Build our fallout shelters for the inevitable? 

In the end, we are all specks of dust floating through the grandeur of space. None of what we ‘common’ people do truly has any meaning. How did these race of mammals rise to supremacy? How did they accrue the power to eliminate all life on the world simply because their pride was injured?

Humanity is a perplexing conundrum that sociologists have yet to crack. From the greatest of heroism to the lowest of depravities. These are all part of the spectrum of the human race. Our versatility is both our greatest strength and our undoing. 

In our fantasies and wild imagining,good and evil are distinct and clear. Those orcs with their brutal twisted visages are the ‘bad guys.’ The elves, with their lithe beauty are clearly ‘good.’ Humans, however, never fall cleanly into these categories. 

We have such rich and colourful cultures and history yet we still view each other as disparate tribes, posturing to see who is the strongest or the smartest. In this day and age, we have closed our borders when we should open them. We classify each other based on appearance and the ethereal concept of ‘nationality.’ “I’m from Singapore,” a person might say. “Canadian,” another. And they could appear exactly the same. 

On this little rock we live on, all of us are the same. Some may have risen to power. But what is this authority they hold onto? It’s not something they have earned. It’s not a physical attribute they can wield against others. And yet, their subordinates defer to them despite the fact that they might be more clever or more capable of leaping into danger. Once you realise that power is given, it is easy to take it away. By standing up to a bully or refusing to follow controversial orders. 

Yet the banality of evil still persists.

We are all just one individual. But together, we can accomplish many things.

I would like to believe that we can save the world through trust and understanding. As a concerned citizen of this planet we have dubbed ‘Earth,’ I would like to see it as a possibility. After all, I am tired of the fear mongering and the hatred spouted by politicians and government.

Truth be told, Donald Trump should have been laughed off when he made his first bid for Presidency. Perhaps he knew exactly what the people wanted but many of his policies see once great nation promote isolationism over kindness and hope. Instead of relying on science and hard facts, capitalist businesses and military forces are given precedence. 

Global warming is a real threat but many have swept it under a rug, unable to reconcile themselves with the long term consequences of the future. 

Here in Australia, the One Nation party has also found its voice again after years of obscurity. Leadership spills from our major parties has also meant there is little trust in the bureaucrats that run the nation.

I hope that in time, us humans manage to see through another millennium, if not another decade. Will we finally see the fruition of the latest batch of Star Wars movies? And I’m still hankering for what will happen in the Winds of Winter. 

Even though our lives hold little meaning in the grand scheme of things, it is the little moments. The goals we set for ourselves that make it worth something. To make it matter. At least for us. Here’s hoping we reach the end of another year and see the dawn of 2018. 

Besides, with the slew of Marvel films and the questions that were teased in The Last Jedi, I hope to see a renaissance in our film and television industry, along with stronger narratives in our video games.

Trump’s intel pick collaborated with a fierce Russia foe

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/trumps-intel-pick-collaborated-with-a-fierce-russia-foe-2/

Trump’s intel pick collaborated with a fierce Russia foe

It remains to be seen whether John Ratcliffe would be as candid with President Donald Trump about Russia’s threat to U.S. democracy as his predecessor. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

White House

GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe, the president’s nominee for director of national intelligence, once worked with a leading Putin critic on the Magnitsky Act — which Russians have been pushing to overturn.

President Donald Trump’s new pick to lead the country’s vast intelligence apparatus fell into favor with the White House as a longtime, vocal critic of the Russia investigation and the officials who launched it.

But John Ratcliffe, the congressman Trump has tapped to fight the “deep state” from within, has worked closely with one of the men Russian President Vladimir Putin wants most to see in prison: Bill Browder, an American-born businessman who has been on a decade-long campaign to expose Russian corruption.

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Ratcliffe, a third-term congressman, was chief of Anti-Terrorism and National Security for the Eastern District of Texas and served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas from 2007 to 2009. But he has no other intelligence experience aside from a recent appointment to the House Intelligence Committee.

Intelligence community sources have therefore been skeptical of Ratcliffe’s qualifications to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the government’s intelligence agencies, coordinates the country’s global information-gathering operation and frequently briefs the president on threats each morning.

They are also wary of Ratcliffe’s criticisms of the Russia probe, including his claims that former FBI Director James Comey should be investigated “for violating the Espionage Act” and that the Obama administration “committed crimes” while investigating Russia’s election interference.

“There’s concern that a political crony of the president will squelch any evidence that the Russians are interfering in the 2020 election,” said Jeremy Bash, the former chief of staff at the Pentagon and CIA under President Barack Obama. “If the Russians interfere in 2020 to support Trump, can we count on an intelligence community led by Ratcliffe to call that out publicly? Or will that evidence be swept under the rug?”

It remains to be seen how Ratcliffe will approach the job if he’s confirmed, and whether he’ll be as candid with Trump about Russia’s threat to U.S. democracy as his predecessor, Dan Coats. Coats famously warned last year, just days after the Helsinki summit, that “the warning lights are blinking red again” and “the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.”

Trump, who in defiance of his own national security advisers has repeatedly downplayed the threat posed by Russia, did not get along with the famously outspoken Coats.

But Ratcliffe’s work with Browder nearly a decade ago could represent a twist in the president’s desire to bring the intelligence community further under his control. Trump publicly undermined America’s national security establishment during a summit with Putin in Helsinki last summer, and has been famously reluctant to publicly accept the assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies that the Kremlin worked to elect him in 2016.

It also resurfaces one of the biggest subplots of the Russia probe: the Russians’ lobbying of Trump campaign officials to undermine Browder and undo the Magnitsky Act — a law passed in 2012 to punish those suspected of being involved in the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered a $230 million tax fraud scheme in 2008 on behalf of Browder’s investment advisory firm Hermitage Capital.

“Ratcliffe was one of our lawyers at Ashcroft dealing with the fallout from Magnitsky,” Browder told POLITICO on Monday, referring to the law firm former Attorney General John Ashcroft formed with Ratcliffe and another former U.S. attorney in 2009. Browder described Ratcliffe as “a highly sophisticated guy” with “no illusions about Russia” who is “professional, capable, and deserves respect.”

While he wouldn’t delve into the legal advice Ratcliffe gave him over the years, Browder seemed confident in the congressman’s bona fides. “All I can say is that he’s a top professional, highly trained, and understands what’s going on in Russia through the Magnitsky case.”

Another former Ashcroft employee who worked on the Magnitsky case corroborated Browder’s recollections, describing Ratcliffe as active and helpful on the issue.

In July 2009, Browder hired Ashcroft Sutton & Ratcliffe, which had been formed months earlier, to represent him in New York in a case that would quickly snowball into one of the biggest corruption scandals of Putin’s tenure, implicating high-level Kremlin officials and Putin allies.

Ratcliffe was one of Browder’s lawyers on the case that — with the help of Ashcroft’s lobbying firm — resulted in the passage of the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act in 2012.

Overturning the Magnitsky Act — which authorizes the president to deny visas to, and freeze the assets of, Russians believed to have been complicit in Magnitsky’s death and others suspected of human-rights abuses and corruption — has been one of Putin’s top foreign policy priorities.

Moscow retaliated immediately by blacklisting Americans and banning them from adopting Russian children. The campaign continued into 2016, when Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials at Trump Tower to discuss changing so-called “adoption policy,” which is a veiled reference to the Magnitsky Act.

Putin, meanwhile, has been on his own crusade to undermine Browder. He has repeatedly tried to have him arrested via Interpol’s red notice system, and publicly accused him last year —without evidence — of funneling $400 million worth of illicit cash into Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

“We have a solid reason to believe that some [U.S.] intelligence officers accompanied and guided these transactions,” Putin said. “So we have an interest of questioning them.”

Asked about Ratcliffe’s posture toward Russia and Putin, Browder suggested that Ratcliffe should be going into his new role with eyes wide open. “Anybody who’s ever worked on the Magnitsky case,” Browder said, “understands what an evil guy Putin is.”

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  Goodbye August & hello September!

I don’t know about you all, but once August  hits, my life is go-go-go until the end of October.  With my kids returning to school & fall sports, my schedule is back to chaos.  My August was a tad more busy since I decided to start the process of applying for a substitute license.  The plan is to sub two days a week this school year, then find something full time in the district next school year when my daughter starts kindergarten.   I am excited to dip my toes back into the work force after being a stay-at-home parent for the past 5 years.

With everything I had going on, I am actually pleasantly surprised that I was able to read 8 books in August.  Unfortunaly, it wasn’t a big quality reading month for me.  I don’t think I’ve ever given out so many 2 star ratings in one month before… 

Like I mentioned in last week’s Bookish Weekly Wrap-Up, things have been on the quieter side around here this month.  This has a little to do with a hectic personal life, but more to do with the fact I’ve been working on some new content for the blog.   I’m really excited about it, and can’t wait to share in the upcoming weeks 🙂

» It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Feelings in a few thoughts:

Trigger/content warning: Domestic violence & child abuse

I was really nervous about this book starting off because it was giving me Fifty Shades of Grey vibes and that was not going to fly with me.  Thankfully this was NOT the case.

This is the type of contemporary/romance that I am on board for!  One with depth & makes you think.

I am a HUGE fan when authors tackle a heavy topic that make you reevaluate your previous stance on a subject by showing a side that you don’t often see.  Colleen wrote a very important perspective here.

I was sweating through the final chapters of this one.  My heart was in my throat the entire time.

The author’s note!  Do NOT skip the author’s note on this one.  My heart hurt.

» Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Feelings in a few thoughts:

This was my first Agatha Christie book!  I am not big on murder-mysteries, like at all.  I decided to give this one a go because I wanted to be able to say I have read one of Christie’s books.

The audiobook was well narrated HOWEVER I feel like I would have enjoyed this better in print form.  Because I listened to it on audiobook, I feel like I missed too many fine details I would have picked up better in print.

The ending! The ending was absolutely perfect and I did not see it coming at all.   The book was probably more of a 3 star reading for me (not because it is a bad book or bad writing, just because these types of books don’t interest me) UNTIL the ending.  Bravo Christie!

» Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

Feelings in a few thoughts:

Trigger/Content warning: kidnapping & child abuse (neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, etc)

I went into this book blind.  I didn’t even read the synopsis before starting.  Why?  It won the Goodreads Choice Award in 2017 for historical fiction, so I knew it was going to be a good book.

Sometimes history is more appalling than fiction.  Before We Were Yours is about the Tennessee Children’s Home Society scandal of the 1920s through 1950.  If you are unfamiliar with this particular event in history, don’t worry I was too, you can read more about it here → This woman stole children from the poor to give to the rich

I was absolutely horrified while reading Before We Were Yours.  This book is absolutely heartbreaking.  How did something like this happen in real life?  Let alone over the course of 3 decades?  Georgia Tann was the definition of pure evil.

This isn’t one of those books you enjoy reading exactly because of the sensitive content, but it is one sheds light on historical events that were “swept under the rug” so to speak.  You need to be prepared for an emotional read.

This book is told in dual perspectives in different time periods: past & present.   This is always a risky tactic since people will typically gravitate to one perspective over the other.  I personally was more invested in the plotline happening in the past, and felt the book would have worked better without the storyline happening in the present.

I would recommend this book to fans of Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train and vice versa.

» The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies

Feelings in a few thoughts:

Decent story concept, poor execution.  Elements of the plot were just odd that gave the story a disordered feeling.

The prologue didn’t really fit in the context of the story.

NONE of the characters were likeable, not even the main character Gwen.

Not enough development in secondary characters.

Setting was underdeveloped – wanted more of the Ceylon culture & tea making process,

Race relations were touched upon but never fully explored

» Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Feelings in a few thoughts:

Relevant YA novel told in verse

Can easily read in one sitting

The Ending!  So powerful!

Would recommend to fans of The Hate U Give

» Marrow Island by Alexis M. Smith

Feelings in a few thoughts:

Ever wonder what an acid trip feels like?  Read this book and you’ll know.  This is not a good thing.

Concept behind story was excellent, but execution was poor.

The plot was incoherent for the majority of the book.  I feel like I was missing big chunks of info.

Flashbacks did NOT work here.

The majority of the book is about Lucie AFTER the big event that occurred on the island… we do not get much about the cult or their life on the island.

» Brighton Belle (Mirabelle Bevan Mystery #1) by Sara Sheridan

Feelings in a few thoughts:

If you are a fan of “cozy mystery” types of books, you may enjoy this one.  It was not my cup of tea.

Too many coincidences, improbabilities, and plot holes.

I felt like I was thrown into this story without proper character development or backstory.  It almost felt like the second book in a series – like we were already were supposed to be familiar with our main character & her story.

» The Queen of the Tearling (The Queen of the Tearling #1) by Erika Johansen

Feelings in a few thoughts: 

This book is painfully slow… and not a whole lot actually happens.  This book could have been a good 100 pages shorter.  The plotline wasn’t bad, but just felt like it was lacking that spark for me.  It did pick up in the second half.

I really liked the main character, Kelsea.  She is far from perfect, but she follows her heart.  She felt very down to earth & real.

This is classified as a YA book, but I’d probably consider it to be borderline New Adult.  There is definitely more mature content in this one.  I would recommend it for those 15+ or for young readers that can handle more mature content (sex, rape references, kidnapping, murder, abuse, etc.)

I haven’t decided if I will continue on with the series or not.  The second book would have to be much more action packed & quicker paced for me to even attempt it.

I am very happy with my progress on my Goodreads reading challenge.  I WAS on track to hit 120 books this year, but I decided to slow my reading down so I’d have more time to dedicate to my blog.  Still happy with this decision.

July 2018 Bookish Wrap-Up + Book Haul

August 2018 TBR: ARC August

Book Event: An Evening with Patrick Rothfuss

Book Review: The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Book Review: The Radio Girls by Sarah-Jane Stratford

After doing so well NOT purchasing many new book this year, aside from the ones I purchase at book events, I completely blew it this month.  What happened?  I discovered the Book Outlet.  It was so bad, that I had to draft a separate book haul post for August.  Be on the look out for my book haul post later this week.

Which books did you read this month?

Have you read any of the books I read this month?  If so, what did you think?

Did you buy any books?  If so, which ones?

Comment below & let me know 🙂

Today I am wrapping up my August 2018 #reading month on my #blog. Which #books did you read in August? #BookBlog #BookBlogger #Bookworm #AmReading Goodbye August & hello September! I don't know about you all, but once August  hits, my life is go-go-go until the end of October. 

Lessons from “Morgan Housel on What Other Industries Teach Us About Investing”

Just finished reading the transcript of “Morgan Housel on What Other Industries Teach Us About Investing”. Transcript is available at https://microcapclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Morgan-Housel-on-What-Other-Industries-Teach-Us-About-Investing.pdf

Video is available at: https://microcapclub.com/2018/01/morgan-housel-industries-teach-us-investing/

The best parts:

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Let me start today with a story of two investors, neither of whom knew each other, but their paths kind of serendipitously crossed a few years ago. The first is a lady named Grace Grahner. Grace was born in 1909, just right outside of Chicago nearby. And she had kind of a hard life. She was orphaned as a child, she began her career in the bottom of the Great Depression. Finally found a career as a secretary, where she worked her entire life. Never married, never had kids, never learned how to drive a car. Lived almost her entire life in a one room house, not far from here. By all accounts, she was a lovely lady, but lived kind of a sad life. And Grace Grahner died in 2010, she was 100 years old. And everyone who knew her was completely shocked to learn, when she died, that she had seven million dollars to her name, that she left all of it to charity, and that began kind of a search among the people who knew her, that said, "How does this humble secretary accumulate seven million dollars?" And her secret was, she really had no secret at all. She saved what little she could, she put it in the stock market, she let it compound for 80 years and that was it, end of story. 

The second investor I want to talk about today is a guy named Richard. Save his last name, because you're not supposed to criticize people in public. Although I do a lot. Richard had almost the exact opposite background of Grace Grahner. Born into a wealthy family, went to the University of Chicago, got his MBA at Harvard Business School, went to work on Wall Street, worked his way up at some of the biggest investment firms, became the vice chairman of one of the largest investment banks and without exaggerating was one of the most powerful people in global finance. The day after Grace Grahner died, Richard filed for personal bankruptcy. He told the bankruptcy judge that the financial crisis completely wiped him out, he had no more assets, no more income and he was fighting to save foreclosure on his house. And what's interesting about these stories, I think, is that in no other industry except finance are those stories possible. There's no other industry in which someone with no education, no background and no experience can vastly outperform someone with the best background, the best education, the best experience.

And what I think it shows is that investing is not necessarily about what you know, it's about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach. It's not analytical, you can't sum it up very well, hard to measure, a lot of it is counterintuitive, and because of that you have some of the most important parts of investing, this topic of behavior, that gets kind of swept under the rug. Particularly, as we are taught investing in academia and in the professional setting

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when people think about risk, they don't necessarily do it in an analytical way. They do it in a cultural way. What you think is risky and how you think about the topic of risk is heavily influenced by the culture you live in, the generation you were born into. The values instilled in you by your parents. All of which are not only outside of your control, but differ vastly across all of us. And we want to think about risk as a force of nature that applies to everyone in the same way, and it is, but that's not how people actually think about risk in their own lives. Particularly, I would say, in investing

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Now, this is true for inflation as well. This is average annual inflation in the United States in your 20s. For my parents, who kind of came of age in the 1970s and 80s, inflation averaged about 8% a year. For myself, in the 2000s, it averaged about 2% a year. For my grandparents, let's say around the time of the Great Depression, it was about negative 2% a year. In Germany, in the 1920s, inflation was one quadrillion percent. Some think it's more, but that's plenty of zeroes, you get the point. And here I would ask, too, do you think these generations went through their life thinking the same thing about the risk of inflation? I don't think so, and one of the areas where we saw this was gold as an investment in the last decade was extremely with one demographic.

It was baby boomers who came of age in the 70s and 80s, when inflation was really high. Most people from my generation couldn't understand what they were thinking about, because we haven't experienced inflation. So, you have people who have completely different views about what is happening in the investment world, not based off of better data, better models, better calculations, just different life experiences that were outside of their control.

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Now, about 10 years ago, there was a group of researchers from Stanford University who crunched a bunch of data and they really wanted to see, analytically, how does this impact how people invest? And what they came up with, they said, if you grew up during the Great Depression, you are half as likely to invest in stocks, compared to those who grew up in the 1960s, at the same period of your life. If you grew up in the 1970s, you are a third as likely to invest in bonds later in life, compared to those who grew up in the 1950s. If you grew up in the 1980s, when the market was prospering, you are more likely to buy stocks, compared to those who grew up in the 1970s, when the market was pretty poor. 

And their big summary from all this is, they said, "Our findings suggest that individual investors' willingness to bear risk depends on their personal history." Personal histories that are largely outside of your control, but influence how you think about the world.

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Kahneman mentioned that he was the most pessimistic person he had ever met. He said, no one is more pessimistic about life in general than he is. And I said, "Wow, that's interesting. Are you a pessimist because you have all these insights into human behavior and all the different mistakes and biases that we make?" And he said, "No." He said, "I'm a pessimist because I grew up in Nazi-occupied France." And he said, "I saw from an early age how evil people can be."

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we asked Kahneman what we can do about this, as in investors, as investors, and he had three ideas. The first one was, "Talk to as many people as you can."

His second point was, "Talk to people who you disagree with."

And number three, he said, "Talk to people who are in different emotional states than you are."

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I think my advice from all this is take a simple idea and take it seriously. I think that's the best investment advice that anyone can give, particularly as you become more advanced and more successful in your investment career.

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there are two types of risk. There is direct risk, which in this case is the actual terrorism, and then there is indirect risk, which is when our behaviors and actions to respond to that risk backfire on us and it's hard to wrap your head around the idea that we can take actions that we think are making ourselves safer but is actually injecting more risk into our life, but we see it all the time in investing. 

I just want to show you, these are the average annual returns, 94 to 2014, stocks in America did about 9% a year, bonds did about 6% and the average investor during this period did something like 4% a year, during a period when inflation was something like two and a half percent a year. So, you have a 20 year period where markets in general do quite well, produce big returns, and the average investor doesn't. And a lot of focus and energy has gone into why this happens. Some of it is fees or some other factors that go into it, but what we know by far, the bigger cause from this is poor behavior based on how people respond to volatility in the market.

this is the periods when the market was in a 5% drawdown from its previous high. That's when it's in a 10% drawdown. And that's when it's a 20% or more drawdown. So, you start with the picture of success and then you layer on the nuance of what happened in-between and you get a totally different picture. And even when investors go into investing, knowing the history of the stock market and the wealth that it's generated, at every point in these times, particularly at a 10 or 20% drawdown, you have a large legion of investors that say, "This is wrong, this is broken and I need to make myself safer and get out."

And really important, they do that with the mindset that they are making themselves safer. They're making their families money, their retirement money, their kids' college money, they're injecting safety into their life. Without realizing what they're almost certainly doing is reducing their long term returns, which is one of the biggest risks that they can take as an investor.

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And I think if you study the history of the stock market, volatility is not the risk. Volatility is par for the course in investing. And in fact, the reason that market's produced high returns over time, have historically, is because of volatility. That's the cost of admission that it demands that you pay. But that's just not how people look at it. They're always trying to view it as something is wrong and I need to make myself safer. This is even more true for individual stocks.

The top performing stock in the last 20 years is Monster Beverage. It's up about 211,000%. The chart is in scale, but it's just been an incredible beast over the last 20 years. This, I want to show you, are drawdowns over the same period, over 20 years. I mean, you had a half dozen 50% drawdowns, one 70% drawdowns, countless 30% drawdowns. So, how many people do you think actually were able to withstand the volatility of Monster Beverage over the last 20 years? During the period where it was up 200,000%, this is what you had to pay for for getting it. And a lot of people just don't want to pay that price. It seems too risky and they try to cling towards safety without realizing that this is the cost of admission for returns. 

And so, to summarize this, one of my favorite quotes is Eisenhower's definition of a military genius. Someone that's asking him, he said, "A military genius is the man who can do the average thing when everyone else around him is losing his mind." And I think that's so true in investing. You don't need to make a lot of great decisions in investing, you just have to not screw up when it matters most and take actions that you think are going to help you but that are actually breaking your long term strategy that's going to keep you on course.

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if we are making forward looking decisions and predictions, how do we operate as Morgan Housel on What Other Industries Teach Us About Investing Page 16 of 19 investors if, as someone like myself believes, it's so difficult to predict what's going to happen next?

And I came across a great quote from Ben Graham that I love. He says, "The purpose of the margin of safety is to render the forecast unnecessary." And I think that just sums up so much of what good investing is, that if you have a margin of safety not just in your portfolio but in your career, with your friends, with how much cash you hold on the side, flexibility in your career, flexibility in your time horizon, that's how you can forego making the predictions that are so difficult to make.

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what I think from the Wright Brothers' story is that when innovation is measured generationally, results shouldn't be measured quarterly.

Larry Fink was having lunch with the CEO was one of the largest sovereign wealth funds and the CEO of the sovereign wealth fund said, "Our goal as investors is to think generationally. We're not thinking about this quarter or next year or even the next 10 years, we're thinking about the next generation and the generation after that." And Larry Fink said, "Great, how do you measure returns?" And the CEO said, "Monthly."

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To wrap this up, I think if there is something that underlines all of these stories today, it's that the biggest risk to you as investor is yourself and your own biases, your own misconceptions, your own behaviors that impact your returns as an investor.

When people talk about risk, they talk about, what is the economy doing? What is the Fed going to do? What is the CEO of the company I own going to do? And those are all risks. I think they absolutely compare to the risks that you yourself pose to yourself as an investor. And for some people, that's kind of a difficult realization, to know that you are maybe taking all these actions that hurt yourself. To me, I think it's one of the most optimistic realizations in investing, because you can't control what the economy's going to do next. You can't control what the Fed is going to do next. The only thing you can control in investing is your own behaviors. And when you realize that the one thing you can control is the thing that makes the biggest difference over time that, I think, is a pretty optimistic realization. 

So, I want to end today with a quote from an investor named Bill Bonner. He says, "People don't get what they want or what they expect from markets, they get what they deserve."