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#massive victory - next stop ohio!!!!
lettingtimepass · 4 months
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Instead of New Mexico, Loki lands in Ohio and meets a friendly jet-ski salesman named Don...
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beardedmrbean · 6 months
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Republican Sen. J.D. Vance received support from 10 Democrats as part of a successful amendment prohibiting the Department of Transportation from using any federal funds to enforce future mask mandates.
The amendment to the Senate minibus appropriations bill passed Wednesday by a 59-38 margin and prevents federal mask mandates on passenger airlines, commuter rail, rapid transit buses, and any other transportation program funded through the 2024 fiscal year.
These are the 10 Democrats who voted for the amendment: Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin); Michael Bennet (Colorado); Sherrod Brown (Ohio); Tim Kaine (Virginia); Mark Kelly (Arizona); Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota); Joe Manchin (West Virginia); Jacky Rosen (Nevada); Jean Shaheen (New Hampshire); and Jon Tester (Montana).
Three senators—Democrats John Fetterman (Pennsylvania) and Alex Padilla (California), and Republican Tim Scott (South Carolina—did not vote. Of the three independent senators, Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona) was the only one to vote in favor.
"This is a massive victory for personal freedom in this country," Vance said in a post-vote statement. "We saw countless abuses of authority throughout the COVID pandemic, and the American people were justifiably enraged by unscientific mask mandates.
"Today, the United States Senate took an emphatic step toward common sense and individual liberty. I'm proud of what we've accomplished here and look forward to continuing the fight."
In September, Vance, who represents Ohio, introduced the Freedom to Breathe Act—a bill intended to prevent the reimposition of federal mask mandates across the entire United States, in response to some businesses and colleges and universities reimposing mask mandates in the summer due to upticks in COVID-19 cases.
In September, the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio announced that all staff will be required to wear masks on the premises beginning September 25.
"This decision was made to promote the safety of our patients, families, visitors, and employees, based on evidence that masks are effective in reducing the spread of respiratory illness," the hospital said in a statement.
A recent map published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that, from October 8 to October 14, COVID-19 deaths increased just 2.5 percent nationally when compared to the previous week. Some states, including Ohio's neighbor Michigan, with a 33.3 percent rise, reported much larger increases.
Vance said prior to the vote on the Senate floor that while COVID will unfortunately be with Americans for likely the rest of their lives, its presence should not constitute "public health panic" for a respiratory virus which is mostly unable to be stopped or controlled on a widespread level.
He alluded to altercations on flights between passengers and flight attendants during the height of the pandemic due to mask enforcement. Vance also mentioned the developmental delays to schoolchildren and division that resulted among American families. "If people want to wear masks, of course they should be able to," he said. "But if people don't want to wear masks on airplanes, on transit, they should have that option as well, and that's all that my amendment does.
"It is narrowly scoped. It applies for the next 11 months and applies to transportation cases. And I think it is reasonable to not ask the American people to reenter the era of mask mandates."
Brown, who along with Vance represents Ohio, told Cleveland.com that he supported the amendment because "the pandemic's over."
"I've got no problems with it," Brown said. "I don't think there should be mask mandates."
A spokesperson for Brown told Newsweek the senator had no additional comment.
Newsweek reached out via email to Vance, the other nine Democrats who voted for the amendment, and the CDC for comment.
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kunigunda · 2 years
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We already stood on the statehouse steps protesting the heartbeat bills. It’s clear massive protests are not enough to protect us. Today we stand against the Supreme Court, which would strike down Roe v. Wade. They are ready to rule early this summer.
This upcoming ruling only the latest blow in an onslaught against the people. Women and trans-people fear unwanted pregnancy, medical peril, and a lifetime obligation of unpaid and underappreciated domestic work that we didn’t ask for.
The scope of these attacks on our freedoms are broad. When right-wing takes aim at reproductive health, family planning organizations and their funding… we are in danger of losing access to needed care that is only tangentially related to pregnancy, such as cancer screenings.
Under Democratic power, the right-wing is now so close to ending our legal right to choose. Joe Biden make an unfulfilled campaign promise to codify Roe v. Wade. but as president, but he did not give his support to ending the filibuster to allow Democrats to vote to legalize abortion. Democrats have so far failed to protect abortion through legalistic means.
If the Supreme Court ends Roe, the consequences are serious. It would be the biggest victory for the right-wing in a generation. They will next attack access to contraception, gender affirming healthcare, marriage equality, and more.
We can’t wait for Democrats to fix this. Democrats, just like Republicans, prioritize the stability and profitability of the capitalist system. Our state establishments have made the wrong decisions on abortion, on gay marriage, on desegregation – until mass movements of working people forced the ruling class to concede.
Worldwide, we are at a crucial time for the fight for reproductive rights. Mexico, Poland and Argentina have won struggles against attacks on their abortion rights. We must follow their example and build pressure to stop the ruling.
Let us take the fight to our communities and workplaces. Let’s escalate our struggle with walkouts, occupations, and strikes. We can begin by holding public organizing meetings to put together these plans.
Unionization campaigns at Starbucks and Amazon are mobilizing mass struggle and class consciousness. Unions have a vested interest in fighting for the health care of their members. It benefits them for us to win full legal abortion. We need these unions to join us and organize their members to take action in defense of abortion.
With our allies and momentum, we will not merely defend Roe vs Wade. But also demand Medicare for All with full reproductive and gender affirming care.
DEMANDS
To defend and expand our reproductive freedoms, we must go on the offense with strong demands.
The Supreme Court uphold Roe v. Wade!
We must organize walkouts and strikes to defend abortion
Democrats should immediately end the filibuster, legalize and codify abortion!
Congress must pass Medicare for All with abortion on demand, full reproductive and gender-affirming care for all!
We must unite and struggle against all gender and sexist oppression!
We must end the two party system with an independent working-class party and commit to defending the interests of working-class women, queer and trans people, and people of color.
thanks: JUST & other socialist organizations in collaboration at the Statehouse & Ohio Supreme Court
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bongaboi · 4 months
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Washington: 2024 Sugar Bowl Champions
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The remarkable comeback story of Michael Penix Jr. is a victory away from a perfect ending for Washington.
Penix passed for 430 yards and two touchdowns, and the Huskies held off Texas 37-31 in the Sugar Bowl on Monday night to advance to the College Football Playoff title game, earning both the sixth-year quarterback with two surgically repaired knees and the beleaguered Pac-12 a chance to go out a champion.
The second-ranked Huskies (14-0) will face No. 1 Michigan next Monday night in Houston with a 21-game winning streak, looking for their first national championship since 1991 and the Pac-12's first since Southern California in 2004.
Washington is one of 10 schools fleeing the Pac-12 for other Power Five conferences next season, with the Huskies headed to join Michigan in the Big Ten. The conference is not going away, but its days as a potential football power are likely done.
But first, the final season of the four-team playoff before expansion to 12 in 2024 comes down to a Pac-12-Big Ten matchup, just like the first when Ohio State beat Oregon.
"Huskie Nation stand up," Penix told the UW crowd in the postgame trophy ceremony. "We goin' to the natty!"
No. 3 Texas (12-2) had four shots at the end zone after getting to the Washington 12 with 15 seconds left, but Quinn Ewers missed on the last three passes. The final throw was a fade to Adonai Mitchell that was knocked away by Washington's Elijah Jackson.
"Those guys are the most resilient guys I have ever been around," Washington coach Kalen DeBoer said.
In Texas' first CFP appearance and final football game as a member of the Big 12 before it goes to the Southeastern Conference, Ewers passed for 318 yards and a touchdown. But it wasn't enough against Penix and his array of talented receivers.
"They were a second away from playing for a national championship," Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. "They should be proud of themselves. Penix got hot and (Washington) made some big plays down the field."
Penix spent his first four college seasons at Indiana, suffering three season-ending injuries, one to each knee and one to his throwing shoulder.
When his former offensive coordinator at Indiana, DeBoer, took over at Washington, Penix didn't think twice before moving to Seattle, and then decided to take advantage of an extra year of eligibility and returned for a second year.
"He's been on a mission since he chose to come back, and a lot of the other guys followed his lead," DeBoer said
The left-hander stayed healthy and blossomed into a star, the Heisman Trophy runner-up this year, and now has a chance to win a national championship after another brilliant performance.
"It was the tough times. I feel like everything I've been through built me for this," Penix said.
Penix went 29 for 38 with no turnovers. He completed 12 straight at one point, the longest on-target streak in the CFP's 10-year history.
And he did it attacking down field as usual. He completed six passes of at least 20 yards, connecting with Rome Odunze six times for 125 yards and Ja'Lynn Polk five times for 122.
It was in some ways a perfect CFP semifinal for the last season before massive changes in college football: two teams switching conferences next season, led by star quarterbacks who transferred in.
A wild first half included a 77-yard connection with Polk on Penix's second pass of the game, Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy II plunging into the end zone for a 1-yard TD run, a Penix-to-Polk TD pass when the receiver tipped the ball to himself and the Longhorns capping the second quarter with a long touchdown drive to tie it at 21-all at intermission.
There was a fourth-and-1 stop by Texas of Washington deep in Longhorns territory, which didn't deter DeBoer from going for a fourth-and-1 at his own UW 33, and converting.
Penix had 255 yards in the first half alone, and then kept it rolling on the first drive of the second half, throwing a dart down the middle to Jalen McMillen for a 19-yard score.
Washington added two field goals by Grady Gross to take a 34-21 lead early in the fourth quarter. Holding the Huskies to field goals kept Texas in the game, and when Ewers found Mitchell, the Georgia transfer with two national titles, for a 1-yard score with 7:23 left, it was a one-possession game.
The Superdome sounded like Darrell K. Royal Stadium east, with Texas fans easily outnumbering the visitors from the Pacific Northwest.
Penix calmly went back to work, hitting Odunze over the shoulder for 32 yards down the sideline to set up a first-and-goal that led to the third field goal of the day for Gross, a former walk-on who was put on scholarship after hitting a walk-off winner in the Apple Cup.
That put Washington up 37-28 with 2:40 left, and had its purple-clad fans doing its best to drown out the Longhorns with a "Let's go Huskies!" chant.
Texas kicked a field goal with 1:09 left cut the lead to six. Washington recovered an onside kick, but couldn't kill the clock. Texas flew down the field and had an improbable comeback in sight.
"Just was looking to give my guys an opportunity to go make a play," Ewers said of his final throws. At the end of the day, that's all you can really do.
Washington came through in the clutch — again.
"They've done it all year, coming up with big-time stops in big-time moments," Penix said.
The Huskies' last 10 victories have all been decided by 10 points or fewer. The close games have brought doubters.
"We're always disrespected, always made the underdogs," said defensive end Bralen Trice, another upperclassman who returned this season to make title run.
THE TAKEAWAY
Texas: Came in with a vaunted defensive line led by All-America defensive tackle T'Vondre Sweat and second-team All-American Murphy. They were tough to run against, as usual, but they didn't get much pressure on Penix through an offensive line that was named the best in the country. Throughout the week both sides seemed a little tired of talking about the line matchup when the Huskies had the ball. Ultimately, the Huskies' big guys came out on top, not allowing a sack.
Washington: On the Huskies' final offensive play as they tried to burn clock, star running back Dillon Johnson was shaken up, which stopped the clock and gave Texas an extra 30 seconds or so for their own drive. There was no word on Johnson's status for the matchup with Michigan.
UP NEXT
Texas: Will Ewers be back for the Longhorns or is it Arch Manning time in Austin? Stay tuned.
Washington: The Huskies are 5-8 all-time against Michigan, including 2-2 in Rose Bowls.
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pinertrendy · 2 years
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Ryan garcia next fight
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#Ryan garcia next fight professional#
#Ryan garcia next fight free#
Garcia is a polarising figure amongst fight fans: he is either the next big thing, or an Instagram model masquerading as boxer. On July 16, Ryan Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) dominated former WBA super-featherweight world champion, Javier Fortuna, dropping the Dominican three times en route to a sixth-round knockout, at the Arena, California. Promotional offers not available in Nevada and New York. What Next For Ryan Garcia Written by John A MacDonald on 18th July 2022. Sports betting is void in Georgia, Hawaii, Ohio and Utah and other states where prohibited.
#Ryan garcia next fight free#
In Ontario, if you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConnexOntario at 1-86 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. Call or text the Tennessee REDLINE: 80 (TN) or call 1-88 (MS). Rewards issued as non-withdrawable free bets or site credit. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. dollars for the capture of Anastacio Garcia, in 1855. AZ, CO, DC, IA, IN, LA, MD, MI, MS, NJ, NV, NY, PA, PR, TN, VA, WV, or WY. 396 was made a special order for Wednesday next at nine o'clock P. Must be 21+ years of age or older to wager. With an entire decade of youth to his advantage, the American will obviously have the speed and accuracy advantage over the Ghanaian, making it the key to the young prospect’s victory on Saturday night. On paper, Garcia is the heavy favorite to win the match by way of stoppage because of his 85% finishing rate and unblemished record compared to Tagoe’s 32-1 record and only 45% of stoppage wins.Īlthough King Ry only has a two-inch reach and two-inch height advantage over “The Gameboy,” a massive discrepancy in age will play a factor in the match as Garcia is ten years younger than Tagoe. These timings could change due to the length of the undercard bouts. BST with main event ringwalks scheduled for 11 p.m. Now, Ryan Garcia’s much-anticipated return to action will be against Emmanuel Tagoe, as both fighters are looking to sustain their respective winning streaks. The main card is scheduled to get underway at 8 p.m. The win earned Garcia the WBC Interim Lightweight Title and made him the number five-ranked lightweight contender in the world. However, the setback awakened the undefeated fighter as he composed himself and turned the tide in the match by eventually stopping the Englishman in the seventh round through a powerful shot to the liver to send Campbell down for good. LUKE CAMPBELL PUTS RYAN GARCIA ON THE CANVAS IN ROUND 2 💥 /hCQaPiVHjY
#Ryan garcia next fight professional#
The 23-year old suffered his first-ever professional knockdown when Campbell connected a perfectly-timed hook that caught him right in the chin, downing him in the second round. The biggest test by far in his young career came in his last outing against Luke Campbell when they crossed paths in January 2021.
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disillusioned41 · 3 years
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Not waiting before such thinking takes firmer hold or begins to be put into action, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is speaking out forcefully against radical centrist pundits, so-called "Never-Trump Republicans," and corporate-friendly Democratic operatives trying to advance a post-election narrative that the Democratic Party's growing progressive base is a faction to be sidelined as opposed to one that should be embraced.
"I need my colleagues to understand that we are not the enemy. And that their base is not the enemy. That the Movement for Black Lives is not the enemy, that Medicare for All is not the enemy."—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
As much of the nation—and the world—celebrated Joe Biden's historic defeat of President Donald Trump on Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez gave an interview to the New York Times in which she repudiated those in recent days who have tried to cast a new wave of progressive lawmakers—backed by an army of like-minded supporters and organizers—as somehow dangerous to the party.
Epitomized by a comment that made the rounds on social media Saturday by former Ohio governor John Kasich, a lifelong Republican, the thinking goes that progressives policy solutions (which, in fact, turn out to be highly popular with voters across the political spectrum)—such as Medicare for All, forgiving student loan debt, expanding Social Security, a massive federal increase to the minimum wage, a green energy transition and jobs program, demanding racial justice, and working to end mass incarceration—are toxic politically to Democrats.
"The Democrats have to make it clear to the far-left that they almost cost him this election," said Kasich, who endorsed Biden earlier this year and was given a speaking role at the party's convention this summer, during a CNN interview Saturday. The comments quickly drew ire among progressives, who have condemned the very idea that figures like Kasich should have any say whatsoever in the party's future projection.
"Yesterday," tweeted People for Bernie on Sunday morning in response to the comments, "we officially entered a new era of not listening to anything John Kasich says. The era will continue until further notice."
And Ocasio-Cortez was among those who rebuked the remarks online as she defended her fellow Squad member, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), from the insinuation that progressive House victories in key districts didn't play a large role—as observers have pointed out—in helping deliver the White House for Biden.
"John Kasich, who did not deliver Ohio to Dems, is saying folks like Omar, who did deliver Minnesota, are the problem," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in direct response to his comments. "Please don't take these people seriously and go back to celebrating and building power."
Common Dreams reported Thursday how Omar in Minnesota—just like Rep. Rashida Tlaib in her Detroit, Michigan district—were "major factors" in helping Biden pull away from Trump in those key battleground states.
In her interview with the Times, published late Saturday night, the New York Democrat—who won her reelection with nearly 70% of the vote in her district—elaborated on that dynamic.
"If the party believes after 94 percent of Detroit went to Biden, after Black organizers just doubled and tripled turnout down in Georgia, after so many people organized Philadelphia, the signal from the Democratic Party is the John Kasichs won us this election?" said AOC. "I mean, I can't even describe how dangerous that is."
On Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez joined CNN's Jake Tapper to discuss the issues she raised in the Times interview and also emphasized the need for Democrats, as a party, to come together in unity:
Progressives like Mike Casca, former communications director for Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign, applauded Ocasio-Cortez for both her critique and outspokenness.
"What I love most about this interview, and AOC," commented journalist Alice Speri on Saturday morning, "is that she says what she thinks, pulls no punches, and puts her name to it. Just imagine if journalists stopped allowing politicians to stay anonymous for no reason other than their lack of courage."
Tana Ganeva, a criminal justice reporter, said: "AOC is so fucking smart. I can't believe there was actually an effort to deem her 'not smart.' This is the smartest analysis I've read in months."
In the interview—in which she acknowledged that internally within the party "it's been extremely hostile to anything that even smells progressive" since she arrived in 2018—Ocasio-Cortez expressed frustration that the more left-leaning members of the caucus are now under attack for losses suffered by its more centrist members.
What the election results have shown thus far, she said, is "that progressive policies do not hurt candidates. Every single candidate that co-sponsored Medicare for All in a swing district kept their seat. We also know that co-sponsoring the Green New Deal was not a sinker."
Instead of blaming for progressives—something that ousted Florida Democrat, Rep. Donna Shalala, did on a caucus conference call after her defeat last week—Ocasio-Cortez said the party needs to have a much more serious look at what led to those failures.
As she told the Times: "If I lost my election, and I went out and I said: "This is moderates' fault. This is because you didn't let us have a floor vote on Medicare for all. And they opened the hood on my campaign, and they found that I only spent $5,000 on TV ads the week before the election? They would laugh. And that's what they look like right now trying to blame the Movement for Black Lives for their loss."
Ocasio-Cortez said the party must begin to examine some of its entrenched belief systems—as well as internal power structures—so it can have a more honest assessment of where shortcomings exist and how to better prepare for the future:
There's a lot of magical thinking in Washington, that this is just about special people that kind of come down from on high. Year after year, we decline the idea that they did work and ran sophisticated operations in favor of the idea that they are magical, special people. I need people to take these goggles off and realize how we can do things better.  If you are the D.C.C.C., and you're hemorrhaging incumbent candidates to progressive insurgents, you would think that you may want to use some of those firms. But instead, we banned them.
So the D.C.C.C. banned every single firm that is the best in the country at digital organizing.
The leadership and elements of the party—frankly, people in some of the most important decision-making positions in the party—are becoming so blinded to this anti-activist sentiment that they are blinding themselves to the very assets that they offer.
Ocasio-Cortez further explained that while she and others have tried to get other members to modernize their campaign operations, those offers have persistently been rebuffed.
"I've been begging the party to let me help them for two years," she said. "That's also the damn thing of it. I've been trying to help. Before the election, I offered to help every single swing district Democrat with their operation. And every single one of them, but five, refused my help. And all five of the vulnerable or swing district people that I helped secured victory or are on a path to secure victory. And every single one that rejected my help is losing. And now they’re blaming us for their loss."
"So I need my colleagues to understand that we are not the enemy," she continued. "And that their base is not the enemy. That the Movement for Black Lives is not the enemy, that Medicare for All is not the enemy. This isn't even just about winning an argument. It's that if they keep going after the wrong thing, I mean, they're just setting up their own obsolescence."
And what if the Biden administration takes the lead of people like Kasich—of whom there is much chatter that he could serve in the next cabinet—and proves itself hostile to its progressive base?
"Well, I'd be bummed, because we’re going to lose. And that's just what it is," responded Ocasio-Cortez, who elsewhere said it is her simple belief that "people really want the Democratic Party to fight for them" and that it's the party's responsibility to show that not in words, but in deed.
"It's really hard for us to turn out nonvoters when they feel like nothing changes for them," she warned. "When they feel like people don't see them, or even acknowledge their turnout."
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brown-bi-beautiful · 4 years
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Supernatural Series Rewrite
Supernatural Rewrite Masterlist
Dean Winchester x Named Reader (eventually)
Series Warning: language violence, angst, fluff, sexual content, Gore, molestation, mention of sexual harassment, usual supernatural violence. (If you’re triggered by any of these then please don’t read)
(A/n- I had to give the reader a name, there’s reason behind it but you can change it if you want. I changed some of the plot and some of the scenes but mostly it’s the same. I do not own the supernatural series but there are some things that are completely my imagination, it has nothing to do with the actual mythology or the series)
Phantom Traveler part 3
Season One. Episode Five.
Bloody Mary (Part 1)
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"You, you killed your mother. It was you that should have died, not her." His drunk sickening face taunted you, well a lot younger version of you. You couldn't move at all, it was like you were pinned to the wall. You were shaking , trembling, crying, you knew what was coming next. You didn't want to be hurt again so you kept begging him to stop. But it felt like your throat was clogged, you couldn't say anything. The next thing you know a bottle was flying towards you and smashed right beside your face, you felt the pieces of glass getting stuck in your skin.
Now he was walking toward you slowly, he fling his hand forward to grab you but you yelled 'NO'. The next thing you see was him dead on the floor. Blood everywhere, you looked down at your hands, they were covered in blood. His blood.
"Sweetie, what did you do?" A soft voice came and you turned around to see your mother dressed in an attire you saw her last in, a faded white sleeping gown. "You killed him. You're not my daughter, you killed him. They were right, you're a monster. I gave birth to a monster."
"No, mama." You pleaded in a little voice. "I am not a monster."
You were woken up by Dean's voice yelling at his brother to wake up. You looked at the  passenger seat as Sam woke up gasping. You were still panting and sweating from the nightmare. You quickly pulled up your sleeve and wiped your face before the either one could notice.
"What happened?" You asked, trying not to sound too panicked.
"I was having a nightmare again?" Sam replied honestly, but it sounded more like a question for Dean.
"Yeah, another one." He replied.
"Hey, at least I got some sleep." Sam joked which you did not find funny at all, but it made you scoff anyway. "What about you?" He asked  turning the conversation to you.
"Slept like a baby." You lied through your teeth. Even if they knew you were lying, they didn't question it and respected your privacy which you appreciated.
"You know sooner or later, we're gonna have to talk about this." Dean said diverting the conversation back to this brother.
"Are we here?" Sam asked ignoring Dean's words.
"Yeah, welcome to Toledo, Ohio." Dean replied making you groan. You grabbed the newspaper you were reading about the case before you fell asleep, looking at the circled articles, you asked.
"So what do you guys think really happened to this guy?" You asked the brothers.
"That's what we're gonna find out." Dean replied. The three of you got out of the car and started walking toward the morgue. The hospital was weirdly quiet, it's not like there's always noises in hospitals but it was just creepily quiet.
You looked the desk of the doctor but there was no one, just an open book. But you really didn't blame him, mean who wants to sit in a room surrounded by dead people 24/7. The nameplate on the desk said Dr. D. FEIKLOWICZ.
The coroner was there though and when he saw the 3 of you he looked up from his book and said 'Hey'. 'Hey' you greeted back cheerfully, knowing already it was time for you to use your charms, that is if it's necessary. "Can I help you guys?" He asked, eyes lingering at you for a few seconds.
"Yeah, we're the med students." Dean said and he looked at the 3 of you confusingly before saying "sorry?"
"Oh, Dr. Feiklowicz didn't tell you?" You asked like you were the most innocent creature on planet.
"We talked to him on the phone. We're from Ohio state. He's supposed to show us the shoemaker corpse. It's for a paper." Dean said backing up your story.
"I'm sorry. He's at lunch." He said.
"Oh, he said, oh, well, you know, it doesn't matter. You don't mind just showing us the body do you?" You asked with a sweet smile and leaned forward, he hesitated before answering. "Sorry, I can't. Doc will be back in an hour. You can wait for him if you want."
"An hour? Ooh, we gotta be heading back to Columbus." Dean said looking at you and Sam and you nodded with a pout. And Sam replied with an 'yeah'. "Look man. This paper is half our grade, so if you don't mind helping us-" Dean continued only to be stopped by the coroner. You knew he started growing annoyed as Dean started talking to him 'stead of you. "Oh, look, man....No." He said.
"I'm gonna hit him in his face, I swear." You heard Dean say, you turned around and gave them both a 'Let me handle this' look. They knew what you were about to do and you knew they hated it just as much as you do. You turned back around with a sweet smile, you leaned down making sure he got a clear view of your assets, you smiled at him even though it made you sick to the stomach.
"Look, what was your name again?"
"Ralph." He answered.
"Ralph. Wow, that's such a strong name, kind of like you." You said making him giggle and you could literally see the blush even on his bald head. "So Ralph, you have to understand, ok. This paper is really important for us, I can not afford to fail it. I mean eventually I have to come work at this hospital--"
"Really?"
"Yeah, but I can't do that if I fail this paper. I really need your help, would you really let me fail, Ralph?" You pouted and his eyes traveled up from your chest to your lips.
"Follow me." He said after a few secs getting up. You turned around with a victory smile only to see Sam and Dean glaring at his bald head. If glaring could kill he would already be dead a few times.
"For a record I really don't like you doing that." Dean said. "Yeah me too." Sam agreed as the 3 of you followed Ralph into the morgue.
"The newspaper said his daughter found him. She said his eyes were bleeding." Sam said.
"More than that. They practically liquefied." Ralph corrected Sam as he pulled off the cover from Steven shoemaker body. You scrunched your nose at the site of the body, god you are never gonna get used to it.
"Any sign of struggle, maybe somebody did it to him?" You asked.
"Nope. Besides the daughter, he was all alone." He replied.
"What's the official cause of death?" It was Dean's turn to ask a question.
"Uh, doc's not sure, he's thinking massive stroke, maybe aneurysm. Something burst up in there, that's for sure." Ralph, said. 
"What do you mean?" Sammy asked.
"Intense cerebral bleeding. This guy had more blood in his skull than anyone I've ever seen."
"But the eyes. What'd cause something like that?" Sam asked which you know the answer to but you were also sure it wasn't what happened, its never regular science, its always freaky ghosty stuff.
"Capillaries can burst, see a lot of bloodshot eyes with stroke victim." Ralph said, trying to sound smart in front if you.
"Yeah? You ever see exploding eyeballs?"  Dean asked.
"That's a first for me. But, hey, I'm not the doctor."
"Hey you think we could take a look at that police report? You know, for our paper?" Dean said.
"I'm not really suppose to show you that." He said.
"Ralph." You said with a pout and that was all it took for him to give you guys a copy of the police report.....Well that AND your number. Bobby's number to be honest but it's not like you're gonna meet him again.
"Might not be one of ours. Might be some freak medical thing." Sam said and you rolled your eyes at his naiveness, like it has ever been some freak medical thing in your entire lives.
"How many times in dad's long and varied career has it actually been a freak medical thing and not some sign of an awful supernatural death?" Dean asked as you guys made your way downstairs.
"Uh, almost never?"
"Exactly."
"Alright let's go talk to the daughter." You said as you guys entered the car. Dean started toward the shoemaker house where the funeral was held.
"By the way, did you really give him your number?" Sam asked and scrunched up  his nose.
"What? No, are you crazy? That was Bobby's number. And trust me, Bobby doesn't like when guys call him for me." You said making both the boys laugh.
"Uncle Fester's in for a surprise." Dean said, this time making you laugh. You know Bobby's gonna chew your head of for giving a guy his number, again. Yes, you've done it before, but you know that he would rather you give them his number than your's.
By the time Dean pulled up in front of the shoemaker, the funeral was already going on. There was a picture of Steven shoemaker on a table right when you walked in. The ceremony looked a little fancier than your liking.
"Feel like we are underdressed." Dean said while looking around. "Not me. Speak for yourself." You said and and Sam looked at your clothing only to realise you were wearing all black. From your tank top, to your Jeans to your shoes to your Jacket, everything was black.
You guys walked further inside the house and asked an elderly man for Donna shoemaker. He took you to the backyard if the house and pointed at 4 girls sitting. You walked up to them and you saw the blonde girl looking at Dean like he was a piece of meat and it made you glare at her.
"You must be Donna, right?" Dean asked one of the girls with short brown hair. "Yeah." She replied.
"Hi, uh, we're really sorry." You said awkwardly with a smile.
"I'm Sam. This is Dean, Alex. We worked with your dad." Sam said and you realised you had no idea what the fuck Steven shoemaker did.
"You did?" She asked in a surprising tone.
"Yeah, this whole thing.......I mean, a stroke."
"I don't think she really wants to talk about this right now." The less blonde girl, who was sitting beside Donna said "it's okay. I'm okay." Donna replied.
"Were there any symptoms? Dizziness? Migraines?" You asked jumping in on conversation. "No." Replied Donna.
"That's because it wasn't a stroke." a young girl turned toward Donna and said. she didn't look only older than thirteen. "Lilly don't say that." Donna said and you realised it was her younger sister, lily shoemaker.
"What?" Sam asked.
"I'm sorry. She's just upset." Donna apologised on behalf of her sister. "No it happened because of me." Lily said. "Sweetie it didn't."
"Lily why would you say something like that." Sam said as he knelt down beside her.
"Right before he died I said it."
"You said what?" Sam asked softly.
"Bloody Mary, 3 times in the bathroom mirror..... She took his eyes that's what she does." Her confession made you and Dean raise your eyebrows.
"That's not why dad died. This isn't your fault." Donna tried to convince her sister like any sane person.
"I think your sister's right, Lily."  You said.
"There's no way it could have been bloody Mary. And your dad didn't say it did he?"
"No I don't think so."
You walked back inside the house and somehow managed to sneak upstairs. You opened a door to realise it was the bathroom where Steven died. There was still some dried blood left on the floor.
"The bloody Mary legend. Dad ever find any evidence that it was a real thing." Sam said, already he was talking to Dean.
"Not that I know off." Dean replied walking further I side the bathroom.
"I mean... Everywhere else, all over the country  kids play Bloody Mary. And as far as we know nobody dies from it."
"Maybe everywhere it's just a story but here it's actually happening." Dean and Sam converse as you stayed silent.
"The place where the legend began?" Sam asked and you opened up a cabinet where the mirror was. "But according to the legend, the person who says..." Sam stopped when he saw the mirror right in front of his face. He closed the cabinet making you pour at him. "The person who says you know what, gets it. But here--"
"Shoemaker gets it instead." You completed his sentence, breaking your silence. "Right."
"Never heard anything like that before. Still, the guy did die right in front of the mirror. And the daughter's right. I mean, the way that the legend goes, you know who, scratches your eyes out." Dean said.
"Now what? We can't take her name, what is she? Lord voldemort?" You scoffed at your own joke.
"It's worth checking into." Sam said and right then you heard clicking of heels against the floor. Before you could sneak out of there the less blond girl from before walked inside 'what was her name again?'
"What are you doing up here?" She asked as she looked at the brothers and then at you.
"Who are you?" She asked straight forward.
"Like we said downstairs, we-we worked for Donna's dad." Dean replied.
"He was a day trader or something. He worked by himself."
"No, I know, i-i  meant--"
"And all those weird question downstairs.. what was that? So you tell me what's going on or I start screaming." She said and you felt this sudden urge to punch her in the face and break her teeth.
You crossed your arms across your chest with a challenging look on your face. You were about to make a snarky comment but Sam stopped you and Dean was already holding you back knowing it he doesn't you'd actually punch her.
"Alright, alright." Sam said, giving you a look. "We think something happened to Donna's dad."
"Yeah, a stroke." She replied sassily but you could see that she was afraid of you.
"That's not the sign of a typical stroke. We think it was something else." Sam explained to her.
"Like what?"
"Honestly. We don't know yet. But we don't want it to happen to anyone else. That's the truth."
"So, if you're gonna scream go right ahead."  You said knowing she wouldn't dare.
"Who are you? Cops?" She asked and you looked at the boys.
"Something like that."
"I'll tell you what, here if you think of anything, you or your friends notice anything strange, out of the ordinary, just give us a call." Sam wrote down his number on a piece of paper and handed it to her. After that the 3 of you left the shoemaker's house.
"Alright. Say Bloody Mary really is haunting this town there's gonna be some sort of proof right? A local woman who died nasty." Dean said as you guys walked into the library and looked around the stacks of books.
"Yeah, but a legend this widespread, it's hard. I mean, there's like 50 versions of who she actually is. One story says she's a witch another says she's a mutilated bride. There's a lot more." You said as you walked further inside.
"Ok so what are we supposed to be looking for?" Dean asked and this time sam was the one who answered "well, every version's got things in common. It's always a woman named Mary. She always dies right in front of a mirror. So we gotta search local newspapers, public records as far back as they go, see if we can find a Mary who fits the bill."  Sam said making you groan.
"Well that sounds annoying." You said and Dean nodded in agreement. "No, it won't be so bad and it won't be bad at all for you, you love reading, as long as we...." He stopped mid sentence when he saw all the computer in the library were out of order. It made you groan even louder. Sam scoffed and said. "I take it back, this will be very annoying."
When you guys got back from the library Sam fell asleep after a bit of research, and like the really good people the two of you are, you let him. You and Dean were on research duty, which usually excites you but not when you go at it for hours and find nothing.
"I can't find shit!" You suddenly exclaim out loud making Dean jump and he glared at you. "Sorry." You apologized before shutting your book and putting it aside. You got up and walked toward him. "You found anything?" you asked, sitting beside the older Winchester, his eyes never left you.
"Nothing." He replied softly. You put your head on his shoulder and closed your eyes for a second, but opening them back again before his face could come and haunt you. "I'm tired." You said softly. The longest you slept this whole week was for an hour and you knew that Dean was aware of that.
"Take a nap ." He suggested and pressed his nose against your hair, sniffing them slightly.
"I can't." 'i can't, because every time I close my eyes I see him.' you didn't dare to say it though.
"Why?" He asked with a frown.
"Because, I can't just leave you alone here for researching can I? You'll go crazy." You said, it wasn't  a complete lie though. You knew the only reason Dean Winchester was sitting silently doing his research was that you were with him, otherwise he would go crazy, surrounded by so many books  alone. Before he could fire back any remark Sam woke up with a loud gasp, taking you by surprise.
"Why'd you let me fall asleep?" Sam asked in a gruff voice.
"Because I'm an awesome brother." Dean said and you have to say you have no doubt about it. "so what did you dream about?" Dean asked.
"Lollipops and candy canes." He replied in a monotone.
"And unicorns?" You asked in hopes of lightening mood a bit, they both let out a small chuckle.
"And Unicorns.... Anyway you guys find anything?"
"Beside a whole new level of frustration? Nothing." You said with a groan.
"We looked at everything. A few local women, a Laura and a Catherine committed suicide in front of a mirror and a giant mirror fell on a guy named Dave but uh...No Mary." Dean said referring to the newspaper arrivals you showed him at least half an hour ago.
"Maybe we just haven't found it yet." Sam said
"I've also been searching for strange deaths in the area you know, eyeball bleeding, that sort of thing, but there's nothing. Whatever's happening here maybe just ain't Mary." Dean said and as he finished Sam's phone started ringing.
"Hello." Sam said as he picked up the phone "Charlie?"
*******
Part 2
Taglist : @rach5ive @paintballkid711 @chubby-dumplin @hobby27 @colie87 @iilooveereadiingfiics @spnchick1996 @greenarrowhead @for-a-brothers-love @deanw-is-pretty @puppies-make-me-extra-happy @eternaleviee
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meliecho · 5 years
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The 1K - an original sci-fi story
The 1K
by Meliecho
Story Summary:
1,000 children between the ages of 6-18 are abducted from Earth mere hours before the turn of the 21st century, and scattered across the galaxy in order to preserve their lives, their planet, and a precious hope the galaxy so severely needs. William Kade and Terra Kitridge are two of these children. This is their story, and the story of how they are used to further a last-ditch plan of desperation to end a 2,000 year war between the two major galactic powers.
Chapter 1
chapter summary: 
William Kade always dreamed of traveling to space. However, his and 999 other kids's lives are changed dramatically when an unknown alien race kidnaps them hours before the turn of the 21st century.
Chapter 1
December 18th, 1999. Ohio. Earth…
The chunky television in the living room played a news report through the old farmhouse.
“What’s out there? No one really knows. Man has speculated for centuries, mapped our star system, named the planets, and created gods in order to explain the vastness surrounding our blue world.”
Will watched from the round dinner table through the archway between the rooms. He shoveled a spoonful of Mac and Cheese into his mouth, barely registering the fact that it was food and not just a simple motion. The ten-year-old’s attention rested solely on the screen. His big brown eyes took in every frame.
“We look up at the stars, we listen to Carl Sagan’s speak of the cosmos, and study Stephen Hawking’s discoveries. We dream about what we might encounter among the billions of stars burning in the heavens, and we send satellites into orbit and beyond to be our eyes and ears into the unknown. The Hubble telescope has already shown us incredible images we would never have otherwise witnessed. Why? Because we are earthbound. But although we are young, we are curious and brave. In the words of Carl Sagan, ‘We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads. But to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact.’
“That is what drives the path-finding team of scientists and engineers at NASA. With the invention of the new Solar Nexus - a net of satellites in high orbit maintained by the International Space Station--, we can harness energy from our sun to power the world’s first inter-system ship. This ship will be capable of transporting not only goods and machinery to our closest neighbor, Mars, but transporting people, and someday, be the vessel that leads us into a new age of a lunar colony and life among the stars.
“The prototype --the Nova Star-- will be open to the public at Cape Canaveral for only one day. Scientists, astronomers, and space enthusiasts from all over the world will gather to get an up-close-and-personal look...at the future of mankind.
“Join us on New Years Eve for a live broadcast as we take you on a tour of Earth’s first inter-system vessel, and usher in the new millennium--”
The picture winked out.
“Dad,” Will whined, “I was watching that.”
“It’s daydreams and nonsense,” his father flicked the paper, folded it, and rested it by his own plate.
“It’s cool! We can have a space ship! We can explore the galaxy and be like Indiana Jones, but in space!”
“Indiana Jones fought Nazis. Not aliens,” his father countered.
“We don’t know that. Those face-melting angels were probably aliens. They went after the Nazis all like, ‘Rawr!’ And they were all like, ‘wuuaaah! Blaarrrgg!’” Will dragged his fingers down his face, making guttural sounds and pretending to melt into a puddle of goo.
“No face melting at the table,” his mother chided gently. “It’s hard to get out of the carpet.”
Will stopped the dramatics of a grim death-by-ancient-relic, and went back to eating. “Can we watch it on New Years Eve?”
“We always watch Dick Clark. It’s a tradition.”
“Yeah, but,” Will’s voice huffed with the blandness of repetition, “this is cooler than an old man! It’s space! Please, dad?”
“Charlie, let’s watch it,” his mother nudged her husband in the side. “Even if the space ship doesn’t work out, I have to admit it is pretty neat. Like when Kirk landed the Enterprise in the middle of San Francisco.”
Charlie rolled his eyes. He knew his wife was a sci-fi nerd, but he’d hoped she’d at least settle down some after Will was born. Thanks to her, he now knows most of the script to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and Star Wars IV, V, and VI.
“See? Mom gets it,” the young boy gave a cocky smile in victory. “Oh! I forgot. Last night, I picked up that weird signal again over the radio.”
“I listened to it once already. It’s white noise.” Charlie said.
“No it’s not! There’s a weird blippy pattern to it.” Will spoke around a mouthful of macaroni and cheese. “Noise is all ‘kkkrrrrr!’ This was all ‘kkkrr beep boop bleep!’ and something that sounds like a million people talking at once. I read that stars emit radio waves. Maybe this was--”
“Noise.”
“It wasn’t noise!”
“I was a member of the US Signal Corp for 20 years. When I gave you my old CB radio, I wanted you to learn how to navigate the airwaves. Not keep your head in the clouds.” He picked up the paper. “Besides. If it’s that important, the boys at NASA probably already picked it up. If it’s something of serious importance, I’d have gotten a call.”
“You were their best decoder, dad. Can you listen to it again? Please?”
“Leave it alone, Will.”
Will reached over for the remote, but his dad smacked his hand away with the paper. He grumbled, pouted, and said, “Whatever. Not like you’d believe me anyway.”
“Will,” his mother scolded.
Charlie leaned forward. “Repeat yourself, son. I don’t think I heard that,” but by his tone, the muffled slight clearly reached him.
Will glanced up to his dad, but kept his mouth shut.
Charlie reclined back in the chair again. “That’s what I thought. Go to your room.”
Will’s jaw dropped. “But--”
“Now!”
Silenced, Will slammed the spoon against the plate. The chair scratched against the old cube-print linoleum floor as his feet thundered up the stairs. The sound of his bedroom door slamming against its frame echoed downstairs.
Molly sighed. “Every time. Why can’t you two get along?”
“We have to fix the problems here on the ground before we go looking for problems out there,” Charlie’s face softened. “He needs to understand that. If we can’t fix ourselves, we can’t go anywhere.”
“It’s because NASA built the ship, isn’t it,” she uttered softly, knowing full well she was treading on emotional hot coals. “It’s been three years. When are you going to let this go?”
“Hughs is an idiot if he thinks this will work. He doesn’t see the big picture. He never did.” Charlie dropped the paper onto the round kitchen table -- signaling that the conversation was over --, picked up the remote, and moved to the living room recliner to watch a football game.
Molly picked up her son’s half-finished dinner. “Maybe letting him dream is a way to fix ourselves.” She covered his plate in plastic wrap and stuck it in the refrigerator. Her son could down twice this much food in one sitting. He would be hungry later.
* * * *
Will turned on his small t.v., picked up his SNES controller, and dropped cross-legged on the floor surrounded by dirty clothes strewn across the rug. The sounds of Super Mario World covered the silence. Snow drifted lazily to the ground outside the window, so he couldn’t go lay out on a blanket in the backyard like he usually would and get lost staring up at the stars. Well, he could, but he didn’t want to get pneumonia before Christmas.
He abandoned Blue Yoshi at the Star Road bonus level and shut off the game. Curious and a little bored, he turned on the old military radio and worked the dials carefully. He listened through monitor headphones too big for his head for a half hour before finally tossing them onto his desk in frustration. Nothing. Maybe his dad was right. Maybe it was just noise.
----
December 31st, 1999. New Years Eve…
Y2K theories had circulated for years. No one knew where it started, but the concept that the Earth’s fledgling internet, and every digital system on the planet would shut down frightened some enough into preparing for Dooms Day. Most people shrugged it off and went about their lives. Others feared the global shut down would set off every nuclear weapon on the planet, wiping out humanity. But everyone knew that instant ramen manufacturers had never seen a greater profit rise in the entirety of their companies’ existence.
Will didn’t buy into any of that, no matter how much the old people in their small town ranted about the end of days. He was sure the clocks would just turn over, and that would be it. He and his mother had gone to the local market to pick up a few groceries, but found that the apocalypse preppers had bought all the milk, most of the meat, a ton of non perishable goods, and first aid.
Frustrated, she purchased what she could, and made the trip in their SUV to the next town. Fortunately, they fared a little better. They enjoyed lunch at a local Denny’s, and made it home to have an uneventful night
That is, until 11pm rolled around.
Will was over the back of the couch in seconds, and had the t.v. tuned into the news. The reporter had just started going on about the details of the Nova Star. Will was entranced. He was so excited, he’d put on his long sleeved black henley with a small NASA logo to feel like he was part of it. “This is awesome! Hey, dad, aren’t those the guys you worked with?”
“Some of them. There’s some new faces.” Charlie put on his jacket and went to the backyard to chop wood. He’d tried to let his son enjoy this, but he didn’t want to have anything to do with the Nova Star project anymore, not even watching them parade their work to the media.
Molly sat next to her son with a bowl of popcorn. Will didn’t hesitate to take a massive handful and shove it into his mouth as he watched the tour of the Nova Star begin.
With everything that her only child held an interest in --video games, computers, that old radio-- they had their shared love of space, and Indiana Jones.
The media crew had lead their viewers through the cockpit and down to the living quarters of the ship, showing off all of the exciting wonders of the newest space-faring technology when all the lights in the house went out. It plunged the remote homestead into darkness.
The shock of sudden darkness sent fear spearing up Will’s spine. He knocked over the popcorn bowl and curled up around a pillow.
“Molly? Everything all right?” Charlie called in through the back door.
“We’re fine!” Molly called back.
“I’m checking the fuse box. Bring a light!”
“I’ll be right there!” She brushed her hand over Will’s hair. “It’s ok, Will, it’s just a power outage. Probably a tree branch took out a power line. It happens in winter.” She knew that even though he could pick up almost any insect, amphibian, and fearlessly explore the areas around their house, the only thing that would terrify him was complete and absolute darkness.
She felt her way to the kitchen to get a spare flashlight out of the junk drawer and handed it to him. He turned it on.
“Guard the house, Indiana. I’ll be right back.” Molly ruffled his dark hair and got a second flashlight and her coat from the entryway closet. She went out back to help her husband check the fuse box.
Molly held the flashlight as her husband flicked all the switches.
“Well, the fuses check out. There’s just no power,” Charlie threw each switch again for good measure.
“I was right. It was probably a downed tree.” She turned off the light and walked out to the backyard. She folded her arms tightly around her middle for warmth. Without the convection layer of clouds, it made being outside that much colder.
Charlie put his arm around her. “So much for New Years Eve; Dick Clark, spaceships, or otherwise.”
Her eyes rested on the arm of the Milky Way galaxy draping through the center of the clear night sky. “You know, without all the lights, it’s really beautiful.”
Charlie exhaled. “Yeah.”
“What arm are we in again?”
“The Orion-Cygnus arm. We’re not facing the core of the galaxy right now, but we will in summer.”
“Will comes out here, you know. He’ll sit out here and just stare.”
“Mmhmm. You used to do that as a kid, too. He gets his love of space from you.”
“No,” she shook her head. “He gets his love of nerd stuff from me. He gets his sense of adventure from you.”
He chuckled at that. “A hell of a combination.”
“Well, look who he’s combined from,” she smirked.
He chuckled at that.
“Maybe the new century is a good time to start a new resolution. Start off small. Who knows what he can do if we let him.”
“Molly…”
“He’s smart, Charlie. Work with him. Take him to NASA. If you want him to see the world that you think needs fixing, then show him. He might be the one to fix it, but he needs you. As smart as he is, he can’t do it alone.” She brushed her hand down his face, feeling the stubble of facial hair beneath her palm. “None of us can.”
Charlie grumbled. NASA’s headquarters wasn’t a place for kids, but she was right. It was part of the real world, and Will needed to see it. “Fine. I’ll take him after the holidays. But if anybody asks, this was your idea.”
She smiled and leaned in closely. “I’ll take full responsibility.”
He couldn’t help but kiss her and run his fingers through her long black hair. That gentle smile always warmed his heart.
The two stared up at the sky for a moment before she shivered and nudged her husband to head back.
A pulse of red light struck them in the back, and Charlie and Molly fell to the snow.
* * * *
Will scooted off the couch, keeping a vice grip on the flashlight. This was his home -- he’d lived here since birth -- but in the darkness, it felt like he’d entered another realm.
The house creaked around him. He spun, looking for whatever made that sound, then shook his head. “Get a grip, you dumb dork.”
A light static and crackle split the deathly silence. He aimed his flashlight at the stairs and swallowed. That sounded like his radio. He should check it out. Indiana Jones wouldn’t run away.
Will’s feet didn’t move for a good ten seconds.
Stealing his resolve, he went upstairs to his room.
The green light of the radio exuded a dull, eerie glow throughout the room. What scared him more were the sounds coming from the radio itself. Without power, the light shouldn’t be on, let alone the radio receiving a signal. His heart pounding with fear, but his curiosity overpowering it, he turned the knob to clarify the signal. The electronic beeps were still present, but were more like morse code than before. He could pick out different letters, enough to hear ‘246. Kade,’ but any speech in the background remained unfamiliar syllables and plosives.
Kade... That was his last name, but what did 246 mean? Someone out there was using morse code and talking about them for some reason. He had to tell his dad. This was definitely not noise.
Abandoning his fear, Will hurried downstairs, put on his winter coat and boots, and rushed outside into the cold snow. His warm breath clouded in the air. “Dad! You gotta hear this! Dad!” He ran around to the back of the house to the fuse box. “Dad? Mom?” They were gone. No one was there. Will shone his flashlight on the ground. The melted snow beneath the overhang protecting that part of the house showed their footprints walking away.
He peaked around the corner. “Mom?”
His parents lay on their backs with their eyes open.
“Mom! Dad!” Will hurried as fast as his small legs could carry him to the middle of the large yard. He dropped at his father’s side. “Dad! Are you ok?! Mom!”
Neither moved, but light puffs of warm air escaped their mouths. They were alive, just paralyzed. Charlie’s mouth moved slightly. “Run,” he whispered.
“Dad, no!” Will pulled on his father’s hand to try to pull him to his feet.
Charlie’s hand trembled as he fought the bind. Molly twitched beside him, fighting her own battle.
A glaring light lit up the wintery yard, blinding him. Will covered his eyes and stumbled back. He blinked upward as enormous lights shown down on their position.
“Run!” Charlie screamed.
Will instantly took off across the yard. A red pulse hit the snow at his right, forcing him to dodge in an arch. He evaded one more hit to his left, but the third landed its mark. Will’s entire body froze. He struggled to move even a finger, but it had him completely paralyzed.
A rush of warm air blasted the snow into swirls of white clouds around them. Will faced the lights from a craft larger than his house as a long ramp lowered and a single individual descended it quickly. It looked like a man in a dark armored uniform, but his face was covered by a protective mask with orange tinted eyewear.
Will’s heart threatened to explode from his chest as he breathed rapidly in fear.
The man passed a scanner over Will’s wide brown eyes, then spoke. The language mirrored that of the transmission Will had received off and on for the past few weeks.
A sharp pain pricked in the soft space behind his right ear. Will let out a small squeak of surprise. He felt a tingle brush through his mind like someone had taken a feather and gently swiped it all over his brain. The sensation died seconds later.
The man said something to him.
Will couldn’t think straight.
Irritated, the man rolled his eyes, grumbled, and then said it again, more impatiently.
Will’s eyes shifted to stare at his mother and father fighting the paralysis.
The man said something else in frustration then gave up and picked him up.
Will wanted to fight, but his body refused to obey him. He watched his parents helplessly as he was carried up the ramp. The panic built, and he did the only thing his body would allow: he let out a terrified, wordless scream. The ramp closed, shutting his parents and home out of sight.
The ship’s atmospheric thrusters sent more snow clouds billowing through the air as it rose above the trees, pivoted, and disappeared across the sky.
All of this took no more than two minutes.
Molly and Charlie were left alone in the winter stillness of their yard. They could move enough to grip each other’s hands as the bind gradually wore off, but remained in the cold staring at the empty sky.
The power returned ten minutes later.
They continued to lay there even as the news switched over to the countdown.
“...5...4...3...2...1…”
A hot tear streaked down Molly’s face to drip into the snow. “HAPPY NEW YEAR!”
* * * *
tbc
* * * *
((I really wish I could translate what the alien said as he carried Will into the ship, but it would break the mood. The alien said, “246 Acquired. Let’s go. It’s colder than tits out here.”))
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patriotsnet · 3 years
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Who Will Be Speaker Of The House If Republicans Win
New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-will-be-speaker-of-the-house-if-republicans-win/
Who Will Be Speaker Of The House If Republicans Win
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Weakening Of The Investigations Against Trump
Pelosi Says She Will Not Let Republican ‘Antics’ Interfere With Jan. 6 Committee
If Democrats dont control the House or the Senate, they cant initiate investigations of Trump or some of his more controversial cabinet members, such as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.
More importantly, after the 2018 elections, the electoral process will recede as a constraint on the president and GOP in terms of the Russia investigation at least for a while.
We dont really know why Trump, despite his constant criticisms of the investigation, has not fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or why he has not directly tried to stop the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller. Maybe Trump, despite his rhetoric, has some real respect for the rule of law. I think its more likely that Trump understands that firing Rosenstein or making a drastic move to stop the Mueller probe would increase both the chances of Democrats winning the House and/or Senate this year, and the odds that the resulting Democratic-led chamber would feel compelled to push to impeach Trump. But if the GOP emerges from 2017 and 2018 without losing control of the House or the Senate, I suspect that, with the next election two years away, the president will feel freer to take controversial steps to end the Russia probe. And I doubt Republicans on Capitol Hill would try to stop him.
List Of Speakers Of The United States House Of Representatives
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The speaker of the United States House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House, and is simultaneously the body’s presiding officer, the de facto leader of the body’s majority party, and the institution’s administrative head. Speakers also perform various administrative and procedural functions, all in addition to representing their own congressional district. Given these several roles and responsibilities, the speaker usually does not personally preside over debates. That duty is instead delegated to members of the House from the majority party. Neither does the speaker regularly participate in floor debates. Additionally, the speaker is second in the presidential line of succession, after the vice president and ahead of the president pro tempore of the Senate.
The House elects a new speaker by roll call vote when it first convenes after a general election for its two-year term, or when a speaker dies, resigns or is removed from the position intra-term. A majority of votes cast is necessary to elect a speaker. If no candidate receives a majority vote, then the roll call is repeated until a speaker is elected. The Constitution does not require the speaker to be an incumbent member of the House, although every speaker thus far has been.
Cbs News Projects Hickenlooper Wins Colorado Senate Seat Democrats’ First Pickup
Democrats picked up their first Senate seat of the night, with CBS News projecting former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has defeated incumbent GOP Senator Cory Gardner. Hickenlooper decided to run for Senate after running briefly in the Democratic presidential primary.
Gardner was considered one of the most vulnerable Republican senators up for reelection this year, especially since he’s the only major statewide elected GOP official. Gardner has also been trailing Hickenlooper in polls leading up to Election Day.
While this is a victory for Democrats, they will have to pick up several other seats to gain a majority in the Senate.
Read Also: When Did The Republicans And Democrats Switch
Pelosi Says It Doesn’t Matter Right Now If She’ll Seek Another Term As Speaker Beyond 2022
 In a press call, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot down a question about whether this upcoming term would be her last as speaker, calling it the “least important question you could ask today.” She added that “the fate of our nation, the soul of the nation” is at stake in the election.
“Elections are about the future,” Pelosi said. “One of these days I’ll let you know what my plans are, when it is appropriate and when it matters. It doesn’t matter right now.”
After the 2018 election, Pelosi agreed to term limits on Democratic leaders that would prevent her from serving as speaker beyond 2022.
How Maine And Nebraska’s Split Electoral Votes Could Affect The Election
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As the race drags into Wednesday, it appears two congressional districts in Maine and Nebraska could prove pivotal in deciding the outcome of the election.
Maine and Nebraska are the only states in the nation that split their electoral votes. Maine awards two of its four electoral votes to the statewide winner, but also allocates an electoral vote to the popular vote winner in each of its two congressional districts. Nebraska gives two of its five electoral votes to the statewide winner, with the remaining three going to the popular vote winner in each of its three congressional districts.
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Pelosi Wins Tight Race For House Speaker
Pelosi, 80, is the only woman to ever serve as speaker.
Nancy Pelosi re-elected for House Speaker
The House of Representatives has narrowly reelected Nancy Pelosi as speaker with 216 votes, giving the California Democrat a fourth – and likely final – term leading the House.
Pelosi, 80, is the third speaker in the last 25 years to win with less than 218 votes, after former Republican Speakers Newt Gingrich and Paul Ryan. Five Democrats did not support Pelosi on the floor, and instead voted for alternative candidates or “present.”
After seizing the gavel, Pelosi said the “most urgent priority” of the 117th Congress will be defeating the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Two weeks ago, we passed an emergency relief package to crush the virus and put money in the pockets of workers and families, which is now the law. But we must do more to recognize our heroes,” she said Sunday. “Indeed, the pandemic has pulled back the curtain on even worsened disparities in our economy and our society. We must pursue justice: economic justice, justice in health, racial justice, environmental and climate justice.”
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, won unanimous support from the Republican conference garnering 209 votes on the floor.
Still, many new members were spotted with friends and family members around the Capitol.
Roy was shut down 371-2.
Grumblings From Within The Gop Could Cause Long
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois has been a pointed critic of Trump’s conduct on January 6, and alongside Cheney, was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president for his role in provoking the Capitol attack.
Kinzinger, who was first elected to the House in 2010, was dismayed by Cheney’s removal from leadership.
“Liz may lose, and MAGA-lago may celebrate,” he tweeted on May 12. “But I predict that the history books of the future will not celebrate. They will say this was the low point of the Republican Party.”
The congressman has increasingly directed his ire toward McCarthy.
He added: “Liz stayed consistent. She didn’t look for opportunities to attack Jan. 6, but as conference chair she does press and is naturally asked about it. She responds truthfully. Kevin? He felt threatened, so instead of fighting for his job he went on offense against Liz.”
Kinzinger then said that McCarthy wants to be speaker so badly that he’ll do anything to appease the far-right Freedom Caucus, filled with bombastic Trump loyalists like Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Louie Gohmert of Texas.
“Kevin … made the determination that if he appeased the Trump crowd, he could raise money and take the credit, when he was up for speaker,” Kinzinger wrote. “He also assumes that people like me will vote for him for speaker, but the legislative terrorists in the Freedom Club wouldn’t, so he needs to be all in with them.”
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Why Democrats Struggled More Than Expected In Some House Races
Its too early to say exactly what went wrong for House Democrats, who broadly hoped to comfortably expand their majority.District-level internal party polling had shown Republicans with the potential to lose even more seats in 2020.
Many Republican strategists had resigned themselves to the possibility that their House ranks could decrease. Instead, Republicans were the ones making gains albeit modest enough ones to stay the minority party in the House.
Cook Political Reports House editor Dave Wasserman had some early thoughts on Wednesday: Just like Biden, Democratic congressional candidates suffered losses among Hispanic voters in key races. Democrats had bad nights particularly in Florida and Texas; they lost a couple of incumbents in Florida and didnt defeat a single Republican incumbent in Texas, despite making a massive investment in the state to target 10 districts.
Republicans also learned from their losses in 2018 and recruited top-tier women candidates, who were on a winning streak.
After last night, Republicans are on track to more than double their current count of 13 women, Wasserman wrote.
These outcomes all elude a clean narrative. Its difficult to say early on how much is based on strategic error, and how much is owed to the bizarre nature of this election year amid a pandemic that significantly hampered Democrats ability to do basic campaigning tasks like door-knocking.
Gop Chatter About Possibly Electing Trump As House Speaker Grows
Former Speaker Boehner Discusses GOP’s Future, U.S. Political Division | NBC Nightly News
A Fox host asked House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy late last week whether he’d support electing Donald Trump as Speaker of the House. The answer raised a few eyebrows.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was asked Friday about the possibility of Trump becoming Speaker of the House if Republicans win control of the chamber in the 2022 midterms…. “You know, I’ve talked to President Trump many times, he tells me he wants to be speaker, and I think he should be president,” McCarthy told Fox News.
It wasn’t long before McCarthy’s office clarified that he’d misspoken during the interview: McCarthy meant that Trump supported the California congressman’s bid for Speaker, not that the former president wanted the job for himself.
That said, the question that prompted the confusion didn’t come out of nowhere.
Steve Bannon, who used to advise the former president, seemed to get the ball rolling on this, recently touting a scenario in which House Republicans take back the majority next year and support Trump as their new Speaker. Under the fanciful hypothetical, once Trump held the gavel, he could start exacting revenge against those who defeated him, launching investigations into imagined scandals, and initiating impeachment proceedings against President Biden and Vice President Harris.
Soon after, Trump was asked about the idea and replied, “That’s so interesting…. Yeah, you know it’s very interesting…. It’s very interesting.”
Chatter in conservative media soon followed.
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House Republicans Vow To Vote Against Raising Debtceiling
U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
More than 100 House Republicans have vowed to vote against raising the debt ceiling. In a letter released on Monday, a group of 103 lawmakers said in order for Democrats multi-trillion spending plans to come to fruition, the debt limit would have to be significantly increased.
They contended a vote to raise the debt ceiling would imply consent to new spending. The lawmakers also made it clear Democrats alone were responsible for the effort to spend trillions.
We do not accept Pelosis agenda. We will not be on the hook for Bidens failures, and we sure as hell do not consent to this kind of reckless, wasteful, useless spending in our nations capital.
Gop Women Made Big Gains
While the majority of the Republican caucus will still be men come 2021, there will be far more Republican women in Congress than there were this year. So far, it looks like at least 26 GOP women will be in the House next year, surpassing the record of 25 from the 109th Congress. Thats thanks in part to the record number of non-incumbent Republican women 15 whove won House contests. And its also because of how well Republican women did in tight races. The table below shows the Republican women who ran in Democratic-held House districts that were at least potentially competitive,1 according to FiveThirtyEights forecast. As of this writing, seven of them have won.
GOP women have flipped several Democratic seats
Republican women running for potentially competitive Democratic-held House seats and the status of their race as of 4:30 p.m Eastern on Nov. 11
District D+22.1
Results are unofficial. Races are counted as projected only if the projection comes from ABC News. Excludes races in which the Republican candidate has either a less than 1 in 100 chance or greater than 99 in 100 chance of winning.
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New Yorkers Become First Black And Openly Gay Members Of Congress
 Tuesday night will be historic in part because of the diversity of candidates elected to the House. Democrats Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones, both of New York, are the first Black and openly gay members of Congress.
Meanwhile, Republican Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina is leading in North Carolina’s 11th district, a safe Republican seat. Cawthorn, 25, won the June primary against a Trump-backed candidate for the seat vacated by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows . He has come under fire for visiting Hitler’s retreat and for his campaign launching a website which included a racist broadside against his Democratic opponent.
Us House Speaker Pelosi Names Republican Kinzinger To Jan 6 Panel
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WASHINGTON, July 25 – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday formally named Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger to serve on a select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
Kinzinger, Pelosi said in a statement, “brings great patriotism to the committees mission: to find the facts and protect our democracy.”
It was unclear whether she would name additional Republicans. Earlier in the day, Pelosi was interviewed on ABC’s “This Week” and said that other Republicans also had expressed interest in working on the panel.
Kinzinger, 43, is an Air Force veteran and an outspoken critic of Trump. He was one of seven House Republicans who voted with Democrats to impeach Trump earlier this year on a charge of inciting an insurrection at the Capitol.
He now joins fellow Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney on the panel as it prepares to hold its first hearing on Tuesday on the deadly attack.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who initially said Trump bore responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack that brought the worst violence at the Capitol since the War of 1812, has since mended his relationship with Trump as the two attempt to win Republican control of Congress in the 2022 elections.
Representative Adam Kinzinger speaks during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 10, 2021. Ting Shen/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Its Not All Bad News For Democrats
While it was unquestionably a good night for Republicans, Democrats still held onto most of the seats they won in 2018 and will continue to be the majority party in the House. Thats in part because they retained most of the suburban districts they picked up in 2018.
Of the 233 seats that Democrats held coming into the election,2 186 of them were in districts that were predominantly or partly suburban in nature, according to density categorizations by Bloombergs CityLab. Thus far, Democrats have lost seven of those seats, but they captured one GOP-held suburban seat around Atlanta. And thanks to redistricting, theyve also won two formerly Republican seats around Greensboro and Raleigh in North Carolina, which reflect the partys strength in more populous areas.
Because of their relative success in the suburbs, Democrats kept many seats in places President Trump won in 2016. Coming into the election, Democrats held 30 seats in districts Trump carried in 2016, and they wouldve lost their majority if theyd lost more than half of them . But theyve won 18 of them so far and picked up one from the GOP . In fact, more than half of Republicans gains have come in seats representing places that Trump won by a pretty sizable margin in 2016. Well have to wait a bit before data can tell us how congressional districts voted in 2020,3 but for now it seems many Republican gains were made by picking off the lowest-hanging fruit.
Maine Senate Race A Toss
 With polls closing at 8 p.m., the hotly contested Maine Senate race remains a toss-up. Senator Susan Collins, running for her fifth term, is considered one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate, but she is facing considerable skepticism from Democrats and independents who previously supported her. State Speaker of the House Sara Gideon is the Democratic candidate, and has posted record fundraising.
CBS News projects that Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts have both won reelection. Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma also won reelection.
The Alabama Senate race is leaning toward Republican Tommy Tuberville, who is taking on incumbent Senator Doug Jones, the most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate. 
The Tennessee Senate race is also leaning Republican. The Mississippi Senate race is likely Republican. The Senate races in New Hampshire, Illinois, and Rhode Island are lean Democratic, and New Jersey is likely Democratic.
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Mcconnell Not Troubled At All By Trump’s Suggestion Of Supreme Court Challenge
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended Mr. Trump for falsely claiming that he won reelection, although he acknowledged that the presidential race had not yet been decided.
“It’s not unusual for people to claim they have won the election. I can think of that happening on numerous occasions,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky. “But, claiming to win the election is different from finishing the counting.”
“Claiming to win the election is different from finishing the counting,” Mitch McConnell says, adding that Americans “should not be shocked” that Democrats and Republicans are both lawyering up for the close races
CBS News
He also said he was “not troubled at all” by the president suggesting that the outcome of the election might be determined by the Supreme Court. The president cannot unilaterally bring a case to the Supreme Court, what it’s unclear what case the Trump campaign would have if it challenged the counting of legally cast absentee ballots.
McConnell, who won his own closely watched reelection race on Tuesday evening, expressed measured confidence about Republicans maintaining their majority in the Senate. He said he believed there is a “chance we will know by the end of the day” if Republicans won races in states like Georgia and North Carolina.
Trump’s Save America Pac Released A Photo Showing The Former President Meeting With House Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy On January 28 2021 Save America Pac Mccarthy Gets A Mixed Reception From Trumpworld
NBC Projects Democrats Take Control Of House | NBC News
Trump continues to hold immense sway over conservatives, and House Republicans delivered an easy victory for Stefanik in becoming the party’s Conference Chair last week, despite her having a more moderate voting record than Cheney.
Loyalty to Trump, which Stefanik displayed in lending credence to the former president’s grievances regarding the 2020 presidential election, is a true tenet of being accepted in his orbit.
Only weeks after the January 6 Capitol riot and Trump’s impeachment by the House, McCarthy made a sojourn to the former president’s residence at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, even taking a smiling photo with him.
However, according to a report from Insider’s Tom LoBianco and Warren Rojas, some loyalists in Trumpworld view McCarthy with a heap of skepticism.
A Trump advisor recently told the former president that McCarthy likely wouldn’t lock up the requisite number of votes to obtain the speakership if the GOP regains the majority in 2022.
“He’s left too many people unhappy and unsettled and time is not on his side,” the advisor told Insider.
However, a veteran GOP strategist with close ties to Trump who spoke to Insider noted that McCarthy was a stellar fundraiser who backed the former president in a very public way in ousting Cheney from her leadership role.
“He’s not gotten crosswise with Trump,” the strategist said.
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Trump’s Former Physician Wins House Seat
Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician who served under both Presidents Trump and Obama, has won his race in Texas’ 13th Congressional District. Jackson rose to prominence in 2018 when he gave a glowing press conference about Mr. Trump’s health.
Mr. Trump nominated Jackson to be Veterans Affairs secretary last year, but Jackson withdrew amid allegations that he drank on the job and over-prescribed medications. In his House race, Jackson has closely aligned himself with Mr. Trump. He has downplayed the coronavirus pandemic and criticized mask-wearing requirements. He has also promoted baseless claims about Biden’s mental health.
Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw also won reelection. Crenshaw is a conservative firebrand and a rising GOP star in the House.
Pelosi Says American People Have Made Their Choice Clear In Voting For Biden
 In a letter to her Democratic colleagues in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed confidence that Biden would be elected president, even though several states have yet to be called.
“The American people have made their choice clear at the ballot box, and are sending Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House,” Pelosi said.
She also praised House Democrats for keeping their majority, saying that the House will “now have the opportunity to deliver extraordinary progress.” However, she only obliquely referenced the heavy losses by several freshmen Democrats who had flipped red seats.
“Though it was a challenging election, all of our candidates both Frontline and Red to Blue made us proud,” Pelosi said.
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Analysis: Donald Trump For Speaker Of The House
 Want to hear a crazy idea? Of course you do!
Let’s go step by step.
1. Florida gained another seat in its congressional delegation thanks to faster-than-the-national-average growth over the last decade.
2. Republicans control both chambers in the state Legislature as well as the governorship, meaning they will have total control over the redistricting process and where the new seat will be drawn.
3. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a BIG friend of former President Donald Trump.
4. Trump makes his permanent home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Which brings me to this exchange between the former President and conservative radio talk-show host Wayne Allyn Root late last week as recounted by the Washington Times:
ROOT: “Why not instead of just waiting for 2024, and I’m hoping you run in 2024, but why not run in 2022 for the United States Congress, a House seat in Florida, win big, lead us to a dramatic landslide victory, taking the House by 50 seats, and then you become the speaker of the House?”
TRUMP: “You know, it’s very interesting. That’s so interesting. And people have said, run for the Senate, OK, run for the Senate, but you know what? Your idea might be better. It’s very interesting.”
Now that idea doesn’t seem so crazy, does it?!
Well, OK, it’s still very unlikely to happen. Mostly because Trump doesn’t really seem like the kind of guy who would be cool serving in the House after he had been president. Too small potatoes for him — even as speaker!
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statetalks · 3 years
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Who Will Be Speaker Of The House If Republicans Win
Weakening Of The Investigations Against Trump
Pelosi Says She Will Not Let Republican ‘Antics’ Interfere With Jan. 6 Committee
If Democrats dont control the House or the Senate, they cant initiate investigations of Trump or some of his more controversial cabinet members, such as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.
More importantly, after the 2018 elections, the electoral process will recede as a constraint on the president and GOP in terms of the Russia investigation at least for a while.
We dont really know why Trump, despite his constant criticisms of the investigation, has not fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or why he has not directly tried to stop the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller. Maybe Trump, despite his rhetoric, has some real respect for the rule of law. I think its more likely that Trump understands that firing Rosenstein or making a drastic move to stop the Mueller probe would increase both the chances of Democrats winning the House and/or Senate this year, and the odds that the resulting Democratic-led chamber would feel compelled to push to impeach Trump. But if the GOP emerges from 2017 and 2018 without losing control of the House or the Senate, I suspect that, with the next election two years away, the president will feel freer to take controversial steps to end the Russia probe. And I doubt Republicans on Capitol Hill would try to stop him.
List Of Speakers Of The United States House Of Representatives
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The speaker of the United States House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives. The office was established in 1789 by Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The speaker is the political and parliamentary leader of the House, and is simultaneously the body’s presiding officer, the de facto leader of the body’s majority party, and the institution’s administrative head. Speakers also perform various administrative and procedural functions, all in addition to representing their own congressional district. Given these several roles and responsibilities, the speaker usually does not personally preside over debates. That duty is instead delegated to members of the House from the majority party. Neither does the speaker regularly participate in floor debates. Additionally, the speaker is second in the presidential line of succession, after the vice president and ahead of the president pro tempore of the Senate.
The House elects a new speaker by roll call vote when it first convenes after a general election for its two-year term, or when a speaker dies, resigns or is removed from the position intra-term. A majority of votes cast is necessary to elect a speaker. If no candidate receives a majority vote, then the roll call is repeated until a speaker is elected. The Constitution does not require the speaker to be an incumbent member of the House, although every speaker thus far has been.
Cbs News Projects Hickenlooper Wins Colorado Senate Seat Democrats’ First Pickup
Democrats picked up their first Senate seat of the night, with CBS News projecting former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has defeated incumbent GOP Senator Cory Gardner. Hickenlooper decided to run for Senate after running briefly in the Democratic presidential primary.
Gardner was considered one of the most vulnerable Republican senators up for reelection this year, especially since he’s the only major statewide elected GOP official. Gardner has also been trailing Hickenlooper in polls leading up to Election Day.
While this is a victory for Democrats, they will have to pick up several other seats to gain a majority in the Senate.
Read Also: When Did The Republicans And Democrats Switch
Pelosi Says It Doesn’t Matter Right Now If She’ll Seek Another Term As Speaker Beyond 2022
 In a press call, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot down a question about whether this upcoming term would be her last as speaker, calling it the “least important question you could ask today.” She added that “the fate of our nation, the soul of the nation” is at stake in the election.
“Elections are about the future,” Pelosi said. “One of these days I’ll let you know what my plans are, when it is appropriate and when it matters. It doesn’t matter right now.”
After the 2018 election, Pelosi agreed to term limits on Democratic leaders that would prevent her from serving as speaker beyond 2022.
How Maine And Nebraska’s Split Electoral Votes Could Affect The Election
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As the race drags into Wednesday, it appears two congressional districts in Maine and Nebraska could prove pivotal in deciding the outcome of the election.
Maine and Nebraska are the only states in the nation that split their electoral votes. Maine awards two of its four electoral votes to the statewide winner, but also allocates an electoral vote to the popular vote winner in each of its two congressional districts. Nebraska gives two of its five electoral votes to the statewide winner, with the remaining three going to the popular vote winner in each of its three congressional districts.
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Pelosi Wins Tight Race For House Speaker
Pelosi, 80, is the only woman to ever serve as speaker.
Nancy Pelosi re-elected for House Speaker
The House of Representatives has narrowly reelected Nancy Pelosi as speaker with 216 votes, giving the California Democrat a fourth – and likely final – term leading the House.
Pelosi, 80, is the third speaker in the last 25 years to win with less than 218 votes, after former Republican Speakers Newt Gingrich and Paul Ryan. Five Democrats did not support Pelosi on the floor, and instead voted for alternative candidates or “present.”
After seizing the gavel, Pelosi said the “most urgent priority” of the 117th Congress will be defeating the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Two weeks ago, we passed an emergency relief package to crush the virus and put money in the pockets of workers and families, which is now the law. But we must do more to recognize our heroes,” she said Sunday. “Indeed, the pandemic has pulled back the curtain on even worsened disparities in our economy and our society. We must pursue justice: economic justice, justice in health, racial justice, environmental and climate justice.”
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, won unanimous support from the Republican conference garnering 209 votes on the floor.
Still, many new members were spotted with friends and family members around the Capitol.
Roy was shut down 371-2.
Grumblings From Within The Gop Could Cause Long
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois has been a pointed critic of Trump’s conduct on January 6, and alongside Cheney, was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach the former president for his role in provoking the Capitol attack.
Kinzinger, who was first elected to the House in 2010, was dismayed by Cheney’s removal from leadership.
“Liz may lose, and MAGA-lago may celebrate,” he tweeted on May 12. “But I predict that the history books of the future will not celebrate. They will say this was the low point of the Republican Party.”
The congressman has increasingly directed his ire toward McCarthy.
He added: “Liz stayed consistent. She didn’t look for opportunities to attack Jan. 6, but as conference chair she does press and is naturally asked about it. She responds truthfully. Kevin? He felt threatened, so instead of fighting for his job he went on offense against Liz.”
Kinzinger then said that McCarthy wants to be speaker so badly that he’ll do anything to appease the far-right Freedom Caucus, filled with bombastic Trump loyalists like Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Louie Gohmert of Texas.
“Kevin … made the determination that if he appeased the Trump crowd, he could raise money and take the credit, when he was up for speaker,” Kinzinger wrote. “He also assumes that people like me will vote for him for speaker, but the legislative terrorists in the Freedom Club wouldn’t, so he needs to be all in with them.”
Also Check: How Many Republicans Are In The 116th Congress
Why Democrats Struggled More Than Expected In Some House Races
Its too early to say exactly what went wrong for House Democrats, who broadly hoped to comfortably expand their majority.District-level internal party polling had shown Republicans with the potential to lose even more seats in 2020.
Many Republican strategists had resigned themselves to the possibility that their House ranks could decrease. Instead, Republicans were the ones making gains albeit modest enough ones to stay the minority party in the House.
Cook Political Reports House editor Dave Wasserman had some early thoughts on Wednesday: Just like Biden, Democratic congressional candidates suffered losses among Hispanic voters in key races. Democrats had bad nights particularly in Florida and Texas; they lost a couple of incumbents in Florida and didnt defeat a single Republican incumbent in Texas, despite making a massive investment in the state to target 10 districts.
Republicans also learned from their losses in 2018 and recruited top-tier women candidates, who were on a winning streak.
After last night, Republicans are on track to more than double their current count of 13 women, Wasserman wrote.
These outcomes all elude a clean narrative. Its difficult to say early on how much is based on strategic error, and how much is owed to the bizarre nature of this election year amid a pandemic that significantly hampered Democrats ability to do basic campaigning tasks like door-knocking.
Gop Chatter About Possibly Electing Trump As House Speaker Grows
Former Speaker Boehner Discusses GOP’s Future, U.S. Political Division | NBC Nightly News
A Fox host asked House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy late last week whether he’d support electing Donald Trump as Speaker of the House. The answer raised a few eyebrows.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was asked Friday about the possibility of Trump becoming Speaker of the House if Republicans win control of the chamber in the 2022 midterms…. “You know, I’ve talked to President Trump many times, he tells me he wants to be speaker, and I think he should be president,” McCarthy told Fox News.
It wasn’t long before McCarthy’s office clarified that he’d misspoken during the interview: McCarthy meant that Trump supported the California congressman’s bid for Speaker, not that the former president wanted the job for himself.
That said, the question that prompted the confusion didn’t come out of nowhere.
Steve Bannon, who used to advise the former president, seemed to get the ball rolling on this, recently touting a scenario in which House Republicans take back the majority next year and support Trump as their new Speaker. Under the fanciful hypothetical, once Trump held the gavel, he could start exacting revenge against those who defeated him, launching investigations into imagined scandals, and initiating impeachment proceedings against President Biden and Vice President Harris.
Soon after, Trump was asked about the idea and replied, “That’s so interesting…. Yeah, you know it’s very interesting…. It’s very interesting.”
Chatter in conservative media soon followed.
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House Republicans Vow To Vote Against Raising Debtceiling
U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
More than 100 House Republicans have vowed to vote against raising the debt ceiling. In a letter released on Monday, a group of 103 lawmakers said in order for Democrats multi-trillion spending plans to come to fruition, the debt limit would have to be significantly increased.
They contended a vote to raise the debt ceiling would imply consent to new spending. The lawmakers also made it clear Democrats alone were responsible for the effort to spend trillions.
We do not accept Pelosis agenda. We will not be on the hook for Bidens failures, and we sure as hell do not consent to this kind of reckless, wasteful, useless spending in our nations capital.
Gop Women Made Big Gains
While the majority of the Republican caucus will still be men come 2021, there will be far more Republican women in Congress than there were this year. So far, it looks like at least 26 GOP women will be in the House next year, surpassing the record of 25 from the 109th Congress. Thats thanks in part to the record number of non-incumbent Republican women 15 whove won House contests. And its also because of how well Republican women did in tight races. The table below shows the Republican women who ran in Democratic-held House districts that were at least potentially competitive,1 according to FiveThirtyEights forecast. As of this writing, seven of them have won.
GOP women have flipped several Democratic seats
Republican women running for potentially competitive Democratic-held House seats and the status of their race as of 4:30 p.m Eastern on Nov. 11
District D+22.1
Results are unofficial. Races are counted as projected only if the projection comes from ABC News. Excludes races in which the Republican candidate has either a less than 1 in 100 chance or greater than 99 in 100 chance of winning.
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New Yorkers Become First Black And Openly Gay Members Of Congress
 Tuesday night will be historic in part because of the diversity of candidates elected to the House. Democrats Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones, both of New York, are the first Black and openly gay members of Congress.
Meanwhile, Republican Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina is leading in North Carolina’s 11th district, a safe Republican seat. Cawthorn, 25, won the June primary against a Trump-backed candidate for the seat vacated by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows . He has come under fire for visiting Hitler’s retreat and for his campaign launching a website which included a racist broadside against his Democratic opponent.
Us House Speaker Pelosi Names Republican Kinzinger To Jan 6 Panel
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WASHINGTON, July 25 – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday formally named Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger to serve on a select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
Kinzinger, Pelosi said in a statement, “brings great patriotism to the committees mission: to find the facts and protect our democracy.”
It was unclear whether she would name additional Republicans. Earlier in the day, Pelosi was interviewed on ABC’s “This Week” and said that other Republicans also had expressed interest in working on the panel.
Kinzinger, 43, is an Air Force veteran and an outspoken critic of Trump. He was one of seven House Republicans who voted with Democrats to impeach Trump earlier this year on a charge of inciting an insurrection at the Capitol.
He now joins fellow Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney on the panel as it prepares to hold its first hearing on Tuesday on the deadly attack.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who initially said Trump bore responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack that brought the worst violence at the Capitol since the War of 1812, has since mended his relationship with Trump as the two attempt to win Republican control of Congress in the 2022 elections.
Representative Adam Kinzinger speaks during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 10, 2021. Ting Shen/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Its Not All Bad News For Democrats
While it was unquestionably a good night for Republicans, Democrats still held onto most of the seats they won in 2018 and will continue to be the majority party in the House. Thats in part because they retained most of the suburban districts they picked up in 2018.
Of the 233 seats that Democrats held coming into the election,2 186 of them were in districts that were predominantly or partly suburban in nature, according to density categorizations by Bloombergs CityLab. Thus far, Democrats have lost seven of those seats, but they captured one GOP-held suburban seat around Atlanta. And thanks to redistricting, theyve also won two formerly Republican seats around Greensboro and Raleigh in North Carolina, which reflect the partys strength in more populous areas.
Because of their relative success in the suburbs, Democrats kept many seats in places President Trump won in 2016. Coming into the election, Democrats held 30 seats in districts Trump carried in 2016, and they wouldve lost their majority if theyd lost more than half of them . But theyve won 18 of them so far and picked up one from the GOP . In fact, more than half of Republicans gains have come in seats representing places that Trump won by a pretty sizable margin in 2016. Well have to wait a bit before data can tell us how congressional districts voted in 2020,3 but for now it seems many Republican gains were made by picking off the lowest-hanging fruit.
Maine Senate Race A Toss
 With polls closing at 8 p.m., the hotly contested Maine Senate race remains a toss-up. Senator Susan Collins, running for her fifth term, is considered one of the most moderate Republicans in the Senate, but she is facing considerable skepticism from Democrats and independents who previously supported her. State Speaker of the House Sara Gideon is the Democratic candidate, and has posted record fundraising.
CBS News projects that Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware and Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts have both won reelection. Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma also won reelection.
The Alabama Senate race is leaning toward Republican Tommy Tuberville, who is taking on incumbent Senator Doug Jones, the most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate. 
The Tennessee Senate race is also leaning Republican. The Mississippi Senate race is likely Republican. The Senate races in New Hampshire, Illinois, and Rhode Island are lean Democratic, and New Jersey is likely Democratic.
Also Check: Did Any Republicans Vote To Impeach
Mcconnell Not Troubled At All By Trump’s Suggestion Of Supreme Court Challenge
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended Mr. Trump for falsely claiming that he won reelection, although he acknowledged that the presidential race had not yet been decided.
“It’s not unusual for people to claim they have won the election. I can think of that happening on numerous occasions,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky. “But, claiming to win the election is different from finishing the counting.”
“Claiming to win the election is different from finishing the counting,” Mitch McConnell says, adding that Americans “should not be shocked” that Democrats and Republicans are both lawyering up for the close races
CBS News
He also said he was “not troubled at all” by the president suggesting that the outcome of the election might be determined by the Supreme Court. The president cannot unilaterally bring a case to the Supreme Court, what it’s unclear what case the Trump campaign would have if it challenged the counting of legally cast absentee ballots.
McConnell, who won his own closely watched reelection race on Tuesday evening, expressed measured confidence about Republicans maintaining their majority in the Senate. He said he believed there is a “chance we will know by the end of the day” if Republicans won races in states like Georgia and North Carolina.
Trump’s Save America Pac Released A Photo Showing The Former President Meeting With House Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy On January 28 2021 Save America Pac Mccarthy Gets A Mixed Reception From Trumpworld
NBC Projects Democrats Take Control Of House | NBC News
Trump continues to hold immense sway over conservatives, and House Republicans delivered an easy victory for Stefanik in becoming the party’s Conference Chair last week, despite her having a more moderate voting record than Cheney.
Loyalty to Trump, which Stefanik displayed in lending credence to the former president’s grievances regarding the 2020 presidential election, is a true tenet of being accepted in his orbit.
Only weeks after the January 6 Capitol riot and Trump’s impeachment by the House, McCarthy made a sojourn to the former president’s residence at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, even taking a smiling photo with him.
However, according to a report from Insider’s Tom LoBianco and Warren Rojas, some loyalists in Trumpworld view McCarthy with a heap of skepticism.
A Trump advisor recently told the former president that McCarthy likely wouldn’t lock up the requisite number of votes to obtain the speakership if the GOP regains the majority in 2022.
“He’s left too many people unhappy and unsettled and time is not on his side,” the advisor told Insider.
However, a veteran GOP strategist with close ties to Trump who spoke to Insider noted that McCarthy was a stellar fundraiser who backed the former president in a very public way in ousting Cheney from her leadership role.
“He’s not gotten crosswise with Trump,” the strategist said.
Read Also: How Many Seats Do Republicans Need To Keep The House
Trump’s Former Physician Wins House Seat
Ronny Jackson, the former White House physician who served under both Presidents Trump and Obama, has won his race in Texas’ 13th Congressional District. Jackson rose to prominence in 2018 when he gave a glowing press conference about Mr. Trump’s health.
Mr. Trump nominated Jackson to be Veterans Affairs secretary last year, but Jackson withdrew amid allegations that he drank on the job and over-prescribed medications. In his House race, Jackson has closely aligned himself with Mr. Trump. He has downplayed the coronavirus pandemic and criticized mask-wearing requirements. He has also promoted baseless claims about Biden’s mental health.
Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw also won reelection. Crenshaw is a conservative firebrand and a rising GOP star in the House.
Pelosi Says American People Have Made Their Choice Clear In Voting For Biden
 In a letter to her Democratic colleagues in the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed confidence that Biden would be elected president, even though several states have yet to be called.
“The American people have made their choice clear at the ballot box, and are sending Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House,” Pelosi said.
She also praised House Democrats for keeping their majority, saying that the House will “now have the opportunity to deliver extraordinary progress.” However, she only obliquely referenced the heavy losses by several freshmen Democrats who had flipped red seats.
“Though it was a challenging election, all of our candidates both Frontline and Red to Blue made us proud,” Pelosi said.
Don’t Miss: Do Any House Republicans Support Impeachment
Analysis: Donald Trump For Speaker Of The House
 Want to hear a crazy idea? Of course you do!
Let’s go step by step.
1. Florida gained another seat in its congressional delegation thanks to faster-than-the-national-average growth over the last decade.
2. Republicans control both chambers in the state Legislature as well as the governorship, meaning they will have total control over the redistricting process and where the new seat will be drawn.
3. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a BIG friend of former President Donald Trump.
4. Trump makes his permanent home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Which brings me to this exchange between the former President and conservative radio talk-show host Wayne Allyn Root late last week as recounted by the Washington Times:
ROOT: “Why not instead of just waiting for 2024, and I’m hoping you run in 2024, but why not run in 2022 for the United States Congress, a House seat in Florida, win big, lead us to a dramatic landslide victory, taking the House by 50 seats, and then you become the speaker of the House?”
TRUMP: “You know, it’s very interesting. That’s so interesting. And people have said, run for the Senate, OK, run for the Senate, but you know what? Your idea might be better. It’s very interesting.”
Now that idea doesn’t seem so crazy, does it?!
Well, OK, it’s still very unlikely to happen. Mostly because Trump doesn’t really seem like the kind of guy who would be cool serving in the House after he had been president. Too small potatoes for him — even as speaker!
source https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-will-be-speaker-of-the-house-if-republicans-win/
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gaslampsglow · 6 years
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(Pictured: 1/30th of a rough weekend.)
So saturday afternoon, my boss (supervisor? team lead? superior officer? that weird nebulous stage between “coworker charged with keeping the group in line” and “Manager with capital M”) wheeled a massive skid of boxes over to my workspace and asked if I could take on a special project.  We had a massive batch of lots from the same sake to shoot and document, and it needed to be done by someone with neurotic attention to detail.  Obviously I said yes.
Each of the boxes on that skid were, like the one pictured above, stuffed to the brim with hundreds of photos.  And I mean hundreds.  There were photos from every decade since the 1890s, there were black and whites, postcards, color prints, slides.  Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Polaroids, negatives pulled from positives, newspaper clippings copied and imaged with an enlarger. Contact sheets, proof pages, negative images of halftone screens, all the hallmarks of an absolute darkroom wizard.
All trains.
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Thousands of photographs of trains.
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And behind that first skid he wheeled another skid, loaded with even more.
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Marketing felt that these were dump lots, that no one would spend any money on them, based on a few test lots that had been up for sale for a few days.  Several other people, my boss included, felt that the product was great but the documentation was poor.  Whoever shot the test sales had clearly not known what they were holding, nor did they seem to care, as they took four or five photos of piles of photos and called the whole thing done.  For most items we sell, thats not a bad way of doing it.  After all, to hit our daily numbers, most lots need to be shot in less than ten minutes, preferably six.  You take a master shot illustrating the item, you take three to four angles or closeups showing details, then you document any damage or irregularity.  Minimum four photos, usually about eight or nine, try not to shoot more than twelve.  And if you’re shooting something that feels too niche or junky or tacky to make money, you spend less time with it so you have more of a buffer when trying to capture the tiny fucking watermarks on stupid crystal glasses.  And a good general rule is that the more items are in a lot, the less they’re worth.
But all of these rules fly out the window when you are selling to Train People.  You may have known a few.  The ones with the model railroads in their basements, exactingly crafted to perfectly represent a particular rail line, or period, or place.  The history buffs that out-obsess all other history buffs.  No special interest is more granular, or more specific, or more seemingly mercurial to the untrained eye.  They’ll fork over good money for a piece of rail history, but no one wants to buy blind boxes of photos sight unseen, hoping that they represent whatever line or time or place they’re looking for.  And this treasure trove not only was astoundingly well organized, but almost every single photo was labelled with information, frequently detailing the make and model of the train as well as the time and place the photo was taken.
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So my boss told me to sift through, document anything that seemed important, spend as much time as I needed and take as many photos as I want.  I shot nothing but photos of trains from 1:30 to 7:30pm, taking about 40 minutes per box (each box being sold as a separate lot.)
Get in the next morning at 7:00am, keep going.  At around 10, while I’m grabbing the next pile, a woman stops me and introduces herself as one of the Editors.  We normally don’t see editors, as they’re four or five rungs up the ladder from photography, and most of their work is digital.  They curate the overall estates and sales, revise and correct the research cataloguing does, order photo reshoots when necessary, and generally have the final say on many pieces of what hits the site.
This particular Editor is the one overseeing this sale, and was friends with the man who owned all of this stuff.  So I get a little more background: all of these photos were from a Rail-spotting magazine run for 25 years by a local Cincinnati man.  Train Fans would send in photos from all over the world to be featured, and this collection was essentially the man’s life’s work.  The proceeds from selling all of this (and the piles and piles and piles and piles of other items) go to supporting the hospitalized mother he left behind after his death.  So The Editor is deeply invested in making sure that not only is the work well represented, but that it makes top dollar, so that her friend’s work is sold to collectors rather than junk dealers, and that his mom gets a big check to pay for medical care.
Which means that she is profoundly unhappy with the performance of those earlier-mentioned test lots, and livid that attribution fobbed the whole thing off without doing much documentation, and that marketing thinks this all is worthless, and came hunting my boss to make sure that these photos are being shot properly.  To say that she seemed skeptical of my care and attention to detail is an understatement.
“Well, I do want you to know that I’m putting a lot of time into these.  I’m looking at every photo, pulling all that are in color, pulling any that are photographically impressive with high contrast, and paying particular attention to local lines.”
“You mean the ones marked as being shot here?”
“Well, sure, but also the rail lines that I know pass through Cincinnati.  The next box I’m shooting I know is a bunch of B&O so I’m excited for that, since I drive under an old B&O bridge as I leave my neighborhood.”
“B&O?”
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“You know, Baltimore and Ohio.  Its the oldest full service rail line in the country.”
“...I guess you are the right one to do these.”
Which is about when the other player enters the scene, one of the two company Founders.  She and the Editor had both been on this sale for months, starting at the house packing and organizing this estate, which was so cluttered and filthy and untamed that the Founder called in a personal favor and flew her pal Matt Paxton (one of the Professional Cleaners from the show Hoarders) out to help cut through the muck.  So now, months later, in the final hours of a giant project, the presentation of the whole thing is on me.  And the decision makers for the whole company are standing around my workspace while my boss shows the work I’d been doing so far.
I was a little stressed.
But as they flipped through, I could see everyone become visibly less tense.  My boss explained, “If I had given this to any other photographer in the building, they would have grabbed the first ten photos out of the box, shot just those, then moved on to the next one.  I picked Corey because he loves history, and he’s willing to do the work.  He’s shooting sixty and seventy photos for each of these lots.”
Which, uh, was a pretty great feeling, not gonna lie.  I’m not used to receiving kudos, even just verbally, from bosses, let alone people that high up the food chain.
Of course this was tempered by finding out that this whole sale was going live that night.  
This meant that I had about 20 more lots to shoot by 3 in order to give cataloguing enough time to write descriptions and hit complete.  It was, at this point, 11:15.  The race to finish was not fun, with my boss jumping on the sweep next to mine for the last two hours, as we steamed across the finish line around 4:30.  At that point, I was kaput.  Completely finished.  I spent the last three hours at work sleepwalking, came home, and melted into my chair.  I told Jo it was an incredibly stressful day.
And it was.
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(Hey look, its Cincinnati!  Back when the Inclines were running.)
But I keep thinking about that feeling.  Because this isn’t the same stress I’m used to.  And I know this seems so obvious or blase, but every job I’ve had has been stressful.  I mean, every job is stressful in its own way.  But I’m not used to that stress being...rewarding?  In the same way that art or film or woodworking, creation for my own purposes, is stressful.
I know I’m saying “the sky is blue” as if it were a new discovery I’d made, but I’m so unused to feeling job pressure that resolves not as misery but as accomplishment.  Three years at Lowe’s and every day was “oh no, I have to do this again tomorrow?  How!?” and finding victory in the tiny little footholds of humanity that I got from one customer out of a hundred.  I emotionally have no idea how to process “my boss and my boss’s boss and their boss are all impressed with my random assortment of knowledge and ability to organize information.”
This is not a complaint, mind you.  Not even a little bit.  Just a very gratified confusion.
Anyway, if you’ve read this far, thanks.  As reward, have a photo taken sometime in the 70′s about a block away from my house.
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bongaboi · 3 years
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Ohio State: 2021 Sugar Bowl Champions
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Clemson coach Dabo Swinney might need to consider moving Ohio State into the top 10 of his Coaches Poll ballot next week after No. 3 Ohio State dominated No. 2 Clemson 49-28 in the 2021 Sugar Bowl semifinal behind a heroic performance from quarterback Justin Fields. The junior signal caller thrilled by completing 22 of 28 passes for 385 yards and a Sugar Bowl-record six touchdowns with more highlights than one could count as Ohio State advanced to the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Most of the damage came after Fields took a big hit to the ribs that left him in a lot of pain late in the first half. Clemson linebacker James Skalski lowered his head and hit Fields directly in the ribs. Skalski was ejected for targeting and Fields achingly walked off the field only to return one play later and continue his dominant play.
Fields and Ohio State torched the Clemson defense for 639 yards of offense. When it wasn't Fields launching bombs down the field, it was running back Trey Sermon grinding out yards on the ground. He finished with 191 yards rushing on 30 carries with a touchdown, adding 61 yards receiving on four catches. Wide receiver Chris Olave, who missed the Big Ten Championship Game, spent the night consistently getting massive separation behind the Ohio State secondary. He finished with six catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns.
The Ohio State defense chipped in by limiting the Clemson offense. After Clemson opened the game with 14 points and 167 yards of offense in the first quarter, the Buckeyes defense put the clamps down. The Tigers finished with 444 total yards and couldn't get anything going on the ground as star RB Travis Etienne totalled 32 yards and a short touchdown on 10 carries.
Most notable was the play of Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence. The Heisman Trophy finalist completed 33 of 48 passes for 400 yards and two touchdowns but was rattled the entire game. In addition to his fourth-quarter interception, Lawrence fumbled multiple times, lost one of them and was held to -8 yards rushing despite the Tigers purposely using him as a runner.
The win gives Ohio State its first victory over Clemson all-time after the Buckeyes lost each of the first four meetings, including in two previous College Football Playoff games. Ohio State now moves on to the CFP National Championship for the first time since 2014 when it won the national title . That 2014 season was also the last time Ohio State faced Alabama, whom it will meet in this year's title game.
2021 Sugar Bowl semifinal takeaways 1. Justin Fields is who we thought he was: Before the 2020 season began, all the talk was about Lawrence and Fields being the top two quarterbacks in the country, the two favorites to win the Heisman Trophy and the two best bets to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. And then 2020 happened. Lawrence came out and played like he always played, and even after contracting COVID-19 himself and missing a couple of games, he returned quickly to his magnificent form.
The season wasn't as easy for Fields. The Big Ten got off to a delayed start, and it allowed other QBs to take a bit of the spotlight. Alabama's Mac Jones put up huge numbers, Florida's Kyle Trask surpassed those and BYU's Zach Wilson put up video game numbers of his own. It felt as if Fields was behind the 8-ball from the start. He started the year well, but then the Buckeyes had a game canceled against Maryland due to COVID-19. They returned a week later against the best Indiana team in decades, and he struggled a bit, though the Buckeyes won.
Then, after another canceled game, he destroyed Michigan State despite missing a large chunk of his offensive line, but after a third game was canceled due to COVID-19, Fields struggled against Northwestern in the Big Ten title game. People were happy to ignore that Northwestern has one of the best defenses in the country and that Ohio State was missing several starters in the game, including its big-play threat in Olave.
Questions arose about whether or not Fields was as good as the hype and if he deserved to be the second QB taken in the NFL Draft. Well, Fields answered a lot of those questions against Clemson. To throw for 385 yards and a Sugar Bowl-record six touchdowns while dealing with a painful rib injury should silence a lot of the doubters. At least, it will for a while. There's still the Alabama game to get through.
2. Trey Sermon has made a massive difference: Sermon has been a godsend to the Buckeyes offense in recent weeks. The Ohio State offense struggled to find consistent footing in the ground game for much of the season unless Fields used his legs. Then Sermon exploded in the Big Ten Championship Game, rushing for a school-record 331 yards after rushing for only 344 yards in the first five games.
Sermon was just as big Friday night. He didn't set any records, but he did finish with 193 yards rushing and 61 yards receiving. The Ohio State offense was already difficult to stop, but now that defenses have to respect the ground game, it becomes a lot more complicated. Considering the offense that the Buckeyes will have to compete with against Alabama, it's critical that Ohio State can run the ball if it wants to beat the Tide.
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