There would have been a time for such a Word...

judicial duel between a man and a woman

manuscript illustrations from hans talhoffer's fencing manual alte armatur und ringkunst. bavaria, c. 1459

"Weep and howl, you rich, for the gold you have hoarded and stolen from the workers will eat your flesh like fire." -Bernie Sanders

(Just kidding that was the Apostle James)

To paraphrase the Gospel of Mark:

So it’s finally time for the announcement of the 13 Moons reading challenge for 2024. Another year, another list of prompts that will make your reading journey exciting. This reading challenge is created by me for the entire reading community. So if you love reading or are looking for a reading challenge to try for the upcoming year, then here is one for you. 

Rules & Levels

The rules for this reading challenge are simple. First of all, this is just for fun so no need to feel pressured into doing anything or reading anything you don’t want to. You can also be flexible with the prompts if you choose to do so. The challenge will run from January 1st, 2024 and till December 31st, 2024.

There are a total of 104 reading prompts divided into 13 categories. There is a list of levels given and you can choose which level you wish to participate in based on your preference. The levels you can participate in are as follows:

Penumbral Lunar Eclipse: 13 books — fulfill one prompt from each category 

Partial Lunar Eclipse: 26 books — fulfill at least one prompt from each category

Central Lunar Eclipse: 52 books — fulfill at least one prompt from each category

Total Lunar Eclipse: 104 books — fulfill all the prompts

The reading challenge is given below. I am trying to create a graphic for it, and if I succeed I’ll edit this post and attach the graphic later, but for now I will write it all down here in case you wish to participate and plan your TBR. So without further ado, here is the 13 Moons reading challenge 2024. 

13 Moons Reading Challenge 2024 

Wolf Moon

A Stand Alone novel

A furry creature on the cover

Hair on the cover

The words Straight, Waves or Curly in the title

Hair color in the title

A book about found family

A book about adoption

A book with a hierarchy

Snow Moon

The word White in the title

Blanket on the cover

Read a book while drinking a hot beverage

Read a book while burning a candle

Hat/Cap on the cover

A book about mountains

A book about a fresh start or a new beginning

A book with necromancy themes

Worm Moon

Read a book in a series with more than 5 books

A book about rebirth or reincarnation

A cozy book

Book about insects 

Continue a series

A book that gives you the creeps

A book you’re not sure about

A book you’re thinking of unhauling 

Pink Moon

A book with a princess

Book about women empowerment

A pink object on the cover

Book recommended by a celebrity 

Book that tickles you pink

A coming of age book

A celebrity memoir

Start a book on a new moon

Flower Moon

Book by a BIPOC author

Book about friendship

A book club pick

Book with an animated cover

Book with a character named after a flower

A speculative fiction

A book set in spring

Read a book at any time of the day 

Strawberry Moon

Read a book from your backlist

Read a book with Bubbles on the cover

A book with less than 400 pages

Book you see trending on social media

Read a book from an author which is new to you

A debut novel

Book with the word Leaf in the title 

Book about swimming 

Buck Moon

A book that has multiple editions

A Paperback

A book recommended by a friend

A biography

A book you’re seeing everywhere 

A 2024 release

A 5 star prediction 

Book with a Man on the cover 

Sturgeon Moon

Book with a map

Book that people have been forcing you to read

Book with a title that starts with the first letter of your name

Book you hauled recently

Book with a Tree on the cover

Book with the word Can’t in the title

Book with a dark cover 

A novella

Harvest Moon

An anthology

A book you had to read for an assignment

A book with a movie adaptation

Book you’d recommend to somebody else

A book chosen by somebody else

Book with a Fish on the cover

A fruit in the title

Book about a celebration 

Hunter’s Moon

Book about food

Book set in Europe

Book with an Umbrella on the cover

Book about a topic you’re curious about

An award winning book 

Read the 7th book on your shelf

Book with Buildings on the cover 

book divided into parts 

Beaver Moon

Book about a psychological phenomenon 

Book with the word Five in the title 

Book with a Street on the cover

Start a book in the evening

A book about a specific country 

A book from your monthly TBR

Book with a cover you don’t like 

Book about a single parent 

Cold Moon

Book set in the medieval times

Book with a Spider on the cover

Read a book while wearing a pair of socks

A memoir

Book about a historical event

Book with a character’s name in the title

Book you think you will love

Book from a Goodreads shelf

Blue Moon

Book with a unique format

Read a classic

Book with 3 or more people on the cover

Book recommended by your favorite social media influencer

Book with a dramatic title

Book with a Dagger in the story

Book set in high school

Book about a spy

And there you have it. This is the 13 Moons reading challenge 2024 for you all. Let me know if you like it. If you wish to participate I’d love it if you can comment below to tell me you’re participating in the challenge. If you don’t want to comment, that’s fine as well. As long as you enjoy doing the challenge, I’m happy. 

We need to clear this shit up REAL fast, because otherwise it’s gonna wind up like the French Revolution, where more middle class and poor people were killed for being “class traitors” than actual nobles. (Did you know that France has more nobles today than during the French Revolution? While there were a few showy executions, many nobles did just fine or experienced minor setbacks.)

If someone makes $60,000 a year, they are making about twice as much as a full time worker making minimum wage in California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, or Washington State.

Brian Thompson, the CEO of United HealthCare who was just assassinated in New York City, earned $10 million a year, which means he earned 333 times minimum wage in those states. Basically, he cleared an annual minimum wage salary in just over a day. And that “rich” person making $60k/year that you want to guillotine? He made their salary in a bit over two days of a year.

So he was rich, right?

Well. Tesla is trying to give Elon Musk a pay package of $101 billion. That is 10,100 times what Brian Thompson earned and 3,366,667 times more than a minimum wage worker. (Tesla hasn’t been successful yet because of a complicated lawsuit from a shareholder, but they’ll get there.) If you are a minimum wage worker, Elon Musk makes more every SECOND than you do in a year. And that “rich” person who you want to guillotine? He makes their salary in about 1.6 seconds. Even when he’s sleeping.

Now, remember. The Muskrat also is the head of SpaceX, the Boring Company, X.ai, and X.com, so this is just ONE pay package for him.

it's an important observation that someone making $200k a year is still far and away from the actual ultrawealthy. But where's the line, who gets to draw the line, and what does the distinction represent? Especially across countries and cultures, where that line will tend to vary wildly! That's a really reasonable question, and there's a good answer.

This was Karl Marx's central work, basically. He wrote Das Kapital setting out to explain some recurring features of capitalism as the system was growing, developing, and taking over the world: that it tended to accumulate wealth at the very top, that it tended to have a major crash every ten or so years, and some other features.

What he was able to show - and that was pretty definitively accepted by other even pro-capitalist economists at the time - is that capitalism is exploitative in an economic sense, meaning that an 'owner' of a business made money off of someone else doing work.

For example, I worked for a guy named Gary who owned a pizza shop. I was paid $14 an hour, but each pizza cost $8 plus tax. I would make between 20 and 50 pizzas in an hour, depending on the time of day, so across my four-hour shift I made $56 (before tax lol), but I made the business $160-$400. Some of that money after I'm paid goes to buying more ingredients, some of it goes to pay off the building's rent, but everything else went to Gary, who did nothing except steal from our tip jar.

Gary probably made somewhere to the tune of $150-$200k a year, off of me and my high school coworkers slinging pizzas all day next to an 800-degree oven.

In contrast, a dude I knew named Nick made between $150-200k every year as an ironworker and dockworker. He was paid well, but he wasn't taking from anyone else's livelihood - in fact, he still made more money for the construction company than he took home.

Gary was, in an economic sense, exploitive. Nick wasn't. And Gary is who socialists have a problem with. This is the distinction between "working class" and "owning class", not a number. And it's an issue not just because it's frankly an antisocial, cruel way to organize society, but because it actually causes crises.

This was another thing Marx figured out. The reason that capitalism tended to crash, over and over, was because of the accumulation of wealth. With successful businesses under capitalism, Gary keeps making more and more money -- I and my coworkers keep making $14/hour or only marginally more. Eventually, that means I cannot buy a pizza at the place I work, or much of anything else for that matter. When that happens, people stop buying what they used to, profits crash, and capitalism has a crisis.

When my grandmother was sent a death threat through text message, I reported it to the police. The officer told me that "it's not considered a death threat unless the message mentions a weapon and a deadline".

As a result, they didn't do anything. Not even a verbal warning to that person.

They are treating these CEOs as if they're members of our government. The cops don't touch threats unless they're made against political leaders. They don't shut down cities for a manhunt unless the victim is a political leader. They don't charge people with terrorism unless the target is political. They are admitting publicly that CEOs and corporations are the ones running this country.