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The Cost of the Clean Exit: When the System Protects the Liar
3,572 words, 19 minutes read time.
Grant Miller sat in the clinical, blue-light glow of his home office, the low hum of three synchronized monitors serving as the only soundtrack to the wreckage of a decade. On the center screen, a spreadsheet acted as a cold, digital autopsy of ten years of his life. As a systems architect, Grant didn’t have “hobbies”; he had projects that required infrastructure, precision, and an uncompromising adherence to the truth. When he first walked into the local “Learn to Skate” rink with a camera bag and a laptop, he wasn’t looking for a plaque or a pat on the back. He saw a system that was broken—a chaotic, paper-trail operation where registrations were lost in overstuffed filing cabinets and the club’s “digital presence” was a joke. Over the next ten years, Grant didn’t just volunteer; he engineered. He built a fortress. By the time the dust settled, he had clocked over $65,000 in professional volunteer hours based on federal labor standards, and his private servers groaned under the weight of 100,000 high-resolution images captured on $10,000 of his own professional gear. He was the invisible backbone of the club, the man who turned a disorganized mess into a streamlined, encrypted powerhouse that parents actually trusted with their data and their children’s milestones.
The sheer volume of the work was staggering when viewed through the lens of objective data. We are talking about ten years of Saturday mornings spent in sub-zero rinks, ten years of weeknights spent editing thousands of RAW files to ensure every kid in the program had a hero shot that made them feel like an Olympian. Grant didn’t just take pictures; he managed the club’s identity. He built the website, secured the databases, and handled the tech support that the board was too technologically illiterate to understand. In the world of non-profits, a man like Grant is a unicorn—a high-level professional providing enterprise-grade solutions for the price of a lukewarm coffee. But the danger of being the man who builds the system is that you eventually become the only person who knows how the gears actually turn, and in a landscape ruled by small-town egos, that technical mastery is often viewed not as an asset, but as a threat to the established order of those who prefer to rule in the dark.
In the world of small-town sports politics, efficiency is a direct threat to those who thrive on opacity and “good old boy” networks. For years, the club’s board elections had been tainted by what the locals quietly called “funny business.” It was a shadowy, manual practice where Sarah, the Skating Director, and her inner circle would physically call members over the phone, pressuring them to cast votes for her hand-picked candidates in direct violation of the club’s own bylaws. It was a system built on social engineering and intimidation, a way to ensure that the “inner circle” remained unchallenged and that the director’s personal fiefdom remained intact. Sarah wore her high-level credentials with the national Figure Skating Association like a medieval mace, using her title to silence dissent and maintain a status quo that favored her cronies over the actual growth of the program. She didn’t want a fair vote; she wanted a coronation every cycle.
To kill this corruption and bring the club into the twenty-first century, Grant had implemented a third-party, industry-standard voting system years prior. He didn’t build the software—he was too smart for that—but he selected a platform that offered absolute integrity, two-factor authentication, and a verifiable audit trail. It was a secure tool designed to ensure that every member had a private, un-pressured voice, effectively stripping Sarah of her ability to manipulate the outcomes through late-night phone calls and locker-room arm-twisting. Ironically, that very system is still used by the club today, a testament to its reliability and Grant’s foresight in building something that could withstand the very rot he was trying to excise. But the moment the digital tally finally reflected a result that Sarah couldn’t control, the “funny business” shifted from the voting booth to a direct, surgical strike on Grant Miller’s reputation.
The transition from “valued volunteer” to “enemy of the state” happened with the flick of a bureaucratic switch. When the election results didn’t go Sarah’s way, she didn’t look in the mirror; she looked for a scapegoat. Using her high-level influence and her direct line to the national Figure Skating Association, she filed an informal grievance that was as calculated as it was malicious. She accused Grant of “digital manipulation,” claiming that he had used his administrative access to rig the election results through the third-party software. It was a character-assassinating smear designed to hit a technical professional where it hurts most: his integrity. She banked on the Association’s fundamental ignorance of technology, knowing that to a group of aging administrators, “software” was a magic black box that could be easily manipulated by a “hacker” in their midst. She didn’t need proof; she only needed to trigger the investigation to isolate Grant and cast a shadow of doubt over the entire digital infrastructure he had built.
The move was a masterclass in institutional bullying. Suddenly, the man who had donated $65,000 worth of his life to the program was being treated like a criminal in a defensive crouch. The Association, instead of looking at Sarah’s history of “funny business” or the verifiable logs of the third-party system, reflexively protected their director. They launched an inquiry that forced Grant to spend weeks of his own time—time he could have spent with his family or on his actual career—defending his honor against a baseless lie. This is the raw reality of the volunteer grind: the moment you stop being a “useful tool” and start being a “check on power,” the institution will turn on you with a cold, mechanical indifference that would make a corporate HR department blush. Grant found himself in a fight he never asked for, forced to prove a negative against a woman who had spent years treating the club’s bylaws like suggestions.
Grant didn’t retreat into anger; he retreated into the data. While Sarah was busy playing the victim in rink-side whispers and backroom meetings, Grant was operating with the cold, methodical precision of a man who knew that in a digital world, every lie leaves a footprint. He understood that the burden of proof in an institutional inquisition is rarely on the accuser, so he built a defense that was mathematically irrefutable. He spent dozens of hours—hours on top of the decade he’d already sacrificed—compiling a forensic dossier that documented every interaction with the voting software. He didn’t just tell them he didn’t rig the election; he showed them the server logs, the encrypted handshakes, and the third-party security protocols that made it impossible for an administrator to alter an individual ballot once cast. He presented a timeline of every email sent, every website modification made, and every administrative login, cross-referenced against the club’s own bylaws which Sarah had so casually ignored for years.
The sheer density of the evidence was a silent middle finger to the incompetence of the board. Grant produced a document that mapped the “funny business” of previous years—the phone call logs and the manual tallies that didn’t add up—and contrasted it with the sterile, unassailable integrity of the digital system he had implemented. He was forcing the Association to look at the mirror, showing them that the only person with a history of manipulation was the woman pointing the finger. For a man who lived by the logic of “if-then” statements, the hearing wasn’t an emotional plea for his reputation; it was a technical demonstration of Sarah’s malice. He sat across from the Association representatives—people who likely struggled to reset their own Wi-Fi routers—and spoke to them in the language of objective truth. He didn’t ask for their trust; he demanded they acknowledge the data.
The hearing was a collision between professional competence and bureaucratic ego. Grant watched as the Association reps flipped through his forensic audit with the glazed eyes of people who had realized they were in way over their heads. They had walked into the room expecting to slap the wrist of a “rogue volunteer” and instead found themselves staring at a mountain of evidence that implicated their own director in years of procedural misconduct. They saw the locks on the third-party system, they saw the clean logs, and they saw the verified results that matched the will of the members perfectly. There was no “hacker,” no “manipulation,” and no “rigging.” There was only a man who had done his job too well and a woman who had tried to destroy him for it. The truth was sitting on the table, cold and heavy, but the institution wasn’t interested in truth; it was interested in liability.
The final verdict arrived not with a bang, but with a whimper—a two-paragraph email that was a masterclass in corporate-filtered non-apology. The Association stated they could “find no fault” in Grant’s actions, a clinical way of admitting he was innocent without actually saying he had been wronged. There was a weak, throwaway sentence about the “inconvenience of the investigation,” but no mention of the ten years of service, the $65,000 in labor, or the 100,000 photos that had built their brand. Even more galling was the silence regarding Sarah. There was no reprimand, no suspension, and no acknowledgment of her baseless smear campaign. She was allowed to keep her office and her title, protected by a system that values the survival of the hierarchy over the character of its builders. The Association had looked at a decade of loyalty and a month of character assassination and decided that the status quo was worth more than a man’s honor.
In the immediate aftermath, Grant felt the weight of the “sunk cost fallacy” pulling at his gut. Ten years. Over a hundred thousand images of kids learning to find their edges, of parents crying in the stands, of a community he thought he was part of. He looked at the hard drives in his office—$10,000 worth of gear and an archive of a decade’s worth of growth—and realized that the club didn’t deserve a single byte of it. The “Actionable Fix” in this scenario wasn’t to stay and fight a guerrilla war against Sarah’s ego; it was to perform a total, scorched-earth decoupling of his identity from the program. He wasn’t just a volunteer leaving a post; he was an architect reclaiming his blueprints. He realized that Sarah had successfully weaponized the institution to run off its most valuable asset, and the board was too weak or too complicit to stop her.
The raw truth that every high-level volunteer eventually learns is that the institution doesn’t love you back. It is a machine that consumes “useful idiots” until they become “inconvenient truths,” and then it discards them with a form letter. Grant’s exit wasn’t a retreat; it was an evacuation of value. He deleted his administrative access, handed over the keys to the digital fortress he had built, and walked away with the one thing Sarah could never touch: his integrity. He understood that the club would likely devolve back into the “funny business” of phone-call voting and paper-trail chaos within a year, and he finally stopped caring. Forgiveness, for Grant, was the cold realization that he no longer owed his energy to a group of people who would trade his decade of sacrifice for a director’s comfort.
The first Saturday morning after his resignation was the loudest silence Grant had ever experienced. For ten years, the rhythmic scratch of toe picks, the deep hum of blades carving precise circles, and the echoes of classical scores over the PA system had been the heartbeat of his weekend. Now, sitting in his kitchen with a cup of coffee that didn’t need to be rushed, he felt the phantom weight of the camera bag on his shoulder. He looked at his gear—the Nikon bodies, the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens that had captured a hundred thousand tiny triumphs—and realized they were just tools again, no longer weapons of a community’s legacy. The realization hit him with the cold precision of a data point: he had been a ghostwriter for a story that the lead character was trying to delete. Sarah still held the keys to the rink, but she no longer held the keys to his time, a currency that, once spent, offers no refunds.
The “funny business” resumed almost immediately. Reports filtered back through the grapevine of the old “phone tree” tactics resurfacing, of board meetings descending back into the opaque, disorganized chaos that had defined the era before Grant’s digital intervention. The club was regressing, shedding its professional skin and returning to its form as a petty fiefdom. It was the natural state of an organization that chooses a comfortable lie over a demanding truth. Grant watched from the sidelines, not with the bitterness of a man who had lost, but with the detached observation of a scientist watching a predictable chemical reaction. When you remove the structural integrity of a building—the architect and the foundation—it doesn’t collapse all at once; it leans until it eventually becomes uninhabitable.
While the Association’s weak apology sat in his inbox like a digital insult, the real “audit” of Grant’s decade came from the people Sarah couldn’t control: the parents. His private gallery links began to see a spike in traffic. Families were downloading the archives, realizing that the man who had documented their children’s lives from their first wobbles to their high school graduations was gone. Those 100,000 photos weren’t just data; they were the only evidence of a decade of growth that the club had essentially disowned. Grant realized that by attacking his integrity, Sarah had inadvertently highlighted his value. Every high-resolution shot was a reminder of a standard she could never replicate with a smartphone and a grudge.
The $65,000 in volunteer hours was gone, a sunk cost in the ledger of his life, but the forensic defense he had built remained a masterclass in tactical self-preservation. He had proven that a man with a paper trail is a man who cannot be easily erased. He had shown that even in a rigged game, the player who keeps the best records can walk away with his name intact. This is the raw truth for any man in the trenches of a volunteer organization: build the system, but keep the logs. Serve the community, but never trust the institution. The only thing you truly own at the end of a ten-year grind is your reputation and the data that proves you were the one who held the line when everyone else was busy making phone calls.
Grant Miller eventually closed the spreadsheet. He archived the folder labeled “Skating Club Litigation” and moved it to a backup drive, a dark corner of his digital life that he intended to visit only if the “funny business” ever crossed the line into legal territory again. He wasn’t waiting for Sarah to be fired, and he wasn’t waiting for the Association to grow a spine and offer a real apology. That would be giving them more of his life, and he had already donated enough. The final transaction was the act of clicking “Logout” for the last time—not just from a server, but from a narrative that no longer served him.
Author’s Note
In the world of “sanitized” faith, we’re told forgiveness is a warm, fuzzy reconciliation. We’re fed a version of grace that expects a man to just “shake hands and forget” while his reputation is still bleeding out. But the reality of the grind teaches a harder truth: Sometimes, forgiveness is the tactical decision to stop trying to collect a debt from a bankrupt person. It’s handing the bill to a higher authority and walking off the job site.
For the men who know me, you’ll recognize the skeleton of this story. It’s loosely based on my own ten-year tour in the trenches—a decade of professional-grade labor met with a calculated strike at my integrity. Note that all specific names and locations have been changed to protect everyone involved. For a man in my field, a formal accusation of “manipulation” or “rigging” is a direct hit on my livelihood. I operate under a strict standard of professional appearance; a smear like this could ha
Even years later, I still feel the weight. Every year when the house lights dim and the ice shows begin, the struggle resurfaces like a ghost in the rafters. It’s a seasonal reminder of a wound that hasn’t fully closed—not because of a lack of faith, but because I refuse to lie about the truth. I still run the ice show circuit, taking the photos and giving them away for free, promoting the achievements of these young athletes and the sport itself. I do the work because the work has value to those skaters and thier families.
I’ve had to face the bitter reality that the people who launched this path of destruction were never held accountable—and in all likelihood, they never will be on this side of eternity. Even though her actions and that path of wreckage continue to this day, there was no grand moment of justice, no public clearing of my name, and no professional consequence for the liar. From what I’ve been told, this began long before I arrived and has left a trail of destroyed lives in its wake. This includes one individual handed a lifetime ban from skating—a move reminiscent of the Tonya Harding fallout—simply for trying to protect a skater from abuse. That wake of destruction remains active, and the wreckage continues to pile up. I have to believe that one day, God will say “enough.” This is my way of turning this situation over to God.
In Enemies of the Heart, Andy Stanley identifies Anger as the result of a “debt” mindset—the conviction that “you owe me.” When a bureaucrat smears your name or devalues a decade of your life, they create a massive debt. We wait for the apology or the admission of guilt to “balance the books,” but a bankrupt person can’t pay you back. Stanley’s solution isn’t “feelings”; it’s a business decision: Cancel the debt. You aren’t saying what they did was right; you’re deciding you will no longer wait for a thief to return what they stole.
I’ve heard the fake apologies—the corporate-speak non-apologies meant to shift the blame. Specifically: “I’m sorry you got your feelings hurt.” Let’s be blunt: that’s a tactical maneuver, not an apology. It ignores the lie, the rigged system, and the malicious intent. It treats a professional betrayal like an emotional glitch on your part. It’s the cowards’ way out.
Understand this: there is no commandment that forces you to associate with people like this. In my opinion, based on the Word, there are actually commandments not to associate with them. Scripture doesn’t call us to be door-mats for the deceptive. It tells us to “have nothing to do with them” (2 Timothy 3:5) and to “shun” those who persist in division and deceit. Forgiveness is about your heart’s freedom from their debt; it is not a legal requirement to invite a known liar back to your table.
“Forgive and forget” is a myth. Even the resurrected Christ carries the record of what was done to Him.
“Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…” — Revelation 5:6 (NIV)
The scars on the resurrected Christ prove that memory and mercy are not mutually exclusive. Those wounds are the eternal record of the price He paid. He hasn’t “forgotten” the cost; He absorbed the debt so the bill never reaches the one who owed it. Forgiveness isn’t forgetting; it’s absorbing the hit.
I wrote this for the men who still struggle, like I do, with the hard facts. I wrote it for the men who have done the work, kept the logs, and watched the “system” protect the liar. If you’re in those shoes, understand this: Your integrity isn’t defined by their inability to tell the truth. I know that one day God will hold them accountable, even if they never face justice on this earth. Scripture is clear: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. Sometimes, the most masculine thing you can do is shake the dust off your boots, cancel the debt, and leave the final audit to the only Judge who actually keeps the books.
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D. Bryan King
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The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author. The information provided is based on personal research, experience, and understanding of the subject matter at the time of writing. Readers should consult relevant experts or authorities for specific guidance related to their unique situations.
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The Cost of the Clean Exit: When the System Protects the Liar
3,572 words, 19 minutes read time.
Grant Miller sat in the clinical, blue-light glow of his home office, the low hum of three synchronized monitors serving as the only soundtrack to the wreckage of a decade. On the center screen, a spreadsheet acted as a cold, digital autopsy of ten years of his life. As a systems architect, Grant didn’t have “hobbies”; he had projects that required infrastructure, precision, and an uncompromising adherence to the truth. When he first walked into the local “Learn to Skate” rink with a camera bag and a laptop, he wasn’t looking for a plaque or a pat on the back. He saw a system that was broken—a chaotic, paper-trail operation where registrations were lost in overstuffed filing cabinets and the club’s “digital presence” was a joke. Over the next ten years, Grant didn’t just volunteer; he engineered. He built a fortress. By the time the dust settled, he had clocked over $65,000 in professional volunteer hours based on federal labor standards, and his private servers groaned under the weight of 100,000 high-resolution images captured on $10,000 of his own professional gear. He was the invisible backbone of the club, the man who turned a disorganized mess into a streamlined, encrypted powerhouse that parents actually trusted with their data and their children’s milestones.
The sheer volume of the work was staggering when viewed through the lens of objective data. We are talking about ten years of Saturday mornings spent in sub-zero rinks, ten years of weeknights spent editing thousands of RAW files to ensure every kid in the program had a hero shot that made them feel like an Olympian. Grant didn’t just take pictures; he managed the club’s identity. He built the website, secured the databases, and handled the tech support that the board was too technologically illiterate to understand. In the world of non-profits, a man like Grant is a unicorn—a high-level professional providing enterprise-grade solutions for the price of a lukewarm coffee. But the danger of being the man who builds the system is that you eventually become the only person who knows how the gears actually turn, and in a landscape ruled by small-town egos, that technical mastery is often viewed not as an asset, but as a threat to the established order of those who prefer to rule in the dark.
In the world of small-town sports politics, efficiency is a direct threat to those who thrive on opacity and “good old boy” networks. For years, the club’s board elections had been tainted by what the locals quietly called “funny business.” It was a shadowy, manual practice where Sarah, the Skating Director, and her inner circle would physically call members over the phone, pressuring them to cast votes for her hand-picked candidates in direct violation of the club’s own bylaws. It was a system built on social engineering and intimidation, a way to ensure that the “inner circle” remained unchallenged and that the director’s personal fiefdom remained intact. Sarah wore her high-level credentials with the national Figure Skating Association like a medieval mace, using her title to silence dissent and maintain a status quo that favored her cronies over the actual growth of the program. She didn’t want a fair vote; she wanted a coronation every cycle.
To kill this corruption and bring the club into the twenty-first century, Grant had implemented a third-party, industry-standard voting system years prior. He didn’t build the software—he was too smart for that—but he selected a platform that offered absolute integrity, two-factor authentication, and a verifiable audit trail. It was a secure tool designed to ensure that every member had a private, un-pressured voice, effectively stripping Sarah of her ability to manipulate the outcomes through late-night phone calls and locker-room arm-twisting. Ironically, that very system is still used by the club today, a testament to its reliability and Grant’s foresight in building something that could withstand the very rot he was trying to excise. But the moment the digital tally finally reflected a result that Sarah couldn’t control, the “funny business” shifted from the voting booth to a direct, surgical strike on Grant Miller’s reputation.
The transition from “valued volunteer” to “enemy of the state” happened with the flick of a bureaucratic switch. When the election results didn’t go Sarah’s way, she didn’t look in the mirror; she looked for a scapegoat. Using her high-level influence and her direct line to the national Figure Skating Association, she filed an informal grievance that was as calculated as it was malicious. She accused Grant of “digital manipulation,” claiming that he had used his administrative access to rig the election results through the third-party software. It was a character-assassinating smear designed to hit a technical professional where it hurts most: his integrity. She banked on the Association’s fundamental ignorance of technology, knowing that to a group of aging administrators, “software” was a magic black box that could be easily manipulated by a “hacker” in their midst. She didn’t need proof; she only needed to trigger the investigation to isolate Grant and cast a shadow of doubt over the entire digital infrastructure he had built.
The move was a masterclass in institutional bullying. Suddenly, the man who had donated $65,000 worth of his life to the program was being treated like a criminal in a defensive crouch. The Association, instead of looking at Sarah’s history of “funny business” or the verifiable logs of the third-party system, reflexively protected their director. They launched an inquiry that forced Grant to spend weeks of his own time—time he could have spent with his family or on his actual career—defending his honor against a baseless lie. This is the raw reality of the volunteer grind: the moment you stop being a “useful tool” and start being a “check on power,” the institution will turn on you with a cold, mechanical indifference that would make a corporate HR department blush. Grant found himself in a fight he never asked for, forced to prove a negative against a woman who had spent years treating the club’s bylaws like suggestions.
Grant didn’t retreat into anger; he retreated into the data. While Sarah was busy playing the victim in rink-side whispers and backroom meetings, Grant was operating with the cold, methodical precision of a man who knew that in a digital world, every lie leaves a footprint. He understood that the burden of proof in an institutional inquisition is rarely on the accuser, so he built a defense that was mathematically irrefutable. He spent dozens of hours—hours on top of the decade he’d already sacrificed—compiling a forensic dossier that documented every interaction with the voting software. He didn’t just tell them he didn’t rig the election; he showed them the server logs, the encrypted handshakes, and the third-party security protocols that made it impossible for an administrator to alter an individual ballot once cast. He presented a timeline of every email sent, every website modification made, and every administrative login, cross-referenced against the club’s own bylaws which Sarah had so casually ignored for years.
The sheer density of the evidence was a silent middle finger to the incompetence of the board. Grant produced a document that mapped the “funny business” of previous years—the phone call logs and the manual tallies that didn’t add up—and contrasted it with the sterile, unassailable integrity of the digital system he had implemented. He was forcing the Association to look at the mirror, showing them that the only person with a history of manipulation was the woman pointing the finger. For a man who lived by the logic of “if-then” statements, the hearing wasn’t an emotional plea for his reputation; it was a technical demonstration of Sarah’s malice. He sat across from the Association representatives—people who likely struggled to reset their own Wi-Fi routers—and spoke to them in the language of objective truth. He didn’t ask for their trust; he demanded they acknowledge the data.
The hearing was a collision between professional competence and bureaucratic ego. Grant watched as the Association reps flipped through his forensic audit with the glazed eyes of people who had realized they were in way over their heads. They had walked into the room expecting to slap the wrist of a “rogue volunteer” and instead found themselves staring at a mountain of evidence that implicated their own director in years of procedural misconduct. They saw the locks on the third-party system, they saw the clean logs, and they saw the verified results that matched the will of the members perfectly. There was no “hacker,” no “manipulation,” and no “rigging.” There was only a man who had done his job too well and a woman who had tried to destroy him for it. The truth was sitting on the table, cold and heavy, but the institution wasn’t interested in truth; it was interested in liability.
The final verdict arrived not with a bang, but with a whimper—a two-paragraph email that was a masterclass in corporate-filtered non-apology. The Association stated they could “find no fault” in Grant’s actions, a clinical way of admitting he was innocent without actually saying he had been wronged. There was a weak, throwaway sentence about the “inconvenience of the investigation,” but no mention of the ten years of service, the $65,000 in labor, or the 100,000 photos that had built their brand. Even more galling was the silence regarding Sarah. There was no reprimand, no suspension, and no acknowledgment of her baseless smear campaign. She was allowed to keep her office and her title, protected by a system that values the survival of the hierarchy over the character of its builders. The Association had looked at a decade of loyalty and a month of character assassination and decided that the status quo was worth more than a man’s honor.
In the immediate aftermath, Grant felt the weight of the “sunk cost fallacy” pulling at his gut. Ten years. Over a hundred thousand images of kids learning to find their edges, of parents crying in the stands, of a community he thought he was part of. He looked at the hard drives in his office—$10,000 worth of gear and an archive of a decade’s worth of growth—and realized that the club didn’t deserve a single byte of it. The “Actionable Fix” in this scenario wasn’t to stay and fight a guerrilla war against Sarah’s ego; it was to perform a total, scorched-earth decoupling of his identity from the program. He wasn’t just a volunteer leaving a post; he was an architect reclaiming his blueprints. He realized that Sarah had successfully weaponized the institution to run off its most valuable asset, and the board was too weak or too complicit to stop her.
The raw truth that every high-level volunteer eventually learns is that the institution doesn’t love you back. It is a machine that consumes “useful idiots” until they become “inconvenient truths,” and then it discards them with a form letter. Grant’s exit wasn’t a retreat; it was an evacuation of value. He deleted his administrative access, handed over the keys to the digital fortress he had built, and walked away with the one thing Sarah could never touch: his integrity. He understood that the club would likely devolve back into the “funny business” of phone-call voting and paper-trail chaos within a year, and he finally stopped caring. Forgiveness, for Grant, was the cold realization that he no longer owed his energy to a group of people who would trade his decade of sacrifice for a director’s comfort.
The first Saturday morning after his resignation was the loudest silence Grant had ever experienced. For ten years, the rhythmic scratch of toe picks, the deep hum of blades carving precise circles, and the echoes of classical scores over the PA system had been the heartbeat of his weekend. Now, sitting in his kitchen with a cup of coffee that didn’t need to be rushed, he felt the phantom weight of the camera bag on his shoulder. He looked at his gear—the Nikon bodies, the 70-200mm f/2.8 lens that had captured a hundred thousand tiny triumphs—and realized they were just tools again, no longer weapons of a community’s legacy. The realization hit him with the cold precision of a data point: he had been a ghostwriter for a story that the lead character was trying to delete. Sarah still held the keys to the rink, but she no longer held the keys to his time, a currency that, once spent, offers no refunds.
The “funny business” resumed almost immediately. Reports filtered back through the grapevine of the old “phone tree” tactics resurfacing, of board meetings descending back into the opaque, disorganized chaos that had defined the era before Grant’s digital intervention. The club was regressing, shedding its professional skin and returning to its form as a petty fiefdom. It was the natural state of an organization that chooses a comfortable lie over a demanding truth. Grant watched from the sidelines, not with the bitterness of a man who had lost, but with the detached observation of a scientist watching a predictable chemical reaction. When you remove the structural integrity of a building—the architect and the foundation—it doesn’t collapse all at once; it leans until it eventually becomes uninhabitable.
While the Association’s weak apology sat in his inbox like a digital insult, the real “audit” of Grant’s decade came from the people Sarah couldn’t control: the parents. His private gallery links began to see a spike in traffic. Families were downloading the archives, realizing that the man who had documented their children’s lives from their first wobbles to their high school graduations was gone. Those 100,000 photos weren’t just data; they were the only evidence of a decade of growth that the club had essentially disowned. Grant realized that by attacking his integrity, Sarah had inadvertently highlighted his value. Every high-resolution shot was a reminder of a standard she could never replicate with a smartphone and a grudge.
The $65,000 in volunteer hours was gone, a sunk cost in the ledger of his life, but the forensic defense he had built remained a masterclass in tactical self-preservation. He had proven that a man with a paper trail is a man who cannot be easily erased. He had shown that even in a rigged game, the player who keeps the best records can walk away with his name intact. This is the raw truth for any man in the trenches of a volunteer organization: build the system, but keep the logs. Serve the community, but never trust the institution. The only thing you truly own at the end of a ten-year grind is your reputation and the data that proves you were the one who held the line when everyone else was busy making phone calls.
Grant Miller eventually closed the spreadsheet. He archived the folder labeled “Skating Club Litigation” and moved it to a backup drive, a dark corner of his digital life that he intended to visit only if the “funny business” ever crossed the line into legal territory again. He wasn’t waiting for Sarah to be fired, and he wasn’t waiting for the Association to grow a spine and offer a real apology. That would be giving them more of his life, and he had already donated enough. The final transaction was the act of clicking “Logout” for the last time—not just from a server, but from a narrative that no longer served him.
Author’s Note
In the world of “sanitized” faith, we’re told forgiveness is a warm, fuzzy reconciliation. We’re fed a version of grace that expects a man to just “shake hands and forget” while his reputation is still bleeding out. But the reality of the grind teaches a harder truth: Sometimes, forgiveness is the tactical decision to stop trying to collect a debt from a bankrupt person. It’s handing the bill to a higher authority and walking off the job site.
For the men who know me, you’ll recognize the skeleton of this story. It’s loosely based on my own ten-year tour in the trenches—a decade of professional-grade labor met with a calculated strike at my integrity. Note that all specific names and locations have been changed to protect everyone involved. For a man in my field, a formal accusation of “manipulation” or “rigging” is a direct hit on my livelihood. I operate under a strict standard of professional appearance; a smear like this could ha
Even years later, I still feel the weight. Every year when the house lights dim and the ice shows begin, the struggle resurfaces like a ghost in the rafters. It’s a seasonal reminder of a wound that hasn’t fully closed—not because of a lack of faith, but because I refuse to lie about the truth. I still run the ice show circuit, taking the photos and giving them away for free, promoting the achievements of these young athletes and the sport itself. I do the work because the work has value to those skaters and thier families.
I’ve had to face the bitter reality that the people who launched this path of destruction were never held accountable—and in all likelihood, they never will be on this side of eternity. Even though her actions and that path of wreckage continue to this day, there was no grand moment of justice, no public clearing of my name, and no professional consequence for the liar. From what I’ve been told, this began long before I arrived and has left a trail of destroyed lives in its wake. This includes one individual handed a lifetime ban from skating—a move reminiscent of the Tonya Harding fallout—simply for trying to protect a skater from abuse. That wake of destruction remains active, and the wreckage continues to pile up. I have to believe that one day, God will say “enough.” This is my way of turning this situation over to God.
In Enemies of the Heart, Andy Stanley identifies Anger as the result of a “debt” mindset—the conviction that “you owe me.” When a bureaucrat smears your name or devalues a decade of your life, they create a massive debt. We wait for the apology or the admission of guilt to “balance the books,” but a bankrupt person can’t pay you back. Stanley’s solution isn’t “feelings”; it’s a business decision: Cancel the debt. You aren’t saying what they did was right; you’re deciding you will no longer wait for a thief to return what they stole.
I’ve heard the fake apologies—the corporate-speak non-apologies meant to shift the blame. Specifically: “I’m sorry you got your feelings hurt.” Let’s be blunt: that’s a tactical maneuver, not an apology. It ignores the lie, the rigged system, and the malicious intent. It treats a professional betrayal like an emotional glitch on your part. It’s the cowards’ way out.
Understand this: there is no commandment that forces you to associate with people like this. In my opinion, based on the Word, there are actually commandments not to associate with them. Scripture doesn’t call us to be door-mats for the deceptive. It tells us to “have nothing to do with them” (2 Timothy 3:5) and to “shun” those who persist in division and deceit. Forgiveness is about your heart’s freedom from their debt; it is not a legal requirement to invite a known liar back to your table.
“Forgive and forget” is a myth. Even the resurrected Christ carries the record of what was done to Him.
“Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne…” — Revelation 5:6 (NIV)
The scars on the resurrected Christ prove that memory and mercy are not mutually exclusive. Those wounds are the eternal record of the price He paid. He hasn’t “forgotten” the cost; He absorbed the debt so the bill never reaches the one who owed it. Forgiveness isn’t forgetting; it’s absorbing the hit.
I wrote this for the men who still struggle, like I do, with the hard facts. I wrote it for the men who have done the work, kept the logs, and watched the “system” protect the liar. If you’re in those shoes, understand this: Your integrity isn’t defined by their inability to tell the truth. I know that one day God will hold them accountable, even if they never face justice on this earth. Scripture is clear: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. Sometimes, the most masculine thing you can do is shake the dust off your boots, cancel the debt, and leave the final audit to the only Judge who actually keeps the books.
Call to Action
If this story struck a chord, don’t just scroll on. Join the brotherhood—men learning to build, not borrow, their strength. Subscribe for more stories like this, drop a comment about where you’re growing, or reach out and tell me what you’re working toward. Let’s grow together.
D. Bryan King
Sources
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this post are solely those of the author. The information provided is based on personal research, experience, and understanding of the subject matter at the time of writing. Readers should consult relevant experts or authorities for specific guidance related to their unique situations.
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#accountability #AndyStanley #betrayal #biblicalForgiveness #CareerReputation #CharacterAssassination #CorporateGaslighting #dataIntegrity #DebtCancellation #DigitalManipulation #DocumentingTruth #ElectionRigging #enemiesOfTheHeart #FakeApologies #FigureSkatingAssociation #ForensicAudit #ForgivenessVsReconciliation #InstitutionalCorruption #InstitutionalCowardice #IntegrityInTech #LeadershipAccountability #masculineFaith #moralCourage #NonProfitPolitics #PhotographyArchives #ProfessionalIntegrity #recoveringFromBetrayal #ResurrectedScars #Revelation56 #ShakingTheDust #SkatingDirector #SmallTownCorruption #SmearCampaigns #StandardOfAppearance #standingFirm #SystemsArchitect #TheSlainLamb #ThirdPartyVotingSystems #VengeanceIsMine #VolunteerBurnout -
#BirdSite accidentally released users' private images - secret nudes and other sensitive content.
Why does anyone still use it?
https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-accidentally-made-users-secret-nudes-public
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#BirdSite accidentally released users' private images - secret nudes and other sensitive content.
Why does anyone still use it?
https://futurism.com/the-byte/twitter-accidentally-made-users-secret-nudes-public
-
30.marts Rūjienas mežā. Zied baltais vizbulis. Lido taureņi, bites, ir aktīvas skudras un citi kukaiņi. Arī ceļmalā tika pamanīta pirmā varde.
#mežs #forest #pavasaris #spring #nature #daba #naturephotography #latvija #latvia #lv
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For #MAUIUIJuly Day 6, Ed has shown us how to create a scrollable text display in #dotnetmaui
https://byte217.com/net-maui-scrolling-text-display/ -
It's #MAUIUIJuly day 5! Check out this awesome post from Ed showing how to manage different screen sizes - and you have to see his ObservablePageLayout!!
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@dave_hone and Matt Wedel have both posted about their new paper on theropods biting Morrison formation sauropod bones.
It seems Dave Hone's blog doesn't have the activitypub wordpress plugin enabled, but svpow does.
https://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2023/11/14/theropods-bit-sauropods-too/
https://svpow.com/2023/11/14/new-paper-theropod-bite-marks-on-morrison-sauropod-bones/
paper:
Lei R, Tschopp E, Hendrickx C, Wedel MJ, Norell M, Hone DWE. 2023.
https://peerj.com/articles/16327/ -
Every morning during #MathsWeekScot a new puzzle set by The Scottish Mathematical Council will be shared on BBC Bitesize. You'll get a hint to solve it & the answers will be posted after 12:00 each day. Today's puzzle is now live! mathsweek.scot/schools/math... #MathsToday #UKMathsChat #EduSky 🎓
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Cold Slither – Cold Slither Review
By Tyme
More inclined toward Thundarr the Barbarian or He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, a much younger Tyme was still no stranger to the wily cartoon exploits of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. So, my nerdy interest piqued when I saw Cold Slither writhe up from the sump pit. It seems the inimitable toy makers at Hasbro had teamed up with the folks at Reigning Phoenix Music to bring guitarist/vocalist Zartan (Gus Rios: Gruesome) and his ruthless band of Dreadnok’s—featuring Ripper on guitar (Matt Harvey: Gruesome, Exhumed), Torch on bass (Ross Sewage: Exhumed, Impaled), and Buzzer on drums (Andy Selway: KMFDM)—to life. For those unfamiliar, the episode, which first aired in December 1985, found Cobra cohorts Destro and the Baroness plotting a subliminal message scheme intended to brainwash society using music created for a fake heavy metal band, Cold Slither, and restore Cobra Commander to prominence, furthering his goal of world domination. Conceptually speaking, I think this is pretty damn cool, but my job is to let you know if Cold Slither is worthy of your time, or if this particular snake would make a better pair of boots.
Cold Slither play souped-up dad metal that mainly taps a vein of ’80s / ’90s arena and alt-rock tropes. Driving riffs, pounding drums, and shred(ish) solos dominate most of the musical landscape, full of ear-wormy hooks and anthemic bravado. Themed lyrics are expectedly juvenile, and whether you want them to or not, choruses are abhorrently catchy, (“Zartan’s Revenge,” “These Fluffies Are Fatal”), sticking to your brain like taxicab floor chewing gum. After a brief address by Cobra Commander himself, the album launches with a revised, more metallic version of the song that started it all 40 years ago, “Cold Slither.” Still corny as hell, the re-imagined track at least comes across heavier than the synth-laden original. After that, nine tracks of new Cold Slither material drawing influence mostly from the original episode and sounding like second-tier ’80s metal peddled by the likes of Black ‘n Blue, Keel, and others back in the day, albeit here slightly more aggressive. This Cold Slither reps basic, family-friendly metal designed to sell action figures and comic books, bringing those G.I. Joe die-hards to the comic-con yard in clouds of nostalgia instead of weed, to rock out with the kids.
Mostly uninspiring, there were a few moments on Cold Slither that got my head bobbing, if only slightly. With its doomy pace and sludgy riffs, the Alice in Chains-like “Snakes on the Bayou” possesses a swagger that I connected with, while the thrashy three-minute speedster “Torched” had me tenuously feeling early Bay Area vibes. I also enjoyed the straightforward, groove-drenched riffs on “Master of Disguise,” another palatable rocker with a decent solo and one of those catchy choruses that I found myself humming later on. While it’s clear the guys in Cold Slither embarked on a journey far removed from their main gigs, they do a decent job of pulling the concept together and executing the vision.
Filled with G.I. Joe sound bites, separating the Cold Slither concept from the content wasn’t easy, which further emphasized that Cold Slither is more a marketing tie-in than it is a heavy metal record. Musically, my biggest gripe is with the vocals. Stepping from behind the drum kit of his day job to pick up guitar and vocal duties, Rios’ Zartan does a workable job here; however, his clean vocal range seems limited to four or five mid-baritone notes that he never stretches beyond. Doing him no favors either are the vocal arrangements, written such that each song’s vocal pattern and cadence sounded nearly identical. More dynamic vocals might have added a more maniacally villainous edge to the diabolical, Cold Slither plot.
I get what everyone, including Cold Slither, tried to do here, and I’m sure those who bought a ticket to see these songs played live by a band in full regalia on July 24th at the San Diego Comic-Con will have a good time. A much younger me may have even bought the action figure set, comic book, and ticket to the con to snag my exclusive vinyl variant. Cold Slither, however, amounts to little more than an elaborately conceived homage to one cult cartoon episode, where the music transcends no further than the intrinsic nostalgia it evokes. Hopefully, Hasbro has no plans to bring the Average Joe Band to life anytime soon.
Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320kbps mp3
Label: Reigning Phoenix Music
Websites: Cold Slither | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: July 25th, 2025#20 #2025 #AliceInChains #AmericanMetal #BlackNBlue #ColdSlither #HeavyMetal #Jul25 #Keel #ReigningPhoenixMusic #Review #Reviews
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Looking at it a bit more closely - if I ignore the top clock signal which is a bit wild, the rest of the traffic looks perfectly cromulent. Second #Transputer Link is acking as expected, and reflecting the received byte back.
I’ve slowed the click down 10x, but it still has gaps. Can’t explain that yet, nor the link overrun error I see in the test harness.
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@Jon6705
I recall many years ago whilst an engineering student at #ExeterUniversity watching that and having our fluid dynamics tutor explaining super critical flow [analogous to supersonic flow in a gas], hydraulic jumps [to subcritical flow], Stilling basins etc etc.
Fun to watch but the maths made my head hurt.
Nice pub there too. 👍 -
Australian Chef Matt Moran To Explore Personal Lives Of Richard Roxburgh, Pia Miranda & More In Food And History Series ‘Memory Bites’ From Big Owl Pictures & Private Investment Firm Globe Wealth
#News #AlexandraJakob #Australia #Formats #MattMoran #MemoryBiteswithMattMoran #SBS #ShaunMurphyhttps://deadline.com/2024/10/memory-bites-matt-moran-sbs-series-1236161899/
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How long will it take before Musk is replaced as Tesla CEO?
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-bizarre-behavior-killing-tesla-sales
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“Did you have any orange juice today?”*…
… if so, it’s less and less likely that it was from Florida.
The canonical articles on the Florida orange juice industry are John McPhee’s two-parter from The New Yorker from the 1960s. But that was then.
Alex Sammon has picked up the baton, with an article on the brutal, unrelenting decline of that business…
Quiet fell over the room, which was neither full nor very loud to begin with, and the 2026 Florida Citrus Show began.
“It should be a great day,” began the event’s first speaker. “Rain should hold off today, even though we definitely need more rain.” No one laughed.
There was no need to say that things were bad. Everyone knew it. The mood wasn’t sour—citrus farmers could handle sour. It was something else. Postapocalyptic. Florida is in the midst of its worst drought in 25 years, but the dry spell actually ranked far down on the list of challenges these bedraggled growers were facing.
In 2003, the mighty Florida orange industry produced 242 million boxes of fruit, with 90 pounds of oranges per box, most of which went on to become orange juice. Now, not even 25 years later, the United States Department of Agriculture was forecasting a pitiful 12 million boxes of oranges, the least in more than 100 years, the worst year since last. A decline of more than 95 percent.
And everyone knew, more or less, that even that figure was not happening. “Twelve million? I would doubt it,” Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest trade group, told me. There was chatter that even 11 million might be out of reach. Could the total end up being less than that, just seven figures? In Florida, the citrus capital of the world, you are today more likely to see the oranges printed on the state’s 18 million license plates than a box of actual fruit.
Rick Dantzler, chief operating officer of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation, took the podium. He was blunt. “It’s been a dumpster fire of a year,” he said.
On the list of immediate problems: the implementation of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs, then the government shutdown, then a stunning, historic freeze, days long, at the end of January and early February, that besieged the fragile orange trees.
And yet those, too, were just footnotes to the even larger problem. Already, Florida had lost about three-quarters of its citrus growers. The last of them, these spent survivors, these hangers-on, had trudged to the Citrus Show to talk about the real problem, which was the disease.
In 2005, Florida first got signs of a new affliction in its groves called citrus greening disease. It also has a Chinese name, Huanglongbing, or HLB, because it came from China, where oranges also came from in the first place.
Citrus greening disease is caused by a bacterial infection that is delivered by the gnawing of the Asian citrus psyllid. (It’s now believed the psyllid first turned up near the Port of Miami in 1998.) The flea-sized psyllid bites the leaves and transmits the disease, which slowly chokes out the tree’s vascular system from the inside, taking years to finally show itself. By the time a tree is displaying symptoms—three to five years, in most cases—it’s too late…
Read on for an explanation of how this catastrophe has materialized and for a consideration of what it means for Central Florida (and the other major supplier, Brazil, which is also suffering).
“Who Killed the Florida Orange?” from @alexsammon.bsky.social in @slate.com.
Other comestible news from Florida: “A deadly bacteria is creeping up the Atlantic Coast. How worried should you be?“
* Harold Brodkey, First Love and Other Sorrows: Stories
###
As we contemplate the consequences of climate change and contagion, we might consider an alternative to orange juice on this, National Raisin Day. But while raisins are richly nutricious, they are not so strong on Vitamin C, so we’ll have to keep looking…
#citrus #CitrusGreeningDisease #climateChange #concentrate #culture #Florida #FloridaOranges #history #NationalRaisinDay #orangeJuice #orangeJuiceConcentrate #oranges #politics #raisins #Science -
“Did you have any orange juice today?”*…
… if so, it’s less and less likely that it was from Florida.
The canonical articles on the Florida orange juice industry are John McPhee’s two-parter from The New Yorker from the 1960s. But that was then.
Alex Sammon has picked up the baton, with an article on the brutal, unrelenting decline of that business…
Quiet fell over the room, which was neither full nor very loud to begin with, and the 2026 Florida Citrus Show began.
“It should be a great day,” began the event’s first speaker. “Rain should hold off today, even though we definitely need more rain.” No one laughed.
There was no need to say that things were bad. Everyone knew it. The mood wasn’t sour—citrus farmers could handle sour. It was something else. Postapocalyptic. Florida is in the midst of its worst drought in 25 years, but the dry spell actually ranked far down on the list of challenges these bedraggled growers were facing.
In 2003, the mighty Florida orange industry produced 242 million boxes of fruit, with 90 pounds of oranges per box, most of which went on to become orange juice. Now, not even 25 years later, the United States Department of Agriculture was forecasting a pitiful 12 million boxes of oranges, the least in more than 100 years, the worst year since last. A decline of more than 95 percent.
And everyone knew, more or less, that even that figure was not happening. “Twelve million? I would doubt it,” Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest trade group, told me. There was chatter that even 11 million might be out of reach. Could the total end up being less than that, just seven figures? In Florida, the citrus capital of the world, you are today more likely to see the oranges printed on the state’s 18 million license plates than a box of actual fruit.
Rick Dantzler, chief operating officer of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation, took the podium. He was blunt. “It’s been a dumpster fire of a year,” he said.
On the list of immediate problems: the implementation of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs, then the government shutdown, then a stunning, historic freeze, days long, at the end of January and early February, that besieged the fragile orange trees.
And yet those, too, were just footnotes to the even larger problem. Already, Florida had lost about three-quarters of its citrus growers. The last of them, these spent survivors, these hangers-on, had trudged to the Citrus Show to talk about the real problem, which was the disease.
In 2005, Florida first got signs of a new affliction in its groves called citrus greening disease. It also has a Chinese name, Huanglongbing, or HLB, because it came from China, where oranges also came from in the first place.
Citrus greening disease is caused by a bacterial infection that is delivered by the gnawing of the Asian citrus psyllid. (It’s now believed the psyllid first turned up near the Port of Miami in 1998.) The flea-sized psyllid bites the leaves and transmits the disease, which slowly chokes out the tree’s vascular system from the inside, taking years to finally show itself. By the time a tree is displaying symptoms—three to five years, in most cases—it’s too late…
Read on for an explanation of how this catastrophe has materialized and for a consideration of what it means for Central Florida (and the other major supplier, Brazil, which is also suffering).
“Who Killed the Florida Orange?” from @alexsammon.bsky.social in @slate.com.
Other comestible news from Florida: “A deadly bacteria is creeping up the Atlantic Coast. How worried should you be?“
* Harold Brodkey, First Love and Other Sorrows: Stories
###
As we contemplate the consequences of climate change and contagion, we might consider an alternative to orange juice on this, National Raisin Day. But while raisins are richly nutricious, they are not so strong on Vitamin C, so we’ll have to keep looking…
#citrus #CitrusGreeningDisease #climateChange #concentrate #culture #Florida #FloridaOranges #history #NationalRaisinDay #orangeJuice #orangeJuiceConcentrate #oranges #politics #raisins #Science -
“Did you have any orange juice today?”*…
… if so, it’s less and less likely that it was from Florida.
The canonical articles on the Florida orange juice industry are John McPhee’s two-parter from The New Yorker from the 1960s. But that was then.
Alex Sammon has picked up the baton, with an article on the brutal, unrelenting decline of that business…
Quiet fell over the room, which was neither full nor very loud to begin with, and the 2026 Florida Citrus Show began.
“It should be a great day,” began the event’s first speaker. “Rain should hold off today, even though we definitely need more rain.” No one laughed.
There was no need to say that things were bad. Everyone knew it. The mood wasn’t sour—citrus farmers could handle sour. It was something else. Postapocalyptic. Florida is in the midst of its worst drought in 25 years, but the dry spell actually ranked far down on the list of challenges these bedraggled growers were facing.
In 2003, the mighty Florida orange industry produced 242 million boxes of fruit, with 90 pounds of oranges per box, most of which went on to become orange juice. Now, not even 25 years later, the United States Department of Agriculture was forecasting a pitiful 12 million boxes of oranges, the least in more than 100 years, the worst year since last. A decline of more than 95 percent.
And everyone knew, more or less, that even that figure was not happening. “Twelve million? I would doubt it,” Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest trade group, told me. There was chatter that even 11 million might be out of reach. Could the total end up being less than that, just seven figures? In Florida, the citrus capital of the world, you are today more likely to see the oranges printed on the state’s 18 million license plates than a box of actual fruit.
Rick Dantzler, chief operating officer of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation, took the podium. He was blunt. “It’s been a dumpster fire of a year,” he said.
On the list of immediate problems: the implementation of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs, then the government shutdown, then a stunning, historic freeze, days long, at the end of January and early February, that besieged the fragile orange trees.
And yet those, too, were just footnotes to the even larger problem. Already, Florida had lost about three-quarters of its citrus growers. The last of them, these spent survivors, these hangers-on, had trudged to the Citrus Show to talk about the real problem, which was the disease.
In 2005, Florida first got signs of a new affliction in its groves called citrus greening disease. It also has a Chinese name, Huanglongbing, or HLB, because it came from China, where oranges also came from in the first place.
Citrus greening disease is caused by a bacterial infection that is delivered by the gnawing of the Asian citrus psyllid. (It’s now believed the psyllid first turned up near the Port of Miami in 1998.) The flea-sized psyllid bites the leaves and transmits the disease, which slowly chokes out the tree’s vascular system from the inside, taking years to finally show itself. By the time a tree is displaying symptoms—three to five years, in most cases—it’s too late…
Read on for an explanation of how this catastrophe has materialized and for a consideration of what it means for Central Florida (and the other major supplier, Brazil, which is also suffering).
“Who Killed the Florida Orange?” from @alexsammon.bsky.social in @slate.com.
Other comestible news from Florida: “A deadly bacteria is creeping up the Atlantic Coast. How worried should you be?“
* Harold Brodkey, First Love and Other Sorrows: Stories
###
As we contemplate the consequences of climate change and contagion, we might consider an alternative to orange juice on this, National Raisin Day. But while raisins are richly nutricious, they are not so strong on Vitamin C, so we’ll have to keep looking…
#citrus #CitrusGreeningDisease #climateChange #concentrate #culture #Florida #FloridaOranges #history #NationalRaisinDay #orangeJuice #orangeJuiceConcentrate #oranges #politics #raisins #Science -
“Did you have any orange juice today?”*…
… if so, it’s less and less likely that it was from Florida.
The canonical articles on the Florida orange juice industry are John McPhee’s two-parter from The New Yorker from the 1960s. But that was then.
Alex Sammon has picked up the baton, with an article on the brutal, unrelenting decline of that business…
Quiet fell over the room, which was neither full nor very loud to begin with, and the 2026 Florida Citrus Show began.
“It should be a great day,” began the event’s first speaker. “Rain should hold off today, even though we definitely need more rain.” No one laughed.
There was no need to say that things were bad. Everyone knew it. The mood wasn’t sour—citrus farmers could handle sour. It was something else. Postapocalyptic. Florida is in the midst of its worst drought in 25 years, but the dry spell actually ranked far down on the list of challenges these bedraggled growers were facing.
In 2003, the mighty Florida orange industry produced 242 million boxes of fruit, with 90 pounds of oranges per box, most of which went on to become orange juice. Now, not even 25 years later, the United States Department of Agriculture was forecasting a pitiful 12 million boxes of oranges, the least in more than 100 years, the worst year since last. A decline of more than 95 percent.
And everyone knew, more or less, that even that figure was not happening. “Twelve million? I would doubt it,” Matt Joyner, CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, the state’s largest trade group, told me. There was chatter that even 11 million might be out of reach. Could the total end up being less than that, just seven figures? In Florida, the citrus capital of the world, you are today more likely to see the oranges printed on the state’s 18 million license plates than a box of actual fruit.
Rick Dantzler, chief operating officer of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation, took the podium. He was blunt. “It’s been a dumpster fire of a year,” he said.
On the list of immediate problems: the implementation of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs, then the government shutdown, then a stunning, historic freeze, days long, at the end of January and early February, that besieged the fragile orange trees.
And yet those, too, were just footnotes to the even larger problem. Already, Florida had lost about three-quarters of its citrus growers. The last of them, these spent survivors, these hangers-on, had trudged to the Citrus Show to talk about the real problem, which was the disease.
In 2005, Florida first got signs of a new affliction in its groves called citrus greening disease. It also has a Chinese name, Huanglongbing, or HLB, because it came from China, where oranges also came from in the first place.
Citrus greening disease is caused by a bacterial infection that is delivered by the gnawing of the Asian citrus psyllid. (It’s now believed the psyllid first turned up near the Port of Miami in 1998.) The flea-sized psyllid bites the leaves and transmits the disease, which slowly chokes out the tree’s vascular system from the inside, taking years to finally show itself. By the time a tree is displaying symptoms—three to five years, in most cases—it’s too late…
Read on for an explanation of how this catastrophe has materialized and for a consideration of what it means for Central Florida (and the other major supplier, Brazil, which is also suffering).
“Who Killed the Florida Orange?” from @alexsammon.bsky.social in @slate.com.
Other comestible news from Florida: “A deadly bacteria is creeping up the Atlantic Coast. How worried should you be?“
* Harold Brodkey, First Love and Other Sorrows: Stories
###
As we contemplate the consequences of climate change and contagion, we might consider an alternative to orange juice on this, National Raisin Day. But while raisins are richly nutricious, they are not so strong on Vitamin C, so we’ll have to keep looking…
#citrus #CitrusGreeningDisease #climateChange #concentrate #culture #Florida #FloridaOranges #history #NationalRaisinDay #orangeJuice #orangeJuiceConcentrate #oranges #politics #raisins #Science -
LISTA | Filmes e séries baseadas em quadrinhos que chegarão em 2026
2026 vai ser um ano eletrizante para fãs de adaptações de quadrinhos, com uma mistura de filmes e séries que prometem agitar tanto cinemas quanto plataformas de streaming. No cinema, a DC segue com seu novo Universo Compartilhado, enquanto a Marvel iniciará sua mais grande conclusão épica até agora.
Confira a seguir os títulos mais aguardados do ano:
LISTA | Filmes que chegarão aos cinemas em 2026
Vale lembrar: assim como sempre acontece, algumas datas de estreia podem ser alteradas pelas distribuidoras ao longo do calendário.
Magnum (Wonder Man)
Criação: Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Guest
Estúdio: Marvel Studios (Television), Family Owned, Onyx Collective, Disney
Estreia: 27 de janeiro de 2026O ano de 2026 da Marvel começa já em janeiro com o lançamento de “Wonder Man” ou como é conhecido no Brasil “Magnum“, a 17ª série de televisão do Universo Cinematográfico Marvel (MCU), produzida pela Marvel Studios através de seu selo Marvel Television. A série também é produzida pela Family Owned e Onyx Collective.
Nesta minissérie de oito episódios criada por Destin Daniel Cretton e Andrew Guest, acompanhamos Simon Williams — vivido por Yahya Abdul-Mateen II — um ator frustrado e cheio de ambições que vai de rejeições em audições até a chance de uma vida: interpretar o icônico Wonder Man numa nova versão do filme de super-herói dos anos 1970.
O showrunner Andrew Guest descreveu o personagem como “incrivelmente poderoso de uma forma que nem ele mesmo tem plena consciência”, com o executivo da Marvel Studios, Brian Gay, acrescentando que Simon “nem sabe a extensão de seus poderes”, embora ambos tenham observado que o personagem não se importa de ter poderes e simplesmente quer ser um ator de sucesso como Daniel Day-Lewis.
Abdul-Mateen explicou que Simon esconde seus poderes porque eles são malvistos na Hollywood ficcional do MCU. O personagem permitiu que ele explorasse “alguma tridimensionalidade” entre seu passado e seu relacionamento com a família, enquanto ainda era um super-herói.
Ben Kingsley retorna como Trevor Slattery, ator que fracassado que anteriormente assumiu a identidade do Mandarim , trabalhando para Aldrich Killian em Homem de Ferro 3, e que mais tarde foi sequestrado pela organização Dez Anéis de Xu Wenwu em Shang-Chi e a Lenda dos Déz Anéis, que também está fazendo testes para o filme do Wonder Man.
Slattery retorna a Hollywood após o rompimento com o Mandarim e os Dez Anéis para encontrar uma “segunda chance” como ator e provar à sua mãe, Dorothy, que ele era “o ator que [ela] sempre esperou que ele fosse”, com o Wonder Man mostrando Slattery assumindo a responsabilidade por seu comportamento passado.
Guest chamou Slattery de um “personagem tipo Forrest Gump , tipo Chauncey Gardiner ” que consegue se “envolver em coisas maiores”. O produtor executivo e presidente da Marvel Television, Brad Winderbaum disse que o personagem tinha uma “estrutura de três atos muito interessante” dentro da série, que era “muito sincera, muito séria [e] não cínica”, com Kingsley acrescentando que Slattery é “puxado em duas direções”, incluindo a busca por sua ambição, mas “a um custo terrível”.
O elenco ainda conta com Arian Moayed como P. Cleary, um agente do Departamento de Controle de Danos, Zlatko Burić como Von Kovak, diretor célebre que está dirigindo o remake de Wonder Man, Demetrius Grosse como Eric Williams/Ceifador, o irmão mais velho “estável” de Simon, X Mayo, Olivia Thirlby, Byron Bowers, Josh Gad, Lauren Glazier, Béchir Sylvain, Manny McCord, Simon Templeman, Joe Pantoliano,Dane Larsen, Phumzile Sitole, Jere Burns e Ed Harris como o agente de Simon, Neal Saroyan.
“Magnum” é descrito como autoconsciente e metalinguístico, uma sátira que comenta, com humor e sensibilidade, sobre a própria cultura dos super-heróis e a saturação do gênero, sem perder de vista a jornada humana de seus protagonistas.
“Magnum” (Wonder Man) estreia com todos os oito episódios em 27 de janeiro no catálogo do Disney+.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j4NvyIHCs0
Invencível (Invincible) – 4ª temporada
Criação: Robert Kirkman
Estúdio: Amazon MGM Studios, Wind Sun Sky Entertainment, Skybound Animation, Point Grey Pictures,
Estreia: Março de 2026Agora, com a quarta temporada da série animada “Invencível (Invincible) chegando em março de 2026 ao Prime Video, parece que a série está pronta para elevar ainda mais a barra, misturando tudo aquilo que os fãs amam.
Após o final explosivo da 3ª temporada, que terminou com confrontos brutais e reviravoltas que deixaram o destino de Mark Grayson mais incerto do que nunca, nesta temporada, Mark é testado para ver até onde ele deve ir para proteger aqueles que ama, juntamente com seu pai e irmão , enquanto eles devem se unir à Coalizão de Planetas para derrotar o Império do planeta natal de seu pai de uma vez por todas.
O elenco principal Steven Yeun (Mark Grayson/Invencível), Sandra Oh (Deborah “Debbie” Grayson), JK Simmons (Nolan Grayson/Omni-Man), Christian Convery (Oliver Grayson/Jovem Omni-Man) e Gillian Jacobs (Samantha Eve Wilkins/Eve Atômica) retornam.
O elenco secundário que também retornarão:
- Andrew Rannells como William Francis Clockwell
- Walton Goggins como Cecil Stedman
- Chris Diamantopoulos como Donald Ferguson, Isotope
- Jonathan Banks como Brit
- Ross Marquand como The Immortal, Rex Conners
- Jason Mantzoukas como Rex Conners
- Zachary Quinto como Robot
- Malese Jow como Kate Cha/Dupli-Kate
- Grey Griffin como Amanda/Monster Girl (human form), Rachel/Shrinking Rae, Betsy Wilkins, Thula
- Khary Payton como Markus Grimshaw/Black Samson
- Kevin Michael Richardson como Amanda/Monster Girl
- Mark Hamill como Arthur “Art” Rosenbaum
- Seth Rogen como Allen the Alien
- Clancy Brown como Damien Darkblood, Kregg
- Bruce Campbell como Great Beast
- Fred Tatasciore como Giant, Adam Wilkins
- Luke Macfarlane como Rick Sheridan
- Jay Pharoah como Zandale Randolph/Bulletproof
- Ben Schwartz como Shapesmith, Rus Livingston
- Cleveland Berto como Bolt
- Cliff Curtis como Paul
- Calista Flockhart como April Howsam
- Todd Williams como Titan
- Tzi Ma como Mister Liu
- Simu Liu como Multi-Paul
- Mae Whitman como War Woman II
- Eric Bauza como D.A. Sinclair
- Michael Dorn como Thokk/Battle Beast
- Peter Cullen como Thaedus
- Tatiana Maslany como Telia
- Phil LaMarr como Lucan
- Shantel VanSanten como Anissa
- Jeffrey Dean Morgan como Conquest
Entre as novidadades estão Matthew Rhys na voz do Dinossauro e Lee Pace como Thragg, o líder supremo do Império Viltrumita, preparando o terreno para o arco da Guerra Viltrumita.
A 4ª temporada de “Invencível” (Invincible) estreia com os três primeiros episódios em março de 2026 no catálogo da Prime Video, e deve ser lançados semanalmente até abril de 2026.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYyFgM0XTuc
Minhas Aventuras com o Superman – 3ª temporada
Criação: Jake Wyatt, Brendan Clougher, Josie Campbell
Estúdio: Warner Bros. Animation, Studio Mir, DC Studios, Adult Swim
Estreia: Primeiro trimestre de 2026A série animada “Minhas Aventuras com o Superman” transforma cada episódio numa celebração do coração por trás da capa vermelha do Homem de Aço. E agora, com a 3ª temporada chegando em 2026, essa animação promete elevar ainda mais essa mistura de ação, emoção e humor.
A terceira temporada de promete levar Clark Kent (Voz de Jack Quaid) ainda mais aos desafios de equilibrar seu crescente heroísmo como Superman com sua vida como repórter do Planeta Diário e parceiro de Lois Lane (Voz de Alice Lee).
Os novos episódios incluirão a chegada de um Lex Luthor (Voz de Max Mittelman) completamente careca e a tão aguardada transformação de Hank Henshaw no Superman Ciborgue. O Superboy também entrará na história pela primeira vez.
A temporada dará continuidade à jornada de Kara Zor-El (Voz de Kiana Madeira) enquanto ela se adapta à vida na Terra após se libertar do controle de Brainiac (Voz de Michael Emerson). Além disso, a 3ª temporada pode plantar as sementes para o spin-off em desenvolvimento “Minhas Aventuras com a Lanterna Verde”, sugerindo um universo animado mais amplo no futuro.
A 3ª temporada de “Minhas Aventuras com o Superman” estreia no primeiro trimestre de 2026 no Cartoon Network e no catálogo da HBO Max (e daqui à alguns anos na Netflix).
Demolidor: Renascido – 2ª temporada
Criação: Dario Scardapane, Matt Corman, Chris Ord
Estúdio: Marvel Studios (Television), Disney
Estreia: 4 de março de 2026“Demolidor: Renascido” (Daredevil: Born Again) retorna para sua 2ª temporada, prometendo não apenas ação visceral, mas uma revolta narrativa que vai além dos punhos e da lei.
Depois do final da 1ª temporada, onde o prefeito Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) assumiu o controle de Nova York, proibiu o vigilantismo e transformou o Homem Sem Medo no criminoso mais procurado da América. Agora, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) está se escondendo, e ao mesmo tempo montando sua própria equipe capaz de derrubar esse tirano.
O retorno de personagens icônicos aumenta ainda mais a chama dessa narrativa intensa: Krysten Ritter volta como Jessica Jones, reunindo suas forças com Murdock em uma dinâmica crua e cheia de ironia lá dos tempos de “Defensores” (2017). Os detalhes específicos da presença de Jessica Jones na história permanecem em segredo, mas Brad Winderbaum, chefe da Marvel Television, confirma que é comparável à presença do Justiceiro de Jon Bernthal na primeira temporada.
Ao lado de Cox, Ritter e D’Onofrio, outros nomes como Margarita Levieva (Heather Glenn), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson), Wilson Bethel (Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter/Mecernário), Zabryna Guevara (Sheila Rivera), Nikki M. James (Kirsten McDuffie), Genneya Walton (BB Urich), Arty Froushan (Buck Cashman), Clark Johnson (Cherry), Michael Gandolfini (Daniel Blake), e Ayelet Zurer (Vanessa Fisk) retornam da primeira temporada.
Matthew Lillard entrou para o elenco da nova temporada interpretando Sr. Charles, , um oponente político de Fisk.
A 2ª temporada de Demolidor: Renascido” (Daredevil: Born Again) estreia em 4 de março de 2026 no catálogo do Disney+, e deve ser lançados semanalmente até abril de 2026.
Batman: A Queda do Morcego (Knightfall)
Direção: Jeff Wamester
Estúdio: Warner Bros. Animation, DC,
Estreia: A definirUma adaptação cinematográfica animada em várias partes de uma das histórias mais populares do Batman dos anos 1990, “Batman: A Queda do Morcego” (Knightfall) está atualmente em produção na Warner Bros. Animation, e segundo informações a primeira parte será lançada em 2026.
O filme é baseado na saga em quadrinhos do Batman de mesmo nome, lançada em três partes entre 1993 e 1994. Foi criada por Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, Dennis O’Neil, Peter David, Jo Duffy, Jim Aparo, Graham Nolan, Norm Breyfogle e Jim Balent.
Segundo a sinopse oficial, a primeira parte adaptará o primeiro arco da história: “Quando o misterioso gigante conhecido apenas como Bane liberta toda a galeria de vilões do Batman do Asilo Arkham, o Cavaleiro das Trevas é levado ao seu limite físico e mental.”
O longa tem direção de Jeff Wamester e roteiro de Jeremy Adams. Rick Morales atua como produtor supervisor, ao lado dos produtores Jim Krieg e Kimberly S. Moreau. Sam Register e Michael Uslan são os produtores executivos.
“Batman: A Queda do Mocergo – Parte 1” estreia em algum momento de 2026 no catálogo da HBO Max (e daqui à alguns anos na Netflix).
O Justiceiro (Especial)
Criação: Reinaldo Marcus Green, Jon Bernthal
Estúdio: Marvel Studios (Television), Disney
Estreia: a definirO retorno de Jon Bernthal como Justiceiro não vai se bastar apenas na série do Demolidor. Além de aparecer no próximo filme do Homem-Aranha de Tom Holland, “Um Novo Dia“, o personagem estrelará seu próprio especial para o streaming.
Dirigido por Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richards), que co-escreveu o roteiro ao lado de Bernthal, o elenco também conta com Jason R. Moore como Curtis Hoyle, um amigo próximo de Frank Castle e ex-SARC da Marinha dos EUA, que se tornou o líder de um grupo de terapia depois de perder a parte inferior da perna esquerda em combate.
Além disso, Roe Rancell foi escalado como Dennis, e espera-se que a personagem Ma Gnucci apareça no especial.
Ainda sem título. o Especial do Justiceiro, estreia em algum momento de 2026 no catálogo do Disney+.
X-Men ’97 – 2ª temporada
Criação: Beau DeMayo, (Atuais showrunners: Larry Houston, Eric Lewald, Julia Lewald
Estúdio: Marvel Studios (Animation), Disney
Estreia: Entre Junho e agosto de 2026“X-Men ’97“, um dos maiores (e poucos) sucesso recentes da Marvel referente aos Mutantes está voltando em 2026 par uma nova temporada.
Assim como sua antecessora, a série apresenta uma formação de equipe semelhante à dos quadrinhos dos X-Men do início dos anos 90, incluindo Ciclope, Jean Grey, Tempestade, Wolverine, Morfo, Vampira, Fera, Gambit, Jubileu e Bishop; em grande parte semelhante à Equipe Azul de Ciclope, estabelecida nas primeiras edições de X-Men (Vol. 2) . No entanto, diferentemente de sua antecessora, a formação muda de episódio para episódio e é refletida nos créditos de abertura.
Nesta temporada, A série seguirá diretamente de onde parou, com Magneto no comando e os X-Men lidando com um mundo que os teme. os X-Men estão espalhados pelo tempo e precisam encontrar o caminho de volta para a década de 1990 enquanto exploram as consequências emocionais da tragédia de Genosha e introduzindo o vilão Apocalypse, prometendo uma trama mais intensa e expandida.
A série manterá o espírito da animação clássica dos anos 90, mas com uma narrativa mais madura e uma escala maior, com personagens usando uniformes inspirados na fase de Grant Morrison a frente dos X-Men.
O criador e roteirista principal Beau DeMayo foi demitido pela Marvel Studios em março de 2024, após uma investigação que levou a descobertas “graves”, com isso os créditos de roteirista da 2ª temporada de DeMayo foram removidos devido a violações de seu acordo de rescisão. Matthew Chauncey, roteirista da primeira série animada da Marvel Studios, “What If…?” (2021–2024), foi contratado para substituir DeMayo como roteirista principal da série a partir da 3ª temporada que já está confirmada.
A 2ª temporada de “X-Men ’97” estreia semanalmente entre junho e agosto de 2026 no catálogo do Disney+.
The Boys – 5ª Temporada
Criação: Eric Kripke
Estúdio: Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television, Kripke Enterprises, Original Film, Point Grey Pictures
Estreia: 8 de abril de 2026A guerra final entre os Sups e humanos tem data para começar. 2026 é o ano que acontece a 5ª e última temporada de “The Boys“, encerrando uma das produções mais provocativas, violentas e politicamente afiadas da Prime Video.
A 5ª temporada acontece em um mundo totalmente dominado pelo Capitão Pátria (Antony Starr). Hughie (Jack Quaid), Leitinho (Laz Alonso) e Frenchie (Tomer Capone) aparecem presos em um campo militar conhecido como “Campo da Liberdade”, enquanto Annie/Luz Estrela (Erin Moriarty) tenta organizar uma resistência contra o império dos Supers. Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) está desaparecida, e o destino dos rapazes parece selado até o retorno de Billy Bruto (Karl Urban).
No trailer exibido na CCXP em dezembro de 2025, Bruto surge disposto a recorrer à sua arma mais extrema: um vírus capaz de exterminar todos os super-humanos do planeta. “Mesmo que eu tenha que arrastar seus cadáveres quebrados até a linha de chegada, vamos até o fim, custe o que custar”, diz ele em uma fala que já entrou para o hall das frases mais marcantes da série.
Jessie T. Usher (Trem-Bala), Chace Crawford (Profundo), Nathan Mitchell (Black Noir II), Colby Minifie (Ashley Barrett), Cameron Crovetti (Ryan), Susan Heyward (Jessica “Sage” Bradley/Irmã Sage), Valorie Curry (isty Tucker Gray/Firecracker), e Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Joe Kessler) retornam para temporada final.
Para o quinto ano, Daveed Diggs se junta ao elenco, assim como Mason Dye (‘Stranger Things’), que interpretará Bombsight. Além disso, a série reunirá as estrelas de ‘Supernatural’: Jared Padalecki e Misha Collins, ao lado de Jensen Ackles, que retorna como Soldier Boy.
A 5ª e última temporada de “The Boys” estreia em 8 de abril de 2026, exclusivamente no catálogo da Prime Video, com os dois primeiros episódios. Os seis episódios restantes serão lançados semanalmente até 20 de maio..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzbWryxxn0c
4 Kids Walk Into a Bank
Direção: Frankie Shaw
Estúdio: Amazon MGM Studios, Miramax, Picturestart, Point Grey Pictures, Black Mask Studios, Uncle Pete Productions
Estreia: 17 de abril de 2026 (Estados Unidos)Frankie Shaw, roteirista, diretora e estrela da subestimada série da Showtime , “ SMILF ”, estreia na direção de longas-metragens com “4 Kids Walk Into a Bank”, adaptação da graphic novel de Matthew Rosenberg e Tyler Boss.
Ambientado na década de 1990, o filme acompanha uma garota de 11 anos extremamente inteligente, cujo grupo de desajustados elabora um assalto maluco após descobrir as ligações criminosas de seu pai distante. O filme combina humor negro com a engenhosidade de uma criança, levando o gênero de aventura adolescente para um território mais bruto e engraçado.
Liam Neeson lidera o elenco, acompanhado por Talia Ryder , Whitney Peak, Jack Dylan Grazer, Spike Fearn, Teresa Palmer e Jim Sturgess, além de George Basil , Sam Strike, Caylee Cowan e Deacon Phillippe.
“4 Kids Walk Into a Bank” estreia em 17 de abril de 2026 nos cinemas dos Estados Unidos, com distribuição da Amazon MGM Studios (Orion Pictures). Sem data de lançamento no Brasil.
Supergirl
Direção: Craig Gillespie
Estúdio: DC Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures
Estreia: 25 de junho de 2026“Supergirl” é o segundo longa-metragem do novo Universo DC (DCU), que foi iniciado com “Superman“, e adaptará a minissérie em quadrinhos “Supergirl: A Mulher do Amanhã” de Tom King e Bilquis Evely, com direção de Craig Gillespie (“Cruella”, “Eu, Tonya”).
Com roteiro escrito por Ana Nogueira (que irá escrever o futuro filme da Mulher-Maravilha), o longa acompanha Kara Zor-El viajando pela galáxia par comemorar seu 23º aniversário com a companhia do seu cachorro Krypto, como vimos no final do filme do Superman. Ao longo do caminho, ela conhece a jovem Ruthye Marye Knoll e se depara com uma tragédia que a leva a uma “busca assassina por vingança”.
Milly Alcock estrela como Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, prima de Kal-El / Superman, criada em um pedaço do planeta destruído Krypton e que viu todos ao seu redor morrerem, tornando-a uma pessoa mais cínica do que seu primo, que foi criado na Terra por pais amorosos. Como os kryptonianos são curados e ganham poderes com sóis amarelos, a Supergirl gosta de festejar em planetas com sóis vermelhos, onde pode se embriagar.
O produtor do filme e co-CEO da DC Studios, James Gunn imaginou a Supergirl como uma “personagem meio fada , mas com muita atitude”. Tanto Gunn quanto Gillespie a descreveram como uma anti-heroína, já Alcock descreveu a Supergirl como uma heroína relutante. “Ela não aceita esse papel. Ela não quer ser uma heroína, ela é relutante.”
O elenco também conta com Eve Ridley como Ruthye Marye Knoll, a jovem que recruta a Supergirl em sua jornada para vingar a morte de seu pai, Matthias Schoenaerts como o vilão Krem das Colinas Amarelas, além de David Krumholtz e Emily Beecham, que viverão Zor-EL e Alura In-Ze, os pais da Kara, enquato David Corenswet reprisa seu papel como o primo de Kara, Superman em uma participação especial.
Jason Momoa, que viveu o Aquaman no antigo DCEU (informalmente nomeado de Snyderverso) retornará interpretando um personagem que ele sempre quis viver, o caçador de recompenças intergalático do planeta Czarnia, Lobo.
“Supergirl” estreia nos cinemas brasileiros em 25 de junho de 2026, com distribuição da Warner Bros. Pictures, e após sua jornada nos cinemas, o filme chegará no catálogo da HBO Max (e daqui à alguns anos na Netflix).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYffSLpWqM
Homem-Aranha: Um Novo Dia
Direção: Destin Daniel Cretton
Estúdio: Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, Pascal Pictures, Sony Pictures Releasing
Estreia: 30 de julho de 2026“Homem-Aranha: Um Novo Dia” (Spider-Man: Brand New Day) marca uma nova fase para o Peter Parker (Tom Holland) acompanhando o esforço de Peter para reconstruir sua vida após os eventos de “Sem Volta para Casa”, onde ele foi completamente apagado da memória de todos, incluindo dos seus amigos, MJ e Ned. Ambientado no submundo do crime de Nova York, o filme expande as conexões do Homem-Aranha com o universo Marvel, ligando-o a personagens como Bruce Banner/Hulk e Frank Castle/Justiceiro.
No elenco de apoio, tem os retornos de Zendaya como Michelle “MJ” Jones, Jacob Batalon como Ned Leeds e Michael Mando como o vilão Escorpião, além das adições de Sadie Sink (Stranger Things), Liza Colón-Zayas (The Bear) e Tramell Tillman (Ruptura) em papéis ainda mantidos em sigilo. Marvin Jones III (Raio Negro) foi contratado para viver o vilão Lápide.
Os veteranos do MCU, Mark Ruffalo e Jon Bernthal foram escalados para reprisarem seus papeis como Bruce Banner/Hulk e Justiceiro respectivamente, e segundo fontes, o trio de heróis entrará em conflito antes de unirem forças contra os verdadeiros vilões.
Dirigido por Destin Daniel Cretton e escrito por Chris McKenna e Erik Sommers, o filme é novamente produzido por Kevin Feige e Amy Pascal.
“Homem-Aranha: Um Novo Dia” (Spider-Man: Brand New Day) estreia nos cinemas brasileiros em 30 de julho de 2026, com distribuição da Sony Pictures Releasing, e após sua jornada nos cinemas, o filme chegará no catálogo da HBO Max.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5uEprvZ8zA
VisionQuest
Criação: Terry Matalas
Estúdio: Marvel Studios (Television), Disney
Estreia: Segundo semestre de 2026Imagine um herói que sempre esteve no meio do Universo Cinematográfico Marvel, mas que agora precisa olhar para dentro de si mesmo para descobrir quem ele realmente é. Essa é a proposta de “VisionQuest“, a minissérie, pronta para fechar uma trilogia iniciada por “WandaVision” (2021) e continuada em “Agatha Desde Sempre” (2024).
Paul Bettany reprisa seu papel como Visão Branco — a versão reconstruída do androide Visão. Após os eventos de WandaVision, ele carrega todas as memórias do Visão original, mas luta para conectar essas lembranças com emoções reais, iniciando uma jornada profunda de autodescoberta que promete ser ao mesmo tempo introspectiva e surpreendentemente humana.
Criada por Terry Matalas (Star Trek: Picard), o enredo mergulha no psicológico, levando o espectador literalmente para dentro da mente de Visão, onde programas de inteligência artificial criados por Tony Stark — como Ultron, J.A.R.V.I.S., F.R.I.D.A.Y. e E.D.I.T.H. — ganham formas humanas e conversam com ele de maneiras inesperadas e até perturbadoras.
Além disso, a série promete reunir personagens que marcaram décadas do UCM, com James Spader retornando como Ultron e um elenco que inclui Todd Stashwick como Paladino, um caçador de recompensas que está caçando Visão, T’Nia Miller como Jocasta, Emily Hampshire como EDITH, Orla Brady como FRIDAY, Henry Lewis como DUM-E, Jonathan Sayer como U e James D’Arcy como JARVIS, a primeira IA criada por Stark.
Além disso, Faran Tahir reprisa seu papel como Raza, o líder da facção Dez Anéis que sequestrou Stark no filme “Homem de Ferro” (2008). Também aparecem Lauren Morais como Lisa Molinari, Diane Morgan como uma associada de Paladin; e Mary McDonnell em um papel não revelado.
O ator Ruaridh Mollica vai interpretar Tommy Maximoff, filho velocista de Visão e Wanda Maximoff , cuja alma foi colocada no corpo adolescente de Thomas Shepherd por seu irmão gêmeo Billy Maximoff na série Agatha Desde Sempre (2024).
“VisionQuest” estreia no segundo semestre de 2026 no catálogo do Disney+.
Lanternas
Criação: Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, Tom King
Estúdio: DC Studios, Warner Bros. Television, HBO
Estreia: Entre Julho e Setembro de 2026Após anos de desenvolvimento, iniciado originalmente em 2019 como uma produção da HBO Max, com envolvimento de Greg Berlanti, e estrelada por Finn Wittrock como Guy Gardner e Jeremy Irvine como Alan Scott em 2021, a série dos Lanternas Verdes foi completamente reformulada com a chegada de James Gunn e Peter Safran como co-presidentes e co-CEOs da recém-formada DC Studios em outubro de 2022.
Desta vez a produção que veremos neste ano se concentrar em John Stewart fazendo dupla com a lenda da Tropa Hal Jordan. Com criação de Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof e Tom King, a série “Lanternas” acompanha o experiente Lanterna Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) e o recruta novato John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) enquanto investigam um assassinato no Nebraska, o que os leva a mistérios e acertos de contas mais sombrios.
Kyle Chandler viverá Hal Jordan, um ex-piloto de testes e membro lendário da Tropa dos Lanternas Verdes que está se aproximando da aposentadoria, e está treinando John Stewart. Os roteiristas se inspiraram na interpretação de Sam Shepard como Chuck Yeager no filme “Os Eleitos” (1983).
O showrunner Chris Mundy sentiu que Chandler tinha as mesmas qualidades, bem como um humor seco que eles consideravam importante para Jordan.
Aaron Pierre será John Stewart, um novo recruta dos Lanternas Verdes que Jordan está treinando para substituí-lo. Mundy disse que irão adaptar as duas origens do personagem, em que ele era tanto um fuzileiro naval quanto um arquiteto, e sentiu que Pierre poderia retratar ambos os aspectos.
Ele disse que Pierre era um “ator de teatro sério, mas também parece ter sido construído em um laboratório para ser uma estrela de ação”. O diretor James Hawes disse que Pierre tinha “uma presença magnífica. Ele parece tão imponente, tão frio, tão discreto.”
O elenco também conta com Kelly Macdonald como a xerife Kerry, Poorna Jagannathan como Zoe, possível interesse amoroso de John Stewart, Garrett Dillahunt como William Macon, Jason Ritter como Billy Macon, Nicole Ari Parker e Jasmine Cephas Jones como versões adulta e jovem de Bernadette Stewart, mãe de John, Sherman Augustus e J. Alphonse Nicholson como versões de John Stewart Sr., Chris Coy como Waylon Sanders, Ulrich Thomsen como o supervilão Sinestro e Paul Ben-Victor como Antaan, com rumores de que seja Atrocitus, vilão líder da Tropa dos Lanternas Vermelhos.
Outro nome especulado é o de Laura Linney, indicada três vezes ao Oscar e ao Emmy, como possível Carol Ferris, interesse romântico de Hal Jordan que também assume o papel de Safira Estrela nos quadrinhos.
A 1ª temporada de “Lanternas” estreia entre julho e setembro de 2026 na HBO e no catálogo da HBO Max (e daqui à alguns anos na Netflix).
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DSLYt_zjBWz/
Cara-de-Barro (Clayface)
Direção: James Watkins
Estúdio: DC Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures
Estreia: 10 de setembro de 2026Fazendo parte do novo Universo DC (DCU) de James Gunn, o terror corporal “Cara-de-Barro” (Clayface) vem mostrar a versatilidade de gêneros do Universo.
Com roteiro inicial foi escrito por Mike Flanagan (A Maldição da Residência Hill, A Maldição da Mansão Bly, Missa da Meia-Noite, A Queda da Casa de Usher, Doutor Sono), com revisões de Hossein Amini (Drive), e dirigido por James Watkins (“Não Fale o Mal”) o filme se baseará tanto no clássico A Mosca (1986), de David Cronenberg, quanto no icônico episódio Feat of Clay (Perito em Formas Humanas) de “Batman: A Série Animada“.
Tom Rhys Harries viverá Matt Hagen, um ator promissor que, após ter o rosto desfigurado por um gângster, se submete a um experimento da cientista Caitlin Bates (interpretada por Naomi Ackie), CEO de uma start-up de biotecnologia. O tratamento, no entanto, o transforma em uma criatura capaz de remodelar o corpo como argila e assumir múltiplas formas humanas. Max Minghella e Eddie Marsan também estão no elenco.
O filme é produzido por James Gunn e Peter Safran da DC Studios, com Matt Reeves (The Batman) e Lynn Harris pela 6th & Idaho. Chantal Nong Vo e Lars P. Winther atuam como produtores executivos.
“Cara-de-Barro” (Clayface) estreia nos cinemas brasileiros em 10 de setembro de 2026, com distribuição da Warner Bros. Pictures, e após sua jornada nos cinemas, o filme chegará no catálogo da HBO Max (e daqui à alguns anos na Netflix).
Seu Amigão da Vizinhança, Homem-Aranha – 2ª temporada
Criação: Jeff Trammell
Estúdio: Marvel Studios (Animation), Disney
Estreia: Segundo semestre de 2026A versão alternativa do Homem-Aranha do MCU retorna para a 2ª temporada, continuando com a premissa “e se a mentoria fosse ao contrário?” — com Norman Osborn como a influência orientadora (e possivelmente corrosiva) de Peter, em vez de Tony Stark.
O criador e showrunner Jeff Trammell permanece como o pilar tonal da série, mantendo-a fiel ao DNA clássico do Homem-Aranha em sua jornada de amadurecimento, enquanto permite que a premissa do multiverso reinvente a mitologia familiar.
Hudson Thames volta a dublar Peter Parker/Homem-Aranha, ao lado de vozes importantes que retornam, incluindo Colman Domingo como Norman Osborn e Charlie Cox como Demolidor. Personagens que também retornam da 1ª temporada incluem Nico Minoru, Harry Osborn, Otto Octavius, Dmitri Smerdyakov/Camaleão e Mac Gargan/Escorpião.
A personagem Gwen Stacy e o seu alter-ego Spider-Gwen, deve finalmente aparecer, mas ainda não se sabe quem a dublará.
A 2ª temporada de “Seu Amigão da Vizinhança, Homem-Aranha” estreia no segundo semestre de 2026 no catálogo do Disney+.
Vought Rising
Criação: Eric Kripke (showrunner: Paul Grellong)
Estúdio: Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television, Kripke Enterprises, Original Film, Point Grey Pictures
Estreia: A definirJensen Ackles retorna como Soldier Boy, contracenando com Aya Cash como Stormfront (Tempesta), a heróina nazista em “Vought Rising“, a nova série derivada do Universo “The Boys“, que se passa na década de 1950.
Criada por Eric Kripke, com Paul Grellong atuando como showrunner, a série ambientada na década de 1950, a prequela apresenta um mistério de assassinato intrigante nos primórdios da Vought, acompanhando as primeiras experiências de Soldier Boy e as “manobras diabólicas” da Tempesta enquanto a mitologia da empresa nasce.
O elenco principal da série também inclui Mason Dye, que aparecerá na 5ª temporada da série principal como o herói Bombsight, Elizabeth Posey como a heróina Private Angel, Will Hochman como o herói Torpedo, além de Jorden Myrie, Nicolò Pasetti, Ricky Staffieri, Brian J. Smith e KiKi Layne.
O elenco recorrente inclui Cecily Strong, Mark Pellegrino, Eric Johnson, Annie Shapero, Raphael Sbarge, Romi Shraiter, Aaron Douglas e David Hewlett.
A 1ª temporada de “Vought Rising” estreia em algum momento de 2026, exclusivamente no catálogo da Prime Video.
Batman: Cruzado Encapuzado – 2ª temporada
Criação: Bruce Timm
Estúdio: Warner Bros. Animation, Amazon MGM Studios, Bad Robot Productions, 6th & Idaho, DC Entertainment
Estreia: A definirQuando Bruce Wayne decide que Gotham não vai sucumbir à criminalidade sem lutar, ele veste sua capa e mergulha de cabeça em uma guerra que é tão psicológica quanto física — e é exatamente essa intensidade que a 2ª temporada de “Batman: Cruzado Encapuzado” (Batman: Caped Crusader) promete elevar ao máximo.
A animação, uma das mais intrigantes releituras do mito do Homem-Morcego, foi criada por nomes lendários como Bruce Timm (Batman: A Série Animada), com produção de J.J. Abrams e Matt Reeves, trazendo uma Gotham de espírito noir dos anos 1940.
Na 1ª temporada, vimos um Bruce Wayne em sua cruzada solitária contra o crime, enfrentando gangues e vilões clássicos em uma cidade corroída pela corrupção e pelo medo, um retrato que chamou atenção por misturar estética retrô com narrativa moderna e sombria.
Agora, na 2ª temporada, essa tonalidade ganhará ainda mais profundidade quando o Coringa assume o papel de antagonista principal. James Tucker, co-showrunner da série, revelou que esta nova interpretação do Palhaço do Crime será bastante diferente das vertentes mais conhecidas.
A pré-produção já está em andamento, com roteiros sendo trabalhados e a equipe cumprindo os primeiros passos da produção, o que reforça a dedicação em entregar uma sequência digna do legado que a série instaurou.
A 2ª temporada de “Batman: Cruzado Encapuzado” (Batman: Caped Crusader) estreia em algum momento de 2026, exclusivamente no catálogo da Prime Video.
Aranha-Noir (Spider-Noir)
Criação: Oren Uziel
Estúdio: Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures Television, Lord Miller Productions, Pascal Pictures
Estreia: A definirPor anos, a Sony tentou estabelecer um universo live-action de vilões e personagens secundários do “Homem-Aranha”, (“Venom, Morbius, Madame-Teia, Kraven, o Caçador“) apesar de inúmeras tentativas os projetos se mostraram ser um tremendo fracasso, tendo apenas uma trilogia de sucesso.
Mas, de repente, o Homem-Aranha Noir, personagem imortalizado por Nicolas Cage no sucesso de animação “Homem-Aranha no Aranhaverso”, ganhou vida excepcionalmente rápido em 2024.
Desenvolvida por Oren Uziel e Steve Lightfoot, a série “Aranha-Noir (Spider-Noir)” traz Cage de volta ao papel de Noir, mas não interpretando Peter Parker, e sim Ben Riley, um investigador particular azarado que luta contra seu passado como o único super-herói da cidade na Nova York dos anos 1930.
Brendan Gleeson viverá um chefe da máfia de Nova York. Gleeson descreveu o personagem como um filósofo com “uma visão panorâmica” que é igualmente perigoso; Lamorne Morris será como Robbie Robertson, um jornalista trabalhador que busca histórias mais arriscadas para atrair atenção e progredir na carreira. O personagem apareceu na trilogia do Homem-Aranha, de Sam Raimi.
O elenco também inclui Jack Huston, Abraham Popoola, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Lukas Hass, Cameron Britton, Cary Christopher, Michael Kostroff, Scott MacArthur, Joe Massingill, Whitney Rice, Amanda Schull, Andrew Lewis Caldwell, Amy Aquino, e Andrew Robinson.
A série é produzida pelos produtores do “Aranhaverso”, Phil Lord e Christopher Millerpela Lord Miller Productionse pela Amy Pascal, da Pascal Pictures.
“Aranha-Noir (Spider-Noir)” estreia em algum momento de 2026, exclusivamente no catálogo da Prime Video.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJkn3w7p881/
Criminal
Criação: Ed Brubaker
Estúdio: Amazon MGM Studios, Legendary Television, Beautiful Trash, Car Beans, Big Indie Pictures
Estreia: A definirUma história intergeracional de famílias conectadas por um passado criminal em comum, “Criminal”, adaptação da série de quadrinhos de mesmo nome de Ed Brubaker e Sean Phillips, que será produzida pelo próprio Brubaker ao lado de Jordan Harper (“ The Mentalist ”) para o Prime Video.
Com direção da dupla Anna Boden e Ryan Fleck (“Capitã Marvel”), e do diretor Dee Rees, a série de oito episódios acompanha várias gerações de famílias criminosas e explora os assassinatos que conectam seus passados.
Charlie Hunnam estrelará como Leo, também conhecido como Coward, um gênio do crime que planeja seus trabalhos sem usar armas ou violência, ao contrário de seu pai Tommy, Richard Jenkins interpretará Ivan, um ex-ladrão que agora sofre de demência; ele é o melhor amigo do pai de Leo, Adria Arjona viverá Greta, uma motorista e ladra de carros que não consegue se livrar da vida criminosa mesmo depois de ficar viúva em um trabalho, Kadeem Hardison viverá Gnarly, um ex-boxeador e amigo de Leo e Ivan, Logan Browning como Jenny, uma detetive de Assuntos Internos que foi criada com Leo.
Além deles, Emilia Clarke interpretará Mallory, uma ladra armada em uma equipe e relacionamento com Ricky Lawless (Gus Halper) e Luke Evans como Tracy Lawless, um ex-criminoso forçado a entrar para o exército para evitar a prisão e que eventualmente se junta às Forças Especiais do Exército.
O elenco de apoio inclui Pat Healy, John Hawkes, Taylor Selé, Aliyah Camacho, Michael Mando, Marvin Jones III, Michael Xavier, Dominic Burgess, Garrett Hedlund, Chris Diamantopoulos, Lawrence Kao, Katie Stevens, John Pyper-Ferguson, Robert Lee Hart, Aina Brei’yon, e Kyle Davis.
A 1ª temporada de “Crimanal” estreia em algum momento de 2026, exclusivamente no catálogo da Prime Video.
Look Back (Live-action)
Direção: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Estúdio: K2 Pictures
Estreia: Segundo semestre de 2026 no JapãoAlém de “Sheep in the Box“, o premiado diretor Hirokazu Kore-eda também será o diretor da adaptação live-action do mangá de Tatsuki Fujimoto “Look Back“.
O projeto marca a primeira versão em live-action da história de amadurecimento de Fujimoto sobre duas jovens que perseguem o sonho de se tornarem artistas de mangá e evolui ao longo de anos de crescimento silencioso e perdas.
Kore-eda, cujos créditos incluem o vencedor da Palma de Ouro “Assunto de Família (Shoplifters)“, os filmes da competição de Cannes “Monster“, “Broker” e “Pais e Filhos“, está atualmente em pós-produção do longa-metragem após as filmagens em Nikaho City.
Fujimoto, criador do mangá de sucesso “Chainsaw Man“, que vendeu mais de 34 milhões de cópias em todo o mundo, disse: “Se o diretor Kore-eda for mesmo filmar ‘Look Back‘, não tenho mais nada a dizer. Estou ansioso para ver o filme.”
Publicado originalmente na Shonen Jump+ em 2021, “Look Back” gerou grande repercussão após seu lançamento, registrando mais de 2,5 milhões de visualizações no primeiro dia e vendendo 900.000 cópias no Japão. Desde então, o mangá foi publicado em 37 países e vendeu mais de 750.000 cópias internacionalmente.
A obra ganhou uma adaptação para animação em 2024, dirigida por Oshiyama Kiyotaka e produzida pelo Studio Durian. O filme liderou as bilheterias japonesas por duas semanas consecutivas e arrecadou cerca de US$ 12,8 milhões durante sua exibição nos cinemas.
“Look Back” estreia no segundo semestre de 2026 nos cinemas do Japão. Sem data de lançamento no Brasil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JuFzykd75c
Vingadores: Doutor Destino (Avengers: Doomsday)
Direção: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Estúdio: Marvel Studios, AGBO, Disney
Estreia: 17 de dezembro de 2026“Vingadores: Doutor Destino” (Avengers: Doomsday) será o grande filme evento da Marvel Studios para o final de 2026, reúnindo os diretores Anthony e Joe Russo para sua primeira produção no MCU desde “Vingadores: Ultimato”, de 2019. O roteiro é assinado por Stephen McFeely, veterano da franquia e Michael Waldron, que trabalhou em produções como Loki e Doutor Estranho no Multiverso da Loucura.
O blockbuster serve como o penúltimo capítulo da Saga do Multiverso da Marvel, equilibrando heróis veteranos com novos herós que vimos nos últimos filmes como “Thunderbolts*” e “Quarteto Fantástico: Primeiros Passos“, marcando um importante reencontro com os X-Men da trilogia dos anos 2000.
O elenco de “Doomsday” inclui o retorno de diversos rostos conhecidos do MCU, como Robert Downey Jr., agora interpretando o grande vilão Victor von Doom/Doutor Destino e Chris Evans voltando à interpretar Steve Rogers como foi confirmado no primeiro teaser.
- Benedict Cumberbatch como Stephen Strange/Doutor Estranho
- Chris Hemsworth como Thor
- India Rose Hemsworth como Amor (Love)
- Tom Hiddleston como Deus Loki
- Anthony Mackie como Sam Wilson/Capitão América
- Sebastian Stan como Bucky Barnes/Soldado Invernal
- Danny Ramirez como Joaquín Torres/Falcão
- Letitia Wright como Shuri/Pantera Negra
- Winston Duke como M’Baku
- Tenoch Huerta Mejía como Namor
- Mabel Cadena como Namora
- Alex Livinalli como Attuma
- Simu Liu como Shang-Chi
- Paul Rudd como Scott Lang/Homem-Formiga
- Xochitl Gomez como America Chavez
- Florence Pugh como Yelena Belova
- Lewis Pullman como Robert “Bob” Reynolds/Sentinela
- David Harbour como Alexei Shostakov/Guardião Vermelho
- Wyatt Russell como John Walker/Agente Americano
- Hannah John-Kamen como Ava Starr/Fantasma
- Hayley Atwell como Peggy Carter
A produção também contará com a presença dos X-Men clássicos, incluindo
- Patrick Stewart como Charles Xavier/Professor X
- Ian McKellen como Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto
- James Marsden como Scott Summers/Ciclope
- Rebecca Romijn como Raven Darkhölme/Mística
- Alan Cumming como Kurt Wagner/Noturno
- Kelsey Grammer como Hank McCoy/Fera
Além das presenças de Channing Tatum como Remy LeBeau/Gambit, personagem que foi introduzido em “Deadpool & Wolverine” e o próprio Deadpool, de Ryan Reynolds em uma participação especial.
O Quarteto Fantástico também integrará a narrativa, com Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Sr. Fantástico), Vanessa Kirby (Susan Storm/Mulher Invisível), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/O Coisa), Joseph Quinn (Johnny StormTocha Humana) e Matthew Wood como H.E.R.B.I.E. (voz) . O elenco ainda não está oficialmente completo e outros atores estão sendo especulados à retornarem.
Produzido por Kevin Feige, “este filme serve como o penúltimo capítulo levando suas conscequências diretamente a “Vingadores: Guerras Secretas”, que estreia em dezembro de 2027.
“Vingadores: Doutor Destino” (Avengers: Doomsday) estreia nos cinemas brasileiros em 17 de dezembro de 2026, com distribuição da Disney, e após sua jornada nos cinemas, o filme chegará no catálogo da Disney+.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAy7K91ZRgY
#AmazonMGMStudios #AmazonPrimeVideo #Batman #CaraDeBarroClayface #DCComics #DCStudios #Demolidor #DemolidorRenascido #Disney #DisneyBrandedTelevision #Filmes #HomemAranha #HomemAranhaUmNovoDia #Invencível #Invincible #LanternaVerde #Lanterns #Listas #Magnum #Marvel #MarvelAnimation #MarvelStudios #MarvelTelevision #OJusticeiro #PrimeVideo #SériesETV #SonyPictures #SonyPicturesTelevision #Supergirl #TheBoys #Vingadores #VingadoresDoomsday #Warner #WarnerBros #WarnerBrosPictures #WonderMan #XMen #XMen97
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Wenzhou in omegaverse AU
Mates, claiming bites
for August Heat event#FarawayWanderers #WordOfHonor #山河令 #shanheling #wenzhou #ZhouZishu #WenKexing #MyArt
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I cut an initial release (0.1.0-alpha) of the library automerge-repo-swift. A supplemental library to Automerge swift, it adds background networking for sync and storage capabilities. The library extends code I initially created in the Automerge demo app (MeetingNotes), and was common enough to warrant its own library. While I was extracting those pieces, I leaned into the same general pattern that was used in the Javascript library automerge-repo. That library provides largely the same functionality for Automerge in javascript. I borrowed the public API structure, as well as compatibility and implementation details for the Automerge sync protocol. One of my goals while assembling this new library was to build it fully compliant with Swift’s data-race safety. Meaning that it compiles without warnings when I use the Swift compiler’s strict-concurrency mode.
There were some notable challenges in coming up to speed with the concepts of isolation and sendability. In addition to learning the concepts, how to apply them is an open question. Not many Swift developers have embraced strict concurrency and talked about the trade-offs or implications for choices. Because of that, I feel that there’s relatively little available knowledge to understand the trade-offs to make when you protect mutable state. This post shares some of the stumbling blocks I hit, choices I made, and lessons I’ve learned. My hope is that it helps other developers facing a similar challenge.
Framing the problem
The way I try to learn and apply new knowledge to solve these kinds of “new fangled” problems is first working out how to think about the problem. I’ve not come up with a good way to ask other people how to do that. I think when I frame the problem with good first-principles in mind, trade-offs in solutions become easier to understand. Sometimes the answers are even self-obvious.
The foremost principle in strict-concurrency is “protect your mutable state”. The compiler warnings give you feedback about potential hazards and data-races. In Swift, protecting the state uses a concept of an “isolation domain”. My layman’s take on isolation is “How can the compiler verify that only one thread is accessing this bit of data at a time”. There are some places where the compiler infers the state of isolation, and some of them still changing as we progress towards Swift 6. When you’re writing code, the compiler knows what is isolated (and non-isolated) – either by itself or based on what you annotated. When the compiler infers an isolation domain, that detail is not (yet?) easily exposed to developers. It really only shows up when there’s a mismatch in your assumptions vs. what the compiler thinks and it issues a strict-concurrency warning.
Sendability is the second key concept. In my layman’s terms again, something that is sendable is safe to cross over thread boundaries. With Swift 5.10, the compiler has enough knowledge of types to be able to make guarantees about what is safe, and what isn’t.
The first thing I did was lean heavily into making anything and everything
Sendable. In hindsight, that was a bit of a mistake. Not disastrous, but I made a lot more work for myself. Not everything needs to be sendable. Taking advantage of isolation, it is fine – sometimes notably more efficient and easier to reason about – to have and use non-sendable types within an isolation domain. More on that in a bit.My key to framing up the problem was to think in terms of making explicit choices about what data should be in an isolation region along with how I want to pass information from one isolation domain to another. Any types I pass (generally) need to be Sendable, and anything that stays within an isolation domain doesn’t. For this library, I have a lot of mutable state: networking connections, updates from users, and a state machines coordinating it all. All of it needed so a repository can store and synchronize Automerge documents. Automerge documents themselves are Sendable (I had that in place well before starting this work). I made the Automerge documents sendable by wrapping access and updates to anything mutable within a serial dispatch queue. (This was also needed because the core Automerge library – a Rust library accessed through FFI – was not safe for multi-threaded use).
Choosing Isolation
I knew I wanted to make at least one explicit isolation domain, so the first question was “Actor or isolated class?” Honestly, I’m still not sure I understand all the tradeoffs. Without knowing what the effect would be to start off with, I decided to pick “let’s use actors everywhere” and see how it goes. Some of the method calls in the design of the Automerge repository were easily and obviously async, so that seemed like a good first cut. I made the top-level repo an actor, and then I kept making any internal type that had mutable state also be it’s own actor. That included a storage subsystem and a network subsystem, both of which I built to let someone else provide the network or storage provider external to this project. To support external plugins that work with this library, I created protocols for the storage and network provider, as well as one that the network providers use to talk back to the repository.
The downside of that choice was two-fold – first setting things up, then interacting with it from within a SwiftUI app. Because I made every-darn-thing an actor, I hade to await a response, which meant a lot of potential suspension points in my code. That also propagated to imply even setup needed to be done within an async context. Sometimes that’s easy to arrange, but other times it ends up being a complete pain in the butt. More specifically, quite a few of the current Apple-provided frameworks don’t have or provide a clear path to integrate async setup hooks. The server-side Swift world has a lovely “set up and run” mechanism (swift-service-lifecycle) it is adopting, but Apple hasn’t provided a similar concept the frameworks it provides. The one that bites me most frequently is the SwiftUI app and document-based app lifecycle, which are all synchronous.
Initialization Challenges
Making the individual actors – Repo and the two network providers I created – initializable with synchronous calls wasn’t too bad. The stumbling block I hit (that I still don’t have a great solution to) was when I wanted to add and activate the network providers to a repository. To arrange that, I’m currently using a detached Task that I kick off in the SwiftUI App’s initializer:
public let repo = Repo(sharePolicy: .agreeable)public let websocket = WebSocketProvider()public let peerToPeer = PeerToPeerProvider( PeerToPeerProviderConfiguration( passcode: "AutomergeMeetingNotes", reconnectOnError: true, autoconnect: false ))@mainstruct MeetingNotesApp: App { var body: some Scene { DocumentGroup { MeetingNotesDocument() } editor: { file in MeetingNotesDocumentView(document: file.document) } .commands { CommandGroup(replacing: CommandGroupPlacement.toolbar) { } } } init() { Task { await repo.addNetworkAdapter(adapter: websocket) await repo.addNetworkAdapter(adapter: peerToPeer) } }}Swift Async Algorithms
One of the lessons I’ve learned is that if you find yourself stashing a number of actors into an array, and you’re used to interacting with them using functional methods (filter, compactMap, etc), you need to deal with the asynchronous access. The standard library built-in functional methods are all synchronous. Because of that, you can only access non-isolated properties on the actors. For me, that meant working with non-mutable state that I set up during actor initialization.
The second path (and I went there) was to take on a dependency to swift-async-algorithms, and use its async variations of the functional methods. They let you “await” results for anything that needs to cross isolation boundaries. And because it took me an embarrasingly long time to figure it out: If you have an array of actors, the way to get to an AsyncSequence of them is to use the async property on the array after you’ve imported
swift-async-algorithms. For example, something like the following snippet:let arrayOfActors: [YourActorType] = []let filteredResults = arrayOfActors.async.filter(...)Rethinking the isolation choice
That is my first version of this library. I got it functional, then turned around and tore it apart again. In making everything an actor, I was making LOTS of little isolation regions that the code had to hop between. With all the suspension points, that meant a lot of possible re-ordering of what was running. I had to be extrodinarily careful not to assume a copy of some state I’d nabbed earlier was still the same after the await. (I still have to be, but it was a more prominent issue with lots of actors.) All of this boils down to being aware of actor re-entrancy, and when it might invalidate something.
I knew that I wanted at least one isolation region (the repository). I also want to keep mutable state in separate types to preserve an isolation of duties. One particular class highlighted my problems – a wrapper around NWConnection that tracks additional state with it and handles the Automerge sync protocol. It was getting really darned inconvenient with the large number of
awaitsuspension points.I slowly clued in that it would be a lot easier if that were all synchronous – and there was no reason it couldn’t be. In my ideal world, I’d have the type
Repo(my top-level repository) as an non-global actor, and isolate any classes it used to the same isolation zone as that one, non-global, actor. I think that’s a capability that’s coming, or at least I wasn’t sure how to arrange that today with Swift 5.10. Instead I opted to make a single global actor for the library and switch what I previously set up as actors to classes isolated to that global actor.That let me simplify quite a bit, notably when dealing with the state of connections within a network adapter. What surprised me was that when I switched from Actor to isolated class, there were few warnings from the change. The changes were mostly warnings that calls dropped back to synchronous, and no longer needed
await. That was quick to fix up; the change to isolated classes was much faster and easier than I anticipated. After I made the initial changes, I went through the various initializers and associated configuration calls to make more of it explicitly synchronous. The end result was more code that could be set up (initialized) without an async context. And finally, I updated how I handled the networking so that as I needed to track state, I didn’t absolutely have to use the async algorithsm library.A single global actor?
A bit of a side note: I thought about making
Repoa global actor, but I prefer to not demand a singleton style library for it’s usage. That choice made it much easier to host multiple repositories when it came time to run functional tests with a mock In-Memory network, or integration tests with the actual providers. I’m still a slight bit concerned that I might be adding to a long-term potential proliferation of global actors from libraries – but it seems like the best solution at the moment. I’d love it if I could do something that indicated “All these things need a single isolation domain, and you – developer – are responsible for providing one that fits your needs”. I’m not sure that kind of concept is even on the table for future work.Recipes for solving these problems
If you weren’t already aware of it, Matt Massicotte created a GitHub repository called ConcurrencyRecipes. This is a gemstone of knowledge, hints, and possible solutions. I leaned into it again and again while building (and rebuilding) this library. One of the “convert it to async” challenges I encountered was providing an async interface to my own peer-to-peer network protocol. I built the protocol using the Network framework based (partially on Apple’s sample code), which is all synchronous code and callbacks. A high level, I wanted it to act similarly URLSessionWebSocketTask. This gist being a connection has an
async send()and anasync receive()for sending and receiving messages on the connection. With an asyncsendandreceive, you can readily assemble several different patterns of access.To get there, I used a combination of CheckedContinuation (both the throwing and non-throwing variations) to work with what
NWConnectionprovided. I wish that was better documented. How to properly use those APIs is opaque, but that is a digression for another time. I’m particular happy with how my code worked out, including adding a method on the PeerConnection class that used structured concurrency to handle a timeout mechanism.Racing tasks with structured concurrency
One of the harder warnings for me to understand was related to racing concurrent tasks in order to create an async method with a “timeout”. I stashed a pattern for how to do this in my notebook with references to Beyond the basics of structured concurrency from WWDC23.
If the async task returns a value, you can set it up something like this (this is from PeerToPeerConnection.swift):
let msg = try await withThrowingTaskGroup(of: SyncV1Msg.self) { group in group.addTask { // retrieve the next message try await self.receiveSingleMessage() } group.addTask { // Race against the receive call with a continuous timer try await Task.sleep(for: explicitTimeout) throw SyncV1Msg.Errors.Timeout() } guard let msg = try await group.next() else { throw CancellationError() } // cancel all ongoing tasks (the websocket receive request, in this case) group.cancelAll() return msg}There’s a niftier version available in Swift 5.9 (which I didn’t use) for when you don’t care about the return value:
func run() async throws { try await withThrowingDiscardingTaskGroup { group in for cook in staff.keys { group.addTask { try await cook.handleShift() } } group.addTask { // keep the restaurant going until closing time try await Task.sleep(for: shiftDuration) throw TimeToCloseError() } }}With Swift 5.10 compiler, my direct use of this displayed a warning:
warning: passing argument of non-sendable type 'inout ThrowingTaskGroup<SyncV1Msg, any Error>' outside of global actor 'AutomergeRepo'-isolated context may introduce data racesguard let msg = try await group.next() else { ^I didn’t really understand the core of this warning, so I asked on the Swift forums. VNS (on the forums) had run into the same issue and helped explain it:
It’s because
withTaskGroupaccepts a non-Sendableclosure, which means the closure has to be isolated to whatever context it was formed in. If yourtest()function isnonisolated, it means the closure isnonisolated, so callinggroup.waitForAll()doesn’t cross an isolation boundary.The workaround to handle the combination of non-sendable closures and TaskGroup is to make the async method that runs this code
nonisolated. In the context I was using it, the class that contains this method is isolated to a global actor, so it’s inheriting that context. By switching the method to be explicitly non-isolated, the compiler doesn’t complain aboutgroupbeing isolated to that global actor.Sharing information back to SwiftUI
These components have all sorts of interesting internal state, some of which I wanted to export. For example, to provide information from the network providers to make a user interface (in SwiftUI). I want to be able to choose to connect to endpoints, to share what endpoints might be available (from the NWBrowser embedded in the peer to peer network provider), and so forth.
I first tried to lean into AsyncStreams. While they make a great local queue for a single point to point connection, I found they were far less useful to generally make a firehouse of data that SwiftUI knows how to read and react to. While I tried to use all the latest techniques, to handle this part I went to my old friend Combine. Some people are effusing that Combine is dead and dying – but boy it works. And most delightfully, you can have any number of endpoints pick up and subscribe to a shared publisher, which was perfect for my use case. Top that off with SwiftUI having great support to receive streams of data from Combine, and it was an easy choice.
I ended up using Combine publishers to make a a few feeds of data from the PeerToPeerProvider. They share information about what other peers were available, the current state of the listener (that accepts connections) and the browser (that looks for peers), and last a publisher that provides information about active peer to peer connctions. I feel that worked out extremely well. It worked so well that I made an internal publisher (not exposed via the public API) for tests to get events and state updates from within a repository.
Integration Testing
It’s remarkably hard to usefully unit test network providers. Instead of unit testing, I made a separate Swift project for the purposes of running integration tests. It sits in it’s own directory in the git repository and references
automerge-repo-swiftas a local dependency. A side effect is that it let me add in all sorts of wacky dependencies that were handy for the integration testing, but that I really didn’t want exposed and transitive for the main package. I wish that Swift Packages had a means to identify test-only dependencies that didn’t propagate to other packages for situations like this. Ah well, my solution was a separate sub-project.Testing using the Combine publisher worked well. Although it took a little digging to figure out the correct way to set up and use expectations with async XCTests. It feels a bit exhausting to assemble the expectations and fulfillment calls, but its quite possible to get working. If you want to see this in operation, take a look at P2P+explicitConnect.swift. I started to look at potentially using the upcoming swift-testing, but with limited Swift 5.10 support, I decided to hold off for now. If it makes asynchronous testing easier down the road, I may well adopt it quickly after it’s initial release.
The one quirky place that I ran into with that API setup was that
expectation.fulfill()gets cranky with you if you call it more than once. My publisher wasn’t quite so constrained with state updates, so I ended up cobbling a boolean latch variable in asinkwhen I didn’t have a sufficiently constrained closure.The other quirk in integration testing is that while it works beautifully on a local machine, I had a trouble getting it to work in CI (using GitHub Actions). Part of the issue is that the current
swift testdefaults to running all possible tests at once, in parallel. Especially for integration testing of peer to peer networking, that meant a lot of network listeners, and browsers, getting shoved together at once on the local network. I wrote a script to list out the tests and run them one at a time. Even breaking it down like that didn’t consistently get through CI. I also tried higher wait times (120 seconds) on the expectations. When I run them locally, most of those tests take about 5 seconds each.The test that was a real challenge was the cross-platform one. Automerge-repo has a sample sync server (NodeJS, using Automerge through WASM). I created a docker container for it, and my cross-platform integration test pushes and pulls documents to an instance that I can run in Docker. Well… Docker isn’t available for macOS runners, so that’s out for GitHub Actions. I have a script that spins up a local docker instance, and I added a check into the WebSocket network provider test – if it couldn’t find a local instance to work against, it skips the test.
Final Takeaways
Starting with a plan for isolating state made the choices of how and what I used a bit easier, and reaching for global-actor constrained classes made synchronous use of those classes much easier. For me, this mostly played out in better (synchronous) intializers and dealing with collections using functional programming patterns.
I hope there’s some planning/thinking in SwiftUI to update or extend the app structure to accomodate async hooks for things like setup and initialization (FB9221398). That should make it easier for a developer to run an async initializer and verify that it didn’t fail, before continuing into the normal app lifecycle. Likewise, I hope that the Document-based APIs gain an async-context to work with documents to likewise handle asynchronous tasks (FB12243722). Both of these spots are very awkward places for me.
Once you shift to using asynchronous calls, it can have a ripple effect in your code. If you’re looking at converting existing code, start at the “top” and work down. That helped me to make sure there weren’t secondary complications with that choice (such as a a need for an async initializer).
Better yet, step back and take the time to identify where mutable state exists. Group it together as best you can, and review how you’re interacting it, and in what isolation region. In the case of things that need to be available to SwiftUI, you can likely isolate methods appropriately (*cough*
MainActor*cough*). Then make the parts you need to pass between isolation domainsSendable. Recognize that in some cases, it may be fine to do the equivalent of “Here was the state at some recent moment, if you might want to react to that”. There are several places where I pass back a summary snapshot of mutable state to SwiftUI to use in UI elements.And do yourself a favor and keep Matt’s Concurrency Recipes on speed-dial.
Before I finished this post, I listened to episode 43 of the Swift Package Index podcast. It’s a great episode, with Holly Bora, compiler geek and manager of the Swift language team, on as a guest to talk about the Swift 6. A tidbit she shared was that they are creating a Swift 6 migration guide, to be published on the swift.org website. Something to look forward to, in addition to Matt’s collection of recipes!
https://rhonabwy.com/2024/04/29/designing-a-swift-library-with-data-race-safety/
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I wonder if Elon Musk co. calculated and planned resources needed to travel to another planets and bring a biosphere to them. In such a way that does not destroy biosphere of Earth and doesn't drive an extreme oil/gas scarcity. For me it looks like Elon just played with rockets another time. And this is just another hype about "fast cosmic exploration".
21st century exploratism is not the same as exploratism in times of Great Explorers. In times of Great Explorers there weren't accumulated and widely available knowledge of mathematics, economy, psychology etc. Distant communications were way more expensive. There were much less world population. So there was a huge room for rapid technological progress and outer expansion without massive destruction of international economy, native cultures and biosphere. Nowadays there's Internet, more efficient production of food, sanitation, medicine and widely available resources on learning maths, economy, CS, history etc. So I see more realistic and livable future in post-cyberpunk ergodic societies which value Nature and are free and harmonic at the same moment. And they are smarter and more creative than current societies and have more fluid hierarchy based on intelligence and experience.
#blog #thoughts #musk #elonmusk #spacex #spaceexploration #spacelife -
Al-Khwarizmi was a Persian mathematician who introduced procedures for solving equations etc. The term "algorithm" is coined by his name.
#blog #Iran #alkhwarizmi #Persia #persianmaths #algorithms #maths #mathematics #history -
Pavasarīgs 30.marts Rūjienā. Zied pirmās gaiļbiksītes, turpina ziedēt zilās vizbulītes, sibīrijas zilsniedzītes, sniegpulkstenītes, vītoli (pūpoli), krokusi. Šos ziedus aktīvi apputekšņo medus bites, kamenes un taureņi.
#pavasaris #spring #nature #daba #naturephotography #marts #march #latvija #lv #latvia
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Pavasarīgs 30.marts Rūjienā. Zied pirmās gaiļbiksītes, turpina ziedēt zilās vizbulītes, sibīrijas zilsniedzītes, sniegpulkstenītes, vītoli (pūpoli), krokusi. Šos ziedus aktīvi apputekšņo medus bites, kamenes un taureņi.
#pavasaris #spring #nature #daba #naturephotography #marts #march #latvija #lv #latvia
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“There ya go, that explains it! Trump is in serious decline.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
This week has been rather mind-blowing for me. First, I watched Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney stand beside Vice President Kamala Harris and heartily endorse her. The number of top Republicans going out of their way to stop DonOld is really heartening. The utter destruction left in the path of Hurricane Helene was beyond the warzone feeling I saw when I finally got to return home to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I can only imagine what’s in store for us in the future if we don’t speed up policy and action on Climate Change. Then, there’s the kind of shock only practitioners of the Dismal Science could feel. “U.S. Hiring Accelerated in September, Blowing Past Expectations” is a headline in today’s Wall Street Journal. Our economy is so good we’ve booted the once-assumed takeover of the title of the largest economy in the world by China. It has been moved farther into the future if ever.
The U.S. labor market strengthened in the weeks before Election Day, as job growth accelerated in September and the unemployment rate ticked lower.
Employers added 254,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday. That was significantly more than the 150,000 economists expected, and marked the largest monthly increase since March. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.1%.
Friday’s bumper payrolls report is likely to close the door on another half-percentage-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve at its next meeting in November. It should keep officials on track to lower rates by a quarter point.
The Fed is trying to engineer what is called a soft landing, in which inflation moves down without major deterioration in the labor market. Though Friday is just one data point, it suggests that the U.S. is headed in that direction.
“It puts another set of wheels under the plane in terms of assuring a soft landing,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon.
Friday’s report also signaled that hiring this summer wasn’t as weak as initially thought. Revised figures show employers added 72,000 more jobs in July and August combined than earlier reported.
The latest snapshot of the labor market’s health comes just a month before the U.S. presidential election, where the economy and inflation are key issues for voters. The strong jobs report could help Vice President Kamala Harris. In polls, she trails former President Donald Trump on the economy.
Stocks ticked higher. During much of the inflationary post-Covid-19 boom, stocks often quaked temporarily at stronger-than-expected economic data, because traders took such shocks as a sign that the Fed would tighten monetary policy more aggressively. Investors’ positive reaction Friday showed that they view good news as good news again—even if futures contracts tied to the federal-funds rate suggest traders are now expecting a slower pace of Fed easing.
Employers added jobs at bars and restaurants and construction, as well as in sectors that are less sensitive to the economy’s ups and downs like government, education and healthcare.
There were a few weak spots. Employers modestly cut head count in manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, and temporary help services.
Analysts also said that although September’s jobs report was unexpectedly strong, other economic data point to a slightly less robust hiring picture. Labor Department data released earlier this week showed that the share of workers quitting their jobs each month fell to its lowest rate in more than four years in August, a sign people are more hesitant about leaving their current roles for new ones.
Liz Cheney described the Republican Party as being the MAGA Party. Those left in the MAGA party are living in lies, bigotry, and a world of active sabotage of the truth and of the country. In one of the most callous moves I’ve seen in Congress, Speaker Johnson refuses to call the House back into session to provide the funding needed for FEMA. He wants it to wait until November 12. He’s wandering around Florida today.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday that a congressional emergency spending decision in response to Hurricane Helene “will probably correspond when Congress is expected to return to session.”
Congress will be on recess for more than a month, and is set to return to session on Nov. 12. Johnson seemed to rule out a return before then, although President Joe Biden indicated this week that he may ask Congress to convene before the break’s scheduled end.
“Right before we left on Wednesday, a week ago, Congress appropriated $20 billion to FEMA to cover the immediate aftermath of the storm,” Johnson said in Steinhatchee Thursday. “Of course, we knew it was headed into the coast at that time, so FEMA has the funding that needs to respond immediately. We’re glad to see them on the ground here.”
Johnson said damage assessments must be complete before Congress can update the disaster budget.
“It will take some time to tabulate this storm — it’s one of the biggest in our history,” Johnson said. “So, a lot of that work’s being done immediately, and I think the timing of that will probably correspond when Congress is expected to return to session right after the election, and so we’ll be on that.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Federal Emergency Management Agency lacks enough funding to last through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30.
Johnson appeared with Florida U.S. Reps. Kat Cammack and Neal Dunn at Roy’s Restaurant, which was ravaged by Helene.
The speaker of the House said that funding further disaster response will be bipartisan.
“There’ll be an appropriate amount requested to Congress, and we’ll have to dig deep and find a way to do that,” he said.
Johnson assured that Congress “will do what’s necessary to make sure that Americans are taken care of.”
What’s most impressive is to see just precisely who 175 Republicans are that voted against the aid. And, yes, it’s basically to make the Biden/Harris Administration look bad so DonOld can rant and make people forget his lousy response to disasters when he occupied the White House. This is from Newsweek. “Full List of Republicans Who Voted Against FEMA Funding Before Helene Hit,” written by Khaleda Rahman.
As Hurricane Helene careened toward Florida’s Panhandle, numerous Republicans voted against extending funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Last week, Congress approved $20 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund as part of a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through December 20. But the measure left out billions of dollars in requested supplemental disaster funding.
The Senate approved the measure by a 78-18 vote on September 25 after it passed the House in a 341-82 vote. Republicans supplied the no votes in both chambers.
Some of the Republicans who voted against the bill represent states that have been hard hit by Helene, including Florida Representative Matt Gaetz.
Helene hit Florida as a Category 4 storm last Thursday, before plowing through several other states in the Southeast. The devastation could cost up to $160 billion, according to an estimate by AccuWeather.
Some Republicans railed against FEMA funding being allocated for assisting migrants after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on Wednesday that FEMA will run out of money before the hurricane season is over. The agency is facing a multibillion-dollar deficit, even after imposing new spending restrictions.
The New Republic has released a “Transcript: Trump’s Unhinged Handling of Disasters Revealed By Insider. An interview with Olivia Troye, a top homeland security official in the Trump administration, about how badly Trump politicized disaster response as president—as seen from the inside.” Former Republican Women are not holding back on what a disaster DonOld was. This is from Greg Sargent’s podcast, The Daily Blast.
Sargent: OK, let’s start here. The other day after Trump started pushing that lie that disaster relief is being denied to Republicans, you did a tweet that got some attention. It said this, “As a Homeland Security Advisor in the Trump White House, I witnessed firsthand how Donald Trump politicized disaster relief, leaving devastated Americans waiting for help. Leaders across the country & government were calling my office, desperate for action as Trump failed them in moments of crisis.” Can you expand on that for us?
Troye: I have a lot of memories of working in the Trump White House where there are numerous situations where the government apparatus that does the whole disaster relief declaration process would come to a halt because the disaster declaration that needed to be signed by the president was sitting on Donald Trump’s desk. It was frustrating, as you can imagine, because we as national security officials serve for the greater good of the country. Our job is to help Americans, especially someone like me, who’s in the Homeland Security role working and advising the vice president. Our jobs are to work in response to a crisis as fast as possible and manage this. There were numerous instances where I had the head of government agencies calling me saying, Can you maybe get the vice president to weigh in on this because it’s still sitting on [Trump’s] desk and he hasn’t approved it yet.
Sargent: You were working for the vice president at the time. Can you characterize your official position?
Troye: Sure. I was Mike Pence’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor. In that role, I covered any crisis, global breaking news event that was related to whether it was global terrorism. On the Homeland space, I covered anything that was mass shootings, disaster relief like natural disasters like flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes. Anything that was a crisis domestically here that was related to the security and safety of Americans fall under me.
Sargent: All right. Just to be clear, what you just told us is that you had leaders who were trying to deal with disasters, whether in federal agencies or at the level of states or whatever, call you and try to get you to move stuff along that was being held up by the president of the United States, Donald Trump. They would try to get action by coming to you and working through the vice president. Is that what you’re telling us?
Troye: Yeah. There were numerous times when it was the secretary of DHS or the head of FEMA or even internally in the National Security Council process with the senior director we worked very closely on this effort. At times when they felt like it was stalled because Donald Trump was sitting on it or somebody had gotten to him, someone in OMB, one of whom was disagreeing with whatever was happening, depending on what state it was, they would come to me and say, We cannot get this moved forward, the people in this state are hurting right now, what can you do to help us?
I can think of a time when even Mike Pence was flying out. I believe he was flying to California and he called me. They called me from Air Force Two and said, Where is the disaster declaration? We still haven’t seen it. And I said, Well, sir, it’s sitting on the president’s desk, I can follow up on it. And he said, Please do that. I remember walking over to the West Wing and sitting outside the Oval Office saying the vice president would like to know what the status is on the disaster declaration, he would really like to get this moved along, we’ve been sitting on it for three days.
Not only do the MAGA Republicans want the country to fail and our country to fall to Tinpot dictator wannabe Donald, but they seriously want to see more death and destruction by tanking one of the most necessary and enormous FEMA responses ever. This is from NBC News. “Hurricane Helene live updates: At least 215 dead as some communities struggle to get basic supplies. People are still searching for loved ones and many residents remain isolated because of widespread damage.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates pushed back on what he called “lies” shared by some Republican figures regarding the Hurricane Helene response.
In a new memo shared today, Bates said: “Some Republican leaders — and their partners in right wing media — are using Hurricane Helene to lie and divide us.”
“Their latest missive: baselessly claiming that FEMA is out of money to respond to Hurricane Helene — because of an existing program that supports cities and towns that are sheltering migrants. … This is FALSE,” Bates wrote.
“No disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants housing and services. None. At. All,” he continued.
Trump echoed that false theory at a rally in Michigan yesterday, saying, “They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season.”
Bates clarified that funding for communities to support migrants is appropriated by Congress to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and is merely administered by FEMA, and the funding isn’t related to FEMA’s response and recovery efforts.
“FEMA has the funds it needs for immediate response and recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene. In fact, FEMA has been able to provide over $45 million in direct financial assistance to individuals and families affected by Hurricane Helene, including over $17 million to those recovering and rebuilding in North Carolina,” Bates added.
I also wanted to point out that Republicans are still plotting ways to overturn the election. In the middle of all of this, is the sentencing of Tina Peters. Watch this on CNN where Jim Acosta shows the incredible number of voters that still believe Trump won the 2024. Check this sentencing hearing. This Judge rocks.
She was convicted in August for the Computer Breach associated with the My Pillow Goon. This is the AP story that details that.
Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, the first local election official to be charged with a security breach after the 2020 election as unfounded conspiracy theories swirled, was found guilty by a jury on most charges Monday.
Peters, a one-time hero to election deniers, was accused of using someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the Mesa County election system and deceiving other officials about that person’s identity.
Lindell is a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Donald Trump. His online broadcasting site has been showing a livestream of Peters’ trial and sending out daily email updates, sometimes asking for prayers for Peters and including statements from her.
Prosecutors said Peters was seeking fame and became “fixated” on voting problems after becoming involved with those who had questioned the accuracy of the 2020 presidential election results.
The breach Peters was charged of orchestrating heightened concerns over potential insider threats, in which rogue election workers sympathetic to partisan lies could use their access and knowledge to launch an attack from within.
It would be nice to think that future evil-doers would take the hint and fear a 9 year-sentence, but MAGA weirdos are nuts. So, this is an interesting tidbit from Springfield, Ohio. “Someone Was Arrested For Killing Geese In Springfield — But It Wasn’t A Haitian. Brian Comer, a 64-year-old white man, was accused of illegally hunting geese at a golf course on the day Trump amplified racist lies about Haitian immigrants in the city.” Where’s fucking lying, J Dank Vance, now?
A 64-year-old white man in Springfield, Ohio, was accused of illegally hunting geese at a golf course pond as former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, were spreading racist lies that Haitian immigrants in the area were eating geese and people’s pets.
Brian Comer was charged with a misdemeanor in connection with the Sept. 10 incident. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by HuffPost, a golfer at Rocky Lakes Golf Course in Springfield reported seeing a Canada goose floating in a pond and Comer using a shotgun to shoot another bird.
Comer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from HuffPost, but court records show he entered a guilty plea. A court spokesperson told HuffPost he paid $200 to cover a fine and court fees.
Journalist Steven Monacelli first posted about the arrest on Thursday on X, formerly Twitter.
This headline from The Guardian is frightening. “Two men have re-engineered the US electoral system in favor of Republicans. If the right strews
Two men recognized and exploited the anti-democratic loopholes within America’s rickety democracy in order to deliver Republicans victories that they could never win at the ballot box.
Now their willfully minoritarian creations threaten the very essence of a representative democracy: if Donald Trump, rightwing courts, gerrymandered state legislatures and an extreme Republican caucus in the US House of Representatives create constitutional chaos over the certification of this presidential election, two men cleared the path.
The single-minded determination of Leonard Leo built a conservative supermajority on the US supreme court and stacked lower and state courts with Republican ideologues that have pushed the nation to the right via the least accountable branch of government.
Chris Jankowski masterminded the partisan gerrymanders that tilted state legislatures and congressional delegations across the south and the purple midwest toward extreme Republicans, ended Barack Obama’s second term before it started, and rendered elections in Wisconsin and North Carolina all but meaningless over the last decade and a half.
Leo and Jankowski understood, separately, that the courts and state legislatures were undervalued and often undefended targets for a deliberate strategy aimed at capturing important levers of power that sometimes float under the radar. They could be Moneyball-ed, to borrow the term Michael Lewis used in his book about how the Oakland A’s made an end-run around large-market teams by understanding value that their opponents overlooked.
What Leo and Jankowski built separately would soon reinforce the other’s creation (with, of course, crucial assists from chief justice John Roberts), tightening the knots around meaningful elections, pushing policy to the extreme right and making it nearly impossible for voters to do anything about it.
Leo’s relentless focus on turning the judiciary Republican, first identifying and fast-tracking conservative jurists through his various roles at the Federalist Society, then coordinating the often eight-figure efforts to secure their confirmation on the US supreme court, helped conservatives to unpopular court-imposed victories on voting rights, abortion restrictions, gun access and gutting the regulatory state that would not have been won through the political process.
As I revealed in my book Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count, Jankowski pioneered Redmap, short for the Redistricting Majority Project. That 2010 strategy, coordinated when he worked at the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), flipped state legislative chambers in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alabama, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee and several other states just ahead of the decennial redistricting. Then, with complete control of those processes, as well in Florida, Georgia, Texas and elsewhere, the RSLC helped draw some of the most extreme partisan gerrymanders in history, locking in huge Republican advantages in state legislatures and congressional delegations.
The supreme court’s decision in Citizens Unitedhelped make possible the $30m that funded Redmap. Redmap’s lines then proved so stout that they could hold back electoral waves. In 2012, the Republican party would easily hold the US House of Representatives even as they won 1.4m fewer votes nationwide; Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin all went for Obama statewide, but the Republicans got 64 of those states’ 94 congressional seats.
Meanwhile, as Republicans drew themselves giant edges in the US House and state chambers, and packed Democrats into fewer seats they won with bigger majorities, low-turnout, base-driven Republican primaries became the key races to win, producing a new generation of lawmakers fixated on solutions for “voter fraud”.
This grim result is a US supreme court that has been captured by conservatives, which has delivered a decade of anti-democracy decisions that have advantaged the Republican party in elections, as well as an audacious plan to gerrymander Republicans into power in state legislatures nationwide and helped produce ever-more-extreme caucuses eager to adapt draconian voter restrictions in the name of stopping fraud that they cannot prove exist. The Roberts court has blessed this as well.
You better believe all these anti-democracy folks are just waiting to get Vance into the Oval Office. Trump is chaos, but Vance is single-minded, and there’s a method to his meanness. Then there is foreign interference in this election, too. The Hill reports that “Democrats suspect Netanyahu attempting to tilt Trump-Harris race.” This is written by Alexander Bolten. ( And, of course, all the end-time fundies are wild about all-out war in that area.)
Democrats increasingly suspect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to interfere in U.S. domestic politics by ignoring President Biden’s calls to negotiate a peace deal in Gaza and by confronting Hezbollah and Iran weeks before the U.S. election.
The rapidly escalating confrontation between Israel, Hezbollah and Hezbollah’s ally, Iran, has undercut Biden’s efforts to achieve peace through diplomacy.
The growing threat of a broader conflict has opened the door for former President Trump to argue that the world is “spiraling out of control” on Biden’s watch.
Biden’s polling numbers with Muslim Americans continue to deteriorate amid the mounting violence in the region, which poses a serious political liability to Vice President Harris in Michigan, a must-win state for Democrats.
Trump traveled to Michigan on Thursday to speak at a rally in Saginaw.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s relationship with even the most pro-Israel Democrats has becoming increasingly confrontational.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made headlines in March when he called Netanyahu a “major obstacle” to peace and urged Israel to hold new elections. Around that time, Biden called Israel’s offensive in Gaza “over the top.”
“I certainly worry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is watching the American election as he makes decisions about his military campaigns in the north and in Gaza,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN’s Erin Burnett in a Tuesday interview.
I continue to write these long blog reads these days. Every day reveals more weirdness and criminal activity. I would like to note that this was a headline. “Fox News host: Trump ‘resorted to crimes’ to hold on to power.” That also was one of the shocking events that happened this week.
Fox News host Neil Cavuto said Wednesday that a newly unsealed filing in the federal Jan. 6 case revealed former President Trump “resorted to crimes” to stay in office.
“It was in this newly unsealed court paper we’re learning that former President Trump resorted to crimes to cling to power after the 2020 election. We don’t know much more than that,” Cavuto said Wednesday on Fox News.
“A lot of this stuff was going to be coming out anyway. We’re going to be getting the latest on that, and a legal look at what is being revealed here and whether it’s giving us any new information, anything we don’t know. The timing of this, of course, is little more than about five weeks before the general election,” he added.
I see more October surprises on the horizon.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
#Repeat1968JohnBuss #AntiDemocracyMAGARepublicans #AyatollahMikeJohnson #BebeNetanyahuAndAmericanElectionInterference #FEMAFunding #HurricaneHelene #MAGARepublicanParty
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“There ya go, that explains it! Trump is in serious decline.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
This week has been rather mind-blowing for me. First, I watched Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney stand beside Vice President Kamala Harris and heartily endorse her. The number of top Republicans going out of their way to stop DonOld is really heartening. The utter destruction left in the path of Hurricane Helene was beyond the warzone feeling I saw when I finally got to return home to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I can only imagine what’s in store for us in the future if we don’t speed up policy and action on Climate Change. Then, there’s the kind of shock only practitioners of the Dismal Science could feel. “U.S. Hiring Accelerated in September, Blowing Past Expectations” is a headline in today’s Wall Street Journal. Our economy is so good we’ve booted the once-assumed takeover of the title of the largest economy in the world by China. It has been moved farther into the future if ever.
The U.S. labor market strengthened in the weeks before Election Day, as job growth accelerated in September and the unemployment rate ticked lower.
Employers added 254,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday. That was significantly more than the 150,000 economists expected, and marked the largest monthly increase since March. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.1%.
Friday’s bumper payrolls report is likely to close the door on another half-percentage-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve at its next meeting in November. It should keep officials on track to lower rates by a quarter point.
The Fed is trying to engineer what is called a soft landing, in which inflation moves down without major deterioration in the labor market. Though Friday is just one data point, it suggests that the U.S. is headed in that direction.
“It puts another set of wheels under the plane in terms of assuring a soft landing,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon.
Friday’s report also signaled that hiring this summer wasn’t as weak as initially thought. Revised figures show employers added 72,000 more jobs in July and August combined than earlier reported.
The latest snapshot of the labor market’s health comes just a month before the U.S. presidential election, where the economy and inflation are key issues for voters. The strong jobs report could help Vice President Kamala Harris. In polls, she trails former President Donald Trump on the economy.
Stocks ticked higher. During much of the inflationary post-Covid-19 boom, stocks often quaked temporarily at stronger-than-expected economic data, because traders took such shocks as a sign that the Fed would tighten monetary policy more aggressively. Investors’ positive reaction Friday showed that they view good news as good news again—even if futures contracts tied to the federal-funds rate suggest traders are now expecting a slower pace of Fed easing.
Employers added jobs at bars and restaurants and construction, as well as in sectors that are less sensitive to the economy’s ups and downs like government, education and healthcare.
There were a few weak spots. Employers modestly cut head count in manufacturing, transportation and warehousing, and temporary help services.
Analysts also said that although September’s jobs report was unexpectedly strong, other economic data point to a slightly less robust hiring picture. Labor Department data released earlier this week showed that the share of workers quitting their jobs each month fell to its lowest rate in more than four years in August, a sign people are more hesitant about leaving their current roles for new ones.
Liz Cheney described the Republican Party as being the MAGA Party. Those left in the MAGA party are living in lies, bigotry, and a world of active sabotage of the truth and of the country. In one of the most callous moves I’ve seen in Congress, Speaker Johnson refuses to call the House back into session to provide the funding needed for FEMA. He wants it to wait until November 12. He’s wandering around Florida today.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday that a congressional emergency spending decision in response to Hurricane Helene “will probably correspond when Congress is expected to return to session.”
Congress will be on recess for more than a month, and is set to return to session on Nov. 12. Johnson seemed to rule out a return before then, although President Joe Biden indicated this week that he may ask Congress to convene before the break’s scheduled end.
“Right before we left on Wednesday, a week ago, Congress appropriated $20 billion to FEMA to cover the immediate aftermath of the storm,” Johnson said in Steinhatchee Thursday. “Of course, we knew it was headed into the coast at that time, so FEMA has the funding that needs to respond immediately. We’re glad to see them on the ground here.”
Johnson said damage assessments must be complete before Congress can update the disaster budget.
“It will take some time to tabulate this storm — it’s one of the biggest in our history,” Johnson said. “So, a lot of that work’s being done immediately, and I think the timing of that will probably correspond when Congress is expected to return to session right after the election, and so we’ll be on that.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Federal Emergency Management Agency lacks enough funding to last through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30.
Johnson appeared with Florida U.S. Reps. Kat Cammack and Neal Dunn at Roy’s Restaurant, which was ravaged by Helene.
The speaker of the House said that funding further disaster response will be bipartisan.
“There’ll be an appropriate amount requested to Congress, and we’ll have to dig deep and find a way to do that,” he said.
Johnson assured that Congress “will do what’s necessary to make sure that Americans are taken care of.”
What’s most impressive is to see just precisely who 175 Republicans are that voted against the aid. And, yes, it’s basically to make the Biden/Harris Administration look bad so DonOld can rant and make people forget his lousy response to disasters when he occupied the White House. This is from Newsweek. “Full List of Republicans Who Voted Against FEMA Funding Before Helene Hit,” written by Khaleda Rahman.
As Hurricane Helene careened toward Florida’s Panhandle, numerous Republicans voted against extending funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Last week, Congress approved $20 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund as part of a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through December 20. But the measure left out billions of dollars in requested supplemental disaster funding.
The Senate approved the measure by a 78-18 vote on September 25 after it passed the House in a 341-82 vote. Republicans supplied the no votes in both chambers.
Some of the Republicans who voted against the bill represent states that have been hard hit by Helene, including Florida Representative Matt Gaetz.
Helene hit Florida as a Category 4 storm last Thursday, before plowing through several other states in the Southeast. The devastation could cost up to $160 billion, according to an estimate by AccuWeather.
Some Republicans railed against FEMA funding being allocated for assisting migrants after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on Wednesday that FEMA will run out of money before the hurricane season is over. The agency is facing a multibillion-dollar deficit, even after imposing new spending restrictions.
The New Republic has released a “Transcript: Trump’s Unhinged Handling of Disasters Revealed By Insider. An interview with Olivia Troye, a top homeland security official in the Trump administration, about how badly Trump politicized disaster response as president—as seen from the inside.” Former Republican Women are not holding back on what a disaster DonOld was. This is from Greg Sargent’s podcast, The Daily Blast.
Sargent: OK, let’s start here. The other day after Trump started pushing that lie that disaster relief is being denied to Republicans, you did a tweet that got some attention. It said this, “As a Homeland Security Advisor in the Trump White House, I witnessed firsthand how Donald Trump politicized disaster relief, leaving devastated Americans waiting for help. Leaders across the country & government were calling my office, desperate for action as Trump failed them in moments of crisis.” Can you expand on that for us?
Troye: I have a lot of memories of working in the Trump White House where there are numerous situations where the government apparatus that does the whole disaster relief declaration process would come to a halt because the disaster declaration that needed to be signed by the president was sitting on Donald Trump’s desk. It was frustrating, as you can imagine, because we as national security officials serve for the greater good of the country. Our job is to help Americans, especially someone like me, who’s in the Homeland Security role working and advising the vice president. Our jobs are to work in response to a crisis as fast as possible and manage this. There were numerous instances where I had the head of government agencies calling me saying, Can you maybe get the vice president to weigh in on this because it’s still sitting on [Trump’s] desk and he hasn’t approved it yet.
Sargent: You were working for the vice president at the time. Can you characterize your official position?
Troye: Sure. I was Mike Pence’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor. In that role, I covered any crisis, global breaking news event that was related to whether it was global terrorism. On the Homeland space, I covered anything that was mass shootings, disaster relief like natural disasters like flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes. Anything that was a crisis domestically here that was related to the security and safety of Americans fall under me.
Sargent: All right. Just to be clear, what you just told us is that you had leaders who were trying to deal with disasters, whether in federal agencies or at the level of states or whatever, call you and try to get you to move stuff along that was being held up by the president of the United States, Donald Trump. They would try to get action by coming to you and working through the vice president. Is that what you’re telling us?
Troye: Yeah. There were numerous times when it was the secretary of DHS or the head of FEMA or even internally in the National Security Council process with the senior director we worked very closely on this effort. At times when they felt like it was stalled because Donald Trump was sitting on it or somebody had gotten to him, someone in OMB, one of whom was disagreeing with whatever was happening, depending on what state it was, they would come to me and say, We cannot get this moved forward, the people in this state are hurting right now, what can you do to help us?
I can think of a time when even Mike Pence was flying out. I believe he was flying to California and he called me. They called me from Air Force Two and said, Where is the disaster declaration? We still haven’t seen it. And I said, Well, sir, it’s sitting on the president’s desk, I can follow up on it. And he said, Please do that. I remember walking over to the West Wing and sitting outside the Oval Office saying the vice president would like to know what the status is on the disaster declaration, he would really like to get this moved along, we’ve been sitting on it for three days.
Not only do the MAGA Republicans want the country to fail and our country to fall to Tinpot dictator wannabe Donald, but they seriously want to see more death and destruction by tanking one of the most necessary and enormous FEMA responses ever. This is from NBC News. “Hurricane Helene live updates: At least 215 dead as some communities struggle to get basic supplies. People are still searching for loved ones and many residents remain isolated because of widespread damage.”
White House spokesman Andrew Bates pushed back on what he called “lies” shared by some Republican figures regarding the Hurricane Helene response.
In a new memo shared today, Bates said: “Some Republican leaders — and their partners in right wing media — are using Hurricane Helene to lie and divide us.”
“Their latest missive: baselessly claiming that FEMA is out of money to respond to Hurricane Helene — because of an existing program that supports cities and towns that are sheltering migrants. … This is FALSE,” Bates wrote.
“No disaster relief funding at all was used to support migrants housing and services. None. At. All,” he continued.
Trump echoed that false theory at a rally in Michigan yesterday, saying, “They stole the FEMA money, just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season.”
Bates clarified that funding for communities to support migrants is appropriated by Congress to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and is merely administered by FEMA, and the funding isn’t related to FEMA’s response and recovery efforts.
“FEMA has the funds it needs for immediate response and recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene. In fact, FEMA has been able to provide over $45 million in direct financial assistance to individuals and families affected by Hurricane Helene, including over $17 million to those recovering and rebuilding in North Carolina,” Bates added.
I also wanted to point out that Republicans are still plotting ways to overturn the election. In the middle of all of this, is the sentencing of Tina Peters. Watch this on CNN where Jim Acosta shows the incredible number of voters that still believe Trump won the 2024. Check this sentencing hearing. This Judge rocks.
She was convicted in August for the Computer Breach associated with the My Pillow Goon. This is the AP story that details that.
Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, the first local election official to be charged with a security breach after the 2020 election as unfounded conspiracy theories swirled, was found guilty by a jury on most charges Monday.
Peters, a one-time hero to election deniers, was accused of using someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the Mesa County election system and deceiving other officials about that person’s identity.
Lindell is a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Donald Trump. His online broadcasting site has been showing a livestream of Peters’ trial and sending out daily email updates, sometimes asking for prayers for Peters and including statements from her.
Prosecutors said Peters was seeking fame and became “fixated” on voting problems after becoming involved with those who had questioned the accuracy of the 2020 presidential election results.
The breach Peters was charged of orchestrating heightened concerns over potential insider threats, in which rogue election workers sympathetic to partisan lies could use their access and knowledge to launch an attack from within.
It would be nice to think that future evil-doers would take the hint and fear a 9 year-sentence, but MAGA weirdos are nuts. So, this is an interesting tidbit from Springfield, Ohio. “Someone Was Arrested For Killing Geese In Springfield — But It Wasn’t A Haitian. Brian Comer, a 64-year-old white man, was accused of illegally hunting geese at a golf course on the day Trump amplified racist lies about Haitian immigrants in the city.” Where’s fucking lying, J Dank Vance, now?
A 64-year-old white man in Springfield, Ohio, was accused of illegally hunting geese at a golf course pond as former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, were spreading racist lies that Haitian immigrants in the area were eating geese and people’s pets.
Brian Comer was charged with a misdemeanor in connection with the Sept. 10 incident. According to an arrest affidavit obtained by HuffPost, a golfer at Rocky Lakes Golf Course in Springfield reported seeing a Canada goose floating in a pond and Comer using a shotgun to shoot another bird.
Comer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from HuffPost, but court records show he entered a guilty plea. A court spokesperson told HuffPost he paid $200 to cover a fine and court fees.
Journalist Steven Monacelli first posted about the arrest on Thursday on X, formerly Twitter.
This headline from The Guardian is frightening. “Two men have re-engineered the US electoral system in favor of Republicans. If the right strews
Two men recognized and exploited the anti-democratic loopholes within America’s rickety democracy in order to deliver Republicans victories that they could never win at the ballot box.
Now their willfully minoritarian creations threaten the very essence of a representative democracy: if Donald Trump, rightwing courts, gerrymandered state legislatures and an extreme Republican caucus in the US House of Representatives create constitutional chaos over the certification of this presidential election, two men cleared the path.
The single-minded determination of Leonard Leo built a conservative supermajority on the US supreme court and stacked lower and state courts with Republican ideologues that have pushed the nation to the right via the least accountable branch of government.
Chris Jankowski masterminded the partisan gerrymanders that tilted state legislatures and congressional delegations across the south and the purple midwest toward extreme Republicans, ended Barack Obama’s second term before it started, and rendered elections in Wisconsin and North Carolina all but meaningless over the last decade and a half.
Leo and Jankowski understood, separately, that the courts and state legislatures were undervalued and often undefended targets for a deliberate strategy aimed at capturing important levers of power that sometimes float under the radar. They could be Moneyball-ed, to borrow the term Michael Lewis used in his book about how the Oakland A’s made an end-run around large-market teams by understanding value that their opponents overlooked.
What Leo and Jankowski built separately would soon reinforce the other’s creation (with, of course, crucial assists from chief justice John Roberts), tightening the knots around meaningful elections, pushing policy to the extreme right and making it nearly impossible for voters to do anything about it.
Leo’s relentless focus on turning the judiciary Republican, first identifying and fast-tracking conservative jurists through his various roles at the Federalist Society, then coordinating the often eight-figure efforts to secure their confirmation on the US supreme court, helped conservatives to unpopular court-imposed victories on voting rights, abortion restrictions, gun access and gutting the regulatory state that would not have been won through the political process.
As I revealed in my book Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count, Jankowski pioneered Redmap, short for the Redistricting Majority Project. That 2010 strategy, coordinated when he worked at the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), flipped state legislative chambers in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Alabama, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee and several other states just ahead of the decennial redistricting. Then, with complete control of those processes, as well in Florida, Georgia, Texas and elsewhere, the RSLC helped draw some of the most extreme partisan gerrymanders in history, locking in huge Republican advantages in state legislatures and congressional delegations.
The supreme court’s decision in Citizens Unitedhelped make possible the $30m that funded Redmap. Redmap’s lines then proved so stout that they could hold back electoral waves. In 2012, the Republican party would easily hold the US House of Representatives even as they won 1.4m fewer votes nationwide; Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin all went for Obama statewide, but the Republicans got 64 of those states’ 94 congressional seats.
Meanwhile, as Republicans drew themselves giant edges in the US House and state chambers, and packed Democrats into fewer seats they won with bigger majorities, low-turnout, base-driven Republican primaries became the key races to win, producing a new generation of lawmakers fixated on solutions for “voter fraud”.
This grim result is a US supreme court that has been captured by conservatives, which has delivered a decade of anti-democracy decisions that have advantaged the Republican party in elections, as well as an audacious plan to gerrymander Republicans into power in state legislatures nationwide and helped produce ever-more-extreme caucuses eager to adapt draconian voter restrictions in the name of stopping fraud that they cannot prove exist. The Roberts court has blessed this as well.
You better believe all these anti-democracy folks are just waiting to get Vance into the Oval Office. Trump is chaos, but Vance is single-minded, and there’s a method to his meanness. Then there is foreign interference in this election, too. The Hill reports that “Democrats suspect Netanyahu attempting to tilt Trump-Harris race.” This is written by Alexander Bolten. ( And, of course, all the end-time fundies are wild about all-out war in that area.)
Democrats increasingly suspect Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to interfere in U.S. domestic politics by ignoring President Biden’s calls to negotiate a peace deal in Gaza and by confronting Hezbollah and Iran weeks before the U.S. election.
The rapidly escalating confrontation between Israel, Hezbollah and Hezbollah’s ally, Iran, has undercut Biden’s efforts to achieve peace through diplomacy.
The growing threat of a broader conflict has opened the door for former President Trump to argue that the world is “spiraling out of control” on Biden’s watch.
Biden’s polling numbers with Muslim Americans continue to deteriorate amid the mounting violence in the region, which poses a serious political liability to Vice President Harris in Michigan, a must-win state for Democrats.
Trump traveled to Michigan on Thursday to speak at a rally in Saginaw.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s relationship with even the most pro-Israel Democrats has becoming increasingly confrontational.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made headlines in March when he called Netanyahu a “major obstacle” to peace and urged Israel to hold new elections. Around that time, Biden called Israel’s offensive in Gaza “over the top.”
“I certainly worry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is watching the American election as he makes decisions about his military campaigns in the north and in Gaza,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN’s Erin Burnett in a Tuesday interview.
I continue to write these long blog reads these days. Every day reveals more weirdness and criminal activity. I would like to note that this was a headline. “Fox News host: Trump ‘resorted to crimes’ to hold on to power.” That also was one of the shocking events that happened this week.
Fox News host Neil Cavuto said Wednesday that a newly unsealed filing in the federal Jan. 6 case revealed former President Trump “resorted to crimes” to stay in office.
“It was in this newly unsealed court paper we’re learning that former President Trump resorted to crimes to cling to power after the 2020 election. We don’t know much more than that,” Cavuto said Wednesday on Fox News.
“A lot of this stuff was going to be coming out anyway. We’re going to be getting the latest on that, and a legal look at what is being revealed here and whether it’s giving us any new information, anything we don’t know. The timing of this, of course, is little more than about five weeks before the general election,” he added.
I see more October surprises on the horizon.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
#Repeat1968JohnBuss #AntiDemocracyMAGARepublicans #AyatollahMikeJohnson #BebeNetanyahuAndAmericanElectionInterference #FEMAFunding #HurricaneHelene #MAGARepublicanParty
