The Highwaymen were a country music supergroup comprised of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson—four pioneers of the outlaw country movement. Formed in 1985, they became known for their rebellious spirit, blending their unique styles to create a powerful sound that transcended the traditional Nashville scene. Their debut album Highwayman produced the number one hit “Highwayman,” solidifying their place in music history. Over the next decade, they released two more albums, including Highwayman 2 and The Road Goes on Forever, both of which continued to showcase their enduring artistry and chemistry as a group. More than just The post Complete List Of The Highwaymen Albums And Songs appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

On the night of October 8th, the Earth will pass through a meteor shower radiating from the constellation Draco, an event that stargazers await with great anticipation. That’s because the Draconid Meteor Shower can often display a peak rate of shooting stars of just a few per hour, but, every few years, exceeds all others […] The post Draconid Meteor Shower Offers Chance to See Hundreds of Shooting Stars per Hour in October Skies appeared first on Good News Network.

Excerpts Horror Read the Introduction to Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror An anthology of unsettling tales from contemporary China, translated into English for the very first time. By Xueting C. Ni | Published on October 3, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share editor Xueting C. Ni’s introduction to Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror. This anthology of unsettling tales from contemporary China, translated into English for the very first time, is available now from Solaris. From the menacing vision of a red umbrella, to the ominous atmosphere of the Laughing Mountain; from the waking dream of virtual working to the sinister games of the locked room… this is a fascinating insight into the spine-chilling voices working within China today—a long way from the traditional expectations of hopping vampires and hanging ghosts.This ground-breaking collection features both well-known names and bold upcoming writers, including: Hong Niangzi, Fan Zhou, Chu Xidao, She Cong Ge, Chuan Ge, Goodnight, Xiaoqing, Zhou Dedong, Nanpai Sanshu, Yimei Tangguo, Chi Hui, Zhou Haohui, Su Min, Cai Jun, and Gu Shi. Introduction to Sinophagia (redacted) I have always had an active imagination. I was the sort of child who would see all kinds of things in the indistinct shapes of the dark, and of course, I loved ghost stories. One of my earliest memories of horror was watching the 1986 TV adaptation of Pu Songling’s famous Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Its opening titles, a single, dimly lit lantern, hovering unsteadily over a desolate nocturnal field, to the sound of ghostly, whispering wind, gave me unspeakable chills. During my childhood in Guangzhou, I would often visit Yuexiu Park, which housed a replica of the underworld scenes from the fantasy epic Journey to the West, meaning I could visit the grim scenes repeatedly. I remember really wanting to live in a cave like the White Bone Demon. This fascination with fear is natural to us all. This emotion is one of the primal human urges, and whilst it is not one that everyone finds easy to face or admit, or even one that certain societies and cultures are comfortable presenting to the world, we need the ability to be afraid in order to truly know what it is to be brave, calm and safe. One of the things I appreciate in both the writers and readers of horror, is their willingness to face fear. After moving to the UK, I fell in love with gothic fiction. I spent an adolescence reading authors such as Charlotte and Anne Brontë, Wilkie Collins, Alexandre Dumas, before following them with the likes of Horace Walpole, Charlotte Gilman Perkins and R.L. Stevenson at university. As an adult, I also found myself sitting down to Hammer horror films, eighties American cult classics and Hong Kong zombie films, and later finding out about mainland Chinese Qingming and Zhongyuan releases. I was drawn to the likes of Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black, and films like Guillermo Del Toro’s The Orphanage. Whilst gore has its place, it does not affect me nearly as much as that suggestive sense of eeriness. The Chinese view of Horror has always struck me as being unique. Where nearly every horror myth I have come across in the West is a cautionary tale, China has a long tradition of journal and documentational style writing, referred to as the zhiguai, or tales of the strange, that mixes history with legends and hearsay. Moreover, the mishmash of Chinese beliefs did not label spirits and ghosts as something evil and unnatural, but rather, just part of the normal order of things, with their own place in the world, and traditionally, the ‘frights’ have only arisen when the spirits are angered, restless, or the boundaries trespassed. As I began to put this collection together, I came upon a new horror. The more I spoke with agents and editors in China, the more I discovered that there had been a certain ‘poisoning’ of the genre through a slew of gratuitously violent, gory, and sexualised content, and a string of real-life deaths, all of which were blamed on the copying of films, books and series with a horror theme. My own research had shown me that China’s horror fiction was at the same stage science fiction had been around a decade ago and would also be ready to find an international readership, but whilst there was an amazing love for horror literature here in the West, it seemed that people did not want to be known as horror writers within China. I had paved my way into China’s publishing industry with my first collection, but even with these contacts and avenues, how could I find those excellent writers I had read and written about, if they did not want to be found? There had been several online short story platforms specialising in horror, which would have been perfect selection pools, all of which seemed to have shut up shop at the start of the pandemic, and never reopened. Buy the Book Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror Xueting C. Ni (Editor/Translator) Buy Book Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror Xueting C. Ni (Editor/Translator) Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget However, I was not going to give up. I was going to find these voices, by any means. I emailed, sent voice messages, held international phone conversations, stalked and pestered people (in an amicable and courteous manner) on social media, and did my best to explain that Horror fiction is much more established and recognised in the Anglophone market. I could see there was a lot of excellent writing in this genre from the last thirty years, especially around the period of domestic boom, which readers around the world would find fascinating and love to read. I thought how tragic it would be to see these works and creative voices buried. I hoped to gain new recognition for these writers with my anthology, and for this positive interest outside of China to feed back to the domestic market, in the same way it had done with kehuan (science fiction), and we may just be able to alter attitudes and perspectives within the country. I held my breath, but my already low expectations were lowering still, until one day, my heart leapt at the notifications on my phone. Whether it was the earnestness of my words, the desperation in my tone, my sheer bloody-mindedness, or the scent of opportunity, they started to respond. The next few months were punctured by immense ups and downs. Word of mouth about the project opened more and more doors, until I had a submission pile threatening to crash my little inbox. I read and read until my eyes felt ready to pop out of their sockets, but this was still only half the battle. I now had access to works and writers in the genre, but assembling the collection I wanted was going to take very careful curation. I have often said that Chinese literature is either very short, or very long, and in horror, it seemed like the best writers worked predominately in the long form. It took a lot of cajoling and discussion to convince writers to share shorter pieces with me or let me take stories out of the context of larger collections, to try and merge those with some shorter pieces, “Tetrising” them into a collection I feel shows the gamut of contemporary China’s Horror scene. Whilst this collection is meant to introduce you to the wonders, and terrors, of Chinese Horror, it is still climbing out of a pernicious, exploitative era, and in doing so, many current attitudes and the representation of genre in China are problematic, and that extends all the way down to what you actually call it. For example, whilst there are specific terms for certain sub-genres, such as lingyi (paranormal), the most common term for Horror as a whole, is kongbu wenxue, the same “kongbu” (恐怖) that is the term used for Terrorism. Understandably, the word is filled with negative connotations. An alternate name for Horror is jingsong wenxue, but jingsong (惊悚) meaning “shock and fright”, has come to be the Chinese equivalent of the term “Grindhouse”, or “Goreporn”. Neither of these terms really describe Horror beyond the most superficial and stereotypical elements of storytelling, and certainly fail to illuminate exactly what this kind of literature is really about. Most horror writers I spoke to in collecting these stories preferred to use the term 悬疑 xuanyi (suspense), or thrillers, which puts them on the same shelves as spy stories, or detective novels. In not naming a genre, or employing euphemisms, we risk it disappearing from literary history. I have, in my correspondence, used the term kongxuan(恐 悬), in an attempt to invite a more nuanced approach to the genre, and express its diverse nature. A constant reminder that Horror is a lot more than jumps, shock, and gore, though each of those has its place. It tells of the fearful things we encounter around us, and within ourselves. My first collection of Stories, Sinopticon, was very much about the visions of China, but Horror is a far more visceral thing, and whilst this may be considered a companion piece, I also wanted it to stand out as its own thing. We wanted a title that sounded unsettling, but without fuelling any sense of Sinophobia. ‘-Phagia’ was chosen because of its association with ‘devouring’. If any student studying this is seeking to increase their wordcount, you could consider it an ironic statement regarding the rising Sinophobia around the world, rooted in unfounded fears surrounding Chinese and Asian eating habits. The writers in this collection are varied. Not just in style, but age, gender, background and importantly, location. Whereas science fiction by nature transcends geographical boundaries, Horror traditions are intensely regional, with strong emotional energies, such as fear, very much embedded in our natural and manmade surroundings. Sinophagia reflects a society still dealing with recent histories of war, invasions, and revolutions, who still have a deep-rooted connection to a land that has not always been hospitable, and a cultural memory of the dangers brought by floods, famine, and the inhospitable terrain which surrounds the flatter cradle of early civilisation. What emerges is a very regional horror landscape, with the ethnically diverse mountains of the South and West, such as the imposing Zhangjiajie range of Xiangxi, providing the perfect sublime, but terrifying backdrops, whilst the equally impressive glass and steel ‘mountains’ springing up through urbanisation, fulfil the 21st century literary imagination to engage with the real-life horrors around them. In Sinophagia, we see a contemporary society that is concerned about class, the rural and urban divide, unaffordable housing, the aftermath of biopolitical policies, the alienating impact of urban living and how the growing consumerist economy and overwhelming pressures of the jobs market affect businesses and families. Whilst these issues are present in many non-genre books in China, they are often downplayed, or given imaginary happy endings, or in typical Chinese fashion, endured for a greater good. Horror allows the suffering in these situations to be explored unchecked, and often unresolved. One thing that I have really enjoyed about putting this collection together, has been the way Horror plays with perspective and voice, and there is certainly a vast array in this book, from conventional omniscient narrators and intimate first-person storytelling, to an unusual second person viewpoint, and the marginalised voices of the non-human and non-mortal. There are neurodivergent characters, and those who are being deliberately misled or manipulated, and sometimes, a combination of these, suddenly, rapidly switching, which make the stories all the more interesting. Whilst the styles and tones vary from story to story, from literary to journal-like reportage, from grave voices of gravitas, to the darkly comical, each of them has a sense of the uncanny, with themes of entrapment, secrecy and concealment, running through them. I truly believe that many of these stories can be read as archetypes for “The Chinese Gothic”. —Xueting C. Ni Table of Contents The Girl In the Rain 雨女 by Hong Niangzi The Waking Dream 清醒梦 by Fan Zhou Immortal Beauty 红颜未老 by Chu Xidao Those Who Walk At Night, Walk With Ghosts 但行夜路必见鬼 by She Cong Ge The Yin Yang Pot, 鸳鸯锅 by Chuan Ge Shanxiao 山魈 by Goodnight, Xiaoqing Have You Heard of Ancient Glory? 你听说过古辉楼吗？by Zhou Dedong Records of Xiangxi 老九门之湘西往事 by Nanpai Sanshu The Ghost Wedding 喜结鬼缘 by Yimei Tangguo Night Climb 夜攀 by Chi Hui Forbidden Rooms 禁屋 by Zhou Haohui Ti’Naang 替囊 by Su Min Huangcun 荒村 by Cai Jun The Death of Nala 娜娜之死 by Gu Shi Excerpted from Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror, copyright © 2024 by Xueting C. Ni, published by Solaris. The post Read the Introduction to <i>Sinophagia: A Celebration of Chinese Horror</i> appeared first on Reactor.

 Sometimes, politicians steal people’s homes. Really. If homeowners miss property tax payments, even if they never received the bills, some towns grab the whole house and keep the proceeds. All the proceeds. Even if the total is much more than the property tax owed. I reported on this (mal)practice a couple years ago. Since then, there’s been good news from the Supreme Court. But as my new video points out, some towns still steal homes. Tawanda Hall was behind on her property taxes. For that, she lost her family’s $308,000 house—$286,000 more than what she owed. When Hall first learned that Oakland County, Michigan, bureaucrats were seizing her home, she went to the mayor’s office to try to pay off her debt. But “they didn’t want our money,” Hall tells me, “They wanted the house. … They stole our home.” She didn’t even know she was behind on taxes: “We did not receive anything other than, ‘Get out.’” Christina Martin, a lawyer at the Pacific Legal Foundation, says government officials routinely notify people in legalese so dense that the homeowner doesn’t understand what the town demands. “They have an incentive not to work with people who are honestly trying to pay.” Martin took Hall’s case to court, claiming the county violated the “Takings Clause” of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which ensures that private property can’t be taken for public use without just compensation.  But a Michigan judge dismissed her case because the government itself didn’t make a profit. Instead, the county gave her home to the Southfield Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, a private company. It then sold her house and kept most of the money. “The government shouldn’t be able to steal from its own people and then give it to their friends,” says Martin.  “How do you know that they’re ‘friends’?” I ask. “The company is run by the mayor and the city administrator.” It’s true. The Southfield Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative made $10 million selling foreclosed houses. Between 2016 and 2019, the company sold 138 homes. They didn’t give any money back to the original homeowners. Uri Rafaeli, a retired engineer, accidentally underpaid his property taxes because he didn’t add interest on his debt. His math was off by just $8.41. But Oakland County bureaucrats didn’t care. They foreclosed and sold his house for $24,500. The county kept all that money, not just $8.41. “You think if he knew he owed $8, he would have paid it?” Martin says. “Of course. He didn’t know. There wasn’t the proper incentive to let him know.” Sixty-seven-year-old Deborah Foss fell behind on property taxes. She owed New Bedford, Massachusetts, $9,626. Bureaucrats sold her house for $242,000 and kept the difference. Foss resorted to living in her car. The Pacific Legal Foundation appealed these home thefts and finally won at the Supreme Court. The court ruled 9-0 that the practice is unconstitutional. “You only take what you’re owed,” wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch. Finally. Justice.  Except the county that stole Tawanda Hall’s house still won’t return the excess money. They’re spending more taxpayer money on legal fees, demanding that Hall prove the house’s value in court. At least the woman living in her car got $85,000 back. She is no longer homeless. I wish I could say such abuses are over, but a handful of states still use loopholes to get around the Supreme Court ruling. The Pacific Legal Foundation says they will continue to sue until towns end this practice for good. COPYRIGHT 2024 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post How Politicians Steal Homes appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. World Economic Forum (WEF) Founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab appears quite enthusiastic about a future where technology takes the lead and central role in people’s everyday lives, but also across industries. More likely, when he talks about the supposedly upcoming “Intelligence Age” – given his own and his organization’s track record – Schwab might actually have in mind advanced technology programmed by the few, in control of the rest. Schwab’s recent post on the WEF’s website reveals that he does see himself as a visionary: first, he takes credit for the phrase “the Fourth Industrial Revolution” (that, true, has produced a world where elites use Big Tech to control, influence, and muzzle the “unwashed masses”). And now it’s time for the “Intelligence Age.” The concept is as simple as it is expansive: notions of the physical and biological “fusing” with the digital, while blockchain, but also currently more esoteric categories like quantum computing, and A(G)I, would “converge.” And where they’d “fuse and converge” is – people’s lives. It’s already very much so happening, Schwab says, while promoting something he calls “environmental, social and geopolitical intelligence” to make sure everything goes smoothly, that is, without “divisions” (which is in his circles often a code word for, dissenting opinion). According to Schwab, already “AI-driven systems are outperforming humans” in the healthcare industry. Similar, “positive” developments are present in agriculture as well, he goes on, as well as in finance. Not to mention the so-called smart, heavily mass-surveilled cities, “with sensors and AI managing everything from traffic flow to energy usage.” Schwab does pay lip service to “risks” such as excessive automation in the workplace leaving huge amounts of people jobless, but he talks about it in terms of new opportunities, and seems to think politicians, education systems, etc., will “help people transition to new roles.” What those “roles” may be, he doesn’t go into, except to note they will require “entirely different skill sets.” If anything screams actual societal divisions, going forward – should Schwab’s predictions come true – it’s this. But he decides to treat this point as a minor problem. And, there is one thing the WEF founder no doubt wants to present as far more concerning – and that is, “bias and misinformation” as a result of future sophisticated AI. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Klaus Schwab Champions the “Intelligent Age,” Despite Concerns Over Censorship and Surveillance appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Melania Trump: Abortion Rights Defender?

Playing the "FEMA Got No Mo Money Blues"

On Oct. 1, the Islamic Republic of Iran launched some 181 ballistic missiles at the state of Israel. Most were shot down; those that weren't fell largely in uninhabited areas. Thanks to the technological and intelligence superiority of Israel and her allies, the Iranian attack -- the second such attack in six months -- was foiled. As of this writing, the world waits for Israel's promised response. The reason for Iran's attack is obvious: Israel is currently thoroughly destroying Iran's terror proxies in the region. Since Hamas' brutal mass terror assault of Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has devastated the terrorist group: some 23 of its 24 battalions have been destroyed; its leadership caste has been wiped out, from political leader Ismail Haniyeh (assassinated with pinpoint accuracy in Tehran) to military leader Mohammed Deif (killed in a targeted airstrike) to the missing Yahya Sinwar, Oct. 7 mastermind. Israel has established working military control over virtually all of the Gaza Strip, including the border between Gaza and Egypt, which had been used as a resupply thoroughfare by Hamas. Hamas has been degraded to fighting a low-level insurgency against IDF forces. Meanwhile, after nearly a year of taking thousands of incoming rockets in its north from the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, Israel finally responded with overwhelming force and competence. First, in a feat of espionage that beggars the imagination, Israel simultaneously exploded the beepers of Hezbollah's terrorists, wounding or killing thousands of them and wrecking Hezbollah's methods of communication; then, when Hezbollah attempted to reestablish communications via walkie-talkies, Israel blew those up as well; after that, Israel proceeded to unleash the Israeli Air Force on targets across southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut, wiping out the vast majority of Hezbollah's long-range munitions; finally, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the thoroughly vile United Nations and warned that Israel would no longer be crossed, the IAF dropped a series of bunker busters on the head of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah, killing him and more of his top lieutenants. All Hezbollah could do in response was uselessly fire rockets into empty areas of Israel's north. Even the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, who have been firing cruise missiles at Israel, have felt Israel's wrath: Israel has issued multiple direct strikes at Houthi-controlled ports in a country some 1,800 kilometers away. Iran's proxies are on the ropes. This means that the forward operating arm of the Iranian regime has been amputated. And that's what necessitated Iran's attempts to strike Israel directly. This was a major miscalculation. Israel in the post-Oct. 7 era is not the Israel of before. It is a state unwilling to risk its future on the bet that its enemies will act with reasonable caution. It can no longer afford such bets. And so Israel has set about a mission the West has not pursued in decades: victory. Israel will not back down and cut deals that merely delay the inevitable, buying time for her enemies to arm up. Israel has struck at its enemies and will continue to do so. And it is working. The Abraham Accords, negotiated by President Donald Trump's team, have remained durable. The Sunni Gulf states see that Israel remains the region's most powerful military and economic force, and will act accordingly to ally with it. Iran has been forced into a defensive crouch, lashing out ineffectually at Israel and America while blustering about its larger-scale ambitions. But, in an utter inversion of Iran's ambitions since Oct. 7, Israel has grown stronger. Iran has grown far weaker. The Iranian regime is unpopular; its military has proved itself ineffectual in anything but quashing its own citizenry and facilitating the death of civilians in Iraq and Syria; its terror proxies have f**ked around and found out. And the region will be better off for it. All of which should remind the West of a simple principle: there is no substitute for victory. Peace results from the credible threat of use of overwhelming force, not from empty words around glossy tables. A strong and more confident West makes for a better and more prosperous world.

MSNBC’s Joy Reid likes to fashion herself as a good race and gender conscious progressive, which is why it was weird when she declared on Monday’s edition of The ReidOut that it was natural that Donald Trump said he admires President William McKinley because the 1890s were a time that was “only great for men like Donald Trump.” At the same time, Reid had nice things to say about segregationist Woodrow Wilson. Trump’s admiration for McKinley comes from the latter’s support of tariffs, but Reid made sure to add, “McKinley's presidency wasn't just about tariffs. It was also about empire. After an explosion on a U.S. battleship called the Maine, that was later found to be just a structural failure, not sabotage, the U.S. launched a war against Spain to take Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines out of their empire and put the latter three into ours.”     Reid also argued Trump’s view of McKinley’s record is incorrect because McKinley “updated his attitude from ‘Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs’ to something called reciprocity.” It should be added that Trump appears to favor trade reciprocity as well. As for Reid’s history lesson, she next recalled McKinley's “run ended in 1901, though, when, sadly, McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist who shot him in the chest in the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo, New York, clearing the way for the progressive Roosevelt administration and the vast saving of public lands, which MAGA Republicans also hate. They want to drill, baby, drill, and sell those lands to billionaires. Billionaire developers.” Circling back to the 1890s, Reid added: But what you need to know about this era that Donald Trump says is the time when America was great before he made it great again is not just ‘Remember the Maine’ or Mount McKinley, which, by the way, was renamed Denali under the Obama administration to restore its indigenous Alaskan name, which is probably why Trump is so sore about it. The 1890s happened to fall smack dab in the middle of the gilded age, which began in the 1870s and kept going through the turn of the century.” Reid then sought to contrast the McKinley Era with the Wilson Era, “It was a time of rapid industrialization and extreme wealth inequality. A time when the super rich got richer and richer because the U.S. had no income taxes. Which would not be passed until 1909, and ratified in 1913 under Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Workers during the Gilded Age toughed it out in scary conditions with unions, no overtime, and no protection.” Praising the adoption of the 16th Amendment that allowed for the collection of income taxes while ignoring Wilson being a raging racist and eugenicist who threw his further-left critics in jail was certainly an odd choice, but the oddness didn’t end there: It was two decades before women got the right to vote, unions got the right to organize, children were barred from working in factories and mines. Non-white immigrants weren't blocked from coming to America, and black Americans got a new civil rights act, a voting rights act, and Supreme Court decisions ensuring their right to vote, to go to the theater or eat in a restaurant free from segregation and abuse, or to attend majority white schools. In other words, in the McKinley Era, America was pretty much only great for men like Donald Trump. What is Reid talking about? The next civil rights act did not pass until 1957 and Brown v. Board of Education wasn’t decided until 1954. Progressive hero Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era had nothing to do those. Here is a transcript for the September 30 show: MSNBC The ReidOut 9/30/2024 7:03 PM ET JOY REID: McKinley's presidency wasn't just about tariffs. It was also about empire. After an explosion on a U.S. battleship called the Maine, that was later found to be just a structural failure, not sabotage, the U.S. launched a war against Spain to take Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines out of their empire and put the latter three into ours. And McKinley launched an open door trade policy with China, having updated his attitude from “Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs” to something called reciprocity. You trade with us, we trade with you. After his VP died of a heart attack, McKinley ran for re-election in 1900 with a new running mate, Hanna referred to as “that damned Teddy Roosevelt.” His run ended in 1901, though, when, sadly, McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist who shot him in the chest in the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo, New York, clearing the way for the progressive Roosevelt administration and the vast saving of public lands, which MAGA Republicans also hate. They want to drill, baby, drill, and sell those lands to billionaires. Billionaire developers.  But what you need to know about this era that Donald Trump says is the time when America was great before he made it great again is not just “Remember the Maine” or Mount McKinley, which, by the way, was renamed Denali under the Obama administration to restore its indigenous Alaskan name, which is probably why Trump is so sore about it. The 1890s happened to fall smack dab in the middle of the gilded age, which began in the 1870s and kept going through the turn of the century.  It was a time of rapid industrialization and extreme wealth inequality. A time when the super rich got richer and richer because the U.S. had no income taxes. Which would not be passed until 1909, and ratified in 1913 under Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Workers during the Gilded Age toughed it out in scary conditions with unions, no overtime, and no protection.  It was two decades before women got the right to vote, unions got the right to organize, children were barred from working in factories and mines. Non-white immigrants weren't blocked from coming to America, and black Americans got a new civil rights act, a voting rights act, and Supreme Court decisions ensuring their right to vote, to go to the theater or eat in a restaurant free from segregation and abuse, or to attend majority white schools. In other words, in the McKinley Era, America was pretty much only great for men like Donald Trump.

Q. When is an October Surprise not an October surprise?  A. When it's aimed at Donald Trump. Just ask Morning Joe. On today's episode, Jonathan Lemire and Katty Kay agreed: Nope, Jack Smith's new filing in his election interference case against Trump was not an October Surprise. Lemire's first argument was particularly lame: Okay, yeah, the filing came in October. But it came at the beginning of October, not like Jim Comey's letter regarding the Hillary Clinton private email server probe that came about one week before the 2016 election. This -- we kid you not -- "much further out." New rule for October Surprises: They've got to come in Halloween Week—or no cigar! Don't forget that while they're loving this new Jack Smith term paper, the liberal media offered red-hot hate for Comey's late announcement in 2016. Andrea Mitchell called it "the worst possible situation for the FBI, for the country, for Hillary Clinton certainly." Then Lemire actually blamed Trump for Smith's filing coming at this time: "The reason why this is coming out now is because of Donald Trump's legal team's own delay tactics. The push that they have made, and then the Supreme Court decision about immunity which Jack Smith is trying now to circumvent." Yeah, how dare Trump try to defend himself! He should have rolled over and pled guilty to all the charges! Lemire began by saying he had two "rebuttals" to Trump's depiction of the Smith filing as election interference. Rebuttals, Jonathan? That's the kind of lingo opposing counsel would use against Trump. A bit of unintentional honesty on Lemire's part! Note also that Lemire, while denying that the Smith filing is an October Surprise, suggested that it will remind voters about how horrible Trump's past presidency was, and how bad another Trump presidency could be. So it's fine for the filing to be a sword against Trump -- just not one he can use as a shield! Katty Kay agreed with Lemire that the Smith filing doesn't constitute an October Surprise:  "We've got a lot of October Surprises, and we're only, what, into day three or day four of October, and there are a ton out there, most of them around the world. I don't think this counts as one." So because it's early October, and there could be other surprises floating around out there, this one doesn't count. Gotcha, Katty! Here's the transcript. MSNBC Morning Joe 10/3/24 6:13 am EDT JONATHAN LEMIRE: Katty, you know, this comes, Donald Trump claims this is election interference. Two rebuttals to that. First of all, let's remember that in 2016, James Comey's letter about the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton came about a week before the election. This is much further out. Also, the reason why this is coming out now is because of Donald Trump's legal team's own delay tactics. The push that they have made, and then the Supreme Court decision about immunity, which Jack Smith is trying now to circumvent. So I don't think this quite qualifies as an October surprise. But it is a reminder to so many Americans what Trump did, what those years were like, what another Trump presidency could be like. Do you think it is going tomatter in this election? KATTY KAY: I think you're right. I mean, we've got a lot of October Surprises, and we're only, what, into day three or day four of October, and there are a ton out there, most of them around the world. I don't think this counts as one.