I have collected several aerial reports and photographs from the Caribbean nation of the Dominican Republic. This is not your typical 'hotspot, but it does offer unique information."On January 22, 2011, between 10 to 12 am. in the town of Constanza, Dominican Republic in the center of the country, I took two consecutive photos (with a Nikon D80 camera 200 mm. lens) of my wife and son standing on the balcony of a house in the mountain looking toward the valley, in the first photo appear an object far away in the sky (at left in the photo) with a classic UFO shape, in the second photo just one or two second apart the object is not present; note that the light and shadows of the objects and persons are the same.I would like to know your impressions about these photos" K----------"While in a private plane flying South East from Puerto Plata to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic I took these pictures from the co-pilot seat. The visibility was clear. We flew about 4500 ft. above the cloud deck. It was about 9:30 am, 4/22/08. (the time stamp setting was incorrect)I took a series of photos and captured these objects in our flight path. The pilot estimated the objects were about 7-8 miles from the nose of the aircraft. The pilot did not receive any notification from Air Traffic Control.The objects are extremely luminous. If you enlarge them you will notice the lower set of lights are twin diamonds or squares, symmetrical, and unnatural. The upper set of lights are almost amorphous. Both lights seem to disturb the surrounding atmosphere.We called them angels because of the similarity to the wings of snow angels kids make in the snow. I urge a strong analysis of these photos.These objects were unlike anything I had seen. I welcome any comments and feedback as to what these may be. If there is anyone who can identify these unidentified flying objects contact me as I am very curious to solve the mystery.We eliminated anything like stars, planes, clouds, lightning, or natural phenomena since the conditions were perfectly clear weather." L----------Aliens in the Cane FieldsIn March 1977, the Dominican GOFOS group (Grupo Observador de Fenómenos y Objetos Siderales) researched a case that had taken place in San Francisco Macorís, a farming community in the southern part of the country. In one particular instance, a couple was awakened at 3:30 a.m. by their baby's crying. When the mother went to check on her, she noticed that the entire house was bathed in a hot, greenish-blue light. The mother described it as "a buzzing lightning bolt that won't go away."The woman's husband went outside to see the source of the mysterious light, perhaps fearing an electrical fire of some sort. He was stunned by what he saw: hovering above the palm trees at a height of some fifty feet was a disk with a large number of "grates" which emitted an array of colors, mainly red, white, blue, and green. He ran back into his house as the buzzing sound increased. The heat became unbearable as the vehicle zoomed out of sight, and the couple was left with irritated eyes and a dryness of the throat that persisted for a week. Not much was known about UFOs in the Dominican Republic at the time, and certainly not in the agricultural region of San Francisco Macorís. But that was about to change.On the night of June 24, 1977, an anonymous witness reported seeing an enigmatic light descending slowly from the night sky to remain motionless over the sea. A tube-like structure emerged from the vehicle's "hull" and absorbed seawater for a protracted period. The unidentified object then rose again to hover above the witness, who noticed two beings staring at him through a porthole. According to the witness, a larger vehicle absorbed this smaller craft and became lost among the stars.The stage for the sightings moved from the Dominican Republic's eastern tip to its western border with Haiti, near the sugar-producing region on the Bay of Ocoa, in late 1977 and early 1978, with events taking a grislier turn: mutilations, accompanied by strange lights and bizarre creatures, tormented the cane-cutters of the town of Barahona, who reported that a "gigantic dog" was slaying and eating domestic animals in the dead of the night. This monstrous canine possessed above-average intelligence, as it was able to open pens and cages, extracting the last drop of blood from its hapless victims, which consisted largely of cats, hens and rabbits. Local authorities dismissed any supernatural suggestions, stating that it was merely "a joke in the poorest of taste" executed by the inhabitants of this agricultural area. The fact that the locals could ill afford to sacrifice their animals for the sake of a prank was deemed irrelevant.The mutilations were closely followed by several "occupant" sightings as the flap reached its peak: Cone-shaped beings were seen in November 1978 by five women in Santo Domingo. Three creatures, twice the height of the tallest human, carrying lanterns on their abdomens, descended a steep hillside to surround an automobile that braked to a screeching halt. The automobile's headlights died as the witnesses heard sounds which they assumed were blows being inflicted upon the vehicle by the conical trio. Their terrified screams attracted the attention of neighbors, who came to their aid. No traces were found of the beings or of the car which they had surrounded.In the 80s and early 90s, the Dominican Republic's UFO activity became closely linked with the incidents being reported by commercial and recreational mariners along the Mona Passage, the turbulent channel separating Hispaniola from Puerto Rico. Many illegal immigrants, braving the Passage's fierce seas to land on Puerto Rico's western shore, have reported seeing bizarre lights performing spectacular aerial maneuvers before plunging noiselessly into the black waters. An anonymous ship captain in the illegal immigrant trade claimed that his fishing boat, along with its human cargo, was almost capsized by the sudden emergence of a glowing craft from beneath the waves. - Inexplicata----------"Hi, I’m from Germany so sorry for my English. Thanks for this report from a sighting on the 1st of January 2011, before I thought I was wrong and I had an illusion.I saw also two rectangular grey/silver shaped objects flying side by side maintaining a gap between them, equal to their own length, during my holidays in the Dominican Republic.I don’t know anymore the exact date of my sighting, but it must be between the 8th and 11th of January in the night. I stayed near Las Terrenas, Samana, and the two objects came from the south and they flew fast, but both with the same steady speed, with no noise in a northerly direction.A short moment before there was a plane flying from north to a southerly direction with position lights. The plane was at a high altitude and was against the two objects, only a small point in the sky. Maybe the pilots saw the same, I don’t know.I couldn’t believe that there weren't clouds in the sky. I don’t know what it could be. That’s all I could say." G----------"At 12:50 pm today (08.29.05) I was able to witness a completely black UFO at an altitude of between 1000 and 3000 meters. I say this because the object flew between a low cloud (raincloud) and a medium altitude cloud (white cloud). We know that rain clouds are usually at an altitude of between 1500 to 2500 meters, with the lowest ones at 1000 meters and the higher ones between 2500-3000 meters."The object was traveling from West to East and its shape was hard to describe. I was unable to define its shape, but I believe it was something at appeared to be vertical (sic). Something like the alleged "flying humanoids" seen in Mexico over recent months. I cannot relate it to any other object, such as balloons, birds, airplanes, etc. on account of its very strange shape."Unfortunately I did not have time to a photograph, as the sighting lasted only some 40 seconds and I did not have a camera at hand."The object was flying in an even, single-row movement, except for a moment in which it maneuvered resembling a soft curve, which I estimate at some 5-10 degrees."I hope other people in my country saw the object and may therefore dispel any questions about the event. I will keep you informed about the event." T----------There has been an excellent report of a USO just east of the Dominican Republic. Though only recently reported, the event occurred on April 21, at 11:40 PM. The report comes from a man and his wife who were on the deck of a pleasure cruiser enjoying the night view of the ocean.The man first noticed a "white, spherical-shaped light out on the water a couple of hundred yards out from the ship." His wife first thought it was another ship.Soon, other passengers joined them in disbelief. It was obvious that this was not a ship, as the light began to rise up from the ocean surface. It reached a height of approximately 30 degrees above the horizon.The object was spherical and began to perform amazing aerial maneuvers. It would dart like a mosquito, then suddenly sped back under the water. It soon disappeared. - ufos.about.com----------On November 3, 1957, Santo Domingo’s El Caribe newspaper ran a story concerning the remarkable sighting of four unknown objects “resembling flying saucers” over the city of the Barahona coffee factory. According to journalist Julio Lembert, “the strange and unexpected apparition of the strange devices, which came within 100 meters of the facility, caused tremendous surprise among the factory workers who saw them at 6:30 in the morning yesterday (Nov. 1). According to statements made by Messrs. Amador Ponds and Negro Reyes, the first to see the strange craft, these approached at low altitude and remained motionless when they reached a concrete structure used to dry out the coffee. They remained there for two minutes.”One might be tempted to believe, half-humorously, that alien pilots needed a coffee break as much a truckers might. But Lembert’s narrative continues: “Eyewitnesses to the odd manifestations say that the objects were round and had a sort of gyrating dome at the in the middle. They flew in tight formation, imitating a “letter Y” (the reader will recall the Jamaican case) and their low altitude enabled the factory workers to get a good look. While we were unable to see any portholes or occupants—they said—we understand that the height of domes would allow a man of normal height to sit within them. In Ponds and Reyes’s opinion, as well as that of other employees, the size of the objects was about six feet in diameter. After remaining over the factory for the indicated period, the four objects headed east at dizzying speed, without making the least sound, vanishing from sight in seconds.”El Caribe’s edition for the following day understandably remarks that the unexpected visit from the inquisitive objects has become “the talk of the town” and that locals are suffering from neck strain from looking up at the sky so much. Other workers – whose names are given in the newspaper – stepped forward to add their names to the original witnesses. Weeks later, an “elongated, grayish object with an intense glow in its forward section” was seen after midnight on November 15 in Baní, witnessed by Francisco Fuertes, a deputy Municipal union worker. The object vanished behind a cloud and did not emerge again.UFOs took an interest in the Dominican Republic’s hydroelectric works during this period. A strange blue glow, as bright as a welder’s arc, emerged from an unknown object that flew over the Jimenoa Hydroelectric Plant on November 16 and 17th in the early evening. Witnesses Manuel Crune and Luis Padilla described it as resembling a very bright Christmas ornament, moving slowly from south to north. - ExplicataNOTE: Some of you may remember at least two hoaxed sightings from Hispaniola over the past 2 decades, in particular the La Vega Triangle UFO from April 2010. Historically, there have been sporadic credible sightings from the Dominican Republic. Hopefully, we'll soon start to receive constant and reliable reports from all of the West Indies. Lon**********PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARYPOLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!REPTOIDS - TERRESTRIAL MUTANTS & ALIEN TYRANTS | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (TERRIBLE REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCES)LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHAREPHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on SpotifyPHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LISTCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistHave you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. LonJOIN AMAZON PRIME - Unlimited Movie/TV Streaming& FREE 2-Day ShippingRegister a SNAP EBT CardTry Audible PlusBigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTubeLYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDSCRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINESHey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me by email or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! LonCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistChicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map----------Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio member - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK-----YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

The Ningen is one of the creepiest of cryptids. Meaning literally 'human', it’s supposedly a huge unknown animal sighted by a Japanese fisherman, which bears a remarkable resemblance to humans.Not only an oddly familiar face, but some reports include even arms and hands. Other creatures of the seas, namely skates and rays, also have nostrils and mouths that resemble a human-like face. Are oversized natural species misidentified as Ningen? Not according to the legends.The creatures are said to inhabit the northern Pacific Ocean and the waters around the Antarctic.I have included several images and a few other links that will represent the 'creepy' factor I mentioned. I have no doubt that many of these images are photo-shopped if not outright fake...but the tales about these creatures are believed by quite a few traditional Japanese. - Ningen Rohan (Japanese Edition)-----Was it a Ningen?Footage of uncertain origin shows a shadowy figure with clearly discernible arms and legs floating in the near distance.Carried by the current, it slowly draws closer, its limbs scarcely moving as something – seemingly fish – darts in front of the camera.Then the video abruptly ends, leaving only speculation to establish the identity of the ominous presence.The information posted with the clip claims it shows the Ningen, a mythological creature said to lurk off Antarctica.Estimated to be 20 to 30 meters in length, it is described as having a human appearance and even five-fingered hands.Apparently first sighted by a Japanese whale research ship, the Ningen taken for a submarine until the crew got a closer look.Yet no concrete evidence has confirmed the existence of the creature, despite several alleged sightings.The footage – which seems to date back to at least 2006 – resurfaced on Reddit this week, where viewers offered their guesses. - Mythical humanoid monster 'caught on camera' in icy water off AntarcticaNingen's NightmaresHorrors of Malformed Men**********PHANTOMS & MONSTERS VIDEO LIBRARYPOLL: WHAT DO YOU THINK? Vote & comment on paranormal, cryptid & unexplained mysteries!REPTOIDS - TERRESTRIAL MUTANTS & ALIEN TYRANTS | LIVE CHAT | Q & A (TERRIBLE REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCES)LISTEN TO NARRATIONS OF PHANTOMS & MONSTERS REPORTS & CASES - PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE & SHAREPHANTOMS & MONSTERS RADIO Podcasts on SpotifyPHANTOMS & MONSTERS READING LISTCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistHave you had a sighting or encounter?Contact me by email or call the hotline at 410-241-5974Thanks. LonJOIN AMAZON PRIME - Unlimited Movie/TV Streaming& FREE 2-Day ShippingRegister a SNAP EBT CardTry Audible PlusBigfoot and Other Cryptid Videos on YouTubeLYCANS! - PENNSYLVANIA'S CRYPTID CANINES UPDATE'KILLER BIGFOOT' HUNTED BY U.S. SPECIAL FORCES / GLIMMER MAN / MANTIS HUMANOIDSCRAWLER HUMANOIDS - GRUESOME INVADERS! (REAL EYEWITNESS ENCOUNTERS!)WEREWOLVES: DO THEY EXIST?'DOGMAN IN OUR YARD!' - AN OHIO FAMILY'S 12-YEAR SAGA WITH CRYPTID CANINESHey, folks. Thanks for the congrats on 'The Mothman Revisited' episode on Unsolved Mysteries. As a result, we are receiving more sighting reports and are very excited and grateful for the new information!I sincerely thank the Unsolved Mysteries team and Netflix for allowing us to tell the world about this phenomenon.If you have information about this or any other cryptid or unexplained sighting or encounter, please feel free to contact me by email or at 410-241-5974. Thanks again! LonCHICAGO MOTHMAN / O'HARE BATMAN YouTube PlaylistChicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map----------Become a Phantoms & Monsters Radio member - just $2.99 monthly, and receive these perks. Thanks for your support!-Members-only live chats-Exclusive members-only videos-Priority reply to members' commentsHave perks suggestions? LMK-----YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! THANKS

“In the past, we have written about many songs centered around driving, the open road, and numerous other releases of driving song articles. Many of us only really get the chance to listen to our favorite albums and songs in the car, as life at home or at work is often not really conducive to listening to music. This one focuses squarely on highways. There have been hundreds, maybe even thousands, of songs that mention highways in the lyrics or even in the song titles. Here are ten of our favorites. What are yours?” # 10 – (It’s a) Long The post 10 Best Classic Rock Songs About Highways appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

A passionate expert on fungi has spent a decade trying to discover the identity behind a preserved and mislabeled specimen in an Australian collection—all for the sake of science. Despite being one of the 5 kingdoms of life along with animals, plants, and two kinds of microorganisms, mycology, or the study of fungi, is not […] The post Passionate Mushroom Researcher Spends Decade Unravelling Mystery of 200-year-old Museum Specimen appeared first on Good News Network.

Nearly 5,500 Oregonians have been moved out of homelessness and into housing thanks to persistence from a recently-appointed task force. This amounts to a 28% increase from the previous year, and the number of housing placements is the most seen in a fiscal year since the task force’s inception. Located in Multnomah County, one of […] The post 5,000 Are Now Sleeping with Roof Over Their Head Thanks to Oregon Task Force Slashing Homelessness appeared first on Good News Network.

Books book review For the Undead Girlies: We Love the Nightlife by Rachel Koller Croft A review of Rachel Koller Croft’s new paranormal fiction novel. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 27, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share This is a book for all the party girls out there, as author Rachel Koller Croft explains in the acknowledgements of her latest book, We Love the Nightlife. Her second book is certainly an ode to clubbing, and joyfully celebrates early 20-somethings dressing up and making out with dudes on the dance floor. (And just dudes: Don’t let the suggestively sapphic cover fool you into thinking anyone in this story is anything other than straight.) But We Love the Nightlife is also a story about vampires. Two vampires specifically, and the toxic friendship they have. Sucking blood, however, is a secondary concern in their undead lives; what drives them and the plot is the urge to flee from or maintain power, with one trying to wrench herself away from the other who ruthlessly controls her existence. The two vampiric gal pals have been together for decades and still party hard in the London club scene, so much so that they seldom leave their neighborhood (other vamps have marked their territory around them) and never leave the city (though, admittedly, the logistics of traveling when the sun will kill you is understandably tricky).  When the book starts, the younger one, Amber, has finally realized after forty or so years as a vampire that her relationship with her maker, Nicola, isn’t so great. She realizes this when her master violently murders her former husband, who in 2021 has become a senior citizen since Amber turned vamp back in 1979. Nicola kills him because Amber broke the rule to never contact anyone from your human life when she “accidentally” brushed into her ex one night. He had no idea it was her of course—she still looked twenty-three, not sixty-four—but it was enough for Nicola to literally rip him to shreds, and enough for Amber to finally realize that she wanted out from under Nicola’s thumb.  Buy the Book We Love the Nightlife Rachel Koller Croft Buy Book We Love the Nightlife Rachel Koller Croft Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget The drama unfolds from there in a fashion akin to a CW show from the 2010s. Through chapters told primarily from the points of view of Amber and Nicola, we jump back in time, both to Amber’s earlier vampire days and back to 1850 when Nicola turned, to present day as Amber struggles to come up with an elaborate plan to flee from her maker. No matter what time we’re in, however, some things jump out: You could make a fabulous boa out of all the red flags Nicola gives off, and becoming a vampire appears to make you think in staccato sentences. Take, for example, Nicola thinking about a dude who once scorned her: We could belong to each other.Forever.I was so young.I still believed in love.And even more foolishly, I thought he did, too. (p. 227) Amber’s thoughts take on even more of this rat-a-tat-tat phrasing. Here is one example of many, when she sees Nicola dancing (platonically, of course) with an Instagram influencer late one night: Something’s different though.No doubt about it.Nic doesn’t play like this with her food.She’s not hunting.She’s dancing.Like she did with me when we met. (p. 123) Drama!  Cue commercial break!  If such stylistics are your jam or don’t bother you much, however, We Love the Nightlife can be a fun, bubble gum read. This is especially true if you don’t mind that other characters are mere props for Amber and Nicola’s drama, and are accordingly thinly developed on the page. We get enough juicy backstory on these characters—which include a hunky human guy who likes photography, a grumpy vampiric duo, and a fabulous male vampire with a Playboy-like penthouse scene going all night, every night—that could make for interesting novels in their own right. Within the confines of this book, however, they come across as little more than people sprinkled in for vibes, plot points, or cookie-cutter distractions.  Nicola and Amber are relatively more complex. We get an explanation as to why Nicola is such an evil, controlling vampire, and we understand why Amber agreed to be turned by her way back in the disco era. We also see Amber appear to go to darker and darker places in her quest to free herself from Nicola. Or does she? Close to the end we learn that Amber has her own… violent tendencies, let’s say, which makes subsequent betrayals and bloody situations lose what weight they had when viewed through Amber’s eyes.  But then there are the dance numbers! The cool party scenes! Vampires full of glamour in more ways than one! There are also a couple of twists and turns that may surprise you—or not, though either way they’re fun. And while the end is slapdash, with major characters and plot points getting unexpectedly and awkwardly discarded, We Love the Nightlife delivers on its promise to be a glitzy book about party girls who just happen to also be vampires. And if you read the ending more closely, you may also notice that the cycle of toxic vampiric relationships looks likely to repeat itself. But that won’t stop them from dancing, darling. Because there’s nothing two vampiric gal pals love more than staying out until dawn, drinking blood, and having fun. And if that sounds like a good time for you, We Love the Nightlife might tickle your fancy. So try it. Or don’t. Do what moves you or your TBR list. Either way, you’re fabulous.[end-mark] We Love the Nightlife is published by Berkley. The post For the Undead Girlies: <i>We Love the Nightlife</i> by Rachel Koller Croft appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Horror Read an Excerpt From Michelle McGill-Vargas’ American Ghoul A debut novel combining horror, social commentary, and a dash of buddy comedy. By Michelle McGill-Vargas | Published on August 27, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from American Ghoul, a new horror novel by Michelle McGill-Vargas, out from Blackstone Publishing on September 3rd. That’s what Lavinia keeps telling her jailer after—allegedly—killing her mistress, Simone Arceneau. But how could Simone be dead when she was taking callers just a few minutes before? And why was her house always so dark?Lavinia, a recently freed slave, met Simone, a recently undead vampire, by chance on a plantation in post–Civil War Georgia. With nothing remaining for either woman in the South, the two form a fast friendship and head north. However, Lavinia quickly learns that teaming up with this white woman may be more than she bargained for.Simone is reckless and impulsive—which would’ve been bad enough on its own, but when combined with her particular diet, Lavinia finds herself in way over her head. As she is forced to repeatedly compromise her morals and struggles to make lasting human connections, Lavinia begins to wonder, is she truly free or has she merely exchanged one form of enslavement for another? As bodies start to pile up in the small Indiana town they’ve settled in, people start to take a second look at the two newcomers, and Simone and Lavinia’s relationship is stretched to its breaking point… I can’t kill somebody who’s already dead. That’s what I told them white folks sitting out there, judging me. Of course, they didn’t believe me. For months, they saw Simone walking and talking like a real living person. But she wasn’t. Wasn’t living at all. Her heart didn’t beat none, and if they paid close attention, they’d notice she never took a breath and rarely blinked them baby blues of hers. No, Simone wasn’t one of us, but none of that mattered now. All they saw was me, some colored woman, standing over what they thought was Simone’s freshly dead body. Hell, ain’t been three years since old Uncle Abe freed me and my ilk. But here I am, shackled again, except this time I’m in an Indiana jail, waiting for my date with the hangman’s noose for supposedly killing a dead woman. “What are you going on about, Lavinia?” I flinch at the jailer’s familiar use of my name. Like he knows me. I fought hard for my name, but hearing it come out of his mouth is like sticker bugs scraping against my legs. Reminds me how getting familiar with the wrong folks got me into this mess. Martin, the jailer, makes his way to my cell. Doubt he can hear me over all the shouting outside. I can’t make out the words, but I ain’t gotta guess the whole town’s out there demanding my head. Martin turns his ear toward the noise, snorts quietly, then smiles. Even though it’s late in the afternoon, the July heat has him sweating like a fool and I can smell the tobacco plug steeping in his mouth. The whole jail isn’t that big. Just two side-by-side cells, each barely large enough to hold a cot and a pot. Takes Martin only a few strides across the wooden floor to get to me from his desk. His hand grips a battered tin cup for collecting shots of muddy juice from his stained mouth. He shifts the mound around in his jaws before settling on a comfortable corner in his cheek. Then he leans against the bars of my cell, spits a glob into the cup, and licks brown dribble from his bottom lip. Buy the Book American Ghoul Michelle McGill-Vargas Buy Book American Ghoul Michelle McGill-Vargas Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget “What did you think was going to happen? You killed a white woman.” “She was dead,” I say loud enough for him to hear despite the noise. “Of course, she’s dead. You killed her.” Martin removes his hat and scratches his thinning gray hair. He spits into his cup again. I regard my hastily bandaged forearm and cover the bindings with my hand. “I ain’t killed nobody,” I say, knowing it’s only technically true. “Don’t matter. Y’all gon’ hang me no matter how many times I say it.” “We found you with the body.” “You act like I was the only one out there.” I place a finger to my lips and glance at the corrugated tin ceiling. “Oh wait. I was the only one out there.” “This has nothing to do with you being colored,” Martin says, shocked that the accusation came from my mouth. “Doesn’t it? The whole neighborhood was outside. And there wasn’t a mark on Simone. Yet everybody somehow came to the conclusion that, outta all them people out there, I was the one who killed her. But sure, it ain’t got nothin’ to do with my being colored.” “It doesn’t. I got no ill will toward you people. And Miss Arceneau treated you just fine. Why you would go and do such a thing—” “I told you, I didn’t—” “Kill her. Right. Because she was already dead.” “She was!” Then under my breath, I add, “You’ll see. Don’t be surprised when she shows up tonight and busts me outta here.” Loud thumps rain against the jail from all sides, causing both of us to jump. Martin hurries to the door and cracks it just enough for several stones, clumps of dirt, and louder threats to make their way inside. I test the strength of the metal bars of my cell with my body. They oughta keep me safe, for a time. As fast as this town turned on me, I wouldn’t put it past Martin to hand them the keys. He finally gets enough sense to shut the door once a few of those rocks knock him back. “And here we thought you were different.” Martin closes his eyes and shakes his head. “If you only knew how different I really was,” I mutter, noticing a thin red line emerging on the bandage around my arm. All that jostling getting me here from the courthouse must’ve got it bleeding again. Martin sighs and tilts his head as if he’s tired of hearing me talk. “If you only knew how different I really was? Now what’s that supposed to mean, Lavinia?” “I’m a ghoul. Or at least I was one.” “A what now?” “A ghoul,” I say, surprised by the wave of sadness that hits me. I stroke my injured arm, remembering how, at first, I hated being a ghoul. But now, with only Martin standing between me and that mob, I’d give anything to be one again. The constable bursts in and for the first time, I hear only a few voices shouting my name. “Damn fools,” he says as he slaps a set of keys onto his desk. “All that hollering, for what? As if I understand anything they’re saying. You’d think if folks want something that bad, they’d tell you in English!” “These Germans sure love a hanging,” Martin says with a smile. “You get ’em calm, boss?” “For now. And let’s keep it that way. No drinking tonight. You think you can handle that this time?” Martin’s face falls. Then he notices that I notice. He adjusts his pants and then sidles over to the constable. “Ain’t nothing but the grace of God gonna keep her safe.” He lowers his voice while staring at me. “She killed a white woman.” “I didn’t kill nobody!” I remind them. “Had you not gotten so stinking drunk,” the constable continues as he reaches for the door handle, “they wouldn’t have gotten inside and strung up the last fella we had in here. And he turned out to be innocent!” “What do you want me to do, boss? I’m one man against a whole town.” “You’ve got a badge and a gun. Use ’em.” He listens at the door before opening it, then swears. “Look, Martin, mind the door this time, will ya? Somebody’s going to Hammond in chains tomorrow morning. If I come back and find her dead ’cause you couldn’t keep your eyes open, I’ll settle for you.” And with that, he leaves me at the mercy of an armed drunk and a town itching for a necktie party. Martin mumbles something as he wears a path in the middle of the floor. Then he finds his way back to my cell. “What were you saying earlier?” he spits out, brows all crinkled together as if I’m the reason he’s mad. “I didn’t kill—” “No, not that. Ghoul. What the hell is a ghoul? Some fancy French word Miss Arceneau taught you?” I raise an eyebrow. If he’s talking, he ain’t drinking. And if he ain’t drinking, I just might survive long enough for the constable to get me on the train outta this town. Not like the law in Hammond will believe me any more than these two. But swinging from a tree for something I didn’t even do ain’t how I want my story to end. And even though I owe Simone a good skinning for what she did to me in the end, I sure hope she ain’t dead-dead. Could use a little help getting outta here when night falls. I gently press down on my bandage; more crimson blooms. “You really wanna know?” He shrugs. “Nobody here but me and you.” He takes out a pocket watch and checks the time. “Be a couple of hours before the constable gets back from the post office to send that wire. And the Michigan Central won’t be by ’til the morning to carry you to Hammond. A story’ll keep me occupied.” He spits the entire wad of tobacco in the tin cup and wipes his mouth on his sleeve. I sigh and sink down to the earthen floor of my cell. This jail reminds me of the sod dugout me and Simone lived in when we first arrived here last fall. The cave, as we called it, was dark—had to be for Simone’s sake—with only a door to let in a few rays of sunlight. This jail got one door and a tiny window in each of the two cells. The wood along the bottom of the walls is worn away—or has been chewed by vermin. I quickly climb onto the thin, straw-filled mattress on the cot. “You gonna tell me the story or what?” Martin opens the drawer of his desk and takes out an oval pewter flask. He shakes it and I can hear liquid sloshing around. Shit. But he approaches the cell and hands it to me. I narrow my eyes at him before taking the flask. I unscrew the lid and sniff. Not that it matters much if it’s poisoned… or that it smells like tobacco and stale breath. I pour a swig in my mouth without letting the rim touch my lips. Martin’s always jawing on tobacco, so I don’t doubt the stuff is crusted all over the top of it. The whiskey warms my innards and my shoulders lower. For a second, I don’t even feel the throbbing pain in my arm. Didn’t know I was that tense. “You really wanna hear it?” I ask. “Already said yes, didn’t I?” A smile crawls across my face. He ain’t ready for this story. But I got nothing else to do. “You ever heard of vampires?” Excerpted from American Ghoul, copyright © 2024 by Michelle McGill-Vargas. The post Read an Excerpt From Michelle McGill-Vargas’ <i>American Ghoul</i> appeared first on Reactor.

The United States Air Force is one of the five branches of the United States Armed Forces. Established in 1907, the Air Force was originally a part of the United States Army before becoming its own branch of the military in 1947. The USAF is regarded as the largest and most technologically advanced air force in the world, operating 5,369 military aircraft, 406 ICBMs, and 170 military strategies as... Source

The Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to censor content on its platform relating to COVID-19 and other major stories, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed in a Monday letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,” Zuckerberg wrote. Nevertheless, Zuckerberg admitted Facebook’s culpability in censorship that took place on the platform. “Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure. I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.” Mark Zuckerberg just admitted three things:1. Biden-Harris Admin "pressured" Facebook to censor Americans. 2. Facebook censored Americans. 3. Facebook throttled the Hunter Biden laptop story. Big win for free speech. pic.twitter.com/ALlbZd9l6K— House Judiciary GOP ?????? (@JudiciaryGOP) August 26, 2024 Zuckerberg’s letter comes a year after Meta, Facebook’s parent company, complied with documents requests from the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into private and public sector online censorship. According to Zuckerberg, the committee has procured thousands of documents and dozens of interviews from company employees over the course of the probe. The Meta CEO then pivoted to another notable example of online censorship; namely, the censoring of the Hunter Biden laptop story on the eve of the 2020 presidential election. “In a separate situation, the FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and [Ukrainian energy giant] Burisma in the lead up to the 2020 election,” Zuckerberg claimed. When the New York Post released the Hunter Biden laptop story, Facebook, “temporarily demoted it.” Looks like Mark Zuckerberg has joined the ranks of the crazed conspiracy theorists who claim that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor dissent during Covid.— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 27, 2024 “It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” Zuckerberg continued. “We’ve changed our policies and process to make sure this doesn’t happen again—for instance, we no longer temporarily demote things in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers.” The Facebook founder affirmed in the letter, “Our platforms are for everyone—we’re about promoting speech and helping people connect in a safe and secure way. As part of this, we regularly hear from governments around the world and others with various concerns around public discourse and public safety.” Kara Frederick, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Tech Policy Center and who formerly led Facebook’s Global Security Counterterrorism Analysis Program, has her doubts. Though “his [Zuckerberg’s] instincts are less evil than his actual decisions,” Frederick claimed that Zuckerberg “is coming out in this conveniently timed way because he knows he will face no consequences for his platform’s eager acquiescence to government demands to censor Americans’ speech.” I am pleased to see Mark Zuckerberg coming clean about pandemic propaganda pushed onto Facebook by government.We are not being told the truth about many things. https://t.co/vQ4d8NvRqJ— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) August 27, 2024 “This is ultimately a deflection from how the platform operates to silence conservatives as we speak,” citing Facebook “‘mistakenly’ labeling the photo of Trump defiantly raising his fist in the air during his assassination attempt as ‘misinformation.’” In a statement to Fox News, a White House spokesperson seemed to double-down on the Biden-Harris administration’s censorship efforts. “When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety,” the spokesperson said. “Our position has been clear and consistent: We believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.” The post Zuckerberg Says Biden-Harris Admin Pressured Facebook to Censor Content appeared first on The Daily Signal.

One of the problems with reporters for The Washington Post is that they repeat the claims of liberals as if they are facts, without questioning the claims or pointing out the patently obvious problems with clearly false accusations. You can see that in a Page One story Saturday in which the Post blithely reports that “critics” of a new rule approved by the Georgia State Election Board say it “would empower county election officials to withhold certification of results without justification, potentially thwarting a popular result.” Nothing could be further from the truth, as is discernible by a simple reading of the rule, which the five-member Georgia State Election Board approved Aug. 19 by a vote of 3-2. Yet the Post offered no explanation as to how that claim is demonstrably wrong. Given the Post’s bias, we shouldn’t be surprised by its shoddy journalism I was one of three experts who testified before the state board in a virtual hearing, along with former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and Harry MacDougald, a former member of the Board of Registration and Elections in Fulton County, Georgia. When I was a resident of Georgia, I served for five years on the same board, supervising elections in the state’s largest county. If the Post’s two bylined reporters had bothered to read the written comments Cuccinelli and I submitted—or done some basic research—they would have quickly learned the facts. Under current Georgia law—§ 21-2-493 (b)—county election boards are required to reconcile the number of votes cast by registered voters with the number of  ballots counted and tabulated by election officials. In other words, Georgia requires its county election boards to make sure that if 1,000 voters check in to vote at a polling place, 1,000 votes were cast and counted.  If the numbers don’t match—if for example, 1,000 voters checked in but only 900 votes were counted—under the statute that is “deemed a discrepancy and palpable error.”  That “palpable error” must be “investigated” by election officials. Moreover, Georgia law provides that no votes from that specific polling place “shall be recorded” until the investigation has determined the source of the error and corrected it. So what happens if election officials can’t determine the reason for the “discrepancy and palpable error” after they carry out the required investigation?  Paragraph (i) of the statute provides that election officials “shall compute and certify the votes justly, regardless of any fraudulent or erroneous returns” (emphasis added). Thus, election officials must do their best even under those circumstances to “justly” determine how many ballots should be counted prior to certifying the election. It turns out that in Georgia’s counties, election officials are only haphazardly complying with the requirement. That’s why Fulton County Commissioner Bridget Thorne proposed a rule that simply sets out procedures for election boards to follow when implementing this statutory requirement, which the sworn members of these boards have a fiduciary and legal duty to carry out. I was astonished by the liberal opposition to this rule at the Georgia State Election Board’s hearing. The essence of opponents’ position was that election officials should never engage in the type of reconciliation that, as I said in my written testimony, is standard in “every type of retail and commercial establishment, such as banks, restaurants, and other stores” when they “reconcile their receipts and cash/credit.” That routine practice in the private sector “is no different than reconciling the number of voters with the vote cast,” I told the State Election Board. As Thorne rightly pointed out when she submitted the rule, it simply would “operationalize an existing statutory requirement to allow counties to uniformly conduct the minimum level of review as described in the law.” The new rule states specifically that if an error or discrepancy “cannot be properly corrected” after the required investigation, election officials will “determine a method to compute the votes justly as required” by the applicable statute. The “correct or corrected returns shall be recorded” and the “consolidated returns shall then be certified” by the date required under Georgia law. There is nothing “illegal” about this rule, as critics have falsely claimed. It also would not delay certification, as critics claim and as The Washington Post reported. But why bother reading a short statute when you can just parrot the Left’s talking points? Contrary to headlines in the Post and elsewhere saying that Georgia’s new rule raises “fears of election interference,” the rule will help ensure that the ballot of every registered, eligible voter is counted and not voided by errors, mistakes, omissions, or outright fraud. In other words, the rule will help prevent eligible, registered voters from effectively being disenfranchised. In contrast to the deceitful claim that it will be used for “thwarting a popular result,” election officials will use it to guarantee that the “popular result” is, in fact, the declared result of the election. Kudos to the majority of the Georgia State Board of Elections for standing up for election integrity and for ensuring that state and local election officials actually comply with the law. The post As Usual, The Washington Post Gets an Election Story Wrong appeared first on The Daily Signal.