“I am somewhere between Riverside and the Rainbow River,” Charles said. “Okay, that’s not the river’s name, but with all the chemical runoff, most people around here will at least recognize the nickname.” The camera panned around a stark, industrial street lined with blocky buildings in drab, solid colors. Sprayed almost randomly along the walls were splotches of graffiti of varying artistic talent. Other patches showed where older vandalism had been painted over. “I suppose this area is part of the docks, but I didn’t realize they ran this far south. I kinda thought Riverside was, well, beside the river.” Looking back up the road, the towering forms of the housing project still loomed within the thick black smoke clogging the sky. Turning the opposite direction, Charles paused.
“I’m not sure how well it’s showing up on the camera, but there’s some kind of iridescence in the air. You can probably see the end of the haze there. That can’t be natural.”
Over the river, the cloud of smoke ended, cut off as though with a knife in a sharp line. Beyond, the sky was a deep, clear blue. A slight shimmer filled the air, shifting colors like light through a soap bubble. Subtle and indistinct, it was swallowed up by the smoke, only to reemerge when the breeze shifted the pall.
“What is that?” Charles asked.
“A barrier to keep the zone separate from the outside world,” a voice said. Charles turned to look at the speaker. The man squatted on the lip of the roof of a primer gray cinderblock structure that had been defaced by multiple gang tags. His limbs and trunk were long and thin. His face was drawn and gray. His hair was short and disheveled by the breeze. His clothes were battered and stained with blood. He was trying to smile through pursed lips, and his piercing gaze had an unsettling quality to it.
“Who are you?”
“I am Doctor Gardener, erstwhile savior of the underserved.”
“Okay,” Charles said, hesitantly.
“You need not introduce yourself. I have seen your videos, and I am disappointed.”
“Disappointed how?”
“You have become something more, yet you refuse to embrace it. Instead, you cling desperately to a past which has mistreated you.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“Neither did I, once. I came to this part of the city thinking I could save these people from the institutions which had been stacked against them. I sought only to lift them up from this nightmare realm which I believed had been imposed upon them.”
“And?” Charles asked.
“And they spat in my face. Sometimes literally. They had no interest in my offerings, only in the carnal satisfactions and crass materialism from which I’d come to uplift them. I offered them salvation and they mocked me. ME!”
Charles made an uncertain noise, trying to formulate a response.
“Then the plague came, and I was enlightened.” Gardener rose to his full height. His arms, legs and torso were longer than his clothes had been cut form giving his a lanky, even gangly build. The gray of his skin was closer to that of the concrete than a sickly pallor. His fingers ended in hardened talons, and his teeth were sharp and serrated. “Those who choose ignorance and squalor are no different to the zobie, shambling aimlessly through their lives seeking to satiate base needs and abandoning and pretext of higher thought. They exist to serve as prey for us, the hunter.”
“Uhh… you’re a ghoul,” Charles said. If Gardener heard, he didn’t appear to notice.
“And when those outside wished to end our hunt, I had to lock them out.” Gardener gestured towards the sky.
“Our?” Charles asked.
“Yes,” Gardener said. “Those who were chosen to be Children of Xolotl.” He spread his arms wide, motioning towards the other gray-skinned figures emerging from alleyways and around corners, encircling Charles. Their elongated limbs and bodies made them all taller than Charles, though they probably weighed no more than he did. Their clothes were cut for a human physique and came up short on arms, legs, and midriffs. They were all stained and splattered with blood. They grinned with serrated teeth and hungry eyes.
Charles bolted for the only gap in their encirclement. Gardener hopped down from the roof, bounding after Charles on all fours as soon as he hit the pavement. His followers did likewise, their beast-like gaits easily pacing Charles as he ran. The only woman in the group leapt on the side of a chain link fence then hurled herself at Charles. He ducked under the arc of her leap and darted to the side to avoid a lunge from another of his pursuers. Darting down an alley, Charles tried to gain some distance. Breaths ragged, he glanced over his shoulder at the two directly behind him, almost missing the four that tried to clode off the end of the alley in front of him.
Dropping one shoulder, Charles plowed into the midriff of one of the ghouls, bowling over the gangly man and charging on. Talons raked at his cape, tearing rents in the fabric, but failing to grip it. Darting to the left and right, Charles couldn’t find a path past his pursuers down either direction on 1st Street, and had to bolt down another alley. The ghouls bounded atop dumpsters and along fire escapes to try to get ahead of the vampire. Charles fought to move faster, his lungs huffing with every frenzied pump of his legs.
A brick wall rose up before him, bare of windows below the third floor. Ghouls scrambled into alleyways to either side, cutting off his escape routes. The only option Charles’ eyes fell upon was the gray doors into the building proper. He was startled when the handle turned easily and the doors swung open. Skidding to a stop, he realized that there was no salvation to be found within.
The room had once been a gymnasium, the lacquered wooden floor and bleachers announced as much. What it was now was a cross between a slaughterhouse and a shrine. Gnawed, cracked bones were stacked in the corners or in heaps along the walls. Intact bones were sculpted into effigies and icons of inhuman forms lining a processional way to a bone-festooned pyramid of gym equipment. Atop this structure was what had to be the primary cult figure, a grotequery of bone and dried sinews wearing a headdress of fingers and blades. Everywhere, there were stains of dried blood. The fresher splotches and recently deposited bones dripped writhing maggots and clouds of flies filled the air. Perched before the altar was Doctor Gardener.
The clang of steel punctuated the sealing of the entryway behind Charles.
“Your inexperience in the hunt is obvious,” Gardener said, “As we were able to drive you exactly where I wished you to be.”
“So it seems,” Charles said, gaze darting between the seven ghouls with him in the gym turned temple. “I don’t usually get chased by people who are out of their minds.”
“Are we though?” Gardener asked. “Are you not the one who has been blessed with power you avoid, and a nature you fight against with every meal? The beasts upon which you were meant to subsist are the same which we hunt. But now you needn’t worry, for we shall answer the prayer for failed to make.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are truly a blessing to us, for your flesh renews. We merely need to repay it in blood. Blood which we would otherwise let go to waste. You are truly an infinite feast.”
Gardener grinned, and Charles drew his sword. Laughing, Gardener scooped up a length of steel pipe and hopped down. Charles turned about, trying to keep his length of blade between him and all seven of his opponants. At some secret signal, all seven surged forward at once. Gardener’s pipe came down on Charle’s sword arm as the other six siezed whatever part of the vampire they could get their hands upon. Bey weight of numbers, the six bore Charles to the ground, binding his wrists and ankles. Bending down out of view of the camera, Gardener rose again with Charles’ sword in hand.
“I expected more of a fight,” Gardener said. “Whatever you do, don’t kill him.” He strolled back towards the altar, placing the sword in the hands of one of the bone effigies. Some of the others began wandering away. The female ghoul tugged on Charles’ mask until she found a way to pull the hood off of his head.
“You have beautiful eyes,” she said, “They look delicious.” She smirked at the reaction she got. “Zeke – Doctor Gardener – really is a genius. You should listen more to what he has to say.” She stroked Charles’ cheek, though the look in her eyes was of feral hunger, not tenderness. It was Charles who bit first, sinking his fangs into the ghoul’s wrist. The bite drew sqeals of protest and rivulets of blood. The others turned back as she tore herself free. “You son of a-” bleep, she said, cradling her bleeding wrist. Charles rose from the floor, going from prone to upright without use of his limbs.
Bleep, Gardener said, “Get him, before he-”
Charles snapped the steel cables with which he’d been bound, his eyes glowing blood red. With a backhanded fist across the cheek, he sent one of the ghouls sprawling. As the others surged towards Charles, they appeared to slow down as he continued to move at normal speed. The omnicam sped up its frame rate as Charles put on a burst of speed, ducking, blocking, punching, and throwing the ghouls, he sent them scattering. Despite his alacrity, Charles failed to avoid Gardener’s pipe, which struck his jaw with a thwack and spun the vampire about. Ducking the return swing, Charles put some distance between himself and the cult leader.
Despite the slow motion recording, Gardener’s words could still be made out.
“Rip him limb from limb,” he said as his underlings picked themselves off the floor. Snatching up whatever weapons were within reach, the ghouls charged. Charles grabbed his sword from the effigy in time to block a femur with his forearm. Bone snapped, sending shards flying as the omnicam’s frame rate sped up again. Charles drove his sword deep in the ghoul’s chest, drawing a spurt of thick ichor. Tugging the blade free, he spun out of the way to let the body fall towards the floor. The scene became a ballet of blood as Charles parried and wove between blades and bludgeons to strike at his assailants. The sword sliced through thin limbs and necks, painting the air with glittering globs of scarlet.
The distortion of the audio stole the impact from the crunch of bone or the his of parting flesh, but the ruin left in the sword’s wake was evident in the falling bodies. Bone was bad enough, but steel on steel was more than the former leaf spring could take. It shattered as Charles tried to parry the pipe. Part of the edge was left in the club, but the bulk of the blade tumbled over Gardener’s shoulder. The pipe cracked across Charles’ skull so hard it bent. Staggering back, the vampire shook his head to try to clear it, but the ghoul was already lunging again.
Grabbing Gardener with both fists, Charles ripped. The ghoul’s eyes widened as his head tore away from his shoulders. An arc of gleaming crimson orbs appeared to hang in the air as Charles hurled the ghoul’s corpse and cranium in different directions. That extended instant ended as the camera resumed normal time and the blood splattered the grotesque altar.
Gasping down air, Charles looked about him. There was nothing but carnage and corpses, none of which persisted in moving.
* * *
The video started with Charles in his button-down shirt in front of his wall of cardboard. Though his shirt was neat and spotless, his face was tired and drawn. His eyes were red, save for the inner ring of his irises, which remained green. Stubble had grown on the sides of his head, but he’d kept his face clean shaven. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I’m not sure how long the previous video is going to stay up. Might even get my whole channel canned just for putting it up. Still, I had to let people judge for themselves what I did. Some of those ghouls were undead. Others…” Charles visibly steadied himself. “I acted entirely in self defense, though the District Attorney hasn’t decided if he’s going to press charges or not. The Community Fund is treating me as persona non grata, because you’re not supposed to do that under their system. I was never actually admitted, so it’s not as if I swore not to kill and broke that oath. It’s just…” Charles looked down at his hands, which were shaking. Balling them into fists, he buried them in his lap. “I only got a mouthful of blood. As I mentioned, quantity effects duration. My powers ran out almost as soon as the bodies hit the floor. It’s not like I could keep that up indefinitely, I had to end it as quickly and definitively as possible. But-”
Charles said.
“People are asserting that Gardener’s order not to kill me when they had me bound hand and foot means I wasn’t permitted to use deadly force. They’re ignoring the fact that he changed his mind right quick when I was no longer trussed up like a roast turkey. Still… not a day has gone by where I don’t relive every moment of that awful battle. I close my eyes and I’m haunted by the memory of ripping a man’s head off with my bare hands.” He held up said hands, which were still shaking. He dropped them back into his lap and took a moment to regain his composure.
“After the cult was… was dead, the magic users outside the cordon were able to undermine their barrier. Martin Van der Veen has already expressed interest in discussing that operation, and what we found at the cult hideout. Assuming I’m not in court, and still have a channel. But, that’s for another video. The authorities have begun clearing the zone block by block. Riverside catching fire meant that containment was no longer a viable political option. It’s… ugly out there. No one is really sure how many people are dead. There’s still a chance the infection will break the cordon, even with all of the precautions being taken. Every person they find is going into individual quarantine. I don’t know what they’re doing with those who refuse or resist, and I’m afraid to ask.”
There was a visible cut, though little changed in the video frame.
“I am going to have to apologize to Dennis. The ghouls ripped your original cape to shreds. I’ve been pricing replacements. But it may be a while before I splurge on something like that. Once the zone is clear, my job with the city ends, and I’ll have to find something else. Even if I don’t lose this channel, I don’t know how many viewers will stick around once the crisis has passed. I do have a lead on something. One of the local stations has enquired if I’d be interested in cohosting their late night movie shows. Apparently it shows public domain horror movies, or something along those lines. I might give that a shot. I mean, my notoriety is one of the few things I’ve got to bank on.”
Charles gave a wan smile.
“In more immediate good news, the guy who made my original sword is still in the business, and he’s had more practice since then.”
Picking up a blade from out of frame, he held it up so that the camera picked up the wood-grain pattern in the steel. The crossguard had a skull and bat wing motif, and the grip was wrapped in dark red leather.
“I think you guys can see it, but isn’t that a beautiful pattern? He has even started making videos of his work, and has a special on making this sword in particular.” Charles put the blade down. “I’ll link to those videos in the description. Check out his work, it’s even more amazing than I remember.”
Charles thought for a moment.
“Ah, well, I think I’ll sign off now, until there are more developments.”
Reaching forward, he turned off the camera.
I hope I got all the foreshadowing and Chekov’s arsenal correct.
Ugh, I should have proofread more. So many errors.
And easy ones that I would think spell-check would catch…?
I’ll have to re-read the whole thing at once some time. My brain doesn’t do periodical storytelling.
Good stuff and a welcome return to this universe.
Apparently this one struck a chord with the audience here, so I wager you’ll enjoy it.
I’ve read it all already; I just need to read them at once.
I tend to forget what happened in the previous episodes.
They had no interest in my offerings, only in the carnal satisfactions
And you didn’t use this line to write a sex scene?
Not my genre.
Paging Mojeaux.
If the story doesn’t want it, the story doesn’t get it.
But Mike wants it! Shoe-horn it in! IYKWIMAITYD
Sounds like a job for the fanficcers! To the wattpadmobile!
Heh at this exchange
It’s a great story but you know it’s missing one thing.
https://youtu.be/d2XdmyBtCRQ
Great story.
Tucker had Hickok45 on his show and I was all giddy.
Who?
link?
Really? I thought everyone watched his videos.
https://youtube.com/user/hickok45
I have watched many, many of Hickock45’s videos.
I assumed you were talking about an episode of Tucker Carlson.
I have never heard of Mr 45.
I watched dozens of reviews of various handguns and rifles.
I see.
The problem is, he always shoots them better than I ever will.
Oh! I’m sure it will be available tomorrow. The show isn’t even over yet.
got it.
That guy is sharp.
Oh… well done.
Onwards…
Gotta read tomorrow when I’ve got more time.
Watching Norm Macdonalds last special on Netflix- really funny.
Well, I can’t really compete with that.
You are alive, so you have that going for you.
My wife liked it but said it made her sad knowing he was gone. And then there was a group discussion with a bunch of his comedian friends that she said was cool, but sad.
The upside is that now that this has aired she’s cool with canceling Netflix. One more bill gone.
Watch Ricky Gervais’ latest special before you cancel.
Good call. Will do.
I’m impressed he could get through it without audience feedback.
Norm needed us…..maybe he could imagine us….but the eyes don’t quite twinkle and the brows don’t quite dance the same. It is as good as it can be considering.
OT (sorry UCS): My Model M keyboard arrived today.
New Model M, made in the same factory in Lexington that used to make the IBM ones.
I can already tell my typing to better. And way more clickey.
And proving my point I typed to instead of is.
Linky?
I’m always on the hunt for a better keyboard.
I have a Das but it has some annoyances.
Ergodox costs an arm, a leg, and a testicle, but I couldn’t even contemplate switching back to a traditional keyboard. It sucks when I have to go into the office and use their cheapo mushboards.
Oof, I dunno if I’m ready for one of those xenomorph keyboards.
My gateway drug was the Microsoft ergo keyboard. It had better hand and wrist positioning, but the keys sucked and it wasn’t very adjustable. The ergodox fixed those two problems, but the big issue is that I don’t use all the layers enough to remember what they all do. Somebody needs to embed e-ink screens into the key caps so that I can cheat and figure out where I put the tilde on layer 3.
WTF is a layer?
At the push of a key, I can reconfigure all of the keys into any layout I want. As I have it set Layer 0 is traditional letters and numbers. Layer 1 is symbols and numpad. Layer 2 is window and virtual desktop management. Layer 3 is mouse and media controls.
If there is such a thing as a keyboard hero, then Trashy is mine.
I really like the Sculpt wireless keyboard and mouse
https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/NEW_M
Oo, purdy.
But I need F16 through F19 keys and nobody has them.
“Neither did I, once. I came to this part of the city thinking I could save these people from the institutions which had been stacked against them. I sought only to lift them up from this nightmare realm which I believed had been imposed upon them.”
“And?” Charles asked.
“And they spat in my face. Sometimes literally. They had no interest in my offerings, only in the carnal satisfactions and crass materialism from which I’d come to uplift them. I offered them salvation and they mocked me. ME!”
The doctor is a libertarian?
No. They started out with a saviour syndrome towards those poor inner city yoots. I was trying to imply he was a true believer in institutional racism without using the term.
This is good.
I sent this to my daughter:
“When you’re bit by and eel
And it’s worse than you feel
Moray”
She replied:
“When you swim in the sea
And you’re bit in the knee
That’s a Moray.”
My kids *get* me.
nice
My kids got fed a bunch of that genre, they still remember some and we can still laugh about it.
They now send it back and I have to laugh.
You’re a good man, Hobbit
Thanks, 4×20. I’ve always tried to keep a good relationship with my kids.
?
“When it opens its maw
And extends a new jaw
That’s a Moray…”
When you pick up a shell,
and scream ‘what the hell!’
that’s a Moray!
nice
The Panther
The panther is like a leopard,
Except it hasn’t been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say Ouch.
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don’t anther.
– Ogden Nash
As I ascended upon a stair
I met a man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today
I wish, I wish, he would stay away.
I was going to attribute Bennett Cerf but then I realized that this was probably another Nash. Quick search showed both guesses were wrong.
Reflections On Breaking Ice by Ofden Nash
Candi is dandy
But liquor is quicker
Ogden
Candy
This is phones fault, not keyboard
Wine is fine
But whiskey’s quicker
Suicide is slow with liquor
Take a bottle drown your sorrows
Then it floods away tomorrows
-Ozzy Osborne
It’s easy to grin,
when your ship comes in,
and you’ve got the stock market beat.
But the man worth while,
is the man who can smile,
when his shorts aren’t too tight in the seat.
Oh, it looks good on you though.
https://youtu.be/phagxOal7_A
RIP Rodney and Ted.
?
Two thumbs up!
Good stuff!
The combatives pedant in me loves that Charles’ sword breaks when he tries to parry with it Highlander-style.
There can be only one!
So good.
Thanks, UCS.
You make me want to write.
This was fan-fucking-tastic! Did you say last week this was the last installment (so far)? I really hope you keep exploring this character. MOAR!!11!
I think it’s funny, but so American, that he would BLEEP out the swear words, but ripping a head off with his bare hands is left unedited.
LOL I enjoyed the bleeps too.
I have a few idea seeds that might grow into a story, I’m still watching to see if they germinate.
That was a good fight scene.
Very intense, still loving this one
Yeah. That was a very satisfying, high energy bit of storytelling.
Much to like there.
I love that line so much.
As compelling as the action scenes are, I think what sets this story apart is the depth of the hero’s characterization.
Agreed. I’m – somewhat surprised at myself – not really into action scenes. I’ve always had some difficulty following them.
Great story! Is this the final part?
This is the final part of this story. If I can make a coherent sequel, there may be another, but right now there’s only two words on the page: “Der Hexenmeister”
Really great, UnCiv. Love this.
WTF is in those union contracts? Or are they asserting the Fifth Amendment?
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2022/05/31/uvalde-police-department-no-longer-cooperating-with-state-investigation-into-the-school-shooting/
The Reds are out of last place. Their start was so awful no one has noticed they have been playing at a .600 for a while.
They passed the Natinals tonight.
No surprises here.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/05/31/the-rapid-uptick-in-lgbt-identification-is-driven-by-people-who-are-actually-straight-report-finds/
Is there no honest person on the left who will call out what is going on here?
Very few. Katy Herzog has been very vocal about it. I’m no longer sure how to characterize Andrew Sullivan but he has been outspoken. I would bet Bari Weiss has too but I don’t know that for sure.
Within the left wing echo chamber you won’t hear a word. Vox, Slate, et al are there to enforce the current narrative.
Maher, possibly/probably?
All good and well, but obviously not enough. I fear for how many innocent children are going to die (literally or figuratively) on the altar of Progressivism before this is stopped.
Good catch. I overlooked him. He has addressed the huge increase in transgender identity at least twice on his show. He thinks it’s either social contagion or bullshit.
Sullivan’s position is kind of interesting. His opinions on the trans lunacy stems from his belief that it negates the existence of homosexuality. Boys who are attracted to other boys now get told “Oh, see, that’s because you’re actually a girl.”
He’s right.
In a surprising development the same study has found that liquid water displayed a property commonly known as “wet”.
I hope our tax dollars did not pay for that study.
If they paid to discover more young women are bisexual then I’m okay with it. Giggity.
The 52% in politicized majors is easy to explain because no white or male person is going to be in any of those classes without claiming at least one bonus and probably two (some kind of disability). Otherwise you might as well not bother.
You don’t say.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/treasury-secretary-says-she-was-wrong-on-inflation-forecast/?utm_source=recirc-mobile&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=native-latest&utm_term=second
Cunt
She is a pliable, political idiot. Jerome Powell and the voting members of the Federal Reserve on the other hand….
I enjoy Baywatch more than most but this is ridiculous.
https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/top-paid-la-lifeguards-earned-up?s=r
*exasperated sigh*
Can we please leave the gender-equality bullshit to sports and recognize that when it comes to pulling drowning people from the water that one of the two sexes is, on average, much better equipped for it? I mean, holy fuck. This writer should be asked if he’d rather have his kids swim at a beach staffed by Yasmine Bleeth clones or David Hasselhoff clones.
What if it’s someone else’s kids?
Also, is Donna D’Errico a choice?
The one with flotation devices attached to their chest?
This is going to be an interesting summer.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Growth_Value_/status/1531689108904595457
I’m no Glibfitter; but am happy to report that for the first time in over a year I was able to go run my errands AND do my yard work without having to take my precious pills just so my back didn’t make me feel like I was about to collapse.
?
Recently put some music on my phone I hadn’t listened to in years and rediscovered this liberterian (libertine?) ditty from the Kottonmouth Kings.
Are we back?
Maybe?
Daily Quordle 128
5️⃣8️⃣
6️⃣3️⃣
Just because
Daily Quordle 128
3️⃣7️⃣
8️⃣9️⃣
27, FFS.
Daily Quordle 128
4️⃣8️⃣
6️⃣7️⃣
Brain fart sent me sailing over the line.
Daily Quordle 128
3️⃣8️⃣
4️⃣6️⃣
Daily Quordle 128
3️⃣7️⃣
5️⃣6️⃣
quordle.com
#waffle131 4/5
?????
?⭐?⭐?
?????
?⭐?⭐?
?????
? streak: 33
? #wafflesilverteam
wafflegame.net
3 5
9 7
Started out so well
3️⃣?
7️⃣8️⃣
I died from both net neutrality and Covid. So I’m a bad person to ask.
Apparently.
Would appear so…
I kept getting:
“Error 503 Backend fetch failed
Backend fetch failed
Guru Meditation:
XID: 23661426
Varnish cache server”
So I suspect the morning links poster kept getting the same thing, and couldn’t login to post.
Anyway, I stained my cache server in American Walnut. So now it matches my door moldings.
Thank god(s) it’s back up in time for SF.
That’s a good thing? I’m not sure we should be thanking the deities for that.
Maybe it was afraid, and that’s why it went down.
I don’t see a post scheduled for the lunch hour. SF may not have been able to get into the system.
Wordle 347 3/6
?⬜⬜⬜?
⬜?⬜⬜⬜
?????
Did wordle as warmup for quordle, thought that was a pretty good result. Also super lucky.
So, our site is back up, kinda.
It’s always unsettling when the server administrator tech support dudes go, “this is strange…”
It may not be the system they were looking at. They could have seen the SF article in queue.
It’s only a matter of time until the Feds break something.
Thanks for your restoration work!
What Tundy said! Thanks indeed!
Oh actually those are the kind of problems I’ve always liked best.
As a server admin, I find the business areas don’t respond well when I use that line either.
Thank you for all the work you’ve had to put in to get us running again.
Daily Quordle 128
3️⃣7️⃣
5️⃣8️⃣
quordle.com
⬜⬜⬜?? ⬜?⬜⬜⬜
⬜?⬜⬜? ⬜?⬜?⬜
????? ⬜?⬜⬜⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜?⬜⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ????⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ?????
?⬜⬜⬜? ?⬜⬜⬜?
⬜⬜?⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜? ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
??⬜⬜? ?⬜⬜⬜⬜
????? ?⬜⬜?⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜?
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ?????
Good news. Brandon is moving the levers to fight inflation. He had an editorial in the WSJ that I’m sure he personally wrote. It’s quite folksy so I’m sure he wrote it himself.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/my-plan-for-fighting-inflation-joe-biden-gas-prices-economy-unemployment-jobs-covid-11653940654?st=ppqnyvjc6zny3el&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Americans are anxious. I know that feeling. I grew up in a family where it mattered when the price of gas or groceries rose. We felt it around the kitchen table. But the American people should have confidence that our economy faces these challenges from a position of strength.
?♂️
Good news! The chocolate ration is increasing!
“My plan for fighting the inflation that I largely caused”
The Fed has been blowing up the money supply for going on 15 years. I don’t think Brandon gets credit for all of that.
Since I think inflation is a monetary phenomenon (leaving aside price spikes due to supply/demand blips), I would say what we are seeing now was caused by the Obama and Trump administrations and their huge increases in debt (and thus the money supply).
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/BOGMBASE
I think Trump gets a pass.
Ignore me, that huge jump in 2020 was under Trump, so nope, no pass for him.
Don’t forget W.
I grew up in a family where it mattered when the price of gas or groceries rose
Oh, bullshit. He was born in 1942. Let’s be generous and say he was aware of his family’s financial condition starting in 1948, through 1964 (when he would have been 22). That period had pretty much the lowest gas price inflation. Now, the late 40s/early 50s had a few years with noticeable food price inflation, but other than that, again, his childhood featured some of the lowest inflation since WWII.
Yep, the post war era of prosperity. Then the tax cuts from that Republican – JFK.
From the NYT no less.
But Mr. Biden’s father perhaps inadvertently assisted in his distracting social agenda: Cars were not permitted on campus, Mr. Sears said, but the elder Mr. Biden’s job allowed Mr. Biden easy access to loaner vehicles for weekend excursions.
“Every weekend, somehow, Joe ended up with a car,” Mr. Sears said of his friend’s advantages in courtship. “It was always a convertible. Besides being very cool and dressing right, showing up in a convertible he had us all beat eight ways from Sunday.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/17/us/politics/joe-biden-college-1960s.html
I grew up in a family where it mattered when the price of gas or groceries rose.
But then I worked in government my entire life and now I am a multi-millionaire.
Gee, i feel like I missed everything. Mercedes Lackey is a racist and the DOD schools are holding drag storytimes.
Also, David Drake has retired from writing due to health issues. Probably not new news, but new to me. Sad to hear, I enjoyed his books immensely as a youth, less so when he started doing mostly collaborations.
Had to Google Mercedes Lackey. OTH, I’ve read David Drake.
I thought the mission was to break shit.
*looks at date, knows what this is going to be*
Does breaking your own country count?
Dude. What happened to my beloved Corps?
“I eat rainbow crayons!”
-Lcpl Wiggins
And yes, one of my favorite lessons, to quote some instructor:
“If you can’t eat it or fuck it, break it.”
Willing to kill any color/orientation?
Huh, I posted a comment early this morning before the site crash.
@ UCS – great story.
Oh…it’s near the top…nm. I thought it disappeared.
(Carried over from the Forum, where the refugees were awaiting salvation.) Please remind me: did NA warn us about any particular weirdness today (other than the usual SF stuff?) Reliable Co-worker told me there was a snake outside our CEO’s office when RC arrived at work this morning.
That is weird. Usually the snake is in the CEO’s office, parked on the overpriced chair.
Avatars half gone..
Looks like Gravatar or nothing. Huh.
I figure wait and see if any further updates are made before fretting over that.
Time to release carbon into the air and help prevent global cooling,
Elon serves up some interesting tweets.
Like this.
So what you’re saying is, Musk steals Memes.
I see we are back.
Thanks WebDom!
In other news…
I GOT ALL 4 WORDS!!!!
Daily Quordle 128
5️⃣8️⃣
6️⃣7️⃣
quordle.com
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It’s horribly addictive.
Congrats!
Daily Quordle 128
7️⃣?
4️⃣8️⃣
quordle.com
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