Dear Dean Magazine: January 2024
Dear Dean Magazine: January 22, 2024. Subscribe free https://www.deardeanpublishing.com/subscribe Created by Myron J. Clifton
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JAN. 22, <strong>2024</strong><br />
MAGAZINE<br />
2023<br />
WHAT DID<br />
YOU LEARN?<br />
IGNORE<br />
JOY REID<br />
YOU DIDN’T GET<br />
INTO AN IVY LEAGUE<br />
— BOO-HOO<br />
Plus!<br />
MYRON'S HIT OR MISS LIST<br />
NEW MOVIE REVIEWS<br />
WHAT I'M STREAMING RIGHT NOW<br />
HOT TAKES<br />
FEATURED BOOKS & MORE!<br />
PERFORMANCE REVIEW<br />
IS DONALD<br />
TRUMP ELIGIBLE<br />
FOR REHIRE?<br />
PRO-TRUMP FORCES<br />
TOOK OVER THE CAPITOL
THE GOODS<br />
03 Welcome From Myron<br />
06<br />
08<br />
21<br />
2023 - What Did You Learn?<br />
by Myron J. Clifton<br />
Musings from The Haltian<br />
American Poet<br />
10 Ignore Joy Reid<br />
by Myron J. Clifton<br />
13<br />
22<br />
24<br />
28<br />
34<br />
You Didn’t Get Into an Ivy League —<br />
Boo-Hoo<br />
by Myron J. Clifton<br />
Is Donald Trump Eligible<br />
for Rehire?<br />
by Myron J. Clifton<br />
Hot Take! x4<br />
Pro-Trump Forces Took<br />
Over The Capitol<br />
by Myron J. Clifton<br />
Myron's HIT or MISS List<br />
38<br />
Movie Reviews / My Favorite<br />
Things Streaming Right Now<br />
D E A R D E A N M A G A Z I N E , W E B S I T E , B L O G S &<br />
B O O K S A R E D E S I G N E D B Y K A T Y A J U L I E T L E R N E R
<strong>January</strong> <strong>2024</strong><br />
Happy Prosperous, Wonderful,<br />
Fantastic New Year <strong>2024</strong>!<br />
The new year is starting off with the opening of the <strong>2024</strong><br />
election campaigns and all the commercials, emails, and<br />
new shows dedicated to the election, and to ignoring<br />
good news for Democrats while ignoring bad news for<br />
republicans.<br />
In this issue we ask the question: What Did You Learn in<br />
2023? and mock entitled twerps whining about not<br />
getting into Harvard.<br />
We look back on <strong>January</strong> 6, 2021, with appropriate<br />
soberness and anger, and we follow that with answering<br />
the question many HR managers answer about<br />
employees when they are fired: Are They Eligible for<br />
rehire? Only we ask and answer it about Donald Trump,<br />
leader of the insurrection.<br />
We publish thought-provoking articles on<br />
government, gender, race, and politics, while also<br />
providing space for movie and television reviews,<br />
poetry, short stories, food, pets, fun, and a welcoming<br />
platform for independent authors and writers.<br />
And we provide this space for free – because our<br />
motto is and will remain: Some Art Deserves to be<br />
Free.<br />
We appreciate you as a reader and we thank you for<br />
sharing the magazine to your social media network,<br />
friends, and family.<br />
And we look forward to seeing YOUR contribution<br />
soon.<br />
Thank you for reading, sharing, contributing, and for<br />
your feedback.<br />
Finally, we mourn the victims of another school shooting<br />
– an administrator and a student.<br />
Myron<br />
All your favorites are here as well– What’s Streaming,<br />
Television reviews, Hot Takes, Hit/Miss, and don’t miss<br />
our latest book advertisements from many<br />
accomplished authors!<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 3
About Me<br />
Website | Bookshop | Twitter<br />
Myron J. Clifton is an author of novels Jamaal’s Incredible Adventures in the Black Church;<br />
Monuments: A Deadly Day at Jefferson Park; BLM-PD: Revenge was Inevitable; Her Legend Lives in<br />
You: The Untold Story Honoring the Goddess & Our Daughters; and short story collection, We<br />
Couldn’t Be Heroes, and Other Stories. Also check out his weekly podcast, Voice Memos, his FREE<br />
digital magazine, <strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>, and his weekly blog at both Medium and <strong>Dear</strong><strong>Dean</strong>.com.<br />
Myron lives in Sacramento, California, and is an avid Bay Area sports fan. He likes comic books, telling<br />
stories about his late mom to his beloved daughter Leah, and talking to his friends. BOOKS ON<br />
AMAZON<br />
Loving Myron J. Clifton's Content?<br />
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words@deardeanpublishing.com<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 4
Jamaal's Incredible Adventures in the<br />
Black Church by Myron J. Clifton<br />
Before Jamaal's seventeenth birthday, he’s appointed as his preacher uncle’s<br />
designated driver and unwilling personal confidant. Behind the fine outfits and<br />
hats, behind the delicious cooking, Jamaal is exposed to crazy aunties, sexy church<br />
sisters, corrupt pastors, and predator deacons. A good kid who just wants time to<br />
finish his homework and kiss a girl his own age, Jamaal is dragged through the<br />
strange world of the Black church. You best pray for him.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 5
WHAT DID YOU<br />
LEARN IN 2023?<br />
F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E<br />
Myron J. Clifton<br />
One of the questions I asked my bosses-all the way up to<br />
CEO-was: What did you learn this year?<br />
Every CEO would respond, & I encourage folks to do it<br />
w/their managers & other executives.<br />
In answering the question myself here is what I learned<br />
this year... Social community matters.<br />
My frustration with this app (X) is from a place of seeing a<br />
good community relentlessly attacked by its owner and<br />
his acolytes.<br />
I learned that I follow incredibly smart and generous<br />
people. And funny, witty, satirical, and sarcastic. I learned I<br />
follow very few mean folk. I learned that politics are<br />
abstract to too many people. I learned that I cannot care<br />
more for people’s wellbeing than they care for their own<br />
wellbeing.<br />
I learned that the curse of anti-Black racism permeates all<br />
systems and communities and holds a place in the minds of<br />
every race, demographic, ethnicity, religion, in this nation<br />
and every other nation and that there’s no serious effort<br />
to undo what continues to profit the globe.<br />
I learned that good news needs more shepherds and bad<br />
news has too many advocates and helpers.<br />
I learned that leaving corporate after 41 years is lifeaffirming.<br />
I learned that America’s cultural competence<br />
has never risen above a D grade and too many revel in the<br />
muck of willful ignorance about our cohabitants of our<br />
shared land.<br />
I learned Barack and Michelle Obama were the best<br />
presidential team in history and the love and hate they<br />
still receive confirm it for me.<br />
And that Vice President Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff<br />
are their political doppelgängers who could take America<br />
to another, better, place if allowed.<br />
I learned my daughter is as smart as I thought she would<br />
be. I learned my small family circle is enough to satisfy<br />
my needs.<br />
I learned love can be given freely and with openness and<br />
can land easily if I allow it-and I did, with my partner- and<br />
it’s wonderful.<br />
Finally, I learned that gratefulness is valuable as I get<br />
older because it stands out more in my mind and<br />
emotions. I am grateful 2023 is ending and <strong>2024</strong> is<br />
starting because I can end and start again with you all.<br />
Thank you for being you.<br />
I learned that a high school dropout like me can start a<br />
writing career at age 50 and successfully sell books,<br />
produce a free magazine, and earn pennies by blogging<br />
well received social-political articles.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 6
NEW!<br />
ON SALE<br />
NOW<br />
Sometimes, when you’re at a crossroads, a door will open and what enters will inspire you. Other<br />
times, what enters will make you gag. These stories by a ride-share short-timer might have the<br />
same effect on you. A man, recently laid off from his job and intrigued by the people he might<br />
meet (and the money he might make) decides to drive ride-share while looking for a new<br />
professional management position.<br />
Don’t want to drive drunk? Well, then, by all means, plug in your location and get your friendly<br />
neighborhood ride-share driver to ferry you to your next bar. Need to move but can’t afford<br />
movers? There’s an App for that! Tired of waiting for tricks on the corner? Wait—I’ve got an idea. .<br />
.<br />
The behavior and stories of folks who call on ride-share turned into a unique anthropological<br />
study for one man who decided to drive ride-share while looking for a new professional<br />
management position. Recently laid off from his job and intrigued by the people he might meet<br />
(and the money he might make), the author unwittingly became the anonymous confidant for<br />
men, women, nonbinary people, and children. Unfortunately for him, he also became the innocent<br />
target of people who couldn’t hold their liquor, others who couldn’t hold their temper, and at<br />
least one who couldn’t keep his hands to himself.<br />
Little did they know they were in the Prius of a writer, who would be able to look in the rear view<br />
and tell their stories.<br />
This collection of anecdotes is non-judgmental, full of irony and dry humor, and may help<br />
someone else decide: Is driving ride-share for you?<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 7
We Couldn't Be Heroes<br />
Short Story Collection: We Couldn't Be Heroes And Other Stories What if a Black<br />
man could control the weather, God called 911, or aliens took our souls? Would<br />
we notice? Would we care?... Enjoy the entire collection, seven stories in all, on<br />
earth and in space and in any order.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 11
IGNORE<br />
JOY REID<br />
F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E<br />
Myron J. Clifton<br />
It is election season, so Joy Reid is again doing what she<br />
does best: bashing democrats, downplaying Biden<br />
administration successes, and platforming anti- VP Harris<br />
talking heads like the absurdly self-named “Charlamagne<br />
tha god.”<br />
Joy Reid’s cable news show on MSNBC is a leftist and<br />
right wing dream show that spends much of its time<br />
“shitposting” against democrats, the President and Vice<br />
President.<br />
Joy has found her niche on the low watched cable<br />
network by providing a Black face and voice to spew antidemocratic<br />
rhetoric.<br />
Her soft-peddled voter suppression tactics are tiresome<br />
and she’s exhausting.<br />
Joy’s latest mess is when she brought on Lenard McKelvey,<br />
a media guy and co-host of radio’s The Breakfast Club — a<br />
show known for spreading rumors, trafficking lies, anti-<br />
Black woman misogyny, and political hot-takes that are<br />
embarrassing for their lack of insight or of how government<br />
works.<br />
Larry McKelvey — Charlamagne’s government name — is<br />
accused by a then 15-year-old girl of being a participant in<br />
her rape. There is also video of Larry laughing as he tells the<br />
story of putting Spanish Fly/date rape drug in the young<br />
woman’s drink and.. things proceed to all the worst actions<br />
from there.<br />
Did Joy bring Larry on her show to talk about men in power<br />
getting away with rape and sexual assault? Nope. She<br />
brought him to talk politics and to hype his new podcast.<br />
It is not surprising Joy platforms an accused rapist and man<br />
who routinely attacks Black politicians — especially Black<br />
women because she also constantly criticizes or ignores the<br />
work and accomplishments of vice president Kamala<br />
Harris.<br />
She takes time to snatch defeat from any and every<br />
democratic victory and to remind her viewers that no<br />
matter what the accomplishment — healthcare,<br />
infrastructure, border security, student debt relief, or<br />
passing budgets, the president and democrats aren’t<br />
doing enough.<br />
No matter what VP Harris does, where she goes, what<br />
issues she champions, what head of state she meets with, or<br />
nation she travels to, Joy rarely finds moments to outline<br />
her work but always finds time to parrot GOP and Russian<br />
talking points —<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 10
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
“Where is the vice president and what is she doing to<br />
solve like democrats promised?<br />
Well, Joy, maybe VP Harris has been busy touring college<br />
campuses, visiting dozens of states to meet with local<br />
politicians and state legislatures, working with various<br />
Hispanic groups that represent the many different issues<br />
facing the largest minority group in the nation, and<br />
helping down-ballot democrats reach constituents so the<br />
party wins more seats in congress… so they can pass more<br />
legislation and continue to improve the lives of all<br />
Americans.<br />
VP Harris has been everywhere, Joy, and she and the<br />
president have the results and accomplishments to prove<br />
and show their work. From women’s healthcare, access to<br />
safe abortions, the most significant gun safety laws in 30<br />
years, and combating book bans and revisionist history.<br />
Perhaps if you spent less time platforming losers like<br />
Larry and his like-minded podcast co-hosts Tiffany Cross<br />
and Angela Rye — two media personalities who also<br />
regularly downplay and/or ignore VP Harris’s<br />
accomplishments, you would know what she has done, is<br />
doing, and will do.<br />
Angela Rye even defended Charlamagne against rape<br />
accusations, warmly calling him “My brother” while doing<br />
so. She’s now accusing Chris Cuomo of sending her<br />
inappropriate text messages while they interacted at<br />
CNN where he was a host and she was a frequent guest<br />
commentator. Chris Cuomo is a known sexist pig.. and so<br />
is Larry, but one is Angela’s “Brother” and the other is a<br />
horrible person.<br />
Joy Reid doesn’t have to loudly support VP Harris or the<br />
Biden administration -she is after all, a journalist.<br />
And as a journalist who covers politics she should highlight<br />
democratic accomplishments and the work democratic<br />
politicians are doing because their work is… news, plain and<br />
simple.<br />
Joy also doesn’t have to parrot GOP talking points, mislead<br />
her viewers, and pretend not to know how government<br />
works. But here we are.<br />
One would think Joy Reid would understand the importance<br />
of reporting fully and accurately after she claimed long<br />
standing accusations against her were inaccurate and/or<br />
there result of hacking.<br />
Joy has long been accused of vile homophobia because of<br />
her past social media comments on her blog. Joy denied<br />
authoring her own homophobic posts and blamed them on<br />
hackers, before offering a poor “apology.”<br />
“If I did it, I am sorry, but I don’t think I did it, but if I did I am<br />
sorry, but I honestly don’t remember doing it. I was hacked.”<br />
Puh-leeze, Joy.<br />
But that’s too much to ask a MSNBC host I guess. It is<br />
really something when Fox News talking face Kayleigh<br />
McEnaney speaks forcefully and truthfully about VP<br />
Harris more than you’ve ever done.<br />
The road to the <strong>2024</strong> election will be filled with potholes,<br />
misdirection, and misinformation. There will be propaganda,<br />
disinformation, and purveyors of bad-faith reporting from<br />
right- and left-wing media outlets.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 11
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
The Big Three of cable news — Fox, CNN, and MSNBC<br />
each lean away from the democratic party and the Biden-<br />
Harris administration and toward the republican party<br />
and their convicted rapist leading candidate.<br />
Will Joy call out Trump’s rape conviction after not calling<br />
out Charlamagne’s?<br />
Obviously Fox leans right and many folk aren’t noticing<br />
that CNN is also leaning right since new management<br />
took over.<br />
And MSNBC? They lean so far left they are meeting up<br />
with Fox — the cable news horseshoe in full effect.<br />
And it is Joy Reid who is making and securing her coins<br />
pushing the network so far left that it no longer resembles<br />
the CNN-light network from years ago. And that’s too bad<br />
because Joy Reid has the skills to be a good journalist if<br />
she chose to instead of being a troll to democrats and<br />
Biden-Harris.<br />
But take her as she is and judge her on what she has said<br />
about the lgbtqi community, on how she platformed an<br />
accused rapist and pedophile, and on how she is making a<br />
name for herself disparaging and/or ignoring one of the<br />
greatest presidential teams in American history.<br />
We see you, Joy, and we’ve seen enough.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 12
YOU DIDN’T GET INTO AN IVY<br />
LEAGUE — BOO-HOO<br />
F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E<br />
Myron J. Clifton<br />
Tis the season for college acceptance letters to be<br />
nervously opened and read by exited graduates hoping<br />
to get into a university of their choosing.<br />
And all-over social media there are young people<br />
celebrating their acceptance letters in the midst of<br />
happy-crying relatives.<br />
And there are young people whining about not getting<br />
accepted into the college of their choice — often an Ivy<br />
League school — and blaming it on Black people.<br />
Since the Supreme Court ended affirmative action, non-<br />
Black students are being faced with a sobering reality:<br />
They didn’t get in based on their lackluster application,<br />
average grades, and run of the mill extracurriculars that<br />
match thousands of other students who submitted the<br />
exact same qualifications.<br />
You wanted merit-based only and the Supreme Court<br />
gave it to you.<br />
You didn’t get in and now you no longer can place the<br />
blame on Black people.<br />
A person thing whining online about her “nephew”<br />
not getting into an Ivy League school is like so many<br />
Americans just can’t do simple maths.<br />
97% who apply to Ivy League schools don’t get in.<br />
Applicants are competing against American and<br />
foreigners, as this thread highlights:<br />
They also accept so few because they want to keep<br />
their brand intact and that means basic-Declan from<br />
a basic private school with hundreds of other basic<br />
Declans simply do not stand out.<br />
That’s why there are, surprise, other schools.<br />
Some of the anger really baffles me. Like, the<br />
realization that you bought into superiority then got<br />
rejected really makes them hate…Black folk even<br />
more.<br />
Black people have long recognized that the people who<br />
benefited the most from Affirmative Action were white<br />
people, but no matter how much we said it, mass media<br />
and republicans convinced millions that every Black<br />
student was only in college due to affirmative action.<br />
Why?<br />
Why is the default for these folk always to hate<br />
BLACK folk, specifically, more?<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 13
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
We don’t control Ivy League schools or admittance<br />
rules. As with everything in this nation the<br />
system/process is run by white men and a small<br />
percentage of white women. But every single time some<br />
privileged family’s little genius doesn’t get that coveted<br />
spot they blame that one Black student who got in.<br />
They don’t blame the legacy white kids who take up<br />
most of the slots, or the wealthy donor kid who paid<br />
their way in, or the foreign non-Black kid who excelled<br />
and got in.<br />
Nope, they blame the few Black kids who also excelled and<br />
earned their way in. Only now, they can’t angrily toss out<br />
Affirmative Action as an excuse and boy are they mad.<br />
The schools have so many admittance rules they can be<br />
hard to navigate if one isn’t wealthy or a legacy. The person<br />
who whined about her nephew not getting in even included<br />
the fact that his father was an alumni. So she was both<br />
complaining about Black folk getting in, her nephew not<br />
getting legacy, i.e. affirmative action, and that he, and not<br />
those who got in, “deserved it.”<br />
Even Hollywood actors figured out that in order to get their<br />
nepo-babies into one of those coveted slots, they had to<br />
pay to play.<br />
And many Asian families are finding out that the efforts<br />
they took to end Affirmative Action are backfiring — as<br />
Black people told them it would.<br />
It’s not only schools where Black people have to deal with<br />
this type of racism. It’s that one job, that one head coach,<br />
that one District Attorney, Senator, police chief, school<br />
superintendent or principal, or that one judge.<br />
Or it is where you work and that one supervisor, one<br />
project manager, or team lead. When they’re Black there’s<br />
always someone mad about it.<br />
And let’s be clear, that type of questioning is always based<br />
on racism. This is the same person whining about people of<br />
color getting into an Ivy League school and not her nephew.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 14
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
She’s calling the Black Vice President and Black elected<br />
officials “Criminal scum who do not belong in the White<br />
House.”<br />
It is the same racist insults Supreme Court Justice Ketanji<br />
Brown-Jackson, Fulton Country District Attorney Fani<br />
Willis, and New York Attorney General Letiticia James<br />
receives.<br />
They “Don’t belong there.”<br />
Oh really? Then where exactly do we “Belong?”<br />
Belong.<br />
Ruminate on the evil that word evokes.<br />
We don’t belong in the White House we literally built,<br />
protected, died for, fought for, and got elected to.<br />
We don’t belong. Where do we belong in a country our<br />
people built and made wealthy?<br />
Do we belong in your fields? In your kitchen? Or nursing<br />
your kids? In your military?<br />
People rarely acknowledge the affirmative action of hires<br />
like Lee Roberts who is the new University of North<br />
Carolina interim chancellor:<br />
“Lee Roberts will be UNC’s interim chancellor, beginning Jan.<br />
12. Roberts is on the UNC Board of Governors and worked as<br />
state budget director under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. He<br />
has no professional administrative experience in higher<br />
education.”<br />
It is in the foundational DNA of this nation that owned our<br />
bodies for so long that far too white Americans feel they<br />
inherited that DNA power.<br />
Guess what? We belong where we stand. We belong<br />
where our ancestors are buried on nameless lands and<br />
unmarked graves. We belong at the same Ivy League<br />
schools who survived financial crisis by selling our<br />
ancestors.<br />
When you’re left to face the unfairness of America<br />
without the crutch of Black people you should finally<br />
understand what we have said for 350 years -that<br />
unfairness to us is unfairness to everyone, eventually.<br />
You always have had next. Now you’re experiencing it.<br />
We told you.<br />
One day Americans will realize the fault placed on Black<br />
people for everything wrong with this nation has been<br />
nothing more than a distraction and deflection from fixing<br />
the sickness that permeates public and private life. Look in<br />
the mirror, American, and you’ll see the problem.<br />
In any case, I don’t care where your nephew, your son, or<br />
your daughter gets into an Ivy League school or any other<br />
university. I do care that if they go they learn real<br />
American history, and that life has far more educational<br />
opportunities than any school.<br />
Maybe they will learn what so many did not: Black people<br />
aren’t to blame for your life or your failure to achieve your<br />
goals.<br />
People crying about not getting into Ivy League schools believe<br />
they have the right to decide where Black people can be. It is the<br />
foundation of redlining, sundown towns, HOAs, segregation,<br />
discrimination, back of the bus, and No Negros Allowed signs<br />
that draped American cities and businesses for the majority of<br />
this nation’s history.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 15
Marcus A. Banks-Bey, M.Div<br />
Gathered experience and elevation gained from years as an Army & hospital chaplain, mental health worker<br />
and clinical psychology doctoral student, equips Marcus A Banks to aid in journeying the reader to<br />
intelligently question their past belief systems and future creative visions of thought and identity as a<br />
purposeful means to developing their own personal reality for establishing their “true identity.”<br />
Within Dig Deep lies practical language, developed to help the reader grow the relationship with<br />
themselves, and understand why nurturing the relationships we have with our Faith, Family, Friends, Fitness<br />
and Finances will support our Purpose, Planning, Patience, and Persistent-Perseverance. This system helps<br />
one establish their own 5×5 Side by Side Guide through life. Dig Deep was written following a series of<br />
extremely challenging life occurrences, including the suicide of the author’s brother, Iverson; divorce; and<br />
war deployment. From this place, the author engaged in the process of self-discovery, self-awareness and<br />
meaning.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 16
Looking back on the Before and the events leading up to the After, it was impossible to say precisely when<br />
everything went to shit. Understanding the importance of human connection, a lone trader braves the<br />
Weeps and an emerging cult to unite the survivors of a shattered world. The Before and The After is a tale<br />
of loss, acceptance, and finding one’s truth in a barren future.<br />
Catherine Sequeira<br />
Catherine Sequeira is a veterinarian, author, and teacher. Originally from California, she has lived in<br />
Switzerland, New York, Oklahoma, and Scotland. She is an avid tabletop gamer and was all verklempt the<br />
first time her older son kicked her ass at Lords of Waterdeep. She would live in the garden if she could,<br />
pretending to be Snow White or channeling her inner Poison Ivy. When the weather chases her inside, you<br />
can find her reading sci-fi and fantasy or binging horror shows. She lives in Northern California with her<br />
partner, younger son, cat, and rescue dragon (the bearded kind, that is).<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 17
CLICK TO MEET<br />
THE HOSTS!<br />
MYRON<br />
JENN<br />
Two longtime friends have informative, yet<br />
brief discussions about multitudinous topics.<br />
NEW EPISODES ON FRIDAYS!<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 18
MYRON J. CLIFTON & JENNIFER VANLAANEN'S PODCAST<br />
VOICE MEMOS REVIEWS<br />
Listen Now!<br />
Stay<br />
Shallow!<br />
Like listening to your BFFs June 2, 2022<br />
kjlerner
The intimate and heartbreaking story of a Black undercover police officer who famously kneeled by the<br />
assassinated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr--and a daughter's quest for the truth about her father.<br />
In the famous photograph of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of Memphis's<br />
Lorraine Motel, one man kneeled down beside King, trying to staunch the blood from his fatal head wound<br />
with a borrowed towel.<br />
This kneeling man was a member of the Invaders, an activist group that was in talks with King in the days<br />
leading up to the murder. But he also had another identity: an undercover Memphis police officer reporting<br />
on the activities of this group, which was thought to be possibly dangerous and potentially violent. This<br />
kneeling man is Leta McCollough Seletzky's father..<br />
Marrell McCollough was a Black man working secretly with the white power structure, a spy. This was so<br />
far from her understanding of what it meant to be Black in America, of everything she eventually devoted<br />
her life and career to, that she set out to learn what she could about his life, his actions and motivations.<br />
But with that decision came risk. What would she uncover about her father, who went on to a career at the<br />
CIA, and did she want to bear the weight of knowing?<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 20
IS DONALD TRUMP<br />
ELIGIBLE FOR REHIRE?<br />
F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E<br />
Myron J. Clifton<br />
When Americans employees are fired, most corporations<br />
conduct an exit interview that is followed up by the firing<br />
manager and HR manager submitting and filing required<br />
paperwork that details why the employee was terminated.<br />
The paperwork usually has at its conclusion one final<br />
question: Is the Employee Eligible for Rehire. The below is<br />
what former President Donald Trump’s exit interview would<br />
look like.<br />
Is the recently separated candidate, Donald Trump,<br />
eligible for rehire?<br />
YES<br />
NO — X<br />
If NO is selected please provide brief explanation.<br />
Donald Trump mismanaged Covid resulting in hundreds<br />
of thousands of deaths, job losses, and permanently<br />
closed small and large businesses.<br />
He released 5k Taliban terrorists, exited the Paris<br />
Agreement, and ruined the economy by giving massive<br />
tax breaks to only wealthy Americans and made it so that<br />
middle class and poor Americans would pay for the tax<br />
breaks.<br />
Donald Trump allowed his family to illegally enrich<br />
themselves, especially his daughter, Ivanka Trump and<br />
her husband Jared Kushner, despite neither passing<br />
security clearance.<br />
Donald Trump separated children from families at the<br />
southern border and allowed Nancy DeVos and Louis<br />
DeJoy to devastate public schools and the United States<br />
Postal Service, respectively.<br />
Donald Trump attacked government employees,<br />
military leaders, law enforcement, and other<br />
government institutions with lies and falsehoods with<br />
alarming regularity. Donald Trump ignored the<br />
separation of powers, threatened civilians with<br />
retaliatory actions, and encouraged police violence<br />
against peaceful protestors.<br />
Donald Trump was accused (since convicted) of rape, he<br />
attacked allies while supplicating himself to Russia, and<br />
he spewed homophobic, racist, misogynistic pollution<br />
with comfortable regularity.<br />
And finally, Donald Trump supported white<br />
supremacists who attacked Black and Jewish<br />
Americans, and he encouraged civil war which<br />
culminated in an insurrection on <strong>January</strong> 6th that nearly<br />
toppled American democracy — During said<br />
insurrection he abandoned his oath and duties while he<br />
and his co-conspirators gleefully watched and waited for<br />
the outcome they had long planned for — the end of the<br />
peaceful transfer of power.<br />
For the above and many other reasons too numerous to<br />
include, and due to his subsequent numerous illegal<br />
activities he’s been accused of — stealing government<br />
documents and nuclear secrets and sharing those with<br />
foreign and domestic civilians and enemies of the state,<br />
Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency or any other<br />
government position and is not eligible for rehire.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 22
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
my anaconda, back, forth, up, down, repeat repeat repeat<br />
repeat repeat meant that I showed excitement.<br />
So, I said quietly but in my soothiest voice: if I’d known<br />
vasectomies were this fun I’d have come long ago.<br />
Well, Christine lost it and laughed loudly. And as my<br />
hospital is a teaching hospital there were student nurses<br />
present and they also lost their composure. It was a good<br />
laugh.<br />
Until the doctor showed up and told us all to pipe down so<br />
he could work.<br />
Then he did. I recorded it, too.<br />
He sliced me open, pulled the vas deferens - which, though<br />
I was locally anesthetized, I felt. It didn’t hurt, but it was<br />
uncomfortable.<br />
Then he snipped and soldered the wound close.<br />
it isn’t about religion, saving “babies” adoption or sex.<br />
It’s about controlling women vs controlling<br />
themselves/men.<br />
It’s an extension of:<br />
Why was she dressed like that?<br />
What were you wearing?<br />
Brock Turner deserves a second chance.<br />
While republicans are enacting laws in most states to<br />
regulate women I’ve yet to see one regulating men, boys,<br />
teenagers, rapists, traffickers, and the entirety of maledom.<br />
It is men who create all these problems but who find false<br />
“solutions” that project their misogynistic beliefs and<br />
toxicity on women instead of getting therapy and fixing<br />
their egos and hatred of women. We should start saying:<br />
Conception starts with ejaculation and see how men like<br />
it.<br />
The Social Media App, Spoutible, has an AI that<br />
summarizes threads:<br />
He told me to put a bag of frozen peas on it for a few hours<br />
and not to do any heavy lifting. That was it.<br />
There was no unprotected sex for a month, or so and I had<br />
to go to follow-up and deposit sperm in a cup again but this<br />
time to see if there was still swimmers.<br />
That was that. This easy procedure was NOTHING like<br />
women and girls have to go through.<br />
Not in any way.<br />
Obviously vasectomies are not the same as abortions (they<br />
would be closer to tubal ligation, but again, much easier).<br />
That it can be this easy for men to prevent pregnancy and<br />
to do so without laws, lobbyists, protests, commercials,<br />
religious leaders, or posters of crying sperm, it tells me that<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 23
Myron's<br />
HOT TAKE<br />
#1<br />
So long supporter of mass killers, Wayne<br />
LaPierre, NRA CEO and chief supporter of all of<br />
America’s gun deaths. He resigned days before his<br />
civil trial.<br />
#3<br />
Listening to republicans’ quote Dr. Martin Luther<br />
King on MLK’s national holiday while they ban<br />
his books in schools, refuse to raise federal<br />
minimum wage, refuse federal money for food<br />
for poor kids, and work to suppress voters is<br />
disgusting and so very republican.<br />
#2<br />
Donald Trump and Jared Kushner loudly proclaiming<br />
they will do mass deportations of Latinos and<br />
Palestinians on day one if he is elected. Please share this<br />
information with Latinos for Trump and with all those<br />
protestors blocking bridges, airports, and businesses.<br />
#4<br />
How very sad and tragic. Our educators don’t deserve<br />
the violence and harm they are forced to endure<br />
because gun nuts control politicians..<br />
May this brave honorable man -Principal Dan Marbuger<br />
Rest in Peace sir and thank you for saving as many<br />
students as you could. Rest easy, also, to this beautiful,<br />
sweet boy, Ahmir Jolliff -who was killed by the gunman.<br />
May he run around and play forever.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 24
Coming Soon!<br />
Dr. Josie Harjo is used to cutting up dead bodies. As a veterinary pathologist at a state diagnostic lab, it’s her<br />
job to figure out the cause of death in a never-ending parade of various non-human species. Most cases are<br />
cut-and-dried, and rarely will a carcass roll in that gets her racking her brain.<br />
When a rancher shows up with a dead horse, Josie thinks it’s going to be a typical day at the office. She<br />
quickly learns that this is the third suspicious death in as many days, and the clock is ticking to figure out<br />
what’s going on before any more lives are lost.<br />
The necropsy is frustratingly unremarkable, and Josie is forced to follow all leads no matter how implausible.<br />
Tensions rise as the rancher starts pointing a finger at a disgruntled employee and an assault charge forces<br />
the cops to start asking questions. With a hefty insurance payout on the table, Josie realizes that she can’t<br />
ignore the possibility that the rancher might be involved. As the pathologist leading the case, Josie has to<br />
wonder, is it just coincidence or is there something more nefarious killing horses at JW Ranch?<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 25
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I also added a business directory so that sayeYO app<br />
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I want music artists to think differently about music and<br />
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<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 27
Pro-Trump Forces Took<br />
Over the Capitol<br />
F E A T U R E D A R T I C L E<br />
by Myron J. Clifton<br />
Pro-Trump forces attacked the United States Capitol<br />
yesterday in their boldest attempts yet to prevent the<br />
newly elected Biden/Harris administration from<br />
assuming power.<br />
commanded and marched to the hallowed building and<br />
taking it over after being greeted by Capitol police, offduty<br />
military, and other Federal employees who were<br />
also Trump loyalists.<br />
After two months of efforts to stop Biden from assuming<br />
power, Trump unleashed his forces in a brazen display of<br />
violence and disregard for historical United States<br />
norms.<br />
Flouting the Constitution and law, Trump rallied his<br />
forces earlier in the day just outside the gates of the<br />
Capitol in a rousing speech that reiterated his month’s<br />
long theme of election cheating by Biden, Harris, Pelosi,<br />
the Democrats, and the “Deep State.”<br />
The Trump forces feared nothing.<br />
And they had nothing to fear as the various security<br />
forces, made famous around the world in movies and<br />
television — the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, Secret<br />
Service, and others- were nowhere to be found.<br />
The myth of American security invincibility was forever<br />
shattered, like the windows to the Capitol.<br />
He concluded his speech with specific instructions to the<br />
gathered troops to “March on the Capitol and to never<br />
stop fighting.”<br />
The insurrectionists quickly took over one of the<br />
heretofore most protected places in the country and on<br />
the planet and set about making their mark throughout<br />
the building.<br />
Shortly after his speech, the Trump Troops did as<br />
They ransacked offices and hallways, went through<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 30
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
desks, took pictures, stole small things like the Speaker’s<br />
gavel, and they stole large things like the Speaker’s<br />
podium.<br />
They climbed and swung from railings like wild animals.<br />
And there are reports that, again, like animals, they<br />
pissed and defecated on office floors and desks.<br />
They also smeared their shit on the walls.<br />
This is the level of debasement the mostly white mostly<br />
male insurrectionists did to the Capitol building of the<br />
United States of America.<br />
The troops were there to do more than damage<br />
historical furniture, as more than a few brought<br />
weapons and plastic ties of the kind police use to hold<br />
prisoners. They hung nooses, built gallows, and even had<br />
time to recreate scenes of state sanctioned murder:<br />
recreating the horrific murder of Black American<br />
George Floyd.<br />
Every act was designed to send a message to political<br />
leaders and Black Americans.<br />
Trump loyalists had been ordered to “Stand by” by their<br />
leader while he worked to get his key higher level<br />
agents in key places of authority. When the time came<br />
for expected intervention by government agencies, the<br />
public quickly realized that there was no help coming,<br />
no cowboy on a white horse, no super spy in a fancy car,<br />
and no military man ready to break with corrupt orders.<br />
No, every agency that could be expected to fight back<br />
was instead adhering to “Stand down” orders from<br />
Trump.<br />
Donald Trump had effectively taken control of all American<br />
Security forces and apparatus, and in those moments his<br />
coup was successful.<br />
America had lost and had done so not by knockout<br />
befitting the heavyweight champ but by being<br />
outmaneuvered by dumb-dumb Donald Trump and his<br />
cadre of white nationalists maga misfits.<br />
The so-called greatest military in the world, the greatest<br />
spy network, the greatest men and women in law<br />
enforcement, and the smartest intelligence agents on<br />
the planet were defeated in a few hours, forever<br />
embarrassing the nation before a world no longer in<br />
awe of America’s power and might.<br />
The most direct threat to Black Americans was the<br />
collection of Confederate flags that were proudly<br />
marched up the steps and then throughout the<br />
chambers and hallways, harkening back to the grand<br />
wishes of the old confederacy of “The South Rising Again.”<br />
America witnessed a coup by thousands of mostly white<br />
men, and now we are at the mercy of other white men<br />
who we hope will bring them to heel.<br />
White supremacy, white nationalism, and white<br />
privilege on global display in an embarrassing testament<br />
to America’s refusal to deal with its original sin.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 31
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
Black Americans watching white men riot and destroy<br />
the symbols of democracy that white men tell us we need<br />
to honor and respect, and to do so without<br />
consequences, reaffirms what we all know about two<br />
versions of justice and law enforcement.<br />
And we listened to interviews with rioters as they loudly<br />
proclaim “It is our country” “We won’t let *them steal it”<br />
and “We will take back our country.”<br />
I must have missed it when *their country was stolen<br />
from them.<br />
We live in a country that caters and panders to white<br />
men above all else. And those white men are following a<br />
two-bit game show host and conman who is actively<br />
working for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin to destroy<br />
America from the inside, top to bottom.<br />
And they are winning.<br />
The whitewashing has already begun as network and<br />
cable news are complimenting Trump for a speech,<br />
portraying his troops as “exercising their First<br />
Amendment rights” and showing gentle pictures of the<br />
participants troops with humanizing words such as<br />
“Loving dad; veteran; and protestor.<br />
The victors write the history and we can say that the<br />
victors are already looking like white supremacy won.<br />
Again.<br />
Life sentences for the guilty.<br />
Loss of gun licenses.<br />
Unable to run for office or hold Federal jobs.<br />
Any elected officials who is found to have in any way<br />
aided, abetted, or gave comfort to the internal<br />
domestic terrorist troops, should be immediately<br />
kicked out of office and held in jail until they can be<br />
tried.<br />
The confederate flag must be outlawed.<br />
Social media platforms that allowed Trump to spread<br />
his insurrection should be penalized tens of billions of<br />
dollars so that they hurt financially.<br />
Social media platforms that profited from Trump’s<br />
takeover attempt should be regulated.<br />
Public news companies — print and especially<br />
television — must be regulated, fined for telling lies,<br />
and shut down if repeatedly found in violation.<br />
Unless America comes to accept that the enemy is using its<br />
own laws to destroy it from the inside, and that to do<br />
nothing about white supremacy and white nationalism,<br />
what we saw this week is merely the first of many internal<br />
attempts to destroy the country and replace it with a<br />
whites only everything.<br />
The crossroads America faces is a government and<br />
individual crossroad:<br />
The government must reform itself and root out traitors<br />
and hold them accountable under the law — and make new<br />
laws to prevent what just happened from happening again.<br />
The coup is over for now but without swift justice for the<br />
perpetrators it will happen again, and certainly with<br />
more success since the template can now be studied and<br />
tweaked.<br />
To prevent anything remotely similar from happening<br />
again, there needs to be devastating consequences for<br />
everyone involved in the attempted overthrow of the<br />
American government, including:<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 32
M Y R O N J . C L I F T O N<br />
And to white Americans: You must confront your nice<br />
family members who support Trump because they will<br />
support the next Trump. If you don’t get to them now,<br />
they’ll be staging the next coup. You have to have<br />
uncomfortable conversations, challenge their beliefs, and<br />
dispel any notion that anything was honorable about<br />
what we just witnessed.<br />
And to white Christians, you need to get your pastors to<br />
teach his members about racism. Not whitewashed<br />
racism, but real American dirty ugly evil racism.. of which<br />
those congregations have long been willing participants.<br />
Unless and until white America confronts who you are<br />
you will see more of your sons and daughters lashing out<br />
trying to takedown a government designed by white<br />
people for white people.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 33
Vernon L. Andrews<br />
Policing Black Athletes<br />
Racial Disconnect in Sports<br />
O R D E R<br />
T O D A Y !
BLM-PD<br />
BLM-PD<br />
BLM-PD<br />
BLM-PD. BLM-PD. BLM-PD. BLM-PD<br />
BLM-PD<br />
In the not too distant future, the US has been taken over by white nationalists, and<br />
the institutionalized racism that has underscored the country’s entire history has<br />
once again been codified. California has seceded from the US, and a band of strong<br />
women plan to start the next civil war following the death of their friend at the hands<br />
of the police. This is BLM-PD.
MYRON'S<br />
list<br />
HIT OR MISS<br />
MISS<br />
Trevian Kutti, former Trump team member, and Kanye publicist was fired by her<br />
attorneys, banned from Trump’s social media platform because she tried to fundraise<br />
to pay her defense attorneys, and who is rightly facing years in prison for voter<br />
intimidation of Ruby Freeman and her daughter, plus appearing to threaten Ms.<br />
Freeman in online social media posts.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 35
MISS<br />
Houthis from Yemen, backed by Iran, deciding to<br />
attack shipping lanes and U.S. wars ships in the<br />
Mediterranean and instantly forgetting that U.S.<br />
war ships fire back.<br />
HIT<br />
U.S., U.K., and a few other nations deciding that<br />
they were tired of the Houthi’s firing upon their<br />
ships and ships from 41 other nations, so they<br />
did what they are trained to do: fire back and<br />
disable the Iranian-backed terrorists.<br />
HIT<br />
Vivek Ramaswamy denying that racism exists only<br />
to hear from Iowans that they think he’s took<br />
dark, he’s a foreigner, and that his religion is scary.<br />
MISS<br />
Accused thief Brett Favre and loudmouth<br />
sanctimonious football announcer Toney Dungy,<br />
both found time to spew their bigoted nonsense<br />
by blaming Taylor Swift for the Kansas City Chiefs<br />
recent poor performance on the field.<br />
MISS<br />
Josh Hawley and many republicans trying to reframe<br />
the jailed insurrection participants as<br />
“hostages”<br />
HIT<br />
Nikki Haley who once identified as white, denied<br />
racism exists, said of Georgia-born, Black<br />
representative Rev. Ralph Warnock that he<br />
should “Be deported,” having to face the truth of<br />
the party she represents as Donald Trump<br />
claimed that she isn’t in fact American-born. Nikki<br />
getting a taste of Birther part 2 by the person she<br />
says she still supports.<br />
MISS<br />
The Dallas Cowboys flaming out in the playoffs<br />
again despite having a great record, a home game<br />
where they were undefeated this season, and a<br />
high-scoring office. They were humiliated by the<br />
Green Bay Packers 38-32.<br />
HIT<br />
President Biden and Vice President Harris<br />
MISS<br />
Angela Rye, Joy Reid, and Tiffany Cross platforming<br />
Lenard "Charlamagne tha god" McKelvey who admitted<br />
drugging and sexually assaulting an underaged girl. They<br />
appeared on Joy Reid’s show to launch their new<br />
podcast.<br />
The group are notorious for bashing the Biden/Harris<br />
administration, with Lenard being especially<br />
misogynistic.<br />
Joy Reid’s long exposed homophobia and Angela Rye’s<br />
strong support of sexual assaulter Lenard while herself<br />
complaining about receiving inappropriate text<br />
messages from former co-worker Chris Cuomo is<br />
incredibly hypocritical. I’m going to gladly ignore their<br />
television shows and podcasts.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 36
Her Legend Lives In You:<br />
The Untold Creation Story Honoring The<br />
Goddess And Our Daughters.<br />
by Myron J. Clifton<br />
Available on
NEW!<br />
ON SALE<br />
NOW<br />
A cup of coffee or tea paired with interesting company is an unbeatable combination. We learn<br />
and share so much through this simple social ritual. Nuanced origin stories. Brow-raising<br />
secrets. Good news. Bad news. Hopes and dreams, insecurities and fears. Sip by sip, we do<br />
business, catch up, plan our lives, and discover common ground.<br />
To gain a better understanding of his friends, Myron went on a mission to try their favorite<br />
drinks. He was struck by the complex flavors and simple pleasures that characterized their<br />
personalities. Sweet. Spicy. Bold. Bewitching. Optimistic. Ostentatious. Practical. Perfectionist.<br />
In Coffee, Grounded, Myron reviews these drinks and brews up a perfect blend of culture and<br />
caffeine. He examines the history of various ingredients and coffee-growing regions, painting a<br />
vivid picture of faraway lands and hometown haunts.<br />
Pour yourself a cup and curl up with this tasty collection of stories steeped in friendship and fun.<br />
Order & Indulge!
MOVIE<br />
REVIEWS<br />
by Myron J. Clifton<br />
Society of The Snow – Netflix<br />
Society of the Snow. Netflix. It’s a gutwrenching<br />
retelling of the 1972 airplane crash<br />
in the Andes. The plane carried the Uruguay<br />
rugby team. Many died but many survived. It’s<br />
tense and very well done and includes the<br />
unfathomable decisions the survivors were<br />
faced with as they were without food and<br />
water in freezing temperatures for 72 days.<br />
Saltburn – Amazon Prime<br />
I found it boring and very unsexy. It seemed<br />
like a community theater play put on by<br />
washed up actors feeding their egos but also<br />
trying really hard to be artsy, shocking, and<br />
match French moviemaking. It’s interesting but<br />
as a study of how to waste money and cast. The<br />
parts that are supposed to be shocking come<br />
off as inauthentic and over-directed trying to<br />
be shocking.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 39
MOVIE<br />
REVIEWS<br />
Night Swim – In Theaters<br />
If you have teenagers and a pool and they like to swim at night, this is the perfect horror movie for<br />
them.<br />
Not a slasher or anything, but full of jump scares in and around the backyard swimming pool. Don’t<br />
get distracted by the plot, just enjoy the scariness of the family pool and what may be in the deep end.<br />
It is a good sleepover movie that’ll creep out your teenagers and you.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 40
MY FAVORITE THINGS<br />
streaming right<br />
now...
S T R E A M I N G N O W<br />
Fool Me Once – Netflix<br />
Harlan Coban series that meets your murder<br />
mystery needs. There’s the main crime and<br />
each of the suspects has their own stories<br />
that intersect with the primary story in<br />
strange and questionable ways. There are<br />
flawed characters with questionable motives<br />
and layered dubious dealings that may-may<br />
not tie to main crime. A fun, twisty, thriller<br />
that keeps you off balance to end. I really<br />
enjoyed it.<br />
Reacher, Season 2 - Prime<br />
The muscle man investigator is back and he’s as<br />
tough, irreverent, and violent as he was in<br />
season 1. This season, someone is methodically<br />
killing members of an elite military squad who<br />
may have done shady business in the war – the<br />
squad that Reacher was a part of. Reacher and<br />
his crew are both running for their lives and<br />
taking lives as they seek to unravel the mystery<br />
in the most brutal ways they can.<br />
Rebel Moon – Netflix<br />
It has some entertaining moments, a lot of<br />
slow motion, minimal character development,<br />
and so-so story and plot. It is being hyped as<br />
the next Star Wars but it’s closer to 7 Samurai<br />
in space. The movie has 2-parts so part one<br />
leans too heavily on action and not enough on<br />
world or character building. Part two has to do<br />
better world building vs voiceover exposition<br />
then explosions if the movie is to move beyond<br />
standard Netflix c-rated science fiction.<br />
HBO - The Curious Case of Natalia Grace -<br />
Documentary<br />
This 2-season documentary isn’t like anything<br />
you’ve seen. The national story from a few<br />
years ago of a Ukrainian child adopted at age<br />
six by an American couple who almost<br />
immediately suspect the “child” is significantly<br />
older than six years old. Is she older than she is<br />
presenting herself or are her adoptive parents<br />
abusive people who changed their minds about<br />
wanting their disabled child. You will not<br />
anticipate the twists and turns of this all too<br />
human story.<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 42
Pre-Order<br />
NOW<br />
The Empire Wars<br />
A powerful YA debut set in a world where survival and magic are a deadly mix.<br />
Coa, who was born feral in the North Transatlantic wilds, has just been captured. Now, Coa is<br />
subject to public humiliation and execution in a gruesome spectacle known as The Great Hunt.<br />
If participators die in the Great Hunt—their entire family will be executed. In front of<br />
everyone. The nationalist regime, known as the Allied Force, will not rest until all foreigners<br />
are exterminated. Her best hope might be Princess Ife, born of privilege, but newly married<br />
into the authoritarian lineage.<br />
Her riskier choice is an alliance with a gorgeous, cunning participator—marked as a traitor to<br />
his militarized nation. Soon, Coa entangles herself with the captivating, deadly young man who<br />
could be her ultimate downfall.<br />
Akana Phenix is a recent Harvard alum who researches genocide.<br />
The Empire Wars comes out on July 30, <strong>2024</strong>. It is now available<br />
for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Audible, Apple Books<br />
and more. On social media, she is primarily on Twitter, but she can<br />
also be found on Instagram and TikTok. She is located in the<br />
United States of America. Linktree: https://linktr.ee/akurephenix<br />
<strong>Dear</strong> <strong>Dean</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> | Jan. 22, <strong>2024</strong> | Page 42
Robin Martin, Editorial<br />
The Joyful Warrior<br />
Podcast Network<br />
Music App<br />
Mark Lerner Astrology<br />
Katya Juliet's Jewel Box<br />
Great Start Initiative
New Children’s Books!<br />
by Katya Juliet Lerner<br />
Now Available on<br />
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