Column Weird Fiction The Things We Do For Life Lists: Liz Williams’ “The Hide” A story set where the natural and unnatural worlds collide. By Ruthanna Emrys‚ Anne M. Pillsworth | Published on February 7‚ 2024 icon-comment 0 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed Welcome back to Reading the Weird‚ in which we get girl cooties all over weird fiction‚ cosmic horror‚ and Lovecraftiana—from its historical roots through its most recent branches. This week‚ we cover Liz Williams’ “The Hide‚” first published in Strange Horizons in 2007. You can also find it in The Weird. Spoilers ahead! “…I knew that come September the fog would start drifting in from the Bristol Channel‚ smelling of salt mud and sea‚ hiding first the whale-humps of islands‚ then the arch of Brent Knoll‚ then the flat lands all the way to the Tor with its tower.” Jude has come to the Somerset Levels of southwest England to do research at Moors Centre. The surrounding wetlands were once called the Summer Country‚ because it was only when the winter floods retreated that the place was dry enough to negotiate. The rest of the year its marshes and groves were “the haunt only of ducks and herons‚ and the small people who lived along the causeways and in the lake villages.” Jude’s studies center on the Sweet Track‚ an ancient causeway dated to 3807 BC. Jude opens on a cold October night. She’s searching the marshes for her sister Clare‚ accompanied by Clare’s boyfriend Richard. The story starts the summer before‚ when the three were exploring a bird reserve on the Sweet Track. Clare met Richard through a university bird-watching society‚ but Jude suspects her enthusiasm centers more on picnics and Richard than birds. Jude wonders what might have happened if Richard had met her before he met Clare. Experience with Clare makes her think that wouldn’t have made a difference. Clare spots a modern wooden causeway over the reedy marsh. It leads to a bird-watcher’s hide. Clare and Richard duck inside. Near the door Jude finds the wing of a small black bird‚ recently torn from its owner. Impulsively she sets it on the causeway railing. The hide smells of bird droppings‚ though Jude sees no sign of rafter nests. Clare lifts an observation hatch‚ and they spot a heron. Then their focus shifts to three birds gliding over the reedbeds. They appear white‚ but as they pass the hide‚ Jude sees that they’re black‚ long-necked and long-beaked. Probably cormorants? Back at the car park‚ they meet a man with a “hippie” van‚ dreadlocks‚ and a joint. He asks about their birding luck. They mention the cormorants; oddly‚ the man’s expression shifts to half-amusement‚ half—something else. Were these birds black or white? Black‚ Jude says‚ adding that you don’t get white ones. Sometimes you do‚ the man says. And how many were there? Three? Well‚ he hopes they don’t see them again. Before Jude can question this cryptic remark‚ he leaves. Clare and Richard return north. Jude immerses herself in research. Months later‚ she stops at Clare’s on the way back from a conference. Clare’s out‚ Richard’s worried. Clare’s been moody since Somerset. Without telling him‚ she’s taken sick leave from work and spends her days staring into a dirty urban canal. He asks if Clare could visit Jude. Jude feels the brush of feathers against her hands; instead of crying off‚ she says yes. Clare arrives in Somerset showing no sign of depression. Over tea‚ she confides she’s been dreaming about color-shifting cormorants. She seems disappointed when Jude shrugs the dreams off. The next day Clare doesn’t return from a walk. Jude can’t reach Richard but leaves messages. Instead of calling back‚ Richard arrives in person. He didn’t get Jude’s messages but dreamt about Clare wandering in a storm. In the dream he knows that if she can reach that hide they visited‚ they can “pull her back.” He dreams of white-then-black birds flying toward Clare: black snow starts falling and covers her. When Richard reaches her‚ he realizes she’s turned to crumbling peat. Following the intuition from Richard’s dream‚ he and Jude go to the hide. In the January-cold October night‚ mist cloaks the reeds‚ and Richard moves like one possessed‚ staring straight ahead. June finds the black wing in her pocket. She’s revolted‚ but repockets it at Richard’s call. Strange joy suffuses his face. It’s okay‚ he says: Clare’s here. Collapsed in the hide? No. Richard points through the open shutters‚ to a sky dawn-gray in the east‚ but with a red horizon and storm clouds in the west. Twenty cormorants fly across it‚ white when east of the hide‚ black when west of it. A hut on stilts rises opposite the hide‚ surrounded by black reeds with crimson tips “like ragged bulbs of flesh.” Clare stands on the hut balustrade. A shutter opens behind her‚ and in the black window Jude sees her own face‚ but aged and bitter. Hut-Jude waves a bloody bird wing at Hide-Jude. Then the face is no longer hers‚ no longer human. Richard wades through the marsh toward the hut. As the last cormorant turns black above‚ Clare pulls Richard onto the balustrade. In the water‚ the bird’s white reflection bursts into dazzling splinters‚ and the hut vanishes‚ Clare and Richard vanish‚ leaving Jude alone in the night. Jude goes home to find Richard and Clare’s things‚ proof she hasn’t been dreaming. The police search for the couple; the media take notice of the mystery and then drop it. Left alone again‚ Jude imagines an “ancient conjured hell” whose spirits she could only perceive as birds. Gradually she decides on a simpler explanation. As they went into the hide to “spy” on birds‚ so “something somewhere else had also set up a hide‚ to watch us‚ and when the time was right‚ to take.” What’s Cyclopean: The Summer Country is rich with natural details: “gleaming wet marshes‚ dense beds of dull golden reeds‚ and groves of alder and unpollarded willow”‚ the better to contrast with the later‚ unnatural details. Libronomicon: Both Clare and Jude had their noses in books as kids‚ but not the same books: Jude is all about the facts; Clare is about the myths. Jude treats this as a clear distinction‚ never mind kids who cheerfully alternate between Daulaire’s and National Geographic. Anne’s Commentary Why do people make watching birds anything from a casual hobby to a passionate vocation? I mean‚ why birds in particular? Amphibian and reptile watchers have a special name‚ but the cultural currency of herpers is so much less than birders that my spell-check always corrects it to herpes. People looking for milk-producing furry things aren’t called mammalers‚ nor people looking for invertebrates buggers. Here’s what separates birds from other animals: Generally speaking‚ they’re easier to spot and thus to photograph and add to one’s life list. Birds can be outright  attention hogs—look at the garish dressers like flamingos and parrots and painted-damn-buntings! Listen to the beaks on them‚ chirping and squawking all day‚ then hooting all night. The neediest even insist on calling their own names—I’m looking at you‚ chickadees and whippoorwills. Another advantage birds have in amassing followers is that they’re the only vertebrates that can fly. I’m not counting the semi-aeronautic gliders or the bats‚ who are unabashed bird-wannabes. Not that I discount birds who don’t fly: Penguins substitute adorable waddling and mad swimming skills‚ while ostriches and cassowaries can kick your ass‚ literally. But flight provides an escape mode the flightless can’t match if birds get any decent head-start. Granted‚ humans can shoot arrows or bullets‚ but we’re discussing only benign stalkers. Birds can safely flirt with birders‚ flaunting their stuff and then simply flitting away. Sure‚ some birds don’t like to bask in human adulation. They dress in cryptic colors and hide in the shrubbery‚ shunning the paparazzi. To observe shyer targets‚ people need to hide as well. Shrubbery’s not always available; besides‚ getting into it makes big noise when you’re a clumsy biped. Birders may need to borrow hunting strategy and construct blinds. As Jude puts it‚ she and her companions use the sanctuary hide to “spy upon the life of birds.” The word spy implies an intentional intrusion on the gazed-upon. It’s fair that the spies should be spied in return. In Williams’ story‚ something is using birds as bait for its own quarry and has constructed an opposing hide from which to study them. But—the Something will also take what it observes when the time’s right. When the season turns? When the stars align? When the portal opens between worlds? Clare may be the sister with the “New Age soul” and an undiscerning appetite for “faux-Arthuriana‚” but scientist Jude is not insensitive to the romance of the Levels. Her descriptions of the area are those of a seasoned naturalist and historian; she knows the names of things‚ which brings her subject landscape to life. Instead of “insects flying through flowers along the path‚” she speaks of “damselflies zooming through the kingcups that grew along the margins of the dug-out peat beds.” I was inspired to look up Somerset Levels and Sedgemoor‚ the Sweet Track and the Moors Centre. They’re actual places in southwest England‚ just across the Bristol Channel from Wales. Machen celebrated the otherworldliness of the Welsh countryside. Williams brings the weirdness into Somerset. As grounded in the mundane as Jude’s observations are‚ they hint at things beyond the immediately perceptible and register a subtle tremor of the strange. Williams opens with a scene that foreshadows the climax while omitting the story’s location or historical period. She then jumps backward in time to Jude’s description of the Levels. With‚ again‚ no specific period references‚ I was half-inclined to think her characters lived in a medieval setting on the cusp of Faery. Look at the place names: The Summer Country‚ the Sweet Track. Look at how she describes the Iron Age inhabitants: they are “the small people who lived along the causeways and in the lake villages.” “Small” as in fairies or imps? Williams sets aside this ambiguity midway through a paragraph. Jude‚ Clare‚ and Richard turn out to be college-educated moderns. The Moors Centre has a carpark. The local hermit-visionary lives in a motor-van. From the Sweet Track‚ you can hear distant automobile traffic. You can hear it‚ that is‚ until you venture onto the causeway and approach the antechamber between our sphere and Somewhere Else. The hide still provides National Trust information sheets and a common blue heron. But to Jude the heron seems “alien‚ predatory‚ as startling as a pterodactyl‚” and birds—cormorants?—first look gull-white‚ then crow-black‚ all in the space of a veer from light-effect to light-effect‚ or from reality to reality. Jude has already picked up a severed bird’s wing in ill-omen black. The carpark Merlin hopes they’ll never see those cormorants again. Back home Clare dreams about color-shifting cormorants and skips work to haunt a murky ship canal. Worried‚ Richard asks Jude to let Clare visit again. It’s a tough ask for Jude‚ given she’s attracted to Richard and envies Clare’s relationship. Agreeing‚ she senses feathers brushing her hands: another ill omen? If so‚ the third omen comes when Richard and Jude hunt for Clare along the Sweet Track and Jude finds a severed black wing in her pocket. It could be a key to the Otherside‚ but a reverse one that locks her out instead of admitting her. It’s Clare the Othersiders want‚ and Clare who is Richard’s ticket in. The face Jude sees in the Other Hide’s window is her own‚ aged and bitter. It’s the mirror-mask the Othersider wears to mock future Jude‚ bereft of both sister and love interest. The second face the Othersider shows is inhuman. I take this as a final hint the creature is Fey‚ because can any fairy resist getting a final jab in on us mere mortals by showing its true self? Not in my experience anyhow. Ruthanna’s Commentary My birding strategy is to follow actual birders around—mostly my wife—and look where they point. I appreciate birds‚ but lack the particular sort of attention that lets me track feather color and beak shape and tail length and wing movement and put them all together into recognition‚ for anything much more challenging than a cardinal. (I am not good at this with humans either.) Birders‚ though‚ are constantly scanning for the snatch of song or flash of color that tells them that‚ if they just look a little closer‚ they’ll find something remarkable. It seems like a useful skill for noticing that you’ve slipped out of our familiar reality into something stranger. Useful‚ and perhaps dangerous. After all‚ if you keep your head in the clouds or your phone‚ you might just walk right through violations of natural law none the wiser. The fewer the contents of your awareness‚ the lower your risk of correlating those contents‚ right? Alexandra Horowitz’s On Looking illustrates the way that our attention shapes our reality. She takes 11 walks around the same block of New York City: with her dog‚ her toddler‚ an entomologist‚ an expert in the relationship between gait and health‚ et cetera. Some walks are long and some brief‚ some draw meaning from passers-by or buildings and others from cracks in the sidewalk or bits of trash. Bits of world appear and vanish like magic. Or like the Summer Country‚ ostensibly revealed by seasonally retreating waters but named like a Brigadoon‚ a Faerie‚ that only touches our world on special occasions. Clare’s “New Age soul” seeks the numinous. Unfortunately for her‚ what’s out there to be revealed is no Camelot. Or so we assume. It doesn’t feel like a Camelot. But those of us who stay behind the Hide slats get only a glimpse. My first thought is some archetypal savage past‚ like the little house in Benson’s “Between the Lights”. But then there’s Jude’s face‚ older and bitter‚ peering from the house—so not exactly the past. Unless we’re in Charles Dexter Ward territory‚ made vulnerable by similarity to unpleasant ancestors. More likely‚ perhaps‚ some sort of mirror universe doppelgangers—or the extradimensional birdwatchers and birdhunters that Jude imagines‚ using mimicry as one of their less effective techniques. Or maybe that really is Avalon over there‚ apple-groved Isle of the Dead. That would certainly be the best option. One way or another‚ poor Jude is stuck in one of Clare’s books of myth‚ far from the realm of facts about peat bog archaeology. Even beyond the disappearance of her inconvenient crush object and her sister-rival‚ this is not a situation likely to submit to explanation. The color-shifting birds‚ the black wing still fresh with gore‚ the draw of the canal‚ Clare’s dreams and Richard’s‚ the Hide itself—the numinous is too close to avoid regardless of how carefully you keep your head down. Peat bogs are liminal spaces even when not cut off by water three seasons of the year. They preserve bodies and nurture new growth. Life and death‚ growth and decay‚ change and stasis. They’re natural‚ but they don’t necessarily feel that way. The initial description walks that line‚ making the area “the haunt” of ducks and herons and lake villagers. Birds are natural‚ right? Just ask Du Maurier. Or ask Blackwood how quickly the natural can blur into the super-natural. I haven’t asked my wife yet how to ID birds that shift color depending on viewing angle‚ or how to safely handle their feathers. Maybe I should. For now‚ I think‚ I’m going to stick to watching chickadees at our winter feeder‚ and go inside if they show a taste for anything other than birdseed. Next week‚ there are probably more disturbing revelations in chapters 27-28 of Max Gladstone’s Last Exit. [end-mark] The post The Things We Do For Life Lists: Liz Williams’ “The Hide” appeared first on Reactor.

News Afterburn Dave Bautista and Samuel L. Jackson Will Star in the Comics Adaptation Afterburn If the world ended‚ would you try to steal the Mona Lisa? By Molly Templeton | Published on February 7‚ 2024 icon-comment 0 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed If the world as we know it ends‚ I am definitely not going to be thinking about the Mona Lisa. But according to Deadline‚ in the upcoming film Afterburn‚ “an unhinged warlord” is doing just that. Afterburn is based on the Red 5 comics by Scott Chitwood and Paul Ens. The summary for the first comic explains: A year ago‚ a massive solar flare destroyed the Earth’s eastern hemisphere with the power of a thousand nuclear bombs. But amid chaos‚ there’s profit. That’s where Jake comes in‚ retrieving valuable items from the remains – when he can outwit the competition and the mutated locals! In the movie adaptation‚ Deadline notes‚ the solar flare was 10 years ago. Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy‚ pictured above) will play Jake‚ an ex-soldier “who works as a treasure hunter recovering valuable objects from the old world for powerful clients.” He’ll be joined by Samuel L. Jackson‚ playing “freedom fighter Valentine.” This all sounds positively ridiculous‚ and like it could be a very good time if no one takes themselves too seriously. The movie has J.J. Perry as director; Perry just directed Bautista in The Killer’s Game‚ and has done a ton of work in stunts and as stunt coordinator on everything from The Fate of the Furious to Shadow and Bone. So at least the action should be very‚ very entertaining. Writer Matt Johnson was behind the poorly received 2005 Paul Walker film Into the Blue; Nimrod Antal (a director on Stranger Things) did revisions on the Afterburn screenplay. Afterburn will begin filming in April‚ so it’ll be a while before we get to see what this all adds up to. The post Dave Bautista and Samuel L. Jackson Will Star in the Comics Adaptation <;i>;Afterburn<;/i>; appeared first on Reactor.

Book Recommendations book review A Collection of Restless Hearts: GennaRose Nethercott’s Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart Molly Templeton reviews a collection of “restless‚ playful‚ wise‚ heartbroken and rich” stories. By Molly Templeton | Published on February 7‚ 2024 icon-comment 0 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed If a collection of short stories can be like a road trip‚ that’s what Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart is. GennaRose Nethercott’s characters are constantly in motion: traipsing up and down the Eternal Staircase; traveling to stay with a friend in Switzerland whose barn guest room holds a strange secret; even just moving from room to room in a house. Or becoming a house. Florists go in search of flowers that are also‚ or actually‚ animals. A girl who is always drowning goes outside to smoke. The restlessness is rich‚ palpable‚ and deeply appropriate alongside the kind of magic Nethercott conjures up. You could say she’s working with folktales‚ but how many of these do you recognize? It feels more appropriate to say that she takes the language of folktales and fairy tales—the way people are often named for what they are; the way magical things simply happen‚ no explanation necessary or even permitted—and mashes it into a sort of dusty-road Americana that lingers in the back of the throat. Roadside attractions‚ rambling sons‚ heartbroken artists: Nethercott is writing with old world style‚ but creating her own new world order. Her debut novel‚ Thistlefoot‚ had this same restlessness‚ dancing through different paces as its central characters traveled the country in their chicken-legged house. It borrowed from established tales (not least the story of Baba Yaga) but wove in women in leather jackets and siblings who put on puppet shows. History‚ but also statues that get up and walk. If you love the richly magical work of Kelly Link‚ the uncategorizable tales of Helen Oyeyemi‚ stories by Aimee Bender‚ Neil Gaiman‚ Karen Russell—you will likely find much to enjoy here. All the more so if you are the kind of person who sometimes just wants to pick up and leave your life behind‚ or hopes that under the next leaf you turn over there may be some creature you have never seen before. Nethercott’s stories start with the Eternal Staircase‚ a tourist attraction that claims the attention of the unwary; she writes in warning signs and directives to visitors right alongside the tale of two teens and their messy summer. Later‚ the title story is a bestiary‚ but woven through the entries of creatures that never were is the story of three florists with flowery names‚ their fraught relationships to each other and the creatures/flowers they write about. “Drowning Lessons” is teenage loneliness in a life jacket. Poor Sophie just drowns in everything (she has to drink her whiskey out of a sippy cup‚ lest it reach for her throat)‚ and her poor brother watches her suffer‚ takes her to a party‚ gets rejected. There is almost nowhere for her to go. Buy the Book Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart GennaRose Nethercott Buy Book icon-close Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart GennaRose Nethercott Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget There are monsters here‚ sure‚ depending on your definition of monsters—which is kind of the point. Nethercott writes briskly but vividly‚ lingering over her creations but sometimes slipping by the horrors so quickly that they take a moment to register. (They always do catch up.) And sometimes the horrors are beautiful‚ inevitable‚ metaphorical in a way that makes perfect sense; you’re nodding along‚ thinking‚ yes‚ of course‚ a woman whose career is being smothered by her too-perfect partner would become a house‚ the thing he lives in‚ the thing that holds him up and keep him safe. Of course she would. Of course a town would turn a woman into death herself so she could go into the woods to fetch dinner. In “Thread Boy‚” an adventuring young man becomes weighed down by all his ties—lovers‚ friends‚ connections—but can’t possibly let them go. The characters of the incredible “Possessions” find a spellbook at Goodwill‚ which seems as likely a place as any to turn up something magical and spiral-bound. There’s a playfulness to Nethercott’s style‚ and especially in her wide use of forms: a venomous letter‚ a slippery transcribed memoir‚ a transformative bestiary‚ a calendar‚ a dictionary. The dictionary comes in “A Diviner’s Abecedarian‚” a story about powerful sixth-grade girls with a masterful understanding of divination. (Anything to get through middle school‚ right?) “A Lily Is a Lily” is a sweet little love story right up until it’s not—until it becomes a cautionary tale about the kind of young men who only want the idea‚ not the reality‚ of a woman. (The last lines of Nethercott’s acknowledgement have both bite and a smiley face: “Last‚ let’s give it up for my exes. If you think it’s about you‚ it probably is.”) The title‚ after all‚ includes the words “to break your heart‚” and there are a lot of hearts broken in the course of this collection. It isn’t heavy‚ necessarily‚ but it is true‚ full of heart and weight and feeling just as it’s full of cleverness and vivid imagery. “Drowning Lessons” is a story about teens at a party‚ but it is also about class rage‚ about want and need and yearning‚ and the ways in which our hearts and our bodies might lie to us about what we need: “The desire mounts and mounts until eventually‚ the desire is so irresistible that you willingly allow water down your airway and into your lungs. You choose this. Every cell in your body insists‚ This. This is what you need. There is wanting and there is yearning—and then‚ there is a lung filling with water.” Fifty Beast to Break Your Heart stars with a list of rules that are about a roadside attraction‚ but might well be for an unwary entrant to fairyland. (“Do not enter the Eternal Staircase after 8 p.m.”) It ends with forbidden plums. The pages and tales between are restless‚ playful‚ wise‚ heartbroken and rich. If you yourself are already restless‚ this book may make you more so. But perhaps‚ when you’re done‚ it might send you off in a new direction entirely.[end-mark] Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart is published by Vintage.Read an excerpt. The post A Collection of Restless Hearts: GennaRose Nethercott’s <;i>;Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart<;/i>; appeared first on Reactor.

America’s electricity supply is facing a daunting future. A recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation places most of the country at high or elevated risk of electricity capacity shortfalls over the next decade. That means more blackouts and brownouts. But thankfully‚ individual states are springing into action to protect their electricity grids. The cause of the emerging grid problems is quite simple.  Reliable energy sources are being retired and replaced with less reliable‚ intermittent sources. Exacerbating the problem could be disruptions to natural gas supplies‚ which would fuel much of America’s remaining reliable electricity-producing plants. The grid will be thrown out of balance between what American families and businesses demand and what the grid can supply. When that happens‚ blackouts and brownouts will occur. The electricity grid’s multifront war begins with the Biden administration’s extreme green agenda. The administration is forcing American families and businesses to use less reliable and more expensive wind and solar while simultaneously denying them access to affordable and clean coal‚ oil and natural gas.  Thanks to the Biden administration‚ not only is building a new coal plant all but impossible‚ but perfectly good ones are being taken offline.  Now that the war on coal is all but complete‚ Biden is turning his army of bureaucrats on natural gas. Make no mistake: His recent decision to halt pending approvals of liquefied natural gas exports is but the first salvo.  We’ve seen this strategy play out before when environmentalists successfully stopped a major coal export terminal from being built in Washington state.  The playbook is clear: Ruin the economics of “undesirable” industries with policy‚ regulation and propaganda‚ while simultaneously using taxpayer money and mandates to bolster artificially the prospects of preferred energy sources.  The effect of these policies is already being felt. America’s electricity consumers have suffered increased power disruptions and higher prices in recent years‚ and many fear that it will get worse. Then‚ the grid is facing threats from other sources‚ such as the sun. We don’t often think about how weather on the sun could affect the grid‚ but it can. And while rare‚ a high-intensity geomagnetic storm on the sun could cause major disruptions here on Earth. In fact‚ it has happened before.  In 1859‚ in what is referred to as the Carrington Event‚ the sun sent a blast of electrically charged particles 91 million miles in our direction. The result was that telegraph systems around the world began to fail.  Just imagine what such an event would be like in today’s digitized world.  In addition‚ America’s enemies could detonate a nuclear weapon 30 miles or higher above Earth to create an electromagnetic pulse that would bombard the United States with the same sort of charged particles that could be produced by a major solar flare. The effect of such an attack‚ however‚ could be even worse.    We have experience with this as well‚ and we did it to ourselves‚ though not on purpose. The United States government conducted a nuclear weapons test 250 miles above the Earth’s surface in 1962 in an experiment called Starfish Prime that resulted in streetlights going dark and communications going silent in parts of Hawaii.  The grid is also facing increased physical threats and cyberattacks.  Thankfully‚ however‚ state legislatures across the country are springing into action.  Legislators in Kansas‚ for example‚ recently introduced House Bill 2620‚ which would not allow a power plant to be closed unless it is being replaced by something that preserves reliability and protects ratepayers.  A similar measure‚ Legislative Bill 1370‚ was recently introduced in Nebraska that would require that electricity suppliers first certify that any replacement electricity generation be capable of producing and dispatching at least as much electricity as the plant being replaced and that adequate transmission infrastructure is in place to support the new facility.  Utah is considering a bill that would allow power plants scheduled for decommissioning to be purchased at fair market value. This innovative approach ensures that valuable power-producing assets remain online even if existing owners choose to abandon them.   Similar efforts are taking place across in the country in other states‚ including Missouri‚ Arkansas and Arizona. These are commonsense efforts to fight back against the senseless policies being pushed out of Washington. The Founders of our country understood that state governments are essential to protecting their residents from an overzealous federal government‚ and that is precisely what lawmakers across the country are doing.  Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post States Fight Back Against Biden’s Green War on Inexpensive Electricity appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Washington state is considering a set of legislative proposals to provide adult dancers with compensation protections and mandatory security‚ The Associated Press reported. The set of proposals‚ dubbed the “strippers’ bill of rights‚” is the product of years of advocacy from Strippers Are Workers‚ an organization operating in Washington state‚ according to the AP. The group “fights to empower the dancers of Washington state so that they can strip safely‚ positively and lucratively” in order to “keep stripping low barrier entry and accessible to a marginalized and stigmatized group of people who seek upward mobility‚” according to its website. One proposal being considered would cap the fee strippers pay clubs to either $150 or 30% of what a stripper makes during a given shift‚ the AP reported. The proposals also include a number of security measures‚ like mandatory keypad codes for dressing rooms‚ sexual harassment training for employees‚ and requiring security guards at clubs. Strippers are worried that the new regulations could result in strip clubs shutting down absent the revenue from alcohol sales‚ the AP reported. Strippers Are Workers is pushing to legalize the sale of alcohol in strip clubs‚ which is currently illegal in Washington‚ a measure not included in the current slate of legislation. “Alcohol service has been found‚ by strippers and scientific research‚ to actually make clubs safer and more equitable‚” according to Strippers Are Workers. Strippers Are Workers did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post Blue State Considers ‘Strippers’ Bill of Rights’ for Adult Dancers appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is riding hard for CBDCs (central bank digital currencies). That‚ in and of itself‚ gives pause to critically-minded observers. But it’s worth keeping up with how WEF carries out this campaign aimed at as broad as possible CBDCs adoption. At this point‚ the “elevator pitch‚” pushed by the informal group gathering the most influential globalist elites‚ is to transition from simply advocating in favor of this massively controversial form of money. Now‚ WEF wants to pretend that adopting‚ or planning to adopt CBDCs is a more or less a done deal‚ and move onto the technical nitty-gritty. And yet‚ even while shifting the narrative this way‚ some decidedly policy (and political) decisions‚ to be made by governments and regulators‚ are also pushed for. One of them is referred to as CBDCs “interoperability” as a necessary precondition to making this centralized – government-controlled and tied to people’s identities – currency successful. The WEF site says that CBDCs take two forms: retail for individuals‚ and the wholesale version for banks and other financial institutions. Before getting to the point‚ the article also talks about “continuously evolving ways to engage with customers” being “the only way” to keep them happy. There’s more ways though: how about not building golden financial cages for people‚ instead respecting their privacy and right to unmonitored and unrestricted access to their own assets? Not something WEF will ever consider‚ so we might as well move on – the group thinks that a problem with CBCD adoption is a matter of technical and formal nature – will wholesale‚ retail‚ or both versions be adopted by a given country. Now we come to “interoperability.” WEF has a whole white paper dedicated to it‚ entitled “Central Bank Digital Currency Global Interoperability Principles.” It says something about the big‚ affluent countries’ old ways reemerging‚ when one learns that small (and less fortunate) economies are among the states already using CBDCs: the Bahamas‚ Jamaica‚ Nigeria‚ and the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. In the Bahamas‚ the retail CBDC has been around since 2019‚ and it’s called “the Sand Dollar” – pegged to the US dollar. And that’s‚ in one sentence‚ a pretty good summation of what CBDCs are‚ and how they must not be confused with decentralized and open source crypto currencies. The post World Economic Forum Pushes for Interoperability of Centralized Currency To Ensure Global “Success” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties‚ subscribe to Reclaim The Net. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan has a post up on the company blog just in time to‚ well in advance‚ reiterate the giant platform’s policies regarding the upcoming elections. Even though Mohan’s “letter” is supposed to deal with the “four big bets for 2024‚” the bit concerning the elections is of most interest‚ given the ramifications of YouTube’s previous and continued restrictive approach and unprecedented levels of censorship. Just in case anyone worried things might improve‚ the post reassures them: YouTube will use its massive resources and the way the platform is structured‚ such as search and recommendations‚ to wipe out what it chooses to consider “hate speech” and at the same time “boost authoritative sources” even more. Related: Microsoft CEO Says the Company Is Working To Address Election “Disinformation and Misinformation” This will be done when users search for topics related to the elections. Mohan spends a good while talking up the importance of creators and how YouTube intends to make their YouTube businesses even better. But there is one glaring failure by omission in this pitch: explaining what happens to creators and their content and channels‚ often built for years‚ when they cross the sometimes invisible censorship line drawn by Google’s video behemoth. What happens is demonetization‚ deplatforming – “disappearing.” Finally Mohan addresses (obviously not framing it that way) how the censorship machine – the one responsible for destroying many creators – works when facing users‚ and what YouTube’s plans on that front are for 2024. Tucked in the section about “protecting creator economy” and the obligatory “think of the children” bit‚ the YouTube CEO writes: “Another way we uphold our responsibility is connecting people with high quality information. This is more important than ever as elections take place across the globe – more than 50 countries will hold elections this year.” Mohan repeats what’s highly likely contained in some memo circulated to the usual Big Tech/government collusion participants. It might go something like this: “When talking about 2024 elections and how you’re going to censor around them‚ mention the many ballots happening around the world‚ rather than focusing on‚ or even mentioning‚ the only one that really matters to us – the US one.” The YouTube figurehead goes on to say that the platform is “ensuring that when people look for election news on YouTube‚ authoritative sources are prominent in their searches and recommendations.” No details are given as to how YouTube is “ensuring” this. But‚ Mohan is defiant about the past years’ often shocking levels of censorship‚ and he has his own “language” to describe it – and leaves no room for doubt that the trend will continue. “We spent years investing in a playbook to responsibly manage content on YouTube including longstanding‚ rigorously enforced policies against hate speech‚ incitement to violence‚ election interference‚ and more. We quickly evolve and adapt when new challenges emerge‚ and we’ll do so again (…)‚” Mohan writes. The post YouTube CEO Vows To Censor “Hate Speech” and Boost “Authoritative Sources” in Recommendations When People Look for Election News in 2024 appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

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