csyphrett

Reporter Salvatore Crespi has reported the truth his whole life. He has dug into things that he shouldn't have and caused some damage to the hierarchy in his city. Wounded at dinner, Crespi spent his time recovering. He discovered that his near death had awakened an ability to events as if he was actually there. That allowed him to go back to the paper and report on things which caused even more problems. But he had also created the masked identity of the Historian to act against those who wanted to stop him from letting the truth be free. CES

Wasn't a reboot. Was an elseworlds. They don't even use that. And everyone involved has been fired for whatever reason. I know rumor said Berganza the editor liked to harass people in the office. A reboot on the main line is Wonder Woman was made out of clay, is really Zeus's kid, recently became a heroine, served with the JSA in WW2 as did her mother, became a warrior princess, or Green Arrow and Green Lantern are 25 years older than their friends in the League because Editorial forgot how old they were supposed to be, or Cyborg being a founding member of the League and gutting his history with the Titans, changing his age to be older than Nightwing when he was the youngest Titan at one point. Same thing with Black Lightning so he could have teen age daughters. Everything happened is how DC is handling their mainline continuity now. CES

No surprise there since Trump destroyed official documents coming across his desk. CES

You wouldn't have liked the 5g plan they were going to do which became the new legacies that no one likes. My issue as a reader was continuity. I just had to stop reading DC because they had ten history reboots that only rebooted part of their line and not the other. It's why their characters have new ethnic backgrounds, new sexual orientations, histories that make no sense, fan fiction type romances, new personalities that don't go with what went before, and Tom King writing alternative takes on heroes that are just bad. THE HUMAN TARGET DOES NOT INVESTIGATE ANYTHING, YOU STUPID CLOWN!!!!! It's like picking up the latest book in a novel series and finding the main character is not a white 6'4" 250 pound ex-army major who has decided to wonder America and the world to pick up hot chicks when he can and punch bullies as a hobby, but has become a Nigerian millionaire solving problems on his family estate and flirting with the gardener while his mother harasses him. CES

Usa Today was talking about all the businesses he forced to close before he got elected. I asked my coworkers who voted for him why would you vote for a guy who won't even tip his server because that is what we are. They said Hillary. I was like You people are dumb as crap, and some of them had regrets and I laughed like the Shadow handing out justice. CES My son is like Student loans are just a way to enslave people and should not be as high as they are. I do not know where he got that from, but he didn't get it from me. CES

According to the journal, guy arrested for scamming rent on places he didn't own, released on bail until his trial, was arrested again for trying to scam rent. CES

And older readers are more picky about what happens to their characters. They tend to drop books until something comes along to draw them back in. CES

https://fixthecourt.com/2022/04/bicameral-bill-bring-real-accountability-third-branch-introduced/ Though work on the 21st Century Courts Act of 2022 began at the start of the 117th Congress more than a year ago, and though several sections mirror the 21st Century Courts Act of 2020, this legislation is expanded and takes on new urgency in the wake of revelations last month that Justice Thomas’ wife Ginni sought to overturn the election results while Thomas was ruling on several 2020-related cases. Legal scholars and FTC believe Thomas should have recused from these cases and a recent Jan. 6 Committee case since, among other reasons, Ginni had a stake in the outcome and since text messages she wrote to Mark Meadows imply she may have discussed her efforts with her husband. Among the bill’s more impactful proposals, it would: — Require the justices to finally write and abide by an official code of conduct; — Require a brief explanation whenever a judge or justice recuses from a case or petition; — Create a process in the lower courts by which a party may submit a motion for recusal that would be reviewed by judges from other courts; — Create a process at the Supreme Court by which a party may submit a motion for recusal that would be reviewed by all nine justices; and — Expand the federal recusal law to require disqualification when a judge or justice has received within the previous six years income, travel reimbursement or a gift from a party or their counsel.

There is a bipartisan bill that seeks to put in place penalities for Supreme Court Justices doing stupid things. I don't know if it has passed yet, or if it will in the middle of election season. CES

Robin Hood versus Little John. I remember this from Howard Pyle's book from when I was a much younger person. CES

This guy says he has a leak in the accounting department. The things it states may or may not be true. I would wait for a second source but I note that CBR boards have been talking about how none of the books outside of Batman are selling well so that might be true. CES

Lion-o needs help. Quick to the thunder tank. CES

Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 10 1965- Sergeant Roscoe Burly nodded at the attendant at the desk as he walked inside. He hated hospitals, and he hated asylums more than that. He didn’t know why the doc had called him down to the place, but figured there was a reason. “Thank you for coming down, Sergeant,” said Strangehold. He appeared at the door leading deeper inside the building. “I have something to show you after we talk.” “The clothing store, the Note, and the other place all belong to Foot Enterprises,” said Burly. “I’m still trying to find the owner. The company owns a few other places in town.” “The owner is probably Lisa Raye,” said Strangehold. He indicated they should use an office for their talk. He closed the door. He sat behind the desk, inspecting it as he thought about what he wanted to say. “She probably owns a piece of the printing company too. I don’t know if her supposed bosses know that.” “How do you know this?,” asked Burly. He sat on the edge of the visitor’s chair. He pulled out his notebook. “I confronted Miss Raye at her home,” said Strangehold. “I found paperwork afterwards, but I don’t have the expertise to trace it like you, or an accountant would be able to do. Some of the papers were certifications of money flowing from the printing company to her pockets.” “How do I justify checking into that?,” asked Burly. “I don’t think you will be able to since Miss Raye has not given you probable cause to probe her finances,” said Strangehold. “So what are doing here?,” asked Burly. “I’m going to lay out what I know, and what I speculated happened,” said Strangehold. “I don’t think you will be able to use it, but you should know what I think happened.” “Does this have something to do with that empty house your magic bird asked me to go to yesterday?,” asked Burly. “I’m getting to that,” said Strangehold. The magician leaned back in his chair. “This is going to take a bit so let’s start with the murder method.” He held a hand over the desk. A blob of buttery light dropped from the palm of his hand. It became a miniature of what it had looked like ripping Allan Crenshaw apart in his apartment. “This is a replica of the mask Lisa Raye used to kill Crenshaw,” said Strangehold. “You could never get a conviction as long as she didn’t use it in front of witnesses.” “I’ll give you that,” said Burly. “I would look like a nutter.” “She didn’t use it all the time when she needed to kill someone, just in a few special cases when she cared about the victim being tied back to her in some way,” said Strangehold. He made a gesture. The model jumped back in his hand with a slurping sound. “It’s effectively strange enough to make most policemen not try to chase down something that can rip a man apart in seconds.” “So why did she kill Crenshaw?,” asked Burly. “That goes with her second scheme,” said Strangehold. “She was farming ectoplasm for her personal use. Crenshaw helped her with it, by helping her perfect the song that she gave to other musicians to play in her club. Everyone listening to the song would give up part of themselves without realizing it. She had a collector set up under the club to catch the ectoplasm to be absorbed later. It was the same thing with the clothing store. An ectoplasm collector took life force from women trying on clothes for her to use later.” “What was the first scheme?,” asked Burly. “She was using the proceeds from her businesses to buy more businesses to buy more businesses,” said the doctor. “Anyone who got in the way got a visit from her special friend.” “So if I look around, I should find a trail of ripped up by animal attack bodies?,” asked Burly. “Probably,” said Strangehold. “So Miss Raye has two plans in motion. “The first plan was to accumulate businesses with her mask as her enforcer. The people she threatened would never come forward to report a monster threatening them over property they owned. Only people like us would believe them. “The second plan was to accumulate ectoplasm from others to keep making her mask more powerful. The more she could take, the bigger it would be. I have no idea if she could do anything more than those two spells, but their combination was bad enough.” “Okay,” said Burly. “The house?” “It’s Miss Raye’s house,” said Strangehold. “She inherited it from her parents. They are still in their bedroom whenever you want to collect the bodies.” “Really?,” asked Burly. “Why?” “She might have been trying to bring them back to life,” said the doctor. “She might have even been summoning them through her control of ectoplasm from wherever their spirit life had taken them.” “I think you’re pulling my leg,” said the detective. “How exactly could she summon them?” “Summoning them might be too strong a word,” said Strangehold. “There are people out there who can really tap into the afterlives of the dead. Ectoplasmic mediums can usually only deal with memories of the dead. We take a memory and some ectoplasm and make a facsimile of the dead person. It may look and act like the dead person but it isn’t the real person.” “She might have thought they were her dead parents?,” asked Burly. “Possibly,” said the doctor. “What she was doing was playing roulette with the lives of the people she was farming. Any of them could have died from the ectoplasm being forced out of them because it’s part of their life force.” “And we couldn’t prosecute her for that,” said Burly. He was well aware of what people would believe. He would have a better chance of suggesting Lisa Raye had poisoned a large group of people with some unknown substance than saying she was sucking people’s souls out of their bodies. “You could if you could prove ectoplasm existed to the satisfaction of the court, and proved that Miss Raye knew how to harvest it, and was harvesting it in some way,” said Strangehold. “I could demonstrate my own talents as part of that effort. My inclination is that everything would be written off as some kind of trickery.” “I can’t disagree with that,” said Burly. “The district attorney would laugh me out of the room, and ask for my badge.” “Most of this I found out from a search that I shouldn’t have conducted,” said Strangehold. “The prosecutors might have problems with any evidence presented, and then the strange nature of the evidence itself would not give us any favors.” “So what does that leave us?,” asked Burly. “From where I’m sitting, she’s going to walk.” “That’s the other reason I called you down here, Sergeant,” said Strangehold. “All right,” said Burly. “What did you do?” “I tracked Miss Raye down from the clothing store, we exchanged blows, and I was obliged to bring her here until her trial,” the doctor said. “Since we agreed there was no way for her to stand trial, I have signed her in under another name for treatment to help her need to not kill people.” “She’s here?,” asked Burly. “I placed her here,” said Strangehold. “When she recovers, she will be able to leave. But we won’t be able to prosecute her for her crimes unless you can dig up something in her financial chicanery.” “I can ask some financial people to go over it, but I don’t know,” said Burly. “You said you tracked her down. What happened?” “We engaged in a duel, and I defeated her,” said Strangehold. “Then I removed her ability to use her magic. She will have to resort to more mundane means from now on.” “Can you really do that?,” asked Burly. “This particular brand of magic, yes,” said Strangehold. “There are other teachings. If she finds one of those, she could go back into business killing and looting.” “How long will she be in here?,” asked Burly. “I don’t know,” said Strangehold. “It depends on how long it will take for her to recover, and hide her true self. Some years maybe. It’s been a long time since I have done anything this horrible to another person. It is a fate worse than death in some circles.” “I can see that I guess,” said Burly. “Like losing your legs.” “Like being blinded and deafened,” Strangehold said. “But essentially yes, that is what I did.” “All right,” said Burly. “This is a violation of several laws, and the Constitution. I don’t see any way around that.” “Right now, Miss Raye is undergoing psychiatric evaluation for fitness to be released back into society,” said Strangehold. “Her businesses will keep depositing money into her accounts until they are closed, or she walks out of here and closes them. All of her magical dealings can’t be prosecuted, and as the loser of a magical duel, she should be dead, or worse. I am hoping to take the least harmful road for her, and society at large.” “But you think she will still engage in criminal activity once she is released,” said Burly. “She trained her magic to do what she wanted, not the other way around,” said Strangehold. “That means all the people she killed would still be dead, just not by the weird means she used.” “I’ll close the case as a weird animal attack,” said Burly. “I would like it more if she was standing trial and we could prove all of this.” “No one is going to believe this woman killed people with her mind,” said Strangehold. “Even with powers out there such as the Mark, our society is not ready to accept that people will stay in the shadows and kill without trying to build up their ego by announcing things. If she had thrown on a costume and killed Crenshaw in broad daylight in front of witnesses, then we could make that case against her. This way we have nothing, and despite her initiating the duel, it will still be my word against hers in a court. That wouldn’t be enough.” “And you would look bad saying a woman was a witch,” said Burly. “Nobody believes that any more.” “Exactly,” said Strangehold. “There are two problems with the way I did things, other than the legality.” “Go ahead,” said Burly. “The illegality is bad enough.” “Miss Raye had to have been taught by someone else,” said Strangehold. “That person might take an interest in Middleton after this. That could lead to unknown problems in the future.” “So we might have some more monster activity in the future,” said Burly. “That’s great.” “And it will be directed at me, or us, if you are thought to have anything to do with this,” said Strangehold. “So do your routine, and then cover up what you know as best you can.” “What’s the other problem?,” said Burly. “Miss Raye will remember me,” said Strangehold. “She might remember you. When she is released, she might decide to kill the both of us over what happened to her.” “But she will be powerless,” said Burly. “She will be powerless, right?” “She will be more than capable of buying weapons to try to kill us,” said Strangehold. “It will have to be something to watch for when she is released.” “So what is the good that has come out of this extraordinarily bad situation?,” asked Burly. “A threat has been removed,” said Strangehold. “No one will die accidentally due to our suspect’s callousness to other people’s lives. And if I hadn’t found her, the threat to our own lives would have escalated if we had got close to what she was doing.” “So what am I doing here?,” said Burly. “This is her file and new name,” said Strangehold. He handed over an envelope from a drawer in the desk he sat behind. “You might need that if you want some warning when she’s released.” “So you can’t keep her in here forever?,” asked Burly. He made a note of the name in the file before sliding it back. “Wrecking her schemes and making sure she can’t bring her parents back to life as soul sucking abominations will have to be the measure of success for this,” said Strangehold. “You might want to give the skeletons a proper burial under aliases when you can get the time.” “I’ll get right on that,” said the sergeant.

I wonder how this new bill will affect the supreme court if it passes CES

Doctor Strangehold, Ectoplasmic Detective 9 1965- Doctor Strangehold stepped out of the shop. He looked up into the sky. A line of ectoplasm led from the shop to the collector’s creator. He smiled. His idea was working. He wondered how long it would take before the other magician realized that he was being drained by his own creation. Strangehold decided that it wouldn’t take long. The first symptom would be something like low blood sugar. Eventually other symptoms would emerge. If the magician was attuned to his own body, he would realize what was going on and terminate the line from his end. That was how long he had to find his enemy. Once engaged, whomever had the better control of their ectoplasm would be the victor in any battle. Strangehold thought he could win. He had fought other magicians, and monsters for a long time. He should have some tricks the other hadn’t seen before. Still, the sasquatch mask gave him pause. He couldn’t allow the thing to get close enough to grab him. That would be the end of the fight. He walked after the line, watching as it kept moving. The other magician must be heading for a lair, possibly his real home. He might not have noticed the drain on his resources yet. If he had, he might be preparing a trap of his own to deal with his enemy. The doctor followed the line across town. He wondered where he was going. It looked to be the same apartment building as his victim. Why? What could possibly be there for the murderer to come back for? Had he left something on the scene the police and their consultant had missed? Maybe the victim and his murderer were closer than they had thought. Strangehold didn’t like the fact that he had missed something crucial at the scene. It meant he was losing his touch. He couldn’t have that. He might have to go back to school to study his forensics again if he was losing his touch that much. He wondered if his murderer had noticed the drain and was setting a trap for him. That would mean the killer was waiting in the building so he could get the drop and then rip the doctor apart. It wouldn’t be the first time he had walked into a trap to find out what was really going on. He wondered how he should approach this. He expected his enemy to think he would just blunder into whatever trap was set for him and have to give up his ectoplasm to replace what he had taken. He decided not to call Burly. He didn’t want the sergeant in his way if a full blown duel broke out. It would be tough enough to explain how he had dealt with a practitioner on his own. He could not see the detective getting on a stand and saying they had killed a magician and not be laughed out of court. The method used was already hard to swallow in his opinion. The line cut through Crenshaw’s building and went out the other side. That relieved Strangehold. That meant they hadn’t missed something in the apartment building when he did his scans earlier. Where was it taking him? The line extended toward the edge of the city. He frowned. There were some places out there that had become new force lines because of the construction of more houses. Some of that was good. Some was bad. What did he do about it? He decided to press on. It was too late to go back and get his car. He wondered if the other magician regularly used their ectoplasm to travel. Was that another mask he hadn’t seen yet? He decided it was something to look for when they met. He didn’t want to be on guard against a giant ape, only to deal with a giant bird. He wondered where the other magician had learned to shape ectoplasm. He had learned from an old man who had taught him some basic medium type tricks. Then he had expanded his knowledge, bit by bit. His slowed aging had come out of those experiments. The same thing might have happened to this magician and this was how he was learning to be immortal like the doctor. Taking from other people was just faster than growing it from your natural surroundings. And it killed people if you weren’t careful. He followed the line across town from Crenshaw’s building. He resorted to using his extra arms to hitch on passing cars and trucks moving in the direction he wanted to go. He frowned at not going back to grab his car. He found himself walking in a new neighborhood on the edge of Middleton. The glowing line pointed him to one small house in particular. Then it snapped. He was glad that he hadn’t brought Burly along. If he got into a duel now, protecting the detective would put him at a disadvantage with an enemy who had an unknown capability with his spell work. Being alone meant he only had to worry about what would happen to his grandchildren when he was gone. He decided that he should knock on the door and see who answered it. The other magician probably already knew he was close. Discovering the line meant he knew about the drain. That meant he knew he had left a trail across the city. That meant he knew Strangehold was coming. So there was no need to beat around the bush. The doctor decided there was one thing he could do before he went into the lion’s den. He could let Burly know about the address and that he should look at the owner. He pulled some of his ectoplasm from his inner reserve and shaped it into a bird. He nodded at the way it acted like a bird when he held it with his two hands. He imprinted a message on it. He threw it up in the air and it took flight back toward the center of Middleton. His messenger would wait for Burly at the police station and tell him about the address. The rest would be up to him about how he wanted to handle things. This case would never get to court because of the means used. No jury in the world would believe anything short of a trained bear would do what had been done to Crenshaw. And any expert worth their salt would be able to prove a bear couldn’t do what had been done. Strangehold walked up to the door. He noted the brick fronting, white trimmed windows to show the front room, and the white door glimmering under the starlight. A carport protected a car with shadows as he drew closer. Two doors and possibly a third behind the house meant he could only see his enemy from the front and left side. The murderer could slip out the back easily with his command of ectoplasmic masks. Strangehold thought his presence would be met with violence. The man hadn’t missed a beat when Crenshaw had come to the door. He wouldn’t with someone on his doorstep. A bell button glowed in the door frame, but the doctor knocked. He wanted to show that he wasn’t afraid of the owner. The problem was he was afraid of the owner, and what the owner could do to him if he wasn’t careful. He knocked again when his first knock wasn’t answered. He wondered what the other magician was thinking. He listened for movement. He heard steps. They sounded confident to him. The owner wasn’t afraid of someone showing up in the middle of the night. He wouldn’t be either if he had a seven hundred pound sasquatch to wear to a fight. The door opened. The owner of the house glared at the doctor. He frowned back. He stepped back from the threshold. “Miss Raye,” said Strangehold. He had not expected to find Crenshaw’s coworker at the house. She raised a hand. Wax bubbled from her fingertips down the length of her arm. He stepped back again as the change worked its way down her body in the blink of an eye. Strangehold stepped back again, letting his extra arms pop out to defend him. He had not expected his search to lead to Crenshaw’s coworker, but he knew he was about to get killed if he didn’t do something. He cursed himself since she was the obvious suspect. He should have known that she would be the mastermind. He had simply thought the method was more something you would see in a man. A giant hand came at him. He used his tentacles to grab it and throw the giant mask into the yard. He couldn’t let her grab him. That would be the end. He needed to run her energy out. That was all he had to do. She couldn’t keep the mask up for long. He could just sit back and let her power run out while his remained active at its normal range. His tentacles barely drew anything off his own reserves. There was a small chance that she could overextend her ability and it could wind up hurting her. He couldn’t worry about that while she was trying to rip his head off. That was something to worry about if he survived this encounter. Strangehold used his tentacles to move away from the giant he was facing. They acted as grapnels, grabbing on to part of the house, or the surrounding greenery and pulling him out of reach. He concentrated on dancing around his enemy so she couldn’t grab him. He knew of one way to stop the fight, but he had to get close. He didn’t know if he wanted to chance that when his initial tactic was wearing her down. He had no idea if he could execute his tactic before she ripped his arm off. Did he want to risk it? If she escaped, she could go back to farming ectoplasm from people, maybe hunt Burly down because he knew too much. He couldn’t let that happen. He fired a spread of ectoplasmic buckshot to punch holes in the mask. He frowned as the wounds healed up in no time. She had a bigger reserve than he had thought. He needed to press her harder. How did he do that? He frowned. He had to grab some part of the mask with his bare hand. That was the only way things would work out for him. She leaped at him. He caught her in his tentacles and held her off. She grabbed one of his limbs and pulled him off his feet. He saw the other hand coming around in a clawing motion. He held out his hands and caught the massive wrist behind the giant hand and claws. The sasquatch bore down, trying to reach his face. He grimaced at what he was going to do. He commanded her ectoplasm to move to him. The mask shrank as he compelled the substance it was made of to move to his reserve. The face the mask sat on showed dismay through the disguise. Apparently she had never considered that to be a legitimate move. Maybe she hadn’t learned that ectoplasm shaping was vulnerable to external forces. She pulled her arm out of his grip, replacing the hair and muscle with a shake. She swung the other arm in a counterswipe. His tentacles tried to trap that arm for him to grab, but the momentum from the swing sent him to the ground. He held his tentacles up to defend himself as he tried to blink the stars out of his eyes. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” said Raye. Her voice caused her mask to shake. “But I’m not letting you hold me back. I have an ability, and I am going to use it to control this city.” She stalked forward to finish him off with a kick, or stomp. Her mind made the ectoplasm heavy. That made it perfect for imitating the monster she wanted. Exterminating a rival was not that big a deal compared to her goals. Strangehold looked up at her. Determination had taken over from the earlier stunning. He clapped his hands together. Dozens of tentacle arms sprouted from his back. They wrapped around his victim and lifted her off the ground. He ripped the mask from her body before slinging her against the wall of her house. “I protect this city from monsters,” said Strangehold. “It doesn’t matter if they are human, or not.” He got to his feet, dusting off his jacket and pants. He added the mask’s ectoplasm to his own. He walked forward. “It doesn’t matter why you decided to endanger people to farm their lives, or why you killed your pawn,” said Strangehold. “All that matters is stopping your threat to anybody else.” His tentacles struck out. 310411/689589

Columbo night as Helen Shaver kills Ed Winter, and tries to frame an innocent man so she can kill Columbo's wife. Ian McShane is on as the boyfriend with the wife. CES

Columbo night gave us Columbo versus another Patrick McGoohan murderer with Sgt Burke back on the scene. I think I recognized the guy helping McGoohan's character with his alibi but I don't know where. Stanley Kamel was on hand as the campaign manager for the governor running for president. Again the murder is kicked off by blackmail. CES

If I had to pick one, I would pick the one that doesn't seem intently aggressive about causing harm over someone who does. I admit that if picking one wasn't a condition, that would be another ball game. I can't claim to be good. CES

I think so. If I had to pick to save two drowning senators and one of them was Ted Cruz, and the other was Rand Paul, I would pick Ted Cruz every time. CES I'm with Tom. Personally I think the Republicans should have let Trump get kicked out of office when he was getting impeached. Now they are facing years of him being in court, standing trial, having problems, making problems for them. CES

Trump should be given the harshest sentence we can give him and be made an example for everyone like him. It doesn't matter about conservatives are evil, or anything like that. If we do that to the poor, we should do it to the rich too CES

Austin has always been famous for its musical conventions and shows. It was no surprise when the hero known as Musico appeared on the scene to help out with his sonic powers. One day he hopes to hit the big time as Waylon Willis, mild mannered country singer, but for now he teaches guitar picking while doing what he can for the city. CES

So we're talking about a draft where the original seven members are out until somewhere in the middle of the draft with a number like ten members? CES

Either it was a right wing nut, a muslim, or someone wanting the three million dollars on his head. I noticed the article didn't identify the attacker. I will put in for right wing nut CES

You know better. CES

I like this a lot. A really hard draft would be a draft where you couldn't pick any member at all. CES