Quite Frankly

Not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear. I form opinions based on the facts that are presented to me. If I'm hated, so what? If I'm loved, so what?

[nobszone]

Followers I really wish I had time to sit down and break down what the fuck is going on.

Today has been nuts. I wish I could tell you the days ahead will be more of what you’re used to, but they won’t be. 

I mean, when you throw your VP under the bus, what the hell am I supposed to say except the Titanic is already down by the head, the band is playing and the last lifeboats are starting to leave?

This isn’t even just about if Trump survives to next November, this is about where the GOP goes from here.

Spoiler alert: it’s over. It’s done. It’s toast. Even if Trump wins next year, you’re looking at zero electable candidates for 2024. 

You can sit here and act like this is no big deal, this is just a stunt or fake news or whatever, but you’re lying to yourself. It’s all gone to shit. Donald Trump has become the architect of the destruction of the Conservative movement in America.

You all feared a future where America was ruled by either Neoliberals or Progressives? Guess what. It’s coming. And barring a sudden 180 from Trump and the GOP, nothing can stop it. Even the Democrats own incompetence can’t keep it from happening, because as annoying as you may find the new blood on the left? They know how the play the game. And they’re gonna be out for blood.

But hey, at least we might get Vice President Ivanka Trump for a year or so, right?

I’m going back under now, but I shall return in November with a roadmap towards what’s looking less like an election and more like Judgement Day.

I’ll see you all then, assuming The Don hasn’t blown up the White House by that time.

[nobszone]

U.S. Escalates Online Attacks on Russia’s Power Grid

The Trump administration is using new authority to take more aggressive digital action in a warning to Moscow and in a demonstration of its abilities.

Please don’t think I’ve been avoiding you, followers. A great many matters require my attention in these...extraordinary times. I’m sure you understand. 

However, it seems that someone at US Cyber Command was reading my suggestions regarding what to do about the Russkies.

According to this article from the New York Times, Cyber Command has placed malware inside Russia, specifically the power grid. In the event of a major confrontation, this malware could be used as a kill switch, disabling the power grid as well as any other systems that it infected.

Keep in mind this is not just a response to 2016 however. DHS and FBI believe Russia has planted similar malware in our networks as well. So much for that being a “Rachel Maddow conspiracy theory”, eh? 

According to the article, last summer President Trump issued a directive to Cyber Command which gave them more flexibility in regards to conducting offensive operations without Presidential approval. In addition, Congress slipped in a provision in the latest military authorization bill that allows for “clandestine military activity” in cyberspace, to “deter, safeguard or defend against attacks or malicious cyberactivities against the United States.” These actions can be authorized by SECDEF and also do not require Presidential approval (which is interesting considering we technically still don't have a SECDEF).

It's likely that we've penetrated more than just the power grid, but exactly how deep we may have gotten is unknown. Officials from the National Security Council declined to comment, but also said they had "no security concerns" in regards to the Times reporting on it. 

Which suggests the possibility that we want Russia to know that we're in their systems.

Now here's where things get really interesting.

“Two administration officials said they believed Mr. Trump had not been briefed in any detail about the steps to place “implants” — software code that can be used for surveillance or attack — inside the Russian grid. 

Pentagon and intelligence officials described broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction — and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials, as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister. 

Because the new law defines the actions in cyberspace as akin to traditional military activity on the ground, in the air or at sea, no such briefing would be necessary, they added.”

So in other words, they don't have to tell Trump what they're doing...but they don't really want to tell him either because they're afraid he's going to flip his shit and/or tell Russia.

And cue The Don: 

Very interesting reaction from the Commander-In-Chief there.

I can understand being annoyed at NYT reporting on clandestine activities. Because the one truth of Black ops is that someone eventually turns on the light and it's usually someone you don't want in the fucking room. But like I said, NSC chose not to kill the story, which suggests they want Russia to know.

Also "virtual treason?" Strong words there, Don. Also considering what you said last week about accepting foreign information on political opponents? I wouldn’t talk.

At any rate, it seems this was still on his mind during his stream-of-consciousness tweets this morning. 

Wonder if anyone told him about the poll function on Twitter? I imagine it’d be the most voted on poll in Twitter history. 

So, yeah, some interesting stuff here. Also I do encourage you to take a look at the article as it does some good reporting. Seems not only is Cyber Command taking measures to safeguard us against cyberattacks from Russia or elsewhere, but now we know we can counterpunch them.

Rather odd that The President of the United States doesn’t seem too happy about that. Don’t you think? 

[ughsocialjustice]

Punching nazis is only gonna increase violence and abandon debate. Change my mind.

Richard Spencer has not risen to power since people started punching him. On the contrary, it very much did the opposite for him.

Fascism is corrosive to democracy, and specifically works by eroding its institutions and destroying it from within. It can only do that if its existence is tolerated, if it is accepted as a rational part of the debate. It’s like evolutionary biologists “debating” creationists; simply allowing them a platform alongside you, as an equally valid viewpoint to be debated, gives them credibility and credence.

To deny them this credibility, often by force, is actually what is necessary to stop them; during the interwar period, Fascism was actually a burgeoning political movement in Britain, and were only stopped by the combined efforts of several working class and minority groups during the battle of Cable Street, in which they successfully stopped and dispersed a planned march by the British Union of Fascists, through violence. This one act, this one show of violence against fascists, effectively denied them the media glamour and legitimacy they wanted, and it sharply declined afterwards as a result. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cable_Street

https://theestablishment.co/why-punching-nazis-is-not-only-ethical-but-imperative-db47a167c2fb/index.html

- The Scandinavian one

[nobszone]

Those are all interesting points but I disagree with you that force is necessary, and here’s why.

You talk about how by accepting Fascism as a rational part of debate gives them credibility and credence. I would argue that history has already shown how Fascism ultimately causes nothing but pain and suffering for people, and anyone who’s trying to defend it is in for a rough time.

It’s like people who go on about how Communism can totally work. All I have to do is point at 50 years of history to give examples of why it doesn’t work and that’s before I even get into modern day regimes like China and Cuba, and the former is arguably more Capitalist in terms of economy than Communist (though the government is still very much rooted in Communist ideals). 

In the end, they can quote Marx at me all they want. All I have to do is say “If Communism works, how come the USSR has been gone for nearly 30 years?”

I will concede though that Fascism is different from Communism in the sense that while they’re both ideologies, Fascism concerns itself with civil liberties (or lack thereof) moreso than the Economy. And if we’re being honest about it, I think we can all agree that a reduction of civil liberties across the board for all but a select group is something that appeals only to...less than upstanding people. So I understand the notion that treating such an opinion as “valid” or “credible” is perhaps not the best idea. While I’m a believer in free speech in general, I will concede there are some ideas and beliefs that are not acceptable, no matter what.

With that in mind, the reason I disagree with the notion of deplatforming them, or just kicking the shit out of them whenever they open their mouths, is because of the fact that people who try to defend backwards extremist ideology (Fascism, Nazism, Communism, etc) tend to discredit their own arguments. To use your example of evolutionary biologists debating creationists, when Bill Nye debated Ken Ham about creationism, Nye was able to expertly deconstruct Ham’s arguments using scientific data while all Ham was able to do was nitpick and quote the Bible and rage about Science being “hijacked by secularists.” The end result was that Nye just about destroyed whatever credibility Ham had.

As my father taught me, it’s better to stand mute and look like a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s absolutely times when we need to fight back. If my country never did that, I’d be speaking British right now. But we would do well to make sure that fighting back is the absolute last resort. Some may say that we’re there now, the time of last resort. I don’t think we’ve arrived at that point yet, but then again I’m an optimist who believes in the best of humanity moreso than the worst.

Anyway, just wanted to give my two cents. 

[nobszone]

This morning, Theresa May announced she will resign on June 7th, bringing an end to one of the most tumultuous PM tenures in British history.

I'm really hoping Jonathan Pie posts a new video about this today, but until then this one from a couple months ago will do.

[nobszone]

If our involvement in the Ukraine is any indication, Trump is committed to NATO. His issue with our partners was always their spending not enough, which they have. Why do you think we don’t hear anything else about it?

You are correct that Trump’s main beef with NATO is the amount other nations are spending (or lackthereof), which is a legit concern. When you’re in a multinational alliance, you usually don’t want to end up footing the bill (see: Germany and the EU).

My concern is that Trump doesn’t grasp the sociopolitical importance of the alliance. NATO has been a hallmark of US-European relations since the end of World War II and came to embody the very idea of the West in the Cold War. Withdrawing from them would be a huge blow to our relations, not to mention embolden Russia.

Trump seems bizarrely disinterested in all of that, viewing NATO mainly as a budget item. Hell he suggested withdrawing from NATO back in January to his staff. The response from them alone should tell you how catastrophically bad it would be. 

[nobszone]

And we did get the report released. Redactions aside, we got the meat of it. By the way, I do agree with you on parts of your interpretation about Russia’s interference. Your extrapolating paranoia about power grids can go back to Rachel Maddow’s mind, but you are correct that Russia did engage in shenanigans. So, what do you think Trump should do about it? We already have increased sanctions on them, and still are keeping them back in Eastern Europe. Do you suggest war?

I’m okay with the redacted version for now. My guess is that the blacked out information is probably stuff we shouldn’t know about, or at the very least would present a National Security concern should it be released. So I’m fine with the redactions. 

As for what Trump should do? That’s a hard question, and one that people elect you to solve. 

If I was sitting behind the resolute desk, my first action would be to make the speech I included with my original post. Let the American people know that we strongly condemn this action and we were taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Have the Diplomats send that message to Russia. We’re not going to tolerate this. If Putin wants to pretend we’re back in the Cold War, we’re not just going to pretend everything is fine. Also back this up by reaffirming our commitment to NATO (I sometimes wonder if Trump even knows what the hell Article 5 is). 

That would be the diplomatic response. If Russia still attempts to interfere, we may have to look at retaliatory measures via cyberspace.

Admittedly I can’t verify this, but according to a friend of mine who worked cybercrimes for the FBI, our cyberwarfare capabilities are better than we let on. As in “push a button and shut down a country’s internet.” And not just dinky little rouge states like North Korea, but countries that actually kind of know what they’re doing like Iran or Venezuela.

Now I’m not an expert in cyberwar strategy by any means, but some ideas might be releasing some HUMINT or SIGINT we’ve acquired about Russia to its populace, let them know what’s really going on in the Kremlin. 

On a related note: you’ll notice how Wikileaks had material on pretty much every world government except Russia. This isn’t an accident. The report all but states that Wikileaks is a proxy of the Russian Intelligence services. This is why I believe Julian Assange is ultimately either going to be swapped for Edward Snowden, or disappear into a CIA black site. 

So yeah, that would be my idea of a response. Put safeguards in place to deter against election interference, exert diplomatic pressure on Russia via NATO, and if they try this again hit them back.

It’s not exactly a scenario where we’re all holding hands, but if Putin wants to go down this road, this is where it ends up. 

[nobszone]

Also I do appreciate that you’re dodging being wrong about collusion all this time by talking about Russia instead of obstruction. I know you are too prideful to ever grovel for that “who do you believe” line, but at least it’s a more fun and fresh take.

Yes, I was wrong about the “collusion” angle.

But to quote Skip Bayless, I wasn’t that wrong :P.

Thanks to actions by both Team Trump (coughRudycough) and the media, we have no idea what “Collusion” actually is. This is an instance where we’re all to blame on this one because we rushed out to accuse Trump of it without stopping to determine what it was.

The report showed there was no active coordination between Trump and/or his campaign staff and the Russians (which again, is a good thing). The report does say that there was certain information given to them that they couldn’t verify due to a variety of factors which may have changed their conclusions, but until/unless one of the other investigations comes up with something, I’m okay with letting this angle rest for now.

More importantly, the report does make the following clear.

1. The Russians started a campaign in 2014 to sow discord and dissent amongst the American populace

2. In 2016 it became a target effort to assist Trump’s campaign to become President and harm Clinton’s.

3. The Trump campaign appeared to have knowledge of, at the very least, Russia’s support for Trump and welcomed their efforts. But, again, there’s no evidence of any actual conspiracy or coordination. 

Does all the above fit a “definition” for collusion? I don’t know. That’s for all of us to decide. But it is concerning.

Re: Obstruction, a couple people have asked me why Mueller didn’t outright say that Trump obstructed (again, he seems to think he did). Mueller made the right call on that, and here’s why.

Firstly it’s clear that Mueller’s intent was to punt any judgement about the President’s actions (and possible consequences up to and including impeachment) to Congress. Which is really what you’re supposed to do in this situation. Congress is the Legislative branch, so let them Legislate.

Second, the Constitution is admittedly grey on if a sitting President can be charged with a crime. My view is that he can’t because that would give the Legislative a significant step up over the Executive (this is coming from someone who thinks the Executive is too powerful as it is). A removal from office before any actual proceedings would be the way to go. 

So yeah, I’m okay with Trump not being a Manchurian Candidate. Mueller did his job and hopefully clarified for all of us that Russia is a much bigger threat than we thought. 

[nobszone]

Just for the record, you did read that letter Mueller wrote, right? The one where he says his issue was never with the summary but with the media portrayals of it?

Apparently you and I have a different interpretation of the letter, particularly this segment. 

“The summary letter the Departmentsent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capturethe context, nature, and substance of this Office’s work and conclusions. We communicated thatconcern to the Department on the morning of March 25. There is new public confusion aboutcritical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purposefor which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in theoutcome of the investigations.”

If Mueller is taking issue with how the media was handling the summary, he makes it clear that he believes that’s at least partially because of what Barr wrote. 

This also is a big part of the reason why I didn’t feel comfortable talking about the report until the redacted version was available. While I didn’t feel the summary was inaccurate, I felt there was context missing that Barr was unable/unwilling to provide.

It seems Mueller agreed, since he recommended the release of the full report in the letter as well. 

[nobszone]

Mr. President: It’s your job to stop this.

So I know all three of you are wondering where I’ve been. Well, here I am once again. Before we get started, I’d like to answer two questions.

1. The Muller Report has been public for the better part of a month, and the summary by Attorney General William Barr has been out longer, so why has it taken me this long to comment on it? Well the main reason has been certain RL issues that have kept me away from here longer than usual. Aside from that, I was not comfortable summarizing a summary, especially one that I suspected was not telling us the whole story (and it seems my suspicions may have been correct). 

2. What are my thoughts? Well I did a podcast last week with my guy Sharpwing where I go over my reaction to the report. So if any of you ever wanted to hear my lovely voice, give it a listen.

For the rest of you: we’ve managed to avoid the absolute nightmare scenario of a US President willingly working for the Russian Government. But the question of whether or not he broke the law is still somewhat up in the air. Muller seems to think that Trump obstructed justice (and more importantly, Trump probably thinks that as well).

But I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about something much more important.

The Russian interference in the 2016 election is real. It’s no longer “fake news” or a conspiracy theory or an entry in the Hillary Clinton Excuse Rolodex. This happened. 

Now do I believe that this was the reason Trump won? No. I imagine even if the Russians didn’t do anything, Trump still would’ve won. Maybe it would’ve been closer, maybe it might have even gone to SCOTUS like in 2000. But ultimately America was going to pick one unelectable candidate over another. 

But here’s my point. This is now bigger than just an election. This is bigger than Trump, Clinton, Sanders, all of them.

Russia has shown that they are willing to attack us via cyberspace, and more importantly, they can.

And Trump seems willing to let that happen.

But why? What would Trump have to gain from doing nothing to stop this? Is there a reason why he would talk about the investigation in a call with Putin and not warn him against doing it again? Is there a reason that Senior White House staff told now-ex Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen not to talk about election security with Trump?

I think that there is, but it’s much more petty than you might think. 

I don’t believe that Trump won solely because of the Russians. But many on the left do.

And I bet Trump does as well.

It’s one thing to say “there’s no collusion.” It’s another thing to say “Russia didn’t do anything”, despite mountains of evidence indicating that Russian agents have been engaged in a campaign to sow discord among our populace and install distrust in our democratic process since 2014. To deny that the Internet Research Agency has sent operatives to US soil, posing as American citizens and interest groups, with the explicit purpose to cause a rife in our society and a breakdown in discourse. 

To deny all that? It flies in the face of common sense and natural intelligence. Not to mention military intelligence.

The sad part is that there’s a way that all of this could’ve been avoided. Trump would’ve saved himself (and the country) a lot of grief if he came out after then-FBI Director James Comey announced the start of what would ultimately become the Muller investigation and said this:

“My fellow Americans, it has come to my attention that there’s been some concerns regarding interference by the Russian Government in last year’s election, as well as possible involvement by staff in my campaign. 

“I strongly condemn the actions of the Russian Government. These are the actions of an aggressive power that are a direct attack on this nation’s greatest asset: our democratic process. I strongly warn President Putin that further actions will risk unraveling the partnership our nations have worked to build since the end of the Cold War and could result in grave consequences for Russia and her citizens.

“As for the potential involvement of my campaign; to my knowledge none of my staff willingly cooperated with Russian nationals to carry out these actions. But the Department of Justice will have my full support in their investigation and we will provide any information they deem necessary in the pursuit of bringing any individuals who assisted in this grave offense against our nation to justice. Once the investigation is finished, the findings will be made public so the American people can know for themselves the scope of this attempt to subvert our democracy, and you have my full assurance that we will do our utmost to prevent a recurrence of these attempts and ensure secure, safe, and fair elections in the future.” 

If Trump comes out and says that, a lot of this would’ve been avoided. Even if you thought he was still dirty, at least we would have the notion that he acknowledged that it happened and was working to make sure it didn’t happen again.

Instead, he tweets out “WITCH HUNT!” or “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT” or my personal favorite “NO COLLUSION NO OBSTRUCTION!” even though the report explicitly stated that Trump wasn’t exonerated when it came to obstruction (though the White House would really really like the legal eagles to say otherwise).

Oh and his reaction to finding out that Muller was finishing the job that Comey started (and was fired for) was to say “I’m fucked. This is the end of my Presidency.” Not exactly a vote of confidence. Neither, for that matter, is the fact that he tried to stop it. Several times. 

But more importantly, Trump (as usual) is distracting us from the bigger issue: Russia is willing to attack us via cyberspace. And I bet they’re not going to stop with memes or fake Facebook accounts or trying to hack voter registration data. 

Today? It’s an election. Tomorrow? It could be the Stock Market, the electrical grid, our fleet of drones, our internet access, who knows? 

The question is what are we going to do about it?

Well, Trump better figure something out, because it’s his job to do something about this. Just like it was Hillary’s job to make sure she didn’t have sensitive emails on her private server. It is 1000% Trump’s job to stop Russia from engaging in cyberattacks against us, or at the very least making sure they don’t try to mess with our elections.

You may think you only won because of them, Don, but that’s irrelevant.

It’s your job to stop the Russians.

If you don’t want to stop them, then you shouldn’t have the job.

Well, my fellow countrymen have about a year and half to decide if they’re okay with keeping a guy who is okay with letting Russia attack us. A guy that Russia really wants to be President. 

As for me? I’m not okay with it. And if that means I gotta vote for Bernie Sanders or Joe Freakin Biden next year? So be it.

Because I’m an American, and I’m damn proud of it. This country has given me so much and I will do anything I can to protect her from enemies foreign and domestic.

And as far as I’m concerned? 

Right now the best way to do that is to do the opposite of what the Russians want me to do.

Фуцк ыоу, Вова.

[nobszone]

Disney and Fox Merger Will Become Official at Midnight

Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox is just hours away from becoming official.

As of midnight tonight, Disney will officially acquire 21st Century Fox. In doing so, they will become the largest media group on the planet.

Here’s a thought that occurred to me. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are both running on a platform that is based on breaking up large corporations that they perceive to be monopolies, namely Silicon Valley tech companies. Other DemSocs like AOC have made similar overtures as well.

So why isn’t anyone trying to break up Disney?

Does the left not understand that 20 years ago Disney, 20th Century Fox, Marvel and Lucasfilm were all separate corporations, and now they’re a single entity? 

Does the left not understand that Wolverine, Deadpool, Professor X, Magneto, Reed Richards, Dr. Doom, John McClane, Jack Bauer, Xenomorphs, The Predator, Buffy Summers, Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Peter Griffn, and Homer Simpson are all now Disney characters?

And yet, it’s Facebook and Apple that need to be broken up? Not Disney?

Seriously, DemSocs. This is your moment? WHERE. ARE. YOU?

Why is Elizabeth Warren not campaigning to break up Disney?

Why is Bernie Sanders not talking about how Disney has a monopoly on media?

Someone needs to get the answer from them. I don’t care if it’s on Twitter, an interview on CNN, a town hall, whatever. 

Find those Democratic Socialists and ask them why they’re so gung-ho to break up tech companies, banks, Fortune 500 corps, and all of that but Disney gets a pass?

These are legitimate questions, followers.

We deserve some answers.

[heliosphoenix]

The sky calls to us

There’s a reason I keep a separate blog where I choose to chime in on some political happening or other. It’s something I take great care in doing. It’s easy to get it wrong (and in my younger days, I often did get it wrong), so I have to make an effort to get my ducks in a row. Even so, it’s nominally something I try to avoid whenever possible, which is why in my srs business blog’s early days, I was focused more on fandom drama.

The problem though is that now it’s become impossible to avoid. I know there are those of you out there who resent the incursion of real world events onto your tumblr feed, or the Twitter’s or Facebook’s of your favorite celebs. I do as well. I personally would rather talk about anything else and I’m willing to bet they would love to do the same. 

But the world has become so volatile now that it can no longer be avoided. And despite the fact that I had literally gone two months without touching this site, even I couldn’t stand idly by while all of us, every lover of freedom wherever it may exist in the world, were being set up the bomb. 

To say the last 48 hours have been surreal is an understatement. But not entirely surprising.

We resent the incursion of these events onto our feeds because we want the internet to be our shelter from it all. I’m here to tell you that it was irrational to think the internet would be immune.

When the world has decided that compromise is for losers and the only thing that matters is to win at any cost, then it stands to reason that the internet will follow along.

Unless it’s leading the way. And in many respects, it’s leading the way.

So where do we go from here? When I say I haven’t touched this site in some time, it’s not exactly a statement of pride. I won’t lie to you all when I say it’s been hard for me to work up the effort to browse the internet these days. If you went back 15 years or so and told my adolescent self, the 7th grade kid who knew what memes were a full 5-6 years before his classmates did, that there’d come a point in time where he’d want to hide from the internet? He’d call you insane.

Part of the reason I’ve avoided this site is because of the self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head that resulted in the censoring of many blogs I followed (as well as one I ran). But the other part is that I find I no longer have the energy to engage in the sort of thing that passes for “discourse” here like I did in the past. While it is still my desire, if not my duty, to talk with you all with some candor about what is happening in the world today, I’m rather disenchanted by the prospect of posting an article that gives an update on Brexit proceedings or the state of the Russia investigation and coming back to find sizzling hot takes in my notes that make me want to pay a visit to Comrade Smirnoff. 

And I’ll be honest. The prospect of staring down a smug faced Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as they win re-election and continue to be worshiped by the assholes of the world isn’t exactly appealing to me either. 

Any potential benefits of going back to discussing fandom drama don’t really seem that attractive either. My years in furrydom sapped my capacity for fandom politics long ago. I spoke out in favor of bronies because I could see through the lies and manipulations and it got to a point where I said all that a person could reasonably say on the matter. Considering the success of the show and that the public image of the fandom has improved, I’d like to think my efforts were a success. 

I don’t know enough about the other fandoms making waves right now to offer an opinion, and frankly I’m not inclined to engage. I saw the remastered Star Wars trilogy when I was 7 years old. I went to midnight showings for every movie that’s come out since (even the prequels). I would much prefer to discuss the merits of the new movies with my local group of friends instead of coming on here and writing a 1,000 word dissertation on The Last Jedi that would ultimately end up with me getting dragged into an ad-hominem laden argument with 3 other users.

I see some of my esteemed comrades still have the energy for that. Alas, I am no longer that strength which in old days moved heaven and Earth.

Speaking of which: Elite Dangerous.

Elite Dangerous is, as I describe it, a Space MMO. Set in a 1:1 scale recreation of the Milky Way galaxy that is based on actual astronomical data and scientific principles. 

It’s the closest I’ve ever truly gotten, and may ever truly get, to being the captain of a Spaceship. 

A trip out to the Robin’s Egg nebula envelopes you in a sea of gas, tinted blue by the light of a Blue White Supergiant just passing into adolescence. The nebula is home to a sea of young Red Dwarfs, small rocky bodies, ringed planets who’s metal surface is more of a sea of lava, and even a small Black Hole.

But it’s not just a recreational trip, you’re here at the behest of a scientist who’s willing to pay you a lot of credits to fly out to this stellar nursery. Once complete, you head back to your Space Station in Geosync orbit around Earth. A station named after Abraham Lincoln, as one does when naming starports. You drop your passengers off, get your next assignment, and you’re off to another star system 20 light years away.

The internet is able to get away with a lot, namely because underneath all the memes and controversy and drama are a bunch of people (mainly millennials) who occasionally make some money when their video of them yelling about a bad movie or winning victory royale hits a certain number of views on YouTube. It gets away with a lot because fandoms are real, living, vibrant communities that you can feel whenever you go to a convention or post in the appropriate tags.

In Elite Dangerous, you go into the game not expecting much. And you’re frequently rewarded by visiting strange new worlds that you never thought could’ve existed.

There’s a group of trolls in the game, they seek to cause as much mayhem and chaos as possible because they’re upset that the vibe of Elite Dangerous is not what they want it to be. It’s not the bitterly nostalgic vibe of Valve games, or the hyper competitive alpha vibe of Overwatch or Call of Duty. It’s certainly not the paranoid warmongering vibe of EvE online.

Elite Dangerous is a bunch of people exploring the galaxy.

And, I dunno, I feel that as a culture, a society, a civilization, and a species, maybe we could eventually work our way up to that. 

Maybe not.

There’s a system in Elite known simply as “The View.” 1400 light years away from Earth, it contains a ringed planet orbiting around a Blue-White star younger than the ones in Robin’s Egg. If you set down near the pole of this planet, you get a great view of the rings, as well as a Pulsar and, if you’re lucky, two Black Holes.

 When you venture out further, you see many wondrous sights.

A planet covered in water with massive ice sheets at the poles in an almost comical inversion of the future predicted by those fighting climate change.

Binary stars close enough that trying to shoot the gap nearly burns your spaceship to a crisp.

Worlds with magnificent ring systems that put Saturn’s to shame.

Pulsars with massive jets that swirl and twist like cosmic tornadoes.

And those are just the procedurally generated bodies. Stars and planets and others placed where they are because computer models based on hard science said they should be there.

Still plenty of room for real life celestial bodies. Like VY Canis Majoris, one of the largest stars in the galaxy.

Or Jupiter and the Galilean moons.

Or the Black Hole V404 Cygni.

The experience of Elite Dangerous is truly otherworldly, the kind of thing that ingrains itself in your mind and will not leave. The game is unnervingly beautiful not just because of its technical prowess, but because of what it can inspire.

Right now, this is just a video game, but there’s still the chance that there’s beauty in this galaxy that is not only unseen but completely unthinkable. Without Elite, it would be literally unimaginable. 

It’s this inspiration that pushes me forward, that drives me in my attempt to help enlighten those around me, even if at times it feels the struggle will soon be lost. 

This could be our future, but the only way to get there is together.

Somewhere out there in a sea of 400 Billion stars is a world just like this one. 

We owe it to ourselves to give our descendants a chance to visit. Just in case it turns out to be Equestria. 

[nobszone]

Multiple fatalities in New Zealand mosque shootings; 4 held

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Multiple people were killed in mass shootings at two mosques full of worshippers attending Friday prayers on what the prime minister called "one of New Zealand's...

Breaking my radio silence because, followers, I have a very bad feeling about this one.

Here’s what we know:

Coordinated attack in New Zealand against two Mosques.

30+ people killed, possibly including children.

4 suspects arrested, 3 men 1 woman.

Unconfirmed reports of IED’s placed on vehicles 

74 page manifesto is more or less White Supremacy Greatest Hits. 

Includes all the usual talking points: new ethno state, desire to start a civil war, Trump is the leader of the white power movement, blah blah blah.

Claims radicalization came from edgy memes

One of the attackers may have posted on 8chan prior to carrying out the assault

Attack was livestreamed to Facebook via gopro

At least one attacker was an Australian citizen

Few things to note:

First and foremost, this is an act of terrorism. You all know my stance on mass shootings in general, but I’m telling you right now to ignore all that. This was an attack that was planned and organized well in advance. These people are terrorists, full stop.

Second, New Zealand’s Muslim population is a whopping 1%. So that leads further credence to this being a planned and targeted attack.

Finally, the gun laws in New Zealand are very strict. Despite that, at least one of the attackers appeared to be using a rifle based on the AR-15 platform. There’s been no official confirmation yet on the types of firearms used or how they were acquired.

Folks I can’t help but feel that something is very wrong here. 

[wanderingberserker]

I’ve been paying attention to what’s been happening in this whole thing, and saw a pastebin of the shooter’s manifesto, and I won’t deny…I can’t tell if the shooter is an idiotic alt-right/far-right radical; or a fucking sinister genius of sorts.

And the reason I say that, is if you look at what is within the manifesto. Some parts of his are actually pretty believable, such as many parts regarding white supremacy, belief of white genocide, take-over by muslims, etc. These do fall in line with white-nationalist rhetoric.

However, other parts within the same manifesto would be a complete joke to anyone who has some understanding of memes. He puts the Navy Seal copypasta as an answer to one of the hypothetical questions. He claims that Spyro 3 made him an ethnonationalist, and Fortnite taught him to floss on the enemy’s dead bodies. He says that Candace Owens, a CONSERVATIVE BLACK WOMAN, is who HE, a FAR-RIGHT WHITE SUPREMACIST, looks up to, though some of her rhetoric is TOO FAR for him. TOO FAR for a man who committed a mass shooting.

On top of which, within the video, while exiting the car, he says “Subscribe to Pewdiepie.” Which, from what I’ve seen, is already getting backlash to Felix, despite him essentially having nothing to do with the person, nor espousing ANY of the views this man professed to. Another thought; this man claims to be a far-right ethnonationalist/fascist, yet is seen liking Sargon of Akkad’s videos 2 days ago. Sargon, a classical liberal, who advocates against violence, and is most known for being against white nationalism just as much as against far-left identitarianism/communism. While this guy shows off his arsenal on his month-old twitter profile, which has various racial statements and even a black sun symbol (famous neo-nazi symbol) scrawled on them.

THINK ABOUT THIS.

I would say that these actions make me wonder if he was trying to embroil these figures and those linked to them, in scandal. Which, I have less than zero doubt the media would likely look for; given how these figures have often been in the crosshairs of the media, as well as the media being functionally illiterate on memes.

BUT, what I will say regarding the shooter, which makes me think he is a sinister genius, is his statement on why he used guns. To explain just why I think so, I have to post the relevant paragraph.

I could have chosen any weapons or means.A TATP filled rental van. Household flour, a method of dispersion and an ignition source.A ballpeen hammer and a wooden shield.Gas,fire,vehicular attacks,plane attacks, any means were available. I had the will and I had the resources. I chose firearms for the affect it would have on social discourse, the extra media coverage they would provide and the affect it could have on the politics of United states and thereby the political situation of the world. The US is torn into many factions by its second amendment, along state, social, cultural and, most importantly, racial lines. With enough pressure the left wing within the United states will seek to abolish the second amendment, and the right wing within the US will see this as an attack on their very freedom and liberty. This attempted abolishment of rights by the left will result in a dramatic polarization of the people in the United States and eventually a fracturing of the US along cultural and racial lines.

This explains much more about this person than anything else. It explains his actions, it explains his troll responses; it explains why he said “Subscribe to Pewdiepie” while leaving the car.

This man is an accelerationist. Fascist, white-nationalist, perhaps (there’s still some theories out that he’s a false flag to push blame on the right; but I doubt that.) But he is DEFINITELY focused on inflaming tensions on both sides and possibly causing a breaking point. This man knows just how volatile the current political scenario is, not just among the US or Australia or whatever; but amongst the western world in general. And he wants to spark that powder keg.

You tell me that people on the Left won’t start pointing fingers at the Right, guns, Candace Owens, Sargon, Pewdiepie, etc. (which is already happening). You tell me the media won’t pour through the manifesto and show whatever parts they feel will get the most views and/or make them look right/their ideological opponents look wrong (look at his section on Trump. He states he likes Trump as he believes Trump is a symbol of “renewed white identity and common purpose” but HATES him as a policy maker and leader. How many media sources present the first statement, and how many will present the second. Think about that.) You tell me people who are either ignorant of memes, or have an ideological axe to grind and will thus take memes literally won’t cherrypick his manifesto to say “look how right I am and how wrong my enemies are!” And there will be calls to ban things and control things and limit the freedoms of the people. And then you look and tell me those who’re attacked on this basis won’t fight back. And the divide will continue to get bigger; until maybe it becomes too big and civil war becomes inevitable.

You tell me, looking through his manifesto, that this sort of chaos isn’t what he had in mind; and I will call you a liar. Because this man understands the simplicity that society has entered into, how fractured along the fault lines it has become and how easy it is to manipulate it. This man is an accelerationist and he’s asking us “Why so serious?” while trying to explain how chaos is like gravity: All it needs is a little push.

I wonder how long we can withstand it.

[nobszone]

Multiple fatalities in New Zealand mosque shootings; 4 held

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Multiple people were killed in mass shootings at two mosques full of worshippers attending Friday prayers on what the prime minister called "one of New Zealand's...

Breaking my radio silence because, followers, I have a very bad feeling about this one.

Here’s what we know:

Coordinated attack in New Zealand against two Mosques.

30+ people killed, possibly including children.

4 suspects arrested, 3 men 1 woman.

Unconfirmed reports of IED’s placed on vehicles 

74 page manifesto is more or less White Supremacy Greatest Hits. 

Includes all the usual talking points: new ethno state, desire to start a civil war, Trump is the leader of the white power movement, blah blah blah.

Claims radicalization came from edgy memes

One of the attackers may have posted on 8chan prior to carrying out the assault

Attack was livestreamed to Facebook via gopro

At least one attacker was an Australian citizen

Few things to note:

First and foremost, this is an act of terrorism. You all know my stance on mass shootings in general, but I’m telling you right now to ignore all that. This was an attack that was planned and organized well in advance. These people are terrorists, full stop.

Second, New Zealand’s Muslim population is a whopping 1%. So that leads further credence to this being a planned and targeted attack.

Finally, the gun laws in New Zealand are very strict. Despite that, at least one of the attackers appeared to be using a rifle based on the AR-15 platform. There’s been no official confirmation yet on the types of firearms used or how they were acquired.

Folks I can’t help but feel that something is very wrong here. 

[nobszone]

Russia says Ukraine may no longer be a country soon

Russia’s security chief said that Kiev’s reliance on Western support may contribute to Ukraine’s loss of statehood.

"The Kiev authorities are doing everything to split Ukraine, implementing the West's scenario for separating Ukraine from Russia, while ignoring the interests of their own people. In the end, the country was effectively split...The continuation of such a policy by the Kiev authorities may contribute to Ukraine's loss of statehood."

But yes, please tell me how we should be allies with Russia.

By the way, here’s a bit of trivia: the Ukraine held a third of the Soviet nuclear stockpile. After the fall of the Iron Curtain they were in control of 1,700 Nukes that they agreed to dismantle in 1994.

Wonder if they’d like some of them back?

[nobszone]

Mueller draft report says Trump "helped Putin destabilize the United States," Watergate journalist says

“This is about the most serious counterintelligence people we have in the U.S. government saying, ‘Oh, my God, the president’s words and actions lead us to conclude that somehow he has become a witting, unwitting, or half-witting pawn," Carl Bernstein said.

So I was wondering what I was gonna say for my first post of 2019. A lot has happened in the world and there’s lots of ground to cover. Hell Tumblr’s self-inflicted gunshot wound is worth about three posts in its own right.

But, as always, I find that material has a tendency to present itself.

It started a few days ago when Michael Cohen agreed to testify before an open session of Congress regarding his interaction with Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. 

I was intrigued but I didn’t think much of it, figuring that he’d mainly confirm a bunch of things the public suspected to be true, namely that Trump violated campaign finance laws re: his payments of hush money to individuals like Stormy Daniels. 

And that’s when things took an interesting turn.

The New York Times reported that the FBI launched a Counterintelligence inquiry against Donald Trump following his firing of then-FBI director James Comey. While their Criminal inquiry has long been known, this was the first confirmation of a Counterintelligence inquiry.

“In the days after President Trump fired James B. Comey as F.B.I. director, law enforcement officials became so concerned by the president’s behavior that they began investigating whether he had been working on behalf of Russia against American interests, according to former law enforcement officials and others familiar with the investigation.

“The inquiry carried explosive implications. Counterintelligence investigators had to consider whether the president’s own actions constituted a possible threat to national security. Agents also sought to determine whether Mr. Trump was knowingly working for Russia or had unwittingly fallen under Moscow’s influence.”

So in other words, the FBI was so unnerved by the firing of Comey, they opened a Counterintelligence probe in response. Now you may think that’s an overreaction, a knee jerk response by the FBI.

Well, the next day this happened.

The Washington Post reported that Trump has not disclosed details of his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin to senior administrative officials.

“President Trump has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, including on at least one occasion taking possession of the notes of his own interpreter and instructing the linguist not to discuss what had transpired with other administration officials, current and former U.S. officials said.

“Trump did so after a meeting with Putin in 2017 in Hamburg that was also attended by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. U.S. officials learned of Trump’s actions when a White House adviser and a senior State Department official sought information from the interpreter beyond a readout shared by Tillerson.

The constraints that Trump imposed are part of a broader pattern by the president of shielding his communications with Putin from public scrutiny and preventing even high-ranking officials in his own administration from fully knowing what he has told one of the United States’ main adversaries.

As a result, U.S. officials said there is no detailed record, even in classified files, of Trump’s face-to-face interactions with the Russian leader at five locations over the past two years. Such a gap would be unusual in any presidency, let alone one that Russia sought to install through what U.S. intelligence agencies have described as an unprecedented campaign of election interference.”

Ignoring everything else, this behavior is not normal. It’s nowhere close to normal.

Trump’s behavior here would not have been done in any of the previous 44 Presidential Administrations. That is a fact. I dare you to argue it.

There are more people in Moscow who know what Trump and Putin discussed at those meetings than there are in D.C. In any other Administration, this would be setting off major alarm bells.

And that brings us to today. Carl Bernstein (of that Woodward and Bernstein) said in an appearance on CNN that he’s been told the report being prepared by Special Counsel Robert Mueller will focus on showing that President Trump may have been acting on behalf of the Russian Government.

You can hear it from the man himself:

“This is about the most serious counterintelligence people we have in the U.S. government saying, ‘Oh, my God, the president’s words and actions lead us to conclude that somehow he has become a witting, unwitting, or half-witting pawn, certainly in some regards, to Vladimir Putin.

“From a point of view of strength… rather, he has done what appears to be Putin’s goals. He has helped Putin destabilize the United States and interfere in the election, no matter whether it was purposeful or not.

“And that is part of what the draft of Mueller’s report, I’m told, is to be about. We know there has been collusion by [former national security adviser Michael] Flynn. We know there has been collusion of some sort by [Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul] Manafort. The question is, yes, what did the president know and when did he know it?”

Folks, what else is there to say?

This is the Titanic sinking into the ocean.

This is the Hindenburg bursting into flames.

As Rarity said, this is The. Worst. Possible. Thing.

Now I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is only based on the conjecture given by someone with secondhand knowledge of a report who’s conclusions may not be made public, and even then it’s only a draft of said report. So, really, the only way for us to know that this is the angle Mueller is pursuing is for us to read the damn thing ourselves.

At the same time, if you can’t trust one of the guys who broke the Watergate scandal, who can you trust? Furthermore when you consider the information reported above, as well as the list of people indicted and/or charged by the probe who have ties to Russia, you get to a point where you start to think that this is in fact the angle Mueller is pursing.

And, even worse, that it might be true.

Now I know there’s still those of you who maintain that this whole Russia probe is a sideshow, nothing more than sour grapes by the Dems who still can’t get over the fact that Hillary lost to this guy. 

If you still think this is much ado about nothing, I want you to do two things:

Read the posts I’ve made about this investigation as well as the articles linked in said posts, including the ones linked above

You can tell me why I’m wrong

Because this is not normal, folks. There is nothing about Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia that is anywhere near normal. 

I’ve been saying it for months now, but I feel the need to repeat this. There’s only two possible explanations for what’s going on right now.

The Democratic Party is involved in a massive conspiracy with America’s intelligence and law enforcement communities, Silicon Valley, the Mainstream Media, several other Left Wing political parties around the world, and presumably the Illuminati to unseat a sitting US President for no reason whatsoever. Essentially a bloodless Coup.

The President of the United States may have not only committed a crime, but might also be working for a foreign power.

The real question, followers, is who are you going to believe?

Donald Trump, or your lying eyes?

[nobszone]

House adjourns, ensuring a government shutdown

The U.S. House of Representatives adjourned just before 7 p.m. on Friday night (...

So just a quick recap here.

The Government is shutting down because Trump (who said he’d happily take credit for this shutdown) wants Congress to fund a border Wall...that he said Mexico would pay for.

I’m starting to think this whole Wall business wasn’t thought out very well.

[nobszone]

Trump call with Turkish leader led to US pullout from Syria

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw American troops from Syria was made hastily, without consulting his national security team or allies, and over strong objections from virtually everyone involved in the fight against the Islamic State group, according to U.S. and Turkish officials. Trump stunned his Cabinet, lawmakers and much of the world with the move by rejecting the advice of his top aides and agreeing to a withdrawal in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, two U.S. officials and a Turkish official briefed on the matter told The Associated Press.

Have I said FUCK TURKEY recently? Cause if I haven’t, FUCK TURKEY.

Aside from my personal dislike of the nation due to having relatives that were killed in the Armenian Genocide, Erdogan is a piece of shit. This is a guy who staged his own coup in order to strip civil liberties away from his citizens. Oh and he also happens to be a big fan of, guess who, Comrade Pooty-Poot.

This however? Hoo boy.

I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that I haven’t had time to do a proper post-mortem of the midterms, but at this point I think everyone can see the result. Trump no longer has the House, and he only barely has the Senate. And his behavior since November has been...erratic to say the least.

First he unceremoniously dumps his Chief of Staff to find that no one wanted the job and pretty much picked the interim guy by throwing at a dart board.

Then he openly threatens to shut down the Government if he doesn’t get funding for the Great Wall of Egotism, even going so far as to say he’d take credit for it. Which makes his attempts to pin the impending shutdown on the Democrats all the more hollow. He also says he’ll get the Military to build the Wall. Good luck with that.

Then Trump decides, abruptly, that we’re going to pull our troops out of Syria once current ops have completed. This sends the GOP into a Firestorm. Even Fox & Friends breaks rank. And to cap it all off, SECDEF James Mattis announces his resignation, in a letter to Trump that basically says “Fuck this, I’m out.”

But this right here? This is a whole different level of fucked up. This is something from another Universe.

This is a guy losing his damn mind.

Trump pulled out Syria without discussing it with anyone in the Government. Not Congress, not the Joint Chiefs, not his recently-resigned SECDEF, not even the VP. 

He didn’t discuss it with our allies, the UN, anyone.

He decided to pull out after a phone call with Erdogan. 

Full disclosure, I was very hesitant about going into Syria in the first place, because it read exactly like the kind of scenarios that would’ve resulted in the Cold War going hot. And as someone who thinks America should be less “world police” and more “Avengers”, I can sort of get on board with pulling out of conflicts that ultimately stretch our resources and, more importantly, were started without authorization from Congress. 

Next sentence:

Trump is handing over the region to all the wrong people.

This is the ugly truth about military interventions. They’re rarely something the Public wants to support at the start, it usually takes a catastrophic attack against the homeland to galvanize the public into supporting a war effort (see: Pearl Harbor, 9/11). But once you make the commitment to go in, you pretty much have to stay in until the job is done. Otherwise you could end up leaving the country a bigger mess than when you found it and ultimately get bit in the ass by the law of unforeseen consequences (see: Vietnam, Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion). 

ISIS has been defeated, yes, but it’s not just a matter of putting them down, it’s keeping them down. This would be like if we pulled out of Iraq after Saddam was captured. It would’ve resulted in the country being an even bigger mess than it already is. 

The biggest thing though to me is that he’s doing this without talking to anyone else in our own Government or even our allies. He’s pulling out at the suggestion of the leader of a nation that, while technically an ally due to them being a part of NATO, has, as of late, been a lot more friendly to Moscow than D.C. And is it any surprise that Putin’s all smiles about this development?

This is not good, folks. The President of the United States has shown he is more willing to listen to leaders of nations that may not like us very much before he listens to the politicians, no less the people, of his own country.

This is a very bad precedent to set.

But hey, at least the Great Wall of Xenophobia gofundme is off to a decent start.